Another day, another international crisis, in this case, the anonymous sabotage of natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, intended to bring fuel to Europe from Russia, a project held in abeyance by the Ukraine war. At this moment it is very unclear who did it, and since only very sophisticated actors would be capable of perpetrating this bombing, it’s a true global whodunit.
Shakespeare deals with sabotage perhaps most deeply in Hamlet, with the largest example being King Claudius’ attempt to persuade Laertes to duel Hamlet with a poisoned fencing foil. Hamlet killed Laertes’ father Polonius while Polonius was spying on Hamlet in his mother Queen Gertrude’s bedroom, from behind an arras, so Laertes does not lack for motivation. Claudius poisoned Hamlet’s father King Hamlet to steal the throne, and Hamlet is on to him, so he’s motivated as well. “He” in the first line refers to Hamlet:
Claudius: He, being remiss,
Most generous and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise
Requite him for your father.
Laertes: ” I will do’t:
And, for that purpose, I’ll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death
That is but scratch’d withal: I’ll touch my point
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.
Claudius: “Let’s further think of this;…this project
Should have a back or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see:
We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha’t.
When in your motion you are hot and dry–
As make your bouts more violent to that end–
And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck,
Our purpose may hold there.”
Get him thirsty, then offer him a poisoned chalice. And just so did the Russian gas line reveal itself to be a poisoned chalice for Europe.
