Shakespeare's Debt to the Scriptures

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12247, 19 September 1925, Page 12

Shakespeare's Debt to the Scriptures

Shakespeare lived in an age when there was marked evidence ot a g;reut renaissance in the study of the Bible. Thoughtful pc iplo were everywhere seeking for a way of escape from their religious difficulties by appealing to the fountain-head of their faith. A great reawakening of Christianity was in progress, and Shakespeare's yield constant evidence that he was himself a close student of Holy Writ. His characters quote from Scripture wirh great frequency* Says Bensdick of Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing”: 1 would not marry her though she wore endowed with all that. Adam had left him before he transgressed. We get a similar simile in Henry V.: Consideration like hji angel cume, And whipp’d the offending Adam out of him; Leaving his body as a paradise To envelop and contain celestial ©pints. Quoting likewise from the story of Genesis, the Bishop of Winchester says to Gloster in Henry VI.: Nay. f.bntl tliou back. 1 will not budge n foot; This bo Damascus, be thou cursed Cain, To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt. Falstaff is very fond of quoting Scripture in order to find excuses lor his own doings; thus he declaims:— In tho slate of innoeeney Admn fell, and what should poor Jack Falstnff do in days of villainy? Or again: If to b© fat is to be haled, then Pharaoh’s lean kin© are to be loved 1 The hook of Job is a favourite quarry out of which Shakespeare mines jewels with cyeat frequency. Tako this quotation ; Had it pleased heaven To try mo with affliction; had it min'd All kinds of sores ami shames on m.v bare head, Steopid ino in poverty lo Ihe very lips. Given lo captivity me and ruy utmost hopes.

I should have found in some place of my soul A drop oF patience. Into tho foregoing seven pregnant lines Othello may be said to coudcnse the gist ot whole chapters of Job I Proverbs is another book from which Shakespeare draws quotation alter quotation, often almost word for word:— Thou did.-t well ; for Wisdom cries out ill the sirevt and no man regards it. iHonry to Falstaff.) Therefore good Brutus, be prepared to hear; Am! since you cannot see yourself So well as by roHcclion, I, your class. Will modostv discover to yourself That nf vouriclf which vet vou know not of. Hastings when betrayed by Richard ‘ quotes : Ho who builds his hopes of vour fair looks Lives like a drunken sailor on n mast. With frequency Shakespon redraws upon tho Now Testament, as lie does upon the Old Testament, lor hi* Miuiles The “Tablet.” the great organ of Roman Catholic opinion England, lias ju*f issued its 444-lth number It was established before “Punch,” and is the sole survivor of the many sixpenny weekly paper-* dcvoUd muinlv to eeclacsiastical affairs. The play founded on Mr Michael Allen’s “Thr.*e Charming People” is to he produced in New York in a shmt time. Cyril Maude lias postponed his irtiroment from the sCp:e in order to play the leading part in the piece The MctrroGoMwvn Comp-mv is geipg lo maho a screen ritama ot'Selnia Kigerlof’s famous novel The title of th* pieture w-ill be “A Tower of Tries.” They had to call it something, and of r.-,m-e it wouldn't do to call it “The Emperor nf Portugalin ” Jt has been declared Fiat the perm most often .»ot to mimic hv modern composers was originally add..—ed to a piff. This is Heine's “Du hist win vine Illume 1 * (Thou'it like a lovely flow,mu of which there are over one hundred ,-ettim>. Hall Caine is at prompt in i'almdine Irving to reject what -mow e—.*n;ial from a nms> ~f mafmm! tor Iris “Life ef Jesus.” on wlrieh lie has teen working for a long time.