Shakespeare is not our poet, but the worlds,1 Therefore on him no speech! And brief for thee, Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale, No man hath walkd along our roads with steps So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue So varied in discourse.
ATTRIBUTION:
To Robert Browning.
Note 1. Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakespeares wit. Ralph Waldo Emerson: May-Day and Other Pieces. Solution. [back]