Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare's Hamlet has numerous words, phrases, and allusions that seem to have been more familiar to its original audiences in Shakespeare's lifetime than they are to ours. This includes not only references to hunting and falconry ("a hawk from a handsaw") and classical literature and mythology (Priam, Didi, Pyrrhus), but also numerous Biblical allusions. One of the more explicit Biblical allusions in Hamlet is when prince Hamlet implies that Polonius is like Jephthah, whose tale is told in the 11th and 12th chapters of the book of Judges. Jephthah is the son of a prostitute and is treated like an outsider, but he has a reputation of being an excellent warrior. When the Israelites need him to fight the Ammonites, Jephthah promises God that, if God helps him achieve victory, he will sacrifice to God the first thing to cross his threshold. When he returns victorious from battle, it is his daughter who first crosses his threshold. Preaching during the English ...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come from the following countries (and "other"): Whether your country is listed or not, thank you 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.

In Act 3, scene 4, Hamlet kills Polonius behind the arras, thinking he is stabbing Claudius. This exchange follows (emphasis mine): Polonius : [Behind the arras] Oh, I am slain! Queen : Oh, me, what hast thou done? Hamlet : Nay I know not . Is it the King? 3.4.2405-2407 For English audiences in Shakespeare's lifetime, required to attend church each Sunday and on Holy Days, the combination of Gertrude's question about what Hamlet has done , followed by Hamlet's reply, "I know not," may have sounded quite familiar. If there is any Biblical passage those audiences would have found echoed in the exchange, it would have been from the Gospel of Luke (23:34), with this passage included in a larger section from Luke chapter 23, read every year on Holy Thursday (emphasis mine): "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do ." [ "The Crucifixion" - 1616 (the year of Shakespeare's death), by Pieter Lastman, oil on ...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come from the following countries (and "other"): I am a U.S.-based blogger, so it makes sense that most of my views come from the U.S. But the second greatest source of views in the list is "other." You may wonder: Why is that? The blog's analytics feature can only list 19 countries or locations, so "Other" might represent other nations from which the blog received at least one view, or it may represent other readers who might use browsers that block such tracking for privacy's sake. Whether your country is listed or not, thank you 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...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come from the following countries (and "other"): Whether your country is listed or not, thank you 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.

Some Shakespeare fans are huge fans of Asimov's two-volume work, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare . It surveys all the plays, provides cross-references to how various plays share references, especially to elements of history and classical mythology, but also to a smaller number of biblical tales. It's also accessible, free of scholarly jargon that often makes many readers feel excluded from the intended audience. These are among its greatest strengths. The explanations of distant European history especially helps to place Hamlet in a much larger and interesting context, especially in the sweep of political and military history, and that's quite interesting. It gives a sense that very old history matters, and that the forces of history keep finding expression even in the present. But at least as far as its treatment of Hamlet is concerned, Asimov's Guide is not without a number of glaring weaknesses. First published in 1970, Asimov's Guide is terribly dismiss...

When a country's leader is responsible for many crimes, either in secret or publicly known, including the murder of one or the deaths of many, and he shrouds his actions in lies, what is to be done with old school-friends who tried to hitch their wagons to the dark star of the corrupt regime? Are they, essentially, complicit in the crimes and deserving some share of any punishment, should it come? Or were they just human beings who had average human ambitions to get ahead, and should not be held responsible for the evils in which they participated, even knowingly? These were questions asked by the Nuremberg trials after World War II, and that some asked after the Bush-Cheney regime with its scandals of torture and lies that got the U.S. into a war with Iraq that violated international law. They are questions that may soon be asked if Trump is replaced by Biden as U.S. president. And they are questions we might consider regarding Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare's Ha...