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for searching only. GENESIS OF jONSON'S APHORISM 5
For we happen to know that Jonson considered Terence small Latin indeed. In the Induction to the Magnetic Lady, Damplay says,
You have heard, Boy, the ancient Poets had it in their purpose, still to please this people.
Pro. I, their chiefe aime was-
Dam. Populo ut placerent: (if hee understands so much.)
Boy. tuas fecissent fabulas.) I understand that, sin' I learn'd Terence, i' the third forme at Westminster: go on Sir.,
A boy who learned Terence in the third form at Westminster was Ben Jonson himself, presumably under the great Camden.
Camden ! most reverend head, to whom I owe All that I am in arts, all that I know.
Nor was his Terence all that Jonson owed to Camden. Professor Hoyt Hudson calls my attention to the fact that Jonson's master
Camden takes the same position toward Sidney and Nature as does his pupil Jonson toward Shakspere.
Naturae Genius se mirabatur in vno
Sidnaeo, firs, & Mars se mirabantur eodem; Mors etiam mirans haec vidit, & abstulit ilium, Ne terris tantum mirentur numina numen.
Sidnaeum defies aetatis flore peremptum, At frustra, fiendi causa nec vila subest. Illius ingenio, virtuti, laudibus aetas
Addere nil potuit, nil potuere dies.
Ipse fuit quicquid poterat Natura; nec vnquam Tantus erat tanta mente repostus honos 2
And certainly Camden meant no reflection upon Sidney's Art by emphasizing his Nature. No more did Janson in this possible imitation of Camden necessarily mean any reflection upon Shakspere.
Because of their known close relationship, it is probable that Jonson is here following Camden, though we must never forget that both are following an already threadbare convention of the time in contrasting Nature and Art. Jonson's comparison of Shakspere with the various classical authors is equally threadbare. For instance, George Turberville used it in his Epitaph on Maister Edwards. "Ye Learned Muses nine" and "Ye Courtyers" are invited to lament.
1 Peck, H. W., The Magnetic Lady, p. 10.
' Enegviae Illvstrisnmi LQLitis, D. Philippi Sidnaei, Gratissimae Memoriae Ac Nomini Impensae (1587, Huntington Copy), pp. B2v-B3r.
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