Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most considerations of a biblical allusion in Shakespeare do well to consider whether, and how, official homilies of the time treated the biblical text. This applies to this series,[1] and Hamlet’s allusion [2] to Luke and the boy Jesus, amazing temple elders and his parents. People in Shakespeare’s England were required by law to attend church. They would hear Luke 2:46-52 every January on the Sunday after Epiphany.[3] Only one official homily [4], attributed to Bishop John Jewell, mentions these verses from Luke. The homily is called, “OF THE RIGHT USE OF THE CHURCH OR TEMPLE OF GOD, AND OF THE REVERENCE DUE UNTO THE SAME.”[5] EXCERPT 1: “In the second [chapter] of Luke it is written, how that the mother of Christ, and Joseph, when they had long sought Christ, whom they had lost, and could ...

Two Early Modern texts - each in their own ways well-known in their time - both touch upon all the following themes: adultery, lust, drunkenness, selfish ambition, sedition, envy, murder, incest, madness, and poison. They also allude to the following historical or Biblical-mythical characters: Alexander the Great, Herod John the Baptist The Beggar Lazarus and the selfish rich man The Serpent in the Garden Adam Cain King David St. Bernard of Clairvaux What are those two Early Modern texts? If you guessed (1) Homily V. from Book II of the official English Church homilies, "Against Gluttony and Drunkenness" (usually attributed to John Jewell), and (2) Shakespeare’s Hamlet , you are correct. The general idea in the homily is that any excess pursuit of pleasure in sex, food, or drink, is sinful, while all the things Christians receive as gifts from God in a spirit of thanksgiving and moderation are good. (Jewell might therefore disagree with Mae West, oft...