The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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Ode (‘If men and times were now’)

Ode

If men and times were now

Of that true   face

As when they both were great, and both knew how

That fortune to  embrace,

By cherishing the  spirits that gave their greatness grace, 5

I then  would raise my notes

Loud to the wondering throng

And better  blazon them than all  their coats

That were the  happy subject of my song.

But  clownish pride hath got 10

So much the start

Of  civil virtue, that  he now is not,

Nor can be, of desert

That hath not   country impudence enough to laugh at art,

 Whilst like a blaze of straw 15

He dies with an ill scent

To every sense and scorn to those that saw

How soon with a self-tickling he was spent.

 Break then thy quills, blot out

Thy  long- watched verse 20

And rather to the  fire than to the rout

  Thy laboured tunes rehearse,

Whose  air will sooner hell than their dull senses pierce.

 Thou that dost spend thy days

To get  thee a lean face 25

And come forth worthy  ivy or the bays

And in this age canst  hope no  other grace.

Yet, since the bright and wise

 Minerva deigns

Upon so humbled earth to cast her eyes, 30

We’ll rip our richest veins

 And once more strike the ear of time with those fresh strains

As shall, besides delight

And cunning of their  ground,

Give cause to some of wonder,  some despite; 35

But unto more, despair to imitate their sound.

Throw, holy virgin, then

Thy  crystal shield

About this isle, and  charm the round, as when

Thou mad’st  in open field 40

 The rebel giants stoop, and gorgon envy yield;

Cause reverence, if not fear,

Throughout their general breasts,

And by  their taking, let it once appear

Who worthy   come, who not, to be  wise Pallas’  guests. 45

Ode First printed from manuscript in W. D. Briggs (1914b), who presents strong grounds for the ascription to Jonson, despite the lack of manuscript attribution to him. In Bodleian MS Rawl. poet. 31 (JnB 363) the poem is followed by ‘An Epistle to Beniamyn Johnston’ and ‘Another to Ben: Johnson’ (commonly attributed to Sir John Roe); in the closely related British Library Harley 4064, fol. 236–236v (JnB 364; possibly c. 1612) it comes after Und. 13 and before ‘Scorn, or some humbler fagte’ (Dubia, Electronic Edition). Neither text is entirely satisfactory, although they appear to be ultimately derived from a common archetype. Its presence in these two MSS suggests that the poem may date from a period in which Jonson was drafting some of the first versions of poems which were subsequently included in Forest, c. 1600–14. Jonson was experimenting with the ode form around the turn of the century, and the overlap of concerns with Poet. Apol. Dial. suggests that this is a relatively early piece which Jonson decided not to print. The poem is also indebted to the lament for the loss of patronage in Juvenal, 7.90–7.
2 face appearance, condition.
4 embrace take to their heart, adopt gladly.
5 spirits great men. (Monosyllabic.)
6 would] JnB 364; could JnB 363
8 blazon them display the virtues of the common people like a herald.
8 their coats heraldic devices of the high born.
9 happy lucky (because high born). The epithet is also partially transferred to the song: ‘I was quite content to sing about the nobility in the past.’
10 clownish boorish, uncultivated.
12 civil virtue The virtue which leads people to participate in the state through both conversation and public service.
12 he Indefinite: ‘no-one can be . . .’
14 country rustic, boorish.
14 country] JnB 363; Courtly JnB 364
15–18 ‘The man who laughs at art goes up in a puff of foul-smelling smoke which affects every sense and provokes total scorn in anyone who sees how that man has just wasted himself in mockery.’ ‘Spent’ can mean ‘ejaculate’; hence there may be a bawdy sense.
19–27 W. D. Briggs (1917), 118 points out similarities with Juvenal, 7.24–30. The parallel with 27–9 is close: frange miser calamum vigilataque proelia dele, / qui facis in parva sublimia carmina cella, / ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macra, ‘Break your pen, and delete the battles that have kept you awake, you poor creature who composes sublime poems in a garret, so that you come out worthy of a lean bust wreathed with ivy.’
20 long-watched which has taken up late nights of effort.
20 watched] JnB 364; watc’h JnB 363
21 fire For Jonson’s preoccupation with burning poems, see Donaldson (1997a), pp. 198–216, Loewenstein (1999), and compare Poet., Apol. Dial., 211, Poet. 1.2.207–8.
22 Thy Donaldson’s (OSA) emendation of ‘Their’ is convincing; JnB 364 spells ‘thy’ ‘thie’, making a mistake for ‘their’ very probable. The MS reading would require ‘laboured’ to carry the sense ‘tediously elaborated’, whereas Jonson tends to use the word positively, to mean ‘carefully crafted’, the kinds of poem he sought to write.
22 Thy] Donaldson, OSA; Their JnB 363, JnB 364
23 air Plays on the sense ‘song’ and tentatively compares the poet to Orpheus.
24–7 Cf. Poet., Apol. Dial., 220–2.
25 thee] JnB 364; the JnB 363
26 ivy . . . bays The plants respectively of Apollo (associated with learning) and Bacchus (associated with inspiration), found interwoven in Virgil, Eclogues, 8.11–13, and both symbolic of immortality. For a full history, see Trapp (1958).
27 hope hope for.
27 other] JnB 364; not in JnB 363
29 Minerva Roman goddess of wisdom, identified with Pallas Athena; see 45.
32–6 Very close to Poet., Apol. Dial., 215–19.
34 ground (1) melody over which a descant is sung (OED, 6†c); (2) foundation (OED, 4†a); (3) surface of the earth (OED, 8a).
35 some despite to some a source of spite.
38 crystal shield Minerva’s mirror-like shield was used by Perseus to destroy the Gorgon. Cf. Gold. Age, 70.
39 charm the round protectively encircle with magic. ‘Round’ plays on ‘circular enclosure’, ‘assemblage of persons’ (OED, 9a), and ‘dance in which performers move in a circle or ring’ (OED, 11a).
40 in] JnB 363; it JnB 364
41 Minerva/Athena assisted in the battle of the Olympians against the giants by flinging the island of Sicily on top of Enceladus, and by flaying the giant Pallas, whose skin she used to cover her breastplate. She assisted Perseus in his destruction of the Gorgon Medusa, whose head she then set in the centre of her breastplate. Her power is celebrated in Gold. Age.
44 their taking the way they respond.
45 come H&S take JnB 363 to read ‘winne’ here; the word appears to be ‘comme’. The scribe of Harley 4064, who reads ‘come’, was, however, confused later in the line, rendering what must be ‘wise Pallas’ as ‘witts Pallace’.
45 wise Pallas’] JnB 363; witts Pallace JnB 364
45 come] JnB 364; winne H&S (mistranscribing JnB 363)
45 guests] H&S; guesse JnB 363; guest JnB 364