_Johnson_, his friend, affirms, that _he had small Latin, and no Greek_; who, besides that he had no imaginable temptation to falsehood, wrote at a time when the character and acquisitions of _Shakespeare_ were known to multitudes.

His evidence ought therefore to decide the controversy, unless some testimony of equal force could be opposed.
Some have imagined, that they have discovered deep learning in many imitations of old writers; but the examples which I have known urged, were drawn from books translated in his time; or were such easy coincidences of thought, as will happen to all who consider the same subjects; or such remarks on life or axioms of morality as float in conversation, and are transmitted through the world in proverbial sentences.
I have found it remarked, that, in this important sentence, _Go before, I'll follow_, we read a translation of, _I prae, sequar_.

I have been told, that when _Caliban_, after a pleasing dream, says, _I cry'd to sleep again_, the authour imitates _Anacreon_, who had, like every other man, the same wish on the same occasion.
There are a few passages which may pass for imitations, but so few, that the exception only confirms the rule; he obtained them from accidental quotations, or by oral communication, and as he used what he had, would have used more if he had obtained it.
The _Comedy of Errors_ is confessedly taken from the _Menaechmi_ of _Plautus_; from the only play of _Plautus_ which was then in _English_.

What can be more probable, than that he who copied that, would have copied more; but that those which were not translated were inaccessible?
Whether he knew the modern languages is uncertain.

That his plays have some _French_ scenes proves but little; he might easily procure them to be written, and probably, even though he had known the language in the common degree, he could not have written it without assistance.