An Answer to Alexander Gil First printed in John Phillips, ed., Wit and Drollery (1656). The title is not authorial. The poem was never printed in Jonson’s lifetime and (unlike the attacks on Inigo Jones) does not appear to have been published in scribal fair copies. Alexander Gil the younger (1597–1642) probably taught at the school of Jonson’s friend Thomas Farnaby before becoming under-usher at St Paul’s School in 1621 (W. R. Parker, 1996, 2.711–12; D. L. Clark, 1948, 83–99). He eventually became, like his father before him, High Master of St Paul’s School. In Trinity College, Oxford, in 1628 he proposed the health of John Felton, the assassin of Buckingham, and made disrespectful remarks about the King. William Chillingworth reported his remarks to Laud, and he was examined in Star Chamber. On 1 Nov. 1630 he was condemned to a fine, the loss of his ears, and ejection from the ministry. His father, a friend of Laud, petitioned for clemency. On 30 Nov. 1630 Charles Ⅰ signed his free pardon. Jonson had attacked either him or his father in Time Vind., 142–58 (1623), and Gil had in revenge composed verses on Mag. Lady in 1632 (Bodleian, MS Ashmole 38, p. 15; also in Folger, MS V.a.322, pp. 161–3, Folger MS V.a.245, fols. 69–70; Literary Record, Electronic Edition) which urged Jonson to ‘Take up your trug and trowel, gentle Ben. / Let plays alone’ (58–9). The text of Jonson’s response cannot be satisfactorily reconstructed: Collier (1865) reports two lost manuscript versions (JnB 5 and JnB 6) which he has evidently modernized; Langbaine’s version (which H&S follow) appears to derive from a similar text to JnB 6, but has evidently been tidied to suit late seventeenth-century tastes. The text here is based on JnB 4, the least unsatisfactory known seventeenth-century manuscript. Gil’s poem prompted a response from Zouch Townley, which is sometimes ascribed to Townshend (see Townshend, Poems and Masks, 1912, 113). [Editor: Colin Burrow]

1 Doth] JnB 4; Shall WD, Langbaine

2 Secure] JnB 4; Serue JnB 4.5

2 rhymes] Langbaine, JnB 4.5, JnB 5, JnB 6; Rythmes JnB 4

3 At libelling The phrase explains what Gil is infamous for.

3 At] JnB 4; In JnB 4.5

3 Will not] JnB 4; Shall no WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

3 Star Chamber See Epigr. 54.2n. The court was increasingly used by Laud for cases in which a regular jury might refuse to convict. Zouch Townley’s response to Gil’s poem also alludes to Gil’s sentence: ‘It cannot move thy friend, firm Ben, that he / Whom the Star Chamber censures rhymes at thee’, Folger, MS V. a. 322, p. 164 (copy also in Folger MS V.a.345, fol. 70; Literary Record, Electronic Edition).

4 The pillory, the] JnB 4; Pillory nor JnB 5, WD, Langbaine

4 nor loss] JnB 4.5, JnB 5, JnB 6 subst.; no losse JnB 4; nor want WD, Langbaine

5 heardst from thence] JnB 4; heardst from them JnB 4.5; hadst from hence JnB 5; hast WD; hast incurred JnB 6, Langbaine

6 Nor] JnB 4; Noe JnB 4.5

6 the] JnB 4; thy JnB 4.5

7 Unto the den] JnB 4; To be the demy JnB 4.5; To be the Dionesse WD; To be the Denis Langbaine

7 den The sense ‘lair of a wild beast’ (OED, 1; just still current) is appropriate for a mad ‘tyke’. ‘Denis’ in Langbaine (1691), 292 means tyrant; Dionysus the younger, tyrant of Syracuse 367–357 bc, after being deposed became a schoolmaster. Gil was dismissed as Usher at St Paul’s in 1630; he received gratuities from the governors in 1631, 1633, and 1634, which may indicate he continued to teach there before his return as High Master in 1635. JnB 4.5’s ‘demy’ is not impossible: the word is used in this sense of a foundation scholar of Magdalen College, Oxford, who pays only half fees.

7 thine own] JnB 4; thy own JnB 6; thy WD, Langbaine

8 barking] JnB 4; bawling JnB 6, Langbaine

8 thou] JnB 4 (th’ast); thy JnB 4.5

9 For thinking] JnB 4; Thinking WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

9 thou’st] JnB 4 (th’ast); thou hast WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

9 thy] JnB 4; thine JnB 4.5, JnB 5

9 end goal.

10 I] JnB 4; I’le WD, Langbaine subst.

10 poor] JnB 4; thou JnB 4.5

10 tyke cur.

10 tyke] JnB 4; wretched like JnB 4.5 (the scribe may have corrected ‘like’ to ‘Tike’); wretched Tike WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

10 go now and] JnB 4; go JnB 4.5, JnB 6, WD, Langbaine

11 blatant noisily satirical (like Spenser’s blatant beast; for Jonson’s association of this with Puritanism, see ‘Detractor’ (6.387), 9n.).

11 blatant] JnB 4; blotant WD, Langbaine; rayling JnB 4.5

12 ballads . . . father For satirical poems about the elder Alexander Gil’s penchant for flogging boys, which are referred to by Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. A. Clark, 1.263–6, see D. L. Clark (1948), 79–83, 91–3.

13 nothing left] JnB 4; nought WD, Langbaine; nought in thee JnB 6

13 name] JnB 4; fame WD, Langbaine

14 tune sound of the voice, not implying harmony (OED, †1).

14 tune] JnB 4; ryme JnB 4.5

14 echo] JnB 4; Ecchoes WD

14 thy] JnB 4; his WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

15 A] JnB 4; Oh JnB 5, JnB 6

15 by statute i.e. by Star Chamber decree. The phrase can also mean ‘according to a predetermined rate’ (OED, 2†b).

15 censured sentenced (OED, †4).

16 Gil was not in fact condemned to be whipped, to have his nose slit, to be branded (a penalty for those, like Jonson, who pleaded benefit of clergy when found guilty of manslaughter, and for those who were found guilty of brawling in church), or to be put in the stocks (a penalty used for those who were guilty of libel and sedition, such as William Prynne). He was only condemned to be ‘cropped’, that is, to lose his ears, a sentence from which he was subsequently pardoned. In June 1630, however, Alexander Leighton (a puritan controversialist) was condemned by Star Chamber to be pilloried, whipped, to have both of his ears cut off, his nose slit, and his face branded with S.S., for ‘sower of sedition’. Jonson exaggerates Gil’s punishments in order to brand him as a figure on the extreme puritan wing of the church.

16 and neck-stocked] JnB 4; neck-stocked WD, Langbaine, JnB 6

16 you’re] JnB 4 (y’are), JnB 4.5, JnB 5 subst.; thou’rt JnB 6; you are WD, Langbaine