Bauds, Whores and William Basse

Ben Jonson on Shakespeare Part 2

In the previous post in this series I introduced Ben Jonson’s First Folio elegy To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author William Shakespeare and offered some observations about the structure and likely sources and references for the poem. In this essay I consider the first 22 lines, roughly the first quarter of the poem and show how Jonson uses them to establish a critical and structural framework for the poem as well as setting a tone and challenging the reader to read actively and intertextually in order to understand his meaning.

In the first couplet, To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book and fame; Jonson establishes a tone for the poem, both indulging in slippery wordplay and making a joke at his own expense. Barbara DeStefano notes that “Epideictic praise during the Renaissance had fallen into disrepute because it had been used so often as a means for shameless flattery, and poetry itself was often considered a "gentlemen's toy”[1]. In promising that he is sufficient to draw no envy on his subject Jonson is explicitly promising he will not offer excessive flattery. It is conventional on these occasions to plead unworthiness for the task, an expression of Renaissance sprezzatura that required courtiers to dismiss their efforts however labored as trifles of no great moment, made by unworthy hands. Jonson subverts that norm, claiming that he is sufficient (ample), though perhaps only for the diminished task he has set. He is also making fun of his own weight. An athletic man in his youth, Jonson had grown with his success and access to the well-furnished boards of his noble patrons.

That Jonson invokes envy and fame in the first line of a poem acknowledging that a writer’s work will enshrine them in eternal memory strongly suggests Ovid’s elegy 15 from Book 1 of his Amores. Christopher Marlowe translated the Amores in what is likely his earliest published work. Jonson included a slightly different translation of elegy 15 in its entirety as a monologue by Ovid in the first act of Poetaster, his entry in the 1601 War of the Poets with Marston and Dekker. Appropriately it contains the line Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua, (Let base conceited wits admire vilde things, Faire Phoebus leade me to the Muses springs.), which appears as the motto on the title page of Venus and Adonis, the work that introduced the name Shakespeare to the literary world of London.

Ad invidos, quod fama poetarum sit perennis

(To the envious, that the fame of the poets is everlasting)

(Translation by Christopher Marlowe)

Envie, why carpest thou my time is spent so ill,
And tearmes my works fruits of an idle quill?
Or that unlike the line from whence I sprong,
Wars dustie honors are refused being yong,
Nor that I studie not the brawling lawes,
Nor set my voyce to sale in everie cause?
Thy scope is mortall, mine eternall fame,
That all the world may ever chaunt my name.
Homer shall live while Tenedos stands and Ide,
Or into sea swift Symois doth slide.
Ascreus lives, while grapes with new wine swell,
Or men with crooked sickles come downe fell.
The world shall of Callimachus ever speake,
His Arte excelld, although his witte was weake.
For ever lasts high Sophocles proud vaine,
With sunne and moone Aratus shall remaine.
While bond-men cheat, fathers be hard, bawds hoorish,
And strumpets flatter, shall Menander flourish.
Rude Ennius, and Plautus full of wit,
Are both in Fames etemall legend writ.
What age of Varroes name shall not be tolde,
And Jasons Argos, and the fleece of golde?
Loftie Lucretius shall live that houre,
That Nature shall dissolve this earthly bowre.
Aeneas warre, and Titerus shall be read,
While Rome of all the conquered world is head.
Till Cupids bow, and flerie shafts be broken,
Thy verses sweet Tibullus shall be spoken.
And Gallus shall be knowne from East to West,
So shall Licoris whom he loved best:
Therefore when flint and yron weare away,
Verse is immortall, and shall nere decay.
Let Kings give place to verse, and kingly showes,
And banks ore which gold bearing Tagus flowes.
Let base conceited wits admire vilde things,
Faire Phoebus leade me to the Muses springs.
About my head be quivering Mirtle wound,
And in sad lovers heads let me be found.
The living, not the dead can envie bite,
For after death all men receive their right:
Then though death rackes my bones in funerall fier,
lie live, and as he puls me downe, mount higher

Ovid’s poem incorporates the flattery of bauds and whores (as subjects of the Greek writer of Comedies Menander, whom Ovid claims will live on as long as men continue the foibles he portrays) and so offers an explanation for some of Jonson’s more perplexing lines. Indeed, it is immediately apparent that the elegy provides a pattern that Jonson follows closely in his own elegy, first an apology for poetry, then a recognition of classical authors and finally a claim for immortality and stellafication through verse.

