A A 3 6 9 1 3 7 PR 2892 G582 GOLIANCZ SHAKESPEARE AND RABBINIC THOUGHT r Ms^fjm ,^ ^^ '^i_U '^om 'A!J\ 1XD — ( ii09H9f;3 Pf TERCENTENARY COMMEMORATION. . Shakespeare and Rabbinic Thouoht LOS' ANGKLC^eliverecl at the BAYSWATER SYNAGOGUE, LONDON, W., On Sabbath, April 29th, 1916, BY The Rev. Professor HERMANN GOLLANCZ, M.A., D.LiT. PRINTED BY REQUES'J. LONDON : \A/^ERTHEIMER, LEA & CO., CLIFTON HOUSE, WORSHIP STREET, E.C. 1916. •PR Shakespeare and Rabbinic Thought. Some fifty years ago a highly interesting and fascinating work appeared in London by Bishop Wordsworth, entitled " Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible." The dedication of that work is peculiarly telling, in view of the commemoration of the Tercentenary of the death of the great Master-mind to whom the world is doing homage during these daj^s. The learned author dedicated his work " to his children : in the hope and with the aim that they may grow up readers and lovers of Shakespeare as the book of man ; but still more, readers and lovers of the Bible as the Word of God." As part of the commemoration in honour of the memory of the great genius of Stratford-on-Avon, x\pril 30th has been fixed as " Shakespeare Sunday " ; and Services will accord- ingl}^ be held to-morrow in places of worship of all denomina- tions. At the Afternoon Service in the historic Abbey at Westminster, the Shakespeare Sermon will be preached by the Sub-Dean, the Bishop, whose eloquent and burning words on behalf of our oppressed brethren, uttered in the great Guildhall in 1890, we still gladly call to mind with undiminished gratitude. 20969fi3 Surely, dear friends, we as Jews cannot do less than allow the memor}^ of Shakespeare to enter somewhat into our Religious Service on this Sabbath Day, and thus to take some small part in the present commemoration ; more especially, as it comes as an agreeable relief and peaceful diversion from the contemplation of so much strife and restlessness, wickedness and horror, with which our minds have become familiar, often sickened, during almost two years past. I therefore purpose to bring before you to-day our great author — England's pride — not as a poet, not as a dramatist, not as a chronicler or historian, but as a man in the highest sense of the word, as a teacher of ethics, as a moral philosopher. How far the greatest genius of modern times was indebted to Holy Scripture, and how far he has drawn from this in- exhaustible source, has as yet been scarcely appreciated by the ordinary man and woman of the world. Not the least of the merits of Shakespeare in his plays is his reverence for the Bible, of which he must have been a constant and diligent reader. It has been computed that " there are above five hundred passages in his works which are taken apparently from Scripture, being either verbally or substantially founded on quotations from Holy Writ " ; and there are about four hundred sentences besides these expressive of sentiments taken from the same source. He must indeed have drawn deeply from that inspired, undefiled well — the Book of the Bible. As I do not wish to travel over the same ground which others have trod, or to repeat statements which I myself uttered some forty years ago in a youthful essay on the subject, I intend to dwell briefly upon a new and kindred theme, namely, Shakespeare and Rabbinic thought. I will give you a few typical examples (for the theme cannot be exhausted within the limits of a single discourse), to show that not only did Shakespeare draw largely from the Book of the Bible, but that Rabbinic parallels may easily be discerned in the reading of Shakespeare's works. We know in how marvellous a manner Shakespeare em- ployed the rare gift of his genius in utilising and improving upon his original sources ; how some ancient chronicle formed the framework of his vivid historical plays ; how he pieced together and created (for creation was his great power) out of scanty scraps of material, legendary or romantic, some of the finest work. It is, therefore, not at all surprising if we find Shakespeare imbued, not only with the spirit of the Rabbis — for this would be due to the influence of the Bible itself, but with the very expression and phraseology of Rabbinic thought, which from various founts must have flowed by various meanderings into general literature. Besides, the human side of life, its observation and delineation, is a feature common both to the Rabbis of old and to the Shakespeare of Elizabethan England ; and it is this expression of the human side which forms the natural connecting link between them. The passage in " As You Like It " (II. 7), in which " the world " is described by Shakespeare as " a stage," beginning " All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, his acts being seven ages," is no doubt known to all. But it may not be so well known, that similar senti- ments were expressed by our Rabbis in the Midrash [Koheleth) more than a thousand years before : rhnp "lOXCJ* D vlH r\])'2^ ppiH/t: ^DH n^tr p .nxn D>str m^Siy nync^ -iji!3 i^3ip r\:^ ntry p-nnn^ nj:n t^ha) D*ncr p ,inix ]'pc^:^'\ : ':i'i Piip3 xm nn " The repetition of the term ' vanity ' seven times in the openijig words of Ecclesiastes correspond to the seven worlds or ages through which man passes : at a year old, he is fondled and kissed by all ; at two or three he resembles the unclean animal ; at ten he skips about like a goat ; at twenty he puffs like a prancing horse ; he becomes a well-groomed lover, .... and so onward, till in old age he becomes as the ape." The dignity of man, on which the Psalmist dwells so rap- turously in the words " Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels," reproduced in the words of Hamlet (II. 2) : " What a piece of work is man ! .... how infinite in faculty ! .... In action, how like an angel ! In apprehension, how like a God ! this is illustrated in the Talmud {T. Hagiga, 12a) ptJ'J^in D"1X IT n-^DH n^jn niD^r ;vdi n'-n y^pn^ iy ]nii^ D'^Xt^^ mJ21 lS imi/tS ni " With the measure that man measures out, he will be measured " (T. Sotali, 8b). And is not this the idea expressed by Edgar in " King Lear " (V. 3) ? " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us." From the disease we naturally pass to the remedy. " Man is born unto trouble," but our Heavenly Judge is at the same time a merciful Father, and we have been led to believe that in our own hands lies the power to make amends for our sinful actions ; and this is brought about by means of repentance, which is three-fold in character, according to the Jewish doctrine laid down by our Rabbis. There must be first '•")"]^^ " confession of sin," then ntDIH " conviction and inward regret," and lastly ^ym " abandonment of the sin." And how does Shakespeare express this triple form of repentance in "Hamlet" (III. 4) ? " Confess yourself to Heaven, Repent what's past, avoid what is to come." Nay, further he asks : " May one be pardoned and retain the offence ? " — the very idea metaphorically expressed by our Sages, when they say, that the cleansing of a person for the ritual purposes of ablution is of no avail in the case of one who is "n''l )*"l£J'1 SilD " taking the ablution with the object of defilement clinging to his hand " (Cf. T. Taanith, i6a). In this connection we are easily reminded of the three expressions in our Liturgy for the New Year and Day of Atonement : : nnnn j;n n^< pni?j: npn^i nSsni nn^trni " If anything is able to avert the evil decree, it is Repentance, Prayer, and Practical Virtue." Pra^/er — the golden link that binds man to his Maker ! " My ending is despair : Unless I be relieved by Praver, Which pierces so, that it assaults Mercy itself, and frees all faults." (Tempest, Epilogue.) But prayer has to be real, proceeding from the innermost recesses of the soul, not mere lip-service : — : r\f2^:^ xSn pjiJiD njiiD xSn nSsn " Prayer without devotion is as a body witliout a soul," say our vSages. And Shakespeare re-echoes : " My words fly up, my thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts never to Heaven go." {Hamlet, III. 3.) And especially after a day's toil, when we are about to recruit our tired frame with Nature's sweet restorer, Sleep, how deep should be our faith and prayer, as we resign ourselves entirely into His hands ! " To Thee I do commend my watchful soul, 'Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes ; Sleeping and waking, O defend me still !" {Richavd III.. V. 3.) — almost the very words of the well-known hymn of our Daily Prayer-book : — : nn^j^Ni pN nyn ^nn i^psx -j-i^n " Into Thy hand I commend my spirit, at the time when I sleep