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for searching only. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;236 SMALL LATINE AND LESSE GREEKE
And do not call them bastards.
Per. I'll not put
The dibble in earth to set one slip of them;
No more than were I painted I would wish
This youth should say 'twere well and only therefore Desire to breed by me."'
"The art itself is nature," Perdita admits; but it should not be so applied as to defeat nature's ends. Pope puts his quirk into this doctrine and makes of art nature methodized.
Shakspere agreed also with Quintilian that while the fundamental things in a writer are not mechanically imitable, yet an admired writer should be so mastered as to absorb his inimitable spirit. It was in this fashion that Shakspere had mastered Ovid, whom Quintilian would never have advised; Virgil was his favorite.142 But Holofernes-and Shakspere----thought that Ovid excelled in poetic invention and the other inimitable virtues.
Incidentally, the reader will see why Ascham says that Quintilian accepts "the matter," but writes "hotelie and spitefullie enough, agaynst the Imitation of Tullie."14a Erasmus was also somewhat tainted with Quintilian's heresy.'" Quintilian did not think that one could reach the heights by mechanical imitation. Neither did Erasmus, nor Shakspere. Ingenium, wit, nature was inimitable, was above art. "The art itself is nature."
A thorough study of Shakspere's indebtedness to Quintilian would certainly bring out many parallels between the two authors. The present sketch makes it clear that Shakspere was considerably indebted to Quintilian.'This indebtedness is most naturally accounted for by the regular practice in Shakspere's day of studying Quintilian in grammar school. This is a much easier assumption than that Shakspere had this information in non-descript fragments from an infinity of sources. In many cases, the latter assumption is also impossible, for there Shakspere's knowledge comes directly from Quintilian in its proper context.
I have used only or chiefly passages where Shakspere has himself emphasized the fact that he is consciously employing some rhetorical technicality. This, of course, envisions only part of the subject, for as Fraunce says,
141 Winter's Tale, 1V, 4, 86-143.
1" Nevertheless, Quintilian shares some of Ovid's figures, such as that of the hindered stream
((1538), p. 136r; (1580), pp. 537-538), and that of the fish ((1538), p. 185r; (1580), p. 730). 10 Ascham, Scisolemaster (1570), p. 49V. 1" See Vol. 1, p. 439; Vol. 11, p. 175.
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