Ver. 205-210.--There are sufficient reasons for believing that these
lines refer to Shakespeare. He had probably written The Two Gentlemen
of Verona, and Love's Labor's Lost, before the Complaints were
published (1591), and no other author had up to this time produced a
comedy that would compare with these. For a discussion of this subject,
see Collier's Life, Chap. VII., and Knight's Biography, pp. 344-348. C.

* * * * *



VIRGILS GNAT.

LONG SINCE DEDICATED

TO THE MOST NOBLE AND EXCELLENT LORD,

THE EARLE OF LEICESTER,

LATE DECEASED.

Wrong'd, yet not daring to expresse my paine,
To you, great Lord, the causer of my care,
In clowdie teares my case I thus complaine
Unto your selfe, that onely privie are.
But if that any Oedipus unware
Shall chaunce, through power of some divining spright,
To reade the secrete of this riddle rare,
And know the purporte of my evill plight,