A Study of Ben Jonson by Algernon Charles Swinburne

8/2/2019 A Study of Ben Jonson by Algernon Charles Swinburne

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A STUDY OF

BEN J 0 N S O.N

BY

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.,..' .

liBRARY, SAN ANTONIO COII.EGE1300 :1an Pr.d:o ! \ ~ , : n u ~ San A!:io ;:. 1:. r x s

? /. ::' -; , . ~ _,'J:.._. v . . ;LONDON

CHATTO &: WINDUS, PICCADILLY188_9 . ,

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WORKS BY A.LGERNON C. SWINBURNE.&lee ions from S1vt'n6urnt' s

PHiiralw ...kl .Second l"dition.Fcp. 8vo. 6r. . ,Ata/anta in Ca/ytk11.Crown 8v,, 6r.Clrasldanl:A T " ~ d y . Crown 8vo. 71.P 1 1 ~ m . r ami Ballads.

F1" , ,. SHIIt.


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CONTENTS

PAGE I. COMEDIES, TRAGEDIES, AND MASQUES 1II, MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 91

IJI. DISCOVERIES . 127


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'

t:,( ...

ICOMEJ?IES, TRAGEDIES

AND

MASQUES


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ICOMEDIES, TRAGEDIES, AND

MASQUESIF poets may be divided into two exhaustive butnot exclusive classes,-the gods of harmony andcreation, the giants_ _f_eoergy_ nnd _invention,-the. . ------.supremacy of Shakespeare among the gods ofEnglish verse is not more unquestionable than thesupremacy of Jonson among its giants. Shakespeare himself stands no higher above Milton andShelley than J on son above Dryden and Byron.Beside the towering figure of thi.c; Enceladus'thestature of Dryden seems but that of an ordinaryman, the stature of Byron-who indeed can onlybe classed among giants by a somewhat licentiousor audacious use of metaphor-seems little higher

than a dwarrs. Not even the ardour of his mostfanatical worshippers, from the date of Cartwrightand Randolph to the date of Gilchrist and Girford,could exaggerate the actual greatness of his variousand marvellous energies. No giant ever came so

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4 A Study of Ben Jonsonnear to the ranks of the gods: were it possible forone not born a god to become divine by dint orambition and devotion, this glory would havecrowned the Titanic labours of Den Jon son. Thereis s o t n c t h i n ~ heroic and magnificent in his lifelongdedication of all his gifts and all his powers to theservice of the art he had elected as the business ofall his life and the aim of all his aspiration. Andthe result also was magnificent: the flowers of hisg r o w i n ~ ha\e every quality but one which belongsto the rarest and finest among flowers : they havecolour, form, variety, fertility, vigour: the ohcthing they want is fragrance. Once or twice onlyin all his indefatigable career of toil and triumphdid he achieve what was easily and habituallyaccomplished by men otherwise unworthy to benamed in the same day with him ; by men whowould ha,e avowed themselves unworthy to unloosc the latchets of his shoes. That singingpower which answers in verse to the odour of ablossom, to the colouringof a picture, to the flavouro ( a fruit,-that quality without which they maybe good, commendable, admirable, but cannot bedclightful,--was not, it should seem, a natural giftof this great writer's: hardly now and then couldhis industry attain to it by some exceptional touch


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Comedt'es, Tragedt'es, and Masqttes 5of inspiration or of luck. It is 'above. all strangeness' that a man labouring under this habitual dis-qualification should have been competent to recognize with accurate and delicate discernment anoccasion on which he had for once risen above hillusual capacity-a shot by which he had actuallyhit the white: but the lyrical verses which DenJonson q'totcd to Drummonu as his best haveexactly the quality which lyrical verse ought tohave and which their author's lyrical verse almostinvariably misses ; the note of apparently spontaneous, inevitable, irrepressible and impeccablemusic. They might have been written by Cole-ridge or Shcllcy. But Ben, as a rule,-a rulewhich is proved by the exception-was one of thesingers who could not sing; though, like Dryden,he could intone most admirably; which is moreand much m o r e - t h ~ n can truthfully be said forByron. He, however, as well as Dryden, has oneexample of lyrical success to show for himself,as exceptional and as unmistakable as Jonson's.The incantation in (Edi'pus, brief as it is, and thefirst four stanzas of the incantation in llfanfrcd,imitative as they arc, reveal a momentary sense ormusic, a momentary command of the instrumentemployed, no less singular and no less absolute.


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6 A Study of Ben JonsonBut Jonson, at all points the greatest and mostgenuine poet of the three, has achieved such asuccess more than once ; has nearly achieved it,or has achieved a success only less absolute thanthis, more than a few times in the course of hisworks. And it should be remembered always thatpoetry in any other sense than the sense of invention or divination, creation by dint of recollectionand by force of reproduction, was by no meansthe aim and end of his ambition. The grace, thecharm, the magic of poetry was to him always asecondary if not always an inconsiderable qualityin comparison with the weight of matter, thesolidity of meaning, the significance and purposeof the thing suggested or presented. The famousmen whose . names may most naturally and mostrationally be coupled with the more iiiustriousname of Ben Jon son came short of the triumphwhich might have been theirs in consequence oftheir worst faults or defects-of the weaker andbaser elements in their moral nature; becausethey preferred self-interest in the one case andsclf-inc;lulgence in the other to the noble toil andthe noble pleasure of doing their best for the:1rart's sake and their duty's, to the ultimate s:dsfaction of their conscience ; a guide as sure and a


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Comedies, Tragedies, and Masques 7monitor as exacting in resthetic matters-or, touse a Latin rather than a Greek word, in mattersof pure intelligence-as in questions of ethics ormorality. But with Ben Jon son conscience wasthe first and last consideration : the conscience ofpower which undoubtedly made him arrogant andexacting made him even more severe in self-exaction, more resolute in self-discipline, more inexorable in self-devotion to the elected labour of hislife. From others he exacted much; but lessthan he exacted from himself. And it is to thisnoble uprightness of mind, to this lofty loyaltyin labour, that the gravest vices and the mostserious defects of his work may indisputablybe traced. Reversing the famous axiom ofGoldsmith's professional art-critic, we may sayof Jonson's work in almost every instance that thepicture would have been better if the artist hadtaken less pains. For in some cases at least hew r i t e ~ better as soon as he allows himself to writewith ease-or at all events without elaborate ostentation of effort and demonstrative prodigality oftoil. The unequalled breadth and depth of hisreading could not but enrich as well as encumberhis writings : those who could wish he had beenless learned may be reminded how much we should


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8 A Study of .Ben J~ s o n certainly lose-how much of solid and preciousmetal-for the mere chance of a possible gain inspontaneity and ease ; in qualities of lyrical ordramatic excellence which it is doubtful whether hehad received from nature in any degree comparablewith those to which his learning gave a fresh im-pulse and a double force of energetic life. Andwhen his work is at its worst, when his faults arcmost flagrant, when his tediousness is most uncn-durablc, it is not his learning that is to blame, forhis learning is not even apparent. The obtrusionand accumulation of details and references, allu-sions and citations, which encumber the text andthe margin of his first Roman tragedy with such aponderous mass of illustrative superfluity, may un-doubtedly be set down, if not to the dis.crcdit, atleast to the disadvantage of the poet whose resolutecaprice had impelled him to be author and com-mentator, dramatist and scholiast, at once: . buthowever tedious a languid or a cursory readermay find this part of Jonson's work, he must,if not abnormally perverse in stupidity, admitthat it is far less wearisome, less vexatious, lessdeplorable and insufferable, than the interminableieserts o f dreary dialogue in which the affectations,orctentions, or idiocies of the period arc subjected


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The Case is Altered 9to the indefatigable and the lamentable industry ofa caricaturist or a photographer.

There is nothing accidental in the work of BenJonson: no casual inspiration, no fortuitous im-pulse, ever guides or m i ~ ~ u i d e s his genius arightor astray. Ami this crowning and damning defectof a tedious and intolerable realism was even ex-ceptionally wilful and premeditated. There is littleif anything of it in the earliest comedy admittedinto the magnificent edition which was compiled and published by himself in the year of thedeath of Shakespeare. And the humours or astill earlier comedy attributed to his hand, Tlu Caseand printed apparently without his sane- is Altered.tion just seven years be(ore, are not worked outwith such wearisome p a t i e n ~ e nor exhibited witpsuch scientific persistency as afterwards distinguished the anatomical lecturer on vice and follywhose ideal of comic art was a combination of sarcasm and sermon in alternately epigrammatic anddeclamatory d i a l o ~ u e . I am by no means disposedto question the authenticity of this play, an excellentexample of romantic comedy dashed with farceand flavoured with poetry : but, as far as I amaware, no notice has yet been taken of a noticeablecoincidence between the manner or the circum-


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10 A Sttly of Benjonsonstances of its publication and that of a spuriousplay which had nine years previously been attributed to Shakespeare. Some copies only of TheCase i's Altered bear on the title-page the name ofJonson, as some copies only of Sir joh11 0/dcast/ebear on the title-page the name of Shakespeare.In the earlier case, there can of course be noreasonable doubt that Shakespeare on his side, orthe four actual authors of the gallimaufry on ~ h e i r s , or perhaps all five together in the common thoughdiverse interest of their respective credits, musthave interfered to put a stop to the piratical profitsof a lying and thieving publisher by compellinghim to cancel the impudently mendacious titlepage which imputed to Shakespeare the authorshipof a play announced in ilo; very iJrologue as thework of a writer or writers whose intention was tocounteract the false impression given by Shakespeare's caricature, and to represent Prince Hal's oldlad of the castle in his proper character of hero andmartyr. In the later case, there can be little ifanydoubt that Jonson, then at the height of his fameand influence, must have taken measures to preclude the circulation under his name ofa play whichhe would not or could not honestly acknowledge .So far, then, as external evidence goes, there is no


