Upon Ben Jonson’s Booke by George Daniel

Bee not Deceiv’d (Dull world) Hee is not Dead;
Rumor is false ; open His Booke, and read.
It is Himselfe ; there, Everie Scene affords
Words above Action ; Matter beyond Words.
If, Readers, what I fay, will not suffice
T’ evince your follies, I dare bid you twice
What yet you have not Done ; open and Read;
Recant, or else ’tis You, not Hee, that’s Dead.

From: Daniel, George and Grosart, Alexander (ed.), The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire (1616-1657). From The Original MSS. in the British Museum: Hitherto Unprinted. Edited, with Introduction, Notes and Illustrations, Portrait, Etc. by the Rev. A. B. Grosart, St George’s, Blackburn, Lancashire, in Four Volumes, Volume I, 1878, Printed Privately, p. 66.
(https://archive.org/stream/poemsgeorgedani01danigoog#page/n122/mode/2up)

Date: 1638

By: George Daniel (1616-1657)