Then vanish upftart writers to each stage,

You needy poetafters of this age!

Where Shakespeare liv'd or fpake, Vermin forbeare,
Left with your froth ye fpot them, come not near.
But if you needs muft write, if poverty

So pinch, that otherwife you ftarve and die;
On God's name may the Bull or Cockpit have
Your lame blank verfe, to keep you from the grave:
Or let new Fortune's younger brethren see,
What they can pick from your lean industry.
I do not wonder when you offer at
Black-fryars, that you fuffer: 'tis the fate

Of richer veins; prime judgments, that have far'd
The worse, with this deceased man compar'd.
So have I feen, when Cæfar would appear,
And on the stage at half-fword parley were
Brutus and Caffius, O how the audience

Were ravish'd with what wonder they went thence!
When, fome new day, they would not brook a line
Of tedious, though well-labour'd, Catiline ;
Sejanus too was irksome; they priz❜d more
"Honeft" Jago, or the jealous Moor.
And though the Fox and fubtil Alchymift,
Long intermitted, could not quite be mist,

Though these have fham'd all th' ancients, and might raise
Their author's merit with a crown of bays,
Yet these fometimes, even at a friend's defire
Acted, have scarce defray'd the fea-coal fire,
And door-keepers: when, let but Falftaff come,
Hal, Poins, the reft,-you scarce fhall have a room,
All is fo pefter'd: Let but Beatrice

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:
Like old-coin'd gold, whofe lines, in ev'ry page,
Shall pafs true current to fucceeding age.

* 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-
MENA.

But why do I dead Shakspeare's praise recite ?
Some fecond Shakspeare must of Shakspeare write;
For me, 'tis needlefs; fince an hoft of men
Will pay, to clap his praise, to fave my pen

LEON. DIGGES,

An Elegy on the death of that famous writer and actor,
M. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

I dare not do thy memory that wrong,
Unto our larger griefs to give a tongue.
I'll only figh in earneft, and let fall
My folemn tears at thy great funeral.
For ev'ry eye that rains a fhow'r for thee,
Laments thy lofs in a fad elegy.

Nor is it fit each humble mufe fhould have
Thy worth his fubject, now thou'rt laid in grave,
No, it's a flight beyond the pitch of thofe,
Whofe worth-lefs pamphlets are not fenfe in profe.
Let learned Jonfon fing a dirge for thee,
And fill our orb with mournful harmony:
But we need no remembrancer; thy fame
Shall ftill accompany thy honour'd name
To all pofterity; and make us be
Senfible of what we loft, in lofing thee:
Being the age's wonder; whofe smooth rimes
Did more reform than lafh the loofer times,
Nature herself did her own felf admire,
As oft as thou wert pleased to attire
Her in her native luftre; and confefs,
Thy dreffing was her chiefeft comlinefs.
How can we then forget thee, when the age
Her chiefeft tutor, and the widow'd stage
Her only favourite, in thee, hath loft,
And Nature's felf, what the did brag of most ?
Sleep then rich foul of numbers! whilft poor we
Enjoy the profits of thy legacy;

And think it happiness enough, we have
So much of thee redeemed from the grave,

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.
Sacred Spirit, whiles thy lyre

Echoed o'er the Arcadian plains,
Even Apollo did admire,

Orpheus wondered at thy ftrains:
Plautus figh'd, Sophocles wept
Tears of anger, for to hear,
After they fo long had flept,

So bright a genius fhould appear;

Who wrote his lines with a fun-beam,
More durable than time or fate :-
Others boldly do blafpheme,

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
(Thine excepted) torn away,
By thy admirable stories

Their garments ever fhall be gay.

Where thy honour'd bones do lie,
(As Statius once to Maro's urn)

Thither every year will I

Slowly tread, and fadly mourn.

S. SHEPPARD *;

In remembrance of Mafter WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ode.
I.

Beware, delighted poets when you fing
To welcome nature in the early spring,
Your num'rous feet not tread

The banks of Avon; for each flow'r,
As it ne'er knew a fun or fhow'r,
Hangs there the penfive head.

* 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.
II. Each

VOL. I.

PROLEGO
MENA.

II.

Each tree whofe thick and spreading growth hath made
Rather a night beneath the boughs than fhade,
Unwilling now to grow,

Looks like the plume a captain wears
Whose rifled falls are steep'd i'the tears
Which from his laft rage flow.

In fuch an age immortal Shakespeare wrote,
By no quaint rules nor hamp'ring criticks taught;
With rough majestick force he mov'd the heart,
And ftrength and nature made amends for art.

Rowe's prologue to Jane Shore.

Upon Shakspeare's Monument at Stratford upon Avon.
Great Homer's birth fev'n rival cities claim,
Too mighty fuch monopoly of fame ;

Yet not to birth alone did. Homer owe

His wond'rous worth; what Egypt could beftow,
With all the schools of Greece and Afia join'd,
Enlarg'd the immenfe expanfion of his mind:
Nor yet unrival'd the Mæonian strain;
The British Eagle and the Mantuan Swan
Tow'r equal heights. But, happier Stratford, thou
With incontested laurels deck thy brow;

Thy bard was thine unfchool'd, and from thee brought
More than all Egypt, Greece, or Afia taught;
Not Homer's self such matchless laurels won,
The Greek has rivals, but thy Shakspeare none.
T. SEWARD.

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