Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Two weeks ago, my blog post mentioned Paul A. Cantor’s insightful introduction to the Cambridge University Press Hamlet (2004, 2012) , including his use of Hegel's idea of Tragedy as conflicting ideas of the good. Cantor also does a good job not only identifying the importance of both Christian and classical allusions, but also of noting that Christian and Classical worldviews are in an uncomfortable dialectic in the play. [Paul A. Cantor, image from screenshot, Youtube ] In act 1, scene 2, Claudius describes Denmark not as a Christian state, but a "warlike state." The classical code of honor and revenge is demonstrated by the ghost's commission that Hamlet avenge his murder, and also by the first performance of a speech by the players about the story of Hecuba witnessing Pyrrhus's revenge on Priam. Christianity is demonstrated at many turns in the play, with allusions and plot echoes, from Horatio as the doubting Thomas of the first scene, to the very last ...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries: Canada Cyprus India Ireland Italy Japan Pakistan United States Unknown Region 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 subscribing.

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries: Canada Cayman Islands France Hungary India Ireland Japan Netherlands Romania Russia Spain Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Venezuela 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 subscribing.

On June 19 of this year, The Public Theater of New York published on YouTube their fine video of black actors from across the US reading Hamlet's speech, "To be or not to be." It's powerful and provocative, evoking the sense of cognitive dissonance and mystery that Hamlet feels he faces in the play. You can view it here: This video has been on my mind this week as I read of George Floyd/police protests in Portland, Oregon, and President Trump sending federal troops there, where Black Lives Matter protesters had occupied an area of the city. At first protesters were mostly peaceful, but Portland police used teargas, pepper spray, flash-bang grenades, and other devices that inspired an outcry and a restraining order from a judge, a sign of early progress. Yet after Trump sent in federal troops, violent methods were used again, as well as snatching demonstrators and detaining them indefinitely without charges. Oregon Public Broadcasting has an good account of the...

In Paul A. Cantor’s insightful introduction to the Cambridge University Press Hamlet (2004, 2012) , he notes a number of things that made me think of the current conflicts in the US over whether students should return to school in the fall. Cantor notes the definition of tragedy in Hegel's Aesthetics , not as a conflict of good and evil, but as a conflict of two goods. Cantor notes, "A straightforward confrontation of good and evil is a fundamentally melodramatic situation. If good triumphs we rejoice, and if evil triumphs we lament, and in either case our sympathies are clear-cut and there is nothing in the outcome to perplex us. But in a dramatic situation in which both sides have a legitimate claim on our sympathies, no outcome can provide a simple resolution of our feelings. No matter which side wins, we feel that something good has been defeated or destroyed." (12) This may oversimplify, because in Hamlet , we have more than two characters, and more than two t...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries: Argentina Canada Cayman Islands Czechia Denmark Finland France Germany India Italy Japan Netherlands New Zealand Pakistan Switzerland United Kingdom United States (+42 views from Unknown Region) 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 conside...

I was born on the 5th of July, thankfully missing by just a day the opportunity to have the line from the patriotic and vacuous George M. Cohen song, “I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” applied to my birth: I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy A Yankee Doodle, do or die A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam Born on the Fourth of July I've got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart She's my Yankee Doodle joy Yankee Doodle came to London Just to ride the ponies I am the Yankee Doodle Boy Instead, I am pleased to know that this date also marks the historic occasion of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, “"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" given to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in the state of New York. [ Image of Frederick Douglass from Wikipedia . Image of Romans 8:18 from Archive.org, The Bishops Bible, 1568, which the 1599 Geneva translation renders, "For I count that the afflictions of this present time are not worthy of the glory, which shall be showed un...

Thanks to readers for the past week, which the blog's analytics show as being from the following countries: American Samoa Australia Canada France Germany Hungary India Italy Poland Serbia Spain United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown Region 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 subscribing.