Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 9.djvu/92

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Leges Contivales.] Nothing can be more pure and elegant than the latinity of these "Laws." In drawing them up, Jonson seems to have had the rules of the Roman entertainments in view; as collected with great industry by Lipsius.

As Whalley printed the old translation of these Rules I have retained it. The poetry, however, has little merit, and the original is not always correctly rendered; but there is no better: a version somewhat anterior to this, appeared in a volume of Songs and other Poems, by Alex. Brome, London 1661.