e was made Poet Laureate, and
in 1618 he took a journey to Scotland, and stayed there for some time with
Drummond of Hawthornden. The celebrated conversations noted by the host
have been the very centre battle-ground of all fights about Ben Jonson's
character. It is sufficient here to say that though Ben's chief defender,
Gifford, may have been too hard on Drummond, it is difficult, if not
impossible, to think that the "Notes of Conversations" were made in a
friendly spirit. They contain for their bulk an extraordinary amount of
interesting matter, and much sound criticism; but which of us in modern
days would care to have such "notes" taken? A man thinks that there are
faults in a friend's work, and in the usual exaggeration of conversation he
says that it is "rubbish." The Drummonds of this world note it down and it
passes as a deliberate judgment. He must be a fortunate man, or an
exceptional recluse, who has not found some good-natured friend anticipate
Drummond, and convey the crude expression (probably heightened in
conveyance) direct to the person concerned. After this visit (which must
have been at the end of 1618) Jonson suffered the calamity of having his
study destroyed by fire, and lost much MS. work. He lived many years longer
and retained his literary primacy, but was unfortunate in money matters,
and even in reception of his work by the public, though the literary men of
his day made no mistake about him. He died in 1637, and the last of the
many stories clustering round his name is the famous one of the
inscription, "O rare Ben Jonson!" A year later, a _tombeau_, or collection
of funeral poems, entitled _Jonsonus Virbius_, showed the estimate
entertained of him by the best and brightest wits of the time.

His life was thus a life of struggle, for he was never rich, and lived for
the most part on the most unsatisfactory of all sources of income--casual
bounties from the king and others. It is not improbable that his favour
with the Court and with Templar society (which was then very unpopular with
the middle classes), had something to do with the ill-reception of his
later plays. But his literary influence was very great, and with Donne he
determined much of the course of English poetry for many years, and
retained a great name even in the comparative eclipse of the "Giant Race"
after the Restoration. It was only when the study of Shakespere became a
favourite subject with persons of more industry than inte