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Chapter 13. Scripture and Shakespeare Parallels
Quotations, References. Paraphrases, etc.
The lowing arrangement of passages serves to show the Poet's frequent use of thought and language as found in the sacred volume. It does not, of course, follow that these were all purposely quoted from the Bible, but it does establish, beyond all dispute, that the mind of the great dramatist was thoroughly imbued with the thoughts and teachings of the Scriptures.1
So frequently does he borrow figures of speech from the Bible-adapting them to incidents or characters of his plays-that they not only illustrate his subject or convey his moral, but they also throw new light upon the Scripture text.
Moreover, no one can read these Bible passages, placed as they are here, side by side, with others from the Poet, without perceiving something of the great debt we owe to the Scriptures for much that is best and greatest in Shakespeare.
Some of these parallelisms are very striking; as, for example, the various uses which are made in the respective plays of such historic events as the murder of Abel by his brother; Jeptha's vow of sacrifice; Herod's slaughter of infants; the betrayal by Judas; and the parable of the prodigal son.
Among the parallels are some Bible texts literally quoted, but the greater part of them are better than verbatim quotations. They are the WORD inbreathed, until it became Shakespeare's, and then, from this incarnated word-genius inspired-there has been given to the world lessons high and broad:-a new interpretation; the truth, with a new application, read and written into the life and experience of men and women as they are found in and of the world.
1 Referring to the allusion to Matthew 5:22 in The Merchant of Venice 1:1, Sprague remarks: "Shakespeare is so familiar with the Bible that we who know less of the sacred book are sometimes slow to catch his allusions." See Sprague's Notes on The Merchant of Venice.
PARALLEL PASSAGES
| Blessed are the peacemakers. Matt. v. 9. Not one of them (sparrows) is forgotten before God. Lukexii.6. Matt. x. 29. | The Lord's anointed. I Sam. xxvi. 11, 16. Destroy this temple. John ii. 19. The temple of this body. John ii. 21. |
| Behold the fowls of the air and your heavenly Father feed-eth them. Matt. vi. 26. | Forgive and ye shall be for given. Luke vi. 37. See also Matt. vi. 12, 14, 15 |
| Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. II Hen. VI. 2:1. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. Ham. 5:2. | |
| Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. II Hen. VI. 2:1. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. Ham. 5:2. | |
| Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence The life o' the building. Macb. 2:3. | |
| I as free forgive as I would be forgiven. Hen. VIII. 2:1. I pardon him as God shall pardon me. Rich. II. 5:3. | |
| Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matt. vi. 34. | But it sufficeth that the day will end, and then the end is known. Jul. Caesar 5:1. |
| Do good to them that hate you. Matt. v. 44. | Cherish those hearts that hatethee. Hen. VIII. 3:2. |
| Overcome evil with good. Rom. xii. 21. | |
| With a piece of scripture Tell them that God bids us do good for evil. Rich. III. 1:3. | |
| Pray for them that despite-fully use you. Matt. v. 44. | Pray for them that have done scath to us. Rich. III. 1:3. |
| It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Matt. xix. 24. | It is as hard to come as for a camel to thread through the postern of a needle's eye. Rich. II. 5:5. |
| Be baptized and wash away thv sins. Acts xxii. 16. | Your conscience wash'd As pure as sin with baptism. Hen. V. 1:2. |
| For all have sinned. Rom. iii. 23. | Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. II Hen. VI. 3:3. |
| The tree is known by his fruit.Matt. xii. 33. | If the tree be known by the fruit and fruit by the tree. I Hen. IV. 2:4. |
| Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Isa. I. 18. | What if this curs'd hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood ? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, To wash it white as snow? Ham. 3:3. |
| Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candle-stick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so ehine before men. Matt. v. IS, 16. | How far that little candle throws his beams So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Mer. of Ven. 5:1. |
| Love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. xiii. 10. | Charity itself fulfills the law And who can sever love from charity? Love's Labor 4:3. |
| Thy right hand hath holden me up. Ps. xviii. 35. | In the great hand of God I stand. Macb. 2:3. |
| Are they not all ministering spirits? Heb. i. 14. | A ministering angel shall my sister be. Ham. 5:1. |
| Thou makest it soft with showers. Ps. lxv. 10. | It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. Mer. of Ven. 4:1. |
| As the cold of snow in the time of harvest. Prov. xxv. 13. | As snow in harvest. Rich. III. 1:4. |
| Though I be rude in speech. II Cor. xi. 6. | Rude am I in speech. Othello 1:3. |
| Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets. Prov. i. 20. | Wisdom cries out in the streets and no man regards it. I Hen. IV. 1:2. |
| Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child. Eccl. x. 16. | Woe to the land that is govern'd by a child. Rich. III. 2:3. |
| What is man that thou are mindful of him . . . thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. Ps. viii. 4. | There was a certain rich man whichwasclothedinpurple. . . And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus . . . moreover the dogs came and licked his sores . . . The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke xvi. 2:2. |
| Whose names were not written in the book of life. Rev. xvii. 8. | Not this man but Barrabas. Now Barrabas was a robber. John xviii. 40. |
| Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Ps. lxix. 28. | Legions of Angels. Matt. xxvi. S3. |
| To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. Eccl. iii. 1. | |
| What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how in finite in faculty, in form and moving how express and ad mirable, in action how like an angel. Ham. 2:2. | |
| My name be blotted from the book of life. Rich. II. 1:3 | |
| There is a time for all things. Com. Err. 2:2. | |
| Dives that lived in purple. I Hen. IV. 3:3. As ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores. I Hen. IV. 4:2. | |
