Shakspeare and His Times [Vol. 2 of 2] / Including the Biography of the Poet; criticisms on his genius and writings; a new chronology of his plays; a disquisition on the on the object of his sonnets; and a history of the manners, customs, and amusements, superstitions, poetry, and elegant literature of his age

by Nathan Drake

"He was not of an age, but for all time,"

he seized a characteristic of which the reverse, in some degree, applies to himself; for had he paid less attention to the minutiæ of his own age, and dedicated himself more to universal habits and feelings, his popularity would have nearly equalled that of the poet whom he loved and praised. Yet his fame rests on a broad and durable foundation, and we point, with pride and triumph, to that matchless constellation of dramatic merit, where burn, with inextinguishable glory, the mighty, names of Shakspeare, Jonson, Fletcher, Massinger.

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FOOTNOTES:

[557:A] Vide Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 101.

[557:B] Verses addressed to Mr. Humphrey Mosely, published in his Poems, Epigrams, &c. 1658.

[557:C] Verses addressed to Mr. Charles Cotton.

[558:A] See Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 101. note.

[558:B] Monthly Review, new series, vol. lxxxi. p. 126.

[558:C] Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 100.—Fuller tells us, in his quaint but emphatic manner, that Beaumont brought "the ballast of judgment," and Fletcher "the sail of phantasie."—Worthies, part ii. p. 288.