be wondered at; and for my own part I feel at least no sympathy with the scruples which induced Mr. Bowdler to omit the last line of the passage am about to quote: Q. Mar. O! princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand ;— Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3. I Instead of omitting these last words, it would have been a wiser course to have drawn attention to the enormity of the crimes, some committed already, and others remaining to be committed by Richard and the solemn appeal to God's all-seeing eye, in a public cause, which especially concerned His own majesty, as King of Kings. If malediction could ever be justifiable, it was justifiable-I had almost said it was charitable-in the case and under the circumstances in which Shakspeare has introduced it. There is no subject upon which the Bible is more explicit than upon the duty of governing the tongue, not only in matters of slander, but in other ways, and especially in regard to the high obligation of abstaining from all untruth. And if this duty be neglected we learn no less expressly from the same source the mischief that must follow. See Prov. xii. 13. xxi. 23, Eccles. x. 12, James iii. 2-10. And so our poet, on the one hand, cautions us that Many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing; and, on the other hand, he would encourage us No less in truth than life. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3. Moreover, it would seem, he had known of men 'reputed wise for saying nothing,' Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1, just as Solomon observes upon the benefit of silence:— Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Prov. xvii. 28. The connection between speaking truth and integrity of action, and (what is more common) between falsehood and unrighteousness, is strongly marked in Holy Scripture, and it has not escaped the notice of Shakspeare.* In the 3rd chapter of S. John's Gospel our Lord first uses the expression, 'every one that doeth evil,' and then, as the reverse of it, C he that doeth truth. In like manner the same Apostle writes, in his first Epistle, 'If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth,' i. 8; where the falsehood of speech and the falsehood of action, i. e. unrighteousness, are both combined. And so again, *Nor of Lord Bacon. See his 6th Essay. in his second Epistle, he speaks of walking in truth,' v. 4, i. e. in righteousness and holiness of life. Once more. S. Paul puts the question in the mouth of a disputer of this world: If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie (i. e. my sinfulness) unto His glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? Rom iii. 7. It is the same principle which led our poet to use the word 'untruth' for disloyalty, i. e. sin against a king, in the following passage of King Richard II., where the Duke of York exclaims God for His mercy! what a tide of woes Act ii. Sc. 2. SECT. 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and We may well believe that Shakspeare's own experience of life, especially in his early days, had sufficiently confirmed the truth, which he might have learnt from Scripture, that happiness, if it is to be expected at all in this world, is not to be looked for merely in external circumstances: Take heed (said our Lord) and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke xii. 15. And more than this; the 'uses' which he draws from adversity' are, as we shall presently see, among the most valuable lessons which his works contain. The scene in the Third Part of King Henry VI., which is laid in a chase in the north of England, and in which the dethroned monarch enters disguised, with a Prayer Book in his hand, and is accosted by the two keepers who were on the look-out to apprehend him, affords our poet an excellent opportunity for introducing sentiments such as we are now to speak of: 2nd Keep. Say, what art thou, that talk'st of kings and queens ? K. Hen. More than I seem, and less than I was born to: A man at least, for less I should not be ; And men may talk of kings, and why not I? 2nd Keep. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. K. Hen. Why, so I am in mind, and that's enough. 2nd Keep. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown? K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called content; Act iii. Sc. 1. In illustration of this, Mr. Steevens quotes that excellent old song in Percy's Reliques of Antient English Poetry, i. 213, beginning with: My minde to me a kingdome is. But here again I cannot help suspecting that our poet's school-learning was running in his head, and reminded him of some one of those numerous passages * which represent the stoical notion that the wise man is the truly royal personage King of kings, and inferior only to Jove himself.' See Horace Epist. i. 106, sq.; or what comes nearer to the circumstances before us, the well-known stanzas in the 2nd Book of Odes : : Redditum Cyri solio Phraaten Dedocet uti Vocibus; regnum et diadema tutum Nor does it seem unreasonable to conjecture, considering the superabundant evidence before us of Shakspeare's familiarity with the ideas of Scripture, that the text-Behold, the kingdom of God is within you,' Luke xvii. 21, and others of a similar character, may have contributed to the sentiment which he has put into King Henry's mouth. It is in the same vein, though carried somewhat further, that the 'honest chronicler,' Griffith, speaks of Cardinal Wolsey, after his decease : His overthrow heaped happiness upon him, * The most remarkable perhaps is that in the Thyestes of Seneca, the chorus beginning 'Tandem Regia nobilis,' v. 336; which might have been known, if not to Shakspeare, to the author of the song in Bp. Percy's collection. |