and when I awake." Nay, further, our ultimate fate is in the hands of Providence : " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, {Hamlet, V. 4.) Rough-hew them how we will." And thus exclaims the Sage of the Talmud : npij q-^x PX " Man hurts not his finger here below, if it be not destined from above " [Hulin, 7b). It behoves us,- therefore, "to praise our Creator" — the Eternal Disposer of Hfe — at every turn, " at every breath we draw," to use the words of our Sages: nXD'K^JI r\^'^:i ^2 ^V : n">D T'2) ixnin^ Dbp? y^-^ ntri^ dixc " Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, But still remember what the Lord hath done." (2 Henry VI., IL i.) Indeed, " at every breath we draw," for we know not the term of hfe. " Repent one day before thy death," says the Rabbi of old ; N\!:^ Dvn nic'^ \2^ Sdi pi nax ,mj:^ dv iniw* >;-iv dix " Rabbi Eliezer was thereupon asked by his disciples : Does then man know which day he will die ? And he replied : How imperative, therefore, it is upon man to repent day by day, lest he die on the morrow " {T . Sabbath, 133a). Is not this the exclamation of King Lear (I. 4) ? " Woe that too late repents ! " And what marvellous power there is in Repentance ! What are the concluding words in the famous speech of the troubled King in " Hamlet " : " Try what repentance can : What can it not " ? And do not our Sages remark : p/!:^ nm^JTl ^SpJ^ U)p^ "In the place in which the penitent stand, there even the perfectly righteous are unable to stand " (T. Berachoth, 34b). ID At a time like the present, when many a household is, alas, bereft by the cruel War of their nearest and dearest, and the heart of man would almost break at the dispensation of Heaven, the immortal bard speaks even to such by the mouth of the Marquis of Dorset endeavouring to console his mother : " Comfort, dear mother ; God is much displeased That you take with unthankfuhiess His doing : In common worldly things 'tis called — -ungrateful, With dull unwillingness to repay a debt. Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent ; Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you." [Richard III., II. 2.) Human nature and human experience were not very different in Talmudic times, and the heart of man had to be comforted in similar terms in similar circumstances ; for when the good wife of the Rabbi, a great teacher in Israel, trembling as to how she should break the news of the death of their two sons to the father, greeted him with a question, which carried with it its own reply, she anticipated the poet by some fifteen centuries. " A few days ago a person entrusted some jewels to my custody, and now he asks them back again : should I restore them ? " " What ! Wouldst thou hesitate or be reluctant to restore to every one his own ? " replied the Rabbi. Having explained her meaning to her husband, and he lamenting loudly the loss of his sons, she said : " Rabbi, didst thou not teach me that we are not to be reluctant to restore that which was entrusted to our keeping ? See, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord ! " and the Rabbi re-echoed, " Blessed be the name of the Lord ! " Nor was this a unique example in those days. Another Rabbi, Akiba by name, amid his unfortunate experiences, was II in the habit of exclaiming, at every untoward incident in hfe, n^lD^ IT DJl. which might well be paraphrased in Shakespeare's words : — " The will of Heaven Be done in this and nil thinpjs ! " [Henry VIII., I. i.) Man, to the end as well as through the whole of life, has to reh^ upon the mercy of Heaven ; and this thought should impel him to be kind and considerate to his fellow-creature. " We do pray for mercy. And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy." [Merchant of Venice, IV. i.) Have not our Rabbis of old taught HVinn b^ pHIDH Sd " The mercy we show unto others, Heaven will show unto us " ? (7". Sabbath, 151b). In truth the only safe refuge in life is in a perfect trust in Heaven. We are warned in the Bible : " Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man " ; and our Rabbis coimscl : Dii ncrn Nmj:D D^^Sy n'J2^ xniD KHnsr p^i ^n^ " Would that the fear of Heaven were as strong within you as the fear of flesh and blood ! " (7". Berachoth, 28b.) Is not this the spirit breathed in the words of Wolsey's celebrated soliloquy : — " Had I but served my God witli half the zeal I served my King, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies " ? [Henry VIII., HI. 2.) 