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 anno domini 1616,

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 cannot but know their dignity greater than to descend to the reading of these trifles; and while we name them trifles we have deprived ourselves of the defence of our dedication. But since your lordships have been pleased to think these trifles something heretofore, and have prosecuted both them and their author, living, with so much favour, we hope that, they outliving him, and he not having the fate, common with some, to be executor to his own writings, you will use the like indulgence toward them you have done unto their parent. There is a great difference whether any book choose his patrons, or find them. This hath done both; for so much were your lordships’ likings of the several parts when they were acted as, before they were published, the volume asked to be yours. We have but collected them, and done an office to the dead to procure his orphans guardians, without ambition either of self-profit or fame, only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of his plays to your most noble patronage. Wherein, as we have justly observed no man to come near your lordships but with a kind of religious address, it hath been the height of our care, who are the presenters, to make the present worthy of your highnesses by the perfection. But there we must also crave our abilities to be considered, my lords. We cannot go beyond our own powers. Country hands reach forth milk, cream, fruits, or what they have; and many nations, we have heard, that had not gums and incense, obtained their requests with a leavened cake. It was no fault to approach their gods by what means they could, and the most, though meanest, of things are made more precious when they are dedicated to temples. In that name, therefore, we most humbly consecrate to your highnesses these remains of your servant Shakespeare, that what delight is in them may be ever your lordships’, the reputation his, and the faults ours, if any be committed by a pair so careful to show their gratitude both to the living and the dead as is