may be reminiscent of the scene in _Hamlet_ in which Polonius is killed; and in Quarles’ _Argalus and Parthenia_, the expression “to gild perfection,” which occurs in the 21st line of the first book, seems to echo the passage in _King John_, “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,” etc. [10:1] In 1756. [19:1] Johnson several times expresses himself in a like spirit in his _Rambler_: “It may be doubtful whether from all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence, can be collected than he alone has given to his country.”—_Works_, v. 131. “He that has read Shakespeare with attention will, perhaps, find little new in the crowded world.”—_Ib._ 434. “Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his commentators. When his fancy is on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation.”—_Ib._ 152. [26:1] A word may be said here of the eighteenth century anthologists. Collections of poems were numerous. That by Dodsley, with its supplement prepared by Pearch, contains nothing by Shakespeare, nor indeed does Nichols’ collection, which claimed to include no poem that had been printed in the volumes issued by Dodsley or Pearch. A collection by Thomas Tomkins, entitled _Poems on Various Subjects: selected to enforce the Practice of Virtue, and with a View to comprise in One Volume the Beauties of English Poetry_ (1787), goes no farther back than Milton; and the well-known anthology, _Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry_, with remarks by Henry Headley, contains such names as Drayton, Warner, Drummond, Raleigh, Surrey, Carew, Wyat, and Browne, but Shakespeare finds no place. He does not, in fact, enter regularly collections of this kind until the beginning of the nineteenth century—the period of “Elegant Extracts.” But he is quoted frequently enough in Edward Bysshe’s _Art of English Poetry_ (1724); and John Bowle, in his _Miscellaneous Pieces of Ancient English Poetry_ (1765), selects from _King John_. [28:1] _Literary Remains_ (1836), vol. ii. p. 63. PART I “THESE THREE HUNDRED YEARS” Any time these three hundred years. _Merry Wives_, I. i. 13. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. ’Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room, Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. _Sonnet LV._ THE FIRST PERIOD SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES FRANCIS MERES, 1596 (1565-1647)