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Publishe 2 I 
 
 and handsomely bound in Cloth gilt, bevell ivn 8n>. 7a 
 
 HIS 
 
 SH AKSPERE 
 
 LACE AND ITS NEIGHBOURH( 
 By JOHN K. WISE, 
 
 explains the provincialisms of Shaksj ml 
 
 y ,. phrases in useamoi; 
 jightfully readable a glossary as this 
 
 Edition may be had, with 
 Fcap. 8vo. Cloth limp. 2s. 6d. 
 
 NDON: SMITH, ELDER A CO., 65, CORN] 
 
SHAKSPEARE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
1 1 commend my Soul into the hands of God, my Creator ; hoping 
 and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, 
 my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting j and my Body 
 to the earth, whereof that is made.' 
 
 Shakspeare's Will. 
 
ON 
 
 \SHAKSPEARE'S KNOWLEDGE 
 AND USE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 . . * > - 
 
 CHARLES WORDSWORTH, D.C.L, 
 
 BISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS. * 
 
 I will preach to thee; mark me!' King Lear. 
 'Melius Chrysippo et Crantore.* Horace. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 65 CORNHILL. 
 
 1864. 
 
 The right of Translation is reserved. 
 

 
 8 
 
 U.YV\ Y\U.^ 
 
 LONDON 
 
 PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. 
 NEW-STREET SQJJARE 
 
TO 
 
 MY CHILDREN: 
 
 IN THE HOPE AND WITH THE AIM 
 
 THAT THEY MAY GROW UP READERS AND LOVERS 
 OF 
 
 SHAKSPEARE 
 
 AS 
 THE BOOK OF MAN } 
 
 BUT, STILL MORE, READERS AND LOVERS 
 OF 
 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 AS 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 845648 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 am not aware that the attempt made in 
 this small volume has been anticipated 
 in any other. Even the notes of critics 
 upon Shakspeare, superfluously full in pointing out 
 his obligations, real or supposed, to secular authors, 
 are singularly meagre in the references which they 
 make to the Holy Scriptures. And yet how abun- 
 dant is the room for such reference, and how much 
 it may conduce to the mutual illustration of the two 
 books, which as Christians and as Britons we should 
 value most, will be seen, I trust, upon every page of 
 the Second Part of the following dissertation. 
 
 With regard to the former and very much shorter 
 Part, I must confess that it scarcely comes within 
 the title and proper scope of my design ; and that 
 it will be found to contain little which can be 
 new or interesting to older and more advanced 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 readers ; who may, therefore, if they think fit, pass 
 it over : but to the young, for whom the volume 
 is principally intended, I trust it may prove useful ; 
 and I was unwilling to miss the opportunity of 
 giving them information which may help to im- 
 prove their knowledge of their own language and 
 at the same time enable them to understand better, 
 and so to read with greater profit and pleasure, both 
 their Bible and their Shakspeare but especially the 
 former. 
 
 In selecting the quotations which will be found 
 in the following pages, and in arranging them sys- 
 tematically, no use has been made of any previous 
 compilation : I have trusted solely to my own com- 
 plete perusal and study of our great poet, with the 
 particular objects which I have mentioned constantly 
 in view, and with the additional motive of doing him 
 a justice, which he has not yet fully received, ever 
 present to my mind. On some accounts, indeed, I 
 could have wished that my labours had been less 
 independent ; but such as they are, they are pre- 
 sented to the reader, in the hope that they may give 
 him some portion of the pleasure which I have 
 derived from them myself. In the meantime, I am 
 fully conscious that the available material for both 
 Parts of the work is far from being exhausted. As 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 regards the latter Part, some handfuls at least, I 
 doubt not, still remain to be gleaned in the same 
 extensive field ; while the former Part contains little 
 more than a specimen of the ore which the same 
 mine, if thoroughly worked, might be made to 
 produce. 
 
 c The Bible and Shakspeare,' said one of the best 
 and most esteemed prelates that ever sat upon the 
 English bench Dr. John Sharp, in the reign of 
 Queen Anne c The Bible and Shakspeare have 
 made me Archbishop of York.' The Shakspeare 
 of Greek Comedy Aristophanes is well known to 
 have been the favourite author of the most celebrated 
 preacher of the ancient church, S. John Chrysostom, 
 some time patriarch of Constantinople. Under the 
 shelter of high and venerated authorities such as these 
 the present writer ventures to hope he may escape 
 censure for allowing his name to appear upon the 
 title-page of this volume. He had intended to put 
 it forth anonymously, but his intention has been 
 overruled by the publishers. 
 
/iv?o{uZ^ g^^' 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface . 
 
 ?AGE 
 
 vii 
 
 General Introduction ..... i 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of noticeable Forms of Speech in the English Bible 
 found also in Shakspeare ..... 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of noticeable Words in the English Bible found also in 
 Shakspeare . . . . ... .28 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Introduction ....... 45 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the Allusions in Shakspeare to the Historical Facts 
 and Characters of the Bible . . . -5 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Sentiments 
 derived from the Bible . . . . 87 
 
 7 
 
 02 
 
 SECT. 
 
 i. Of the Being and Nature of God 
 
 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen . 
 1$. Of God's Goodness in Creation, and in the Redemp 
 
 tion of Man ....... 108 
 
 %4- Of Human Life, and of \ The World ' . . . 114 
 
 ^5. Of Sin and Repentance ...... 130 
 
 6. Of Faith, and Thankfulness towards God . 145 
 
 7. Of the Duty and Efficacy of Prayer . . . 155 
 
 8. Of the Domestic Relations 164 
 
 9. Of Charity and Mercifulness 176 
 
 '10. Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Chastity . . .190 
 
 11. Of Justice and Honesty . . . ... . iq(L 
 
 12. Of the Use and Abuse of the Tongue . . . 200 
 
 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and Resignation . . 205 
 %4. Of Holy Scripture, the Christian Ministry, and 
 
 Church Membership . . . . .217 
 
 15. Of Politics Peace and War 232 
 
 16. Of Death, the Intermediate State, and Day of 
 
 Judgment 242 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare as derived from the 
 Bible 261 
 
 Conclusion . . . . . . .291 
 
 Supplementary Notes ..... 303 
 
 Index ........ 307 
 
ON 
 
 SHAKSPEARE' S KNOWI,EE)GJe;,AND 
 USE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 >>*<c 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 UCH has been said and written on the 
 learning of Shakspeare. How far the 
 greatest genius of modern times was 
 
 indebted to the storehouse of antiquity; whether 
 
 or no he was altogether 
 
 Untutored in the lore of Greece or Rome, 
 
 is a question which a hundred years ago was agi- 
 tated among men of letters with intense interest. 
 But neither in the course of that controversy, nor 
 at any other time, has the enquiry, I believe, been 
 raised to which I purpose in these pages to offer a 
 reply; viz., how far Shakspeare was conversant with 
 Holy Scripture, and whether or no he made use of 
 his knowledge of the Bible to guide and assist him 
 in the production of his immortal works. When I 
 
2 General Introduction. 
 
 say that this enquiry is a new one, I do not mean 
 that our poet's acquaintance with Scripture has al- 
 together escaped the notice of every one of his nume- 
 rous commentators ; for such is not the case W and 
 had it been so, my undertaking might well be sus- 
 -: ' pectecLor _teo great and too presumptuous a singu- 
 , ... larky, to. warrant- an expectation of its usefulness and 
 V* ; ' -sobriety--. ' AH 1 would imply is that Shakspeare has 
 not yet received the credit, which I think I shall be 
 able to prove that he deserves, of having been, in a 
 more than ordinary degree, a diligent and a devout 
 reader of the Word of God ; and that he has turned 
 this reading to far more and far better account than 
 any of his critics would seem to have suspected, or 
 at all events has yet attempted to point out. His 
 marvellous knowledge of the Book of Nature is ad- 
 mitted on all hands : his knowledge of the Book of 
 Grace, though far less noticed, will be found, I be- 
 lieve, to have been scarcely less remarkable. His 
 works have been called ' a secular Bible : ' my ob- 
 ject is to show that while they are this, they are 
 also something more, being saturated with Divine 
 Wisdom, such as could have been derived only from 
 the very Bible itself. 
 
 And I enter upon my task with keener interest 
 
 and heartier zeal upon two accounts ; first, because 
 
 
 
 * For instance, I observe in Mr. Singer's edition of 1826 the 
 following note : ' It has been remarked that Shakspeare was habi- 
 tually conversant with his Bible. 1 Vol. v. p. 464. 
 
General Introduction. 3 
 
 I trust I shall be paying a duteous service to the 
 memory of this great man, whom every Briton should 
 delight to honour, by removing an imputation which 
 has been (I am persuaded) hastily and inconside- 
 rately cast upon him, as though he had, in some 
 instances, designed to treat the Inspired Word with 
 profaneness ; * and secondly, because, if it shall ap- 
 pear (as I doubt not it will) that a genius so incom- 
 parable was content to study, and rot unfrequently 
 to draw his inspiration from the pages of Holy 
 Scripture, submitting his reason to the mysterious 
 doctrines which it reveals, and his conscience to the 
 moral lessons which it prescribes ; it may be hoped 
 that no one of my readers will consider it beneath 
 him to follow an example, set by an authority so 
 highly, so justly, and so universally esteemed. 
 
 c He was indeed honest, says his friend Ben 
 Jonson, c and of an open and free nature.'f Upon 
 such unquestionable testimony, it is pleasant to be 
 permitted to think of our greatest poet, as one c who 
 in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, 
 kept it, and brought forth fruit with patience/ 
 That he brought forth fruit immortal fruit to the 
 glory of God and the benefit of mankind, no one 
 can deny. Nor is there any conflicting record to 
 prevent us from believing that the tenor of his life, 
 
 * See Mr. Boswell's Advertisement to the Variorum edition of 
 Shakspeare, 1821, p. 8. 
 f Ibid. vol. i. p. 449. 
 
 *b 2 
 
4 General Introduction. 
 
 especially in his later years, was in conformity with 
 the confession of his death as exhibited in his will ; * 
 unless indeed we are to admit two of his sonnets as 
 evidence against himself, which if they prove him at 
 one time to have yielded to the temptations with 
 which he was beset, prove him also to have pos- 
 sessed afterwards the spirit of a true penitent. Of 
 his personal history, all that is now known may be 
 soon told. He was born in the year 1564, at 
 Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the eldest 
 son of eight children, his father being a glover of 
 that town ; and he died at his native place (whither 
 he had retired in comfortable circumstances some 
 years before) in 16 16, when he was only in his 
 fifty-third year. He married very young, before 
 he was nineteen, a lady of the name of Hathaway, 
 eight years older than himself, by whom he had two 
 daughters and one son; and who survived him 
 seven years; dying in 1623, at the age of sixty- 
 seven. In that same year appeared the first edition 
 of his collected plays, thirty-six in number, which 
 are generally allowed to be genuine ; though not more 
 than fourteen or sixteen had been published in his life- 
 time, including Titus Andronicus and Pericles, Prince 
 of Tyre. And there seems no reason to doubt that a 
 great portion of what he wrote was composed, if not 
 under the actual pressure of want, yet in a condition 
 
 * On the contrary, see two other contemporaneous. testimonies to 
 his * honest ' character in Malone's Life, p. 280, sq., and p. 284. 
 
General Introduction. 5 
 
 of life very unfavorable to carefulness and maturity 
 of composition. 
 
 Whatever blemishes there may have been in the 
 character of the first Scottish sovereign who sat 
 upon the throne of England, it is only just to bear 
 in mind that we owe to him, under the good Provi- 
 dence of God, that inestimable work, the transla- 
 tion* of the Bible which we all use ; and moreover 
 that to him we owe also the satisfaction which we 
 must all feel when we learn that the best of unin- 
 spired writers was not without royal encouragement. 
 Detract what we may from the merit of King 
 James, on the score of pedantry, or of disingenu- 
 ousness, the facts will remain, which, considering 
 the subject I have now in hand, I rejoice to mention 
 in his praise, and to interweave, as among the 
 brightest ornaments of his crown that he wrote to 
 William Shakspeare a letter of commendation with 
 his own hand,f and that he gave c special command ' 
 for the publication of the Scriptures in the revised 
 and improved form, which Shakspeare and his con- 
 temporaries were the first to read. 
 
 Our great poet, then, and our translators of the 
 Bible lived and flourished at the same time, and 
 under the same reign. This is an interesting fact 
 in the enquiry upon which we are about to enter, 
 and suggests the propriety of dividing it into two 
 
 * First published in 1611. 
 
 f See Variorum Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 467, and vol. ii. p. 481. 
 
6 General Introduction. 
 
 parts. That is, we may not only seek to illustrate 
 the subject-matter of the Bible by comparison with 
 passages in Shakspeare which prove his knowledge 
 and study of the Scriptures ; but we may explain 
 the language also by parallels which Shakspeare will 
 afford us of the use of words and phrases (not 
 indeed necessarily derived from the Bible, only or 
 chiefly, but commonly current at that time) which 
 have since undergone a change of meaning or become 
 altogether obsolete. And upon this branch of the 
 subject it will be natural to enter first. 
 
 PORCH OF TRINITY CHURCH, STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 
 
PART I. 
 
TRINITY CHURCH, STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of noticeable Forms of Speech in the English Bible found 
 also in Shakspeare. 
 
 N order to deal fairly with this former 
 part of our investigation, it is necessary 
 to remark, in the first instance, that, 
 while the contents and general language of the 
 Bible would be known to our poet from transla- 
 tions previously in use, in regard to particular 
 words and modes of speech, it is probable that 
 our translators of 1 6 1 1 owed as much, or more, 
 to Shakspeare than he owed to them. Accord- 
 ing to the chronological order of our poet's plays, 
 as determined by Mr. Malone, only two of them 
 were written after 1 6 1 1 ; all the rest having been 
 composed in the interval between that year and 
 1 591 . And the Bibles most commonly used during 
 that period were either Parker's, called also the 
 Bishops' Bible, of 1568, required to be read in 
 churches ; or various reprints of the Genevan Bible 
 of 1560, with short marginal notes, and much used 
 in private families (a translation which was due in 
 
io Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 part to John Knox, while resident abroad); or the 
 version by the Roman Catholics of the New Testa- 
 ment, published at. Rheims in 1582, and of the 
 whole Bible at Douay in 1609. 
 
 With this explanation, we may now proceed to 
 the portion of our task which lies first before us, 
 taking up whatever is noticeable in the use of the 
 several parts of speech in their natural order. 
 
 1. To begin then with the use of the Articles, 
 definite and indefinite. 
 
 In Acts xxii. 4, we read, as spoken by St. Paul, 
 c I persecuted this way unto the death. 1 There is 
 no article in the original Greek, and yet in English 
 it has been retained from the translation of Wickliff 
 in 1380 to the present hour. The apostle does not 
 mean any particular death, and therefore, as Bp. 
 Lowth observed a century ago, in his Short Intro- 
 duction to English Grammar , p. 31, the definite 
 article is improperly used in our version of the text. 
 The same inaccuracy occurs also in 2 Chron. xxxii. 
 24. c In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, 
 where there is no article in the Septuagint. And 
 again in Revelation xii. 1 1. ( They loved not their 
 lives unto the death ' (a^p/ bavoLTou), which has come 
 down not from Wickliff, like the passage in the 
 Acts, but from Tyndale, 1534. The expression 
 which we meet with in S. Matt. xv. 4, and S. 
 Mark vii. jo, and which is derived to us from 
 Cranmer's Translation of 1539, c He that curseth 
 
in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 1 i 
 
 father or mother let him die the death] is to be 
 
 traced no doubt to the same origin, and involves a 
 
 still further deviation from the sense of the original, 
 
 which is literally c let him die by death ' (Qolvolto) 
 
 TshsuTOLT(o) y and means, according to a Hebrew 
 
 idiom, c Let him certainly die.' And so we read in 
 
 Levit. xx. 9, where the Septuagint has the same 
 
 Greek words, c he shall surely be put to death.' 
 
 But now to turn to Shakspeare. He has several 
 
 times used the expression ' to die the death ;' e. g. 
 
 in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 4 ; in Cymbeline, 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 2, and again in Midsummer Night's 
 
 Dream, Act i. Sc. 1, where in reply to Hermia's 
 
 question what is to befall her in case she refuses to 
 
 marry Demetrius, Theseus says : 
 
 Either to die the death, or to abjure 
 For ever the society of man. 
 
 There can be little doubt that our poet took the 
 
 phrase (as Steevens * observes) from the Bible ; but 
 
 whether he attached the right meaning to it we 
 
 cannot tell. Dr. Johnson, with less accuracy than 
 
 might have been expected from him, remarks f that 
 
 c this seems to be a solemn phrase for death inflicted 
 
 by law' The simple form of expression, as first 
 
 cited from the Acts, c the death/ is to be found 
 
 frequently in Chaucer, e. g. 
 
 The deth he feeleth through his herte smite. 
 
 Cant. Tales, v. 1222. 
 
 * Vol. ix. p. 92. f Ibid. 
 
1 2, Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 Tyrwhitt has suggested that it seems to have been 
 originally a mistaken translation of the French la 
 mort. Shakspeare has it in King Richard II. Act iii. 
 Sc. i . c This and much more condemns you to 
 the death,' and again in King Henry V. Act iv. Sc.i, 
 ( Where they feared the death, they have borne life 
 away.' Altogether the usage is a curious one. 
 Chaucer, Cant. "Tales, v. 1135, uses f the peine' in 
 the same way. 
 
 2. The use of the Indefinite Article prefixed to 
 plural substantives, especially nouns of number, is 
 also one which admits of similar illustration. In 
 S, Luke ix. 28, we read, c It came to pass about 
 an eight days after these sayings.' The question- 
 able expression c an eight days ' has been retained 
 from Tyndale's translation in 1 534. In like manner 
 we find in the Apocryphal Book, 1 Mace. iv. 15, 
 1 There were slain of them upon a three thousand 
 men.' The same use of the indefinite article is to 
 be met with more than once in Shakspeare. Thus 
 in King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 7, Buckingham 
 describes Lady Grey, afterwards married to King 
 Edward IV., as 
 
 A care-crazed mother to a many sons. 
 
 See also Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 
 3. To pass on from the article to the Noun. I 
 am not aware that our translators of the Bible afford 
 any example of an anomaly, or, to speak more 
 plainly, a false concord, not unfrequent in Shak- 
 
in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 13 
 
 speare,* whereby plural substantives are constructed 
 as if singular, except in the single case of the word 
 c means/ which, partly perhaps on account of the 
 biblical authority in its favour, is so employed to 
 the present day. c We certify the king/ write the 
 adversaries of the Jews in the Book of Ezra iv. 16, 
 c that if this city be builded again .... by this means 
 thou shalt have no portion on this side the river/ 
 Johnson, under the word c mean/ remarks, c It is 
 often used in the plural, and by some not very 
 grammatically with an adjective singular, as " by 
 this means." ' f Shakspeare seems to use the plural 
 of this word indifferently both as singular and 
 plural. 
 
 In like manner the two nouns of similar mean- 
 ing, c tidings *. and c news/ are used by our poet as 
 of both numbers. Thus we find in him, c It is a 
 tidings/ and 'this tidings/ as well as c these tidings;' 
 also, c This news is mortal/ and c These news are 
 everywhere.' In the Bible we have c these news/ 
 1 Kings i. title, and c so is good news/ Prov. xxv. 
 25 ; but c tidings ' occurs only as plural, e. g. c these 
 glad tidings/ Luke i. 19. 
 
 4. The formation of our genitive case, originally 
 by the addition of the syllable c is/ as c Godis 
 
 * As ' our remedies .... lies ' in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3 ; 
 ' manners urges/ in King Lear, v. 3. See the critics upon Cymbeline, 
 ii. 3. Vol. viii. p. 71. 
 
 f See also Loivtk, p. 34, note. 
 
1 4 Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 grace/ afterwards shortened into the letter c s ' with an 
 apostrophe, as c God's grace/ has led to a corruption 
 with which our printers seem most unwilling to part. 
 I mean the transformation of c is ' into c his/ Thus 
 in Gen. xvii. title, c Abram his name ' and c Sarah her 
 name;' Deut x. title, c Moses his suit;' S. Mark v. 
 title, c Jairus his daughter/ Ibid. x. title, l Bartimasus his 
 sight.' And it is a curious instance of the arbitrariness 
 or incomplete accuracy which is apt to prevail in 
 such matters, that while these three examples (and 
 perhaps others) of the corruption in question are 
 allowed still to remain in our Bible, two other 
 examples which Bishop Lowth pointed out, viz. 
 c Asa his heart/ i Kings xv. 14, and c Mordecai his 
 matters/ Esth. iii. 4, have been set right. The 
 same usage occurs at the end of the Prayer for all 
 conditions of men in the Prayer Book. t And this 
 we beg for Jesus Christ His sake.' In the Variorum 
 Shakspeare I have noticed six examples ; all, ex- 
 cept one, after words ending in s : three in King 
 Henry VI. 1st Part, one in King Henry V., and one 
 in Troilus and Cressida. It is not a little remarkable 
 that so great a master of the English language as 
 Addison, and at a date so late as 1 7 1 1 , should have 
 been under the impression that c his ' in these cases 
 is correct, and intended to represent the pronoun. 
 See Spectator, No. 135. If this were so, how could 
 we account for our genitives plural, as c children's 
 bread/ and genitives singular of females or feminine 
 
in the Bible and in Sbakspeare. 1 5 
 
 names, as c Persia's king ? ' See Lowth's Grammar , 
 p. 42, note ; who further observes that c the direct 
 derivation of this case from the Saxon genitive is 
 sufficient of itself to decide the matter.' In one of 
 the three examples in King Henry VI., Bowdler has 
 very improperly altered the text 'France his sword' 
 into c France's sword,' not considering, probably, 
 that France is there to be understood not of the 
 country, but of the French king. If the alteration is 
 to be made in one instance, it should be made in all. 
 5. Proceeding to the Pronouns, I notice first the 
 elliptic use of the dative case of the pronouns of the 
 first person, c me,' c us,' instead of c for me,' c for us ;' 
 as in 2 Sam. xix. 26, c I will saddle me an ass,' . and 
 in Josh. xxii. 26, c Let us now prepare to build us 
 an altar.' The same is found also in the pronouns 
 of the second and third persons, as in Deut. x. 1 , 
 c Make thee an ark,' and again in the same verse, 
 4 Hew thee two tables of stone ;' in Josh. xxii. 1 6, c Ye 
 have builded you an altar;' in Kings xiii. 27, c So 
 they saddled him the ass,' and Judges vi. 2, 'The 
 children of Israel made them the dens which are in 
 the mountains.' Examples of the first of these 
 usages are not unfrequent in Shakspeare.* Thus, 
 Shylock in the Merchant of Venice : 
 
 Go with me to a notary ; seal me there 
 
 Your single bond. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 * It is also classical, as in Horace : 
 
 Quid mi hi Celsus agit ? 
 
1 6 Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 In Othello, Act i. Sc. i : 
 
 Whip me such honest knaves. 
 
 And in King Henry IV., Falstaff especially is fond 
 of the usage.* Doubtless examples occur also in 
 our poet of both the second and third personal pro- 
 nouns similarly used ; but I have marked down only 
 these that follow, of the second person none of the 
 third. 
 
 In King John, Act iii. Sc. 4, Pandulf says : 
 
 John lays you plots. 
 
 In Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1, the grave-digger: 
 
 He will last you some eight year or nine year, 
 
 an idiom with which we are now quite familiar. 
 The ambiguity to which such a manner of speaking 
 may give rise, has been taken advantage of in the 
 humorous scene between Petruchio and his servant 
 Grumio at the door of Hortensio, in 'Taming of the 
 Shrew : 
 
 Petruchio. Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say. 
 
 Grumio. Knock, sir? Whom should I knock? Is there any 
 man has rebused your worship ? 
 
 Petruchio. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. 
 
 Grumio. Knock you here, sir ? Why, what am I, sir, that I 
 should knock you here, sir ? 
 
 Petruchio. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, 
 And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 * Mr. Wise, in his elegant volume upon Shakspeare and his 
 Birthplace, gives other instances, and speaks of it as an idiom still 
 used in Warwickshire, p. 112, sq. 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. 17 
 
 6. Formerly c it,' the pronoun of the third person, 
 besides borrowing the form 'thereof' to supply 
 the possessive case, was indebted for its declension 
 to the pronouns of the second and third person, and 
 instead of its, his and hers were used with reference 
 to a thing* spoken of. Thus in Joshua iv. 18, 
 c The waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and 
 flowed over all his banks, as they did before.' In 
 S. Matthew xxvi. 52, c Put up thy sword again 
 into his place/ In Haggai ii. 3/ 'Who is left 
 among you that saw this house in her first glory ? ' 
 These examples j- are sufficient to prove that our 
 poet was guilty of no vulgarity, as then considered, 
 when he put into the mouth of Caesar the following 
 words addressed to Antony : 
 
 Let me lament 
 That thou, my brother,. my competitor, 
 The arm of mine own body, and the heart 
 Where mine his thoughts did kindle 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra Act v. Sc, I . 
 
 * Since the above was written, I observe that Dean Alford, in his 
 Flea for the Queen's English, ascribes this idiom to ' a reluctance to 
 attribute personality to things without life.' For my own part, I 
 should ascribe it to the very opposite reason, viz. a desire to personify 
 everything ; which desire prevails in the earlier and simpler stages of 
 society and consequently of language. Compare the use of who for 
 which ; see below p. 1 8 . The Dean informs us that * its ' never 
 occurs in the English version of the Bible, and that it is said only to 
 occur three times in Shakspeare, and once in Paradise Lost. See 
 Good Words for 1863, p. 192. 
 
 f See also Exod. xxxvii. 175 Acts xii. 105 Rev. xxii. 2, quoted 
 by Dean Alford. Gen. i. 11; Ps. liv. 7, quoted in Mr. Booker's 
 Glossary. 
 
1 8 Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 But it is curious that our translator of the Apocry- 
 phal Book of Ecclesiasticus should have so far dif- 
 fered at once from Shakspeare, and from himself, 
 as to make c the heart ' not masculine, but first femi- 
 nine and then neuter, as he does in xxii. 1 9, c He 
 that pricketh the heart maketh it to show her 
 knowledge/ 
 
 We find another example in the same play, where 
 Euphronius says to Caesar : 
 
 Such as I am, I come from Antony : 
 
 I was of late as petty to his ends, 
 
 As is the morn dew on the myrtle leaf 
 
 To bis grand sea. Act iii. Sc. 10. 
 
 The explanation of Steevens that by c his ' we 
 are to understand c its/ is, I believe, the true one. 
 
 7. We know that the neuter of the relative 
 pronoun, which, was formerly used as masculine, or 
 feminine ; as in c Our father which art in heaven,' 
 where we should now say c who/ Again, in Gen. 
 xviii. 27, c Behold now, I have taken upon me to 
 speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes/ 
 In Matt, xxvii. $$, $6, we have c which' for both 
 f who ' and c whom : ' c And many women were 
 there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from 
 Galilee ministering unto him, among which was 
 Mary Magdalene,' &c. Both usages are to be met 
 with in Shakspeare. Thus in the Tempest, Act iii. 
 Sc. 1, Ferdinand says c The mistress which I serve,' 
 and in King Richard III. Gloster, the future king, 
 to Prince Edward : 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. 19 
 
 Those uncles which you want, were dangerous. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 On the other hand we find in Shakspeare, though 
 
 not, so far as I have noted, in our translation of 
 
 the Bible, the use of c who ' for c which : ' as in 
 
 the tempest, Act i. Sc. 2 : 
 
 A brave vessel, 
 Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her. 
 
 And again in the same play, Act iii. Sc. 3 : 
 
 The elements 
 Of whom your swords are tempered. 
 
 There are two other peculiarities in the use of the 
 relative pronoun, both of which may derive illus- 
 tration from the comparison upon which we are 
 engaged. I mean the redundant insertion before 
 the relative, of the definite article, and also of the 
 personal pronoun. Thus, c the which/ Matt. xiii. 
 14, and c in the which/ Acts xxvi. 6, may be com- 
 pared with Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1, f Fame, at the 
 which he aims ; ' and with Antony and Cleopatra, 
 Act ii. Sc. 1 : * 
 
 To lend me arms and aid, when I required them, 
 The which you both denied. 
 
 And as examples of the other construction which I 
 just now named, we have in Luke iv. 34, c I know 
 thee who thou art/ and in King Lear, Act i. Sc. 1, 
 C I know you what you are/ and again in King 
 Henry VI. yd V art, Act ii. Sc. 6 : 
 
 And he nor sees, nor hears us what we say. 
 c 2 
 
2,o Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 The idiom is one supposed to be borrowed from 
 the Greek. It is certainly frequent in the ancient 
 Greek authors, especially the tragedians. 
 
 8. There is nothing which occurs to me as call- 
 ing for remark in connexion with the grammar of 
 Adjectives except the use of double comparatives and 
 superlatives. Of the former Shakspeare would 
 seem to have been specially fond. I have noted down 
 more than thirty examples, and among them c more 
 better/ also c worser ' and c more worse/ repeated 
 several times. c More richer/ c more worthier/ c more 
 corrupter/ and c more worse ' are all to be found in 
 King Lear, one of our poet's later and more finished 
 compositions. Double superlatives, such as c most 
 best/ c most unkindest/ he has used much less 
 frequently, i. e. in not more, I believe, than eight 
 instances. Both these anomalies also may be con- 
 sidered as of Greek extraction, or at least they both 
 occur not unfrequently in the Greek drama.* But 
 it is somewhat remarkable that our translators of 
 the New Testament, from Tyndale downwards, 
 have chosen to introduce the double superlative in 
 Acts xxvi. 5, c after the most strait est sect of our 
 religion I lived a Pharisee/ though the original 
 Greek is content with a single one. This is the 
 only example of a double superlative which I have 
 observed in the English Bible ;f but the older 
 
 * See Bishop Monk's note on the Hippolytus of Euripides, v. 487. 
 - \ The word ' chiefest,' however, which is in principle equally- 
 anomalous, occurs several times in both the Old and New Testament. 
 
in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 2 1 
 
 version of the Psalms in the Prayer Book still 
 retains the expression c most highest ' in more than 
 a dozen places ; where, Bp. Lowth has well re- 
 marked, c it acquires a singular propriety from the 
 subject to which it is applied, viz. the Supreme 
 Being, who is higher than the highest' Of the 
 double comparative no scriptural example occurs 
 to me except in the use of the word c lesser/ in 
 Gen. i. 1 6 ; c The lesser light to rule the night/ 
 and in three other texts. Dr. Johnson tells us that 
 the adjective c little' has two comparatives, c less * and 
 c lesser ; ' but I am rather inclined to agree with Bp. 
 Lowth that it is a barbarism, and that worser sounds 
 much more barbarous only because it has not been 
 so frequently used. And may not this have arisen 
 from the fact that our translators of the Bible have 
 accepted the one, but rejected the other ? It is 
 Lord Macaulay who* speaks of c our noble trans- 
 lation of the Bible' as c a book from the authority 
 of which there is no appeal, where the question is 
 about the force of an English word/ 
 
 9. The grammar of the Verb presents to us little 
 or no occasion for remark, without descending to 
 minutiae which would be felt by the general reader 
 to be irksome, if not out of place. The remaining 
 parts of speech, Adverbs, Prepositions, and Conjunc- 
 tions, I shall also dismiss without much notice. 
 
 The adverb c when' was formerly often used 
 
 * History of England, ii. 486, 
 
2,2, Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 with the addition of c as' or c that.' Thus in Matt, 
 i. 1 8, we find, 'when as His mother Mary was 
 espoused to Joseph/ &c. And in King Henry IV. 
 2nd Party c When that your flock, assembled by the 
 bell/ &c. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 In 1 Tim. v. 23, c Use a little wine for thy 
 stomach's sake and thy often infirmities/ the adverb 
 c often' is employed to represent an adjective; as 
 adverbs, we know, constantly are in Greek, with 
 the help of the article. And upon the authority of 
 this passage Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, actually 
 gives it as an adjective with the meaning 'frequent/ 
 In like manner King Lear speaks of Cordelia as 
 c my sometime daughter/ Act i. Sc. 1. And in King 
 Richard III. the same construction enables us to un- 
 derstand a difficult line where the Queen Elizabeth, 
 widow of King Edward IV., says to Richard : 
 
 But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame, 
 My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 c Still use/ i. e., as Steevens explains it, constant 
 use. In the same way Shakspeare uses the expres- 
 sion c seldom pleasure' in his 52nd Sonnet : 
 
 So am I as the rich, whose blessed key 
 
 Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure, 
 
 The which he will not every hour survey 
 
 For blunting the fine point* of seldom pleasure. 
 
 i.e. for fear of blunting &c. 
 
 * On the sentiments, see below, Part II. ch. ii. 
 
m 
 
 the Bible and in Sbahpeare. 23 
 
 The separation of the two parts of which the 
 preposition f toward ' is composed, by placing be- 
 tween them the noun which the preposition governs, 
 is a peculiarity with which we are familiar from 
 more than one passage in the English Bible. Thus 
 in i Sam. xix. 4, Jonathan, speaking to his father 
 Saul respecting David, says, c His works have been 
 to thee-ward very good/ And c to God-ward ' for 
 c toward God - occurs three times, viz. Exod. xviii. 
 19, 2 Cor. iii. 4, 1 Thess. i. 8. The counterparts 
 to this usage in Shakspeare, are the following : 
 
 In King Henry VI. 1st Party Act iii. Sc. 3 : 
 
 Hark ! by the sound of drum you may perceive 
 Their powers are marching unto Paris-ward. 
 
 In CoriolanuSy Act i. Sc. 6 : 
 
 As merry as when our nuptial day was done, 
 And tapers burned to bed-ward. 
 
 Compare also c I go wool-war d> in Love's Labour's 
 lost, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 The use of the preposition c against ? with re- 
 ference to time is now become almost obsolete, yet 
 I am not aware that we have any other word which 
 supplies its place, and the notion which it expressed 
 is one of frequent recurrence. Thus we read in 
 Gen. xliii. 25, concerning the sons of Jacob, c They 
 made ready the present against Joseph came at 
 noon.' And in Exod. vii. 15, c The Lord said unto 
 Moses, Get thee unto Pharaoh, in the morning ; 
 
24 Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 lo ! he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt 
 stand by the river's brink against he come.' 
 In Hamlet it occurs three times : 
 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes, 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 This bird of dawning singeth all night long. 
 
 Act i. Sc. i . 
 But as we often see against some storm, 
 A silence in the heavens [i. e. just previous to]. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 Yea, this solidity and compound mass 
 With tristful visage, as against the doom, 
 Is thought-sick at the act. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 But so far as I have noted, it is not to be found 
 more than thrice in all the rest of Shakspeare, 
 viz. in Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 1, c against 
 thou shalt awake ; ' Midsummer Night's Dream, 
 Act v. Sc. 1, c against your nuptial ; ' and in King 
 Richard II. : 
 
 They'll talk of state, for every one doth so, 
 Against a change. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 The conjunction c because ' is used in a remarkable 
 manner, now quite obsolete, in Matt. xx. 31, c The 
 multitude rebuked them because they should hold 
 their peace/ where the original means c in order that.' 
 There is an instance of the same quoted by Bp. 
 Lowth from Bacon's 25th Essay ; but I have not 
 discovered any parallel to it in Shakspeare. 
 
 10. I conclude this chapter by producing a few 
 forms of speech which, either from their peculiarity, 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. 35 
 
 or because they have now ceased to be used in the 
 same manner, appear to deserve remark. 
 
 The Jetter c a ' prefixed to nouns, to adjectives, 
 and to participles, as in the phrases to c run a-footj 
 to c flee a-pace> to c be a-hungered, a-thirst, to f go 
 a-fishingj to c lie a-dying, all which are to be found 
 in our English Bible, has given rise to much dis- 
 cussion and difference of opinion among our gram- 
 marians. Some of the same, and others like to 
 these, we meet with also in Shakspeare, as c ap- 
 proach a-pace ; ' c they were an-hungry ; ' f looked 
 asquint.' Bp. Lowth thinks that the c a ' m all 
 such cases is the preposition c on ' a little disguised 
 by familiar use and quick pronunciation. This is 
 confirmed by the phrase in Acts xiii. 36, 'fell on 
 sleep, which comes down to us from Cranmer's 
 translation, 1539, and instead of which in Actsvii. 
 60, that translation as well as our authorized ver- 
 sion reads c fell asleep' Conversely, Shakspeare 
 has in the 'Tempest , c all a-firej for c all on fire/ 
 as we should now say. Forms like f a-hungered,' 
 may be considered as derived from verbs, after the 
 same manner as to c set at one ' gave rise to the 
 verb to c atone.' * Thus, to set on hunger would be- 
 come to on-hunger, and thence in the passive par- 
 ticiple to be on hungered y an -hungered, a hungered, 
 and thence by corruption, a hungry. 
 
 c At unawares ' is a remarkable phrase which both 
 
 * See below, ch. ii. p. 29. 
 
26 Noticeable Forms of Speech 
 
 Shakspeare and our translators of the Bible have 
 used more than once. See Numbers xxxv. n, 
 c The slayer .... which killeth any person at 
 unawares] but in verse 15 of the same chapter we 
 read c that killeth any person unawares] without the 
 
 1 at/ See also Ps. xxxv. 8, c Let destruction come 
 upon him at unawares, * and in the Apocrypha, 
 
 2 Mace. viii. 6. The examples in Shakspeare are 
 three ; two in King Henry VI. 3rd Fart : 
 
 So we, well covered with the night's black mantle, 
 At unazvares may beat down Edward's guard. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 Either betrayed by falsehood of his guard, 
 Or by his foe surprised at unawares. Ibid. Sc. 4. 
 
 And one in 'Troths and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 The phrase c and if, 1 in which and is redundant, 
 
 occurs in 1 Cor. vii. 13, c And the woman which 
 
 hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be 
 
 pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.' 
 
 And again in verse 2 1 of the same chapter, c But 
 
 and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned/ So 
 
 also Matt. xxiv. 48, c But and if that evil servant 
 
 shall say in his heart/ &c. In Shakspeare wherever 
 
 the same phrase occurs the and is softened into an. 
 
 Thus in Othello : 
 
 It is not lost, but what an if it were ? 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 In Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act i. Sc. 1 : 
 
 Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, 
 An if 'the shepherd be awhile away. 
 
in the Bible and in Sbahpeare. 2 J 
 
 The phrase c by and by/ as in S. Matt. xiii. 21, 
 c When tribulation or persecution ariseth because of 
 the word, by and by he is offended ; ' and again in 
 S. Luke xxi. 9, c The end is not by and by,' has 
 gone through a considerable change since the be- 
 ginning of the seventeenth century. In both those 
 passages and in two others of the New Testament 
 where it occurs, viz. S. Mark vi. 25, and S. Luke 
 xvii. 7, it is used to represent a Greek word which 
 signifies c immediately.' And in Shakspeare it has 
 sometimes the same meaning. Thus in Romeo and 
 Juliet , Act iii. Sc. 4 : 
 
 It is so very late, that we 
 May call it early by and by : Good night. 
 
 And again in the same play, Act v. Sc. 3 : 
 
 Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb ; 
 And by and by my master drew on him. 
 
 But occasionally our- poet employs it more in 
 accordance with the sense which it now bears ; as in 
 Hamlet , Act v. Sc. 2 : 
 
 I dare not drink yet, madam ; by and by. 
 
 The classical reader may compare the different 
 meanings of the Latin adverb c mature/ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of Noticeable Words in the English Bible found also in 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Y c noticeable words ' I mean such as are 
 now rarely or never used in the same 
 sense, or which have become altogether 
 obsolete. 
 
 The most convenient form into which the ma- 
 terials intended for this chapter can be cast will be 
 that of a comparative glossary. 
 
 What follows forms but a portion of the author's 
 own collection ; and it is offered merely as a sample 
 of what every reader of Shakspeare and the Bible 
 may do for himself. 
 
 Abjects : once in Bible, and once in Shakspeare. 
 
 Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me. 
 
 Ps. xxxv. 15. 
 We are the Queen's abjects, and must obey. 
 
 King Rich. III. Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 i. e. treated by her as abjects, or vile persons, rather 
 than as subjects ought to be treated. 
 
Of Noticeable Words. 2,9 
 
 Ado ; once in Bible, frequent in Shakspeare. 
 
 Why make ye this ado, and weep ? Mark v. 39. 
 
 Make ye no more ado, but all embrace him. 
 
 King Hen. Fill. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 It means trouble, difficulty, bustle, tumult. 
 Allow. 
 
 That which I do, I allow not. Rom. vii. 15. 
 
 Ye allow the deeds of your Fathers. Luke xi. 48. 
 
 I like them all, and do allow them well. 
 
 King Hen. IF. 2nd Pt. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 Praise us as we are tasted ; allow us, as we prove. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Thus used it means to approve of. Jn the present 
 ordinary signification to permit, it is also found in 
 Shakspeare, but not, I think, in the Bible. 
 
 Amaze, amazement. 
 
 I do beseech your Majesty, make up ; 
 
 Lest your retirement do amaze your friends. 
 
 King Hen. IV. ut Pt. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 i. e. alarm them, confuse with terror. 
 
 I will make many people amazed 'at thee. Ezek. xxxii. 1 o. 
 And are not afraid with any amazement. 1 Pet. iii. 6. 
 
 Atone, atonement. 
 1 would do much to atone them. Othello, Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 i. e. reconcile them, c set them at one again/ as we 
 read in Acts vii. 26. And we have the substan- 
 tive at onement, in Bishop Hall's Satires, Book iii. 
 S. vii. 69 : 
 
 Which never can be set at onement more. 
 
30 Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 Shakspeare uses both the verb and the substantive, 
 and the former both as transitive and neuter. 
 
 He and Aufidius can no more atone. CorioL Act iv. Sc. 6. 
 
 i. e. be reconciled, agree. But in the Bible, though 
 the substantive is used frequently, the verb does not 
 occur at all. 
 Bestow. 
 
 There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. Luke xii. 1 8. 
 
 i. e. lay up, put away. See also 2 Kings v. 24 ; 
 2 Chron. ix. 25. 
 
 We will bestow you in some better place. 
 
 King Hen. VI. 1st Pt. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 B ewray = discover, disclose. 
 
 Thy speech bewray etb thee. Matt. xxvi. 73. 
 
 See also Prov. xxvii. 16 ; xxix. 24. 
 
 Should we be silent, and not speak, our raiment 
 
 And state of bodies would bewray what life 
 
 We have led since thy exile. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 From Isaiah xvi. 3, and from several places in 
 Shakspeare, it appears that the use of this word was 
 already fast becoming synonymous with that of the 
 word betray, which has now superseded it. 
 
 Bravery : once only in the Bible. 
 
 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tink- 
 ling ornaments about their feet. Isaiah iii. 1 5. 
 
 i. e. finery. 
 
 With scarfs and fans >and double change of bravery. 
 
 Taming of Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. 31 
 
 It is remarkable that Shakspeare appears to use this 
 substantive always in the above sense only ; though 
 he uses the adjective brave, not only for fine, but 
 much more often in its present signification, viz. for 
 courageous ; while in the Bible neither substantive nor 
 adjective is used at all in the modern sense. The 
 adverb bravely, for finely, splendidly (of dress), occurs 
 in Judith x. 4. 
 
 Bring on WAY=escort. 
 
 Abraham went with them to bring them on their way. 
 
 Gen. xviii. 16. 
 I pray you, bring me on the way a little. 
 
 Othello, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 Carriage, in the sense of that which is carried, 
 
 We took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem. 
 
 Acts xxi. 1 5. 
 
 See also 1 Sam. xvii. 11, and margin there ; Isaiah 
 i. 25 ; 1 Mace. ix. 31. 
 
 Many carriages he hath despatched 
 To the sea side. King John, Act v Sc. 7. 
 
 Spenser uses the word in the same sense. 
 
 Castaway =a person lost, or abandoned by 
 Providence ; once in the Bible, twice in Shakspeare. 
 
 Lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I 
 myself should be a castaway. 1 Cor. ix. 1 7. 
 
 Why do you look on us, and shake your head, 
 And call us orphans, wretches, castaways ? 
 
 King 'Rich. III. Act li. Sc. 2. 
 
3 % Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 Choice, adj.= select, excellent, 
 
 A choice young man, and a goodly. I Sam. ix. 2. 
 
 The choice and master spirits of this age. 
 
 Jul. Ctesar, Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Choice, subst.= the best of anything. 
 
 In the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead. 
 
 Gen. xxiii. 6. 
 Replete with choice of all delights. 
 
 King Henry VI. 1st Pt. Act v. Sc. 5. 
 
 Converse, Conversation. 
 
 The substantive, in the sense of behaviour, manner 
 
 of life, intercourse with, is frequent in Scripture. 
 
 See Ps. xxxvii. 14; Gal. i. 13 ; Phil. i. 27, &c. 
 
 The verb occurs only in Baruch iii. 37, and in the 
 
 title of Acts ii. Neither word has in the Bible its 
 
 present meaning of discourse. In Shakspeare both 
 
 meanings may, I think, be found ; e. g. 
 
 All are banished till their conversations 
 Appear more wise and modest to the world. 
 
 Henry IV. znd Pt. Act v. Sc. 5. 
 Alas ! who can converse with a dumb show ? 
 
 Merch. of Fen. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 But the former, i. e. the old signification, is more 
 common. 
 
 Cunning, subst. skill, adject, knowing, skilful. 
 
 Let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii. 5. 
 In our sports my better cunning faints 
 Under his chance. Ant. and Chop. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Aholiab a cunning workman and embroiderer. 
 
 Exodus xxxviii. 23. 
 To cunning men 
 I will be tery kind and liberal. 
 
 Taming of Shrew, Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 53 
 
 Dayspring = break of day , dawn. 
 
 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days ; and 
 caused the dayspring to know his place? Job xxxviii. 12. 
 
 See also Luke i. 78. 
 
 As flaws congealed in the spring of day. 
 
 King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 Ear = to plough, till the land. 
 
 He will set them to ear his ground. 1 Sam. viii. 12. 
 See also Is. xxx. 24 ; c earing-time ' in Exod. 
 xxxiv. 21. 
 
 Let them go 
 To ear the land. King Rich. II. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 See also Shakspeare's dedication of his poem 
 Venus and Adonis. 
 
 Favour = countenance, frequent in Shakspeare ; 
 in the Bible the adjective only is used, as well- 
 favoured, ill-favoured, both which, and hard-favoured, 
 occur also in Shakspeare. 
 
 I know your favour well, 
 Though you have now no sea-cap on your head. 
 
 Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 Rachel was beautiful and well-favoured. Gen. xxix. 17. 
 A shrewd ill-favoured wife. Taming of Shrew, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 The present meaning of the word is also found both 
 in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 
 
 Fear = to frighten, terrify ; only once in Bible. 
 
 Though no terrible thing did fear them, &c. Wisd. xvii. 9. 
 We must not make a scare-crow of the law, 
 Setting it up to fear the birds of prey. 
 
 Meas. for Meas. Act ii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 D 
 
34 Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 Full, adv.= very. 
 
 Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may 
 keep your own tradition. Mark vii. 9. 
 
 Prospero, master of a full poor cell. Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Good-Man = Master of the House, Paterfamilias. 
 
 If the good-man of the house had known, &c. Matth. xxiii. 43. 
 
 See also Pro v. vii. 19.* 
 
 This story shall the good-man teach his son. 
 
 King Henry V, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 Hard = close, near. 
 
 Naboth had a vineyard hard by the palace of Ahab. 
 
 1 Kings xxi. 1 . 
 
 See also Acts xviii. 7. It occurs in several other 
 places in the Old Testament; but in Ps. xxii. 11, 
 and cvii. 8, where the Prayer Book version has 
 c hard at hand' and 'hard at death's door,' the Bible 
 has c near ' in both places. 
 
 Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. 
 
 Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Harness = armour. 
 
 Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that 
 putteth it off. 1 Kings xx. 2. 
 
 See also xxii. 34, and Prayer Book version of 
 Ps. lxxviii. 10, where the Bible has c being armed/ 
 
 Before the Sun rose he was harnessed light. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Know = to acknowledge, approve, bless. 
 
 The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. Ps. i. 6. 
 
in the Bible and in Shakspeare. 35 
 
 See also Exod. ii. 25, margin ; Hosea xiii. 5 ; 
 
 Nahum i. 7 ; John x. 14, 27 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19. In 
 
 the following passage Shakspeare seems to use the 
 
 word in the same sense. 
 
 I know you are my eldest brother, and, in the gentle condition 
 of blood, you should so know me. As you like it, Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 Learn = to teach. 
 
 Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me. Ps. xxv. 2. 
 
 Prayer Book version ; but in Bible c teach me.' 
 
 See also verse 8. 
 
 You must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary 
 pleasure. As you like it, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Leasing = lying. 
 
 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. 
 
 Ps. v. 6. See also iv. 2. 
 In his praise 
 Have almost stamped the leasing. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 i. e. made the lie current. 
 Let = to hinder. 
 
 Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of 
 the way. 2 Thess. ii. 7. 
 
 See also Exod. v. 4; Isaiah xliii. 13. 
 
 If nothing lets to make us happy. Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Shakspeare also uses the substantive let = hindrance, 
 which does not occur in the Bible. 
 
 Therefore my kinsmen are no let to me. 
 
 Romeo and "Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 That I may know the let, why gentle peace 
 Should not expel these inconveniences. 
 
 King Henry V. Act. v. Sc. 2. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 Liking = good state of body, plumpness. 
 
 Their young ones are in good liking. Job xxxi. 4. 
 
 I have an eye to make difference of men's liking. 
 
 Merry Wives, Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 We find the same word used also as an adjective. 
 Why should he see your faces worse liking} Dan. i. 10. 
 See also the Prayer Book version of Ps. xcii. 13, 
 c fat and well-liking ;' in Bible, f fat and flourishing.' 
 Well- liking wits they have ; gross, gross ; fat, fat. 
 
 Love's Labour's lost, Act v, Sc. 2. 
 
 Man-Child, Maid-Child, for male child, and 
 female child ; in the plural we have c male children/ 
 Josh. xvii. 2. 
 
 If a woman have born a man-child. Levit. xii. 2. 
 
 But if she bear a maid-child. Ibid. 5. 
 
 I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, 
 than now in first hearing he had proved himself a man. 
 
 Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 She brought forth 
 A maid-child called Marina. Pericles, Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 Nephew = grandson, descendant ; the Latin 
 nepos. 
 
 If any widow have children or nephews. 1 Tim. v. 4. 
 
 See also Judges xii. 14; Job xviii. 19; Isaiah 
 xiv. 11. 
 
 You'll have your nephews neigh to you. Othello, Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 Shakspeare also uses niece for grand- daughter , 
 in King Richard III., Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 Or ever = before. 
 
 The lions brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at 
 the bottom of the den. Daniel vi. 24. 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. $y 
 
 See also Prov. viii. 23 ; Eccles. xii. 6 ; Acts 
 xxiii. 15. Compare c ere ever/ in Ecclus. xxiii. 20. 
 
 I drink the air before me, and return 
 
 Or e'er your pulse beat twice. Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 See also Hamlet, quoted below, Pt. II. ch. iii. 
 Pate = head, once in Bible, frequent in Shak- 
 speare. 
 
 His mischief shall return upon his own head ; and his violent 
 dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 1 6. 
 
 Enter, skirmishing, the Retainers of G foster and Winchester, with 
 bloody pates. King Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 See also Taming of the Shrew, quoted above, p. 16. 
 Pl a y = to fence, fight, 
 
 Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play 
 before us, 2 Sam. ii. 14. 
 
 Compare Bp. Andrewes' second sermon on Ash 
 Wednesday. 
 
 He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes. 
 
 Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 Port = gate ; Latin, porta. 
 
 That I may shew all thy praises within the ports of the 
 daughter of Sion. Ps. ix. 14. Prayer Book version. 
 
 In the Bible c gates.' The word does not 
 occur, I believe, at all in the Bible, either in this 
 sense (though c porter V does several times) or in 
 its more modern use for harbour ; Latin, portus. 
 Shakspeare uses it in both senses, even in the same 
 play : 
 
38 Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 Hark, the Duke's trumpets ! I know not why he comes ; 
 All ports I'll bar. King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 1 , 
 
 No port is free, no place 
 Does not attend my taking. Ibid. 3. 
 
 Then is all safe ! the anchor's in the port. 
 
 Titus Andron. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 Prevent = to (1) come before, (2) go before, in 
 order to guide and help not to hinder, as now 
 used, (3) anticipate ; Latin, praevenio. 
 
 1 . In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 
 
 Ps. lxxxviii. j 3. 
 
 2. Let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us. 
 
 Ps. lxxix. 8. See also Ps. xxi. 3. 
 
 3. We which are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep. 
 
 1 Thess. iv. 15. See also Ps. cxix. 148; Matth. xvii. 25. 
 I would have staid till I had made you merry, 
 If worthier friends had not prevented me. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
 This seems to fall under the third meaning ; and I 
 am not sure that Shakspeare affords an example of 
 any other ; except the modern one, viz. to hinder, 
 which is also found in the Bible. The instance, 
 however, which Johnson quotes from Shakspeare, 
 and interprets in the sense of to hinder, ought, I 
 think, to be interpreted, in the sense of to antici- 
 pate. 
 
 I do find it cowardly and vile, 
 
 For fear of what might fall, so to prevent 
 
 The time of life. Julius Casar, Act v. Sc. 1 . 
 
 In the same play, iii. 1, the substantive Preven- 
 tion is used with the same meaning : 
 Casca, be sudden ; for we fear prevention. 
 
in the Bible and in Sbakspeare. 39 
 
 Proper good-looking, handsome , fair. 
 Because they saw he was a proper child. Heb. xi. 23. 
 
 The same Greek word, which is here used, is ap- 
 plied also to Moses, when a child, in Acts vii. 20, 
 and is there translated c fair.' Compare Exod. ii. 2, 
 * goodly child/ 
 
 She finds, altho' I can not, 
 Myself to be a marvellous proper man ; 
 I'll be at charges for a looking glass. 
 
 King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 Quick = alive, lively. Quicken = to revive, 
 
 animate. 
 
 If the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth 
 .... and they go down quick into the pit, Numb. xvi. 30. 
 See verse 33, * They went down alive into the pit.' See also 
 Ps. xxxv. 15, cxxiv. 3. 'Quick and dead/ Acts x. 42 ; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 1 ; 1 Pet. iv. 5. 
 
 The word of God is quick and powerful. 
 
 Heb. iv. 1 2. See also Isaiah xi. 3. 
 That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die, 
 
 1 Cor. xv. 36. 
 Thou'rt quick, 
 But yet I'll bury thee. Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead. 
 
 Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1. 
 The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead. 
 
 Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Shakspeare also uses the verb as neuter : 
 
 These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin, 
 Will quicken and accuse thee. King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 7. 
 
 Road = c rati, inroad, once in Bible. 
 Whither have ye made a road to-day ? 1 Sam. xxvii. 10. 
 
4-0 Of Noticeable Words found 
 
 This word does not occur in the Bible in the 
 modern sense ; but Shakspeare uses it ( i ) in the 
 sense above named ; (2) for roadstead, i. e. a place 
 for ships to anchor in; and (3) in its present ordi- 
 nary signification for a public way. 
 
 1. Against the Scot, who will make road upon us 
 
 With all advantages. King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 2. Here I read for certain that my ships 
 
 Are safely come to road. Mercb. of Ven. Act v. Sc. 1 . 
 
 3. What wouldst thou have me .... enforce a thievish living 
 On the common road} As you like it, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 In one place also, Henry VIII. iv. 1, c with easy 
 roads * is used for easy stages. 
 Room = place, seat at table. 
 
 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down 
 in the highest room. Luke xiv. 8. 
 
 Grief fills the room up of my absent child, 
 Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me. 
 
 King John, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 Runagate = fugitive, rebel, apostate ; French, 
 renegat. 
 
 God bringeth the prisoners out of captivity, but letteth the 
 runagates continue in scarceness. Prayer Book version of Ps. 
 lxviii. 6, where the Bible has * the rebellious.' 
 I'll send to one in Mantua, 
 Where that same banished runagate doth live. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet^ Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 
 Sort = class, order of persons. 
 
 Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Acts xvii. 5. 
 
 Assemble all the poor men of your sort. 
 
 Julius Casar, Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
in the Bible and in Shahpeare. 4 1 
 
 Table = tablet. 
 
 The tables were written on both their sides. 
 
 Exod. xxxii. 15. Comp. 2 Cor. iii. 3. 
 Therefore will he wipe his tables clean, 
 And keep no tell-tale to his memory. 
 
 Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act iv. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Thought, used intensively for care, anxiety, 
 melancholy. 
 
 Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat. 
 
 Matt. vi. 25. 
 
 Comp. Phil. iv. 6, where the same Greek word 
 
 is rendered c careful.' 
 
 If he love Caesar, all that he can do 
 
 Is to himself; take thought, and die for Caesar. 
 
 Jul. C&sar, Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 Compare Antony and Cleopatra, c think and die/ 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Wis, Wit, and Wot (originally the past tense 
 of the former), to know, perceive, think. 
 
 They wist not what it was. Exod. xvi. 1 5. 
 
 We do you to wit of the grace of God, &c. 
 
 2 Cor. viii. 1 . See also Exod. ii. 4. 
 My master wotteth not what is with me in the house. 
 
 Gen. xxxix. 8. 
 What I shall choose, I wot not. Phil. i. 22. 
 
 I wis your grandam had a worser match. 
 
 King Richard 111. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 Submission, Dauphin ? 'tis a mere French word ; 
 We English warriors wot not what it means. 
 
 King Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. 
 
 I conclude this chapter with a remark upon the 
 
42 Noticeable Words in Bible and Shahpeare. 
 
 phrase well stricken in years, which we find in Luke 
 i. 7 : c They had no child because that Elisabeth 
 was barren, and they both were now well stricken in 
 years' In Tyndale's Translation, 1 534, and Cran- 
 mer's, 1539, the words were c well stricken in age ;' 
 which we find also in Gen. xviii. 11, and xxiv. 1. 
 Is it possible that our translator of St. Luke altered 
 the expression out of deference to the following 
 passage of Shakspeare ? 
 
 We speak no treason, man ; we say the King 
 
 Is wise and virtuous : and his noble Queen 
 
 Well struck in years. King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Mr. Steevens, in his note upon the place (and there 
 is no other note upon it in the Variorum edition), 
 calls the phrase f an odd, uncouth expression.* It 
 does not appear to have occurred to him that it is 
 used several times in the English Bible (see be- 
 sides the passage in St. Luke, and the other texts 
 referred to above, Josh. xiii. 1, xxiii. 1, and 1 Kings 
 i. 1) ; still less that our poet might have chosen it 
 in the above passage because the Queen spoken of 
 was also an Elizabeth, wife of King Edward IV. 
 
PART II. 
 
GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND GUILD CHAPEL, STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 
 
Introduction. 
 
 HERE are three ways by which we may 
 estimate the extent of Shakspeare's 
 knowledge and use of Holy Scripture. 
 The first is the obvious references to the facts and 
 characters of the Bible which his plays contain ; the 
 second, the tone and colouring which pervade his 
 moral and religious principles and sentiments ; and 
 the third, the poetical thoughts or imagery which he 
 appears to have borrowed more or less directly from 
 the Scriptures. I shall begin with the first, that is, 
 the historical references, as affording the clearest 
 and most direct proofs of our poet's study of the 
 Bible, which it is my purpose to establish ; because, 
 if we are satisfied that the point in question is de- 
 monstrated by these, we shall be more ready to ad- 
 mit the same conclusion when we come to deal with 
 the two other branches of the evidence, which, from 
 their own nature, must necessarily be of a less defi- 
 nite and exact, and consequently less convincing 
 character. 
 
 But before proceeding with the task thus pre- 
 
46 Introduction to Second Part. 
 
 scribed, it is due to the character of our great poet 
 that I should point out how much misconception 
 respecting Shakspeare's treatment of Holy Scrip- 
 ture has prevailed among his critics, even of the 
 highest rank. Let me produce one notable example, 
 derived from the play of Antony and Cleopatra, 
 Act iii. Sc. ii. 
 
 After the ignominious flight, in which Antony 
 had followed Cleopatra from the coast of Actium 
 back to Alexandria, Octavius Caesar, the conqueror, 
 sends a messenger to endeavour to detach the queen 
 from her paramour. This messenger is received 
 favourably by Cleopatra in a private interview, and 
 just as he is kissing her hand, previous to his de- 
 parture, Antony comes in, and in the highest strain 
 of indignation, embittered by the consciousness 
 of his downfall and disgrace, upbraids her as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Antony. To let a fellow that will take rewards, 
 And say, God quit you I be familiar with 
 My playfellow, your hand ; this kingly seal, 
 And plighter of high hearts ! O that I were 
 Upon the hill of Basan, to outroar 
 The horned herd, for I have savage cause : 
 And to proclaim it civilly, were like 
 A halter'd neck, which does the hangman thank 
 For being yare * about him. 
 
 This passage gives striking evidence of our 
 poet's familiarity with the Old Testament; see 
 
 * i. e. adroit. 
 
Introduction to Second Part. 47 
 
 Ps. xxii. 1 2, lxviii. 1 5 ; Ezek. xxxix. 1 8 ; Amos iv. 1 . 
 But is there anything to give offence even to the 
 most pious mind, in the way in which he has applied 
 his knowledge of these passages ? And yet not 
 only has Mr. Bowdler omitted the reference to 
 the f hill of Basan' as indecorous, but critics, in- 
 cluding Johnson himself, have concurred in con- 
 demning it as matter for regret, nay even for 
 c pity and indignation ! ' 
 
 I confess I am not surprised that the editor of 
 the c Variorum edition/ Mr. James Boswell, though 
 he professes in general to have scrupulously re- 
 tained all the critical remarks of his predecessors, 
 yet made an exception, by venturing, as he says, c in 
 a very few instances,' to expunge a note in which 
 Shakspeare had been, in his opinion, c most per- 
 versely and injuriously charged with an irreverent 
 allusion to Scripture/ * I am sorry he did not carry 
 the process of expunction so far as to delete the note 
 of Johnson just referred to.f Nor can I omit to 
 add that, while I desire to express my thankfulness 
 to Mr. Bowdler for the manner in which he has 
 executed his praiseworthy undertaking in many re- 
 spects, I very much regret the undue sensitiveness 
 which has led him sometimes to alter, and sometimes 
 to omit, passages perfectly inoffensive, for no other 
 
 * Vol. i. Advertisement, p. 8. 
 
 f See also another note of Johnson, to the same effect, given in 
 that edition, vol. xi. p. 455. 
 
48 Introduction to Second Part. 
 
 reason that I can discover, except the allusion they 
 contain to the language of Scripture. 
 
 The following example affords an instance both of 
 alteration and of omission. In the Second Part of 
 King Henry VI. Queen Margaret says to the king : 
 
 What, dost thou turn away, and hide thy face ? 
 I am no loathsome leper, look on me. 
 What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf? 
 Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 These three last lines are omitted by Mr. Bowdler. 
 And why ? Because we read about c lepers/ and 
 still more, because we read about c deaf adders ' in the 
 Bible. See Psalm lviii. 4, 5 : c Their poison is like 
 the poison of a serpent ; they are like the deaf adder 
 that stoppeth her ear ; they will not hearken to the 
 voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. ' This 
 beautiful image appears to have struck the imagi- 
 nation of our poet, and not without reason. He 
 therefore makes use of it again, and with singular 
 propriety, in 'Troilus and Cress ida ; where Hector 
 says to Paris and Troilus : 
 
 Pleasure and revenge 
 Have ears more deaf than adders, to the voice 
 Of any true decision. 'Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 This Mr. Bowdler has altered into 
 
 Have ears for ever deaf unto the voice, &c, 
 
 whereby the notion of truth charming wisely , but in 
 
Introduction to Second Part. 49 
 
 vain, is altogether lost, and a most flat line substi- 
 tuted for a most vigorous one. And why ? Because 
 Mr. B. appears to have been haunted by an exagge- 
 rated and mistaken fancy, that whatever is calculated 
 to remind the reader of a Scriptural image, however 
 beautiful and however appropriate, must necessarily 
 be profane ! What, I wonder, would Mr. B. have 
 done if he had undertaken to edit, not only the 
 plays, but also the sonnets of Shakspeare ; in the 
 cxii. of which we read as follows : 
 
 In so profound abysm I throw all care 
 Of others' voices, that my adder's sense 
 To critic and to flatterer stopped are 
 
 where, by a curious instance of the figure, called in 
 Greek o-^^lol wpbg to (rr}[ji.(x.iv6^svov y c are ' seems as 
 if put to agree with ears, implied in c adder's sense/ 
 I now pass on to the evidence of which I pro- 
 posed to treat in the first instance. 
 
rtyf^g^Swr \ *J^m^' l S& 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the Allusions in Shakspeare to the Historical Facts 
 and Characters of the Bible. 
 
 N this chapter I have to show the extent of 
 
 Shakspeare's knowledge of the contents 
 
 of the Bible in its historical aspect ; how 
 
 fully and how accurately the general tenor of the 
 
 facts recorded in the sacred narrative was present 
 
 to his mind. 
 
 We may begin then from the very first chapter 
 
 of the Book of Genesis. There can be no doubt 
 
 that the Mosaic record of the creation of the sun 
 
 and moon, on the fourth day, when c God made two 
 
 great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and 
 
 the lesser light to rule the night/ gave occasion to 
 
 those words of Caliban in the Tempest, where he 
 
 describes how Prospero, on his first coming to the 
 
 island, had been wont to treat him kindly ; and as 
 
 trying to educate him, would often teach him 
 
 How 
 To name the bigger light, and how the less, 
 That burn by day and night. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
Facts and Characters of the Bible. 51 
 
 We know what followed only too soon after the 
 Creation ; and although whatever comes from the 
 mouth of Falstaffmay provoke a smile, yet we must 
 all feel that there is the greatest occasion in reality 
 for deep seriousness, when we hear him say to Prince 
 Henry : 
 
 Dost thou hear, Ha] ? Thou knowest in the state of innocency 
 Adam fell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of 
 villainy ? King Henry IV. \st Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 It is the same Prince Henry, of whom afterwards, 
 when he became king, the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury thus testified : 
 
 The breath no sooner left his father's body, 
 
 But that his wildness, mortified in him, 
 
 Seemed to die too : yea, at that very moment, 
 
 Consideration like an angel came 
 
 And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him ; 
 
 Leaving his body as a paradise, 
 
 To envelop and contain celestial spirits. 
 
 King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
 And he himself, as king, spake thus of the vile 
 conspirator Lord Scroop : 
 
 I will weep for thee ; 
 For this revolt of thine methinks is like 
 Another fall of man. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 Yet once again, in Much Ado about Nothing, we 
 meet with a reference to the same chapters of 
 Genesis, in a passage which the fastidiousness of 
 Mr. Bowdler has not allowed him to retain, but 
 which surely need not excite any feeling of irreve- 
 
 E 2 
 
53 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 rence towards the sacred record. C I would not 
 marry her/ says Benedick of the Lady Beatrice, 
 c though she were endowed with all that Adam had 
 left him before he transgressed? (Actii. Sc. i.) Nor 
 1 need we, I think, be offended at the dialogue be- 
 tween the two clowns in Hamlet, where allusion is 
 made to the same primeval history : 
 
 1st Clown. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen 
 but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers : they hold by Adam's 
 profession. 
 
 2nd Clown. Was he a gentleman ? 
 
 i st Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms. 
 
 2nd Clown. Why, he had none. 
 
 i st Clown. What, art a heathen ? How dost thou understand 
 scripture ? The scripture says, Adam digged. Could he dig 
 without arms ? Act v. Sc. I . 
 
 And as Adam digged, so he would be exposed 
 
 to the inclemency of the weather ; which has been 
 
 also the lot of the greater portion of his posterity; 
 
 thus alluded to in As you like it : Scene, Forest 
 
 of Arden : 
 
 Duke Sen. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, 
 Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
 Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods 
 More free from peril than the envious court ? 
 Here feel we but* the penalty of Adam, 
 
 * The emendation of Theobald for ' not/ which Boswell objects 
 to, and pronounces the old reading to be right. I wonder that neither 
 of them has remarked how much the conjecture of the former is con- 
 firmed by the song which follows in Act ii. Sc. 5 : 
 * Here shall we see 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather.' 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 53 
 
 The season's difference ; as, the icy fang 
 ... And churlish chiding of the winter's wind. Act ii. Sc. I . 
 
 / 2. The history of Cain and Abel is of such a 
 character that it would naturally suggest materials 
 of thought to a tragic poet. Accordingly, the refer- 
 ences which Shakspeare has made to it are frequent 
 and striking. First, in King Richard II : 
 
 Bolingbroke. Further I say, and further will maintain, 
 That he* did plot the Duke of Gloster's death; 
 And, consequently, like a traitor coward, 
 Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood : 
 Which blood, like sacrificing AbePs, cries 
 Even from the tongue/ess caverns of the earth 
 To me for justice, and rough chastisement. Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 It is needless to observe how accurately, and at 
 the same time how reverently, this language repre- 
 sents both the letter and the spirit of the Bible 
 narrative. ' And so, too, where the King says in 
 Hamlet : 
 
 O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven ; 
 
 It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, 
 
 A brother's murder J Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 There is a still more recondite reference to the 
 same tragical history in the First Part of King 
 Henry VI, a passage which Bowdler has thought 
 it necessary to expunge, where the poet with much 
 propriety puts into the mouth of the Bishop of 
 Winchester, in addressing Humphrey, Duke of 
 Gloster, these bold and wrathful lines : 
 
 * Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. 
 
54 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a foot : 
 
 This be Damascus : be thou cursed Cain, 
 
 To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 It had been recorded by Sir John Mandeville, 
 
 who travelled in the East in the fourteenth century, 
 
 that c in that place where Damascus was founded, 
 
 Cain slew his brother Abel/ It is also said that the 
 
 name Damascus means c a sack of blood/ or c a 
 
 cup of blood/ But our poet has turned the same 
 
 history to a still more striking account, in the 
 
 Second Part of King Henry IV. , where the Earl of 
 
 Northumberland, as an enemy to the King, thus 
 
 speaks, throwing upon the ground the cap which he 
 
 had worn in sickness : 
 
 Hence, thou sickly quoif ; 
 Thou art a guard too wanton for the head, 
 Which princes, flushed with conquest, aim to hit. 
 . Now bind my brows with iron ; and approach 
 The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring, 
 To frown upon the enraged Northumberland ! 
 Let heaven kiss earth ! Now let not nature's hand 
 Keep the wild flood confined ! Let order die ! 
 And let this world no longer be a stage, 
 To feed contention in a lingering act ; 
 But let one spirit of 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. Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 A magnificent speech, in which the classical reader 
 may fancy that he sees the utmost merit of two great, 
 but most opposite Roman poets Lucretius and 
 Lucan combined in one. 
 
alluded to in Shahspeare. 5 
 
 Another passage remains, which I shall not hesi- 
 tate to produce, though, more than any of the fore- 
 going, it requires to be read with allowance for 
 the speaker, for the scene, and for the circum- 
 stances in which it was spoken. It is from the 
 grave scene of Hamlet. The clown is engaged in 
 digging, and having thrown up a scull, Hamlet 
 thus speaks : 
 
 That scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the 
 knave jowls* it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that 
 did the first murder. Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 3. To the next great event in the history of the 
 world the Universal Deluge there is less refer- 
 ence in our poet's works than might perhaps have 
 been expected. Indeed, so far as I have noted, it is 
 only alluded to once, and then very briefly ; viz. in 
 'Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 2. Fabian, the servant 
 of Olivia, says to Sir Andrew Ague-cheek c I will 
 prove it legitimate, Sir, upon the oaths of Judgment 
 and Reason ; ' to which Sir Toby Belch adds, with 
 as much deep truth as wit c And they (i. e. Judg- 
 ment and Reason) have been grand jurymen since 
 before Noah was a sailor' Our poet therefore 
 knew the sacred history ; and he also knew not 
 only that of the three sons of Noah c was the whole 
 earth overspread,' but that the natives of Europe v 
 were descended from Japhet. This appears in the 
 
 * i. e. dashes it violently. 
 
V 
 
 b Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Second Part of King Henry IV. y where Poins, pro- 
 ceeding to read FalstafPs letter to Prince Henry, 
 begins thus : 
 
 Poins [reads]. 'John Falstaff, knight.' Every man must know- 
 that as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those 
 that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but 
 they say There is some of the king's blood spilt : \ ' Hozv comes 
 that?' says he, that takes upon him not to conceive : the answer 
 is as ready as a borrower's cap. / am the king's poor cousin. 
 Sir.' 
 
 P. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it 
 from Japhet: Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 that is, even if they go up so high as to Japhet 
 to trace the descent. 
 
 4. The history of Job has the misfortune to 
 appear only in connexion with Sir John Falstaff, 
 first in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where the 
 following dialogue takes place in his presence : 
 
 Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would 
 have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, 
 and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the 
 devil could have made you our delight? 
 
 Ford. What, a hodge pudding ? a bag of flax ? 
 
 Mrs. Page. A pufPd man ? 
 
 Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails ? 
 
 Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan ? 
 
 Page. And as poor as Job ? 
 
 Ford. And as wicked as his wife ? Act v. Sc. 5. 
 
 Our poet's reference to Satan in the foregoing 
 passage would seem to show that he remembered 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 57 
 
 not only the history of Job, but the manner also in 
 which it comes to be introduced. 
 
 To one portion of this complex accusation Fal- 
 staff has the grace to plead guilty, when in the 
 Second Part of King Henry IV. he is brought up for 
 trial before the Chief Justice, and, as making a shift 
 to escape, counterfeits deafness. 
 
 Chief Justice. You hear not what I say to you. 
 
 Fahtaff. Very well, my lord, very well : rather, an't please you, 
 it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that 
 I am troubled withal. 
 
 Chief Justice. To punish you by the heels,* would amend the 
 attention of your ears ; and I care not, if I do become your 
 physician. 
 
 Falstaff. I am as poor as Job, my lord ; but not so patient : 
 your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, 
 in respect of poverty ; but how I should be your patient to follow 
 your prescription, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or 
 indeed a scruple itself. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 5. The use which our poet has made of the 
 history of Jacob and Laban in the Merchant of 
 Venice, appeared, I conclude, objectionable to 
 Mr. Bowdler ; for he has omitted the entire passage, 
 amounting to thirty-two lines : but to me it appears 
 so far otherwise, that I venture to cite almost the 
 whole of it, as a remarkable instance of the tact with 
 which Shakspeare could apply with perfect accuracy 
 a passage of Scripture open to misconception, and 
 yet divest its application of all dangerous tendency. 
 Shylock, the rich Jew, is speaking to Antonio, the 
 
 * i. e. to put you in the stocks.^ 
 
58 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 merchant of Venice, who proposed to borrow of 
 him a large sum of money : 
 
 Shy lock. Well, then, your bond : and let me see but hear you; 
 Methought you said you neither lend, nor borrow, 
 Upon advantage. 
 
 Ant. I do never use it. 
 
 Shyl. When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep, 
 This Jacob from our holy Abraham was 
 (As his wise mother wrought in his behalf) 
 The third possessor aye, he was the third. 
 
 Ant. And what of him ? Did he take interest ? 
 
 Sbyl. No, not take interest ; not, as you would say, 
 Directly interest : mark what Jacob did. 
 When Laban and himself were compromised, 
 That all the eanlings * which were streak'd and pied, 
 
 Should fall as Jacob's share, 
 
 The skilful shepherd peeled me \ certain wands, 
 And stuck them up before the fulsome ewes, 
 Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time 
 Fall X party-coloured lambs, and those were Jacob's. 
 This was a way to thrive, and he was blest ; 
 And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. 
 
 Ant. This was a venture, Sir, that Jacob served for ; 
 ^ A thing not in his power to bring to pass, 
 
 " But szuafd and fashion' d by the hand of heaven. 
 Was this inserted to make interest good ? 
 Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams ? 
 
 
 
 The devil can cite Scripture to his purpose. 
 
 An evil soul, producing holy witness, 
 
 Is like a villain with a smiling cheek ; 
 
 A goodly apple rotten to the heart ; 
 
 O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath ! Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 * Young lambs just dropt, or eaned. 
 f See above, Pt. I. ch. i. p. 15. 
 X i. e. let fall, give birth to. 
 
alluded to in Shakspeare. $9 
 
 All this, I say even to the beautiful and instruc- 
 tive lines with which the passage concludes Mr. 
 Bowdler has omitted ; and so has deprived his 
 reader of the opportunity of observing Shakspeare's 
 knowledge of the Bible not only in the case of the 
 narrative to which I am now mainly referring, but 
 also in two other instances. In the line 
 
 The devil can quote Scripture to his purpose, 
 
 there is evidently an allusion to the history of 
 our Lord's temptation, as recorded in Matt. iv. and 
 Luke iv. And the same allusion occurs again in 
 King Richard III., where the wicked Gloster (as he 
 still was) is speaking of the treason and other crimes 
 which he had committed, and not only disguised, 
 but laid to the charge of others, who, he pre- 
 tended, had by those same crimes wronged and 
 displeased him : 
 
 But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture, 
 Tell them that God bids us do good for evil : 
 And then I clothe my naked villainy 
 With old odd ends, stolen forth of Holy Writ, 
 And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 i. e. by so quoting and misapplying Scripture. 
 
 The other instance in which a close knowledge 
 of the Bible may be traced is in the use of the word 
 c falsehood ' in the last line for c knavery/ or c dis- 
 honesty.' * 
 
 * See below, Ch. ii. Sect. iz. 
 
 J^> 
 
60 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 It was not likely that the touching language of 
 
 the same patriarch, Jacob, when at a later period 
 
 of his life he refused to allow his son Benjamin 
 
 to be carried down into Egypt, would be thrown 
 
 away upon our great dramatist. I allude .to Gen. 
 
 xlii. 38 (compare xliv. 29, 31) : 
 
 And he said, My son shall not go down with you ; for his 
 brother is dead, and he is left alone : if mischief befall him by the 
 way in which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with 
 sorrow to the grave. 
 
 Let us see how this pathetic passage has 
 been turned to account in the Second Part of King 
 Henry VI. , where Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, 
 after the condemnation of his Duchess Eleanor for 
 treason, thus speaks : 
 
 Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief, 
 Ah ! Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age 
 Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground. 
 
 And if we could entertain any doubt as to the 
 source from whence this line has been derived, the 
 doubt would be removed by what immediately 
 follows. The duke adds, addressing the king : 
 
 I beseech your majesty give me leave to go : 
 Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease. 
 
 (i. e. c would have/ c requires/ as Johnson explains 
 it.) To which the king replies : 
 
 / Stay, Humphrey, Duke of Gloster : ere thou go 
 Give up thy staff: Henry will to himself 
 Protector be : and God shall be my hope, 
 My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 61 
 
 And go in peace, Humphrey ; no less beloved 
 Than when thou wert protector to thy king. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Here c wert ' in the indicative mood, though 
 supported by other high authorities, is ungram- 
 matical, for c wast/* But let that pass. Upon the 
 words, c lantern to my feet/ Steevens has a note in 
 these words : c This image, I think, is from our 
 Liturgy : cc a lantern to my feet and a light to my 
 paths" ' If by c Liturgy ' is meant the Psalter, or 
 Version of the Psalms contained in the Prayer Book, 
 this is correct; and a reference should have been made 
 to Ps. cxix. 105. But it is a sufficient proof of the 
 little attention that has been paid to the branch of 
 Shakspearian criticism upon which we are engaged 
 that this loose and inaccurate note should have been 
 allowed to stand; and that both Steevens andMalone, 
 ready as they were to encumber their poet's page, 
 and to disagree, should, on this occasion, have found 
 nothing more to say ; though other expressions in 
 the same speech, such as c my stay, my guide/ and 
 again, c go in peace/ might also have received illus- 
 tration from Holy Scripture. See 2 Sam. xxii. 19. 
 Ps. xviii. 18, c They prevented me in the day of my 
 calamity, but the Lord was my stay J Ps. xlviii. 14, 
 c This God is our God for ever and ever : He will 
 be our Guide, even unto death.' Exod. iv. 18, 
 c Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace* 2 Sam. xv. 9, 
 
6% Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 c The king (David) said to Absalom, Go in pace ; ' 
 and the same phrase occurs frequently elsewhere in 
 the Bible. 
 
 6. We find further evidence of our poet's fami- 
 liarity with the Book of Genesis in a reference to 
 the former of Pharaoh's two dreams which Joseph 
 interpreted ; see Gen. xli., and compare King 
 Henry IV. ist Part, where Falstaff says to Prince 
 Henry : 
 
 If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I 
 know is lost : if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine 
 are to be loved. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 From that passage we are carried on, first to 
 twelfth Night, where the clown says to Mai v olio : 
 
 There is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more 
 puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 and then to As you like it, Act ii. Sc. 5^ where 
 Jaques says : 
 
 I'll go sleep if I can ; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the first- 
 born of Egypt. 
 
 Upon these last words we find the two following 
 notes in the Variorum edition, one by Johnson, the 
 other by Steevens : 
 
 'The first-born of Egypt,' a proverbial expression for high- 
 born persons. Johnson. 
 
 The phrase is Scriptural as well as proverbial. So in Exodus 
 xii. 29 : ' And the Lord smote all the first-born of Egypt.' 
 
 Steevens. 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 63 
 
 This is rather a curious way of stating the mat- 
 ter, and one feels somewhat at a loss to determine 
 whether of the two pieces of criticism, though very- 
 different in kind, is the less satisfactory. The play 
 in which the passage occurs turns upon two incidents, 
 in both of which an eldest brother is mainly con- 
 cerned, in the one as suffering, and in the other as 
 doing injury. And the reflection, therefore, naturally 
 presents itself to the moralising Jaques, that to be 
 a first-born son is a piece of good fortune not to be 
 coveted now, any more than it was in the days of 
 Pharaoh, when all the first-born of Egypt were cut 
 off, but rather to be c railed at.' In Act i. Sc. 1, 
 Orlando says to Oliver, c The courtesy of nations al- 
 lows you my better in that you are the first born J If 
 it be objected that Jaques was not yet aware of what 
 had happened to Orlando, still, I think the poet 
 might have put the sentiment into the mouth of 
 such an one as Jaques, to be as a kind of waking 
 dream, half experimental in regard to what he 
 already knew, half prophetical of what he would 
 soon discover ; but, at all events, the reference to 
 c the old Duke/ who had been c banished by his 
 younger brother, the new Duke/ will hold good. 
 See Act i. Sc. 1. And he c rails at' him, not only 
 as showing sympathy, after his quaint manner, with 
 the old Duke's banishment, but as reflecting upon 
 his own folly in becoming voluntarily a partaker 
 of the banishment, and thereby forfeiting all his 
 
6\ Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 c lands and revenues ' to the usurper ; as he had 
 sung just before in the verse, which (he says) c I 
 made yesterday in despite of my invention : ' 
 
 If it do come to pass 
 
 That any man turn ass, 
 
 Leaving his wealth and ease, 
 
 A stubborn will to please. 
 Here shall he see 
 Gross fools as he, 
 
 An if* he will come to me. 
 
 7. In King Lear, when the eyes of Gloster had 
 been put out by Cornwall, the servants who were 
 present thus philosophize upon the savage cruelty 
 which he and Regan had shown : 
 
 I st Serv. I'll never care what wickedness 1 do 
 If this man comes to good. 
 
 2nd Serv. If she live long, 
 
 And, in the end, meet the old course of death, 
 Women will all turn monsters. Act iii. Sc. 4.. 
 
 To c meet the old course of death is the 
 
 same idea which we find in the mouth of Moses, 
 
 with reference to the fate of the rebels Korah and 
 
 his company. 
 
 If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be 
 visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent 
 me. Numb. xvi. 29. 
 
 A further reference to an incident in the early 
 history of the Israelites is to be met with in King 
 Henry V, y where the King asks : 
 
 May I with right and conscience make this claim ? * 
 
 * See above, Pt. I. ch. i. p. 26. 
 
alluded to in Shakspeare. 65 
 
 viz. the claim to the kingdom of France, in 
 virtue of his actual, though irregular, succession to 
 Edward IV., whose mother Isabella was daughter 
 to King Philip IV. of France a claim alleged to 
 have been barred by the operation of the Salic law. 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury answers : 
 
 The sin upon my head, dread sovereign ! 
 
 For in the Book of Numbers it is writ, 
 
 When the son dies, let the inheritance 
 
 Descend unto the daughter. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 The c Variorum edition ' affords neither note nor 
 reference. Our poet alludes to the divine answer 
 given to the plea of the daughters of Zelophehad, 
 as recorded in Numbers xxvii. 1-8, and again in 
 Joshua xvii. 3, 4. 
 
 8. I am not sure that our poet is justified in 
 putting a sword into the hand of Deborah, as he 
 does in King Henry VI. \st Part; where Charles, 
 the Dauphin of France, says to the Maid of 
 Orleans : 
 
 Stay, stay thy hands ; thou art an Amazon, 
 
 And tightest with the sword of Deborah. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 All that we know from the sacred narrative is, 
 that she consented to accompany Barak in the suc- 
 cessful expedition against Sisera. See Judges iv. 9. 
 The same play of King Henry VI. r yd Party 
 contains a reference to another portion of the same 
 Book of Judges, viz. xi. 30-40. 
 
 F 
 
66 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Clarence. Why, trow'st thou, Warwick, 
 
 That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural, 
 To bend the fatal instruments of war 
 Against his brother, and his lawful king ? 
 Perhaps, thou wilt object my holy oath : 
 To keep that oath, were more impiety 
 Than Jepbthah's when he sacrificed his daughter. 
 
 Act v. Sc. i . 
 
 This last line Mr. Bowdler has thought it neces- 
 sary to omit. That Jephthah was one c who obtained 
 a good report through faith/ we know from the 
 New Testament, Heb. xi. 32, 39; but I see no 
 sufficient cause to conceal the sacred narrative to 
 which our poet refers, still less to condemn the use 
 which he has made of it. We may conjecture that 
 he had heard read in church the Homily c against 
 swearing and perjury/ the second part of which 
 contains what follows : 
 
 And Jephthah, when God had given to him victory of the 
 children of Ammon, promised (of a foolish devotion) unto God, 
 to offer for a sacrifice unto Him, that person which of his own 
 house should first meet with him after his return home. By 
 force of which fond and unadvised oath, he did slay his own and 
 only daughter, which came out of his house with mirth and joy 
 to welcome him home. Thus the promise which he made most 
 foolishly to God, against God's everlasting will, and the law of 
 nature, most cruelly he performed : so committing against God 
 a double offence. Therefore, whosoever maketh any promise, 
 binding himself thereunto by an oath, let him foresee that the 
 thing which he promiseth be good and honest and not against 
 the commandment of God ; and that it be in his own power to 
 perform it justly ; and such good promise must all men keep 
 evermore assuredly. But if a man at any time shall, either of 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 6 J 
 
 ignorance or of malice, swear to do anything which is either 
 against the law of Almighty God, or not in his power to perform, 
 let him take it for an unlawful and ungodly oath. 
 
 Godly and wholesome doctrine, which Shakspeare 
 has taken occasion to insist upon in several other 
 passages. Thus in the Second Part of the same 
 play, Act v. Sc. i : 
 
 K. Henry. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me/ 
 
 Salisbury. I have. 
 
 K. Hen. Canst thou dispense with Heaven for such an oath ? 
 
 Satis. It is great sin, to swear unto a sin ; 
 But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. 
 Who can be bound by any solemn vow 
 To do a murderous deed, to rob a man, 
 To reave the orphan of his patrimony, 
 To wring the widow from her custom'd right, 
 And have no other reason for this wrong, 
 But that he was bound by a solemn oath ? 
 
 So in 'Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 3 : 
 
 Hector. Begone, I say : the gods have heard me swear. 
 
 Cassandra. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows ; 
 They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd 
 Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. 
 
 Androm. O ! be persuaded : do not count it holy V 
 
 To hurt by being just : it is as lawful, 
 For * we would give much, to use violent thefts, 
 And rob in the behalf of charity. 
 
 Cassand. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow ; 
 But vows to etfry purpose must not bold. 
 
 And once more, in King John, where Cardinal 
 
 * Because, in order to. 
 F a 
 
 y 
 
68 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Pandulph, the Pope's legate, says to Philip, King 
 
 of France : 
 
 O ! let thy vow 
 First made to Heaven, first be to Heaven performed ; 
 What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself, 
 And may not be performed by thyself; 
 For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss 
 Is [more*] amiss when it is truly done; 
 And being not done where doing tends to ill, 
 The truth f is then most done not doing it. 
 
 It is religion that doth make vows kept, 
 But thou hast sworn against religion. 
 
 [So] thou dost swear only to be forsworn, 
 And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. i. 
 
 To return to Jephthah, whose history is again 
 
 noticed by our poet in Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2 : 
 
 Hamlet. O Jephthah, Judge of Israel what a treasure had'st 
 thou! 
 
 Polonius. What treasure had he, my lord ? 
 Hamlet. Why one fair daughter, and no more, 
 The which he loved passing well. 
 
 9. We are now arrived at the history of David. 
 His encounter with Goliath c the staff of whose 
 spear/ we are told, c was like a weaver's beam ' 
 (1 Sam. xvii. 7), is taken advantage of in the Merry 
 Wives of Windsor y where Falstaff declares : 
 
 In the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a 
 weaver's beam ; because I know also life is a shuttle. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 * So I would propose to read for ' not.' 
 f See below, Ch. ii. sect. 12. 
 
alluded to in Shakspeare. 69 
 
 The comparison in these last words is taken 
 from Job vii. 6, c My days are swifter than a 
 weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.' Both 
 references are a proof of Shakspeare's close acquaint- 
 ance with Holy Scripture. 
 
 It is reasonable therefore to suppose that, in 
 Cymbeline, the manner of Cloten's death, which Gui- 
 derius thus describes 
 
 With his own sword, 
 Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en 
 His head from him Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 was derived from the same history. See 1 Sam. 
 xvii. 51. 
 
 And again, the circumstances of the death of 
 Saul, when having lost his army, and his sons among 
 the slain, he and his armour-bearer killed them- 
 selves, may be compared with the scenes between 
 Antony and Eros, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. 
 Sc. 12; and between Cassius and Pindarus, and 
 again between Brutus and Clitus first, then Vo- 
 Jumnius, and lastly Strato, in Julius Caesar, Act v. 
 Sc. 3 and 5. 
 
 The scene in King Richard III., where Hastings 
 is made to condemn himself, in answer to the ques- 
 tion of Gloster 
 
 I pray you all, tell me what they deserve 
 
 That do conspire my death? Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 admits of similar comparison with the scene between 
 
jo Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 David and the prophet Nathan, recorded in 2 Sam. 
 xii. 5-7. 
 
 The devices by which Absalom c stole the hearts 
 of the men of Israel ' from his father's government, 
 as we read in 1 Sam. xv. 1-6, have been well trans- 
 ferred by our poet to the artful usurper, Boling- 
 broke, in the First Part of King Henry IV. , where 
 he himself confesses : 
 
 And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, 
 And dressed myself in such humility, 
 That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, 
 -k Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, 
 Even in the presence of the crowned king. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And still more at length in a later passage of the 
 same play, where Hotspur describes the treasonable 
 practices of the same usurper : 
 
 He presently as greatness knows itself 
 
 Steps me * a little higher than his vow 
 
 Made to my father, while his blood was poor ; 
 
 And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform 
 
 Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees, 
 
 That lie too heavy on the commonwealth : 
 
 Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep 
 
 Over his country's wrongs ; and, by this face, 
 
 This seeming brow of justice, did he win 
 
 The hearts of all that he did angle for. Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 Compare with this the narrative of Scripture be- 
 fore referred to : 
 
 * See Pt. I. ch. i. p. 15. 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. J i 
 
 And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the 
 gate ; and it was so that when any man that had a controversy 
 came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him 
 .... and said unto him, See thy matters are good and right; 
 but there is no one deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom 
 said moreover, O ! that I were made judge in the land, that every 
 man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I 
 would do him justice ! And it was so that when any man came 
 nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took 
 him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all 
 Israel that came to the king for judgment : so Absalom stole the 
 hearts of the men of Israel. 
 
 The affecting language in which David mourned 
 for the death of his rebellious son : 
 
 O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I 
 had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! 
 
 2 Sam. xviii. 33. 
 
 am I wrong in supposing that this pathetic lan- 
 guage may be traced in 'Titus Andronicus ? where the 
 ' boy, son to Lucius, exclaims : 
 
 O ! grandsire, grandsire ! even with all my heart 
 
 Would I were dead so you did live again ! Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 though it cannot be doubted, I suppose, that such 
 display of affection is more true to nature when it 
 is found, as in Scripture, in a descending line from 
 the father to the son, than in ascent from the boy 
 to the grandfather. 
 
 Once more ; the description of Absalom's per- 
 sonal beauty is in these words : 
 
 From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there 
 was no blemish in him. 2 Sam. xiv. 25. 
 
J2, Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 The description of Benedick's social attractions in 
 Much Ado about Nothing is, that 
 
 From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot he is all mirth* 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 10. In the concluding scene of King Henry Fill., 
 in which our poet exerts himself to do honour first 
 to Queen Elizabeth, and then to King James, he 
 shows his knowledge of the Bible in a remarkable 
 manner by the speech which he puts most appro- 
 priately into the mouth of Archbishop Cranmer; 
 beginning with a reference to the visit of the Queen 
 of Sheba to King Solomon; see i Kings x., i Chron. 
 ix., and Matt. xii. 42. 
 
 This royal infant (heaven still move about her !), 
 
 Tho* in her cradle, yet now promises 
 
 Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, 
 
 Which time shall bring to ripeness : she shall be 
 
 A pattern to all princes living with her, 
 
 And all that shall succeed. Sheba was never 
 
 More covetous of wisdom, and fair virtue, 
 
 Than this pure soul shall be ... . 
 
 She shall be loved and fear'd : her own shall bless her ; 
 
 Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, 
 
 And hang their heads with sorrow : good grows with her. 
 
 In her days, every man shall eat with safety 
 
 Under his own vine, what he plants ; and sing 
 
 The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours. 
 
 God shall be truly known. 
 
 And then, speaking of her successor, in the same 
 
 prophetic strain : 
 
 Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, 
 His honor and the greatness of his name 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 73 
 
 Shall be, and make new nations : he shall flourish, 
 And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
 To all the plains about him. Our children's children 
 Shall see this, and bless heaven. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 It is of King Solomon's reign that we read c Judah 
 and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine 
 and under his fig tree/ 1 Kings iv. 25. See also 
 Micah iv. 4; Zech. iii. 10. 
 
 1 1 . To deny sleep to God, as the Psalmist does 
 
 Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep 
 
 Ps. cxxi. 4. 
 
 is an image which beautifully expresses the vigilance 
 of God's providential care ; for we know of no 
 created being in the world that sleepeth not. And 
 the taunt, therefore, of Elijah against the priests of 
 Baal, when he mocked them, and said : 
 
 Cry aloud, for he is a god ; either he is talking, or he is pur- 
 suing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure be sleepetb, and must 
 be awaked I Kings xviii. 27. 
 
 is just and natural. It is by an adoption of the same 
 image that, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, Cleon says to 
 his wife Dionyza : 
 
 Our tongues sound deep our woes 
 Into the air : our eyes do weep, till lungs 
 Fetch breath that may proclaim them louder ; that, 
 If Heaven slumber, while their creature's want, 
 They may awake their helps to comfort them : 
 
 Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 where the old copy reads c helpers.' 
 When Jezebel had been thrown out of the window, 
 
74 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 and so killed, by the command of Jehu, he first trod 
 her under foot, but afterwards, c when he came in/ 
 and had eat and drunk, he said : 
 
 Go see now this cursed woman, and bury her : for she is a king's 
 daughter. 2 Kings ix. 34. 
 
 This command not improbably suggested to Shak- 
 speare the speech which he has put into the mouth 
 of Belarius, in Cymbeline, when Guiderius had come 
 in with the head of Cloten, whom he had encountered 
 and killed in self-defence : 
 
 Great griefs, I see, medicine the less : for Cloten 
 
 Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys : 
 
 And, though he came our enemy, remember, 
 
 He was paid for that. Tho' mean and mighty rotting 
 
 Together, have one dust : yet reverence 
 
 (That angel of the world) doth make distinction 
 
 Gf place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely ; 
 
 And tho* you took his life, as being our foe, 
 
 Yet bury him as a prince. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 12. When references to the facts of Sacred His- 
 tory are put into the mouth of a clown, we must 
 expect to have occasion to remember the Horatian 
 maxim, 
 
 Ridentem dicere verum 
 Quid vetat ? 
 
 But are all such references necessarily to be con- 
 demned as profane ? In All's well that ends well 
 the following dialogue occurs between Lafeu and 
 the Clown, respecting Helena, whom they supposed 
 to be dead : 
 
alluded to in Shakspeare. j$ 
 
 Lafeu. ' Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady : we may pick 
 a thousand salads, ere we light on such another herb. 
 
 Clown. Indeed, Sir, she was the sweet-marjoram of the salad, 
 or, rather, the herb of grace.* 
 
 Lafeu. They are not salad-herbs, you knave; they are nose- 
 herbs. 
 
 Clown. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, Sir; I have not much 
 skill in grass. Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 Mr. Bowdler thought it necessary to omit the 
 former clause of this last speech c I am no great 
 Nebuchadnezzar ' out of respect, no doubt, to the 
 Scripture narrative to which allusion is made. See 
 Daniel iv. 25. Upon a point like this there may be a 
 difference of opinion ; but if we suppose and for 
 my own part, I do suppose that the fact of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's punishment was accepted by our poet 
 in all simplicity of faith, and that no sinister intention 
 whatever is implied by him in the allusion to it, we 
 can scarcely, I think, find ground for censure, and 
 shall be inclined to conclude that if the levity of a 
 clown obtains through his wit a ready acceptance in 
 other instances, it may at least be excused in this.f 
 
 It is perhaps to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar 
 that we are to assign the History of Susannah, which 
 we find in the Apocrypha. But however this may 
 be, there can be no doubt that Shakspeare had that 
 story in view, and the detection by Daniel of the 
 wickedness of the two elders, in that well-known 
 
 * Rue. See Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 f See Supplementary Note at end of the volume. 
 
j6 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 passage of the Merchant of Venice, where Shy lock is 
 made to exclaim : 
 
 A Daniel come to judgment ! yea, a Daniel! 
 O wise young judge, how I do honour thee ! 
 
 Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 Daniel, according to the history, v. 45, was c a 
 young youth ' when he convicted the elders c of 
 false witness by their own mouth/ v. 61. And 
 f from that day forth was Daniel held in great 
 reputation in the sight of the people/ v. 64. His 
 detection also of the imposture of the priests of 
 Bel, as we read in the Apocryphal History of the 
 Destruction of Bel and the Dragon, may have con- 
 tributed to suggest the propriety of the same 
 allusion. 
 
 13. We pass on now into the New Testament. 
 The character of Herod, as a violent and blood- 
 thirsty prince, might have been, and no doubt was, 
 well known to our poet from the Ancient Mys- 
 teries. And it is probably to his experience of 
 Herod, as acted in a mystery, that in the advice 
 given by Hamlet to the players, c not to tear a 
 passion to tatters/ &c, we owe the expression, c // 
 out-herods Herod ; pray you avoid it/ Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 But we need not doubt that Shakspeare had in his 
 mind's eye the Scriptural account of the murder of 
 the Innocents, and of the affliction of their discon- 
 solate mothers, represented by c Rachel weeping 
 for her children/ Matt. ii. 16-18, when, in King 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. JJ 
 
 Henry V., he made the king, speaking before the 
 
 gates of Harfleur, to summon it to surrender in 
 
 these terms : 
 
 Therefore, you men of Harfleur, 
 Take pity of your town, and of your people : 
 
 If not, why in a moment look to see, 
 
 Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, 
 Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused 
 Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry 
 At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Our poet's allusions to occurrences in our Lord's 
 ministry, while they leave no doubt of the attention 
 which he had paid to the Gospel narrative, would 
 seem also, I think, to indicate something more of 
 reverence and reserve as felt to be due to that por- 
 tion of the sacred volume. When in King Lear> 
 Edgar, as poor Tom, is met by Gloster and the old 
 man upon the heath, he says to them : 
 
 Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits. Bless the 
 good man from the foul fiend ! Five fiends have been in poor 
 Tom at once. Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 We should rather have expected c seven fiends ; ' 
 but I am willing to believe that Shakspeare preferred 
 to avoid so close a reference to the case of Mary 
 Magdalene, Luke viii. 2, and to the teaching of 
 our Lord in Matthew xii. 45. There is the same 
 kind of occult allusion, somewhat awkwardly intro- 
 duced, to the discourse which followed upon Christ's 
 healing the man born blind (which St. John relates, 
 
j8 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 ix. 41), in King Henry VI. 2nd Part. A pretended 
 miracle of the same kind had been wrought at 
 S. Alban's shrine, and when the man, Simpcox, is 
 brought to the king, the latter is made to say : 
 
 Great is his comfort in this earthly vale ; 
 
 Altho' by his sight his sin be multiplied. Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 The same king, in another part of the same play, 
 has these words with reference to the rebels led on 
 by Jack Cade : 
 
 O ! graceless men ! they know not what they do. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 I need not remind the reader when, and by 
 whom, the same words were originally spoken with 
 reference to a rebellion which has no parallel. 
 
