BECKETT 129 



objected to sense ; that the one sort are but 

 momentary, and merely taking ; the other im- 

 pressing and lasting ; else the glory of all these 

 solemnities had perished like a blaze, and gone 

 out, in the beholder's eyes. So short-lived are the 

 bodies of all things in comparison of their souls." 



Inigo Jones was not the man to be willing to 

 take a secondary place, so they ceased to work 

 together and became as great enemies as they had 

 been friends. There is no doubt that Jonson was 

 right, and that his part in the Masques was the 

 greater, and that if Inigo Jones had not left behind 

 him other works his name would long ago have 

 been forgotten. He, however, managed to gain 

 and keep Court favour, while Jonson died, after a 

 lingering illness, in dire poverty. Unfortunately 

 he demeaned his last years by making allusions 

 and accusations of the very meanest kind against 

 his old friend. So much so that Howel, in one of 

 his letters to the poet, says : " I heard you cen- 

 sured lately at Court, that you have lighted too 

 foul upon Sir Inigo, and that you write with a 

 porcupine's quill dipt in too much gall ; excuse me 

 that I am so free with you, it is because I am in no 

 common way of friendship yours." 



In consequence of Howel's remonstrances, " Jon- 

 son recalled and destroyed every copy of his ' Tale 

 of a Tub,' and after his death not a line of it was 

 found. One copy, however, escaped destruction, 



