Some say, good Will, which I in sport do sing, Had’st thou not play’d some kingly parts in sport, Thou had’st been a companion for a king, And been a king among the meaner sort. Some others rail; but rail as they think fit, Thou hast no railing, but a reigning wit: And honesty thou sow’st which they do reap; So, to increase their stock which they do keep: _The Scourge of Folly, consisting of Satyricall Epigramms and others._ 1611. THOMAS FREEMAN, 1614 (_fl._ 1614) “_To Master W. Shakespeare._” Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury thy brain Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep, So fit, for all thou fashionest thy rein, At th’ horse-foot fountain thou hast drank full deep, Vertues or vices theme to thee all one is: Who loves chaste life, there’s _Lucrece_ for a Teacher: Who but read lust there’s _Venus and Adonis_, True model of a most lascivious leacher. Besides in plays thy wit winds like Meander: Whence needy new-composers borrow more Than Terence doth from Plautus or Menander. But to praise thee aright I want thy store: Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise, And help t’ adorn thee with deserved Bays. _Runne, and a Great Caste. The Second Bowle._ (_Being the second part of a Rubbe, and a Great Cast_, 1614.) Epigram 92, Sig. K2, back. WILLIAM BASSE, 1622 (_d._ 1653?) “_On Mr. William Shakespeare._” Renowned Spenser lie a thought more nigh To learned Beaumont, and rare Beaumont lie A little nearer Chaucer, to make room For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. To lodge all four in one bed make a shift Until Doom’s day, for hardly will (a) fift Betwixt this day and that by fate be slain, For whom the curtains shall be drawn again. For if precedency in death do bar A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre, In this uncarved marble of thy own, Sleep, brave Tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep alone; Thy unmolested rest, unshared cave, Possess as lord, not tenant, to the grave, That unto others it may counted be Honour hereafter to be layed by thee. _Fennell’s Shakespere Repository_, 1853, p. 10. Printed from a MS. _temp._ Charles I. ANONYMOUS, 1623 _Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus maeret, Olympus habet._ Stay, passenger, who goest thou by so fast? Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed Within this monument; Shakespeare with whom Quick nature died; whose name doth deck this tomb Far more than cost; sith all that he hath writ Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.