he had probably seen little, and of war he could have known nothing from personal observation. It would be beyond my purpose to enter into this subject; and I shall content myself by a general reference on the one hand to The Tempest, and on the other to King Henry V. and King Richard III.

But there are two points connected with the mention of war which belong fairly to the design I have had in view, and upon which, therefore, I shall venture to add a few words. One is, that war is a punishment sent by God. So the Bible teaches, see Ezek. v. and xiv. 21. And so Shakspeare teaches,

see King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. I.

War is His (God's) beadle;* war is His vengeance.

And again, see King Henry VI. 2nd Part, Act v.

Sc. 2 :2:

O! war, thou son of hell,

Whom angry Heavens do make their minister,

Throw in the frozen bosom of our part

Hot coals of vengeance!

where Mr. Steevens has remarked that the last phrase is scriptural, and he quotes Psalm cxl. 10 in the Prayer Book version:

Let hot burning coals fall upon them!

The other point is the lawfulness of war. This, too, the Bible teaches; see Eccles. iii. 8, Luke iii. 14, Acts x. And so Shakspeare teaches- with the just and necessary provision-if the cause be

* This clause is omitted by Mr. Bowdler.

good.' See King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1. In further proof of this point, the reader may consult a sermon preached by Bishop Andrewes before Queen Elizabeth, at Richmond, in 1609, 'at what time the Earl of Essex was going forth upon the expedition for Ireland,' to quell the insurrection excited by the Earl of Tyrone-a sermon, therefore, which our poet might have heard; although, as I have said, we have no reason to suppose that he took part in that or any other warlike expedition.†

SECT. 16. Of Death, the Intermediate State, and

Day of Judgment.

I have already had occasion, in Section 14, to anticipate the mention of the first subject which occurs to be spoken of in this place, viz., our poet's belief in the immortality of the soul, and consequently in a future state. But the passage which tells most directly upon the point remains still to be quoted. I allude to the dialogue in Cymbeline, between Posthumus and the Jailor; and the lesson which it teaches so emphatically, is the more remarkable, because it proceeds out of the mouth of a Heathen :

Jailor. Come, sir, are you ready for death?

*

Bp. Andrewes' Works, vol. i. pp. 321–337.

† He was, however, enrolled as a soldier in 1605, after the Gunpowder Plot. See Mr. Dyce's Life, p. 91.

י

Posthumus. Ready long ago.

thou art to live.

. I am merrier to die than

fail. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps, feels not the toothache: but a man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for look you, sir, you know not which way you shall go.

Posth. Yes, indeed do I, fellow.

Jail. Your death has eyes in's head then; I have not seen him so pictured. You must either be directed by some who take upon them to know; or take upon yourself that which, I am sure, you do not know; or jump* the after-enquiry on your own peril and how you shall speed in your journey's end, I think, you'll never return to tell one.

:

Posth. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct them the way I am going, but such as wink, and will not use them. Act v. Sc. 4.

And if this be true in a Heathen's mouth, how much more in a Christian's!

In the famous soliloquy of Hamlet, 'To be, or not to be,' when he comes to speak (as the Jailor has spoken above) of

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns,

Act iii. Sc. I.

Mr. Douce suspects, not without reason, that Job
X. 21, was present to our poet's mind:

I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.

And here let me introduce an observation which has occurred, I doubt not, to the minds of many

* i. e. venture at it without thought. So in Macbeth ; I'd jump the life to come. Act i. Sc. 7.

of

my

readers in the course of this and the preceding chapter.

There can be little doubt that our forefathers, in and before Shakspeare's time, and even Shakspeare himself, derived, not altogether unprofitably, some portion of their knowledge of Holy Scripture from the exhibitions of religious plays, called miracles, or mysteries; and consequently that much which would strike us now-a-days as irreverent, or at best of questionable propriety, when spoken upon the stage, did not appear to them in the same light. I. imagine that when Justice Shallow observed to Silence, his brother justice,

Death, as the Psalmist* saith, is certain to all; all shall die;— King Henry IV. 2nd Part, Act iii. Sc. 2.

neither the author nor the actor would be conscious of any irreverence in thus introducing the Psalmist's name; but times are changed, and Mr. Bowdler, by omitting the clause printed in italics, gives us to understand that now it cannot with propriety be read' even in a family!'

Together with the certainty of death, the Psalmist also teaches us that the rich man 'shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth, neither shall his pomp follow him;' xlix. 17. And the Apostle, that 'As we brought nothing into this world, so it is certain we can carry nothing out;' 1 Tim. vi. 7.

* See Psalm xc. 10. In Psalm xxii. 15, 'dust of death' may be compared with dusty death' in Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5.

U

Their words require no confirmation; and yet the great Earl of Warwick is well chosen to speak as follows when he comes to die :

Lo, now my glory smeared in dust and blood!
My parks, my walks, my manors that I had,
Even now forsake me, and of all my lands

Is nothing left me but my body's length!

*

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And live we how we can, yet die we must.

K. Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act v. Sc. 2.

The Lord Talbot, speaking of the death of 'the noble Duke of Bedford,' tells the same truism, with the addition of a melancholy sentiment, to which most of us, sooner or later, will be inclined to respond Kings and mightiest potentates must die, For that's the end of human misery.

K. Henry VI. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. 2.

We find both the truism and sentiment (which our poet is fond of introducing where he has occasion to mention death) repeated at greater length in the Dirge over Fidele, sung by Guiderius and Arviragus:

Gui. Fear no more the heat + o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages

A frequent sentiment in the Greek tragedians, repeated by Shakspeare in King John, Act iv. Sc. 2, in King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2, and in King Henry IV. 1st Part, Act v. Sc. 4.

* See Rev. vii. 16.