Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 231 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.

I learned in early December that my poem, "Shakespearean Sonnet 101," had been short-listed for the 2021 Musketman Shakespeare Poetry Award (MUSPA), and learned on Christmas that it had received first prize. Poem below. The poem had to be 8 to 24 lines and mention #Shakespeare. Mine was a Shakespearean sonnet about Shakespearean sonnets (and how apparent limitations can enable freedom…). Read it below or at the MUSPA link here: https://musketmanshakespeare.blog/category/muspa-winners/ The face behind Musketman Shakespeare is Raphael Sóne, "a Cameroonian Canadian translator, Shakespeare lover and medievalist Africanist" as well as a novelist and Jesuit. He posts a "He said/She said" Shakespeare quiz each week, with the answer to the previous week's quiz at the bottom of the new quiz: https://musketmanshakespeare.blog/category/single-line-quizzes/ BTW, some of my favorite modern sonnets (two of them rhymed and Shakespearean) include thes...

In "The Case for Catholic Shakespeare," Kenneth Colston argued in 2016 that Shakespeare was Catholic. Colston's position is similar to that of Joseph Pearce (cited in Colston's biographical bibliography). Colston mentions that the ghost in Hamlet seems to come from purgatory, but that proves little: in fact the ghost seems superficial in his embrace of Catholic and Christian ideas, seeking revenge through his son. The ghost sounds a bit like Lorenzo de' Medici, seeking revenge for the death of his brother. Maybe some things are better left to die with the old king? [Lorenzo de Medici, image public domain via Wikipedia .] There is a tendency to pigeonhole Shakespeare as either one thing or another in his religious allegiances. Perhaps people belonging to a group wish to claim him as part of their group: Atheist, Catholic, Protestant, Puritan, or a professing member of the Church of Theater Enthusiasts? - Some have proposed that as a dramatist with dive...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 220 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.

In a recent LinkedIn post , Pino Blasone spoke of a Pompeian fresco depicting actors, and also mentioned some other details relating to theater. Adrienne Darvay Nagy , in a comment on Pino's post, mentioned a line from Hamlet in which Polonius seems to be reading from a handbill advertising the arrival of the players: "...Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men." (HAMLET - Act II. Scene 2.) The thread of thinking at this moment in the play goes from Seneca to Plautus, to "For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men." Then Hamlet mentions Jephthah - this seems like a tangent, and Polonius seems confused at the leap of thought. But in fact, perhaps Hamlet intuits that Jephthah *should* follow, because it has something to do with "the law of writ and the liberty" and the claim of exclusivity that Polonius has read from the handbill? The tale ...

Does Shakespeare’s Hamlet depict religiously shaped or motivated regicide? [1] Given its many religious and biblical allusions and plot echoes, I would argue that it does. [David Tennant (L) as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart (R) as Claudius in the 2009 film, Hamlet , dir. Gregory Doran. Source: IMDB . Fair use.] Dr. Arthur F. Marotti gave a talk at Fordham in late October of 2013 in which he noted, “In the last years of Elizabeth’s rule people believed something was rotten in England—though perhaps not rotten enough to justify regicide. ” [2] Marotti has written numerous books [3] about Early Modern literature and religion, including a 2004 essay with Ken Jackson on “The Turn to Religion” in Shakespeare studies. In an abstract for a more recent (2017) essay [4], Marotti notes that “Shakespeare's plays may not stage religiously motivated regicides…,” with “may” being the operative word here: Scholars may disagree on this point. But what about Hamlet? Recognizing that H...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 301 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.

To prepare Ophelia as bait for eavesdropping, Polonius in 3.1 tells her, Read on this book, [...] [....] We are oft to blame in this, [...] that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The Devil himself. (49-55) So just look as if you’re devoted to reading, not bait for spying. But why “devotion's visage / And pious action”? “The Devil”? I’ve posted before about how Katharine Goodland (2006) [1] and Ruben Espinoza (2011) recognized that Polonius made Ophelia resemble a common image from old prayer books: the Virgin Mary is portrayed as reading a book of psalms when the angel Gabriel tells her that she is pregnant with Jesus (Lk 1: 26-38). [Robert Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) in the MET museum (ca. 1427–32). Public domain. Image via Google Arts and Culture .] In Catholic prayer, the "Hail Mary" says, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners....” On seeing Ophelia, Hamlet says (aside), “in thy orisons...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 296 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.

Here's a very nice article about Anthony Sher, actor and Shakespearean, who died recently at the age of 72. // This piece reveals how important it is for anyone - actors, scholars, many others - not to be satisfied with the great insights or great performances of past generations, because they can be roadblocks to new progress and new insights. Poet, translator and men's movement figure Robert Bly, who also passed recently, also emphasized how it's the duty of each generation to sift through the achievements of past poets and literary figures, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to transcend the achievements of the past. Anthony Sher's life and career seems to have demonstrated this. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/dec/03/antony-sher-a-consummate-shakespearean-and-a-man-of-staggering-versatility