not nor spinne. And yet for al that I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his royalty, was not arayed lyke one of these."

Ps. xc. 9—" We have spent our yeeres as a thought. The time of our life is threescore yeres and tenne, and if they be of strength, fourscore yeres, yet their strength is but labour and sorowe, for it is cut off quickely and we fly away."

2 Cor. iv. 16—" Therefore we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed daily." 18.-"While we looke not on the things which are seene, but on the things which are not seene: for the things which are seene are temporall, but the things which are not seene are eternall."

2 Cor. v. I-" For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed, wee have a building given of God, that is, an house not made with hands, but eternall in the heaven."

Rom. vi. 9-"Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died once to sinne."

cli. 1, 2-"Love is too young to know what conscience is : Yet who knows not, conscience is borne of love?" Luke xxii. 61-" Then the Lord turned backe, and looked upon Peter: and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. And Peter went out and wept bitterly."

cliv. 14-"Love's fire heats water, water cools not love."

S. of Sol. viii. 6, 7—“ Set me as a seale on thine heart, and as a signet upon thine arme: for love is strong as death: jealousie is cruel as the grave: the coles thereof are fierie coles, and a vehement flame. Much water cannot quench love, neither can the floods drowne it."

A MIDSOMMER NIGHT'S DREAME.

"Belongs probably to the winter season of 1595. Two editions were published in

1600."

Act I. i. 153—

Hermia. "Then let us teach our triall patience,

Because it is a customarie crosse."

Marke viii. 34-"Whosoever will follow Me, let him forsake himselfe, and take up his crosse and follow Me."

Genevan Marginal Note-"The disciples of Christ must

beare stoutly what burden soever the Lord layeth

upon them, and subdue the affections of the flesh." James v. 10-"Take my brethren, the Prophetes for an ensample of suffering adversitie and of long patience. . . ." II"Beholde, wee count them blessed which endure. Yee have heard of the patience of Job, and have knowen what ende the Lorde made. For the Lord is very pitifull and merciful.”

Act II. ii. 115

Oberon. "And be thou here again

Ere the Leviathan can swim a league.'

Ps. civ. 26-" There goe the ships, yea that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein."

Act II. ii. 136—

Lysander. "For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings:
Or, as the heresies, that men do leave

Are hated most of those they did deceive."

Prov. xxv. 16-" If thou have found hony, eate that is sufficient

for thee, lest thou be overfull and vomit it."

Luke xxi. 34-"Lest at any time your hearts be oppressed with surfeting and drunkennesse."

Act III. i. 46-Bottom. "If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: no, I am no such thing: I am a man as other men are."

An instance of Bottom's play with Scriptural words and

scenes.

Compare the incident at Lycaonia when Paul and Barnabas were about to be worshipped as Jupiter and Mercury— Acts xiv. 15-"We are even men subject to the like passions that ye bee."

Genevan Marginal Note-" Men, as ye are, and partakers of the self same nature of man as you."

And also the scene between Peter and CorneliusActs x. 26-" But Peter tooke him up, saying, Stand up, for even I myselfe am a man."

Act III. i. 116—Snout. “O Bottom! thou art changed: what do I see on thee."

Quince. "Blesse thee, Blesse thee, Bottom, thou art translated." Ecclus. xliv. 16-" Enoch pleased God, therefore was he translated for an example."

2 Macc. xi. 23-"Since our father is translated to the Gods." Compare also 2 Kings ii. 11.

Act III. ii. 66—

Hermia. "Hast thou slain him then?

Henceforth be never numbered among men."

A reference to the banishment of Cain

Gen. iv. 10-"What hast thou done? the voyce of thy brother's blood cryeth unto Mee from the earth." 12-" A vagabond and a runnagate shalt thou be in the earth." 14"Beholde thou hast cast me out this day from the earth."

Act III. ii. 259

"Vile thing let loose,

Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent."

Acts xxviii. 4-"There came a viper out of the heate and leapt on his hand. But he shook off the worme into the fire and felt no harme."

Act IV. i. 212—

Bottom. "I have had a most rare vision. . . . The eye of man hath not heard, the eare of man hath not seene, man's hand is not

able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dreame was.”

A striking instance of Shakespeare's play with Scripture.
The words are a perversion of the great passage in
Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul speaks of the
wonders of spiritual vision—

I Cor. ii. 9-" But as it is written, The things which eye hath not seene, neither eare hath heard, neither came into man's heart, are, which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath reveiled them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deepe things of God."

Act IV. ii. 13-Flute. "You must say, paragon: a paramour is, God blesse us, a thing of naught."

A common phrase in the Genevan Bible

Isa. xli. 12-"They shall be as nothing, and the men that warre against thee as a thing of nought."

Genevan Note on Micah i. 7-" Consumed as a thing of nought."

Act V. i. 83

Theseus. "For never anything can be amisse,

When simplenesse and duty tender it."

2 Cor viii. 12-"For if there be firste a willing minde, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not,"

Act V. ii. I—

Puck. "Now the hungry lion roars

And the wolfe beholds (behowls) the moone;

Whilest the heavy ploughman snores,

All with weary task fore-done."

Ps. civ. 20" Thou makest darkenesse and it is night wherein all the beasts of the forest creepe forth. The lyons roare after their pray and seeke their meate at God." 23-" Then goeth man forth to his worke and to his labour untill the evening."

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

"The play may be tentatively assigned to 1595. Meres, writing three years later, attributed to Shakespeare a piece called 'Love's Labour's Won.' This title, which is not otherwise known, may well be applied to ' All's Well.'"

Act I. i. 58-Lafeu. "Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living."

Ecclus. xxxviii. 16, 17—“My sonne, powre forth teares over the dead and begin to mourne, as if thou hadst suffered great harme thyselfe, and then cover his body according to his appointment and neglect not his buriall. Make a grievous lamentation and be earnest in mourning, and use lamentation as he is worthy, and that, a day or two, lest thou be evil spoken of and then comfort thyselfe for thine heavines." 18-"For of heavinesse cometh death, and the heavines of the heart breaketh the strength."

Prov. xv. 13; 2 Cor. ii. 7.

Act I. i. 143—Parolles. “He that hangs himself is a virgin: virginity murders itself, and should be buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature."

Shakespeare speaks of suicide as being condemned in the Commandments. It is evident from the above that he is thinking of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" or "Thou shalt do no murder," and that he considers the killing of oneself to be murder and therefore within the prohibition of the Divine Law.

Act I. i. 149-" Self love, which is the most inhibited sinne in the Cannon."

Deut. vi. 5 and Matt. xxii. 39-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soule and with all thy might." "And the second is like unto this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyselfe."