PAGE 191 line 9. Shakspere. "Never yourself tolerate this inaccurate "spelling: brought in culpably by Chas. Knight in his Pict. Shaksp., and "imitated by others." J. W. E.

PAGE 193 line 3, for "The Merry Wives" read "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

PAGE 200 line 3, for bollie read bellie

PAGE 201. In The Athenaeum, April 28, '83, p. 542, Mr. Ginsburg points out that the following passage in Love's Labour's Lost, IV, 111, 364-25: "For charity itself fulfils the law,

"And who can sever love from charity?"

comes nearest to the translation of Romans, XIII, 10, in the Bishops' Bible: 'Therefore the fulfyllyng of the lawe is charitie', which the other bibles render: Therefore is love the fulfilling of the law.'

PAGE 217. Metrical Psalms are still sung in Scotland.

PAGE 225 line 16, 'the first that ever burst into that silent sea' is, of course, from Coleridge's Ancient Mariner (Part II, st. 5).

PAGE 225 line 19. On Setebos Mr. H. Hesketh Prichard (at Southsea) the author of Through the Heart of Patagonia, London, 1902, very courteously wrote the following lines to me: "I will answer your letter in full in a few days. I am writing to a friend, who has lived among the Tehuelche his childhood, for an opinion to see if it corroborates yours." Again, on Aug. 17. 1903: "I have never heard the Tehuelche Indians of Patagonia "mention Setebos. As far as I could gather, their religious beliefs only "recognise a good spirit which is nameless and an evil one the Gualicho. "This is endorsed by my correspondent whom I mentioned in my last letter."

PAGE 239 line 10. Some remarks on Shakespeare's astrology will be found in MacMillan's Magazine, 51, p. 462.

last lines. But compare Sonnet XV, 3 and 4.

PAGES 250-3.

To the London names add the following: The Jewel House of the Tower (mentioned in Henry VIII., Act IV, 1, 111, and V, 1, 34); *Long Lane (? The Shrew, IV, III, 187); *the pissing conduit (2. Henry VI., Act IV, vi, 3); *The Tiltyard (2. Henry IV., Act III, 11, 347).

2. MORE BORROWED IDEAS.

Nihil novum est sub sole; nihilque dictum, quod non sit dictum prius.

I now offer a few jottings on further Shakespearean borrowings. I say jottings, for I am reluctantly compelled by circumstances (not by space this time) to give up my intention of writing a separate chapter on this subject. Fragmentary though this section be, there is perhaps some gain in at least stating what has still remained undone. The chapter was to include:1. More classical elements in Shakespeare's works. This I have partly worked out. 2. Ideas of which parallels can be adduced from contemporary or earlier literature. 3. Proverbs and sayings. 4. Folk-lore in Shakespeare; and Popular Errors regarding animals, plants, etc. 5. Inquiry into Shakespeare's knowledge of law, music, medicine, etc.

There is no saying where we should stop our investigation. For is not the very language which Shakespeare spoke the work of generations moulded and refined by many varied minds?

1.-MORE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS IN SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS WITH MANY

OTHER PARALLELS.

In this section, which is supplementary to chapter 1, I shall mention, by way of example, some ideas and expressions which can be traced back to the old classics. It is not always possible to say exactly whether the influence is of a direct or indirect kind. But in many cases we feel certain that it is of the latter. For the whole Renaissance atmosphere was surcharged with classicism, and one who had enjoyed a very fair classical schooling himself and who moved among the best of his age would continually add to the store of his knowledge.

The question of Shakespeare's relation to the classics has lost nothing of its fascination. A suggestive paper on Shakespeare's Predecessors was read by Professor Brandl before the German Shakespeare Society at Weimar in 1899 (Jahrbuch, XXXV). He shows that, though Shakespeare cannot be supposed to have studied the Greeks, there is a plain chain of connexion stretching across the centuries from the Elizabethan to the Attic stage. The

Fortnightly Review, as I have already stated, brings a series of articles to prove that Shakespeare had read the Greek dramas in Latin versions. Mr. Churton Collins, the author of these articles, was no doubt influenced by Mr. Edwin Reed's chapter on classic elements in Shakespeare's plays, in his "Francis Bacon our Shake-speare" (London, 1902), a work which cannot stand the test of serious criticism. It is only his parallelisms between Shakespeare and the classics which we are concerned with here. A detailed discussion of his and Mr. Collins's remarks is, of course, out of question. I can only select more noteworthy points, which I shall refer to en passant. Mr. Collins's position I may remark, is not new. He had been anticipated by James Russell Lowell.1

I confess, I have much sympathy with those, who, impressed with the complexity of the gigantic mind of Shakespeare, like to think that he could have been little satisfied with second-hand knowledge. For him only the best was good. It is, indeed, difficult to draw a hard and fast line between direct and indirect influences. No doubt, Shakespeare was a hard-working man. Supposing he spent an hour every morning before breakfast in reading belletristic literature, why should he not have opened the Latin writings now and then? If so, why not the Greek authors in the Latin (or French) translations? But there is a limit to everything,-except to scientific enquiry.

