Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

The 11th World Shakespeare Congress takes place this year from the 18th through the 24th of July. (Many thanks to a member of the Facebook “Shakespeare and Early Modern friends” forum for alerting readers to this.) On Monday, July 19, this will include a panel/Q&A on Hamlet, from 11:10-11:40 Singapore Time. (Times on the program are all listed in Singapore Time, UTC+08). There will be a Pre-Congress opening on July 1 which will feature 14 recorded panels, 10 online performances, and 8 watch parties “with directors sharing and discussing clips.” Register at http://www.wsc2021.org/registration.html Program image (below raspberry pics) from http://wsc2021.org/wsc.pdf My son is visiting from out of town, so we are doing some special activities with our son and daughter this week. Also, it is raspberry-picking season in our backyard (we have 4 varieties of reds, one of blacks, and one of purples, all ripening and ready to pick each day, yielding many quarts for fresh eati

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 155 views from the following 19+ countries: The blog's analytics are limited in how many countries they can list, and "other" may include views from other nations, or readers whose browsers block the tracking of one's nation of origin. 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.

VISUAL ART INFLUENCING THE LAZARUS THEME IN HAMLET Scholars often think of how texts influence other texts. But what about other arts influencing texts? Some scholars consider this, but it seems that they are not in the majority. By the time Shakespeare wrote or revised his version of Hamlet for the stage, the Luke 16 tale of the rich man and Lazarus already had centuries of history of being interpreted in many forms, perhaps not only for a folksong-ballad whose origins may be older than Shakespeare ,* but also by sculptors and artists. * ( Another reference regarding an Elizabethan version of the ballad, noted by Bronson : "Bronson (Vol. II, p. 17) writes: "CHILD NO. 56: As Child's note informs us, something on the order of this ballad was in print in early Elizabethan times, and seventy-five years later was still matter for common allusion as 'the merry ballad of Diverus and Lazarus.' No early text survived, how ever, and Child had to resort to nineteenth-c

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 196 views from the following 19+ countries: The blog's analytics are limited in how many countries they can list, and "other" may include views from other nations, or readers whose browsers block the tracking of one's nation of origin. 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 Hamlet 4.3, Claudius is disturbed that Hamlet, for some inexplicable reason, has hidden the body of Polonius. Perhaps a main reason is to allow for some fascinating dialogue between Hamlet and Claudius about bodies, supper, worms, kings, and beggars, and to hint at more than this, regarding the Diet of Worms, and perhaps about Eucharist. The dialogue sounds a bit like a "Who's on First?" comic skit by Abbott and Costello: [Image from 1950s recording via Amazon.com , cropped. Fair use.] King: Now Hamlet, where's Polonius? Hamlet: t supper. King: At supper? Where? Hamlet: Not where he eats, but where 'a is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service: two dishes but to one table. That's the end. King: Alas, alas! Hamlet: A man may fish with t

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 103 views from the following 19+ countries: The blog's analytics are limited in how many countries they can list, and "other" may include views from other nations, or readers whose browsers block the tracking of one's nation of origin. 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 Hamlet 2.2, we hear echoes of the rich man-beggar theme from the Luke 16 Lazarus tale when Hamlet says, Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. [Lazarus and the Rich Man, painting by Barent Fabritius, 1661. Rijks Museum via Google Arts and Culture . Public Domain. The rich man on his death bed to the far left, and to the near right, the beggar Lazarus. Far right, above, Lazarus in heaven; below, rich man in hell.] What a strange thing to say. It must be either meaningless, or perhaps it is so meaningful that a great deal of meaning is packed into a small number of words. We should remember that in 1.5, Hamlet heard the ghost say that the poison turned his skin “lazar-like,” or in other words like the skin of Lazarus, who was believed to have been a leper. Having heard the ghost claim that the circumstances of his death and the fact of his being in purgatory is somehow tied up with the gospel tale of the beggar La