19. I will not lodge thee, etc. Chaucer, Spenser, and Beaumont are buried near to each other in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Proximity to the tomb of Chaucer, the first great English poet, was considered as a great honor. Spenser had been granted this in 1599, and Beaumont in 1615; a year later came the death of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's claim to a place near the tombs of the three poets just mentionel was put forth by a certain William Basse (or Bas) in his Epitaph on Shakespeare:

"Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh

To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room

For Shakespeare in your threefold fourfold tomb."

Jonson's words are obviously in the nature of an answer to this passage. (See Pub. New Shaks. Soc., Ser. IV. 2. pp. 136 and 147, and Stanley's Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 269, 270.)

69.-27. Judgment were of years, i. e. one that would last, or go down to posterity.-29. Thou didst our Lyly outshine, etc. We should be on our guard against assuming that we can gain from this poem any exact notion of Jonson's opinion of his contemporaries, as he wisely avoids all mention of poets then living. Fletcher, Chapman, Middleton, Dekker, Drayton, Donue, who might otherwise have been mentioned, are exIcluded on this score if on no other. His obvious purpose is merely to allude incidentally to a few of Shakespeare's competitors by way of illustration. To get at his real feelings towards his fellows, consult Drummond's Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations, Shakespeare Soc. Publications, 1842.30. Sporting Kyd. A satirical play upon the dramatist's name, since Thomas Kyd was anything but "sporting," being chiefly known as the author of tragedies of the most blood-curdling and bombastic character. The oft-quoted reference to Marlowe, on the other hand, is remarkably felicitous.-31. And though thou hadst small Latin, etc. The passage may be thus paraphrased: Even if thou hadst little scholarship, I would not seek to honor thee as others have done Ovid, Plautus, Terence, etc., i.e. by the names of the classical poets, but would rather invite them to witness how far thou dost outshine them." (Pub. New Shaks. Soc., Ser. IV. 2. 151.)— 33. Eschylus, etc. The three Greek poets Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (to name them in their proper chronological order) represent three stages in the development of the Greek tragic drama; so Pacuvius, Accius (or Attius), and "him of Cordova" (or Seneca) stand in a similar manner for Roman tragedy-writing at successive epochs. The three Greek tra gedians are among the greatest dramatists of the world; the

three Roman, and especially the first two, are comparatively little known, and seem introduced rather to give a proper balance to the passage than because any one would really compare them with Shakespeare.-36, 37. Buskin... socks. The ancients are summoned to hear Shakespeare both as a tragic and a comic writer; the buskin, or shoe worn by Greek and Roman actors in tragedy, stands here for tragedy, as the sock, or shoe of comedians, stands for comedy. (See L'Allegro, 1 132 and n.). -55. Thy Art. This tribute to the art of Shakespeare, and to his care in composition, derives an added interest from the fact that such a view was unusual in Jonson's time and for long after. Milton inclined to the opposite opinion (see L'Allegro, 1. 133 and n.). Pope expressed the same popular impression in the lines:

"But Otway failed to polish or refine,

And fluent Shakespeare scarce effac'd a line." (Ep. I. 278.) Jonson himself, according to Drummond, declared that Shakespeare "wanted [or lacked] arte." Shakespeare certainly wrote rapidly, and the impression seems to have been that he wrote carelessly. Jonson's own words on this point should be compared with those of Pope and placed in contrast with the passage in the text: "I remember the Players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penn'd) hee never blotted out a line. My answer hath beene, would he had blotted a thousand, which they thought a malevolent speech." (Timber; or Discoveries upon Men and Matter, etc.)

JONSON'S SONGS.

70. Jonson's character and genius are commonly described as "robust,' rugged," and “ masculine," yet his songs are frequently remarkable for their grace, lightness, and delicacy. In this respect he is rightly regarded as the predecessor of Herrick and some of his lyric brethren.

SIMPLEX MUNDITIIS.

