Then vanish upftart writers to each stage, You needy poetafters of this age! Where Shakespeare liv'd or fpake, Vermin forbeare, So pinch, that otherwife you ftarve and die; Of richer veins; prime judgments, that have far'd Were ravish'd with what wonder they went thence! Though these have fham'd all th' ancients, and might raise And Benedick be feen, lo! in a trice The cock-pit, galleries, boxes, all are full, To hear Malvolio that crofs-garter'd gull. Brief, there is nothing in his wit-fraught book, Whofe found we would not hear, on whofe worth look: * This, I believe, alludes to fome of the company of The Fortane playhouse, who removed to the Red Bull. See a Prologue on the removing of the late Fortune players to The Bull. Tateham's Fancies Theatre, 1640. MALONE. VOL. I. PROLEGO MENA. F 4 But VOL. I. PROLEGO- But why do I dead Shakspeare's praise recite ? LEON. DIGGES, An Elegy on the death of that famous writer and actor, I dare not do thy memory that wrong, Nor is it fit each humble mufe fhould have And think it happiness enough, we have As may fuffice t'enlighten future times With the bright luftre of thy matchlefs rimes t. *These verses are prefixed to an edition of Shakspeare's poems, 12mo. 640. MALONE. These anonymous verfes are likewife prefixed to Shakspeare's Poems, 1640. MALONE. In Memory of our famous SHAKSPEARE. Echoed o'er the Arcadian plains, Orpheus wondered at thy ftrains: So bright a genius fhould appear; Who wrote his lines with a fun-beam, Like those that seem to preach, but prate. Thou wert truly priest elect, Chofen darling of the Nine, Such a trophy to erect By thy wit and skill divine, That were all their other glories Their garments ever fhall be gay. Where thy honour'd bones do lie, Thither every year will I Slowly tread, and fadly mourn. S. SHEPPARD *; In remembrance of Mafter WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Ode. Beware, delighted poets when you fing The banks of Avon; for each flow'r, * This author published a small volume of Epigrams in 1651, among which this poem in memory of Shakspeare is found. VOL. I. PROLEGO MENA. MALONE. VOL. I. PROLEGO II. Each tree whofe thick and spreading growth hath made Looks like the plume a captain wears In fuch an age immortal Shakespeare wrote, Rowe's prologue to Jane Shore. Upon Shakspeare's Monument at Stratford upon Avon. Yet not to birth alone did. Homer owe His wond'rous worth; what Egypt could beftow, Thy bard was thine unfchool'd, and from thee brought Milton, 217. The 217. The Epitaph on Shakspeare beginning "Renowned Spencer lie a thought more nigh" 75 VOL. I. PROLEGO is fubfcribed, in an edition of his poems printed in 1640, MENA. with the letters W. B. which I learn from the Mf. notes of Mr. Oldys, were placed for William Baffe. I have not found these verses in any edition of Dr. Donne's works. MALONE. 241. line 1.] After 1605. add T. C. for Nathaniel Butter. Ibid. line 12. from the bottom. The flory of this play, &c.] This obfervation is mifplaced. It belongs to the Article Pericles, and fhould follow the laft line but one-" As the frieve's crufts, &c." STEEVENS. 242. Add to the LIST of PLAYS altered from SHAK SPEARE: The Tempest, made into an opera by Shadwell, in 1673. See Downes, p. 34. 249. Add to the Lift of detached pieces of critcifm, on Shakfpeare, his Editors, &c.] A Word or two of Advice to William Warburton, a Dealer in many words. By a Friend, [Dr. Grey.] With an Appendix containing a tafte of William's fpirit of railing. 8vo. 1746. A free and familiar Letter to that great refiner of Pope and Shakspear, the Rev. Mr. William Warburton, preacher of Lincoln's Inn. With Remarks upon the Epiftle of Friend A. E. In which his unhandfome treatment of this celebrated writer is expofed in the manner it deferves. By a Country Curate [Dr. Grey]. 8vo. 1750. 284. Add to note : Since I wrote the above, I have learned that there was an antient play with the title of Jane Shore. "The hiftory of the life and death of Mr. Shore and Jane Shore his wife, as it was lately acted by the Earl of Derbie his fervants," was entered in the Stationer's books by John Oxenbridge and John Busby, Aug. 28, 1599. This play is likewife mentioned (together with another very ancient piece not now extant) in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, 1613. "I was ne'er at one of thefe plays before; but I fhould have feen Jane Shore once; and my husband hath promifed me any time this twelvemonth to carry me to the Bold Beauchamps." MALONE. 286. Note |