Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Why did Shakespeare use Illyria as a setting for Twelfth Night? Is there any historical meaning to Illyria that may have made this a creative, illuminating, and relevant setting for Early Modern England, still in the throes of the Reformation? Consider:  On JUNE 19, 325 A.D., at the end of the Council of Nicaea, Arian schismatics were exiled to Illyria, 1700 years ago this year.  IF ALL WE KNEW ABOUT ILLYRIA and Twelfth Night was two things:  1. That it was where Arius and his schismatic followers were exiled by Emperor Constantine and the First Council of Nicaea; and  2. That Shakespeare’s contemporary, playwright Thomas Kyd, was arrested in 1593, tortured, and falsely accused of the heresy of Arianism [1];  these facts would color our reading of Shakespeare’s play–set in Illyria. [2] What happened after Arians were exiled to Illyria? After Nicaea, Constantine’s successors flip-flopped, opposing or supporting Arianism (337-378 AD).  Flash-forward:  Du...

“...there's not a hair on [his] head but 'tis a Valentine.” Two Gentlemen of Verona (3.1.195-195) This line is spoken about Valentine, one of the two main characters in the play. Two Gentlemen of Verona is an early Shakespeare play based on a Spanish source among others. It also contains many elements that show up in his later plays: - A woman (Julia) disguised as a man (Sebastian), an element also found in Twelfth Night , As You Like It , The Merchant of Venice , and Cymbeline ; - A character who (sometimes) goes by the name Sebastian (as in Twelfth Night ); - Talk of a couple eloping with a rope ladder (sort of like Romeo and Juliet ); - Couples escaping to the woods (also a theme in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream ). - A resolved love triangle: Proteus who had been engaged to Julie thinks he is in love with Silvia (similar to Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , who had been in love with Helena, but who thinks he loves Hermia, and Hermia’s love, Lysande...

February 2 is the anniversary of the 1602 first public performance of Twelfth Night. Consider the influence of St. Paul on the play: St. Paul was in at least three shipwrecks [1]. - One account from Acts 27 was read at morning prayer on the Sixth Day of Christmas, December 30, every year of Shakespeare’s life [2]. - Although there would be many tales of shipwrecks, these familiar Bible readings would have offered a persistent religious association. - Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck. Every January 21st at morning prayer [3], churchgoers would hear St. Paul’s letter, 1 Cor 3, which reads as if it’s speaking of the fool Feste, and Malvolio’s vanity, in Twelfth Night: 18 …If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him be a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He catcheth the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth that the thoughts of the wise be vain. Twelfth Night revelry was like ...

One last Twelfth Night post before the anniversary of its first 1602 public performance on February 2: In Shakespeare’s time, a young male actor would have played the female Viola, later disguised as male Cesario: Much analysis of the play deals with gender, disguises, social constructs. Some of it considers Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s monarch, in a role usually reserved for men. The fifth pageant for her coronation portrayed Deborah, a prophetess of Hebrew scriptures who led Israel as judge [1], contrary to Christian assumptions that kept women from female authority roles. Some scholars and historians note that Elizabeth had a reputation for swearing, not so much sexual profanity as religious, like Hamlet’s “swounds” (by Christ’s wounds) or “sblood” (by God’s blood). Elizabeth’s favorite was “by God’s death,” which listeners assumed was for shock value, by a woman in a man’s world, striving to maintain attention and control [2] Like Portia disguised as Balthazar in the courtroom sce...

Letter and Mousetrap, Twelfth Night and Hamlet: Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, and his tragedy, Hamlet, were written around the same time: Certain details of themes, motifs, and plot mechanics suggest a variety of connections (in addition to Hamlet feigning madness and Viola feigning being a young man...). One of these is the function of the letter that brings about the demise of the steward Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and “The Mousetrap” playlet used by Hamlet to catch the conscience of his monarchs. Both are used to entrap a powerful person, both artifacts of writing (letter) or based on them (playlet). The letter in Twelfth Night is written in the hand of Maria for how it resembles that of Olivia, so it is like a forgery, but never called that. Some form of the word forgery occurs three times in Hamlet, spoken by the ghost, Polonius, and Claudius, usually in a metaphorical rather than literal sense [2]. Hamlet on the ship to England finds the letter from Claudius to England...

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night , there is a curious exchange of a message with a ring, spread over multiple scenes: 1.5: Olivia sends Malvolio with a ring (of her own) and a message, claiming (falsely) that Cesario (Viola in disguise) had delivered it for Duke Orsino  [1]. But it was not actually Orsino's ring as Olivia claims to Malvolio; it was Olivia's ring, so this lie to Malvolio is like a kind of forgery. - Malvolio is to "return" the ring to Cesario - who never actually gave it in the first place - and who (Olivia says) should return it to Orsino. - Actually, Olivia wants an excuse for Cesario to return, since Oliva enjoys Cesario’s company. - Malvolio is to tell Cesario only to come back if it is to report how Duke Orsino received the ring. The rest of this unfolds in 2.2 (ring delivered to a dumbfounded Cesario) and 3.1 (Olivia apologizes for any confusion or dishonor caused by the ring conceit) [2]. In October of 2020, Alicia Hughes of the University of Gl...

