How can so great example die in me, live As others speak, but only they are rare; XCII. THE NEW CRY. RE cherries ripe! and strawberries! be gone; Ripe statesmen, ripe! they grow in every street; At six and twenty, ripe. You shall them meet, And unto whom; they are the almanacks, For twelve years yet to come, what each state lacks. They carry in their pockets Tacitus, And the Gazetti, or Gallo-Belgicus; And talk reserv'd, lock'd up, and full of fear, Keep a Star-chamber sentence close twelve days, Are sure to con the catalogue by heart; Or every day, some one at Rimee's looks, To break up seals, and close them: and they know, XCIII. TO SIR JOHN RADCLIFFE. OW like a column, Radcliffe, left alone' For the great mark of virtue, those being gone Who did, alike with thee, thy house up-bear, Stand'st thou, to shew the times what you all were? 6 Some one at Rimee's looks, Or Bill's They all get Porta.] The two first were booksellers in that age: the last was the famous Neapolitan, Johannes Baptista Porta, who has a treatise extant in Latin, De furtivis literarum notis, vulgo de Ziferis, printed at Naples 1563. He died 1615. WHAL. How like a column, Radcliffe, &c.] This epigram (a very admirable one) is addressed to the surviving brother of Margaret Radcliffe. (See Epig. xl.) It undoubtedly furnished Edwards with the model for his affecting sonnet, On a Family Picture, which Two bravely in the battle fell and died," Thou, that art all their valour, all their spirit, Nor could I, had I seen all nature's roll, are Willing to expiate the fault in thee, Wherewith, against thy blood, they' offenders be. the reader will find subjoined, and which may be counted among the best of this polished and amiable man. ON A FAMILY PICTURE. "When pensive on that portraiture I gaze, Where my four brothers round about me stand, And think how soon insatiate death, who preys On all, has cropt the rest with ruthless hand; It seems that like a column left alone, The tottering remnant of some splendid fane, Single, unpropt, and nodding to my fall." It is melancholy to add to the little history of Sir J. Radcliffe's family, that this "column" also, this "great mark of virtue," fell, not many years afterwards, like "the rest." That valiant and generally beloved gentleman (Weever says,) sir John Radcliffe, lieutenant colonell, was slaine fighting against the French in the isle of Rhee, the 29th of October, in the year of our Lord, 1627. a In Ireland. XCIV. TO LUCY COUNTESS OF BEDFORD, WITH MASTER UCY, you brightness of our sphere, who are, If works, not authors, their own grace should Whose poems would not wish to be your book? Yet satires, since the most of mankind be For none e'er took that pleasure in sin's sense, 8 Daniel, who has a poem addressed to the countess, terms her 'learned;" undoubtedly she was a most accomplished lady, and skilled in a variety of arts, not much studied by the females of those days. Sir Thomas Roe has a letter to her, in which he speaks of her proficiency in the knowledge of ancient medals; and sir William Temple mentions her with applause in his Essay on the gardens of Epicurus, for "projecting the most perfect figure of a garden that he ever saw." Granger attempts to be severe on her bounty to the poets; but as Drayton, Donne, Daniel, and our author were among the number, her liberality seems to be nearly as secure from censure as her judgment. It is pleasing to mark the habitual kindness with which Jonson recommends his friend's works, and the ingenious mode in which he compliments his patroness for desiring to have a copy of the Satires. XCV. TO SIR HENRY SAVILE. F, my religion safe, I durst embrace O, would'st thou add like hand to all the rest! To have her story woven in thy thread.] It was then imagined, that sir Henry Savile intended to have compiled a general history of England; but he gave over the design, and engaged in the excellent edition of Chrysostom, which he afterwards published. WHAL. There is no date to this epigram; but it must have been written after 1604, as he did not receive the honour of knighthood till that year, and before 1613, in which year his magnificent edition of Chrysostom's Works, 8 vol. fol. appeared, which Jonson would not have omitted to mention. Sir Henry was one of the most learned men of that learned age, and published many valuable works, which raised his reputation no less abroad than at home. The translation of which Jonson speaks was published long before the death of Elizabeth, to whom it was dedicated: to this he appended a large body of notes, in which the breaks in the original are occasionally supplied with great ingenuity. He was admirably skilled in the history of this country, and collected and printed the tracts of many of the best ancient writers on the subject; if, therefore, |