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have suppressed the verses. But (as Drummond noted) he preferred his jest, such as it was, to his friend; who was not, as usually understood, a man apt to resent a very blunt shaft of very obsolete wit. Like Moliere, Shakespeare had outlived the charge of plagiarism, made long ago by the jealous Ben.
Poet-Ape is an actor-playwright "THAT WOULD BE THOUGHT OUR CHIEF"-- words which, by 1601, could only apply to Shakespeare; there was no rival, save Ben, near his throne. The playwright-actor, too, has now confessedly
"grown To a little wealth and credit in the scene,"
of no other actor-playwright could this be said.
He is the author of "works" (Jonson was laughed at for calling his own plays "works"), but these works are "the frippery of wit," that is, a tissue of plagiarisms, as in the case of Pantalabus. But "told of this he slights it," as most successful authors, when accused, as they often are, of plagiarism by jealous rivals, wisely do;--so did Moliere. This Poet-Ape began his career by "picking and gleaning" and "buying reversions of old plays." This means that Shakespeare DID work over earlier plays which his company had acquired; or, if Shakespeare did not,--then, I presume,--Bacon did!
THAT, with much bad humour, is the gist of the rhymes on Poet-Ape. Ben thinks Shakespeare's "works" very larcenous, but still, the "works," as such, are those of the poet-actor. I hope it is now clear that Poet-Ape, who, like Pantalabus, "takes up all"; who has "grown to a little wealth and credit in the scene," and who "thinks himself the chief" of contemporary dramatists, can be nobody but Shakespeare. Hence it follows that the "works" of Poet-Ape, are the works of Shakespeare. Ben admits, nay, asserts the existence of the works, says that they may reach "the after-time," but he calls them a mass of plagiarisms,--because he is in a jealous rage.
But this view does not at all suit Mr. Greenwood, for it shows Ben regarding Shakespeare as the "Ape," or Actor, and also as the "Poet" and