JONSON's Charm. "The owl is abroad, the bat and the toad, "The ant and the mole fit both in a hole, ad Charm. Deep, oh deep, we lay thee to fleep, "We leave thee drink by, if thou chance to be dry, "Both milk and blood, the dew and the flood. "We breathe in thy bed, at the foot and the head; "We cover thee warm, that thou take no harm, "And when thou doft wake, dame earth fhall "quake, &c. 3d Charm. "A cloud of pitch, a spur and a switch, "To hafte him away, and a whirlwind play "Before and after, with thunder for laughter, "And ftorms of joy, of the roaring boy, "His head of a drake, his tail of a snake. 4th Charm. “About, about and about! Till the mifts arife and the lights fly out; "The images neither be feen nor felt, "Till a mufic found, "And the pace be found I should obferve that thefe quotations from Jonfon are felected partially and not given in continuation, as they are to be found in the Masque, which is much too long to be given entire: They are accompanied with a commentary by the author, full of dæmonological learning, which was a very courtly ftudy in the time of James the first, who was an author in that branch' of fuperftitious pedantry. I am aware there is little to gratify the reader's curiofity in these extracts, and ftill lefs to diftract his judgment in deciding between them: They are fo far curious however as they fhew how ftrongly the cha racters racters of the poets are diftinguished even in these fantastic fpecimens; Jonfon dwells upon authorities without fancy, Shakespear employs fancy and creates authorities. No. LXXV. Ufus vetufto genere, fed rebus novis. BEN PROLOG. PHED. FAB. lib. v. EN JONSON in his prologue to the comedy of The Fox fays that he wrote it in the short space of five weeks, his words are To these there needs no lie but this his creature, This he delivers in his ufual vaunting stile, fpurning at the critics and detractors of his day, who thought to convict him of dulness by teftifying in fact to his diligence. The magic movements of Shakespear's muse had been fo noted and applauded for their furprifing rapidity, that the public had con tracted tracted a very ridiculous refpect for hafty productions in general, and thought there could be no better test of a poet's genius, than the dispatch and facility with which he wrote; Jonfon therefore affects to mark his contempt of the public judgment for applauding hafty writers, in the couplet preceding those above quoted And when his plays come out, think they can flout 'em But at the fame time that he fhews this contempt very justly, he certainly betrays a degree of weakness in boasting of his poetical dispatch, and seems to forget that he had noted Shakespear with fomething less than friendly cenfure, for the very quality he is vaunting himself upon. Several comic poets fince his age have feemed to pride themselves on the little time they expended on their productions; fome have had the artifice to hook it in as an excufe for their errors, but it is no lefs evident what share vanity has in all fuch apo logies: Wycherley is an inftance amongst these, and Congreve tells of his expedition in writing the Old Bachelor, yet the fame man man afterwards, in his letter to Mr. Dryden, pompously pronounces, that to write one perfect comedy fhould be the labour of one entire life, produced from a concentration of talents which hardly ever met in any human perfon. After all it will be confeffed, that the production of fuch a drama as The Fox, in the fpace of five weeks, is a very wonderful performance; for it must on all hands be confidered as the mafter-piece of a very capital artist, a work, that bears the ftamp of elaborate design, a strong and frequently a sublime vein of poetry, much sterling wit; comic humour, happy character, moral fatire, and unrivalled erudition; a work--. Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens Annorum feries et fuga temporum. In this drama the learned reader will find himself for ever treading upon claffic ground; the foot of the poet it fo fitted and familiarized to the Grecian fock, that he wears it not with the awkwardnefs of an imitator, but with all the eafy confidence and authoritative air of a privileged Athenian: Exclu |