THE GHOST OF RICHARD III

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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

THE PALM LIBRARY
DONATED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS BY SIR SWANTE PALM 1897

London: F. Shoberl, Jun. 51, Rupert Street, Haymarket,
Printer to H. R. H. Prince Albert.

THE GHOST OF RICHARD THE THIRD.
A poem, printed in 1614, and founded upon Shakespeare's historical play.
Reprinted from the only known copy in the Bodleian Library.
With an introduction and notes by J. Payne Collier, Esq.
London: Printed for the Shakespeare Society.
1844.

COUNCIL OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY.

President.
The most noble the Marquess of Conyngham

Vice-Presidents.
Rt. Hon. Lord Braybrooke, F.S.A.
Rt. Hon. Lord Francis Egerton, M.P.
Rt. Hon. The Earl of Glengall.
Rt. Hon. Earl Howe.
Rt. Hon. Lord Leigh.
Rt. Hon. The Earl of Powis.

Amyot, Thomas, Esq., F.R.S., Treas. S.A.
Ayrton, William, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Botfield, Beriah, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Bruce, John, Esq., F.S.A.
Clerke, Major T. H. Shadwell, K.H., F.R.S.
Collier, J. Payne, Esq., F.S.A., Director.
Cooper, C. Purton, Esq., Q.C., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Corney, Bolton, Esq.
Cunningham, Peter, Esq., Treasurer.
Dickens, Charles, Esq.
Dyce, Rev. Alexander.
Field, Barron, Esq.
Hallam, Henry, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.S.A.
Halliwell, J. O., Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Pettigrew, T. J., Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.
Planché, J. R., Esq., F.S.A.
Sharpe, the Rev. Lancelot, M.A., F.S.A.
Thoms, William J., Esq., F.S.A.
Tomlins, F. Guest, Esq., Secretary.
Watson, Sir Frederick Beilby, K.C.
Wright, Thomas, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.

The Council of the Shakespeare Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations that may appear in the Society's publications; the Editors of the several works being alone responsible for the same.

INTRODUCTION.

The ensuing poem, which is intimately connected in matter and manner with Shakespeare's "Richard the Third," and which would probably not have been written but for the extreme popularity of that historical tragedy, has been noticed and quoted, for the first time, in the "Life" of our great dramatist, prefixed to the recent impression of his works, published by Messrs. Whittaker and Co. Our reprint is made from the sole existing copy, preserved in the Bodleian Library, and unknown to the previous editors of Shakespeare, as well as to all bibliographical antiquaries.
The poem is divided into three parts--the "Character," the "Legend," and the "Tragedy" of Richard the Third; and the following obvious and highly laudatory allusion to Shakespeare commences the second portion of the work:--

"To him that impt my fame with Clio's quill
Whose magick rais'd me from oblivion's den,
That writ my storie on the Muses' hill,
And with my actions dignifi'd his pen;
He that from Helicon sends many a rill,
Whose nectared veines are drunke by thirstie men;
Crown'd be his stile with fame, his head with bayes,
And none detract, but gratulate his praise.

Yet if his scænes have not engrost all grace
The much fam'd action could extend on stage;
If time or memory have left a place
For me to fill, t' enforme this ignorant age,
To that intent I shew my horrid face,
Imprest with feare, and characters of rage:
Nor wits, nor chronicles, could ere containe
The hell-deepe reaches of my soundlesse braine."

The author professes on his title-page to relate "more" regarding Richard the Third than was contained "in Chronicles, Plays, or Poems;" but it will be clear to those who read the following pages that to no previous writer has he been so much indebted as to Shakespeare. The incidents, or most of them, are of course matters of history; but in the treatment of them, and in much of the phraseology ofhis poem, the author has mainly copied our great dramatist, and a few of the more striking resemblances are pointed out in the notes. The writer has, in fact, done with respect to "Richard the Third," in verse, very much what was done with respect to "Pericles" in prose: a narrative is constructed out of a drama, the writer availing himself of the popularity of the subject in order to attract public attention and interest. It is the only specimen of the kind, and of that date, in our language with which we are acquainted; for, although poems derived from history are sufficiently numerous, we know of none confessedly founded, as it were, upon a play: in this instance it has the additional recommendation of being founded upon a play by Shakespeare.

