Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/101

 BEN JONSON 85 wyfe who was a shrew, yet honest [chaste] ; five yeers he had not bedded with her, but remayned with my Lord Aulbanie." This was Esme, Lord Aubigny, afterwards Duke of Lenox, to whom " Sejanus " was dedicated, and Epigram 127 addressed, beginning — " Is there a hope that man would thankful be, If I should fail in gratitude to thee, To whom I am so bound, loved Aubigny ? " By this marriage he had several children, of whom none is known to have survived him. There is a record, which may refer to him, of another marriage in 1623. In 1597 there are memorandums of ad- vances by Henslowe and his son-in-law, Alleyn (the founder of Dulwich College), to Ben Jonson, on account of works in progress, which, however, are not specified : ;^4 twice, twenty shillings, and as low as five shillings. One of these notes calls him ** player," so that there is some foundation for the story that he tried acting at first. The scene of " Every Man in his Humour" was at first laid in Italy, and as the manners were almost wholly English, there were of course many incongruities. Jonson was, therefore, well advised when he transferred the action to London, turned the Italian names into English, made all altera- tions necessary, and introduced circumstances appro- priate to the new scene. According to the custom of the times, these numerous changes made the revised piece his own, although he had sold it in its first form right out, reserving no interest in it whatever; and in 1598 this revised piece was acted for the first time at the Black Friars Theatre (Henslowe and Alleyn had the Rose), and at the head of the list of the prin- cipal performers in it stands the name of Shakespeare,