Philip Hardie has written an entire (huge) book on the trope of Fama. It’s a commonplace with similar passages found in dozens of authors. Shakespeare might have read Dante of course (though generally speaking refs to Dante are fairly infrequent in English sources of this period) but Shakespeare’s style, roooted in common placing, makes it very hard in my view to make a compelling argument about any single source. Generally the more classical and renaissance literature you’ve actually read, the less convincing any single « source » attribution looks.
Shakespeare must have read Virgil at his grammar school and maybe he just based his version of Fame on Virgil’s description of Rumour flying about (Aeniad book IV). There are similarities.
Philip Hardie has written an entire (huge) book on the trope of Fama. It’s a commonplace with similar passages found in dozens of authors. Shakespeare might have read Dante of course (though generally speaking refs to Dante are fairly infrequent in English sources of this period) but Shakespeare’s style, roooted in common placing, makes it very hard in my view to make a compelling argument about any single source. Generally the more classical and renaissance literature you’ve actually read, the less convincing any single « source » attribution looks.
Thanks I’ll have to have a look at that. I do think it’s exciting that they have found Florio’s copy of Dante!
Yes that’s true, that is exciting. I’d need some convincing to believe it has anything much to do with Shakespeare though.
I found a copy online at a quarter of the price, £150 + that Amazon put on it. So don't be put off anyone that wants the work.
Shakespeare must have read Virgil at his grammar school and maybe he just based his version of Fame on Virgil’s description of Rumour flying about (Aeniad book IV). There are similarities.
You can often tell when he’s doing this if you know the classics a little. Of course his genius is in improving them