Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Two days ago I posted about Hamlet, Orestes, Gertrude, Hecuba and Clytemnestra . While Shakespeare, Hamlet, and Greek mythology is fresh in the mind, I wanted to repost something similar from two years ago: Hamlet compares his mother’s tears at his father’s funeral to Niobe’s tears, and compares his own resolve to the nerves of the Nemean lion . In his two-volume work on Shakespeare, Isaac Asimov explains these two references well, but although he doesn't spell it out, both of these references foreshadow Hamlet’s own death. NIOBE Asimov considers the Niobe allusion first (II.93-94): . . . Hamlet is angry with his mother [. . .]. She had seemed so in love with his father, had mourned so at his death- . . . she followed my poor father's body Like Niobe, all tears . . . - Act 1, scene ii, lines 148-49 “Niobe was one of the more pathetic characters in Greek myth. She had six sons and six daughters and boasted her superiority to the goddess Latona (Leto), who ...

Last week I started what will be a series of brief posts highlighting certain ideas from Isaac Asimov's two-volume work on Shakespeare. This week I want to address two interesting allusions Hamlet makes, pointed out by Asimov: The first is a comparison for his mother, the second an analogy for his own resolve. Although Asimov doesn't spell it out, both foreshadow his own death (but Asimov describes enough about the allusions that we can make the connection). For those teaching Shakespeare, especially to students encountering Hamlet for the first time, the stories of Niobe and of Hercules and the Nemean lion would very often be unfamiliar, in which case the foreshadowing would be lost on many new readers. We can still appreciate the basic thrust of the play in performance or in our reading without catching or reflecting on these two allusions, but these are examples of how attention to what at first seems relatively minor details might yield interesting results that helps ...