*

*

And though it in the centre sit,

Stranger than seven antiquaries' studiesYet when the other far doth roam,

Than Afric monsters-Guiana's raritiesIt leans, and hearkens after it,

Stranger than strangers. One who for a Dane And grows erect as that comes home.

In the Danes' massacre had sure been slain, Such wilt thou be to me, who must

If he had lived then ; and without help dies Like th' other foot, obliquely run;

When next the 'prentices 'gainst strangers rise.

One whom the watch at noon scarce lets go by ; Thy firmness makes my circles just, And makes me end where I begun.

One to whom th’ examining justice sure would cry,

'Sir, by your priesthood, tell me what you are ? The Wil.

His clothes were strange, though coarse—and black,

though bare; Before I sigh my last gasp, let me breathe,

Sleeveless his jerkin was, and it had been Great Love, some legacies : I here bequeath

Velvet, but 'twas now (so much ground was seen) Mine eyes to Argus, if mine eyes can see;

Become tuff-taffety; and our children shall If they be blind, then, Love, I give them thee;

See it plain rash awhile, then not at all. My tongue to Fame; to ambassadors mine ears;

The thing hath travell’d, and saith, speaks all tongues ; To women, or the sea, my tears ;

And only knoweth what to all states belongs.
Thou, Love, hast taught me heretofore,

Made of the accents and best phrase of these,
By making me serve her who had twenty more,
That I should give to none but such as had too much Art can deceive, or hunger force my taste ;

He speaks one language. If strange meats displease, before.

But pedants' motley tongue, soldiers' bombast, Jy constancy I to the planets give;

Mountebanks' drug-tongue, nor the terms of law, My truth to them who at the court do live;

Are strong enough preparatives to draw Mine ingenuity and openness

Me to bear this. Yet I must be content To Jesuits ; to Buffoons my pensiveness ;

With his tongue, in his tongue called compliment. ' My silence to any who abroad have been ; My money to a Capuchin.

He names me, and comes to me. I whisper, God ! Thou, Love, taught'st me, by appointing me

How have I sinn'd, that thy wrath's furious rod, To love there, where no love received can be,

(This fellow) chooseth me? He saith, 'Sir, Only to give to such as have no good capacity. Ì love your judgment-whom do you prefer . My faith I give to Roman Catholics ;

For the best linguist ?' And I sillily All my good works unto the schismatics

Said, that I thought, Calepine's Dictionary. Of Amsterdam; my best civility

Nay, but of men, most sweet sir ??—Beza then,

Some Jesuits, and two reverend men
And courtship to an university;
My modesty I give to soldiers bare ;

Of our two academies, I named. Here
My patience let gamesters share;

He stopt me, and said, Nay, your apostles were Thou, Love, taught'st me, by making me

Pretty good linguists, and so Panurge was, Lore her that holds my love disparity,

Yet a poor gentleman. All these may pass

By travel.' Then, as if he would have sold Only to give to those that count my gifts indignity.

His tongue, he prais'd it, and such wonders told, I give my reputation to those

That I was fain to say—If you had liv'd, Sir,
Which were my friends; mine industry to foes; Time enough to have been interpreter
To schoolmen i bequeath my doubtfulness;

To Babel's bricklayers, sure the tower had stood.' My sickness to physicians, or excess;

He adds, ' If of court-life you knew the good, To Nature all that I in rhyme have writ!

You would leave loneness.' I said, 'Not alone And to my company my wit :

My loneness is, but Spartans' fashion. Thou, Love, by making me adore

To teach by painting drunkards doth not last Her who begot this love in me before,

Now; Aretine's pictures hare made few chaste; Taught'st me to make as though I gave, when I do but No more can prince's courts (though there be few restore.

