Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

[This post was originally written in 2022, but substantially expanded and edited in 2026.] In Hamlet 3.4, the prince sees the ghost of his father, and tells his mother, HAMLET: On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares. His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones , Would make them capable. (3.4.142-4) This recalls the Palm Sunday reading (Geneva trans.), Luke 19:39-41:  39 Then some of the Pharisees of the company said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40 But he answered, and said unto them, I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would cry. Stone capable of speech? In fact, at the end of Shakespeare's  The Winter's Tale , what seems to be a statue of Hermoine comes to life and is able to speak, which Richard Strier compares to the Pygmalion myth [1]. Strier connects this also to a stone wall in Habakkuk 2:11, which speaks to rebuke the sins of the wicked.  One might also connect it to the writing on the wall in Daniel 5...

"Poor" occurs 16 times in Titus Andronicus (1593): - Titus speaks of "the poor remains": only four of his 25 "valiant sons" survived battle with the Goths (1.1). - He speaks of himself and his daughter Lavina as "poor creatures," and of his "poor right hand" (3.2) after he was deceived to have the left cut off to ransom two sons. [Cover page from the 1594 Quarto of [Titus Andronicus] The most lamentable Romaine tragedie of Titus Andronicus As it was plaide by the right honourable the Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex their seruants. Image via Wikipedia and the Folger Shakespeare Library . Public Domain.] "Beg" occurs 10 times, including Lavina in 2.3 begging Tamora to kill her: Her beloved Bassianus had been slain; she'd rather be killed than raped by Tamora's sons. They rape her, cut out her tongue, and cut off her hands in hope that she can't identify her attackers. But later she d...