SHAKESPEARE.

"Who now shall grace the glowing throne,
Where, all unrivalled, all alone,

Bold Shakespeare sat, and look'd creation through,
The minstrel monarch of the worlds he drew?
That throne is cold - that lyre in death unstrung,
On whose proud note delighted wonder hung,
Yet old oblivion, as in wrath he sweeps,

One spot shall spare -the grave where Shakespeare sleeps.
Rulers and ruled in common gloom may lie,
But Nature's laureate bards shall never die,
Art's chiselled boast, and glory's trophied shore,
Must live in numbers, or can live no more.
While sculptured Jove some nameless waste may claim,
Still rolls th' olympic car in Pindar's fame;
Troy's doubtful walls, in ashes passed away,
Yet frown on Greece in Homer's deathless lay,
Rome slowly sinking in her crumbling fanes,
Stands all immortal in her Maro's strains :
So, too, yon giant empress of the isles,
On whose broad sway the sun forever smiles,
To Time's unsparing rage one day must bend,
And all her triumphs in her Shakespeare end."

Charles Sprague.

THOLIC?

PAGE

13

29

BIBLICAL TEXTS ADOPTED BY SHAKESPEARE.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSICS.

COINCIDENCES OR EXPRESSIONS TO BE FOUND

IN BACON AND SHAKESPEARE .

PRAYERS ON THE STAGE

34

83

96

105

. IIO

177

THE COVENTRY PLAYS, EXTRACTS FROM

THE MYSTERIES SUBJECT OF RELIGIOUS CON-

TROVERSY.

ADVENT OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

181

184

QUEEN ELIZABETH ENCOURAGES THE DRAMA. 185

NOTE. All the quotations from Shakespeare given in this work are taken
from the old editions, many from the folio of 1623. Some of the modern
editions, termed "acting copies," differ in many instances from the
original, not only in the use of words, but in the punctuation, thereby
changing the true meaning, as well as the sense, of a whole passage.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

SAN

FRANCISCO

SHAKESPEARE AND THE BIBLE.

INTRODUCTORY.

"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings."

CYMBELINE.

HE age in which Shakespeare lived was not, in

THE

the strictest sense, an age of morals. Some of the most prominent men of that period, among whom were several of the poet's contemporaries, fell victims to many of the prevailing vices of the day. The reticence of Shakespeare is one of the reasons historians assign for their limited knowledge of his domestic habits. He came to London at a period most dangerous to youth, particularly to one who had committed some youthful indiscretion that seemed to foreshadow his future destiny. Shakespeare's life while in London affords no evidence to connect him with scenes of debauchery and wild extravagance. One or two stories are told of him, but as they are

CAL