If all the vulgar tongues that speak this day Such passage hast thou found, such returns made, XXI. TO MY CHOSEN FRIEND, THE LEARNED TRANSLATOR Of Lucan, W HEN, Rome, I read thee in thy mighty pair, It makes me, ravish'd with just wonder, cry mond's Works," he coolly says, at the bottom of page 244: but has he seen them? The fact is, that the passage in question is a wicked fabrication, put into Drummond's mouth by Shiels, the Scotchman, the author of the Lives of the Poets which pass under the name of Theophilus Cibber. "Now this is worshipful authority"!-but it does very well in Jonson's case, and is, indeed, quite as worthy of notice, and quite as authentic, as most of the matter brought against him. Taught Lucan these true modes! replies my sense, 5 i. e. Hermes. This complimentary poem, which is signed "Your true friend in judgment and choice, Ben Jonson," is prefixed to May's Translation of Lucan, 1627. May, with whom our author appears to have always lived on terms of the strictest friendship, is selected by Macklin, with his usual good fortune, to father one of his scurrilous attacks upon Jonson; much to the satisfaction of Mr. Steevens, who exults in the clumsy forgery as a decisive proof of "old Ben's malignity to Shakspeare." May published a continuation of Lucan in 1630, which was reprinted in Holland, 1640, with this title: Supplementum Lucanı authore Tho. May, Anglo. The first edition has never fallen in my way; the second is prefaced by the following lines, written, as I conjecture, by our author, though the foreign press has copied his name incorrectly. Dignissimo Amico suo summè honorando. Terge parentales oculos, post funera mundi Auctior, et damnis stat veneranda magis XXII. TO MY DEAR SON, AND RIGHT LEARNED FRIEND, OU look, my Joseph, I should something say You know, I never was of truth afeard, Concluded from a caract to a dram.6 6 These lines are placed before the Shepherd's Holiday, a Pas XXIII. EPIGRAM. IN AUTHOREM.7 HOU, that wouldst find the habit of true. passion, And see a mind attir'd in perfect strains; Not wearing moods, as gallants do a fashion, In these pied times, only to shew their trains, Look here on Breton's work, the master print, Where such perfections to the life do rise; If they seem wry to such as look asquint, The fault's not in the object, but their eyes. For, as one coming with a lateral view, Unto a cunning piece wrought perspective, Wants faculty to make a censure true; So with this author's readers will it thrive; Which being eyed directly, I divine, His proof their praise 'll incite, as in this line. toral Drama, published in 1635. May joined with Jonson in commendation of this piece, which is favourably noticed by Langbaine. Rutter, who was probably a man of learning, was tutor to the son of the earl of Dorset, lord chamberlain, and therefore much about the court. He is said to have translated the Cid of Corneille, at the command of Charles I. In Authorem.] This Epigram is printed before a poem of that indefatigable writer, Nicholas Breton, called "Melancholike humours, in verses of diverse natures." 1600. XXIV. TO THE WORTHY AUTHOR, ON THE HUSBAND.8 T fits not only him that makes a book The art of uttering wares, if they were bad; XXV. TO THE AUTHOR.9 N picture, they which truly understand, All which are parts commend the cunning hand 8 The poem to which these lines are prefixed, is one of the numerous effusions to which that popular production, The Wife of sir Thomas Overbury, gave rise. The name of the writer is unknown; the poem itself is extremely rare indeed, I am not aware of the existence of any other copy than that from which the above transcript was made, in the collection of Mr. Hill. The title of the work is "The Husband: a poem expressed in a complete man.” 1614, 8vo. 9 This sonnet stands before a work, by Thomas Wright, called "The Passions of the Mind in general. 1604, and 1620," 4to. |