Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

GOOD FRIDAY & CAIN IN GERTRUDE'S CLOSET Compare: Hamlet 3.4.31-32, after Hamlet kills Polonius unseen: Queen:  O me, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? * Hamlet:  Nay, I KNOW NOT. Is it the King? * [1] Genesis 4:9-10, Geneva trans.: Then the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? Who answered, I cannot tell. Am I my brother’s keeper? Again he said, WHAT HAST THOU DONE? * the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me, from the earth. Luke 23:34, Geneva, Jesus from the cross: Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them: for THEY KNOW NOT what they do. * (* Emphasis mine) - Queen Gertrude echoes God to Cain: What hast thou done? - Hamlet echoes Jesus from the cross: I know not (what I've done). AT LEAST TWO IMPLICATIONS: 1. By killing a human being, Hamlet has sinned, like Cain killing his brother. 2. By stabbing the person hidden behind the arras, blind to who he was stabbing, Hamlet fits what Jesus says from the cross: They know not what they do. WHY HAS THIS BEEN MISSED by previous...

Sometimes what looks like a gamble may be a risk taken in faith. (Does gambling for money parody such faith?) FORTUNE AND GAMBLING IN HAMLET : THE DEAD KING HAMLET GAMBLED, in an agreement with Old Fortinbras, to engage in single combat, described by Horatio in 1.1. The survivor won the loser’s land. We learn in 5.1 that this combat took place on the day that Hamlet was born.[1] CLAUDIUS BETS that Hamlet will win the duel with Laertes in 5.2, though he and Laertes plan to kill Hamlet. Claudius takes his chances that the plot will succeed, but to increase his chances, a poison cup is a back-up plan, and instead of Laertes merely using an "unbaited" rapier (with no blunt safety tip), Laertes also anoints the rapier with poison. This combines cheating with gambling. [EDIT: Grace Tiffany of Western Michigan University adds to the list of gambling references: Gertrude's marriage vows are "false as dicers' oaths" (3.4), referring to how gamblers, wh...