THE BIBLE IN SHAKSPEARE WILLIAM BURGESS PR 3o/^ Jtliata, S?evn ^nrfe Mrs. W.F.E.Garley My 6 *« MAR 1 01941 rjAN 1 6 i943 DEC 1 2 1951 DATE DUE •"i>-- :r. ;.^^ Cornell University Library PR 3012.B95B5 The Bible in Shal(speare; a study of the r 3 1924 013 162 957 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013162957 By WILLIAM BURGESS The Religion of Ruskin A Biographical and Antholog- ical Study Large 8vo, net $2.00 The Bible in Shakespeare A Study of the Relation of the Works of William Shakespeare to the Bible Large 8vo, net $2.00 THE BIBLE IN SHAKSPEARE A STUDY OF THE RELATION OF THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE TO THE BIBLE WITH NUMEROUS PARALLEL PASSAGES, QUOTA- TIONS, REFERENCES, PARAPHRASES and ALLUSIONS By WILLIAM B^URGESS author of "lay sermons from bible and shakspeare" "land, labor and liquor," etc., etc. NEW YORK Thomas Y. Crowell Company PUBLISHERS -^*~^ .^Ai;Y (-, A^J6^0Q Copyright, 1903, by WILLIAM BURGESS CONTENTS Author's Preface I. — Introductory v Author's Preface II. — Was Shakspeare a Christian ? vii Carlyle on Shakspeare as a Prophet xiv BOOK PIRST. — tut MINISTRY OF THE POET. I. — ^The Genius of Shakspeare 3 II. — A Greater than Genius ii BOOK SECOND. — SHAKSPEARE'S BIBUCAI, TRANSLATIONS. I.. — God in Shakspeare 19 II. — Bible Characters in Shakspeare 23 III. — Scripture Facts, Incidents, Places, Etc 25 IV. — Shakspeare an Interpreter of Bible Words 27 V. — Scripture and Shakspeare Parallels 32 BOOK THIRD. — ^THE RELIGIOUS WORLD OE SHAKSPEARE. I. — Versatility of Shakspeare in the use of the Bible 51 II. — Types of Character from Scripture 62 III. — Heroes and Heroines 67 IV. — The Moral Inculcations of Shakspeare 77 V. — Tragedy in the Bible and in Shakspeare 87 VI. — Religious Thought in the Plots of the Plays 94 VII. — Shakspeare and Immortality 103 BOOK FOURTH. — SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE. Moral and Religious Truths arranged in Cyclopaedic order 117-265 BOOK FIFTH. — SHAKSPEARE AND TEMPERANCE. Shakspeare and Temperance 269 General Index 279 iii ANNOUNCEMENT. The exhaustion of the second edition of "THE BIBLE IN SHAKSPEARE," published by Fleming H. Revell Company, was not immediately followed by another edition because of the commanding public attention upon the issues and progress of the World's War and the great increase in the price of all materials entering into the making of a book, which more than doubles the cost of a book of the size and quality of this volume. But it is urged that this work is of much present-day value to students of the Bible and the World's great literature and that copies of it are needed in many of the Libraries of Colleges and Theological Seminaries as well as in the private Libraries of Minis- ters and others. On the advice of the publishers of this edition that a slight ad- vance on the retail price would prevent financial loss and at the same time avoid a suspension of the book, the price is made the same as the Companion Volume— "THE RELIGION OF RUSKIN." AUTHOR'S PRHPyiCJ? I The loss, by fire, of all the manuscripts of this work, together with the corrected proof-sheets, explains the delay of its publication so long after the date announced by advertisement and prospectus. On December 30, 1902, the entire plant and buildings of the printing establishment having the work in hand, were totally destroyed on the eve of completing the proofs, together with my work of years. It became necessary therefore to prepare the matter again from par- tial copy, and notes in hand. The verification of the large number of references and quotations, a second time, entailed a great amount of labor, but the author hopes and believes that the work has not suffered in point of accuracy. The preparation of this work from the beginning, has been attended with a full share of author's troubles, the particulars of which, however, are not of general interest. No thought of publication was in mind when the study of the subject was entered upon twelve years ago. Certain platform utterances and magazine articles, as to the so-called "absence of religion in Shakspeare," attracted the author's attention and he found that there existed a rather general thought of the great dramatist as irreligious, or at least that his works indicate indifference to the subject of the Christian religion. These statements and opinions awakened an interest in the study as a matter of personal interest but the evidence against them was found to be so abundant and conclusive that it amounts to a revelation. More- over it did not appear that the subjects embraced in "The Bible in Shakspeare" were before the public, in any way available to the ordinary student or reader. The author is not vain enough to regard this work as the best that can be said or done upon the subject. It is quite likely that other minds may be turned in the same direction who will present further and more profound study. Already we have, in Denton J. Snider's Commentaries, a valuable contribution to the study of the moral questions involved in the great Shakspeare, and while we write these prefatory words another volume vi PREFACE comes to hand by Prof. Frank C. Sharp, of the University of Wisconsin, on "Shakspeare's Portrayal of the Moral Life." This book contains much that is valuable and interesting to the general study of the ques- tion stated in the title, but it seems to us that Prof. Sharp makes far too much of the absurdities of the stories of the Merchant oF Venice and other plays. No one cares to enquire closely into the reasonableness or otherwise of the story of "the pound of flesh" or the improbable condi- tions on which Antonio is alleged to have sought and found a loan of two thousand ducats. In studying the moral teachings of Shakspeare we do not concern ourselves about the fictions which he employed as the scaffolding from which to build his structure, any more than we stay to ask whether ^sop's fables are facts, when we apply their moral. The reader is informed that the King James version of the Bible has been used in all Scripture quotations for this volume. There is no uni- form standard text of Shakspeare's works so that it may be found that some quotations differ a little from the versions in the hands of the reader. These differences, however, are not of sufficient importance to affect their general accuracy or value. AUTHOR'S PRBPACB II WAS SHAKSPBARB A CHRISTIAN? It is not here intended to claim Shakspeare as a theological student, or that he ever set himself the task of propagating any set of religious doctrines. It is acknowledged that "he is the poet of secular humanity." Yet he did not treat sacred themes as distinct from the secular ; but he saw the divine in the human, the spiritual in the secular and he made them manifest in his own great way, sometimes in glimpses, at others, in flames of light. It is claimed, however, that he drew largely from the Bible for his loftiest thoughts and noblest inspirations; that he employed Scripture teachings, facts, poetry, philosophy and language in his writings; that he was a sincere believer in the teachings of Scripture and that he accepted the orthodox views, current in his day, of the main doctrines of the Christian religion. These claims are established by a large number of affinities, allusions, references, paraphrases and quotations to Scripture text and teaching, which are taken from almost every part of Shakspeare's works. That these are not accidental, but bear the marks of design or purposed refer- ence, is beyond all doubt when their number, frequence and circum- stances are considered. These quotations are so accurate in spirit and application, the allusions so numerous and apposite, the historic refer- ences so varied and correct, that only one acquainted with the Scrip- tures could have so employed them. The question naturally arises ; — ^by what means did Shakspeare become so well versed in the Scriptures? In Shakspeare's time the Bible was the standard literature of his country. The time had passed away when "the translation and reading of the Bible in the common tongUe" was treated as "heresy and a crime punishable by fire." It was no longer a forbidden book, but was the one book, almost the only book, within the reach of the common people. If Shakspeare had the advantage of any book in his early home that book was probably the Bible. Indeed it is probable that no other books were viii PREFACE available to him, during his early days, except perhaps Plutarch and such glimpses of history and the classics, as he could obtain in his les- sons at school. Erasmus had said, only a few years before, "I long for the day when the husbandman shall sing portions of the Scriptures to himself as he follows the plough, when the weaver shall hum them to the tune of his shuttle, when the traveler shall while away, with their stories, the weari- ness of his journey." That time had come. The days of the Reformation were at hand. The poetry and the songs of the people were of the psalms and prophe- cies. The whole atmosphere of social, and even political life, was charged with the inbreathing of old testament law and of new testament gospel. The picture which Green has given us in his "History of the English People" graphically sets forth the marvelous relation which the Bible at that time sustained to the country : — " No greater moral change ever " passed over a nation. England became the people of a book and that " book was the Bible. It was as yet, the one English book that was " familiar to every Englishman ; it was read at churches and read at " home, and everywhere its words, as they fell on ears which custom had " not deadened to their force or beauty, kindled a startling enthu- " siasm. . . . No history, no romance, no poetry, save the little-known " verses of Chaucer, existed for any practical purpose in the English " tongue when the Bible was ordered to be set up in churches. Sunday " after Sunday, day after day, the crowds that gathered round Bonner's " Bibles in the nave of St. Paul's, or the family group that hung on the " words of the Geneva Bible in the devotional exercises at home, were " leavened with a new literature. Legends and annals, war song and " psalm. State-rolls and biographies, the mighty voices of prophets, the " parables of the Evangelists, stories of mission journeys, of perils by " the sea and among the heathen philosophic arguments, apocalyptic " visions, all were flung broadcast over minds unoccupied for the " most part by any rival learning. . . . But far greater than its effects " upon literature or social phase was the effect of the Bible on the char- " acter of the people at large. . . . The whole moral effect which is pro- " duced nowadays by the religious newspaper, the tract, the essay, the " lecture, the missionary report, the sermon, was then produced by the " Bible alone. And its effect in this way, however dispassionately we " examine it, was simply amazing. The whole temper of the nation was " changed. A new conception of life and of man superseded the old. A " new moral and religious impulse spread through every class. . . . The " whole nation became, in fact, a church." WAS SHAKSPEARB A CHRISTIAN? ix Now, when it is recalled that this great moral wave, under the influ- ence of the Bible, swept over the country during the period of Shak- speare's life and work, it will be easy to perceive that a wondrous daily flood of light and inspiration must have come to his mind from this source. But even this does not tell all the story. This period was the imme- diate forerunner of that splendid age of the Puritans which gave us Milton, Bunyan, Hooker and others, and which created an irresistible demand for an authorized version of the English Bible such as could be available and acceptable to the common people. The reign of Elizabeth was followed by James I and he was wise enough to appreciate the spirit of the times. He appointed a Counsel of the most learned scholars of the day, selecting them from the various schools of learning, and of the church, of whom the names of forty- seven are preserved to us.^ The work. of translating the Bible was undertaken by this learned body in 1604 and concluded in 161 1. These, with the five years that followed, were the greatest of Shakspeare's life, during which he wrote his greatest dramas. He died in 1616. Thus, during all the period of his life, the Bible was the most popular theme of conversation and discussion, growing more and more, into general use and public esteem, until it became the most absorbing topic of political and general interest, culminating in the greatest and most abiding work of literary translation and study that has ever been given to the world. A Shakspeare who was not saturated with Bible idiom, language and thought, in such an age would be inconceivable. A perusal of the parallel passages in which, in this volume, Bible quo- tations are placed side by side with those from Shakspeare will show that, while very few texts are quoted verbatim, yet the use of biblical characters, facts, figures, doctrines and laws, in the author's own lan- guage, is so common as to constitute one of the most remarkable of the many marvels of Shakspeare. An English author of half a century ago writes as follows : — " In " storing his mind, Shakspeare went first to the word and then to the " works of God. In shaping the truths derived from these sources he " obeyed the instinct implanted by him who had formed him, — Shak- " speare. Hence his power of inspiring us with sublime affsction for " that which is properly good and of chilling us with horror by his fear- " ful delineations of evil. Shakspeare perpetually reminds us of the ' Encyclopedia Britannica. Article on the English Bible. X PRBPACB ' Bible. ... A passage, for instance, rises in our thoughts unaccom- ' panied by a clear recollection of its origin. Our first impression is ' that it must belong either to the Bible or Shakspeare. No other author ' excites the same feeling in equal degree. In Shakspeare's plays relig- ' ion is a vital and active principle sustaining the good, tormenting the ' wicked, influencing the heart and lives of all."^ A more recently published work gives this : — "We believe that the ' home education of William Shakspeare was grounded on the Bible, ' and that if this Book had been sealed to his childhood he might have ' been the Poet of nature, of passion, — ^his humor might have been as ' rich as we find it and his wit as pointed, but that he would not have been the Poet of the most profound as well as the most tolerant philos- ophy; his insight into the nature of man (his meanness and his gran- deur, his weakness and his strength) would not have been what it is."'' Dr. A. H. Strong, Pres. Rochester Theological Seminary, says : — "I challenge any man to find unbelief in the dramatis personae of Shak- speare's plays, except in cases where it is the manifest effect or excuse of sin, reproved by the context, or changed to fearful acknowledgment of the truth by the results of transgression. In his ethical judgments he never makes a slip ; he is as sure-footed as a Swiss mountaineer ; he depicts vice, but he does not make it alluring or successful."* And as to the personal faith of the Poet the same writer remarks : — There is no trace of Mariolatry, nor of dependence for salvation upon ritual and ceremony. ... In an age of much clerical corruption he never rails at the clergy. While he has some most ungodly prelates his priests are all a credit to their calling. None of his characters are disseminators of scepticism. I cannot explain this except by supposing that Shakspeare was himself a believer. Though he was not a theo- logical dogmatist, nor an ecclesiastical partisan, he was unwaveringly assured of the fundamental verities of the Christian scheme. Shak- speare had dug down through superficial formulas to the bed-rock of Christian doctrine. He held the truths which belong in common to all ages of the church. If any deny the personality of God or the deity of Christ, they have a controversy with Shakspeare. If any think it irrational to believe in man's depravity, guilt, and need of supernatural redemption, they must also be prepared to say that Shakspeare did not understand human nature." ' The manuscript of the present volume was nearly completed when the author received the compliment of a presentation copy of a new book '"Shakspeare and the Bible." By Rev. J. R. Eaton, Norwich, England. ■"' Shakspeare's True Life." By Major Walter. (Longmans, 1890.) 'The Great Poets and their Theology, pp. 210, 211. WAS SHAKSPBARB A CHRISTIAN? xi from London bearing the title of "The Christ in Shaltspeare." The Writer is a profound believer in the religious element in Shakspeare and especially in his Sonnets. He claims fifty of them as decidedly Chris- tian in spirit and teaching. He says : — "Some true poets have written a " few good hymns, yet amongst these none have succeeded in expressing " their thoughts with the felicity and strength of these glorious sonnets, " which harmoniously glow in perfect accord with the highest aspira- " tions, to the honor and praise of him who is above all. It is no fancy " but an admitted truth, that the spiritual mind of our author is brought " to light by the light of the Bible and his deep musings therein found " their delightful embodiment in a more poetic correspondence with one " or more earthly friends. . . . Although the Poet's primary aim was " not to display his spirituality to a general reader, if he ever pondered " such a thing, he had never the wish to hide from his friend, or from " anyone, the exalted views which he had derived from the study of the " Scriptures." ^ About the same time came another indication of the growing disposi- tion to interpret Shakspeare in the light of the Scriptures. The author of a pamphlet entitled "The Shakspearean Reconciliation" claims, in his thoughtful little treatise, that: — "Shakspeare's standpoint was a thor- " ough understanding of the Bible as it is beginning to be understood in " our days. The world in general, not being literary, has had to be " taught by a laborious criticism that the Bible is literature and not " science. Shakspeare recognized the poetry of the Biblical moralists " with the same sure-glance with which he recognized his own poetry. " In particular, in certain sayings of Christ, whence others drew dogma, " he could perceive at once poetical synthesis ; his own highest poetical " quality." The ordinary and natural reading of the Poet suffices to find religion in some way or other, breaking in at the most trivial incident and cir- cumstance, as well as in the more striking events and distinguished char- acters. The pious phrases of the times are constantly in evidence. Indeed, the frequent use of Scripture language and pious exclamations by the grossest and vilest of persons is somewhat shocking to our sense of reverence. And yet this is one of the surest marks of the Poet's familiarity with the Bible, as well as a true index to his apprehension of every variety of human society. That Shakspeare was a sincere believer in the Bible from which he drew so copiously, and in the doctrines taught therein, is a fact estab- lished beyond doubt. Pagan philosophy is, of course, fitly associated in ' " The Christ in Shakspeare." By Charles Ellis, London, 1897. xii PREFACE his dramas with the gods of its own creation. The Poet's works are a mirror of humanity and his pictures of heathenism are true to the sub- ject. But God was in his thoughts. He reverently acknowledges the God of the Bible in all His various attributes. He holds up to view the divine side of man. All his best men and women do homage to the Divine and his worst characters are shown to be in dread of the law of God and the ends of justice. God, as distinct from pagan gods, is mentioned in at least thirty of his thirty-seven plays and nearly seven hundred times. As many as forty different terms or exclamations are employed in his references to the Divine Being, most of which are taken from the Bible. These are given together with the Shakspearean text in the chapter on " God in Shakspeare." Frequent references are made to Jesus Christ as "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Lord" as may be seen in the chapter on "Scripture Themes." That these were in harmony with his own faith and not merely expressions accommodated to his characters is a necessary con- clusion on reading the following paragraph taken from the opening paragraph of the "last will and testament of William Shakspeare" : — "/ commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping, and assuredly believing through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting." To this may be added the following from the Life of Shakspeare published in Knight's edition of his works : — "Whatever was the immediate cause of his last illness we may believe that the closing scene was full of tranquillity and hope ; and that he who had sought, perhaps more than any man, to look beyond the material and finite things of the world, should rest in the 'peace which passeth all understanding' in that assured belief which the opening of his will has expressed with far more than formal solemnity." In face of such testimony, he must be wilfully blind who will deny that this man spoke the language of his own heart and soul, when he at various times and through various characters exclaims : — " The precious image of our dear Redeemer." " The world's ransom, blessed Mary's son." " By the death of him who died for all." WAS SHAKSPBARB A CHRISTIAN? xiii " I charge you as you hope to have redemption." " By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins." " In those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd For our advantage on the bitter cross." Thus it is seen that Shakspeare drank so deeply from the wells of Scripture that one may say, without any straining of the evidence, with- out the Bible Shakspeare could not be. And if it were possible to suppress every copy of the sacred volume and obliterate its very exist- ence as a book, the Bible in its essence and spirit, its great doctrines of infinite justice, mercy, love and redemption, as well as a vast store of its most precious sayings, would yet live in Shakspeare. Whoever looks intelligently at this Shakspeare may recognise that he was a prophet in his own way, of an insight analogous to the prophetic, though he took up another strain. Nature seemed to this man also divine; unspeakable, deep as Tophet, high as Heaven. "We are such stuff as dreams are made of!" That Scroll in Westminster Abbey, which few read with understanding, is of the depth of the sea. We may say without offense, that there rises a kind of universal psalm out of this Shakspeare, too; not unfit to make itself heard among the still more sacred Psalms. Not in disharmony with these, if we under- stood them, but in harmony. 1 cannot call this Shakspeare a sceptic as some do; his indifference to creeds and theological quarrels of his time misleading them. No; neither unpatriotic, though he says little about his patriotism; nor sceptic, though he says little about his faith. "The Hero as a Poet." Thomas Carlyle. XIV BOOK FIRST The Ministry of the Poet /. THE GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE II. A GREATER THAN GENIUS THE GENIUS OP SHAKSPEARE If Shakspeare were less than Shakspeare, the world would weary of his oft-repeated praises. As subject for essayist, poet or orator he is unequalled among men, save only, Jesus of Nazareth. No other literary work, the Bible excepted, can justify the many commentaries, concordances, essays and lectures which have evolved from the dramas and poems of the bard of the Avon. His genius is as a mountain which, like Mont Blanc of the Alps, overtops all others. But, for this very reason, he has often been viewed out of perspective. Perhaps, more frequently, the eye has been too much attracted toward some towering peak or projecting rock, to the exclusion of a more important or essential feature of the mountain. This may explain why it is that the recognition of the Divine Being, the profound reverence for the Saviour of men, the assumption of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, the prophetic utterances on moral evils and social vices, the inculcation of Christian faith, practice and judgment, the frequent reference to and the dependence upon the Scriptures, — all so conspicuous and pervasive in Shakspeare, — are yet often ignored by literary critics, or treated with contempt by public teachers and lecturers. A prominent magazine writer tells us that "Shakspeare is remarkable among the poets for being without a phil- osophy and without a religion," ^ Is not this the expression of those who look, not too much, but too exclusively, upon the genius of the drama and so overlook its spirit and the sources of its inspiration? If Shakspeare be Shakspeare because of that transcendent genius which was in him like the " wind which bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh " it is yet true that great geniuses, like great planets, are lighted by other and sometimes lesser stars than their own.^ ^G. Santayana in "The New World," Dec, 1896. ' " Whether it was by accident, or in some happy hour, we know not, that Shak- speare in conning the manuscript of some wretched drama, felt the glorious impulse which prompted the pen to strike out whole passages, and to interpolate whole scenes : that moment was the obscure birth of his future genius. "Amen- ities of Literature," Disraeli, Vol. II, p. 193. 4 THE MINISTRY OF THE POET What may be called the " Mystery of Shakspeare " is one of the most interesting and also one of the most puzzling of literary problems. How can we reconcile what little is known of William Shakspeare with the present universal sweep of his fame and the acknowledged supremacy of his works in the world of literature ? How can we recognize in the young man of Stratford-on-Avon, whose education was hardly up to the present day grammar school standard, the author of the thirty- seven great dramas, which, together with the poems constitute not only, one of the greatest, but the greatest works of literary art ever evolved from the mind of any one man ? How can we, in this twentieth century, acknowledge a strolling play-actor of three centuries ago, who never attained unto the literary circles of his own day, as the king whom we delight to crown the greatest of all in the literary world ? These questions stand in the light of the following facts : — (a) Not a scrap of all the original manuscripts of all the works that bear the name of Shakspeare is known to exist. (b) There is nothing in the records of Stratford-on-Avon, either in the local registers of events, in the records of the Courts or the Church, or in the known circumstances of the man to identify William Shak- speare with these works. (c) The only original document we have as unquestionably Shak- speare's is his "Will ;" yet this "Will" does not make the slightest allu- sion to the manuscripts or printed copies of these works, or to any value or interest that might accrue from them to his heirs. Briefly stated, this is the back-ground against which is thrown, the general announcement of the works which bear his name, as the prod- ucts of William Shakspeare. Against this back-ground, however, we are confronted with certain other facts, no less significant and still more definite and arbitrary. I. These works are here. The plays and poems which the literary world and the publishers of his times, or shortly after, by common con- sent accredited to Shakspeare and which have been generally accredited to him, for nearly three hundred years, are not myths but facts. They are in our possession, — treasures of incomparable value. The Tempest Winter's Tale, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet Macbeth, Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and the history plays of England: — all these are present day possessions. They are tangible and real, — the monumental mountains of some great genius an inheritance that wasteth not, is not subject to moth, or rust, or decay of time, but continues to grow like an eternal Banyan tree with multi- plying greatness and value. THB GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARB 5 2. Nor are they a miracle. Great and superlative as they are, they do not belong to the realm of the supernatural. They are beyOnd all question, the products of human genius. While they sometimes mount up as on the wings of eagles and soar to realms of fancy and vision, they take their flight, like the English lark, from the ground. They are of the earth, — earthy : of the human, — humanly. ' 3. Nor are they of any other age than that attributed to them. No student of English history can, by any stretch of time or facts, place these works in any other period than that of the last quarter of the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth century.^ Any denial therefore of Shakspeare as the author of these works must substitute the name of some other genius of the same period of time. To do this does not seem to have occurred to the literary men who were con- temporary with Shakspeare, or who followed in a close line of sue-' cession. They had all the tradition and evidence of the times and, whatever else they thought of the plays, they regarded them, beyond doubt, as substantially the work of Shakspeare. Seven years after his death four booksellers formed a syndicate to publish an edition of the plays as the plays of William Shakspeare. Fifty years later Dryden mentions that " the plays of Shakspeare have become a little obsolete." For nearly a hundred years these plays lay almost wholly neglected " owing in part to the immediate revolution and rebellion and partly to the licentious tastes encouraged in Charles the Second's time and per- haps partly to the incorrect state of his (Shakspeare's) works." =* At the expiration of this period a revival of literary interest again occurred. Samuel Johnson and Alexander Pope each wrote an extended preface to their editions of Shakspeare and while they, especially Johnson, criticised them severely, it did not seem to enter their minds that there could be any doubt as to the authenticity of the works in general, although they questioned many parts of them as Un-Shakspearian. ^"Shakspeare came at the last hour which could have made room for him;i twenty-five years later he would have been denied expression, or his free and, comprehensive genius would have suffered serious distortion. The loveliness of, Milton's earlier lyrics reflect the joyousness and freedom of the golden age of English dramatic poetry. The Puritan temper was silently or noisily spreading! through the whole period of Shakspeare's career; within twenty-five years after his death it had closed the theaters and was making a desperate fight for the right to live according to conscience. Shakspeare arrived on the stage when the great schism which was to divide the English people had not gone beyond the stage of growing divergence of social and religious ideals ; there was still a united England." " Shakspeare, Poet, Dramatist and Man." Hamilton W. Mabie. " " Life of Shakspeare." By Dr. Alex. Chalmers, 1823. 6 THB MINISTRY OF THE POET The attempt, in recent years, to substitute the name of a scholar and a philosopher for that of Shakspeare as the author of these works has fallen and will soon be forgotten. A great scholar, like Bacon, could not have written these dramas even had he possessed the genius as well as the scholarship. As a scholar he could not have made the mistakes of Shakspeare. As to the absence of the manuscripts, the perplexity is not removed but deepened, if it be deemed supposable that the works were written by Bacon instead of by Shakspeare. It is conceivable that a man of Shakspeare's habits and environment might place no value upon the written plays, except as stage property for which they were exclusively written. But we cannot conceive of a great scholar and philosopher working out from his intellectual consciousness so magnificent a work, as for example the play of Hamlet, without perceiving its literary merit and placing a value upon the manuscript for preservation and inher- itance. We can see why Shakspeare might attach no value to those manuscripts for his heirs but it is not supposable in regard to a man who appreciated his own literary attainments, who was in a position to esti- mate their future value and who was so careful of the fame and reward which his talents and labor might bring. Had Bacon written the masterpieces of poetic genius which are found in all the greater plays he could have found means to introduce them to his own world of literature and secure their recognition as such. But to Shakspeare this was a closed door. Plays written for the stage were not recognized in the realm of literature. When in 1586 (or thereabouts) Shakspeare went to London he found many plays in the green-room of the theater. Mr. Mabie has told the story of the public attitude towards such plays so well that we take the liberty to quote him again : — "These plays were drawn from many sources; they were often composite; in many cases individual authorship had been forgotten, if it had ever been known • no sense of personal proprietorship attached to them ; they belonged to the theater ; many of them had been revised so many times by so many hands that all semblance of their first forms had disappeared ; they were constantly changed by the actors themselves. These plays were, in some instances, not even printed- they existed only as unpublished manuscripts ; in many cases a play did not exist as an entirety even in manuscript; it existed only in parts with cues for the different actors. The publication of a play was the very last thing desired by the writer, or by the theater to which it was sold and to which it belonged, and every precaution was taken to prevent a publicity which was harmful to the inter- ests of author and owner. The exclusive ownership of successful plays was a large part of the capital of the theaters. Shorthand writers often took down the THE GENIUS OF SHAKSPBARB 7 speeches of actors, and in this way plays were stolen and surreptitiously printed; but they were full of all manner of inaccuracies, the verse passages readily becoming prose in the hands of unimaginative reporters, and the method was regarded as dishonorable. Reputable playwrights, having sold a work to a theater, did not regard it as available for publication." ' This interesting page of history sufficiently explains the little esteem in which the manuscripts were held as literature. In view of all these considerations the wonder is, not that we know so little, but that we know so much of Shakspeare and his works. Here is the marvel ! Out of virgin soil there sprang one who, by his genius, unconsciously raised the whole stage-world unto the realm of literature. The drama, in his hand, became the greatest expression of human life and experience. His works were the masterpieces of liter- ature. If the new intellectual world of his day was incapable of perceiving it, nevertheless it supplied the material and awakened the spirit that made a Shakspeare possible. "At the critical moment Shak- speare appeared as the Columbus of that new world. Pioneers had gone before and in a measure prepared the way, but Shakspeare still remains the discoverer, occupying a position of almost lonely grandeur in the isolation and completeness of his work."^ Whence then hath this man these great things ? If he is the world's greatest literary fact, in what consists his superior power? There is one word which has been used of late in reference to Shak- speare and which is ascribed to him alone. It is the word "universality." Many men have done great things along some one line. They have shown themselves masters of some one form of art. To quote the words of an able writer "Rembrandt must teach us to enjoy the struggle of light with darkness, Wagner to enjoy peculiar musical effects ; Dickens gives a twist to our sentimentality, Artemus Ward to our humor; Emerson kindles a new moral light within us."^ And it might be added, Mozart and Handel have taught us that religion may find its loftiest expression in music. Of many writers it has been said "that each did his own one thing better than any other " but, as Keats said of Shakspeare, "he did easily all men's utmost." This Shakspeare touches every shore of human experience. He appro- priates every element and product of nature, — all the trees and all the flowers and the birds of the air are his by acquaintance. Nothing escapes him. " He touched life at so many points and responded so ' Shakspeare, Poet, Dramatist and Man. 'Encyclopedia Britannica. Article on Shakspeare. ' " The Will to Believe." William James. 