FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  
forfait, if he come not within ij. moneths."--_Termes de la Ley_, 1595, fol. 144. The object of the writ was to prevent the abuse of spiritual power. Now, here is a law-term quite out of the common, which is used by Shakespeare with a well-deployed knowledge of the power of the writ of which it is the name. Must we, therefore, suppose that Shakespeare had obtained his knowledge of the purpose and the power of this writ in the course of professional reading or practice? If we looked no farther than Shakespeare's page, such a supposition might seem to be warranted. But if we turn to Michael Drayton's "Legend of Great Cromwell," first published, we believe, in 1607, but certainly some years before "Henry VIII." was written, and the subject of which figures in that play, we find these lines,-- "This Me to urge the _Premunire_ wonne, Ordain'd in matters dangerous and hie; In t' which the heedlesse Prelacie were runne That back into the Papacie did fie." Ed. 1619, p. 382. Here is the very phrase in question, used with a knowledge of its meaning and of the functions of the writ hardly less remarkable than that evinced in the passage from "Henry VIII.," though expressed in a different manner, owing chiefly to the fact that Drayton wrote a didactic poem and Shakespeare a drama. But Drayton is not known to have been an attorney's clerk, nor has he been suspected, from his writings, or any other cause, to have had any knowledge of the law. Both he and Shakespeare, however, read the Chronicles. Reading men perused Hall's and Holinshed's huge black-letter folios in Queen Elizabeth's time with as much interest as they do Macaulay's or Prescott's elegant octavos in the reign of her successor, Victoria. Shakespeare drew again and again upon the former for the material of his historical plays; and in writing "Henry VIII.," he adopted often the very language of the Chronicler. The well-known description of Wolsey, which he puts into the mouth of Queen Katherine,-- "He was a man Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking Himself with princes; one that by suggestion Tith'd all the kingdom: Simony was fair play: His own opinion was his law: I' the presence He would say untruths; and be ever double, Both in his words and meaning; He was never, But where he meant to ruin, pitiful: His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he is now, nothing: Of his own body he was ill, and gave
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Shakespeare

 

knowledge

 

Drayton

 

meaning

 

Elizabeth

 

octavos

 
successor
 

elegant

 
Prescott
 
interest

Macaulay

 
suspected
 
writings
 

attorney

 
didactic
 

Holinshed

 
letter
 

perused

 
Chronicles
 

Reading


folios

 
untruths
 

double

 

presence

 

Simony

 

kingdom

 

opinion

 

performance

 

mighty

 

pitiful


promises

 

adopted

 

writing

 
language
 
Chronicler
 

historical

 

material

 

description

 

Wolsey

 

Himself


ranking

 

princes

 
suggestion
 

stomach

 
unbounded
 
Katherine
 

Victoria

 
practice
 
reading
 

looked