England's Mourning Garment, &c. 1603. Nor doth the silver-tongued Melicert Drop from his honied Muse one sable teare, To mourn her death that graced his desert, And to his laies open'd her royal eare. Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth, And sing her Rape, done by that Tarquin, Death. A Remembrance of some English Poets at the end of a Collection of Poems, entitled, Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money. Caret titulo. "And Shakspere, thou whose honey-flowing vaine " (Pleasing the world) thy praises doth containe, "Whose Venus and whose Lucrece (sweet and chast) "Thy name in fame's immortal book have plac't. "Live ever you, at least in fame live ever: "Well may the body die, but fame die never.” The author of this Poem praises Spenser for his Fairy Queen, Daniel for his Rosamond and White Rose and Red, and Drayton for his Tragedies and Epistles. These, therefore, must all have been written at a time when Shakspere had produced only his Venus and Lucrece. To To Master W. SHAKSPERE. Shakspere, that nimble Mercury thy braine At th' horse-foot fountaine thou hast drunk full deepe. Vertue's or vice's theme to thee all one is ; Who loves chaste life, there's Lucrece for a teacher: Who list read lust, there's Venus and Adonis, The modell of a most lascivious leacher. Besides, in plaies thy wit winds like Meander, When needy new composers borrow more Than Terence doth from Plautus or Menander: But to praise thee aright, I want thy store. Then let thine owne works thine owne worth upraise, And help t'adorne thee with deserved baies. Epigram 92, in an ancient collection, entitled Run and a great Cast, 4to. by Tho. Freeman, 1614. An Epitaph on the admirable dramatick Poet, WILLIAM SHAPSPERE. What needs my Shakspere for his honour'd bones, The labour of an age in piled stones; Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid ? Dear Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a live-long monument : For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art, See, my lov'd Britons, see your Shakspere rise, Like fruitful Britain rich without supply. DRYDEN'S Prologue to his Alteration of Troilus and Cressida. Shakspere, Shakspere, who (taught by none) did first impart "Tis with the drops that fell from Shakspere's pen. DRYDEN'S Prologue to his Alteration of the Tempest. Our Shakspere wrote too in an age as blest, Shakspere, whose genius to itself a law. Rowe's Prologue to the Ambitious Stepmother Shakspere (whom you and every play-house bill For For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, POPE'S Imitation of Horace's Epistle to Shakspere, the genius of our isle, whose mind May Spring, with purple flow'rs, perfume thy urn, Be all thy faults, whatever faults there be, Imputed to the times, and not to thee! FENTON's Epistle to Southerne, 1711. An Inscription for a Monument of SHAKSPERE. O youths and virgins: O declining eld: |