Simplex munditiis

=

= plain, or unadorned, in thy neatness. The phrase is from Horace's famous and often-translated ode

to Pyrrha (Odes, Lib. I. car. v.):

"Cui flavam religas comam

Simplex munditiis?"

SHAKESPEARE'S SONGS.

73. Shakespeare was born in 1564; came up to London to seek his fortune about 1587; began to write for the stage about 1588-90; ended his career about 1612-13, and died in 1616. The greater part of his energy was given to the stage,as actor, as part-owner of a theatre, and as playwright; but apart from his dramas he wrote two narrative poems and a series of sonnets. The songs scattered through his plays, while introduced for a dramatic purpose, and often intimately and artistically interwoven with the action, would alone give him an assured place among the poets of his time. Had he written nothing but these songs he would have survived as one of the leading lyric poets of a great song-writing age. No words of comment are needed on the songs here given. As Prof. Dowden says: " Of the exquisite songs scattered through Shakespeare's plays it is almost an impertinence to speak. If they do not make their own way, like the notes in the wildwood, no words will open the dull ear to take them in."

HARK, HARK, THE LARK.

75.-5. Mary-bud = marigold.

ELIZABETHAN SONNETS

(See "Elizabethan Songs and Lyrics,” p. 590 supra.)

SIDNEY.

77. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586), the pattern of noble knighthood, whose name is forever linked with an act of self-sacrifice and compassion, was not only the courtier, the soldier, the gallant gentleman, loved by his nation as few men have been loved, and mourned as few men have been mourned; he was also a true poet, and an accomplished man of letters. Although he died at thirty-two, he was a leading spirit in England's literary advance when the nation was feeling its way towards the period of its greatest triumphs. Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591), the first great sonnetsequence in the literature (see p. 590 supra), marks an epoch in the growth of the sonnet in England. The series, which consists of 110 sonnets, records the poet's hopeless passion (whether real or assumed for poetic purposes is a matter of dispute) for Penelope Devereux, who was sister to the Earl of Essex and who became Lady Rich.

SONNET XXXI.

This is probably the best known of Sidney's sonnets. Wordsworth admired it sufficiently to use the two opening lines for the beginning of a sonnet written in 1806.

DANIEL.

78. SAMUEL DANIEL (1562-1619), who gained the title of "the well-languaged Daniel," while lacking in some of the qualities which make a popular poet, yet shows an elevation of feeling, depth of thought, and a scholarly taste. His sonnets to Delia, which appeared in his first known book of poems, contain some of his most familiar if not his finest work.

DRAYTON.

79. (For Drayton, see p. 601, n. on Agincourt.)

DRUMMOND.

79. WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1558-1613), often spoken of as "Drummond of Hawthornden," was a Scottish poet of noble birth, who passed a meditative and studious life at his secluded and beautiful home near Edinburgh. His life was saddened by the death of the lady to whom he was engaged to be married, and his poetry is tinged by a gentle melancholy. He is numbered with the followers of Spenser, but he shows-as in his sonnets-such a sympathy with the Italian models that he has been styled "the Scottish Petrarch."

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.

80. The sonnets of Shakespeare were first published in 1609. The exact date of their composition is not known, but they were probably composed at intervals (as was Tennyson's In Memoriam) during a number of years. The earliest mention of them is found in the Palladis Tumia of Francis Meres (1678), who speaks of Shakespeare's "sugred sonnets among his private friends." Two of the series (sonnets 138 and 144) appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim (1599), a poetical miscellany. Dowden believes them all to have been written somewhere between 1595 and 1605." The entire series consists of 154 sonnets. Critics are still divided concerning the interpretation of the series as a whole, but fortunately all theories of interpretation are powerless to mar our enjoyment of the sonnets as single poems. (See Dowden's Shakespeare Primer and his edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets.)

83. MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631) was one of the most voluminous poets of a time distinguished by the extraordinary productiveness of its writers. His huge descriptive and his