图书图片
PDF
ePub

Ben Jonfon was in his own time frequently called the judicious Ben, the learned Ben, the immortal Ben, but had not, I believe, at the time this pamphlet is supposed to have been published, obtained the appellation of Old Ben. However, as this title was given him fome years afterwards by Sir John Suckling in his Seffion of the Poets, which appears to have been written in August 1637, about the time of Jonfon's death, (See Strafford's Lett. Vol. II. p. 114.) which celebrated poem, as well as the language of the prefent day, probably fug gefted the combination of Old Ben to Mr. Macklin, I fhall lay no stress upon this objection. But the other part of the title of this pamphlet "Young John's Melancholy Lover," is very material in the prefent difquifition. John Ford in the Dedication to his Lover's Melancholy fays, that was the first play which he had printed; from which the letterwriter concluded that he must then have been a

young man. In this particular, however, he was egregioufly mistaken; for John Ford, who was the second son of Thomas Ford, Efq. was born. at Ilfington in Devonfhire, and baptized there April 17, 1586. When he was not yet feventeen, he became a member of the Middle-Temple, November 16, 1602, as I learn from the Register of that Society; and confequently in the year 1631, when this pamphlet is fuppofed to have been published, he had no title to the appellation of young John, being forty-five years old. And though The Lover's Melancholy was the firft play that he published, he had produced the Mafque of The Sun's Darling on,

4 For this information I am indebted to the Reverend Mr. Palk, Vicar of Ilfington.

[blocks in formation]

the ftage five years before, namely, in March, 1623-4; had exhibited one or inore plays before that time; and fo early as in the year 1606 had publifhed a poem entitled Fame's Memorial, of which I have his original prefentation-copy in MS. in my collection. Thefe are fads, of the greater part of which no writer of that time, converfant with dramatick hiftory, could have been ignorant. Here certainly I might fafely close the evidence; for Ben Jonfon was born on the 11th of June, 1574,*

* According to the beft accounts. The precife year however of this poet's birth has not been afcertained. Fuller tells us, that with all his industry he could not find him in his cradle, but that he could fetch him from his long coats; when a little child, he lived in Hartfhorne-lane near Charing. Crofs." I in vain examined the Regifter of St. Margaret's, Weftminster, and St. Martin's in the Fields, for the time of his baptifm. There is a lacuna in the latter register from February to Dec. 1574. Ben Jonfon therefore was probably born in that year, and he has himself told us that he was born on the 11th of June. This agrees with the account given by Anthony Wood, who fays, that before his death in Auguft 1637, he had completed his fixty-third year. I found in the Regifter of St. Martin's, that a Mrs. Margaret Jonfon was married in November 1575 to Mr. Thomas Fowler. He was perhaps the poet's ftep-father, who is faid to have been a bricklayer.

The greater part of the hiftory of this poet's life is involved in much confufion. Moft of the facts which have been transImitted concerning him, were originally told by Anthony Wood; and there is fcarcely any part of his narrative in which fome error may not be traced. Thus, we are told, that foon after his father's death his mother married a bricklayer; that he took her fon from Weftminster-school, and made him work at his ftep-father's trade. He helped, fays Fuller, at the building of the new ftructure in Lincoln's-Inn, where having a trowel in his hand, he had a book in his pocket: and this book Mr. Gildon has found out to be Horace. In this fituation, according to Wood, being pitied

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

and confequently in 1631 was in his fifty-feventh
year; a period of life at which, though not in the

by his old mafter, Camden, he was recommended to Sir
Walter Raleigh as a tutor to his fon; and after attending him
on his adventures, they parted, on his return, not, as I think,
fays Wood, in cold blood. He then, we are told, was
admitted into St. John's college in Cambridge, and after a
fhort ftay there, went to London, and became an actor in the
Curtain playhoufe: and foon afterwards, "having improved
his fancy by keeping fcholaflick company, he betook himfelf
to writing plays." Lafly, we are told by the fame writer,
on the death of Daniel [in October 1619]
66 he fucceeded
him as poet-laureat, as Daniel fucceeded Spenfer."

If Jonfon ever worked with his ftep-father at his trade in Lincoln's-Inn, it must have been either in 1588, or 1593, in cach of which years, as I learn from Dugdale's Origines Judiciales, fome new buildings were erected by that fociety. He could not have been taken from thence to accompany young Raleigh on his travels, who was not born till 1594, nor ever went abroad except with his father in 1617 to Guiana, where he loft his life. The poet might indeed about the year 1610 or 1611 have been private tutor to him; and it is probable that their connexion was about that time, as Jonfon mentions that he furnished Sir Walter Raleigh with a portion of his Hiftory of the World, on which Sir Walter must have been then employed; but if the tutor and the pupil then parted in ill humour, it was rather too late for Jonfon te enter into St. John's college, at the age of thirty-four or thirty-five years.

