54 Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Oh, man! thou image of thy Maker's good, 54 When I know what, and in whose power it is: A holy hermit is a mind alone. Doth not experience teach us, all we can, To work ourselves into a glorious man? Love's but an exhalation to best eyes, The matter spent, and then the fool's fire dies! -Thou image of thy Maker's good.] Mr. Sympson would read, thy Maker good. but I see not sufficient reason for a change, since good men are, and all men should endea Your to make themselves, images of the goodness of God. Nay, the man who banishes virtue from his soul, forfeits the only valuable likeness which he bears to his Maker. 55 -Or can poverty, SEWARD. Which is the light to Heav'n, put out his eye?] This poem has vast beauties; what Fletcher had often bantered in his comedies, the cheats of astrology (almost universally believed in his age) he now lashes with the spirit of a classic satirist, and the zeal of a Christian divine. But the line above, Mr. Sympson says, is sad stuff; I own it a little obscure, but far from deserving that title. Poverty and affliction often bring men to a due sense of their own state, and to an entire dependence on their Creator, therefore may be considered as lights that often guide men to Heaven. Poets, whose imaginations are so full of sentiment as Shakespeare's and Fletcher's, do not always study perspicuity in their expressions so much as those of cooler dispositions. SEWARD. It is true, that they do not always study perspicuity; but the light of Heaven refers to his eye, not to poverty. This mode of construction is not uncommon with our authors, and has ften occasioned misinterpretations. 55 The cause of man.] Corrected in 1750. VOL. I. Were Were I in love, and could that bright star bring And though to Time her lights and laws she lends, Sickness, an humorous cloud 'twixt us and light, Man is his own star, and that soul that can Be honest, is the only perfect man. 57 To hear the hammer.] Seward falsely asserts, that this is the reading of the former editions. LETTER LETTER FROM BEAUMONT TO BEN JONSON. THE Sun (which doth the greatest comfort bring Lie where he will, and make him write worse yet. It is a potion sent us down to drink, By special Providence, keeps us from fights, Makes us not laugh when we make legs to knights. A medicine to obey our magistrates: For we do live more free than you; no hate, Of land that God gives men here is their wit, If 'Letter, &c.] This letter has hitherto been printed at the end of Nice Valour, with the following title: "Mr. Francis Beaumont's Letter to Ben Jonson, written before he and Master Fletcher came to London, with two of the precedent comedies then not finished, which deferred their merry meetings at the Mermaid." As we apprehend it is demonstrated (p. liii, & seq.) that this situation was casual, and the title not to be relied on, we have ventured to remove the one and alter the other. 2 Lie where he will.] If we keep to the old reading, it must reflect upon Sutcliff's hiding himself for debt. I have not the Lives of the Poets now by me, but don't remember any thing of the poverty of this minor poet of our author's age: by reading it for he, the archness is smarter as well as more good-humoured; let his wit lie in what part of his body it will. SEWARD. We see no great archness in this alteration, nor think the old reading implies Sutcliff's hiding for debt. 3 We are all equal every whit: Of land that God gives men here is their wit: If we consider fully.] This dark sentence has been cleared up by Mr. Sympson, who by pointing differently gives this sentiment. Mens wit is here in exact proportion to their land; and then the next sentence, -for our best And gravest men will with his main-house jest, has If we consider fully; for our best And gravest men will with his main house-jest, Since I saw you; for wit is like a rest Held up at tennis, which men do the best With the best gamesters: what things have we seen As if that every one from whence they came And had resolv'd to live a fool the rest Of his dull life; then when there hath been thrown Wit able enough to justify the town For three days past: wit that might warrant be For the whole city to talk foolishly "Till that were cancell'd: and when that was gone, Was able to make the two next companies Right witty: though but downright fools, mere wise. the country gentlemen begin to allow My wit for dry-bobs, then I needs must cry, I see my days of ballading grow nigh; I can already riddle, and can sing Catches, sell bargains, and I fear shall bring That has a just connection with the former: Main-house jest, I read with a hyphen and understand by it the jest that receives its merit from the grandeur, riches, and antiquity of his family who utters it, as the hearers admire it upon these accounts. SEWARD. Main-house is a strange expression; if there needs a hyphen, house-jest would be better. 4 Strike when you winch, and then lament the blow. This does not appear sense: The poet speaks of courtiers wearing a painted outside (and perhaps wear in the former line would be a better reading than bear) and after they themselves have struck you secretly when you did not see them, will pretend to lament the blow. But what has winch to do with this sense? I doubt not but the true reading is, Strike when you wink, and then lament the blow. SEWARD. s Wit is like a REST held up at tennis.] This, we think, tends to explain the expression that so often occurs of setting up a rest, which commonly includes an allusion to some game, and which game here appears to be tennis. 6 Though but downright fools, more wise.] More wise is an anti-climax after right witty; but I believe the true reading is meer wise, i. e. nothing but mere wisdom itself. It seems an expression perfectly in the stile of the context. SEWARD. 7 To speak the hardest words I find, Over, as oft as any, with one wind, That takes no medicines.] This relates to the play of repeating hard words (such as Chichester church stands in Chichester church-yard) several times in a breath, and generally they are That takes no medicines, but one thought of the I hope hath left a better fate in store Bring me to thee, who canst make smooth and plain To acknowledge all I have to flow from thee." Ben, when these scenes are perfect, we'll taste wine; are such as betray the speaker into indecencies. But are we to understand That takes no medicines only for the sake of strengthening the wind? Or a secret fling at the physicians and apothecaries for affecting hard words, and so one effect of their medicines may jocularly be supposed to enable a man to talk hard words more fluently? SEWARD, The first of these interpretations is, we think, the true. ? Who like trees of the guard, have growing souls ] What, says Mr. Sympson, can trees of the guard possibly mean? I believe it corrupt for garden, which the old poets would without scruple contract into one syllable, gard'n, and how easily might a transcriber, not knowing what word it was, change it to guard. SEWARD. It is probable garden is right; but how could our poets, or any poets, or mortals, contract garden into one syllable? The editors of 1750 have presented to our eyes many contractions and apostrophes which no tongue can express, or human organs articulate. 8 To flow from thee.] I had observed upon the Woman Hater before I knew of these verses of Beaumont's having any relation to that play, how much more it was wrote in Ben Jonson's manner than any other of our authors' foregoing plays: the same is true of The Nice Valour, which consists chiefly of passions personated, not of characters from real life; and which allows those passions to be carried to the highest pitch of extravagance. Here is a confirmation of Jonson being the writer they imitated. In the greatest part of their works they seem to follow Shakespeare. I find from these verses, that at note 32 in the WomanHater, I was mistaken in supposing Fletcher was the sole author of that play, from the first edition having his name only prefixed: it being printed after both their deaths, it was very easy to make the mistake, which was corrected by the second edition. The character of Lapet in this play has so much of that inimitable humour, which was displayed before in the character of Bessus, in the King and No King, that it was probably the work of the same hand, riz. Beaumont's, for to him Mr. Earle (in the most authentic copy of verses prefixed to these plays, as being writ immediately after the death of Beaumont, and near ten years before that of Fletcher) ascribes Bessus together with Philaster and the Maid's Tragedy. How wrong therefore is the prevailing opinion, that Beaumont's genius was only turned for tragedy, that he possessed great correctness of judgment, but that the liveliness of imagination, vivacity of wit and comic humour, which so much abounds in these plays, were all to be ascribed to Fletcher only? See Berkenhead's Poems on this subject prefixed to this edition. SEWARD. See p. liii, & seq. NAMES |