EPILOGUE TO THE LAST SATIRE OF THE FIRST BOOK.P Thus may we see by folly of[t] the wise 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. 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 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, To trust to others' honourings is worth's crime; Write Duchess, that will fetch a tear for thee; In Tragœdiam. Ut lux ex tenebris ictu percussa tonantis, THOMAS MIDDLETONUS, Poeta et Chron. Londinensis. In the just worth, &c.] Prefixed to Webster's Duchess of Malfi, 1623. |