A
REVIEW
OF
THE
DARK
LADY
PLAYERS:


THE
RELIGIOUS
IMPLICATIONS
OF
THEIR
WORK

BY

BARBARA
ROSENFELD



Reform
Judaism
magazine
has
just
published

(on
25
May)
an
article
‘Unmasking

Shakespeare’
by
the
journalist
and
biographer
Michael
Posner.
It
examines
a
new
theory

that
the
Shakespearean
plays
were
written
by
a
Jewish
woman,
the
poet
Amelia

Bassano
Lanier,
the
first
woman
in
England
to
publish
a
book
of
original
poetry.
The

400th
anniversary
of
her
volume
of
poetry
Salve
Deus
Rex
Judaeorum
(1611)

is
coming

up
next
year.




This
is
interesting
in
itself,
but
the
proposal
that
a
Jew
wrote
the
Shakespearean
plays

would
explain
some
of
their
many
peculiarities.
The
plays
contain
3,000
religious

allusions
and
use
14
different
translations
of
the
Bible.

It
is
proposed
that
these
many

religious
references
were
used
in
order
to
create
a
system
of
religious
allegories
that

convey
a
satirical
parody
of
Christian
doctrine
and
which
tell
a
radical
new
story
about

the
origins
of
Christianity.



Hamlet,
for
example,
appears
to
be
a
comic
religious
parody
of
the
Book
of
Revelation.


Like
Revelation
it
contains
seven
angels,
seven
trumpets
and
seven
letters.

Laertes
is
an

allegory
for
Christ,
Ophelia
for
the
Woman
Crowned
with
the
Sun/Virgin
Mary,

Polonius

for

God
the
Father.
Hamlet
is
the
Anti‐Christ.
Gertrude
is
the
Whore
of
Babylon
and

Claudius
the
Beast.
However
in
this
allegory

the
forces
of
Christ
are
defeated,
and
at

the
end
everyone
dies.
Instead
of
Jerusalem,
a
city
with
golden
walls
descending
from

heaven,
what
arrives
is

Fortinbras,
a
pun
alluding
to
the
City
of
Brass
in
the
Arabian

Nights.



The
comic
allegory
is
easily
seen
in
the
character
of
Ophelia,
because
the
times
she
is

interrupted
by
Hamlet,
while
sewing
or
reading,
parody
the
Annunciation.
Hamlet’s

unrelenting
gaze
on
her
is
because
he
is
allegorically
Helios
(son
of
Hyperion)
and
his

gaze
parallels
the
depictions
of
the
Annunciation
in
Renaissance
painting.
However
all

does
not
end
well,
because
almost
all
her
herbs
cause
abortions
or
are
used

in

treatment
of
menstruation.
In
this
Annunciation
the
baby
is
aborted,
which
makes
sense

if
Hamlet
really
has
arrived
from
hell
and
is
the
Anti‐Christ.
This
new
approach
to

Shakespeare
is
being
used
by
the
Dark
Lady
Players
who
are
currently
working
on
a

production
of
Hamlet’s
Apocalypse
which
opens
in
New
York
City
in
November
2010.




Other
plays
which
the
Dark
Lady
Players
have
performed
onstage
include
A
Midsummer

Night’s
Dream
which
is
an
allegory
of
the
Roman‐Jewish
war
in
which
Titania/Titus

Caesar
steals
away
a
little
Indian/Judean
boy
from
the
King
of
India/Judea‐‐
an
invisible,

jealous,
Lord
whose
lines
come
from
the
references
to
Yahweh
in
the
solar
Psalms.

The

boy’s
mother
is
a
virgin
nun
and
Titania/Titus
crowns
him
with
thorny
flowers
and
turns

him
into
a
changeling—a
reference
perhaps
to
leading
edge
New
Testament
research
on

how
Titus
Caesar
and
the
Flavian
Emperors
transformed
the
Hebrew
messianic
figure

into
the
pro‐Roman
figure
of
Jesus
in
the
gospels.
The
Dark
Lady
Players
have
also

performed
the
comic
parodies
of
the
Virgin
Mary
that
exist
in
half
a
dozen
plays,
and
in

2008
performed
the
allegorical
levels
of
As
You
Like
It
showing
it
to
be
another
parody

of
the
Roman‐Jewish
war
which
recounts
a
radical
story
about
how
the
Flavian
Caesars

tamed
the
figure
of
the
Hebrew
Messiah,
turning
it
into
a
pacifistic,
pro‐Roman
and

compliant
Christ
figure.



Much
to
the
dismay
of
Shakespeare
scholars
who
find
that
their
fantasies
about
the

Man
from
Stratford
are
badly
shattered,
it
would
appear
that
the
people
who
are
best

positioned
to
understand
the
works
of
Shakespeare
are
not
English
departments,
but

rather
departments
of
Religion
well
versed
in
Roman
history,
Marranism
and
Josephean

studies.






MAY
2010



Barbara
Rosenfeld
is
a
journalist
and
producer
of

Manhattan
Entertainment
Spotlight

Special
which
airs
on
Channel
34
in
Manhattan.
Her
interviews
with
the
Dark
Lady

Players
are

at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEA_4V0mk_A

and

http://blip.tv/file/1254195/