For instance,—Rumour painted full of tongues gives us a Prologue to one of the parts of Henry the fourth; and, says Dr. Dodd, Shakespeare had doubtless a view to either Virgil or Ovid in their description of Fame.
But why so? Stephen Hawes, in his Pastime of Pleasure, had long before exhibited her in the same manner,
A goodly Lady envyroned about
With tongues of fyre;——
and so had Sir Thomas More in one of his Pageants,
Fame I am called, mervayle you nothing
Though with tonges I am compassed all rounde;
not to mention her elaborate Portrait by Chaucer, in the Boke of Fame; and by John Higgins, one of the Assistants in the Mirour for Magistrates, in his Legend of King Albanacte.
A very liberal Writer on the Beauties of Poetry, who hath been more conversant in the ancient Literature of other Countries than his own, “cannot but wonder that a Poet, whose classical Images are composed of the finest parts, and breath the very spirit of ancient Mythology, should pass for being illiterate:
See, what a grace was seated on his brow!