, ! Sentiments derived from the Bible. 231 curtailment. Oliver is speaking, in As you like it, to his unkind and unnatural brother, Orlando :Shall I keep your hogs, and eat busks with them? What prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury? Act i. Sc. 1. again in the The same parable is alluded to in the 1st Part of King Henry IV. Act iv. Sc. 2; and 2nd Part of that play, Act i. Sc. 2; in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 3; and once more in the Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3. On the other hand, the poor widow who, in putting her two mites into the treasury, gave all her living,' Mark xii. 44, was, I suspect, in our poet's thoughts, when he wrote: Fool. How now, nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs,* and two daughters! Lear. Why, my boy? Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'd keep my coxcombs myself. Against the evils of covetousness, which the Bible denounces as 'idolatry,' our poet has given us, in like manner, no feeble or unfrequent warning. Thus, in King Henry IV Part II., he bids us note How quickly nature falls into revolt Act iv. Sc. 4. And in Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo hands to the apothecary a sum of money in payment for * Fool's caps. the poison which the latter, though forbidden to sell it under pain of death, had allowed him to purchase, we read as follows: There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, Act v. Sc. 1. i. e. none as compared with that which I have given you. And, most of all, in Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3, we find a full and very doleful catalogue of the sins and miseries which arise from 'the love of money—the root,' as S. Paul teaches us, of all evil.' 1 Tim. vi. 10. There is another species of injustice, of which (as of niggardliness or avarice) the tribunals of this world take no account, and into which, therefore, men are too apt to fall without thought or concern; I mean the misspending of our time and other talents, which God has lent us to occupy and to trade with for His glory, and for the benefit of our fellow-creatures. The notion of our stewardship in this respect, as well as in respect of our pecuniary means, is one which the Bible leaves us no room to doubt of; and accordingly our poet sets it forth with all faithfulness and with his wonted power: Thyself and thy belongings Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 1. Moreover, we know how the Bible condemns. the purpose of doing evil that good may come; see Rom. iii. 8. In like manner, in the Merchant of Venice, when Bassanio had urged the Court to pronounce in favour of Antonio, against Shylock Wrest once the law to your authority: To do a great right, do a little wrong ; Portia at once virtuously rejects the plea : It may not be. Act iv. Sc. 1. With regard to the administration of justice, I have noted only the following passages as coming within the scope of my design. my design. It is recorded in the Acts how that King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, 'There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment. against him. To whom I answered, it is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.' XXV. 13-16. Well therefore does Archbishop Cranmer, in King Henry VIII., entreat the Lords of Council who were assembled to condemn him unheard: I do beseech your lordships, That in this case of justice, my accusers, Act v. Sc. 2. Be what they will, may stand forth face to face, And freely urge against me. And well too does the Bishop of Carlisle, in King Richard II., argue the same in behalf of his sovereign against those who had conspired to dethrone him : Thieves are not judged, but they are by to hear, And shall the figure of God's majesty, Act iv. Sc. I. SECT. 12. Of the use and abuse of the Tongue. 'I will speak daggers,' says Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2, using a metaphor which the Bible has made familiar to us. 'Swords are in their lips,' says the Psalmist, lix. 7. And again, Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows-even bitter words,' lxiv. 3. And no doubt there are many cases in which this is found by experience to be too true. For instance : 'Tis slander; Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Out-venoms* all the worms of Nile; whose breath All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states, This viperous slander enters. Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4. name. And the heinousness of slander lies in this, that nothing is more precious to a man than his good There is an admirable sermon of Bishop Sanderson † upon the text, "A good name is better than precious ointment,' Eccles. vii. 1; in which he observes—the more precious a good name is, the more grievous is their sin who seek to rob others of it. Neither thieves nor murderers are more cruel and injurious than slanderers, backbiters, and false accusers are.' This is vigorously put by that great divine, but not so effectively as our poet has expressed the same; and he has added the original idea, that though so much is lost by him against whom the sin is committed, nothing is gained by him who commits it : Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls : Who steals my purse, steals trash; But he that filches from me my good name, Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3. * See below, chap. iii. 13, p. 332. Compare King Richard II. :— • Pierced to the soul with slander's venom'd spear.' Act i. Sc. 1. And As You like it, 'She speaks poniards, &c.' Act ii. Sc. 1. |