ful, clever, rich in the gifts of fortune, of high rank. The woman was of stained character, false to her husband, the reverse of beautiful, dark-eyed, pale-faced, a musician, possessed of a strange power of attraction. To her fascination Shakespeare yielded himself, and in his absence she laid her snares for Shakespeare's friend and won him. Hence a coldness, estrangement, and, for some time, a complete severance between Shakespeare and his friend, after a time followed by acknowledgment of faults on both sides, and a complete reconciliation. So the Sonnets must be interpreted if we accept the natural sense they seem to bear. But several persons have held that they are either altogether of an ideal nature or allegorical, or were written in part by Shakespeare not for himself but for the use of others. The natural sense, however, is, I am convinced, the true one. The Sonnets from 1 to 126 form, allowing for a few possible breaks, a continuous series. In the early Sonnets the poet urges his friend to marry, that, his beauty surviving in his children, he may conquer Time and Decay. But if he refuses this, then Verse the poetry of Shakespeare - must make war upon Time, and confer immortality upon his friend's loveliness (15-19).* Many of the poems are written in absence (26, 27, 28, &c.). All Shakespeare's griefs and losses are made good to him by joy in his friend (29-31). The wrong done by "Will" to Shakespeare is then spoken of (33), for which some "salve" is offered (34); the salve is worthless, but Shakespeare will try to forgive. We trace the gradual growth of distrust on each side (58), until a melancholy settles down upon the heart of Shakespeare (66). Still he loves his friend, and tries to think him pure and true. Then a new trouble arises his friend is favoring a rival poet of great learning and skill (76–86). This rival poet has, with some show of evidence, been conjectured to be George Chapman, the translator of Homer. Shakespeare bids his friend "Farewell" (87); let him hate Shakespeare if he will. He ceases to address poems to him; but after an interval of silence begins once more to sing (100, 101, 102, &c.). He sees his friend again and finds him still beautiful. There is a reconciliation (104, 105, 107). Explanations and confessions are made. Love is restored, stronger than ever (119), for now it has passed through trial and sorrow; it is founded not on interested motives (124), nor, as formerly, on the attraction of youth and beauty, but is inward of the heart (125). And thus, gravely and happily, the Sonnets to his friend conclude. The reader who chooses to investigate the second series of Sonnets — those to Shakespeare's dark mistress — will meet with little difficulty in understanding them. Perhaps 153, 154, which seem to be two experiments in verse on the same subject, ought to be placed apart from the rest. * The figures are meant not to mark divisions or groups of sonnets, but to illustrate by striking passages the brief analysis of the Sonnets. SHAKESPEARE'S INDEBTEDNESS TO THE BIBLE. SHAKESPEARE's debt to the Bible is far greater than many imagine; and the world's debt to Shakespeare will not be lessened, if the source whence he derived so much of his marvellous power and influence is brought into greater prominence. To a very considerable extent, the Bible moulded and guided his moral and intellectual teaching. His writings are impregnated with the leaven of revealed truth; and this divine element in his works is unquestionably one of the principal secrets of his wide-spread and wide-spreading fame. Several volumes have been published that show how great was Shakespeare's indebtedness to the Bible. In America there is "Shakespeare's Morals," by Arthur Gilman, M.A. (New York; Dodd, Mead & Co.), and in England there are Bishop Wordsworth's valuable work, and "Bible Truths with Shakespearian Parallels," by James Brown, of Selkirk. From the last mentioned we take the following summary of the references to biblical characters: "Besides these," the writer remarks, "there are a great many passages in Shakespeare's writings which, although not quotable either as parallels or as direct allusions, nevertheless, by some peculiarity of phrase or figure, distinctly reveal a biblical source, or suggest at once some biblical equivalent. Take, for example, the following from All's Well that Ends Well,' where Helena, the daughter of a famous physician, in trying to persuade the King of France to try the remedy she possesses for the cure of his disease, pleads these arguments in defence of her youth and seeming inexperience : 'He that of greatest works is finisher, Oft does them by the weakest minister; Great floods have flown From simple sources; and great seas have dried Oft expectation fails, and most oft there "What a comprehensive ramification of biblical allusion do these few words contain! The first lines call to mind at once the text in first Corinthians, 'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.' Then in the next lines we are reminded of Matthew xxi. 16, —'Out of the mouths of babes,' etc.; and in the