SCHILLER, in his Piccolomini, speaks of lightning conductors. This was about 150 years before they were invented.
SHAKESPEAKE, in his Coriolanus (act ii. sc. 1), makes Menenius refer to Galen above 600 years before he was born.
Cominius alludes to Roman Plays, but no such things were known for 250 years after the death of Cominius.—Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 2.
Brutus refers to the "Marcian Waters brought to Rome by Censorinus." This was not done till 300 years afterwards.
In Hamlet, the prince Hamlet was educated at Wittemberg School, which was not founded till 1502; whereas Saxo-Germanicus, from whom Shakespeare borrowed the tale, died in 1204. Hamlet was thirty years old when his mother talks of his going back to school (act i. sc. 2).
In 1 Henry IV., the carrier complains that "the turkeys in his pannier are quite starved" (act ii. sc. 5), whereas turkeys came from America, and the New World was not even discovered for a century after. Again in Henry V., Grower is made to say to Fluellen, "Here comes Pistol, swelling like a turkey-cock" (act v. sc. 1).
In Julius Cæsar, Brutus says to Cassius, "Peace, count the clock." To which Cassius replies, "The clock has stricken three."
Clocks were not known to the Romans, and striking-clocks were not invented till some 1400 years after the death of Cæsar.
VIRGIL places Æneas in the port Velinus, which was made by Curius Dentatus.
This list, with very little trouble, might be greatly multiplied. The hotbed of anachronisms is mediaeval romance; there nations, times and places, are most recklessly disregarded. This may be instanced by a few examples from Ariosto's great poem, Orlando Furioso.