The next suspicious circumstance in the letter which we are now examining, is, that in the pretended extracts from this old pamphlet most of the circumstances mentioned might have been collected by a modern writer from books of either those or subsequent times: and such new facts as are mentioned, can be proved to be fictions. Such of the pretended extracts as are true, are old; and such as are new, are false. Thus, to take the former class first, we are informed, (as from the pamphlet,) that our poet and Jonson were at variance; that old Ben took every means of depreciating the lowly Shakspeare; that he asserted our poet had little Latin and less Greek, and did not understand the dramatick laws; that Jonson ridiculed some of his pieces; and that this was a strong proof of his ingratitude: Shakspeare having first introduced him to the stage.-All these facts Mr. M. might have learned from Rowe's Life of Shakspeare, and Pope's Pre sens-german at court shall beget you the reversion of the Master of the King's Revels, or else to be his Lord of Misrule nowe at Christmas.' It has been commonly understood, that on Ben Jonson's death in August, 1637, Sir William D'Avenant [then Mr. D'Avenant] was appointed poet-laureate in his room: but he at that time received no favour from the crown. Sixteen months afterwards, Dec. 13, 1638, in the 14th year of Charles the First, letters patent passed the great seal, granting, " in consideration of service heretofore done and hereafter to be done by William Davenant, gentleman," an annuity of one hundred pounds per ann. to the said W. D. during his Majesty's pleasure. By this patent, no Canary wine was granted; and no mention is made of the office of poet-laureate. It is at present conferred, not by letters patent, but by a warrant signed and sealed by the Lord Chamberlain, nominating A. B. to the office, with the accustomed fees thereunto belonging. * Which Ben claimed the merit of having first taught his contemporaries. See his Verses to his old servant Richard Brome, prefixed to The Northern Lass, which was first acted in July, 1629: "Now you are got into a nearer room "Of fellowship, professing my old arts, "And you do do them well, with good applause; "By observation of those comick laws "Which I, your master, first did teach the age." face to his edition; from Dr. Birch's Life of Ben Jonson published in 1743; from Drummond of Hawthornden's Conversation with that poet; from the old play entitled The Return from Parnassus; from Fuller's Worthies, Winstanley, and Langbaine; from Jonson's own verses on Shakspeare prefixed to all the editions; from his prologue to Every Man in his Humour; from his Bartholemow Fair, and his Discoveries; and from many other books. In Mr. Pope's Preface was found that praise, that in our poet's plays every speech might be assigned to its proper speaker without the aid of marginal directions: an encomium which perhaps is too high, even when applied to 1 Shakspeare; but which, when applied to Ford, (as it is in Mr. Macklin's first letter,) becomes ridiculous. Let us now consider the new facts, which for the first time are given to the publick from this rare old tract. The first new fact stated is, that Shakspeare's fame, after his death, grew too great for Ben either to bear with or wound. Now this was so far from being the case, that it was at this particular period that Jonson's pieces, which were collected into a volume in 1616, appear to have been in most estimation; and from the time of Shakspeare's death to the year 1625, both Ben's fame, and that of Fletcher, seem to have been at their height. In this period Fletcher produced near thirty plays, which were acted with applause; and Jonson was during the whole of that time well received in the courts of James and Charles, for each of whom he wrote several Masques, which the wretched taste of that age very highly estimated; and was patronized and extravagantly extolled by the scholars of the time, as much superior to Shakspeare. In this period also he produced his Devil's an Ass, and his Staple of News, each of which had some share of success. In the year 1631, indeed he was extremely indigent and distressed, and had been so from the year 1625, when I think he was struck with the palsy; but in consequence of this indigence and distress he was not precisely at that period an object of jealousy to the partizans of Shak speare. Another and a very material false fact stated from this pamphlet is, that Jonson's New Inn or Light Heart, and Ford's Melancholy Lover, were produced for the first time on the same stage, in the same week: a fact concerning which the writer of the pamphlet, if the pamphlet had any real existence, could scarcely have been mistaken. These two plays were certainly represented for the first time at the same theatre, namely, Blackfriars, as Mr. Macklin learned from their respective title-pages; but not in the same week, there being no less than two months interval between the production of the two pieces. Ford's play was exhibited at the Blackfriars on the 24th of November, 1628, when it was licensed for the stage, as appears from the Office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels to King Charles the First, a manuscript now before me, of which a more particular account may be found in vol. iii. [Historical Account of the English Stage, &c.]; and Jonson's New