In other’s works thou dost but mend the style,
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be—
But thou art all my art, and dost advance
As high as learning my rude ignorance.
Bacon simply could not have written these lines, at least.
And it must be remembered that whoever was able to write the sonnets and the poems, might become able in time to write the fuller and richer plays.
There remain witnesses abundant that Shakespeare’s London career was a personal success. Greene’s envy, no less than Chettle’s praise, point to it, W. Covell, Thomas Edwards, the authors of the Parnassus Plays, John Weever, John Davies, and Thomas Thorpe; that he was a good actor, John Marston, the dramatist, affirms, by asking whether he or Burbage acted best; John Davies also couples their names together as players having
Wit, courage, good shape, good parts and all good.
and says of Shakespeare that he was a fit “companion for a king.”
Thou hast no rayling but a raygning witt,