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for searching only. 64o SMALL LATINE AND LESSE GREEKE
I see no necessary connection. In each, we simply have an ass, not a mule, bearing gold, for it should be noticed that in the second illustration death at the journey's end of life unloads the man, not the ass. Other explanations of the passages by various commentators seem to me as good as this one.
Theobald'2' thinks also that "take the safest occasion by the front" 22 is from Phaedrus, V, 8. This idea, however, was proverbiall23 and to be had from many sources.
Elsewhere, I have shown that another allusion to a story by Phaedrus comes to Shakspere through Persius.l¢4 I know, therefore, of no definite evidence that Shakspere had direct acquaintance with Phaedrus.'25 The evidence seems clear, however, that Shakspere had his fables in grammar school, pretty certainly in some form of the collection by Camerarius.
Theobald, W., Classical Element, p. 293. t" Othello, III, i, 52.
1" See above, p. 352. t" See Vol. II, pp. 5441E
12 There are, of course, other fables in Shakspere than those of Aesop or pseudo-Aesop, and their sources might also well be examined.
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