ALVMNVS BOOK FVND THE RELIGION OF SHAKESPEAEE i^ij)il obgtat: GULIELMUS GILDEA, S.T.D., Censor Deputatus. Imprimatur : HERBERTUS CARDINALIS VAUGHAN, Archiepiscopus Westmonast. Die 28 Apr. 1899. THE RELIGION OF SHAKE SPEAEE CHIEFLY FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE LATE MR. RICHARD SIMPSON, M.A. II BY HENRY SEBASTIAN BOWDEN OF THB ORATORY LONDON : BURNS & OATES, Limited NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO : BENZIGEE BROTHERS 1899 ^.o\;sV^_ W\ VX-vyww^lS I PEEFACE The following work has little claim to originality, the greater portion of it being based on manuscripts of the late Mr. Richard Simpson. From his singu- lar acquaintance with Elizabethan literature, these writings offer a sound foundation for the study of Shakespeare in relation to the religious thought of his day. The State Paper documents, the Harleian, Ashmolean, Sloane, and Lansdowne collections, the Rutland and Salisbury Papers, Visitation Returns, the libraries of Paris and Lille, the archives of the English College at Rome, the Douay Registers, the Registers of the Jesuit Colleges of Malines and Bruges, the Stonyhurst MS., were all within the range of his research. It must be remembered also that many of these documents, now printed, indexed, and ready to hand, existed in Mr. Simpson's time only in manuscript, and thus their contents could only be acquired by laborious personal investigation. His note-books are an abiding memorial of his exploring zeal. They contain autograph copies of every rare play, tale, or ballad, cognate to his subject, and abound with varied and recondite data and references. But Mr. Simpson was not merely a collector of rare or curious material. As Shakespeare's plays S5Sv7 VI PREFACE were professedly composed under " the pressure of the time," Mr. Simpson's object was to inquire what contemporary event may have furnished the political motive of the play, or at least suggested some of its incidents and characters. The political allegory, did it reflect on the Government, would be necessarily veiled, and would pass unheeded by the ignorant or the inattentive, but would have spoken clearly to the wise. Doubtless this desire of solving the dramatic riddles of the past may lead to merely fanciful and arbitrary assertions, but the art of the interpreter, soberly exercised, discovers in a play a real though hidden motive, which would otherwise be lost, and is of genuine historic value. Thus Professor Gardiner, from his intimate knowledge with the times of James I. and Charles I., has been able to trace the political element in the plays of Massinger. In these dramas, Mr. Gardiner says, " Massinger treated of the events of the day under a disguise hardly less thin than that which shows off the figures in the caricatures of Aristophanes or the cartoons of Punch} Now Mr. Simpson's political interpretation of " Richard II." and " Measure for Measure " rests on evidence as sound, we think, as that produced by Mr. Gardiner in his solution of "The Emperor of the East," or " The Maid of Honour." In any case Mr. Simpson's power to decipher the political, religious, and dramatic allusions in Shakespeare can be gauged by his writings published in the New Shakespeare Society, Transactions, 1 874-1875, and * "Political Element in Massinger," New Shakespeare Society, Transactions, 316. 1875. PREFACE VU in various separate treatises. It is true, indeed, fehat occasionally his interpretations may seem strained and far-fetched, but even then they are interesting as proofs of his ingenuity and research. The present work is based on a folio MS. of Mr. Simpson's of some 200 pages, which was composed under the following circumstances. In 1858 Mr. Simpson published three articles in the Ramhler, in which he defended the probability of Shakespeare being a Catholic. In 1864 there appeared a work on the subject from the pen of M. Rio, the author of VArt Chretien. Taken with Simpson's argument, Rio allowed his imagination free rein, and described the poet as an ardent and avowed champion of the Catholic faith, a conclusion far beyond that of Simpson's. The two writers, notwithstanding the totally different character of their works, were however made the object of a common attack in an article in the Edinhurgli -Reme^, January 1866, which was publicly attributed to Lord Mahon. It was primarily as a reply to this article that the folio above mentioned was written, but it developed into a comprehensive treatise on the subject of Shakespeare's philosophy and religion as manifested in his writings. But Mr. Simpson's treatise has needed both remodelling and additions. In Simpson's day Shakespeare was regarded, at least by such writers as Knight and Bishop Wordsworth, as an orthodox Protestant, a faithful follower of the established religion. He is now represented as a pioneer of " modern thought." Thus Professor Dowden, Professor Caird, Mr. Tyler, and in Germany Kreysig Vm PREFACE and Dr. Vehse, amongst others regard him as a positivist, a pantheist, a fatalist, in short, a typical agnostic. By both these classes of critics Shakespeare, how- ever, is claimed as the product of the Reformation. And it is against this claim that the first chapter is directed, where an endeavour is made to show that Shakespeare, so far from being the product of his times, or the voice of his times, was in direct an- tagonism to his time. And this point is further developed in Chapter III., in which the marked contrast between Shakespeare and his contemporary dramatists is set forth. That Shakespeare's prin- ciples are as little in accord with the prevalent solution of ethical questions as with the principles intellectual, social, and moral of the Reformation, from which those solutions are professedly derived, Chapter IX. purposes to establish. These three chapters have then been added to Mr. Simpson's work by the present writer, who, however, has derived valuable assistance from Mr. Simpson's MS. The other six chapters are mainly Mr. Simpson's. Chapter II., " External Evidence," is drawn chiefly from the RamUers article (1858), save the addi- tions called for by Mr. Carter's recent book, " Shake- speare, Puritan and Protestant." Chapter IV., " The English Historical Plays," is recast from the papers read before the New Shakespeare Society, 1875. Chapter V., '' The Sonnets,*' is a summary of Mr. Simpson's "Philosophy of the Sonnets" (1868), a book undeservedly long since out of print. Chapter VI, "The Love Plays"; Chapter VII., "The PREFACE IX Tragedies"; Chapter VIII., "The Didactic Plays," are now published for the first time, with such additions or modifications as seemed necessary. To preserve the unity of the whole, the parts contributed by the present writer to the work are incorporated with Mr. Simpson's; but with the above indication, their respective portions may be sufficiently recognised. Any salient point of differ- ence in their opinions is duly noted when it occurs. The evidence adduced from Shakespeare's writings in the following pages, which might be indefinitely strengthened, brings out, we think, two points clearly. First, that Shakespeare was not on the winning side in his day in politics or religion ; that he carefully avoided all those appeals to popular prejudice about monks and nuns, popes and cardinals, which form the farcical element of so many plays of his time ; nay, more, that in adapting old plays he carefully expunged every satire of the ancient faith. Secondly, that he not only habitually extols the old order of things, but that he studiously depreciates the new. He surveyed his own times with an anguish, he says, that made him " cry for death " (Sonnet 66). He speaks to his contemporaries in language like that of John Nichols language couched on the lines, we are told, of the Catholic sermons of the day. " They told them how their forefathers lived, how that in coming to churches they were very diligent, in worshipping of images they were devout, how painful in visiting holy places, how liberal with the poor, how merciful with the afflicted, and how careful to keep God's commandments. Where now X PREFACE are these good works (say they) ? What is become of them ? Now one man seeketh to beguile another, one man speaketh evil of another, their devotion to the Church is waxen cold, charity towards the poor is more than frozen."^ This judgment of Nichols on his times is, we believe, also that of Shakespeare. The evidence in support of that opinion is now submitted to the judgment of our readers. Grateful thanks are due to the Very Rev. F. Gasquet, D.D., O.S.B., the present possessor of Mr. Simpson's papers, for the kind permission to make free use of these documents; to Rev. W. Gildea, D.D., for his careful correction and revision of the following work ; and to Brother Vincent Hayles, of the Oratory, London, for many details obtained by his varied research. ^ "John Nichols, A Declaration of the Recantation of." London: Barker, February 19, 1591. Sig. L.iiii. CONTENTS Chapter I. Nut in Protestantism PAGE 30 Shakespeare and the Reformation. Milton and Puritanism . 31 PACK Keble and Anglicanism . 32 Drama, threefold purpose of I Protestant Ritual . 33 Its philosophy and religion 2 Shakespeare and scholasticism 34 Catholicism and Protestantism 3 Preference for Aristotle . 35 A poet and his Age 4 Shakespeare's use of casuistry 36 Reformation and Renaissance 5 Equivocation . 37 The true Renaissance in Eng Shakespeare and Architecture 38 Jand .... 6 Ruined shrines 39 Destructivenesa of the Reform 7 Avarice of the Reformers 40 Spenser's testimony 8 Hidden misery 41 Origin of the Elizabethar Criminal prosecutions 42 Drama 9 Absolutism 43 Shakespeare's imagery . lO Shakespeare's hatred of Tudoi Catholic characteristics . II policy .... 44 Two views of Nature 12 Antagonism to his times . 45 Protestantism and Nature 13 Love of feudalism . 46 Catholicism and Nature . 14 Use of Scripture 47 Nature's moral teaching . 15 Satire on the New Gospel 48 Flowers and animals 16 "Personal characteristics . 49 Employment of myths . 17 His reserve 50 Nature's witness to God 18 Detachment . 51 Harmony of creation 19 World-weariness 52 Shakespeare and Montaigne 20 Use of comedy 53 Pagan Love . 21 Self-condemnation . 54 True Love 22 Secret of his power . 55 Teaching of the Sonnets . 23 And the Plays 24 Isabella .... 25 Chapter II. Dififerent judgments on her " Romeo and Juliet " 26 27 External Evidence. Passion and Love . 28 State of religion in England . 56 Sacrifice .... 29 Visitation Returns . 57 xu CONTENTS Early Christians and Catholics Religion in Warwickshire Guild of the Holy Cross . Ordinances of the Guild . Hospitality and Education Religious discord . A wedding sermon . The poet's parents . John Shakespeare a burgess . Oath of Supremacy . Comparative tolerance . Religion in Stratford Destruction of vestments John Shakespeare's reverses . Ejected from the Corporation . The Recusancy-Returns . The penal statute . The Warwickshire Commission Its' origin and purpose Search for Papists . The lists of Recusants . John Shakespeare's excuse The plea of debt . List of conformed persons Recusants in Shakespeare's plays Sham conformity . John Shakespeare's spiritual testament . . . . Similar forms Internal objections . History of the document Jordan's alleged forgery . Proofs of its genuineness William Shakespeare's bap- tism Marriage and burial Leicester and Arden Arden's death as a traitor The deer-killing incident Testimony of Davis The Earl of Southampton First successes The Essex Conspiracy . PAGE 59 60 61 62 ^Z 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 n 74 75 . 76 77 78,79 . 80 . 81 . 82 83 84 85 86 ^7 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 " Richard IL" Failure of the conspiracy Accession of James I Gunpowder Plot Retirement to Stratford . Jonson and Donne . . The minister at *' New Place" Protestant ministers The poet's children Death as a Papist . Burial in the chancel . no, Chapter III. Contemporary Dramatists, Religion and the stage . Controversial dramas Greene, Peele, and Marston Marlowe .... Dekker and Webster " King John " A canon of criticism Bale's ** King John " The Royal supremacy The anti-Papal speech Two interpretations Elizabeth and Catholics . Shakespeare on tyrannicide Pandulph Vows and oaths Shakespeare's alterations The excommunication Divine justice Faulconbridge The death of John . Moral of the play . Historical parallels . Result of Pandulph's action Falstaff .... The forged play Oldcastle, the "Lollard Mar tyr" .... The type of a hypocrite . 100 lOI 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 III 112 "3 114 "5 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 CONTENTS XIU PAGE PAGE Falstaff's use of Scripture 139, 140 Sympathy with the poor . 180 His attractiveness . 141 Types of nobleness . 181 A compound of opposites 142 False equality . 182 Dismissed the Court 143 The Lollard revolt . 183 Falstaff's death 144 Socialistic doctrines 184 Point of the satire . 145 Cade's communism . 185 Lollard morality 186 Norwich registers . .187 ,188 Chapter IV. Precursors of the Reformation 189 English Historical Flays. The Church . The "Politicians" . 190 191 A drama, not a chronicle 146 Commodity 192 Idea of royalty 147 Liberty of conscience 193 The anointing 148 Churchmen 194 The "king's evil" . .149 , 150 Cardinal Beaufort . 195 Forfeiture of the crown . 151 , 152 Cardinal Wolsey 196 Bolingbroke . 153 The Church and scandals 197 Neither Republican nor Abso- Campion on Wolsey 198 lutist .... 154 Wolsey 's portrait . 199 Miseries of royalty . 155 Ctanmer .... 200 The nobility . 156 'Henry VII L," Act V. . . 201 y "Evils of rebellion . Rebels mistrusted . 157 Evidently an addition 202 158 An anti- climax 203 Warnings repeated . 159 B. Thomas More 204 Condition of Catholics . 160 The minor prelates . 205 Foreign intrigues . 161 Archbishop Scroop . 206 Disaffected nobles . 162 The northern rising 207 , Insurrection and religion 163 Archbishop Chicheley 208 Archbish(p Scroop . 164 Cessation of miracles . 209 , 210 Henry V. I6S The Black Art 211 The Eve of Agincourt . 166 The trial of the priests . 212 Henry's piety . 167 The Duchess of Gloucester 213 "Non nobis". 168 An ideal prince 169 "Henry VI." 170 Chaptbr V. The trilogy . 171 T?ie Sonnets. Decline of the nobles 172 House of York 173 Their importance . . 214 Rise of the Commons '74 Not autobiographical 215 " Henry VIII." . . 175 Anachronisms 216 Promotion of upstarts 176 Numerous sonneteers . 217 The new nobility . . 177 Serious and frivolous 218 Hypocrisy of Henry VIII. . 178 Christian doctrine of Love 219 The people . 179 Dante, Boetius . 220 XIV CONTENTS 224, Spenser's Hymns . Love, earthly and spiritual Theme of the Sonnets Love of the senses Imaginative Love Its three stages Ideal Love Spirit and flesh Spiritual desolation Evils of his times His rivals Errors rectified Self-accusation Final oblation The second series. The tyranny of sin Mutual degradation Sparks of goodness Final enslavement Agreement of Sonnets and Play Patronage of Southampton Lamentations over his times The Southampton Library Chapter VI. PAGE 221 222 223 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 234 235 False Love 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 The Love Plays. Origin of knowledge . . 