Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

What if we consider Claudius, uncle of Hamlet, through the lens of Philip II of Spain, or vice versa?  Philip was married to Mary I, older half-sister of Elizabeth I, and as such, he also enjoyed the title of King of England.  As Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, she was Philip’s “sometime-sister,” a phrase Claudius uses to describe Gertrude, widow of his brother King Hamlet [1].  Philip had offered a marriage proposal to Elizabeth (1559) two months after the death of Mary I (hasty remarriage), in spite of being the widower of Elizabeth’s half-sister (which would have required special dispensation from Rome, as did the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, mother of Mary I); this would have been considered a biblically incestuous marriage.  [Edit: Elizabeth *did not accept*. ]  There were coins of England during the monarchy of Mary I that featured images of Mary and Philip, some of which are still in existence, although Elizabeth had a majo...

Emily Dickinson famously wrote, “Tell the truth, but tell it slant” [1]. In the character of Claudius, Shakespeare does this in a number of ways: He retells an old Danish tale about a murderous king who married his brother’s widow (as Henry VIII had many executed after divorcing his dead brother’s widow [2]). He changes the uncle’s name from Feng to Claudius, associating him not only with literary villains in Arthurian tales [3.a., 3.b.] and Chaucer [4], but also with Rome and two Roman emperors - Claudius II, who ordered the execution of St. Valentine (even as King Claudius ordered the execution of Ophelia’s Valentine) [5], and Claudius I, who invaded England [6]. Shakespeare associated the uncle with Rome in these ways during the English Reformation, at a time when Protestantism and Rome were at odds, executing traitors and heretics; when Elizabeth had been excommunicated by two Roman Catholic popes [7]; and when Rome enlisted Philip II of Spain (who had proposed to Elizabeth in 15...

Thomas More was executed on this day in 1535, 490 years ago. Shakespeare depended in large part on More’s account of the reign of Richard III when writing his play by that name, and there is handwriting evidence that Shakespeare collaborated on the play, Sir Thomas More, with at least four others, and especially on a speech promoting hospitality toward foreigners in a hostile context.  Both Thomas More and Prince Hamlet opposed the kings under whose rule they lived, but there are some illuminating key differences: It is said at his execution, More’s last words were, "I die the King's good servant, and God's first." He did not oppose Henry’s marriage to his dead brother’s widow, because the church gave special dispensation for it, but later Henry would claim it was an incestuous and biblically sinful marriage. More would have been fine with Henry VIII having his marriage annulled if Rome had approved, but they did not, so when faced with a choice between obeying the ch...

There are at least three major uses of ambiguity in Shakespeare. How we speak of it, and what we value about it, vary widely.  1. One popular use of ambiguity can be a “Rorschach Effect”: Many believe that this gives actors and audiences permission to imagine and interpret any meaning or motivation they wish about the lines [1].  Shakespeare, his playing company, and early audiences may not have been quite that relativistic [2], but it certainly helps playing companies today in new contexts, to adapt plays to changing circumstances.  2. A second kind of ambiguity might be a “Scheherazade Effect” [3]. If you live in times when many are executed for their opinions or religious allegiances, you might feel like Scheherazade, who had to entertain with stories to stay alive.  If you also wanted to catch the conscience of the monarch, you had to be careful, or there would be trouble [4]. Instead of being too confrontational, one had to be indirect [5]: One had to use storie...

Some may feel squeamish when Hamlet speaks of how the body of Polonius is at a feast, not where he eats but where he is eaten - by worms (4.3.19-27). Scholars note that this is a Eucharistic analogy [1]. Worms have had interesting meanings since medieval times. The Glossa Ordinaria (1480), or Ordinary Gloss, collected insights from many bible scholars. I have compared Hamlet's sea voyage to that of Jonah; it turns out that in The Ordinary Gloss on the Book of Jonah [2], a worm plays a key role: While Jonah is angry and hoping still to witness the destruction of Nineveh, God makes a gourd plant sprout up to give Jonah shade in the hot sun (a mercy). Later God sends a worm to eat the gourd plant. This frustrates Jonah. Reading figuratively, ancient commenters viewed the gourd plant as Israel, which for a time flourished, but was eclipsed by Christianity converting the Gentiles, a new "chosen people." Jesus in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 quotes Psalm 22 from the cross, ...

