Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

between Menenius and Sicinius, respecting Coriolanus, towards the close of the play:

Menenius. What he bids be done, is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. Sicinius. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. Menenius. I paint him in the character.* his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. Act v. Sc. 4.

Mark what mercy

At the same time I must admit that in Titus Andronicus, of which the characters are Heathen also, mercy is undoubtedly recognized as a divine attribute, where Tamora, Queen of the Goths, says to Titus :

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?

Draw near them, then, in being merciful. Act ii. Sc. 2.

In regard to this passage, however, it may be observed, first, that the play in which it occurs is generally allowed not to be Shakspeare's; secondly, that the date of the action belongs to a period almost as many centuries after, as Coriolanus was before, the commencement of the Christian era; and, thirdly, that in the interval are to be found, even in heathen authors, passages which fall little, if at all, short of the same sentiment. Take, for example, what Cicero had said in addressing Cæsar on behalf of Ligarius-a passage partly quoted by Mr. Whalley:

Nihil est tam populare quam bonitas; nulla de virtutibus tuis

* That is, to the life, as he is.

plurimis nec admirabilior nec gratior misericordiâ est. Homines enim ad Deos nullâ re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando.-Orat. pro Ligario, c. 12.

There is, however, one play of Shakspeare to which it must, I think, be confessed, that the remark of Johnson is justly applicable, at least in some degree. I allude to Cymbeline, where Jupiter is made to say:

Whom best I love,* I cross.

Act v. Sc. 4.

And again, in the 1st Scene of the same Act, where Posthumus exclaims :

Gods! if you

Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had lived to put on† this: so had you saved
The noble Imogen to repent, and struck

Me wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack!
You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,

To have them fall no more; you some permit

To second ills with ills, each elder worse.

Compare Isaiah lvii. 1,

Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

Upon the whole, then, while I cannot deny altogether the justice of Dr. Johnson's censure, still I would observe that to draw any very broad lines of

There is also a passage in Othello, too painful to be quoted, where it has been remarked that reference is made to the doctrine of Scripture, Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.'—See Act v. Sc. 2.

ti. e. to incite, instigate.

distinction in the case referred to would have been impossible without giving certain and perhaps just cause for offence; and therefore to bring an accusation of 'negligence' for not doing so, may not unfairly be regarded as somewhat captious and unreasonable.

SECT. 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen.

A devout invocation for the ministering help of the Holy Angels is not to be confounded with the impiety of addressing them in prayer. The one is encouraged, the other is forbidden in Holy Scripture. Such invocations abound in Hamlet, and though the story of that play refers to a period long before the Reformation, and though, on that account, Shakspeare would seem to have intended to represent the characters as tinged, to some extent, with the errors of Romanism,* yet I am not sure that upon

• Thus the Ghost of Hamlet's father speaks of his being

'Confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away ;'

Act i. Sc. 5.

which is the doctrine of purgatory; and again, of being

'Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd ;'

that is, without the sacrament of extreme unction. And Hamlet, in addressing the players, Act ii. Sc. 2, swears' By 'r Lady!' and again in Act iii. Sc. 4. By the rood.' Of which oaths Mr. Bowdler omits the former, but not the latter. On the other hand, however, also in

the last-named scene, Hamlet says to the Queen 'Confess yourself to Heaven.'

[ocr errors]

the point now before us he has transgressed the limits which a sound theology would impose. For instance, there is nothing to object to in the exclamation of Isabella, in Measure for Measure,

Oh, you blessed ministers above,

Keep me in patience!

Act v. Sc. I.

Or of Hamlet, at the sight of the Ghost

for,

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! Act i. Sc. 4.

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. i. 14.

And again, when the Ghost reappears in Act iii.

[blocks in formation]

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,

You heavenly Guards!

Nor is the exclamation of the guilty king, when struggling to repent, and to betake himself to prayer, less appropriate :

Help, Angels, make assay!

Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!

All may be well.

Act iii. Sc. 3.

And how pious and touching is the farewell of Horatio when Hamlet dies :

Now cracks a noble heart: Good night, sweet prince; And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest! Act v. Sc. 2. The singing of Angels, and their loving attendance upon the good at all times, but especially in their last moments, have furnished our poet with beautiful

and affecting imagery on two other occasions. The former in the Merchant of Venice, in the moonlight scene where Lorenzo says to Jessica :

Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;

There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,

But in his motion like an Angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed Cherubims. Act v. Sc. I.

The latter, in King Henry VIII., where the Duke of Norfolk, speaking of Cardinal Wolsey in reference to the good Queen Katharine, thus testifies to her duty and affection for her unworthy husband:

He counsels a divorce-a loss of her,

That, like a jewel, has hung twenty years
About his neck, yet never lost her lustre;
Of her that loves him with that excellence,
That Angels love good men with; even of her,
That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls,
Will bless the king.

Act ii. Sc. 2.

We know from S. Luke xv. 10, what is the great occasion of 'joy in the presence of the Angels of God.' It is in accordance with the same revealed truth that our poet sings:

Then is there mirth in heaven,

When earthly things made even
Atone* together.

As you like it, Act v. Sc. 4.

On the other hand we find a well-known passage in Measure for Measure, which represents the

See above, p. 31.

« PredošláPokračovať »