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The Case s Altered I rground whatever for a decision as to whether TlteCasei's Altered may be wholly or partially or notat all assignable to the hand of Jonson. My ownconviction is that he certainly had a hand in it, andwas not improbably its sole author : but that onthe other hand it may not impossibly be one of thecompound works on which he was engaged as adramatic apprentice with other and less energeticplaywrights in the dim back workshop of the slavedealer and slave-driver whose diary records thegrinding toil and the scanty wages of his lean andlaborious bondsmen. Justice, at least since thedays of Gifford, has generally been done to thebright and pleasant quality of this equally romantic

. and classical comedy; in which the passionatehumour of the miser is handled with more freshness and freedom than we find in most of Jonson'slater studies, while the figure of his putativedaughter has more of grace and interest than heusually vouchsafed to be at the pains of bestowingon his official heroines. It is to be !regretted, itis even to be deplored, that the influence of Plautuson tha style and the method of Jonson was notmore per_manent and more profound. Had he beenbut content to follow his first impulse, to workafter his earliest model-had he happily preferred


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12 A Study of .Ben jonsonthose' Plautinos et numcros et sales' for which hiscourtly friend Horace expressed so courtierly acontcmpf to the heavier numbers and the morelaborious humours which he set himself to elaborateand to cultivate instead, we might not have had toapplaud a more wonderful and admirable result, weshould unquestionably have enjoyed a harvest morespontaneous and more gracious, more generousand more delightful. Something of the charm ofFletchcr, his sweet s t r a i g l ~ t f o r w a r d fluency andinstinctive lightness of touch, would have temperedthe severity and solidity of his deliberate satire andhis heavy-handed realism.

And the noble work of comic art which followedon this first .attempt gave even fuller evidence inits earlier than its later form of the author'scapacity for poetic as wc11 as realistic success.The defence of poetry which appears only .in the

first edition of Every Jlfm1 in Ius HmuourE t ~ r ) I J l l a u in Iris is worth all Sidney's and all Shelley'sHunu1ur. htrcattses t rown together. A stern andaustere devotion to the principle which prohibitsall inoulgencc in poetry, precludes all exuberanceof expression, and immolates on the altar ofaccuracy all eloquence, all passion, and all inspiration incompatible with direct and prosaic reproduc-


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Every Man n hs Humour 13tion of probable or plausible dialogue, induced itsauthor to cancel this noble and majestic rhapsody ;and in so doing gave fair ~ n d full forewarning ofthe danger which was to beset this too rigid andconscientious artist through the whole of his mag-nificent career. But in all other points the processof transformation to which its author saw fit tosubject this comedy was unquestionably a processof improvement. Transplanted from the imaginaryor fantastic Italy in which at first they lived an?moved and had their being to the actual andimmediate atmosphere of contemporary London,the characters gain even more in lifelike andinteresting veracity or verisimilitude than in familiarattraction and homely association. Not only dowe feel that we know them better, but we perceive.that they are actually more real and cognisablecreatures than they were under their formerconditions of dramatic existence. But it must bewith regret as well as with wonder that we findourselves constrained to recognize the indisputabletruth that this first acknowledged work of so greata writer is as certainly his best as it certainly isnot his greatest. Never again did his genius, hisindustry, his conscience 1.nd his taste unite in thetriumphant presentation of a work so faultless, so


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14 A Study of Ben Jonsonsatisfactory, so absolute in achievement and so freefrom blemish or defect The only three o ~ h e r s among all his plays which arc not unworthy to beranked beside it arc in many ways more wonderful,more splendid, more incomparable with any otherproduct of human intelligence or genius : butneither Tlu Fo:r, The Alchemist, nor The Staple ofNc-.us, is altogether so blameless and flawless apiece of work ; so free from anything that mightas well or better be dispensed with, so simply andthoroughly compact and complete in workmanshipand in result Molicre himself has no charactermore exquisitely and spontaneously successful inpresentation and evolution than the immortal andinimitable Bobadil: and even Bobadil is not unworthily surrounded and supported by the manyother graver or lighter characters of this magnificent and perfect comedy.

I t is difficult to attempt an estimate of the nextendeavours or enterprises of Ben Jonson .


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..,;

Every Man out of hz"s Hunzour I 5these undramatic if not inartistic satires in dialoguebe duly taken into account From their author'spoint of view, they arc worthy of all the applause

claimed for them ; and to say this is to saymuch ; but if the author's point of view wasradically wrong, was fundamentally unsound, wecan but be divided between condemnation andapplause, admiration and regret. No student ofour glorious language, no lover of our gloriousliterature, can leave these miscalled comedies unread without foregoing an experience which heshould be reluctant to forego : but no reader whohas any sense or any conception of comic art or ofdramatic harmony will be surprised to find that theauthor's experience of their reception on the stageshould have driven him by steady gradations offury and consecutive degrees of arrogance into astate of mind and a style of work which musthave seemed even to his well-wishcrs most unpromising for his future and final triumph. Littleif anything can be added to the excellent criticalremarks of Gifford on EZJery Mmt out of IusHumour, Cyntltia's Revels, and Poctnstcr, or hisA rrnigmnent. The first of these magnificent mistakes would be enough to ensure immortality tothe genius of the poet capable of so superb and


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16 A Slttdy of Ben Jonsonelaborate an error. The fervour and intensity ofthe verse which expresses his loftier mood ofEW'7JJfanMtlof ti1Humour.

intolerant indignation, the studious andimplacable versatility of scorn which ani-mates the expression of his disgust at the

viler or crueller examples of social villainy then opento his contemptuous or furious observation; thoughthey certainly cannot suffice to make a play, sufficeto make a living and imperishable work of thedramatic satire which passes so rapidly from onephase to another of folly, fraud, or vice. And if itwere not an inadmissible theory that the action orthe structure of a play might be utterly disjointedand dislocated in order to ensure the completepresentation or development, the alternate exhibi-tion or exposure, of each figure in the revolvinggallery of a satirical series, we could hardly fearthat our admiration of the component parts whichfail to compose a coherent or harmonious work ofart could possibly carry us too far into extrava-gance of applause. The noble rage which inspiresthe overture is not more absolute or perfect thanthe majestic structure of the verse: and the bestcomic or realistic scenes of the ensuing play arcworthy to be compared-though it may not bealtogether to their .advantage-with the similar


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Every Jlfan out of his Humour 17work of the greatest succeeding artists in narrativeor dramatic satire. Too much of the studioushumour, too much of the versatile and laboriousrealism, displayed in the conduct and evolution ofthis satirical drama, may have been lavished andmisused in the reproduction of e p ~ e m e r a l affecta-tions and accidental forms of folly: but wheneverthe dramatic satirist, on purpose or by accident,strikes home to some deeper and more durable sub-ject of satire, we feel the presence and the powerof a poet and a thinker whose genius was not bornto deal merely with ephemeral or casual matters.The small patrician fop and his smaller plebeianape, though even now not undivcrting figures, arcinevitably less diverting to us, as they must havebeen even to the l'lext generation from Jonson s,than to the audience for whom they were created :but the humour of the scene in which the highlyintelligent and intellectual lady, who regards her-self as the pattern at once of social culture andof personal refinement, is duped and disgraced byan equally simple and ingenious trick played offon her overweening and contemptuous vanity,might have been applauded by Shakespeare orby Vanbrugh, approved by Congrcve or Moliere.Here, among too many sketches of a kind whichc


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I8 A Slttdy of Ben Jonsottcan lay claim to no merit beyond that of anunlovely photograph, WC find a really humorOUSconccpt_ion embodied in a really amusing type ofvanity and folly ; and arc all the more astonishedto find a writer capable of such excellence andsuch error as every competent reader must recognize in the conception arid execution of .this ratheradmirable than delightful play. For Molierc himself could hardly have improved on the scene inwhich a lady who is confident of her intuitivecapacity to distinguish a gentleman from a pretender with no claim to that title is confrontedwith a vulgar clown, whose introducers haveassured her that he is a high-bred gentleman masquerading for a wager under that repulsive likeness.She wonders that they can have imagined her soobtuse, so ignorant, so insensible to the differencebetween gentleman and clown : she finds that heplays his part as a boor very badly and transparently; and on discovering that he is in fact theboor she would not recognize, is driven to vanishin a passion of disgust This is good comedy:but we can hardly say as much for the scene inwhich a speculator who has been trading on thestarvation or destitution of his neighbours andtenants is driven to hang himself in despair at the


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Cytt!hia's Revels 19tidings of a better market for the poor, is cut downby the hands of .peasants who have not recognizedhim, and on hearing their loudly expressed regretsfor this act of inadvertent philanthropy becomesat once a beneficent and penitent philanthropist.Extravagant and exceptional as is this instanceof Jonson's capacity for dramatic error-for the

