Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Hamlet asks, “To be or not”? (3.1.64) [1] Moses asks God’s name, and God says, “I am who am” (Exodus 3:14), or, I am "to be" and "always to have been." I am a verb. In 1968, R. Buckminster Fuller wrote a poem in which God is a verb, and in the 13th Century, “Thomas Aquinas wrote that God is ‘ipsum esse subsistens,’ translated by Bishop Robert Barron as "the shear act of 'to be' itself"; Sufi poets and Taoist thinkers have similar concepts. [2] Some love songs (like this one below, "Something that we do") similarly challenge the idea that love is merely a feeling or noun one falls into or out of, and assert instead that love is a verb. In the song below, notice how nicely the structure of the lyrics unfold, elucidating the idea, with the first two lines of verse 3.b repeating the first two lines of v.1.a. V.1.a. I remember well the day we wed I can see that picture in my head I still believe the words we said Forever...

Shakespeare was a thief of plot elements and tropes, like other playwrights of his time. Given that the original tale on which Hamlet is based doesn’t include a poison cup from a step-parent, secretly intended for the prince, but taken instead by the queen, where might that have come from? What uses of such a trope might have inspired Shakespeare? [1] Shakespeare was familiar with Ovid’s Metamorphosis from Latin school and from Arthur Golding’s 1567 translation. This included tales of Medea in Book VII. These include a story about a poison cup that Medea intends for her stepson Theseus, but which is knocked from his hand at the last moment by his father, king Aegeus, who recognizes his son. This may have informed Shakespeare’s use of the poison cup theme in Hamlet. But Shakespeare switches the roles of the step-mother-poisoner and the father-savior so that it’s the stepfather Claudius who intends to poison his stepson, and the mother, Gertrude, who buys her son time by drinking...

Thanks to readers, 20-27 December, 2022 ~~~~~~~ Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 127 views from the following countries: [Thank you especially to my reader or readers from Cameroon!] 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 find the subscribe button, see the drop-down menu with three horizontal lines = in the upper left.

It is often noted that in its first scene, Shakespeare's Hamlet contains one of the only explicit references to Christmas: Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is that time. (1.1.173-179) [1] But the Christmas narrative is actually much longer than merely the story of Jesus' birth. It includes numerous other stories or episodes, each celebrated in gospel readings assigned to particular days in the church calendar. If we don't include all of Judaeo-Christian salvation history but merely the conception, birth, and childhood of Jesus, it begins with Mary being told by the Angel Gabriel that she has conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is called the Annunciation. Shakespeare's Hamlet alludes t...

[This is a re-posting of a post that would not post on LinkedIn, perhaps because of the word "Whore" in the original title - ?] Does it matter that Hamlet says to his mother, "when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you" (3.4.192-3)? Some Shakespeare critics think that Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is damned, and that she stands for the Book of Revelation’s "Whore of Babylon," which to Catholics represented worldliness (Augustine’s City of Man, as compared to the City of God), and to Protestants a way of viewing a corrupt Catholic Church. [1] This may be an example of critics "botch[ing] the words up fit to their own thoughts" as Horatio says (4.5.12).[2] Is Gertrude really the "whore of Babylon," and doomed to hell? I don't think so: - She keeps Hamlet's secret from Claudius, and shows compassion to Ophelia, though reluctant at first, at Horatio's urging (yes, Horatio urges her, more for polit...

Thanks to readers, 13-20 December, 2022 ~~~~~~~ Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 114 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. To find the subscribe button, see the drop-down menu with three horizontal lines = in the upper left.

Two weeks ago,[1] I began exploring the curious and counter-intuitive thing that Hamlet says to his mother: "when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you." (3.4.192-3) [2] In part 3, I wish to consider: 1. Does Gertrude desire to be blessed? 2. If so, how is this desire implied? 3. Does Hamlet beg a blessing of her? Or does someone close to Hamlet, a surrogate or an extension of him, beg of her a blessing? 4. Does she offer any favors or blessings to certain characters without Hamlet having to beg? Gertrude does desire to be blessed, and Hamlet or his surrogates do ask blessings of her: Gertrude's desire to be blessed is shown or implied in her feelings of guilt. We notice this when she has to face Ophelia, who seems to have gone mad, like Hamlet. When asked to speak to Ophelia, she is almost too ashamed to do so (4.5.18-25). She may feel guilty for having married Claudius: Hamlet had told her that Claudius murdered his brother, the king, Gertrud...

Thanks to readers, 6-13 December, 2022 ~~~~~~~ Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 89 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. To find the subscribe button, see the drop-down menu with three horizontal lines = in the upper left.

Last week I began considering Hamlet’s line to Gertrude, “when you are desirous to be blest, I’ll blessing beg of you” (3.4.192-3). [1] The idea of asking a blessing of a person in need led to Hebrew stories of Elijah and Elisha and the widow(s): Elijah asks a favor before doing the needed miraculous work. This week, I will consider a third prophet-and-widow story of Elisha (successor to Elijah, in 2 Kings 4:1-7) [2] in which a woman’s husband died and left the family in debt. The widow’s sons are to go into debt slavery to repay the husband’s debts. Elisha asks what she has (a jar of oil), and tells her to collect vessels from neighbors. She collects as many as they will give her. Elisha tells her to fill these with oil from her jar, which she does. The oil does not run out until all of the vessels she collected from her neighbors are full. As further instructed from Elisha, she sells these, and in this way, she pays off her dead husband’s debts, and her sons are thereby save...

Thanks to readers, 29 November-6 December, 2022 ~~~~~~~ Thank you to readers of this blog for this past week, which the blog's analytics say came to 181 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. To find the subscribe button, see the drop-down menu with three horizontal lines = in the upper left.