Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
i
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my four grandchildren
Rinah Berith
Valor Zurishaddi
Thane Ruach
Prester Malkiel
Numbers 6:24-26
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface viii
iii
Table of Contents
iv
Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
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Preface
Preface
viii
Preface
ix
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
Lecture One:
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
1
Lecture One
2
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
3
Lecture One
4
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
5
Lecture One
5 S. L. Bethell, Literary Criticism and the English Tradition, (London: Dennis Dobson,
Ltd, 1948), pp. 53-54.
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
7
Lecture One
9
Lecture One
10
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
10 The price for the BBC set of Shakespeares plays has gone down considerably,
though it varies quite a bit depending on where one purchases it.
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
them for his own profit. 2) He could have been a man like Lot
in the book of Genesis a believer in the true God in fact, but
one who was very much influenced by the evil around him in-
fluenced by evil so much that his plays reflected a non-Christian
worldview and the tendencies of his day almost as much as they
reflected his Christian worldview. 3) He could have been a man
like David, who was sometimes godly and wise and sometimes
extremely sinful and foolish, with the result that different plays
show his spiritual state at different times. 4) He could have been
a man like Solomon, who started out wise and godly, fell from the
faith for some time, and repented in his later years. Needless to
say, these four possibilities do not exhaust the hypothetical options,
the most reasonable of which is a fifth: Shakespeare was a faithful
Anglican Christian. The point is that anyone who is going to be
strictly fair to the lack of historical evidence available has to admit
that we dont really know much about Shakespeares private life.
Nevertheless, we do know that whatever kind of man he was
and however he may have lived his life, he knew the Bible very well.
We know that he quoted from it often and intelligently. More than
that, we know that he used the Bible as the basic structure or guide
for some of his plays. For example, a Bible verse provides the title
of the play Measure for Measure. A Bible doctrine provides
the theme of the play, The Merchant of Venice. Biblical char-
acters provide the typology for the play, Macbeth. And so on.
The approximately 2000 references to the Bible in Shakespeares
plays14 vary in importance, but together they demonstrate a pro-
found understanding of the Bible and a facility to apply the Bible
to contemporary situations that considerably surpasses the ability
of most Christian ministers. Whatever his personal faith was, his
plays are written from a Christian perspective, one that betrays a
14 Do the calculations. In approximately 40 plays, there are about 2000 references
to the Bible. This means on average 50 references per play, 10 references per Act.
No other literary work has comparable impact on Shakespeares plays.
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
They have not heard the Biblical echoes or noticed the Biblical
structure of the stories.
To these topics, I will return later. At this point I need to
offer general answers to these basic criticisms of the Christian
interpretation.
1. Shakespeares Ethic
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
The second point I wish to make, and this is the crux of the
matter, is that we must not miss the fact that the real villains in
Shakespeare, like Richard III, Macbeth, and Iago, for example,
come to disastrous ends that clearly reflect the judgment of God
against their wickedness. In the case of Richard III, judgment
comes in specific answer to prayer! It can hardly be said that
Shakespeare lacks a conscience when, in every play that depicts
true evil, he brings the matter to ethical resolution.
The charge, then, that his plays do not endorse Christian ethics
comes from an overly narrow view of how a Christian playwright
ought to portray his characters and from not taking sufficient note
of the obvious fact that in Shakespeares plays, truly evil men meet
a truly evil end.
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Lecture One
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
Lecture Two:
Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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Lecture Two
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
Let us begin with the first question; does tragedy exclude the
notion of ethical cause and effect? The question itself may sound
odd to some. But it arises from the fact that there are critics who
insist that if a play contains clear ethical cause and effect, it is no
longer a tragedy, even though it may have been intended as one.
A story with ethical cause and effect is merely a story of a person
reaping what he sowed. A mere moralistic tale is not only not very
interesting; it can never reach the profound heights of tragedy.
True tragedy, some maintain, must be like the ancient story
of Oedipus. Though the hero of the story is not without faults,
we cannot say that tragedy befell him because of some moral
failure on his part.
A brief review of the ancient tale may be helpful. In the story
of Oedipus, the king and queen of Thebes, Laius and Jacosta, are
shocked by the word of an oracle that their new born son will
grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. They attempt to
prevent this horror by killing the son, but the servant to whom
they committed the job cannot carry it through. Though he has
been ordered to leave the child on a mountain to die, the servant
gives him to a shepherd. It just so happens that this shepherd
belongs to the house of the childless king of Corinth, Polybus.
As it turns out, then, Oedipus does grow up as a Greek prince,
but in the city of Corinth rather than Thebes.
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Lecture Two
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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Lecture Two
2 Ibid.
3 A. C. Bradley wrote: We see a number of human beings placed in certain
circumstances; and we see, arising from the co-operation of their characters in these
circumstances, certain actions. These actions beget others, and these others beget
others again, until this series of interconnected deeds leads by an apparently inevitable
sequence to a catastrophe. The effect of such a series on imagination is to make us
regard the sufferings which accompany it, and the catastrophe in which it ends, not
only or chiefly as something which happens to the persons concerned, but equally
as something which is caused by them. This at least may be said of the principal
persons, and, among them,of the hero, who always contributes in some measure to
the disaster in which he perishes. Shakespearean Tragedy, p. 12.
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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Lecture Two
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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men and women. We cannot and do not live our lives in a shell.
In the Bible, too, ethical cause and effect reverberates much more
broadly than mere poetic justice because people are members of
social groups. Thus the book of Joshua, for example, tells how
the sin of one man, Achan, brought defeat in battle and the deaths
of many Israelites.
Shakespeares tragedies, in other words, conform to the view
of life presented in the Bible. Just as in a tragedy the calamity
with which the play ends far surpasses the level of the heros fault,
so also in Biblical stories, beginning with the story of the fall of
Adam, we often read of heroes that bring suffering to others. This
means that we cannot simply reduce tragedy to the moral lesson
that we reap what we sow. If we sow a peach seed, we may get a
peach tree, but we do not expect to return a few days later to find
a whole orchard. When the evil consequences of a rash or sinful
action seem to vastly outweigh the cause, we face tragedy.
This is the reason that the hero of a tragedy must be a man
in high position. For a great mans faults, even if they are strictly
personal and not obviously significant in themselves, still may have
huge consequences. By contrast, we can imagine an average man
with relatively large faults who would not be a legitimate subject
for a tragedy if he simply reaped what he sowed, without bring-
ing trouble on many other people. Leaders are in a position to
make mistakes that have consequences that are nothing less than
awesome.
A related consideration is that the consequences are irrevers-
ible. In other words, tragedy ends in death. When the problems
caused by ones sin and folly can be solved and the situation re-
versed, it is no longer tragedy. Shakespeares tragedies, therefore,
end with the death of the hero and usually not a few others with
him. In Othello, where the fault is personal and the damage to
others is relatively less in comparison with the other great trag-
edies, five people die: the hero, his faithful wife, Desdemona, his
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
enemy, Iago, Iagos wife, Emilia, and the bumbling Rodrigo. Five
lives are lost because of Othellos foolish and groundless jealousy.
There is another aspect of tragedy that may seem to contradict
what we have pointed out so far, though the contradiction is only
apparent. Tragedy always includes mystery. Moral explanation of a
sort and to a degree is possible, but in a tragedy, things happen that
are not explicable. Explanation, in other words, can never be total.
If we remind ourselves of Biblical stories, we see this dimension
rather clearly as clearly as we see the slander in Schopenhauers
assertion that Christians are bound by superficial notions of poetic
justice. Think, for example, of the story of Cain and Abel. Here
is a tragedy. But does Cain suffer for the murder of his younger
brother? Yes, but it is slight compared to what we might expect.
Moreover, he becomes the first city builder and apparently lives a
long prosperous life. Where is the justice for Abel?
The anguish faced by the prophet Habakkuk is similar. He
was deeply troubled by what he saw God doing. It certainly did
not fit his or anyone elses sense of poetic justice. He saw that
the Babylonians were far worse, morally and religiously, than the
kingdom of Judah. He also knew that God was going to use
the evil to judge the relatively less evil. It troubled him deeply,
wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and
holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is
more righteous than he? (Hab. 1:13)
The Bible is not a book of poetic justice. Often things hap-
pen that offend our sense of what is fair. We are not given no
explanation, but neither are we given the kind of full and satisfying
elucidation we might wish. According to the Biblical worldview,
we must face the fact that history is shrouded in mysteries that
will only find solutions in the final judgment, at the end of time
when all things are brought to light. Until then, nothing is so
fully explained that it really satisfies our sense of poetic justice.
Shakespeare has been influenced by this worldview so that in his
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Lecture Two
plays, there are reflections of it. Mystery remains and leaves its
frustrating mark on all of our explanations.
We have both the ethical logic of Christianity and the mys-
terious working of a God whose ways are not our ways. In all of
Shakespeares tragedies, providence interferes in wonderful ways
to complicate matters, to frustrate the plans of sinful men, and,
ultimately, to show us, as Hamlet said, Theres a divinity that
shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.
We can summarize, then, and say that the following are what
makes tragedy to be tragedy in Shakespeare: 1) there is ethical
causality. 2) Things could have been different. 3) The hero begins
at least as a basically decent man. 4) The consequences of the
tragic choice overturn the scales of poetic justice. 5) The tragedy is
irreversible because it ends in death. 6) There is that which cannot
be explained. Tragedy confronts us with the mystery of life and
reminds us that God has a plan that transcends our understanding.
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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Lecture Two
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes. (Rev. 7:16-17). If the Bible teaches that
God Himself takes our suffering seriously, how can one conclude
that a Christians future hope means there can be no true tragedy?
Returning to Shakespeare, Desdemona, Othellos faithful
wife, was murdered and went to heaven, as her servant Emilia
said. But does anyone watching the play feel that the fact that she
is going to be with Christ somehow makes her death less tragic?
She was murdered by a man that she loved and to whom she was
perfectly devoted. She died at the hand of her beloved with the
word whore ringing in her ears. Is this tragedy? Yes. And the
fact that she will shortly be in heaven does not reduce the agony
she suffers. Desdemonas death is a tragedy because none but
God can wipe away her tears.
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
other genre (except possibly horror) more easily than they can
tragedy, and there are, no doubt, some people who would avoid
tragedy altogether.
Humes answer, then, is too general, at best. Insofar as it
seems to apply equally well to genres other than tragedy, it fails to
answer the question of why we enjoy tragedy. Perhaps we need
to consider again, what tragedy is, and in particular what Shake-
spearean tragedy is, in order to understand why we enjoy it.
Here a Christian perspective sheds the light we need to see the
issue clearly, for Christians have special insight into tragedy. The
Bible begins with the quintessential tragic story, that of Adam and
Eve. Though the Bible tells it succinctly and it may be difficult
to turn it directly into a Shakespearean play, the story of Adam
and Eve is the paradigm upon which Shakespearean tragedy as a
whole is based. Like the plays from the Middle Ages before him,
Shakespeares tragedies imitate the Biblical story of the fall of a
great man.8
The most obvious example of Shakespeare retelling the story
of Adam and Eve is, of course, the tragedy of Macbeth. Witches,
the instruments of the devil, tempt a husband and wife to sin in
order to become king and queen, to become like gods. As we shall
see later, Shakespeare quite self-consciously uses details from the
Biblical story to make sure that we notice the obvious parallel.
