Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Wednesday, 10th.--A very snowy morning.... I was writing out the poem, as we hoped for a final writing.... We read the first part and were delighted with it, but Wm. afterwards got to some ugly place, and went to bed tired out. A wild, moonlight night. Thursday, 11th.-- ... Wm. sadly tired and working at The Pedlar.... We made up a good fire after dinner, and Wm. brought his mattress out, and lay down on the floor. I read to him the life of Ben Jonson, and some short poems of his, which were too interesting for him, and would not let him go to sleep. I had begun with Fletcher, but he was too dull for me. Fuller says, in his Life of Jonson (speaking of his plays), "If his latter be not so spriteful and vigorous as his first pieces, all that are old, and all who desire to be old, should excuse him therein." He says he "beheld" wit-combats between Shakespeare and Jonson, and compares Shakespeare to an English man-of-war, Jonson to a great Spanish galleon. There is one affecting line in Jonson's epitaph on his first daughter-- Here lies to each her parents ruth, Mary the daughter of their youth. At six months' end she parted hence, In safety of her innocence. Two beggars to-day. I continued to read to Wm. We were much delighted with the poem of Penshurst.[50] Wm. rose better. I was cheerful and happy. He got to work again. [Footnote 50: By Ben Jonson.--ED.]