Robert Lloyd, 1760 (1733-1764)
When Shakespeare leads the mind a dance,
From France to England, hence to France,
Talk not to me of time and place;
I own I’m happy in the chase.
Whether the drama’s here or there,
’Tis nature, Shakespeare, everywhere.
The poet’s fancy can create,
Contract, enlarge, annihilate,
Bring past and present close together,
In spite of distance, seas, or weather;
And shut up in a single action
What cost whole years in its transaction.
So, ladies at a play or rout,
Can flirt the universe about,
Whose geographical account
Is drawn and pictured on the mount:
Yet when they please, contract the plan,
And shut the world up in a fan.
Shakespeare: An Epistle to Mr. Garrick. 1760, ll. 37-54.
See also Lloyd’s Ode to Genius, 1760, ll. 1-14.