and a whole Poem upon it into the bargain.

You perceive, my dear Sir, how vague and indeterminate such arguments must
be: for in fact this _sweet Swan of Thames_, as Mr. Pope calls him, hath
more scraps of Latin, and allusions to antiquity, than are any where to be
met with in the writings of Shakespeare. I am sorry to trouble you with
trifles, yet what must be done, when grave men insist upon them?

It should seem to be the opinion of some modern criticks, that the
personages of classick land began only to be known in England in the time
of Shakespeare; or rather, that he particularly had the honour of
introducing them to the notice of his countrymen.

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!
Hyperion's curls: the front of Jove himself:
An eye like Mars to threaten and command:
A station like the herald Mercury,
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.--_Hamlet._"

_Illiterate_ is an ambiguous term: the question is, whether Poetick
History could be only known by an Adept in _Languages_. It is no
reflection on this ingenious Gentleman, when I say that I use on this
occasion the words of a _better_ Critick, who yet was not willing to carry
the _illiteracy_ of our Poet _too far_:--"They who are in such astonishment
at the _learning_ of Shakespeare, forget that the Pagan Imagery was
familiar to all the Poets of his time; and that abundance of this sort of