A little further, to make thee a room *: And * This and the next lines have reference to the following epitaph on Shakespeare, written by Dr. Donne, and printed among his poems: "Renowned Spenfer, lie a thought more nigh "For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb, "Sleep, rare tragedian; Shakespeare, fleep alone! STEEVENS, Lylly wrote nine plays during the reign of Q. Eliz. viz. Alex◄ ander and Campafpe, T. C; Endymion, C; Galatea, C; Love bis Metamorphofis, Dram. Paft; Maid her Metamorphofis, C; Mother Bombie, C; Mydas, C; Sapho and Phao, C; and Woman in the Moon, C. To the pedantry of this author perhaps we are indebted for the first attempt to polish and reform our language. See his Euphues and bis England. STEEVENS. tor porting Kyd. It appears from Heywood's Actor's Vindication that Thomas Kyd was the author of the Spanish Tragedy. The late Mr. Hawkins was of opinion that Soliman and Perfeda was by the fame hand. The only piece however, which has defcended to us, even with the initial letters of his name affixed to it, is Pompey the Great bis fair Cornelia's Tragedy, which was first published in 1594, and, with fome alteration in the title-page, again in 1595. This is no more than a tranflation from Robert Garnier, a French poet, who diftinguished himself during the t And though thou hadft fmall Latin, and lefs Greek, And joy'd to wear the drefling of his lines; Which were fo richly fpun, and woven fo fit, As, fince, fhe will vouchfafe no other wit; do d reigns of Charles IX. Henry III. and Henry IV. and died at Mans in 160z, in the 56th year of his age, od STEEVENSant §. or Marlow's mighty line.] Marlow, was a performer as well as an author. His contemporary Heywood calls him the best of prets. He wrote fix tragedies, viz. Dr. Faufus's Tragical 1ery K. Edward II: Jew of Malia; Luft's Dominion; Mat Jacre of Paris; and Tamburlaine the Great, in two parts He likewife joined with Nah in writing Dido Queen of Carthage, and had begun a tranflation of Mufæus's Hero and Leander, which was faifhed by Chapman, and published in 1606 STEEVENS And And fuch, wert thou: Look, how the father's face Of Shakespeare's mind, and manners, brightly fhines In each of which he seems to shake a lance, As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance. Sweet fwan of Avon, what a fight it were, 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 Or influence, chide, or cheer, the drooping ftage; Which, fince thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like night, And defpairs day, but by thy volume's light! extinĒlus amabitur, idem. BEN JONSON, Upon This obfervation of Horace was never more completely verified than by the pofthumous applaufe which Ben Jonfon has bestowed on Shakespeare:do, it won on 16 the gracious Duncan ་། Was pitied of Macbethmarry, 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, Adver tifer. -It is hoped that the following gleaning of theatrical bif tory 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 heary by Young John's Melancholy Lover;" and as it contains fome historical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Jonfon, 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 stage. Ben was by mature 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 Shakespeare'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. 6 This railed him many enemies, who towards the close of his life endeavoured to dethrone this tyrant, as the pamphlet ftiles 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 sound." It would greatly exceed the limits of your paper to fet down all the contempts and invectives which were uttered and written by Ben, and are collected and produced in this pamphlet, as unanfwerable 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 thefe invectives cannot be fet down át prefent, fome few of the heads may not be dilagreeable, 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, nore could with juttice 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 shoot up, in one beard and weed, Paft threescore years: or, with three rufty fwords, And help of fome few foot and half-foot words, Fight over York and Lancafer's long jars, One fuch to-day, as other plays fhould be; 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, whe Dry'd is that vein, dry'd is the Thefpian spring, Turn'd all to tears, and Phoebus clouds his rays; That corpfe, that coffin, now beftick those bays, Which crown'd him poet firft, 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 moft 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 fame week and on the fame ftage; where Ben's was damn'd, and Ford's received with uncommon applaufe: and what made this circumftance ftill more galling, was, that Ford was at the head of the partifans who fupported Shakespeare's fame against Ben Fonfon's invectives This fo 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 fubjects." 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 foine age, &c."); The revenge he took against Ford, was to write an epigram on him as a plagiary. "Playwright, by chance, bearing toys I had writ, "Cry'd to my face-they were th' elixir of wit. "Five of my jefts, then stoln, pafs'd him a play." Alluding to a character in the Ladies Trial, which Bea fays Ford Stole 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 verfes and epigrams, the beft of which are those that follow, with which I fhall clofe this theatrical extract.”» "To my worthy friend, John Ford. ""Tis faid, from Shakespeare's mine, your play you drew, "What need?-when Shakespeare till furvives in you: “But grant it were from his vaft treasury reft, "That plundrer Ben ne'er made fo rich a theft." Thomas May. Úpon |