Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

In mid-May, Philip Rowe, the host of the podcast, The History of European Theatre , asked me to be a guest on his podcast. I was delighted. Philip's podcast series has more than 260 episodes covering a wide range of subjects, and he has interviewed an impressive list of guests, including Kristen McDermott, Steve Sohmer, Rob Eastaway, Darren Freebury-Jones, Susan D Amussen, Roberta Barker, Robert Crighton, Rachel Aanstad, Colin David Rees, Iman Sheeha, Laurie Johnson, Katherine Sheil, Cassidy Cash, and Ian McCormick, to name just a few in recent years. After some planning, on June 10, we recorded a conversation about Shakespeare's use of biblical allusions, especially in Hamlet . Philip edited the interview into two episodes. I'm very happy that Philip found and liked my blog, honored to be a guest, and greatly enjoyed the conversation. In the first of these two episodes we talk more generally about Shakespeare and the Bible, and in the second (release date to be ann...

Tomorrow, March 7 at 9 a.m. CST, KYMN Radio in Northfield, Minnesota, will broadcast an interview of me, pre-recorded by Betsy Spethman and Andrew Rossow of ArtMakers (Disabilities - Arts - Community). Andrew has been one of my music students for at least nine or 10 years; he is blind and handicapped, so he is unable to play guitar, but he can play a number of other musical instruments, including autoharp (the focus of our lessons). He has a great ear for music, remembers chords and lyrics very well, and can transpose on the fly. Andrew’s parents, Jim Rossow and Betsy Spethman, started the organization, ArtMakers, to help people with disabilities have opportunities to be involved in arts and community. Betsy and Andrew regularly interview people in Northfield, Minnesota, a two-college town (where I live, also home to St. Olaf and Carleton colleges); the interviews are broadcast and archived on KYMN Radio in a show called “Townies Radio.” Andrew and his father Jim performed together i...

Here's a good Folger Shakespeare Library interview with David Scott Kastan (author of "A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion") from 2016. It covers a lot of territory, and there's a transcript below it at the link if you'd rather read than listen. One small point of disagreement: Kastan notes the line in Merchant of Venice, with Lorenzo gazing at the stars, which are to him, “patens of bright gold.” He says that this converts everything to commerce. But in fact, a paten of gold was the gold plate that an altar boy held under chins of communicants to catch the Eucharist in case the host fell from the lips. [Note the following quote from Alexander Leggatt, also on the Folger website: "The stars are 'patens of bright gold' (5.1.67)—that is, plates used in the Eucharist which are also rich material objects. The play’s materialism touches even the spiritual realm..." See Alexander Leggatt, "A Modern Perspective: The Merchant of Venice,...