SWANS

3rd November 2023

“Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were

To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,

That so did take Eliza and our James!”

(Ben Jonson, 1623)

Ben Jonson’s elegy to Shakespeare, describing him as the ‘sweet swan of Avon’ appeared at the start of the First Folio published in 1623.