Show abse aasa ben johnsons duel of 0 the many documents that have come into the hands of 0 john cord cordy y Jacl Jact freson few are of greater literary inte interest iest none is more inore pull flit than the record proves that in his early manhood lien jonson was vias convicted convict cil of 0 felony on oil ili am is 0 own confession that lie ea ped an ignominious death ilc etli by pleading his clergy that lie he bvm punished for tit this is felony with forfeiture forfeit uro of his goods aind chattels and wis was moreover bra branded tile on oil tit the brawn of his a is left thumb with the letter T by the jailer of newgate in the old bailey bailly court house before lie was wa enlarged enlarge tf iu in accordance with n i well known statute of the of elizabeth the letter was ivas known tu to Lond Londo neis of lis his period no less than to loud lond baeri of much later lime us is the T tyburn burn T the felony was his ul manslaughter an eliter of gabriel spencer cr liis his fellow actor at at the itose hose thea theatre ire committed on oil the of september 1593 the very month in which chic 1 I I 1 every man a it in his humour ua produced reduced william being gutig among anion 0 the actors of tile the company ila dy it is further learned acu bied that the coet fought with a three shilling that ho he wounded spencer in the light side and that thai spencer died instantly in the dueling held field there is something gri grimly lilly fantastic in the notion of so goo goob 1 a I scholar us its ben johnson asking king for the alie book in I 1 01 order der to prove himself capable of reading his verse mille ionic thing grotesquely horrible in the thought that but tor for tho ali benefit of aclei g y so bright briget a genius genins would avoult have been hull hung at tyburn ii ii like I 1 he lily any unlettered convicted of having 1111 stolen a i burbe or stai stabbed libed an all Z ella enemy nily in the back one would like it to believe that J Jo olin linson soll was ivas ma marked aked with notI nothing lini fiercer than a lukewarm iron if the satirists of a later may lie be believed it was MIS not lot uncommon for 1 a I jailer in the middle of tilt lie seventeenth century from reg regail ard for 1 a I promised fee to mail IC a felon with fiill cold steel it would be plen saut to come upon evidence that hen flen s jailor milired him li tAlly ith s iv COM cold serl seal |