_"As You Like It."_--Believing that whatever illustrates, even to a
trifling extent, the great dramatic poet of England will interest the
readers of "N. & Q.," I solicit their attention to the resemblance between
the two following passages:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."
"Si rectè aspicias, _vita hæc est fabula quædam_.
_Scena autem, mundus versatilis_: _histrio et actor_
_Quilibet est hominum--mortales nam propriè cuncti_
_Sunt personati_, et falsâ sub imagine, vulgi
Præstringunt oculos: _ita Diis, risumque jocumque_,
_Stultitiis, nugisque suis per sæcula præbent_.
. . . . . . . .
"Jam mala quæ humanum patitur genus, adnumerabo.
_Principiò_ postquam è latebris malè olentibus alvi
Eductus tandem est, materno sanguine foedus,
_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 coeca 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_
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_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?