Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.

Inscription on the Monument erected to Shakespeare’s Memory in the Parish Church at Stratford-on-Avon. 1623.

BEN JONSON, 1623
(1573-1637)

To the memory of my beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us.

To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,

Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame:

While I confess thy writings to be such,

As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.

’Tis true, and all men’s suffrage. But these ways