245 Scholastic definitions . . 246 Love and philosophy . . 247 Love and religion . . . 248 " Love's Labour's Lost " . . 249 Comedy of the play . . 250 " Two Gentlemen of Verona " . 251 Idolatry, true and false . .252 Love and friendship . . 253 Fire drives out fire . . . 254 " Comedy of Errors " , .255 The Abbess .... 256 "Merry Wives of Windsor" . 257 Clandestine marriages . . 258 '* Midsummer-Night's Dream " 259 Imaginative Love . . 260-61 PACK Benedictio Thalami . . . 262 " Romeo and Juliet " . . 263 Friar Laurence . . . 264 The Friars and science . . 265 The Friar's influence . . 266 Consolations of philosophy . 267 Religious allusions . . . 268 Catholic phraseology . . 269 Old English hymns and rhymes 270 Evening Mass . . . .271 Ancient usage . . . 272 Liturgically correct . . . 273 " All's Well that Ends Well " 274. 275 The clown and the countess . 276 Belief in the supernatural . 277 "Taming of the Shrew". . 278 " Much Ado about Nothing " . 279 " Twelfth Night " . . 280 Malvolio the Puritan . 281 The clown . 282 " As You Like It " . . 283 Political exiles .284 Wisdom in fools . 28s A Convertite . . 286 Adam and Corin .287 Models of dignity . . 288 "Winter's Tale" . . 289 The solemn sacrifice . 290 "The Tempest" . . 291 Dantesque imagery. . 292 Prayer to Our Lady . 293 " Love's Labour's Won " . . 294 Chapter VIL Tragedies, Hamlet " literature . 29s Hamlet's reserve .296 ThH ghost 297 Moral difficulties . . 298 A perplexed conscience . . 299 Vindictive justice . . 300 CONTENTS XV PAGE PAGE The final resolve 301 The stage and the Govern- The sovereign task . 302 ment .... 340 Ophelia .... 303 " Merchant of Venice " . 341 Hamlet's treatment of her 304 Plea for toleration . 342 Hamlet and Brutus 305 Effect of persecution 343 Judicial execution . 306 Ceremonial religion . 344 Shakespeare's view of con The guiled shore 345 spiracy 307 A smiling villain 346 Hamlet's mother 308 The rack .... 347 True beauty inward 309 Order and degree . 348 Moral of "Hamlet" 310 ' Measure for Measure " . 349 Tragedy and suicide 311 James I. and Catholics . 350 , 351 Catholic allusions . 312 The Duke and Lucio 352 The last sacraments 313 The penal code 353 Catholic oaths . 314 Traitors by birth . 354 Prayers for the dead . 315 External acts alone crimes 355 Laertes and the priest . 316 Judges should be holy . 356 The dirge for Ophelia . 317 Absolution before execution 357 The Phoenix and Turtle . 38 St. Bernard and the criminal 358 Polonius and Burghiey . 319 Votaress of St. Clair 359 The ghost of Lord Stourtor The doctrine of penance . 360 320 ,321 The obligation of truth-tell- Father Cornelius . 322 ing .... 361 Hamlet and Essex . 323 When necessary 362 "Lear". 324 Father Southwell's defence 363 Lear's absolutisn) . 325 Political deception . 364 Religious allusions . 326 The porter in ' Macbeth " 365 Sacrificial conclusion 327 "Cymbeline" 366 Edgar's devils . 328 The Roman question 367 Possessed persons . 329 Invasion of Britain . 368 Shakespeare's belief in spirits 330 Adherence to custom 369 Angels .... 331 Posthumus and penance . 370 Devils .... 332 Preparation for death 371 Belief in portents . 333 Royal severity 372 Omens .... 334 "TroilusandCressida". 373 "Othello" . 335 Theatrical strife . 374 Religious allusions . . 336 ,337 Religious allusion . 375 Thersites a preacher 376 The service and the God . 377 Chapter VIII. A state of grace 378 Didactic Plays. Grace and perseverance . 379 The engrafted word 380 Use of allegory 338 The marriage service 381 Political allusions . 339 Minor religious allusions . 382 XVI CONTENTS Chapter IX. Shakespeare's Ethics. Calvinism and fatalism . Professor Caird's theory . Human responsibility Key to his dramas . Character result of act . Conscience "Macbeth" . Consciousness of guilt Remorse .... Milton and Shakespeare . Tenderness of Shakespeare Moral maxims Avoidance of occasions . Religion and morality Eternal punishment Need of grace . Prayer .... grayer and sacrifice Unanswered prayer 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 Modem morality PAGE 402 " The Manxman " . 403 "Othello" 404 Shakespeare's heroines . 405 Essentially feminine 406 ^Man's rational nature 407 Moral dignity 408 Nature and Tennyson 409 Nature and Friar Laurence 410 Modern pessimism . 411 Failure of all things 412 Shakespeare's belief in God 413 A personal Creator . 414 Not God's spy 415 ' Devotion to Christ . 416 A Christian knight . 417 Preparation for death 418 Ripeness is all 419 Pagan death . 420 -A Catholic death-bed . 421 Cleansing the sick soul . 422 THE EELIGION OF SHAKESPEAEE. CHAPTER I. SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION. Dramatic representation had with Shakespeare a threefold end. Artistically its aim was, he says, to reflect the image of creation, to " hold the mirror up to nature." Hence it was essentially objective. His creations were not arbitrarily drawn from his own phantasy, but from existing types. Morally his in- tention was to exhibit the great characteristics of virtue and vice, to show virtue "her own image, scorn her own feature," to portray what was essentially and necessarily good or evil in its nature, origin, development, and result. Historically, or politically, its purpose was to set forth the "very form or pressure of the age and body of the time." And this meant, not the pedantic reading in of lessons from parallel passages of history, nor a caricature of passing events, drawn by the pen of a partisan, A 1' Sfli.KFiSt:l$ARE AND THE REFORMATION hnt' feh!e\pras,Gjatati(>ii of the great questions of the age, with what he conceived to be the best method of their solution. A Drama, then, according to Shakespeare, was a moral discourse, and an historical and philosophical essay, as well as a great poem. Hence, the ques- tion arises, what system of morals or philosophy is apparent in Shakespeare's plays ? And since philosophy and religion alike profess to teach the loiowledge of things by their higher causes, and the laws and principles of human conduct, we are brought at once to the question of his creed, the subject discussed in the following pages. We are indeed sometimes told that such a dis- cussion is useless, that the poet's writings furnish no trustworthy data on this matter, that the scenes and actions of his drama are strictly mundane, that the characters work out their development from purely natural causes and motives. Yet, in spite of all this, the question is ever proposed and answered anew. And this is so, because the very nature of the poet's writings forbids the ex- clusion of such an inquiry. He puts before us types of good and evil ; what is his attitude towards them ? He treats of human nature ; does he make man a free and responsible agent, or the mechanical slave of destiny ? He constantly speaks of God ; does he mean a personal and intelligent, omniscient, omnipotent, and all -perfect Creator, or a mere anima mundi, coincident with the phenomena of CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM 3 the universe, and bound by its laws ? He is the poet of love ; is his theme sensual passion or the celestial fire ? Lastly, every play is a comment on human life; where, with Shakespeare, is its final purpose found, in this world, or the next ? These questions then arise, and according to some writers, English and German, Shakespeare in setting forth their solution proves himself the representative of the positive practical view of life inaugurated by the Reformation. In the past, Catholicism with its mysticism, dogmatism, and asceticism, taught man that he was a stranger in this world, and that his true home and patria were in heaven. According to Protestantism, on the other hand, the spirit of England in the time of Elizabeth, " to be great, to do great things [here] seemed better than to enter the celestial city, and forget the city of destruction ; better than to receive in ecstasy the vision of a divine mystery, or to be fed with miraculous food." ^ " A vigorous mundane vi^lity thus constitutes the basis of the Elizabethan drama," ^ and as Shakespeare was the product of this time, he was necessarily the exponent of its spirit.