Epiftles, but probably they were not printed together in Shakspeare's Life-time. Ifuppofe this from a Paffage in his Dedication. BOET HIUS. Boethius, by Chaucer. Printed by Caxton, fol. Boethius in English Verfe, by Tho. Rychard. Imprinted in the exempt monaftery of Tavistock, 4to. 1525 Eng. and Lat. by Geo. Colville, 4to. 1556 7 A PULE IU S. Apuleius's Golden Affe, tranflated into Eng. by Wm. Adlington, 4to. Lond. 1566 and 1571° FRONTINU S. Stratagemes, Sleightes, and Policies of Warre, gathered by S. Julius Frontinus. Tranflated by Richard Morifine. 8vo. Printed by Tho. Berthelet. 15,39 PLINY JUN'. Some felect Epiftles of Pliny the Younger into Eng. by Abr. Flemming, 4to. Lond. 1576 7 In the Stationers' books, Jan. 13th. 1608. Matthew Lownes entered "Anitius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, a Chriftian Conful of Rome, newly tranflated out of Latin, together with original Notes explaining the obfcureft Places." Printed 8vo. 1609. 8 There is an entry of this tranflation in the books at Stationers' hall in 1595. Valentine Simes is the name of the printer who entered it. It is again entered by Clement Knight in 1600. POMPONIUS MELA. Pomponius Mela, by A. Golding, 4to. 1590 PLINY. Pliny's Nat. Hift. by Dr. Phil. Holland, fol. 1601 SOLINU Julius Solinus Polyhiftor, by A. Golding, 4to. 1587 VEGETIUS. The four Bookes of Flavius Vegetius, concerning martial Policye, by John Sadler, 4to. 1572 RUTILIUS RUFUS. A View of Valiaunce, tranflated from Rutilius Rufus, by Tho. Newton, 8vo. DARES Phryg. and DICTYS Cret. Dares and Dictys's Trajon War, in Verse. . CATO, and P. SYRU S. 1580 1555 Caton, tranflated into Englyfhe by Mayfler Benet Burgh, &c. mentioned by Caxton. Cathon [Parvus and Magnus] tranfl. &c. by Caxton, 1483 9 On the books of the Stationers' company is this entry: "Adam Iflip, 1600.] The xxxvii bookes of C. Plinius Se-, cundus his Hiftorie of the Worlde. To be tranflated out of Latin into Engly fhe and fo printed." 2 Probably this was never printed. There is an entry of Caton at Stationers' hall in 1591 by Adams, in Eng. and Lat. Again, in the year 1591 by Four Bookes of morall The. Orwin. Again, in 1605. Preceptes of Cato, with Annotations of Erasmus, &c. 24mo. Lond. 1560 and 1562 + Catonis Difticha, Latin and English, small 8vo. Lond. 1553 Ames mentions a Difcourfe of Human Nature, tranf lated from Hippocrates, p. 423. an Extract from Pliny, tranflated from the French, p. 312. Efop, &c. by Caxton and others; and there is no doubt, but many Tranflations at prefent unknown, may be gradually recovered, either by industry or accident. Sentences, entitled Cato, tranflated out of Latin into English by J. M. Mafter of Arts." 4 66 Efop's Fables in Englyfhe" were entered May 7th.. 1590. on the books of the Stationers' company. Again, Oct. 1591. Again, Efop's Fables in Meter, Nov. 1598. Some few of them had been paraphrafed by Lydgate, and I believe are ftill unpublished. See the Brit. Muf. MSS. Harl. 2251. It is much to be lamented that Andrew Maunfell, a bookfeller in Lothbury, who publifhed two parts of a catalogue of English printed books, fol. 1595. did not proceed to his third collection. This according to his own account of it, would have confifted of "Grammar, Logick, and Rhetoricke, Lawe, Hiftorie, Poetrie, Policie," &c. which, as he tells "for the most part concerne matters of delight and pleafure." us, RENOWNED 1616. * ENOWNED Spenfer, lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont lie In a collection of manufcript poems which was in the poffeffion of the late Guftavus Brander, Efq. thefe verfes are entitled "BASSE HIS ELEGIE one [on] poett Shakespeare, who died in April 1616." The MS. appears to have been written foon after the year 1621. In the edition of our author's poems in 1640. they are fubfcribed with the initials W. B. only. They were erroneously attributed to Dr. Donne, in a quarto edition of his poems printed in 1633. but his fon Dr. John Donne, a Civilian, published a more correct edition of his father's poems in 1653. and rejected the verfes on Shakspeare, knowing, without doubt, that they were written by another. William Baffe, according to Wood, [Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. p. 812.]` "was of Moreton, near Thame in Oxfordshire, and was fometime á retainer to the Lord Wenman of Thame Park." There are fome verfes by him in Annalia Dubrenfia, 4to. 1636. and in Bathurst's Life and Remains, by the Reverend Thomas Warton, 8vo. 1761. there is a poem by Dr. Bathurst to Mr. William Baffe, upon the intended publication of his Poems, Jan. 13. 1651." The volume never, I believe, appeared. From the words "who died in April, 1616." it may be inferred that these lines were written recently after Shakspeare's death, when the month and year in which he died were well known. At a more diftant period the month would probably have been for, For Shakspeare, in your three-fold, four-fold tomb. gotten; and that was not an age of fuch curiofity as would have induced a poet to search the register at Stratford on such a subject. From the addrefs to Chaucer and Spenser it should seem, that when thefe verfes were compofed the writer thought it probable that a cenotaph would be erected to Shakspeare in Westminster-Abbey. There is a copy of these lines in a manufcript volume of poems written by W. Herrick and others, among Rawlinfon's Collections in the Bodleian library at Oxford; and another among the Sloanian MSS. in the Museum, No 1702. In the Oxford Copy they are entitled " Shakspeare's Epitaph;" but the anthor is not mentioned. There are fome flight variations in the different copies, which Ì fhall fet down. Line 2. Line 5. Line 7. To rare Beaumond, and learned Beaumond lie, &c. Edit. 1633, So, B. S. and R. by fates be flain. Edit. 1633. Line 8. So, B. and S. will be drawn again. R. need be drawn again. 1633. Edit. 1633. 1 S. A fourth to have place in your fepulcher, Line 11. So, B. and R. under this curled marble of thine own. under this fable, &c. S.. Edit. 1633, Line 12. So, B. S. and edit. 1633. Line 13. So, B. and R. Thine unmolefted peace, unshared cave- . S. Poffefs as lord not tenant of the grave. Edit. 1633. S. R. Line 14. So, B. This couplet is not in edit. 1633. Line 15. So, edit. 1633, That unto us, or others, &c. B. R. and S. MALONE. |