University of Virginia Library

To my worthy Friend, Mr. Philip Massinger, vpon his Tragæ-Comœdie, call'd The Emperour of the East.

Svffer , my friend, these lines to haue the grace,
That they may bee a mole on Venus face.
There is no fault about thy Booke, but this,
And it will shew how faire thy Emperour is.
Thou more then Poet, our Mercurie (that art
Apollo's Messenger, and do'st impart
His best expressions to our eares) liue long
To purifie the slighted English tongue,
That both the Nymphes of Tagus, and of Poe,
May not henceforth despise our language so.
Nor could they doe it, if they ere had seene
The matchlesse features of the faerie Queene;
Read Iohnson, Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, or
Thy neat-limnd peeces, skilfull Massinger.
Thou knowne, all the Castillians must confesse
Vega de Carpio thy foile, and blesse
His language can translate thee, and the fine
Italian witts, yeeld to this worke of thine.
Were old Pythagoras aliue againe,
In thee hee might finde reason to maintaine
His Paradox; that soules by transmigration
In diuers bodies make their habitation,
And more; that all Poetik soules yet knowne
Are met in thee, vnited, and made one.
This is a truth, not an applause. I am
One that at farthest distance view thy flame,
Yet may pronounce, that were Apollo dead,
In thee his Poesie might all bee read.
Forbeare thy modestie. Thy Emperours veine
Shall liue admir'd, when Poets shall complaine.
It is a patterne of too high a reach
And what great Phœbus might the Muses teach.
Let it liue therefore, and I dare bee bold
To say, it with the world shall not grow old.