| Sweet peace, conduct his soul to the bosom of good old Abra ham. Rich. II. 4:1. | |
| Would, any of the stock of Barrabas Had been her husband rather than a Christian. Mer. of Ven. 4:1. Legions of angels. Merry Wives 1:3. | |
| And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of their graves. Matt, xxvii. 52. | And the grave stood tenant-less, and the sheeted dead did squeal and gibber in the Roman streets. Ham. 1:1. |
| Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Ps. xxii. 15. | -The way to dusty death. Macb. 5:5. |
| I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. Job x. 21. | The undiscover'd country from whose bourne No traveller returns. Ham. 3:1. |
| We spend our years as a tale that is told. Ps. xc. 9. | Life's but a walking shadow . . . it is a tale Told by an idiot full of Bound Signifying nothing. Macb. 5:5. |
| Man is like to vanity: his days are a shadow that passeth away. Ps. cxliv. 4. | Life is a shuttle. Merry Wives 5:1. |
| My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Job vii. 6. | mbsp |
| I die daily. I Cor. xv. 31. | |
| The queen .... Died every day she lived. Macb. 4:3. | |
| The prince of this world cometh. John xiv. 30. | He is the prince of this world. All's Well 4:5. |
| Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. Matt. vii. 14. Luke xiii. 24. | I am for the house with the narrow gate. All's Well 4:5. |
| Put not your trust in princes. P8. cxlvi. 3. | 0, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on prince's favors. Hen. VIII. 3:2. |
| &mbsp | I am amazed methinks, and lose my way |
| Thorna and snares are in the way of the froward. Prov. xxii. 5. | Among the thorns and dangers of this world. King John 4:3. |
| The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that heark-eneth unto counsel is wise. Prov. xii. 15. | The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows he is a fool. As You Like It 5:1 |
| If any man seemeth to be wise in this world let him be come a fool that he may be wise. I Cor iii. 18. | For murder though it have no tongue will speak With most miraculous organ. Ham. 2:2. |
| Be sure your sins will find you out. Num. xxxii. 23. | The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children. Mer. of Ven. 3:5. |
| Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Ex. xx. 5. | Thy sins are visited in this child The canon of the law is laid on him Being but the second generation Removed from thy sin conceiving womb. King John 2:1. |
| There shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. Actsxxvii. 34. | There is no soul No, not so much perdition as a hair Betid to any creature in this vesselWhich thou heard'st cry. | The Tempest 1:2. |
| The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handy work . . . | Look how the floor of heaven |
| There is no speech nor lan guage where their voice is not heard. Ps. xix. 1, 3. | Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: |
| When the morning stars sang together. Job xxxviii. 7. | There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings.1 Mer. of Ven. 5:1. |
| oHallam speaks of this passage as in Shakespeare. | "The most sublime," perhaps, |
| A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Prov. xxii. 1. | Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord |
| A good name is better than precious ointment.Eccl. vii. 1. | Is the immediate jewel of their souls. |
| Unstable as water. Gen. xlix. 4. | Who steals my purse, steals trash. |
| Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Josh. viii. 1. | But he that filches from me my good name |
| To be tempted of the devil. Matt. iv. 1. | Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Othello 3:3. |
| O generation of vipers. Matt. iii. 7. | False as water. Othello 5:2. |
| For satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. II Cor. xi. 14. | Cheer thy heart, and be thou not dismay'd. Rich. III. 5:3. |
| Troi. and Cress. 3:1. | Shall I be tempted of the devil thus? Rich. 111.4:4. |
| The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. Ham. 2:2. | A generation of vipers. |
| If a man dies and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass upon his daughter. Num. xxvii. 8. | In the book of Numbers is it writ, When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter. Hen. V. 1:2. |
| And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it. Gen. ii. IS. | Thou old Adam's likeness set to dress this garden .... What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee. To make a second fall of cursed man. Rich. II. 3:4. |
| The woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. Gen. iii. 13. | In the state of innocency Adam fell. I Hen. IV. 3:3. |
| And the Lord God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden to till the ground. Gen. iii. 23. | The birth of Cain, the first male child. King John 3:4 |
| And Eve bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Gen. iv. 1. | How the knave jowls it to the ground, As if it were Cain's jawbone that did the first murder. Ham. 5:1. |
| The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Gen. iv. 10. | O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven It hath the primal eldest curse upon't A brother's murder. Ham. 3:3. |
| mbsp | Wflich blood like sacrificing Abel's cries Even from the tongueless cavern of the earth. Rich. II. 1:1. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk. Ill Hen. VI. 2:3. |
| And now art thou cursed from the earth. Gen. iv. 11 | Be thou cursed Cain To slay thy brother Abel. I Hen. VI. 1:3. |
| A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. Gen. iv. 12. | With Cain, go wander through the shade at night. Rich. II. 5:6. |
| And they went unto Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh . . . And the flood was forty days upon the earth. Gen. vii. IS, 17. | There is sure another flood toward And these couples are coming to the ark. As You Like It 5:4. Noah'9 flood could not do it. Com. of Err. 3:2. |
| Thou shalt not kill. Ex. xx. 13. | The great King of Kings hath in the table of his law commanded |
| Thou shalt do no murder. Matt. xix. 18. | That thou shalt do no murder. Rich. III. 1:4. |
| Thou shalt not steal. Ex. xx. 15. | Thou shalt not steal. Meas.'for Meas. 1:2 |
| And Daniel convicted them of false witness. And from that day forth was Daniel had in great reputation. Susanna Vs. 61, 64. | A Daniel come to judgment! yea a Daniel! O wise young Judge, how I do honor thee. Mer. of Ven. 4:1. |
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