umble servant
Edmund Spenser doth in all humilitie, Dedicate, present, and consecrate
These his labours, To live with the eternity of her Fame." The next year
Spenser received a pension from the crown of fifty pounds per annum.

It is a careful touch on Browning's part to use the phrase "Next Poet,"
for the "laureateship" at that time was not a recognized official
position. The term, "laureate," seems to have been used to designate
poets who had attained fame and Royal favor, since Nash speaks of
Spenser in his "Supplication of Piers Pennilesse" the same year the
"Faerie Queene" was published as next laureate.

The first really officially appointed Poet Laureate was Ben Jonson,
himself, who in either 1616 or 1619 received the post from James I.,
later ratified by Charles I., who increased the annuity to one hundred
pounds a year and a butt of wine from the King's cellars.

Probably the allusion "Your Pilgrim" in the twelfth stanza of "At the
Mermaid" is to "The Return from Parnassus" in which the pilgrims to
Parnassus who figure in an earlier play "The Pilgrimage to Parnassus"
discover the world to be about as dismal a place as it is described in
this stanza.

At first sight it might seem that the position taken by Shakespeare in
the poem is almost too modest, yet upon second thoughts it will be
remembered that though Shakespeare had a tremendous following among the
people, attested by the frequency with which his plays were acted; that
though there are instances of his being highly appreciated by
contemporaries of importance; that though his plays were given before
the Queen, he did not have the universal acceptance among learned and
court circles which was accorded to Spenser.

It is quite fitting that the scene should be set in the "Mermaid." No
record exists to show that Shakespeare was ever there, it is true, but
the "Mermaid" was a favorite haunt of Ben Jonson and his circle of wits,
whose meetings there were immortalized by Beaumont in his poetical
letter to Jonson:--

"What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid? heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtle flame,
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life."

Add to this what Fuller wrote in his "Worthies," 1662, "Many were the
wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson, which two I behold like a
Spanish