Sick thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
And like a bold-fac'd Suiter 'gins to woo him.
Thrive fairer than my self (thus she begins)
The fields chief flower, sweet above compare,
Stain to all Nymphs, more lovely than a man;
More white and red than Doves or Roses are:
Nature that made thee with herself at strife,
Says that the world hath ending with thy life, &c
He was an eminent instance of the truth of that Rule, Poeta non fit, sed nascitur; one is not made, but born a Poet; so that as Cornish Diamonds are not polished by any Lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the Earth, so Nature itself was all the Art which was used on him.
He was so great a Benefactor to the Stage, that he wrote of himself eight and forty Plays; whereof 18 Comedies, viz. As you like it, All's well that ends well, A Comedy of Errors, Gentleman of Verona, Loves Labour lost, London Prodigal, Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for measure, Much ado about Nothing, Midsummer Nights Dream, Merchant of Venice, Merry Devil of Edmonton, Mucedorus, the Puritan Widow, the Tempest, Twelf-Night, or what you will, the taming of the Shrew, and a winters Tale. Fourteen Tragedies, viz. Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Julius Cæsar, Lorrino, Leir and his three Daughters, Mackbeth, Othello the Moor of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Troylus and Cressida, Tymon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, and the Yorkshire Tragedy. Also fifteen Histories, viz. Cromwel's History, Henry 4. in two parts, Henry 5. Henry 6. in three parts, Henry 8. John King of England, in three parts, Pericles Prince of Tyre, Richard 2. Richard 3. and Oldrastes Life and Death. Also the Arraignment of Paris, a Pastoral.