PlusFours and Diagnostics
Naseeb Shaheen's Standards
"I have made every effort to find all the Biblical
and liturgical references in Shakespeare's plays. I have also
read all the significant scholarship, not only on Shakespeare's use
of Scripture, but also on religious themes found in Shakespeare's plays.
Whenever a biblical parallel suggested by others does not appear
in this volume, it generally indicates that I have rejected
that parallel as being invalid" (Biblical References in Shakespeare's
Plays, 74).
- c. 2300 (2276) items in Shaheen's "Index to Shakespeare's Biblical References"
- Well over 100 (126) "PlusFours" -- items that have four or more Shakespeare citations (i.e.,
Stritmatter "Diagnostics"; Stritmatter lists 80 "diagnostics" among Shakespeare's Biblical
references).
Oxford's Bible
- c. 1000 (991) marked verses
- 81 OxBib marked verses appear within Shaheen's index
- Stritmatter lists 30 marked verses that are also "diagnostics."
Biblical References in The Faerie Queene
- Shaheen lists 995 Biblical passages in his FQ index
- 31 OxBib marked verses appear within Shaheen's FQ index
Adding it up
Here is a chart showing
- the Shakespeare Biblical "PlusFours"
- those that correspond to Biblical references in Spenser
- those that correspond to verses marked in OxBib