ABSTRACT
In his foundational survey of sixteenth-century translations of the classics into English, Henry Burrowes Lathrop relates Tudor classicism to the humanism of the great Renaissance scholar, textual editor, and writer Desiderius Erasmus. The Adagia gave readers access to a copious collection of sources, but it did so in a way that supported indirect, fragmented transmission. Placed side by side, the early play Titus Andronicus and the late play The Tempest can illustrate the grammar school trajectory, which begins with a close attachment to one's books and ends by leaving them behind. Reference books in grammar schools were usually chained to desks, but they always remained under a caretaker's supervision. The work of printer-publishers thus set the stage for Shakespeare's heterodox classicism. Similarly, the haphazard ways of acquiring, collecting, and organizing books in the 1500s allowed for eclecticism, accidents, and fortuitous convergence.
