Fare Jovially, and For All Time

Oxford's Jovial Mind:


Harvey , _Four Letters and Certain Sonnets_ (1592)


...And that was all the Fleeting that ever I felt, saving that another company of special good-fellows (whereof he was none of the meanest that bravely threatened to conjure up one which should massacre Martin's wit, or should be lambacked himself with ten years' provision), would needs forsooth very courtly persuade the Earl of Oxford that something in those letters, namely the Mirror of Tuscanismo, was palpably intended against him, whose noble Lordship I protest I never meant to dishonour with the least prejudicial word of my tonge or pen, but ever kept a mindful reckoning of many bounden duties toward the same, since in the prime of his GALLANTest youth he bestowed angels upon me in Christ's College in Cambridge, and otherwise vouchsafed em many gracious favours at the affectionate commendation of my cousin, M. Thomas Smith, the son of Sir Thomas, shortly after colonel of the Ardes in Ireland. But the noble Earl, not disposed to trouble his JOVIAL MIND with such Saturnine paltry, still continued like his magnificent self, and that Fleeting also proved, like the other, a silly bull-bear, a sorry puff of wind, a thing of nothing.

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JOVIAL:
adj.


Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer: a jovial host.

[French, probably from Italian giovale, from Old Italian, of Jupiter (regarded as the source of happiness), from Late Latin Iovilis, from Latin Iuppiter, Iov-, Jupiter; see dyeu- in Indo-European roots.]

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Spenser, Faerie Queene
Bower of Blisse:

THE SECOND BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE

Contayning
THE LEGEND OF SIR GUYON,
OR OF TEMPERAUNCE
CANTO XII



451Thus being entred, they behold around
452A large and spacious plaine, on every side
453Strowed with pleasauns, whose faire grassy ground
454Mantled with greene, and goodly beautifide
455With all the ornaments of Floraes pride,
456Wherewith her mother Art, as halfe in scorne
457Of niggard Nature, like a pompous bride
458Did decke her, and too lavishly adorne,
459When forth from virgin bowre she comes in th'early morne.

lii

460Thereto the Heavens alwayes JOVIALL,
461Lookt on them lovely, still in stedfast state,
462Ne suffred storme nor frost on them to fall,
463Their tender buds or leaves to violate,
464Nor scorching heat, nor cold intemperate
465T'afflict the creatures, which therein did dwelle
466But the milde aire with season moderate
467Gently attempred, and disposd so well,
468That still it breathed forth sweet spirit and holesome smell.


...The word 'Joviall' pulls one up with a start, for Jove's reign of the Silver Age with its cycle of seasonal change, and the unfading temperateness of the Bower belongs to Saturn and his Age of Gold. And this is what is wrong with it: the Bower is unnatural because seemingly unfallen...(Spenser's Anatomy of Heroism, Maurice Evans)
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'Jovialist' in Cynthia's Revels (Jonson) to describe the courtiers' positive perceptions of their own actions and behaviours (Men and Women of Spirit?):

Mercury. Madamoyselle, Je voudroy que pouvoy monstrer mon
affection, mais je suis tant mal beureuse, ci froid, ci layd,
ci — Je ne scay qui di dire — excuse moy, Je suis tout vo-stre.

[A flourish.]

Philautia. O brave, and spirited! He's a right JOVIALIST.
Phantaste. No, no: Amorphus's Gravity outways it.
Crites. And yet your Lady, or your Feather would
outweigh both.
Ana. What's the Prize, Lady, at this better Reguard?
Moria. A Face favourably simpring, and a Fan waving.
Ana. They have done doubtfully. Divide. Give the
favourable Face to the Signior, and the Light wave to the
Monsieur.

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jovialist - one who lives jovially

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Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to SHOW
To whom all SCENES of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, BUT FOR ALL TIME !

