Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

[My blog posts usually explore some aspect of Shakespeare’s text of Hamlet. This week I hold up the play as a mirror to our times: Claudius used “juice of cursed hebona in a vial” to kill his brother, a kind of chemical- or bio-weapon. But he lied: government propaganda claimed his brother was bitten by a snake, blaming nature for the killing. In our own time, Chinese officials claim COVID-19 was brought to China intentionally by the US military during war games there in October, 2019, after a bioweapons lab in the US failed an inspection and was closed that August. The US (US-friendly media) claim the virus came from a bat and a market where wild meat was sold (as if from a snake in nature’s garden). Nature creates many deadly viruses. But many countries, including the US, have a history of taking germs from nature and developing them as bioweapons. (A recent book notes that Lyme Disease may have accidentally escaped from a bioweapons lab at Plum Island on the US east coast th...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Bangladesh Brazil Canada France Georgia Germany Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Israel Italy Mexico Netherlands Nigeria Pakistan Romania Slovakia South Korea Spain Switzerland Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States The analytics feature is limited, so unless I check it daily, I may miss others that pop up. Some may get cut off or listed as from "Unknown Region." Listed or not, thanks for your interest. I am grateful and humbled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My current project is a book tentatively titled “Hamlet’s Bible,” about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet. Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html I post ...

The word “plague” is used in very interesting ways in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and an examination of each instance in its context in the play as well as the historical context is quite revealing. [Michael Wolgemut, “Image of Death” from The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), woodcut with watercolor, 14 7/16 x 10 5/16 inches (courtesy Blanton Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, the Karen G. and Dr. Elgin W. Ware, Jr. Collection)] LAST WEEK I listed a number of words that may have been associated with highly contagious and deadly diseases, their number of occurrences in Shakespeare’s work overall, and their numbers of occurrences in Hamlet. These words included the following: Plague; Contagion; Pestilence/Pestilent; Sick; Ill; Pox; Blister; Forehead (not an exhaustive list). This week I’ll focus just on the word “plague” in Hamlet, and just on the first of two instances. Here’s the count again for how often the word appears in Shakespeare’s writing overall, and how ofte...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Argentina Australia Bangladesh Belgium Brazil Canada Denmark Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Italy Japan Lebanon Mexico Netherlands South Korea Spain Switzerland United Kingdom United States The analytics feature is limited, so unless I check it daily, I may miss others that pop up. Some may get cut off or listed as from "Unknown Region." Listed or not, thanks for your interest. I am grateful and humbled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My current project is a book tentatively titled “Hamlet’s Bible,” about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet. Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html I post...

Words like “Plague,” “Contagion” and “Pestilence” occur in Shakespeare’s works a surprising number of times, and that includes Hamlet. Because of the Covid-19 crisis, my readers may already have noticed that media outlets and Shakespeare organizations are sharing and re-publishing articles about black plague and smallpox in Shakespeare’s lifetime. [Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656, public domain, Wikipedia ] With all of the changes in the world and in my state of Minnesota, with school closings, and conferences and sporting events canceled, I decided it was time to do a little research about Shakespeare and the plague and the pox, as well as some research about occurrences of these words often associated with them. Web Resources Among the many good web resources on plague, smallpox, and diseases mentioned in Shakespeare, here are a few of my favorites: James Shapiro: “How Shakespeare’s great escape f...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Australia Canada Czechia France Georgia Hong Kong India Israel Japan Mexico Netherlands Philippines Portugal Russia Slovakia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States Vietnam The analytics feature is limited, so unless I check it daily, I may miss others that pop up. Some may get cut off or listed as from "Unknown Region." Listed or not, thanks for your interest. I am grateful and humbled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My current project is a book tentatively titled “Hamlet’s Bible,” about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet. Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html I post every week, so please v...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Australia Canada Colombia Egypt France Georgia Germany Hong Kong Hungary India Japan Kenya Netherlands Russia Slovakia South Africa Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States Vietnam Unknown Region The analytics feature is limited, so unless I check it daily, I may miss others that pop up. Some may get cut off or listed as from "Unknown Region." Listed or not, thanks for your interest. I am grateful and humbled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My current project is a book tentatively titled “Hamlet’s Bible,” about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet. Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list): https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html I post every week, so plea...

In the fall of 1979, Hamlet Studies published a wonderful essay by William Rossky of Temple University titled, "Hamlet as Jeremiah." You can find it here: look for the October 1979 Volume 1.2 . The list of essays below that October issue seems to have the numbering wrong, as 2.1 instead of 1.2, so look for this: Rossky, William. “Hamlet as Jeremiah.” Hamlet Studies 1.2. (1979): 101-108. I have posted in the past on this blog regarding Jonah ( here and here ), and also  John the Baptist (a prophet figure from the Christian scriptures, or "New Testament"), as well as  the prophet Nathan in the King David stories of the Hebrew scriptures (or "Old Testament"). But Rossky's essay wonderfully makes clear that ideas and language from the Book of Jeremiah also influenced the language and ideas of the play. [The Prophet Jerimiah, painted by Michelangelo, circa 1508-12, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace, Vatican City; photo public domain by The Yorck Pro...

[1] THE THEME OF SCANDALOUS ROYAL INCEST was to people of that late Elizabethan times something like the themes of resource wars and government lies about weapons of mass destruction after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003: The blockbuster film, Avatar, was released in December of 2009, about earthlings fighting a resource war for an energy source against the native population of a distant planet. About five months later, in May of 2010, Disney released the film, Prince of Persia, which was rightly criticized for casting too many Caucasian actors as the main characters and not enough of Middle Eastern descent; but a notable aspect of the plot involved lies about weapons of mass destruction possessed by a country that Persia would invade. The folly of corrupt government was on people’s minds, and therefore became a topic of popular entertainment. [2] IN THE LAST DECADE of the life of Elizabeth I , there were two very popular plays with a theme of incestuous royalty. Both of these...