Better pictures of vice) teach me virtue.' To him for whom the passing bell next tolls

He, like a high-stretch'd lutestring, squeak’d, 'O, Sir, I give my physic books; my written rolls

'Tis sweet to talk of kings !''At W'estminster, of moral counsels I to Bedlam give;

(Said I) the man that keeps the Abbey-tombs, My brazen medals, unto them which live

And, for his price, doth, with whoerer comes, In want of bread; to them which pass among

Of all our Harrys and our Edwards talk, All foreigners, my English tongue:

From king to king, and all their kin can walk. Thou, Love, by making me love one

Your ears shall hear nought but king—your eyes meet Who thinks her friendship a fit portion

Kings only—the way to it is King street ?' For younger lovers, dost my gifts thus disproportion.

He smack'd and cry'd— He's base, inechanic, coarse,

So are all your Englishmen in their discourse. Therefore I'll give no more, but I'll undo

Are not your Frenchmen neat? Mine ?-as you sec, The world by dying, because love dies too.

I have but one, Sir-look, he follows me. Then all your beauties will be no more worth

Certes, they are neatly cloth’d. I of this mind am, Than gold in mines, where none doth draw it forth, Your only wearing is your grogoram.' And all your graces no more use shall have

Not so, Sir. I have more.' Under this pitch Than a sun-dial in a grave.

He would not fly. I chaf"d him. But as itch Thou, Love, taught'st me, by making me

Scratch'd into smart-and as blunt iron ground Lore her who doth neglect both me and thee, Into an edge hurts worse—80 I (fool !) found To invent and practise this one way to annihilate all Crossing hurt me. To fit my sullenness three.

He to another key his style doth dress, [A Character from Donne's Satires.]

And asks, What news ? I tell him of new plays ;

He takes my hands, and as a still which stays Towards me did run A semibreve 'twixt each drop, he (niggardly, A thing more strange than on Nile's slime the sun As loath to enrich me so) tells rany a lie E'er bred, or all which into Noah's ark came; More than ten Holinsheds, or Halls, or Stowe A thing which would have posed Adam to name. Of trivial household trash he knows. He knows

When the queen frown'd or smild, and he knows what So nothing in his maw! yet seemeth by his belt, A subtle statesman may gather from that.

That his gaunt gut no too much stuffing felt.
He knows who loves whom ; and who by poison Seest thou how sidel it hangs beneath his hip!
Hastes to an office's reversion.

Hunger and heavy iron makes girdles slip.
He knows who hath sold his land, and now doth beg Yet for all that, how stiffly struts he by,
A licence, old iron, boots, shoes, and egg-

All trapped in the new-found bravery.
Shells to transport. Shortly boys shall not play The nuns of new-won Calais his bonnet lent,
At spancounter, or blow point, but shall pay

In lieu of their so kind a conquerment. Toll to some courtier. And (wiser than all us) What needed he fetch that from farthest Spain, He knows what lady is not painted.

His grandame could have lent with lesser pain

Though he perhaps ne'er pass'd the English shore, JOSEPH HALL

Yet fain would counted be a conqueror.

His hair, French-like, stares on his frighted head, JOSEPH Hall, born at Bristow Park, in Leicester- One lock amazon-like dishevelled, shire, in 1574, and who rose through various church | As if he meant to wear a native cord, preferments to be bishop of Norwich, is more dis- If chance his fates should him that bane afford. tinguished as a prose writer than as a poet: he is, All British bare upon the bristled skin, however, allowed to have been the first to write Close notched is his beard, both lip and chin; satirical verse with any degree of elegance. His His linen collar labyrinthian set, satires, which were published under the title of Whose thousand double turnings never met: Virgidemiarum, in 1597-9, refer to general objects, His sleéves half hid with elbow pinionings, and present some just pictures of the more remark. As if he meant to fly with linen wings. able anomalies in human character: they are also But when I look, and cast mine eyes below, written in a style of greater polish and volubility What monster meets mine eyes in human show! than most of the compositions of this age. Bishop So slender waist with such an abbot's loin, Hall, of whom a more particular notice is given Did never sober nature sure conjoin. elsewhere, died in 1656, at the age of eighty-two. Lik'st a strawn scarecrow in the new-gown field,

Reard on some stick, the tender corn to shield, [Selections from Hall's Satires.]