--Jonson

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Jonson on Show and Seeming:

http://bringingdeformedforth.blogspot.ca/2009/11/jonson-show-and-seeming.html

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Francis Bacon, Distempers in Learning

...There be therefore chiefly three vanities in studies, whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those things we do esteem vain which are either false or frivolous, those which either have no truth or no use; and those persons we esteem vain which are either credulous or curious; and curiosity is either in matter or words: so that in reason as well as in experience there fall out to be these three distempers (as I may term them) of learning--the first, fantastical learning; the second, contentious learning; and the last, delicate learning; vain imaginations, vain altercations, and vain affectations; and with the last I will begin...

(snip)

Another error,[...], is a conceit that of former opinions or sects after variety and examination the best hath still prevailed and suppressed the rest; so as if a man should begin the labour of a new search, he were but like to light upon somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejection brought into oblivion; as if the multitude, or the wisest for the multitude's sake, were not ready to give passage rather to that which is popular and superficial than to that which is substantial and profound, for the truth is, that TIME seemeth to be of the nature of a river or stream, which carrieth down to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which is weighty and solid.

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My SHAKSPEARE RISE!

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Many commentators have noted the lack of 'substantive praise' in Jonson's Folio Poem (e.g. Trimpi). In the encomium, Jonson violates his own governing principle of 'matter over words'. The result is that 'Shakespeare/Oxford' stands in a cloud of high-flown 'puffery'.

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Volpone's Fare , James Riddell


He (Jonson) perceives "Judging Spectators" and others in the audience, and MAY PROVIDE FOR BOTH. The crucial distinction is between fools feeding upon follies and becoming thereby more foolish, and wise men savoring follies and becoming thereby wiser. The fare may be all one; in that case, the way in which it is consumed sets off the fools from the understanders. If the fare is not all one, of course, different understanding is required.

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MountBank-

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,

That so did TAKE Eliza and our James!

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Volpone's Fare
James A. Riddell

Fare Jovially

In the epilogue Volpone proposes that the play is a meal which the playwright offers, its seasoning to be provided by the audience. But what constitutes the main dish? Mischiefs grown fat? The Fox mortified? In either case the prospect is not an appetizing one. Volpone's statement, in fact, is as much a challenge as it is an invitation. The audience is asked to see the effects of bestial appetite and at the same time to enjoy being fed upon them. The last line - if one *understands* it - makes it clear that this is the case.

As J.D. Rea points out in his edition of Volpone, the last line most probably echoes the final sentence of the _Moriae Encomium_, in which Folly says: "Quare valete, plaudite, vivite, bibite, Moriae celeberimi mystae" (Therefore farewell, applaud, live, drink, you illustrious votaries of Folly). It should be noted that in an important way this sentence does not stand by itself, for commonly included in sixteenth- century printings of the _Moriae Encomium_ was the commentary attributed to Girardus Listrius. Referring to "valete, plaudite" in the text, the commentary runs as follows: "His verbis utebatur recitator fabulae, discessurus e proscenio. De suo addidit, vivite, bibite. Et vivere proprie est genialiter vivere" (The teller of the story used these words as he was about to leave the stage. He (Erasmus) has added live, drink. And to live properly is to live genially).

The implication of this allusion to the Epilogue of Volpone is striking, the more so because of the pun that Jonson introduces in his translation of "genialiter vivere" into "fare Jovially." Although "fare" could mean either "live" or "eat," the context makes "eat" more likely, which in turn is consistent with the play itself, for in Volpone's world "to live" is "to fare" in the sense of "to consume." "Farewell," of course, is the term that would be expected at the end of a play; Jonson relies upon that which might be expected to emphasize the variation he has rung in. Members of the audience, votaries of Folly, not only are being served up a meal appropriate to their appetites, but also are invited to season it with their applause - and then are enjoined to "fare Jovially," to consume (mindlessly the entire concoction. (A yet fuller understanding of Jonson's alteration, it might be argued, comes through the recognition that he has toyed with the meaning of "bibite" and conflated that with "vivite" to yield the English pun which inheres in "fare.") Jonson contrives to mollify and yet to insult the portion of his audience who do not understand his meaning, while at the same time flattering the rest of the audience because they understand it.

