When we maintain that Shakespeare not unfrequently made use of the Emblem writers, we do not mean to imply that he was generally a direct copyist from them. This is seldom the case. But a word, a phrase, or an allusion, sufficiently demonstrates whence particular thoughts have been derived, and how they have been coloured and clothed. They have been gathered as flowers in a country-walk are gathered—one from this hedge-side, another from that, and a third from among the standing corn, and others from the margin of some murmuring stream; but all have their natural beauty heightened by the skill with which they are blended so as to impart gracefulness to the whole. Flora’s gems they may be, but the enwoven coronal borrows its chief charm from the artistic power and fitness with which its parts are arranged: break the thread, or cut the string with which Genius has bound them together, and they fall into inextricable confusion—a mass of disorder—no longer a pride and a joy: but let them remain, as a most excellent skill has placed them, and for ever could we gaze on their loveliness. A matchless beauty has been achieved, and all the more do we value it, because upon it there is also stamped eternal youth. [Illustration: _Symbola, 1679._] ----- Footnote 64: We select an instance common to both Holbein and Shakespeare; it is pointed out by Woltmann, in his _Holbein and his Time_, vol. ii. p. 23, where, speaking of the Holbein painting, _The Death of Lucretia_, the writer says,—“The costume is here, as ever, that of Holbein’s own time. The painter reminds us of Shakespeare, who also conceived the heroes of classic antiquity in the costume of his own days; in the _Julius Cæsar_ the troops are drawn up by beat of drum, and Coriolanus comes forth like an English lord: but the historical signification of the subject nevertheless does in a degree become understood, which the later poetry, with every instrument of archæological learning, troubles itself in vain to reach.” It may be noted that in other instances both Wornum, the English biographer of Holbein, and Woltmann, the German, compare Holbein and Shakespeare, or, rather, illustrate the one by the other. Footnote 65: As when Cooper, at the tomb of Shakespeare, describes it,— “The scene then chang’d from this romantic land, To a bleak waste by bound’ry unconfin’d, Where three swart sisters of the weird band Were mutt’ring curses to the troublous wind.” Footnote 66: Act v. sc. 3, lines 14–84, Cambridge edition, vol iii. pp. 422–25. Footnote 67: The ivory statue changed into a woman, which Ovid describes, _Metamorphoses_, bk. x. fab. viii. 12–16, is a description of kindred excellence to that of Shakespeare: