The British Museum purchased for 14_l._ 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 w'th 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 y't 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 w'th 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, y't view you then, and late; may say,
Sure, this glad payre were maried, but this day.
"BEN JONSON."
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.