Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare didn’t need to be too explicit about some biblical allusions: He knew his Bible-influenced audiences would experience his play through lenses of scripture. When modern critics split hairs about whether something is explicit enough to count as an allusion [1], they're imposing modern expectations on Elizabethan texts. This is true of Hamlet’s Davidic influences: In 1599 George Peele’s popular play “David and Bathsebe” was published in quarto after stage success (c. 1595-9). David was a trending topic [2]. In this context Shakespeare wrote his Hamlet (1599-1601-04): King Hamlet fought Old Fortinbras in single combat, as David fought Goliath [3]. Claudius killed King Hamlet to take his wife Gertrude, as King David arranged for Uriah’s death to steal his wife, Bathsheba [4]. The sentinels and Horatio [5], and also the Danish public [6] may have thought Prince Hamlet the rightful heir denied the throne, like David, chosen by God via the prophet Samuel to be the next king...

Does Shakespeare’s Hamlet depict religiously shaped or motivated regicide? [1] Given its many religious and biblical allusions and plot echoes, I would argue that it does. [David Tennant (L) as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart (R) as Claudius in the 2009 film, Hamlet , dir. Gregory Doran. Source: IMDB . Fair use.] Dr. Arthur F. Marotti gave a talk at Fordham in late October of 2013 in which he noted, “In the last years of Elizabeth’s rule people believed something was rotten in England—though perhaps not rotten enough to justify regicide. ” [2] Marotti has written numerous books [3] about Early Modern literature and religion, including a 2004 essay with Ken Jackson on “The Turn to Religion” in Shakespeare studies. In an abstract for a more recent (2017) essay [4], Marotti notes that “Shakespeare's plays may not stage religiously motivated regicides…,” with “may” being the operative word here: Scholars may disagree on this point. But what about Hamlet? Recognizing that H...