Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853

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"Jam mala quæ humanum patitur genus, adnumerabo.
Principiò postquam è latebris malè olentibus alvi
Eductus tandem est, materno sanguine fœdus,
Vagit, et auspicio lacrymarum nascitur infans.
.       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
"Vix natus jam vincla subit, tenerosque coërcet
Fascia longa artus: præsagia dire futuri
Servitii.
.       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
"Post ubi jam valido se poplite sustinet, et jam
Ritè loqui didicit, tunc servire incipit, atque
Jussa pati, sentitque minas ictusque magistri,
Sæpe patris matrisque manu fratrisque frequenter
Pulsatur: facient quid vitricus atque noverca?
Fit juvenis, crescunt vires: jam spernit habenas,
Occluditque aures monitis, furere incipit, ardens
Luxuriâ atque irâ: et temerarius omnia nullo
Consilio aggreditur, dictis melioribus obstat,
Deteriora fovens: non ulla pericula curat,
Dummodo id efficiat, suadet quod cœca libido.
.       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
"Succedit gravior, melior, prudentior ætas,
Cumque ipsâ curæ adveniunt, durique labores;
Tune homo mille modis, studioque enititur omni
Rem facere, et nunquam sibi multa negotia desunt.
Nunc peregrè it, nunc ille domi, nunc rure laborat,
Ut sese, uxorem, natos, famulosque gubernet,
Ac servet, solus pro cunctis sollicitus, nec
Jucundis fruitur dapibus, nec nocte quietâ.
Ambitio hunc etiam impellens, ad publica mittit
Munia: dumque inhiat vano malè sanus honori,
Invidiæ atque odii patitur mala plurima: deinceps
Obrepit canis rugosa senecta capillis,
Secum multa trahens incommoda corporis atque
Mentis: nam vires abeunt, speciesque colorque,
Nec non deficiunt sensus: audire, videre
Languescunt, gustusque minor fit: denique semper
Aut hoc, aut illo morbo vexantur—inermi
Manduntur vix ore cibi, vix crura bacillo
Sustentata meant: animus quoque vulnera sentit.
Desipit, et longo torpet confectus ab ævo."

It would have only occupied your space needlessly, to have transcribed at length the celebrated description of the seven ages of human life from Shakspeare's As You Like It; but I would solicit the attention of your readers to the Latin verses, and then to the question, Whether either poet has borrowed from the other? and, should this be decided affirmatively, the farther question would arise, Which is the original?

    Arterus.

Dublin.

[These lines look like a modern paraphrase of Shakspeare; and our Correspondent has not informed us from what book he has transcribed them.—Ed.]

Passage in "King John" and "Romeo and Juliet."—I am neither a commentator nor a reader of commentators on Shakspeare. When I meet with a difficulty, I get over it as well as I can, and think no more of the matter. Having, however, accidentally seen two passages of Shakspeare much ventilated in "N. & Q.," I venture to give my poor conjectures respecting them.

1. King John.—

"It lies as sightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides' shows upon an ass."

I consider shows to be the true reading; the reference being to the ancient mysteries, called also shows. The machinery required for the celebration of the mysteries was carried by asses. Hence the proverb: "Asinus portat mysteriæ." The connexion of Hercules—"great Alcides"—with the mysteries, may be learned from Aristophanes and many other ancient writers. And thus the meaning of the passage seems to be: The lion's skin, which once belonged to Richard of the Lion Heart, is as sightly on the back of Austria, as were the mysteries of Hercules upon an ass.

2. Romeo and Juliet.—

"That runaways eyes may wink."

Here I would retain the reading, and interpret runaways as signifying "persons going about on the watch." Perhaps runagates, according to modern usage, would come nearer to the proposed signification, but not to be quite up with it. Many words in Shakspeare have significations very remote from those which they now bear.

    Patrick Muirson.

Shakspeare and the Bible.—Has it ever been noticed that the following passage from the Second Part of Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3., is taken from the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel?

"What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up) should we survey
The plot, the situation, and the model;
Consult upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo.
A careful leader sums what force he brings
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify on paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men, instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it."

The passage in St. Luke is as follows (xiv. 28-31.):

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

"Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

"Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

"Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?"

I give the passage as altered by Mr. Collier's Emendator, because I think the line added by him,

"A careful leader sums what force he brings,"