How might Londoners have reacted to seeing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at its first public performance on February 2, 1602 [1]? The play’s character Olivia, mourning a father’s and brother’s deaths, and reluctant to marry, might easily remind them of their queen, Elizabeth I. Olivia hides her face with a veil (1.1; 1.5); Elizabeth survived smallpox and hid her facial scars with thick makeup [2]. Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, might remind many of the late William Cecil, long-time advisor to Elizabeth and sometime spymaster [3]. Malvolio intercepts a letter - a forgery by Maria, designed to entrap him and bring about his downfall, which he believes contains a code - this would remind audiences of the downfall of Mary Queen of Scots (executed February 1587), accomplished in part by intercepted letters – some in code, some alleged forgeries - overseen by Cecil [4]. Mary claimed at her trial “That it was an easy matter to counterfeit the Ciphers and Characters of others” [5]. It was an old ...

If Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is related to Christmas and Epiphany, how so? Some would say only by title [1] and only in a secular sense for having Sir Toby Belch as a “Lord of Misrule,” a secular Christmas tradition [2]. There’s no baby Jesus, no shepherds, no angels, no Magi.  But consider: Viola and Sebastian come from far away, like the Magi. They are shipwrecked, like St. Paul, saved from water, or like the inhabitants of Noah’s ark (which Sir Toby mentions) after storms and flood. The scripture readings for both St. Paul’s shipwreck and Noah’s ark were read every year in English churches during the Christmas season [3]. The twins are refugees in enemy land, like the Holy Family in Bethlehem under Herod the Great [4]. “Wise men/man” is spoken six times in the play by various characters [5].   The use of Sir Toby Belch as “Lord of Misrule,” and the downfall of the proud and Puritanical Malvolio, echo what the Virgin Mary says in reply to the angel Gabriel on being told ...

On the 11TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME, JANUARY 4, church congregations would have heard the following scriptures, part of the religious-literary fabric from which Shakespeare borrowed: Psalm 4 involves David’s prayer when he was persecuted by King Saul. David must be clever to avoid being killed by Saul, as Hamlet must be clever to avoid being killed by Caudius. Genesis 5 tells of Lamech, descendant of Seth and Methuselah, not to be confused with Lamech descendant of Cain, mentioned on the 3rd, “Lameth” being an anagram of “Hamlet” [1]. Matthew 3 speaks of John the Baptist (mentioned on Christmas Day, "First Day of Christmas," and on the last two Sundays of Advent), and of his baptizing of Jesus in the Jordan, an echo of Moses leading the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s Egypt. John the Baptist, as previously mentioned [2], is alluded to in Hamlet and his player queen, “Baptista” (3.2.263). Romans 3 speaks again of circumcision, as did the Feast of the Circumcision ...

On the first day of Christmas in Shakespeare’s time, what Bible tales did they hear? People in England were required by law to attend church on Sundays and Holy Days, so hearing at least some of the Bible readings in church [1] would have been mandatory. On Christmas Day, if one rose early and made it to church for Matins (early morning prayer), one would hear the tale from the Gospel of Luke of the shepherds hearing the angels announcing the birth of Jesus, and going to adore him [2]. But if one attended only the later liturgy with communion service, one would hear from the Gospel of John about the Word of God being made flesh (the incarnation, the God of heaven made “incarnate” as a human being on earth), and about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus [3]. John the Baptist was already familiar from the gospels for the last two Sundays of Advent, a theme repeated on the first few days of Christmas at morning prayer. How do these come up in Shakespeare? - The infant princess,...

I am reposting some thoughts from Charlotte Scott, who extends some ideas of Julia Kristeva regarding the “ick” and the “abject”: [1] Charlotte writes, “Whilst the abject may be those things, fluids, forms, faeces that we ‘thrust aside in order to live’, (Kristeva) the ick is what we reject in order not to become.” Often we may fail to attend closely to the elements she identifies in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night: We feel a cathartic effect as we view or read the plays, but at times we may become too familiar with them, or with scholarly theories that address them. But when people like Charlotte Scott draw attention to them like this, following a kind of golden thread (Blake) [2], we become defamiliarized (Viktor Shklovsky) enough to give it fresh attention. In Hamlet, Claudius, as murderer of his brother and usurper of the throne, would greatly prefer that Hamlet “thrust aside” his mourning “in order to live,” and Gertrude joins him in discouraging Hamlet’s m...