This means that tragedy offers us meditation on real life, because
it depicts a world that has fallen into sin the world we know
by experience.
It is possible, therefore, for us to sympathize. We can identify
with the events and characters in Shakespearean tragedy because
we, too, know tragedy. Our tragedy is usually on a small scale, but
that does not make it less real to us. No doubt, our tragedies do
not dramatically compare with Macbeth, nevertheless the same
8 See: http://www.theatrehistory.com/medieval/.
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Conclusion
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Refutation of Objections to a Christian Shakespeare (II)
beside him.12
The point that Hegel makes is important. Shakespeares
plays seem to confront us with real people, characters that come
across as having real personalities. What this means is clear. If
we felt that the characters were unreal or simply the embodiment
of some idea, we could not get involved with them or the story.
They would come across as mere symbols of something else and
the dramatic power of their words would be lost.
The genius of Shakespeare is that his plays do communicate
ideas and contain symbolism and allusions to other stories, but they
also function dramatically at the level of a story with characters
so real that we see them and their stories as unique.
Let me suggest that perhaps the full individuality of Shake-
speares characters comes from his borrowing so much from the
Bible rather than merely imitating the ancient Greeks, which brings
us to the topic of our next lecture Shakespeare and his use of
the Bible.
12 Ibid.
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Lecture Three
Lecture Three:
Shakespeares Use of the Bible (I)
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Lecture Three
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Shakespeares Use of the Bible (I)
Let me repeat some of the main points that Alter makes. First,
Alter provides an important distinction between literary allusion
and what we might call casual allusion. In our everyday speech,
in newspaper articles, or even in advertisements, we make use of
allusion for the sake of embellishment. This sort of allusion is a
matter of style; it adds panache, but is not vital to the content. In
true literary allusion, however, the author or speaker is interacting
3 Robert Alter, The World of Biblical Literature (New York: Basic Books, 1992),
pp. 107-08.
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Shakespeares Use of the Bible (I)
need to take a relatively deep look at how the Bible uses allusion.
A straightforward example of literary allusion that is both
clear and complex is provided by the Biblical story of Ruth. We
must note, by the way, that we can understand the story of Ruth
even if we miss all the literary allusion in the book, for the story
stands by itself as a true narrative of the events it records. But if
we miss the literary allusion, our understanding will be shallow at
best. Any exposition of the book of Ruth we might offer would
be flawed deformed by huge gaps where the allusion made by
the author is actually necessary for a deep appreciation of the text.
To show what I mean, consider how literary allusion functions
in just the first five verses of the book.
1
Now it came about in the days when the judges gov-
erned, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain
man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land
of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
2
And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name
of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were
Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah.
Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
3
Then Elimelech, Naomis husband, died; and she was
left with her two sons.
4
And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives;
the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the
other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
5
Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; and the
woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
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that Elimelech lived, the reason that he moved to Moab, the fact
that his sons married there, and the fact that he and his sons died
there. A great deal has happened in just five verses! But the sur-
face details are linked to other Biblical stories, which the author
assumes we know. There is much more than first meets the eye
and though I cannot give a full exposition, we will consider these
verses in some detail.
The book of Ruth begins with the words, Now it came
about in the days when the judges governed. We know from
the book of Judges that the days when the judges governed were
troubled times. The book of Judges itself ends with the ominous
statement, In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone
did what was right in his own eyes. When the book of Judges
says no king in Israel, I believe the point is that Israel did not
acknowledge God as her king. Thus, the allusion to the days of
the judges at the very beginning of Ruth is telling us that this
story happened at a time when the people of Israel were not tak-
ing Gods kingship seriously. They did what they pleased and did
not take Gods commandments to heart. We will not be able to
fully appreciate this until we consider the whole passage and the
meaning of the name Elimelech, but the first words of the book
are telling us much more than just when the events took place.
We are being prepared for a story that is similar to the stories in
the book of Judges.
And we are not disappointed. For the next words are there
was a famine in the land. If we are familiar with the book of
Judges and the times in which the Judges ruled, we will remember
that it was a time of repeated disobedience and judgment. The
background for these stories, of course, is the Mosaic Law. Mo-
ses had given Israel the commandments that they were supposed
to obey when they entered the land. If the people of Israel kept
the commandments, they would continue to enjoy Gods favor
and their blessings would increase. But, Moses warned, if they
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Lecture Three
mally expect more than enough bread. The story of this certain
man, then, begins with profound irony.
The fact that he is from Judah, the tribe that was to lead
Israel, is also significant, especially in the light of his own name,
Elimelech, which means My God (Eli) is king (meleck)! This adds
to the irony because his name contradicts his actions. As we shall
see, Elimelech from Judah is a man who does not take seriously
the kingship of God. Like the book of Judges says, he ignores
the true King and does what is right in his own eyes.
What was Elimelechs response to the famine? He went on a
sojourn. Those who know the Bible well immediately recognize
that this is not the first story of a famine leading to a sojourn.
These words in the Book of Ruth establish a literary connection
with another Biblical story, which adds depth to the irony already
introduced. The story that is being alluded to is the story of
Abraham in Genesis 12:10. Abraham left the Promised Land
when there was a famine. Later Genesis 26:1 tells us of the story
of another famine in the land in the days of Isaac. Again, there
is a famine in the land in the days of Jacob who sends his sons
to Egypt to buy grain. All of these stories provide background
for the story in Ruth. However, the point is not as some com-
mentators tell us that there are frequent famines in the land.
In the days of Abraham the land of Canaan which was then
the land belonging to the Canaanites was already beginning to
experience Gods covenantal judgment, but the sins of Amorites
were not yet full. God was not ready to bring final judgment and
give the land to Israel.
In the case of Abraham, then, it was perfectly legitimate for
him to leave the Promised Land and sojourn in Egypt because
the Promised Land had not yet been given to Abraham and his
descendants. It still belonged to the Canaanites and God was
dealing with them.
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6 Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (New York: Riverhead
Books, 1998), pp. 516 ff.
7 The difference between this and the first category is that borrowing may be
less clear than quoting and quoting is usually more than just a word or a short phrase.
But the distinction between the two categories is not always sharp.
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Now the Bible does not exactly say that Adam digged
though it does say that he was put in the Garden to till it and
we have to assume that at some point, he did actually dig. But
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interacting with Marlowes The Jew of Malta while at the same time,
he relies upon contemporary ideas of the city of Venice and a
stereotyped picture of Jewish moneylenders. All of this, however,
is woven into a parable about salvation by grace rather than law.
In our lectures, we are not going to attempt to delve into these
complex allusions to non-Christian or medieval literature. If we
can deal adequately, in an introductory way, with Biblical allusions,
we will be doing well. As one reads critical texts for each play, he
will see that Shakespeare does allude to a wide variety of literature
and that some of his allusions are bewilderingly intricate.
Although an allusion to a story can be subtle, some of Shake-
speares allusions to Biblical stories are quite explicit. For example,
in The Merchant of Venice, during a conversation between Antonio
and Shylock, Shylock reminds Antonio of the story of Jacob serv-
ing Laban and attempts to use it to justify his practice of lending
on interest. When we have this sort of explicit citation of the
story, there is no question about the Biblical reference.
Usually the allusion is less explicit and sometimes it may be
disputed. Naseeb Shaheen denies that the relationship between
Macbeth and his wife alludes to the Biblical story of Ahab and
Jezebel in 1 Kings 21 because, he says, Shakespeare is following the
history of Scotland written by Holingshed. Holingshed recounts
the history of Macbeth and also a story about one Donwald whose
wife urged him to kill King Duff. Shakespeare puts these two
stories together in his play about Macbeth. Shaheen, therefore,
concludes that there is no allusion to the Biblical story. I disagree.
I see multiple allusions in the story of Macbeth. The fact that
Shakespeare is using the historical record of Holingshed does
not in any way imply that he cannot also be alluding to a Biblical
story. Shaheen is missing the most important point. When we
see Shakespeare changing the history of Scotland and combining
two historical narratives to form a single story that is very close to
the Biblical story, I think we have good evidence that the Biblical
story provided a paradigm.
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Lecture Four:
Shakespeares Use of the Bible (II)
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with the dragon who opposes Christ and His people. Names like
hedgehog, dog, rooting hog, and the boar, also point to Richard
as unclean and devilish.
In addition, the fact that Richard is physically disfigured
according to the play at least is used symbolically to point to
his character. His bent body functions as a symbol for his twisted
soul. So Lady Anne calls him, thou foul lump of deformity.
Others, too, connect the fact of his physical misshapenness with
his spiritual perversity.
Symbolism is not limited to the use of single words or figures
of speech but functions also at the broadest level. Consider the
distinction between Shakespearean comedy and tragedy. These
two sorts of plays are formed on Biblical models and are an ex-
pression of Biblical symbolism in a general way. What do I mean?
Well, although this way of putting things is overly simplistic, it is
not incorrect to say that a comedy is a play that ends in a marriage
and a tragedy is a play that ends in death. Note: the point is not
that a comedy has a happy ending and a tragedy has a sad end-
ing. Comedy versus tragedy is not funny versus sad, or even life
versus death; it is wedding versus death. Of course, it is generally
true that tragedies are dark and that comedies are light, with funny
dialogue and odd happenings. But it is the ending that is decisive.
And Shakespearean comedy, though it could be said to be a play
with a happy ending, is characteristically a play with a wedding
for an ending.
Why? Because Shakespeare is borrowing from the Bible or
at least from the Biblical worldview. His comedies and tragedies
end where the Bible ends in the final division of humanity into
two groups: those that enjoy what the book of Revelation calls
the marriage feast of the Lamb, and those who face the sec-
ond death. Biblical history ends with the division of the world
between marriage and death.
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Shakespeares Use of the Bible (II)
is there mere circular repetition of the same things over and over.
History is a spiral. There is real progress as history moves upward
toward its goal, but there are regular and recurring patterns. We
referred to one of these patterns the Exodus motif when
we spoke of the book of Ruth.
Typology takes this one step further. Typology sees all these
patterns as pointing to Christ and fulfilled in Him. The book of
Hebrews tells us that the tabernacle, the Aaronic priesthood, and
the sacrifices are all types of Christ. In other places, we learn that
Moses, Joshua, and David are types of Christ. The Exodus and
other important events are also described as having typological
meaning pointing forward to the salvation accomplished by Jesus.
More broadly, since Christ is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king,
these offices have a typological significance as well.
In Bible itself, then, typology is essential to the way Bible
writers view history and also to the way later Scripture interprets
earlier Scriptures. This feature of the Bibles self-interpretation
was a fundamental part of the medieval view of the world and the
churchs approach to the Bible. Minimalist literalism was not the
trend of the day. Assuming Shakespeare read the Bible like men
of his day means that we also have to assume that his references
to the Bible have the same sort of pregnant typological meaning
that he found in the Scriptures, especially since his plays contain
numerous and clear hints in that direction.
Another aspect of Biblical typology important for under-
standing Shakespeare is that the person whose life points forward
to Christ must, in the nature of the case, be a man who is not
really a worthy model. That may sound strange at first, but the
point is simple: who can really be worthy to prefigure Jesus?
The type can never be more than a very partial and imperfect
revelation of the anti-type. David, for example, was one of the
main types of Christ, in spite of his having committed murder
and adultery. Another person commonly recognized as a type of
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in the play that offends Bloom the most is the Duke, Vincentio.
