CVI.

TO SIR EDWARD HERBERT.5

F men get name for some one virtue; then, What man art thou, that art so many men, All-virtuous Herbert! on whose every part Truth might spend all her voice, fame all her art? Whether thy learning they would take, or wit, Or valour, or thy judgment seasoning it, Thy standing upright to thyself, thy ends Like straight, thy piety to God, and friends: Their latter praise would still the greatest be, And yet they, all together, less than thee.

CVII.

TO CAPTAIN HUNGRY.

O what you come for, captain, with your news ;
That's sit and eat: do not my ears abuse.

I oft look on false coin to know't from true; Not that I love it more than I will you.

5 Sir Edward Herbert.] Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He was a person of great learning and of many excellent qualities as a statesman, a gentleman, and a scholar. This was all that was known of him at the period when this epigram appeared; but he subsequently fell into strange contradictions: with great professions of piety he openly disavowed all belief in a divine revelation, and yet persuaded himself that his own prayers were audibly answered from heaven! He was advanced to the dignity of baron of the kingdom of Ireland, in 1625, and in 1631 was created lord Herbert of Cherbury in Shropshire, a favour which he repaid by joining the enemies of his sovereign, on the breaking out of the civil war. His death took place in 1648. "He died (Aubrey says) very serenely; asked what it was o'clock, and then, sayed he, an hour hence I shall depart!' He then turned his head to the other side, and expired."

Tell the gross Dutch those grosser tales of yours,
How great you were with their two emperours;
And yet are with their princes: fill them full
Of your Moravian horse, Venetian bull.

Tell them, what parts you've ta'en, whence run away,

What states you've gull'd, and which yet keeps you'

in pay.

Give them your services, and embassies

In Ireland, Holland, Sweden; pompous lies!
In Hungary and Poland, Turky too;

What at Ligorne, Rome, Florence you did do:
And, in some year, all these together heap'd,
For which there must more sea and land be leap'd,
If but to be believed you have the hap,
Than can a flea at twice skip in the map.

Give your young statesmen (that first make you drunk,

And then lye with you, closer than a punk,
For news) your Villeroys, and Silleries,
Ianins, your Nuncios, and your Tuilleries,
Your Archdukes agents, and your Beringhams,
That are your words of credit. Keep your names
Of Hannow, Shieter-huissen, Popenheim,
Hans-spiegle, Rotteinberg, and Boutersheim,
For your next meal; this you are sure of. Why
Will you part with them here unthriftily?
Nay, now you puff, tusk, and draw up your chin,
Twirl the poor chain you run a-feasting in.—
Come, be not angry, you are Hungry; eat:

Do what you come for, captain; there's your meat.

CVIII.

TO TRUE SOLDIERS.6

TRENGTH of my country, whilst I bring to view

Such as are miscall'd captains, and wrong you,
And your high names; I do desire that thence
Be nor put on you, nor you take offence.

I swear by your true friend, my muse, I love
Your great profession, which I once did prove;
And did not shame it with my actions then,
No more than I dare now do with my pen.
He that not trusts me, having vow'd thus much,
But's angry for the captain, still; is such.'

6 To true soldiers.] We have this epigram in the Apologetical Dialogue, printed at the end of the Poetaster: and it seems to have been written as a kind of compensation for the character of captain Tucca, in that play. WHAL.

This was written before the Poetaster. Could not Whalley see that it alluded to the captain in the preceding epigram? If there was any soldier stupid enough to take the character of Tucca as a reflection on the army, he was not to be reclaimed to sense by the power of verse. Jonson produced the epigram in his Apology to shew that he entertained no disrespectful opinion of the profession of a soldier. In a word, it is impossible to read that comedy, and listen to the complaints which the men of arms and of law are said to have made on the occasion, without discovering that they were more captious than just, and that the poet himself was the calumniated person.

7

is such,] i. e. is the captain Hungry whom I have just satirized. The observation is well-timed.

CIX.

TO SIR HENRY NEVIL.8

HO now calls on thee, Nevil, is a muse,

That serves not fame, nor titles; but doth

chuse

Where virtue makes them both, and that's in thee: Where all is fair beside thy pedigree.

8 To sir Henry Nevil.] Son to Edward lord Abergavenny: he succeeded his father in the title in 1622, and died in December, 1641. Holland, in his additions to Camden's Britannia, mentions a place in Berkshire, called Bilingsbere, the inhabitation of sir Henry Nevil, issued from the lord Abergavenny. WHAL.

Surely Whalley has mistaken the person to whom this is addressed, or confounded two different characters. The sir Henry Neville of the poet was the son of sir H. Neville of Billingbear, by Elizabeth, a daughter of sir John Gresham. He was a very distinguished statesman, and much employed by the Queen, to whom he was introduced by Cecil. He was connected with the secretary by marriage; but he was less indebted to this for his promotion at court than to his own merits: "being," as Mr. Lodge says, "a person of great wisdom and integrity." He was sent ambassador to France in 1599, whence he returned in the following year, time enough, unfortunately for his future peace and prosperity, to be implicated in the wild treason of the earl of Essex. He was committed to the Tower, "which," says Cecil to sir Ralph Winwood, "being rather matter of form than substance, if any of his friends should have industriously opposed, it had been the ready way to have forced a course of more severity." What more was to be feared, I know not, but he was heavily fined; and his release from the Tower did not take place till some months after the accession of James. That he had really been in some danger, may be collected from the following passage:

“Thou rather striv'st the matter to possess,

And elements of honour, than the dress;

To make thy lent life good against the fates,

And thence," &c.

But though restored to liberty, he was not advanced, as was generally expected. "All men (sir Henry Wotton says) contemplate sir Henry Neville for the future secretary; some saying that

Thou art not one seek'st miseries with hope,
Wrestlest with dignities, or feign'st a scope
Of service to the public, when the end

Is private gain, which hath long guilt to friend.
Thou rather striv'st the matter to possess,
And elements of honour, than the dress;

To make thy lent life good against the fates :
And first to know thine own state, then the state's;
To be the same in root thou art in height;
And that thy soul should give thy flesh her weight.
Go on, and doubt not what posterity,

Now I have sung thee thus, shall judge of thee.
Thy deeds unto thy name will prove new wombs,
Whilst others toil for titles to their tombs.

it is but deferred till the return of the queen (Anne, who was then at Bath) that she may be allowed a hand in his introduction!" James, however, had strong prepossessions against him, which no interest could overcome, and the little remainder of this able statesman's life (for his correspondence is among the best in Winwood's collection) passed in dejection and comparative obscurity. It is to the honour of Jonson's steady friendship, that he liberally praises, and commends to the notice of posterity a worthy man depressed by two sovereigns, by each of whom he was himself favoured and patronized.

Sir Henry died 1615. He married Anne, daughter of sir Henry Killigrew of Cornwall; by whom he had seven sons, whose descendants yet enjoy the family seat of their great ancestor.