Xlvi LIFE OF BEN JONSOJT.
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n 1613, he was in France; but the occasion ofhis going there, and the st.iv he made, are alike un-certain. In l6lC) he went to Oxford, and resided sometime at Christ Church College. In July l6iy he wasfcreated M.A. in a full house rff convocation. On thedeath of Samuel Daniel in October, the same year,he succeeded to the vacant laurel, the salary of whichwas then one hundred marks per annum ; hut on ourauthor’s application, in 1630, it was augmented tothe annual sum of one hundred pounds and a tierce ofSpanish wine. As we do not find Jonson’s ceconomical virtues anywhere recorded, it is the less to be wondered at thatwe find him very poor and sick, and lodging in anobscure alley. On this occasion it »vas, that Charles I.being prevailed on in his favour, sent him ten guineas ;which Ben receiving, said, “ his majesty has sent me“ ten guineas, because I am poor, and live in an alley ;** go and tell him that his soul lives in an alley.” In justice, however, to the memory of Charles, itshould be observed, that this storv was probablyformed from the cynicalness of Ben Jonson’s temper,rather than from anv real fact, as it is certain that theking once bestowed a bounty of one hundred j^oundson him, which is acknowledged in an epigram writ-ten on the occasion. He died in August 1637, aged 63 years, and wasburied in Westminster Abbey. His dramatic compositions arc very numerous, andare here set down according to the times in whichthey were originally performed : 1 . Every Man in his Humour. A Comedy. 1.5Q8.4to, H. Every Man out of his Humour. A Comic Sa-tire. 1 4to.
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