A Grace
by Ben Jonson Extempore Before King James There are at least
three distinct manuscript versions of what is likely to have been an
occasional piece transmitted at least in part orally. The many
intermediate versions may have been adapted to suit different occasions
and patrons (see collation for e.g. the inclusion of Pembroke in one
version of line
5).
All versions must post-date Jan. 1617 when George Villiers became Earl
of Buckingham (he became even more fortunate in Jan. 1619 when he became
Marquis of Buckingham, and his luck reached its zenith when on 18 May
1623 he became Duke of Buckingham). They must also predate the death of
Queen Anne on 2 March 1619. The date ‘1618’ (not 1613 as
H&S report) is found
next to the poem in Bodleian MS Rawl.poet.26, fol. 1v (JnB 260).[Editor: Colin Burrow]
1 Our . . . Lord]
JnB 258; Our Royall king & Queen, God JnB 257; God bless ye king, ye queen god blesse JnB 261; The
Kinge and eke the Queen God JnB 262; The King, the
Queen the Prince God bless JnB 259,
JnB 263
2 The Palsgrave]
JnB 258; Count Palatine JnB 259,
JnB 262,
JnB 263
2 The
Palsgrave The young Elector Palatinate, Frederick V, head of
the German Protestant Union, arrived in England on 16 Oct. 1612 and
departed, having married the King’s daughter Elizabeth (the Lady Bess),
in Apr. 1613. Details of the festivities are in
Nichols (1821), 2.463–626. This gave
rise to a long-standing pressure on English foreign policy to defend the
Palatinate against the Spanish.
2 the Lady]
JnB 258; Lady, JnB 259,
JnB 263
3–4 And . . . king]
JnB 258; not in JnB 257,
JnB 261;
placed after line 8 in JnB 259,
JnB 263
3 And . . . living]
JnB 258; God bless vs all, & euery JnB 259,
JnB 263
4 That . . . breathes]
JnB 258; That the King loues JnB
259,
JnB 263
4 and]
JnB 258; or JnB 259
5 God . . . Estate]
JnB 258; God bless pembrooke, and the state JnB 257; God blesse ye Councell
and the state JnB 261; The privy Counsell & the
state JnB 259,
JnB 262 subst.,
JnB 263 subst.
7–8 God . . . safe]
JnB 258; God bless the Counsell & keep them saue /
And bless mee, and god bless Raphe JnB 257; God me
& god bless Raph / God bless vs all, & keepe vs safe JnB 259; God blesse me, and god bless Raphe / And then
ye kingdome shalbe safe JnB
261; God blesse me & god bless Raph / God bless vs all
& keepe vs safe JnB 262,
JnB 263 subst.
8 Rafe
Bodleian Library, MS Aubrey 8, fol. 55 (JnB 258) ends with ‘The King was
mighty inquisitive to know who this Ralph was; Ben told him ’twas the
drawer at the Swan Tavern by Charing Cross, who drew him good Canary.
For this drollery His Majesty gave him an hundred pounds.’ The
alternative version in Rosenbach Museum and Library MS 1083/16,
pp. 181–2 (dating from 1630; JnB 264) states: ‘being asked by the King
what Ralph he was, he said it was one which kept a better cup of wine in
his house than His Majesty’.
A Grace
(Another Version) A variant version of the previous poem,
probably adapted for the Countess of Bedford, is found in Bodleian
Library, MS Rawl.poet.26, fol. 1v. This MS was by the 1660s in the hands
of a Bury St Edmunds man, although it contains a number of poems
circulating in Oxford in the 1620s. It is dated 1618 (not 1613 as
H&S record); see
headnote to the previous poem.
7 Bedford
‘Countess of Bedford’ in the margin of the MS. See Epigr. 76 headnote.
8 Rafe ‘The
Countess’s man who won the race’ in the margin of the MS, whom
H&S identify with
‘light-foot Ralph’ in
Staple, 2.3.11. Cf. 8n. in the
previous poem.
An
Extemporary Grace by Ben Jonson Before the King A variant
version of the previous poem from Rosenbach Museum and Library, MS
1083/16, pp. 181–2 (1630).
6
After this line JnB 264 contains the prose note ‘being askt
by the king, what Ralph he was, he sayd it was one w
ch
kept a better Cup of wine in his house then his Maiesty
––’