Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Since at least 2022, I've done a post around the time of Good Friday, sharing what seem to be either direct allusions, or at least echoes of the Good Friday gospel stories (the Passion of Christ) in Shakespeare's Hamlet .  The index link below is to blog posts about allusions in Hamlet to the Good Friday stories (which Shakespeare and others in England would have been required to hear via mandatory church attendance. The index covers related posts on this subject from 2022-2026. The 2022 post [1] collected a few general allusions or plot echoes. For people interested in a list of detailed, short references in the text of the play, this is a good place to start.  - A post in December of 2023 related to these by way of Ophelia's "willow" [2];  - Good Friday posts in 2024 [3] and in 2025 [4] continued this, each with new insights.  INDEX: Good Friday echoes in Hamlet - April 03, 2026. https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2026/04/index-good-friday-echoes-in-hamlet...

In Act 3, scene 4, Hamlet kills Polonius behind the arras, thinking he is stabbing Claudius. This exchange follows (emphasis mine): Polonius : [Behind the arras] Oh, I am slain! Queen : Oh, me, what hast thou done? Hamlet : Nay I know not . Is it the King? 3.4.2405-2407 For English audiences in Shakespeare's lifetime, required to attend church each Sunday and on Holy Days, the combination of Gertrude's question about what Hamlet has done , followed by Hamlet's reply, "I know not," may have sounded quite familiar. If there is any Biblical passage those audiences would have found echoed in the exchange, it would have been from the Gospel of Luke (23:34), with this passage included in a larger section from Luke chapter 23, read every year on Holy Thursday (emphasis mine): "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do ." [ "The Crucifixion" - 1616 (the year of Shakespeare's death), by Pieter Lastman, oil on ...