Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/175

BEN JONSON 159 " those that merely talk, and never think, That live in the wild Anarchy of Drink, Subject to quarrel only." And in his Leges Convivales for the famous Apollo Club, founded by him, we see what sound ideas he had of good fellowship. This club met in the Apollo Room of the Old Devil Tavern, close to the east of Temple Bar, bought by Messrs. Child, the bankers, in 1787, and soon afterwards pulled down by them for the erection of a new building for their business. The Laws, it is said, were engraved on black marble. Over the door of the room was a bust of our poet, beneath which, in gold letters, on a black ground, were the following lines from his pen : — " ' Welcome all who lead or follow, To the Oracle of Apollo — Here he speaks out of his pottle, Or the tripos, his tower bottle : All his answers are divine. Truth itself doth flow in wine. Hang up all the poor hop-drinkers, Cries old Sim, the king of skinkers ; He the half of life abuses. That sits watering with the Muses. Those dull girls no good can mean us ; Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet's horse accounted ; Ply it, and you all are mounted. 'Tis the pure Phoebian liquor, Cheers the brains, makes wit the quicker, Pays all debts, cures all diseases. And at once three senses pleases. Welcome all who lead or follow, To the Oracle of Apollo.' O Rare Ben Jonson ! " These verses, with all their humorous exaggeration