Acknowledgement by
John Selden
(1584-1654,
jurist)
of his use of
Ben Jonson
's library, 1614 .
Eugene Giddens
[sig. d1]
To Others . . . I dare promise much of
what they neuer before met with, not without reformation of diuers errors,
possessing them with the vulgar: Perhaps with the Learned. As in diuers like that
of
Crowns and Diadems ,
which all haue hitherto taught to haue been mongst Royall
Notes most anciently in
Europe
. I presume I
haue sufficiently manifested the contrarie, and answerd their vrged Autorities,
producing also one out of Euripides his Orestes, seeming stranger against my part then anie other:
which, when I was to vse, and hauing not at hand the Scholiast (out of whom I hoped
some aid) I went, for this purpose, to see it in the well-furnisht Librarie of my
beloued friend that singular Poet M. Ben: Ionson , whose
speciall Worth in Literature, accurat Iudgment, and Performance, known only to that
Few which are truly able to know him, hath had from
me, euer since I began to learn, an increasing admiration. Hauing examin'd it
[sig. d1v]
with him, I resolud vpon my first Opinion, and
found, as I ghesse, a New but more proper Interpretation of the Place, wherein I was
confirmd afterward also by the iudicious approbation of a man verie learned (but
especially in the Greek) and of most readie memorie, M.
Arthur Best
, to whose continuall Kindnesse and
Instruction too, I shall alwaies acknowledge my self much
bound.
Bibliography
JAB, 85-6
H&S, 11.383-4
Selden had been a friend of Jonson , Camden, and Cotton since about 1605; he contributed a commendatory verse to the 1616 folio. He published extensively on the law and other matters, and was prominent in parliamentary affairs throughout the 1620s.