Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When considering an allusion by an author, it’s often informative to check and see if that author has other works that make a similar allusion. With Hamlet’s allusion to the boy Jesus amazing his mother and the temple elders in 3.2, besides checking things such as homilies of the time (as I did in Part 9 of this series) [1], we might wonder: Did Shakespeare allude to this Bible tale in other plays? Naseeb Shaheen believes Shakespeare’s Cymbeline has a brief reference to this same gospel tale (1.1.47-52), and King Lear (more explicitly) in 4.4.26-32. Less explicitly - yet perhaps quite significantly - in Macbeth, the dynamics between Lady Macduff and her son have a strong thematic connection to the tale of the boy Jesus amazing and [a-]stonishing his parents (and especially his mother, as...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/01/index-hamlet-in-32-as-boy-jesus-lost.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the play-within-the-play, in conversation with Rosencrantz, Hamlet implies that he has amazed and astonished his mother like the boy Jesus did when his parents found him with the elders in the Temple. I’ve omitted some parts of the Hamlet text so as to focus more closely on the applicable parts below. Compare the text from the play, below, to the text from 2:46-52 (Geneva), which was read every January in Shakespeare's lifetime on the Sunday after Epiphany: [1] GUILDENSTERN: The King … Is …marvelous distempered.... The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. ...your behavior hath struck her into *amazement* and admiration. HAMLET: O wonderful son that can so *’stonish* [astonish] a mother! (3.2.325-356) [2] Compare Luke 2:46-52 (Geneva): 46 And i...