Hamnet: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

In 1596, Agnes crosses the bedroom to Judith. At least her daughter is still breathing. Hamnet says Judith went to bed soon after he came home from school. With rising desperation in his voice, he tells Agnes how he looked for her, for Mary, for someone, for anyone to help. He asks in a whisper if Judith has it, has the pestilence. Agnes feels herself split into two selves. One coolly diagnoses the fever and the angry, swelling lumps under Judith’s skin. The other feels horror that this thing which she has feared for many long, dark nights has happened. This self hears the calm Agnes send Hamnet to fetch Mary and Susanna. It watches the calm Agnes select herbs for a potion.

Hamnet runs to the kitchen where the fire in the hearth blazes so fiercely that he cannot bear it. He pauses in the doorway, points of flickering light obscuring his vision. He blinks them back. When Susanna sees Hamnet, she asks, “Grandmamma?” This moment will return to her often afterward. She will wonder if saying something else could have changed events. Mary turns, startled at the sight of Hamnet. She chides him for standing there “like a ghost,” for frightening her. In days and weeks to come, she will tell herself that she never uttered those fateful words, that Hamnet seemed entirely well.

Agnes grinds herbs in her parlor, mentally reciting the list of all the lives her medicine has saved. Maybe it will work for Judith, too. She doesn’t hear Mary come into the room; she jumps when Mary touches her arm. Mary cannot believe that it’s true, but Agnes nods that it is. Judith has fever and buboes—the signs are clear. Agnes knows that she and Mary both think about the same thing, about Mary’s own daughter, Anne, dying of pestilence at age eight. Agnes becomes acutely aware of Anne’s ghost in the room—the veil between the world is so thin to her—and she tries to tell her that she hasn’t been forgotten. Muttering a prayer, Mary draws Agnes into an embrace.

Then, Mary and Agnes part and turn to the business at hand. Despite their differences, their share of domestic quarrels, and their petty disagreements, they operate in perfect coordination in times of crisis like this. Agnes knows Mary will want to build a blazing fire and make a bed for Judith near it. Agnes pours water into a pot to steep her medicine; Mary works the bellows, sends Hamnet to chop wood, and tasks Susanna with fetching sheets. Mary and Agnes light the candles and climb the stairs together, ready to take this matter into their own capable hands.