Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 54

by Tucker Brooke

Layout 2

 

LIV. FRANCIS BEAUMONT (?) IN PRAISE OF SHAKESPEARE’S LACK OF LEARNING.

Here I would let slip
(If I had any in me) scholarship,
And from all learning keep these lines as clear
As Shakespeare’s best are, which our heirs shall hear.

Note. From a recently discovered verse letter of the dramatist Beaumont to Ben Jonson. First printed by W. G. P. in Times Literary Supplement, Sept. 15, 1921, from an old commonplace book. The letter is signed F. B. and is not dated. It may be coeval with some well-known verses of Beaumont to Jonson, which are assigned to the period 1608–1610.