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to buy, whereupon she retired and burned three, and then demanded the original price for the six left. The king still declined the bargain, whereupon the Sibyl burned three more, and offered him the remaining three for the original price of the nine. The king embraced his last opportunity; and the books were deposited in a stone chest in the vaults of the great temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline hill. In the conflagration of 83 B.C., the books were burned, and commissioners were sent to gather a fresh collection in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, which was deposited in the same place. The custodians were at first two, then ten, and in 63 B.C., fifteen. Strictly, these alone consulted the books, and only under special authority from the senate, in order to see what worship was required by the gods when they manifested their wrath. The custodians also interpreted the oracles. Jonson seems to consider these and the augurs identical. See below: 'They count,' &c.; and cf. (earlier):

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Should be a king in Rome: which I have hired

The flattering augurs to interpret HIM,

Cinna and Sylla dead.'

272. Without. Without what? 275. Would faint. Subject? 277. All are constant, all are firm in the opinion that &c.

6

287. The... purple, the higher magistrates, whose robes were adorned with a stripe or border of scarlet or purple.- -Dropped their rods and axes: acknowledging their inferiority. The higher magistrates enjoying executive power, had attendants called 'lictors' preceding them in single file, and bearing rods and axes.' The rods (Lat. fasces) were of birch or elm, tied with thongs into a bundle, and in each bundle was inserted an axe, with the iron turned outwards. The rods and axes indicated the power of the magistrate to scourge and even kill such as refused to obey him. The axe was removed while the magistrate was within the city: a Dictator's axes were alone excepted. The rods were 'dropped,' or lowered from the shoulder in the Comitia (or popular assemblies), in deference to the sovereign people.

289. The travail of the city. The city is to give birth to an extraordinary man, even Lentulus.

SONG TO CELIA.

(From The Forest.)

Drink to me, only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine.

The thirst that from the soul doth rise

Doth ask a drink divine:

But might I of Jove's nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.

5

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope that there

It could not withered be.

But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me :

Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.

NOTE.

& I would not change for thine: I would not accept (the usual meaning is-give) even that in exchange for thine. Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, i. 243-4:

10

15

'Is this the seat

That we must change for heaven?' And Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 262: 'Not one will change his neighbour with himself.'

EPITAPH

ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE.

[Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, was the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, who dedicated his famous romance to her, calling it The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. She joined him in translating the Psalms of David into verse (1580), and wrote other poetical pieces besides. Her son, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was a steady patron of literature, and notably of Shakspeare. She died in 1621.] Underneath this marble herse Lies the subject of all verse,

SIDNEY'S sister, PEMBROKE's mother.
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learned and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.

JOTTINGS FROM BEN'S NOTE-BOOK.

(From Timber; or Discoveries.)

ON SHAKSPEARE.

De Shakspeare nostrat.1—Augustus in Hat.2-I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakspeare that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My answer hath

1On our (countryman) Shakspeare. Nostrat. is contracted for nosträte. (What) Augustus (said) about Haterius. Hat. is contracted for Haterium.

K

been 'Would he had blotted a thousand.' Which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted; and to justify mine own candour: for I loved the man, and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped: Suflaminandus erat,' as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power, would the rule of it had been so too. Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong'-he replied 'Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause,' and such like; which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.

1'He required the drag or brake put on.'

NOTES.

Never blotted out a line. According to Heminge and Condell, Shakspeare's fellow-actors, in their address 'to the great variety of readers,' prefixed to the first folio edition of Shakspeare's works, edited by them, 1623 His mind and hand went together; and what he thought he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers.'

A malevolent speech... justify mine own candour, The full quotation is ruinous to the views of the critics that have laboured to represent Jonson as bitterly envious of Shakspeare. Cf. also Ben's complimentary verses To the Memory of my

beloved master William Shakspeare. The players admired blindly, Ben admired with discrimination. And he spoke with candour: for 'of all styles he loved most to be named Honest.' Their..

who. Bring anteced. and rel. closer. Augustus, the first of the Roman emperors (63 B.C.-14 A.D.). See Dryden, Antony and Ventidius, note on Octavius. Haterius, a senator and rhetorician. Died 26 A.D., at the age of 88. Could not escape. Better insert relat. subj. 'Cæsar did... cause.' This is simply an instance of Shakspeare's extra.

ordinary swiftness of mind: a con-
densation for 'Cæsar did never
wrong, but whatever he did, how-
ever it might seem wrong to some,
was done with just cause.' Cf. Ful.
Cæs. iii. i. 47-8:

'Know, Cæsar doth not wrong, nor
without cause
Will he be satisfied.'

Tyrwhitt thinks the passage stood originally thus:

'Know, Cæsar doth not wrong, but with just cause;

Nor without cause will he be satisfied.'

He also defends Shakspeare by shewing that 'wrong' means simply 'harm or hurt.

ON LORD BACON.

Dominus Verulamius.1-One, though he be excellent and the chief, is not to be imitated alone: for no imitator ever grew up to his author; likeness is always on this side truth. Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end.

De Augmentis Scientiarum.2-Julius Cæsar.-Lord St Alban. I have ever observed it to have been the office of a wise patriot, among the greatest affairs of the state, to take care of the commonwealth of learning. For schools, they are the seminaries of state; and nothing is worthier the study of a statesman than that part of the republic which we call the advancement of letters. Witness the care of Julius Cæsar, who in the heat of the civil war writ his books of Analogy, and dedicated them

1 Lord Verulam. 2 On the advancement of learning.

to Tully. This made the late Lord St Alban entitle his work Novum Organum: which though by the most of superficial men, who cannot get beyond the title of nominals, it is not penetrated nor understood, it really openeth all defects of learning whatsoever, and is a book Qui longum noto scriptori proroget ævum.1

to

My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his place or honours: but I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration, that had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed that God would give him strength; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest.

1 Horace, de Arte Poetica, 346 (slightly altered). Jonson's own translation is: 'with honour [to] make the far-known author live.'

Verulamius.

NOTES.

Bacon was created Baron Verulam, and (later) Viscount St Albans. (See heading of next paragraph.) Old Verulam, near St Albans, in Hertfordshire, represents the Roman Verulamium. Censorious, such as would be used by a censor or judge; full of gravity' (above).

Pressly, concisely; putting much matter

in small space. 'I should like to have printed it prestly, i.e., readily' (Cunningham).

At his devotion, at his wish; whenever he set himself to bring about those results.

Affections, leanings. No man knew better how to sway them to his views.

Seminaries, schools. Fr. seminaire, Lat. seminarium (nursery-garden, seed-plot), from semina (seeds).

Worthier. Now followed by 'of.'
Republic. Lat. res-publica (the public

thing), commonwealth, state.
Julius Cæsar (100-44 B.C.), the great
Roman Dictator, perhaps 'the great-
est man of antiquity.' 'He was at
one and the same time a general, a
statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an
orator, a poet, an historian, a phil-
ologer, a mathematician, and an
architect. He was equally fitted to
excel in all.' (Smith's Class. Dict.)
of Analogy. We now prefer 'on'
Analogy.-Cæsar wrote his two
books De Analogia as he was
crossing the Alps to join his army
in Further Gaul: in maximus occu-
pationibus,' says Cicero. The work
was dedicated to Marcus Tullius
Cicero (Tully'), the orator, who
explains the nature of it (Brutus,
72) by the phrase 'de ratione

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