That at fome period he was tutor to young Raleigh, is afcertained by the following anecdote, preferved in one of Oldys's Manufcripts:

"Mr. Camden recommended him to Sir Walter Raleigh, who trufted him with the care and education of his eldest fon Walter, a gay fpark, who could not brook Ben's rigorous treatment, but perceiving one foible in his difpofition, made ufe of that to throw off the yoke of his government: and this was an unlucky habit Ben had contracted, through his love of jovial company, of being overtaken with liquor, which Sir Walter did of all vices most abominate, and hath most exclaimed againft. One day, when Ben had taken a plentiful

[ocr errors]

hey-day of the blood, he could with no great pro priety be called Old, unless by way of oppofition to

dofe, and was fallen into a found fleep, young Raleigh got a great basket, and a couple of men, who lay'd Ben in it, and then with a pole carried him between their shoulders to Sir Walter, telling him, their young mafter had fent home his tutor. This, adds Mr. Oldys, "I have from a MS. memorandum-book written in the time of the civil wars, by Mr. Oldifworth, who was fecretary, I think, to Philip earl of Pembroke.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The truth probably is, that he was admitted into St. John's college as a fizar in 1588, at which time he was fourteen years old, (the ufual time then of going to the University,) and after ftaying there a few weeks was obliged from poverty to return to his father's trade; with whom he might have been employed on the buildings in Lincoln's Inn in 1593, when he was nineteen. Not being able to endure his fituation, he went, as he himself told Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, to the Low Countries, where he ferved a campaign, and diftinguished himself in the field. On his return,, perhaps in 1594, being now used to a life of adventure, he probably began his theatrical career, as a ftrolling player, and after having "rambled for fome time by a play-waggon in the country, repaired to London, and endeavoured at the Curtain to obtain a livelihood as an actor, till, as Decker informs us," not being able to fet a good face upon't, he could not get a fervice among the mimicks.

22

[ocr errors]

Between that year and 1598, when Every Man in his Humour was acted, he probably produced those unsuccessful pieces which Wood mentions. It is remarkable that Meres in that year enumerates Jonfon among the writers of tragedy, though no tragedy of his writing, of fo early a date, is now extant: a fact which none of his biographers have noticed.

Some particulars relative to this poet, which I have lately learned, will ferve to difprove another of the facts mentioned by Wood; namely, that "he fucceeded Daniel as poetlaureat, [in O&tober 1619,] as Daniel did Spenfer." I do not believe that any fuch office as poet-laureat exifted in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and confequently Spenfer never could have poffeffed it; nor has any proof whatsoever been produced of Daniel's having ever enjoyed that office.

a very young man. But no fuch difference of age fubfifted between these two poets. lf a man of

Spenfer, we are told by Camden, died in great poverty in 1598, and fuch has been the prevailing opinion ever fince; but a fact which I have lately discovered, and which has not been noticed by any writer of that great poet's life, renders Camden's affertion very difputable. Spenfer, I find, in February 1590-1, obtained from queen Elizabeth an annuity or penfion of fifty pounds a year, during his life; which, the value of money and the modes of life being jointly confidered, may be eftimated as equal to two hundred pounds a year at this day. We fee, therefore, that the incenfe lavished on his parfimonious miftrefs in the Faery Queen, which was published in the preceding year, did not pafs unrewarded, as all our biographical writers have fuppofed. The first notice I obtained of this grant, was from a short abstract of it in the Signet-office, and with a view to ascertain whether he was defcribed as poet-laureat. I afterwards examined the patent itself, (Patent Roll, 33 Eliz. P. 3.) but no office or official duty is there mentioned. After the ufual and formal preamble, pro diverfis caufis & confiderationibus, &c. the words are, "damus & concedimus dilecto fubdito noftro, Edmundo Spenfer," &c.

·

66

King James by letters patent dated February 3, 1615-16, granted to Ben Jonfon an annuity or yearly penfion of one hundred marks, during his life, in confideration of the good and acceptable fervice heretofore done, and hereafter to be done by the faid B. J." Then therefore, and not in 1619, undoubtedly it was that he was made poet-laureat, if ever he was fo conftituted; but not one word is there in the grant, which I examined in the chapel of the Rolls, touching that office unlefs it may be fuppofed to be comprehended in the words which I have juft quoted. On the 23d of April, 1630, King Charles by letters patent, reciting the former grant, and that it had been furrendered, was pleafed, "in confideration (fays the patent) of the good and acceptable fervice done unto us and our faid father by the faid B. J. and especially to encourage him to proceed in thofe fervices of his wit and

The Faery Queen was entered on the Stationers' books by W. Ponsonby, in December, 1589,

« 上一页继续 »