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wholesome laws of the Parnaffian Code, in this cafe made and provided, for the fecurity of the rights of authors, and the greater certainty and authenticity of dramatick history.

Nor let our poet's admirers be at all alarmed, or fhrink from this difcuffion; for after this flight and temporary fabrick, erected to his honour, fhall have been demolished, there will ftill remain abundant proofs of the gentlenefs, modefty, and humility, of Shakspeare; of the overweening arrogance of old Ben; and of the ridiculous abfurdity of his partizans, who for near a century fet above our great dramatick poet a writer whom no man is now hardy enough to mention as even his competitor.

I must premise, that The Lover's Melancholy, written by John Ford, was announced for reprefentation at Drury-lane theatre on Friday the 22d of April, 1748. Mr. Steevens has mentioned that it was performed for a benefit; but the perfon for whofe benefit this play was acted is in the present cafe very material: it was performed for the benefit of Mrs. Macklin; and confequently it was the intereft of Mr. Macklin that the entertainment of that night fhould prove profitable, or in other words that fuch expectation should be raised among the frequenters of the play-house as should draw together a numerous audience. Mr. Macklin, who had then been on the flage about twenty-five years, was fufficiently converlant with the arts of puffing, which, though now practifed with perhaps fuperior dexterity, have at all times (by whatever name they may have gone) been tolerably well underflood: and accordingly on Tuesday the 19th of April, three days before the day appointed for his

wife's benefit, he inferted the following letter in The General (now The Publick) Advertiser, which appears to have escaped the notice of my predeceffor:

Sir,

As The Lover's Melancholy, which is to be revived on Friday next at the theatre-royal in DruryLane, for the benefit of Mrs. Macklin, is a scarce play, and in a very few hands, it is hoped, that a short account of the author, his works in general, and of that piece in particular, will not be unacceptable to the publick.'

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John Ford, Efq. was of the Middle Temple, and though but a young man when Shakspeare left the stage, yet as he lived in ftrict friendship with him till he died, which appears by feveral of Ford's fonnets and verfes, it may be faid with some propriety that he was a contemporary of that great

man's.'

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It is faid that he wrote twelve or fourteen dra. matick pieces, eight of which only have been collected, viz. The Broken Heart, Love's Sacrifice, Perkin Warbeck, The Ladies' Trial, Tis Pity jhe's a Whore, The Sun's Darling, a Mafque, and The Lover's Melancholy.'

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Moft of thofe pieces have great merit in them, particularly The Lover's Melancholy; which in the private opinion of many admirers of the stage, is written with an art, ease, and dramatick spirit, inferior to none before or fince his time, Shakspeare excepted.'

The moral of this play is obvious and lauda

ble; the fable natural, fimple, interefting, and perfect in all its parts; the action one and entire ; the time twelve hours, and the place a palace.'

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The writing, as the piece is of that fpecies of the drama, which is neither tragedy, nor comedy, but a play, is often in familiar, and fometimes in elevated, profe, after the manner of Shakspeare; but when his fubject and characters demand it, he has fentiment, diction, and flowing numbers, at command.'

His characters are natural, and well chofen, and fo diftinct in manners, fentiment, and language, that each as he fpeaks would diftinctly live in the reader's judgment, without the common help of marginal directions.'

As Ford was an intimate and a professed admirer of Shakspeare, it is not to be wondered at, that he often thinks and expreffes like him; which is not his misfortune, but his happiness; for when he is most like Shakspeare, he is moft like nature. He does not put you in mind of him like a plagiarift, or an affected mere imitator; but like a true genius, who had ftudied under that great man, and could not avoid catching fome of his divine excellence.'

This praise perhaps by fome people may be thought too much of that the praifer pretends not to be a judge; he only fpeaks his own feeling, not with an intent to impofe, but to recommend a treasure to the publick, that for a century has been buried in obfcurity; which when they have feen, he flatters himself that they will think as well of it as he does; and fhould that be the cafe, the following verfes, written by Mr. Ford's contemporaries, will

fhew, that neither the prefent publick, nor the letter-writer, are fingular in their efteem of The Lover's Melancholy.'

"To my honoured friend, Mafter JOHN FORD, on his [excellent play, The] Lover's Melancholy.

If that thou think'st these lines thy worth can raife,
Thou doft miftake; my liking is no praife:

❝ Nor can I think thy judgment is fo ill,

To feek for bays from fuch a barren quill.
Let your true critick that can judge and mend.
Allow thy fcenes, and ftile: I, as a friend
That knows thy worth, do only ftick my name,
To fhew my love, not to advance thy fame."
"G. DONNE.'

On [that excellent play ] The Lover's Melancholy.

'Tis not the language, nor the fore-plac'd rhimes.
Of friends that fhall commend to after-times
The Lover's Melancholy; its own worth
"Without a borrow'd praise fhall fet it forth."

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How far The Lover's Melancholy is entitled to all this high praise, it is not my business at present to inquire. I fhall only obferve, that this kind of prelude to a benefit play appears at that period to

8 The words within crotchets here and below were interpolated by Mr. Macklin, not being found in the original.

9 In the original, this fignature is in Greek characters, Oos; a language with which Mr. Macklin is unacquainted. In this inftance therefore he must have had the affiftance of fome more learned friend.

have been a common artifice. For The Mufes Looking-Glafs, and old comedy of Randolph's, being revived for the benefit of Mr. Ryan in 1748, I find an account of the author, and an high elogium on his works, in the form of a letter, inferted in the month of March, in the fame newspaper.

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In the preceding letter it is obfervable, we are only told that the author of The Lover's Melancholy lived in the ftricteft intimacy with Shakspeare till he died, as appears by feveral of Ford's Sonnets and Verfes (which unluckily, however, are no where to be found); that the piece is inferior to none written before or fince, except those of Shakspeare; that. as Ford was an intimate and profeffed admirer of Shakspeare, and had ftudied under him, it is not to be wondered at that it fhould be written in his manner, and that the author fhould have caught fome portion of his divine excellence: but no hint is yet given, that The Lover's Melancholy had a still higher claim to the attention of the town than being written in Shakspeare's manner, namely its being fuppofed to be compiled from the papers of that great poet, which, after his death, as we shall presently hear, fell into Ford's hands. And yet undoubtedly this valuable piece of information was on Monday the 21ft day of April, (when this letter appears to have been written,) in Mr. Macklin's poffeffion, if ever he was poffeffed of it; for so improbable a circumftance will not, I fuppofe, be urged, as that he found the uncommon pamphlet in which it is faid to be contained, between that day and the following Friday.

Judiciously as the preceding letter was calculated to attain the end for which it was written, it appears

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