“If thou survive my well contented day, When that churl Death with bones my dust shall cover, And shalt by fortune once more resurvey These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover, Compare them with the bettering of the time, And though they be outstripp’d by every pen, Reserve them for thy love, not for their rhyme, Exceeded by the height of happier men.” “My name be buried Where my body is, and live no more to shame nor me nor you, for I am shamed by that which I bring forth, and so should you, to love things nothing worth.” We have already quoted a verse from Spenser in praise of “Willy,” first published in 1591; we now adduce a passage from one of “Willy” Bacon’s poems first published in 1599 in praise of Spenser: “Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch Upon the lute doth ravish human sense; Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such As, passing all conceit, needs no defense.” This verse is in “The Passionate Pilgrim,” the first two numbers of which are Sonnets 138 and 144 with slight variations. John Dowland, a musician, was born [21] in 1562 and died 1625. Spenser was eight years older than Bacon. But coupled with this modesty of the author of the “Sonnets,” note how he praises his friend and how famous that friend appears at the time: “Oh, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To make me tongue−tied, speaking of your fame. But since your worth, wide as the ocean is, The humble as the proudest sail doth bear, My saucy bark, inferior far to his, On your broad main doth wilfully appear; Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat, Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride; Or being wrecked, I am a worthless boat, He of tall building and of goodly pride; Then if he thrive and I be cast away, The worst was this: my love was my decay.” The other superior (?) poet referred to is undoubtedly Spenser, among whose “Sonnets, addressed by the author to his friends and patrons,” in January, 1590, is one “To the most honorable and excellent Lord the Earl of Essex, great master of the horse to her highness, and knight of the noble order of the garter, etc.” Essex became master of the horse in 1587, and knight of the garter in 1588. We proceed with the quotations from the Shaksperian Sonnets: “Or I shall live your epitaph to make, Or you survive when I in earth am rotten, From hence your memory death cannot take, Although in me each part will be forgotten.