For Bloom, Vincentio does not employ secret means to achieve
good results but rather is addicted to disguises, sadistic teasings,
and designs hopelessly duplicitous.7 Bloom can even say, In
Vincentios Vienna, as in Freuds, reality comes down to sex and
death, though Vincentios city is even closer to the formula: sex
equals incest equals death. That equation is the only idea of order
in Measure for Measure . . .8
How can Bloom come up with an interpretation like this?
What justification does he find for his approach? To begin with,
since sexual temptation and sin is very much at the heart of the
play, Bloom finds abundant opportunity to read the play from a
Freudian perspective. In addition to the surface discussion of
sex and temptation, Bloom, like Freud, finds sex in all sorts of
places the unenlightened reader would never think to discover it,
so that he can call the play a pre-Freudian joke against Freud.9
In addition to the Freudian penchant for strange and wonderful
interpretations, Bloom regards as absurd and immoral the idea
of a prince who hides his identity to test his judge and city in his
apparent absence. Isabellas chastity offends Bloom also since she
would rather see her brother die than offer her body to Angelo to
save him. Thus, Vincentio is a sadistic deceiver and Isabella is a
hypocritical, selfish prude. If these two main characters, Vincentio
and Isabella, cannot be understood as good people, the whole play
must be mocking or criticizing them and what they do.
What can we say about this? First, this approach requires us
to see the many references to the Bible in the play as ironic and
the title, a reference to Matthew 7:2, as blasphemy unlikely to
say the least, especially in the light of the various contemporary
sources behind the play. Shakespeare, in other words, did not
7 Ibid., p. 370.
8 Ibid., p. 374.
9 Ibid., p. 371
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he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
When we see the Duke as a Christ figure who disguises his rule
in order to reform the city by leading men to repentance, the play
makes sense in ways that it does not if it is merely read politically,
psychologically, or ethically. As a merely political play, it could not
really deal with all three of the issues that Auden points to. Politics
can deal with authority and justice, but it cannot directly address
forgiveness. And the idea of a Duke working behind the scenes
like this to bring about forgiveness and reconciliation is not at all
political. While Auden is correct to see in this play a commentary
on the true nature of society, the point of the play cannot be that
politicians should disguise themselves and try to do the kinds of
things the Duke does.
The Duke as a type of Christ takes the play out of the realm
of the city of man and brings God into the picture, but without
the complications of a directly theological statement. God is in
the play, of course, in that He is understood as giving providential
direction to all things. But the Duke functions as a Christ-figure,
virtually omniscient and all wise. His plans work to the good
and benefit of all, and lead the citizens of Vienna, as well as the
audience, to the realization that justice and authority cannot stand
without love and reconciliation.
Thus, the political message of the play is contained in a
parable. Gods mysterious ways with men are symbolized by the
Dukes mysterious working with his citizens. And the relation-
ship between law, repentance, and love is portrayed though a story
of the fall and redemption. Of course, in a Shakespearean play,
typology is not necessarily historically true, as it is in the Bible,
but by giving the play a real place name, Vienna, and by building
plots and subplots that have a historical flavor, Shakespeare cre-
ates typology that functions in a manner similar to typology in the
Bible, even though the story is fiction.
In his plays on English history, Shakespeare is able to use
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list, but I would guess that we might find at least double the total
suggested by Shaheen.
I think it is reasonable to guess about 2000 references in the
37 plays. Depending on the exact number, we have an average of
about 40 or 50 references to the Bible in each of Shakespeares
plays, though, of course, some plays have more and others fewer
references. On average, there would be about 8-10 references per
act since plays have five acts. Not all of the references are equally
important, not all of them are profound. But the sheer frequency
of Shakespeares references to the Bible tells us something about
how important the Bible is for understanding his plays.
It is also important to note that Shakespeare quotes from
various English versions. Since the English versions available to
Shakespeare often overlap, especially when an allusion is just to a
phrase, we are often not able to know which version Shakespeare
may have in mind. But in those cases when we can clearly discern
which version Shakespeare is alluding to, unquestionably the ver-
sion most frequently referred to was the one associated with John
Calvin: the Geneva Bible. Though he does not limit himself to
this version and in some places he even seems to be borrowing
language from two different versions at the same time, quotation
from the Geneva Bible is quite significant. All of this is simply
to emphasize that the sheer quantity of Biblical references from
many books of the Bible indicates that Shakespeare was an avid
reader of Holy Scripture.
Closely related to his use of the Bible are his references to the
prayer book and the Anglican Liturgy. Shaheen tells us By the
time Shakespeares dramatic career began around 1589, the Angli-
can service had been in effect for some thirty years. Shakespeares
plays give abundant evidence that he was thoroughly acquainted
with that service.14 Since church attendance was mandatory in
his day, we know that Shakespeare attended church each Sunday,
14 Shaheen, Shakespeares Biblical References, p. 51.
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Lecture Five
Lecture Five:
The Merchant of Venice
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103
Lecture Five
I. Controversial Issues
A. Homosexuality
B. Feminism
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judge that delivered them, does anyone object that it is not ap-
propriate for a woman to do such a thing? No. Are they offended
that she has deceived them? Not at all. Everyone is delighted at
what she has done. The play suggests a society in which women
are treated with honor and respect, for their intelligence no less
than their beauty and virtue. This is not the picture of the evil,
Christian, patriarchal past that feminists paint. No one would
dispute the fact that Elizabethan England did not realize Christian
ideals, but the fact remains that the play shows an ideal of love and
honor for the woman as both daughter and wife, which exalts her
position in society. This has always been the Christian view. The
embarrassing truth that it is often not practiced is a testimony to
mans sinfulness, not an indictment of the ideal itself.
C. Anti-Semitism
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A. Allegory?
First, then, can this play be regarded as a story that retells the
story of the Christian Gospel? Remember, this play, has more
references to Scripture than any other single Shakespearean play
and, as we shall see, it is a story that seems obviously related to
the Biblical story of redemption. If this play uses Bible references
merely as embellishments rather than as a means of serious reflec-
tion upon Biblical truth, we might be led to doubt that Shakespeare
ever treats the Bible seriously. From this perspective, then, I think
we may regard The Merchant of Venice as a test case.
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The Merchant of Venice
B. Usury
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In their opinion, the man who borrowed the money and worked
for gain is the only one who deserved reward.
Since the late 19th century, which saw the introduction of
a new understanding of interest by Austrian economists, it has
become common sense to regard loaning money as a service,
one that businesses often need. Obviously, those who provide
the service should be rewarded. However, in Shakespeares day,
common sense dictated otherwise. Money does not give birth to
money the way sheep give birth to sheep, nor does it grow, like
a seed into a tree. Therefore, they reasoned, money should not
merely multiply because it has been loaned.
In addition, and more basically, there is a Biblical command
not to lend money on interest. This is where both Jews and
Christians learned that usury is wrong. And it is not just wrong;
usury is considered a very serious sin. In the book of Ezekiel, for
example, it is written: If he has exacted usury or taken increase
Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of
these abominations, he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon
him. (Eze. 18:13) Whatever it means to exact usury, it is a sin
that brings Gods wrath to the point that He pronounces death
on the usurer. This is the reason that it was taken so seriously by
the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and by the churches of
the Reformation. There is no reason that I can think of that we
in our day should assume that God is happy with usury.
But what is usury? The problem is one of definition. What
is the sin that God forbids in Ezekiel? That is a difficult question.
Over time, churches changed their views on what constituted usury,
deciding that usury was interest on a charity loan, a loan to a poor
person who was in need of help. Some Christians also believe that
usury includes the notion of excessive interest though that is
hard to define. If we understand it correctly, usury is a serious sin
because it is taking advantage of a poor man and oppressing him.
At some point, the Church also decided that charging inter-
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C. General Structure
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contains Portias picture. The man who wishes to marry her must
choose the correct casket. But she is worried about who that might
be. She would rather have her own choice and she expresses her
fears. Her maid, Nerissa, offers her comfort and encouragement.
In particular, the maid reminds her of the man she might want
to marry, Bassanio. Thus, from the beginning the two stories are
linked by the similarities between Antonio and Portia. The two
are linked by love and fear. Both are seen to be troubled, both are
seen to care a great deal for Bassanio and both receive comfort
and encouragement from their friends.
The two stories not only have a common beginning, they have
a common end. They both culminate and find their resolution in
trials. In the case of the story of Shylock and Antonio, the trial
is before the court, with the Duke presiding and a judge offering
legal advice. In the case of the love story, Bassanio is tested by a
trial devised by Portias father. That the test is real is emphasized
by the fact that others have failed. Then, at end of the play, Bas-
sanio is actually tested a second time with regard to the ring Portia
had given him. In the last scene, the use of legal terminology,
the many references to Antonios trial before the Duke, and the
swearing of similar oaths must be all be intended to link the final
scene at Belmont with the trial in Venice.
Thus, a simple consideration of surface structures indicates
that the two stories have parallel beginnings and parallel conclu-
sions. But the most important link between the two stories is the
central issue, the truth communicated by each of the stories. The
story of Antonio and Shylock comes to a climactic moment when
Antonio willingly offers his life for Bassanio. This self-sacrificial
love is the heart of the play. Antonio considers Bassanio more
important than himself illustrating the meaning of Pauls com-
mand in Philippians 2:3-5 and offers his life for his friend.
The self-sacrifice of Antonio is obviously central. However,
we must not miss the fact that Bassanio learned from Antonio
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120
The Merchant of Venice
D. Details
for many centuries and I think that we should assume that Shake-
speare shared this mistaken view. Jacobs name is related to a
Hebrew verb that seems to literally mean, follow at the heel,
but it is used in a more figurative sense with meanings like as-
sail insidiously, circumvent, overreach. Jacob took advantage
of his brothers weakness to steal the birthright, he deceived his
father into giving him a blessing, and then, through some sort of
manipulation, he managed to get the majority of the sheep from
the herd of his father-in-law, Laban. In Shakespeares day, he was
widely regarded as a covetous, deceptive, unpleasant person. Our
picture of Shylock comes in part from the association with Jacob
the father of the Jewish people.
It is relevant also to note that Antonio opposes Shylocks
interpretation, or implied interpretation, of the story of Jacobs
obtaining Labans sheep, offering a Christian view of the passage
and adding in an aside to Bassanio that the devil can quote Scripture
for his own purposes. This whole encounter adds deceptiveness
to Shylocks covetousness and shows him as a man who twists the
Scriptures, a sin Jesus repeatedly charges against the Pharisees.
In addition to this, Shylock comes across as lacking humanity,
or, in the words of the apostle Paul, as being without natural af-
fection. The relationship with his daughter, Jessica, is the means
whereby this trait is communicated. In one of her first lines, she
complains, our house is hell. Of her father she says, Though
I am daughter to his blood, I am not to his manners. When
Shylock discovers that his daughter has left him and eloped with
a Christian, he is dismayed, but not in the way one might expect.
One of the minor characters, Salanio, describes Shylocks reaction
to the news that his daughter has run away.
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The Merchant of Venice
We are given the strong impression that the loss of the ducats
stung more deeply than the loss of his daughter. Shylock himself,
speaking in language that appears outrageously exaggerated, says,
Imagine a Jew who can say that the loss of a small part of
his personal fortune is the beginning of the curse on the nation
of Israel, or a father who could wish his daughter dead at his feet,
so long as the jewels were in her ear! Shylock clearly loves his
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Lecture Five
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The Merchant of Venice
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Lecture Five
When the trial begins, the Duke asks Shylock to show mercy.
