XIV.

TO MR. JOHN FLETCHER, UPON HIS FAITHFUL
SHEPHERDESS.

HE wise, and many-headed bench, that sits
Upon the life and death of plays and wits,
(Compos'd of gamester, captain, knight,
knight's man,

Lady or pucelle, that wears mask or fan,
Velvet, or taffata cap, rank'd in the dark

With the shop's foreman, or some such brave spark
That may judge for his sixpence) had, before
They saw it half, damn'd thy whole play, and more:
Their motives were, since it had not to do
With vices, which they look'd for, and came to.
I, that am glad thy innocence was thy guilt,
And wish that all the Muses' blood were spilt
In such a martyrdom, to vex their eyes,
Do crown thy murder'd poem: which shall rise
A glorified work to time, when fire,

3

Or moths shall eat what all these fools admire.3

XV.

EPITAPH

ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. 4

NDERNEATH this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse,

Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;
Death! ere thou hast slain another,

3 This poem, which was taken by Whalley from Seward's edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, must have been written at an early period of Jonson's life, as the Faithful Shepherdess was brought out about 1610. See vol. vi. p. 286. Jonson has no reason to be ashamed of his prediction.

→ Epitaph on the countess of Pembroke, &c.] This delicate

Learn'd and fair, and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

epitaph is universally assigned to our author, though it hath never yet been printed with his works: it is therefore with some pleasure, that I have given it a place here. This lady, for whose entertainment sir Philip Sidney wrote the Arcadia, lived to a good old age, and died in 1621. She was buried in the cathedral of Salisbury, in the burial-place of the Pembroke family. WHAL.

The exquisite beauty of this little piece (the most perfect of its kind) has drawn a word of approbation from the stern and cynical Osborne. "Lest I should seem (he says) to trespasse upon truth in the praise of this lady, I shall leave the world her epitaph, in which the author doth manifest himself a poet in all things but untruth."

To the lines in the text, Osborne subjoins the following:

Marble piles let no man raise

To her name, for after days.

Some kind woman, born as she,
Reading this, like Niobe,

Shall turn statue, and become

Both her mourner and her tomb."

On this paltry addition, the editors of the Secret History of the Court of James I., who manifest on all occasions a strange hostility to our author, observe, “It is possible that Jonson cancelled these lines on account of the outrageous wit with which they disgrace the commencement." vol. i. p. 225. It is also possible that Jonson never saw them. Setting aside the absurdity of supposing the poet to say in one line, that such another character would never appear, and to admit in the next that nothing was so likely, the critics ought to have known (for the fact was very accessible) that the verses in question were copied from the poems of the earl of Pembroke, a humble votary of the Muses, to whose pen they are assigned by the prefix of his usual initials. There can, in fact, be no doubt that they proceeded from his lordship, whose singular affection for his venerable parent furnishes a ready apology for their defects.

Whalley has said nothing of the literary merits of the countess of Pembroke, which were of a very distinguished nature. She wrote verse with grace and facility, and she translated the Tragedie of Antonie from the French: her chief works, however, were works of piety, and her virtues still went before her talents.

XVI.

A VISION ON THE MUSES OF HIS FRIEND
MICHAEL DRAYTON.

5

T hath been question'd, Michael, if I be
A friend at all; or, if at all, to thee:

Because, who make the question, have not

seen

Those ambling visits pass in verse, between
Thy Muse and mine, as they expect: 'tis true,
You have not writ to me, nor I to you.
And though I now begin, 'tis not to rub
Hanch against hanch, or raise a rhyming club
About the town; this reckoning I will pay,
Without conferring symbols; this' my day.

It was no dream! I was awake, and saw.
Lend me thy voice, O Fame, that I may draw
Wonder to truth, and have my vision hurl'd
Hot from thy trumpet round about the world.
I saw a beauty, from the sea to rise,

That all earth look'd on, and that earth all eyes!
It cast a beam, as when the cheerful sun

Is fair got up, and day some hours begun;
And fill'd an orb as circular as heaven:
The orb was cut forth into regions seven,
And those so sweet, and well proportion'd parts,
As it had been the circle of the arts:

When, by thy bright Idea standing by,
I found it pure and perfect poesy.

