ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the English word 'soul' was best suited to render the same or similar concepts for which Greek had used psyche and Latin had used anima. The threefold division of the soul with respect to its various functions or powers had been stated by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Parson's Tale. But the most primitive meaning underlying this complex threefold division is the notion of principle of life or life-force. William Shakespeare's use of 'mind' is compatible with both the behavioral interpretation of inwardness and its outward manifestation, and with the common view of mind as the noble or rational part of the human soul. Shakespeare sometimes uses 'mind' in adverbial and prepositional clauses to refer to the memory alone, that is, to the collective or individual memory, either in an instance or through an observance.
