winnowing

Ben Jonson would suggest public publishing(as he did for W.S)
Christopher Marlow /Thomas Kyd/Phillip Massinger =create a tragic theater
When you are one actor among so many poets and playwrights
Fame's fickle flicker flashes fast past effulgence
until another age can edit ,bowlderise ,select
that which will constitute our literary canon.Know this-
much will go unpublished,more will be collaborations,unfinished
Fashion will select the slight as solid and dark matters avoid
Issues of the age may resonate beyond both page and stage
Quotable lines assist(as they did as couplets @the end of scenes
Variety-from history,tragedy,comedy to bawdy /all assists
an audience of eyes from future coupled to your laughing pits.
Why has there never been another?What makes one unique?
Is it that to all ages ,issues,times s/he speaks?Poetry alone
"makes nothing happen"-yet when iambic pentameters strut and puff
through characters recognizable to all of us-delights!(and fat box office
Adaptations assist rebirth of wonder.Our age less tragic than all others
It is the play in which we will capture "the conscience of a king"...

(See review of new biography of Jonson.)