SHAKSPEARE AND THE BIBLE. SHAKSPEARE'S KNOWLEDGE A4ND USE OF THE BIBLE. BY CHARLES WORDSWORTH, D.C.L. BISHOP OF ST ANDREWS AND FELILOW OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE. THIRD EDITION WITH APPENVDIX CONTALINIG ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRA TIONS A ND TERCENTENA R Y SERMONV. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE. i880. The rniht of translation is trse:'ed. ii I"S4 I ^ 0T MY CHILDREN: IN THE HOPE AND WITH THE AIM THAT THEY MAY GROW UP READERS AND LOVERS OF SHAKSPEARE AS THE BOOK OF MAN; BUT, STILL MORE, READERS AND LOVERS OF THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD. ( PREFACE. am not aware that the attempt made in this small volume has been anticipated in any other. Even the notes of critics upon Shakspeare, superfluously full in pointing out his obligations, real or supposed, to secular authors, are singularly meagre in the references which they make to the Holy Scriptures. And yet how abundant is the room for such reference, and how much it may conduce to the mutual illustration of the two books, which as Christians and as Britons we should value most, will be seen, I trust, upon every page of the Second Part of the following dissertation. With regard to the First and very much shorter Part, I must confess that it scarcely comes within the title and proper scope of my design; and that it will be found to contain little which can be new or interesting to older and more advanced readers; * *ii Preface. who may, therefore, if they think fit, pass it over: but to the young, for whom the volume is principally intended, I trust it may prove useful; and I was unwilling to miss the opportunity of giving them information which mnay help to improve their knowledge of their own language and at the same time enable them to understand better, and so to read with greater profit and pleasure, both their Bible and their Shakspeare-but especially the former. In selecting the quotations which will be found in the following pages, and in arranging them systematically, no use has been made of any previous compilation: I have trusted solely to my own complete perusal and study of our great poet, with the particular object which I have mentioned constantly in view, and with the additional motive of doing him a justice, which he has not yet fully received, ever present to my mind. On some accounts, indeed, I could have wished that my labours had been less independent; but such as they are, they are presented to the reader, in the hope that they may give him some portion of the pleasure which I have derived from them myself. In the meantime, I am fully conscious that the available material for both Parts of the work is far from being exhausted. As Preface. ix regards the latter Part, some handfuls at least, I doubt not, still remain to be gleaned in the same extensive field; while the former Part contains little more than a specimen of the ore which the same mine, if thoroughly worked, might be made to produce. c The Bible and Shakspeare,' said one of the best and most esteemed prelates that ever sat upon the English bench-Dr. John Sharp, in the reign of Queen Anne-c The Bible and Shakspeare have made me Archbishop of York.' The Shakspeare of Greek Comedy-Aristophanes-is well known to have been a favourite author of the most celebrated preacher of the ancient church, S. John Chrysostom, some time patriarch of Constantinople. Under the shelter of high and venerated authorities such as these the present writer ventures to hope he may escape censure for allowing his name to appear upon the title-page of this volume. He had intended to put it forth anonymously, but his intention has been overruled by the publishers. March 1864. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. HE speedy call for a second edition of this book has encouraged me to revise the whole; and in so doing, I have introduced some additions with the view of making it more complete, and, consequently, as I would hope, less unworthy of public favour. Since the publication of the former edition, I have discovered that two works more or less similar in design to the Second Part of my undertaking had previously appeared; and a third was published, I believe, almost simultaneously with it. I think it due to the authors of those works to make this statement, and to add that in the fruit of their labours, which I have examined with much interest, I have been pleased to find still more thorough confirmation of the conclusion at which I had myself independently arrived. Among the remarks offered, generally in the kindest spirit, upon this volume, more than one of my critics would seem to have forgotten, or misconceived, the purpose of its First Part. I would, therefore, repeat that the proof of Shakspeare's knowledge and ufe of the Bible is not supposed to lie in his employing words and phrases commonly current at the time in which he lived, and still less (for chronological reasons) in his use of words and phrases peculiar to the revised Translation of the Scriptures, published in I61 I. And the design of that First Part is simply to contribute to the verbal illustration of the Bible from the language of Shakspeare, and to the verbal illustration of Shakspeare from our translation of the Bible. A4ugust 1 864. ADVERTISEMENT TO THIRD EDITION. -4 — WO editions of this work were disposed of within a few months after its first appearance in i 864. Subsequently, delays arose and other causes intervened which till now have prevented its republication. Meanwhile, not only has a demand for it continued more or less steadily, but other publications, working upon the same idea, but dealing with the subject far less exhaustively, and exhibiting little or no method, have appeared both in this country and in America. The fact that the work had been stereotyped for the Second Edition, and that the moulds were still available, has prevented the Author from interfering with the main contents of the book as it then stood; but he has thought it worth while to avail himself of the present opportunity to put together in an Appendix some Additional Illustrations which have since occurred to him, and also to reprint the Sermon which he had the honour of being invited to preach on occasion of the Tercentenary Festival 'A Xi X11 Advertisement. held at Stratford-on-Avon in 1864. A third Index, viz. of the Scriptural Passages quoted or referred to in the course of the work, has also been added to this Edition. The enlargement of the present volume by these additions naturally suggested a question in regard to the expediency of retaining the FIRST PART, as being confessedly of inferior value; but the friends who pleaded for it, have urged that the increased attention now paid to the upgrowth and' formation of our language fully justified the hope expressed in the Preface that it may prove useful and interesting, especially to teachers and learners in that department of education. The main object of the publication having been to vindicate the name of Shakspeare from the slur cast upon him most undeservedly, as though he had been one who treated the Word of God without due respect and even with 'profaneness,' the Author cannot but desire that some few at least of the innumerable readers of our ' Immortal Bard' in the rising generation should still be enabled to judge for themselves not only of the injustice he has suffered from such a reproach, but of the credit he deserves for the homage paid by him to Holy Scripture in a most remarkable degree through the manner in which he has recommended and enforced the solemn truths and lessons which it contains. -I.. CONTENTS. -4 — PAGE PREFACE.... vii GENERAL INTRODUCTION.... I PART I. CHAPTER I Of noticeable Forms of Speech found Bible and in Shakspeare. in the English * I * CHAPTER II. Of noticeable Words found in the English Bible and in Shakspeare.... 9 29 PART II. INTRODUCTION. ~. 49 CH.APTER I. Of the Allusions in Shakspeare to the Historical Facts and Characters of the Bible.. 54 xiv Contents. CHAPTER IL PAGE Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible..... oo SECT. i. Of the Being and Nature of God.... I 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen... 17 3. Of God's Goodness in Creation, and in the Redelmltion of Man.. 25 4 Of Human Life, and of 'The World'... 32 5. Of Sin and Repentance....... 5 6. Of Faith, and Thankfulness towards God. 67 7. Of the Duty and Efficacy of Prayer.. 79 8. Of the Domestic Relations..... I88 9. Of Charity and Mercifulness...205 Io. Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Chastity... 22 Ix. Of Justice and Honesty...... 228 x2. Of the Use and Abuse of the Tongue... 234 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and Resignation.. 242 14. Of Holy Scripture, the Christian Ministry, and Church Membership. 259 15. Of Politics-Peace and War.... 276 16. Of Death, the Intermediate State, and Day of Judgment........ 287 CHAPTER IIL Of the Poetry of Shakspeare as derived Bible.... CONCLUSION... APPENDIX: (I) Additional Illustrations (2) Tercentenary Sermon GENERAL INDEX.. INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SHAKSPEARE INDEX TO PASSAGES OF THE BIBLE from the *. 310 * 345 * 357 * 38I * 405. 410 415 I. Y.. - - ON SHAKSPEARE'S KNOWFLEDGE AND USE OF THE BIBLE. GENER/IL INTRODUCTJOA. UCH has been said and written on the learning of Shakspeare. How far the greatest genius of modern times was indebted to the storehouse of antiquity; whether or no he was altogether Untutored in the lore of Greece or Rome, is a question which a hundred years ago was agitated among men of letters with intense interest. But neither in the course of that controversy, nor at any other time, has the enquiry, I believe, been raised to which I purpose in these pages to offer a reply; viz., how far Shakspeare was conversant with Holy Scripture, and whether or no he made use of his knowledge of the Bible to guide and assist him in the production of his immortal works. When I B 9 General Introduction. say that this enquiry is a new one, I do not mean that our poet's acquaintance with Scripture has altogether escaped the notice of every one of his numerous commentators; for such is not the case:* and had it been so, my undertaking might well be suspected of too great and too presumptuous a singularity to warrant an expectation of its usefulness and sobriety. All I would imply is that Shakspeare has not yet received the credit, which I think I shall be able to prove that he deserves, of having been, in a more than ordinary degree, a diligent and a devout reader of the Word of God; and that he has turned this reading to far more and far better account than any of his critics would seem to have suspected, or at all events has yet attempted to point out. His marvellous knowledge of the Book of Nature is admitted on all hands: his knowledge of the Book of Grace, though far less noticed, will be found, I believe, to have been scarcely less remarkable. His works have been called ' a secular Bible:' my object is to show that while they are this, they are also something more, being saturated with Divine Wisdom, such as could have been derived only from the very Bible itself. And I enter upon my task with keener interest and heartier zeal upon two accounts; first, because * For instance, I observe in Mr. Singer's edition of g826 the following note: - It has been remarked that Shakspeare was habitually conversant with his Bible.'-Vol. v. p. 464. Gc'nt'ra/ J)/to-lictlo). 3 I trust I shall be paying a duteous service to the memory of this great man, whom every Briton should delight to honour, by removing an imputation which has been (I am persuaded) hastily and inconsiderately cast upon him, as though he had, in some instances, designed to treat the Inspired Word with profaneness; ~ and secondly, because, if it shall appear (as I doubt not it will) that a genius so incomparable was content to study, and not unfrequently to draw his inspiration from the pages of Holy Scripture, submitting his reason to the mysterious doctrines which it reveals, and his conscience to the moral lessons which it prescribes; it may be hoped that no one of my readers will consider it beneath him to follow an example, set by an authority so highly, so justly, and so universally esteemed. 'He was indeed honest,' says his friend Ben Jonson, ' and of an open and free nature.'t Upon such unquestionable testimony, it is pleasant to be permitted to think of our greatest poet, as one 'who in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, kept it, and brought forth fruit with patience.' That he brought forth fruit-immortal fruit-to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind, no one can deny. Nor is there any conflicting record to prevent us from believing that the tenor of his life, See Mr. Boswell's Advertisement to the Variorum edition of Shakspeare, 1821, p. 8. t Ibid. vol. i. p. 449. B 2 4 General Introduction. especially in his later years, was in conformity with the confession of his death as exhibited in his will; * unless indeed we are to admit two of his sonnets as evidence against himself, which if they prove him at one time to have yielded to the temptations with which he was beset, prove him also to have possessed afterwards the spirit of a true penitent. Of his personal history, all that is now known may be soon told. He was born in the year 564, at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the eldest son of eight children, his father being a glover of that town; and he died at his native place (whither he had retired in comfortable circumstances some years before) in I6 6, when he was only in his fifty-third year. He married very young, before he was nineteen, a lady of the name of Hathaway, eight years older than himself, by whom he had two daughters and one son;+ and who survived him seven years; dying in 1623, at the age of sixtyseven. In that same year appeared the first edition of his collected plays, thirty-six in number, which are generally allowed to be genuine; though not more than fourteen or sixteen had been published in his lifetime, including Titus Andronicus and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. And there seems no reason to doubt that a great portion of what he wrote was composed, if not under the actual pressure of want, yet in a condition * On the contrary, see two other contemporaneous testimonies to his ' honest ' character in Malone's Life, p. 280, sq., and p. 284. He wvas a lsO kRnown among —his contemporaries as 'the entle Shakspea".. Se the Author's j-1 c/d, art Stratff, p. 402. i On h;s early death,,7ercent. Sermozn p.., ~ n f'r further circumstances of the poet's marriage and family, see below, p. i88 sq., p. 196, and Adiz. Illustr. p. 369. Geneal l Introduction. of life very unfavorable to carefulness and maturity of composition. Whatever blemishes there may have been in the character of the first Scottish sovereign who sat upon the throne of England, it is only just to bear in mind that we owe to him, under the good Providence of God, that inestimable work, the translation* of the Bible which we all use; and moreover that to him we owe also the satisfaction which we must all feel when we learn that the best of uninspired writers was not without royal encouragement. Detract what we may from the merit of King James, on the score of pedantry, or of disingenuousness, the facts will remain, which, considering the subject I have now in hand, I rejoice to mention in his praise, and to interweave, as among the brightest ornaments of his crown-that he wrote to William Shakspeare a letter of commendation with his own hand,t and that he gave ' special command' for the publication of the Scriptures in the revised and improved form, which Shakspeare and his contemporaries were the first to read. Our great poet, then, and our translators of the Bible lived and flourished at the same time, and under the same reign. This is an interesting fact in the enquiry upon which we are about to enter, and suggests the propriety of dividing it into two * First published in 161. t See Variorumt Shaksp larle, vol. i. p.. a. i. p. 47 a vol. I.. Our poet also regld marks of favour from Queen Elizabeth. See Drake's Shakspeare and js9. 59. Dyce's L/je, p. 78. 6 GenLeral Iztrodulctionz. parts. That is, we may not only seek to illustrate the subject-matter of the Bible by comparison with passages in Shakspeare which prove his knowledge and study of the Scriptures; but we may explain the language also by parallels which Shakspeare will afford us of the use of words and phrases (not indeed necessarily derived from the Bible, only or chiefly, but commonly current at that time) which have since undergone a change of meaning or become altogether obsolete. And upon this branch of the subject it will be natural to enter first. PORCH OF TRINITY CHURCH, STRATFORD-ON-AVON. PART I. TRINITY CHPjRCH, STRATFORD-ON-AVQN. CHAPTER I. Of noticeable Forms of Speech found in the English Bible and in Shakspeare. a N order to deal fairly with this former part of our investigation, it is necessary to remark, in the first instance, that, while the whole contents and general language of the Bible would be known to our poet from translations previously in use, in regard to particular words and;oudes of speech, it is probable that our translators of 1 6 1 owed to Shakspeare as much as, or rather far more than, he owed to them. According to the chronological order of our poet's plays, as determined by Mr. Malone, only two of them were written after 16I; all the rest having been composed in the interval between that year and I59T.^" And the Bibles most commonly used during that period were either Parker's, called also the Bishops' Bible, of 568, required to be read in churches; or various reprints of the Genevan Bible of 156o, with short marginal notes, and much used in private families (a translation which was due in part to John Knox. * But compare below. Appendix, p. 360. IO Noticeable Forms of Speech while resident abroad); or the version by the Roman Catholics, of the New Testament, published at Rheims in 1582, and of the whole Bible at Douay in i609. With this explanation, I may now proceed to the portion of my task which lies first before me, takiig up whatever is noticeable in the use of the several parts of speech in their natural order. i. To begin then with the use of the Articles, definite and indefinite. In Acts xxii. 4, we read, as spoken by S. Paul, ' I persecuted this way unto the death.' There is no article in the original Greek, and yet in English it has been retained from the translation of Wickliff in 1380 to the present hour. The apostle does not mean any particular death, and therefore, as Bp. Lowth observed a century ago, in his Short Introduction to English Grammar, p. 3I, the definite article is improperly used in our version of the text. The same inaccuracy occurs also in 2 Chron. xxxii. 24. ' In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death,' where there is no article in the Septuagint. And again in Revelation xii. I. ' They loved not their lives unto the death' (axpl cvacrou), which has come down not from Wickliff, like the passage in the Acts, but from Tyndale, I 534. The expression which we meet with in S. Matt. xv. 4, and S. Mark vii. Io, and which is derived to us from Ianmer's Translation of 53 9, ' He that curseth r mother let him die the death,' is to be in the Bible and in Shakspealre. 1 1 ced no doubt to the same origin, and involves a further deviation from the sense of the original, ch is literally 'let him die by death' (^a.T. uracr;), and means, according to a Hebrew Ldiom, ' Let him certainly die.' And so we read ill Levit. xx. 9, where the Septuagint has the same Greek words, 'he shall surely be put to death.' See also Ecclesiasticus xiv. 17.' ' The covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die khe death. But now to turn to Shalkspeare. He has several times used the expression, ' to die the death; ' e. g. in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2; in Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2, and again in Aliidsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. i, where in reply to Hermia's question what is to befall her in case she refuscs to rrlr: V Demetrius, Theseus says:Either to die the death, or to abjure For ever the society of man. There can be little doubt that our poet took the phrase (as Steevenst observes) from the Bible; but whether he attached the right meaning to it we cannot tell. Dr. Johnson, with less accuracy than might have been expected from him, remarks that ' this seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicied by law.' The simple form of expression, as first cited from the Acts, c the death,' is to be found frequently in Chaucer, e. g. The deth he feeleth through his herte smite. Cant. Tklcs, v. 1222. * Ccmip. Ibid x'viii. I i, (w7t -r (u:e Oa. VO, '. 1:.. 2. 12 Noticeable Forms of Speech Tyrwhitt has suggested that it seems to have TJ originally a mistaken translation of the Frencll mort. Shakspeare has it in King Richard II.:This and much more, much more than twice all this, Condemns you to the death. Act iii. Sc. I. And again in King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I, ' Where they feared the death, they have borne life away.' The usage is a curious one. (See Afppendix,p.36o.) 2. The use of the Indefinite Article prefixed to plural substantives, especially nouns of number, is also one which admits of similar illustration. In S. Luke ix. 28, we read, 'It came to pass about an eight days after these sayings.' The questionable expression 'an eight days' has been retained from Tyndale's translation in I534. In like manner we find in the Apocryphal Book, I Macc. iv. I5, 'There were slain of them upon a three thousand men.' The same use of the indefinite article is to be met with more than once in Shakspeare. Thus in King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 7, Buckingham describes Lady Grey, afterwards married to King Edward IV., as A care-crazed mother to a many sons. See also Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 5, C a many fools.' 3. To pass on from the Article to the Noun. I am not aware that our translators of the Bible afford any example of an anomaly, or, to speak more in the Bible aend in Sbakspeare. 13 plainly, a false concord, not unfrequent in Shakspeare,j whereby plural substantives are constructed as if singular, and vice verse, except in the two cases of' means' and 'alms,' the former of which, perhaps on account of the biblical authority in its favour, is so employed to the present day. 'We certify the king,' write the adversaries of the Jews in the Book of Ezra iv. I 6, 'that if this city be builded again.. by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side the river.' Johnson, under the word 'mean,' remarks, 'It is often used in the plural, and by some not very grammatically with an adjective singular, as by this means.' So too Shakspeare and the Bible use 'alms' indifferently both as singular and plural. In like manner the two nouns of similar meaning, ' tidings' and 'news,' are used Pby our Poet as of both numbers. Thus we find in him, 'It is a tidings,' and ' this tidings,' as well;,s ' these tidings;' also, 'This news is mortal,' and 'These news are everywhere.' In the Bible we have ' these news,' I Kings i. title, and ' so is good news,' Prov. xxv. 25; but 'tidings' occurs only as plural, e.g. 'these glad tidings,' Luke i. 9.t 4. The formation of our genitive case, originally by the addition of the syllable 'is,' as 'Godis * As ' our remedies.... lies' in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3; ' man4ers urges,' in King Lear, v. 3; 'scope.... allow,' in Hamlet, i. 2. See the critics upon Cymbeline, ii. 3.-Vol. xiii. p. 70, sq. t On ' riches,' as sing., see Appendix, p. 360. 14 Noticeable Forms' of Sp ech grace,' afterwards shortened into the letter ' s' with an apostrophe, as 'God's grace,' has led to a corruption with which our printers seem most unwilling to part, I mean the transformation of' is' into ' his.' Thus in Gen. xvii. title, 'Abram his name' and ' Sarah her name;' Deut. x. title, ' Moses his suit;' S. Mark v. title, 'Jairus his daughter,' Ibid.x. title,' Bartimzus his sight.' And it is a curious instance of the arbitrariness or incomplete accuracy which is apt to prevail in such matters, that while these three examples (and perhaps others) of the corruption in question are allowed still to remain in our Bible, two other examples which Bishop Lowth pointed out, viz. 'Asa his heart,' I Kings xv. 14, and ' Mordecai his matters,' Esth. iii. 4, have been set right. The same usage occurs at the end of the Prayer fcr a/l conditions of men in the Prayer Book;-' and this vwe beg for Jesus Christ His sake.' In the Variorurm Shakspeare I have noticed six examples; all, except one, after words ending in s: three in KiJ: Henry VI. ist Part, one in King Henry V., and one in Troilus and Cressida. It is not a little remarkable that so great a master of the English language as Addison, and at a date so late as 171 I, should have been under the impression that 'his' in these cases is correct, and intended to represent the pronoun. See Spectator, No. 135. If this were so, how could we account for our genitives plural, as 'child):n's bread,' and genitives singular of females or feminine in the Bible and in Sbak,^Ieare. I names, as ' Persia's king?' See Lowth's Grammnnir, p. 42, note; who further observes that 'the direct derivation of this case from the Saxon genitive is sufficient of itself to decide the matter.' In one of the three examples in King Henry fI., Bowdler has very improperly altered the text ' France his sword' into ' France's sword,' not considering, probably, that France is there to be understood not of the country, but of the French king. Besides, if the alteration is to be made in one instance, it should be made in all. (See Appendix, p. 36I.) 5. Proceeding to the Pronouns, I notice first the elliptic use, still common in many phrases, of the dative case of the personal pronouns; e. g. n'e,' 'us,' instead of' for me, 'for us.' Thus in 2 Sam. xix. 26, ' I will saddle me an ass,' i. e. for myself; where the idiom in question represents the force of the middle verb in Greek. So also in Deut. x. 1. c Make thee an ark;' in Josh. xxii. 26, 'Let us now prepare to build us an altar;' and ibid. 16, ' Ye have builded you an altar;' in Judges vi. 2, The children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains.' Again, where the notion of the verb is not reflexive: In I Kings xiii. I3,'He said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass; and he rode thereon.' In likt manner, Shylock in the Merchant of Venice:n Go with me to a notary; seal me there Your single bond. Act i. Sc. 3. i6 Noticeable Forms of Speech. And Pandulf, in King John, Act iii. Sc. 4, 'John lays you plots.' But our poet has examples of the idiom still more peculiar. Thus Shylock again in the speech quoted below, p. 65:The skilful shepherd peeled me certain wands. The ambiguity to which such a manner of speaking may give rise, has been taken advantage of in the humorous scene between Petruchio and his servant Grumio at the door of Hortensio, in Taming of the Shrew:Petrucbio. Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say. Grumio. Knock, sir? Whom should 1 knock? Is there any man has rebused your worship? Pctruchio. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Grumio. Knock you here, sir? Why, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir? Petruchio. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate. Act i. Sc. 2. 6. Formerly 'it,' the neuter pronoun of the third person, besides borrowing the form 'thereof' to supply the possessive case, was indebted for its decletsion to the pronouns masculine and feminine of the same person, and instead of its,t his and * See the elegant volume upon Shaksleare and his Birthplace, by Mr. XWise, who gives other instances, and speaks of it as an idiom still current in Warwickshire, p. 112, sq. t Dean Alford, in his Plea for the zuzeen's English, infornl us that 'its' never occurs in the English version of the Bible, atlrfhat it is said only to occur three times in Shakspeare, and once irkf radise Lost. See Good Words for 1863, p. 19. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. I7 hers wvere used with reference to a thing spoken of. Thus in Joshua iv. I8, 'The waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.' In S. Matthew xxvi. 52, ' Put up thy sword again into his place.' In Haggai ii. 3, ' Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?' These examples* are sufficient to prove.that our poet was guilty of no vulgarity, as then considered, when he put into the mouth of Cesar the following words addressed to Antony:Let me lament That thou, my brother, my competitor, The arm of mine own body, and the heart Where mine his thoughts did kindleAntony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. i. ut it is curious that our translator of the Apocryal Book of Ecclesiasticus should have so far difred at once from Shakspeare, and from himself, to make ' the heart 'not masculine, but first femiine and then neuter, as he does in xxii. 19, ' He 'it pricketh the heart maketh it to show her knowledge.' We find another example in the same plak, where Euphronius says to Caesar:Such as I am, I come from Antony: I was of late as petty to his ends, As is the morn dew on the myrtle leaf To his grand sea. Act iii. Sc. Io. * cee also Exod. xxxvii. 17; Acts xii. io; Rev. xxii. 2, quoted by Dean Alford. Gen. i. I I; Ps. liv. 7, quoted in Mr. Booker's Glossary. C I 8 Noticeable Forms of Speech The explanation of Steevens that by ' his' we are to understand 'its,' is, I believe, the true one. 7. We know that the neuter of the relative pronoun, which, was formerly used as masculine, or feminine; as in ' Our Father which art in heaven,' where we should now say ' who.' Again, in Gen. xviii. 27, 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.' In Matt. xxvii. 55, 56, we have ' which' for both 'who' and ' whom: '-' And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee ministering unto Him, among which wa Mary Magdalene,' &c. Both usages are to be mel with in Shakspeare. Thus in the Tempest, Act iii Sc. I, Ferdinand says,' The mistress which I serve and in King Richard III. Gloster, the future kin to Prince Edward: - Those uncles which you want, were dangerous. Act iii. Sc. i. On the other hand we find in Shakspeare, though not, so far as I have noted, in our translation of the Bible, the use of 'who' for 'which:' ats in the Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2:- \ A brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her. And again in the same play, Act iii. Sc. 3:The elements Of whom your swords are tempered. in the Bible and in Sbakspeare. 19 There are two other peculiarities in the use of the relative pronoun, both of which may derive illustration from the comparison upon which we are engaged. I mean the redundant insertion before the relative, of the definite article, and also of the personal pronoun. Thus, ' the which,' Matt. xiii. 14, and ' in the which,' Acts xxvi. 6, may be compared with Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. I, ' Fame, at the which he aims;' and with Antony and Cleopatra,,Act ii. Sc. i:To lend me arms and aid, when I required them, The which you both denied. nd as examples of the other construction which I ust now named, we have in Luke iv. 34, ' I know hee who Thou art,' and in King Lear, Act i. Sc. I, I know you what you are,' and again in King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act ii. Sc. 6:And he nor sees, nor hears us what we say. The idiom is one supposed to be borrowed from the Greek. It is certainly frequent in the ancient Greek authors, especially the tragedians. 8. There is nothing which occurs to me as calling for remark in connexion with the grammar of Adjectives except the use of double comparatives and superlatives. Of the former Shakspeare would seem to have been specially fond. I have noted down more than thirty examples, and among them 'more better,' also 'worser' and ' more worse,' 23 Noticeable Forms of Speech repeated several times. ' More richer,' ' more worthier,' 'more corrupter,' and 'c more worse' are all to be found in King Lear, one of our poet's later and more finished compositions. Double superlatives, such as ' most best,' ' most unkindest,' he has used much less frequently, i. e. in not more, I believe, than eight instances. Both these anomalies also may be considered as of Greek extraction, or at least they both occur not unfrequently in the Greek drama.* But it is somewhat remarkable that our translators of the New Testament, from Tyn4 -dale downwards, have chosen to introduce the double superlative in Acts xxvi. 5, ' after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee,' though the original Greek is content with a single one. This is the only example of a double superlative which I have observed in the English Bible;t but the older version of the Psalms in the Prayer Book stil retains the expression ' most highest' in more than a dozen places; where, Bp. Lowth has well remarked, ' it acquires a singular propriety from the subject to which it is applied, viz. the Supreme Being, who is higher than the highest.' Of the double comparative no scriptural example occurs to me except in the use of the word 'lesser,' in Gen. i. 16;' The lesser light to rule the night,' * See Bishop Monk's note on the Hibppolytus of Euripides, v. 487. t The word 'chiefest,' however, which is in principle equally anomalous, occurs several times in both the Old and New TestamentL il the Bible and il; Shakspeare. ^ and in three other texts. Dt. Johnson tells us that the adjective ' little' has two comparatives, ' less' and ' lesser;' but I am rather inclined to agree with Bp. Lowth that it is a barbarism, and that worser sounds much more barbarous only because it has not been so frequently used.' And may not this have arisen from the fact that( our translators of the Bible have accepted the one, l3ut rejected the other? It is Lord Macaulay who* speaks of ' our noble translation of the Bible' as 'a book from the authority of which there is ro appeal, where the question is about the force of an English word.' 9. The grammar of the Ver b presents to us little or no occasion for remark, wi thout descending to mninutiae which would be felt b y the general reader to be irksome, if not out of pl ce. The remaining parts of speech, Adverbs, Prep stions, and Conjunctions, I shall also dismiss without much notice. The adverb 'when' was f rmerly often used with the addition of ' as' or ' that.' Thus in Matt. i. 18, we find, when as His Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,' &c. And in King Henry IV. 2nd Part,' Whzen that your fAo k, assembled by the bell,' &c. Act iv. Sc. 2. In i Tim. v. 23, ' Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy often infi- mities,' the adverb 'often' is employed to represert an adjective; as adverbs, we know, constantly a e in Greek, with History of Englanad ii 486. 22 Noticeable Forms of Speech the help of the article. And upon the authority of this passage Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, actually gives it as an adjective with the meaning ' frequent.' In like manner Kind Lear speaks of Cordelia as my sometime daughter' Act i. Sc. I. And in King Richard II. the same, construction enables us to understand a difficult link where the Queen Elizabeth, widow of King Edwa d IV., says to Richard:But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame, My tongue should t4 thy ears not name my boys. Act iv. Sc. 4. 'Still use,' i. e. as,teevens explains it, constant use. In the same w: y Shakspeare uses the expression seldom pleasure' in his 52nd Sonnet:So am I as the rick whose blessed key Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure, The which he wil not every hour survey For blunting the fne point of seldom pleasure:-* i. e. for fear of blu ting, &c. The use of the p eposition ' for' prefixed to verbs of the infinitive m od would strike us now as a vulgarism; but w meet with it in our Bible as well as in Shakspea e. See, for example, Deut. iv. I, 'for to do the;' Matt. xxvii. 6, 'It is not lawful for to put th m into the treasury;' Ps. lxxi. 16, P. B. version,' all them that are yet for to come.' In like manner w read in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. I, 'which for to prevnt, &c. * On the sentiment, see below, Part II. ch. ii. sect. 5I, p. 284. in the Bible and il Shakspeare. 23 The separation of the two parts of which the preposition 'toward' is composed, by placing between them the noun which the preposition governs, is a peculiarity with which we are familiar from more than one passage in the English Bible. Thus in I Sam. xix. 4, Jonathan, speaking to his father Saul respecting David, says, ' His works have been to thee-ward very good.' And 'to God-ward' for ' toward God' occurs three times, viz. Exod. xviii. 19, 2 Cor. iii. 4, I Thess. i. 8. The counterparts to this usage in Shakspeare, are the following:In King Henry VI. ist Part, Act iii. Sc. 3:Hark! by the sound of drum you may perceive Their powers are marching unto Paris-ward. In Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 6:As merry as when our nuptial day was done, And tapers burned to bed-ward. Compare also ' I go wool-ward,' in Love's Labour's lost, Act v. Sc. 2. The use of the preposition 'against' with reference to time is now become almost obsolete, yet I am not aware that we have any other word which supplies its place, and the notion which it expressed is one of frequent recurrence. Thus we read in Gen. xliii. 25, concerning the sons of Jacob, c They made ready the present against Joseph came at noon.' And in Exod. vii. 5, ' The Lord said unto Moses, Get thee unto Pharaoh, in the morning; 24 Noticeable Forms of Speech lo! he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come.' In Hamlet it occurs three times:Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes, Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long. Act i. Sc. i. But as we often see against some storm, A silence in the heavens-[i. e. just previous to]. Act ii. Sc. 2. Yea, this solidity and compound mass With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act. Act iii. Sc. 4. But so far as I have noted, it is not to be found more than thrice in all the rest of Shakspeare, viz. in Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. i, 'against thou shalt awake;' Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc., ' against your nuptial;' and in King Richard II.: They'll talk of state, for every one doth so, Against a change. Act iii. Sc. 4. In the phraseology of Shakspeare's time, the preposition or adverb was often repeated in a manner which we should now think slovenly. Thus we read in As you like it, Act ii. Sc. 7, 'The scene, wherein we play in;' and in Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 5, ' That fair,for which love groaned for.' So too, in Job xli. 9,' Out of his mouth... sparks of fire leap out.' Matt. vii. 5, ' Cast out the in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 25 mote out of thine own eye.' Exod. iii. 5, ' Put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' The conjunction 'because' is used in a remarkable manner, now quite obsolete, in Matt. xx. 3, ' The multitude rebuked them because they should hold their peace,' where the original means 'in order that.' There is an instance of the same quoted by Bp. Lowth from Bacon's 25th Essay; but I have not discovered any parallel to it in Shakspeare. io*. I conclude this chapter by producing a few forms of speech which either from their peculiarity, or because they have now ceased to be used in the same manner, appear to deserve remark. The letter 'a' prefixed to nouns, to adjectives, and to participles, as in the phrases to ' run a-foot,' to ' flee a pace,' to ' be a-hungered,' 'a-thirst,' ' apreparing,' to 'go a-fishing,' to 'lie a-dying,' all which are to be found in our English Bible, has given rise to much discussion and difference of opinion among our grammarians. Some of the same, and others like to these, we meet with also in Shakspeare, as ' approach a-pace;' 'they were an-hungry;' 'looked a-squint.' Bp. Lowth thinks that the ' a' in all such cases is the preposition ' on' a little disguised by familiar use and quick pronunciation. This is confirmed by the phrase in Acts xiii. 36, ' fell on sleep,' which comes down to us from Cranmer's translation, i539, and instead of which in Acts vii. 60, that translation, as well as W26 Noticeable Forms of Speech our Authorized Version, reads ' fell asleep.' Conversely, Shakspeare has in the Tempest, ' all a-fire,' for ' all on fire,' as we should now more commonly say. Forms like 'a-hungered,' may be considered as derived from verbs, after the same manner as to 'set at one' gave rise to the verb to 'atone.'* Thus, to set on hunger would become to on'hunger, and thence in the passive participle to be on hungered, an hungered, a hungered, and thence by corruption, a hungry. C At unawares' is a remarkable phrase which both Shakspeare and our translators of the Bible have used more than once. See Numbers xxxv. II, ' The slayer.... which killeth any person at unawares,' but in verse 15 of the same chapter we read ' that killeth any person unawares,' without the 'at.' See also Ps. xxxv. 8, ' Let destruction come upon him at unawares,' and in the Apocrypha, 2 Macc. viii. 6. The examples in Shakspeare are three; two in King Henry VI. 3rd Part:So we, well covered with the night's black mantle, At unawares may beat down Edward's guard. Act iv. Sc. 2. Either betrayed by falsehood of his guard, Or by his foe surprised at unawares. Ibid. Sc. 4. And one in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 2. The phrase c and if,' in which and is redundant, * See below, ch. ii. p. 30. Compare ' fall at strife,' Acts xv. title. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 2" occurs in I Cor. vii. 13, 'And the woman which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.' And again in verse 2I of the same chapter, C But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned.' So also Matt. xxiv. 48, ' But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,' &c. In Shakspeare wherever the same phrase occurs the and is softened into an. Thus in Othello: It is not lost, but what an if it were? Act iii. Sc. 4. And in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act i. Sc. I:Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, An if the shepherd be awhile away. The phrase ' by and by,' as in S. Matt. xiii. 21, ' When tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended,' and again in S. Luke xxi. 9, ' The end is not by and by,' has gone through a considerable change since the beginning of the seventeenth century. In both those passages and in two others of the New Testament where it occurs, viz. S. Mark vi. 25, and S. Luke xvii. 7, it is used to represent a Greek word which signifies C immediately.' And in Shakspeare it has sometimes the same meaning. Thus in Romeo and yuliet, Act iii. Sc. 4:It is so very late, that we May call it early by and by:-Good night. 2 8 Noticeable Forms of Speech. And again in the same play, Act v., Sc. 3 - Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb; And by and by my master drew on him. But occasionally our poet employs it more in accordance with the sense which it now bears; as in Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2: I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. The classical reader may compare the different meanings of the Latin adverb ' mature.' Of the double negative used to strengthen the negation there is, I think, only one instance in the Bible, viz. 2 Sam. xiv. 7: 'c They shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth;' but in Shakspeare it is not uncommon. Give not me counsel, Nor let no comforter delight mine ear. Much Ado, Act v. Sc. i. She cannot love, Nor take no shape, nor project of affection. Ibid. Act iii. Sc. i. CHAP TER II. Of Noticeable Words found in the English Bible and in Shakspeare. Y c noticeable words' I mean such as are now rarely or never used in the same sense, or which have become altogether obsolete. The most convenient form into which the materials intended for this chapter can be cast will be that of a comparative glossary. What follows forms but a portion of the author's own collection; and it is offered merely as a sample of what every reader of Shakspeare and the Bible may do for himself. ABJECTS: once in Bible, and once in Shakspeare. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me. Ps. xxxv. 15. We are the Queen's aojects, and must obey. King Rich. III. Act i. Sc. x. i. e. treated by her as abjects, or vile persons, rather than as subjects ought to be. treated. 30 Of Noticeable Wordsfound ADO; once in Bible, frequent in Shakspeare. Why make ye this ado, and weep? Mark v. 39. Make ye no more ado, but all embrace him. King Hen. VIII. Act v. Sc. z. It means trouble, difficulty, bustle, tumult. ALLOW. That which I do, I allow not. Rom. vii. i;. Ye allow the deeds of your fathers. Luke xi. 48. I like them all, and do allow them well. King Hen. IF. znd Pt. Act iii. Sc. 2. Praise us as we are tasted; allow us, as we prove. Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 2. Thus used it means to approve of. In the present ordinary signification to permit, it is also found in Shakspeare, but not, I think, in the Bible. AMAZE, AMAZEMENT. I do beseech your Majesty, make up; Lest your retirement do amaze your friends. King Hen. IV. Ist Pt. Act v. Sc. 4. i. e. alarm them, confuse with terror. I will make many people amazed at thee. Ezek. xxxii. 0o. And are not afraid with any amazement. i Pet. iii. 6. ATONE, ATONEMENT. I would do much to atone them. Othello, Act iv. Sc. I. i. e. reconcile them, ' set them at one again,' as we read in Acts vii. 26. And we have the substantive at onement, in Bishop Hall's Satires, Book iii. S. vii. 69: Which never can be set at onement more. in the Bible and in Sbakspeare. 3 I Shakspeare uses both the verb and the substantive, and the former both as transitive and neuter. He and Aufidius can no more atone. Coriol. Act iv. Sc. 6. i. e. be reconciled, agree. But in the Bible, though the substantive is used frequently, the verb does not occur at all. BESTOW. There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. Luke xii. 18. i. e. lay up, put away. See also 2 Kings v. 24; 2 Chron. ix. 25. We will bestow you in some better place. King Hen. VI. Ist Pt. Act iii. Sc. z. BEWRAY= discover, disclose. Thy speech bewrayeth thee. Matt. xxvi. 73. See also Prov. xxvii. 16; xxix. 24. Should we be silent, and not speak, our raiment And state of bodies would bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3. From Isaiah xvi. 3, and from several places in Shakspeare, it appears that the use of this word was already fast becoming synonymous with that of the word betray, which has now superseded it. BRAVERY: once only in the Bible. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet. Isaiah iii. 15. i. e. finery. With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery. Taming of Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 3. 32 Of Noticeable Wordsfound It is remarkable that Shakspeare appears to use this substantive always in the above sense only; though he uses the adjective brave, not only for fine, but much more often in its present signification, viz. for courageous; while in the Bible neither substantive nor adjective is used at all in the modern sense. The adverb bravely, forfinely, splendidly (of dress), occurs in Judith x. 4. BRING ON WAY=escort. Abraham went with them to bring them on their way. Gen. xviii. i6. I pray you, bring me on the way a little. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 4. BRUIT=report, from the French. Behold, the noise of the bruit is come. Jerem. x. 22. The bruit thereof will bring you many friends. Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. CARRIAGE, in the sense of that which is carried, especially on a journey, or march, baggage, luggage. We took up our carriages, and went-up to Jerusalem. Acts xxi. I5. See also i Sam. xvii. 22, and margin there; Isaiah x. 28; I Macc. ix. 31. Many carriages he hath despatched To the sea side. King 7ohn, Act v. Sc. 7. Spenser uses the word in the same sense. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 33 CASTAWAY=a person lost, or abandoned by Providence; once in the Bible, twice in Shakspeare. Lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I Cor. ix. 17. Why do you look on us, and shake your head, And call us-orphans, wretches, castaways? King Rich. III. Act ii. Sc. 2. CHOICE, adj.=select, excellent. A choice young man and a goodly. J Sam. ix. z. The choice and master spirits of this age. Jul. Casar, Act iii. Sc. I. CHOICE, subst. =the best of anything. In the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead. Gen. xxiii. 6. Replete with choice of all delights. King Henry YI. l;t Pt. Act v. Sc. 5. CONVERSE, CONVERSATION. The substantive, in the sense of behaviour, manner of life, intercourse with, is frequent in Scripture. See Ps. xxxvii. 14; Gal. i. 13S; Phil. i. '7, &c. The verb occurs only in Baruch iii. 37, and in the title of Acts ii. Neither word has in the Bible its present meaning of familiar discourse. In Shakspeare both meanings may, I think, be found; e. g. All are banished till their conversations Appear more wise and modest to the world. Henry IV. 2nd Pt. Act v. Sc. 5. Alas! who can converse with a dumb show? Mercb. of Ven. Act i. Sc. z. D 34 Of Noticeable Words found But the former, i. e. the old signification, is more common. CUNNING, subst. skill, adject. knowing, skilful. Let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii. 5. In our sports my better cunning faints Under his chance. Ant. and Cleop. Act ii. Sc. 3. Aholiab a cunning workman and embroiderer. Exodus xxxviii. 23. To cunning men I will be very kind and liberal. Taming of Shrew, Act i. Sc. I. DAYSPRING=break of day, dawn. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place? Job xxxviii. 2. See also Luke i. 78. As flaws congealed in the spring of day. King Henry IF. znd Part, Act iv. Sc. 4. EAR =to plough, till the land. He will set them to ear his ground. I Sam. viii. z2. See also Is. xxx. 24; 'earing-time' in Exod. xxxiv. 21. Compare Gen. xlv. 6. Let them go To ear the land. King Rich. II. Act iii. Sc. z. See also Shakspeare's dedication of his poem Fenus and Adonis. FAVOUR =countenance, frequent in Shakspeare; in the Bible the adjective only is used, as well in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 35 favoured, ill-favoured, both which, and hard-favoured, occur also in Shakspeare. I know your favour well, Though you have now no sea-cap on your head. Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 3. Rachel was beautiful and well-favoured. Gen. xxix. 17. A shrewd ill-favoured wife. Taming of Shrew, Act i. Sc. 2. The present meaning of the word is also found both in the Bible and in Shakspeare. FEAR=tofrighten, terrify; only once in Bible. Though no terrible thing did fear them, &c. Wisd. xvi. 9. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up tofear the birds of prey. Meas.for Meas. Act ii. Sc. I. Hence ' fearful '=formidable. FULL, adv. =very, quite. Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark vii. 9. Prospero, master of afull poor cell. Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. GOOD-MA N = Master of the House, Paterfamilias. They murmured against the good-man of the house. Matt. xx. ii. See also Prov. vii. 19. This story shall the good-man teach his son. King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3. The old days of good-man Adam. King Henry IV. Ist Part, Act ii. Sc. 4. HARD=close, near. Naboth had a vineyard hard by the palace of Ahab. I Kings xxi. I. 36 Of Noticeable Words found See also Acts xviii. 7. It occurs in several other places in the Old Testament; but in Ps. xxii. I, and cvii. 8, where the Prayer Book version has ' hard at hand' and ' hard at death's door,' the Bible has C near' in both places. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. z. HARNESS — armour. Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off. I Kings xx. 2. See also xxii. 34, and Prayer Book version of Ps. Ixxviii. Io, where the Bible has ' being armed.' 'Before the Sun rose he was harnessed light. Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. z. KNOW=to acknowledge, approve, bless. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. Ps. i. 6. See also Exod. ii. 25, margin.; Hosea xiii. 5; Nahum i. 7; John x. 14, 27; 2 Tim. ii. I9. In the following passage Shakspeare seems to use the word in the same sense. I know you are my eldest brother, and, in the gentle condition of blood, you should so know me. Ar you like it, Act i. Sc. I. LEARN-=to teach. Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me. Ps. xxv. 2. Prayer Book version; but in Bible 'teach me.' See also verse 8. You must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure., As you like it, Act i. Sc. z. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 37 LEASING= lying. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. Ps. v. 6. See also iv. 2. In his praise Have almost stamped the leasing. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 2. i. e. made the lie current. LET=to hinder. Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way, 2 Thess. ii. 7. See also Exod. v. 4; Isaiah xliii. I3. If nothing lets to make us happy. Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. I. Shakspeare also uses the substantive let=hindrance, which does not occur in the Bible. Therefore my kinsmen are no let to me. Romeo and 7uliet, Act ii. Sc z. That I may know the let, why gentle peace Should not expel these inconveniences. King Henry V. Act v Sc. 2. LIKING=good state of body, plumpness. Their young ones are in good liking. Job xxxi. 4. I have an eye to make difference of men's liking., Merry Wiv's, Act ii. Sc. I. We find the same word used also as an adjective. Why should he see your faces worse liking? Dan. i. Io. See also the Prayer Book version of Ps. xcii. 13, fat and well-liking;' in Bible, 'fat and flourishing.' Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat. Love's Labour's lost, Act v. Sc. 2. 38 Of Noticeable Words found LIST= to choose. The wind bloweth where it listeth. John iii. 8. Let them take it as they list. Romeo and 7uliet, Act i. Sc. I. MAN-CHILD, MAID-CHILD, for male child, and female child; in the plural we have 'male children,' Exod. i. title; Josh. xvii. 2. If a woman have born a man-child. Levit. xii. 2. But if she bear a maid-child. Ibid. 5. I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first hearing he had proved himself a man. Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 3. She brought forth A maid-child called Marina. Pericles, Act v. Sc. 3. NEPHEW = grandson, descendant; the Latin nepos. If any widow have children or nephews. I Tim. v. 4. See also Judges xii. 14; Job xviii. 19; Isaiah xiv. 22. You'll have your nephews neigh to you. Othello, Act i. Sc. I. Shakspeare also uses NIECE for grand-daughter, in King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. i; and in his last will he speaks of his grand-daughter Elizabeth Hall as his ' niece.' OR EVER=-before. The lions brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. Daniel vi. 24. See also Prov. viii. 23; Eccles. xii. 6; Acts xxiii. x 5. Compare ' ere ever,' in Ecclus. xxiii. 20. I drink the air before me, and return Or e'er your pulse beat twice. Tempest, Act v. Sc. I. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 39 See also Hamlet, quoted below, p. 212. PATE =head, once in Bible, frequent in Shakspeare. His mischief shall return upon his own head; and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 16. Enter, skirmishing, the Retainers of Gloster and Win chester, with bloody pates. King Henry VI. ist Part, Act iii. Sc. i. See also Taming of the Shrew, quoted above, p. i6. PLAY-to fence, fight. Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. 2 Sam. ii. 14. Compare Bp. Andrewes' second sermon on Ash Wednesday. He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes. Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. PoRT=gate; Latin, porta. That I may shew all thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion. Ps. ix. 14. Prayer Book version. In the Bible 'c gates.' The word does not occur, I believe, at all in the Bible, either in this sense (though 'porter' does several times) or in its more modern use for harbour; Latin, portus. Shakspeare uses it in both senses, even in the same play:Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comces;All ports 1'l bar. King Lear, Act ii. Sc. I. No port is free, no place Does not attend my taking. Ibid. 3. Then is all safe! the anchor's in the port. Titus dndron. Act iv. Sc. 4. 40 Of Noticeable Words found PREVENT=to (I) come before, (2) go before, in order to guide and help-not to hinder, and so the opposite of its present meaning, (3) anticipate; Latin pravenio. I. In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Ps. lxxxviii. 13. 2. Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us. Ps. lxxix. 8. See also Ps. xxi. 3. 3. We which are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep. i Thess. iv. 15. See also Ps. cxix. 148; Matt. xvii. 25. I would have staid till I had made you merry, If worthier friends had not prevented me. Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. i. This seems to fall under the third meaning; and I am not sure that Shakspeare affords an example of any other; except the modern one, viz. to hinder, which is also found in the Bible. The instance, however, which Johnson quotes from Shakspeare, and interprets in the sense of to hinder, ought, I think, to be interpreted in the sense of to anticipate. I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent The time of life. 7ulius Casar, Act v. Sc. I. In the same play, iii. I, the substantive PREVENTION is used with the same meaning:Casca, be sudden; for we fear prevention. PROPER =good-lvoking, handsome, fair. Because they saw he was a proper child. Heb. xi. 23. The same Greek word, which is here used, is in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 41 applied also to Moses, when a child, in Acts vii. 20, and is there translated ' fair.' Compare Exod. ii. 2, 'goodly child.' She finds, altho' I cannot, Myself to be a marvellous proper man; I'll be at charges for a looking.glass. King Rich. II. Acti. Sc. 3. QUIcK —alive, ivevely. QUICKEN =to revive, animate. If the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth. and they go down quick into the pit, Numb. xvi. 30. See verse 33, 'They went down alive into the pit.' See also Ps. xxxv. 15, cxxiv. 3. 's uick and dead,' Acts x. 42; 2 Tim. iv. I; I Pet. iv. 5. The word of God is quick and powerful. Heb. iv. 2. See also Isaiah xi. 3. That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. I Cor. xv. 36. Thou'rt quick, But yet I'll bury thee. Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead. Hamlet, Act v. Sc. I. The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead. Tenpest, Act iii. Sc. I. Shakspeare also uses the verb as neuter:These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin, Will quicken and accuse thee. King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 7. ROAD=' raid,' inroad, once in Bible. Whither have ye made a road to-day? I Sam. xxvii. o. This word does not occur in the Bible in the modern sense; but Shakspeare uses it (i) in the 42 Of Noticeable Words found sense above named; (2) for roadstead, i. e. a place for ships to anchor in; and (3) in its present ordinary signification for a public way. J. Against the Scot, who will make road upon us With all advantages. King Henry V. Act i. Sc. z. 2. Here I read for certain that my ships Are safely come to road. Merch. of Ven. Act v. Sc. I. 3. What wouldst thou have me... enforce a thievish living On the common road? As you like it, Act ii. Sc. 3. In one place also, Henry VIII. iv. 2, ' with easy roads' is used for easy stages. ROOM=place, seat at table. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room. Luke xiv. 8. See also Matt. xxiii. 6. Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me. King John, Act iii. Sc. 4. R UNAGATE =fugitive, rebel, apostate; French, renegat. God bringeth the prisoners out of captivity, but letteth the runagates continue in scarceness. Prayer Book version of Ps. Ixviii. 6, where the Bible has ' the rebellious.' I'll send to one in Mantua, Where that same banished runagate doth live. Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 5. SECURE = confident, careless. Lat. sine curd. Gideon... smote the host, because the host was secure. Judges viii. I. 'Tis done like Hector, but securely done. Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 5. in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 43 SITH = since. Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Ezek. xxxv. 6. Talk not of France, sith thou hast lost it all. King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act i. Sc. i. SORT = class, order of persons. Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Acts xvii. 5. Assemble all the poor men of your sort. Julius Casar, Act i. Sc. I. TABLE = tablet. The tables were written on both their sides. Exod. xxxii. 15. Comp. z Cor. iii. 3. Therefore will he wipe his tables clean, And keep no tell-tale to his memory. King Henry IV. znd Part, Act iv. Sc. I. THOUGHT, used intensively for care, anxiety, melancholy. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat. Matt. vi. 25. Comp. Phil. iv. 6, where the same Greek word is rendered ' careful.' If he love Caesar, all that he can do Is to himself; take thought, and die for Caesar. Jul. Casar, Act ii. Sc. I. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ' think and die.' Act iii. Sc. 2. (See Appendix, p. 362.) TRow=to imagine, deem, believe. Doth he thank that servant? I trow not. Luke xvii. 9. What tempest, I trow, threw this whale ashore? Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. i. 44 Of Noticeable Words found WIs, WIT, and WOT (originally the past tense of the former), to know, perceive, think. They wist not what it was. Exod. xvi. 5. We do you to wit of the grace of God, &c. 2 Cor. viii. I. See also Exod. ii. 4. My master wotteth not what is with me in the house. Gen. xxxix. 8. What I shall choose, I wot not. Phil. i. 22. I wis your grandam had a worser match. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. Submission, Dauphin? 'tis a mere French word; We English warriors wot not what it means. King Henry VI. ist Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. I conclude this chapter with a remark upon the phrase well stricken in years, which we find in Luke i. 7: 'They had no child because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.' In Tyndale's Translation, 1534, and Cranmer's, 1539, the words were" 'well stricken in age;' which we find also in Gen. xviii. II, and xxiv. I. Is it possible that our translator of S. Luke altered the expression out of deference to the following passage of Shakspeare? We speak no treason, man; we say the King Is wise and virtuous: and his noble Queen Well struck in years. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. I. Mr. Steevens, in his note upon the place (and there is no other note upon it in the Variorum edition), calls the phrase 'an odd, uncouth expression.' It does not appear to have occurred to him that it is in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 45 used several times in the English Bible (see, besides the passage in St. Luke, and the other texts referred to above, Josh. xiii. i, xxiii. i, and J Kings i. I); still less that our poet might have chosen it in the above passage because the Queen spoken of was also an Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV. (See Additional Illustrations in Appendix, pp.36I, 362.) PORCH OF TRINITY CIIHRCf, STA I'FORKU-:jN-AVON. I I PART IT. I I IJNROD UCTION. 1HERE are three ways by which we may estimate the extent of Shakspeare's knowledge and use of Holy Scripture. The first is the obvious references to the facts and characters of the Bible which his plays contain; the second, the tone and colouring which pervade his moral and religious principles and sentiments; and the third, the poetical thoughts or imagery which he appears to have borrowed more or less directly from the Scriptures. I shall begin with the first, that is, the historical references, as affording the clearest and most direct proofs of our poet's study of the Bible, which it is my purpose to establish; because, if we are satisfied that the point in question is demonstrated by these, we shall be more ready to admit the same conclusion when we come to deal with the two other branches of the evidence, which, from their own nature, must necessarily be of a less definite and exact, and consequently less convincing character. But before proceeding with the task thus preE 5o Introduction to Second Part. scribed, it is due to the character of our great poet that I should point out how much misconception respecting Shakspeare's treatment of Holy Scripture has prevailed among his critics, even of the highest rank. Let me produce one notable example, derived from the play of Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. I. After the ignominious flight, in which Antony had followed Cleopatra from the- coast of Actium back to Alexandria, Octavius Caesar, the conqueror, sends a messenger to endeavour to detach the queen from her paramour. This messenger is received favourably by Cleopatra in a private interview, and just as he is kissing her hand, previous to his departure, Antony comes in, and in the highest strain of indignation, embittered by the consciousness of his downfall and disgrace, upbraids her as follows: Antony. To let a fellow that will take rewards, And say, God quit you! be familiar with My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal, And plighter of high hearts! 0 that I were Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar The horned herd, for I have savage cause: And to proclaim it civilly were like A haltered neck, which does the hangman thank For being yare * about him. This passage gives striking evidence of our poet's familiarity with the Old Testament; see * i. e. adroit. Introduction to Second Part. 5i Ps. xxii. I2, lxviii. I 5; Ezek. xxxix. 18; Amos iv. I. But is there anything to give offence even to the most pious mind, in the way in which he has applied his knowledge of these several texts? And yet not only has Mr. Bowdler omitted the reference to the ' hill of Basan' as indecorous, but critics, including Johnson himself, have concurred in condemning it as matter for regret, nay even for 'pity and indignation.' I confess I am not surprised that the editor of the ' Variorum edition,' Mr. James Boswell, though he professes in general to have scrupulously retained all the critical remarks of his predecessors, yet made an exception, by venturing, as he says, ' in a very few instances,' to expunge a note in which Shakspeare had been, in his opinion, 'most perversely and injuriously charged with an irreverent allusion to Scripture.' * I am sorry he did not carry the process of expunction so far as to delete the note of Johnson just referred to.t Nor can I omit to add that, while I desire to express my thankfulness to Mr. Bowdler for the manner in which he has executed his praiseworthy undertaking in many respects, I very much regret the undue sensitiveness which has led him sometimes to alter, and sometimes to omit, passages perfectly inoffensive, for no other ~* Vol. i. Advertisement, p. 8. See above, p. 3, and below, p. 350. t See also another note of Johnson, to the same effect, given in that edition, vol. xi. p. 455, and a note of Steevens, vol. viii. p. I 9. E 2 Introduction to Second Part. reason that I can discover, except the allusion they contain to the language or characters of Scripture. The following example may suffice in proof of what has now been said. In the Second Part of King Henry VI. Queen Margaret says to the king:What, dost thou turn away, and hide thy face? I am no loathsome leper, look on me. What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf? Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen. Act iii. Sc. 2. These three last lines are omitted by Mr. Bowdler. And why? Because we read about 'lepers,' and still more, because we read about 'deaf adders' in the Bible. See Psalm Iviii. 4, 5: ' Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; they will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.' This beautiful image appears to have struck the imagination of our poet, and not without reason. He therefore makes use of it again, and with singular propriety, in froilus and Cressida; where Hector says to Paris and Troilus:Pleasure and revenge Have ears more deaf than adders, to the voice Of any true decision. Act iii. Sc. 2Z This Mr. Bowdler has altered into Have ears for ever deaf unto the voice, &c., whereby the notion of truth charming wisely, but in Introduction to Second Part. 53 vain, is altogether lost, and a most flat line substituted for a most vigorous one. And why? Because Mr. B. appears to have been haunted by an exaggerated and mistaken fancy, that whatever is calculated to remind the reader of a Scriptural image, however beautiful and however appropriate, must necessarily be profane! What, I wonder, would Mr. B. have done if he had undertaken to edit, not only the plays, but also the sonnets of Shakspeare; in the cxii. of which we read as follows:In so profound abysm I throw all care Of others' voices, that my adder's sense To critic and to flatterer stopped are;where, by a curious instance of the figure, called in Greek xa, 7,rpo; rto Uo-cio'psvovv, 'are' seems as if put to agree with ears, implied in ' adder's sense.' I now pass on to the evidence of which I proposed to treat in the first instance. CHAPTER L Of the Allusions in Shakspeare to the Historical Facts and Characters of the Bible. N this chapter I have to show the extent of Shakspeare's knowledge of the contents of the Bible in its historical aspect; how fully and how accurately the general tenor of the facts recorded in the sacred narrative was present to his mind. We may begin then from the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis. There can be no doubt that the Mosaic record of the creation of the sun and moon, on the fourth day, when ' God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night,' gave occasion to those words of Caliban in the Tempest, where he describes how Prospero, on his first coming to the island, had been wont to treat him kindly; and as trying to educate him, would often teach him How To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night. Act i. Sc. 2. Facts, etc. alluded to in Shakspeare. 