BEN JONSON'S VERSES ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET.
The British Museum purchased for 14l. the copy of the 1640 edition of Ben Jonson's Works, which was sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, in the library of the Honorable Archibald Fraser of Lovat. The volume, which had on its exterior covers the arms of Carr, Earl of Somerset, contains on one of them the following inscription:—"These verses were made by the author of this booke, and were delivered to the Earl of Somerset upon his Lordship's wedding-day." Then follow the verses in the poet's own handwriting.
"To the Most Noble and above his Titles Robert Earle of Somerset.
"They are not those, are present wth theyr face,
And clothes, and guifts, that only do thee grace
At these thy nuptials; but, whose heart, and thought
Do wayte upon thee: and theyr Loue not bought.
Such weare true Wedding robes, and are true Freindes,
That bid, God giue thee ioy and haue no endes
W'h I do, early, vertuous Somerset,
And pray, thy ioyes as lasting bee, as great.
Not only this, but euery day of thine,
W'th the same looke, or w'th a better, shine.
May she, whom thou for spouse, to-day, dost take
Out-bee yt Wife, in worth, thy friend did make:
And thou to her, that Husband, may exalt
Hymens amends, to make it worth his fault.
So, be there neuer discontent, or sorrow,
To rise wth eyther of you, on the morrow.
So, be yo'r Concord, still, as deepe, as mute;
And euery ioy, in mariage, turne a fruite;
So, may those Mariage-Pledges, comforts proue:
And eu'ry birth encrease the heate of Loue.
So, in theyr number, may you neuer see
Mortality, till you immortall bee.
And when your yeares rise more, then would be told
Yet neyther of you seeme to th' other old.
That all, yt view you then, and late; may say,
Sure, this glad payre were maried, but this day.
We need scarcely point out the allusions in the eleventh and twelfth lines to Sir T. Overbury's Character of a Good Wife; but we cannot help calling attention to the curious fact that these lines, written in 1613, must have been carefully preserved by the unhappy man to whom they were addressed, through all his trials and difficulties; and then, on the publication of the 1640 edition of Rare Ben's Works,—twenty-seven years after his disgraceful marriage, five years before his death,—been pasted by him in the cover of the volume which is now very properly deposited in the National Library.