into a TU[B] of water

[neufer]

-------------------------------------------------------
Larry Sterne (1713-1768) "author" of
_TristRAM Shandy_ & _The Sermons of Mr. Yorick_.

Hermes Trismegistus => Tristram-gistus => TristRAM.

Like Greene, Marlowe & Shakspeare Larry died suddenly
after a big meal. "In the end, he put up his hand,
*AS IF TO STOP A BLOW* , and died in a minute."
..................................................
HARVEY, GABRIEL THE WRITERS POSTSCRIPT:
OR A FRENDLY CAUEAT TO THE SECOND SHAKERLEY OF POWLES.

15 Is it a Dreame? or is the Highest minde,
16 That euer haunted Powles, or hunted winde,
17 Bereaft of that same sky-surmounting breath,
18 That breath, that taught the Timpany to swell?

19 He, and the Plague contended for the game:
20 The hawty man extolles his hideous thoughtes,
21 And gloriously insultes vpon poore soules,
22 That plague themselues: for faint harts plague themselues.
23 The tyrant Sicknesse of base-minded slaues
24 Oh how it dominer's in Coward Lane?
25 So Surquidry rang-out his larum bell,
26 When he had girn'd at many a dolefull knell.

27 The graund Dissease disdain'd his toade Conceit,
28 And smiling at his tamberlaine contempt,
29 *STERNELY STRUCK-home* the peremptory stroke.
30 He that nor feared God, nor dreaded Diu'll,
31 Nor ought admired, but his wondrous selfe:
32 Like Iunos gawdy Bird, that prowdly stares
33 On glittring fan of his triumphant taile:
34 Or like the ugly Bugg, that scorn'd to dy,
35 And mountes of Glory rear'd in towring witt:
36 Alas: but Babell Pride must kisse the pitt.
37 Powles steeple, and a hugyer thing is downe:
38 Beware the next Bull-beggar of the towne.
-------------------------------------------------------
(one yeastyday he *STERNELY STRUXK* his tete in a *TUB*
. for to watsch the future of his FATES
. but ere he SWIFTLY stook it out again,. . .
. - _Finnegans Wake_
-------------------------------------------------------------
Little Women PART ONE: Chapter Ten
The P. C. and P. O.
..............................................................
. A SAD ACCIDENT

On Friday last, we were startled by a violent shock in our basement,
followed by cries of distress. On rushing in a body to the cellar,
we discovered our beloved President prostrate upon the floor,
having tripped and fallen while getting wood for domestic purposes.
A perfect sce[N]e of ruin met our eyes, f[O]r in his fall Mr.
Pickwi[C]k had plunged his head [A]nd shoulders into a TU[B]
of water, upset a keg of soft soap upon his manly form, and torn
his garments badly. On being removed from this perilous situation,
it was discovered that he had suffered no injury but sEVERal
bruises, and we are happy to add, is now doing well.
.............................................
_________ <= 19 =>
.
A p e r f e c t s c e [N] e o f r u i n
m e t o u r e y e s,f [O] r i n h i s f
a l l M r.P i c k w i [C] k h a d p l u
n g e d h i s h e a d [A] n d s h o u l
d e r s i n t o a t u [B] o f w a t e r

[BACON] -19
.............................................
*BAC* : *TUB* (English, French, Romanian)
----------------------------------------------------
'Heere LYETH interred the body of Anne, wife of
William Shakespeare, who dep.ted this Life the
6th day of Avgv. 1623, being of the age of 67 Yeares.
.
. *VbERA tu* , .....
. *VERA tub* , .....
---------------------------------------------------------
http://www.fbrt.org.uk/pages/athena/frameset-athena.html
.
<<Inscribed on *ATHENA/MINERVA's* shield is a Latin motto,
.
____ *OBSCURIS VERA INVOLVENS*
.
. meaning *TRUTH is enveloped in obscurity* , which explains
. the imagery on the shield-the central sun representing
. *TRUTH* and the surrounding clouds obscurity.>>
...................................................
__ *OBSCURIS VERA INVOLVENS*
_______. {anagram}
__ *BACON {SVS} NIL VERO VERIUS*
__ *BACONVS {'S} NIL VERO VERIUS*
----------------------------------------------------------------
On the 14th anniversary of Anne Hathaway's death [August 6, 1637]
Ben Jonson was BURIED UPRIGHT against the wall of his crypt.
.
'Two feet by two feet will do for all I want'. - Jonson
----------------------------------------------------
. _A Tale of a *TUB* _ (play)
http://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692tub.htm
................................................
"Inficeto est inficetior rure." - Catul.
["he is more witless than the witless country side."]