8 THB MINISTRY OF THE POET instinctively to every movement in the complex web of its throbbing activities, that nothing affecting humanity was alien either to his heart or brain." ^ He is a naturalist, a scientist, a philosopher, a musician, a painter, an author, a historian, a physiologist, a psychologist, a physician, a lawyer, a mechanic, a theologian, — all in one. Yet he is none of these. By education and by profession he is nothing but a strolling play-actor ; yet by perception, by insight, by genius, he is everything human. Such genius is not a transient. Its works are not for to-day only, but for all time. They are not seen in their glory until time lends per- spective to the view. We do not see great things in the near view. We must lend distance to the mountain peak or we cannot see it. We must stand back if we would see a great picture. The universality of Shakspeare demands horizon. "Great authors have their place and day and evince more or less clearly marks of decline. Shakspeare is three centuries young and students are now examining his verse with renewed eagerness. . . In the classification of our English poets he must stand alone. There is none like him and the more we study him the more supremely he rises above the plane that others have reached." ^ " If the critics mention three poets of the first order, — Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare, — ^the greatest of these is the bard of Avon." * Genius is not scholarship nor learning ; it does not discredit these but gladly welcomes them and employs them. But it rises above them, — sees beyond them. Its horizon is far away greater. It has no limita- tion. It soars to realms unknown ; imagination is its handmaid. It sees the mystic and revels in the supernatural ; it talks with ghosts and fairies and elves ; and rides upon the air over all space. It discovers : — " — more things in heaven and earth Than are dream'd of in our philosophy." Great, indeed, is genius. It is far-seeing, prophetic ; it possesses eyes for depths, and distances, and darknesses ; it gives of its abundance and the world is brighter for its vision. It is — " The celestial fire to change the flint Into transparent crystal, bright and clear." ^Encyclopedia Britannica. Article on Shakspeare. ' Prof. T. W. Hunt in Chicago Record Home Study Circle. ' Great Books as Life Teachers. Newell Dwight Hillis. THB GENIUS OF SHAKSPBARE 9 It is a mighty force; a discoverer; a way out of the unknown, — through jungle and across the trackless ocean; it penetrates into mysteries of human physiology with Harvey ; it climbs the difficult way to the solar systems with Galileo ; it opens the cabinets of nature with Newton, and the world knows why an apple falls; or, with Watts, it discovers or reveals the utility of steam, and, with Franklin and Edison, of the electric forces. But it is not a creator. It is revelational, not creative. Its ministry is to discover and declare. It is prophetic rather than productive. " Shakspeare did not make types," said a certain orator ; no, but he discovered them. He found them and embodied them in living char- acters. Falstaff was a real flesh and blood creature of his age, a type of the fattened spawn of an idle, vile and sensual aristocracy. Shak- speare discovered him and, as a type, has made him immortal. Jago is the embodied type of a scheming traitor. Dogberry is the personifica- tion of ignorant officialism, " drest in a little brief authority," which intoxicates his infinitesimal brain. As types these are not created, but discovered and revealed, for all time. Dogberry is not dead : he exists in every village and may be found in the official sanctums of local coun- cils, great cities, State capitols and national governments. Scores of types were revealed by Shakspeare. No other genius (not even Dickens) ever, so plainly, portrayed the shams and bubbles and vanities of human beings. Herein was Shakspeare universal. Others, like Scott, Thackeray and Dickens drew their portraits of humanity, but they were local or provincial. Shakspeare's limit was the world. His characters are true to all time and his incarnated human traits grow with age. Hamlet, Macbeth, Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Antonio and Shylock, do not crumble with age, as the statuary of a sculptor, but are imperishable pictures standing out upon the scroll of time, like living models for every school of human study.^ Nor is it true that genius is iconoclastic, as has been said of it in connection with Shakspeare. Genius and iconoclasm have no more in common than peace and war, or any other two opposite things. Genius is not an image-breaker, but an ideal-builder. Genius does not go with ax in hand to destroy the poor idols which men have made, but with magic fingers supplies rfew and better objects of beauty and adoration. ^ " Of the scope of Shakspeare, I will say only, that the intellectual measure of every man since born, in the domains of creative thought, may be assigned to him, according to the degree in which he has been taught by Shakspeare."— Ruskin. 10 THE MINISTRY OF THE POET Iconoclasm shatters with rude, unsympathetic hand the gods which human hearts have worshiped and leaves those souls in their darkness and despair. Genius sees that " there is no darkness but ignorance " (Twelfth Night 4:2), and proceeds to open the windows, that light may pour in from heaven, — that God may be seen by mortal eye. Iconoclasm enters the humble home and smashes the crude vases and weak imitations of the sculptor's art. Genius takes chisel in hand and brings the angel out of the rock, and welcomes all the world to revel in its beauty. Iconoclasm burns and destroys the cheap lithograph and gaudy chromo which relieve the monotony of cottage walls and gives nothing in its place. Genius transforms the shadows and multiplies art, that real pictures may be abundant and free as flowers in summer. Shakspeare was a genius, and therefore was not an Iconoclast. The ancient Greeks worshiped the sun as the greatest of all gods. The modern Greek says " there is nothing so great as genius." ^ Thus hero-worship deifies an attribute; it glorifies a talent — physical or intellectual — and he who attains the highest point of that talent is its god. To multitudes oi men there are no heroes but warriors of the battlefield or, perhaps, the prize-ring. The mighty products of Angelo's brain, or Rembrandt's soul, or Mozart's fire stir not their hearts. But genius,— like the sun, — sheds its radiant light upon all men without bargain and never waits for recognition. It gives of its affluence without price and is surprised at its own greatness. It is a quality of genius that it is not limited by the personality of the man. It rises above him, looks through him, sees beyond him, speaks by him. In his loftiest attainments the man of genius is often unconscious of his greatness. It is not necessary that the sun should be conscious of its own infinite resources and gifts. ' Robt. Ingersoll's lecture on Shakspeare. II A GREATER THAN GENIUS There is a greater than genius and that greater is — character. Emerson says: — "The purest Hterary talent appears, at one time " great, at another time small, but character is of a stellar and undimin- " ishable greatness. . . Character repudiates intellect, yet excites it ; and " character passes into thought, is published so, and then is ashamed " before new flashes of moral worth. Character is nature in its highest " form." Thus genius may shine through the soul and is sometimes reflected through character. But it may flash its light with surpassing brilliancy and yet not express character. Ine poets uttered great thoughts of fire which flamed forth as the illumination of a comet, but these thoughts were not always a reflex of their moral natures. Genius helps us towards perfection in all that is purely literary or artistic; it brings us the ideal in house-building and that is immeasur- able gain. But for infinite, eternal value, genius does not compare with that wealth which brings us a nobler sense of home-building and soul growth. " Men of character," says Emerson, " are the conscience of the society to which they belong. . . . Feeble souls never behold a principle until it is lodged in a person." What the world most needs and has always needed most is a " principle lodged in a person." For although we may see suggestions of principle in works of art, it is only as they represent the ideal that they are of actual value. The sculptor may bring forth from the marble block a human hand more perfectly formed than any hand we have seen, for it is a copy of the ideal hand, but it lacks flesh and blood and grip and grasp ; we are richer in the possession of the artist-made hand, but we are better for the hand that responds to ours with the grip of a personal friend. There is no soul behind the marble hand. It is no disparagement of genius to say that it cannot give peace to a single sorrowing soul, or rest to one sin-burdened spirit. Nor can it assure us of a moral purpose. All the genius of man cannot make a liar true or a moral leper clean. 12 THE MINISTRY OF THE POET These two, — Genius and Character, — are not in conflict ; they are not at war, the one with the other ; they are each of his own kingdom, — genius of intellect, — character of the heart. A great genius may be — as Shakspeare was — impersonal. He sends forth his radiant light unconsciously. He it is who " builded better than he knew." But a great character is never impersonal. It is claimed that Shakspeare's works are the most artistically beauti- ful of all the literary world and that it is the measure of their great value. But of yet greater value is a living character. By as much as a hand with a soul behind it is greater than a marble hand, so is character greater than genius. Of course genius may be associated with per- sonality, but the distinction is, that genius may be impersonal, character cannot be. Wherever greatness of character is, there is great per- sonality. In such there is eminent consciousness and there is also a living, vital touch of soul with soul. "A divine person is the prophecy of the mind ! A friend is the hope of the heart. Our beatitude waits for the fulfillment of these two in one. . . . There are many that can discern Genius on his starry track, though the mob is incapable ; but when that love which is all-suffering, all-abstaining, all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself, that it will be a wretch and also a fool in this world, sooner than soil its white hands by any compliances, comes into our streets and houses, — only the pure and aspiring can know his face, and the only compliment they can pay it, is to own it." — Emerson. There have been many men of great sacrificing love who were true to some one or more of the lines of this portrait ; but if we would know its original and only perfect embodiment, we must turn to that one who is the fulfillment of " the prophecy of the mind " and " the hope of the heart," he who said of himself " a greater than Solomon is here," he who constantly asserted himself by the most positive utterances of egoism, he who in word and in action is " self-sufficingness," ..." the person who is riches " of whom, as Emerson says : "I cannot think as a,lone, or poor, or exiled, or unhappy, or client, but a perpetual patron, benefactor and beatified man." Such is he who makes no claim to genius and does not appeal to us by it, but always declares himself a supreme personality. " / am the way and the truth and the life." During all his active ministry and especially the latter period of it, Christ always proceeded upon the most lofty arid supreme assumption of his own personal character. A GREATER THAN GENIUS 13 Unlike Shakspeare, Jesus is always conscious and personal, and that, as we have seen, is the grand distinction between great intellect and great character. Character is essentially and intensely personal, genius is not. History furnishes abundant illustration of this. Moses, Elijah, Daniel and Paul were each intensely personal. Every great Reformer has been: — Cromwell, Luther, Savonarola, Wesley, Washington, Lin- coln. The missionary would be nothing without it. Livingston, Moffatt, Williams and Hudson preached and opened the ways of jungle and desert, not by force of intellect but by character. The philosophers are not so. Socrates depreciated himself and dis- counted his own personality. Christ, on the contrary, came to win men to himself as the very source and center of his gospel. Socrates cared nothing for loyalty to himself if only his disciples studied his philosophy. Christ demanded loyalty to himself as an essential test of discipleship, for he did not come to establish a system, but a kingdom. Socrates promoted science but was unable to offer a redemptive scheme for the spiritual woes and sins of humanity. Christ left science to others and gave Himself to the saving of man. Socrates died the death of a martyr, but his martyrdom is of little concern to the world, while his philosophy is much. Christ died a martyr's death and his death, even more than his life, changed the entire current of human affairs and, with his resurrection, is the supreme fact of Christianity.^ It matters little to the world whether or no Shakspeare wrote the works that bear his name,^ their value does not depend upon his char- acter or personality. But it matters all whether or no Jesus be The Christ. Shakspeare's works are of priceless value but his name is no charm or power to redeem or transform men. He wrote from time to time the splendid thoughts which emanated from his surpassing genius and then fell back to the level of ordinary men. Christ spoke his grandest words without thought of editing or revi- sing them for publication ; but his life ever reached the highest mark of his teachings. He raised the standard of moral thought and deed so high that none of his followers ever attained its highest point, yet he himself never once fell below it during all his life of labor and depriva- tion and sacrifice.* ' " If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."— Rousseau, the French Sceptic. ' It is said that Charles Lamb in the course of a discussion with some literary friends remarked: "If Shakspeare were now to enter this room we should all stand up to do him honor ; but if Jesus of Nazareth were to come in, we should all fall down and kiss the hem of his garment." 14 THB MINISTRY OF THE POET The world needs Christ, not simply for the gospels that record his life and teachings, but for Himself. The gospels that tell of him are of value beyond price, but what we need most of Jesus, — is Jesus. And that is true of every Saviour of men or nations. When a nation is in distress, or a people oppressed, it is the personal enthusiasm, the passion, the power, the leadership of a Statesman, a General, a Tribune that is needed ; — a Moses, Washington, Garibaldi, Lincoln, Grant or a Gladstone. The world needs its Saviours, not for what they can say, but for what they are and do. When a heart is in distress or is held captive by some demon of sin it is not the philosophy or science of a scheme that can save but— a SAVIOUR. He, therefore, who reveals a perfect personality and sustains it, is the ONB whom the world needs for its moral hunger and heart sorrows, — the supreme / AM who never fails to declare himself the essential per- sonal Life of the Kingdom of heaven. But such character knows no self. It is " all-suffering, all-abstaining, all-aspiring." Christ never once asserted himself for his own glory. In every self-announcement He proclaimed the advantage of others — not of himself. There is no record of his having once exercised his power or authority in which we can, by the most searching inquiry, discover a selfish purpose, or a means to promote his interests in society. We know of no miracle performed by him to contribute to his own com- fort, or to relieve his own needs in poverty, hunger, or weariness of body. His great grand infinite / AM'S were every one of them benevo- lent and gracious towards others. He never said, "I am divine, there- fore all men must concede to me." But he said " I am the Way " there- fore all men should " Come unto Me." All his invitations and announce- ments had the needs and sorrows of men in view : " Come," " weary," " burdened," " heavy laden," " I am the Door," " the good Shepherd," "the Vine," "the Way," "the Truth," "the Life;" I tell you this because " no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Blessed, glorious assumption of Jesus Christ ! the very essence of humility for it seeks not itself but others. Men are rarely, if ever self-sacrificial in their work from first to last and all through. Paul became so ! the Christian martyrs became so ! But from the beginning to the end Christ's life was wholly and entirely self-sacrificing and other-seeking. He moved, every hour of his life towards the cross, and when he entered upon the active ministry for which he had prepared himself he bore the cross without cessation. " I A GREATER THAN GENIUS i5 lay down my life for my sheep," he said and this he did, in living as in dying, never once faltering or excusing himself from the hardest task, the darkest Gethsemane, or the most self- forgetting labors. Men who have not understood this have wondered at his assumptions and self-assertions ; and yet the most severe and the most cynical of all critics have never witnessed against him a single act of self-seeking or self-interest. His self-giving is the most marvelous thing known to men. Never did he consult his own ease or necessities at the expense of human suffering; never did he say to the needy or the distressed; '■ Wait until I rest — come again to-morrow !" How vastly greater is such giving than is that, even of genius. It is the very gift of love and that is " the greatest thing in the world." Genius gives without stint or measure, but it brings no touch of love to the human heart. It cannot give rest or peace to its own most favored sons and daughters. The loftiest genius has ever needed a personal Saviour. Not a few of the most transcendent human intellects have dwelt in souls who have fallen " weary and heavy laden " — living and dying — moral wrecks and spiritual bankrupts. Poor Chatterton! — prodigy of youthful genius, the wondrous boy- poet of more than a century ago committed suicide at the age of eight- een; broken-hearted, he shut out the light of one of the brightest stars of genius that ever God gave to the race of men. He had found no heart-rest, he knew no infinite love, and hope perished within him. If ever a human spirit needed a personal saviour it was young Chatterton of whom Wordsworth wrote : — "The marvelous boy, the sleepless soul that perished in his pride." Perhaps the most fertile, and certainly one of the richest of American poets was Edgar Allan Poe. But the story of the moral wreck of this gifted soul is painfully notorious. Surely Poe needed a saviour other than genius. Burns, the idol of Scottish hearts, the pride of the glens and groves of Ayrshire, author of the immortal " Cotter's Saturday Night," the bard of whom his biographers wrote, " he perished at thirty-seven, he can hardly be said to have died," was another example of the need of men of genius, as of other men, for a personal saviour. All the genius of the inimitable dramatic orator was in John B. Gough when he drifted down the moral plane until he fell into the very gutter of human society, a mere saloon clown. But Gough was transformed by a power greater than genius. Personal kindness, human sympathy, love incarnate, touched his heart i6 THB MINISTRY OF THE POET and — behold ! the dead was awakened, the resurrected man came forth. And when his star of genius was set in a moral firmament, inspired by divine love, he transported millions by the story of his own redemption. And that is it. Genius is wealth, a mine of great riches, a constella- tion of light and beauty and power. But it needs love, the vital essence of character to complete it, to guide it, to inspire it, and to redeem its prophets. This is the incarnation, the vital personal energy to redeem the world, to direct genius, to qualify teachers, to ennoble life, to purify society, to exalt government, to advance the truest and highest and best civiliza- tion, — to redeem the world. It is going on, — this incarnation, — the Christ spirit, — ^manifesting itself in various ways, breaking the horizon, broadening the view, bring- ing the world into touch with the world and with God, making the sentiment of universal peace and brotherhood a fact, converting all man- kind into one family, one in Christ — one in Love — one in Sympathy. Herein is true greatness. Greatness that never falters, that " will be a wretch and also a fool in this world sooner than soil its white hands by any compliances," — that gives itself to a sinful world in purity, in love, in sacrifice. What, if it were possible, that this infinitude of the personal Christ could cease? Shakspeare's work of genius itself could hardly sustain the shock. So much of his glory does he borrow from the inspiration of that life, so much does he' depend for abiding fame and increasing appreciation upon Him of whom he wrote : — " In those holy fields Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which, fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd For our advantage on the bitter cross." BOOK SECOND Shakspeare's Biblical Translations /. GOD IN SHAKSPMARB II. BIBLE CHARACTERS III. SCRIPTURE PACTS, INCIDENTS PLACES, ETC. IV. SHAKSPEARB AN INTERPRETER OB BIBLE WORDS V. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPEARB PARALLELS 2 17 GOD IN SHAKSPBARB It is strange that so many literary men have been blind, — not only to the spiritual or religious element in Shakspeare, but also to the actual facts of his frequent use of Scripture and of references to the Divine Being. The most extraordinary instance of this blindness is that of Michelet, the French author, who is credited with saying: — "As far as I recollect, the name of God does not occur in Shakspeare, or if it does, it is rarely, or by chance and unaccompanied by the shadow of a religious sentiment." ^ It seems incredible that any reader of the great Poet's works, to say nothing of an author who ventures to write upon them, should be guilty of such a statement. Either the memory of Michelet is very treacherous or he must have closed his eyes — we had almost said wilfully — to the overwhelming facts which are set forth in this chapter. The Divine Being is referred to in all parts of the works of Shak- speare, and under many different Scriptural or reverential terms. The use of the word " God " as applied to the God of the Bible is distinguished from references to pagan " gods " by the use of the capital letter in all editions of his works. Sometimes it is employed as an exclamation, as " O God !" or " God's will ! " and is not always, in such cases, accompanied with any religious thought, but in the great majority of instances the word is employed with a religious meaning and with reverence. This word " God " is found in the various dramas nearly seven hun- dred times. This number varies a little in different editions but not sufficiently to affect the figures materially. As Mrs. Cowden Clarke points out " the word Heaven is frequently substituted for this word (God) more especially in the historical plays." ' The following table of the number of times the word (God) is used in the text of Knight's edition may be taken as substantially correct : — 'John Taylor in Shakspeariana, November, 1889. "Clarke's Concordance to Shakspeare. 19 20 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Richard III. contains the word God,^ 99 times ; Much Ado about Nothing, 59 ; II Henry VI., 58; I Henry VI., 25 ; III Henry VI., 30; Henry V., 58; I Henry IV., 36; II Henry IV., 26; Richard II., 44 ; Henry VIII., 32 ; Hamlet, 27 ; Romeo and JuHet, 31 ; Love's Labor Lost, 26; A6 You Like It, 20; All's Well that Ends Well, 19; Merchant of Venice, 18; Taming of Shrew, 18; Twelfth Night, 14 ; Macbeth, 14 ; Othello, 5 ; Comedy of Errors,^ 13; Titus Andronicus,^ 6; King John, 6 ; Pericles, 4 ; Coriolanus, 2 ; Midsummer Night's Dream, 5 ; Merry Wives, 2 ; Troilus and Cressida, i ; King Lear, i ; Antony and Cleopatra, i. The following terms of reverence, or exclamations, having reference to the Supreme Being are found in the texts of the plays given : — God Above. Macb. 4 : 3. God Almighty. Hen. V. 2: 4; 4: i ; II Hen. VI. 2:1. God before — in the sense of God leading. Hen. V. 3:6. God befriend us. I Hen. IV. 5:1. God be praised. Hen. V. 4 : 7. II Hen. VI. 2 : i. God Himself. II Hen. VI. 4 : 2. God help. I Hen. IV. 2 : 4. God defend the right. II Hen. VI. 2 : 3. God forgive (thee). I Hen. IV. i : 2. God forgive (me) (them). I Hen. IV. i : 3. IHen. IV. 3:2. II Hen. VL 3:3. God forbid. Much Ado 1:1. Mer. of Ven. 2 : 2. Tam. Shrew 4: 2, 5: 1. Rich. II. 2: 1, 4: I. I Hen. IV. 5:2. Hen. V. 1:2. II Hen. VL 3:2, 4:4. Ill Hen. VL 1:2; 2:1; 3:254:1; 5:4. Hen. VIIL 2 : 2. Rom. and Jul. i : 3. Titus And. 4 : 3. God keep me so. Hen. V. 4 : 7. God knows. I Hen. IV. 2:1. I Hen. VI. 5:1. II Hen. VI. i : 2, 2:1,3:2,5:2. ' Mrs. Cowden Clarke gives the word in Richard III. ninety-seven times. ' In these plays the word is used much more frequently in the plural and with- out the capital, but these numbers must be understood as referring to the word in the Christian sense. GOD IN SHAKSPUARB 21 God of battles. Hen. V. 4 : i. God's majesty. Rich. II. 4: i. God our hope. II Hen. VI. 2 : 3, 4 : 4. God save. I Hen. IV. i : 2. God speed. I Hen. VI. 3 : 2. God's Will, God's Peace. Hen. V. 4 : 3. O God ! Rich. III. 4 : 4. Ham. 1 : 2. Hen. V. 4 : 8. Ill Hen. VI. 5:6. II Hen. VI. 2-. I, 3:3. Great God of Heaven. Rich. III. 5 : 4. God Omnipotent. Rich. II. 3 : 3. If God please. Hen. V. 4:3. Heaven^ (as God). All's Well 2: i. Rom. and Jul. 4:5 (twice). Rich. III. 5:3. Hen. VIII. 3:1. Rich. II. 5:2; 3:2; 3:3; 1:2 (twice). Maker — " praise my Maker." Hen. VIII. 3 : 2, 5 : 4. All Seer. Rich. III. 5: i. Eternal God. II Hen. VI. i : 4. The Everlasting. Ham. i : 2. The most just God. Peri. 5 : i. The Widow's Champion and Defense. Rich. II. i : 2. Thee. Hen. VI. 2:3. Eternal Mover of the Heavens. II Hen. VI. 3 : 3. King of Kings and Lord of Hosts. I Hen. VI. 1:1. Rich. III. i : 4 and 2: I. King's King. Rich. III. 4 : 4. King of Heaven. Rich. II. 3 : 3. Rich. III. i : 2. He that wears the crown immortally. II Hen. IV. 4 : 4. Him that all things knows. All's Well 2:1. Him that made me. I Hen. VI. 2 : 4. Ill Hen. VI. 2 : 2. He of greatest works. All's Well 2:1. His minister. Rich. II. i : 2. Lord; O, Lord. Rich. IL 3:2; Hen. V. 4: i- H Hen. VL 1:1; 2: 1, and 2:3. OThou. Rich. 1115:3. II Hen. VL 3: 2. Judge. Hen. VIIL 3:1. Providence. Tempest i : 2. 'The word "Heaven" in the texts given above is used with the meaning of "God" or "Supreme Being." Shakspeare Uses the word many other times with the meaning of good or high influences. 22 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Shakspeare makes reverent use of the word "Almighty " six times and the word " Christ " is, nine times, fitly and reverently quoted. The Latin (Jesu) for Jesus is not always fitly spoken: On fourteen occasions it is used as an exclamation and hardly with reverence. " Redeemer " is twice used in Rich. III. The " Holy Ghost " is never mentioned in Shakspeare, a fact attributed to the Poet's sense of rever- ence for that name, and the word "Saviour" is mentioned only once, viz.: in Ham. i:i. II BIBLB CHARACTERS Adam. I Hen. IV. 2 : 4 and 3 : 3. Hen. V. i : i. II Hen. VI. 4 : 2. Ham. s : i. Love's Labor 4 : 2 ; 5 : 2. Much Ado 2 : i (twice). Rich. II. 3:4. As You Like It 2 : i. Com. of Err. 4 : 3. Eve. Love's Labor i : i ; 5 : 2. Rich. III. 3 : 4. Twelfth Night 1 : 5. Two Gent. 3:1. Merry Wives 4: 2. Sonnet 93. Abel. Rich. II. I : I. I Hen. VI. i : 3. Cain. I Hen. VI. 1:3. II Hen. IV. i : i. Ham. 5 : i ; 3 : 3. Rich. II. 5:6. K. John 3 : 4. Love's Labor 4 : 2. Noah. Com. of Err. 3 : 2. Twelfth Night 3 : 2. Japheth. II Hen. IV. 2 : 2. Abraham. Mer. of Ven. 1:2:1:3. Rich. II. 4 : i. Rich. III. 4 : 3. Hagar. Mer. of Ven. 2 : 5. Jacob. Mer. of Ven. i : 2 (five times) 52:5. Laban. Mer. of Ven. i : 3 (twice). Pharaoh. IHen. IV. 2:4. Pharaoh's Soldiers. Much Ado 3 : 3. Joshua. Love's Labor 5:1. Deborah. I Hen. VI. i : 2. Jephthah and his daughter. Ham. 2 : 2 (twice). III. Hen. VI. 5:1. Samson. I Hen. VI. i : 2. Hen. VIII. 5 : 3. Love's Labor i : 2 (five times). Goliath. Merry Wives 5:1. I Hen. VI. i : 2. Jezebel. Twelfth Night 2 : 5. Job and Job's wife. Merry Wives 5:5. II Hen. IV. 1 : 2. Solomon. Love's Labor i : 2 and 4 : 3. Sheba (Saba). Hen. VIIL 5:4. Daniel. Mer. of Ven. 4: i (three times). Nebuchadnezzar. All's Well 4 : 5. Jesus. Rich. IIL 5 : 3. Ill Hen. VI. 5 : 6. Christ (Master). Rich. II. 4: i. Rich. III. 1:4- H Hen. VI. 5 : i. I Hen. IV. I : I ; 3 : 2. Hen. V. 4: i. I Hen. VI. i : 2. Mary (Mother of Jesus). Rich. II. 2 : i. Hen. VIII. 5:1. I Hen. VI. 1 : 2. 23 24 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Herod. Hen. V. 3:3. Ham. 3 : 2. Merry Wives 2:1. Ant. and Cleo. 1:2; 3:3; 4:6. The Nazarite. Mer. of Ven. i : 3. Twelve Apostles. Rich. II. 4: i. Judas. Rich. II. 3 : 2 ; 4 : i. Ill Hen. VI. 5 : 7- Love's Labor 5 : 2 (seven times). As You Like It 3 : 4. Judas Maccabeus. Love's Labor 5:1:5:2. Barrabas. Mer. of Ven. 4:1. Lazarus. I Hen. IV. 4 : 2. Dives. I Hen. IV. 3 : 3. Pilate. Rich. II. 4: 1. Rich. III. 1 : 4. Prodigal ^ Son. IHen. IV. 4:2. Merry Wives 4 : 5 ; Winter's Tale 4:2. IIHen. IV. 2:1. Peter (St. Peter). Much Ado 2:1. Two Gent. 2:3. Twelfth Night 3:1. Othello 4 : 2. PauP (Saint) (Apostle) . Rich. III. i:2;i:3;3:4;S:3. St. Phillip's daughters. I Hen. VI. i : 2. Satan. Com. of Err. 4:3:4:4. I Hen. IV. 2 : 4. Merry Wives 5:5. All's Well 5 : 3. The Devil.' Ham. 2:2:3:1. Mer. of Ven. 1:3:2:2. Rich. III. 1:2: 1:3. Belzebub. Twelfth Night 5: i. Hen. V. 4:7. Macb. 2:3. Lucifer is once mentioned in the Bible Isai. XIV. 12 and Shakspeare uses the word with a similar meaning in Hen. VIII. 3 : 2. Hen. V. 4 : 7. "These references are of course to the story known as "The Prodigal Son," but the word " prodigal " is not found in the Scriptures. 'Saint Paul in Richard III. is several times used in reference to St. Paul's Cathedral. "The word "devil" is used many times as an epithet to express devilish char- acter, or in slang and oaths. Ill SCRIPTURB FACTS, INCIDENTS, PLACES. BTC. Lights Created. Tempest i : 2. Fall of Man. Hen. V. 2 : i and 2:2. I Hen. IV. 3:3. As You Like It 2: I. Adam's transgression. Much Ado 2:1. Adam a gardener. Ham. 5:1. II Hen. VI. 4 : 2. Eden. Rich. II. 2:1. Birth of Cain. K. John 3:4. II Hen. IV. i : i. Cain as a murderer. I Hen. VI. 1:3. II Hen. IV. 1:1. Abel murdered. Ham. 3 : 3. Rich. II. I : i. I Hen. VI. i : 3. The Flood. As You Like It. 5 : 4. Com. of Err. 3 : 2. Bosom of Abraham. Rich. II. 4: i. Egyptian darkness. Twelfth Night 4 : 2. The lean kine. I Hen. IV. 2 : 4. Firstborn of Egypt. As You Like It. 2 ; 5. Pharaoh's Soldiers. Much Ado. 3 : 3. The ten commandments. Ham. 5:1. I Hen. VI. i : 3. Meas. for Meas. 1 : 2. Law of Inheritance. Hen. V. 1:2. Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter. Ill Hen. VI. 5 : 1. Patience of Lot. II Hen. IV. i : 2. Nebuchadnezzar's Fall. All's Well 4 : 5. The hill of Bashan. Ant. and Cleo. 3 : 2. Herod's slaughter of infants. Hen. V. 3 : 3. Blind man healed. II Hen. VI. 2 : i. Prodigal Son. (See Bible Characters.) Calf killed for Prodigal's feast. Com. of Err. 4 : 3. Devil's entering swine. Mer. of Ven. i : 3. Betrayal of Jesus. Rich. IL 4: i. (See Judas.) Pilate's handwashing. Rich. II. 4: i. Rich. III. 1:4. Crucifixion of Christ. I Hen. IV. i : i. 25 26 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Field of Golgotha. Rich. II. 4 : i ; 4 : 2. Macb. i : 2. Sepulchre of Christ. Rich. II. 2 : i. I Hen. IV. 1:1. Jerusalem. K. John 2:2. I Hen. IV. i : i. II Hen. IV, 4 : 4. Ill Hen. VI. 5 : 5. The Holy Land. Rich. II. 5:6. II Hen. IV. 4:4. Miracles. Hen. V. i : i. IV SHAKSPEARE AS AN INTERPRETER OF BIBLE WORDS The dramatic and poetic works of Shakspeare furnish one of the best aids to a correct interpretation of the meaning of many words and phrases in the English Bible which are difficult, or obscure, when viewed in the light of modern standards of the English language. The writings of Shakspeare extended over a period of twenty-four years ranging from a. d. 1587 to 161 1. The King James translation of the Bible was begun in 1604 and completed in 161 1. Thus our common version of the Bible was translated during the latter part of the period in which the great dramatist wrote. The trans- lators would naturally use English words in the sense employed by the leading writers of the age, and of all writers, Shakspeare was the most likely to employ the colloquial tongue of his time and country.^ Our English Bible, therefore, may be used as a student's guide to certain forms of expression found in Shakspeare and likewise Shak- speare may be profitably studied for interpretation of many words in the Bible. It is claimed for the King James version of the Bible that one reason why it " gives such general satisfaction to the English ear is that it speaks a language of its own which is conventionally received as a Biblical tongue." ' This remark may be applied to many of the finer passages of Shak- speare's dramas; indeed the Poet is never so grand as when he approaches the style of Biblical poetry and it is a matter of common observation that many passages of his works are often quoted, by mistake, as from the Bible itself.^ The Commissioners appointed by King James to translate the Bible also acquired the same lofty Biblical style of expression — the same use " " If we except the translators of the Bible, Shakspeare wrote the best Eng- lish that has yet been written. . . Writing for the general public, he used such language as would convey his meaning to his auditors — the common phrase- ology of his period."— Richard Grant White. "Ency. Brit., Vol. 8, p. 389. ' See quotation from " Shakspeare and the Bible " in preface. 27 28 BIBLICAL, TRANSLATIONS of language which marks it as distinct from the ordinary forms of literary English. The preface published in all editions of our common version was the work of that large and learned body of divines. As we read through this most interesting and instructive document we might easily imagine it the utterance of one of Shakspeare's loftiest characters. Illustrating the striking similarity in the use of common words, as found in the Bible, and in the works of Shakspeare, the following selected passages will be of service. The words are given from the text of the Bible and also of Shakspeare : — ABJECTS in the sense of vile, mean persons. Yea, the objects gather themselves against me. Ps. xxxv. 13. We are the Queen's objects and must obey. Rich. III. 1:1. Me, as his object object. Hen. VIII. 1:1. AIXOW— approve. That ye allow the deeds of your fathers. Luke xi. 48. That which I do I allow not. Rom. vii. 15. As we were allowed of God. / Thess. ii. 4. Generally allowed for your many warlike preparations (qualities). Merry Wives 2:2. I like them all to do allow them well. // Hen. IV. 4: 2. Praise us as we are tested. Allow us as we prove. Troi. and Cres. 3: 2. BEWRAY — disclose, betray. Thy speech bewrayeth thee. Matt. xxvi. 73. — he * * bewrayeth it not. Prov. xxix. 24. — which bewrayeth itself. Prov. xxvii. 16. And state of our bodies would bewray what life We have led since thy exile. Corio. V. 3. The Queen whose looks bewray her anger. /// Hen. VI. i: i. And not bewray thy treason with a blush. /// Hen. VI. 3:3. BRAVERY — vanity, pride of dress. The bravery of their tinkling ornaments. Isai. Hi. 18. His bravery is not on my cost. As You Like It. 2: 7. Scarfs and fans and double change of bravery. Tarn. Shrew. 4: 3. BESTOW — put away, or lay up. There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. Luke xii. 18. We will bestow you in some better place. / Hen. VI. 3: 2. I will bestow you where you will have time To speak your bosom freely. 0th. 3: i. CAREFUL — anxious. Be careful for nothing. Phil. iv. 6. O full of careful business are his looks. Rich. II. 2: 2. BIBLE WORDS INTBRPRBTBD 29 CARRIAGE — baggage or luggage. We took up our carriages and went to Jerusalem. Acts xxi. IS- Many carriages he hath despatched. King John 5: 7. CASTAWAY — lost, cast-off. Lest * * I myself should become a castaway. I Cor. ix. zj. Why do you look on us and shake your head, and call us orphans, wretches, castaways. Rich. III. z: 2. CLEAN — completely, entirely. Is his mercy clean gone forever. Ps. Ivii. 8. Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia. Com. of Err. i: I. Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. Jul. Caes. l: 3. CHARITY — love. Now abideth faith, hope, charity. I Cor. xiii. 13. For charity itself fulfils the law And who can sever love from charity. Love's Labor 4: 3. CHOICE — select, excelling. A choice young man and a goodly. / Sam. ix. 2. The choice and master spirits of this age. Jul. Caes. 3: 1. CONVENIENT — jMiVo6fe, seemly. Feed me with food convenient for me. Prov. xxx. 8. To do those things which are not convenient. Rom. i. 28. As shall conveniently become you there. Mer. of Ven. 2: 8. All that honor that good convenience claims. All's Well 3: 2. CUNNING — jHH or skillful. Let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii.. 5. Send me a man cunning to work in gold. // Chron. ii. j. To our sports my better cunning faints. Ant. and Cleo. z: 3. To cunning men I will be kind and liberal. Tam. Shrew, i: i. DAMNATION — condemnation, judgment. This word and the word " danm " are frequently used both in Bible and Shakspeare in this sense. Ye shall receive the greater damnation. Matt, xxiii. 14. Author of the servants' damnation. Hen. V. 4: 1 EAR — plough or till. He will set them to ear his ground. / Sam. viii. 12. Let them go to ear the land. Rich. II. 3: z. He that ears my land spares my team. All's Well i: 3. FAIN — glad, or gladly. He would fain have filled his belly. Luke xv. 16. To my thinking he would fain have had it. Jul. Caes. i: 2. FAVOR — countenance, looks. Rachel was beautiful and well favored. Gen. xxixt 17. I know your favor well. Though now you have no sea-cap on your head. Twelf. Night. 3: 4. A shrew, ill-favored wife. Tam. Shrew i: 2. 30 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS GOOD-MAN— /iffad of house. The good-man is not at home. Prov. vii. ig. To the good-man of the house. Mark xiv. 14, Luke xxii. II. This story shall the good-man teach his son. Hen. V. 4: 2. LEASING — lying or deceiving. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. Ps. v. 6. How long will ye seek after leasing. Ps. iv. 2. In his praise have almost stamped the leasing. Corio. S: 2. LET — hinder. Only he who now letteth will let. 11. Thess. ii. 7. If nothing lets to make us happy. Twelf. Night 5: 1. MAID-CHILD — female. But if she bear a maid-child. Lev. xii. 5. She brought forth a maid-child. Peri. 5: 3. MAN-CHILD — j»a/e. If a woman have born, a man-child. Levi. xii. 2. Hearing he was a man-child. Corio. i: 3. PASSION — suffering. He showed himself alive after his passion. Acts i. 3. You shall offend him and extend his passion. Macb. 3: 4. PROPER — handsome, fair. Because they saw he was a proper child. Heb. xi. 23. A marvelous proper man. Rich. III. i: 2. He is a proper man's picture. Mer. of Ven. i: 2. QUARREL — cavtse. That shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. Lev. xxvi. 25. And since the quarrel will bear no color. Jul. Caes. 2: 1. QUICK — alive, living. And they go down quick into the pit. Num. xvi. 30. The word of God is quick and powerful. Heb. iv. iz. That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. / Cor. xv. 36. Who shall judge the quick and the dead. // Tim. iv. i. Now pile your dust upon the quick and the dead. Ham. 5; i. The mercy that was quick in us but late. Hen. V. 2: 2. Thou'rt quick. But yet I'll bury thee. Tim. of Ath. 4: 3. And quicken his embraced heaviness. Mer. of Ven. 2: 8. SORT — c/o« of people. Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Acts xvii. 5. Assemble all the poor men of your sort. Jul. Caes. i: i. STRAIT — narrow, small. The place is too strait for us. // Kings vi. i. Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate. Matt. vii. 13. BIBLB WORDS INTERPRETED 31 STRAIT — Continued : All flying through a strait lane— That the strait pass was dammed with dead men. Cyt.ib. 5; 3. Honor travels in a strait so narrow. Troi. and Cres. 3: 3. TERROR — fear, power. Rulers are not a terror to good works. Rom. xiii. 3. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. // Cor. v. II. Lent him our terror. Meas. for Meas. i: 1. THOUGHT — anxious, anxiety. Take no thought for your life. Matt. vi. 2$. Luke xii. 22. She pin'd in thought. Twelf. Night. 2: 4. Take thought and die. Jul. Caes. 2: i. Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. Ham. 3: 1. Thought and afi9iction, passion, hell itself. Ham. 4: 5. VERY — genuine, true. Whether thou be my very son Esau. Gen. xxvii. 21. This is the very Christ. John vii. 26. This gentleman, my very friend. Rom. and Jul. 3: 1. I bid my very friends welcome. Mer. of Ven. 3: 3. WIT, WIST, "WOrC — know, perceive. To wit whether the Lord had made. Gen. xxiv. 21. He wist not what to say. Mark ix. 6. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business. Luke ii. 40^ I wot that through ignorance ye did it. Acts Hi. 17. We English warriors wot not what it means. / Hen. VI, 4: f. I wist your grandam had a worser match. Rich. III. i: 3. More water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of. Titus And. 2: i. WHAT — why. What need we any further witnesses. Mark xiv. 63. What need we any spur. Jul. Caes. 2: 1. V SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPBARB PARALLBLSl Quotations, References, Paraphrases, etc. The following arrangement of passages serves to show the Poet's frequent use of thought and language as found in the sacred volume. It does not, of course, follow that these were all purposely quoted from the Bible, but it does establish, beyond all dispute, that the mind of the great dramatist was thoroughly imbued with the thoughts and teachings of the Scriptures."^ So frequently does he borrow figures of speech from the Bible, — adapting them to incidents or characters of his plays — that they, not only illustrate his subject, or convey his moral, but they also throw new light upon the Scripture text. Moreover, no one can read these Bible passages, placed as they are here, side by side, with others from the Poet, without perceiving some- thing of the great debt we owe to the scriptures for much that is best and greatest in Shakspeare. Some of these parallelisms are very striking; as, for example, the various uses which are made in the respective plays of such historic events as the murder of Abel by his brother ; Jeptha's vow of sacrifice ; Herod's slaughter of infants ; the betrayal by Judas ; and the parable of the prodigal son. Among the parallels are some Bible texts literally quoted, but the greater part of them are better than verbatim quotations. They are the Word inbreathed, until it became Shakspeare's, and then, from this incarnated word, — genius inspired, there has been given to the world lessons high and broad : — a new interpretation ; the truth with a new application read and written, into the life and experience of men and women as they are found in and of the world. ' Referring to the allusion to Matt. 5 : 22 in the Merchant of Venice i : i, Sprague remarks: " Shakspeare is so familiar with the Bible that we who know less of the sacred book are sometimes slow to catch his allusions." See Sprague's Notes on The Mer. of Ven. 32 •e:e iiiA -uaH •331J1 9;Eq ^Eq; s^aBsq ssoiii qsijaijQ ■9^1 ;auuog -ssojp JO sjnoq Sui[[9s.ut suiAip suijsi Xng •I : z 'IPM s.IIV -uMoqs ;u3iuSpnf mEn saqEq u; ;um Xjoq og J3;siuiui 4S3>iE3Ai sqj Xq'uiaq} saop 4jo aaqsiuij SI sjjjOM ;s9)E3j3 aqi jo jeq; ajj ■I : S JEsaeg -pf ■UAV0U31 St pu3 aq; uaqj puy 'pu3 iiiM iCsp aq^'jEqj q^aaijjns }; jng •£ : S 'ii "qofa 'axu uopjEd jjBqs poQ SB uiiq uopjEd \ "I :z 'JIIA 'USH ' 'uaAiS -joj aq pinoM j se aAiSjoj aajj se \ ' •£ : z 'qaEj^ -Suipiinq aqj ,0 aji[ aqj^ aouaqj aio^s puE ajduia; pa^uiouE s.pao'j aqj^ ado vsfix<\ q}Eq japjnui snoiSajuoES isoj^ ■i:z -lA 'uaH I •ssaj^joj jno s; poQ •C : z "lA 'uaH II "isaj .itia o; uja^uE] puE ',ap;n3 jCui 'Xejs Xj\[ 'adoq Xtu aq ipi^ poQ •£ : E ?I ajjiT noj^ sy 'a^oj -jEds aq; joj sjajEO xfjuapiAOid 'Ea;^ paaj suaAEJ aqi q;op '^Eq; ajj •z : S 'uiEjj •MOJJEdS E JO IIBJ aqi u; aouapiAOJd ]Ei3ads e s.ajaqj, ■i:z-IA-«3H II •l^-'^a uo sja}[Eiu-apEad aq; ajE passa[g ■^7 'A •};bhi noX a;Bq jBq; ujaqj o; pooS oq •iz -iiixx •AOJi30J Xui s; pjo^ aqj, •gi -iiAX -sj ■Xe;s Xui sem pjoq; aqj, •Soi 'xixa 'sj ■q;Ed Xui o;un ;q3ii e puB ;aaj Xuj o;un diuEj. e si paoAv' Xqj, •92 -IA •;;ej\j[ •uiaq; q;apaaj aaq;E^ XjuaAEaq jnoX puB JIB aq; jo siiuoj aq; pioqag ■tz -x •;;ej^ •9 iix a^jni ■poQ ajQjaq ua;;o3 -joj SI (sAi.ojiBds) uiaq; jo auo ;o^ •6 -A •«Bi\[ 'Sja^iBuiasBad aq; ajB passaig saovssvd lanv^vd •;u3ui3§uB4JB JO japjo sjm japun JO api; 3ip japun papuajxa puB pa^Badaj 3jb ssSbssbcI asaip jo amog ce S1377V^Vd 3^V3JSNVHS QKV nVflZdlSOS 34 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Overcome evil with good. Rom. xii. 21. Pray for them that despitefuUy use you. Matt. v. 44- Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, love never faileth. I Cor. xiii. 7, 8. Whom the Lord loveth he chasten- eth. Heb. xii. 6. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye. Matt. vii. 3. Luke vi. 43. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. James x. 19. If your soul were in my soul's stead, I would strengthen you with my mouth, and assuage your grief. Job xvi. 4-6. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Matt. xix. 24. If a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand. Mark iii. 25. Be baptized and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16. For all have sinned. Rom. iii. 23. The tree is known by his fruit. Matt. xii. 33. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Isa i. 18. With a piece of scripture Tell them that God bids us do good for evil. Rich. III. i : 3. Pray for them that have done scath ' to us. Rich. III. 1 : 3- Love is not love Which altereth when it alteration finds. Sonnet 116. This sorrow's heavenly It strikes where it doth love. Othello 5:2. You found his mote; the king your mote did see. But I a beam do find in each of three. Love's Labor 4 : 3. A moth it is to trouble the mind's eye. Ham. i : i. That there were but a mote in your (eyes). King John 4: i. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure but reserve thy judgment. Ham. i : 3. Had you such a loss as I I could give better comfort than you do. King John 3 : 4. It is as hard to come as for a camel To thread through the postern of a needle's eye. Rich. II. 5 : 5. O, if you rear this house against this house It will the woefullest division prove. Rich. II. 4:1. Your conscience wash'd As pure as sin with baptism. Hen. V. 1 : 2. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. II Hen. VI. 3 : 3. If the tree be known by the fruit and fruit by the tree. I Hen. IV. 2 : 4. What if this curs'd hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, To wash it white as snow? Ham. 3:3. ' Injury or harm. SCRIPTURB AND SHAKSPEARB PARALLELS 35 If . . . every transgression and dis- obedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? Heb. ii. 2, 3. Ye will not come unto Me. John V. 40. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Luke ix. 24. Matt. X. 39. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Gal. ii. 16. Godliness with contentment is great gain. I Tim. vi. 6. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candle- stick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men. Matt. v. 15, 16. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. xiii. 10. Thy right hand hath holden me up. Ps. xviii. 3S. In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Ps. xvi. 11. Refresh by bowels in the Lord. Philemon Verse 20. Are they not all ministering spirits? Heb. i. 14. Thou makest it soft with showers. Ps Ixv. 10. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest. Prov. xxv. 13. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee. Ps. cxxxiv. 3. The means that Heaven yields must be embrac'd And not neglected; else if heaven would And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse. Rich II. 3:2 . You have too much respect upon the world They lose it that do buy it with much care. Mer. of Ven. 1:1. Though justice be thy plea, consider this: That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation. Mer of Ven. 4: i. Poor and content is rich and rich enough. Othello 3:3. Heaven doth with us as we with torches do 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. Meas. for Meas. i : i. How far that little candle throws his beains So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Mer. of Ven. 5 : i. Charity itself fulfills the law And who can sever love from charity? Love's Labor 4 : 3. In the great hand of God I stand. Macb. 2 : 3. The treasury of everlasting joy. II Hen. VL 2:1. And bid you "in the bowels of the Lord. Hen. V. 2 : 4. A ministering angel shall my sister be. Ham. 5 : i. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. Mer of Ven. 4: i. As snow in harvest. Rich. III. 1:4. The Lord in heaven bless thee. Hen. V. 4:1. 36 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss. James iv. 3. Though I be rude in speech. II Cor. xi. 6. Ye can discern the face of the sky. Matt. xvi. 3. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Eph. vi. 14. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets. Prov. i. 20. God is witness betwixt me and :hee. Gen. xxxi. S". What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Matt. xix. 6. Mark x. 9. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Jer. xiii. 23. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child. Eccl. x. 16. For that which I do I allow not, for what I would that do I not. Rom. vii. 15. Neither did their own arms save them; but Thy right hand and thine arm. Ps. xliv. 3. What is man that thou are mind- ful of him . . . thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. Ps. viii. 4. Heb. ii. 6. Whose names were not written in the book of life. Rev. xvii. 8. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Ps. Ixix. 28. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. Eccl. iii. I. We ignorant of ourselves Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good. Aiit. and Cleo. 2 : i. Rude am I in speech. Othello 1:3. Men judge by the complexion of the sky. Rich. II. 3:2. What stronger breastplate than a breast untainted. II Hen. VI. 3:2. Wisdom cries out in the streets and no man regards it. I Hen. IV. i : 2. God above Deal between thee and me. Macb. 4:3. God forbid that I should wish them sever'd Whom God hath joined together. IIIHen. VI. 4:1. Lions make leopards tame Yea! but not change their spots. Rich. II. I : I. Woe to the land that is govern'd by a child. Rich. III. 2 : 3. Alack, when once our grace we have forgot Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. Meas. for Meas. 4 : 4. O God! thy arm was here, And not to us but to thy arm alone Ascribe we all. Hen. V. 4:8. What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, m form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel. Hami 2 : 2. My name be blotted from the book 01 hfe. Rich. II. 1 : 3. There is a time for all things. Com. Err. 2:2. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPEARB PARALLELS 37 A cedar in Lebanon with fair branches . . . and of high stature . ._ . 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. Ezek. xxxi. 3, 6. I indeed baptize you. Matt. iii. 11. Without a parable spake he not unto them. Matt. xiii. 34. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple. . . . And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus . . . moreover the do^ came and licked his sores . . . The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke xvi. 22. Not this man but Barrabas. Now Barrabas was a robber. John xviii. 40. He casteth out devils through Beelzebub. Luke xi. 15. Legions of Angels. Matt. xxvi. S3. Then Herod . . . sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem. . . . In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentations and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her chil- dren and would not be comforted. Matt. ii. 16, 18. He (Herod) said, Go and search diligently for the young child and when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and wor- ship him. Matt. ii. 8. And the younger (son) said to his father,— Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. . . . And (he) took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his sub- stance with riotous living. And when he had spent all. . . He began to be in want. Thus yield the cedar to the axe's edge Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle; Under whose shade the ramping lion slept ; Whose top branch over-peer'd love's spreading tree. in Hen. VI. 5:2. I'll be new baptized. Rom. and Jul. 2 : 2. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me. But by a parable. Two Gent. 2 : S- Dives that lived in purple. I Hen. IV. 3:3. As ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores. I Hen. IV. 4 : 2. Sweet peace, conduct his soul to the bosom of good old Abraham. Rich. II. 4:1. Would, any of the stock of Barrabas Had been her husband rather than a Christian. Mer. of Ven. 4 : i. Who's there i' the name of Belze- bub. Macb. 2 : 3. He holds Belzebub at the staves end. Twelfth Night 5:1. Legions of angels. Merry Wives i : 3. Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused. Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughter- men. Hen. V. 3:3. Let me have a child to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage. Ant. and Cleo. i : 2. The story of the prodigal. II Hen. ly. 2:1. I have received my proportion like the prodigious son. "rwo Gent. 2 : 3. Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What prodigal por- tion have I spent that I should stand to such penury? As You Like It i : i 38 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. Luke xv. 12 — 16. His parents answered them and said. We know that this is our son, and that he was bom blind. John ix. 20. Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was bom blind? If ye were blind ye should have no sin; but now ye say, we see; ther*;- fore your sin remaineth. John ix. 2, 41. And Nathaniel said. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? John i. 46. Then went the devils out of the man and entered the swine. Luke viii. 33. He sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said. Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. . . He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. And forthwith he (Judas) came to Jesus and said Hail, Master! and kissed him. Matt. xxvi. 20, 21, 23, 49. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot. John xiv. 22. 'Tis painted about with the story of the prodigal. Merry Wives 4 : 5. You would think that I had a hun- dred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine keeping from eating draft and husks. I Hen. IV. 4:2. What! hast thou been long blind and now restored? Born blind! Ay ! indeed was he ! What woman is this? His wife! Had'st been his mother thou could'st have better told. A blind man at St. Alban's shrine Within this half-hour received his sight A man that ne'er saw in this life. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale Although by his sight his sins be multiplied. II Hen. VI. 2:1. Bass. If it please you to dine with us! Shy. Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into. Mer. of Ven. i : 3. Did they not sometimes cry. All hail ! to me? So Judas did to Christ, but he in twelve Found truth in all but one. Rich. IL 4:1. Who can call him his friend that dips in the same dish? Tim. of Athens. 3 : 2. So Judas kiss'd his master, and cried All hail ! when as he meant, all harm ! Ill Hen. VI. 5 : 7. His kisses are Judas's own children. As You Like It. 3 : 4. Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas. Rich. II. 3:2. A kissing traitor: How art thou prov'd Judas? Love's Labor 5:2. My name Be yok'd with his that did betray the Best. Winter's Tale, i : 2. Hoi. "Judas I am. Dum. A Judas ! Hoi. Not Iscariot, sir,— SCRIPTURB AND SHAKSPBARB PARALLBLS 39 Pilate . . . took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Matt, xxvii. 24. The place called Golgotha. Matt, xxvii. 33. The place of a skull. Mark xv. 22. The place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. John xix. 17. And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of their graves. Matt, xxvii. 52. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. John iii. 19. The last enemy that shall be de- stroyed is death. I Cor. xv. 26. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Ps. xxii. 15. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Luke i. 79. Biron. A kissing traitor: How art thou prov'd Judas? Hoi. "Judas I am."— Dum. The more shame for you Judas. Hoi. What mean you, sir? Boyet. To make Judas hang him- self. Hoi. Begin, sir; you are my elder. Biron. Well follow'd: Judas was hang'd on an elder.' Love's Labor 5 : 2. With Pilate wash your hands Showing an outward pity: yet you Pilate's Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross And water cannot wash away your sins. Rich. II. 4:1. How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands Of this most grievous murther! Rich. m. 1:4. Memorize another Golgotha. Macb. 1 : 2. And this land be call'd The field of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls. Rich. 'II. 4 : i. And the grave stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead did squeal and gibber in the Roman streets. Ham. I : i. Those men Blush not in actions black as night Will shun no course to keep them from the light. Pericles 1:1. When the searching eye of heaven is hid Behind the globe, and lights the lower world, Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen. Rich. II. 3 : 2. Death once dead, there's no more dying then. Sonnet 146. — The way to dusty death. Macb. 5:5. Darkness and the gloomy shade of death environ you. I Hen. VI. 5:4- »The common tradition was that Judas hang'd himself to an elder tree. Knight. 40 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Thou shalt surely die. / Gen. ji. 17. Dead in his harness. II Mace. XV. 28. Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Gen. xlii. 38. Here we feel but the penally of Adam. As You Like It 2:1. We will die with harness on our back. Macb. 5 : 5. Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief; Ah, Humphrey this dishonor in thine age Will bring thy heart with sorrow to the ground. II Hen. VI. 2 : 3. I go whence I shall not return, even The undiscover'd country from whose to the land of darkness and the shadow bourne of death. Job x. 21. No traveller returns. Ham. 3 : i. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Ps. xc. g. Man is like to vanity: his days are a shadow that passeth away. Ps. cxliv. 4. Which long for death but it cometh not . . . which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave. Job iii. 21, 22. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Job vii. 6. To die is gain. Phil. i. 21. I die daily. I Cor. xv. 31. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grevious, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Heb. xii. 11. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. Zech. iv. 6. The prince of this world cometh. John xiv. 30. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. Matt. vii. 14. Luke xiii. 24. Put not your trust in princes. Ps. cxlvi. 3. Life's but a walking shadow ... it is a tale Told bjr an idiot, full of sound Signifying nothing. Macb. S : 5. My joy is death! Death at whose name I oft have been afear'd Because I wish'd this world's eternity. II Hen. VI. 2 : 4. Life is a shuttle. Merry Wives 5:1. Dying so, death is to him advant- age. Hen. V. 4:1. The queen .... Died every day she lived. Macb. 4 : 3. Sweet are the uses of adversity. As You Like It 2:1. Not by might master'd, but by special grace. Love's Labor i : i. He is the prince of this world. All's Well 4:5. I am for the house with the narrow gate. All's Well 4:5. O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on prince's favors. Hen. VIII. 3:2. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPEARB PARALLELS 41 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Ps. i. I. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Prov. xxii. 1. A good name is better than precious ointment Eccl. vii. i. For which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Luke xiv. 28. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Matt. xii. 34, 35- Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Matt. XV. 18, ig. Mark vii. 21. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. James III. 6. Their tongue is deceitful. Micah vi. 12. He that rolleth a stone it will re- turn upon him. Prov. xxvi. 27. Remember not the sins of my youth. Ps. XXV. 7. Let me be weighed in an even balance. Job- xxxi. 6. Prosperity and adversity .... God hath set the one over against the other. Eccl. 7. 14. 'Tis meet- That noble minds keep ever with their likes. Jul. Caes. i : 2. Good name, in man and 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 3:3. When we mean to build Then must we rate the cost of erec- tion Which, if we find outweighs ability, What do we then, but draw anew the model In fewer offices; or desist To build at all. II Hen. IV. 1 : 3. What his heart thinks his tongue speaks. Much Ado 3 : 2. All offenses, my lord, come from the heart. Hen. V. 4 : 8. The tongues of men are full of deceits. Hen. V. 5:2. When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling T'would fall upon ourselves. Hen. VIIL 5:2. If the sins of your youth are for- given you. Winters Tale 3 : 3. Justice always whirls in equal measure. Love's Labor 4 :3. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and evil together. All's Well 4:3. 42 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward. Prov. xxii. 5. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Prov. xii. 15. If any man seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise. I Cor. iii. 18. Be sure your sins will find you out. Num. xxxii. 23. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Ex. xx. 5. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase. Eccl. v. 10. What fellowship hath the wolf with the lamb. Ecclus xiii. 17. Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? Job xli. i. There shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. Acts xxvii. 34. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handy work. . . . There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Ps. xix. i, 3. When the morning stars sang to- gether. Job xxxviii. 7. I arru ^amazed methinks, and lose my way~~~ Among the thorns and dangers of this world. King John 4 : 3. The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows he is a fool. As You Like It 5 : i. For murder though it have no tongue will speak With most miraculous organ. Ham. 2 : 2. The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children. Mer. of Ven. 3 : 5. Thy sins are visited in this child The canon of the law is laid on him Being but the second generation Removed from thy sin conceiving womb. King John 2 : i. The aged man that coffers up his gold Is plagued with cramps and gouts and painful fits And scarce hath eyes his treasure to behold. Lucrece, St. 123. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends Pray you who does the wolf love? The Lamb. Ah ! to devour him. Corio. 2 : i. We may as bootless spend our vain com,mand as send precepts to the Leviathan To come ashore. Hen. V. 3:3. There is no soul No,_ not so much perdition as a hair Betid to any creature in this vessel Which thou heard' st cry. The Tempest i : 2. 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.' Mer. of Ven. 5:1. ' Hallam speaks of this passage as " The most sublime," perhaps, in Shak- speare. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPBARB PARALLELS 43 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna. Deut. vii. i6. Num. xi. 9. / For with my staff I (Jacob) passed over this Jordan. Gen. xxii. 10. The full soul loatheth an honey- comb. Prov. xxvii. 7. Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee lest thou be filled therewith and vomit it. Prov. xxv. 16. Unstable as water. Gen. xlix. 4. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Josh. viii. I. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and en- ticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. James i. 14, 15. To be tempted of the devil. Matt. iv. I. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father. Luke xii. 53. O generation of vipers. Matt. iii. 7. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, they are like the deaf adder. Ps. Iviii. 44. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adder's poison is under their lips. Ps. cxl. 3. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way of starved people. Mer. of Ven. S : i. By Jacob's staff I swear. Mer. of Ven. 2 : 5. They surfeited with honey and began To loathe the taste of sweetness. I Hen. IV. 3 : 2. The sweetest honey Is loathsome in deliciousness, And in the taste confounds the appetite, Therefore love moderately. Rom. and Jul. 2 : 6. False as water. Othello S : 2. Cheer thy heart, and be thou not dismay'd. Rich. III. 5 : 3. The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame. Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; . . . All this the world well knows; yet none know well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. Sonnet 129. Shall I be tempted of the devil thus? Rich. III. 4:4. And the bond Cracked between son and father: "This villian of mine comes under the prediction; There's son against father. King Lear i : 2. A generation of vipers. Troi. and Cress. 3:1. Have ears more deaf than adders. Troi and Cress. 2 : 2. Art thou like the adder, waxen deaf Be poisonous too. II Hen. VI. 3 : 2. An adder did it For with doubler tongue than thine, Thou serpent — ^never adder stung. Mid. N. Dr. 3:2. 44 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS The dog is turned to his own vomit again. II Peter ii. 22. Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived. Job iii. 3- Seven other kine, poor and very ill-favored and lean fleshed. Gen. xli. 19. Thou shalt not sufiFer a witch to live. Ex. xxii. 18. For satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. II Cor. xi. 14. How art thou fallen from heaven O, Lucifer ... yet thou' shalt be brought down to hell. Isa. xiv. 12, 15. What is thy name? And he said. Legion, because many devils were entered in him. Luke viii. 30. Mark v. 9. Then the devil said . . . It is written. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee. Matt. iv. S, 6. And Satan said, skin for skin. Yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face. Then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said. What ! shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil; in all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job ii. 4i lO- So, so, thou common dog did'st thou disgorge Thy glutton bosom . . . And now thou w6uld'st eat thy dead vomit up. II Hen. IV. 1 : 3. Turn this day out of the week; . . . Let wives with child Pray that their burdens may not fall this day. King John 3 : 1. If to be fat be to be hated then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. I Hen. IV. 2:4. Receive the sentence of the law for sins Such as by God's book are adjudged to death . . . The witch shall be burned to ashes. II Hen. VL 2:3. The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. Ham. 2 : 2. When devils will their blackest sins put on They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. Othello 2 : 3. Thou art more deep damned than Prince Lucifer. There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell. King John 4 : 3. He falls like Lucifer never to hope again. Hen. VIII. 3 : 2. Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself. Hen. V. 4:7. If all the devils in hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possessed him. Twelfth Night 3:4. The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. Mer. of Ven. i : 3. I am as poor as Job, but not as patient. H Hen. IV. 1:2. Ford. Slanderous as Satan? Page. And poor as Job? Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Merry Wives s : 5. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPBARB PARALLELS 45 The prince of this world cometh. John xiv. 30. For it was not an enemy that re- proached me: then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked into the house of God in company. Ps. Iv. 12, 14. Whosoever shall say 'thou fool' shall be in danger of hell fire. Matt. V. 22. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. Ps. xcii. 12. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Rom. ix. 15. Thou shalt not kill. Ex. xx. 13. Thou shalt do no murder. Matt. xix. 18. Thou shalt not steal. Ex. XX. 15. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness. Isa. v. 20. His mischief shall return upon his own head. Ps. vii. 16. His blood be on us and our chil- dren. Matt, xxvii. 25. He that toucheth pitch shall be de- filed therewith, and he that hath fel- lowship with a proud man shall be like him. Ecclus xiii. i. He is the prince of the world. All's Well 4:5. The private wound is deepest : O time, most accurs'd, Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst. Two Gent, of Ver. 5 : 4. Thou that did'st bear the key of all my counsels. That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, That almost might have coin'd me into gold . . . May it be possible, that foreign hire Could out of thee extract one spark of evil That might annoy my finger? Hen. V. 2:2. If they should speak, would almost damn those ears Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools. Mer. of Ven. 1:1. You shall see him a palm in Athens again. Tim. of Athens S : i. The words of Heaven, — on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not so; yet still 'tis just. Meas. for Meas. i : 3. The great King of Kings hath in the table of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder. Rich. HI. 1:4. Thou shalt not steal. Meas. for Meas. i : 2. Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths. Macb. i : 3. O God, what mischief work the wicked ones Heaping confusion on their own head thereby. II Hen. VI. 2 : 1. My deeds upon my head. Mer. of Ven. 4 : i. They that touch pitch will be de- filed. Much Ado 3:3. As like to pitch defile nobility. II Hen. VI. 2:1. This pitch doth defile, so doth the company thou keepest. I Hen. IV. 2:4. 46 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS As he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast. Prov. xxiii. 34. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roar- ing lion. Ps. xxii. 12, 13. If a man dies and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass upon his daughter. Num. xxvii. 8. The ten commandments. Ex. xxxiv. 28. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it. Gen. ii. 15. The woman said, the serpent be- guiled me and I did eat. Gen. iii. 13. And the Lord God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden to till the ground. Gen. iii. 23. And Eve bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Gen. iv. i. 1/ Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Gen. iv. 8. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Gen. iv. 10. And now art thou cursed from the earth. Gen. iv. 11. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. Gen. iv. 12. And they went unto Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh . . . And the flood was forty days upon the earth. Gen. vii. 15, 17. Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast Ready with every nod to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep. Rich III 3:4. that I were Upon the hill of Basan, to out-roar The homed herd. Ant. and Cleo. 3 : 2. In the book of Numbers is it writ. When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter. Hen. V. 1:2. I'd set my ten commandments in your face. II Hen. VI. i : 3. Thou old Adam's likeness set to dress this garden. . . . What Eve, what serpent hath sug- gested thee. To make a second fall of cursed man. Rich II. 3:4. In the state of innocency Adam fell. 1 Hen. IV. 3 : 3. The scripture says, Adam digged. Ham. s : i. The birth of Cain, the first male child. King John 3 : 4. The first born Cain. II Hen. IV. I : i. How the knave jowls it to the ground. As if it were Cain's jawbone that did the first murder. Ham. 5 : i. O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven It hath the primal eldest curse upon't A brother's murder. Ham. 3 : 3. Which blood like sacrificing Abel's cries Even from the tongueless cavern of the earth. Rich. II 1:1. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk. Ill Hen. VI. 2 : 3. Be thou cursed Cain To slay thy brother Abel. I Hen. VI. 1 : 3. With Cain, go wander through the shade of night. Rich. II 5:6. There is sure another flood toward And these couples are coming to the ark. As You Like It 5:4. Noah's flood could not do it. Com. of Err. 3 : 2. SCRIPTURE AND SHAKSPBARB PARALLELS 47 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin. Lev. xviii. 6. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble and they shall kindle in them and there shall not be any remaining house of Esau. Obadiah. Verse i8. He that ruleth over men must be just. II Sam. xxiii. 3. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. I John iii. 15. And Jacob said thou shalt not give me anything : if thou wilt do this thing for me I will again feed and keep thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence all speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.' Gen. XXX. 31. Then Jael . . . took a hammer in her hand . . . and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it to the ground, for he was fast asleep. Judges iv. 21. And he (Samson) smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. Judges XV. 8. Adam's sons are my brethren, and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Much Ado. 2 : i. — will be his fire To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze Shall darken him forever. Corio. 2 : i. He who the sword of Heaven will bear, Should be as holy as severe. Meas. for Meas. 3 : 2. Hates any man the thing he would not kill. Mer. of Ven. 4:1. Shy. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's she.ep. This Jacob from our holy Abraham was. Ant. And what of him? did he take interest? Shy. No, not take interest, not as you would say — Directly interest. Mark what Jacob did: When Laban and himself were com- promised That all the Eanlings" which were streak'd and pied Should fall as Jacob's hire. . . . Ant. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for A thing not in his power to bring to pass. But sway'd and fashioned by the hand of Heaven. Was this inserted to make interest good?' Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams ? Mer. of Ven. i : 3. I'll yield him thee asleep Where thou may'st knock a nail into his head. Tempest 3 : 2. I am not Samson To mow them down before me. Hen. VIII. S : 3- ' Compare Gen. xxx. 27-43 with the description of Jacob-Laban contract in the Mer. of Ven. ' Eanling — a lamb new-born. 'This shows that Shakspeare used the version known as Bishop's Bible (1568). Sprague's Notes. 48 BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS And Samson took the doors of the gate of the city . . . put them upon his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill. Judges xvi. 3. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord. Judges xi. 30. And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Judges xii. 7. Goliath of Gath . . . and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. I Sam. xvii. 7. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and slew him, and cut off his head. I Sam. xvii. 51. When the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord she came to prove him with hard questions. I Kings X. I. Because the King's command was urgent and the fire exceeding hot the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Dan. iii. 22. And Daniel convicted them of false witness. And from that day forth was Daniel had in great reputation. Susanna Vs. 61, 64. Samson Master: . . he carried the town gates on his back, like a porter. Love's Labor i : 2. To keep that oath were more impiety Than Jephthah's when he sacrificed his daughter. Ill Hen. VI. 5:1. Ham. O Jephthah judge of Israel, what a treasure hast thou ! Pol. What a treasure hid he my lord? . . . Ham. Am I not i' the right old Jephthah ? Pol. If you call me Jephthah my lord, I have a daughter that I love pass- ing well.^ Ham. 2 : 2. Goliath with a weaver's beam. Merry Wives. 