We have in conclusion decided to focus the interest of the reader chiefly in the attestation of Ben Jonson for the works which were associated with the name of William Shakspere of Stratford. Ben Jonson presents a contrast to William Shakspere, in almost every respect, so striking as to awaken an irrepressible desire to compare the mass of proven facts adduced from authentic records. Being born in the city of London in the early part of 1574, he was ten years younger than Shakspere. He was the son of a clergyman. In spite of poverty he was educated at Westminster School, William Camden being his tutor, to whom Jonson refers as “Camden, most reverend head, to whom I owe all that I am—in arts all that I owe.” A recent writer on the subject of Jonson says, “No other of Shakspere’s contemporaries has left so splendid and so enthusiastic an eulogy of the master.” In this statement all must concur, for Jonson is the only writer of eminence among Shakspere’s cotemporaries, who has left words of praise or censure, or have taken any notice, either of Shakspere, or of the works which bear his name; notwithstanding, it was the custom among literary men of the day to belaud their friends in verse or prose, Shakspere in his lifetime was honored with no mark of Ben Jonson’s admiration. Not a single line of commendatory verse was addressed to Shakspere by Jonson, although this promiscuous panegyrist was, with characteristic extravagance, so indiscriminate in sympathy or patronage. What shrimp was there among hack writers who could not gain a panegyric from his generous tongue? For five and twenty years Shakspere and Jonson jostled in London streets, yet there was no sign or word of recognition as they passed each other by. Writers on the subject of Jonson and Shakspere say that we have abundant tradition of their close friendship. There are no credible traditions. The manufactured traditions, so conspicuous in books called, “A Life of William Shakspere,” are the dreams of fancy, fraud and fiction, used to fill the lacuna, or gap, in the life of the Stratford man.