The record-union., 1899-12-02
Poets Laureate
of England.

HOYT R1CHMOND)
Though Ben Jonson was the first man
In England to receive the letters patent
as noet laureate of England, IL IS
worthy of remark that Jonson received
his appointment in 1916, the year that
saw the great Shakespeare pass away.
IT NAV be said that the great dramatlst
filed about the same relation TO Eiiza-
beth that Jonson did to James l. and
Charles He was born in London in
1913, was made court poet TO James l.
In 1916. the laureateShip was made per-
manent in 1850, and Jonson died in
1857, thus holding his position into the
reign of Charles 1. The laureateshlp
really added but little to his fame. His
name has lived because of his colossal
mental stature and his powerful per-
sona,ity His life was one of great
struggle and many sorrows, with the
crown of ultimate success. He made
brave fight for liberal education. He
left his occupation as bricklayer, thrust
upon him by his stepfather, and entered
Cambridge at the age of liz. He found
the expense too great, and entered the
army He returned to England and
went upon the stage. In quarrel
with a fellow actor he killed his oppo-
nent He was sentenced to prison, from
which he was released at the age of 70.
He then resumed the stage profession
and was soon after married. He was
not a good actor, and his first work
was in recasting old plays. This led
to compositions of his own, and his
drama EVERY Man in His Humor"
was the first venture. This was so re-
i h rnt1y
His great strength was in comedy, but
he wrote two tragedies which We're full
of power and dignity. His subsequent
high rank in letters rests not only
upon his dramas, but upon those
masques, so popular among the court
iers of James I. He fell far snort of
Shakespeare, with whom he was for
some time cotemporary, but who has
equalled the great dramatist? Perhaps
the best production of his hands is the
pastoral play: 1.-The Sad Shepherd; or
the Tale of Robin Hood" He rests in
the poets corner at Westminster, and
to the kind act of stranger we owe
his unique epitaph: 20 Rare Ben JON
SOM" He was loyal to Shakespeare,
and addressed lines to him as to MY
beloved master, William Shakespeare. %
In his tribute he uses these words:
l will not lodge thee by
Chaucer or Spencer, or bid Beaumont lie
a, little further off, to make thee room
Thou art monument without tomb.
He said of Tame
Her house is all of echo made,
Where never dies a sound,
And as her brows the clouds invade,
Her feet do strike the ground
From his prose notes comes the fol-
lowing samples:
Many might go to heaven with half the
labor they so to hell if they would VEN
ture their industry the right way.
Language most shows the man. Speak
that l may see thee: 1t springs out of the
most retired and Utmost parts of us.
Sir William Davenant, the second
laureate, was born in 1905, made laur-
cate in 1857. and died in 1868 He held
his place through the last turbulent
years of Charles l., resumed the posi-
ton after the commonwealth of Crom-
well, and died during the reign of
Charles II. A strong comment with
reference to Davenant by an English
historian, will serve to reveal this man s
character. He says: Though Dave
nant's life spanned the mighty chasm
that separates the ancient from the
modern of English history, his charac-
ter, unlike his great contemporary, Mil
ton, took no form or color from the
solemn events passing around him." His
father was an Oxford innkeeper, and
his mother very beautiful. William
matriculated from Lincoln College at
the age of IT, He was handsome and
cut out for a courtier, and won his
iofu OF
sought the friendship and advice of his
predecessor Ben Jonson. During the
Commonwealth he fed to France, where
he completed his only considerable
flight, "Gondibert." He embarked for
America, was driven to the English
coast, was taken prisoner, and through
the good offices of Milton was saved
from harm. He produced several plays
that have hardly survived. In fact, but
little of him lives. A few of his best
lines are:
Care visits cities, but she dwells in
thrones.
minds.
Since knowledge is but sorrows SOY.
1t is not safe to know.
John Dryden, who succeeded Daven-
ant, was born in 1851, made laureate
IN 1910 and died in 100, having served
during the later years of the profiigate
Second Charles and portion of the ill
fated Second James. Dryden had
genius. He was a subperb reasoner.
and, as an author states: 1.-The record
of Dryden's life proves that it was
clearly his own choice that he missed
"a hi<rha
age. Preliminary culture at West
minister School was followed by his de-
grees at Cambridge at the age of 10.
He was of Puritan lineage and for
some years cotemporary with Milton.
but he became a time-server and
courtier which in the reign of Charles
II. could have but one result I'm
'Astrea Redux,' says Kenyon West.
land other poems about the King,
Dryden's tributes to his virtues and So
called Godlike qualities might rank as
satire, if it were possible for the be-
sotted monarch to realize such an in
depreciation. In the splendid satire
"Absolem and Architophel'' Dryden
first showed a master hand. When
James II. came to the throne
Dryden to please him threw off the
Puritan and put on the Catholic, but
the poet that had SO upheld the Church
of England in ''Religio Laici'' and the
Church of Rome in "The Hind and
Panther could not with any dignity
recant in the short space of three
years. and swear allegiance to the
Protestant William of Orange. Hence
after the revolution he was left in the
cold and passed his remaining eleven