The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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  • From Robert Chester, Love's Martyr, 'The Phoenix Analysed' (1601)

From Robert Chester, Love's Martyr, 'The Phoenix Analysed' (1601)

[From Robert Chester, Love’s Martyr, 1601]

The Phoenix Analysed

Now, after all, let no man

  Receive it for a fable

If a bird so amiable,

Do turn into a  woman.

Or (by our  turtle’s  augure) 5

That  nature’s fairest creature

Prove of his mistress’ feature

But  a bare type and figure.

The Phoenix Analysed First printed in Robert Chester’s Love’s Martyr (1601); on which, see Forest 10 headnote.
2 Regard it as untrue.
4 woman On the sex of the phoenix, see Und. 75.81–2n.
5 turtle’s turtle dove’s. Chester’s turtle dove is, unusually, male.
5 augure Obsolete form of ‘augury’.
6 nature’s fairest creature i.e. the phoenix.
8 a bare . . . figure a mere prefiguration.