man, falleth in love, and is ready to get another child; and all this in two hours space; which, how absurd it is in sense, even sense may imagine." These extracts, while they are irresistible proofs of the generality of Jonson's satire on the present case, may suggest to the calumniators of Ben the probability of other passages being equally so; and his "taxing may like a wildgoose fly, unclaimed of any man.' This unfortunate prologue still haunts us!— Mr. Chalmers charges Ben with "a peculiar repugnance to every thing which was properly popular," because he had complained "that needy poets, not bettered much by art or nature," With three rusty swords And help of some few foot and half-foot words, Mr. Chalmers is, indeed, a great critic! and but that, as Sir Toby well observes, "it is not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan," I might observe to him, that the "propriety of the popularity" of these historical dramas has been questioned by judges to whose decisions some respect is thought due. Sir Philip Sidney exclaims, "Do not poets know, that a tragedy is bound to the laws of poesie, and not of history?" And, as to the representation of the long fights of York and Lancaster, the same writer speaks in terms of poignant ridicule of "two armies flying in, represented with four swords and bucklers (Ben says three); and then, what hard heart will not receive it for a pitched field?" Shakspeare, himself, says Dr. Samuel Johnson, from one of the lines in the chorus to Henry the Fifth, was fully sensible of the absurdity of showing battle on the theatre, which, indeed, is never done, but tragedy becomes farce. Nothing can be represented to the eye, but by something like it, and, within a wooden O, nothing very like a battle can be exhibited. Nash had observed, some years before Jonson wrote, that the subjects of plays were for the most part taken out of the English chronicles, and it was to the abuse, joined with the inartificial conduct and bombast phraseology of the dialogue, that Jonson levelled his satire, rather than to the use of historical subjects altogether. The multitude of historical dramas, (if Nash's assertion is * Mr. Chalmers, who is a corrector of commas and letters in the writings of others, has made some of the same ingenious alterations in the quotation from Nash ("Supplemental Apology," page 290) as are found in his "Caledonia," According to the observations of the Critical Reviewers Mr. Chalmers has, in the compass of two lines, substituted "all," instead of "for the most part;" and "reviewed," for "revived." See Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to the Diuell, 4to. 1592.— Sign. H. to be credited,) which must have perished, prove how worthless and miserable they were, and justify the satire of Ben to the very letter. I will not "state this further," even to convince Mr. Chalmers. To use the words of Sir Philip Sidney once more, "it needs no farther to be enlarged; the dullest wit may conceive it." But who does not envy the disciples of such penetrating commentators as Messrs. Chalmers and Malone! μαχαριες αυτές, μαλλον δε μακαρίτας είναι φημι, ΤΟΙΑΥΤΑΣ ΔΕΙΞΕΙΣ των διδασκαλων ποιεμενων. * The beauties of "The Tempest," according to Mr. Steevens,† could not secure it from the criticisms of Ben Jonson, "whose malignity," he adds, "seems to have been more than equal to his wit." The passage, which caused the offence, is thus given by the critic from the induction to Bartholomew fair, and part of it is supposed also to ridicule "The Winter's Tale."-" If there be never a servant-monster in the fair, who can help it," he says, "nor a nest of antiques? He is loath to make nature afraid in his plays, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like drolleries." Whether the typographical assistance of italics and capitals, thus liberally afforded to aid the appearance of a gird at Shakspeare, be founded in candour and justice, may be fairly doubted: * Athenæus Casaub. fol. 113. and whether giving half a passage and suppressing the context be honest or honourable, is less than doubtful:* it is, however, of a piece with the general conduct of the commentators in supporting their opinions.. In aid of Steevens's charge, Mr. Malone says, that "in the induction to Bartholomew fair, Jonson has endeavoured to depreciate the Tempest by calling it a foolery.† Is it so nominated in the bond? I cannot find it :-'tis not in the bond. With the resolution, on the part of the accusers, thus to leave no artifice, nor even falsehood, unemployed against their foe, it is not to be wondered that Ben is believed, by those who confide in the charges of the commentators, to have been a compound of ingratitude, envy, * "If it be plainly seen in the nature of a transaction,” says Chief Baron Gilbert, "that there is some more evidence that doth not appear, the very not producing it is a presumption that it would have detected something more than appears already." Law of Evidence.-Such will be found the case of Jonson. I have traced other garbling of passages by Steevens for the purpose of proving a point. In a note on Hamlet, he has cited a passage in "Shirley's Chances," to show that jigs were sometimes ludicrous dialogues, not dances: and, by dividing the context, has obtained his purpose; whereas in the two following lines Shirley expressly calls his jigs, footing-dances. See The Chances of Love in a Maze, 4to. 1632. + Shakspeare, vol. ii. page 366. and malignity. It happens in this, as it frequently happens in cases where men judge of others from the passions influencing their own minds under similar circumstances; they judge unwisely. Envy and jealousy are the base and grovelling passions of low and little minds, not the concomitants of conscious merit, and transcendant genius: they may inhabit the breasts of critics and commentators, but have no place among the Shakspeares and the Jonsons. Ces basses jalousies, Des vulgaires ésprits malignes phrénesies: To form a correct opinion of the probability of Jonson's intent to ridicule "The Tempest" and "The Winter's Tale," it will be necessary to take into view the design of the author in the composition of his comedy, and to carry our minds back to the period when it was composed. Ben was professedly a representer of men and manners;* and to a poet possessing a strong vein of original humour, the amusements * Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus, seu F Hor. ep. i. lib. 2. |