55 And again, when our poet in King Henry VIII. (see below, ch. ii. sect. 2), speaks of 'man' as ' the image of His Maker,' we may be sure he was thinking of the same record which testifies that, 'God created man in His own image.' We know what followed only too soon after the Creation. Our first parent had been ' put into the garden of Eden to dress it, and to keep it,' Gen. ii. 15; but we have only to look on to the next chapter, and we read the sad tidings of his fall, and consequent expulsion from that happy place, under the curse of God. It is not without some awkwardness and confusion of ideas, that these circumstances are supposed to be present to the mind of the Queen of Richard II., when she overhears in a garden the king's deposition spoken of, and coming forth from her concealment, thus addresses the gardener:Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, How dares thy harsh-rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee To make a second fall of cursed man? Why dost thou say king Richard is deposed? King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 4. Again, we read of A-iam that kept the Paradise' in the Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3; and in the same scene he is spoken of as 'old Adam new apparelled,' with reference to the statement in Gen. iii. 21. That 'the woman, being deceived, was in the 56 Facts and Characters of the Bible transgression' (i Tim. ii. 4) first, and not the man, is alluded to in Love's Labour's lost, where Biron says of Boyet, Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. Act v. Sc. z. And the evil quality which led her into temptation was the desire, thro' pride, of knowing and enjoying more than was permitted her, Gen. iii. 6. Consequently that a woman should be 'proud' is designated by our poet as 'Eve's legacy,' in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. Sc. i. Whatever comes from the mouth of Falstaff may provoke a smile, yet we must all feel that there is the greatest occasion in reality for deep seriousness, when we hear him say to Prince Henry:Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adamfell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? King Henry IV. Ist Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. It is the same Prince Henry, of whom afterwards, when he became king, the Archbishop of Canterbury thus testified:The breath no sooner left his father's body, But that his wildness, mortified in him, Seemed to die too: yea, at that very moment, Consideration like an angel came And whipp'd the offending * Adam out of him; Leaving his body as a paradise, To envelop and contain celestial spirits. King Henry V. Act i. Sc. I. * See Rom. vi. 6; Eph. iv. 2z2 Col. iii. 9. alluded to in Shakspeare. And he himself, as king, spake thus of the vile conspirator Lord Scroop:I will weep for thee; For this revolt of thine methinks is like Anotherfall of man. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. I. Again, in Much Ado about Nothing, we meet with a reference to the same chapters of Genesis, in a passage which the fastidiousness of Mr. Bowdler has not allowed him to retain, but which surely need not excite any feeling of irreverence towards the sacred record. ' I would not marry her,' says Benedick of the Lady Beatrice 'though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed.' Act ii. Sc. I. Nor need we, I think, be offended at the dialogue between the two clowns in Hamlet, where allusion is made to the same primeval history:IJt Clown. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers: they hold by Adam's profession.* znd Clown. Was he a gentleman? Ist Clown. He was the first that ever boret arms. 2nd Clown. Why, he had none. I st Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged. Could he dig without arms? Act v. Sc. i. * Compare King Henry VI. 2nd Part: ' Adam was a gardener.' Act iv. Sc. 2. t In Earle's Microcosmography, under the character of'a Herald,' we read: ' His trade is honor, and he sells it, and gives arms himself, tho' he be no gentleman,' p. 130. 58 Facts and Characters of the Bible And as Adam digged, so he would be exposed to the inclemency of the weather; which has been also the lot of the greater portion of his posterity; thus alluded to in As you like it: Scene, Forest of Arden:Duke Sen. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court? Here feel we but * the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference; as, the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind. Act ii. Sc. I. Once more: in allusion to Gen. iii. I4, Emilia says to Othello, with reference to the jealous suspicions he entertained:If any wretch hath put this in your head, Let Heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. 2. The history of Cain-' the first male child 't -and Abel is of such a character that it would naturally suggest materials of thought to a tragic poet. Accordingly, the references which Shak* The emendation of Theobald for ' not,' which Boswell objects to, and pronounces the old reading to be right. I wonder that neither of them has remarked how much the conjecture of the former is confirmed by the song which follows in Act ii. Sc. 5:Here shall we see No enemy But winter and rough weather.' t King John, Act iii. Sc. 4. alluded to in Shakspeare. 59 speare has made to it are frequent and striking. First, in King Richard I.:Bolingbroke. Further I say, and further will maintain, That he * did plot the Duke of Gloster's death; And, consequently, like a traitor coward, Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood: Which blood, like sacrificing Abe's, cries Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth To me for justice, and rough chastisement. Act i. Sc. i. It is needless to observe how accurately, and at the same time how reverently, this language represents both the letter and the spirit of the Bible narrative. And so, too, where the King says in Hamlet:0, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, A brother's murder! Act iii. Sc. 3. Next we trace the same sad history in the First Part of King Henry VL.-a passage which Bowdler has chosen to expunge-where the poet with much propriety puts into the mouth of the haughty Cardinal Beaufort, great uncle to the king, addressing Duke Humphrey, the king's uncle and Protector, these bold and wrathful lines:Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a foot: This be Damascus: be thou cursed Cain, To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt. Act i. Sc. 3. It had been recorded by Sir John Mandeville, * Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. 60 Facts and Characters of the Bible who travelled in the East in the fourteenth century, that ' in that place where Damascus was founded, Cain slew his brother Abel.' It is also said that the name Damascus means 'a sack of blood,' or 'a cup of blood.' But our poet has turned the same tragical history to a still more striking account, in the Second Part of King Henry IF.; I allude to the scene in which the Earl of Northumberland, as an enemy to the King, thus speaks, throwing upon the ground the cap which he had worn in sickness:Hence, thou sickly quoif; Thou art a guard too wanton for the head, Which princes, flushed with conquest, aim to hit. Now bind my brows with iron; and approach The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring, To frown upon the enraged Northumberland! Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand Keep the wild flood confined! Let order die! And let this world no longer be a stage, To feed contention in a lingering act; But let one spirit of thefirst-born Cain Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set On bloody courses, the rude scene may end, And darkness be the burier of the dead. Act i. Sc. I. A magnificent speech, in which the classical reader may fancy that he sees the utmost merit of two great, but most opposite Roman poets-Lucretius and Lucan-combined in one. The punishment of Cain is recorded in Gen. iv. 2. c A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in alluded to in Shakspeare. the earth.' It is obviously with these words upon his mind that our poet causes Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV., to address Exton, whom he had employed to murder Richard, as follows:The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor, But neither my good word, nor princely favor; With Cain go wander thro' the shade of night, And never show thy head. King Richard II Act v. Sc. 6. Another passage remains, which I shall not hesitate to produce, though, more than any of the foregoing, it requires to be read with allowance for the speaker, for the scene, and for the circumstances in which it was spoken. It is from the grave scene of Hamlet. The clown is engaged in digging, and having thrown up a skull, Hamlet thus speaks:That scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the knave jowls * it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the firt murder. Act v. Sc. I. 3. To the next great event in the history of the world-the Universal Deluge-there is less reference in our poet's works than might perhaps have been expected. It is spoken of as ' Noah's flood' in the Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 2; and in the last scene of As you like it, which winds up with the marriages of four couples, Jaques, on seeing * i. e. dashes it violently. 62 Facts and Characters of the Bible the fourth-Touchstone and Audrey-come in, exclaims:There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark! into which, as Warburton has remarked, the beasts that were not clean entered two and two. See Gen. vii. 2, 15. Again, in itwelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 2, Fabian, the servant of Olivia, says to Sir Andrew Ague-cheek-' I will prove it legitimate, Sir, upon the oaths of Judgment and Reason;' to which Sir Toby Belch adds, with as much deep truth as wit-' And they (i.e. Judgment and Reason) have been grand jurymen since before Noah was a sailor.' Moreover, our poet had learnt from the sacred history, not only that of the three sons of Noah 'was the whole earth overspread,' but that the natives of Europe were descended from Japhet.* This appears in the Second Part of King Henry IV., where Poins, proceeding to read Falstaff's letter to Prince Henry, begins thus:Poins [reads]. 'John Falstaff, knight.'-Every man must know that as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, ' There is some of the king's blood spilt:' How comes that?' says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer * Whereas, in Markham's Gentleman's Academie, I595-a reprint of the Book of St. Alban's, I486-Asia is assigned to Japhet. See Drake's Shakspeare, &c. vol. i. p. 72, alluded to in Shakspeare. 63 is as ready as a borrower's-cap. ' I am the king's poor cousin, Sir.' P. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from 7aphet:- Act ii. Sc. z. that is, rather than fail they will go up so high as to Japhet to trace the descent. 4. The history of Job has the misfortune to appear only in connexion with Sir John Falstaff, first in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where the following dialogue takes place in his presence:Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge pudding? a bag of flax? Mrs. Page. A puff'd man? Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails? Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? Page. And as poor as 7Jo? Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Act v. Sc. 5. Our poet's reference to Satan in the foregoing passage would seem to show that he remembered not only the history of Job, but the manner also in which it comes to be introduced. To one portion of this complex accusation Falstaff has the grace to plead guilty, when in the Second Part of King Henry IV. he is brought up for trial before the Chief Justice, and, as making a shift to escape, counterfeits deafness. Chief Justice. You hear not what I say to you. Falstaff. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please 64 Facts and Characters of the Bible you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. Chief Justice. To punish you by the heels * would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician. Falstaff I am as poor as Yob, my lord; but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescription, the wise may make some drain of a scruple; or indeed a scruple itself. Act i. Sc. 2. 5. The use which our poet has made of the history of Jacob and Laban in the Merchant of Venice, appeared, I conclude, objectionable to Mr. Bowdler; for he has omitted the entire passage, amounting to thirty-two lines:-but to me it appears so far otherwise, that I venture to cite almost the whole of it, as a remarkable instance of the tact with which Shakspeare could apply with perfect accuracy a passage of Scripture open to misconception, and yet divest its application of all dangerous tendency. Shylock, the rich Jew, is speaking to Antonio, the merchant of Venice, who proposed to borrow of him a large sum of money:Shylock. Well, then, your bond: and let me see-but hear you; Methought you said you neither lend, nor borrow, Upon advantage. Ant. I do never use it. Shyl. When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep, This Jacob from our holy Abraham was * i. e. to put you in the stocks. alluded to in Sbakspeare. (As his wise mother wrought in his behalf) The third possessor-aye, he was the third. Ant. And what of him? Did he take interest? Shyl. No, not take interest; not, as you would say Directly, interest: mark what Jacob did. When Laban and himself were compromised; That all the eanlings * which were streak'd and pied, Should fall as Jacob's share,... The skilful shepherd peeled me t certain wands, And stuck them up before the fulsome ewes, Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time Fall I party-coloured lambs, and those were Jacob's. This was a way to thrive, and he was blest; And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. Ant. This was a venture, Sir, that Jacob served for; A thing not in his power to bring to pass, But sway'd and fashion'd by the hand of Heaven. Was this inserted to make interest good? Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams? The devil can cite Scripturefor his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness, Is like a villain ~ with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten to the heart:0, what a goodly outsidefalsehood hath! Act i. Sc. 3. All this, I say-even to the beautiful and instructive lines with which the passage concludes-Mr. Bowdler has omitted; and so has deprived his reader of the opportunity of observing Shakspeare's * Young lambs just dropt or eaned. t See above, Pt. I. ch. i. p. 15. 1 i. e. let fall, give birth to. ~ Comp. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 5. F 66 Facts and Characters of the Bible knowledge of the Bible not only in the case of the narrative to which I am now mainly referring, but also in two other instances. In the line The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose, there is evidently an allusion to the history of our Lord's temptation, as recorded in Matt. iv. and Luke iv. And the same allusion occurs again in King Richard III., where the wicked Gloster (as he still was) is speaking of the treason and other crimes which he had committed, and not only disguised, but laid to the charge of others, who, he pretended, had by those same crimes wronged and displeased him:But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: And then I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends stolen forth of Holy Writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil:Act i. Sc. 3. i. e. by so quoting and misapplying* Scripture. The other instance in which a close knowledge of the Bible may be traced is in the use of the word ' falsehood' in the last line for 'knavery,' or 'dishonesty.' t In a subsequent scene of the same play, the oath which is put into the mouth of Shylock bears * See below, Ch. ii. Sect. 2. t See helow, Ch. ii. Sect. 12o alluded to in Shakspeare. 67 further evidence of our poet's diligent and exact attention to the inspired record:By Yacob's staff, I swear I have no mind of feasting forth to night: But I will go. Act ii. Sc. 5. See Gen. xxxii. Io, and compare Heb. xi. 21. It was not likely that the touching language of the same patriarch, Jacob, when at a later period of his life he refused to allow his son Benjamin to be carried down into Egypt, would be thrown away upon our great dramatist. I allude to Gen. xlii. 38 (compare xliv. 29, 3 I):And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Let us see how this pathetic passage has been turned to account in the Second Part of King Henry VI., where Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, after the condemnation of his Duchess Eleanor for treason, thus speaks:Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief: Ah! Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground. And if we could entertain any doubt as to the source from whence this line has been derived, the doubt would be removed by what immediately follows. The duke adds, addressing the king:I beseech your majesty give me leave to go: Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease; F 2 68 Facts and Characters of the Bible (i. e. C would have,' C requires,' as Johnson explains it.) To which the king replies:Stay, Humphrey, Duke of Gloster: ere thou go Give up thy staff: Henry will to himself Protector be: and God shall be my hope, My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet: And go in peace, Humphrey; no less beloved Than when thou wert protector to thy king. Act ii. Sc. 3. Here ' wert' in the indicative mood, though supported by other high authorities, is ungrammatical, for ' wast.' * But let that pass. Upon the words, 'lantern to my feet,' Steevens has a note in these words: 'This image, I think, is from our Liturgy: a lantern to my feet and a light to my paths.' If by 'Liturgy' is meant the Psalter, or Version of the Psalms contained in the Prayer Book, this is correct; and a reference should have been made to Ps. cxix. o15. But it is a sufficient proof of the little attention that has been paid to the branch of Shaksperian criticism upon which we are engaged that this loose and inaccurate note should have been allowed to stand; and that both Steevens and Malone, ready as they were to encumber their poet's page, and to disagree, should, on this occasion, have found nothing more to say; though other expressions in the same speech, such as c my stay, my guide,' and again, 'go in peace,' might also have received illustration from Holy Scripture. See * See Lowth's Grammar, p. 72. alluded to in Sbakspeare. 69 2 Sam. xxii. I9. Ps. xviii. i8, They prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay.' Ps. xlviii. 14, 'This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our Guide, even unto death.' Exod. iv. I8, 'Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.' 2 Sam. xv. 9, ' The king (David) said to Absalom, Go in peace;' and the same phrase occurs frequently elsewhere in the Bible. 6. We find further evidence of our poet's familiarity with the Book of Genesis in the references which he makes to Pharaoh's two dreams which Joseph interpreted, see Gen. xli.; to the former, in Hamlet, where the prince says to his mother:Look you now what follows: Here is your husband; like a mildewed ear Blasting his wholesome brother: Act iii. Sc. 4. to the latter, in King Henry IV. Ist Part, where Falstaff says to Prince Henry:If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is lost: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. Act ii. Sc. 4. From that passage we are carried on, first to T'welfth Night, where the clown says to Malvolio:There is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog:- Act iv. Sc. 2. and then to As you like it, Act ii. Sc. 5, where Jaques says:I'll go sleep if can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all thefiJrtborn of Egypt. 70 Facts and Characters of the Bible Upon these last words we find the two following notes in the Variorum edition, one by Johnson, the other by Steevens:'The first-born of Egypt,' a proverbial expression for highborn persons. JOHNSON. The phrase is Scriptural as well as proverbial. So in Exodus xii. 29: ' And the Lord smote all the first-born of Egypt.' STEEVENS. This is rather a curious way of dealing with the matter, and one feels somewhat at a loss to determine whether of the two pieces of criticism, though very different in kind, is the less satisfactory. The play in which the passage occurs turns upon two incidents, in both of which an eldest brother is mainly concerned, in the one as suffering, and in the other as doing injury. And the reflection, therefore, naturally presents itself to the moralising Jaques, that to be a first-born son is a piece of good fortune not to be coveted now, any more than it was in the days of Pharaoh, when all the first-born of Egypt were cut off, but rather to be c railed at.' In Act i. Sc. I, Orlando says to Oliver, ' The courtesy of nations allows you my better in that you are the first born.' If it be objected that Jaques was not yet aware of what' had happened to Orlando, still, I think, the poet might have put the sentiment into the mouth of such an one as Jaques, to be as a kind of waking dream, half experimental in regard to what he already knew, half prophetical of what he would alluded to in Shakspeare. soon discover; but, at all events, the reference to 'the old Duke,' who had been c banished by his younger brother, the new Duke,' will hold good. See Act i. Sc. I. And he ' rails at' him, not only as showing sympathy, after his quaint manner, with the old Duke's banishment, but as reflecting upon his own folly in becoming voluntarily a partaker of the banishment, and thereby forfeiting all his 'lands and revenues' to the usurper; as he had sung just before in the verse, which (he says) 'I made yesterday in despite of my invention:'If it do come to pass That any man turn ass, Leaving his wealth and ease, A stubborn will to please, Here shall he see Gross fools as he, An if* he will come to me. 7. The miraculous food provided for the chosen people in the wilderness is alluded to in the Merchant of Venice, where Lorenzo, hearing from Nerissa that he was to inherit all the property of Shylock, addresses her and Portia:Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of starved people. Act v. Sc. i. Again, in King Lear, when the eyes of Gloster had been put out by Cornwall, the servants who * See above, Pt. I. ch. i. p. 27. 72 Facts and Characters of the Bible were present thus philosophize upon the savage cruelty which he and Regan had shown:Ist Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do If this man comes to good. 2nd Serv. If she live long, And, in the end, meet the old course of death, Women will all turn monsters. Act iii. Sc. 4. To 'meet the old course of death' is the same idea which we find in the mouth of Moses, with reference to the fate of the rebels Korah and his company. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. Numb. xvi. z9. A further reference to an incident in the early history of the Israelites is to be met with in King Henry V., where the King asks: May I with right and conscience make this claim? viz. the claim to the kingdom of France, in virtue of his actual, though irregular, succession to Edward III., whose mother Isabella was daughter to King Philip IV. of France-a claim alleged to have been barred by the operation of the Salic law. To this enquiry of his sovereign, the Archbishop of Canterbury answers:The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! For in the Book of Numbers it is writ, When the son dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter. Act i. Sc. z. alluded to in Shakspeare. 73 The Variorum edition affords here neither note nor reference. Our poet alludes to the divine answer given to the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad, as recorded in Numbers xxvii. I-8, and again in Joshua xvii. 3, 4. 8. I am not sure that our poet is justified in putting a sword into the hand of Deborah, as he does in King Henry VI. Ist Part; where Charles, the Dauphin of France, says to the Maid of Orleans:Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, And lightest with the sword of Deborab. Act i. Sc. 2. All that we know from the sacred narrative is, that she consented to accompany Barak in the successful expedition against Sisera. See Judges iv. 9. The manner by which Sisera met his death was doubtless in our poet's recollection when he put what follows into the mouth of Caliban. Stephano had asked him, with reference to his proposal to make away with Prospero, and take possession of the island, ' Can'st thou bring me to the party? 'Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee asleep, When thou may'st knock a nail into his head. Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 2. The play of King Henry VI. 3rd Part, contains a reference to another portion of the same Book of Judges, viz. xi. 30-40. Clarence. Why, trow'st thou, Warwick, That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural, 74 Facts and Characters of the Bible To bend the fatal instruments of war Against his brother, and his lawful king? Perhaps, thou wilt object my holy oath: To keep that oath, were more impiety Than yephthab's when he sacrificed his daughter. Act v. Sc. I. This last line Mr. Bowdler has thought it necessary to omit. That Jephthah was one who obtained a good report through faith,' we know from the New Testament, Heb. xi. 32, 39; but this can be no sufficient cause to conceal the sacred narrative to which our poet refers, still less to condemn the use which he has made of it. We may conjecture that he had heard read in church the Homily against swearing and perjury,' the second part of which contains what follows: And Jephthah, when God had given to him victory of the children of Ammon, promised (of a foolish devotion) unto God, to offer for a sacrifice unto Him, that person which of his -own house should first meet with him after his return home. By force of which fond and unadvised oath, he did slay his own arid only daughter, which came out of his house with mirth and joy to welcome him home. Thus the promise which he made most foolishly to God, against God's everlasting will, and the law of nature, most cruelly he performed: so committing against God a double offence. Therefore, whosoever maketh any promise, binding himself thereunto by an oath, let him foresee that the thing which he promiseth be good and honest and not against the commandment of God; and that it be in his own power to perform it justly; and such good promise must all men keep evermore assuredly. But if a man at any time shall; either of ignorance or of malice, swear to do anything which is either alluded to in Shakspeare. 75 against the law of Almighty God, or not in his power to perform, let him take it for an unlawful and ungodly oath. Godly and wholesome doctrine, which Shakspeare has taken occasion to insist upon in several other passages. Thus in the Second Part of the same play, Act v. Sc. i:K. Henry. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me? Salisbury. I have. K. Hen. Canst thou dispense with Heaven for such an oath? Salis. It is great sin, to swear unto a sin; But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. Who can be bound by any solemn vow To do a murderous deed, to rob a man, To reave the orphan of his patrimony, To wring the widow from her custom'd right, And have no other reason for this wrong, But that he was bound by a solemn oath? So in Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 3:Hector. Begone, I say: the gods have heard me swear. Cassandra. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. Androm. 0! be persuaded: do not count it holy To hurt by being just: it is as lawful, For* we would give much, to use violent thefts, And rob in the behalf of charity. Cassand. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; But vows to ev'ry purpose must not hold. And once more, in King yohn, where Cardinal * Because we wish to give. 76 Facts and Characters of the Bible Pandulph, the Pope's legate, says to Philip, King of France:0! let thy vow First made to Heaven, first be to Heaven performed; What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself, And may not be performed by thyself; For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss Is [more*] amiss when it is truly done; And being not done where doing tends to ill, The trutht is then most done not doing it. It is religion that doth make vows kept, But thou hast sworn against religion. [So] thou dost swear only to be forsworn, And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear. Act iii. Sc. i. To return to Jephthah, whose history is again noticed by our poet in Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2: — Hamlet. 0 Jephthah, Judge of Israel-what a treasure had'st thou! Polonius. What treasure had he, my lord? Hamlet. Why-one fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well. After Jephthah, the next Judge whose exploits are recorded in the Old Testament at any length is Samson. Besides alluding to his marvellous strength in King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 3, where he is associated with Sir Guy of Warwick and with Colbrand, the Danish giant; and again in * So I would propose to read for ' not.' t See below, Ch. ii. Sect. 12. allhded to in Shakspeare. 77 King Henry VI Ist Part, Act i. Sc. 2, where he is coupled with Goliath,; our poet has touched upon some of the main incidents of his life in what follows. The dialogue is between Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard, and Moth, his page:Armado. Comfort ne, boy: What great men have been in love? Moth. Hercules, master. Arm. Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good report and carriage. Moth. Sampson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the town-gates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love. Arm. 0 well-knit Sampson! strong-jointed Sampson! I am in love too. Love's Labour's lost, Act i. Sc. z. And again at the close of the same scene, Armado thus soliloquizes:Love is a familiar.... There is no evil angel but love. Yet Sampson was so tempted; and he had an excellent strength. Yet was Solomon so seduced; and he had a very good wit. 9. We are now arrived at the history of David. His encounter with Goliath-' the staff of whose spear,' we are told, 'was like a weaver's beam' (i Sam. xvii. 7), is taken advantage of in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where Falstaff declares:In the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because I know also life is a shuttle. Act v. Sc. i. ' \ 78 Facts and Charactrs of the Bible The comparison in these last words is taken from Job vii. 6, 'My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.' Both references are a proof of Shakspeare's close acquaintance with Holy Scripture. It is reasonable therefore to suppose that, in Cymi-beline, the manner of Cloten's death, which Guiderius thus describesWith his own sword, Which he did wave against my throat, 1 have ta'en His head from him- Act iv. Sc. 2. was derived from the same History, see I Sam. xvii. 5; and also that in the Tempest, where music is commended as The best comforter To an unsettled fancy, Act v. Sc. i. the service which David performed for Saul, see i Sam. xvi. 23, was present to our poet's mind. Again, the circumstances of the death of Saul, when having lost his army, with his sons among the slain, he and his armour-bearer killed themselves, may be compared with the scenes between Antony and Eros, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. 2'; and between Cassius and Pindarus, and again between Brutus and Clitus first, then Volumnius, and lastly Strato, in Julius Caesar, Act v. Sc. 3 and 5. The scene in King Richard II., where Hastings is made to condemn himself in answer to the question of GlosterI pray you all, tell me what they deserve That do conspire my death? Act iii. Sc. 3. alluded to in Shakspeare. 79 admits of similar comparison with the scene between David and the prophet Nathan, recorded in 2 Sam. xii. 5 —7. The devices by which Absalom C stole the hearts of the men of Israel' from his father's government, as we read in 2 Sam. xv. I-6, have been well transferred by our poet to the artful usurper, Bolingbroke, in the First Part of King Henry IV., where he himself confesses:And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, And dressed myself in such humility, That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, Even in the presence of the crowned king. Act iii. Sc. 2. And still more at length in a later passage of the same play, where Hotspur describes the treasonable practices of the same usurper:He presently-as greatness knows itselfSteps me* a little higher than his vow Made to my father, while his blood was poor; And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees, That lie too heavy on the commonwealth: Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face, This seeming brow of justice, did he win The hearts of all that he did angle for. Act iv. Sc. 3. * See Pt. I. ch. i. p. 15. 80o Facts and Characters of the Bible Compare with this the narrative of Scripture before referred to:And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate; and it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him.... and said unto him, See thy matters are good and right; but there is no one deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, 0! that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. The affecting language in which David mourned for the death of his rebellious son: 0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son! 2 Sam. xviii. 33:am I wrong in supposing that this pathetic language may be traced in Titus Andronicus? where the boy, son to Lucius, exclaims: 0! grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart Would I were dead so you did live again:- Act v. Sc. 3. though it cannot be doubted, I suppose, that such display of affection is more true to nature when it is found, as in Scripture, in a descending line from the father to the son, than in ascent from the boy to the grandfather. alluded to in Shakspeare. Once more; the description of Absalom's personal beauty is in these words:From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 2 Sam. xiv. 25. The description of Benedick's social attractions in Much Ado about Nothing is, that Frbm the crown of his head to the sole of his foot he is all mirth. Act iii. Sc. 2. To the name of Absalom we naturally join that of Ahithophel, whose odious character had been no less realised by our poet, as is plain from an expression which he puts into the mouth of Falstaff, in King Henry ]V. 2nd Part, Act i. Sc. 2. o. In the concluding scene of King Henry VIII., in which Shakspeare exerts himself to do honour first to Queen Elizabeth, and then to King James, he shows his knowledge of the Bible in a remarkable manner by the speech which he puts most appropriately into the mouth of Archbishop Cranmer; beginning with a reference to the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon; see i Kings x., 2 Chron. ix., and Matt. xii. 42. This royal infant (heaven still move about her!), Tho' in her cradle, yet now promises Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, Which time shall bring to ripeness: she shall be A pattern to all princes living with her, And all that shall succeed. Sheba was never More covetous of wisdom, and fair virtue, G 82 Facts and Characters of the Bible Than this pure soul shall be.... She shall be loved and fear'd: her own shall bless her; Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, And hang their heads with sorrow: good grows with her. In her days, every man shall eat with safety Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours. God shall be truly known. And then, speaking of her successor, in the same prophetic strain:Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, His honor and the greatness of his name Shall be, and make new nations: he shall flourish, And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches To all the plains about him. Our children's children Shall see this, and bless heaven. Act v. Sc. 4. It is of King Solomon's reign that we read 'Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree,' i Kings iv. 25. See also Micah iv. 4; Zech. iii. io.* i i. The sacred narrative tells us that when the prophet Elijah had occasion to conceal himself from the tyranny of King Ahab, which he did by the brook Cherith, God commanded the ravens to feed him there, I Kings, xvii. 4. Drawing his inspiration, probably, from that source, our poet, in the Winter's 'Tale, makes Antigonus to say, when * For a further reference to Solomon, see above, p. 77. alluded to in Shakspeare. 83 employed by King Leontes to expose the infant Perdita, with a view to her destruction:Come on, poor babe: Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens To be thy nurses! Act ii. Sc. 3. Again; to deny sleep to God, as the Psalmist doesBehold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleepPs. cxxi. 4. is an image which beautifully expresses the vigilance of His providential care; for we know of no created being in the world that sleepeth not. And the taunt, therefore, of Elijah against the priests of Baal, when he mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked- I Kings xviii. 27. is just and natural. It is by an adoption of the same image that, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, Cleon says to his wife Dionyza:Our tongues sound deep our woes Into the air: our eyes do weep, till lungs Fetch breath that may proclaim them louder; that, If Heaven slumber, while their creatures want, They may awake their helps to comfort them:Act i. Sc. 4. where the old copy reads ' helpers.' We have ' help' used in the same way in Gen. ii. 18. When Jezebel-whose character has been comG 2 84 Facts and Characters of the Bible pared not inaptly to that of Lady Macbeth-had been thrown out of the window, and so killed, by the command of Jehu, he first trod her under foot, but afterwards, ' when he came in, and had eat and drunk,' he said:Go see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter. - 2 Kings ix. 34. This command not improbably suggested to Shakspeare the speech which he has put into the mouth of Belarius, in Cymbeline, when Guiderius had come in with the head of Cloten, whom he had encountered and killed in self-defence:Great griefs, I see, medicine the less: for Cloten Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys And, though he came our enemy, remember, He was paid for that. Tho' mean and mighty rotting Together have one dust, yet reverence (That angel of the world) doth make distinction Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely; And tho' you took his life, as being our foe, Yet bury him as a prince. Act iv. Sc. z. 12. We read in the book of Daniel, iii. 22, that 'the furnace' which was to consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, by the urgent command of King Nebuchadnezzar, having been made 'exceeding hot, the fire slew those men that took them up.' Doubtless it was to the recollection of this striking incident (as Steevens has suggested), that we owe that speech of the Duke of Norfolk, in alluded to in Shakspeare. which he warns the Duke of Buckingham against the danger of attempting to alienate the King (Henry VIII.) from his then favourite Cardinal Wolsey:Be advised; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself. King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. i. When references to the facts of Sacred History are put into the mouth of a clown, we must expect to have occasion to remember the Horatian maxim, Ridentem dicere verum Quid vetat? But are all such references necessarily to be condemned as profane? In Alls well that ends well the following dialogue occurs between Lafeu and the Clown, respecting Helena, whom they supposed to be dead:Lafeu. 'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady: we may pick a thousand salads, ere we light on such another herb. Clown. Indeed, Sir, she was the sweet-marjoram of the salad, or, rather, the herb of grace.* Lafeu. They are not salad-herbs, you knave; they are noseherbs. Clown. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, Sir; I have not much skill in grass. Act iv. Sc. 5. Mr. Bowdler thought it necessary to omit the former clause of this last speech-' I am no great * Rue. See Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. 86 Facts and Characters of the Bible Nebuchadnezzar'-out of respect, no doubt, to the Scripture narrative to which allusion is made. See Daniel iv. 25. Upon a point like this there may be a difference of opinion; but if we suppose-and for my own part, I do suppose-that the fact of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment was accepted by our poet in all simplicity of faith, and that no sinister intention whatever is implied by him in the allusion to it, we can scarcely, I think, find ground for censure, and shall be inclined to conclude that if the levity of a clown obtains through his wit a ready acceptance in other instances, it may at least be excused in this.* It is perhaps to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar thatwe are to assign the History of Susannah, which we find in the Apocrypha. But however this may * There is a remarkable parallel to the passage in question from the pen of our English Theophrastus, the author of Microcosmography, who, in his character of A plain Country Fellow, thus writes: - ' He seems to have the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar, for his conversation (see above, p. 33) is among beasts, and his talons none of the shortest; only he eats not grass, because he loves not sallet.' p. 64. ' Salad ' formerly had the name of ' grass.' It should be remembered that the writer of the above, Dr. John Earle (selected one of the Westminster Assembly in I 642, made at the Restoration Dean of Westminster, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury) was universally and most highly esteemed, both for his piety and learning, in the age in which he lived; as is proved by the characters that remain of him given by his contemporaries, who differed so widely as Lord Clarendon, Isaac Walton, and Richard Baxter. alluded to in Shakspeare. 87 be, there can be no doubt that Shakspeare had that story in view, and the detection by Daniel of the wickedness of the two elders, in that well-known passage of the Merchant of Venice, where Shylock is made to exclaim: A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honour thee! Act iv. Sc. i. Daniel, according to the history, v. 45, was a young youth' when he convicted the elders 'of false witness by their own mouth,' v. 61. And 'from that day forth was Daniel held in great reputation in the sight of the people,' v. 64. His detection also of the imposture of the priests of Bel, as we read in the Apocryphal History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon, may have contributed to suggest the propriety of the same allusion. I3. We pass on now into the New Testament. The character of Herod, as a violent and bloodthirsty prince, might have been, and no doubt was, well known to our poet from the Ancient Mysteries. And it is probably to his experience of Herod, as acted in a mystery, that in the advice given by Hamlet to the players, 'not to tear a passion to tatters,' &c., we, owe the expression, ' It out-herods Herod; pray you avoid it,' Act iii. Sc. 2. But we need not doubt that Shakspeare had in his 88 Facts and Characters of the Bible mind's eye the Scriptural account of the murder of the Innocents, and of the affliction of their disconsolate mothers, represented by c Rachel weeping for her children,' Matt. ii. 16-I8, when, in King Henry V., he made the king, speaking before the gates of Harfleur, to summon it to surrender in these terms:Therefore, you men of Harfleur, Take pity of your town, and of your people: If not, why in a moment look to see, Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused Do break the clouds, as did the wives of 7ewry At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. Act iii. Sc. z. ' Herod of Jewry' is alluded to again more than once; as the representative of pride and power, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act i. Sc. 2; and of wicked faithless sensuality in Merry Wives of [F/indsor, Act ii. Sc. i. The notices in Shakspeare of occurrences in our Lord's ministry sufficiently prove the attention which he had paid to the Gospel narrative. In the Merchant of Venice, we should be pained with the reference to the miracle recorded in S. Matthew viii. 28-34, if it were put into any other mouth than that of Shylock. He had asked to speak alluded to in Shakspeare. 89 with Antonio. Bassanio proposes that he should come and dine where he will meet him. Shylock. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into! Act i. Sc. 3. Had our poet any reason for making use of the name ' Nazarite,' rather than ' Nazarene,' in this instance, or was it merely a mistake? The discourse which followed upon Christ's healing the man born blind (which S. John relates, ix. 41), appears to be hinted at in King Henry Vl. 2nd Part. A pretended miracle of the same kind had been wrought at S. Alban's shrine, and when the man, Simpcox, is brought to the king, the latter is made to say: Great is his comfort in this earthly vale; Altho' by his sight his sin be multiplied. Act ii. Sc. i. The same king, in another part of the same play, has these words with reference to the rebels led on by Jack Cade:O! graceless men! they know not what they do. Act iv. Sc. 4. I need not remind the reader WHEN, and by WHOM, the same words were originally spoken with reference to a rebellion which has no parallel. There is a noble speech put into the mouth of the Bishop of Carlisle, in King Richard H., where that prelate protests against the usurpation of go Facts and Characters of the Bible Bolingbroke, and prophesies of its evil consequences:I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks:My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king: And if you crown him, let me prophesy, Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny, Shall here inhabit, and this land be called The feld of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls. O! if you rear this house against this house, It will the woefullest division prove That ever fell upon this cursed earth. Act iv. Sc. I. Besides the Scriptural reference in the name Golgotha (which occurs again in Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 2), there is perhaps in these last lines a further allusion to the domestic 'divisions' which were prophesied to follow after the Crucifixion of Christ; see Mark xiii. 8, 12; Luke xii. 52. Compare also Matt. xii. 25. In King Henry II[., Archbishop Cranmer is thus warned by his sovereign of the conspiracy which had been formed to effect his overthrow: Your enemies are many and not small. At what ease Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt To swear against you! Such things have been done. You are potently opposed, and with a malice Of as great size. Ween* you of better luck, I mean, in perjured witness, than YOUR MASTER, * Think, imagine, expect. alluded to in Shakspeare. 91 Whose minister you are, whiles here He lived Upon this naughty earth? Act v. Sc. I. See Mark xiv. 55, also Matt. x. 25. The passages in our poet which refer to the traitor Judas are numerous; but the reader of Mr. Bowdler's edition will find scarcely one of them. I do not quarrel with the omission in King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2, where the three traitors, Bagot, Bushy, and Green are described as ' Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas;' nor with the curtailment of the scene in Love's Labour's lost, Act v. Sc. 2, where we read of the ' kissing traitor' who 'hanged himself on an elder.' But I see no sufficient reason for withholding either of the extracts which I proceed to quote. In King Richard II. the king, when summoned to appear before the usurper who had supplanted him, thus speaks:Alack, why am I sent for to a king, Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd? Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me To this submission. Yet I well remember The favours* of these men. Were they not mine? Did they not sometime cry 'All hail!' to me? A4s 7udas did to Christ: but He, in Twelve, Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none. Act iv. Sc. I. Countenances. See Pt. I. ch. ii. 92 Facts and Characters of the Bible In the 'third Part of King Henry VI. the revolting comparison is more justly appropriated to himself by the wicked Gloster. The king (Edward IV.) says to his brothers: — K. Edw. Clarence and Gloster, love my lovely queen; And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both. Clar. The duty that I owe unto your majesty, I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe. K. Edw. Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks. Glo. And, that I love the tree from whence thou sprangst, Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit:- [T Ten aside. To say the truth, so 7udas kissed his master; And cried 'All hail!' when* as he meant all harm. Act-v. Sc. 7. Again, in As you like it, where, speaking of Orlando, Celia says playfully to Rosalind, ' Marry, his kisses are Judas's own children,' we can understand and feel that levity is out of place in such a connection of ideas; and we can be well content, therefore, to miss the passage in which it occurs. But what are we to think of the capricious judgment which has excluded from 7imon of Athens the illustration (because derived probably from Matt. xxvi. 23) by which the heathen misanthrope reproves the faithlessness of a selfish world;Why this Is the world's spirit; and just of the same piece Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him His friend that dips in the same dishb Act iii. Sc. 2:* See above, p. 2i. alluded to in Shakspeare. 93 while it has retained, in Winter's Ta!e, a comparison derived still more plainly from the same most sacred of all narratives? I allude to those words of Polixenes, in which he protests his entire innocence of the crime imputed to him by Leontes. If I be guilty of it, says heO! then my best blood turn To an infected jelly; and my name Be yoked with bis that did betray THE BEST! Act i. Sc. 2. There are two passages in Antony and Cleopatra which remind us of the reconciliation of Herod and Pilate, effected, as it would seem, by their common action in the death of Christ. See Luke Xxiii. 12. But soon that war had end, and the time's state Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2. I know not, Menas, How lesser enmities may give way to greater. Were't not that we stand up against them all, 'Twere pregnant they would square between themselves; For they have entertained cause enough To draw their swords: but how the fear of us May cement their divisions, and bind up The petty difference, we yet not know. Act ii. Sc. I. Pilate's washing his hands, as recorded in Matt. xxvii. 24, is referred to by Shakspeare in two instances, one of which is omitted by Mr. Bowdler, while the other is retained. y4 Facts and Characters of the Bible When King Richard II. is pressed by Bolingbroke and York to resign the crown, and Northumberland presents the paper containing the crimes alleged against him as the ground for his abdication, he thus upbraids them:Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself,Tho' some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands, Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates Have here delivered me to my sour cross, And water cannot wash away your sin. Act iv. Sc. i. In place of the two intermediate lines, Mr. Bowdler has this one:Tho' some of you are showing outward pity. In King Richard II., after the murder of Clarence, one of the assassins exclaims:A bloody deed, and desperately despatched! How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands Of this most grievous guilty murder done. Act i. Sc. 4. No sooner had Pilate washed his hands than he gave orders for the release of the robber and murderer, Barabbas; who is also alluded to by our poet in the Merchant of Venice, where Shylock is made to say:I have a daughter; Would any of the stock of Barabbas Had been her husband, rather than. a Christian! Act iv. Sc. I. alluded to in Shakspeare. 95 Such is the Jew's preference, and so exactly has Shakspeare worked out his character in accordance with the Scripture narrative! In like manner, when he speaks of' the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,' King Richard JI. Act ii. Sc. i, how accurately in one word does he sum up the character of the whole Jewish nation; while in the Merchant of Venice, again, he depicts no less accurately the fulfilment of antient prophecy, which, by their ' stubbornness,' they have drawn down upon themselves, where Shylock confesses:Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. Act i. Sc. 3. The fine passage, at the opening of Hamlet, which Shakspeare has put into the mouth of Horatio, owes probably quite as much to S. Matthew or S. Mark as it does to Plutarch, or to Ovid; though the critics have traced it only to the two latter. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. Stars shone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell; Disaster veiled the sun; and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. Act i. Sc. I. x4. The references made 'by our poet to the 96 Facts and Characters of the Bible history of the Acts are few and not of much moment; yet they indicate somewhat curiously, if I am not mistaken, the minuteness of his attention to the sacred record. In the First Part of King Henry VI., among other compliments paid by Charles Dauphin of France to Joan of Arc, she is pronounced (Act i. Sc. 2) superior to' Saint Philip's daughters,' that is the four daughters, virgins, that did prophesy' of Philip the Evangelist, who are mentioned in Acts xxi. 9. In the Comedy of Errors,* the scene of which is laid at Ephesus, Pinch the Schoolmaster is represented also as a conjuror.t It will be remembered that Ephesus was the place where S. Paul 'disputed daily in the school of one Tyrannus,' and where 'many of them also that used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men.' See Acts xix. 9, I 9. But previously to this burning of the books we read in the same narrative, v. 13:Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying,' We adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.' * One is inclined to suspect that the name Antipholus among the characters of this play is a mistake (on the part of author or printer) for Amphibolus i. e. au'pis3oxos, ambiguous, doubtful. t On the union of the occupations of schoolmaster and conjuror, see Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 95. alluded to in Shakspeare. 97 Compare with this the exorcism of Pinch in Act iv. Sc. 4. I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight; I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven. To this I may add that in Pericles Prince of fyre, a servant at Ephesus, which was not far from Colossae, has the name of Philemon. In King Richard III. we read these words of Gloster, who is speaking —first to Hastings, and then to the officers in attendance: Thou art a traitorOff with his head! Now, by Saint Paul I swear, I will not dine until I see it done. Act iii. Sc. 4. What are we to understand by this adjuration of S. Paul? Is there an allusion in it to what we read in Acts xxiii. 12? Certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. And was there some confusion in our poet's recollection of the circumstances, or remembering them aright, did he still make use of the name of the apostle on their account? It must be stated, however, that the same wicked king is made to use the same oath on other occasions; for instance, in the scene before the Battle of Bosworth: By the Apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard H 98 Facts and Characters of t/h Bible Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers, Armed in proof, and led by shallow Richmond. Act v. Sc. 3. Why this oath should have been assigned no less than five times to King Richard III., but to no one else, in this play, and yet should not be found so much as once in any other, I am'unable to explain; nor am I aware that the fact has been noticed by any of the critics.. We know how S. Paul his 'protested' of himself with reference to his daily life of mortification, of hardship and self-denial:I die daily. i Cor. xv. 3I. The same character is given in Macbeth, by Macduff, to the mother of Malcolm, whom he is addressing: Thy royal father Was a most sainted king: the queen, that bore thee, Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, Died every day she lived.* Act iv. Sc. 3. Moreover, we know how the same great apostle has protested also, that neither in his own teaching, nor in the promises of God, through Christ, is there any uncertainty, any vacillation, any saying of both * Compare the character of the saintly Queen Margaret as given by her biographer and confessor, Turgot, Bishop of S. Andrews. Shakspeare seems to have confounded, whether purposely or not, the character of Margaret, who was Malcolm's wife, with that of his mother. alluded to in Shakspeare. 99 'yea and nay.' 2 Cor. i. 17-20. And so king Lear, complaining of the treatment he had received from his unnatural daughter: To say ay, and no, to every thing I said!.y and no too was no good divinity. Act iv. Sc. 6. Once more: Prospero says to Miranda, in the Tempest:The direful spectacle of the wreck which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in mine art So safely ordered, that there is no soulNo, not so much perdition as an hair, Betid to any creature in the vessel Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Act i. Sc. 2. And Ariel afterwards reports, ' Not a hair perished.' In a note upon this passage, it has been suggested, with good reason, by Mr. Holt White, that Shakspeare may have had in his mind the hortatory speech of S. Paul to the ship's company, where he assures them that, though they were to suffer shipwreck: There shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. Acts xxvii. 34. HZ CHAPYER II. Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Sentiments derived from the Bible. AM now to enter upon that which is the most important, and, I trust, wvill be found the most interesting part of my undertaking. I am to show how scriptural, and consequently how true and just, are the conceptions which Shakspeare entertained of the being and attributes of God, of His general and particular Providence, of His revelation to man, of our duty towards Him and towards each other, of human life and of human death, of time and of eternityin a word, of every subject which it most concerns us as rational and responsible beings to conceive aright. SECT. i. Of the Being and Nature of God. To begin, then, with the titles and attributes of God. Among the names by which He is revealed: *:... **;v: soO:-. Sentiments derived from the Bible. I o i to us in Scripture, are these: The Lord of Hosts, the King Immortal, the King of Kings. In the First Part of King Henry V]. the Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal Beaufort, thus speaks of the deceased King Henry V. in the presence of his corpse, lying in state: - He was a king, blessed of the KING OF KINGS,* The battles of the LORD OF HoSTs he fought. Act i. Sc. i. And, in the Second Part of King Henry IV., Prince Henry to his father lying on his death-bed:There is your crown: And He that wears the crown IMMORTALLY Long guard it yours! Act iv. Sc. 4. Among the attributes of God, we have been taught by revelation that He knows all things; that He sees all things, even our most secret thoughts; that He neither slumbers, nor sleeps; and that His Providence is over all His works. Accordingly our poet speaks of him, as ' the High ALL SEER,' in King Richard IIf. Act v. Sc. I; and even in Pericles Prince of Tyre, where the characters are Heathen, we read ofPowers That give Heaven countless eyes to view men's acts. Act i. Sc. i. * See also Edward (Earl of March), in 3rd Pt. K. Henry VI., quoted below, p. i81 i and King Richard III., quoted below, p. I92. Io2 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Truly, therefore, is it said by Helena to the King of France:It is not so with HIM THAT ALL THINGS KNOWS, As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows; But most it is presumption in us, when The help of Heaven we count the act of men. Al's well that ends well. Act ii. Sc. I. Justly, too, does Hermione express her confidence when falsely accused:If powers divine Behold our human actions, as they do, I doubt not then but innocence shall make False accusation blush, and tyranny Tremble at patience. Winter's Tale, Act iii. Sc. 2. Nor was it without reason that Laertes, seeing and hearing proofs of the madness of his sister Ophelia, appealed to the divine compassion:Do you see this, O GOD? Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. Nor, again, that Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV., after the murder of her children, the two young Princes in the Tower, should' thus expostulate:Wilt thou, 0 GOD, fly from such gentle lambs, And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? When did'st Thou slee', when such a deed was done? K. Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4. Nor, once more, that Queen Katharine should protest against the two Cardinals who had lent Sentiments derived from the Bible. 103 themselves to accomplish her divorce from King Henry VIII.:Ye have angels' faces; but Heaven knows your hearts. K. Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. I. It may be that the striking description of Divine Providence, which we read in Troilus and Cressida, is pitched too high for heathen characters (a subject of which I shall have occasion to speak presently), but if admissible there at all, it could not be better placed than it is in the mouth of Ulysses: The providence that's in a watchful state, Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps; Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods, Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.* Act iii. Sc. 3. In a note upon this passage, Mr. Henley asks, c Is there not here some allusion to the sublime description of the Divine Omnipresence in the i39th Psalm?' However this question may be answered, there will be no doubt in other passages that our )oet's views of the providence, goodness, and justice of God were drawn directly from Holy Scripture. Thus, where Hamlet saysThere is a special providence in the fall of a sparrowAct v. Sc. 2. we cannot doubt of the poet's allusion to our Lord's words:Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Matt. x. 29. * To be pronounced, probably, as a trisyllable. 104 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Nor again, where good old Adam, in As you like it, says to OrlandoI have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I saved under your father, Take that: and HE that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age! Act ii. Sc. 3:can we fail to perceive that our poet had in mind both the Psalmist and the Evangelist; the Psalmist, who writes of GOD, that He feedeth the young ravens that call upon Him. Ps. cxlvii. 9. and the Evangelist, who records our Lord's words: Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Matt. vi. 26. From such an image it was an easy step for one with Shakspeare's imagination to moralize as he does in the following lines, spoken by King Henry VI. to the Duke of Suffolk: But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, And what a pitch she flew above the rest! To see how God in all his creatures works! Yea, man and birds are fain * of climbing high. K. Henry 7I. znd Part, Act ii. Sc. I. And equally easy was it for a mind of Shakspeare's versatility to make a wicked man apply conversely the doctrine of God's goodness in His general pro' Fond. Sentiments derived from the Bible. to5 vidence, as does King Richard III.-the doctrine, I mean, which we read also in the Sermon on the Mount, that our Heavenly Father maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matt. v. 45. K. Rihb. Give me a calendar. Who saw the sun to-day? Ratcliff. Not I, my lord. K. Rich. Then he disdains to shine; for, by the book, He should have brav'd the cast an hour ago: A black day will it be to somebody.Ratcliff,Rate. My lord? K. Rich. The sun will not be seen to-day; The sky doth frown and lour upon our army. I would these dewy tears were from the ground. Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me, More than to Richmond? for the self-same Heaven That frowns on me, looks sadly upon him. K. Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3. In like manner, as the Bible teaches us that ' God is no respecter of persons,' Acts x. 34; that He ' accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they all are the work of His hands,' Job xxxiv. 19; so our poet represents the same truth alike in graceful verse and vigorous prose:Perdita. I was not much afeard: for once, or twice, I was about to speak, and tell him plainly, The self-same sun that shines upon his court, Hides not his visage from our cottage, but Looks on alike. Winter's Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3 - 1 o6 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and K. Henry (in disguise). Though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I am: The violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man. King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I. But this assertion of the general providence and common goodness of God, as we find them asserted in Scripture, does not prevent our poet from appealing confidently to the Divine Justice,* as an unerring arbiter and maintainer of the right. Thus Elizabeth, Queen of King Edward IV., avows, Just is God, to right the innocent. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. z. Again; it is in the spirit in which Laban said to Jacob, See, God is witness betwixt me and thee-Gen. xxxi. 50, that Malcolm says to Macduff:God above Deal between thee and me. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. And the double lesson which is taught in the following passage, viz. that kings are not to be deposed by their subjects,t and that, acting rightly, we may depend upon the Divine protection, is in both respects plainly Scriptural, and therefore true; though in neither case so as to forbid qualification, or exclude exception. * See below, P- II 3, and Sect. 5. ti See belojv, Sect. i 5. Sentiments derived from the Bible. T07 K. Rich. Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king: The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord. For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay A glorious angel; then, if angels fight, Weak men must fall; for Heaven still guards the right. K. Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2. Both sentiments are repeated in the same playthe former thus: K. Rich. Show us the hand of God That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship; For well we know, no hand of blood and bone Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. Ibid. Sc. 3. And again:Gaunt. Let Heaven revenge; for I may never lift An angry arm against His minister:- Ibid. Act i. Sc. 2. which reminds us directly of David's forbearance towards Saul, i Sam. xxiv. 6; xxvi. 4. The latter sentiment-viz. that God assists and will avenge ' the right,' sooner or later ( punishing the wrongdoer'-is very significantly indicated in an earlier part of the third scene, where the following dialogue occurs between York and Bolingbroke:- ' Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, Lest you mistake: the Heavens are o'er your bead. Io8 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself Against their will. We know with how little truth these last words were spoken. And yet the same Duke of York did not fail still to trace, with reverence and submission, the hand of Providence in the usurpation that ensued: Heaven hath a hand in these events, To whose high will we bound our calm contents. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2. It was not so meekly that the spirit of Old John of Gaunt was content to show itself, though exhibiting the same faith in the overruling Providence, but looking also to the just judgment of God:Put we our quarrel * to the will of Heaven; Who when He sees the hours ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. Ibid. Act i. Sc. 2. And with equal beauty and propriety Queen Katharine utters the same sentiment in King Henry VII., addressing the two Cardinals:Is this your Christian counsel? out upon ye! Heaven is above allyet: t there sits a Judge That no king can corrupt. Act iii. Sc. I. ~* See Prov. xx. 22, Rom. xii. I9. t A corresponding sentiment is put by Sophocles with great effect into the mouth of the Chorus addressing Electra: Odpo-EL Jol, pa'prel, T4KVOV' Eo7TL /.TEyas v oUpavp Zebs, ts eop&a 7rdvTa Kal KpaTr7z. Soph. Elect. 173-6. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 109 And He is the judge 'to whom judgment belongeth,' because He alone is ' set in the throne, judging right,' and discerning all things; as the religious King Henry VI. piously confesses:0 THOU, that judgest all things, stay my thoughts; If my suspect be false, forgive me, GOD: For judgment only doth belong to THEE. King Henry VI. znd Part, Act iii. Sc. z. When the Duke of Albany, in King Lear, hears from a messenger that the Duke of Cornwall was 'dead, slain by his servant,' he exclaims: This shows You are above, You justicers, that these our nether crimes So speedily can venge! Act iv. Sc. 2. On the other hand, the tender mercy and loving kindness of the Divine Being, more especially towards those who need them most, are exhibited by our poet, again and again, in passages which represent the teaching of Scripture no less faithfully. For example; He who is a Father of the fatherless, and defendeth the cause of the widow, Ps. lxviii. 5. is thus described in King Richard II.: Duchess. Where then, alas! may I complain myself? Gaunt. To Heaven-the Widow's Champion and Defence. Act i. Sc. z. And He who ' giveth sight to the blind,' and c light I o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and to him that is in misery,' thus, in King Henry VI. 2nd Part: K. Henry. Now God be praised, that to believing souls, Gives light in darkness,* comfort in despair. Act ii. Sc. i. But, of all others, the well-known speech of Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, exhibits the Divine attributes of mercy and forgiveness most clearly, and with the plainest reference to Holy Scripture: Portia. (to Antonio). Do you confess the bond? Anton. I do. Port. Then must the Jew be merciful. Shylock. On what compulsion must I? tell me that. Port. The quality of mercy is not strained: It droppeth, ast the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice t blessed; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in THE MIGHTIEST; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this scepter'd sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It ir an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's, When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Tho' justice be thy plea, consider this,That, in the course of justice, none of us * See Micah vii. 8, ' When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.' On the divine forgiveness, see below, p. 162. t See Deut. xxxii. 2. t See Prov. xi. I7; Matt. v. 7. Sentiments derived from the Bible. T l Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much, To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there. Shylock. My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, The penalty and forfeit of my bond. Act iv. Sc. i. In this last answer of Shylock our poet has adopted with great propriety a sentiment-viz. 'my deeds upon my head'-which reminds us, as Mr. Henley has pointed out, of the imprecation of the Jews, addressed to PilateHis blood be on us, and on our children. Matt. xxvii. 