The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

Jonson in buskins - 1599

Literary Record 2

[From Weever's Epigrammes in the oldest cut, and newest fashion, 1599.]

John Weever (1575/6-1632) was a Lancashire man who studied at Cambridge until 1598, then joined the London literary scene. Honigmann (1987), 91, suggests a date of late 1598 or 1599 for the sonnet.

Jonson is here praised for his tragedies ('embuskin'd'); Marston is called the English Horace, a title Jonson claimed for himself in Poetaster. Weever comments on Jonson again in Literary Record 3.

This is an extract.

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Ad Io: Marston, & Ben: Iohnson
Marston, thy Muse enharbours Horace vaine,
Then some Augustus give thee Horace merit,
And thine embuskin'd Johnson doth retaine
So rich a stile, and wondrous gallant spirit;
That if to praise your Muses I desired,
My Muse would muse. Such wittes must be admired.

(Sixth Week, no 11 sig. F8)