The form chosen by the author is that in which the legends in "The Mirror for Magistrates" are written, where the ghost of the person is supposed to relate his own history. Niccols published his "Winter Night's Vision," as a sequel to "The Mirror for Magistrates," in 1610; and there, as most persons are aware, is found "The lamentable Lives and Deaths of the two young Princes, Edward the Fifth and his brother Richard, Duke of York," as well as "The tragical Life and Death of King Richard the Third." It may be considered remarkable that, although Shakepeare's "Richard the Third," in 1610, had probably been on the stage for sixteen or seventeen years, and had gone through at least four editions, Niccols makes so little use of it, and has not the most remote allusion to it: only in one passage can we trace any direct likeness, and there it is by no means close, as may be seen by the subjoined quotation. Richard is speaking of the time after he had killed Henry VI. in the Tower:--

"He dead, the battels fought in field before
Were turn'd to meetings of sweet amitie;
The war-gods thundring cannons dreadful rore,
And ratling drum-sounds warlike harmonie,
To sweet tun'd noise of pleasing minstralsie;
The haile-like shot to tennis balls were turn'd,
And sweet perfumes in stead of smoakes were burn'd.

God Mars laid by his launce and tooke his lute,
And turn'd his rugged frownes to smiling lookes;
In stead of crimson fields, wars fatall fruit,
He bath'd his limbes in Cypris warbling brookes,
And set his thoughts upon her wanton lookes:
All noise of war was husht upon our coast;
Plentie each where in easefull pride did boast."--p.753.

Steevens, referring to the preceding stanzas, says that "more probably Niccols was indebted to Shakespeare than Shakespeare to him:" it would have puzzled Steevens to show how it was possible for Shakespeare to have been indebted to an author who published his work thirteen years after "Richard the Third" came from the press. John Lyly has this passage in his play, "Alexander and Campaspe," 4to, 1584, but the resemblance is so trifling and distant, that we do not think Shakespeare had it even on his mind when he wrote Gloucester's soliloquy: it appeared, however, just as many years before "Richard the Third" was printed as Niccols's poem did after it:-- "Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? the neighing of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with smoke, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?"

It will be observed that our quotation from Niccols's "Winter Night's Vision" is in the ancient English form of stanza employed by Chaucer, Lydgate, and other early poets; while the author of "The Ghost of Richard the Third" employs the Italian ottava rima, which may, or may not, be considered an improvement. We do not discover any connexion between the two poems, excepting those inevitable coincidences which arise out of the fact, that both poets employed the same historical incidents. The author of "The Ghost of Richard the Third" seems almost purposely to have avoided some points upon which Niccols dwells, while he has designedly touched others of which Shakespeare availed himself.¹

Those who read the ensuing pages will very soon percieve that the writer of them was a practiced versifier, and a man of very considerable poetical power, although his taste may be defective: he sometimes writes below his subject, and at other times the effort to reach the heightof it is too evident. Altogether, his work is unequal, and the serious commencement of a stanza is now and then entirely spoiled by the ludicrous conclusion of it: for instance, he thus makes Richard speak of Jane Shore, and of a dramatic performance of which she was the heroine.

"And what a peece of justice did I shew
On Mistresse Shore, when (with a fancied hate
To unchast life) I forced her to goe
Bare-foote, on penance, with dejected state!
But now her fame by a vile play doth grow,
Whose fate the women so commisserate;
That who (to see my justice on that sinner)
Drinks not her teares, and makes her fast their dinner!"

Here an absurd conceit in the last line is made to mar the whole effect of the preceding part of the stanza. We may add that the "vile play," to which reference is made, was notprobably that already reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, "The First and Second Parts of Edward IV," by Thomas Heywood, in which Jane Shore is an important character, but that which is thus mentioned in a poetical tract called "Pymlico, or Run Red-cap," published in 1609:--

"Amaz'd I stood to see a crowd
Of civil throats stretch'd out so loud:
As at a new play, all the rooms
Did swarm with gentles, mix'd with grooms,
So that I truly thought all theses
Came to see Shore, or Pericles."

This passage seems to settle the point that the plays of "Shore" and of "Pericles" were brought out at about the same date, neither of them perhaps absolutely "a new play," as the author of "Pymlico" terms them, but a revival, with additions and alterations, of older dramatic perfomances, wo which so much of novelty was given as to lead the play-going public to consider them new. The prose novel, founded upon "Pericles," before mentioned, was printed in 1608, no doubt while the play was maintaining an extraordinary degree of popularity. Some account of it may be found in vol. viii., pp. 267, 268, 269, of the edition of Shakespeare published by Messrs. Whittaker and Co.; and larger extracts are given from it in "Farther Particulars regarding Shakespeare and his Works," (of which only fifty copies were printed) pp. 33 et seq.

