The Astrology Of Shakespeare.

THE ASTROLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE .

( Continued from page 58 . ) PART II . The further we press in om * discoveries , the more -we shall see proofs of' design and selfsupporting arrangement , where the careless eye had seen nothing but aco ident . —De Quincey . SHAKESPEARE , in one of his sonnets , prides himself on the thought

, "Methinks I have Astronomy . " This is evident from the most cursory inspection of his works , which teem with allusions to the science . It was one of the most wide-spread beliefs in ancient times that important changes affecting kingdoms and states were foreshadowed by unusual appearances in the heavens . Shakespeare in his historical plays makes great use of such presages . Calpurnia in her unheeded warnings to Ofesar says—When beggars die there are no comets seen

, The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes . Pandulf is represented as describing the populace eagerly scanning the heavens for " meteors , prodigies , aud signs , " Avhich shall announce vengeance on King John . Before the fall of Richard IL , his adherents sorrowfully note that Meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven

, The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth , And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change . At the funeral obsequies of Henry V ., the Duke of Bedford thus apostrophises the heavens :

Comets , importing change of times and states , Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky , And with them scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented unto Henry's death . Horatio , the friend of Hamlet , forbodes evil to the State of Denmark from the ominous signs iu the heavens , which , he says , equal the portents before the death of - Csssar , when appeared

Stars Avith trains of fire and dews of blood , Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands , Was sick almost to doomsday AA'ith eclipse . Before the battle of Mortimer ' s Cross , which placed Edward IV . on the throne , that prince beholds a joyful assurance of victory : — Three glorious suns , each one a perfect sun .

Owen Gleudower endeavours to gain deference from the fiery Hotspur by the assertion—At my nativity , The front of heaven Avas full of fiery shapes Of burning cressets . The Earl of Gloucester , in " King Lear , " accounts for the troubled state of the kingdom

by—These late eclipses in the sun aud moon portend no good to us ; though the Avisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus , yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects ; love cools , friendship falls off , brothers divide ; in cities , mutinies ; in countries , discord ; in palaces , treason ; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father . We are aware that a great living writer on astronomical matters has quoted one passage as telling against astrology . In the case of Owen Glendower , the idea of the poet was evidentl y to contrast the inflated consequence of a crack-