5:1. With his own sword Which he did wave against my throat . . I have taken His head from him. Cymb. 4 : 2. Sheba was never More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue Than this pure soul shall be. Hen. VIII 5 : 4. Sec the whole of Cranmer's blessing upon the Royal infant in Hen. VIII. Heat not a furnace so hot That it do singe thyself. Hen. VIII. 1:1. A Daniel come to judgment! yea a Daniel O wise young Judge, how I do honor thee. Mer. of Ven. 4: i. If any of you know cause, or just impediment, why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, ye are to declare it. Episcopal Prayer Book. If either of you know any inward impediment, why you should not be conjoined, I charge you, on your souls, to utter it. Much Ado. 4:1. ' The story of Jephthah's daughter so copiously quoted in this play is given in Judges xi. 30-40. BOOK THIRD The Religious World of Shakspeare /. VERSATILITY OP SHAKSPBARB IN THB USB OP THE BIBLB II. TYPES OP CHARACTER PROM SCRIPTURE III. HEROES AND HEROINES IV. THB MORAL INCULCATIONS OP SHAKSPBARB V. TRAGEDY IN THE BIBLE AND IN SHAKSPBARB VI. RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN THE PLOTS OP THE PLAYS VII. SHAKSPBARB AND IMMORTALITY 49 I VERSATILITY OP SHAKSPBARB IN THB USB OP THB BIBLB The "universality of Shakspeare" is in nothing more strikingly mani- fested than in the use he makes of his wide and general knowledge of the Scriptures. This fact is very copiously illustrated in a portion of this work, entitled "Scripture Themes." But there are some examples of his versatility of genius which are of peculiar interest from the standpoint of this volume. With great facility the dramatist employs the same Scripture facts, in different plays, representing a wide range of human motives, passions and con- duct. Thus, he frequently makes the hand of Cain and the blood of Abel to tell, in various ways, the respective stories which are forever asso- ciated with them. The parable of the Prodigal Son serves for various uses in five plays, and Judas is named, or referred to, in seven different plays to express the odium which is embodied in his very name, as well as the infamy of betrayal of which it is a synonym. (See Parallel Pas- sages and Scripture Themes.) What a stroke of genius is exhibited in the use of Scripture, in King Henry V ! A dispute arises between England and France which Henry makes a casus belli. In a conference with the Archbishop of Canter- bury the question in dispute is thus expounded : — "There is no bar To make against your highness' claim to France, But this, which they produce from Pharamond, — ' No woman shall succeed in Salique land.' " Canterbury goes on to declare that Salique land is really in Germany and not in France at all, and makes an elaborate argument to prove that the disputed territory which had come down through a female line was not subject to the law of King Pharamond. King Henry, anxious to justify himself, in his intended war, and at the same time secure the good will of the church, asks : "May I with right and conscience make this claim?" And Canterbury answers: — 51 52 RBLIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB " The sin upon my head dread sovereign ; For in the book of Numbers is it writ, When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter." Hen. V. i: 2. Again, in the play of Hamlet how skillfully employed is the story of Jephthah and his daughter in a conversation with Polonius. And the same Bible incident serves to illustrate the effects of a sinful oath in this passage : — " To keep that oath, were more impiety Than Jephthah's, when he sacrificed his daughter." /// Hen. VI. 5: 1. A striking picture is drawn in Richard II. The King, while impris- oned in a dungeon at Pomf ret Castle, indulges in a soliloquy upon a very singular thought : — " Studying how to compare This prison, where I live, unto the world : And, for because the world is populous. And here is not a creature but myself. I cannot do it; — Yet, I'll hammer it out. My brain I'll prove the female to my soul ; My soul the father: and these two beget A generation of still breeding thoughts, For no thought is contented." Strange as this fancy is, it is attended with devout and Scriptural reference : — " The better sort- As thoughts of things divine — are intermixed With scruples, and do set the word itself Against the word:* As thus, — Come little ones ; and then again, — It is as hard to come, as for a camel To thread the postern of a needle's eye." Rich. II. 5; 5. 'Some versions give "faith" here instead of "word." VERSATILITY IN USB OF BIBLE 53 The Scripture parallel of this is given elsewhere in this work, but it is worthy of notice here, that the dramatist saw the true meaning of the "eye of a needle" in Matt. xix. 24 ; hence the use of the word "postern" conveying the thought of a small door or gate. While Shakspeare, in his environment, was unable to do justice to the genius and character of Joan d'Arc, yet how greatly his portraiture of that marvelous French maiden excels the prejudiced conceptions of his times.^ On the one hand, he presents the slanderous caricatures which were current in his day yet he raises her, at once, to a person of lofty aims, pure motives, and great achievements, by comparing her with Deborah: — " Stay, stay thy hands ; thou art an Amazon -And tightest with the sword of Deborah." All Bible readers know that Deborah was a woman of great note in the Hebrew nation : — a prophetess who judged Israel,^ " the great dame of Lapidoth," * who was associated with Barak against Sisera in a tri- umphant attack which brought freedom from foreign oppression. Thus, in a single line, the great dramatist compares the " Maid of Orleans " with the only woman in Scripture, or perhaps in all history, whose char- acter, genius and experience were so strikingly and uniquely comparable with her own.* In Richard III. a Scripture allusion is employed, in a single sen- tence, to convey a thought which could not otherwise be so strikingly expressed. At the close of the able and eloquent speech of the Bishop of Carlisle he says : — 'The wonderful saviour of her county, "Joan of Arc," is portrayed by Shakspeare with an Englishman's prejudices: yet he at first leaves it doubtful whether she has not in reality a heavenly mission; she appears in the pure glory of virgin heroism ; by her supernatural eloquence (and this circumstance is of the Poet's invention) she wins over the Duke of Burgundy to the French cause." Dramatic Literature, A. W. Schlegel. 'Judges 4:4- _ 'Tennyson. *If, as some claim, the sketch of Joan was worked into the play by some other hand than Shakspeare's these remarks would not appear so apposite. In Mr. Mabie's able articles, published in the Outlook, after the above was written, he says: "It is difficult to find his (Shakspeare's) hand in the cheap and coarse presentation of Joan of Arc, he was incapable of so vulgar a misreading of a great career ; his insight would have saved him from so gross a blunder." 54 RELIGIOUS WORLD OP SHAKSPEARB ". . . This land shall be called The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls." A religious imposture, — a so-called miracle, captures the credence and sympathy of King Henry VI. In referring to this sham, Shakspeare weaves into the play a very obvious reference to the miracle of healing of the blind man, recorded in St. John's gospel : — One. A miracle ! a miracle ! Suf. Come to the king : tell him what miracle. One. Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's shrine, Within this half hour hath received his sight ; A man that ne'er saw in his life before. K. Hen. Now, God be prais'd, that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair ! Car. Here come the townsmen on procession. To present your highness with the man. K. Hen. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale, Though by his sight his sin be multiplied. Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance. That we for thee may glorify the Lord. What! hast thou been long blind, and now restor'd? Simp. Born blind, an't please your grace. Wife. Ay, indeed, was he. Suf. What woman is this? Wife. His wife, an't like your worship. K. Hen. Poor soul ! God's goodness hath been great to thee : Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass. But still remember what the Lord hath done. // Hen. VI. 2: 1. One of the most finished of the works of Shakspeare (which is thought by some to have been his last) is the allegorical play of The Tempest. According to some authorities the Poet drew some of his material for this masterly work from the circumstances of a terrible tempest which overcame a fleet of nine ships, leaving England in May, 1609, one of which was afterwards reported from the Bermuda Islands (see Hud- son's Introduction to the Tempest). This date agrees with the time at which Shakspeare wrote the play, or thereabouts. But whatever may have been the original source of the Poet's plot it is certain that much of its thought and language were suggested to his VERSATILITY IN USB OF BIBLE 55 mind by the Bible.^ Evidently he had especially in view the wreck of St. Paul on the Island of Melita ; — witness the description in Acts xxvii., and note especially the 34th verse : " There shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." And then read Shakspeare's words : — " there is no soul No, nor so much perdition as an hair Betid to any creature in the vessel." Tempest i: 2. After the storm which these words refer to, Ariel tells Prospero that "Not a hair perish'd." And when Miranda asks, " How came we ashore ?" Prospero replies, "By divine Providence." In The Tempest Ariel is the Chief Minister of Prospero — a myste- rious agent, essential to the play. Where did the Poet find the sugges- tion of this figure ? The answer to this question is found in the book of Isaiah : "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city. . . Yet will I distress Ariel and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. . . And thou shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. . . Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest." — Isai. xxix: i, 2, 4, 6. To the Poet's art the passage of thought from Ariel, the city — an exhibition of divine justice, to Ariel, a spirit of the air, with a similar mission was simple and easy, while the entire conception of Shakspeare's Ariel is suggested in the above quotation from Isaiah. Again and again Scriptural figures and language occur in The Tem- pest. Caliban says : — 'Since completing the MS. for this volume the Author has seen for the first time a little work by James Rees, entitled "Shakspeare and the Bible," pub- lished in Philadelphia in 1876. Mr. Rees treats this subject at greater length and says : "There is not to be found in any romance or play, prior to the production of 'The Tempest,'' a more remarkable identification with Scripture than that contained in this play, and which no other writer but a Shakspeare could have so reverently, and so admirably, blended with St. Paul's shipwreck on the Island of Melita." S6 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARE " I'll yield him thee asleep Where thou may'st knock a nail into his head," 3: 2. an evident allusion to Jael's deed as described in Judges iv. When Prospero says: — " The cloud-capped 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," 4: 1. we naturally recall the words of I Peter iii :io, 11. All's Well that Ends Well furnishes further illustrations of the use of Scripture. When the King of France answers Helena's plea that he will try her deceased's father's remedy for the disease which afiflicts him, the King says : — " We thank you maiden ; But may not be so credulous of cure. When our most learned doctors leave us." Helena replies in the terms, and almost the very language, of Scrip- ture : — " He that of greatest work is finisher Oft does them by the weakest minister : So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown. When judges have been babes." And when the King opposes her argument she answers : — " Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd ; 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." All's Well 2: 1. VERSATILITY IN USB OF BIBLE 57 The maiden's eloquent earnestness eventually wins the King's consent to try the remedy. When a cure is effected, all are amazed, and a cour- tier remarks : — " They say miracles are past. . . he's of a most facinor- ous spirit that will not acknowledge it to be the — very hand of Heaven." In the same play (All's Well i :3) a clown makes a witty answer to a Countess, thus : "No, madam, tis not well that I am poor though many of the rich are damned." This is, without doubt, an allusion to the Scripture saying : "How hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom of Heaven." In Cymbeune we notice a reference to the doctrine that suffering and punishment are related, — the one to the other : — " Will poor folks lie That have affliction on them ; knowing 'tis A punishment, or trial." j; 6. In the play of Othello an allusion is made to certain Calvinistic doc- trines prevalent in Shakspeare's time. Cassio is drunk, and he speaks in that half-intelligible sense which often marks a man of education when drunk: "Heaven's above all; and there be souls be saved and there be souls must not be saved." These trifling and sometimes irreverent references to Scripture themes which we find current in the language of certain characters in Shakspeare are natural and reasonable. Bible talk was so common in his day that it was subject to all sorts of confused and absurd paraphras- ing. The Poet does not represent frivolous characters as talking with reverence of holy subjects, or as quoting the Scriptures with accuracy and fitness ; yet he could not portray them fully, as he has done, had he omitted these misappropriations of biblical passages and thought. Many passages of Scripture are lightly and irreverently employed, but always by such characters, and under such circumstances, as might be expected. For example, in act 3 of the Comedy of Errors some men appear on the stage ; — a courtesan enters and the following conversation ensues : — Ant. S. Satan avoid ! I charge thee, tempt me not ! Dro. S. Master, is this mistress Satan? Ant. S. It is the Devil. Dro. S. It is written, they appear to men like angels of light . . . marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the Devil. S8 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARB In the same play is this allusion to the New Testament account of Christ commanding the Devil to depart from a man : — " I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man To yield possession to my holy prayers." 4: 4. In KiXi's WelIv that Ends Well there is a speech in which Scrip- tural figurative terms are mixed up in a strange kind of jumble, yet in a way that is consistent with the character of the clown who makes it : — " I am a woodland fellow, sir, that always loved a great fire ; and the master I speak of ever keeps a good fire.^ But sure he is the prince of this world ;^ let his nobility remain in his court. 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 great fire !" 4: 5. Another admixture of religious phrases with ignorance and folly occurs in the play of Henry V. Falstaff is reported dead, and a con- versation takes place in Mrs. Quickly's disreputable house, where are gathered a few of the followers of the "unsavory knight" : — "Bard. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in heaven, or in hell ! Quick. Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A 'made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom^ child; a' parted ev'n just between twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o' the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with the flowers, and smile upon his finger's end, I knew there was but one way ; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. How now. Sir John ? quoth I : what, man ! be of good cheer. So a' cried out — God, God, God ! three or four times : 'Matt. 25:41. 'John 12:31, and 14:30. "Matt. 7:13, 14. 'Job 14:2 and James i : 10, 11. "Christom is a Quickly form of chrisom. A chrisom-child was one that died within a month after the birth; so called from the chrisom, which was a white cloth put upon the child at baptism, and used for its shroud, in case it did not outlive the first month. The term was derived from the chrism, that is, the anointing, which made a part of baptism before the Reformation. Footnote in Hudson's Shakspeare. VERSATILITY IN USB OF BIBLE 59 now I, to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God; I hop'd there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet." 2:^. This is a perfectly natural speech coming from such a source at such a time. The woman (Quickly) had been awed by the death-scene, and memories of her early, crude, religious education were recalled. She remembered the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, although, in her ignorance, she spoke of "Arthur's bosom" instead of Abraham's and she had a confused memory of the twenty-third Psalm, while Falstafif "babbled of green fields." In the play of Antony and Cleopatra are several references to Herod of Jewry. An Egyptian woman named Charmian says: "Let me have a child at fifty to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage." It was Herod of Jewry (Herod the Great) whose fear of the young child Jesus led him to inquire of the Wise Men of the East and say to them, "Go, and search diligently for the young child ; and when ye have found him bring me word again that I may come and worship him also." It was to Egypt that the mother of Jesus fled with her babe to escape from the hand of Herod. Commenting upon this play, Steeven says : "Char- " mian wishes for a son who may arrive to such power and dominion " that the proudest and fiercest monarch of the earth may be brought " under his yoke." The death of Antiochus in the play of Pericles very forcibly reminds us of the death of King Herod as may be seen in the parallel of the fol- lowing passages : — "And upon a certain day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout saying, it is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And imme- diately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." Acts xii, 21: 23. Hel. No, Escames ; know this of me, Antiochus from incest liv'd not free: For which the most high gods, not minding longer To withhold the vengeance, that they had in store. Due to this heinous capital offence ; Even in the height, and pride of all his glory. When he was seated in a chariot of 6o RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB An inestimable value, and his daughter With him, a fire from heaven came and shrivell'd up Those bodies, even to loathing ; for they so stunk, That all those eyes ador'd them ere their fall. Scorn now their hand should give them burial. Bsca. 'Twas very strange. Hel. And yet but justice; for though This king were great, his greatness was no guard To bar heaven's shaft, but sin had his reward. 2: 4. In Act 5, Scene i, of Measure eor Measure, when Isabella presses for justice one is reminded of the parable of the importunate widow in Luke xviii: — " O worthy prince, dishonor not your eye By throwing it on any other object. Till you have heard me in my true complaint And given me justice, justice, justice, justice !" In the Merchant of Venice Shylock expresses his contempt for Launcelot with a Scripture figure : — " What says that fool of Hagar's offspring?" And when the Jew whets his knife to cut the Merchant's flesh the Poet makes the witty Gratiano say : — " Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, Thou mak'st thy knife keen ; but no metal can. No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?" 4:1. These allusions are often so subtle that, as Sprague says, "we who know less of the Scripture are sometimes slow to catch them." See for instance how Shakspeare uses the word " manna." Fair ladies you drop manna on the way of starved people 5:1. Evidently he alludes to the provision of manna for the starving Israelites. Even the clownish Launcelot quotes the Scriptures : — " The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children." j; 5. VERSATILITY IN USB OF BIBLE 6i In Midsummer Night's Dream there is a parody on Paul's eloquent words in I Cor. ii : 9. Bottom, the weaver, in a ludicrous account of a dream, says : "The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was." 4:1. Such an absurd paraphra- sing of that sublime passage would be monstrous if it were dragged into the play, but it is so consistent and so natural to the clownish Bottom that one feels that it is neither irrelevant nor irreverent. These are but a few illustrations of the Poet's versatile employment of the Scriptures. His Biblical allusions are found in every page of his greater plays and his poems constantly reveal some spiritual thought. One cannot read any of his works, with an open mind, without being fre- quently surprised with a gem, hitherto undiscovered and the Bible is very frequently its source. Many persons wonder that Shakspeare did not more fully and literally quote Scripture, but almost invariably alludes to it and expresses its thoughts and teachings in his own words. In this respect the Poet treated Scripture as he did all other literature. He very rarely quoted anything, but of all that his mind was familiar with, he unconsciously wove into the text of his writings in his own language. The author of a recently published book makes a suggestion which is of interest in this connection: "With peculiar care and delicacy he " (Shakspeare) avoids quoting the text of Scripture, lest he should " incur the reproof of, or offend the clergy, and thus defeat his happy " purpose of pointing to the Word of life. He therefore ingeniously " endeavors to awaken the curiosity of the ignorant, and enliven the " devout intelligence of Scripture readers and all church members by " his method of application. In his Poems he pursues an entirely differ- " ent course, abstaining from an open reference to Bible figures incident " to its teachings, he breathes out spiritual truth in figurative language " full of devout aspirations, presenting out of his own secret experience, " the corruption of the natural heart and the discovered remedy in the " new man, Christ Jesus."^ If the student of the Bible and of Shakspeaj-e will keep in mind the suggestion of this short chapter he will find that in many of the Poet's works. Scripture allusions may be seen shining out on every page, as one may see stars in the heavens which do not appear to the casual observer. 'Christ in Shakspeare. By Charles Ellis,— (London, 1897). II TYPBS OP CHARACTER PROM SCRIPTURE Whether or not Shakspeare sought for his types in the Bible it is certain that there is a striking similarity in many of them ; as seen in his references to Cain, the Prodigal Son, Judas, Herod, Pilate, etc. And many of his typical characters and illustrations were drawn from the Scriptures. He selects a Jew to represent mercenary meanness and vindictive revenge, and a Bible character is employed to furnish the portrait. Shylock defends his trade of usury by Jacob's trick in secur- ing for himself the better portion of his uncle Laban's flock. This he claims as a perfect example, for he says: — " When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep. This Jacob from our holy Abraham was As his wise mother wrought in his behalf The third possessor ; ay, he was the third." Mer. of Ven. j;j. Jacob is Shylock's pattern and saint ; by him he swears : "By Jacob's staff I swear." In the opening words of the play Antonio expresses a sense of sad- ness which he seems to be unable to account for ; but his friends think that, with all his wealth and interests "tossing on the ocean," he may well be troubled. Salarino says : — " Believe me, Sir, had I such venture forth. The better part of my affections would Be with my hopes abroad. . . . . . . Should I go to church And see the holy edifice of stone. And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side, Would scatter all her spices on the stream ?" i:i. 62 TYPES OP CHARACTER PROM SCRIPTURE 63 When the dramatist would paint the portrait of Shylock's opposite, he seems to have had in mind Paul's "peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." At the critical moment, Antonio says to his friend for whom he is bond : — " Repent not that you shall lose your friend, And he repents not that he pays your debt ; For, if the Jew do cut but deep enough, I'll pay it instantly with all my heart." 4:1. Again, in Cymbeline, is a story which is very suggestive of David and Goliath ; Cloten, the braggart son of the King, finds Guiderius in the forest who is, unknown to himself, also a son of the King, but living, from his infancy, a rude shepherd's life, with a banished lord. Cloten addresses the youth in the style of a bully: "What slave art thou — Art not afraid ?" To which the young man courageously answers : — "Those that I reverence, those I fear; the wise. At fools I laugh, not fear them." Attacking him with his sword, Cloten boastfully exclaims : — " Die the death : When I have slain thee with my own proper hand, I'll follow those that even now fled hence. And on the gates of Lud's town set your heads." They retire from the scene fighting, and in short order Guiderius returns, bearing the boastful prince's head, and says : — " With his own sword Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en His head from him." Cymb. 4:2. A more generally recognized draft upon the Bible for types of char- acter is found in the play of Macbeth, which is treated at some length in the chapter on " Tragedy in the Bible and Shakspeare." The play of Hamlet stands alone. It is the crowning study of the great Shakspeare. It has no parallel in all literature. Hamlet himself. 64 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARE as Shakspeare painted him, is more than a type ; he is multi-type. He is the problem of mankind, — the human mystery personified.^ There is no other single character in all literature about whom critics diflfer so widely, and it seems probable, as Schlegel suggests, that every new student of this colossal sphinx will diflfer with all others " in his view of the connection and the significance of all the parts." On the one question, of the "madness" of Hamlet, the ablest of critics diflfer as widely as possible. Lowell says: "If Hamlet is irresponsible the whole is chaos;" while Hudson says: "In plain terms Hamlet is mad." Richard Grant White says : "Nothing should be kept more clearly in mind than that from the time we hear of him (Hamlet) until his death he was perfectly sane, and a man of very clear and quick intellectual perceptions — one perfectly responsible for his every act and every word ; that is, as responsible as a man can be who is constitutionally irresolute, purposeless, and procrastinating." Coleridge says: "Hamlet's wild- ness is but half false." Mr. Snider has, we think, stated the case cor- rectly when he says: "Hamlet's insanity is feigned, his immediate object being to deceive Polonius and the court, in order that he might more surely pursue his greater and more ultimate object — ^the discovery and punishment of the King's guilt.^ Of all the great characters of Shakspeare, Hamlet was the most nega^ tive in the realm of faith. As Lowell says, he "is the most eminently a metaphysician and psychologist." Yet, we notice that Hamlet is con-^ stantly standing on holy ground. He is ever near the mysterious and the profoundly religious. Even in his most skeptical moods he impresses us more with the realities, which he doubts, than he could do, if he declared himself a believer in them. Death and Immortality are constantly in view. (See Chap. 7.) Whatever other material Shakspeare had in his possession when he produced this masterly portrait, we may see that he drew largely from Scripture. The whole play abounds in allusions which cannot be mis- taken. The religious and philosophic aspects of Hamlet find a counterpart in some of the characteristics of Job. Very much of the tone and color 'The drama is severe. Truth doubts it. Sincerity lies in it. Nothing more vast, nothing more subtle. In this tragedy, which is at the same time a phil- osophy, all is fluid, all hesitates, delays, wavers, is decomposed, scattered, dissi- pated, the thought is mist, the will is vapor, resolution crepuscular, the action changes every instant, the compass rules the man. . . . Hamlet is the chef- d'oeuvre of tragedy dreaming." Victor Hugo. 'The Shakspeare Drama. Denton I. Snider. TYPES OF CHARACTER PROM SCRIPTURE 65 of Hamlet's dress and speech, in his more serious, as well as in his cynical moments, are like those of Job. The speech of Hamlet to his two friends would sound quite natural, if addressed by Job to his "com- forters." And it is noticeable that the idea of acting the part of watch- ful counselors was much the same in both cases. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two friends of Hamlet, are directed by the King to watch the prince in his strange moods and doubtful actions, and it is in con- nection with these that Hamlet offers some of the profoundest wit of the play. So likewise Job's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, "made an appointment together" to watch and comfort Job in his strange aflSiction and it was in their conversations that we find many of the pro- found utterances which abound in the Book. To his "friends" Hamlet says : "Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me ; you seem to know my stops ; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery ; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass." j- 2. To his " friends " Job says : — " Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind ?" And again he asks : "Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me ?" It is significant that Hamlet uses the same figure (a whale) in his parry with Polonius, occurring immediately after the conversation from which the above quotation is taken. And again, when Job in his satire says : " No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you " we have one of those sayings that is so much like Hamlet that it has been quoted as his. Hamlet was a man of moods — overweighted with a sense of responsi- bility and care ; and there were times when this also was true of Job. In his great sorrow Job cries out to be hidden in the grave, and exclaims : "If a man die shall he live again ?" And Hamlet puts the same question in another form in that well-known exclamation, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." With a fine appreciation of man's nobility and majesty of character Hamlet exclaims : "What a piece of work is a man !" At another time his thought took opposite direction, as to the baser and sensuous quali- ties of man, and he inquires : — " What is a man If his chief good, and market of his time. Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more." 5 66 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB He recognizes God's purpose in relation to man, for he adds : — " Sure He that made us with such large discourse Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason. To fust in us unused." 4: 4. We find the parallel of this in Job's noble exclamation: "What is man that thou shouldest magnify him ? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" Job vii. 17. In the final result there is no parallel, but an opposite, in Hamlet and Job. Hamlet comes to the inevitable failure of a life unbalanced and undirected. His mind constantly reverted to the verities of religion, but he had no positive faith in God. He was, as a noble ship without anchor, and without a port. He takes vengeance in his own hand and is controlled by a leaning to fate. Even the Scriptural doctrine of Provi- dence he twists into an argument of fatalism. He says: "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." But he treats this doctrine as an utterance of the inevitable, and adds : "If it be now, 'tis not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet it will come." 5; 2. But Job, who is sometimes on the verge of despair, yet ever rises. He says: "My soul is weary of my life." In his gloom he is on a level with Hamlet's cry of "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns — " for he says, "Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death." But he rises out of this darkness into the full light: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth." It is true that one may scan the plot of this marvelous creation of Shakspeare's without perceiving these spiritual truths and analogies, yet, we think, no one can study it, in any of its parts, without finding gems of Scripture truths in every page of it. This chapter serves to emphasize the fact of our Poet's drafts upon the Bible for character-types ; but further illustrations, such as Ahab and Jezebel, as suggestive of Macbeth, and Ariel in the Tempest will be found in the other chapters of Book III. Ill HBROBS AND HBROINBS It is remarkable that he, whose perception of character was so acute, has no great moral heroes. There are many men in his dramas who display certain moral qualities in an eminent degree, but as Ruskin says : "Shakspeare has no heroes ; he has only heroines."^ Antonio is a merchant of the strictest honor and integrity ; he is pre- pared to die by the sharp blade of the insatiate Jew, for the honor of his bond and the love of his friend. But Antonio,- who has a heart stout enough, and a friendship pure enough, even to die for his friend, is not a harmonious moral hero. His love is restricted to his friends. He indulges in race prejudice and is bitter in hatred towards his enemy which, in some measure, excuses the vindictiveness of Shylock. When he goes to sign the bond, in order that his friend may have the present loan, Shylock accuses him of con- duct the very reverse of the Christian rule : — " You call me — ^misbeliever, cut-throat dog. And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine. And all for the use of that which is mine own. Well, then, now it appears you need my help : Go, to, then ; you come to me, and you say, ' Shylock, we would have monies :' You say so ; You, that did void your rheum upon my beard. And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur Over your threshold : . . . . . . You call'd me dog." Antonio acknowledges the truth of this charge, but not with humil- iation or regret. He seems to glory in it, as of conduct of which he has reason to be proud. He says : — * Sesame and Lilies. 67 68 RBLIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB " I am as like to call thee so again, To spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too. If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not As to thy friends. . . . But lend it rather to thine enemy." 1:3. Out of this strange interview comes the still more strange contract of the "pound of flesh." And when Shylock demands the bond, he says : — " I have sworn on my oath that I will have my bond Thou call'dst me dog before thou had'st a cause." j: j. Certainly Antonio laid himself open to this retort. It was unworthy of him, as a Christian merchant, and it subjected him to a measure of righteous scorn when he pleaded for mercy at the hands of the Jew. Moreover, as Ruskin says, "the Merchant of Venice is languidly sub- missive to adverse fortune." In Shakspeare all the Kings, Cardinals, Soldiers, Knights and Priests are men of great faults. Not one of his men presents a perfect or har- monious moral portrait, while most of them are personifications of human weaknesses and sins and crimes. Brutus is great in some of his nobler movements, but the "noblest Roman of them all" is not a hero whom one might command as a type and an example. But the Poet saw the finer virtues and the greater qualities of humanity, and did not fail to embody them in his gallery of portraits. They are found, as Ruskin points out, in his female characters. The women of Shakspeare are, mostly, the very soul of the virtues. In them he sets forth the perfectly balanced character, portraying love — domestic and filial, — chastity, tenderness, patience, forbearance, and even the sterner virtues of courage and endurance, combined with wit and skill. On the other hand, Shakspeare saw that if Woman does not rise towards the purity of angels she may sink down to the level of devils. And yet there is consistency in all his portraitures of female character. Mrs. Jameson, in her "Characteristics of Women," remarks on this fact: "When we read in history of the enormities of certain women, " perfect scarecrows and ogresses, we can safely, like the Pharisee in " Scripture, hug ourselves in our secure virtue, and thank God that we " are not as others are — ^but the wicked women in Shakspeare are por- " trayed with such perfect consistency and truth that they leave us no HEROES AND HEROINES 69 " such resource — ^they frighten us into reflection — ^they make us believe " and tremble. On the other hand, his amiable women are touched " with such exquisite simplicity — ^they have so little pretensions — and " are so unlike the usual heroines of tragedy and romance, that they " delight us more 'than all the nonsense of the beau-ideal.' " Shakspeare's women are always in harmony with the sex; they are never unsexed, whether in the pursuit of a heroic moral purpose, or moved by wicked or immoral passions. Sometimes they clothe them- selves in male attire, in order the better to achieve the end in view, or to meet the dangers of travel and adventure ; but when they do so, they are uniformly chaste and orderly in behavior. Wicked womeq who are the very embodiment of unadulterated sin are yet true to the female instincts. Goneril, the leading evil-spirit of the two wicked daughters of King Lear, is almost conscienceless. Albany holds up the glass to her, as he says : — " See thyself, devil ! Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman !" One feels the truth of this. And yet Goneril is feminine ; if she be a devil, she is a she-devil. And so the Courtesan-queen, Cleopatra, never appears unfeminine, even in her most intrepid and fearless deeds, down to the very manner of her suicide. Lady Macbeth, too, is female all through. She moves and thinks and reasons as a woman. Conscience speaks to her, as to Macbeth, but she acts differently. Even the same thought of a blood-stain'd hand is expressed diflferently. Macbeth talks of all the waters of the ocean, as insufficient to "wash this blood clean from my hand," while she exclaims '*'all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." But in all the works of Shakspeare we must look to his women, rather than to his men,' for the truly heroic and the greater virtues.' Many of his plays depend upon the female characters, not only to sus- tain interest in the plot, but also to give to them meaning and purpose. Take for example the play of Measure for Measure. If Isabella were omitted it would be shorn of its glory ; it would be, almost as the play of Hamlet without Hamlet, — with this difference : — ^that while the interest of Hamlet centers in the intellectual study of a phenomenal men- tality, Isabella is an irresistible portraiture of the highest form of moral purity and mediatorial character. 70 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB She is an opposite of Portia. Portia sees in herself an instrument to work out the redemption of her husband's friend. She is self-assured, — confident — and needs no urging, or even a suggestion from others. Isabella is bashful and doubtful of her ability and influence. When urged to intercede for her brother's life, she says : — " Alas ! what poor ability is in me To do him good? . . My power I doubt !" She shrinks, too, from entering upon a task so foreign to her maiden life and religious vow. When once aroused, however, she throws all her fears to the winds and enters upon her task with courage, prompt- ness and unresting diligence. Her plea is based on mercy. She offers no excuse for her brother's fault; — she claims only that mercy's function may be fitly and justly employed in his case. And the terms of her plea are so like those which Portia urges upon Shylock, both in spirit and argument, that she ranks, intellectually, almost with Portia herself. Her argument with the Dep- uty is carried forward with singular beauty of thought and deep relig- ious conviction and fervor. But while she pleads, Angelo looks coldly on and tells her "it is too late": — her brother is sentenced. One can almost see the beauty of her face enhanced by her enthusiasm as she exclaims : — "Too late ? Why no : I that do speak a word May call it back again." To her eloquent pleading Angelo cooly replies : — "Your brother is a forfeit of the law And you but waste your words." Isabella is prompt with an appeal of the very finest order of thought and argument, coupled with the rarest and purest religious faith and fervor. What will those, who dispute the religious element in Shak- speare, do with such a plea as this? — "Alas! Alas! Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once: And he that might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy. How would you be. HBROBS AND HEROINES' 71 If He which is at top of judgment should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your lips lyike man new made." How our heroine grows ! Each step in her movement is like the eagle's flight, it gains in strength as it reaches toward the height. Virtue is quick to discover the presence of Vice. Isabella has a con- viction that she is doing battle with something other than mere extreme justice. Her blows fall thick and fast as she tells the deputy that: — " Authority, though it err like others. Hath yet a kind of medicine to itself That skins the vice o' the top." Go to your bosom," — she says ; " 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 his. Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Against my brother's life." Ah ! here Isabella is the true preacher, striking home to the conscience of the deputy ! She has disturbed him ! She knows not the devil she has awakened in him, but she is prepared to hear him say, "Come again tomorrow !" The morrow comes and, in the interview, Angelo presses himself upon her virgin honor. If ever shock comes to such a soul as Isabella it is when she discovers the depth of infamy of an Angelo's proposition. He who sat as judge — whose zeal for the law, in the name of social purity, had outrun justice and mercy — who had condemned her brother and sentenced him to death for " a natural guiltiness," now proposes to her the self-same sin as the price of that brother's life. Would that this irony of morals were never found except in the play ! One can imagine that Isabella's heart stops beating for a brief moment as the real significance of that hypocritical question dawns upon her. If there were : — " No earthly means to save him, but that either You must lay down the treasures of your body — or else let hinj suffer What would you do ?" 72 RELIGIuUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB This was Isabella's Gethsemane. Her brother's life put in the bal- ance against her own purity. The bright young life of a man who has done no wrong against society that he is not willing to atone for, — who longs to take the full measure of responsibility of husband and father, — this life placed in the scale against her virgin honor. But her answer is ready. What would I do? Do? " As much for my poor brother as myself That is, were I under the terms of death. The impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies And strip my self to death as to a bed That longing had been sick for, ere I'd yield My body up to shame." And when Angelo tells her : "Then must your brother die," she is still equal to the strain : — " Better it were a brother die Than a sister, by redeeming him Should die forever! Ignominy in ransom and free pardon Are of two houses : lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption." There spake the true redeeming spirit ! This is the very bugle sound of heaven's law. Ransom purchased by sin is not pardon. Mercy has no relation to unholy purchase. Pardon is free, or it is not pardon. To be ransomed by sin ! to be redeemed by foul unholy compact, to make terms with death that life may be spared ! this would be a shock against all moral law ; it would make angels weep and devils laugh. But poor Isabella has not yet drank her cup of sorrow to the dregs. Her next trial is with her brother who is lying in prison awaiting the issue of her prayers, — ^pardon or death. She has faith in her brother ! What pure woman has not ? She never thinks her own blood relations weak and vile for "love thinketh no evil." Isabella has failed with Angelo, but she sees virtue in her brother notwithstanding his fall : — HEROES AND HEROINES 73 " I'll to my brother Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood, Yet he hath in him such a mind of honour, That had he twenty heads to tender down On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up Before his sister should her body stoop To such abhor'd pollution." How joyfully she hears him say: — " If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms." " There spake my brother ! there my father's grave did utter forth a voice." But she has not yet told him the deep damnation of the deputy. That he can be redeemed at a price which she alone can pay her brother does not know, much less has she named the nature of the coin demanded. When this is told him the young man, at first, recoils with horror, — " Thou shalt not do it," he says. But, as he takes time to think of the precious treasure of life — ^the pleasure, the joy, the impulse of his youthful days, he changes his tone and sighs: "Oh Isabel! Death is a fearful thing." The horror of death falls upon him and — the 'afterwards': — " Ay but to die and go we know not where !" Who can ever tell the awful sense of loss when our ideals fail ? We have placed our father, our brother, or our sister on a pinnacle, high above the common herd of men and women, and when bankruptcy of heart is revealed, it is as the crack of doom. " Sweet sister, let me live : What sin you do to save a brother's life. Nature dispenses with the deed so far. That it becomes a virtue !" There ! it is out ! that's the same old devil's argument ; — "Cast thy- self down and He shall give his angels charge over thee !" Nature does not reject a compromise with evil to do a greater good. Nature makes a virtue of a sin when to do it gains a crown, or saves a life ! 74 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARB These are the plausible theories of men who desire gain by sin. But Isabella's clear soul instantly detects the defection and, while she is shocked at her brother's weakness, she feels that moral redemption is not possible on such terms. "Fie, lie, fie !" she says. "Thy sin's not accidental but a trade !" Life for a life ? Yes ! Life for the sinner ? Yes ! But a trade in sin ! Never ! A sin to redeem a sinner ? It is neither in nature or in mercy. The law of salvation has no place for a sinner by another's sin. And this is the very heart of this play. It is a drama of intercession. The whole scheme and purpose of it is mediatorial. It shows society disrupted and discordant by a common corruption — ignoring domestic ties, giving license and loose rein to sensual sins and the way to redemption is mediation. The Duke himself acts the part, but the great, noble soul of Isabella is the heroic mediator, who carries the pain and sacrifice of it and is ready to die for it. Thus, it is Isabella (a woman) who nobly contests the dangerous way against the lust and power- of Angelo : — in the end she saves her brother from death and justice from defeat. No stronger test of heroic character could be possible than that which assailed her and she proved herself equal to the task.^ So also, it is Portia who is the heroic character in The Merchant of Venice. She saves Antonio, not Antonio, Portia. And as Mrs. Jame- son says of her, referring to the trial scene : "Her intellectual powers, her elevated sense of religion, her high honorable principles, her best feelings as a woman, are all displayed."" It is the lovely Cordelia, who, grandly and patiently, bears the bit- terest wrongs to save King Lear, her father, from the effects of his own weakness. It is Desdemona who, although she is weak, is pure and spotless, amidst a network of lying and slander, and who is the one transparent light of love and fidelity to the end of the tragedy and wreck of the play of Othello. " She is a victim consecrated from the first, — ' an oflFer- ing without blemish,' alone worthy of the grand final sacrifice, all har- mony, all grace, all purity, all tenderness, all truth !"* ^Isabella, who, on the point of taking the veil, is yet prevailed upon by sisterly affection to tread again the perplexing ways of the world, while, amid the general corruption, the heavenly purity of her mind is not even stained with one unholy thought : in the humble robes of the novice she is a very angel of light. A. W. Schlegel. ''Characteristics of Women. 'Ibid. HEROES AND HEROINES 75 It is Helena, whose perfect love patiently waits the leadings of provi- dence, through years of banishment and contumely; and never falters, until she finally proves to the proud Bertram her all-sacrificing love; and, — well she says: — " Our remedies oft in themselves do lie Which we ascribe to heaven." It is not Romeo, but Juliet, who displays the courage of patience and endurance to the end. She steadily appeals to her father, her mother, her nurse, and to the Friar, in turns; and then braves suffering and death in their most loathsome forms, in order that she may "live an unstained wife." But Romeo is weak at the moment when courage might have saved all. And Imogen, in the play of Cymbeline, — although involved in the meshes of skillful plots designed for her ruin, — her banishment accom- plished, — and her murder planned by her own husband; yet she never forsakes her love, but keeps it burning upon the altar of her heart, amidst a very hell of conspiring iniquity that might make devils blush. Ruskin, in his view of Shakspeare's galaxy of heroines, remarks that : "Among all the principal figures there is only one weak woman — " Ophelia ; and it is because she fails Hamlet at the critical moment, " and is not, and cannot in her nature be, a guide to him when he needs "her most, that all the bitter catastrophe follows. Though there are " three wicked women among the principal figures, — Lady Macbeth,^ " Regan, and Goneril, they are felt at once to be exceptions to the ordi- " nary laws of life ; fatal in their influence also, in proportion to the " power for good which they have abandoned. Such in broad light, is " Shakspeare's testimony to the position and character of women in " human life. He represents them as infallibly faithful and wise coun- " selors, — incorruptibly just and pure examples — strong always to sanc- " tity, even when they cannot save." Sesame and Lilies. Equally true is Shakspeare's conception of the marriage relation." As Coleridge says : "Except in Shakspeare, you can find no such thing as a pure conception of wedded love in our old dramatists." How perfectly ' Mr. Ruskin omits Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet from his list of "wicked women," perhaps because he does not regard her as classed among "the principal figures" of Shakspeare, but why he has omitted Cleopatra is not so clear. ' See Chapter IV ; Moral Inculcations. 76 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB he sets forth the nice distinctions between the respective relations of father and husband. Desdemona says : — "My noble father I do perceive here a divided duty : To you I am bound for life and education ; My life and education both do teach me How to respect you ; You are the lord of duty ; — I am hitherto your daughter : But here's my husband ; And so much duty as my mother show'd To you, preferring you before her father. So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord." Othello 1:3. The Portia's of Julius Caesar, and of The Merchant of Venice are noble examples of wedded love; and Queen Katherine in Henry VIII. tells her own sweet story of devotion and pure love. Even in his earlier Poems, the lofty purity of true womanhood caught the fire of Shakspeare's genius. His Sonnets often breathe the purest thought and express the loftiest ideas of virtue. And, in the Rape of LucRECE, while vividly portraying black, hellish, lust and crime ; he also gives a perfect picture of chastity and loyal wifehood, — stronger than life itself: — Lucrece, pure as Desdemona and a much stronger character. IV THB MORAL INCULCATIONS OP SHAKSPBARB Prof. R. G. Moulton in his excellent work on "Shakspeare as a Dramatic Artist," speaks of "the dangerous tendency which exists among ordinary readers of Shakspeare, to ignore plot, as of secondary importance, and to look for his greatness mainly in his conceptions of character." But "the full character effect," he says, "cannot be grasped if it be dissociated from the plot." This is a note of warning to which another might be added. Many readers, in looking for the plot miss the characters, while others in studying the stage-setting of the drama, see nothing of the lofty incul- cations and inspirations which it contains. We shall see more of Shak- speare in proportion as we view his works as an expression of those high attributes which associate the human soul with the divine character. We obtain glimpses of man's moral and spiritual nature as we scan the plot or study the personnel of the plays. But if we view these, as incidents which set forth the greater things, we shall discover that the perfection of Shakspeare's art is not in the skillfulness of his plot, or the faithful portraiture of his men and women, but in his masterly expressions of the human soul, in all its passions and emotions, its hopes and fears, its loves and hates, and its relation to the infinite and divine. As, in Millet's great picture, the two humble peasants standing in reverential attitude, at the moment when the sound of the Angelus bell is heard from the direction of the distant sunset, are but incidents which to the spiritually minded, bring the soul into instant rapport with prayer and worship, so the figures which move in natural order upon the can- vas of Shakspeare's immortal paintings are each an expression of some quality of the human soul, for good or evil, for life or death, for heaven or hell. The moral tone of .Shakspeare, as of all great artists, must be meas- ured, not by any one figure of his pictures, nor by the whole of any one picture, but by the spirit which he breathes, — the atmosphere which he creates. Dr. Strong is a witness on this subject. He says: "After " earnest searching I can unhesitatingly avow the belief that the great 77 ;8 RELIGIOUS WORLD OP SHAKSPBARB " dramatist was both pure in his moral teaching and singularly sound " in faith. There is a freedom of utterance with regard to the relations " of the sexes, such as is natural in a bold and vigorous age, but there is "no lingering over sensual details."^ The world is only just beginning to understand the moral worth of Shakspeare. With the thought turned, too exclusively, towards his ear- lier poems, and his free descriptions of the grosser passions, he has been regarded as an artist whose pictures are not for the school or the family library, — as a poet of tainted morals — a genius whose great work is darkened with a black shadow. Taine, in his History of English Literature, quite freely expressed this view, — and yet the notoriety of Taine's work rests largely upon his liberal selection of passages and quotations from literature, many of which ought never to have been written, and others, like those from Shakspeare, ought never to be viewed apart from' their contexts. Take from their environment a selection of passages from the works of any great author and they may appear gross ; draw a picture from some incidents in any well-regulated domestic circle, and place it upon the stage of observation, with the brilliancy of lime-light effects to accentuate it, and it will be sport for the depraved and subject for unchaste thought. But the true dramatist, and the true historian, must see humanity as it is and reveal it ; not the beautiful and the true alone, but the repulsive and false also.^ One is shocked that a man of great literary ability and fame should have selected the grossest character of all Shakspeare's works, and identified the personal morality of the Poet with that character. Taine ^ " The Great Poets and their Theology, p. 210. ""The objection that Shakspeare wounds our feelings by the open display of the most disgusting moral odiousness, unmercifully harrows up the mind, and tortures even our eyes by the exhibition of the most insupportable and hate- ful spectacles, is one of the greater and graver importance. He has, in fact, never varnished over wild and blood-thirsty passions with a pleasing exterior never clothed crime and want of principle with a false show of greatness of soul ; and in that respect he is every way deserving of praise. Twice he has portrayed downright villains, and the masterly way in which he has contrived to elude impressions of too painful a nature may be seen in lago and Richard the Third. I allow that the reading, and still more the sight, of some of his pieces, is not advisable to weak nerves. . . . But if we wish to have a grand purpose, we must also wish to have the grand means, and our nerves ought in some measure to accommodate themselves to painful impressions, if, by way of requital, our mind is thereby elevated and strengthened." Dramatic Art and Literature, A. W. tjchlegel. MORAL INCULCATIONS OP SHAKSPBARB 79 says : "Falstaff has the passions of an animal and the imaginations of " a man of wit. There is no character which better exemplifies the fire " and immorality of Shakspeare. . . . This big fellow, a coward, a " cynic, a brawler, a drunkard, a lewd rascal, a pothouse poet is one of "• Shakspeare's favorites. The reason is that his morals are not of fine " nature, and Shakspeare's mind is congenial with his own." It is true that Taine, a few pages further on in his review, has given a fuller and a less grotesque portrait of the Dramatist, but he does not remove this hideous caricature. The explanation seems to be that Taine is the product of that French school, which sees vice when clothed in ugliness or associated with clumsy or vulgar errors, but does not detect it when arrayed in purple, or regulated by social etiquette and police rule. It is refreshing to turn from this writer to another Frenchman of great eminence as an Author and a Statesman, — Lamartine, — who said : ' It is as a moralist that Shakspeare excels ; no one can doubt this after ' a careful study of his works, which, though containing some passages ' of questionable taste, cannot fail to elevate the mind by the purity ' of morals they inculcate. They breathe so strong a belief in virtue, ' so steady an adherence to good principles, united to such a vigorous ' tone of honor as testifies to the author's excellence as a moralist, nay, a ' Christian." For the credit of the human race, we would that history could be his- tory without recording the horrible deeds of blood and lust which, in all ages, have occurred. We would that the Bible history of the Hebrew race were unstained with the sins of David, Solomon, Ahab and Rehoboam, and without the evils which debased the people. But if these things were omitted it would not be history, and the destruction of great cities, the ruin of kingdoms and the downfall of nations, would have been inexplicable enigmas. For the school text-book it is well that Hudson and others have modi- fied the text of Shakspeare to present everyday language and ethical ideas. Yet, who that values the power of a great master-work would destroy the poem which holds up to universal execration and everlasting condemnation the awful crime of Tarquin against the purity which is better than life, — ^the honor which is worth more than a diadem or a crown? And yet there are passages in that poem which, to separate them and accentuate them would be a crime against social morality. In regard to the language sometimes employed by the Poet, consideration must be allowed for the times in which he lived as well as the characters whom he portrayed. In his work, already quoted, Schlegel remarks: 80 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB " Shakspeare, it is true, sometimes introduces us to improper company ; " at others, he suffers ambiguous expressions to escape in the presence " of women, and even from women themselves. This species of petu- " lance was probably not then unusual. He certainly did not indulge in " it merely to please the multitude, for in many of his pieces there is not " the slightest trace of this sort to be found : and in what virgin purity " are many of his female parts worked out ! When we see the liberties " taken by other dramatic poets in England in his time, and even much " later, we must account him comparatively chaste and moral."^ The characters of his dramas are true to life, not so much in local detail, but in the broader and universal survey. They are portraits of human nature — in all time — in all lands. They are not weakened by a shortened perspective nor distorted by an out-of-proportion foreground. Ruskin says of them: "They are perfect plays just because there is no care about centuries in them, but a life which all men recognize for the human life of all time; and this it is, because, painting honestly and completely from the men about him he painted that human nature which is indeed constant enough, — a rogue in the fifteenth century being at heart what a rogue is in the nineteenth, and was in the twelfth ; and an honest or a knightly man being in like manner very similar to other such at any other time. And the work of these great idealists is therefore always universal; not because it is not portrait but because it is complete portrait which is the same in all ages."^ Carlyle has something to say akin to this : "Shakspeare is no secta- rian : to all he deals with equity and mercy ; because he knows all and his heart is wide enough for all. In his mind the world is a whole ; he figures it as Providence governs it ; and to him it is not strange that the sun should be called to shine on the evil and the good, and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust."^ A much too common idea of Shakspeare is, that he had no unity of purpose or moral action in his plays, — that he wrote merely to harmonize his plot or dress it for the stage. But if it be that this was his sole or chief, conscious purpose, then it must be admitted that he was, uncon- sciously, a perfectly harmonious, moral teacher. In all his plays there is thrown a steady searchlight upon sin which shows it hideous. Sin is never exalted or deified. It is successful at times, and for a time, but it is inevitably attached to its nemesis. As Prof. Moulton says : "Shak- " speare is not satisfied with the easy morality which converts all its vil- ' Dramatic Art and Literature, A. W. Schlegel. 'Modern Painters, Vol. III. 'Essay on Goethe. MORAL INCUL,CATIONS OF SHAKSPBARB 8i " lains before the fall of the curtain. In the play, as in actual fact, men " are seen divided into two classes : those in whom evil is only acci- " dental, to be purged out of them by the discipline of experience, and " those in whom the evil seems to be a part of their nature, and all the " working of events upon them serves only to drive it deeper in."^ That is to say, — Shakspeare makes sin to bring its own punishment. The Scriptural law, " Be sure your sins will find you out," is, with one exception,^ always present in his plays. Retribution is conveyed in the very act of wrongdoing : "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." The force of the punishment is in the evil itself. So true to the Scriptual law is Shakspeare that he makes the sinful deeds of men to outline and determine the very nature of their punish- ment. Thus the action of conscience is seen working in the minds of the wrongdoer: — " So much my conscience whispers in your ear Which none but Heaven and you and I shall hear." King John i: i. " The colour of the King doth come and go Between his purpose and his conscience." 4: 2. Shakspeare shows conscience as an inward monitor which acts in us and for us. We depend upon it for our intuitions against wrong, as well as for our leanings towards right. The ship captain cannot do without his compass, for it is the conscience of the ship. As it turns to the north with certainty, so the human conscience turns towards the north pole of right and warns us against leading our craft wrong-wards. It is not a human contrivance, thi? conscience, but is divine, in its source, its aspiration and its law. Conscience is a terrible sourge to the wrongdoer. As the needle, pointing whither-ward, witnesses against the sailor who dares to ignore its warnings, so the human conscience is a whip of scorpions to the soul which heeds not its voice.* A brief perusal of the quotations in this 'Shakspeare as a Dramatic Artist, p. 278. ' See pp. 85, 86 (Hen. VIIL). ' " Every sin conies back to plague the sinner. There is no need of any flagellations; every man flagellates himself. No God in heaven or devil in hell is needed to kindle the fire that is not quenched, or to breed the worm that dieth not. Every man kindles the fire and breeds the worm in his own soul. This is not new. The old Greek tragedians saw it, and wrought it into their tragedies. Dante saw it, and repeated it in the story of Inferno. Shakspeare saw it and, 6 82 RBLIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB volume under the head of "Conscience" will show how perfectly and uniformly Shakspeare has presented this truth together with the unerr- ing law of justice and judgment. Falstaff gloats over every new conquest of virtue in his licentious course ; he revels in merry lust and spends his wit and his means in the gratification of his abnormally gross nature, while public decency, order and law, or even the defeat of his plots, are all powerless to restrain him. Yet, in all his revelings, he is working out his own sure undoing ; by and by, he is deserted, even by his intimate associates in lewdness, and he dies in a house of ill-fame, mourned only by its immoral keeper. Macbeth and Richard III. each meet their own nemesis in horrible dreams and ghosts; and a network of retribution is woven about them by their own hands until they die a bloody death amid the execrations of all. lago, who is the incarnation of evil conspiracy, sowing discord and ruin until the whole circle of his friendships are driven to death or desperation, brings on his own ruin at the very climax of his successes, and his conviction is established by the witness and proclaimed by the moral indignation of his own wife, at the moment of his arrest and judgment : — " Though those that are betray'd Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor Stands in worse case of woe." Cymb. 5; 4. When Regan, daughter of King Lear, caps her cruelty by sharing in the monstrous act of putting out the eyes of Gloster because he has befriended her father, a servant who is looking on says : — " If she live long And, in the end, meet the old course of death Women will all turn monsters." King Lear 3: f. But Regan and Goneril, that pair of female monsters, do not "live long and meet the old course of death." They became madly jealous of revealed it in Macbeth and in Othello. Browning and Tennyson have seen and interpreted it." Evolution of Christianity. Lyman Abbott. "Shakspeare puts the demon and the angel, inside a man, where they belong. No longer is a human being lured on to a deed, which he seemingly cannot help, by some irresistible power outside of his own nature." The Shakspeare Drama, by Denton J. Snider. See also quotation on page 96 of this volume. MORAL INCULCATIONS OF SHAKSPBARB 83 each other. Goneril poisons Regan, and then kills herself ; and when the double deed is reported to the reigning Duke, he says : — " This judgment of the heavens that makes us tremble Touches us not with pity." 5; 5. Even the tragedy m the love drama of Romeo and Juliet, turns upon the law of nemesis. The Prince of Verona sums uo the tragical end of the play, with these words : — " Capulet ! Montague ! — See what a scourge is laid upon your hate. That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too Have lost a brace of kinsmen : — all are punished." Rom. and Jul. 5: j. Thus Shakspeare brings sin to judgment. And if Virtue appears, at times, not to see its reward in this life, yet, as an English divine has said : "As we read his works we feel that justice walks the world, delay- ing, it may be, but not forgetting ; as is ever the manner of the Divine."^ Witness also the moral inculcations of the Poet in all matters of sex relation. He draws the portrait of immoral characters as they are ; but he never places them in the light of commendation. As Coleridge says : "Shakspeare has no innocent adulteries, no virtuous vices; — he never renders that amiable which religion and reason alike teaches us to detest, or clothes impurity in the garb of virtue." His marriage doctrines are of the highest order of morality.^ They are Scriptural — they are sacred, — ^they are ideal. His poetry on the sub- ject is conceived in the loftiest spirit ; it teaches the holiest and most per- fect blending of the two in one. When marriage is employed as a weapon or means of unholy passions or aims, it is shown to be prosti- tuted from its purpose and it brings forth the bitterest of fruits; the most powerful are shown to be swept, as by an avalanche, to ruin when they have violated its covenant or outraged its rites. Moreover, with Shakspeare, marriage is a religious ordinance and must be religiously observed, — not as a mere civil contract, but as "a world-without-end bargain" . . . "in the temple eternally knit." "God is the best maker of all marriages."' 'Archbishop Trench. 'See chapter on Heroes and Heroines. "See "Marriage," Scriptural Themes, etc., Book III. 84 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB The Poet also shows that marriage is the very foundation institution of home-Hfe, — the hope and security of society. In Measure tor Measure marriage is the redemption and salvation of social life; it solves the most difficult of problems. In other plays it unites king- doms and brings peace between warring factions and nations. It may be urged that Shakspeare represents old-fashioned views on this subject, leaning towards ideas of ownership rather than of partner- ship, and the supremacy of the man over the woman, as seen in the Taming of the Shrew : — " Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign." Yet this is consistent with Paul's letters to the Ephesians and Colos- sians : — "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, for the hus- band is the head of the wife." But it is with greater and more frequent emphasis that the Poet places woman in her true position of dignity and honor, as the help-meet and not the inferior of man. Portia, — Brutus's Portia, — is one of the noblest of Shakspeare's grand galaxy of noble women in the marital relation. Brutus had not realized the identity pf heart and mind in the true man and wife. Portia's lofty appeal was a revelation to her hus- band. He thought her noble and beautiful, and a fit subject for his care, as he scolded her for risking her health to the inclement morning. But it was a new thought to him when she exclaimed : — "Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus Is it excepted, I should know no secrets That appertain to you? Am I yourself But, as it were, in sort, or limitation; To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed. And talk to you sometimes ? Dwell I but in the suburbs Of your good pleasure ? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife." Caesar 2: 2. What* No secrets from my wife — ^nothing that can separate our interests or disturb our peace ! Does it mean that these secrets that burn are to be shared by both of us, or otherwise, that Portia is wife only in part? It is thus that Shakspeare brings home to us the ultimatum of our mutual relation and so he holds "the mirror up to nature." MORAL INCULCATIONS OF SHAKSPBARB 85 We have remarked that there is one exception, in the plays of Shak- speare, to the working out of the law of nemesis. Henry VIII. is the only one of the great dramas that does not bring the sins of the chief criminal to judgment. Here, the wicked is seen to thrive "like a green bay tree" and the judgment day does, not come. Henry is crowned with success and the play closes upon him amidst a triumphant festival of joy and congratulation, while his victims suffer and die. This King is a confirmed sensual monster, — a full-fledged, pious, hypocrite, — he is a devil who "can cite Scripture for his own purpose" and, as Charles Dickens says : — "he is one of the most detestable villains that ever drew breath." Yet his most abominable plots succeed and the curtain is drawn upon his crowning happiness, while his patient and faithful wife (Katherine) lies dying of a broken heart. Critics have, of course, noticed this as inconsistent with the moral genius of Shakspeare and, to escape the dilemma, the authorship of the play has been questioned. Dr. Johnson accounts for its deficiencies, as for several other of the plays, by calling attention to the fact that the work is a composite, — other play-writers sharing in it for stage purposes and it seems to be generally conceded that the Prologue and Epilogue of this play were not by Shakspeare. Schlegel, the best German critic, places the play as unquestionably Shakspeare's and offers the best expla- nation for its main defect that we have seen. He points out that it was written during the reign of Elizabeth and that a full-length portrait of her father would not be possible at that time. Shakspeare could not present a play, for instance, during Elizabeth's reign that would dis- credit her legitimacy and therefore he had to frame it so as to leave Henry's marriage with Katherine in doubt as to legal form and legiti- macy. Yet, as Schlegel shows, the duplicity and hypocrisy of Henry are made easily apparent to the onlooker, while it is skilfully obscured from the view of Elizabeth by the brilliancy of his description of Cranmer's prophetic eulogy of herself at the christening. But there is another explanation of these apparent defects in the moral issue of the play which seems to have escaped notice ; at least, we have not seen it referred to in any published work. Henry VIII. was an uncompleted work. Everything points to the probability that this play was only part of a general plan of a larger work in the mind of Shakspeare, the completion of which would involve two, or three parts, as in the case of Henry IV. and Henry VI. Reasons for such an extension of the work are not far to seek. The play, as it is given to us, treats only of part of Henry's reign, although 86 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARB written long after his death and it closes at a point which would render it acceptable to the reigning authority of the time. Moreover it bears marks of leading up to further writing and it is reasonable to suppose that, had Shakspeare lived long enough to meet new conditions, he would have worked out the same moral order in this that he has done in all other of his historical plays. It may be added that there were ample materials ready at hand when- ever he might have assumed the task. The tragedies which attended the domestic infelicities of Henry, the failure of the King to find the happiness he sought in any one of his numerous wives, after his treach- ery to Katherine, the death which followed a disease which made him hideous to the sight and odious to the senses :^— these and other things in the hands of Shakspeare would have amply served to illustrate his moral program. But the play is not without its chapter of judgment against sin. Cardi- nal Wolsey is the most prominent figure, next to the King, and in point of ability and ambition he is easily first. He is the most subtle and tal- ented of men in plotting for his own ends at the expense of others. One after another they are sent to the tower and executed, to make the way easier to Wolsey. But he overreaches himself and dies, — self-convicted, broken-down, dishonored, amid the execrations of his peers and the people and dies, in prison, deeply humiliated and penitent, while the executioner's axe hangs over his head waiting to fall upon him. V TRAGEDY IN THE BIBLE AND IN SHAKSPBARE Shakspeare turned instinctively to the Bible for types of sin, as well as of virtue. He saw the woeful anarchy in society, the ruin of domestic peace, the waste and destruction of wealth, the letting loose of the pas- sions of evil, — all represented in the first murder : — — " Let order die ! And let the world no longer be a stage To feed contention in a lingering act ; But let one spirit of the first-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." // Hen. IV. i: i. This is one of eight separate references, in seven different plays, to Cain, or the murder of Abel. There is also a striking correspondence in the plots and characters of some of the tragedies of Shakspeare with some of those of the Bible. The most notable of these is the play of Macbeth. The Macbeth's are, in almost every detail, the very likeness of Ahab and Jezebel. Indeed one might easily suppose that the dramatist, while turning to Scotland for his location and names, had much more in his mind, the character and deeds of King Ahab and his wife ; "the very mind and being of the latter seem to be infused into, and to animate the former." Not only the gen- eral outline of the plot of the play, but also the spirit, and even the method of it, seem to be taken from the life of the wicked King and Queen of Israel. These analogies have not escaped notice. Further on we shall quote from a little work already referred to, which was published about fifty years ago.^ " Shakspeare and the Bible. Rev. J. R. Eaton. 87 88 RBUGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB Mrs. Jameson calls attention to the first inception of the first great crime of the tragedy. She says: "We must bear in mind, that the " first idea of murdering Duncan is not suggested by Lady Macbeth " to her husband : it springs within his mind, and is revealed to us, " before his first interview with his wife, — ^before she is introduced or " even alluded to."