Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 61

by Tucker Brooke

Layout 2

 

LXI. THOMAS FREEMAN’S SONNET TO SHAKESPEARE (1614).

From Run, and a Great Cast, 2d part, 1614.

To Master W. Shakespeare.Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy brain, Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep,So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein. At the horse-foot fountain^[1] thou hast drunk full deep:Virtue’s or vice’s theme to thee all one is. Who loves chaste life, there’s Lucrece for a teacher;Who list read lust, there’s Venus and Adonis, True model of a most lascivious lecher.Besides in plays thy wit winds like Meander, Whence needy new-composers borrow more Than Terence doth from Plautus and 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.

1. I.e. Hippocrene.