The Woman Captain, a Comedy, 4 to. 1680. acted at the Duke’s Theatre, by his Royal Highneſs’s Servants; and dedicated to Henry, Lord Ogle, Son to the Duke of Newcaſtle.
William Shakeſpear.
He was born and buried in Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickſhire. I have been told that he writ the Scene of the Ghoſt in Hamlet, at his Houſe which bordered on the Charnel-Houſe and Church-Yard. He was both Player and Poet; but the greateſt Poet that ever trod the Stage, I am of Opinion, in ſpight of Mr. Johnſon, and others from him, that though perhaps he might not be that Critic in Latin and Greek as Ben; yet that he underſtood the former, ſo well as perfectly to be Maſter of their Hiſtories, for in all his Roman Characters he has nicely followed Hiſtory, and you find his Brutus, his Caſſius, his Anthony, and his Cæſar, his Coriolanus, &c. juſt as the Hiſtorians of thoſe times describe ’em. He died on the 23d of April, 1616. and is buried with his Wife and Daughter in Stratford-Church afore-ſaid, under a Monument on which is a Statue leaning on a Cuſhion, and this Inſcription:
Ingenio Pylum, genio Socratem, arte Maronem,
Terra tegit, Populus mœrit, Olympus habet.
Stay, Paſſenger, why doſt thou go ſo faſt?
Read, if thou canſt, whom envious Death has plac’d
Within this Monument, Shakeſpear, with whom
Quick Nature died, whoſe Name doth deck the Tomb
Far more than coſt, ſince all that he hath writ
Leaves living Art, but Page, to ſerve his Wit.
Near the Wall on a plain Stone, which covers him, is this Epitaph:
Good Friend, for Jeſus Sake forbear
To dig the Duſt encloſed here.
Bleſt be the Man that ſpares theſe Stones,
And curſt be he that moves my Bones.
All’s well that ends well, a Comedy. Plot from Boccace’s Novels, Day 3. Nov. 9. Juliet of Narbona, &c.
Anthony and Cleopatra, a Tragedy, fol. Plot from Plutarch in vita Antonii.
