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for searching only. JUVENAL AND PERSIUS 547
Persius, Satira, i. 28; "At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier hic est." It is implied in Bolingbroke's argument that it is a fine thing to be pointed at; "wonder'd at" corresponds with "digito monstrari," "men would tell" with "dicier," and "this is he" with "hie est." Shakespeare, moreover, has given to "this is he" the same position of emphasis (at the end of the line and sentence) that Persius assigned to "hie est.""
The parallel is in the rhetorical structure, so dear to Shakspere's heart, as well as in word echoes. After the violets of Laertes, this is probably the strongest parallel as such so far noted with Persius.
Singly or all together these parallels offer little evidence that Shakspere had at any time really read Persius. Neither do they indicate that he had not done so. He may; he may not.
Our results upon Horace, Juvenal, and Persius point the way to another significant conclusion. As we have seen," there was a succession of editions of Horace printed in England during Shakspere's active career, the first and only known one before Shakspere should have had need of Horace in grammar school being that of 1574. These English editions of Horace also attached Juvenal and Persius, as was not infrequently true of continental editions. The inference is that these three were expected to be used together. Where one such need was we have already seen, and it was the avowed business of these particular printers to cater to that need. One method of teaching the boys versification in grammar school was to make them seek all kinds of verse forms in Horace, Juvenal, and Persius. Some would permit Martial, and even that still less respectable triumvirate Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, who were also regularly printed together, but not in England during the latter half of the sixteenth century.
In the Paul's system, Horace, Juvenal, and Persius were, as we have seen, regularly used for this purpose. When we examine Shakspere's knowledge of Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, it coincides too significantly with this system to be the result of chance. For it is the Odes as a whole of Horace, with their various meters, that Shakspere reflects in detail, not the Satires, nor the Epistles in general. To the Odes and probably some of the Epistles, he adds Ors Poetics for literary criticism rather than for metrical reasons, and at least some of the Satires of Juvenal, especially the tenth entire. Persius is not quite so certain as Horace and Juvenal; yet he too is highly probable. I believe we may certainly conclude that for versification Shakspere
n cowl, R. 2., 1 Henry IV (Arden ed.), p. gory. 76 See Vol. I, pp. ;so-ses.
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