ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the juristic and theological implications of “conscience” would have informed Hamlet’s and the audience’s understanding of the word in Hamlet. It examines the connection between conscience, the “olde Mole,” and “politique wormes,” and digs up the intricate and expansive ecology of early modern conscience. The argument is that Hamlet, the man who famously sets out to “catch” his uncle’s conscience, is paradoxically caught in the nexus of multiple meanings of conscience as he examines questions of truth and will.
