Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare’s Hamlet could have unfolded differently from Gertrude’s closet scene onward (3.4): Instead of following the Danish tale, it could have followed Nero’s story [1]. Shakespeare makes the tales overlap, grafting on references to Claudius and Nero; then he rejects that potential plot line and what such historical characters represent. To be a play based on an old Danish tale, or not? To be a play based on Rome’s Claudius I, Julia Agrippina, and her son Nero – or not? (Or in modern productions: To have Hamlet played by Ringo Starr, Nero’s doppelganger – or not? [See collage images….]) In Shakespeare’s time, what were Nero and Agrippina famous for? - Agrippina poisoned her husband, Claudius I, so that her son Nero could be emperor. - Nero later arranged for his mother’s death and attended her autopsy. - In Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI , Lord Talbot claims that Nero played a lute while Rome burned, and Shakespeare refers to the Claudius-Agrippina-Nero tale in two other plays [...

Geoffrey Bullough (1957-1972), Isaac Asimov (1970), and Harold Jenkins (1982) all noted Shakespeare having changed the name of Hamlet's uncle “Feng” to “Claudius”: Asimov: "The reigning King of Denmark, who has succeeded the elder Hamlet[...] is Claudius. Shakespeare has chosen an aristocratic Roman name for the purpose. (It was the name of a patrician family in the time of the Republic and one from which several of the early emperors were descended—including Claudius, the fourth Emperor, under whom Britain was conquered in the years following Cymbeline's death.[1]) In Saxo Grammaticus' original tale, the new King was named Feng, and perhaps Shakespeare did well to change that." (87)  [2] Jenkins: "The King's name is knows from his first entry-direction and first speech-heading, after which, however, it is never used again."  [3] Jenkins continues: "It was evidently suggested by that of the Roman emperor who married Agrippina, his niece and th...

Hamlet's relation to his step-father, King Claudius, and Nero's to *his* step-father, Claudius I, offer key similarities and contrasts: Many note that Hamlet in 1.2 dislikes Claudius calling him "son" so soon after his father's death. Memorable lines: KING ... But now, my cousin Hamlet and my son— HAMLET [aside] A little more than kin and less than kind. KING How is it that the clouds still hang on you? HAMLET Not so, my lord; I am too much in the sun. (1.2.66-69) “Cousin" in Shakespeare's time could apply loosely to a nephew. "...too much in the sun." [son - pun] Although the name is not spoken in the play, in the 1604 Second Quarto and later editions, at the start of 1.2 (his first entrance), he is named: "Enter Claudius, King of Denmark...." In 3.2, Hamlet mentions Nero: Claudius I, Emperor of Rome, married the daughter of his brother, his niece, who already had a son, Nero; Claudius adopted Nero as a son and heir; so Nero was grand...

In Hamlet 3.4, the scene in Gertrude's closet, Hamlet tells her that he will show his mother her "inmost part," and it's clear to the audience or readers that he's talking about her conscience. But she quickly jumps to the conclusion that perhaps he is going to kill her: "What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me? Help, help, ho!" This scene is often played with some violence by Hamlet toward his mother, throwing her on her bed, to help explain why she jumps to this conclusion. But this is not in the stage directions, and perhaps there are other reasons why she jumps to this conclusion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With me in the "Rethinking Science and Religion" seminar at Shakespeare Association of America this spring, there were two members who wrote about Renaissance anatomists and drawings of the dissected human body. This made me think about Elizabethan public executions of Catholics and others, sometimes inv...