Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

“CLAUDIUS” WAS NOT A NEUTRAL NAME in Shakespeare’s England, nor was the fact that Claudius I of Rome had invaded England with elephants in 43 AD [1]. By the time Shakespeare’s first and second quartos of Hamlet were published (1603-4), two Roman Catholic popes had excommunicated Elizabeth (Pius V, 1570; Sixtus V, 1588) and openly encouraged her assassination. Rome also supported three Spanish Armada’s attempts to invade England during her reign (1588-1597). All of this colored England’s views of Roman history and of native resistance, such as that of Boudica [2], sometimes called “Queen of the Iceni” tribe, who led a rebellion against Roman occupiers slightly less than two decades after the invasion of Claudius. When her husband, King Prasutagus died, Boudica was flogged and her daughters were raped. Killing as many as 80,000, Boudica’s revolt destroyed a settlement of Roman military veterans at Camulodunum (now Colchester), where a large and expensive temple to Claudius I was locate...

HAMLET OBSERVING CLAUDIUS AT PRAYER IN 3.3 ACTS LIKE A VENGEFUL JONAH, according to Dennis Taylor’s recent book [1]: After Jonah delivers prophecy to Nineveh and they repent [2], Jonah is ungrateful for the gourd plant that God makes spring up to give him shade, and disappointed: He’d hoped to witness Nineveh’s destruction [3]. Hamlet is similarly disappointed to find Claudius at prayer and perhaps repenting (or trying to [4]). Jonah lacks mercy and wants to be an instrument of God's vengeance; before his sea-voyage, a "distracted" Hamlet is perhaps made mad by the desire for revenge, killing Polonius mistakenly [5], declaring that all his thoughts should be bloody or "nothing worth" [6], similarly dedicated (for a time) to being an instrument of vengeance. But in Hamlet “the time is out of joint” [7]: - Jonah first embarks on his sea-voyage and then changes mode of transport mid-sea for his ride in a fish’s belly; only later, when Nineveh repents, does he sul...

Some might think I missed a comma and that this post is about three people: Hamlet, his uncle Claudius, and Ptolemy, the astronomer. But in fact, the astronomer was a Roman citizen with “Claudius” as part of his name. What does this have to do with Shakespeare’s Danish tragedy? Ptolemy (circa 100 – 170 AD) was on the wrong side of science from an Elizabethan point of view. He thought that the earth was at the center, and that the sun and other heavenly objects went around the earth. About 350 years before Ptolemy, Aristarchus of Samos (310 – 230 BC) had said that the sun was at the center, but that idea didn’t catch on until the likes of Copernicus (1473 – 1543) and others. Certain passages in the Bible claimed that the sun moved, so the church was slow to endorse the Copernican paradigm. When Polonius reads Hamlet’s love letter to Ophelia, it includes the lines, Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. (2.2.124-12...

HAMLET, CHAUCER'S APPIUS CLAUDIUS, AND THE CORRUPT JUDGE OF LUKE 18 (PART 6) In a previous post [1], I explored how Chaucer’s story, “The Physician’s Tale” may have been a key factor among many literary and historical reasons for Shakespeare renaming Hamlet’s uncle Feng as “Claudius” [2]. Chaucer’s tale has two villains named Claudius (one the servant of the other), and a female object of exploitation who escapes dishonor by means like suicide (or father- required sacrifice, similar to Iphigenia, or the Jephthah theme in Hamlet [3]). Shakespeare's Hamlet also has King Claudius with a servant, Claudio, mentioned in 4.7, having received Hamlet's messages, and handing them off to a messenger. (This introduction of a second occurrence of a form of the name Claudius/Claudio may be a nod to the Chaucer tale). The Chaucer story suggests a gospel connection. In “The Physician’s Tale,” the main villain, Appius Claudius, is no average villain: He is a corrupt judge. Why does thi...