If the line does constitute a reference to Venus and Adonis, however tenuous, it highlights a curious feature of Jonson’s poem. There are no direct references to any of the plays or poems written by Shakespeare. In a few lines Francis Meres names the narrative poems, the unpublished sonnets and eight plays mostly previously unconnected to Shakespeare. In the volume that preserves the plays for posterity, Jonson names not one. There is not even a side mention of the Danish Prince, or roguish Falstaff to provide an oblique reference to the timeless characters that keep Shakespeare’s plays on theatre stages to this day.

A more prosaic meaning of the first line which connects it to earlier elements in the folio might be found by comparing the engraving of Shakespeare made for the folio by Martin Droeshout with the engraving done of Mary Sidney in 1618 by Simon de Passe.

The First Folio title page engraving is almost unique in period for being a simple image of the man, with none of the embellishments that typically surround such portraits.

Mary Sidney’s image is surrounded with the symbols of a writer, she holds a book, is crowned with laurel wreaths and bracketed by her signature swan feather quills. Although Jonson’s 1616 folio did not include a portrait in the preface materials, the title page had all the architectural ornament suitable to a serious work, and he subsequently commissioned a portrait engraving similar to Sidney’s which was often added by owners to his volume. Most significant for Jonson’s poem is the oval border around the portrait image which reads Nobliss^ma et Virtiss^ma dona Maria Sid… Henrici Comite Pembroc. Coniut (Most noble and virtuous Mary Sidney wife of Henry, Earl of Pembroke). De Passe has literally drawn NV (Nobliss^ma et Virtiss^ma ) on Sidney’s name (dona Maria etc.) while the familiar Droeshout portrait is without N.V. (or any of the other customary text or ornament).

The next couplet also offers continuity with previous preface material. “While I confesse thy writings to be such, As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much. Tis true, and all men's suffrage.” In the letter To the Great Variety of Readers, ostensibly by the players who organized the folio, but almost certainly written by Jonson, there is an exhortation to buy the book which borrows directly from Jonson’s Bartholomew Faire, “From the most able, to him that can but spell: there you are number'd. We had rather you were weighed; especially, when the fate of all bookes depends upon your capacities and not of your heads alone, but of your purses.” Jonson had previously lamented that votes in Parliament were numbered, not weighed. In both he draws on Aristotle’s Poetics, which argues that drama must have weight or consequence which derives from writing about the affairs of monarchs and gods. Both also invoke Scaliger’s view that the poet was almost like another God, that set about the creation of Active worlds in the same way that God created the universe, ‘by measure and number and weight’ an expression taken from the biblical Wisdom of Solomon.[3]

Once again there is a painfully literal reading which might reveal the nature of Jonson’s role in producing the folio. If Mary Sidney had begun the process of publishing the folio under her own name, her sons were faced with the decision about whether to continue after her death in light of the political situation surrounding the Spanish match and the scandal attending the release of Urania (see part 6 of this series). Is Jonson revealing that they took a vote (all men’s suffrage) and decided to proceed with publication but obscure Mary’s authorship? Might his preference to grant Mary credit have won if they had been weighed and not counted, another fat joke? The subsequent lines certainly support that reading, he literally offers the view that praising the Matron could damage her reputation and “ruine thine” (her children?). At the very least these lines underscore the risk of ignorant readers drawing mistaken conclusions if they fail to read with understanding

But these ways Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho's right;
Or blinde Affection, which doth ne're advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;

 Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
And thine to ruine, where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous baud, or whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?

Whatever the constraints facing Jonson they do not prevent him from proffering effusive praise, “I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age! The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!”

