Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

[1] THE THEME OF SCANDALOUS ROYAL INCEST was to people of that late Elizabethan times something like the themes of resource wars and government lies about weapons of mass destruction after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003: The blockbuster film, Avatar, was released in December of 2009, about earthlings fighting a resource war for an energy source against the native population of a distant planet. About five months later, in May of 2010, Disney released the film, Prince of Persia, which was rightly criticized for casting too many Caucasian actors as the main characters and not enough of Middle Eastern descent; but a notable aspect of the plot involved lies about weapons of mass destruction possessed by a country that Persia would invade. The folly of corrupt government was on people’s minds, and therefore became a topic of popular entertainment. [2] IN THE LAST DECADE of the life of Elizabeth I , there were two very popular plays with a theme of incestuous royalty. Both of these...

Shakespeare's Hamlet was something fresh in English revenge tragedies. The most popular of them, The Spanish Tragedy, either conveyed the assumption that God was on England's side, against Spain and Rome, or according to some, the play's violence was so over-the-top that it may have been intended to cause its audience to question the impulse for revenge against national enemies. Hamlet turned this on its head and used the end of a royal house in Denmark as an analogy for England's hope for a heroic ending to the House of Tudor. Think of the film, Avatar, which worked as an analogy for resource wars led by the US against smaller (and increasingly Muslim) nations, and against indigenous peoples over centuries. Planet Earth wants to mine "unobtanium" at the cost of many alien lives; earthlings are, mostly, the bad guys, while the aliens live in better harmony with their planet. But the film Avatar struck a nerve and was a record-breaking box-office hit. Obvi...