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Jonson on Shakespeare:

Soul of the age!
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage!

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Jonson, _Timber_


3. Imitatio. - Horatius. - Virgil. - Statius. - Homer. - Horat. -Archil. - Alcæus, &c. - The third requisite in our poet or maker is imitation, to be able to convert the substance or riches of another poet to his own use. To make choice of one excellent man above the rest, and so to follow him till he grow very he, or so like him as the copy may be mistaken for the principal. Not as a creature that swallows what it takes in crude, raw, or undigested, but that feeds with an appetite, and hath a stomach to concoct, divide, and turn all into nourishment. Not to imitate servilely, as Horace saith, and catch at vices for virtue, but to draw forth out of the best and choicest flowers, with the bee, and turn all into honey, work it into one relish and savour; make our imitation sweet; observe how the best writers have imitated, and follow them. How Virgil and Statius have imitated Homer; how Horace, Archilochus; how Alcæus, and the other lyrics; and so of the rest.

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Encomium \En*co"mi*um\, n.; pl. Encomiums. [NL., fr. Gr. ? (a
song) chanted in a Bacchic festival in praise of the god; ?
in + ? a JOVIAL festivity, revel. See Comedy.]
Warm or high praise; panegyric; strong commendation.

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Jonson's Encomium - First Folio Fare:

Ben Jonson and Cervantes
Yumiko Yamada


...We have proved the hypothesis proposed at the start of this chapter: that the texture of Jonson's poem [Shakespeare's First Folio poem] has been woven for its meaning to be wholly reversible. What is whole-hearted praise in the eyes of certain readers can be read as pungent criticism from the viewpoints of others.

Elsewhere Jonson wrote for different readers: in the 1612 quarto of Catiline, he prepared two kinds of dedication, i.e. to "The Reader in Ordinarie" and to "the Reader Extraordinarie". Yet there the stress was laid only on the degree of comprehension, and there was no reversal of meaning, according to the ability of the reader.

Whatever his motive, writing poetry to celebrate Shakespeare's 1623 Folio risked undermining Jonson's 1616 Folio - intended as the antithesis of Shakespearean dramaturgy. If he were to be faithful to the readers of his Folio, he must remain critical. On the other hand, were the tone of mockery discernible to all, it would have been excluded from the commemorative folio of the deceased poet. Obliged to satisfy both sides' opposing values, Jonson probably thought of using the two parties' differing speech habits, as adroitly summed up in Sackton's brief account:

In Shakespeare (and most other writers) emphasis is on what is said: often, in Jonson, the dramatic effect depends much more on how it is said.

Heir to Lyly, Kyd and Marlowe, Shakespeare sought a flamboyant and intricate style to attract public attention, but rarely adjusted tthe style to the character and occasion, or varied the meaning to suit the style adopted. On the other hand, Jonson demands careful examination of the style of each speech: literal interpretation is often misleading.

The tribute seems "Jonson's finest poem of praise of another poet" (van den Berg) in the eyes of people used to stressing "what is said"; and immortal poet blessed with "Nature" and "Art", Shakespeare surpasses Chaucer, Spenser and Beaumont, overshadows Lyly, Kyd and Marlowe and cast ancient writers back into the shade. No doubt Jonson would have classified Shakespeare with this category of readers. When the same poem was read by those who care "how it is said", Shakespeare became a huge, abortive flower of the loathed age, falling far below Chaucer, Spenser and Beaumont in rank, but became the wonder (or monster) of the stage by outdoing Lyly, Kyd and Marlowe in the use of hyperbole, and by devastating the classical drama tradition. (pp. 81-82)

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In the dedication of his play _Catiline_ (1611) to William Herbert, one of the 'Incomparable Brethren' of the First Folio, Jonson writes of his despair over the 'ignorance' of the age:


To the Great Example of H O N O U R and V E R T U E, the most Noble
W I L L I A M
E A R L of P E M B R O K E , L O R D C H A M B E R L A I N, &c.
M Y L O R D,

IN so thick and dark an IGNORANCE, as now almost covers the AGE, I crave leave to stand near your Light, and by that to be read. Posterity may pay your Benefit the Honour and Thanks, when it shall know, that you dare, in these Jig-given times, to countenance a Legitimate Poem. I must call it so, against all noise of Opinion: from whose crude and airy Reports, I appeal to that great and singular Faculty of Judgment in your Lordship, able to vindicate Truth from Error.

