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DISCOVERIES AND SOME POEMS

BEN JONSON

Transcribed by David Price email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it from the
1892 Cassell & Company edition.

DISCOVERIES MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER
AND SOME POEMS

Contents:

INTRODUCTION

Ben Jonson's "Discoveries" are as he says in the few Latin words
prefixed to them "A wood--Sylva--of things and thoughts in Greek
"[Greek text]" [which has for its first meaning material but is also applied
peculiarly to kinds of wood and to a wood] "from the multiplicity
and variety of the material contained in it. For as we are
commonly used to call the infinite mixed multitude of growing trees
a wood so the ancients gave the name of Sylvae--Timber Trees--to
books of theirs in which small works of various and diverse matter
were promiscuously brought together."

In this little book we have some of the best thoughts of one of the
most vigorous minds that ever added to the strength of English
literature. The songs added are a part of what Ben Jonson called
his "Underwoods."

Ben Jonson was of a north-country family from the Annan district
that produced Thomas Carlyle. His father was ruined by religious
persecution in the reign of Mary became a preacher in Elizabeth's
reign and died a month before the poet's birth in 1573. Ben
Jonson therefore was about nine years younger than Shakespeare
and he survived Shakespeare about twenty-one years dying in August
1637. Next to Shakespeare Ben Jonson was in his own different way
the man of most mark in the story of the English drama. His mother
left poor married again. Her second husband was a bricklayer or
small builder and they lived for a time near Charing Cross in
Hartshorn Lane. Ben Jonson was taught at the parish school of St.
Martin's till he was discovered by William Camden the historian.
Camden was then second master in Westminster School. He procured
for young Ben an admission into his school and there laid firm
foundations for that scholarship which the poet extended afterwards
by private study until his learning grew to be sworn-brother to his
wit.

Ben Jonson began the world poor. He worked for a very short time in
his step-father's business. He volunteered to the wars in the Low
Countries. He came home again and joined the players. Before the
end of Elizabeth's reign he had written three or four plays in
which he showed a young and ardent zeal for setting the world to
rights together with that high sense of the poet's calling which
put lasting force into his work. He poured contempt on those who
frittered life away. He urged on the poetasters and the mincing
courtiers who set their hearts on top-knots and affected movements
of their lips and legs:-

"That these vain joys in which their wills consume
Such powers of wit and soul as are of force
To raise their beings to eternity
May be converted on works fitting men;
And for the practice of a forced look
An antic gesture or a fustian phrase
Study the native frame of a true heart
An inward comeliness of bounty knowledge
And spirit that may conform them actually
To God's high figures which they have in power."

Ben Jonson's genius was producing its best work in the earlier years
of the reign of James I. His Volpone the Silent Woman and the
Alchemist first appeared side by side with some of the ripest works
of Shakespeare in the years from 1605 to 1610. In the latter part
of James's reign he produced masques for the Court and turned with
distaste from the public stage. When Charles I. became king Ben
Jonson was weakened in health by a paralytic stroke. He returned to
the stage for a short time through necessity but found his best
friends in the best of the young poets of the day. These looked up
to him as their father and their guide. Their own best efforts
seemed best to them when they had won Ben Jonson's praise. They
valued above all passing honours man could give the words "My son"
in the old poet's greeting which as they said "sealed them of the
tribe of Ben."

H. M.

SYLVA

Rerum et sententiarum quasi "[Greek text] dicta a multiplici materia et
varietate in iis contenta. Quemadmodum enim vulgo solemus infinitam
arborum nascentium indiscriminatim multitudinem Sylvam dicere: ita
etiam libros suos in quibus variae et diversae materiae opuscula
temere congesta erant Sylvas appellabant antiqui: Timber-trees.

TIMBER;
OR
DISCOVERIES MADE UPON MEN AND MATTER
AS THEY HAVE FLOWED OUT OF HIS DAILY READINGS
OR HAD THEIR REFLUX TO HIS PECULIAR
NOTION OF THE TIMES.

Tecum habita ut noris quam sit tibi curta supellex {11}
PERS. Sat. 4.

Fortuna.--Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune
deceived not. I therefore have counselled my friends never to trust
to her fairer side though she seemed to make peace with them; but
to place all things she gave them so as she might ask them again
without their trouble she might take them from them not pull them:
to keep always a distance between her and themselves. He knows not
his own strength that hath not met adversity. Heaven prepares good
men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man. Contraries
are not mixed. Yet that which happens to any man may to every man.
But it is in his reason what he accounts it and will make it.

