70 PART II. SOME IMPORTANT METHODOLOGICAL TERMS. 



tations have a bearing on this subject, and are important because 

 they show Shakespeare in a variety of lights: 



"As the Greek tongue is made famous and eloquent by Homer . . ., 

 so the English tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeously invested in 

 rare ornaments and resplendent habiliments by Sir Philip Sydney, Spenser, 

 Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Chapman. ... As the 

 soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweet witty 

 soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare, witness 

 his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared sonnets among his private 

 friends, etc. ... As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy 

 and Tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the 

 most excellent in both kinds for the stage. [Mentions Titus Andronicus] . . . 

 As Epius Stolo said that the Muses would speak with Plautus' tongue, if 

 they would speak Latin, so I say that the Muses would speak with 

 Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English. ... As 

 Horace says of himself, Eregi monumentum sere perennius, ... so say I 

 severally of Sir Philip Sydney's, Spenser's, Daniels', Drayton's, Shakespeare's, 

 and Warner's works. . . . 



". . . [The best lyric poets are] Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, 

 Bretton. . . . Our best for Tragedy, Lord Buckhurst, Dr. Leg, Dr. Edes, 

 Master Edward Ferris, the author of the Mirror for Magistrates, Marlow, 

 Peele, Watson, Kyd, Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Dekker, and Benjamin 

 Johnson. . . . The best for Comedy amongst us be, Edward Earl of Oxford, 

 Dr. Gager, Master Rowley, Master Edwardes, eloquent and witty John Lilly, 

 Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood. 

 Anthony Mundy our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hath way, and 

 Henry Chettle. . . . These are the most passionate among us to bewail 

 and bemoan the perplexities of love, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, Sir 

 Thomas Wyatt the elder, Sir Francis Brian, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter 

 Rawley, Sir Edward Dyer, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Whetstone, 

 Gascoyne. Samuel Page, Churchyard, Bretton." 



Shakespeare was not the sole successor to his predecessors. 

 On the contrary, there were a large number of successors, and 

 the evolution of the finer and superior type of play continued. 

 As a plain fact, there is nothing to suggest that Shakespeare 

 alone improved on the earlier dramatists, or that the other 

 dramatists were only servile imitators of his work. From all 

 the evidence at our disposal, we are forced to believe that 

 Shakespeare was classed with the other playwrights, and though 

 considered to be among the best, no one thought of proclaiming 

 him sovereign or greatly superior to all the others. The follow- 

 ing quotation from Webster's Preface to his White Devil well 

 illustrates the general attitude of his age towards him: 



"Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I have 

 ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's worthy labours; 

 especially of that full and heightened style of Master Chapman ; the la- 

 boured and understanding works of Master Jonson; the no less worthy 

 composures of the both worthily excellent Master Beaumont and Master 

 Fletcher; and lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy 

 and copious industry of Master Shakespeare, Master Dekker, and Master 

 Heywood." 



On the negative side there is abundant evidence to prove 

 that, in his time, Shakespeare was not regarded as paramount 

 among dramatists. This view may appear to be in flagrant 



