who travelled in the East in the fourteenth century, that 'in that place where Damascus was founded, Cain slew his brother Abel.' It is also said that the name Damascus means 'a sack of blood,' or ‘a cup of blood.' But our poet has turned the same tragical history to a still more striking account, in the Second Part of King Henry IV.; I allude to the scene in which the Earl of Northumberland, as an enemy to the King, thus speaks, throwing upon the ground the cap which he had worn in sickness :

Hence, thou sickly quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flushed with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring,
To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined! Let order die !
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain

Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,

And darkness be the burier of the dead. Act i. Sc. 1.

A magnificent speech, in which the classical reader may fancy that he sees the utmost merit of two great, but most opposite Roman poets-Lucretius and Lucan-combined in one.

12.

The punishment of Cain is recorded in Gen. iv.

'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in

the earth.'

It is obviously with these words upon his mind that our poet causes Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV., to address Exton, whom he had employed to murder Richard, as follows:

The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor,
But neither my good word, nor princely favor;
With Cain go wander thro' the shade of night,
And never show thy head.

King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 6.

Another passage remains, which I shall not hesitate to produce, though, more than any of the foregoing, it requires to be read with allowance for the speaker, for the scene, and for the circumstances in which it was spoken. It is from the The clown is engaged in digging, and having thrown up a skull, Hamlet thus speaks:

grave scene of Hamlet.

That scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder. Act v. Sc. 1.

3. To the next great event in the history of the world-the Universal Deluge-there is less reference in our poet's works than might perhaps have been expected. It is spoken of as Noah's flood' in the Comedy of Errors, Act iii. Sc. 2; and in the last scene of As you like it, which winds up with the marriages of four couples, Jaques, on seeing

i. e. dashes it violently.

the fourth-Touchstone and Audrey-come in, exclaims :

There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark!

into which, as Warburton has remarked, the beasts that were not clean entered two and two. See Gen. vii. 2, 15. Again, in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 2, Fabian, the servant of Olivia, says to Sir Andrew Ague-cheek-'I will prove it legitimate, Sir, upon the oaths of Judgment and Reason;' to which Sir Toby Belch adds, with as much deep truth as wit- And they (i. e. Judgment and Reason) have been grand jurymen since before Noah was a sailor. Moreover, our poet had learnt from the sacred history, not only that of the three sons of Noah was the whole earth overspread,' but that the natives of Europe were descended from Japhet.* This appears in the Second Part of King Henry IV., where Poins, proceeding to read Falstaff's letter to Prince Henry, begins

thus:

Poins [reads]. John Falstaff, knight.'-Every man must know that as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, There is some of the king's blood spilt:''How comes that?' says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer

* Whereas, in Markham's Gentleman's Academie, 1595—a reprint of the Book of St. Alban's, 1486-Asia is assigned to Japhet. See Drake's Shakspeare, &c. vol. i. p. 72.

is as ready as a borrower's cap. I am the king's poor cousin, Sir?

P. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet:Act ii. Sc. 2. that is, even if they go up so high as to Japhet to trace the descent.

4. The history of Job has the misfortune to appear only in connexion with Sir John Falstaff, first in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where the following dialogue takes place in his presence:

Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would have 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?

Act v. Sc. 5.

Our poet's reference to Satan in the foregoing passage would seem to show that he remembered not only the history of Job, but the manner also in which it comes to be introduced.

To one portion of this complex accusation Falstaff has the grace to plead guilty, when in the Second Part of King Henry IV. he is brought up for trial before the Chief Justice, and, as making a shift to escape, counterfeits deafness.

Chief Justice. You hear not what I say to you.

Falstaff. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please

you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

Chief Justice. To punish you by the heels* would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician.

Falstaff. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescription, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself. Act i. Sc. 2.

5. The use which our poet has made of the history of Jacob and Laban in the Merchant of Venice, appeared, I conclude, objectionable to Mr. Bowdler; for he has omitted the entire passage, amounting to thirty-two lines:-but to me it appears so far otherwise, that I venture to cite almost the whole of it, as a remarkable instance of the tact with which Shakspeare could apply with perfect accuracy a passage of Scripture open to misconception, and yet divest its application of all dangerous tendency. Shylock, the rich Jew, is speaking to Antonio, the merchant of Venice, who proposed to borrow of him a large sum of money :—

Shylock. Well, then, your bond: and let me see—but hear you; Methought you said you neither lend, nor borrow,

Shyl. When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep, This Jacob from our holy Abraham was