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for searching only. popularly opposed to Shakspere as the product of Nature. So Jonson in 1623 is merely formulating officially what had long been the verdict on Shakspere-and accepted by himself-, that he was to be accounted for by Nature rather than by Art.27
27 Many, evidently including Shakspere, considered that it was far better to work by Nature than by Art. See, for instance, Charron, P., Of Wisdome (164o), pp. 112, 155, 339, 499-500, for a considered position of Nature and trained natural ability as wisdom against Art as artificiality, which Pope but slightly adapts later to attain his "Nature methodized." See also La Primaudaye, P. de, The French 4cademie (1586; copy in U. of Ill. Library), pp. 172 ff.; (Paris, 158o, personal), pp. 8zv ff.; also "Nowe bicause that nature is most perfect next to God, the neerer that arte approcheth to nature, the better and perfecter it is, as appeereth in images and pictures: so that arte is nothing else but an imitation of nature" (Ibid., p. 750, 355v).
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