The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 / A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra Brown, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
We say dramatic element in the Bible, not dramatic element of the Bible, since that of which we speak is not essential, but incidental; it is an aspect of the form of the book, not an attribute of its inspiration.
By the use of the term dramatic in this connection, let us, in the outset, be understood to have no reference whatever to the theatre and stage-effect, or to the sundry devices whereby the playhouse is made at once popular and intolerable. Nor shall we anticipate any charge of irreverence; since we claim the opportunity and indulge only the license of the painter, who, in the treatment of Scriptural themes, seeks both to embellish the sacred page and to honor his art,—and of the sculptor, and the poet, likewise, each of whom, ranging divine ground, remarks upon the objects there presented according to the law of his profession. As the picturesque, the statuesque, the poetical in the Bible are legitimate studies, so also the dramatic.
But in the premises, is not the term dramatic interdicted,—since it is that which is not the Bible, but which is foreign to the Bible, and even directly contradistinguished therefrom? The drama is representation,—the Bible is fact; the drama is imitation,—the Bible narrative; the one is an embodiment,—the other a substance; the one transcribes the actual by the personal,—the other is a return to the simplest originality; the one exalts its subjects by poetic freedom,—the other adheres to prosaic plainness.
Yet are there not points in which they meet, or in which, for the purposes of this essay, they may be considered as coming together,—that is, admitting of an artistical juxtaposition?
In the first place, to take Shakspeare for a type of the drama, what, we ask, is the distinguishing merit of this great writer? It is his fidelity to Nature. Is not the Bible also equally true to Nature? It is the praise of Shakspeare, says Dr. Johnson, that his plays are the mirror of life. Was there ever a more consummate mirror of life than the Bible affords? Shakspeare copied the manners of the world then passing before him, and has more allusions than other poets to the traditions and superstitions of the vulgar. The Bible, perhaps, excels all other books in this sort of description. Shakspeare was an exact surveyor of the inanimate world. The Bible is full of similar sketches. An excellence of Shakspeare is the individuality of his characters. They are real beings of flesh and blood, the critics tell us; they speak like men, not like authors. How truly this applies to the persons mentioned in sacred writ! Goethe has compared the characters of Shakspeare to watches with crystalline cases and plates, which, while they point out with perfect accuracy the course of the hours and minutes, at the same time disclose the whole combination of springs and wheels whereby they are moved. A similar transparency of motive and purpose, of individual traits and spontaneous action, belongs to the Bible. From the hand of Shakspeare, the lord and the tinker, the hero and the valet, come forth equally distinct and clear. In the Bible the various sorts of men are never confounded, but have the advantage of being exhibited by Nature herself, and are not a contrivance of the imagination. Shylock, observes a recent critic, seems so much a man of Nature's making, that we can scarce accord to Shakspeare the merit of creating him. What will you say of Balak, Nabal, Jeroboam? Macbeth is rather guilty of tempting the Weird Sisters than of being tempted by them, and is surprised and horrified at his own hell-begotten conception. Saul is guilty of tampering with the Witch of Endor, and is alarmed at the Ghost of Samuel, whose words distinctly embody and vibrate the fears of his own heart, and he falls straightway all along on the earth. The exquisite refinement of Viola triumphs over her masculine attire. The exquisite refinement of Ruth triumphs in the midst of men.