. . . But to advise thee, Ben, in this strict age, A brick-kiln's better for thee than a stage. Thou better know'st a groundsill for to lay, Than lay the plot or groundwork of a play, And better canst direct to cap a chimney, Than to converse with Clio or Polyhimny. Fall then to work in thy old age again, Take up thy trudge and trowel, gentle Ben, Let plays alone: or if thou needs will write, And thrust thy feeble muse into the light; Let Lowen cease, and Taylor scorn to touch The loathed stage, for thou hast made it such. @3Ben Jonson's Answer@1 Shall the prosperity of a pardon still Secure thy railing rhymes, infamous Gill, At libelling? Shall no Star Chamber peers, Pillory, nor whip, nor want of ears, All which thou hast incurred deservedly; Nor degradation from the ministry, To be the Denis of thy father's school, Keep in thy barking wit, thou bawling fool? Thinking to stir me, thou hast lost thy end; I'll laugh at thee, poor wretched tyke; go send Thy blatant muse abroad, and teach it rather A tune to drown the ballads of thy father: For thou hast naught in thee to cure his fame, But tune and noise, the echo of his shame. A rogue by statute, censured to be whipped, Cropped, branded, slit, neck-stocked; go, you are stripped. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UPON PRUE, HIS MAID by ROBERT HERRICK STANZAS TO AN AFFECTIONATE AND PIOUS PARENT, ON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD by BERNARD BARTON ON READING THAT THE REBUILDING OF YPRES APPROACHED COMPLETION by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A COMMON CASE by GAMALIEL BRADFORD THE SHOES THAT DANCED by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH STEVENSON MAKES CONRAD WELCOME by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD HAYES: SONG. ROSES by THOMAS CAMPION |