Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Of all well-known Protestant religious Shakespeare critics of the 20th century, Roy W. Battenhouse is, to me, troubling. He demonstrates broad familiarity with many sources and attends to details. But due either to a Protestant or an authoritarian bias (or both), he is determined to find more selfishness and sin in Prince Hamlet than even in Claudius. Many of his Shakespeare essays are collected in Shakespearean Tragedy: Its Art and Its Christian Premises (1969). His chapter “Hamartia in Aristotle, Christian Doctrine, and Hamlet” (204-266) is helpful in a variety of ways. But he finds more sin than grace in each character, especially Hamlet, even where other scholars find traces of turning or redemption (250). [L: Shakespearean Tragedy: Its Art and Its Christian Premises (1969). Image via Amazon.com. Fair use. R: Shakespeare’s Christian Dimension (1994). Image via Google Books. Fair use. Both out of print, available used and in libraries.] He views Hamlet’s love of Opheli...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 221 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.

Clare Asquith’s 2005 book, Shadowplay , is interesting in spite of weaknesses that reviewers have noted. ( In the New York Review of Books, one can read James Shapiro's review of her more recent book, whcih mentions Shadowplay, either with a subscription or by registering for free.) While significant numbers of scholars still cling either to the idea of a Protestant Shakespeare, or of a Shakespeare whose religious allegiances don’t matter, Asquith is among those committed to the idea of of a secretly Catholic Shakespeare who used analogies or coded messages to carefully convey messages that were at odds with or critical of the religious and political status quo. More scholars (like E. A. J. Honigmann and Stephen Greenblatt, mentioned in the blog post here last week ) tend to agree with Asquith’s conclusion about Shakespeare’s religious sympathies, but many may question how Asquith arrives there. [Image via Public Affairs , pubisher of Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefts and C...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 145 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 286 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.

Arthur McGee’s book, The Elizabethan Hamlet, was first published in 1987, 14 years before Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory. The two books could not be more different in their conclusions, although they share the idea that scholarship should be based in part on solid historical research. Greenblatt strives to recover manifestations of Roman Catholic purgatory traditions and their meaningful role, more than merely a means for priests to coerce people to part with their money. McGee does not. [Images via Yale University Press. Fair use.] McGee assumes - that the ghost is a demon in disguise, the official Protestant view. - that the ghost wore roses on his shoes, perhaps with hairy satyr legs to signal to audiences that he’s from hell, not purgatory. - that early audiences were so thoroughly Protestant, they would not have tolerated a play that left open the possibility that the ghost might be from purgatory. - that as there are many examples of anti-Catholic plays of...

In 2003, in the journal, Connotations , E. A. J. Honigmann reviewed a 2001 book by Hildegard Hammerschmidt−Hummel, Die verborgene Existenz des William Shakespeare . She had claimed to offer conclusive evidence of Shakespeare’s Catholicism. Exodus 3:1-5 tells of Moses’ encounter with the burning bush. God tells him, “put thy shooes off thy feete: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (1599 Geneva). [1] [Moses and burning bush, detail from illumination on parchment, Bible de Souvigny, circa 1180-1200. Bibliothèque municipale de Moulins (Allier). Public domain, via Wikipedia . In its entry on the burning bush, Wikipedia also notes, "The burning bush has been a popular symbol among Reformed churches since it was first adopted by the Huguenots (French Calvinists) in 1583 during its 12th National Synod."] When faced with transcendent mystery, one should tread carefully, humbly. [Moses and the burning bush. Icon from 12th or 13th century. Saint Catherine...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 167 views from the following 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 we are to believe Roland Frye (1963) [1], what was later called “The Turn to Religion in Early Modern English Studies” [2] may actually have been more of a *return* to religion on renewed terms, after a turning away that was aided in part by Frye and a bit of Protestant gatekeeping. Frye writes, “In the train of [G. Wilson] Knight’s influence, we have had and continue to have a great wave of supposedly theological analyses of Shakespeare: again and again we are informed of the discovery of some new Christ-figure or Christ-allusion in the plays, or we are advised as to the eternal destiny in a future life of Shakespeare’s stage characters, or we are introduced to some doctrine which serves as a theological structure upon which an entire plays is built.” (5) At least at that time, Frye believed there was too much “supposedly theological analyses of Shakespeare,” marked by sloppy or ill-supported religious claims, and poorly thought out theology, often for not being Protestant enou...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 339 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.