The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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  • From John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (1609-10), ‘To the Worthy Author, Master John Fletcher’

From John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (1609-10), ‘To the Worthy Author, Master John Fletcher’

[From The Faithful Shepherdess]

 To the Worthy Author,  Master John Fletcher

The wise and  many-headed  bench, that sits

Upon the life and death of plays and wits,

(Composed of  Gamester,  Captain,  Knight, Knight’s man,

Lady, or  Pucelle, that wears  mask or fan,

Velvet or taffeta  cap, ranked in the dark 5

With the shop’s foreman, or some such brave spark,

That may judge for his  sixpence) had, before

They saw it half, damned thy whole play, and more;

Their  motives were,  since it had not  to do

With vices, which they looked for, and came to. 10

I, that am glad  thy innocence was thy guilt,

And wish that all the muses’ blood were spilt

In such a martyrdom, to vex their eyes,

Do  crown thy murdered  poem: which shall rise

A glorified work to time, when  fire, 15

Or moths, shall eat what all these fools admire.

To the Worthy Author Prefixed to John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (?1610), sig. A4, where it follows dedicatory verses by Nathan Field and Francis Beaumont. It is followed by a poem by George Chapman, which pushes Jonson from his favoured final place in groups of dedicatory verse. The preliminaries to this volume are often found incomplete in surviving copies. Of the date Greg says ‘it is impossible to say more than that the play was in print by the spring of 1610’ (Beaumont and Fletcher, The Works: Variorum Edition, 3.3). Fletcher claimed in his address ‘To the Reader’ that the play was poorly received because his audience failed to understand tragicomedy, and preferred ‘Whitsun ales, cream, wassail, and morris-dances’ (Beaumont and Fletcher, The Dramatic Works, 3.497). The poem draws on character-types similar to several of those in the roughly contemporary Epigrams. Its sympathy for Fletcher may be based on Jonson’s memory of having Sej. hissed from the stage in 1603. Cf. Informations, 170–1, which describes The Faithful Shepherdess as ‘a tragicomedy well done’.[Editor: Colin Burrow]
Title Master] Fletcher (M.)
1 many-headed Immediately qualifies ‘wise’, since the phrase is often used of the ignorant multitude (as in Horace, Epistles, 1.1.76).
1 bench judiciary.
3 Gamester Cf. Epigr. 21. The abstract nouns are italicized and capitalized in Fletcher, as though they are the names of character types in one of Jonson’s plays or epigrams.
3 Captain For the contemptuous usage, see Epigr. 87 headnote.
3 Knight, Knight’s man Cf. Epigr. 3.9–10.
4 Pucelle Whore.
4 mask Cf. Stubbes, Anatomy (1583), sig. G2 (describing harlots): ‘When they use to ride abroad, they have invisories, or visors made of velvet, wherewith they cover all their faces.’
5 cap A sign of a citizen’s wife with social pretensions. Cf. Und. 42.28.
7 sixpence The lowest price for admission to the indoor theatres (Gurr, 1980, 12). Cf. Bart. Fair, Ind. 71.
9 motives reasons.
9 since that.
9 to do To ‘have to do’ with can mean have sex with. The playgoers want bawdy.
11 thy . . . guilt that your moral innocence made these judges condemn you.
14 crown Donaldson OSA suggests a pun on an obsolete sense ‘to hold a coroner’s inquest on’ (OED, v.2).
14 poem The same word is used of the play in Fletcher’s address ‘To the Reader’.
15–16 fire . . . moths Cf. Matthew, 6.19–20: ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal’; Luke, 12.33: ‘Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.’