like the expressions of religious belief in Shakespeare's will, which were probably introduced by a country attorney as forming part of a customary and valid document. As such we may conclude with some probability are—

and

"So till the judgment that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes" (55);

"Then give me welcome, next my heaven, the best,
Even to thy pure and most most loving breast" (110).

When he speaks of "precious friends hid in death's dateless
night" (30) there is no accompanying expression of hope
that they will be restored to him in a future life. Again,
the "surly sullen bell" is to announce the poet's departure
from the world (71); but he will not then have gone to
enjoy the felicity of saints and angels; on the contrary, he
will have "fled from this vile world," "to dwell with vilest
worms;" to be, "perhaps, compounded with clay." Still
more important is 74, where the poet's "spirit," "the better
part" of him, is contrasted with his body, consigned to earth,
66 the prey of worms,
""too base to be remembered." But
we find that the "spirit," this "better part," is still to live
on, not, however, in Hades or Heaven, but in the verses
which he has composed :-

"The worth of that (his body) is that which it contains (his spirit), And that is this (his verse), and this with thee remains.'

And here we come again to Shakespeare's expectation of a literary immortality. But this question has been just before discussed.

Mr. C. Armitage Brown, however, asks, with reference to the subject we are now considering," Have we nothing in his volume of Poems where he willingly expresses his own religious feelings? Yes, one entire Sonnet, and no more, proving his strong faith in the immortality of the soul, and possibly, as a friend has observed, imbued with

G

arguments from St. Paul. It stands in his Poems, Sonnet 146th." I think, however, that a careful consideration of this Sonnet will cause us to question Mr. Brown's view, or possibly we may come to an opposite conclusion :

"Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,

[Why feed'st] these rebel powers that thee array ? 2

Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store,
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:

So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
And, death once dead, there's no more dying then."

If, however, as Mr. Armitage Brown says, this Sonnet stands alone as an expression of religious belief, there is obviously some ground for questioning whether the interpretation which Mr. Brown maintains to be true is the right one. No doubt, on a superficial view, the language employed may seem quite in harmony with such an explanation. But if the Sonnet have this religious significance, then it must mean that Shakespeare contemplated attaining eternal felicity by fasting and bodily mortification, gaining spiritual wealth by the pining of the emaciated body. But the supposition that Shakespeare seriously thought of adopting an ascetic or monastic life is scarcely to be entertained. Moreover, it is of great importance, with regard to the true

1 Shakespeare's Autobiographical Poems, pp. 221, 222.

2 The Quarto gives :

'Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth,

My sinfull earth these rebbell powres that thee array," &c.

The repetition of "my sinfull earth " is obviously wrong. "Why feed'st" agrees with the context, and "feed'st" occurs in 1, line 6.

meaning, that though in no other Sonnet is language used precisely identical or parallel, yet the conquest over death is elsewhere spoken of, and is so spoken of with reference to the immortality of the poet's verse. Thus, in the 55th Sonnet the friend is assured that through the poet's "powerful rhyme," which will be more enduring than marble or gilded monuments, he will still come fully forth in the gaze of

men,

"Gainst Death and all oblivious enmity."

Or, again, there is 107, where the poet speaks of Death as "subscribing" to him, as submissive to his power; but still this submission is brought about by the vital force of his literary compositions :

"Death to me subscribes,

Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes."

Such being the case, it is reasonable to explain in a similar manner the "dying of death" and the "feeding on death" spoken of in the Sonnet we are now more particularly considering. Having in view the attainment of undying fame, the poet summons his powers to the composition of immortal works, even though the strain on the body, the servant of the soul, be such as to shorten life. Immortality is thus to be nourished while the body pines and dies. By an easy and not unprecedented metonymy the dying body is identiIfied with death itself :

"So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,

And, death once dead, there's no more dying then."

If the reader thinks of the succession of immortal works which followed one another so rapidly from the poet's pen in the first years of the seventeenth century, and also of the fact that he died at the age of fifty-two, it may seem not quite unlikely that a very serious purpose was expressed in this remarkable Sonnet.

It must be maintained, then, that, so far as the Sonnets are concerned, evidence on the whole is wanting of Shakespeare's faith in the tenets of orthodox Christianity. With the Sonnets before us it is doubtful whether we can fairly admit, with due regard for truth, that he regarded the Christian faith with "distant and imaginative reverence." But if this were admitted no further concession could be easily allowed. It is possible, however, to indicate certain theological or philosophical tenets which Shakespeare seems to have regarded with more or less of approval, though obviously the subject requires to be approached with caution and reserve.

CHAPTER XI.

PHILOSOPHY IN THE SONNETS.

ADDRESSING ourselves to the inquiry, then, with all due caution, we shall perhaps find grounds for thinking that Shakespeare accepted, with more or less definiteness, three philosophical doctrines, forming together a system of some completeness :-(1) The doctrine of the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World; (2) the doctrine of Necessity; (3) the doctrine of the Cycles. So far as the Sonnets are concerned there are clear indications of (1) and (3); and the third implies the second. These doctrines, it is true, are not tenets of the Christian faith; but, as Dean Plumptre has justly observed, Shakespeare's philosophy "is not a Christian view of life and death. The ethics of Shakespeare are no more Christian, in any real sense of the word, than those of Sophocles or Goethe." 1

The first of the doctrines just indicated is obviously contained in Sonnet 107, which speaks of—

"The prophetic soul

Of the wide world dreaming on things to come."

These words could scarcely be looked upon as a mere poetical embellishment, even if they stood alone; but this is by no means the fact. We are here concerned mainly with the Sonnets; but the evidence of the Plays may be used as subsidiary and illustrative. Thus, with regard to the "prophetic soul" of the world, may be adduced a remarkable passage in Richard III., Act ii. sc. 3, lines 41-44:

1 Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Appendix, "Shakespeare and Koheleth."