Gentle., Mast. John Webster Gentleman, Ma. Thomas Heywood Gentleman, M. Thomas Middleton, Master George Withers.

[Annales, or Generall Chronicle of England, 1631, p. 811.]

James Shirley, 1631.

Hip[polito]. . . . Are you melancholy? a masque is prepared, and music to charm Orpheus himself into a stone; numbers presented to your ear that shall speak the soul of the immortal English Jonson

.

[Love's Cruelty, II, ii.]

Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, 1631.
So let His liegiers with the poets joyne;
Both having shares, both must in grief combine:
Whil'st Johnson forceth with his elegie
Teares from a griefe-unknowing Scythian's eye,
(Like Moses, at whose stroke the waters gusht
From forth the rock and like a torrent rusht).

[An Elegy on Dr. Donne, reprinted in Miscellanies of The Fuller Worthies'
Library, ed. A. B. Grosart, iii, 381.]

Master Allott

The Stationers' Registers, 1631.

7° September.

Assigned over unto him by a note under the hand of
Master John Waterson a booke called The stapell of
Newes written by Master Ben: Johnson..

this note was subscribed by Master
Islip and master Smithwicke Wardens

[Arber's Transcript, iv, 260.]

Proposed Edition, 1631?

vjd

Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedie, Acted in the Yeare, 1614. By the Lady Elizabeths Servants. And then dedicated to King Iames, of most Blessed Memorie; By the Author, Beniamin Iohnson. . . . London, Printed by I. B. for Robert Allot, and are to be sold at the signe of the Beare, in Pauls Church-yard.

The Diuell is an Asse: A Comedie Acted in the Yeare, 1616. By His Maiesties Servants. The Author Ben: Iohnson. .

London, Printed by I. B. for Robert Allott . . . 1631.

The Staple of Newes. A Comedie Acted in the Yeare, 1625. By His Maiesties Servants. The Author Ben: Iohnson. . . London, Printed by I. B. for Robert Allot . . . 1631.

[These three plays, printed in folio, with continuous signatures, seem to have been designed for a second volume of Jonson's Workes as originally issued in 1616; some copies were apparently bound up, without a general title-page (a copy, thus originally bound, is in the possession of one of the editors of this Allusion-Book). All three plays were later included in the folio volume of 1640, which, though it contains in addition The Magnetic Lady, A Tale of a Tub, The Sad Shepherd, and Mortimer His Fall, has the title The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1 Bartholomew Fayre. 2 The Staple of Newes. 3 The Diell is an Asse.]

Thomas Heywood, 1631.

To the Reader.

Curteous Reader, my plaies have not beene exposed to the publicke view of the world in numerous sheets, and a large volume, but singly (as thou seest) with great modesty and small noise.

[Prefixed to The Fair Maid of the West. Heywood elsewhere takes occasion to refer adversely to Jonson's issuing his plays under the title of Workes.]

London City Records, 1631.

Jovis decimo die novembris 1631, Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Angliae, etc., septimo.

Item: it is ordered by this Court that Mr. Chamberlen shall forbeare to pay any more fee or wages unto Benjamine Johnson the Citties Chronologer until he shall have presented unto this Court some fruits of his labours in that his place.

[Extract from the City Records, Rep. No. 46, fol. 8. See Jonson's interesting letter to the Earl of Newcastle, December 10, 1631, printed in the Shakespeare Society Papers, 1844, vol. i: “Yesterday the barbarous Court of Aldermen have withdrawn their Chanderly Persion for Verjuice and Mustard, 33 li 6 s."]

Sir Henry Herbert, 1631.

Received of Mr. Blagrave, in the name of the kings company, for the benefitt of my winter day, taken upon The Alchemiste, this I of Decemb. 1631,-13l. os. od.

[The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, ed. J. Q. Adams, p. 44.]

John Pory, 1632.

Letter to Sir Thomas Puckering, January 12, 1632.

The last Sunday at night, the king's Mask was acted in the banquetting house, the queen's being suspended till another time, by reason of a soreness which fell into one of her delicate eyes.

