was first added to the edition of 1603. According to Skeat, Shakespeare also read the Life of Cicero. The biographies of Marcus Antonius and Caius Martius Coriolanus supplied the materials for 'Antony and Cleopatra' and 'Coriolanus' respectively. Timon of Athens', too, is indebted to the Life of Antonius, as well as to that of Alcibiades.' (Compare Skeat's Introd. to Shakespeare's Plutarch, pp. XV ff.) We also find traces of Plutarch outside of the Roman plays and Timon. Some hints of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' are clearly derived from the Life of Theseus, which stands first in North's work (Skeat, p. XIII). As this play seems to have been written in 1594, the poet must have used the edition of 1579; unless we should suppose him to have seen the first sheets of the new edition, which came from the press of Richard Field, the friend of Shakespeare, and printer of his 'Venus and Adonis' and 'Lucrece'. Skeat points out a considerable number of proper names adopted by Shakespeare from Plutarch. The following are further examples of hints and suggestions obtained from the Greek biographer. Macbeth, III, 1, 54-7: There is none but he Whose being I do fear: and, under him, My Genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Caesar apparently contains a reminiscence of a passage in Plutarch (Skeat, p. 181) which was certainly in the poet's mind, when he wrote Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, III, 18-22. Again, in Imogen's bedchamber (see Cymbeline, II, iv, 66 ff.) was to be seen represented in tapestry Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman, And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for Compare Skeat, pp. 174-5 and Ant. and Cleop. II, 11, 191 ff. The ominous presages of the "mightiest" Caesar's death related by Plutarch (Skeat, p. 97) are referred to by the great poet in Hamlet, I, 1, 113 ff., and 'Caesar', Act II, II. "Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia" is mentioned in the Merchant of Venice, I, 1, 166. These, I think, are the chief points deserving of notice. 1 Though Shakespeare may have known Painter's novel on Timon, Plutarch, and not Painter, is a source of Shakespeare's play, as is evident from a comparison of the two accounts with the drama. HOMER. Dr. Small has adduced arguments in favour of the belief that Shakespeare derived some features of the play of "Troilus and Cressida', which is probably to be assigned to 1601-2, from Chapman's Translation of Homer, seven books (1. 2. 7-11) of the Iliad having appeared in 1598. Small is certainly correct in his assertion that Shakespeare's play contains Homeric features. But he has not proved that the poet used Chapman's Translation. A translation of the first ten Books of the Iliad by Arthur Hall had appeared as early as 1581. And a play of Troy' had been acted in London in 1596. See Henslowe's Diary, where mention is also made of a play 'Agamemnon' 1599, which has been said to be identical with "Troilus and Cressida', 1599, of Henslowe's troupe (or troupes). These plays may have contained Homeric traits. Fleay identifies the Troy play of 1596 with Heywood's First Part of the Iron Age (pr. 1632), which Ward also assigns to an early period of Heywood's career. Certainly, the resemblances to Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' are very striking, and all the more important Homeric features of this play, pointed out by Small, appear there. That Shakespeare must have been familiar with the classical story of the Trojan war before Chapman's Translation appeared, is clear from Lucrece, vv. 1366 seq. 2 JOSEPHUS.3 In King John, II, 1, 378 ff. the Bastard says: Do like the mutines of Jerusalem, Be friends awhile and both conjointly bend Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town That done, dissever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again, etc. "The reference to 'the mutines of Jerusalem' must have been derived, 'directly or indirectly, from Josephus, who in his Jewish War (V. 6, '§ 4) gives an account of the manner in which the leaders of the 'factions in Jerusalem, John of Giscala and Simon bar Gioras, ceased The Stage-quarrel. Kölbing's Forschungen I, pp. 164 ff. 2 Or is 'Agamemnon' based on Seneca's play? If so, probably not only on Seneca. 3 Josephus's History of the Jewish War was originally written in Aramaic, but was afterwards translated by its author into Greek, and it is this version alone which we now possess. 'their assaults upon each other to combine in resisting the Roman 'attack. No translation of Josephus into English appears to have 'existed before 1602, but the spurions Hebrew narrative of Josippon, 'or Joseph ben Gorion, had been translated at least in part by Peter 'Morwyng as early as 1558, and several editions were published before 'the end of the 16th century. From this, if from no other source, as 'Malone has shewn, Shakespeare might have derived his knowledge'. (Wright, Clarend. Press ed., p. 104.) Perhaps the story of the siege of Jerusalem had been dramatized and acted on a London stage. Henslowe's diary mentions a play 'Jerusalem' acted 1591. Another play in which this subject may have been treated is called 'tittus and Vespacia'. But on this, as on other questions, the information we get from Henslowe's diary is extremely unsatisfactory. Books on the destruction of Jerusalem were printed by Wynkyn de Worde and by Pynson. No doubt ministers of the gospel would refer to those events in their sermons. So Shakespeare may have easily got his knowledge at second hand. HELIODORUS. In Twelfth Night, V, 1, 120-3, the following words are placed in the mouth of the duke: Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, That sometimes savours nobly. Here we have a plain allusion to the adventures of the Egyptian robber Thyamis, who, brought to bay by his enemies, purposed to kill Chariclea, the object of his affections; but, luckily for her and the readers of the story, stabbed the wrong person. The romance, of which this is an episode, is entitled Aidiomixov ßißhia déxa, composed by Heliodorus, a writer of the third century of the Christian era. The Æthiopica enjoyed a great deal of popularity on the Continent and England alike. An English rendering by Thomas Underdowne from a Latin version was issued in 1569, and again in 1587, 1606, 1622. The romance, of which Theagenes and Chariclea are the heroes, was also dramatized and performed on the English stage as early as 1572-3, as we know from the 'Accounts of the Revels at Court',' 1 See Old Shakespeare Society, 1842, pp. 34-35. Fleay, Hist. of the Stage, p. 20 and note; also Cohn, Sh. in Germany, p. CX. where we find mention of 'ii speares for the play of Cariclia ... An 'awltar [altar] for theagines, . . the picture of Andromadas [for 'Chariclea]'. Stephen Gosson, too, in his 'Plays confuted', c. 1582, informs us of the dramatic treatment of the story (Malone III, 40).1 MARIANUS. To von Friesen and Hertzberg' we owe the curious discovery of the probable source of Shakespeare's last two sonnets, which show marvellously close resemblance to a Greek epigram of six lines by the Byzantine Marianus, who probably lived in the fifth century. It was Latined in 1529, and several times afterwards. How it reached Shakespeare is a puzzle. On see later chapters. 3 ANACREON, LUCIAN, PLATO, etc., 1 The popularity of the Æthiopica on French soil is testified by the ten editions through which Amyot's French translation passed in the second half of the sixteenth century. Racine is said to have known the story by heart, and to have formed the plan of dramatizing it. Nor is there lack of further evidence of its popularity in England. In 1567 James Sandford published a short account of the story 'gathered for the most part out of Heliodorus a Greeke ,Authour' in his 'Amorous Tales', etc. The first few pages of the Ethiopica were metrified by Abraham Fraunce, and published in this form in 1591. Sidney's Arcadia, we know, was influenced by Heliodorus: and William Warner's 'Pan his Syrinx', 1585, was written somewhat in the manner of the Greek romance. I find the story alluded to by Greene (Huth Libr. ed., II, 67, 91; IX, 80), Sidney (Apology, repr. by Arber, p. 28), and Reginald Scot (Disc. of Witcher. ed. by Dr. Nicholson, p. 503). These allusions, which occur to me, are probably only a few out of many. Further information on Heliodorus, than I can give here, may be found in Rohde, Der Griechische Roman, 1876; Oeftering, Heliodor und seine Bedeutung für die Literatur, Berlin, 1901; Dunlop, Hist. of Fiction. Underdowne's Translation appeared in the Tudor Translations', vol. 5, 1895. 2 Shakespeare Jahrbuch XIII, 158-162. 3 In Part II. of his paper (see ante, p. 11 note), Mr. Collins will endeavour to show that Shakespeare was acquainted with the Greek classics through Latin translations, which certainly did exist. He has already pointed out a noteworthy parallelism between 'Troilus and Cressida', III, 111, and Plato's Alcibiades I. I hope I shall be able to touch upon some of the more important points suggested by Mr. Collins in a later chapter 'On borrowed thoughts in Shakespeare'. Mr. Collins will, I am confident, also discover coincidences between Shakespeare and Greek classics of which Latin translations did not exist. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 1. I— A REPRINT OF PAGES 1. AND 2. AND PART OF P. 3. of AN INTRODUCTION OF THE EYGHT PARTES OF LATINE SPEACHE. A Noune is the name of a thing, that may be séene felt, hearde, or understande: As the name of my hande in Latine is Manus: the name of an house is Domus: the name of goodnesse is Bonitas. Of Nounes, some be Substantives, and some be Adiectives. A Noune Substantive is that standeth by himselfe, and requireth not an other woorde to be ioyned with him: as Homo, a man. And it is declined with one Article: as Hic magister, a mayster. Or else with twoo at the most: as Hic & hæc parens, a father or mother. A Noune Adiective is that can not stande by himselfe, but requireth to be ioyned with an other woorde: as Bonus, Good. Pulcher, Fayre. And it is declined eyther with thrée Terminations: as Bonus, bona, bonum: or else with thrée Articles: as Hiç, hæc, & hoc Felix, Happy. Hic & hæc levis, & hoc leve, Light. A Noune Substantive eyther is proper to the thing that it betokeneth: as Eduardus, is my proper name, or else is common to mo: as Homo, is a common name to all men. NUMBERS OF NOUNES. In Nounes be twoo Numbers, the Singular, and the Plurall. The Singular Number speaketh of one: as Lapis, a stone. The plurall number speaketh of mo than one: as Lapides, Stones. |