The Muses fairest Light in no dark time,
  The Wonder of a learned Age; the line
  That none can pass:  the most proportion’d Wit
  To Nature; the best Judge of what was fit: 
  The deepest, plainest, highest, clearest Pen: 
  The Voyce most eccho’d by consenting men;
  The Soul which answer’d best to all well said
  By others; and which most requital made: 
  Tun’d to the highest Key of ancient Rome;
  Returning all her Musick with her own;
  In whom with Nature, Study claim’d a part,
  And yet who to himself ow’d all his Art;
  Here lies Ben Johnson, every Age will look
  With sorrow here, with Wonder on his Book.

* * * * *

FRANCIS BEAUMONT and JOHN FLETCHER.

These two joyned together, made one of the happy Triumvirate (the other two being Johnson and Shakespear) of the chief Dramatick Poets of our Nation, in the last foregoing Age; among whom there might be said to be a symmetry of perfection, while each excelled in his peculiar way:  Ben Johnson in his elaborate pains and knowledge of Authors, Shakespear in his pure vein of wit, and natural Poetick height; Fletcher in a Courtly Elegance and Gentile Familiarity of Style, and withal a Wit and Invention so overflowing, that the luxuriant Branches thereof were frequently thought convenient to be lopt off by Mr. Beaumont; which two joyned together, like Castor and Pollux, (most happy when in conjunction) raised the English to equal the Athenian and Roman Theaters; Beaumont bringing the Ballast of Judgment, Fletcher the Sail of Phantasie, both compounding a Poet to admiration.

These two admirable Wits wrote in all two and fifty Plays, whereof three and forty were Comedies; namely, Beggars Bush, Custom of the Country, Captain Coxcomb, Chances, Cupid’s Revenge, Double Marriage, Elder Brother, Four Plays in one, Fair Maid of the Inn, Honest man’s Fortune, Humorous Lieutenant, Island Princess, King and no King, Knight of the burning Pestle, Knight of Malta, Little French Lawyer, Loyal Subject, Laws of Candy, Lovers Progress, Loves Cure, Loves Pilgrimage, Mad Lover, Maid in the Mill, Monsieur Thomas, Nice Valour, Night-Walker, Prophetess, Pilgrim, Philaster, Queen of Corinth, Rule a Wife and have a Wife, Spanish Curate, Sea-Voyage, Scornful Lady, Womans Prize, Women pleased, Wife for a Month, Wit at several weapons, and a Winters Tale.  Also six Tragedies; Bonduca, the Bloody Brother, False One, the Maids Tragedy, Thiery and Theodoret, Valentinian, and Two Noble Kinsmen, a Tragi-Comedy, Fair Shepherdess, a Pastoral; and a Masque of Grays-Inn Gentlemen.