"With all his might."

Deut. vi. 5.

"I'm very sure.

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears,
Which hearing them would call their brother's fools."
Merchant of Venice.

Alluding to the Scripture text, "He that calleth

his brother a fool," etc.

How truly scriptural is the following:

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot."

Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. I.

"The sure and firm earth

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The very stones prate of my whereabouts."

Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 1.

"And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which he spake unto us.”

Joshua xxiv. 27.

Habakkuk ii. 11.

"Wo unto him, that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach."

ver. 19.

There are many passages in Shakespeare which have a direct bearing upon scriptural subjects, such as, "It was Eve's legacy," etc. (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. Scene 1.)

In another portion of our work, we have given similar expressions used rather loosely by Falstaff. In Macbeth, we find this passage:

"Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments."

Instruments here, is meant to gird on their swords. So used in Psalm vii. 12, 13:

"If a man will not turn, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors."

I

SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSICS.

T is not our purpose to point out parallel passages

between Shakespeare and other writers prior to the production of his plays; indeed, such a task would be superfluous, as the instances are so few, and the similarities so obscure. The following, however, we give, as they show that his reading was far more extensive than certain commentators gave him credit. Some speeches in Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" are not more than metrical arrangements of the very words in Sir Thomas North's translation of "Plutarch's Lives," first published in 1579:

"I am Caius Martius, who hath done to thyself particularly, and to all the Volsces generally, great hurt and mischiefe, which I cannot denie for my surname of Coriolanus that I beare. For I never had other benefit nor recompense of the true and paineful services I have done, and the extreme dangers I have bene in, but this onely surname; a good memorie and witnesse of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed, the name only remaineth with me; for the rest, the envie and crueltie of the people of Rome have taken from me, by the

sufferance of the dastardly nobilitie and magistrates, who have forsaken me, and let me be banished by the people. That extremitie hath now driven me to come as a poor suitor, to take thy chimnie harth, not of any hope to save my life thereby. For if I had feared death, I would not have come hither to have put myself in hazard.”—North's Plutarch, folio, p. 232.

66

'My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
Great hurt and mischief, thereto witness may
My surname Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname: a good memory,

And witness of the malice and displeasure

Which thou should'st bear me: only that name remains;
The cruelty and envy of the people,

Permitted by our dastard nobles, who

Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffered me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope;
Mistake me not, to save my life; for if

I had feared death, of all men i' the world,

I would have 'voided thee." Coriolanus, Act iv. Sc. 5.

"Sea of troubles," is from the Greek Hɛλayos Κακων. Many of the commentators of Shakespeare contend that it should read "siege" of troubles. We think the Greek authority should settle the question.

"Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat malum."

"Bear with, submit to, put up with this misfortune, lest a greater should befall you." Latin Phædrus.

Shakespeare says:

"Better to bear the ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of."

Plautus uses the following:

"I do sincerely believe my wife to be most virtuous."

This reminds us strongly of a similar passage in Othello.

"Natio comoeda est.'

Latin Juvenal.

"The whole nation appears like a set of stage-players — there every one is an actor." "Greece is a theatre where all

are players."

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players."
Shakespeare.

"Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned
To the soft notes of lyre and lute? The neighing
Of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with
Terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with
Smoke, converted to delicate tunes and
Amorous glances?"

66

Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe, 1584.

Grim-visag'd war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."

Richard III., 1591.

"Oh, sable night, sit on the eye of heaven,

That it discern not this black deed of darkness."

Warning for Fair Women, 1599.