LXXIX. AN EPIGRAM TO KING CHARLES, FOR AN HUNDRED POUNDS HE SENT ME IN MY SICKNESS. MDCXXIX.6 REAT Charles, among the holy gifts of grace, To cure the call'd king's-evil with thy touch; 6 Jonson has given the date of this Epigram, 1629. In that wretched tissue of ignorance and malice called in Cibber's Collection, "the Life of Ben Jonson," it is stated that "in the year 1629, Ben fell sick, and was then poor, and lodged in an obscure alley; his Majesty was supplicated in his favour, who sent him ten guineas. When the messenger delivered the sum, Ben took it in his hand, and said, 'His Majesty has sent me ten guineas because I am poor and live in an alley; go and tell him that his soul lives in an alley.'" Vol. i. p. 238. Here is a fair specimen of the injustice with which the character of Jonson is universally treated. The writer of his "Life" had before him not only the poet's own acknowledgment that the sum sent to him by the king was one hundred pounds, but three poems in succession full of gratitude, thankfulness, and respectful duty, all written at the very period selected by his enemies for charging him with a rude and ungrateful message to his benefactor. This fabrication was too valuable to be neglected; it has therefore been disseminated in a variety of forms by most of the Shakspeare commentators. Mr. Malone, indeed, rejects the falsehood, as well he might he goes farther, and "wonders," why Smollett should insert this contemptible lie in his "History of England," and above all, "where he found it." Mr. Malone's surprise is gratuitous. He could not be ignorant of Cibber's publication, for he has borrowed from it; and he must have been equally aware that it was the polluted source from which Smollett, who was probably acquainted with the writer, (Shiels, a Scotchman) derived his ridiculous anecdote. Smollett knew less of Jonson than even Mr. Malone; he And in these cures dost so thyself enlarge, LXXX. TO KING CHARLES AND QUEEN MARY, FOR THE LOSS OF THEIR FIRST-BORN. AN EPIGRAM CONSOLATORY, MDCXXIX. HO dares deny, that all first-fruits are due Doth by his doubt distrust his promise more. knew enough, however, of the public to be convinced that in calumniating him, he was on the right side. Is it too much to hope that this palpable perversion of a recorded fact will be less current hereafter? Or is the calumniation of Jonson so indispensable to the interests of sound literature, that a falsehood once charged upon him must immediately assume a sacred character, and in despite of shame, be promulgated, as a duty, from book to book, and from age to age? One poet, than of other folks ten score.] This alludes to the angel, or ten shilling piece which was given to all who presented themselves to be touched for the king's-evil, and which undoubtedly presents the true key both of the numerous applications and the Ten-score angels make an hundred pounds. cures. Then, royal Charles and Mary, do not grutch For God, whose essence is so infinite, LXXXI. AN EPIGRAM TO OUR GREAT AND GOOD KING CHARLES,8 ON HIS ANNIVERSARY DAY, MDCXXIX. OW happy were the subject if he knew, If he but weigh'd the blessings of this day, 8 To our great and good king Charles.] In taking leave of the Epigrams of this year, let me pluck one solitary sprig to adorn the head of this "good king," (who has been stripped of all his honours by the insatiable rancour of the heirs of the ancient puritanism,) from the garland woven for him by Dr. Burney. "This prince, (Charles I.) however his judgment, or that of his counsellors, may have misled him in the more momentous concerns of government, appears to have been possessed of an invariable good taste in all the fine arts; a quality which, in less morose and fanatical times, would have endeared him to the most enlightened part of the nation: but now his patronage of poetry, painting, architecture, and music, was ranked among the deadly sins, and his passion for the works of the best artists in the nation, profane, pagan, popish, idolatrous, dark, and damnable. As to the expenses of his government, for the levying which he was driven to illegal and violent expedients, if compared with what has And as it turns our joyful year about, pure ? Indeed, when had Great Britain greater cause 'Tis not alone the merchant, but the clown, How much to heaven for thee, great Charles, they owe! been since peaceably and cheerfully granted to his successors, his extravagance in supporting the public splendour and amusements of his court, will be found more moderate, and perhaps more innocent, than that of secret service in later times; and however gloomy state-reformers may execrate this prince, it would be ungrateful, in professors of any of the fine arts, to lose all reverence for the patron of Ben Jonson, Vandyke, Inigo Jones, and Dr. Child." History of Musick, vol. iii. This Epigram is addressed, in the Newcastle MS. "To the great and good king Charles, by his Majesty's most humble and thankful servant, Ben Jonson." Another proof of the poet's "insolence and ingratitude"! LXXXII. AN EPIGRAM ON THE PRINCE'S BIRTH, MDCXXX. GND art thou born, brave babe? blest be thy birth, That so hath crown'd our hopes, our spring, The bed of the chaste Lily and the Rose! Haste now, envious moon, And interpose thyself," (care not how soon) And interpose thyself, &c.] The prince (Charles II.) was born this year, on the 29th of May, on which day there was an eclipse of the moon. This day was also memorable for the appearance of a star. "On the 29th of May (sir Richard Baker says) the queen was brought to bed of a son which was baptized at St. James's, on the 27th of June, and named Charles. It is observed that at his nativity, at London, was seen a star about noon-time: what it portended, good or ill, we leave to the astrologers." Bishop Corbet has a congratulatory poem,-"To the new-borne prince, upon the opposition of a star and the following eclipse." It abounds in all that extravagance of conceit, which characterizes the poetry of his school. Of the moon, he says, "And was't this news that made pale Cynthia run In so great haste to intercept the sun !" And he questions the infant very significantly, on the appearance of the star: "Was heaven afraid to be out-done on earth When thou wert born, great prince, that it brought forth |