Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Mark Twain once wrote that "History never repeats," although the saying, "History never repeats but often rhymes" is often wrongly attributed to him . Some may feel this general idea applies regarding what is happening in Ukraine, with NATO expansion since the 1990s toward Russia's borders (in violation of a US promise), and Russia's attack on Ukraine. I am not a supporter of Putin or the Russian invasion, nor am I a supporter of US expansion of NATO or US "regime change" aggression. Some in the US have long expressed concern about Neo-Nazi elements in western Ukraine. Others have also noted James Baker's promise to a Soviet negotiator that NATO would not expand even an inch eastward. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589?utm_source=pocket-newtab] History is full of promises violated when lines were crossed, such as Julius Caesar, whose Roman armies had been used for expansion of empire but not to oppress Rome, crossing the Ru...

When he was a research professor at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Roland M. Frye wrote Shakespeare and Christian Doctrine (1963),* which criticizes Shakespeare scholars like G. Wilson Knight (the subject of last week’s post) and others who, according to Frye, offered too-simplistic or unsupported religious readings of the plays (4-6, 19-42). [* All quotes here are from my 1963 edition, published by Oxford University Press. Frye's Shakespeare and Christian Doctrine is still published through the Princeton Legacy Library .] Frye was a Protestant theologian and Presbyterian elder. Protestant writers believed in the utter depravity of humanity due to original sin since the fall of Adam and Eve; this could be overcome by “faith alone,” not by works. Frye stresses Protestant views throughout. Initially Frye notes that people in Shakespeare’s time who conformed outwardly may have privately held “heterodox, heretical, or… anti-Christian opinions” (4). Later he contradicts this...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 199 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.

If all one knew of G. Wilson Knight (1897-1985) was that Roland Frye (1921–2005), a Folger Shakespeare Library scholar, once accused him and others of too-easy “theologizing” of too many Shakespeare plays, one might think Knight was a Christian evangelical, and Frye a champion of secular humanism. Both assumptions would be wrong. Knight was a disaffected English Protestant who admired Nietzsche and noticed archetypal trends in literature, including Christ-figures. But as such, he was painting with a broad brush, not as exacting as Protestant scholars like Frye would have preferred. In 1948, Knight wrote of Nietzsche’s idea of the “Avenging Mind”: “Hamlet… is an archetypal play, where Shakespeare watched his hero trying, sometimes successfully, more often [not], to transmute this dark thing through his own dramatic personality” (184).* [* G. Wilson Knight, Shakespeare and Religion (1967)] On Protestantism: “...perhaps our traditional Christianity leaves today a want [...] t...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 207 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.

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 234 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.

Simon A. Blackmore, a Jesuit priest, wrote a lengthy work called The Riddles of Hamlet and the Newest Answers (1917). He demonstrates his own unique bias, including the assumption that Shakespeare was Catholic. The book can be read for free online ; its title is reminiscent of the Baltimore Catechism (1885), which imagined in advance all the questions that the faithful might ask which the church believed most important, and then offered definitive answers. This is a far cry from more recent scholars who observe that the play raises more questions than it answers. While the book contains many helpful insights, it is also deeply problematic. Examples: 1. Blackmore (like other Catholic scholars) is very happy that the play seems to offer a ghost from purgatory (17, 142 n., 152-4, 262, 387), mostly neglecting that the ghost may be a devil in disguise (not an impossibility for Catholics, but something he’d rather avoid) 2. Blackmore resists the idea that Hamlet as a student at Wit...

McSweeney's ("Daily humor almost every day since 1998") recently published "An Oral History of the Making of Hamlet" by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a fun piece in a number of ways. Shakespeare scholars have challenged the idea of the solitary author, noting that Shakespeare and other playwrights of the time frequently collaborated with other writers, and also that writing for a particular playing company is in itself a collaboration. This piece taps into those ideas. The piece begins by mentioning the Essex rebellion, and because McSweeney's is based in San Francisco, California, this is also a nod to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the US. It also mentioned "the plague," with parallels to the current pandemic. It feels in general like a group of Hollywood film or TV actors and executives, discussing ideas for what they hope will be the next hit. I am lucky to have readers from as many as 19+ countries each week, for a total of about 84 coun...

I have written recently about various forms of bias in Shakespeare scholarship, including that of those who prefer a secular or seemingly post-Christian Shakespeare. But it would be good to recognize the biblical seeds of a secular (non-religious) outlook. One could argue that the Jesus of the gospels had something resembling what would later be called a secular humanist streak, and disliked religiosity for its own sake. A few examples: The first appears in each of the synoptic gospels [1]. Consider Matthew 22:35-40, read in Shakespeare’s lifetime at morning prayer every 24th of January and May, and every 21st of September, and on the 18th Sunday after Trinity (which varies, but which fell on 3 October, 2021): Jesus is asked by a Pharisee what is the greatest law. He replies with *two*: First, to love god with all one’s heart, soul, and mind. Then he says the second is “like unto” the first: To love one’s neighbor as one’s self. It’s curious and important that Jesus claims ...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 194 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.