Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Many people who study Hamlet —if they dig into the history and sources at all—may only learn of the 12th century Amleth tale recorded in the 13th century by Saxo Grammaticus, and its later incarnation in Belleforest. They may also note the fact that James VI and I of Scotland and England married Anne of Denmark in 1589. For many readers of the play, that is sufficient historical background. An April 2020 story posted at Narratively by Anja Klemp Vilgaard tells of a Danish King Erik VII who turned to piracy to take back his throne, which sounds a bit like Hamlet returning from his sea voyage with the help of pirates. https://narratively.com/the-king-who-became-a-pirate/ Eric VII of Denmark (c.1381–1459) was also Eric III of Norway, and Eric XIII of Sweden, with a rule in all three countries that overlapped, and was known as Eric of Pomerania, as noted in various sources . Erik VII never got his thrones back. He had married Philippa of England, daughter of Henry IV ("Boll...

If scholarly bias is in some ways analogous to war between opposing camps, those who win certain battles for a time may not win the war in the long run. Or at least it sometimes seems that way. History is often written by victors whose crimes are erased along with the suffering of the vanquished. How does this apply to Shakespeare and Francis of Assisi? [Images, L-R: Secret Shakespeare by Richard Wilson (2004) , and The Saint and the Sultan by Paul Moses (2009). ] * Shakespeare incorporated not only Protestant, Puritan, and Catholic themes in his plays, but often specifically Franciscan themes. In both literal and figurative violence of religious and cultural wars in medieval and Early Modern Europe, Franciscans were twice the losers, first to Rome, then to England. Francis of Assisi (c.1181-1226) was a reformer in his own right who recognized ways that money, power, and violence had corrupted the Catholic church. He expressed solidarity with and love for the sick and poor. ...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 297 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.

Given the fact that Shakespeare wrote during the English Reformation, a time of great conflict over religion, and given the many biblical and religious references scholars find in his plays, what factors may have come together to create the strong secular bias in criticism—especially in the early centuries after Shakespeare's death, but also persisting today? What factors may have led critics to claim that Shakespeare was more interested in universal truths than in the important political and religious issues of his time, for which some risked execution? [ Murder Most Foul: Hamlet Through the Ages , by David Bevington. Oxford University Press, 2011 . Fair use.] 1. Laws prohibited Shakespeare from writing too explicitly about certain religious and political topics. His silence on some of these topics resulted in ambiguities that may have been misread as disinterest, favoring universal and secular truths. 2. If Shakespeare had religious and political opinions at odds with the...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 176 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.

Our biases and assumptions will influence what we notice, seek, or neglect. I have been thinking about bias in recent weeks, in part because I came across two articles from late 2018 about a visit by Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) to Notre Dame. He gave a keynote lecture titled “‘Relieved by Prayer’: Power, Shame and Redemption in Shakespeare’s Drama.” The lecture is available on Youtube and was also scheduled to be published in Religion and Literature Journal . The lecture itself begins about 6 minutes in, and goes until about the 50 minute mark, although the introductions take a while and some discussion follows. What caught my attention was that the news items described the keynote as part of a series called “The Catholic Artistic Heritage,” as if assuming Shakespeare was Catholic. Yet the two news items ( here and here ) did not quote Rowan Williams as mentioning anything about Shakespeare’s institutional-religious allegiancesas leaning Catholic, but the fu...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 161 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.

Cassidy Cash has an episode, " Is Hamlet a Christmas Play? " This older podcast/episode from 2019 is still available on YouTube: In it, she discusses Steve Roth's essay, " Hamlet as The Christmas Prince: Certain Speculations on Hamlet, the Calendar, Revels, and Misrule. " It's an interesting topic and podcast episode. Roth's essay appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies 7.3 (January, 2002): 5.1-89 Roth is also the author of the book, Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country . In it, he argues that Hamlet is about 16 years old. See also Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness , and his article in Shakespeare Magazine UK from August of 2018, issue 14: "How old is Hamlet?" ). One need not agree with them on this point, especially if one is Ian McKellen.... While the play may have been written for, opened, and played during Advent and the 12 Days of Christmas, the play contains references to scripture readings that wer...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 217 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.