stiff, like a man of no understanding. One would deem him to be churlish, and naught but a fool. But when he uttered his great voice from his chest, then could no mortal man contend with Odysseus; then marvelled we not thus to behold Odysseus's aspect." 14 20. Epaminondas is celebrated by Spintharus. The folio reading is by Pindar. Epaminondas, the famous Theban general and statesman, who, with his friend Pelopidas, raised Thebes to the height of her power, after freeing her from the Spartan supremacy. He was killed at the battle of Mantineia in 362. There is an error in the folio, as Pindar is supposed to have died in 442, some thirty years prior to the probable birth of Epaminondas. Jonson must have had the following passage of Plutarch before him (De Gen. Socrat. 23), thus freely translated by Grote (Hist. of Greece X. p. 167): “His [Epaminondas's] patience as a listener, and his indifference to showy talk on his own account, were so remarkable that Spintharus (the father of Aristoxenus), after numerous conversations with him, affirmed that he never met with any one who understood more, and talked less." I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Professor Lamberton, for the suggestion that the word Pindar (IIívôapos) is a misprint for Spinthar (Eπívlapos), a mistake which may have arisen either in manuscript or in the printer's office; and one the more likely to occur in Jonson's day from the compound Greek characters then in use. This error was noticed, but not explained, in a note entitled, Rare Ben Jonson caught tripping (Notes and Queries, Series 5, vi. pp. 346 and 398). 14 22. Demaratus. The folio reads Demarcatus, a misprint, followed by all the editors. Demaratus was a Corinthian, friend of Philip and Alexander. The story is told by Plutarch (Moralia, Apophthegmata Laconica, Demaratus, 1). The saying is also attributed to Bias (de Garrulitate, 4). 14 22. Demaratus, when on the bench he. See Sh. Gram. § 242: “When a proper name is separated by an intervening clause from its verb, then for clearness the redundant pronoun is often inserted." Cf. 31 16. 14 27. Dum tacet indoctus, etc. As long as the ignoramus holds his tongue, he may be accounted wise, for he covers the diseases of his mind by his silence. Referable to the Greek aphorism: Tâs tis åwaiδευτος φρονιμώτατός ἐστι σιωπῶν: Whoso is unlearned, is wisest being silent. 14 29. Zeno of Citium flourished between 350 and 258. He was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, and resided mostly at Athens, where he was highly honored. This anecdote is related by Plutarch (de Garrulitate, 4). Lord Bacon relates the same, slightly varied, in his Apothegms, 230. 14 30. 15 3. 15 7. 15 9. Who being invited. Cf. Sh. Gram. § 263. Argute dictum. A witty saying. This man might have been a counsellor of state, etc. Cf. Congreve's treatment of the same subject (Anderson's British Poets, vii. p. 557): When Lesbia first I saw so heavenly fair, With eyes so bright, and with that awful air, I thought my heart, which durst so high aspire, Forth from her coral lips such folly broke, Like balm the trickling nonsense healed my wound, And what her eyes enthralled her tongue unbound. 15 11. 'Exeμveía. Taciturnity. On the general topic, see Plutarch (de Garrulitate), whence, as has been seen, Jonson derives several of the quotations and allusions of his text. Pythagoras is spoken of in Pseudo-Plutarchea (ed. Didot, p. 144) as a man ♣ μáλιστα ἤρεσκεν ἡ ἐχεμυθία καὶ τὸ σιγᾶν ἃ μὴ χρὴ λέγειν: Το whom taciturnity was most delightful, and silence as to what it was not necessary to speak. How praiseworthy is the Translated in the following 15 11. Pythagoræ] quam laudabilis! maxim of Pythagoras! TXwoons, etc. Latin, and thus Englished: Above all things, control the tongue, following the gods (Iamblichus, Adhort. ad Philos. 