AG: I guess it’s nine-thirty. So we’ll go on to Ben Jonson next. And I think I gave you what I suggested from Jonson was.. two.. do you still have that page?.. two-fifty-two – (the poem) on his first son – “On My First Son” (“Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy..”) – (then) – two fifty-six, Salomon Pavey – “An Epitaph on S.P.” (“Weep with me, all you that read/This little story”) – (and) – Little L.H. – “Epitaph on Elizabeth, L.H.” (“Wouldst thou hear what man can say..”) – Celia – “Song – to Celia – “Drink to me only with thine eyes..”” – two six-six, “Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount” (“Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears”), “Queen and Huntress” (Cynthia’s Revels – Queen and huntress, chaste and fair..”) – (then) – page two six-seven, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” – (and) – two sixty-nine – on Shakespeare – (“To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr William Shakespeare” (“To draw no envy Shakespeare on thy name..”) )
And anything else? – What’s after Jonson? – After Jonson we’ll get on to (John) Fletcher and (Robert) Herrick (and I’ve got an extra copy of The Complete Poems of Robert Herrick that I’ll put up in the library, because Herrick is funny)
[Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately ninety-one minutes in and concluding at the end of the tape]
Ben Johnson changed ( under the influence of William Camden) his name into Ben Jonson in 1603 while working in the library of Robert ‘Bruce’ Cotton. He stayed there as a gues and had a dream that his son had died. That week he got in Connington the awfull message about his son Beniamin and composed: “On my first sonne”.. Ben wrote a lot.. also the part of Sancho Panza in “The history of..” while Francis Bacon had the role of Don Quixote and John Donne made all the poems. The two friends Beaumont & Fletcher wrote the shepherds chapters. And Miguel de Cervantes? He was just used for his name, for being a Spaniard and to bring the spanish translation to the publisher back home in Valladolid in 1604.