To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with John Donne's Satires

By Ben Jonson 1572–1637 Ben Jonson

Lucy, you brightness of our sphere, who are

Life of the Muses' day, their morning star!

If works, not th' author's, their own grace should look,

Whose poems would not wish to be your book?

But these, desir'd by you, the maker's ends

Crown with their own. Rare poems ask rare friends.

Yet satires, since the most of mankind be

Their unavoided subject, fewest see;

For none e'er took that pleasure in sin's sense

But, when they heard it tax'd, took more offence.

They, then, that living where the matter is bred,

Dare for these poems, yet, both ask and read

And like them too, must needfully, though few,

Be of the best; and 'mongst those best are you,

Lucy, you brightness of our sphere, who are

The Muses' evening, as their morning star.

Biography

Ben Jonson’s “Song to Celia” is known to millions as “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes.” Jonson was educated at the prestigious Westminster School in London. He took up acting, and by 1597 he was writing original plays. Jonson’s first widely acclaimed play, Every Man in His Humour, included William Shakespeare in its cast.

Continue reading this biography