^ So was it with Ahab. No mention is made of Jezebel in connection with Naboth's vineyard until Ahab coveted it. When Naboth refused to part with the property " Ahab came into his house heavy and dis- pleased . . . and laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread." 1 Kings xxi. 4. And when the King told Jezebel the reason for his vexation, she promptly met him with this: "Dost thou now govern the Kingdom of Israel ? Arise and eat bread and let thy heart be merry : I will give thee the Vineyard of Naboth." xxi. 7. Jezebel's scheme was crafty and diabolical. In the King's name she proclaimed a fast and caused Naboth to be set in a prominent place among the people. Then, two men, sons of Belial, were hired to bear false witness against him, that he did "blaspheme God and the King." Thus Naboth was falsely convicted of a capital offense, in the pres- ence of the people, and officers were instructed to carry him out of the city and stone him to death. The confiscation of his property easily followed. Throughout the whole of the tragedy the hand and heart of Jezebel are clearly seen. As Ahab desired the vineyard of Naboth, so Macbeth coveted the crown of Scotland. But Duncan was King and his life was a barrier to Macbeth's ambition. And, as Jezebel learns the cause of Ahab's sulking, so Lady Macbeth is made aware of the trouble in the mind of Macbeth ; — she reads a letter from him which speaks of the subject and in self-communing sTie says : — ..." thou shalt be What thou art promis'd. Yet do I fear thy nature ; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way : . . . What thou would'st highly, That thou would'st holily: would'st not play false, And yet would'st wrongly win : — Hie thee hither. That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; And chastise with the valour of my toneue All that impedes thee from the golden round." Macb. i: 5. 'Characteristics of Women. Mrs. Jameson. TRAGEDY IN BIBLE AND IN SHAKSPBARE 89 A little later, Macbeth enters and talks it over with his wife. Eager enough, in his wicked heart, to profit by her bolder spirit and "wrongly win :" — " Macb. Duncan comes here to-night. Lady M. And when goes hence? Macb- To-morrow as he proposes. Lady M. O never shall sun that morrow see . . . He that's coming Must be provided for ; and you shall put This night's great business into my dispatch." 1:5. Macbeth's craven heart seems to tremble at the thought of murder. His soliloquy shows him full of remorse and fear before the deed is done; but his wife has already said: " Only look up clear ; To alter favour is to fear : Leave the rest to me," 1:5. Still he hesitates. In the dead hour of the night, he and his guilty partner discuss the situation ; anxiously he says : "// we should fail?" and she answers promptly:^ " We fail. But screw your courage to the sticking-place. And we'll not fail." i: 7. Thus, Lady Macbeth, like Jezebel, urges on the deed of guilt, and makes the occasion and the plot. She provides that the King's two per- sonal attendants shall be plied with liquor until they fall into a drunken sleep and that, when the deed is done, suspicion shall be turned towards them, by throwing blood from the wounds of the murdered King upon their garments. Jezebel and Lady Macbeth each succeed in their respective guilty purpose. Ahab secures Naboth's vineyard, after the treacherous mur- der of its owner, and Macbeth obtains the crown of Scotland, — after : "the deep damnation of his (Duncan's) taking off." And nemesis follows similarly, in each of the two tragedies. It was prophesied of Ahab and Jezebel : "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood. . . . The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel." / Kings xxi. 19, 23. 90 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB Both these prophecies were fulfilled. Ahab was betrayed in battle and was killed in his chariot, and his blood, that was spilled upon his chariot, was licked by the dogs. Jezebel came to a fearful and igno- minious death, — ^being hurled from a chamber window while insanely displaying her painted charms to the conquering army, as they passed in procession, and her body was torn to pieces by dogs before the order for her burial was obeyed. What of Macbeth? His guilty heart no longer leans upon the superior courage of his wife. She shrinks from further blood, but he plunges on with sanguinary voracity, from crime to crime. He sheds blood on blood, and — ^blood is on his trail. All through his career, as King, he is tortured with the anguish of bitter remorse: — " They say, blood will have blood. Stones have been known to speak. Augurs and understood relations have . . . Brought forth . . . The secret'st man of blood." 2: 2. And so it comes to pass. His damnable deeds bring judgment. Like Ahab he comes to his end by a special mark directed against him in battle, but not before he has suffered the terrors of a guilty conscience. The horrors of hell are in him, and his brain is peopled with demons and ghosts as he cries : — " Ha ! they pluck out mine eyes ! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine Making the green — one red." 2: 2. And Lady Macbeth's conscience-stricken soul finds no peace, day or night. She walks her room in troubled sleep and groans over her hand, whose deep, dark, blood-stain is seen only by the eyes of her own guilty soul : — " What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? . . . . . . Here's the smell of blood still : all the perfumes Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh ! Oh ! Oh !" 5:2. Thus their bloody deeds are on the trail of the guilty pair, as those of Ahab and Jezebel pursued them. The Lady Macbeth lives her TRAGEDY IN BIBLE AND IN SHAKSPEARE 91 crime over again many times, until her reason topples from its throne and she dies self-convicted, self-condemned, self-slaughtered, — mad. Prof. Moulton, like Mrs. Jameson, sees some good points in the Lady Macbeth such as "an absence of self-seeking," a constant thought, — "not of what she is to gain by the crown but what her hus- band may gain." But since she identifies herself with her husband's ambition an^ their interests are not separate, but one, it seems diflScult to find a distinction in her favor, so far, at least, as the capital crime of Duncan's murder is concerned. If, however, any virtue is con- ceded her it must also be accredited to Jezebel, since she sought the vineyard of Naboth in order to gratify the covetous whim of Ahab. Dr. StaflFord, the eminent Catholic lecturer, sees good in Macbeth and only evil in his wife. His masterly dramatic exhibition shows Macbeth in a great struggle against the temptation to evil and a yield- ing only through the force of Lady Macbeth's influence and then, step by step, led on by the demands which one evil deed makes upon him for another, until he is completely and irredeemably environed and overwhelmed.^ These opposite views of his greater characters, which will be found to vary, from one extreme to the other, in the reviews of critics, are among the evidences of the subtlety of Shakspeare's work. The following passage from Modern Painters by John Ruskin is pertinent at this point : — "Shakspeare always leans on the force of fate, as it urges the final evil : and dwells with infinite bitterness on the power of the wicked, and the infinitude of results dependent seemingly on little things. A fool brings the last piece of news from Verona and the dearest lives of its noble houses are lost : they might have been saved if the Sacristan had not stumbled as he walked. Othello mislays his handkerchief, and there remains nothing for him but death. Hamlet gets hold of the wrong foil, and the rest is silence. Edmund's runner is a moment too late at the prison, and the feather will not move at Cordelia's lips. Salisbury a moment too late at the tower, and Arthur lies on the stones dead. Goneril and lago have, on the whole, in this world, Shakspeare sees, much of their own way, though they come to a bad end. It is a pin that Death pierces the King's fortress wall with; and carelessness and folly sit, sceptered and dread- ful, side by side with the pin-armed skeleton." 'As a further illustration of the various opinions on this subject we have this from Prof. Sharp: — "Macbeth is a man without real scruples although faint images of restraining voices sometimes chime upon his inner ear. What moral sensitiveness he possesses is only sufficient to enable him to enjoy coddling him- self for his regret at his unfortunate conduct, to make of him a sentimentalizing dealer in fine phrases." Of Lady Macbeth he says she "is as bare of moral scruples as her husband " * Shakspeare's Portrayal of the Moral Life." Frank Chapman Sharp. 92 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB Commenting upon this summary of certain characteristics of Shak- speare, a writer already referred to, has shown that "if it be thus in Shakspeare and in the world" it is so also in the Bible. He says : — " Jezebel and Judas have it all their own way, though they come to a bad end. In that sacred book, from beginning to end, good men lament that the wicked ' flourish ' here, ' like a green bay-tree.' That ' they come not into peril like other folk, neither are in trouble like other men.' David could not understand this till he 'went into the house of God and understood the end of these men.' Granting a superintending providence, which Shakspeare ever recognizes, things come to pass in the Bible, and in the world, as by chance. ' The lot is cast into the lap but the disposal is with the Lord.' " The most solemn predictions in Scripture, are fulfilled seemingly by accident. In the Bible, if anywhere, we might be led to expect the gradual development of a plot or principle; whereas we meet the very reverse of this. It was foretold that Ahab should not return in peace. He accordingly perished in battle. But how does he perish? 'A certain man draws a bow at a venture, and pierces the King between the joints of his harness.' It was also predicted that ' dogs should lick his blood.' How is this prophecy fulfilled? Is the body exposed to purposed indignity? No, it was buried, we have reason to believe, with respect. But ' one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria ; ' and then the ' dogs came and licked up the blood,' in the usual course of events. "Jehu, indeed, affected to fulfill the prediction concerning Joram, by casting his body into the plot of Naboth, the Jezreelite. But Jehu forgot, and would have left unfulfilled, what had been foretold in the case of Jezebel. He gave orders to bury this ' cursed woman,' because ' she was a king's daughter.' But he first went in to eat and drink. Before he had finished his meal, the dogs had had theirs ; and then he remembered the word which the Lord had spoken by the mouth of Elijah the Tishbite. " Since, then, what we call accident seems to be the ruling power, where divine interposition is clearly exerted (if we allow it ever to be exerted at all), it follows that Shakspeare, in representing the lives of the greatest and best of human beings as the sport of chance, does literally follow the order of God and nature. He is bitter, and we are bitter at this state of things, because we find it hard to realize the truth, that it is neither a man's worldly fortunes, nor the adherence of his friends, nor the fidelity of his wife, nor the time, nor the manner of his death, but the tenor of his life, which determines whether he be properly an object of envy or pity. Humanly speaking, what is there more horrible, or more unjust in Shakspeare, than that a good man, after a life of mortification and obedience to his Maker's will, should be secretly murdered in a dungeon at the pleasure of a light dancer? The wicked 'have done to him what they listed!' Had this been narrated merely in a novel or a play, the author's morality had doubtless been questioned, and he had been accused of setting an injurious example. All other means failing, better have introduced an angel to burst the prison door, than that this should have been. But God teaches otherwise." ' ' Shakspeare and the Bible. By Rev. T. R. Eaton, M. A., 1837. TRAGEDY IN BIBLE AND IN SHAKSPEARE 93 If we follow Ruskin and Mr. Eaton in these thoughts we may easily add other illustrations. We think of Stephen stoned at the very spring- time of his manhood while his murderers live and are, for a time, approved and rewarded; of Paul, in prison while Nero is on the throne; of John in banishment, while the wicked revel in power and splendor and many others of the noble army of martyrs and reformers. The reference to John the Baptist suggests another tragedy in which a woman was a chief factor and which may have been in the mind of Shakspeare when he wrote Macbeth. It was Herodias who plotted the death of John. Herod was vile enough to have murdered the Baptist for his own gratification but he did not dare to do it. His wife, how- ever, conceived the hideous plot which culminated in one of the most ghastly murders, even of that sanguinary age. In another chapter we remark on the similar conception of woman in the Bible and in Shakspeare. Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Dorcas, Mar- tha and the Marys are sublimely beautiful characters. But Jezebel and Herodias are fiends incarnate. Shakspeare's heroines are faultless and his two or three wicked women are desperately and irredeemably evil. "In the four grand tragedies (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Lear), the central problem is a profoundly moral one. It is the supreme internal conflict of good and evil amongst the central forces and higher elements of human nature, as appealed to and developed by sudden and powerful temptation, smitten by accumu- lated wrongs, or plunged in overwhelming calamities. As the result, we learn that there is something infinitely more precious in life than social ease or worldly success — nobleness of soul, fidelity to truth and honor, human love and loyalty, strength and tenderness, and truth to the very end. In the most tragic experiences this fidelity to all that is best in life is only possible through the loss of life -itself. But when Desdemona expires with a sigh and Cordelia's loving eyes are closed, when Hamlet no more draws his breath in pain and the tempest-tossed Lear is at last liberated from the rack of this tough world, we feel that, death having set his sacred seal on their great sorrows and greater love, they remain with us as possessions forever. In the three, dramas belonging to Shakspeare's last period, or rather which may be said to close his dramatic career, the same feeling of severe but consolatory calm is still more apparent. If the deeper discords of life are not finally resolved, the virtues which soothe their perplexities and give us courage and endurance to wait, as well as confidence to trust the final issues,— the virtues of forgiveness and generosity, of forbearance and self-control — are largely illustrated. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 21, p. 764, VI RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN THE PLOTS OF THE PLAYS It seems desirable to add some further comments to the thought of the rehgious idea which enters into the plots of the plays of Shak- speare. Not that (as we have elsewhere remarked), he ever made religion the subject of the drama. But all humanity was his theme and he recognized the universality of religion in man and gave expression to it in all his works. It is true that in some of the plays the religious element is primitive and crude. But the scene and action of these plays are pagan ; yet even here worship is conceived as a natural order and the gods, who are appealed to with devotion and reverence, are clothed with moral attrib- utes. It cannot be, in any true sense, said of Coriolanus, Titus Andron- icus, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline or Antony and Cleopatra that they are atheist or infidel, in regard to religion. There are occasional skeptical utterances, and at least one positive atheist: — Aaron the Moor, — whose portrait is drawn in the play of Titus Andronicus, in characters blacker than his skin. Shakspeare never conceived an infidel of amiable, or even decent character. Aaron, who "believed no God," was a monster of iniquity, a brutal, cruel, demon of a man, without a spark of goodness, who boasted that : "Aaron will have his soul black like his face." His deeds and curses were of the foulest; he found sport in the vilest outrages, on man and woman, and exclaimed: — " If there be devils would I were a devil To live and burn in everlasting fire. So I might have your company in hell, But to torment you with my bitter tongue." Titus And. 5; i. Coleridge has well said,^ "I know of no character in Shakspeare to which he has given a propensity to sneer and scoff or express contempt but he has made that man a villain." ^Lectures on Shakspeare. 94 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN PLOTS OF PLAYS 95 Even in the minor plays we find a constant movement toward retri- bution and judgment, and the working out of all things towards the good of society. The sacrifices of the virtuous, the sufferings of the good who are sometimes involved in the evil plots of the bad, and the final ignominy and death of the wicked always lead to better things. Take, for example, the play already alluded to and what do we find ? At the outset Titus commits a serious error in conceding the preten- sions to the throne of the unworthy Saturninus. A still graver wrong is his yielding to the clamor for one of the Goths as a sacrifice of con- quest, — giving up to slaughter the eldest son of the conquered queen. There follows a general disorder. The country is humiliated and dis- graced by its Emperor's consort with the base and lustful Queen Lavinia; the fair daughter of Titus is cruelly outraged and butchered and Titus himself is victimized with the loss of a hand. Revenge upon the brutal sons of the Queen is conceived in a savage mood and man- ner of death; King, Queen and Titus are each involved in the final tragedy. Yet all the movement of the play leads toward a purging of the country from the spirit which led up to these crimes, and brings about a new and happier condition, under the rule of the experienced and chastened Lucius. It is in the major plays, however, that we find the religious thought rising higher and is, in fact, reverent. Scriptural and Christian. It has been said that the works of Shakspeare are "the logical and fitting sequence of the old mystery play." Mr. Snider says, "this seeks " to give in a religious framework, the entire history of man from the " Creation till the Judgment Day, as it is presented in historic con- " tinuity in the Old and New Testaments. The Lord and the Devil " are the two chief characters, who appear, in person, on the stage and " carry on the conflict. The Devil is comic in these old plays, so are all " his demons, cohorts and earthly representatives such as Herod. To " the simple mind of the people, the bad, in attempting to overthrow " the good is foolish, ludicrous, comic. Evil in its complete circle is " self-destructive, so our ancestors laughed at the Devil, on the stage " at least. . . . The true drama must have all these elements, — it must " reveal the divine way of dealing with the world as the mystery play ; " it must show the moral germ in the individual as the morality play ; " it must be life incorporate, as the interlude. Now Shakspeare has all " these elements, not in isolation, but so fused together in the heat of " his poetic conception, that they make something altogether new. His " drama is not strictly religious, not strictly moral, not strictly sen- 96 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARE " suous, yet it is all three ; it shows the world order, it portrays per- " sonal character in the deepest sense."' But it must be observed that the difference between Shakspeare and the old religious play-writers is, that he does not use any "religious framework" to set forth religion and he never places the Divine Being, in person on the stage, or presents a spectacular heaven or hell.^ The world is his stage and all mankind are his characters. He makes these to move in a consistent and uniform ethical order, in perfect har- mony with Scriptual teaching. In fact, as Mr. Snider says, "It is herein that the unique and all surpassing greatness of Shakspeare lies." Mr. Snider has also shown, most clearly, in his treatment of the Tragedies and the Comedies, how Shakspeare brought "all colliding elements into harmony. The solution of all disturbing and conflicting agents" has one fundamental principle — the return of the deed upon the doer. Man has that which he has done brought home to him in the end ; his action, often through the most devious and subtle passages, sweeps back and includes himself. Eternal, divine justice it may be called, indeed it is found already named in some of these plays, — 'jus- tice of God.' . . . Tragedy with him means, not death merely, but sacrifice. Shakspeare's tragedy is at the bottom, mediatorial and reaches into the divine scheme of the world."* This view of the Tragedies presents to many readers, a new lesson, of the greatest breadth and value. It furnishes a key to many of the most difficult passages and explains why the Poet has introduced some characters into his plays which are otherwise inexplicable. We have seen, how the love of Romeo and Juliet becomes the force which leads to the sacrifice, not only of the lovers themselves, but of all who stand in the way of peace between the warring houses of Capulet and Montague. We see also how Hamlet's death is involved in the death of his father's murderer, for he, too, had killed a father; and how Ophelia is sacrificed through love, and her father and brother are also involved in the tragedy, which, however, brings about a condition of general peace, impossible or incomplete while any of them lived. Richard III., in his violence and crusade of murder, is an instrument of retribution, completing the fall of the houses of Lancaster and York which had kept England in a broil for a long period of years; and brought about the first crowning of an English King by parliamentary 'The Shakspeare Drama. Introduction to Tragedies. 'See chapter on Shakespeare and Immortality. "The Shakspeare Drama (Tragedies). RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN PLOTS OF PLAYS 97 title, introducing a new era of government and peace to England; while Richard comes to his death in a manner exactly fitted to his fear- ful and murderous life. The representation of Richard III. as a skeptic is surely foreign to the text of the play as we have it. He was impious and blasphemous but he evidently believed in the fundamental teachings of his church. At times he would scoff at retribution and he tried to laugh away his fears with — "conscience is a word that cowards use," yet at another time this very thought turns upon him. As he awakes from a troubled dream he exclaims, "O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!" His dreams are the foreshadowings of the realiti-es of to-morrow's judg- ment. He is in terror, not of any earthly tribunal or of physical fear, for he is no coward. The awful conflict is within and his fears do not proceed from skeptical doubts but the very reverse. In his soliloquy he portrays his terror : — " Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. Is there a murderer here ? No ; — ^Yes ; I am : Then fly, — what, from myself? Great reason: why? My conscience hath a thousand several tongues. And every tongue brings in a several tale And every tale condemns me for a villain: Methought, the souls of all that I had murder'd Came to my tent : and every one did threat To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard." 5; j. Nor can he shake off this guilty fear in the presence of others. He confesses to Ratcliff : — " By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard, Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers Armed in proof, and led by Richmond." 5; j. He describes his own deeds of wickedness, not as a skeptic would, but as one who believes in the terms of the Bible : — " I am in So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin." 98 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARB And while Richard does not, like Richmond, take any pious comfort from the thought that God supports him in his battles (indeed, how could he ?) yet he recognizes the hand of Heaven in the conflict : — " — the self-same heaven That frowns on me looks sadly upon him." One thing in this play does not seem to be consistent with Shak- speare. Lady Anne is represented as yielding to the strangely fasci- nating tongue of Richard under circumstances that are unnatural and revolting and especially so, to such a woman. We are inclined there- fore to believe that this scene has been interpolated for stage effect and note with satisfaction Coleridge's opinion that "Shakspeare did not write the scene.'' Turning to the play of Macbeth we have already noticed the strik- ing analogy in the plot with the Bible account of Ahab and Jezebel.^ Macbeth is troubled with a keen conscience, but it does not stay his hand. He beats down the accusing agent by reasoning: — " I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more; Returning were as tedious as go o'er." And so he plunges on, deeper and deeper in blood, sacrificing all who stand in his way. He is "hell bound," as Macduff says, and not until the end of the tragedy, with all that are involved, is there a way for peace and better government, by the nobler Malcolm. The play of Othei,i<0 opens to view another of those tangled webs, which are woven by error and wrong, and which Shakspeare so admir- ably shows are unraveled only by the order of the ethical law and divine justice. Othello is at the head of the army, distinguished above the noblest citizen of Venice. His bravery in war has placed him there, but it has also turned the heads of the governing powers and won the love of the beautiful daughter of a Senator, who marries him in spite of her father's opposition. This is a great error, — a crime against the order of nature and the proprieties of civilized society. Desdemona shares fully in this viola- tion of order and does wrong to her father and to society, by eloping and marrying the Moor. This marriage is neither natural or moral. "See chapter on "Tragedies in Bible and in Shakspeare." RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN PLOTS OF PLAYS 99 All the heroic quaUties of Othello do not justify the mesaUiance. It is in the nature of things that trouble and discord will follow. The eth- ical law cannot be appeased until the breach is healed. Sacrifice and judgment are inevitable. And in this case they follow quickly: the sins, already committed, have a speedy progeny. The death of Desdemona is shocking to our view and commands our sympathy. It does not seem that she has done anything to call for so violent an ending. Yet she wedded herself to the Moor, and he, for whom she sacrificed race instincts, degraded herself socially, and dis- obeyed her father's will, takes her life. The villain lago meets the conviction and death of ignominy con- sistent with his treacherous crimes, while Othello inflicts his own pun- ishment in a fit of noble passion and sorrow, mingled with contempt for himself, as a fool who was entrapped in the meshes of a traitor and conspirator. The play, as a whole, is a striking illustration of Shakspeare's consistent working out, through all the various stages of his works, towards the final sacrifice that must ever attend the breach of the ethical order of the world.^ The great historical plays of English Kings, are, with one excep- tion,^ infused with the same principles. Indeed, it is in the plays of the Henry's and the Richard's that we find most of Scripture and the relig- ious institutions : — the church, the saint days, the holy days, the clergy and the prayer-book are, all of them, in frequent evidence. No brief reference to these various plays could even introduce the many religious themes that are found there.* And, to a very large extent the same may be said of the greater Comedies. The Merchant of Venice is a drama of mediation. Mercy is its plea and Portia is its charming voice. Mr. Snider has furnished us with an excellent commentary on this play from which we desire to quote the following interesting paragraph : "Many lawyers say that no " court in Christendom would have decided that a pound of flesh did " not include the blood, though the bond might not have expressly said " so. This may be the case but it does not affect the truth of Shak- " speare's representation. His design was to show how formal law con- " tradicts itself and to exhibit the Jew beaten at his own game. The " might of the form of law was never more powerfully represented. " The Judge, the people and justice itself, are all on the side of the * See appended Note on Othello at foot of this article. 'See Henry VIII in chapter 4. • The quotations from these plays Will be found in Book IV of this volume. 100 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB " innocent man, yet they are unable to rescue him from the clutches " of an odious wretch who has the form alone on his side. Still the " Poet must ifind for us some reconciliation with the law : it would be "most ridiculously inadequate if it did not furnish some means for " reaching the Jew. This it does, inasmuch as it is made to seize the " crime of Shylock just at its most vulnerable point, — criminal inten- " tion. This is Portia's next point against him. He has willed the " death of a citizen of which the punishment is confiscation and death."^ So Shakspeare does not bring Antonio to death. Shylock himself must be the sacrifice; — in the end his wealth is confiscated, and his credit ruined ; yet Mercy steps in and saves his life, although he him- self had no mercy. Measure for Measure is still more clearly a play of mediatorship. Isabella is mediator for her brother's sin and at the same time the accuser of the sinful Deputy. Here, as in the Merchant of Venice, mercy rises above law. But the chief purpose in the play is to bring about a better observance of family honor and personal chastity. The public conscience is weak; the general conduct is loose and the family is in danger. Mediation and sacrifice redeem society and family life finds an example in the marriage of the Duke and Isabella.^ These comments may be said to refer to the ethical principles of the Poet, but it will be seen that his ethics are profoundly religious and imbued with Scripture reference and thought. It would require a vol- ume by itself to do justice to this theme. But, in truth, we can never do it justice. Shakspeare must be his own interpreter. He who would understand the Poet's loftiest teachings must study him. [Note.] Mr. Denton J. Snider has presented a view of Othello which seems to us at Tariance with his own conception and treatment of Shakspeare's consistency and harmony with the moral law. He says : '"The true motive for lago's hate" lies in this : "He considers that Othello has destroyed the chastity of his wife." This suggestion is based upon two of the soliloquies of lago, in the first of which he tells himself that such a thing "is thought abroad," to which he adds : — 'The Shakspeare Drama (Comedies). ' See chapter 3, Heroes and Heroines. REtlGIOUS THOUGHT IN PLOTS OF PLAYS loi " I know not if't be true But I, for mere suspicion in that kind Will do, as for surety." This is his speech after his second interview of conspiracy with Roderigo. It is true that in his next soliloquy lago recurs to the same thought and lays more stress upon it; but one looks, in vain, for the grounds of his suspicion or for evidence that he either knows or believes it. His soliloquies are rehearsals of the part he means to play in his deeds of "double knavery." Standing alone, they amount to nothing as evidence against Othello. They are vivid pictures of the inner workings of the mind of lago and they reveal his attempts to reason himself into excuses for his devilish deeds which may afford some salve to his own conscience. For even lago has a conscience. But Mr. Snider accepts lago's counterfeits as current coin, and assuming the guilt of Othello, he says: "Here lies the germ of his belief in the faithlessness of his wife." If this were true, Othello would be the first offender and lago would have the excuse of an aggrieved and wronged husband. Furthermore, if this were true. Jus- tice was unequal, which is precisely what Mr. Snider claims never hap- pens in Shakspeare. Othello died by his own hand, repentant and self- condemning for his part in the tragedy, but lamented as a hero, without a stain upon his reputation ; while lago was delivered up to the execu- tioner, amid the execrations of all, as "a hellish villain," who had wrought evil for good and for whose punishment the extreme penalty of the law was inadequate. It does not escape Mr. Snider's observation that lago never mentions the subject of his suspicion, but he argues that "he would not be likely to announce his own shame, or herald his self-degrading suspicions." But what cared he for the shame of it? He, who plundered the weak libertine (Roderigo) of his money, on the pretense of securing the ruin of Desdemona to serve his lust ; — he, whose opinion of women was mean and vile and who had but little respect for and no faith in his wife? Would such a man hesitate to tell his story to Roderigo, when relating to him the reasons for his hate, if he had really believed it? Would he not have poured a story in the ears of Desdemona's father which at least implied that he had reasons to suspect Othello ? What is still more to the point : — Had Othello been guilty with the wife of lago, would he have selected her as the attendant and com- panion of his young bride upon whose lovely innocence he doted, while he went to the war? 102 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB Can one imagine a man like lago being silent when confronted by Othello in the presence of the officers of the law with this : — "'Will you I pray demand that demi-devil Why he hath ensnar'd my soul and body?" Had he possessed any reasons for suspicion, lago would most assur- edly have answered this challenge. Nothing that we can conceive of, would have wroiight so much in his favor as a plea of partial justifica- tion such as this would have been.^ And then, does Othello himself, in his last moments, exhibit any trace of self-conviction? In the presence of the same officers, and of lago and his wife Emilia, he says : — " Speak of me as I am : nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice : then you must speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well." One has not far to seek for the real cause of lago's hate. Othello appointed Cassio instead of himself to the coveted lieutenancy. It is a case of disappointed ambition and he is bent on revenge. "I do hate him," he tells Brabantio, " as I do hell-pains." He knows well that no ordinary means will accomplish the downfall of a man like Othello. His plot, therefore, is conceived, with all circumstance and detail, so as to arouse jealousy in the one thing that would touch the Moor to the quick. This he does with masterly skill and cunning, making Roderigo, Cassio, and his own wife, all instruments of his devilish plot until he sets on fire : — " One, not easily jealous, but, being wrought. Perplexed to the extreme; . . . threw away a pearl." ^Prof. Sharp regards lago as conscienceless. "He desires Roderigo's money, Cassio's place, possibly, too, the satisfaction of avenging himself upon Othello for prefering a book-crammed student to a man of affairs like himself, and for being the (innocent) occasion of false reports about his wife's unfidelity. . . . He finds an actual enjoyment in his villainy, not primarily because he wants revenge, but because he delights in his sense of strength and skill that is awakened by successful intrigue. He chuckles over his disguise and plays with it ; he becomes so fascinated with the game that he half forgets the ends for which it was originally undertaken and we hear about his marital jealousy of the Moor 'gnaw- ing his inwards,' and even of a similar jealousy of Cassio. "Shakespeare's Por- trayal of a Moral Life." VII SHAKSPBARB AND IMMORTALITY It has been said that "Christianity has failed to express itself in any adequate drama. "^ But this may be simply an acknowledgment that the drama is inadequate to express it. The greatest things of the Christian religion are inexpressible. The drama deals with visible things; it can only represent the unseen in so far as material things can embody it. But, as the Apostle Paul says: "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." It has also been said that "for Shakspeare, in the matter of religion, the choice lay between Christianity and nothing."^ If it be meant, that for purposes of dramatization he made choice of 'nothing' in religion, then we agree with the writer and the absence of any great religious drama by Shakspeare is explained. A religion which consists of tem- ples, cathedrals, robes, ritual, forms, sacrificial offerings and proces- sions, may be dramatized; but to Shakspeare, Christianity was inex- pressibly greater. Even his genius could not reach the unseen things which are spiritual, and embody them as creatures of nature and of sense. All attempts at the dramatization of Heaven and Hell are necessarily grotesque, and are infinitely below the real and true. Heaven can only be seen by the heavenly character. Hell is unreal to the speculative thinker, but terribly real to the conscience of the wicked doer. Immortality is not a subject for the drama. Art cannot paint it; poetry cannot attain unto it; genius cannot discover it; — the best that they can do is to portray expressions of the human in whose soul immortality is an abiding hope. It has often been said that the greatest of all dramatists had no soul for the immortal, because he did not, like Homer, Virgil, Dante, Mil- ton, and Goethe, enter the realm of an imaginary heaven or hell. Even Dr. Strong dwells upon this thought as a limitation in Shakspeare. He says, almost mournfully, "Shakspeare has no heaven and no hell,"'' and 'G. Santayana in The New World, Dec, 1896. ' The Great Poets and their Theology. 