Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/199

 BEN JONSON 183 " Now, when the joy of Jove had its fulfilling, And Heaven's tenth moon chronicled her relief, She gave to light a babe all babes excelling, A schemer subtle beyond all belief, A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow-stealing, A night-watchingi and door-waylaying thief, Who 'mongst the Gods was soon about to thieve. And other glorious actions to achieve. " The babe was born at the first peep of day ; He began playing on the lyre at noon ; And the same evening did he steal away Apollo's herds." It will, I think, be some considerable time before our new system of national education and the law of heredity can develop another such infant pheno- menon ! His lyre this half-day old made himself with the shell of a tortoise, having "bored the life and soul out of the beast ; " and when he had made it he sang to its accompaniment, and truly remark- able were the earliest themes of his unpremeditated song : — " He sung how Jove and May of the bright sandal Dallied in love not quite legitimate ; And his own birth, still scoffing at the scandal, And naming his own name, did celebrate ; His mother's cave and servant-maids he planned all In plastic verse, her household stuff and state, Perennial pot, trippet, and brazen pan ; — But singing he conceived another plan." "Seized with a sudden fancy for fresh meat," the enfant terrible went forth and stole fifty of Apollo's kine; yet, when this little affair had been settled (Hermes getting a half-share in what he finely called