Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

February 2 is the anniversary of the 1602 first public performance of Twelfth Night. Consider the influence of St. Paul on the play: St. Paul was in at least three shipwrecks [1]. - One account from Acts 27 was read at morning prayer on the Sixth Day of Christmas, December 30, every year of Shakespeare’s life [2]. - Although there would be many tales of shipwrecks, these familiar Bible readings would have offered a persistent religious association. - Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck. Every January 21st at morning prayer [3], churchgoers would hear St. Paul’s letter, 1 Cor 3, which reads as if it’s speaking of the fool Feste, and Malvolio’s vanity, in Twelfth Night: 18 …If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him be a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He catcheth the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth that the thoughts of the wise be vain. Twelfth Night revelry was like ...

How might Londoners have reacted to seeing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at its first public performance on February 2, 1602 [1]? The play’s character Olivia, mourning a father’s and brother’s deaths, and reluctant to marry, might easily remind them of their queen, Elizabeth I. Olivia hides her face with a veil (1.1; 1.5); Elizabeth survived smallpox and hid her facial scars with thick makeup [2]. Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, might remind many of the late William Cecil, long-time advisor to Elizabeth and sometime spymaster [3]. Malvolio intercepts a letter - a forgery by Maria, designed to entrap him and bring about his downfall, which he believes contains a code - this would remind audiences of the downfall of Mary Queen of Scots (executed February 1587), accomplished in part by intercepted letters – some in code, some alleged forgeries - overseen by Cecil [4]. Mary claimed at her trial “That it was an easy matter to counterfeit the Ciphers and Characters of others” [5]. It was an old ...

[ Cologne Cathedral, Altarpiece of the Magi ] Some may wonder why Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was named after the twelfth night of Christmas, eve of the Epiphany. The gospel tale is about wise men or Magi from the East who follow a star to pay homage to a new king of Israel, Jesus. The play has none of that stuff in it. But consider: In the gospel story, there is anticipation of a new king. This is why the Magi follow the star. In Shakespeare's England, there had long been hope and anticipation by many of an heir if Elizabeth would only have wed and given birth to a child. Today we might celebrate her independence and assertiveness to remain single, but many during her reign felt otherwise. In the play, Olivia is like Elizabeth (both three-syllable names): She is mourning the death of a father, and more recently, a brother (like Elizabeth, whose father Henry and brother Edward were kings of Protestant England before her and had both died before she assumed the...

What Kind of Fool was Shakespeare? Climate Change; Olivia & Malvolio; Ophelia & Polonius; Politics in Hamlet and Twelfth Night [1] How should we best think of Shakespeare’s relationship to his patrons and the powers-that-be? As an enthusiastic supporter of the English monarch and English church, regardless of its faults or occasional oppressions? Or might we better think of him like The Pianist , the film about a musician and piano player who escapes death in a concentration camp, and briefly entertains a Nazi military leader who would protect him? Or like the musicians in the 1980 film, Playing for Time , about musicians in a Nazi concentration camp allowed to escape death as long as they entertain their captors? [2] Or as a court fool, paid to entertain royalty, but required to speak awkward and inconvenient truths, as long as he could do so in a witty and entertaining manner? I’ve been thinking about this question for the past few weeks in light of a news item in ...