Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

When a song or orchestral piece changes keys, we not only hear it with our ears, but also feel it in our bodies, our bones, vibrating at a new frequency. Shakespeare accomplishes something similar, not only in Hamlet , but also in The Merchant of Venice when he sets up one character as a Christ-figure, then changes key, shifting to a new (improved) Christ figure. [Image: “Supper at Emmaus” (French: Le Repas d'Emmaüs), 17th century, by Matthias Stom (1615–1649). Collection: Museum of Grenoble. Public domain, via Wikimedia .] In Luke 24:13-35, after Jesus dies and rises, he later appears as a stranger on the road to Emmaus. I’ve noted previously how in Hamlet , biblical allusions suggest the ghost is a flawed Christ-figure/victim, with divine attributes.[1] But in the graveyard scene (5.1), instead of the ghost appearing as the stranger[2], our expectation is redirected: Yorick’s skull and the gravedigger-clown fill the role of the stranger in whom divine "infinite jest...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 264 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 Shakespeare’s time, people discussed and debated the Eucharistic controversy, and some think there are references to it (and to Emmaus[1]) in Hamlet. When Jesus at the Last supper told the twelve to eat and drink the bread and wine as his body and blood, what did he really mean? The way we choose to understand Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus might be viewed as resembling the Eucharistic controversy. Also, in some ways, debates about what the gospel writers meant by things like virgin births, Eucharist, resurrections, and resurrection appearances (as on the road to Emmaus) have been described as debates about semiotics.[2] [Image: Titian (1490–1576), "Pilgrims at Emmaus" (Français: LE SOUPER A EMMAUS), circa 1535. Louvre Museum. Public domain, via Wikipedia .] What had the disciples originally experienced? What were Jesus and the gospel writers who claimed to quote him trying to say? Did the gospel writers resort to figurative, symbolic...

Bread and wine. Wine and bread. To-MAY-to, To-MAH-to. [1] Does it matter what we emphasize or begin with? In previous posts, I’ve explored echoes in Hamlet 5.1 of the Emmaus tale from Luke 24:13-35. [2] [Image: Altar of the Sienese cathedral, reverse, main register with scenes from Christ's passion, scenes: Christ appears to two pilgrim apostles in Emmaus. 1308-1311. Artist: Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255–1319). Collection: Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena. Public domain, via Wikipedia .] Between Luke’s version of the tale and Shakespeare’s in Hamlet, we noted a difference of bread and wine: In the original story from Luke, the stranger on the road to Emmaus is not recognized as an appearance of the risen Jesus until they break bread with him. But in Hamlet 5.1 we noted that broken bread is replaced with spilled wine: Hamlet had been holding an unrecognized skull, and asked the gravedigger whose it was; the gravedigger replied, saying it belonged to Yorick, and...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 181 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 my previous two Emmaus-related posts, I considered the Emmaus echo in the graveyard scene, Hamlet 5.1, and what in Shakespeare’s time may have been blasphemous [1] or heretical [2] implications. [Image: Detail/crop of "The Supper at Emmaus," 1648, by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669). Collection: Louvre Museum. Public domain, via Wikipedia .] Hamlet 5.1 differs from the Emmaus tale in its three strangers: 1. The gravedigger is a stranger to Hamlet. 2. The strange skull is at first unrecognized by Hamlet. 3. Hamlet is unrecognized by the gravedigger as his prince. If we read the Emmaus tale as one of a risen Jesus wielding supernatural power, there is only one Christ figure in Luke 24:13-35, identical with the stranger and the crucified Jesus. But if we read it not as a gloriously resuscitated and supernaturally powerful Jesus, but an actual stranger, then a gap opens up between the crucified Jesus, and the stranger who comforts and instructs the disc...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 266 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.