* ^ Dowden, "Mind and Art of Shakespeare," i8 (1892). 2 Ibid., p. 23. 3 The following passage, quoted from Professor Dowden with approval from Dr. Edward Vehse, is in substance his own view of Shakespeare's philosophy : " Shakespeare der ungelehrte, unstudirte Dichter ist der erste in welchem sich der moderne Geist, der von der Welt weiss, der die gesammte Wirklichkeit zu begreifen sucht, energisch zusammenfasst. Dieser moderne Geist ist der gerade Gegensatz des mittelalterlichen Geistes ; er erfasst die Welt und 4 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION Now we admit that the poet iisually is, in a sense, the product of his age, and speaks with its voice, and where an age has been stamped by one dominant idea, the poet has often been its exponent and paneg3Tist. Thus Homer represents the Hellenic world of his day; he adopts its crude notions of heaven and earth, its human gods, its simple customs ; while its unceasing combats and its heroes' valiant deeds, as sung by him, tend to glorify the Greek nation. Virgil discovers in the mythological descent of the Latin race a prophecy of its future triumph, culminating in the empire of Augustus and in the inauguration of a reign of peace. Dante, again, gives us in the Commedia the whole culture of his time. Its philosophy, astronomy, arts, politics, history, to- gether with pagan myths and mediaeval legends, all serve to illustrate his theme and are brought into unity and order by the theology of the Church. He calls his work " The sacred poem that hath made Both heaven and earth copartners in the toil." ^ The sixteenth century was, however, a transitional period, and embraced three very diverse systems of thought. First .came CathoHcism. This included the whole Christian tradition oF the past fifteen centuries, the learning of East and West, the philo- namentlich die innere Welt als ein Stiick des Himmels, and das Leben als einen Theil der Ewigkeit." Shakespeare als Protestant^ Poliiiker, Pyschdog und Dichter, i. 62 ; "Mind and Art," 13. 1 Par. XXV. I. REFORMATION AND RENAISSANCE 5 sophy of Greece, as found in the writings of St. Augustine and the Fathers, of St. Thomas and the Scholastics, and also the Christian Renaissance with its classic scholarship, its critical examination of texts and codices, and its revival in the arts and architec- ture as guided and sanctioned by the Church. Next came the heathenising Renaissance. Its aim, whether in the arts, learning, or philosophy, was the revival of Paganism, to the exclusion of Christianity, and its ultimate end was solely man's temporal pleasure and satisfaction. Thirdly came the religious revolt of Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer, which was slightly differentiated in each country by the special influ- ences determining its development. The latter two systems, though united in their rejection of the Papal authority, and in a common materialistic tendency, were by no means in complete agreement ; for the dominant party in the reform was alike opposed to learning or art of any kind, and it is strange that the Reformation and the Renaissance should ever be spoken of as one and the same movement.^ When, then, and where do we find the true Renaissance in England ? The sixty years following on the wars of the Roses, and immediately preceding the Reformation; i.e. from about 1470 to the fall of Wolsey, witnessed ,the new birth in learning and architecture. The chief leaders of the new learn- ing were William Sellyng, the Benedictine monk ^ Of. Professor Dowden, "Mind and Art of Shakespeare," 11 (1892). Professor Caird, Contemporary Review, Ixx. 820. 6 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION of Canterbury, the pioneer of Greek scholarship in this country, Grocyn, Linacre, Dean Colet, Sir Thomas More, Archbishop Warham, and Abbot Bere of Canterbury, to whom Erasmus sent his Greek Testament for revision.^ The ecclesiastical revival was manifested in the quantity and magnificence of the work done in church-building, restoration, and decoration. Among the more notable examples may be mentioned King's College, Cambridge, 147 2-1 515 ; Eton Col- lege, founded 1 44 1, completed about 1482-3; St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 1 475-1 52 1 ; Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster, 1502-15 15, both the work of Sir Reginald Braye ; Bath Abbey, rebuilt by Bishop King, 1 495- 1 503, and Prior Birde, and finished under Prior HoUoway only six years before the surrender of the Abbey to Henry VIII. in 1533; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, built by Bishop Fox of Winchester, i 501-1528, in conjunction with Prior Silkstede ; also Fox's beautiful chantry at Win- chester, and the carved wooden pulpit of Silkstede ; Jesus College, Cambridge ; the Collegiate Church at Westbury, founded by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 1 48 6- 1 500; the chantries in Ely of Bishop Red- man, 1 501-1506, and of Bishop West, 15 15-1534; Brazenose College, Oxford, founded by William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, 1496, and Sir Richard Sutton; St. John's College, Cambridge, founded at the advice of Bishop Fisher, by Margaret Beaufort, * Gasquet, " The Old English Bible and other Essays, "317 (1897). DESTRUCTIVENESS OF THE REFORM 7 Countess of Richmond, who also built a school and chantry and other works at Wimborne Minster; Christ Church, Oxford, and Ipswich College, founded by Cardinal Wolsey ; St. Asaph's Cathedral, rebuilt by Bishop Redman, 147 1- 147 5 ; Bangor Cathedral, rebuilt by Bishops Dene and Skevington, 1496- 1533. Such, then, is a brief and imperfect outline of the work effected and the spirit shown by the true Renaissance in England. That it was Catholic and Roman is seen both from the character of its pro- moters and the nature of their works. Now what was the action of the Reformation ? Did it give a fresh stimulus to learning, or found a new era in religious art? The colleges and schools founded under Elizabeth and Edward VI. are sometimes quoted as marking the dawn of education in the country. As a fact, they represent a miserably in- adequate attempt to repair the losses effected by the new barbarism. The Reformation was inaugurated by the dis- solution of the monasteries, the dispersion of their libraries with their unique treasures of codices and manuscripts, and completed with the spoliation of the churches and the destruction of the highest works of art in the kingdom. The mural decorations of cathedral, church, and shrine, some of which, as the retable of Westminster Abbey, were of very high excellence, and only just completed, were all obHterated by whitewash or distemper. The wood- 8 SHAKESPEAEE AND THE REFOBMATION carving, the rood-screen with its "goodly images," the carved stalls, canopies, and magnificent embossed roofs, perished under the hands of the reforming iconoclasts. The metal-work, the silver and gilt shrines, images, reliquaries, lamps, crucifixes, candle- sticks, chaHces, patens, monstrances, pyxes, proces- sional and pastoral staves, spoons, cruets, ewers, basins, the jewelled clasps for missals, antiphonaries, and copes, all these works of an art which, in Italy, was stimulating the genius of a Cellini, in England passed into the royal melting-pot, to the value of some ;^85o,ooo of present money, or nearly a million sterHng.