“...there's not a hair on [his] head but 'tis a Valentine.” Two Gentlemen of Verona (3.1.195-195) This line is spoken about Valentine, one of the two main characters in the play. Two Gentlemen of Verona is an early Shakespeare play based on a Spanish source among others. It also contains many elements that show up in his later plays: - A woman (Julia) disguised as a man (Sebastian), an element also found in Twelfth Night , As You Like It , The Merchant of Venice , and Cymbeline ; - A character who (sometimes) goes by the name Sebastian (as in Twelfth Night ); - Talk of a couple eloping with a rope ladder (sort of like Romeo and Juliet ); - Couples escaping to the woods (also a theme in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream ). - A resolved love triangle: Proteus who had been engaged to Julie thinks he is in love with Silvia (similar to Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , who had been in love with Helena, but who thinks he loves Hermia, and Hermia’s love, Lysande...

OPHELIA'S VALENTINE & CLAUDIUS.... In Shakespeare’s time, it was widely assumed that the martyr St. Valentine (d. 269 AD) was executed under orders from the Roman Emperor Claudius II, an idea not lost on many in his early audiences when Ophelia sings her Valentine song. They would make the connection: Claudius II ordered the execution of St. Valentine; Claudius of Denmark secretly ordered the execution of Ophelia’s Valentine, Hamlet. CONSIDER: Some form of “Valentine” occurs 70 times across seven Shakespeare plays [1]. “Saint Valentine” is mentioned only twice: once in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , and once in Hamlet . The only St. Valentine’s Day song is sung by Ophelia (taken from a familiar folk-song of the time) with interjections from Claudius. The pagan precursor of Valentine’s Day, Lupercal, is mentioned twice in Julius Caesar. It is often claimed that Pope Gelasius I disliked the pagan feast, and in 496 AD, set the feast of the martyr St. Valentine to be on February 14 to...

Scholars note as many as nine Shakespeare plays either based on Chaucer tales, or strongly influenced by them [1]. So finding points of similarity between Hamlet and Chaucer’s “The Physician’s Tale” may come as no surprise to fans of the two poets [2]. Chaucer may have influenced Shakespeare’s naming of Hamlet’s uncle, “Claudius,” as there are two Claudiuses of questionable moral character in the Chaucer tale. - In Chaucer, Appius Claudius lusts after Virginia and is willing to act immorally to possess her. - In Hamlet , Claudius wants to possess both the throne and his brother’s wife, and is willing to kill to obtain and keep them. - Chaucer’s Appius Claudius employs another Claudius, a “churl,” to lie for him in court. - Hamlet’s uncle Claudius enlists the help of Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, to spy on the prince. - Chaucer’s Virginia is virtuous and hopes to be saved from scandal. - In Hamlet , Gertrude and Ophelia are virtuous (or “seeming virtuous” as the ghost calls h...

February 2 is the anniversary of the 1602 first public performance of Twelfth Night. Consider the influence of St. Paul on the play: St. Paul was in at least three shipwrecks [1]. - One account from Acts 27 was read at morning prayer on the Sixth Day of Christmas, December 30, every year of Shakespeare’s life [2]. - Although there would be many tales of shipwrecks, these familiar Bible readings would have offered a persistent religious association. - Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck. Every January 21st at morning prayer [3], churchgoers would hear St. Paul’s letter, 1 Cor 3, which reads as if it’s speaking of the fool Feste, and Malvolio’s vanity, in Twelfth Night: 18 …If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him be a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He catcheth the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth that the thoughts of the wise be vain. Twelfth Night revelry was like ...

One last Twelfth Night post before the anniversary of its first 1602 public performance on February 2: In Shakespeare’s time, a young male actor would have played the female Viola, later disguised as male Cesario: Much analysis of the play deals with gender, disguises, social constructs. Some of it considers Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s monarch, in a role usually reserved for men. The fifth pageant for her coronation portrayed Deborah, a prophetess of Hebrew scriptures who led Israel as judge [1], contrary to Christian assumptions that kept women from female authority roles. Some scholars and historians note that Elizabeth had a reputation for swearing, not so much sexual profanity as religious, like Hamlet’s “swounds” (by Christ’s wounds) or “sblood” (by God’s blood). Elizabeth’s favorite was “by God’s death,” which listeners assumed was for shock value, by a woman in a man’s world, striving to maintain attention and control [2] Like Portia disguised as Balthazar in the courtroom sce...