Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Why did Hamlet compare his father to Greek and Roman gods - at a time when Elizabeth was often compared to goddesses? In Shakespeare’s England, churches had the Ten Commandments posted prominently. The first commandment: "THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME." Literally: Don’t worship deities of other religions. Hamlet worries that heaven forbids suicide (“self-slaughter,” 1.2.136), but (oblivious to other biblical prohibitions?) compares his father to a Greek god, the titan Hyperion (1.2.144), and in 3.4, to more gods: See what a grace was seated on this brow, Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command, A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill, A combination and a form indeed Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. (3.4.65--72) The ghost says he’s being purged in an afterlife, as in purgatory of Catholic teaching, not Greek or Roman mythology. Is Hamlet confused...

In Hamlet, the ghost tells the prince that his brother Claudius poisoned him by pouring a vial of "cursèd hebona" (1.5.69) in his ear.[1] Yet the ghost first presents the poisoned ear as a metaphor for how Claudius lied about the cause of his brother's death: So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forgèd process of my death Rankly abused. (1.5.43-45) It is possible that Prince Hamlet has had his own ear poisoned by what the ghost tells him: The ghost may be a demon in disguise, or a sinner in purgatory, not yet purged of his sinful and distorting assumptions, goals, and ways of viewing his own life.[2] In general, this idea of death by ear would have had other resonances for Elizabethan audiences: By the time Shakespeare's play was first published in the first quarto (1603) and expanded in the second of 1604, Mary, Queen of Scots had already been executed in 1587, the focus of alleged plots to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her on the English throne. Mary's first hu...