He follows with:

My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by

Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye

A little further, to make thee a roome:

Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe

This has long been viewed as a response to an elegy attributed to William Basse which called for Chaucer, Spenser and Beaumont to move over to make room for Shakespeare in Poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey.

On Mr Wm Shakespeare

Renowned Spencer, lye a thought more nye
To learned Chaucer, & rare Beaumont lye
A little neerer Spenser to make roome
For Shakespeare in your threefold fowrefold Tombe
To lodge all fowre in one bed make a shift
Vntill Doomesdaye, for hardly will a fift
Betwixt yis day & yat by Fate be slayne
ffor whom your Curtaines may be drawn againe.
If your precedency in death doth barre
A fourth place in your sacred sepulcher,
Vnder this carued marble of thine owne
Sleepe rare Tragœdian, Shakespeare sleep alone
Thy vnmolested peace, vnshared Caue
Possesse as Lord not Tenant of thy Graue
That vnto us and others it may be
Honor hereafter to be layde by thee.
                                              Wm Basse

Jonson’s rejection of the suggestion in the eulogy is generally accepted as a response to Basse and therefore dates the elegy before publication of the Folio in November,1623, a supposition now confirmed by Jonson’s anagrams. While the precise date of composition is unknown, the poem circulated in manuscript for some years before appearing in print in 1633, mistakenly attributed to John Donne[4]. In total we have extant 35 manuscript versions and 5 printed in various collections from the period[5]. None of the printed editions were likely approved by Basse and the lone manuscript which had been identified as autograph was assigned to William Brown in the most recent review. The various sources show considerable variation in spelling and even in wording which makes it difficult to interpret the author’s intent and fruitless to look to anagrams for reliable guidance. One printed version (in the 1640 edition of Shakespeare’s Poems) and at least four manuscripts include as subtitle “who died in April 1616.” Another identifies Shakespeare as native to Stratford. However, it is not evident that Basse himself made a connection between the author and the man from Stratford. Other than the elegy there is no known relationship or connection between Basse and Shakespeare.  Basse’s poem does not explicitly reference Stratford or the Trinity Church Monument and mischaracterizes Shakespeare’s burial site as a cave beneath carved marble instead of the ordinary grave some distance from the monument of carved limestone.

Under this carved marble of thine own,
Sleep, rare tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep alone;
Thy unmolested peace, unshared cave
Possess as lord, not tenant of thy grave,

Tomb marker for Mary Sidney Salisbury Cathedral

The word carved is most often varied across copies. Variants include uncarved, curved, curled, sacred and sable. The last is intriguing. Mary Sidney is entombed in Salisbury Cathedral beneath a sable marble tablet inscribed with a poem variously attributed to Ben Jonson and more recently to Basse’s friend William Browne. The two elegies share a central conceit: Basse, that Poets’ Corner need provide only one more space, “Vntill Doomesdaye, for hardly will a fift Betwixt yis day & yat by Fate be slayne ffor whom your Curtaines may be drawn againe” and Browne, “Death, ere thou hast slain another Fair and learned and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee.” While Basse did not have a documented relationship with Shakespeare, Mary Sidney Herbert is a central figure in his writing. Basse’s most important work is a pastoral modeled on Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar, consisting of poems for the days of the week, each associated with a cardinal virtue. Three of the seven take as their subject Mary Sidney.  Basse recognizes her as a patron in his pastoral poem On Gratitude. On Constancy laments the passing of his great supporters, Sidney and the Viscount Wenman, in whose employ he served his entire adult life. Another poem, On Temperance, constructed as a lover’s complaint, tells of Mary Sidney’s trip to Europe in 1616. In that poem he speaks of a lambe, that In a false skin now suckes a lambeles mother, Is not to us, (though to his nurse), unknowne By his loose robe from his dead foster-brother. While it is conceivable that Basse is blinde to the author’s identity it is perhaps more likely that his elegy is responding to the death of Mary Sidney and advocating for the publication of her works under her own name.

