te some lines of his poem to the memory of Shakespear,
before I give a detail of his pieces.

To the memory of my beloved the author Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR, and
what he hath left us.

To draw no envy (Shakespear) on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame:
While I confess thy writings to be such,
As neither man nor muse can praise too much.
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise:
For silliest ignorance, on these may light,
Which when it sounds at best but ecchoes right;
As blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth; but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
A crafty malice might pretend his praise,
And think to ruin where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous baud or whore,
Should praise a matron: What could hurt her more?
But thou art proof against them, and indeed,
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.
I therefore will begin. Soul of the age!
Th' applause, delight, the wonder of the stage!
My Shakespear rise; I will not lodge thee by,
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye,
A little further to make thee a room:
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still, while the book doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses;
I mean with great but disproportion'd muses:
For if I thought, my judgment were of years,
I should commit thee surely with thy peers,
And tell how far thou did'st our Lily outshine,
Or sporting Kid, or Marlow's mighty line.

He then goes on to challenge all antiquity to match Shakespear; but
the poetry is so miserable, that the reader will think the above
quotation long enough.

Ben has wrote above fifty several pieces which we may rank under the
species of dramatic poetry; of which I shall give an account in order,
beginning with one of his best comedies.

1. [6] Alchymist, a comedy, acted in the year 1610. Mr. Dryden
supposes this play was copied from the comedy of Albumazer, as far
as concerns the Alchymist's character; as appears from his prologue
prefixed to that play, when it was revived in his time.

2. Bartholomew Fair, a comedy, acted at the Hope on the Bankside,
October 31, in 1614, by the lady Elizabeth's servants, and then
dedicated to James I.

3. Cataline's conspiracy, a tragedy, first acted in the year 1611. In
this our author has translated a great part of Salust's his