Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare scholars often note the changes from the First Quarto of King Lear (1607), to the Folio version (1623), especially the dying Lear, holding the corpse of Cordelia in his arms, hoping for a sign that she is still breathing, and in the Folio, attention to her lips: “Do you see this? Looke on her? Looke her lips, Looke there, looke there.” Many in the last four centuries (including Benson, 2009 [1], and de Grazia, 2021 [2], both of whom cite many others) have pondered whether this hints at a resurrection theme, or delusion. Perhaps there was a topical-historical-political reason for adding the comment about Cordelia’s lips: Had any daughter of King James died around this time? In fact, three of James’ four daughters had died before 1610: Princess Margaret Stuart (24 December 1598 - March 1600) had died before the play was written; Princess Mary Stuart (8 April 1605 - 16 September 1607) died at about the age of two and a half years. Sophia Stuart (22 June 1606 – 23 June 1606) ...

Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold (1934-2025) was a literary scholar whose work on Shakespeare I encountered and enjoyed before our paths crossed in other ways: in an October, 2023 blog post [1], I considered Hamlet’s mother Gertrude as perhaps willing to secretly test the wine for poison before her son, and in that way, perhaps to be compared to the self-sacrifice of Alcestis, about whom Shakespeare would have known at least second hand through the work of Euripides, which Margaret J. Arnold cited in 1984 as “the most popular Greek dramatist in Shakespeare's time” [2]. I stumbled on Margaret’s 1984 essay because I briefly researched how Shakespeare would have known about the tale of Alcestis. This led to Euripides, and then to Margaret’s helpful work. Soon I noticed that Margaret was participating in various online Shakespeare groups to which I share my blog posts, and she often liked these and sometimes commented in kind and generous ways. Fairly soon, we exchanged messages. When I ...

HUGGER-MUGGER: Shakespeare has Claudius use these words to describe the burial of Polonius in Hamlet 4.5. "Hugger-mugger" means "secret," "chaotic," "clandestine, sly," or "disorderly, chaotic" [1].  Shakespeare consulted the 1579 Thomas North translation of Plutarch, which used “hugger-mugger” to describe the burial of Julius Caesar [2]. Polonius once played Julius Caesar in a play production, as he reveals to Hamlet in 3.2.  HUGGER-MUGGER as HOARDING a SECRET:  To do something secretly is to hoard the knowledge of the thing: Claudius hoards not only knowledge of the secret burial of Polonius, but also of his murder of his own brother.  IMPOSTUME:  Observing Norway’s troops ready to invade Poland, Hamlet notes:  This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks and shows no cause without Why the man dies. (4.4.28-30) An impostume is an abscess, as if the body is secretly hoarding puss from an infection. Hamlet impli...

References to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from Horatio (1.1) and from Polonius (3.2) may remind us that Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar (published 1599), only shortly preceded his Hamlet (published 1603-4); the earlier play may still have been in the company’s repertoire. But besides good advertising, why mention Julius in this play? HORATIO: “In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets” (1.1.125-8) Horatio is at first a doubting Thomas, yet he mentions not graves opening after Jesus’ death (Matt 27:51-53), but another J.C.: Julius Caesar, tyrant who crossed the Rubicon with his army, violating the social order. Polonius mentions playing Caesar at university, killed in the capital: “Brutus killed me.” HAMLET: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.” (3.2.111-2) This foreshadows that Hamlet will stab Polonius in a later sce...

Why does Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” refer to the Trojan war? Some may think that Trojan War references in Shakespeare merely represented a Renaissance obsession with things Greek. But the Trojan War speech in Hamlet also alludes to (1) a Greek-themed Marlow play [1]; (2) the widow Hecuba’s grief [2] (a contrast with Gertrude); (3) the pause of Pyrrhus (like Hamlet hesitating to kill Claudius at prayer) [3]. When the players arrive in Elsinore and perform a speech at Hamlet’s request, he asks for a speech about Hecuba, mother of Paris, witnessing the revenge killing of her husband, King Priam. Priam is about to be killed by Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, in revenge for Priam's son Paris having killed Pyrrhus’ father. Revenge begets revenge and more grieving widows, a terrible cycle. Appropriate for Hamlet. “The Judgment of Paris” involves Paris having to choose the fairest goddess. Each goddess offers bribes, with Aphrodite promising Helen of Troy. Paris chooses Aphrodite, and soon abducts ...

