of Banquo, Psalm lxxxiv. 2, 3: "Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God"; but we come nearer to the words of Duncan and the thought of Banquo if we know the Genevan Metrical Psalms :"How pleasant is thy dwelling-place,

O Lord of hostes, to me;

The tabernacles of thy grace

How pleasant, Lord, they be ".

The absence of any suspicion of treachery on the part of Duncan and Banquo is finely brought out by the illustration of the temple-haunting swallow :

"The sparowes finde a roome to neste

And save themselves from wrong,

And eke the swallow hath a nest

Wherein to kepe her young;

These birdes full nigh thine altars may
Have place to sit and sing".

Touching Shakespeare's knowledge of the Metrical Psalms there are several indications in the plays. Pistol, for instance, in the Merry Wives, I. iii. 84, says :

"And high and low beguile the rich and poor";

and in II. i. 113:—

"He woos both high and low, both rich and poor,
Both young and old, one with another".

This is a fragment of one of the Genevan Psalms. Psalm xlix., J. Hopkins :—

"All people, harken and give eare

To that that I shall tell,

Both hye and low, both rich and poore

That in the world do dwell".

And in the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says of Kate, III. ii.

230:

"She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,

My household stuff, my field, my barn,

My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything;

And here she stands, touch her whoever dare".

The reference is to the Tenth Commandment, but compare the words with those of the Genevan Metrical Version, John Crispen of Geneva :

"Thy neighbour's house wish not to have,

His wyfe, or aught that he calls myne,
His field, his oxe, his asse, his slave,

Or anything which is not thyne".

The famous passage in Henry V., I. i. 25, seems to have been expressed in words reminiscent of an old Genevan Psalm. The Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of the great change which came over the Prince, in terms which suggest the doctrine of Regeneration :

"The breath no sooner left his father's body

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seemed to die too".

Compare with this the "Complaint of a Sinner," which is among the Genevan Psalms :—

"That I with sinne repleat

May live and sinne may dye;

That being mortified

This sinne of mine in me,

I may be sanctified

By grace of thine in thee".

The mention of Prince Hal suggests his genial companion Falstaff, who is the most inveterate quoter and misquoter of Scripture in the whole of the plays. Prince Henry says in I. ii. 106, 1st Part Henry IV. :

"I see a good amendment of life in thee: from praying to purse taking."

"Why, Hal,” replies Falstaff, "'tis my vocation, Hal: 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation."

The Genevan is the only version which gives the phrase "amendment of life," the Authorised quotes it in the margin. Wiclif-"No neede to penance".

Tyn., Cran." Nede no repentance".
Rheims "That neede not penance ".
Author." Nede no repentance".

The 1557 Genevan New Testament gives "Ryght workes of repentance," but subsequent editions "Amendment of life".

Acts xxvi. 20-"That they should repent and turne to God, and do works worthy amendment of life".

Luke xv. 7—" More then for ninetie and nine just men which needed none amendment of life".

In II. iv. 299 Sir John says: "Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now thou shalt be moved"; and a Genevan Note on I Thess. v. 19 seems to explain the words by "The sparkes of the Spirit of God that are kindled in us, are nourished by the dayly hearing of the word". Just as the argument of the 1st Gravedigger in Hamlet in its form seems to have been borrowed from the forms of Puritan sermons: "It argues an act, and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, to perform". A Genevan Note on I Cor. vi. 9 is to the following effect: "Now he prepareth himselfe to passe over to the fourth treatise of this Epistle: debating this matter first, which question hath three branches".

The argument of reminiscence or suggestion may also have something to do with the passage in Richard II. :—

"This royal Throne of Kings, this Sceptred Isle,
This earth of Majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-Paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself,”

for in the Genevan Bible as a note on 2 Cor. xii. 4 to explain the word "Paradise" there is the following: "Which name they that translated the Olde Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke called the garden Eden, whereinto Adam was put straight after his creation, as a most delicate and pleasant place. And hereunto grewe it, that that blessed seate of the glory of God is called by that name."