. sacrifice at once of comic art and of common senseon the altar of moral or satirica1 purpose, it is butan extreme example of the result to which histheory must have carried his genius, gagged andhandcuffed and drugged and blindfolded, had nothis genius been too strong even for the force andthe persistence of his theory. No reader and nospectator of his next comedy can have been inclinedto believe or encouraged in believing. Th r: fi 1 f 1 Cy,tltia'sthat 1t was. e 1amous na verse o t 1e Rn.oe!J.epilogue to Cyntlu'a's Rer,els can hardlysound otherwise to modern cars than as an expression ofblusteringdiffidence-ofblatant self-distrustThat any audience should have sat out the fiveundramatic acts of this ' dramatic satire' is as inconceivable as that any reader, however exasperatedand exhausted by its voluminous perversities,should fail to do justice to its literary merits; tothe vigour and purity of its English, to the mas-

c :


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20 A Study of Ben Jotzsotzculine refinement and the classic straightforward-ness o_f its general style. There is an exquisite-song in it, and there arc passages-nay, there arcscenes-of excellent prose : but the intolerableelaboration of pretentious dullness and ostentatiousineptitude for which the author claims not merelythe tolerance or the condonation which gratitudeor charity might accord to the misuse or abuse ofgenius, but the acclamation due to its exercise andthe applause demanded by its triumph-the heavy-headed perversity which ignores all the duties andreclaims all the privileges of a dramatic poet-theCyclopcan pondcrosity of pcrsc\crancc whichhammers through scene after scene at the task ofridicule by anatomy of tedious and preposterousfutilities-all these too conscientious. outragesoffered to the very principle of comedy, of poetry,or of drama, make us wonder that we ha\'C no re-cord of a retort from the exhausted audience-ifhaply there were any auditors left-to the doggeddefiance of the epilogue :-

lly God ' t i ~ good, nnd if you like 't you may.-B y God 'tis b:ld, and worse th:m tongue can say.

For the most noticeable point in this studiouslywayward and laboriously erratic design is that theprinciple of composition is as conspicuous by its


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C y ~ t l h i a ' s Revels 21absence as th; breath of inspiration : that theartist, the scholar, the disciple, the student of classicmodels, is as indiscovcrablc as the spontaneoushumourist or poet. The wildest, the roughest, the(;ruucst off..;pring of literary impulse workingblindly on the passionate elements of excitableignorance was never more formless, more in-coherent, more defective in structure, than thisvoluminous abortion of deliberate intelligence an.dconscientious culture.

There is a curious monotony in the varietyif there be not rather a curious variety in themonotony-of character and of style which makesit even more difficult to resume the study ofCynthia's Rct'tls when once broken off than even.to read through its burdensome and bulky fiveacts at a sitting ; but the reader who lays siegeto it with a sufficient supply of patience will findthat the latter is the surer if not the only way toappreciate the genuine literary value of its betterportions. Most of the figures presented arc lessthan sketches and little more than outlines ofinexpert and intolerant caricature: but the 'halfsaved' or (as Carlyle has it) 'insalvablc' coxcomband parasite Asotus, who puts himself under thetuition of Amorphus and the patronage of 1\naidcs,


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22 A Study of Em Jonsonis a creature with something of reo.l comic life inhim. By what process of induction or deductionthe wisdom of critkal interpreters should havediscerned in the figure of his patron, a fashionableruffier and ruffian; the likeness of Thomas Dekker,a humble, hard-working, and highly-gifted hack of letters, may be explicable by those who canexplain how the character of Hedon, a c o ; . ~ r t l y andvoluptuous c o ~ c o m b , can have been designed .tocast ridicule on John Marston, a rude and roughhewn man of genius, the fellow-craftsman of BenJonson as satirist and as playwright. But suchabsurdities of misapplication and misconstruction,once set afloat on the Lethean waters of stagnatingtradition, will float for ever by grace of the veryrottenness which prevents them from sinking.Ignorance assumes and idleness repeats whatsciolism ends by accepting as a truth no lessindisputable than undisputed. To any rationalanJ careful student it must be obvious that untilthe publication of J onson's Poetaster we cannottrace, I do not say with any certainty of evidence,but with any plausibility of conjecture, the identityof the principal persons attacked or derided by.the satirist And to identify the originals of suchfigures as Clove and Orange in E ; : ~ r y .Mml out flj


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Poetaster 23Ill's Hmuour can hardly, as Carlyle might haveexpressed it, be matter of serious interest to anyson of Adam. Hut the famous polemical comedywhich appeared a year later than the appearanceof Cyntltia's Revels bore evidence about it, P ~ e t a s t e r . unmistakable by reader or spectator, altkcto the general design of the poet and to the par

. ticular direction of his personalities. Jonson of course asserted and of course believed that he

had undcrJ:ionc gross and incessant provocationfor years past from the ' petulant' onslaughts ofMarston aud Dckkcr : but what were his groundsfor this assertion and this belief we have no meanswhatever of deciding-we have no ground whatever for conjecture. \Vhat we cannot but perceiveis the possibly more important fact that indignation and . ingenuity, pugnacity and self-esteem,combined to produce and succeeded in producingan incomparably better comedy than the author'slast and a considerably better composition thanthe author's penultimate attempt Even the apologctical dialogue ' appended for the benefitof the reader, fierce and arrogant as it seems to usin its bellicose ambition and its quarrelsome self- assertion, is less violent and overweening in itstone than the furious eloquence of the prelude to


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24 A Study of Em JonsOttEvery Man ottl of ltis Htmumr. The purity ofpassion, the sincerity of emotion, which inspiresnnd inflames that singular and splendid substitutefor an ordinary prologue, never found again anexpression so fervent and so full in the many andvarious appc


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Poetasteris only less remarkable than the mixture of careand recklessness in the composition of a playwhich presents us at its opening with apparenthero in the person, not of Horace, but of Ovid ;and after following his fortunes through four-fifths-of the action, drops him into exile at the close ofthe fourth act, and p t o c ~ c l l s with the business ofthe fifth as though no such figure had ever takenpart in the conduct of the play. Shakespeare,who in Jonson's opinion 'wanted art,' assuredlynever showed himself so insensible to the naturalrules of art as his censor has shown himself here.Apart from the incoherence of construction whichwas perhaps inevitable in such a complication ofserious with satirical design, there is more of.artistic merit in this composite work of art thanin any play produced by its author since thememorable date of Every ..Mml ziz Ms Humour.The character ofCaptain Pantilius Tucca, whichseems to have brought down on its creator sucha boiling shower-bath or torrent of professionalindignation from quarters in which his own distinguished service as a soldier and a representative

champion of English military hardihood wouldseem to have been unaccountably if not scandalously forgotten, is beyond comparison the


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26 A Stttdy of Ben Jonsonbrightest and the best of his inventions since thcdato. of the creation of Bobadil. But the decreasein humanity of humour, in cordial and genialsympathy or tolerance of imagination, whichmarks the advance of his genius towards its.culmination of s c ~ n i c a l and satirical success inThe Aldtemist must be obvious at this stage of hiswork to those who will compare the delightfulcowardice and the inoffensive pretention of Bobadilwith the blatant vulgarity and the flagrant rascality of Tucca.

In the memorable year which brought intoEngland her first king of Scottish birth, and madeinevitable the future conflict between the revolutionary principle of monarchy by divine right andthe conservative principle of sclf-govemmcnt bydeputy for the commonweal of England, the firstgreat writer who thought fit to throw in his lotwith the advocates of the royalist revolution pro-

. duced on the boards a tragedy of whichSt;amtJ. the moral, despite his conscious or uncon-scious efforts to disguise or to distort it, is asthoroughly republican and as tragically satiricalof despotism as is that of Shakespeare's jttliusCresar. It would be well for the fame of Jon sonif the . parallel could be carried further: but,.

I


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Sejamesalthough Sej'amts hi's Fall may not have receivedon its appearance the credit or the homage dueto the serious and solid merit of its compositionand its execution, it must be granted that theauthor has once more fallen into the e x c u s a ~ l c but nevertheless unpardonable error of the toostudious and industrious Martha. He was carefuland troubled about many things absolutely super-fluous and supcrcrogatory; matters of no valueor concern whatever for the purpose or the importof a dramatic poem : but the one thing needful, thevery condition of poetic life and dramatic interest,he utterly and persistently overlooked. Tiberius, thecentral character of the action-for the eponymoushero or protagonist of the play is but a crude studyof covetous and lecherous ambition.--has not lifeenough in. the presentation of him to inform thepart with interest. No praise-of the sort whichis due to such labours-can be too high for thestrenuous and fervid conscience which inspirese\cry line of the laborious delineation : the re-corded words of the tyrant arc wrought into thetext, his traditional characteristics arc welded intothe action, with a patient and earnest fidelitywhich demands applause no less than recognition :but when we turn from this elaborate s ta tue-


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A Study of Ben Jonsonfrom this exquisitely articulated skeleton-to theliving figure of Octavius or of Antony, we feeland understand more than ever that Shakespeare'hath chosen the good part, which shall not betaken away from him.'

