written a reply to Jonfon's ode, the writer of this letter would naturally look into his works. In a poem addressed to Ben Jonson, fpeaking of the works of Ariftotle, (the writer by the way, to whom that fentence of Greek which is found in the title-page of the prefent edition was originally applied,) he has thefe lines: "Under a willow covert, and repeat "Those deep and learned lays, on every part "The matter, form, fenfe, motion, place, and measure, As Shakspeare's "vaft treasury" may have been borrowed from this writer, fo the "rich thefts of that plunderer Ben" might have been fuggefted to Mr. M. by the following lines addreffed by Thomas Carew" to Ben Jonfon, upon occafion of his ode of defiance annext to his play of the New Inn:" "Let them the dear expence of oil upbraid, "Suck'd by thy watchful lamp, that hath betray'd 66 "That fleeks thy terfer poems; nor is hafte I have traced the marked expreffions in this tetraftick to Randolph and Carew; they might, however, have been fuggested by a book still more likely to have been confulted by the writer of it, Langbaine's Account of the Dramatick Poets; and particularly by that part of his work in which he fpeaks of Ben Jonfon's literary thefts, on which I have this moment happened to caft my eye. "To come lastly to Ben Jonson, who, as Mr. Dryden affirms, has borrowed more from the ancients than any; I crave leave to fay in his behalf, that our late laureat has far out-done him in thefts. -When Mr. Jonfon borrowed, 'twas from the treasury of the Ancients, which is fo far from any diminution of his worth, that I think it is to his honour, at leaft-wife I am fure he is juftified by his fon Cartwright, in the following lines: "What though thy fearching Mufe did rake the duft Making the feas hid wealth adorn the land? Improv'd far more by being planted here. Thefts thus become juft works; they and their grace "On the contrary, though Mr. Dryden has likewife borrowed from the Greek and Latin poets, which I purposely omit to tax him with, as thinking what he has taken to be lawful prize, yet I can not but obferve withal, that he has plunder'd the chief Italian, Spanish, and French wits for forage, notwithstanding his pretended contempt of them; and not only fo, but even his own countrymen have been forced to pay him tribute, or, to fay better, have not been exempt from being pillaged." + Here we have at once-the mine, the treasury, the plunderer, and the rich thefts, of this modernantique compofition." • Account of the Dramatick Poets, 8vo. 1691, pp. 145, 148, 149. 5 Mr. Macklin tells us, that the pamphlet from which he pretends to quote, mentions, that among other depreciating language Jonfon had faid of Shakspeare, 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." "Being guided by judgment in the conduct of a piece," is perfectly intelligible; but what are we to underftand by being guided by judgment in the rules of a piece? However, every part of this fentence alfo may be traced to its fource. Mr. Pope has faid in his preface, that " not only the common audience had no notion of the rules of writing, but few of the better fort piqued themselves upon any great degree of knowledge or nicety that way, till Ben Jonfon getting poffeffion of the ftage, brought critical learning into vogue:" and Jonfon himself in his Discoveries, fpeaking of Shakfpeare, fays, his wit was in his power, would the rule of it had been fo." In Mr. Pope's Preface we are told, that "in tragedy nothing was fo fure to surprise, and create admiration, as the most strange, improbable, and confequently moft unnatural, incidents, and events. -In comedy, nothing was fo fure to please, as mean buffoonery, vile ribaldry and unmannerly jefts of fools and clowns." Prefixed to Randolph's Works is a panegyrick written by Mr, Richard Weft, from whofe poem two lines are quoted by Langbaine, which were alfo inferted in The General Advertiser of the 5th of March 1748, in the encomium on Randolph's plays. In Mr. Weft's Verfes, fpeaking of ordinary dramatick poets, he fays, "For humours to lie leiger, they are seen company, 66 They do obferve each place and "And fit with patience an hour by the heels, The laft copy of verses, ascribed to Endymion Porter, are uncommonly elegant, and perhaps one of the best invented fictions that can be pointed out. "Thefe letter-tyrant elves" is much in the manner of the time, as is " their pedant felves," in a fubfequent line. But how difficult is it to affume the manner or language of a former age, without occafionally lapfing into thofe of the present! The phrafes, "upon the whole," and from college, "Indeed, fays Tom, upon the whole, &c. have a very modern found, and are not, I believe, ufed by any of our old English writers.-I must alfo obferve that Mr. M. found his after-times in the old panegyrick on Ford, which he inferted in his first letter, and Avon's fwan in Ben Jonfon's Verses on Shakspeare, prefixed to all the editions of his plays; and that the extravagant and unfounded praise here given to Ford, who, like our great poet, is faid to have been fent from heaven, and the infinuation that the Lover's Melancholy was Shakspeare's every word," were evidently calcu "Such jig-like flim-flams being got, to make "The rabble laugh, and nut-cracking forfake." Randolph is then defcribed, and among other high praises, we are told, "There's none need fear to furfeit with his phrase; "He has no giant raptures, to amaze "And torture weak capacities with wonder.” We have already feen that Mr. Macklin had been juft perufing Ben Jonfon's Epigrams. In his fecond Epigram, which is addreffed to his book, are thefe lines: 66 by thy wifer temper let men know, "Thou art not covetous of leaft felf-fame, "Made from the hazard of another's fhame : Much lefs, with lewd, prophane, and beaftly phrafe, "To catch the world's loofe laughter, or vaine gaze.” lated for the temporary purpose of aiding a benefit, and putting money into the purfe of the writer. While, however, we transfer these elegant lines from Endymion Porter to Mr. Macklin, let us not forget that they exhibit no common fpecimen of an easy versification and a good taste, and that they add a new wreath to the poetical crown of this veteran comedian. I have only to add, that John Ford and Thomas May were fo far from being at variance with Old Ben, that in fonfonius Virbius, a collection of poems on the death of Ben Jonfon, published in 1638, about fix months after his death, there is an encomiaftick poem by John Ford; and in this volume is alfo found a panegyrick by Ford's friend, George Donne, and another by Thomas May, who ftyles Ben "the best of our English poets." On this, however, I lay no great ftrefs, because the fame collection exhibits a poem by Jonfon's old antagonist, Owen Feltham: but if, after all that has been ftated, the smallest doubt could remain concerning the fubject of our prefent difquifition, I might observe, that Ford appears not only to have lived on amicable terms with Ben Jonson himself, (at least we have no proof to the contrary,) but with his fervant, Richard Brome; to whofe play entitled The Northern Lafs, which was acted by the King's Company on the 29th of July 1629, the very year of the publication of The Lover's Melancholy, and of the first exhibition of The New Inn, is prefixed an high panegyrick by "the author's very friend, John Ford." Let the prefent detection be a leffon to mankind in matters of greater moment, and teach those whom higher confiderations do not deter from invading the rights or property of others by any kind. |