Spenser.—Tears of the Muses, Line 205.
Nature listening stood, whilst Shakespeare play’d,
And wonder’d at the work herself had made.
Churchill.—The Author.
SHAKSPERE.—Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
Milton.—L’Allegro, Line 133.
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
Milton.—On Shakespeare, 1630.
Ay, that d—d Shakespeare! I hear the fellow was nothing but a deer-stealer in Warwickshire. If he had sold the venison, there would have been some sense in that; he would have made money by it; a better trade than writing plays—What right had my son to read Shakespeare? I never read Shakespeare.
Murphy.—The Apprentice, Act I. Scene 1.