Here we see Jonson's frustration with the ignorance of his age, the age that preferred 'jigs and dances' to his 'Legitimate Poems'. An age of preposterous judgements; an age that applauded Shakespeare and hissed his own plays from the stage. An age of fools that he knew would swallow the First Folio bombast whole without properly digesting it (reading like Boeotians!). Unable to cure his age of its addiction to the fashionable but affected style of Shakespeare - Jonson launched Shakespeare's 'light' Book on the river of time; but with his own severe brand squarely set upon it.

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Jonson, Alchemist

TO THE READER.


IF thou beest more, thou art an Vnderstander, and then Itrust thee. If thou art one that tak'st vp, and but a Pretender, beware at what hands thou receiu'st thy commoditie; for thou wert neuer more fair in theway to be coned (THAN IN THIS AGE, in Poetry, ESPECIALLY IN PLAYES: wherein, now, the Concupis
cence of Jigges, and Daunces so raigneth, as to runne away from Nature, and be afraid of her, is the onely point of art that tickles the Spectators. But how out of purpose, and place, doe I name Art? when the Professors are growne so obstinate contemners of it, and presumers on their owne Naturalls, as they are deriders of all diligence that way, and, by simple mocking at the termes, when they vnderstand not the things, thinke to get of wittily with their Ignorance. Nay, they are esteem'd the more learned, and sufficient for this, by the Multitude, through their excellent vice of iudgement. For they commend Writers, as they doe Fencers, or Wrastlers; who if they come in robustuously, and put for it with a great deale of violence, are receiu'd for the brauer fellowes: when many times their owne rudenesse is the cause of their disgrace, and a little touch of their Aduersary giues all that boisterous force the foyle, I deny not, but that these men, who alwaies seeke to doe more then inough, may some time happen on some thing that is good, and great; but very seldome: And when it comes it doth not recompen the rest of their ill. It sticks out perhaps, and is more eminent, because all is sordide, and vile about it: as lights are more discern'd in a thick darknesse, then a faint shadow. I speake not this, out of a hope to doe good on any man, against his will; for I know, if it were put to the question of theirs, and mine, the worse would finde more suffrages:
because the most fauour common errors. But I giue thee this warning, that there is a great difference betweene those, that (to gain the opinion of Copie) vtter all they can, how cuer vn
fitly; and those that vse election, and a meane. For it is onely the disease of the vnskilfull, to thinke rude things greater then polish'd: or scatter'd more numerous then compos'd.

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Jonson, Discoveries

Censura de poetis. - Nothing in our AGE, I have observed, is more PREPOSTEROUS than the running judgments upon poetry and poets; when we shall hear those things commended and cried up for the best writings which a man would scarce vouchsafe to wrap any wholesome drug in; he would never light his tobacco with them. And those men almost named for MIRACLES, who yet are so VILE that if a man should go about to examine and correct them, he must make all they have done but one BLOT. Their good is so entangled with their bad as forcibly one must draw on the other’s death with it. A sponge dipped in ink will do all:-

“ - Comitetur Punica librum
Spongia. - ” {44a}

Et paulò post,
“Non possunt . . . multæ . . . lituræ
. . . una litura potest.