Casus.--Change into extremity is very frequent and easy. As when a
beggar suddenly grows rich he commonly becomes a prodigal; for to
obscure his former obscurity he puts on riot and excess.

Consilia.--No man is so foolish but may give another good counsel
sometimes; and no man is so wise but may easily err if he will take
no others' counsel but his own. But very few men are wise by their
own counsel or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only
taught by himself {12} had a fool to his master.

Fama.--A Fame that is wounded to the world would be better cured by
another's apology than its own: for few can apply medicines well
themselves. Besides the man that is once hated both his good and
his evil deeds oppress him. He is not easily emergent.

Negotia.--In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all.
And ofttimes we lose the occasions of carrying a business well and
thoroughly by our too much haste. For passions are spiritual
rebels and raise sedition against the understanding.

Amor patriae.--There is a necessity all men should love their
country: he that professeth the contrary may be delighted with his
words but his heart is there.

Ingenia.--Natures that are hardened to evil you shall sooner break
than make straight; they are like poles that are crooked and dry
there is no attempting them.

Applausus.--We praise the things we hear with much more willingness
than those we see because we envy the present and reverence the
past; thinking ourselves instructed by the one and overlaid by the
other.

Opinio.--Opinion is a light vain crude and imperfect thing;
settled in the imagination but never arriving at the understanding
there to obtain the tincture of reason. We labour with it more than
truth. There is much more holds us than presseth us. An ill fact
is one thing an ill fortune is another; yet both oftentimes sway us
alike by the error of our thinking.

Impostura.--Many men believe not themselves what they would persuade
others; and less do the things which they would impose on others;
but least of all know what they themselves most confidently boast.
Only they set the sign of the cross over their outer doors and
sacrifice to their gut and their groin in their inner closets.

Jactura vitae.--What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the
better part of life in! in scattering compliments tendering visits
gathering and venting news following feasts and plays making a
little winter-love in a dark corner.

Hypocrita.--Puritanus Hypocrita est Haereticus quem opinio propriae
perspicaciae qua sibi videtur cum paucis in Ecclesia dogmatibus
errores quosdam animadvertisse de statu mentis deturbavit: unde
sacro furore percitus phrenetice pugnat contra magistratus sic
ratus obedientiam praestare Deo. {14}

Mutua auxilia.--Learning needs rest: sovereignty gives it.
Sovereignty needs counsel: learning affords it. There is such a
consociation of offices between the prince and whom his favour
breeds that they may help to sustain his power as he their
knowledge. It is the greatest part of his liberality his favour;
and from whom doth he hear discipline more willingly or the arts
discoursed more gladly than from those whom his own bounty and
benefits have made able and faithful?

Cognit. univers.--In being able to counsel others a man must be
furnished with a universal store in himself to the knowledge of all
nature--that is the matter and seed-plot: there are the seats of
all argument and invention. But especially you must be cunning in
the nature of man: there is the variety of things which are as the
elements and letters which his art and wisdom must rank and order
to the present occasion. For we see not all letters in single
words nor all places in particular discourses. That cause seldom
happens wherein a man will use all arguments.

Consiliarii adjunct. Probitas Sapientia.--The two chief things
that give a man reputation in counsel are the opinion of his honesty
and the opinion of his wisdom: the authority of those two will
persuade when the same counsels uttered by other persons less
qualified are of no efficacy or working.

Vita recta.--Wisdom without honesty is mere craft and cozenage. And
therefore the reputation of honesty must first be gotten which
cannot be but by living well. A good life is a main argument.

Obsequentia.--Humanitas.--Solicitudo.--Next a good life to beget
love in the persons we counsel by dissembling our knowledge of
ability in ourselves and avoiding all suspicion of arrogance
ascribing all to their instruction as an ambassador to his master
or a subject to his sovereign; seasoning all with humanity and
sweetness only expressing care and solicitude. And not to counsel
rashly or on the sudden but with advice and meditation. (Dat nox
consilium. {17a}) For many foolish things fall from wise men if
they speak in haste or be extemporal. It therefore behoves the
giver of counsel to be circumspect; especially to beware of those
with whom he is not thoroughly acquainted lest any spice of
rashness folly or self-love appear which will be marked by new
persons and men of experience in affairs.

