Sunday, December 8, 2013

How many biblical references did Shakespeare make in his works?

Shakespeare's great trait was his ability to retell and rework a story, or quote, and make it infinitely better than the original.


For instance, Hamlet was a story that was very familiar to Elizabethans. Why choose a story, that they knew so well? He knew his retelling would be so unique, so inventive, that he wanted his audience to know the story, allowing them to focus instead on Hamlet's mental journey. His ultimate goal, was to sell tickets. Because he was writing something that would profoundly effect his audience, he chose a familiar story as his vehicle.


The rest is history. Hamlet was the first piece of literature, written up until that time, to so perfectly explore the inner workings of the human psyche! No one had ever done that before. 


Hamlet is only one example. Shakespeare did this over, and over, and over.


And, contrary to the romantic vision of perfectly formed words flowing from his pen, evidence demonstrates that he worked and reworked his own writings. He was constantly editing and refining his words. It is fascinating to read some of the ever-so-slight edits he made, and how dramatically different the slight edits can be.


Shakespeare borrowed heavily, and quoted from, many different sources in his writings. This was his style, and he was a master at it. Referencing the Bible was no more, nor less significant to him, than quoting Plautus, or lifting whole scenes from Holinshed's Chronicles. They were all food for his fertile imagination.

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