The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

Sidney Godolphin - Jonsonus Virbius 1638

Literary Record 60

[From Jonsonus Virbius , the volume of elegies issued after Jonson's death under the editorship of Brian Duppa, dean of Christ Church College, Oxford.]

A fine, energetic encomium. In the volume Godolphin's name is just visible beneath the poem, obscured by a wide decorative border, as Teresa (1946) points out. Godolphin (1610-43) was a Royalist of the Falkland circle, killed at the Battle of Chagford. He was in Parliament in 1628 and 1640. He left many poems in manuscript. At his death Waller completed his translation from Virgil, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas (published 1658). Falkland in his elegy, Literary Record 51, includes him in 'that inspired traine' who a commemorate Jonson.

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The Muses fairest light in no darke time,
The Wonder of a learned Age; the Line
Which none can passe; the most proportion'd Witt,
To Nature, the best Judge of what was fit;
The deepest, plainest, highest, cleerest PEN;
The Voice most eccho'd by consenting Men,
The Soule which answer'd best to all well said
By others, and which most requitall made,
Tun'd to the highest Key of ancient ROME,
Returning all her Musique with his owne,
In whom with Nature, Studie claim'd a part,
And yet who to himselfe ow'd all his Art:
Heere lies BEN: IOHNSON, every Age will looke
With sorrow heere, with wonder on his BOOKE.

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