The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-07-26

| Prince Henry:
" F"lSfad. An old lord of the Councixate,
me the other day in the street about You
| Sir: but marked Kim not: and yet he talk
ed very wisely, and in the street, too.
" Prince Henry. Thoudidst well: for wis
| dom cries out III the streets, and no man re
CARDS it,"
The ninteenth verse Of the invent y-Seventl
chapter of Proverbs is rather obscure, an,
the commentators very much differ in thei
Interpretation of it. GAS in water fac,
ahswereth to face, so that heart OF man (,
man." But Shakespeare seems to have ex
planned it rs well as any of them, if moi
better. In .JnliuS CaSar CasSius thus speaks
Therefore good Brutus, be prepared tc
| hear:
| And, since You can not see yourself
So well as hy reflection |, your glass,
| Will modeStly discover to Yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not
| Of"
That seems to be the exact meaning OF
Solomon i'll the above passage. One man
heart is as mirror, in which another may
see 4 reflection of himself. One more illus-
tration must suffice. In Proverbs, xiii 81
the drunkard is thus addressed: Yea, thou
shalt he us he that leth down in the midst
of the sea, or rs he that lieth upon the top
of Il mast Shakespeare has drawn ont the
image more fully in the exclamation of
Hastings on finding himself betrayed by
Richard:
go momentary grace of mortal men,
Il, 4. a
God.
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken sailor on Il mast;
Ready with every not to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep"
We now turn to the New Testament for IA
few specimens of Shakspeare's Scriptural
knowledge. There are many illusions to
that King Herod who occupies such Il con-
slicuous place in the early part of st. Mat
thew $ Gospel. One example must be sutfi-
cient. Henry V. at Harbour is warning the
inhabitants of the town of the dire conse-
quences that will follow should they refuse
to open their gates to him:
"Therefore. You men of l1arfeur,
Take pity of your town, and of your people,
Whites vet my soldiers are in my command
If not, why, in a moment, look to see
GoIr fathers taken by the silver boards,
And their most reverend heads dash d TO he
walls:
Your naked infants sritted upon pixies:
Whites the mad mothers, with their howls
confused,
Do break the Clouds as did the wives of
,Jewry
At llerod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen."
This forcible description shows that the poet
had powerfully realized tits savage work of
Herod'S.
The aluSions to another New Testament
character, notorious for his wickednesS
(Judas the traitor), are very frequent and
varied. Richard II. thus speaks of his three
favorites who had betrayed him.
"Threc Judases, each one three worse than
Judas
Gloster, after Richard Ill, having, in
pretense of affection, kissed the young prince
that he afterward murdered, thus speaks
aside:
"To say the truth, so Judas kissed his Mas
And cried, All hail, when as he meant-al
harm"
Again, of Il disscmblcr it is said:
His kisses are JulaS's own children.''
And speaking of the tiattcry that abounds
in the world, one says:
Who can call him his friend
That dips in the same dish?''
But let us pass on to 4 few other New Tes-
lament illusions. The Duke Of Gloster
(before mentioneti), after saying, aside, that
by his misrepresentation he has induced
Stanley and others TO whct him on to he
rcvengcd on Rivers, Dorset, and Grey, adds:
:" But then sigh, and with Il piece of Scrip
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.
And thus cothe my naked villany
With old odd ends, stolen forth of Holy
Writ:
And seem Il saint when most l play the
devil"
This owes its pllngency TO the ijuNtaposition
made between the mind of the arrh-viliin
Richard and the sentiments and spirit of
Holy Writ. SO Macbeth refers to another
clause in the same verse {" Pray for them
W ill'h utSl'.iEiuIiS uNt YOU J "H'li lit IL
urging an assassin to murder Banquo in
retaliation for the wrongs done to him.
Are you so gospelrd
To pray for this good man and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you TO the
grave ~
Cardinal Beaufort is very appropriately
addressed as
Thou wolf in sleeps array
that the words in the Gospel are
applied to false prophets, and to those who
for wicked purposes assume the office of
Christian teachers.
Again, we find Hamlet saying,
" There's a special providence in the fall of
sparrow
The alusion is obvious; and very beauti-
fully is the same passage introduced in is
You Like II. Adam, like faithful old serv-
ant, in dissuading his master, Orlando, from
into an evil course to get a living,
says:
- But do not so: have five hundred crowns.
The thrifty hire | saved under your father,
Which did store to he my foSter-nurse
When service should in my old limbs lie
lame,
And unregarIed age in corners thrown:
Take that: and He that doth the ravens
feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
BE comfort to my age"
In contrast with this, here is a sentiment
of Shylock'S, stepped in GALL
''There he the Christian husbands: have a
daughter
Would any of the stock of Barabbas
Had been her husband, rather than Chris
tian.'
Numerous other passages, equally or even
more striking, might easily be quoted
But, after all, the most interesting ilustra-
tiorS of ShakSpcarc'S Use of the Bible are
those which can not be referred to one OF
two texts, but are STEPPED in Scriptural
sentiment and religious truth. There is, for
instance, that grand prophecy of Arch
bishop Cr;lnuer'S, at the end of H"nry THL,
concerning the Princess Elizabeth:
" This royal infant (Heaven move still about
herd, etc.
Then, again, there is that wcl-known APP
peal of Portia to Shylork:
g The quality of mercy is not strained etc
A similar sentiment occurs in lsabela'S
appeal to Angelo on behalf of her brother
who, Angelo says, has become Il forfeit to
the law:
".Alas. alas, /
Why, all the souls that We're, were forfeit
once.
And He that might the vantage best have