He adamantly refuses. When he is asked his reasons for denying
mercy, he rejects the question, responding:
128
The Merchant of Venice
After Bassanio has renewed his offer for far more money than
what was owed, the young doctor addresses Shylock,
130
The Merchant of Venice
but it is too late, he has already refused the money in open court.
There is no turning back. In Portias words:
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The Merchant of Venice
life situation are tolerable because they are part of an allegory and
serve a literary purpose. The play is setting before us the contrast
between Jewish legalism and Christian mercy. When the Jew is
condemned by the very law that he trusted in a New Testament,
Gospel theme the Duke and Antonio offer him mercy, though
only moments before Shylock spurned to show even the slightest
mercy to others. The result of Antonios mercy is that Shylock
must consent to become a Christian and, in effect, recognize his
daughters conversion and marriage.
Once again, we see a central truth of the Gospel in the New
Testament, for Paul prayed for the conversion of Israel and made
the question of Israels unbelief one of the main themes in the
book of Romans, the book in which he expounds the basic truths
of the Gospel. The conversion of Shylock is not anti-Semitic; it
is an expression of the New Testament hope that all Israel shall
be saved through faith in Christ.
I trust that it is clear enough now that the play as a whole and
in the details is designed as an allusion to the Bible, specifically to
some of the main themes of the book of Romans and the story
of the crucifixion of Christ. But some interpreters of Shakespeare
have complicated matters further. They agree in seeing Biblical
allusion as structuring the entire story, but they deny that Shake-
speare is simply telling us the story of the Gospel. They see his
story as offering a more complex message, one that includes irony
and that suggests themes that contradict the theme of the Christian
Church inheriting the Scriptures and promises God gave to Israel.
In other words, certain details of the play are seen as under-
mining a Christian message. One often-quoted example is the
hostility that Antonio expresses toward Shylock when Shylock
complains of the mistreatment he has received.
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Lecture Five
Shylock says,
Antonio responds,
134
The Merchant of Venice
135
Lecture Five
Girard commented:
137
Lecture Five
138
The Merchant of Venice
and called for his conversion, Gratiano adds his own comment
on the situation:
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Lecture Five
bond and allows Shakespeare to end the play with a renewal of the
wedding vows and the promise of a deeper fidelity for the future.
We should not allow our modern sensitivities to rob us of the
pleasure of this allegorical comedy. The play ends happily with
the salvation of Antonio, the forgiveness and conversion of the
villain and renewed vows of love for the newly wed couples. All
is grounded in self-denying love. The fact that this love brings
prosperity in this world is a necessary end in a play that pictures
the truth of the Gospel, for God promises infinite riches in Christ
for those who believe.
III. Conclusion
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Macbeth (I)
Lecture Six:
Macbeth Part 1
141
Lecture Six
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Macbeth (I)
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Macbeth (I)
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Macbeth (I)
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Banquo had previously helped the king and that they meet the
three weird sisters who prophesy to them about their future. These
details in Shakespeare do indeed come from Holinsheds history.
However, in Holinshed, the two captains together with other
Scottish leaders overthrow Duncan and make Macbeth king. In
the Scottish history, there is no murder of Duncan by Macbeth
and his evil wife. It is the Scottish lords in concert who eliminate
Duncan. Even more importantly, after Macbeth is made king, he
reigns peacefully. Consider Holinsheds account of Macbeths
first years on the throne.
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6 http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/holinshed/texts.shtml
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Macbeth (I)
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Macbeth (I)
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A. General Structure
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Macbeth (I)
story is too obviously like the story in Genesis for us to miss the
similarities. Becoming a king is close to becoming like God. The
temptation of a husband and wife by Satan or his ministers so
evidently allude the story of Adam and Eve it is remarkable that
anyone should doubt the literary connection.
The relationship between Macbeth and his wife points to the
story of Adam and Eve in the way that Lady Macbeth gives in
first to the temptation and then encourages Macbeth to join her.
Though a more careful reading of the Biblical story in the light of
Pauls teaching in the New Testament clearly places the blame for
the fall on Adams shoulders, the common reading of the Genesis
story in Shakespeares day would have been something closer to
the temptation of the man by the woman as we see in Macbeth.
I will return to this point later.
Another aspect of the general structure of Shakespeares
play is the portrayal of Macbeth as, at the outset, a righteous and
good man. This is necessary, as we pointed out, so that the play
can develop into a tragedy, but it is also a reflection of the Biblical
story. Adam was created upright. He fell into sin through temp-
tation and his personality changed in an instant. In Macbeth, the
process of temptation is prolonged and we peer into the heart of
a man who first struggles to resist sin, but then gives in. When
Macbeth sins, he is transformed immediately, just as Adam was.
Considered in detail, the parallels are striking.
To evaluate the significance of these features of the story of
Macbeth, we have to remember that Shakespeare has rewritten
Scottish history to create his stage play. We also have to remember
that religious plays depicting the fall of man into sin were part of
the culture of the day. Keeping these two facts in mind, the general
structural features of the story alone are more than sufficient to
remind playgoers of the story of Adam and Eve.
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Lecture Six
B. Striking Details
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Macbeth (I)
do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none. Lady
Macbeth responds that it was when Macbeth dared to do more
that he was a man. The vital question in this emotional clash of
wills is the issue of what it means to be a man. Is a true man the
one who does his duty, or is a true man the one who dares all for
the sake of his ambition? This is almost identical to the question
of Genesis 3. Shall Adam rebel against God, as Satan suggests,
to attain the highest realization of his manhood in becoming a
sort of god, or shall he submit to Gods will and wait for higher
blessing to be bestowed in Gods way and time? When the ques-
tion of duty and ambition is tied to the question of what it really
means to be a man, we can hardly escape the allusion to the Bibli-
cal story of Adam.
The third detail involves a more specific literary connec-
tion: the transformation of Macbeths castle. This topic is little
remarked upon in spite of its meaning in the play. To see what
is happening, we need to contrast two views of Macbeths castle.
The first view is that of Banquo and Duncan as they approach
the castle in Scene 6 of Act I. There, they both comment on the
castle in language that speaks of its idyllic beauty.
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Macbeth (I)
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Shortly after this, the sound of knocking is heard at the gate and
Macbeth says:
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Macbeth (I)
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
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Lecture Six
hide and change their clothes. Meanwhile the castle, in which they
lived, depicted originally as a garden temple, has changed into the
devils dungeon. By doing what a man should not do, Macbeth in
seeking to become more than a mere man has unmanned himself.
He and his wife, who seemed so much in love and so united in the
contemplation of their sin, psychologically split from one another
the very instant the foul deed is done.
There is so much here that replicates the story of Adam and
Eve and it is presented with such psychological and analytical
depth, I cannot imagine anything but an ingrained prejudice that
could so blind a critic that he could miss the allusion. If we recall
what Steven Marx said about the lack of Biblical knowledge in
modern academia, I suppose we should also consider the possibil-
ity that some professors and critics are so ignorant of the Biblical
story they do not recognize the references. However that may be,
it should be clear to the unprejudiced reader that Shakespeare uses
the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as a paradigm to structure his
story of the murder of Duncan.
This does not mean however, that there are no other allusions
in this part of the play. Quite the contrary. In addition to the
role that the story of the fall plays as a paradigmatic story, giving
structure to the first part of Macbeth, other allusions tie the story
of Macbeth to the Bible and thus further intensify the Biblical
character of the story.
One of them occurs in Macbeths soliloquy in Act 1 scene 7,
when Macbeth begins with these words:
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Macbeth (I)
play in which Macbeth and his wife recapitulate the fall of man.
Miltons poem is more directly Biblical.
In Paradise Lost, Milton pictures Adam and Eve working
separately in the Garden at Eves insistence. This gives the ser-
pent opportunity to deceive her while she is alone. After eating
the forbidden fruit, she tells her husband what she has done and
Adam, filled with love for his wife, decides to eat the fruit so that
he will not be separated from his beloved. In Miltons version, then,
Adams sin may be said to be an idolatrous love for his beautiful
wife, but there is something noble about Adam sacrificing himself
for love. In effect, Eve gets the blame for the fall of man into sin.
In Shakespeares play, Macbeth and his wife share the blame
for the crime in a way that makes both culpable. It is true that in
Shakespeares play, Lady Macbeth goads her husband to murder
when he is reluctant, but we never come away feeling it is her fault
he fell into sin. Macbeth responded to the witches temptation
before his Lady knew anything of it. Her words would not have
impelled him to such a deed if there were no lust and ambition
in his heart to begin with. As the play progresses, we discover,
perhaps to our surprise, that Macbeth is much more aggressively
evil than his wife and in spite of her bold words before and im-
mediately after the murder, she continues to suffer guilt long after
Macbeth has ceased to feel anything.
The result is that though Shakespeare is only alluding to a
Biblical story rather than poetically retelling it like Milton, he is
actually much closer to the original story. For Paul tells us that the
woman was deceived, but Adam was not. In the Biblical perspec-
tive, the fault lies solely with Adam. There is nothing noble in what
he did. Nor did the woman sin first with Adam only imitating
later. When we understand Genesis 3 in the light of what Paul
said, the best interpretation is something like this: Adam and Eve
stood together before the tree of life when the serpent addressed
Eve from his lurch in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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VI. Conclusion
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Macbeth (I)
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Lecture Seven
Lecture Seven:
Macbeth Part 2
168
Macbeth (II)
169
Lecture Seven
170
Macbeth (II)
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Macbeth (II)
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Lecture Seven
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Macbeth (II)
should assume, therefore, that he read the story of Saul with some
sensitivity. What makes this especially important is that Sauls
story not only recapitulates the story of Adam, it also portrays
the psychology of sin in some depth, which is what Shakespeare
is doing in Macbeth.
I hope that I have shown enough of a relationship between
the stories of Adam and Saul that you can see how Shakespeare
might have associated them. The question is, of course, did he?
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Lecture Seven
16, the story of David begins and from there to the end of 1
Samuel, we shift back and forth between Saul and David, though
the central concern of the text is David. However, though the
focus is on David, the psychological and moral deterioration of
Saul, seen through both his actions and his words, constitutes a
major theme. We see the subtle changes that occur in Sauls per-
sonality over time. His relationship to God as seen through his
relationships with the people around him, especially Samuel and
David, is the key to the development in his character. Saul does
not unburden his heart, telling us exactly what he is thinking, but
his deeds speak loudly and clearly.
Thus, in the last half of the book of 1 Samuel, there is a story
of a king who has been told by a prophet that his throne will not
endure. The king refuses to submit to that judgment. Rather than
receive Gods judgment as just and accept David as the next king,
Saul tries to prevent David from taking the throne. At first, he
plans for David to die at the hands of the Philistines and sends him
to bring one hundred Philistine foreskins as a bride price. When
David succeeds, Sauls fear grows, especially when he sees that his
daughter actually loves David. In the end, Saul realizes that God
was with David but that only intensifies his fear and enmity:
When Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and
that Michal, Sauls daughter, loved him, then Saul was even more
afraid of David. Thus Saul was Davids enemy continually (1
Sam 18:28-29). From a Biblical perspective, this is an astonishing
statement. Saul sees and knows that the LORD is with David.
