As stated in the _fac-simile Reprint_ of Whitney’s _Emblemes_, p. 302, Douce in his _Illustrations of Shakespeare_, pp. 302, 393, advances the opinion that the translation of Paradin into English, 1591, by P. S., was the source of Shakespeare’s torch-emblem; “but it is very note-worthy that the torch in the English translation is not a torch ‘that’s turned upside down,’ but one held uninverted, with the flame naturally ascending. This contrariety to Shakespeare’s description seems fatal therefore to the translator’s claim.” P. S., however, renders the motto, “He that nourisheth me, killeth me;” and so may put in a claim to the suggestion of the line,— “Which can as well inflame as it can kill.” Let us next take Whitney’s stanza of six lines to the same motto and the same device, p. 183; premising that the very same wood-block appears to have been used for the Paradin in 1562, and for the Whitney in 1586. “Even as the waxe dothe feede, and quenche the flame, So, loue giues life; and loue, dispaire doth giue: The godlie loue, doth louers croune with fame: The wicked loue, in shame dothe make them liue. Then leaue to loue, or loue as reason will, For, louers lewde doe vainlie languishe still.” Now, comparing together Symeoni, Paradin, Whitney, and Shakespeare, as explanatory of the fourth knight’s emblem, we can scarcely fail to perceive in the _Pericles_ a closer resemblance, both of thought and expression, to Whitney than to the other two. Whitney wrote,— “So, loue giues life; and loue, dispaire doth giue,” which the _Pericles_ thus amplifies: “Which shows, that beauty hath this power and will, Which can as well inflame as it can kill.” We conclude, therefore, from this instance, that Whitney’s _Choice of Emblemes_ was known to the author of the _Pericles_, and that in this instance he has simply carried out the idea which was there suggested to him. A slight allusion to this same device of the burning torch is made in _3 Henry VI._ (act iii. sc. 2, l. 51, vol. v. p. 281), when Clarence remarks,— “As red as fire! nay, then her wax must melt;” but a very distinct one in Hamlet’s words (act iii. sc. 4, l. 82, vol. viii. p. 112),— “O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax And melt in her own fire; proclaim no shame When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.”