fecond epigram is on the lofs of this daughter, who died when fix months old; and the forty-fifth is on the decease of his fon, at the age of feven years.

His perfon was corpulent and large; and his face, if we may believe his admirers, resembled Menander's, as the head of that poet is reprefented upon antient gems and medals: in like manner Vida is faid to have refembled Virgil. His difpofition was referved, and faturnine; and fometimes not a little oppreffed with the gloom of a fplenetic imagination. He told Drummond, as an inftance of this, that he had lain a whole night fancying he saw the Carthaginians and Romans, Turks, and † f Tartars, fighting on his great toe. He hath been often reprefented as of an envious, arrogant, over-bearing temper, and infolent and haughty in his converfe: but these ungracious drawings were the performance of his enemies; who certainly were not follicitous to give a flattering likeness in their portraits of the original. But confidering the provocations he received, with the mean and contemptible talents of thofe who opposed him, what we condemn as vanity or conceit, might be only the exertions of confcious and infulted merit. He was laborious and indefatigable in his ftudies, his reading was copious and extensive; his memory so tenacious and ftrong, that when turned of forty, he could have repeated all that he had ever wrote: his judgment accurate and folid; and often confulted by thofe who knew him well, in branches of very curious learning, and far remote from the flowery paths loved and frequented by the mufes. The lord Falkland, in his elegy, celebrates him as an admirable fcholar; and faith, that the extracts he took, and the obfervations which he made on the books he read, were themselves a treasure of learning, though the originals fhould happen to be loft. In his friendships he was cautious and fincere, yet accufed of levity and ingratitude to his friends: but his accufers were the criminals; in

fenfible of the charms, and ftrangers to the privileges of friendship. For the powers of friendship, not the leaft of virtues, can be only experienced by the virtuous and good; and with thefe Jonfon was happily connected in the bonds of intimacy and affection. Randolph and Cartwright revered him as the great reformer, and as the father of the British stage; and gloried in the honorary title of his adopted fons: and Selden hath acknowledged the good offices which Jonfon did him by his intereft at court, when he had incurred the royal displeasure by publishing his History of Tithes. Stern and rigid as his virtue was, this Cato of poets was eafy and focial in the convivial meetings of his friends; and the laws of his Sympofia, infcribed over the chimney of the Apollo, a room in the Devil-Tavern near TempleBar, where he kept his club, fhew us that he was neither averfe to the pleafures of converfation, nor ignorant of what would render it agreeable and improving. It is true that he was fparing in his commendations of the works of others, which probably gave occafion to accufe him of envy, and ill nature; but when he commends, he commends with fincerity and warmth. A man of fenfe is always cautious in giving characters; nor will an honeft man applaud where he cannot approve; and Jonfon well knew the people may admire, but to praife is an act of knowledge and of judgment.

In 1640 the volume of plays and poems, which was published in his life-time, was reprinted; and there was added to it another volume in folio, containing the reft of his Plays, Mafques, and Entertainments, with a tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry, his English Grammar, and the Difcoveries. But befides what is contained in thefe two volumes, there are copies of Verses written by Jonfon, prefixed to the plays and compofitions of his friends. To what I could find moft confiderable of thefe, I have here given a place among the Epigrams, where I have inferted likewife a fatire

upon

upon Inigo Jones, which is now firft printed from a manufcript; and I would have added his commendatory Verfes prefixed to May's Tranflation of Lucan, had I been poffeffed of the book in proper time. At the end of this life, is a copy of the warrant for creating him Poet Laureat, which I was favoured with by the late Dr. Rawlinson, who was poffeffed of the original: and to that is fubjoined the licence for acting, granted by James the First, to the company at the Globe, where many of Jonfon's plays were performed, which is extracted from Rymer's Fadera. Mr. Wood in the catalogue of Jonfon's writings, mentions a piece, which he calls his Motives in 1622, 8vo. I have not been able to meet with it; and as Mr. Wood is the only perfon who afcribes this piece to him, it is poffible he hath mistaken the real author: fince he alfo affigns to Jonfon the tragedy of Thierry King of France, which was written by Beaumont and Fletcher.

