Ben Jonson

Topic: Ben Jonson

1A. Source-Control Update, 2026-06-29: Haterius, Lost 1612 Epigrammes, and Memorial Language

• Added a dated pass file for this hardening: JONSON_HATERIUS_1612_EPIGRAMMES_SOURCE_PASS_2026-06-29.md.
• Gmail check located the article behind the lost-1612-Epigrammes lead: Gregory Thompson to Ken Feinstein, Jonson epigrammes, 2020-08-17, attachment 710019.pdf. The PDF is now preserved locally as lyons_new_evidence_jonson_epigrammes_1612_pbsa_2020.pdf.
• The article is Tara L. Lyons, "New Evidence for Ben Jonson's Epigrammes (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 114.3 (2020), 343-364.
• Lyons supports a lost printed Epigrammes before the 1616 Works: the Bodleian daybook records Ben Jhonsons Epigrammes in a binding consignment of 15 September 1614, later associated with shelfmark 87 I 19 Art., and absent from that shelfmark by 1635.
• This evidence changes the Nevil epigram dating problem. If CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL was already in the lost ca. 1612 Epigrammes, it predates Sir Henry Neville's death on 10 July 1615 and cannot have originated as a posthumous memorial. If it was added or materially revised for the 1616 Works, a memorial reading remains possible. No extant copy of the ca. 1612 Epigrammes currently proves either branch.
• Haterius claim hardened: Jonson does not simply "call Shakespeare Haterius." In the posthumous 1641 Jonson second volume / Timber lane (A72473), Jonson says Shakespeare flowed so freely that he sometimes needed to be stopped, then invokes the Latin tag Sufflaminandus erat as Augustus said of Haterius. The safe formulation is "Jonson compared Shakespeare's uncontrolled fluency to Augustus's Haterius saying."
• Core Haterius/Neville hypothesis: Haterius functions as a classical Roman senator/orator signal, while Neville was known as a parliamentary actor. The proposed slyness is that Jonson can appear to be making a learned comment on Shakespeare's style while also choosing a senatorial analogue that points toward Neville's political identity.
• Local Greenwey/Tacitus A13333 confirms Haterius as a Roman senatorial/orator figure and separately contains stage-player controversies. The sampled local windows do not prove the tweet wording that Haterius himself is directly involved in a stage-player controversy; treat that as an interpretive lead until page-level chapter collation is finished.
• ODNB source-control update, 2026-06-30: D. R. Woolf's article on Richard Greenway/Grenewey is locally downloaded at odnb-9780198614128-e-67025.pdf. Use it as modern T2 context for Greenway's 1598 Tacitus and its Savile/Essex/Cuffe setting, not as proof that Jonson depended on Greenway or that the Haterius/Neville inference is a source fact.
• Jonson's 1605 Seianus (B14291) confirms Jonson worked with Tacitus/Dio classical source apparatus. Its Haterius note cites Dio, while the paratext says Jonson used Tacitus in the Lipsius edition and Dio in the Henri Estienne folio. Do not cite this as proof that Jonson used Greenwey's 1598 English Tacitus unless a direct Greenwey dependence is separately demonstrated.
• EEBO/EarlyPrint phrase checks support only a limited conclusion: the Nevil epigram's lent life / Fates / posteritie / new wombes / tombes cluster is memorial-compatible, but it does not prove posthumous composition.

1. Source-Control Update, 2026-06-20

• Added direct page-image controls for Jonson's two First Folio prefatory lanes and the 1616 Henry Nevil epigram: SOURCE_NOTES.md.
• First Folio leaf first_folio_1623_leaf0008.jpg directly verifies the To the Reader poem signed B.I. facing the Droeshout title page.
• First Folio leaves first_folio_1623_leaf0015.jpg and first_folio_1623_leaf0016.jpg directly verify the long To the memory of my beloued... poem and the signature Ben: Ionson.
• Jonson 1616 leaves jonson_workes_1616_leaf0822.jpg and jonson_workes_1616_leaf0823.jpg directly verify printed pages 803-804, CIX. To Sir Henry Nevil; readable crops are preserved for the opening and posterity/tombes close.
• This removes the previous page-image gap for the main Jonson claims. It still does not prove Jonson edited, managed, financed, or encoded the First Folio.

