# The Works of Ben Jonson/Volume 6/The Sad Shepherd/Act 1 Scene 2

* ↑ And a hart of ten, I trow he be———] "When a hart, says Manwood, is past his sixth year, he is generally to be called a hart of ten. Whal. He is not a hart at all till he has attained that age, as I learn from that treasury of field knowledge, The Gentleman's Recreation; but he is not necessarily even then a hart of ten: that proud distinction is taken from his "bearing."—"As, if he hath four croches on his near horn, and five on his far, you must say he beareth ten, or he is a hart of ten, for you must always make the number even."
* ↑ For by his slot, his entries, &c] These are all terms of the chase, and should be explained. The slot is the print of a stag's foot upon the ground; entries are places through which deer have lately passed, by which their size is guessed at; frayings are the pillings of their horns; and a deer is said to fray her head, when she rubs it against a tree to renew it, or to cause the outward coat of her new horns to fall off; the fewmets are the dung of a deer. Whal Jonson is indebted here to Gascoigne's "Commendation of the noble Arte of Venerie," in which all these "signs of sport" are elaborately described.
* ↑ And hang the bulled nosegays 'bove their heads.} Bulled, or bolled, signifies swelled, ready to break its inclosure; the bulled nosegays therefore are nosegays of flowers full blown. Whal. After "heads" a line appears from the context to be wanting; perhaps it was lost at the press.
* ↑ Such are the rites, &c.] The folio reads were by an evident misprint, as appears from the line which immediately follows.
* ↑ Cla. They were, gay Robin, but the sourer sort Of shepherds, now disclaim in all such sport:] The Puritans had a strange aversion to wakes and may-games, which they considered as remains of Paganism; and the dislike was greatly increased by the indulgence granted to the country-people, in the exercise of their rural sports on holidays. Whal.
* ↑ Tuck. Would they, wise Clarion, were not hurried more, &c] This and the beautiful speeches which follow, are levelled with great force and discrimination, at the Puritans, who about this time began to grow formidable, and display that covetise and rage which soon afterwards laid waste the sheepfold. That "the flock was poorly fed," was, we see, the watchword of the time, and therefore adopted by Milton, who knew better, and must have been actuated by evil passions:"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly ——— The pastors were changed soon after this was written, and it would require more than the prejudice and intrepidity of this great man to affirm, that the sheep were better tended, or better fed. To drop the metaphor, it may be said without fear of contradiction, that the church of England at that period, was supplied with a ministry of as much wisdom, learning, and true piety as ever adorned this or any other country since the days of the Apostles. From Milton, whose malignity to the hierarchy is well known, neither truth nor justice is to be expected on the subject; but some approaches to both may be found in others. "In these times, (says Lilly, the hireling advocate of the Usurpation) many worthy ministers lost their livings or benefices, for not complying with the Directory. Had you seen (O noble Esquire) what pitiful idiots were preferred into sequestrated church-benefices, you would have been grieved in your soul; but when they came before the classes of divines, could those simpletons but only say they were converted by hearing such a sermon of that godly man, Hugh Peters, Stephen Marshall, or any of that gang, he was presently admitted." History of his Life, p. 87. Such were the successors of Hooker and Sanderson, of Usher and Hammond, of Donne and Herbert, &c. But even Milton lived to change his note—even he who exultingly consigned a virtuous sovereign to the block, and a pious priesthood to everlasting perdition, * lived to call upon an hypocritical usurper, to whom all religion was a jest, to save him from the clergy whose intrusion into the church his own clamours had, at least, promoted. "Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw." Sonnet to Crom. Jonson is far from being singular in his remarks on the growing moroseness of these dangerous times; the author of Adrasta, (among a thousand others) felt and expressed the same sentiments. Damon. Come, hands to work! It is the festival Of our Silvanus, we must round entrench The fittest place for dancing.  Laur. And strew the banks On which the summer Lord and Lady sit To see the sports, with those rich spoils of May.  Armin. Our shepherds will be frolic then, and lose No ceremony of their ancient mirth.  Damon. I like them well: the curious preciseness, And all-pretended gravity, of those That seek to banish hence these harmless sports, Have thrust away much ancient honesty.  Armin. I do believe you. p. 53.
* ↑ "But the Bishops (of the Church of England) who by the impairing and diminution of the true faith, the distresses and servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity, rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in this life, which God grant them! shall be thrown down eternally into the darkest and deepest gulph of hell, where under the despiteful controul, the trample and spurn of the other damned, who in the anguish of their torture, shall have no other ease than to exercise a raving and beastial tyranny over them, as their slaves and negroes; they shall remain in that plight for ever, the lowermost, the most dejected, most under foot, and trodden down vassals of perdition." Milton's Treatise on Reformation, sub fin vol i. p. 274. Dr. Johnson uses the language of forbearance when, rising from the perusal of this fiendlike cursing, he merely observed, "such was Milton's controversial malignity, that hell grew blacker at his frown."
* ↑ I'll carve it on the trees, &c] This thought is sufficiently familiar to every pastoral writer; but the particular object of Jonson's imitation was Spenser."Her name in every tree I will endosse,  That as the trees do grow, her name may grow: And in the ground each where will it engrosse,  And fill with stones that all men may it know."
* ↑ {{ppoem|start=open|end=close|——————or any branch a bloom, After her wreath was made!] GREEK HERE Bion.
* ↑ ——————Earine, Who had her very being, and her name, With the first knots or buddings of the spring, &c] The English reader will perhaps require to be told, that Earine is derived from a Greek word signifying the spring; but I hope his sagacity does not want a monitor, to point out the exquisite delicacy of the following lines, and indeed of the whole speech. The sentiments are wonderfully pleasing, the verses harmonious and soft. Whal.
* ↑ Though I am young, &c] The modern prejudice against Jonson is strongly exemplified in the neglect of his minor poems. While even the worst of Shakspeare's pieces have been sought out with avidity (nay the silly trash which passes under his name, such as "When I was a little tiny boy," &c.) and set to music, a number of exquisite songs dispersed among the works of Jonson remain wholly unnoticed. "All is but fortune," as Stephano truly observes; and though it be too much perhaps to expect a Mus. Doc. to read for himself, yet he may fairly be expected to follow the fashion; and Jonson may yet have his turn. That he was not thus overlooked by the great composers of former times is certain; the song before us was set to music by Nicholas Lanncare, and inserted in the compilation of Ayres and Dialogues, by Henry Lawes, 1653.
* ↑ The lover's scriptures, Helidores, or Tatii, Longi, &c.] For the first two, see vol. v. p. 394. Longus is the author of the beautiful pastoral of Daphnis and Chloe; Eustathius of the story of Ismene and Ismenias; and Prodromus of a love-tale in metre, called Doricles and Rhodantes.