Note 179 — XI—THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC POWER

This, or some synonym, is the conventional epithet applied at the date to Shakespeare and his work. Weever credited such characters of Shakespeare as Tarquin, Romeo, and Richard III with ‘sugred tongues’ in his Epigrams of 1595. In the Return from Parnassus (1601?) Shakespeare is apostrophised as ‘sweet Master Shakespeare.’ Milton did homage to the tradition by writing of ‘sweetest Shakespeare’ in L’Allegro.