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Shakespeare of Stratford
(D) Elegiac sonnet of Hugh Holland.
Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenic Poet, Master William Shakespeare.
Those hands which you so clapp’d, go now and wring,
You Britons brave, for done are Shakespeare’s days:
His days are done that made the dainty plays,
Which made the Globe of heaven and earth to ring.
Dried is that vein, dried is the Thespian spring,
Turn’d all to tears, and Phoebus clouds his rays:
That corpse, that coffin, now bestick those bays
Which crown’d him poet first, then poets’ king.
You Britons brave, for done are Shakespeare’s days:
His days are done that made the dainty plays,
Which made the Globe of heaven and earth to ring.
Dried is that vein, dried is the Thespian spring,
Turn’d all to tears, and Phoebus clouds his rays:
That corpse, that coffin, now bestick those bays
Which crown’d him poet first, then poets’ king.
If tragedies might any prologue have,
All those he made would scarce make one to this,
Where Fame, now that he gone is to the grave,
Death’s public tiring-house, the Nuncius[1] is:
For though his line of life went soon about,
The life yet of his lines shall never out.
HUGH HOLLAND
All those he made would scarce make one to this,
Where Fame, now that he gone is to the grave,
Death’s public tiring-house, the Nuncius[1] is:
For though his line of life went soon about,
The life yet of his lines shall never out.
HUGH HOLLAND
(E) Dedicatory verses by Leonard Digges.
To the Memory of the deceased Author, Master W. Shakespeare.
Shake-speare, at length thy pious fellows give
The world thy works: thy works, by which outlive
Thy tomb thy name must. When that stone is rent,
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still: this book,
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages. When posterity
Shall loath what’s new, think all is prodigy
The world thy works: thy works, by which outlive
Thy tomb thy name must. When that stone is rent,
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still: this book,
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages. When posterity
Shall loath what’s new, think all is prodigy
- ↑ The messenger in Senecan tragedy who reported the deaths to the audience.