21, Müllach's Frag. Philos. i. p. 505, b, 15). The folio has here the marginal note, Vide Apuleium, of which I can make nothing. 15 13. Digito compesce labellum. With your finger lock your lips (Juvenal, Satire, 1. 160). 15 15. Acutius cernuntur vitia quam virtutes. Vices are more sharply discerned than virtues. 15 16. Clearlier and sharper. Note the two forms of adverb. Adjectives, as well positive as comparative, stand for adverbs. See 17 15, 33 34, 70 4, and Sh. Gram. § 1. 15 20. The treasure of a fool. I cannot identify this passage in Plautus, Terence, Menander, or other "witty comic poet." There are, however, hundreds of similar proverbs: e.g. "The tongue of a fool carves a piece of his heart to all that sit near him" (Hazlitt, English Proverbs, p. 388). 15 23. mus, 2. 4. Inheritance of an unlucky old grange. Plautus, Trinum115. 15 25. Nothing ever thrived on it, etc. The speech of Stasimus (ibid. 2. 4. 122, et seqq.), almost literally translated. 15 31. Hospitium fuerat calamitatis. It was the lodging of calamity (ibid. 2. 4. 152). Jonson adapts the tense to his context. 15 32. Was not this man like to sell it? Jonson has misinterpreted this scene of Plautus. It was not the purpose of Stasimus, the speaker of the passage above, to sell the farm, but to dissuade Philto, by this ruse, from accepting it as a dowry for his master's sister, as the farm was all that was left to the prodigal. Jonson's words are explained, however, by reference to the marginal note of the folio: Sim[iliter] Mart[ialis] lib[er] I. Ep[igrammata], 86, [De Mario]: Venderet excultos colles cum præco facetus, etc. Thus translated (Bohn, p. 67): "A wag of an auctioneer, offering for sale some cultivated heights and beautiful acres of land near the city, said, ‘If any one imagines that Marius is compelled to sell, he is mistaken. Marius owes nothing. On the contrary, he rather has money to put out at interest. What is his reason, then, for selling? In this place he lost all his slaves and his cattle and his profits; hence he does not like the locality. Who would have made any offer unless he had wished to lose all his property? So the ill-fated farm remains with Marius." 15 32. Like. Likely. 15 33. Vulgi expectatio. Translated in the text. 16 3. I. 1): Taken. Captivated. Cf. Jonson's song (The Silent Woman, Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art. 16 8. Claritas patriæ. Translated in the text. Gifford reads patris. 16 14. Eloquence. Oratorical delivery. Cf. 54 4 and 72 10. 16 17. Yet there are who. Cf. the familiar Latin construction, sunt qui, and 22 9. 16 25. Umbratical doctors. Cf. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 2. Defined as scholasticus, qui in umbra sub tecto vitam agit otiosam. See also Quintilian (Inst. 1. 2. 18): Sub dio, in the open air. 17 5. A causeway to their courtesy. The folio reads countrey for courtesy, which "palpable and preposterous misprint" of "the unspeakable editors" Mr. Swinburne very properly corrects. 17 14. Cf. 32 18; 17 15. 17 35. Unless it be meant us. Note the omission of to before us. and see Sh. Gram. § 220 for these old datives. Friendly and lovingly. Cf. 15 16. He hath his horse well dressed for Smithfield. Cf. 2 Henry IV. 1. 2. 55: Falstaff. Where's Bardolph? Page. He's gone to Smithfield to buy your worship a horse. Falstaff. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield : an I could get me a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed and wived. Malone quotes the following from a collection of old proverbs: "Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a scold, a knave, and a jade " (Malone's Shakespeare, XVII. p. 27). 18 1. Valor rerum. The price of things. 18 2. Bought and sold for. Cf. 18 17, 23 15, 28 2, 39 25, 42 33, 43 23, 24, 51 14. Modern English dislikes this transposition of the preposition. See Sh. Gram. § 424. ... 18 2. Health of the physician. Note the earlier meaning of the preposition of; and see Sh. Gram. § 165. 