Colcridgc has very justly animadvcrted on theanachronic mixture' of Anglican or Caledonianroyalism with the conservatism of an old Romanrepublican in the character of Arruntius: but wemay trace something of the same incongruouscombination in the character of a poet who wasat once the sturdiest in aggressive eagerness ofself-assertion, and the most copious in courtlyeffusion of panegyric, among all the distinguishedwriters of his day. The power of his verse andthe purity of his English arc nowhere more remarkable than in his two Roman tragedies: onthe other hand, his great fault or defect as adramatist is nowhere more perceptible. Thiss-cncral if not universal infirmity is one whichnever seems to have occurred to him, careful andstudious though he was always of his own powersand performances, as anything of a fault at all.It is one indeed which no writer afflicted with itcould reasonably be expected to recognize orto repair. Of all purely negative faults, all sins


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Sejanus 29of intellectual omissio11, it is perhaps the mostserious and the most irremediable. It is want ofsympathy ; a lack of cordial interest, not in hisown work or in his own gcnius,-no one will assertthat Jon son was deficient on that score,-but in theindividual persons, the men and women representedon the stage. He took so much interest in thecreations that he had none left for the creatures ofhis intellect or art. This fault is not more obviousin the works of his disciples Cartwright andRandolph than in the works of their master. The~ v h o l e interest is concentrated on the intellectualcomposition and the intellectual development ofthe characters and the scheme. Love and hatred,sympathy and antipathy, arc superseded and sup-

. planted by pure scientific curiosity: the clear glowof serious or humorous emotion is replaced bythe dry light of analytical imestigation. Si vi's 1 1 1 ~ jlcrc-thc proverb is something musty. Neithercan we laugh heartily or long where all chance ofsympathy or cordiality is absolutely inconceivable.The loving laughter which salutes the names ofDogberry and Touchstone, Mrs. Quickly andFalstaff, is never evoked by the most gorgeousopulence of humour, the most glorious audacityof intrigue, which dazzles and delights our under-


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30 A Study of Bm J01tsonstanding in the parts of Sir Epicure Mammon,Rabbi Zeal-of-the-Land .Busy, Morose and Fitzdottrcl and Mosca: even Bobadil, the mostcomically attractive of all cowards and brag'gartson rt:"cord, has no such hold on our regard as manya knave and many a fool of Shakespeare's comicprot::cny. The triumph of Don Face' over hisconfederates, though we may not be so virtuous asto grudge it him, puts something of a strain uponour conscience if it is heartily to be applaudedand enjoyed. One figure, indeed, among all themultitude of Jonson's invention, is so magnificentin the spiritual stature of his wickedness, in thestill dilating verge and expanding proportion of hisenergies, that admiration in this single case maypossibly if not properly overflow into somethingof intellectual if not moral sympathy. The geniusand the courage of Volponc, his sublimity of cynicscorn and his intensity of contemptuous cnjoymcnt,-his limitless capacity for pleasure and hisdauntless contemplation of his crimes,-makc ofthis superb sinner a figure which we can hardlyrealize without some sense of imperious fascination.His views of humanity arc those of Swift andof Carlyle: but in him their fruit is not bitternessof sorrow and anger, but rapture of satisfaction


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--

Sejames 3Iand of scorn. His English kinsman, Sir -Epicure

!. Mammon, for all his wealth of sensual imaginationand voluptuous' eloquence, for all his living play orhumour and glowing force of faith, is essentiallybut a poor creature when set beside the greatVcnctian. Had the study of Tibcrius been informed and vivified by something of the samefervour, the tragedy of Scjmms might have hadin it some heat of more than merely literary life.But this lesser excellence, the merit of vigorousand vigilant devotion or application to a high andserious object of literary labour, is apparent inevery scene 0f the tragedy. That the subject isone absolutely devoid of all but historical andliterary interest-that not one of these scenes canexcite for one instant the least touch, the least

phantom, the least shadow of pity or terrorwould apparently have seemed to its author noargument against its claim to greatness as a tragicpoem. Hut if it could b(! admitted, as it will neverbe by any unpervcrteu judgment, that this eternalcanon of tragic art, the law which defines terrorand pity as its only proper objects, the alpha andomega of its aim and its design, may ever bed i s r ~ a r d e d or ignored, we should likewise have toadmit that Jonson had in this instance achieved


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32 A Study of Ben jonsona success as notable as we must othenvise considerhis failure. For the accusation of weakness inmoral design, of feeble or unnatural treatmentof character, cannot with any show of justice bebrought against him. Coleridge, whose judgmenton a question of ethics will scarcely be allowedto carry as much weight as his authority on mattersof imagination, objects with some vehemence tothe incredible inconsistency of Sejanus in appealingfor a sign to the divinity whose altar he proceedsto overthrow, whose power he .proceeds to defy.on the appearance of an unfavourable presage.This doubtless is not the conduct of a strong

. man or a rational thinker: but the great minister:.Jf Tiberius is never for an instant throughout thewhole course of the action represented as a manof any genuine strength or any solid intelligence.He is shown to us as merely a cunning. daring.unscrupulous and imperious upstart, whose greedand craft. impudence and audacity, intoxicatewhile they incite and undermine while they uplifthim. X

The year which witnessed the appearance ofSefanus on the stage-acclaimed by Chapman atgreater length if not with greater fervour than -by any other of Jonson's friends or satellites-


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Masqtees 33witnessed also the first appearance of its author ina character which undoubtedly gave free play tosome of his most remarkable abilities, but whichunquestionably diverted and distorted and absorbedhis genius as a dramatist and his talent as Parltl/a poet after a fhsl11on wh1ch no capable Ki"K Jamdsstudent can .contemplate w1thout adm1ra- E t l l ~ r t a i n . "d . h t Th {' 1/Uill.t10n or cons1 er w1t ou regret e 1ewreaders whose patient energy and conscientiouscuriosity may ha\e led them to traverse-a pilgrimage more painful than Dante's or than Bunyan's-the entire record of the ' Entertainment which escorted and delayed, at so many successivestations, the progress through London and '\Vestminster of the long-suffering son of Mary Queenof Scots, will probably agree that of the two poeticdialogues or eclogues contributed by Jonson to themetrical part of the ceremony, the dialogue of theGenius and the Flamen is better than that of theGenius and Thamesis ; more smooth, more vigorous, and more original. The subsequent prophecyof Electra is at all points unlike the prophecies ofa Cassandra : there is something doubly tragic inthe irony of chance which put into the mouth ofAgamemnon's daughter a prophecy of good fortuneto the royal house of Stuart on its first entrance

D


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34 A Study of Ben jonsoninto the capital and ascension to the throne ofEngland. The subsequent Panegyre is justly.A Pam. praised by Gifford for its manly and dig&rre. nified style of official compliment--courtliness untainted by servility: but the style is ratherthat of fine prose, sedately and sedulously measuredand modulated, than that of even ceremonialpoetry.

In the same. energetic year of his literary lifethe Laureate produced one of his bestTheSalp. mmor works-The Satyr, a httle lyricdrama so bright and light and sweet in fancy and

in finish of execution that we cannot grudge theexpenditure of time and genius on so slight a subTile ject The Penates, which appeared inPenates.

the following year, gave evidence againof the strong and lively fancy which was to bebut too often exercised in the same field of ingenious and pliant invention. The metre is wellconceived and gracefully arranged, worthy indeedof nobler words than those which it clothes withlight and pleasant melody. The octosyllabics, itwill be observed by metrical students, are certainlygood, but decidedly not faultless: the burlesquepart sus.tained by Pan is equally dexterous andbrilliant in execution.


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'

The Fox 35In IOOS the singular and magnificent coalitionof powers which served to build up the composite

genius of Jonson displayed in a single "''""'rtlrvne,masterpiece the consummate and crown- t1r 1 / u F t ~ x . ing result of its. marvellous energies. No otherof even his very greatest works is at once soadmirable and so enjoyable. [fhc construction orcomposition of The Alchemist is perhaps more wonderful in the perfection and combination of cumu-

. lative detail, in triumphant simplicity of process andimpeccable felicity of result: but there is in Volponea touch of something like imagination, a savour ofsomething like romance, which gives a higher toneto the style and a deeper interest to the a c t i o ~ ] Thechief agents arc indeed what Mr. Carlylc wouldhave called ' unspeakably uncxcmplary mortals' :but the serious fervour and passionate intensityof their resolute and resourceful wickedness givesomewhat of a lurid and distorted dig-nity to thedisplay of their doings and suffcrings, which iswanting to the less g-igantic and heroic villainies ofSubtle, Dol, and Face. The absolutely unqualifiedand unrelieved rascality of every agent in the latercomedy-unless an exception should be made infavour of the unfortunate though enterprisingSurly-is another note of inferiority ; a mark of! )2


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36 A Study of Ben jonsoncomparative baseness in the dramatic metal. InVolpune the tone of villainy and the tone of virtueare alike higher. Celia is a harmless lady, if a toosubmissive consort; Bonario is an honourablegentleman, if too dutiful a son. The Puritan andshopkeeping s c o u ~ d r e l s who are s w i n d f ~ ~ r by F ~ ~ ~ and plundered by Lovewit are viler if less villainousfigures than the rapacious victims of Volpone.

As to the respective rank or comparative ex-cellence of these hvo triumphant and transcendentmasterpieces, the critic who should take upon him-self to pass sentence or pronounce judgment wouldin my ...Q.Pinion display more audacity than discre-tion. J:rhe steac.lfast and imperturbable skill ofhand which has woven so many threads of incident,so many shades of character, so many changes ofintrigue, into so perfect and superb a pattern of in-comparable art as dazzles and delights the readerof The Alchemist is unquestionably unique-abovecomparison with any later or earlier example ofkindred genius in the whole range of comedy, ifnot in the whole world of fiction. The manifoldharmony of inventive combination and imaginativecontrast-the multitudinous unity of various andconcordant effects-the complexity and thesimplicity of action and impression, which hardly

jI!


