(V. v. 73.)
Some critics have endeavoured to minimise this coincidence on the ground that it was a common idea that man was compounded of the four elements. But that would not account for such close identity of phrase. There must be some connection; and that Drayton, not Shakespeare, was the copyist, is rendered probable by the circumstance that Drayton, in 1619, i.e. after Shakespeare’s death, makes a still closer approach to Shakespeare’s language.
He was a man, then, boldly dare to say,
In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit;
In whom, so mix’d the elements all lay,
That none to one could sovereignty impute;
As all did govern, yet all did obey:
He of a temper was so absolute
As that it seem’d, when Nature him began,
She meant to show all that might be in man.[139]