Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Why did Hamlet compare his father to Greek and Roman gods - at a time when Elizabeth was often compared to goddesses? In Shakespeare’s England, churches had the Ten Commandments posted prominently. The first commandment: "THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME." Literally: Don’t worship deities of other religions. Hamlet worries that heaven forbids suicide (“self-slaughter,” 1.2.136), but (oblivious to other biblical prohibitions?) compares his father to a Greek god, the titan Hyperion (1.2.144), and in 3.4, to more gods: See what a grace was seated on this brow, Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command, A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill, A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. (3.4.65--72) The ghost says he’s being purged in an afterlife, as in purgatory of Catholic teaching, not Greek or Roman mythology. Is Hamlet confused...

In Hamlet 4.3, instead of “Long live King Claudius!” Hamlet names worms as emperors [1]: Eventually, worms will overcome every king, after which even a beggar might eat, digest, and defecate a monarch. In the end, the meek (including beggars and worms) inherit the earth and its kingdoms [2].  But how can a beggar defecate a king?  (Some people in the USA, terrorized by ICE, may be asking the same thing.)  Hamlet explains the food chain to Claudius, who has lied consistently in the play about a key murder for which he is responsible:  KING  Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius? HAMLET  At supper. KING  At supper where? HAMLET  Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes but to one table. That’s the end. KING  Alas, ala...

What's Herod to Hamlet? My last post* surveyed occurrences of “Herod” in five Shakespeare plays. The word occurs only twice in Hamlet. (Herod had sons named after him, so Hamlet might say, What are Herods to Hamlet?)** Like King Hamlet (with an “H”) and his son Prince Hamlet [1], Herod the Great had many sons, some also named Herod. Herod means “heroic.” King Hamlet was considered heroic in battle [2]. Herod the Great had at least three of his sons executed, one for conspiring to poison him [3]. As depicted in Matthew 2:16, he was thought to be mad for seeking to have all boys less than two years old killed, after a visit from Magi who told him of signs in the heavens indicating a new king’s birth. King Hamlet kills King Fortinbras, a competitor for his lands [4]; Claudius poisoned his brother, King Hamlet, to take the throne [5]. So an allusion to Herod the Great is appropriate. But Christopher Taylor notes, “The figure of Herod loomed so large in the Christian imagination that of...