In his "Epistle to the Reader," the author of "The Ghost of Richard the Third" mentions the popularity of plays upon the events of that reign: "And when I undertook this, I thought with myself that to draw arguments of invention from the subject, new and probable, would be far more plausible to the time, than by insisting upon narrations, made so common in plays and so notorious among all men, have my labour slighted and my pen taxed for trivial." The fact is, that besides Dr. Legge's Latin drama, (acted at Cambridge before 1583) in 1614 there were at least three existing English plays upon the story of Richard III. The oldest of these no doubt was "The True Tragedie of Richard the Third," (written several years earlier, and printed in 1594) which preceded Shakespeare's historical drama,² which we suppose to have been composed about 1593. Shakespeare's historical drama, therefore, came second in point of date; and on the 22nd of June, 1602, Ben Jonson was paid £10 by Henslowe, in earnest of a play to be called "Richard Crook-back," and of some additions to Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy." We know, from the impression of "The Spanish Tragedy" in 1602, that the additions by Ben Jonson were not very important; so that we may presume that the larger part of the £10 advanced by Henslowe went to pay for what Ben Jonson had already written of his "Richard Crook-back." At about this date, £10 or £12 seems to have been the price usually given for a complete play; and it is likely that, at the time he recieved the money, Ben Jonson was far advanced in his undertaking, and that it was afterwards finished, and acted by Henslowe and Alleyn's company at the Fortune Theatre, which had been opened not long before. As it was written in 1602, it may appear singular that Ben Jonson did not include his "Richard Crook-back" in the folio of his Works in 1616; but it is probable that he was aided in the play by some other dramatist, and several pieces in which he was notoriously concerned were exclueded from that volume, because, having had partners in them, he could not term them exclusively his own. "Sejanus" would have been in this predicament, had not Ben Jonson re-written that portion which he admits had been contributed by a "happy genius;" meaning, as has been always supposed, Shakespeare.

What we have just stated proves that there were at least three English dramas of which Richard was the hero, viz., "The true Tragedy," Shakespeare's historical play, and Ben Jonson's "Richard Crook-back." These, we may presume, were more or less in a course of performance, in 1614, when "The Ghost of Richard the Third" was published, although the old "True Tragedy" may have been superseded by the later productions of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson: other theatres, besides the Globe and Fortune, may have been in possession of plays upon the same incidents; but none such have come to our day, nor any notices regarding them.

The only remaining point to which it seems necessary to advert is the question, Who was the author of "The Ghost of Richard the Third?" No name or initials are found on the title-page, but the letters C. B. are appended to the dedication: these may belong to Charles Best, who was a writer in Davidson's "Poetical Rhapsody," 1602, or to Christopher Brooke, the author of some "Eglogues dedicated to his much loved friend Mr. Will. Browne," printed in the same year as the poem before us. It will be observed that Browne has lines in commendation of his "worthy and ingenious friend, the author," prefixed to "The Ghost of Richard the Third," as well as similar poems by George Chapman, George Wythers (or Wither), Robert Daborne, and Ben Jonson, and four Latin verses by Fr. Dynne, of the Inner Temple. We are, therefore, more disposed to assign "The Ghost of Richard the Third" to Brooke than to Best, to whom we formerly thought it might possibly be attributed.³ It is also to be remarked, that Christopher Brooke has a laudatory sonnet prefixed to Browne's "Britannia's Pastorals," printed in folio about 1613, in which year the address "to the Reader" is dated. From this work we quote the subseqent tribute to Brook, forming part of song 2, of book ii., in the impression of 1625, 8vo.

------ "Brooke, whose polisht lines
Are fittest to accomplish high designes,
Whose pen (it seemes) still young Apollo guides;
Worthy the forked hill for ever glides
Streames from thy braine, so faire, that time shall see
Thee honour'd by thy verse, and it by thee.
And when thy temple's well-deserving bayes
Might impe a pride in thee to reach thy praise,
As in a crystall glasse, fill'd to the ring
With the cleare water of as cleare a spring,
A steady hand may very safely drop
Some quantity of gold, yet o're the top
Not force the liquor run, although before
The glasse (of water) could containe no more;
Yet so all-worthy Brooke, though all men sound
With plummet of just praise thy skill profound,
Thou in thy verse those attributes canst take,
And not apparent ostentation make,
Thata any second can thy verses raise,
Striving as much to hide as merit praise.

