Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

It is easy to be confused when the ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet says that the poison his brother Claudius poured in his ear made King Hamlet's skin all "lazar-like." There are many possible sources of confusion: LAZAR-LIKE? LAZAR-HOUSE? LEPROSY? - First, many modern readers and potential audience members of the play don't know what leprosy is, or that a "lazar-house" was a hospital for lepers. This was common knowledge in Shakespeare's time, but is much less familiar to modern readers and playgoers. SORRY TO DISAPPOINT SCHOLARS OF EARLY MODERN SCIENCE We might imagine at this point that there may be a scientist or botanist who is also a Shakespeare fan, and who wonders if there may have been some poison known in Shakespeare's time that had the ability to curdle the blood and change the victim's skin so quickly to be entirely covered in crust. I hate to disappoint those scientists whose inclination might be to start at the literal...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 140 from the following 19 countries (plus "other," perhaps other countries, or from readers whose web browsers block recognition of the source country): Again, the statistics for seven days were above 200 at mid-week, but always dip down by Tuesday morning for some reason. 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 February, 2021, I started a new series exploring the allusion by the ghost in Hamlet to how he thinks the poison made his skin "lazarlike with vile and loathsome crust, / All my smooth body" (1.5.757-8). This refers to how the beggar Lazarus had sores all over his skin, licked by dogs. This tale is found in Luke 16:19-31, read every First Sunday After Trinity Sunday, and also three times a year as the second lesson for Morning prayer.  It was assumed that Lazarus had leprosy, so lepers in England they were often called "lazars," and "lazar houses" were places where they were cared for. The word "beg" or some form of it is associated most often with Hamlet or spoken by him about himself, and Horatio's words, asking angels to sing Hamlet to his rest, are a translation of the Latin words from the Requiem Mass about the beggar Lazarus, welcomed into heaven. Ophelia is like a beggar to her brother and father, hoping for approval of the atten...

When the ghost in Shakespeare's Hamlet says that the poison made his skin "Most lazarlike with vile and loathsome crust, / All my smooth body" (1.5.757-8), the worst thing a viewer or reader can do is to assume (perhaps after reading a footnote) that "lazarlike" is meant to convey only something about the physical effect on his skin, and nothing more. ["The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man," 1618/1628, Workshop of Domenico Fetti, 1589-1623. National Gallery of Art, USA, open access image, cropped.] In the biblical parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the skin of the beggar Lazarus was covered by sores that were licked by dogs. A "lazar-house" was a name for a place where people with skin afflictions like leprosy. HistoricEngland.org notes that "At least 320 religious houses and hospitals for the care of lepers (known as leper or 'lazar' houses) were established in England between the end of the 11th century and 1...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 203 last night, and to 173 as of 9:16 am this morning, from to 159 views from the following 19 countries (and as many as 63 "other" countries, or views from people whose web browsers block recognition of the source country): 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.    

One of the most astonishing revelations for me during my limited recent research on the Jephthah allusion was how many correlations there were between many aspects of the Jephthah plot, and the character of Fortinbras. There is no literal sacrifice of a daughter, but hints of other kinds of sacrifice. Other scholarship on the Jephthah allusion in the play tends to focus on Polonius, the object of Hamlet's Jephthah remarks, or on unholy vows and the consequences to Ophelia. Some considers the hasty or unholy vows of other characters such as Hamlet or Laertes. But Shakespeare scholars have also noticed correlations, not only between Prince Hamlet and James VI and I of Scotland and England, but also between Fortinbras and James. So if Fortinbras points at least in part toward James, and also to Jephthah, was Shakespeare in a sense predicting that James was an ambitious Jephthah-type, the kind one could imagine sacrificing one of his children on the altar of his ambition? This see...

Thank you to readers of this blog this past week, which the blog's analytics say come to 159 views from the following 19 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.

For now , I have come to the end of my research and series of blog posts on Jephthah and Polonius. It has turned out to be very much like the poet Mary Oliver's "Instructions for living a life": Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. This is far better than the vague and limited advice one hears more often: "Write what you know"; better to go on a quest to find out even more, and to be astonished in the process. Since at least last October I have been thinking and researching more methodically than I had in the past about Hamlet's Jephthah allusion in reference to Polonius. In paying attention, I’ve often  been astonished to find that the Jephthah allusion in Hamlet is much richer than many footnotes and other sources sometimes suggest (in my admittedly limited research).  So here is an index to my Jephthah/Polonius posts since last October, with links to those posts, and with some brief comments about the things I found that most astonished me in eac...