 There is a noble speech put into the mouth of 
 the Bishop of Carlisle, in King Richard II., where 
 that prelate protests against the usurpation of 
 Bolingbroke, and prophesies of its evil conse- 
 quences : 
 
 I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks 
 
 My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, 
 
 Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king : 
 
 And if you crown him, let me prophesy, 
 
 Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny, 
 
 Shall here inhabit, and this land be called 
 
 The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls. 
 
 O ! if you rear this house against this house, 
 
 It will the woefullest division prove 
 
 That ever fell upon this cursed earth. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 Besides the Scriptural reference in the name Gol- 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. yg 
 
 gotha (which occurs again in Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 2), 
 there is perhaps in these last lines a further allusion 
 to the domestic c divisions ' which were prophesied 
 to follow after the Crucifixion of Christ ; see Mark 
 xiii. 8, 12; Luke xii. 52. Compare also Matt, 
 xii. 25. 
 
 In King Henry Fill., Archbishop Cranmer is 
 thus warned by his sovereign of the conspiracy which 
 had been formed to effect his overthrow : 
 
 Your enemies are many and not small. 
 
 At what ease 
 Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt 
 To swear against you ! Such things have been done. 
 You are potently opposed : and with a malice 
 Of as great size. Ween * you of better luck, 
 I mean, in perjured witness, than your Master, 
 Whose minister you are, whiles here He lived 
 Upon this naughty earth ? Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 See Mark xiv. 55, also Matt. x. 25 ; John xv. 20. 
 Mr. Bowdler has omitted two passages in which 
 reference is made by our poet to the traitor Judas, 
 without sufficient reason, as it seems to me, for the 
 omission in either case.f I will therefore transcribe 
 them both. The former is in King Richard II. , 
 where the king says: 
 
 * Think, imagine, expect. 
 
 f There is a third reference to Judas, also omitted by Mr. B., and 
 perhaps with better reason, in King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2, where 
 the three traitors, Bagot, Bushy, and Green, are described as ' Three 
 Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas ! ' 
 
80 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Alack, why am I sent for to a king, 
 
 Before I have shook off the regal thoughts 
 
 Wherewith I reign d ? 
 
 Give sorrow leave a raliile to tutor me 
 >v To this submissiop^Yet I well remember 
 
 The favours * ofthese men. Were they not mine ? 
 
 Did they not sometime cry ' All hail !'tome ? 
 
 As Judas did to Christ : but He, in Twelve, 
 
 Found truth in all but one ; I, in twelve thousand, none. 
 S ^ N Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 Compare Matt. xxvi. 48. The other passage is 
 in the Third Part of King Henry VI. , and the re- 
 volting comparison is more justly appropriated to 
 himself by the wicked Gloster. The king (Edward 
 IV.) says to his brothers: 
 
 K. Edw. Clarence and Gloster, love my lovely queen ; 
 And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both. 
 
 Clar. The duty that I owe unto your majesty, 
 I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe. 
 
 K. Edw. Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks. 
 
 Glo. And, that I love the tree from whence thou sprangst, 
 Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit : 
 
 [Then aside. 
 To say the truth, so Judas kissed his master ; 
 And cried ' All hail! ' when as he meant all harm. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 7. 
 
 There are two passages in Antony and Cleopatra 
 which remind us of the reconciliation of Herod and 
 Pilate, effected, as it would seem, by their com- 
 mon action in the death of Christ. See Luke 
 xxiii. 12. 
 
 * Countenances. See Pt. I. ch. ii. 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 8 1 
 
 But soon that war had end, and the time's state 
 Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Cassar. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 2. 
 I know not, Menas, 
 How lesser enmities may give way to greater. 
 Were't not that we stand up against them all, 
 'Twere pregnant they would square between themselves ; 
 For they have entertained cause enough 
 To draw their swords : but how the fear of us 
 May cement their divisions, and bind up 
 The petty difference, we yet not know. Act ii. Sc. I . 
 
 Pilate's washing his hands, as recorded in Matt, 
 xxvii. 24, is referred to by Shakspeare in two in- 
 stances, one of which is omitted by Mr. Bowdler, 
 while the other is retained. 
 
 When King Richard II. is pressed by Bolingbroke 
 and York to resign the crown, and Northumberland 
 presents the paper containing the crimes alleged 
 against him as the ground for his abdication, he thus 
 upbraids them : 
 
 Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me, 
 
 Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, 
 
 Tho' some of you, with Pilate, wash your bands, 
 
 Showing an outward pity ; yet you P Hates 
 
 Have here delivered me to my sour cross, 
 
 And water cannot wash away your sin. Act iv. Sc. i. 
 
 In place of the two intermediate lines, Mr. 
 Bowdler has this one : 
 
 Tho* some of you are showing outward pity. 
 
 In King Richard III., after the murder of Clarence, 
 one of the assassins exclaims : 
 
 G 
 
8 5 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 A bloody deed, and desperately despatched ! 
 How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands 
 Of this most grievous guilty murder done. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 The fine passage, at the opening of Hamlet , which 
 Shakspeare has put into the mouth of Horatio, 
 owes probably quite as much to S. Matthew or 
 S. Mark as it does to Plutarch, or to Ovid ; 
 though the critics have traced it only to the two 
 latter. 
 
 In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 
 A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 
 The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead 
 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. 
 Stars shone with trains of fire ; dews of blood fell ; 
 Disaster veiled the sun ; and the moist star 
 Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, 
 as sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 14. The references made by our poet to the his- 
 tory of the Acts are few and not of much moment; 
 yet they indicate somewhat curiously, if I am not 
 mistaken, the minuteness of his attention to the 
 sacred record. 
 
 In the First Fart of King Henry VL y among other 
 compliments paid by Charles Dauphin of France 
 to Joan of Arc, she is pronounced superior to 
 1 Saint Philip's daughters/ Act i. Sc. 2, that is the 
 c four daughters, virgins that did prophecy ' of 
 Philip the Evangelist, who are mentioned in Acts 
 xxi. g. 
 
alluded to in Sbahpeare. 83 
 
 In the Comedy of Errors* the scene of which is 
 laid at Ephesus, Pinch the Schoolmaster is represented 
 also as a conjuror.^ It will be remembered that 
 Ephesus was the place where S. Paul c disputed daily 
 in the school of one Tyrannus,' and where c many of 
 them also that used curious arts brought their books 
 together and burned them before all men/ See 
 Acts xix. 9, 19. But previously to this burn- 
 ing of the books we read in the same narrative, 
 v. 13 :-^ 
 
 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them 
 to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord 
 Jesus, saying ' We adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.' 
 
 Compare with this the speech of Pinch in Act iv. 
 Sc. 4. 
 
 I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man, 
 To yield possession to my holy prayers, 
 And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight ; 
 I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven. 
 
 To this I may add that in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 
 a servant at Ephesus, which was not far from 
 Colossas, has the name of Philemon. 
 
 In King Richard III. we read these words of 
 Gloster, addressed first to Hastings, and then to the 
 officers in attendance : 
 
 * One is inclined to suspect that the name Antipkolus among the 
 characters of this play is a mistake (on the part of author or 
 printer) for Amfhibolus ; i. e. d[i<pi(3o\oQ, ambiguous, doubtful. 
 
 f On the union of the occupations of schoolmaster and conjuror, 
 see Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 95. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Facts and Characters of the Bible 
 
 Thou art a traitor 
 Off with his head ! Now, by Saint Paul I swear, 
 I will not dine until I see it done. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 What are we to understand by this adjuration of 
 S. Paul ? Is there an allusion in it to what we read 
 in Acts xxiii. 12 ? 
 
 Certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under 
 a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had 
 killed Paul. 
 
 And was there some confusion in our poet's re- 
 collection of the circumstances, or remembering 
 them aright, did he still make use of the name of 
 the apostle on their account ? It must be stated, 
 however, that the same wicked king is made to use 
 the same oath on other occasions ; for instance, in the 
 scene before the Battle of Bosworth : 
 
 By the Apostle Paul, shadows to-night 
 Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard 
 Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers, 
 Arm'd in proof, and led by shallow Richmond. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 Why this oath should have been assigned no less 
 than five times to King Richard III., but to no one 
 else, in this play, and yet should not be found so 
 much as once in any other, I am unable to explain ; 
 nor am I aware that the fact has been noticed by 
 any of the critics. 
 
 We know how S. Paul has c protested ' of him- 
 self with reference to his daily life of mortification, 
 of hardship and self-denial : 
 
 I die daily. 1 Cor. xv. 31. 
 
alluded to in Shahpeare. 85 
 
 The same character is given in Macbeth, by 
 Macduff, to the mother of Malcolm, whom he is 
 addressing : ^ aJ 
 
 Thy royal father 
 Was a most sainted king : the queen, that bore thee, iv^ 
 Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, 
 Died every day she lived. Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 Moreover, we know how the same great apostle 
 has protested also, that neither in his own teaching, 
 nor in the promises of God, through Christ, is there 
 any uncertainty, any vacillation, any saying of both 
 c yea and nay/ 2 Cor. i. 17-20. And so King 
 Lear, complaining of the treatment he had received 
 from his unnatural daughter : 
 
 To say ay, and no, to every thing I said ! Ay and no too was 
 no good divinity. Act iv. Sc. 6. 
 
 Once more : Prospero says to Miranda, in the 
 Tempest : 
 
 The direful spectacle of the wreck which touch'd 
 
 The very virtue of compassion in thee, 
 
 I have with such provision in mine art 
 
 So safely ordered, that there is no soul 
 
 No, not so much perdition as an hair, 
 
 Betid to any creature in the vessel 
 
 Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. 
 
 Act i. Sc 2. 
 
 And Ariel afterwards reports, c Not a hair perished/ 
 In a note upon this passage, it has been suggested, 
 with good reason, by Mr. Holt White, that Shak- 
 speare may have had in his mind the hortatory 
 
86 Facts and Characters of the Bible, 
 
 speech of S. Paul to the ship's company, where he 
 assures them that, though they were to suffer ship- 
 wreck : 
 
 There shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. 
 
 Acts xxvii. 34. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Sentiments 
 derived from the Bible. 
 
 E are now to enter upon that which is the 
 most important, and, I trust, will be found 
 the most interesting part of our under- 
 taking. We are to show how scriptural, and con- 
 sequently how true and just, are the conceptions 
 which Shakspeare entertained of the being and 
 attributes of God, of His general and particular 
 Providence, of His revelation to man, of our duty 
 towards Him and toward each other, of human 
 life and of human death, of time and of eternity 
 in a word, of every subject which it most concerns 
 us as rational and responsible beings to conceive 
 aright. 
 
 Sect, i . Of the Being and Nature of God. 
 
 To begin, then, with the titles and attributes of 
 God. Among the names by which He is revealed 
 
88 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 to us in Scripture, are these : The Lord of Hosts, 
 the King Immortal, the King of Kings. 
 
 In the First Part of King Henry VI. the Bishop of 
 Winchester, Cardinal Beaufort, thus speaks of the 
 deceased King Henry V. in the presence of his 
 corpse, lying in state : 
 
 He was a king, blessed of the King of Kings, 
 The battles of the Lord of Hosts he fought. 
 
 Act i. Sc. i. 
 
 And, in the Second Part of King Henry IV., Prince 
 Henry to his father lying on his death-bed : 
 
 There is your crown : 
 And He that wears the crown immortally 
 Long guard it yours ! Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 Among the attributes of God, we have been 
 taught by revelation that He knows* all things ; 
 that He sees all things, even our most secret 
 thoughts ; that He neither slumbers, nor sleeps ; 
 and that His ways are not as our ways. 
 
 Truly, therefore, is it said by Helena to the 
 King of France : 
 
 It is not so with Him that all things knows, 
 As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows ; 
 But most it is presumption in us, when 
 The help of Heaven we count the act of men. 
 
 AWs well that ends well. Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 Justly, too, does Hermione express her confi- 
 dence when falsely accused :* 
 
 * On the divine omniscience. See below, Ch. iii. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 89 
 
 If powers divine 
 Behold our human actions, as they do, 
 I doubt not then but innocence shall make 
 False accusation blush, and tyranny 
 Tremble at patience. Winter's Tale, Act iii. Sc. z. 
 
 Nor was it without reason that Laertes, seeing and 
 hearing proofs of the madness of his sister Ophelia, 
 appealed to the divine compassion : 
 
 Do you see this, O God ? Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 Nor, again, that Queen Elizabeth, wife of King 
 Edward IV., after the murder of her children, the 
 two young Princes in the Tower, should thus 
 expostulate : 
 
 Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs, v/ 
 
 And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? * 
 
 When did* st Thou sleep, when such a deed was done ? 
 K. Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 Nor, once more, that Queen Katharine should 
 protest against the two cardinals who had lent 
 themselves to accomplish her divorce from King 
 Henry VIII. : 
 
 Ye have angels' faces, but Heaven knows your hearts. 
 K. Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 It may be that the striking description of Divine 
 Providence, which we read in 'Troilus and Cressida, 
 is pitched too high for heathen characters (a subject 
 of which I shall have occasion to speak presently), 
 but if admissible there at all, it could not be better 
 placed than it is in the mouth of Ulysses : 
 
go Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 The providence that's in a watchful state, 
 Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps ; 
 Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods, 
 Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles.* 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 In a note upon this passage, Dr. Henley asks, c Is 
 there not here some allusion to the sublime descrip- 
 tion of the Divine Omnipresence in the 139th 
 Psalm jj^ 1 However this question may be answered, 
 there will be no doubt in other passages that our 
 poet's views of the providence, goodness, and justice 
 of God were drawn directly from Holy Scripture. 
 Thus, where Hamlet says 
 
 There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow 
 
 Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 we cannot doubt of the poet's allusion to our Lord's 
 
 / words : 
 
 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? And one of them 
 shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Matt. x. 29. 
 
 I Or again, where good old Adam, in As you like it, 
 says to Orlando : 
 
 I have five hundred crowns, 
 The thrifty hire I saved under your father, 
 
 Take that : and He that doth the ravens feed, 
 
 Yea, providently caters for the sparrow. 
 
 Be comfort to my age ! Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 We cannot doubt that our poet had in mind both 
 the Psalmist and the Evangelist ; the Psalmist, who 
 writes of God, that 
 
 * To be pronounced, probably, as a trisyllable. 
 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 91 
 
 He feedeth the young ravens that call upon Him. 
 
 Ps. cxlvii. 9. 
 
 and the Evangelist, who records our Lord's words : 
 
 Behold the fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither do they 
 reap, nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth 
 them. Matt. vi. 26. 
 
 From such an image it was an easy step for one 
 with Shakspeare's imagination to moralize as he does 
 in the following lines, spoken by King Henry VI. 
 to the Duke of Suffolk : 
 
 But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, 
 And what a pitch she flew above the rest ! 
 To see how God in all his creatures works ! 
 Yea, man and birds are fain * of climbing high. 
 
 K. Henry VI. 2nd Part. Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 And equally easy was it for a mind of Shakspeare's 
 versatility to make a wicked man apply conversely 
 the doctrine of God's goodness in His general pro- 
 vidence, as does King Richard III. the doctrine, I 
 mean, which we read also in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, that our Heavenly Father 
 
 maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth 
 rain on the just and on the unjust. Matt. v. 45. 
 
 K. Rich. Give me a calendar. 
 
 Who saw the sun to day ? 
 Ratcliff. Not I, my lord. 
 
 K. Rich. Then he disdains to shine ; for, by the book, 
 He should have brav'd the east an hour ago : 
 A black day will it be to somebody. 
 Ratcliff, 
 
 * Fond. 
 
$2 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Rate. My lord ? 
 
 K. Rich. The sun will not be seen to-day ; 
 The sky doth frown and lour upon our army. 
 I would these dewy tears were from the ground. 
 Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me, 
 More than to Richmond ? for the self-same Heaven 
 'That frowns on me, looks sadly upon him. 
 
 K. Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 But this assertion of the general providence and 
 common goodness of God, as we find them asserted 
 in Scripture, does not prevent our poet from ap- 
 pealing confidently to the Divine Justice, as an 
 unerring arbiter and maintainer of the right. It is 
 in the spirit in which Laban said to Jacob, 
 
 See, God is witness betwixt me and thee Gen. xxxi. 50. 
 that Malcolm says to Macduff": 
 
 God above 
 Deal between thee and me. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 And the double lesson which is taught in the 
 following passage, viz. that kings are not to be de- 
 posed by their subjects, and that, acting rightly, we 
 may depend upon the Divine protection, is in both 
 respects plainly Scriptural, and therefore true; 
 though in neither case so as to forbid qualification, 
 or exclude exception. 
 
 K. Rich. Not all the water in the rough rude sea 
 Can wash the balm from an anointed king : 
 The breath of worldly men cannot depose 
 The deputy elected by the Lord. 
 For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed 
 To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. g$ 
 
 God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay 
 
 A glorious angel ; then, if angels fight, 
 
 Weak men must fall 9 for Heaven still guards the right. 
 
 K. Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Both sentiments are repeated in the same play 
 the former thus : 
 
 K. Rich. Show us the hand of God 
 That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship ; 
 For well we know, no hand of blood and bone 
 Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, 
 Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. Ibid. Sc. 3. 
 
 And again : 
 
 Gaunt. Let Heaven revenge; for I may never lift 
 An angry arm against His minister. Ibid. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 which reminds us directly of David's forbearance 
 towards Saul, 1 Sam. xxiv. 6 ; xxvi. 4. 
 
 The latter sentiment is very significantly indicated 
 in an earlier part of the same scene, where the fol- 
 lowing dialogue occurs between York and Boling- 
 broke : 
 
 Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should ; 
 
 York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, 
 Lest you mistake : the Heavens are o'er your head. 
 
 Boling. I know it, uncle ; and oppose not myself 
 Against their will. 
 
 We know with how little truth these last words 
 were spoken. And yet the same Duke of York 
 did not fail still to trace, with reverence and submis- 
 sion, the hand of Providence in the ursurpation that 
 ensued : 
 
94 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Heaven hath a hand in these events, 
 To whose high will we bound our calm contents. 
 
 Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 It was not so meekly that the spirit of Old John 
 of Gaunt was content to show itself, though exhibit- 
 ing the same faith in the overruling Providence, but 
 looking also to the just judgment of God : 
 
 Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven ; 
 Who when He sees the hours ripe on earth, 
 Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. 
 
 Ibid. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 And with equal beauty and propriety Queen Katha- 
 rine utters the same sentiment in King Henry VIIL> 
 addressing the two Cardinals : 
 
 Is this your Christian counsel ? out upon ye ! 
 
 Heaven is above all yet :* there sits a Judge 
 
 That no king can corrupt. Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 And He is the judge c to whom judgment belong- 
 eth,' because He alone is c set in the throne, judging 
 right/ and discerning all things, as the religious 
 King Henry VI. piously confesses : 
 
 O Thou, that judge st all things, stay my thoughts ; 
 If my suspect be false, forgive me, God : 
 For judgment only doth belong to Thee. 
 
 King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 * A corresponding sentiment is put by Sophocles with great effect 
 into the mouth of the Chorus addressing Electra : 
 Qapvti fxot, Srdpoei, t&kvov' 
 tori /xsyat,' *v ovpavtp 
 Zi>, oq l(popd Tcdvra ical Kparvvu. 
 
 Soph. Elect, 173-6. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 95 
 
 When the Duke of Albany, in King Lear, hears 
 from a messenger that the Duke of Cornwall was 
 c dead, slain by his servant,' he exclaims : 
 
 This shows You are above, 
 You justicers, that these our nether crimes 
 So speedily can venge ! Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 On the other hand, the tender mercy and loving 
 kindness of the Divine Being, more especially to- 
 wards those who need them most, are exhibited by 
 our poet, again and again, in passages which repre- 
 sent the teaching of Scripture no less faithfully. 
 For example ; He who 
 
 is a Father of the fatherless, and defendeth the cause of the 
 widow, Ps. lxviii. 5. 
 
 is thus described in King Richard II. : 
 
 Duchess. Where then, alas ! may I complain myself? 
 Gaunt. To Heaven the Widow's Champion and Defence. 
 
 Act. i. Sc. 2. 
 
 And He who c giveth sight to the blind/ and c light 
 
 to him that is in misery/ thus, in King Henry VI. 
 
 ind Part : 
 
 K. Henry. Now God be praised, that to believing souls, 
 Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair. Act ii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 But, of all others, the well-known speech of Portia, 
 in the Merchant of Venice, exhibits the Divine attri- 
 butes of mercy and forgiveness most clearly, and 
 with the plainest reference to Holy Scripture : 
 
 Portia (to Antonio). Do you confess the bond ? 
 Anton. I do. 
 
g6 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Port. Then must the Jew be merciful. 
 
 Shylock. On what compulsion must I ? tell me that. 
 
 Port. The quality of mercy is not strained : 
 It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath : it is twice blessed ; 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes : 
 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes 
 The throned monarch better than his crown : 
 His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
 The attribute to awe and majesty, 
 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
 But mercy is above this scepter'd sway, 
 It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ; 
 // is an attribute to God himself-, 
 And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
 When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 
 Tho' justice be thy plea, consider this, 
 That, in the course of justice, none of us 
 Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
 The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much, 
 To mitigate the justice of thy plea ; 
 Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice 
 Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there. 
 
 Sbylock. My deeds upon my head ! I crave the law, 
 The penalty and forfeit of my bond. Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 In this last answer of Shylock, our poet has adopted 
 with great propriety a form of speech c my deeds 
 upon my head ' which reminds us, as Dr. Henley 
 has pointed out, of the imprecation of the Jews, 
 addressed to Pilate 
 
 His blood be on us, and on our children. Matt, xxvii. 25. 
 On the other hand, the concluding part of Portia's 
 speech called forth from Sir W. Blackstone the 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 97 
 
 remark that to c refer the Jew to the Christian 
 
 doctrine of salvation, and the Lord's Prayer, is a 
 
 little out of character.' The learned judge was 
 
 probably not aware that the Lord's Prayer was not 
 
 composed by our Lord as containing anything 
 
 which would be new and strange to His disciples, 
 
 but as putting together, in a short form, all that 
 
 was most valuable in the Jewish liturgies already 
 
 known to them. See Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 159, 
 
 and p. 439, and Grotius on S. Matthew, vi. 9 ; 
 
 who also refers to Ecclesiasticus xxviii. 2-4 : 
 
 Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, 
 so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest. One man 
 beareth hatred against another, and doth he seek pardon from the 
 Lord ? He sheweth no mercy to a man which is like himself, and 
 doth he ask forgiveness of his own sins ? 
 
 The critics, therefore, who, like Burkitt, except 
 the particular clause which Portia refers to, viz. 
 c as we forgive them that trespass against us,' from 
 the foregoing representation in regard to the origin 
 of the several petitions of the Lord's Prayer, have, 
 in all probability, made that single exception with- 
 out sufficient reason. Besides, it is to be borne in 
 mind that many of the Jews, though they did not 
 accept Christ as their Messiah, yet they did accept 
 Him as c a teacher come from God.' And cer- 
 tainly it is not correct to suppose that the Christian 
 Doctrine of salvation is not also the doctrine of 
 salvation to the faithful Jew. 
 
 Upon the opening lines of the same speech of 
 
 H 
 
g8 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Portia, Mr. Douce has pointed out the resemblance 
 to Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 20 : 
 
 Mercy is seasonable in the time of affliction, as clouds of rain 
 in the time of drought. 
 
 And the argument drawn by Portia from the need 
 which we all have for the mercy of God is repeated 
 by our poet in the Second Fart of King Henry VI., 
 where Lord Say says to the rebels, who are carry- 
 ing him off to execution : 
 
 Ah, countrymen ! if when you make your prayers, 
 God should be so obdurate as yourselves, 
 How would it fare with your departed souls ? 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 8. 
 
 I have been loath to question the propriety of 
 an observation made by so sound a thinker and so 
 well-informed a writer as Judge Blackstone ; and 
 now I ought not to quit this portion of my subject 
 without drawing attention to a remark of one whose 
 authority upon matters of this kind is still higher. 
 I mean Dr. Johnson. In a note upon the last 
 scene of King Lear he complains that c our author, 
 by negligence, gives his Heathens the sentiments and 
 practices of Christianity.' And Mr. Singer has 
 repeated the remark in his edition of 1826. But I 
 am inclined to doubt whether it is altogether well- 
 founded.* The lines which appeared to give occa- 
 sion for it are these : 
 
 The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
 
 Make instruments to scourge us. Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 * See Supplementary Note at end of the volume. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 99 
 
 Now, we meet with the same sentiment in the 
 Apocryphal Book of Wisdom : 
 
 For the foolish devices of their wickedness wherewith being 
 deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason and wild beasts, 
 Thou didst send a multitude of wild beasts upon them for ven- 
 geance, that they might know that wherezvithal a man sinnetb, by 
 the same also shall he be punished. xi. 1 6. 
 
 And though I cannot now remember any passage 
 of a profane author* that comes fully up to the 
 same sentiment, or nearer to it than what we read 
 in iEschylus (Agam.f v. 170, sq.) and Juvenal 
 (Sat. i. 142, sqq.), yet I have little doubt that such 
 a passage may be found. But with regard to the 
 remark itself, the truth, I believe, is that Shakspeare 
 does, for the most part, make a difference between 
 his Heathen and his Christian characters. For in- 
 stance, in the very play upon which Johnson's re- 
 mark is made, King Lear, we find the following 
 sentiment, which I very much doubt whether our 
 poet would have allowed any but a Heathen 
 character to utter : 
 
 As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods ; 
 They kill us for their sport : 
 
 lines which Mr. Bowdler has omitted, instead of 
 
 * We have it in St. Chrysostom upon the third Psalm, with a play 
 upon the words, which must be lost in a translation, o'atv tj Trrjyy 
 ttjq dixapriag, iictlVtv rj 7r\T)y>) ttjq -tynopiac. Vol. V. p. 3. 
 
 -f Compare the sentiment in K. Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 ' To wilful men, 
 The injuries that they themselves procure 
 Must be their schoolmasters.' 
 
ioo Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 suggesting in a note that they are spoken by one 
 who was not a Christian. Again, I am inclined to 
 think, that in Coriolanus, it is purposely left a doubt- 
 ful point whether mercy was an attribute of the 
 Deity or no. I allude to the following dialogue 
 between Menenius and Sicinius, respecting Coriola- 
 nus, towards the close of the play : 
 
 Menenius. What he bids be done, is finished with his bidding. 
 He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. 
 
 Sicinius. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. 
 
 Menenius. I paint him in the character.* Mark what mercy 
 his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him 
 than there is milk in a male tiger. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 At the same time I must admit that in Titus An- 
 dronicus, of which the characters are Heathen also, 
 mercy is undoubtedly recognized as a divine attri- 
 bute, where Tamora, Queen of the Goths, says to 
 Titus : 
 
 Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
 
 Draw near them, then, in being merciful. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 In regard to this passage, however, it may be 
 observed, first, that the play in which it occurs is 
 generally allowed not to be Shakspeare's; secondly, 
 that the date of the action belongs to a period 
 almost as many centuries after, as Coriolanus was 
 before, the commencement of the Christian era ; and, 
 thirdly, that in the interval are to be found, even 
 in heathen authors, passages which fall little, if at 
 
 * That is ; to the life, as he is. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. ioi 
 
 all, short of the same sentiment. Take, for exam- 
 ple, what Cicero had said in addressing Caesar on 
 behalf of Ligarius a passage partly quoted by- 
 Mr. Whalley : 
 
 Nihil est tarn populare quam bonitas ; nulla de virtutibus tuis 
 plurimis nee admirabilior nee gratior misericordia est. Homines 
 enim ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus 
 dando. Or at. pro Ligario, c. 12. \ \ * * 
 
 There is, however, one play of Shakspeare> ,to. 
 which it must, I think, be admitted, the remark: of 
 Johnson is justly applicable, at least in some degree. 
 I allude to Cymheline, where Jupiter is made to 
 say : 
 
 Whom best I love,* I cross. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 And again, in the 1st Scene of the same Act, where 
 
 Posthumus exclaims : 
 
 Gods ! if you 
 Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never 
 Had lived to put on f this : so had you saved 
 The noble Imogen to repent, and struck 
 Me wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack ! 
 You snatch some hence for little faults ; that's love, 
 To have them fall no more ; you some permit 
 To second ills with ills, each elder worse. 
 
 Compare Isaiah lvii. 1, 
 
 Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the 
 righteous is taken away from- the evil to come. 
 
 * There is also a passage in Othello, too painful to be quoted, 
 where it has been remarked that reference is made to the doctrine of 
 Scripture. * Whom the Lord lo'vethy He chasteneth.'' See Act v. 
 Sc. 2. 
 
 f i. e. to incite, instigate. 
 
io3 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Upon the whole, then, while I cannot deny al- 
 together the justice of Dr. Johnson's censure, still I 
 would remark that to draw any very broad lines of 
 distinction in the case referred to would have been 
 impossible without giving certain and perhaps just 
 cause for offence ; and therefore to bring an accu- 
 sation of c negligence ' for not doing so, may not 
 unfairly bd regarded as somewhat captious and un- 
 reasoaabte; 
 
 Sect. 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen. 
 
 A devout invocation for the ministering help of 
 the Holy Angels is not to be confounded with the 
 impiety of addressing them in prayer. The one is 
 encouraged, the other is forbidden in Holy Scripture. 
 Such invocatidns abound in Hamlet, and though the 
 story of that play refers to a period long before the 
 Reformation, and though, on that account, Shak- 
 speare would seem to have intended to represent 
 the characters as tinged, to some extent, with the 
 errors of Romanism,* yet I am not sure that upon 
 
 * Thus the Ghost of Hamlet's father speaks of his being 
 
 ' Confined to fast in fires, 
 Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, 
 Are burnt and purged away ;' Act i. Sc. 5. 
 
 that is, the doctrine of purgatoiy j and again, of being 
 
 1 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, 
 Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel d ; ' 
 
 that is, without the sacrament of extreme unction. And Hamlet, in 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 103 
 
 the point now before us he has transgressed the 
 limits which a sound theology would impose. For 
 instance, there is nothing to object to in the ex- 
 clamation of Hamlet, at the sight of the Ghost 
 Angels and ministers of grace, defend us ! Act i. Sc. 4. 
 for, 
 
 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
 them that shall be heirs of salvation ? Heb. i. 14. 
 
 And again, when the Ghost reappears in Act iii. Sc.4 : 
 
 Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 
 You heavenly guards ! 
 
 Nor is the exclamation of the guilty king, when 
 struggling to repent, and to betake himself to 
 prayer, less appropriate : 
 
 Help, Angels, make assay ! 
 Bow, stubborn knees ! and, heart with strings of steel, 
 Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe ! 
 All may be well. Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 And how pious and touching is the farewell of 
 Horatio when Hamlet dies : 
 
 Now cracks a noble heart : Good night, sweet prince ; 
 hub flights of angels sing tbee to tby rest ! Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 The singing of angels, and their loving attendance 
 upon the good at all times, but especially in their 
 last moments, have furnished our poet with beautiful 
 
 addressing the players, Act ii. Sc. 2, swears ' By 'r Lady ! ' and again 
 in Act iii. Sc. 4. ' By the rood.' Of which oaths Mr. Bowdler omits 
 the former, but not the latter. On the other hand, however, also in 
 the last-named scene, Hamlet says to the Queen : 
 
 1 Confess yourself to Hea<ven? 
 
104 Sbakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 and affecting imagery on two other occasions. The 
 former in the Merchant of Venice, in the moonlight 
 scene where Lorenzo says to Jessica : 
 
 Look how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ; 
 There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims. Act v. Sc. I . 
 
 The latter, in King Henry VIII. , where the Duke 
 of Norfolk, speaking of Cardinal Wolsey in refer- 
 ence to the good Queen Katharine, thus testifies to 
 her duty and affection for her unworthy husband : 
 
 He counsels a divorce a loss of her, 
 
 That, like a jewel, has hung twenty years 
 
 About his neck, yet never lost her lustre ; 
 
 Of her that loves him with that excellence, 
 
 That angels * love good men with ; even of her, 
 
 That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls, 
 
 Will bless the king. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 It is an opinion held by tradition in the Church, 
 rather than directly derived from Scripture, that 
 pride, or ambition, was the sin which led to the fall 
 of Satan, and his associate angels. To this opinion 
 our poet has referred in the well-known dying speech 
 of Cardinal Wolsey to his servant Cromwell, after- 
 wards the celebrated Earl of Essex : 
 
 Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition ; 
 By that sin fell the angels ; how can man, then, 
 The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't ? 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 * Angels are represented as ' weeping ' over the pride and follies 
 of men in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 105 
 
 In a previous part of the same scene, Wolsey had 
 soliloquised to the same effect, using the same com- 
 parison, with the addition of the fearful consideration 
 that such a fall is without hope : 
 
 O ! how wretched 
 Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favours ! 
 There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, 
 That sweet aspect of princes, and their* ruin, 
 More pangs and fears than wars or woman have : 
 And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer ; 
 Never to hope again. 
 
 The simile in this last passage is evidently formed 
 upon Isaiah xiv. 1 2, 
 
 How art thou fallen from heaven,0 Lucifer, Son of the morning; 
 where the well-known Oriental figure f of speech, 
 in which the overthrow of kingdoms is represented 
 by the falling or eclipse of the Heavenly Bodies, is 
 applied prophetically to the downfall of the King 
 of Babylon. But there is no Scriptural authority 
 for giving the name of Lucifer, or Morning Star, to 
 Satan. The misapplication of the name, however, 
 if it is to -be considered such, did not originate with 
 our poet. On the contrary, we find that in very 
 early times J the Prophet Isaiah was understood to 
 speak in that place of the evil spirit ; and long before 
 Shakspeare the name Lucifer had been, in conse- 
 quence, popularly so applied. Mr. Malone quotes 
 
 * i. e. Their displeasure, producing overthrow. 
 
 f See Lowth on Isaiah xiii. 10. 
 
 % e. g. By Tertullian. See Advert. Marcion. Lib. v. pp. 475,482. 
 
io6 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 very appositely from Churchyard's Legend of Car- 
 dinal Wolsey (published in Higgin's Mirrour for 
 Magistrates, 1527) 
 
 Your fault not half so great as was my pride ; 
 For which offence fell Lucifer * from the skies. 
 
 In a scene which shows that our poet possessed a 
 remarkable insight into the Scotch character, and 
 designed to exhibit it, more especially in Malcolm, 
 the son of the murdered king, we read : 
 
 Angels are bright still, tho* the brightest fell. 
 
 Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 And then became most deformed. So our poet 
 
 speaks of c the fiend ' in King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 1 ; of 
 
 c the common enemy of man/ in Macbeth, Act iii. 
 
 Sc. 1, and in 'Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. And 
 
 he follows up the idea in King Henry V. : 
 
 What is it then to me, if impious war, 
 Arrayed in flames, like to the prince of fiends, 
 Do, with his smircFd complexion, all fell feats 
 Enlink'd to waste and desolation ? Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Again, he is described, in the language of Scripture, 
 as the c Prince of Darkness/ in King Lear, Act iii. 
 Sc. 3, and in All's well, &c, Act iv. Sc. 5 ; also, in 
 the latter place, as f the Prince of the World ; ' and 
 by implication, as c the Father of Lies/ in King 
 Henry IV. 1st Part, where Hotspur says to Glen- 
 dower : 
 
 And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, 
 
 By tolling truth. Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 * See also Christian Year, 3rd Sunday in Lent. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 107 
 
 And as a c slanderer/ or false accuser, in the Merry 
 Wives of Windsor , Act v. Sc. 5. 
 The passage of St. Peter, 
 
 Be sober, be vigilant : because your adversary the devil, as a 
 roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour ; 
 
 1 Pet. v. 8. 
 
 was plainly in our poet's mind, in King Henry V. y 
 where the king says to the traitor Lord Scroop ; 
 
 If that same daemon, that hath gull'd thee thus, 
 
 Should with his lion gait walk the whole world. 
 
 He might return to vasty Tartar * back 
 
 And tell the legions,\ I can never win 
 
 A soul so easy as that Englishman's. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 The power which we learn from S. Paul that 
 Satan possesses of transforming himself into an 
 angel of light/ 2 Cor. xi. 14, is ascribed to him in 
 Hamlet. 
 
 The devil hath power 
 To assume a pleasing shape. Act ii. Sc. 2. J 
 
 And again, with the addition that such deceitful 
 disguises are most used when the worst temptations 
 are to be practised, in Othello : 
 
 When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
 They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 * i. e. Tartarus. 
 
 -f- See Mark v. 9. and comp. Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 % See also the doubtful passage in Act iii. Sc. 4., ' That monster 
 
4 
 
 io8 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Sect. 3. Of God's Goodness in Creation, and in the 
 Redemption of Man. 
 
 How comprehensive is the view which our poet 
 has taken of the goodness of creation in all its 
 stages, from the composition of the simplest herb 
 up to the crowning work of all the soul of man ! 
 And how natural the transition from the rising of 
 day out of night, of light out of darkness, to the 
 reproduction of all things out of the earth, to which 
 they fall and sink as into a grave ! How just, also, 
 and how Scriptural, the representation, that though 
 all things were made c very good ' by their Creator, 
 His creature, man, has the power of perverting them 
 to evil, and will abuse that power, or will keep it 
 in subjection, according as he follows the guiding 
 of his own free but corrupted will, which brought 
 death into the world, or obeys the dictates of con- 
 science and of the spirit of grace ! I allude to the 
 scene in Romeo and Juliet, before Friar Laurence's 
 cell, where the friar, entering with a basket, thus 
 soliloquizes : 
 
 The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, 
 Checking the Eastern clouds with streaks of light ; 
 And flecked * darkness like a drunkard reels, 
 From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels : 
 
 Was our poet indebted here to that bold figure 
 of the the prophet Isaiah, c The earth shall reel 
 
 * Spotted, streaked. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 109 
 
 to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed 
 like a cottage ? ' xxiv. 20. 
 
 Now ere the sun advance his burning eye, 
 
 The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry, 
 
 I must fill up this osier cage of ours 
 
 With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers. 
 
 The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ; 
 
 What is her burying-grave, that is her womb ; 
 
 And from her womb children of divers kinds 
 
 We, sucking on her natural bosom find ; 
 
 Many for many virtues excellent, 
 
 None but for some, and yet all different. 
 
 O ! mickle is the powerful grace that lies 
 
 In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities ; 
 
 For nought so vile that on the earth doth live, 
 
 But to the earth* some special good doth give. 
 
 Nor aught so good, but strained from that fair use, 
 
 Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse : 
 
 Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; 
 
 And vice sometimes by action dignified : 
 
 i. e. by the manner, or circumstances in which it is 
 done. We must remember that a Franciscan Friar 
 is speaking ; but our poet might have had in mind 
 cases like that of Jacob deceiving his father, or 
 Jael killing Sisera : 
 
 Within the infant mind of this small flower, 
 
 Poison hath residence, and medicine power ; 
 
 For this, being smelt, with that part f cheers each part, 
 
 Being tasted, slugs all senses with the heart. 
 
 Two such opposed foes encamp them still 
 
 In man as well as herbs grace and rude will : 
 
 * i. e. To the inhabitants of the earth, 
 f i. e. The sense that smells. 
 
no Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 And where the worser is predominant, 
 Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 What a depth of theological truth lies ' in this 
 last couplet ! It is the teaching of S. Paul f If ye 
 live after the flesh/ the fypovqfia o-apxog the rude 
 will c ye shall die/ Rom. viii. 13 ; and of S. 
 James, c when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth 
 sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
 death.' i. 15. 
 
 But to continue the subject more immediately 
 before us. There are times when the sight of all 
 this goodness and beauty of creation, and even the 
 contemplation of man himself, so c fearfully and 
 wonderfully made/ has no sufficient power to re- 
 move the weight which presses upon the mind ; 
 and in such a mood was Hamlet, when he testified 
 at once to the excellency of what we see above us, 
 and around us, and still more of what we ourselves 
 are, and at the same time to the inability of all to 
 give his spirit the relief it sought : 
 
 Indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly 
 frame, the earth, seems to me a steril promontory ; this most 
 excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave* o'erhanging fir- 
 mament, this majestreal roof fretted with golden fire, why, it 
 appears no other to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of 
 vapours. What a piece of work is man !f How noble in reason ! 
 How infinite in faculty ! In form and moving how express and 
 admirable ! In action how like an angel ! In apprehension how 
 
 * Fine. See above, Pt. I. ch. ii. 
 f Comp. Act. hi. Sc. 2. 
 

 Sentiments derived from Bible. 1 1 1 
 
 like a God ! The beauty of the world ! The paragon of animals ! 
 And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust ? Man delights 
 not me ; no, nor woman neither. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And why was this ? It was from the knowledge 
 of sin, which had marred all. There had been 
 
 A foul defacer of God's handiwork,* 
 
 as Queen Margaret calls the wicked King Richard 
 III. in the play so named, Act iv. Sc. 4. And 
 Hamlet knew full well that not only the commis- 
 sion of crime, but the unprofitable employment of 
 our existence, is a contravention of the purpose for 
 which we were created. Hear what he' says in a 
 later scene : 
 
 What is a man, 
 If his chief good, and market \ of his time 
 Be but to sleep, and feed ? A beast, no more. 
 Sure, He that made us with such large J discourse 
 Looking before, and after gave us not 
 That capability and god-like reason, 
 To fust in us unused. Act iv. Sc. 4 
 
 Our poet's meaning in the use of the word c dis- 
 course * in this passage may be seen by an expres- 
 sion which occurs before, viz. in Act i. Sc. 2 
 
 O ! heaven ! a beast that wants discourse of reason 
 Would have mourned longer. 
 
 And I know of no better explanation of the word 
 in this sense than that which may be gathered from 
 Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. c. 4 : 
 
 * A line omitted by Mr. Bowdler, most needlessly. 
 
 f Profit. % Latitude of comprehension. Grow mouldy. 
 
H2 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Homo autem, quod rationis est particeps {per quam conse- 
 quentia cernit, causas rerum videt, earumque progressus et quasi 
 antecessiones non ignorat, similitudines comparat, rebusque prae- 
 sentibus adjungit atque adnectit futuras), facile totius vitas cur sum 
 videt, ad earn que degendam praeparat res necessarias. 
 
 But did our poet think that c discourse of reason/ 
 however c large,' could avail to remove the depres- 
 sion which arises, but too often, from a sense of 
 unprofitableness, and from a knowledge of sin, 
 both in ourselves and others ? No ! We have the 
 witness of his last will and testament to the contrary. 
 From that we learn where his hope was fixed. 
 There we read : 
 
 First, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator; 
 hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus 
 Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting. 
 
 It is in accordance with this Christian hope, this 
 
 assured belief, that Clarence is made to say to the 
 
 man who had been sent to murder him in the 
 
 Tower : 
 
 I charge you, as you hope to have redemption, 
 By Christ's dear blood, shed for our grievous sins, 
 That you depart, and lay no hands on me. 
 
 King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 And again, our blessed Lord is spoken of, in King 
 
 Richard II. as 
 
 The world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 And again, in King Henry VI. ind Part, as 
 
 That dread king that took our state upon Him 
 To free us from His Father's wrathful curse. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 113 
 
 And in King Henry IV. 1st Part, Palestine is 
 described as 
 
 Those holy fields, 
 Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
 Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nailed 
 For our advantage on the bitter cross. Act i. Sc. I . 
 
 It is remarkable, too, how fully our poet recog- 
 nized the glorious truth, which too many, alas ! 
 have endeavoured to obscure ; that Redemption is 
 no partial gift ; that as the disease, which it was 
 mercifully designed to cure, is universal, so the 
 application of the remedy is universal also : accord- 
 ing to the teaching of l S. Paul, that 
 
 As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
 demnation and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 sinned ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came 
 upon all men unto justification of life. Rom. v. 18 and 12. 
 
 The universality of the disease is indicated in 
 Measure for Measure, where the virtuous Isabella 
 thus speaks to Angelo, the wicked Lord Deputy, 
 in the Duke's absence : 
 
 Alas ! Alas ! 
 Why, all the souls that * are, were forfeit once ; 
 And He that might the vantage best have took, 
 Found out the remedy. How would you be, 
 If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
 But judge you as you are ? O think on that ; 
 And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
 Like man new made. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 * The common reading is ' were,' which is interpreted to refer to 
 Adam and Eve ; but I agree with Warburton in substituting { are.' 
 To confine the meaning to Adam and Eve, appears to me to render 
 what follows illogical. 
 
 I 
 
1 1 4 Sbakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 The critics Warburton, Johnson, Malone, and 
 Holt White have severally offered different ex- 
 planations of these last words ; but I am inclined 
 to think they have all missed the poet's meaning. 
 c Like man new made/ means, I believe, like man 
 redeemed, like the redemption of man ; and the words 
 are to be understood as put, per epexegesin, in refer- 
 ence to the entire clause in the preceding line ; thus, 
 Isabella says in effect : 
 
 c Your merciful act will be like the mercy shown 
 in the redemption of the world, whereby mankind, 
 lost and condemned to death (as her brother Claudio 
 was), are restored to life.' And so the universality 
 of the remedy will also be implied in those words, 
 as it is plainly stated in these which follow, from 
 King Henry VI. 2nd Part : 
 
 Now, by the death of Him that died for all ! 
 
 Act i. Sc. i. 
 
 This all-important subject the extent of evil, 
 and its cure will receive further elucidation in the 
 next and subsequent sections. 
 
 Sect. 4. Of Human Life, and of c The tVorld. y 
 
 It was worthy of the position which Wolsey had 
 held in church and state, that his voice should be 
 made the instrument, at the close of his career, to 
 recommend, in a few words, all the great points of 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 115 
 
 the highest Christian morality, however he had 
 fallen short in his own practice of them. I refer to 
 the speech in which he gave his final charge to 
 Cromwell : 
 
 Love thyself last. Cherish those hearts that hate * thee. 
 
 Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
 
 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 
 To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. 
 
 Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's, 
 
 Thy God's, and Truth's : then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 
 
 Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. 
 
 King Henry Fill. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Here we have duty to God, to our neighbour, 
 to our country ; renunciation of self ; love of ene- 
 mies ; the practical study of truth, of justice, of 
 integrity, of peaceableness ; all these strung to- 
 gether like so many pearls upon one string, in a 
 manner that may remind us of S. Paul's delineation 
 of charity, or of the summaries of moral duty, which 
 we read in the 1 2th chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, and in the concluding chapter of the 1st 
 Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 
 Nor was it less worthy of the highest officer in 
 a king's household, the Lord Chamberlain Polonius, 
 that in sending forth his son into the world he 
 should thus give him lessons for life ; lessons which 
 again may remind us of those given to their respec- 
 
 * Warburton proposed to read ' wait/ for reasons which rightly, 
 I think, appeared unsatisfactory to Steevens. 
 
1. 1 6 Sbakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 tive sons, under circumstances more or less similar, 
 by King James, by Sir Walter Raleigh, by Lord 
 Burleigh, by the Earl of Strafford,* and to his 
 nephew, afterwards Lord Camelford, by the Earl of 
 Chatham : 
 
 There my blessing f with you ; 
 
 [Laying his hand upon Laertes* head."] 
 And these few precepts in thy memory 
 Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
 Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 
 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 
 The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. 
 
 Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice. 
 
 Take each man's X censure, but reserve thy judgment. 
 
 . . 
 
 Neither a borrower, nor a lender be : 
 For loan oft loses both itself and friend ; 
 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. ' 
 This above all : to thine own self be true ; 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. - 
 Farewell ; my blessing season this in thee ! 
 
 Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 In the foregoing injunction respecting hearing 
 
 and speaking, especially when taken in connection 
 
 with one which I have not quoted, viz. 
 
 Beware of entrance to a quarrel 
 
 * See K. James' works, and a collection entitled Practical Wisdom, 
 or the Manual of Life, published in 1824. 
 
 f See below, Sect. 8. T. Opinion. 
 
 In one of the lines here omitted our poet probably had in view 
 Ecclesiasticus xix. 30, quoted by Mr. Todd. 
 
Sentiments derived from, Bible. t t 7 
 
 we may fancy that we hear an echo to the precepts 
 of S. James : 
 
 Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. 
 
 James i. 19. 
 
 And it would be easy to produce Scriptural parallels 
 to other parts of the same passage, especially from 
 the Book of Proverbs ; but in so doing I should 
 be losing sight of the object which I have now 
 more immediately in hand. The design of this 
 section is not to enter into the details, of which 
 human life and Christian duty are made up, but to 
 prepare the way for entering upon such details in 
 the sections that are to follow. A general view 
 has been taken of the subject proposed ; and now, 
 before we proceed further into particulars, it will 
 be necessary to notice some abstruser points which 
 lie at the root of all moral action for us Christians ; 
 such as the corruption of nature, already, touched 
 upon in the last section ; the need of grace ; and 
 the theory of the formation of moral habits : and 
 then to say something of c the world,' and of life, 
 as it is seen at different stages and in several con- 
 ditions ; and of the duty of preserving the gift 
 which God has given us. 
 
