Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

If you have viewed the recently available Shakespeare's Globe production of The Winter's Tale (more information near the end of this blog post), you may have noticed many themes and story elements in common with Hamlet (and perhaps other Shakespeare plays as well). In fact, Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale share a number of important features that are perhaps instructive regarding the political interests and moral concerns of the time. [Image via Shakespeare's Globe] Consider: Both Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale are about what is appropriate mourning for the dead: - In Hamlet , the mourning by Gertrude of her husband's death, and by Claudius, of his brother's death, are too short in Hamlet's opinion. - In The Winter’s Tale , in spite of the real need for Leontes to demonstrate a very real repentance for his grave mistakes, the mourning may seem too long. - Hamlet involves suspected adultery, poisoning, conspiracy to poison, and revenge. - The Winter...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Australia Belgium Brazil Canada France Georgia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary India Italy Pakistan Russia Singapore Vietnam United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States The analytics feature is limited, so unless I check it daily, I may miss some 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 visit as often as you like and consider ...

Why do we honor the dead? How might we best honor them, if while living, some of them greatly dishonored themselves? What if their dishonorable actions are hidden behind a veil of family lies or state propaganda? In Hamlet as well as other famous works of literature, honoring the dead, usually the dead kings or princes, sometimes by avenging their deaths or bringing murderers to justice, is a recurring theme. I was reminded of this yet again over the past two weeks by watching the 2018 Shakespeare’s Globe production of The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. In The Two Noble Kinsmen , three queens complain that their husbands have been dishonored by being left unburied after battle, echoing a theme from Antigone in the Oedipus cycle. In Hamlet , the prince feels his mother and uncle have dishonored his dead father by not mourning long enough, and by what would have been considered a biblically incestuous marriage in Shakespeare’s England. Honoring the dead wa...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Australia Belgium Brazil Egypt Hong Kong India Italy Jordan Macao Mexico Nigeria Russia Singapore Spain Switzerland Turkmenistan Ukraine United Arab Emirates United States United Kingdom 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 visit as often a...

What Would Yogi Bera say? If I were at production of an Early Modern play about a ruler named Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, I might think the play was A Midsummer Night’s Dream . If the plot involved three females, along with a war-inclined man’s wife, urging a the man to violence, I might guess that the play was Macbeth . If it involved a young woman who falls in love with a young man that her father believes is beyond her reach, and she later goes mad and is at risk of drowning, I’d think it was Hamlet . If it involved a rag-tag bunch of amateur actors putting on a show for their ruler, I’d think we were back in A Midsummer Night’s Dream . If the plot involved a love and possible betrothal confused or complicated by mistaken identities, I’d think the play might be Twelfth Night or Much Ado About Nothing . If the play involved a ruler named Creon dishonoring the dead by prohibiting the burial of certain corpses, I’d think it was a production of Sophocles’ play, Anti...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Colombia France Georgia India Ireland Italy Netherlands Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States 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 please visit as often as you like and consider su...

This week I pull together various sources that may seem unrelated. A Facebook forum member * posted a link to a good essay in the Hudson Review that (somewhat tangential to its main topic, but not entirely) contained a number of references to Shakespeare as a kind of religion . This prompted me to think a bit more about my own work on Biblical allusions in Hamlet in the larger context of literary studies, specialists in the field, nationalism, and all of that within the context of religious reforms and reformation. On the topic of Shakespeare as religion, the essay quoted Arthur Murphy, Voltaire, and David Garrick: Here’s Brooke Allen, in Hudson Review , “The Shakespeareans,” referencing English playwright Arthur Murphy: “There had been a gradual elevation of Shakespeare from just one among several popular Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights to the one and only national treasure: ‘a kind of established religion in poetry,’ as the playwright Arthur Murphy was already describin...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries and perhaps more: Argentina Bangladesh Canada Egypt Georgia Germany India Italy Mexico Netherlands Romania Spain Sweden Uganda Ukraine United Kingdom United States 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 please visit as often as you like and consider sub...