Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenick Poet, Mafter WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Thofe hands which you fo clapp'd, go now and You Britains brave; for done are Shakspeare's days; Let us now compare the prefent eulogium 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 Shakspeare,) 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 hiftory 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, Shakspeare, and The Lover's Melancholy, it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the publick.' Those who have any knowledge of the theatre in the reigns of James and Charles the First, must 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 his mind into an oftentatious pride of his own works, and an overbearing inexorable judgment of his contemporaries. This raifed 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 Shakspeare, whose fame fince his death, as appears by the pamphlet, was grown too great for Ben's envy either to bear with or wound.' 1 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 thofe bays, Which crown'd him poet first, then poets' king. 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 Shakspeare, 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 disagreeable, 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 raife the laughter of fools and the wonder of the ignorant. That he was a good poet only in part,-being ignorant of all dramatick laws, had little Latin-lefs Greek-and fpeaking of plays, &c. • To make a child new swaddled, to proceed Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed, Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the feas,' &c. • This and fuch like behaviour, brought Ben at laft 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 publick, who are ever fond of encouraging perfonal ridicule, when the follies and vices of the object are fuppofed to deserve it. But what wounded his pride and fame moft fenfibly, was the preference which the publick 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 fame week and on the fame ftage; 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 partifans who fupported Shakspeare's fame against Ben Jonfon'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 If tragedies might any prologue have, All thofe he made would fcarce make one to this; Where fame, now that he gone is to the grave, (Death's publick tiring-houfe) the Nuntius is: 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 publick, beginning "Come, leave the loathed stage, "And the more loathfome age," &c. The revenge he took against Ford, was to write an epigram on him as a plagiary. 66 Playwright, by chance, hearing toys I had writ, "Cry'd to my face-they were th' elixir of wit. "Five of my jefts, 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 Shakspeare's papers, by the connivance of Heminge 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 Shakspeare's mine your play you drew; Thomas May. "Upon Ben Jonson, and his Zany, Tom Randolph. "Quoth Ben to Tom, the Lover's stole, "Indeed, fays Tom, upon the whole, "'Tis much too good for Ford. "Thus Ben and Tom the dead ftill praise, "For none muft dare to wear the bays, For, though his line of life went soon about, HUGH HOLLAND.3 To the Memory of the deceased Author, Mafter W. SHAKSPEARE. Shakspeare, at length thy pious fellows give The world thy works; thy works, by which outlive Thy tomb, thy name muft: when that stone is rent, Shall loath what's new, think all is prodigy 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 ftage, "And impudence enough for the whole age; 66 Voluminously ignorant! be vext "To read this tragedy, and thy owne be next." STEEVENS. STEEVENS. 3 See Wood's Athene Oxon. edit. 1721, Vol. I. P. 583. That is not Shakspeare's, every line, each verfe, L. DIGGES. To the Memory of Mafter W. SHAKSPEARE. We wonder'd, Shakspeare, that thou went'ft fo foon From the world's ftage to the grave's tiring-room: This a re-entrance to a plaudite. J. M.S 4 See Wood's Athenæ Oxonienfes, Vol. I. p. 599 and 600, edit. 1721. His tranflation of Claudian's Rape of Proferpine was entered on the Stationers' books, Oct 4, 1617. STEEVENS. It was printed in the fame year. MALONE. 5 Perhaps John Marfton. STEEVENS. |