Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Why did Shakespeare use Illyria as a setting for Twelfth Night? Is there any historical meaning to Illyria that may have made this a creative, illuminating, and relevant setting for Early Modern England, still in the throes of the Reformation? Consider:  On JUNE 19, 325 A.D., at the end of the Council of Nicea, Arian schismatics were exiled to Illyria, 1700 years ago this year.  IF ALL WE KNEW ABOUT ILLYRIA and Twelfth Night was two things:  1. That it was where Arius and his schismatic followers were exiled by Emperor Constantine and the First Council of Nicea; and  2. That Shakespeare’s contemporary, playwright Thomas Kyd, was arrested in 1593, tortured, and falsely accused of the heresy of Arianism [1];  these facts would color our reading of Shakespeare’s play–set in Illyria. [2] What happened after Arians were exiled to Illyria? After Nicea, Constantine’s successors flip-flopped, opposing or supporting Arianism (337-378 AD).  Flash-forward:  Durin...

Depending on who is pope at the time – either the time of the writing of a Shakespeare play, or a during a given production, or work of scholarship – the way people feel about Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius and his various sins or vices may vary greatly.  Elizabeth I had been excommunicated by Pope Pius V (1570) [1]. Under Sixtus V, Rome encouraged Spain to launch three Armada invasions of England (1588, 1596, 1601). (How would you feel?) During the English Civil Wars (1642 to 1651), in part about religion, Pope Innocent X (1644-1655) supported Ireland, against objections of the exiled Henrietta Maria, English Queen living in Paris.  So before 1660, it was easier to connect Claudius and his sins and vices with Rome and a Catholic church that resisted reform.  Fast forward to the 1800s: Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist (1837-1839), A Christmas Carol (1843), and Hard Times (1854); Marx and Engles publish Das Kapital (1867-1894), and Pope Leo XIII publishes Rerum Novarum (1...