Web / Edition-Route Update, 2026-06-23

• Web search surfaced public routes for the Nevil epigram, including a later 1692 Works transcription and modern Taylor & Francis/Oxford-style edition references.
• These are useful orientation and identity-check routes only. The controlling evidence remains the local page-image packet and local EarlyPrint/TCP witnesses A04632 and A11954.
• Identity guardrail: any later editorial note identifying "Sir Henry Nevil" should be checked against elder Henry Neville (1563/4-1615) versus younger or collateral Neville lines before being imported into book prose.

2. Source-Control Update, 2026-05-29

This packet now separates three Jonson lanes that older notes tended to blend: the 1623 First Folio prefatory poems, the 1616 Jonson folio epigram to Sir Henry Nevil, and later/secondary commentary or Ken Feinstein interpretation.

• Local EarlyPrint/TCP A11954 confirms two Jonson First Folio contributions: the Droeshout-facing poem headed "To the Reader" and signed B.I., and the long encomium headed "To the memory of my beloued, The AVTHOR MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: AND what he hath left vs," signed BEN: IONSON.
• A11954 also controls the major Jonson phrases often cited in the First Folio lane, including "Soule of the Age," "small Latine, and lesse Greeke," and "Sweet Swan of Auon."
• Local EarlyPrint/TCP A04632 confirms Jonson's 1616 epigram CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL, including the opening "WHo now calls on thee, NEVIL, is a Muse," the lent life passage, "Goe on, and doubt not, what posteritie," and the closing tombes line.
• The older wiki/Wikisource/Archive.org citations remain useful finding aids and image/page leads, but local A04632 and A11954 now control the text layer.
• McPherson remains the control for the narrow Jonson-library lane: Jonson owned Savile's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, but the annotation evidence must keep the Oxford-copy / Stratford-copy distinction preserved in the separate Savile packet.
• A scoped BRO sweep for Jonson, Ionson, First Folio, commendatory, prefatory, and posterity terms found no direct BRO manuscript witness. Doc_73 / IMG_8660 is listed only as a removed screenshot of printed Ben Jonson text, not as a transcription source.

2A. Quoted Source Passages

Follow SOURCE_QUOTATION_STANDARD.md. These are the decisive short passages for the Jonson/Neville/Haterius lanes.

First Folio Jonson witness

• Source: Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies (London, 1623), STC 22273, TCP A11954; local First Folio page-image packet.
• Quotation:

"To the memory of my beloued, The AVTHOR MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE"

"BEN: IONSON"

• What it proves: Jonson is a direct signed prefatory witness in the 1623 First Folio.
• Limits: This proves prefatory authorship, not that Jonson edited, financed, compiled, or concealed the Folio.

1616 Jonson epigram to Sir Henry Nevil

• Source: Ben Jonson, The Works (London, 1616), TCP A04632; local Jonson 1616 page-image packet.
• Quotation:

"CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL"

"WHo now calls on thee, NEVIL, is a Muse"

"what posteritie"

"tombes"

• What it proves: Jonson printed a direct epigram to Sir Henry Nevil in 1616, with posterity/tomb language relevant to the memorial question.
• Limits: Because a lost ca. 1612 Epigrammes may have existed, the 1616 witness alone cannot prove posthumous composition after Neville's death.

Haterius/Shakespeare comparison

• Source: Ben Jonson, The vvorkes of Beniamin Ionson. The second volume (London, 1641), TCP A72473, Timber/Discoveries lane.
• Quotation:

"Sufflaminandus erat"

• What it proves: Jonson invokes Augustus's Haterius saying when qualifying Shakespeare's fluent wit.
• Limits: The source does not say "Shakespeare was Neville." The Neville reading depends on the classical-political analogy: Haterius as senator/orator, Neville as parliamentarian.

Lost printed Epigrammes route

• Source: Tara L. Lyons, "New Evidence for Ben Jonson's Epigrammes (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records," PBSA 114.3 (2020): 343-364; local PDF.
• Quotation:

"Ben Jhonsons Epigrammes"

• What it proves: Lyons identifies a Bodleian records route for a now-lost printed Jonson Epigrammes before the 1616 Works.
• Limits: The record does not show whether CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL was present in that lost edition.

