Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

Shakespeare scholars often note the changes from the First Quarto of King Lear (1607), to the Folio version (1623), especially the dying Lear, holding the corpse of Cordelia in his arms, hoping for a sign that she is still breathing, and in the Folio, attention to her lips: “Do you see this? Looke on her? Looke her lips, Looke there, looke there.” Many in the last four centuries (including Benson, 2009 [1], and de Grazia, 2021 [2], both of whom cite many others) have pondered whether this hints at a resurrection theme, or delusion. Perhaps there was a topical-historical-political reason for adding the comment about Cordelia’s lips: Had any daughter of King James died around this time? In fact, three of James’ four daughters had died before 1610: Princess Margaret Stuart (24 December 1598 - March 1600) had died before the play was written; Princess Mary Stuart (8 April 1605 - 16 September 1607) died at about the age of two and a half years. Sophia Stuart (22 June 1606 – 23 June 1606) ...

It is said that in Shakespeare’s plays, all resurrections are staged, faked: Much Ado About Nothing (Hero) [1]; Henry IV, Part 1 (Falstaff) [2]. Staging can fail badly: Romeo and Juliet [3] (as if to admit the limitations of such staging?). Poor Tom/Edgar stages a miracle for Gloucester in King Lear [4].   Sonnet 18 ends, “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee,” as if the poem bestows (stages) everlasting life. What to make of this? As is said in Hamlet of Ophelia’s “mad” speech, many will “botch” these facts up “fit to their own thoughts” [5]: Atheists may claim this proves Shakespeare’s atheism. Christians may note: Miracle and Mystery Plays were banned by Henry VIII, still restricted in Elizabethan times. Even if Shakespeare wanted to portray resurrections, his hands were tied. Many of Hamlet’s verbal tricks with Claudius [6] and Polonius [7] (and Claudius again [8]) – and the gravedigger’s with Hamlet [8] – depend on ta...

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...

Many viewers and readers of Shakespeare's Hamlet (including me) approach the play from a secular point of view. Yet historians and Shakespeare scholars know that the play was written at a time when there were many religious controversies: Shakespeare's older sister had been baptized Catholic under "Bloody" Mary I, when Protestants had been burned at the stake as heretics. Shakespeare had been baptized under Protestant Elizabeth I, during whose reign many Catholics were executed as traitors, hung until nearly dead and disemboweled so they could see their organs ("drawn and quartered"). Catholics believed in transubstantiation, that the host was actually the body of Christ, but English Protestants took that language less literally. Catholics believed in purgatory, that imperfect but mostly good souls might be purified before entry into heaven, while Protestants believed that at the moment of death, one's fate was sealed, bound for heaven or hell at th...

There is a Pentecost echo in Hamlet... [Images, clockwise from UPPER LEFT: Pentecost, circa 1310 and circa 1318, from "Seven panels with scenes from the Life of Christ" by Giotto and workshop (1266–1337). National Gallery, London. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons . RIGHT: "The Pentecost," Part of Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece, circa 1600, by El Greco (1541–1614). Museo del Prado, National Museum of Spain, Madrid. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons . LOWER LEFT: "The Pentecost" by a follower of Bernard van Orley, circa 1530. North Carolina Museum of Art, USA. Public domain, via Wikimedia.org .] Hamlet contains more biblical allusions than plays by others of the age, and Shakespeare’s other plays.[1] There is a rhythm in the gospels: Jesus is a mentor and leader who is crucified, rises, and appears to the disciples.  - He appears to women at the tomb (Lk 24:1-8, Jn 20:11-18), echoed by Claudius: "Where's the body?" [2];  - on the road...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a continuation of a four-part series of blog posts, “Who am I to interpret  Hamlet ?” June 16, 2019:  To be or not? (Part 1: English Studies & Teaching) June 23:  How Literally Did Shakespeare Take the Bible? (Part 2: Religious Studies & Assumptions) July 30:  Reading  Hamlet  through personal & national traumas (Part 3: Lies & PTSD) August 6:  Hamlet , PTSD & Entitlement (Part 4) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first sentence in Hamlet is a question that Bernardo asks Francisco: “Who’s there?”  If the audience feels that the question is directed at all of us as well, we might ask: Who are we, reading or viewing this play? This week I’ll consider some key moments in my religious studies that changed my assumptions about the Christianity in which I was raised, assumptions I also ruminate about in my study of Shakespeare generally, and Hamlet in particular. Who a...