To lodge all four in one bed make a shift was fometime a retainer to the Lord Wenman of Thame Park." There are some verfes by him in Annalia Dubrenfia, 4to. 1636; and in Bathurst's Life and Remains, by the Reverend Thomas Warton, 8vo. 1761, there is a poem by Dr. Bathurst "to Mr. William Baffe, upon the intended publication of his Poems, Jan, 13, 1651." The volume never, I believe, appeared. From the words "who died in April, 1616," it may be inferred that these lines were written recently after Shakspeare's death, when the month and year in which he died were well known At a moré diftant period the month would probably have been forgotten; and that was not an age of fuch curiofity as would have induced a poet to fearch the register at Stratford on such a subject. From the address to Chaucer and Spenfer it fhould feem, that when these verses were composed the writer thought it probable that a cenotaph would be erected to Shakspeare in Westminster Abbey. There is a copy of these lines in a manuscript volume of poems written by W. Herrick and others, among Rawlinfon's Collections in the Bodleian library at Oxford; and another among the Sloanian MSS. in the Museum, No. 1702. In the Oxford copy they are entitled “ Shakspeare's Epitaph;" but the author is not mentioned. There are some flight variations in the different copies, which I fhall fet down. Line 2. To rare Beaumond, and learned Beaumond lie, &c. Edit. 1633. Line 5. To lodge in one bed all four make a shift. MS. Brander. To lodge all four in one bed, &c. MS. R. and S. Line 7. So B. S. and R. -by fates be flain. Edit. 1633. Line 8. So B. and S. will be drawn again. R. need be drawn again. 1633. Line 9. But if precedency of death, &c. Edit. 1633. Line 10. So B. R. and edit. 1633. A fourth to have place in your fepulcher,-S. Line 11. So, B. and R. under this curled marble of thine own. under this fable, &c. S.. Edit. 1633. Betwixt this day and that by fate be flain, A fourth place in your facred fepulchre, WILLIAM BASSE. To the Memory of my Beloved To draw no envy, Shakspeare, on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame While I confess thy writings to be such, ; As neither man, nor mufe, can praise too much; Line 12. So, B. S. and edit. 1633. Sleep, rare comedian, &c. R. Line 13. So, B. and R. Thine unmolefted peace, unshared cave.-S. Poffefs as lord not tenant of the grave. S. Line 14. So, B. This couplet is not in edit. 1633. Line 15. So, edit. 1633. That unto us, or others, &c. B. R. and S, MALONE. 3 Fifth was formerly corruptly written and pronounced fift. I have adhered to the old fpelling on account of the rhyme. This corrupt pronunciation yet prevails in Scotland, and in many parts of England. MALONE. 'Tis true, and all men's fuffrage: but these ways Which, when it founds at beft, but echoes right; to make thee a room :] See the preceding verfes by Baffe. MALONE. our Lyly outshine,] Lyly wrote nine plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, viz. Alexander and Campaspe, T. C.; Endymion, C.; Galatea, C.; Loves Metamorphofis, Dram. Paft.; Maids Metamorphofis, 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 Euphues and his England. STEEVENS. or Sporting Kyd,] It appears from Heywood's Actor's And though thou hadft small Latin, and lefs Greek, From thence to honour thee, I would not feek Vindication that Thomas Kyd was the author of the Spanish Tragedy. The late Mr. Hawkins was of opinion that Soliman and Perfeda was by the fame hand. The only piece, however, which has defcended 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 tranflation from Robert Garnier, a French poet, who diftinguished 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. 7 or Marlowe's mighty line.] Marlowe was a performer as well as an author. His contemporary, Heywood, calls him the best of our poets. He wrote fix tragedies, viz. Dr. Fauftus's Tragical History; King Edward II.; Jew of Malta; Luft's Dominion; Maffacre of Paris; and Tamburlaine the Great, in two parts. He likewife joined with Nath in writing Dido Queen of Carthage, and had begun a tranflation of Mufæus's Hero and Leander, which was finished by Chapman, and published in 1606. STEEVENS. Christopher Marlowe was born probably about the year 1566, as he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge, in 1583. I do not believe that he ever was an actor, nor can I find any authority for it higher than the Theatrum Poetarum of Philips, in 1674, which is inaccurate in many circumftances. Beard, who four years after Marlowe's death gave a particular account of him, does not speak of him as an actor. "He was," fays that writer, by profeffion a fcholler, brought up from his youth in the univerfitie of Cambridge, but by practice a playmaker and a poet of fcurrilitie." Neither Drayton, nor Decker, nor Nafhe, nor the author of The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, nor Heywood in his prologue to The Jew of Malta, give the flighteft intimation of Marlowe's having trod the stage. He was ftabbed in the ftreet, and died of the wound, in 1593. His Hero and Leander was published in quarto, in 1598, by Edward Blount, as an imperfect work. The fragment ended with this line : "Dang'd down to hell her loathsome carriage." Chapman completed the poem, and published it as it now ap pears, in 1600. MALONE. For names; but call forth thund'ring Æfchylus, Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordoua dead, Of all that infolent Greece, or haughty Rome, thy art, .8 My gentle Shakspeare, muft enjoy a part:] Yet this writer in his converfation with Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden in 1619, said, that Shakspeare "wanted art, and sometimes fenfe." MALONE. |