Ben Jonson's encomium to William Shakespeare

The First Folio ^ | A.D. 1623 | Ben Jonson

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The First Folio
To the memory of my beloved,
The Author
MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
and
what he hath left us.

[by Ben Jonson]

...Soule of the Age!
The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!
My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
A little further, to make thee a roome:
Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses;
I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses:
For, if I thought my judgement were of yeeres,
I should commit thee surely with thy peeres,
And tell, how farre thou dist our Lily out-shine,
Or sporting Kid or Marlowes mighty line.
And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke,
From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke
For names; but call forth thund'ring Æschilus,
Euripides, and Sophocles to us,
Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,
To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread,
And shake a stage: Or, when thy sockes were on,
Leave thee alone, for the comparison
Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When like Apollo he came forth to warme
Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme!

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[I added the emphasis]

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Upstart Crow
by Terry A. Gray

Perhaps the most famous literary snarl ever was penned in 1592 by Robert Greene in his Groats-worth of Witte:

for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

The passage is famous because it clearly refers to William Shakespeare ("Shake-scene") and is the first documentary evidence we have of his rise to prominence in the London theater world, indeed the first direct documentary evidence regarding him at all since the baptism of the twins in 1585.

Punning References
to Robert Greene
in Shakespeare's Sonnets
by Roy Neil Graves
26 February 2005

Particularly insistent wordplays occur in sonnets 104 and 112, where phonic elements insinuate "R. Greene." These two wordstrings, in fact, stand as fruitful samples revealing latent wit: "Since first I saw you fresh which yet are greene" (104.8), e.g., allows such puns as "Scene see: sourest [f = ‘long s'] eye saw ewe fresh, witch white, R. Greene." And the query "So you ore-greene my bad, my good alow?" (112.4) suggests, e.g., "Sour R. Greene may be odd midget, aye low?" Read thus, both puns encode "sour" and denigrate Greene. Line 112.4 is immediately preceded by another question that seems relevant to Greene's personal attack: "For what care I who calles me well or ill?" Further, the run-on play at lines 68.11-12 links "...greene, / Rob...," while hard by, in line 70.4, hovers "A Crow that flies in heauens sweetest ayre."

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Selections from the Last Will and Testament of William Shakespeare 1616
opinion | 8-5-2005
Posted on 08/05/2005 12:29:59 AM PDT by Brian_Baldwin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1457376/posts

Experts plan to exhume Shakespeare's body
icBirmingham | Nov 1, 2005 | Name not given
Posted on 11/02/2005 7:30:05 PM PST by SpringheelJack
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1514603/posts

Much ado about 'fake' Shakespeare portrait!
Hindustan Times | London, October 28, 2005 | The Press Trust of India
Posted on 10/28/2005 7:08:54 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1510890/posts

more:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=shakespeare

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Note: this topic is from 02/12/2006. One more re-ping.