THE CLASSICAL ELEMENT

IN THE

SHAKESPEARE PLAYS.

BY

WILLIAM THEOBALD,

Late Deputy Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India,
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,

AND OF

The Numismatic Society of London.

Hunc si quis librum contemnat stultus et excors

Livoris tanti praemia justa ferat.

Nec putei e fundo liceat, Proh Jupiter, isti,

Quaesitam multis surripuisse Deam.

LONDON:

ROBERT BANKS & SON,

RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.

1909.

To the memory of

MISS DELIA BACON,

A PROTOMARTYR IN THE CAUSE OF TRUTH,

These pages are respectfully Dedicated
BY THE AUTHOR.

"I do not fear to follow out the truth,

Albeit along the precipice's edge.

Let us speak plain: there is more force in names
Than most men dream of, and a lie may keep
Its throne a whole age longer, if it skulk
Behind the shield of some fair-seeming name."
James Russell Lowell.

"Desine quapropter, novitate exterritus ipsâ,
Expuere ex animo rationem; sed magis acri
Judicio perpende; et si tibi vera videntur,

Dede manus; aut, si falsum est, adcingere contra."

"Do not therefore for the mere novelty of the idea, expel the reasonable consideration thereof from your brain, but rather weigh its claims with your keenest judgement; and if they seem true submit to them, or if false in that case reject them."

(Lucretius II. 1,040.)