Or, if that semblance suit not every deal,

Like a broad shake-fork with a slender steel.
A gentle equire would gladly entertain
Into his house some trencher-chapelain:
Some willing man that might instruct his sons,
And that would stand to good conditions.

BEN JONSON.
First that he lie upon the truckle-bed,
While his young master lieth o'er his head.

In 1616, Ben Jonson collected the plays he had Second, that he do, on no default,

then written, and published them in one volume, Ever presume to sit above the salt.

folio, adding, at the same time, a book of epiThird, that he never change his trencher twice. grams, and a number of poems, which he entitled Fourth, that he use all common courtesies;

The Forest, and The Underwood. The whole were Sit bare at meals, and one half rise and wait.

comprised in one folio volume, which Jonson digni. Last, that he never his young master beat,

fied with the title of his Works, a circumstance But he must ask his mother to define,

which exposed him to the ridicule of some of his How many jerks he would his breech should line. contemporaries. * It is only with the minor poetry All these observed, he could contented be,

of Jonson that we have to deal at present, as the To give five marks and winter livery.

dramatic productions of this stern old master of the

manly school of English comedy will be afterwards Seest thou how gaily my young master goes,*

described. There is much delicacy of fancy, fine Vaunting himself upon his rising toes;

feeling, and sentiment, in some of Jonson's lyrical And pranks his hand upon his dagger's side;

and descriptive effusions. He grafted a classic grace And picks his glutted teeth since late noon-tide ?

and musical expression on parts of his masques and "Tis Ruffio: Trow'st thou where he dined to-day!

interludes, which could hardly have been expected In sooth I saw him sit with Duke Humphrey.

from his massive and ponderous hand. In some of Many good welcomes, and much gratis cheer,

his songs he equals Carew and Herrick in pictuKeeps he for every straggling cavalier; An open house, haunted with great resort;

resque images, and in portraying the fascinations of

love. A taste for nature is strongly displayed in his Long service mixt with musical disport.t

fine lines on Penshurst, that ancient seat of the Many fair younker with a feather'd crest, Chooses much rather be his shot-free guest,

Sidneys. It has been justly remarked by one of

his critics, that Jonson's dramas do not lead us to To fare so freely with so little cost, Than stake his twelvepence to a meaner host.

value highly enough his admirable taste and feeling Hadst thou not told me, I should surely say

in poetry; and when we consider how many other He touch'd no meat of all this live-long day.

intelleotual excellences distinguished him-wit, obFor sure methougbt, yet that was but a guess,

servation, judgment, memory, learning-we must His eyes seem’d sunk for very hollowness,

acknowledge that the inscription on his tomb, “ ()

rare Ben Jonson !" But could he hare (as I did it mistake)

not more pithy than it is

true.' So little in his purse, so much upon his back !

1 * This is the portrait of a poor gallant of the days of Elizabeth.

Long, or low. In St Paul's Cathedral, then an open public place, there was a

* An epigram addressed to him on the subject is as follows: tomb erroneously supposed to be that of Humphrey, Duke of

Pray tell us, Ben, where does the mystery lurk, Gloucester, which was the resort of gentlemen upon town in

What others call a play you call a work that day, who had oocasion to look out for a dinner. When

On behalf of Jonson an answer was returned, which seems to unsuccessful in getting an invitation, they were said to dine glance at the labour which Jonson bestowed on all his producwith Duke Humphrey.

tions† An allusion to the church service to be heard near Duke The author's friend thus for the author says Humphrey's tomb.

Ben's plays are works, wbile others' works are plays

Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport;
Thy mount to which the dryads do resort,
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made
Beneath the broad beech, and the chestnut shade;
That taller tree which of a nut was set
At his great birth where all the Muses met.

Good Life, Long Life.
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be,
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear,
A lily of a day
Is fairer far, in May,
Although it fall and die that night,
It was the plant and flower of light!
In small proportions we just beauties see:
And in short measures life may perfect be.

Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke.
Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair, and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.
Would'st thou hear what man say
In a little !reader, stay.
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbour give
To more virtue than doth live.
If at all she had a fault,
Leave it buried in this vault.
One name was Elizabeth,
The other let it sleep with death :
Fitter, where it died, to tell,
Than that it lived at all. Farewell !

Penshurst.
On my First Daughter.

There, in the writhed bark, are cut the names
Here lies to each her parents ruth,

Of many a Sylvan token with his flames. Mary, the daughter of their youth:

And thence the ruddy Satyrs oft provoke Yet all heaven's gifts being heaven's due,

The lighter Fauns to reach thy Ladies' Oak. It makes the father less to rue.

Thy copse, too, named of Gamage, thou hast here At six months' end she parted hence

That never fails, to serve thee, season'd deer, With safety of her innocence;

When thou would'st feast or exercise thy friends. Whose soul heaven's queen (whose name shc bca:s.) The lower land that to the river bends, In comfort of her mother's tears,

Thy sheep, thy bullocks, kine, and calves do feed: Hath placed among her virgin train :

The middle ground thy mares and horses breed. Where, while that sever'd doth remain,

Each bank doth yield thee conies, and the tops This grave partakes the fleshly birth,

Fertile of wood. Ashore, and Sidney's copse, Which cover lightly, gentle earth.

To crown thy open table doth provide

The purpled pheasant, with the speckled side:
To Penshurst.*

The painted partridge lies in every field,
[From • The Forest.")

And, for thy mess, is willing to be kill'd.

And if the high-swollen Medway fail thy dish, Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show Thou hast thy ponds that pay thee tribute fish, Of touch or marble; nor canst boast a row

Fat, aged carps that run into thy net, Of polish'd pillars, or a roof of gold:

And pikes, now weary their own kind to eat, Thou hast no lantern, whereof tales are told ; As loath the second draught or cast to stay, Or stair, or courts ; but stand'st an ancient pile, Officiously, at first, themselves betray. And these grudg’d at, are reverenced the while. Bright eels that emulate them, and leap on land, Thou joy'st in better marks of soil and air,

Before the fisher, or into his hand. Uf wood, of water; therein thou art fair.

Thou hast thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers, * Penshurst is situated in Kent, near Tunbridge, in a wide and The early cherry with the later plum,

Fresh as the air, and new as are the hours. rich valley. The grey walls and turrets of the old mansion; its Fig, grape, and quince, each in his time doth come : high-peaked and red roofs, and the new buildings of fresh stone, mingled with the ancient fabric, present a very striking and The blushing apricot and woolly peach venerable aspect. It is a fitting abode for the noble Sidneys. Hang on thy walls that every child may reach. The park contains trees of enormous growth, and others to And though thy walls be of the country stone, which past events and characters have given an everlasting They're rear’d with no man's ruin, no man's groan ; interest ; as Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, Saccharissa's Walk, Ga- There's none that dwell about them wish them down; mage's Bower, &c. The ancient massy oak tables remain ; and But all come in, the farmer and the clown, from Jonson's description of the hospitality of the family, they And no one empty handed, to salute must often have groaned with the weight of the feast.' Mr Thy lord and lady, though they have no suit. William Howitt has given an interesting account of Penshurst Soine bring a capon, some a rural cake, in his Visits to Remarkable Places, 1810.

Some nuts, some apples ; some that think they make

The better cheeses, bring them, or else send

That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses,
By their ripe daughters, whom they would commend I mean with great but disproportion’d Muses :
This way to husbands; and whose baskets bear For if I thought my judgment were of years,
An emblem of themselves, in plum or pear.

I should commit thee surely with thy peers, But what can this (more than express their love) And tell how far thou didst our Lyly outshine, Add to thy free provisions, far above

Or sporting Kyd or Marlowe's mighty line. The need of such? whose liberal board doth flow And though thou had small Latin and less Greek, With all that hospitality doth know !

From thence to honour thee I will not seek Where comes no guest but is allow'd to eat

For names ; but call forth thund'ring Eschylus, Without his fear, and of thy lord's own meat : Euripides, and Sophocles to us, Where the same beer, and bread, and self-same wine Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, That is his lordship's shall be also mine.

