Thomas Nashe, The Vnfortvnate Traveller, and Love’s Labour’s Lost

This paper describes hitherto unnoticed collocations of passages in Thomas Nashe’s The Vnfortvnate Traveller and their counterparts in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. In each case, the constellations discovered consist of references to “mote,” especially the biblical mote in the eye; to the Nine Worthies; and to Neo-Platonic imagery of light, eyes, and soul in love sonnets. Since The Vnfortvnate Traveller arguably predates Shakespeare’s play, these constellations, along with other evidence—such as the repeated use of the word “infant” in each work—confirm Shakespeare’s remarkable receptiveness to Nashe’s diction and imagery.