Prefatory Materials (Folio 3, 1664)
Not Peer Reviewed
Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenick
Poet Mr. VV. Shakespeare.
THose hands, which you so clapt, goe now
_and wring
You Britaines brave; for done are Shake-
_speares dayes:
His dayes are done, that made the dainty Playes,
VVhich made the Globe of Heav'n and Earth
_to ring.
Dry'd is that Vein, dry'd is the Thespian Spring,
Turn'd all to tears, and Phœbus Clouds his
_Rayes:
That Corps, that Coffin now bestick those Bays,
VVhich crown'd him Poet first, then Poets King.
If Tragedies might any Prologue have,
All those he made, would scarce make one to
_this:
VVhere Fame, now that he gone is to the Grave,
(Deaths publick Tyring-house) the Nuncius is.
_For though his Line of Life went soon about,
_The Life yet of his Lines shall never out.
Hugh Holland.