In Richard III., I. iii. 217, we have the words :

"The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soule," and a Genevan Note on Isaiah lxvi. 24 speaks in the same strain, "a continuall torment of conscience which shall ever gnawe them and never suffer them to be at rest". In Antony and Cleopatra, II. v. 10, the Egyptian Queen says:—

"Give me mine angle, we'll to the river: there

My music playing far off, I will betray

Tawny fine fishes, my bended hooke shall pierce
Their slimy jawes".

The words remind the Bible student of the passage in Job xli. 1, 2: "Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" but the comparison is not felt to be striking until the Genevan Version is read, and Shakespeare's words are seen to be almost identical: "Canst thou cast an hooke into his nose? canst thou pierce his jawes with an angle?" Turning for a moment from the Genevan Version, a passage in As You Like It is an interesting example of Shakespeare's use of the Bible. The meaning of the phrase is obvious, but the source of it is not so clear. In V. iii. 1, Touchstone and Audrey have the following dialogue :

Touchstone. "To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey; tomorrow will we be married."

Audrey. "I do desire it with all my heart: and I hope it is no dishonest desire, to desire to be a woman of the world.” In our day, "a man or woman of the world" usually means the opposite of marriage, and the phrase must be understood in its Biblical connection if it is to be taken as synonymous with "a married woman". Reference to the Epistle to the Corinthians at once shows the origin. I Cor. vii. 34: "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband". Shakespeare dearly loved a quip or play upon words, and many examples might be cited. For instance, the Clown in All's Well, IV. v. 20, says :

"I am no great Nebuchadnezar, sir, I have not much skill in grace,"

where the play is on the word "grace," pronounced as "grass," and refers to the fate of the great Babylonian king who "did eat grass as the oxen". In Love's Labour's Lost, Biron is made to play with the text in Ecclesiasticus xii. I: "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled with it," when he says,

"They have pitched a toil: I am toiling in a pitch-pitch that defiles";

and the same play is seen in Timon of Athens, I. ii. 24 :— Timon. "Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich;

All the lands thou hast lie in a pitch'd field." Alcibiades. "Ay, defil'd land, my lord."

Again, in Love's Labour's Lost there is a quip which gains additional point from a knowledge of the Bible. Armado says:"Green indeed is the colour of lovers: but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Samson had small reason for it. He surely, affected her for her wit."

Moth. "It was so, sir, for she had a green wit."

"A green wit" was a common expression of the time, but in reference to Delilah having a green wit and Samson having small reason for a love of that colour, the point of the allusion is best appreciated when we remember that it was with green cords that Samson was bound. The Authorised, Judges xvi. 7: "If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried," and the Genevan gives: "Brought her seven green cordes that were not dry, and she bound him therewith".

In Romeo and Juliet, I. v., the 2nd Servant says:—

"When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing,"

which is a reference to the "unwashen hands,” Mark vii. 2-5.

One of the most daring perversions in the plays is in the Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom misquotes the great passage in Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul speaks of the wonders of spiritual vision, I Cor. ii. 9: "I will come to visions," 2 Cor. xii. I. Bottom says:—

The eye of man hath

“I have had a most rare vision. .
not heard, the eare of man hath not seen, man's hand is
not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to
report, what my dream was."

A very fruitful study of the work of any author may be had by endeavouring to follow the indications of the working of his mind. The task is easiest with Shakespeare when his thoughts are running upon Biblical illustrations, and it requires no pro. found knowledge to accurately forecast the words and instances he is likely to use. One of the best illustrations of this is in the 2nd Part of Henry IV. If we take the speech of the Archbishop in IV. i. 204 as the conclusion of a series of this description the point will be clear :—

Archbishop. "Full well he knows

He cannot so precisely weed this land,
As his misdoubts present occasion.