CXXV. TO SIR WILLIAM UVEDALE. VEDALE, thou piece of the first times, a man Restored in thy body, and thy mind! CXXVI. TO HIS LADY, THEN MISTRESS CARY.1 ETIRED, with purpose your fair worth to praise, Mongst Hampton shades, and Phoebus' grove I pluck'd a branch; the jealous god did frown, Cary my love is, Daphne but my tree. 4 Mistress Cary.] The usual term in the poet's days for an unmarried woman, or miss: Of her husband, sir William Uvedale, knt. I can say nothing but that he was of Wickham, in the county of Southampton. CXXVII. TO ESME LORD AUBIGNY.5 S there a hope that man would thankful be, To whom I am so bound, loved Aubigny? No, I do therefore call posterity Into the debt; and reckon on her head, CXXVIII. TO WILLIAM ROE.6 DOE, and my joy to name, thou'rt now to go, Countries and climes, manners and men to know, To extract and choose the best of all these known, And those to turn to blood, and make thine own. 5 Esme lord Aubigny.] Brother to the duke of Lenox, whom he succeeded in title and estate. He has been already noticed. 6 William Roe.] Younger brother, or perhaps cousin, of sir Thomas Roe. (epig. 98.) This gentleman seems to have gone abroad in a mercantile or diplomatic capacity; but with the activity and energy inherent in this distinguished family, he subsequently entered on the profession of arms, and probably served under Gustavus Adolphus. A few years of hardship, however, gave him enough of campaigning, and he returned to the pursuits of his youth. "William Roe (Howell writes to his friend at Brussels) is returned from the wars; but he is grown lame in one of his arms, so he hath no mind to bear arms any more; he confesseth himself May winds as soft as breath of kissing friends, So when we, blest with thy return, shall see This is that good Æneas, past through fire, Through seas, storms, tempests; and, embark'd for hell, Came back untouch'd. This man hath travell'd well. CXXIX. TO MIME. HAT not a pair of friends each other see, But the first question is, When one saw thee? That there's no journey set or thought upon, To Brentford, Hackney, Bow, but thou mak'st one; That scarce the town designeth any feast To which thou'rt not a week bespoke a guest; Think'st thou, Mime, this is great? or that they strive grave, to be an egregious fool to leave his mercership for a musket." Lib. ii. lett. 62. 7 Or out-boast the brave,] i. e. the bravo, the ruffian; some well known bully of the time. Cokely, Pod, and Gue, mentioned just below, were masters of motions, or puppet-shows, and exhibitors at Bartholomew Fair. The strong sense and indignant satire of this little poem might yet be turned to account if the parasite could feel shame, or the table-buffoon be awakened to a sense of honour by the pity, scorn, and insulting applause with which his degrading fooleries are received. Or, mounted on a stool, thy face doth hit CXXX. TO ALPHONSO FERRABOSCO, ON HIS BOOK. 8 O urge, my loved Alphonso, that bold fame tame, Which music had; or speak her own effects, 8 To Alphonso Ferrabosco, on his book.] This person, descended of Italian parents, was born at Greenwich in Kent: he was much admired, both at home and abroad, for his excellent compositions, and fancies, as they were then called, in music; he was principally employed in setting the songs to music in our poet's masques. WHAL. Jonson appears to have had an extraordinary regard and affection for this excellent composer. He delights to mention him upon all occasions; and in the Masque of Hymen, hurried away by his feelings, he interrupts the strain of applause in which he was describing Alphonso's exertions, with a genuine burst of tenderness, "Virtuous friend! take well this abrupt testimony: It cannot be flattery in me, who never did it to great ones; and less than love and truth it is not where it is done out of knowledge!" The learned reader will observe that Jonson had in view Horace's admirable description of the office of the ancient Chorus, in the opening of this epigram. To say indeed, she were the soul of heaven, CXXXI. TO THE SAME.9 HEN we do give, Alphonso, to the light, own way: The learn'd have no more privilege than the lay. 9 TO THE SAME.] The "Book" from which the composer probably expected a large harvest of praise seems to have met with some ungentle critic, and Jonson writes this sensible and manly epigram to his friend, to qualify the excess of his disappointment and mortification. I know not the person meant, unless it be Morley, who is mentioned as dissatisfied with some of his compositions by Peacham :-but I will give the passage: "Alphonso Ferrabosco the father, while he lived, for judgment and depth of skill, as also his son now living, was inferior to none. What he did was most elaborate and profound, and pleasing in aire; though master Thomas Morley censureth him otherwise. That of his, I saw my ladie weeping, and the Nightingale, upon which dittie master Bird and he in a friendly emulation exercised their invention, cannot be bettered for sweetnesse of aire, or depth of judgment." Compleat Gent. 1622. |