On William Shakspeare, who died in April, 1616'.
RENOWNED Spenser, lie a thought2 more nigh
To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont lie

In a collection of manuscript poems which was in the possession of the late Gustavus Brander, Esq. these verses are entitled-" Basse his Elegie one [on] poett Shakespeare, who died in April 1616." The MS. appears to have been written soon after the year 1621. In the edition of our author's poems in 1640, they are subscribed with the initials W. B. only. They were erroneously attributed to Dr. Donne, in a quarto edition of his poems printed in 1633; but his son Dr. John Donne, a Civilian, published a more correct edition of his father's poems in 1635, and rejected the verses on Shakspeare, knowing, without doubt, that they were written by another.

William Basse, according to Wood, [Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 812,] was of Moreton, near Thame in Oxfordshire, and was sometime a retainer to the Lord Wenman of Thame Park." There are some verses by him in Annalia Dubrensia, 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 Basse, upon the intended publication of his Poems, Jan. 13, 1651." The volume never, I believe, appeared; but there is in the collection of Richard Slater, Esq. a volume of MS. poems by Basse, entitled Polyhymnia, containing six copies of verses on various subjects.

A little nearer Spenser, to make room

For Shakspeare, in your three-fold, four-fold tomb.

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 more distant period the month would probably have been forgotten; and that was not an age of such curiosity as would have induced a poet to search the register at Stratford on such a subect. From the address to Chaucer and Spenser it should seem, 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 Rawlinson's Collections in the Bodleian library at Oxford; and another among the Sloanian MSS. in the Museum, N°. 1702. In the Oxford copy they are entitled "Shakspeare's Epitaph;" but the author is not mentioned. There are some slight variations in the different copies, which I shall set 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."

"To lodge all four in one bed," &c.
"To lie all four," &c. Edit. 1633.

Line 7. So B. S. and R.

MS. Brander.

MS. R. and S.

Line 9. "But if precedency of death," &c. Edit. 1633. "If your precedency in death," &c. B. R. S.

Line 10. So B. R. and edit. 1633.

"A fourth to have place in your sepulcher." S.

To lodge all four in one bed make a shift
Until doomsday; for hardly will a fift 3
Betwixt this day and that by fate be slain,
For whom your curtains may be drawn again.
But if precedency in death doth bar
A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre,
Under this carved marble of thine own,
Sleep, rare tragedian, Shakspeare, sleep alone.
Thy unmolested peace, unshared cave,
Possess, as lord, not tenant, of thy grave;
That unto us and others it may be

Honour hereafter to be laid by thee.

WILLIAM BASSE.

To the Memory of my Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakspeare, and what he hath left us.

To draw no envy, Shakspeare, on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame;

66

"Thine unmolested peace, unshared cave."—S.
Thy unmolested peace in an unshared cave."-
Edit. 1633.

Line 14. So, B.

"Possess as lord not tenant of the grave." S.
to thy grave." R.

This couplet is not in edit. 1633.

Line 15. So, edit. 1633.

2

"That unto us, or others," &c. B. R. and S.

MALONE.

-a thought-] i. e. a little, a small space; the phraseology of the time. See note on Much Ado about Nothing,

Act III. Sc. IV. REED.

3 Fifth was formerly corruptly written and pronounced fift. I have adhered to the old spelling on account of the rhyme. This

While I confess thy writings to be such,

As neither man, nor muse, can praise too much;
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage: but these ways
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise:
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise :
These are, as some infamous bawd, or whore,
Should praise a matron; what could hurt her more?
But thou art proof against them; and, indeed,
Above the ill fortune of them, or the need:
I, therefore, will begin :-Soul of the age,
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,
My Shakspeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser; or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room 4:
Thou art a monument without a tomb;
And art alive still, while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses;
I mean, with great but disproportion'd muses:
For, if I thought my judgment were of years,
I should commit thee surely with thy peers;
And tell-how far thou didst our Lyly outshine 5,
Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line 7.

corrupt pronunciation yet prevails in Scotland, and in many parts of England. MALONE.

4

-to make thee a room :] See the preceding verses by Basse. MALONE.

Sour LYLY outshine,] Lyly wrote nine plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, viz. Alexander and Campaspe, T. C.; Endymion, C.; Galatea, C.; Loves Metamorphosis, Dram. Past.; Maids Metamorphosis, C.; Mother Bombie, C.; Mydas,

And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek,
From thence to honour thee, I would not seek

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 his England. STEEVENS.

6

or sporting Kyd,] It appears from Heywood's Actor's Vindication that Thomas Kyd was the author of the Spanish Tragedy. The late Mr. Hawkins was of opinion that Soliman and Perseda was by the same hand. The only piece, however, which has descended 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 translation from Robert Garnier, a French poet, who distinguished himself during the reigns of Charles IX. Henry III. and Henry IV. and died at Mons 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 six tragedies, viz. Dr. Faustus's Tragical History; King Edward II.; Jew of Malta; Lust's Dominion; Massacre of Paris; and Tamburlaine the Great, in two parts. He likewise joined with Nash in writing Dido Queen of Carthage, and had begun a translation of Musæus'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 Phillips, in 1674, which is inaccurate in many circumstances. Beard, who four years after Marlowe's death gave a particular account of him, does not speak of him as an actor. "He was," says that writer, "by profession a scholler, brought up from Lis youth in the universitie of Cambridge, but by practice a playmaker and a poet of scurrilitie." Neither Drayton, nor Decker, nor Nashe, nor the author of The Return from Parnassus, 1606, nor Heywood in his prologue to The Jew of Malta, give the slightest intimation of