Nor shall I e'er believe or think thee dead, Though miss'd, until our bankrout stage be sped (Impossible) with some new strain t' outdo Passions of Juliet, and her Romeo; Or till I hear a scene more nobly take, Than when thy half-sword parleying Romans spake :4 Shall with more fire, more feeling, be express'd, L. DIGGES. To the Memory of MR. W. SHAKESPEARE. We wonder'd, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon From the world's stage to the grave's tiring-room: We thought thee dead; but this thy printed worth Tells thy spectators, that thou went'st but forth To enter with applause. An actor's art Can die, and live to act a second part: That's but an exit of mortality, This a re-entrance to a plaudite. I. M.5 Upon the Lines and Life of the famous Scenic Poet, MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Those hands, which you so clapp'd, go now and wring, You Britons brave; for done are Shakespeare's days: His days are done, that made the dainty plays, Which made the Globe of heaven and earth to ring. Dried is that vein, dried is the Thespian spring, The sense of this line is more clearly expressed in some verses by the same author, prefixed to an edition of Shakespeare's Poems in 1640. "So have I seen, when Cæsar would appear, And on the stage at half-sword parley were Brutus and Cassius, O, how the audience Were ravish'd! with what wonder they went thence!" 5 Supposed to be the initials of John Marston. H. H. Turn'd all to tears, and Phoebus clouds his rays; Which crown'd him poet first, then poet's king. All those he made would scarce make one to this; HUGH HOLLAND. ADDITIONAL COMMENDATORY VERSES, Prefixed to the folio of 1632. Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, the Author, MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, and his Works. Spectator, this life's shadow is: - to see This truer image, and a livelier he, Turn reader. But observe his comic vein, when thou find'st two contraries, An Epitaph on the admirable Dramatic Poet, W. SHAKESPEARE. What needs my Shakespeare, for his honour'd bones, Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? 6 The authorship of these lines was ascertained by their appear. ing in an edition of Milton's Poems, published in 1645. H. Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, On worthy MASTER SHAKESPEARE, A mind reflecting ages past, whose clear In that deep dusky dungeon to discern A royal ghost from churls; by art to learn Yet so to temper passion, that our ears To strike up and stroke down both joy and ire; To steer the affections; and by heavenly fire Mould us anew, stolen from ourselves : This, and much more, which cannot be express'd c* Of golden wire, each line of silk: there run But fine materials, which the muses know, Shakespeare shall breathe and speak; with laurel crown'd, Which never fades; fed with ambrosian meat; In a well-lined vesture, rich and neat: So with this robe they clothe him, bid him wear it; For time shall never stain, nor envy tear it. The friendly admirer of his endowments, I. M. S.' 7 What name these initials may stand for, has not been ascertained. So that the authorship of this great little poem,perhaps the noblest tribute ever paid by one human being to another, is still involved in mystery. Mr. Collier, a good authority, says, and Mr. Verplanck, a better, endorses him, "I. M. S. may possibly be John Milton, Student. We know of no other poet of the time capable of writing the lines. We feel morally certain that they are by Milton." And, sure enough, Milton is the only man of that time who has left any similar marks. And the initials may well enough be supposed to extend over this and the preceding piece. It may indeed be urged that if such were the case the latter would naturally have appeared among his Poems in 1645. But perhaps it is a sufficient answer to this, that in 1632 Milton was not too much a Puritan to write such lines; whereas in 1645 he was too far committed that way to put them forth as his. H. |