Instead of being humbled or fearing God, realizing that God is
for his enemy only makes Saul more determined to kill David.
After the failed attempt to get David killed by the Philistines,
Saul orders his confidants to kill David. However, Jonathan inter-
venes and persuades his father not to hate David. Saul even swears
an oath that David shall not be put to death. Once again, David
seems to enjoy favor at court. But when war with the Philistines
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Macbeth (II)
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Lecture Seven
178
Macbeth (II)
Those who read their Bible carefully will know that reference
to the king of Israel as the Lords anointed occurs first and most
frequently in the story of Saul. The expression naturally calls
this king to mind as well as his relationship with David, on whose
lips references to Saul as anointed by God occur 9 times in our
modern Bibles (1 Sam. 24:6,10; 26:9,11,16,23; 2 Sam. 1:14,16,21).
In the Geneva Bible that Shakespeare most frequently used, the
expression occurs 9 times altogether, 7 times with reference to
Saul and twice with reference to David.
Shakespeares allusion to the story of Saul with this expres-
sion provides a double irony. First, Macbeth, in contrast to David,
had no legitimate reason to fear or hate his king. If David had
killed Saul when he had the chance to assault him in the cave in
the mountains of Engedi, no one would have blamed him, for he
would have killed an unjust king who was seeking his life without
cause. But David, rather than kill Saul when his men tempted him
to do so, protected Sauls life from the others and then risked his
own life when he confronted Saul. Macbeth and David, therefore,
are brought into contrast. Each of them was in a situation in which
the king was given into his hand. Each of them was tempted by
others to kill the king. Each of them stood to win the throne by
the death of the king. However, David resisted the temptation.
Macbeth, having no provocation but his own lust, gave in to the
temptation and killed the Lords anointed. The link established
with the story of Saul serves to emphasize the evil of Macbeths sin.
The second irony is that in Macbeth, the one who killed the
Lords anointed becomes like Saul. Just at the place where the plot
of Macbeth shifts from being a story of Adams fall into a story
of the spiritual havoc wrought by sin, the allusion to the story of
David and Saul introduces us to the story of Saul with this double
irony and sets us up for what is to follow the story of a jealous
king who tries to murder his God-appointed successor.
There is another saying by Macbeth that is not by any means
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or man restrained him from doing evil. In Sauls case, the most
profound manifestation of his rebellious evil was the murder of
the priests and Gibeonites. For Macbeth, it was the murder of
MacDuff s wife and children, which followed soon after his words
about blood. The second link is Macbeths determination to visit
the weird sisters. This is associated with the story of Saul and
his visit to the witch of Endor because Macbeth here takes the
initiative to find them out and consult with them.
All of the narrative associations in the last part of Act 3 scene
4 point clearly enough to Saul that Macbeth speaking of blood
requiring blood should probably also be understood as an allusion
to the story of Saul.
The clearest allusion to the Biblical story of Saul occurs in
Act 4, Scene 1 where the witches remark on how amazed Macbeth
appears and decide to cheer Macbeth up with entertainment and
perhaps a meal. Naseeb Shaheen notes the allusion to 1 Samuel
28:21-25 where the witch of Endor seeing how distressed Saul is
offers him food to strengthen him. This allusion stands out not
only because it passes Shaheens strict criteria for Biblical allusion
but also because it establishes the larger narrative link between Saul
and Macbeth. The passage in which Shakespeare alludes to Saul
and the witch of Endor includes prolonged reference to Macbeths
jealousy of Banquo, making the thematic link between the two
stories clear. Sauls jealousy of David and his fear of disloyalty
among the people of Israel is linked with Macbeths jealousy of
Banquo and his fear of the Scottish lords.
Since this indisputable literary link seems to remove any
lingering doubts one might have about the larger narrative link, it
seems to me we are entitled to consider other less clear allusions
and speculate more fully on the connection.
There is, however, one problem. The lines in Shakespeares
text in which the allusion to the witch of Endor occur may be an
interpolation. Since this is not universally agreed upon and I am
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To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus.
Our fears in Banquo stick deep,
and in his royalty of nature reigns
that which would be feared.
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done, lest it drive them mad, is the one who cannot escape the
guilt of their sin. Before the murder of Duncan, it was Macbeth
who appeared unstable. While he was struggling with guilt and
contemplating the evil of the crime, she was praying to the demons
to become possessed. When he was reluctant, she rebuked him
in the sharpest language. Immediately after the murder, it is he
who is racked with guilt, while Lady Macbeth like Pontius Pilate
ridding himself of the responsibility for the murder of Christ
confidently asserts that a little water will clear them of the deed.
Ironically, the two characters switch at the very point when
Macbeths guilt has reached its climax. After the vision of Banquo
at his feast, Macbeth never feels overwhelming guilt again. At least,
he never expresses any feeling of guilt. Lady Macbeth, however,
falls apart. She cannot, after all, wash her hands clean from Dun-
cans blood. She actually feels what Macbeth feared when he said
that not even all the water in the ocean could make him clean.
Shakespeares Lady Macbeth is not at all based upon the real
historical character. Rather, she is in part based upon the wife
of Donwald, the Scottish lord who killed King Duff. She is re-
ported to have encouraged her husband to kill the king and take
the throne. Also, there is a literary reference to a classical source,
Senecas Medea.2 She also prayed for the demons to unsex her,
to take away her soft feminine nature, though in her case it was to
enable her to murder her own children.
But neither Medea nor Lady Donwald is definitive of the
whole character or experience of Lady Macbeth, any more than
the Biblical characters of Jezebel or Herodias. We might say that
Lady Macbeth is what Eve would have become if she had not
repented of her sin, but there is something else in Macbeths wife.
Dependent as she is on her husband, Lady Macbeth is more like
another aspect of Macbeths personality than a second character.
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III. Conclusion
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Henry V (I)
Lecture Eight:
Henry V, Part 1
think even more important than the history of the time is the
contemporary perspective on writing history, for Shakespeares
history plays are taken from what were the popular, standard ac-
counts of English history in his day.
After taking time to consider Henry V from each of these
three perspectives the series of history plays in which it plays
a role, the thinking of people in Shakespeares time about war and
peace, and history writing in Shakespeares England we will be
ready to look into the text of Henry V.
on the throne he has taken by force. The next play in the series
is Richard III, which depicts the rise of Richard to the throne and
his sudden fall into the everlasting doom into which Henry VII,
as Gods servant, delivered him. But Henry VII does not get his
own play. Shakespeare skips him and goes to Henry VIII, which
is the last play in the series.
As you can see from the dates, the first play, King John, is not
really part of the series; neither is Henry VIII. Apart from these
two plays, Shakespeares English history plays are limited to the
period from Richard II to Richard III the history before and
including the era known as the Wars of the Roses, from about
1400 to 1485.
Within this series, the history of Richard II is especially
important for understanding Henry V, because Henry Vs father,
Henry IV, is the one who deposed Richard II. Peter Leithart offers
a succinct statement of the historical background.
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That may have been true, but there were complications. After
all, a coup detat against a king sets a bad example. The same people
that thrust out the previous king might be dissatisfied with his
replacement. In addition to the bad example of getting rid of a
king that one does not like, putting a new king on the throne, cre-
ates another problem the question of legitimacy. In the case of
Henry Bolingbroke, there was some hereditary basis for his claim
to the throne, but it was not unquestionable. Others could claim
the right as well. In the end, the matter of who would actually sit
on the throne would have to be decided by the sword.
This raises problems of political principle. When a new king,
even with some legitimate claim, must hold the throne by virtue
of the raw power of the men who helped him to take it, his reign
is essentially unstable. The question will be put: How can the
king justify his rule? This would become especially problematic
whenever an unpopular decision had to be made. When the basis
of a kings authority is questionable to begin with, every difficult
decision potentially becomes an occasion to challenge his right
to reign. Unpopular decisions might even be resisted by the very
force that enthroned him. For Henry IV, this was not merely a
question of political theory; it was the major issue of his reign.
Thus, the rule is that a man who wins the throne by violence
has to keep it by violence. This is what we see in the story of
Richard II and the two plays about Henry IV. Henry IV takes the
throne from Richard II, apparently with some justification, but his
own reign is plagued with questions of legitimacy and rebellion
against his authority.
The Henry IV plays place this political struggle on the stage
as the main story, but alongside of the grand political contest for
the land, Shakespeare also introduces the kings wild son, Hal. He
is reckless, disobedient to his father, and a companion of men of
low character, spending his time with them at a disreputable inn
drinking and carousing.
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Hal is the young Henry V and even though he and the char-
acters that surround him at the inn are historically not the central
concern of the two Henry IV plays, they provide some of the most
interesting scenes in all of Shakespeares history. We not only get
to know the future king of England in his rowdy youth, but we
also come to know the old man he spends his time with, a thief
and drunkard named Falstaff. He is considered by many to be the
most fascinating character Shakespeare developed. His quick but
often improper wit, his foolishness, his selfish perversity, and his
low morals all combine in a man who is nevertheless portrayed
in a genuinely sympathetic manner. In the introductory lectures,
I referred to the fact that Falstaff was a special problem for 19th
century Victorian audiences. Unlike Elizabethans, they felt they
had to morally approve of what they laughed at. Falstaff s gross
immorality was offensive, but his humor genuinely funny. The
combination created an uncomfortable situation for the Victorian
viewer.
Falstaff and his inferior friends provide young Prince Hal
with entertainment and education. Meanwhile, King Henry IV is
distressed to have such a foolish son. In the two Henry IV plays,
the story of the king and his troubles is told side by side with the
adventures of young Hal. However, the secondary narrative of
the youthful Prince is so well-told that we could almost say the
two Henry IV plays are more like an introduction to Henry V than
a history of King Henry IV.
However that may be, Richard II and the two Henry IV plays
prepare the way for Henry V and are indispensable to a deep un-
derstanding. But they do not make Henry V easier to understand.
Rather, seeing Henry V in the light of Richard II and Henry IV
increases the problems of interpretation by making things more
complex.
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Both young men are named Henry. They are about the same
age. And they both come from leading noble families. But, as we
see from his fathers words, Prince Hal, is riotous and stained with
shame, while Hotspur is the theme of honors tongue. So vexed
is the king with his own son and so impressed is he with the Earl
of Northumberlands son that he wishes he could exchange his
Harry with Hotspur. I cannot imagine a more profound statement
of parental disappointment.
The kings words are the introduction to the whole play and
to Prince Hal himself. They resonate in the background when
Prince Hal finally comes to the stage, and, especially in the first
of the Henry IV plays, haunt the action to the end. In fact, the
first part of Henry IV shifts constantly back and forth between
Hal and Hotspur, as if to place the two young men before us to
ask us whether or not we agree with the king.
Immediately after this unpromising introduction, we meet
Hal in the next scene, conversing with Falstaff, the thief, and then
plotting with Poins, another thief. Their topic is the robbery of
the pilgrims that I mentioned previously. From the beginning,
Prince Hal is a companion of fools and wicked men. However,
as I pointed out above, he is also sincerely kind to them without
really joining in their folly, despite all appearance. They will rob
pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, but Hals participation is only
apparent and for the sake of jest. What he is really thinking is
soon revealed in this early scene, when we hear Hals first soliloquy,
which I quoted earlier. The last few lines are especially important.