 How beautiful is the description, in Winter's 
 Tale, given by Polixenes, of the innocent boy- 
 hood of himself and Leontes, which, with poetical 
 exaggeration, he represents to have been free 
 
1 1 8 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 from all other taint, save only that of original 
 
 sin : 
 
 We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i' the sun, 
 
 And bleat the one at the other : what we changed, 
 
 Was innocence for innocence ; we knew not 
 
 The doctrine * of ill-doing, nor dream'd 
 
 That any did : had we pursued that life, 
 
 And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd 
 
 With stronger blood, we should have answer'd Heaven 
 
 Boldly, Not guilty : the imposition cleared, 
 
 Hereditary ours. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 That is, provided the guilt imposed upon us by 
 
 descent from Adam had not made us sinners. And 
 
 the effect of this taint is such, and so universal, 
 
 especially upon the thoughts of the heart, that 
 
 Solomon enquires 
 
 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my 
 sin ? Prov. xx. 9. 
 
 In like manner, Iago asks 
 
 Where's that palace, whereinto foul things 
 Sometimes intrude not ? Who has a breast so pure, 
 But some uncleanly apprehensions, 
 Keep leets f and law-days, and in sessions sit, 
 With meditations lawful? Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 This is the source from which offences spring ; 
 and the saying of William's to King Henry 
 
 All offences, my liege, come from the heart 
 
 K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 8. 
 
 is no other than the teaching of our Lord himself, 
 in the Gospels. See Matt. xv. 18 ; Mark vii. 21. 
 
 * To be read as a trisyllable. f Meetings in court. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 1 1 9 
 
 And the heart being thus universally corrupt, we 
 are at no loss to account for the universality of 
 actual sin. Bearing upon this point, there is a re- 
 markable passage in Hamlet, which has caused no 
 little stir among the commentators. It is in the 
 dialogue between Hamlet and Polonius in Act ii. 
 Sc. 1 : 
 
 Ham. I would you were so honest a man. 
 
 Pol. Honest, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir ; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one 
 man picked out of ten thousand. 
 
 Pol. That's very true, my lord. 
 
 Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, 
 kissing carrion 
 
 The sense is there broken off; but with the help of 
 Warburton's emendation* of the text an emenda- 
 tion which Johnson commends so highly as to say 
 of it, that c it almost sets the critic on a level with 
 the author 'we can scarcely doubt that the poet's 
 meaning was (as Warburton explains it) to vindi- 
 cate the Providence of God from the false conclu- 
 sions to which the prevalence of evil in the world 
 might appear to give rise, and to represent the 
 Deity as no more responsible for the corruption in 
 man's heart than the sun is responsible for the 
 maggots bred in a dead dog.f In a latter part of 
 
 * The only difficulty in accepting it arises from the illative particle 
 ' For.' And I am inclined to think we should read ' Nor j' and 
 then the inference would be Nor is God to blame for this ; any more than 
 the sun. Sec. 
 
 f See the parallel passage in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. z. 
 
/ 
 
 io Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 the same scene there is another dialogue between 
 Hamlet and Polonius, in which the truest Christian 
 philosophy, in reference to the same point, is again 
 embodied. Hamlet has told Polonius to c see the 
 players well bestowed/ or, in other words, c well 
 used ' : 
 
 Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. 
 
 Ham. Much better, man ! use every man after his desert, and 
 who shall 'scape whipping ? Use them after your own honor and 
 dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your 
 bounty. 
 
 And once more, in Act iii. Sc. i, Hamlet says to 
 Ophelia : 
 
 I am myself indifferent honest : but yet I could accuse me of 
 such things that it were better my mother had not borne* me. 
 What should such fellows as I do crawling be- 
 tween earth and heaven! We are arrant knaves all: Believe 
 ione of us. 
 
 And if Hamlet could speak after this fashion, how 
 much more Timon the misanthrope ! 
 
 All is oblique : 
 There's nothing level in our cursed natures, 
 But direct villainy. Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 A statement painfully strong, and yet not stronger, 
 nor so strong, coming from a heathen, as that of 
 S. Paul, in the third chapter of his Epistle to the 
 Romans, or of the Psalmist whom he there quotes. 
 A more temperate, and therefore, more exact re- 
 presentation of human frailty, as arising partly from 
 
 * See Matt. xxvi. 24. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. i 2 t 
 
 natural corruption and partly from our own wilful- 
 ness, occurs in 'Troilus and Cressida ; but, though 
 put also into the mouth of a heathen, it could 
 scarcely have been written by one who was not 
 familiar with Holy Scripture : 
 
 Something may be done that we will not ; 
 And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, 
 When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 
 Presuming on their changeful potency. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 The reader will be reminded of James i . 1 9 ; and 
 of Rom. vii. 15-23 ; a passage which was evidently 
 present to our poet's thoughts on another occasion, 
 viz., in Hamlet, where the sentiment, c It is no more 
 I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me/ is trans- 
 ferred by Hamlet to his assumed madness, Act v. 
 Sc. 1. How just, and like S. Paul again, are the 
 reflections which pass between the two lords, in 
 All's well, &c, respecting the origin, the course, 
 and the result of wicked actions : 
 
 1 st Lord. Now Heaven delay our rebellion : as we are in our- 
 selves, bow weak are we ! 
 
 2nd Lord. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common 
 course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they 
 attain to their abhorred ends ; so he, that in this action contrives 
 against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows* himself. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 Our poet is still in the same vein, and gives the 
 same testimony, in Measure for Measure : 
 
 * Johnson interprets this to mean l betrays his own secrets in his 
 own talk.' 
 
 ^ 
 
122 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Our natures do pursue, 
 (Like rats that ravin down their proper bane), 
 A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 Men are destroyed, when they suffer themselves 
 to be enticed by unlawful pleasure, as rats are killed 
 by the poison which is set for them to drink. 
 
 And, as the Church of England testifies, in her 
 Ninth Article : c This infection of nature doth re- 
 main, yea, in them that are regenerated ;' a truth 
 which our poet, a faithful son of the Church of 
 England, thus represents : 
 
 Virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of 
 it, i. e. of the old stock, Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 But if Shakspeare's views of the corruption of 
 human nature were thus clear, and formed upon the 
 teaching of Holy Scripture, so also was his percep- 
 tion of the method of its recovery, through Divine 
 grace. This has been already shown in part, and 
 will be seen more fully in the next section, when 
 we come to speak of the doctrine of repentance. In 
 the mean time, that we are not able of ourselves, and 
 in our own strength alone, to subdue the evil which 
 is so natural to us, we may gather sufficiently from 
 Love's Labour's lost, where Biron declares that 
 
 Every man with his affects* is born, 
 Not by might mastered, but by special grace. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 Shakspeare, no doubt, had learnt his Catechism 
 
 * Affections and lusts. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 123 
 
 well, and would remember the words f My good 
 child, know this, that thou art not able to do these 
 things of thyself, nor to walk in the commandments 
 of God, and to serve Him, without His special grace.' 
 And not only so ; not even Aristotle, or Bishop 
 Butler himself, has taught the theory and practise 
 of the formation of moral habits more accurately 
 than our poet has done, where Hamlet, seeking to 
 disengage the Queen, his mother, from all inter- 
 course with her wicked and incestuous husband, thus 
 addresses her : 
 
 Refrain to-night, 
 And that shall lend a kind of easiness, 
 To the next abstinence : the next more easy : ' 
 For use almost can change the stamp of nature, 
 And either curb the devil, or throw him out 
 With wondrous potency. . Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 But our poet would remind us further, that, if a 
 virtuous habit is to be formed, the good purpose 
 which is to lead to it must not be trifled with : 
 
 For 
 
 Purpose is but the slave to memory ; 
 
 Of violent birth, but poor validity. Ibid. Sc. 2. 
 
 And, therefore, he justly argues : 
 
 That we would do, 
 We should do, when we would ; for this would changes, 
 And hath abatements, and delays as many, 
 As there are tongues, are hands, are instruments. 
 
 Ibid. Activ. Sc. 7. 
 
 Before we quit this subject, I cannot refrain 
 
124 Shakspeare' s Religious Principles and 
 
 from noticing how little the mind of Shakspeare 
 appears to have have been infected by the Calvinis- 
 tic and Puritanical leven which had already begun, 
 in his time, to exercise a strong and spreading influ- 
 ence among his countrymen. It is true he does not 
 shrink because neither does the Scripture itself 
 shrink from hinting, more than once, at the mys- 
 terious subject of God's decrees. Thus, in Hamlet : 
 
 Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 
 
 When our deep plots do fail : * and that should teach us, 
 
 There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
 
 Rough-hew them how we will. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 And, apparently, with direct reference to the 
 words of S. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, 
 Chap. ix. v. 15, 18 : 
 
 The words of Heaven on whom it will, it will, 
 (i. e. have mercy) 
 
 On whom it will not, so ; yet still 'tis just. 
 
 At the same time he takes care to explode the per- 
 nicious doctrine of fatalism, and the still more 
 monstrous delusions of judicial astrology, which, as 
 Warburton has observed, were also prevalent, when 
 Shakspeare wrote : 
 
 This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are 
 sick in fortune* (often the surfeit of our behaviour) we make 
 guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we 
 were villains by necessity ; fools by heavenly compulsion ; . . . 
 
 * This reading is doubtful : all early authority is in favour of 
 < pall.' 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 125 
 
 and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on : an admirable 
 evasion of. . man, to lay his . . disposition to the charge of a star ! 
 
 K. Lear, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Shakspeare divides c the world ' into that which 
 is c familiar to us/ and that which is c unknown/ 
 King Henry, Act vii. Sc. 7. And of that which is 
 familiar to us he, more than once, draws a picture, 
 the colouring of which, however unattractive, must 
 be allowed to be faithfully and severely scriptural : 
 
 OGod! O God! 
 How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, 
 Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 
 Fye on't ! O fye ! 'tis an unweeded garden, 
 That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature, 
 Possess it merely.* Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 And again, 
 
 Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye. 
 
 K. Henry Fill. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Compare the teaching of the Apostle S. James, 
 iv. 4, and of S. John, 1st Epistle, ii. 15. But, 
 if we would see the whole mechanism of c the 
 world,' its pride, its emptiness, its parasitism, 
 its false estimate of men and things, its impatient 
 jostlings for distinction, its forgetfulness of all but 
 what presently strikes the eye, I know of nothing 
 to compare with the dialogue between Achilles and 
 Ulysses, in Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 It is too long to quote ; nor is there much in it 
 
 * i. e. Entirely, absolutely. 
 
12,6 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 which admits of direct comparison with Scripture ; 
 but the reader who is not acquainted with it 
 will be amply rewarded, if he study it at his 
 leisure. 
 
 In passing on to speak of the varied fortune and 
 fleeting character of the several stages and different 
 conditions of human life, I may first make one re- 
 mark upon the mode of reckoning time. In Mark 
 xiii. 35, c the cock crowing ' is used to specify the 
 time of early morning, which Shakspeare denotes 
 more than once in the same manner, distinguishing 
 also the c first ' and the c second cock ; ' while, in 
 King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3, the close of the 
 evening has the name of c cock shut time,' from a 
 net so called, which was used in the evening twilight 
 to catch woodcocks. 
 
 The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and bad to- 
 gether. 
 
 So writes our poet in AIVs well, &c. Act iv. 
 Sc. 3 ; and the metaphor which he uses has now be- 
 come so familiar that we scarcely care to trace it to 
 any source ; though, if we did, we should probably 
 find none more ancient than Isaiah xxxviii. 12. 
 c My life* is cut off, as by the weaver.' The same 
 may be said of the images which represent life c vain 
 as a shadow that declineth,' and transitory c as a 
 tale that is told ;' both of frequent occurrence in 
 
 * I have adopted Bishop Lowth's translation. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 127 
 
 Holy Scripture, and both adopted by our poet in 
 Macbeth, and elsewhere : 
 
 Life's but a walking shadow : 
 
 it is a tale, 
 Told by an idiot. Act v. Sc. 5. 
 
 We find also the comparison, f life is a shuttle/ 
 in Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 2, which 
 requires Job vii. 6, to interpret it, c My days are 
 swifter than a weaver's shuttle.' 
 
 Such, then, being our life, so uncertain, so tran- 
 sitory, to c fear always,'* to c watch and pray always,' 
 are Divine precepts, which need nothing to recom- 
 mend them to a thoughtful mind. Even a heathen 
 poet like Horace saw reason more than enough for 
 unceasing caution and watchfulness : 
 
 Quod quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis 
 Cautum est in horas : 
 
 And it is Hecate, who, in addressing the three 
 witches, is made by Shakspeare to declare : 
 
 You all know security 
 Is mortals' chiefest enemy. Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 
 The well-known passage, in which c the world ' is 
 described by Shakspeare as c a stage,' was doubtless 
 derived from no other source than imagination 
 acting upon his own experience as a player ; but 
 the elaborate and melancholy, not to say painful, 
 picture of life, which we read in Measure for 
 
 * See Prov. xxviii. 14; xxiii. 17. 
 
1^8 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Measure, is no less certainly indebted to the Bible for 
 more than one touch of its colouring. The Duke, 
 disguised as a friar, visits Claudio in prison, when 
 condemned to death, and thus addresses him : 
 
 Reason thus with life, 
 If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing 
 That none but fools would keep : a breath thou art, 
 Servile to all the skiey influences, 
 That doth * this habitation, where thou keep'st, 
 Hourly afflict. .... 
 
 Happy thou art not : 
 For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get; 
 And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain ; 
 For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, 
 After the moon. If thou art rich, thou art poor ; 
 For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, 
 Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
 And death unloads thee. 
 
 f Thou hast nor youth nor age ; 
 But as it were, an after dinner's sleep, 
 Dreaming on both. Act iii. Sc. I . 
 
 Malone has remarked upon this passage that c an ass 
 
 bearing ingots ' is an eastern image, and was probably 
 
 derived from the Scriptures. See Isaiah xxx. 6. 
 
 But however gloomy the view which our poet might 
 
 sometimes take of human life, he does not allow us 
 
 * Thus I venture to read, instead of ' dost,' (which Hanmer 
 changed into ' do ') in preference to Porson's suggestion of putting 
 the line above in a parenthesis. I take ' doth ' to be the plural form, 
 which anciently was in common use; as in ' Manners makyth man.' 
 Compare Wisdom v. 8, i What good hath riches, with our vaunting, 
 brought us ? ' though ' riches * is there perhaps used as singular, 
 from Fr. richesse. 
 
 f* In the lines here omitted there is an evident reference to 2 Sam. 
 xvi. 11. ' My son which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life.' 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 139 
 
 to hesitate respecting the duty imposed upon every 
 man that lives, to do all he can to preserve the 
 precious gift which God has given him. 
 
 The single and peculiar life is bound, 
 
 With all the strength and armour of the mind, 
 
 To keep itself from 'noyance. Hamlet, Act iii., .Sc. 3. 
 
 And there is nothing in which he is more emphatic 
 than in representing the act of suicide as a direct 
 violation of the Divine law; first, in that same play 
 
 O ! that the Everlasting had not fix'd 
 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ; Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Again in Cymbeline : 
 
 Against self-slaughter 
 There is a prohibition so divine, 
 That cravens my weak hand. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 I am not aware that such a prohibition is to be 
 found * in Holy Scripture ; and in the latter of these 
 plays any reference to Revelation would have been 
 out of place. The c canon/ therefore, to which our 
 poet refers must be one of natural religion ; and this 
 is confirmed by a similar sentiment being attributed 
 to Gloster in King Lear, and to Brutus in Julius 
 Caesar, f though, in the latter case, with something 
 of subsequent appearance of contradiction in word, 
 and still more of inconsistency in deed. That such 
 an one as Cleopatra is represented should first call 
 in question the law, and then pronounce it noble to 
 
 * Unless it be in the Sixth Commandment, f See below, Sect. 1 y. 
 
 K 
 
130 Shakspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 disobey it, is in perfect harmony with her bold bad 
 character : 
 
 Is it sin 
 To rush into the secret house of death, 
 Ere death dare come to us ? . 
 
 . What's brave, what's noble, 
 Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, 
 And make death proud to take us. 
 
 Ant. and Cieop. Act iv. Sc. 13. 
 
 and again : 
 
 It is great 
 To do that thing that ends all other deeds, 
 Which shackles accidents and bolts up change. 
 
 Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 I must not omit to add that great and various as 
 are the merits of Romeo and Juliet > the pleasure and 
 admiration excited by that play, and the interest 
 felt in the hero and heroine, are all marred in some 
 degree by the suicide which they both commit,* 
 being Christians, and shortly after they had been 
 united in holy matrimony. 
 
 Sect. 5. Of Sin and Repentance. 
 
 We have already spoken of the cause of sin f and 
 of its existence, both original and actual, as uni- 
 versal. It follows to trace it in its operation, and 
 
 then to speak of its necessary corrective so far 
 
 , 
 
 * I am surprised that this should have been overlooked by so acute 
 and sound a critic as Schlegel, who speaks of them as ' still appearing 
 enviable ' in their deaths. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 131 
 
 as the correction of it lies within our own power 
 and agency, viz. repentance. 
 
 The subtlety of the Tempter, and the craft with 
 which he adapts his temptations, so that he may 
 bring evil out of good, and that virtue itself may 
 be made to minister to sin, for the overthrow of 
 those who could not otherwise be assailed, is very 
 forcibly expressed in Measure for Measure : 
 
 O ! cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, 
 
 With saints doth bait thy hook ! most dangerous 
 
 Is that temptation, that doth goad us on 
 
 To sin in loving virtue. Act ii. Sc. 3, 
 
 It was thus that the beloved apostle was tempted 
 to worship the angel, who had shown him, in the 
 Revelation, the things which he had seen and heard 
 (xxii. 8) ; and countless multitudes of Christians 
 have since been tempted ^nlynto^~successfully to 
 worshi p the Virgin Mary and other saints, because 
 they remembered not the injunction given on that 
 occasion to St. John, c See thou do it not ! ' 
 
 In like manner we are warned of the danger of 
 entering upon evil courses from the insecurity which 
 attends them, from the distraction and instability 
 which they introduce into the Counsels of the heart, 7 
 and from the inevitable tendency which the doing of 
 one wrong action has to beget another : 
 
 Alack ! when once our grace we have forgot, 
 Nothing goes right ; we would, and we would not. 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 k 2 
 
 / 
 
132 Shakspcares Religious Principles and 
 
 And so the wicked King Richard exclaims : 
 
 I am in 
 
 So far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin. 
 
 King Rich. III. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 And the virtuous Pericles, Prince of Tyre, testifies 
 to the same effect : 
 
 One sin I know another doth provoke ; 
 Murder's as near to lust as flame to smoke. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 It is remarkable that the same holds good of that 
 which is more or less directly the consequence of sin, 
 viz. sorrow, which, according to the proverb, never 
 comes single. 
 
 One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir, 
 
 That may succeed, as his inheritor. Ibid. Sc. 4. 
 
 The course by which sin makes us feel, first naked, 
 like Adam and Eve after their fall, then suspicious, 
 then cowardly, is traced by our poet with remark- 
 able accuracy and Scriptural truth ; and on the 
 other hand, he has not failed to catch the image by 
 which S. Paul speaks of c the armour of God' 
 c the armour of righteousness on the right hand and 
 on the left ' as the defence of all who walk up- 
 rightly. 
 
 There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, 
 For I am armed so strong in honesty, 
 That they pass by me as the idle wind, 
 Which I respect not. 
 
 Julius Caesar, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 133 
 
 What stronger breastplate, than a heart untainted \ 
 Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just ; 
 And he but naked, the/ locked up in steel, 
 Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 
 
 King Hen. VI. znd Part, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind, 
 The thief doth fear each bush an officer. 
 
 King Hen. VI. yd Part, Act v. Sc. 6. 
 
 The poetical image in this last line will remind the 
 classical reader of Juvenal, Sat. x. 1 1 : 
 
 "Motae ad lunam trepidabis arundinis umbram: 
 
 while the reader of the Bible will recall the fears 
 and suspicions of Herod Antipas, the murderer of 
 John the Baptist, in illustration of the general senti- 
 ment. 
 
 That c the righteous is bold as a lion/ that he 
 * will not be afraid of any evil tidings/ and, on the 
 other hand, that the ungodly are c brought into 
 great fear even where no fear is/ and that they c flee 
 when no man pursued^ these, and such like truths 
 of Holy Scripture,' are set forth again and again, in 
 the pages of Shakspeare, with a vividness propor- 
 tioned to their moral weight. Thus in King Henry VI. 
 ind I* art : 
 
 The trust I have is in mine innocence, 
 
 And therefore am I bold and resolute. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 And again in King hear : 
 
 Where I could not be honest, 
 I never yet was valiant. Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 And again we are taught, if we would be truly 
 
J 34 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 valiant, f not to fear them that kill the body/ pro- 
 vided that the heart be kept sound and upright. 
 
 He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer 
 
 The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs 
 
 His outsides ; wear them like his garment, carelessly ; 
 
 And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart 
 
 To bring // into danger. Timon of Athens, Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 
 that is, by suffering it to be provoked to uncharita- 
 bleness or to revenge. At the same time, there are 
 few who can show courageousness like that of S.JPaul, 
 because there are few who exercise themselves 
 as he did, c to have always a conscience void of 
 offence toward God and toward men/ Acts xxiv. 
 16. c Thus/ as Hamlet truly testifies : 
 
 Conscience does make cowards of us all ; 
 And thus the native hue of resolution 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; 
 And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
 With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
 And lose the name of action; Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 a testimony which the guilty queen his mother soon 
 after confirms, speaking from her own experience : 
 
 To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, 
 
 Each toy * seems prologue to some great amiss ;f 
 
 So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
 
 It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 And the wicked King Richard III. still more 
 forcibly : 
 
 * Trifle. f Disaster. 
 
Sentim mts derived from Bible. 135 
 
 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. Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 The dialogue between the two murderers, whom 
 the same wicked king employed to assassinate his 
 brother, the Duke of Clarence, in the Tower, is an 
 extraordinary instance of our poet's deep acquaintance 
 with the most secret workings of the human heart 
 such as I know not where to look for in any 
 other, unless it be in the author of the Book of Pro- 
 verbs, King Solomon. The c bloody deed ' was not 
 yet committed : 
 
 1 ;/ Murd. What, if thy conscience come to thee again ? 
 
 2nd. Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing ; 
 it makes a man a cozvard; a. man cannot steal, but it accuseth him ; 
 a man cannot swear, but it checks him ; a man cannot lie with 
 his neighbour's wife, but it detects him. Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 I have not thought it necessary to follow Mr. 
 Bowdler in omitting this last clause, which shows, 
 by the bye, how much our poet's mind was tinctured 
 with the phraseology of Scripture. The phraseology 
 indeed would be of small account, if the imitation 
 of Scriptural language were not accompanied, as it 
 most evidently is, by an honest desire to give effect 
 to the moral lessons which the Bible contains. But 
 the truth is, that not even the Bible itself repre- 
 sents more vividly than our poet has done, not only 
 in single passages but in whole plays, the evil 
 
136 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 consequences of sin, or shows more plainly how the 
 wicked are confounded by the works of their own 
 hands that sooner or later our sin will find us out, 
 and that it will also most assuredly, sooner or later, 
 be found out itself. How are the evils of ambition 
 made to be seen and read of all men in King 
 Richard III. and in Macbeth ; the evils of jealousy 
 in Othello ; the evils of arrogance and self-will in 
 Coriolanus ! 
 
 Of single passages tending to the same general 
 effect it may suffice to produce what follows. In 
 King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1 : 
 
 Tork. What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell ; 
 But by bad courses may be understood, 
 That their events can never fall out good. 
 
 In King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. 1 : 
 
 King Henry. O God, what mischief work the wicked ones ; 
 Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby ! 
 
 In the Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 3 : 
 
 Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate ; their great guilt, 
 Like poison given to work a great time after, 
 Now 'gins to bite the spirits. 
 
 In Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2 : 
 
 Hamlet. Foul deeds will rise 
 
 Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. 
 
 From the disease we naturally pass to the 
 remedy; and as we have no other source from 
 whence to learn with certainty the true nature of 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 137 
 
 repentance, except the Bible ; so it may be said, 
 without exaggeration, that no professed divine ever 
 understood the doctrine of repentance better, or has 
 expounded it more clearly than Shakspeare. 
 
 He takes care to let us know that our repentance, 
 in order to be real must proceed from sorrow felt 
 not because we are to be punished for our sin, but 
 because by it we have offended One whom it con- 
 cerned us most of all to please ; that, in order to be 
 acceptable, it must be accompanied by confession and 
 amendment amendment which will lead us to make 
 reparation to the utmost of our power, for what we 
 have done amiss ; and that, after all, its efficacy con- 
 sists not in any power of its own, but solely in the 
 covenanted mercy and promises of God, through 
 Christ. Thus, in Measure for Measure, the duke, 
 disguised as a friar, instructs Juliet in the prison, 
 upon the first of these points, as follows : 
 
 Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry ? 
 
 Juliet. I do, and bear the shame most patiently. 
 
 Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, 
 And try your penitence, if it be sound, 
 Or hollowly put on. 
 
 He then proceeds to warn her : 
 
 Lest you do repent, 
 As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, 
 Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not Heaven ; 
 Showing we'd not spare* Heaven, as we love it y 
 But as we stand in fear 
 
 * i. e. Spare to offend heaven. 
 
138 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 "Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil, 
 And take the shame with joy. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 There is a difficult passage in Cymbeline> which 
 must, I imagine, look for its true interpretation to 
 the views which our poet has elsewhere expressed 
 upon the subject of this great duty. It is towards 
 the conclusion of the play, where Posthumus, in 
 prison, thus soliloquizes : 
 
 My conscience ! thou art fettered 
 More than my shanks and wrists : you good gods, give me 
 The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt, 
 Then, free for ever! 
 
 that is, he wishes for death, as the only way to 
 everlasting freedom, provided he might die with 
 a quiet conscience : 
 
 Is't enough I am sorry ? 
 So children temporal fathers do appease ; 
 Gods are more full of mercy. Must / repent ? 
 
 And, as involved in the notion of repentance, 
 must I take my punishment as Juliet did hers, 
 c with joy ;' and, moreover, must I make satisfac- 
 tion ? 
 
 I cannot do it better than in gyves, 
 Desired, more than constrained ; to satisfy, 
 (If of my freedom 'tis the main part) take 
 No stricter render of me than my all : 
 
 that is, take my life if such satisfaction be the 
 main party be the chief point, or principal condition 
 of freedom from future punishment. So Steevens 
 explains it ; and, I think, rightly. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 139 
 
 The speech concludes with a recurrence to the 
 view of a man being able to make satisfaction for 
 himself, in a sense (as I believe) purposely unchristian , 
 Posthumus being a heathen : 
 
 And so, great Powers, 
 If you will take this audit, take this life, 
 And cancel these cold bonds. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 This is the very notion, on the part of the heathen, 
 which the Scriptures of the Old Testament so fre- 
 quently protest against. See Job ix. 32. Micah 
 vi. 7. At the same time, I have admitted that Cym- 
 beline is the play to which the remark of Johnson, 
 discussed above, in Sect. 1, may be applied perhaps 
 with least injustice. 
 
 In the "Tempest , where the characters also are not 
 Christian, Ariel, after reminding Alonso, Sebastian, 
 and Antonio of the crime of which they had been 
 guilty in c supplanting Prospero ' 
 For which foul deed, 
 The Powers delaying, not forgetting, have 
 Incens'd the seas, and shores, yea, all the creatures, 
 Against your peace : 
 
 goes on to warn them, and Alonso more especially, 
 of the necessity of repentance in general terms : 
 Thee of thy son, Alonso, 
 They have bereft ; and do pronounce by me, 
 Lingering perdition (worse than any death 
 Can be at once) shall step by step attend 
 Ycu and your ways ; whose wrath to guard you from, 
 Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls 
 Upon your head, is nothing but heart's sorrow 
 And a clear life ensuing. Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
L 
 
 140 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Let us now see how our poet teaches that re- 
 pentance cannot be effectual in other words, that 
 there can be no forgiveness without confession, and 
 without amendment, testified by c restitution and 
 satisfaction (to man), according to the uttermost of 
 our power, for all injuries and wrongs ' that we have 
 done. The former, confession, is indirectly pre- 
 scribed in King Lear, Act i. Sc. 1 : 
 
 Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. 
 
 That is, as we read in the Book of Proverbs, 
 xxviii. 13 : 
 
 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper ; but he that con- 
 fessed, and forsaketb them, shall have mercy. 
 
 In regard to the latter, viz. amendment and 
 satisfaction, nothing could be fuller, or better for 
 the purpose, than the well-known speech of the 
 king, in Hamlet : 
 
 What if this cursed hand 
 X Were thicker than itself with brother's blood ? 
 Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 
 / To wash it white as * snow ? Whereto serves mercy, 
 But to confront the visage of offence ? 
 And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, 
 To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, 
 Or pardoned, being down ? Then I'll look up ; 
 My fault is past. But, O ! what form of prayer 
 Can serve my turn ? Forgive me my foul murder ! 
 That cannot be ; since I am still possessed 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder, 
 
 * See Ps. li. 7 j Isaiah i. 18. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 141 
 
 My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. 
 May one be pardoned, and retain the offence ? 
 In the corrupted currents of this world, 
 Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ; 
 And oft 'tis seeri, the wicked prize itself 
 Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above : 
 There is no shuffling ; there the action lies 
 In his * true nature ; and we ourselves compelled, 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 To give in evidence. What then ? what rests ? 
 Try what Repentance can : What can it not ? 
 Yet what can it, when one can not repent ? 
 
 that is, as Johnson has very properly explained it, 
 What can repentance do for a man that cannot be 
 penitent, for a man who has only part of penitence 
 distress of conscience without the other part, reso- 
 lution of amendment ? 
 
 Shakspeare has been equally explicit in teaching 
 the further lesson, that we must be c ready to for- 
 give others who have offended us, as we would 
 have forgiveness of our offences at God's hand ' 
 a lesson with which we are familiar from the lips of 
 our Blessed Lord himself. I allude to the speech 
 of Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, which has 
 been alreadyf noticed : 
 
 We do pray for mercy, 
 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
 The deeds of mercy. Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 And so it follows, or ought to follow, as we read 
 in the Two Gentlemen of Verona : 
 
 * See above, p. 17. + See above, p. 95. 
 
142 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Who by repentance is not satisfied 
 
 Is not of heaven, nor earth ; for these are pleased ; 
 
 By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased. Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 Not, however, for its own sake. This is beautifully 
 set forth, though not without a tincture of Romish 
 doctrine, which was appropriate and necessary under 
 the circumstances of the person and of the time, in 
 a speech of the pious King Henry V. before the 
 battle of Agincourt : 
 
 O God of battles ! steel my soldiers' hearts ! 
 Possess them not with fear ! Take from them now 
 The sense of reckoning if the opposed numbers 
 Pluck their hearts from them ! Not to-day, O Lord, 
 
 not to-day, think not upon the fault 
 My father made in compassing the crown ! 
 
 1 Richard's body have interred new ; 
 
 And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears 
 
 Than from it issued forced drops of blood. 
 
 Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, 
 
 Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up 
 
 Toward heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built 
 
 Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests 
 
 Still sing for Richard's soul. More will I do : 
 
 Tho* all that I can do is nothing worth ; 
 
 Since that my penitence comes aft er all, 
 
 Imploring pardon. King Hen. V. Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 1 . These last lines have given rise to much discus- 
 sion and difference of opinion among the critics. I 
 am inclined to accept Dr. Johnson's explanation, as 
 correctly representing what Shakspeare (who, in his 
 affection for this good king, was willing to divest 
 his Romanism of an unscriptual tendency, as far as 
 possible) meant to convey. c / do all this, says the 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 143 
 
 King, though all that I can do is nothing worth, is 
 so far from an adequate expiation of the crime, that 
 Penitence comes after all imploring pardon, both for 
 the crime and the expiation.' 
 
 It is in the spirit of a true penitent that at the 
 commencement of the same scene, the king had 
 spoken of the purifying effect of hardships and dis- 
 tresses borne after c example ' of holy men who 
 have gone before us, or are still alive and had 
 desired opportunity for solitary meditation : - 
 
 'Tis good for men to love tbeir present pains, 
 Upon example ; so the spirit is eas'd : 
 And, when the mind is quickened, out of doubt, 
 The organs, tho' defunct and dead before, 
 Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move 
 With casted slough, and fresh legerity. 
 
 / and my bosom must debate awhile, 
 And then I would no other company. 
 
 It only remains to point out how fully our poet 
 recognised that while repentance may come too late, 
 or may be unreal, judicial blindness and infatuation 
 are the sure portion 6F~the~lmpenitent: It is King 
 Lear who exclaims : 
 
 Woe, that too late repents. Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 i. e. woe is to him that does so. 
 
 And it is scarcely necessary to say that it is 
 Falstaff who makes merriment in teaching a lesson, 
 which is however a very solemn one and no less 
 
144 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 needful than solemn viz. that we are too apt to 
 make our repentance an easy thing, if not a matter 
 of renewed self-indulgence. The passage to be 
 quoted is in the dialogue with the Chief Justice, 
 King Henry IV. ind Party Act i. Sc. i : 
 
 For the box o' the ear the prince gave you he gave it like a 
 rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked 
 him for it ; and the young lion repents : marry, not in sackcloth 
 and ashes ; but in new silk and old sack. 
 
 It is also a sensualist, but a sensualist of a very- 
 different class, who thus moralizes upon the conse- 
 quences of a vicious and impenitent course. The 
 words are in every way worthy of Mark Antony : 
 
 When we in our viciousness grow hard, 
 (O ! misery on't !) the wise gods seel * our eyes ; 
 In our own filth drop our clear judgments ; make us 
 Adore our errors ; laugh at us, while we strut 
 To our confusion. Ant. and Cleop. Act iii. Sc. 9. 
 
 Sentiments as awful as they are just; and which 
 will not appear either too irreverent for a Christian 
 man to write, when we remember how often in the 
 Psalms, and in the Book of Proverbs, God is said 
 < to laugh,' and f to mock ' at the calamities of those 
 who have despised His laws ; or too profound for 
 a Heathen man to utter, when we compare the deep 
 sayings of Persius respecting the confirmed and 
 reprobate votaries of vicious self-indulgence, in his 
 3rd Satire : 
 
 * i. e. Close : a term of falconry, not to be confounded with seal. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 145 
 
 Sed stupet hie vitio, et fibris increvit * opimum 
 Pingue ; caret culpa ; nescit quid perdat, et alto 
 Demersus, summa rursum non bullit in unda. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the irony which represents a 
 man as faultless, only because he has rendered him- 
 self senseless, and incapable of judging between 
 right and wrong. 
 
 Sect. 6. Of Faith and Thankfulness towards God. 
 
 c Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child 
 of man/ is a Scriptural precept which Shakspeare 
 has not been slow to echo, nor has he failed to do 
 full justice to the contrast with which the Scrip- 
 tures so often accompany that precept, viz. the 
 duty and the satisfaction of placing qmx trust in 
 God. The devoted, but not over-honest nurse in 
 Romeo and Juliet can tell her mistress 
 
 There's no trust, 
 No faith, no honesty in men ; all perjured, 
 All forsworn, all nought, all dissemblers. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And the Duke of Bedford can ask, in King Henry 
 VI. 1 st Part: 
 
 What is the trust or strength of foolish men ? 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 And yet we are senseless enough, as the Lord 
 Hastings tells us, in King Richard III., to make 
 
 * Comp, Habakkuk ii. 6. 
 L 
 
146 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 more account of man's favour, which is so worth- 
 less, than of the favour of God, which is above all 
 price: 
 
 ! momentary grace of mortal men, 
 
 Which we more hunt for than the grace of God ! 
 
 Who builds his hope in air, of your fair looks, 
 
 Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, 
 
 Ready with every nod to tumble down 
 
 Into the fatal bowels of the deep. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 As Cardinal Wolsey c tumbled down ' from the 
 
 eminence, to which he had been raised, and thereby 
 
 was led, all too late, to exclaim : 
 
 O ! Cromwell, Cromwell, 
 Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 
 1 served my king, He would not in mine age 
 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And so the good King Henry V. felt the blessed- 
 ness of being able to place his confidence where 
 alone it ought to be placed, when he said to the 
 Duke of Gloster : 
 
 We are in God's hands, brother, not in theirs. 
 
 King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 5. 
 
 And he felt it sinful to boast of anything he could 
 do by his own power : 
 
 Forgive me, God, 
 That I do brag thus ! this your air of France 
 Hath blown that vice in me ; I must repent, 
 Go, therefore, tell thy master 
 
 he is speaking to Montjoy, the French herald 
 
 Here I am ; 
 My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk ; 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 147 
 
 My army but a weak and sickly guard : 
 Yet, God* before, tell him we will come on, 
 Though France himself, and such another neighbour, 
 Stand in our way. Act iii. Sc. 6. 
 
 And how different was the result ! Nor was the 
 grateful piety of the father less conspicuous in the 
 son, whose prayer it is : 
 
 O ! Lord, that lends me life, 
 Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness ! 
 
 King Henry VI. znd Pt. Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 There are two occasions one extraordinary, the 
 other of ordinary occurrence in regard to which our 
 poet desired, it would seem, more especially to re- 
 commend this great duty of thankfulness towards 
 God. The extraordinary occasion is when a victory 
 h as been gained. It is delightful to observe in what 
 an amiable light the character of King Henry V. 
 has been placed in this respect. Not even David 
 himself has exhibited more fervent gratitude to the 
 Divine Author of his victories than our pious sove- 
 reign, after the defeat of the French in the battle of 
 Agincourt. Thus, when Montjoy, the French 
 herald, first announced to the king c The day is 
 yours ' his first exclamation is a Non nobis , Bomine y 
 in these words : 
 
 Praised be God, and not our strength for it ! 
 
 King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 7. 
 
 * i. e. God being our guide. The phrase is used again by the 
 king in the same play, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 L z 
 
148 Shahspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 And soon after, when the English herald came 
 and delivered more fully the particulars of the vic- 
 tory, more fully rose also from the royal lips the 
 ascription of praise and thanksgiving . 
 
 O ! God ; Thy arm was here, 
 And not to us, but to Thy ar?n alone 
 Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem, 
 But in plain shock and even play of battle, 
 Was ever known so great and little loss 
 On one part and on the other ? Take it, God, 
 For it is only Thine, 
 
 Exeter. 'Tis wonderful ! 
 
 Come, go we in procession to the village : 
 And be it death proclaimed through our Host, 
 To boast of this, or take that praise from God 
 Which is His only. Ibid. Sc. 8. 
 
 And how he himself behaved in strict accordance 
 with his own command, is reported by the chorus 
 at the opening of the next and concluding Act ; 
 the description refers to his return and entry into 
 London : 
 
 Where that his lords desire him to have borne 
 His bruised helmet, and his bended sword, 
 Before him through the city, he forbids it, 
 Being free from vainness, and self-glorious pride, 
 Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, 
 . Quite from himself to God. 
 
 In like manner, his son and successor, out of the 
 fulness of the thankful heart for which he had prayed, 
 thus signifies the acknowledgments which he desires 
 to make upon hearing of the suppression of the in- 
 surrection headed by Jack Cade : 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 149 
 
 Then, Heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates, 
 To entertain my vows of thanks and praise ! 
 
 King Henry VI. 2nd Pt. Act iv. Sc. 9. 
 
 The same pious and grateful character is ascribed, 
 more than once, in the First Part of the same play, 
 to the gallant Lord Talbot. See Act iii. Sc. 2 
 and Sc. 4. 
 
 The occasion of ordinary occurrence to which I 
 referred as one upon which our poet appears to have 
 felt, in an especial manner, that thankfulness was 
 due, is the receiving of our c daily bread.' Although, 
 as Cicero has said I forget of whom c non tarn 
 hominis fuit ista virtus quam temporum,' so the 
 praise of this is due, not more to our poet himself, 
 than to the age in which he lived. It is indeed 
 greatly to the credit of our forefathers that they 
 recognised the duty of saying grace at meals, cer- 
 tainly not less, and performed it, I imagine, far 
 more efficiently than we in this generation are wont 
 to do. This is evident partly from the forms which 
 were in use for such occasions, and which have come 
 down to us in the Primers and other Devotional 
 Manuals of the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, 
 and partly from such as are still retained, mostly in 
 Latin, in some of our college halls at the English 
 universities and public schools. Still Shakspeare 
 must also have the credit of giving to this duty its 
 due prominence, and of indicating, as we shall 
 presently see, again and again, the sense which he 
 
150 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 doubtless entertained of its propriety and import- 
 ance. A century later it would seem that a change 
 had come over the manners of our countrymen if 
 we may trust the testimony of Pope, speaking, too, 
 of poets for the worse : 
 
 Then cheerful healths, . . . 
 
 And, what's more rare, a poet shall say grace. 
 
 And again, in another poem : 
 
 Sons, sires, and grandsons, all will wear the bays, 
 Our wives read Milton, and our daughters plays ; 
 To* theatres and to rehearsals throng, 
 And all our grace at table is a song. 
 
 At the same time I must not omit to add that 
 we have the authority of Dr. Warton,* in an obser- 
 vation upon the former of these passages, for the 
 statement, that if saying grace was c rare ' with Pope, 
 it was not so with Dean Swift. He c always did it/ 
 says the doctor, and (which one is glad to hear of 
 anything that he did) c with remarkable decency and 
 devotion. 
 
 But to return to Shakspeare. Our two first il- 
 lustrations are derived from the ancient days of 
 Greece and Rome from Pinion of Athens, and 
 from Coriolanus ; and in these instances it may be 
 thought that our poet has again been guilty of an 
 impropriety similar to that which we before 
 noticed j* in attributing to men and women among 
 the heathen, c sentiments and practices ' which are 
 
 * Essay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 306. f See above, p. 98. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 151 
 
 to be found only among Christians. But if so, this 
 much at least may be said in his defence. If there 
 be one redeeming feature in the spirit of the old 
 Classical mythology, it is the disposition which it 
 tended to form, of habitual thankfulness * to a Su- 
 perior Being. That it went so far as to teach men 
 to say grace at meals, I am not prepared to maintain; 
 but that it taught what was in effect the same 
 not to taste the cup till a libation had been poured to 
 Jove, and not to put the sickle to the corn till sacred 
 songs had been sung to Ceres this, Homer, II. vii. 
 480, and Virgil, Georg. i. 350, without going 
 further, may suffice to prove. 
 
 One grace in Timon of Athens is a long one. 
 Timon himself offers it, upon occasion of giving an 
 entertainment in his own house. He introduces it 
 thus, speaking to the guests. c The gods require 
 our thanks ; and it begins in these words : 
 
 You great benefactors ! sprinkle our society with thankfulness. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 6. 
 
 This of course is in prose ; but on a previous 
 occasion, in the same play, another grace occurs, 
 said by Apemantus, the c churlish philosopher,' 
 which is in verse, much after the style of some of 
 the metrical graces in the old primers; and the 
 manner in which it is introduced, apparently as a 
 Bene die tio post cibum, or at least after the enter tairi- 
 
 * See the beautiful passage in the fourth book of the Excursion to 
 this effect. 
 
153 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 ment has commenced, may possibly be intended to 
 
 reflect upon the omission of grace-saying at public 
 
 banquets, or at the tables of the rich a suspicion 
 
 which the words, spoken by Apemantus immediately 
 
 before, would seem to confirm : 
 
 Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 However this may be, and however we may 
 
 question the propriety of putting such a sentiment 
 
 as I am about to quote from Coriolanus, into the 
 
 mouth of a Volscian soldier, there can be no doubt 
 
 that the sentiment itself implies great familiarity on 
 
 the part of our poet with the practice of saying 
 
 grace both before and after meals. The scene is a 
 
 campy at a small distance from Rome. Enter Aufi- 
 
 dius, General of the Volscians, and his Lieutenant. 
 
 Aufid. Do they still fly to the Roman ? * 
 
 Lieut. I do not know what witchcraft's in him ; but 
 
 Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat, 
 
 Their talk at table, and their thanks at end ; 
 
 And you are darkened in this action, sir, 
 
 Even by your own. Act iv. Sc. 7. 
 
 But to come to Christian times. I think we shall 
 not be far wrong in supposing that our poet designed 
 to satirize the Puritanism which had begun to pre- 
 vail in his own day, when he put the following lines 
 into the mouth of Gratiano, in the Merchant of 
 Venice. Bassanio, whom he had proposed to ac- 
 company to Belmont, the house of Portia, con- 
 
 * i. e, to Coriolanus. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 153 
 
 sented, but at the same time required of him f to 
 allay his skipping spirit with some cold drops of 
 modesty :' 
 
 Grat. Signior Bassanio, hear me : 
 
 If I do not put on a sober habit, 
 
 Talk with respect 
 
 Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely ; 
 
 Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes 
 
 Thus with my hat, and sigh and say, Amen ; 
 
 Use all the observance of civility, 
 
 Like one well-studied in a sad ostent, 
 
 To please his grandam never trust me more. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that no one of Shak- 
 
 speare's commentators, so far as I have seen, has a 
 
 word to say in illustration of the dialogue, which I 
 
 am about to quote, between Lucio and the two 
 
 Gentlemen, in the second scene of Measure for 
 
 Measure : 
 
 \st Gent. There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanks- 
 giving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for 
 peace. 
 
 znd Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. 
 
 Lucio. 1 believe thee; for I think thou never wast where 
 grace was said. 
 
 znd Gent. No ? A dozen times at least. 
 
 1 st Gent. What? in metre? 
 
 Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. 
 
 c Proportion,' Warburton says, here signifies 
 measure ; but I rather think it means prose or verse, 
 chant or hymn* as c in* any language' means especially, 
 
 * Mr. Bowdler omits the two last speeches, and much more that 
 follows partly with and partly without sufficient reason. 
 
154 Sbakspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 I imagine, Latin or English. However, it is of more 
 interest to point out that the petition, 
 
 Give peace in our time, O Lord ! 
 
 taken from the Versicles in the Prayer Book, before 
 the Collect for the day, is still used, as it appears 
 from the above passage to have been in Shak- 
 speare's time, as part of the grace (probably from 
 the connexion between Peace and Plenty) in some 
 of our college halls ; e. g. at Winchester, at elec- 
 tion time, the concluding portion of the grace, Post 
 cibuntj which is chanted, runs thus, being formed out 
 of three of the said Versicles. 
 
 Fac Reginam salvam, Domine ; Da pacem in diebus nostris ; et 
 exaudi nos in die quocunque invocamus te. Amen. 
 
 Luc io had meant to insinuate that the ind Gentle- 
 man was a graceless fellow. The same jest passes 
 somewhat more broadly, as might be expected, 
 between Falstaff and Prince Hal : 
 
 Fats. I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art king as, God 
 save thy grace majesty, I should say ; for grace thou wilt have 
 none 
 
 P. Hen. What, none ? 
 
 Fals. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be 
 prologue to an egg and butter : 
 
 King Hen. IV. 1st Part, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 where the speaker, with logic more characteristic 
 than reverent, would imply that a short grace may 
 suffice for a scanty meal. 
 
 There remains one more passage to be produced 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 155 
 
 under this head ; and it is one from which we might 
 perhaps infer that in the time of Shakspeare the 
 master of the house sometimes devolved the duty 
 of saying grace upon his wife. In Taming of the 
 Shrew, Petruchio says to Katharina, when the 
 supper is brought in : 
 
 Come, Kate, sit down ; I know you have a stomach. 
 Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I ? 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Sect. 7. Of the Duty and Efficacy of Prayer. 
 
 There are few subjects of literary contemplation 
 more interesting or more profitable than to observe 
 the hold which a great practical subject like that of 
 Prayer had upon a mind like that of Shakspeare. 
 We know that some of our distinguished poets 
 have unhappily allowed themselves, at one time or 
 other, if not throughout their career, to imagine 
 difficulties in the way of the performance of this 
 duty ; but we have no evidence in any of Shak- 
 speare's plays, from first to last, that he ever enter- 
 tained any but the truest and most just conceptions 
 of it. First, in Hamlet , we learn the twofold force 
 of Prayer, as obtaining either grace to prevent us 
 from sinning, or pardon when we have sinned : 
 
 What's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, 
 To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, 
 Or pardoned, being down ? Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
i$6 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Next, in the epilogue to the Tempest, this latter 
 efficacy is represented as an antidote to despair : 
 
 My ending is despair, 
 Unless I be relieved by Prayer ; 
 Which pierces so, that it assaults 
 Mercy itself, and frees all faults. 
 
 It was probably not without some reference, in 
 his own mind, to the practice of Daniel, vi. 10, and 
 to the ancient hours of the church, that our poet 
 puts into the mouth of Imogen, one of his sweetest 
 and most attractive characters, those touching lines in 
 which she represents herself as offering up prayers, 
 c three times a day/ for her lover,* and as having 
 intended to enjoin the same practice upon him, in 
 her behalf, before they parted, had not her father 
 interposed to prevent the interview. Otherwise 
 she would 
 
 Have charged him 
 At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, 
 To encounter me with orisons, for then 
 / am in heaven for him. Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 And the same devotional character is kept up, 
 when, after she had become, in disguise, the page 
 of Belarius, now supposed to be slain, she attaches 
 herself to Lucius, the Roman general, in the same 
 capacity : 
 
 But first, an't please the gods, * 
 I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep 
 As these poor pickaxes f can dig : and when ' 
 
 See also Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 1. f i. e. her fingers. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 157 
 
 With wild wood-leaves and weeds I have strew'd his grave, 
 
 And on it said a century of prayers, 
 
 Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep, and sigh ; 
 
 And, leaving ,so his service, follow you : 
 
 So please you entertain me. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 Nor is there any reason to suppose that our poet 
 designed to exhibit examples of the practice of this 
 duty only, or specially, in the weaker sex. On the 
 contrary, it is kings and nobles whom he has chosen 
 most of all to represent as men of prayer. This 
 we expect in King Henry VI : 
 
 Famed (as he was) for mildness, peace and prayer. 
 
 King Henry VI. $rd Part, Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 And so, when Gloster stabs him in the Tower, 
 the last words he is made to utter are these, in 
 which he prays at once for himself and for his 
 murderer : 
 
 God ! forgive my sins, and pardon thee. 
 
 Ibid. Act v. Sc. 6. 
 
 But the cruel and licentious Edward, who sup- 
 planted and succeeded him even he is introduced 
 with words of prayer upon his lips, though words 
 which breathe little (and this so far is meet) of the 
 fervour and simplicity in devotion of a true servant 
 of God : 
 
 O ! Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine ; 
 And ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face, 
 
 1 throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to Thee, 
 Thou setter up and plucker down of kings ! 
 Beseeching Thee if with Thy will it stands, 
 
158 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 That to my foes this body must be prey 
 Yet that Thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, 
 And give sweet passage to my sinful soul ! 
 
 Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 It will be seen, however, that the occasion it 
 was the morning of the battle of Towton, near 
 Ferrybridge, decisive in its issue against the oppo- 
 nents of Edward was one in regard to which our 
 poet rarely fails to impress the duty of supplication 
 to the throne of grace. It is proper and incum- 
 bent upon us to have recourse to prayer before we 
 undertake any important business ; and more espe- 
 cially before we engage in war. This, I doubt not, 
 Shakspeare knew and felt ; and like a true Christian 
 patriot, he desired that others should know and feel 
 it. There is ample evidence to this effect, for ex- 
 ample, in King Henry V. The good king, before he 
 sets out upon his expedition, is made to say : 
 
 We have now no thought in us but France, 
 Save those to God, that run before our business. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 His prayer to the c God of Battles/ before the 
 battle of Agincourt, has been already* quoted ; and 
 to that may be added here, that, while the Earl of 
 Salisbury previously exclaims, as the English forces 
 march into the field 
 
 God's arm strike with us ! Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 * See above, p. 14a. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 159 
 
 the king himself thus humbly resigns himself to 
 the disposal of the Most High : 
 
 Now, soldiers, march away ; 
 And how Thou pleasest, God, dispose the day ! 
 
 A similar character is given, in King Richard III. 
 to the Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry 
 VII. Before the battle of Bosworth field, in which 
 the wicked usurper was overthrown, not only does 
 Richmond exhort his followers to c march in God's 
 name/ Act v. Sc. 2, and bids them 
 
 Remember this, 
 God, and our good cause, fight upon our side ; 
 The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, 
 Like high-rear'd bulwarks stand before our faces ; 
 
 Ibid. Sc. 3. 
 
 but he himself makes a set prayer to the same 
 effect, when he retires to rest upon the night before 
 the battle : 
 
 O Thou ! whose captain I account myself, 
 Look on my forces with a gracious eye ; 
 Put in their hands Thy bruising irons of wrath, 
 That they may crush down with a heavy fall 
 The usurping helmets of our adversaries ! 
 Make us Thy ministers of chastisement, 
 That we may praise Tbee in Tby victory ! 
 To Thee 1 do commend my watchful soul, 
 Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes ; 
 Sleeping, and waking, O ! defend me still ! 
 
 And when God had given him the victory, and 
 the Lord Stanley came in, bearing the crown which 
 
160 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 he had taken from the head of Richard, now dead, 
 and presented it to Richmond, his first exclamation 
 is 
 
 Great God of Heaven, say Amen to all ; 
 
 and he concludes his last speech, with which the 
 play ends, in prayer for lasting peace, summed up 
 with a repetition of the same sentiment : 
 
 O ! now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, 
 
 The true succeeders of each * royal house, 
 
 By heaven's fair ordinance conjoin together ! 
 
 And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so, 
 
 Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace, 
 
 With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days ! 
 
 Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, 
 
 That would reduce these bloody days again, 
 
 And make poor England weep in streams of blood ! 
 
 Let them not live to taste this land's increase, 
 
 That would with treason wound this fair land's peace ! 
 
 Now civil wounds are stopped, peace lives again ; 
 
 That she may long live here, God say Amen. 
 
 But besides the obligation of offering up prayer 
 for divine aid on all important occasions, our poet 
 had a no less clear conception of the duty and 
 value of intercession in behalf of those who need 
 and desire our prayers. This appears, for instance, 
 in the picture which he draws of the end of the 
 Duke of Buckingham, in King Henry VIII. The 
 duke, having been found guilty of high treason, 
 when led forth to execution, thus entreats the few 
 that loved him : 
 
 * i. e. of the houses of Lancaster and York. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, \6\ 
 
 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. Act ii. Sc. I . 
 
 It is pleasant to think (and it goes some way to 
 prove that Shakspeare was brought up in an atmo- 
 sphere of religious sentiment at least), that in the 
 very first scene of what was, if not the first, 
 certainly one of his first written plays the Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona he introduces the notion of 
 friends praying for each other, in the case of the 
 two young men, Proteus and Valentine, the latter 
 of whom was on the point of setting out upon his 
 travels : 
 
 Proteus. In thy danger, 
 
 If ever danger do environ thee, 
 Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, 
 For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine. 
 
 Johnson interprets Beadsman , c a man employed 
 in praying, generally in fraying for another, y 
 
 Moreover, among the various occasions for the 
 exercise of the duty of intercessory prayer, Shak- 
 speare had learnt, and desired to teach, that it is 
 most especially , 
 
 A virtuous and krQhristian-like conclusion, 
 To pray for them that have done scath\ to us. 
 
 King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 i. e. c for them which despitefully use us/ Matt. v. 44. 
 
 * The axe that was to divorce the soul from the body. 
 f Injury. 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 And, as though he would teach this duty most 
 effectually, he allots to Macbeth the odious task of 
 attempting to decry it, and that in colloquy with 
 one whom he designed to employ for the murder- 
 ing of Banquo : 
 
 Do you find 
 Your patience so predominant in your nature, 
 That you can let this go ? Are you so gospelled 
 To pray for this good man, and for his issue, 
 Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave, 
 And beggared yours for ever ? Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 On the other hand, it is assigned as a fitting office 
 for one of the most charming and most perfect* of 
 our poet's characters, to exemplify this difficult 
 duty in the most trying of all circumstances. When 
 it is suggested to Desdemona, in order to account 
 for Othello's vile and cruel language towards her, 
 that some one must have slandered her to him, she 
 meekly replies 
 
 If there be any such, Heaven pardon him ! 
 
 Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 There are two other points in regard to the duty 
 of Prayer, which we should expect that Shakspeare 
 would not overlook. One is, that our prayers 
 should be real ; not lip-service merely ; and must 
 proceed from a heart sincerely desirous to please 
 
 * In our admiration for Desdemona, however, we must not forget 
 that her tragical end represents the unhappy issue of a marriage 
 entered into by a daughter without her father's consent, and in 
 deceitful opposition to his authority. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 163 
 
 God. The other is, that, if we do not receive the 
 things for which we pray, we ought not therefore 
 to conclude that we have been unheard ; for it often 
 happens that the denial of our requests may prove 
 a greater benefit to us than the granting of them 
 would have been. Accordingly, the former of these 
 points is brought before us in Hamlet, where the 
 wicked king, after kneeling and attempting to pray, 
 rises with the confession : 
 
 My words fly up, my thoughts remain below ; 
 Words without thoughts never to Heaven go. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 And again, in Measure for Measure, the duplicity 
 is exposed of professing to offer up prayer while 
 the heart is bent upon yielding to temptation, in 
 the person of the licentious Deputy : 
 
 When I would pray, and think, I think and pray 
 To several subjects : Heaven hath my empty words ; 
 Whilst my intention,* hearing not my tongue, 
 Anchors on Isabel. Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 He had before said, in the consciousness of suffer- 
 ing himself to be overcome 
 
 I am that way going to temptation, 
 Where prayers cross ; Ibid. Sc. 2. 
 
 words which, doubtless, contain a reference to the 
 petition in the Lord's Prayer against temptation, as 
 Mr. Henley has observed ; but of which it is not 
 
 * Substituted by Warburton for invention. 
 m 2 
 
T64 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 easy to give altogether a satisfactory interpretation, 
 if we must be content to take them as they stand. 
 
 The latter point, which I just now mentioned, is 
 one with which scholars will be familiar, as forming 
 the subject of that most remarkable production of 
 heathen antiquity the ioth Satire of Juvenal 
 so vigorously imitated by Johnson ; and, there- 
 fore, there is at least no impropriety in putting it, 
 as Shakspeare has done, into a dialogue, in Antony 
 and Cleopatra , between Sextus Pompeius and his 
 friend Menecrates : 
 
 Pomp. If the great gods be just, they shall assist 
 The deeds of justest men. 
 
 Mene. Know, worthy Pompey, 
 
 That what they do delay, they not deny. 
 
 Pomp. While we are suitors to their throne, decays 
 The thing we sue for. 
 
 Mene. We, ignorant of ourselves, 
 
 Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
 Deny us for our good ; so find we profit 
 By losing of our prayers. Act ii. Sc. i. 
 
 Sect. 8. Of the Domestic Relations. 
 
 We should be glad to be able to feel assured 
 that the marriage of our poet, though formed at 
 such an early age (before he was 19), and in one 
 respect disproportionate (his wife being eight years 
 older than himself), did not prove an unhappy one. 
 Doubtless it assisted to give him, when he was still 
 young, his deep insight into female character ; and 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 165 
 
 the draught of his female personages, On the whole, 
 would rather lead us to suppose, that as he had 
 been prepossessed in favour of the sex, so the ex- 
 perience which he afterwards enjoyed tended to con- 
 firm, rather than to remove, the good impression. 
 The views which he has expressed of the conjugal 
 union are such as do him honour ; and it is only- 
 fair, therefore, to conclude, that though he married 
 early, he did not do so * unadvisedly, or without a 
 due regard to the sacredness of the tie, which it is 
 certain he had learnt in his maturer years to regard 
 in its proper light. Thus, in King Henry V. y Isabel, 
 Queen of France, is made to say, at the marriage 
 of the king with her daughter Katharine : 
 
 God, the best maker of all marriages, 
 
 Combine your hearts in one. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 And the words that follow are not less worthy of the 
 
 * It must, however, be confessed, that in one of his last-written 
 plays, Twelfth Night, he has left us a warning against the step which 
 he himself had taken yet a warning put in such a way that, with 
 true delicacy of feeling, it reflects upon himself more than upon the 
 lady who had been the object of his choice : 
 Duke. Let still the nvoman take 
 
 An elder than herself; so wears she to him, 
 
 So sways she level in her husband's heart. 
 
 For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, 
 
 Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, 
 
 More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, 
 
 Than women's are. 
 
 Then let thy lo<ve be younger than thyself 
 
 Or thy affection cannot hold the bent. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 On Shakspeare in his own domestic -relations, see Wise's Shak- 
 spere and his Birthplace, p. 72, sq. 
 
r 66 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 subject and the occasion, though she who uttered 
 them proved untrue : 
 
 / have forgot my Father ; 
 I know no touch of consanguinity, 
 No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me 
 As the sweet Troilus. 
 
 Troi/us and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 In this last quotation the first half line will re- 
 mind us of a passage in the Psalms, xlv. 10 ; and 
 what I am next to quote would, probably, never 
 have been written if a passage of S. Paul, Eph. v. 
 23, had not been running in our poet's mind. I 
 allude to the dialogue between the Provost and 
 Clown, in Measure for Measure : 
 
 Prov. Come hither, sirrah, can you cut off a man's head ? 
 
 Clown. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can ; but if he be a 
 married man, he is his wife's head 3 and I can never cut off a 
 woman's head. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 But there is a speech in which, besides repeating 
 this apostolic sentiment, it would seem that our poet 
 set himself to draw out at length all that the Scripture 
 teaches of the duty of wives towards their husbands, 
 with such additional touches to the picture as his 
 own imagination or the contrast (let us hope) 
 afforded by his wife's good qualities would readily 
 suggest. Katharina, having ceased to be a shrew, 
 under the discipline of Petruchio, gives the follow- 
 ing good advice to one who was married, but had 
 not yet learned to be obedient to her husband : 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. \6y 
 
 Fye, fye ! imknit that threatening unkind brow, 
 
 And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, 
 
 To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor : 
 
 It blots thy beauty, as frosts bite the meads ; 
 
 Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds ; 
 
 And in no sense is meet or amiable. 
 
 A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,. 
 
 Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty ; 
 
 And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty 
 
 Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it. 
 
 Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, 
 
 Thy head, thy sovereign ; one that cares for thee; 
 
 And for thy maintenance, commits his body 
 
 To painful labour, both by sea and land ; 
 
 To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, 
 
 While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe ; 
 
 And craves no other tribute at thy hands, 
 
 But love, fair looks, and true obedience, 
 
 Too little payment for so great a debt. 
 
 Such duty as the subject owes the prince, 
 
 Even such a woman oweth to her husband ; 
 
 And when she's peevish, froward, sullen, sour,. 
 
 And not obedient to his honest will, 
 
 What is she but a foul contending rebel, 
 
 And graceless traitor to her loving lord ? 
 
 I am asham'd, that women are so simple 
 
 To offer war, where they should kneel for peace , 
 
 Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, 
 
 Where they are bound to serve, love, and obey. 
 
 Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth, 
 
 Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, 
 
 But that our soft * conditions, and our hearts, * 
 
 Should well agree with our external parts ? 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 Some of my fair readers will think, perhaps, that 
 
 * The gentle qualities of our minds. Malone. 
 
1 68 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 this lady's tongue has run on much too fast, and 
 much too far not unintentionally, I dare say, on 
 the poet's part, in order to show how the charac- 
 teristic weapon of the sex may be turned against 
 themselves. It will be well, therefore, to pass on 
 to a scene in which another Katharine will show, in 
 much fewer words, and as exemplified in her own 
 person, what is the perfect character of a good wife, 
 and that too, while her c loving lord ' must, unhap- 
 pily, be pronounced c the graceless traitor : ' 
 
 Have I lived thus long a wife, a true one, 
 
 A woman (I dare say, without vain-glory) 
 
 Never yet branded with suspicion ? 
 
 Have I with all my full affections, \ 
 
 Still met the king ? loved him next Heaven ? obeyed him ? 
 
 Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him ? 
 
 Almost forgot my prayers to content him ? 
 
 And am I thus rewarded ? 'tis not well, lords. 
 
 Bring me a constant woman to her husband, 
 
 One that ne'er dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure; 
 
 And to that woman, when she has done most, 
 
 Yet will I add an honour a great patience. 
 
 King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. I. 
 
 It is a curious instance of our author's tact that 
 he employs women to teach wives their conjugal 
 duty. We have seen this already in the Naming of 
 the Shrew ; and there is another example in the 
 Comedy of Errors (if that play be Shakspeare's), where 
 Luciana takes to task her married sister Adriana, 
 for want of obedience and submission to her husband. 
 See Act ii. Sc. i. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 169 
 
 From the consideration of the duties which arise 
 out of the marriage tie, we naturally proceed to the 
 relationship of parents and children ; and there again 
 our poet may speak to us from his own experience, 
 in both relations. He was himself the eldest of 
 eight children four of either sex but three of the 
 sisters died in infancy ; and his own family consisted 
 of two daughters and a son, the son* and the younger 
 of the daughters being twins. These bare facts 
 furnish nearly all the materials which we now pos- 
 sess, or can hope to obtain, of our poet's family his- 
 tory. It will be interesting to supply the deficiency, 
 in however slight a degree, so far as we may be able, 
 from his works. In these, accordingly, we may 
 discover the tenderness of a parent's heart ; where 
 the clown, in All's well that ends well, quotes the 
 proverb, c Bairns are blessings,' f Act i. Sc. 3 ; and, 
 again, where Lady Constance, in King John, says to 
 Cardinal Pandulph, Act iii. Sc. 4 : 
 He talks to me that never had a son. 
 
 In these, too, we seem to read that our author had 
 learnt, and practised, and desired in his own turn to 
 teach, the duty of children towards their parents. 
 How pathetically, for instance, is this lesson read to 
 Coriolanus by his mother Volumnia : 
 
 Say my request's unjust, 
 And spurn me back ; but if it be not so, 
 
 * He died when only twelve years old. 
 f See Psalm cxxvii. 6, cxxviii. 5, sq. 
 
170 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Thou art not honest ; and the gods will plague thee, 
 
 That thou restrainst from me the duty, which 
 
 To a mother's part belongs. Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 And how forcibly is Goneril admonished by the 
 
 Duke of Albany, that no good can be expected 
 
 either from or by an undutiful child : 
 
 O Goneril ! 
 You are not worth the dust which the rude wind 
 Blows in your face. I fear your disposition : 
 
 That nature, which contemns its origin 
 
 Cannot be bordered certain in itself: 
 
 i. e. cannot be restrained within any certain bounds, 
 and will eventually shrink from no excess of sin. 
 
 She that herself will sliver * or disbranch 
 From her material sap, perforce must wither. 
 And come to deadly use. 
 
 In these last words Warburton suggests that 
 there is a reference to the use that witches and en- 
 chanters are said to make of withered branches in 
 their charms. On the other hand, no less forcibly 
 and pathetically does our poet teach us, we may 
 suppose from his own feelings, the affection which 
 parents cherish, or ought to cherish, towards their 
 offspring, in the rebuke which Clifford administers 
 to King Henry VI. : 
 
 My gracious liege, this too much lenity 
 And harmful pity must be laid aside. 
 Whose hand is that the forest bear does lick ? 
 Not his that spoils her young before her face. 
 
 * Tear off. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. LJi 
 
 The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on, 
 And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. 
 Unreasonable creatures feed their young, 
 And tho' man's face be fearful to their eyes, 
 Yet, in protection of their tender ones, 
 Who hath not seen them (even with those wings 
 Which sometimes they have used with fearful flight), 
 Make war with him that climbed unto their nest, 
 Offering their own lives in their young's defence ? 
 For shame, my liege, make them your precedent ! 
 
 K. Henry VI. yd Part, Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 A rebuke which, whether just or no, elicited from 
 the king in reply, the noble sentiment about which 
 there can be no question that the good deeds of 
 parents are the best inheritance which they can be- 
 queath to their children : 
 
 I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind. 
 
 What man had ever more reason than the son of 
 Shakspeare to rejoice over the heirloom which his 
 father left him ? And besides the heritage of his 
 name, and of his works, that father, I doubt not, 
 bequeathed to his children if nothing else yet at 
 least the effectual blessing of a good Christian. 
 This I say, because I doubt not also that the pious 
 practice of children receiving benedictions from 
 their parents a practice common in our poet's time 
 was observed in his own family. That such must 
 have been the case we may not unreasonably infer 
 from his frequent mention of it, and from the easy 
 natural manner in which it is introduced. We find 
 it in the Two Gentlemen of Verona^ in Coriolanus> in 
 
J y% Sbahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Cymbeline, in 'Titus Andronicus, in King Lear, in 
 Hamlet, in King Richard III, But before we turn 
 to the passages, let me produce a few examples in 
 illustration of the custom from other sources. 
 
 In the Life of Sir Thomas More, published in 
 the late Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, 
 read: 
 
 Towards his father he gave many proofs of his natural affection 
 and lowly mind. Whensoever he passed through Westminster to 
 his place in the Chancery, by the Court of King's Bench, if his 
 father, who sat there as judge, had been set down ere he came, he 
 would go to him, and reverently kneeling down in sight of all, 
 ask him blessing. This virtuous custom he always solemnly 
 observed; tho' then men after their marriages thought themselves 
 not bound to these duties of younger folks. 
 
 Such was the humility and filial reverence of the 
 then Lord High Chancellor of England ! Stapleton, 
 in his Tres Thorns, bears witness to the same fact, 
 and in recording it speaks of the practice as peculiar 
 to the English people. His words are worth quoting 
 at the present day : 
 
 Solent apud nos liberi quotidie, mane ac vesperi, benedictionem 
 flexo poplite ab utroque parente petere. Qui mos si apud alias 
 quasdam gentes obtineret, haberent Parentes fUios magis morigeros, 
 haberet Respublica subditos magis obsequentes, haberet Ecclesia 
 fideles magis obedientes.* 
 
 Nicholas Ferrar was born when Shakspeare 
 began to write, viz. in 1592 ; and we are told of 
 
 * Eccl. Biog. ii. 73. Compare the testimony of Meric Casaubon, 
 quoted in Christian Institutes, iv. 565. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 173 
 
 him, when he was 27 years old, and his mother 
 came to visit him at Little Gidding, that c though 
 he was of that age, and had been engaged in many- 
 public concerns of great importance, had been a 
 distinguished member of Parliament, and had con- 
 ducted with effect the prosecution of the Prime 
 Minister of the day, at first approaching his mother, 
 he knelt upon the ground to ask and receive her 
 blessing ; ' and he kept up the same practice in his 
 own family ; as did also, we read,* Mr. Philip 
 Henry, who died in 1696 : so that we have evidence 
 of the existence of the custom during two centuries. 
 Bishop Sanderson, in 1657, mentions it as one of 
 the observances which, in that disordered and dis- 
 tempered time, were cried down as c rags of Po- 
 pery, 'f And there can be no doubt that during 
 the Cromwellian usurpation our old English 
 manners suffered not a little, and c many practices 
 which were themselves part and instruments of piety, 
 were exploded and lost by being branded under that 
 odious name.' J 
 
 But to return to Shakspeare. There could not 
 be a more striking illustration of the custom of 
 which I have been speaking, than that Caius Mar- 
 cius, on his return from the capture of Corioli, and 
 victory over the Volscians, should be made, as he 
 is, to kneel and beg his mother's blessing : 
 
 * See Ibid. iv. 173, 181. f Works, vol. ii. p. 35. 
 X Eccl. Biog. iv. 180. Christian Institutes \ iv. 561. 
 
j 74 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 All. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus ! 
 
 Cor. No more of this, it does offend my heart : 
 Pray now, no more. 
 
 Com.* Look, sir, your mother ! 
 
 Cor. O ! 
 
 You have I know petitioned all the gods 
 For my prosperity. [Kneels. 
 
 Vol.\ Nay, my good soldier, up ! 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 In Cymbeline> we naturally expect the same from 
 a son like Guiderius, see Act iv. Sc. 4 ; and from a 
 daughter like Imogen, see Act v. Sc. 5. It is a 
 daughter, too, who in Titus Andronkus says to her 
 father, upon his return to Rome, after conquering 
 the Goths : 
 
 O bless me here with thy victorious hand. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 On the other hand, remembering the treatment 
 which King Lear had received from his two un- 
 natural daughters, Goneril and Regan, we are not 
 surprised that the Fool should say to him, while 
 they are out together in the pitiless storm upon the 
 heath : 
 
 Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughter'sl blessing ; here's a night 
 pities neither wise men nor fools. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 While remembering also how he himself had acted 
 towards his good daughter, Cordelia, we are not dis- 
 
 * Cominius, general in command with Coriolanus, against the 
 Volscians. 
 
 f Volumnia, mother to Coriolanus. 
 
 X So Mr. Malone prints it ; but surely it should be daughters.' 
 Lear goes on to speak of * two pernicious daughters.' 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 175 
 
 pleased that he should say to her, at the last, 
 
 when moved to repentance : 
 
 When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, 
 
 And ask of thee forgiveness ; Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 nor that she, on her part, should beseech and 
 
 protest : 
 
 O ! look upon me, sir, 
 And hold your hands in benediction o'er me. 
 No, sir, you must not kneel. Act iv. Sc.7. 
 
 In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, when Launce, the 
 servant of Proteus, is to leave Rome in attendance 
 upon his master, he ludicrously describes all the par- 
 ticulars of the mournful scene, and among the rest: 
 
 Now come I to my father ; Father, your blessing. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 In like manner, we have already seen,* in Hamlet, 
 
 Polonius laying his hand upon his son Laertes' head, 
 
 and blessing him before he set out upon his travels ; 
 
 and in the same play, Hamlet says to the unhappy 
 
 queen his mother, whom he had urged to repentance 
 
 and reformation : 
 
 Once more, Good night ! 
 And when you are desirous to be blessed, 
 /'// blessing beg of you : Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 that is, I'll beg your blessing, when you yourself 
 are desirous to amend, and so shall be in a condition 
 to receive blessing from God. 
 
 Once more, in King Richard III., the wicked 
 
 * Above, p. 116. 
 
176 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Gloster, as he then was, has the hypocrisy to go 
 through the same pious form towards his mother : 
 
 Glos. Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy ! 
 I did not see your grace Humbly on my knee 
 I crave your blessing. 
 
 Duch. God bless thee ! and put meekness in thy breast, 
 Love, charity, obedience, and true duty ! 
 
 Glos. Amen ! And make me die a good old man. 
 That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing, [Aside. 
 
 I marvel that her grace did leave it out. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 It would be interesting to descend to the relations 
 which exist in a family between the master and 
 mistress and their domestics ; and to endeavour 
 to trace the notions which our poet entertained of 
 the reciprocal duties that flow from that relationship. 
 But I must be content to observe that he has drawn 
 no purer or better character than that of old Adam, 
 the servant, in As you like it ; and that in Cymheline 
 he takes occasion, in a speech of Posthumus to his 
 servant Pisanio, to lay down the just and important 
 principle, that no servant is bound to please his 
 master by doing what is wrong : 
 
 Every good servant does not all commands : 
 
 No bond, but to do just ones. Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 Sect. 9. Of Charity and Mercifulness. 
 
 If we are to lay a solid foundation of moral duty, 
 we must first learn to entertain a just abhorrence of 
 its opposite. c O ye that love the Lord, see that ye 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 177 
 
 hate the thing that is evil.' Ps. xcvii. 10. Thus 
 of the Ten Commandments, not only the three first, 
 but the five last also, are all couched in the negative 
 form, as though the prohibition of vice was de- 
 signed to form the foundation of virtue. And thus, 
 too, we learn, even from a heathen poet 
 
 Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima 
 Stultitia. caruisse. 
 
 The beginning of Virtue is to flee Vice, and the be- 
 ginning of Wisdom to have escaped from Folly, 
 
 In this and the four next sections I propose to 
 test the teaching of Shakspeare by this rule ; and, 
 following the order of the second table of the moral 
 law, to show how, after the model of Scripture, he 
 would teach us : ( 1 ) from the prohibition of mur- 
 der to build up the grace of charity; (2) from the 
 prohibition of adultery to build up the grace of 
 chastity and sobriety ; (3) from the prohibition of 
 stealing to build up the grace of honesty ; (4) from 
 the prohibition of false witness to build up the grace 
 of truth; and (5) from the prohibition of covet- 
 ousness to build up the grace of contentment. 
 
 The subject then of this section corresponds 
 with the scope of the sixth Commandment, as deve- 
 loped by our Lord in the sermon on the mount. 
 
 In K. Richard III Clarence thus speaks to one of 
 the men who were sent by Gloster to murder him 
 in the Tower : 
 
 N 
 
178 Shakspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Erroneous vassal ! The great King of Kings 
 Hath in the Table of His law commanded 
 That thou shalt do no murder ; wilt thou then 
 Spurn at His edict, and fulfill a man's ? 
 Take heed ; for He holds vengeance in His hand, 
 To hurl upon their heads that break His law. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 There is, however, a well-known passage in Hamlet, 
 in which our poet would seem not only to justify 
 the taking of blood for blood by private assassina- 
 tion, but to go much further, by teaching to post- 
 pone such an act, out of c a refinement of revenge/ 
 with the view of securing, at the same time, as far 
 as possible, the everlasting perdition of the mur- 
 derer. And Johnson, accordingly, has condemned 
 the speech more especially coming, as it does, from 
 c a virtuous character ' as one c too horrible to be 
 read or to be uttered.' This is a grave charge to bring 
 against our author ; and though the commentators 
 in general appear to have acquiesced in it as just, 
 I would venture to offer a few remarks in arrest of 
 so severe a judgment. For this purpose it will be 
 necessary to produce at least a portion of the speech 
 alluded to. "When the wicked king, in attempting 
 to repent,* retires and kneels, Hamlet entering un- 
 observed, says to himself with reference to the act 
 of murder which he was contemplating 
 
 Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying ; 
 And now I'll do 9 1: and so he goes to heaven : 
 
 * See above, pp. 140, 163. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 179 
 
 And so am I revenged? That would* be scanned : 
 
 A villain kills my father : and, for that, 
 
 I, his sole son, do this same villain send 
 
 To heaven. 
 
 Why this is hire and salary > not revenge. 
 
 He took my father grossly, full of bread, 
 
 With all his crimes broad blown. 
 
 I may observe, by the way, that the expression 
 c full of bread' affords a remarkable instance of 
 Shakspeare's intimate acquaintance with Holy Scrip- 
 ture. I had noticed the parallel to Ezekiel, xvi. 
 49, and I find that Mr. Malone has done the 
 same. 
 
 And am I then revenged 
 
 To take him in the purging of his sou], 
 
 When he is fit and season'd for his passage ? 
 
 No. 
 
 Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent.f 
 
 And he concludes by saying aside to the king 
 This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. 
 
 Now, first, I would borrow the observation of Mr. 
 M. Mason, that though c this speech of Hamlet's, 
 as Johnson observes, is horrible indeed, yet some 
 moral may be extracted from it, as all his subse- 
 quent calamities were owing to this savage refine- 
 ment of revenge.' But further ; it has been pointed 
 out, with great truth, that in times of less civiliza- 
 tion revenge was regarded as a sacred duty. 'The 
 
 * That should be, requires to be well considered, 
 f Hold, seizure. 
 
 N 2 
 
1 80 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 more fell and terrible the retributive act the more 
 meritorious it seems to have been held. The king 
 himself, in a subsequent scene (Act iv. Sc. 7), 
 when stimulating Laertes to kill Hamlet, says : 
 1 Revenge should have no bounds.' These remarks 
 are confirmed by many unhappy incidents in our 
 Scotch history. The following is told by Sir Walter 
 Scott, in his Review* of the Culloden Papers : 
 
 So deep was this thirst of vengeance impressed on the minds of 
 the Highlanders, that when a clergyman informed a dying chief 
 of the unlawfulness of the sentiment, urged the necessity of his 
 forgiving an inveterate enemy, and quoted the Scriptural expres- 
 sion, ' Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,' the acquiescing penitent 
 said, with a deep sigh ' To be sure it is too sweet a morsel for 
 a mortal.' Then added, ' Well, I forgive him, but the deil take 
 you, Donald (turning to his son), if you forgive him ! 
 
 Other stories are told by Sir Walter to the same 
 effect in the same place, and c we could add an 
 hundred/ he writes, c of that insatiable thirst for 
 revenge which attended northern feuds/ Under 
 ( northern,' we may well include c Danish ; espe- 
 cially when we consider the close affinity that ex- 
 isted between this country and Denmark in early 
 times. In like manner, Mr. P. F. Tytler, in his 
 History of Scotland^ tells us of the c sacred duty of 
 feudal vengeance ; ' and again, of the c deep princi- 
 ple of feudal vengeance which demanded blood for 
 blood ; ' a principle which he describes, in another 
 
 * See Quarterly Review, vol. xiv. p. 288. 
 f See vol. ix. pp. 15, 65, 309. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 181 
 
 place, as c so universally felt that it may be regarded 
 almost as the pulse of feudal life/ That our poet 
 had fully realized the existence and the energetic 
 character of this principle may be inferred from 
 scenes and sentiments which he has introduced else- 
 where ; as in Romeo and Juliet , where Tybalt, as a 
 Capulet, says of a Montague 
 
 Now by the stock and honor of my kin, 
 
 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin. Act i. Sc. 5. 
 
 But there, too, the entire plot and catastrophe of 
 the play turns upon the fatal results which may be 
 expected to overtake those who act upon such a 
 sentiment; while its corrective is early (Act iii. Sc. 1) 
 administered by the prince himself in those weighty 
 words : 
 
 Mercy but murders, pardoning those who kill 
 
 which faithfully embody the teaching of Scripture, 
 as we find it in Genesis ix. 5, 6 ; Numbers xxxv. 16, 
 3 1 . And in Hamlet, even the wicked king is made 
 to substantiate the same truth : 
 
 No place indeed should murder sanctuarize ; 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 7. 
 
 i. e. should afford sanctuary to a murderer. 
 
 But to return to the speech of Hamlet. In ad- 
 dition to what has been already said, we are to 
 remember that Hamlet was a man of unsettled 
 mind, and that what had unsettled him was the duty 
 of dealing in some way with the murderer of his 
 
 / 
 
1 83 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 father and the usurper of his throne. I do not deny, 
 what Dr. Johnson asserts, and would, of course, 
 maintain as essential for the support of his un- 
 friendly criticism, viz. that Hamlet's madness was 
 c feigned;' but it was not, in my opinion, so feigned 
 as to have no foundation in actual derangement; 
 and what more proper or more natural than that the 
 cause which gave occasion for his derangement should 
 lead him to harbour an idea so monstrous, and to 
 express himself in terms so shocking, as to be de- 
 fensible only upon that ground ? I agree with 
 Goethe and others who conceive that Shakspeare 
 meant, in the case of Hamlet, to represent the 
 effects of a great action laid upon one who was in- 
 adequate to the performance of it. And part of 
 this inadequacy, I imagine, is made to lie in his 
 looking for the redress which he had to seek only 
 in personal revenge of the meanest kind secret 
 assassination ; while, in justice to the really good 
 and amiable features of his character, a veil is in 
 some sort thrown over this meanness by accompany- 
 ing it with sentiments which would indeed be c too 
 horrible ' for any man, much more a man of c vir- 
 tuous character/ not disordered in his mind, to enter- 
 tain or express. 
 
 At the same time it is to be noted that Shak- 
 speare had prepared us from the first not to ex- 
 pect in Hamlet, however virtuous on the whole, 
 the perfection of Christian principle in bearing up 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 1 83 
 
 against the grievous wrongs done to both his 
 parents, and through them to himself. In the 
 second scene of the play, speaking to his friend 
 Horatio, of his mother's marriage with the mur- 
 derer of his father before the ghost had assured 
 him of the fact and circumstances of the murder he 
 has recourse to a sentiment which contains the germ 
 of all that shocks us most in the speech so gravely- 
 censured by Dr. Johnson, and gives the first indica- 
 tion of excited feeling, in the direction not of dis- 
 content merely, but of maliciousness, of revenge : 
 
 Would I had met my dearest* foe in heaven. 
 
 Or ever f I had seen that day, Horatio ! Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 How different the language put by our poet into 
 
 the mouth of Wolsey, as a Christian bishop, now 
 
 penitent and at the close of life : 
 
 Cherish those hearts that hate thee ! 
 
 K. Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And again this truly Christian character is given to 
 the first reformed Anglican archbishop, Cranmer, 
 in the same play, the king himself bearing witness 
 of him in these words : 
 
 The common voice, I see, is verified 
 Of thee, which says thus : Do my Lord of Canterbury 
 A shrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 The precept to love our enemies aims at a height to 
 which the most perfect teaching of morality among 
 
 * i.e. greatest, worst. f See above, p. 36. 
 
184 Sbahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 the heathen made no pretension.* But the doctrine 
 
 of forgiveness was not altogether unknown to them, 
 
 as we may gather from Cicero : 
 
 Sunt quasdam officia etiam adversus eos servanda a quibus in- 
 juriam acceperis. Est enim ulciscendi et puniendi modus. 
 Atque haud scio an satis sit eum qui lacessierit, injurice suae 
 poenitere. De Officiis, lib. 1, cap. xi. 
 
 Our poet therefore was at liberty to put such words 
 
 as these into the mouth of Volumnia, the mother 
 
 of Coriolanus : 
 
 Why dost not speak ? 
 Think'st thou it honorable for a noble man 
 Still to remember wrongs? Coriol. Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 Compare Prospero in the 'Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1 . 
 
 On a par with Revenge for the evil we have re- 
 ceived is Ingratitude for the good. c Religion groans 
 at ' both ; though it is with reference to the latter 
 that our poet has used this expressive figure, in 
 Timon of Athens : 
 
 1 st Stranger. O ! see the monstrousness of man, 
 When he looks out in an ungrateful | shape. 
 
 2nd Stranger. Religion groans at it. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 On the other hand, Religion smiles at every at- 
 tempt to overcome or to remove not only the more 
 
 * On Shakspeare's own practice in this respect, see Mr.Wise, p. 14.5. 
 f Compare the strong condemnation of Ingratitude in Twelfth 
 Night : 
 
 I hate ingratitude more in a man 
 
 Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, 
 
 Or any taint of vice, whose strong corruption 
 
 Inhabits our frail blood. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 1 85 
 
 grievous instances of uncharitableness such as those, 
 but whatever is at variance with brotherly kindness 
 and good will. She has taught our poet to write : 
 
 Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. 
 
 K. Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 And, further, she has taught him, as we saw above 
 in Section 7, that one great instrument of making 
 peace, is to pray for those who despite fully use us. 
 Moreover, she has taught him that the foundation 
 of love or charity to others is the sense of our own 
 liability to want ; and the true motive for exercising 
 charity the remembrance that we ourselves do con- 
 stantly need effectual relief and loving comfort, and 
 do constantly receive them from God : 
 
 Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the heart of a 
 stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 
 
 Exodus xxiii. 9. 
 The Lord your God loveth the stranger in giving him food and 
 raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger : for ye were strangers 
 in the land of Egypt, from which the Lord delivered you. 
 
 Deut. x. 17-19. 
 
 King Lear confesses that in the day of prosperity 
 
 he had given too little heed to these considerations : 
 
 O ! I have ta'en 
 Too little care of this ! Take physick, Pomp ; 
 Expose thyself to feel what wretches * feel ; 
 That thou may'st shake the superflux to them, 
 And show the Heavens more just. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 * The general duty of sympathy is expressed in the very words of 
 Scripture, Rom. xii. 1 5, * to weep with them that weep/ in Titus 
 Andronicus, Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
1 86 Shahpeares Religions Principles and 
 
 But Shakspeare makes use of Gloster, in the same 
 play, to teach this same lesson still more effectually. 
 Turned out of doors, with his eyes put out, he meets 
 on the heath, without knowing him, his son Edgar, 
 as Mad Tom. Learning from the old man who 
 led him that Mad Tom was a beggar, he says to 
 him: 
 
 Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues 
 Have humbled to all strokes : that I am wretched, 
 Makes thee the happier 
 
 i. e. because my wretchedness now teaches me to 
 compassionate those who are in distress : 
 
 Heavens, deal so still ! 
 Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man 
 That slaves * your ordinance, that will not see 
 Because be doth not feel, feel your power quickly : 
 So distribution should undo excess, 
 And each man have enough. Act iv. Sc. I. 
 
 These last words may remind us of S. Paul's 
 argument in favour of alms-giving, c that there may 
 be an equality ' between rich and poor, in 2 Cor. 
 viii. 13-15. 
 
 Once more, in the same play, Edgar, who had 
 been made to drink deeply of the c physic ' of 
 adversity, tells the happy effect which it had 
 produced upon him. When asked, c Now, good 
 sir, what are you ?' he answers: 
 
 * Makes a slave of, instead of obeying, the divine ordinance of 
 charity to the poor. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 187 
 
 A most poor man, made tame by fortune's blows : 
 Who, by the art of known and feeling* sorrows, 
 Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand, 
 I'll lead you to some biding.f Act iv. Sc. 6. 
 
 I have already^ had occasion to quote the well- 
 known speech of Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, 
 which bears upon this point : 
 
 We do pray for mercy : 
 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
 The deeds of mercy. Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 And if we fail to do so, Portia again, in the same 
 scene, warns us what we may expect : 
 
 As thou urgest justice, be assured 
 Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st. 
 
 We know that, according to the teaching of 
 
 Scripture, charity or love is the sum of all virtue. 
 
 There is something singularly striking in the way 
 
 in which our poet carries on the idea, and makes 
 
 kindness the sum not only of all virtue, but of all 
 
 beauty : 
 
 In nature there's no blemish, but the mind ; 
 None can be called deformed, but the unkind: 
 Virtue is beauty. Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 Shakspeare was doubtless no stoic ; but by some 
 means or other he has contrived to appropriate 
 and improve upon the best ideas of the stoical phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 * Either * feeling ' is used for * felt,' as Malone is inclined to 
 think, or known and feeling ' is to be understood of { past and 
 present sorrows,' as Warburton interprets. 
 
 f Place to abide in. \ See p. 96. 
 
1 88 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Flowing from a kindly and considerate dispo- 
 sition, the duty of hospitality is one which the 
 Bible, we know, frequently enjoins and commends. 
 See i Peter iv. 9 ; Hebrews xiii. 2 ; Romans xii. 
 13. But there is a passage more solemn and more 
 impressive than any of these, spoken by our Lord 
 Himself with reference to the great day of account. 
 r I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; ' and c I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me not in,' Matt. xxv. 
 35, 43 ; which I cannot help thinking was present 
 to our poet's mind when he made Corin say, in 
 As you like it : 
 
 My master is of churlish disposition, 
 
 And little reeks to find the way to heaven, 
 
 By doing deeds of hospitality. Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 Copious, however, and emphatic as the Bible is 
 in giving us lessons upon all the parts and exercises 
 of duty which relate to charity and brotherly love, 
 it does not omit to give us, at the same time, all 
 needful caution in regard to the mistakes that may 
 be made and the danger incurred by the indulgence 
 of kind feelings, or a social disposition, without dis- 
 cretion and respect of persons. We are to be 
 careful in the choice of those with whom we associ- 
 ate ; careful in making and trusting friends ; careful, 
 above all, not to c walk in the counsel of the un- 
 godly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the 
 seat of the scornful. ' I feel that it is carrying out 
 the subject of this section somewhat beyond its 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 189 
 
 proper limit to extend it to points such as these; 
 I shall not therefore attempt to illustrate them in 
 detail ; only, as a warning upon the choice of friends, 
 I .venture to quote the dying speech of the Duke of 
 Buckingham, in King Henry VIII. : 
 
 You that hear me, 
 This from a dying man receive as certain : 
 Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels, 
 Be sure you be not loose, for those you make friends, 
 And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
 The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
 Like water * from ye, never found again, 
 But where they mean to sink ye. Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 Falstaff gives us another and still weightier reason 
 for the same precept : 
 
 It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is 
 caught, as men take diseases, one of another : therefore let men 
 take heed of their company. 
 
 Compare with this sentiment the verse of Menander 
 quoted by S. Paul in 1 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
 And that a multitude is not to be followed in doing 
 evil, where could we find a more just, though 
 laughable illustration, than in the words of Fluellen 
 in the English camp before the battle of Agin- 
 court ? 
 
 If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it 
 meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool 
 and a prating coxcomb : in your own conscience now ? 
 
 K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. i. 
 
 * See Psalm lviii. 6, Prayer-Book version. 
 
190 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Sect. 10. Of Diligence, Sobriety, and Chastity. 
 
 I have already been led to speak, in the eighth 
 section of this chapter, on the close connection and 
 sacredness of the Conjugal Relationship. It is a 
 relationship whereby the wife becomes, in the 
 highest and noblest sense, the property of the hus- 
 band, and the husband the property of the wife. 
 A British Churchman may be allowed to please 
 himself in fancying Shakspeare as an occasional 
 hearer of Bp. Andrewes * the greatest poet listen- 
 ing to the greatest preacher of the age and had he 
 been present when that admirable divine delivered 
 his c Exposition of the Seventh Commandment/ he 
 could not have laid down its first principles more 
 accurately than he has done in T roil us and Cressida, 
 where Hector thus speaks respecting the duty of 
 restoring Helen to her husband Menelaus : 
 
 Nature craves 
 All dues be rendered to their owners ; now, 
 What nearer debt f in all humanity 
 Than wife is to the husband ? If this law 
 Of nature be corrupted thro' affection, 
 
 There is a law in each well-order'd nation, 
 To curb those raging appetites that are 
 
 * Born in 1555 ; one of the translators of the Bible, 161 1. 
 
 \ Mr. Malone interprets the word ' propriety ' as used by Olivia 
 in Twelfth Night y Act v. Sc. 2, in this sense, viz. to mean the right 
 of property which a married couple have in each other, and which 
 Milton speaks of as the ' sole propriety in Paradise j ' but I rather 
 think it means in that place, * proper state.' 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 191 
 
 Most disobedient and refractory. 
 
 If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king 
 
 As it is known she is these moral laws 
 
 Of nature and of nations speak aloud 
 
 To have her back returned : Thus to persist 
 
 In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong, 
 
 But makes it much more heavy. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And in Measure for Measure our poet follows 
 the severity of the Mosaic Law, that those who 
 commit the sins more immediately forbidden by this 
 commandment are worthy of death,* no less than 
 they who commit murder : 
 
 It were as good 
 
 To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen 
 
 A man already made, as to remit f 
 
 Their saucy J sweetness, that do coin Heaven's image 
 
 In stamps that are forbid j Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 an aphorism not the less profound because enun- 
 ciated by a hypocrite, of which the author gives 
 us intimation, with admirable skill, by the phrase 
 chosen to describe the sin which is at once palliated 
 and proscribed. In like manner, no exception can 
 be taken against the truth of what follows in re- 
 gard either to the imprudence of hasty marriage or 
 the criminality of divorce however we may abhor 
 the speaker, the wicked Gloster : 
 
 Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. 
 Yet God forbid that I should wish them severed, 
 Whom God hath joined together. 
 
 K. Henry VI. yd Part, Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 * See also King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. But comp. S. John viii. 11. 
 f Pardon. % Inordinate indulgence of sensual appetite. 
 
1 9 % Shakspeare" s Religious Principles and 
 
 There is a sentiment, too often realised in the 
 experience of inordinate affection and unhallowed 
 intercourse between the sexes, which our poet might 
 have adopted from the miserable history of Amnon 
 and Tamar, recorded in i Samuel xiii. 2-15 : 
 
 Sweet love, I see, changing his property, 
 Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. 
 
 K. Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And where shall we find the unhappy passion 
 which sometimes seizes upon true and pure affection, 
 and which Shakspeare has delineated with over- 
 whelming power in Othello* and again in Winter's 
 Tale and Comedy of Errors, more justly character- 
 ised, though in so few words, than in the Song of 
 Solomon ? 
 
 Jealousy is cruel as the grave ; the coals thereof are coals of fire, 
 which hath a most vehement flame. viii. 6. 
 
 That the plays of Shakspeare are not free from 
 passages which may minister food to an impure 
 imagination,-)- cannot be denied; but that their 
 
 * In mitigation of the horror which the conduct of Othello inspires, 
 it would be well if it could be proved that he was not a Christian. 
 Schlegel regards him so ; and points this out as an instance in which 
 Shakspeare has improved upon the novel, the Moor of which he says 
 * is a baptised Saracen.' But to say nothing of the language which 
 Othello himself uses in Act ii. Sc. 3, quoted in the next page ; or of 
 the reference which Iago (who surely must be considered of the same 
 religion as his general) makes to ' proofs of Holy Writ ' in Act iii. 
 Sc. 3j it is plain that Schlegel must have overlooked the passage in 
 Iago's soliloquy (Act ii. Sc. 3) where he speaks of Othello as ready 
 even c to renounce his baptism ' for the love of Desdemona. 
 
 f He writes as if penitently conscious of this in his Sonnets ex. 
 and cxi. But compare my remarks below in the Conclusion. v 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 193 
 
 general tendency is of an opposite and wholly vir- 
 tuous character, is no less certain. Nor has he 
 omitted, on fit occasions, to give us the best of 
 lessons for the control of passion,* and the avoiding 
 of excess : as, for instance, in Measure for Measure, 
 the severe rebuke which the Duke, disguised as a 
 friar, administers to the Clown upon his profligate 
 course of life, Act iii. Sc. 2; and in Othello, where 
 Cassio, after he had been betrayed into intoxication, 
 delivers the following lecture against intempe- 
 rance : 
 
 Oh ! that men should put an enemy to their mouths to steal 
 away their brains ! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure and 
 applause, transform ourselves into beasts ! 
 
 Iago. Why, but you are now well enough. How came you 
 thus recovered ? 
 
 Cassio. It hath pleased the devil Drunkenness to give place to 
 the devil \ wrath : one imperfectness shows me another, to make 
 me frankly despise myself. . . . To be now a sensible man, 
 by and by a fool, and presently % a beast ! O strange ! Every 
 inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 The drinking bout had ended in a quarrel, and 
 in the midst of the disturbance, Othello, coming in, 
 exclaims : 
 
 * See the earnest caution to lovers before marriage in Tempest, 
 Act iv. Sc. 1, and the Song of the Fairies in Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 Act v. Sc. 5. 
 
 f See Ephes. iv. 27. 
 
 X Compare what the clown, in Twelfth Night, says of a drunken 
 man : that he is like a drowned man, a fool, and a madman.' 
 Act i. Sc. 5. 
 
 O 
 
194 Shakspeare' s Religious Principles and 
 
 Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? 
 Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that 
 Which Heaven hath forbid the Ottomites ?* 
 For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl. 
 
 The last line is one of those which make it difficult 
 to believe that Shakspeare had altogether forgotten 
 his schoolboy f classics. Surely when he wrote it 
 he was thinking of Horace : 
 
 Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis 
 Pugnare Thracum est ; tollite barbarum 
 Morem, verecundumque Bacchum 
 Sanguineis prohibite rixis. 
 
 In like manner we are warned against idleness, 
 
 as the certain mother of all evil, and especially of 
 
 such sins as are pointed at under this head, in 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, where Antony resolves : 
 
 I must from this enchanting queen break off : 
 
 Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, 
 
 My idleness doth hatch. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Where again it is not impossible that Shakspeare 
 
 had in mind another Roman poet of high authority 
 
 in such matters : 
 
 * Mahometans. 
 
 f The subject here hinted at is a tempting one even after Dr. 
 Farmer's essay. Let me be allowed to give only one instance in 
 addition to those produced above, and elsewhere in the text of these 
 pages. In K. Henry VIIL, Griffith says to Q. Katharine, with re- 
 ference to Wolsey, * Men's evil manners live in brass j their virtues 
 we write in water. 1 
 
 Mr. Reed has a long note in illustration of this latter figurative 
 expression, but neither he nor any of the critics has quoted a parallel 
 to it nearly so close, as is afforded by the following from Catullus : 
 * Dicit j sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, 
 Invento, et rapidd scribere ofortet aqua.' 
 
 See, however, Supplementary Note at end of this volume. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 195 
 
 Quaeritur ^Egisthus quare sit factus Adulter ? 
 In promptu causa est ; aesidiosus erat. 
 
 But the most impressive lesson of all in this respect 
 is the picture which our poet draws of the deathbed 
 of one whom he has made the type of a merry, but 
 sensual and ungodly life ; and being put into the 
 mouth of a worthless woman (for it could scarcely 
 have been represented otherwise) the description of 
 the scene is made more touching, more melancholy. 
 I allude to Act ii. Sc. 3 in King Henry V. The 
 reader of Burnet, of Evelyn's Memoirs, and of the 
 Life of Bp. Ken will be at no loss to compare a 
 parallel scene of real life, only exhibited on the most 
 elevated stage and in the highest rank, the death- 
 bed scene of the c Merry Monarch/ King Charles II. 
 c Truly the end of that mirth is heaviness.' Prov.. 
 xiv. 13. 
 
