and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army.") Exod. xiv. 8, 9. ["God Bel's priests."]-Might be representations taken from the story of Bel and the Dragon. We produce from As You Like It the following apposite evidence— ACT II. SCENE I. The Forest of Arden. Enter the DUKE senior, and several LORDS. "Duke senior. Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods ["Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, the season's difference."]-In these woods, where we escape the envy of mankind, our ills are limited to unpleasing effects of weather, the penalty of Adam, when the fall brought a curse upon the earth, and rendered him amenable to the sentence "Thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii. 17. ACT II. SCENE III. ADAM and ORLANDO. What Christian magnanimity adorns the character of Adam! To give the speech of old Adain its due weight, the words of Orlando, his young master, are here inserted "Orlando. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food? Or, with a base and boisterous sword, enforce A thievish living on the common road? This I must do, or know not what to do: I rather will subject me to the malice Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother. Adam. But do not so; I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, Which I did store to be my foster-nurse, When service should in my old limbs lie lame, And unregarded age in corners thrown ; ["He that doth the ravens feed."]—" Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls?" Luke xii. 24. ["Yea providently caters for the sparrow."" Are 'not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." Luke xii. 6, 7. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. ACT V. SCENE I. "Kate, the Shrew. A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it." In this extract from the lecture of the shrew, on the duties of wives towards their husbands, and in the 5th chapter of Proverbs, the word fountain denotes a wife: “E. G., Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth." Prov. v. 18. But nowhere in the Proverbs does "a fountain troubled" denote a shrew. Shakespeare, it seems, met with the words a troubled fountain in the 25th chapter of Proverbs "E. G., A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring." Prov. xxv. 26— transferred them from thence into the play, and affixed to them their present meaning. A like metaphorical way of speaking to this, "None so dry or thirsty, will deign to sip or touch one drop of it," is to be found in the 5th chapter of Proverbs. "E. G., Drink waters out of thine own cistern." Prov. v. 15. We may now place before the reader the results obtained from an investigation of MEASURE FOR MEASURE. ACT I. SCENE II. The Street. Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen. "Lucio. If the duke with the other dukes come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why, then all the dukes fall upon the king. 1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the king of Hungary's! 2 Gent. Amen. Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? (See Exod. xx. 15.) Lucio. Ay, that he raz'd." ACT I. SCENE III. Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO. "Claudio. Fellow, why dost thou shew me thus to the world? Bear me to prison, where I am committed. ["On whom it will, it will; on whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just."]-Shakespeare evidently quotes here from a passage in the 9th chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, which we now insert. "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. |