Original in Somerset
House, London]
[Illustration: Signature attached to the deed mortgaging the house
in Blackfriars, dated March 11, 1613. In the British Museum]
It should be borne in mind that the great English translation of the
Bible, popularly called "King James' Bible", was published only after
Shakespeare had completed his last play in 1611. Before that time,
dating from Tyndale's version of 1525, and in great measure based on
it, a number of English translations had appeared, the most
authoritative in Shakspeare's time being perhaps the "Bishops' Bible",
printed under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth in 1568, and edited by
the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Geneva Bible of 1560, the first entire Bible in English in which
the division into chapters and verses was carried out, had, however,
the widest dissemination in Shakespeare's time, and a careful study of
passages in his works referable to Biblical texts appears to prove
that this version was the one with which he was most familiar. His
plays testify to his close knowledge of the Scriptures, although no
writer is less fettered by purely doctrinal considerations. The
Geneva Bible went through no less than sixty editions in Queen
Elizabeth's reign, and even after the issue of the "Authorized
Version" in 1611 it competed successfully with this for a time.
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