have been a wiser course to have drawn attention to the enormity of the crimes, some committed already, and others remaining to be committed by Richard and the solemn appeal to God's all-seeing eye, in a public cause, which especially concerned His own majesty, as King of Kings. If malediction could ever be justifiable, it was justifiable—I had almost said it was charitable-in the case and under the circumstances in which Shakspeare has introduced it; and put it into the mouth of a womanthat woman a mother, and that mother once a queen. The connection between speaking truth and integrity of action, and on the other hand, between falsehood and unrighteousness, is strongly marked in Holy Scripture, and it has not escaped the notice of Shakspeare.* In the 3rd chapter of S. John's Gospel our Lord first uses the expression, every one that doeth evil,' and then, as the reverse of it, 'he that doeth truth. In like manner the same Apostle writes, in his first Epistle, 'If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth,' i. 8, where the falsehood of speech and the falsehood of action, i. e. unrighteousness, are both combined. And so again, in his second Epistle, he speaks of 'walking in truth,' v. 4, i. e. in righteousness and holiness of life. Once more. S. Paul puts the question in the mouth of a disputer of this world :— * Nor of Lord Bacon. See his 6th Essay. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie (i.e. my sinfulness) unto His glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? Rom iii. 7. It is the same principle which led our poet to use the word 'untruth' for disloyalty, i. e. sin against a king, in the following passage of King Richard II., where the Duke of York exclaims God for His mercy! what a tide of woes Act ii. Sc. 2. SECT. 13. Of Humility, Contentment, and We may well believe that Shakspeare's own experience of life, even in his early days, had sufficiently confirmed the truth, which he might have learnt from Scripture, that happiness, if it is to be expected at all in this world, is not to be looked for merely in external circumstances : Take heed (said our Lord) and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke xii. 15. The scene in the Third Part of King Henry VI., which is laid in a chase in the north of England, and in which the dethroned monarch enters disguised, with a Prayer Book in his hand, and is accosted by the two keepers who were on the look-out to appre hend him, affords our poet an excellent opportunity for introducing sentiments such as we are now to speak of : 2nd Keep. Say, what art thou, that talk'st of kings and queens? K. Hen. More than I seem, and less than I was born to: A man at least, for less I should not be; And men may talk of kings, and why not I? 2nd Keep. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. K. Hen. Why, so I am in mind, and that's enough. 2nd Keep. But if thou be a king, where is thy crown? K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called CONTENT; Act iii. Sc. I. In illustration of this, Mr. Steevens quotes that excellent old song in Percy's Reliques of Antient English Poetry, i. 213, beginning with: My minde to me a kingdome is. But here again I cannot help suspecting that our poet's school-learning was running in his head, and reminded him of some one of those numerous passages * which represent the stoical notion that the wise man is the truly royal personageKing of kings, and inferior only to Jove himself.' See Horace 1 Epist. i. 106, sq.; or what comes nearer * The most remarkable perhaps is that in the Thyestes of Seneca: the chorus beginning 'Tandem Regia nobilis,' v. 336; which might have been known, if not to Shakspeare, to the author of the song in Bp. Percy's collection. to the circumstances before us, the well-known stanzas in the 2nd Book of Odes: : Redditum Cyri solio Phraaten Dedocet uti Vocibus; regnum er diadema tutum Spectat acervos. Nor does it seem unreasonable to conjecture, considering the superabundant evidence before us of Shakspeare's familiarity with the ideas of Scripture, that the text― Behold, the kingdom of God is within you,' Luke xvii. 21, and others of a similar character, may have contributed to the sentiment which he has put into King Henry's mouth. It is in the same vein, though carried somewhat further, that the 'honest chronicler,' Griffith, speaks of Cardinal Wolsey, after his decease : His overthrow heaped happiness upon him,— K. Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2. And the churlish Apemantus, in Timon of Athens, philosophizes for once to some purpose when he says: Best state, contentless, Hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst, content. Act iv. Sc. 3. In other words, as the old lady in attendance upon Anne Bullen testifies, in King Henry VIII., Our content Is our best having: Act ii. Sc. 3. i. e. our best possession. But to return to King Henry VI. In an earlier part of the play before quoted, and on the very day of the battle of Towton, which established his antagonist Edward on the throne, and while the fight was raging in the distance, we have that pious but feeble-minded prince thus moralizing Here on this molehill will I sit me down. To whom God will, there be the victory. Would I were dead! if God's good will were so; For what is in this world, but grief and woe? O God! methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain: To sit upon a hill, as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly point by point. So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah! what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade See Eccles. v. 12, and compare K. Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1. |