Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

My readers might paraphrase Polonius and ask: "Still harping on Jephthah?" I am approaching the end of a series of blog posts on Polonius and Jephthah, and for those of you who have tolerated all of my posts in this series, I am most grateful for your interest and patience. I have noted in other posts of this series that consideration of the Jephthah allusion is too often limited mostly to Polonius and his willingness to sacrifice his daughter's interests to his ambitions, or to the idea of hasty and unwise vows. Sometimes this is expanded to include Hamlet's vow to avenge his father, and Laertes'. Sometimes it is expanded to include the Bond of Association . But in general, we do well to consider even more ways that the Jephthah story resonates with Hamlet . IN BRIEF: This week I will focus briefly on four things: 1. Gertrude can be seen as a Jephthah for being too hasty and unwise in making new marriage vows after her husband's death, and perhaps sacrifici...

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.

Hamlet's references to Jephthah and Hecuba may have more to do with each other in the broader context of the tales of the Trojan War than Hamlet footnotes lead one at first to believe. Many students today make up the largest group of fresh audiences or readers of Shakespeare's Hamlet . As such, most come to the play without knowing who Jephthah or Hecuba were (I certainly did not when I first read the play in high school). Both Jephthah and Hecuba are alluded to by the prince in Act 2, scene 2, a long scene.* Hamlet remains on stage consistently from the Jephthah reference through all the Hecuba speech and references ("What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?").                [Dame Judi Dench as Hecuba in Hamlet , 1996, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Image via HamletsCloud . Fair use.] Shakespeare's original audiences fresh to the play would have included a greater percent of people more familiar with the Bible and ...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come from the following countries (and "other"): As with last week, for this blog, 200+ readers in a week is about double the number of readers as of last October. So if you are new to the blog since then, welcome, and thanks for your interest. Again as with last week, the second largest group of views is "other": The analytics are only able to list 19 or 20 countries, so this may indicate that I had a single reader from each of many countries this week, and those single views from various places may have made for too long a list to display all of them. (I suspect that, if all of my 200 or so readers for the week came from, say, 15 countries, all the countries would list the corresponding numbers, and there would be no listing of total views from "other.") As with last week, this represents more than 200 readers in just one week. At the end of this past October, I ...

When Hamlet tells Polonius he is a "fishmonger" (which many read as also meaning "flesh-monger" or pimp), and later associates Polonius with Jephthah (son of a harlot or prostitute), we might paraphrase the title of the Tina Turner song, "What's Love Got to Do With It?" In our case, we might ask: What's prostitution got to do with it? At least one way of viewing prostitution is that it takes what may be at best relationships of mutual and reciprocal gift-giving, and corrupts them by reducing them to market transactions, this-for-that, without nurturing ongoing and transcendent bonds on which communities depend if they are to have a future. Some may view this reading of prostitution as moralistic and oppressive, as if to assert that sex belongs only in marriage, and that perhaps all transactions of the marketplace are evil, whereas only gift-exchange that builds community is good. That is not my objective here, as I hope will become more clea...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come from the following countries (and "other"): This represents 215 readers in just one week. At the end of this past October, I reported that the blog had received 10,000 views in 20 months, averaging about 115 readers per week. So 215 readers this past week is quite an increase. It also includes 19 countries, plus 42 views from "other": This may mean a total of 62 countries represented by my readers this week, or it may mean that some readers use browser tools that restrict the ability of websites to track them by country, or other technical barriers which might keep the blog analytics from identifying the nation of origin for some readers. 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 e...

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.