I have already said in Chapter 1 that Shakespeare did know the Latin classics in the original. But, though they supplied him with a sound training, their influence should not be exaggerated. The very fact that he opened his Golding should be a sufficient warning. It is of course possible that Shakespeare had looked into the Greek classics in the Latin translations. There are many things about which ignoramus et ignorabimus.

What has Mr. Collins shown? He has displayed much learning and research and proved that he himself has carefully studied the Greek dramas; but he has conspicuously failed to show Shakespeare's obligations to them, so much so, that his articles may be cited as providing strong evidence to the contrary. Even supposing that, by some chance, English translations of the Greek dramas should be discovered (which is extremely unlikely), I should continue to remain sceptical as to whether Shakespeare studied them, basing my doubts on the inconclusiveness of Mr. Collins's articles. His paper is full of honest destructive self-criticism, which—it is not offensive to say so--shows that Mr. Collins has failed to convince himself. The difference between Shakespeare's drama and the Attic tragedy is essential and radical. Shakespeare's mind travelled in another direction altogether, and the connexion, such as it is, is in direct through the Elizabethan contemporary drama and literature at large. For a fair judgment on this question a constant com

1 Compare Mr. Lee's Life of Shakespeare, p. 13n. "I believe", says Mr. Lee, "Lowell's parallelisms to be no more than curious accidents-proofs of consangui"nity of spirit, not of any indebtedness on Shakespeare's part."

Anders, Shakespeare's books.

18

parison with the Elizabethan literature is imperative,—a comparison which Mr. Collins has evaded entirely. The subject, if investigated again, must be approached from a standpoint offering a broader and wider view.1

Need we repeat, what is a truism, that the language of Nature is the same in London as in Athens; that the Attic Muse had been resuscitated by the Renaissance; and that the basis of Shakespeare's drama is national not exotic?.

I begin by pointing out some thoughts and expressions, which can be traced back to the old Philosophy, and which must have been familiar to the poet through the Renaissance writings.

1) I do now remember a saying, 'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool'.

This is a Socratic idea.

2)

(As You Like It, V, 1, 33.)

Compare what Plato says, e. g., in his 'Cratylus', 400: 'For some say that 'the body is the grave (a) of the soul which may be thought to be buried in our present life; or again the index of the soul, because the soul gives 'indications to (onuaivet) the body; probably the Orphic poets were the in'ventors of the name, and they were under the impression that the soul is 'suffering the punishment of sin, and that the body is an enclosure or pri'son in which the soul is incarcerated, kept safe (ouua, oúntai), as the name 'pa implies, until the penalty is paid'.2 The thought had no doubt become a commonplace.

3)

p. 285.

To be, or not to be ...

To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

1 Two somewhat puzzling allusions in Titus Andronicus are noted below,

2 Plato, translated by Prof. Jowett, 1892.

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, etc.

(Hamlet, III, 1, 56f.)

'Let us reflect', says Socrates in Plato's Apology (40), in another way, 'and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good; 'for one of two things either death is a state of nothingness and utter un'consciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul 'from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no conscious'ness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by dreams, 'death will be an unspeakable gain . . . . . Now if death be of such a nature, 'I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night.' But if 'death is the journey (áпodŋμñoα) to another place, and there, as men say, 'all the dead abide, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater 'than this?'

The passage, from which these sentences are taken, was very famous in antiquity. It is translated by Cicero (Tusc. Disp. I, 97-99), and quoted by Stobaeus and Eusebius: Plutarch also gives a paraphrase of the reasoning in his Consolatio ad Apollonium, 107 D foll. (cf. Holland's transl. of the "Morals", 1603, p. 516). Compare also Xen. Cyrop. VIII. 7. 19 foll., where the dying Cyrus talks much as Socrates does here.2 Montaigne repeats Socrates's thoughts (cf. p. 54), of which we also find an echo in Ph. de Mornay's Discourse of Life and Death, translated by Mary, Countess of Pembroke, 1592 (2nd ed. 1600). With the above passage we should also compare Measure for Measure, III, 1, 17:

"Thy best of rest is sleep,

"And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st
"Thy death, which is no more." etc.

or The Tempest, IV, 1, 156—8:

1 Huxley's tombstone has the following inscription: It is well even if the

sleep be endless.

2 Adam's edition of the Apology, 1887, p. 115.