Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

I had such fun discussing Christmas in Shakespeare with host Rodney Hakim of New York Shakespeare, and with historian Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger! The discussion was recorded on December 24, which you can find on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/5LqZQ9sS9l8 My curiosity was especially focused on the question: What Bible tales did #Shakespeare and his contemporaries hear in church during the Twelve Days of #Christmas, and how might we find those motifs and themes transformed in Shakespeare's plays? Researching the Bible readings scheduled in the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer led to some interesting surprises for me, including "three kings" and "Herod" making an appearance (in the same sentence!) in 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘢 - and a royal infant attended by shepherds in 𝘈 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦, among other things. For those who are interested in this topic, for greater detail on biblical connections from the Christmas Bible readings...

IF I WON THE LOTTERY, like Babette in the film, “Babette’s Feast,” [1] I would love to travel the world, see places I’ve never been, places with “strange sounding names” [2] (strange to me, anyway…). And if I could, it would be wonderful to travel to the many places where all my LinkedIn friends and connections live, and visit over lunch or coffee, and hear the sounds of your voices! But short of that, for now, if you’ve wondered what my voice sounds like when I’m not doing an imitation of the cartoon character “Goofy” [3], you can hear my voice in the Mother’s Day panel discussion organized by Rodney Hakim and New York Shakespeare, exploring mothers in Shakespeare with Pauline Kiernan and Royston Coppenger: The video is now available in two parts at YouTube: Part 1: https://youtu.be/THvwuGYKQcA Part 2: https://youtu.be/7-g43NcarOM For those interested in the topic of mothers in Shakespeare, there are many things that have been written for popular as well as scholarly audiences. Here a...

REGARDING MOTHERS IN SHAKESPEARE, video of our discussion with Rodney Hakim, host of “Deep Dives” at New York Shakespeare, is now available in two parts at YouTube: Part 1: https://youtu.be/THvwuGYKQcA?si=fgn2EceaGkiQN8AJ Part 2: https://youtu.be/7-g43NcarOM?si=1WaoNEnAUgGtknTJ There are things I wish our discussion might have had more time for.... These include: 1. Among reasons for mothers often being absent in Shakespeare plays, one may have been that both monarchs Shakespeare lived under had their mothers executed. I might have extended this idea: If one is writing plays that one may perform before the monarch, one might downplay or omit the presence of mothers in deference to them. 2. Some assume that Lady Macbeth was never a mother, but in fact she refers to having nursed a babe, and often uses milk and nursing figuratively. Lady Macbeth in 1.7: “I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.” 3. In Hamlet, there are many referen...