“_Pis._ Good madam, hear me. _Imo._ True honest men being heard, like false Æneas, Were in his time thought false; and Sinon’s weeping Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity From most true wretchedness: so thou, Posthumus, Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men; Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjured From thy great fail.” Doubtless it will be said that such allusions to the characters in classical history are the common property of the whole modern race of literary men, and that to make them implies no actual copying by later writers of those who preceded them in point of time; still in the examples just given there are such coincidences of expression, not merely of idea, as justify the opinion that Shakespeare both availed himself of the usual sources of information, and had read and taken into his mind the very colour of thought which Whitney had lately spread over the same subject. The great Roman names, Curtius, Cocles, Manlius and Fabius gave Whitney the opportunity for saying (p. 109),— “With these, by righte comes _Coriolanus_ in, Whose cruell minde did make his countrie smarte; Till mothers teares, and wiues, did pittie winne.” And these few lines, in fact, are a summary of the plot and chief incidents of Shakespeare’s play of _Coriolanus_, so that it is far from being unlikely that they may have been the germ, the very seed-bed of that vigorous offset of his genius. Almost the exact blame which Whitney imputes is also attributed to Coriolanus by his mother Volumnia (act. v. sc. 3, l. 101, vol. vi. p. 407), who charges him with,— “Making the mother, wife and child, to see The son, the husband and the father, tearing His country’s bowels out.” And when wife and mother have conquered his strong hatred against his native land (act. v. sc. 3, l. 206, vol. vi. p. 411), Coriolanus observes to them,— “Ladies, you deserve To have a temple built you: all the swords In Italy, and her confederate arms, Could not have made this peace.” The subject of Alciat’s 119th Emblem, edition 1581, p. 430, is the _Death of Brutus_, with the motto,— _Fortuna virtutem superans_,— “Fortune overcoming valour.” [Illustration: _Alicat, 1581._] CÆSAREO _poſtquàm ſuperatus milite, vidit Ciuili vndantem ſanguine Pharſaliam; Jam iam ſtricturus moribunda in pectora ferrum, Audaci hos Brutus protulit ore ſonos: Infelix virtus; & ſolis prouida verbis, Fortunam in rebus cur ſequeris dominam?_ On the ideas here suggested Whitney enlarges, p. 70, and writes,—