Dec. 4. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



539 



but perhaps, as the subject will have little interest 

 for general readers, it should be matter of private 

 commuuication. Lambert B. Larking. 



&HAKSPEARE A CALVINIST. 



(Vol. vi., p. 410.) 



I do not think we have any right to infer Shak- 

 apeare's opinions from those expressed by his per- 

 sonages. If Isabella, Portia, and Hamlet are 

 Calvinists, Aaron is an Atheist, and the ghost of 

 Hamlet's father, who fasts by day in fire till his 

 foul crimes are burnt and purged away, is a Ro- 

 manist. 



Moreover, the passages cited are not Calvinistic : 



" Why all the souls tliat are were forfeit once ; 

 And he that might the vantage best have took, 

 Found out the remedy." 

 Arminius or Calvin might have adopted this. It 

 belongs to both ; one would have stamped it with 

 bis mark by adding " for some," the other " for 

 all." 



" Consider this, 

 That in the course of justice none of us 

 Should see salvation." 



I believe it is as much the practice of the highest, 

 as of the lowest, churchmen, to pray for mercy, 

 not ioT justice. 



" Use every man after his desert, and who shall 

 'Scape whipping?" 



Supposing Hamlet to have talked theology to 

 Polonius, surely "whipping" does not signify 

 more than purgatory. The synod of Dort " went 

 further." 



In endeavouring to show that these passages 

 are not Calvinistic, I have tried to keep clear of 

 theological controversy, which I trust will never 

 be admitted to the pages of " N. & Q " H. B. C. 



Garrick Club. 



The following appears to be such a parallel as 

 is required by your correspondent. After having 

 enumerated his pious deeds, Henry V. adds : 

 " More will I do, 

 Though all that I can do is nothing worth ; 

 Since that my penitence comes after all, 

 Imploring pardon." — Henri/ V., Act IV. Sc. 3. 

 However, " for my poor part," I consider the 

 passages adduced as merely proofs that Isabella, 

 Portia, Hamlet, and Henry V. (not Shakspeare, 

 but the children of his brain) were so far 

 Christians, and by no means exclusively Cal- 

 vinists. Perhaps Corporal Nym might be enlisted 

 in the defence of this position, since he declares 

 " that things must be as they may," and " it must 

 be as it may." In truth, if the dramatist is to be 

 held responsible for all the sentiments of his cha- 

 racters, he must, like one of them, have been 



" made up of opposites." As reasonably might it 

 be maintained that Shakspeare was no poet, since 

 he says : 



" I had rather be a kitten and cry mew, 

 Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers — 

 I had rather hear a brazen candlestick turn'd, 

 Or a dry wheel grate on an axle-tree ; 

 And that would nothing set my teeth on edge, 

 Nothing so much as mincing poetry — 

 'Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag." 



First Fart of Henry IK, Act III. Sc. 1. 



It is a common misapprehension to quote the fol- 

 lowing lines from The Merchant of Venice as ex- 

 pressive of the author's feelings, without bearing 

 in mind that they are only words put into the 

 mouth of Lorenzo : 



" The man that hath no music in himself, 

 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds. 

 Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils." 



C.T. 



I know not what people will make of poor 

 Shakspeare in time ; volumes of quotations have 

 been made, and learned notes thereon, to prove 

 him a Papist, and as many in reply to prove the 

 converse. Mr. Inglebt has now furnished three 

 quotations, with the view, as would appear, of 

 showing that he was a Calvinist. As to the third 

 of these quotations, I should reject it altogether 

 on the principle that it is confounding religion 

 with mere moral philosophy. But as regards the 

 two other most striking instances, I would ask 

 whether they do not both involve the fundamental 

 principles of Christianity, which might have been 

 expressed with the same propriety by a Komanist 

 or a Lutheran, as by a Calvinist, or, in short, by 

 " all who profess and call themselves Christians ? " 



M. H. 



IRISH RHYMES. 



(Vol. vi., p. 431.) 



Your correspondent Ccthbert Bede has se- 

 lected from Swift several instances in which the 

 doctor's Pegasus disdained the curb of English 

 pronouncing dictionaries, and, according to Mr. 

 Bede, has in his curvettings flung up, not English, 

 but L'ish, rhymes ; forcing us, if we would read 

 his lines in rhythm, to call tea tay, keys kays, and 

 please plaise, &c., more Hihemico. 



I must admit at once the acuteness of your cor- 

 respondent's ear and criticism ; but, as an Irishman 

 and rhymer, he must allow me a tu quoque retort, 

 and suffer me to tell him that those liberties in 

 rhyme, of which he asks "What can be more 

 Irish ? " are neither peculiarly Swiftian nor Hi- 

 bernian, for I have noted similar liberties in cases, 

 and to an extent I cannot now recollect, as taken, 

 not by the unbroken Pegasus of a wild Irishman, 