25. On the other hand, the concluding part of Portia's speech called forth from Sir W. Blackstone the remark that to 'refer the Jew to the Christian doctrine of salvation, and the Lord's Prayer, is a little out of character.' The learned judge was probably not aware that the Lord's Prayer was not composed by our Lord as containing anything which would be new and strange to His disciples, but as putting together, in a short form, all that was most valuable in the Jewish liturgies already known to them. See Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 159, Bull, vol. i. p. 33 5, and Grotius on S. Matthew, vi. 9; who also refers to Ecclesiasticus xxviii. 2-4:Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, I 2 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest. One man beareth hatred against another, and doth he seek pardon from the Lord? He sheweth no mercy to a man which is like himself, and doth he ask forgiveness of his own sins?* The Biblical critics, therefore, who, like Burkitt, except the particular clause which Portia refers to, viz.' as we forgive them that trespass against us,' from the foregoing representation in regard to the origin of the several petitions of the Lord's Prayer, have, in all probability, made that single exception without sufficient reason. Besides, it is to be borne in mind that many of the Jews, though they did not accept Christ as their Messiah, yet they did accept Him as 'a teacher come from God.' And certainly it is not correct to suppose that the Christian Doctrine of salvation is not also the doctrine of salvation to the faithful Jew. Upon the opening lines of the same speech of Portia, Mr. Douce has pointed out the resemblance to Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 20:Mercy is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain in the time of drought. And the argument drawn by Portia from the need which we all have for the mercy of God is repeated by our poet in the Second Part of King Henry VI., where Lord Say says to the rebels, who are carrying him off to execution:Ah, countrymen! if when you make your prayers, * On this subject see below, p. 163 sq., and p. 217. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 1 13 God should be so obdurate as yourselves, How would it fare with your departed souls? Act iv. Sc. 8. I have been loath to question the propriety of an observation made by so sound a thinker and so well-informed a writer as Judge Blackstone; and now I ought not to quit this portion of my subject without drawing attention to a remark of one whose authority upon matters of this kind is still higher; I mean Dr. Johnson. In a note upon the last scene of King Lear he complains that ' our author, by negligence, gives his Heathens the sentiments and practices of Christianity.' And Mr. Singer has repeated the remark in his edition of 1826. But I am inclined to doubt whether it is altogether wellfounded.* The lines which appeared to give occasion for it are these: The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us. Act v. Sc. 3. Now, we meet with the same sentiment more than once in the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom:For the foolish devices of their wickedness wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason and wild beasts, THOU didst send a multitude of wild beasts upon them for vengeance, that they might know that wherewithal a man rinneth, by the fame also shall he be punished.-xi. 16. See also xii. 23. * I am glad to find myself supported in my opposition to the disparaging remark of Dr. Johnson, by the high authority of Schlegel, who, in his notice of King Lear, observes that Shakspeare lays particular stress on the circumstance that the Britons of that day.were still heathens. But comp. Additional Illustrations, p. 365. I X l4 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and And though I cannot now remember any passage of a profane author* that comes fully up to the same sentiment, or nearer to it than what we read in ]Eschylus (Agam.t v. 170, sq.) and Juvenal (Sat. i. 142, sqq.), yet I have little doubt that such a passage may be found. But with regard to the remark itself, the truth, I believe, is that Shakspeare does, for the most part, make a difference between his Heathen and his Christian characters. For instance, in the very play upon which Johnson's censure is made, viz. King Lear, we find the following sentiment, which I very much doubt whether our poet would have allowed any but a Heathen character to utter:As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;They kill us for their sport: Act iv. Sc. x. lines which Mr. Bowdler has omitted, instead of suggesting in a note that they are spoken by one who was not a Christian. Again, I am inclined to think, that in Coriolanus, it is purposely left a doubtful 'point whether mercy was an attribute of the Deity or no. I allude to the following dialogue t We have it in St. Chrysostom upon the third Psalm, with a play upon the words, which must be lost in a translation, SOev w 7rr' rns a/l.aprTLs, etce70ev fi 7rArll7 rrs /TiLupias.-Vol. v. p. 3. t Compare the sentiment in K. Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4. ' To wilful men, The injuries that they themselves procure Must be their schoolmasters.' Sentiments derived from the Bible. Ij 5 between Menenius and Sicinius, respecting Coriolanus, towards the close of the play: Menenius. What he bids be done, is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne ill. Sicinius. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. Menenius. I paint him in the character.* Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. Act v. Sc. 4. At the same time I must admit that in Tiitus Andronicus, of which the characters are Heathen also, mercy is undoubtedly recognized as a divine attribute, where Tamora, Queen of the Goths, says to Titus: Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Draw near them, then, in being merciful. Act ii. Sc. 2. In regard to this passage, however, it may be observed, first, that the play in which it occurs is generally allowed not to be Shakspeare's; secondly, that the date of the action belongs to a period almost as many centuries after, as Coriolanus was before, the commencement of the Christian era; and, thirdly, that in the interval are to be found, even in heathen authors, passages which fall little, if at all, short of the same sentiment. Take, for example, what Cicero had said in addressing Casar on behalf of Ligarius-a passage partly quoted by Mr. Whalley:Nihil est tam populare quam bonitas; nulla de virtutibus tuis * That is, to the life, as he is. I 2 I I6 Shakspeare's Religious Prrnvc les and plurimis nec admirabilior nec gratior misericordia est. Homines enim ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando.-Orat. pro Ligario, c. z. There is, however, one play of Shakspeare to which it must, I think, be confessed, that the remark of Johnson is justly applicable, at least in some degree. I allude to Cymbeline, where Jupiter is made to say:Whom best I love,* I cross. Act v. Sc. 4. And again, in the st Scene of the same Act, where Posthumus exclaims:Gods! if you Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never Had lived to put on this: so had you saved The noble Imogen to repent, and struck Me wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack! You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love, To have them fall no more; you some permit To second ills with ills, each elder worse. Compare Isaiah lvii. i, Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Upon the whole, then, while I cannot deny altogether the justice of Dr. Johnson's censure, still I would observe that to draw any very broad lines of ' There is also a passage in Othello, too painful to be quoted, where it has been remarked that reference is made to the doctrine of Scripture, ' Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.'-See Act v. Sc. 2. Comp. Additional Illustrations, p. 365. t i. e, to incite, instigate. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 17 distinction in the case referred to would have been impossible without giving certain and perhaps just cause for offence; and therefore to bring an accusation of ' negligence' for not doing so, may not unfairly be regarded as somewhat captious and unreasonable. SECT. 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen. A devout invocation for the ministering help of the Holy Angels is not to be confounded with the impiety of addressing them in prayer. The one is encouraged, the other is forbidden in Holy Scripture. Such invocations abound in Hamlet, and though the story of that play refers to a period long before the Reformation, and though, on that account, Shakspeare would seem to have intended to represent the characters as tinged, to some extent, with the errors of Romanism,* yet I am not sure that upon Thus the Ghost of Hamlet's father speaks of his being ' Confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Are burnt and purged away;' Act i. Sc. 5. which is the doctrine of purgatory; and again, of being 'Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd, disappointed, unane'd; that is, without the sacrament of extreme unction. And Hamlet, in addressing the players, Act ii. Sc. 2, swears ' By 'r Lady!' and again in Act iii. Sc. 4.' By the rood.' Of which oaths Mr. Bowdler omits the former, but not the latter. On the other hand, however, also in the last-named scene, Hamlet says to the Queen:-' Confess yourself to Heaqven.' On Shakspeare himself as a Protestant, see below, p. 264, sq. 1 8 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and the point now before us he has transgressed the limits which a sound theology would impose. For instance, there is nothing to object to in the exclamation of Isabella, in Measurefor Measure, Oh, you blessed ministers above, Keep me in patience! Act v. Sc. I. Or of Hamlet, at the sight of the GhostAngels and ministers of grace, defend us! Act i. Sc. 4. for, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. i. 14. And again, when the Ghost reappears in Act iii. Sc. 4:Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly Guards! Nor is the exclamation of the guilty king, when struggling to repent, and to betake himself to prayer, less appropriate:Help, Angels; make assay! Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe! All may be well. Act iii. Sc. 3. And how pious and touching is the farewell of Horatio when Hamlet dies:Now cracks a noble heart: Good night, sweet prince; And fights of Angels sing thee to thy rest! Act v. Sc. 2. The singing of Angels, and their loving attendance upon the good at all times, but especially in their last moments, have furnished our poet with beautiful Sentiments derived from the Bible. i i 9 and affecting imagery on two other occasions. The former in the Merchant of Venice, in the moonlight scene where Lorenzo says to Jessica: Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an Angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed Cherubims. Act v. Sc. i. The latter, in King Henry VlII., where the Duke of Norfolk, speaking of Cardinal Wolsey in reference to the good Queen Katharine, thus testifies to her duty and affection for her unworthy husband:He counsels a divorce-a loss of her, That, like a jewel, has hung twenty years About his neck, yet never lost her lustre; Of her that loves him with that excellence, That Angels love good men with; even of her, That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls, Will bless the king. Act ii. Sc. 2. We know from S. Luke xv. Io, what is the great occasion of 'joy in the presence of the Angels of God.' It is in accordance with the same revealed truth that our poet sings:Then is there mirth in heaven, When earthly things made even Atone* together. As you like it, Act v. Sc. 4. On the other hand we find a well-known passage in Measure for Measure, which represents the * See above, p. 31. 120 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Angels as 'weeping' over the pride and follies of menMan, proud man, Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven As make the Angels weep:- Act ii. Sc. 2. where Theobald has a note, in which he speaks of this notion as Rabbinical, and quotes from Grotius on S. Luke: 'Ob peccatum flentes Angelos inducunt Hebraorum magistri.' Again, the notion of Guardian Angels has been introduced by our poet in King Henry IV. 2nd PartFor the boy-there is a good Angel about him; Act ii. Sc. 2. conformably to the teaching of the New Testament, more particularly with reference to the young; see Matt. xviii. o1, and Bishop Bull's Works, Vol. i. p. 3Co. But where, in the same play, Act i. Sc. 2, the Chief Justice says to Falstaff, ' You follow the young prince up and down like his ill angel;' our poet was either drawing merely upon his own imagination, or from what he had read respecting the belief of the heathen in genii or demons; a belief of which he has made use in Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 3; and again in Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. i. It is an opinion held by tradition in the Church, and not unsanctioned by Scripture (see i Tim. iii. 6), that pride, or ambition, was the sin which led to the fall of Satan and his associate angels. To this Sentiments derived from the Bible. i 1 opinion our poet has referred in the well-known farewell speech of Cardinal Wolsey to his servant Cromwell, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Essex:Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sinfell the Angels; how can man, then, l'he image of his Maker, hope to win by 't? King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. z. In a previous part of the same scene, Wolsey had soliloquized to the same effect, using the same comparison, with the addition of the fearful consideration that such a fall is without hope:O! how wretched Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favours! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their * ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have: And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. The simile in this last passage is evidently formed upon Isaiah xiv. 2, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! where the well-known Oriental figure of speech, in which the overthrow of kingdoms is represented by the falling or eclipse of the Heavenly Bodies, is applied prophetically to the downfall of the King of Babylon. But there is no Scriptural authority for giving the name of Lucifer, or Morning Star, to * i. e. Their displeasure, producing overthrow. T 22z Shakspeare's Relig'ious Principles and Satan, as our poet has given it above, and elsewhere.* The misapplication of the name, however, if it is to be considered such, did not originate with our poet. On the contrary, we find that in very early times t the Prophet Isaiah was understood to speak in that place of the evil spirit; and long before Shakspeare the name Lucifer had been, in consequence, popularly so applied. Mr. Malone quotes very appositely from Churchyard's Legend of Cardinal Wolsey (published in Higgin's Mirrour for Magistrates, 15 27)Your fault not half so great as was my pride; For which offence fell Lucifer: from the skies. The same chapter of Isaiah represents Lucifer as having said in his heart (v. I 3)I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: and Steevens has quoted these last words to explain a speech of La Pucelle (the Maid of Orleans) in the First Part of King Henry VI.: The regent conquers and the Frenchmen fly,-. Now help, ye charming spells, and pariapts; And ye choice spirits that admonish me, And give me signs of future accidents! [Thunder]. * Viz. in King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 7, and in King John, Act iv. Sc. 3, where he is styled 'Prince Lucifer.' In the former passage, the appellation is coupled with that of Belzebub, which occurs also in Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 3, and in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. i. t e. g. By Tertullian.-See Advers. Marcion. Lib. v. pp. 47 5, 4.8. I See also Christian Year, 3rd Sunday in Lent. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 123 You speedy helpers that are substitutes Under the lordly monarch of the north, Appear, and aid me in this enterprise! Act v. Sc. 3. Compare S. Paul, Eph. ii. 2; and see Milton, P. L., Book v. 689, ' the quarters of the North.' In a scene which shows that Shakspeare possessed a remarkable insight into the Scotch character, and designed to exhibit it, more especially in Malcolm, the son of the murdered king, we read:Angels are bright still, tho' the brightest fe. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. And then became most deformed. So our poet speaks of the fiend' in King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 2; of ' the common enemy of man,' in MaLcbeth, Act iii. Sc. i, and in Ttwelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. And he follows up the idea in King Henry V:What is it then to me, if impious war, Arrayed in flames, like to the prince of fiends, Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats Enlink'd to waste and desolation? Act iii. Sc. 3. Again, Satan is described, in the terms of Scripture, as the ' Prince of Darkness,' in King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 3, and in All's well, &c., Act iv. Sc. 5; also, in the latter place, as ' the Prince of the World;' and by implication, as 'the Father of Lies,' in King Henry IV. Ist Part, where Hotspur says to Glendower: And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, By telling truth. Act iii. Sc. i. 124 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Moreover, he is represented as misapplying Scripture in the speech of Gloster, quoted above (p. 66), and as a slanderer,' or false accuser, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 5, and finally as ' the Tempter,' in Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3: Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not! The passage of St. Peter, Be sober, be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; I Pet. v. 8. was plainly in our poet's mind, in King Henry V, where the king says to the traitor Lord Scroop: If that same demon, that hath gull'd thee thus, Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, He might return to vasty Tartar* back And tell the legions,t I can never win A soul so easy as that Englishman's. Act ii. Sc. 2. The power which we learn from S. Paul that Satan possesses of 'transforming himself into an angel of light,' 2 Cor. xi. 14, is ascribed to him in Hamlet. The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. Act ii. Sc. 2.1 And again in Love's Labour's lost, Act iv. Sc. 3:Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. * i.e. Tartarus. t See Mark v. 9. and comp. Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. 1 See also the doubtful passage in Act iii. Sc. 4, 'That monster cu3tom,' &c. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 12, And again, with the addition that such deceitful disguises are most used when the worst temptations are to be practised, in Othello:When devils will their blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. Act ii. Sc. 3. But the Scripture quoted above is alluded to still more expressly in another passage, where our poet applies it to abandoned women, whom the Devil instigates, while they act as tempters, and do his work by the destruction which they bring upon body and soul:It is written, they appear to men like Angels of light. Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3. Once more, the Satanical artifice by which a partial statement of truth may be made subservient to the introduction of deadly error is thus exhibited: Oftentimes to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence. Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 3. SECT. 3. Of God's Goodness in Creation, and in the Redemption of Man. How comprehensive is the view which our poet has taken of the goodness of creation in all its stages, from the composition of the simplest herb up to the crowning work of all —the soul of man! iX6 Slakspeare's Religious Principles and And how natural the transition from the rising of day out of night, of light out of darkness, to the reproduction of all things out of the earth, to which they fall and sink as into a grave! How just, also, and how Scriptural, the representation, that though all things were made c very good' by their Creator, His creature, man, has the power of perverting them to evil, and will abuse that power, or will keep it in subjection, according as he follows the guiding of his own free but corrupted will, which brought death into the world, or obeys the dictates of conscience and of the Spirit of grace! I allude to the scene in Romeo and /uliet, before Friar Laurence's cell, where the friar, entering with a basket, thus soliloquizes:_ The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Checking the Eastern clouds with streaks of light; And flecked * darkness like a drunkard reels, From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels:Was our poet indebted here to that bold figure of the prophet Isaiah, ' The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage?'-xxiv. 20. Now ere the sun advance his burning eye, The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry, I must fill up this osier cage of ours With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers. The earth, that's nature's mothler, is her tomb; t Spotted, streaked. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 127 What is her burying-grave, that is her womb; And from her womb children of divers kinds We, sucking on her natural bosom find; Many for many virtues excellent, None but for some, and yet all different. O! mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities; For nought so vile that on the earth doth live, But to the earth* some special good doth give. Nor aught so good, but strained from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; And vice sometimes by action dignified:i. e. by the manner, or circumstances in which it is done. We must remember that a Franciscan Friar is speaking; but our poet might have had in mind cases like that of Jacob deceiving his father, or Jael killing Sisera: Within the infant rind of this small flower, Poison hath residence, and medicine power; For this, being smelt, with that partt cheers each part, Being tasted, slugs all senses with the heart. Two such opposed foes encamp them still In man as well as herbs-grace and rude will: And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. Act ii. Sc. 3. What a depth of theological truth lies in this last couplet! It is the teaching of S. Paul-' If ye live after the flesh,' the fpo?0.c AocTpxoC —the rude * i. e. To the inhabitants of the earth. t i. e. The sense that smells. V' B i28 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and willc ye shall die,' Rom. viii. 13; and of S. James,' when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,' i. 5; doctrine which our poet again delivers in King Henry IV. 2nd Part:The time shall come, that foul sin, gathering head, Shall break into corruption. Act iii. Sc. I. But to continue the subject more immediately before us. There are times when the sight of all this goodness and beauty of creation, and even the contemplation of man himself, so ' fearfully and wonderfully made,' has no sufficient power to remove the weight which presses upon the mind; and in such a mood was Hamlet, when he testified at once to the excellency of what we see above us and around us, and still more of what we ourselves are, and at the same time to the inability of all to give his spirit the relief it sought:Indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a steril promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave* o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man!t How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither. Act ii. Sc. 2. * Fine. See above, Pt. I. ch. ii. p. 32. t Comp. Act iii. Sc. z, where Hamlet speaks to the players. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 129 And why was this? It was from the knowledge of sin, which had marred all. There had been A foul defacer of God's handiwork, as Queen Margaret calls the wicked King Richard III. in the play so named, Act iv. Sc. 4. And Hamlet knew full well that not only the commission of crime, but the unprofitable employment of our existence, is a contravention of the purpose for which we were created. Hear what he says in a later scene:What is a man, If his chief good, and market* of his time Be but to sleep, and feed? A beast, no more. Sure, HE that made us with such large discourseLooking before, and after-gave us not That capability and god-like reason, To fust t in us unused. Act iv. Sc. 4. Our poet's meaning in the use of the word ' discourse' in this passage may be seen by an expression which occurs before, viz. in Act i. Sc. 2:O! heaven! a beast that wants discourse of reasonz Would have mourned longer. And I know of no better explanation of the word in this sense than that which may be gathered from Cicero de Offciis, lib. i. c. 4:Homo autem, quod rationis est particeps (per quam consequentia cernit, causas rerum videt, earumque progressus et quasi Profit. t Grow mouldy. $ Hooker uses the same expression, E. P. Book vii. c. xi. 0o. K 130 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and antecessiones non ignorat, similitudines comparat, rebusque prxsentibus adjungit atque adnectit futuras), facile totius vita cursum videt, ad eamque degendam praeparat res necessarias. But did our poet think that ' discourse of reason,' however c large,' could avail to remove. the depression which arises, but too often, from a sense of unprofitableness, and from a knowledge of sin, both in ourselves and others? No! We have the witness of his last will and testament to the contrary. From that we learn where his hope was fixed. There we read: First, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator; hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of 7esus Chrift my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting. It is in accordance with this Christian hope, this assured belief, that Clarence is made to say to the men who had been sent to murder him in the Tower:I charge you, as you hope to have redemption By Christ's dear blood, shedfor our grievous sins, That you depart, and lay no hands on me. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4. And again, our blessed Lord is spoken of, in King Richard I. as The world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son. Act iv. Sc. I. And again, in King Henry VI. 2nd Part, as That dread King that took our state upon Him 2o free us from His Father's wrathful curse. Act iii. Sc. 2. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 131 And in King Henry IV. st Part, Palestine is described as Those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessedfeet, Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed For our advantage on the bitter cross. Act i. Sc. I. It is remarkable, too, how fully our poet recognized the glorious truth, which too many, alas! have endeavoured to obscure, viz. that Redemption is no partial gift; that as the disease, which it was mercifully designed to cure, is universal, so the application of the remedy is universal also: according to the teaching of S. Paul, that As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation-and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;-even so by the righteousness 6f One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Rom. v. 18 and I2. The universality of the disease is indicated in Measure for Measure, where the virtuous Isabella thus speaks to Angelo, the wicked Lord Deputy, in the Duke's absence: Alas! Alas! Why, all the souls that * are, were forfeit once; And HE that might the vantage best have took, Found out the remedy. How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are? O think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made. Act ii. Sc. 2. * The common reading is 'were,' which is interpreted to refer to Adam and Eve; but I agree with Warburton in substituting 'are.' To confine the meaning to Adam' and Eve, appears to me to render what follows illogical. K 2 32 SJhakspeare's Religious Principles and The critics-Warburton, Johnson, Malone, and Holt White-have severally offered different explanations of these last words; but I am inclined to think they have all missed the poet's meaning. 'Like man new- made,' means, I believe, like man redeemed, * like the redemption of man; and the words are to be understood as put, per epexegesin, in reference to the entire clause in the preceding line. Thus, Isabella says in effect:-' Your merciful act will be like the mercy shown in the redemption of the world, whereby mankind, lost and condemned to death (as her brother Claudio was), are restored to life.' And so the universality of the remedy will also be implied in those words, as it is plainly stated in these which follow, from King Henry VI 2nd Part: Now, by the death of HIM that diedfor all! Act i. Sc. I. This all-important subject-the extent of evil, and its cure-will receive further elucidation in the next and subsequent sections. SECT. 4. Of Human Life, and of' cThe World.' It was worthy of the position which Wolsey had held in church and state, that his voice should be made the instrument, at the close of his career, to recommend, in a few words, all the great points of * Young, in -The Ccmplaint, Night iv., speaks of man 're-made' for ' redeemed.' Sentiments derived from the Bible. 133 the highest Christian morality, however he himself had fallen short in his own practice of them. I refer to the speech in which he gave his final charge to Cromwell:Love thyself last. Cherish those hearts that hate* thee. Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. LET ALL THE ENDS THOU AIM'ST AT BE THY COUNTRY'S, THY GOD'S, AND TRUTH'S; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. z. Here we have duty to God, to our neighbour, to our country; renunciation of self; love of enemies; the practical study of truth, of justice, of integrity, of peaceableness; all these strung together like so many pearls upon one thread, in a manner that may remind us of S. Paul's delineation of charity, or of the summaries of moral duty, which we read in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and in the concluding chapter of the ist Epistle to the Thessalonians. Nor was it less worthy of the highest officer in a king's household, the Lord Chamberlain Polonius, that in sending forth his son into the world he should thus give him lessons for life; lessons which again may remind us of those given to their respective sons, under circumstances more or less similar, * Warburton proposed to read 'wait,' for reasons which rightly, I think, appeared unsatisfactory to Steevens. 134 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and by King James, by Sir Walter Raleigh, by Lord Burleigh, by the Earl of Strafford,* and to his nephew, afterwards Lord Camelford, by the Earl of Chatham:There-my blessingt with you;[Laying hir hand upon Laertes' head.] And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's I censure, but reserve thy judgment. ~ Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell;-my blessing season this in thee! Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. In the foregoing injunction respecting hearing and speaking, especially when taken in connection with one which I have not quoted, viz. Beware of entrance to a quarrel-(See below, App. p. 366.) * See K. James' works, and a collection entitled Practical Wisdom, or the Manual of Life, published in 1824. t See below, Sect. 8. t Opinion. ~ In one of the lines here omitted (' For the apparel, &c.') our poet probably had in view Ecclesiasticus xix. 30, quoted by Mr. Todd. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 135 we may fancy that we hear an echo to the precepts of S. James:Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. James i. 1 9. And it would be easy to produce Scriptural parallels to other parts of the same passage, especially from the Book of Proverbs; but in so doing I should be losing sight of the object which I have now more immediately in hand. The design of this section is not to enter into the details, of which human life and Christian duty are made up, but to prepare the way for entering upon such details in the sections that are to follow. A general view has been taken of the subject proposed; and now, before we proceed further into particulars, it will be necessary to notice some abstruser points which lie at the root of all moral action for us Christians; such as the corruption of nature, already touched upon in the last section; the need of grace; and the theory of the formation of moral habits: and then to say something of c the world,' and of life, as it is seen at different stages and in several conditions; and of the duty of preserving the gift which God has given us. How beautiful is the description, in Winter's tale, given by Polixenes, of the innocent boyhood of himself and Leontes, which, with poetical exaggeration, he represents to have been free I36 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and from all other taint, save only that of original sin:We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i' the sun, And bleat the one at the other: what we changed, Was innocence for innocence; we knew not The doctrine* of ill-doing, nor dream'd That any did: had we pursued that life, And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd With stronger blood, we should have answer'd Heaven Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd Hereditary ours:- Act i. Sc. 2. that is, provided the guilt imposed upon us by descent from Adam had not made us sinners. And the effect of this taint is such, and so universal, especially upon the thoughts of the heart, that Solomon enquiresWho can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Prov. xx. 9. In like manner, Iago asksWhere's that palace whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure, But some uncleanly apprehensions, Keep leets ' and law days, and in sessions sit With meditations lawful? Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. This is the source from which offences spring; and the saying of Williams to King HenryAll offences, my liege, come from the heartK. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 8. is no other than the teaching of our Lord himself, Tob-eda rslal. tMeig ncut *To be read as a trisjyllable. ti Meetings in court. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 137 in the Gospels. See Matt. xv. 18; Mark vii. 2I. And the heart being thus universally corrupt, we are at no loss to account for the universality of actual sin; as the pious King Henry VI. (see below, Sect. 16) has testified: Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. In reference to this point, there is a remarkable passage in Hamlet, which has caused no little stir among the commentators. It is in the dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius in Act ii. Sc. 2:Ham. I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord? Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. Pol. That's very true, my lord. Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrionThe sense is there broken off; but with the help of Warburton's emendation* of the text-an emendation which Johnson commends so highly as to say of it, that ' it almost sets the critic on a level with the author'-we can scarcely doubt that the poet's meaning was (as Warburton explains it) to vindicate the Providence of God from the false conclusions to which the prevalence of evil in the world * The only difficulty in accepting it arises from the illative particle ' For.' And I am inclined to think we should read 'Nor;' and then the inference would be Nor is God to blame for this, any more than the sun, &c. 138 Shakipeare's Religious Principles and might appear to give rise, and to represent the Deity as no more responsible for the corruption in man's heart than the sun is responsible for the maggots bred in a dead dog.* In a latter part of the same scene there is another dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius, in which the. truest Christian philosophy, as bearing upon the same point, is again embodied. Hamlet has told Polonius to 'see the players well bestowed,' or, in other words, 'well used ': Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. Much better, man! use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. And once more, in Act iii. Sc. I, Hamlet says to Ophelia:I am myself indifferent honest: but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not bornet me. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven! We are arrant knaves all: Believe none of us. And if Hamlet could speak after this fashion, how much more Timon the misanthrope! Who lives that's not Depraved or depraves? Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. I. * See the parallel passage in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. z. f See Matt. xxvi. 24. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 139 And again:All is oblique: There's nothing level in our cursed natures, But direct villainy. Act iv. Sc. 3. A statement painfully strong, and yet not stronger, nor so strong, coming from a heathen, as that of S. Paul, in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, or of the Psalmist whom he there quotes. A more temperate, and therefore, more exact representation of human frailty, as arising partly from natural corruption and partly from our own wilfulness, occurs in troilus and Cressida; but, though put also into the mouth of a heathen, it could scarcely have been written by one who was not familiar with Holy Scripture: Something may be done that we will not; And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency. Act iv. Sc. 4. The reader will be reminded of James i. 14; and of Rom. vii. 15-23; a passage which was evidently present to our poet's thoughts on another occasion, viz. in Hamlet, where the sentiment, ' It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,' is transferred by Hamlet to his assumed madness, Act v. Sc. 2. How just, and like S. Paul again, are the reflections which pass between the two lords, in All's well, &c., respecting the origin, the course, and the result of wicked actions: Ist Lard. Now Heaven delay our rebellion: as we are in ourselves, how weak are we! 140 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and 2nd Lord. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends; so he, that in this action contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows* himself. Act iv. Sc. 3. Our poet is still in the same vein, and gives the same testimony, in Measure for Measure:Our natures do pursue, (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane), A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die:Act i. Sc. 3. i. e. men are destroyed, when they suffer themselves to be enticed by unlawful pleasure, as rats are killed by swallowing that which afterwards drives them to drink themselves to death. And, as the Church of England testifies, in her Ninth Article, 'This infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated;' a truth which our poet, a faithful son of the Church of England,t thus represents:Virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it [i. e. of the old stock.] Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. I. But if Shakspeare's views of the corruption of human nature were thus clear, and formed upon the teaching of Holy Scripture, so also was his perception of the method of its recovery, through Divine grace, aiding-not superseding-our own best endeavours. This has been already shown in part, * Johnson interprets this to mean ' betrays his own secrets in his own talk.' t See below, pp. 264, 271, and p. 374. Sentiments derived fiom the Bible. 141 and will be seen more fully in the next section, when we come to speak of the doctrine of repentance. In the mean time, that we are not able of ourselves, and in our own strength alone, to subdue the evil which is so natural to us, we may gather sufficiently from Love's Labour's lost, where Biron declares that Every man with his affects* is born, Not by might mastered, but by special grace. Act i. Sc. i. Shakspeare, no doubt, had learnt his Catechism well,t and would remember the words-c My good child, know this, that thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the commandments of God, and to serve Him, without His specialgrace.' At the same time, the King of Navarre had reminded us in a former part of that same scene that the battle against evil is to be fought, though not in dependence upon our own strength, yet with the employment of our own best exertions, when he addressed the three lords, his attendants: Brave conquerors! for so you are, That war against your own affections, And the huge army of the world's desires. Meanwhile, not even Aristotle, or Bishop Butler himself, has taught the theory and practice of the formation of moral habits more accurately than our poet has done, where Hamlet, seeking to disengage * i. e. With his ' affections and lusts.' t See below, p. 271, sq. 142 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and the Queen, his mother, from all intercourse with her wicked and incestuous husband, thus addresses her: Refrain to-night, And that shall lend a kind of easiness, To the next abstinence: the next more easy: For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either curb the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. But our poet would remind us further, that, if a virtuous habit is to be formed, the good purpose which is to lead to it must not be trifled with:For Purpose is but the slave to memory; Of violent birth, but poor validity. Ibid. Sc. 2. And, therefore, he justly argues:That we would do, We should do, when we. would; for this would changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents. Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 7. Before we quit this subject, I cannot refrain from noticing how little the mind of Shakspeare appears to have been infected by the Calvinistic and Puritanical leaven which had already begun, in his time, to exercise a strong and spreading influence among his countrymen. It is true he does not shrink-because neither does the Scripture itself shrink-from hinting, more than once, at the Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 143 mysterious subject of God's decrees. Thus we read in Hamlet: Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do* fail: and that should teach us, There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. Act v. Sc. 2. And, apparently, with direct reference to the words of S. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, chap. ix. v. 15, I8, our poet writes:The words of Heaven-on whom it will, it will, (i. e. have mercy) On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just. Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 3. At the same time he takes care to explode the pernicious doctrine of fatalism,t and the still more monstrous delusions of judicial astrology, which, as Warburton has observed, were also prevalent in that age. Thus Gloster, in King Lear:This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains by necesrity; fools by heavenly compulsion;... and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of. man, to lay his.. disposition to the charge of a star! Act i. Sc. z. So, too, Helena, in All's well that ends well; although she gives us to understand that there is a mysterious influence which will be found, or * This reading is doubtful: ail early authority is in favour of 'pall.' t See below, Additional Illustrations, p. 366. 144 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and fancied, to thwart or disappoint us when we have been wanting and unfaithful to ourselves:Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to Heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. After all, therefore, the truth is, as Cassius states it:Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Juliuf Casar, Act i. Sc. 2. Shakspeare divides C the world' into that which is ' familiar to us,' and that which is c unknown.' King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 7. And of that which is familiar to us he, more than once, draws a picture, the colouring of which, however unattractive, must be allowed to be faithfully and severely scriptural, 0 God! 0 God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature, Possess it merely.* Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. And again, Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye. K. Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2. Compare the teaching of the Apostle S. James, iv. 4, and of S. John, ist Epistle, ii. 5. * i. e. Entirely, absolutely. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 145 One of the worst characteristics of' the world,' as the Scriptures represent it, is the envy and hostility of the wicked against the righteous. See Prov. xxxvii. 32; John xv. 18. So the good old Adam exclaims in As you like it-! what a world is this, when what is comely Envenoms him that bears it: Act ii. Sc. 3. that is, exposes him to the venomous hatred of envious and malicious men. But, if we would see the whole mechanism of 'the world,' its pride, its emptiness, its parasitism, its false estimate of men and things, its impatient jostlings for distinction, its forgetfulness of all but what presently strikes the eye, I know of nothing to compare with the dialogue between Achilles and Ulysses, in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3. It is too long to quote; nor is there much in it which admits of direct comparison with Scripture: but the reader who is not acquainted with it will be amply rewarded, if he study it at his leisure. In passing on to speak of the varied fortune and fleeting character of the several stages and different conditions of human life, I may first make one remark upon the mode of reckoning time. In Mark xiii. 35, 'the cock crowing' is used to specify the time of early morning, which Shakspeare denotes more than once in the same manner, distinguishing also the ' first' and the ' second cock;' while, in L 146 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3, the close of the evening has the name of C cock shut time,' from a net so called, which was used in the evening twilight to catch woodcocks. ' The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and bad together.' So writes our poet in All's well, &c. Act iv. Sc. 3; and the metaphor has now become so familiar that we scarcely care to trace it to any source; though, if we did, we should probably find none more ancient than Isaiah xxxviii. 2. 'For My life is cut off as by the weaver.' * The same may be said of the images which represent life ' vain as a shadow that declineth,' and transitory 'as a tale that is told;' both of frequent occurrence in Holy Scripture, and both adopted by our poet in Macbeth, and elsewhere:Life's but a walking shadow — it is a tale, Told by an idiot. Act v. Sc. 5. We find also the comparison, C life is a shuttle,' in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 2, which requires Job vii. 6, to interpret it, ' My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle.' See above, p. 77, sq. And as the Psalmist complains, ' Thou hast made * I have adopted Bishop Lowth's translation. t- See Ps. xxxix. 6. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 147 my days as it were a span long,' xxxix. 6, P. B. version; so we read in As you like it, How brief the life of man! The stretching of a span Buckles in his sum of age. Act iii. Sc. z. Such, then, being our life-so short-how nobly apposite to us all are the words of Hotspur!O gentlemen, the time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long, If life did ride upon a dial's point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. K. Henry IF. Ist Part, Act v. Sc. 3. And in truth it does so, in the estimate of a wise man. Again, such being our life-so transitory, so uncertain,-to' fear always,'* to ' watch and pray always,' are Divine precepts, which need nothing to recommend them to a thoughtful mind. Even a heathen poet like Horace saw reason more than enough for unceasing caution and watchfulness:Quod quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas: And it is Hecate, who, in addressing the three witches, is made by Shakspeare to declare:You all know security t Is mortals' chiefest enemy. Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 5. The well-known passage,: in which the world' is * See Prov. xxviii. I4.; xxiii. 17. t See above, p. 42. f In Asyou like it, Act ii. Sc. 7. See also Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. i i Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 7. L 2 J48 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and described by Shakspeare as ' a stage,' was doubtless derived from no other source than imagination acting upon his own experience as a player; but the elaborate and melancholy, not to say painful picture of life, which we read in Measure for Measure, is no less certainly indebted to the Bible for more than one touch of its colouring. The Duke, disguised as a friar, visits Claudio in prison, when condemned to death, and thus addresses him: Reason thus with life,If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, Servile to all the skiey influences, That doth* this habitation, where thou keep'st, Hourly afflict.. Happy thou art not: For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get; And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon. If thou art rich, thou art poor; For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee.. tj Thou hast, nor youth nor age; * Thus I venture to read, instead of 'dost' (which Hanmer changed into 'do '), in preference to Porson's suggestion of putting the line above in a parenthesis. I take 'doth ' to be the plural form, which anciently was in common use i as in ' Manners makyth man.' Compare Much Ado, &c. Act iv. Sc.: Trust not my reading nor my observations Which with experimental seal doth warrant, &c. t In the lines here omitted there is an evident reference to 2 Sam. xvi. i i. ' My son which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life.' Sentiments derived from the Bible. I49 But as it were an after dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both. ' Act iii. Sc. I. Malone has remarked upon this passage that c an ass bearing ingots' is an eastern image, and was probably derived from the Scriptures. See Isaiah xxx. 6. But however gloomy the view which our poet might sometimes take of human life, he does not allow us to hesitate respecting the duty imposed upon every man that lives, to do all he can to preserve the precious gift which God has given him. The single and peculiar life is bound, I With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3. And there is nothing in which he is more emphatic than in representing the act of suicide as a direct violation of the Divine law; first, in that same play0! that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter;- Act i. Sc. z. Again in Cymbeline:Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine, That cravens my weak hand. Act iii. Sc. 4. I am not aware that such a prohibition is to be found in Holy Scripture; and in the latter of these plays any reference to Revelation would have been out of place. The ' canon,' therefore, to which our poet refers must be one of natural religion; and this is confirmed by a similar sentiment being attributed * Unless it be in the Sixth Commandment. See below, lddit. Jllustr. p. 367. I5o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and to Gloster in King Lear, and to Brutus in Yulius Caesar,* though, in the latter case, with something of subsequent appearance of contradiction in word, and still more of inconsistency in deed. That such an one as Cleopatra is represented should first call in question the law, and then pronounce it noble to disobey it, is in perfect harmony with her bold bad character: Is it sin To rush into the secret house of death, Ere death dare come to us?.. What's brave, what's noble, Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to take us. Ant. and Cleop. Act iv. Sc. I 3. and again:It is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents and bolts up change. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2. I must not omit to add that great and various as are the merits of Romeo and Juliet, the pleasure and admiration excited by that play, and the interest felt in the hero and heroine, are all marred in some degree by the suicide which they both commit,t being Christians, and shortly after they had been united in holy matrimony. * See below, Sect. 13, p. 257, sq. t I am surprised that this should have been overlooked by so acute and sound a critic as Schlegel, who speaks of them as ' still appearing enviable' in their deaths. Sentiments derived from the Bible. I 5 SECT. 5. Of Sin and Repentance. I have already spoken of the cause of sin, and of its existence, both original and actual, as universal. It follows to trace it in its operation, and then to speak of its necessary corrective-so far as the correction of it lies within our own power and agency-viz. Repentance. The subtlety of the Tempter, and the craft with which he adapts his temptations, so that he may bring evil out of good, and that virtue itself may be made to minister to sin, for the overthrow of those who could not otherwise be assailed, is very forcibly expressed in Measure for Measure:O! cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, With saints doth bait thy hook! most dangerous Is that temptation, that doth goad us on To sin in loving virtue. Act ii. Sc. 3. It was thus that the beloved apostle was tempted to worship the angel, who had shown him, in the Revelation, the things which he had seen and heard (xxii. 8); and countless multitudes of Christians have since been tempted only too successfully to worship the Virgin Mary and other saints, because they remembered not the injunction given on that occasion to St. John, ' See thou do it not!' In like manner we are warned of the danger of entering upon evil courses from the insecurity which attends them, from the distraction and instability 52 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and which they introduce into the 'counsels of the heart,' and from the inevitable tendency which the doing of one wrong action has to beget another:Alack! when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. Measurefor Measure, Act iv. Sc. 4. And so the wicked King Richard exclaims: I am in So far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin. King Rich. III. Act iv. Sc. z. And the virtuous Pericles, Prince of Tyre, testifies to the same effect:One sin I know another doth provoke; Murder's as near to lust* as flame to smoke. Pericles Prince of Tyre, Act i. Sc. i. It is remarkable that the same holds good of that which is more or less directly the consequence of sin, viz. sorrow, which, according to the proverb, never comes single.t One sorrow never comes but brings an heir That may succeed, as his inheritor. Ibid. Sc. 4. The course by which sin makes us feel, first naked, like Adam and Eve after their fall, then suspicious, then cowardly, is traced by our poet with remarkable accuracy and Scriptural truth; and on the other hand, he has not failed to catch the image by which S. Paul speaks of ' the armour of God''the armour of righteousness on the right hand and * Comp. David's conduct towards Uriah. t See below, p. 255. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. I, 3 on the left'-as the defence of all who walk uprightly. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, For I am armed so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind, Which I respect not. Julius Ctesar, Act iv. Sc. 3. What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, tho' locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. King Henry VI. znd Part, Act iii. Sc..2 Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act v. Sc. 6. The poetical image in this last line will remind the classical reader of Juvenal, Sat. x. 21; Motxa ad lunam trepidabis arundinis umbram:while the reader of the Bible will recall the fears and suspicions of Herod Antipas, the murderer of John the Baptist, in illustration of the general sentiment. Compare Job xv. 21, Isaiah lvii. 19-2 1. That 'the righteous are bold as a lion,' that they c will not be afraid of any evil tidings,' and, on the other hand, that the ungodly are 'brought into great fear even where no fear is,' and that they ' flee when no man pursueth'-these, and such like truths of Holy Scripture, are set forth again and again, in the pages of Shakspeare, with a vividness propor 154 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and tioned to their moral weight. Thus the Duke says, in Measure for Measure:Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Act iii. Sc. i. The Lord Say, in King Henry VI. 2nd Part:The trust I have is in mine innocence, And therefore am I bold and resolute. Act iv. Sc. 4. The c good Dulke' Humphrey of Gloster, in the same Play:A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. Act iii. Sc. i. The Duke of Albany, in King Lear:Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant. Act v. Se. i. And again we are taught, if we would be truly valiant, ' not to fear them that kill the body,' provided that the heart be kept sound and upright:He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs His outsides; wear them like his garment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart To bring it into danger;- Timon of Athenf, Act iii. Sc. 5. that is, by suffering it to be provoked to uncharitableness or to revenge. At the same time, there are few who can show courageousness like that of S. Paul, because there are few who exercise themselves as he did, 'to have always a conscience void of offence Sentiments derived from the Bible. 1 5i toward God and toward men,' Acts xxiv. i 6. Thus,' as Hamlet truly testifies, Conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action;- Act iii. Sc. i. a testimony which the guilty queen his mother soon after confirms, speaking from her own experience: To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Each toy* seems prologue to some great amiss; t So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Act iv. Sc. 5. And the wicked King Richard III. still more forcibly:0! coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. Act v. Sc. 3. 4 The dialogue between the two murderers, whom the same usurper had employed to assassinate his brother, the Duke of Clarence, in the Tower, is an extraordinary instance of our poet's deep acquaintance with the most secret workings of the human heart -such as I know not where to look for in any other, unless it be in the author of the Book of * Trifle. t Disaster. t See below, Addit. Illustr. p. 368. r56 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Proverbs, King Solomon. The c bloody deed' was not yet committed:1st Murd. What, if thy conscience come to thee again? 2nd Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing; it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him. Act i. Sc 4. I have not thought it necessary to follow Mr. Bowdler in omitting this last clause, which shows, by the bye, how much our poet's mind was tinctured with the phraseology of Scripture. The phraseology indeed would be of small account, if the imitation of Scriptural language were not accompanied, as it most evidently is, by an honest desire to give effect to the moral lessons which the Bible contains. But the truth is, that not even the Bible itself represents more vividly than our poet has done, not only in single passages but in whole plays, the evil consequences of sin, or shows more plainly how the wicked are confounded by the works of their own hands; that sooner or later our sin will find us out; and that it will also most assuredly, sooner or later, be found out itself. How are the evils of ambition made to be seen and read of all men in King Richard III. and in Macbeth; the evils of jealousy in Othello; the evils of arrogance and self-will in Coriolanus! Of single passages tending to the same general effect, besides those from King Lear, quoted above, Sentiments derived from the Bible. I57 p. o09 and p. 113, it may suffice to produce what follows. In King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. i:York. What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell; But by bad courses may be understood, That their events can never fall out good. In King Richard III. Act v. Sc. i: Buck. Thus doth HE force the swords of wicked men To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms. In the Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 3:Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after, Now 'gins to bite the spirits. In Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2:Hamlet. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes, In King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. I:King Henry. 0 God, what mischief work the wicked ones, Heaping confusion on their own Leads thereby! See Ps. vii. i6; and compare the words of Suffolk to the other lords assembled in the council chamber, with a view to the overthrow of Cranmer: I told ye all When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling, 'Twould fall upon ourselves. King Henry III. Act v. Sc. z. And lastly, in Macbeth we are taught still more plainly, that the evil which we do to others will I58 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and recoil upon our own heads: such is the justice of the overruling Providence under which we live! In these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of the poisoned chalice To our own lips. Act i. Sc. 7. Hence it is that C Time' is not untruly described as 'the Old Justice that examines all offenders,' As you like it, Act iv. Sc. i. And again, we read in King Lear: Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. Act i. Sc. i. But even if Time should fail in this his office, upon earth, and during the present life, yet it will not be so hereafter, when Eternity succeeds. If [transgressors] have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, tho' they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. I King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 2. So argues the good King Henry V., and in like manner his son and successor asks:Can we outrun the Heavens? King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act v. Sc. 2. From sin-the disease-we naturally pass to the remedy, repentance: and as we have no other source from whence to learn with certainty the true nature of this remedy, except the Bible; so it may be said, without exaggeration, that no professed Sentiments derived from the Bible. i59 divine ever understood the doctrine of repentance better, or has expounded it more clearly than Shakspeare. He takes care to let us know that our repentance, in order to be real, must proceed from sorrow felt not because we are to be punished for our sin, but because by it we have offended ONE whom it concerned us most of all to please; that, in order to be acceptable, it must be accompanied by confession and amendment-amendment which will lead us to make reparation to the utmost of our power, for what we have done amiss; and that, after all, its efficacy consists not in any power of its own, but solely in the covenanted mercy and promises of God, through Christ. Thus, in Measure for Measure, the duke, disguised as a friar, instructs Juliet in the prison, upon the first of these points, as follows:Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry? Juliet. I do, and bear the shame most patiently. Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, And try your penitence, if it be sound, Or hollowly put on. He then proceeds to warn her:Lest you do repent, As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, Which sorrow is always toward ourselver, not Heaven; Showing we'd not spare* Heaven, as we love it, But as we stand in fear* i. e. Spare to offend heaven. 60 Sbakspeare's Religious Principles and Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy. Act ii. Sc. 3. There is a difficult passage in Cymbeline, which must, I imagine, look for its true interpretation to the views which our poet has elsewhere expressed upon the subject of this great duty. It is towards the conclusion of the play, where Posthumus, in prison, thus soliloquizes: My conscience! thou art fettered More than my shanks and wrists: you good gods, give me The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt, Then, free for ever! that is, he wishes for death, as the only way to everlasting freedom, provided he might die with a quiet conscience:Is't enough I am sorry? So children temporal fathers do appease; Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent? And, as involved in the notion of repentance, must I take my punishment as Juliet did hers, 'with joy;' and, moreover, must I make satisfaction?I cannot do it better than in gyves, Desired, more than constrained; to satisfy, (If of my freedom 'tis the main part) take No stricter render of me than my all:that is, take my life-if such satisfaction be the main part, be the chief point, or principal condition of freedom from future punishment. So Steevens explains it; and, I think, rightly. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 1 6 i The speech concludes with a recurrence to the view of a man being able to make satisfaction for himself, in a sense (as I believe) purposely unchristian, Posthumus being a heathen:And so, great Powers, If you will take this audit, take this life, And cancel these cold bonds. Act v. Sc. 4. This is the very notion, on the part of the heathen, which the Scriptures of the Old Testament so frequently protest against. See Job ix. 32. Micah vi. 7. At the same time, I have admitted that Cymbeline is the play to which the remark of Johnson, discussed above, in Sect. i, p. i 16, may be applied perhaps with least injustice. In the Tempest, where the characters also are not Christian, Ariel, after reminding Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio of the crime of which they had been guilty in ~ supplanting Prospero 'For which foul deed, The Powers delaying, not forgetting, have Incensed the seas, and shores, yea, all the creatures, Against your peace; goes on to warn them, and Alonso more especially, of the necessity of repentance in general terms:Thee of thy son, Alonso, They have bereft; and do pronounce by me, Lingering perdition (worse than any death Can be at once) shall step by step attend You and your ways; whose wrath to guard you from, Which here, in this most desolate isle, eJse falls M 162 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Upon your head, is nothing but heart's sorrow, And a clear life ensuing. Act iii. Sc. 3. Let us now see how our poet teaches that repentance cannot be effectual-in other words, that there can be no forgiveness-without confession, and without amendment, testified by ' restitution and satisfaction (to man), according to the uttermost of our power, for all injuries and wrongs' that we have done. The former, confession, is prescribed directly in Hamlet, Act. iii. Sc. 4 (quoted above, p. I 17, note), and indirectly in King Lear, Act i. Sc. I: Who coverfaults, at last shame them derides; that is, as we read in the Book of Proverbs, xxviii. I3:He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but he that confesseth, andforsaketh them, shall have mercy. In regard to the latter, viz. amendment and satisfaction, nothing could be fuller, or better for - the purpose, than the well-known speech of the king, in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4:What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as* snow? Whereto serves mercy, But to confront the visage of offence? And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force,To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, Or pardoned, being down? Then I'll look up.t My fault is past. But, O! what form of prayer * See Ps. li. 7; Isaiah i. IS. t See below, p. I79. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 163 Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murJer!That cannot be; since I am still possessed Of those effectsfor which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned, and retain the ofence? In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice; And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above: There is no shuffling; there the action lies In his* true nature; and we ourselves compelled, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then? what rests? Try what Repentance can. What can it not? Yet what can it, when one can not repent?that is, as Johnson has very properly explained it, What can repentance do for a man that cannot be penitent, for a man who has only part of penitencedistress of conscience-without the other part, resolution of amendment? Shakspeare has been equally explicit in teaching the further lesson, that we must be 'ready to forgive others who have offended us, as we would have forgiveness of our offences at God's hand'a lesson with which we are familiar from the lips of our Blessed Lord himself. I allude to the speech of Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, which has been alreadyt noticed:We do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. Act iv. Sc. i. * See above, p. 17. See above, p. o; and below, p. 217. M 164 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and The same is implied in the answer of Bolingbroke to the Duchess of York, interceding for the pardon of her son:Bol. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. Duch. 0 happy 'vantage of a kneeling knee! King Richard II. Act v, Sc. 3. Also, in the words of the Duke of Buckingham when led to execution, addressing Sir T. Lovell:I as free forgive you, As I would be forgiven. King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. i. (See also below, p. 214.) And hence it follows, or ought to follow, as we read in the i'wo Gentlemen of Verona:Who by repentance is not satisfied Is not of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleased; By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased. Act v. Sc. 4. Not, however, for its own sake. This is beautifully set forth, though not without a tincture of Romish doctrine, which was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances of the person and of the time, in a speech of the pious King Henry V. before the battle of Agincourt:O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts! Possess them not with fear! Take from them now The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers Pluck their hearts from them! Not to-day, 0 Lord, O not to day, think not upon the fault My father made in compassing the crown! I Richard's body have interred new; Sentiments derived from the Bible. i65 And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears Than from it issued forced drops of blood. Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests Still sing for Richard's soul. More will I do: Tho' all that I can do is nothing worth; Since that my penitence comes after all, Imploring pardon. King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I. These last lines have given rise to much discussion and difference of opinion among the critics. I am inclined to accept Dr. Johnson's explanation, as correctly representing what Shakspeare (who, in his affection for this good king, was willing to divest his Romanism of an unscriptural tendency, as far as possible) meant to convey. ' I do all this, says the King, though all that I can do is nothing worth, is so far from an adequate expiation of the crime, that Penitence comes after all imploring pardon, both for the crime and the expiation.' It is in the spirit of a true penitent that at the commencement of the same scene, the king had spoken of the purifying effect of hardships and distresses-borne after ' example' of holy men who have gone before us, or are still alive-and had desired opportunity for solitary meditation:'Tis good for men to love their present pains, Upon example; so the spirit is eas'd: And, when the mind is quickened, out of doubt, The organs, tho' defunct and dead before, i66 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move With casted.slough, and fresh legerity. I and my borom must debate awhile, And then I would no other company. It only remains to point out how fully our poet recognised that while repentance may come too late, or may be unreal, judicial blindness and infatuation are the sure portion of the impenitent. It is King Lear who exclaims:Woe, that too late repents; Act i. Sc. 4. i. e. woe is to him that does so. And it is (as my reader perhaps will scarcely need to be reminded) Sir John Falstaff who makes merriment in teaching a lesson, which is, however, a very solemn one-and no less needful than solemn-viz. that we are too apt to make our repentance an easy thing, if not a matter of renewed self-indulgence. The passage to be quoted is in the dialogue with the Chief Justice, King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act i. Sc. 2:For the box o' the ear the prince gave you-he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it; and the young lion repents: marry, not in sackcloth and ashes; but in new silk and old sack. It is also a sensualist, but a sensualist of a very different class, who thus moralizes upon the consequences of a vicious and impenitent course. The words are in every way worthy of Mark Antony: When we in our viciousness grow hard, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 167 (0! misery on't!) the wise gods seel * our eyes; In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us Adore our errors; laugh at us, while we strut To our confusion. Ant. and Cleop. Act iii. Sc. 9. Sentiments as awful as they are just; and which will not appear either too irreverent for a Christian man to write, when we remember how often in the Psalms, and in the Book of Proverbs, God is said ' to laugh,' and ' to mock' at the calamities of those who have despised his laws; or too profound for a Heathen man to utter, when we compare the deep sayings of Persius respecting the confirmed and reprobate votaries of vicious self-indulgence, in his 3rd Satire:Sed stupet hic vitio, et fibris increvitt opimum Pingue; caret culpa; nescit quid perdat, et alto Demersus, summa rursum non bullit in unda. Nothing can exceed the irony which represents a man as faultless, only because he has rendered himself senseless, and incapable of judging between right and wrong. SECT. 6. Of Faith and Thankfulness towards God. ' Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man,' is a scriptural precept which Shakspeare has not been slow to echo, nor has he failed to do * i. e. Close: a term of falconry, not to be confounded with seal. t Comp. Habakkuk ii. 6. I68 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and full justice to the contrast with which the Scriptures so often accompany that precept, viz. the duty and the satisfaction of placing our trust in God. The devoted, but not over-honest nurse in Romeo and 7uliet can tell her mistressThere's no trust, No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, All forsworn, all nought, all dissemblers.* Act iii. Sc. 2. And the Duke of Bedford can ask, in King Henry VI. ist Part: What is the trust or strength of foolish men? Act iii. Sc. i. And yet we are senseless enough, as the Lord Hastings testifies, in King Richard III., to make more account of man's favour, which is so worthless, than of the favour of God, which is above all price:O! momentary grace of mortal men, Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air, of your fair looks, Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, Ready with every nod to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep. Act iii. Sc. 4. As Cardinal Wolsey 'tumbled down' from the eminence to which he had been raised, and thereby was led, all too late, to exclaim:O! Cromwell, Cromwell, Had I but served my God with half the zeal * See Ps. xii. I; xiv. 2; cvi. I0. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 169 I served my king, He would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies. King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2. In the scene which discovers the murder of King Duncan, in the castle of Macbeth-after Lady Macbeth has been carried out, feigning to be overcome by the bloody spectacle which she had herself contrived-Banquo exclaims, as if the sight of such a catastrophe brought home to his mind its true lesson, the utter insecurity, not only of all earthly greatness, but of all trust in manFears and scruples shake us: IN THE GREAT HAND OF GOD I STAND; and, thence, Against the undivulged pretence I fight Of treasonous malice. Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 3. And so the good King Henry V. recognised the blessedness of being able to place his confidence where alone it ought to be placed, when, with reference to the overwhelming numbers of the French, before the battle of Agincourt, he said to the Duke of Gloster:We are in God's hands, brother, not in theirs. King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 5. Comp. Ps. xxxi. 15. And he felt it sinful to boast of anything he could do by his own power:Forgive me, God, That I do brag thus! this your air of France Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. Go, therefore, tell thy masterhe is speaking to Montjoy, the French heraldHere I am; MIy ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; 170 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and My army but a weak and sickly guard: Yet, GOD* BEFORE, tell him we will come on, Though France himself, and such another neighbour, Stand in our way. Act iii. Sc. 6. And he was justified by the result. Nor was the grateful piety of the father less conspicuous in the son, whose prayer for himself it is;0! Lord, that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! King Henry Vl. znd Pt. Act i. Sc. i. and whose exhortation to another-an exhortation which every man who has any just sense of the Divine goodness will not fail to apply to his own ~ soul, and to practice in his own life;Poor soul! God's goodness hath been great to thee: Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, But still remember what THE LORD hath done. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. I. There are two occasions-one extraordinary, the other of ordinary occurrence-in regard to which our poet desired, it would seem, more especially to recommend this great duty of thankfulness towards God. The extraordinary occasion is when a victory has been gained. It is delightful to observe in what an amiable light the character of King Henry V. has been placed in this respect. Not even David himself has exhibited more-fervent gratitude to the Divine Author of his victories than our pious sove* i. e. God being our guide. The phrase is used again by the king in the same play, Act i. Sc. a. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 171 reign, after the defeat of the French in the battle of Agincourt. Thus, when Montjoy, the French herald, announced to the king the tidings-' The day is yours'-his first exclamation is a Non nobis, Domine, in these words:Praised be God, and not our strength for it! King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 7. And soon after, when the English herald came and delivered more fully the particulars of the victory, more fully rose also from the royal lips the ascription of praise and thanksgiving;K. Henry. O! God, Thy arm was here, And not to us, but to Thy arm alone Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem, But in plain shock and even play of battle, Was ever known so great and little loss On one part and on the other? Take it, God, For it is only Thine. Exeter. 'Tis wonderful! K. Henry. Come, go we in procession to the village: And be it death proclaimed through our Host, To boast of this, or take that praise from God Which is His only. Ibid. Sc. 8. And how he himself behaved in strict accordance with his own command, is reported by the chorus at the opening of the next and concluding Act; the description refers to his return and entry into London:Where that his lords desire him to have borne His bruised helmet, and his bended sword, Before him through the city, he forbids it, 172 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Being free from vainness, and self-glorious pride, Giving full trophy, signal and ostent, Quite from himself to God. In like manner, his son and successor, out of the fulness of the thankful heart for which he had prayed, thus signifies the acknowledgments which he desires to make upon hearing of the suppression of the insurrection headed by Jack Cade:Then, Heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates, To entertain my vows of thanks and praise! King Henry VI. 2nd Pt. Act iv. Sc. 9. The same pious and grateful character is ascribed, more than once, in the First Part of the same play, to the gallant Lord Talbot (see Act iii. Sc. 2 and Sc. 4); reminding us of the watchword of Judas Maccabeus, ' Victory is of God,' see 2 Macc. xiii. i 5. The occasion of ordinary occurrence to which I referred as one upon which our poet appears to have felt, in an especial manner, that thankfulness was due, is the receiving of our 'daily bread.' Although, as Cicero has said-I forget of whom-' non tam hominis fuit ista virtus quam temporum,' so the praise of this is due, not more to our poet himself, than to the age in which he lived. It is indeed greatly to the credit of our forefathers that they recognised the duty of saying grace at meals, certainly not less, and performed it, I imagine, far more efficiently than we in this generation are wont to do. This is evident partly from the forms which Sentiments derived from the Bible. 1 73 were in use for such occasions, and which have come down to us in the Primers and other Devotional Manuals of the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, and partly from such as are still retained, mostly in Latin, in some of our college halls at the English universities and public schools.* Still Shakspeare must also have the credit of giving to this duty its due prominence, and of indicating, as we shall presently see, again and again, the sense which he doubtless entertained of its propriety and importance. A century later it would seem that a change had come over the manners of our countrymen-if we may trust the testimony of Pope, speaking, too, of poets-for the worse:Then cheerful healths,.... And, what's more rare, a poet shall say grace. And again, in another poem:Sons, sires, and grandsons, all will wear the bays, Our wives read Milton, and our daughters plays; To theatres and to rehearsals throng, And all our grace at table is a song. At the same time I must not omit to add that we have the authority of Dr. Warton, in an observation upon the former of these passages, for the statement, that if saying grace was ' rare' with Pope, it was not so with Dean Swift. He c always did it,' says the doctor, and (which one is glad to hear of * See also Tusser's Five hundred Points of good Husbandry, p. 26 I: At dinner, at supper, at morning, at night, Give thanks unto God for His gifts so in sight. 174 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and anything that he did) ' with remarkable decency and devotion.'* But to return to Shakspeare. Our two first illustrations are derived from the ancient days of Greece and Rome-from Timon of Athens, and from Coriolanus; and in these instances it may be thought that our poet has again been guilty of an impropriety-similar to that which we before noticedt-in attributing to men and women among the heathen, ' sentiments and practices' which are to be found only among Christians. But if so, this much at least may be said in his defence. If there be one redeeming feature in the spirit of the old Classical mythology, it is the disposition which it tended to form, of habitual thankfulness: to a Superior Being. That it went so far as to teach men to say grace at meals, I am not prepared to maintain; but that it taught what was in effect the samenot to taste the cup till a libation had been poured to yove, and not to put the sickle to the corn till sacred songs had been sung to Ceres-this, Homer, II. vii. 480, and Virgil, Georg. i. 350, without going further, may suffice to prove. One grace in Timon of Athens is a long one. Timon himself offers it, upon occasion of giving an entertainment in his own house. He introduces * Essay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 306. t See above, p. I 3. $ See the beautiful passage in the fourth book of the Excursion to this effect. Sentiments derived from the Bible. I75 it thus, speaking to the guests; ' The gods require our thanks;' and it begins in these words: You great benefactors! sprinkle our society with thankfulness. Act iii. Sc. 6. This of course is in prose; but on a previous occasion, in the same play, another grace occurs, said by Apemantus, the 'churlish philosopher,' which is in verse, much after the style of some of the metrical graces in the old primers; and the manner in which it is introduced, apparently as a Benedictio post cibum, or at least after the entertainment has commenced, may possibly be intended to reflect upon the omission of grace-saying at public banquets, or at the tables of the rich-a suspicion i which the words, spoken by the same character immediately before, would seem to confirm:Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. Act i. Sc. 2. However this may be, and however we may question the propriety of putting such a sentiment as I am about to quote from Coriolanus, into the mouth of a Volscian soldier, there can be no doubt that the sentiment itself implies great familiarity on the part of our poet with the practice of saying grace both before and after meals. The scene is A camp, at a small distance from Rome. Enter Aufidius, General of the Volscians, and his Lieutenant. Aufid. Do they still fly to the Roman? * * i. e. to Coriolanus. 1 76 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Lieut. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace:fore meat, Their talk at table, and their thanks at end; And you are darkened in this action, sir, Even by your own. Act iv. Sc. 7. But to come to Christian times. Passing by the very proper resolution of Sir Hugh Evans, in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. i: c I will not be absence at the grace,'-where, by-the-bye, we should have thought Sir Hugh would have been the person to 'ask the blessing'; we may turn to the Merchant of Venice, and I think we shall not be far wrong in, supposing that our poet designed to satirize the Puritanism which had begun to prevail in his own age, when he put the following lines into the mouth of Gratiano in that play. Bassanio, whom he had proposed to accompany to Belmont, the house of Portia, consented, but at the same time required of him 'c to allay his skipping spirit with some cold drops of modesty:'Grat. Signior Bassanio, hear me: If I do not put on a sober habit, Talk with respect..... Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely; Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes rThus with my hat, and sigh and say, Amen; Use all the observance of civility, Like one well-studied in a sad ostent, To please his grandam-never trust me more. Act ii. Sc. 2. It is somewhat remarkable that no one of Shak Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 177 speare's commentators, so far as I have seen, has a word to say in illustration of the dialogue, which I am about to quote, between Lucio and the two Gentlemen, in the second scene of Measure for Measure: 1st Gent. There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that pray for peace. znd Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said. 2nd Gent. No? A dozen times at least. Ist Gent. What? in metre? Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language.* Proportion,' Warburton says, here signifies measure; but I rather think it means prose or verse, chant or hymn, as in any language' means especially, I imagine, Latin or English. However, it is of more interest to point out that the petition, Give peace in our time, O Lord! taken from the Versicles in the Prayer Book, before the Collect for the day, is still used, as it appears from the above passage to have been in Shakspeare's time, as part of the grace (probably from the connexion between Peace and Plenty) in some of our college halls; e. g. at Winchester, at election time, the concluding portion of the grace, Post * Mr. Bowdler omits the two last speeches, and much more that follows-partly with and partly without sufficient reason. N 178 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and cibum, which is chanted, runs thus, being formed out of three of the said Versicles. Fac Reginam salvam, Domine; Da pacem in diebus nostris; et exaudi nos in die quocunque invocamus te. Amen. Lucio had meant to insinuate that the 2nd Gentleman was a graceless fellow. The same jest passes somewhat more broadly, as might be expected, between Falstaff and Prince Hal:Fals. I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art king-as, God save thy grace-majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have noneP. Hen. What, none? Fals. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter:King Hen. IV. st Part, Act i. Sc. z. where the speaker, with logic more characteristic than reverent, would imply that a short grace may suffice for a scanty meal. There remains one more passage to be produced under this head; and it is one from which we might perhaps infer that in the time of Shakspeare the master of the house sometimes devolved the duty of saying grace upon his wife. In Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says to Katharina, when the supper is brought in:Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. Willyou give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I? Act iv. Sc. I. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 179 SECT. 7. Of the Duty and Efficacy of Prayer. There are few subjects of literary contemplation more interesting or more profitable than to observe the hold which a great practical subject like that of Prayer had upon a mind like that of Shakspeare. We know that some of our distinguished poets have unhappily allowed themselves, at one time or other, if not throughout their career, to imagine difficulties in the way of the performance of this duty; but we have no evidence in any of Shakspeare's plays, from first to last, that he ever entertained any but the truest and most just conceptions of it. First, we have already seen (p. 162) in Hamlet its twofold force, as obtaining either grace to prevent us from sinning, or pardon when we have sinned:What's in Prayer, but this two-fold force,To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, Or pardoned, being down? Act iii. Sc. 3. Next, in the epilogue to the Tempest, this latter efficacy is represented as an antidote to despair:My ending is despair, Unless I be relieved by Prayer; Which pierces so, that it assaults Mercy itself, andfreef allfaults. It was probably not without some reference, in his own mind, to the practice of Daniel, vi. io, and to the ancient hours of the church, that our poet puts into the mouth of Imogen, one of his sweetest N 2 80 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and and most attractive characters, those touching lines in which she represents herself as offering up prayers, 'three times a day for her lover,* and as having intended to enjoin the same practice upon him, in her behalf, before they parted, had not her father interposed to prevent the interview; otherwise, she says, I wouldHave charged him At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, To encounter me with orisons, for then I am in heavenfor him. Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 4. And the same devotional character is kept up, when, after she had become, in disguise, the page of Belarius, now supposed to be slain, she attaches herself to Lucius, the Roman general, in the same capacity: But first, an't please the gods, I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep As these poor pickaxest can dig: and when With wild wood-leaves and weeds I have strew'd his grave, And on it said a century of prayers, Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep, and sigh; And, leaving so his service, follow you: So please you entertain me. Act iv. Sc. z. Nor is there any reason to suppose that our poet designed to exhibit examples of the practice of this duty only, or specially, in the weaker sex. On the contrary, it is kings and nobles whom he has chosen * See also Tempest, quoted below, p. i 8. i. e. her fingers. Sentiments derived from the Bible. i 8 i most of all to represent as men of prayer. This we expect in King Henry VI., Famed, as he was, for mildness, peace and prayer. King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act ii. Sc. J. And so, when Gloster stabs him in the Tower, the last words he is made to utter are these, in which he prays at once for himself and for his murderer: o God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee. Ibid. Act v. Sc. 6. But the cruel and licentious Edward, who supplanted and succeeded him-even he is introduced with words of prayer upon his lips, though words which breathe little (and this so far is meet) of the fervour and simplicity in devotion of a true servant of God:0! Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine; And ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face, I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to THEE, Thou setter up and plucker down of kings! Beseeching Thee-if with Thy will it stands, That to my foes this body must be preyYet that Thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, And give sweet passage to my sinful soul! Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 3. It will be seen, however, that the occasion-it was the morning of the battle of Towton, near Ferrybridge, decisive in its issue against the opponents of Edward-was one in regard to which our poet rarely fails to impress the duty of supplication 182 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and to the throne of grace. It is proper and incumbent upon us to have recourse to prayer before we undertake any important business, and more especially before we engage in war. This, I doubt not, Shakspeare knew and felt; and like a true Christian patriot, he desired that others should know and feel it. There is ample evidence to this effect, for example, in King Henry V. The good king, before he sets out upon his expedition, is made to say:We have now no thought in us but France, Save those to God, that run before our busiresr. Act i. Sc. 2. His prayer to the' God of Battles,' before the battle of Agincourt, has been already* quoted; and to that may be added here, that, while the Earl of Salisbury previously exclaims, as the English forces march into the fieldGod's arm strike with us! Act iv. Sc. 3. the king himself thus humbly resigns his cause to the disposal of the Most High:Now, soldiers, march away; And how Thou pleasest, GOD, dispose the day! A similar character is given, in King Richard III. to the Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII. Before the battle of Bosworth field, in which the wicked usurper was overthrown, not only does * See above, p. 164, also p. 169. Sentiments derkved from the Bible. 183 Richmond exhort his followers to 'C march in God's name,' Act v. Sc. 2, and bids themRemember this,God, and our good cause, fight upon our side; The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, Like high-rear'd bulwarks stand before our faces;Ibid. Sc. 3. but he makes in private a set prayer to the same effect, when he retires to rest upon the night before the battle:0 THOU! whose captain I account myself, Look on my forces with a gracious eye; Put in their hands Thy bruising irons of wrath, That they may crush down with a heavy fall The usurping helmets of our adversaries! Make us Thy ministers of chastisement, That we may praise Thee in Thy victory! To Thee I do commend my watchful soul, Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes; Sleeping, and waking,.0! defend me still! And when God had given him the victory, and the Lord Stanley came in, bearing the crown which he had taken from the head of Richard, now dead, and presented it to Richmond, his first exclamation isGreat God of Heaven, say Amen to all; Act v. Sc. 4. and he concludes his speech, with which the play ends, in earnest prayer for lasting peace, summed up with a repetition of the same sentiment: % 0! now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, 184 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and The true succeeders of each* royal house, By heaven's fair ordinance conjoin together! And let their heirs, GOD, if Thy will be so, Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace, With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days! Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord; That would reduce these bloody days again, And make poor England weep in streams of blood! Let them not live to taste this land's increase, That would with treason wound this fair land's peace! Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again; That she may long live here, God say-AMEN. But besides the self-interested obligation of praying for divine aid on all important occasions, our poet had a no less clear conception of the duty and value of intercession in behalf of others who need and desire our prayers. This appears, for instance, in the picture which he draws of the end of the Duke of Buckingham, in King Henry VIII. The duke, having been found guilty of high treason, when led forth to execution, thus entreats the few that loved him:Go with me, like good angels, to my end; And as the long divorcet of steel falls on me, Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice, And lift my soul to heaven. Act ii. Sc. I. It is pleasant to think (and it goes some way to prove that Shakspeare was brought up in an atmosphere of religious sentiment at least), that in the * i. e. of the houses of Lancaster and York. t The axe that was to divorce the soul from the body. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 18 very first scene of what was, if not the first of all, certainly one of his first written plays-the 'Two Gentlemen of Verona-he introduces the notion of friends praying for each other, in the case of the two young men, Proteus and Valentine, the latter of whom was on the point of setting out upon his travels:Proteus. In thy danger, If ever danger do environ thee, Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine. Johnson interprets Beadsman, 'a man employed in praying, generally in praying for another.' And in the case of lovers performing for their beloved the same duty, besides the instance from Cymbeline quoted above, p..18o, we have in the Tempest a no less beautiful example, where Prospero says to Miranda:'Tis fresh morning with me, When you are by at night. I do beseech youChiefly that I might set it in my prayersWhat is your name? Act iii. Sc. i. Moreover, among the various occasions for the exercise of the duty of intercessory prayer, Shakspeare had learnt, and desired to teach, that it is most especiallyA virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, To pray for them that have done scath* to us. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. i. e.' for them which despitefully use us.' Matt. v. 44. * Injury. i86& Shakspeare's Religious Principles and And, as though he would teach this duty most effectually, he allots to Macbeth the odious task of attempting to decry it, and that in colloquy with one whom he designed to employ for the murdering of Banquo:Do you find Your patience so predominant in your nature, That you can let this go? Are you so gospelled To pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave, And beggared yours for ever? Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. I. On the other hand, it is assigned as a fitting office for one of the most charming and most perfect* of our poet's characters, to exemplify this difficult duty in the most trying of all circumstances. When it is suggested to Desdemona, in order to account for Othello's vile and cruel language towards her, that some one must have slandered her to him, she meekly repliesIf there be any such, Heaven pardon him! Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. There are two other points in regard to the duty of Prayer, which we should expect that Shakspeare would not overlook. One is, that our prayers should be real; not lip-service merely; and must proceed from a heart sincerely desirous to please * In our admiration for Desdemona, however, we must not forget that her tragical end represents the unhappy issue of a marriage entered into by a daughter without her father's consent, and in deceitful opposition to his authority, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 187 God. The other is, that, if we do not receive the things for which we pray, we ought not therefore to conclude that we have been unheard; for it often happens that the denial of our requests may prove a greater benefit to us than the granting of them would have been. Accordingly, the former of these points is brought before us in Hamlet, where the wicked king, after kneeling and attempting to pray, rises with the confession:My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to Heaven go. Act iii. Sc. 3. And again, in Measurefor Measure, the duplicity is exposed of professing to offer up prayer while the heart is bent upon yielding to temptation, in the person of the licentious Deputy:When I would pray, and think, I think and pray To several subjects: Heaven hath my empty words; Whilst my intention,* hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel. Act ii. Sc. 4. He had before said, in the consciousness of suffering himself to be overcomeI am that way going to temptation, Where prayers cross;- Ibid. Sc. z. words which, doubtless, contain a reference to the petition in the Lord's Prayer against temptation, as Mr. Henley has observed; but of which it is not * Substituted by Warburton for invention. 188 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and easy to give altogether a satisfactory interpretation, if we must be content to take them as they stand. The latter point, which I just now mentioned, is one with which scholars will be familiar, as forming the subject of that most remarkable production of heathen antiquity-the Ioth Satire of Juvenalso vigorously imitated by Johnson; and, therefore, there is at least no impropriety in putting it, as Shakspeare has done, into a dialogue, in Antony and Cleopatra, between Sextus Pompeius and his friend Menecrates:Pomp. If the great gods be just, they shall assist The deeds ofjustest men. Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, That what they do delay, they not deny. Pomp. While we are suitors to their throne, decays The thing we sue for. Mene. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wire powers Deny us for our good; so find we profit By losing of our prayers. Act ii. Sc. I.* SECT. 8. Of the Domestic Relations. We should be glad to be able to feel assured that the marriage of our poet, though formed at such an early age (see above, p. 4 sq.), and in one respect disproportionate (his wife being eight years older than himself), did not prove an unhappy one. Doubtless it assisted to give him, when he was still young, his deep insight into female character; and.* See below, Additional Illustrations, p. 369. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 189 the draught of his female personages, on the whole, would rather lead us to suppose, that as he had been prepossessed in favour of the gentler sex, so the experience which he afterwards enjoyed tended to confirm the first good impression. The views which he has expressed of the conjugal union are such as do him honour; and it is only fair, therefore, to conclude, that though he married early, he did not do so unadvisedly,* or without a due regard to the sacredness of the tie, which it is certain he had learnt in his maturer years to regard in its proper light.t Thus, in twelfth Night, the priest describes the marriage of Sebastian and Olivia as A contract of eternal bond of love, Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, * It must, however, be confessed, that in one of his last-written plays, Tvcelfth Night, he has left us a warning against the step which he himself had taken-yet a warning put in such a way that, with true delicacy of feeling, it reflects upon himself more than upon her who had been the object of his choice: Duke. Let still the ewoman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart. For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, Than women's are. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent. Act iv. Sc. 4. f On Shakspeare in his own domestic relations, see Wise's Shakspere and his Birthplace, p. 72, sq. and the interesting essay by Dr. Ingram in the Dublin Afternoon Lectures on English Literature, 1863, p xzz, sq. Also see below, Addit. Illustr. p. 369. 19o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Attested by the holy close of lips, Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings; And all the ceremony of this compact Sealed in my function: Act v. Sc. i. Where Steevens has a note to the effect that c in our ancient marriage ceremony the man received as well as gave a ring.' It is to be wished that he had produced some proof of this. In the meantime, I would observe that anciently the interchange of, rings was a custom which belonged to the espousals, rather than to the solemnization of matrimony. And it would seem, from a subsequent speech of Sebastian, that the former alone were intended by our poet in the present case; an observation which may throw light, perhaps, upon the peculiar circumstances of Shakspeare's own nuptials, as made known through the discovery, in I836, of his marriage license.* Be this as it may, Jaques, in Asyou like it, will furnish us with a protest, by anticipation, delivered according to his own quaint humour, against the unholy practice of a mere secular contract between man and wife, too often acquiesced in at the present day:Will you, being a man of your breeding, be married under a bush, like a beggar? Get you to Church and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is: this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp, warp. Act iii. Sc. 3. See below, AdditionalIllustrations, p. 369. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. I9 I And, to pass to a graver strain, King Henry V., Isabel, Queen of France, is made to say, at the marriage of the English king with her daughter Katharine: God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one. Act v. Sc. 2. Nor are the words that follow less worthy of the subject and the occasion, though she who uttered them proved untrue:I have forgot my Father; I know no touch of consanguinity, No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me As the sweet Troilus. Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 2. In this last quotation the first half line will remind us of a passage in the Psalms, xlv. 10. It is the same devoted feeling with which Desdemona, speaking of her father, says * to Othello:If you have lost him, Why, I have lort him too. Othello, Act iv. Sc. z. See also below, Add. Illustr. p. 371. Meanwhile, in King Henry VI. Part 1., though we have the strongest denunciation of c wedlock forced,' we are assured no less emphatically that The contrary bringeth forth bliss, And is a pattern of celestial peace. * Act v. Sc. 5. * See also her speech to her father in Act i. Sc. 3; and compare Cordelia in King Lear, Act i. Sc. I. f Compare the speech of Fenton in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 5, and the Dialogue in Mid. N. Dream, Act i. Sc. x. i9, Shakspeare's Religious Principles and I notice too that the prohibition in Leviticus xviii. 6, c None of you shall approach [in marriage] to any that is near of kin to him,' is brought out by Beatrice, in Much ado about nothing, where she playfully declares her resolution to remain a spinster;No, uncle; I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Act ii. Sc. i. And that the said prohibition is not to be disregarded-in other words, that marriage is not to be contracted within the forbidden degrees-we are taught in sober earnest by Queen Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV., when Richard III. desires her to promote his union with her daughter, who was his own niece - Richard. Tell her the king, that may command, entreatsQ. Eliz. That at her hands which the king's KING forbids: King Richard III Act iv. Sc. 4. where the same chapter of Leviticus is plainly referred to. Among the few instances of questionable morality in Shakspeare are those in which he appears to justify marriage undertaken by a daughter clandestinely and in opposition to the advice and judgment of parents. I allude especially to the case of Jessica in the Merchant of Venice, and of Ann Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor. On the other hand, the unhappy consequences of such a step are vividly depicted in the fate of two of his Sentiments derived from the Bible. 193 most attractive heroines, Desdemona and Juliet. See above, p. 186, note. What I am next to quote would, probably, never have been written if a passage of S. Paul, Eph. v. 23, had not been running in our poet's mind. I allude to the dialogue between the Provost and Clown, in Measurefor Measure: Prov. Come hither, sirrah, can you cut off a man's head? Clown. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head. Act iv. Sc. 2. But there is a speech in which, besides repeating tishapbitolic setiment, t would seem that our poet set himself to draw out at length all that the Scripture teaches of the duty of wives towards their husbands, with such additional touches to the picture as his own imagination-or the contrast (let us hope) afforded by his wife's good qualities -would readily suggest. Katharina, having ceased to be a shrew, under the discipline of Petruchio, gives the following good advice to one who was married, but had not yet learned to be obedient to hier husband: Fye, fye! unknit that threat'ning unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor: It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads; Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds; And in no sense is meet or amiable. 0 I94 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and A woman moved is like a fountain* troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it. Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee; And for thy maintenance, commits his body To painful labour, both by sea and land; To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; And craves no other tribute at thy, hands, But love, fair looks, and true obedience,Too little payment for so great a debt. Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband; And when she's peevish, froward, sullen, sour, O And not obedient to-his honest —will,. - > What is she but a foul contending rebel, And graceless traitor to her loving lord? I am asham'd, that women are so simple To offer war, where they should kneel for peace; Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, Where they are bound to serve, love, and obey. Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our softf conditions, and our hearts, Should well agree with our external parts? Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 2. Some of my fair readers will think, perhaps, that this lady's tongue has run on much too fast, and much too far-not unintentionally, I dare say, on the poet's part, in order to show how the characteristic weapon of the sex may be turned against * See Prov. xxv. z6. t The gentle qualities of our minds. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 195 themselves. It will be well, therefore, to pass on to a scene in which another Katharine will show, in much fewer words, and as exemplified in her own person, what is the perfect* character of a good wife, and that, too, while her ' loving lord' must, unhappily, be pronounced C the graceless traitor':Have I lived thus long-a wife, a true one, A woman (I dare say, without vain glory) Never yet branded with suspicion? Have I with all my full affections, Still met the king? loved him next Heaven? obeyed him? Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him? Almost forgot my prayers to content him? And am I thus rewarded? 'tis not well, lords. Bring me a constant woman to her husband, One that ne'er dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure; And to that woman, when she has done most, Yet will I add an honour-a great patience. King Henry III. Act iii. Sc. I. It is a curious instance of our author's tact that he employs women to teach wives their conjugal duty. We have seen this already in the Taming of the Shrew; there is another example in the Comedy of Errors, where Luciana takes to task her married sister Adriana, for want of obedience and submission to her husband, see Act ii. Sc. i; and it is Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, who confessesA light wife doth make a heavy husband. Act v. Sc. i. Compare Ecclus. xxv. 23. For further remarks on the conjugal relationship, see below, p. 221. See aiso the character of Portia, wife of Brutus, in Julius Casar. 0 2 196 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and From the consideration of the duties which arise out of the marriage tie, we naturally proceed to the relationship of parents and children; and here again our poet may speak to us from his own experience, in both relations. He was himself the eldest son (though third in order of birth) of eight childrenfour of either sex-but three of the sisters died in infancy; and his own family consisted of two daughters and a son, the son and the younger of the daughters being twins.* By the marriage of his elder daughter, Susanna, to Dr. John Hall, he became a grandfather in I608, eight years before his death. His younger daughter, Judith, married Mr. Thomas Quiney only a few weeks before that event. Our poet's father had died in i60o, and his mother, to whom he probably owed much, in I608. These bare facts furnish nearly all the materials which we now possess, or can hope to obtain, of our poet's family history. It will be interesting to supply the deficiency, in however slight a degree, so far as we may be able, from his writings. In these, accordingly, we may discover the tenderness of a parent's heart; where the clown, in All's well that ends well, quotes the proverb, C Bairns are blessings,'t Act i. Sc. 3; and where Lady Macduff complains of her husband:He wants the natural touch:Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. z. * See above, p. 4, sq. t See Psalm cxxvii. 6, cxxviii. 3, sq. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 1 97 Or, again, where Lady Constance, in King John, says to Cardinal Pandulph, Act iii. Sc. 4:He talks to me that never had a son. In his writings, too, we seem to read that our author had learnt, and practised, and desired in his own turn to teach, the duty of children towards their parents. How pathetically, for instance, is this iesson read to Coriolanus by his mother Volumnia! — Say my request's unjust, And spurn me back; but if it be not so, Thou art not honest; and the gods will plague thee, That thou restrainst from me the duty, which To a mother's part belongs. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3. And how forcibly is Goneril admonished by the Duke of Albany, that no good can be expected either from or by an undutiful child:0 Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face. I fear your disposition: That nature, which contemns its origin Cannot be bordered certain in itself: i.e. cannot be restrained within any certain bounds, and will eventually shrink from no excess of sin:She that herself will sliver * or disbranch From her material sap, perforce must wither, And come to deadly use. King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 2. In these last words Warburton suggests that there is a reference to the use that witches and * Tear off. I98 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and enchanters are said to make of withered branches in their charms. But it is Lear himself who is employed, as we might expect, to place the deformity and misery of filial ingratitude in the strongest light:Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous when thou shew'st thee in a child Than the sea-monster! How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child. King Lear, Act i. Sc. 4. There is good reason to believe that in using this strong language, Shakspeare wrote not only as he felt, but as he was justified in speaking by his own dutiful behaviour towards his parents.* On the other hand, no less forcibly and pathetically does our poet teach us, we may suppose also from his own feelings, the affection which parents cherish, or ought to cherish, towards their offspring, in the complaint of Lady Macduff before referred to, and in the rebuke which Clifford administers to King Henry VI.:My gracious liege, this too much lenity And harmful pity must be laid aside. Whose hand is that the forest bear does lick? Not his that spoils her young before her face. The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on, And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. Unreasonable creatures feed their young, And tho' man's face be fearful t to their eyes, * See below, Tercent. Sermon preached at Stratford, p. 399. t i.e. formidable. See above, p. 32. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 199 Yet, in protection of their tender ones, Who hath not seen them (even with those wings Which sometimes they have used with fearful flight), Make war with him that climbed unto their nest, Offering their own lives in their young's defence? For shame, my liege, make them yourprecedent!K. Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act ii. SC. 2. a rebuke which, whether just or no, elicited from the king in reply the noble sentiment about which there can be no question, viz. that the good deeds of parents are the best inheritance which they can bequeath to their children:I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind. Shakspeare's only son, Hamnet, who died in his twelfth year,* was still alive when this play was written. Had he survived his father, his would indeed have been a glorious inheritance. The two daughters of our poet, however, did both survive him; and to them-besides the immortal works which he left behind-he bequeathed also, I doubt not, the effectual blessing of a good Christian. This I venture to say, because it may be presumed that the pious practice of children receiving benedictions from their parents-a practice common in our poet's time-was observed in his own family. That such must have been the case we may not unreasonably infer from his frequent mention of it, and from the easy natural manner in which it is ' See below, Sect. i6, p. 299. 200 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and introduced. We find it in the Two Gentlemen &c., in I K. Henry 7I., in Coriolanus, in Cymbeline, in Titus Andronicus, in King Lear, in Hamlet, in King Richard III., in the Winter's Tale. But before we turn to the passages, let me produce a few examples in illustration of the custom from other sources. In the Life of Sir Thomas More, published in the late Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, we read:Towards his father he gave many proofs of his natural affection and lowly mind. Whensoever he passed through Westminster to his place in the Chancery, by the Court of King's Bench, if his father, who sat there as judge, had been set down ere he came, he would go to him, and reverently kneeling down in sight of all, ask him blessing. Thir virtuous custom be always solemnly observed; tho' then men after their marriages thought themselves not bound to these duties of younger folks. Such was the humility and filial reverence of the then Lord High Chancellor of England! Stapleton, in his Tres Thome, bears witness to the same fact, and in recording it speaks of the practice as peculiar to the English people. His words are worth quoting at the present day: Solent apud nos liberi quotidie, mane ac vesperi, benedictionem flexo poplite ab utroque parente petere. Qui mos si apud alias quasdam gentes obtineret, haberent Parentes filios magis morigeros, haberet Respublica subditos magis obsequentes, haberet Ecclesia fideles magis obedientes.* * Eccl. Biog. ii. 73. Compare the testimony of Meric Casaubon, quoted in Christian Institutes, iv. 565 Walton's Life of George Herbert; and Scott's Woodstock, c. ii., xiii., and Pev. of Peak, c. ix. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 20o Nicholas Ferrar was born when Shakspeare began to write, viz. in I592; and we are told of him, when he was 27 years old, and his mother came to visit him at Little Gidding, that 'though he was of that age, and had been engaged in many public concerns of great importance, had been a distinguished member of Parliament, and had conducted with effect the prosecution of the Prime Minister of the day, at first approaching his mother, he knelt upon the ground to ask and receive her blessing;' and he kept up the same practice in his own family; as did also, we read,* Mr. Philip Henry, who died ini 1696: so that we have evidence of the existence of the custom during two centuries. Bishop Sanderson, in 1657, mentions it as one of the observances which, in that disordered and distempered time, were cried down as 'rags of Popery.'t And there can be no doubt that during the Cromwellian usurpation our old English manners suffered not a little, and 'many practices which were themselves part and instruments of piety, were exploded and lost by being branded under that odious name.'] But to return to Shakspeare. There could not be a more striking illustration of the custom of which I have been speaking, than that Caius Marcius, on his return from the capture of Corioli, * See Ibid. iv. 173, 181. t Works, vol. ii. p. 35. t Eccl. Biog. iv. I80. Christian Institutes, iv. 56i. 2o2 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and and victory over the Volscians, should be made, as he is, to kneel and beg his mother's blessing:All. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus! Cor. No more of this, it does offend my heart: Pray now, no more. Com.* Look, sir, your mother! Cor.! You have I know petitioned all the gods For my prosperity. [Kneels. wol.t Nay, my good soldier, up! Actii. Sc. I. In Cymbeline, we naturally expect the same from a son like Guiderius, see Act iv. Sc. 4; and from a daughter like Imogen, see Act v. Sc. 5. It is a daughter, too, who in Titus Andronicus says to her father, upon his return to Rome, after conquering the Goths:O bless me here with thy victorious hand. Act i. Sc. 2. On the other hand, remembering the treatment which King Lear had received from his two unnatural daughters, Goneril and Regan, we are not surprised that the Fool should say to him, while they are out together in the pitiless storm upon the heath:Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughter's$ blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Act iii. Sc. 2. * Cominius, the general in command with Coriolanus, against the Volscians. t Volumnia, mother to Coriolanus. t So Mr. Malone prints it; but surely it should be 'daughters.' Lear goes on to speak of' two pernicious daughters.' Sentiments derived from the Bible. 2o3 While remembering also how he himself had acted towards his good daughter, Cordelia, we are not displeased that at the last, when moved to repentance, he should say to her;When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness;- Act v. Sc. 3. nor that she, on her part, should beseech and protest:O! look upon me, sir, Andhold your hands in benediction o'er me. No, sir, you must not kneel. Act iv. Sc. 7. In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, when Launce, the servant of Proteus, is to leave Verona in attendance upon his master, he ludicrously describes all the particulars of the mournful scene, and among the rest: Now come I to my father; Fatber, your blessing. Act ii. Sc. 3. In like manner, we have already seen," in Hamlet, Polonius laying his hand upon his son Laertes' head, and blessing him before he set out upon his travels; and in the same play, Hamlet says to the unhappy queen his mother, whom he had urged to repentance and reformation: - Once more, Good night! And when you are desirous to be blessed, 'll blessing beg ofyou:- Act iii. Sc. 4. that is, I'll beg your blessing, when you yourself * Above, p. 1 34. For another example see Tempest, Act v. Sc. i. 204 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and are desirous to amend, and so shall be in a condition to receive blessing from God. In the Winter's Tale, when Perdita kneels to her mother Hermione, the latter's blessing is expressed in these terms:You gods, look down And from your sacred vials pour your graces Upon my daughter's head! Act v. Sc. 3. Once more, in King Richard III., the wicked Gloster, as he then was, has the hypocrisy to go through the same pious form towards his mother:Glos. Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy! I did not see your grace-Humbly on my knee I crave your blessing. Duch. God bless thee! and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! Glos. Amen! And make me die a good old man. That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing, [Aside. I marvel that her grace did leave it out. Act ii. Sc. 2. It would be interesting to descend to the relations which exist in a family between the master and mistress and their domestics; and to endeavour to -trace the notions which our poet entertained of the reciprocal duties that flow from that relationship. But I must be content to observe that he has drawn no purer or better character than that of old Adam, the servant, in As you like it; and that in Cymbeline he takes occasion, in a speech of Posthumus to his servant Pisanio, to lay down the just and important Sentiments derived from the Bible. 205 principle, that no servant is bound to please his master by doing what is wrong: Every good servant does not all commands: No bond, but to do imst ones. Act v. Sc. i. SECT. 9. Of Charity and Mercifulness. If we are to lay a solid foundation of moral duty, we must first learn to entertain a just abhorrence of its opposite. c 0 ye that love the Lord, see that ye hate the thing that is evil.' Ps. xcvii. io. Thus of the Ten Commandments, not only the first three, but the last five also, are all couched in the negative form, as though the prohibition of vice was designed to form the foundation of virtue. And thus, too, we learn, even from a heathen poetJirtus est vitiumfugere, et sapientia pritia Stultitia caruisse; the beginning of Virtue is to flee Vice, and the beginning of Wisdom to have escapedfrom Folly. In this and the four next sections I propose to test the teaching of Shakspeare by this rule; and, following the order of the second table of the moral law, to show how, after the model of Scripture, he would teach us (i) from the prohibition of murder to build up the grace of Charity; (2) from the prohibition of adultery to build up the graces of Chastity and Sobriety; (3) from the prohibition of stealing to build up the grace of Honesty; (4) from 206 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and the prohibition of false witness to build up the grace of Truth; and (5) from the prohibition of covetousness to built up the grace of Contentment. The subject then of this section corresponds with the scope of the sixth Commandment, as developed by our Lord in His sermon on the mount. In K. Richard III. Clarence thus speaks to one of the men who were sent by Gloster to murder him in the Tower:Erroneous vassal! The great KING OF KINGS* Hath in the Table of His law commanded That thou shalt do no murder; wilt thou then Spurn at His edict, and fulfill a man's? Take heed; for He holds vengeance in His hand, To hurl upon their heads that break His law. Act i. Sc. 4. And so (according to the teaching of Scripture in Genesis ix. 6, Num. xxxv. I6) we read in Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 4, 'Blood will have blood.' Compare the speech of Bolingbroke, in King Richard II. quoted above, p. 59, and of the senator in 'imon of Athens:Friend, or brother, He forfeits his own blood, that spills another:Act iii. Sc. 5. except, indeed, it be in self-defence-an exception upon which Alcibiades argues in that same scene:To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust; But in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just:* See above, p. ioI. Sentiments derived from the Bible..o07 that is, as Dr. Johnson explains it, ' I call mercy herself to witness that defensive violence is just.' o There is, however, a well-known passage in Hamlet in which our poet has not scrupled to exhibit his hero, not only as prepared to take blood for blood by private assassination, but as resolving to defer the act only out of 'c a refinement of revenge,' with the view of securing, at the same time, as far as possible, the everlasting perdition of the murderer. And Johnson, accordingly, has condemned the speech-more especially coming, as it does, from ' a virtuous character'-as one c too horrible to be read or to be uttered.' This is a grave charge to bring against our author; and though the commentators in general appear to have acquiesced in it as just, I would venture to offer a few remarks in arrest of so severe a judgment. For this purpose it will be necessary to produce at least a portion of the speech alluded to. When the wicked king, in attempting to repent,t retires and kneels, Hamlet, entering unobserved, says to himself-with reference to the act of murder which he was contemplatingNow might I do it, pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't:-and so he goes to heaven:And so am I revenged? That would I be scanned: A villain kills my father: and, for that, -t * Comp. Duke in M.for M. Act v. Sc. I. t See above, pp. i62, sq., 187. + That should be, requires to be well considered. 208 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown. I may observe, by the way, that the expression 'full of bread' affords a remarkable instance of Shakspeare's intimate acquaintance with Holy Scripture. I had noticed the parallel to Ezekiel, xvi. 49, and I find that Mr. Malone has done the same. Hamlet continues:And am I then revenged To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No. Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent.*And he concludes by saying aside to the kingThis physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Now, first, I would borrow the observation of Mr. M. Mason, that though ' this speech of Hamlet's, as Johnson observes, is horrible indeed, yet some moral may be extracted from it, as all his subsequent calamities were owing to this savage refinement of revenge.' But further; it has been pointed out, with great truth, that in times of less civilization revenge was regarded as a sacred duty. The more fell and terrible the retributive act the more meritorious it seems to have been held. The king * Hold, seizure. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 209 himself, in a subsequent scene (Act iv. Sc. 7), when stimulating Laertes to kill Hamlet, says: ' Revenge should have no bounds.' These remarks are confirmed by many unhappy incidents in our Scotch history. The following is told by Sir Walter Scott, in his Review* of the Culloden Papers:So deep was this thirst of vengeance impressed on the minds of the Highlanders, that when a clergyman informed a dying chief of the unlawfulness of the sentiment, urged the necessity of his forgiving an inveterate enemy, and quoted the Scriptural expression, 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,' the acquiescing penitent said, with a deep sigh-' To be sure it is too sweet a morsel for / a mortal.' Then added, ' Well, I forgive him, but the deil take i you, Donald (turning to his son), if you forgive him! Other stories are told by Sir Walter to the same effect in the same place, and 'we could add an hundred,' he writes, 'of that insatiable thirst for revenge which attended northern feuds.' Under northern, we may well include ' Danish;' especially when we consider the close affinity that existed between this country and Denmark in early times. In like manner, Mr. P. F. Tytler, in his History of Scotland,t tells us of' the sacred duty of feudal vengeance;' and again, of the ' deep principle of feudal vengeance which demanded blood for blood;' a principle which he describes, in another place, as ' so universally felt that it may be regarded almost as the pulse of feudal life.' That our poet * See Quarterly Review, vol. xiv. p. 288. t See vol. ix. pp. 15, 65, 309; and compare Gibbon, concerning the Goths, vol. v. p. 348. P 10 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and had fully realized the existence and the energetic character of this principle may be inferred from scenes and sentiments which he has introduced elsewhere; as in Romeo and 7uliet, where Tybalt, as a Capulet, says of a MontagueNow by the stock and bonoar of my kin, To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin. Act i. Sc. 5. But there, also, the entire plot and catastrophe of the play turns upon the fatal results which may be expected to overtake those who act upon such a sentiment; while its corrective is early (Act iii. Sc. i ) administered by Escalus himself in those weighty words:Mercy but murders, pardoning those who kill. And in Hamlet, even the wicked king is made to substantiate the same truth:No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Act iv. Sc. 7: i. e. should afford sanctuary to a murderer. But to return to the speech of Hamlet. In addition to what has been already said, we are to remember that Hamlet was a man of unsettled mind, and that what had unsettled him was the duty of dealing in some way with the murderer of his father and the usurper of his throne. I do not deny, what Dr. Johnson asserts, and would, of course, maintain as essential for the support of his unfriendly criticism, viz. that Hamlet's madness was ' feigned;' but it was not, in my opinion, so feigned Sentiments derived'from the Bible. 2 I as to have no foundation in actual derangement; and what more proper or more natural than that the cause which gave occasion forhis derangement should lead him to harbour an idea so monstrous, and to express himself in terms so shocking, as to be defensible only upon that ground? I agree with Goethe and others who conceive that Shakspeare meant, in the case of Hamlet, to represent the effects of a great action laid upon one who was inadequate to the performance of it. And part of this inadequacy, I imagine, is made to lie in his looking for the redress which he had to seek only in personal revenge of the meanest kind-secret assassination; while, in justice to the really good and amiable features of his character, a veil is in some sort thrown over this meanness by accomipanying it with sentiments which would indeed be ' too horrible' for any man, much- more a man of ' virtuous character,' not disordered in his mind, to entertain or express. At the same time it is to be noted that Shakspeare had prepared us from the first not to expect in Hamlet, however virtuous on the whole, the perfection of Christian principle in bearing up against the grievous wrongs done to both his parents, and through them to himself. In the second scene of the play, speaking to his friend Horatio, of his mother's marriage with the murderer of his father-before the ghost had assured P 2 212 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and him of the fact and circumstances of the murder-he has recourse to a sentiment which contains the germ of all that shocks us most in the speech so gravely censured by Dr. Johnson, and gives the first indication of excited feeling, in the direction not of discontent merely, but of maliciousness, of revenge:Would I had met my dearest* foe in heaven, ' OrLever I had seen that day, Horatio! Act i. Sc. 2. How different the language put by our poet into the mouth of Wolsey, as a Christian bishop, now penitent and at the close of life: Cherish those hearts that hate thee! K. Henry VIlL. Act iii. Sc. 2. And again this truly Christian character is given to the first reformed Anglican archbishop, Cranmer, in the same play, the king himself bearing witness of him in these words:The common voice, I see, is verified Of thee, which says thus: Do my Lord of Canterbury, shrewd turn and he is your friend for ever. Act v. Sc. 2. Our poet, we may observe, is not content with teaching us the great religious lessons of shewing kindness and doing good. These, indeed, he does teach most forcibly and repeatedly. First, in the very language of S. Paul, Rom. xiii. 10, we read, in Love's Labour's lostCharityfulfills the law. Act iv. Sc. 3. * i. e. greatest, worst. t See above, p. 38. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 213 Next, 'to strain a little' ourselves, in order to help in building up the fortunes of others, we learn, in qimon of Athens, is a duty imposed not only by religion, but by the first principles of humanity:For 'tis a bond in men. Act i. Sc. j. And, again, in the same play:We are born to do benefits. Act i. Sc. 2. Moreover, the following beautiful description of the compassionate and charitable man may well incline us to do likewise. King Henry IV. is speaking of his son the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V.:He is gracious if he be observed; He hath a tear for pity and a hand Open as day for melting charity. King Henry IV. znd Part, Act iv. Sc. 4. Our poet, I say, has not only taught us these lessons, but the still higher doctrine which he could have learnt, and which he professed to have learnt, only from the Word of God, viz. not 'to render evil for evil,' but 'to overcome evil with good.' Thus we have seen in King Richard II., quoted above, p. 66, ' GOD bids us do good for evil;' And, again, it is proclaimed in All's well, &c., We must do good against evil. Act ii. Sc. 5. And, again, we read in As you like it, Act iv. Sc. 3, Kindness [is] nobler ever than revenge. And here I may remark that though the precept to love our enemies aims at a height to which the 2T4 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and most perfect teaching of morality among the heathen made no pretension, yet the doctrine of forgiveness* was not altogether unknown to them, as we may gather from Cicerot:_ Sunt quacdam officia etiam adversus eos servanda a quibus injuriam acceperis. Est enim ulciscendi et puniendi modus. Atque haud scio an satis sit eum qui lacessierit, injurie sum4 panitere. De Offciis, lib. I, cap. xi. Our poet, therefore, was perhaps at liberty to put such words as these into the mouth of Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus:Why dost not speak? Think'st thou it honorablefor a noble man Still to remember wrongs? Coriol. Act v. Sc. 3. And also to put what follows into the mouth of Prospero, in the Tempest, Act v. Sc. i:The rarer action is In virtue [i. e. forgiveness] than in vengeance. And, once more, to make the senator say, in Timon of Athens, Act iii. Sc. 5, To revenge is no valor, but to bear. On a par with Revenge for the evil we have received is Ingratitude for the good. Religion groans at' both; though it is with reference to the latter that our poet has used this expressive phrase, Ibid.: * On the duty of forgiveness compare above, p. 163; and on Shakspeare's own practice in this respect, see Mr. Wise, p. 145. t And from S. Chrysostom. See Horn. ii. in Joann. sec. 6 fin. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 215 1st Stranger. 0! see the monstrousness of man, When he looks out in an ungrateful * shape. znd Stranger. RELIGION GROANS AT IT. Act iii. Sc. 2. On the other hand; Religion SMILES at every attempt to overcome or to remove not only the more grievous instances of uncharitableness such as those, but whatever is at variance with brotherly kindness and goodwill. She has taught our poet to write:Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. (S. Matt. v. 9.) K. Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. I. God's benison go with you, and with those That would make good of bad, and friends of foes. Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 3. And, further, she has taught him, as we saw above in Section 7, that one great instrument of making peace, is to pray for those who despitefully use us. Moreover, the Bible teaches that the foundation of love or charity to others is the sense of our own liability to want; and the true motive for exercising charity the remembrance that we ourselves do constantly need effectual relief and loving comfort, and do constantly receive them from God: Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus xxiii. 9. * Compare the strong censure of Ingratitude in Twelfth Night:I hate ingratitude more in a man Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, Or any taint of vice, whose strong corruption Inhabits our frail blood. Act iii. Sc. 4. See also the song of Amiens in Asyou like it, Act ii. Sc. 7. zI6 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and The Lord your God loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt, from which the Lord delivered you. Deut. x. 17-19. King Lear confesses that in the day of prosperity he had given too little heed to these considerations: 0! I have ta'en Too little care of this! Take physick, Pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches * feel; That thou may'st shake the superflux to them, And show the Heavens more just. Act iii. Sc. 4. But it is Gloster who is made use of, in the same play, to teach this same lesson still more effectually. Turned out of doors, with his eyes put out, he meets on the heath, without knowing him, his son Edgar, as Mad Tom. Learning from the old man who led him that Mad Tom was a beggar, he says to him: Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes: that I am wretched, Makes thee the happieri. e. because my wretchedness now teaches me to compassionate those who are in distress:Heavens, deal so still! Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man That slaves t your ordinance, that will not see Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly: * The general duty of sympathy is expressed by the very words of Scripture, Rom. xii. 5, 'to weep with them that weep,' in Titus Andronicus, Act iii. Sc. i. t Makes a slave of, instead of obeying, the divine ordinance of charity to the poor. