Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 1.djvu/18

 friend, who sent him, at his own expense, to Westminster School. Camden, a name dear to literature, was then the second master of this celebrated establishment; young Jonson naturally fell under his care, and he was not slow in discovering, nor negligent in cultivating, the extraordinary talents of his pupil.

No record enables us to state how long he continued with this great man. Mr. Malone supposes that he was taken from him, when he had reached his thirteenth year; but "lord Winton," (G. Morley, bishop of Winchester, who, as Izaac Walton tells us, knew Ben Jonson very well,) "says he was in the sixth, i.e. the uppermost form in the school," when he was removed; and he could scarcely have attained this situation, as schools were then constituted, at thirteen.

Jonson, who had a warm and affectionate heart, and ever retained an extraordinary degree of respect for his old master, thus addresses him in his Epigrams:

and in the dedication of Every Man in his Humour,