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THOMAS RANDOLPH.

[Born, 1605. Died, 1634.]

THOMAS RANDOLPH was the son of a steward to Lord Zouch. He was a king's scholar at Westminster, and obtained a fellowship at Cambridge. His wit and learning endeared him to Ben Jonson, who owned him like Cartwright as his adopted son in the Muses. Unhappily he followed the taste of Ben not only at the pen but at the bottle, and he closed his life in poverty at the age of twenty-nine, a date lamentably premature when we consider the promises of his genius. His wit and humour are very conspicuous in the Puritan characters, whom he supposes the spectators of his scenes in 'The Muses' Looking-Glass.' Throughout the rest of that drama (though it is on the whole his best performance) he unfortunately prescribed to himself too hard and confined a system of dramatic effect. Professing simply, "in single scenes to show,

How comedy presents each single vice,
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he introduces the vices and contrasted humours of human nature in a tissue of unconnected personifications, and even refines his representations of abstract character into conflicts of speculative opinion.

For his skill in this philosophical pageantry the poet speaks of being indebted to Aristotle, and probably thought of his play what Voltaire said of one of his own, "This would please you, if you were Greeks." The female critic's reply to Voltaire was very reasonable," But we are not Greeks." Judging of Randolph however by the plan which he professed to follow, his execution is vigorous: his ideal characters are at once distinct and various, and compact with the expression which he purposes to give them. He was author of five other dramatic pieces, besides miscellaneous poems. *

He died at the house of his friend, W. Stafford, Esq. of Bla

*1. Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosopher.-2. The Conceited Pedler.3. The Jealous Lovers, a comedy.-4. Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry, a pastoral.-5. Hey for Honesty, Down with Knavery, a comedy.

therwyke, in his native county, and was buried in the adjacent church, where an appropriate monument was erected to him by Sir Christopher (afterwards Lord) Hatton.

RICHARD CORBET.

[Born, 1582. Died, 1635.]

THE anecdotes of this facetious bishop, quoted by Headley from the Aubrey MSS., would fill several pages of a jest-book. It is more to his honour to be told, that though entirely hostile in his principles to the Puritans, he frequently softened, with his humane and characteristic pleasantry, the furious orders against them which Laud enjoined him to execute. On the whole he does credit to the literary patronage of James, who made him Dean of Christ Church, and successively Bishop of Oxford and Norwich.

THOMAS MIDDLETON.

[Born, 1570. Buried, 4th July, 1627.]

THE dates of this author's birth and death are both unknown, though his living reputation, as the literary associate of Jonson, Fletcher, Massinger, Dekker, and Rowley, must have been considerable. If Oldys be correct,* he was alive after November 1627. Middleton was appointed chronologer to the city of Londont in 1620, and in 1624 was cited before the privy council, as author of The Game of Chess.' The verses of Sir W. Lower, quoted by Oldys, allude to the poet's white locks, so that he was probably born as early as the middle of the 16th century. His tragicomedy, The Witch,' according to Mr. Malone, was written anterior to 'Macbeth,' and suggested to Shakspeare the

*MS. notes on Langbaine. [He was buried at Newington Butts, near London, on the 4th of July, 1627.-Dyce's Middleton, vol. i. p. xxxviii.] + [Or city poet. Jonson and Quarles filled the office after Middleton, which expired with Elkanah Settle in 1723-4.]

[The verses in question I believe to be a forgery of Chetwood.-Dyce's Middleton, vol. i. p. xiii.]

witchcraft scenery in the latter play. The songs beginning "Come away," &c., and "Black Spirits," &c., of which only the two first words are printed in Macbeth,' are found in 'The Witch.' Independent of having afforded a hint to Shakspeare, Middleton's reputation cannot be rated highly for the pieces to which his name is exclusively attached. His principal efforts were in comedy, where he deals profusely in grossness and buffoonery. The cheats and debaucheries of the town are his favourite sources of comic intrigue. With a singular effort at the union of the sublime and familiar, he introduces, in one of his course drafts of London vice, an infernal spirit prompting a country gentleman to the seduction of a citizen's wife.

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RICHARD NICCOLS.

[Born, 1584.]