P R O L O G U E.

NO State-affairs, nor any politick Club,
. Pretend we in our Tale, HERE, of a *TUB* :
But acts of Clowns and Constables, to day
. Stuff out the Scenes of our ridiculous Play.
A Coopers wit, or some such busie Spark,
. Illumining the high Constable, and his Clerk.
And all the Neighbour-hood, from old Records,
. Of antick Proverbs, drawn from Whitson-Lords.
And their Authorities, at Wakes and Ales,
. With Country precedents, and *OLD WIVES TALES* ;
We bring you now, to shew what different things
. *The Cotes of Clowns, are from the Courts of Kings*
....................................................
Metaphore: Sir, that I have: King *Edward* our late Leige,
___________ and *so(VERA)ign* Lord:
-------------------------------------------------
http://hollowaypages.com/jonsoneastward.htm

___ EASTWARD HOE. ACT IV SCENE I

Enter SLITGUT with a pair of *OX-horns*,
__ discovering Cuckold's Haven above.

Enter QUICKSILVER, bareheaded.

QUICKSILVER: Accurs'd that *EVER I* was sav'd or born!
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.hollowaypages.com/jonson1692tub.htm

___ A Tale of a Tub

Clay: Alas, That *EVER I* was born!
----------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub_%28play%29

<<A Tale of a Tub is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by
Ben Jonson. The last of his plays to be staged during his lifetime,
A Tale of a Tub was performed in 1633 and published in 1640
in the second folio of Jonson's works.

The play was licensed for publication by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master
of the Revels, on May 7, 1633, and acted by Queen Henrietta's Men at
the Cockpit Theatre; it was the only one of Jonson's post-1614 plays
not premiered by the King's Men. The play was also performed at
Court on January 14, 1634, before King Charles I and
Queen Henrietta Maria — though it was not well received.

Scholars are divided on the date of authorship of the play. Some judge
it to be an early work, first composed perhaps around 1596, that
Jonson later revised not long before its 1633 production. Recent
opinion holds that the Jonson wrote the play in the era when it
premiered, the early 1630s, and that its apparently archaic aspects
are deliberate artistic choices on the author's part.

For modern critics and scholars, a primary focus of interest in the
play is Jonson's ridicule of Inigo Jones as "In-and-In Medlay."
(The 1633 license for the play states that passages ridiculing Jones
as "Vitruvius Hoop" were to be struck out. Jonson seems to have
complied...merely to replace the Hoop material with the Medlay
material.) Jonson had nourished a long-standing grudge against Jones,
feeling that the architect had always received too much credit for the
success of the Court masques that were written by Jonson but had their
scenery, costumes, and stage effects designed by Jones. His ridicule
of Jones runs from Bartholomew Fair, where Jones in Lanthorn
Leatherhead (1614), through Neptune's Triumph for the Return of
Albion (1624) and The Staple of News (1626). Jonson further
satirized Jones as "Colonel Iniquo Vitruvius" in his 1634
masque Love's Welcome at Bolsover.

In addition to the Medlay character, the play features Diogenes
Scriben, a bad poet and a pretended descendant of the Classical
Diogenes. Commentators have speculated on intended real-life
identities for this satirical figure, though no consensus has been
achieved. The play is largely written in dialect; scholars have
disputed the accuracy of Jonson's efforts in this regard.

The plot, which unfolds on St. Valentine's Day, concerns the inept
attempts of a variety of suitors to win the hand of Audrey Turfe, the
daughter of a Middlesex constable. To break Audrey's engagement to
John Clay the tilemaker, Squire Tub, a romantic rival, has the man
falsely accused of theft. As Constable Turfe pursues the innocent man,
yet another suitor, Justice Preamble, plays a comparable ruse against
Squire Tub. All told, Audrey is chased after by four separate suitors,
and apparently she has no particular preference among them. (She
hesitates to accept Squire Tub, however, because of the social gap
between them: "He's too fine for me, and has a Lady / Tub to his
mother.") Amid the disorder, Pol-Marten, Lady Tub's usher, marries
Audrey before the others realize it. Their marriage is celebrated with
a wedding masque, also titled "A Tale of a Tub," which retells the
story of the play. (In the colloquial usage of the time, a
"tale of a tub" is the same as "a cock and bull story.")