Inn on the 19th of January in the following year, 1628-9. Very soon indeed after the ill success of Jonson's piece, the King's Company brought out at the same theatre a new play called The Love-sick Maid, or the Honour of Young Ladies, which was licensed by Sir Henry Herbert on the 9th of February, 1628-9, and acted with extraordinary applause. This play, which was written by Jonson's own servant, Richard Brome, was so popular, that the managers of the King's Company, on the 10th of March, presented the Master of the Revels with the sum of two pounds, "on the good success of The Honour of Ladies;" the only instance I have met with of such a compliment being paid him. No mention whatsoever is made of The Lover's Melancholy having been attended with any extraordinary success, though Mr. M. from private motíves chose to represent it as having been acted with uncommon applause. We are next told, that Ben was so exasperated by the damnation of his piece, that he printed it with a very singular title-page, which is given; and that immediately upon this he wrote his celebrated Ode, "Come leave the loathed stage," &c. It is not very clear what the letterwriter means by the words, immediately upon this. If he means that Jonson wrote his Ode immediately after the play was damned in 1629, the assertion is made at random; if he means that immediately after he had published his play he wrote his ode, the fact is not true. The ode is printed at the end of the play, which was published in April, 1631. The next new fact found in this curious pamphlet is, that Ben Jonson, mortified by his own defeat and the suc cess which Ford's play obtained, wrote the following Epigram upon his successful competitor: Playwright, by chance, hearing some toys I had writ, "Cry'd to my face, they were the elixir of wit; "And I must now believe him, for to-day "Five of my jests, then stolne, pass'd him a play." This epigram, I own, is so much in the manner of the time, and particularly of Ben Jonson, that for a long time I knew not how to question its authenticity. It is so strongly marked, that every poetical reader must immediately exclaim, aut Erasmus, aut diabolus. Nor indeed is it to be wondered at that it is much in Ben's manner; for, -not to keep the reader longer in suspense, it was written by him.-Well then, says the writer of the letter in question, here you have a strong confirmation of all the other facts which you affect to doubt, and every impartial judge must acquit me of having fabricated them. This, however, we shall find a non sequitur: for this very epigram, though written by Jonson, is as decisive a proof of imposition as any other which I have produced. The fact is, this epigram, addressed to Playwright, is found among Jonson's printed poems, as are two others addressed to the same person.* Mr. M. I suppose, was possessed only * See Jonson's Works, folio, 1616: Epig. XLIX. TO PLAYWRIGHT. "Playwright me reades, and still my verses damnes; "For wittie, in his language, is obscene. 66 Playwright, I loath to have thy manners knowne Epig. LXVIII. On PLAYWRight. "Playwright, convict of public wrongs to men, The person aimed at, under the name of Playwright, was probably Decker, of the modern edition of Jonson's Works printed in 8vo. in 1716, and, no dates being assigned to the poems, thought he might safely make free with this epigram, and affix the date of the year 1630, or 1631, to it; but unluckily it was published by old Ben himself fourteen or fifteen years before, in the first folio collection of his works in 1616, and consequently could not have any relation to a literary altercation between him and Ford at the time The New Inn and The Lover's Melancholy were brought on the scene. It appears from Ben Jonson's Dedication of his Epigrams to Lord Pembroke, that most of them, though published in 1616, were written some years before*; the epigram in question, therefore, may be referred to a still earlier period than the time of its publication. On one of the lines in this epigram, as exhibited by Mr. Macklin, "Five of my jests, then stolne, pass'd him a play." we find the following note:-" Alluding to a character in The Ladies' Trial, which Ben says Ford stole from him." If the writer of this letter had said, "Alluding to a character in The Ladies' Trial, which Ford stole from Ben Jonson," we might suppose him only mistaken; and this anachronism (supposing that the epigram had been written in 1631) might not affect the present question. But we are told," Ben says so." He certainly has not said so in his works, and therefore the letter-writer must mean, that it is asserted in the pamphlet from which he pretended to quote, that Ben had said so. But Ben could not possibly have said so, even if he had written this epigram at the time to which it has been falsely ascribed; for this plain reason, that The Ladies' Trial was not produced till several years afterwards. It was first printed in 1639, two years after Ben Jonson's death, and does not appear to have been licensed by Sir Henry Herbert before that "I here offer to your lordship the ripest of my studies, my epigrammes, which, though they carry danger in the sound, do not therefore seek your shelter. For when I made them, I had nothing in my conscience to expressing of which I did need a cypher. But if I be falne into those times, wherein, for the likeness of vice," &c. |