Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

My Vanderbilt University presentation/dinner/discussion sponsored by the VU Chaplain's office went very well tonight, a small but good group. Twitter thread summarizing some insights that came together for me as I prepared for the event: https://twitter.com/padrianfried/status/1090478362676600832 It also became more clear to me that while some of the biblical & religious allusions/plot echoes reflect more on Hamlet's movement toward mercy and a merciful providence, others reflect more on the sin & corruption in Denmark & the play's main characters. I was surprised and delighted to find that among those attending were Victor Judge, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Denice Hicks, Artistic Director of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and Jim Warren, Co-Founder and former Artistic Director of the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. Jim is in Nashville as a consultant and teaching an auditioning class in February. [L-R: Victor Judge, De...

In Hamlet 1.3, both Laertes and Polonius use the word “prodigal” to dissuade Ophelia from a romantic relationship with Hamlet: —Laertes warns her about opening her “chaste treasure” to Hamlet and twice tells her, “Fear it”: The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon —Polonius tells her not to believe Hamlet’s vows of love to her, implying that such vows are "prodigal" and not to be believed, and that perhaps Polonius had once made such false vows in his youth, so he assumes that Hamlet was being a kind of prodigal by making such vows: I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows But both Laertes and Polonius miss the heart of the prodigal son story from in Luke 15:11–32: It’s not about fear, or fearing being prodigal, but rather, about the generous mercy of the father in the parable who welcomes home the son, shadowed a bit by the self-righteous envy of the brother. The prodigal son story perhaps ap...

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who think there are only two kinds, and those who are sane. The joke applies to all generalizations, but if I had to list categories for types of interpretations of Hamlet, these would come to mind: 1. The Ghost is released from purgatory by God to commission Hamlet to execute a usurping, incestuous murderer, Claudius. If Hamlet refuses to kill Claudius, he disobeys heaven. Hamlets main flaws: He waits too long, hurts and kills too many, but is right to kill Claudius in the end. [Popular with Catholic critics.] 2. The Ghost is from hell; Hamlet is tricked into killing Claudius & causing other deaths. Vengeance is God’s alone, so Hamlet is hell-bound. Some in this group think Claudius is a pretty effective king. Kill him and be damned. Many of these also consider any hint of turning in Hamlet after the sea voyage and graveyard scene to be superfluous or delusory on Hamlet's part. [Roy Battenhouse ( Shakespear...

Adrienne Darvay Nagy on Hamlet & Dracula One of my favorite Hamlet-related LinkedIn connections is Adrienne Darvay Nagy, who brings whole new realms of Shakespeare research and literary observation to my attention, as well as continental European Shakespeare performance history, of which I'd otherwise be unaware. If you're a Hamlet fan, you should follow her posts. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6492044564071739392 #Hamlet #Shakespeare #Dracula

OPHELIA: "THE FALSE STEWARD THAT STOLE HIS MASTER'S DAUGHTER" In recent years, scholars* have identified a cryptic statement Ophelia makes: “It is the false steward that stole his master's daughter” (4.5). They now think this points to a Ben Jonson play in which a young girl is taken by a steward and passed off as his own while the father is away at war. Years later, she falls in love but is told she is unworthy of the match, when in fact she is worthy by her true parentage. This changeling theme resembles the story of Jesus, apparent son of a carpenter, but actually of a heavenly father. I have posted before of how Francisco of Assisi (see sentinel name) renounced his earthly father in favor of a heavenly one, and how, after his Jonah-like sea-voyage, Hamlet finds a heavenly father in Providence. Ophelia is told by Laertes that she is "unvalued"/unworthy of marriage to Hamlet, who made to her “almost all the holy vows of heaven” (a marriage propo...

