Source texts: Ben Jonson's and Other Begging Poems.

This is the first post of source material to support and place in context quotes I provide in my post “A Backgrounder to Ben Jonson's Begging Poems”. I hope to be providing such source texts to many posts ahead. This given the complexity of detail level questions and replies in the several fora in which I participate.

I. Geoffrey Chaucer's “Complaint to his Purse”.

To yow, my purs, and to non othir wyght

Complayne I, for ye ben my lady dere!

I am so sory, now that ye been lyght;

For certes, but yf ye make me hevy chere,

Me were as leef be leyd upon my bere;

For which unto your mercy thus I crye,

Beth hevy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!

Now voucheth sauf this day, or hyt be nyght,

That I of yow the blisful soun may here,

Or se your colour lyk the sonne bryght,

That of yelownesse had never pere.

Ye be my lyf, ye be myne hertes stere,

Quene of comfort and of gode companye;

Beth hevy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!

Now purs, that ben to me my lyves lyght

And saveour, as doun in this worlde here,

Out of this towne helpe me thurgh your myght,

Syn that ye wylle nat ben my tresorere;

For I am shave as nye as any frere.

But yet I prey unto youre curtesye,

Beth heavy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!

Lenvoy de Chaucer

O conqueror of Brutes Albyoun,

Which that by lyne and fre eleccion

Ben verray kyng, this song to you I sende;

And ye, that mowen alle oure harmes amende,

Have mynde upon my supplicacioun.

[Multiple sources.]

II. from Thomas Hoccleve's “The Regement of Princes”.

118

In thé schequér, he of his special grace

Hath to me grauntid an annuitee

Of xx^ti mark , while I haue lyuës space .

Mighte I ay paid ben of þat duëtee ,

It schulde stonde wel ynow with me ;

But paiement is hard to gete adayes ;

And þat me put in many foule affrayes.

119

It goht ful streite and scharp or I it haue ;

If I seur were of it be satisfied

ffro yeer to yeer, than, so god me saue,

My deepë rootid grief were remediëd

Souffissantly; but how I schal be gyëd

Heer-after, whan þat I no lenger serue,

This heuyeth me, so þat I wel ny sterue.

120

ffor syn þat I now, in myn agë grene ,

And beyng in court, with gretë peyne vnneth

Am paid ; in elde, and out of court , I weene

My purs for þat may be a ferthyng shethe.

Lo, fader myn, þis dullith me to deth ;

Now god helpe al! for but he me socoure ,

My futur yeerës lik ben to be soure.

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255

In schort, þis is of þi grief énchesoun:

Of þin annuitee, þe paiëment,

Whiche for þi long seruyse is þi guerdoun ,

þou dredest, whan þou art from court absent,

Schal be restreynëd, syn þou now present

Vnnepës mayst it gete, it is so streit ;

þus vnder-stode I, sonë, þi conceit;

[Hoccleve's Works (1897). Frederick J. Furnivall, ed.]

III. To master John Burges.

WOULD God, my Burges, I could think

Thoughts worthy of thy gift, this ink,

Then would I promise here to give

Verse that should thee and me outlive.

But since the wine hath steep'd my brain,

I only can the paper stain ;

Yet with a dye that fears no moth,

But scarlet-like, out-lasts the cloth.

[Gifford Works of Ben Jonson, VIII.430. Underwoods 73.]

IV. Note to Underwoods 73.

To my worthy and deserving Brother

Mr. Alexander Glover,

as the Token of my Love,

And the perpetuating of our Friendship,

I send this small, but hearty Testimony ;

And with Charge, that it remayne with Him,

Till I at much expense of time and taper,

With 'Chequer-Ink, upon his gift, my paper,

Shall pour forth many a line, drop many a letter

To make these good, and what comes after, better.

[Gifford, Works of Ben Jonson, VIII.430n.]

V. To master John Burges.

FATHER John Burges,

Necessity urges

My woeful cry

To Sir Robert Pie:

And that he will venture

To send my debenture.

Tell him his Ben

Knew the time, when

He loved the Muses;

Though now he refuses,

To take apprehension

Of a year's pension,

And more is behind:

Put him in mind

Christmas is near;

And neither good cheer,

Mirth, fooling, nor wit,

Nor any least fit

Of gambol or sport

Will come at the court;

If there be no money,

No plover or coney

Will come to the table,

Or wine to enable

The muse, or the poet,

The parish will know it.

Nor any quick warming-pan help him to bed;

If the 'Chequer be empty, so will be his head.

[Gifford, Works of Ben Jonson, VIII.432-3. Underwoods 75.]

VI. Ben Jonson's “Humble Petition to King Charles”.

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF POOR BEN ;

TO THE BEST OF MONARCHS, MASTERS, MEN,

KING CHARLES.

Doth most humbly show it,

To your majesty, your poet :

THAT whereas your royal father,

James the blessed, pleas'd the rather,

Of his special grace to letters,

To make all the Muses debtors

To his bounty ; by extension

Of a free poetic pension,

A large hundred marks annuity,

To be given me in gratuity

For done service, and to come :

And that this so accepted sum,

Or dispens'd in books or bread,

(For with both the muse was fed)

Hath drawn on me from the times,

All the envy of the rhymes,

And the ratling pit-pat noise

Of the less poetic boys,

When their pot-guns aim to hit,

With their pellets of small wit,

Parts of me they judg'd decay'd ;

But we last out still unlay'd.

Please your majesty to make

Of your grace, for goodness sake,

Those your father's marks, your pounds :

Let their spite, which now abounds,

Then go on, and do its worst ;

This would all their envy burst :

And so warm the poet's tongue,

You'd read a snake in his next song.

[Gifford, Works of Ben Jonson, IX.30. Underwoods, 94.]

Also from the Library of Babel:

• The American Garden.  January 16, 2019.  “By 1890, the Ladies' Home Journal was the most popular advertising venue in the country. There, between ads for cook books, children's clothing, stave-less corsets, indoor water-closets, refrigerators and pianos, and popular female columnists who advised the housewife about them all, were a profusion of ads for seeds.”
• Blank Verse Now and Then.  January 1, 2019.  “Surrey was as erratic as most young noblemen during early English history, and far more brilliant, and was imprisoned several times for temper and intemperance. In the end, he became rather impatient for the gouty, porcine, syphilis-riddled Henry VIII to die, and for the Howard faction to rule as regents to the young, fragile, son conceived of the syphilitic, Edward.” 
• The Elegy and the Internet.  July 1, 2005.  ‘Drummond, we may remember, was the William Drummond, of Hawthornden, who Ben Jonson visited during a trip to Scotland, in 1619. The Scot took the time to jot a memorandum of Jonson's conversation, in which we learn inter alia that "he cursed Petrarch for redacting Verses to Sonnets, which he said were like the Tirrant's bed, wher some who were too short were racked, others too long cut short,"7 and "That Shakspear wanted Arte."’

• Be sure to check out the Browser's Guide to the Library of Babel.

Also from Virtual Grub Street:

• Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”

• A Thousand Years of English Terms.  June 2, 2019.  ‘One person did not say to another, “Meet you at three o’clock”.    There was no clock to be o’.  But the church bell rang the hour of Nones and you arranged to meet “upon the Nones bell”.’