Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

The First Sunday after Christmas is a movable feast: Sundays fall on whatever dates in December they fall on, depending on the year. It falls on the 29th this year (also the Fifth Day of Christmas; see Part 5.a.). One theme of the day’s Matthew 1 gospel is the royal bloodline of Jesus. On his father Joseph’s side, the gospel claims there were 14 generations from Abraham to King David; 14 from David to the Babylonian captivity; and 14 from that to Jesus. Seven was considered a number of perfection, so fourteen is double perfection, here times three. On his mother’s side, Jesus was also (figuratively) of royal (heavenly) blood, conceived out of wedlock by the Holy Spirit, but an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, explains, and tells him to marry her anyway (mentioned in a previous post [1] as possibly related to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure ). On the one hand, King David was considered a great king. He also seems a disaster. He had an affair with Bathsheba and arranged for the deat...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As previously suggested in this series (especially Part Four),[1] Hamlet’s subtle allusion [2] to the boy Jesus among the temple elders [3] is an ironic allusion, perhaps deeply ironic, rich and complex. But who is the target of this irony, and who is aiming it? AIMED BY HAMLET AT ROSENCRANTZ Rosencrantz had been sent to tell Hamlet that his uncle is angry and his mother is upset that Hamlet angered his uncle. So Hamlet jokes that he amazed and astonished his mother Gertrude, like Jesus did his parents and the temple elders. Eager to please king and queen, Rosencrantz may not get the joke. (More irony.) BY HAMLET, AT HIMSELF Hamlet may be aware that as a revenger, perhaps called to his task by heaven and hell [4], he is no Jesus among temple elders. BY HAMLET, AT MOTHER & UNCLE Hamlet...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IRONY: In the third act, Hamlet makes a subtle allusion, implying that he astonishes his mother like the boy Jesus astonished his mother the Virgin Mary and amazed the temple elders. - But in spite of all the points of similarity listed in my last post [1] regarding Hamlet’s allusion, there may be even more ways in which Hamlet is quite different from the boy Jesus. The tension or dissonance between these similarities and differences is an important source of irony. (For a comparison of the relevant Hamlet text [2] to the relevant gospel text from Luke, [3], see Part 1 of this series [4].) HOW IS HAMLET UNLIKE THE BOY JESUS? A non-exhaustive list: 1. Hamlet is a revenger. Audiences may assume that a revenger is so controlled by passion for revenge that he risks his own damnation. Not like Jes...