Their royal blood enchafed, as the rudest wind
That by the top doth take the mountain pine
And make him stoop to the vale.”
Words, which, though now obsolete, were in current use in the days of Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, cannot of themselves be adduced in evidence of any interchange of ideas; but when the form of the sentence and the application of some peculiar term agree, we may reasonably presume that it has been more than the simple use of the same common tongue which has caused the agreement. When, indeed, one author writes in English, and the others in Latin, or Italian, or French, we cannot expect much more than similarity of idea in treating of the same subject, and a mutual intercommunion of thought; but, in the case of authors employing the same mother tongue, there are certain correspondencies in the use of the same terms and turns of expression which betoken imitation.
Such correspondencies exist between Whitney and Shakespeare, as may be seen from the following among many other instances. I adopt the old spelling of the folio edition of Shakespeare, 1632,—
| Abroach | Whitney, p. 7 | And bluddie broiles at home are set abroache. |
| Rom. and J. i. 1. l. 102 | Who set this ancient quarrell new abroach? | |
| 2 Hen. IV. iv. 2, 14 | Alacke, what Mischeifes might be set abroach. | |
| a-worke | Whitney, p. vi. | They set them selues a worke. |
| 2 Hen. IV. iv. 3, 107 | Skill in the Weapon is nothing, without Sacke (for that sets it a-worke). | |
| K. Lear, iii. 5, 5 | — a provoking merit set a-worke by a reprovable badnesse in himselfe. | |
| Banne | Whitney, p. 189 | The maide her pacience quite forgot |
| And in a rage, the brutishe beaste did banne. | ||
| Hamlet, iii. 2, 246 | With Hecats ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected. | |
| 1 Hen. IV. v. 3, 42 | Fell banning Hagge, Inchantresse hold thy tongue. | |
| 2 Hen IV. ii. 4, 25 | And banne thine Enemies, both mine and thine. | |
| Cates | Whitney, p. 18 | Whose backe is fraughte with cates and daintie cheere. |
| C. Errors, iii. 1, 28 | But though my cates be meane, take them in good part. | |
| 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1, 163 | I had rather live | |
| With Cheese and Garlike in a Windmill far | ||
| Then feed on Cates, and have him talke to me | ||
| In any Summer House in Christendome. | ||
| create | Whitney, p. 64 | Not for our selues alone wee are create. |
| M. N. Dr. v. 1, 394 | And the issue there create | |
| Ever shall be fortunate. | ||
| K. John, iv. 1, 106 | The fire is dead with griefe | |
| Being create for comfort. | ||
| Hen. V. ii. 2, 31 | With hearts create of duty and of zeal. | |
| Erksome | Whitney, p. 118 | With erksome noise and eke with poison fell. |
| T. of Shrew, i. 2, 182 | I know she is an irkesome brawling scold. | |
| 2 Hen. VI. ii. 1, 56 | How irkesome is this Musicke to my heart! | |
| Ingrate | Whitney, p. 64 | And those that are vnto theire frendes ingrate. |
| T. of Shrew, i. 2, 266 | Will not so gracelesse be, to be ingrate. | |
| Coriol. v. 2, 80 | Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather. | |
| Prejudicate | Whitney, xiii. | The enuious who are alwaies readie with a prejudicate opinion to condempe. |
| All’s Well, i. 2, 7 | wherein our deerest friend | |
| Prejudicates the businesse. | ||
| Ripes | Whitney, p. 23 | When autumne ripes the frutefull fields of grane. |
| K. John, ii. 1, 472 | — yon greene Boy shall haue no Sunne to ripe | |
| The bloome that promiseth a mighty fruit. | ||
| Vnrest | Whitney, p. 94 | It shewes her selfe doth worke her own vnrest. |
| Rich. II. ii. 4, 22 | Witnessing Stormes to come, Woe and Vnrest. | |
| T. An. ii. 3, 8 | And so repose sweet Gold for their unrest. | |
| vnsure | Whitney, p. 191 | So, manie men do stoope to sightes vnsure. |
| Hamlet, iv. 4, 51 | Exposing what is mortal and unsure. | |
| Macbeth, v. 4, 19 | Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate. | |
| vnthrifte | Whitney, p. 17 | And wisdome still, against such vnthriftes cries. |
| Rich. II. ii. 3, 120 | my Rights and Royalties | |
| Pluckt from my armes perforce, and giuen away | ||
| To upstart Vnthriftes. | ||
| Timon, iv. 3, 307 | What man didd’st thou euer knowe unthrifte that was beloved after his meanes? | |
| M. Venice, v. 1, 16 | And with an unthrift love did run from Venice | |
| As far as Belmont.[[182]] |
So close are some of these correspondencies that they can scarcely be accounted for except on the theory that Shakespeare had been an observant reader of Whitney’s Emblems.
There are also various expressions, or epithets, which the Emblem-books may be employed to illustrate, and which receive their most natural explanation from this same theory that Shakespeare was one of the very numerous host of Emblem students or readers. Perriere’s account of a man attempting to swim with a load of iron on his back (Emb. 70), is applied by Whitney with direct reference to the lines in Horace, “O cursed lust of gold, to what dost thou not compel mortal bosoms?” He sets off the thought by the device of a man swimming with “a fardle,” or heavy burden (p. 179),—
Auri ſacra fames quid non?