An Introduction to William Basse's “Epitaph on Shakespeare” (1616-1623).

I see that William Basse's “Epitaph on Shakespeare” (1616-1623) is among a number of historical texts alleged in certain Stratfordian circles (esp. Oxfrauds) to show that the Shakespeare Monument at Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon existed before production had begun on the First Folio. I have written twice on this elegy and provide links.

Desperately Seeking Bridget (de Vere).

“In this uncarued marble”: Shakespeare’s Tomb.

I will be referring to them in the course of this and upcoming articles.

Those who know that general drift of the history of Basse's “Epitaph” likely know that it first appeared in Poems by J. D. (1633), the J.D. in question being John Donne. It never again appeared under Donne's name. With the advent of an Authorship Question, however, Donne is being kept on standby in case he can be helpful for the Stratford man — a new Stratfordian habit of recent years being to lower standards in order to validate pretty much anything that might help to exclude the Earl of Oxford.

The 1633 poems was intended to be a collected works of the poet. It is since understood to have included at least one too few and one too many ̶ the too many being Basse's poem.

An Epitaph upon Shakespeare.

REnowned Chaucer lie a thought more nigh

So rare Beaumond; and learned Beaumond lie

A little nearer Spencer, to make roome

For Shakespeare in your threefold fourefold tombe.

To lie all foure in one bed make a shift,

For, untill doomesday hardly will a fift

Betwixt this day and that be slaine,

For whom your curtaines need be drawne againe;

But, if precedency of death doth barre

A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre,

Under this curled marble of thine owne

Sleepe rare Tragedian Shakespeare, sleepe alone,

That, unto Vs and others it may bee

Honor, hereafter to be laid by thee.¹

Neither Donne nor the author of the epitaph were in the habit of publishing their poems publicly. Both his poems and the many (probably at least hundreds of) poems by others that he appreciated would have resided in his loose papers. Some would have been gathered in manuscript books. All would have been predominantly in his own hand (as was likely the case of the “Epitaph”). Nevertheless, a great many were in the handwriting of various of the authors or friends who copied them out.

There had been ̶ unbeknownst to Donne's editor ̶ a great many handwritten copies of the poem before Donne's poems were issued. We know this because Ben Jonson referred to the poem ̶ without mention of title or author ̶ in his First Folio memorial poems to “My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare”. Strangely, however, Jonson did not see fit to include the poem among the noticeably sparse dedicatory poems in the volume. The authors status could hardly have been the reason as the poems he did collect were by notably minor authors.

Poems passed from hand to hand tend to show a range of variations major and minor. At least 35 copies of Basse's poem have been found. Many of these have been weighed in the  balance from C. M. Ingleby's Shakespeare's Centurie of Prayse (1879) to Wells and Taylor's Textual Companion (1987).

The version of the poem possessed by Donne is representative in some ways and a variant in others. Only a minority of the copies call the poem an “Epitaph”. The word “carvéd,” “sacred,” “sable,” “curved,” etc. of line 11, in many copies, is totally botched during the typesetting process to “curled”. I will be submitting arguments, however, that “Epitaph on Shakespeare” is as likely as any to have been the original title and none of the words cited above for line 11 correct.

As for the almost certain author of the “Epitaph”, William Basse, most of what information we have has been gathered together in R. Warwick Bond's The Poetical Works of William Basse (1893). The texts of Basse's works are not, however, collated. Manuscript editions not transcribed are described. We are particularly lucky to have the assistance of Ingleby and Bond in learning Basse and his poem. Each is among the more diligent scholars of the 19^th century.

Neither Ingleby nor Bond found a documented birth date. The latter observes that the works that have been preserved suggest that he could not have been born any later than 1583.

What is definitely clear is that Basse was very sociable. He lived in the town of Thame as a retainer to the Viscount Wenman and his wife. His means of education are not clear. He fondly mentions Oxford but no record has been discovered that he attended. His textual exchanges with William Browne, together with Browne possessing a copy of the “Epitaph” in his own handwriting, strongly suggests that they moved in the same circles. Circles in which George Wither, John Davies, Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont and sometimes the Earl of Pembroke moved, and an inordinate number of members who attended of the Inns of Court and Chancery together. The matriculation ledgers of the Inns being much less complete, perhaps young Basse attended there.

He also moved among these same men and others at his beloved Cotswold Games. And angled with Isaac Walton who requested he write “The Angler's Song” for inclusion in the Complete Angler.

I'll promise you I'll sing a song that was lately made at my request by Mr, William Basse, one that has made the choice Songs of the Hunter in his carrere, and of Tom of Bedlam, and many others of note; and this that I wil sing is in praise of Angling.²

Even more than hunting, fishing and the greyhounds, Basse's favorite subject for poetry was the natural life around the little village of Thame, where he lived, and nearby Rycote, where the Baron Rycote and his wife, Bridget de Vere resided.

1  Donne, John. Poems by J. D. (1633). 165.

2  Bond, R. Warwick. The Poetical Works of William Basse (1893). 123.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Edward de Vere in the Lives of his Daughters. February 27, 2023. "At least they take some comfort from their belief that De Vere had no demonstrable relationship with his daughter, the Countess of Montgomery, Susan de Vere."

• Anthony Munday's  Mirrour of Mutabilitie: Dedicatory Poems to the Earl of Oxford. January 2, 2023. "Nothing vvee say that truer is then trueth, / It follie is against the streame to strive:...".

• More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
• A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years.  Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
• Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not.  No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
• Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.