^ The painting of the needle shared a similar fate. The richly embroidered chasubles, copes, dalmatics, maniples, stoles, were consumed in huge bonfires, or became furniture in the palaces of the king and the new nobles, and the art of em- broidery, as of metal-work, for religious purposes ceased to be. That this account is not exaggerated may be seen in Spenser. As a courtier he extolled Elizabeth and all her works, and vilified grossly the ancient faith. But as a poet and philosopher he was wholly opposed to the new order of things. In the " Tears of the Muses," while paying, of course, the usual com- pliment to the " divine Eliza," he deplores the degra- dation of the public taste, the contempt for learning, the universal sway of " ugly barbarism " and brutish * Gasquet, " Henry VIII. and the Monasteries," vol. ii. 3rd ed., 417. THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 9 ignorance, of " scoffing scurrility and scornful folly." Spenser was in truth very far from being the Puritan that Mr. Carter would make him.^ His whole theory of sacrificial love is, as we shall see, directly opposed to the school of Geneva. In the " Faerie Queene " itself the Red- Cross Knight is purified on the lines of Catholic asceticism, and under the character of the " Blatant Beast," Puritanism with its destroying hand and railing bitter tongue, is thus described : " From thence into the sacred church he broke And robbed the chancel, and the desks downthrow And altar fouled and blasphemy spoke, And the images for all their godly hue Did cast to ground, whilst none there was to rue So all confounded and disordered there." Book vi. Was, then, a movement so levelling and destructive likely to produce the dramatic and poetic outburst of the Shakespearian age ? That movement, with its brief duration of some fifty years, came indeed in spite of the Reformation, not because of it. No doubt the circumstances of the time, the wealth and ease of the court and its supporters, called for such entertainment as the drama supplied. But the plots as well as the style and art of the great English poets and dramatists came, not from Germany or Switzer- land, but from Italy. Dante, Ariosto, Petrarch, not Luther or Calvin, were the masters of Wyatt and ^ "Shakespeare, Puritan and Recusant," 79. 10 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION Surrey and of their disciples. An impartial exam- ination of Shakespeare's writings will, we believe, make clear that Shakespeare was no " product of the Reformation."^ First, consider one of his chief poetic characteristics, his imagery. It is only by s3niibols that the poet's theme, the spiritual, the ideal, the supersensuous, finds expression; and of all poets, Shakespeare is perhaps the richest in his creative power. He has a figure, a metaphor for every thought ; his images seem to come spontaneously and to express exactly their maker's idea. He speaks himself as if these operations of his phantasy were produced in a kind of ecstasy. " The poet's eye, in a fine phrenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; And as imagination bodies forth The form of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothings A local habitation and a name." Midsummer -NighVs Dreamy v. i . Now, much of his imagery is drawn from religious subjects ; of what kind, then, is it ? He was per- fectly free to choose either the new creed or the old, for he never allowed himself to be hampered by dramatic conventionalities, and he frequently commits glaring anachronisms. We find, then, that ^ " And remark here as rather curious, that Middle Age Catholi- cism was abolished as far as Acts of Parliament could abolish it, before Shakespeare, the noblest product of it, made his appear- "-nce." Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Worship. CATHOLIC IMAGERY II the object of his predilection is the ancient faith, and he introduces the Church of Rome, her minis- ters and doctrines and rites, not, after the manner of Spenser, as a type of falsehood and corruption, nor like Marlowe and Greene, as the symbol of exploded superstition, but as the natural representative of things high, pure, and true, and therefore to be treated with reverence and respect. Take, for example, his illustration, drawn from vestments, of how royalty enhances its dignity by habitual seclusion ; and remember that, when he wrote, vestments were being publicly burnt, as has been said, for popish, massing, idolatrous stuff. " Thus did I keep my person fresh and new, My presence like a robe pontifical, Ne'er seen but wondered at ; and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast, And won by rareness such solemnity." I Henry IV., iii. 2. The same idea is expressed in the Sonnets, where he compares, and in the same religious tone, the visits of his beloved in their rareness and worth to great feasts, precious pearls, and costly robes : " Therefore are Feasts so solemn and so rare Since seldom coming in the long year set, Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, Or captain-jewels in the carcanet. So is the time that keeps you as my chest, Or as the wardrobe which the robe does hide, To make some special instant special blest By new unfolding his imprisoned pride." Sonnet cii. 12 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION The readiness and aptitude with which he avails himself of Catholic imagery are manifested again and again. He puts before us temples, altars, priests, friars, nims, the mass, sacrifices, patens of gold, chalices, incense, relics, holy crosses, the invo- cation of saints and angels, the sign of the cross, the sacraments of baptism, penance, holy eucharist, extreme unction, details of the ritual, as for instance the Benedictio Thalami. All these and many other Catholic rites and usages are introduced with a delicacy and fitness possible only for a mind habi- tuated to the Church's tone of thought. Nay more, when he is recasting an anti-Catholic play, as in the case of " King John," he is careful to ex- punge the ribald stories against Nuns and Friars, notwithstanding the popularity of such tales with the audiences of the time. He drew indeed from the new creed his FalstafF, Malvolio, and Holofernes, types of the hypocrite, the canting knave, the pedant, but turned to the ancient faith for his images of what was noble and sacred. The other chief source of Shakespeare's imagery was Nature itself. There are, broadly speaking two views of Nature the Catholic, the Protestant. What may be the Protestant view at the present day is perhaps difficult to determine, for Protes- tantism is fluctuating and manifold. But the Pro- testantism of Shakespeare's day was clearly defined. Nature was a synonym for discord. Man through his fall was in essential discord with God; the PROTESTANTISM AND NATURE 1 3 lower world was in discord with man. The Re- demption had brought no true healing of this rupture ; for salvation was wrought, not by internal restoration, but by mere outward acceptance. Saint and sinner were intrinsically alike. In saint as in sinner there was, to use the words of a reformed confession of faith, " an