When lo! around me sudden thrown "But the Christian's soul is raised above One radiant glance she upward threw, He wept that death should have a bride But hand and aim were good and true, The favorite virtue of her breast, While her soul had winged it, like the dove, Feast of the Nativity of the B. V. Mary. M. C. A. 251 THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT OF SHAKSPEARE. AMONG the many questions to which the but partially known biography of the great bard of Avon has at different times given rise, has been that of his religious belief; and upon the strength of a testamentary paper discovered in 1770, in the house marked by tradition as his birthplace, Shakspeare has by some of his commentators been presumed to have been a Catholic. Malone, having rigidly inspected the document referred to, has, however, pronounced it to be spurious. Be this as it may, and taking into account the almost proverbial laxity in religious practice which unfortunately characterises the profession of a stage player, it seems difficult to determine what may have really been the form of worship mostly, or at all followed by our illustrious poet. That notwithstanding some years' possible neglect of practical observances, the germs of religion flourished green at his heart, abundant evidence is furnished by his glorious works, and the object of this article will be an attempt to shew, from a cursory review of his plays, that their author must have been imbued not only with a religious, but a Catholic spirit. It seems germane to such a surmise to remark, that, flourishing at a time when the feelings and fashion of the day were so diametrically adverse to Popery, that deadly hostility may be said to have existed between the partisans of the old, and self-called reformed creeds; Shakspeare, in the character of a popular dramatist, might reasonably enough have pandered to the prejudices of the many, in bringing Catholic personages, and practices, and institutions, into ridicule and contempt, had not some motive more powerful than the self-interest which such a course might have advanced, impelled him to pursue a directly contrary one. For throughout the whole range of his immortal compositions, not a sneer, not a sarcasm, not an invidious remark is levelled against the religion which the Parliament of that day had vilified, stigmatised, and abolished. The church dignitaries and monks of Shakspeare are from the mint of Rome, not from that of the pulpit oratory of Paul's Cross, which from day to day denounced, with every species of misrepresentation and virulence, the ministers and monastic institutions of the Catholic religion. The question seems to be, whether such faithful portraitures of real, and such favourable delineations of imaginary ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome, are consistent with the * But, on the contrary, he omits no opportunity of throwing ridicule on the ignorant self-sufficiency of the new ministers-as, for instance, Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and elsewhere.-E. C. M. spirit of bigotry and falsification which, in the days of Shakspeare, inflamed the universal mind of those who had just rudely shaken off her authority. But in point of fact, had the Catholicity of Shakspeare been notorious matter of history, we could not have expected from his pen more faithful, and more felicitous illustrations of Catholic character, feeling, and procedure, than those with which his writings abound. Whether as leading personages, or as the most utterly subordinate characters of his dramas, Shakspeare's cardinals and priests, friars and nuns, are invariably introduced under circumstances that challenge respect in their regard, rather than any other feeling. It were well if as much could be said of the works of Dryden, an acknowledged Catholic; who, nevertheless, pursued an entirely opposite course. But we would fain illustrate by instances selected from the whole range of his writings, what we are proud to regard as the Catholic spirit of Shakspeare. A priest being introduced in Twelfth Night, Olivia and Sebastian thus discourse of him : 66 Olivia.-Now go with me, and with this holy man, Into the chantry by: there before him, And underneath that consecrated roof, Plight me the full assurance of your faith. "Sebastian.-I'll follow this good man, and go with you; "Olivia.-Then lead the way, good father; and heavens so shine Respect for the priestly character, and total freedom from levity, are the characteristics of the above passages. In Measure for Measure, how reverential is the manner of the Duke to friar Thomas, in the scene where he requests the latter to supply him with the means of assuming the monastic habit, by way of disguise. The nun Francisca, and friar Peter, in the same play, although filling quite unimportant characters in relation to the general conduct of the piece, are presented to us under colours in strict keeping with the sacredness of their vocation. The friar in Much Ado about Nothing, is a dignified personage, and made to utter some of the finest passages in the play. It is in the following beautiful language that he comes forth the champion of Hero's wrongly aspersed innocence : "Friar.-Hear me a little, For I have only been silent so long, And given way unto this course of fortune By noting of the lady. I have mark'd A thousand blushing apparitions start If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here "Good friar," "holy friar," are the epithets addressed to him by the personages of the drama, in seemingly direct contradiction to the antereligious spirit which represented the monks of the Catholic Church as types of grossness and sensualism. Upon the abbess in the Comedy of Errors, falls the delivery of the fine lines on melancholy : "Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue, But moody and dull melancholy, And at her heels a huge infectious troop, Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life?" No event in English history has been a more constant, and perhaps effective mark for Protestant invective, as illustrating the alleged degradations to which England was subjected under Papal supremacy, than the famous surrender of his kingdom by King John to the Pope, and resumption of it as a fief of the Holy See. Here was an opportunity for our poet to have exhaled all the bitterness of "No Popery" spirit, in the delineation of the character of the legate Pandulph, through the medium of whom the ignoble act was perpetrated. There can be no doubt that the public opinion of Shakspeare's times, would have hailed with applause, pictures however overcharged of priestly insolence and usurpation. Under what colours, however, does Pandulph present himself to our notice in King John? Certainly neither as an object of hatred, nor of ridicule, nor of contempt, but in the garb of historic and unvarnished truth, and in all the pomp of his legatine character. King Philip of France thus ushers in the Roman dignitary : "Here comes the holy legate of the pope." Upon which Pandulph replies in terms of grave and dignified authority, 66 Hail, you anointed deputies of Heaven! Why thou against the church, our holy mother, The poet that put such bold language into the mouth of the papal legate, must have entertained lofty notions of the prerogatives of the Catholic Church. A discussion ensues in which King John angrily calls in question the legality of the legative summons, and Pandulph deliberately pronounces against him sentence of excommunication. How easy would it have been for the poet to have levelled at the Roman dignitary, some biting sarcasm and insult from the licentious tongue of the bastard Faulconbridge, the adherent of his royal brother, but of whose gibes however the archduke of Austria is the sole victim, while Pandulph delivers long speeches unmolested. And when King John forsaking his former insolence of tone, yields his crown to the legate, how full of proud dignity is the latter's rejoinder: 66 Pandulph.- "Take again (giving John the crown) From this my hand, as holding of the Pope, Your sovereign greatness and authority. It was my breath that blew this tempest up My tongue shall hush again this storm of war, And make fair weather in your blustering land." Even the wrath of Lewis of France, when Pandulph announces John's reconciliation with Rome, and seeks to deprecate the spirit of hostility he had formerly fomented, vents itself rather in the language of firm remonstrance, than of disrespect. How strictly in accordance with the character of a Christian prelate, is the bishop of Carlisle's brief exhortation to Richard II. "Fear not, my lord; that power that made you king, |