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Another writer says in a letter to Ben, "What things have we seen, Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtile flame As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to pit his whole wit in a jest."* *F. Beaumont, Letter to Ben Jonson. And so we get a picture of Ben lording it in taverns.
Moreover, in spite of my vanity and opinion of my own penetration, I could not but confess, that it was unlikely that my cross- examination should be very successful with so old and experienced a sinner as Mr. Jonson. "Set a thief to catch a thief," is among the wisest of wise sayings, and accordingly I resolved in favour of a disclosure.
Dawson; where is he at present?" "I don't know," answered Jonson, laconically. "Come," said I, "no trifling if you do not know, you can learn." "Possibly I can, in the course of time," rejoined honest Job. "If you cannot tell me his residence at once," said I, "our conference is at an end; that is a leading feature in my inquiries."
Of Ben Jonson I could make nothing, but when I turned to 'Hero and Leander', I was lifted to a heaven of passion and music.
But when Dawson saw that Job had left the room, and withdrawn the light, the conscience-stricken coward came to the door, and implored Job to return. "Will you swear then?" said Jonson; "I will, I will," was the answer. Job then re-entered minutes passed away Job re-appeared, and Dawson was dressed, and clinging hold of him "All's right," said he to me, with a satisfied air.
Ben Jonson, we shall see, makes some of the same complaints, most natural in the circumstances: though he managed to retain the control of his dramas; how, I do not know. Greene adds that in his misfortunes, illness, and poverty, he is ungratefully "forsaken," by the players, and warns his friends that such may be THEIR lot; advising them to seek "some better exercise." The meaning is pellucid.
As to the public, indeed, I sometimes feel inclined to say with Ben Jonson in his famous Ode: If they love lees and leave the lusty wine, Envy them not their palates with the swine. But it is a pitiful sight to see unfortunate men who might do better work, condemned to filling the trough with insipid and unsavoury swill collected from the refuse-pails of the town.
In 'Hamlet, Shakspere brought his own ideal of friendship in the figure of Horatio on the stage, in contrast to the Horace of 'The Poetaster. Jonson was not the man to be edified by the beautiful examples and the nobler words of his gentle adversary, Shakspere, or to alter his sentiments in accordance with them. He rather welcomed every opportunity for a quarrel.
I knew you would say that, I could have laid a wager you'd ask that question, for it is just that very explanation will show all the native delicacy and feminine propriety of my darling Loo; and first, I must tell you, that old Sir Alfred Jonson, her father, has some confounded prejudice against the army, and never would consent to her marriage with a red-coat so that, his consent being out of the question, our only resource is an elopement.
Jonson outlived Shakespeare twenty-one years and helped to usher in the decline of the drama. Ben Jonson, the son of a clergyman and the stepson of a master bricklayer, received a good education at Westminster School. Unlike Shakespeare, Jonson learned much Latin and Greek. In one respect Jonson's training was unfortunate for a poet.
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