XIV. TO MR. JOHN FLETCHER, UPON HIS FAITHFUL HE wise, and many-headed bench, that sits Lady or pucelle, that wears mask or fan, With the shop's foreman, or some such brave spark 3 Or moths shall eat what all these fools admire.3 XV. EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. 4 NDERNEATH this sable herse Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother; 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, 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, 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 5 T hath been question'd, Michael, if I be Because, who make the question, have not seen Those ambling visits pass in verse, between It was no dream! I was awake, and saw. That all earth look'd on, and that earth all eyes! Is fair got up, and day some hours begun; When, by thy bright Idea standing by, 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, Or rural Virgil come to pipe to us. Their loves, their quarrels, jealousies and wrongs, 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, And I had styled thee Orpheus, but before O how in those dost thou instruct these times, And flight about the isle, well near, by this 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, 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. |