Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

HAMLET, SUPERMAN, AND FRANCIS OF ASSISI WALK INTO A BAR.  What do they talk about? Fathers.  Was it ever more honorable to disobey your father than to obey him?  SUPERMAN, in the latest film (dir. James Gunn, 2025), faces a choice: His biological father on Krypton had recorded messages for him. One had been damaged, at first thought irretrievable. When finally decoded, Superman learned that he was sent to earth because its inhabitants were weaker, so that he could dominate them.  Should he obey his biological father’s plans for domination?  He disobeys and heeds the advice of his adoptive parents, using his powers to serve.  The first sentinel in Hamlet?  FRANCISO, named after FRANCIS OF ASSISI, once a soldier and prisoner of war. His father, a rich merchant, was not quick to ransom him for early release.  Francis later heard a voice: “Repair my church.” At first he thought this was about church buildings, but soon realized it was about repairin...

Thomas More was executed on this day in 1535, 490 years ago. Shakespeare depended in large part on More’s account of the reign of Richard III when writing his play by that name, and there is handwriting evidence that Shakespeare collaborated on the play, Sir Thomas More, with at least four others, and especially on a speech promoting hospitality toward foreigners in a hostile context.  Both Thomas More and Prince Hamlet opposed the kings under whose rule they lived, but there are some illuminating key differences: It is said at his execution, More’s last words were, "I die the King's good servant, and God's first." He did not oppose Henry’s marriage to his dead brother’s widow, because the church gave special dispensation for it, but later Henry would claim it was an incestuous and biblically sinful marriage [1]. It is likely that More would have been fine with Henry VIII having his marriage annulled if Rome had approved, but they did not, so when faced with a choice ...

Ophelia and Hamlet influence Gertrude's final choices; they live in her: If we have followed Gertrude’s progress closely (allowing her to be at least as intelligent as the men in the play), we might note: She may have been deceived to marry Claudius, and done so as much for the safety of Denmark facing a threat from Norway [1], as for lust (contrary to what her son and the Ghost say [2]). She understands her son’s “Mousetrap” and its implications: Claudius poisoned his brother and wooed his brother’s wife [3]. Hamlet’s scolding in her closet has “cleft [her] heart in twain” [4]. She feels guilty facing Ophelia after her father’s death and her reported madness [5]. She reports Ophelia’s death not as suicide, but as an accident caused by crown-envy: the breaking of a sliver of willow envious for a crown [6], hinting at Claudius as the ultimate cause [7]. She probably suspects that Claudius poisoned the cup when dropping in a pearl and asking Hamlet to drink [8]. But she can’t know fo...

In Hamlet 5.2, Gertrude suspects poison, [1] but doesn't know for certain — a dangerous mystery: she avoids openly accusing Claudius. This scene is a variation of King Aegeus, saving son Theseus from a poison cup from stepmother, Medea — with some genders switched and stakes raised.[2] Gertrude will test the wine by drinking it, without saying that is her reason for doing so. In this she sets a better, simpler mousetrap for Claudius: If it is poison, he could stop her and confess. If not, maybe “mad” Hamlet was mistaken about Claudius? Hamlet’s “Mousetrap” foreshadows (and sheds light on) Gertrude’s. She cannot pluck the mystery’s heart without drinking from the cup to test it, and to test Claudius. By drinking, in effect, Gertrude tells Claudius: If you would poison my son, you must go through me first. In her closet, Hamlet had told her that he would later beg a blessing of her [3]. Testing the wine for poison is the blessing she offers her son, without his having to ask. This ...