"
Bacon intended that "Spight of cormorant devouring Time" ... honour....
should make [him] heir of all eternitie.
Compare the whole of this grand opening passage of "Loues Labor's lost"
with the lines ascribed to Milton in the 1632 edition of Shakespeare's
plays when Bacon was [supposed to be] dead. No epitaph appeared in the
1623 edition, but in the 1632 edition appeared the following:
"An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet,
W. Shakespeare.
What neede my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,
The labour of an Age in piled stones
Or that his hallow'd Reliques should be hid
Under a starrey-pointed Pyramid?
Deare sonne of Memory, great Heire of Fame,
What needst thou such dull witnesse of thy Name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy selfe a lasting Monument:
For whil'st, to th' shame of slow-endevouring Art
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each part,
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued Booke,
Those Delphicke Lines with deepe impression tooke
Then thou our fancy of her selfe bereaving,
Dost make us Marble with too much conceiving,
And so Sepulcher'd, in such pompe dost lie
That Kings for such a Tombe would wish to die.
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