Prefatory Materials (Folio 3, 1664)
Not Peer Reviewed
But antiquated, and deserted lie
_As they were not of Natures family.
Yet must I not give Nature all: Thy Art,
_My gentle Shakespeare must enjoy a part.
For though the Poet's matter Nature be,
_His Art doth give the Fashion. And, that he,
Who casts to write a living line, must sweat,
_(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat
Upon the Muses Anvile: turn the same,
_(And himself with it) that he thinks to frame;
Or for the Lawrel, he may gain a scorn,
_For a good Poet's made, as well as born.
And such wert thou. Look how the Fathers face
_Lives in his Issue, even so the race
Of Shakespear's mind, and manners brightly shines
_In his well torned, and true filed lines:
In each of which, he seems to shake a Lance,
_As brandish't at the eyes of Ignorance.
Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
_To see thee in our water yet appear,
And make those flights upon the Banks of Thames,
_That so did take Eliza, and our Iames!
But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere
_Advanc'd, and made a Constellation there !
Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage,
_Or influence, chide, or chear the drooping Stage,
Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like
_And despairs day, but for thy Volumes light. [night,
BEN. JOHNSON.
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