Jonson, here as often elsewhere in his plays, borrows elements
from the Classical plays of Aristophanes and Plautus. The play was
published with a motto from Catullus: Inficeto est inficetior rure.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TIMON: Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
To the tub-fast and the diet.
--------------------------------------------------------
Lstuder wrote:

> Hal Holbrook, in Mark Twain Tonight, recreates the story of MT being born
> twins, identical except that one had a mole on his left shoulder.
> That one was him. One of the twins drowned in the bathtub at an early age.
> That one was the one with the mole...
---------------------------------------------------------
Four months after _Romeus and Juliet_ is published
Arthur BROOKE - DROWNS in Sea, 1563.

William Shaxpere - DROWNS in Avon, 1579.
Katherine HAMLETT - DROWNS in Avon, 1579.
-------------------------------------------------------
Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous
Scenicke Poet, Master W I L L I A M
S H A K E S P E A R E
HUGH HOLLAND FF (1623)
--------------------------------------------------
Scenicke = Cynic + Seneca
--------------------------------------------------
Seneca did mention Cynic Diogenes' tub:
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/d/diogsino.htm

Diogenes was a Cynic philosopher of Sinope. . . Renouncing every
other
object of ambition, he distinguished himself by his contempt of riches
and honors and by his invectives against luxury. He wore a coarse
cloak, carried a wallet and a staff, made the porticoes and other
public
places his habitation, and depended upon casual contributions for his
daily bread. He asked a friend to procure him a cell to live in; when
there was a delay, he took up abode in a pithos, or large tub, in the
Metroum. It is probable, however, that this was only a temporary
expression of indignation and contempt, and that he did not make it
the
settled place of his residence. This famous "tub" is indeed
celebrated
by Juvenal; it is also ridiculed by Lucian and mentioned by Seneca.
But
no notice is taken of this by other ancient writers who have mentioned
this philosopher.

Plutarch relates that Alexander, when at Corinth, receiving the
congratulations of all ranks on being appointed to command the army of
the Greeks against the Persians, missed Diogenes among the number,
with
whose character he was acquainted. Curious to see the one who
exhibited
such haughty independence of spirit, Alexander went in search of him
and
found him sitting in his tub in the sun. "I am Alexander the Great,"
said the monarch. "And I am Diogenes the Cynic," replied the
philosopher. Alexander then requested that he would
inform him what service he could render him. "Stand from between me
and
the sun," said the Cynic. This story is too good to be omitted, but
there are several circumstances which in some degree diminish its
credibility. It supposes Diogenes to have lived in his tub at Corinth,
whereas it is certain that he lived there in the house of Xeniades,
and
that, if he had ever dwelt in a tub, he left it behind him at Athens.

A column of Parian marble, terminating in the figure of a dog, was
raised over his tomb. His fellow-townsmen of Sinope also erected
brazen statues in memory of the philosopher. Diogenes left behind
him no system of philosophy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*COWL* , n. [AS. cuhle, cugle, cugele; cf. dial. G. kogel, gugel,
OF. coule, goule; all fr. LL. cuculla, CUCUllus, fr. L. CUCUllus
cap,
hood; perh. akin to celare *to conceal*, cella cell. Cf. {Cucullate}.]
1. A monk's hood; -- usually attached to the gown.
The name was also applied to the hood and garment together.

What differ more, you cry, than crown and COWL? --Pope.

*COWL* , n. [Cf. OF. cuvele, cuvel, dim. of F. cuve tub, vat,
fr. L. cupa. See {Cup}.] A vessel carried on a pole between
two persons, for conveyance of water. --Johnson.
.........................................................
Bob Grumman wrote:
>
> In 1805, the first recorded serious Shakespeare-rejector,
> *COWELL*, reported his moronic doubts about who wrote Shakespeare
> to some Shakespeare Society in England. Cowell based some of his
> doubts on the supposed research of an apparent fellow-nut, James Wilmot,
> one of the first of those who thought that the manger that Shakespeare was
> born in would have been bronzed by the time of his death had Shakespeare
> been Shakespeare, and everyone who had known him in Stratford even slightly
> would have passed down stories and mementoes of his acquaintanceship to all
> his descendants which should have been readily available to an amateur
> investigator 150 or more years later.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare tomb, however, states that he:
"Left living art, But page, to serve his will."

