For who can master those great parts like thee, he really designed, as Whalley says, to compile a general history of England, we have to lament that one so well qualified for the task found cause to lay it aside. Sir Henry was warden of Merton College, Oxford, and provost of Eton. Aubrey says that he was a severe governour, and that the scholars hated him for his austerity: but all governors were severe in those days. The worst of him was that "he could not abide witts :"—"If a young scholar was recommended to him for a good witt, Out upon him! he would say, I'll have nothing to do with him-if I wold look for witts I wold go to Newgate, there be the witts." Letters by Eminent Persons, vol. ii. p. 525. Aubrey has other complaints; but his idle stories are the mere gossip of the day.-Sir Henry Savile was, after all, every thing that Jonson describes him to be; and we may securely acquiesce in the opinion of bishop Montague, that he was "a magazine of learning, whose memory will be honourable amongst not only the wise, but the righteous for ever." 1 We need a man can speak of the intents, The councils, actions, orders, and events, &c.] These are the essentials of history, and are laid down by Cicero (de Oratore, lib. ii,) as what a good historian should be capable of treating this sentiment is taken from thence. WHAL. But most we need his faith (and all have you,) XCVI. TO JOHN DONNE. HO shall doubt, Donne, whêre I a poet be,3 As thou hast best authority t' allow. XCVII. ON THE NEW MOTION. EE you yond' Motion? not the old fa-ding, Nor captain Pod, nor yet the Eltham thing;* But one more rare, and in the case so new: His cloak with orient velvet quite lined through; 2 That dares not, &c.] This is the primary feature of a good historian, according to Cicero: "Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat." 3 Who shall doubt, Donne, whêre I a poet be.] This contraction of the interrogative whether, seems peculiar to the poet. WHAL. Whalley is greatly mistaken; it is common to them all. Jonson has no peculiarities. 4 Nor captain Pod, nor yet the Eltham thing.] Pod has been mentioned before as the master of a puppet-show: the Eltham His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown, Where-e'er he met me, now he's dumb, or proud. Since he was gone, more than the one he wears. XCVIII. TO SIR THOMAS ROE." HOU hast begun well, Roe, which stand well to, And I know nothing more thou hast to do. thing is alluded to in the Silent Woman; "The perpetual motion is here, and not at Eltham." WHAL. For fa-ding, see vol. vii. p. 226. 5 Nor did the king of Denmark, &c.] Christian IV., who visited this country in 1606. See vol. vi. p. 47°. 6 Sir Thomas Roe.] Grandson of sir Thomas Roe, and nephew of the sir John, and William Roe already mentioned. "In this great man," Granger truly says, "the accomplishments of the scholar, the gentleman, and the statesman, were eminently united. During his residence in the Mogul's court, he zealously promoted the trading interest of this kingdom, for which the East India Company was greatly indebted to him. In his embassy to the Grand Signior, he collected many valuable Greek and Oriental manuscripts, which he presented to the Bodleian Library, to which he left his valuable collection of coins. The fine Alexandrian MS. of the He that is round within himself, and straight," And what would hurt his virtue, makes it still. And study conscience more than thou would'st fame. XCIX. TO THE SAME. HAT thou hast kept thy love, encreas'd thy Better'd thy trust to letters; that thy skill; Greek Bible which Cyrill, the patriarch of Constantinople, presented to Charles I. was procured by his means. This was afterwards published by Dr. Grabe. His speech, at the council-table, against debasing the coin in the reign of Charles, gained him the highest reputation. His curious and interesting Negotiations' were first published by the Society for promoting Learning, 1740, fol." Sir Thomas was the son of Robert Roe: he was born in 1580, and, about the close of Elizabeth's reign, was made esquire of the body to that princess. He was knighted by James in 1604, and in 1614 appointed, at the request of the East India Company, ambassador to the Mogul: he continued at his court four years, and was dismissed with extraordinary honours. He died after a very active and useful life in 1644, and was buried in Woodford church, Essex. He that is round, &c.] From Horace: totus teres atque rotundus, In quem manca ruit fortuna, &c. But much it now avails, what's done, of whom : C. ON PLAYWRIGHT.8 LAYWRIGHT, by chance, hearing some toys I'd writ, Cry'd to my face, they were th' elixir of wit : And I must now believe him; for to-day, Five of my jests, then stolen, past him a play. CI. INVITING A FRIEND TO SUPPER. O-NIGHT,grave sir, both my poor house and I Not that we think us worthy such a guest, But that your worth will dignify our feast, 8 On Playwright.] This epigram is said by Stephen Jones (the person so judiciously selected by the booksellers to prepare the new edition of the Biographia Dramatica) to have been written on "Ben Jonson (he says) a the appearance of Ford's Ladies' Trial. bitter enemy of Ford's, charges the latter with having stolen a character in this play from him. "Playwright (i. e. Ford) hearing," &c. Mr. Jones has not here the usual apology for his stupidity,—that "he found it so in the former edition;" for Read, though Macklin's forgery lay before him, was too well acquainted with dates to till adopt it. The fact is, that the Ladies' Trial did not appear two years after Jonson's death, while the epigram to which it is here said to have given birth, was published two and twenty, and |