HAMLET'S TRANSFORMATION Elizabethan Review Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 48-64, 1999. Peter D. Usher The Pennsylvania State University Abstract Shakespeare gives the appearance that his astronomical cosmology is firmly rooted in the standard geocentric model of the Middle Ages, but many lines of argument in Hamlet reveal an underlying cosmic reality. 1. Introduction In 1543, the book De revolutionibus by Nicholas Copernicus (1473- 1543) completely revised the cosmic world view, for it removed the Earth from the center of the planetary system and placed the Sun there instead. As early as 1556 the heliocentric model had started to take root in England [1] and was thus already in place at the time of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Authors cite this revolution in astronomical thought as evidence that Shakespeare lived and wrote at a time of great change. Yet if he did appreciate these profound changes in world view, no-one can say exactly where in the canon such appreciation is to be found. Astronomy is one of Shakespeare's many specialties [2] yet no obvious evidence exists that he saw the universe in anything but geocentric terms [3]. That he could fail to notice this transformation in world view must rank as a major mystery in the history of the Renaissance. This essay addresses the problem by reference to the text itself and to the Amleth legend of Saxo Grammaticus (fl. 1188-1201) in Historia Danica [4]. It is supplemented by scientific and historical fact. I have proposed an allegorical interpretation based on parallels that exist between the events of the play and the development and competition between the four chief world models extant at the turn of the seventeenth century [5]. I conclude that Shakespeare was quite aware of the astronomical revolutions of his time, and that in coming down on the side of the Copernican Revolution and its Diggesian corollary, Shakespeare defines poetically the new universal order. If the present interpretation has merit, Hamlet would manifest an astronomical cosmology that is no less magnificent than its literary and philosophical counterparts.