Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

PRECEDENTS FOR HAMLET PLOT ELEMENTS—AND A VILLAIN NAMED CLAUDIUS— IN ARTHURIAN LEGENDS: One of the villains in the Arthurian legends is named Claudas, a variant of Claudius, the main villain in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . But in fact, the Arthurian legends contain many of the essential plot elements of Hamlet . Instead of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” we could say, many of the things Shakespeare and Saxo Grammaticus needed to know to write Hamlet , they could have learned from the Arthurian legends: - The ghost of a parent [1] and warrior [2]; - a prince (or king) who relates to soldiers and close friends as equals [3]; - questions of marital infidelity [4] and of broken marriage promises [5]; - knightly codes of honor and violence that conflict at times with courtesy and Christian values [6] - suicidal, love-forsaken women [7]; - the living body or dead corpse of a heartbroken woman, floating in a river or stream [8]; - contrast between characters who interpret ...

Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously contains a play-within-the-play, “The Mousetrap,” which (for some) calls to mind St. Augustine who said the cross of Christ was a mousetrap for the devil.[1] Ophelia refers to a folktale of a baker’s daughter changed into an owl, punishment for being ungenerous with a beggar (Jesus in disguise). Owls, as I have noted before [2], are living mousetraps. Shakespeare named Hamlet’s mother perhaps after St. Gertrude of Nivelles (c.628-659), famous for dealing with an infestation of mice in the convent’s larder [3]. I think of Gertrude at this time of year: Each autumn, we have had troubles with mice. We plugged holes, changed our cheap dryer vent years ago to an expensive one ($29-$39 - !) - which we assumed would keep mice out. We put heavy galvanized screen over a fireplace air intake, and checked the attached garage for openings where mice might get from the garage into the house. No luck. This fall, our expensive dryer vent cover had long since turned yel...

This Carl Jung quote made me think of Hamlet's dilemma and his descent into vengeful thoughts and actions:  "But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all beggars, the most impudent of all offenders, yeah, the very fiend himself, that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved. What then? Then, as a rule, the whole truth of Christianity is reversed: there is then no more talk of love and long-suffering; we say to the brother within us “Raca,” and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide him from the world, we deny ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves, and had it been God himself who drew near to us in this despicable form, we should have denied him a thousand times before a single cock had crowed. Anyone who uses modern psychology to look behind the scene not only of his patients’ lives, but more especially of his own life—and the m...

Last week I hinted at reasons why Shakespeare may have named Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. Consider a prerequisite: Too many people limit thinking to binaries, either-or, yes-no, treating words like “Claudius” as ciphers with a single meaning, an allusion to one historical or literary figure. The trick is not to decode a single meaning, but to embrace multiple possibilities, like stepping into a multiverse [1], or what Julia Kristeva and others call “intertextuality” [2]. The name “Claudius” can mean more than one thing (can be polysemous), each meaning relevant in its own way. Next, note that “Claudius” can mean “lame” [3]. Maybe King Hamlet’s brother was disabled and was thought less fit for rule than his brother, like Richard III (of hunched-back fame, blamed in another Shakespeare play for killing the young princes in the tower, getting rightful heirs out of his way). First, “Claudius” can mean “lame” [3] Maybe King Hamlet’s brother was disabled and was thought less fit for rule than hi...

We went on pilgrimage to Chicago over the weekend to see Shakespeare's 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨 performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. The production was absolutely stunning: - Its set features dramatic use of ropes (as seen in the CST post below) which evokes a sailing ship for the sea-journeys of Prince Pericles. - A surprising number of key scenes incorporate masterfully choreographed dance to convey the competition for, and wooing of, a princess to be the wife of the prince. - The acting was excellent, making the words and lines clear, but also conveying their emotion, and also adding humor and fun. - The performance also included music in very effective ways! This was not merely pre-recorded, but performed live by the actors themselves. - Some members of the playing company had to play more than one (strongly contrasting!) role: they switched with seeming effortlessness and brought each new role to life. Even the smallest grunt o...

