Shakspeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. Of Shakspeare's Religious Principles and Sentiments derived from the Bible. AM now to enter upon that which is the most important. and, I trust, will be found the most interesting part of my undertaking. I am to show how scriptural, and consequently how true and just. are the conceptions which Shakspeare entertained of the being and attributes of God, of His general and particular Providence, of His revelation to man, of our duty towards Him and towards each other, of human life and of human death, of time and of eternity-- in a word, of every subject which it most concerns us as rational and responsible beings to conceive aright. SECT. 1. Of the Being and Nature of God. To begin, then, with the titles and attributes of God. Among the names by which He is revealed to us in Scripture, are these: The Lord of Hosts, the King Immortal, the King of Kings. In the First Part of King Henry VI. the Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal Beaufort, thus speaks of the deceased King Henry V. in the presence of his corpse, lying in state: -- Hewasaking, blessed of the King Of Kings, * The battles of the Lord Of Hosts he fought. Act i. Sc. I. And, in the Second Part of King Henry IV., Prince Henry to his father lying on his death-bed: -- There is your crown: And He that wears the crown Immortally Long guard it yours I Act iv. Sc. 4. Among the attributes of God, we have been taught by revelation that He knows all things; that He sees all things, even our most secret thoughts; that He neither slumbers, nor sleeps; and that His Providence is over all His works. Accordingly our poet speaks of Him as 'the High All Seer, ' in King Richard III., Act v. Sc. 1; and even in Pericles Prince of Tyre, where the characters are heathen, we read of-- Powers That...