Talk:Life Itself

What is the origin of the term?
Is "life itself" a biblical phrase, or Shakespearean, or ... ? (I note that the phrase appears three times in Shakespeare—Henry VIII Act I, scene 2, King Lear Act IV, scene 6, and The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene 1—most notably in the Merchant speech where Bassanio says his wife is as dear to him as life itself, but its use in multiple plays and multiple contexts makes me rather doubt Shakespeare coined the phrase.) Robert K S (talk) 23:49, 31 August 2018 (UTC)