ly have led him to read and study them with so much Pleasure,
that some of their fine Images would naturally have insinuated themselves
into, and been mix'd with his own Writings: and so his not copying at
least something from them, may be an Argument of his never having read
them." I shall leave it to the Determination of my Learned Readers, from
the numerous Passages, which I have occasionally quoted in my Notes, in
which our Poet seems closely to have imitated the Classics, whether Mr.
_Rowe_'s Assertion be so absolutely to be depended on. The Result of the
Controversy must certainly, either way, terminate to our Author's Honour:
how happily he could imitate them, if that Point be allowed; or how
gloriously he could think like them, without owing any thing to Imitation.

Tho' I should be very unwilling to allow _Shakespeare_ so poor a Scholar
as Many have labour'd to represent him, yet I shall be very cautious of
declaring too positively on the other side of the Question: that is, with
regard to my Opinion of his Knowledge in the dead languages. And therefore
the Passages, that I occasionally quote from the _Classics_, shall not be
urged as Proofs that he knowingly imitated those Originals; but brought to
shew how happily he has express'd himself upon the same Topicks. A very
learned Critick of our own Nation has declar'd, that a Sameness of Thought
and Sameness of Expression too, in Two Writers of a different Age, can
hardly happen, without a violent Suspicion of the latter copying from his
Predecessor. I shall not therefore run any great Risque of a Censure, tho'
I should venture to hint, that the Resemblances in Thought and Expression
of our Author and an Ancient (which we should allow to be Imitation in the
One whose learning was not question'd) may sometimes take its Rise from
Strength of Memory, and those Impressions which he owed to the School. And
if we may allow a Possibility of This, considering that, when he quitted
the School he gave into his Father's Profession and way of Living, and
had, 'tis likely, but a slender Library of Classical Learning; and
considering what a Number of Translations, Romances, and Legends, started
about his Time, and a little before (most of which, 'tis very evident, he
read); I think, it may easily be reconciled why he rather schemed his
_Plots_ and _Characters_ from these more latter Informations, than went
back to those Fountains, for which he might entertain a sincere
Veneratio