Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

If we think the main reason that Shakespeare named Hamlet’s uncle “Claudius” was because it was the English Renaissance – so things associated with ancient Rome were fashionable – we might miss the main point [1].  To have Claudius be a murderous, usurping, incestuous, blasphemous, unrepentant sinner, and to have Hamlet mention Nero [2], reveals a great deal about religious-political assumptions of Shakespeare’s time. Claudius is in fact like the Rome of Protestant polemics: MURDEROUS, POISONING, CONSPIRING, UNREPENTANT: Catholic Rome was viewed as corrupt and unrepentantly sinful, resisting reform. Rome excommunicated Elizabeth I (1570, 1588) [3]; English Catholics made numerous efforts to assassinate her [4]. Reformers associated the Mass with poison [5]; scholars call the poison cup of Claudius a “black Mass” [6]. INCESTUOUS: Rome had approved the “incestuous marriage” of Henry VIII to his brother’s widow, and if Elizabeth had accepted the marriage proposal of her brother-in-law...

What if we consider Claudius, uncle of Hamlet, through the lens of Philip II of Spain, or vice versa?  Philip was married to Mary I, older half-sister of Elizabeth I, and as such, he also enjoyed the title of King of England.  As Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, she was Philip’s “sometime-sister,” a phrase Claudius uses to describe Gertrude, widow of his brother King Hamlet [1].  Philip had offered a marriage proposal to Elizabeth (1559) two months after the death of Mary I (hasty remarriage), in spite of being the widower of Elizabeth’s half-sister (which would have required special dispensation from Rome, as did the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, mother of Mary I); this would have been considered a biblically incestuous marriage.  [Edit: Elizabeth *did not accept*. ]  There were coins of England during the monarchy of Mary I that featured images of Mary and Philip, some of which are still in existence, although Elizabeth had a majo...

Emily Dickinson famously wrote, “Tell the truth, but tell it slant” [1]. In the character of Claudius, Shakespeare does this in a number of ways: He retells an old Danish tale about a murderous king who married his brother’s widow (as Henry VIII had many executed after divorcing his dead brother’s widow [2]). He changes the uncle’s name from Feng to Claudius, associating him not only with literary villains in Arthurian tales [3.a., 3.b.] and Chaucer [4], but also with Rome and two Roman emperors - Claudius II, who ordered the execution of St. Valentine (even as King Claudius ordered the execution of Ophelia’s Valentine) [5], and Claudius I, who invaded England [6]. Shakespeare associated the uncle with Rome in these ways during the English Reformation, at a time when Protestantism and Rome were at odds, executing traitors and heretics; when Elizabeth had been excommunicated by two Roman Catholic popes [7]; and when Rome enlisted Philip II of Spain (who had proposed to Elizabeth in 15...

Thomas More was executed on this day in 1535, 490 years ago. Shakespeare depended in large part on More’s account of the reign of Richard III when writing his play by that name, and there is handwriting evidence that Shakespeare collaborated on the play, Sir Thomas More, with at least four others, and especially on a speech promoting hospitality toward foreigners in a hostile context.  Both Thomas More and Prince Hamlet opposed the kings under whose rule they lived, but there are some illuminating key differences: It is said at his execution, More’s last words were, "I die the King's good servant, and God's first." He did not oppose Henry’s marriage to his dead brother’s widow, because the church gave special dispensation for it, but later Henry would claim it was an incestuous and biblically sinful marriage. More would have been fine with Henry VIII having his marriage annulled if Rome had approved, but they did not, so when faced with a choice between obeying the ch...

There are at least three major uses of ambiguity in Shakespeare. How we speak of it, and what we value about it, vary widely.  1. One popular use of ambiguity can be a “Rorschach Effect”: Many believe that this gives actors and audiences permission to imagine and interpret any meaning or motivation they wish about the lines [1].  Shakespeare, his playing company, and early audiences may not have been quite that relativistic [2], but it certainly helps playing companies today in new contexts, to adapt plays to changing circumstances.  2. A second kind of ambiguity might be a “Scheherazade Effect” [3]. If you live in times when many are executed for their opinions or religious allegiances, you might feel like Scheherazade, who had to entertain with stories to stay alive.  If you also wanted to catch the conscience of the monarch, you had to be careful, or there would be trouble [4]. Instead of being too confrontational, one had to be indirect [5]: One had to use storie...