intimate, profound, inscru- table, and irreparable corruption of the entire nature, and of all the powers, especially of the superior and principal powers of the soul." ^ The saint, a sinner in his nature and his powers, is a sinner also in all his works, for the products of corruption must be themselves corrupt. His corruption is subjec- tive and intrinsic ; his justification is objective and extrinsic. He has apprehended by faith the merits of Christ, and God no longer imputes the sin that is truly there. Nor will God impute to him -the sinfulness of his works, so long as by faith he continues to apprehend the saving merits of Christ. But the essential corruption of his nature always remains. The lower world is as divorced from man as man has become divorced from God. The destiny of inferior creatures had been a higher one than that of ministering to the earthly needs of man. Their office had been to speak to him of God, to inspire him with the love of God, to be as the steps of a ladder which leads the soul to * Solida Declaratio, i. 31. The Solida Declaratio drawn up (1577) after Luther's death was the authorised Lutheran Confession of Faith. 14 SHAKESPEAKE AND THE REFORMATION God. But their power of appeal has vanished. The mind of man has grown darkened; he cannot see in creatures the beauty of Him that made them. The will of man has grown hardened; he can no longer see in creatures the bounty and goodness of the Lord. Creatures can teach man no moral lesson, for man is no longer a moral being. His freedom of will has left him ; his instincts are all towards vice. Nature can only find food for his passions and minister to the vices of his fallen estate. Catholicism, on the other hand, presents a pic- ture the reverse of this. Man has indeed forfeited his supernatural estate by sin; but his nature though fallen remains unchanged ; and every crea- ture by nature is good, and by grace man can and does recover his supernatural condition. From God all things proceed, and to Him they return by obedience to His law and by the mutual offices they respectively discharge. No creature is a sepa- rate or independent unit, but each is in a necessary relation and correspondence with its fellows. From the lowest to the highest, all things in their genera, classes, kingdoms are in an ascending scale, in which the lower order ministers to the higher, and is ennobled thereby. From which point of view does Shakespeare re- gard nature ? He dwells at times on its fairness. He can speak of the glorious mom " Kissing with golden face the meadow green, Bathing the pale stream with heavenly alchemy." nature's moral teaching 15 To him nature is no accursed thing. It is a scene of wondrous beauty. But he valued nature chiefly as a storehouse whence he drew moral lessons. To Shakespeare nature was the mirror of the human soul with its joys and sorrows, and its virtues and vices. "Each drama," says Heine,^ "has its own special elements, its definite season, with all its characteristics. Heaven and earth bear as marked a physiognomy as the personages of the play." " Romeo and Juliet," with its theme of passionate love, speaks of summer heat and beauty and fra- grance. Lear's wreck, political and physical, is attested by the thunder and drenching storm. Macbeth's crime is conceived on the blasted heath and in the witches' cave. Flowers and plants, again, each have their significance. The rose, above all, as with the classics and with Dante, is the chief symbol of innocence, purity, and love. Of the murdered princes Forrest says " Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, Which in their summer beauty kissed each other." Richard Ill.y iv. 3. Percy compares Richard II. as the sweet rose to the thorn Buckingham. Hamlet says his mother's second marriage was such an act " That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose From the fair forehead of innocent love, And sets a blister there." Hamlet, iii. 4. Works, iii. 312, ed. Rotterdam (1895). 1 6 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION The whole story of Viola's secret attachment is thus related : " She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek." Twelfth Night, ii. 4. Lilies, again, are the emblems of chastity, but " Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds." Sonnet xciv. Ophelia in "Hamlet" and Perdita in "Winter's Tale" teach many a lesson on the symbolism of flowers ; and the gardener in "Richard II." finds in the neglected garden the image of the king's misrule : " The whole land Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up. Her fruit trees all unpruned, her hedges mixed. Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars." Richard II. , iii. 4. The animal world supplies images mostly of the evil passions of man. Shylock has a " tiger's heart," Goneril, "bearish fangs." Edgar describes himself as a "hog in sloth, a fox in stealth, a wolf in greediness, a dog in madness, a lion in prey.'* Richard III. is a bloody and usurping boar, a foul swine. On the other hand, the lark in its rising typifies prayer; the swallow in its swiftness, hope piercing every obstacle ; the eagle, strength, majesty, loyalty. Nature, then, with Shakespeare furnishes a theme, not for mere pastoral melodies or idyllic strains, though of these we have some exquisite examples, EMPLOYMENT OF MYTHS 1/ but for deep moral lessons ; and this parable teach- ing of the visible world is rendered more forcible and more graphic by being frequently presented through the medium of classic myths and deities. For with Shakespeare, as with Dante, the pagan fable is made the preacher of Christian truth. One of his most Christian and Catholic dramas in its moral teaching is perhaps " The Tempest " ; and its lessons are inculcated by the aid of witches and fairies ; of Isis, Ceres, and Juno ; of nymphs and spirits, the demi- puppets evoked by Prospero's staff; nor without them would the tale or moral ever have had the same dramatic force.-^ The same may be said of " Cymbeline," of " Midsummer - Night's Dream," and many others, where the Christian idea is conveyed through a heathen rite or myth. To take what was true in Paganism, while rejecting what was false, had been the work of the Christian poets and philosophers from the first. But what we wish to draw special attention to is that such a philosophy of nature, which finds " Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything " As You Like It, ii. i, is in its very essence opposed to the fundamental doctrine of the Reformation, as we have already shown. ^ Ariel imprisoned in the cloven pine and Caliban immersed in the foul lake are distinctly Dantesque images. Cf. Inferno, cantos vii. and viii. B 1 8 SHAKESPEAKE AND THE REFOKMATION But more. In the doctrine of the Cathohc Church not only does Nature in its individual and several parts inculcate and illustrate moral lessons, but Nature in its entirety is like a magnificent sym- phony proclaiming the praises of God. Thus creation becomes a many-tongued choir, and the elements, plants, animals, man himself, intone to- gether, in union with the angels, the praises of their Creator. In perhaps the oldest inspired poem we read of the music of the spheres, " The stars praising me together, the sons of God making glad melody " (Job xxviii. 