There was, therefore, an obvious, and probably an intimate, connexion between Christopher Brooke and William Browne; and perhaps the fact of his authorship was so well understood at the time, that Brooke did not consider it necessary to put more than his initials to the poem contained in the ensuing pages. We thought at one time of printing Brooke's "Eglogues" and scattered poems with "The Ghost of Richard the Third," but they are totally unconnected in style and manner, and do not in any way illustrate each other: besides, the authorship of Brooke to the production here reprinted is too uncertain to warrant the annexation of his avowed works. Little seems to be known of him beyond what is said by Browne, and the fact that he was an author of some distinction in the time of Shakespeare. Whether he were descended from Arthur Brooke, the author of the narrative poem of "Romeus and Juliet," first published in 1562, has never been ascertained.

We have to thank Dr. Bandinel, curator of the Bodleian Library, for permission to transcribe "The Ghost of Richard the Third;" and Mr. Harper, for the trouble he took in collating the transcript, in order to make sure that our re-impression represents, verbally and literally, the text of the unique original. Of course, mere typographical errors are corrected in the text, or pointed out in the notes.

*****
Footnotes
1 In Restituta, iv, 15, may be seen specimens of a manuscript poem on "the Rising to the Crown of Richard the Third," which seems never to have been printed, and which is in distinct imitation of the style of "The Mirror For Magistrates." Three stanzas, referring to the productions of three distinguished poets, Churchyard, Daniel, and Lodge, are worth subjoining.

"Shore's Wife, a subject though a prince's mate,
Had little cause her fortune to lament.
Her birth was meane, and yet she liv'd in state;
The King was dead before her honour went.
Shore's Wife might fall, and none can justly wonder
To see her fall that useth to lye under.

Rosamond was fayre, and far more fayre than she:
Her fall was great, and but a woman's fall.
Tryfles are great compare them but with me;
My fortunes farre were higher then they all.
I left this land possest with civill strife,
And lost my crowne, mine honour, and my life.

Elstred I pitie, for she was a queene,
But to my selfe to sigh I sorrow want:
Her fall was great, but greater falls have been;
Some falls they have that use the court to haunt.
A toye did happen, and this queene dismay'd;
But yet I see not why she was afrayd."

The dedication of this poem, from which this extract is made, is dated Sep. 4, 1593, and it was prepared for the press though never published: at that date "Shore's Wife" had been written some years by Thomas Churchyard, while Daniel's poem on Rosamond, and Lodge's on Elstred, had only just appeared.

2 An accurate reprint of "The True Tragedy of Richard the Third," 1594, from the unique copy in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, has just been issued by the Council of the Shakespeare Society: to it is appended the Latin drama upon the same subject by Dr. Legge, from the MS. in the Library of Emmanuel College.

3 We owe the suggestion that Christopher Brooke was the author of "The Ghost of Richard the Third" to Mr. Rodd.

THE GHOST OF RICHARD THE THIRD.
Expressing himselfe in these three Parts

1 His Character
2 His Legend
3 His Tragedie

Containing more of him then hath been heretofore shewed; either in Chronicles, Playes, or Poems.

Laurea Desidae præbetur nulla.

_________________

Printed by G. Eld: for L. Lisle: and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Tygers head. 1614.

******

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL SIR JOHN CROMPTON, KNIGHT; WITH HIS MOST WORTHY LADY, THE LADY FRANCES.

Sir,
My simple disposition could never make cunning observance of any whose deserts most bound me to their respect and honor, not more out of my nature then judgement, since commonly the world's obsequious insinuations in trifles prove their obsequies of no more importance. Nor can the weightiest duties, in my poore habilities, sway much more the ballance of the world, because the notice that the world takes of men's noble loves to vertue and good name impresseth nothing the more, but oftentimes their lesse price in onely profit and selfe-loving estimations. Notwithstanding, since I know your true noblesse out of the common way in all honored inclination to the acceptance and grace of goodnes, I have beene bold to publish this poem (intending allurement to goodnes by deterring from her contrarie) to your right generous countenance and gracefull protection: wherein, least a single and consortlesse disposition might perhaps grow cold by the too many companions that encourage the death of it to all respect of unprofitable vertue, you have taken into your bosome so free and gratious a love to it in my most honor'd lady, that the comfortable and nourishing flame of it can never want fuell to maintaine and keep it ever at full. To both whose one-light, for the direction and progression of all good endeavors, belonging and consecrate to all true worthines and dignitie, I offer this well-meaning materiall, hoping that such as have no matter to judge it, shall bee farre from enclining your apprehensions to condemne it, and rather establish then diminish in you vertues encreasing encouragement. To which, in all resolv'd service, I humbly submit, ever abiding, and desiring to my utmost your most respected commandement.