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 217 So distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough. Act iv. Sc. x. These concluding lines may remind us of S. Paul's argument in favour of alms-giving, c that there may be an equality' between rich and poor, in 2 Cor. viii. 13-I5. Once more, in the same play, Edgar, who had been made to drink deeply of the ' physic' of adversity, tells the happy effect which it had produced upon him. When asked, 'Now, good sir, what are you?' he answers:A most poor man, made tame by fortune's blows: Who, by the art of known andfeeling* sorrows, Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, I'll lead you to some biding.t Act iv. Sc. 6. I have already $ had occasion to quote the wellknown speech of Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, which bears upon this point:We do pray for mercy: And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. Act iv. Sc. I. And if we fail to act thus, first the Duke, and then Portia again, in the same scene warn us what we may expect:How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none? As thou urgest justice, be assur'd Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st. Compare S. James ii. 13. * Either 'feeling' is used for ' felt,' as Malone is inclined to think, or 'known and feeling' is to be understood of 'past and present sorrows,' as Warburton interprets. t Place to abide in. I Seep. o. 218 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and We know that, according to the teaching of Scripture, and especially of S. Paul, charity or love is the sum of all virtue. There is something singularly striking in the way in which our poet carries on the idea, and makes kindness the sum not only of all virtue, but of all beauty:In nature there's no blemish, but the mind; None can be called deformed, but the unkind: VIRTUE IS BEAUTY. Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. Shakspeare was doubtless no stoic; but by some means or other he has contrived to appropriate and improve upon the, best ideas of the stoical philosophy. Flowing from a kindly and considerate disposition, the duty of hospitality is one which the Bible, we know, frequently enjoins and commends. See i Peter iv. 9; Hebrews xiii. 2; Romans xii. 13. But there is a passage more solemn and more impressive than any of these, spoken by our Lord Himself with reference to the great day of account. 'I was a stranger, and ye took me in;' and ' I was a stranger, and ye took me not in,' Matt. xxv. 35, 43; which I cannot help thinking was present to our poet's mind when he made Corin say, in As you like it:My master is of churlish disposition, And little reeks to find the way to heaven, By doing deeds of hospitality. Act ii. Sc. 4. Copious, however, and emphatic as the Bible is Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 2I9 in giving us lessons upon all the parts and exercises of duty which relate to charity and brotherly love, it does not omit to prescribe, at the same time, all needful caution in regard to the mistakes that may be made and the danger incurred by the indulgence of kind feelings, or a social disposition, without discretion and respect of persons. We are to be careful in the choice of those with whom we associate; careful in making and trusting friends; careful, above all, not to ' walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.' I feel that it is carrying out the subject of this section somewhat beyond its proper limit to extend it to points such as these; I shall not, therefore, attempt to illustrate them in detail; only, as a warning upon the choice of friends, I venture to quote the dying speech of the Duke of Buckingham, in King Henry VII.:You that hear me, This from a dying man receive as certain: Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels, Be sure you be not loose, for those you make friends, And give your hearts to, when they once perceive The least rub in your fortunes, fall away Like water* from ye, never found again, But where they mean to sink ye. Act ii. Sc. I. Falstaff gives us another and still weightier reason for the same precept:It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is * See Psalm Iviii. 6, Prayer-Book version i and Job vi. 15. 22o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore let men take heed of their company. King Henry IV. znd Part, Act v. Sc. i. Or, as Cassius expresses it, in Yulius Cesar:'Tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes: For who so firm that cannot be seduced? Act i. Sc. 2. Compare with this sentiment the verse of Menander quoted by S. Paul in i Cor. xv. 33. And that a multitude is- not to be followed in doing evil, where could we find a more just, though laughable, illustration than in the words of Fluellen in the English camp before the battle of Agincourt?If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb:-in your own conscience now? K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I. But to return. Shakspeare extends the duty of mercifulness, as the Scriptures also do, to the brute creation. It may suffice to refer to his touching description of the wounded stag in As you like it, Act ii. Sc. i; and as we read in Isaiah i. 3, that 'the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,' so Sicinius says, in Coriolanus, Act ii. Sc. i: Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 221 SECT. 10. Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Chastity. I have already been led to speak, in the eighth section of this chapter, on the sacred character and manifold obligations of the Conjugal Relationship. It is a relationship whereby the wife becomes, in the highest and noblest sense, the property of the husband, and the husband the property of the wife. A British Churchman may be allowed to please himself in fancying Shakspeare as an occasional hearer of Bp. Andrewes*-the greatest poet listening to the greatest preacher of the age-and had he been present when that admirable divine delivered his ' Exposition of the Seventh Commandment,' he could not have laid down its first principles more accurately than he has done in iTroilus and Cressida, where Hector thus speaks respecting the duty of restoring Helen to her husband Menelaus:Nature craves All dues be rendered to their owners; now, What nearer debt t in all humanity Than wife is to the husband? If this law Of nature be corrupted thro' affection, There is a law in each well-order'd nation, * Born in 1555, died x626; one of the translators of the Bible. t Mr. Malone interprets the word propriety' as used by Olivia in Tweelfth Night, Act v. Sc. z, in this sense, viz. to mean the right of property which a married couple have in each other, and which Milton speaks of as the' sole propriety in Paradise;' but I rather think it means in that place, ' proper state.' 22z Shakspeare's Religious Principles and To curb those raging appetites that are Most disobedient and refractory. If Helen then be wife to Sparta's kingAs it is known she is-these moral laws Of nature and of nations speak aloud To have her back returned:-Thus to persist In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong, But makes it much more heavy. Act ii. Sc. 2. And in Measure for Measure our poet follows the severity of the Mosaic Law, that those who commit the sins more immediately forbidden by this commandment are worthy of death,* no less than they who commit murder:It were as good To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen A man already made, as to remit t Their saucy$ sweetness, that do coin Heaven's image In stamps that are forbid;- Act ii. Sc. 4. an aphorism not the less profound because enunciated by a hypocrite, of which the author gives us intimation, with admirable skill, by the phrase chosen to describe the sin which is at once palliated and proscribed. In like manner, no exception can be taken against the truth of what follows-in regard either to the imprudence of hasty marriage or the criminality of divorce-however we may abhor the speaker, the wicked Gloster:Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. * But comp. S. John viii. Ix. See also King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. t Pardon. * Inordinate indulgence of sensual appetite. & Sentiments derived from the Bible. 223 Yet God forbid that I should wish them severed, Whom God hath joined together. (S. Matt. xix. 6.) K. Henry V1. 3rd Part, Act iv. Sc. I. And so marriage is called in Love's Labour's lost, A world-without-end bargain. Act v. Sc. 2. There is a sentiment, too often realised in the experience of inordinate affection and unhallowed intercourse between the sexes, which our poet might have adopted from the miserable history of Amnon and Tamar, recorded in 2 Samuel xiii. 2-5:Sweet love, I see, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. K. Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2. And where shall we find the unhappy passion which sometimes seizes upon true and pure affection, and which Shakspeare has delineated with overwhelming power in Othello,* and again in Winter's Tale and Comedy of Errors, more justly characterised than in the Song of Solomon?Jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.-viii. 6. Comp. Prov. vi. 34. * In mitigation of the horror which the conduct of Othello inspires, it would be well if it could be proved that he was not a Christian. Schlegel regards him so, and points this out as an instance in which Shakspeare has improved upon the novel, the Moor of which he says 'is a baptised Saracen.' But to say nothing of the language which Othello himself uses in Act i., Sc. 3, quoted below, in p. 225; or of the reference which Iago (who surely must be considered of the same religion as his general) makes to ' proofs of Holy Writ' in Act iii. Sc. 3; it is plain that Schlegcl must have overlooked the passage in Iago's soliloquy, Act ii. Sc. 3. 224 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and That the plays of Shakspeare are not free from passages which may minister food to an impure imagination, cannot be denied;* but that their general tendency is of an opposite and wholly virtuous character, is no less certain.t Nor has he omitted, on fit occasions, to set forth the best of lessons for the control of passion, and the avoiding of excess. See, for instance, in the Tempest, Act iv. Sc. i, the earnest caution given to lovers before marriage; in All's well, &c., Act v. Sc. 5, the advice of Mariana to the widow's daughter; the passage in the Comedy of Errors, quoted above, p. I 25; and the song of the Fairies, in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 5. I may also refer to the severe rebuke which the Duke, disguised as a friar, administers to the Clown upon his profligate course of life, in Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 2; and to Othello, where Cassio, after he had been betrayed into intoxication, delivers the following lecture against intemperance:Oh! that men should put an enemy to their mouths to steal where he speaks of Othello as ready even 'to renounce his baptism' for the love of Desdemona. See below, p. 275. * That he himself was penitently conscious of this may perhaps be inferred from expressions in one or more of his Sonnets. But compare my remarks below in the Conclusion, p. 352. t In confirmation of this judgment see the remarks of Mr. Keble in Prelectiones Academice, quoted below in Tercentenary Sermon preached at Stratford, pp. 389, 390; also the Archbishop of Dublin's Sermon, preached on the same occasion, p. o1, upon the general excellency of Shakspeare's female characters. Sentiments derivedifrom the Bible. 2 2 away their brains! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! Iago. Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus recovered? Cassio. It hath pleased the devil Drunkenness to give place to the devil* wrath: one imperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.... To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently t a beast! 0 strange! Every ilzordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil. Act ii. Sc. 3. The drinking bout had ended in a quarrel, and in the midst of the disturbance, Othello, coming in, exclaims: Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl. The last line is one of those which make it difficult to believe that Shakspeare had altogether forgotten his schoolboy classics. Surely when he wrote it he was thinking of Horace: Natis in usum letitie scyphis Pugnare Thracum est; tollite barbarum Morem, verecundumque Bacchum Sanguineis prohibite rixis. In like manner we are warned against idleness, as the certain mother of all evil, and especially of 0 -* See Ephes. iv. 27. t Compare what the clown, in Twelfth Night, says of a drunken man: that he is 'like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman.' Act i. Sc. 5. I Mahometans, O 2,6 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and such sins as are pointed at under this head, in Antony and Cleopatra, where Antony first reflects:O then, we bring forth weeds When our quick minds * lie still:and next resolves, I must from this enchanting queen break off: Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, My idleness doth hatch. Act i. Sc. 2. Where again it is not impossible that Shakspeare had in mind another Roman poet of high authority in such matters:Quxritur Egisthus quare sit factus Adulter In promptu causa est;-desidiosus erat. But the most impressive lesson in this respect is the picture which our poet draws of the deathbed of one whom he has made the type of a merry, but sensual and ungodly life; and being put into the mouth of a worthless woman (for it could scarcely have been represented otherwise) the description of the scene is made more touching, more melancholy. I allude to Act ii. Sc. 3, in King Henry V. The reader of Burnet, of Evelyn's Memoirs, and of the Life of Bp. Ken, will be at no loss to compare a parallel scene of real life, only exhibited on the most elevated stage and in the highest rank; I allude to the deathbed scene of the 'Merry Monarch,' * I prefer this conjecture of Warburton to the reading, 'winds,' notwithstanding Johnson's explanation. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 227 King Charles II. Truly ' the end of that mirth is heaviness!' Prov. xiv. I3. I cannot refrain from adding that as idleness is the root of vice, so diligence, together with the desire of self-improvement* is, under the guidance of Divine grace, the best road to virtue. And this too our poet would teach us, if I do not misinterpret him, in these comprehensive and emphatic words:Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. K. Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. Or to take only the lower and merely practical view which a heathen could exhibit: Ni Posces ante diem librum cum lumine, si non Intendes animum ftudiis et rebus honestis, Invidid vel Amore vigil torquebere:in other words, with such things as, he leaves us to conclude, are not ' honest,' not ' virtuous,' not 'of good report.' By ' invidia' we may understand all those evil affections which belong to the irascible, as by ' amor' those which belong to the concupiscible part of our nature. And this adrmonition, important at all times, is especially needful for the young. Hence, it is with good reason that Laertes warns his sister Ophelia:* See the speech of Hamlet quoted above, p. 129. Q-2 228 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and In the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent: Be wary then. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. Nor can we doubt of the good fruit which will follow in after life from such self-control and selfcultivation; for, as even lago testifies'Tis in ourselves that we are thus, or thus.* Our bodies are our gardens; to the t which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it steril with idleness or manured with industry-why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. Othello, Act i. Sc. 3. Lastly, in speaking of the cultivation of the body, let us not forget-especially in days when no bounds are set to the adorning of the person and to extravagance in dress-the teaching of i S. Peter iii. 3, or'Tis the mind that makes the body rich; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So honour peereth in the meanest habit. Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 3 -SECT. I I. Of Justice and Honesty. We are told in Measure for Measure of a certain csanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one-the eighth-out of the Table,' Act i. Sc. 2. 7Thou shalt not steal ' was a * Se aboe, P 143 t Se abve. 9 * See above, p. i43o t See above, p. I9. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 229 commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions.' I am afraid that conduct similar in effect to this pirate's is still only too common-among landsmen; as we may conclude it was in Shakspeare's day. ' To be honest, as this world goes,' says Hamlet* to Polonius, ' is to be one man picked out of ten thousand,' Act ii. Sc. 2. And in Timon of Athens, it is the remark of one of the three strangers, that ' Policy sits above conscience,' Act iii. Sc. 2. And yet how often have we been taught, in regard not only to dishonest and unjust but to harsh and ungenerous treatment of others, that ' with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again!' Matt. vii. 2. Measure for measure must be answered. Henry V. 3rd Part, Act ii. Sc. 6. Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure. Measure for Measure, Act v. Sc. I. We know that even heathen moralists, such as Cicero, regarded illiberality as a species of injustice; and though we have a proverb which bids us to be just before we are generous, yet we also know that, as Christians, we can never be said to be truly just, until we are also really bountiful. It is the twofold stigma of prodigality that it has a direct tendency, by disabling us from giving, to make us unjust both towards God and towards man. Hence it is that while the duty of a charitable temper and disposition * See above, p. 137. 230 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and belongs rather to the sixth Commandment, the practical exhibition of that duty in regard to almsgiving may be said to fall more properly under the eighth. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we see the measure which will hereafter be measured again to those who mete as Dives did to the poor; and how often our poet has alluded to that parable I shall have occasion to mention in a later section.' The parable of the prodigal son has another, and more blessed lesson to teach, besides the evils and injustice of prodigality-a lesson fitted for the pulpit rather than for the stage; but the stage may seize at least upon that portion of the story which represents how 'the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,' Prov. xxiii. 21, and how ' want shall come as an armed man' upon the sluggard and the dissolute, Prov. vi. I I. All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd. How like a younker, or a prodigal, The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind! How like the prodigal doth she return; With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails, Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind! Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 6. Mr. Bowdler has not spared this fine passage, but he has allowed what follows to stand without * See below, Sect. x6, p. 297. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 231 curtailment. Oliver is speaking, in As you like it, to his unkind and unnatural brother, Orlando:Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury? Act i. Sc. i. The same parable is alluded to in the Ist Part of King Henry IV. Act iv. Sc. 2; and again in the 2nd Part of that play, Act i. Sc. 2; in iTwo Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 3; and once more in the Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3. On the other hand, the poor widow who, in putting her two mites into the treasury, gave ' all her living,' Mark xii. 44, was, I suspect, in our poet's thoughts, when he wrote:Fool. How now, nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs,* and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself. Against the evils of covetousness, which the Bible denounces as 'idolatry,' our poet has given us, in like manner, no feeble or unfrequent warning. Thus, in King Henry IV Part II., he bids us noteHow quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object. Act iv. Sc. 4. And in Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo hands to the apothecary a sum of money in payment for * Fool's caps. 232 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and the poison which the latter, though forbidden to sell it under pain of death, had allowed him to purchase, we read as follows:There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell: I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none;Act v. Sc. I. i. e. none as compared with that which I have given you. And, most of all, in Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3, we find a full and very doleful catalogue of the sins and miseries which arise from 'the love of money —the root,' as S. Paul teaches us, 'of all evil.' I Tim. vi. Io. There is another species of injustice, of which (as of niggardliness or avarice) the tribunals of this world take no account, and into which, therefore, men are too apt to fall without thought or concern; I mean the misspending of our time and other talents, which God has lent us to occupy and to trade with for His glory, and for the benefit of our fellow-creatures. The notion of our stewardship in this respect, as well as in respect of our pecuniary means, is one which the Bible leaves us no room to doubt of; and accordingly our poet sets it forth with all faithfulness and with his wonted power:Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee. Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 233 Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, t'were all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Both thanks and use. Measurefor Measure, Act i. Sc. I. Moreover, we know how the Bible condemns the purpose of doing evil that good may come; see Rom. iii. 8. In like manner, in the Merchant of Venice, when Bassanio had urged the Court to pronounce in favour of Antonio, against ShylockWrest once the law to your authority: To do a great right, do a little wrong;Portia at once virtuously rejects the plea: It may not be. Act iv. Sc. I. With regard to the administration of justice, I have noted only the following passages as coming within the scope of my design. It is recorded in the Acts how that King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, 'There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. To whom I answered, it is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.' xxv. 13-16. 234 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Well therefore does Archbishop Cranmer, in King Henry fIII., entreat the Lords of Council who were assembled to condemn him unheard: I do beseech your lordships, That in this case of justice, my accusers, Be what they will, may stand forth face to face, And freely urge against me. Act v. Sc. z. And well too does the Bishop of Carlisle, in King Richard II., argue the same in behalf of his sovereign against those who had conspired to dethrone him: Thieves are not judged, but they are by to hear, Altho' apparent guilt be seen in them: And shall the figure of God's majesty, His captain, steward, deputy elect, Anointed, crowned, planted many years, Be judged by subject and inferior breath, And he himself not present? Act iv. Sc. i. SECT. 12. Of the use and abuse of the iTongue. ' I will speak daggers,' says Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2, using a metaphor which the Bible has made familiar to us. ' Swords are in their lips,' says the Psalmist, lix. 7. And again, ' Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows-even bitter words,' lxiv. 3. And no doubt there are many cases in which this is found by experience to be too true. For instance: 'Tis slander; Whose edge ir sharper than the sword; whose tongue Sentiments derived from the Bible. 235 Out-venoms* all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters. Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4. And the heinousness of slander lies in this, that nothing is more precious to a man than his good name. There is an admirable sermon of Bishop Sanderson t upon the text, ' A good name is better than precious ointment,' Eccles. vii. I; in which he observes-the more precious a good name is, the more grievous is their sin who seek to rob others of it. ' Neither thieves nor murderers are more cruel and injurious than slanderers, backbiters, and false accusers are.': This is vigorously put by that great divine, but not so effectively as our poet has expressed the same; and he has added the original idea, that though so much is lost by him against whom the sin is committed, nothing is gained by him who commits it: Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse, steals trash;... But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. See below, chap. iii. 3, p. 332. Compare King Richard II.:c Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear.' Act i. Sc. i. And As You like it, 'She speaks poniards, &c.' Act ii. Sc. r. t Born 1587, died i66z. t Works, vol. i. p. 2x. 236 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Where Mr. Malone has quoted Proverbs xxii. i, c A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.' But our poet might also have remembered the following passage in the Book of Homilies:' Many times there cometl less hurt of a thief than of a railing tongue: for the one taketh away a man's good name; the other taketh but his riches, which is of much less value.'-Against Contention, Part I. It is in the same strain that the Duke of Norfolk declares, in King Richard II.:The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. Acti. Sc. z. When Jaques proposes to Orlando, in As you like itWill you sit down with me? And we two will rail against our mistress the world, and all our misery:how admirable is the answer which the latter makes!I will chide no breather in the world but myself; against whom I know most faults. Act iii. Sc. 2. And not less just or less scriptural is the argument of Isabel in Measure for Measure, when she pleads with the wicked deputy for her brother's life: Go to your bosom; Knock there; and ask your heart what it doth know That's like my brother's fault: if it confess A natural guiltiness such as is his, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 237 Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Against my brother's life.* Act ii. Sc. 2. This is in keeping with what S. Paul has taught us, viz. that in judging others the consequence is we condemn ourselves, Rom. ii. I; an idea which our poet has again caught and admirably intensified, when he makes Timon askWilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Timon of Athens, Act v. Sc. 1. At the same time he does not deny that censure and reproof, even of the greatest severity, may be sometimes necessary, and that charity itself may require us to administer them. Thus Hamlet testifies, speaking to his mother:I must be cruel, only to be kind. Act iii. Sc. 4. And how wise accordingly is the conclusion of Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing!Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending; Act ii. Sc. 3. i. e. can use them for purposes of self-amendment. But with regard to censures in general there is no reflection more just or more profound than that the judgment we form and the estimate we express of the conduct of others depends for the most part upon our own moral state; and how forcibly and variously has our poet embodied this truth! The * Compare the speech of King Henry, quoted below, p. 94:' Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.' 238 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and speakers are the gallant Hotspur, Enobarbus, and the Duke of Albany. Thought's the slave of life. K. Henry IY. ist Part, Act v. Sc. 4. Men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes. Ant. and Cleop. Act iii. Sc. 2. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. King Lear, Act iv. Sc. z. Compare S. Paul, Tit. i. I 5, ' To the pure,' &c. It follows from the remarks made above, that praise is often a doubtful benefit; and we know that in warning us against it, our Lord himself has gone so far as to say, Luke vi. 26:Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! And how ingeniously again has this sentiment been adopted by Shakspeare, and assigned to the character to whom, of all others, it is most appropriate! viz. Timon of Athens: Timon. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. Alcibiades. I never did thee harm. Timon. Yea, thou spok'st well of me. Alcibiades. Call'st thou that harm? Timon. Men daily find it such.* Act iv. Sc. 3. See also the dialogue between the Duke and the Clown, in iwelfth Night:Duke. How dost thou, my good fellow? Clown. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends. Duke. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends. Clown. No, sir, the worse. * See S. Chysost. on Acts, Hom. lii. Sect. 4, Vol. ix. p. 444. Sentiments derived fiom the Bible. 239 Duke. How can that be? Clown. Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me: now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused [i. e. deceived, imposed upon]. Act v. Sc. I. And if the praise of others is harmful, still less will our own praise of ourselves do us good:Let another man praise thee; and not thine own mouth. Prov. xxvii. 2. It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search their own glory is not glory. Ibid. xxv. 27. The worthiness of praise disdains his worth, If that the praised himself bring the praise forth. Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3. Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 3. We wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings when of ourselves we publish them. Alls Well that ends Well, Act i. Sc. 3. We have had occasion, in former sections, to speak of the efficacy of prayer and intercession, and also of the practice of Parental Benediction, which our pious forefathers doubtless regarded as not altogether unavailing. That they should have attributed some effect to malediction* likewise, when solemnly pronounced in a righteous cause, is not to * See the inscription upon Shakspeare's tombstone, said to have been written by himself:Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curs'd be he that moves my bones! and compare Keble's Pralectiones Academice, vol. i. p. 21. 240 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and be wondered at; and for my own part I feel at least no sympathy with the scruples which induced Mr. Bowdler to omit the last line of the passage I am about to quote:Q. Mar. 0! princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand;Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, Nor thou within the compass of my curse. Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass The lips of those that breathe them in the air. Q. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, And there awake God's gentle sleeping peace. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. Instead of omitting these last words, it would have been a wiser course to have drawn attention to the enormity of the crimes, some committed already, and others remaining to be committed by Richard-and the solemn appeal to God's all-seeing eye, in a public cause, which especially concerned His own majesty, as King of Kings. If malediction could ever be justifiable, it was justifiable-I had almost said it was charitable-in the case and under the circumstances in which Shakspeare has introduced it. There is no subject upon which the Bible is more explicit than upon the duty of governing the tongue, not only in matters of slander, but in other ways, and especially in regard to the high obligation of abstaining from all untruth. And if this duty be neglected we learn no less expressly from the same source the mischief that must follow. See Prov. xii. 13, xxi. 23, Eccles. x. 12, James iii. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 241 2-IO. And so our poet, on the one hand, cautions us in the words of the clown, that Many a man's tongue shakes out (i. e. produces) his master's undoing; All's Well that ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 4. and, on the other hand, he would encourage us To delight No less in truth than life. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. Moreover, it would seem, he had known of men 'reputed wise for saying nothing,' Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. i, just as Solomon observes upon the benefit of silence:Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Prov. xvii. 28. The connection between speaking truth and integrity of action, and (what is more common) between falsehood and unrighteousness, is strongly marked in Holy Scripture, and it has not escaped the notice of Shakspeare.* In the 3rd chapter of S. John's Gospel our Lord first uses the expression, 'every one that doeth evil,' and then, as the reverse of it, ' he that doeth truth.' In like manner the same Apostle writes, in his first Epistle, ' If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth,' i. 8; where the falsehood of speech and the falsehood of action, i. e. unrighteousness, are both combined. And so again, * Nor of Lord Bacon. See his 6th Essay. R 242 Slakspeare's Religious Principles and in his second Epistle, he speaks of 'walking in truth,' v. 4, i. e. in righteousness and holiness of life. Once more. S. Paul puts the question in the mouth of a disputer of this world:If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie (i. e. my sinfulness) unto His glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? Rom. iii. 7. It is the same principle which led our poet to use the word C untruth' for disloyalty, i. e. sin against a king, in the following passage of King Richard II., where the Duke of York exclaims, Act ii. Sc. 2 -God for His mercy! what a tide of woes Comes rushing on this woeful land at once! I know not what to do: I would to God, (So my untruth had not provoked him to it) The king had cut off my head with my brother's. On the subject of fidelity to oaths, see p. 74, sq. SECT. 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and Resignation. We may well believe that Shakspeare's own experience of life, especially in his early days, had sufficiently confirmed the truth, which he might have learnt from Scripture, that happiness, if it is to be expected at all in this world, is not to be looked for merely in external circumstances:Take heed (said our Lord) and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke xii. 15. Sentiments derived frcm the Bible..43 And more than this; the ' uses' which he draws from 'adversity' are, as we shall presently see, among the most valuable lessons which his works contain. The scene in the Third Part of King Henry VI., which is laid in a chase in the north of England, and in which the dethroned monarch enters disguised, with a Prayer Book in his hand, and is accosted by the two keepers who were on the look-out to apprehend him, affords our poet an excellent opportunity for introducing sentiments such as we are now to speak of:2nd Keep. Say, what art thou, that talk'st of kings and queens? K. Hen. More than I seem, and less than I was born to: A man at least, for less I should not be; And men may talk of kings, and why not I? 2nd Keep. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. K. Hen. Why, so I am in mind, and that's enough. 2nd Keep. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown? K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called CONTENT; A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. Act iii. Sc. i. In illustration of this, Mr. Steevens quotes that excellent old song in Percy's Reliques of Antient English Poetry, i. 213, beginning with:My minde to me a kingdome is. But here again I cannot help suspecting that our poet's school-learning was running in his head, and reminded him of some one of those numerous R 2 244 Sbakspeare's Religious Principles and passages which represent the stoical notion that the wise man is the truly royal personage-' King of kings, and inferior only to Jove himself.' See Horace i Epist. i. 1o6, sq.; or what comes nearer to the circumstances before us, the well-known stanzas in the 2nd Book of Odes:Redditum Cyri solio Phraaten Dissidens plebi numero beatorum Eximit Virtus, populumque falsis Dedocet uti Vocibus; regnum et diadema tutum Deferens uni propriamque laurum, Quisquis ingentes oculo irretorto Spectat acervos. Nor does it seem unreasonable to conjecture, considering the superabundant evidence before us of Shakspeare's familiarity with the ideas of Scripture, that the text-' Behold, the kingdom of God is within you,' Luke xvii. 21, and others of a similar character, may have contributed to the sentiment which he has put into King Henry's mouth. It is in the same vein, though carried somewhat further, that the ' honest chronicler,' Griffith, speaks of Cardinal Wolsey, after his decease:His overthrow heaped happiness upon him,* The most remarkable perhaps is that in the T/zycstes of Seneca, the chorus beginning 'Tandem Regia nobilis,' v. 336; which might have been known, if not to Shakspeare, to the author of the song in Bp. Percy's collection. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 245 For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little. K. Henry VII. Act iv. Sc. z. And the churlish Apemantus, in Timon of Athens, philosophizes for once to some purpose when he says:Best state, contentless, Hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst, content. Act iv. Sc. 3. In other words, as the old lady in attendance upon Anne Bullen testifies, in King Henry VII., Our content Is our best having: i. e. our best possession. This was spoken in answer to the reflection of Anne, which her own subsequent fate so fully verified:Verily, I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born, And range with bhumble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow. Act ii. Sc. 3. See Jeremiah xlv. 5; and compare again Othello:Poor and content, is rich, and rich enough. Act iii. Sc. 3.* In this same play we meet also with the rule, which we have so much need to bear in mind, if the pleasures of life are to be wisely and innocently enjoyed:Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, Not to out-rport discretion- Act ii. Sc. 3. * For further remarks on this subject see below, Addit. Illustr. P. 373. 246 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and a rule which may remind us of the exhortation of S. Paul:Let your moderation be known unto all men. Phil. iv. 5.* But to come back now to King Henry VI. In an earlier part of the play before quoted, and on the very day of the battle of Towton, which established his antagonist Edward on the throne, and while the fight was raging in the distance, we hear that pious but feeble-minded prince thus moralizing:Here on this molehill will I sit me down. To whom God will, there be the victory. Would I were dead! if God's good will were so; For what is in this world, but grief and woe? O God! methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain: To sit upon a hill, as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly point by point. So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah! what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? 0! yes it doth; a thousand times it doth. And to conclude-the shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of a leather bottle, On the duty of Peaceableness, see below, Addit. Illustr. p. 373, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 247 His wonted sleep* under a fresh tree's shade, All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, Is far beyond a prince's delicates; His viands sparkling in a golden cup, His body couched in a curious bed, Where care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. Act ii. Sc. 5. The argument here adduced in favour of a humble station of life is its comparative freedom from anxiety and alarm. And such an argument, just because it is superficial rather than substantial, comes with propriety enough from a weak though amiable character like that of King Henry VI. But our poet was well aware that deeper, and I may add, more Scriptural motives were to be assigned for the choice which such a character would make out of mere pusillanimity. The greater exposure to temptation, already alluded to in the case of Wolsey, and to which all are liable in proportion to the elevation and grandeur they attain, affords a ground for contentment in moderate, and even in lowly circumstances, which minds, not the weakest, but the strongest and best, will be most ready to appreciate. Not only is it trueThey that stand high have many blasts to shake them, And when they fall they dash themselves to pieces;King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. * See Eccles. v. ix, and compare in K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. i, the King's soliloquy beginning ' Upon the King,' &c. 248 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and but-and this is the more important consideration to the Christian's mind: Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. King Henry IV. znd Part, Act iv. Sc. 4. It is, moreover, in a lowly and retired station of life that we are led to 'find,' as the exiled Duke testifies in As you like it, Act ii. Sc. i, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. Hence the Danish courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern gave a wise return to Hamlet's salutation'My excellent good friends-how do ye both?'when they replied, or rather, the latter said, speaking for them both:Happy, in that we are not over happy. Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. So too, Nerissa, in the Merchant of Venice, remarks, ' It is no mean happiness to be seated in the mean.' Act i. Sc. 2. And the blinded Gloster, in King Lear, confesses:I stumbled when* I saw. Full oft 'tis seen, Our means t secure us; and our mere defects Prove our commodities. Act iv. Sc. I. * See John ix. 39-41; Matt. xiii. 13. t I retain the reading of the original editions, both quarto and folio. Mr. Malone does so likewise, but he understands 'means' (plural) in the same sense as those do who have adopted Pope's emendation ' our mean secures us, i. e. our middle state, as Warburton interprets. It does not seem to have occurred to any of the critics that the verb 'secure' may here not improbably signify make careless (see above, p. 42), and then ' means' will be opposed to ' defects,' and signify the things ~we ha-e, ' our commodities, and in Gloster's Sentiments derived from the Bible. 249 It is in a calmer, but not less truthful spirit of Christian Philosophy that King Henry V., on the night before the battle of Agincourt, teaches us how ' our defects,' i. e. our wants, our deficiencies in the comforts and conveniences of life, may 'prove our commodities,' and so suggests an additional motive, not merely for contentment in a humble, but for resignation in an adverse lot, when he argues:There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out; For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, Which is both healthful and good husbandry. Besides, they are our outward confciences, And preachers to us all; admonishing That we should dress us fairly for our end. Thus may we gather honey from the weed, And make a moral of the devil himself. K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I. On a former occasion the same king had taught us:In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility; Act iii. Sc. I. according to the well-known Apostolic precept that case, his sight. We may compare the use of ' gentle' as a verb, in King Henry F. Act iv. Sc. 3 -' This day shall gentle his condition'i. e. make him a gentleman. And the similar use of 'niggard ' in Julius Cresar, Act iv. Sc. 3. I am surprised that Bishop Hurd, in his note (highly commended by Mr. Hallam) upon Horace's ' callida junctura' of words, though he instances Shakspeare's art in converting substantives into verbs, says nothing of the same conversion in regard to ' adjectives.'-See Hurd's Works, vol. i. p. 78. 250 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and we should c study to be quiet,' I Thess. iv. I I. In like manner, the advice of the 'good Duke Humphrey' of Gloster to his Duchess, under the disgrace and punishment which she had brought upon herselfThy greatest help if quiet, gentle Nell; I pray thee, sort thy heart to patienceK. Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. 4. may not unfitly be compared with the admonition of the Evangelical Prophet:Their strength is to sit still. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah xxx. 7, 15. We know the prominence which the New Testament gives to the grace and duty of humility. And surely the following lines could only have occurred to one who had deeply reflected upon, and desired to practise* that Christian teaching: It is the witness still of excellency To put a strange face on his own perfection. Much ado about Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 3. Nor can we reasonably doubt that when our poet wrote in King Richard II, — Pride must have a fall; Act v. Sc. 5. he had in his mind that saying in the Book of Proverbs: Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. xvi. 18. See also xxix. 23. See below, Sermon preached at Stratford, p. 402, note. xSee below, Seermron preached at $tratlord, p. 4o2, note. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 25 r The same idea occurs again, but with a rich addition from Shakspeare's own imagination, in these well-known lines of Macbeth: I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, Andfalls on the other [side]. Act i. Sc. 7. Meanwhile, amid all his commendations-of a low estate, our poet was fully sensible of the contemptuous and unworthy treatment which poverty too often meets with at the hands of a vain and mammon-serving world. He knew the testimony of Solomon:The poor is hated even of his own neighbour. Prov. xiv. 20. All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? He pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him. Ibid. xix. 7. And he also knew, as it would seem, the words of the wise son of Sirach, in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus: A poor man being down is thrust away by his friends. Xiii. 21. for we read in Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2., The great man down, you mark, his favorite* flies. Again, Solomon testifies, in Ecclesiastes ix. 16:The poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. * Compare the speech of the Duke of Buckingham, quoted above, p. 219, and of Achilles, in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3. See also Timon of Athens, Act i. Sc. i:'When Fortune in her shift,' &c. 252, Shakspeare's Religious Principles and To which the author of Ecclesiasticus adds: — When a rich man speaketh, every man holdeth his tongue, and look what he saith, they extol it to the clouds; but if a poor man speak, they say, what fellow is this? and if he stumble, they will help to overthrow him. xiii. 23. All this exhibits a painful picture. But what says our poet also, speaking doubtless not only as a student of the Scriptures, but as an interpreter of human life from his own experience? First we read in King Lear:Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Act iv. Sc. 6. Next, in Merry Wives of Windsor:If money go before, all ways do lie open. Act ii. Sc. 2. And again, in the same play, Act iii. Sc. 4:0! what a world of vile ill-favoured faults Looks handsome in three hundred pound a year! And once more, in 'imon of Athens:Faults that are rich, are fair. Act i. Sc. 2. But sad as the foregoing picture is, it is made still more melancholy by the addition of ingratitude when a rich and bountiful man, having fallen into poverty, meets with no better return than desertion and contempt from those whom he has benefitedthe case of rimon himself:znd Serv. As we do turn our backs From our companion thrown into his grave; Sentiments derived from the Bible. 253 So his familiars to* his buried fortunes Slink all away; leave their false vows with him, Like empty purses pick'd, and his poor self, A dedicated beggar to the air, With his disease of all-shunn'dpoverty, Walks, like contempt, alone. Act iv. Sc. 2. And for one who had not the lessons and consolations of revealed religion to fall back upon, such a trial is not improperly represented as too great. But it is not so with the Christian hero, like S. Paul, who ' has learnt, in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content;' nay, who ' in every thing gives thanks.' And Hamlet describes his friend Horatio as approaching, at least, to that high standard: Thou hast been As one, in suffering all, who suffers nothing; A man that fortune's buffets and rewards Has ta'en with equal thankr. Act iii. Sc. 2. And, looked at from this point of view, we may accept that sentiment of Hamlet, which otherwise would savour of an infidel philosophy:There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Act ii. Sc. 2. He is not speaking of moral good and evil. He had before said 'Denmark's a prison;' to which Rosencrantz demurred-' We think not so, my lord.' Hamlet replies, ' Why then 'tis none to you: * Sir T. Hanmer's reading, ' from,' seems preferable. 254 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and for there is nothing,' &c., &c. So that the passage becomes parallel to Horace's;Quod petis, hic est; Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit anEuus. And to Milton's;The mind is its own place; and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. That our poet is entitled to the full benefit of this interpretation-unless we will suppose that he designed, in this single instance* to give a sceptical turn to Hamlet's philosophical character-we may reasonably conclude from (among other proofs) a sentiment which he assigns to Troilus, and which sufficiently indicates belief in the essential and objective character of moral truth:We may not think the justness of each act Such and no other than event doth form it. Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2. Nor was this beyond what was to be expected * Warburton has given a semi-infidel interpretation to another saying of Hamlet, in Act v. Sc. 2: 'Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows,' &c., but without sufficient reason. The reading is doubtful. Johnson's interpretation is much more satisfactory; but I am inclined to think that Hamlet, in his morbid state of mind, means to say, that since we can attain to no true knowledge in this life-since no man really knoews about anything which goes on in this world-secretly alluding to the plausible, but most wicked, character and doings of his uncle-' to leave (it) betimes ' can be no great loss. In short we neither know what is here, nor, as he has remarked elsewhere, what is to be hereafter. See his famous soliloquy in Act iii. Sc. i, alluded to below, p. 267. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 25 from a heathen. Shakspeare might have remembered the Ovidian distich:Careat successibus, opto, Quisquis ab eventu facta probanda putet. The proverb that Sorrows never come single is one which I am tempted to recur* to in passing, on account of the felicitous and at the same time varied forms in which our author has expressed it. Thus, in Hamlet:When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. Act iv. Sc. 5. And again, in the same play:One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow. Ibid. Sc. 7. Again in Pericles, Prince of Tyre:One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir That may succeed, as his inheritor. Act i. Sc. 4. But however thick misfortunes may come upon us, the same author who thus leads us to expect them, has not failed to prescribe, no less plainly and frequently, the remedy which a Christian knows it is his duty to apply, when occasion requires, in his own case. When news is brought to King Henry VI. that he is utterly bereft of all that the English crown had possessed in France, his reply is:Cold news, Lord Somerset; but Gods will be done! King Henry VI. znd Part, Act iii. Sc. I. * See above, p. 152. 256 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and When Brandon announces to the Duke of Buckingham that he is arrested for high treason, and must go as a prisoner to the Tower, his reply is:The will of Heaven Be done in this, and all things! I obey. King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. i. To his mother, the widowed Queen Elizabeth, in her affliction for the death of her husband, King Edward IV., the Marquess of Dorset thus administers consolation, founded upon the well-known passage in the Book of Job, i. 2:Comfort, dear mother; God is much displeased That you take with unthankfulness his doing; In common worldly things 'tis called-ungrateful, With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven, For* it requires the royal debt it lent you. King Richard III. Act ii. Sc. 2. Nor does the Christian philosophy of our poet stop here. As the Bible teaches that' it is '-or may and ought to be-' good to be afflicted,' Ps. cxix. 7 1, and that troubles are mercifully t sent to try us for our greater benefit, or to wean us from evil, see Job v. 17, Ps. xciv. I2, Heb. xii. 5-II; so we learn, upon the testimony of the banished Duke, in As you like it, Act ii. Sc. i:~i.. Bcaue. Se aove p. s6,not. * i.e. eBecause. t See above, p. i i6, note. Sentiments derived from the Bible, 7 Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. And Leontes confesses, in Winter's fTale: Affliction has a taste as sweet As any cordial comfort. Act v. Sc. 3. And the wise Nestor is made to say, In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men. Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3. And Antony would give us this advice: Bid that welcome Which comes to punish us; and we punish it, Seeming to bear it lightly. Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Sc. I z2. Finally, it is left also to a heathen to teach the elementary lesson* that no distresses or afflictions, however many or great, should be allowed to provoke us into destruction of the life, of which, as no one (except by just authority) can lawfully deprive us, so neither can we lawfully deprive ourselves Gloster. You ever gentle gods, take my breath from me; Let not my worsert spirit tempt me again To die before you please. King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. Even in the mouth of Brutus (who eventually is represented as putting an end to his own life, l much as King Saul had done, and as Antony * See above, p. 149. t See above, p. 19. t See above, p. o150. S 258 Shakspeare's Religions Principles and afterwards did), our poet has ventured to place substantially the same sentiment:Cassius. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall be together; What are you then determined to do? Brutus. Even by the rule of that philosophy By which I did blame Cato for the death Which he did give himself:-I know not how, But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent* The time of life:-arming myself with patience, To stayt the providence of some high powers, That govern us below. 7ulius Carsar, Act v. Sc. i. In looking back upon the subjects of this and the four preceding sections, in which an outline has been sketched of the main departments of the duty of a Christian towards his neighbours, I am tempted to add, as a summary illustration of the whole, two short passages in which our poet has drawn to perfection the characters of virtue both in low and in high life-that is, of a good peasant and a good prince; of the peasant in Corin the shepherd in As you like it; of the prince in Malcolm (afterwards Malcolm III. or Canmore) the successor of Duncan, in Macbeth:Corin. Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other * i. e. to anticipate the full, appointed time. See above, p. 40. f i.e. stay for, wait upon. T See below, Add Illustr. p. 368. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 259 men's good, content with my harm: and the greatest of my pride is, to see my ewes graze, and my lambs suck. Act iii. Sc. 2. Malcolm. I never was forsworn; Scarcely have coveted what was mine own; At no time broke my faith; would not betray The devil to his fellow, and DELIGHT No LESS IN TRUTH THAN LIFE. Act iv. Sc. 3. SECT. 14. Of Holy Scripture, the Christian Ministry, and Church Membership. For Shakspeare's own estimation of Holy Scripture, we have no occasion to look beyond the evidence contained in every page of the present volume. To him, I doubt not, it was-what it is to every faithful reader-' the Word of God unto Salvation.' In King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. 5 (where reference is made to Exod. xxii. 18), he speaks of it as 'God's Book;'* and his habitual regard for its authority may be traced in language such as that which he has put into the mouth of lago:Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of Holy Writ. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. At the same time, the age in which he lived would not suffer him to be ignorant how liable men are, from various causes, to pervert God's * See also below, p. 262, ' The books of God.' s 2 26o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Word, and give to it a meaning which it was never meant to convey. In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve* it with a text Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? Merchant of Veli e, Act iii. Sc. z. Compare the speech of the wicked Gloster, quoted above, p. 66. Moreover, our poet's own study of the Bible had discovered to him how much judgment and caution are required in reconciling and adjusting texts which, though susceptible of perfect harmony, to a hasty and superficial reader may appear discordant, or even contradictory. When King Richard II. is confined in the dungeon of Pomfret Castle, he amuses himself by comparing his prison to the world, and he imagines his own thoughts to form the population, which is necessary to give verisimilitude to the comparison:And these same thoughts [are, he says,] In humours like the people of this world; For no thought is contented. The better sortAs thoughts of things divine-are intermixed With scruples, and do set THE WORD itself Against THE WORD.As thus -Come little ones; t and then againIt is as hard to come, as for a camel To thread the postern of a needle's eye. $ K. Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 5. ' Justify it. t See Matt. xi. 28. + See Matt. xix. 24. Senlimelts derived faiom te Bible. 261 The three last lines are omitted by Mr. Bowdler. Surely they savour of no irreverence; and, when taken with the context, they point not unprofitably to difficulties and dangers which every reader of the Scriptures must expect to encounter, and which every well-disposed and well-instructed reader will be enabled to overcome. And as no intentional irreverence towards Holy Scripture, often as he quotes or refers to it, is to be found in our poet's works, so neither does he ever allow himself to speak of the ministers of religion, as other play-writers have done, with disrespect, still less with derision. That he entertained indeed a just sense of the dignity and responsibility of their sacred office, and of the mischiefs that must ensue whenever it is disgraced by insufficiency, or perverted by unfaithfulness; that he regarded them as ambassadors for Christ, and as intercessors, through Him, in behalf of man, we need no further proof than the speech of Prince John of Lancaster, in the Second Part of King Henry IV. He is addressing Scroop, Archbishop of York, who had joined the Earl of Northumberland's party against King Henry, the Prince's father, in the Forest of Gualtree:My Lord of York, it better showed with you, When that your flock, assembled by the bell, Encircled you to hear with reverence * See above, p. 21. 262 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Your exposition on the holy text, Than now to see you here an iron man,* Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum, Turning the word to sword, and life to death. That man that sits within a monarch's heart, And ripens in the sunshine of his favour, Would he abuse the countenance of the king, Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach, In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop, It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken, How deep you were within the BooKs OF GOD? To us, the speaker in His parliament; To us, the imagined voice of GOD HIMSELF; The very opener and intelligencer Between the grace, the sanctities of Heaven, And our dull workings. t 0! who shall believe, But you misuse the reverence of your place; Employ the countenance and grace of Heaven, As a false favourite doth his prince's name, In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up,o Under the counterfeited zeal of God, The subjects of his substitute, my father; And both against the peace of Heaven and him, Have here upswarmed them. Act iv. Sc. 2. After reading this speech, it is sad to think that the same Prince John, in the next scene, would seem to father upon God his own treachery towards the rebels, when he says:Heaven, and not we, hath safely fought to-day. So prone are we all to make religion the cloak, or even the minister of sin! See below, p. 379. * i.e. clad in armour. t i.e. ' Labours of thought.' —STEEVENS. ] Levied. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 263 But our poet, however well disposed towards the clergy, does not fail to preach out of his own pulpit, that if they would retain the respect to which they are entitled by their office, they must themselves give good heed to the instruction which they deliver to others. Thus, King Henry VI. rebukes his great-uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester:Fye, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach, That malice was a great and grievous sin: And will not you maintain the thing you teach, But prove a chief offender in the same? K. Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. I. Or, as S. Paul expresses it, ' Thou which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?' Rom. ii. 21. Thus too the amiable Ophelia, when she had listened to the good advice of her brother Laertes, assures him: I shall the effect of this good lesson * keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine, * It was a saying of the pious Bp. Wilson, that the only true proof of a good sermon is its making people better. Bp. Andrewes had previously said the same, see Serm. vii. on Repentance, vol. i. p. 423. Shakspeare has anticipated both in substance, when he writes, in the Merchant of Venice:Portia. Good sentences, and well pronounced! Nerissa. They would be better, if fwellJflio-wed. Act i. Sc. 2. 26at Shakspeare's Religious Principles anl Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read.* Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. Comp. S. Matthew xxiii. 3, 4. At the same time, our poet is not unreasonable. He knew that the duty of the clergy requires them to teach, and that charitable allowance is to be made for them, if, not in wilfulness or in hypocrisy, but from the imperfection incident to our common nature, they fall short, in practice, of their own lessons: If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine thatfollows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. Mrchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 2. An observation which must find an echo in every clergyman's breast. There can be no good cause to doubt that Shakspeare was a member of the Reformed Church of England; in other words, that he was a true Catholic Christian; and as such, a Protestant against the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome. Yet, strange to say, the attempt has been made to represent him as a Romanist! So at least it would seem from the ' Copy of Shakspeare's Will' which used to be exhibited not many years ago in the room at Stratford-upon-Avon, where the so-called S Shakspeare's relics' are preserved and shown to * 'Heeds not his own lessons '-POPE. Read=counsel. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 265 visitors. That this C copy' is a forgery has been proved by comparing it with the real will, deposited in Doctors' Commons, from which the document commonly prefixed to editions of our poet's works, and truly called ' Shakspeare's Will,' is taken. The supposititious document has a preamble much longer than the genuine one; from which also it differs widely both in tone and expression-the differences being mostly such as to leave no doubt that the forger's design was to claim our poet for the Romish Church.* That such a claim is utterly groundless might be proved abundantly from the internal evidence of his works. Not to lay stress upon the expression ' Popish trickst and ceremonies' in Titus Andronicus, Act v. Sc. I (because that play, as I have said before, is most probably not Shakspeare's), it is sufficient to refer to the character of Cardinal Beaufort in the First Part of King Henry VI., and * See Preface to Religious and Moral Sentences from Shakspeare, by a member of the Shakspeare Society, 1843. The spurious will mentioned above is not to be confounded with (though it may have owed its origin to) the will of John Shakspeare, which purported to that of our poet's father, though not. discovered till 'about the year 1770,' and which is still more plainly upon the face of it a Romanist document. The history of its discovery, real or pretended, is curious, See Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. pp. 8-I6, and Malone's Life, p. 516 sq. The latter concludes that;the document in question, if genuine, was the will of another John Shakspeare-not the father nor any relation of our poet. Mr. Dyce, Life, p. 117, mentions a tradition that Shakspeare died a Romanist, but he does not attach to it any weight. On this subject, see below, Add. Illustr. p. 374, t Mr. Bowdler has altered this into ' idle tricks.' 66 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and to the manner in which the pretended supremacy of the Pope is not only repudiated in King /ohn, but, moreover, is shown in King Henry VIII., to be destructive of the just authority of the episcopate. I allude to the passage in which the Earl of Surrey begins his charge against Woisey:First, that, without the king's assent or knowledge, You wrought tb be a legate, by which power You maimed the jurisdictiov of all hishops. Act iii. Sc. 2. It is remarked by A. W. Schlegel, in his admirable Lectures on Dramatic Literature, that Shakspeare, amidst the rancour of religious parties, takes a delight in painting the condition of a monk, and always represents his influence as beneficial.- With regard to the monk in Romeo and 7uliet, I quite agree that ' the discourse of the pious old man is full of deep meaning.'t But what are we to think of the duke disguised as a monk, in Measure for Measure, and who, according to Schlegel, carries out the disguise so perfectly, that, ' contrary to the well-known proverb, the cowl (in his case) seems really to make a monk?' Ministering to Claudio in prison, and encouraging him against the fear of death, he is made to say:Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st Thy death,$ which is no more:- Act iii. Sc. j. * Vol. ii. p. x69. t Ibid. p. i88. See above, p. I26. I Compare Lucretius, lib. iii. i058, sq. and 99o. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 267 a sentiment which calls forth the c indignation' of Johnson, and which our poet's most indulgent critics have been somewhat puzzled to account for. But what if he intended to represent the monk as in reality an unbeliever? There can be no doubt that Popery, from the excess and exorbitancy of its demands upon the faith of its adherents, has a tendency to produce reaction which has often led to open, and still more to secret infidelity, especially in the monastic orders, and in the priesthood; and that an opinion, or prejudice, to this effect prevailed* in Shakspeare's day. The same sentiment occurs to Hamlet in his famous soliloquy:To die-to sleepNo more;But then he presently corrects the thought:To die-to sleepTo sleep! perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,t Must give us pause.: Act iii. Sc. I. And in a previous speech, Act i. Sc. 4, he had expressly spoken of the soul, as ' a thing immortal.' * See, for example, Lord Burghley's Advice to his Son Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury. ' Suffer not thy sons to pass the Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, blasphemy, and Atheism.' Nares' Life of Lord Burghley, vol. iii. p. 513. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, p. 47. + Turmoil, bustle. t Make us hesitate, and think of what may come after death. 268 Sbakspeare's Religious Principles and See also the Dialogue in Cymbeline, between Posthumus and the Gaoler, quoted below, p. 287. Returning to the Church-membership of our poet, if we are persuaded he was not a Romanist, we are equally certain he was no Puritan. 'Young Charbon the Puritan, and old Poysam the Papist,' are named together in a passage of All's well that ends well, Act i. Sc. 3, not illnaturedly, but as if the writer had no more sympathy with the one than with the other. Probably, if the truth were known, of the two he had less liking for the newfangled species of religionism which had sprung up within his own time. We must not lay any great stress upon what passes in conversation between two such worthies as Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek and Sir Toby Belch; yet the following dialogue indicates, no doubt, a'certain amount of popular feeling; and I think we may gather from it that our poet desired to side with those who could feel respect for piety and earnestness in any shape, rather than with the ignorant multitude who, without knowing why, would be prepared to persecute * it:Sir Toby. Possess t us, possess us; tell us something of him. Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. Sir Andr. 0, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog. * Our poet's just dislike of all religious persecution may be infe;red from Winter's Tale, where Paulina says;It is an heretic that makes the fire, Not she that burns in't. Act ii. Sc. 5. t Inform us. