Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 19

XIX. SHAKESPEARE RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE CLASSIC ENGLISH POETS (1598).

(A) Francis Meres, Palladis Tamia, 1598.

As the Greek tongue is made famous and eloquent by Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Æschylus, Sophocles, Pindarus, Phocylides, and Aristophanes; and the Latin tongue by Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, Lucretius, Ausonius, and Claudianus: so the English tongue is mightily enriched and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments and resplendent habiliments by Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakespeare, Marlow, and Chapman.

As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras: so the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared Sonnets among his private friends, &c.

As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins: so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage. For comedy witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labors Lost, his Love Labors Won, his Midsummer’s Night Dream, and his Merchant of Venice: for tragedy his Richard the 2., Richard the 3., Henry the 4., King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet.

As Epius Stolo said that the Muses would speak with Plautus’ tongue, if they would speak Latin: so I say that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare’s fine filed phrase, if they would speak English.

As Ovid saith of his work,

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

and as Horace saith of his, Exegi monumentum aere perennius . . .: so say I severally of Sir Philip Sidney’s, Spenser's, Daniel’s, Drayton’s, Shakespeare’s, and Warner’s works.[1]

(B) Richard Barnfield, Poems in Divers Humors, 1598.

From A Remembrance of Some English Poets.

And, Shakespeare, thou whose honey-flowing vein,
Pleasing the world, thy praises doth obtain;
Whose Venus and whose Lucrece, sweet and chaste,
Thy name in fame’s immortal book have placed:
Live ever you!—at least in fame live ever:
Well may the body die, but fame dies never.

(C) MS. notes by Gabriel Harvey, written in his copy of Speght’s Chaucer (1598).[2]

The younger sort takes much delight in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis; but his Lucrece and his tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, have it in them to please the wiser sort. . . . Excellent matter of emulation for Spencer, Constable, France, Watson, Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Silvester, Shakespeare, and the rest of our flourishing metricians.



Footnotes

  1. Elsewhere in his book Meres lists Shakespeare as among the best English writers of lyric, tragedy, comedy, and love poetry. Palladis Tamia was licensed for publication, under the translated title of Wit’s Treasury, September 7, 1598; and was composed during the summer.
  2. The date at which Harvey inserted these notes is disputed. It may have been as early as 1598, when he purchased the volume, and cannot well be later than 1601. Cf. G. C. Moore Smith, Gabriel Harvey’s Marginalia, Preface.