The Astrology Of Shakespeare.

Sebastian , iu " Twelfth Ni ght , " tells Antonio—My stars shine darkly over me ; the Malignancy of my fate might Perhaps distemper yours . Pericles commands his attendants—Feast here aAvhile , Until our stars that frown lend us a smile .

The Duke of Milan , addressing Claudio , thus moralises concerning the life which the latter is about to lose : — A breath thou art , Servile to all the skiey influences That doth this habitation , where thou keep ' st , Hourly afflict . Romeo and Juliet , in the prologue to the play , are sty led

A pair of star-crossed lovers , and Romeo , before drinking the fatal potion , announces his determination to " Shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this AA'orld-Avearied flesh . Shakespeare makes use of astrologic ideas in order to place the personnel of his creations before us .

Take , for example , the words of Hamlet concerning his dead father—See Avhat a grace was seated on that brow ; Hyperion ' s curls , the front of Jove himself , An eye like Mars , to threaten and command . The sun , when potent in a nativity , gives curling hair ; hence the god Apolloor Hyperionor the Sunwas always represented as a youth with

, , , " hyacinthine locks . " Jupiter g ives breadth of chest and a commanding presence , and the quick , fiery g lance of the martial eye is well known : When rising at birth , Ju ]} iter usuall y bestows on the male a luxuriant beard . Hence the Clown in " Twelfth Ni ght , " in the warmth of his gratitude to the soi-distant page , Viola , gives utterance to the well-meant

wish—NOAV Jove m his next commodity of hair , send thee a beard . Rosalind saucily bids Orlando-Be out of love AA'ith your nativity , and almost chide God for making you the countenance you are . There are allusions also to j danetary influence on mind and disposition . Don John , when exhorted to patience b y his villainous follower , Conrad , in

" Much Ado About Nothing , " retorts—I Avonder that thou ,, being as thou sayest thou art , born under Saturn , goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief . Mercury , rising at a birth , evilly aspected by the inf ortunes , and having no configuration with either of the benefics ( the Moon being also afflicted ) , disposes the mind to fraud . Hence , in ancient mythology , Mercury was made the God of

thieves . The rogue Atitolycus soliloquises thus : — My traffic is sheets ; when the kite builds look to lesser linen . My father named me Autolycus ; Avho , being as I am , littered under Mercury , was likeAvise a snapper up of unconsidered trifles .

Helena , in gay badinage with the braggadocio Parolles , who boasts that Mars presided at his birth , slyly insinuates that the planet must have been retrograde ; for , Monsieur Parolles , " you go so much backward when you fight . " The ancients believed that the native of Mars was obtuse of intellect ; a mere personification of brute force . Hence , Thersites spitefully and maliciousl y sty les Ajax , " Mars , his idiot ! The author of the " Text Book of Astrology , " however , takes a totally different view , and teaches that Mars rising , or in aspect to Mercury , gives acute-