And again, when our poet in King Henry VIII. (see below, ch. ii. sect. 2), speaks of 'man' as 'the image of His Maker,' we may be sure he was thinking of the same record which testifies that God created man in His own image.' We know what followed only too soon after the Creation. Our first parent had been put into the garden of Eden to dress it, and to keep it,' Gen. ii. 15; but we have only to look on to the next chapter, and we read the sad tidings of his fall, and consequent expulsion from that happy place, under the curse of God. It is not without some awkwardness and confusion of ideas, that these circumstances are supposed to be present to the mind of the Queen. of Richard II., when she overhears in a garden the king's deposition spoken of, and coming forth from her concealment, thus addresses the gardener: Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, How dares thy harsh-rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? Why dost thou say king Richard is deposed? King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 4. Again, we read of Adam that kept the Paradise' in the Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 3; and in the same scene he is spoken of as old Adam new apparelled,' with reference to the statement in Gen. iii. 21. That the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression' (1 Tim. ii. 4) first, and not the man, is alluded to in Love's Labour's lost, where Biron says of Boyet, Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. Act v. Sc. z. And the evil quality which led her into temptation was the desire, thro' pride, of knowing and enjoying more than was permitted her, Gen. iii. 6. Consequently that a woman should be proud' is designated by our poet as 'Eve's legacy,' in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. Sc. 1. Whatever comes from the mouth of Falstaff may provoke a smile, yet we must all feel that there is the greatest occasion in reality for deep seriousness, when we hear him say to Prince Henry : Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell, and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy ? King Henry IV. 1st Part, Act iii. Sc. 3. It is the same Prince Henry, of whom afterwards, when he became king, the Archbishop of Canterbury thus testified : The breath no sooner left his father's body, But that his wildness, mortified in him, Seemed to die too: yea, at that very moment, And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; To envelop and contain celestial spirits. King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1. And he himself, as king, spake thus of the vile conspirator Lord Scroop : I will weep for thee; For this revolt of thine methinks is like Another fall of man. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 1. Again, in Much Ado about Nothing, we meet with a reference to the same chapters of Genesis, in a passage which the fastidiousness of Mr. Bowdler has not allowed him to retain, but which surely need not excite any feeling of irreverence towards the sacred record. I would not marry her,' says Benedick of the Lady Beatrice though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed.' (Act ii. Sc. 1.) Nor need we, I think, be offended at the dialogue between the two clowns in Hamlet, where allusion is made to the same primeval history : 1st Clown. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers: they hold by Adam's profession. 2nd Clown. Was he a gentleman? 1st Clown. He was the first that ever bore + arms. 2nd Clown. Why, he had none. 1st Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged. Could he dig Act v. Sc. I. without arms? Compare King Henry VI. 2nd Part: Adam was a gardener.' Act iv. Sc. 2. + In Earle's Microcosmography, under the character of'a Herald,' we read: 'His trade is honor, and he sells it, and gives arms himself, tho' he be no gentleman,' p. 130. And as Adam digged, so he would be exposed to the inclemency of the weather; which has been also the lot of the greater portion of his posterity; thus alluded to in As you like it: Scene, Forest of Arden : Duke Sen. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods The season's difference; as, the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind. Act ii. Sc. 1. Once more in allusion to Gen. iii. 14, Emilia says to Othello, with reference to the jealous suspicions he entertained :— If any wretch hath put this in your head, Let Heaven requite it with the serpent's curse! Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. 2. The history of Cain- the first male child 't -and Abel is of such a character that it would naturally suggest materials of thought to a tragic poet. Accordingly, the references which Shak The emendation of Theobald for not,' which Boswell objects to, and pronounces the old reading to be right. I wonder that neither of them has remarked how much the conjecture of the former is confirmed by the song which follows in Act ii. Sc. 5 :— 'Here shall we see No enemy But winter and rough weather.' + King John, Act iii. Sc. 4. speare has made to it are frequent and striking. First, in King Richard II. : Bolingbroke. Further I say, and further will maintain, Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood: Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth To me for justice, and rough chastisement. Act i. Sc. 1. It is needless to observe how accurately, and at the same time how reverently, this language represents both the letter and the spirit of the Bible narrative. And so, too, where the King says in Hamlet: O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; A brother's murder! Act iii. Sc. 3. Next we trace it in the First Part of King Henry VI-a passage which Bowdler has thought it necessary to expunge-where the poet with much propriety puts into the mouth of the haughty Cardinal Beaufort, great uncle to the king, addressing Duke Humphrey, the king's uncle and Protector, these bold and wrathful lines : Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a foot: It had been recorded by Sir John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Act i. Sc. 3. Mandeville, |