Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

SHAKESPEARE WAS A SUCCESSFUL EVANGELIST FOR THE IDEA OF PURGATORY, considering how many Anglican & Protestant readers/scholars for centuries accept that the ghost is Hamlet’s father, from purgatory (even—perhaps—sent by God), and that #Hamlet must avenge his death. The assumption of many male readers has been "manly": The ghost is his dad, and Hamlet must avenge. STEPHEN GREENBLATT does a good job in "Hamlet in Purgatory," showing how people challenged the idea of purgatory as a fiction used to prey upon the gullible for their money. There is much truth to that. But on the other hand, it's always the job of the living to sort through the legacy of the dead and to make sense, to find what's still useful, redeeming what is good, rejecting what is harmful—hopefully with humility, not assuming we can pluck the hearts of their mysteries. This is analogous to prayers for the dead, and to the hope for purification of souls after death. Again, not literal...

IS YOUR CHILD TEXTING ABOUT HAMLET? Watch for the signs: BFF - Bernardo/Francisco first SMDH - Shakespeare Made Dear Horatio! OMG - Old Malevolent Ghost ICYMI - In Case Your Mother's Incestuous ASAP - As Scheming As Polonius IDC - I Detest Claudius SOS - Swear On Sword HAK - Hamlet Acting Krazy STFU - Soliloquizing To Forge Understanding ROTGL - Rosencrantz Only Trusts Guildenstern Lately LOL - Letters Ophelia Loved SOS - Spying On Someone IHNI - Is Hebenon Never Ingested? IMHO - In Mousetrap, Hamlet Owns GTFO - Gertrude, The Freudian Opiate ASAP - Arras Stiff; Ah, Polonius! TOU - Think Ophelia’s Upset? SMDH - Sailing Midship: Dane Hamlet OTW - Ophelia Truly Wacko GF - Gravedigger: Funny YOLO - Yorick Oft Laughed. Oft! CPU - Churlish Priest Upsets LMRAO - Laertes’ “Mountain” Remark: Awkward, Overstated LBH - Let Be, Horatio ROFL - Redeliver Our Foils, Laertes! ASAP - A Sadness After Poison TMS - Tell My Story ATM - Angels’ Transcendent Melodies OMFG ...

HAMLET & THE NECESSARY COMPOST OF THE IMAGINATION In early variorum editions of Hamlet, one finds that some readers/critics took an approach to the plays that tried to decipher which single historical figure seemed to be represented by which character in the play: Many thought Hamlet a stand-in for Sir Philip Sidney, or Essex, etc. But it seems more accurate to say that Shakespeare made composite characters, combining features of various historical figures; he also split up qualities of historical figures among various characters. So “decoding” usually falls very short, plagued by a kind of celebrity-reductionist mentality, a People Magazine approach to interpreting the plays. This sense of fracturing and combining elements from sources and historical figures (as I’ve mentioned before) seems to represent better how the compost of the imagination works in the plays. It’s also how the imagination may *need* to work in a harsh climate of censorship, where not masking thing...

WHAT WAS SHAKESPEARE'S INSPIRATION FOR GERTRUDE besides Saxo Grammaticus & Belleforest? Getrude, who after marriage to a great king, too-quickly marries not only a lesser man, but a patricide-murderer, her brother's husband ("incest")? Or another way to pose the question: If Shakespeare was using a common theme in history and in his culture to highlight certain controversial figures on which many in his audiences had opinions, to tap into their concerns and interests, what might some of these have been? If Hamlet is in part a commentary on the end of the House of Tudor, then it may help to consider Gertrude as a composite character, made of aspects of various historical figures: 1. Catherine of Valois, who married the lowly Owen Tudor after the death of Henry V. 2. Anne Boleyn, mother of Queen Elizabeth I, accused of incest. 3. Mary, Queen of Scots, who married her second husband’s alleged murderer. 4. Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, w...

In addition to this 2018 post, see also my related series on the importance of the Lazarus allusion in the play, which begins here with a 16 February 2021 post: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/new-series-on-rich-man-lazarus.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there are allusions to the bible story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man (“Dives”) from Luke 16:19-31, read every First Sunday After Trinity Sunday, and also read every 5 March, 4 July, and every 30 October as the second lesson for Morning prayer. It is as if the playwright took parts of that story, diced them up, and sprinkled them throughout: 1. The Ghost (1.5) says his skin became “Lazar-like” from poison; Lazarus had skin-sores, which dogs licked. [Edit 9/11/2023: The ghost also says that his brother Claudius, in the “..porches of mine ear didst pour the leperous distillment” - in some paintings and illustrations of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the beggar...

Education in America: Learning Beyond Our Borders by David Bly 1/5/18 [ ARTICLE ON EDUCATION BY STATE REP DAVID BLY ] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6355266110010507264 This article is by my friend and neighbor, State Representative David Bly, who I am so glad to have representing us. David has seen educational trends come and go, but he cuts through the fog and confusion, and consistently makes sense. School districts in the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas who sometimes find themselves floundering for a sense of direction should consider hiring him as a consultant when the legislature is not in session. Another thing I like about David is that he reads and understands Shakespeare and Kierkegaard and history and more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Links to a description of my book project: On LinkedIn : https://lnkd.in/eJGBtqV On this blog : https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/05/hamlets-bible-my-book-project...

Hamlet is a reformer who hopes to set right what is rotten and out-of-joint in Denmark, but becomes corrupted himself when slaying the unseen Polonius. Bernard of Clairvaux was a reformer who wished to set right what was rotten and out-of-joint in the monastic movement and in Christian Europe, but became corrupted himself for ignoring the gospel command to love enemies & promoting a (failed) crusade against unseen Muslims— and corrupted also for conspiring against Peter Abelard. More on Bernardo in Hamlet (and Peter Abelard) : https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/12/bernardo-abelard-hamlet-laertes-reconcile.html [April 12, 2024 note: Much is made of the fact that Hamlet is upset with his mother for marrying his uncle, considered a scandalously incestuous marriage in Shakespeare's time, and also perhaps, by doing so, denying him the throne he expected after his father's death. Perhaps more famously, St. Francis of Assisi is famous for having disowned his fa...