...gratifie their labours. Memoria. Memory of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate, andfraile: it is the first of our faculties, that Age invades....it may performe somewhat, but cannot promise much. Bjf exerciseji is to bejmade better, and serviceable. Whatsoever I pawn'd with it, while I was young,...

...5 years old. We have just quoted Jonson's words from the Discoveries, which run: 'Yet I can repeat whole books that I have read, and poems of some selected friends' That Jonson was a friend of Donne is well known : he also addresses him in Epigram 23 and refers to...

...had made, and so continued till I was past forty; since, it is much decayed in me. Yet I can repeat whole books that I have read, and poems of some selected friends which I have liked to charge my memory with. It was wont to be faithful to me; but shaken with age now, and sloth,...

...at all unusual. Jonson had a formidable memory for poetry and drama. In Discoveries he claimed that 'I my selfe could in my youth, have repeated all,...friends, which I have lik'd to charge my memory with." Learning by rote was a widespread practice in schools, though not one uniformly recommended. It led...