INDEX and INTRODUCTION (this post: see INTRODUCTION following this index) https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/index-why-claudius-not-feng-whats-in.html PART 1: Hamlet's uncle "Claudius" as lame, satyr, & polysemous - 26 Nov, 2024 https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/11/part-1-hamlets-uncle-claudius-as-lame.html PART 2: Hamlet, Claudas, and Arthurian legends (Claudius series) https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/hamlet-claudas-and-arthurian-legends.html PART 3: Arthurian Wastelands and rotten Denmark under Claudias https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/12/arthurian-wastelands-and-rotten-denmark.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INTRODUCTION: Why did Shakespeare (or some unknown predecessor or collaborator) name Hamlet’s uncle Claudius (a Roman name! un-Danish!) and make him a Christian—but unrepentant—sinner? In Saxo Grammaticus’ history (1208? Latin trans.1514), it...

Raised Catholic but no longer observant, I still recall 3rd grade - 8-years old? -  preparation for confirmation, and having to choose a confirmation name. I'd been given a book ( Sixty Saints for Boys , 1948) - a tale about Martin of Tours appealed to me. It claimed Martin was a Roman soldier with a large, warm, not unattractive cloak. It was cold. He cut his cloak to give half to a beggar he encountered on his way. Fellow soldiers made fun of him. But in a dream, the beggar revealed himself as Jesus. What a strange choice, for an 8-year old to choose this name! Was I choosing that I should commit to being generous, even if peers made fun of me? (Today, November 11, is the Feast Day of St. Martin of Tours.*) Many years later, I now research and write about Shakespeare's 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘦𝘵, a play in which the ghost says the poison that killed him made his skin "Lazar-like," a reference to the gospel tale of the rich man who neglects the beggar Lazarus; after they die, the ...

𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚, Patrick Page's excellent one-man Shakespearean show, is at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a strong run that generated very positive reviews in New York last year around this time. We attended the Minneapolis show and it was amazing, thoughtfully-written and edited, and very nicely supported with simple lighting and costume effects, but Page's acting is really the centerpiece. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls it "One of 2024′s best shows": The show has been designed in such a way that one does not have to know entire plots of the plays from which the villains lines are taken: Page gives enough information as needed, and then dives in, and it is all remarkably effective. The title comes from Shakespeare’s late play, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘴𝘵: “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” Page explores some of the most famous villains, most of them male, but a few female, and he also admits in part of the s...

“To be” in Hamlet occurs 46 times; “Not to be,” twice:[1] 1.1 Bernardo Get thee TO BEd, Francisco. Horatio any good thing TO BE done 1.2 Claudius TO BEar our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom TO BE contracted in one brow of woe... ...Our state TO BE disjoint Hamlet [TO BErnardo] Good even, sir. 1.3 Laertes It fits your wisdom so far TO BElieve it Polonius …better TO BEguile. 1.5 Ghost The glowworm shows the matin TO BE near 2.2 Guildenstern …lay our service freely at your feet, TO BE commanded. Voltimand …appear'd TO BE a preparation Pol …is't but TO BE nothing else but mad? Pol (reading Ham) …Doubt truth TO BE a liar Ham TO BE honest, as this world goes, is TO BE one man pick'd out of ten thousand. Ham Com’st thou TO BEard me in Denmark? 3.1 Guild Nor do we find him forward TO BE sounded Ham TO BE, or not TO BE*… …a consummation Devoutly TO BE wish’d (* 1st “not to be”) 3.2 Ham …some necessary question of the play be then TO BE considered Rosencrantz …ere you go TO ...

In Hamlet, the ghost tells the prince that his brother Claudius poisoned him by pouring a vial of "cursèd hebona" (1.5.69) in his ear.[1] Yet the ghost first presents the poisoned ear as a metaphor for how Claudius lied about the cause of his brother's death: So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forgèd process of my death Rankly abused. (1.5.43-45) It is possible that Prince Hamlet has had his own ear poisoned by what the ghost tells him: The ghost may be a demon in disguise, or a sinner in purgatory, not yet purged of his sinful and distorting assumptions, goals, and ways of viewing his own life.[2] In general, this idea of death by ear would have had other resonances for Elizabethan audiences: By the time Shakespeare's play was first published in the first quarto (1603) and expanded in the second of 1604, Mary, Queen of Scots had already been executed in 1587, the focus of alleged plots to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her on the English throne. Mary's first hu...