Why did Shakespeare use Illyria as a setting for Twelfth Night? Is there any historical meaning to Illyria that may have made this a creative, illuminating, and relevant setting for Early Modern England, still in the throes of the Reformation? Consider:  On JUNE 19, 325 A.D., at the end of the Council of Nicea, Arian schismatics were exiled to Illyria, 1700 years ago this year.  IF ALL WE KNEW ABOUT ILLYRIA and Twelfth Night was two things:  1. That it was where Arius and his schismatic followers were exiled by Emperor Constantine and the First Council of Nicea; and  2. That Shakespeare’s contemporary, playwright Thomas Kyd, was arrested in 1593, tortured, and falsely accused of the heresy of Arianism [1];  these facts would color our reading of Shakespeare’s play–set in Illyria. [2] What happened after Arians were exiled to Illyria? After Nicea, Constantine’s successors flip-flopped, opposing or supporting Arianism (337-378 AD).  Flash-forward:  Durin...

Depending on who is pope at the time – either the time of the writing of a Shakespeare play, or a during a given production, or work of scholarship – the way people feel about Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius and his various sins or vices may vary greatly.  Elizabeth I had been excommunicated by Pope Pius V (1570) [1]. Under Sixtus V, Rome encouraged Spain to launch three Armada invasions of England (1588, 1596, 1601). (How would you feel?) During the English Civil Wars (1642 to 1651), in part about religion, Pope Innocent X (1644-1655) supported Ireland, against objections of the exiled Henrietta Maria, English Queen living in Paris.  So before 1660, it was easier to connect Claudius and his sins and vices with Rome and a Catholic church that resisted reform.  Fast forward to the 1800s: Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist (1837-1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), and Hard Times (1854); Marx and Engles publish Das Kapital (1867-1894), and Pope Leo XIII publishes Rerum Novarum (1...

An idea central to the Protestant Reformation was salvation by “faith alone,” not works [1]. This may help to understand why Marjorie Garber says the drinking game of Claudius approaches blasphemy [2]. Claudius’s drinking game is a celebration of works: Can the king drink the whole flagon without stopping? Fire the cannon! Best king? Claudius! To his health! Long live Claudius! Fire the cannon! The works of Claudius result in “earthly thunder” that the heavens “re-speak” [3] (echo). This is deeply ironic: the work of Claudius by which he obtained the throne was a work of poisoning, fratricide, regicide, usurpation, and lying to cover it up. Celebrate, fire the cannon: He got away with it? When Hamlet tries to conspire – to force his “works” to achieve revenge for his father’s death – he makes mistakes, and innocent people (like Polonius) are killed (3.4). Only late in the play does he articulate his new faith: “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” ...

Marjorie Garber of Harvard University thinks the drinking games of Claudius, with cannon fire and “earthly thunder,” are blasphemous, adding yet another sin to his list. Claudius breaks a number of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not kill (Deuteronomy 5:17, Genesis 4:3-15) [1], nor covet thy neighbor’s house or wife (etc.) (Exodus 20:17) [2], nor bear false witness (Exodus 20:16) [3]. But more essentially, Claudius breaks the first commandment, which is to love God and have no other gods (Exodus 20:3-5). Garber notes the blasphemy implied in his drinking game: No jocund health that Denmark drinks today But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again, Respeaking earthly thunder. (1.2.129-132) Garber writes, “It even approaches blasphemy, when we hear [...] that every time the King drinks, the cannons will blaze away, and ‘The King’s Rouse the heavens shall bruit again, / respeaking earthly thunder’.... Properly, thunder is heavenly, not ...

The name Yorick [1] may come from the same root as St. George [2], patron saint of England since 1348 : from the Greek “Georgios”: from ge (γῆ)  - 'earth, soil' - and ergon (ἔργον), 'work' [3]. Yorick, as “earth worker.”   The gravedigger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is called “Goodman Delver” by his friend (5.1.14). So the gravedigger and Yorick echo one another in more ways than foolery… This relates also to my series on the Emmaus echo in 5.1, the graveyard scene: the story of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus [4] was a gospel read in church on the first Monday after Easter every year of Shakespeare’s life [5]. In that gospel, two disciples on the road are mourning the death of Jesus. They meet a stranger (somehow a real or figurative Jesus, unrecognized [6]) who shows them compassion, listens, scolds them for their flawed thinking, and gives them hope, explaining the scriptures to them. These are all things Jesus had done for them. The disciples ...