OCRed data provided
for searching only. TERENCE, MaINTUrIN, PALINGENIUS 679
ing! Who hath it? he that died o'Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon: and so ends my cateehism.107
If this passage in Palingenius stood alone, we should be obliged simply to consider it as a parallel. But since it is in connection with a passage which Shakspere is known to have uesd in detail, I believe we are entitled to feel certain that he got here at least part of his idea for Falstaff's catechism upon honor the idea and some suggestion for the phraseology of the heart of the idea. It is true, of course, that the borrowing in the Tempest is much later than that in z Henry IV, but the knowledge which enabled Shakspere in both cases to borrow doubtless went back to grammar school days.
Palingenius would have given Shakspere a great deal of information of sorts on moral and religious matters.'" He aimed at covering the whole zodiac of life; as the subtitle puts it, "that is, concerning the life of man, study, and the inculcating morals in the best way." He wrote verse with facility, though he overworks some cacophanous phrases, as "sine fine" (borrowed from avid). I suspect Shakspere would have found him more interesting than either Mancinus or Mantuan; though there is no indication that Shakspere had any enthusiasm for any of these Christian writers, or for their kind.
But Shakspere's contemporaries were quite enthusiastic about Palingenius.189 They demanded at least four English-printed editions in the 'seventies alone, and one of Googe's translation. In fact, Palingenius appears to have been about equally in demand with Mantuan himself, and both are mentioned by Gabriel Harvey11¬ in 1581 as regular school authors. Palingenius was prescribed for the third form at Aldenham in 16oo, and is required or recommended without allocation to form at St. Saviour's, 1562, St. Bees, 1583, and Durham, 1593. In every case of definite allocation to form Palingenius
1¬7 Henry IV, V, z, I28-144. The occasion of Falstaff's catechism is doubtless to be found in the ruminations of Basilisco in Soliman and Perseda, V, 3, 63 if. Shakspere had mentioned Basilisco in King Jahn, I, z, 244.
1¬8 The interested reader may find a handy description of Palingenius in Watson, F., The Zodiacus Vitae. Watson is reminded of Shakspere on several other occasions besides the two we have examined, pp. 36, 39, 40. See another probable instance Vol. II, pp. 6S7ff Mr. C. B. Garrigus has collected many of these parallels in a master's thesis under my direction, if Study of the Parallels Between Shakspere and Palingenius (Illinois, 1938). It may be of some significance that the majority of the parallels collected are with the first six books.
109 For an instance of the esteem in which Palingenius was held, see The Diary of Mr James Melvin (Bannatyne Club, 1829), p.:6. 110 See above, p. 436.
[ Volume
One ] 
