Or if any strife betide For the breeches with the bride, Or it be the gossip's hap Each to pawn her husband's cap Or by chance if in their grease She will not seize it. F A SONG. RESH as the day, and new as are the hours, Upon this obelisk, advanced for it, We offer as a circle the most fit, To crown the years which you begin, great king, And you with them, as father of our spring. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND ABOVE HIS TITLEs, Robert, EARLE OF SOMERSET. [SENT TO HIM ON HIS WEDDING-DAY, 1613.] HEY are not those, are present with their face, grace At these thy nuptials; but whose heart and thought Do wait upon thee: and their Love not bought. Such wear true Wedding robes, and are true Friends, That bid God give thee joy, and have no ends. W'h I do, early, virtuous Somerset, And pray thy joys as lasting be as great. Not only this but every day of thine With the same look, or with a better shine. May she, whom thou for spouse to-day dost take, Outbee that Wife in worth thy friend did make : And thou to her that Husband may exalt Hymen's amends to make it worth his fault. To rise with either of you on the morrow. And when your years rise more than would be told 7 These lines, first printed in Notes and Queries, 1st S. vol. v. p. 193, were found in the poet's autograph, pasted into the "virtuous Somerset's" own copy of the 1640 folio, headed by the following inscription, "These verses were made by the author of this book, and were delivered to the earl of Somerset upon his lordship's wedding-day." Gifford (vol. vii. p. 44), was not aware of the existence of these lines when he says, "it is to Jonson's praise that he took no part in the celebration of this marriage." The allusions to "The Wife" which "thy friend did make," have a terrible significance when the fate of sir Thomas Overbury is remembered. F. C. AN EPIGRAM TO MY JOVIAL Good friend Mr. Robert CANNOT bring my muse to drop vies How they do keep alive his memory How they advance true love and neighbourhood, Of subjects. Let such envy till they burst. BEN JONSON. PREFIXED TO FARNABY'S JUVENAL.' EMPORIBUS lux magna fuit Juvenalis avitis, Moribus, ingeniis, divitiis, vitiis. Tu lux es luci, Farnabi: operisque fugasti 8 From the Annalia Dubrensia, 66 a collection of encomiastic verses," says Mr. Bolton Corney, "somewhat like those on Sidney, or Bodley, or Camden-composed and published in honour of Mr. Robert Dover, the founder of an annual meeting for rustic sports upon the Cotswold Hills, in the reign of James I. The volume, small 4to., is dated 1636, and contains the effusions of more than thirty poets." See Notes and Queries, 3rd S. ix. 100. 9 For the meaning of the word "vies," see note, vol. i. p. 101. Jonson had a high opinion of Farnaby as an editor; see the inscription in a copy of his Martial, given in a note, vol. i. p. cxxi.; and also the text at the same place for Farnaby's manly and eloquent recognition of Jonson's own merits. F. C. Lux tua parva quidem mole est, sed magna rigore, Macte: tuo scriptores, lectoresque labore BEN JONSONIUS.2 A FRAGMENT OF ONE OF THE LOST QUATERNIONS OF JOU worms (my rivals), whiles she was alive, strive To have your freedom? For their sakes for- Unseemly holes in her soft skin to wear; With your disordered eatings, to deface. her, 2 Notes and Queries, 3rd S. viii. 195. MASTER WITHER'S LINES. Wither. HALL I, wasting in despair, Or my cheeks make pale with care Be she fairer than the day What care I how fair she be? Shall my foolish heart be blind, Shall a woman's virtues make 4 Dr. Bliss copied this playful and ingenious parody from a "volume of peculiar rarity." A Description of Love, with certain Epigrams, Elegies, and Sonnets, and also Master Johnson's answer to Master Withers. With the Boy of Ludgate, and the Song of |