Notes and Queries, June 1994 v41 n2 p156(3)

Fane on Jonson and Shakespeare. Roy, Joseph T., Jr.; Evans, Robert C.

Abstract: Two poems by Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland, found in a copy of Ben Jonson's 1916 'Workes' indicate contemporary public opinion of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. The first poem, another version of which can be found in collections of Jonson allusions, eulogizes Jonson's intelligence and his diligent craftsmanship. There is a subtle comparison to Shakespeare and Jonson's plays are described as works. The second poem, which is better crafted, has some important variations in the margin. The spirit of the poem is similar to the first one.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1994 Oxford University Press

A COPY of Ben Jonson's 1616 Workes presently held at Yale University's Beinecke Library (shelf mark 1977 / +422) contains two poems on Jonson, both presumably written by Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland. One of the poems is frequently included in standard collections of Jonson allusions; the other is not. However, even the previously known poem contains significant variants from the published versions. In fact, the version of the latter work included in the Yale folio may represent a working copy of the poem, since it includes one variant written in the margin. Yet the previously uncollected poem is the more interesting of the two: not only does it allude to Jonson's reputation as a learned poet whose |plays' are actually |works', but it also alludes to Jonson's own famous poetic tribute to William Shakespeare. It thus shows that even Jonson's earliest readers had begun to think of him in connection with his great contemporary.(1)

The folio that includes both poems was previously owned by John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland (1784-1859) and contains his autograph. It was also owned by John Milton Berdan (1873-1949) and by Edward Hale Bierstadt (born 1891). Both poems are written in a similar early hand, and the previously published work seems to date from not long after Jonson's death in 1637. The uncollected poem, inscribed inside the folio's front cover, reads as follows:

Why do we Stile Those works wch are but Playes

But yt to Fancy ther goe seuerall wayes

Some born to Raptures fluently distill

Their Sacred Numbers to Adorn ye Quill

Others ther are bring forth wth Paine & Sweat

So Head & Braines into an Anuile beat

Of those was This whose deep Conceptions lurke

Therfore we'l turne His Playes into a Worke

This work, although not particularly skilful as a poem itself, is none the less interesting for several reasons. First, it stresses a distinction between plays and works that seems to have been common in early reactions to Jonson's writings.(2) Second, it provides evidence for Renaissance perceptions of two fundamental styles of writing, associated alternatively with heightened inspiration and careful craftsmanship. Third, the poem clearly associates Jonson's works with the last of these styles, stressing both the diligence and intelligence involved in the production of his writings. In fact, the imagery used to describe Jonson's style directly echoes Jonson's own tribute to Shakespeare (H&S, viii.390-2), which claims that any poet |Who casts to write a liuing line, must sweat, / ... and strike the second heat / Vpon the Muses anuile' (lines 59-61). Jonson's eulogist thus pays his subject the aptly Jonsonian compliments of allusion and imitation, at the same time alluding to the work of another famous English dramatist. Finally, the eulogist's focus on Jonson's deep Conceptions' suggests the esteem in which Jonson was held as a serious intellectual - as a man who had advanced the dignity of the poet's craft and who had earned respect for the profundity of his thought.

The second poem in the Yale folio, inscribed on page 1015 (the last page of the collected masques), is altogether more successful as a work of art. Although this poem has been printed before in collections of Jonson allusions (see, for example, H&S, xi.493), the Beinecke version offers several significant variants. Apparently written in the aftermath of Jonson's death, this poem combines clever wit with a fundamentally serious desire to see Jonson's achievements properly honoured. By calling upon English craftsmen to erect a literal tomb in tribute to the dead poet, Fane constructs the kind of carefully fashioned yet humorous monument that Jonson himself might have appreciated:

He who began from Dirt & Lime Brick

The Muses Hill to Clime

And whilom busied in Laying Ston

Thirsted to Drink of Helicon

Changing his Trowell for a Pen

Wrot strait ye Temper not of Dirt, but Men

Now since yt He is turnd to Clay & gon

Let Those remaine of th'Occupation

He Honord once, frame him a Toombe may say

His Craft exceeded far a Dawbers way

Yet write vpon't He could no longer tarry

But was returnd again vnto ye Quarry.

In the Beinecke folio, the right margin next to the first line contains the underscored word |Brick'. This is the word that appears in printed versions of the poem, in place of the underlined word |Dirt' found in the Yale folio. Presumably, Fane himself made the change; in any case, the printed version of the poem contains a few other signficant variants. For instance, in place of |frame' in line 9 of the Beinecke version, the printed version reads |square'. Similarly, |Yet' in line 11 of the Beinecke version is replaced by |Then' in the printed version. All three changes suggest that the printed version may be a later, revised copy of the poem. Perhaps Fane was responsible for the changes, just as it seems likely that he was the author of both poems.(3) However, more important than the authorship or revision of these particular poems is what these works tell us about the early reputations of Jonson and Shakespeare. (1) The poem is not printed in the standard collections of Jonson allusions, which include the following: C. H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson (eds), Ben Jonson, 11 vols (Oxford, 1925-52), xi.305-569; Jesse Franklin Bradley and Joseph Quincy Adams, The Jonson Allusion-Book (New Haven, 1922); Gerald Eades Bentley, Shakespeare and Jonson: Their Reputations in the Seventeenth Century Compared, 2 vols (Chicago, 1945); and D. H. Craig, Ben Jonson: The Critical Heritage 1599-1798 (London, 1990). Nor is the poem cited in the index to David C. Judkins, The Nondramatic Works of Ben Jonson: A Reference Guide (Boston, 1982). Subsequent references to the standard Herford and Simpson edition of Jonson's works will cite the abbreviation |H&S' and the appropriate volume and page numbers. (2) For a few examples see, for instance, Bentley, ii.35 and Bradley and Adams, 119, 175, 289. (3) It seems worth noting that above the uncollected poem, written in the same hand, is the following inscription: |Solus Deus protector Mens / W:'. Perhaps this was a personal motto, and perhaps the |W' stands for |Westmorland'.