ON SHAKESPEARE These lines first appeared, along with other commendatory verses by various authors, prefixed to the second folio edition of Shakespeare, published in 1632. They are, however, dated two years earlier in the 1645 edition of Milton's poems. The original title is, "An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatick Poet, W. Shakespeare." WHAT needs my Shakespeare, for his honoured bones, The labour of an age in pilèd stones? Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou, in our wonder and astonishment Thomas Hobson, the University carrier or expressman," was a well-known figure in Cambridge during Milton's undergraduateship. For more than half a century he had driven a coach between the university and the Bull Inn, in Bishopsgate Street, London,_ carrying letters, parcels, and passengers. In the spring of 1630 the plague, which was then raging in various parts of England, broke out in the colleges so violently that all academic exercises had to be suspended. As a precaution against the spread of the disease, the coach communication with London was stopped, and old Hobson, at the age of 86, found his occupation gone. When the colleges opened in November the plague had abated, but Hobson was unable to resume his journeys; he died on the 1st of January, 1631, killed, Milton humorously supposes, by the tedium of his enforced idleness. In connection with his coaching, Hobson kept a stable of horses, which he let out to the students and officers of the University. These he assigned by rotation, never allowing the personal preference of a customer to determine his mount; hence arose the phrase "Hobson's choice." Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death, And too much breathing put him out of breath; Nor were it contradiction to affirm ened, Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quickened. "Nay," quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretched, "If I may n't carry, sure I'll ne'er be fetched, The subject of this epitaph was Jane, wife of John Paulet, fifth Marquis of Winchester, and daughter of Thomas, Viscount Savage. She was noted for her beauty and intelligence; and her death in childbirth, at the age of twenty-three, evoked besides the present poem an elaborate tribute from the poet-laureate, Ben Jonson. What led Milton to write upon her death is unknown, as no record of any connection between him and the Marchioness has reached us. It is possible that the George and Nizell Rivers, addressed in the Vacation Exercise, were her relatives, since her mother was a daughter of the Earl of Rivers. If so, Milton's acquaintance with them would perhaps have afforded an adequate incentive. THIS rich marble doth inter More than she could own from earth. To house with darkness and with death! 10 Yet, had the number of her days But with a scarce well-lighted flame; And with remorseless cruelty Whilst thou, bright Saint, high sitt'st in glory, Next her, much like to thee in story, Who, after years of barrenness, ON BEING ARRIVED TO THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE 19 notice of a certain belatedness in me, I am the bolder to send you some of my nightward thoughts some little while ago, because they come in not altogether unfitly, made up in a Petrarchian stanza." How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days fly on with full ca reer, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, That I to manhood am arrived so near, And inward ripeness doth much less ap pear, That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even To that same lot, however mean or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Task-master's eye. |