God <=> doG(enes)
But <=> tuB
--------------------------------------------------------
*BAC* : ferry, raft, vat, *TUB* (English, French, Romanian)
--------------------------------------------------
__ The DIAL TIS NoW For *BACon* TO Obey
-------------------------­----------------------
. Mira. More to know
[D]id *NEUER* medle with my thoughts.
Pros. *TIS TIME*
[I] should informe thee farther: Lend thy hand
[A]nd *PLUCKE my Magick Garment* from me: So,
[L]ye there my Art: wipe thou thine eyes, haue *COMFORT*,
.
[The] direfull spectacle of the *WRACKE* which touch'd
.
[T]he *VERy VERtue* of compassion in thee:
[I] haue with such prouision in mine Art
[S]o SAFEly ordered, that there is no soule
[No] not so much perdition as an hayre
. betid to any creature in the vessell
[W]hich thou heardst cry, which thou saw'st sinke: Sit
[For] thou must *NoW* know farther. [downe,

. Mira. You haue often
[B]egun to tell me what I am, but *STOPT*
[A]nd left me to a bootelesse Inquisition,
[Con]cluding, *STAY* : not yet.

. Pros. The howr's now come
[T]he *VERy MINUTE* byds thee *OPE THINE EARE* ,
[Obey], and be attentiue. Canst thou remember
___ A time before we came vnto this Cell?
--------------------------------------------------
*BAC* : hinder, hindrance, restrain, restraint
__________ (Gaeli, Irish, Scottish)
*BAC* : pull back, bar, obstacle, clog, objection, sprag (Manx)
--------------------------------------------------
An Execration upon Vulcan - Benjamin Jonson
http://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692underwoods.htm

‘Twas Jupiter that hurl’d thee headlong down,
And Mars, that gave thee a Lanthorn for a Crown:
Was it because thou wert of old denied
By Jove to have *MINERVA* for thy Bride.
That since thou tak’st all envious care and pain,
To ruine any Issue of the Brain?
Had I wrote Treason there, or Heresie,
Imposture, Whitchcraft, Charms, or Blasphemy?

I had *DEsERV’D* then, thy consuming Looks,
Perhaps, to have been burned with my Books.

[B]ut, on thy Malice, tell me, didst thou spy
[A]ny, least loose, or surrilescurrile Paper, lye
[Con]ceal’d, or kept there, that was fit to be,

By thy own Vote, a Sacrifice to thee?

Did I there wound the Honours of the Crown?
Or tax the Glories of the Church and Gown?
Itch to defame the State? or brand the Times?
And my self most, in some self-boasting Rhimes?
If none of these, then why this Fire? Or find
A Cause before; or leave me one behind.
Had I compil’d from Amadis de Gaule,
Th’ Esplandians, Arthur’s, Palmerins, and all
The learned Library of Don Quixote;
And so some goodlier Monster had begot,

Or spun out Riddles, and weav’d fifty Tomes
Of Logogriphes, and curious Palindromes,
Or pomp’d for those hard Trifles Anagrams,
Or Eteostichs, or those finer Flams
*Of Eggs* , and Halberds, Cradles, and a Hearse,>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
<<August 6 => Feast of the Transfiguration, marking Jesus' going up on
Mount Tabor and being seen in great radiance by Sts Peter and John,
. in the presence of the prophets Elijah and Moses.>>
...................................................................
. On August 6, 1862, Dodgson wrote in his diary:
.
<<In the afternoon Harcourt and I took the three Liddells
up to Godstow, where we had tea; we tried the game
of "The Ural Mountains" on the way,
but it did not prove very successful, and I had to go on with my
interminable fairy-tale of _Alice's Adventures_. We got back soon
after eight, and had supper in my rooms, the children coming over for
a short while. A very enjoyable expedition-the last, I should think,
to which Ina is likely to be allowed to come-her 14th time.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Nosey" Parker [Archb. of Cant.] born August 6, 1504
.........................................................
Born: Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, eminent divine, 1504,
Norwich; Bulstrode Whitelock, eminent parliamentarian, 1605, London;
Nicholas Malebranche, distinguished French philosopher (Recherche de
la Veritè), 1638, Paris; Francois-de-Salignac-de-Lamothe Fenelon,
archbishop of Cambray, and author of Telemnaque, 1651, Clädteau de
Fenelon, Perigord; Jean Baptiste Bessières, French general, 1768,
Preissac, near Cahors; Dr. William Hyde Wollaston, chemist, 1776.

Died: St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominicans, 1221, Bologna;
Anne Shakspeare, widow of the dramatist, 1623, Stratford-upon-Avon;
Ben Jonson, dramatist, 1637, London; Diego Rodriguez de Silva y
Velasquez, celebrated Spanish painter, 1660, Madrid; James Petit
Andrews, author of History of Great Britain, 1797, London. General
Robert Cunningham, Baron Rossmore, eminent public character in
Ireland, 1801.

East Day: The Transfiguration of our Lord. St. Xystus or Sixtus II,
pope and martyr, about 258. Saints Justus and Pastor, martyrs, 304.
-----------------------------------------
SHAKSPEARE'S WIFE

Obscure as are many of the points in Shakspeare's life, it is known
that his wife's maiden name was Anne Hathaway, and that her father was
a substantial yeoman at Shottery, near Stratford-on-Avon. Shakspeare
was barely nineteen, and his bride about six-and-twenty, when they
married. The marriage-bond has been brought to light, dated November
1582. Singularly little is known of their domestic life; and it is
only by putting together a number of small indications that the
various editors of Shakspeare's works have arrived at any definite
conclusions concerning the family. One circumstance seems rather to
tell against the supposition of strong affection on his side:
Shakspeare drew out his whole will without once mentioning his wife,
and then put in a few words interlined.

The will points out what shall be bequeathed to his daughter Judith
(Mrs. Quiney), his daughter Susanna (Mrs. Hall), his sister Joan Hart,
her three sons, William, and Thomas, and Michael, and a considerable
number of friends and acquaintances at Stratford; but the sole mention
of Anne Shakspeare is in the item: 'I give unto my wife my second-best
bed, with the furniture.' Malone accepted this interlined bequest as a
proof that Shakspeare had, in making his will, forgot his wife, and
then only remembered her with what was equivalent to an insult. Mr.
Knight has, on the other hand, pointed out that Mrs. Shakspeare would,
by law, have a third part of her husband's means; so that there was
presumably the less reason to remember her with special gifts of
affection. She died on the 6th of August 1623, and was buried on the
8th, in Stratford church. Her gravestone is next to the stone with the
doggrel inscription, but nearer to the north wall, upon which
Shakspeare's monument is placed. The stone has a brass-plate, with the
following inscription:

'Heere lyeth interred the body of Anne, wife of William Shakespeare,
who dep.ted this Life the 6th day of Avgv. 1623, being of the age of
67 Yeares.

. Vbera tu mater, tu lac vitamque dedisti;
. Yae mihi! pro tanto munere saxa dabo.
. Quam mallem amoveat lapidem bonus Angelus ore',
. Exeat [ut] Christi corpus, imago tua;
. Sed nil vota valent, venias cito, Christe, resurget,
. Clausa licet tumulo, mater, et astra petet.'

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zx4XAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA296#PPA294,M1

Mr. Knight considers this as a strong evidence of the love in
which Shakspeare's wife was regarded by her daughter, with whom,
he thinks it probable, she lived during her latter years.
--------------------------------------------------------
<<Ben Jonson occupies a prominent position on the British
Parnassus; yet his works are little read, because there is
something of roughness and boldness in his style, which repels
that class of readers who read poetry for recreation, rather
than critically. But hundreds, who find little pleasure in
reading his verses, feel an interest in his personal history.

Jonson's poetical career was one of great activity. His was a prolific
muse: his pen was seldom still. Much of his writing is lost, and yet
his surviving works may be described as voluminous. All that labour
which he expended in dramatic composition, in conjunction with
brothers of the craft, many poems, some plays, and most of his prose,
have passed into oblivion; yet there still remain to us upwards of
twenty plays, about forty masques, a book of epigrams, many small
poems, epistles, and translations, a book of Discoveries, as he
calls a collection of prose scraps, and an unfinished Grammar of
the English Language, written in English and Latin.

Much of Jonson's life is involved in obscurity; partly from the usual
neglect of his age in recording contemporary history, but still more
from the scandals and misrepresentations of those numerous maligners,
which his fame or his bluntness raised up against him. For Ben spoke
out his whole mind, whether others liked it or not; and probably, like
his great namesake in later times, somewhat overpowered and oppressed
the lesser wits.

Ben, or Benjamin Jonson, was born in Westminster, in 1574, a month
after the death of his father, but his family was of Scotch
extraction. They came of the Johnston of Annandale, the name having
been so far changed in its migration southwards. The dramatist's
mother married again, and, whatEVER might have been his father's
position in life, his step-father was a master-bricklayer. This second
parent allowed him to obtain a good education; he went to Westminster
school, and in due time proceeded to Cambridge. But before he had been
long at the university, the necessary funds were found wanting, and
Ben returned home with a heavy heart, to become a brick-layer. This
employment, of which, in after-years, he was often derisively
reminded, proved uncongenial. He 'could not endure,' he tells us, 'the
occupation of a bricklayer:' so he tried the military profession, and
joined the army in Flanders. Before long our valiant hero sickened of
the sword, and returned home, ' bringing with him,' says Gifford, '
the reputation of a brave man, a smattering of Dutch, and an empty
purse.'

At this critical juncture, being a good scholar, and passionately
devoted to learning and literature, Jonson commenced writing for the
stage. Before he had acquired any great literary notoriety, he
attained to one less satisfactory, by getting into prison, for killing
a man in a duel. While he remained in confinement, a priest drew him
over to the Roman Catholic church, which he conscientiously persisted
in for twelve years, in the meantime marrying a Roman Catholic wife.
Gradually his fame became established, and for many years—after the
death of Shakspeare—he retained undisputed possession of the highest
poetic eminence. He grew into great favour with James I, and found
constant employment in writing the court masques, and similar
compositions for great occasions, which among the nobility and public
'bodies, in those days afforded occupation for the pens of poets. He
also went to France for a short time in 1613, as tutor to the son of
Sir Walter Raleigh, with whom, as with many other great ones, Ben
lived on intimate and honourable terms.

About the time of Jonson's visit to France, the king.
among other proofs of kindness, made him poet-laureate,
with a life-pension of a hundred marks.

. . . . 'Learned James,
. Who favoured quiet and the arts of peace,
. Which in his halcyon-days found large increase,
. Friend to the humblest, if deserving, swain,
. Who was himself a part of Phoebus' train,
. Declared great Jonson worthiest to receive
. The garland which the Muses' hands did weave;
. And though his bounty did sustain his days,
. Gave a most welcome pension to his praise.'

In 1618, the poet made a pedestrian tour into Scotland, mainly, it has
been surmised, to visit his friend the poet Drummond. Taylor, the so-
called Water-poet, had come to Scotland at the same time on a tour,
designed to prove whether he could peregrinate beyond the Tweed
without money; a question which he solved in the affirmative, as the
well-known Penniless Pilgrimage avouches. He found his 'approved good
friend,' Jonson, living with Mr. John Stuart at Leith, and received
from him a gold piece of the value of twenty-two shillings; a solid
proof of the kind feelings of honest Ben towards his brethren of
Parnassus. Jonson, on this occasion, spent some time with the Duke of
Lennox in the west, and formed a design of writing a piscatorial play,
with Loch Lomond as its scene. He passed the winter in Scotland, and
in April was for three weeks the guest of Drummond at his romantic
seat of Hawthornden, on the Esk. Here he drank freely—perhaps the
bacchanalian habits of the north had somewhat corrupted him—indulged
in the hearty egotism of a roysterer, and spoke disparagingly of many
of his contemporaries, a little to the disgust of the modest Scottish
poet, who took memoranda of his conversation, since published. On this
subject there has been, in our day, a good deal of unnecessary
discussion, to which it would be use-less further to advert.

It is observable how little Jonson cared for worldly dignity. James
had a wish to knight him, but he eluded the honour. He liked the love
of men better. A jovial boon-companion, an affectionate friend, he was
EVER as open-handed as he was open-hearted. When he had money, his
friends shared it, or feasted on it. Towards the close of his life,
when sickness overtook him, and his popularity somewhat declined,
after the death of James, he fell into poverty. He was even reduced so
far as to have to ask for assistance; but he did it in a manly way.
There is nothing unworthy of a man in the following letter; how
superior is it to the meanness of other scribblers in those days!

'MY NOBLEST LORD AND BEST PATRON

I send no borrowing epistle to provoke your lordship, for I have
neither fortune to repay, nor security to engage, that will be taken;
but I make a most humble petition to your lordship's bounty, to
succour my present necessities this good time of Easter, and it
shall conclude all begging-requests hereafter on the behalf
of your Truest Beadsman and most Humble Servant, B. J.

To THE EARL OF NEWCASTLE.'

The Earl of Newcastle was now Jonson's chief patron. Hearing of the
poet's distress, Charles I., who had gradually taken him into favour,
sent him a hundred pounds. He also willingly renewed the pension
bestowed by his father, increasing the one hundred marks to one
hundred pounds, adding from his own stores a tierce of Canary (Pen's
favourite wine).

Ben's sickness grew upon him, and he died on the 6th of August 1637,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 9th. The curious
inscription, by which his grave was marked: 'O RARE BEN JONSON!' and
which formed the concluding words of the verses written and displayed
in the celebrated club-room of Ben's clique, is said to have been a
temporary memorandum, until such time as a fitting monument could be
erected. The story says that one of Ben's friends gave a mason, who
was on the spot, eighteenpence to cut it. The troubles of the civil
wars prevented the execution of a more ambitious memorial. Some have
spoken of the brief legend as if it were a thing profane in that
sacred place of tombs; we must confess that we think otherwise.
By whatEVER accident or freak it came to be placed there, we fancy
that it contains a true vein of pathos, and feel it to exercise
a thrilling influence over us each time we look at it and read it.

If Ben, by his freeness, as well as his greatness, made enemies, he
secured to himself innumerable friends by the same means. No man
possessed more loving friends than he among the great or among the
umregarded; no man wrote more loving verses to those whom he loved.
The club at the Mermaid was the meeting-place of all those brothers
of song; there they held their jovial literary orgies, which
have made the Mermaid a place and a name nEVER to be forgotten.

. Souls of poets dead and gone,
. What Elysium have ye known,
. Happy field, or mossy cavern,
. Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?'

So Keats expresses the unanimous feeling of all who loved Ben.
Shakspeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, the learned Selden, Dr. Donne,
Beaumont, Fletcher, Carew, Cotton, Herrick, and innumerable other
worthies, waited religiously on the far-famed oracle; and the
recollection of their meetings, and of Ben's oracular utterances,
dwelt in their minds when all was over, like the remembrance
of a lost Eden, as Herrick, in conclusion, shall bear witness:

AN ODE FOR BEN JONSON

Ah, Ben!
Say how, or when
Shall we thy guests
Meet at those lyric feasts,
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Ton?
Where we such clusters had,
As made us nobly wild, not mad;
And yet each verse of thine
Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine.

My Ben,
Or come agen,
Or send to us
Thy wit's great overplus:
But teach us yet
Wisely to husband it;
Lest we that talent spend:
And having once brought to an end
That precious stock; the store
Of such a wit: the world should have no more.

A CABINET OF GEMS, FROM BEN JONSON'S DISCOVERIES

Very few books contain as much wisdom in as little space as Ben
Jonson's book of Discoveries. And yet, as we nEVER hear it spoken of
or quoted, it seems very clear that no one EVER reads it. We grace our
store-house of useful curiosities with one or two specimens of the
bright golden ore hid in abundance in this unexplored mine. As the
extracts are made as short as possible, the reader will observe that
the words at the head of each are not always our author's, but often
merely our own nomenclature for the gems in our little cabinet:

* Fortune — Ill-fortune nEVER crushed that man whom good-fortune
deceived not.

* Self-reliance — He knows not his own strength,
. that hath not met adversity.

* Counsel — No man is so foolish, but may give another good
counsel sometimes; and no man is so wise, but may easily err,
if he will take no other's counsel but his own.

* True Wisdom — Wisdom without honesty is mere craft and cozenage.

* Discernment — There are many that, with more ease, will find fault
with what is spoken foolishly, than can give allowance to that
wherein you are wise silently.

* Stupidity — A man cannot imagine that thing so foolish,
or rude, but will find or enjoy an admirer.

* Short-sightedness of Discontent — If we would consider what our
affairs are indeed, not what they are called, we should find
more evils belonging to us, than happen to us.

* Man, a Mimetic Animal — I have considered our whole life
is like a play: wherein EVERy man, forgetful of himself,
is in travail with expression of another.

* A Bricklayer's Cunning — I have discovered that a feigned
familiarity in great ones, is a note of certain usurpation
on the less.

* Vice and Virtue — If we will look with our under-standing, and not
our senses, we may behold virtue and beauty (though covered with rags)
in their brightness; and vice and deformity so much the fouler,
in having all the splendour of riches to gild them,
or the false light of honour and power to help them.

* Self-approval — The worst opinion gotten for doing well should
delight us.

* Being above seeming — I am glad when I see any man avoid
the infamy of a vice; but to shun the vice itself were better.

* The best Writer — The order of God's creatures in themselves is not
only admirable and glorious, but eloquent: then he who could apprehend
the consequence of things in their truth, and utter his apprehensions
as truly, were the best writer or speaker.