Modestia.--Parrhesia.--And to the prince or his superior to behave
himself modestly and with respect. Yet free from flattery or
empire. Not with insolence or precept; but as the prince were
already furnished with the parts he should have especially in
affairs of state. For in other things they will more easily suffer
themselves to be taught or reprehended: they will not willingly
contend but hear with Alexander the answer the musician gave him:
Absit o rex ut tu melius haec scias quam ego. {17b}

Perspicuitas.--Elegantia.--A man should so deliver himself to the
nature of the subject whereof he speaks that his hearer may take
knowledge of his discipline with some delight; and so apparel fair
and good matter that the studious of elegancy be not defrauded;
redeem arts from their rough and braky seats where they lay hid and
overgrown with thorns to a pure open and flowery light where
they may take the eye and be taken by the hand.

Natura non effaeta.--I cannot think Nature is so spent and decayed
that she can bring forth nothing worth her former years. She is
always the same like herself; and when she collects her strength is
abler still. Men are decayed and studies: she is not.

Non nimium credendum antiquitati.--I know nothing can conduce more
to letters than to examine the writings of the ancients and not to
rest in their sole authority or take all upon trust from them
provided the plagues of judging and pronouncing against them be
away; such as are envy bitterness precipitation impudence and
scurrilous scoffing. For to all the observations of the ancients we
have our own experience which if we will use and apply we have
better means to pronounce. It is true they opened the gates and
made the way that went before us but as guides not commanders:
Non domini nostri sed duces fuere. {19a} Truth lies open to all;
it is no man's several. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata.
Multum ex illa etiam futuris relicta est. {19b}

Dissentire licet sed cum ratione.--If in some things I dissent from
others whose wit industry diligence and judgment I look up at
and admire let me not therefore hear presently of ingratitude and
rashness. For I thank those that have taught me and will ever; but
yet dare not think the scope of their labour and inquiry was to envy
their posterity what they also could add and find out.

Non mihi credendum sed veritati.--If I err pardon me: Nulla ars
simul et inventa est et absoluta. {19c} I do not desire to be equal
to those that went before; but to have my reason examined with
theirs and so much faith to be given them or me as those shall
evict. I am neither author nor fautor of any sect. I will have no
man addict himself to me; but if I have anything right defend it as
Truth's not mine save as it conduceth to a common good. It
profits not me to have any man fence or fight for me to flourish
or take my side. Stand for truth and 'tis enough.

Scientiae liberales.--Arts that respect the mind were ever reputed
nobler than those that serve the body though we less can be without
them as tillage spinning weaving building &c. without which we
could scarce sustain life a day. But these were the works of every
hand; the other of the brain only and those the most generous and
exalted wits and spirits that cannot rest or acquiesce. The mind
of man is still fed with labour: Opere pascitur.

Non vulgi sunt.--There is a more secret cause and the power of
liberal studies lies more hid than that it can be wrought out by
profane wits. It is not every man's way to hit. There are men I
confess that set the carat and value upon things as they love them;
but science is not every man's mistress. It is as great a spite to
be praised in the wrong place and by a wrong person as can be done
to a noble nature.

Honesta ambitio.--If divers men seek fame or honour by divers ways
so both be honest neither is to be blamed; but they that seek
immortality are not only worthy of love but of praise.

Maritus improbus.--He hath a delicate wife a fair fortune a family
to go to and be welcome; yet he had rather be drunk with mine host
and the fiddlers of such a town than go home.

Afflictio pia magistra.--Affliction teacheth a wicked person some
time to pray: prosperity never.

Deploratis facilis descensus Averni.--The devil take all.--Many
might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell if they
would venture their industry the right way; but "The devil take
all!" quoth he that was choked in the mill-dam with his four last
words in his mouth.

AEgidius cursu superat.--A cripple in the way out-travels a footman
or a post out of the way.

Prodigo nummi nauci.--Bags of money to a prodigal person are the
same that cherry-stones are with some boys and so thrown away.

Munda et sordida.--A woman the more curious she is about her face
is commonly the more careless about her house.

Debitum deploratum.--Of this spilt water there is a little to be
gathered up: it is a desperate debt.

Latro sesquipedalis.--The thief {22} that had a longing at the
gallows to commit one robbery more before he was hanged.

And like the German lord when he went out of Newgate into the cart
took order to have his arms set up in his last herborough: said was
he taken and committed upon suspicion of treason no witness
appearing against him; but the judges entertained him most civilly
discoursed with him offered him the courtesy of the rack; but he
confessed &c.

