ENOX LIBRARY

NEW YORK

UNDERWOOD S.

VOL. IX.

B

A PINDARIC ODE

TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY AND FRIENDSHIP

OF THAT NOBLE PAIR,

SIR LUCIUS CARY,

AND

SIR H. MORISON.

A PINDARIC ODE, &c.] In that MS. volume, which I have supposed to be compiled by order of the earl of Newcastle, there is a letter to him from Jonson, inclosing a few poems on himself. "My noblest lord, (he says,) and my patron by excellence, I have here obeyed your commands, and sent you a packet of mine own praises, which I should not have done, if I had any stock of modesty in store:- but obedience is better than sacrifice;' and you command it."

Two of the inclosures are from (lord Falkland) sir Lucius Cary. The first he calls "An Anniversary Epistle on sir Henry Morison, with an Apostrophe to my father Jonson."

"Noble Father,

"I must imitate master Gamaliel Du: both in troubling you with ill verses, and the intention of professing my service to you by them. It is an Anniversary to sir Henry Morison, in which, because there is something concerns some way an antagonist of yours,* I have applied it to you. Though he may be angry at it, I am yet certain that tale temperamentum sequar ut de iis queri non poterit si de se bene sentiat. What is ill in them (which I fear is all) belongs only to myself: if there be any thing tolerable, it is somewhat you dropt negligently one day at the Dog, and I took up.

Tu tantum accipies ego te legisse putabo
Et tumidus Galla credulitate fruar."

Sir, I am

Your son and servant."

It appears that this was the third "Anniversary" which sir Lucius had written; and as Jonson's letter is fortunately dated, (Feb. 4th, 1631,) we are authorised to place the death of young Morison in 1629, which must also be the date of the Ode.

Nothing can exceed the affectionate warmth with which sir Lucius speaks of his friend, who appears, indeed, to have deserved all his kindness.

"He had an infant's innocence and truth,

The judgment of gray hairs, the wit of youth,
Not a young rashness, nor an ag'd despair,
The courage of the one, the other's care;
And both of them might wonder, to discern
His ableness to teach, his skill to learn," &c.

This antagonist is Quarles. It does not appear why he was hostile to Jonson. Sir Henry says little more than that the subdued and careless tone of his divine poetry is suitable to the expression of sorrow.