NOTES.
This poem was prefixed to the first folio edition of Shakespeare, 1623, and is also printed in Ben Jonson's "Underwoods."
[1.] The meaning of these two lines would seem to be: "To show that I am not envious, Shakespeare, of thy name, I thus write fully of thy works and fame."
[2.] seeliest. Silliest, simplest. From A.-S. saelig, foolish. See note 23, page [190].
[3.] In allusion to W. Basse's elegy on Shakespeare, beginning:
"Renownèd Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespear in your threefold, fourfold tomb."
[4.] Lyly, Kyd, Marlowe. Contemporaries of Shakespeare. See Biographical Dictionary.
[5.] Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. The founders of the Greek tragical drama.
[6.] Pacuvius, Accius. Celebrated Roman tragic poets.
him of Cordova. Seneca, the great rhetorician, was born at Cordova, in Spain, b.c. 61.