Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Many sources explain Hamlet calling Polonius a "Jephthah" by noting that, like Jephthah, Polonius is willing to sacrifice his daughter on the altar of his ambition, as if to fulfill an unwise vow. Some also note that, after fear of assassination plots against Elizabeth, members of the Privy Council and members of the nobility signed, or were pressured to sign, The Bond of Association, vowing to avenge if Elizabeth were killed or conspired against. This later passed into English law in only slightly modified form. But just as many US citizens opposed torture and the war in Iraq, many in England may have at least secretly opposed the Bond of Association as an unwise vow like Jephthah's, given that the English church preached against vengeance and unwise vows. While this type of explanation may offer valid insight, it also oversimplifies the potential of the Jephthah metaphor. Paintings, engravings, and tapestries from before, during, and after Shakespeare'...

MARY JO KIETZMAN's book, The Biblical Covenant in Shakespeare (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) To introduce some thoughts on Mary Jo Kietzman's fine book and its good chapter on Hamlet, I need to say a few words about my own relative unfamiliarity with certain books of the Hebrew scriptures, and to do that, some observations about the scripture readings people heard in church in Shakespeare's England, as compared to Catholic churchgoers of the last 50-75 years. Why? Because Kietzman's book helped me realize some gaps in what scripture readings I had internalized during my years growing up Catholic, and later, as a church choir director and liturgist. REQUIRED BY LAW, OR CATHOLIC "OBLIGATION"? In Shakespeare's lifetime, Sunday church attendance was required by law, so if one were a law-abiding citizen, one tended to hear the entire Sunday cycle of readings as listed in the Book of Common Prayer. I was raised Catholic, a strand of Christianity in which th...