7). The same theme repeats itself in the Psalms, and is the keynote of the Paradiso " When as the wheel which thou dost ever guide, Desired Spirit ! with its harmony- Tempered of thee and measured, charmed mine ear, Then seemed to me so much of heaven to blaze With the sun's flame, that rain or flood ne'er made A lake so broad. The newness of the sound, And that great light, inflamed me with desire, Keener than e'er was felt, to know their cause." Paradiso f i. 74-81. Here, then, it is light, as the instrument of God's power and the witness of His presence, which both produces the motion and evokes the harmony of the spheres, and this light and motion are love Luce intelUttual pien cCamore. And so in Shake- speare. In the sweetness of the moonlight and the effulgence of the stars the music of the heavens becomes audible, and the smallest orb joins in alter- HARMONY OF CREATION 1 9 nate choirs with the angels, and each immortal soul gives forth its own harmony, inspired and moved by love. " How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank I Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears : soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold ! There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Stil quiring to the young-eyed cherubims : Such harmony is in immortal souls ; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." Merchant of Venice, v. i. Now it might have been thought that such a conception of creation and of men and their rela- tion to God shows clearly the Catholic character of Shakespeare's cosmology. But no. Though the poet's idea is found in the revealed Word, in the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, in St. Augustine, in St. Thomas, and Dante, it is derived from none of these sources, but, according to Professor Elze,^ from Montaigne. Now Montaigne nowhere teaches the existence of unity, order, or harmony in crea- tion. On the contrary, he held that all knowledge, whether acquired by sense or reason, was necessarily uncertain ; and of the music of the spheres he inci- dentally observes, that it is inaudible to us, because our hearing is so dulled by the ceaseless clamour of ^ I. 22 ; Hense, " Shakespeare," 361. 20 SHAKESPEAEE AND THE REFOEMATION created things.^ Here, then, the unbroken and uni- versal tradition of some fifteen centuries is to be ignored in favour of the shallow casual remark of this French sceptical essayist. But Shakespeare's teaching finds too commonly a spurious origin. Does Hamlet say that there is nothing good or evil (in the physical order), but thinking makes it so ? ^ This idea of his is borrowed from the pantheist, Giordano Bruno, who was in London from 1583 to 1586, just after Shakespeare's arrival there, and who denied the existence (in the moral order) of either absolute good or evil.^ Again, Hamlet's ^ "We need not go seek what our neighbours report of the cataracts of the Nile, and what Philosophers deem of the Celestial music, which is that the bodies of its circles being solid, smooth, and in their roving motion touching and rubbing against one another, must of necessity produce a wonderful harmony ; by the changes and entercaprings of which, the revolutions, motions, cadences, and carols of the asters and planets are caused and transported. But that universally the hearing and senses of these old worlds' creatures, dizzied and lulled asleep, as those of the Egyptians are, by the continuation of that sound, how loud and great soever it be, cannot sensibly perceive or distinguish the same." Montaigne s Essays (Florio's trans.), i. 22, ed. 1892, modern- ised spelling. It is only fair to Montaigne to state, that though philosophically a sceptic in matters of belief, he professed entire and loyal allegi- ance to the Church of Rome. His position was that of an extreme Traditionalist, and with the strange want of logic that is char- acteristic of the Traditionalist position he held that Faith is best honoured by divorcing it from reason. In his essay " On Prayer " he submits "his rhapsodies," as he calls his writings, to the judgment of the Church, and he died, having received the last sacraments. 2 B. Thomas More expresses the same thought in " Dialogues of Comfort," 3 Tschifschwiz, Shakespeare- Forschungen (1568), i. 65. PAGAN LOVE 21 praise of Horatio's equanimity, which " takes buffets and reward with equal thanks," proves Shakespeare a Stoic. The poet's desire for the immortaUty of his verse in praise of his beloved, indicates his dis- belief in the immortality of the soul. His phrase, " the prophetic soul of the world," proves his pan- theism ; and the duty of meeting necessities as necessities clearly shows his determinism. With these various points in his philosophy we shall deal later as occasion arises. We now proceed to take the one essential point of his philosophy, namely, his teaching on love. It will mark for us the distinction between the true and false Renais- sance already spoken of; for the Renaissance poets were pagan or Christian according to their teaching on this theme. The object of the pagan love was the satisfaction of the senses, the pleasure that could be derived here and now at any cost. Lorenzo Valla, the leader of the heathen Renaissance, in his "Gospel of Pleasure," made sensuality a virtue, because it was natural.^ Beccadelli in his Epigrams,^ which are of singular poetic grace, is even more materialistic, and the majority of Shakespeare's contemporaries fol- lowed this teaching. " If I may have my desire while I live, I am satisfied ; let me shift after death as I may," writes Greene in his " Groatsworth of Wit." And though he confessed his vices with tears, his life and his poetry were based on these lines. ^ De VoLuptate et Vero bono, Libri iii. ' Hermaphroditus, v. ; Pastor, "History of the Popes," vol. i. 13. 22 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION The triumph of sensualism, the glorification of beauty, the gratification of the passions, with the consequent profligacy, crime, treachery, cruelty, poisoning, and murder these form the basis of Marlowe's "Jew of Malta," Webster's "Duchess of Malfi," of his "White Devil," of Ford's "'Tis Pity," among many others. A picture of this school is seen in Jonson's " Every Man out of His Humour " ; and it reads like a chapter from Symond's " Renaissance in Italy." But there was another school of Eng- lish dramatists, including Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, whose theme indeed was love, but the object of love with them was not the outward fairness of form or face, but the inward beauty of truth and holi- ness, as sung by Catholic poets in all time. Thus Sidney writes : " Leave me, love, which reacheth but to dust, And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things ; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust ; Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings. Oh, take fast hold, let that light be thy guide In this small course which birth draws out of death." Last Sonnet. Thus Spenser : " For love is Lord of truth and loyalty, Lifting himself out of the lowly dust On golden plumes up to the purest sky, Above the reach of loathly sinful lust, Whose base affect, through cowardly distrust Of his weak wings, dare not to heaven fly, But like a moldwark in the earth doth lie." Hymn in Honour of Love^ 176-182. TEACHING OF THE SONNETS 23 If we find vestiges of Catholic teaching on this subject in Sidney and Spenser, we find the doc- trine fully worked out in Shakespeare. We do not include the poems " Venus and Adonis " and " Lucrece." It is true that the poet deals with the subject as a spectator, not as an actor, and teaches incidentally some deep moral truths ; yet his theme in these poems and his descriptions are of " loathly sinful lust," not of pure Christian love. Like Chaucer, hke Spenser, Shakespeare had reason for bewailing these, the