Cestius - Cicero - Heath - Taylor - Spenser. - Yet their vices have not hurt them; nay, a great many they have profited, for they have been loved for nothing else. And this false opinion grows strong against the best men, if once it take root with the IGNORANT. Cestius, in his time, was preferred to Cicero, so far as the ignorant durst. They learned him without book, and had him often in their mouths; but a man cannot imagine that thing so foolish or rude but will find and enjoy an admirer; at least a reader or spectator. The puppets are seen now in despite of the players; Heath' s epigrams and the Sculler' s poems have their applause. There are never wanting that dare prefer the worst preachers, the worst pleaders, the worst poets; not that the better have left to write or speak better, but that they that hear them judge worse; Non illi pejus dicunt, sed hi corruptius judicant. Nay, if it were put to the question of the water- rhymer' s works, against Spenser' s, *I doubt not but they would find more suffrages; because the most favour common vices, out of a prerogative the VULGAR have to lose their judgments and like that which is naught.*

Poetry, in this latter age, hath proved but a mean mistress to such as have wholly addicted themselves to her, or given their names up to her family. They who have but saluted her on the by, and now and then tendered their visits, she hath done much for, and advanced in the way of their own professions (both the law and the gospel) beyond all they could have hoped or done for themselves without her favour. Wherein she doth emulate the judicious but preposterous bounty of the time' s grandees, who accumulate all they can upon the parasite or fresh-man in their friendship; but think an old client or honest servant bound by his place to write and starve.

Indeed, the multitude commend writers as they do fencers or wrestlers, who if they come in robustiously and put for it with a deal of violence are received for the braver fellows; when many times their own rudeness is a cause of their disgrace, and a slight touch of their adversary gives all that boisterous force the foil. But in these things the unskilful are naturally deceived, and judging wholly by the bulk, think rude things greater than polished, and scattered more numerous than composed; nor think this only to be true in the sordid multitude, but the neater sort of our gallants; for all are the multitude, only they differ in clothes, not in judgment or understanding.

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Shakespeare

CXXI


'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling, but by others' SEEing:
For why should others' false adulterate EYES
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my ABUSES reckon up their own:
I may be STRAIGHT though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain,
All men are bad and in their badness reign.

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Judging Spectators
Peter Carlson


The Prologue to The Alchemist opens by soliciting, not our favor or indulgence, but our critical judgment:


Fortune, that favours fooles, these two short houres,
We wish away; both for your sakes, and ours,
Judging Spectators: and desire in place,
To th'Author justice, to our selves but grace.

Yet in any theater, we can expect only a select and self-conscious minority to be "judging spectators," and they might well feel out of place among the crowds that throng "to have a sight/Of the short braverie of the night." In seeking these few as his primary audience, Jonson, in effect, denies the immediacy and relevance of an audience actually present in the theater, and the title page of The Quarto of The Alchemist testifies even more directly to the underlying bias. Though the Folio recalls the play's success on stage, this original edition makes no mention of performance. The Alchemist appears simply "Written / by / Ben Jonson," and in an epigraph, Jonson adapts Horace to explain "Neque, me ut miretur turba, laboro: / Contentus paucis lectoribus" - " I do not expend my efforts so that the multitude may wonder at me: I am contented with a few readers" Against the insubstantiality of performance, Jonson opposes the printed word, appealing to a medium that at once substantiates his work and minimizes the presence of his audience. Throughout his career Jonson justifies himself with the claim that his art will *transform the spectator into an understander*, but that confident assertion masks a serious dissociation of theory and practice. Who, then, makes up and audience of understanders? and what effect does the desire for "fit audience...though few" have on the relationship of a writer not only to his audience, but to his work?

In the Discoveries, Jonson concludes a cautionary evaluation of the use - and potential abuses - of "figur'd language" with an attempt to answer the question “why doe men at all depart from the right , and naturall ways of speaking?” : “Sometimes for necessity, when wee are driven, or thinke it fitter to speak that in obscure words, or by circumstance, which utter’d plainely would offend the hearers. Or to avoide obscenenesse, or sometimes for pleasure, and variety; as Travailers turne out of the high way, drawne, either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy, or freshnesse of the fields.” The answers, however, are problematic. The “necessity” Jonson would like to claim drives us into “obscure words” and “circumstance” could more properly be called “decorum” – it consists of a sensitivity to the taste and expectations of the “hearers” – and is, in fact, not clearly a necessity at all, for “we are driven, or thinke it fitter” to suit our modes of expression to “the hearers.” In this qualification, we meet again the ambiguity that undercuts all rhetoric: as a persuasive vehicle, it adapts itself to the hearer, not to the “matter.”