THE plan of 'The Mirror for Magistrates,' begun by Ferrers and Sackville, was followed up by Churchyard, Phaer, Higgins, Drayton, and many others. The last contributor of any note was Niccols in 1610, in his 'Winter Night's Vision.' Niccols was the author of The Cuckow' [1607,] written in imitation of Drayton's 'Owl,' and several poems of temporary popularity, and of a drama entitled 'The Twynne's Tragedy.' He was a Londoner, and, having studied (says Wood) at Oxford, obtained some employment worthy of his faculties; but of what kind, we are left to conjecture.

CHARLES FITZGEFFREY.

[Died, 1636.]

CHARLES FITZGEFFREY was rector of the parish of St. Dominic, in Cornwall.

BEN JONSON.

[Born, 1574. Died, 1637.]

TILL Mr. Gilchrist and Mr. Gifford stood forward in defence of this poet's memory, it had become an established article of literary faith that his personal character was a compound of spleen, surliness, and ingratitude. The proofs of this have been weighed and found wanting. It is true that he had lofty notions of himself, was proud even to arrogance in his defiance of censure, and in the warmth of his own praises of himself was scarcely surpassed by his most zealous admirers; but many fine traits of honour and affection are likewise observable in the portrait of his character, and the charges of malice and jealousy that have been heaped on his name for an hundred years turn out to be without foundation. In the quarrel with Marston and Dekker his culpability is by no means evident. He did not receive benefits from Shakspeare, and did not sneer at him in the passages that have been taken to prove his ingratitude; and instead of envying that great poet, he gave him his noblest praise; nor did he trample on his contemporaries, but liberally commended them.* With regard to Inigo Jones, with whom he quarrelled, it appears to have been Jonson's intention to have consigned his satires on that eminent man to oblivion; but their enmity, as his editor has shown, began upon the part of the architect, who, when the poet was poor and bedridden, meanly resented the fancied affront of Jonson's name being put before his own to a masque which they had jointly prepared, and used his influence to do him an injury at court. As to Jonson's envying Shakspeare, men otherwise candid and laborious in the search of truth seem to have had the curse of the Philistines imposed on their

* The names of Shakspeare, Drayton, Donne, Chapman, Fletcher, Beaumont, May, and Browne, which almost exhaust the poetical catalogue of the time, are the separate and distinct subjects of his praise. His unkindness to Daniel seems to be the only exception.

† [Their enmity began in the very early part of their connexion; for in the complete copy of Drummond's Notes there are several allusions to this hostility. Inigo had the best retaliation in life—but Jonson has it now, and for ever.]

understandings and charities the moment they approached the subject. The fame of Shakspeare himself became an heirloom of traditionary calumnies against the memory of Jonson; the fancied relics of his envy were regarded as so many pious donations at the shrine of the greater poet, whose admirers thought they could not dig too deeply for trophies of his glory among the ruins of his imaginary rival's reputation. If such inquirers as Reed and Malone went wrong upon this subject, it is too severe to blame the herd of literary labourers for plodding in their footsteps; but it must excite regret as well as wonder that a man of pre-eminent living genius* should have been one of those

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quos de tramite recto

Impia sacrilega flexit contagio turbæ,”

and should have gravely drawn down Jonson to a parallel with Shadwell for their common traits of low society, vulgar dialect, and intemperance. Jonson's low society comprehended such men as Selden, Camden, and Cary; Shadwell (if we may trust to Rochester's account of him) was probably rather profligate than vulgar; while either of Jonson's vulgarity or indecency in his recorded conversations there is not a trace. But they both wore great-coats-Jonson drank canary, and Shadwell swallowed opium. "There is a river in Macedon, and there is, moreover, a river at Monmouth."

The grandfather of Ben Jonson was originally of Annandale, in Scotland, from whence he removed to Carlisle, and was subsequently in the service of Henry VIII. The poet's father, who lost his estate under the persecution of Queen Mary, and was afterwards a preacher, died a month before Benjamin's birth, and his widow married a master bricklayer of the name of Fowler. Benjamin.through the kindness of a friend was educated at Westminster, and obtained an exhibition to Cambridge; but it proved insufficient for his support. He therefore returned from the university to his father-in-law's house and humble occupation; but disliking the latter, as may be well conceived, he * [Sir Walter Scott. See Gifford's Ben Jonson,' vol. i. p. clxxxi., and Scott's replies in Misc. Prose Works, vol. i. p. 227, and vol. vii. p. 374382.]

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+ This is a mistake. The name of her second husband is still unknown. See Collier's Life of Shakspeare,' p. clxvi.]

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