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for searching only. assume such use. We need a thoroughgoing examination of the original Greek, and of the available Latin and English translations to determine through which form the materials of Troilus and Cressida came. Even then we shall still face the dispute as to Shakspere's share in the play.
Yet it must be highly significant that the only possible case for Shakspere's knowledge of Homer's Iliad in Greek or in Latin translation must rest on a play of doubtful authenticity. He certainly was never much interested in the work. If he had any contact with Homer's Iliad in grammar school or elsewhere, it was not an impressive one. Even the Iliad in Troilus and Cressida did not impress him sufficiently to get reflected in his later plays. At present, there is no conclusive evidence that Shakspere knew the Iliad directly in any form before the edition of Chapman's translation in 161o.104 As Professor Root says of the .Iliad,
That he found in it no undiscovered sea of thought, that its influence on his
conception of classical mythology was all but nothing, the exceeding paucity of such allusions abundantly indicates.196
For the Odyssey there is even less evidence of any use by Shakspere. Professor Root says,
In H6B Aeolus is spoken of as loosing the winds from their `brazen caves,' and in Per. he is implored to `bind them in brass.' This is to be referred to Od. io. 2, where the island of Aeolus is said to have a retxos XAXKeov. There is no mention of brass in the Vergilian account 198
It must be significant that this detail occurs both times in plays of doubtful authenticity. As for the Iliad, so for the Odyssey, we must conclude that there is as yet no evidence that Shakspere had any real grasp on either. Indeed, Hoole expected only two books of either Iliad or Odyssey. A continental form intended for grammar school use contained Iliad, I, V, IX, indicating about the same quantity. Hayne before 1611 had prepared a construe of the first four books of the Iliad for the boys at Merchant Taylors',1o7 a school which emphasized Greek. No boy is likely to have had more than the merest smattering of Homer in grammar school. There is no conclusive evidence that Shakspere had even that. And it must be added that the search has been sufficient to uncover any considerable knowledge if it had existed. If Shakspere had any contact with Homer
I" See above, p. Egg. 11* Root, Classical Mythology, p. 6. 1m Root, Classical Mythology, p- 34~ 107 See Vol. 1, p. ,Sox.
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