the Folio Edition of 1623, that Shakespeare's dramatic
writings challenged the serious attention of "the great
variety of readers." From that time onward, his fame
steadily advanced to the conquest of the world. Ben
Jonson in his verses prefixed to the Folio, though he
makes the largest claims for his friend, yet invokes
him first of all as the "Soul of the Age, the applause,
delight, the wonder of our Stage." Milton, some nine
years later, considers him simply as the author of a
marvellous book. The readers of Shakespeare took
ever from the fickle players the trust and inheritance
of his fame. An early example of purely literary
imitation, by a close student of his works, may be
seen in Sir John Suckling's plays, which are fuller
of poetic than of dramatic reminiscene. While the
Restoration theatre mangled and parodied the tragic
masterpieces, a new generation of readers kept alive
the knowledge and heightened the renown of the
written word. Then followed two centuries of enor-
mouns study; editions, annotations, treatises, huddled
one upon another's neck, until, in our own day, the
plays have become the very standard and measure of
poetry among all English-speaking peoples.

So Shakespeare has come to his own, as an English
man of letters; he has been separated from his fellows,
and recognised for what he is: perhaps the greatest
poet of all time; one who has said more about hu-
manity than any other writer, and has said it better;
whose works are the study and admiration of divines
and philosophers, of soldiers and statesmen, so that
his continued vogue upon the stage is the smallest
part of his immortality; who has touched many spirits
finely to fine issues, and has been for three centuries
a source of delight and understanding, of wisdom and
consolation.

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