323

BEN J O N S O N
1572-1637

To the Reader 1
Pray thee, take care, that tak'st my book in hand,
To read it well: that is, to understand.
1616

On My First Daughter

Here lies, to each her parents' ruth,° sorrow

Mary, the daughter of their youth;
Yet all heaven's gifts being heaven's due,
It makes the father less to rue.
5 At six months' end she parted hence
With safety of her innocence;
Whose soul heaven's queen, whose name she bears,
In comfort of her mother's tears,
Hath placed amongst her virgin-train: 2
10 Where, while that severed doth remain, 3
This grave partakes the fleshly birth;
Which cover lightly, gentle earth!
1616

On My First Son
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, 4 and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy:
Seven years thou'wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. 5
5 O could I lose all father now! 6 for why
Will man lament the state he should envy,
To have so soon scaped world's and flesh's rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age?

1. From the book of epigrams that Jonson pub-
lished along with a collection of poems called The
Forrest in his First Folio of 1616. He seems initially
to have planned another book of epigrams, but his
later examples of the genre—in his collection of
poems The Underwood—were not published until
after his death, in the Second Folio of 1640. Mod-
eled on poems by the Roman poet Martial (ca. 40—
ca. 103), epigrams were terse and pointed, often
ending with a witty turn of thought. Jonson's
teacher, the historian William Camden, described
them as "short and sweet poems, framed to praise
or dispraise."
2. I.e., among those attending the Virgin Mary.
3. I.e., while her soul remains separate from her
body (the soul and body will reunite at Resurrec-
tion).
4. A literal translation of the Hebrew Benjamin,
the boy's name.
5. Jonson's son died on his seventh birthday, in
1603.
6. I.e., let go all fatherly thoughts and sorrow.
324 / BENJONSON

Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, "Here doth lie

10 Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."
For whose sake henceforth all his 7 vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much.
1616

On Spies
Spies, you are lights in state, 8 but of base stuff,
Who, when you've burnt yourselves down to the snuff,0 candle end
Stink and are thrown away. End fair enough.
1616

To Fool or Knave
Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike:
One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.
1616

To Sir Henry Cary9

That neither fame nor love might wanting be
To greatness, Cary, I sing that and thee;
Whose house, 1 if it no other honor had,
In only thee might be both great and glad;
5 Who, to upbraid 0 the sloth of this our time, chastise
Durst valor make almost, but not, a crime; 2
Which deed I know not, whether were more high,
Or thou more happy, it to justify
Against thy fortune: when no foe, that day,
10 Could conquer thee but chance, who did betray.
Love thy great loss, which a renown hath won,
To live when Broick not stands, nor Ruhr doth run. 3
Love honors, which of best example be
W h e n they cost dearest and are done most free;
15 Though every fortitude deserves applause,

7. I.e., Ben Jonson the father's. writing.

8. Condition or form; with a likely pun on "state"
as government.
9. Henry Cary (ca. 1576—1633) became Viscount
Falkland in 1620 and was the father of Jonson's
friend Lucius Cary (1609 or 1610-1643).
1. Family line, but also household, which in Cary's
case was well known to include not "only" a hus-
band but also a wife—Elizabeth Cary (ca. 1587—
1639)—who aspired to public "honor" through her
2. In October 1605, Cary was with a group of
English and Dutch soldiers who fled from a smaller
Italian force—hence Cary, who tried to stop the
rout and was captured, almost made "valor" a
crime in English eyes.
3. "The castle and river near where he was taken"
[Jonson's note]. Cary was captured near the con-
fluence of the Rhur and the Rhine rivers.