SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
491
1637, Aug. 6. Died, Benjamin Jonson, a distinguished comic poet. He was born at Westminster, July 31, 1574. His father was a clergyman, and died about a month before the birth of our poet, who received his education at Westminster school ; but his mother marry- ing again, his father-in-law, who was a brick- layer, compelled him to work at his business. On this he listed for a soldier, and went to the Netherlands, where he distinguished himself by his courage. After bis return he went to St. John's college, Cambridge, but did not remain there long, owing to his extreme poverty. He then turned his attention to the stage, and be- came a player and dramatic writer, with indiffer- ent success, till Shakspeare gave him his assist- ance. His first printed play was his comedy of Erxry Man in hi* Humour, produced at the Rose Theatre, Nov. 25, 1896, after which he produced a new piece* annually for several years. He engaged with Chapman and Marston tn writing a comeidy called Eattward Hot, which being deemed a satire on the Scotch nation, had nearly brought the authors to the pillorr. On the death of Samuel Daniel, in 1619, be was made laureate ; and the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of M. A.
All the dramatic writings of Jonson are deficient in passion and sentiment, and his genius seems to have been upon the whole best fitted for the production of those classic idealities which constituted the masque. For these reasons, though the great reputation attained by Ben Jonson in his own time still affects our con- sideration of him, he is not now much read, and Every Man in hit Humour is the only one which now continues to be occasionally performed.
The following Song is taken from the Queen't Matque,-[ performed in 1605 :
SONG. So beaatjr on the waters stood. When love bad severed earth from flood ; So when be parted ayre from fire. He did with concord all Inspire ; And there a matter he thcD tanght* That elder then himself was thought i Which thought was yet the child of earth. For lore is older than his birth.
On the death of Jonson, the king, who was a competent judge of poetry, wished to confer the vacant wreath on Thomas May, afterwards the historian of the I^jng Parliament ; but the queen obtained it for her favourite bard William Davenant, author of Gondibert, a heroic poem, and of a great number of plays. The office and pension were given to Davenant in December, 1638, sixteen months after the death of Jonson;
- The Oarrick copy of this Miuqut was the presentation
copy of Ben Jonson to the queen, and has this inscription in the poet's own writing ; — "D. Annie M. Britanniarum Insu. Hib. gic. Regtuie Feliciss. Formosiss. Musko S. S. Hone libriim vovit FaniK et bonori ejus Servientiss. imo ■tddietissimus. Bin. Jonson."
Victnnu Geninm debet habere liber.
t The Sejiuuu; the Alchywuit ; the Silent Woman; and the tragedy of Votpone were entered on the book of the stationers' company, Octobers, 1 600.
the delay having probably been occaaoned by the dispute which had broken out in tlie inter- val, between the king and his Scottish subjects.
The character given of him by Drummond is worth copying, if not for its justice, at least for its force : he was " a great lover and praiser of himself; a contemner and scoffer of others; rather given to lose a friend than a jest ; jealous of eveiT word and action of those about him, especially after drink, which was one of the ele- ments in which he lived ; a dissembler of the parts which reign in him ; a bragger of some others that he wanted — thinking nothing well done but what he himself, or some of his friends, had said or done."
Tradition has sent down to us several tavern tales of " Rare Ben." A good humoured one has been preserved of the first interview between bishop Corbet,* when a young man, and our great bard. It occurred at a tavern where Cor- bet was sitting alone. Ben, who had probably just drank up to the pitch of good fellowship, desired the waiter to take to the gentleman " a quart of raw wine; and tell him," he added, " I $aerifice my service to him." — " Friend," replied Corbet, " I thank him for his love ; but tell him from me that he is mistaken ; for $aeri- fieet are alwayt burnt." This pleasant allusion to the mulled winef of the time, by the young wit, could not fail to win the affection of the master wit himself. — Harleian manutcripU,S395.
It is related, that when Jonson was on his death-bed the king sent him ten pieces. Ben remarked, " he sends me this trifle because I am poor and live in ally : but go back and tell him that his soul lives in an alley." He was buried in Westminster abbey.
1638. Printing introduced into Cambridge, in Massachusetts, a large town in Middlesex county. As this settlement was the cradle of the art of printing throughout the vast continent of North America, and many volumes of consi- derable interest have issued from its presses, the reader will perhaps be gratified with the follow- ing detailed account, taken from TTiomat's His- toiry of Printing ; Thomas himself being a native of diat colony, and havinginvestigated the history of its early typography with considerable care.
" The iounders of the colony of Massachusetts consisted of but a small number of persons, who arrived at the town of Salem in 1638; a few more joined them in 1629; and governor Win- throp, with the addition of 1500 settlers, arrived
- Richard Corbet was afacetious poet and distinguished
divine i born at the close of the sixteenth century, and was educated at Christ church. Oxford. He rose rapidly in the church. He was blshopof Oxford in 1629, and in 1633 was translated to Norwich. He died July 28, 163A, and was buried in the cathedral of Norwich.
t It appears that at this time, wine was sent as a com- plimentary piesent from persons in one room in a tarem to those in another. It was a polite form of introduction, as appears from Sliakspcare's Merry Wivee of Windtor, where Bardolph says ; — " Sir John, there's Master Brook below would fain speak with yon, and would be acfiualnted with you, and hath sent your worship a morning's draught of sack." To which, by the way, sir John rejoins with ad- mirable punning pleasantry, " that such Brookt are wel- ooiDC to him that o'erflow such liquor."