compositions of his youth. It is far otherwise with the work of his life, the sonnets and the plays. In the sonnets which, according to Simpson, embody the poet's philosophy of love cast in alle- gorical form, the battle of life, as experienced in his own soul, is fought between true and intellectual and false and sensual love, or the " loves of comfort and despair." The object of true love is described now as a youth of exceeding beauty, now as an angel ; of false love, " a woman coloured ill." In the first series of sonnets (1-125) the youth leads the poet, much as Beatrice did Dante, not without severe conflict, much failure, and many tears, above the pleasure of sense, above the creation of phantasy, to the stage of ideal love ; and with each succeeding step a higher conception is formed of the purity and devotion his love requires, and of the falsehood and nothingness of the world in which he lives. At last, by a supreme act of oblation and consecration, 24 SHAKESPEABE AND THE REFOBMATION the poet dedicates himself, in words taken from the Church's Liturgy, to the one, eternal, and only, fair. The second series (123-146) show the misery of false, sensual love, and of the soul vanquished and wrecked by the siren's charms. The delusion con- sequent upon such a state, the degradation and blindness of the soul enslaved, its vain attempts at freedom, the fickleness and tyranny of the des- troyer are clearly portrayed, and mark the essential opposition in the poet's mind between sensual and spiritual love. And if it be said that this conclusion is only obtained by a strained, allegorical interpretation of the sonnets, at least of the first series, if we turn to the comedies and tragedies Ave find the same truth. The action of the play, the development of the characters for good or evil, the final issue for happiness or woe, are determined as the domi- nating principle is true, pure love or disordered passion. Nor does Shakespeare ever allow this issue to be confused. The principle of degree, order, priority, which he considers a fundamental law in the physical universe and also, as we shall see, in the body poUtic, applies with equal strictness to the moral sphere, the government of the appetites in the human soul. The lower appetite must yield to the higher, sense to reason, and this at any cost. All love, true or false, demands the surrender of all else for the one object : but in the one case the sacrifice ennobles and perfects the victim, in the ISABELLA 25 other, it degrades and destroys. " Omnis disor- dinatio poena sua" Every disordered act brings its own punishment. Isabella, in " Measure for Measure," is the most perfect type of true love. Votarist or Postulant of St. Clare, she is " dedicate to nothing temporal." " By her renouncement " she had become, even in the eyes of the licentious and scurrilous Lucio, a " thing enskied and sainted," an immortal spirit. Yet hers is no spectral figure, devoid of human feeling. She is not a spirit, but a woman, and her natural affections are intensified, because purified by her supernatural love ; and she undertakes the advocacy of Claudio, "though his is the vice she most abhors." The nature of true love is seen in the choice made between her honour and her brother's life. In both Cinthio's "Epitia" and Whetstone's " Cassandra," the sources of Shake- speare's plot, the heroines yield their chastity for their brother's sake; and, were domestic love the highest, their conduct would be worthy of praise. Isabella has no doubt ; and her decision is inflexibly rooted, not from any principle of independent morality, but because her love of the All pure was her life, her life eternal, and " Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever." Measure for Measure^ ii. 4. She had rather be scourged and flayed than yield 26 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION her body " to such abhorred pollution." She casts off her brother and his sophistries as a foul tempter, defies him, and bids him perish. No wonder that her conduct has been so generally criticised for its gloom and ascetism. Hazlitt "has not much confidence in the virtue that is sublimely good at other people's expense." Knight finds the play full of revolting scenes. Coleridge thinks it the most painful of Shakespeare's plays. To the Catholic, Isabella represents the noblest ideal, the brightest, most blessed of Shakespeare's heroines, as the type of supernatural charity or of the highest sacrificial love. In contradiction of what has been said, " Romeo and Juliet " is quoted by rationalist critics to show that Shakespeare knew nothing of this distinction of spiritual and sensual love. Romeo and Juliet are his ideals of perfect love, and the character of their affec- tion was passionate throughout. " Such love," says Kreyzig, " is its own reward : life has nothing further to offer." But, all would admit, we suppose, that the poet never intended to exhibit in each play a type of absolute morality, but such a manner of conduct as essentially befitted the character represented. Thus Cleopatra and Cressida are dramatically perfect characters; but morally they are a shame to their sex. Now, Romeo and Juliet are types of passionate love, that is, love in which passion, not reason, is the dominant principle. The passions indeed are not evil, they are part of our nature, and are powerful ROMEO AND JULIET 2/ agencies for good, but within their proper sphere, and under the control of reason. Without such control, when the senses or feelings master reason, misery and disorder follow ; and this is exactly what we find in "Romeo and Juliet." The whole play portrays the consequences of ill-regulated passion. The scene is laid in an Italian summer, and the emotions of Romeo and Juliet are at fever heat. Impetuosity, vehemence, agitation, disturbance, mark their conduct throughout. The whole action con- sumes but five days from the Sunday to the follow- ing Friday morning. Within this space of time are the first meeting of the lovers, the stolen interview, the secret marriage, the duel, Tybalt's death, Romeo's banishment, and the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet. The whole lesson of the play is taught by Friar Lawrence in explicit terms : " These violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die ; like fire and powder, Which as they kiss, consume : the sweetest honey- Is loathsome in his own deliciousness. And in the taste confounds the appetite : Therefore love moderately ; long love doth so ; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow." Romeo and Juliet^ ii. 6. Just as the " Midsummer-Night's Dream " shows the folly of love based merely on the imagination, so " Romeo and Juliet " manifests the ruin which follows in love, which, though not coarse or sensual, 2 8 SHAKESPEARE AND THE REFORMATION is Still determined mainly by passion. Thus Hamlet repeats Friar Lawrence's teaching : " What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactions with themselves destroy." Hamlet^ iii. 2. And the reason is that the object of passion is something here and now, and therefore temporal and passing, and when it passes leaves a blank, for " this world is not for aye." The object of true love must be, like Silvia, " holy, fair, and wise " ; the love it inspires knows neither doubt nor fear nor change, and the bond it forms is eternal. " Love is not love Which alters when it alterations finds Or bends with the remover to remove : Oh no ! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests, and is never shaken ; It is the star to every wanderin