'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work" to the vacillating, meditative, self-analyzing Hamlet; from the modest, true, gentle Cordelia to the assertive, unscrupulous Lady Macbeth: the range of human emotions shown is as broad as life itself.

(2) Universality of his Characters. - The characters are, moreover, as in life, seldom perfectly simple and readily understood; there is a mixture of motives and not infrequently a lack of sufficient motive, just as there is in the persons and actions we see every day. Was Lady Macbeth spurred on solely by love of her husband? or did she too have an ambition for distinction? Did Queen Gertrude know of the plot against the elder Hamlet's life? or was she merely an intellectually and morally weak woman who became easy prey to the murderer? Is Antony merely a self-seeking politician? (note his "Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt!") or does his espousal of Cæsar's cause against Brutus arise from devotion to the dead and real belief in his cause? Had Iago's diabolical plot against Othello no other motive than desire to avenge a small personal injury?

Parallels to such questions can and always will be found by every man in contemplating the conduct of people coming under his observation. To the universal truth to nature of Shakspere's portraits is due his continued wide appeal. As his friend Ben Jonson said:

"He was not of an age, but for all time.”

Chief Dramatists after Shakspere. As the drama was the form of literature most favored by the Elizabethan Age, most writers wrote plays. Of the host of playwrights who came into prominence about 1600-1625, few require extended treatment. John Ford is remembered for his

strength in pathetic scenes, and one of his tragedies, The Broken Heart, is still readable. Thomas Dekker wrote one realistic comedy, The Shoemakers' Holiday, which is still effective on the stage. George Chapman, memorable as translator of Homer, wrote several rather bombastic dramas based on contemporary French history, of which Bussy d'Ambois is the best. John Webster excelled in portraying the terrible, and his Duchess of Malfi, though melodramatic, is a powerful play. More important than any of these are Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625), each of whom wrote plays, but who are best known for plays they wrote in collaboration. Nearly all of the joint plays were written before Shakspere's retirement from London; but they belong chiefly to the years following Shakspere's greatest period, that is, after the drama had passed its zenith. Of the fifty-two plays attributed to Beaumont and Fletcher the best are The Maid's Tragedy, Philaster, and A King and No King. Virtually none are acceptable to the modern stage or to modern readers because of their low moral tone and the authors' too frequent use of "common-place extravagances and theatrical tricks" (Hazlitt).

BEN JONSON, 1573?-1637

The greatest of all Shakspere's successors in the drama was Ben Jonson, already named as Shakspere's friend. He it was who said that the author of Julius Cæsar and Troilus and Cressida had "small Latin and less Greek;" and the phrase has by many been taken to mean that Shakspere was uneducated. That the words should not be so interpreted becomes clear when we learn that the expression is found in a poem by Ben Jonson; for Ben Jonson was the most scholarly poet and dramatist of the age, and the advocate of the classic drama as model for the English.

Life.

Ben Jonson was born in London about 1573. Of his early life we know merely that he was sent to Westminster School, and that he

served a short time

abroad in the British
army. Though he
seems not to have at-
tended any university
he received honorary
degrees from both Ox-
ford and Cambridge.
By 1598 he was suffi-
ciently well known to
be named by Meres
(see page 75) among
the foremost writers of

tragedy. He
He was a
favorite with James
I, who named him the
first Poet Laureate in
1616.

Jonson was afflicted with disease all his life, and aggravated his trouble by high living. Though he received great sums from the King, he was prodigal with them, frequently got into debt, and died in poverty in 1637. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

His Dramas. Jonson's dramatic work stands out in strong contrast to Shakspere's. In two Roman tragedies, Sejanus and Catiline, his learning shows in the extreme accuracy with which he portrays the life of ancient Rome; but not a character in either play has the reality of five

or six in Julius Cæsar, a very unscholarly play. His comedies show the same essential characteristics. The Alchemist, for example (the plot of which Coleridge called one of the three best in all literature), shows a minute knowledge of the processes and terminology of the so-called science which aimed to transmute base metals into gold; but it suffers for lack of real people.

Jonson's ideal comedy could scarcely show characters, as we use that word in dealing with Shakspere. He wrote

By the moht tren admirer of zu Highnesse verdues,

And night könity Celebrater of Hom

(British Museum.)

what has been called "humour" comedy, in which each person is known by a peculiarity, whim, idiosyncrasy. Each of his three best comedies, indeed, is given to setting forth the whim or "humour" of one person: Volpone, or The Fox, avarice; The Alchemist, hypocrisy; Epicone, or The Silent Woman, hatred of noise. The method was well adapted to what he aimed at stripping" the ragged follies of the day;" but apparently so many of these required his attention that his efforts at reform were unproductive.

His Masks. A form of dramatic composition in which Jonson particularly excelled is the mask. In this kind of

drama, usually given in noblemen's homes, music and dancing were prominent, and much care and expense were devoted to costumes and scenery. Both professional and amateur actors took part in them; and the author, who was generally also the director of the performance, received large financial returns. Jonson was by far the most successful writer of masks in the day of their greatest popularity; and the only really great specimen of the form written after him is Milton's Comus.

Minor Works. Besides his dramatic work, Jonson wrote a discursive prose work called Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter. Doubtless the passage in this work most interesting to modern readers is the criticism of Shakspere, concluding: "I loved the man and honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any." Another field in which Jonson wrote much, and some of considerable merit, is lyric poetry. His best-known song is that beginning:

"Drink to me only with thine eyes,"

to the popularity of which the fine old musical setting has certainly contributed.

The King James Bible. With all their claims to distinction, the writings of Spenser, Bacon, even Shakspere, are of less importance than the translation of the Bible made under King James and first published in 1611. Various editions had appeared in the half-century after Tyndale's, and all met with a considerable measure of success. The superiority of the King James, or "Authorized" Version, to its predecessors, however, soon became apparent; and the superiority of its style is still unquestioned. Its influence on the English language is incalculable: its influence on the styles of our greatest prose writers is hardly less.