knowledge of the Greek drama. Turning to Mr. Holmes (who takes his
motto, if you please, from Parmenides), we find that the author of
'Richard II.' borrowed from a Greek play by Euripides, called
'Hellene,' as did the author of the sonnets. There is, we need not
say, no Greek play of the name of 'Hellene.' As Mr. Holmes may
conceivably mean the 'Helena' of Euripides, we compare Sonnet cxxi.
with 'Helena,' line 270. The parallel, the imitation of Euripides,
appears to be--

By their dark thoughts my deeds must not be shown,

with--

Prooton men ouk ons adikoz eimi duskleez,^

which means, 'I have lost my reputation though I have done no harm.'
Shakespeare, then, could not complain of calumny without borrowing
from 'Hellene,' a name which only exists in the fancy of Mr.
Nathaniel Holmes. This critic assigns 'Richard II.,' act ii., scene
1, to 'Hellene' 512-514. We can find no resemblance whatever
between the three Greek lines cited, from the 'Helena,' and the
scene in Shakespeare. Mr. Holmes appears to have reposed on Malone,
and Malone may have remarked on fugitive resemblances, such as
inevitably occur by coincidence of thought. Thus the similarity of
the situations of Hamlet and of Orestes in the 'Eumenides' is given
by similarity of legend, Danish and Greek. Authors of genius, Greek
or English, must come across analogous ideas in treating analogous
topics. It does not follow that the poet of 'Hamlet' was able to
read AEschylus, least of all that he could read him in Greek.