To My Very Good Friend, Mr. William Shakespeare
It’s not because I know that you
Are really what the World has found you,
That I collect and tell anew
The tributes that have gathered round you.
Not moved to tread the lofty ways
Of those great souls who turned their powers,
As duty-bounden, to your praise,
Weave I this little wreath of flowers.
You have, I know, a “myriad mind,”
A “honey tongue” to tell a story;
You left poor “panting Time” behind,
(See Johnson) in the race for glory—
’Tis true. But when all’s said and done,
With thought and rhetoric impassioned,
You’ve been, and are, a Friend to one
Whose mind is not supremely fashioned.
Footnotes
[vii:1] This volume bore the title, Studies of Shakspere: introductory volume, containing A History of Opinion on the Writings of Shakspere; with the Chronology of his Plays. The book in this form seems now to be difficult of access. No copy of it is in the British Museum Library. I acquired a copy for a few pence many years ago.
[5:1] I can myself add nothing but suggestions of possible borrowings from Shakespearean diction. In the poem, The Court Burlesqu’d, printed in Samuel Butler’s Remains, the lines—
“This, by a rat behind the curtain
Has been o’erheard, some say for certain,”
may be reminiscent of the scene in Hamlet in which Polonius is killed; and in Quarles’ Argalus and Parthenia, the expression “to gild perfection,” which occurs in the 21st line of the first book, seems to echo the passage in King John, “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,” etc.
[10:1] In 1756.
[19:1] Johnson several times expresses himself in a like spirit in his Rambler:
“It may be doubtful whether from all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence, can be collected than he alone has given to his country.”—Works, v. 131.
“He that has read Shakespeare with attention will, perhaps, find little new in the crowded world.”—Ib. 434.
“Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his commentators. When his fancy is on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation.”—Ib. 152.
[26:1] A word may be said here of the eighteenth century anthologists. Collections of poems were numerous. That by Dodsley, with its supplement prepared by Pearch, contains nothing by Shakespeare, nor indeed does Nichols’ collection, which claimed to include no poem that had been printed in the volumes issued by Dodsley or Pearch. A collection by Thomas Tomkins, entitled Poems on Various Subjects: selected to enforce the Practice of Virtue, and with a View to comprise in One Volume the Beauties of English Poetry (1787), goes no farther back than Milton; and the well-known anthology, Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with remarks by Henry Headley, contains such names as Drayton, Warner, Drummond, Raleigh, Surrey, Carew, Wyat, and Browne, but Shakespeare finds no place. He does not, in fact, enter regularly collections of this kind until the beginning of the nineteenth century—the period of “Elegant Extracts.” But he is quoted frequently enough in Edward Bysshe’s Art of English Poetry (1724); and John Bowle, in his Miscellaneous Pieces of Ancient English Poetry (1765), selects from King John.
[28:1] Literary Remains (1836), vol. ii. p. 63.
[185:1] The last line in the earlier version—that printed in the Academy—has “tailor’s” for “Starveling’s.” Rossetti made the alteration from fear of offending sensitive members of the tailoring profession.
[232:1] Coleridge says that he borrowed this phrase from a Greek monk, who applied it to a Patriarch of Constantinople.
[234:1] “These remarks,” Hazlitt adds, “are strictly applicable only to the impassioned parts of Shakespeare’s language, which flowed from the warmth and originality of his imagination, and were his own. The language used for prose conversation and ordinary business is sometimes technical, and involved in the affectation of the time.”
A row of periods represents an ellipsis. Ellipses match the original.
Pages 32, 274, and 330 are blank in the original.
The following corrections have been made to the original text:
Page vii: but he pays scant attention[original has “attentien”] to the nineteenth
Page 25: his paper kite to fly.”[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 36: RICHARD BARNFIELD[original has “BARNFEILD”], 1598
Page 78: p. iii.[period missing in original] prefixed to Works of Shakespeare
Page 105: Which his own genius only could acquire.”[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 109: dead letter Shakespeare’s noblest scene.[original has a comma]
Page 112: adulatory verses written on the same occasion.[letters “sion.” missing in original]—Keate.
Page 117: He ceases to be Euripides; he is Medea[original has “Meda”]
Page 123: “[original has a single quote]The British Eagle,” i.e. Milton.
Page 129: mistaken the form for the essence[original has “esssence”]
Page 129: as comprehensive and versatile,[comma missing in original] as intense
Page 151: the emblazonries upon Shakespeare’s[original has “Shakepeare’s”] shield.
Page 151: seems the mere rebound of the previous[original has “precious”] speech
Page 206: Poems. 1886, vol. ii. pp. 273-4.[period missing in original]
Page 218: Henry V.[original has “v.”] V. prol. 23.
Page 300: And men shall give us honour for his sake.”[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 321: Should say such un-Shakespearean things!’[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 331: Art of English Poetry.[original has a comma] By Edward Bysshe
Page 331: Barnfield[original has “Barnfeild”], Richard.
Page 331: Bowle, John.[original has a comma] Miscellaneous Pieces of Ancient English Poetry
Page 333: under “Dodsley,” 26 n.[period missing in original], 123.
Page 333: Elegie[original has “Elgie”] on the Death of the famous Writer
Page 334: Hanmer[original has “Hamner”], Sir Thomas.
Page 335: under “Headley, Henry,” 26 n.[italics added to match pattern of Index entries]
Page 336: Johnstone, ——.[period missing in original] The Table Talker, 156.
Page 336: performance of “Richard II.,”[comma missing in original] 144
Page 338: Poems in Divers Humors. By Richard Barnfield[original has “Barnfeild”], 36.
Page 340: Shakespeare’s Centurie of Prayse. By Dr. Ingleby, vii,[original has a period] 4.
Page 341: under “Stratford-on-Avon,” Monody written near. By Thomas Warton, 121.[original has a period after “Warton” and “121.” is missing]