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 269 Sir Toby. What, for being a Puritan? thy exquisite reason, dear knight. Sir Andr. I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason good enough. Twfelft Night, Act ii. Sc. 3. At the same time he does not attempt to keep from view, what he must have discovered from his, own experience, that religious zeal, such as was manifested by the Puritans, is often hollow, and often both mistaken in its principles and mischievous in its results. We may not be able to determine the precise drift, or even the true reading-for Tyrwhitt and Malone concur in questioning the present text-of a speech of the Clown in All's well that ends well; but we cannot doubt, I think, that it implies distrust, to some extent at least, of the Puritanical character: Though honesty be no Puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big he, t. Act i. Sc. 3. That is, as I suppose, an honest man will not be troubled with unnecessary scruples, especially in a case where his obedience is required to a lawful command, however the command may be distasteful to himself. He will put on the surplice-to which the Puritans objected. But still when he has done so, though so far not a Puritan, this is no security that he may not be all the while, 'intus et in cute,' as bad as if he were-having as proud a heart as if he wore a black gown. Shakspeare generally uses the word 'big,' where moral 270 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and qualities are concerned, in a bad sense. This is in character with the petulance of the Clown; but here again I could suspect that our poet wished to intimate that though he had no liking for the Puritans, yet he would not suffer others who might be as bad or worse to run them down. In this, as in other countless instances, he shows himself the thorough Englishman; who, though he has his likes and dislikes, and will not conceal them, yet, above them all, loves to see fair play. We have another Clown in Winter's T'ale, who cannot quite let the Puritans alone, and yet alludes to them in a good-humoured way. Mr. Bowdler, however, in his love of fair-play, having altered ' Popish tricks,' thought it necessary to omit the words to which I now allude. They occur in the scene where the Clown, son of the old shepherd, reputed father of Perdita, gives account of the preparations made by his supposed sister for the sheep-shearing feast: — She hath made * me four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers: three-man song-men all, and very good ones... but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. Act iv. Sc. 2. The utmost offence which appears to be committed in these words is, that the Clown playfully satirizes the objectionable practice which the Puritans introduced, and which is still, unhappily, kept * See above, p. 15. i~~~~~.e.sgesocahsintrep t. * See above, p. x 5. t i. e. singers of catches in three parts. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 7 I up in some places, of singing sacred songs tojiggisb tunes.* There are other passages of a more serious caste in which Shakspeare, without mentioning the Puritans, may be thought to have had them in his view. Such is the case, for instance, as Warburton has remarked, in fimon of Athens, where Timon's servant, speaking of Sempronius, one of his master's false friends, observes:How fairly this lord strives to appear foul! takes virtuous copies to be wicked! like those that under hot ardent zeal would set whole realms on fire. Act iii. Sc 3. A remarkable prediction of what actually came to pass less than thirty years after our poet's death! And it is not improbable that they are alluded to in what follows from the mouth of Polonius:We are oft to blame in this,'Tis too much proved,-that with devotion's visage And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. I. We may now inquire what positive evidence is to be produced respecting Shakspeare's conformity as a member of the Church of England.t The most conclusive proof, perhaps, is the fact of his standing as a sponsorS to William Walker, whom * Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. i. There is also a reference to the Puritans in Pericles Prince of Tyre, Act iv. Sc. 6. t See above, pp. 140, x4x, and below, p. 274. $ See the Author's Sermon preached at Strat/frd, below, p. 399. 272 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and he mentions in his will as his godson, and who was baptised at Stratford, Oct. i 6, 608. The familiar use of the response Amen (the so 'Alxtv of S. Paul, I Cor. xiv. I6), which occurs in our author's plays more than sixty times (and in some places not very appropriately, being put into the mouth of heathen characters), may also be regarded as another indication to the same effect. There is something singularly solemn and impressive in his employment of it towards the close of King Henry V.: That English may as French, French Englishmen, Receive* each other-GOD speak to this AMEN. And again, at the end of King Richard III.:That peace may long live here-GOD say AMEN. From our poet's allusion to the observance of Sunday not much is to be inferred-except that it would seem, in his time, to have been the most usual day for the celebration of marriages. In Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio, in answer to Baptista's question how he had sped with his daughter Katharina, replies:We have 'greed so well together, That upon Sunday is the wedding day. Act ii. Sc. i. Whether this remark may help to throw any light upon a passage in Much ado about nothing, over the meaning of which critics have disagreed, * See Rom. xv. 7. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible.,73 I will not undertake to say; but it may be worth considering. Benedict says to Claudio:Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i' faith: an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sundays. Act i. Sc. i. i.e. sigh away the days which, if married on Sunday, will most of all serve to remind you of the mistake you made. Neither Warburton's explanation that even Sundays, the days formerly (he says) of most ease and diversion, will be passed uncomfortably; nor Steevens', that there is probably an allusion to the strict manner in which the Sabbath was observed by the Puritans, appears satisfactory. It would be simpler to suggest that Sunday is the day of the week which is generally spent most domestically. It is not probable that at the court of Cleopatra the difference was understood between Sundays and working days, unless it could be supposed that the notion had come down by tradition from the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt; and then it would go far to settle an important question in theology:-but our poet has not scrupled to speak, in Antony and Cleopatra, of' a worky-day fortune;' meaning a fortune not rich and splendid, but ordinary and common-place, see Act i. Sc. 2; just as, with a propriety which admits of no question, he makes Marcellus to ask Horatio, in Hamlet:Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week? Act i. Sc. I. T 274 Sbakspeare's Religious Principles and In the same scene we have a reference to the season of Christmas, and to the traditions, that at that season, the cockThe bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy* takes, nor witch hath power to charm: So hallowed and so gracious is the time! This passage, so beautiful in its simplicity, could only have been written by one who had the sense and feeling of a true Christian and loyal member of the Church in regard to the nativity of our Blessed Lord. Of the two other great festivals I am not aware that our poet makes mention, except to let us know, in Romeo and 7uliet, Act iii. Sc. i, that ' new doublets' were worn at Easter; and, in King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 4, that Whitsuntidecalled, in T'wo Gentlemen of Verona, Act iv. Sc. 4, Pentecost-was the season for ' morris dances,' and 'pageants of delight.' It remains to notice here, that Shakspeare appears to have received and held, without misgiving, the doctrine of Baptismal Grace, which he would have been taught as an orthodox member of the Anglican Church.. ' We will believe,' says King Henry V. to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Ely, * i. e. Strikes with lameness or diseases. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. ^75 That what you speak is in your conscience washed As pure as sin with baptism. K. Henry V. Act i. Sc. z. And, in Othello, the villainous Iago is made to represent Desdemona's influence to be such, that it would be easy for her, if she wishedTo win the Moor-wer't to renounce his baptismAll seals and symbols of redeemed sin. Act ii. Sc. 3. The judicious reader will be surprised-and not, I think, well pleased-to learn that Mr. Bowdler, in his ' Family Shakspeare,' has seen reason to omit the latter of these two lines. And passing from the first scene of the Christian life to the last, from baptism to burial, we find, in Cymbeline, the rationale of interment with the face towards the east alluded to, and also the beautiful custom of strewing the grave with flowers described in language no less beautiful. The two brothers are engaged in burying Fidele:Guid. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east: My father hath a reason for't. Act iv. Sc. 2. The' reason' could not properly have been, in the mouth of a Pagan, the Christian one; and therefore no further explanation is given:Arvig. With fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor * Is not 'head' used for ' face '? See below, Add. llustr. p, 376. T 2 276 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and The leaf of eglantine, whom * not to slander, Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock t would, With charitable bill, bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.. [Re-enter Belarius. Bel. Here's a few flowers; but about midnight, more: The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night Are strewings fitt'st for graves. SECT. IS. Of Politics-Peace and War. We cannot conceive of Shakspeare otherwise than as a Conservative and a Royalist-if the anachronism involved in the use of both names may be pardoned.$ On the one hand, we are sure that he loved his country no less than the Prophets of old loved their chosen land, from the enthusiastic descriptions which he has given of it and its inhabitants:This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This fortress, built by Nature for herself, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone, set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land. King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. B. Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them! Nought shall make us rue If England to itself do rest but true. King yohn, Act v. Sc. 7. * See above, p. 18. t Redbreast. t See Append. p. 376. Sentiments derived from the Bible..77 On the other hand, we may safely attribute to him a deep reverence for antiquity; and we need not doubt that the precept of Solomon, ' My son, fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change,' Prov. xxiv. 2I, approved itself thoroughly to his large heart and marvellous understanding. How just is the sentiment which ascribes to 'Reverence,' or due regard for subordination, the power that keeps peace and order in the world, to borrow the gloss of Johnson upon the words that follow! Tho' mean and mighty, rotting Together, have one dust; yet Reverence (That ANGEL of the world) doth make distinction Of place 'tween high and low. Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2. The same sentiment, in regard to the value and importance of gradations in human society, is enlarged upon and enforced, in TIroilus and Cressida, most appropriately, by Ulysses:-, Oh, when Degree is shaken, Which is the ladder to all high designs, Then enterprise is sick. How could communities The primogeniture, and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by Degree stand in authentic place? Take but Degree away, untune that string, And hark what discord follows; each thing meets In mere oppugnancy. Act i. Sc. 3. And where shall we find a more effective protest 278 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and against the spirit of innovation and continual change, or the value of antiquity and custom more truly estimated and described, than in what follows? A rash political movement is objected toAs tho' the world' were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifers and props of every word. Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. The critics have been somewhat puzzled by 'word,' as here used, and have proposed to alter it; Warburton suggesting ' ward,' Johnson ' weal,' and Tyrwhitt ' work.' Had any one of them read the Bible as attentively, and known it as well as Shakspeare did, I imagine he would have recognized the expression as borrowed, probably, from Scripture, where ' word' occurs not unfrequently as put for 'thing.' The Greek pistc, properly word, and so translated in Matt. xviii. 6-' that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established'-is translated thing' in Luke i. 37, ' With God no thing shall be impossible;' in the Prayer Book, Office for Visitation of the Sick, however, the old and more exact translation is retained, 'We know, O Lord, that there is no word impossible with Thee.' The truth is, that word and work, or deed, though very different, as we know, in the case of man, are synonymous with regard to God, and therefore synonymously used in the Book of God. There are no scenes which our poet appears to Sentiments derived from the Bible. 279 have taken more pleasure in depicting than those in which he satirizes mob-government; whether at Rome, as in Coriolanus, or at London, as in the Second Part of King Henry VI. (see, especially, Act iv. Sc. 2, where Jack Cade is introduced); in both which he teaches us by example, how Headstrong liberty is lashed with woe. Comedy of Errors, Act ii. Sc i. Again: his moral estimate of a mere worldly politician, without faith in God, as the Governor of the world, may be gathered from an observation of Hamlet, in the grave-diggers' scene, where, when one of the clowns had thrown up a skull, he saysThis might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now overreaches, one that would circumvent God, might it not? Act v. Sc. I. Surely not too bold a supposition, when we consider how statesmen have been known to act in. defiance of God's laws. I have already had occasion, much oftener than I could have wished, to invite my reader's attention to the manner in which omissions and even alterations of our poet's words have been made, in ' The Family Shakspeare.' But what will be thought of the strange obtuseness (for I can call it nothing less) which has changed the name of ' God' into the word 'c anybody' in the foregoing quotationa change by which the ne plus ultra of bathos is fathered upon Shakspeare, and the grand meaning 28o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and of the speaker that, however man may scheme and plot for the government of states, God Himself is the only true politician in the universe, is entirely lost! No one who has not been present at a coronation, or who has not read the authorised Coronation Service, can form a just idea of the punctilious accuracy with which Shakspeare has described what took place at the crowning of Queen Anne Bullen, and was repeated, only with such additions as would be proper for a queen-regnant, on the crowning of our present most gracious sovereign Queen Victoria. I have before me a printed copy of the Form and Order of the Service performed, and Ceremonies observed on this latter occasion; and when I have presented to the reader Shakspeare's description, as we find it in King Henry FIJI., I will make some extracts from the said formulary, which may serve to illustrate what our poet has written; none of his critics, so far as I am aware, having said a word upon the matter, which is surely a most interesting one to every British subject. The place is Westminster Abbey:At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces Came to the altar: where she kneel'd, and saint-like, Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and prayed devoutly. Then rose again, and bowed her to the people; When by the Archbishop of Canterbury She had all the royal makings of a queen, As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown, Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 28 1 The rod, and bird ofpeace, and all such emblems, Laid nobly on her: which performed, the choir, With all the choicest music of the kingdom, Together sung Te Deum. Act iv. Sc. i. The authorised Coronation Service is divided into nineteen sections. A Rubric in the first section will partly explain the first three lines of the foregoing description:The queen... having passed by her throne, makes her humble adoration, and then kneeling at the faldstool set for her before her chair, uses some short private prayers. The eighth section is entitled 'THE ANOINTING,' which follows immediately after the Queen has kissed ' the Holy Gospel in the great Bible,' and signed the Coronation ' Oath.' It is commenced with the hymn Veni Creator. Then follows a prayer by the Archbishop for the consecration of the oil, and for the blessing and sanctification of her who is to be anointed therewith. The unction is performed on the crown of the head, and on the palms of both the hands. It was made also on the breast, previously to the two last female coronations of Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria. The putting on of ' Edward Confessor's CROWN' does not come till the twelfth section, and meanwhilebesides ' THE ROD' (not to be confounded with the sceptre) 'and BIRD OF PEACE,' i. e. the Dove, which is delivered into the Queen's left hand, with these words, by the Archbishop:Receive the rod of equity and mercy; and God, from whom 282 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed, direct and assist you in the administration and exercise of all those powers which He hath given you:besides these - the other ' emblems laid nobly on her' are ' THE SPURS AND SWORD,' in Sect. ix.; 'THE ROYAL ROBE, AND ORB' with the cross above it, to signify ' that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer,' in Sect. x.; ' THE RING, the ensign of kingly dignity, and of defence of the Catholic Faith;' and C THE ROYAL SCEPTRE, the ensign of kingly power and justice,' in Sect. xi. After the crowning, comes first 'THE PRESENTING* OF THE HOLY BIBLE,' in Sect. xiii.; and then the 'TE DEUM,' in Sect. xiv.; followed by 'THE INTHRONIZATION.' It is scarcely necessary to add that the Service is concluded with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, for which the Queen ' offers ' the bread and wine. It will have been noticed in the preceding extracts that the Coronation ' Ring' is described as ' the ensign of kingly dignity, &c.;' and before I pass on to other matters I am tempted to observe, in reference to that description, that the Rubric requires the Ring to be one ' in which a table jewel is enchased,' meaning, I suppose, a flat jewel capable of serving as a seal.t In that same play of King * The presenting of the Bible was omitted at the coronation of James II.! See Macaulay's History, vol. ii. p. 49. t- Such rings, I imagine, were always signet rings; and the wear Sentiments derived from the Bible. 283 Henry VIII. we have the King's ring given to Cranmer, Act v. Sc. x, and presented by him, Sc. 2, as a security against the machinations of Gardiner and others of the Council who were plotting to destroy him. It was anciently the custom for every monarch, as Mr. Reed remarks, to have a ring, the temporary possession of which invested the holder with the same authority as the owner himself could exercise; and not for every monarch only. In King Richard II. the Duke of York gives this order to his servant:Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster;Bid her send me presently a thousand pound: Hold, take my ring. Act ii. Sc. 2. There is a curious relic of the same custom still kept up in the ancient College of William of Wykeham at Winchester. When the.captain of the school petitions the head master for a holidayand obtains it-he receives from him a ring, in token of the indulgence granted, which he wears during the holiday, and returns to the head master when it is over. The inscription upon the ring was formerly ' Potentiam fero, geroque.' It is now ' Commendat rarior* usus.' ing of them is a custom of great antiquity. Compare Gen. xxxviii. 18, xli. 42; Esther iii. Io, i2, viii. 8; Jerem. xxii 24; Daniel vi. 17. * From Juvenal, Sat. xi. zo08. 'Voluptates commendat rarior usus.' Our poet furnishes a parallel quotation, less concise indeed, but still more apposite: 284 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Imbued as the mind of our poet was with Scrip. tural principles, we shall not be surprised to find that he places upon the very highest ground both the prerogative and the responsibility of kings and governors. If, on the one hand, he would warn us that Divinity doth hedge a king; Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. S. that Kings are earth's gods; Pericles, Act i. Sc. I. and c deputies,' though c unworthy,' of God himself, King Henry VI, 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 2;* that the person of a king is 'the Lord's anointed temple' (i Sam. xxiv. I o), Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 3; and that 'The King's name is a tower of strength,' King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3, even as ' the name of the Lord is a strong tower,' Prov. xviii. o10:-on the other hand, he does not fail to teach that He who the sword of Heaven will bear, Should be as holy as severe;Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 2. where we are reminded of S. Paul, Rom. xiii. 4, and II. Sam. xxiii. 3. In like manner, if on the one hand he teaches that 'If all the year -were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work But vwhen they seldom come, they wished for come.' K. Henry IV. ist Part, Act i. Sc. 2. Compare the quotation from his 52nd sonnet, above, p. 22, the fine point of seldom pleasure.' * See also the speech of K. Richard II. quoted above, p. 107, and that of the Bishop of Carlisle, quoted p. 234. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 285 there can be no security for usurped and illegitimate authority;For though usurpers swvay the rule awhile, Yet Heavens are just, and time suppresseth wrongs:King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. on the other hand, he warns us that the loyalty and obedience which are due to lawful governors must be duly paid; for Every subject's duty is the King's. King Henry V. Act vi. Sc. i. That it is an unhappy thing for a country when its king is under age is a thought which might occur to many minds; but that the thought should be expressed in words so precisely parallel as those which I am about to quote could not have happened without actual contact of the mind of the one writer with the mind of the other: Woe to thee, 0 land, when thy king is a child. Ecclesiastes, x. 16. Woe to that land that's governed by a child. K. Richard III. Act. ii. Sc. 3. Among the countless marvels of Shakspeare's mind, it is not the least remarkable that he appears equally at home in regard to matters that must have been alien from his own experience and to those that came within it. For instance, whether he has to speak of the circumstances of land or sea, of peace or war, his sentiments and descriptions are equally just and valuable; although of the sea 286 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and he had probably seen little, and of war he could have known nothing from personal observation. It would be beyond my purpose to enter into this subject; and I shall content myself by a general reference on the one hand to YThe Tempest, and on the other to King Henry V. and King Richard III. But there are two points connected with the mention of war which belong fairly to the design I have had in view, and upon which, therefore, I shall venture to add a few words. One is, that war is a punishment sent by God. So the Bible teaches, see Ezek. v. and xiv. 2 I. And so Shakspeare teaches, see King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. i. War is His (God's) beadle; * war is His vengeance. And again, see King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act v. Sc. 2: 0! war, thou son of hell, Whom angry Heavens do make their minister, Throw in the frozen bosom of our part Hot coals of vengeance! where Mr. Steevens has remarked that the last phrase is scriptural, and he quotes Psalm cxl. Io in the Prayer Book version:Let hot burning coals fall upon them! The other point is the lawfulness of war. This, too, the Bible teaches; see Eccles. iii. 8, Luke iii. 14, Acts x. And so Shakspeare teaches-with the just and necessary provision —' if the cause be * This clause is omitted by Mr. Bowdler. Sentiments derived from the Bible. $S7 good.' See Iing Henry V. Act iv. Sc. i. In further proof of this point, the reader may consult a sermon* preached by Bishop Andrewes before Queen Elizabeth, at Richmond, in 1609, 'at what time the Earl of Essex was going forth upon the expedition for Ireland,' to quell the insurrection excited by the Earl of Tyrone-a sermon, therefore, which our poet might have heard; although, as I have said, we have no reason to suppose that he took part in that or any other warlike expedition.t SECT. I6. Of Death, the Intermediate State, and Day of Yudgment. I have already had occasion, in Section 14, to anticipate the mention of the first subject which occurs to be spoken of in this place, viz., our poet's belief in the immortality of the soul, and consequently in a future state. But the passage which tells most directly upon the point remains still to be quoted. I allude to the dialogue in Cymbeline, between Posthumus and the Jailor; and the lesson which it teaches so emphatically, is the more remarkable, because it proceeds out of the mouth of a Heathen:Jailor. Come, sir, are you ready for death? * Bp. Andrewes' Works, vol. i. pp. 32I-337. t He was, however, enrolled as a soldier in I605, after the Gunpowder Plot. See Mr. Dyce's Lif, p. 91. 288 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Porthumus. Ready long ago...I am merrier to die than thou art to live. 7ail. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps, feels not the toothache: but a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for look you, sir, you know not which way you shall go. Posth. res, indeed do I, fellow. Jail. Your death has eyes in's head then; I have not seen him so pictured. You must either be directed by some who take upon them to know; or take upon yourself that which, I am sure, you do not know; or jump* the after-enquiry on your own peril: and how you shall speed in your journey's end, I think, you'll never return to tell one. Posth. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct them the way I am going, but such as wink, and will not use them. Act v. Sc. 4. And if this be true in a Heathen's mouth, how much more in a Christian's! In the famous soliloquy of Hamlet, C To be, or not tb be,' when he comes to speak (as the Jailor has spoken above) of The undiscovered countryfrom whose bourn No traveller returns, Act iii. Sc. i. Mr. Douce suspects, not without reason, that Job x. 21, was present to our poet's mind:I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. And here let me introduce an observation which has occurred, I doubt not, to the minds of many ~ i. e. venture at it without thought. So in Macbeth I'd jump the life to come. Act i. Sc. 7. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 289 of my readers in the course of this and the preceding chapter. There can be little doubt that our forefathers, in and before Shakspeare's time, and even Shakspeare himself, derived, not altogether unprofitably, some portion of their knowledge of Holy Scripture from the exhibitions of religious plays, called miracles, or mysteries; and consequently that much which would strike us now-a-days as irreverent, or at best of questionable propriety, when spoken upon the stage, did not appear to them in the same light. I. imagine that when Justice Shallow observed to Silence, his brother justice, Death, as the Psalmist* saith, is certain to all; all shall die;King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 2. neither the author nor the actor would be conscious of any irreverence in thus introducing the Psalmist's name; but times are changed, and Mr. Bowdler, by omitting the clause printed in italics, gives us to understand that now it ' cannot with propriety be read' even ' in a family!' Togetherwith the certainty of death, the Psalmist also teaches us that the rich man 'shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth, neither shall his pomp follow him;' xlix. 17. And the Apostle, that 'As we brought nothing into this world, so it is certain we can carry nothing out;' I Tim. vi. 7. * See Psalm xc. so. In Psalm xxii. 5, 'dust of death' may be compared with ' dusty death' in Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5. U 29o Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Their words require no confirmation; and yet the great Earl of Warwick is well chosen to speak as follows when he comes to die:Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood! My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, Even now forsake me, and of all my lands Is nothing left me but my body's length! * Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And live we how we can, yet die we must. K. Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act v. Sc. 2. The Lord Talbot, speaking of the death of' the noble Duke of Bedford,' tells the same truism, with the additionof a melancholy sentiment, to which most of us, sooner or later, will be inclined to respond:Kings and mightiest potentates must die, For that's the end of human misery. K. Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. 2. We find both the truism and sentiment (which our poet is fond of introducing where he has occasion to mention death) repeated at greater length in the Dirge over Fidele, sung by Guiderius and Arviragus:Gui. Fear no more the heat t o' the sun, Nor the furious winter's rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages: * A frequent sentiment in the Greek tragedians, repeated by Shakspeare in King John, Act iv. Sc. z, in King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2, and in King Henry IY. ISt Part, Act v. Sc. 4, t See Rev. vii. I6. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 29 t Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Arv. Fear no more the frown o' the great, Thou art past the tyrant's stroke; Care no more to clothe, and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak: The sceptre, learning, physic, must All follow this, and come to dust. Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2. But these were heathens. In the case of Christians, our poet fails not to introduce a touch of holier consolation: Chief 7ustice. How doth the king? Warwick. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended. Chief custice. I hope not dead? Warwick. He's walk'd the way of nature; And, to our purposes, he lives no more. K. Henry IV. znd Part, Act v. Sc. z. As much as to imply, not however to his own purposes, now that his true and immortal life has begun. So, too, in Winter's Tale, Dion says, with reference to the supposed death of Hermione, wife of King Leontes: What were more holy Than to rejoice, the former queen is well? Act v. Sc. I. This happy notion and expression of our poet that it is well' —'exceeding well'-with the departed, was perhaps* derived from the reply which * Since the above was written, I find that Mr. Henley has made the same conjecture. The phrase in question, as applicable to the dead, occurs also in Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 5 i and twice in Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 4, and Act v. Sc. x. U 2 292 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and the good Shunammite gave to the prophet Elisha, when he asked her,Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well2 Kings iv. 26. though the child was dead. But, in order that it may be really ' well' with us when we come to die, Shakspeare will also tell us-no man better-what is the one thing needful. And with what a lightning flash of condensed thought and language does he teach the lesson!Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all: come on. King Lear, Act v. Sc. 2. 'Ripeness,' i. e. to be prepared to die, at the appointed time. As Hamletexpresses the same idea:If it (death) be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Act v. Sc. 2. Comp. Matth. xxiv. 44. And what minister of the gospel ever discoursed more justly of the value of such preparation* than does, in Shakspeare's words, King Henry V., when, passing through the camp in disguise, before the battle of Agincourt, he holds discourse with Williams, one of the common soldiers of his army?Every soldier in the wars should do as every sick man in his bed-wash every mote out of his conscience; and dying so, death ' It will not be out of place to mention here that our poet made his will only one month before his death,' in perfect health and memory, God be praised!'-when both his daughters were married and settled in life; the younger only six weeks before the death of her father. Sentiments derived from the Bible. ^93 is to him advantage:* or not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained. And in him that escapes, it were not sin to think, that making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare. Act iv. Sc. i. The same all-important truth is urged again in King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 3:'T is a vile thing to die When men are unprepared and look not for it. And now-if we wish to see (as far as can be seen in this world) an example of this truth in the end of one, haughty and ambitious, who was neither ripe nor ready-what sermon is to be compared to the representation which our poet gives of the death of Cardinal Beaufort, in the Second Part of King Henry VI.; its effect being heightened by the charity of the king in declining.to judge, and in proposing to turn it to the edification of the survivors! I give the scene entire-for, as with the Scripture itself (if the comparison may be made without irreverence), it would be wrong to take anything from it, or to add anything to it. Johnson has truly observed, 'the beauties of it are such that the superficial reader cannot miss them, and the profound can imagine nothing beyond them.' SCENE.-Cardinal Beaufort's bedchamber. Enter K. HENRY, SALISBURY, WARWICK, &C. The Cardinal in bed. *To die is gain.-Phil. i. z. 294 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and K. Hen. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign. Car. If thou be'st Death, I'll give thee England's treasure, Enough to purchase such another island, So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. K. Hen. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death's approach is seen so terrible! War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. Car. Bring me unto my trial when you will. Died he* not in his bed? where should he die? Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no?-! torture me no more, I will confess.Alive again? then show me where he is; I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him. — He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. - Comb down his hair; look! look! it stands upright, Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul! Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. K. Hen. 0 thou eternal Mover of the heavens, Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch! 0, beat away the busy meddling fiend, That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, And from his bosom purge this black despair! War. See, how the pangs of death do make him grin. Sal. Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably. K. Hen. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. He dies, and makes no sign; O God, forgive him! War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. K. Hen. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation. K. Henry FI. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. * Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, murdered by Beaufort's order, Sentiments derived from the Bible. 295 With this harrowing picture it will be some relief to compare the death-bed of another Cardinal, also the victim of inordinate ambition,* but partly, too, of the fickleness of royal favour-I mean Cardinal Wolsey. It is Queen Katharine who asks:Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he died: If well, he stepp'd before me, happily, For my example. Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam: For after the stout earl Northumberland Arrested him at York, and brought him forward (As a man sorely tainted) to his answer, He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, He could not sit his mule. Kath. Alas! poor man! Grif. At last, with easyt roads, he came to Leicester, Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot, With all his convent, honourably receiv'd him; To whom he gave these words,-O, father abbot, An old man, broken with the storms of state, Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; Give him a little earth for charity! So went to bed: where eagerly his sickness Pursued him still; and, three nights after this, About the hour of eight (which he himself Foretold should be his last), full of repentance, Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows, He gave his honours to the world again, His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him! Griffith afterwards adds:His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him; * The death-bed scene of a sensualist, as exhibited in the case of Falstaff, has been alluded to above. See p. 226. t i. e. stages. 296 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little: And, to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he diedfearing God. King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2. Our Lord bids us 'not to be afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do,' Luke xii. 4, comp. Matt. x. 28. In like manner the Lady Anne, with reference to. the death of her father-in-law, King Henry VI., reminds the wicked Gloster:Thou hadst but power over his mortal body; His soul thou canst not have. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. z, And whereas the Royal Preacher teaches us in the book of Ecclesiastes, that, when we come to die, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it; — xii. 7. Shakspeare has made one of our English kings to expire with these words upon his lips:Mount, mount my soul! thy seat is up on high; Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward here to die. King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 5. The place to which the spirits of good men are admitted immediately upon their dissolution is twice mentioned by our poet* under the figure by which we find it represented in S. Luke xvi. 23. * There is also a reference to our Lord's promise to the penitent thief, in K. Henry VI. znd Part, Act v. Sc. I. See below, p. 351. Sentiments derivedfrom the Bible. 297 Bolingbroke. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead? Carlisle. As sure as I live, my lord. Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom Of good old Abraham! K. Richard II. Act iv. Sc. I. K. Rich. The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom. K. Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4. See also K. Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 3, 'Arthur's bosom,' put into the mouth of Mrs. Quickly. On the other hand, the torment of bad men after death, as represented in the case of the rich man in the same parable, is twice alluded to in King Henry IV. viz. in Ist Part, Act iii. Sc. 3; 2nd Part, Act i. Sc. 2; and on both occasions the allusion is put into the mouth of Falstaff, who handles it, as might be expected, with such characteristic levity, that in these instances I cannot complain of Mr. Bowdler for omitting it, as he has done. There is also made by Falstaff a reference to Lazarus in that play, 1St Part, Act iv. Sc. 2, which is partly dealt with by Mr. Bowdler in the same way. This likewise may be justified. On the other hand, two other passages of a similar character, and bearing upon the same point, are not to be found in ' the Family Shakspeare,' the omission of which is, I think, to be regretted. One is the speech of the Clown in All's well, &c., Act iv. Sc. 5:I am for the house with the narrow gate, which I take to be too little for pomp to enter; some that humble themselves may; but the many will be too chill and tender; and they'll be for the flowery way, that leads to the broad gate, and the grat fire. 298 Slhakspeare's Religious Principles and The other is spoken by the porter at Macbeth's castle:I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 3. Warburton characterises the former passage as ' impious trash.' Steevens condemns both ' as impious stuff.' For my own part, as I do not doubt they were written with earnestness, and with a wonderful knowledge of human nature-the latter passage, especially, as put into the mouth of a drunken man-so I believe they may be read with edification. 'With regard to the condition and circumstances of the departed in the intermediate state, we have no Scriptural authority for concluding that they are not conscious of what is passing here. Our poet therefore has not exceeded the bounds which the Anglican Church allows to the pious opinions of her members, when, at the conclusion of King Henry VIII., he makes the King to say, on the occasion of the christening of his infant daughter-afterwards Queen Elizabeth:When I am in heaven, I shall desire To see what this child does, and praise my Maker. Act v. Sc. 4. Still less can we object to that which is put into the mouth of the Lady Constance, in King Yohn,* to * This play was written, according to Mr. Malone, in 1596-the year in which Shakspeare lost his only son, Hamnet (see above, p. i99); or, according to Mr. Chalmers, in 1598. I have supposed Sentiments derived from the Bible. 299 the effect that the recognition of those whom we have known and loved in this world will be among the causes of our happiness in the world to come. Addressing Pandulph, the Pope's legate, she says:Father cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: If that be true, I shall see my boy again. Act iii. Sc. 4. Most strange, indeed, would it be, if we Christians might not entertain the hope which was the earnest expectation, the comfort, and the joy of the great and good among the heathen! 'Equidem,' says Cato to Scipio and Laelius, in the De Senectute of Cicero,' Equidem efferor studio patres vestros, quos colui et dilexi, videndi,' i. e. after death. And he proceeds in this noble strain: ' O! praeclarum diem, quum ad illum divinum animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar, quumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam!' And then, like Constance, he thinks of seeing again the son whom he had lost. ' Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi, verum etiam ad Catonem meum;' whom he goes on to praise, as she has praised Arthur. So much is there of the same truth and nature where great minds, no matter how different their respective circumstances, are led to speak upon the same subjects! that Shakspeare was mindful of his own loss in putting the language quoted above, and other lines of the same play, into the mouth of Constance. See below, Sermon preached at Stratford, p. 397. 300 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Nor is it on one occasion only that Shakspeare introduces that sentiment, so full, not only of affection, but of faith and hope. When Le Beau, in As you like it, recommends Orlando to withdraw from the court of the usurping Duke, he thus bids him farewell: Sir, fare ye well; Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. Act i. Sc. 2. So again, in King Richard II., when Lord Rivers is being led to execution, he thus addresses Lord Richard Gray and Sir Thomas Vaughan, who were to suffer with him: Come, Gray; come, Vaughan; let us all embraceFarewell, until we meet again in heaven. Act iii. Sc. 3. Notwithstanding the natural intensity of his own feelings, and the depth of affection for which we must give him credit, our poet does not fail to uphold the moderation which the Bible prescribes, in mourning for our departed friends. While of all such sorrow he teaches us not to be insensible, or to allow ourselves to forget the objects of itI must feel it as a man; I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me;Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. he would also warn us against excessive grief: Sentiments derived from the Bible. 301 Some grief shows much of love, But much of grief shows still some want of wit. Romeo and 7uliet, Act iii. Sc. 4. Compart Ecclesiasticus xxii. I I, xxxviii. 17, i8. But we pass on to still more solemn truths, fully certified to the Christian only, through the Revelation he has received. We know that after the intermediate state, and before the final and complete reward of God's true servants, will come the Judgment; and we also know that that judgment will differ from the trials which take place in this world, in two respects: ISt. It will be incorruptibly and infallibly just; and 2nd. The accused will be made to give evidence against themselves. In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice; But 'tis not so above. There is no shuffling: there the action lies In his * true nature; and we ourselves compelled, Even to the teeth andforehead of our faults, To give in evidence. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3. It is not a little remarkable that Shakspeare should have seized upon this latter point. He is supported in the view he takes by Bishop Pearson.t That great divine, expounding the seventh article of the Creed, thus writes, in an argument upon conscience:It followeth that this conscience is not so much a judge as a * See above, p. I6. t Born, 6I2; died, I686. I 302 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and witness,* bound over to give testimony, for or against us, at some judgment after this life to pass upon us. And he refers to S. Paul, Rom. ii. 14-16. But even if this were not so, we are assured that 'we must all appear,' or rather be made manifest (avepwOevai,) ' before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body,' 2 Cor. v. 10. Accordingly, when Hubert shows to King John the warrant which the latter had given him for the murder of Prince Arthur, the King exclaims:Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal Witness against us to damnation. King 7ohn, Act iv. Sc. 2. It was to be expected that the circumstances of the judgment day, as they are revealed to us in Scripture, would make a deep and lasting impression upon a mind like Shakspeare's. Accordingly, when he desires to give more than ordinary effect to deep passion, to indignation and abhorrence at crime committed, or to affliction and distress at calamity incurred, he has recourse to images which are associated with the final doom-the sounding of the last trump, the discomfiture of creation, the dissolution of the heavens and the earth. Thus, first, in the con* Juvenal, though a heathen, expresses the same truth (and so confirms S. Paul), where he says that wicked men'Nocte, dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.'-Sat. xiii. 98. \ Sentiments derived from the Bible. 303 cluding scene of King Lear, where the fact that the personages of the play are all Pagans, would not allow of more than a general and indistinct allusion to ' the promised end,' we read as follows:Enter LEAR, with CORDELIA dead in his arms. Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! 0, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so That heaven's vault should crack. Kent. Is this the promis'd end? Edgar. Or image of that horror? Act v. Sc. 3. See Matt. xxiv. 6, ' The end is not yet;' and i Pet. iv. 7, ' The end of all things is at hand.' There is the same kind of indistinct reference to the gospel record of our Lord's combined prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the end of the world, in a speech of Gloster's, towards the beginning of the same play:These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us:... love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond tracked between father and son. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's son against father: the king falls from bias of nature; there's father against child. Act i. Sc. z.* In answer to the objection that such references are out of place in the mouth of Pagans, it is to be remembered that the heathen had their Sibylline verses and prophetical books, and that both Lucan and Ovid foretell of prodigies, and of the conflagration of the world, at the last day. See S. Luke xii. 52, 53. See S. Luke xii. 52, 53. 304 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and In Macbeth we advance a step farther towards a fuller exhibition of the same comparison, when Macduff enters, and discovers the dead bodies of King Duncan and his attendants, all murdered:Macduf 0 horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name thee!.Murder! and treason! Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake! Shake off this drowsy sleep, death's counterfeit, And look on death itself Up, up, and see The great doom's image! —Malcolm! Banquo! As from your graves rise up, and walk. like sprites, To countenance this horror! Enter LADY MACBETH. Lady M. What's the business, That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the house? Act ii. Sc. 3. Again the same image is invoked to give expression to other but no less violent and absorbing emotions, in Romeo and Juliet:Juliet. Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead; My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord? Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom! Act iii. Sc. z. When the young Lord Clifford, in the Second Part of King Henry VI., sees, after the battle of St. Albans, the hopes of his party blasted, and his father killed, he exclaims:O! let the vile world end! And the premised*flames of the last day * i. e. Sent before their time. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 305 Knit earth and heaven together! Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, Particularities and petty sounds To cease! * Act v. Sc. 2. The incestuous marriage of the queen, in Hamlet, with the murderer of her husband and his own brother, might well seem to call forth from the young prince the utmost abhorrence which words can express:Heaven's face doth glow: Yea, this solidity and compound mass With tristful visage, as againstt the doom, Is thought-sick at the act. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. I see nothing in this last passage to justify the doubts and objections which Warburton and other critics have raised. I imagine that the glowing of Heaven's face is to be understood to imply shame at the Queen's act. Mr. Malone timidly asks'Had not our poet S. Luke's description of the last day in his thoughts?' No doubt, he had; but why not also the parallel descriptions of S. Matthew and S. Mark? Yes, and still more, of S. Peter, 2 Ep. iii. 7 —I I; and S. John, Rev. xx. i i. The truth is, I fear, that whatever else our poet's critics have been strong in, they have, for the most part, not2 been strong in knowledge * To stop. t See above, p. 23. $ I speak of the critics in the Variorum edition. Among these Mr. Henley is, I think, the only one who deserves to be exempted from the above censure. X 306 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and of the Scriptures; and that the book which they should have looked to first and most for help in the illustration of his works, is the book which has been generally looked to last and least. That the passage of S. Peter just referred to had attracted his attention is evident from a speech of Prospero in the Tempest: Our revels now are ended: these our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack* behind. Act iv. Sc. i. Compare also Isaiah li. 6, ' The heavens shall vanish away like smoke,' &c. And now the curtain of our great teacher drops, as it ought, before the Judgment of the Last Day.t We know, though imperfectly, what we now are; we know not, even with the help of Revelation, what we shall be hereafter:Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. I John iii. 2. Ophelia has caught this up in her touching way, where she says to the King, in Hamlet:* i.e. A vapour. But, notwithstanding the elaborate argument of Home Tooke, I should prefer to read track, supported as it is by the parallel in Timon of Athens, Act i. Sc. I. t See above, p. 163. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 307 Well, God 'icld* you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table! Act iv. Sc. 5. We can have no doubt that the last of these expressions (which, by-the-bye, Mr. Bowdler has omitted) is to be understood as a deranged person's version of' May you be at God's table,' according to the Scriptural notion,'t which represents the happiness of heaven under the figure of a feast, with God for our host. See Matt. viii. I I, Luke xii. 37. There can be no doubt, too, that the preceding clause in Ophelia's speech is taken from the latter clause of S. John's text. What if the eccentricity of thought, natural to mad people, should have converted-in the presence of the wicked king -the Christian's sonship to God, with which the apostle's text begins, into the owl's daughtership to the baker, which Ophelia first introduces? I am inclined to think this not impossible, more especially as the legend referred to is a Christian one, in which, according to Mr. Steevens, our Saviour being refused bread by the daughter of a baker (which again would suggest the notion of the blessedness of him that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, Luke xiv. 15) is represented as punishing her by * Yield, i. e. reward you. t And classical also. Compare Virg. Ecl. iv. 62: ' Cui non risere Parentes, Nec Deus hunc mensd, Dea nec dignata cubili est.' See also Hor. iv. Od. viii. 29, and elsewhere. X 2 308 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and turning her into an owl. Mr. Douce has given the story more at length, and represents it as still current among the common people in Gloucestershire. But though 'it doth not yet appear what we shall be' in heaven, we know that comfort and happiness are to be looked for there, and only there. When the Queen, in King Richard II., says to the Duke of York, For Heaven's sake, speak comfortable words; he replies in language which many passages of the Bible fully justify:Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts; Comfort's in heaven: and we are on the earth, Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief. Act ii. Sc. 2. Compare Job v. 7. And yet we must not be impatient to quit this scene of trial, so long as our remaining here may tend in any way to promote God's glory, or to be serviceable to our fellow men. Shakspeare, from the mouth of Hamlet, will teach us this, after the measure of the wisdom and the love of this world; but we must go to the Bible, and sit at the feet of S. Paul, 'if we would learn it more perfectly. The Prince of Denmark, on the point of death, speaks to his friend Horatio: If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. Act v. Sc. 2. Sentiments derived from the Bible. 309 The great apostle of the Gentiles, in bondage at Rome, writes to his Philippian converts:I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Phil. i. 23, 24. Meanwhile may our 'names be written in the Book of Life!' This expression, which is used by S. John in the Revelation, xx. 5, xxi. 27, and by S. Paul, Phil. iv. 3, could only have occurred to one who had often in his hand the sacred volume, which is to us in this world ' the Book of Life.' We find it in King Richard II. The speaker is Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk:No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, My name be blottedfrom the Book of Lfe, And I from heaven banished, as from hence! Act i. Sc. 3. But in order that our names may be written in that book, let it be remembered, ONE THING IS NEEDFUL. 'Philosophy' may suffice to tell us Of happiness By virtue specially to be achieved; Taming of Shrew, Act i. Sc. i. but if our ' virtue' is indeed to be Led on by heaven, and crowned with joy at last, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act v. Sc. 3. it must be learnt in the school of HIM ' Who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,' and Whose is the only 'Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' CHAP TER III. Of the Poetry of Shakspeare as derived from the Bible. LZ COME now, in the last place, to speak of passages in which Shakspeare has been indebted to Holy Writ, not only for poetical diction and sentiment, but for some of the most striking and sublime images which are to be found in his works. i. We are familiar with that simple, but most affecting apostrophe with which the vision of Isaiah opens:Hear, 0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. i. z. See also Deut. xxxii. i, Jerem. ii. 12, vi. 19. All creation is summoned to listen to a tale of undutifulness, which was felt by the prophets to be without parallel. It was under the influence of a similar feeling that Hamlet exclaims upon his mother's hasty and incestuous marriage with his uncle, his father's murderer:Heaven and earth! Must I remember? Whv, she would hang on him, Poetry as derived from the Bible. 3"1 As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet within a monthLet me not think on't. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. And again the same feeling is aroused and vents itself in a similar exclamation, in the scene between Hamlet and his father's ghost, ibid. Sc. 5:Ghost. List, list, 0 list, If thou didst ever thy dear father love. Hamlet. 0! Heaven! Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. The exclamation is not idle or common-place, but sublime and full of intense passion, as is shown more fully by what follows after the Ghost's exit. 2. It is a bolder flight of imagination which represents the elements and heavenly bodies taking part, as allies, in the conflict of human warfare. Thus, in that grandest of all lyrical compositionsthe song of Deborah and Barak, Judges v. 20o: They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Compare Joshua x. 12-14. The classical student will be reminded of a well-known parallel passage in the poet Claudian, De tert. Consul. Honor. 93-98:Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela * The objection taken by some critics to the foregoing examples, as inconclusive and too trivial to deserve notice, may perhaps be diminished in some degree by the consideration that they are intended to be read not only in immediate connexion with, but as introductory to, those which follow in the next section. And does not the view suggested add dignity to the passages themselves? 3 12 Of the Poetty of Shakspeare Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. O nimium dilecte Deo! cui fundit ab antris CEolus armatas hyemes; cui militat ether, Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti. Claudian was a heathen; but he recognised what was believed to be the interposition of the Deity on behalf of the Emperor Theodosius against Eugenius, at the battle of Aquileia, fought on September 6th, A.D. 394. See Augustin, De Civit. Dei, lib. v. cap. xxvi., and comp. Gibbon, ch. xxxvii. note I20. Let us now see the use which our poet has made of this sublime idea. First, in King Henry VI. 3rd Part, it appears in its simplest and, so to speak, most elementary form, where Hastings says:'Tis better using France, than trusting France: Let us be backed with Heaven, and with the sea., Which God hath given for fence impregnable, And with their helps only defend ourselver: In them and in ourselves our safety lies:Act iv. Sc. I. a passage upon which Dr. Johnson remarks, This has been the advice of every man who in any age understood and favoured the interest of England. Next, in King Richard J., we have a development of the idea, suggested probably by the destruction of the host of Sennacherib, recorded in 2 Kings xix. and Isaiah xxxvii.:K. Richard. And we are barren, and bereft of friends; Yet know-my master, God omnipotent, Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, as derived from the Bible. 313 Armies of pestilence: and they shall strike Your children yet unborn, and unbegot, That lift your vassal hands against my head, And threat the glory of my precious crown. Act iii. Sc. 3. In like manner, the Lady Constance, in King John, on behalf of her son Arthur, with the fury of a Pythian priestess enthroned upon her sacred tripod, cries out:Arm, arm, you heartenr, against these perjur'd kings! A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens! Let not the hours of this ungodly day Wear out the day in peace. Act iii. Sc. I. Once more, the aged King Lear, upon the sight of his unnatural daughter, Goneril, thus invokes the armed confederacy of heaven on his side against her: K. Lear. Who comes here?-O heavenr, If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow* obedience, if yourselves are old, Make it your cause; send down and take my part. King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4. See also ' I tax not you,' &c., in Act iii. Sc. 2. 3. To pass on from this mustering of elements of warfare to the incidents of war itself. In that most poetical of all the Books of Scripture, the Book of Job, the passage which describes the warhorse, ch. xxxix. 19-25, has ever been considered as one of the most sublime-superior even to the famous parallel of Virgil:Tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere, * See above, p. 30. 3 4 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare Stare loco nescit, micat auribus, et tremit artus, Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem. Georg. iii. 83-85. The expression of the inspired writer which appears to have struck the fancy of our poet most is this:He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage. Thus in King Henry IV. 2nd Part, we read:With that, he gave his able horse the head, And, bending forward, struck his armed heels Against the panting sides of his poor jade Up to the rowel-head; and starting so, He seemed in running to devour the way, Staying no longer question. Act i. Sc. I. And afterwards, in Hamlet, we find the same image very appropriately introduced in the mouth of a Danish gentleman, to describe an occurrence to which the flat sea-board of that country would be liable, though not so frequently or so destructively perhaps as the coast of Holland: Gent. (To the king.) Save yourself, my lord, The ocean, overpeering of his list,* Eats not the fatr with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous haste, O'erbears your officers. Act iv. Sc. 5. 4. The transformation of weapons of war into implements of peace is a favourite image with the inspired prophets. Thus, Isaiah ii. 4, and Micah iv. 3: They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. _ i. e. bounds. as derived from the Bible. 315 We see the contrary transformation in the Prophet Joel, where, in a vein of irony, he challenges the heathens to make their utmost efforts in opposition to God's truth; iii. 9,:Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war; wake up the mighty men: let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your ploughshares into swords: and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. A transformation which Virgil describes as actually taking place in the melancholy picture which he draws of the universal disorders caused throughout the world by the civil wars of Rome:Tot bella per orbem; Tam multac scelerum facies: non ullus aratro Dignus honos; squalent abductis arva colonis: Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. Georg. i. 505-508. Our poet has given an original turn to the same idea, by applying it to women. I allude to the words of Philip Faulconbridge, in King John, where he represents the female part of the population as ready to rise, or rather as already risen, in the king's behalf:Ladies, and pale-visaged maids, Like Amazons, come tripping after drums; Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts To fierce and bloody inclination. Act v. Sc. z. 5. Another image of warfare which occurs more than once in the poetical portions of the Bible is 316 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare that which describes the weapons of war, arrows and the sword, when used to execute God's vengeance, as c drunk with blood.' See the Song of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 42, Isaiah xxxiv. 6, and Jeremiah xlvi. IO. Shakspeare has profited by this in the words which he puts into the mouth of the Earl of Warwick, when Richard Plantagenet had told him of his brother's death:Rich. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk. Warw. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood. K. Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act ii. Sc. 3. The same idea will be familiar to the reader of the Greek tragedians; who, possibly, may have derived it from the Mosaical account of the first murder, where the Lord is introduced as speaking to Cain:And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. Genesis iv. z.* 6. From passages such as these it is a slight transition or advance in metaphor which ascribes feelings of sympathy to inanimate things, and especially when things animate have come short in that duty. We can all appreciate the strict human propriety, as well as the poetry of the language which our Lord made use of when the Pharisees appealed to him to rebuke His Disciples for the Comp. Revel. xvii. 6. And see above, p. 59. as derived from the Bible. 3 I acclamations which they raised upon his last entry into Jerusalem:He answered and said unto them, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Luke xix. 40. He spoke not without reference probably to the similar rebuke which the prophet Habakkuk announces would be forthcoming against the disobedience of the rich, who had exalted themselves and their dwelling places, through covetousness, through violence, and injustice:The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. ii. I1. This notion of the brute earth, with its products, senseless and irrational, exhibiting, or, in the poet's imagination, not unwilling to exhibit greater powers of sympathy than are to be found among men, has afforded matter for several of Shakspeare's most effective passages. For example, when King Richard II. returned from Ireland, to meet, and, if possible, suppress the insurrection of Bolingbroke, afterwards King Henry IV., he thus apostrophises the coast of Wales, upon which he landed:I weep for joy, To stand upon my kingdom once again.Dear earth, I do salute thee with mine hand, Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs: Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense; 318 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, And heavy gaited toads, lie in their way., Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies: And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder; Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords; This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. Act iii. Sc. 2. This is a noble passage. Ten years later, when our poet produced 7ulius Cesar, he had recourse again to the same image, and gave effect to it in a strain which nothing can surpass. The reader will know that I am referring to the speech of Antony, delivered by permission of Brutus and the other conspirators, over the body which they had stabbed to death:Antony. I have neither wit,* nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men's blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know: Show you sweet Casar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of Caesar, that would move The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. Act ii. Sc. 2. * Malone reads ' writ,' which Johnson defends, not, I think, satisfactorily, as derived -from the Bible. 3I 9 7. As there are c thoughts which lie too deep for tears,' so there have been stages of human existence in which even desire for sympathy has become extinct; and nothing has seemed left to those whose hope was thus overclouded, but to wish that they had never been. This state of feeling, to which no faithful Christian should allow himself to be reduced, finds vent in expressions, the appalling sublimity of which has never been surpassed, in the 3rd chapter of the Book of Job After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake and said: Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man-child* conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let t the blackness of the day terrify, it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it, let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. Lo! let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day. I believe the readers of Shakspeare will agree with me that there is no one of all his characters from whom language of this kind would be more expected, or come with greater propriety, than from the Lady Constance in King 7ohn. And so we find See bov, p.38.t Bt se magin * See above, p. 38. t But see margin. 32o Of the Poetry of Shakspeare that he has put into her mouth a speech which I cannot doubt was founded upon the poet's recollection of the foregoing passage of the Old Testament. When King Philip had announced that the marriage was agreed on between his son Lewis and the Lady Blanch, whereby young Arthur, the son of Constance, was to be excluded from succession to the English throne-speaking of the contract as one that would ever reflect lustre upon the day then present, upon which it had been madeThe yearly course, that brings this day about. Shall never see it but a holyday;Constance broke in upon him, thus:A wicked day, and not a holyday! What hath this day deserved? What hath it done, That it in golden letters should be set, Among the high tides,* in the kalendar? Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week, This day of shame, oppression, perjury; Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child Pray that their burdens may not fall this day. Act iii. Sc 1. And in Hamlet, written, according to Malone, in the same year as King 7ohn, viz. 1596, we find the sentiment of Job very nearly adopted, when he says to Ophelia, speaking of himself:I could accuse me of such things that it were bettert my mother had not borne me. Act iii. Sc. I. * Times, seasons. t See Matt. xxvi. 24. as derived from the Bible. 321 To these passages may be added, from 'imon of Athens, the last words spoken by Timon, as he goes out to put an end to his existence:Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. Act v. Sc. 2. 8. The striking sublimity with which Paul, when brought before Festus, replied to the Governor's exclamation that 'he was beside himself,' by the simple denial, ' I am not mad, most noble Festus,' Acts xxvi. 25, was not likely to be lost upon our poet's imagination. In both the plays which I just now mentioned as contemporaneous, Hamlet and King John, it is copied with good effect. When the Queen accuses Hamlet, after the exit of the Ghost, which he had seen, of 'ecstacy,' he answers:Ecstacy! My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music: It is not madness That I have uttered. Act iii. Sc. 4. So, too, when the Cardinal Pandulph says to Constance:Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow: her reply is:Thou art not holy to belie me so; I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine; My name is Constance; I was Geffrey's wife; Young Arthur is my son, and he is lostI am not mad: I would to heaven I were! Act iii. Sc. 4. Y 3$2 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare 9. The mention of S. Paul may remind us of another sublime passage in the writings of that Apostle, which appears to have been. present to the mind of Shakspeare. I allude to the verse in the Epistle to the Galatians, i. 8: Though we, or an angelfrom heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Compare with this text what we read in King John, in that most affecting of all scenes, between Hubert and Arthur, when the young Prince says to him:An* if an angel should have come to me And told me, Hubert should put out mine eyes, I would not have believed him. Act iv. Sc. i. Akin, in some degree, to the foregoing, are two remarkable passages in the First Part of King Henry IV. The former of these has perplexed the commentators more, I think, than it need have done, if they had considered the striking resemblance which it bears to a strain of bold and figurative language to be met with more than once in Holy Scripture. It is quite in keeping with the character of Hotspur to speak as follows: - By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks; So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear, Without corrival, all her dignities. Act i. Sc. 3. See above, p. 26. as derived from the Bible. 