The student reader will perceive that Jonson’s verse does not agree with his prose, and that his “Ode to Shakespeare,” which Dryden called “an insolent, sparing, and invidious, panegyric,” was not the final word of comment which is contained in Ben Jonson’s “Discoveries”—a prose reference in disparagement of Shakespeare, the writer, while laudatory of the man whom he may have believed was identifiable with the play-wright. We believe he was mistaken in so believing. Ben Jonson was vulnerable most in his character as a witness. The reader must therefore be indulgent if we make some remarks upon the credibility and competency of this witness. The elder writers on the subject of Jonson and Shakespeare before Gifford’s time (1757-1826) were always harping on Ben Jonson’s jealousy and envy of Shakespeare. Since Gifford’s day the antiquary has been abroad in the land without having discovered anything of a literary life of Shakespeare. As if by general consent, all recent writers on the subject regard Jonson’s attestation, or his metrical tribute, to the “memory of my beloved author, Mr. William Shakespeare, an essential element in Shakespeare’s biography as the title deed of authorship.” Having made him their star witness, we shall hear no more of Jonson’s jealousy and envy of Shakespeare. A final consideration will show how little Ben Jonson is to be relied on “as attesting the responsibility of the Stratford player for the works which are associated with his name.” There is not a word or sentence in all Jonson’s writings which bear witness to Shakspere as a writer of plays or poems anterior to the Stratford player’s death, as all reference to Shakespeare in Jonson’s verse and prose are posterior to this event. They refute each other and discredit the writer. “Conversations of Ben Jonson with William Drummond” are of great literary and historical value and are important too, as bearing on Ben Jonson’s competency and credibleness as a witness. The Drummond notes were first printed by Mr. David Lang, who discovered them among the manuscripts of Sir Robert Sibbald, a well known antiquarian. “Conversations,” as we have it on the evidence of Drummond, is in accord with almost every contemporary reference to Jonson and internally they agree with Ben Jonson’s own “Discoveries.” There should be no controversy in regard to the justice of the Scottish poet’s criticism. From the notes recorded by Drummond we learn, “He (Ben Jonson) is a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others, especially after drink which is one of the elements in which he liveth.” The conversations recorded by Drummond took place when Jonson visited him at Hawthornden in 1618-19 and disclose the fact that “Rare Ben” was a vulgar, boastful, tipsy backbiter, who black-guarded many of his fellow craftsmen. The last circumstance recorded of Ben Jonson is where reference is made to his display of self-worship at the expense of others. In a letter dated from