1640. Here, as in (3), the effect of contrast is gained by transformation. (16) ‘The Vision of Delight.’ Christmas, 1617 [so fol.]; fol. 1631–40. The traditional date, Twelfth Night, 1618, cannot be right (cf. No. 17), nor yet 1619, which Nichols (iv. 499) hesitatingly proposes. The half articulate rhapsody of Phant'sy is originally conceived, and the speeches of Wonder contain some rich descriptive poetry. (17) (a) ‘Pleasure Reconciled to Vertue.’ Twelfth Night, 1617–18, and again at Shrove-tide, with the addition of (b), it having ‘pleased the king so well as he would see it again,’ fol. 1631–40. The traditional date 1619 is wrong. The masque was witnessed by the Italian Busino on the date stated (cf. Harrison, Descr. of Engl. iii. 56*, ed. Furnivall). It is felicitously conceived and gracefully written. Milton's ‘Comus’ owes to it little but the epilogue. (b) ‘For the Honour of Wales.’ An induction to the above, fol. 1631–40. A lively skit. The dialect shows insight into the Welsh language. (18) ‘Newes from the New World discover'd in the Moone.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1621; fol. 1631–40. The induction now begins to be the chief feature. (19) ‘A Masque of the Metamorphos'd Gypsies.’ Performed at Burleigh, Belvoir, and Windsor, August 1621; fol. 1631–40; 12mo, 1640. A manuscript copy in Jonson's hand was in the Heber collection. The fortune-telling motive of Entertainment (4) is here worked out with greater elaboration and realism. It abounds in homely but effective lyric writing. (20) ‘The Masque of Augures.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1622; 4to, 1621 [2]; fol. 1631–40. (21) ‘Time Vindicated to Himselfe and to his Honors.’ Performed 19 Jan. 1623; fol. 1640. The satire upon Wither, as ‘Chronomastix,’ gives piquancy to the otherwise somewhat abstract motive. (22) ‘Neptune's Triumph for the Returne of Albion.’ Written 1623–4; performed with (25) Twelfth Night, 1626; fol. 1640. Celebrates the failure of the Spanish marriage and the return of Prince Charles. The antimasque of personified dishes accords with the more prosaic conception of Jonson's later masques. (23) ‘Pan's Anniversarie, or the Shepherd's Holy-day.’ Performed New Year, 1625; fol. 1631–40. (24) ‘The Masque of Owls, at Kenilworth.’ Presented by the Ghost of Captain Cox, mounted on his Hobby-horse, 1626; fol. 1631–40. The title shows the looseness with which the term masque was now used. It is merely a string of speeches. (25) ‘The Fortunate Isles and their Union.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1626; 4to, n.d.; fol. 1631–40. An elaborate and varied work which, like (13), illustrates Jonson's attitude to previous poets. (26) ‘Loves Triumph through Callipolis.’ Performed 1630; 4to, 1630; fol. 1631–40. (27) ‘Chloridia. Rites to Chloris and her Nymphs.’ Performed at Shrove-tide, 1630; 4to [1630?]; fol. 1631–40. To these may be added (28) ‘An Interlude;’ performed at the house of the Earl of Newcastle, which was first printed by Gifford. The only instance among Jonson's entertainments of the celebration of a birth.
III. Poems (a).—First published in the fol. 1616. 1. ‘Epigrammes, I. Booke.’ Licensed 1612. Jonson used the term in the ancient (the ‘old and true’) sense (Epig. 2, 18), and criticised his fellow-epigrammatists who did otherwise (cf. Conv. § 3, on Harrington, § 12 on Owen). 2. ‘The Forrest.’ This collection contains his choicest epistles and songs up to 1616. (b). Subsequently published. The majority of these ‘lesser poems of later growth’ were arranged by Jonson, under the general name of ‘Underwoods,’ ‘out of the Analogie they hold to the Forrest in my former booke, and no otherwise.’ They were first printed after his death in fol. 1640. Two selections appeared in the same year: (1) … ‘Execration against Vulcan. With Divers Epigrams’ … 4to, 1640. (2) ‘Q. Hor. Flaccus his Art of Poetry, Englished by B. J.,’ with other works of the author. Several obituary and complimentary pieces had already been published in the works of other authors (e.g. the lines to the memory of Shakespeare, prefixed to the fol. 1623), and were first included in Jonson's works by Gifford. A few were added by Cunningham. The ‘Leges Conviviales’ were first published in the fol. 1692.
IV. Miscellaneous Prose.—1. ‘Timber; or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter,’ … fol. 1641. The 171 detached paragraphs approach the type of the Baconian Essay, though Jonson deprecates the name (§ 72). The matter chiefly consists of translated extracts from Seneca, Quintilian, and other Latin writers (cf. editions by Prof. Schelling, Boston 1892, and by Maurice Castelain, Paris 1907; art. ‘Jonson's Method in the “Discoveries”’ by Percy Simpson in Mod. Lang. Rev. April 1907). 2. ‘The English Grammar, made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of all Strangers’ … fol. 1640. A description of ‘the English language now spoken and in use,’ with glimpses of philological insight. A lost translation of Barclay's ‘Argenis’ (Stat. Reg. 2 Oct. 1623) was probably unpublished.
Jonson's ‘Works’ were first collected in the folio edition, of which the first volume, carefully revised by himself, appeared in 1616,
