Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/112

96 The Names of the Principal Actors in all these plays.

Section entitled De Shakespeare nostrat[e] in Jonson’s Timber, or Discoveries, printed posthumously, 1641,

''I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honor to Shakespeare that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out line. My answer hath been: Would he had blotted a thousand; which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this but for their ignorance, who choose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted, and to justify mine own candor, for I loved the man and do honor his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent''