On my lips thus hardly sundred, And the envious, when they find VII. SONG. THAT WOMEN ARE BUT MEN'S SHADOWS. OLLOW a shadow, it still flies you, Say are not women truly, then, At morn and even shades are longest; But grant us perfect, they're not known. the Fox. See vol. iii. p. 247. Whalley says, "this, and the following are translations from Catullus." Translations, they certainly are not; but very elegant and happy imitations of particular passages in that poet. Say are not women truly, then, AM VIII. SONG. TO SICKNESS. HY, Disease, dost thou molest To thy altars, by their nights Or if it needs thy lust will taste But, forgive me,—with thy crown What should yet thy palate please? Daintiness, and softer ease, That distill their husband's land Move it, as their humblest suit, In thy justice to molest None but them, and leave the rest. RINK to me, only with thine eyes, Doth ask a drink divine: That for the oil of talc dare spend More than citizens dare lend.] See vol. iv. p. 90. Whalley has strangely confounded this cosmetic with a nauseous unction for the tick in sheep. 6 No part of Jonson has been so frequently quoted as this song, But might I of Jove's nectar sup, which, pleasing as it is, is not superior to many others scattered through his works. "I was surprised, (Cumberland says) the other day to find our learned poet Ben Jonson had been poaching in an obscure collection of love letters, written by the sophist Philostratus in a very rhapsodical stile, merely for the purpose of stringing together a parcel of unnatural far-fetched conceits, more calculated to disgust a man of Jonson's classical taste, than to put him upon the humble task of copying them, and then fathering the translation. The little poem he has taken from this despicable sophist is now become a very popular song." Observer, No. lxxiv. Cumberland, who reasoned very loosely, was hardly aware, I think, of the extraordinary compliment he was paying Jonson in this passage. But why should he be surprised?—Did we not know that he was directed to Philostratus by a more skilful and excursive finger than his own, we might perhaps be surprised at finding the critic there; but they must have a very imperfect acquaintance with Jonson who are unprepared to meet with him in any volume which antiquity has bequeathed to us. It need not follow that our poet admired every writer that he read: he might not, perhaps, have judged more favourably of Philostratus than Mr. Cumberland, or, rather, Dr. Bentley; yet he had the address to turn him to some account: but to the quotations; which, it must be added, are translated without much apparent knowledge of the original. 66 "Εμοι δε μονοις προπινε τοις ομμασιν. Ει δε βουλει, τοις χείλεσι προσφέρουσα, πληρου φιλημάτων το εκπωμα, και ούτως διδου.” “Drink to me with thine eyes only-Or, if thou wilt, putting the cup to thy lips, fill it with kisses, and so bestow it upon me." Lett. xxiv. 66 Εγω, επειδαν ιδω σε, διψω, και το εκπωμα κατεχων, και το μεν ου προσαγω τοις χείλεσι, σου δε οιδα πινων.” “I, as soon as I behold thee, thirst, and taking hold of the cup, do not indeed apply that to my lips for drink, but thee." Lett. xxv. This is by no means the sense. It was not thus that Jonson read Philostratus. Πεπομφα σοι στεφανον ῥόδων, ου σε τιμων, (και τουτο μεν γαρ) αλλ' αυτοις τι χαριζομενος τοις ρόδοις, ίνα μη μαρανδη.” “ I sent thee a rosy wreath, not so much honouring thee (though this also is in my thoughts) as bestowing favour upon the roses, that so they might not be withered." Lett. xxx. “ Ει δε βούλει τι φιλῳ χαρίζεσθαι, τα λείψανα αυτων αντιπεμψον, μηκετι πνεοντα ῥοδον μονον αλλα και σου.” "If thou wouldst do a kindness to thy lover, send back the reliques of the roses (I gave I sent thee late a rosy wreath, But thou thereon didst only breathe, And sent'st it back to me : Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, X. PRELUDIUM.7 OND must I sing? what subject shall I choose? Hercules? alas, his bones are yet sore, thee) no longer smelling of themselves only, but of thee." Lett. xxxi. Mr. Cumberland is quite scandalized at the omission of the poet's acknowledgments to Philostratus: this is very natural in so scrupulous a borrower as himself; but he ought to have known that this was not the practice of Jonson's times. It is a little singular that the artful arrangement of this song (which is peculiar to our poet) should have escaped the critics. Cumberland divides it into four stanzas; so do the ingenious authors of the Anthology, who, from the incorrect manner in which they have given it, evidently overlooked the construction. 7 This Præludium, (which is merely sportive) together with the admirable Epode, to which it forms an introduction, must have been among the earliest of Jonson's works, since both are prefixed to a volume of rare occurrence (obligingly communicated to me by T. Hill, Esq.) called "Love's Martyr, or Rosalin's complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Love in the constant fate of the Phoenix and Turtle-now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato Cæliano, by Robert Chester, to which are added some new compositions of several writers, 1601." The Epode is |