Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/77

Rh May still this island be called Fortunate, And ragged treason tremble at the sound When fame shall speak it with an emphasis. Let foreign polity be dull as lead, And pale Invasion come with half a heart, When he but looks upon her blessed soil. The throat of war be stopt within her land, And turtle-footed peace dance fairy rings About her court; when never may there come, Suspect or danger, but all trust and safety. Let flattery be dumb, and envy blind In her dread presence; Death himself admire her, And may her virtues make him to forget The use of his inevitable hand. Fly from her, Age; sleep, Time, before her throne; Our strongest wall falls down when she is gone."

The play is dedicated to "the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in the kingdom, the Inns of Court." It was played at the Globe Theatre, of which Shakespeare was then manager. He had acted in "Every Man in his Humour," but took no part in this. Jonson, with his characteristic confidence, and inability to conceal his strong self-esteem, added when he published it, this motto from Horace,

His slender means do not appear to have been much bettered by his successful dramatic compositions, for in Henslowe's Memorandum Book, Mr. Gifford finds forty shillings advanced to Dekker and Johnson for a play they were together writing, twenty to Chettle and himself for another, and twenty on a tragedy upon which he was solely employed. His next production was "Cynthia's Revels." This was aimed at some fashionable follies. It is dedicated to "the special fountain of manners, the Court." This quaint but beautiful piece of English, however, contains what we would fain construe as anything rather