Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously contains a play-within-the-play, “The Mousetrap,” which (for some) calls to mind St. Augustine who said the cross of Christ was a mousetrap for the devil.[1] Ophelia refers to a folktale of a baker’s daughter changed into an owl, punishment for being ungenerous with a beggar (Jesus in disguise). Owls, as I have noted before [2], are living mousetraps. Shakespeare named Hamlet’s mother perhaps after St. Gertrude of Nivelles (c.628-659), famous for dealing with an infestation of mice in the convent’s larder [3]. I think of Gertrude at this time of year: Each autumn, we have had troubles with mice. We plugged holes, changed our cheap dryer vent years ago to an expensive one ($29-$39 - !) - which we assumed would keep mice out. We put heavy galvanized screen over a fireplace air intake, and checked the attached garage for openings where mice might get from the garage into the house. No luck. This fall, our expensive dryer vent cover had long since turned yel...

Today is Good Friday. In Shakespeare’s England, church rituals spoke of baptism as a dying to self in Christ, so as to be made new in him [1]. Contrary to some Shakespeare scholars who explicitly resist the idea of Christ-figures in the plays (including Harold Jenkins, Arden editor), all the baptized are called to be Christ-figures [2], imitators of Christ. The spiritual rhythm in medieval mystery, morality and miracle plays assumes all are sinners, but if they express sorrow for their sins, they can know God’s mercy and be saved. [3] Any drama in which a person who dies is saved, is a comedy; the only tragedies are those in which a sinner resists salvation. In her madness, Ophelia expresses regret through her story of the baker’s daughter [4]. Gertrude explains that Ophelia falls in the brook because of an “envious sliver” of willow [5]. Willows in Psalm 137 were incorporated weekly in Christian vespers and associated by St Benedict of Nursia [6] and Martin Luther [7] with the cruci...

Gertrude is more associated with “mousetrap” than many scholars have allowed. Previously [1], I argued that Gertrude suspects a poison cup but doesn’t know for certain, so she signals publicly that she will drink in order to mousetrap Claudius. He tells her not to drink; she replies, “I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.” [2] Hamlet said he would catch the conscience of the king, but first, his playlet sought to catch Gertrude’s conscience. I am grateful to Federico La Sala for mentioning saints by the name of Gertrude whose legends were familiar in the middle ages and Shakespeare’s time. These included  Gertrude the Great from the monastery of Helfta, a mystic who, with other sisters, explored a spirituality in which they believed they were “brides of Christ.” In The Herald of Divine Love, she speaks of paying a debt, [3] which sounds like the widow helped by the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 4:1-7), which Hamlet associated with his mother. [4] Gertrude as a “bride of Christ” also rel...