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for the low-life people around him, but he never gives his approval
of their lifestyle. Instead, he repeatedly lets them know that they
need to reform their lives. Though Hal is with them, he is never
one of them. One of the clearest examples concerns the outcome
of the Princes plot. As I noted previously, the money that Falstaff
and his companions stole will, Prince Hal says, be paid back with
advantage, that is, interest. In the end, Hal not only has fun, he
also deals with the theft of the money in terms of the standards
of Biblical justice. His robbing the robbers might even be seen
as Solomonic wisdom, bringing about just and righteous ends
through strange and wonderful means.
Since the kings evaluation of the two Harrys begins the
play and since the action of the play may be said to center on the
outworking of the contrast between these two Harrys, our own
evaluation of King Henry V must take into account Shakespeares
narrative story of these young men. The king totally misunder-
stood his son because he judged him superficially and perhaps also
because he was plagued with guilt about Richard II. Everything
that happened during his reign challenged his legitimacy and must
have reminded him that he had stolen the throne. Even though the
kings judgment of Hotspur was more accurate than his judgment
of Hal and we find Hotspur to be a winsome character, Hotspurs
character flaws ruin him and his friends.
That Hal even turned out to be the better soldier might be a
surprise to modern audiences, but it would have added significance
to viewers in Shakespeares day, who still retained something of the
medieval belief that two men facing one another in single combat
stand or fall by the judgment of God. The Prince prevailed over
Hotspur because the Lord was with him. The single combat be-
tween the two Harrys was not only, and certainly not primarily,
intended to show us their martial skills. In the outcome of the
battle, we are shown Gods judgment of the two Harrys, which,
near the end of the play, stands in profound contrast to the kings
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show later, as a kind of wisdom that the Bible also praises in rulers.
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lished another work, The Sum of All Religion is Peace and Unanimity.
Whereas for men like Machiavelli war was seen as essential
to the development of character and peace was virtually a punish-
ment from God, Erasmus saw war as unnatural. In Marxs words:
Marx notes that some scholars deny the views of men like
Erasmus had much influence in the 16th century. However, Marx
provides persuasive evidence to the contrary.
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Lecture Nine
Lecture Nine:
Henry V, Part 2
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The Lord your God, who goeth before you, he shall fight
for you, according to all that he did vnto you in Egypt
before your eyes, (1:30)
The allusion may seem subtle and to some nothing more than
a pious expression. However, there are no analogous expressions
in the other history plays. If it were a mere pious expression that
men going to war might employ, it is odd that with all the wars and
fighting in the two Henry IV plays and the three Henry VI plays,
no one else says anything like this.
Moreover, even in the Bible, references to God going be-
fore are not common. They are a feature of the Exodus story
in particular. Though they appear in other Biblical passages as
well, they are probably allusions to the Exodus, as if to say, God
is fighting for us now as He did in the days of Moses. In Henry
V Shakespeare does not leave us in doubt since at the end of the
play, he includes multiple allusions to the Exodus, confirming the
allusion in the first scene.
For example, Act IV, scene 3, opens with the English nobility
making final preparations for battle. Westmorland notes that the
French have a full three score thousand, to which Exeter adds
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Theres five to one; besides they all are fresh. The odds against
the English winning are insurmountable. But Salisbury answers,
Verse 8 says, And the officers shall speak further unto the
people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and
faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his breth-
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And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one
time, because Yahweh, the God of Israel, fought for
Israel. (10:42)
and ye have seen all that Yahweh your God hath done
unto all these nations because of you; for Yahweh your
God, he it is that hath fought for you. (23:3)
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The soliloquy reveals the king as a humble man who knows that
he is no better or greater than other men. A mere ceremony has
made him king. However, his responsibilities are heavy and he is
subject to the criticism of the whole realm for every mistake he
may make. While the common people sleep soundly, the king has
to worry about the kingdom.
Henrys prayer reveals a truly repentant faith and may even
be intended to imply that he is a man like Job. In the Bible, Job
loved his children and, just in case they might have sinned, he of-
fered sacrifice for them to atone for their wrongs. In Henrys case,
there is no question that his father has done wrong. But Henry,
rather than justifying it or simply ignoring it, feels responsible
and tries to atone for it as he can, even though it is his fathers
sin and not his own. At the same time, he admits that his acts of
penance cannot earn Gods favor or pardon. He relies on grace.
Since this is a prayer in private, Henry is not posturing for others;
he opens his true heart to God. The prayer confirms the view of
the clergymen at the beginning of the play. This king is a sincere
and pious Christian.
Though this seems obvious, Henrys prayer has been analyzed
by Steven Marx in a manner that makes Henry appear hypocritical.
Henry prays that God would take from his soldiers their sense of
reckoning, which Marx takes as Henry praying that God would
deceive the soldiers for him, in Marx words blind them from
the truth. Marx recognizes that Henrys real request is that God
would strengthen his mens hearts for the battle, but that is to be
accomplished in part by a sort of dissimulation. In Marxs view,
this fits into a larger pattern of deception that includes the king
disguising himself as a commoner to speak to the men.
This strikes me as a very modern and odd reading. Of course,
it is true that Machiavelli discusses religious deception and insists
that it is part of good governance. But Machiavellis reading of
the Bible is perverse. He twists the Scripture to endorse a kingly
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of the Roses from 1455-1485 are seen as the result of the infight-
ing of the English nobility. In the three plays that have his name,
Shakespeares Henry VI is not so much blamed as pitied. What is
important is that Henry V and Henry VI are not seen as the cause
of Englands troubles. There is not the slightest hint that Henry
V was somehow responsible for Englands later turmoil. On the
contrary, it was the rebellious nobility and their factional quarrels
that brought misery to the land, just as Henry IV warned they
might. The Wars of the Roses were Gods discipline on England.
Her nobility loved war and strife and God gave it to them until
they were worn out with it.
IV. Conclusion
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Romeo and Juliet
Lecture Ten:
Romeo and Juliet
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need something to open our eyes to what is plainly set before us,
and that is exactly what this crucial Biblical reference in Romeo
and Juliet does.
Harold Bloom introduces the dialogue containing the decisive
reference.
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Juliets confession that Romeo is her god and that her attitude
toward him is idolatry is immediately followed by her promise to
believe him. This is the core of the matter. The story of Romeo
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into something truly beautiful. But it was not. They fell into
idolatry and ruin almost inevitably because their idolatrous love
fit the mood of a city addicted to idolatrous pride and foolishness.
That, in brief, is the view of the play suggested by this central
passage with its references to Scripture. As I said before, I am
not the only one who holds this view. Many Christian interpret-
ers of Shakespeare hold a similar view. To see if it really fits the
play itself, we need to consider the details of the play. Our aim
is to determine what Shakespeare is doing in this story, what his
intention is. One of the best ways to get at Shakespeares inten-
tion is to relate his play to its source, for Shakespeare borrowed
the story of Romeo and Juliet.
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language is crude, attracting the foolish young man by its bold ap-
peal to his lust. Anyone who visualizes to himself what he reads
is confronted with an X-rated short story, though, of course, the
details are left to the imagination. Solomons story is not erotic
or crude, even though the adulterous womans words and actions
are set forth in authentically awful language.
Arthur Brooke, concerned that his readers might misunder-
stand his meaning, prefaced his story with a short explanation of
why he wrote it and what he aimed at with his poem. Shakespeare
does not borrow Brookes introduction and many assume that he
could not possibly have had a similar purpose. However, careful
study of the play reveals that Shakespeare and Brooke were of
one mind.
The first thing we need to know is that Shakespeare followed
Brooke so faithfully that Brian Gibbons, editor of the Arden ver-
sion of Romeo and Juliet, describes Shakespeares reading as close
and gives detailed evidence for his view.
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context in which they appear. For example, when Juliet hears that
Romeo has killed Tybalt (Act 3, Scene 2), her anger explodes into
oxymoronic poetry.
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Romeo silently enters. The Friars last words about his plants are
spoken just before Romeo greets him.
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night at the Capulet home, and that Rosaline will be there. Romeo
and his friends attend the party, but instead of meeting his beloved
Rosaline, Romeo sees Juliet and is immediately stricken. Now he
is really in love again.
After leaving the party, Romeo hides in the garden beneath
Juliets balcony and hears Juliet speaking of her love for him. He
reveals himself and the two of them exchange vows of love and
promise to be married. They have known each other for only a
few hours. Juliet is just 14. We are not sure of Romeos age, but
16 or 17 is a good guess.
The next morning Romeo meets the Friar and persuades him
to marry them. In the afternoon, less than 24 hours after their first
meeting, the private wedding takes place. But their bliss is marred
in one short hour when Tybalt, a hothead from the Capulet family,
kills Romeos loquacious friend Mercutio. Romeo cannot withhold
his wrath. He kills Tybalt in revenge and is banished from the city
for his crime. When Juliet hears of it, she is distraught.
Then, that night Juliets father makes arrangements for his
daughters marriage with Paris, a young nobleman of the city.
During this conversation, we learn that it is Monday. Late that
night until early the next morning, Romeo and Juliet meet secretly
together.
As Tuesday dawns, Romeo leaves for Mantua. Shortly after,
Capulet informs his daughter of her upcoming marriage to Paris.
His plan is for them to be wed on Thursday, only two days away.
Juliet at first panics and tries to resist her father, but after consulting
with the Friar, she changes her tactics. She is told to agree to her
fathers will. But she also has a strong potion the Friar has given
her. By drinking it, she will go into a deep sleep that appears to
be death. This will free her from her ties to her family and her
promises to Paris, so that she can run away to be with Romeo.
With this plan in mind, Juliet returns home and apologizes to her
father, who is so happy for the change that he reschedules the
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Can anyone who notes the chronology not feel that everything
simply happens too fast? The passion of the young lovers moves
them to move too speedily for the counsels of wisdom to catch up.
Their feelings may be much more pure than Mercutios speeches
imply, but the pace of their passion outruns love. Love may be
planted at first sight, but the tree cannot be firmly rooted without
time and nurture. Loves seed cannot bear fruit in a single day or
even in four. The incredible brevity of the action is intended to
jolt the viewer into astonished realization. This is not an ideal love
story. Rather, it is a story of two infatuated teenagers who might
have learned to truly love each other if they were not so impulsively
headstrong, or if the adults responsible to guide them had done
so. Since teenage impetuosity is common, the warning is needed.
Another notable point in Shakespeares chronology is that
the play begins on a Sunday, but there is not a word of church or
worship at any time during the day. It is true that in the story the
Friar plays a prominent role in Verona, so we assume some sort
of Christian community, but the lack of any mention of worship
on Sunday seems odd. The omission is even more conspicuous
in the light of the fact that in Shakespeares England failure to
attend Sunday worship was punishable by a fine.
B. Character Development
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The Nurse, like the Friar, could have prevented the despair,
if not the fall into lust. In Brookes version, she is punished at
the end of the poem for having concealed the marriage. Shake-
speare leaves that out, but he does show her, together with the
Friar, as examples of the older generation failing the young couple.
Rather than nurturing the young couples love and enabling it to
blossom, they allow it to be corrupted by the weeds of self-will
and impetuous passion. What could have been true love never
developed beyond the initial infatuation. The sparks of love that
were kindled at their first meeting were soon overwhelmed by
Romeos burning rage for revenge and, later, by both Romeos and
Juliets impatient despair.
