The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

James Howell - Jonsonus Virbius 1638

Literary Record 62

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

For James Howell, see Life Records 90. This poem was also printed with a letter to Dr Brian Duppa explaining that the poem was solicited by Sir Thomas Hawkins in Howell's Epistolae (1645). See Letters to Jonson, Letter (n).

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Vpon the POET of His time, B.I.
His Honoured F. and F.
And is thy Glasse run out? is that Oile spent,
Which light to such tough sinewy labours lent?
Well Ben I now perceive that all the Nine,
Though they their utmost forces should combine,
Cannot prevaile 'gainst Nights three daughters, but
One still will spinne, One Winde, the other Cut,
Yet in despight of Spindle, Clue, and Knife,
Thou in thy strenuous lines hast got a life,
Which like thy Bay shall flourish in every Age,
While Socke or Buskin move upon the stage.

Sic Vaticinatur IA. HOWELL Ar.  

(sig. D4v)

Thus prophesies James Howell Esquire