Parsing the text for the anagrams Jonson established in the Forest supports this interpretation. The first couplet contains compliant anagrams for Naso and Amores reinforcing the identification of Elegy 15 as the critical and structural foundation of the poem. Jonson makes clear he is answering Basse by covertly incorporating his name at least five times in the portion of the poem leading to the overt reference to the elegy.  Although he uses both blinde and Bawd or whore as forma for Basse anagrams it is not clear whether these were intended to disparage Basse or directed at others who might innocently or maliciously misconstrue his meaning. The overt text suggests that ignorant and misled individuals might go astray in their attempts to honor Shakespeare. Or [blinde] Affection, which doth ne're advance the truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance. Jonson’s anagrams for Constancy, Temperance and Gratitude within the context of Basse’s poetry make clear the Sidney connection.[6]

To draw [no] envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,            [Naso]
[Am I thus] ample to thy [Booke], and Fame;              [Amores]          [Basse]
While I [confesse thy] writings to be such,                  [Constancy]
As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.
[Tis true, and all men's suffrage]. But these ways         [Temperance]
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho's right;
Or [blinde] Affection, which doth ne're advance         [Basse]
The truth, but [gropes, and urgeth all by chance];        [Gratitude]
Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
And thine to ruine, where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous [Baud, or Whore],          [Basse]
Should [praise a] Matron. What could hurt her more? [Paemenarcha]
But thou art [proofe a]gainst them, and indeed           [Pandora]
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.
I, therefore [will begin. Soule] of the Age!                   [Will Basse]
The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!
My Shakespeare, rise; I [will not lodge thee] by           [William Basse]
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
A little further, to make thee a roome :
Thou art a [Moniment, without a tombe,                    [Mary]
And art alive [still, while thy] Booke doth live,           [Sidney]
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.

Having warned against misidentifying the author, Jonson concludes by covertly providing her true identity. He signals the covert naming with the phrase Thou art in the text. Thou art proof against them introduces the anagram Pandora, the all-gifted goddess whose name often stood for Sidney in published dedications and poems, including those of Christopher Marlowe and Michael Drayton that will be referenced later (Pandora is reinforced overtly in the next line …and the ill fortune of them). A few lines later Thou art leads to the anagram Mary (coincident with the overt Monument without a tomb), and in the next line and art precedes the anagram Sidney.

Whatever confusion may have been generated, Jonson assures the author, (thou) art alive still, while thy Booke doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. Jonson’s poem will reveal the author’s identity if we have wits to read, specifically, Francis Meres’ Palladis Tamia: Wits treasury being the second part of Wits common wealth[7] to decode his message. Both the word play on Wits and the lists of comparisons among writers would have brought Meres to mind for contemporary readers.

Continue Reading: Wits to Read, Francis Meres and Shakespeare’s Small Latin

---

[1] Barbara L DeStefano, “Ben Jonson’s Eulogy on Shakespeare: Native Maker and the Triumph of English,” 2023, 233.

[2] John Frederick Nims, Ovid’s Metamorphoses : The Arthur Golding Translation of 1567, ed. John Nims (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2000).

[3] Alastair Fowler, Triumphal Forms: Structural Patterns in Elizabethan Poetry, 1st edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 16.

[4] “Manuscript Copy of William Basse’s Elegy on William Shakespeare,” Shakespeare Documented, accessed August 1, 2022, https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/manuscript-copy-william-basses-elegy-william-shakespeare.

[5] Brandon S. Centerwall, “Who Wrote William Basse’s ‘Elegy on Shakespeare’?: Rediscovering a Poem Lost from the Donne Canon,” in Shakespeare Survey: Volume 59: Editing Shakespeare, ed. Peter Holland, vol. 59, Shakespeare Survey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 267–84, https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521868386.022.

[6] Margaret P. Hannay, Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (Oxford University Press, 1990), 195.

[7] Francis Meres, Palladis Tamia Wits Treasury Being the Second Part of Wits Common Wealth. By Francis Meres Maister of Artes of Both Vniuersities., 2011, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A68463.0001.001.