Ben Jonson(1572–1637)
To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison
Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison5
TheTurn6
Brave infant of Saguntum, 7 clear 0explain or describe
Thy coming forth in that great year,
When the prodigious Hannibal did crown
His rage with razing your immortal town.
Thou, looking then about,
Ere thou wert half got out,
Wise child, didst hastily return,
And mad'st thy mother's womb thine urn.8
How summed a circle9 didst thou leave mankind
Of deepest lore, could we the center find!
Counterturn
Did wiser Nature draw thee back
From out the horror of that sack,
Where shame, faith, honor, and regard of right
Lay trampled on; the deeds of death and night
Urged, hurried forth, and hurled
Upon th' affrighted world;
Sword, fire, and famine, with fell fury met,
And all on utmost ruin set,
As, could they but life's miseries foresee,
No doubt all infants would return like thee
The Stand
For what is life, if measured by the space,1
Not by the act
Or masked man, if valued by his face
Above his factdeed
Here's one outlived his peers
And told forth fourscore years;
He vexed time and busied the whole state,
Troubled both foes and friends;
But ever to no ends:
What did this stirrer but die late
How well at twenty had he fall'n or stood!
For three of his fourscore he did no good.
Turn
He entered well, by virtuous parts,
Got up and thrived with honest arts;
He purchased friends, and fame, and honors then,
And had his noble name advanced with men;
But weary of that flight
He stooped in all men's sight
To sordid flatteries, acts of strife,
And sunk in that dead sea of life
So deep, as he did then death's waters sup,taste
But that the cork of title buoyed him up.
Counterturn
Alas, but Morison fell young;
He never fell, thou fall'st,3 my tongue.
He stood, a soldier to the last right end,
A perfect patriot, and a noble friend,
But most a virtuous son.
All offices were doneduties in life
By him so ample, full, and round,
In weight, in measure, number, sound,
As, though his age imperfect 0 might appear,incomplete
His life was of humanity the sphere.4
The Stand
Go now, and tell out days summed up with fears,
And make them years;
Produce thy mass of miseries on the stage
To swell thine age;
Repeat of things a throng,
To show thou hast been long,
Not lived; for life doth her great actions spell 0tell over
By what was done and wrought
In season, and so brought
To light: her measures are, how well
Each syllabe 0 answered, and was formed how fair;syllable
These make the lines of life, and that's her air.5
TheTurn
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:withered
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May;
Although it fall and die that night,
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
TheCounterturn
Call, noble Lucius, then for wine,
And let thy looks with gladness shine;
Accept this garland, plant it on thy head,
And think, nay know, thy Morison's not dead.
He leaped the present age,
Possessed with holy rage
To see that bright eternal day;
Of which we priests and poets say
Such truths as we expect for happy men,
And there he lives with memory, and Ben
TheStand
Jonson! who sung this of him, ere he went
Himself to rest,
O r t a s t e a p a r t o f t h a t f u l l j o y h e m e a n t
T o h a v e e x p r e s s e d
I n t h i s b r i g h t a s t e r i s m ; 0constellation
Where it were friendship's schism
(Were not his Lucius long with us to tarry)
To separate these twi-
Lights, the Dioscuri, 6
A n d k e e p t h e o n e h a l f f r o m h i s H a r r y .
But fate doth so alternate the design,
W h i l s t t h a t i n h e a v e n , t h i s l i g h t o n e a r t h m u s t s h i n e .
TheTurn
A n d s h i n e a s y o u e x a l t e d a r e ,
T w o n a m e s o f f r i e n d s h i p , b u t o n e s t a r :
Of hearts the union. And those not by chance
Made, or indenture, 0 or leased out t'advancecontracted for
The profits for a time.
N o p l e a s u r e s v a i n d i d c h i m e
O f r i m e s , o r r i o t s , a t y o u r f e a s t s ,
Orgies of drink, or feigned protests, 0protestations
But simple love of greatness and of good;
T h a t k n i t s b r a v e m i n d s a n d m a n n e r s m o r e t h a n b l o o d .
TheCounterturn
T h i s m a d e y o u f i r s t t o k n o w t h e w h y
Y o u l i k e d , t h e n a f t e r t o a p p l y
That liking, and approach so one the tother, 0other
Till either grew a portion of the other:
E a c h s t y l e d b y h i s e n d
T h e c o p y o f h i s f r i e n d .
Y o u lived t o b e t h e g r e a t s u r n a m e s
A n d t i t l e s b y w h i c h all m a d e c l a i m s
U n t o t h e v i r t u e . N o t h i n g p e r f e c t d o n e ,
B u t as a C a r y , or a M o r i s o n .
TheStand
A n d s u c h a f o r c e t h e f a i r e x a m p l e h a d ,
A s t h e y t h a t s a w
The good, and durst not practice it, were glad
That such a law
W a s l e f t y e t t o m a n k i n d ;
Where they might read and find
Friendship, indeed, was written, not in words;
And with the heart, not pen,
Of two so early 0 men,young
Whose lines her rolls were, and records,
Who, ere the first down bloomed on the chin,7
Had sowed these fruits, and got the harvest in.