As if her airy steps did spring the flowers,
And all the ground were garden, where she led.”
Such verses do not come often into our newspaper corners, from first hands: such verses make one understand the significance of that inscription which came by merest accident to be written on his tomb in Westminster Abbey—“O rare Ben Jonson!”
I do not believe I shall fatigue you—and I know I shall keep you in the way of good things if I give another fragment from one of his festal operettas;—the “Angel” is describing and symbolizing Truth, in the Masque of Hymen:—
“Upon her head she wears a crown of stars,
Thro’ which her orient hair waves to her waist,
By which believing mortals hold her fast,
And in those golden cords are carried even
Till with her breath she blows them up to Heaven.
She wears a robe enchased with eagles’ eyes,