WORDSWORTH, William — AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED (AQS)
A one-page (8" x 10") lengthy AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED by Wordsworth from a poem by Fulke Greville (Lord Brooke), a contemporary and friend of poet Philip Sidney. In full: "The chief use, then in Man of that he knows Is his painstaking for the good of all; Not fleshly weeping for our own made woes, Not laughing from a melancholy gall, Not hating from a Soul that overflows In bitterness, breathed forth from inward thrall; But sweetly rather to ease, loose, or bind, As need requires, this frail, fallen human kind. Lord Brooke./Peter House July 5th 1815/Wm Wordsworth." It is clear why Wordsworth might have chosen these words of Brooke's--"Man's Service" from A TREATISE OF HUMANE LEARNING--to write as the two shared the notion that while knowledge might bring happiness, it also increases susceptibility to suffering and self-torment. Matted and framed with an engraved portrait of Wordsworth to an overall size of 22" x 18". . Not examined out of the frame but appears to be Fine. Fulke Greville (1554-1628) was a close friend of Sir Philip Sidney and a great patron of letters. Most of his works were not published until after his murder by a servant who thought he had been omitted from his master’s will. Some believe Greville is the true author of several plays attributed to William Shakespeare.
