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Vale.
Anonymous, in Troilus and Cressida (1609)
To our English Terence, Master Will Shakespeare
Some say, good Will, which I in sport do sing,
Hadst thou not played some kingly parts in sport
Thou hadst been a companion for a king,
And been a king among the meaner sort.
Some others rail; but rail as they think fit,
Thou hast no railing but a reigning wit,
And honesty thou sow’st, which they do reap
So to increase their stock which they do keep.
John Davies, The Scourge of Folly (1610)
To Master William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy brain,
Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep,
So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein;
At th‘horse-foot fountain thou hast drunk full deep.
Virtue’s or vice’s theme to thee all one is.
Who loves chaste life, there’s Lucrece for a teacher;
Who list read lust, there’s Venus and Adonis,
True model of a most lascivious lecher.
Besides, in plays thy wit winds like Meander,
Whence needy new composers borrow more
Than Terence doth from Plautus or Menander.
But to praise thee aright, I want thy store.
Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise,
And help t’adorn thee with deserved bays.
Thomas Freeman, Run and a Great Cast (1614)
Inscriptions upon the Shakespeare monument, Stratford-upon-Avon
Iudicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus maeret, Olympus habet.
Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed
Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom
Quick nature died; whose name doth deck this tomb
Far more than cost, sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.
Obiit a
aetatis 53, die 23 Aprilis
On the death of William Shakespeare
Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.
To lodge all four in one bed make a shift
Until doomsday, for hardly will a fifth
Betwixt this day and that by fate be slain
For whom your curtains need 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 Shakespeare, sleep alone.
Thy unmolested peace, unshared cave,
Possess as lord, not tenant, of thy grave,
That unto us or others it may be
Honour hereafter to be laid by thee.
William Basse (c.1616-22), in Shakespeare’s
Poems (1640)
The Stationer to the Reader (in The Tragedy of Othello, 1622)
To set forth a book without an epistle were like to the
old English proverb, ‘A blue coat without a badge’, and
the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece
of work upon me. To commend it I will not, for that
which is good, I hope every man will commend without
entreaty; and I am the bolder because the author’s name
is sufficient to vent his work. Thus, leaving everyone to
the liberty of judgement, I have ventured to print this
play, and leave it to the general censure.
Yours,
Thomas Walkley.
The Epistle Dedicatory (in Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, 1623)
TO THE MOST NOBLE
AND
INCOMPARABLE PAIR
OF BRETHREN
WILLIAM
Earl of Pembroke, &c., Lord Chamberlain to the
King’s most excellent majesty,
AND
PHILIP
Earl of Montgomery, &c., gentleman of his majesty’s
bedchamber; both Knights of the most noble Order
of the Garter, and our singular good
LORDS.
Right Honourable,
Whilst we study to be thankful in our particular for the many favours we have received from your lordships, we are fallen upon the ill fortune to mingle two the most diverse things that can be: fear and rashness; rashness in the enterprise, and fear of the success. For when we value the places your highnesses sustain, we ca