On Shakespeare's knowledge and use of the Bible

Front matter

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Preface

am not aware that the attempt made in this small volume has been anticipated in any other. Even the notes of critics upon Shakspeare, superfluously full in pointing out his obligations, real or supposed, to secular authors, are singularly meagre in the references which they make to the Holy Scriptures. And yet how abundant is the room for such reference, and how much it may conduce to the mutual illustration of the two books, which as Christians and as Britons we should value most, will be seen, I trust, upon every page of the Second Part of the following dissertation.

With regard to the 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 improve their knowledge of their own language and at the same time enable them to understand better, and so to read with greater profit and pleasure, both their Bible and their Shakspeare — but especially the former.

In selecting the quotations which will be found in the following pages, and in arranging them systematically, no use has been made of any previous compilation : I have trusted solely to my own complete perusal and study of our great poet, with the particular 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 presented to the reader, in the hope that they may give him some portion of the pleasure which I have derived from them myself. In the meantime, I am fully conscious that the available material for both Parts of the work is far from being exhausted. As

Preface. ix

regards the latter Part, some handfuls at least, I doubt not, still remain to be gleaned in the same extensive field ; while the former Part contains little more than a specimen of the ore which the same mine, if thoroughly worked, might be made to produce.

c The Bible and Shakspeare,' said one of the best and most esteemed prelates that ever sat upon the English bench — Dr. John Sharp, in the reign of Queen Anne — c The Bible and Shakspeare have made me Archbishop of York.' The Shakspeare of Greek Comedy — Aristophanes — is well known to have been 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.

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

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

%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

Supplementary Notes ..... 303

ON

SHAKSPEARE' S KNOWI,EE)GJe;,AND USE OF THE BIBLE.

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 agitated among men of letters with intense interest. But neither in the course of that controversy, nor at any other time, has the enquiry, I believe, been raised to which I purpose in these pages to offer a reply; viz., how far Shakspeare was conversant with Holy Scripture, and whether or no he made use of his knowledge of the Bible to guide and assist him in the production of his immortal works. When I say that this enquiry is a new one, I do not mean that our poet's acquaintance with Scripture has altogether escaped the notice of every one of his numerous commentators ; for such is not the case 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 admitted on all hands : his knowledge of the Book of Grace, though far less noticed, will be found, I believe, to have been scarcely less remarkable. His works have been called ' a secular Bible : ' my object is to show that while they are this, they are also something more, being saturated with Divine Wisdom, such as could have been derived only from the very Bible itself.

And I enter upon my task with keener interest

and heartier zeal upon two accounts ; first, because

* For instance, I observe in Mr. Singer's edition of 1826 the following note : — ' It has been remarked that Shakspeare was habitually conversant with his Bible.1— Vol. v. p. 464.

I trust I shall be paying a duteous service to the memory of this great man, whom every Briton should delight to honour, by removing an imputation which has been (I am persuaded) hastily and inconsiderately cast upon him, as though he had, in some instances, designed to treat the Inspired Word with profaneness ; * and secondly, because, if it shall appear (as I doubt not it will) that a genius so incomparable was content to study, and 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.

cHe 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 cwho 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.

especially in his later years, was in conformity with the confession of his death as exhibited in his will ; * unless indeed we are to admit two of his sonnets as evidence against himself, which if they prove him at one time to have yielded to the temptations with which he was beset, prove him also to have possessed afterwards the spirit of a true penitent. Of his personal history, all that is now known may be soon told. He was born in the year 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 sixtyseven. In that same year appeared the first edition of his collected plays, thirty-six in number, which are generally allowed to be genuine ; though not more than fourteen or sixteen had been published in his lifetime, including Titus Andronicus and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. And there seems no reason to doubt that a great portion of what he wrote was composed, if not under the actual pressure of want, yet in a condition

* On the contrary, see two other contemporaneous. testimonies to his * honest ' character in Malone's Life, p. 280, sq., and p. 284.

of life very unfavorable to carefulness and maturity of composition.

Whatever blemishes there may have been in the character of the first Scottish sovereign who sat upon the throne of England, it is only just to bear in mind that we owe to him, under the good Providence of God, that inestimable work, the translation* of the Bible which we all use ; and moreover that to him we owe also the satisfaction which we must all feel when we learn that the best of uninspired writers was not without royal encouragement. Detract what we may from the merit of King James, on the score of pedantry, or of disingenuousness, the facts will remain, which, considering the subject I have now in hand, I rejoice to mention in his praise, and to interweave, as among the brightest ornaments of his crown — that he wrote to William Shakspeare a letter of commendation with his own hand,f and that he gave c special command ' for the publication of the Scriptures in the revised and improved form, which Shakspeare and his contemporaries were the first to read.

Our great poet, then, and our translators of the Bible lived and flourished at the same time, and under the same reign. This is an interesting fact in the enquiry upon which we are about to enter, and suggests the propriety of dividing it into two

* First published in 1611.

f See Variorum Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 467, and vol. ii. p. 481.

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 translations 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. According 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 Testament, 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 Introduction 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.

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 fthe 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 questionable 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 Shakin 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 meaning, 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.

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, cJairus 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, except 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,' cus,' 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 : —

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 pronouns 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.

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.

But it is curious that our translator of the Apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus should have so far differed at once from Shakspeare, and from himself, as to make c the heart ' not masculine, but first feminine 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 cThe mistress which I serve,' and in King Richard III. Gloster, the future king, to Prince Edward : —

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 illustration from the comparison upon which we are engaged. I mean the redundant insertion before the relative, of the definite article, and also of the personal pronoun. Thus, c the which/ Matt. xiii. 14, and c in the which/ Acts xxvi. 6, may be compared 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, CI know you what you are/ and again in King Henry VI. yd V art, Act ii. Sc. 6 : —