Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 61
LXI. THOMAS FREEMAN’S SONNET TO SHAKESPEARE (1614).
From Run, and a Great Cast, 2d part, 1614.
To Master W. Shakespeare.
Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy brain,
Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep,
So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein.
At the horse-foot fountain[1] thou hast drunk full deep:
Virtue’s or vice’s theme to thee all one is.
Who loves chaste life, there’s Lucrece for a teacher;
Who list read lust, there’s Venus and Adonis,
True model of a most lascivious lecher.
Besides in plays thy wit winds like Meander,
Whence needy new-composers borrow more
Than Terence doth from Plautus and Menander.
But to praise thee aright I want thy store.
Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise,
And help t’adorn thee with deserved bays.
Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy brain,
Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep,
So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein.
At the horse-foot fountain[1] thou hast drunk full deep:
Virtue’s or vice’s theme to thee all one is.
Who loves chaste life, there’s Lucrece for a teacher;
Who list read lust, there’s Venus and Adonis,
True model of a most lascivious lecher.
Besides in plays thy wit winds like Meander,
Whence needy new-composers borrow more
Than Terence doth from Plautus and Menander.
But to praise thee aright I want thy store.
Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise,
And help t’adorn thee with deserved bays.
- ↑ I.e. Hippocrene.