Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare was a thief of plot elements and tropes, like other playwrights of his time. Given that the original tale on which Hamlet is based doesn’t include a poison cup from a step-parent, secretly intended for the prince, but taken instead by the queen, where might that have come from? What uses of such a trope might have inspired Shakespeare? [1] Shakespeare was familiar with Ovid’s Metamorphosis from Latin school and from Arthur Golding’s 1567 translation. This included tales of Medea in Book VII. These include a story about a poison cup that Medea intends for her stepson Theseus, but which is knocked from his hand at the last moment by his father, king Aegeus, who recognizes his son. This may have informed Shakespeare’s use of the poison cup theme in Hamlet. But Shakespeare switches the roles of the step-mother-poisoner and the father-savior so that it’s the stepfather Claudius who intends to poison his stepson, and the mother, Gertrude, who buys her son time by drinking...

Rosencrantz in Shakespeare's Hamlet speaks of "Hercules and his load" (2.2.384-5) [1], which some take to be a reference to the sign or flag displayed at the Globe Theater in Shakespeare’s lifetime. [2] Was it Hercules on the sign, not Atlas? Or does Hamlet refer to Hercules for its thematic connections, while the sign actually displayed Atlas? In an Elizabethan context, the references are fraught with political implications: Atlas was a Titan who had led a rebellion against the new order of Gods on Olympus, but failed: His punishment was to hold up the world. In one story, Hercules temporarily held the world while Atlas did him a favor: [3] Hercules was a son of Zeus by one of many affairs with mortal women. Zeus’ wife Hera was jealous and tried to destroy Hercules. In one such effort, Hera made Hercules crazy, and he killed his wife and children. Grief-stricken Hercules was given labors to overcome his grief. One involved holding the world for At...