(snip)

…..we find Jonson adapting this passage into the Discoveries: “It was well noted by the late L. St. Alban, that the study of words is the first distempter of Learning’, Vaine matter the second: And a third distemper is deceit, or the likenesse of truth: Imposture held up by credulity. All these are the Cobwebs of learning, and to let them grow in us, is either sluttish or foolish.”

In Bacon’s catalogue, Jonson sees and confirms his own distrust of linguistic masks. “Imposture held up by credulity” – which could serve as an abstract for the action of any of his plays – describes the process of mistaking a fiction for a reality” it is seeing what we wish to see rather than analyzing and judging. “imposture,” for Jonson, is the vice of theatricality, but if we can temporarily neutralize the negative thrust he has introduced, ‘Bacon’s phrase might describe the terms under which we enter any theater, that is, a willing suspension of disbelief. Jonson’s suspicion, then, extends to the most basic premises of his medium, and the inner antagonism generated by this doubt can dind release only in the continual and self-contradictory dialectic of self-justification and self- revelation; “hee is call’s a Poet…that fayneth and formeth a fable, and writes things like the truth. For, the Fable and Fiction is (as it were) the forme and Soule of any Poeticall worke, or Poeme”; but “nothing is lasting that is fain’d, it will have another FACE then it had ere long: As Euripides saith, No lye ever growes old.”

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Volpone's Fare
James A. Riddell


...Some of Jonson's friends, who could, presumably, understand, were aware of the meaning I have been suggesting, if one can judge from the commendatory verses which accompanied the play when it was first published. Many are devoted to proclaiming Jonson's knowledge of the classics and his improvements upon them. But also among these verses are explicit references to the Fox's being served as food, and to the audience's comprising both *understanders and fools*. In George Chapman's contribution, which is an apostrophe to Volpone, one finds:


So, thou (Volpone) shalt be ADVAUNC'D, and made a STARRE,
POLE TO ALL WITTS, beleev’d in, for thy craft.
In which the Scenes both Marke, and Mystery
Is hit, and sounded, to please best, and worst”
To all which, since thou mak’st so SWEETE a cry,
Take all thy best FARE, and be nothing curst.

Volpone will be a guide (polestar) to all wits, of whom there are a variety, from true to false. The mark is hit and the mystery is sounded, to please the best of the audience and the worst. And to all of the audience Volpone is to take his _best fare_ (the emphasis is Chapman's). The best will be pleased because they understand, the worst because they do not; hence none will curse the Fox. Thus Chapman contrives to allude both to the distinction between the two audiences and to Jonson's use of "fare," in the sense that it refers to food or eating.

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First Folio 'Figured' Language:

Jonson, Encomium to Shakespeare

But stay, I SEE thee in the hemisphere*
Advanced, and made a CONSTELLATION there !
Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage
Or influence, chide or cheer the drooping stage,
Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,
And despairs day, but for thy volume's light.

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*Hemisphere - Half-Globe? Left-side of the Globe? Western/Eastern (Attic/Asiatic?) - Constellation/sign - for Jonsonian 'understanders' a sign of ignorance, for bardolaters/Beoetians a sign of excellence.
Influence - flowing/humorous.

Jonson, Hymenaei (1606) (Wikipedia)

The stage was set as an altar for a Roman wedding; behind the altar, between gold-painted statues of Hercules and Atlas, a great sphere was suspended from the ceiling on wire so fine it was invisible to the audience. The side of the sphere facing the viewers was painted as a globe of the Earth, in blue and silver. Hymen, the Roman god of marriage, was represented by a figure in saffron robes, with yellow hose and a circlet of roses and marjoram on his head; he was accompanied by a white-clad bride and groom. The sphere rotated, revealing a hollow lower half occupied by eight men. The sphere descended, and the eight men, armed with swords, surrounded the wedding couple. But Reason, dressed in a blue gown spangled with stars and mathematic symbols and carrying a lamp, emerged from the top half of the sphere to intervene and halt the disruption. A cloud-painted curtain above this scene was raised to reveal Juno seated on a golden throne, flanked by peacocks and by comets and meteors. Eight female masquers descended from the heavens to join the eight males.