Calumniae fructus.--I am beholden to calumny that she hath so
endeavoured and taken pains to belie me. It shall make me set a
surer guard on myself and keep a better watch upon my actions.

Impertinens.--A tedious person is one a man would leap a steeple
from gallop down any steep lull to avoid him; forsake his meat
sleep nature itself with all her benefits to shun him. A mere
impertinent; one that touched neither heaven nor earth in his
discourse. He opened an entry into a fair room but shut it again
presently. I spoke to him of garlic he answered asparagus;
consulted him of marriage he tells me of hanging as if they went
by one and the same destiny.

Bellum scribentium.--What a sight it is to see writers committed
together by the ears for ceremonies syllables points colons
commas hyphens and the like fighting as for their fires and their
altars; and angry that none are frighted at their noises and loud
brayings under their asses' skins.

There is hope of getting a fortune without digging in these
quarries. Sed meliore (in omne) ingenio animoque quam fortuna sum
usus. {23}

"Pingue solum lassat; sed juvat ipse labor." {24a}

Differentia inter doctos et sciolos.--Wits made out their several
expeditions then for the discovery of truth to find out great and
profitable knowledges; had their several instruments for the
disquisition of arts. Now there are certain scioli or smatterers
that are busy in the skirts and outsides of learning and have
scarce anything of solid literature to commend them. They may have
some edging or trimming of a scholar a welt or so; but it is no
more.

Impostorum fucus.--Imposture is a specious thing yet never worse
than when it feigns to be best and to none discovered sooner than
the simplest. For truth and goodness are plain and open; but
imposture is ever ashamed of the light.

Icunculorum motio.--A puppet-play must be shadowed and seen in the
dark; for draw the curtain et sordet gesticulatio. {24b}

Principes et administri.--There is a great difference in the
understanding of some princes as in the quality of their ministers
about them. Some would dress their masters in gold pearl and all
true jewels of majesty; others furnish them with feathers bells
and ribands and are therefore esteemed the fitter servants. But
they are ever good men that must make good the times; if the men be
naught the times will be such. Finis exspectandus est in unoquoque
hominum; animali ad mutationem promptissmo. {25a}

Scitum Hispanicum.--It is a quick saying with the Spaniards Artes
inter haeredes non dividi. {25b} Yet these have inherited their
fathers' lying and they brag of it. He is a narrow-minded man that
affects a triumph in any glorious study; but to triumph in a lie
and a lie themselves have forged is frontless. Folly often goes
beyond her bounds; but Impudence knows none.

Non nova res livor.--Envy is no new thing nor was it born only in
our times. The ages past have brought it forth and the coming ages
will. So long as there are men fit for it quorum odium virtute
relicta placet it will never be wanting. It is a barbarous envy
to take from those men's virtues which because thou canst not
arrive at thou impotently despairest to imitate. Is it a crime in
me that I know that which others had not yet known but from me? or
that I am the author of many things which never would have come in
thy thought but that I taught them? It is new but a foolish way you
have found out that whom you cannot equal or come near in doing
you would destroy or ruin with evil speaking; as if you had bound
both your wits and natures 'prentices to slander and then came
forth the best artificers when you could form the foulest calumnies.

Nil gratius protervo lib.--Indeed nothing is of more credit or
request now than a petulant paper or scoffing verses; and it is but
convenient to the times and manners we live with to have then the
worst writings and studies flourish when the best begin to be
despised. Ill arts begin where good end.

Jam literae sordent.--Pastus hodiern. ingen.--The time was when men
would learn and study good things not envy those that had them.
Then men were had in price for learning; now letters only make men
vile. He is upbraidingly called a poet as if it were a
contemptible nick-name: but the professors indeed have made the
learning cheap--railing and tinkling rhymers whose writings the
vulgar more greedily read as being taken with the scurrility and
petulancy of such wits. He shall not have a reader now unless he
jeer and lie. It is the food of men's natures; the diet of the
times; gallants cannot sleep else. The writer must lie and the
gentle reader rests happy to hear the worthiest works
misinterpreted the clearest actions obscured the innocentest life
traduced: and in such a licence of lying a field so fruitful of
slanders how can there be matter wanting to his laughter? Hence
comes the epidemical infection; for how can they escape the
contagion of the writings whom the virulency of the calumnies hath
not staved off from reading?
...

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