By the death of Jonfon his family itself became extinct, the only iffue he left being his Plays and Poems; and their fate hath in fome measure refembled his. Yet fuch is the felicity of their better fortunes, that furviving the attacks of envious contemporary rivals, they have received from the juftice of difcerning unprejudiced pofterity, a fair, and an increasing fame. With those, whofe tafte for fimple and ftriking copies of nature, is yet uncorrupted by the faftidious delicacy of fashionable refinements, the works of Jonfon ftand high in esteem: and as they are read from age to age, they will perpetuate his name with all the honours which his genius and his learning deserve.

CHARLES

CHARLES, R.

HARLES, by the grace of God, Kinge of

fender of the faith, &c. to the Theafurer, Chancellour, under Theasurer, Chamberlens, and Barons of the Exchequer of vs, our heirs and fucceffours, now beinge, and that hereafter shall be, and to all other the officers and minifters of the said court, and of the receipt there now beinge, and that hereafter shall be ; and to all others to whom these prefents fhall come, or to whom it fhall or may apperteyn, greeting. Whereas our late moft deare father King James of happy memorie, by his letters pattents under the great feale of England, bearing date at Westminster, the firit day of February, in the thirteenth year of his reign of England (for the confiderations therein expreffed) did give and graunt unto our well beloved fervaunt, Benjamin Johnfon, one annuitie or yearly penfion of one hundred marks of lawful money of Englande, during his life, to be paid out of the faid Exchequer, at the feaft of the Anunciation of the bleffed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of St. John Baptift, St. Michael the Archangel, and the birth of our Lord God, quarterly, as by the faid letters patents more at large may appear. Which annuity or penfion, together with the faid letters patents, the faid Benjamin Johnson hath lately furrendred vnto vs. Know yee nowe, that wee, for divers good confiderations vs at this prefent especially movinge, and in confideration of the good and acceptable fervice, done vnto vs and our faid father by the faid Benjamin Johnfon, and efpecially to encourage him to proceede in thofe fervices of his witt and penn, which wee have enjoined vnto him, and which we expect from him, are graciously

ciously pleased to augment and encrease the faid annuitie or penfion of one hundred marks, vnto an annuitie of one hundred pounds of lawful money of England for his life. And for the better effecting thereof of our especial grace, certen knowledge and meer motion, we have given and graunted, and by these prefents for us, our heirs and fucceffors, upon the furrender aforefaid, do give and graunt unto the faid Benjamin Johnfon, one annuitie or yearly penfion of one hundred pounds of England by the year, to have, hold, and yearly to receive the faid annuitie or yearly penfion of one hundred pounds of lawful money of England by the year, unto the faid Benjamin Johnson or his affignes, from the feaft of our Lord God laft past, before the date hereof, for and during the natural life of him the faid Benjamin Johnfon, at the receipt of the Exchequer of vs, our heirs, and fucceffours, out of the treasure of vs, our heirs and fucceffours, from time to time there remayning, by the Theafurer and Chamberlens of vs, our heirs, and fucceffours there, for the time beinge, at the forefaid foure ufual terms. of the year (that is to fay) at the feaft of the Annntiation of the bleffed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of St. John the Baptift, St. Michael the Archangel, and the Birth of our Lord God, by even and equal portions quarterly to be paid. The first payment thereof to begin at the feaft of the Annuntiation of the bleffed Virgin Mary, next before the date of these prefents. Wherefore our will and pleasure is, and we do by these prefents for vs, our heirs and fucceffors, require, command, and authorife the faid Theafurer, Chancellour, under Theafurer, Chamberlens, and Barons, and other officers and minifters of the faid Exchequer, now and for the time being, not only to paie or caufe to be paide vnto the faid Benjamin Johnfon, or his affignes the faid annuitie or yearly penfion of one hundred pounds of lawful money of

Eng