with seeing.' And in 'the admirable Epode,' as Gifford calls it, which concludes Ben Jonson's contributions to Love's Martyr, though there is remarkable energy of expression, the irregularity and inequality of style are at least as conspicuous as the occasional vigour and the casual felicity of phrase. But if all were as good as the best passages this early poem of Jonson's would undoubtedly be very good indeed. Take for instance the description or definition of true love:
That is an essence far more gentle, fine,[1]
Pure, perfect, nay divine;
It is a golden chain let down from heaven,
Whose links are bright and even,
That falls like sleep on lovers.
Again:
O, who is he that in this peace enjoys
The elixir of all joys,
(A form more fresh than are the Eden bowers
And lasting as her flowers;
Richer than time, and as time's virtue rare,
Sober as saddest care,
A fixed thought, an eye untaught to glance;)
Who, blest with such high chance,
Would at suggestion of a steep desire
Cast himself from the spire
Of all his happiness?
- ↑ In the original edition, 'most gentile and fine': a curious Italianism which must have seemed questionable or unallowable to the author's maturer taste.
