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

"Here lies Ben Jonson

Who was once one—

he gives it to Mr. Shakspeare to make up, who presently writte,

"That, while he liv'd was a slow thing,

And now, being dead, is no-thing."

"This stuff," adds Mr. Gifford, "is copied from the Ashmole MS. 38."—Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs, p. lxxx. note.

The next may be said to be rather of a "better leer."

"Verses by Ben Jonson and Shakspeare, occasioned by the motto to the Globe Theatre—Totus mundus agit histrionem.

Jonson.

"If, but stage actors, all the world displays,