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[At the beginning of this volume occurs the one solitary instance in which it has been thought absolutely necessary to deviate in the slightest degree from the arrangement of Gifford. A glance at the edition of 1816 will shew that the printer had been supplied with materials in the most mangled and confused condition. There are two pieces numbered xcii.; two xciii.; and a leap all at once from xcv. to cvi. The pieces thus eliminated from the text, as originally contemplated, were some of them omitted altogether, and others mutilated to fit into a huge "note" of ten pages. They have now been restored as nearly as possible to the state in which they are found in the original MS. in the British Museum. I have also added several pieces which have come to light since 1816, and two of which the authenticity was disputed on what are now believed to be insufficient grounds. F. CUNNINGHAM.]

BEN JONSON AND WILLIAM, EARL OF NEWCASTLE.

Jonson's connexion with the family of this distinguished nobleman was close and of long continuance. He has monumental verses on several of its members; those which follow are extracted from the MS. volume in the British Museum.

1

CHARLES CAVENDISH TO HIS POSTERITY.

[graphic]

ONS, seek not me among these polished

stones,

These only hide part of my flesh and bones,

Which, did they e'er so neat and proudly

dwell,

Will all turn dust, and may not make me swell.
Let such as justly have outlived all praise,
Trust in the tombs their careful friends do raise;
I made my Life my monument, and yours,
Than which there's no material more endures,
Nor yet inscription like it writ but that;
And teach your nephews it to emulate :
It will be matter loud enough to tell
Not when I died, but how I lived-farewell.

EPITAPH ON LADY KATHERINE OGLE.2

HE was the light (without reflex
Upon herself) of all her sex,

The best of women!-Her whole life
Was the example of a wife,

Or of a parent, or a friend!

All circles had their spring and end

1 Sir Charles Cavendish, who thus addresses his children, was the third son of sir William Cavendish, deservedly known and esteemed as the faithful and confidential servant of Cardinal Wolsey. He died in 1618, and was succeeded in his vast estates by his eldest son, William, the munificent friend and protector of our poet.

2 This lady, the second wife of sir Charles Cavendish, and mother of the Duke of Newcastle, was the daughter and coheir of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle. She outlived her husband several years, and was declared Baroness Ogle in 1628.

In her, and what could perfect be
And without angles, IT WAS SHE.-
All that was solid in the name
Of virtue; precious in the frame,
Or else magnetic in the force,
Or sweet, or various, in the course;
What was proportion, or could be
By warrant called just symmetry
In number, measure, or degree
Of weight or fashion, IT WAS SHE.-
Her soul possest her flesh's state
In freehold, not as an inmate,
And when the flesh here shut up day,
Fame's heat upon the grave did stay,
And hourly brooding o'er the same,
Keeps warm the spice of her good name,
Until the ashes turned be

Into a Phoenix-WHICH IS SHE.

Ὁ Ζεὺς κατεῖδε χρόνιος εἰς τὰς διφθέρας.

IS a record in heaven. You that were

Her children, and grandchildren, read it here;
Transmit it to your nephews, friends, allies,
Tenants and servants: have they hearts
and eyes

To view the truth and own it? Do but look
With pause upon it: Make this page your book!
Your book? your volume! Nay, the state and story!
Code, Digests, Pandects of all female glory!
Diphthera Jovis.

OR this did Katherine Lady Ogle die
To gain the crown of immortality;
Eternity's Great Charter; which became
Her right, by gift and purchase of the Lamb.

Sealed and delivered to her, in the Light
Of Angels, and all witnesses of light,
Both saints and martyrs, by her loved Lord,
And this a copy is of the Record.

EPITAPH ON THE LADY JANE.

COULD begin with that grand form Here lies (And bid thee, reader, bring thy weeping

eyes

To see who 'tis-) a noble countess, great In blood, in birth, by match and by her state, Religious, wise, chaste, loving, gracious, good, And number attributes unto a flood;

But every table in this church can say
A list of epithets, and praise this way;
No stone in any wall here but can tell
Such things of every body, and as well—
Nay, they will render one's descent to hit
And Christian name too with a herald's wit.
But I would have thee to know something new,
Not usual in a lady, and yet true,

At least so great a lady-she was wife
But of one husband, and since he left life,
But sorrow she desired no other friend,
And her, she made her inmate, to the end.
To call on sickness still to be her guest,
Whom she with sorrow first did lodge, then feast,
Then entertain, and as death's harbinger,
So woo'd at last that he was won to her
Importune wish, and by her loved lord's side
To lay her here, inclosed, his second bride;
Where, spight of death, next life, for her love's sake
This second marriage will eternal make.3

3 This Jane was the eldest daughter of Lord Ogle, and sister of

AN INTERLUDE, ETC.

[The volume from which the foregoing were taken, contains also an Interlude, never yet noticed by the poet's biographers. It has neither title nor date; but appears to have been written by Jonson for the christening of a son of the earl of Newcastle, to which the king or the prince (both seem to have been present) stood godfather. It consists principally of the unrestrained and characteristic tattle of three gossips; and though the language may appear somewhat too free for the present times, yet as a matter of curiosity, I have ventured to subjoin it.

The scene is the earl of Newcastle's house, in the Black Friars. GIFFORD.]

At the entrance to the banquet.

A Forester.

IR, you are welcome to the forest: you have seen a battle upon a table, now you see a hunting. I know not what the game will prove, but the ground is well clothed with

the lady just mentioned. She married Edward, eighth earl of Shrewsbury, (younger brother of the Gilbert so often noticed,) and died in 1625, having survived her husband about seven years.

4 It appears that the table represented a hunting scene in sweetmeats. We cannot easily conceive the enormous sums expended in constructing those banquets. Every object of art or nature was represented in them; and castles and towers and towns were reared of marchpane of a size that would confound the faculties of the confectioners of these degenerate days. The courtier, like the citizen, was a most fierce devourer of plums, and the ships, bulwarks, forests, &c., that were not eaten on the spot, were conveyed into the pockets of the guests, and carried off, without stint and without shame.

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