Nicholas Ferrar was born when Shakspeare began to write, viz. in 1592; and we are told of him, when he was 27 years old, and his mother came to visit him at Little Gidding, that though he was of that age, and had been engaged in many public. concerns of great importance, had been a distinguished member of Parliament, and had conducted with effect the prosecution of the Prime Minister of the day, at first approaching his mother, he knelt upon the ground to ask and receive her blessing;' and he kept up the same practice in his own family; as did also, we read,* Mr. Philip Henry, who died in 1696: so that we have evidence of the existence of the custom during two centuries. Bishop Sanderson, in 1657, mentions it as one of the observances which, in that disordered and distempered time, were cried down as 'rags of Popery.' And there can be no doubt that during the Cromwellian usurpation our old English manners suffered not a little, and many practices which were themselves part and instruments of piety, were exploded and lost by being branded under that odious name.'‡ But to return to Shakspeare. There could not be a more striking illustration of the custom of which I have been speaking, than that Caius Marcius, on his return from the capture of Corioli, * See Ibid. iv. 173, 181. † Works, vol. ii. p. 35. Christian Institutes, iv. 561. and victory over the Volscians, should be made, as he is, to kneel and beg his mother's blessing :- All. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus! Cor. No more of this, it does offend In Cymbeline, we naturally expect the same from a son like Guiderius, see Act iv. Sc. 4; and from a daughter like Imogen, see Act v. Sc. 5. It is a daughter, too, who in Titus Andronicus says to her father, upon his return to Rome, after conquering the Goths: O bless me here with thy victorious hand. Act i. Sc. 2. On the other hand, remembering the treatment which King Lear had received from his two unnatural daughters, Goneril and Regan, we are not surprised that the Fool should say to him, while they are out together in the pitiless storm upon the heath: Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughter's ‡ blessing; here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools. Act iii. Sc. 2. * Cominius, the general in command with Coriolanus, against the Volscians. † Volumnia, mother to Coriolanus. ‡ So Mr. Malone prints it; but surely it should be daughters." Lear goes on to speak of 'two pernicious daughters.' While remembering also how he himself had acted towards his good daughter, Cordelia, we are not displeased that at the last, when moved to repentance, he should say to her ;— When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness ;— nor that she, on her part, should beseech and protest: O! look upon me, sir, And hold your hands in benediction o'er me. Act iv. Sc. 7. In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, when Launce, the servant of Proteus, is to leave Verona in attendance upon his master, he ludicrously describes all the particulars of the mournful scene, and among the rest : Now come I to my father; Father, your blessing. Act ii. Sc. 3. In like manner, we have already seen,* in Hamlet, Polonius laying his hand upon his son Laertes' head, and blessing him before he set out upon his travels; and in the same play, Hamlet says to the unhappy queen his mother, whom he had urged to repentance and reformation: Once more, Good night! And when you are desirous to be blessed, I'll blessing beg of you : Act iii. Sc. 4. that is, I'll beg your blessing, when you yourself Above, p. 134. For another example see Tempest, Act v. Sc. 1. 1 ་ are desirous to amend, and so shall be in a condition to receive blessing from God. In the Winter's Tale, when Perdita kneels to her mother Hermione, the latter's blessing is expressed in these terms : You gods, look down And from your sacred vials pour your graces Act v. Sc. 3. Once more, in King Richard III., the wicked Gloster, as he then was, has the hypocrisy to go through the same pious form towards his mother : Glos. Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy! I did not see your grace-Humbly on my knee I crave your blessing. Duch. God bless thee! and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! Glos. Amen! And make me die a good old man. That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing, I marvel that her grace did leave it out. [Aside. Act ii. Sc. 2. It would be interesting to descend to the relations which exist in a family between the master and mistress and their domestics; and to endeavour to trace the notions which our poet entertained of the reciprocal duties that flow from that relationship. But I must be content to observe that he has drawn no purer or better character than that of old Adam, the servant, in As you like it; and that in Cymbeline he takes occasion, in a speech of Posthumus to his servant Pisanio, to lay down the just and important principle, that no servant is bound to please his master by doing what is wrong: Every good servant does not all commands: No bond, but to do just ones. Act v. Sc. I. SECT. 9. Of Charity and Mercifulness. If we are to lay a solid foundation of moral duty, we must first learn to entertain a just abhorrence of its opposite. O ye that love the Lord, see that ye hate the thing that is evil.' Ps. xcvii. 10. Thus of the Ten Commandments, not only the first three, but the last five also, are all couched in the negative form, as though the prohibition of vice was designed to form the foundation of virtue. And thus, too, we learn, even from a heathen poet Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse; the beginning of Virtue is to flee Vice, and the beginning of Wisdom to have escaped from Folly. In this and the four next sections I propose to test the teaching of Shakspeare by this rule; and, following the order of the second table of the moral law, to show how, after the model of Scripture, he would teach us (1) from the prohibition of murder to build up the grace of Charity; (2) from the prohibition of adultery to build up the graces of Chastity and Sobriety; (3) from the prohibition of stealing to build up the grace of Honesty; (4) from |