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_,\\'

The Fox and The Alchemist 37altow the reader's mind to hesitate between enjoyment and astonishment, lnughtcr and wonder,ndmirn.tion n.nd diversion-an the distinctivequalities which the alchemic cunning of the poethas fused together in the crucible of dramatic satirefor the production of a flawless work of art, havegiven us the most perfect model of imaginativerealism and satirical comedy that the world hasever seen ; the most wonderful work of its kindthat can ever be run upon the same Iincs. Nor isit possible to resist a certain sense of immoralsympathy and humorous congratulation, ll'l()re-kcenthan-any Scnpin or Mascarille ~ a n awake in themindof n v i r t u o u ~ -reader, when Face dismissesSurly with n promise to bring him word to hislodging if he can hear of ' that Face ' whom Surlyhas sworn to mark for his if ever he meets him.From the date of Plautus to the date of Shcridan itwould surely be difficult to find in any comedy atouch ofglorious impudence which might reasonablybe set against this. And the whole part is so fullof brilli:tnt and effective and harmonious touches orstrokes of character or of humour that even thiscrowning instance of serene inspiration in the lineof superhuman audacity seems merely right andsimply natural.


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38 A Sttuly of Ben JonsonAnd yet , even while possessed and overmasteredby the sense of the incomparable energy, the

impeccable skill, and the indefatigable craftsman~ h i p , which combined and conspired together toproduce this resthetically blameless masterpiecethe reader.whose instinct requires something morethan merely intellectual or resthetic satisfactionmust recognize even here the quality which distinguishes the genius of Ben Jonso,i;] from that of thevery greatest imaginative humourists-Aristophancs or Rabelais, Shakespeare or Sterne, Vanbrugh or Dickens, Congreve or Thackeray. Eachof these was evidently capable of fal!ing in love w\th his own fancy-of rejoicing in his ownimaginative humour as a swimmer in the waves heplays with: but this buoyant and passionate rapturewa.c:; controlled by an instinctive sense which forbadethem to stril:e out too far or follow the tide toolong. However quaint or queer, however typicalor e x c e p t i ~ n a l , the figure presented may b e -Olivia's or Tristram Shandy's uncle Toby, Sir John'Brute or Mr. Peggotty, Lady Wishfort or LadyKew,-we recognize and accept them as lifelike andactual intimates whose acquaintance has been made{1;)r life. Sir Sampson Legend might undoubtedlyfind himself as much out of place in the drawing-

\I'\.

\


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The Fox and The A lclzcmist 39room of the Countess Dowager of Kcw as did SirWilful Witwoud, on a memorable occasion, in thesaloon of his aunt Lady Wishfort: Captain TobyShandy could hardly have been expected totolerate the Rabelaisian cffcrvcscenccs of Sir TobyBelch: and Vanbrugh's typical ruffians of rankhave little apparently in common with Dickens'srepresentative heroes of the poor. , ~ u t in all theseimmortal figures there is the lifeblood of eternallife which can only be infused by the sympathetic-- -faith of the creator in his creature-the breathwhich animates every woru, even if the word be-;,;ot the very best word that might have been found,with the vital impulse of infallible imagination.But it is difficult to believe that Ben Jonson canhave believed, even with some half sympathetic andhalf sardonic belief, in all the leading figures of hisinvention. Scorn and indignation arc but too oftenthe motives or the mainsprings of his comic art ;

\and when dramatic poetry can exist on the sterile(and fiery diet of scorn and indignation, we may

(hope to find life sustained in happiness and healthon a diet of aperients and emetics. The one great

modern master of analytic art is somewhat humanerthan Jonson in the application of his scientificmethod to the purpose of dramatic satire. The


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40 A Stt1dy of Bm Jonsonl study of Sludge is finer and subtler by ,ar than thestudy of Subtle; though undoubtedly i't is, in consequence of that very perfection nnd sublimationof exhaustive analysis, less available for any but amonodrama tic purpose. [No excuse, no plea, nopretext beyond the fact of esurience and the senseof ability, is suggested for the villainy of Subtle,Dol, and Face.-} But if we were to see what mightpossibly be said in extenuation of their rogueries, to hear whnt might possibly be pleaded in explanation or condonation of their lives, the comedywould fall through and go to pieces: the dramaticeffect would collapse and be dissolved. And tothis great, single,


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The Fox and The A lclzenzist 41 construction ever accomplished by the most con-

summate and the most conscientious among ancientand modern artists. And when we remember thatthis perfection of triumphant art is exhibited, noton the scale of an ordinary comedy, whether classicor romantic, comprising a few definite types and afew impressive situations, but on a scale of inventionso vast and so various as to comprise in the courseof a single play as many characters and as many in-cidents, all perfectly adjusted and naturallydevelopedout of each other, as would amply suffice for theentire dramatic furniture, for the entire poetic equip-ment, of a great dramatic poet, we feel that Gifford'sexpression, a ' prodigy of human intellect,' is equallyapplicable to Tlte Fox and to Tlte Ali:ltemist, and isnot a whit too strong a term for either. Nor can Iadmit, as I cannot discern, the blemish or imper-fection which others have alleged that they descryin the composition of Voij>om-thc unlikelihood ofthe device by which rctributiun is brought down inthe fifth act on the criminals who were left at thedose of the fourth act in impregnable security andtriumph. So far from regarding the comic Nemesisor rather Ate which infatuates and impels Volponcto his doom as a sacrifice of art to morality, animmolation of probability and consistency on the


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L2 A. Study of .Ben Jonson~ t a r of poetic justice, I admire as a master-stroke1f character the haughty audacity of caprice whichwoduces or evolves his ruin out of his own harditood and insolence of exulting and daring enjoynent. For there is something throughout of theion as well as of the fox in this original and in:omparable figure. fr know not where to find athird instance of catastrophe comparable with thatDf either Tlte Fox or Tlte Alcltemi'st in the wholerange of the highest comedy; whether for completeness, for propriety, for interest, for ingeniousrelicity of event or for perfect combination andexposition of all the leading characters at oncein supreme simplicity, unity, and fullness of culminating effect.

And only in the author's two great farces shallwe find so vast a range and variety of characters.The foolish and famous couplet of doggrel rhymewhich brackets Tlte St1ellt 1-Voman with Tlte Foxand Tlte Akltcmist is liable to prejudice the readeragainst a work which if compared with thosemarvellous masterpieces must needs seem to loseits natural rights to notice, to forfeit its actualclaim on our rational admiration. Its proper placeis not with these, but beside its fellow exampleof exuberant, elaborate, and deliberately farcical


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..

Farces 43realism-Bartltolomew Fair. And the two are notless wonderful in their own way, less triumphanton their own lines, than those two crowningexamples of comedy. Farcical in construction andin action, they belong to the province of the higherform of art by virtue of their leading characters.Morose indeed, as a victimized monomaniac, israther a figure of farce than of comedy : CaptainOtter and his termagant arc characters of comedyrather broad than high : but the collegiate ladies,..in their matchless mixture of pretention and profligacy, hypocrisy and pedantry, recall rather thecomedies than the farces of Molicrc by the elaborateand vivid precision of portraiture which presentsthem in such perfect finish, with such vigour andveracity of effect. Again, if Bartlto/omew Fair ismere farce in many of its minor characters and insome of its grosser episodes and details, the im-mortal figure of Rabbi Busy belongs to the highestorder of comedy. In that absolute and completeincarnation of Puritanism full justice is done to themerits while full justice is done upon the demerits.of the barbarian sect from whose inherited andinfectious tyranny this nation is as yet but imperfectly delivered. Brother Zeal-of-the-Land isno vulgar impostor, no mere religious quacksalver


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44 A Study of Ben Jonsonof such a kind as supplies the common food forsati're, the common fuel of ridicule: be is a hypocriteof the earnest kind, an Ironside among civilians;and the very abstinence of his creator from Hudibrastic misrepresentation and caricature. makesthe satire more thoroughly effective than all thatButler's exuberance of wit and prodigality ofintellect could accomplish. The snuffiing gluttonwho begins by exciting our laughter ends bydisplaying a comic perversity of stoicism in thestocks which is at least more respectable if not lesslaughable than the complacency of Justice Overdo,the fatuity of poor Cokes, the humble jocosity of aLittlewit, or the intemperate devotion of a Waspe.Hypocrisy streaked with sincerity;greedwith acrossof earnestness and craft with a dash of fortitude,combine to make of the Rabbi at once the funniest,the fairest, and the faithfullest study ever takenof a less despicable than dcte1otable type of fanatic.

