The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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Fragments from England’s Parnassus (1600)

[Fragments from England’s Parnassus]

Murder

  Those that in blood such  violent pleasure have

Seldom descend but bleeding to  their grave.

Peace

War’s  greatest woes, and misery’s increase,

Flows from the surfeits which we take in peace.

Riches

Gold is a suitor   never took repulse;

It carries  palm with it, where’er it goes,

Respect, and  observation; it  uncovers

The  knotty heads of the most surly grooms,

 Enforcing iron doors to yield it way, 5

Were they as strong rammed up as  Etna gates.

It bends the  hams of  Gossip Vigilance,

And makes her supple feet as swift as wind.

It thaws the frostiest and most stiff disdain,

 Muffles the clearness of  election, 10

Strains fancy unto foul  apostasy,

And strikes the quickest-sighted judgement blind.

Then why should we despair?  Despair, away!

 Where gold’s the motive, women have no  ‘nay’.

England’s Parnassus These fragments were first printed in England’s Parnassus, an anthology of recent poems and fragments of poems arranged by subject under headings by Robert Allot, which was entered in the Stationers’ Register on 2 Oct. 1600. In addition to the untraced passages ascribed to Jonson gathered here (fragments 1192, 1287, and 1457 in Allot, Englands Parnassus, 1913), the anthology includes seven passages from EMO, two from EMI, Forest 11, and Und. 25. The latter two indicate that Allot had access to versions of poems similar to those which were in the possession of John Salusbury of Lleweni. There can be no certainty that the fragments reproduced here originated in poems, in lost plays, or in early versions of surviving plays. Given that Allot seems to have only limited access to MS material of Jonson’s poems, it is reasonable to suppose that they are sententious passages from lost plays. Headings for each poem derive from the sections in which they are grouped in Allot. They are not authorial. The fragments are clearly separate, and so have been lineated independently.
1 1–2 Cf. Juvenal, 10.112–13: ad generum Cereris sine caede ac vulnere pauci / descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni, ‘Few kings descend to the son-in-law of Ceres [Pluto] except by slaughter and wounds; and few tyrants meet a bloodless death.’
1: Murder 1 violent] EP; a violent Bodenham
2 their] EP; the Bodenham
2: Peace 1 greatest] H&S; greaest EP
2 For the idea that luxurious peace leads to war (a classical commonplace) cf. Und. 15.121–2.
3 1 never took repulse that never was refused. This may allude to allegorical interpretations of the story of Jove descending to Danaë in a shower of gold as signifying the power of gold to win lovers.
2 palm (as a symbol of victory).
3 observation courteous attention (OED, †3).
3–4 uncovers . . . grooms i.e. they doff their caps to gold.
4 knotty rough, uncompromisingly rude.
5–14 Cf. Volpone’s delight in the power of riches, Volp., 1.1.22–7.
6 Etna gates Jove imprisoned the giants beneath Mount Etna (Ovid, Met., 5.346–53).
7 hams thighs, knees. (It makes her bow.)
7 Gossip A familiar title for an old woman.
10 Muffles Covers up, obscures. (Usually used of sight rather than sound in this period.)
10 election choice.
3 11 apostasy,] H&S subst.; Apostacie. EH
13 Despair, away!] H&S subst.; dispaire? Away EH
14 i.e. women never refuse the rich.
14 ‘nay’] this edn; nay EH