Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Stephen Greenblatt is the author of a number of books, one of them 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (2001), an important book in Hamlet studies and also in Shakespeare and Religion. He is also one of the scholars most associated with New Historicism. Greenblatt's approach in this book, exploring many manifestations of the long history of the idea of purgatory in literature and art, influenced my own approach in many ways: - When I go digging for historical associations that could have made very meaningful the choice of sentinel names (Francisco and Bernardo), this is like Greenblatt's approach. - When I dig for famous examples of "poison cup" known in Elizabethan times, like King Aegeus knocking from his son's hand the cup poisoned by Medea, this follows a well-worn path that Greenblatt trod before me. - When I explore various pre-1600 paintings of the boy Jesus, lost in Jerusalem, found astonishing the elders in the temple - to shed light on a Hamlet allusion...

This past week, one generous reader on a FaceBook Shakespeare-related forum recommended a helpful essay by Michael MacDonald called "Ophelia's Maimèd Rites," published in Shakespeare Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 309-317 (9 pages). The recommendation was in response to my blog post from last week, "Coroner's Suicide Inquest as 'Crowner's Quest' in Hamlet" which quoted David Bevington's claim that coroner's inquests were pressured by the crown to rule questionable deaths as suicides, in which case the crown often took possession of the deceased's property, since suicide was considered sinful by the church and a crime by the state. It may also have tempted the crown to the sin or vice of greed. [ Painting by Benjamin West, 1789, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery ] MacDonald doesn't explicitly claim any support for a position like Bevington's regarding pressure on coroner's inquests; in fact, he takes a more ne...