3. Checked Source Lanes

A. 1623 First Folio Jonson poems

• Local EarlyPrint A11954 identifies the 1623 First Folio as Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies, printed by Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, STC 22273, ESTC S111228.
• The first Jonson item appears before the title page:
• heading: "To the Reader"
• opening phrase: "This Figure"
• closing contrast: the reader should look not on the picture, but the book
• signature: B.I.
• The second Jonson item appears after Heminge and Condell's reader address:
• heading: "To the memory of my beloued, The AVTHOR MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: AND what he hath left vs"
• major control phrases: "Soule of the Age," "small Latine, and lesse Greeke," and "Sweet Swan of Auon"
• signature: BEN: IONSON
• Direct 1623 page images now control this lane:
• first_folio_1623_leaf0008.jpg: To the Reader, signed B.I.
• first_folio_1623_leaf0009.jpg: title page and Droeshout portrait.
• first_folio_1623_leaf0015.jpg and first_folio_1623_leaf0016.jpg: long Jonson poem.
• This proves Jonson's First Folio prefatory-poem role. It does not prove he edited, compiled, financed, or managed the Folio.

B. 1616 Jonson folio epigram to Sir Henry Nevil

• Local EarlyPrint A04632 identifies Jonson's The Works as a 1616 printed witness.
• A04632 confirms epigram CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL.
• The local XML controls the key text anchors used in the Neville argument:
• "WHo now calls on thee, NEVIL, is a Muse"
• "lent life"
• "Goe on, and doubt not, what posteritie"
• "tombes"
• Direct 1616 page images now control this lane:
• jonson_workes_1616_leaf0822_nevil_opening_crop.jpg: CIX. To Sir Henry Nevil opening.
• jonson_workes_1616_leaf0823_nevil_close_crop.jpg: lent life, posteritie, and tombes close.
• This supports the factual claim that Jonson wrote an epigram to Sir Henry Nevil in the 1616 folio. The interpretation that the poem is mourning or concealment language remains an argument, not a settled source fact.

C. Donne / Beaumont / Nevil Muse pattern

• A04632 confirms Jonson's epigram to John Donne begins with a line ending in Muse: "DONNE, the delight of PHOEBVS, and each Muse."
• A04632 confirms the Nevil epigram opening "WHo now calls on thee, NEVIL, is a Muse."
• The preserved Ken Feinstein tweet images show a Beaumont crop with the analogous Muse line, but this pass did not locate that Beaumont line in local A04632; the only local Beaumont/BEAVMONT hits found were Francis Beaumont's prefatory signatures near the front of the volume.
• Treat the three-name Muse pattern as a visual/tweet lead until the Beaumont witness is mapped to an exact Jonson text, page image, or alternate edition.

D. Jonson / Savile library lane

• McPherson confirms the Jonson-owned Savile Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores lane, with important qualification: the Oxford copy is the stronger candidate for Jonson annotation, while the Stratford copy's annotations are not Jonson's.
• This is relevant to Jonson's scholarly-library network and the Henry Savile topic, but it should not be used as proof of a First Folio production role.

E. Jonson / Shakespeare / Haterius lane

• Preserved tweets make the Haterius argument explicit:
• 2019-07-22: Jonson's Shakespeare/Haterius comparison is presented as a subtle reference to Henry Neville, with Tacitus, Greenwey, Seianus, and Haterius-as-senator offered as the route. Local line control: twitter_Books_Read.md:375.
• 2021-06-30: the claim is sharpened to Haterius-as-politician and Neville-as-parliamentary leader. Local line control: Ben_Jonson_4.md:192.
• 2021-01-29: the prompt to compare Jonson's Shakespeare comments with Jonson's Henry Neville epigram is preserved. Local line control: Ben_Jonson.md:137.
• Primary-source control:
• A72473, Jonson's 1641 second volume, preserves the Shakespeare comment in Timber/Discoveries: Jonson loved and honored Shakespeare's memory, praises his nature and fancy, then uses the Haterius tag to qualify his fluency.
• A13333, Greenwey's 1598 Tacitus, contains L. Haterius in Senate/commonwealth contexts and later records Haterius as descended from senators and known for eloquent vehemence.
• B14291, Jonson's 1605 Seianus, includes a Haterius character/reference and extensive Tacitus/Dio marginal apparatus.
• Core interpretive logic: Haterius was a senator/orator; Neville was a parliamentarian. The argument is that Jonson's Haterius choice may be a sly classical-political pointer to Neville while remaining deniable as a learned stylistic comparison.
• Current assessment: the Haterius allusion is real and source-controllable. The Neville inference is plausible as an authorship-project interpretation, but not a source fact. It should be written as "Jonson's Haterius comparison gives a classical senator/parliamentarian analogy that can be read alongside Neville's political identity," not as "Jonson identifies Shakespeare as Neville."

