Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/132

Il6 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES Ane other : — ' Here lyes honest Ben, That had not a beard on his chen.' [As Col. Cunningham observes, in the best portrait Jonson has thin black whiskers, and hardly any beard. In compensation, he had a huge fell of jet black hair, which, in his younger days, must have given great dignity to his manly and thoughtful face.] — In his Sejanus he hath translated a whole oration of Tacitus. — J. Selden liveth on his owne, is the Law Book of the Judges of England, the bravest man in all languages. — He dissuaded me from Poetrie, for that she had beggered him, when he might have been a rich lawer, physitian, or marchant. [Already cited.] — He was better versed, and knew more in Greek and Latin, than all the Poets in England, and quint- essence their brains [meaning, probably, that in his notes and extracts he had the quintessence of the classical authors, as remarked by Lord Falkland in the hnes before quoted]. — Of all styles he loved most to be named Honest, and hath of that ane hundredth letters so naming him. He went from Lieth home- ward the 25 January 1619, in a pair of shoes which, he told, lasted him since he came from Darnton [Darlington ?], which he minded to take back that farr againe : they were appearing like Coriat's : the first two dayes he was all excoriate. [In 161 1, the "Alchemist" year, in kindly jest Jonson had arranged "that immense farrago of burlesque 'testimonies to the author's merit ' which accompanied the first appearance of * Coryat's Crudities.' In this he seems to have engaged at the desire of Prince Henry, who