Till these, till any of thy volume's rest, Shall with more fire, more feeling, be express'd, To the Memory of M. W. Shake-speare. L. DIGGES. We wonder'd, Shake-speare, that thou went'st so soon This a re-entrance to a plaudite. I. M.2 To the Memory of my beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and what he hath left us. To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name, As neither man, nor muse, can praise too much; Sejanus too, was irksome: they priz'd more And though the Fox and subtil Alchymist, Long intermitted, could not quite be mist, Though these have sham'd all th' ancients, and might raise Their author's merit with a crown of bays, Yet these sometimes, even at a friend's desire, Acted, have scarce defray'd the sea-coal fire, And door-keepers: when, let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest,--you scarce shall have a room, All is so pester'd let but Beatrice : And Benedick be seen, lo! in a trice The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, all are full, To hear Malvolio, that cross-garter'd gull. Brief, there is nothing in his wit-fraught book, Whose sound we would not hear, on whose worth look," &c. 2 Perhaps the initials of John Marston, from whom see an original letter to Lord Kimbolton on p. 179. Or crafty malice might pretend this praise, Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova, dead, To life again, to hear thy buskin tread 3 Referring to lines by William Basse, then circulating in MS., and not printed until 1633, when they were falsely imputed to Dr. Donne in the edition of his poems in that year. All the MSS. of the lines, now extant, differ in minute particulars: we subjoin them as they appear in "Donne's Collected Poems," edit. 1633, p. 149, under the following heading : "AN EPITAPH UPON SHAKESPEARE. "Renowned Chaucer, lie a thought more nigh A little nearer Spencer, to make roome For Shakespeare in your threefold fourefold tombe. For untill doomesday hardly will a fift For whom your curtaines need be drawne againe ; A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre, Sleepe, rare Tragedian Shakespeare, sleepe alone, Honor hereafter to be laid by thee." And shake a stage: or, when thy socks were on, Of all that insolent Greece, or haughty Rome, As they were not of Nature's family. For a good poet's made, as well as born: And such wert thou. Look, how the father's face Of Shakespeare's mind, and manners, brightly shines In each of which he seems to shake a lance, As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance. Sweet Swan of Avon, what a sight it were, To see thee in our waters yet appear; And make those flights upon the banks of Thames, But stay; I see thee in the hemisphere Advanc'd, and made a constellation there: Shine forth, thou star of poets; and with rage, Or influence, chide, or cheer, the drooping stage; Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like night, And despairs day, but for thy volume's light! BEN IONSON. Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenic Poet, Master Those hands which you so clapp'd, go now and wring, Which made the Globe of heaven and earth to ring. All those he made would scarce make one to this ; HUGH HOLLAND. COMMENDATORY VERSES, PREFIXED TO THE FOLIO OF 16324. Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, the Author, Master William Shakespeare, and his Works. Spectator, this life's shadow is : This truer image, and a livelier he, -to see Turn reader. But observe his comick vein, Say, (who alone effect such wonders could) An Epitaph on the admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespeare3. 4 In addition to those in the folio of 1623, which were also reprinted in 1632. The folios of 1664 and 1685 contain no others. 5 An Epitaph on the admirable Dramatic Poet, W. Shakespeare.] These lines, like the preceding, have no name appended to them in the folio, 1632, but the Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Hast built thyself a live-long monument: For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art, Dost make us marble with too much conceiving; On worthy Master Shakespeare, and his Poems". A mind reflecting ages past, whose clear authorship is ascertained by the publication of them as Milton's, in the edition of his Poems in 1645, 8vo. We give them as they stand there, because it is evident that they were then printed from a copy corrected by the author: the variations are interesting, and Malone pointed out only one, and that certainly the least important. Instead of "weak witness" in line 6, the folio, 1632, has" dull witness:" instead of "live-long monument," in line 8, the folio has "lasting monument:" instead of "heart" in line 10, the folio has part, an evident misprint and instead of "itself bereaving," in line 13, the folio has " herself bereaving." The last is the difference mentioned by Malone, who also places "John Milton" at the end, as if the name were found in the folio of 1632. 6 On worthy Master Shakespeare, and his Poems.] These lines are subscribed I. M. S. in the folio, 1632, "probably Jasper Mayne," says Malone. Most probably not, because Mayne has left nothing behind him to lead us to suppose that he could have produced this surpassing tribute. I. M. S. may possibly be Iohn Milton, Student, and no name may have been appended to the other copy of verses by him, prefixed to the folio of 1632, in order that his initials should stand at the end of the present. We know of no other poet of the time capable of writing the ensuing lines: we feel morally certain that they are by Milton, and such was Coleridge's opinion, often expressed; but especially in his "Lectures upon Shakespeare and Milton," delivered in 1811-12, when he said :-"The internal evidence seems to me decisive, for there was, I think, no other man of that particular day, capable of writing any thing so characteristic of Shakespeare, so justly thought, and so happily expressed." Lecture ix. p. 107, edit. 1856. VOL. I. |