And lies so far from wit, 'tis impudence. XXXIX. ON OLD COLT. For all night-sins with others' wives unknown, XL. ON MARGARET RATCLIFFE.23 R are as wonder was her wit, 23 This lady appears to have been the sister of Sir John Ratcliffe. See Epigram xciii. p. 49. — B. 24 The deaths of four brothers are mentioned in the epigram referred to in the previous note.-B. XLI. ON GIPSY. Gipsy, new bawd, is turned physician, And gets more gold than all the college can; XLII. ON GILES AND JOAN. Who says that Giles and Joan at discord be? Th' observing neighbors no such mood can see. Indeed, poor Giles repents he married ever; But that his Joan doth too. never, And Giles would By his free will, be in Joan's company; No more would Joan he should. Giles riseth early, And having got him out of doors is glad; All this doth Joan: or that his long-yearned life none Of his begetting; and so swears his Joan. 25 XLIII. TO ROBERT, EARL OF SALISBURY.2 What need hast thou of me, or of my muse, Whose actions so themselves do celebrate? Which, should thy country's love to speak refuse, Her foes enough would fame thee in their hate. "Tofore, great men were glad of poets; now, I, not the worst, am covetous of thee; Yet dare not to my thought least hope allow Of adding to thy fame; thine may to me, When in my book men read but Cecil's name, And what I write thereof find far, and free From servile flattery, (common poets' shame,) As thou stand'st clear of the necessity. XLIV. ON CHUFFE, CANKS THE USURER'S KINSMAN. Chuffe, lately rich in name, in chattels, goods, And rich in issue to inherit all, Ere blacks were bought for his own funeral, Saw all his race approach the blacker floods: He meant they thither should make swift repair, When he made him executor, might be heir. XLV. ON MY FIRST SON.26 Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy; 25 The younger son of Lord Burleigh. 26 The following remarkable circumstance relating to the death of Jonson's son is related by Drummond: "When the Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Oh! could I lose all father, now! for why Rest in soft peace and, asked, say here doth lie For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such, As what he loves may never like too much. XLVI. TO SIR LUCKLESS WOO-ALL. Is this the Sir who, some waste wife to win, A knighthood bought, to go a-wooing in? 'Tis Luckless, he that took up one on band To pay at's day of marriage. By my hand The knight-wright's cheated then! he'll never pay: Yes, now he wears his knighthood every day. king came in England at that time the pest was in London, Jonson, being in the country at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Camden, saw in a vision his eldest son, then a child and at London, appear unto him with the mark of a bloody cross on his forehead, as if it had been cut with a sword, at which amazed he prayed unto God, and in the morning he canie to Mr. Camden's chamber to tell him; who persuaded him it was but an apprehension of his fantasy, at which he should not be dejected; in the mean time comes there letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the plague. He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that growth that he thinks he shall be at the resurrection." XLVII. TO THE SAME. Sir Luckless, troth, for luck's sake pass by one; He that wooes every widow will get none. XLVIII. ON MUNGRIL ESQUIRE. His bought arms Mung' not liked; for his first day Of bearing them in field, he threw 'em away: And hath no honor lost, our duellists say." XLIX. TO PLAYWRIGHT.28 Playwright me reads, and still my verses damns, He says I want the tongue of Epigrams; 29 I have no salt: no bawdry he doth mean; Playwright, I loathe to have thy manners known L. TO SIR COD.80 Leave, Cod, tobacco-like, burned gums to take, Or fumy clysters, thy moist lungs to bake: Arsenic would thee fit for society make. 27 The arms were usually portrayed upon the shield; so that on his entering into battle he flung away his shield, that the might not be encumbered in his flight. This marks him for his cowardice. W. Jonson might have thrown his epigram after Mungril's arms with no more loss of credit than the other of honor. - G. 28 Probably Dekker. - B. 29 Gifford, on the strength of this phrase, commends Pope's emendation of the passage in Hamlet, II. ii., "I remember one said there were no [sallets] salts in the lines to make the matter savory." 30 See Epigram xix. p. 13. |