F. Lost ca. 1612 Epigrammes edition

• Tara L. Lyons's PBSA article supplies the key bibliography:
• 15 May 1612: John Stepneth entered Ben Johnson his Epigrams in the Stationers' Register.
• 1612: Sir Arthur Throckmorton expected Jhonsons Epigarmmes and set aside sixpence.
• 1612 and 1613: William Drummond recorded reading Jonson's epigrams.
• 15 September 1614: Bodleian librarian Thomas James sent a title recorded as Ben Jhonsons Epigrammes to binder Elias Peerse.
• 30 September 1614: the binding consignment was returned and paid for.
• The Bodleian shelfmark trail places the volume at 87 I 19 Art. for at least a few years and absent by 1635.
• This supports the existence of a printed, now-lost Epigrammes before the 1616 Works. It does not show the contents, order, or textual state of that lost book.
• Consequence for CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL: treat the 1616 posthumous/memorial interpretation as possible but unproved. A lost-1612 inclusion would make the poem a lifetime encomium unless 1616 revision can be demonstrated.

G. Memorial-language audit for the Nevil epigram

• Raw local A04632 controls the poem's potentially memorial language: lent life, Fates, posteritie, new wombes, and tombes.
• The preserved 2019-03-03 tweet thread explicitly reads these as mourning terms and calls the poem a tribute to Neville after his 1615 death. Local line control: twitter_First_Folio.md:75.
• EarlyPrint FTS checks, using [local source path removed], produced these controls:
• Sufflaminandus: 1 hit, Jonson A72473.
• Haterius: 9 hits, including Greenwey/Tacitus A13333, Jonson Seianus B14291, Suetonius A13126, and Jonson A72473.
• exact word phrase lent life: 7 index hits, several non-memorial or ambiguous; lemma lend life: 24 hits.
• exact word phrase calls on thee: 6 hits, including Shakespeare Sonnets A12043/A12044; exact now calls on thee: 0 index hits.
• new wombes / new wombs: 0 word-index hits, but raw A04632 confirms Jonson's line; lemma new womb: 4 hits.
• what posteritie: 9 hits; what posterity: 5 hits. The phrase is not inherently funerary.
• lemma tomb: 2861 hits, so tombes is semantically relevant but not diagnostically rare.
• Corpus conclusion: the language supports a memorial reading when combined with the 1616 post-death witness, but it cannot date the poem after Neville's death. The lost-1612 problem must remain explicit in any final book prose.

4. Claims Demoted or Held

• Do not cite wiki, Wikisource, or Ken tweet prose as the controlling text for the Nevil epigram when local A04632 is available.
• Do not say Jonson managed, edited, compiled, financed, or concealed the First Folio unless a direct source is found. Current source control proves prefatory authorship and broader literary precedent only.
• Do not treat B.I. as ambiguous in this packet's direct witness lane without noting that the adjacent long poem is signed BEN: IONSON and that the Droeshout poem is conventionally Jonson's. Final publication should still image-collate the page.
• Do not use Soule of the Age, small Latine, Sweet Swan of Auon, or the Stratford/Auon language as evidence for a Neville authorship route by itself. Those phrases are reception and memorial evidence.
• Do not use BRO Doc_73 as a manuscript or archival witness. It is currently only a removed screenshot entry in the BRO grouping metadata.
• Do not overstate the Donne/Beaumont/Nevil Muse pattern until the Beaumont crop is tied to an exact printed witness.
• Do not say Jonson "called Shakespeare Haterius" without explanation. Use the stricter wording: Jonson compared Shakespeare's unchecked fluency to Augustus's saying about Haterius.
• Do not state that Haterius is directly involved in a Tacitus stage-player controversy unless a page-level Tacitus collation proves the same episode. Current local evidence proves Haterius and stage-player controversies in Greenwey/Tacitus, but not the stronger direct-involvement claim.
• Do not use Jonson's Seianus as proof of Greenwey dependence. The checked local witness proves Tacitus/Dio source work; the Haterius note there points to Dio.
• Do not state that the Nevil epigram was certainly written after Neville's death. The 1616 witness is posthumous, but the lost ca. 1612 Epigrammes may already have contained the poem.