Imagine that you have been teaching Hamlet this week, and a student notices not only last night’s lunar eclipse, but also the lunar eclipse mentioned in Hamlet 1.1: …the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. (1.1.130-132) The "moist star" that rules the tides - "Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands" - is the moon. [1] [Images, L-C-R: Left: An image of a lunar "blood moon" eclipse. Source: NASA . Cropped. Fair use. Center: Folding almanac, 15th century. Diagrams of solar and lunar eclipses: British Library Harley MS 937, f. 8r . Cropped. Fair use. Right: God creating the Sun and the Moon: British Library Additional MS 18856, f. 5v . Cropped. Fair use.] Perhaps after some digging, your students also find that Shakespeare scholars like Naseeb Shaheem identified a possible connection (for comparison or contrast) to events including a solar eclipse (real, or fictional) at noon...

My last post explained potentially blasphemous implications of offering a fool/clown (Yorick or the gravedigger) as the Emmaus figure in Hamlet 5.1. I will explore other heretical or atheistic implications of the graveyard scene’s Emmaus echo in this post. [Image: Painting by Caravaggio(1571–1610) "Supper at Emmaus," 1606. Collection: Pinacoteca di Brera. Pubic domain, via Wikipedia .] If you missed that previous post, you can find it here : https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/05/blasphemy-and-heresy-in-hamlets-emmaus.html In Shakespeare’s time (as now), the tale of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus after his crucifixion [1] was commonly read as a tale of miraculous power. This Jesus, supernaturally and gloriously resuscitated, was one with God, omnipotent and capable of anything: to appear in a locked room, or to prevent disciples from recognizing him. This may have distorted the original meaning of the tale: The disciples may have me...

I’ve posted recently about biblical allusions in Hamlet related to Holy Week and the season of Easter ( here and here and here ). Another important Easter allusion in Hamlet 5.1 involves Jesus appearing to disciples on the road to Emmaus. [Image:Caravaggio, "Supper at Emmaus," 1601, in the National Gallery, London. Public domain, via Wikipedia .] I have blogged about this before , but it is worth another look: The allusion is hidden in plain sight in plot elements, but never explicitly named. Four years ago I wrote this: ~ ~ ~ In the Luke 24:13-35 Emmaus story: (1) mentor and fearless leader Jesus is crucified; (2) two troubled disciples head to Emmaus (D to E); (3) a stranger joins them, cheers them, explains scripture; (4) they recognize the stranger as Jesus in breaking of bread. In Hamlet, (1) mentor and fearless leader King Hamlet is murdered; (2) two troubled Danes (Hamlet and Horatio) head to Elsinore (D to E); (3) a stranger/gravedigger chee...

Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 196 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.

In my previous post , I connected the Jonah echo in Hamlet’s sea voyage to Elizabeth I having christened a navy ship “Elizabeth Jonas,” saying how God had saved her from her enemies - although the only enemy of Jonah is Jonah himself, fleeing his divine calling. The records have more echoes of Hamlet : "The 3 day of July, 1559, the Queen's Grace took her barge at Greenwich unto Woolwich to her new ship, and there it was named Elizabeth Jonas, and after her Grace had a goodly banquet, and there was great shooting of guns, and casting of fire about made for pleasure ' (Diary of Henry Machin, Camden Society, p. 203). The ship ' was so named by her Grace in remembrance of her own deliverance from the fury of her enemies, from which in one respect she was no less miraculously preserved than was the prophet Jonas from the belly of the whale' (Egerton MS. 2642, f. 150). This refers, of course, to the Jonas." [1] In Hamlet, there are also references to banqueting...

In Hamlet, Shakespeare adapts the Saxo Grammaticus source tale by shortening the hero’s sea-voyage to England, having Hamlet change mode of transportation mid-sea to a pirate ship, like Jonah changing from a ship to the belly of a fish. I have written about this before , and about the Christian typology that viewed Jonah as prefiguring Jesus in the tomb . [Image: Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), "Jonah and the Whale," 1621. Museum Kunstpalast. Public domain. Via Wikipedia .] Yet in Hamlet , Jonah goes unnamed. Shakespeare is more explicit about other allusions in the play, as to Jephthah and other biblical figures. Yet he is strangely silent/implicit on others such as Jonah. Why leave Jonah unnamed? Is this merely an aesthetic/dramatic choice, or more? (More on that later.) Shakespeare also combines these Jonah elements of the sea-voyage with other elements, such as Hamlet’s discovery of Claudius’ letter ordering England to execute him, and his changing of the lette...