C. B.

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.

An Epistle to the reader is as ordinary before a new book as a prologue to a new play; but as plaies are many times exploded, though the prologue be never so good and promising, so, reader, if thou findest not stuffe in this poem to fit thy humor, if the wit with the fashion hold not some tollerable proportion, this enducement, though nere so formall and obsequious, would little prevaile with thy acceptation, but thou wouldst conjure my ghost downe againe before his time, or torment him upon earth with the hell-fire of thy displeasure: therefore, it matters not whether I humor thee with compliment, or insinuate with glozing epithites. I knowe (in a play or poem) thou lik'st best of satyricall stuffe, though perhaps thou seest therein thine own character: and not without some shew of reason are things bitter the better; for the gluttonous sences (the eye and eare) so cloi'd and surfeited with variety of effeminate pleasures, the rough satyre doth sometimes not unfitly enterpose such courtly delight, which growing a burthen to it selfe, his entermixt vaine, with the others vanity, gives entermission to the humor, and proves no lesse tastfull to the gallants judgement then tart sauce to whet his dull'd appetite. And of this kind I have enterlaced something, naturally rising out of my subject; where, by way of prevention, if any shall object that I have not amplified the legend to the full scope of the story, I answere, I should then have made the volume too great, to the discouragement of the buyer, and disadvantage of the printer: let it suffice I have the substance if not the circumstance. And when I undertook this I thought with myselfe, that to draw arguments of invention fron the subject, new, and probable, would be farre more plaucible to the time, then by insisting upon narrations, made so common in playes and so notorious among all men, have my labour slighted, and my pen tax't for triviall. The generous censor, as hee is ingenious or ingenuous, I reverence; likewise the crittick, as he is knowing and learn'd, but when his censure shall be levell'd with neither of his good parts, but savour more of spleene then braine, of disease then judgement, I doe hartily appeale from him with all of that faction. And though many did inly wish that this, not the meanest issue of my braine, might have prov'd an obortive, and seene no comfortable light, yet they see it is borne, and without prejudice to nature with teeth, too, to oppose theirs, that shall open their lips to deprave mee, but whether to lye upon the parish or the printers hand, that rests in clouds: howsoever, I have got sheetes to lye in (though they be but course) and am sure to be cherish't in good letters: if I be entertain'd in the world, and prove a companion for the many, I know I shall not be much chargeable; if not, yet this is my comfort, there will be some use made of me in this land of waste. In which resolution I set up my rest.
Thine, if thou wilt.

TO HIS INGENUOUS AD MUCH-LOV'D FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.

You now amids our Muses Smithfield are,
To sell your Pegasus, where hackney ware
(Rid by the swish swash rippiers of the time,
Pamper'd and fronted with a ribband ryme)
Though but some halfe houre soundly try'd, they tyre,
Yet sell, as quickned with eternall fire.
All things are made for sale; sell man and all,
For sale, to hell: there is no soule to sale.
Your flippant sence-delighter, smooth and fine,
Fyr'd with his bush muse and his sharpe hedge wine,
Will sell like good old Gascoine. What does, then,
Thy purple in graine with these red-oker men?
Swarth chimney sweepe, that to his horne doth sing,
More custome gets, then in the Thespian spring
The thrice-bath'd singer to the Delphian lyre.
Though all must needs be rid heere, yet t'aspire
To common sale, with all turne-serving jades,
Fits pandars, and the strong voic't fish-wife trades.
Affect not that then, and come welcome forth,
Though to some few, whose welcom's somthing worth.
Not one, not one (says Perseus) will reade mine;
Or two, or none: 'tis pageant orsadine
That goes for gold in your barbarian rate,
You must be pleas'd, then, to change gold for that.
Might I be patterne to the meanest few,
Even now, when hayres of women-hated-hew
Are wither'd on me, I delight to see
My lines thus desolately live like me,
Not any thing I doe but is like nuts
At th' ends of meales left, when each appetite gluts.
Some poet yet can levell you a verse
At the receipt of custome, that shall pierce
A sale assister; as if with one eye
He went a burding, strikes fowles as they fly,
And has the very art of foulerie:
Which art you must not envie; be you pleas'd
To hit desert; fly others, as diseas'd,
Whose being pierst is but to be infected;
And as bold Puritans (esteem'd elected)
Keep from no common plague, which so encreases;
So these feed all poeticall diseases.
Best ayre, lest dwellers hath; yet thinke not I
Fore-speake the sale of thy sound poesie,
But would, in one so worth encouragement,
The care of what is counted worst prevent;
And with thy cheerefull going forth with this,
Thy Muse in first ranke of our Muses is.
Non datur ad Musas currere lata via.
GEOR: CHAPMAN.