12 And as for Mercy itself, upon which the world may be said to be founded : — " It droppeth as the gentle rain I'rom heaven Upon the place beneath : It is an attribute to Ood Himself, And earthly power does then show likest Ood's When mercy seasons justice." [Mevchant of Venice, IV. i.) The words of the poet carry us back to the Rabbinic interpretation of the words of the 4th verse of the Second Chapter of Genesis, " the day when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." The double expression " Lord God " [Adonai Elohim in the original) points to the two attributes of God as the foundation upon which the world could only have stood firm :— D^^nnn Jin^l pH mi2 " the quality of mercy and the quality of justice " ; in other words, n"ipn *\r\^ D\!:mn m^S pn nif^ " by the blending of these two attributes were heaven and earth made." I would further remind you in this connection of that touching Talmudic allegory which I have cited at length on former occasions, in which it is related that when the Almighty, about to create man, called together before his Throne a council of the angelic hosts, the Angels of Justice, Peace, and Truth all opposed his creation, until Mercy, the dearest child of the Eternal Father, stepped forward and spake : " O Father, Create him, I pray! Create him after Thine own image, as the favoured child of Thy goodness. ... I will touch his heart \\ith pitv, and make him kind to others weaker than himself. . . . The father of the World listened to her \'oice, and with the aid of Mercy created man." 13 For though the world may at times be steeped in sin, and it may repent the Creator that he had created man, yet the merit and blessing of one individual in an age may be sufficient to justify, if it were needed, the formation of man, and to turn the scale in favour of humanity. D\'!)''n^ b^ Ur\7^T\ n^i^m r\if2^ n)m^ m^D n"iDn hiy vnn^ n^sn^, " How far that little candle tl^ws his beams ! So shines a good deed in a ];giughty world." [I^/chmit of Venice, V. i.) So sings the immortal bard. >*i^d^he simile will in no wise suffer, if we read for " deSl ^ tife word " life " ; and realise that as " that little candle ^rows3his beams afar, so does a good life shine in a wicked wcu"ldr"^ And so say our Sages in the oldest Midrash on the Book of Numbers and Deuteronomy — tha^ ^\f^. commenting on the words niin \t2 TlS^Xl " I will tali^ of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon thenj:" {Numb., xi. 17). Say they — )phi) nn^i^ ''^\ ^v n^ittt^' ^h .nj^ti' nn\s*n r\f2)i ntr/t: ^^^ )r\^:ir\ nn^n xS "j^ .DiSn mx non ih) r]2nr\ nni li^D : diSd nnon ntr^ hiy " In that hour Moses might be compared to a light placed upon a candlestick, from which many a light may be fed, whilst his own light— his knowledge and wisdom — will suffer no diminution." And may it not be said with equal truth of the great dramatist and moralist of the Elizabethan age, that the light of his knowledge and wisdom has not diminished by reason of the 14 three hundred years that liave passed since the day of his death ? Nay, indeed, it has gained in ilhiminating power and brilHancy, having shed its beams in the interim, not alone throughout the length and breadth of these isles, but throughout the countries of the world, even to most distant parts. " Our myriad-minded Shakespeare," as he has been termed ; " he was not of an age, but for all time " — " a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again." He was the " soul," the " applause," the " delight," the " wonder " of his own age : the glory of his spirit and genius abide th with us still. Let us endeavour to profit by his teachings, so like the teachings of our Sages of old ; and may we renew our tribute of gratitude both to their memory and to his, on this the Tercentenary of his passing ! 1.5 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. ''^'l^^. 'iuy ^6 me 10/n-7,'7l(P6348s8)— Z-53 vrm UNIVERS/^ c > =i ^>;lU5AMj[LfJ^ ^^ 0^ ^ ■ c M'NIVER^ 'a _/:-:^i: University of Ca>"orn'f ,p^ SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRA^^^^^^ .mm which H was borrowed \\%\ LlBRARYOr , ^r-C'DVBL m^'"^^ -V o -<, // UKIVEPV/, '/- -^ o / rr