3`3 We may be sure that Shakspeare had never seen the passage of Euripides which has been produced to justify and explain the so-called c bombast' of these lines: and we may be no less certain that he had seen and studied those two grand chapters of Deuteronomy, and of the Epistle to the Romans, in which we read what I proceed to quote:For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that thou should'st say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou should'st say, who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. Deut. xxx. 11-14. The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise: Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above. Or, who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead: But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach. Romans x. 6-8. In the other passage of the same play, to which I last referred, we may also trace a similar use and adaptation of Scriptural ideas and modes of thought. In this instance, for a reason that will be obvious, let us take the Scripture first. In Job xxi. 22, the solemn question is asked:Shall any teach God knowledge? And in Isaiah xl. 13:Y 2 324 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his counsellor, hath taught Him? And in S. Paul, more than once, see Rom. xi. 34, I Cor. ii. 16:Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? So when Owen Glendower desires to represent that he is something more than humanAll the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common menhe endeavours to fortify the boast by making use of the same image and attribute of Deity:Where is he living... Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me? And bring him out, that is but woman's son, Can trace me in the tedious ways of art, And hold me pace in deep experiments? Act iii. Sc. i. IO. Again: the sublime passages of the Old Testament, in which the attributes of man, or of angels, are assigned to Almighty God;-as, for instance, where He is said to ' ride upon the heavens,' Deut. xxxiii. 26, Ps. ixviii. 4; or 'to walk' or 'fly upon the wings of the wind,' Ps. civ. 3, xviii. IO; or that 'His hand is not shortened,' Numb. xi. 23, Isai. 1. 2, lix. i;-might expect to find their likenesses in Shakspeare, and they do find them: yet so softened and disguised, that no comparison which might suggest thoughts of irreverence is provoked by the imitation. as derived from the Bible. 325 It is Romeo who thus, from Capulet's garden, addresses Juliet at her window:0! speak again, bright angel, for thou art As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, As is a winged messenger of Heaven Unto the white upturned wondering eyes Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds, And sails upon the bosom of the air. Act ii. Sc. z. The shortening of the hand or arm is applied as a metaphor to Danger, with great force and propriety, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, part of which, at least, I take to have been written by Shakspeare when a young man. Danger, which I feared, is at Antioch, Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here. Act i. Sc z. Moreover, I suspect that our poet had in his eye that beautiful and most pathetic passage of the prophet Isaiah, in which God's unfailing remembrance of his people is set forth, xlix. 5 -Can a woman forget her sucking child.. Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee;when he wrote, in King Henry V., that well-known speech of the king on the eve of the victory at Agincourt:This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named; *.... * 32,6 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare Old men fbrget, yea, all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day. Act iv. Sc. 3. I may observe that, in the received text of this passage, the reading is 'yet all shall be forgot;' but with the parallel words of Isaiah before me, I had no doubt that the true reading is 'yea' instead of 'yet:' and I have since discovered that the same conjecture had occurred to Malone, though he makes no mention of the confirmation given to it by the turn of expression which the inspired prophet employs. i i. The reader who desires further illustrations under this head is requested to compare the fine description in King Richard II. of deeds of darkness shrinking and terrified at the return of dayThen murders, treasons, and detested sins, The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs, Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves;Act iii. Sc. z. with the similar description in the Book of Job: - In the dark they dig thro' houses;.. they know not the light; for the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. xxiv. 13-17. It is in full accordance with the dread of light and of the day, which all wickedness is wont to as derivedfrom the Bible. 327 feel, that Lady Macbeth, when first meditating the murder of King Duncan, thus soliloquises:Come, thick night! And pall thee in the dullest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes; Nor heaven peep thro' the blanket of the dark, To cry, hold, hold. Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 5. I may also mention-what Malone has noticed -that the imprecation of Joan of Arc, when led to execution, in King Henry VI. Part Ist, May darkness and the gloomy shade of death Environ you! Act v. Sc. 4. is plainly derived from S. Luke i. 79. Again, the grand passage in the Third Part of King Henry VI., where the Earl of Warwick compares his own fall to that of the cedar, Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle, Under whose shade the ramping lion slept; Act v. Sc. 2. was doubtless derived, as is pointed out in a note of Steevens, from the prophet Ezekiel, who had made a similar comparison between the fall of the glory of Assyria and of a cedar in Lebanon:All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; under his shadow dwelt all great nations. xxxi. 6. 12. The following may be added as specimens of less elaborate comparison, no less evidently drawn from the same sacred source. 328 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare In Much ado about nothing, Benedick says to Don Pedro, in answer to the latter's question, 'Where's the count?'I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren;Act ii. Sc. I. where again the note of Steevens very properly refers us to the parallel in Isaiah:The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city;- i. 8. a melancholy picture of loneliness and desolation. In Hamlet, Polonius warns Ophelia not to trust too readily to the advances of the young prince, however accompanied with protestations of affection: These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, Even in their promise as it is a making, You must not take for fire. Act i. Sc. 3. And again, in the First Part of King Henry IV. the same image occurs to describe the companions of the sovereign whom Henry had supplanted:The skipping king, he ambled up and down, With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled and soon burnt. Act iii. Sc. 2. ' Bavin' means brushwood. In like manner David, in Psalm cxviii. 2, says of his enemies:They are extinct, even as thefire among the thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. In King Richard III. the resemblance of one who trusts in man to 'a drunken sailor upon a as derived from the Bible. 329 mast,' quoted above, p. i68, appears to have been suggested by Proverbs xxiii. 34; and in King Henry VJJII, where the Duke of Norfolk complains of the exorbitant power of WolseyAll men's honors Lie like one lump before him, to be fashioned Into what pitch he please- Act ii. Sc. 2. we are reminded of the image used by S. Paul in Romans ix. 2 1. In Othello, the Moor speaks of Desdemona, we know how unjustly, as having been c false as water,' Act v. Sc. i. Was this simile derived from the character given by Jacob to his first-born son Reuben only too justly for a like offence? Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. Gen. xlix. 4. The comparison c as snow in harvest' occurs verbatim both in the Bible and in Shakspeare; but in the former it is applied to what is pleasant and refreshing, as might be expected from a writer in the EastAs the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him; for he refresheth the soul of his masters:- Prov. xxv. 13. while in the latter, as was also to be expected from one writing in this country, it is applied in a precisely opposite manner: Clarence. 0 do not slander him, for he is kind. i st Murderer. Right, as snow in harvest.-Come, you deceive yourself: 330 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare 'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4. In Timnon of Athens, the painter says to the poet, speaking of Timon:You shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Act v. Sc. I. The notion of ' flourishing like a palm tree' is one with which we are familiar from Psalm xcii. 12. The difficulty of distinguishing, or rather the impossibility of separating the bad from the good in this world, as set forth in our Lord's parable of the wheat and the tares, Matt. xiii. 29, appears to have suggested to our poet the metaphorical language which he uses in the following lines: — His foes are so enrooted with his friends, That, plucking to unfix an enemy, He doth unfasten so and shake a friend. King Henry IV. Part 2, Act iv. Sc. i. See below, Additional Illustrations, p. 377. 13. In like manner the comparisons derived from animals, with which the Bible has familiarized us, are to be found no less in the pages of Shakspeare. For instance, in the last-named play, the description of the hostile approach of Alcibiades, Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up His country's peace; Act v. Sc. 2. is derived from the Psalmist's description of the enemies of Jerusalem represented as a vine:The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up; and the wild beasts of the field devour it. Ps. lxxx. 13, Prayer Book version. as derived from the Bible. 331 So, too, 'the wolf in sheep's clothing' of S. Matthew vii. I5, is reproduced in Second Part of King Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. i, where Queen Margaret enquires concerning Gloster: Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him, For he's inclined as are the ravenous wolves. The Leviathan, as described in Job xli., furnishes our poet with a striking passage in King Henry V.:We may as bootless spend our vain command Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil As send precepts to the Leviathan To come ashore. Act iii. Sc. 3. That the leopard should change his spots is a Scriptural emblem of a thing least to be expected; see Jerem. xiii. 23. Compare Richard II.: K. Rich. Give me his gage.-Lions make leopards tame. Norfolk. Yea, but not change his spots. Act i. Sc. I. The 'dog returning to his vomit,' of S. Peter, 2 Ep. ii. 22, and of Proverbs xxvi. i, is turned to account in King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act i. Sc. 3 (where Mr. Bowdler, in omitting the allusion, has curtailed the passage in a manner singularly awkward and scarcely grammatical), and again (though still* not in Mr. Bowdler's edition) in King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 7, where the text of S. Peter is given * This is mentioned not to complain of the omission in the present instance, but for the information of readers of that edition. 33 2 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare in French, almost exactly from the Genevan Bible of I588: a fact which renders one part, at least, of Dr. Farmer's conclusion in his celebrated essay very improbable, viz. that 'Shakspeare did not understand very common words in the French and Latin languages.' The ' deaf adder' has been already spoken of, see above, p. 52. The cherished ' Serpent, that, at the last, biteth and stingeth,' of Proverbs xxiii. 32, is reproduced in King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. I:I fear me, you but warm the starved snake, Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. And as we are 'set to school to the ant' in Proverbs vi. 6, xxx. 25, so are we also in King Lear Act ii. Sc. 4.-See below, Addit. Illustr. p. 377. I4. Again, the metaphorical images of 'the axe laid to the root of the tree;' of causing our ' light to shine before men,' in this naughty world; of 'the cheek to be given to the smiter;' of 'the mote' in the mind's ' eye,' and again of the mote and the beam;-each of them well known to us from the Bible-have been all pressed into service by our great poet: as may be seen by any one who will read Third Part Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. 2; Merchant of Venice, Act v. Sc. I; King Lear, Act iv. Sc. i; Hamlet, Act i. Sc. I; Love's Labour's lost, Act iv. Sc. 3. But the field of Scriptural metaphor is one over as derivedfrom the Bible. 333 which we must track our poet still further. In the Bible, life is 'a pilgrimage,' Gen. xlvii. 9, and elsewhere; so it is in Shakspeare:His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. K. Richard II. Act ii. Sc. I. See also As you like it, Act iii. Sc. 2. In the Bible, the human body is 'a temple,' John ii. 21, and elsewhere; so it is in Shakspeare:Nature, crescent, does not grow alone In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. See also Macbeth, quoted above, p. 284. In the Bible, that which infects and corrupts others is ' leaven,' I Cor. v. 6-8, and elsewhere; so it is in Shakspeare:Thou, Posthumus, Wilt lay the leaven on all proper * men; Goodly and valiant shall be false and perjured From thy great fall;- Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4. i. e. shall not escape the imputation and character of being such. In the Bible, that which is appropriated and secured, is ' sealed,' Rom. xv. 28, and elsewhere; so it is in Shakspeare:Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish her election, She hath sealed thee for herself. Act iii. Sc. z. * See above, p. 40. But here ' proper' seems to mean handsome morally and inwardly, like the Greek KaA;,s. 334 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare So says Hamlet to his friend Horatio; and, again, the same play, the phrase which S, John uses, iii. 3$, is adopted by our poet:A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man; This was your husband. Act iii. Sc. 4. In the Bible we read of 'the bowels,' i. e. the mercy, ' of the Lord;' so in Shakspeare, King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 4. See below, Addit. Illustr. p. 377. 5. But further; besides the broader and more important principles and sentiments treated of at large in the preceding chapter, we may notice here several minor instances in which Shakspeare has adapted the moral axioms of Scripture to his purposes as a dramatic poet. A remarkable example as of this, and one which might be illustrated by a whole cento of Bible texts, as including references not only to Scriptural maxims, but to facts, is to be found in dl's well that ends well: HE that of greatest works is finisher, Oft does them by the weakest minister: So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, When judges have been babes: great floods has e flown From simple sources; and great seas have dried, When miracles have by the greatest been denied. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits Where hope if coldest, and despair most sits. Act ii. Sc. I. Here Mr. Malone has properly pointed out both as derived from the Bible. 330 the resemblance to the words of S. Paul, 'God hath chosen,' i. e. is wont to choose, ' the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,' I Cor. i. 27; and the direct allusion to the words of our Lord: I thank Thee, O Father, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Matt. xi. 25. But in the latter case it would have been more apposite to have quoted Matt. xxi. 15, I6, containing the reference to Psalm viii. 2; because in that passage' the judgment' of the children in the temple, as contrasted with the unbelief of the chief priests and scribes, is actually ' shown.' Mr. Holt White suggests that the allusion is to Daniel's judging, when ' a young youth,' the two elders in the story of Susannah. I have remarked that Shakspeare had this story in view on another* occasion; but I doubt whether he would have spoken of an apocryphal book as 'holy writ;' though some of the fathers, and our own Homilies (using the word ' Scripture' in a laxer sense than prevailed in Shakspeare's time, or prevails now) did so speak. Returning to the speech of Helena in All's well, &c., both the critic just named and Mr. Henley, have observed that in the words 'great floods have flown from simple sources,' there is an allusion to Moses smiting the rock in Horeb, Exod. xvii. 6; * See above, p. 87. 336 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare but they differ about the allusion in the verse that follows: the former considers that by c the greatest' we are to understand Pharaoh, who ' denied,' or would not hearken to the miracles of Moses in Egypt; the latter, that the elders of Israel are meant, who, notwithstanding the miracles wrought for their preservation, refused that compliance which they ought to have yielded. Both critics suppose that the preceding half line refers to the drying up of the Red Sea. Another example of the same kind is the poetical expansion which Shakspeare gives to the Scriptural notion, that it is the duty of men, in the moral, no less than in the natural world, to ' discern the signs of the times.' See Matt. xvi. 1-3, and elsewhere. I allude to the dialogue in King Richard IL.* between certain citizens of London, when they received news of the death of King Edward IV. ist Cit. Come, come, we fear the worst; all will be well. 3rd Cit. When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; When the sun sets, who does not look for night? Untimely storms make men expect a dearth: All may be well; but, if God sort it so, 'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect. 2nd Cit. Truly the hearts of men are full of fear; You cannot reasont almost with a man That looks not heavily, and full of dread. Act ii. Sc. 3. * See also King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2. t Converse, talk. as derived from the Bible. 337 3rd Cit. Before the days of change, still is it so; By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see The water swell before a boisterous storm. Act ii. Sc. 3. Take, again, the following argument from the Gospel: What king [said our Lord] g,;~1, iLo make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. Luke xiv. 31, 32. With what force and beauty is this argumentthis illustration of the duty of counting the cost when we enter upon our Christian warfare-applied by our poet to an individual case, in the Second Part of King Henry IV., where Morton expostulates with the Duke of Northumberland, who, upon hearing of the death of his son, Harry Percy, gave way to overwhelming passion at a moment when there was most need for instant and effectual counsel!You cast the event of war, my noble lord, And summed the account of chance, before you saidLet us make head. It was your presurmise, That in the dole of blows, your son might drop: You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge, More likely to fall in, than to get o'er: You were advis'd his flesh was capable Of wounds and scars; and that his forward spirit Would lift him where most trade of danger ranged; Yet did you say-Go forth; and none of this, Though strongly apprehended, could restrain z 338 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare The stiff-born action: What hath then befallen, Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth, More than that* being which was like to be? Act i. Sc. I. But there was another illustration to the same effect, in that discourse of Christ:Which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest, haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying: This man began to build and was not able to finish. Luke xiv. z8, z9. And this, too, our poet has appropriated (and at the same time, luxuriates, rather too much, perhaps, in the amplification he has given it) in a subsequent scene of the same play. Lord Bardolph is speaking in consultation with the Archbishop of York, Lords Mowbray and Hastings, all enemies of the King, and in discouragement of their enterprise:The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus;Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand May hold up head, without Northumberland? and his 'judgment,' that in the mean time, at all events, they 'should not step too far' into open rebellion, is thus maintained:When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, * State of things, result, consequence. as derivedfrom the Bible. 339 Then must we rate the cost of the erection: Which if we find outweighs ability, What do we then but draw anew the model In fewer offices; or, at least, desist To build at all? Much more in this great work (Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down, And set another up) should we survey The plot of situation and the model; Consent upon a sure foundation; Question surveyors; know our own estate, How able such a work to undergo, To weigh against his opposite: or else, We fortify in paper and in figures, Using the names of men instead of men; Like one that draws the model of a house Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, Gives o'er, and leaves hif part-created cost A naked Jubject to the weeping cloudr, And waste for churlish winter's tyranny. Act i. Sc. 3. One more example of the same class may be found by comparing the sentiment of Ecclesiastes x. I, ' Dead flies, &c.,' with the expansion given to it in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 4. So, oft it chances in particular men, &c. viz. that a failing in one particular destroys their reputation for wisdom.' 6. Of Scriptural proverbs adopted by our poet, we may note the following:(i) The tree is known by its fruits; Luke vi. 44. see King Henry IV. First Part, Act ii. Sc. 4, where Falstaff says, If the tree may be known by the fruit, &c. z 340 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare (z) He that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him; Prov. xxvi. 27. see King Henry VIII., quoted above, p. I57. (3) The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; Prov. xxvii. 7. see King Henry IV. First Part, Act iii. Sc. 2,1. 70. (4) The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion; Prov. xx. 2. see the last-named play, Act iii. Sc. 3, 1. i67. (5) He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith; Ecclus. xiii. I. see the same play, Act ii. Sc. 4, i. 454 -(6) Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matth. vii. 13. see Ist Pt. K. Henry VI. Act i. Sc. 3. ' Thou wolf in sheep's array.' (7) When Touchstone, in As you like it, saysI do now remember a saying, The fool doth tbink he is wise, but the wise man knows he is afool;- Act v. Sc. I. is the 'saying' derived from i Cor. iii. 18? The well-known apologue of Menenius Agrippa in our poet's play of Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. i, is not to be traced to S. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, c. xii., but rather to the common source in Roman history, from which they both, we may suppose, adopted it. But when, in the Third Part of King Henry VL, the Earl of Warwick says to Richard PlantagenetVictorious Prince of York, Before I see thee seated in that throne, as derivedfrom the Bible. 341 Which now the house of Lancaster usurps, I vow by heaven there eyes shall never close;Act i. Sc. i. and when, again, in First Part of King Henry IV., Act i. Sc. 2, Prince Henry says to FalstaffWisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it;we need not doubt that our poet had in view a resolution of King David, Ps. cxxxii. 4, in the former case, and a complaint of King Solomon, Prov. i. 20, 24, in the latter. The notion of expressing silence by laying the finger on the lips, or hand upon the mouth, which we find in Othello, Act ii. Sc. i, and in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3, is also, probably, of Scriptural origin; see Judges xviii. I9, and the references given there in the margin. The same may be said of the adoption, by Shakspeare, of the true prophetical style, whereby that which is foretold is said to be actually brought to pass and accomplished by him who predicts it. Thus, Macbeth, speaking of the prophecy of the Witches in his favour, complainsUpon my head they placed a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe; Act iii. Sc. I. just as the chief butler of Pharaoh, in telling how Joseph had interpreted his dream, and the dream of the chief baker, describes what he had spoken in these words: Me he restored unto my offce, and him he hanged. Genesis x!i. 13. 342 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare See also Jerem. i. Io, Ezek. xliii. 3, and elsewhere. The Roman poet Persius uses the same style: Spem macram, supplice voto, Nunc Licini in campos, nunc Crassi mittit in xdes. I will only notice further, that a figure of speech of which S. Paul is fond, is also to be met with very frequently in Shakspeare; I mean the figure which grammarians have called Oxymoron. Of Scriptural examples it may suffice to refer to that sublime passage in the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians, which ends thus-' as having nothing and [yet] possessing all things,' vi. Io. The following may be accepted as a sample of parallel instances to be found in our poet: Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised. K. Lear, Act i. Sc. I. Compare the Duke's speech in Measurefor Measure, quoted above, p. I48. My long sickness Of health and living now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things. Timon of Athens, Act v. Sc. 2. So, too, we have in Cymbeline, iv. 3:Wherein I am false, I am honest; with which we may compare S. Paul, in the passage of the Bible last referred to, 'as deceivers and [yet] true.' Of the same character are the lines in the as derived from the Bible. 343 Merchant of Venice, which Gratiano addresses to Antonio;You have too much respect upon the world; They lose it that do buy it with much care. Act i. Sc. I. And in Measure for Measure, where Claudio says in answer to the exhortations of the disguised Duke;To sue to live, I find I seek to die, And seeking death, find life: Act iii. Sc. i. both which passages appear to be founded upon the words of our Lord, recorded by S. Matthew, xvi. 25, ' Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.' Ben Jonson, in his Discoveries (see Works, vol. ix. p. 175) condemns as' ridiculous' our poet's line, as it stood in the first copy of 7ulius Cesar, Act iii. Sc. i:Know, Cxsar doth not wrong, hut with just cause. It is, however, easily defensible, no less than the foregoing quotations from S. Paul and from our Lord Himself will be readily defended not only by a reverent, but a sound and judicious criticism. See below, Addit. Illustr. p. 378. UL nrr INTERIOR OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL. CONCLUSION.. HAVE now gone through the interesting lj Land instructive task which I proposed to C myself; and the conclusion at which I have arrived is this -Take the entire range of English Literature; put together our best authors, who have written upon subjects not professedly religious or theological, and we shall riot find, I believe, in them all united, so much evidence of the Bible having been read and used, as we have found in Shakspeare alone. This is a phenomenon which admits of being looked at from several points of view; but I shall be content to regard it solely in connection with the undoubted fact, that of all our authors, Shakspeare is also, by general confession, the greatest and the best. According to the testimony of Charles Lamb, a most competent judge in regard to all the literary elements of the question, our poet, 'in his divine mind and manners, surpassed not only the great men his contemn 346 Conclusion. poraries, but all mankind.' Yes; and claiming for him this superiority over his contemporaries, I cannot but remark that, while most of the great laymen of that great Elizabethan age-Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, the poet Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Lord Burleigh, Ben Jonson-have paid homage to Christianity, if not always in their practice, yet in the convictions of their understanding, and in the profession of their faith, none of them has done this so fully or so effectually as Shakspeare. But I may go further. Not a little remarkable is it that those only have disputed the superior merit and excellency of our poet who have also denied the value and authority of Holy Scripture. The disparagement of such judges-I allude especially to Voltaire and David Hume-is an additional confirmation of the otherwise unanimous panegyric with which he has been honoured. It will appear scarcely credible at the present day that the accepted Historian of England, in speaking of England's greatest poet, should have given vent to criticisms such as these: A striking peculiarity of sentiment. Shakspeare frequently hits; a reasonable propriety of thought he cannot for any time uphold.... It is in vain we look [in him] for either purity or simplicity of diction.... Both he and BenJonson were equally deficient in taste and elegance, in harmony and correctness... The English theatre has ever since taken a strong tincture of Shakspeare; and thence it har proceeded that the * Specimens of Dramatic Poets, Preface, vol. i. p. 7, Conclusion. 347 nation has undergone from all its neighbours THE REPROACH OF BARBARISM, from which its valuable productions in some other parts of learning would otherwise have exempted it.* The author of these remarks upon Shakspeare has himself informed us that the volume which contained them, when first published, so far from being popular, was received 'with one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation,' on account of its political views: nor, if the rest of its contents had been equally erroneous with the passage which I have quoted, would it have deserved any better reception. And how did Hume console himself under the disappointment? He proceeded to write his Natural History of Religion, in which he gave the world to understand that, as he had looked in vain, in Shakspeare, for purity or simplicity of diction, for taste or elegance, for harmony or correctness, so he had been unable to derive anything but ' doubt, uncertainty, and suspense of judgment,' from the written Word of God! The concluding remark of the passage quoted above, in which Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are accused of having brought upon us 'as a nation the reproach of barbarism from all our neighbours,' is evidently founded upon the strictures of Voltairet who, not long before, had characterised our poet as ' a writer * Hume's Hist. of England, Appendix to Reign of James I. t All that can be said in excuse for Voltaire's criticism has been fairly stated by Mr. C. Knight, in his Studies of Shakspeare, p. 540o, s,. 348 Conclusion. of monstrous Farces, called by him Tragedies,' had pronounced Hamlet to be 'the work of a drunken savage,'* and had attributed ' barbarism and ignorance' to the nation by which he was admired! What the same French author also thought and wrote of divine Revelation, and of the profession of Christianity, need not be told. The best answer to this latter critic has been given by another foreigner-not a Frenchman, but a German-Augustus William Schlegel, who has shown an admirable appreciation of the genius and characteristic excellencies of our great poet in his masterly Lectures on Dramatic Literature:Shakspeare is the pride of his nation... He was the idol of his contemporaries; and after the interval of Puritanical fanaticism... his fame began to revive with more than its original brightness towards the beginning of the last century, and since that period it has increased with the progress of time: and for centuries to come, I speak with the greatest confidence, it will continue to gather strength like an alpine avalanche, at every period of its descent.. In general, Shakspeare's style yet remains the very best model both in the vigorous and sublime, and in the pleasing and tender.-Vol. ii. p. ioz, sq. and p. I46. To the criticism of Hume, which first appeared in 1764-exactly a century ago-the best reply will be the Tercentenary Festival in honour of the poet's * Such criticism is not even yet quite extinct. An American writer has recently discovered that 'Shakspeare... and Walter Scott were remarkably morbid men; while Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth,. o. were undoubtedly insane! '-See,uart, Rev. Jan. I864, p. 56. Conclusion. 349 birth, which our ' barbarous nation' is preparing to celebrate in the present year. Or, if we desire to see the very different opinion of another historian of England, and man of letters-a writer, moreover, who was no enthusiast, but cool and cautious in his judgments-it is Mr. Hallam who pronounces that ' the name of Shakspeare is the greatest in our literature; it is THE GREATEST IN ALL LITERATURE. * Dr. Farmer, in his celebrated essay Upon the Learning of Shakspeare, arrived at the conclusion that our poet's ' studies were demonstratively con-' fined to nature and his own language.' To this conclusion (while I partly demur, as I have before intimated, to the narrow limits which it assigns to Shakspeare's reading) I would presume to add that, of all the books which he studied in his own language, there was none with which he was more familiar than the English Bible. That the lowert characters in his plays have in every instance treated Holy Scripture with the nice and exact reverence which we should feel to be desirable at the present day, is * Hist. of Literature, vol. iii. p. 547. t Warburton has the following note upon All's Well that ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 5, with reference to the dialogue between the clown and Lafeu:-' Shakspeare is but rarely guilty of such impious trash (?). And it is observable that then he always puts that into the mouth of his fools, which is now grown the characteristic of the fine gentleman.' I add, not of his C fools' only, but of his madmen. Compare Edgar in King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4 - 35~ Conclusion. not to be maintained; but still less is the charge which has been brought against him, of frequent irreverence and profaneness in his use of God's word, to be justified, or received. The mass of reference and allusion to Scripture which his works contain, must be looked at as a whole, in order to discover its true animus. This would be only just and fair to an author under any circumstances; but how much more necessary and indispensable is it in our poet's case, when we know that his plays, for the most part, were not published by himself, nor till some years after his death; and when we also know that into many of his scenes low jokes, for which he is not responsible, were foisted by the players in order to 'c please the million.' For instance, Dr. Farmer considered it 'c extremely probable' that the French ribaldry* in the last scene of King Henry V. was at first inserted by a different i hand; as ' the many additions in that same play most certainly were, after he had left the stage.' In like manner the wretched jest (which we learn from other quarters to have been current in our poet's days), by which the name of the Ten Commandments was given to the fingers and thumbs of the two hands, has found its way into the Second * We have only to compare the names of Shakspeare's plays with the names of those of the principal dramatists who were his contemporaries-Ford, Massinger, Marlowe, Beaumont and Fletcher, Rowley, Shirley, and even Ben Jonson-in order to perceive the superior delicacy of our poet's mind for one living in that age. Conclusion. 35I Part of King Henry VI.; where Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, says to Queen Margaret, in language as coarse as it is profane-but language, be it remembered, addressed to an adulteress by one whom she had grievously provoked by reflexions upon her husband, and, moreover, grossly insulted by boxing her on the ear: Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I'd set my ten commandments in your face. Act i. Sc. 3. The authenticity of this play has been called in question by good judges; for instance, by Dr. Farmer: though, for my own part, I must confess I agree with Schlegel, if not in accepting the whole as unquestionably Shakspeare's, yet in maintaining that some parts of it, especially the death-scene of Cardinal Beaufort, could have been written by no other hand. It is in the same play that another instance occurs of Scriptural reference, which certainly falls short of what we now feel to be due, in speaking upon so sacred and solemn a subject. Richard, son of the Duke of York, says to young Lord Clifford, who had called the Yorkists 'rebels,' Fye! charity, for shame! speak not in spite, For you shall sup with Jesus Christ to-night;Actv. Sc. I. in ironical allusion, evidently, to the promise which our Lord made to the Penitent Thief upon the 352 Conclusion. Cross. However, I must repeat, that before we censure Shakspeare for verses such as these, justice requires us to have certain evidence that he actually wrote them; which evidence cannot now be obtained: and I must add, that before we determine to withhold from him the high praise given to the poet Thomson by his friend and patron, Lord Lyttelton, viz. that in all his works there was not to be discovered One line which dying he would wish to blot, charity would suggest to us to make the fullest allowance for the influence of causes* which have unquestionably led, in many instances, to the injury and adulteration of our poet's text. And meanwhile, certain it is-as one who has deserved well of all lovers of Shakspeare, and of Shakspeare himself, has truly said-' He flattered no bad passion, disguised no vice in the garb of virtue, trifled with no just and generous principle.'t * For a full account of these causes, see, in the Variorum edition, vol. i. Pope's Preface, p. It; Theobald's do. p. 3z Sir T. Hanmer's do. p. 44; Warburton's do. p. 46; Johnson's do. pp. 9i, 196. In support of the author's own opinion as indicated above, the following twofold testimony may be quoted here: ' Coleridge says rightly there is not one vicious passage in all Shakspeare.' —,uart. Re'v. April I864, p. 476. At the same time, I am inclined to suspect that our poet was thinking of himself when he wrote:The man doth fear God, however it seems not in him, by some large jests he will make. Much Ado &c. Act ii. Sc. 3. t See Mrs. Jameson's Characteristics of Women, vol. i. p. 39, But compare below, Addit. Illustr. p. 379. Conclusion. 353 I am the more jealous of any misconception upon this point, because I have endeavoured in one, and that the most considerable portion of the foregoing pages, to exhibit Shakspeare as something more, something higher and better, than an incomparable dramatist. ' We are apt,' says Mrs. Montagu, in her celebrated essay, c to consider Shakspeare only as a poet; but he is certainly one of the greatest moral philosophers that ever lived.' And whence did he become such? I answer without hesitation, because, while he possessed the keenest natural powers of observation, together with an unfailing spirit of gentleness and love and universal sympathy, he drew his philosophy from the highest and purest source of moral truth. In like manner, Johnson has observed, that from the writings of Shakspeare, who looked through life in all its relations, public and private, ' a system of social duty may be selected.' Would it be too much to add, that from the same writings may be gathered also no inconsiderable contribution towards a full and accurate system of religious doctrine? He himself, in his modesty, would doubtless have been content to say of himself, with the Soothsayer in Antony and Cleopatra, In Nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. Act i. Sc. 2. Others, I trust, will not hesitate for the future to declare in his behalf, that God's own C infinite Book' A A 354 Conclusion. of Grace and Truth had not been revealed to him in vain. Before I drop altogether the subject upon which we have been engaged, I may mention a somewhat curious coincidence, of which the reader perhaps is not aware, between the outward form of the Holy Scriptures and a portion, at least, of the plays of Shakspeare. I allude to the fact, that originally the former were not divided into chapters. and verses, nor the latter into acts and scenes. Our poet's plays were not improbably all written, as it is certain many of them were at first printed, in one unbroken continuity; and it was not till the early part of the last century that Rowe and Pope, by introducing the present divisions and subdivisions, did for them, as a whole, what had been done by Hugo Cardinalis, in the thirteenth century, and by Rabbi Nathan, in the fifteenth, for the Books of the Old Testament (with the exception of the Book of Psalms, which had been originally divided as we now have it), and by Robert and Henry Stephens, in the sixteenth century, for the Books of the New Testament, by dividing them into chapters, and by prefixing to the verses the numbers which they now bear. And as the complaint has been frequently made, not without reason in some instances, that this division of the Bible, into chapters especially, while it has great advantages, is attended also with frequent inconvenience, and leads to misunder Conclusion. 355 standing and misinterpretation of God's word; so it has been remarked by Shakspeare's greatest critic, that his plays, instead of being broken up in the representation, as they now are, ' ought to be exhibited with short pauses interposed as often as the scene is changed, or any considerable time is allowed to pass;' and he adds, 'this method would at once quell a thousand absurdities.' Whether this observation is a just one, I cannot tell: only, as editions of the Bible have been called for, and published, which represent the Sacred Text printed continuously in its original form, so it would, perhaps, be desirable that the lovers of Shakspeare might have the option, if not of seeing upon the stage his plays acted in the way which Dr. Johnson has pointed out, yet of reading them in a popular editions arranged upon that plan. But be this also as it may; yet one opinion, at all events, I am prepared to maintain. In whatever shape the genuine plays of Shakspeare may be presented to us, there is nothing-nothing of a literary kindfor which we have greater reason to thank the GIVER OF ALL GOOD, than for a large proportion of those works-excepting only the Book of Common Prayer,t and THAT, which has imparted alike to it * The fac simile reprint of the first folio, now in course of publication, besides its value in other respects, forms an interesting contribtution towards such a result. t In confirmation of this high estimate of the Prayer Book, I may A A2 356 Conclusion. and to them no small share of the surpassing excellence, which, though in very different ways, they both possess-His OWN INCOMPARABLE, MOST HOLY, EVERLASTING WORD. be allowed to quote two authorities-one clerical and the other laynot inferior, perhaps, upon a literary question, to any who have written in the English tongue:' As to the greatest part of our liturgy, there seems to be in it as great strains of true sublime eloquence, as are anywhere to be found in our language.'-DEAN SWIFT, Works, vol. ix. p. I52. ' That great model of chaste, lofty, and pathetic eloquence, the Book of Common Prayer.'-LORD MACAULAY, History, vol. iii. p. 355. And again: ' the diction of our Book of Common Prayer has directly or indirectly contributed to form the diction of almost every great English writer, and has extorted the admiration of the most accomplished infidels, and of the most accomplished Nonconformists, of such men as David Hume'-though unable, as we have seen, to admire Shakspeare-'and Robert Hall.' IBID. vol. v. p. 102. To these testimonies it may not be out of place to add here, what I have somewhere read, that the greatest tragedian of the age, when asked what was the noblest composition in the English language, replied, ' The Burial Service of the Church of England.' =~ 1-.-,,r~~l APPENDIX. ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. PREFACE, p. ix. To the saying there quoted of the good Archbishop of York in a former age, it may be worth while to add here the following testimonies of distinguished ministers of the Gospel in recent times. 'Next to the Bible, I have derived more benefit from the study of Shakspeare than any other human author; for he so thoroughly knew the human heart.' Dr. Hugh McNeile, late Dean of Ripon. The late Dean of Chichester, Dr. Hook, whose idolatry of Shakspeare in his youth is so graphically described by his biographer, Mr. Stephens, would probably have said the same. The late Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Milman, a poet himself, classes Shakspeare among 'the great Christian poets: poets not merely writing on religious subjects, but instinct with the religious life of Christianity.' Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 7, sq. The judgment of Keble, distinguished also as a poet even more than as a divine, may be found fully quoted below in my Tercentenary Sermon. McNeile, Milman, Hook, and Keble, are four names which represent every school of theological opinion in the Church of England. 358 Appendix. I Shakspeare I have always considered the greatest uninspired genius that ever lived; and I remember how glad I was, when reading the Biography of Chalmers, to find that he was of the same mind.' Memoir of Dr. Guthrie, vol. ii. p. 3o0. The reader will find the passage thus referred to in Dr. Hanna's Memoir of Chalmers, vol. ii. p. 728, ed. I854: 'I look upon Shakspeare as an intellectual miracle..I dare say he was the greatest man that ever livedgreater perhaps than Sir Isaac Newton.' In like manner, in the Memoir of Dr. Norman McLeod, we read that ' his favourite authors were Shakspeare and Wordsworth.' Vol. i. p. 29. This was during his College life; but we are further assured by Principal Shairp that ' Shakspeare then was, and alvays continued to be, an unfailing resource.' Ibid. p. 9o. The testimonies of Macaulay and Jeffrey, though interesting and of high authority, will naturally be regarded from a different point of view. The former has pronounced that ' Shakspeare had neither equal nor second.' Essays, vol. iii. p. 4I5. The latter, being then in his sixty-first year, wrote: ' I would willingly give up half my fortune, and some little of the fragment of health and bodily enjoyment that remain to me, rather than that Shakspeare should not have lived before me.' Life of Jeffrey, by Lord Cockburn, p. 344. I am tempted to cite yet another pair of lay witnesses and still of a different class. Sir Walter Scott in WYooclstock makes Sir H. Lee to describe Shakspeare as ' the brightest and best poet that ever was, is, or will be.' Chap. vii. And Campbell in his Pleasures of Hope, part i, allows us to anticipate in the future the birth of poets Additional Illustrations. 359 Ordained with Fancy's energy to glow, And rival all but Shakspeare's name below.' It adds to the value of the foregoing judgments, that, with the exception of the first, given by an Irishman, and the second and third, all the others were given by Scotchmen (not generally inclined to such enthusiasm) in favour of an Englishman. GENERAL INTRODUCTION, p. 2. In order to guard against misconception, it may be well to add to the remark made at the foot of that page, that I do not forget the peculiar circumstances of a dramatic author. All that he writes, he writes, it may be urged, subject to the necessities of his characters and his plot. It is true, he does so. But still the choice of the characters and the conduct of the plot are in his own power; and in these there is room enough to discern more or less fully the real character of the author himself. And though I might plead that my enquiry is concerned with the character and tendency of the writings of Shakspeare rather than of their author, I decline so to do, because I am convinced that, with every allowance for the dramatic form of his compositions, he could not have written as he has done unless his own heart and mind had been in substantial harmony with the lessons of virtue, and pietyand, I will add, of true religion-which they conspire to teach. And in this opinion I am fully supported by no less an authority than that of the author of the Christian Year. See his Pralectiones Academica, as quoted below, p. 390. Moreover, in order to show that there is nothing paradoxical or extravagant in supposing that Shakspeare, 360 Appendix. marvellous and original genius as he was, may have derived great benefit in every way from his knowledge and study of the Bible-and all the more because he could have had but little access to works of secular literature-it is sufficient to produce the words of Mr. Froude in his recently published volume on Bunyan: ' The Bible, thoroughly known, is a literature of itselfthe rarest and richest in all departments of thought or imagination that exists.' P. 84. On the Classical learning acquired by Shakspeare as a schoolboy at Stratford-a subject touched upon in p. I, and again at pp. 225, 243, and 349-see the very able and interesting articles now appearing in Fraser's Magazine from the pen of Professor Baynes. PART I. CHAP. I. p. 9, line io. According to Mr. Furnivall's chronological order, adopted by Professor E. Dowden, the two earliest plays are placed in 1588 and 1589; and only (parts of) Henry FIl. after i6II. IBID. p. 12. On the usage of the phrase ' the death.' It occurs in Bp. Fisher's Funeral Sermon on K. Henry VII. pp. 138 and I5I. Also in Milton, P.L. Bk. xii. 494, and Clarendon, Hist. vol. i. p. 192. Comp. 'the life itself,' in the Prayer Book (but not in the Bible) version, Ps. lxiii. 4. Also ' the prayer,' Ibid. Ps. lxv. 2. IBID. p. 13. The word 'riches' occurs as a singular noun in Rev. xviii. 17. 'In one hour so great riches is come to nought.' So in Othello, Act ii. Sc. i. 'The riches of the ship is come on shore.' And the word being derived from Fr. richesse, this usage is in fact more correct; but the plural use also occurs, and more frequently, both in the Bible and Shakspeare. Comp. quotation from Book of Homilies, p. 236. Additional Illustrations. 36I IBID. p. 15. On the old form of the genitive singular, see the late Archdeacon Hare in Philol. Museum, vol. i. pp. 669, 675. 'This form of the genitive in is occurs in Gawin Douglas, but it is a Scotticism.... The vowel of the genitive in the Anglo-Saxon was e; so was it in Chaucer's time, as appears from the very title of the Knightes Tale.... In Cranmer's Bible the genitives Goddes, Christes, occur frequently.' Comp. Abbott's Shakspearian Grammar, ~ 217. In K. Henry V. Act i. Sc. 2, Shakspeare has combined both the original and corrupted forms:King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim, King Lewis his satisfaction. That the corrupted usage of ' his' and ' her,' as forms of the genitive, arose out of ignorance of the original inflection of the language, there seems to be no room for doubt. Whether or no the apostrophe should be retained for the singular, may perhaps be questioned; but its use for the plural, as in 'children's bread,' Hare very justly pronounces to be an 'arrant absurdity.' Ibid. p. 677. PART I. CHAP. II. pp. 30-44. AGONE, older form of ago. Once in Bible, twice in Shakspeare. Three days agone I fell sick.-j Sam. xxx. 13. Long agone I have forgot to court. Tewo Gent., Act iii. Sc. i. AVOID = retire, escape. David avoided out of his presence.-I Sam. xviii. i i. Satan, a-void! I charge thee, tempt me not. Corn. of Err., Act iv. Sc. 3. 362 Appendix. AWAY WITH = endure, put up with. The new moons and Sabbaths I cannot away,with.-Is. i. 13-. She never could away,with me. z Henry Il., Act iii. Sc. a. FOLLY =wantonness, unchastity. Because she hath wroughtfolly in Israel, to play the whore. Deut. xxii. zi. She turned to folly, and she was a whore. Othello, Act v. Sc. 2. THOUGHT as used for anxious, undue care. Add to the example given from Julius Cesar, the following from Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5:Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour and to prettiness. VESSEL= human body. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.-i Thess. iv. 4. If to preserve this vessel for my lord Be-not to be a strumpet, I am none. Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. UTTER = outer. In Ezek. xlii. 7 and elsewhere, we have ' utter court.' In Shakspeare we find ' utter darkness,' i Henry IF., Act iii. Sc. 3, as in the New Testament; and as the word is still used figuratively in such expressions as ' utter ruin,' utter madness,' &c. WHILES ==while occurs Ezek. xliv. 17; Matth. v. 25; and in Shakspeare, Julius Cesar, Act i. Sc. 2, who also has the whiles in The Taming of the Shrew, Act iii. Sc. i. Take you your instrument; play you the whiles. WENCH =young woman, generally of low birth, but without any contemptuous or disparaging sense. A weench went and told them.-2 Sam. xvii. 7. Well demanded, zwench.-Trempest, Act i. Sc. 2. Additional Illustrations. 363 PART II. CHAP. I. p. 58. It may be observed upon the words put by our poet into the mouth of EmiliaLet Heaven requite it with the serpent's cursethat they present an application of Scripture at once acute and appropriate; because, as we read in the Book of Wisdom, ii. 24, it was ' through envy (or jealousy) of the Devil death came into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.' Comp. S. Chrys. Hom. xlviii. in Joann. Evang. sub init. IBID. p. 76. It is with reference to the observance of an oath that Shakspeare, in 3rd Pt. K. Henry VI., prepares us for the characters he is to draw of the two sons of the Duke of York, who afterwards became Edward IV. and Richard III.; but especially of the latter. When their father had urged that he must wait for the death of Henry before he could hope to reign, as he had given his promise, and taken an oath to that effect, Edward replies:But for a kingdom any oath may be broken; I'd break a thousand oaths to reign one year. But Richard, no less wicked and more subtle, first, in reply to his brother, appearing to approve of the honourable resolution which his father had expressed, presently proceeds to argue against it, with, as Johnson truly says, 'a very despicable sophistry '-admirably foreshowing the accomplished tempter, hypocrite, and usurper which he proved himself to be. See Act i. Sc. 2:'An oath is of no moment,' &c. &c. And how thoroughly does the poet himself repudiate the sophistry, when Queen Margaret, in addressing York as a captive, reminds him how he 'broke his solemn oath,' and exclaims: 364 Appendix. O 'tis a fault too, too unpardonable.-Ibid. Sc. 4. And again, at the end of the same scene, when Clifford, who had sworn to be avenged on York for killing his father, stabs him to death, with the words:Here's for my oath/; here's for my father's death. IBID. p. 89. After first paragraph: incidents in Gospel narrative. In K. Richard III., Elizabeth, the widowed Oueen of Edward IV., warning her son, the Duke of Dorset, against the machinations of the usurper, makes use or these words: 0 Dorset, speak not to me; get thee gone; Death and destruction dog thee at thy heels: ihy mother's name is ominous to children.-Act iv. Sc. i. I can find no explanation given of this last line. Does it refer to Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, so precipitately and wantonly beheaded at the command of Herod Antipas? Matth. xiv. Io, Mark vi. 27. When Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2, says to EmiliaYou, mistress, That have the office opposite to St. Peter, And keep the gates of hellthere is evidently a reference to Matth. xvi. 19. And again, in the same play, not improbably, to the parable of the Unjust Steward, Luke xvi., when to the words of Othello-' Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest'-Iago replies:I should be -wise: for Honesty's a fool. IBID. p. 89, end of second paragraph. There is another reference to the same words of our LordCFather, forgive them; for they know not what they Additional Illustrations. 365 do'- in 3rd Pt. of K. Henry VI., when, on the 'field of battle between Towton and Saxton,' a son, who had killed his father, not knowing who he was, is introduced, and made to say:Pardon me, God; I knew not what I did.-Act ii. Sc. z. Also in the 2nd Pt. of the play just named, our Lord's words in predicting the destruction ot Jerusalem'Thine enemies... shall lay thee even with the ground,' Luke xix. 44-appear to have been remembered in the speech of Lord Talbot to the general of the French before the walls of Bordeaux:But if you frown upon this proffered peace, You tempt the fury of my three attendants, Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire; Who in a moment even zwith the earth Shall lay your stately and air braving towers, If you forsake the offer of our love.-Act iv. Sc. 2, PART II. CHAP. II. p. 113. I have ventured to question the justice of Johnson's remark, if generally applied, that Shakspeare 'by negligence gives his heathens the sentiments and practices of Christianity.' At the same time I have admitted that there is some occasion for it. An additional instance may be found in the last scene of the same play upon which the remark was made, viz. K. Lear:Kent. Is this the promised end? Edg. Or image of that horror? Where the reference is, doubtless, to that promise of our Lord and to those horrors that will attend His last coming, recorded in S. Matth. xxiv. IBID. p. ii6. Warburton in his Divine Legation has remarked that the doctrine of 'what Maimonides calls the chastisements of love was unknown to the Jewish 366 Appendix. religion till the times of their later prophets,' vol. v. p. 6i. But this remark, made by the Bishop to support his argument for placing the authorship of the Book of Job after the Captivity, is very questionable. See Deut. viii. 5, Job v. 17, Ps. xciv. 12, I3, Prov. iii. 12. And perhaps I was too hasty in supposing that the doctrine was altogether unknown to the heathen, and therefore misplaced in Cymbeline. See Bishop Lightfoot's Dissertation on 'St. Paul and Seneca,' p. 277 sq., where he observes:'In almost apostolic language, Seneca describes the trials and sufferings of good men as the chastisements of a wise and beneficent parent.... Hence the " sweet uses of adversity" find in him an eloquent exponent.' IBID. p. I34. In the parting advice of Polonius to his son, I omitted to quote the latter portion of the linesBeware Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, Bear it, that the opposed may beware of theebecause such an injunction, however suitable to the character of him who gives it, savours too much of mere worldly wisdom. There is a passage, however, upon the same subject, which quite comes up to the Christian standard, in Much Ado &c., where Don Pedro and Leonato are speaking of Benedick, Act ii. Sc. 3:Leon. I take him to be valiant. D. Pedro. As Hector, I assure you; and in the managing of quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes them with a most Christian-like fear. Leon. If he do fear God, he must necessarily keep peace i if he break peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel wvith fear and trembling. D. Pedro. And so will he do, for the man doth fear God. IBID. p. 143. In reference to the doctrine of Fatalism, I cannot forbear adding that it is Cassio, when he is no Additional Illustrations. 367 longer sober, who is made to vent the extreme Calvinistic sentiment:Well! Heaven's above all; and there be souls that must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved. Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3. On the opposition of 'grace and rude will,' see the speech of the Friar in Romeo and Juliet, quoted above, p. 127. But still more to the purpose is the answer of Q. Elizabeth to Richard III., when she is upbraiding him with the murder of her children in the Tower, which he had attempted to palliate on the plea of fatality:K. Rich. All unavoided is the doom of destiny. Z. Eliz. True; -when avoidedgrace makes destiny. Rich. III., Act iv. Sc. 4. Where 'unavoided' has the sense of 'inevitable, and avoided' the sense of ' wasted,' and then ' withdrawn;' the latter implying that great and fearful doctrine set forth in so many scriptural examples, such as Esau, Pharaoh, Balaam, Saul, Judas, &c., and in Matth. xiii. 12. IBID. p. I46, line Io. In this remark I had forgotten for the moment the legend of the Parcae, which appears in Hesiod, Theog. 904, sq. (who lived, probably, about a century before Isaiah), and which is alluded to by Shakspeare more than once. Thus in K. Henry V., Act i. Sc. I, Pistol speaks of 'Parca's fatal web;' and the sisters three 'are mentioned in Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 2, and again in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. I. IBID. p. i49, sq. Bp. Ken, in his Practice of Divine Love, p. 97, and both the Westminster Catechisms, concur in regarding suicide as forbidden by the Sixth Command 368 Appendix. merit. See also Warburton, Divine Legation, vol. v. p. 78~ How far that prohibition can be regarded as a ' canon' of natural religion is very doubtful. It appears indeed to have been the doctrine of the better and more ancient Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, and such as Socrates, that a man is not at liberty to quit his life except at the order of God, who gave it (see Plato's Phaedo, c. I3, sqq.; Cicero's Tusc. Disput. c. 30, and De Senect. c. 20); but the Stoics and others rejected the doctrine, as derogatory to man's free agency (see Senec. Epist. lxx., and Plut. Fit. vol. iv. p. 85I, ed. Reiske);. and, except under the influence of Christianity, it has never been a generally accepted truth. Milton, therefore, may be justified when he represents Eve in her despondency as addressing Adam:Let us seek death: or, he not found, supply With our own hands his office on ourselves.-P. L. x. 1001. And it is equally in character with the weak worldling Roderigo, to avow as he does in OthelloIt is silliness to live when to live is a torment and then have we a prescription to die, when death is cur physician.-Act i. Sc. 3. IBID. pp. 153-I55. To the passages there quoted, respecting the connection of bravery with virtue, and of cowardice with sin, the sentiments put into the mouth of the Duke of Norfolk in K. Richard II. deserve to be added:A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.-Act i. Sc. i. As gentle and as jocund as to jest Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast.-Ibid. Sc. 3. On the comprehensive meaning of the word ' truth ' both in Shakspeare and the Bible, see above, p. 241 sq. Additional Illustrations. 369 IBID. p. i88. There is one more point to be noticed in connection with the subject treated of in Section 7, and it is one which speaks volumes for the religious tone of our author's mind, viz. that he has put it into the mouth of a boy to expose the moral cowardice of being ashamed to say our prayers:Boy. For Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best (i. e. bravest) men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest he should be thought a coward. K. Henry V. Act iii. Sc. z. IBID. p. i89. Where, in proceeding to speak 'or the Domestic Relations,' I say that Shakspeare had learned, at all events, in his maturer years (comp. p. 4), to pay due regard to the sacredness of the nuptial tie, I might have quoted the expression which he puts into the mouth of Benedick: To be conjoined In the estate of honourable marriage:Much Ado &c. Act v. Sc. 4. an expression borrowed apparently from the words of the Prayer Book, which again are founded on Heb. xiii. 4; and also the words which Portia addresses to her husband, Brutus, where she speaks of That great vow Which did incorporate and make us one. Jul. Cas. Act ii. Sc. i. And with regard to the circumstances of his own marriage, even if we must suppose them to be such as, upon the documentary evidence, first brought to light in I836, they appear to have been (the marriage license being registered as given, November 28, I582, and the first child's baptism on May 26, 1583; see Dyce's Life, pp. 30-33), yet we may fairly conclude that, so far as they B B 370 Appendix. were sinful, he had repented of them afterwards; for otherwise he would not have allowed Prospero to speak as he does in the Tempest, Act iv. Sc. I (referred to above, p. 224); nor would he have made Claudio in Much Ado &c. to disallow as he does any attempt to 'extenuate the before-hand sin,' Act iv. Sc. I.* Although, to borrow his own words, as put into the mouth of Lysander, in Midsummer's Night's Dream, his match with Anne Hathaway was 'misgraffed in respect of years,' Act i. Sc. i, yet it was not, in worldly circumstances, an unsuitable one; the poet being the son of a small tradesman at Stratford, and the object of his choice, a yeoman's daughter, living in the neighbourhood. In Hamlet we read the very words and teaching of Scripture: ' Man and wife is one flesh,' Act iv. Sc. 3; and there is no sufficient reason, certainly no necessity, to doubt-but much reason and occasion to believe-that William Shakspeare and Anne Hathaway lived, 'till death did them part,' in the faithful observance of that holy mystery; whatever some of the ablest of recent Shakspearian critics may have said to the contrary. Mr. Froude admits this conjugal fidelity in regard to Bunyan, who also married very young, upon the latter's own assertion (pp. 7, 65); and the irregularities and temptations of the life of the tinker's son at Bedford (a Shakspeare in his way) could scarcely have been less than those of the life of the glover's or butcher's son at Stratford, or even in London. Till we can interpret the Sonnets with greater certainty than has yet been attained (see below, p. 403, note), it cannot be alleged that evi* See also the words put by our Poet into the mouth of the Guard, Act v. Sc. 2, line 26, in Coriolanus-a play written just when he was leaving London, to retire to Stratford for the remainder of his days. Additional Illustrations. 371 deuce, either external or internal, obliges us to form any other judgment than that which I have expressed, and to which therefore, under such circumstances, we are bound in charity to incline. The remarkable choice and treatment of the two opposite but companion subjects, Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, on the part of the youthful poet, appear to me to weigh on the same side. To the words of Desdemona, quoted in p. I9I, may be added what she had before said to her father: So much duty as my mother showed To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord. Act i. Sc. 3. Compare Gen. ii. 24 and Matth. xix. 5. It might even be supposed that our poet had a glimpse of that still higher condition indicated by our Lord in Matth. xix. 12, and by St. Paul in I Cor. vii. i, 26, when, in Mids. Night's Dream, Theseus (for the same view was not unknown among the heathen, as appears from the two opposite legends of Hippolytus and of Daphne) is made to say to Hermia:Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; TIhrice blessed they that master so their blood, To undergo such maiden pilgrimage But earthlier happy is the rose distilled, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. Act i. Sc. i. IBID. p. 2I3. The lesson, not only of forgiveness, but of returning good for evil, is exhibited in the character of Desdemona more beautifully perhaps than in any other, and certainly the following instances ought not to be omitted. First, she prays for the author of the slander brought against her by Othello. Emilia had suggested E 2 372 Appendix. that it had been 'devised by some villain to get some. office;' she replies:If any such there be, Heaven pardon him!-Act iv. Sc. 2. And then, when she was on the point to die through the hand of the husband who had most cruelly and wrongfully distrusted her fidelity, and Emilia, awestruck at seeing her condition, had exclaimed, ' 0! who hath done this deed?' her last words were:Nobody; I myself: farewell: Commend me to my kind lord: 0! farewell.-Ibid. Thus it was made to appear that her prayer in a former scene had been granted. Emilia had counselled retaliation for the injurious treatment she had received:Let husbands know Their wives have sense like them... Then let them use us well: else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us to. Desd. Good night, good night; Heaven me such uses* send Not to pick badfrom bad, but by bad mend.-Act iv. Sc. 3. i.e. ' Not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil,' both my own evil and that of others, ' with good.' IBID. p. 222, before last paragraph. It is observed by Mrs. Jameson that ' Margaret of Anjou, as exhibited in the 2nd and 3rd Pts. of K. Henry VI., is a dramatic portrait of considerable truth and vigour and consistency; but she is not one of Shakspeare's women.' Upon the supposition that he drew the character, how is this to be accounted for? Partly, I believe, because she was a French woman; but much more because, as he represents her (though without warrant from history, accord* That is,' such habits of action.' The first quarto reads;usage.' Additional Illustrations. 