The final detail to which I wish to draw attention does not
concern the development of the characters. It has to do with the
perspective on gold in Shakespeares play. Two details in Shake-
speare that do not appear in Brooke suggest perhaps the deepest
and most painful irony. First, preparing us for the conclusion of
the play, Romeo, in Act 5, Scene 1, gives gold to the apothecary
with these words.
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Romeo calls her with the prospect of gold, if she marries Paris.
If I am correct in linking these two references to gold, the likeli-
hood that Romeos words about gold as poison, spoken near the
end of the play, should be thought to echo in the background as
we view the parents superficial reconciliation.
Romeo was the god of Juliets idolatry and she the god of his.
That the play ends with the two idolatrous lovers being reduced
to dead, golden idols strikes me as an ironic conclusion, not an
irenic one. I do not see this as a real reconciliation, but the per-
petuation of the problem in a different form. Queen Mab leads
men to seek the satisfaction of whatever form of idolatry pleases
them. The play ends not with Verona being freed of its idolatry
or the temptations of Queen Mab, but with the Queen ruling as
securely as ever.
Here, then, are the most important differences in details be-
tween Shakespeare and Brooke. As we have seen, with each of
them Shakespeare reinforces and clarifies the point that Brooke
aimed to make. He takes Brookes poem and turns it into a play
that does what Brooke was trying to do far more powerfully than
Brooke did. Shakespeares play, more than Brookes poem, conveys
the immaturity of the lovers, the haste of the marriage, the failure
of the older generation to lead the youth, and the perversion of
gold into poison. Irony appears throughout the play. The famous
Queen Mab speech, like the Friars description of the warfare be-
tween sin and righteousness in the heart, provide commentary on
the action that perfectly corresponds with the perspective offered
in the Biblical references.
III. Conclusion
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does not at all describe what Shakespeare was doing, nor does
Blooms other expression, lamenting its inevitable destruction.
Shakespeares play does not present the tragedy as inevitable, but
rather as the result of the combination of the tragic choices of
numerous major and minor characters. If the play is a lamenta-
tion, it is a lamentation of widespread human folly and sin, spread
so far that the whole city of Verona brings about the destruction
of the young lovers.
Bloom and others are correct when they say that Shakespeare
shows us something beautiful in the love of Romeo and Juliet, or,
to be more precise, something that should have become beautiful.
For we actually have only the seeds of love planted in the hearts
of idealistic youth what could have and should have become
pure and deep, a love that could have brought reconciliation to the
feuding families. Shakespeare does not mock or ridicule the lovers,
like Mercutio. He does not look on them with disdain. But neither
does he simply celebrate what was merely unrealized potential.
What, then, was Shakespeare doing? What emerges from a
careful consideration of the play is a view that few modern readers
of the play can even begin to imagine: Shakespeare actually agreed
with what Brooke was doing. Shakespeare is preaching about the
dangers of sexual sin, the deceptive difference between infatua-
tion and love, the responsibility of the older generation to lead
the younger in the way of true love, and the dangers of idolatry
of whatever sort, but especially the idolatrous distortion of the
greatest gift that God has given to man: love.
Shakespeare preaches like Solomon, by telling a story. He
does not need to comment because the details of the story contain
all the commentary necessary. A young man deeply in love with
one young lady, switches his affection in an instant to a 14-year
old girl, who marries him within 24 hours of the first meeting. He
murders her cousin and her prospective husband. The two commit
suicide. All the other details that link these large and inescapable
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Course Study Guide
LECTURE OUTLINES
The following outlines are general and simple, giving a skeletal
picture of the original lectures. Though the Study Guide has not
been revised to fit the book, the outlines may still function as a
reminder of the basic material for test preparation and as a
rough index.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
This is a list of selected books dealing with Shakespeares faith
and use of the Bible. Not all of the books are appropriate for
every student and some of the books are valuable for historical
reasons only.
VIDEO RECOMMENDATIONS
Video greatly enhances the study of Shakespeare, for his plays
were written to be heard and viewed, not read in a book. The list
of recommendations offered is only a small sampling of all that
is available, but it introduces some of the best.
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Course Introduction
I. General Introduction
A. The Reason: Share the lectures with Christian
educators and students in America and raise funds
for a building
B. The Goal: Provide a key for understanding and inter
preting Shakespeare from a distinctly Christian
perspective
C. The Claim: Offer a Christian approach seldom provided
by college courses
1. Bible backgrounds for plays largely ignored
a. Shakespeare viewed as secular poet
b. Aversion to Bible study
c. Relative ignorance of the Bible
2. Concentration on interpretation of plays
a. Literary interpretation and literary scholarship
b. Literary interpretation and worldview
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Lecture Outlines
Lecture Outlines
Lecture One:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare (I)
I. Introductory Considerations
A. Christianity
B. Authorship
Lecture Two:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare (II)
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Lecture Outlines
Lecture Three:
Shakespeares Use o f the Bible (I)
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Four:
Shakespeares Use o f the Bible (II)
IV. Conclusion
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Lecture Outlines
Lecture Five:
The Merchant of Venice
I. Introduction
V. Conclusion
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Six:
Macbeth (I)
I. Introduction
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Lecture Outlines
Lecture Seven:
Macbeth (II)
IV. Biblical Typology (continued)
B. Macbeth as Saul
1. Relation between Adam and Saul
a. Allusion and typology in the Bible
b. New Adams
2. Construction of Macbeth through Saul
a. Development of plot
b. Specific allusions
Lords anointed
Bloody house
Witch of Endor
c. Elaboration of parallel
d. Characterization of Lady Macbeth
3. Invention of personality
a. Harold Blooms thesis
Supreme literary value of human character
Unique notion of personality
Realism of characterization
Superiority of characterization
Dynamic development of characters
Autonomy of characters
Influence on modern concept of personality
b. Refutation of the thesis
V. Conclusion
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Eight:
Henry V (I)
I. Introduction
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Lecture Outlines
Lecture Nine:
Henry V (II)
IV. Discussion of Character: Christian King (continued)
B. Military Views
1. 16th century debate
a. Niccolo Machiavelli
b. Desiderius Erasmus
2. Shift in Shakespeares view
a. Transition to pacifism
b. Contemporary intellectual history
3. 20th century perspective
a. Post World War I trend
b. Cultural factors
C. Historical Mentality
1. England as New Israel
2. The Tudor Myth
D. Biblical References
1. Covenantal formula: God be with you
2. Historical frame: Exodus and Conquest
E. Dramatic Scenes in Henry V
1. Act I, Scene 1
2. Act IV, Scene 1
3. Act III, Scene 3
4. Act V, Scene 2
V. Conclusion
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Ten:
Romeo and Juliet
I. Introduction
V. Conclusion
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Selected Bibliography
Select Bibliography
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Selected Bibliography
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Shakespeare the Christian I
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Video Recommendations
Video Recommendations
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Video Recommendations
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Shakespeare the Christian I
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Tests
Tests
The following pages are simple tests for each of the lectures so
that parents or teachers and their students or others using
the course can check their comprehension of the material.
The suggested answers are taken from the lectures. A students
answer will no doubt vary in some respects, but should include
most of the basic points in the answers provided.
Following the last test, there are also suggestions for essays. There
are no answers offered, but parents and teachers can refer to the
tests and answers for the lectures, since the essays cover the same
topics. Apart from whether or not the student has adequately
grasped the material, the important things to look for in evaluating
an essay are grammar, organization, logic, style, and persuasiveness.
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Course Introduction
2) What is the name of the literary expert who says that little work
has been done on Shakespeares use of the Bible?
6) What are the key capabilities required for good literary inter-
pretation?
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Tests
Lecture One:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Two:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare (II)
12) What was David Humes answer to the question of why people
enjoy tragedy?
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Tests
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Three:
Shakespeares Use o f the Bible (I)
5) What are the primary allusions in the words there was a famine
in the land?
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Tests
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Four:
Shakespeares Use o f the Bible (II)
10) What do we learn from the fact that men like David and Solo-
mon were types?
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Tests
21) Besides the Bible, what other sources are important for un-
derstanding Shakespeare?
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Five:
The Merchant of Venice
1) Why does The Merchant of Venice hold special interest for a course
on Shakespeares use of the Bible?
6) What did the Church in the Middle Ages think about usury?
11) Describe what and how Bassanio learns and grows in the play.
12) How is the theme of life through death developed in the play?
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Tests
13) What is the central point told through the two stories?
14) What superficial detail of the play suggests that the main theme
is Christians and Jews, the new covenant versus the old covenant?
16) What are some of the details that associate Shylock with the
Pharisees?
17) How does the trial scene point to the crucifixion of Christ?
18) How does the conclusion of the trial point to the Biblical
teaching about salvation?
20) How should we respond to the view of Rene Girard that An-
tonio and the other Christians are hypocrites who make money
on Shylock?
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Lecture Six:
Macbeth (I)
14) What did Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do when they became
afraid?
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Seven:
Macbeth (II)
1) Who is the rest of the story of Macbeth linked with and why
is this important?
6) What was Sauls first test as king and how did he do?
7) What was the second test that Saul faced and how did he do?
10) In a general and basic way, tell the Biblical story of Saul.
12) When MacDuff saw the dead king, he exclaimed that the
Lords anointed temple had been broken. How does this relate
to the story of Saul?
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Tests
17) How does the witches cry, Fair is foul and foul is fair work
itself out in the play?
18) What is the link between the witches words fair is foul and
the story of Saul?
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Eight:
Henry V (I)
4) How old was Richard II when he became king and what special
problems did he face?
7) Apart from the political story in Henry IV, what does Shake-
speare portray for us?
8) What is the secondary story in the two Henry IV plays and why
is it important?
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Tests
12) How does the play Henry IV Part One introduce the contrast
between Hotspur and Prince Hal?
13) What Bible verses provide the key to Hals first soliloquy and
how are they important?
16) What does the play show us about the kings view of his son
and Hotspur?
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Nine:
Henry V (II)
10) With whom did the English of Shakespeares day identify their
history and what does that mean for Shakespeare?
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Tests
12) What are some of the important Biblical phrases that occur
in Henry V that do not occur in Henry IV or Henry VI?
14) What scenes in the play confirm the view that Henry V is seen
as a Christian hero?
15) If Henry V is a Christian hero, how can one explain the places
in the play that seem to be critical?
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Shakespeare the Christian I
Lecture Ten:
Romeo and Juliet
2) What is the key Biblical allusion in the play and what does it
show us about Romeo and Juliet?
7) How closely did Shakespeare follow his source? How does this
help us understand the play?
10) What is the first allusion in the play and what does it show us?
14) What are the differences between Shakespeare and his source
concerning Romeo and Rosaline?
17) What does Shakespeare show us about gold that may be im-
portant for understanding the play?
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Essay Questions
Essay Questions
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Essay Questions
7) Write an essay drawing out the parallels between King Saul and
Macbeth.
9) Write an essay on the 16th century debate about war and show
how it is relevant to the interpretation of Henry V.
10) Write an essay on Romeo and Juliet defending the view that the
play is intended to edify young people by warning about the dan-
gers of rashness and lust.
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Answer Key
Course Introduction
2) Steven Marx.
5) Literary interpretation.
7) Worldview.
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Shakespeare the Christian I
it is fraught with all the uncertainties of human experience and the great
controversies about the meaning of life will all be reflected in our literary
criticism. [Italics emphasize important points.]
