Chapter 41

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

he seized a characteristic of which the reverse, in some degree, applies to himself; for had he paid less attention to theminutiæof his own age, and dedicated himself more to universal habits and feelings, his popularity would have nearly equalled that of the poet whom he loved and praised. Yet his fame rests on a broad and durable foundation, and we point, with pride and triumph, to that matchless constellation of dramatic merit, where burn, with inextinguishable glory, the mighty, names ofShakspeare,Jonson,Fletcher,Massinger.

FOOTNOTES:

[557:A]Vide Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 101.

[557:B]Verses addressed to Mr. Humphrey Mosely, published in his Poems, Epigrams, &c. 1658.

[557:C]Verses addressed to Mr. Charles Cotton.

[558:A]See Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 101. note.

[558:B]Monthly Review, new series, vol. lxxxi. p. 126.

[558:C]Malone's Dryden, vol. i. part ii. p. 100.—Fuller tells us, in his quaint but emphatic manner, that Beaumont brought "theballastof judgment," and Fletcher "thesailof phantasie."—Worthies, part ii. p. 288.

[559:A]Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, p. 409.

[559:B]Dryden on Dramatic Poesy.

[561:A]Would that the Commentators on Shakspeare had pursued the plan which Mr. Gifford has adopted in his edition of Massinger, who, speaking of the freedoms of his author, declares, that "those who examine the notes with a prurient eye, will find no great gratification of their licentiousness. I have called in no 'one' (he adds) to drivel out gratuitous obscenities in uncouth language; no 'one' to ransack the annals of a brothel for secrets 'better hid:' where I wished not to detain the reader, I have been silent, and instead of aspiring to the fame of a licentious commentator, sought only for the quiet approbation with which the father or the husband may reward the faithful editor."—Massinger, vol. i. pp. lxxxiii. lxxxiv.

[561:B]Gifford's Massinger, vol. i. pp. xii. xiv. Introduction.

[561:C]Ibid. vol. i. pp. xviii.-xx.

[562:A]Gifford's Massinger, vol. i. Essay on the Writings of Massinger, p. cxxvi.

[563:A]Letter to William Gifford, Esq. on the late edition of Ford's Plays, 8vo. 1811, p. 7.

[563:B]Vide Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xiv. p. 465.

[563:C]Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxv. p. 219.

[565:A]Vide Ancient British Drama, vol. iii. p. 3.

[565:B]The Old Law, in which he assisted Rowley, was acted in its original state, and before it was re-touched by Massinger, in 1599.

[568:A]Returne from Parnassus, act i. sc. 2.—Vide Ancient British Drama, vol. i. p. 49.

[569:A]In his Dedication to the Spanish Fryer.

[571:A]This writer is mentioned by Meres in 1598, and praised for his skill in comedy.

[571:B]Vide Witt's Treasury, p. 281.

[574:A]Jonson's Works by Gifford, vol. i. pp. ccxcix. ccc.

[576:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs of Jonson, pp. ccxiii.-ccxv.

[577:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs, pp. ccxvi.-ccxix.

[577:B]Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iii. p. 394.

[578:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs, p. ccxxx. After the passage which we have inserted in the text, follow these admirable observations:—"Such were the Masques of Jonson, in which, as Mr. Malone says, 'the wretched taste of those times found amusement.' That James and his court delighted in them cannot be doubted, and we have only to open the Memoirs of Winwood and others to discover with what interest they were followed by the nobility of both sexes. Can we wonder at this? There were few entertainments of a public kind at which they could appear, and none in which they could participate. Here all was worthy of their hours of relaxation. Mythologues of classic purity, in which, as Hurd observes, the soundest moral lessons came recommended by the charm of numbers, were set forth with all the splendour of royalty, while Jones and Lanier, and Lawes and Ferrabosco, lavished all the grace and elegance of their respective arts on the embellishment of the entertainment."But in what was 'the taste of the timeswretched?' In poetry, painting, architecture, they have not since been equalled; in theology, and moral philosophy, they are not even now surpassed; and it ill becomes us, who live in an age which can scarcely produce a Bartholomew Fair farce, to arraign the taste of a period which possessed a cluster of writers, of whom the meanest would now be esteemed a prodigy. And why is it assumed that the followers of the court of James were deficient in what Mr. Malone is pleased to call taste? To say nothing of the men, (who were trained to a high sense of decorum and intellectual discernment under Elizabeth,) the Veres, the Wroths, the Derbys, the Bedfords, the Rutlands, the Cliffords, and the Arundels, who danced in the fairy rings, in the gay and gallant circles of these enchanting devices, of which our most splendid shows are, at best, but beggarly parodies, were fully as accomplished in every internal and external grace as those who, in our days, have succeeded to their names and honours."—Memoirs, pp. ccxxx. ccxxxi.

[578:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. Memoirs, p. ccxxx. After the passage which we have inserted in the text, follow these admirable observations:—

"Such were the Masques of Jonson, in which, as Mr. Malone says, 'the wretched taste of those times found amusement.' That James and his court delighted in them cannot be doubted, and we have only to open the Memoirs of Winwood and others to discover with what interest they were followed by the nobility of both sexes. Can we wonder at this? There were few entertainments of a public kind at which they could appear, and none in which they could participate. Here all was worthy of their hours of relaxation. Mythologues of classic purity, in which, as Hurd observes, the soundest moral lessons came recommended by the charm of numbers, were set forth with all the splendour of royalty, while Jones and Lanier, and Lawes and Ferrabosco, lavished all the grace and elegance of their respective arts on the embellishment of the entertainment.

"But in what was 'the taste of the timeswretched?' In poetry, painting, architecture, they have not since been equalled; in theology, and moral philosophy, they are not even now surpassed; and it ill becomes us, who live in an age which can scarcely produce a Bartholomew Fair farce, to arraign the taste of a period which possessed a cluster of writers, of whom the meanest would now be esteemed a prodigy. And why is it assumed that the followers of the court of James were deficient in what Mr. Malone is pleased to call taste? To say nothing of the men, (who were trained to a high sense of decorum and intellectual discernment under Elizabeth,) the Veres, the Wroths, the Derbys, the Bedfords, the Rutlands, the Cliffords, and the Arundels, who danced in the fairy rings, in the gay and gallant circles of these enchanting devices, of which our most splendid shows are, at best, but beggarly parodies, were fully as accomplished in every internal and external grace as those who, in our days, have succeeded to their names and honours."—Memoirs, pp. ccxxx. ccxxxi.

[579:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. p. ccxcvii.

[579:B]Ibid. vol. i. pp. ccciii.-cccv.

[580:A]Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. p. cccvii.

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