the Muses would speake with _Plautus_
tongue, if they would speak Latin: so I say that the Muses would speak
with _Shakespeares_ fine filed phrase, if they would speake English.

As _Ovid_ saith of his worke:

Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira, nec ignis,
Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.

[Page Heading: Extracts from Meres]

And as _Horace_ saith of his; _Exegi monumentum aere perennius;
Regalique; situ pyramidum altius; Quod non imber edax; Non Aquilo
impotens possit diruere; aut innumerabilis annorum feries &c fuga
temporum_: so say I severally of sir _Philip Sidneys_, _Spencers_,
_Daniels_, _Draytons_, _Shakespeares_, and _Warners workes_;

As _Pindarus_, _Anacreon_ and _Callimachus_ among the Greekes; and
_Horace_ and _Catullus_ among the Latines are the best Lyrick Poets: so
in this faculty the best among our Poets are _Spencer_ (who excelleth in
all kinds) _Daniel_, _Drayton_, _Shakespeare_, _Bretton_.

As ... so these are our best for Tragedie, the Lorde _Buckhurst_, Doctor
_Leg_ of Cambridge, Doctor _Edes_ of Oxforde, maister _Edward Ferris_,
the Authour of the _Mirrour for Magistrates_, _Marlow_, _Peele_,
_Watson_, _Kid_, _Shakespeare_, _Drayton_, _Chapman_, _Decker_, and
_Benjamin Johnson_.

... so the best for Comedy amongst us bee, _Edward_ Earle of Oxforde,
Doctor _Gager_ of Oxforde, Maister _Rowley_ once a rare Scholler of
learned Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, Maister _Edwardes_ one of her
Maiesties Chappell, eloquent and wittie _John Lilly_, _Lodge_,
_Gascoyne_, _Greene_, _Shakespeare_, _Thomas Nash_, _Thomas Heywood_,
_Anthony Mundye_ our best plotter, _Chapman_, _Porter_, _Wilson_,
_Hathway_, and _Henry Chettle._

... so these are the most passionate among us to bewaile and bemoane the
perplexities of Love, _Henrie Howard_ Earle of Surrey, sir _Thomas Wyat_
the elder, sir _Francis Brian_, sir _Philip Sidney_, sir _Walter
Rawley_, sir _Edward Dyer_, _Spencer_, _Daniel_, _Drayton_,
_Shakespeare_, _Whetstone_, _Gascoyne_, _Samuell Page_ sometimes fellowe
of _Corpus Christi_ Colledge in Oxford, _Churchyard, Bretton_.

14. THE INSCRIPTION ON SHAKESPEARE'S MONUMENT IN THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY
TRINITY, STRATFORD-ON-AVON

Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem
Terra tegit, populus maeret, Olympus habet.

Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plast
Within this monument: Shakespeare with w