Against the Globe, the glory of the Bank.] The Globe playhouse, situated on the Bank-side, burnt down about this time.-WHAL. That was raked up in the Winchestrian Bred on the Bank in time of Popery, Nay, sighed a sister, Venus' nun, Kate Kindled the fire!-but then, did one return, If that were so, thou rather wouldst advance much regretted: but the destruction of the History of Henry V., which was so nearly completed, must ever be considered as a serious About what time? The only notice which we misfortune. The vigour and masculine elegance have of this poem is found in a letter by Howell of Jonson's style, the clearness of his judgment, "to his father, Master Ben Jonson," dated 27th the precision of his intelligence, aided by the June, 1629. Desiring you to look better here-intimate knowledge of domestic and general after to your charcoal fire and chimney, which I am glad to be one that preserved from burning, this being the second time that Vulcan hath threatened you;-it may be because you have spoken ill of his wife, and been too busy with his horns; I rest your son, &c." Here the allusion is evidently to the first ten lines of the "Execration:" but this decides nothing with respect to the period of its first appearance. The date of the fire at the Globe can be distinctly ascertained from a letter of Mr. Chamberlaine to Sir Ralph Winwood, among the State papers. "The burning of the Globe, or Playhouse on the Bankside, on St. Peter's day, cannot escape you; which fell out by a peale of chambers, that I know not upon what occasion were to be used in the play-the tompin or stopple of one of them lighting in the thatch that covered the house, burned it down to the ground in less than two hours, with a dwelling-house adjoining; and it was a great marvaile and fair grace of God that the people had so little harm, having but two narrow doors to get out." July 8th, 1613. It is useless to inquire why Jonson, whose memory, though less retentive than formerly; was yet perhaps sufficiently strong, remained inactive; but with the exception of the two fragments just mentioned, he apparently made no effort to repair his loss. The Journey into Scotland was the ever memorable visit to Drummond, "that false friend," as Chetwood calls him, "who treats the memory of Ben as if he were an idle madman." Drummond could not appear more base than he now does-but, such was the honest warmth and affection of Jonson-had this poem survived, his admirers would not have dared to insult the common sense and feeling of mankind by terming the splenetic hypocrite the friend of Jonson. The Rape of Proserpine may not perhaps be history possessed by Carew (George, Lord Carew), Cotton, and Selden, three of the most learned men of that or any other age, could not have been exerted without producing a work of which, if spared to us, we might be justly proud. Of the value of the philological collections of twenty-four years, some idea may be formed from what remains of the Discoveries or notes on the Poetics of Aristotle and Horace; and the gleanings in Divinity, if they had not answered a nobler and better purpose, would at least serve to bring additional shame on those who, in defiance of so many proofs to the contrary, spitefully persist in accusing the poet of a marked indifference to religion, or, yet worse, of a restless tendency to ridicule and profane it. ? I saw with two poor chambers taken in.] i.e. destroyed with two small pieces of ordnance. 3 And this a sparkle of that fire let loose, That was raked up in the Winchestrian goose, Bred on the Bank in time of Popery, When Venus there maintained the mystery.] Anciently the Bank-side was a continued row of in the time of Henry VIII. As this place was brothels, which were put down by proclamation within the limits of the Bishop of Winchester's jurisdiction, a person who had suffered in venereal combats, was opprobriously called a Winchester goose.-WHAL. [Venus' nun, Kate Arden. This is taken from Marlowe "So lovely fair was Hero, Venus' nun, As Nature wept, thinking she was outdone." Kate Arden is mentioned before, in the Epigram cxxxiii. p. 261 a.-F. C.Jiz He burnt that idol of the Revels too. Nay, let Whitehall with revels have to do, Though but in dances, it shall know his power; There was a judgment shewn too in an hour. He is right Vulcan still! he did not spare Troy, though it were so much his Venus' care. Fool, wilt thou let that in example come? Did not she save from thence to build a Rome? And what hast thou done in these petty spites, More than advanced the houses and their rites? I will not argue thee, from those, of guilt, For they were burnt but to be better built: 'Tis true that in thy wish they were destroyed, Which thou hast only vented, not enjoyed. So wouldst thou've run upon the Rolls by stealth,1 And didst invade part of the commonwealth, In those records, which, were all chronicles gone, Would be remembered by Six Clerks to one. naces; play-house, which likewise suffered by fire about this time.