and Euripides' :

Η που τὸ μέλλον ἐκφοβεῖ καθ' ἡμέραν

ὡς τοῦ γε πάσχειν τοὐπιὸν μεῖζον κακόν (Frag. of Andromeda)

(Certainly it is that which is to come strikes us every day with fear, for an evil that is coming upon us is more terrible than the actual experience of it);

or 3 Henry VI., i. 1:

Didst thou never hear

That things ill-got had ever bad success?

though exactly Sophocles' Oed. Col., 1026–7 :—

τὰ γὰρ δόλῳ

τῷ μὴ δικαίῳ κτήματ' οὐχὶ σώζεται

:

(For things obtained by unjust craft are never ours for long);

or 2 Henry IV., Act i. sc. 1:

The first bringer of unwelcome news

Hath but a losing office,

a sentiment repeated in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 8, in King John, iii. 1, which is exactly Aeschylus, Persae, 249:

κακὸν μὲν πρῶτον ἀγγέλλειν κακά

("Tis an evil thing to be the first to announce evils);

and Sophocles, Antigone, 277 :—

στέργει γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἄγγελον κακῶν ἐπῶν

(No one loves a messenger of evil tidings);

or Measure for Measure, iv. 4 :—

Alack! when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right;

and Sophocles, Philoctetes, 902-3 :

ἅπαντα δυσχέρεια, τὴν αὑτοῦ φύσιν

ὅταν λιπών τις δρᾷ τὰ μὴ προσεικότα

(All goes ill when a man having forsaken his true nature does that which becomes him not);

or Titus Andronicus, iv. 3:

Those wounds heal ill

That men do give themselves;

and Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, 1230-1:—

Τῶν δὲ πημονῶν

μάλιστα λυποῦσ' αἱ φανῶσ ̓ αὐθαίρετοι

(And those griefs do smart the most which men have plainly brought on themselves);

or 2 Henry IV., iii. 2:

Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;

and Oed. Col., 880:

τοῖς τοι δικαίοις χώ βραχὺς νικᾷ μέγαν.

(In a just cause even the weak vanquishes the strong); or Macbeth, iii. 4:

It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood;

and Choephoroe, 400-3:—

(A law there is, that bloody drops poured out on earth will have blood too.)

Nor should we lay any stress on curiously close similarities of expression, such as Hamlet, i. 2 :—

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again ;

and Trachiniae, 810-11 :

πάντων ἄριστον ἄνδρα τῶν ἐπὶ χθονὶ

κτείνασ', ὁποῖον ἄλλον οὐκ ὄψει ποτέ

(Having slain the noblest man of men on earth whose like thou shalt never see again);

or Lear, iv. 4:

I pray you, father, being weak, seem so ;

and Euripides, Troades, 729:

μήτε σθένουσα μηδὲν ἰσχύειν δόκει

(And being weak seem weak);

or Id., iii. 2:

I am a man

More sinn'd against than sinning;

and Oedip. Col., 266-7 :

τὰ γ' ἔργα μου

πεπονθότ' ἐστὶ μᾶλλον ἢ δεδρακότα

(Mine acts at least have been in suffering rather than in doing);

or Id., i. 1:

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides;

and Sophocles, Frag. 280:

or of the offered flowers in Cymbeline, iv. 3:

The ground that gave them first has them again (and cf. too Romeo and Juliet, i. 2), and Choephoroe, 127-8 :

καὶ γαῖαν αὐτὴν, ἢ τὰ πάντα τίκτεται

θρέψασά τ' αὖθις τῶνδε κῦμα λαμβάνει

(And earth itself which is the mother and nurse of all takes again the increase of them);

or Rape of Lucrece, l. 1837 :—

By Heaven's fair sun that breeds the fat earth's store; and Agamemnon, 616:—

πλὴν τοῦ τρέφοντος Ηλίου χθονὸς φύσιν

(Save the sun who nourishes earth's brood);

or Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4:

His years but young, but his experience old;

and Seven against Thebes, 618 :—

γέροντα τὸν νοῦν, σάρκα δ' ἡβῶσαν φέρει

(Old is the mind, but young the frame he bears);

or Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5:—

Speaking in deeds and deedless in his tongue ;

and Philoctetes, 97:

γλῶσσαν μὲν ἀργόν, χεῖρα δ' εἶχον ἐργάτιν

(A deedless tongue I had and deedful hand);

or Much Ado about Nothing:

Nor let no comforter delight mine ear

But such as one whose wrongs do suit with mine.

and Sophocles, Frag., 814:

ὃς μὴ πέπονθε τἀμὰ μὴ βουλευέτω

Let not him who has not suffered what I have give me counsel.)

And yet such similarities of expression as the following are cumulatively very remarkable. Thus we have "the lazy foot of time" (As You Like It, iii. 2), exactly Sapòv xpóvov πóda, Euripides' Bacchae, 889: "the service of the foot being once gangren'd," Coriolanus, iii. 1; dɩσtov d' ĕxwv πodŵv vπηpéτnμa (Sophocles, Electra, 1349– 50): "the belly-pinched wolf” (Lear, iii. 1); кolλоyáσтoρes λÚKOL (Septem., 1037-8): "his doghearted daughters" (Lear, iv. 3); A κuvóþpwv (Choeph., 610): "blossoms of your love" (L. L. Lost, v. 2); epwтоs aveos (Aga., 729): "the anvil of my sword" (Coriolanus, iv. 5); λóyxns åkμoves (Persae, 51): "my prophetic soul" (Hamlet, i. 5); πρóμavтIs Ovμòs (Euripides, Androm., 1075): "he does sit in gold" (Coriolanus, v. 1); Homer's Xpvoó@povos: "a sea of troubles" (Hamlet, iii. 1); KAKŵV TÉλayos (Persae, 425, but the expression is more than once used in the Greek dramas): "my bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne" (Rom. and Jul., v. 1); θάρσος ἵζει φρενὸς φίλον Opóvov (courage sits on my heart's throne, Agamemnon, 954-5): "dark shall be my light (2 Henry VI., ii. 4); σκότος, ἐμὸν φάος (Ajax, 387): "an ill-divining soul" (Rom. and Jul., iii. 5); KaкóμаνтIS Oνμòs (Persae, 10); "my heart dances, but not for joy" (Winter's Tale, i. 2); opxεîтaι dè