Imatges de pàgina
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EPILOGUE

TO THE

LAST SATIRE OF THE FIRST BOOK.P

Thus may we see by folly of[t] the wise
Stumble and fall into fool's paradise,
For jocund wit of force must jangling be;
Wit must have his will, and so had he:
Wit must have his will, yet, parting of the fray,
Wit was enjoin'd to carry the fool away.

Qui color albus erat, nunc est contrarius albo.

P the first book] No second Book is known to have appeared. 4 must have] The first word is deleted, and the second altered with a pen to "had," in the Bodleian copy of this poem, -a probable correction.

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Qui color, &c.] Ovid, Metam. ii. 541.

On the death of that great master in his art and quality, painting and playing, RICHARD] BUR

BAGE.

ASTRONOMERS and star-gazers this year
Write but of four eclipses; five appear,
Death interposing Burbage; and their staying
Hath made a visible eclipse of playing.

THO. MIDDLETON.

On the death, &c.] These lines (the meaning of which is sufficiently obscure) were first printed in Collier's New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare, p. 26, from a MS. miscellany of poetry belonging to the late Mr. Heber. The celebrated actor, Burbage (who also handled the pencil, and is supposed to have painted the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare), died in March 1618-19.

In the just worth of that well-deserver, Master JOHN WEBSTER, and upon this masterpiece of tragedy.

In this thou imitat'st one rich and wise,
That sees his good deeds done before he dies;
As he by works, thou by this work of fame
Hast well provided for thy living name.

To trust to others' honourings is worth's crime;
Thy monument is rais'd in thy life-time;
And 'tis most just, for every worthy man
Is his own marble, and his merit can
Cut him to any figure, and express
More art than death's cathedral palaces,
Where royal ashes keep their court. Thy note
Be ever plainness, 'tis the richest coat:
Thy epitaph only the title be,-

Write Duchess, that will fetch a tear for thee;
For who e'er saw this duchess live and die,
That could get off under a bleeding eye?

In Tragœdiam.

Ut lux ex tenebris ictu percussa tonantis,
Illa, ruina malis, claris fit vita poetis.

THOMAS MIDDLETONUS,

Poeta et Chron. Londinensis.

In the just worth, &c.] Prefixed to Webster's Duchess of Malfi, 1623.

THE BLACK BOOK.

VOL. V.

X X

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