a poet. (4) Bacon's life is well known, and it offers no hint
of connection with the theaters and no space in its crowded annals for
the production of Shakespeare's plays. In fact, if we had to find an
author for Shakespeare's plays among writers of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, Bacon would be about the last person
conceivable.

CHAPTER IX

SHAKESPEARE SINCE 1616

During Shakespeare's lifetime, his plays were mentioned and imitated as
often as those of any of his contemporaries. The more important
documents bearing on his growing reputation have already been noted in
this volume. This popularity, however, was confined to theater-goers and
the readers of the sixteen plays that had appeared before 1616. There
was no opportunity for a full estimate of his plays as literature until
their publication in the Folio of 1623. This is given full and worthy
expression in the fine verses which Ben Jonson contributed as a preface
to the Folio. He had girded at several of Shakespeare's plays, and his
own views of the principles and practices of the dramatic art were
largely opposed to Shakespeare's, but he took this opportunity to
express unstinted appreciation of Shakespeare's greatness. He notes with
discrimination that Shakespeare learned his art in an earlier day, but
far outshone Kyd, Lyly, and Marlowe.

Soul of the Age
The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!

He may challenge comparison with the great Greek tragedians, or in
comedies

Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.

He was not of an age but for all time!

The magnitude of Shakespeare's achievement was thus enthusiastically
proclaimed by the literary dictator of the time.

From 1623, until the closing of the theaters, the plays continued
favorites on the stage, though they yielded somewhat in the current
taste to the theatrical successes of Fletcher and Massinger. After 1623,
they continued to be read and admired, as is shown by the publication of
the second and third folios in 1632 and 1663-1664, and by many
appreciations, including those of D'Avenant, Suckling, the Duchess of
Newcastle, and Milton. At the Restoration many of the plays were at once
revived on the stage, and Dryden's essay _Of Dramatick Poesie_ (1668)
summed up in a masterly fashion contemporary opinion on Shakespeare. He
is compared with other great dramatists, and is declared