words, 'When judges have been babes,' of the childprophet Samuel, and of the youthful Daniel judging the two elders. In the next sentence we have a hint of Moses' miracle in Horeb (Exodus xvii.); and in the passage, 'Great seas have dried,' etc., reference is made to the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea, when the power by which such miracles were wrought was denied by 'the greatest,' evidently alluding in this case to Pharaoh.” - Striking and interesting as these allusions are, furnishing, as they do, conclusive verbal proofs that Shakespeare was a diligent reader of the Bible, -I am anxious rather to fix attention upon passages in his works which prove that his mind was imbued with the morality of Scripture-teaching; that the leading truths of Revelation were familiar to him, and, indeed, give a tone and a character to his writings which in no small manner have tended to secure for him his wide-spread and still wide-spreading fame. He never descends to the dead level of the semi-pagan morality of his times, but his morality is derived immediately from Christian sources. The graces of Christian character are faithfully delineated, and there is scarcely a vice which he has not helped to make more repugnant and hideous. These passages are exceedingly numerous, and the following limited selections must only be regarded as specimens of them. MAN'S REDEMPTION. Rom. v. 8; St. John iii. 16. "All the souls that were, were forfeit once; "The liquid drops of tears that you have shed, King Richard III. Heb. xii. 5, 6, 11; Psalm cxix. 71. "This sorrow's heavenly; "Fling away ambition: Macbeth. By that sin angels fell." King Henry VIII. RASH JUDGING REPROVED. 4, 13. "Go to your bosom; "Sin, gathering head, Shall break into corruption." King Henry IV. GOVERNMENT UNDER A CHILD. Eccles. x. 16. "Woe to the land that's govern'd by a child." CHRISTIAN CHARITY. Love's Labour's Lost. Prov. xxviii. 1; Lev. xxvi. 36; Psalm liii. 5; "What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? "Conscience, it makes a man a coward.” King Richard III. "Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful." Measure for Measure. "How is't with me when every noise appalls me?" Macbeth. 'Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; King Henry VI. Isa. Ivii. 20; Fob xv. 20-22, 24. "Conscience is a thousand swords." King Richard III. "The clogging burden of a guilty soul." King Richard II. "I'll haunt thee like a guilty conscience still.” Troilus and Cressida. "O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth Methought the billows spoke and told me of it: know, That's like my brother's fault: if it confess Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Measure for Measure. "Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all." King Henry VI. ALL EVIL RECOILS UPON THE EVIL DOER. The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, THE BLESSEDNESS OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE. 2 Cor. 1. 12. Prov. xiv. 14; Rom. xiv. 22; 1 St. John iii. 21 ; King Richard II. Prov. xxvi. 27, xi. 19; Isa. iii. 11; Ezek. xxxv. 6. A peace above all earthly dignities, Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice Macbeth. "I told you all, When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling, 'Twould fall upon ourselves." King Henry VIII. CONTENTMENT. Eccles. iv. 6; Prov. xiii. 7, xv. 16; St. Luke King Henry VIII. And range with humble livers in content, "By bad courses may be understood, King Henry VIII. "Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content." Macbeth. "My crown is in my heart, not on my head; "Too much honor: THE WORLD'S FRIENDSHIP. Must fall out with men too: what the declined is, O, 'tis a burden, 'tis a burden, MURDER CANNOT BE HIDDEN. "Words are easy, like the wind; Every man will be thy friend, Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend; If that one be prodigal, GENEROSITY. "Shake the superflux to them, King Henry VI. "All that live must die, And show the heavens more just." Passing through nature to eternity." Hamlet. "We cannot hold mortality's strong hand." King John. THE LIGHT OF A GOOD EXAMPLE. "Heaven doth with us as we with torches do; As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched But to fine issues." Measure for Measure. READINESS FOR DEATH. "I every day expect an embassage From my Redeemer to redeem me hence." SPIRITUAL LIFE. St. Luke xvii. 33; Phil. i. 21. Poems. King Lear. "And, to add greater honors to his age GOD'S MERCY TEACHING US MERCY. King Richard III. It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, "To sue to live, I find I seek to die; And seeking death find life." A SAVING SACRIFICE. Measure for Measure. St. Matt. xviii. 8. "This festered joint cut off, the rest, rest sound, This, let alone, will all the rest confound." FORGIVENESS. Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute of God Himself, And earthly power doth then show likest God's, King Richard II. When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, St. Matt. vi. 14, 15. "I as free forgive, as I would be forgiven." King Henry VIII. |