Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

In Shakespeare's England, the 3rd and 4th Sundays of Advent (before Christmas) featured John the Baptist [1], a prophet referred to in Hamlet. The name is feminized to "Baptista" and given to the player queen in 3.2. Hamlet claims "The Mousetrap" or "Murder of Gonzago" was an existing ("extant") historical tale [2]. In fact a Duke of Urbino (not Vienna) was poisoned; Eleanor Gonzaga was his wife. The wife of a predecessor was Battista Sforza [3]. Shakespeare made historical errors on purpose: Hamlet picks the duke’s predecessor’s wife’s name to borrow the name Baptista, so he can allude to John the Baptist, who condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's divorced wife [4]. Hamlet wants to catch the king's conscience [5], but must avoid being too confrontational, so he borrows "Baptista" to subtly evoke (but also cleverly distract from) a biblical allusion to Jesus’ kinsman [6] who was beheaded for opposing a k...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the play-within-the-play, in conversation with Rosencrantz, Hamlet implies that he has amazed and astonished his mother like the boy Jesus did when his parents found him with the elders in the Temple. I’ve omitted some parts of the Hamlet text so as to focus more closely on the applicable parts below. Compare the text from the play, below, to the text from 2:46-52 (Geneva), which was read every January in Shakespeare's lifetime on the Sunday after Epiphany: [1] GUILDENSTERN: The King … Is …marvelous distempered.... The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. ...your behavior hath struck her into *amazement* and admiration. HAMLET: O wonderful son that can so *’stonish* [astonish] a mother! (3.2.325-356) [2] Compare Luke 2:46-52 (Geneva): 46 And i...

How might we best grasp (“get a handle on”) Hamlet’s “Mousetrap,” the play-within-the-play? Thirteen handles (see also more lengthy endnotes corresponding to numbered list): 1. Hamlet asks the first player if he can play “The Murder of Gonzago.” This points to Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino; whose wife was Eleonora Gonzaga, and who was marginalized (like Essex and Lord Strange, and poisoned like Strange).[1] 2. “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” — Hamlet says he will do this by reproducing events like his father’s murder with the help of the players.[2] 3. This conscience-trap echoes the prophet Nathan catching King David’s conscience in a story, after David’s affair with Bathsheba and arranging for the death of her husband.[3] 4. The play-within-the-play begins as a trap for the conscience of his mother, Queen Gertrude. — Later in Gertrude’s closet scene, it’s clear that Hamlet wants his mother to repent, a...