And fuch wert thou: Look, how the father's face Of Shakespeare's mind, and manners, brightly shines In each of which he feems to shake a lance, To fee thee in our waters yet appear; And make thofe flights upon the banks of Thames, But ftay; I fee thee in the hemifphere Which, fince thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like night, And defpairs day, but by thy volume's light! extinctus amabitur idem. BEN JONSON. Upon This observation of Horace was never more completely verified than by the pofthumous applaufe which Ben Jonfon has bestowed on Shakespeare: the gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth :-- marry, he was dead. Let us now compare the prefent elogium of old Ben with fuch of his other fentiments as have reached pofterity. In April 1748, when the Lover's Melancholy by Ford, (a friend and contemporary of Shakespeare) was revived for a benefit, the following letter appeared in the General, now the Public, Advertifer. -It is hoped that the following gleaning of theatrical biftory will readily obtain a place in your paper. It is taken from a pamphlet written in the reign of Charles I. with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by Young John's Melancholy Lover;" and as it contains fome hiftorical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Jonson, Ford, Shakespeare, and the Lover's Melancholy, it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the public.' Those who have any knowledge of the theatre in the reigns of James and Charles the First, muit know, that Ben Jonson, from great critical language, which was then the portion but of very few, his merit as a poet, and his conftant affociation with men of letters, did, for a confiderable time, give laws to the ftage.' Ben was by nature fplenetic and four; with a fhare of envy, (for every anxious genius has fome) more than was warrantable in fociety. By education rather critically than politely learned; which fwell'd Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenick Poet, Mafter WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Thofe hands, which you fo clapt, go now and wring, You Britains brave; for done are Shakefpeare's days; His days are done, that made the dainty plays, Which made the globe of heaven and earth to ring: Dry'd fwell'd his mind into an oftentatious pride of his own works, and an overbearing inexorable judgment of his contemporaries. This railed him many enemies, who towards the close of his life endeavoured to dethrone this tyrant, as the pamphlet files him, out of the dominion of the theatre. And what greatly contributed to their defign, was the flights and malignances which the rigid Ben too frequently threw out against the lowly Shakespeare, whofe fame fince his death, as appears by the pamphlet, was grown too great for Ben's envy either to bear with or wound.' unan It would greatly exceed the limits of your paper to let down all the contempts and invectives which were uttered and written by Ben, and are collected and produced in this pamphlet, as fwerable and fhaming evidences to prove his ill-nature and ingratitude to Shakespeare, who first introduced him to the theatre and fame. "But though the whole of these invectives cannot be fet down at prefent, fome few of the heads may not be difagreeable, which are as follow.' "That the man had imagination and wit none could deny, but that they were ever guided by true judgment in the rules and conduct of a piece, none could with juftice affert, both being ever fervile to raise the laughter of fools and the wonder of the ignorant. That he was a good poet only in part-being ignorant of all dramatic laws, - had little Latin-lefs Greek and fpeaking of plays, &c. To make a child new fwaddled, to proceed * Man, and then fhoot up, in one beard and weed, And help of fome few foot and half foot words, Fight over York and Lancafter's long jars, And in the tyring-houfe bring wounds to fears. He rather prays you will be pleas'd to fee Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the feas, &c." • This, and fuch like behaviour, brought Ben at last from being the lawgiver of the theatre to be the ridicule of it, being perfonally introduced there in feveral pieces, to the fatisfaction of the public, who Dry'd is that vein, dry'd is the Thespian fpring, Turn'd all to tears, and Phoebus clouds his rays; That corpfe, that coffin, now beftick thofe bays, Which crown'd him poet first, then poets' king. If who are ever fond of encouraging perfonal ridicule, when the follies and vices of the object are fuppofed to deferve it.' But what wounded his pride and fame moft fenfibly, was the preference which the public and most of his contemporary wits, gave to Ford's LOVER'S MELANCHOLY, before his NEW INN OR LIGHT HEART. They were both brought on in the same week and on the same stage; where Ben's was damn'd, and Ford's received with uncommon applaufe: and what made this circumstance ftill more galling, was, that Ford was at the head of the partisans who fupported Shakespeare's fame against Ben Jonfon's invectives." This to incenfed old Ben, that as an everlasting ftigma upon his audience, he prefixed this title to his play" The New Inn or Light Heart. A comedy, as it was never acted, but most negligently play'd by fome, the King's idle fervants; and more fqueamishly beheld and cenfur'd by others, the King's foolish subjects." This title is followed by an abufive preface upon the audience and reader.' Immediately upon this, he wrote his memorable ode against the public, beginning "Come leave the loathed stage, "And the more loath fome age, &c." The revenge he took against Ford, was to write an epigram on him as a plagiary. Playwright, by chance, hearing toys I had writ, "Cry'd to my face-they were th elixir of wit. "Five of my jefits, then ftoln, pafs'd him a play." Alluding to a character in the Ladies Trial, which Ben fays Ford ftole from him.' The next charge against Ford was, that the Lover's Melancholy was not his own, but purloined from Shakespeare's papers, by the connivance of Hemings and Condel, who in conjunction with Ford, had the revifal of them.' The malice of this charge is gravely refuted, and afterwards laughed at in many veries and epigrams, the best of which are those that follow, with which I thall close this theatrical extract.' "To my worthy friend, John Ford. ""Tis faid, from Shakespeare's mine, your play you drew, Thomas May. Upon If tragedies might any prologue have, All thofe he made would fcarce make one to this; HUGH HOLLAND *. To the Memory of the deceased Author, Mafter W. SHAKESPEARE. Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellows giveThe world thy works; thy works, by which outlive Upon Ben Fonfon, and his Zany, Tom Randolph. "Quoth Ben to Tom, the Lover's stole, "Tis Shakespeare's every word; "Indeed, fays Tom, upon the whole, "'Tis much too good for Ford. "Thus Ben and Tom the dead ftill praise, "For none must dare to wear the bays, "Even Avon's fwan could not efscape "But after times with full confent "This truth will all acknowledge, "Shakespeare and Ford from heaven were sent, "But Ben and Tom from college. Endymion Porter." Mr. Macklin the comedian was the author of this letter; but the pamphlet which furnished his materials, was loft in its paffage from Ireland. The following ftanza, from a copy of verfes by Shirley, prefixed to Ford's Love's Sacrifice, 1633, alludes to the fame difpute, and is apparently addreffed to Ben Jonfon. "Look here thou that haft malice to the stage, "And impudence enough for the whole age; "Voluminously ignorant! be vext "To read this tragedy, and thy owne be next." STEEVENS. See Wood's Athena Oxon. edit. 1721, vol. I. p. 583. Thy Thy tomb, thy name muft: when that ftone is rent, Shall loath what's new, think all is prodigy Or till I hear a scene more nobly take, Than when thy half-fword parlying Romans fpake: L. DIGGES. To the Memory of Mafter W. SHAKESPEARE, We wonder'd, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon Can die, and live to act a second part; This a re-entrance to a plaudite. On worthy Mafter SHAKESPEARE, and his Poems. A mind reflecting ages paft, whofe clear And equal furface can make things appear, J. M.† See Wood's Athene Oxonienfes, vol. I. p. 599, and 600, edit. 1721. Perhaps John Marston. Distant |