Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Consider two moments in Hamlet when it is made explicit: Maybe God is not paying attention to human suffering? THE FIRST is when the First Player tells the revenge tale of Priam’s death at the hands of Pyrrhus (2.2). Hecuba, Priam’s wife, watches. [See note #1 below: "Who in Shakespeare's England was like Hecuba, witness to a brutal killing of a loved one?"] The First Player says that the “synod” of the gods (like bishops and cardinals?) should take away the powers of the goddess Fortune (like an excommunicated Elizabeth I?), breaking her wheel, and “bowling” her “down the hill of heaven, / As low as to the fiends!” First Player: But if the gods themselves did see her [Hecuba] then, [/...] The instant burst of clamour that she made (Unless things mortal move them not at all) Would have made milch [milk] the burning eyes of heaven.... [In a fresco (circa 1532-1534) by Giulio Romano (1499–1546), the image above depicts the gods overcoming the titans. Public ...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 211 views from the following 19+ countries: 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.

It is the week of Thanksgiving in the United States. I am thankful, first, for a long list of people who read, like, comment on, and share my posts, and/or who also visit the blog to read more. Thank you, to all of you, for your kindness and generosity. Second, I am grateful for a long list of people who create and share content in the form of podcasts and blogs on a regular basis (monthly, weekly, daily, occasionally), some of it related specifically to Shakespeare, but some related more generally to literature, art, history, culture, philosophy, religion. It has been said that academic publishing can discourage scholars from thinking out loud and sharing their ideas, in part because they may fear having their ideas stolen by other academics before they can publish, and in part because academic publishing is often written in ways that are more dense and self-referential to please peer-review juries, and therefore less accessible. It is an inspiration to see others share their ideas...

 Oxford University Press has an interesting blog post by Matthew Dimmock, from December 27 of 2015, titled "Shakespeare and Islam." It explores how Shakespeare, without the influence of Islam, would be very different from the Shakespeare we know. It's a good read; you can find it by clicking the link above, or here: https://blog.oup.com/2015/12/shakespeare-and-islam/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for reading! 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.

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 352 views from the following 19+ countries: 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.

Because Shakespeare's Love’s Labor’s Lost is about taking and breaking oaths, some might claim that it points to Elizabethan loyalty oaths. But Early Modern oaths had larger contexts. Consider the title of a 2011 book: By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe , by Anne Jacobson Schutte (1940-2018). Schutte’s book, in part, points to the work of Arcangela Tarabotti (1604 – 1652), a Venetian nun, who wrote of coerced monachization and is considered an Early Modern protofeminist. [LEFT: Cover, By Force and Fear: Taking and Breaking Monastic Vows in Early Modern Europe , by Anne Jacobson Schutte. MIDDLE: Cover, Letters Familiar and Formal, by Arcangela Tarabotti , edited and translated by Meredith K. Ray and Lynn Lara Westwater. RIGHT: Cover, Arcangela Tarabotti: A Literary Nun in Baroque Venic e , edited by Elissa B. Weaver.] While plays might (in Hamlet’s words) hold the “mirror up to nature,” the mirrors often show difference instead o...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 362 views from the following 19+ countries: 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.

Love’s Labor’s Lost was Christmas entertainment (1593) for Elizabeth I and her court. It's about a bunch of guys who try to be celibate, and who keep a princess and her attending ladies locked out of their castle. The men fall in love with the women, but the women get the last word. Sort of like popes (some who failed at the celibacy thing) who excommunicated Elizabeth, keeping her out of the “castle” of the Roman Church, but never getting what they desired of her. Many scholars note that the character of King Ferdinand is based on King Henry III of Navarre, who had been raised Protestant, and who Elizabeth I had supported in French wars of religion. He converted to Catholicism (“Paris is worth a mass”) to consolidate his power as the next king of France, disappointing Elizabeth. Of the nine popes during Elizabeth’s reign,* one of them, Gregory XIII (1572-85), had a child out of wedlock (like Armado and Jaquenetta in the play) before his ordination. In their oaths and th...

This past week, this blog surpassed 20k views from 84+ countries in less than three years, a significant milestone! Thank you to all of my readers! I started posting here to this blog in January of 2019, recording insights about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Shakespeare's Hamlet . Views came in at first as a trickle, but that has steadily increased. Before that, beginning in late June of 2017, I posted very brief insights to LinkedIn, but found the format too short and too hard to search or archive, so I copied those early posts here (where most have languished unviewed but available as an archive). My views during that time on LinkedIn are not part of the 20k total, but I appreciate all of those who followed me to the blog from LinkedIn. Thanks also to readers of the blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 235 views from the following 19+ countries. I appreciate your interest. As always, I am grateful and humbled. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...

In Shakespeare's play, Love's Labor's Lost, King Ferdinand of Navarre and his friends confess in the end that they made mistakes, or "sins" in the words of Lord Berowne. They had taken an oath to avoid the company of women, so when the Princess of France and her ladies in waiting show up, one of their sins is a failure of hospitality, forcing the women to camp out in tents outside the castle instead of welcoming them in. Another of their sins is that they quickly break their oath by falling in love with the women. They also make fools of themselves by dressing up as "Muscovites, or Russians" to profess their love, but the women exchange some articles of clothing to fool them (the fools!). The women confess their deception but blame the men, and the men confess their broken oaths and foolish behavior, but blame the women's beauty and heavenly eyes. The men have more to confess.... If it seems a bit like the Catholic sacrament of confession, it sh...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 307 views from the following 19+ countries: 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.