Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

In The Odyssey, the weaving of Penelope, as a ruse to avoid her 108 suitors* later seems to find parallels not only in Ophelia and her sewing and reading, but also in Prince Hamlet. (Penelope and others fending off 108 suitors makes me think of the Buddhist idea of the importance of quieting the "monkey mind" of distractions!) Katherine Goodland has noted: Polonius wants Ophelia reading, to look like common images of Mary at the Annunciation. ( See this post .) [1] So now we have to think loosely, of Ophelia as associated in her sewing with Penelope, and in her reading, with Mary at the Annunciation; In a way, we might consider Penelope's weaving as a kind of compromised involvement with the world (to fend off suitors) and then a kind of prayer or repenting (unweaving, undoing the work), but also a kind of scheming for survival. Hamlet and Ophelia both have rhythms of compromised involvement in their world, followed by types of repenting or undoing: They weave...

If you have viewed the recently available Shakespeare's Globe production of The Winter's Tale (more information near the end of this blog post), you may have noticed many themes and story elements in common with Hamlet (and perhaps other Shakespeare plays as well). In fact, Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale share a number of important features that are perhaps instructive regarding the political interests and moral concerns of the time. [Image via Shakespeare's Globe] Consider: Both Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale are about what is appropriate mourning for the dead: - In Hamlet , the mourning by Gertrude of her husband's death, and by Claudius, of his brother's death, are too short in Hamlet's opinion. - In The Winter’s Tale , in spite of the real need for Leontes to demonstrate a very real repentance for his grave mistakes, the mourning may seem too long. - Hamlet involves suspected adultery, poisoning, conspiracy to poison, and revenge. - The Winter...

What Would Yogi Bera say? If I were at production of an Early Modern play about a ruler named Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, I might think the play was A Midsummer Night’s Dream . If the plot involved three females, along with a war-inclined man’s wife, urging a the man to violence, I might guess that the play was Macbeth . If it involved a young woman who falls in love with a young man that her father believes is beyond her reach, and she later goes mad and is at risk of drowning, I’d think it was Hamlet . If it involved a rag-tag bunch of amateur actors putting on a show for their ruler, I’d think we were back in A Midsummer Night’s Dream . If the plot involved a love and possible betrothal confused or complicated by mistaken identities, I’d think the play might be Twelfth Night or Much Ado About Nothing . If the play involved a ruler named Creon dishonoring the dead by prohibiting the burial of certain corpses, I’d think it was a production of Sophocles’ play, Anti...