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he was cautious and fincere, yet accufed of levity and ingratitude; Lut his accufers were the cr minals. With men of virtue and learning, he was connected by the ties of intimacy and affection. Randolph and Cartwright revered him as the great reformer, and as the father of the British stage, and gloried in the title of his adopted fons. He was frequently called the learned Ben, the judicious Ben, the Great Ben, the immortal Ben. Stern and rigid as his virtue was, he was eafy and focial in the convivial meetings of his friends; and the laws of his Symposia, infcribed over the chimney of the Apollo, a room in the Devil Tavern, near Temple-Bar, where he kept his club, fhow that he was neither averfe to the pleasures of converfation, nor ignorant of what would render it agreeable and improving. From the attention shown to him by his contemporaries, it might be fufpected that the charge of furliness and morofenefs, imputed to him by the writers of the prefent time, was not well founded. The opinions of thofe who lived in or near the time when he flourished, merit obferv ation. They fometimes elicit a ray of intelligence, which later opinions do not always give.

"Ben. Jonfon," fays Drummond," was a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and feoffer of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jeft, jealous of every word and action of those about him, especially after drink, which is one of the elements in which he lived; a diffembler of the parts which reign in him, a bragger of some good that he wanted, thinketh nothing well done, but what he himself, or fome of his friends have faid or done; he is paffionately kind and angry, careless either to give or keep; vindictive, but if he be well anfwered, at himfelf: interprets bad fayings and deeds often to the worft; he was for any religion, being verfed in both; oppreffed with fancy which hath overmastered his reafon, a general disease in many poets; his inventions are smooth and eafy ; but above all he excelleth in tranflation. He had a defign to write an epic poem, and was to call it Chrologia, of the worthies of his country, raised by fame: He had also a defign to write & Fisher, or Paitoral play, and to make the stage of it the Lomond Lake, and also to write his own pilgrimage hither, and to call it a Difcovery. In a poem, he calleth Edinburgh

The heart of Scotland, Britain's other eye."

Aubrey fays" he was of a clear and fair skin; his habit was very plain: I have heard Mr. Laeey the player fay, that he was wont to wear a coat like a coachman's coat, with flits under the armpits. He would many times exceed in drink; Canary was his beloved liquor: then he would tum ble home to bed, and when he had thoroughly perfpired, then to study. I have feen his studying chair, which was of firaw, fuch as old women ufed, and as Aulus Gellius is drawn in. When I was in Oxon, Bishop Skinner, who lay at our hall, was wont to fay that he understood an author as wel as any man in England."

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"His parts," fays Fuller, were not fo ready to run of themselves, as able to answer the fpur; fo that it may be truly said of him that he had an elaborate wit, wrought out by his own industry. He would fit filent in learned company, and fuck in (befider wine) their feveral humours into his obferva tions; what was ore in others, he was able to refine himself. He was paramount in the dramatic part of poetry, and taught the ftage an exact conformity to the laws of comedians. His comedies were above the Volge, (which are only tickled with downright obfcenity) and took not fo well at the firfi firoke as at the ribound; yea, they will endure reading fo long as either ingenuity or learning att fashionable in our nation. If his latter be not so spriteful and vigorous as his first pieces, all that are old will, and all who defire to be old, should excufe him therein. Many were the wit-combats bes tween him and Shakspeare, which two I beheld like a Spanifs great galleon, and an English man of un Master Fonfon (like the former) was built far higher in learning; folid, but flow in his performan.es. Shalfpeare, with the English man of war, leffer in bulk, but lighter in failing, could turn with all tidia and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention."

It is obfervable, that none of his contemporaries charge him with depreciating the merits of Shakspeare, or with want of gratitude or eftcem for his friend. Eryden and Pope are divided in their fentiments of the teftimony which Jonfon gives to his genius. Dryden calls it invidious and fparing, and of his opinion is Mr. Malone and the other editors of Shakspeare. The writer of thes biographical prefaces inclines to Pope's opinion, in thinking it an ample and honourable panegyris, to the memory of his friend.

Jonson, like most fuccefsful writers, was very unfortunate in conciliating the affections of the infẹrior poets of his time. They centured his inordinate vanity, and accused him of a defire of ruling the realms of Parnaffus with a defpotic fceptre. But their cenfure was his fame; while he could number in the lift of his friends the prodigies of poetry, and miracles of learning and science.

