Shakspearian Parallels.—Searching for Shakspearian parallels, I find the following, which may leave suggested to our bard his Seven Ages. The first is by Solon, extracted from Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromat. vi. p. 685., Paris, 1629), which differs from Philo Judæus (i. p. 25.), the only two authorities to whom we owe the preservation of this ode, as also from the text of the critic Brunck and the grammarian Dalzell. An imitation of the Greek metres is attempted in the paraphrased translation attached. The second is a sonnet from Tusser, who extends the period of life beyond seventy, the age of Solon and David in hotter climes, to eighty-four for hyperboreans, but assigns, with David, the imbecility belonging to such advanced years.
7. Παῖς μὲν ἄνηβος ἐὼν ἔτι νήπιος ἕρκος ὀδόντων
Φύσας, ἐκβάλλει πρῶτον ἐν ἕπτ' ἔτεσιν.
14. Τοὺς δ' ἑτέρους ὅτε δὴ τελέσει Θεὸς ἕπτ' ἐνιαυτοὺς,
Ἥβης ἐκφαίνει σπέρματα γεινομένης.
21. Τῇ τριτατῃ δὲ γένειον ἀεξομένων ἐπὶ γυίων
Λαχνοῦται, χροιῆς ἄνθος ἀμειβομένης.
28. Τῇ δὲ τετάρτῃ πᾶς τις ἐν ἑβδομάδι μέγ' ἄριστος
Ἰσχὺν, ἥντ' ἄνδρες σήματ' ἔχουσ' ἀρετῆς.
35. Πέμπτῃ δ' ὥριον ἄνδρα γάμου μεμνημένον εἶναι.