Playwright as Poet, The

Two sides of the same coin most would say. And without doubt for the majority of authors in this wide-ranging collection that would be absolutely right. Shakespeare was equally at home with drama or poetry, but he was exceptional. We have not seen his like before or since on such a scale. His contemporaries Fletcher, Fairfax and the many more that followed sometimes also wove their verse into their dramas and comedies, others such as Marlowe and Behn wrote both within their plays and as separate works. Words are an exceptional creation. The building blocks of language built to convey, discuss and share our most complex thoughts and ideas and writers, whether they be of prose, poetry or plays, use their given or honed gifts in elaborate ways to explore themes, reflect on happenings; the inky blood that help shape our cultural bodies, our human spirit. 1 - The Playwright As Poet - An Introduction 2 - Song of the Furies by Aeschylus 3 - Fragment by Aeschylus 4 - Long Life Not to Be Desired by Sophocles 5 - The Vine of Bacchus by Sophocles 6 - The Precarious Life of Man by Euripides 7 - O For the Wings of a Dove by Euripides 8 - Song of the Clouds (from The Clouds) by Aristophanes 9 - The Poet's Apology by Aristophanes 10 - Neath This Tall Pine by Plato 11 - Love Asleep by Plato 12 - The Salad or Pesto from the Latin Moretum by Virgil 13 - Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor). Prologue by Terence 14 - Sonnet by Miguel de Cervantes 15 - Ovillejos by Miguel de Cervantes 16 - Hot Sun, Cool Fire by George Peele 17 - The Sad Shepherd's Passion of Love by George Peele 18 - I Serve a Mistress by Anthony Munday 19 - In the Mirror of Mutability by Anthony Munday 20 - Yet Might She Love Me by Thomas Kyd 21 - A Description of Fever by George Chapman 22 - Courage by George Chapman 23 - Beauty, Time and Love by Samuel Daniel 24 - Fair is My Love and Cruel as She's Fair by Samuel Daniel 25 - To Night by Lope de Vega 26 - Tomorrow by Lope de Vega 27 - Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare 28 - Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare 29 - Sonnet 14 - Not From the Stars Do I My Judgement Pluck by William Shakespeare 30 - Fair Summer Droops From Summer's Last Will And Testament by Thomas Nashe 31 - A Litany in Time of Plague by Thomas Nashe 32 - On Playwright by Ben Jonson 33 - On Poet-Ape by Ben Jonson 34 - The Passionate Shepherd To His Love by Christopher Marlowe 35 - Who Ever Loved That Loved Not At First Sight by Christopher Marlowe 36 - The Merry Month of May by Thomas Dekker 37 - Heaven by Edward Fairfax 38 - Care Charming Sleep by John Fletcher 39 - A Dirge by John Webster 40 - The Madman's Song by John Webster 41 - How Near I Am to Happiness by Thomas Middleton 42 - Anacreontic by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft 43 - Friendship by Pieter Cornelisazoon Hooft 44 - Death Invoked by Philip Massinger 45 - The Condition of Kings Human by Philip Massinger 46 - On the Tombs at Westminster Abbey by Francis Beaumont 47 - The Glance by Francis Beaumont 48 - A Bridal Song by John Ford 49 - Oh No More, No More by John Ford 50 - Cease Warring Thoughts by James Shirley 51 - The Glories of Our Blood and State by James Shirley 52 - The Dream Called Life by Pedro Calderon de la Barca 53 - Praise and Prayer by William Davenant 54 - To a Mistress Dying by William Davenant 55 - An Apology For Her Poetry by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle 56 - The Hunting of the Hare by Margar