Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

With more foresight, if Shakespeare had wanted to be more accessible for all ages, he might have realized that once Protestants questioned the Catholic idea of Eucharist as “transubstantiation,” religion would be on its way out (especially in some countries), and he might not have included as many as 1,300 biblical references in his plays [1]. 😉 One example is in King Lear 4.4.  Cordelia, newly returned to England from France, alludes to Luke 2:41-52:  CORDELIA: O dear *father,* It is thy *business* that I go about.    (4.4.26-27)  (*emphasis* mine) This alludes to the tale of the boy Jesus, lost in Jerusalem, later found in the temple, conversing with, astonishing, and amazing temple elders.  Shakespeare also has Hamlet in 3.2 allude to this with his former school friends after The Mousetrap, with his mother amazed and “astonied” [2]. Yes, spelled “astonied” in Shakespeare and in the 1599 Geneva translation:  47 And all that heard him, were astonie...

 “Shakespeare is not treating us to an imaginative presentation of theology. He is testing theology with his imagination and using theology for his artistic purpose.” (105) - Robert G. Hunter “Shakespeare and the Mystery of God’s Judgments” (1976) ~~~~~ This is one of my favorite quotes from this book, and sums up an important perspective. It contrasts with the assumption by some scholars such as Charles Wordsworth (1864) - a position strongly disliked by many others - that Shakespeare used biblical references and religious themes to demonstrate and evangelize for the Christian faith. Other scholars such as Maurice Hunt (Shakespeare's Religious Allusiveness: Its Play and Tolerance) sometimes assume biblical references might be sorted into binary opposition between apparent Protestant and Catholic references, perhaps proving Shakespeare was one or the other, or that he at least conformed to the Protestant inclinations of his time. But "testing theology with his imagination...