Ezek. xviii. 2-"The fathers have eaten sowre grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Act IV. iii. 237 "Macbeth is ripe for shaking, and the powers above Put on their instruments.” Nah. iii, 1-12" All thy strong cities shall be like figge trees with the first ripe figs: for if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater." Act V. i. 16-Doctor. "What, at any time, have you heard her say?" Lady. "That, sir, which I will not report after her." Doctor. "" You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you should." Lady. "Neither to you, nor any one, having no witnesse to confirme my speech." Matt. xviii. 16" Take yet with thee one or two, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be confirmed." Wic.-"every worde stond." Tyn.-" all thinges bee established." Cran. " every mater may be stablished." Rheims "every word may stand." Author.-" every word may be established." Act V. i. 53-Lady Macbeth. "Heere's the smell of the blood still all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." Isa. lix. 2, 3-"Your iniquities have separated betweene you and your God, and your sinnes have hid His face from you, that He will not heare. For your handes are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquitie." 10-"We grope for the wall like the blinde and we grope as one without eyes." ... Prov. vi. 16-18-"These things doeth the Lord hate, yea, His soule abhorreth. . . . The hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that imagineth wicked enterprises: feete that be swift in running to mischiefe." Ps. li. 2, 3-"Wash me throughly from mine iniquitie and cleanse me from my sinne. For I know mine iniquities and my sinne is ever before me." Act V. iii. 20 "This push Will cheer me ever, or diseate me now." Dan. xi. 40-" And at the end of the time shall the king of the South push at him." That is, "attack." Act V. iii. 25 "I have lived long enough, my way of life Is falne into the Seare, the yellow Leafe." Isa. Ixiv. 6-"We all doe fade like a leafe, and our iniquities like the winde have taken us away." Isa. i. 30-"For ye shalbe as an oke whose leafe fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water." Act V. iii. 40 "Canst thou not Minister to a Minde diseas'd, Raze out the written troubles of the Braine And with some sweet oblivious Antidote Cleanse the stufft bosome, of that perilous stuffe Doctor. "Therein the patient Must minister to himselfe." Deut. xxviii. 65-"Thou shalt find no reste, neither shall the sole of thy foote have rest: for the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and looking to returne till thine eies fall out and a sorrowful mind. And thy life shall hang before thee and thou shalt feare both night and day and shalt have none assurance of thy life." Jer. viii. 22-"Is there no balme in Gilead? is there no Physitian there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Isa. i. 15-"Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you cleane, take away the evill of your workes from before Mine eyes-cease to do evill, learne to do well." Rom. xii. 2-" Bee ye changed by the renewing of your minde." Act V. v. 18: Macbeth— "To morrow and to morrow and to morrow, 2 Cor. vi. 2—“Beholde now, the accepted time: behold now the day of salvation." Isa. lv. 6-"Seeke ye the Lorde while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is neere." Ps. xxii. 15-"Thou hast brought mee into the dust of death." Act V. v. 24 "Out, out breefe Candle Life's but a walking Shadow." Job xviii. 6-"The light shall be darke in his dwelling, and his candle shall be put out with him." Job viii. 9-"We are but of yesterday and are ignorant: for our days upon earth are but a shadow." Ps. xxxix. 6" Man walketh in a shadowe and disquieteth himself in vain." Wisd. of Sol. ii. 4—“Our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloude, and come to nought as the miste that is driven away with the beames of the sunne. For our time is as a shadowe that passeth away, and after our ende there is no returning." Wisd. of Sol. v. 9-" Passed away like a shadow, and as a post that passeth by." Ecclus. v. 7-" Make no tarying to turne unto the Lorde, and put not off from day to day: for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lorde breake forth, and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed and thou shalt perish in time of vengeance." Act V. v. 43 "The Equivocation of the Fiend That lies like Truth." Compare the Temptation of Eve (Gen. iii. 1-5), the Temptation of our Lord (Matt. iv. I-II). "And be these Jugling Fiends no more beleeved That palter with us in a double sense." Act V. vii. 35: Macbeth "But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd With blood of thine already." Deut. xxi. 8-"Lay no innocent blood to the charge of thy people Israel." Gen. ix. 5-"Surely I will require your blood . . . at the hand of man, even at the hand of a man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheadeth man's blood, by man shall his blood bee shead." THE TRAGEDIE OF KING LEAR. The play was written during 1606, and was produced at Whitehall on 26th December, of that year. Entered on the "Stationers' Registers" on 26th November, 1607. Act I. i. 39: Lear "Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there-know that we have divided Ecclus. xxxiii. 18—“Give not thy sonne and wife, thy brother and friend, power over thee while thou livest, and give not away thy substance to another, lest it repent thee, and thou intreate for the same againe. As long as thou livest and hast breath, give not thy selfe over to any person. For better it is that thy children should pray unto thee, then that thou shouldest looke up to the handes of thy children. In all thy workes bee excellent that thine honour be never stained. At the time when thou shalt ende thy daies and finish thy life, distribute thine inheritance." Act I. i. 100: Cordelia "I returne those duties backe as are right fit, Why have my Sisters' Husbands, if they say Ephes. vi. 1, 2—"Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour thy father and mother." Ephes. v. 23-"The husband is the wive's head." Gen. ii. 24-"Therefore shal man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shalbe one flesh." Act I. i. 188: Kent "And your large speeches may your deeds approve, 1 John iii. 18-"Let us not love in word, neither in tongue onely, but in deede and in truth." Act I. i. 255: France— "Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poore; Most choice forsaken, and most lov'd despised." Compare 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10-"As unknown and yet known as dying and beholde we live: as chastened and not yet killed: as sorrowing, and yet alway rejoycing: as poore and yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Act I. i. 284: Cordelia "Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides: Who covers faults, at last shame them derides." Job xxviii. 11-"The thing that is hid bringeth He to light." Luke viii. 17-"For nothing is secret that shall not be evident: neither anything hidde that shall not be knowen and come to light." Num. xxxii. 23-"Be sure that your sinne will find you out." 1 Cor. iii. 13-" Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it." Prov. xxviii. 13-" He that hideth his sinnes shall not prosper, but hee that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy." Act I. iii. 105-Gloster. "These late Eclipses in Sun and Moone portend no good to us. . . . Love cools, friendship falls off. Brothers divide. In Cities, mutinies, in Countries, discord; in Pallaces, Treason; and the Bond crack'd twixt Sonne and Father. This villaine of mine comes under the Prediction: there's Son against Father, the King fals from byas of Nature, there's Father against Childe. We have seene the best of our time. Machinations, hollownesse, treacherie and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves." See the "Prediction" in the Gospels concerning the signs of the last times. Matt. xxiv. 7-"For nation shall rise against nation and realme against realme, and there shall be famine and pestilence and earthquakes in divers places." 12-"The love of many shall be cold." 29-"And immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the sun bee darkened and the moone shall not give her |