and yet the friendship of many of the greatest and noblest men of his day, and the adoration of a younger generation "sealed of the tribe of Ben," must have gone far towards brightening even these darkening days. Ben Jonson died August 6, 1635, and although a projected monument failed of erection in the midst of the political tension that was rapidly hurrying the nation to civil war, all must agree that no time will efface the brief but sufficient legend

66

'O rare Ben Jonson.""

2. PUBLICATION AND DATE OF COMPOSITION.

Ben Jonson's Explorata, Timber or Discoveries was published posthumously in 1641, filling the last forty-seven pages of the second volume of the folio edition of 1640. Since Dr. Brinsley Nicholson's examination and collation of the folio editions of Jonson (see Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, vol. v. p. 573), we may dismiss the supposition of Lowndes that a third folio edition was printed, bearing date 1641, as well as his affirmation of the existence of a second volume of the first folio of 1616. It was not until the reprint of 1640 that a second volume, containing the Discoveries and other pieces variously dated, appeared. Gifford supposed that this volume was printed from manuscripts surreptitiously obtained (ed. Cunningham, iii. p. 277); but Dr. Nicholson has shown conclusively, and for reasons which space will not permit me to set forth here, that at least two of the plays contained in this volume had received touches from the hand of the author, and that "as to the pieces dated 1640 and 1641, some of the smaller poems are from the author's revised copies, while the same pieces in the quarto and duodecimo non-surreptitious editions of 1640 are from earlier drafts."

The separate title of the Discoveries bears no imprint beyond the words, "London, printed M.DC.XLI." The

pagination runs continuously through Horace, his Arte of Poetrie, pp. 1-29, The English Grammar, pp. 31-84, and the Discoveries, pp. 85-132; while each of the former separate titles displays the imprint, " Printed M.DC.XL." Dr. Nicholson, however, informs us that the general title of the second volume bears the imprint of R. Meighan, 1640, who was not the publisher of the other volume of the second folio. The exemplar, the property of the present editor, contains no such general title; and it would seem from Gifford's note, referred to above, that his copy exhibited a like defect. Dr. Nicholson assures us that whatever the other variants, all the copies of the Discoveries bears the date of 1641.

In view of the corrupt state of portions of the text, the evident disorder of many of the notes, and the ignorant misplacement and repetition of marginal references, it is clear that the work could never have been intended, by so careful an author as Jonson, for publication in its present form. And yet, considering the age and its posthumous appearance, the condition of the text of the folio is far from justifying the brilliant strictures of Mr. Swinburne. The truth seems that editors of Jonson have generally wearied of their task before reaching the later products of their author's brain; and, while most of the mistakes of the folio have been reproduced with sedulous fidelity, not a few new errors have crept into the text through carelessness or unnecessary zeal in emendation.

As appears from the title, the Discoveries is a "species of commonplace book of aphorisms flowing out of the poet's daily reading." But it would be far from just to regard this as all. For every note is stamped with the powerful individuality of the writer, so that even the reflected thoughts of others have become wholly Jonson's own; while the care with which the notes have been penned, and the painstaking attention to matters of style and expression, entitle Jonson

here as elsewhere to challenge the first place of his age as a master of vigorous, idiomatic English prose. There is internal evidence, too, pointing to an intent to publish, in the words: "I had not told posterity this but for their ignorance, who choose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted" (De Shakespeare nostrati, 23 14-16), to which may possibly be added the several passages susceptible of an autobiographical interpretation (18 8-19 2, 31 28-32 3, 43 24-44 23, etc.)

