Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

With more foresight, if Shakespeare had wanted to be more accessible for all ages, he might have realized that once Protestants questioned the Catholic idea of Eucharist as “transubstantiation,” religion would be on its way out (especially in some countries), and he might not have included as many as 1,300 biblical references in his plays [1]. 😉 One example is in King Lear 4.4.  Cordelia, newly returned to England from France, alludes to Luke 2:41-52:  CORDELIA: O dear *father,* It is thy *business* that I go about.    (4.4.26-27)  (*emphasis* mine) This alludes to the tale of the boy Jesus, lost in Jerusalem, later found in the temple, conversing with, astonishing, and amazing temple elders.  Shakespeare also has Hamlet in 3.2 allude to this with his former school friends after The Mousetrap, with his mother amazed and “astonied” [2]. Yes, spelled “astonied” in Shakespeare and in the 1599 Geneva translation:  47 And all that heard him, were astonie...

1. Is Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a Christmas/Epiphany play? https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/is-twelfth-night-christmas-epiphany.html 2. Is Twelfth Night a Political Play? https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/is-twelfth-night-political-play.html 3. Twelfth Night: Ring, Letter, and Mary Queen of Scots https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/twelfth-night-ring-letter-and-mary.html 4. Letter and Mousetrap, Twelfth Night and Hamlet https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/01/letter-and-mousetrap-twelfth-night-and.html 5. A Note on Gender, Religion, and Politics in Twelfth Night https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-note-on-gender-religion-and-politics.html 6. St. Paul and Twelfth Night https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/02/st-paul-and-twelfth-night.html 7. Illyria, Nicea's Exile for Arians, Thomas Kyd, and Twelfth Night - June 14, 2025 https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2025/06/illyria-nice...

Many have commented on how the image at the end of the play, of King Lear holding the corpse of his daughter Cordelia, resembles the Pieta, in which the Virgin Mary holds the corpse of Jesus. Modernist critics often dismiss any religious implication [1] [2]. Jesus was allegedly in the tomb for three days, but if Cordelia doesn't revive by the end of the last scene, then to them, there is no resurrection (literal or figurative) and to them, God (literal or figurative) does not exist. Some view the reverse-gender pieta simply as an allusion to the traditional Christian Pieta, and perhaps as pointing to a life after death in some metaphysical realm. But what of the gender reversal, with father holding daughter? Is this significant, even radical? If we view it in a near-vacuum, then it may seem to carry possibly radical implications, where the human father Lear is no sinless virgin, but a sinner purged of his pride in the crucible of profound suffering, holding the daughter of God, n...

Since at least 2022, I've done a post around the time of Good Friday, sharing what seem to be either direct allusions, or at least echoes of the Good Friday gospel stories (the Passion of Christ) in Shakespeare's Hamlet .  The index link below is to blog posts about allusions in Hamlet to the Good Friday stories (which Shakespeare and others in England would have been required to hear via mandatory church attendance. The index covers related posts on this subject from 2022-2026. The 2022 post [1] collected a few general allusions or plot echoes. For people interested in a list of detailed, short references in the text of the play, this is a good place to start.  - A post in December of 2023 related to these by way of Ophelia's "willow" [2];  - Good Friday posts in 2024 [3] and in 2025 [4] continued this, each with new insights.  INDEX: Good Friday echoes in Hamlet - April 03, 2026. https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/04/index-good-friday-echoes-in-hamlet...

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...