1884.] 
On Thunderbolts. 
721 
passing in a direction towards the earth) ; figura- 
tively, something sudden and irresistible.” 
Thunderstone. “ A variety of crystallized iron 
pyrites.” 
(5). Worcester’s Dictionary, 1881. 
Thunderbolt. “ A brilliant stream of lightning. A 
bolt of lightning.” 
Thunderstone. “ A stone fabulously supposed to be 
emitted by thunder. Crystallized iron pyrites.” 
Probably these quotations will be considered sufficient to 
justify the charge I have brought forward, and to render it 
obvious that a thunderbolt is in reality merely a lightning 
stroke. I propose, however, to submit, in addition, some 
quotations from our two great wells of English undefiled, 
t.e., The Bible and Shakespeare’s Plays, with a view of 
showing that the lexicological interpretation which I have 
just enunciated is no mere pedantic fancy of the philologists 
who compiled these dictionaries. In the Scriptures the 
term is only once mentioned ; but that once is cogently 
explicit. In Psalm lxxviii., 48, we read : “ He gave up their 
cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.” 
That the translators intended to use this expression as 
synonymous with lightning strokes is clearly proved by the 
marginal correction which substitutes “ lightnings ” for 
“ hot thunderbolts.” 
Shakespeare uses thunderbolt or bolt in the ten following 
instances. 
Tempest, II. 2 [Caliban loq.] . “ This is no fish, but an 
islander that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt.” 
As You Like It, I. 2 [Celia loq.] . “If I had a thunder- 
bolt in mine eye, I can tell who should down.” 
Henry IV. (Pt. I.) IV. 1 [Hotspur loq.] . “ Come let me 
take my horse, who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt, 
against the bosom of the Prince of Wales.” 
Julius Ccesar, IV. 3. [Brutus loq.] . “ Be ready, gods, 
with all your thunderbolts; dash him to pieces !” 
King Lear, III. 2 [Lear loq. ] . “ You sulphurous and 
thought-executing fires, vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving 
thunderbolts, singe my white head !” 
Antony and Cleopatra, II. 5 [Cleop. loq.] . “Some inno- 
cents ’scape not the thunderbolt.” 
Tempest, V. 46. [Prospero loq. J . “ To the dread rattling 
thunder have I given fire, and rifted “ Jove’s stout oak with 
his own bolt.” 
