1. Martial in the Warlike sound of his Sur-name (whence some may conjecture him of a Military extraction,) Hasti-vibrans, or Shake-speare.
2. Ovid, the most naturall and witty of all Poets, and hence it was that Queen Elizabeth, coming into a Grammar-School, made this extemporary verse,
'Persius a Crab-staffe, Bawdy Martial,3. Plautus, who was an exact Comaedian, yet never any Scholar, as our Shake-speare (if alive) would confess himself. Adde to all these, that though his Genius generally was jocular, and inclining him to festivity, yet he could (when so disposed) be solemn and serious, as appears by his Tragedies, so that Heraclitus himself (I mean if secret and unseen) might afford to smile at his Comedies, they were so merry, and Democritus scarce forbear to sigh at his Tragedies they were so mournfull.
Ovid a fine Wag.'
He was an eminent instance of the truth of that Rule, Poeta non fit, sed nascitur, one is not made, but born a Poet. Indeed his Learning was very little, so that as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any Lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the Earth, so nature it self was all the art which was used upon him.
Many were the wit-combates betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two I behold like a Spanish great Gallion and an English man of War; Master Johnson (like the former) was built far higher in Learning; Solid, but Slow in his performances. Shake-spear, with the English-man of War, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his Wit and Invention. He died Anno Domini 16 . ., and was buried at Stratford upon Avon, the Town of his Nativity.
Quoted in E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of the Facts and Problems (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1930), 244-45.