PARALLEL PASSAGES OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE, WITH THOSE OF THE BIBLE, BIBLICAL TEXTS, ETC. E stated in our introduction that in arranging WE with those of the Bible, it was not our intention to give them in the order of the folio edition of his plays, published in 1623. We will, therefore, commence our series with "The Tempest," one of the most finished productions of the immortal bard. The general idea of "The Tempest " is taken from the account of St. Paul's shipwreck on the island of Melita, or at least that portion of it speaking of the shipwreck and the island, as mentioned in Acts xxvii. and xxviii. Prospero says to Miranda, respecting the wreck: "I have with such provision in mine art All, but mariners, г Act i. Sc. 2. Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel. Act i. Sc. 2. "But for the miracle, I mean our preservation." Act ii. Sc. I. "There shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you." Bible, Acts xxvii. 34. "We were in all in the ship, two hundred threescore and sixteen souls." ver. 37. In the conversation between Prospero and Miranda, respecting their preservation in the "rotten carcass of a boat," in which they had been turn'd adrift, she asks: "The centurion commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land." Acts xxvii. 43, 44. The sacred historian proceeds to inform us that the barbarous people showed them no little kindness. "And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly; but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god," Acts xxviii. 2-6. Shakespeare says of the people of the island: 66 Though they are of monstrous shape, Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of Our human generation you shall find Act iii. Sc. 3. "In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. . . . Who also honored us with many honors; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary." Acts xxviii 7-10. Shakespeare has also preserved the idea of gatherCaliban says: ing sticks. "I'll bear him no more sticks." Act ii. Sc. 2. And Ferdinand (Act ii. Scene 1) is introduced bearing a log. Caliban talks of adders, Act iii. Scene 2. 66 They changed their minds, and said that he was a god." Acts xxviii. 2-6. "These be fine things, an' if they be not sprights. That's a brave god, etc." Act ii. Sc. II. Prospero is represented as an old man, with a long beard, wearing a mantle, which is endowed with supernatural power. The idea of the "magic mantle" is no doubt borrowed from 1 Kings xix. and 2 Kings ii. 8: "And Elijah took his mantle, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground." He has also a rod, Act i. Scene 2 Act V. Scene 1, with which he performs miracles, and controls the waters, which is, undoubtedly, taken from Moses; for besides the general idea, there are passages which incontestably show that he had the history of the Israelites in the wilderness in his mind; namely, that of the miraculous preservation of their garments. ! "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." Deut. viii. 4. "Yea, forty years, didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not." Nehemiah ix. 21. "On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before." Act i. Sc. 2. unin (Though the island seems to be a desert habitable and almost inaccessible· yet it must needs be of a subtile, tender, and delicate temperature.) ("Here is everything advantageous to life, but the rarity of it is, that our garments, being as they were drenched in the sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather new dy'd than stain'd with salt water.") Act ii. Sc. I. "Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on in Afric," etc. Act ii. Sc. I. r "Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis," etc. Act ii. Sc. I. The name of Ariel is taken from Isaiah xxix. 1, and Ezra viii. 16, and is a personification of air, as Caliban is of earth. Ariel is thus described in the Bible: “And thou shalt be brought down, and thou shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground; and thy speech shall whisper," etc. Isaiah xxix. 4. The name of Ariel, used in Isaiah xxix. 1, applies to the city of Jerusalem-"Wo to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! " Shakespeare uses it as a spirit of air, gifting it with the powers of his nature as a spirit — "his qualifica tion in sprighting." Shakespeare evidently took the name of Ariel from the Bible — not because its literal meaning was "the Lion of God," but because it was a typical display of divine justice, and, as such, Prospero uses this "familiar spirit" for exactly the same purpose. ] The play of "The Tempest " is an allegorical sketch, intended to carry out a fanciful, if not a poetical idea of the bard's, and certain ideas he may have formed of men and manners. The zephyr-like Ariel, the image of poetry, the dull, heavy, plodding, beastly Caliban, the signification of earth — earthly. That portions of the story may have been taken from other sources, we have already shown, but that does not deprive the |