Not only was the genius of Jonson too great,but his character was too radically noble for a realistor naturalist of the meaner sort. It is only in theminor parts of his gigantic work, only in its insig-nificant or superfluous components or details, thatwe find a tedious insistence on wearisome oroffensive topics of inartistic satire or ineffectual


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Jlf SIJtiCS 45display. Nor is it upon the ignoble sides o fcharacter that this great satiric dramatist prefers to

.concentrate his attention. As even in the mostterrible masterpieces of Balzac, it is not the wicked-ness of the vicious or criminal agents, it is theirenergy of intellect, their dauntless versatility o fdaring, their invincible fertility of resource, forwhich our interest is claimed or by which ouradmiration is aroused. In Face as in Subtle, inVolpone as in Mosca, the qualities which delightus are virtues misapplied: it is not their cunning,their avarice, or their lust, it is their courage, theirgenius, and their wit in which we take no ignobleor irrational pleasure. And indeed it would bestrange and incongruous if a great satirist who wasalso a great poet had erred so grossly as not toaim at this result, or had fallen so grievously shortof his aim as not to vindicate the dignity of hisdesign. The same year in which the stage firstechoed the majestic accents of Volpone's opening

speech was distinguished by the appearance ofthe ]Jfasqrte ofBlackfless: a work eminent Theeven among its author's in splendour of l l f a s ~ u e o/Bladmus.fancy, invention, and flowing eloquence. TheIts compamon or counterpart, the !Jfasque .Yasque o/of Beauty, a poem even more notable B.auty.


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46 A Study of Ben Jonsonfor these qualities than its precursor, did not appeartill three years later. Its brilliant and picturesqueYariations on the previous theme afford a perfectexample of poetic as distinct from prosaic ing c n ~ i t y . .

Between the dates of these two mallques, whichwere first printed and published together, threether entertainments had employed the energeticgenius of the Laureate on the double task ofscenical invention and literary decoration. Thefirst occasion was that famous visit of KingChristian and his hard-drinking Danes which ispatriotically supposed to have done so much harmto the proverbially sober and abstemious nationwhose temperance is so vividly depicted by theE . enthusiastic cordiality of Iago. The Enterntertam-111rnt t ~ / taimnent of T ~ C J o King-s at Tlleobalds opens .TWDKin,t:7 at well; with two vigorous and sonorousT k e t ~ b a / J s . couplets of welcome : but the Latm versesarc hardly worthy ofGifford's too fervid commendation. The mock marriage of the boyish Earl ofEssex and the girl afterwards known to illllp1unaei. fame as Countess of Somerset gave occa-sion of which Jonson availed himself to the fullfor massive display of antiquarian magnificenceand indefatigable prodigality of inexhaustible


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Masques 47detail, The epithalamium of these quasi-nuptialsis fine-when it is not coarse (we cannot away, (orinstance, with the comparison, in serious poetry, ofkisses to-cockles !) : but the exuberant enthusiasmof Gifford for ' this chaste and beautiful .g-:m ' isliable to provoke in the reader's mind a comparison'with the divine original ' : and among the veryfew poets who could sustain a comparison withCatullus no man capable of learning the merestrudiments of poetry will affirm that Ben J onsoncan be ranked. His verses are smooth and strong,'well-torned and true-filed ' : but the matchlessmagic, the impeccable inspiration, the grace, themusic, the simple and spontaneous perfection of theLatin poem, he could pretend neither to rival norto reproduce. 'What was my part,' says Jonsonin a note, ' the faults here, as well as the virtues,must speak.' These are the concluding words ofa most generous and cordial tribute to the meritsof the mechanist or stage-carpenter, the musician,and the dancing-master-Inigo Jones, AlfonsoFerrabosco, and Thomas Gi!es-who were employed on the composition of this magnificent ifill-omened pageant : and they may very reasonablybe applied to the two translations from Catulluswhich the poet-certainly no prophet on this


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48 A Study of Ben Jonsonparticular occasion-thought fit to introduce intothe ceremonial verse of the masques held on the. .first and second nights of these star-crossedfestivities. The faults and the virtues, the vigourof phrase and the accuracy of rendering, the stiffness of expression and the slowness of movement,arc unmistakably characteristic of the workman.Dut in the second night's masque it must be notedthat the original verse is distinctly better thanthe translated stanzas : the dispute of Truth andOpinion is a singularly spirited and vigorousexample of amceb


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Masques 49music than will perhaps be found in any otherpoem of equal length from the same indefatigablehand. The fourth of these stanzas is MtJJj"e atsimply magnificent: the loveliness of the ~ ~ ; . . U,a,f-. tm6 .onsnext is impaired by that anatomical par- . t l f a r r i a . ~ , ' f : . ticularity which too often defaces the seriousverse of Jonson with grotesque if not grossdeformity of detail. No other pact, except possibly one of his spiritual sons, too surely ' scaledof the tribe of Ben,' would have introduced'liver ' and ' lights' into a sweet and gracefuleffusion of lyric fancy, good alike in form andsound ; a commendation not always nor indeedvery frequently deserved by the verse of its author.The variations in t l ~ c burden of 'Hymen's war arc singularly delicate and happy.

The next was a memorable year in theliterary life of Ben Jonson: it witnessed the ap-pearance both of the magnificent Masque Theof Quems and of the famous comedy or Masvru i ffarce of Tltc Silettt "l-Vomafl. The mar- Queens.vellously vivid and dexterous application of mar-vellous learning and labour which distinguishesthe most splendid of all masques as one of thetypically splendid monuments or trophies of Eng-lish literature has apparently eclipsed, in the

E


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so A Study of Ben j onsonappreciation of the general student, that equaUyadmirable fervour of commanding fancy whichinforms the whole design and gives life to everydetail. The interlude of the witches is so royallylavish in its wealth and variety of fertile and livelyhorror that on a first reading 'the student mayprobably do less than justice to the lofty andtemperate eloquence of the noble verse and thenoble prose which follow.

Of The Si/mt Woman it is not easy to sayanything new and true. Its merits are salientTilt Silmi and superb: the combination of partsWpm a t ~ . and the accumulation of incidents areso skilfully arranged and so powerfully designedthat the result is in its own way incomparable- o r comparable only with other works of themaster's hand while yet in the fullness of itscunning and the freshness of its strength. But aplay of this kind must inevitably challenge a comparison, in the judgment of modern readers, between its author and Moliere : and Jon son canhardly, on the whole, sustain that most perilouscomparison. It is true that there is matter enoughin Jonson's play to have furnished forth two orthree ofMoliere's: and that on that ground-on thescore of industrious i n t e l l i ~ e n c e and laborious versa-


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The St"!ent Woman SItility ofhumour-Tite Silent Woman is as superiorto the Misanthrope and the Bourgeois Gentillzonmteas to T-zw!ftlt Nigltt and llfttclt Ado about Notfti'ng-.nut even when most dazzled by the splendour ofstudied wit and the felicity of deliberate humourwhich may even yet explain the extraordinarypopularity or reputation of this most imperial andelaborate of all farces, we feel that the authorcould no more have rivalled the author of Twc/ftkNigltt than he could have rivalled the. author ofOtltdlo. The ~ e m e s i s of the satirist is upon him:he cannot be simply at case: he cannot be happyin his work without some undertone of sarcasm,some afterthought of allusion, aimed at matterswhich Molierc would have reserved for a slighterstyle of satire, and which Shakespeare wouldscarcely have condescended to recognise as possibleobjects of even momentary attention. His wit iswonderful-admirable, laughable, laudable-it isnot in the fullest and the deepest sense delightful.I t is radically cruel, contemptuous, intolerant;the sneer of the superior person-Dauphine orClcrimont-is always ready to pass into a snarl :there is something in this great classic writer ofthe bull-baiting or bear-baiting brutality of hisage. We put down Tlte Fo:-c or Tlte A!dtemist

1:2


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52 A Study of Ben Jonsonwith a sense of wondering admiration, hardly

affected by the impression of some occasionalsuperfluity or excess: we lay aside Tlte SilmtWoma11, not indeed without grateful recollectionof much cordial enjoyment, but with distinct ifreluctant conviction that the generous t ~ b l c atwhich we have been so prodigally entertained wasmore than a little crowded and overloaded withmultifarious if savoury encumbrance of dishes.And if, as was Gifford's opinion, Shakespeare tooka hint from the mock duellists in this comedy forthe mock duellists in Twelftlt Nigltt, how wonderfully has he improved on his model ! The broadrude humour of Jonson's practical joke is boyishlybrutal in the horseplay of its vioknce : the sweetbright fun of Shakespeare's is in perfect keeping withthe purer air of the sunnier .climate it thrives in.The divine good-nature, the godlike good-humourof Shakespeare can never be quite perfectly appreciated till we compare his playfulness or his merriment with other men's. Even that of Aristophanesseems to smack of the barbarian beside it.

I cannot but fear that to thorough-goingJonsonians my remarks on the great comedy inwhich Drydcn found the highest perfection of dramatic art on record may seem inadequate if


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Jl.fasqttcs 53not inappreciative. But to do it anything likejustice would take up more space than I can spare :it would indeed, like most of Jonson's other successful plays, demand a separate study of somelength and elaboration. The high comedy of the~ o l l c g i a t e ladies, the low comedy of Captain andMrs. Otter, the braggart knights and the Latinistbarber, arc all as masterly as the versions of Ovid'selegiacs into prose dialogue arc tedious in theiringenuity and profitless in their skill. As to thechief character-who must c\'idcntly have been anative of Ecclcfcchan-hc is as superior to themalade imagi11airc, or to any of the Sganarcllcs ofMolierc, as is 1\iolicrc himself to Jonson in light-ncss of spontaneous movement anti easy graceof inspiration. And this is perhaps the only playof Jonson's which will keep the reader or spectatorfor who!e scenes together in an inward riot or anopen p ; , ! ; ~ i o n of subdued or unrcprcsscd laughter.