-WHAL. Again! about this time. This is a very convenient mode of fixing events. But the Fortune was not burnt down till more than eight years after the Globe, that is, not till 1621. It appears from Heywood's English Travellers, that this theatre took its name from a figure of Fortune : "Old Lio. Sirrah, come down. To live in sea-coal, and go forth in smoke; Foot (out in Sussex), to an iron mill; Or in the Bellman's lanthorn, like a spy, And there made swords, bills, glaves, and arms your fill: Maintained the trade at Bilboa, or elsewhere, Strook in at Milan with the cutlers there; Or stayed but where the friar and you first met, Who from the devil's arse did guns beget; Or fixt in the Low Countries, where you might On both sides do your mischiefs with delight: Engines of murder, and enjoy the praise gave his plays the title of Works, than Shakspeare, Fletcher, Shirley, or any other writer; nor is there a single instance of such a fact in existence. The whole matter is, that, when he collected his various pieces, consisting of Comedies, Tragedies, Masques, Entertainments, Epigrams, and a selection of Poetry, under the name of Forest, with equal taste and judgment, and with a classical contempt of the mountebank titles of his time, he called the multifarious Reig. Not till my pardon's sealed: I'll rather assemblage simply "The works of Ben Jonson." stand here, Like a statue, in the full front of house In the preface to this comedy, Heywood says, "that modesty prevents him from exposing his plays to the public view in numerous sheets, and a large volume, under the title of works, as others." Here, says the Biographia Dramatica, a stroke was probably aimed at Ben Jonson, who gave his plays the pompous title of "Works." This stupid falsehood has been repeated a thousand times. Jonson no more For this proof of his good sense, he was slandered even in his own time; and the charge of arrogance and vanity is, in ours, still repeated from fool to fool. This alludes to a fire which took place in the Six 1 So wouldst thou've run upon the rolls, &c.] Clerks' Office; but I cannot specify the date of it: nor of that at Whitehall [Jan. 12, 1619-see ante, p. 212 a], mentioned in the preceding page. 2 'Bove all your fireworks had at Ephesus And Alexandria.] The burning of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and the library at Alexandria.-WHAL. With all the dirty pains those citizens take, To see the pride at Court, their wives do make; And the return those thankful courtiers yield, To have their husbands drawn forth to the field, And coming home to tell what acts were done Under the auspice of young Swinnerton." 1 Old Æsop Gundomar.] Gundomar appears not to have owed many obligations to nature: he was however a shrewd politician, and a bold and able negociator. He was dreaded by the court, and disliked by the people, of which we have sufficient proof in the repeated attacks made upon him by the dramatic poets, the true mirrors of their times. [My friend Senor Pascual de Gayangos informs me that some few years ago he had an opportunity of examining the library of Count Gondomar. There were several English books, and among them a tall and well-preserved copy But on thy practice and the posture book. He that but saw thy curious captain's drill, Would think no more of Flushing or the Brill, But give them over to the common ear, For that unnecessary charge they were. Well did thy crafty clerk and knight, Sir Hugh Supplant bold Panton, and brought there to view Translated Ælian's tactics to be read, So in that ground, as soon it grew to be O happy art! and wise epitome The battles of thy Aldermanity; Go on, increased in virtue and in fame, Insert thy Hodges, and those newer men, As Stiles, Dike, Ditchfield, Millar, Crips, and Fen: From the tempestuous grandlings, who'll Us, in our bearing, that are thus and thus, Why are we rich or great, except to show The hawking language? or our day to With citizens? let clowns and tradesmen breed Their sons to study arts, the laws, the We will believe like men of our own rank, Inquiry of the worth; so must we do, him too: For there are many slips and counterfeits.? And as within your office1 you do take Our ancestors imposed on prince and state. No piece of money, but you know, or make Let poor nobility be virtuous: we, Descended in a rope of titles, be From Guy, or Bevis, Arthur, or from whom The herald will: our blood is now become Past any need of virtue. Let them care, That in the cradle of their gentrie are, To serve the state by councils and by arms: We neither love the troubles nor the harms. What love you then? your