The inventor or poet of this Mask was Mr. Aurelian Townshend, sometime toward [steward] to the Lord Treasurer Salisbury; Ben Jonson being, for this time, discarded by reason of the predominant power of his antagonist, Inigo Jones, who, this time twelve-month, was angry with him for putting his own name before his in the title-page; which Ben Jonson has made the subject of a bitter satire or two against Inigo.

Jan. 12, 1631.

[Reprinted from the Gifford-Cunningham ed. of Jonson, 1871, i, lv.]

John Milton, 1632.

Then to the well-trod stage anon,

If Jonson's learned sock be on.

[L'Allegro, Il. 131-32.]

Sir Aston Cokaine, 1632.

Thou more than Poet, our Mercurie (that art
Apollo's Messenger, and do'st impart
His best expressions to our eares) live long
To purifie the slighted English tongue
That both the Nymphes of Tagus, and of Poe,
May not henceforth despise our language so.
Nor could they doe it, if they ere had seene
The matchlesse features of the faerie Queene;
Read Johnson, Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, or

Thy neat-limnd peeces, skilfull Massinger.

[Commendatory verses prefixed to Massinger's Emperor of the East, 1632.]

Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, 1632.

An Anniversary Epistle on Sir Henry Morison, with an Apostrophe to my Father Jonson.

Noble Father.

I must imitate M1: Gamaliel Du: both in troubling you, wth ill verses, and the intention of professing my service to you by them. It is an Anniversary on Sr Harry Morison. In wch, because there is something concernes, some way, an Antagonist of yours, I have aplied it to you. Though he may be angry at it, I am yet certaine that, tale temperamentum sequor ut de iis quaeri non poterit, si de se bene sentiat. What here [sic] is ill in thern (wch I feare is all) it belongs only to my self; if there be any thing tollerable, it is somethinge you drop't negligentlie some day at the Dogg, & I tooke up.

Tu tantum accipies, ege te legisse putabo,

et tumidus Galla credulitate fruar.

Sr: I am

Your Sonne, & Servant

This is Poëtique furie! when the pen

of such a Poet-paramont, as Ben,

Hath writt, to write againe! and dare to meane
(Where such a Sickle reapt before) to gleane!

But pardon Father for what I rehearse,

but imitates thy friendship, not thy Verse.
Thou of thy Mistresse; and his Mistresse, say;
his acts; Her beauties, let thy Muse display;
Shew us, he will fifth Henries acts repeat,

and prove a greater Charles, then Charles the Great!
how now hee governes, and will conquer men!
and write his Justice now; his triumphs then!
This is thy work! My 'Affection cannot bee

better expres't, then by ill Poëtrye.

Hee wrongs his Greif els, if he seeme t'have time

to change an Epithite, dislike a Rime.

2

The King. The Queene. [Marginal notes in the manuscript.]

If what he writt he crosse, or it appeares

his paper have a blott, but from his teares,
Passion being strong, Invention should be weak.
such verse as Quarles makes God-all-mighty speake
Would serve a mourner; and admired bee

for the no Care, and the Humility.

And I am certaine, even what here is writt

Will praise my freindship, though condemne my witt.

Hee1 to great Virgill, such affection tooke,
he was no more his Reader, but his booke!
Did Ovid's, and high Lucans praise display,
Without beholdingnes to Sands or May!
And next, his admiration fix't on thee,
Our Metropolitane in Poëtry!...

[Harl. MS. 4955; reproduced by W. D. Briggs, Anglia, xxxvii, 474.]

Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, about 1632.

An Epistle to his Noble Father, Mr. Jonson. The Fox the Lions sight extreamelie fear'd haveing his force, and feircenes onlie heard; And, the first time, was Ague-struck to see his dangerous Pawes, and King-like Majestie; The second meeting-time, approaching nere, A warmer courage thaw'd away his feare;

The third, you would have thought, he had his Twin

his Den-fellowe, or long acquaintance bin.

'Twas onlie custome; for the Fox had skill

to know the Lion, was a Lion, still.

Such is my case: for when I first did see

the Patent of your Imortalitie

Your workes, by whose full Style, Strong Witt, I knew

so long as English liv'd, so long would you!

I should have quak'd, if I had thought to write

to Phæbus, his owne wonder, Mans Delight!

That which augments my Courage, with such Store,

is not I like you lesse; But know you more;

1 Morison. [Marginal note in the manuscript.]