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for searching only. 546 SMALL LATINE AND LESSE GREEKE
possible that Shakspere independently could have given the fable the same turn as had Persius. But since others did not, and since this item from Persius was so easily accessible to even learned grammarians, it is highly improbable that Shakspere did hit upon his particular turn independently.
Neither can we be certain, of course, that Shakspere had this knowledge directly from Persius. In this case, it seems quite likely that Shakspere had at least one touch from North's Plutarch. In 4ntony and Cleopatra, whose source is, of course, North's Plutarch, Shakspere refers to "Marcus Crassus' death." If he read North's account of that death, he found there the following allusion carried out in detail,
slesope was a wise man, who said, that euery man caned a sacke on his
necke, and that they put other mens faultes at the sackes mouth, and their owne towardes the bottome of the sacke?h
It will be noticed that Coriolanus advises the Tribunes to "turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks," and North has the "sacke on his necke." It seems likely that in reading for ifntony and Cleopatra Shakspere caught this phrase and later used it in Coriolanus. Even so, however, he would seem to be thinking of the two bags as in Perseus, with one's own faults "tergo," "on his necke" as North quaintly phrased it in the idiom of his day.
The interpretation of Nebrissensis on Persius would then have completed Shakspere's idea. At least, all of Shakspere's idea was afloat in the background, from whatever sources he may have assembled its parts. The interpretation of Nebrissensis may be the school-master's contribution; Shakspere may have found it in some edition accessible in the school or elsewhere; it may have been in Shakspere's own copy. Or Shakspere may simply have heard this story so interpreted. But at least Persius appears to be the ultimate source of the allusion.
So far, all these alleged borrowings from Persius are also, as in the case of Juvenal, from Hamlet and later plays. But just as we are about to draw conclusions, Cowl brings in a parallel from an earlier play, where we also found possible traces of Juvenal.T4 Bolingbroke makes a speech of some length, mounting to the climax, "This is he."
' .4ntony and Cleopatra, III, x, s.
"North, Plutarch (1595), p. 6i7.
u The connection may be due merely to the fact that one so alert for parallels and so well versed in the classics as Cowl edited the play.
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