"LENTEN ENTERTAINMENT": OXYMORON, ROYAL HYPOCRISY, OR FORESHADOWING?  Rosencrantz says to Hamlet,  To think, my lord, [...]  what Lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you. (2.2.339-341).  Students unfamiliar with Christian liturgical seasons may skip over the word “Lenten.”  The more curious may look it up: A solemn season of fasting and repentance before Easter.  So what does “Lenten entertainment” imply?  1. Does “Lenten entertainment” pleasantly break up the drudgery of Lent?  - In 1598, Elizabeth I issued an edict prohibiting public theatrical performances during Lent, while privately still sponsoring such entertainment at court.   - Was Shakespeare subtly drawing attention to the hypocrisy of Elizabeth’s policy?  2. If taken literally, while the opening scene of the play (1.1) was cold at night, perhaps in winter (with Christmas mentioned), does 2.2 occur later during Lent? (Too literal?)  3. In 1.2, Hamle...

HOW IS SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET A REFORMATION PLAY, pointing to efforts by Catholics and Protestants to reform Christian institutions and hearts? 1. First on stage is Francisco. Francis of Assisi was a famous church reformer [1] (demonstrating that "reformation" - reforming the church - was a popular  topic centuries before Martin Luther). 2. Second is Bernardo. Bernard of Clairvaux was a famous Cistercian monastic reformer [2]. 3. Hamlet goes to university at Wittenberg, where Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door [3]. 4. The ghost tells Hamlet that he is being purged of sins (purgatory, believed in by many Catholics, doubted by many Protestants) [4]. 5. Hamlet tells the players not to overact. The actors say they have "reformed" that; Hamlet replies, "reform it altogether" [5], reformation wordplay. 6. Hamlet mentions a "convocation of politic worms," ‘your only emperor for diet” [6]: A council, the “Diet of Worms,” questioned Luther’s orthod...

When Hamlet mentions “Termagant” in advice to the players, he says it as if “everybody there would know exactly what [he] was talking about” [1]. What did Shakespeare assume his audience would know about Termagant, and why would dropping his name fit this play? The earliest known mention of Termagant is from “The Song of Roland” (an 11th-century work about a Frankish warrior, Roland (archetype of a Paladin) who fought in AD 778 under Charlemagne [2]. Termagant was a fictional god, assumed to be violent, falsely associated with Muslims by Christians who feared and did not understand their Saracen enemies [3].  The tale of Roland resembles aspects of Hamlet, in that Roland dies a martyr’s death in what seems in the end a suicide mission. Roland had a horn made of an elephant (oliphant) tusk that he was reluctant to blow for fear of being cowardly and dishonorable [4].  In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, after cowardly faking death in battle, Falstaff calls Hotspur a "hot te...

ALLUSIONS TO ISLAM IN HAMLET:  BACKGROUND: Some Protestants like Luther viewed Islam with concern and envy as a false religion but admiring the unity of the Ottoman Empire compared to Christianity. Luther compared discipline in Islam to Catholic admiration for works (not "faith alone") for salvation. Luther aided in the publication of a German translation of the Qur’an. The Ottoman Empire was a geopolitical threat; Turkish pirates in the Mediterranean had captured Christians, and some of these converted to Islam.  There are three relatively direct references in Hamlet to Islam or its adherents, plus two more indirect references:  A. Hamlet refers to Termagant [1] in 3.2.14, with Termagant as a fictional god, in Christian propaganda, falsely attributed and used to discredit Islam [2].  B. Hamlet’s fortunes may “turn Turk” (3.2.302, may betray him like a Christian converting to Islam); but this may be ironic given Shakespeare’s later play about Othello the Moor, and th...