Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

10TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME, JANUARY 3: Matthew 2 revisits the Epiphany’s wise men, star, and Herod, from the December 28 gospel [1]; Genesis 3 tells of the serpent deceiving Adam and Eve, a Hamlet theme [2]; Romans 2 repeats “circumcision of the heart” (v.29), already heard on January 1. Two readings involve vengeance: - David in Psalm 3 calls upon a vengeful God (has avenged him before) to save him from the rebellion of his son, Absalom [3]. - One mentions a descendant of Cain whose name is an anagram for Hamlet: Genesis 4, at evening prayer, mentions Lamech/Lameth [4], who boasts of his vengeance, and in legend, accidentally kills his ancestor Cain, triggering God’s curse [5]. The Danish source for Hamlet has the prince named Amleth. “Amleth” an anagram of “Hamlet,” but so is “Lameth.” In 5.2, Hamlet regrets acting badly toward Laertes at Ophelia’s grave, and tries to apologize for blindly killing Polonius behind the arras, without publicly admitting his intended ...

FOR THE 9TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME, the church assembly would hear the next [1] consecutive psalm, Psalm 2, for which the Geneva translation introduction reads: “David …exhorteth kings and rulers, that they would humbly submit themselves under God’s yoke, because it is in vain to resist God. Herein is figured Christ’s kingdom.” - Many of Shakespeare’s plays involve monarchs and rulers who resist, if not God, at least circumstances, ill fortune, and sometimes their own foolishness. Today begins a cycle with Genesis 1, God shaping creation. - Christian doctrine taught that God made creation out of nothing: This may remind us of King Lear, telling Cordelia in 1.1. that the “nothing” of her refusal to play his game is unacceptable, because “"Nothing will come of nothing.” It may also remind us of “Much Ado About Nothing” [2]. Matthew 1 tells of the genealogy of Jesus, Mary’s pregnancy by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph’s dream in which he is told to marry her in spite of...

THE 8th DAY of CHRISTMAS, January 1 in Shakespeare’s England as now, was the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus,* a ritual for Jewish boys eight days after birth (hence the eight day), but also required of converts to Judaism. [* What a way to start the new year!] All but one of the day’s readings mention circumcision [1], first asked of Abraham as a sign of his covenant with God [2], later not required of Gentile converts to Christianity due to St. Paul’s intervention [3]. The day’s scriptures also speak of figurative “circumcision of the heart” [4][5][6], repenting of sinful attachments to earthly things that inhibit charity, or “caritas,” God-like love. Abraham was also to circumcise male servants and household members, including Ishmael, his son by his wife Sarah’s servant Hagar, and by this all in Shakespeare’s time understood that not only Jews, but also Muslims (“Turks” and “Moors”) were also circumcised. “Jew” or “Jewry” is mentioned about 80 times in Shakespeare, in 11 p...

The 7th day of Christmas (December 31 in Shakespeare’s time as now, also St. Sylvester’s Day [1]), used these Bible readings: Psalm 30 (repeated from previous): House of David, prayer in prosperity, trouble, and restoration (not exactly King Lear, but implied character arc) [2]. MORNING PRAYER Isaiah 65 - the prophet is sought by Gentiles, condemns sins; “seed of Jacob” (a name used five times in two plays); new heaven and new earth (Antony: “Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth” [3]); four animals with rich associative meanings whose names appear in Shakespeare: wolf (38 times), lamb (59), lion (224), serpent (39) [4]. Acts 28 - The shipwrecked prisoner Paul and others are shown kindness by "Barbarians" of Malta: - hospitality for strangers, key theme in Greek and biblical literature, and in Shakespeare as for example in King Lear, A Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, and others (violated hospitality, a strong theme in Macbeth). - 12 “at Syracuse, we tarried… three da...

On the 6th day of Christmas (December 30) if Shakespeare attended church for morning or evening prayer, what Bible passages would he have heard? MORNING: Psalm 30 - The House of David [1]. Isaiah 63 - A vengeful God [2]. Acts 27 - Paul shipwrecked.* EVENING: Isaiah 64 - Divine intervention [3]? 3 John 1 - Welcome strangers [4]? “Demetrius” [5]? * Acts 27 is about St. Paul and a shipwreck, reminding us of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night , but also of the Shakespeare collaboration, 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴, which echoes the geography of Paul’s travels. Hannibal Hamlin refers to the play as “The Acts of 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴” for all of its resemblances to Paul’s journeys [6]. After Paul’s shipwreck, Roman soldiers at first want to execute all prisoners so they don’t escape, but one wants Paul to be spared, an act of mercy. Paul argues that they can all swim to shore: Paul takes the gift of the soldier’s mercy and expands it to include all of the prisoners, not just himself (like a figurative multiplica...