TO HIS WORTHY AND INGENIOUS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR

So farre as can a swayne (who then a rounde
On oaten-pipe no further boasts his skill)
I dare to censure the shrill trumpets sound,
Or other musick of the Sacred Hil:
The popular applause hath not so fell,
(Like Nile's lowd cataract) possest mine eares,
But others songs I can distinguish well,
And chant their praise despis'd vertue reares:
Nor shall thy buskind Muse be heard alone
In stately pallaces; the shady woods
By me shall learn't, and eccho's one by one
Teach it the hils, and they the silver floods.
Our learned shepheards, that have us'd tofore
Their happy gifts in notes that wooe the plaines,
By rurall ditties will be knowne no more,
But reach at fame by such as are thy straines.
And I would gladly, (if the Sisters' spring
Had me inabled) beare a part with thee,
And for sweet groves, of brave heroes sing;
But since it fits not my weake melodie,
It shall suffice that thou such meanes do'st give,
That my harsh lines among the best may live.
W. BROWNE.
Int: Temp.

AD LECTOREM DE LIBRO.

Hic nihil invenies quod carpas: mentior; ecquid
Carpere quod pigeat, tam bonus hortus habet?
Hinc carpat, quisquis gratos vult carpere flores;
At dextrà carpat, carpere si quis amat.
FR. DYNNE. Int: Temp.

TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR, UPON HIS POEM.

Not for thy love to me, nor other merit,
Doe I commend thy poem's forme or spirit;
For though I know thou art a friend of mine,
I praise this for it owne sake, not for thine.
Here have I seen character'd the condition,
The life and end of a meere polititian;
From which I learne, 'tis no good policy
On any termes to part with honesty.
And the opprest may view, (to his content)
How sweet it is to be an innocent;
Or by contraries learne, with what deare rest
The soules of harmelesse dying men are blest.
So may the bloody tyrant heere attend,
What horror and despaire pursues his end.
And those that (living) loath their faults to heare,
May (reading this) perhaps repent for feare;
Since though reproofes they scorne now here they dwell,
Thus their owne Ghosts proclaime their shames from hell.
GEORGE WYTHERS.

TO THE AUTHOR, UPON HIS POEM.

I know thou art too knowing to enquire
This title to thy praise, which doth require
A hart so constant, and a brow so chast,
That vertue must not fall, how e're low plac't:
Who this way merits best must looke to bring
Onely a flower to an intemp'rate spring;
Which howsoe're with care thy labor plants,
Must feele the earth-bred blasts in barren wants,
Of ruder elements oft suffring spoile,
To shew such hearbs grow not on naturall soile;
Nor can't be aptlier said of verse and rimes,
They are but strangers to these wav'ring times:
For, as men shift their fashions for new shapes,
They are in soules the same (inconstant apes)
Which each booke-seller knowes; for, as to day,
Your Pasquil like a mad-cap runnes away,
To morrow playes; the next day history;
More strange, another time divinitie;
And in my age (which is indeed most rare)
I have knowne gallants buy up bookes of prayer;
But they were gamsters, loosing all in swearing,
Try'd a contrarie way in their uprearing.
To this my common observation, thou
Hast tooke a course (which I must needs allow),
T' include them all in one, to catch their eyes,
That soone are dym'd without varieties;
Wherein I will not flatter thee to tell,
There's much of good, and what is worst is well.
ROBERT DABORNE.

TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR, UPON HIS RICHARD.

When these, and such, their voices have employd,
What place is for my testimony void?
Or, to so many, and so broad-seales had,
What can one witnesse, and a weake one, add
For such a worke, as could not need theirs? Yet
If praises, when th' are full, heaping admit,
My suffrage brings thee all increase, to crowne
Thy Richard, rais'd in song past pulling downe.
BEN JONSON.

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