of one man to be one, as of Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, Ulysses, and other heroes; which is both foolish and false, since by one and the same person many things may be severally done which cannot fitly be referred or joined to 5 the same end: which not only the excellent tragic poets, but the best masters of the epic, Homer and Virgil, saw. For though the argument of an epic poem be far more diffused and poured out than that of tragedy, yet Virgil, writing of Æneas, hath pretermitted many things. He 10 neither tells how he was born, how brought up, how he fought with Achilles, how he was snatched out of the battle by Venus; but that one thing, how he came into Italy, he prosecutes in twelve books. The rest of his journey, his error by sea, the sack of Troy, are put not as the argu15 ment of the work, but episodes of the argument. So Homer laid by many things of Ulysses, and handled no more than he saw tended to one and the same end.

Contrary to which, and foolishly, those poets did, whom the philosopher taxeth, of whom one gathered 20 all the actions of Theseus, another put all the labors of Hercules in one work. So did he whom Juvenal mentions in the beginning, "hoarse Codrus," that recited a volume compiled, which he called his Theseid, not yet finished, to the great trouble both of his hearers and 25 himself; amongst which there were many parts had no

coherence nor kindred one with other, so far they were from being one action, one fable. For as a house, consisting of divers materials, becomes one structure and one dwelling, so an action, composed of divers parts, may 30 become one fable, epic or dramatic. For example, in a tragedy, look upon Sophocles his Ajax: Ajax, deprived of Achilles's armor, which he hoped from the suffrage of the Greeks, disdains, and, growing impatient of the injury, rageth, and turns mad. In that humor he doth 35 many senseless things, and at last falls upon the Grecian

flock and kills a great ram for Ulysses: returning to his sense, he grows ashamed of the scorn, and kills himself; and is by the chiefs of the Greeks forbidden burial. These things agree and hang together, not as they were done, but as seeming to be done, which made the action 5 whole, entire, and absolute.

The conclusion concerning the whole, and the parts. Which are episodes - For the whole, as it consisteth of parts, so without all the parts it is not the whole; and to make it absolute is required not only the parts, but such 10 parts as are true. For a part of the whole was true, which, if you take away, you either change the whole or it is not the whole. For if it be such a part, as, being present or absent, nothing concerns the whole, it cannot be called a part of the whole; and such are the episodes, 15 of which hereafter. For the present here is one example : the single combat of Ajax with Hector, as it is at large described in Homer, nothing belongs to this Ajax of Sophocles.

You admire no poems but such as run like a brewer's 20 cart upon the stones, hobbling :

Et, quæ per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt,

Actius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt.
Attonitusque legis terraï, frugiferaï.

NOTES.

1.

Gifford :

Tecum habita, etc. Persius, Satires, 4. 52. Thus translated by

To your own breast in quest of worth repair,

And blush to find how poor a stock is there.

Silva, the raw material of

21. Silva rerum et sententiarum, etc. facts and thoughts, vλn, wood, as it were, so called from the multiplicity and variety of the matter contained therein. For just as we are commonly wont to call a vast number of trees growing indiscriminately "a wood" (timber); so also did the ancients call those of their books, in which were collected at random articles upon various and diverse topics, a wood (timber-trees). Cf. Jonson's Underwoods. Preface to the Reader: "With the same leave the ancients called that kind of body sylva, or "λn, in which there were works of divers nature and matter congested; as the multitude called timber-trees promiscuously growing, a wood or forest, so I am bold to entitle these lesser poems of later growth by this of Underwood, out of the analogy they hold to the Forest in my former book, and no otherwise." See also The Alchemist, 3. 2: "The whole family or wood of you." Sylva is often opposed to supellex. See the quotation from Persius, above, and the following of Bacon: "Minds empty and unfraught with matter, and which have not gathered that which Cicero (Orator, 80) calleth sylva and supellex (stuff and variety) to begin with those arts," etc. (Advancement of Learning, Bk. II. p. 72, ed. 1819).

35. As. That. As is used for that after so in Elizabethan English. Cf. 13 32, 26 1, 27 8, 34 18, 36 25, 36 28, 37 25, 41 26, 49 29, 57 6, 69 20, 72 15, 81 24, and 83 21; and see Shakespeare Grammar, § 109. Occasionally Jonson uses so — - that, as in modern English, 7 10 and 72 34; and even the pleonastic as that, but there after such, 71 17.

3 19. No man. . . but may. Note the omission of the subject, no unusual practice where the subject cannot be mistaken. See Sh. Gram. § 399.

44. Taught by himself. avтodídaкtos, foot-note of the folio of 1642. 4 4. Had a fool to his master. Cf. 13 17, 38 10, 69 26, and 78 17. See Sh. Gram. § 189.

4 5.

Fama. Reputation.

49. Emergent. Capable of extricating himself.

4 10. Negotia. Business.

4 12.

Our too much haste. Note the order. See Sh. Gram. § 51. Much is used as an adjective after a pronomial adjective.

4 15.

Amor patriæ. Love of the fatherland. A literal translation

of Euripides, Phænissæ, 358–361, ed. Didot.

ἀλλ ̓ ἀναγκαίως ἔχει

Πατρίδος ἐρᾶν ἅπαντας· ὃς δ ̓ ἄλλως λέγει,
Λόγοισι χαίρει, τὸν δὲ νοῦν ἐκεῖσ ̓ ἔχει.

Mr. Swinburne has quoted this beautiful passage, as Jonson translates it, with the prefatory words, "The ring of what follows is pure gold" (A Study of Ben Jonson, p. 131). He has also suggested an emendation in the insertion of the word "not" before the final word; i.e."his heart is [not] there." It will be noticed that the emendation is unnecessary, in view of the original. Cf. a later passage of Mr. Swinburne's (p. 179), in which he falls afoul of Jonson for the statement that Euripides "is sometimes peccant, as he is most truly perfect." Mr. Swinburne's words are: "The perfection of such shapeless and soulless abortions as the Phænissa and the Hercules Furens is about as demonstrable as the lack of art which Ben Jonson regretted and condemned in the author of Hamlet and Othello." It may well be doubted if Mr. Swinburne has even been convicted of praising Euripides before. 4 15. There is a necessity all men should love, etc. Note the omission of the relative. Cf. 7 14, 18 11, 19 29, 19 33, 20 6, 23 25, 24 6, 34 19, 37 23, etc.; and see Sh. Gram. § 244.

4 18. Ingenia. Innate dispositions. 4 20. Attempting. Making trial of.

4 21. Applausus.

Praise. A literal translation from Paterculus, Hist. Rom. 2. 92: Audita visis laudamus libentius, etc. (Whalley).

4 24.

4 25.

Overlaid. Burdened, oppressed.

Opinio. Opinion; in modern English, reputation. See 6 3, 25 27; and cf. 1 Hen. IV. 5. 4. 48; and Othello, 2. 3. 195.

4 32. Impostura. Imposture.