The date of the composition of the Discoveries cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy; and it is highly probable, from the nature of the work, that it was written from time to time through a series of years. One piece of external evidence we have in a letter of James Howell to Jonson, dated June 27, 1629, and containing a series of quotations on the madness of poets, nearly all of which are to be found in a passage of the Discoveries (see 75 24–76 8, and the notes thereon, in which Howell's letter is quoted). Unfortunately for this bit of evidence, the letter mentions The Magnetic Lady as a finished work, and that play was not acted until 1632. It is unlikely that Jonson kept the finished manuscript of his play in his desk three years before performance, and still more improbable that Howell should write thus familiarly of a play as yet untried. Moreover, Anthony à Wood declares (Athena Oxonienses, ed. 1817, iii. col. 746) that " many of the said letters were never written before their author was in the Fleet [1642], as he pretends they were, only feigned (no time being kept with the dates), and purposely published to gain money to relieve his necessities." Hence, while it is quite possible that Howell sent such a letter to Jonson, the date can prove nothing as to the composition of Jonson's note, if indeed the evidence of Anthony à Wood does not raise a presumption of direct borrowing on the part of Howell from Jonson's already published Discoveries.

A few parallel passages between the Discoveries and other works of Jonson may be found, as the statement "that poets are far rarer births than kings" (Disc. 76 12, Epigram, 79, and the Epilogue to New Inn), or the allusion to the passage of Julius Cæsar (Disc. 23 27, and the Induction to The Staple of Newes); but such points prove little, and need not be pressed. The two or three parallels between the Discoveries and works of contemporary authors (Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 31 13, 66 12, 17; Selden's Table Talk, 73 3) are of about equal uncertainty. Several allusions to contemporary persons and events are somewhat more fruitful. The disgrace of Lord Bacon in 1621 was assuredly prior to the writing of the note (31 28-32 3); whilst that concerning his eloquence (30 10-21)-unless the literality of the translation from Seneca mislead - must have been written subsequent to the chancellor's death in 1626. The allusions to Taylor, the Water Poet (22 9 and 14), amount to nothing, as Taylor continued the production of his booklets long after the death of Jonson; that to Heath's Epigrams (228) is more definite, unless reminiscent, as Heath does not appear to have written subsequent to 1620. These allusions lead to 1620 or 1621, as the earliest possible date assignable to the composition of any of the notes constituting the Discoveries; while the date, 1630, contained in the note on Archy Armstrong (13 18), the reminiscent character of Jonson's remarks on Bacon, Shakespeare, and others, the adaptation of Seneca's words on the failure of his memory to Jonson himself (18 12-29) and his frequent bitterness of spirit (11 18-29, 21 16 seqq., 43 24-44 23), all point to a still later period as the probable date of composition. It is likely that little violence will be done to the truth in assigning the composition of the Discoveries to the last years of the poet's life.

3. LITERARY INFLUENCES.

The nature of this work is not such as to warrant the treatment of so extended a topic as the learning of Ben Jonson. We must therefore be content with a brief consideration of the literary influences discernible in the Discoveries. In view of the restoration of some scores of passages to their respective owners for which the reader is referred to the notes - it is to be hoped that the Discoveries may thenceforth be regarded in a very different light from a production of original English prose. As Whalley said long ago (ed. Jonson, vii. p. 71), and as the title of the work imports, "Many of the following passages are imitations or observations made upon the authors of Jonson's daily reading"; and I may add that quite as many are literal quotations, Jonson's own merely in the sense that he has translated them, and applied their very words to the changed conditions of his time. It is notable that to this latter class belong several of the passages most commonly quoted as autobiographical or reminiscent of the poet's contemporaries (e.g. 18 10-29, 28 17 seqq., and the notes thereon), and not a few which have been enthusiastically admired as Jonson's by those imperfectly conversant with their originals. See especially the passage of Euripides, translated at 4 15, and highly extolled by Mr. Swinburne in his Study of Ben Jonson, p. 131; and the discussion of the advantages of a public over a private education at 53 21 seqq., a literal transcript of a well-known passage of Quintilian, equally exalted as Jonson's with the lavish panegyric of which the same critic is so consummate a master (ibid. p. 167–168, and my note on 54 16), and pronounced by Professor Ward "very English in spirit" (English Dramatic Literature, i. p. 542, note 2).

In reading the Discoveries, it is not difficult to discern the influences under which a given series of notes was written. Now the author was reading the elder Seneca, and