ON THE MARLOWE MEMORIAL.
(Unveiled by Mr. Henry Irving at Canterbury, September 16, 1891.)
MARLOWE, your "mighty line"
Though worthy of a darling of the Nine,
Has—in quotation—many a reader riled.
Like SHAKSPEARE's "wood-notes wild,"
And POPE's "lisped numbers," it becomes a bore
When hackneyed o'er and o'er
By every petty scribe and criticaster.
Yet we must own you master
Of the magnificent and magniloquent.
And modern playwrights might be well content
Were they but dowered with passion, fancy, wit,
Like great ill-fated "KIT."