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and the most, though meanest of things are made more precious, when they are dedicated to temples. In that name, therefore, we most humbly consecrate to your H. H. these remaines of your servant SHAKSPERE; that what delight is in them may be ever your L. L. the reputation his, and the fault ours, if any be committed, by a paire so carefull to shew their gratitude both to the living, and the dead, as is

Your Lordshippes most bounden,

JOHN HEMINGE.

HENRY CONDELL.

COMMEN

COMMENDATORY VERSES

Ο Ν

SHAKSPERE.

Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, the Author, Master WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, and his Works. SPECTATOR, this life's shadow is-to see

The truer image, and a livelier he.

Turn reader: but observe his comick vein,
Laugh; and proceed next to a tragick strain,
Then weep: so-when thou find'st two contraries,
Two different passions from thy rapt soul rise-
Say (who alone effect such wonders could),
Rare Shakspere to the life thou dost behold.

B. J.

To the Memory of my beloved, the Author,

Mr. WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, and what he hath

left us.

To draw no envy, Skakspere, on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame; While I confess thy writings to be such,

As neither man, nor muse, can praise too much;

'Tis true, and all men's suffrage: but these ways
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance:
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise :
These are as some infamous bawd, or whore,
Should praise a matron; what could hurt her more?
But thou art proof against them; and, indeed,
Above the ill-fortune of them, or the need:
I, therefore, will begin :-Soul of the age,
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,
My Shakspere, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser; or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room *:
Thou art a monument, without a tomb;

And

*This and the next lines have reference to the following epitaph on Shakspere, written by Dr. Donne, and printed among his poems:

"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh +

"To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie

+ The Epitaph on Shakspere beginning,

"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more night

is subscribed, in an edition of his poems printed in 1640, with the letters W. B. which, I learn from the MS. notes of Mr. Oldys, were placed for William Basse. I have not found these verses in any edition of Dr. Donne's works.

MALONE.

"A little

And art alive still, while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses;
I mean, with great, but disproportion'd Muses:
For, if I thought my judgment were of years,
I should commit thee surely with thy peers;
And tell-how far thou didst our Lilly* outshine,

"A little nearer Spenser, to make room
"For Shakspere in your threefold, fourfold tomb.
"To lie all four in one bed make a shift,
"Until doomsday; for hardly will a fifth
"Betwixt this day and that, by fates be slain,
"For whom your curtains need be drawn again.
"But if precedency in death doth bar
"A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre,
"Under this curled marble of thine own,
"Sleep, rare tragedian; Shakspere, sleep alone!
"Thy unmolested peace, in an unshar'd cave,
"Possess as lord, not tenant of thy grave;
"That, unto us, and others it may be
"Honour, hereafter to be laid by thee!"

*

STEEVENS.

Lilly wrote nine plays during the reign of Q. Eliz. viz. Alexander and Campaspe, T. C. Endymion, C. Galatea, C. Love his Metamorphosis, Dram. Past. Maid her Metamorphosis, C. Mother Bombie, C. Mydas, C. Sapho and Phao, C. and Woman in the Moon, C. To the pedantry of this author, perhaps, we are indebted for the first attempt to polish and reform our language. See his Euphues, and his England. STEEVENS.

Or

Or sporting Kyd*, or Marlow's mighty line +.

And, though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek---
From thence to honour thee, I would not seek
For names; but call forth thund'ring Æschylus,
Euripides, and Sophocles, to us,

Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead;
To live again, to hear thy buskin tread

*

-or sporting Kyd.] It appears from Heywood's Actor's Vindication, that Thomas Kyd was the author of The Spanish Tragedy. The late Mrs. Hawkins was of opinion that Soliman and Perseda was by the same hand. The only piece, however, which has descended to us, even with the initial letters of his name affixed to it, is Pompey the Great his fair Cornelia's Tragedy, which was first published in 1594 and, with some alteration in the title-page, again in 1595. This is no more than a translation from Robert Garnier, a French poet, who distinguished himself during the reigns of Charles IX. Henry III. and Henry IV. and died at Mans in 1602, in the 56th year of his age.

STEEVENS.

+ or Marlow's mighty line.] Marlow was a performer as well as an author. His contemporary Heywood calls him the best of poets. He wrote six tragedies, viz. Dr. Faustus's Fragical History; K. Edward II. Few of Malta; Lust's Dominion; Massacre of Paris; and Tamburlaine the Great, in two parts. He likewise joined with Nash in writing Dido Queen of Carthage, and had begun a translation of Museus's Hero and Leander, which was finished by Chapman, and published in 1600. STEEVENS.

And

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