whore; what study? gait, Carriage, and dressing. There is up of late All that they do at Plays. O but first here But why are all these irons in the fire, 1 And as within your office, &c.] It appears that this gentleman was one of the principal clerks in the Exchequer. I find several of his nets; But these with wearing will themselves unfold, They cannot last. No lie grew ever old. Turn him, and see his threads; look if he be Friend to himself that would be friend to thee. For that is first required, a man be his f LXV. AN EPIGRAM ON SIR EDWARD COKE,1 He that should search all Glories of the And steps of all raised servants of the crown, He could not find than thee, of all that store, Whom Fortune aided less or virtue more. And that thy strong and manly eloquence Stood up thy nation's fame, her crown's defence; And now such is thy stand, while thou Desired justice to the public weal, draws No less of praise, than readers, in all kinds Of worthiest knowledge that can take men's minds, Such, Coke, were thy beginnings, when Such is thy All, that, as I sung before, thy good In others evil best was understood: When, being the stranger's help, the poor man's aid, Thy just defences made th' oppressor Such was thy process, when integrity, cause, None Fortune aided less, or virtue more. eyes, LXVI. AN EPISTLE, ANSWERING TO ONE THAT Men that are safe and sure in all they do, am tempted to think this proceeded from the same poetic mint.-WHAL. 1 An Epigram on Sir Edward Coke.] Ad-lowed himself of coining an expressive word, I dressed to him probably when he was created Lord Chief Justice, in the year 1606.-WHAL. Whalley assigns too early a date to this Epigram; Coke was, as he says, created Lord Chief Justice in 1606; but it was of the Common Pleas : he did not take the style of Lord Chief Justice of England, till he was advanced to the King's Bench in 1613, when he was in his sixty-fifth year. Jonson follows the style of Sir Edward in giving him this title, which he appears to have affected, and which James objected to his assuming "He calls himself in his books," the king says, "Lord Chief Justice of England, whereas he can challenge no more but Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench." This great lawyer did not bear his faculties meekly. His proud and overbearing spirit involved him in various prosecutions; his office was taken from him in 1616, and the residue of his life was spent in a strange and rapid alternation of favour and disgrace, of turbulence and submisssion. He died in 1634 at the age of eighty-six had it been his good fortune to follow his royal mistress to the grave, he would have come down to us not only as one of the most eminent lawyers this country ever produced, but as one of the most dignified and respectable characters of his age. As a composition, this Epigram boasts considerable merit. It is vigorous and manly; has truth for its basis, and characterizes both the author and his works with discrimination and judgment. I suppose it to be written in 1613. Like Solon's self, explat'st the knotty laws With endless labour, &c.] I never yet met with the word explat'st, but do not take upon me to pronounce it a corruption. When I consider the licence which Jonson sometimes al Whalley is wrong. Jonson sometimes uses a Latin word, but then he prints it in a different character: his latinisms are those of his contemporaries. All our old writers use pleat, plight, for wreath, curl, fold, &c. from plico: expleat is as correctly formed from explico, to open, smooth, display, &c. Explation, a kindred word, is in Cole, and displeat and unpleat are sufficiently common in our old poets. Explica frontem is rendered by Jo. Davies, in his eclogue, 1620, "Unpleat thy brow." [The adjective explete is in the Manipulus Vocabulorum of Peter Levins, a curious old Rhyming Dictionary of 1570, which has been reprinted and most carefully edited by Mr. H. B. Wheatley.-F. C.] 3 An Epistle, &c.] This appears from internal evidence to have been written not long before the death of James. It was the practice of the older poets, upon request, to adopt young men of talents in whose reputation, or success in life, by a species of patronage or filiation, they became warmly interested. Jonson had many honour of becoming such (probably to Randolph sons of this kind, and to an aspirant for the The number of his adopted progeny is alluded to or Cleveland) he addresses the above Epistle. in the foolish expression of one that asked," &c. which do the poet great credit. The sentiments There is a spirit and vigour in this Epistle higher philosophy. It wants the smoothness and are manly, and some of them drawn from the the artificial rhythm of these times; but what poem of equal length, of these times, possesses such depth of thought and force of expression? |