OCRed data provided
for searching only. SUSENBROTUS 141
Because of the position of the Copia of Erasmus, and the work of Quintilian in the school system, these are the two to which Susenbrotus is constantly referring the boys for further information. Conversely, they occupied this position in the school system because they were the best treatises upon their subjects. Thus at the end of the tropes Susenbrotus informs the boys in an "Annotatiuncula" that, "Vsurn porrb illorum omnium Troporum praeter Fabium, D. Erasmus in commentarijs de duplici copia abunde docet."4 These two are throughout his patron saints on rhetoric,' with !4d Herennium occasionally joined.' And Susenbrotus ends with praise of Erasmus; "Haec Erasmus Barbariei in Germania nostra profligator, syncerae Latinitatis reparator, ac de omnibus literarum studiosis optime meritus."7 The work of Erasmus to which Susenbrotus chiefly appeals is, of course, Copia, and that in the highly annotated edition of Veltkirchius.s But he occasionally refers also to the Ecclesiasticus of Erasmus. At the very beginning of his rhetorical career, the boy would need to master these elements of rhetoric or elocutio from Susenbrotus or some other similar manual before the doors of the Muses could be opened to him. Susenbrotus was in Shakspere's day the regular gateway to Parnassus.
From some source, Shakspere had a sufficiently accurate knowledge of tropes and schemes to open "the doors of the Muses" to him, and the evidence seems conclusive that along with the host of schoolboys he ought to have offered up his "prayerlets" for Susenbrotus. For instance, Shakspere plays upon the trope enigma and its name.
Moth. A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
Arm. Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy 1'envoy; begin.
Cost. No egma, no riddle, no ]'envoy; no salve in the mail, sir; 0, sir, plantain, a plain plantain! no ]'envoy, no ]'envoy; no salve, sir, but a plantain!"
First we may notice Cooper's definition, "flenigma . . . a darke or harde question: a ryddle." Armado has the best of authority for giving riddle as the synonym for enigma. The "rational hind Costard," not the apple costard, has broken his shin; hence the enigma or riddle.
It is Holofernes, however, who brings in a significant technicality in connection with Dull's riddle.
4 Susenbratus (1565), p. ao. 6 Susenbrotus (i56S), pp. 73, 91, IOO, 105.
' Susenbrotus (1565), PP. 96, 97. "Susenbrotus (1565), p. 1I0.
$ SusenbrOtus (1565), pp. 72, 96. Î Cote':.Labor') Loll, III, 1, 71-75.
[ Volume
One ] 