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (on Navy Pier) is doing Hamlet April 17 - June 9, 2019, as I'm told by Michael Hayden, who is playing Claudius. It will be produced by founder and artistic director Barbara Gaines, who is "Internationally renowned for her populist and dynamic interpretations of Shakespeare." There is a free enrichment program/lecture an hour before the May 4-June 9 Sat & Sun matinees, and a Pub Cast Call an hour before the Friday evening performances May 17 & 24. The poster has the traditional skull, but it's wearing a green jester's hat, as Yorick was both the king's jester and a sort of affectionate surrogate father figure for Hamlet, a nice touch. For more information at CTS, click HERE: https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/hamlet

If a scholar uses jargon heavily, this doesn’t mean they’re smarter than you or using the jargon correctly. Maybe they use it well as a kind of shorthand, and maybe simply looking up the unfamiliar words can help with the jargon. But sometimes they may be assuming too much about their understanding of the jargon, covering for weaknesses in their argument, or using jargon to impress and appeal to other scholars who use the same jargon. I’m reading an otherwise good book in which the author claims that a scene in a Shakespeare play offers a new semiotics (theoretical-philosophical understanding of interpreting signs and symbols). Actually, no. The play might inspire a scholar to a new theory or new insights about semiotics. But Shakespeare plays don’t offer semiotics. (See Webster definition below the Princess Bride meme.) It brought to mind a certain line (and internet meme) from “Princess Bride.” Poet William Stafford advised that when reading poetry, if you don’t like or unde...

In recent years, notable productions of Hamlet in the UK and Washington DC have highlighted the topic of Surveillance: The picture below is from Shakespeare Magazine, issue 14, July 2018, with Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. Scott played Moriarty in the BBC series, Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. —The king sends for Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to act as spies. —In a particularly chilling scene, Polonius, whose son Laertes departed for France after listening to a long list of fatherly advice ending with “this above all: to thine own self be true,” sends a spy after his son to plant mildly scandalous rumors in order to discover news of his son’s scandalous exploits. —Ophelia agrees to act as bait while Claudius and Polonius eavesdrop. After 9/11/01, the USA and other governments used the events of that day to justify greatly increased spending on global surveillance, much of which violates rights to priva...

CFP: RMMRA Conference Call for papers: 2019 Rocky Mountain Medieval & Renaissance Assoc. conference, Denver, CO, April 11-13: RMMRA Call 2019 The Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association invites proposals for papers and panels at our Annual Conference to be held April 11-13 in downtown Denver, Colorado, at the SpringHill Suites Marriott adjacent to the Metropolitan State University of Denver. In addition to welcoming all paper and session proposals related to Medieval and Renaissance studies across all disciplines, the organizers will be creating a series of panels specifically focused on papers encoding Leonardo da Vinci’s belief in the essentiality of sapere videre on this the 500th anniversary of his death (1452-1519). For More Information: Click HERE or copy and paste into your browser: http://www.rmmra.org/2019-cfp-sapere-videre-knowing-how-to-see-denver-co-april-11-13-2019/ #Literature #LiteraryCriticism #Drama #Theatre #EarlyModern #Renaissance...

CFP: NPCEBL Call For Papers: Northern Plains Conference on Early Brit Lit 12-13 April 2019 Deadline March 11, 2019 Sponsored by Minnesota State U—Moorhead & Concordia College; sessions will be held at The Comstock Memorial Union, at the MSUM campus, Moorhead, MN. For more information : http://www.npcebl.org/NPCEBL2019CFP.pdf #Literature #LiteraryCriticism #Drama #Theatre #EarlyModern #Renaissance #EnglishLiterature #BritishLiterature #Britlit

In his book, “Images of Christ in Art,” British art historian and museum director Robert Neil Macgregor notes that from 1200 CE on, “wherever the Roman Church went, the Veronica would go with it." In legend, after St. Veronica wiped the face of Jesus on his way to crucifixion, the image of Christ’s face (“the Veronica”) remained on the cloth. Her act later became part of the stations of the cross ritual in Roman Catholic and English churches. Note: In the Christian legend, Jesus is doing strenuous physical activity of cross-carrying when a woman, Veronica, wipes his face as he goes to his death; in Hamlet 5.2, the prince is doing strenuous physical activity of a fencing match when a woman, Gertrude, wipes his face as he goes to his death: GERTRUDE: He's fat, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows [….] / Come, let me wipe thy face. What was the Bard thinking? Not that Gertrude = Veronica, but that Shakespeare, immersed in his cultu...