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TIMBER

OR

DISCOVERIES

MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER

EDITED

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

FELIX E, SCHELLING

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA

IBRARY

BOSTON, U.S.A.

PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY
1892

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892,

BY FELIX E. SCHELLING,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.

PRESSWORK BY GINN & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.

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PREFACE.

THE Discoveries of Ben Jonson deserve attention for two reasons: as one of the best examples of later Elizabethan prose, and as one of the earliest conscious efforts at simple literary presentment. A higher claim is to be found in the sound sense, discriminating judgment, and lofty moral sentiment with which the work is pervaded, and in the inexplicable and inexcusable neglect that has suffered so rare an English classic to remain practically inedited, and, until quite recently, all but unknown. The memory of the man has been long since reclaimed from ignorant and perverse detraction, and his literary achievements acknowledged to be surpassed alone by the master who has surpassed all; but there remains yet somewhat to a complete knowledge of "one of the noblest, manliest, most honest and most helpful natures that ever dignified and glorified a powerful intelligence and an admirable genius." (Swinburne, A Study of Ben Jonson, p. 130.)

Although the evident disorder of many parts of the Discoveries suggests and courts rearrangement, I have preferred to follow the original order throughout, and to depart as little as possible from the readings of the edition of 1641. It was found necessary to use greater freedom with the punctuation. Variants from the folio in Whalley, Gifford,

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