Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/161

BEN JONSON 145 JONSON you mean, unless I much do err, I know the person by the character. Her great instructor gone, I know the age No less laments than doth the widowed stage, And only vice and folly now are glad ; Our gods are troubled, and our prince is sad. How he, when he could know it, reaped his fame. And long outlived the envy of his name : To him how daily flocked, what reverence gave, All that had wit, or would be thought to have. Or hope to gain, and in so large a store, That to his ashes they can pay no more, Except those few who censuring, thought not so, But aimed at glory from so great a foe : How the wise too, did with mere wits agree, As Pembroke, Portland, and grave Aubigny ; Nor.thought the rigidest senator a shame, To contribute to so deserved a name." Lord Clarendon, in the " History of his own Life," says of Falkland, whose name always suffuses his style with a cordial glow : " He had naturally such a generosity and bounty in him that he seemed to have his estate in trust for all worthy persons who stood in want of supplies and encouragement, as Ben Jonson and others of that time, whose fortunes required, and whose spirits made them superior to ordinary obliga- tions." There is a letter from Ben to the Earl of Newcastle, dated 4th February, 1632: "I have here obeyed your commands, and sent you a packet of my own praises, which I should not have done if I had any stock of modesty in store; but 'obedience is better than sacrifice,' and you command it. I am now like an old bankrupt in wit that am driven to pay debts on my friends' credit ; and, for want of K