Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Critics, readers, and viewers today may think of Ophelia’s suffering very differently than did devout Christians in Shakespeare’s time. Modern critics sometimes assume that, when characters suffer, when prayers to heaven seem unanswered, this must prove there is no God, or that Shakespeare didn’t believe in one. But many churchgoers viewed undeserved suffering differently. Three times every year (10 April, 9 August, and 6 December), Hebrews 12: 6-11 was read at Evening Prayer: 6 For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth: and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God offered himself unto you as unto sons: for what son is it whom the father chasteneth not? 8 If therefore ye be without correction, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Moreover we have had the fathers of our bodies which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: should we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, that we might live? 10 For they ve...

The word "beg" occurs 13 times, and "poor," 25 times in Richard III . On the lips of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, when it is not disparaging, it is often dishonest and manipulative. The Princes in the Tower (among others) are very concerned with avoiding the appearance of begging as a mark of weakness. A failed assassin claims conscience leaves him a beggar (a theme that comes up again in Hamlet). In comparison, when Prince Hamlet and others refer to him as “poor” and “beggar” (more often than any other character in that play) the contrast between Hamlet and these other royals is stark and significant. [From title page, Richard III (cropped), from the second folio of 1632. Image via Folger Shakespeare Library . Creative Commons.] Nizar Zouidi of the University of Hail has noted the performative aspect of Richard III : He performs the roles of script writer, actor, and director in his own show ( See Nizar's abstract for his essay/chapter here .) R...