Of sudden succour, and these vessels must
Be his main help, for there’s his only trust.”
Satire upon the Duke, beginning--
“And art thou dead, who whilom thought’st thy state
To be exempted from the power of Fate?
Thou that but yesterday, illustrious, bright,
And like the sun, did’st with thy pregnant light
Illuminate other orbs?”
One of the poems of the day excited more than ordinary attention. It was addressed by the writer to “his confined friend, Mr. John Felton!” Suspicion fell on Ben Jonson; and even in the house of his friend, Sir Robert Cotton, the belief that he had written the poem found credence. Jonson was then paralytic, and his mind may have been somewhat embittered, perhaps enfeebled, but he was guiltless of this act of ingratitude to his deceased patron, and to his living sovereign, King Charles. His examination upon this charge is, as Mr. Bruce remarks in his preface, p. 8, ix., a new incident in Jonson’s life. The original examination before the Attorney-General is to be found in the Calendar before referred to, vol. cxix., No. 33. See Preface by Mr. Bruce, p. 9.
"The examination of Benjamin Jonson, of Westminster, gentleman, taken this 26th day of October, 1628, by me, Sir Robert Heath, his Majesty’s Attorney-General:--