The male masquers, costumed in "carnation cloth of silver, with variously colored mantles," represented the HUMOURS and AFFECTIONS;" the female dancers, "in white cloth of silver, with carnation and blue undergarments," represented the "Powers of Juno."The eight couples, the men with their swords sheathed, then danced again for the obvious symbolism. The dancers at one point formed the initials of the bride and groom.

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(Added Sept 8, 2015)

Tracing empty figures in the sky:

SIGNUM (Latin) CONSTELLATION, cue, design, badge, Emblem,engraving, ensign, Figure, image, indication,indicium, mark, password, picture, prognostic,proof, SEAL, sign, signal, significant, stamp,standard, statue, symbol, symptom, token, trace,watchword

Signum - Any image artificially made, a figure, a statue etc., s. fabricari, Cic. s. formatum marmore, Ov.

...Or, for the laurel, he may gain a scorn;

For a good poet's MADE, as well as born;

And such wert thou. -- Jonson on Shakespeare

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Jonson, Poetaster

Or, living, I could STAMP
Their FOREHEADS with those deep, and PUBLICK BRAND,
That the whole company of Barber-Surgeons
Should not take off, with all their Art, and Plaisters.
And these my PRINTS should last, still to be read
In their pale Fronts...

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Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels (Act II, Sc. Iv)

Mer. Her very name speaks her, let her pass. But are
these (Cupid) the STARS of Cynthia's Court? do these
Nymphs attend upon Diana?
Cup. They are in her Court (Mercury) but not as
STARS, these never come in the Presence of Cynthia.
The Nymphs that make her Train, are, the Divine Arete,
Time, Phronesis, Thauma, and others of that high sort.
These are privately brought in by Moria in this licen-
tious time, against her knowledg: and (like so many
METEORS) will vanish, when she appears.

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Cartwright, William, Jonsonus Virbius

...Blest life of Authors, unto whom we owe
Those that we have, and those that we want too:
Th'art all so GOOD, that reading makes thee worse,
And to have writ so well's thine onely curse.
Secure then of thy merit, thou didst hate
That servile base dependance upon fate:
Successe thou ne'r thoughtst vertue, nor that fit,
Which chance, and th'ages fashion did make hit;
*Excluding those from life in after-time*,
Who into Po'try first brought luck and rime:
Who thought the peoples breath good ayre: sty'ld name
What was but noise; and getting Briefes for fame
Gathered the many's suffrages, and thence
Made commendation a benevolence:
THY thoughts were their owne Lawrell, and did win
That best applause of being crown'd within..

******************************

Carew:

Tis true, dear Ben, thy just chastising hand

Hath fix'd upon the sotted age a brand



****************************

SONNET 111


O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a BRAND,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand:
Pity me then and wish I were renew'd;
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.


***************************

Jonson - Poetaster

To the Reader

(snip)

Author. But, they that have incens'd me, can in Soul
Acquit me of that guilt. They know, I dare
To spurn, or bafful 'em; or squirt their Eyes
With INK, or URINE: or I could do worse,
Arm'd with Archilochus fury, write Iambicks,
Should make the desperate lashers hang themselves;
Rhime 'em to Death, as they do Irish Rats
In drumming Tunes. Or, living, I could STAMP
Their FOREHEADS with those deep, and PUBLICK BRAND,
That the whole company of Barber-Surgeons
Should not take off, with all their Art, and Plaisters.
And these my Prints should last, still to be read
In their pale Fronts: when, what they write 'gainst me,
Shall, like a FIGURE drawn in Water, fleet,
And the poor wretched Papers be imploy'd
To clothe Tabacco, or some cheaper Drug.
This I could do, and make them infamous.
But, to what end? when their own DEEDS have MARK'd 'em
And that I know, within his guilty Breast
Each slanderer bears a WHIP, that shall torment him,
Worse, than a million of these temporal Plagues:
Which to pursue, were but a Feminine humour,
And far beneath the Dignity of Man.

