“What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtile flame
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.”

—  Francis Beaumont

Letter to Ben Jonson (1605), verses prefacing Jonson’s Volpone, as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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Francis Beaumont 5
British dramatist 1584–1616

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