103 104 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPEARE quotes Scherer/ as saying: "It is on the boundaries of the invisible world that Shakspeare's vision fails." But it seems to us that, in nothing is the universal quality of Shak- speare's genius seen more clearly, than in the fact that he presented the Bternal through human experience, in its infinite variety of hopes and fears, the working of conscience, the basis of ethical thought, and the common looking forward of all men towards judgment and a here- after. He was too fully and truly the poet of the world's realities to attempt a picture of the divine, or build a drama upon the immortality of man. He did not essay to gild the stars or illuminate the sun. But he was also, too great and too true, to the highest thought and aspiration of the human mind to ignore its loftiest conceptions and hopes. Essentially, he treats the subject of immortality as the Bible does. The Scriptures proceed upon the assumption that Immortality is. They do not, in any definite form, annovmce it, or affirm it. From Gen- esis to Revelation there is no defining word, — ^no special statement of it. The fact of the after-life is not declared, but taken for granted. It is whispered in every promise to dying man; it is assumed in the doctrine of salvation; it is involved in the resurrection, in the final adjustment, in the law of rewards and punishment, in justice and judg- ment, in Heaven and Hell. In all Christ's teachings he never refers to the future life as a subject in doubt, or needing to be affirmed. He taught its conditions, — the fact he assumed. When the Apostle Paul says, "this mortal must put on immortality," — the theme of his dis- course is, life, death and the resurrection: — immortality is a logical sequence. So also, Shakspeare does not make the spiritual realm a subject of the drama. There are no spectaculalr heaven or hell in his plays. He seems to have recognized that the realities of the spiritual world are not for the stage, — that immortality can only be declared in the faith and the hopes of human experience. It is true that some of the numer- ous personnel of his plays express doubts about the after-life; but in such cases, the character or circumstances of the doubter, point to it as a generally recognized fact, and our Poet never puts into the lips of any sane or credible witness any doubt on the subject. The doubter is either a pagan or a dreamer. Even Hamlet, whom Dr. Strong espe- / dally quotes, while contemplating deliverance from himself by suicide, recognizes the after-life : — 'The quotation is probably from E. H. A. Scherar, the French critic,— not W. Scherer, the more recent German author. SHAKSPEARE AND IMMORTALITY 105 " O ! that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew ! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self -slaughter ! O God ! O God ! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seems to me all the uses of this world I" 1:2. In a morbidly speculative mood he says: — " To be, or not to be, that is the question : Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing, end them ? — To die, — to sleep, — No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, — to sleep ; — To sleep! perchance to dream." But from this gloomy mood he is aroused by the common faith; almost, he falls back into the reasonableness of a future, as he says : — "Ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. Must give us pause." This is not a pleasant thought to one contemplating suicide, but it pursues him: — " There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life: For who would bear the whips afld scorns of time. The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely. The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay. The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin ? who would these fardels bears, 106 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB To grunt and sweat under a weary life ; But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns?" 5' I- Illustrations in this play are almost without number,^ of the thought, current among all mankind, in all ages, that we have a moral nature, subject to laws that are not material or finite; and the thought of an after-life runs through them all: — " All that lives must die Passing through nature to eternity." The chief incidents proceed upon the supposition of a deathless spirit and all of its finest passages involve the thought. When Hamlet's friend Horatio discusses the uncanny appearance of the ghost he tells how: — " When the cock crew ... it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons." And Marcellus, an officer, who had been one of the watch says : — " It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Whereon our Saviour's birth is celebrated. The bird of dawning singeth all night long." Hamlet himself thinks of an after-life when he says : — " Would I had met my dearest foe in Heaven Ere I had ever seen that day, Horatio !" And when he is assured by his friend that they have seen his father's ghost, walking at the dead hour of the night, he says : — " My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! Till then, sit still my soul. Foul deeds will rise. Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes." i: 2. •See "Death" in Scripture Themes. SHAKSPBARB AND IMMORTALITY 107 At midnight, the ghost appears and Horatio beseeches Hamlet not to follow its beckoning, but Hamlet says : — " Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee ; And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?" i: 4. In the mind of Hamlet his father's spirit and his own soul are not merely immaterial shadows of the mortal life, but distinct existences, not subject to material law: — spirits, with an after-life. The ghost in the play is made to express the certainty of this after-life and of a judg- ment therein. As he describes the murder which deprived him of his mortal life, he says: — "Thus was I .... at once dispatch'd Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin; Unhousel'd,^ disappointed," unanel'd* No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head." i: S- There is not a shadow of a doubt of a future state in the mind of Hamlet when he contemplates revenge by killing the King. He says : — " Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying ; And now I'll do't: . . ." But he reflects that to kill the King when he is in the act of devo- tions would defeat his purpose : — * * Without communion or death-bed rites. ^iMot appointed, not prepared. " Without extreme unction. ' Prof. Sharp, to whose new book reference is made in the introductory preface offers the following comments on this subject: "The reputation of Hamlet as the typical doubfer, the imaginative incorporation of the spirit of Montaigne, is one of the most extraordinary vagaries of Shakspearean criticism. Here is a man whose fate turns upon a visit from a disembodied spirit; a man who is expected by his father to count it a double wrong for the victim of assassination to be cut off in the midst of his sins, with no chance to purge his soul by the ministrations of the priest ; a man who fears no ghost, because he can say : ' And for my soul, what can it do to that. Being a thing immortal as itself?' a man, when the opportunity to discharge his commission thrusts itself upon him, succeeds in disguising to himself his own unwillingness to take the irrevoca- io8 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB ". . . and so he goes to heaven: And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father ; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven." "No, When he is drunk, asleep, or in a rage ; ... or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't : Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven ; And that his soul may be damn'd, and black As hell, whereto it goes." j; j. The one thought of revenge pursues him constantly but Hamlet never loses sight of the future life. Indeed the whole play proceeds upon the thought of an hereafter. Ophelia, speaking to her brother, says : — " Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whils't, like a puff'd and reckless libertine. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads." J.-j. , Even the Scripture account of judgment day, as described in I Cor. XV. 52, is brought to mind. In the burial scene of Ophelia the Priest declines to observe all the usual religious rites because, he says : — " Her death was doubtful ; And but that great command o'ersways the order She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd Till the last trumpet." Laertes, the brother of Ophelia, answers the priest thus: — " I tell thee churlish priest A minist'ring angel shall my sister be. When thou liest howling." 5; j. ble step by the consideration that to kill one in prayer is to send his soul to a better world; a man so completely dominated by the religious view of life that he falls into the error of mistaking results of his own insight for the miraculous interference of Providence in his behalf. Truly, a sceptic of this kind would have little to fear from the fires of the Inquisition. Shakspeare's Portrayal of the Moral Life, pp. 210, 211. SHAKSPBARB AND IMMORTALITY 109 And the play of Hamlet is not exceptional in the treatment by Shak- speare of the doctrines associated with the thought of immortality. In all his works the after-life is assumed. Macbeth, it is true, ever tries to reason himself into a materialism, which "would jump (risk) the life to come." Yet the thought of the hereafter pursues him, in his worst, as well as his best moments : — "... the bell invites me. Hear it not Duncan ; for it is a knell That summons thee to Heaven or to Hell." The same thought comes to him with increasing force as he dis- misses his hired assassins to do their work of death to Banquo: — " Banquo, thy soul's flight If it find Heaven, must find it out to-night." In his better thoughts he is troubled that he cannot pray : — "... wherefore could I not pronounce amen? I had most need of blessing, and Amen Stuck in my throat." While he is ever anxious to make gain, at any cost, in this life the judgment of the life to come constantly haunts him. In terror he cries : — " But let The frame of things disjoint, both the world's suffer. Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly : better be with the dead. Whom we to gain our peace, have sent to peace. Than on the torture of the mind to lie In restless ecstasy." Macb. j; 2. He surrounds himself with all the safeguards which his fertile mind can suggest. He has his own paid spies in the houses of all dis- tinguished families. He says: — " There is not one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee'd." no RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARE Yet the ghosts of his victims trouble him. His conscience "will not down." Strong in his schemes of blood, he is weak in his superstitious dependence upon the miserable charm of the witches : — " I will to th' weird sisters : More shall they speak; for now I'm bent to know, By the worst means, the worst. It is very natural that such a man, wrought up to a pitch of frenzy, at the news of the death of Lady Macbeth should exclaim: "Life's but a walking shadow." The play, as a whole, presents a fearful picture of a man who trusted in the powers of evil to sustain him in his wrongdoing, and did his best to discredit the retribution of the future life. But, as the play pro- ceeds, one has no fear of the reputation of Heaven. The portrait drawn by Macduff is strongly drawn, but true : — " Not in the legions Of horrid Hell can come a devil more damn'd In evils to top Macbeth." 4: 3. When he dies like a mad beast at bay and peace reigns with the "grace of Grace" no one can feel that testimony has been borne against the immortality of man. Again, very much that is best in Romeo and Juliet would be absent if the religious element were eliminated, and there would be no meaning to the religion in the play without the thought of the hereafter. When Juliet lies, apparently dead, through the agency of the potion administered by the friar, her father cries : — " O child ! O child ! my soul and not my child ! — Dead art thou ! alack ! my child is dead ! And with my child my joys are buried." And the old friar replies : — " Peace, ho, for shame, confusion's cure lives not In these confusions. Heaven and yourself Had part in this fair maid ; now Heaven hath all. And all the better is it for the maid; Your part in her you could not keep from death ; But Heaven keeps His part in eternal life. SHAKSPBARU AND IMMORTALITY iii The most you sought was her promotion ; For t'was your heaven, she should be advanc'd : And weep you now, seeing she is advanc'd Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself ?" And when Romeo inquires the news of his servant he asks : — " How doth my lady ? Is my father well ? How doth my lady Juliet ? That I ask again : For nothing can be ill, if she be well." The servant answers : — " Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capel's monument. And her immortal part with angels lives." The play of Richard III. teems with suggestion of the after-life. It is in the dream of the Duke of Clarence ; as he lies in prison, with the prospect of death before him he says : — " That as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night Though t'were to buy a world of happy days." And when Brakenbury asks him if he did not "awake at this sore agony" he says : — " No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life ; O, then began the tempest of my soul ! I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood With that sour ferryman which poets write of. Unto the kingdom of perpetual night." Rich. III. i: 4. The future state is in the conversation of the two murderers as they talk of "conscience" and "judgment-day;" and in King Edward's reflections, as he says : — " I every day expect an Embassage From my dear Redeemer to redeem me hence ; And more to peace my soul shall part to Heaven Since I have made my friends at peace on earth." 112 RELIGIOUS WORLD OF SHAKSPBARB In Queen Margaret's curses upon the King and in Richard's forecast of the coming judgment upon himself we find the same thought of the after-life. How beautiful are the lines of Lorenzo to Jessica in the Merchant OF Venice, but how meaningless they would be without the thought of immortality : — " Sit, 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-ey'd cherubins : Such harmony is in immortal souls ; But, whil'st this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." Mer. of Ven. 5:1. In the Sonnets, too, the Poet presents this truth : — " Thou by thy dial's shady stealth may'st know Time's thievish progress to eternity." " Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Full character'd with lasting memory. Which shall above that idle rank remain, Beyond all date, even to eternity." The scene in II Henry VI. at the death of Cardinal Beaufort, quoted at length elsewhere in this volume,^ is a striking testimony of this mor- tal looking for immortality. Commenting on this scene Schlegel remarks : "Can any other poet be named who has drawn aside the cur- " tain of eternity at the close of this life with such overpowering and " awful effect ? And yet it is not mere horror with which the mind is " filled, but solemn emotion ; a blessing and a curse stand side by side ; " the pious King is an image of the heavenly mercy which, even in the " sinner's last moments labors to enter his soul, "^ If any are looking for a final word on this great subject let them not ask it of Shakspeare. But if we would find a consistent and faithful wit- ' See " Death " in Scripture Themes. ' Dramatic Literature. A. W. Schlegel. SHAKSPBARB AND IMMORTALITY 113 ness to the Scriptural doctrine of Immortality we may turn with profit to the testimony of all his great dramas. Nowhere does Shakspeare conflict with the glorious assurance of Jesus Christ "who both brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." And we may perhaps see a more direct revelation of the mind of the Poet himself in his most noble sonnet: — " Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array. Why dost thou pine within, and suffer death. Painting thy onward walls so costly gay ? Why so large cost, -having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess. Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss. And let that pine to aggravate thy store ; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more : So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men. And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then." Sonnet 146. Indeed, this inspiring theme is everywhere. As Shakspeare is the mirror of the universal mind so he reflects the universal hope in his works, while his own absolute faith is declared in the opening words of his Will: — " I commend my soul into the hands of God my creator, hoping, and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Sav- iour, to be made partaker of life everlasting." 8 BOOK FOURTH Scripture Themes in Shakspeare CONSISTING OF NUMEROUS QUOTATIONS PROM SHAK- SPEARE OP MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTHS, AR- RANGED UNDER SEPARATE HEADINGS "5 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE This part of our work partakes of the character of a cyclopedia of Biblical and moral texts found in the dramas and poems of Shakspeare. It must not, however, be understood as embracing all the moral say- ings of the great author's works. Only those passages have been selected which are, in the mind of the writer, directly, or indirectly, related in thought, spirit, or figure to the doctrine and morals of the Bible, or to the accepted teachings of the Christian religion. A much larger volume than this would be necessary for a classification of the numerous wise, philosophic and moral sayings of Shakspeare. In all such quotations there is a danger of reading into the author's words and making current, a meaning that is not justified by the whole text and context. Every reader of the Bible is aware of this danger; it is therefore, only necessary to point it out in order to avoid the mis- take here. In preparing these pages the writer has had to face the difficult task of placing the quotations, under right headings, without frequent repeti- tion. The genius of Shakspeare presents truths so many-sided that often, in a few lines, several subjects are included. In a few instances passages are repeated under separate headings. Thus, for example, in II Hen. VI. 3 :2 we have this : "Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just," which with a slight addition is placed under the topic "Conscience" as well as "Justice," and the passage from Measure for Measure which opens: — " He who the sword of Heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe," seems to be as appropriate to the subject of " Christian Ministry" as to "Justice" and has been placed under both heads. On the other hand, in some cases, two or more topics have been placed together because it is found that the quotations so directly refer to more than one subject that they are inseparable; as for example 117 ii8 SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPBARB "Life and Time," "Gratitude and Ingratitude," "Slander and Malice," while in, at least, one case, subjects which seem to be akin have been divided because of the Poet's special reference to one or both of them respectively. Thus, — "Grace before Meat" might have been placed under the general head of "Praise" but that there are several special references to the first topic which by themselves are of peculiar interest. The conversation between Lucio and two gentlemen in Measure for Measure i :2, illustrates this : Lucio says : — "Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? Lucio. Ay, that he razed. 1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions ; they put fortli to steal : There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee, for I think thou never wast where grace was said." In this brief conversation we have four subjects of interest : — 1. Hypocrisy of the pirate "with the ten commandments." 2. A recognition of the pious practice of "thanksgiving before meat." 3. The prevailing impiety of a soldier's life. 4. That a trained soldier's business and interests are opposed to peace. The passages in "Scripture Themes in Shakspcare" include some that do not directly bear any reference to a Scripture subject, but it will be found that such passages contain the Christian spirit and teaching in a marked degree. This will be specially observed in the selections on Peace and War. Some of the passages are given because a Bible name or character is quoted, thus showing that the author had Scripture thought and figure in his mind while writing. Two passages may be cited as illus- trating this principle of selection. Under the head of "Virtue" a figure of beauty is given from Sonnet 93: thus — " How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow." SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARE 119 In the passage from Measure for Measure 2 : 4, — " Better it were a brother died at once Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die forever," there is no Biblical quotation, or direct Scriptural reference, but these beautiful lines contain the doctrine of purity revolting at sin ; and also that death and sin are forever inseparable, a teaching which is faith- fully maintained throughout the entire works of Shakspeare. These illustrations will be sufficient to explain the arrangement of this part of our work. AMBITION Ambition, Thou scarlet sin. Hen. FIJI. 3: 2. Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition. // Hen. VL 3: i. Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts. // Hen. VI. i: 2. The devil speed him ! No man's pie is free'd From his ambitious finger. Hen. VUl. i: i. Love and meekness. Become a churcliman better than ambition. Hen. VHI. 5: 2. Too much honor : O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, "tis a burden Too heavy for a man tliat hopes for heaven. Hen. VHI. j: 2. Cromwell, I diarge thee, fling away ambition ; By that sin fell the angels ; how can man then. The image of his Maker, hope to win by "t? Hen. VHI. 3: 2. Ambition's debt is paid . . . O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils. Shrunk to this little Measure? Jul. Caesar 3: i. 120 SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARB To see how God in all his creatures works ! Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. // Hen. VI. 2: i. 'Tis a common proof That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But, when he once attains the upmost round. He then unto the ladder turns his back. Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. Jul. Caesar 2: i. God's will ! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By love, I am not covetous for gold ; Nor care I who feed upon my cost; But if it be a sin to covet honor I am the most offending soul alive. . . . God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honor For the best hope I have. Hen. V. 4: 3. Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk 1 When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; But now, — two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough : — ... Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven ! Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave. But not remember 'd in thy epitaph ! I Hen. IV. 5/ 4. He wants nothing of a god but Eternity, and a heaven to throne in. (See Heaven.) Corio. 5: 4. O God ! I could be bound in a nut-shell, or count myself a king of infinite space ; were it not that I have had bad drfeams. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambition is merely the shadow of a dream. Ham. 2: 2. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE 121 CHARITY— GENEROSITY— HOSPITALITY. Charity, — Which renders good for bad, blessings for cursings. (See Forgiveness.) Rich. III. 1:2. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly blessings Follow such creatures. Hen. VIII. 2: 3. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order, I come to visit the afflicted spirits Here in the prison : do me the common right To let me see them, and to make me know The nature of their crimes, that I may minister To them accordingly. Meas. for Meas. 2: j. .My master is of churlish disposition. And little recks to find the way to heaven By doing deeds of hospitality : Besides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed. Are now on sale, and at our sheepcote now. By reason of his absence, there is nothing That you will feed on ; but what is, come see. And in my voice most welcome shall you be. As You hike It 2: 4. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us ; His dews are everywhere. . . . ... No doubt he's noble ; He had a black mouth that said other of him. . . He may? . . . he has wherewithal ; in him, Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine: Men of his way should be most liberal, They are set here for examples. Hen. VIII. i: 3. 122 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB CHRISTIAN MINISTRY— CLERGYMEN You holy clergymen. Rich. II. 4: i. More needs she the divine than the physician. Macb. 5; i. Sermons in stones, and good in everything. As You Like It 2: i. Meditating with two divines ; See where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen ! Rich. III. 3: J. Do not as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to Heaven, Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine. Himself the primrose path of dalliance tread. And recks not his own read.^ (See Hypocrisy.) Ham. i: ^. God forbid — That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, Or nicely charge your understanding With open titles miscreate^ whose right Suits not in native colors with the truth ; . . . We charge you in the name of God, take heed. Hen. V. i: 2. He who the sword of Heaven will bear Should be as holy as severe ; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go. (See Justice.) Meas. for Meas. 3: 2. Thou art reverent Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life. . , . Who should be pitiful, if you be not? Or who should study to prefer a peace. If holy churchmen' take delight in broils ? ... I have heard you preach That malice was a great and grievous sin : And will you not maintain the thing you teach. But prove a chief offender in the same? 7 Hen. VI. 3: i. 'doctrine. "spurious. SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPEARB 123 How I have sped among the clergymen, The sums I have collected shall express. But, as I travell'd hither through the land, I find the people strangely fantasied ; Possess'd with rumors, full of idle dreams; Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear : And here's a prophet, that I brought with me From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found With many hundred treading on his heels : To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes. That, ere the next Ascension day at noon, Your highness should deliver up your crown. Is this Ascension-day ? Did not the prophet Say that before Ascension-day at noon. My crown I should give off ? Even so I have : I did suppose it should be on constraint ; But, heaven be thank'd it is but voluntary. King John 4: 2 and 5; 7. It better show'd with you. When that your flock, assembled by the bell. Encircled you to hear with reverence 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. Who hath not heard it spoken, How deep you were within the books of Heaven ? To us, the speaker in his parliament ; To us the imagin'd voice of Heaven, itself; The very opener and intelligencer, Between the grace, the sanctities of Heaven, And our dull workings: O, who shall believe. But you misuse the reverence of your place ; Employ the countenance and grace of Heaven As a false favorite doth his prince's name, In deeds dishonorable? You have taken up, Under the counterfeited zeal of Heaven, The subjects of Heaven's substitute, my father; And, both against the peace of Heaven and him. // Hen. IV. 4: s. 124 SCRIPTURB THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE It is a good divine that follows 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. Mer. of Ven. 1:2. COMFORT God comfort him in this necessity. / Hen. VI. 4: 3. I am come to advise with you, and comfort you and pray with you. Me as. for Me as. 4: 3. That comfort comes too late 'Tis like pardon after execution. Hen. VIII. 4: 2. I conjure thee, as thou believ'st There is another comfort than this world. Meas. for Meas. 5; i. Comfort's in heaven : and we are on earth. Where nothing lives, but crosses, care and grief. Rich. II. 2: 2. Now God be praised ! that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. // Hen. VI. 2: i. How mightily, sometimes, we make us comforts of our losses. , . , The web of our life is of mingled yarn, good and ill together ; our vir- tues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues. All's Well 4:3. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARE 12S CONSCIENCE Conscience does make cowards of us all. Ham. 3: i. How is't with me when every noise appals me ? Macb. 2: 2. . . . Wash every mote out of his conscience. Hen. V. 4: i. There's something in me that reproves my fault. Twelfth Night 3: 4. Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse. Rich. HI. 4: 3. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience. Meas. for Meas. 2: 3. Having God, her conscience and these bars against me. Rich. HI. i: 2. A good conscience will make any possible satisfaction. // Hen. IV. Bpil. Bear not along The clogging burthen of a guilty soul. Rich. //. /.- 3. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom Takes off my manhood. Cymb. 5: 2. The color of the king doth come and go Between his purpose and his conscience. King John 4:2. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind The thief doth fear each bush an officer. /// Hen. VI. 5: 6. Love is too young to know what conscience is Yet who knows not, conscience is born of love. Sonnet 151. So much my conscience whispers in your ear Which none but Heaven, and you, and I shall hear. King John i: i. 126 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB I know that thou art religious. And hast a thing within thee called conscience ; Therefore, I urge thy oath. ( See Religious Vows.) Titus And. 5; I. Go to your bosom. Knock there; and ask your heart what it doth know That's like my brother's fault. Meas. for Meas. 2: 2. Art thou anything? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil. That makest my blood cold, and my hair to stare ? Jul. Caesar 4: 3. I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities A still and quiet conscience. Hen. VIII. 3:2. The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul ! Thy friends suspect for traitors whil'st thou liv'st. And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends ! Rich. III. i: 3. My conscience ! thou art fetter'd More than my shanks and wrists : You good gods give me The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt Then, free for ever ! Cymb. 5; 4. What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted ! Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel. Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. (See Justice.) II Hen. VI. 3: 2. O 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. (See Remorse.) Rich. III. 5:3. For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak With some miraculous organ. . . . The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. Ham. 2: 2. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARE 127 I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience That maketh goblins swift as frenzy thought. Troi. and Cress. 5: 11. . . . graceless, holds he disputation 'Tween frozen conscience and hot-burning will. And with good thoughts makes dispensation. Urging the worser sense for vantage still. Lucrece. St. 36. Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. Ham. i: 5. Conscience is a word that cowards use, Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe : Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law. March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell ; If not to Heaven, then hand in hand to Hell. Rich. III. 5; 3. O, 'tis too true ! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art. Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it, Than is my deed to my most painted word : O heavy burden ! Ham. 3: i. Canst thou minister to a mind diseas'd: Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ; Raze out the written troubles of the brain; And, with some sweet oblivious antidote. Cleanse the stuff 'd bosom of that perilous stuff. Which weighs upon her heart? Macb. 5:5. Come, come, and sit you down : you shall not budge ; You go not, till I set you up a glass. Where you may see the inmost part of you. . . . O Hamlet, speak no more; Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct. Ham. 3: 4. 128 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARB Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream : The genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council : and the state of man Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection. Jul. Caesar 2: i. O, this life Is nobler than attending for a check ; Richer than doing nothing for a bribe Prouder, than rustling in unpaid- for silk; ... I have lived at honest freedom ; paid More pious debts to heaven, than in all The fore-end of my time . . . heaven and my conscience knows Thou didst unjustly banish me. Cymb. 5; 5. God Almighty ! There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out ; For our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers. Which is both healthful and good husbandry: Besides they are our outward consciences. 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. Hen. V. 4: 1, My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness Scruple and prick, on certain speeches utter'd This respite shook The bosom of my conscience, enter'd me, Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble The region of my breast : Thus hulling in The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer Toward this remedy, whereupon we are Now present here together ; that is to say, I meant to rectify my conscience, — which I then did feel sick, and yet not well, — By all the reverend fathers of the land And doctors learn'd. Hen. VHI. 2: 4. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE 129 The play of Macbeth should he read as a whole for a study on Con- science. . . The sense of guilt and of a sin-stricken heart is strikingly portrayed in the following passages from that play: — Macb. There's one did laiigh in his sleep, And one cried " murder! " that they did wake each other; I stood and heard them : but they did say their prayers. And address'd them again to sleep. Lady. M. There are two lodg'd together. Macb. One cried "God bless us!" and "Amen," the other; As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands ^ Listening their fear, I could not say, amen. When they did say, God bless us. Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen? I had most need of blessing, and amen Stuck in my throat Whence is that knocking? How is't with me, when every noise appals me? What hands are here ? ^ Ha ! they pluck out mine eyes ! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green — one red. Macb. 2: 2. In the Night-watch when the Doctor comes to view the troubled Lady Macbeth in her sleep-walkings we have the following: — Lady M. Yet here's the spot. Doct. Hark, she speaks; I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Lady M. Out, damned spot ! out 1 say ! One ; Two : Why then 'tis time to do't: — Hell is n^urky: Fie, my lord fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Doct. Do you mark that ? Lady M. . . . What, will these hands ne'er be clean? Here's the smell of the blood still : all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh ! oh ! oh ! Doct. What a sigh is there 1 The heart is sorely charged. 'Macbeth looks upon his hands stained with blood. 9 130 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body. Doct. Well, well, well,— Gent. Pray God, it be sir. Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : Yet I have known those who have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds. Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale: — I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on's grave. . . . Doct. . . . Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. — God, God, forgive us all ! Macb. 5; i. Second Mur. Some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me. First Mur. Remember our reward, when the deed's done. Sec. Mur. Come he dies ! I had forgot the reward. First Mur. Where's thy conscience now? Sec. Mur. Oh, in the duke of Gloster's purse. First Mur. When he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out. Sec. Mw. 'Tis no matter ; let it go ; there's few, or none will enter- tain it. First Mur. What if it come to thee again? Sec. Mur. 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 neighbor's wife but it detects him: 'Tis a blushing, shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom: it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found ; it beggars any man that keeps it : it is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust to himself, and live without it. Rich. III. i: 4. Conscience, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, you counsel well: to be ruled by my conscience I should stay with the Jew my master, . . . and to run away from the Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who, is the devil himself: Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnation: and, in my conscience, my conscience is a kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with the Jew. Mer. of Ven. 2: 2. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE 131 DEATH AND THE FUTURE— ETERNITY A royal fellowship of death ! Hen. V. 4: 8. He that dies, pays all debts. Tempest j; 2. Death, death, O, amiable, lovely death ! King John 3: 4. O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty. King John 4: 5. A man can die but once — we owe a death.^ // Hen. IV. 3: 2. Where art thou death ? . . . This mortal house I'll ruin. Ant. and Cleo. 5:2. Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. // Hen. IV. 3: 2. The wills above be done ! but I would fain die a dry death. Tempest i: i. Seeing that death, a necessary end. Will come when it will come. Jul. Caesar 2: 2. It is a knell That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. Macb. 2: i. Immortality attends the former, Making a man a god. Pericles 3: 2. Thou know'st 'tis common ! all that lives must die Passing through nature to eternity. Ham. i: 2. O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits Should be as mortal as an old man's life? Ham. 4: 5. Kings and mightiest potentates must die ; For that's the end of human misery. /. Hen. VI. 3: 2. 'Some versions read, "We owe God a death." 132 SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPEARB Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high Whilst thy gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. Rich. II. 5:5. Come, side by side together live and die And soul with soul from France to heaven fly. / Hen. VI. 4: 5. — Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither Ripeness is all. King Lear 5; 2. My joy is death: Death at whose name I oft have been afeared Because I wish'd this world's eternity. // Hen. VI. 2: 4. But now, the arbitrator of despairs. Just death, kind umpire of men's miseries. With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence. / Hen. VI. 2:5. Look, who comes here ! a grave unto a soul ; Holding the eternal spirit, against her will. In the vile prison of afflicted breath.. .King John 3: 4. Then God forgive the sin of all those souls That to their everlasting residence Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet. King John 2: 1. Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Full character'd with lasting memory. Which shall above that idle rank remain. Beyond all date, even to eternity. Sonnet 122. If you will live lament, if die, be brief; That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's ; Or, like obedient subjects, follow him To his new kingdom of ne'er changing right. Rich. III. 2:2. Laud be to Heaven! — even there my life must end. It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die but in Jerusalem ; Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land. // Hen. IV. 4: 4. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE I33 When wilt — begin to patch up thine old body for heaven? Do not speak like a death's head: do not bid me remember mine end. // Hen. IV. 2: 4. O, I could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies on my tongue : No, Percy, thou are dust. And food for — worms. / Hen. IV. 5: 4. — full of repentance. Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows. He gave his honors to the world again : His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. And, to add greater honors to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing God. Hen. VIII. 4: 2. God knows what hath bechanced them : But this I know, — that they have demean'd themselves Like men born to renown, by life, or death. The sands are number'd that make up my life; Here must I stay, and here my life must end. /// Hen. VI. i: 4. Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear. That makes these odds all even. . . . To sue to live, I find I seek to die And seeking death find life : Let it come on . . . Darest thou die ! The sense of death is most in apprehension. (See Life.) Meas. for Meas. 3: i. Have I not hideous death within my view. Retaining but a quantity of life. Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire ? What in the world should make me now deceive, Since I must lose the use of all deceit ? Why should I then be false, since it is true That I must die here, and live hence by truth? King John 5; 4. 134 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB Lo, now my glory smear'd 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. /// Hen. VI. 5: 2. 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. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Tempest 4: i. That we should die we know ; 'tis but the time. And drawing days out, that men stand upon. — Why he that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death. — Grant that, and then is death a benefit So we are Caesar's friends, that have abridg'd His time of fearing death. Jul. Caesar j; /. Heaven and yourself Had part in this fair maid! now heaven hath all. And all the better it is for the maid : Your part in her you could not keep from death ; But heaven keeps his part in eternal life Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, And her immortal part with angels lives. Rom. and Jul. 4: 5 and 5; /. Fear no more the heat o' the sun. Nor the furious winter's rages ; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home are gone, and ta'en thy wages: Golden lads and lasses must. As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Fear no more the frown o' the great Thou are past the tyrant's stroke ; SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARB 135 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. Song in Cymb. 4: 2. To be, or not to be ; that is the question : — Whether 't is nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing end them ? — To die, — to sleep, — No more ; — and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,-^'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die ; — to sleep : — To 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. Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life : For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay. The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin ? who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life. But that the dread of something after death, — The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveler returns. Ham. 3:1. Claud. Death is a fearful thing. Isab. And shamed life a hateful. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot ; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice : To be imprison'd in the viewless winds. And blown with restless violence round about 136 SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPEARB The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst Of those that lawless and uncertain thoughts Imagine howling ! — 't is too horrible. The weariest and most loathed worldly life. That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death. Meas. for Meas. 3: i. Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs ; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. Let's choose executors, and talk of wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath. Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own but death. And that small model of the barren earth. Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground. And tell sad stories of the death of kings : How some have been depos'd, some slain in war. Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd. Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd. All murder'd ; — for within the hollow crown, That rounds the mortal temples of a king. Keeps death his court, and there the antic sits. Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp; Allowing him a breath, a little scene. To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks. Infusing him with self and vain conceit. As if this flesh, which walls about our life. Were brass impregnable; and, humor'd thus, Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and — farewell king! Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence : throw away respect. Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty. For you have but mistook me all this while: I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus. How can you say to me — I am a king? Rich. II. 3: 2. SCRIPTURB THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARE I37 The death scene of Cardinal Beaufort as presented in II Hen. VI. j powerfully describes the end of an ambitious man, whose life was strangely inconsistent with his high office in the church. Beau. 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 Hfe, Where death's approach is seen so terrible ! War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. Beau. 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 ? — O! torture me no more, I will confess. — Alive again ? then show me where he is : I'll give a thousand pound to look vipon 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. O, thou eternal mover of the heavens, Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch ! 1 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. {Beau, dies) He dies, and makes no sign. — O God, forgive him ! War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. K. Hen. Eorbear to judge, for we are sinners all. — Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close, And let us all to meditation. II. Hen. VI. 3: 3. " So 'a cried out — God, God, God I three or four times ; now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God. I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with such thoughts yet. Mrs. Quickies account of the death of Fallstaff. Hen. V. 2: 3. 138 SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARB DEATH, PREPARATION FOR Make peace with God, for you must die. Rich. III. i: 4. They have said their prayers, and they stay for death. Hen. V. 4: 2. If it (death) be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all. Ham. 5:2. 'Tis a vile thing to die . . . When men are unprepared, and look not for it. Rich. III. $: 2. Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness (readiness) is all. King Lear 5: 2. He's not prepared for death ! . . . . . . Shall we serve Heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? Meas. for Meas. 2: 2. Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneled : No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. Ham. 7:5. If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace. Solicit for it straight. I would not kill thy unprepared spirit; No, heaven forfend, I would not kill thy soul. Othello 5:2. I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Be absolute for death; either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life: — If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep. Meas. for Meas. 3: i. SCRIPTURB THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB i39 God almighty ! There is some soul of goodness in things evil, . . . They are our outward consciences. And preachers to us all; admonishing That we should dress ourselves fairly for our end. Hen. V. 4: i. Cowards die many times before their death; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of the wonders that I yet have heard. It seems to me most strange that men should fear: Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. Jul. Caesar z: 2. My frail mortality to know itself, And by those fearful objects to prepare This body, like to them, to what I must : For death remember'd should be like a mirror, Who tells us, life's but breath ; to trust it, error. I'll make my will, then; and as sick men do, Who know the world, see heaven, but feeling woe. Gripe not at earthly joys, as erst they did: So, I bequeath a happy peace to you, And all good men, as every prince should do: My riches to the earth from whence they came, But my unspotted fire of love to you. Thus, ready for the way of life or death, I wait the sharpest blow. Pericles i: i. Every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, — wash every mote out of his conscience : and dying so, death is to him advan- tage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost (occupied), 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. Hen. V. 4:1. 140 SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPBARB FAITHFULNESS— FRIENDSHIP— CONSTANCY My heart doth joy, that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me. Jul. Caesar 5:3. . . . recall the good Camillo. Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy : . . . . . . and how his piety Doth my deeds make the blacker. Winter's Tale 3: 2. With all my love I do commend me to you : And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do, to express his love and friending to you God willing, shall not lack. Ham. i: 5. Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy: Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key : be check'd for silence. But never tax'd for speech. What Heaven more will. That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, Fall on thy head 1 All's Well i: i. . . . When he was poor, Imprison'd and in scarcity of friends, I clear'd him with five talents.- Greet him from me. Bid him suppose some good necessity Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd With those five talents. Timon 2: 2. Since my dear soul was mistress of my choice. And could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal'd thee for herself: for thou hast been As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing ; A man that fortune's buffets and rewards Has taken with equal thanks. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart. As I do thee. Ham. 3: 2. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARB 141 A friend should bear his friend's infirmities. Jul. Caesar 4: 3. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. Jul. Caesar 4: 2. O Heaven! were man But constant, he were perfect: that one error Fills him with faults; makes him run through all sins. Two Gent. 5:4. I have trusted thee, Camillo With all the nearest things to my heart, as well My chamber-councils; wherein, priest-like, thou Hast cleansed my bosom. Winter's Tale i: 2. Heaven bear witness, And if I have a conscience let it sink me, Even as the axe falls, if I be not faithful. The law I bear no malice for my death. It has done upon the premises but justice : But those that sought it I could wish more Christians: Be what they will, I heartily forgive them. Yet let them look they glory not in mischief. Nor build their evils on the graves of great men ; For then my guiltless blood must cry against them. For further life in this world I ne'er hope. Nor will I sue, although the king have mercies More than I dare make faults. You few that lov'd me, And dare be bold to weep for Buckingham, His noble friends and fellows, whom to leave Is only bitter to him, only dying. Go with me, like good angels, to my end ; And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me. Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice. And lift my soul to heaven. — L,ead on, o' God's name. Hen. VIII. 2: 1. Ceremony was but devis'd at first, To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes. Recanting goodness, sorry ere 't is shown ; But where there is true friendship, there needs none. . . 142 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE What need we have any friends, if we should ne'er have need of 'em? they were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er have use for 'em; and would most resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases, that keep their sounds to themselves. Timon 1:2. FALSEHOOD— FLATTERY— DECEIT ... A quicksand of deceit. /// Hen. VI. 5: 4. Flattery is the bellows blows up sin. Pericles 1:2. One may smile and smile and be a villain. Ham. i: 5. O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outer side. Meas. for Meas. 3:2. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes. And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice ! Rich. HI. 2: 2. These lies are like the father that begets them : Gross as a mountain, open, palpable. I Hen. IV. 2: 4. Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides. Who covers faults at last with shame derides. King Lear i:i. O that man's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! Timon 1:2. . . . His kisses are Judas's own children. And his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch of holy bread. As You Like It 3: 4. To lapse in fulness Is sorer than to lie for need; and falsehood Is worse in kings than beggars. Cymb. 3:6. Who having unto truth, by telling of it: Made such a sinner of his memory To credit his own lie. Tempest 1:2. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARE i43 Now I think on't, They should be good men ; their affairs as righteous : But all hoods make not monks. Hen. VIII. 3: i. 'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better. Good Gloster and good devil were alike, And both preposterous. /// Hen. VI. 5: 6. Apparel vice like virtues harbinger: Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted; Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint; Be secret- false. Com. of Err. j:2. Seems he a dove? his feathers are but borrow'd, For he's disposed as the hateful raven. Is he a lamb? his skin is surely lent him, For he's inclin'd as is the ravenous wolf, Who cannot steal a shape, that means deceit? // Hen. VI. 3: i. The world is still deceiv'd with ornament, In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt. But, being season'd with a gracious voice. Obscures the show of evil? In religion. What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text. Hiding the grossness with fair ornament ? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. Mer. of Ven. 3: 2. He was a man Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking Himself with.princes ; one, that by suggestion Tied all the kingdom : simony was fair play : His own opinion was his law : i' the presence He would say untruths, and be ever double. Both in his words and meaning. He was never, But where he meant to ruin, pitiful : His promises were, as he then was, mighty : But his performance, as he is now, nothing. Of his own body he was ill, and gave The clergy ill example. Hen. VIII. 4: 2. 144 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB Why this is the world's soul; And just of the same piece Is every flatterer's sport: who can call him his friend That dips in the same dish? Timon 3:2. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath ! Mer. of Ven. i: 3. Divinity of hell ! When devils will their blackest sins put on. They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. As I do now; . . . So will I turn her virtue into pitch. And out of her own goodness make the net. That shall enmesh them all. Othello 2:3. Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit: No more can you distinguish of a man. Than of his outward show; which, God he knows, Seldom, or never, jumpeth with the heart. Those uncles, which you want, were dangerous ; Your grace attended to their sugar'd words. But look'd not on the poison of their hearts : God keep you from them, and from such false friends ! Rich. III. 3: 1. Think'st thou I'll endanger my soul gratis? ... I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of Heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honor in ihy necessity, am fain to shuflSe, to hedge, and to lurch. Merry Wives 2: 2. The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politic: he crossed himself by't ; and I cannot think, but, in the end, the villainies of man will set him clear. 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. Of such a nature is his politic love. Timon. 3:3. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE I4S O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face ! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant ; fiend angelical ! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show!' Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st; A damned saint, an honorable villain ! — O, nature ! what hadst thou to do in hell. When thou didst pour the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? — Was ever book containing such vile matter. So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace! . . There's no trust. No faith, no honesty in men; all perjur'd. All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. — Rom. and Jul. 3:2. FORGIVENESS— PARDON God forgive the sin of all those souls. King John 2: i. If there be any such. Heaven pardon him ! Othello 4: 2. O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! /// Hen. VI. 5:6. God forgive them that so much have sway'd. / Hen. IV. 3: 2. Who by repentance is not satisfied Is not of Heaven. Two Gent. 5: 4. More needs she the divine than the physician, God, God; forgive us all ! Macb. 5: i. Lady, you know no rules of charity, Which renders good for bad, blessings for cursings. Rich III. 1:2. God pardon him ! I do with all my heart ; And yet no man, like he, doth grieve my heart. Rom. and Jul. 3: 5. 10 I4t) SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE I do think that you might pardon him And neither Heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Meas. for Meas. 2: 2. Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon, Are of two houses: lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption. Meas. for Meas. 2: 4. Forgive me my foul murder! — That cannot be; since I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I did the murder. . . . May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence? Ham. 5:5. Well Heaven forgive him! and forgive us all: Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall : Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone. Meas. for Meas. 2: i. Are you so gospell'd To pray for this good man, and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave. And beggar'd yours forever? Macb. 3: i. God be thanked for prevention; Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, Beseeching God, and you, to pardon me. . . . God quit you in His mercy! Hen. V. 2: 2. I as free forgive you. As I would be forgiven: I forgive all: There cannot be those numberless offenses 'Gainst me, that I cannot take peace with : no black envy Shall make my grave. Commend me to his grace ; And, if he speak of Buckingham, pray, tell him. You met him half in heaven. My vows and prayers Yet are the king's; and, till my soul forsake, Shall cry for blessings on him: may. he live Longer than I have time to tell his years. Ever belov'd, and loving, may his rule be : And when old time shall lead him to his end, Goodness and he fill up one monument! Hen. VHI. 2:1. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE W Duch. A virtuous and Christianlike conclusion, To pray for them that have done scath to us. Rich. III. i: J. I rather do beseech you pardon me, Who, earnest in the service of my God, Neglect the visitation of my friends. Rich. III. 3:7. An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach. Pardon should be the first word of thy speech. I never long'd to hear a word till now ; Say — ^pardon, king; let pity teach thee how: The word is short, but not so short as sweet; No word like pardon, for king's mouths so meet. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy? Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord. That sett'st the word itself against the word ! Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land; Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there. Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear ; That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce. Pity may move thee pardon to rehearse. I do not sue to stand Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. Baling. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. Duch. O, happy vantage of a kneeling knee ! Yet am I sick for fear: speak it again; Twice saying pardon doth not pardon twain. But makes one pardon strong. Rich. II. 5:5. 148 SCRIPTURB THBMES IN SHAKSPBARB GOD'S ATTRIBUTES By Him that made me. / Hen. VI. s: 4. By Him that made us all. /// Hen. VI. 2:2. Great God ! how just art Thou. // Hen. VI. 5: i. This lies all within the will of God. Hen. V. 1:2. So just is God, to right the innocent. Rich. III. 1:3. O, upright, just and true-disposing God. Rich. III. 4: 4. Mercy ... is an attribute to God himself. Mer. of Ven. 4: i. Eternal Mover of the heavens. (See Death.) // Hen. VI. 3: 3. Or that the Everlasting had not fixed. (See Suicide.) Ham. i: 2. It is not so with Him that all things knows. All's Well 2: i. By the eternal God, whose name and power Thou tremblest at. // Hen. VI. i: 4. A greater Power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our designs. Rom. and Jul. 5.- 5. God omnipotent Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf. Rich. II. 3: 3. If powers divine Behold our human actions, as they do. Winter's Tale 3: 2. SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARB 149 GOD OUR DEFENCE AND HELP In the great hand of God I stand. Macb. 2:3. God befriend us, as our cause is just. / Hen. IV. 5: i. God on our side, doubt not of victory. II Hen. VI. 4: S. God and his angels guard your sacred throne. Hen. V. i: 2. We are in God's hands brother, not in their's. Hen. V. 3: 6. The Lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jesu, bless him! // Hen. VI. 1:3. Arm, arm you heavens, against these perjur'd kings A widow cries; be husband to me. King John 3: i. O God, thy arm was here, And not to us, but to thy arm alone. Ascribe we all. Hen. V. 4: 8. The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord. Rich. II. 3: 2. But as we, under Heaven are supreme head. So, under Him, that great supremacy. King John 3: 1. All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Rich. II. 1:3. Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas, Which he hath given for fence impregnable. Ill Hen. VI. 4: i. God knows how long it is I have to live And it hath pleas'd him that three times to-day You have defended me from imminent death. // Hen. VI. 5; 3. Thou God of this vast, rebuke these surges, Which wash both heaven and hell: and thou that hast Upon the winds command, bind them in brass. Pericles 3: i. ISO SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB GOD OUR TRUST— NOT MAN Give your cause to Heaven. Meas. for Meas. 4: 3. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it ! Hen. V. 4: 7. O, momentary grace of mortal man Which we more hunt for than the grace of God. Rich. III. 3: 4. There is your crown: And he that wears the crown immortally, Long guard it yours ! // Hen. IV. 4: 4. O Cromwell, Cromwell, Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I served my king. He would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies. Hen. Vlll. 3:4. 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. All's Well 2: i. GOLD— MONEY (See Weawh) " All that glisters is not gold." Mer. of Ven. 2: 7. All gold and silver rather turn to dirt! As 'tis no better reckoned, but of those Who worship dirty gods. Cymb. 3:6. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it. King Lear 4: 6. There is thy gold ; worse poison to men's souls. Doing more murder in this loathsome world. Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell : I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Rom. and Jul. 5; j. SCRIPTURB THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE 151 Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold Would tempt unto a close exploit of death? . . . Gold were as good as twenty orators And will no doubt tempt him to anything. Rich. III. 4: 2. 'Tis gold Which buys admittance : oft it doth ; yea, and makes Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up Their deer to the stand o' the stealer; and 'tis gold Which makes the true man kill'd, and saves the thief; Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man: what Can it not do, and undo? Cymb. 2:3. Though you, and all the kings of Christendom, Are led so grossly by this meddling priest. Dreading the curse that money may buy out, And, by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust. Purchase corrupted pardon of a man. Who, in that sale, sells pardon from himself; Though you, and all the rest, so grossly led. This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish; Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose Against the pope, and count his friends my foes. King John 3: i. What is here? Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? . . . Much of this will make Black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right; Base, noble; old, young; coward, valiant. . . . Why this Will buy your priests and servants from your sides; Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads: This yellow slave Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; Make the hoar leprosy ador'd; place thieves. And give them title, knee, and approbation With senators on the bench. Timon. 4: j. 152 SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPEARB GRACE BEFORE MEAT Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat Their talk at table, and their thanks at end. Corio. 4: 7. Grace thou wilt have none, — No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be a prologue to an egg and butter. / Hen. IV. 1:2. Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I ? Tam. of Shrew 4: i. While grace is saying, hood mine eyes Thus with my hat, and sigh and say. amen. (See Hypocrisy.) Mer. of Ven. 2: 2. 1 Gent. There's not a soldier of us that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucia. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said. 2 Gent. No? A dozen times at least. I Gent. What? in metre? Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. Meas. for Me as. i: 2. GRATITUDE— INGRATITUDE Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend. King Lear 1:4. Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms. Jul. Caesar 3: 2. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child. King Lear i. 4. O Lord, that lends me life. Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness ! // Hen. VI. i: i. Filial ingratitude ! Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand. For lifting food to 't? King Lear 3: 4. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB IS3 I hate ingratitude more in a man Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, Or any taint of vice. Twelfth Night 5: 4. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back. Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitude; Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done. Troi. and Cres. j.j. The sin of my ingratitude even now Was heavy on me : thou 'rt so far before. That swiftest wing of recompense is slow To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine. Macb. i: 4. 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 bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you. Rich. III. 2: 2 Blow, blow, thou winter wind. Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen. Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Thou dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp. Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not. Song in As You Like It 2: 7. Ingratitude is monstrous : and for the multitude to be ungrateful were to make a monster of the multitude. Corio. 2: 3, 154 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARE HEAVEN all you host of heaven! Ham. 1:5. He wisheth you in heaven. (See Hell.) / Hen. IV. j; J. There's husbandry in heaven. Their candles are all out. Macb. 2: i. My name be blotted from the book of life. And I from heaven banished. Rich. I. i:j. He wants nothing of a god but Eternity, and a heaven to throne in. Corio. 5; 4. There are more things in heaven and earth. — Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. Ham. 1:5. My soul shall thine keep company to heaven; Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast. Hen. V. 4:6. I here protest ; in sight of Heaven, And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss. ///. Hen. VI. 3: 3. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. Mid. Dream 5/ /. My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven ; How shall that faith return again to earth. Unless that husband send it me from heaven? Rom. and Jul. 5:5. Fare you well; Hereafter, in a better world than this 1 shall desire more love and knowledge of you. As You Like It i: 2. Yet that thy brazen gates of Heaven may ope, And give sweet passage to my sinful soul Now lords, take leave, until we meet again Where e'er it be, in Heaven, or on earth. /// Hen. VI. 2: 3. SCRIPTURE THBMBS IN SHAKSPEARB i55 From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven. Rich. III. i: 4. Heaven's above all ; and there be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved. Othello 2: 3. Would I were with him, either in heaven, or in hell! Nay, sure, he's in Arthur's^ bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. Hen. V. 2: j. I know his soul is in heaven, fool. The more fool, Madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven. Twelfth Night 1:5. HEAVEN, RECOGNITION IN When I am in heaven, I shall desire To see what this child does, and praise my Maker. Hen. VHI. 5; 4. Warwick bids You all farewell, to meet again in heaven. ///. Hen. VI. 5; 2. So part we sadly in this troublous world. To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem. ///. Hen. VI. 5: 5. God be wi' you princes all : I'll to my charge : If we no more meet till we meet in heaven. Then, joyfully. Hen. V. 4:3. 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; .... And so he'll die ; and, rising so again. When I shall meet him in the court of heaven I shall not know him. King John 3: 4. ' Abraham's bosom. 155 SCRIPTURE THUMBS IN SHAKSPBARB HELIv As black as hell, as dark as night. Sonnet 14/. 'Tis the cunning livery of hell. Meas. for Meas. j; /. By hell, and all hell's torments. Trot, and Cres. 5; 2. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell ? Com. of Brr. 2: 2. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people. Corio. j/ j. Such devils steal effects from lightless hell. Lucrece St. 22^. I think his soul is in hell. (See Heaven.) Twelfth Night 1:5. Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell. Rich. III. 4: 4. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. Mid. Dream 5; i. If the bottom were as deen as hell I should drown. Merry Wives 5:5. I would it were hell-pains for thy sake, and my poor doing eternal. All's Well 2:3. Hell is empty. And all the devils are here. Tempest i: 2. . . . Yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. Sonnet 129. I am damned in hell for swearing . . . . . . Think'st thou I'll endanger my soul gratis? Merry Wives 2: a. If there be devils, would I were a devil. To live and burn in everlasting fire, So I might have your company in hell But to torment you with my bitter tongue ! Titus And. 5; i. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB iS7 No : though thou call'st thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell. Macb. 5: 7. Sin, death and hell have set their marks on him And all their ministers attend on him. Rich. III., i: 3. then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven into a hell. Mid. Dream i: i. 1 think this Talbot be a fiend of hell. If not of hell, the heavens sure favor him. / Hen. VI. 2: 1. Down, down, to hell ; and say I sent thee thither I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear. /// Hen. VI. 5: 6. Foul devil, for God's sake, hence and trouble us not ; For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell. Rich. III. i: 2. And as I thrust thy body in with my sword. So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell. // Hen. VI. 4: 10. And be my heart an ever-burning hell, These miseries are more than may be borne. Titus And. j; /. But purgatory, torture, hell itself . . . banished? friar, the damned use that word in hell. Rom. and Jul. 3: 3. And that deep torture may be call'd a hell When more is felt .than one hath power to tell. Lucrece St. 184. Fare thee well ; A fiend like thee might bear my soul to hell. Twelfth Night 3: 4. Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night. Love's Labor 4: 3. 1 will stir up in England some black storm. Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell. II Hen. VI. 3: i. Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell ! Ham. i: 4. iS8 SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPEARB O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? / Hen. IV. 1:2. If I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to Hell among the rogues. Jul. Caesar i: 2. I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire. Merry Wives 5; 5. I never see thy face, but I think upon hell-fire, and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. / Hen. IV. 5/ J. False as hell. . . . you That have the office opposite to Saint Peter, And keep the gate of hell. Othello 4: 2. Not in the legions Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd In evils, to top Macbeth. . . . Had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell. Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth. Macb. 4: 3. Hell and night Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. As low as hell's from heaven. Othello 1:3 and 2: i. No, he is in Tartar limbo, worse than hell A devil in an everlasting garment hath him; One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel ; . . . One that, before judgment, carries poor souls to hell. Com. of Brr. 4:2. This outward-sainted deputy ... is yet a devil; His filth within being cast, he would appear A pond as deep as hell. ... O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell. The damned'st body to invest and cover In precise guards. Meas. for Meas. 3: i. SCRIPTURE THEMES IN SHAKSPBARE i59 Go thou and fill another room in hell. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, That staggers thus my person. Rich. II. y. 5. I cannot tell What heaven hath given him : let some graver eye Pierce into that ; but I can see his pride Peep through each part of him : whence has he that? If not from hell, the devil is a niggard ; Or has given all before, and he begins A new hell in himself. Hen. VIII. i: i. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side. And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend. Suspect I may, yet not directly tell ; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another's hell : Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt. Till my bad angel fire my good one out. Sonnet 144. Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed ! If a man were porter of hell- gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock : Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub ? — Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have nap- kins enough about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Who's there, in the other devil's name? — 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O! come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock: Who's there? — 'Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose : come in, tailor ; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking.] Knock, knock: Never at quiet ! What are you? — But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no farther : I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. Macb. 2: 3. i(5o SCRIPTURB THBMBS IN SHAKSPBARB HYPOCRISY— INSINCERITY (See Fai