373 ing to Mrs. Jameson, and Mr. Courtenay is inclined to support her, Commentaries, vol. ii. p. 287), she was an adulteress. All 'Shakspeare's women' are pure; of course I do not include Cressida or Cleopatra, any more than I include Mrs. Quickly. And so, while we recognize the justice of the remarks in which Margaret of Anjou is held up to scorn for her 'base, revengeful spirit,' her Catrocious cruelty, the bitterness of her mockery, and her unwomanly malignity, &c.' (Characteristics, p. 371), may we not ask, Did not our poet, in depicting an adulteress-and such an adulteress-a queen faithless to a husband, weak indeed, but ever faithful and devoted-do well to make her ' unwomanly'? See Proverbs vi. I6, xxx. 30. IBID. p. 245. To the passages there quoted in praise of Contentment, I may first add the dispraise of its opposite from 2nd Pt. of K. Henry /I.:For what's more miserable than discontent? Act iii. Sc.,. And then, further, I may go on to notice how the motive for contentment which S. Paul suggests in I Tim. vi. 7, 8-c we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out: and having food and raiment, let us be therewith content'-is caught up by Shakspeare in Measurefor Measure, where the Duke says -as quoted above, p. I48: If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; For like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee. Act iii. Sc. i. To the same section it appertains to speak of the duty of Peaceableness, and of avoiding strife and quarrels, upon which the Bible is so very full and explicit, as in 374 Appendix. Rom. xii. i8, Heb. xii. i4, Phil. ii. 3, James iii. I6, I7. From Shakspeare it may suffice to produce what Fluellen says to the soldier Williams, in K. Henry V.:Hold, there is twelve pence for you, and I pray you to serve Got, and keep out of prawls, and prabbles and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the petter for you. Act iv. Sc. 3. IBID. pp. 264-75. Upon the subject of the attempts made to represent Shakspeare as a Romanist, see an. article in the Edinburgh Review, January I866; which appeared soon after the publication of the first edition of this work, and in which the conclusions I had indicated respecting our Poet's Churchmanship were repeated and confirmed. Of course in the representation of times and characters before the Reformation we expect to see evidence of sentiments and practices which then prevailed, and of these some notice has been taken above; see p. 117 note, and p. I64; and other instances might be found, as in Pt. I, K. Henry VI[., where the Duke of Bedford excaims:Henry the fifth! thy ghost I invocate; Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils! Act i. Sc. i. But that Shakspeare's own religious position and sympathies were entirely on the side of the Church as reformed, cannot, I think, be reasonably doubted. Besides the facts of his life referred to in my Tercentenary Sermon, and the passages from his plays, quoted above, p. 265 sq. and p. 272, the reader may compare the different impression conveyed by the characters given of Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Cranmer, ' the virtuous Cranmer,' as he is called in K. Henry VIII., Act iv. Sc. 1; although it must be confessed that so large a Additional Illustrations. 375 portion of that play being now very generally ascribed to Fletcher, it will not be fair to lay too much stress upon the details of that comparison. And a similar objection may be urged against the remark that no Romanist would have allowed that ' Oldcastle died a martyr,' as we read in the epilogue to Pt. 2, K. Henry IF. Neither would a Romanist have suffered Juliet to propose to Friar Laurence to come to him ' at evening mass,' Rom. and Yul., Act iv. Sc. I. To what I have already observed above, p. 266, in qualification of Schlegel's remarks that our Poet ' always represents a monk's influence as beneficial,' let me add here references to K. John, Act v. Sc. 6, where a monk is spoken of as ' a resolved villain,' who had killed the king by poison; and to All's Well, Act ii. Sc. 2, where the clown finds a peculiar fitness in a nun's lip to a friar's mouth.' That Shakspeare as a boy had learnt the Church Catechism has been remarked above, p. 141; and a further curious indication of the same fact may be derived from the words which he puts into the mouth of Hamlet, in answer to Rosencrantz:Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Hain. And do so still, by these pickers and stealers. Act iii. Sc. 2. That is, by these hands,' which the Catechism had taught him to ' keep from picking and stealing.' Stephano in the Tempest uses the adjuration C by his hand' several times; see Act iii. Sc. 2 bis, and Act iv. Sc. I. There is also a plain reference to the words of the Reformed Marriage Service of the Prayer Book in Much Ado f&c., at the beginning of Act iv. Comp. Palmer's Orig. Liturg. vol. ii. p. 212 sq. 376 Appendix. It has been justly remarked that the fact of Shakspeare's interment in the chancel-the place of honourin the parish church, proves conclusively that, as he had been brought up, so he remained to the last, a member of the Reformed Church of England. IBID. p. 225. On the subject of temperance, I gladly refer to Miss O'Brien's article in the WZestminster Review, October I876, on ' Shakspeare's Young Men,' as quoted in Mr. Furnivall's Introduction to the Leopold Shakspeare, p. cxiii. ' One point,' she writes, 'should not be overlooked in connection with these young men. With all their sociability, their friendship and hospitality, it is remarkable how little allusion there is to anything of a rollicking, drinking style of conviviality.' IBID. p. 275. My attention was drawn by a friendly correspondent to the statement there made respecting interment, as inconsistent with the common usage of laying the head towards the west; but upon the whole I have thought it better to allow the passage still to remain as it before stood; only altering 'head' into ' face' in line 15, and suggesting in a note that this may have been what Shakspeare intended. I confess, I am unable to offer any other explanation of Guiderius' words; and so am content to leave what I wrote, in the hope that light may be thrown upon them from some other quarte r. IBID. p. 276, sect. 15. Although I have ventured to speak of Shakspeare, by anticipation, as 'a Conservative and a Royalist,' as in the preceding section I had spoken of him as 'a Churchman,' I readily subscribe to the justice of Professor E. Dowden's remark that we must not look to find our several creeds, political or religious, in the poetry of Shakspeare. See Shakspeare, his Mind and Art, pp. 165, 322. As far as there is truth Additional Illustrations. 377 more or less in every party and sect, he is the honest representative of them all. He had an Englishman's love of fair play, and a Christian's charity and fellow feeling which rendered him hostile only to injustice and inhumanity.' See above, p. 268 note. CHAP. III. p. 327, sect. 12. Among the instances of less elaborate comparison,' for which Shakspeare would seem to have been indebted more or less to the Bible, produced pp. 328-32, the following also may find a place:In K. Richard II. the Earl of Salisbury says, Act ii. Sc. 4:Ah! Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind I see thy glory like a shooting star Fall to the base earth fiom the firmament. Which may well remind us of our Lord's words in Luke x. 18: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. IBID. pp. 330-332, sect. 13. A commentator on Job xxx. 26, I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls,' has suggested that the former comparison was in Shakspeare's mind, when he put into the mouth of Coriolanus: I go alone, Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen Makes feared, and talked of more than seen. Act iv. Sc. i. IBID. pp. 332-334, sect. I4. To the examples of 'metaphorical images' there given, as borrowed by Shakspeare from the Bible, the following rry be added. In the Bible, the Lord is described by -he Psalmist as his ' fortress,' cxliv. I. So in Pt. I, ]' Henry VI. we read, 'God is our fortress.' Act ii. Sc. I. Again, we read in Prov. xviii. 10, ' The name of the 378 Appendix. Lord is a strong tower;' and in K. Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3, 'The king's name is a tower of strength.' In the Bible, God is said to use 'a vial' from whence to discharge His wrath, as in Rev. xv. 7. In Winter's Tale, Act v. Sc. 3, we find the same metaphor used in a good sense. See above, p. 204. In the Bible, woman is 'the weaker vessel,' I Pet. iii. 7. So in As rou like it we read: 'I must comfort the weaker vessel.' Act ii. Sc. 4. See also Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. I, and JWinter's Tale, Act iii. Sc. 3~. In the Bible we read: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii. 5. So-in K. Henry V.:We therefore have great cause of thankfulness And shallforget the office of our hand Sooner than quittance of desert and merit. Act ii. Sc. z. In the Bible to 'taste' is used metaphorically; as in Ps. xxxiv. 8. ' O taste and see that the Lord is good.' So again in K. Henry V. we read:And not a man of them that we can take, Shall taste our mercy. Act iv. Sc. 7. IBID. p. 340, sect. I6. To the Scriptural Proverbs there quoted may be added from 2nd Pt. K. Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. I. ' Medice, te ipsum' (qu. insert i cura'),. which is from the Vulgate of Luke iv. 23, ' Physician, heal thyself.' IBID. p. 342. The turn of expression in HamletO shame! where is thy blush? Act iii. Sc. 4 -is probably tO be traced to the sublime apostrophe of S. Paul, in I COr xv. 55, ' O death! where is thy sting?' CONCLUSION p. 35 2. In strict impartiality and regard for truth, I ought not to adopt Mrs. Jameson's remark Additional Illustrations. 379 there quoted without pbinting out one apparent exception to the last clause of it, in 2nd Pt. K. Henry IV. Act iv. Sc. 2 (see above, p. 262). Johnson, not without reason, has expressed his indignation that such gross violation of faith in the conduct of Prince John, though based on historical fact, should have been allowed to pass without some mark of disapproval and censure on the Poet's part. See also the observation made above, in reference to clandestine marriage, p. 192. IBID. p. 353. I am glad to be able to produce here the final judgment of Gervinus in corroboration of the conclusions I have myself formed, and endeavoured to illustrate in this volume, upon the religious element in Shakspeare's plays; and the testimony is the more valuable because he had previously committed himself to a somewhat different view. A MS. note found among his papers after his death tells us that it was his intention to express his conviction ' that Shakespeare's moral philosophy is CHRISTIANITY, PURIFIED FROM EVERYTHING EXAGGERATED OR EQUIVOCAL;' that is-as I venture to understand the words, and as the evidence of the facts of the case at once allows and requires us to interpret them-Christianity alike Scriptural, Catholic, and Reformed. In regard to the last epithet, I think we may see, among other proofs, our poet's conviction of the necessity of the Reformation expressed in Coriolanus:What custom wills, in all things should we do't, The dust on antique time would lie unswept, And mountainous error be too highly heaped For TRUTH to overpeer. Act ii, Sc. 3. Commentaries, 1877, p. 888 note. See also Ibid. p. 890. I I I I I ~ MAN'S EXCELLENCY A CAUSE OF PRAISE AND THANKFULNESS TO GOD. A SERMON PREACHED AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVONI ON OCCASION OF THETERCENTENARY FESTIVAL HELD IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BIRTH OF SHAKSPEARE, APRIL 1864. . I I I I A TERCENTENARY SERMON.* All Thy works praise Thee, 0 Lord; and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee.-PSALM cxlv. io.t WHEN the Psalmist tells us, as in this text, that all the works of God praise their Creator, he means that by their beauty and excellency they testify to His skill and power; but he also means that, to speak generally, they severally obey the laws which He has imposed upon them; and such obedience, it may be said, is the higher praise. Thus the heavenly bodies praise God not only by the lustre with which they shine, but still more by the order which they keep among themselves-by the steadfastness with which those that are fixed occupy their allotted stations, and by the regularity with which those that move fulfil each of them its appointed course. The waters of the sea praise God, not only by the purity of the element of which they are composed, but still more by the * Preached at the afternoon service on Sunday, April z4, I864. It was a pleasing incident for the author to be associated on that occasion with an old schoolfellow, and classfellow at Harrow, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Trench, who preached in the morning. t This is the Prayer-Book version. In our Bible translation, as representing the Hebrew original more closely, the verbs are in the future tense, signifying both duty and custom-' shall praise,' ' shall bless.' In the Septuagint and in the Vulgate they are in the imperative mood. 384 Appendix. obedient ebbing and flowing of their tide, and by the billows which they roll, or the calm which they put on,, according to His * word. The trees of the wood and the flowers of the field have their forms, their colours, their fruit, their fragrance, by which they praise their Maker; but they praise Him still more by dutifully relinquishing or reassuming these at the times and the seasons which He ordains. But all such praise, we know, is defective in one grand respect. It represents a passive reflexion of the Creator's will, not the active independent working of the creature's heart. Consequently, it can have no moral worth. Man alone, the lord of creation, can perfect his Creator's praise, because he alone can give or withhold it; he alone has power to obey, or disobey, at his own will. And yet not absolutely so. Praise God we must, whether we will or no, to some extent. 'Fearfully and wonderfully t made' in the mechanism of our bodies, and still more in the constitution and faculties of our minds-both of which, in the unconsciousness with which they perform many of their functions, partake of the nature of irrational things-we cannot do otherwise than show forth the praises of Him who has so marvellously made and so beneficently endowed us. But the perfection of our praise lies in the obedience of the reason and of the will. If this be withheld, all is marred. Our praise, which ought to rise highest in creation-next to that of the angelic hostsfalls below the praise, not only of the unreasoning brutes, but of the senseless trees, of the winds and waves; falls below the praise, I will not say of the stars of heaven, but of the stocks and stones of the earth. * See Psalm exc~visi. S. 1- Se,- Psalm cxxxix. 13 - Tercentenary Sermon. 385 But there is a second proposition in this text, which further states that ' all the saints,' or true servants of God, ' give thanks unto Him; that is, they give Him thanks for all this order and excellency of creation, to which I have referred. We cannot suppose that there is any consciousness of its own excellency, of its own obedience, or any appreciation of the excellency and obedience in others, on the part of the heavenly bodies, or of the productions of tlre earth; and therefore a poet, in the true spirit of a poet, might be allowed to breathe the wish, Would that the little flowers that grow, could live Conscious of half the pleasure that they give! * But in man, in ourselves, my brethren, we know there exists the faculty of such appreciation, of such a consciousness. We have the power of admiring and rejoicing over the excellency and the order of all God's works. We know, moreover, that if not made for us and for our use alone, yet they are formed, and commanded to minister, for our gratification; no less than we ourselves have been created for our own happiness. But our admiration and our joy are not to terminate in the works themselves. This would be idolatry. No; they are to look through the works in order that they may rest upon Him who made, upon Him who gave them. As I am a work of God, and as I am a man, I cannot do otherwise than praise my Maker by the body and by the mind which He has given me. As I am a Christian man, living in the light of revealed truth, it is my duty to bless Him, not only for this body and this mind which I possess, but for all that He has caused to minister to my * See Memoirs of W~ordsworth, vol. ii. p. 4.5I. C C 386 Appendix. enjoyment; for the creation in the midst of which He has placed me; for the excellency and the beauty, the order and the harmony, of all that I behold; and, above all, I am bound to bless Him for my fellow-men, in proportion as they prompt and assist me to magnify my Creator, by the contemplation of their excellencies, and by the use they make of the gifts which He has bestowed upon them. It will be obvious to you, my brethren, that my design in the remarks now offered has been to bring this text to bear upon an event which is felt to be of national, nay, of world-wide importance, and in which every one who hears me cannot but take an especial interest. We are wont to speak of the works of Shakspeare S but never, never let us forget that the author of those works was himself a work of God. And if as men we naturally feel, and desire to express, a greater interest in the excellency of a fellow-man than in that of any other of God's works, however fair and beautiful, however majestic, or however huge and stupendous; yet, in order to render such interest not only innocent and rational, but in the highest degree pleasurable and beneficial to ourselves, we shall seek to elevate it to the point of view which I have already endeavoured to mark out: in honouring our great poet, we shall be led to magnify God in him, as a truly divine and matchless work; and not only so, but to bless God for him, as an inestimably precious and most glorious gift. It may be desirable, however, before I proceed further, to say a few words in anticipation of a scruple which may occur to some in regard to the professed character and purpose of this discourse. I feel then, my brethren, and you, I am sure, will feel Tercentenary Sermon. 387 with me, that the Church is no proper place for panegyric, save in honour of Him who is above all praise. Nor is there,, perhaps, in the whole Bible, one single word which would lead us to glorify and extol intellectual superiority merely as such. And yet there is that in the inspired volume which teaches us to recognise all pre-eminence and magistracy over others as an especial ordinance and gift of God; and again, there is that which teaches us that all conquest over temptation, and particularly over the temptation of wealth, in the cause of God, is a subject not only fit and desirable for man to contemplate at all times and in every place, but pleasing also to the holy angels, and to God Himself. But what magistracy, what sovereignty among men is so powerful in its effects, for good or for evil, as the sovereignty of mind? What conqueror over the temptations of wealth is so worthy of our contemplation as he who, possessing the treasures of unrivalled genius, has used them, not to serve his own pride, or vanity, or aggrandisement, but to promote the cause of truth and godliness? The Church of Christ has ever considered it a part of true piety to give thanks for kings and governors; and rich men have received from the gratitude of posterity a religious commemoration of the benefits which their charity has bestowed. It needs, therefore, no apology if something be said even in this sacred place respecting one whom God raised up three centuries ago from among the inhabitants of the neighbouring town, to be at once a mighty prince over the thoughts of men, through the pre-eminence of his intellectual powers; and through the richness of his genius a munificent benefactor, for ages upon ages, not to his own country and nation only, but to the world at C C 388 Appendix. And as this place, though consecrated to God's glory,. is not unsuitable, so neither is the time, even of this holy day, at all improper for such a commemoration. For what is it that every Christian Sabbath is designed most especially to bring home to our thoughts and meditations? It is the resting of the Creator after the making of all His works, man included; but it is also the rising of Christ out of the grave, and His sending down the Holy Spirit upon His Church, both as on this day;-in other words, it is not only the creation, but the redemption and the sanctification of man. And what would the first, our creation, have availed us unless it had been followed by these other two? What satisfaction could we have had in thinking of ourselves or of our fellow-men? what real or lasting pleasure could we have enjoyed in contemplating the very best and noblest of mankind, unless it had been permitted us to regard him, not only as a work of God, but as a work, not created for nothingness, or for woe, but redeemed and sanctified for an immortality of happiness through Jesus Christ? Entering then upon the subject before us with no mistrust, I shall, in the first place, be fully justified, I believe, in assuming that this celebration would not have taken place-would not certainly have been promoted so generally, or conducted on so grand a scale-unless it had been commonly felt that the works of Shakspeare are plainly on the right side; the side of what is true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report-in a word, on the side of virtue and of true religion. Nor can it be said, in this case at least, that the popular voice has erred. It is in accordance with the voice of one whose testimony upon such a point will be accepted as of the highest and most unquestionable Tercentenary Sermon. 389 authority; I allude to the revered author of the Christian rear.* In the Lectures which he delivered as Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, and which were published twenty years ago, while specifying the notes or characteristics by which poets of the first rank are to be discerned, the distinguishing mark which he requires, first of all, is CONSISTENCY. The first-class Poet, he remarks, is throughout consistent, and in harmony with himself. And where does the critic look for his examples in proof of this proposition? He brings forward two poets, who flourished in the same, that is our own, country, and at the same time. First, he produces Spenser, in whom he sees everywhere sustained the same very form and look of true Nobility; and next he produces Shakspeare. We need not wonder that the former should have been chosen; but when we consider the disadvantage under which a dramatic poet lies in regard to a point like this, we may feel well assured that no such example would have been appealed to except from the conviction that it was singularly a just one. And this consistency of character which, as a first and most decisive test, assigns our poet to the highest rank, in what is it to be found? It is to be found in the universal impression which his works convey. And for this the Lecturer confidently appeals to the memory of his hearers. 'Recollect,' says he, c I beseech you, how you each felt when you read those plays for the first time. Do you not remember that all along, as the drama pro* And who must also be mentioned as the Editor of the Works of Hooker, that great contemporary of Shakspeare, whose name shines out among our theologians with a kindred, and I had almost said not inferior, light to that of Shakspeare among our poets, and that of Lord Bacon among our philosophers. See below, p. 395. 390 Appendix. ceeded, you were led to take the part of whatever good and worthy characters it contained; and more especially, when you reached the end and closed the book, you felt that your inmost heart had received a spur, which was calculated to urge you on to virtue; and to virtue, not merely such as is apt, without much reality, to warm and excite the feelings of the young, but such as consists in the actual practice of a stricter, more pure, more upright, more industrious, more religious life? And as for the passages of a coarser sort, here and there to be met with in those plays, any one may perceive that they are to be attributed, in part, not to the author but to the age in which he lived; and partly they were introduced as slaves in a state of intoxication were introduced into the presence of the Spartan youth-to serve as warnings and create disgust. Wte need not hesitate, therefore, to conclude ilium Virtuti ex animo favisse-that he favoured virtue from his very soul; more especially when we consider how widely different is the case with most of his contemporaries, who devoted themselves, as he did, to writing for the stage.' * *' Memoria repetatis, oro, quae cuique vestrum fuerit animi sententia, fabulas istas prima vice perlegenti. Nonne, cum totius Poematis decursu, proborum vos ac piorum, si qui erant, partes suscipere meministis; tur precipue cim ventum erat ad plaudite quasi stimulos Virtutis in animo relictos sentire? neque ejus modo Virtutis, quae specie quadam et fervore juvenum corda commovere valeat, verum etiam severioris hujus, castimonia, fidei, industriae, pietatis? Ut facile quis intelligere possit qua aliquando subturpicula intexuntur, partim sacculi esse, non Scriptoris; partim ut ebrios Laconicis pueris, tanquam odiosa ac vitanda proponi. Ergo illum ex animo Virtutifavisse non est cur dubitemus: cum praesertim plerique eorum, qui tunc scenicis dabant operam, in alia omnia abire consueverint.'-Pralectiones Academic&e Oxonii habita a Joanne Keble, A.M., Oxon. 1844, vol. i. p. 58 sq. Tercentenary Sermon. 391 This, my brethren, is lofty commendation; and I should not have rehearsed it here unless I had been persuaded that it is just. Nor do I scruple to consent to the still higher praise which the same unexceptionable * judge has bestowed in another part of his work upon the same two poets whom I just now named; and which brings the mention of them still more closely within the legitimate range of a discourse, delivered upon this holy day, and in this sacred place. ' Not only,' he says, ' did they measure everything by a certain innate sense of what is virtuous and becoming; not only did they teach to hate all profaneness, but they trained and exercised men's minds to virtue and religion, inasmuch as each of them is wont to refer all things which the eye beholds to the heavenly and the true, whether as occurring in the actions of men and upon the stage of life, or as seen in the glorious spectacle everywhere presented in the heavens and the earth; precisely as does the Church Catholic, only, as it is her province to do, in a manner mystical and divine. And hence it is that the poetry we speak of led the way, as I believe, to sounder views even upon sacred things, and to juster sentiments concerning God himself.' t * ' Where could I find a more trustworthy judge? ' asks the Poet Wordsworth (Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 4-o), speaking of Mr. Keble. t ' Illi rem quamque metiebantur innato quodam honesti et decori sensu.... Neque vero illud solum edocuerant nobilia carmina, odisse profanos, sed multo magis ad pietatem et religionem exercuerant animos; siquidem omnia quae oculis cernuntur referre solet uterque scriptor ad ccelestia et vera, sive ea versentur in scena et actione hominum, sive in pulcherrimo cceli ac terrarum aspectu: quod idem egit semper Ecclesia Catholica, suo tamen more, mystico quodam et excelso. Proinde ex hac quoque parte praeiisse 392 Appendix. But there is another consciousness, no less generally felt, which has tended to give to this celebration its comprehensive character. I mean the consciousness of our poet's nationality. Like Homer to the Greeks, he is the poet of us Englishmen.* And as we look for no better, so we desire no other. We feel-even foreigners t have felt-that the verse of Shakspeare, more than that of any other of our poets, flowed From the clear spring of a true English heart. And while he is pre-eminently our poet is other respects, which I forbear to mention, lest I should seem to vaunt in flattery to our national pride, he is so most especially in that we are a domestic nation. In this respect he may remind us of those well-known lines, in which one of the most melodious of our British birds, the common skylark, is addressed:Type of the wise who soar, but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home! If ever there was a man to whom the description in this latter verse might justly be applied, it is William Shakspeare.t How 'true' he was to heaven,' under cirdixerim saniori de Deo sententiae segetem illam egregiorum carminum.'-Memoirs, ii. 813. ' 'Anglorum Kar' Coox7vy vates jure nominatus.'-Ibid. vol. i. p. 27J. t For instance, Augustus W. Schlegel. See his Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. i. p. Io2. t He himself has compared himself to the skylark in his z9th sonnet:'Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee-and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate.' Tercentenary Sermon. 393 cumstances in which his fidelity must have been tried as by fire, I have already shown. Nor was he less ' true to home.' When he left this place, in which he had been born; when he went up to the great city, to pour upon the world A flood of harmony, such as it has never heard either before or since; still he returned periodically, year by year,* to this self-same spot; still, when the effort had been made, which his own support and the support of his family rendered necessary, time after time, he dropped, as it were, again into this his nest, to refresh himself for renewed exertionsThose quivering wings composed, that music still! And when (thanks to the good providence of God, which blessed his faithfulness) the necessity for those exertions ceased, he had no thought, it would appear, or desire of happiness, apart from or beyond these same associations: all his ambition was still to retire into the same bosom of his family; to wander still in these same fields; to worship still in this same church; and eventually to be gathered to his own, where his own might follow him in the same resting-place, lying side by side within the precincts of these hallowed walls. And now, my brethren, I think it may be said we see the first rude outline of a character which, in paying honour to the man, we shall do well to contemplate. For it is not (let me repeat), it is not merely as a poet, or even as a poet who wrote, in a high and genuine sense * 'He was wont to go to his native country once a yeare.'Aubrey MSS. 394 Appendix. of the word, religiously, but as a man, a Christian man, that we, as a congregation of Christians, should be content to honour Shakspeare. Let us see, then, what he was as such. Undazzled by the world, and coveting nothing which the world can give, we find him indifferent to the fate even of the produce of his own immortal mind,* and throwing his pearls, with t child-like simplicity, into the lap of time, as if unconscious of their amazing worth. A man of a less simple or less sober temper, after he had attained to prosperity and to fame, would never have chosen, when not yet fifty years old, to settle down for the remainder of his days, in rural quietude, and in the place which had known him, not only in obscurity, but in poverty and distress. But seeking, as he did, to shun rather than to court distinction, the fact that 'a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house,': tended rather to recommend this choice to him the more;-happy, if only he might be allowed to study nature, and to cultivate his own moral being, in order that he might be ' ripe,' ~ in God's good time-which proved to be a very early time -might be ripe,' I say, for being gathered into a far more joyful and more glorious abode. I * See below, p. 4o3, note. t See below, p. 400, note. t Matt. xiii. 57. ~ See above, p. 292. He died in his 53rd year. 1I Dr. Drake has well remarked: —' Who shall blame what, from our knowledge of the man, we may justly conceive to have been his predominating motive [for retirement], the hope that in the bosom of rural peace, aloof from the dissipations and seductions of the stage, he might the better prepare for that event which awaits us all, and vwhich talents such as his 'were can only, from the magnitude of the trust, render more awfully responsible? '-Shakspeare and his Times, vol. ii. p. 603. Tercentenary Sermon. 395 But there is a further point of view, which combines in one the poet and the man, and which, if we look with a wise and patriotic interest upon the destinies of our country and of the human race, cannot fail to raise him still higher in our esteem. Born within four years after Francis Bacon, that gigantic intellect, and worthy to be so reckoned in an age * of giants (such was the bounty of God towards our land and people in the first halfcentury after the Reformation!), it was, shall I say, the vocation of William Shakspeare to live and to write as if protesting against the undue claims of that physical philosophy which received a new life from the genius of Bacon, and against the evils to which an excessive cultivation of it will be apt to lead. It is impossible to calculate how much we owe to our Poet on this account. We are pre-eminently a practical, and are becoming more and more a mechanical nation; and in proportion as we become so, the works of Shakspeare will be to us more and more invaluable. Not that there is to be found in his pages any unworthy jealousy of the powers which physical studies are calculated to evoke, or of the triumphs which, as time rolled on, they might be expected to achieve. Far otherwise. Not that he has betrayed any faithless fear of the progress of science, or of the activity of the human intellect to whatever subjects it might be applied. No; to him Ignorance is the curse of God; Knowledge, the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.t But what is there in those pages? There is the very * See Froude's Short Studies, vol. i. p. 445. t K. Henry VI., znd Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. 396 Appendix. antidote we need to guard and to strengthen our moral system against the prevailing epidemic-the epidemic which has arisen out of devotion to mechanical pursuits, and to the study of material phenomena, in relation to the luxuries and conveniences of life. On the one hand, there is everything to refine, to elevate, to enlarge; on the other hand, there is nothing to make us impatient of acquiescence in imperfect knowledge, which is a necessary condition of our existence here. In a word, Shakspeare, more than any other writer in our native tongue, gives to Englishmen, who are debarred, as he himself had been, from the higher classical education, what such an education gives still more eminently to those who have enjoyed it, and turned it to its full account. Debarred, I say, he himself had been from direct access to the great intellectual treasuries of Greece and Rome. And yet, how much of the highest and purest sentiment, how many of the noblest thoughts and images, for which the best authors of antiquity are distinguished, lie scattered also over the pages of his works; * just as in the vegetable world, specimens of the same plants have been found.growing in widely distant regions of the globe, between which no certain channel of communication has been -known to exist! It has been made a frequent subject of complaint that so little has come down to us respecting our Poet's life. * Compare the remark of Gibbon, cxxvii. note 23. After quoting a beautiful passage of S. Gregory Nazianzen from the poem on his own life, and comparing it with the similar complaint of Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Sc. 2, he adds: ' Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory; he was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language oJ nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain.' Tercentenary Sermon. 397 For my own part, however, I am inclined to doubt whether it would be desirable for us to be more fully informed concerning it than we actually are.* His personal existence can never, by the utmost hardihood of critical scepticism, be-as that of Homer has beendoubted of, and explained away. We know the day of his baptism, and the day of his death.t We know the names of his parents, of his wife, of his children. We know the circumstances from which we feel justified in pronouncing him to have been a man strong in domestic, strong in local attachments. We are sure that he ate, drank, and slept like other men. We are no less sure that he prayed, that he read his Bible, that he came to church. We know that he lost (for this world) his only son, when that son was but a boy in his twelfth year; and we can imagine what a sore affliction this loss must have been to a parent of such affection, such sensibility, such tenderness; we can imagine how, like David, while the child was yet alive, he fasted and prayed, if peradventure he might be spared; and how, like David too, when the child was gone, he suffered not the chastisement to bereave him of his natural cheerfulness, through the excellency of his faith. In the play X which he wrote in that same year, as some have supposed, or, as others, two years later, who can doubt that he was thinking of his own lost son, when the Lady Constance is made to utter that affecting speech?* Charles Dickens, in his Letters recently published (1879), expresses very strongly the same sentiment. t The precise day of his birth is uncertain. See Mr. Dyce's Life of Shakspeare. p. 24 sq. K K. John, written, according to Malone, in I596, or, according to Chalmers, in i598. Comp. above, p. 298, note. See Act iii. Sc. 4. 398 Appendix. Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me; Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts. Or again, who will not feel that he gave expression to his own belief, when the same Lady Constance addresses the Pope's Legate?Father Cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: If that be true, I shall see my boy again. Moreover, we know his ' unwearied diligence' * and the blessing which attended it. We know how he has written. What truth has he not taught? What duty has he not enforced? What relation of life, and of living things, rational or irrational, has he not illustrated? How has he looked through nature, and above all into the heart of man, with the intuitive knowledge with which the skilful artisan inspects the mechanism of the watch which he himself has made! And knowing these things, we know enough to teach us how little true greatness is dependent upon external circumstances. We know enough to shame us, if any of us should complain of the difficulties and disadvantages in which God has placed him. The theatre itself, which received those masterpieces of Shakspeare's genius, what was it but a hovel, all rude, and shapeless, and unadorned? The father of Shakspeare was so little able to instruct his son, that he could not so much as write his own name; t so little able to advance his son that, for a time, he could * Mr Dyce's Life, p. 52. t This statement, however, has been questioned. See Charles Knight's Life of Shakspeare. TercezntenaOy Sermon. 399 not even appear in this church on the Lord's Day, from liability to arrest for debt. Yet Shakspeare lived to make the stage worthy of the utmost contrivance and embellishment of art. Shakspeare lived to relieve his father from distress in his old age. Shakspeare lived to become a teacher of the world, so long as time shall last. And, what deserves to be commemorated more especially in this place, Shakspeare lived to receive, as a benefactor, the blessings of the poor, not forgetting them, we may be sure, while he lived, inasmuch as he remembered them when he died.* But there is still one circumstance in our Poet's life which has not yet been noticed, and which we discover from documentary evidence that admits of no question. Twelve years after it had pleased God to take from him his only son, he became godfather to the new-born son of another,t a relationship which he also remembers, and acknowledges by a gift, in his last will. This is a fact which, in the eye of a minister of the Church, cannot but possess peculiar interest. Others, when they visit our Poet's birthplace, will delight themselves by the fancied vision of his appearance as he wandered at will among these pleasant fields; as he looked, and moralised, upon that flowing stream; as, at this season of the year, he would watch the budding foliage, and welcome the returning flowers; as he stood basking himself in the noontide sun, or lay reposing in the evening shade. Let it be permitted to the preacher of the Gospel to imagine him as he knelt by that sacred font; to hear him as he * See his last will. t William Walker, baptised at Stratford, Oct. i6, 608o, and doubtless named after the Poet. See Love's Labour's lost: Every godfather can give a name.-Act i. Sc. i. But ungodly persons are not likely to be asked to stand as sponsors. 400 Appendix. listened and responded to the Articles of the Christian Faith in the name of that little child-' All this I steadfastly believe.' Nor can we doubt, my brethren, for a moment, but that he knew and perceived in his inmost soul what those things meant. Rather we must suppose that the author of Othello, of Hamlet, of Macbeth, when he heard and accepted that venerable formulary and deposit of saving truth, fathomed somewhat of its exceeding depth, beyond what it is permitted to us to reachand all the more, because, giant as he was in intellectual strength, he himself had the heart and simplicity of a child.* Yes; and he felt, in relation to the time, the place, and circumstances of that solemn ministration, what a brother poet has since expressed: Here, should vain thoughts outspread their wings, and fly To meet the coming hours of festal mirth, The tombs-which hear and answer that brief cry, The infant's notice of his second birthRecall the wandering soul to sympathy Writh what man hopes from heaven, yet fears from earth. He felt in relation to the responsibilities which he had taken upon himselfShame, if the consecrated vow be found An idle form, the word an empty sound! And now, ere I conclude this discourse, let me invite you to pass on for a moment from the font into the sanctuary, to the condition of which, in an architectural point of view, your attention has been already called. If the great Roman orator, when he visited Syracuse, felt * See Matth. xviii. 4. ' As if unconscious of his superiority, he was as open and unassuming as a child.'-Schlegel's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 138. Tercentenary Sermon. 4o01 and expressed an especial interest in the spot where the tomb of Archimedes * was to be found; if he caused it to be rescued from neglect, and the ground where it stood to be opened out and cleared from the unseemly upgrowth of weeds and briars which at once hid and disfigured it; surely it may be hoped that the numerous and distinguished company, not only of our fellow-countrymen but of foreigners, who are visiting Stratford on this occasion, will not show less concern for the consecrated edifice which contains the monument of Shakspeare; will desire to render it still more worthy than it is both of him and of the House of God. As pilgrims to this shrine of Christian genius, they will wish, I am sure, to make some thank-offering-and what fitter offering could they make than that which is requested at their hands?-to make, I say, some thank-offering ' to the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good gift, and every perfect gift.'t They will wish to testify that as 'saints' and servants of God, they do indeed 'bless' and 'give * See Cicero, Tusc. Disp. lib. v. c. 23. The extravagant praise which Silius Italicus (Punic. lib. xiv. 341 sqq.) gives to Archimedes might be applied far more justly to Shakspeare:Vir fuit Isthmiacis decus iminortale colonis, Ingenio facile ante omnes telluris alumnos, Nudus opum, sed cui cealum terraeque pater ent. And so, too, might the similar, but far more elegant compliment, which Lucretius (iii. xo56 sq.) had before paid to Epicurus:Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omnes Restrinxit, stelias cxortus uti aerius Sol. t See the Epistle for the day, Fourth Sunday after Easter, from S. James i. 17. The original rendered literally would be: Everj giving that is good, and every perfect gift i the former clause having reference perhaps to the motive of the giver, the latter to the thing given. D D 402 Appendix. thanks' to Him for the giving to us and to mankind the departed brother whom we now commemorate, because his works do indeed ' praise God,' by their intellectual excellency, and by their moral worth: and because, being what they are, they form a gift of inestimable value to ourselves. It is true he is to all men the poet of humanity, master of our nature in its weakness and in its strength; and, as such, to be honoured and admired of all; but he is moreover, as I have said, to us Englishmen the national, the domestic Poet, whom we love as we love our own homes. Above all, he is one of whom, judged of in the character up to which he grew, the Church of Christ has no need to be ashamed;-because in him, as a poet, Poetry has fulfilled every purpose for which in the mercy of God she was given to our fallen race as, next to Revelation, His most precious boon; and because in him as a man, the Gospel has exemplified that truest element of the Christian character, of which it is written-and fulfilled as on this day-' Blessed are the meek,* for they shall inherit the earth.' And, there* Our poet is well known as the ' honest Shakspeare.' See above, p. 3. But he is also known as the 'gentle Shakspeare.' See Spenser, quoted in Dowden's Primer, p. 23; and Prefatory Address to the first folio, supposed to have been written by Ben Jonson:-' As he was a happy imitator of nature, was a most gentle expresser of it; his mind and hand went together.' My honoured relative, the late Poet-Laureate, has remarked, ' I cannot account for Shakspeare's low estimate of his own writings'-compare above, p. 394-' except from the sublimity, the superhumanity of his genius' (see Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 470). But may it not be accounted for from his characteristic meekness, which the same poet himself has elsewhere described, as The cherished bent Of all the truly great, and all the innocent'? Tercentenary Sermon. 403 fore, though this tercentenary commemoration points confessedly to the year of his birth, yet it was the day * of his death which we celebrated yesterday; as the Church has ever been wont to celebrate not the birthday, but the death-day-as being the truer and more glorious nativity-of her saints and confessors. But, my brethren, if, not having seen, we honour and we love our departed brother for his works' sake, how greatly-how infinitely-more ought we to love and to bless HIM Who made our brother what he was, and gave him to us; not to become (as human genius, alas! has sometimes proved) an instrument of 'desolation, but of culture, of refreshment, of fruitfulness; not to resemble the full but faithless reservoir, which, when it has burst its barriers, carries death and ruin in its course;t but the varying, yet ever-faithful Nile, which, while it is the grandest of all rivers, and while it is subject no less than the feeblest rivulet to the law which regulates its boundless floods, is at the same time the most He himself leads us to suggest this explanation where he writes, in Much Ado &c.:' It is the witness still of excellency To put a strange face on his own perfection.'-Act ii. Sc. 3. At the same time it is to be remembered that Shakspeare, in his sonnets, frequently expresses himself as fully conscious that what he wrote would be read as long as time shall last. See Sonn. is, 19, 63, 81, 101, 107. On the perplexing evidence of the sonnets, as bearing upon his moral character, see Dr. Drake's Shakspeare arna his Times, vol. ii. p. 72 sq., and compare Mr. C. Knight's Studies oJ Shakspeare, p. 460 and p. 484 sq. * See above, p. 397 note. t An accident of that kind, causing the moAt ruinous and melancholy results, had then recently occurred in the North of England. DD D 404 Appendix. beneficent in its influence, and the sweetest in its taste. And as in the surface of that majestic stream the traveller sees a true reflection of the heavens which are above his head, so in the poetry of Shakspeare the reader may behold no uncertain image of the Word of God; may behold shining in its depths the starlike truths of the Bible; may behold and may adore the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, overclouded, we must confess, from time to time, with the mists of earth, but still shedding around His divine rays, and lighting up all with faith and hope, with love and joy. GENERAL INDEX. A prefixed to Nouns, &c., 25 Abbott's Shaksp. Grammar, 361 Abjects, 29 Abraham's bosom, 297 Absalom, 79 Adam, 55 Ado = trouble, tumult, 30 Adultery, 221 Adverbs used as Adjectives, 21 Adversity, uses of, 243, 257 Advice for life, 133 Against, preposition of time, 23 Agone=ago, 361 Alford, Dean, I6 note Allow =approve of, 30 Alms, 13 Amaze = alarm, 30 Ambition, 120 Amen, 272 And, or an, redundant before 'if,' 26 Andrewes, Bishop, I90, 263 note, 287 Angels, holy, I 17,, the fallen, 120 Animals, kindness to, 220,, similitudes from, 330 Apologue of Menenius Agrippa, 340 Article, definite, o1,, indefinite, 12 Atone, atonement, 30 At unawares, 26 Avoid = escape, 361 Away with, 362 Bacon, Lord, 25, 389 nwoe, 395 ]Baptism, 274 laynes, Professor, 360 Because = in order that, 25 Bestow =lay up, 31 Bewray = discover, 31 Blackstone, Judge, I I Book of Life, 3og Boswell, Mr., 3 note, 51 Bowdler, Mr., 15, 51, 52, 59, 64, 74, 85, 91, 93, I14, 156, 230, 240, 261, 270, 275, 279, 289, 297, 307, 331 Brave, bravery, 3I Bruit = report, 32 Bull, Bp., III, I20 Burghley, Lord, 267 noti Burial, 275 By-and-by, 27 Cain and Abel, 58 Calvinism, 142 Campbell, quoted, 358, sq. Celibacy, 37I Carriage = thing carried, 32 Cast-away, 33 Chalmers, Dr., 358 Charity, 212 Charles II., King, 226 sq. Chastisement, Divine, II6 Choice, adj. and subst., 33 CHRIST JESUS, 130 Christmas, 274 Cicero, quoted, 129, 172, 228, 299, 401 Claudian quoted, 3I1 Clergy, 261 Coleridge quoted, 352 note Confession to God, 162 Conscience, I55 Contentment, 245 Converse, conversation, 33 406 General Index. Coronation Service, 280 Corruption of human nature, 136 Courtenay, Mr. P., 373 Covetousness, 23I Cowardice, a result of sin, 154 Cunning, sulst. and adj., 34 Daniel, 87 Day-spring, 34 Death, 267, 287 Death-bed scenes, 226, 294, sq. Death, the, 10, 360 Deborah, 73 Degrees of society, 277 Deluge, 6I Devil quoting Scripture, 66 Dictum quasi factum, 341 Divorce, 223 Double comparatives, 19,, superlatives, 20 Douce, Mr., 112, 288 Dowden, Professor E., 360, 376 Drake, Dr., 6 notC, 96 note, 265 note, 394 note Drunkenness, 225 Dyce, Mr., 4 nooe, 6 note, 265 no/e, 287 note 369, 397 note, 398 Ear= to plough, 34 Earle, Bp., 86 znot Easter, 274 Edinzburgh Rezi/cw,, 374 Egypt, first-born of, 69 Elijah, 82 Elizabeth, name of, 364 Elizabeth, Queen, 6 note, 8I End of the world, 302 England, praise of, 276 Eve, 56 Falstaff, his death, 226 Farmer, Dr., 332, 349, 350, 351 Fatalism, I43 Favour =countenance, 34 Fear = to frighten, 35 Ferrar, Nicholas, 201 Filial duty, I97 Folly = unchastity, 362 For, prefixed to verbs, 22 Forgiveness of injuries, 163, 212 Friendship, 219 Froude, Mr. James A., 360, 395 Full, adv. = very, 35 Furnivall, Mr., 360, 376 Genitive case, sign of, 14 Gervinus, Professor, 379 Gibbon, 209 1note, 312 GolD.-His names, Ioo, His omniscience, 102, 274, His providence, 103, His justice, Io6, His mercy, 109, 115, His watchffilness, 83, I03, His goodness in creation and in redemption of man, 125, His personality, 275 Goethe, 2II Good-man = paterfamilias, 35 Good out of evil, 249 Grace, divine, 141 Grace said at meals, 172 Grief, excessive, 301 Guthrie, Dr., 358 Habits, formation of, I41 Hallam, Mr., 349 Hanmer, Sir T., 253 no/' Hard, adv. =close, near, 35 Hare, Archdeacon, 361 Harness = armour, 36 Heathen characters, 113 Heaven, happiness of, 308,, fights for the good, 312 Help = helper, 83 Henley, Mr., 103, III, 187, 291 note, 305 note, 335 Herod, 87 Holy Land, 131 Homilies, quoted, 74, 236, 335 Hook, Dean, 358 Hooker, 389 no/te Horace, quoted, 147, 225, 227, 244, 254, 307 note Horne Tooke, 306 note Hospitality, 2I8 Genera 7 Tr 7 Hume, David, 346 Humility, 249 Hurd, Bp., 248 note Jacob and Laban, 64 James I., 6, 8i Jameson, Mrs., 352, 372, sq. Japhet, 62 Idleness, 194, 225 Jealousy, 223 Jeffrey, Lord, 358 jephthah's vow, 74 Jezebel, 83 Immortality of soul, 267, 287 Ingram, Dr., 189 note Ingratitude, 214, 252 Intercession, I84 Intermediate state, 296 Job, 63 Johnson, Dr., 11, 51, 70, II3, 140 note, 210, 254 note, 267, 353, 355, 379 Judas, the traitor, 9r Justice and Honesty, 228, 233 Juvenal, quoted, I53, 283 note, 302 note Keble, Mr., his Christian Year, 122 note, his Pralectiones Academicaz, 224, 239, 389, 391 Ken, Bishop, 367 Kings and Governors, 284 Knight, Mr. C., 347 note Know =approve, bless, 36 Knowledge, value of, 227 Lamb, Charles, 345 Learn = to teach, 36 Leasing == lying, 37 Let = to hinder, 37 Life of Man. 146 Lightfoot, Bishop, 366 Liking = plumpness, 37 List = to choose, 38 Lloft, Mr. Capel, 2 note LORD'S PRAYER, III Lowth, Bp., 10, 14, 25 rl Index. 407 Lucretius, quoted, 40I Macaulay, Lord, 21. 356, 358 McLeod, Dr. Norman, 358 McNeile, Dean, 357 Malediction, 239 Malone, Mr., 9, I22, 149, 208, 217 note, 221 note, 236, 248, 305, 326, 334 Man-child, maid-child, 38 Man, excellency of, 128 Marriage, 189, 223 Mason, Mr. M., 208 Means, sing. and plur., I3 Mercifulness to animals, 220 Mercy, Divine, IIO, 114 Milman, Dean, 357 Milton, quoted, I23, 368 Mind, value of, 228 Moderation, 245 Money, love of, 232 Montagu, Mrs., 353 More, Sir Thomas, 200 Mysteries, or Religious Plays, 289 Nebuchadnezzar, 85 Nephew, niece=grandchild, 38 News, sing. and plur., I3 Noah, 6i North, the abode of evil spirits, I23 Oaths not always to be kept, 74, 363 O'Brien, Miss, 376 Opinions dependent on practice, 167 Or ever=before, 38 Original sin, I36 Othello, his religion, 223 note Ovid, quoted, 226, 255 Oxymoron, 342 Parable of Dives and Lazarus,. 230, 297,, bProdigal Son, 230 Parental blessing, I99 408 General Index. Pate = head, 39 Paul, S., 97 Peaceableness, 373 Pearson, Bp., 301 Persius, quoted, I67 Pharaoh's dreams, 69 Pilate, washing his hands, 93 Play= fence, fight, 39 Politician, 279 Port =gate, 39 Poverty, 251 Praise, often harmful, 238 Prayer, efficacy of, 179,, for enemies, 185 Prayer Book, 355, 356 note, 369 Prevent = to help, anticipate, 40 Pride, 250 Prodigality, 229 Pronouns, personal, I5-I8,, relative, I8 Proper = good-looking, 40 Proverbs, 339 Puritanism, I42, 268 Quick = alive, 41 Redemption not partial, I8I Reid, Mr., 283 Repentance, doctrine of, I58 Resignation, 248 Revenge, 207 Reverence, 277 Riches, as singular, 360 Ring, in marriage ceremony, 190,, emblem of authority, 282 Road = inroad, roadstead, 41 Romanism, 264 Rowe, Mr., 354 Runagate = fugitive, 42 Salic law, 72 Samson, 76 Sanderson, Bp., 201, 235 Satan, 120 Saul, death of, 78 Schlegel, Augustus William, 113, I50, 223, 266, 348, 392, 400 Scott, Sir Walter, 209, 358 SCRIPTURE, HOLY, 269 Secure = careless, 42 Self-praise, against, 239 Seneca, quoted, 244 note SHAKSPEARE, WILLIAM:His life, 4, I88, sq., I96, 199 His character, 3, 4 note, 352, 394, 397-99, 402 His study of Bible, 2, 49, 260 His learning, I, 225, 243, 349 His Churchmanship, 264, 27I, 274 Not a Puritan, 142, 268 A thorough Englishman, 270 As a Politician, 276 His Sonnets, 4, 224 Unjustly censured, 3, 51, 298, 349 note, 350 His last will, 264, 292 note Inscription on his tomb-stone, 239 Sharp, Archbishop John, ix Silence, benefit of, 241 Silius Italicus, quoted, 401 Similitudes, 328 Sin, its consequences, I28, 152,, original, 136,, universality of, 138,, correction of, 151 Singer, Mr., 2 note, 113 Sith= since, 43 Slander, 234 Sorrows not single, 152 Sort = class, 43 Spenser, 389 Steevens, Mr., I, 18, 44, 51 note, 68, 70, 84, 122, I60, 190, 243, 273, 286, 307 Stewardship of talents, 232 Stricken in years, 44 Suicide, sin of, 49, 257 Sunday, observance of, 272 Swift, Dean, 173, 356 note Sympathy, 216 note,, of Creation, 3IO, 317 Table = tablet, 43 Temperance, 225, 376 Thankfulness to God, 170 The death, o1 General Index. 409 Theobald, Mr., 120 Thought =anxiety, 43, 362 Tidings, sing. and plur., 13 Tongue, use and abuse of, 234 Toward, preposition, 23 Translation of Bible, 5, 9 Trench, Archbishop, 224 note Trow = to believe, 43 Truth, objective, 254,, = righteousness, 241 Tytler, Mr. P. F., 209 Vessel = human body, 362 Virgil, quoted, 307 note, 313. 3 5 Virtue, courageous, I53 Voltaire, 346 Vows, not always to be kept, 74 Utter = outer, 362 War, lawfulness of, 285 War, a punishment from God, 286,, weapons of, 314 Warburton, Bp., 131 note, 137, I77, 187, 197, 365, 368 Warton, Dr., 173 Wench = young woman, 362 Whalley, Mr., 115 When as, when that, 21 White, Mr. Holt, 99, 335 Whitsuntide, 274 Wilson, Bp., 263 note Winchester College, 283 Wis, wit, wot, 44 Wise, Mr., i6 note, 189, 214 note Wives, duty of, 193 Word = thing, 278 Wordsworth, quoted, 385, 391 note, 392, 400, 402 note World, vanity of, I44 Yea and nay, 99 Young, warning to, 287 410 Index to Passages of Shakspeare INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SHAKSPEARE QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. [The numerals after the number of the Scene refer to the pages of this volunze.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Act i. Sc. I, 144; Sc. 3, 196, 239, 268, 269 Act ii. Sc. I, 102, 334; Sc. 2, 375; Sc. 4, 241; Sc. 5, 213 Act iv. Sc. 3, 139, I46; Sc. 5, 85, 123, 297 Act v. Sc. 5, 224 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. Act i. Sc. 2, 88, 93, 226, 353 Act ii. Sc. I, 19, 93, 188; Sc. 3, 34, 120; Sc. 5, 291 Act iii. Sc. 2, 50; Sc. 9, 167; Sc. IO, 17 Act iv. Sc. 12, 257; Sc. 13, 150 Act v. Sc. I, 17; Sc. 2, 150; Sc. 12, 78 AS YOU LIKE IT. Act i. Sc. I, 36, 231; Sc. 2, 36, 300 Act ii. Sc. I, 58, 220, 256; Sc. 3, 42, 104, 145; Sc. 4, 218,378; Sc. 5, 69; Sc. 7, 24 Act iii. Sc. 2, 92, I47, and note, 236, 258, 333; Sc. 3, 190 Act iv. Sc. I, 158; Sc. 3, 213 Act v. Sc. I, 340; Sc. 4, 62, 119 COMEDY OF ERRORS. Act ii. Sc. I, 195, 279 Act iii. Sc. 2, 6i Act iv. Sc. 3, 55 bis, 124, 125, 224, 231; Sc. 4, 96 V V CORIOLANUS. Passim, 156, 279 Act. Sc. I, j9, 340; Sc. 3, 38; Sc. 6, ~3 J /' Act ii. Sc. I, 202, 220; SC., 379 Act iv. Sc.i, 377; Sc. 6, 31; Sc. 7, 175 4 Actjv. S. 2 37, 370; c. 3 3I, 19, 214; Sc. 4, I5 CYMBELINE. Act i. Sc. 4, 18o Act ii. Sc. 3, 13 Act iii. Sc. 4, 149, 234, 333 Act iv. Sc. 2, 11, 78, 84, i80, 275, 290; Sc. 3, 342; Sc. 4, 160, 202, 287; Sc. 5, 277 Act v. Sc. I, 116; Sc. 4, I16; Sc. 5, 202 IHAMLETJ ct. Sc. I, 24, 95, 273, 274, 332; Sc. 2, 36, 129, 144, I49, 157, 212, 228, 311; Sc. 3, 134, 264, 333; Sc. 4, 118, 339; Sc. 5, 117, 311 Act ii. Sc. 2, 24, 76, 117, 124, 128, 137, 229, 248, 253 Act iii. Sc. I, 22, 138, 140, 155, 267, 271, 288, 320; Sc. 2, 87, 142, 251, 253, 333, 375; Sc. 3, 18, 149, 179, 187, 207, 301; Sc. 4, 24, 69, quoted or referred to. 411 I II7, 118, 124, 142, 162, 203, 305, 321, 334, 378 Act iv. Sc. 3, 370; Sc. 4, 129; Sc. 5, 102, I55, 255, 278, 284, 307, 314; Sc. 7, 142, 209, 210, 255 Act v. Sc. I, 41, 57, 61, 279; Sc. 2, 28, 39, 103, I8I, I39, 143, 292, 308 JULIUS CESAR. Act i. Sc. I, 43; Sc. 2, 144, 220 Act ii. Sc. I, 43, 369; Sc. 2, 318 Act iii. Sc. I, 33, 40, 343 Act iv. Sc. 3, 153 Act v. Sc. I, 40, 258; Sc. 3, 78; Sc. 5, 78 IWNGJ-RY Vl (PART I.) Act i. Sc. I, 131; Sc. 2, 178, 284, 341; Sc. 3, 322 Act ii. Sc. 4, 35, 69, 339, 340 Act iii. Sc. I, 123, 324; Sc. 2, 79, 328, 340; Sc. 3, 56, 297 twice, 340 Act iv. Sc. 2, 231; Sc. 3, 79 Act v. Sc. I, 219; Sc. 3, 147; Sc. 4, 30 KING HENRY IV. (PART II.) Act i. Sc. I, 60, 314, 338; Sc. 2, 63, 8i, 166, 231, 297; Sc. 3, 331, 338 Act ii. Sc. 2, 62, 120 Act iii. Sc. I, 128; Sc. 2, 30, 289 Act iv. Sc. I, 43, 330; Sc. 2, 21, 261; Sc. 3, 261; Sc. 4, 34, IOI, 213, 231, 248 Act v. Sc. 2, 291, 330; Sc. 5, 33; Epilogue, 375 KING HENRY V. Act i. Sc. I, 56, 367; Sc. 2, 42, 72, 182, 275 Act ii. Sc. I, 57; Sc. 2, 124, 378; Sc. 3,297; Sc. 4, 274, 334 Act iii. Sc. I, 249; Sc. 2, 88, 369; Sc. 3, 123, 33; Sc. 5, 169; Sc. 6, 170; Sc. 7, 331 Act iv. Sc. I, 12, io6, 164, 165, 220, 247, 249, 286, 287, 292; Sc. 2, 158; Sc. 3, 35, 182, 325, 374; Sc. 7, I22, 171, 378; Sc. 8, 136, 171 Act v. Sc. I, 171; Sc. 2, 37, 191, 272 KING HENRY VI. (PART I.) Act i. Sc. I, 10I, 374; Sc. 2, 73, 77, 96; Sc. 3, 59, 340 Act ii. Sc. I, 377 Act iii. Sc. I, 39, i68, 263; Sc. 2, 31, 172; Sc. 3, 23 Act iv. Sc. 7, 44 Act v. Sc. 3, 122; Sc. 4, 327; Sc. 5, 33, I9I KING HENRY VI. (PART II.) Act i. Sc. I, 132, 170, 351 Act ii. Sc. I, 89, 104, 110, 157, 170, 215, 378; Sc. 3, 67; Sc. 4, 250; Sc. 5, 259 Act iii. Sc. I, 154, 255, 331, 332; Sc. 2, 52, 109, 130, 153, 284, 378; Sc. 3, 293 Act iv. Sc. 2, 57, 365, 379; Sc. 4, I54; Sc. 7, 227, 395; Sc. 8, 112; Sc. 9, 172 Act v. Sc. 1, 75, 35I; Sc. 2, 158, 286, 304 KING HENRY VI. (PART III.) Act i. Sc. I, 43, 340 Act ii. Sc. I, 181; Sc. 2, 199. 332, 363, 365; Sc. 3, 181; 316; Sc. 5, 246; Sc. 6, 19, 229 Act iii. Sc. I, 243; Sc. 3, 285 Act iv. Sc. I, 223, 312; Sc. 2, 26; Sc. 4, 26; Sc. 7, 32 412 Index to Passages of Shakspeare Act v. Sc. I, 73; Sc. 2, 290, 327; Sc. 6, 153, i8i; Sc. 7, 92 KING HENRY VIII. Act i. Sc. I, 85, 256 Act ii. Sc. I, 164, 184, 219; Sc. 2, II9, 329; Sc. 3, 245 Act iii. Sc. I, 103, Io8, I95; Sc. 2, I2I, I33, I44, I69, 212, 266 Act iv. Sc. I, 280, 375; Sc. 2, 42, 245, 295 Act v. Sc. I, 90; Sc. 2, 30, 157, 212, 234, 340; Sc. 3, 56; Sc. 4, 8I, 298 KING JOHN. Act iii. Sc. I, 76, 313, 320; Sc. 4, i6, 42, I97, 298, 321 Act iv. Sc. I, 322; Sc. 2, 302; Sc. 3, 122 Act v. Sc. 2, 315; Sc. 6, 375; Sc. 7, 32, 276 KING LEAR. Act i. Sc. I, I9, 22, 158, I62, 341; Sc. 2, 143; Sc. 4, I66, 198 Act ii. Sc. 2, 39; Sc. 3, 39; Sc. 4, I14, 313, 332 Act iii. Sc. 2, 202, 313; Sc. 3, 123; Sc. 4, 72, 216; SC. 7, 41 Act iv. Sc. I, 114, 216, 248, 332; Sc. 2, 109, 123, 197, 238; Sc. 6, 99, 217, 252, 257; Sc. 7, 203 Act v. Sc. I, 144; Sc. 2, 292; Sc. 3, I3, I3, 203, 303, 365 KING RICHIARD II. Scrd, f'59c, 206, 235, 236, 331, 368; Sc. 2, 107, io8, 109; Sc. 3, 107, 309, 368 Act ii. Sc. I, 95, 157, 276, 333; Sc. 2, 242, 283, 308; Sc. 4, 377 Act iii. Sc. I, 12; SC. 2, 34, 9I, IO7, 223, 317, 326, 336; Sc. 3, 107, 313; Sc. 4, 55 Act iv. Sc. I, 90, 91, 94, 130, 234, 284, 297; Sc. 5, 260 Act v. Sc. 2, io8; Sc. 3, I64; Sc. 5, 250, 296; Sc. 6, 6i KING RICHARD III. Act i. Sc. I, 29, 44; Sc. 2, io6, 296; Sc. 3, 41, 44, 66, 185, 213, 240, 247; Sc. 4, 94, I30, 156, 206, 330 Act ii. Sc. 2, 33, 256; Sc. 3, 285, 336; Sc. 5, 67 Act iii. Sc. I, I8; Sc. 3, 78, 293, 300; Sc. 4, 97, I68; SC. 7, I2 Act iv. Sc. I, 38, 364; Sc. 2, 152, 290; Sc. 3, 297; Sc. 4, 22, 102, 129, 192, 367 Act v. Sc. I, 101, 157; Sc. 2, 183; Sc. 3, 98, 105, 146, i55, 183, 284, 328, 378; Sc. 4, 183, 272 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Act i. Sc. I, 14I, 399; Sc. 2, 77 Act iv. Sc. 3, 124, 212, 332 Act v. Sc. 2, 37, 56, 91, 223 MACBETH. Passirm, 156 Act i. Sc. 3, I25; Sc. 5, 327; Sc. 7, 158, 251 Act ii. Sc. 3, 122, I69, 215, 284, 298, 304, 333 Act iii. Sc. I, 120, 123, i86, 341; Sc. 2, 258; Sc. 4, 206; Sc. 5, I47 Act iv. Sc. 3, 98, io6, I23, 241, 304 Act v. Sc. 5, 146, 289; Sc. 7, 147 quoted or ) MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Act i. Sc. I, 233; Sc. 2, II, 177, 228; Sc. 3, 140, 143 Act ii. Sc. I, 35; Sc. 2, 120, 131, 187, 236; Sc. 3, 151, 159; Sc. 4, 187, 222 Act iii. Sc. i, 148, 154, 266, 342, 343, 373; Sc. 2, 224, 284 Act iv. Sc. 2, I93; Sc. 4, 152 Act v. Sc. i, 118, 207, 229 MERCHANT OF VENICE. Act i. Sc. I, 40, 241, 343, 378; Sc. 2, 33, 248, 264; Sc. 3, 15, 64, 89, 95 Act ii. Sc. 2, 176; Sc. 6, 192, 230 Act iii. Sc. 2, 260; Sc. 5, I2 Act iv. Sc. I, 87, 94, Ino, 163, 217, 233 Act v. Sc. I, 42, 7I, 119, I95, 332 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. Act i. Sc. I, I76 Act ii. Sc. I, 37, 43, 88, 271; Sc. 2, 252 Act iii. Sc. 4, 252 Act v. Sc. I, 77; Sc. 2, 146; Sc. 5, 63, 124, 191, 224; Sc. 6, 192 MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.J Sct i. Sc. i, i i, 7I0, 37037 Act v. Sc. J, 24 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Act i. Sc. I, 272 Act ii. Sc. I, 57, I92, 328; Sc. 3, 237, 250, 366, 403 Act iii. Sc. I, 28; Sc. 2, 81 Act iv. Sc. I, 370 Act v. Sc. 4, 369 referred to. 4 1 3 Act i. Sc. i, 38; Sc. 3, 191, 228, 368, 371 Act ii. Sc. I, 341; Sc. 3, 125, 223, 224, 275, 367 Act iii. Sc. 3, I36, 235, 245 -259; Sc. 4, 27, 32 Act iv. Sc. I, 30; Sc. 2, 58, i86, I91, 364, 372 Act v. Sc. I, 329; Sc. 2, ii6 PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. Act i. Sc. I, 101, 152, 2S4; Sc. 2, 325; Sc. 4, 83, I52,. 255 Act iv. Sc. -3,372; Sc. 7, 271 Act v. Sc. 3, 38, 309 1ROMEO AND J ULIE J Act i. Sc. I, 38; Sc. 5, 24,. 210 Act ii. Sc. 2, 37, 325; Sc. 3, 13, 126, 266 Act iii. Sc. I, 210, 274; Sc. 2, I68, 304; Sc. 4, 27, 301; Sc. 5, 42 Act iv. Sc. 1, 24, 375; Sc. 4, 291 Act v. Sc. I, 231, 291; Sc. 3, 28 TAMING OF TIlE SHREW. Act i. Sc. I, 309; Sc. 2, i6, 35 Act ii. Sc. I, 272 Act iv. Sc. I, I78; Sc. 3, 31, 228 Act v. Sc. 2, I94 TEMPEST. Act i. Sc. 2, IS, 35, 54, 99 Act iii. Sc. I, 18, 41, 185; Sc. 2, 73, 375; Sc. 3, i8, 157, i6i Act iv. Sc. 1, 224, 306, 370 Act v. Sc. I, 38, 78, 203, 214; Epil. 179 OTHELLO. Passitl, 156 414 Index to Passages of Shakspeare. TIMON OF ATHENS. Act i. Sc. I, 213, 306; Sc. 2, 175, 213, 252 Act ii. Sc. I, 138 Act iii. Sc. 2, 92, 215, 229; Sc. 3, 271; Sc. 5, 154, 206, 214; Sc. 6, 175 Act iv. Sc. 2, 252; Sc. 3, 41, 138, 232, 238, 245 Act v. Sc. I, 237, 330; Sc. 2, 321, 242 TITUS ANDRONICUS. Act i. Sc. 2, 202 Act ii. Sc. 2, I5 Act iv. Sc. 4, 39 Act v. Sc. i. 265; Sc. 3, 80 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. Act i. Sc. 2, 36; Sc. 3, 239, 257, 277 Act ii. Sc. 2, 221, 254 Act iii. Sc. 3, - 26; Sc. 3, 103, 145, 341 Act iv. Sc. 2, I9i; Sc. 4, 139; Sc. 5, 42 Act v. Sc. 3, 75 TWELFTH NIGHT. Act i. Sc. 5, 225 Act ii. Sc. 3, 268 Act iii. Sc. 2, 62; Sc. 3, 35; Sc. 4, 218 Act iv. Sc. 2, 69; Sc. 4, 189 Act v. Sc. I, 37, 122, 189, 238 Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Act i. Sc. I, 27, 185 Act ii. Sc. 3, 203, 23I Act iii. Sc. I, 56 Act iv. Sc. 4, 274 Act v. Sc. 4, I64 WINTER'S TALE. Act i. Sc. 2, 93, 136 Act ii. Sc. 3, 83; Sc. 5, 268 Act iii. Sc. 2, 102; Sc. 3, 378 Act iv. Sc. 2, 270; Sc. 3, Io5 Act v. Sc. I, 291; Sc. 3, 257, 378 415 INDEX TO PASSAGES OF TIHlE BIBLE QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. (Zn soNic f-to inslaii'cs /e Lr lie /e Isit / Cex it o/iel upiere tire /1w/ig r-,ntjrrcd to, i I Only /he ScripIunrl scuiwieCat. I OLD 'TESTAMENT. PAGE9 GENESIS. i. i6. i.27 55 ii.15 55 ii. 24. 371 lii. 10 152 iii. 14 58 iii. 21. 55 iv. 2 316 iv. l0 59 iV. 12 6o vii. 2, 15 62 ix. 6 2o6o X. 2 2 696 Xii. 29 70 xvii- tilL 14 xviii. i6 -2 xviii. 27 IS xxiii. 6 xxix. 17 3 5 XX\ 2"7 65 xxxi. 50 io6 xxxii. i10 67 xxxviii. IS 5 23 XXxi\. 8 44 xli- 1 3 341 Xli. 1 29"2 69 xli. 42 283 xlii. "8S 67 Nliii 25 23) xlvii. 9. 333 xlix. 4 3:29 E.XODUS. iii... 25 iv. i8 6 69 Vii. 15 Xvi. 15 xvii. 6 Xvii. 19 xxii. Is xxiii. 9 XXXII. 1 5 xxxviii. 23 LE'VITICUS. Xii. 2, 5. xviii. 6 xx. 9 NLUNBERS. XI. 23 XVI. 29 Xvi. 30 xxVii. i-S XXX1i. 23 XXXsV. II XXXV. 15 xxxv. i6 * 23 * 44 * 335 * 23 * 259 215 43 * 34 38 192 II I 324 * 72 41 73 156 26 26 2o6 JOSI-IUA. iv. iS X. 12-14 xxii. i6 XXii. 26 JUDGES. iv. 9 V. 20 Vi. 2 viii. I I xi. 30..40 Xi. 39 XVi.3 xViii. 19 SAMUEL. Viii. 12 iX. 2 XVi. 23 xvii. 7 xVii. 51 xix. 4 xxiv. 6 Xxiv. 10 xxvi. 4 XXViii. lo 2 SATMUE'L. ii. 14 xii. 5-7 xiii. 15 Xiv. 25 xv. i-6 PAGN 17 311 15 15 73 Is 4 2 73 7 4 77 34' 3 4.33 78 77 78 23 * 107 2S4 * 107 4.1 39 * 7 9 * 223 8S * 79 DEUTERONOMV. iV. I. 22 x. title. 14 X. I. 15 x. 17-19. 21 xxx. 11-14. 323 \xxii. I. 310 XXXii. 2.. 10 Xxxii. 42. 316 XxXiii. 26.. 324 416 Index to Passages of Bible xviii. 33' XiX. 26 xxiii. 3 i[ KING.S. i. titLe lv. 25 X. xiii. I13 XV. 14t XViii. 27, \X. i xxi.'I 2 KTINGS. iV. 26 ix. 34I xix. 35 * So '5 * 284. I '3 * Si 1 5 * 83" I 5 * 36 * 1315 xxxi. 15 xxxiv. 19 \Xxviii. 12 Xxxi X. 19-25 xli.. xli. [9 PAGE * 169 * 105 * 34 * 24 292 *. 312:2 CThRONICLES. xxXii.:24- 10 EYRA. iv. i6 1 I'l PSALM S. -i. 6. -6 iv. 2.37 v. 6. 7 vii. j 6.3 39, 157 viii. -2..35 ix. 4. 109 ix. 14 (PBD.).39 xiv. }139 xiv. 9 (PB 1.) 15 3 XViii. I0. 24 xviii. IS 69 Xviii. 35 i6 (P.) 1~ i6 xxi. 3 'to 4 -%xxii. [2.. 51 -.X Xi i. 15..289 xXv. 4 (P).B.) 36 xxxi. 15.*169 xxxiv. S. 78 xxxv. 15..29 xxxix. 6 (P.B.) 147 xlIviii. 14.. 69 NXli. 17 28 (P. I,)} 8 -li. 7..I62 lviii. 4, 5. 52 lviii. 6 (P. 13.) 219 lix. 7 2 24 I X. * 234 lxviii. 4. 24. lxviii. 5(P.B.) 109 lxviii 6W(. P.) 4 2 lXviii. 15. * 5 1 l xxi.i x6 (P.13.) 2 2 lxxix. S 8 40 lxxx'viii 1I.. 40 -x c i... 289 X Ci i. v(P.ii)33o7 ESTHTER. Iiii. 4. 14 iii. 10, 12.283 viii. S 283' JOB. i., i i.. 6. 1. 21..256 ii. 1-10.319 v.7..308 v. 17..256 vi. 15..219 vii. 6 7 78, 146 X. 21. 288 xxi. 22. 23 xxiv. 13)-17 )-32 xxx. 26 7 377 \xxxi. 4.*37 PAGE xcii. 13 (P.B.) 37 xciv. 12 { 5 }ci.T 205 civ. 3. -24 cxii. 7 * 153 cxv. I.*171 CXViii. 1:2 V328 (P. B.) cx'ix. 71, &C. 256 cxix. 105 1 68 CXIX. 148.40' ~-.cxxi. 4.. 83 -`cxxvii. 3 sq. *196 ~-xxVii- 5. 378' cxxviii. 3 sq. 378 cxxxii. 4 3.34[ '~-xxxvh. 5. 4,.cxxxix.. *10 -cxl. 10 286 (P. 13.) j, cxliv. I. 3. 377 cxlvi. 2 (P.13.) 167 cxlvii. 9 (P. B.) 104. PR1)OVERB)S. i. 20 i. 26 vi. 6 vi. II vi. 3-4 -xii. 13 Xiii. 21 xiv. 13 XiV. 20 xvi. is -XVii. 28 xviii. I0.,xix. 7 xx. 2 xx. 9 xx. 22 XXi. 23 xxii. I XXiii. 21f XXiii. 32 4 3341 i67 200 223 241 a - 251 227 251 250 241 -284 378 251 340 136 241 23,6 230 vt quoted or referred to. 417 xxiii. 34 xxiv. 21 xxv. 13 xxv. 25 xxv. 26 xxv. 27 xxvi. I I xxvi. 27 xxvii. 2 xxvii. 7 xxviii. I xxviii. 13 xxix. 23 xxx. 25 xxxvii. 32 PAI I K 3 29 277 329 * 13. 194. 239 331 * 340. 239 * 340 * 153. i62 * 250 * 332. 145 ECCLESIASTES. iii. 8.. 286 V. 12.. 247 Vii. I.. 235 ix. i6.. 251 x. I.. 339 X. 12.. 241 x. i6.. 285 xii. 7.. 296 xii. 14.. I56 xxv. 23.. 195 i. 3 ii. 4. iii. 15, vi. 3. xiv. 12. xiv. 13 xxiv. 20. xxx. 6 xxx. 7, 15 xxxvi. 6 xxxvii. 33-37 xxxviii. I2. xl. 13. xlix. 15 1. 2 li. 6. lvii. I lix. I JEREMIAH. i. 10. ii. 12. vi. 19. x. 22. xiii. 23. xxii. 24. xlv. 5 xlvi. o10. IEZIIEKIEL. xvi. 49 ~ xxxi. 6 xxxii. 10. PAG E. 220 * 382. 162 ~ 314. ~ 31. IOI. 21. 122. 126. 149. 250 * 36 312. 146. 323 325. 324. 306. II6 324 342 * 3Io. 310 32.331. 283 ~ 245. 36 208 * 327 * 30 i I xxxv. 6 xxxix. 18. xliii. 3 DANIEL. i. 10. iii. 22. iv. 25. iv. 27. vi. 10. vi. 17. vi, 24, JOEL. iii. 9, 10 43. 51. 342. 37. 84. 86. 165. 179. 283. 38. 315 AMOS. iv. I.. 51 MICAlH. iv. 3.. 314 vii. 8.. 110 HAB1AKKU K. ii. 6.. 167 ii. II.. 3 7 SON(' OF SOLOMON. viii. 6.. 223 ISAIAH. i. 2.. 3Io I 1H AG;AI. ii. 3.. 17 APOCRYPHA. WISDOM. xi. i6. xvii. 9 ECCLESIAS'TICUS. xiii. I II3 35 340 xiii. 23 xiv. 17 xxii. I xxii. 19 xxv. 23.. xxviii. 2, 4. xxxv. 20.. 252 17 * 3o01 * 17. 195. III. 112 HISTORY OF SUSANNA- I 87 2 MA(CCABEEL.S. xiii. 15.. t7.2 4l Index to Passages of Bible NEW TESTAMENT. PAGE S. NIATT1WW. ii. 6-riS 88 iii. 30 '2lv. 7.. 110 V...215 v. [5, it. 233 v. It), 39 332 V.4 j 85 v. 45 21205 2150 vi. 12, 14 163 217 vi. 25. 43 Vi. 26.. 104 vii. 2.. 229 vii. 3-5.. 332 vii.5. 24 vii. 13.. 340 vii. 13 14. 297 vii. 15. 3 331 v~iii. 11..307 viii. 28-34. 88 K.28. 296 X. "9. 103 xi. 25. 335 Xi. 28. 260 Xiii. 12. 367 xiii. 14.. 19 xiii. 21 27 Xiii. 29.. 330 Xiv. 10.. 364 xv. 4 T O 1 xv. iS.. I37 xvi. 1-3.. 336 &vi. 19.. 364 xvi. 25.. 343 xvii. 25. 40 xviii. 4.. 400 Xviii. 10.. 120 xviii. i6.. 278 xix. 5. 371 xix. 6. 223.ix. 12 377!T PAGE Xix. 24..260 x. XI 35 xxi. 15, i6. 335 Xxiii. 3, 4.. 264 xxiv. 6. 303 xxiv. 44. 292 xxiv. 48. 27 xxiv. pawsint. 365 Xxv. 35, 43. 218 XXVi. 23, 49. 92 xxvi. 24.. 320 xxvi. 52. 7 xxvi. 73. 31 xxvii. 6 22 xxvii. 24. 93 Xxvii. 25. III xxvii. 26. 94 xxvii. 52, 53 3 95 xxvii. 55, 56. i8 PAGVI: vi. 26. 238 vi. 44.. 389 iX. 28. 12 x.i8..377 xi.48. 30 xii. 4. 296 xii. 15.. 242 xii. i. -3 xii. 37.. 307 Xii. 52. 90 xii. 52, 53 3 303 xiv.8.. 42 xiv. 15. 307 xiv. 28, 29. 338 xiv. 31, 32. 337 xv. 10. f 1ig xv. IIssq. 231 xvi. 8 364 xvi. 23.. 297 xvii. 7 27 xvii. 9 43 Xvii. 21 244 xix. 8. 159 xix. 40.. 317 xix. 44.. 365 XXi. 9 27 xxiii. 12. 92 S. MARK. v. title. v. 9 V. 39 vi. 25 vii. 6 vii. 9 vii. Io Vii. 21 x. title. Xii. 44 Xiii. 8, 12 Xiii. 35 xiv. 55 S. LUKE. i.77 i. 19 1. 37 i. 79 iii. 8-14 111. 14 - iv. 23 iv. 34 14 124 30 27 187 35 10 137 * '4. 231 *90 145 91. 44 13. 278 * 327 159. 286 I 378 19 S. JOHN. ii. 21 iii. 8 iii. 20, 21 111. 33 vi. 70 ix.3 39-41 ix. 41 xv. i8 ACTS. vii. 26 vii. 6o x. 34 xiii. 36 333 38 241 333 91 248 89 145 30 25 286 105 25 0~ 0~ r I