Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/99

BEN JONSON 83 or been kept, to the trade only about a twelvemonth, for he could not endure it ; and, when eighteen, went off as a volunteer to the English army in Flanders. Though he served but one campaign, he was always proud of his soldiering. Drummond reports from his owns lips : " In his service in the Low Countries, he had, in the face of both the campes, killed ane enemie and taken opima spo/ia from him." As Gifford remarks, in those days, when great battles were rarely fought, and armies lay for half a cam- paign in sight of each other, it was not unusual for champions to advance into the midst and challenge their adversaries ; and he thinks it probable that at that particular time such challenges were encouraged by Vere, the English general, who was undertaking the most daring enterprises, in order to animate the troops, dispirited by the tame surrender of a fort by Stanley. In his Epigram 108, "To True Soldiers," Ben writes loftily : — " I swear by your true friend, my Muse, I love Your great profession, which I once did prove ; And did not shame it with my actions then, No more than I dare now do with my pen." It is probable that Jonson returned to England be- cause of his stepfather's death. He says that on his return he resumed his wonted studies. His story at this time is very obscure; but he appears, like so many of his educated contemporaries, to have resorted to writing for the stage. It is said that he also tried acting and failed, but there is no evidence for this save Decker's " Satiromastix," which, as a rabid attack on Jonson, cannot be trusted in anything that concerns him. He had at least one qualification