It is not in the nature of such things that instances should be either numerous or very glaring; but it will be perceived that in all of the foregoing, the purpose, and sometimes even the meaning, is intelligible only in the form in which we find it in Shakespeare.  I have not urged all that I might, even in this branch of the question; but respect for your space makes me pause.  In conclusion, I will merely state, that I have no doubt myself of the author of the Taming of a Shrew having been Marlowe; and that, if in some scenes it appear to fall short of what we might have expected from such a writer, such inferiority arises from the fact of its being an imitation, and probably required at a short notice.  At the same time, though I do not believe Shakspeare’s play to contain a line of any other writer, I think it extremely probable that we have it only in a revised form, and that, consequently, the play which Marlow imitated might not necessarily have been that fund of life and humour that we find it now.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

St. John’s Wood, March 19. 1850.

* * * * *

PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS—­PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL PASSAGES.

  “[Greek:  ’On oi Theoi philousin apothnaeskei neos].”

Brunck, Poetae Gnomici, p. 231., quoted by Gibbon, Decl. and Fall (Milman.  Lond. 1838. 8vo.), xii. 355. (note 65.)

  “Quem Jupiter vult perdere, prius dementat.”

These words are Barnes’s translation of the following fragment of Euripides, which is the 25th in Barnes’ ed. (see Gent.’s Mag., July, 1847, p. 19, note):—­

  “[Greek:  ’Otan de Daimon andri porsynae kaka,
  Ton noun exlapse proton].”

This, or a similar passage, may have been employed proverbially in the time of Sophocles.  See l. 632. et seq. of the Antigone (ed.  Johnson.  Londini. 1758. 8vo.); on which passage there is the following scholium:—­

  “[Greek:  Meta sophias gar upo tinos aoidimou kleinon epos pephantai,
    ‘Otan d’ o daimon andri porsynae kaka,
    Ton noun exlapse proton o bouleuetai.]” {348}

Respecting the lines referred to in the Chorus, Dr. Donaldson makes the following remarks, in his critical edition of the Antigone, published in 1848:—­

“The parallel passages for this adage are fully given by Ruhnken on Velleius Paterculus, ii. 57. (265, 256.), and by Wyttenbach on Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis, p. 17.  B. (pp. 190, 191.)”

* * * * *

  “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
  To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.”

Congreve’s Mourning Bride, act i. sc. i. l. 1.

* * * * *

  “L’appetit vient en mangeant.”

Rabelais, Gargantua, Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p. 136, ed.  Variorum.  Paris, 1823. 8vo.)