 I will only add here that as idleness is the root 
 of vice, so diligence and the desire of self-improve- 
 ment is, with the guidance of Divine grace, the best 
 road to virtue. And this too our poet would teach 
 us, if I do not misinterpret him, in these compre- 
 hensive and emphatic words : 
 
 Ignorance is the curse of God, 
 Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. 
 
 K. Henry VI. znd Part, Act iv. Sc. 7. 
 
 Or to take only the lower and merely practical view 
 which a heathen could exhibit : 
 
 Ni 
 Posces ante diem lib rum cum lumine, si non 
 o % 
 
ig6 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 Intendes animum studiis et rebus bonestis y 
 Invidia vel Amore vigil torquebere : 
 
 in other words, with such things as, he leaves us to 
 conclude, are not c honest,' not 'virtuous,' not c of good 
 report.' By c invidia' we may understand all those 
 evil affections which belong to the irascible, as by 
 c amor ' those which belong to the concupiscible part 
 
 of our nature. 
 
 
 
 Sect. ii. Of Justice and Honesty. 
 We are told in Measure for Measure of a certain 
 c sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten 
 Commandments, but scraped one the eighth out of 
 the Table,' Act i. Sc. 2. Thou shalt not steal c was a 
 commandment to command the' captain and all the 
 rest from their functions.' I am afraid that conduct 
 similar in effect to this pirate's is still only too com- 
 mon among landsmen ; as we may conclude it was 
 in Shakspeare's day. c To be honest, as this world 
 goes,' says Hamlet * to Polonius, c is to be one man 
 picked out of ten thousand,' Act ii. Sc. 2. And in 
 Timon of Athens, it is the remark of one of the three 
 strangers that c Policy sits above conscience,' Act iii. 
 Sc. 2. And yet how often have we been taught, in 
 regard not only to dishonest and unjust but to harsh 
 and ungenerous treatment of others, that c with 
 what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
 again !' Matt. vii. 2. 
 
 * See above, p. T19. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, lgy 
 
 Measure for measure must be answered. 
 
 Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. 6. 
 
 Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure. 
 
 Measure for Measure y Act v. Sc. i. 
 
 We know that even heathen moralists, such as 
 Cicero, regarded illiberality as a species of injustice;, 
 and though we have a proverb which bids us to be 
 just before we are generous, yet we also know that, as 
 Christians, we can never be said to be truly just, 
 until we are also really bountiful. It is the twofold 
 stigma of prodigality that it has a direct tendency, 
 by disabling us from giving, to make us unjust both 
 toward God and towards man. Hence it is that 
 while the duty of a charitable temper and disposition 
 belongs rather to the sixth Commandment, the 
 practical exhibition of that duty in regard to alms- 
 giving may be said to fall more properly under the 
 eighth. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus 
 we see the measure which will hereafter be measured 
 again to those who mete as Dives did to the poor. 
 How often our poet has alluded to that parable I 
 shall have occasion to mention in a later section.* 
 The parable of the prodigal son has another, and 
 more blessed lesson to teach, besides the evils and 
 injustice of prodigality ,a lesson fitted for the pul- 
 pit rather than for the stage ; but the stage may 
 seize at least upon that portion of the story which 
 represents how c the drunkard and the glutton shall 
 
 * See below, Sect. 16, 
 
198 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 come to poverty,' Prov. xxiii. 21, and how c want 
 jhall come as an armed man ' upon the sluggard 
 and the dissolute, Prov. vi. 11. 
 
 All things that are, 
 Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd. 
 How like a younker, or a prodigal, 
 The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, 
 Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind ! 
 How like the prodigal doth she return ; 
 With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails, 
 Lean, rent, and beggar 'd by the strumpet wind ! 
 
 Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 6. 
 
 Mr. Bowdler has not spared this beautiful passage, 
 
 but he has allowed what follows to stand without 
 
 curtailment. Oliver is speaking, in As you like it, 
 
 to his unkind and unnatural brother, Orlando : 
 
 Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them ? What 
 prodigal portion have I spent, that I should come to such penury ? 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 There is another reference to the same parable, 
 
 which again Mr. Bowdler has omitted, in the First 
 
 Part of King Henry IV. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 On the other hand, the poor widow who, in 
 
 putting her two mites into the treasury, gave c all 
 
 her living/ Mark xii. 4.4, was evidently in our 
 
 poet's thoughts, when he wrote : 
 
 Fool. How now, nuncle ? Would I had two coxcombs,* and 
 two daughters ! 
 
 Lear. Why, my boy ? 
 
 Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs my- 
 self. 
 
 # Fool's caps. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 199 
 
 With regard to the administration of justice, I have 
 
 noted only the following passages as coming within 
 
 the scope of my design. We read in the Acts how 
 
 that 
 
 !' King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cesarea to salute Festus. 
 And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's 
 cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds 
 by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests 
 and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment 
 against him. To whom I answered, it is not the manner of the 
 Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused 
 have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for him- 
 self concerning the crime laid against him.' xxv. 13-16. 
 
 Well therefore does Archbishop Cranmer urge, in 
 King Henry VIII. , before the Lords of Council 
 who were assembled to condemn him unheard : 
 
 I do beseech your lordships, 
 That in this case of justice, my accusers, 
 Be what they will, may stand forth face to face, 
 And freely urge against me. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 And well too does the Bishop of Carlisle, in King 
 Richard i7.,urge the same in behalf of his sovereign 
 against those who had conspired to dethrone him : 
 
 Thieves are not judged, but they are by to hear, 
 
 Altho' apparent guilt be seen in them : 
 
 And shall the figure of God's majesty, 
 
 His captain, steward, deputy elect, 
 
 Anointed, crowned, planted many years, 
 
 Be judged by subject and inferior breath, 
 
 And he himself not present f Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
300 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Sect. 12. Of the use and abuse of the 'Tongue, 
 
 c I will speak daggers/ says Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2, 
 using a metaphor which the Bible has made familiar 
 to us. c Swords are in their lips/ says the Psalmist, 
 lix. 7. And again, c Who whet their tongue like a 
 sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows 
 even bitter words/ lx. 3. And no doubt there are 
 many cases in which this is found by experience to 
 be too true. For instance : 
 
 'Tis slander ; 
 Whose edge is sharper than the sword-, whose tongue 
 Out-venoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath 
 Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 
 All corners of the world : kings, queens, and states, 
 Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave 
 This viperous slander enters. Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 And the heinousness of slander lies in this, that 
 nothing is more precious to a man than his good 
 name. There is an admirable sermon of Bishop 
 Sanderson* upon the text, C A good name is better 
 than precious ointment/ Eccles. vii. 1 ; in which he 
 observes the more precious a good name is, the 
 more grievous is their sin who seek to rob others 
 of it. c Neither thieves nor murderers are more 
 cruel and injurious than slanderers, backbiters, and 
 false accusers are.'f This is vigorously put by that 
 great divine, but not so effectively as our poet has 
 
 * Born 1587, died 1662. f Works, vol. i. p. 21. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 201 
 
 expressed the same ; and he has added the original 
 idea, that though so much is lost by him against 
 whom the sin is committed, nothing is gained by 
 him who commits it : 
 
 Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls : 
 
 Who steals my purse, steals trash ; . . . 
 
 But he that filches from me my good name, 
 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
 
 And makes me poor indeed. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Where Mr. Malone quotes Proverbs xxii. 1, c A 
 good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.' 
 S. Paul has taught us, that in judging others the 
 consequence is we condemn ourselves, Rom. ii. 1 ; 
 an idea which our poet has caught and admirably 
 intensified, when he makes Timon ask 
 
 Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men ? 
 
 Timon of Athens, Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 At the same time he does not deny that censure 
 and reproof, even of the greatest severity, may be 
 sometimes necessary, and that charity itself may 
 require us to administer them : 
 
 I must be cruel, only to be kind. 
 
 Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 But with regard to censures in general there is no 
 reflection more just or more profound than that the 
 judgment we form and the estimate we express of 
 the conduct of others depends upon our own moral 
 
202 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 state ; and how happily has our poet embodied this 
 truth ! 
 
 Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. 
 
 King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 It follows, as a consequence from this remark, 
 that praise is often a doubtful benefit, and we 
 know that in warning us against it, our Lord him- 
 self has gone so far as to say 
 
 Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you ! 
 
 Luke vi. 26. 
 
 And how ingeniously again has this sentiment been 
 adopted and assigned to the character to whom, of 
 all others, it is most appropriate ! 
 
 Timon. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. 
 Ahibiades. I never did thee harm. 
 Timon. Yea, thou spoFst well of me. 
 Alcibiades. Call'st thou that harm ? 
 
 Timon. Men daily find it such.* 
 
 Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 See also the dialogue between the Duke and the 
 Clown, in Twelfth Night : 
 
 Duke. How dost thou, my good fellow ? 
 
 Clown. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for 
 my friends. 
 
 Duke. Just the contrary ; the better for thy friends. 
 
 Clozvn. No, sir, the worse. 
 
 Duke. How can that be ? 
 
 Clown. Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me ; 
 now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass ; so that by my foes, 
 sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am 
 abused.\ Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 * See S. Chrys. on Acts, Horn. lii. -J* i. e. deceived, imposed upon. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 203 
 
 And if the praise of others is harmful, still less 
 will our own praise of ourselves do us good : 
 
 Let another man praise thee ; and not thine own mouth. 
 
 Prov- xxvii. 2. 
 It is not good to eat much honey ; so for men to search their 
 own glory is not glory. xxv. 27. 
 
 The worthiness of praise disdains his worth, 
 If that the praised himself bring the praise forth. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle ; 
 and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in 
 the praise. Ibid. Act. ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 We have had occasion, in former sections, to 
 speak of the efficacy of prayer and intercession, 
 and also of the practice of Parental Benediction, 
 which our pious forefathers doubtless regarded as 
 not altogether unavailing. That they should have 
 attributed some effect to malediction likewise, when 
 solemnly pronounced in a righteous cause, is not to 
 be wondered at ; and for my own part I feel at 
 least no sympathy with the scrup.es which induced 
 Mr. Bowdler to omit the last line of the passage I 
 am about to quote : 
 
 Q. Mar. O! princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand; 
 Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, 
 Nor thou within the compass of my curse. 
 
 Buck. Nor no one here ; for curses never pass 
 The lips of those that breathe them in the air. 
 
 Q. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, 
 And there awake God's gentle sleeping peace. 
 
 King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 Instead of omitting these last words, it would 
 
204 Shakspeare' s Religious Principles and 
 
 have been a wiser course to have drawn attention 
 to the enormity of the crimes, some committed 
 already, and others remaining to be committed by 
 Richard and the solemn appeal to God's all-seeing 
 eye, in a 'public cause, which especially concerned 
 His own majesty, as King of Kings. If malediction 
 could ever be justifiable, it was justifiable I had 
 almost said it was charitable in the case and under 
 the circumstances in which Shakspeare has intro- 
 duced it ; and put it into the mouth of a woman 
 that woman a mother, and that mother once a queen. 
 The connection between speaking truth and in- 
 tegrity of action, and on the other hand, between 
 falsehood and unrighteousness, is strongly marked 
 in Holy Scripture, and it has not escaped the notice 
 of Shakspeare.* In the 3rd chapter of S. John's 
 Gospel our Lord first uses the expression, c every 
 one that doeth evil,' and then, as the reverse of it, 
 c he that doeth truth' In like manner the same 
 Apostle writes, in his first Epistle, c If we say that 
 we have fellowship with Him, and walk in dark- 
 ness, we lie, and do not the truth > i. 8, where the 
 falsehood of speech and the falsehood of action, i. e. 
 unrighteousness, are both combined. And so again, 
 in his second Epistle, he speaks of walking in 
 truth, v. 4, i. e. in righteousness and holiness of 
 life. Once more. S. Paul puts the question in 
 the mouth of a disputer of this world : 
 
 * Nor of Lord Bacon. See his 6th Essay. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 205 
 
 If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie (i.e. my 
 sinfulness) unto His glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner} 
 
 Rom iii. 7. 
 
 It is the same principle which led our poet to use 
 
 the word c untruth ' for disloyalty \ i. e. sin against a 
 
 king, in the following passage of King Richard II, 
 
 where the Duke of York exclaims 
 
 God for His mercy ! what a tide of woes 
 Comes rushing on this woeful land at once ! 
 I know not what to do : I would to God, 
 (So my untruth had not provoked him to it) 
 The king had cut off my head with my brother's. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Sect. 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and 
 Resignation. 
 
 We may well believe that Shakspeare's own ex- 
 perience of life, even in his early days, had suffi- 
 ciently confirmed the truth, which he might have 
 learnt from Scripture, that happiness, if it is to be 
 expected at all in this world, is not to be looked for 
 merely in external circumstances : 
 
 Take heed (said our Lord) and beware of covetousness ; for a 
 man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he 
 possesseth. Luke xii. 15. 
 
 The scene in the 'Third Part of King Henry VI., 
 which is laid in a chase in the north of England, and 
 in which the dethroned monarch enters disguised, 
 with a Prayer Book in his hand, and is accosted by 
 the two keepers who were on the look-out to appre- 
 
2o6 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 hend him, affords our poet an excellent opportunity 
 for introducing sentiments such as we are now to 
 speak of: 
 
 2nd Keep. Say, what art thou, that talk'st of kings and queens ? 
 
 K. Hen. More than I seem, and less than I was born to : 
 A man at least, for less I should not be; 
 And men may talk of kings, and why not I ? 
 
 ?nd Keep. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. 
 
 K. Hen. Why, so I am in mind, and that's enough. 
 
 2nd Keep. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown ? 
 
 K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head ; 
 Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, 
 Nor to be seen ; my crown is called content ; 
 A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. Act iii. Sc. I . 
 
 In illustration of this, Mr. Steevens quotes that 
 excellent old song in Percy's Reliques of Antient 
 English Poetry > i. 213, beginning with: 
 
 My minde to me a kingdome is. 
 
 But here again I cannot help suspecting that our 
 poet's school-learning was running in his head, and 
 reminded him of some one of those numerous pas- 
 sages # which represent the stoical notion that the 
 wise man is the truly royal personage c King of 
 kings, and inferior only to Jove himself.' See 
 Horace 1 Epist. i. 106, sq. ; or what comes nearer 
 
 * The most remarkable perhaps is that in the Thyestes of Seneca : 
 the chorus beginning 
 
 1 Tandem Regia nobilis/ v. 336 j 
 
 which might have been known, if not to Shakspeare, to the author 
 of the song in Bp. Percy's collection. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,0 J 
 
 to the circumstances before us, the well-known 
 stanzas in the 2nd Book of Odes : 
 
 Redditum Cyri solio Phraaten 
 Dissidens plebi numero beatorum 
 Eximit Virtus, populumque falsis 
 
 Dedocet uti 
 Vocibus ; regnum et diadtma tutum 
 Deferens uni propriamque laurum, 
 Quisquis ingentes oculo irretorto 
 
 Spectat acervos. 
 
 Nor does it seem unreasonable to conjecture, 
 considering the superabundant evidence before us of 
 Shakspeare's familiarity with the ideas of Scripture, 
 that the text c Behold, the kingdom of God is 
 within you ,' Luke xvii. 21, and others of a similar 
 character, may have contributed to the sentiment 
 which he has put into King Henry's mouth. It is 
 in the same vein, though carried somewhat further, 
 that the c honest chronicler/ Griffith, speaks of Car- 
 dinal Wolsey, after his decease : 
 
 His overthrow heaped happiness upon him, 
 For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
 And found the blessedness of being little. 
 
 K. Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 And the churlish Apemantus, in Timon of Athens , 
 
 philosophizes for once to some purpose when he 
 
 says: 
 
 Best state, contentless, 
 Hath a distracted and most wretched being, 
 Worse than the worst, content. Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
208 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 In other words, as the old lady in attendance upon 
 Anne Bullen testifies, in King Henry FIIL> 
 
 Our content 
 Is our best having-. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 i. e. our best possession. But to return to King 
 Henry VI. In an earlier part of the play before 
 quoted, and on the very day of the battle of Towton, 
 which established his antagonist Edward on the 
 throne, and while the fight was raging in the dis- 
 tance, we have that pious but feeble-minded prince 
 thus moralizing : 
 
 Here on this molehill will I sit me down. 
 
 To whom God will, there be the victory. 
 
 Would I were dead ! if God's good will were so ; 
 
 For what is in this world, but grief and woe ? 
 
 O God ! methinks it were a happy life, 
 
 To be no better than a homely swain : 
 
 To sit upon a hill, as I do now, 
 
 To carve out dials quaintly point by point. 
 
 So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years, 
 
 Pass'd over to the end they were created, 
 
 Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. 
 
 Ah ! what a life were this ! how sweet ! how lovely ! 
 
 Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
 
 To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep 
 
 Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy 
 
 To kings that fear their subjects* treachery ? 
 
 O ! yes it doth ; a thousand times it doth. 
 
 And to conclude the shepherd's homely curds, 
 
 His cold thin drink out of a leather bottle, 
 
 His wonted sleep* under a fresh tree's shade, 
 
 See Eccles. v. 12, and compare K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 
 
 1. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,09 
 
 All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, 
 
 Is far beyond a prince's delicates ; 
 
 His viands sparkling in a golden cup, 
 
 His body couched in a curious bed, 
 
 Where care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. Act ii. Sc. 5. 
 
 The argument here adduced in favour of a 
 humble station of life is its comparative freedom 
 from anxiety and alarm. And such an argument, 
 just because it is superficial rather than substantial, 
 comes with propriety enough from a weak though 
 amiable character like that of King Henry VI. But 
 our poet was well aware that deeper, and I may add, 
 more Scriptural motives were to be assigned for the 
 choice which such a character would make out of 
 mere pusillanimity. The greater exposure to temp- 
 tation, already alluded to in the case of Wolsey, 
 and to which all are liable in proportion to the ele- 
 vation and grandeur they attain, affords a ground 
 for contentment in moderate, and even in lowly 
 circumstances, which minds, not the weakest, but 
 the strongest and best, will be most ready to ap- 
 preciate. The Danish courtiers Rosencrantz and 
 Guildenstern gave a wise return to Hamlet's salu- 
 tation c My excellent good friends how do ye 
 both ? ' when they replied, or rather, the latter 
 said, speaking for them both : 
 
 Happy, in that we are not over happy. 
 
 Hamlety Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 So too, Nerissa, in the Merchant of Venice, re- 
 marks, c It is no mean happiness to be seated in the 
 
 p 
 
2io Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 mean' Act i. Sc. 2. The blinded Gloster, in King 
 Lear, when the old man leading him observes, 
 
 Alack, sir, you cannot see your way ; 
 makes answer, as a conscience-stricken penitent ; 
 I have no way, and therefore want no eyes ; 
 I stumbled when * I saw. Full oft 'tis seen, 
 Our means f secure us ; and our mere defects 
 Prove our commodities. Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 It is in a calmer, but not less truthful spirit of 
 Christian Philosophy that King Henry V., on the 
 night before the battle of Agincourt, teaches us 
 how c our defects/ i. e. our wants, our deficiencies 
 in the comforts and conveniences of life, may 
 c prove our commodities/ and so suggests an ad- 
 ditional motive, not merely for contentment in a 
 humble, but for resignation in an adverse lot, when 
 he argues : 
 
 There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
 Would men observingly distil it out ; 
 
 * See John ix. 39 41 j Matt. xiii. 13. 
 
 f I retain the reading of the original editions, both quarto and 
 folio. Mr. Malone does so likewise, but he understands ' means ' 
 (plural) in the same sense as those do who have adopted Pope's 
 emendation ' our mean secures us,' i. e. our middle state, as Warburton 
 interprets. It does not seem to have occurred to any of the critics 
 that the verb * secure ' may here not improbably signify make careless , 
 and then * means ' will be opposed to ' defects/ and signify the things 
 <vue have, ' our commodities,' and in Gloster's case, his sight. Com- 
 pare the use of * gentle ' as a verb, m^King Henry V. Act. iv. Sc. 3 
 
 ' This day shall gentle his condition ' 
 i. e. make him a gentleman. I am surprised that Bp. Hurd, in his 
 note (highly commended by Mr. Hallam) upon Horace's ' callida 
 junctura ' of words, though he instances Shakspeare's art in convert- 
 ing substantives into verbs, says nothing of the same conversion in 
 regard to l adjectives.' See Hurd's Works, vol. i. p. 78. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,1 1 
 
 For our bad neighbour 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. 
 
 K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. r. 
 
 On a former occasion the same king had taught 
 us : 
 
 In >eace there's nothing so becomes a man 
 
 As modest stillness and humility. Act iii. Sc. i. 
 
 According to the Apostolic precept that we 
 should c study to be quiet J i Thess. iv. n. la 
 like manner, the advice of the ' good Duke Hum- 
 phrey ' of Gloster to his Duchess, under the dis- 
 grace and punishment which she had brought upon 
 herself 
 
 Thy greatest help is quiet, gentle Nell ; 
 I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience 
 
 K. Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 may be compared with the admonition of the 
 
 Evangelical Prophet : 
 
 Their strength is to sit still. In quietness and in confidence 
 shall be your strength. Isaiah xxx. 7, 15. 
 
 Nor can we reasonably doubt that when our poet 
 
 wrote in King Richard II. > 
 
 Pride must have a fall, Act v. Sc. 5. 
 
 he had in his mind that saying in the Book of 
 
 Proverbs : 
 
 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a 
 fall. xvi. 18. 
 
 p z 
 
2,12, Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Meanwhile, amid all his commendations of a low- 
 estate, our poet was fully sensible of the contemp- 
 tuous and unworthy treatment which poverty too 
 often meets with at the hands of a vain and mam- 
 mon-serving world. He knew the testimony of 
 Solomon : 
 
 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour. Prov. xiv. 20. 
 All the brethren of the poor do hate him : how much more do 
 his friends go far from him ? He pursueth them with words, 
 yet they are wanting to him. xix. 7. 
 
 This is a sad picture, and it is made more 
 melancholy by the addition of ingratitude when a 
 rich and bountiful man, having fallen into poverty, 
 meets with no better return from those whom he has 
 benefited the case of Tirnon of Athens : 
 
 2nd Serv. As we do turn our backs 
 
 From our companion thrown into his grave ; 
 So his familiars to * his buried fortunes 
 Slink all away ; leave their false vows with him, 
 Like empty purses pick'd, and his poor self, 
 A dedicated beggar to the air, 
 With his disease of all-shunrfd poverty. 
 Walks, like contempt, alone. ' Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 And for one who had not the lessons and conso- 
 lations of revealed religion to fall back upon, such 
 a trial is not improperly represented as too great. 
 But it is not so with the Christian hero, like S. 
 Paul, who c has learnt, in whatsoever state he is, 
 therewith to be content ; nay, who f in every thing 
 
 * Sir T. Hanmer's reading, f from,' seems preferable. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 213 
 
 gives thanks.' And Hamlet describes his friend 
 
 Horatio as approaching, at least, to that high 
 
 standard : 
 
 Thou hast been 
 As one, in suffering all, who suffers nothing ; 
 A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 
 Has ta'en with equal thanks. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And, looked at from this point of view, we may 
 accept the sentiment of Hamlet, which otherwise 
 would savour of an infidel philosophy: 
 
 There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 He is not speaking of moral good and evil. He 
 
 had before said c Denmark's a prison ;' to which 
 
 Rosencrantz demurred c We think not so, my 
 
 lord.' Hamlet replies, ( Why then 'tis none to you: 
 
 for there is nothing,' &c, &c. So that the passage 
 
 becomes parallel to Horace's : 
 
 Quod petis, hie est ; 
 Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aquus. 
 
 And to Milton's : 
 
 The mind is its own place ; and in itself 
 Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 
 
 That our poet is entitled to the full benefit of 
 this interpretation unless we will suppose that he 
 designed, in this single instance * to give a sceptical 
 
 * Warburton has given a semi-infidel interpretation to another 
 saying of Hamlet, in Act v. Sc. 2 : * Since no man, of aught he 
 leaves, knows/ &c, but without sufficient reason. The reading is 
 
2 r 4 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 turn to Hamlet's philosophical character we may 
 reasonably conclude from (among other proofs) a 
 sentiment which he assigns to Troilus, and which 
 sufficiently indicates belief in the essential and ob- 
 jective character of moral truth : 
 
 We may not think the justness of each act 
 Such and no other than event doth form it. 
 
 Troi/us and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Nor was this beyond what was to be expected 
 from a heathen. Shakspeare might have remem- 
 bered the O vidian distich : 
 
 Careat successibus, opto, 
 Quisquis ab eventu facta probanda putet. 
 
 The proverb that Sorrows never come single is one 
 which I am tempted to recur* to in passing, on ac- 
 count of the felicitous and at the same time varied 
 forms in which our author has expressed it. Thus, 
 in Hamlet : 
 
 When sorrows come, they come not single spies, 
 
 But in battalions. Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 And again, in the same play : 
 
 One woe doth tread upon another's heel, 
 
 So fast they follow. Ibid. Sc. 7. 
 
 doubtful. Johnson's interpretation is much more satisfactory 5 but 
 I am inclined to think that Hamlet, in his morbid state of mind, 
 means to say, that since we can attain to no true knowledge in this 
 life since no man really knows about anything which goes on in 
 this world secretly alluding to the plausible, but most wicked, 
 character and doings of his uncle 'to leave (it) betimes' can be no 
 great loss. In short we neither know what is here, nor, as he has 
 remarked elsewhere, what is to be hereafter. See his famous soliloquy 
 in Act iii. Sc. 1, alluded to below, p. 224. 
 * See above, p. 132. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,1 5 
 Again in Pericles, Prince of 'Tyre : 
 
 One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir 
 
 That may succeed, as his inheritor. Act i. Sc. 4. 
 
 But however thick misfortunes may come upon 
 us, the same author who thus leads us to expect 
 them, has not failed to prescribe, no less plainly and 
 frequently, the remedy which a Christian knows it 
 is his duty to apply, when occasion requires, in his 
 own case. When news is brought to King Henry 
 VI. that he is utterly bereft of all that the English 
 crown had possessed in France, his reply is : 
 
 Cold news, Lord Somerset ; but God's will b'e done ! 
 
 King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 When Brandon announces to the Duke of 
 
 Buckingham that he is arrested for high treason, 
 
 and must go as a prisoner to the Tower, his reply 
 
 is : 
 
 The will of Heaven 
 Be done in this, and all things ! I obey. 
 
 King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 To his mother, the Duchess of York, in her 
 
 affliction for the death of her sons (King Edward 
 
 IV. and the Duke of Clarence), the Marquess of 
 
 Dorset thus administers consolation, founded upon 
 
 the well-known passage in the Book of Job, i. 2 1 . 
 
 Comfort, dear mother ; God is much displeased 
 That you take with unthankfulness his doing ; 
 In common worldly things 'tis called ungrateful, 
 With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, 
 Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; 
 
2,16 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven, 
 For * it requires the royal debt it lent you. 
 
 King Richard III. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 Finally, it is left to a heathen to teach the 
 elementary lesson j- that no distresses or afflictions, 
 however many or great, should be allowed to pro- 
 voke us into destruction of the life, of which, as 
 no one (except by just authority) can lawfully 
 deprive us, so neither can we lawfully deprive our- 
 selves : 
 
 Gloster. You ever gentle gods, take my breath from me ; 
 
 Let not my worser J spirit tempt me again 
 
 To die before you please. King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. 
 
 Even in the mouth of Brutus (who is eventually 
 represented as putting an end to his own life, 
 much as King Saul had done, and as Antony after- 
 wards did), our poet has ventured to place sub- 
 stantially the same sentiment : 
 
 Cassius. If we do lose this battle, then is this 
 The very last time we shall be together ; 
 What are you then determined to do ? 
 
 Brutus. Even by the rule of that philosophy 
 By which I did blame Cato for the death 
 Which he did give himself: I know not how. 
 But I do find it cowardly and vile, 
 For fear of what might fall, so to prevent || 
 The time of life : arming myself with patience, 
 To stay 1T the providence of some high powers, 
 That govern us below. Julius Ctesar, Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 * i.e. Because. f See above, p. 129. 
 
 % See above, p. 20. See above, p. 129. 
 
 || i.e. to anticipate the full, appointed time. See above, Pt. I. ch. ii. 
 p. 10. ^| i. e. stay for, wait upon. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 2,1 J 
 
 Sect. 14. Of Holy Scripture, the Christian 
 Ministry, and Church Membership. 
 
 For Shakspeare's own estimation of Hojy Scrip- 
 ture, we have no occasion to look beyond the 
 evidence contained in every page of the present 
 volume. To him, I doubt not, it was what it is 
 to every faithful reader c the Word of God unto 
 Salvation.' His habitual regard for its authority 
 may be traced in language such as that which he 
 has put into the mouth of Iago : 
 
 Trifles light as air 
 Are to the jealous confirmations strong 
 As proofs of Holy Writ. Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 At the same time, the age in which he lived 
 would not suffer him to be ignorant how liable 
 men are, from various causes, to pervert God's 
 Word, and give to it a meaning which it was never 
 meant to convey. 
 
 In religion, 
 What damned error, but some sober brow- 
 Will bless it, and approve * it with a text 
 Hiding the grossness with fair ornament ? 
 
 Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And again, his own study of the Bible had dis- 
 covered to him how much judgment and caution 
 are required in reconciling and adjusting texts which, 
 though susceptible of perfect harmony, to a hasty 
 
 * Justify it. 
 
2,1 8 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 and superficial reader may appear discordant, or 
 even contradictory. When King Richard II. is 
 confined in the dungeon of Pomfret Castle, he 
 amuses himself by comparing his prison to the 
 world, and he imagines his own thoughts to form 
 the population, which is necessary to give verisimi- 
 litude to the comparison : 
 
 And these same thoughts [are, he says,] 
 
 In humours like the people of this world, 
 
 For no thought is contented. The better sort 
 
 As thoughts of things divine are intermixed 
 
 With scruples, and do set the 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.~\ 
 
 K. Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 The three last lines are omitted by Mr. Bowdler. 
 Surely they savour of no irreverence ; and, when 
 taken with the context, they point not unprofitably 
 to difficulties and dangers which every reader of 
 the Scriptures must expect to encounter, and which 
 every well-disposed and well-instructed reader will 
 be enabled to overcome. 
 
 And as no intentional irreverence towards Holy 
 Scripture, often as he quotes or refers to it, is to be 
 found in our poet's works, so neither does he ever 
 allow himself to speak of the ministers of religion, 
 as other play-writers have done, with disrespect, 
 
 * See Matt. xi. 28. f See Matt. xix. 24. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2Jg 
 
 still less with derision. That he entertained indeed 
 a just sense of the dignity and responsibility of 
 their sacred office, and of the mischiefs that must 
 ensue whenever it is disgraced by insufficiency, or 
 perverted by unfaithfulness ; that he regarded them 
 as ambassadors for Christ, and as intercessors, 
 through Him, in behalf of man, we need no fur- 
 ther proof than the speech of Prince John of 
 Lancaster, in the Second Part of King Henry IV. 
 He is addressing Scroop, Archbishop of York, who 
 had joined the Earl of Northumberland's party 
 against King Henry, the Prince's father, in the 
 Forest of Gualtree : 
 
 My Lord of York, it better showed with you, 
 
 When * that your flock, assembled by the bell, 
 
 Encircled you to hear with reverence 
 
 Your exposition on the holy text, 
 
 Than now to see you here an iron man,f 
 
 Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum, 
 
 Turning the word to sword, and life to death. 
 
 That man that sits within a monarch's heart, 
 
 And ripens in the sunshine of his favour, 
 
 Would he abuse the countenance of the king, 
 
 Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach, 
 
 In shadow of such greatness ! With you, lord bishop, 
 
 It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken, 
 
 How deep you were within the Books of God ? 
 
 To us, the speaker in His parliament ; 
 
 To us, the imagined voice of God Himself ; 
 
 The very opener and intelligencer 
 
 Between the grace, the sanctities of Heaven, 
 
 * See above, Pt. I. ch. i. p. 22. f i. e. clad in armour. 
 
2,20 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 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 favourite doth his prince's name, 
 In deeds dishonourable ? You have taken up,f 
 Under the counterfeited zeal of God, 
 The subjects of His substitute, my father ; 
 And both against the peace of Heaven and him, 
 Have here upswarmed them. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 After reading this speech, it is sad to think that 
 the same Prince John, in the next -scene, would 
 seem to father upon God his own treachery towards 
 the rebels, when he says : 
 
 Heaven, and not we, hath safely fought to-day. 
 So prone are we all to make religion the cloak, or 
 even the minister of sin ! 
 
 But our poet, however well disposed towards the 
 
 clergy, does not fail to preach out of his own 
 
 pulpit, that if they would retain the respect to 
 
 which they are entitled by their office, they must 
 
 themselves give good heed to the instruction which 
 
 they deliver to others. Thus, King Henry VI. 
 
 rebukes his great-uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop 
 
 of Winchester : 
 
 Fye, uncle Beaufort ! I have heard you preach, 
 That malice was a great and grievous sin : 
 And will not you maintain the thing you teach, 
 But prove a chief offender in the same ? 
 
 K. Henry VI. ut Part, Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 Or, as S. Paul expresses it, c Thou which teachest 
 
 * i. e. ' Labours of thought.' Steevens. f Levied. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 221 
 
 another, teachest thou not thyself?' Rom. ii. 21. 
 
 Thus too the amiable Ophelia, when she had 
 
 listened to the good advice of her brother Laertes, 
 
 assures him : 
 
 I shall the effect of this good lesson * keep, 
 
 As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, 
 
 Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
 
 Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, 
 
 Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine, 
 
 Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, 
 
 And recks not his own read.f Hamlet , Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 At the same time, our poet is not unreasonable. 
 He knew that the duty of the clergy requires them 
 to teach, and that charitable allowance is to be made 
 for them, if, not in wilfulness or in hypocrisy, but 
 from the imperfection incident to our common 
 nature, they fall short, in practice, of their own 
 lessons : 
 
 If to do were as easy as to know what to do, chapels had been 
 churches, and poor men's cottages princes* palaces. 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. Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 An observation which must find an echo in every 
 
 clergyman's breast. 
 
 * It was a saying of the pious Bp. Wilson, that the only true 
 proof of a good sermon is its making people better. Shakspeare has 
 anticipated the remark, in substance, when he writes, in the Merchant 
 of Venice ; 
 
 * Portia. Good sentences, and well pronounced ! 
 Nerissa. They would be better, if <well followed.'' 
 
 Act i. Sc. z. 
 f ' Heeds not his own lessons.' Pope. Read=counsel. 
 
223 Shakspeare's Religious Principles and . 
 
 There can be no reasonable doubt that Shak- 
 speare was a member of the Reformed Church of 
 England ; in other words, that he was a true Catho- 
 lic Christian ; and as such, a Protestant against the 
 errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome. 
 Yet, strange to say, the attempt has been made to 
 represent him as a Romanist ! So at least it would 
 seem from the c Copy of Shakspeare's Will ' which 
 used to be exhibited not many years ago and per- 
 haps* still is in the room at Stratford-upon-Avon, 
 where the so-called c Shakspeare's relics' are pre- 
 served and shown to visitors. That this c copy ' is 
 a forgery has been proved by comparing it with the 
 real will, which is deposited in Doctors' Commons, 
 from which the document commonly prefixed to 
 editions of our poet's works, and truly called 
 c Shakspeare's Will,' is taken. The supposititious 
 document has a preamble much longer than the 
 genuine one ; from which also it differs widely both 
 in tone and expression the differences being 
 mostly such as to leave no doubt that the forger's 
 design was to claim our poet for the Romish 
 Church ! j- That such a claim is utterly groundless 
 might be proved abundantly from the internal evi- 
 dence of his works. Not to lay stress upon the 
 expression c Popish tricks J and ceremonies in 'Titus 
 
 * But see Supplementary Note at end of the volume, 
 f See Preface to Religious and Moral Sentences from Shakspeare t 
 by a member of the Shakspeare Society, 1843. 
 \ Mr. Bowdler has altered this into * idle tricks.' 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 323 
 
 AndronicuSy Act v. Sc. 1 (because that play, as I 
 
 have said before, is most probably not Shakspeare's), 
 
 it is sufficient to refer to the character of Cardinal 
 
 Beaufort in the First Part of King Henry VI. , and 
 
 to the manner in which the pretended supremacy of 
 
 the Pope is not only repudiated in King John, but, 
 
 moreover, is shown, in King Henry VIIL y to be 
 
 destructive of the just authority of the episcopate. 
 
 I allude to the passage in which the Earl of Surrey 
 
 begins his charge against Wolsey : 
 
 First, that, without the king's assent or knowledge, 
 You wrought to be a legate, by which power 
 You maimed the jurisdiction of all bishops. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 It is remarked by A. W. Schlegel, in his ad- 
 mirable Lectures on Dramatic Literature ', that Shak- 
 speare, amidst the rancour of religious parties, takes 
 a delight in painting the condition of a monk, and 
 always represents his influence as beneficial.*- With 
 regard to the monk in Romeo and Juliet > I quite 
 agree that c the discourse of the pious old man is 
 full of deep meaning.'f But what are we to think 
 of the duke disguised as a monk, in Measure for 
 Measure ', and who, according to Schlegel, carries out 
 the disguise so perfectly, that, f contrary to the 
 well-known proverb, the cowl (in his case) seems 
 really to make a monk ? ' Ministering to Claudio 
 in prison, and encouraging him against the fear of 
 death, he is made to say : 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 169. f Ibid, p. 188. See above, p. 108. 
 
22 4 Shahpeare } s Religious Principles and 
 
 Thy best of rest is sleep, 
 And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st 
 Thy death,* which is no more Act iii. Sc. I . 
 
 A sentiment which calls forth the c indignation ' of 
 Johnson, and which our poet's most indulgent critics 
 have been somewhat puzzled to account for. But 
 what if he intended to represent the monk as in 
 reality an unbeliever ? There can be no doubt that 
 Popery, from the excess and exorbitancy of its de- 
 mands upon the faith of its adherents, has a tendency 
 to produce reaction which has often led to open, 
 and still more to secret in fidelity, f especially in the 
 monastic orders,J and in the priesthood. The 
 same sentiment occurs to Hamlet in his famous so- 
 liloquy : 
 
 To die to sleep 
 No more, 
 
 But then he presently corrects the thought : 
 
 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.|| Act iii. Sc. i. 
 
 Returning to the Church-membership of our poet, 
 
 if we are persuaded he was not a Romanist, we are 
 
 * Compare Lucretius, lib. iii. 1058, sq. and 990. 
 
 f See Supplementary Note at end of the volume. 
 
 X The Jesuits are nowhere mentioned by name in Shakspeare ; 
 but there is a passage in Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 2, in which Warburton 
 supposes them to be meant, and in which (if so) they are satirised as 
 ' the inventors of the execrable doctrine of equivocation.' 
 
 Turmoil, bustle. 
 
 || Make us hesitate, and think of what may come after death. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 22$ 
 
 equally certain he was no Puritan. c Young Char- 
 bon the Puritan, and old Poysam the Papist, are 
 named together in a passage of AIVs well that 
 ends well, Act i. Sc. 3, not illnaturedly, but as if 
 the writer had no more sympathy with the one 
 than with the other. Probably, if the truth were 
 known, of the two he had less liking for the new- 
 fangled species of religionism which had sprung up 
 within his own time. We must not lay any great 
 stress upon what passes in conversation between two 
 such worthies as Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek and Sir 
 Toby Belch ; yet the following dialogue indicates, 
 no doubt, a certain amount of popular feeling ; and 
 I think we may gather from it that our poet desired 
 to side with those who could feel respect for piety 
 and earnestness in any shape, rather than with the 
 ignorant multitude who, without knowing why, 
 would be prepared to persecute * it : 
 
 Sir Toby. Possess f us, possess us; tell us something of him. 
 
 Maria. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. 
 
 Sir Andr. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog. 
 
 Sir Toby. What, for being a Puritan ? thy exquisite reason, dear 
 knight. 
 
 Sir Andr. I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason 
 good enough. Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 At the same time he does not attempt to withhold 
 
 from view, what he must have discovered from his 
 
 own experience, that religious zeal, such as was 
 
 * Our poet's just dislike of all religious persecution may be in- 
 ferred from Winter" 's Tale, Act. ii. Sc. 3, * It is an heretic, 1 &c. 
 f Inform us. 
 
2,26 Shakspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 manifested by the Puritans, is often hollow, and 
 often both mistaken in its principles and mis- 
 chievous in its results. We may not be able to 
 determine the precise drift, or even the true reading 
 for Tyrwhitt and Malone concur in questioning 
 the present text of a speech of the Clown in All's 
 well that ends well ; but we cannot doubt, I think, 
 that it implies distrust, to some extent at least, of 
 the Puritanical character : 
 
 Though honesty be no Puritan, yet it will do no hurt ; it will 
 wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 That is, as I suppose, an honest man will not be 
 troubled with unnecessary scruples, especially in a 
 case where his obedience is required to a lawful 
 command, however the command may be distasteful 
 to himself. He will put on the surplice to which 
 the Puritans objected. But still when he has done 
 so, though so far not a Puritan, this is no security 
 that he may not be all the while, c intus et in cute/ 
 as bad as if he were having as proud a heart as if he 
 wore a black gown. Shakspeare generally uses the 
 word c big/ where moral qualities are concerned, in 
 a bad sense. This is in character with the petu- 
 lance of the Clown ; but here again I could suspect 
 that our poet wished to intimate that though he 
 had no liking for the Puritans, yet he would not 
 suffer others who might be as bad or worse to run 
 them down. In this, as in other countless instances, 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2 2, 7 
 
 he shows himself the thorough Englishman ; who, 
 though he has his likes and dislikes, and will not 
 conceal them, yet, above them all, loves to see fair 
 flay. We have another Clown in Winter's Tale,, 
 who cannot quite let the Puritans alone, and yet 
 alludes to them in a good-humoured way. Mr. 
 Bowdler, however, in his love of fair play, having 
 altered c Popish tricks,' thought it necessary to omit 
 the words to which I allude. They occur in Act iv. 
 Sc. 2, where the Clown, son of the old shepherd, 
 reputed father of Perdita, gives account of the 
 preparations made by his supposed sister for the 
 sheep-shearing feast : 
 
 She hath made * me four-and-twenty nosegays for the shearers : . 
 three-man f song-men all, and very good ones . . . but one 
 Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes. 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 The utmost offence which appears to be com- 
 mitted in these words is, that the Clown playfully 
 satirizes the objectional practice which the Puritans 
 introduced, which is still, unhappily, kept up in 
 some places, of singing sacred songs to jiggish- 
 tunes. J There are other passages of a more serious 
 caste in which Shakspeare, without mentioning the 
 Puritans, may be thought to have them in his view. 
 Such is the case,, for instance, as Warburton has 
 
 * See above, Pt. I. Ch. i. p.15. 
 
 f i. e. Singers of catches in three parts. 
 
 % Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 1. There is 
 also a reference to the Puritans in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act iv. 
 Sc. 6. 
 
228 Sbahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 remarked, in Timon of Athens, where Timon's ser- 
 vant, speaking of Sempronius, one of his master's 
 false friends, observes : 
 
 How fairly this lord strives to appear foul ! takes virtuous copies 
 to be wicked : like those that under hot ardent zeal would set 
 whole realms on fire ! Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 A remarkable prediction of what actually came to 
 
 pass less than thirty years after our poet's death ! 
 
 And it is not improbable that they are alluded to 
 
 in what follows from the mouth of Polonius : 
 
 We are oft to blame in this, 
 [71s too much proved, that with devotion's visage 
 And pious action, we do sugar o'er 
 The devil himself. Hamlet ; Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 We may now inquire what positive evidence is 
 to be produced respecting Shakspeare's conformity 
 as a member of the Church of England. The 
 familiar use of the response Amen (the to 'A ^7)1/ of 
 S. Paul, Cor. xiv. 16), which occurs in our author's 
 plays more than sixty times, may alone be regarded 
 as a sufficient indication to that effect. There is 
 something singularly solemn and impressive in 
 his employment of it towards the close of King 
 Henry V. : 
 
 That English may as French, French Englishmen, 
 Receive* each other God speak to this Amen. 
 
 And again, at the end of King Richard III. : 
 
 That peace may long live here God say Amen. 
 
 * See Rom, xv. 7. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 229 
 
 From our poet's allusion to the observance of 
 
 Sunday not much is to be inferred except that it 
 
 would seem, in his time, to have been the most usual 
 
 day for the celebration of marriages. In Taming 
 
 of the Shrew, Petruchio, in answer to Baptista's 
 
 question how he had sped with his daughter Katha- 
 
 rina, replies : 
 
 We have 'greed so well together, 
 That upon Sunday is the wedding day. Act ii. Sc. I. 
 
 Whether this remark may help to throw any 
 light upon a passage in Much ado about nothing, 
 over the meaning of which critics have disagreed, 
 I will not undertake to say ; but it may be worth 
 considering. Benedict says to Claudio : 
 
 Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again ? Go to, i y 
 faith : an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the 
 print of it, and sigh away Sundays. Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 i. e. sigh away the days which, if married on Sunday, 
 will serve to remind you most of all of the mistake 
 you made. Neither Warburton's explanation that 
 even Sundays, the days formerly (he says) of most 
 ease and diversion, will be passed uncomfortably ; 
 nor Steevens', that there is probably an allusion to 
 the strict manner in which the Sabbath was observed 
 by the Puritans, appears satisfactory. It would be 
 simpler to suggest that Sunday is the day of the 
 week which is generally spent most domestically . It 
 is hardly to be supposed, that at the court of Cleo- 
 patra the difference was understood between Sundays 
 
33 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 and working days, unless it could be supposed 
 that the notion had come down by tradition from 
 the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt ; and then 
 it would go far to settle an important question in 
 theology ! but our poet has not scrupled to speak, 
 in Antony and Cleopatra, of c a worky-day fortune ;' 
 meaning a fortune not rich and splendid, but ordi- 
 nary and common place, see Act i. Sc. 1 ; just as, 
 with a propriety which admits of no question, he 
 makes Marcel lus to ask Horatio, in Hamlet : 
 
 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 
 Does not divide the Sunday from the week ? 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 In the same play we have a reference to the 
 season of Christmas, and to the traditions, that at 
 that season, the cock 
 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 
 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, . 
 No fairy * takes, nor witch hath power to charm : 
 So hallowed and so gracious is the time ! 
 
 This passage, so beautiful in its simplicity, could 
 only have been written by one who had the sense 
 and feeling of a true Christian and loyal member 
 of the Church in regard to the nativity of our 
 Blessed Lord. Of the two other great festivals I 
 am not aware that our poet makes mention, except 
 to let us know, in Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 1, 
 
 * i. e. Strikes with lameness or diseases. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 231 
 
 that f new doublets ' were worn at Easter ; and, in 
 King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 4, that Whitsuntide 
 called, in Two Gentlemen of Verona^ Act iv. Sc. 4, 
 Pentecost was the season for c morris dances/ and 
 f pageants of delight.' 
 
 It remains to notice here, that Shakspeare appears 
 to have received and held, without misgiving, the 
 doctrine of Baptismal Grace, which he would have 
 been taught as an orthodox member of the Anglican 
 Church. c We will believe,' says King Henry V. 
 to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of 
 Ely 
 
 That what you speak is in your conscience washed 
 As pure as sin with baptism. 
 
 K. Henry V. Act i. Sc. 2. . 
 
 And, in Othello^ the villainous Iago is made to 
 represent Desdemona's influence to be such, that it 
 would be easy for her, if she wished 
 
 To win the Moor wer't to renounce bis baptism 
 All seals and symbols of redeemed sin. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 The judicious reader will be surprised and not, 
 I think, well pleased to learn that Mr. Bowdler, 
 in his c Family Shakspeare,' has seen reason to omit 
 the latter of these two lines. 
 
 And passing from the first scene of the Christian 
 life to the last, from baptism to burial, we find, in 
 Cymbeline, the rationale of interment with the head 
 towards the east alluded to, and also the beautiful 
 custom of strewing the grave with flowers, described 
 
33 3 Sbakspeares Religious Principles and 
 
 in language no less beautiful. The two brothers, 
 Guiderius and Arviragus (Cadwal) are engaged in 
 burying Fidele : 
 
 Guid. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east : 
 My father hath a reason for't. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 The Reason' could not properly have been, in the 
 mouth of a Pagan the Christian one and there- 
 fore no further explanation is given : 
 
 Arvig. With fairest flowers, 
 
 Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
 I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 
 The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine, whom * not to slander, 
 Out-sweeten'd not thy breath : the ruddock f would, 
 With charitable bill, bring thee all this; 
 Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, 
 To winter-ground thy corse. . . 
 
 [Re-enter Belarius. 
 
 Bel. Here's a few flowers ; but about midnight, more : 
 The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night 
 Are strewings fitt'st for graves. 
 
 Sect. 15. Of Politics Peace and War. 
 
 We cannot conceive of Shakspeare otherwise 
 than as a Conservative and a Royalist if the ana- 
 chronism involved in the use of both names may be 
 pardoned. We may safely attribute to him a deep 
 reverence for antiquity ; and we need not doubt 
 
 * See above, p. 19. f Redbreast. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,33 
 
 that the precept of Solomon, c My son, fear thou 
 the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them 
 that are given to change,' Prov. xxiv. 21, approved 
 itself thoroughly to his large heart and marvellous 
 understanding. How just is the sentiment which 
 ascribes to c reverence ' (or due regard for subor- 
 dination) the power that keeps peace and order in the 
 world, to borrow the gloss of Johnson upon the 
 words that follow : 
 
 Tho' mean and mighty, rotting 
 Together, have one dust ; yet reverence 
 (That angel of the world) doth make distinction 
 Of place 'tween high and low. 
 
 Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 And where shall we find a more effective protest 
 
 against the spirit of innovation and continual change, 
 
 or the value of antiquity and custom more truly 
 
 estimated and described, than in what follows; where 
 
 a rash political movement is objected to 
 
 As tho' the world were now but to begin, 
 Antiquity forgot, custom not known, 
 The ratifiers and props of every word. 
 
 The critics have been somewhat puzzled by 
 c word/ as here used, and have proposed to alter it ; 
 Warburton suggesting 4 ward/ Johnson c weal/ and 
 Tyrwhitt c work.' Had any one of them read the 
 Bible as attentively, and known it as well as Shak- 
 speare did, I imagine he would have recognized 
 the expression as borrowed, probably, from Scrip- 
 ture, where c word ' occurs not unfrequently as put 
 
234 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 for f thing.' The Greek p%,a 3 properly word, 
 and so translated in Matt, xviii. 1 6 c that in the 
 mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be 
 established' is translated c thing' in Luke i. 37, 
 * With God nothing shall be impossible ;' in the 
 Prayer Book, Office for Visitation of the Sick, how- 
 ever, the old and more exact translation is retained, 
 c We know, O Lord, that there is no word impossi- 
 ble with Thee.' The truth is, that word and work, 
 or deed, though very different, as we know, in the 
 case of man, are synonymous with regard to God, and 
 therefore synonymously used in the Book of God. 
 Our poet's moral estimate of a mere worldly 
 politician, without faith in God, as the governor of 
 the world, may be gathered from an observation of 
 Hamlet, in the grave-digger's scene, where, when 
 one of the clowns had thrown up a skull, he says 
 
 This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now over- 
 reaches, one that would circumvent God, might it not? 
 
 Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 Surely not too bold a supposition, when we con- 
 sider how statesmen have been known to act in 
 defiance of God's laws. 
 
 I have already had occasion, much oftener than 
 I could have wished, to invite my reader's attention 
 to the manner in which omissions and even altera- 
 tions of our poet's words have been made, in c The 
 Family Shakspeare.' But what will be thought of 
 the strange obtuseness (for I can call it nothing 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 235 
 
 less) which has changed the name of c God ' into 
 the word c anybody ' in the foregoing quotation 
 a change by which the ne plus ultra of bathos is 
 fathered upon Shakspeare, and the grand meaning 
 of the speaker that, however man may scheme and 
 plot for the government of states, God Himself is 
 the only true politician in the universe, is entirely 
 lost ! 
 
 No one who has not been present at a corona- 
 tion, or who has not read the authorised Coronation 
 Service, can have a just idea of the punctilious 
 accuracy with which Shakspeare has described what 
 took place at the crowning of Queen Anne Bullen, 
 and was repeated, only with such additions as would 
 be proper for a queen-regnant, on the crowning of 
 our present most gracious sovereign Queen Vic- 
 toria. I have before me a printed copy of the 
 Form and Order of the Service performed, and Cere- 
 monies observed on this latter occasion ; and when I 
 have presented to the reader Shakspeare's descrip- 
 tion, as we find it in King Henry VIII., I will make 
 some extracts from the said formulary, which may 
 serve to illustrate what our poet has written ; none 
 of his critics, so far as I am aware, having said a 
 word upon the matter, which is surely a most in- 
 teresting one to every British subject. The place 
 is Westminster Abbey : 
 
 At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces 
 Came to the altar : where she kneel'd, and saint-like, 
 
2,^6 Shakspeare s 'Religious Principles and 
 
 Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and prayed devoutly. 
 Then rose again, and bowed her to the people ; 
 When by the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 She had all the royal makings of a queen, 
 As holy oil y Edward Confessor's crown, 
 The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems, 
 Laid nobly on her : which performed, the choir, 
 With all the choicest music of the kingdom, 
 Together sung Te Deum. Act iv. Sc. i . 
 
 The authorised Coronation Service is divided into 
 nineteen sections. A Rubric in the first section 
 will partly explain the first three lines of the fore- 
 going description : 
 
 The queen . . . having passed by her throne, makes her 
 humble adoration, and then kneeling at the faldstool set for her be- 
 fore her chair, uses some short private prayers. 
 
 The eighth section is entitled c The Anointing/ 
 which follows immediately after the Queen has 
 kissed c the Holy Gospel in the great Bible/ and 
 signed the Coronation c Oath.' It is commenced 
 with the hymn Vent Creator. Then follows a 
 prayer by the Archbishop for the consecration of 
 the oil, and for the blessing and sanctification of 
 her who is to be anointed therewith. The unction 
 is performed on the crown of the head, and on the 
 palms of both the hands. It was made also on the 
 breast, previously to the two last female corona- 
 tions of Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria. The 
 putting on of c Edward Confessor's Crown ' does 
 not come till the twelfth section, and meanwhile 
 besides c the Rod' (not to be confounded with the 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,$j 
 
 sceptre) c and Bird of Peace/ i. e. the Dove, 
 which is delivered into the Queen's left hand, with 
 these words, by the Archbishop : 
 
 Receive the rod of equity and mercy ; and God, from whom 
 all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed, 
 direct and assist you in the administration and exercise of all 
 those powers which He hath given you : 
 
 besides these the other c emblems laid nobly on 
 her' are c The Spurs and Sword/ in Sect. ix. ; 
 c The Royal Robe, and Orb ' with the cross 
 above it, to signify c that the whole world is subject 
 to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer/ 
 in Sect. x. ; c The Ring, the ensign of kingly 
 dignity, and of defence of the Catholic Faith ; ' 
 and c The Royal Sceptre, the ensign of kingly 
 power and justice/ in Sect. xi. After the crown- 
 ing, comes first c The presenting* of the Holy 
 Bible/ in Sect. xiii. ; and then the c Te Deum/ in 
 Sect, xiv; followed by c The Inthronization.' 
 It is scarcely necessary to add that the service is 
 concluded with the celebration of the Holy Eu- 
 charist, for which the Queen c offers ' the bread and 
 wine. 
 
 It will have been noticed in the preceding ex- 
 tracts that the Coronation c Ring " is described as 
 c the ensign of kingly dignity, &c. ; ' and before 
 I pass on to other matters I am tempted to observe, 
 
 * This was omitted at the coronation of James II. ! See 
 Macaulay's History^ vol. ii. p. 49. 
 
2^8 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 in reference to that description, that the Rubric re- 
 quires the Ring to be one c in which a table-jewel is 
 enchased/ meaning, I suppose, a flat jewel capable 
 of serving as a seal.* In that same play of King 
 Henry VIII. we have the King's ring given to 
 Cranmer, Act v. Sc. i, and presented by him, 
 Sc. 2, as a security against the machinations of 
 Gardiner and others of the Council who were plot- 
 ting to destroy him. It was anciently the custom, 
 as Mr. Reed remarks, for every monarch to have 
 a ring, the temporary possession of which invested 
 the holder with the same authority as the owner 
 himself could exercise ; and not for every monarch 
 only. In King Richard II , the Duke of York 
 gives this order to his servant : 
 
 Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster ; 
 
 Bid hersend me presently a thousand pound : 
 
 Hold, take my ring. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 There is a curious relic of the same custom still 
 kept up in the ancient College of William of 
 Wykeham at Winchester. When the captain of 
 the school petitions the head master for a holiday 
 and obtains it he receives from him a ring, in 
 token of the indulgence granted, which he wears 
 during the holiday, and returns to the head master 
 when it is over. The inscription upon the- ring 
 
 * Such rings, I imagine, were always signet rings ; and the wear- 
 ing of them is a custom of great antiquity. Compare Gen. xxxviii. 
 18} Jerem. xxii. 24; Daniel vi. 17 j Hagg. ii. 23. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 239 
 
 was formerly c Potentiam fero, geroque.' It is now 
 c Commendat rarior* usus.' 
 
 Imbued as the mind of our poet was with Scrip- 
 tural principles, we shall not be surprised to find 
 that he places upon the very highest ground both 
 the prerogative and the responsibility of kings and 
 governors. If, on the one hand, he would warn us 
 that 
 
 Divinity doth hedge a king; Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 that 
 
 Kings are earth's gods ; Pericles, Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
 and c deputies/ though c unworthy/ of God him- 
 self, King Henry VI. Act. iii. Sc. 2 ; that c The 
 King's name is a tower of strength,' King Richard 
 III. Act. v. Sc. 3, even as c the name of the Lord 
 is a strong tower,' Prov. xviii. 1 o : On the other 
 hand, he does not fail to teach that 
 
 He who the sword of Heaven will bear, 
 Should be as holy as severe ; 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act iii. So 2. 
 
 where we are reminded of S. Paul, Rom. xiii. 4. 
 
 * From Juvenal, Sat. xi. 208. 
 
 ' Voluptates commendat rarior usus :' 
 which our poet thus renders, very appropriately 
 * If all the year njoere playing holidays, 
 To sport would be as tedious as to work ; 
 But <when they seldom come, they wished for come."" 
 
 K. Henry IV. 1st Part, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 See also the quotation from his 52nd sonnet above, Pt. I. ch. i. 
 p. 22, 'the fine point of seldom pleasure.'' 
 
24 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 In like manner, if on the one hand he teaches that 
 
 there can be no security for usurped and illegitimate 
 
 authority : 
 
 For though usurpers sway the rule awhile, 
 Yet Heavens are just, and time suppresseth wrongs : 
 King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 on the other hand, he warns us that the loyalty 
 
 and obedience which are due to lawful governors 
 
 must be duly paid; for 
 
 Every subject's duty is the King's. 
 
 King Henry V. Act vi. Sc. I. 
 
 That it is an unhappy thing for a country when 
 its king is under age is a thought which might 
 occur to many minds ; but that the thought should 
 be expressed in words so precisely parallel as those 
 which I am about to quote could not have hap- 
 pened without actual contact of the mind of the 
 one writer with the mind of the other : 
 
 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child. 
 
 Ecclesiastes, x. 16. 
 
 Woe to that land that's governed by a child. 
 
 K. Richard III. Act. ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Among the countless marvels of Shakspeare's 
 mind, it is not the least remarkable that he appears 
 equally at home in regard to matters that must 
 have been alien from his own experience and to 
 those that came within it. For instance, whether 
 he has to speak of the circumstances of peace or 
 war, his sentiments and descriptions are equally just 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 241 
 
 and valuable; although of the latter he could 
 have known nothing from personal observation. 
 It would be beyond my purpose to enter into this 
 subject; and I shall content myself by a general 
 reference to King Henry V. and King Richard III. 
 But there are two points connected with it which 
 belong fairly to the design I have had in view, and 
 upon which, therefore, I shall venture to add a few 
 w r ords. One is, that war is a punishment sent by 
 God. So the Bible teaches, see Ezek. v. and xiv. 
 2 1 . And so Shakspeare teaches, see King Henry V. 
 Act iv. Sc. 1 . 
 
 War is His (God's) beadle ; * war is His vengeance. 
 
 And again, see King Henry VI. ind Part, Act v. 
 
 Sc. 1 : 
 
 O ! war, thou son of hell, 
 Whom angry Heavens do make their minister, 
 Throw in the frozen bosom of our part 
 Hot coals of vengeance! 
 
 where Mr. Steevens has remarked that the last 
 
 phrase is scriptural, and he quotes Psalm cxl. 10 
 
 in the Prayer Book version : 
 
 Let hot burning coals fall upon them ! 
 
 The other point is the lawfulness of war. This, 
 
 too, the Bible teaches ; see Eccles. iii. 8, Luke iii. 
 
 14, Acts x. And so Shakspeare teaches with the 
 
 just and necessary provision c if the cause be 
 
 good.' See King Henry V. Act. iv. Sc. 1. In 
 
 * This clause is omitted by Mr. Bowdler. 
 R 
 
%\z Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 further proof of this point, the reader may consult 
 a sermon* preached by Bishop Andrewes before 
 Queen Elizabeth, at Richmond, in 1609, c at what 
 time the Earl of Essex was going forth upon the 
 expedition for Ireland/ to quell the insurrection 
 excited by the Earl of Tyrone a sermon, there- 
 fore, which our poet might have heard ; although, 
 as I have said, we have no reason to suppose that 
 he took part in that or any other warlike expe- 
 dition. 
 
 Sect. 16. Of ~Death> the Intermediate State > and 
 Day of Judgment. 
 
 In the famous soliloquy of Hamlet, c To be, or 
 not to be/ when he comes to speak of 
 
 The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
 
 No traveller returns, Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Mr. Douce suspects, not without reason, that Job x. 
 21, was present to our poet's mind : 
 
 I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness 
 and the shadow of death. 
 
 And here let me introduce an observation which 
 has occurred, I doubt not, to the minds of many 
 of my readers in the course of this and the pre- 
 ceding chapter. 
 
 There can be little doubt that our forefathers, in 
 
 * Bp. Andrewes' Works, vol. i. pp. 321-337. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible, 243 
 
 and before Shakspeare's time, and even Shakspeare 
 
 himself, derived, not altogether unprofitably, some 
 
 portion of their knowledge of Holy Scripture from 
 
 the exhibitions of religious plays, called miracles* 
 
 or mysteries ; and consequently that much which 
 
 would strike us now-a-days as irreverent, or at best 
 
 of questionable propriety, when spoken upon the 
 
 stage, did not appear to them in the same light. 
 
 I imagine that when Justice Shallow observed to- 
 
 Silence, his brother justice, 
 
 Death, as the Psalmist saitb, is Gertain to all ; all shall die ; 
 King Henry IV. 2nd Party Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 neither the author nor the actor would be con- 
 scious of any irreverence in thus introducing the 
 Psalmist's name ; but times are changed, and Mr. 
 Bowdler, by omitting the clause printed in italics,, 
 gives us to understand that now it c cannot with 
 propriety be read ' even c in a family ! ' 
 
 Together with the certainty of death, the Psalmist 
 also teaches us that the rich man c shall carry 
 nothing away with him when he dieth, neither shall 
 his pomp follow him ; ' xlix. 17. And the apostle, 
 that c As we brought nothing into this world, so it 
 is certain we can carry nothing out ; * 1 Tim. vi. 7. 
 Their words require no confirmation ; and yet the 
 great Earl of Warwick is well chosen to speak as 
 follows when he comes to die : 
 
 Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood ! 
 My parks, my walks, my manors that I had, 
 
 R Z 
 
244 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Even now forsake me, and of all my lands 
 Is nothing left me * but my body's length ! 
 Why what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust ? 
 And live we how we can, yet die we must. 
 
 K. Henry VI. yd Part, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 The Lord Talbot, speaking of the death of c the 
 
 noble Duke of Bedford/ tells us the same truism, 
 
 with the addition of a melancholy sentiment, to 
 
 which most of us, sooner or later, will be inclined 
 
 to respond : 
 
 Kings and mightiest potentates must die, 
 For that's the end of human misery. 
 
 We find both the truism and sentiment (which 
 our poet is fond of introducing where he' has occa- 
 sion to mention death) repeated at greater length 
 in the Dirge over Fidele, sung by Guiderius and 
 Arviragus : 
 
 Gut. Fear no more the heat f o' the sun, 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done, 
 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages : 
 Golden lads and girls all must, 
 
 As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 
 Arv. Fear no more the frown o' the great, 
 Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ; 
 Care no more to clothe, and eat ; 
 To thee the reed is as the oak : 
 The sceptre, learning, physic, must 
 All follow this, and come to dust. 
 
 Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 But these were heathens. In the case of Chris- 
 
 * A frequent sentiment in the Greek tragedians, 
 f See Revel, vii. 16. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 245 
 
 tians, our poet fails not to introduce a touch of 
 holier consolation : 
 
 Cb. Just. How doth the king ? 
 War. Exceeding well', his cares are now all ended. 
 Cb. Just. I hope not dead ? 
 
 War. He's walk'd the way of nature j 
 
 And, to our purposes, he lives no more. 
 
 King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 As much as to say, not however to his own pur- 
 poses, now that his true and immortal life has begun. 
 So, too, in Winter's 'Tale, Dion says, with reference 
 to the supposed death of Hermione, wife of King 
 
 Leontes : 
 
 What were more holy 
 Than to rejoice, the former queen is well} Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
 This happy notion and expression of our poet 
 that it is c well ' c exceeding well ' with the de- 
 parted, was perhaps * derived from the reply which 
 the good Shunamite gave to the Prophet Elisha, 
 when he asked her, 
 
 Is it well with the child ? And she answered, it is well 
 
 2 Kings, iv. 26. 
 though the child was dead. 
 
 But, in order that it may be really c well * with 
 us when we come to die, Shakspeare will also tell 
 us no man better what is the one thing needful. 
 And with what a lightning flash of condensed 
 thought and language does he teach the lesson ! 
 
 * Since the above was written, I find that Mr. Henley has made 
 the same conjecture. The phrase in question, as applicable to the 
 dead, occurs also in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 5 ; and twice in Romeo 
 and Juliet, iv. 4, and v. 1. 
 
2,\6 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 Men must endure 
 Their going hence, even as their coming hither : 
 Ripeness is all i come on. King Lear, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 c Ripeness/ i. e. to be prepared to die, at the ap- 
 pointed time. As Hamlet expresses the same idea: 
 
 If it (death) be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 And what minister of the gospel ever discoursed 
 more justly of the value of such preparation than 
 does, in Shakspeare's words, King Henry V., when, 
 passing through the camp in disguise, before the 
 battle of Agincourt, he holds discourse with Wil- 
 liams, one of the common soldiers of his army ? 
 
 Every soldier in the wars should do as every sick man in his 
 bed wash every mote out of his conscience ; and dying so, death 
 is to him * advantage : or not dying, the time was blessedly lost 
 wherein such preparation was gained. And in him that escapes, 
 it were not sin to think, that making God so free an offer, He 
 let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach others 
 how they should prepare. Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 And now if we wish to see the end of worldly 
 ambition in a death-bed scene, what sermon is to 
 be compared to the representation which our poet 
 gives of the death of Cardinal Beaufort, in the Second 
 Part of King Henry VI. ; its effect being heightened 
 by the charity of the king in declining to judge, 
 and in proposing to turn it to the edification of the 
 survivors ! I give the scene entire for, as with 
 the Scripture itself (if the comparison may be made 
 
 * To die is gain. Phil. i. 2. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2,^y 
 
 without irreverence), it would be wrong to take 
 anything from it, or to add anything to it. Johnson 
 has truly observed, the beauties of it are such that 
 the superficial reader cannot miss them, and the 
 profound can imagine nothing beyond them. 
 
 Scene. Cardinal Beaufort's bedchamber. 
 Enter K. Henry, Salisbury, Warwick, &c. The Cardinal 
 in bed. 
 
 K. Hen. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign. 
 
 Car. If thou be'st Death, I'll give thee England's treasure, 
 Enough to purchase such another island, 
 So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. 
 
 K. Hen. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, 
 Where death's approach is seen so terrible ! 
 
 War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. 
 
 Car. Bring me unto my trial when you will. 
 Died he * not in his bed ? where should he die ? 
 Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no ? 
 O ! torture me no more, I will confess. 
 Alive again ? then show me where he is ; 
 I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him. - 
 He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. 
 Comb down his hair ; look ! look ! it stands upright, 
 Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul ! 
 Give me some drink ; and bid the apothecary 
 Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. 
 
 K. Hen. O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, 
 Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch ! 
 O, 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. 
 
 * Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, murdered by Beaufort's order. 
 
248 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 K. Hen. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be ! 
 Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, 
 Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. 
 He dies, and makes no sign ; O God, forgive him ! 
 
 War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. 
 
 K. Hen. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 
 Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close ; 
 And let us all to meditation. 
 
 K. Henry VI. znd Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 With this harrowing picture it will be some relief 
 to compare the death-bed of another Cardinal, also 
 the victim of inordinate ambition,* but partly, too, 
 of the fickleness of royal favour I mean Cardinal 
 Wolsey : 
 
 Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he died : 
 If well, he stepp'd before me, happily, 
 For my example. 
 
 Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam : 
 
 For after the stout earl Northumberland 
 Arrested him at York, and brought him forward 
 (As a man sorely tainted) to his answer, 
 He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, 
 He could not sit his mule. 
 
 Kath. Alas ! poor man ! 
 
 Grif. At last, with easy t roads, he came to Leicester, 
 Lodg'd in the abbey ; where the reverend abbot, 
 With all his convent, honourably receiv'd him ; 
 To whom he gave these words, O, father abbot, 
 An old man, broken with the storms of state, 
 Is come to lay his weary bones among ye g 
 Give him a little earth for charity ! 
 So went to bed : where eagerly his sickness 
 Pursued him still ; and, three nights after this, 
 
 * The death-bed scene of a sensualist, as exhibited in the case of 
 Falstaff, has been alluded to above. See p. 195. f i. e. stages. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 249 
 
 About the hour of eight (which he himself 
 Foretold should be his last), full of repentance, 
 Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows, 
 He gave his honours to the world again, 
 His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. 
 
 Kath. So may he rest ; his faults lie gently on him ! 
 
 Griffith afterwards adds : 
 His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him ; 
 For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
 And found the blessedness of being little : 
 And, to add greater honours to his age 
 Than man could give him, he died fearing God. 
 
 King Henry Fill. Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 The place to which the spirits of good men are 
 admitted immediately upon their dissolution is twice 
 mentioned by our poet under the figure* by which 
 we find it represented in the New Testament ; see 
 Luke xvi. 23. 
 
 Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead ? 
 Carlisle. As sure as I live, my lord. 
 Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom 
 Of good old Abraham ! K. Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 K. Rich. The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom. 
 K. Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4. 
 
 On the other hand, the torment of bad men after 
 death, as represented in the case of the rich man in 
 the same parable, is twice alluded to in King Henry 
 IV. (viz. 1 st Party Act iii. Sc. 3 ; 2nd Party Acti. 
 Sc. 2), and on both occasions the allusion is put 
 into the mouth of Falstaff, who handles it, as might 
 
 * There is also a reference to our Lord's promise to the penitent 
 thief (Luke xxiii. 43), in K. Henry VI. znd Part, Act v. Sc. 1. 
 
2$o Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 be expected, with such characteristic levity, that in 
 these instances I cannot complain of Mr. Bowdler 
 for omitting it, as he has done. There is also from 
 the mouth of Falstaff a reference to Lazarus (u/ 
 Party Act iv. Sc. i), which is 'partly dealt with by- 
 Mr. Bowdler in the same way. This also may be 
 justified. But there are two other passages of a 
 similar character, and bearing upon the same point, 
 not to be found in c the Family Shakspeare,' the 
 omission of which is, I think, to be regretted. One 
 is the speech of the Clown in All's well, &c, 
 Act iv. Sc. 5 : 
 
 I am for the house with the narrow gate, which I take to be 
 too little for pomp to enter ; some that humble themselves may ; 
 but the many will be too chill and tender ; and they'll be for 
 the flowery way, that leads to the broad gate, and the great fire. 
 
 The other is spoken by the porter at Macbeth's 
 
 castle : 
 
 I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go 
 the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. 
 
 Macbeth, Act ii. Sc, 3. 
 
 Mr. Steevens, in his note upon the former passage, 
 condemns this c as impious stuff/ For my own 
 part, as I do not doubt it was written with earnestness, 
 and with a wonderful knowledge of human nature 
 the latter passage, especially, as put into the mouth 
 of a drunken man so I believe it may be read with 
 edification. 
 
 With regard to the condition and circumstances 
 of the departed in the intermediate state, we have 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 251 
 
 no Scriptural authority for concluding that they 
 
 are not conscious of what is passing here. Our 
 
 poet therefore has not exceeded the bounds which 
 
 the Anglican Church allows to the pious opinions of 
 
 her members, when, at the conclusion of King Henry 
 
 VII L y he makes the King to say, on the occasion of 
 
 the christening of his infant daughter afterwards 
 
 Queen Elizabeth : 
 
 When I am in heaven, I shall desire 
 To see what this child does, and praise my Maker. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 4. 
 
 Still less can we object to that which is put into 
 the mouth of the Lady Constance, in King John, to 
 the effect that the recognition of those whom we 
 have known and loved in this world will be among 
 the causes of our happiness in the world to come. 
 Addressing Pandulph, the Pope's legate, she says : 
 Father cardinal, I have heard you say 
 That we shall see and know our friends in heaven : 
 If that be true, I shall see my boy again. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 Strange, indeed, would it be, if we Christians 
 might not entertain the hope which was the earnest 
 expectation, the comfort, and the joy of the great 
 and good among the heathen ! c Equidem,' says 
 Cato to Scipio and Laelius, in the De Senectute of 
 Cicero, c Equidem efferor studio patres vestros, 
 quos colui et dilexi, videndi,' i. e. after death. And 
 he proceeds in this noble strain : c O ! praeclarum 
 diem, quum ad ilium divinum animorum concilium 
 coetumque proficiscar, quumque ex hac turba et 
 
2, $2 Shahpeares Religious Principles and 
 
 colluvione discedam ! ' And then, like Constance, 
 he thinks of seeing again the son whom he had lost. 
 c Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus 
 ante dixi, verum etiam ad Caionem meum ; ' whom 
 he goes on to praise, as she has praised Arthur. So 
 much is there of the same truth and nature where 
 great minds, no matter how different their respective 
 circumstances, are led to speak upon the same 
 subjects ! 
 
 But we pass on to still more solemn truths, fully 
 certified to the Christian only, through the Revela- 
 tion he has received. We know that after the 
 intermediate state, and before the final and complete 
 reward of God's true servants, will come the Judg- 
 ment; and we also know that that judgment will 
 differ from the trials which take place in this world, 
 in two respects; ist. It will be incorruptibly and 
 infallibly just, and 2nd. The accused will be made 
 o give evidence against themselves : 
 
 In the corrupted currents of this world, 
 
 Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ; 
 
 But 'tis not so above. 
 
 There is no shuffling : there the action lies 
 
 In his * true nature ; and we ourselves compelled, 
 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 
 To give in evidence. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
 It is very remarkable that Shakspeare should 
 have seized upon this latter point. He is supported 
 in the view he takes by Bishop Pearson,f than 
 
 * See above, p. 1.7. f Born, 16125 died, 1686. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 353 
 
 whom the Anglican Church has no higher authority 
 
 upon theological questions. That learned divine, 
 
 expounding the seventh article of the Creed, thus 
 
 writes, in an argument upon conscience : 
 
 It followeth that this conscience is not so much a judge as a 
 witness* bound over to give testimony, for or against us, at some 
 judgment after this life to pass upon us. 
 
 And he refers to S. Paul, Rom. ii. 14-16. 
 
 It was to be expected that the circumstances of 
 the judgment day, as they are revealed to us in 
 Scripture, would make a deep and lasting impression 
 upon a mind like Shakspeare's. Accordingly, when 
 he desires to give more than ordinary effect to deep 
 passion, to indignation and abhorrence at crime 
 committed, or to affliction and distress at calamity 
 incurred, he has recourse to images which are asso- 
 ciated with the final doom the sounding of the last 
 trump, the discomfiture of creation, the dissolution 
 of the heavens and the earth. Thus, first, in the con- 
 cluding scene of King Lear> where the fact that the 
 personages of the play are all Pagans, would not 
 allow of more than a general and indistinct allusion 
 to c the promised end/ we read as follows : 
 
 Enter Lear, with Cordelia dead in bis arms. 
 
 Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl ! O, you are men of stones : 
 Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so 
 
 * Juvenal, though a heathen, expresses the same truth, and so 
 confirms S. Paul, where he says that wicked men 
 
 'Nocte, dieque suum gestare in pectore testem. 1 Sat. xiii. 198. 
 
254 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 That heaven's vault should crack. 
 
 Kent. Is this the promised end ? 
 
 Edgar, Or image of that horror? Act v. Sc. 3. 
 
 See Matt. xxiv. 6, c The end is not yet ; ' and 
 1 Pet. iv. 7., c The end of all things is at hand/ 
 
 There is the same kind of indistinct reference to 
 the gospel record of our Lord's combined prophecy 
 of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the end of 
 the world, in a speech of Gloster's, towards the be- 
 ginning of the same play : 
 
 These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to 
 us : . . . love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide : in cities, 
 mutinies ; in countries, discord ; in palaces, treason ; and the bond 
 cracked between father and son. This villain of mine comes 
 under the prediction ; there's son against father : the king falls 
 from bias of nature; there's father against child. Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 In answer to the objection that such references 
 are out of place in the mouth of Pagans, it is to be 
 remembered that the heathen had their Sibylline 
 verses and prophetical books, and that both Lucan 
 and Ovid foretell of prodigies, and of the conflag- 
 ration of the world at the last day. 
 
 In Macbeth we advance a step farther towards a 
 fuller exhibition of the same comparison, when 
 Macduff enters, and discovers the dead bodies of 
 King Duncan and his attendants, all murdered : 
 
 Macduff. O horror ! horror ! horror ! 
 Tongue, nor heart, cannot conceive, nor name thee ! 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 255 
 
 . Murder ! and treason ! 
 Banquo, and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 
 Shake off this drowsy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
 And look on death itself! Up, up, and see 
 
 The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo ! 
 
 As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites , 
 To countenance this horror ! 
 
 Enter Lady Macbeth. 
 Lady M. What's the business, 
 That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
 The sleepers of the house ? Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Again the same image is invoked to give ex- 
 pression to other but no less violent and absorbing 
 emotions, in Romeo and Juliet : 
 
 Juliet. Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead ; 
 My dear-loved cousin, and my dearer lord? 
 Then dreadful trumpet , sound the general doom ! 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 When the young Lord Clifford, in the Second 
 
 Fart of King Henry VL> sees, after the battle of St. 
 
 Albans, the hopes of his party blasted, and his 
 
 father killed, he exclaims : 
 
 O ! let the vile world end ! 
 And the premised* flames of the last day 
 Knit earth and heaven together ! 
 Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, 
 Particularities and petty sounds 
 To cease ! f Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 The incestuous marriage of the queen, in Hamlet , 
 with the murderer of her husband and his own 
 brother, might well seem to call forth from the 
 
 * i. e. Sent before their time. f To stop. 
 
2 $6 Shakspeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 young prince the utmost abhorrence which words 
 
 can express : 
 
 Heaven's face dcth glow : 
 Yea, this solidity and compound mass 
 With tristful visage, as * against the doom, 
 Is thought-sick at the act. Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 I see nothing in this last passage to justify the 
 doubts and objections which Warburton and other 
 critics have raised. I imagine that the glowing of 
 Heaven's face is to be understood to imply shame 
 at the Queen's act. Mr. Malone timidly asks 
 c Had not our poet S. Luke's description of the 
 last day in his thoughts ? ' No doubt, he had ; but 
 why not also the parallel descriptions of S. Mat- 
 thew and S. Mark? Yes, and still more, of 
 S. Peter, 2 Ep. iii. 7-1 1; and S. John, Rev. 
 xx. 11. The truth is, I fear, that whatever else 
 our poet's critics have been strong in, they have, 
 for the most part, notf been strong in knowledge 
 of the Scriptures ; and that the book which they 
 should have looked to first and most for help in 
 the illustration of his works, is the book which has 
 been generally looked to last and least. 
 
 That the passage of S. Peter just referred to 
 had attracted his attention is evident from a speech 
 of Prospero in the tempest : 
 
 * See above, p. 23. 
 
 f I speak of the critics in the Variorum edition. Among these 
 Mr. Henley is, I think, the only one who deserves to be exempted 
 from the above censure. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 257 
 
 Our revels now are ended : these our actors, 
 
 As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
 
 Are melted into air, into thin air : 
 
 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
 
 The cloud- capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
 
 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
 
 Leave not a rack* behind. Act iv. Sc. i. 
 
 Compare also Isaiah li. 6, c The heavens shall 
 vanish away like smoke/ &c. 
 
 And now the curtain of our great teacher drops, 
 as it ought, before the happiness of Heaven. We 
 know, though imperfectly, what we now are ; we 
 know not, even with the help of Revelation, what 
 we shall be hereafter : 
 
 Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be. I John iii. 2. 
 
 Ophelia has caught this up in her touching way, 
 where she says to the king, in Hamlet : 
 
 Well, God 'ield f you ! They say, the owl was a baker's 
 daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we 
 may be. God be at your table! Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 We can have no doubt that the last of these ex- 
 pressions (which, by the bye, Mr. Bowdler has 
 omitted) is to be understood as a deranged person's 
 version of c May you be at God's table/ according 
 
 * i. e. A vapour. But, notwithstanding the elaborate argument 
 of Home Tooke, I confess I should prefer to read track, supported 
 as it is by the parallel in Timon of Athens. 
 
 f Yield, i. e. reward you. 
 
 S 
 
2 $8 Shahpeare s Religious Principles and 
 
 to the Scriptural notion,* which represents the 
 happiness of heaven under the figure of a feast, 
 with God for our host. See Matt. viii. n, Luke 
 xii. 37. There can be no doubt, too, that the pre- 
 ceding clause in Ophelia's speech is taken from the 
 latter clause of S. John's text. What if the ec- 
 centricity of thought, natural to mad people, should 
 have converted in the presence of the wicked king 
 the Christian's sonship to God, with which the 
 apostle's text begins, into the owl's daughter ship to 
 the baker, which Ophelia first introduces ? I am in- 
 clined to think this not impossible, more especially 
 as the legend referred to is a Christian one, in 
 which, according to Mr. Steevens, our Saviour be- 
 ing refused bread by the daughter of a baker (which 
 again would suggest the notion of the blessedness of 
 him that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, 
 Luke xiv. 15) is described as punishing her by 
 turning her into an owl. Mr. Douce has given the 
 story more at length, and represents it as still cur- 
 rent among the common people in Gloucester- 
 shire. 
 
 But though c it doth not yet appear what we shall 
 be ' in heaven, we know that comfort and happiness 
 are to be looked for there, and only there. When the 
 
 * And classical also. Compare Virg. Eel. iv. 6z : 
 * Cui non risere Parentes, 
 Nee Deus hunc mensa, Dea nee dignata cubili est.' 
 
 See also Hor. iv. Od. viii. 29, and elsewhere. 
 
Sentiments derived from Bible. 2 $9 
 
 Queen, in King Richard IL, says to the Duke of 
 York, 
 
 For Heaven's sake, speak comfortable words ; 
 
 he replies in language which many passages of the 
 
 Bible fully justify : 
 
 Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts ; 
 Comfort's in heaven : and we are on the earth, 
 Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief. ' 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 And yet we must not be impatient to quit this 
 scene of trial, so long as our remaining here may 
 tend in any way to promote God's glory, or to be 
 serviceable to our fellow men. Shakspeare, from 
 the mouth of Hamlet, will teach us this, after the 
 measure of the wisdom and the love of this world ; 
 but we must go to the Bible, and sit at the feet of 
 S. Paul, if we would learn it more perfectly. 
 
 The dying Prince of Denmark speaks to his 
 
 friend Horatio : 
 
 If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, 
 
 Absent thee from felicity awhile r 
 
 And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, 
 
 To tell my story. Act v. Sc. z. 
 
 The great apostle of the Gentiles, in bondage at 
 Rome, writes to his Philippian converts : 
 
 I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to 
 be with Christ, which is far better : Nevertheless to abide in the / 
 flesh is more needful for you. Phil. i. 23, 24. 
 
 Meanwhile may our c names be written in the 
 Book of Life ! ' This expression, which is used 
 
 S 2 
 
2,6o Shahpeare s Religious Principles. 
 
 frequently by S. John in the Revelation, and once 
 by S. Paul, Phil. iv. 3, could only have occurred 
 to one who had often in his hand the sacred volume, 
 which is to us in this world c the Book of Life/ We 
 find it in King Richard II. The speaker is Mow- 
 bray, Duke of Norfolk : 
 
 No, Bolingbroke ; if ever I were traitor, 
 My name be blotted from the Book of Life ; 
 And I from heaven banished, as from hence ! 
 
 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the Poetry of Shakspeare as derived from 
 the Bible. 
 
 COME now, in the last place, to speak 
 of passages in which Shakspeare has been 
 indebted to Holy Writ, not only for 
 poetical diction and sentiment, but for some of the 
 most striking and sublime images which are to be 
 found in his works. 
 
 i. We are familiar with that simple, but most 
 affecting apostrophe with which the vision of Isaiah 
 opens : 
 
 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath 
 spoken I have nourished and brought up children, and they have 
 rebelled against Me. i. 2. 
 
 See also Deut. xxxii. 1, Jerem. ii. 12, vi. 19. 
 All creation is summoned to listen to a tale of un- 
 dutifulness, which was felt by the prophets to be 
 without parallel. It was under the influence of a 
 similar feeling that Hamlet exclaims upon his 
 mother's hasty and incestuous marriage with his 
 uncle, his father's murderer : 
 
2,6% Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 Heaven and earth ! 
 Must I remember ? Why, she would hang on him, 
 As if increase of appetite had grown 
 By what it fed on : and yet within a month 
 Let me not think on't. Act i. So 2. 
 
 And again the same feeling is aroused and vents 
 
 itself in a similar exclamation, in the scene between 
 
 Hamlet and his father's ghost : 
 
 Ghost. List, list, O list, 
 
 If thou didst ever thy dear father love. 
 Hamlet. O I Heaven ! 
 
 Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. 
 
 Ibid. Sc. 5. 
 
 The exclamation is not idle or common-place, 
 but sublime and full of intense passion. 
 
 2. It is a bolder flight of imagination which re- 
 presents the elements and heavenly bodies taking 
 part, as allies, in the conflict of human warfare. 
 Thus, in that grandest of all lyrical compositions 
 the Song of Deborah and Barak, Judges v. 20 : 
 
 They fought from heaven ; the stars in their courses fought 
 against Sisera. 
 
 Compare Joshua x. 12-14. 
 
 The classical student will be reminded of a 
 parallel and wonderfully magnificent passage in the 
 poet Claudian, De tert. Consul. Honor. 93-98 : 
 
 Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis 
 Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela 
 Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. 
 O nimium dilecte Deo ! cui militat tether, 
 Et conjurati veniunt ad dassica venti. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 2,6$ 
 
 Claudian was a heathen ; but he recognised 
 what was believed to be the interposition of the 
 Deity on behalf of the Emperor Theodosius against 
 Eugenius, at the battle of Aquileia, fought on Sept. 
 6th, a.d. 394. See Augustin, Be Civit. Dei, lib. v. 
 cap. xxvi.; Fleurfs Church History ,bookxix. c. xlix. 
 
 Let us now see the use which our poet has made 
 of this sublime idea. 
 
 First, in King Henry VI. yd Tart, it appears in 
 
 its simplest and, so to speak, most elementary form, 
 
 where Hastings says : t | 
 
 'Tis better using France, than trusting France : 
 Let us be backed with Heaven, and with the seas, 
 Which God hath given for fence impregnable, 
 And with their helps only defend ourselves : 
 In them and in ourselves our safety lies : 
 
 Act iv. Sc. 1. 
 
 a passage upon which Dr. Johnson truly remarks : 
 
 This has been the advice of every man who in any age under- 
 stood and favoured the interest of England. 
 
 Next, in King Richard II., we have a develop- 
 ment of the idea, suggested probably by the 
 destruction of the host of Sennacherib, recorded in 
 2 Kings xix. and Isaiah xxxvii. : 
 
 K. Richard. And we are barren, and bereft of friends; 
 Yet know my master, God omnipotent, 
 Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, 
 Armies of pestilence : and they shall strike 
 Your children yet unborn, and unbegot, 
 That lift your vassal hands against my head, 
 And threat the glory of my precious crown. Act iii. Sc. 3. 
 
2,6 4 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 In like manner, the Lady Constance, in King 
 John, on behalf of her son Arthur, with the fury of 
 a Pythian prophetess enthroned upon her sacred tri- 
 pod, cries out 
 
 Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings ! 
 A widow cries ; be husband to me, heavens ! 
 . Let not the hours of this ungodly day 
 Wear out the day in peace. Act iii. Sc. I . 
 
 Once more, the aged King Lear, upon the sight of 
 his unnatural daughter, Goneril, thus invokes the 
 armed confederacy of heaven on his side against her : 
 
 K. Lear. . Who comes here ? O heavens, 
 If you do love old men, if your sweet sway 
 Allow * obedience, if yourselves are old, 
 Make it your cause ; send down and take my part. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 4. 
 
 See also c I tax not you/ &c, in Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 3. To pass on from this mustering of elements 
 of warfare to the incidents of war itself. In that 
 most poetical of all the Books of Scripture, the 
 Book of Job, the passage which describes the war- 
 horse, ch. xxxix. 19-25, has ever been considered 
 as one of the most' sublime superior even to the 
 famous parallel of Virgil : 
 
 Turn, si qua sonum procul arma dedere, 
 Stare loco nescit, micat auribus, et tremit artus, 
 Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem. 
 
 Georg. iii. 83-85. 
 
 The expression of the inspired writer which ap- 
 
 * See above, Pt. I. ch. ii. p. 29. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 265 
 
 pears to have struck the fancy of our poet most is 
 this : 
 
 He swalioweth the ground with fierceness and rage. 
 
 Thus in King Henry IV. ind Part, we read : 
 
 With that, he gave his able horse the head, 
 
 And, bending forward, struck his armed heels 
 
 Against the panting sides of his poor jade 
 
 Up to the rowel-head ; and starting so, 
 
 He seemed in running to devour the way. 
 
 Staying no longer question. Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 And afterwards, in Hamlet, we find the same image 
 
 very appropriately introduced in the mouth of a 
 
 Danish gentleman, to describe an occurrence to 
 
 which the flat sea-board of that country would be 
 
 liable, though not so frequently or so destructively 
 
 perhaps as the coast of Holland : 
 
 Gent. (To the king). Save yourself, my lord, 
 
 The ocean, overpeering of his list,* 
 Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste 
 Than yoang Laertes, in a riotous haste, 
 O'erbears your officers. Act iv. Sc. 5. 
 
 4. The transformation of weapons of war into 
 implements of peace is a favourite image with the in- 
 spired prophets. Thus, Isaiah ii. 4, and Micah iv. 3 : 
 
 They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
 into pruning-hooks. 
 
 And the contrary transformation in the Prophet 
 
 Joel, where, in a vein of irony, he challenges the 
 
 heathens to make their utmost efforts in opposition 
 
 to God's truth ; iii. 9, 10: 
 
 * i. e. bounds. 
 
2,66 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles : Prepare war ; wake up 
 the mighty men : let all the men of war draw near ; let them come 
 up 
 
 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning- hooks 
 into spears : let the weak say, I am strong. 
 
 A transformation which Virgil describes as actu- 
 ally taking place in the melancholy picture which 
 he draws of the universal disorders caused through- 
 out the world by the civil wars of Rome : 
 
 Tot bella per orbem ; 
 Tarn multse scelerum facies : non ullus aratro 
 Dignus honos ; squalent abductis arva colonis : 
 Et curvae rigidum fakes conflantur in ensem. 
 
 Georg. i. 505-508. 
 
 Our poet has given an original turn to the same 
 
 idea, by applying it to women. I allude to the 
 
 words of Philip Faulconbridge, in King John, where 
 
 he represents the female part of the population as 
 
 ready to rise, or rather as already risen, in the king's 
 
 behalf: 
 
 Ladies, and pale-visaged maids, 
 Like Amazons, come tripping after drums ; 
 Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, 
 Their neelds to lances, and their gentle hearts 
 To fierce and bloody inclination. Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 5. Another image of warfare which occurs more 
 than once in the poetical portions of the Bible is 
 that which describes the weapons of war, arrows 
 and the sword, when used to execute God's ven- 
 geance, as c drunk with blood.' See the Song of 
 Moses, Deut. xxxii. 42, and the Lamentations of 
 
as derived from the Bible. 267 
 
 Jeremiah xlvi. 10. Shakspeare has profited by this 
 in the words which he puts into the mouth of the 
 Earl of Warwick, when Richard Plantagenet had 
 told him of his brother's death : 
 
 Rich. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk. 
 Warw. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood. 
 
 K. Henry VI. yd Part, Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 The idea will be familiar to the reader of 
 the Greek tragedians ; who, possibly, may have 
 derived it from the Mosaical account of the first 
 murder, where the Lord is introduced as speaking 
 to Cain : 
 
 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened 
 ber mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. 
 
 Genesis iv. #.* 
 
 6. From passages such as these it is a slight 
 transition or advance in metaphor which ascribes 
 feelings of sympathy to inanimate things, and es- 
 pecially when things animate have come short in 
 that duty. We can all appreciate the strict human 
 propriety, as well as the poetry of the language 
 which our Lord made use of when the Pharisees 
 appealed to Him to rebuke His Disciples for the 
 acclamations which they raised upon his last entry 
 into Jerusalem : 
 
 He answered and said unto them, I tell you, if these should 
 hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out : 
 
 Luke xix. 40. 
 
 Not without reference probably to the similar 
 
 * Comp. Revel, xvii. 6. 
 
268 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 rebuke which the prophet Habakkuk announces 
 would be forthcoming against the covetousness of 
 the rich, who had exalted themselves and their 
 dwelling places, through covetousness, through 
 violence, and injustice : 
 
 The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the 
 timber shall answer it. ii. 1 1 . 
 
 This notion of the brute earth, with its products, 
 
 senseless and irrational, exhibiting, or, in the poet's 
 
 imagination, not unwilling to exhibit greater powers 
 
 of sympathy than are to be found among men, has 
 
 afforded matter for several of Shakspeare's most 
 
 effective passages. For example, when King Richard 
 
 II. returned from Ireland, to meet, and, if possible, 
 
 suppress the insurrection of Bolingbroke, afterwards 
 
 King Henry IV., he thus apostrophises the coast of 
 
 Wales, upon which he landed : 
 
 I weep for joy, 
 To stand upon my kingdom once again. 
 Dear earth, I do salute thee with mine hand, 
 Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs : 
 
 Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, 
 Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense ; 
 But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, 
 And heavy gaited toads, lie in their way : 
 
 Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies : 
 And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, 
 Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder; 
 Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch 
 Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 2,6 g 
 
 Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords ; 
 
 This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones 
 
 Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king 
 
 Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. Act iii Sc. 2. 
 
 This is a noble passage. Ten years later, when 
 
 our poet produced Julius Csesar, he had recourse 
 
 again to the same image, and gave effect to it in a strain 
 
 which nothing can surpass. The reader will know 
 
 that I am referring to the speech of Antony, spoken 
 
 by permission of Brutus and the other conspirators, 
 
 over the body which they had stabbed to death : 
 
 Antony. I have neither wit,* nor words, nor worth, 
 Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 
 To stir men's blood : I only speak right on ; 
 I tell you that which you yourselves do know : 
 Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, 
 And bid them speak for me : But were I Brutus, 
 And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 
 Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue 
 In every wound of Caesar, that would move 
 The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 7. As there are f thoughts which lie too deep for 
 tears/ so there have been stages of human existence 
 in which even desire for sympathy has become ex- 
 tinct ; and nothing has seemed left to those whose 
 hope was thus overclouded, but to wish that they 
 had never been. This state of feeling, to which no 
 faithful Christian should allow himself to be reduced, 
 finds vent in expressions, the appalling sublimity of 
 
 * Malone reads ' writ/ which Johnson defends, not, I think, satis- 
 factorily. 
 
2 7 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 which has never been surpassed, in the 3rd chapter 
 of the Book of Job: 
 
 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 
 
 And Job spake and said : 
 
 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which 
 it was said, there is a man-child * conceived. 
 
 Let that day be darkness ; let not God regard it from above, 
 neither let the light shine upon it. 
 
 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it ; let a cloud 
 dwell upon it ; letf the blackness of the day terrify it. 
 
 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it, let it not be joined 
 unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the 
 months. 
 
 Lo ! let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come 
 therein. 
 
 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark ; let it look for 
 light, but have none ; neither let it see the dawning of the day. 
 
 I think the readers of Shakspeare will agree with 
 me that there is no one of all his characters from 
 whom language of this kind would be more ex- 
 pected, or come with greater propriety, than from 
 the Lady Constance in King John. And so we find 
 that he has put into her mouth a speech which I 
 cannot doubt was founded upon the poet's recollec- 
 tion of the foregoing passage of the Old Testament. 
 When King Philip had announced that the marriage 
 was agreed on between his son Lewis and the Lady 
 Blanch, whereby young Arthur, the son of Constance, 
 was to be excluded from succession to the English 
 throne speaking of the contract as one that would 
 
 * See above, p. 36. f But see margin. 
 
as derived from the Bible. %J\ 
 
 ever reflect lustre upon the day then present, upon 
 
 which it had been made : 
 
 The yearly course, that brings this day about, 
 Shall never see it but a holyday ; 
 
 Constance broke in upon him, thus : 
 
 A wicked day, and not a holyday ! 
 
 What hath this day deserved ? What hath it done, 
 
 That it in golden letters should be set, 
 
 Among the high tides,* in the kalendar ? 
 
 Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week, 
 
 This day of shame, oppression, perjury ; 
 
 Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child 
 
 Pray that their burdens may not fall this day. 
 
 Act iii. Sc. I. 
 
 And in Hamlet, written, according to Malone, in 
 the same year as King John, viz. 1596, we find the 
 sentiment of Job very nearly adopted, when he 
 says to Ophelia, speaking of himself: 
 
 I could accuse me of such things that it were better f my mother 
 had not borne me. Act iii. Sc. 1. 
 
 To these passages may be added, from 'Timon of 
 Athens, the last words spoken by Timon, as he 
 goes out to put an end to his existence : 
 
 Sun, hide thy beams ! Timon hath done his reign. 
 
 Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 8 . The striking sublimity with which Paul, when") 
 
 brought before Festus, replied to the Governor's/ 
 
 exclamation, c that he was beside himself/ by the 
 
 simple denial, \ I am not mad, most noble Festus/ 
 
 * Times, seasons. f See Matt. xxvi. 24. 
 
2 J 2, Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 Acts xxvi. 25, was not likely to be lost upon our 
 poet's imagination. In both the plays which I just 
 now mentioned as contemporaneous, Hamlet and 
 King John, it is copied with good effect. When 
 he Queen accuses Hamlet, after the exit of the 
 Ghost, which he had seen, of c ecstacy,' he an- 
 swers : 
 
 Ecstacy ! 
 My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, 
 / And makes as healthful music : // is not madness 
 
 That I have uttered. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 And in King John, when Pandulph says to Con- 
 stance : 
 
 Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow, 
 her reply is : 
 
 Thou art not holy to belie me so ; 
 
 I am not mad : this hair I tear is mine ; 
 
 My name is Constance ; I was Geffrey's wife ; 
 
 Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost 
 
 / am not mad : I would to heaven I were ! 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 9. The mention of S. Paul may remind us of 
 another sublime passage in the writings of that 
 Apostle, which appears to have been present to the 
 mind of Shakspeare. I allude to the verse in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians, i. 8 : 
 
 Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
 unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. 
 
 Compare with this what we read in King John, 
 in that most affecting of all scenes, between Hu- 
 
as derived from the Bible. 2J3 
 
 bert and Arthur, when the young Prince says to 
 him : 
 
 An * if an angel should have come to me 
 
 And told me, Hubert should put out mine eyes, 
 
 I would not have believed him. Act iv. Sc. I . 
 