5. Book-Safe Formulation

A source-controlled version can say:

Ben Jonson is a direct First Folio prefatory witness: local EarlyPrint A11954 preserves the title-page-facing poem signed B.I. and the longer Shakespeare encomium signed BEN: IONSON. Jonson is also a direct Neville witness in his own 1616 folio: A04632 prints epigram CIX. TO SIR HENRY NEVIL, opening with Nevil as a Muse and later invoking posterity. These are real textual connections. They do not by themselves prove that Jonson organized the First Folio, concealed authorship, or transmitted Neville manuscripts.

For the Haterius lane, a book-safe sentence is:

In Jonson's later Shakespeare reminiscence, preserved in the 1641 second volume, Jonson praises Shakespeare's nature and imagination but says his fluent wit sometimes needed checking, invoking Augustus's saying about Haterius. Because Haterius is a Roman senator/orator in the Tacitus/Suetonius tradition, the comparison can be read as a discreet political allusion to Sir Henry Neville, a parliamentarian whom Jonson separately praised. That is an interpretive connection, not a direct identification.

For the Nevil epigram dating lane, a book-safe sentence is:

The 1616 Works prints Jonson's epigram to Sir Henry Nevil after Neville's death, and its language of lent life, Fates, posterity, and tombes is compatible with memorial reading. But Tara Lyons's evidence for a lost printed Epigrammes before 1616 means the poem may have existed while Neville was alive unless we can prove it was absent from the lost ca. 1612 edition or revised after July 1615.

6. Citations

• Shakespeare, William. Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies. London: Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. STC 22273; TCP A11954; ESTC S111228. Local EarlyPrint database: [local source path removed]. Header: A11954_header.xml.
• Jonson, Ben. The Works. London: printed by Will. Stansby, 1616. TCP A04632. Local EarlyPrint database: [local source path removed]. Header: A04632_header.xml.
• Jonson, Ben. The vvorkes of Beniamin Ionson. The second volume. London, 1641. TCP A72473. Local EarlyPrint database: [local source path removed]. Controls the Timber/Discoveries Haterius/Shakespeare reminiscence.
• Jonson, Ben. Seianus his fall. London: G. Elld for Thomas Thorpe, 1605. TCP B14291. Local EarlyPrint database: [local source path removed].
• Tacitus, Cornelius. The annales of Cornelius Tacitus. The description of Germanie. Translated by Richard Greenwey. London, 1598. TCP A13333. Local EarlyPrint database: [local source path removed].
• Lyons, Tara L. "New Evidence for Ben Jonson's Epigrammes (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records." Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 114.3 (2020): 343-364. Local PDF: lyons_new_evidence_jonson_epigrammes_1612_pbsa_2020.pdf. Gmail source: Gregory Thompson to Ken Feinstein, Jonson epigrammes, 2020-08-17, attachment 710019.pdf.
• Internet Archive / Boston Public Library. Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies, 1623: https://archive.org/details/mrvvilliamshakes00shak.
• Internet Archive / Google Books-derived scan. The workes of Benjamin Jonson (1st folio), 1616: https://archive.org/details/workesofbenjamin01jons.
• First Folio / Herbert / Jonson image packet, 2026-06-20: SOURCE_NOTES.md.
• McPherson, David. "Ben Jonson's Library and Marginalia: An Annotated Catalogue." Studies in Philology, vol. 71, no. 5, Texts and Studies, 1974, pp. 1, 3-106. JSTOR 4173858. Local PDF: McPherson-BenJonsonsLibrary-1974.pdf.
• "Books from Ben Jonson's library at the Folger." Folgerpedia, Folger Shakespeare Library, https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Books_from_Ben_Jonson%27s_library_at_the_Folger.
• Jonson, Ben. The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1692 folio, Epigrams, public transcription with commentary: https://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692epigrams.htm. Reception/commentary witness only.
• Feinstein, Ken. Preserved local First Folio tweet file: twitter_First_Folio.md.
• Feinstein, Ken. Preserved local Ben Jonson tweet file: twitter_Ben_Jonson.md.
• Related source-control packet: ben_jonsons_library_and_henry_savile.md.

7. Local Image Witnesses and Page-Image Controls

Direct page-image controls, added 2026-06-20

Preserved tweet-media witnesses

8. Notes on Access

• The First Folio and 1616 Jonson folio evidence is now controlled at both local EarlyPrint/TCP XML/transcription level and direct page-image level for the key Jonson passages. Remaining work: compare against other copy-specific witnesses for variant-state control.
• The tweet images remain useful orientation, but book prose should quote from page images or checked local XML, not from tweet text alone.
• The separate Jonson/Savile packet should continue to carry the library/provenance qualifications.