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Answer Key
Lecture One:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare (I)
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Answer Key
Lecture Two:
Refutation of Objections to
a Christian Shakespeare
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Shakespeare the Christian I
10) Jaspers claims that tragedy must be final in the sense that there
can be no life after death in which the tragedy may be reversed.
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Answer Key
15) Because tragedies are stories of a man falling into sin, they
can edify us since we are also sinners and can sympathize.
We are warned about the danger of sin and the destruction
it causes. We are led to meditate on the seriousness of life.
They remind us that we are not alone in our suffering.
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Shakespeare the Christian I
(2) the whole created order has been perverted by Adams fall
so that earthquakes, floods, and other disasters occur,
bringing tragedies to countless numbers;
(3) man-made catastrophes, tyrants, criminals, and every other
sort of oppression in the world lead to tragedies caused
by mans sin and rebellion against God;
(4) there is redemption so that tragedy is not the final word for
the human race, nor does it have to be the final word for
any individual person.
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Answer Key
Lecture Three:
Shakespeares Use of the Bible (I)
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4) That the story in the book of Ruth took place at a time when
the people of Israel were not taking Gods kingship seriously,
and that the book of Ruth is a story like the stories we read
about in the book of Judges.
5) The first allusions in these words are to the blessings and curses
of the covenant in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
6) That Israel was under covenantal judgment for her sins, since
God had promised abundant blessing. Just like in the stories
of the book of Judges, the book of Ruth tells us of Gods
covenantal judgment on unfaithful Israel. It also shows us
that Elimelechs decision to move away from Israel was not
morally neutral.
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Answer Key
9) Moab should have been Israels friend, but when Israel came
to the Promised Land, Moab opposed her. Later, Moabs King
Eglon oppressed Israel in the days of the Judges. Because Moab
hired Balaam to curse Israel, it was under a special curse, as the
book of Deuteronomy records (Deut. 22:3-4).
10) The irony is the fact that a cursed member of the people of
Moab becomes an ancestress to the Messiah. The people who
should have been the people of faith do not follow God as they
should, but this Moabite woman fears God.
11) According to Freud, the key is that Macbeth and his wife are
childless.
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Answer Key
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Lecture Four:
Shakespeares Use of the Bible (II)
4) The first part of the story of Macbeth is like the story of the fall
of Adam. Macbeth and his wife are tempted by the devil
(witches) to steal the throne and become like gods by killing
King Duncan.
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Answer Key
10) From David and Solomon we learn that anyone who is going
to be a type of the Messiah is unworthy of his role as a type.
No one is adequate. In the nature of the case, the men who
foreshadow the Messiah are vastly inferior to Him.
11) The fact that the Bible ends in a marriage means that the
Church is part of typology also. The Church is Christs bride,
so marriage is part of the story of salvation as it is pictured in
typology.
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13) Allegory is more ambiguous than typology and lacks the Bibli-
cal basis typology has.
15) Blooms view requires us to read the title of the play as im-
plicit blasphemy and the Biblical references in the play as all
ironic. The play would have to be seen as a mockery of Chris-
tian faith. This is highly unlikely since Shakespeare writes in
a European tradition that included many stories similar to the
one he wrote in Measure for Measure. Rather than assuming that
Shakespeare was a blasphemer and the European tradition of
storytelling was full of anti- Christian stories, it is much more
likely that Shakespeares story has a very different meaning from
the one Harold Bloom attempts to impose.
17) Auden interpreted the play in terms of its main themes which
he identified as the nature of justice, the nature of authority,
and the nature of forgiveness.
18) Angelo typifies the story of man. Like Adam he was filled
with lust for what was not his and he stole it. He tried to flee
from Gods judgment and was eventually caught and punished,
but also, by grace, forgiven. The Duke, like Christ, works to
bring him to repentance and forgiveness.
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Answer Key
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Lecture Five:
The Merchant of Venice
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Answer Key
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10) The two stories are united by the central theme: self-denial
as the essence of love. They are also united by the fact that
they both include trials that test the character of Bassanio.
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Answer Key
13) The central point taught through the two stories is that true
love is self-denial and that we can only live through the death
of self-denial in love.
14) The fact that the word Jew occurs 70 times and the word
Christian occurs 26 times, often in important contexts.
18) Shylocks appeal to the law is defeated by the law itself, show-
ing that those who would be justified by law cannot be saved.
Salvation must be by grace.
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Shakespeare the Christian I
19) No. The trial scene is not realistic. Shylocks sort of case
would not have been accepted in any court of Europe. The
whole trial is obviously an allegory of something else, a par-
able teaching about life.
20) Numerous details in the play refute the notion that Antonio is
a hypocrite. To begin with, he was honestly willing to die for
his friend. When he first asked that only half of Shylocks
money be taken, he still assumed his money had all been lost
at sea. If Antonio were being presented as a hypocrite, the
passages in the play that associate him with Christ would border
on blasphemy.
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Answer Key
Lecture Six:
Macbeth (I)
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Answer Key
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14) They fled and changed clothes, alluding to Adam and Eve.
15) There are allusions also to the stories of Judas and Cain.
16) Milton pictures Adam as falling into sin because he loves his
wife. His fall may be said to be an idolatrous devotion to her.
In Shakespeare, Macbeth is the one who originated the tempta-
tion by telling his wife the words of the three weird sisters.
Though Lady Macbeth eggs him on, Macbeth virtually shares
equal responsibility for the fall. In that sense, Shakespeares ver-
sion is much closer to the Bible, which puts the blame on Adam.
17) The first part of Macbeth reminds us that even good and
brave men can be tempted to commit the most awful sins.
Just like Macbeth is another Adam, so are we in our own ways.
We all are in the same danger and should be careful lest we fall.
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Answer Key
Lecture Seven:
Macbeth (II)
5) A man who was qualified to be a king, but who was also like
the nation he led, spiritually unstable. In the beginning he was
a good son, and it looked like he would be a good leader. He
even prophesied with the prophets of Israel.
6) Sauls first test as a king was the battle with King Nahash, whose
name means serpent. Saul succeeded in battle by trusting in
God. He showed godly character by forgiving the men in
Israels army who spoke against him before the battle.
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7) The second test Saul faced was the battle with the Philistines
in 1 Samuel 13. He failed this test miserably. Instead of wait-
ing for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice as he was told
to do, he became impatient when Samuel did not come and
offered the sacrifice himself.
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Answer Key
14) In Act III, Macbeth says that blood will have blood. The
most obvious allusion is to the story of Cain and the blood
of Abel crying out for vengeance, but there is also a story in
the life of Saul that is related. There was a famine during the
reign of David that came to Israel as a punishment for the
bloody deeds of Saul (1 Sam. 21:1).
15) This is perhaps the clearest literary link to the story of Saul.
When Saul encountered the witch of Endor, the language is
very similar. Shaheen admits this as an allusion to the Bible.
This also points to larger themes as well. Saul, like Macbeth,
is worried about who will inherit the throne. He knows, like
Macbeth, that God has not chosen his heirs. Like Macbeth,
he resists.
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17) Macbeth and his lady appear fair but turn out to be most foul.
The kings sons appear at first to be foul, but they are fair at
least, relatively speaking. MacDuff is considered foul but he
is fair, as are others. In Macbeths Scotland, foul and fair are
turned upside down.
19) The broader Biblical theme is the theme of the ungodly ruler
or leader. His power to rule includes the power to define. Jesus
is the supreme example, the story of His crucifixion showing
the fair one being treated as foul.
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Answer Key
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Answer Key
Lecture Eight:
Henry V (I)
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Answer Key
13) The phrase redeeming the time was used in Ephesians 5:16
and Colossians 4:5. Ephesians speaks of redeeming the time
because the days are evil, an appropriate description of the
times in which young Hal was raised, since England faced civil
war and social confusion. Colossians speaks of walking in
wisdom toward those without, which describes Hals dealing
with Falstaff and the other people at the tavern.
14) They are seen to be young men of about the same age, both
involved in plots of a sort, both called Harry. Hotspur, as
his name suggests, is above all passionate. He is not an evil
young man but he is rash to the point of being foolish. His
plot is to instigate civil war and overthrow the king. It is bold,
but also bloody. Hal, on the other hand, is calm and wise in
his dealing with others. His plot is a harmless practical joke.
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15) The fact that Hal has the chance to expose Falstaff s cow-
ardly lying and also restore the stolen money with interest may
suggest that Hal shows Solomon-like wisdom in dealing with
the people at the tavern. He deals with the theft Biblically by
restoring the money with interest, and he uses the occasion to
rebuke Falstaff and the others for their sins.
16) The play shows us that the king was entirely mistaken about
his son. Hal is braver and wiser and even a better soldier than
Hotspur. The king was not entirely wrong about Hotspur.
He was a brave young man and not lacking in nobility. He
loved his wife and family. But he was also rash and foolish.
His plotting cost the lives of many men, including his own.
Hal responded to the kings accusations calmly, fought in the
war bravely, and personally won in his fight against Hotspur.
In the end, we see that the king entirely misunderstood and
underestimated his son.
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Answer Key
Lecture Nine:
Henry V (II)
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Answer Key
10) The English identified their history with that of ancient Israel.
It means that English people in Shakespeares day believed
that their nation was guided by a special divine providence
and that their land and leaders were blessed or cursed by God
according to their faithfulness to Him.
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14) Two scenes in the play show Henry as a Christian hero. One
is the conversation between Ely and Canterbury. They are talk-
ing about the amazing transformation of the king, including his
Christian character. There is no reason for them to make this
up in private conversation. The other is Henrys soliloquy the
night before the battle which shows his humility and includes
his sincere prayer to God for help. Again, since Henry is alone,
this is not political posturing.
15) The Bible itself criticizes almost all of its heroes. Men like
Moses and David are portrayed with their faults. If Shake-
speare wrote as a Christian, he would not have to hide the
kings faults. He could also regard Henry V as a hero, just as
he would regard David as a hero.
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Answer Key
Lecture Ten:
Romeo and Juliet
2) The key Biblical allusion in the play comes in Act II, Scene
2, when the two young lovers first exchange their confession
of love. Juliet tells Romeo to swear by himself and says that
he is the god of her idolatry. Her words allude to Hebrews
6:13 which tells us that God swore by Himself because He
could swear by none greater. It shows us that the relationship
was not Christian love but flawed because it was idolatrous,
leading to tragedy.
4) He does not despise them like a Pharisee for the fact that their
love was flawed and led to tragedy, for if he had no sympathy
for them, he could not have made them tragic heroes. They
had the potential for something true and beautiful. That is
what makes the loss of it painful.
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10) The first allusion in the play is in Act I, Scene 1, where two
servants of the house of Capulet refer to women as weaker
vessels, alluding to Peters instruction that men should honor
their wives. But the servants are speaking of dishonorable acts
toward women, making the reference ironic and showing that
the servants have vulgar views of women and sex.
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Answer Key
12) Brooke has the romance between Romeo and Juliet take place
over a period of 9 months. Shakespeare has the whole thing
take place in just 4 days, less than 100 hours. Romeo and
Juliet are secretly married by the Friar less than 24 hours after
they first meet. The extremely short chronology makes the
rashness and lust of the two young lovers clear beyond
any doubt and brings much greater emphasis to the sin than
does Brooke. It shows us that Shakespeare is trying to make
Brookes point more clearly.
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15) Mercucio is like the chorus in some plays or like the court
fool. He interprets what is going on. His buffoonery contains
wisdom and insight that help us understand the play.
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