Shakspeare had cherished his infant mufe; Beaumont and Fletcher efteemed and revered him; Donne had recommended his merit; and Camden, the Strabo of Britain, and Selden, a living library, knew how to prize his literature and judgment

Jonton is univerfally allowed to have been the most learned and judicious poet of his age., He was familiarly acquainted with the best ancient authors, from whom he has freely borrowed, and was he first that brought critical learning into vogue His learning is to be seen in every thing he wrote; yet a just decorum and p efervation of character, with propriety of circumstance and of language, are his ftriking excellencies, and eminently diftinguish his correctness and art. What he borrows from the ancients, he generally improves by the use and application. In his imitations and tranflations from claffic authors, he thinks and expreffes his thoughts like them; but he com monly borrows with the air of a conqueror, and adorns himself in their drefs, as with the fpoils and trophies of victory. His tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry is so close as to be comprehended in the fame number of lines. His occafional poems are chiefly encomiaftic or fatirical They abound in masculine fenfe and poignant wit, with an unfortunate intermixture of puerile conceit and coarfe raillery. His Epigrams are fometimes happily turned; but more frequently pointless His Epitaphs are univerfally admired, and july entitled to the highest praife. His Songs are sprightly and elegant, and deservedly popular. The merit of his Lyric pieces is much greater than has yet been allowed His Hymn to Diana is delicate both in the fentiment and the expreffion, the images are picturefque; the verfe eafy and flowing His Ode Pindaric is a true and regular Pindaric; and the first, if not the only one in our language, that has a just claim to that title. He has followed the manner of Pindar with great exa&ness. The terms of art, denoted by the urn, the counter-turn, and the fland, are a translation of the strophe, Antiftrophe, and Epode, which divided the Greek odes.

The Gharm in the Mafque of the Queens, may bear a comparison with the witches fong in “ Mac- ́ beth." His Elegy on the death of the Marchioness of Winchester has been imitated by Pope, in his pathetic Elegy "to the memory of an unfortunate Lady." His poetry has more strength than fmoothness: His verfification is fometimes flowing and eafy; but more frequently harsh, and even deficient in measure. In all his pieces are to be found marks of good fenfe, a strong, and fometimes a fublime vein of poetry, sterling wit, moral fatire, and unrivalled erudition.

As a dramatift, Shakspeare, Beaumont, and Fletcher, are the only contemporary writers that can be put in competition with him; and, as they have excellencies of genius fuperior to those of J.nfon, they have weaknesses and defe&s, which are proportionably greater. In the power to touch the heart, he must indifputably yield to them. But if they tranfcend him in the creative powers and the aftonishing flights of imagination, their judgment is much inferior to his and if he does not at any time rise so high, neither perhaps does he fink fo low as they have done. He reformed the extravagancies which had univerfally prevailed in the times betore him. His plays were real plays of five acts, in which the continuity of the scenes, and the unities of time and pl ce were regularly obferved He borrowed not his fable from an exotic ftory, but formed his plot, and drew his characters from the flores of his imagination, and his observations upon men and manners. In his defign and exhibition of characters, he was particularly happy in delineating those which are generally known by the name of characters of humour, a subject which he perfectly underflood, and which he execured with equal felicity and perfection. It is greatly to be wished that he had possessed that poetic paflion which could have made his dramas univerfal, equally felt and understood in all ages. In this point he muft yield to Shakspeare, yet his fancy had exerted itself, perhaps, with greater energy and ftrength, had he been lefs a poet, or lefs acquainted with the ancient models. Struck with the correctness and truth of compofition in the old claffics, and influenced by a paffionate admiration to emulate their beauties, he was infenfibly led to imagine that equal honours were due to fuccefsful imitation, as to original and unborrowed thinking.

He was naturally turned to industry and reading: and, as to treasure up knowledge must be the exercife and work of memory.by the affiduous employment of that faculty, he would neceffarily be VOL. IV

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Jefs difpofed to exert the native inborn fpirit of genius and invention; and as his memory was thus fraught with the ftores of ancient poetry, the fentiments impreffed upon his mind would eafily intermix and affimilate with his own, and when transfused into the language of his country, would appear to have all the graces and the air of novelty. Hence he became constrained in his imagination, and lefs original in his fentiments and thoughts; but he obtained that severity of collected judgment, and that praise of art, which have given his authority the greatest weight in the decisions and laws of criticifm.

The character of Jonfon, as a poet, is given by Dr. Hurd, with an evident attention to his charater and difpofition as a man.

"His nature," fays that elegant critic, "was fevere and rigid; and this, in giving strength and manliness, gave at times too, an intemperance to his fatire. His tafte for ridicule was strong, but indelicate, which made him not over curious in the choice of his topics; and, laftly, his style in picturing characters, though masterly, was without that elegance of hand, which is required to correct and allay the force of fo bold a colouring. Thus the bias of his nature, leading him' to Plautus rather than Terence for his model, it is not to be wondered at, that his wit is too frequently cauftic, his raillery coarfe, and his humour exceffive."

