To make all the muses debtors A large hundred marks annuity, When their pot-guns aim to hit, Let their spite, which now abounds, Then go on, and do its worst; This would all their envy burst; And so warm the poet's tongue, You'd read a snake in his next song.115 115 The king granted the prayer of this petition by increas ing the salary of the laureate to £100, with the additional grant of a tierce of his favorite Canary. The warrant is dated in March, 1630. -- B. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORD TREASURER OF ENGLAND. AN EPIGRAM. If to my mind, great lord, I had a state, The old Greek hands in picture, or in stone. This I would do, could I know Weston one Catched with these arts, wherein the judge is wise As far as sense, and only by the eyes. But you I know, my lord, and know you can Can do the things that statues do deserve, Unto your honor; I can tune in song 116 Aloud; and, haply, it may last as long." AN EPIGRAM TO MY MUSE, THE LADY DIGBY, ON HER HUSBAND, SIR KENELM DIGBY.117 Though, happy Muse, thou know'st my Digby well, Yet read him in these lines: he doth excel 116 We learn from the following contemporary epigram that Jonson received £40 for these verses. TO BEN JONSON, UPON HIS VERSES TO THE EARL OF PORT- Your verses are commended, and 'tis true, For they returned you, Ben, as I was told, A certain sum of forty pound in gold; The verses then being rightly understood, His lordship, not Ben Jonson, made them good. B. 117 Sir Kenelm Digby was as much distinguished by the eccentricity of his conduct, and the singularity of his opinions, as by the graces of his person, and the variety of his accomplishments. He was a brave soldier, a skilful diplomatist, was master of ten or twelve languages, and had a wide acquaintance with general literature and philosophy. But he is now remembered only as the active supporter of some of the most remarkable scientific delusions of his age, which he illustrated by numerous experiments at the early meetings of the Royal Society. He implicitly believed in the transmutation of metals, and in the agency of sympathetic powder obtained from reptiles. The lady to whom Jonson addressed these verses was the celebrated courtesan, Venetia Stanley, whose extraordinary beauty, before and after she became Lady Digby, was a common theme of admiration. It was said that Sir Kenelm used to feed her upon capons fattened upon the flesh of vipers, as a means of preserving her charms; and Aubrey tells us that, after her death, which In honor, courtesy, and all the parts Court can call hers, or man could call his arts. occurred suddenly, scarcely any brain was discovered in her head, which Sir Kenelm ascribed to her constant use of viper-wine. Digby was one of Jonson's "adopted sons." He died in 1655.-B. 118 "He had a fair reputation in arms," says Clarendon, "of which he gave an early testimony in his youth, in some encounters in Spain and Italy, and afterwards in an action in the Mediterranean Sea, where he had the command of a squadron of ships of war set out on his own charge, under the king's commission; with which, upon an injury received or apprehended from the Venetians, he encountered their whole fleet, killed many of their men, and sunk one of their galeasses; which in that drowsy and inactive time was looked upon with a general estimation, though the Crown disavowed it."--B. He will clear up his forehead; think thou bring'st Good omen to him in the note thou sing'st, Wilt thou be, Muse, when this shall them befall! A NEW YEAR'S GIFT, SUNG TO KING CHARLES, 1635. PRELUDE. New years expect new gifts. Sister, your harp, Lute, lyre, theorbo, all are called to-day; Your change of notes, the flat, the mean, the sharp, To show the rites, and t' usher forth the way Of the new year, in a new silken warp, To fit the softness of our year's-gift, when We sing the best of monarchs, masters, men; For had we here said less, we had sung nothing then. 119 Sir Kenelm Digby wrote a tract called Observations on the 22nd stanza in the 9th canto of the 2nd book of Spenser's Fairy Queen, 1644. This was after Jonson's death. - B. |