* Poesy — A dulcet and gentle philosophy, which leads on and
guides us by the hand to action, with a ravishing delight,
and incredible sweetness.
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THE SEA-SERPENT

<<On the 6th of August 1848, H. M. S. Dcedalus, on her way from the
Cape of Good Hope to St. Helena, came near a singular-looking object
in the water. Captain M'Quhae attempted to wear the ship close up to
it, but the state of the wind prevented a nearer approach than two
hundred yards. The officers, watching carefully through their glasses,
could trace eye, mouth, nostril, and form, in the floating mass to
which their attention was directed. The general impression produced
was, that the animal belonged rather to the lizard than to the serpent
tribe; its movement was steady, rapid, and uniform, as if propelled by
fins rather than by undulating power. The size appeared to be very
great; but as only a portion of the animal was above water, no exact
estimate of dimensions could be made. Neither officers nor seamen
EVER saw anything similar to it before.

The report of this incident caused a stir among the British
naturalists, who were eager to meet the popular fancy of the sea-
serpent with facts shewing the extreme improbability of the existence
of any such creature. Captain M'Quhae, nEVERtheless, insisted on the
correctness of his report, and many professed to attach little
consequence to the merely negative evidence brought against it.

On the 12th of December 1857, the ship Castilian, bound from Bombay to
Liverpool, was, at six in the evening, about ten miles distant from
St. Helena. A monster that suddenly appeared in the water was
described by the three chief officers of the ship—Captain G. H.
Harrington, Mr. W. Davies, and Mr. E. Wheeler; the description was
entered by Captain Harrington in his Official Meteorological Journal,
and was forwarded to the Board of Trade. Nothing can be more plain
than the honest good faith in which the narrative is written. The
chief facts, in the captain's own words, are as follows: 'While myself
and officers were standing on the lee-side of the poop, looking
towards the island, we were startled by the sight of a huge marine
animal, which reared its head out of the water, within twenty yards of
the ship; when it suddenly disappeared for about half a minute, and
then made its appearance in the same manner again—shewing us
distinctly its neck and head, about ten or twelve feet out of the
water. Its head was shaped like a long nun-buoy; and I suppose the
diameter to have been seven or eight feet in the largest part,
with a kind of scroll, or tuft of loose skin, encircling it
about two feet from the top.

The water was discoloured for sEVERal hundred feet from its head: so
much so, that on its first appearance my impression was that the ship
was in broken water, produced, as I supposed, by some volcanic agency
since the last time I passed the island; but the second appearance
completely dispelled those fears, and assured us that it was a monster
of extraordinary length, which appeared to be moving slowly towards
the land. The ship was going too fast, to enable us to reach the mast-
head in time to form a correct estimate of its extreme length; but
from what we saw from the deck, we conclude that it must have been
over two hundred feet long. The boatswain and sEVERal of the crew who
observed it from the top-gallant fore-castle, state that it was more
than double the length of the ship, in which case it must have been
five hundred feet. Be that as it may, I am convinced that it belonged
to the serpent tribe; it was of a dark colour about the head, and was
covered with sEVERal white spots.' Captain Harrington, some time
afterwards, strengthened his testimony by that of other persons.

These are but examples of many confident reports made by persons
professing to have seen the sea-serpent. Between 1844 and 1846, there
were reported sEVERal appearances of this monster, in the seas
fronting the United States and Canada. About the same time, a similar
creature was stated to have presented itself near the shores of
Norway, considered as identical with one depicted in Pontoppidan's
Natural History of Norway (1752), of which a transcript is here given.
Twenty years earlier, the sea-serpent was repeatedly seen on the
coasts of the United States, also about 1818, and in 1806. It is
remarkable with what distinctness, and with what confidence, the
observers state their notions of what they saw—not meaning, we
suppose, to deceive, but in all good faith taking hasty
and excited impressions for serious and exact observation.

It chances that a creature, described by the beholders in as wonderful
terms as were employed in any of the above instances, came ashore on
the coast of Orkney in the year 1808. Even then exaggerated and most
erroneous accounts of its decaying carcass were transmitted to
scientific persons in Edinburgh, so that Dr. Barclay, the ablest
anatomist of his day, was completely misled in regard to the nature
of the animal. Some of the bones of the vertebral column having
fortunately been sent to Sir EVERard Home, in London, he was able to
determine that the creature was a shark, of the species Squalus
Maximus, but one certainly of uncommon size, for it had been carefully
measured by a carpenter with a foot-rule, and found to be fifty-five
feet long.

It is not, howEVER, the prevalent belief of naturalists, that the sea-
serpent has been in all cases the Squalus Maximus. It seems to be now
concluded, that the animal actually seen by M'Quhae and Harrington was
more probably a certain species of seal known to inhabit the South
Seas. The creature so often seen on the American coasts, was in all
probability a shark, similar to that stranded in Orkney.>>
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Art Neuendorffer