V. iii., by Daniel in his Complaint of Rosamond (1592). The most striking of these resemblances is that of Daniel's verses—
And nought-respecting death (the last of paines)
Plac'd his pale colours (th' ensigne of his might)
Upon his new-got spoil before his right—
to Shakespeare's—
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Daniel was charged—not altogether unfairly—with the infirmity of plagiarism. But Shakespeare was certainly a reader of some of Daniel's poetry; and if he derived suggestions from Marlowe, why may he not have taken a hint from Daniel, and vindicated his conveyance by a triumphant ennoblement of Daniel's imagery and expression?[1]
Far too much insistence, in my opinion, has been laid on the Nurse's reference (I. iii.) to the earthquake—"'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years." An allusion may not improbably have been intended to the earthquake of 1580 felt in England. But the humour of the allusion may lie in the fact that the Nurse, who insists on the accuracy of her recollection—"Nay, I do bear a brain,"—is really astray in her chronology. Juliet is now on the point of being fourteen years of age; yet eleven years previously—at three years old—she was only
