in 1843, a presentation of shakesperean religious extracts was published by sir frederick beilby watson and frederic dan huntington as the "religious and moral sentences culled from the works of shakespeare, compared with sacred passages drawn from holy writ"' this was an early work that, in contrast to catholic-directed studies, sought for protestant and biblical allusions in the works of the writer. in watson's words, this was carried out ""by proving from shakespeare's own writings, that he lived and died as a true protestant,"" collecting ""presumptive evidence that the tenets of the religion which he professed were not of the roman catholic persuasion.""