BEN. JONSON'S ADOPTED SONS.
(Vol. v., p. 537.)
I doubt if Alexander Brome was one of Ben. Jonson's adopted sons. It is not improbable, however, that Richard Brome (author of the comedies of The Northern Lass and the Antipodes) was one. In Ben. Jonson's Underwoods is a poem to Richard Brome "on his comedy of The Northern Lass," which commences thus:
"I had you for a servant once, Dick Brome,
And you perform'd a servant's faithful parts;
Now you are got into a nearer room
Of fellowship, professing my old arts."
Thomas Randolph was certainly one of Jonson's sons. See in his Poems (4th edit. p. 17.): "A
gratulatory to M. Ben. Jonson for his adopting of him to be his son."
In Jonson's Underwoods is a poem "To my dear Son and right learned Friend Master Joseph Rutter." This is in praise of his "first play," but I am unable to state what that play was; nor can I give further information respecting Master Joseph Rutter, than that he is apparently the author of "An Elegy upon Ben. Jonson" in Jonsonus Viribus.
Of William Cartwright Ben. Jonson used to say, "My son, Cartwright, writes all like a man." (Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets, ed. 1841, p. 183.)
James Howell was another of Jonson's sons, and has, in Jonsonus Viribus, some lines "Upon the Poet of his Time, Benjamin Jonson, his honoured Friend and Father."
Shackerley Marmion seems to have been another son. See in Jonsonus Viribus, "A Funeral Sacrifice to the sacred memory of his thrice-honoured father Ben. Jonson."
If Jonson really had twelve sons, it is not improbable that some of the following were of the number: Sir Kenelm Digby, Thomas Carew, John Cleveland, Sir John Suckling, Thomas May, Edward Hyde (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), Owen Feltham, Jasper Mayne, Richard West, John Vaughan, Thomas Hobbes.
I should have been disposed to have added to the above illustrious list the name of Edmund Waller, but for a statement of Aubrey, who says, "He told me he was not acquainted with Ben. Jonson" (Aubrey's Lives, p. 564.).
Aubrey (Lives, p. 413.), speaking of Ben. Jonson, says:
"Serjeant Jo. Hoskins, of Herefordshire, was his father. I remember his sonne (Sr Bennet Hoskins, baronet, who was something poeticall in his youth), told me, that when he desired to be adopted his son, 'No,' sayd he, ''tis honour enough for me to be your brother; I am your father's son, 'twas he that polished me, I do acknowledge it.'"
I observe that, prefixed to Randolph's Poems, are some lines by Richard West, B.A., and student of Christ's Church: "To the pious Memory of my dear Brother-in-Law, Mr. Thomas Randolph." As West must have been unmarried, and as I believe Randolph was also unmarried, it is possible that West calls him his brother-in-law from his being also an adopted son of Ben. Jonson.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge.