Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, no. 22, August 1859

The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV,
No. 22, Aug., 1859

by Various (#22 in our series by Various)
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Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859
Author: Various
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ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. IV, NO. 22, AUG., 1859 ***

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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
VOL. IV.--AUGUST, 1859.--NO. XXII.

THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN THE BIBLE.
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.