To live again, to hear thy buskin tread, And I not fain to sit (as some this day

And shake a stage : or when thy socks were on, At great men's tables) and yet dine away.

Leave thee alone for the comparison
Here no man tells my cups; nor, standing by, Of all, that insolent Greece or haughty Rome
A waiter doth my gluttony enry:

Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
But gives me what I call, and lets me eat;

Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, He knows below he shall find plenty of meat ;

To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. Thy tables hoard not up for the next day,

He was not of an age, but for all time! Nor, when I take my lodging, need I pray

And all the Muses still were in their prime,
For fire, or lights, or livery; all is there,

When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
As if thou, then, wert mine, or I reign’d here. Our ears, or like a Mercury, to charm !
There's nothing I can wish, for which I stay. Nature herself was proud of his designs,
This found King James, when hunting late this way And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines !
With his brave son, the Prince ; they saw thy fires Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
Shine bright on every hearth, as the desires

As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.
Of thy Penates had been set on flame

The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes,
To entertain them; or the country came,

Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please ;
With all their zeal, to warm their welcome here. But antiquated and deserted lie,
What (great, I will not say, but) sudden cheer As they were not of nature's family,
Did'st thou then make them ! and what praise was Yet must I not give nature all ; thy art,
heap'd

My gentle Shakspeare, must enjoy a part.
On thy good lady then, who therein reap'd

For though the poet's matter nature be, The just reward of her high housewifery ;

His art doth give the fashion; and, that he To have her linen, plate, and all things nigh, Who casts to write a living line, must sweat When she was far; and not a room but drest

(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat As if it had expected such a guest !

Upon the Muses' anvil ; turn the same,
These, Penshurst, are thy praise, and yet not all; And himself with it, that he thinks to frame;
Thy lady's noble, fruitful, chaste withal.

Or for the laurel, he may gain a scorn ;
His children

For a good poet's made as well as born. have been taught religion; thence And such wert thou ! Look how the father's face Their gentler spirits have suck'd innocence.

Lives in his issue, even so the race Each inorn and even they are taught to pray, Of Shakspeare's mind and manners brightly shines With the whole household, and may, every day, In his well turned and true filed lines : Read, in their virtuous parents' noble parts,

In each of which he seems to shake a lance,
The mysteries of manners, arms, and arts.

As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance.
Now, Penshurst, they that will proportion thee Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were
With other edifices, when they see

To see thee in our water yet appear,
Those proud ambitious heaps, and nothing else, And make those flights upon the banks of Thames
May say their lords have built, but thy lord dwells. That so did take Eliza and our James !

But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere
To the Memory of my beloved Master, William Shak- Advanced, and made a constellation there !

Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage,
speare, and what he hath left us.

Or influence, chide, or cheer the drooping stage, To draw no envy, Shakspeare, on thy name,

Which since thy flight from hence hath inourned liko Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;

night, While I confess thy writings to be such

And despairs day, but for thy volume's light !
As neither man nor Muse can praise too much.
Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways

On the Portrait of Shakspeare.
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise ;
For silliest ignorance on these would light,

(Under the frontispiece to the first edition of his works : 1623] Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;

This figure that thou here seest put, Ur blind affection, which doth ne'er advance

It was for gentle Shakspeare cut, The truth, but gropes, and urges all by chance ;

Wherein the graver had a strife Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,

With nature, to outdo the life : And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise.

O could he but have drawn his wit, But thou art proof against them, and, indeed,

As well in brass, as he hath hit Above the ill fortune of them, or the need.

His face; the print would then surpass I therefore will begin : Soul of the age !

All that was ever writ in brass : The applanse, delight, the wonder of our stage !

But since he cannot, reader, look
My Shakspeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by

Not on his picture but his book.*
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further off, to make thee room :

* This attestation of Ben Jonson to the first engraved por. Thou art a monument without a tomb,

trait of Shakspeare, seems to prove its fidelity as a likeness. And art alive still, while thy book doth live,

The portrait corresponds with the monumental effigy at StratAnd we have wits to read, and praise to give ford, but both represent a heavy and somewhat inelegant

*