The speeches at Prince Henry's TheBarriers, written by the Laureate for Spmlresat J'rituethe occasion of the heir apparent's in- Hmry's. p . f \xr l , Barriers.\'Cstiturc as nncc o 'V a cs, arc notice-able for their fine and dexterous fusion of legendwith history in eloquent and weighty verse. Butthe ./Jfasque of Obcron, presented the day before


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54 A Stttdy of Ben J onsonthe tournament in which the prince bore himselfso gallantly as to excite ' the great wonder of the111e beholders,' is memorable for a quality farNasqrtt i f higher than this : it is unsurpassed if not0/>#rDn. unequalled by any other ' ~ o r k of its authorfor brightness anti lightness a nu grace of fancy, forlrric movement and hnppy simplicity of expression.

Such work, howc,cr, was but the byplayin which the genius of this indefatigable poetfound its natural relaxation during the year17tt which gave to the world for all time aAldumist. gift so munificent as that of Tlte Alclte-fltist. This 'unequalled play,' as it was calledby contemporary admirers, was not miscalled bytheir enthusiasm ; it is in some respects un-paralleled among all the existing masterpiecesof comedy. No student worthy of the namewho may agree with me in preferring Tltc Foxto Tlte A/cltmtist will wish to enforce his pre-ference upon others. Such perfection of plot,with such multiplicity of characters-such in-genuity of incident, with such harmony of construc-tion-can be matched, we may surely venture tosay, nowhere in the whole \'ast range ofcomic inven-tion-nowhere in the whole wide world ofdramaticfiction. I f the interest is less poignant than in


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The A lcltenttst 55Volpone, the fun less continuous than in The SilentWoman, the action less simple and spontaneousthan that of Every .fifan itllus Humour, the vein ofcomedy is even richer than in any of these othermasterpieces. The great Sir Epicure is eno1.1gh inhimself to immortalize the glory of the great artistwho conceived and achieved a design so fresh, sodaring, so colossal in its humour as that of t h i ~ magnificent character. And there arc at leastnine others in the play as perfect in drawing, asvivid in outline, as living in every limb and everyfeature, as even his whose poetic stature overtopsthem all. The deathless three confederates,Kastrill and Surly, Dapper and Drugger, the tooperennial Pu.ritans whose villainous . whine ofpurity and hypocrisy has its living echoes evennow-not a figure among them could have beencarved or coloured by any other hand.

Nor is the list even yet complete of Jonson'spoetic work during this truly wonderful yearof his literary life. At Christmas he produced' the Queen's Majesty's masque ' of L()'"..;e I . ~ n e frmlfireed firom lfT'Izormue and Folly a little fro"' Iguo-0 ' ra1:u a11ddramatic poem composed in his lightest Foil)'.and softest vein of fancy, brilliant and melodiousth;oughout. The mighty and majestic Poet Lau-


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A Study of Ben Jonsonreate would hardly, I fear, have accepted with be-nignity the tribute ofa compliment to the effect thathis use of the S\veet and simple heptasyllabic metrewas worthy ofRichard Barn field or George Wither:but i t is certain that in purity and fluency of musichis verse can seldom be compared, as here it justlymay, with the clear flutelike notes of Cynlllia andTlu S h ~ p l u r d ' s llmtlti1g. An absurd misprint in thelast line but three has afflicted all Jonson's editorswith unaccountable perplexity. 'Then, then, angrymusic sound,' sings the chorus at the close of asong in honour of' gentle Love and Beauty.' It isinconceivable that no one should yet have dis-covered the obvious solution of so slight but unfor-tunate an error. in the type as the substitution of' angry' for ' airy.'The tragedy of Catili'ne Ins Conspiracy gave evi-dence in the following year that the author ofCati!i11e. Stjamts could do better, but could not domuch better, on the same rigid lines ofrhetorical and studious work which he had followedin the earlier play. Fine as is the opening of thistoo laborious tragedy, the stately verse has less ofdramatic movement than of such as might be proper-if uch a thing could be-for epic satire cast intothe form of dialogue. Catiline is so mere a monster

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Cat!ne 57of ravenous malignity and irrational atrocity thathe simply impresses us an irresponsible thoughcriminal lunatic: and there is something so pre-posterous, so abnormal, in the conduct andlanguage of all concerned in his conspiracy, thatnothing attributed to them seems either rationallycredible or logically incredible. Coleridge, in hisnotes on the first act of this play, expresses his con-viction that one passage must surely have falleninto the wrong place-such action at such amoment being impossible for any human creature.But the whole atmosphere is unreal, the whole

:.ction unnatural : no one thing said or done is lessunlike the truth oflife than any other: the writingis immeasurably better than the style of the ranting tragedian Seneca, but the treatment ofcharacter is hardly more serious as a study ofhumanity than his. In fact, what we find here isexactly what we find in the least successful of ]on-son's comedies: a study, not of humanity, but ofhumours. The bloody humour of Cethegus, thebraggart humour of Curius, the sluggish humour ofLcntulus, the swaggering humour of Catiline himself-a huffcap hero as ever mouthed and struttedout his hour on the stage-all these alike fall underthe famous definition of his favourite phrase which


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ss A Study. of Ben Jonsonthe poet had given twelve years before in theinduction to the second of his acknowledgedcomedies. And n tragedy of humours is harulyless than a monster in nature-or rather in that artwhich ' itself is nature.' Otherwise the second actmust be pronounced excellent: the humours of therival harlots, the masculine ambition of Sempronia,the caprices and cajoleries of Fulvia, are drawnwith Jonson's most self-conscious care and skill.But the part of Cicero is burden enough to stifleany play: and some even of the finest passages,such as the much-praised description of the dyingCatiline, fine though they be, arc not good in thestricter sense of the word; the rhetorical sublimity of their diction comes most perilously nearthe verge of bombast. Altogether, the play isanother magnificent m i s t a k ~ : and each time weopen or close it we find it more difficult tobelieve that the auditions made by its authorsome ten years before to The Spanish Tragedy canpossibly have been those printed in the laterissues of that famous play.1 Their subtle and

i No student will need to be reminded or wh:tt is npp:trcnllyunknown to some writers who hnvc thought fit to offer :tn opinionon t h i ~ subjcct-thnt dincrcnt :tllllitions were macJe :tt cJiiTercntd:ttcs, :md by different. hnnds, to cert:tin popul:tr pl:tys or the time.The origin:tl Fauslus or Mnrlowe W:\5 :tltcred nnd re:tltered, Il l lc:tSt


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JJartho!omew Faz'r 59. spontaneous notes of n a t u r ~ , their profound andsearching pathos, their strange and thrilling tone ofreality, the beauty and the terror and the truth ofevery touch, arc the signs of a great, a very greattragic poet: and it is all but unimaginable thatsuch an one could have been, but a year or soafterwards, the author of Srfmms-and again, eightyears later, the author of Catiline. There is fineoccasional writing in each, but it is not dramatic :and there is good dramatic work in each, but it isnot tragic.

For two years after the appearance of Cati/ritethere is an interval of silence and inaction in theliterary life of its author; an intermission of labourwhich we cannot pretend to explain in the caseof this Herculean workman, who seems usually tohave taken an austere and strenuous delight inthe employment and exhibition of his colossalenergies. His next work is one of which it seemsall but impossible for criticism to speak withneither more nor less than justice. Gifford himself,the most devoted of editors and of partisans, to

three times, by three if not n10re purveyors of interpolnted :md inc o n ~ : r u o u ~ mnttcr: nntl e\cn th:tt superh m:tsterpicce would hardlyseem to hnve rivnlled the populnrity of Kyu's tmgedy-n popularityby no mc:tns unmerited.


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6o A Study of Ben Jonsonwhom all serious students of Jonson owe a tributeof gratitude and respect, seems to have waveredin his judgment on this point to a quite unaccountable degree. In his memoirs of BenJonson (JJarlho/omcw Faz'r is described as 'aBartlzolo popular piece, but chiefly .remarkable for

11/tW Fair. the obloquy to which it has given birth.'In his firm! note on the play, he .expresses anopinion that it has ' not unjustly' been consideredas' nearly on a level with those exquisite dramas,The Fox and The Alchemist.') Who shall decidewhen not only do doctors disagree, but the mostself-confident of doctors in criticism disagrees withhimself to so singular an extent ? The daintypalate of Lcigh Hunt was naturally nauseated bythe undoubtedly greasy flavour of the dramaticviands here served up in such. prodigality of profusion : and it must be confessed that some of themeat is too high and some of the sauces arc toorank for any but a very strong digestion. nutthose who . turn away from the table in sheerdisgust at the coarseness of the fare will lose theenjoyment of same of the richest and strongesthumour, some of the most brilliant and variedrealism, that ever claimed the attention or excitedthe admiration of the study or the stage. That


