ACT V. SCENE V.

Another part of Windsor Park.

Enter PAGE, FORD, MRS. PAGE, MRS. FORD.

They lay hold on Falstaff.

"Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax?
Mrs. Page. A puff'd man?

Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails?
Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan?
Page. And as poor as Job?

Ford. And as wicked as his wife.”

["As slanderous as Satan, as poor as Job, as wicked as his wife.”]—The extract from the second chapter of Job, which embraces these particulars, is somewhat long, though the substance of it is brought to our remembrance in so few words by means of dialogue :—

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

"But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

"And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

"And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

"Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips." Job ii. 3—10.

In Troilus and Cressida, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Timon of Athens, Shakespeare's knowledge of the Bible is indicated; although these plays relate to historical matter concerning heathen nations.

THE PLAY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

ACT I. SCENE III.

The Grecian Camp.

This passage, from a speech of Ulysses, is in a measure parallel with a passage which shall be produced from the 21st chapter of St. Luke's gospel.

"Ulysses. But when the planets,

In evil mixture, to disorder wander,

What plagues, and what portents? what mutiny?
What raging of the sea? shaking of earth?
Commotions in the winds? frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture?"

Quotation from St. Luke

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." Luke xxi. 25.

ACT I. SCENE III.

"Eneas. But peace, Æneas,

Peace, Trojan ; lay thy finger on thy lips!
The worthiness of praise distains his worth,

If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth.”

In the 27th chapter of Proverbs we meet with the same sentiment :

"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Prov. xvii. 2.

ACT II. SCENE II.

From Hector's answer to Paris and Troilus, who are both disposed to retain Helen :

"Hector. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well :
And on the cause and question now on hand
Have gloz'd-but superficially; not much
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought
Unfit to hear moral philosophy:

The reasons you allege, do more conduce
To the hot passion of distemper'd blood,
Than to make up a free determination

"Twixt right and wrong; For pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision."

["Ears more deaf than adders."]—For this, Shakespeare seems indebted to the 4th and 5th verses of the 58th psalm

"Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

"Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely." Psalm lviii. 4, 5.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Troy,

"Pandarus. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers: Is love a generation of vipers ?"

["Generation of vipers."]—There is the same form of expression in the 3rd chapter of St. Matthew

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them,

generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Matt. iii. 7.

The use of Amen by Pandarus, Troilus, and Cressida, is singular. Amen is, however, found in several plays which seem least to favour its admission-in Timon of Athens, for instance: it is found, too, in Cymbeline and Coriolanus.

THE PLAY OF ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA.

In this play, Herod of Jewry is several times to be met with. Herod is first mentioned in the dialogue between the Soothsayer and Charmian, one of Cleopatra's attendants.

ACT I. SCENE II.

"Charmian. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry maydo homage."

Herod of Jewry was an Idumean by birth, but professed the Jewish religion. He was declared King of the Jews about thirty-eight years before our Lord was born at Bethlehem. He was afterwards called Herod the Great. The words of Charmian,