It is reported of them, that meeting once in a Tavern, to contrive the rude Draught of a Tragedy, Fletcher undertook to kill the King therein, whose Words being over-heard by a Listner (though his Loyalty not to be blamed herein) he was accused of High Treason, till the Mistake soon appearing, that the Plot was only against a Dramatick and Scenical King, all wound off in Merriment.

Yet were not these two Poets so conjoyned, but that each of them did several Pieces by themselves, Mr. Beaumont, besides other Works, wrote a Poem, entituled, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, a Fable taken out of Ovid’s Metamorphosis; and Mr. Fletcher surviving Mr. Beamont, wrote good Comedies of himself; so that it could not be laid to his Charge what Ajax doth to Ulysses;

    Nihil hic Diomede remoto,

    When Diomedes was gone,
    He could do nought alone.

Though some think them inferior to the former, and no wonder if a single thread was not so strong as a twisted one, Mr. Fletcher (as it is said) died in London of the Plague, in the first year of King Charles the First, 1625.

* * * * *

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR.

This eminent Poet, the Glory of the English Stage (and so much the more eminent, that he gained great applause and commendation, when able Wits were his Contemporaries) was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, and is the highest honour that Town can boast of.  He was one of the Triumvirate, who from Actors, became Makers of Comedies and Tragedies, viz.  Christopher Marlow before him, and Mr. John Lacy, since his time, and one in whom three eminent Poets may seem in some sort to be compounded, 1. Martial, in the warlike sound of his Sirname, Hastivibrans, or Shakespear; whence some have supposed him of military extraction. 2. Ovid, the most natural and witty of all Poets; and hence it was that Queen Elizabeth coming into a Grammar-School, made this extemporary Verse.

  Persius a Crab-staff, Bawdy Martial, Ovid a fine Wag.

3. Plautus, a most exact Comedian, and yet never any Scholar, as our Shakespear (if alive) would confess himself; but by keeping company with Learned persons, and conversing with jocular Wits, whereto he was naturally inclin’d, he became so famously witty, or wittily famous, that by his own industry, without the help of Learning, he attained to an extraordinary height in all strains of Dramatick Poetry, especially in the Comick part, wherein we may say he outwent himself; yet was he not so much given to Festivity, but that he could (when so disposed) be solemn and serious; so that Heraclitus himself might afford to smile at his Comedies, they were so merry, and Democritus scarce forbear to sigh at his Tragedies, they were so mournful.