[589:C] Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. p. 292. edit. 1692.
[589:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 124.
[589:E] Ibid. vol. iii. p. 209.
[590:A] Vide Rowe's Life of Shakspeare, in Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. pp. 65, 66.
[591:A] Wheler's Guide to Stratford upon Avon, p. 18.
[591:B] See this Licence given at length in our History of the Stage, Part II. Chapter 7.
[592:A] Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs, pp. lxv. lxvi.
[592:B] Worthies, folio edition, part iii. p. 126.
[593:A] Were the repartees, however, of which time has deprived us, no better than those that we have now to communicate, it must be confessed, that the two bards have no great reason to complain of the loss. "Shakspeare," relates Capell, "was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christening, being in deep study, Jonson came to cheer him up; and asked him why he was so melancholy? No faith, Ben, says he, not I; but I have been considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-child, and I have resolved at last. I prithee what, says he? I'faith, Ben, I'll e'en give her a dozen good Latin (latten) spoons, and thou shalt translate them."—Notes on Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 94.
The second of these morceaux is, if possible, still worse than the preceding: "Mr. Ben Jonson and Mr. William Shakspeare being merrie at a tavern, Mr. Jonson begins this for his epitaph,