Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

GOOD FRIDAY & CAIN IN GERTRUDE'S CLOSET Compare: Hamlet 3.4.31-32, after Hamlet kills Polonius unseen: Queen:  O me, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? * Hamlet:  Nay, I KNOW NOT. Is it the King? * [1] Genesis 4:9-10, Geneva trans.: Then the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? Who answered, I cannot tell. Am I my brother’s keeper? Again he said, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? * the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me, from the earth. Luke 23:34, Geneva, Jesus from the cross: Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them: for THEY KNOW NOT what they do. * (* Emphasis mine) - Queen Gertrude echoes God to Cain: What hast thou done? - Hamlet echoes Jesus from the cross: I know not (what I've done). AT LEAST TWO IMPLICATIONS: 1. By killing a human being, Hamlet has sinned, like Cain killing his brother. 2. By stabbing the person hidden behind the arras, blind to who he was stabbing, Hamlet fits what Jesus says from the cross: They know not what they do. WHY HAS THIS BEEN MISSED by previous...

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 ...