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.Bartholomew Faz'r 6I superlunatical hypocrite,' the immortal and onlytoo immortal Rabbi Busy, towers above the minorcharacters of the play as the execrable fanaticismwhich he typifies and embodies was destined totower above reason and humanity, charity andcommon sense, in its future influence on the sociallife of England. But in sheer force and fidelityof presentation this wonderful study from naturecan hardly be said to exceed the others whichsurround and set it off; the dotard Littlewit, theboob)' Cokes, the petulant fidelity and pig-headedself-confidence. of \Vaspe, the various humours andmore various villainies of the multitudinous andriotous subordinates ; above all, that enterprisingand intelligent champion of social purity, the conscientious and clear-sighted Justice Adam Overdo.~ h e n all is said that can reasonably be saidagainst the too accurate reproduction and the toovoluminous exposition of vulgar and vicious naturein this enormous and multitudinous pageant-tooserious in its satire and too various in its movement for a farce, too farcical in its incidents andtoo violent in its horseplay for a comedy-thedelightful humour of its finer scenes, the wonderfulvigour and veracity of the whole, the unsurpassedingenuity and dexterity of the composition, the


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62 A Study of Ben Jonsonenergy, harmony, and versatility of the action,must be admitted to ensure its place for everamong the minor and coarser masterpieces ofcomic art)

The masque of Love Restored, to which nodate is assigned by the author or his editors,L6vt has some noticeable qualities in commonl?utmtl. with the play which has just been con-sidered, and ought perhaps to have taken pre-cedence of it in our descriptive catalogue. RobinGoodfcllow's adventures at court arc describedwith such realistic as well as fantastic humourthat his narrative might have made part of theincidents or episodes of the Fair without anyimpropriety or incongruity ; but the lyric fancyand the spirited allegory which enliven this de-lightful little miniature of a play make it moreheartily and more simply enjoyable than many orindeed than most of its author's works. Threeother masques were certainly produced during thecourse of the year 1614. A Challenge at Ti'/1 atA a Marriage, which was produced eightC h a l l t n ~ at Tilt at a years after the fifasqtte of Hymen, opened/llarriagt h h b d" I t e new year Wit a super 1sp ay mhonour of the second nuptials of the lady whoseprevious marriage, now cancelled as a nullity,

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Masqueshad been acclaimed by the poet with suchsuperfluous munificence of congratulation and o faugury as might have made him hesitate, or a tleast might make us wish that he had seen fit tohesitate, before undertaking the celebration of thebride's remarriage-even had it not been madeinfamously memorable by association with mattersless familiar to England at any time than to Romeunder Pope Alexander VI. or to Paris underQueen Catherine de' Medici. But from the literarypoint of view, as distinguished from the ethical orthe historica-l, we have less reason to regret thanto rejoice in so graceful an example of the poet'sabilities as a writer of bright, facile, ingeniousand exquisite prose. The ln"sh Masque, TAe lrlrllpresented four days later, may doubtless /Jlasgut.have been written with no sarcastic intention;but if there was really no such under-currentof suggestion or intimation designed or imagined by the writer, we can only find a stillkeener savour of satire, a still clearer indication ofinsight, in the characteristic representation of aprovince whose typical champions fall to wranglingand exchange of reciprocal insults over the displayof their ruffianly devotion : while there is notmerely a tone of official rebuke or courtly compli-


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64 A Study of Ben Jonsonment, but a note of genuine good feeling andserious good sense, in the fine solid blank versedelivered by a civil gentleman of the nation.'

On Twelfth Night the comic masque of/tlermry r r ..r d fi 1 A 1 .I Vi11dirated )fercury Y muzcale rom l11t ,cncmzstsfrqm/h6 ,Akhe gave ev1dence that the creator of Subtlemists. had not exhausted his arsenal of ridicule,but had yet some shafts of satire . left for theprofessors of Subtle's art or mystery. The humourhere is somewhat elaborate, though unquestionablyspirited and ingenious.

The next year's is again a blank record ; butthe year 1616, though to us more mournfullymemorable for the timeless death of Shakespeare,is also for the student of Ben Jonson a date ofexceptional importance and interest. The pro-duction of two masques and a .comedy in verse,with the publication of the magnificent first editionof his collected plays and poems, must have kepthis name more .continuously if not more vividlybefore the world than in any preceding year of hisThe literary life. The masque of The GoldenGq/dmAge .ilgc Restored, presented on New Year'sRtstmd. Night and again on Twelfth Night, isequal!y ingenious and equally spirited in its happysimplicity of construction and in the vigorous


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T/r.e Dev1 i's an A ssfluency of its versification ; which is generallysmooth, and in the lyrical dialogue from after th efi,rst dance to the close may fairly be called sweet ;an epithet very seldom applicable to the solidand polished verse of J on son. And if The . D e v z ~ i's an Ass cannot be ranked among the crown-ing masterpieces of its author, it is not Tll Droab h I h . f is an Ass.ecause t c p ay s ows any stgn odecadence in literary power or in humorous inven-tion : the writing is admirable, the wealth ofcomic matter is only too copious, the charactersare as firm in outline and as rich in colour as anybut the most triumphant examples of his satiricalor sympathetic skill in finished delineation anddemarcation of humours. On the other hand, itis of all Ben Jonson's comedies since the date ofCyntlti'a's Revels the most obsolete in subject ofsatire, the most temporary in its allusions andapplications : the want of fusion or even connection(except of the most mechanical or casual kind)between the various parts of its structure and thealternate topics of its ridicule makes the actionmore difficult to follow than that of many morecomplicated plots : and, finally, the admixture ofserious sentiment and noble emotion is not so

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6o A Study of Ben Jonsonskilfully managed as to evade the imputation ofincongruity. Nevertheless, there are touches !nthe dialogue between Lady Tailbush and LadyEithcrside in the first scene of the fourth act whichare worthy of Moliere himself, and suggestive ofthe method and the genius to which we owe theimmortal enjoyment derived from the ~ o c i c t y ofCathos and Madclon-1 should say, Polixene andAminte, of Cclimcne and Arsinoc, and of Phila-minte and Bclise. The third scene of the sameact is so nobly written that the reader may feelhalf inclined to condone or to forget the previoushumiliation of the too compliant hcroine7"hcr ser-vile and undignified submission to the infamous .imbecility of her husband-in admiration of thenoble and natural eloquence with which the poethas here endowed her. But this husband, comicalas arc the scenes in which he develops and dilatesfrom the part of a dupe to the part of an impostor,is a figure almost too loathsome to be ludicrousor at least, however ludicrous, to be fit for theleading part in a comedy of ethics as well as ofmanners. 'And the prodigality of elaborationlavished on such a multitude of subordinate cha-racters, at the expense of all continuous interestand to the sacrifice of all dramatic harmony, may

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Masquestempt the reader to apostrophize the poet in hisown words:-

( You ue so eovetous still to embi'IICeJ More than you ean, thnt you lose nil.Yet a word of parting praise must be given to

Satan: a small part as far as extent goes, but asplendid example of high comic imagination afterthe order of Aristophanes, admirably relieved bythe low comedy of the asinine Pug and the volubledoggrel of the antiquated Vice.

Not till nine years after the appearance of thisplay, in which the genius of the author may besaid-in familiar phraseology-to have fallen be.tween two stools, carrying either too much sug-gestion of human interest for a half allegoricalsatire, or not enough to give actual interest to theprocess of the satirical allegory, did Ben Jonsonproduce on the stage a masterpiece of comedy inwhich this danger was avoided, this difficulty over.come, with absolute and triumphant facility ofexecution. In the meantime, however, he had pro-duced nine masques-or ten, counting that whichappeared in the same year with his last 'Ifltgreat work of comic art. The fifasque J.fasqutD/

C . h' b I CIIrislmal,of 'ltrzstmas, w 1ch clongs to t 1c sameyear as the two works last mentioned, is a corn.

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68 A Study of Ben Jonsonfortable little piece of genial comic realism ; pleasant, quaint, and homely: the good-humouredhumour of little Robin Cupid and his honest oldmother 'Venus, a deaf tirewoman,' is more agreeable than many more studious and elaborateexamples of the author's fidelity as a painter orphotographer of humble life. Next year, in theLttvers masque of Lovers made l'rfen, called bymadeMm. Gifford The .Masque of Lethe, he gave fullplay to his lighter genius and lyric humour : itis a work of exceptionaiiy simple, natural, andgraceful fancy. In the foilowing year he broughtTke Visilm out the much-admired Visioll of De/ig-ltt;

Delight. r: I f h' . .very 1a1r examp e o 1s capac1t1esand incapacitics. The fanciful, smooth, and flow-ing verse of its graver parts would be worthy ofFletchcr, were it not that the music is less freshand pure in melody, and that among the finestand sweetest passages there arc interspersed suchlamentably flat and stiff couplets as would havebeen impossible to any other poet of equal rank.If justice has not been done in modern times to BenJonson as one of the greatest of dramatists andhumourists, much more than justice has been doneto him as a lyric poet. The famous song of Night inthis masque opens and closes most beautifuily and


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Masquesmost sweetly: but t\vo out of the eleven lines whichcompose it, the fifth and the sixth, are positivelyand intolerably bad. The barbarous and pedanticlicense of inversion which disfigures his best lyricswith such verses as these-' Create of airy forms astream,'' But might I of Jovc's nectar sup ' - i s nota fault of the age but a vice of the poet. Mar!o,veand Lyly, Shakespeare and \Vebstcr, Flctchcr andDckkcr, ~ o u l d write songs as free from this blemishas Tcnnyson's or Shelley's. There is no surer testof the born lyric poet than the presence or abse

A Study of Ben Jonson by Algernon Charles Swinburne

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