Best of Wives and Best of Women

Historical buzzkill time: Alexander actually wrote the letter quoted here on July 4th, about a week before the duel. And he spent the night the duel at his pied-à-terre downtown while Eliza was uptown at home. The Broadway show compresses the timeline for simplicity and dramatic effect.

Hamilton’s son and first biographer wrote this account of that final night:

[Hamilton] entered the room, gazed pensively at the boy, and asked if he would share his bed that night. Hamilton “soon retired, and placing [the boy’s] little hands on his own, he repeated with him the Lord’s Prayer.” The child then fell asleep in his arms. This image of Hamilton sleeping with his arms wrapped around an orphaned youth during his last night on earth is inexpressibly poignant and makes one think that his own tormented boyhood weighed on his mind that night.

The use of the “It’s Quiet Uptown” melody foreshadows the loss of Hamilton on the dueling ground.

Hamilton doesn’t tell Eliza what he is going to do. Considering the Hamilton family’s track record with duels, you’d think he would be smarter.

“Out of town” refers to, as with Philip’s duel, the duel across the river in Weehawken, New Jersey where “everything is legal”.

As agreed in “Your Obedient Servant”, the duel will begin at dawn, hence, Hamilton’s need to leave before the sun is up.

This echoes the way Alexander told Phillip “I know” and “Shhh” when he was dying in “Stay Alive (Reprise).”

It also suggests that someone is going to die – this time, Hamilton.

Hamilton is “leaving a note for his next of kin” as he says to do in “The Ten Duel Commandments.”

This ends up becoming his last letter to Eliza.

This echoes lines sung by Burr and others in “Non-Stop” during Act I. Of course, this is the night before Hamilton’s fateful duel with Burr, so he really is running out of time.

In reality, Hamilton wrote this letter on the 4th of July, a week before the fateful Hamilton-Burr duel took place. He was still running out of time, but had days instead of hours.

This echoes the way Alexander told Phillip “I know” and “Shhh” when he was dying in “Stay Alive (Reprise).”

It also suggests that someone is going to die – this time, Hamilton.

While this entire number acknowledges their repaired relationship, this line really seals the deal. Contrast with Eliza’s line in “Burn” just a few songs ago:

You forfeit the place in our bed.

In this line, Eliza substitutes “Come back to bed” for the words “Stay alive” that we usually hear in this melody. Coming back to bed would mean staying alive, here.

Echoing Eliza’s motif, “that would be enough” from throughout the show. Eliza just keeps lowering her standards and Hamilton struggles to follow through on the simplest wishes. She begins by asking him to survive the war (“That Would Be Enough”). During “Non-Stop”, she asks for “a fraction of [his] time” and for him to be satisfied with what they have.

Although, Hamilton is implying that he will be back at home, the ‘meeting’ concluded, before Eliza wakes up.

This line has another meaning that Hamilton may not have considered. He believed that Burr was honorable and would simply shoot into the sky, solving the matter. However, when Burr shot him, his death meant that he was gone from this world.

Nathaniel Pendleton and Dr. David Hosack met Hamilton at The Grange before dawn. Chernow notes that Pendleton and Van Ness scheduled Hamilton’s group and Burr’s group to leave from different docks in Manhattan at about 5AM.

The violin enters at the end of “dawn” almost weeping, pre-empting what would happen at his meeting. A linear line playing the three note motif laments the events to come in a similar style to classical and romantic composers, for instance in three measures in the “Farewell” of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 10 Op. 96.

Eliza’s last words to Alexander show how she’s truly oblivious to the events that were impending and the heartbreak she would soon feel.

It’s both a common trope in fiction and a common regret in the real world that a person’s last words to a loved one were rude, or didn’t express all their love and affection. Here, Miranda clearly feels that we haven’t cried enough already, and has an exasperated Eliza deliver what effectively amounts to an eyeroll and a shrug at Alexander’s early morning activity—this is probably routine for him, after all. Thankfully, the tragic implications of this line are softened to an extent by the fact that Eliza addresses the show’s final number, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” to Alexander, looking forward to their eventual reunion.

This is the first word Hamilton ever says to Eliza, and (spoiler alert!), this is the last line we ever see between them. Alexander hearkens back to their first meeting in this tender moment, bringing their love story full circle.

From Hamilton’s last letter to his wife, Eliza.

The consolations of Religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea; I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world.

Adieu best of wives and best of Women.

Chernow dedicated his book to his wife, Valerie, using the phrase, “Best of wives, best of women.” In the Playbill for Hamilton, Miranda thanks his wife, Vanessa, using the same.

In a 1790 letter to Eliza, Hamilton signed off with a similar “Adieu best of wives and best of mothers.” At the time, Eliza was mother to four small children. The change of language from “mothers” to “women” may indicate a change in Hamilton’s view of Eliza’s role and importance. At the end, he saw her not as a mother, but as a woman.