18 8. Memory, of all the powers of the mind, etc. Seneca, Controversiarum, Lib. I. Proæmium, I. 2, ed. Bursian: Memoria est res ex omnibus animi partibus maxime delicata et fragilis: in quam primam senectus incurrit. 18 10. Seneca . . . the rhetorician . . . confesseth, etc. The passage in which Seneca speaks of his memory is as follows: Hanc aliquando in me floruisse, ut non tantum ad usum sufficeret; sed in miraculum usque procederet, non nego, etc. (ibid.). What follows will be found almost word for word in Seneca. In these passages, culled from the ancients, Jonson not infrequently adapts the sentiments of his original to the changed circumstances of his own time; more frequently, however, his translation is literal. On this passage Mr. Swinburne offers this prefatory comment: "The following touch of mental autobiography is no less curious than interesting. Had Shakespeare but left us the like." Of Marcus Annæus Seneca, the rhetorician, it is sufficient to say that he is described, "A man of letters after the fashion of the time when rhetoric and false eloquence was most in vogue." Confesseth he had. Cf. 4 15. Made. Composed, especially in verse. use of the word maker for poet, 73 28, 75 22, 77 13. 18 11. 18 13. 18 16. Cf. the Elizabethan Which I have liked to charge my memory with. Among these poems were "Donne's verses of the lost chain" (Elegy, 11, On the loss of his mistress's chain for which he made satisfaction,) and that passage of The Calm, "that feathers and dust do not stir all was so quiet" (lines 17-18); Sir Henry Wotton's Character of a Happy Life (Ward, English Poets, iii. p. 109); certain portions of Chapman's Homer, a piece of the thirteenth Iliad"; and "part of the Shepherd Calendar about wine between Coline and Percy" (Eclogue, 10. 107, et seqq.). See the Conversations with Drummond, p. 8. 18 17. 18 21. 66 Charge my memory with. Cf. 18 2, and references. Whatsoever I pawned with it; i.e. placed in store or keeping with it. The Latin runs: Nam quæcumque apud illam aut puer aut juvenis deposui, quasi recentia, aut modo audita sine cunctatione profert. At si qua illi intra proximos annos commisi, sic perdidit et amisit, ut etiamsi sæpius ingerantur, totiens tamen tanquam nova audiam (Proam. Controv. I. 3). 18 27. Presently. Cf. 7 31, 73 3, 83 7. 18 30. Now, in some men. "Was Shakespeare, we must ask ourselves, one of these?" interpolates Mr. Swinburne. Cf. Seneca, however: Memoria et natura quidem felix, plurimum tamen arte adjuta. Numquam ille quæ dicturus erat, ediscendi causa relegebat: edidicerat illa, cum scripserat, unde eo magis in illo mirabile videri potest, quod non lente et anxie, sed eodem pæne quo dicebat, impetu scribebat. Illi qui scripta sua torquent, qui de singulis verbis in consilium eunt, necesse est, quæ totiens animo suo admovent, novissime affigant. At quorumcumque stilus est velox est, tardior memoria est. In illo non tantum naturalis memoriæ felicitas erat, sed ars summa et ad conprehendenda, quae tenere debebat, et ad custodienda; adeo ut omnes declamationes suas, quascumque dixerat, teneret (Controv. 1, Proxm. 17 and 18). It will be noticed that Jonson has adapted this passage, rather than translated it, applying Seneca's remarks as to the natural endowments of his friend, Porcius Latro, to general qualities of mind, curtailing and omitting, but preserving the texture none the less. In these parallel passages, Jonson follows his original so closely that it would be a waste of space to again translate. I shall, therefore, content myself with pointing out such parallels in their originals. 19 3. Comit [iorum] suffragia. Popular votes. 19 7. Stare a partibus. To stand by one's party. 19 11. 19 18. 19 28. It self. The usual Elizabethan form. See 27 29. Deus in creaturis. Transited in the text. Veritas proprium hominis. Translated in the words immediately following. |