******************************

Shakespeare:

O! lest the world should task you to recite
What merit lived in me, that you should love
After my death,--dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove.
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
O! lest your true love may seem false in this
That you for love speak well of me untrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.


********************************
Francis Bacon:

...for the truth is, that time seemeth to be of the nature of a river or stream, which carrieth down to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which is weighty and solid.

********************************

http://www.everreader.com/Nabokov.htm

Vladimir Nabokov:
Shakespeare

Amid grandees of times Elizabethan
you shimmered too, you followed sumptuous custom;
the circle of ruff, the silv'ry satin that
encased your thigh, the wedgelike beard - in all of this
you were like other men... Thus was enfolded
your godlike THUNDER in a succinct cape.
Haughty, aloof from theatre's alarums,
you easily, regretlessly relinquished
the laurels twinning into a dry wreath,
concealing for all time your. MONSTROUS GENIUS
beneath a mask; and yet, your phantasm's echoes
still vibrate for us; your Venetian Moor,
his anguish; Falstaff's visage, like an udder
with pasted-on mustache; the raging Lear..
You are among us, you're alive; your name, though,
your image, too - deceiving, thus, the world
you have submerged in your beloved Lethe...

***************************
Harvey on Oxford, Speculum Tuscanismi:

'Tell me in good sooth, doth it not too evidently appeare, that this English Poet [Earl of Oxford] wanted but a good PATTERNE before his eyes, as it might be some delicate, and choyce elegant Poesie of good M. Sidneys, or M. Dyers (ouer very Castor, & Pollux for such and many greater matters) when this trimme geere was in hatching: Much like some Gentlewooman, I coulde name in England, who by all Phisick and Physiognomie too, Might as well have BROUGHT FORTH all goodly faire CHILDREN, as they have Now some ylfavoured and DEFORMED, had they at the tyme of their Conception, had in sight, the amiable and gallant beautifull Pictures of ADONIS, Cupido, Ganymedes, or the like, which no doubt would have wrought such deepe impression in their fantasies, and imaginations, as their children, and perhappes their Childrens children to, myght have thanked them for, as long as they shall have Tongues in their heades."


***************************

Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, The play was one element in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres between Jonson and rival playrwights John Marston and Thomas Dekker.

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 23 May 1601, with the title NARCISSUS the Fountain of Self-Love. It was published in quarto later that year by the bookseller Walter Burre, under the title The Fountain of Self-Love, or Cynthia's Revels.

***************************
Upon Ben: Johnson, the most excellent of Comick Poets.


Mirror of Poets! Mirror of our Age!
Which her whole Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The spots return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
*NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D ESTATE
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate*,
But Vertue too, as well as Vice is clad,
In flesh and blood so well, that Plato had
Beheld what his high Fancie once embrac'd,
Vertue with colour, speech and motion grac'd.
The sundry Postures of Thy copious Muse,
Who would expresse a thousand tongues must use,
Whose Fates no lesse peculiar then thy Art,
For as thou couldst all characters impart,
So none can render thine, who still escapes,
Like Proteus in variety of shapes,
Who was nor this nor that, but all we finde,
And all we can imagine in mankind.

E. Waller

*********************************
Shakespeare 89

Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
And I will comment upon that offence:
Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt,
Against thy reasons making no defence.
Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill,
To set a form upon desired change,
As I'll myself disgrace; knowing thy will,
I will acquaintance strangle, and look strange;
Be absent from thy walks; and in my tongue
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell,
Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong,
And haply of our old acquaintance tell. 
   For thee, against my self I'll vow debate,
   For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate.

*********************************

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.


Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell