Or till I hear a scene more nobly take,
Than when thy half-fword parlying Romans fpake:
Till thefe, till any of thy volume's reft,
Shall with more fire, more feeling, be express'd,
Be fure, our Shakspeare, thou canft never die,
But, crown'd with laurel, live eternally.
To the Memory of Mafter W. SHAKSPEARE.
We wonder'd, Shakspeare, that thou went'ft for
From the world's ftage to the grave's tiring-room:
We thought thee dead; but this thy printed worth
Tells thy fpectators, that thou went ft but forth
To enter with applaufe: an actor's art
Can die, and live to act a fecond part :
That's but an exit of mortality,
This a re-entrance to a plaudite.
Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, The Author, Mafter WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, and his Works.
Spectator, this life's fhadow is;to fee The truer image, and a livelier he,
3 See Wood's Athenae Oxonienfes, Vol. I. p. 599 and 600, edit. 1721. His tranflation of Claudian's Rape of Proferpine was entered on the Stationers' books, Oct. 4, 1617.
Turn reader: but observe his comick vein,
Laugh; and proceed next to a tragick ftrain,
Then weep fo,-when thou find'ft two contraries,
Two different paffions from thy rapt foul rife,
Say, (who alone effect fuch wonders could,)
Rare Shakspeare to the life thou doft behold.5
On worthy Mafter SHAKSPEARE,
and his Poems.
A mind reflecting ages paft, whofe clear
And equal furface can make things appear,
Distant a thousand years, and reprefent
Them in their lively colours, juft extent:
To outrun hafty time," retrieve the fates,
Roll back the heavens, blow ope the iron gates
Of death and Lethe, where confused lie
Great heaps of ruinous mortality:
In that deep dufky dungeon, to difcern
A royal ghoft from churls; by art to learn
The phyfiognomy of fhades, and give
Them fudden birth, wond'ring how oft they live;
What ftory coldly tells, what poets feign
At fecond hand, and picture without brain,
Senfelefs and foul-lefs fhews: To give a ftage,-
Ample, and true with life,-voice, action, age,
As Plato's year, and new scene of the world,
Them unto us, or us to them had hurl'd:
5 The verses firft appeared in the folio, 1632. There is no name afcribed to them. MALONE.
• To outrun hafty time,]
"And panting time toil'd after him in vain."
Dr. Johnfon's Prologue.
STEEVENS.
To raise our ancient fovereigns from their herfe,
Make kings his fubjects; by exchanging verfe
Enlive their pale trunks, that the prefent age
Joys in their joy, and trembles at their rage:
Yet fo to temper paffion, that our ears
Take pleasure in their pain, and eyes in tears
Both weep and fmile; fearful at plots fo fad,
Then laughing at our fear; abus'd, and glad
To be abus'd; affected with that truth
Which we perceive is falfe, pleas'd in that ruth
At which we start, and, by elaborate play,
Tortur'd and tickl'd; by a crab-like way
Time paft made paftime, and in ugly fort
Difgorging up his ravin for our fport
-While the plebeian imp, from lofty throne,
Creates and rules a world, and works upon
Mankind by fecret engines; now to move
A chilling pity, then a rigorous love;
To ftrike up and ftroke down, both joy and ire; To fteer the affections; and by heavenly fire Mold us anew, ftoln from ourfelves:
This, and much more, which cannot be exprefs'd
But by himself, his tongue, and his own breast,— Was Shakspeare's freehold; which his cunning
Improv'd by favour of the nine-fold train ;—
The bufkin'd mufe, the comick queen, the grand
And louder tone of Clio, nimble hand
And nimbler foot of the melodious pair,
The filver-voiced lady, the most fair
Calliope, whofe fpeaking filence daunts,
And the whofe praife the heavenly body chants,
"Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes." Pope's Hom.
Thefe jointly woo'd him, envying one another;
Obey'd by all as spouse, but lov'd as brother ;-
And wrought a curious robe, of fable grave,
Fresh green, and pleasant yellow, red most brave,
And conftant blue, rich purple, guiltless white,
The lowly ruffet, and the fcarlet bright:
Branch'd and embroider'd like the painted fpring;
Each leaf match'd with a flower, and each ftring
Of golden wire, each line of filk: there run
Italian works, whofe thread the fifters fpun;
And there did fing, or feem to fing, the choice
Birds of a foreign note and various voice:
Here hangs a moffy rock; there plays a fair
But chiding fountain, purled: not the air,
Not clouds, nor thunder, but were living drawn ;
Nor out of common tiffany or lawn,
But fine materials, which the muses know,
And only know the countries where they grow.
Now, when they could no longer him enjoy,
In mortal garments pent,-death may destroy,
They fay, his body; but his verfe fhall live,
And more than nature takes our hand fhall give:
In a lefs volume, but more ftrongly bound,
Shakspeare fhall breathe and fpeak; with laurel
crown'd,
Which never fades; fed with ambrofian meat,
In a well-lined vefture, rich, and neat:
So with this robe they clothe him, bid him wear it; For time fhall never ftain, nor envy tear it.
The friendly Admirer of his Endowments,
Probably, Jafper Mayne, Student. He was born in the year 1604, and became a member of Chrift Church, in Oxford, in 1623, where he was foon afterwards elected a Student. In 1628
A Remembrance of fome English Poets. By Richard Barnefield, 1598.
And Shakspeare thou, whofe honey-flowing vein, (Pleafing the world,) thy praifes doth contain, Whofe Venus, and whofe Lucrece, fweet and chafte, Thy name in fame's immortal book hath plac'd, Live ever you, at leaft in fame live ever! Well may the body die, but fame die never.
England's Mourning Garment, &c. 1603.
Nor doth the filver-tongued Melicert
Drop from his honied mufe one fable tear,
To mourn her death that graced his defert,
And to his laies open'd her royal ear.
Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth,
And fing her Rape, done by that Tarquin, death,
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