Many were the Wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two we may compare to a Spanish great Gallion, and an English Man of war:  Mr. Johnson, (like the former) was built far higher in Learning, solid, but slow in his performances; Shakespear, with the English Man of war, lesser in Bulk, but lighter in sayling, could turn with all Tides, tack about, and take advantage of all Winds, by the quickness of his Wit and Invention.  His History of Henry the Fourth is very much commended by some, as being full of sublime Wit, and as much condemned by others, for making Sir John Falstaffe the property of Pleasure for Prince Henry to abuse, as one that was a Thrasonical Puff, and emblem of mock Valour; though indeed he was a man of Arms every inch of him, and as valiant as any his Age, being for his Martial Prowess made Knight of the Garter by King Henry the 6th.

This our famous Comedian died An.  Dom. 16—­and was buried at Stratford upon Avon, the Town of his Nativity; upon whom one hath bestowed this Epitaph, though more proper had he been buried in Westminster Abbey.

  Renowned Spencer, lie a thought more nigh
  To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie
  A little nearer Spencer to make room
  For Shakespear, in your threefold, fourfold Tomb,
  To lodge all four in one Bed make a shift
  Until Doomsday, for hardly will a fifth
  Betwixt this day and that, by Fates be slain
  For whom your Curtains may be drawn again. 
  If your precedency in Death do bar
  A fourth place in your sacred Sepulcher,
  Under this sacred Marble of thine own,
  Sleep rare Tragedian Shakespear! sleep alone,
  Thy unmolested Peace in an unshar’d Cave,
  Possess as Lord, not Tenant of thy Grave,
  That unto us, and others it may be
  Honour hereafter to be laid by thee.

* * * * *

CHRISTOPHER MARLOW.

Christopher Marlow was (as we said) not only contemporary with William Shakespear, but also, like him, rose from an Actor, to be a maker of Comedies and Tragedies, yet was he much inferior to Shakespear not only in the number of his Plays, but also in the elegancy of his Style.  His Pen was chiefly employ’d in Tragedies; namely, his Tamberlain the first and second Part, Edward the Second, Lust’s Dominion, or the Lascivious Queen, the Massacre of Paris, his Jew of Malta, a Tragi-comedy, and his Tragedy of Dido, in which he was joyned with Nash.  But none made such a great Noise as his Comedy of Doctor Faustus with his Devils, and such like tragical Sport, which pleased much the humors of the Vulgar.  He also begun a Poem of Hero and Leander; wherein he seemed to have a resemblance of that clear and unsophisticated Wit which was natural to Musaeus that incomparable Poet.  This Poem being left unfinished by Marlow who in some riotous Fray came to an untimely and violent end, was thought worthy of the finishing hand of Chapman, as we intimated before; in the performance whereof, nevertheless he fell short of the Spirit and Invention with which it was begun.