 Akin, in some degree, to the foregoing, are two 
 remarkable passages in the First Part of King 
 Henry IV. The former of these has perplexed 
 the commentators more, I think, than it need have 
 done, if they had considered the striking resem- 
 blance which it bears to a strain of bold and 
 figurative language to be met with more than once 
 in Holy Scripture. It is quite in keeping with the 
 character of Hotspur to speak as follows : 
 
 By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap 
 
 To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon, 
 
 Or dive into the bottom of the deep, 
 
 And pluck up drowned honour by the locks ; 
 
 So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear, 
 
 Without corrival, all her dignities. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 We may be sure that Shakspeare had never seen 
 
 the passage of Euripides which has been produced 
 
 to justify and explain the so-called c bombast ' of 
 
 these lines ; and we may be no less certain that he 
 
 had seen and studied those two grand chapters of 
 
 Deuteronomy, and of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 
 in which we read what I proceed to quote : 
 
 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is 
 not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven ; 
 
 * See above, p. 26. 
 T 
 
2 74 Qf the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 that thou should'st say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and 
 bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? Neither is it 
 beyond the sea that thou should'st say, who shall go over the sea for 
 us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it ? But the 
 word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that 
 thou mayest do it. Deut, xxx. 11-14. 
 
 The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise : Say 
 not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven ? that is, to 
 bring Christ down from above . Or, who shall descend into the 
 deep ? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead'. But what 
 saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy 
 heart ; that is, the word of faith, which we preach. 
 
 Romans x. 6-8. 
 
 In the other passage of the same play, to which 
 I last referred, we may also trace a similar use and 
 adaptation of Scriptural ideas and modes of thought. 
 In this instance, for a reason that will be obvious, 
 let us take the Scripture first. 
 
 In Job xxi. 22, the solemn question is asked : 
 Shall any teach God knowledge ? 
 
 And in Isaiah xl. 13 : 
 
 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his coun- 
 sellor, hath taught Him ? 
 
 And in S. Paul, more than once, see Rom. xi. 34, 
 
 1 Cor. ii. 16 : 
 
 Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His 
 counsellor ? 
 
 When Owen Glendower desires to represent that he 
 
 is something more than human : 
 
 All the courses of my life do show 
 I am not in the roll of common men 
 
as derived from the Bible. 2j$ 
 
 he endeavours to fortify the boast by making use 
 
 of the same image and attribute of Deity : 
 
 Where is he living . 
 Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me ? 
 And bring him out, that is but woman's son, 
 Can trace me in the tedious ways of art, 
 And hold me pace in deep experiments? 
 
 Act iii. Sc. r. 
 
 10. Again: the sublime passages of the Old 
 Testament, in which the attributes of man, or of 
 angels, are assigned to Almighty God; as, for 
 instance, where He is said to c ride upon the 
 heavens/ Deut. xxxiii. 26, Ps. Ixviii. 4 ; or 4 to 
 walk ' or c fly upon the wings of the wind/ Ps. 
 civ. 3, xviii. 10; or that c His hand is not 
 shortened/ Numb. xi. 23, Isai. L 2, lix. 1 ; might 
 expect to find their likenesses in Shakspeare, and 
 they do find them : yet so softened and disguised, 
 that no comparison which might suggest thoughts 
 of irreverence is provoked by the imitation. 
 
 It is Romeo who thus, from Capulet's garden,, 
 addresses Juliet at her window : 
 
 O ! speak again, bright angel, for thou art 
 
 As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, 
 
 As is a winged messenger of Heaven 
 
 Unto the white upturned wondering eyes 
 
 Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, 
 
 When he bestrides the lazy -pacing clouds, 
 
 And sails upon the bosom of the air. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 The shortening of the hand or arm is applied as a 
 metaphor to Danger, with great force and propriety, 
 
2j6 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 in Pericles, Prince of 'Tyre, part of which, at least, 
 
 I take to have been written by Shakspeare when 
 
 a young man. 
 
 Danger, which I feared, is at Antioch, 
 Whose arm seems far too short to hit me here. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 Nor can I doubt that our poet had in his eye 
 that beautiful and most pathetic passage of the 
 prophet Isaiah, in which God's unfailing remem- 
 brance of his people is set forth, xlix. 15 ; 
 
 Can a woman forget her sucking child ? . . . Yea, they 
 may forget, yet will / not forget thee ; 
 
 when he wrote, in King Henry V., that well- 
 known speech of the king on the eve of the victory 
 at Agincourt : 
 
 This day is called the feast of Crispian ! 
 
 He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 
 
 Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named ; 
 
 Old men forget, yea, all shall be forgot. 
 
 But he'll remember with advantages 
 
 What feats he did that day. Act iv. Sc. 3. 
 
 I may observe that, in the received text of this 
 passage, the reading is c yet all shall be forgot;' 
 but with the parallel words of Isaiah before me, 
 I had no doubt that the true reading is c yea ' in- 
 stead of c yet : ' and I have since discovered that 
 the same conjecture had occurred to Malone, 
 though he makes no mention of the confirmation 
 
as derived from the Bible. zjj 
 
 given to it by the turn of expression which the in- 
 spired prophet employs. 
 
 1 1 . The reader who desires further illustrations 
 under this head is requested to compare the fine 
 description in King Richard II. of deeds of dark- 
 ness shrinking and terrified at the return of day ; 
 
 Then murders, treasons, and detested sins, 
 
 The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs, 
 
 Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves ; 
 
 Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 with the similar description in the Book of Job : 
 
 In the dark they dig thro' houses ; . . they know not the 
 light ; for the morning is to them even as the shadow of- death : 
 if one know them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. 
 
 xxiv. 13-17. 
 
 And again, the grand passage in the Third Part of 
 King Henry VL, where the Earl of Warwick com- 
 pares his own fall to that of the cedar, 
 
 Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle, 
 Under whose shade the ramping lion slept ; 
 
 Act v. Sc. 2. ' 
 
 was doubtless derived, as is pointed out in a note 
 of Steevens, from the prophet Ezekiel, who had 
 made a similar comparison between the fall of the 
 glory of Assyria and of a cedar in Lebanon : 
 
 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and 
 under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their 
 young ; under his shadow dwelt all great nations, xxxi. 6. 
 
 1 2. The following may be added as specimens 
 
278 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 of less elaborate comparison, no less evidently drawn 
 from the same sacred source. 
 
 In Much ado about nothings Benedick says to Don 
 Pedro, in answer to the latter's question : 
 
 Where's the count ? 
 
 I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. i . 
 
 Where again the note of Steevens very properly 
 refers us to the parallel in Isaiah : 
 
 The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a 
 lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city ; i. 8. 
 
 a melancholy picture of loneliness and desolation. 
 
 In Hamlet, Polonius warns Ophelia not to trust 
 too readily to the advances of the young prince, how- 
 ever accompanied with protestations of affection : 
 
 These blazes, daughter, 
 Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, 
 Even in their promise as it is a making, 
 You must not take tor fire. Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 And again, in the First Part of King Henry IV. the 
 same image occurs to describe the companions of 
 the sovereign whom Henry had supplanted : 
 
 The skipping king, he ambled up and down, 
 
 With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits, 
 
 Soon kindled and soon burnt. Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 c Bavin ' means brushwood. In like manner 
 David, in Psalm cxviii. 1 2, says of his enemies : 
 
 They are extinct, even as the fire among the thorns-, for in the 
 name of the Lord I will destroy them. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 279 
 
 In Othello, the Moor speaks of Desdemona, we know 
 how unjustly, as having been c false as water* 
 Act v. Sc. 1. Was this simile derived from the 
 character given by Jacob to his first-born son 
 Reuben ? 
 
 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. Gen. xlix. 4. 
 
 In 'Timon of Athens, the painter says to the poet, 
 speaking of Timon : 
 
 You shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with 
 the highest. Act v. Sc. 1 . 
 
 The notion of c flourishing like a palm tree ' is one 
 with which we are familiar from Psalm xcii. 12. 
 
 13. In like manner the comparisons derived from 
 animals, with which the Bible has familiarized us, 
 are to be found no less in the pages of Shakspeare. 
 For instance, in the last-named play, the description 
 of the hostile approach of Alcibiades, 
 Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 
 His country's peace ; Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 is derived from the Psalmist's description of the 
 
 enemies of Jerusalem represented as a vine : 
 
 The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up ; and the wild 
 beasts of the field devour it. 
 
 Ps. lxxx. 13, Prayer Book version. 
 
 So, too, c the wolf in sheep's clothing/ of S. 
 Matthew vii. 15, is reproduced in Second Part of 
 King Henry VI., Act iii. Sc. 1, where Queen Mar- 
 garet enquires concerning Gloster : 
 
 Is he a lamb ? his skin is surely lent him, 
 
 For he's inclined as are the ravenous zvolves. 
 
28o Of the Poetry of Shakspeare 
 
 The ( dog returning to his vomit/ of S. Peter, 2 
 Ep. ii. 22, and of Proverbs xxvi. II, is reproduced 
 in King Henry IV. ind Part, Act i. Sc. 3 (where 
 Mr. Bowdler, in omitting the allusion, has curtailed 
 the passage in a manner singularly awkward and 
 scarcely grammatical), and again (though still* not 
 in Mr. Bowdler's edition) in King Henry V. Act iii. 
 Sc. 7, where the text of S. Peter is given in French, 
 almost exactly from the Genevan Bible of 1 5 8 8 : a 
 fact which renders one part, at least, of Dr. Farmer's 
 conclusion in his celebrated essay very improbable, 
 viz. that c Shakspeare did not understand very 
 common words in the French and Latin lan- 
 guages.' The c deaf adder ' has been already spoken 
 of.f The cherished c Serpent, that, at the last, 
 biteth, and stingeth,' of Proverbs xxiii. 32, is re- 
 produced in King Henry VI. ind Part, Act iii. 
 Sc. 1 : 
 
 I fear me, you but warm the starved snake. 
 
 Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts. 
 
 And as we are c set to school to the ant ' in 
 Proverbs vi. 6, so are we also in King Lear, Act ii. 
 Sc. 4. 
 
 14. Again, the metaphorical images of c the tree 
 known by its fruits ; ' of c the axe laid to the root of 
 the tree ; * of causing our c light to shine before 
 
 * This is mentioned not to complain of the omission in the 
 present instance, but for the information of readers of that edition, 
 f See above, p. 48. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 281 
 
 men,' in this naughty world ; of f the cheek to be 
 given to the smiter ; ! and of c the mote ' in the 
 mind's c eye ; ' each of them well known to us from 
 the Bible have been all pressed into service by our 
 great poet : as may be seen by any one who will 
 read First Part King Henry IV. Act ii. Sc. 4 ; 
 Third Part Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. 2 ; Merchant of 
 Venice \ Act v. Sc. 1 ; King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 1; 
 Hamlet , Act i. Sc. 1 . 
 
 But the field of Scriptural metaphor is one over 
 which we must track our poet still further. In the 
 Bible, life is c a pilgrimage/ Gen. xlvii. 9, and 
 elsewhere ; so it is in Shakspeare : 
 
 His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. 
 
 K. Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1. 
 
 In the Bible, the human body is a c temple,' 
 
 John ii. 21, and elsewhere ; so it is in Shakspeare : 
 
 Nature, crescent, does not grow alone 
 In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withal. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 In the Bible, that which infects and corrupts 
 others is c leaven/ 1 Cor. v. 6-8, and elsewhere; so 
 it is in Shakspeare : 
 
 Thou, Posthumus, 
 Wilt lay the leaven on all * proper men ; 
 Goodly and valiant shall be false and perjured 
 From thy great fall ; Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 * See above, p. 39. But here it seems to mean handsome morally 
 and inwardly, like the Greek koXoq, 
 
282 Of the Poetry of Sbahpeare 
 
 i. e. shall not escape the imputation and character 
 of being such. In the Bible, that which is appro- 
 priated and secured, is c sealed,' Rom. xv. 28, and 
 elsewhere ; so it is in Shakspeare : 
 
 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, 
 
 And could of men distinguish her election, 
 
 She hath sealed tbee for herself; Act iii. Sc. 2. 
 
 says Hamlet to his friend Horatio, and, again, in 
 
 the same play, the phrase which S. John uses, iii. 33, 
 
 is adopted by our poet : 
 
 A combination and a form indeed, 
 
 Where every god did seem to set bis seal y 
 
 To give the world assurance of a man ; 
 
 This was your husband. Act iii. Sc. 4. 
 
 15. But further; besides the broader and more 
 important principles and sentiments treated of at 
 large in the preceding chapter, we may notice here 
 several minor instances in which Shakspeare has 
 adapted the moral axioms of Scripture to his pur- 
 poses as a dramatic poet. A remarkable example 
 of this, and one which might be illustrated by a whole 
 cento of Bible texts, as including references not only 
 to Scriptural maxims, but to facts, is to be found in 
 All's well that ends well'. 
 
 He that of greatest works is finisher, 
 
 Oft does them by the weakest minister : 
 
 So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, 
 
 When judges have been babes : great floods have flown 
 
 From simple sources ; and great seas have dried, 
 
 When miracles have by the greatest been denied. 
 
 Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 
 
as derived from the Bible. 283 
 
 Where most it promises ; and oft it hits 
 Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. 
 
 Act ii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Here Mr. Malone has properly pointed out both the 
 
 resemblance to the words of S. Paul, c God hath 
 
 chosen/ i. e. is wont to choose, c the weak things of 
 
 the world to confound the things which are mighty/ 
 
 1 Cor. i. 27 ; and the direct allusion to the words 
 
 of our Lord : 
 
 I thank Thee, O Father, because Thou hast hid these things 
 from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 
 
 Matt. xi. 25. 
 
 But in the latter case it would have been more 
 apposite to have quoted Matt. xxi. 15, 16, con- 
 taining the reference to Psalm viii. 2 ; because in 
 that passage c the judgment ' of the children in the 
 temple, as contrasted with the unbelief of the chief 
 priests and scribes, is actually c shown/ Mr. Holt 
 White suggests that the allusion is to Daniel's 
 judging, when c a young youth/ the two elders in 
 the story of Susannah. I have remarked that 
 Shakspeare had this story in view on another* occa- 
 sion ; but I doubt whether he would have spoken 
 of an apocryphal book as * holy writ ; ' though 
 some of the fathers, and our own Homilies (using 
 the word c Scripture ' in a laxer sense than prevailed 
 in Shakspeare's time, or prevails now) did so speak. 
 Returning to the speech of Helena in All's welly 
 
 * See above, ch. i. p. 75. 
 
284 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 &c.j both the critic just named, and Mr. Henley, 
 have observed that in the words c great floods have 
 flown from simple sources/ there is an allusion to 
 Moses smiting the rock in Horeb, Exod. xvii. 6 ; 
 but they differ about the allusion in the verse that 
 follows : the former considers that by c the greatest ' 
 we are to understand Pharaoh, who c denied/ or 
 would not hearken to the miracles of Moses in Egypt ; 
 the latter, that the elders of Israel are meant, who, 
 notwithstanding the miracles wrought for their pre- 
 servation, refused that compliance which they ought 
 to have yielded. Both critics suppose that the pre- 
 ceding half line refers to the drying up of the Red 
 Sea. 
 
 Another example of the same kind is the poetical 
 expansion which Shakspeare gives to the Scriptural 
 notion, that it is the duty of men, in the moral, no 
 less than in the natural world, to c discern the signs 
 of the times.' See Matt. xvi. 1-3, and elsewhere. 
 I allude to the dialogue in King Richard III. be- 
 tween certain citizens of London, when they received 
 news of the death of King Edward IV. 
 
 1 st Cit. Come, come, we fear the worst; all will be well. 
 
 3rd Cit. When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks; 
 When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand ; 
 When the sun sets, who does not look for night ? 
 Untimely storms make men expect a dearth : 
 All may be well ; but, if God sort it so, 
 Tis more than we deserve, or I expect. 
 
 2nd Cit. Truly the hearts of men are full of fear ; 
 
as derived from the Bible. 285 
 
 You cannot reason * almost with a man 
 That looks not heavily, and full of dread. 
 
 ^rd Cit. Before the days of change, still is it so ; 
 By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust 
 Ensuing danger ; as, by proof, we see 
 The water swell before a boisterous storm. Act ii. Sc. 3. 
 
 Take, again, the following argument from the 
 
 Gospel : 
 
 What king [said our Lord] going to make war against another 
 king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able 
 with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with 
 twenty thousand ? or else, while the other is yet a great way off, 
 he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 
 
 Luke xiv. 31, 32. 
 
 With what force and beauty is this argument 
 
 this illustration of the duty of counting the cost 
 
 when we enter upon our Christian warfare applied 
 
 by our poet to an individual case, in the Second Part 
 
 of King Henry IV., where Morton expostulates with 
 
 the Duke of Northumberland, who, upon hearing 
 
 of the death of his son, Harry Percy, gave way to 
 
 overwhelming passion at a moment when there was 
 
 most need for instant and effectual counsel : 
 
 You cast the event of war, my noble lord, 
 
 And summed the account of chance, before you said 
 
 Let us make head. It was your presurmise, 
 
 That in the dole of blows, your son might drop : 
 
 You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge, 
 
 More likely to fall in, than to get o'er : 
 
 You were advis'd his flesh was capable 
 
 Of wounds and scars ; and that his forward spirit 
 
 Would lift him where most trade of danger ranged ; 
 
 * Converse, talk. # 
 
2, 86 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 Yet did you say Go forth ; and none of this, 
 Though strongly apprehended, could restrain 
 The stiiF-born action : What hath then befallen, 
 Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth, 
 More than that * being which was like to be ? 
 
 Act i. Sc. I. 
 
 But there was another illustration to the same 
 
 effect, in that discourse of Christ : 
 
 Which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down 
 first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish 
 it ? Lest, haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not 
 able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying : 
 This man began to build and was not able to finish. 
 
 Luke xiv. 28, 29. 
 
 And this, too, our poet has appropriated, and at the 
 
 same time, luxuriates, rather too much, perhaps, in 
 
 the amplification he has given it, in a subsequent 
 
 scene of the same play. Lord Bardolph is speaking 
 
 in consultation with the Archbishop of York, Lords 
 
 Mowbray and Hastings, all enemies of the King, 
 
 and in discouragement of their enterprise :- 
 
 The question, then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus ; 
 Whether our present five-and -twenty thousand 
 May hold up head, without Northumberland ? 
 
 And his 'judgment/ that in the mean time, at 
 all events, they c should not step too far ' into open 
 rebellion, is thus maintained : 
 
 When we mean to build, 
 We first survey the plot, then draw the model ; 
 And when we see the figure of the house, 
 Then must we rate the cost of the erection : 
 
 4 * State of things, result, consequence. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 2,87 
 
 Which if we find outweighs ability, 
 What do we then but draw anew the model 
 In fewer offices ; or, at least, desist 
 To build at all ? Much more in this great work 
 (Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down, 
 And set another up) should we survey 
 . The plot of situation and the model ; 
 Consent upon a sure foundation ; 
 Question surveyors ; know our own estate, 
 How able such a work to undergo , 
 To weigh against his opposite : or else, 
 We fortify in paper and in figures, 
 Using the names of men instead of men ; 
 Like one that draws the model of a house 
 Beyond his power to build it ; who, half through, 
 Gives o'er, and leaves his fart-created cost 
 A naked subject to the weeping clouds, 
 And waste for churlish winter's tyranny. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 16. The well-known apologue of Menenius 
 Agrippa in our poet's play of Coriolanus, Act i. 
 Sc. i, is not to be traced to S. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, i. c. xii., but rather to the common 
 source in Roman history, from which they both, 
 we may suppose, adopted it ; except that S. Paul 
 probably read it in Livy, and Shakspeare in North's 
 translation of Plutarch. But when, in the Third 
 Part of King Henry FL, the Earl of Warwick says 
 to Richard Plantagenet 
 
 Victorious Prince of York, 
 Before I see thee seated in that throne, 
 Which now the house of Lancaster usurps, 
 I vow by heaven these eyes shall never close ; 
 
 Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
288 Of the Poetry of Shahpeare 
 
 and when, again, in First Part of King Henry IV. , 
 
 Prince Henry says to FalstafT 
 
 Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it ; 
 
 Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 we need not doubt that our poet had in view 
 a resolution of King David, Ps. cxxxii. 4, in the 
 former case, and a complaint of King Solomon, 
 Prov. 1. 20, in the latter. The notion of express- 
 ing silence by laying the ringer on the lips, or hand 
 upon the mouth, which we find in Othello \ % ii. 1, 
 and in Troilus and Cressida iii. 3, is also, probably, 
 of Scriptural origin; see Judges xviii. 19, and the 
 references given there in the margin. The same may 
 be said of the adoption, by Shakspeare, of the true 
 prophetical style, whereby that which is foretold is 
 said to be actually brought to pass and accom- 
 plished by him who predicts it. Thus Macbeth, 
 speaking of the prophecy of the Witches in his 
 favour, complains : 
 
 Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown. 
 
 And put a barren sceptre in my gripe. Act iii. Sc. 1 . 
 
 Just as the chief butler of Pharaoh, in telling 
 
 how Joseph had interpreted his dream, and the 
 
 dream of the chief baker, describes it in these 
 
 words : 
 
 Me he restored unto my office, and him he hanged. 
 
 Genesis xli. 13. 
 
 See also Jerem. 1. 10, Ezek. xliii. 3, and else- 
 where. 
 
as derived from the Bible. 289 
 
 I will only notice further, that a figure of speech 
 of which S. Paul is fond, is also to be met with 
 very frequently in Shakspeare ; I mean the figure 
 which grammarians have called Oxymoron. Of 
 Scriptural examples it may suffice to refer to that 
 sublime passage in the 2nd Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, which ends thus c as having nothing and 
 [yet] possessing all things,' vi. 10. Of instances 
 in our poet the reader probably will not desire to 
 see more than the following sample : 
 
 Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being poor ; 
 Most choice, forsaken ; and most lpved, despised. 
 
 K. Lear, Act i. Sc. 1. 
 
 My long sickness 
 Of health and living now begins to mend, 
 And nothing brings me all things. 
 
 Timon of Athens, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 So, too, we have c noble misery,' in Cymbeline, 
 v. 3 ; and in the same play, iv. 3 : 
 Wherein I am false, I am honest ; 
 
 with which we may compare S. Paul, in the 
 passage last referred to, ' as deceivers and [yet] 
 true.' 
 
 When Touchstone, in As you like it, says 
 
 I do now remember a saying, The fool doth think he is wise, 
 but the zvise man knows he is a fool', 
 
 is the saying he thus quotes derived from 1 Cor. 
 iii. 18? 
 
INTERIOR OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 
lias 
 
 
 wM 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 HAVE now gone through the interesting 
 and instructive task which I proposed to 
 myself; and the conclusion at which I 
 lave arrived is this : Take the entire range of 
 English literature ; put together our best authors, 
 who have written upon subjects not professedly re- 
 ligious or theological, and we shall not find, I 
 believe, in them all united, so much evidence of the 
 Bible having been read and used, as we have found 
 in Shakspeare alone. This is a phenomenon which 
 admits of being looked at from several points of 
 view ; but I shall be content to regard it solely in 
 connection with the undoubted fact, that of all our 
 authors, Shakspeare is also, by general confession, 
 the greatest and the best. According to the testi- 
 mony of Charles Lamb, a most competent judge 
 in regard to all the literary elements of the ques- 
 tion, our poet, c in his divine mind and manners, 
 surpassed not only the great men his contem- 
 
2,^2, Conclusion. 
 
 poraries, but all mankind. ' * And looking at this 
 superiority from my own point of view, I cannot 
 but remark that, while most of the great laymen 
 of that great Elizabethan age Lord Bacon, Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, the poet Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, 
 Lord Burleigh, Ben Jonson have paid homage to 
 Christianity, if not always in their practice, yet in 
 the convictions of their understanding, and in the 
 profession of their faith, none of them has done 
 this so fully or so effectually as Shakspeare. 
 
 But I may go further. Not a little remarkable 
 is it that those only have disputed the superior 
 merit and excellency of our poet who have also 
 denied the value and authority of Holy Scripture. 
 The disparagement of such judges I allude espe- 
 cially to Voltaire and David Hume is an addi- 
 tional confirmation of the otherwise unanimous') 
 panegyric with which he has been honoured. It 
 will appear scarcely credible at the present day 
 that the accepted Historian of England, in speaking 
 of England's greatest poet, should have given vent 
 to criticisms such as these : 
 
 A striking peculiarity of sentiment . . . Shakspeare 
 frequently hits ; a reasonable propriety of thought he cannot for any 
 time uphold. . . . It is in vain we look [in him] for either 
 purity or simplicity of diction. . . . Both he and Ben Jonson 
 were equally deficient in taste' and elegance, in harmony and 
 correctness. . . . The English theatre has ever since taken a 
 strong tincture of Shakspeare ; and thence it has proceeded that the 
 
 * Specimens of Dramatic Poets, Preface, vol. i. p. 7. 
 
Conclusion. 293 
 
 nation has undergone from all its neighbours the reproach of 
 barbarism, from which its valuable productions in some other 
 parts of learning would otherwise have exempted it.* 
 
 The author of these remarks upon Shakspeare 
 has himself informed us that the volume which 
 contained them, when first published, so far from 
 being popular, was received c with one cry of re- 
 proach, disapprobation, and even detestation/ on 
 account of its political views : nor, if the rest of 
 its contents had been equally erroneous with the 
 passage which I have quoted, would it have de- 
 served any better reception. And how did Hume 
 console himself under the disappointment? He 
 proceeded to write his Natural History of Religion, 
 in which he gave the world to understand that, as 
 he had looked in vain, in Shakspeare, for purity or 
 simplicity of diction, for taste or elegance, for har- 
 mony or correctness, so he had been unable to derive 
 anything but c doubt, uncertainty, and suspense of 
 judgment/ from the written Word of God ! The 
 concluding remark of the passage quoted above, in 
 which Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are accused of 
 having brought upon us c as a nation the reproach 
 of barbarism from all our neighbours/ is evidently 
 founded upon the strictures of Voltaire, f who, not 
 long before, had characterised our poet as c a writer 
 of monstrous Farces, called by him Tragedies/ had 
 
 * Hume's Hist, of England, Appendix to Reign of James I. 
 f All that can be said in excuse for Voltaire's criticism has been 
 fairly stated by Mr. C. Knight, in his Studies of Shakspeare, p. 540, sq. 
 
294 Conclusion. 
 
 pronounced Hamlet to be c the work of a drunken 
 savage/ * and had attributed c barbarism and igno- 
 rance ' to the nation by which he was admired ! 
 What the same French author also thought and 
 wrote of divine Revelation, and of the profession of 
 Christianity, need not be told. 
 
 The best answer to this latter critic has been 
 given by another foreigner not a Frenchman, but 
 a German Augustus William Schlegel, who has 
 shown an admirable appreciation of the genius and 
 characteristic excellences of our great poet in his 
 masterly Lectures on Dramatic Literature : 
 
 Shakspeare is the pride of his nation. . . . He was the 
 idol of his contemporaries ; and after the interval of Puritanical 
 fanaticism . . . his fame began to revive with more than its 
 original brightness towards the beginning of the last century, and 
 since that period it has increased with the progress of time : and 
 for centuries to come, I speak with the greatest confidence, it will 
 continue to gather strength like an alpine avalanche, at every 
 period of its descent. ... In general, Shakspeare's style yet 
 remains the very best model both in the vigorous and sublime, and 
 in the pleasing and tender. Vol. ii. p. 102, sq. and p. 146. 
 
 To the criticism of Hume, which first appeared 
 in 1764 exactly a century ago the best reply will 
 be the tercentenary Festival in honour of the poet's 
 birth, which our c barbarous nation ' is preparing to 
 celebrate in the present year. Or, if we desire to 
 
 * Such criticism is not even yet quite extinct. An American writer 
 has recently discovered that ' Shakspeare . . . and Walter Scott 
 were remarkably morbid men j while Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth 
 . . . were undoubtedly insane ! ' See Quart. Re<v. Jan. 1864, p. 56. 
 
Conclusion. 295 
 
 see the very different opinion of another historian 
 of England, and man of letters a writer, more- 
 over, who was no enthusiast, but cool and cautious 
 in his judgments it is Mr. Hallam who pro- 
 nounces that c the name of Shakspeare is the 
 greatest in our literature ; it is the greatest in 
 
 ALL LITERATURE.** 
 
 Dr. Farmer, in his celebrated essay Upon the Learn- 
 ing of Shakspeare, arrived at the conclusion that our 
 poet's c studies were demonstratively confined to 
 nature and his own language/ To this conclusion 
 (while I partly demur, as I have before intimated, 
 to the narrow limits which it assigns to Shak- 
 speare's reading) I would presume to add that, of 
 all the books which he studied in his own language, 
 there was none with which he was more familiar 
 than with the English Bible. That in every in- 
 stance the characters in his plays have treated Holy 
 Scripture with the nice and exact reverence which we 
 should feel to be desirable at the present day, is 
 not to be maintained ; but still less is the charge 
 which has been brought against him, of frequent 
 irreverence and profaneness in his use of God's 
 word, to be justified, or received. The mass of 
 reference and allusion to Scripture which his works 
 contain, must be looked at as a whole, in order to 
 discover its true animus. This would be only just 
 
 * Hist, of Literature, vol. iii. p. 547 
 
2,g6 Conclusion. 
 
 and fair to an author under any circumstances ; 
 but how much more necessary and indispensable is 
 it in our poet's case, when we know that his plays, 
 for the most part, were not published by himself, 
 nor till some years after his death ; and when we 
 also know that into many of his scenes low jokes, 
 for which he is not responsible, were foisted by the 
 players in order to ' please the million/ For in- 
 stance, Dr. Farmer considered it c extremely pro- 
 bable ! that the French ribaldry* in the last scene of 
 King Henry V. was at first inserted by a different 
 hand ; as c the many additions in that same play 
 most certainly were, after he had left the stage.' 
 In like manner the wretched jest (which we learn 
 from other quarters to have been current in our 
 poet's days), by which the name of the Ten Com- 
 mandments was given to the fingers and thumbs of 
 the two hands, has found its way into the Second 
 Part of King Henry VI. ; where Eleanor, Duchess of 
 Gloucester, says to Queen Margaret, in language as 
 coarse as it is profane but language, be it remem- 
 bered, addressed to an adulteress by one whom she 
 had grievously insulted by reflexions upon her 
 husband, and, moreover, grossly insulted by boxing 
 her on the ear : 
 
 * We have only to compare the names of Shakspeare's plays with 
 the names of those of the principal dramatists who were his con- 
 temporaries Ford, Massinger, Marlowe, Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 Rowley, Shirley, and even Ben Jonson in order to perceive the 
 superior delicacy of our poet's mind for one living in that age. 
 
Conclusion. 29 J 
 
 Could I come near your beauty with my nails, 
 I'd set my ten commandments in your face. 
 
 Act i. Sc. 3. 
 
 The authenticity of this play has been called in 
 question by good judges ; for instance, by Dr. 
 Farmer : though, for my own part, I must confess 
 I agree with Schlegel, if not in accepting the whole 
 as unquestionably Shakspeare's, yet in maintaining 
 that some parts of it, especially the death scene of 
 Cardinal Beaufort, could have been written by no 
 other hand. It is in the same play that another 
 instance occurs of Scriptural reference, which cer- 
 tainly falls short of what we now feel to be due, 
 in speaking upon so sacred and solemn a sub- 
 ject. Richard, son of the Duke of York, says to 
 young Lord Clifford, who had called the Yorkists 
 c rebels,' 
 
 Fye ! charity, for shame ! speak not in spite, 
 For you shall sup with Jesus Christ to-night ; 
 
 Act v. Sc.i. 
 
 in ironical allusion, evidently, to the promise which 
 our Lord made to the Penitent Thief upon the 
 Cross. However, I must repeat, that before we 
 censure Shakspeare for verses such as these, justice 
 requires us to have certain evidence that he actually 
 wrote them; which evidence cannot now be ob- 
 tained : and I must add, that before we determine 
 to withhold from him the high praise given to the 
 poet Thomson by his friend and patron, Lord 
 
zgS Conclusion. 
 
 Lyttelton, viz. that in all his works there was not 
 to be discovered 
 
 One line which dying he would wish to blot, 
 charity would suggest to us to make the fullest 
 allowance for the influence of causes* which have 
 unquestionably led, in many instances, to the injury 
 and adulteration of our poet's text. 
 
 I am the more jealous of any misconception upon 
 this point, because I have endeavoured in one, and 
 that the most considerable portion of the foregoing 
 pages, to exhibit Shakspeare as something more, 
 something higher and better, than an incomparable 
 dramatist. c We are apt,' says Mrs. Montagu, in 
 her celebrated essay, c to consider Shakspeare only 
 as a poet ; but he is certainly one of the greatest 
 moral philosophers that ever lived/ And whence 
 did he become such ? I answer without hesitation, 
 because, while he possessed the keenest natural 
 powers of observation, together with an unfailing 
 spirit of gentleness and love and universal sympathy, 
 he drew his philosophy from the highest and purest 
 source of moral truth. In like manner, Johnson 
 has. observed, that from the writings of Shakspeare, 
 who looked through life in all its relations public and 
 private, c a system of social duty may be selected/ 
 Would it be too much to add, that from the same 
 
 * For a full account of these causes, see, in the Variorum edition, 
 vol. i. Pope's Preface, p. 12; Theobald's do. p. 32 ; Sir T. Han- 
 mer's do. p. 44; Warburton's do. p. 4#j Johnson's do. pp. 91, 196. 
 
Conclusion. zgg 
 
 writings may be gathered also no inconsiderable 
 contribution towards a full and accurate system of 
 religious doctrine ? He himself, in his modesty, 
 would doubtless have been content to say of him- 
 self, with the Soothsayer in Antony and Cleopatra, 
 
 In Nature's infinite book of secrecy 
 A little I can read. 
 
 Others, I trust, will not hesitate for the future to 
 declare in his behalf, that God's own c infinite Book ' 
 of Grace and Truth had not been revealed to him 
 in vain. 
 
 Before I drop altogether the subject upon which 
 we have been engaged, I may mention a somewhat 
 curious coincidence, of which the reader perhaps is 
 not aware, between the outward form of the Holy 
 Scriptures and of the plays of Shakspeare. I allude 
 to the fact, that originally the former were not 
 divided into chapters and verses, nor the latter into 
 acts and scenes. Our poet's plays were written, 
 and at first printed, in one unbroken continuity 
 {Othello being, it is said, the only exception), until 
 Mr. Rowe, in 1709, by introducing the present 
 divisions and subdivisions, did for them what had 
 been done by Hugo Cardinalis, in the thirteenth 
 century, and by Rabbi Nathan, in the fifteenth, for 
 the Books of the Old Testament (with the exception 
 of the Book of Psalms, which had been originally 
 divided as we now have it), and by Robert and 
 Henry Stephens, in the sixteenth century, for the 
 
300 Conclusion. 
 
 i 
 
 Books of the New Testament, by dividing them 
 into chapters, and by prefixing to the verses the 
 numbers which they now bear. And as the com- 
 plaint has been frequently made, not without reason 
 in some instances, that this division of the Bible, 
 into chapters especially, while it has great advan- 
 tages, is attended also with frequent inconvenience, 
 and leads to misunderstanding and misinterpreta- 
 tion of God's word ; so it has been remarked by 
 Shakspeare's greatest critic, that his plays, instead 
 of being broken up in the representation, as they 
 now are, c ought to be exhibited with short pauses 
 interposed as often as the scene is changed, or any 
 considerable time is allowed to pass ; and he adds, 
 f this method would at once quell a thousand ab- 
 surdities.' Whether this observation is a just one, 
 I cannot tell : only, as editions of the Bible have 
 been called for, and published, which represent the 
 Sacred Text printed continuously in its original form, 
 so it would, perhaps, be desirable that the lovers of 
 Shakspeare might have the option, if not of seeing 
 upon the stage his plays acted in the way which 
 Dr. Johnson has .pointed out, yet of reading them 
 in a popular edition* arranged upon that plan. 
 But be this also as it may ; yet one opinion, at all 
 events, I am prepared to maintain. In whatever 
 shape the genuine plays of Shakspeare may be pre- 
 
 * The recent fac simile reprint of the first folio is a valuable 
 movement in this direction. 
 
Conclusion. 301 
 
 sented to us, there is nothing nothing of a literary 
 kind for which we have greater reason to thank the 
 Giver of all good, than for a large proportion of 
 those works excepting only the Book of Common 
 Prayer* and that, which has imparted alike to it 
 and to them no small share of the surpassing ex- 
 cellence, which, though in very different ways, they 
 both possess His own incomparable, most 
 
 HOLY, EVERLASTING WORD. 
 
 * In confirmation of this high estimate of the Prayer Book, I may- 
 be allowed to quote two authorities one clerical and the other lay 
 not inferior, perhaps, upon a literary question, to any who have 
 written in the English tongue : 
 
 ' As to the greatest part of our Liturgy, there seem to be in it as 
 great strains of true sublime eloquence as are anywhere to be found 
 in our language.' Dean Swift, Works, vol. ix. p. 152. 
 
 1 That great model of chaste, lofty, and pathetic eloquence, the 
 Book of Common Prayer,'' Lord Macaulay, History, vol. Hi. 
 
 P- 355- 
 
 To these testimonies it may not be out of place to add here, what 
 I have somewhere read, that the greatest tragedian of the age, when 
 asked what was the noblest composition in the English language, 
 replied, * The Burial Service of the Church of England.' 
 
 -o i^r_. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 
 
 Page 2. Note. 
 
 Mr. Singer perhaps alluded to the remark of Mr. Capel Lloft, 
 in his Aphorisms from Sbakspeare, published in 1 8 1 2 : ' He 
 (Shakspeare) had deeply imbibed the Scriptures.' Introd. p. xii. 
 
 Page 75. 
 
 In defence of the somewhat questionable allusion to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's punishment, it is only fair to point out that our English 
 Theophrastus, Bishop Earle, the author of Microcosmography, 
 has the following passage in his character of A plain Country 
 Fellow : 
 
 ' He seems to have the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar-, for 
 his conversation* is among beasts, and his talons none of the 
 shortest ; only he eats not grass, \ because he loves not salletsj 
 p. 64. 
 
 Before our poet is condemned for the allusion in question, let 
 it be remembered that the author of the work from which the 
 above (precisely parallel) passage is quoted was, in 1642, elected 
 one of the Westminster Assembly (but refused to act) ; and, at 
 the Restoration, was made Dean of Westminster, and afterwards 
 
 * See above, p. 32. 
 
 f ( Grass ' was formerly used for 
 
 salad.' 
 
304 Suppleme?itary Notes. 
 
 Bishop of Salisbury. Add to this, there was no . one of that 
 generation more universally esteemed. We have the highest 
 character of him given by men, his contemporaries, who differed 
 from one another so widely, as Lord Clarendon, Richard Baxter, 
 and Isaac Walton. Walton, in his Life of Hooker, speaks of him 
 in these terms: Having had occasion to mention 'the happy, 
 pen of Dr. Earle, now Lord Bishop of Salisbury,' he adds ; ' of 
 whom I may justly say that since Mr. Hooker died, none have 
 lived whom God hath blessed with more innocent wisdom, more 
 sanctified learning, or a more pious, peaceable, primitive temper; 
 so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself, and 
 our venerable Richard Hooker.' 
 
 Page 98. 
 
 I am glad to find myself supported in my opposition to the 
 disparaging remark of Dr. Johnson by the high authority of 
 Schlegel, who, in his notice of King Lear, observes that Shak- 
 speare * lays particular stress on the circumstance that the Britons 
 of that day were still heathens? And again : \ The persons of 
 this drama have only such a faint belief in Providence as heathens 
 may be supposed to have.' Lectures on Dramat. Literature, 
 vol. ii. p. 207, sq. 
 
 Page 104. 
 
 I might have added in that place, that Shakspeare has intro- 
 duced the notion of Guardian Angels in K. Henry IV. 2nd Part, 
 Act ii. Sc. 2. 
 
 For the Boy there is a good Angel about him ; 
 
 according to the teaching of the New Testament, more particu- 
 larly with reference to the young ; see S. JVIatt. xviii. 1 o, and 
 Bishop Bull's Works, vol. i. p. 301. But where, in the same play, 
 Act i. Sc. 2, the Chief Justice says to Falstaff, ' You follow the 
 young prince up and down like his ill angel, ' our poet was either 
 
. Supplementary Notes. 305 
 
 drawing merely upon his own imagination, or from what he had 
 read' respecting the belief of the heathen in genii, or daemons, 
 evil as well as good ; a belief, of which he has made use in Antony 
 and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 3 ; and again in. Macbeth, Act iii. 
 Sc. 1. 
 
 Page 163. 
 
 I was under the impression that the notes which bear the name 
 of Henley in the Variorum edition of Shakspeare were from the 
 pen of Dr. Samuel Henley, who was principal of HaiLybury 
 College, and died about fifty years ago. Accordingly he is so 
 designated above, in p. 90, and elsewhere. But having since ob- 
 served that Mr. James Boswell, the editor of that edition, styles 
 him ' Mr. Henley,' I have thought it better (not being certain of 
 his identity) in the page here referred to, and subsequently, where 
 his name occurs, to do the same. 
 
 Page 194. Note f. 
 
 Since that note was written I have observed among the mis- 
 cellaneous poems of Sir Philip Sidney, which doubtless Shakspeare 
 had read, the same epigram of Catullus ' Englished ' to his hand. 
 See his Miscellaneous Works, p. 173. I must therefore surrender 
 what looked to me like an evidence of the original Latin having 
 been in the mind of our poet. An image very similar to Catullus', 
 with the difference only between ' writing on water ' and 
 * writing on ice, is to be found in some verses called St. Bernard's 
 verses Latin and English, subjoined to Tusser's Five hundred 
 points of good husbandry, with which, we may suppose, Shakspeare. 
 was acquainted, the first (complete) edition having been published 
 in 1580. 
 
 Plus crede Uteris scriptis in glacie, 
 Quam mundi fragilis vanae faLlaciae. 
 
 More credit see thou give to letters wrote in ice, 
 Than unto vain deceits, of brittle world's device. 
 
306 Supplementary Notes, 
 
 Page 222. 
 
 I have ascertained, through the kindness of the present vicar of 
 Stratford-on-Avon, that the falsified copy of Shakspeare's will, 
 though still in existence, is no longer exhibited among the ' relics/ 
 which are now very properly taken under public superintendence, 
 and committed to a responsible guardian. The forged or spu- 
 rious will of which I am speaking as noticed above, in p. 222, 
 is not to be confounded with (though it may have owed its origin 
 to) the will of John Shakspeare, which purported to be that of our 
 poet's father, though not discovered till ' about the year 1770,' and 
 which is still more plainly upon the face of it a Romanist docu- 
 ment. The history of its discovery, real or pretended, is curious. 
 See Dr. Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. pp. 8-16, and 
 Mr. Malone's Life of Shakspeare, p. 516, sq. The latter con- 
 cludes that the document in question, if genuine, was the will of 
 another John Shakspeare not the father, nor any relation of our 
 poet. 
 
 Page 224. 
 
 That I* was justified in suspecting a design, on our poet's part, 
 to impute infidelity to the character of a Transalpine friar, may 
 appear from a passage in Lord Burghley's Advices to his Son 
 Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury : ' Suffer not thy 
 sons to pass the Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, 
 blasphemy, and Atheism?* See Nares' Life of Lord Burgh/ey, 
 vol. iii. p. 513 ; Peck's Desiderata Curios a, p. 47. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A prefixed to Nouns, &c, 25 
 
 Abjects, 28 
 
 Absalom, 70 
 
 Adam, 51 
 
 Ado = trouble, tumult, 29 
 
 Adverbs used as Adjectives, 22 
 
 Adultery, 190 
 
 Against, preposition of time, 23 
 
 Allow = approve of, 29 
 
 Amaze = alarm, 29 
 
 And, redundant before * if,' 26 
 
 Andrewes, Bishop, 190, 242 
 
 Angels, holy, 102 
 
 the fallen, 104 
 Article, definite, 10 
 
 indefinite, 12 
 Atone, atonement, 29 
 At unawares, 25 
 
 Baptism, 231 
 
 Because = in order that, 24 
 
 Bestow = lay up, 30 
 
 Bewray = discover, 30 
 
 Blackstone, Judge, 96 
 
 Book of Life, 261 
 
 Bowdler, Mr., 15, 47, 53, 57, 
 
 66, 75>79> 8l > 99> J 9 8 > 20 3> 
 222, 227, 231, 234, 250 
 
 Brave, bravery, 30 
 
 Burial, 231 
 
 By-and-by, 27 
 
 Cain and Abel, 53 
 Carriage = thing carried, 3 1 
 
 Cast-away, 31 
 Charity, 185 
 
 Choice, adj. and subst., 32 
 Christ Jesus, 112 
 Christmas, 230 
 Clergy, 218 
 Conscience, 134 
 Contentment, 206 
 Converse, conversation 
 Coronation Service, 235 
 Corruption of human nature, 122 
 Cunning, subst. and adj., 32 
 
 Daniel, 76 
 Day-spring, 33 
 Death, 242 
 
 Death-bed scenes, 195, 247 
 Deborah, 65 
 
 Devil quoting Scripture, 58 
 Dictum quasi factum, 288 
 Divorce, 191 
 Double comparatives, 20 
 superlatives, 20 
 
 Ear = to plough, 33 
 Easter, 231 
 
 Egypt, first-born of, 62 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 72 
 End of the world, 253 
 
 Falstaff, his death, 195 
 Favour = countenance, 33 
 Fear = to frighten, 33 
 
3 o8 
 
 Index. 
 
 Filial duty, 170 
 
 Forgiveness of injuries, 141, 184 
 
 Friendship, 189 
 
 Full, adv. = very, 34 
 
 Genitive case, sign of, 14 
 
 God. His names, 88 
 ,, His omniscience, 88, 274 
 His providence, 90 
 His justice, 92 
 His mercy, 95, 99 
 His watchfulness, 73, 89 
 His goodness in creation 
 and in redemption of 
 man, 108 
 His personality, 275 
 
 Good-man *= paterfamilias, 34 
 
 Grace, divine, 123 
 
 Grace said at meals, 149 
 
 Hallam, Mr., 297 
 Hard, adv. = close, near, 34 
 Harness = armour, 34 
 Heaven, happiness of, 257 
 
 fights for the good, 262 
 Herod, 76 
 Holy Land, 113 
 Hospitality, 188 
 Hume, David, 294 
 Humility, 211 
 
 Jacob and Laban, 57 
 James I., 5 
 Jephthah's vow, 66 
 Jezebel, 73 
 
 Ingratitude, 184, 212 
 Intercession, 160 
 Intermediate state, 249 
 Job, 56 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 11, 47, 98 
 Judas, the traitor, 79 
 Justice and Honesty, 196 
 
 Kings and Governors, 239 
 
 Know = approve, bless, 34 
 Knowledge, value of, 195 
 
 Learn = to teach, 35 
 Leasing = lying, 35 
 Let = to hinder, 35 
 Life of Man, 126 
 Liking = plumpness, 36 
 Lord's Prayer, 97 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 21, 303 
 Malediction, 203 
 Man-child, maid-child, 36 
 Man, excellency of, no 
 Marriage, 165, 190 
 Means, sing, and plur., 13 
 Metaphors, 280 
 More, Sir Thomas, 172 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 75 
 
 Nephew, niece = grandchild, 36 
 
 News, sing, and plur., 1 3 
 
 Or ever = before, 36 
 Original sin, 118 
 Oxymoron, 289 
 
 Parable of Dives and Lazarus, 197 
 Prodigal Son, 197 
 
 Widow's Mite, 198 
 
 Parental blessing, 171 
 
 Pate = head, 37 
 
 Paul, S., 83 
 
 Pilate, washing his hands, 8 1 
 
 Play = fence, fight, 37 
 
 Politician, 234 
 
 Port = gate, 37 
 
 Poverty, 212 
 
 Praise, often harmful, 202 
 
 Prayer, efficacy of, 155, 164. 
 for enemies, 161 
 
 Prevent = to help, anticipate, 38 
 
Index. 
 
 39 
 
 Pride, 211 
 
 Pronouns, personal, 15-18 
 
 relative, 18 
 Proper= good-looking, 39 
 Puritanism, 124, 225 
 
 Quick=alive, 39 
 
 Redemption not partial, 113 
 Repentance, doctrine of, 137 
 Resignation, 210 
 Revenge, 179. 
 
 Ring, emblem of authority, 237 
 Road=inroad, roadstead, 39 
 Romanism, 222 
 Runagate= fugitive, 40 
 
 Satan, 104, 107 
 
 Saul, death of, 69. 
 
 Schlegel, Augustus William, 296 
 
 Scripture, Holy, 217 
 
 Shakspeare, William: 
 
 His life, 4, 169 
 
 His character, 3 
 
 His study of Bible, 2, 45 
 
 His learning, 194 
 
 His churchmanship, 222, 228 
 
 A thorough Englishman, 227 
 
 A Conservative, 232 
 Similitudes, 278 
 Sin, its consequences, 111, 132 
 original, 118 
 universality of, 119 
 correction of, 131 
 
 Slander, 200 
 Sort=class, 40 
 Stricken in years, 42 
 Suicide, sin of, 129, 216 
 Sunday, observance of, 229 
 Sympathy, 185 
 
 of Creation, 261,267 
 
 Table= tablet, 41 
 Thankfulness to God, 147 
 The death, 10 
 Thought=anxiety, 41 
 Tidings, sing, and plur. 13 
 Tongue, use and abuse of, 200 
 Toward, preposition, 23 
 Translation of Bible, 5, 9 
 Truth, subjective, 204 
 objective, 214 
 
 Voltaire, 294 
 
 War, lawfulness of, 241 
 a punishment from God, 
 
 241 
 weapons of, 265 
 
 When as, when that, 21 
 
 Whitsuntide, 231 
 
 Wis, wit, wot, 41 
 
 Wives, duty of, 166 
 
 Word=thing, 234 
 
 World, vanity of, 125 
 
 Yea and nay, 85 
 
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 Cleared from all objectionable passages, and occasionally 
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