reignty, and likewise her mischievous allurements: for the mermaid is supposed in fable to have dominion in the seas, and to be very powerful in musick, and to inchant and destroy those she allures.

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princess of her time.

The French Writers tell us, that when she was married to the Dolphin, and resided among them, she once pronounced a Latin oration in the Great Hall of the Louvre, before the whole Court, with so much grace and eloquence that the whole assembly were filled with admiration.

The rude sea grew civil at her song:

By this is meant Scotland, long in arms against her; and there is the greater justness and beauty in it, because the common opinion was that the mermaid sung in storms.

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's musick.

This alludes in general to the many matches proposed to her; but more particularly to the Duke of Norfolk's famous negotiation with her. And on that account, and on the fatal consequences it had on both, he thus admirably expresses it:

certain STARS shot MADLY from their SPHERES. P. 122. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. Sc. 2: The eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on Neptune with FAIR BLESSED beams, Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams. Where it is plain that for fair blessed we should read,

FAR-BLESSING beams,

a most beautiful compound epithet, and highly expressive of the thing *.

Dear Sir, I read over your Answers to the Grub as carefully as I could, and I think them very decisive. Do you know who it was that wrote the Let*An error of the same kind occurs in Timon; see before, p. 643.

ter

7

ter concerning the Votive Table? I have a great number of notes, &c. on Shakespeare, for some future Edition. I have given you a specimen in two or three from the Tempest, and Midsummer Night's Dream, in the fifty, and in this addition. How forward are you got towards the Edition of the Poems? I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in town when Christmas is turned.

I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate friend and humble servant, W. WARBURTON.

LETTER LXXVIII.

To the Rev. Mr. BIRCH, St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell*. Wyan's Court, Aug. 10, 1737.

SIR, I have been pretty much out of town, or had much sooner furnished you with what I have been able to glean in answer to your Queries with relation to Ben Jonson. If any thing in the inclosed

From Dr. Birch's MSS. in British Museum, No. 4319. † Qu. 1. What year was he born?

As we find in the Latin epitaph that he died at the age of 63 in the year 1637, he was consequently born about the year 1674. 2. Whether he worked at his father-in-law's trade as a Bricklayer, after he had been a short time at Cambridge according to Dr. Fuller; or before he went to that University, according to other Writers ?

This question, I confess, I cannot solve with all the certainty I could wish; but I will endeavour to lead as near to it as I can by circumstance. I must first take notice of a point from Langbaine, in which either he, or Wood, have committed, I imagine, a strange blunder, viz. That in the year 1619 he took his Master of Arts degree at Christ's Church College in Oxford; for, by a calculation, it appears that he was then 45 years old. He had attended as Court Poet 16 years; so could not be a resident at the University; and, supposing the Degrees were only Honorary, would he, at that period of life, and in his station, have accepted them? But the College Book, upon application, will easily clear up this point; and then, it occurs to me on the sudden, it may be ascertained as easy whether he worked as a Bricklayer, before he went to, or after he came from, the University, by this single inquiry, at what time Lincoln's-inn was new built, if there be any truth in the tradition of his being concerned therein. 3. What

may be of service to your Memoirs, I shall be happy that I could in any degree contribute to a scheme of so much merit, or in any sort shew a disposition of approving myself, Sir,

Your obedient humble servant, LEW. THEOBALD.

3. What authority there is, besides Wood's, that he was Tutor to, and travelled abroad with Sir Walter Raleigh ?

I confess Wood's authority seems to me very slippery, precarious, and ill-founded, in this point; and my reasons shall be supported by incontestable chronological facts, which I submit to you. Soon after Sir Walter Raleigh was taken notice of at Queen Elizabeth's Court, he was sent to sea by her, and discovered Virginia in 1584, when our Author was but 10 years old. At his return he continued a Courtier, and debauched a Maid of Honour, whom he afterwards married. Now, supposing he married her in 1585, and allowing that their son might begin his travels at 15 years old, a period early enough in all conscience, too early in reason, this brings us to the year 1601, which was the fourth year in which Ben had devoted himself to the stage-writing, and every year produced a Play; it appearing (from the Induction to his Magnetick Lady), that in 1588 or 1589 he produced his first fruits in the Dramatic way, Every Man in his Humour, and Every Man out of his Humour: from which period, for above 40 successive years, we find him engaged at home both for the stage, and in his service as Laureate. And as he obtained the Laureacy in 1603, when Sir Walter Raleigh's son was but 17 years old, there was no room or possibility of his afterwards becoming a travelling Tutor.

4. When he became a Player? How long he continued so? and in what house?

5. What Plays his name appears before as an Actor?

One solution serves for these two Queries. From what search I have been able to make, I do not find his name before any Play as an Actor: yet an Actor he was; but I believe barely a strolling one. Decker, in his Histrio-Mastix (a Play published in 1602, and designed a Reply to Ben Jonson's Poetaster), reproaches our Poet with having left his occupation of being a Mortar-treader, to turn Player; and with having put up a supplication to be a poor Journeyman Player; in which he had continued, but that he could not see a good face on it, and so was cashiered." Nay, if we may admit that satire to be built on facts, we may glean yet some further intelligence, "that Ben performed the part of Zuliman (in what Play I cannot at present tell) at the Paris Garden in Southwark; and that he ambled by a Play-waggon, in the highway; and took mad Jeronymo's part to get service among the mimicks." But as to the precise time of these things, we are left a little at large. There seem about six years (viz. from his quitting the University to 1598, when his

LETTER LXXIX.

To the Rev. THOMAS BIRCH.

DEAR SIR,

Bloomsbury-square, Saturday Morning, Sept. 28, 1754. I return you thanks for the pleasure which I have had in reading these two books.

I see this instant, in the Public Advertiser, that Dr. Warburton is made King's Chaplain, and enters into waiting immediately. Can you tell me whether this be true? If there be any hazard of finding him at Kensington, I shall not chuse to go thither today. I am, your affectionate humble servant,

M. AKENSIDE.

first Play was acted), in which his history lies somewhat open;
but within this period he was a Bricklayer, a Player, a Soldier,
and forming himself for a Poet. That he was a Soldier, we have
authority from his own words. He had disobliged the officers in
his character of Captain Tucca, and finding himself obliged to
make an apology for it, he did it in an Epigram at the end of
his Poetaster, directed to true Soldiers, in which he says,
"I swear by your true Friend, my Muse, I love

Your great Profession, which I once did prove;
And did not shame it with my actions then,
No more than I dare now do with my Pen."

Decker, likewise, hints in his Histrio-mastix at our Ben's valour; and his being a Man of the Sword. To say the truth, I am in doubt whether this is levelled at his profession of Soldiership; or at a fatal accident which I am afraid befel Ben; and which perhaps had better been slipped over in silence.

6. What was the salary of the Poet Laureate at that time? Wood says 100l. per annum?

I am doubtful of Mr. Wood's authority in this point; but dare not be positive upon the question. Perhaps he might mean thus: An hundred marks in salary, which at 13s. 4d. makes 66l. 13s. 4d. and a butt of sack, which has always been commuted at 30/. In the whole, 96l. 13s. 4d.—It is certain, till after James the First's demise, Ben had but a pension of 100 marks annually; for, in his Petition to Charles I. he set it out so, and entreats the King,

to make

Of your Grace, for goodness' sake,

Those your Father's Marks, your Pounds.

JOHN