Paul and Agrippa, not Becket? Fifth Day of Christmas, December 29: Bible readings for morning and evening prayer in Shakespeare’s England followed their own schedule, unrelated to feasts such as St. Thomas Becket (removed by Henry VIII and the English Reformation) [1]. Morning: Psalm 29 - Geneva Introduction: “The Prophet exhorteth the princes and rulers of the world (which for the most part think there is no God.)” [2]. Lesson 1: Isaiah 61 speaks of God’s anointed (which Christians interpreted to be Jesus) setting prisoners free. - At least six Shakespeare plays involve prisoners, real or figurative, some set free only in death [3]. - The point here is not that each of these plays alludes to Jesus as liberator of prisoners, but that the Bible readings in English churches (where Shakespeare’s attendance was required by law) shaped and influenced the development of religious and literary motifs related to prisoners and their liberation. Lesson 2: Acts 26 - Prisoner St. Paul encoun...

The First Sunday after Christmas is a movable feast: Sundays fall on whatever dates in December they fall on, depending on the year. It falls on the 29th this year (also the Fifth Day of Christmas; see Part 5.a.). One theme of the day’s Matthew 1 gospel is the royal bloodline of Jesus. On his father Joseph’s side, the gospel claims there were 14 generations from Abraham to King David; 14 from David to the Babylonian captivity; and 14 from that to Jesus. Seven was considered a number of perfection, so fourteen is double perfection, here times three. On his mother’s side, Jesus was also (figuratively) of royal (heavenly) blood, conceived out of wedlock by the Holy Spirit, but an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, explains, and tells him to marry her anyway (mentioned in a previous post [1] as possibly related to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure ). On the one hand, King David was considered a great king. He also seems a disaster. He had an affair with Bathsheba and arranged for the deat...

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England, was assassinated in the middle of the Christmas season, on 29, December, 1170. He was canonized quickly in February of 1173, considered a martyr and a kind of folk hero for resisting expansion of royal authority over things then believed to be matters of the church. Henry II was forced to apologize and to do penance for his role (intentional or not) that prompted Becket’s killing. Nearly four centuries later, about five years after Henry VIII had first sought annulment from his first wife to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn, Henry broke from Rome, became head of England’s church, and received an English annulment instead of a Roman one. In another five years, he (along with Protestant reformers) suppressed Becket veneration and pilgrimage, claiming it idolatrous, disliking the idea of superstitious miracles that transcended scriptural truth. Henry didn’t want his power over his church to be challenged or limited by a Beck...

On the 4th day of Christmas, December 28, Shakespeare’s England observed “Innocents’ Day,” Feast of the Holy Innocents, the tale of Herod the Great ordering the killing of all boys 2-years and younger, a gospel tale designed to echo Pharaoh of Egypt ordering the killing of Hebrew infant boys, and to paint Jesus as the new Moses [1]. Why does Herod do this? To remove prospective heirs or competitors for his throne. Such killing is a repeated theme in Shakespeare, in Richard III with the killing of the princes in the tower, in Richard II and other history plays, in Hamlet, Macbeth, and more. The slaughter of innocents is part of the general cultural-religious backdrop for the killing of Lady Macduff and son in Macbeth. Killing competitors for a throne was not restricted to biblical texts in Shakespeare’s time, but the Bible tales were the only ones required by law for hearing in churches, with legally enforced attendance during which this text was read. By the numbers: The word “Herod” o...

I had such fun discussing Christmas in Shakespeare with host Rodney Hakim of New York Shakespeare, and with historian Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger! The discussion was recorded on December 24, which you can find on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/5LqZQ9sS9l8 My curiosity was especially focused on the question: What Bible tales did #Shakespeare and his contemporaries hear in church during the Twelve Days of #Christmas, and how might we find those motifs and themes transformed in Shakespeare's plays? Researching the Bible readings scheduled in the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer led to some interesting surprises for me, including "three kings" and "Herod" making an appearance (in the same sentence!) in 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘢 - and a royal infant attended by shepherds in 𝘈 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦, among other things. For those who are interested in this topic, for greater detail on biblical connections from the Christmas Bible readings...

This 3rd day of Christmas, December 27, in Shakespeare’s time as now, was St. John the Evangelist’s Day.  John was called “the beloved disciple,” said to be with Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross [1].  Scheduled in the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer to be read this day, John 21 says that John “leaned on [Jesus’] breast at supper” [2]. Some in Shakespeare’s time may have thought that Jesus and John were homosexual - or such views may have been falsely attributed to playwright Christopher Marlowe to smear him. Writings attributed to John speak of the “Word made flesh” [3], and of how “God is love,” so they who “abide in love, abide in God,” and God in them (1 Jn 4:16). John’s gospel is the only one that claims Thomas was absent when Jesus first appeared in the upper room after his death, but that Jesus appears again with Thomas present, and he comes to believe [4]. From this we get the idea of “doubting Thomas,” which influenced Shakespeare’s first scene of Hamlet ...