6

5 It hath been question'd, &c.] These lines are prefixed to the second volume of Drayton's works, which came out, in folio, in 1627. They contain, as Whalley observes, "an enumeration of his poems, with our author's testimony to their merits." Jonson always thought favourably of Drayton, and appears, from several incidental expressions, to have been very familiar with his works. 6 When by thy bright Idea, &c.] This is one of Drayton's earliest

There read I, straight, thy learned Legends three,
Heard the soft airs, between our swains and thee,
Which made me think the old Theocritus,

Or rural Virgil come to pipe to us.
But then thy Epistolar Heroic Songs,

Their loves, their quarrels, jealousies and wrongs,
Did all so strike me, as I cried, who can
With us be call'd the Naso, but this man?

And looking up, I saw Minerva's fowl,

Perch'd over head, the wise Athenian Owl :"

I thought thee then our Orpheus, that wouldst try,
Like him, to make the air one volary.

And I had styled thee Orpheus, but before
My lips cou'd form the voice, I heard that roar,
And rouze, the marching of a mighty force,
Drums against drums, the neighing of the horse,
The fights, the cries, and wond'ring at the jars,
I saw and read it was the Barons Wars.

O how in those dost thou instruct these times,
That rebels actions are but valiant crimes;
And carried, though with shout and noise, confess
A wild, and an unauthorized wickedness!
Say'st thou so, Lucan? but thou scorn'st to stay
Under one title: thou hast made thy way

And flight about the isle, well near, by this
In thy admired Periegesis,

Or universal circumduction

Of all that read thy Poly-Olbion ;8

pieces. "Idea, or the Shepherds' Garland, fashioned in nine. eglogs, 1593." The Legends are, I believe, those of "Cromwell," "Mortimer," and "Matilda ;" the Songs are "England's Heroical Epistles," published in 1598.

The Owl.] Published in 4to. 1604. The Barons Wars, 1598. 8 Thy Poly-Olbion.] This is Drayton's principal work, and was once exceedingly popular. It is possessed of considerable merit, and those who may be inclined to smile at its fantastic chorography, may yet be pleased to discover many detached passages of high poetic beauty. Drayton was encouraged to proceed with this

That read it! that are ravish'd; such was I,
With every song, I swear, and so would die;
But that I hear again thy drum to beat
A better cause, and strike the bravest heat
That ever yet did fire the English blood,
Our right in France, if rightly understood.
There thou art Homer; pray thee, use the style
Thou hast deserv'd, and let me read the while
Thy catalogue of ships, exceeding his,
Thy list of aids and force, for so it is :
The poet's act; and for his country's sake,
Brave are the musters that the muse will make.
And when he ships them, where to use their arms,
How do his trumpets breathe! what loud alarms!
Look how we read the Spartans were inflam'd
With bold Tyrtæus' verse; when thou art nam'd,

poem by prince Henry; and Daniel, who also found, in this lamented youth, a generous patron, seems to advert to the circumstance with no great complacency.

The poems, to which Jonson alludes in the subsequent lines, are The Battle of Agincourt, The Miseries of Queen Margaret, the Quest of Cynthia, the Shepherds' Syrene, The Moon Calf, and the wellknown Nymphidia, or the Court of Fairies: all published in 1627.

The following remarks on Drayton by Granger (bating a little extravagance in the opening sentence) are not ill drawn up, and may fitly conclude the notes on the subject of this once celebrated poet.

"The reputation of Drayton, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., stood on much the same level with that of Cowley, in the reigns of Charles I. and II., but it has declined considerably since that period. He frequently wants that elevation of thought which is essential to poetry; though in some of the stanzas of his 'Barons Wars,' he is scarce inferior to Spenser. In his 'England's Heroical Epistles,' written in the manner of Ovid, he has been, in general, happier in the choice, than the execution of his subjects; yet some of his imitations are more in the spirit of that poet, than several of the English translations of him. His 'Nymphidia, or Court of Fayrie,' seems to have been the greatest effort of his imagination, and is the most generally admired of his works. His character among his friends was that of a modest and amiable man. Ob. 1631." Biog. Hist. v. i. pp. 10, 11.