The finest poem in this section, ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’, was ascribed to Shakespeare in 1601 when it appeared, without title, as one of the ‘Poetical Essays’ appended to Robert Chester’s Love’s Martyr: or Rosalind’s Complaint, which is described as ‘allegorically shadowing the truth of love in the constant fate of the phoenix and turtle’. Since the early nineteenth century it has been known as ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’ or (following the title-page) ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’. An incantatory elegy, it may well have irrecoverable allegorical significance. Chester’s poem appears to have been composed as a compliment to his patrons, Sir John and Lady Ursula Salusbury. Although we know of no direct link between Shakespeare and the Salusburys, Lady Ursula was a half-sister of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, whose theatrical company performed Titus Andronicus and 1 Henry VI early in Shakespeare’s career.

It is not clear whether the two stanzas engraved at opposite ends of the Stanley tomb in the parish church of Tong, in Shropshire, constitute one epitaph or two. Their most likely subject is Sir Thomas Stanley (d. 1576), Ferdinando’s uncle. The stanzas are ascribed to Shakespeare in two manuscript miscellanies of the 1630s and by the antiquary Sir William Dugdale in a manuscript appended to his Visitation of Shropshire in 1664.

The satirical completion of an epitaph on Ben Jonson (written during his lifetime) is ascribed to Shakespeare in two different seventeenth-century manuscripts.

Shakespeare probably knew Elias James (c. 1578-1610), who managed a brewery in the Blackfriars district of London. His epitaph is ascribed to Shakespeare in the same Oxford manuscript as ‘Shall I die?’

The Combe family of Stratford-upon-Avon were friends of Shakespeare. He bequeathed his sword to one of them, and John Combe, who died in 1614, left Shakespeare £5. Several mock epitaphs similar to the first epitaph on John Combe have survived, one (on an unnamed usurer) printed as early as 1608; later versions mention three other men as the usurer. Shakespeare may have adapted some existing lines; or some existing lines may have been adapted anonymously in Stratford, and later attributed to Stratford’s most famous poet. The ascription to him dates from 1634, and is supported by four other seventeenth-century manuscripts. The second Combe epitaph is found in only one manuscript; it seems entirely original, and alludes to a bequest to the poor made in Combe’s will.

The lines on King James first appear, unattributed, beneath an engraving of the King printed as the frontispiece to the 1616 edition of his works. They are attributed to Shakespeare—the leading writer of the theatre company of which King James was patron—in at least two seventeenth-century manuscripts; the same attribution was recorded in a printed broadside now apparently lost.

Shakespeare’s own epitaph is written in the first person; the tradition that he composed it himself is recorded in several manuscripts from the middle to the late seventeenth century.

Various Poems

A Song

1

Shall I die? Shall I fly

Lovers’ baits and deceits,

sorrow breeding?

Shall I tend? Shall I send?

Shall I sue, and not rue

my proceeding?

In all duty her beauty

Binds me her servant for ever.

If she scorn, I mourn,

I retire to despair, joining never.

2

Yet I must vent my lust

And explain inward pain

by my love conceiving.

If she smiles, she exiles

All my moan; if she frown,

all my hopes deceiving—

Suspicious doubt, O keep out,

For thou art my tormentor.

Fie away, pack away;

I will love, for hope bids me venture.

3

‘Twere abuse to accuse

My fair love, ere I prove

her affection.

Therefore try! Her reply

Gives thee joy—or annoy,

or affliction.

Yet howe’er, I will bear

Her pleasure with patience, for beauty

Sure will not seem to blot

Her deserts, wronging him doth her duty.

4

In a dream it did seem—

But alas, dreams do pass

as do shadows—

I did walk, I did talk

With my love, with my dove,

through fair meadows.

Still we passed till at last

We sat to repose us for pleasure.

Being set, lips met,

Arms twined, and did bind my heart’s treasure.

5

Gentle wind sport did find

Wantonly to make fly

her gold tresses.

As they shook I did look,

But her fair did impair

all my senses.

As amazed, I gazed

On more than a mortal complexion.

You that love can prove

Such force in beauty’s inflection.

6

Next her hair, forehead fair,

Smooth and high; neat doth lie,

without wrinkle,

Her fair brows; under those,

Star-like eyes win love’s prize

when they twinkle.

In her cheeks who seeks

Shall find there displayed beauty’s banner;

O admiring desiring

Breeds, as I look still upon her.

7

Thin lips red, fancy’s fed

With all sweets when he meets,

and is granted

There to trade, and is made

Happy, sure, to endure

still undaunted.

Pretty chin doth win

Of all their culled commendations;

Fairest neck, no speck;

All her parts merit high admirations.

8

Pretty bare, past compare,