"By the death of Jonfon," says Mr. Whalley, "his family itself became extinct, the only iffue he left being his plays and poems; and their fate has, in fome measure, refembled his. Yet, fuch is the felicity of their better fortunes, that, furviving the attacks of envious contemporary rivals, they have received from the juftice of difcerning unprejudiced pofterity, a fair and an increasing fame. With thofe, whofe tafte for fimple and friking copies of nature, is yet uninterrrupted by the faftidious delicacy of fashionable refinements, the works of Jonfon ftand high in efteem; and as they are read from age to age, they will perpetuate his name, with all the honours which his genius and his learning deferve."

H

WORKS OF JONSON

To the great Example of Honour and Virtue,

THE MOST NOBLE, WILLIAM EARL OF PEMBROKE,

Lord Chamberlain, &c.

MY LORD,

WHILE you cannot change your merit, I dare not change your title: it was that made it, and not I. Under which name, I here offer to your Lordship the ripeft of my ftudies, my Epigrams; which, though they carry danger in the found, do not therefore feek your fhelter: for, when I made them, I had nothing in my confcience, to expreffing of which I did need a cypher. But, if I be fallen into those times, wherein, for the likeness of vice, and facts, every one thinks another's ill deeds objected to him; and that in their ignorant and guilty mouths, the common voice is (for their fecurity)" Beware the poet," confeffing therein fo much love to their difcales, as they would rather make a party for them, than be either rid, or told of them: I must expect, at your Lordship's hand, the protection of truth and liberty, while you are conftant to your own goodnefs. In thanks whereof, I return you the honour of leading forth fo many good and great names (as my verfes mention on the better part) to their remembrance with pofterity. Amongst whom, if I have praised unfortunately, any one, that doth not deferve; or, if all anfwer not, in all numbers, the pictures I have

made of them, I hope it will be forgiven me, that they are no ill pieces, though they be not like the perfons. But I forefce a nearer fate to my book than this, that the vices therein will be owbed before the virtues (though there I have avoided all particulars, as I have done names), and fome will be fo ready to difcredit me, as they will have the impudence to belie themselves. For if I meant the not, it is fo. Nor I can hope other wife. For why fhould they remit any thing of their riot, their pride, their felf-love, and other inherent graces, to confider truth or virtue; but, with the trade of the world, lend their long cars against men they love not: and hold their dear mountebank, or jelter, in far better condition than all the study, or ftudiers of humanity? For fuch, I would rather know them by their vifards ftill, than they fhould publish their faces, at their peril, in my theatre, where Cato, if he lived, might enter without fcandal.

By your Lordfhip's most faithful honourer,

BEN. JONSON.

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IT will be look'd for, book, when fome but fee
Thy title, Epigrams, and nam'd of me,
Thou should't be bold, licentious, full of gall;
Wormwood, and fulphur, fharp, and tooth'd
withal,

Become a petulant thing, hurl ink, and wit

As madmen ftones; not caring whom they hit. Deceive their malice, who could with it fo;

And by thy wifer temper, let me know Thou art not covetous of leaft felf-fame,

Made from the hazard of another's fhame:

Much lefs, with lewd, profane, and beaftly phrafe, To catch the world's loofe laughter, or vain gaze.

He that departs with his own honefty

For vulgar praife, doth it too dearly buy.

III. To my Bookfeller.

THOU that mak'ft gain thy end, and wifely well,
Call'ft a book good, or bad, as it doth fell,
Ufe mine fo too: I give thee leave; but crave
For the luck's fake it thus much favour have,

To lie upon thy fall, till it be fought;

Not offer'd, as it made fuit to be bought; Nor have my title-leaf on posts, or walls,

Or in cleft flicks, advanced to make calls
For termers, or fome clerk-like ferving man,
Who fcarce can fpell th' hard names: whofe
knight lefs can.

If, without thefe vile arts, it will not fell,
Send it to Bucklersbury, there 'twill well.'

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For fuch a poet, while thy days were green, Thou wert, as chief of them are faid t'have been: And fuch a prince thou art we daily fee,

As chief of those ftill promise they will be. Whom should my mufe then fly to, but the beft Of kings, for grace; of poets, for my test.

V. On the Union.

WHEN was there contract better driv'n by fate?
Or celebrated with more truth of ftate?
The world the temple was, the priest a king,
The fpoufed pair two realms, the fea the ring.
VI. To Alchymifts.

If all you boast of your great art be true;
Sure, willing poverty lives moft in you.

VII. On the new Hot-bonfe.

WHERE lately harbour'd many a famous whore,
A purging bill, now fix'd upon the door,
Tells you it is a hot-house: so it may,
And still be a whore-house. They're fynonima.

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