Upon the Lines, and Life, of the famous Scenick Poet. Mafter WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Thofe hands which you fo clapp'd, go now and wring, You Britains brave; for done are Shakspeare's days; His days are done that made the dainty plays, Which made the globe of heaven and earth to ring: his merit as a poet, and his conftant affociation with men of letters, did, for a confiderable time, give laws to the flage.' Ben was by nature Splenetic and four; with a fhare of envy, (for every anxious genius has fome) more than was warrantable in fociety. By education rather critically than politely learned; which fwell'd his mind into an oftentatious pride of his own works, and an overbearing inexorable judgment of his contemporaries.' This raised him many enemies, who towards the clofe of his life endeavoured to dethrone this tyrant, as the pamphlet ftiles him, out of the dominion of the theatre. And what greatly contributed to their design, was the flights and malignances which the rigid Ber too frequently threw out against the lowly Shakspeare, whose fame fince his death, as appears by the pamphlet, was grown too great for Ben's envy either to bear with or wound.' It would greatly exceed the limits of your paper to fet down all the contempts and invectives which were uttered and written by Ben, and are colle&ed and produced in this pamphlet, as unanswerable and fhaming evidences to prove his ill-nature and ingratitude to Shakspeare, who firft introduced him to the theatre and fame.' But though the whole of these invectives cannot be fet down at prefent, fome few of the heads may not be disagreeable, which are as follow.' ́ ́ That the man had imagination and wit none could deny, but that they were ever guided by true judgment in the rules and conduct of a piece, none could with juftice affert, both being ever fervile to raife the laughter of fools and the wonder of the ignorant. That he was a good poet only in part, being ignorant of all dramatick laws, had little Latin - lefs Greek and speaking of plays, &c. To make a child new fwaddled, to proceed 'Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed, Paft threefcore years: or, with three rufty fwords, And help of fome few foot-and-half-foot words, Fight over York and Lancaster's long jars, And in the tiring-house bring wounds to scars. ‹ He rather prays you will be pleas'd to see One fuch to-day, as other plays fhould be ; › Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the seas,' &c. 1 Dry'd is that vein, dry'd is the Thefpian fpring, Turn'd all to tears, and Phœbus clouds his rays; That corpfe, that coffin, now beftick thofe bays, Which crown'd him poet first, then poets' king. This and fuch like behaviour, brought Ben at laft from being the lawgiver of the theatre to be the ridicule of it, being perfonally introduced there in feveral pieces, to the fatisfaction of the publick, who are ever fond of encouraging perfonal ridicule, when the follies and vices of the object are fuppofed to deserve it. But what wounded his pride and fame moft fenfibly, was the preference which the publick and moft of his contemporary wits, gave to Ford's LOVER'S MELANCHOLY, before his NEW INN or Light HEART. They were both brought on in the fame week and on the fame ftage; where Ben's was damn'd, and Ford's received with uncommon applaufe: and what made this circumftance ftill more galling, was, that Ford was at the head of the partifans who supported Shakspeare's fame against Ben Jonson's Invelives.' This fo incenfed old Ben, that as an everlafting ftigma upon his 'audience, he prefixed this title to his play "The New Inn, or Light Heart. A comedy, as it was never acted, but most negligently play'd by fome, the King's idle fervants; and more fqueamishly beheld and cenfur'd by others, the King's foolish fubjects." This title is followed by an abufive preface upon the audience and reader.' Immediately upon this, he wrote his memorable ode against the publick, beginning "Come, leave the loathed stage, &c. The revenge he took againft Ford, was to write an epigram on him as a plagiary. Playwright, by chance, hearing toys I had writ, - they were th' elixir of wit.. "And I must now believe him, for to-day Five of my jefts, then floin, pafs'd him a play." alluding to a charader in The Ladies Trial, which Ben fays Ford ftole from him.' The next charge against Ford was, that The Lover's Melancholy was not his own, but purloined from Shakspeare's papers, by the connivance of Heminge and Condel, who in conjunction with Ford, had the revifal of them.' The malice of this charge is gravely refuted, and afterwards laughed at in many verfes and epigrams, the best of which are those that follow, with which I fhall clofe this theatratical extract:' To my worthy friend, John Ford. " 'Tis faid, from Shakspeare's mine your play you drew "What need?-when Shakspeare ftill furvives in you: If tragedies might any prologue have, All thofe he made would fcarce make one to this; Where fame, now that he gone is to the grave, (Death's publick tiring-houfe) the Nuntius is : For, though his line of life went foon about, The life yet of his lines fhall never out. HUGH HOLLAND. 3 But grant it were from his vaft treasury reft, Thomas May. Upon Ben Jonson, and his Zany, Tom Randolph. 'Tis Shakspeare's every word; . Indeed, fays Tom, upon the whole, Thus Ben and Tom the dead ftill praise, "For none muft dare to wear the bays, Mr. Macklin the comedian was the author of this letter; but the. pamphlet which furnished his materials, was loft in its paffage from Ireland. The following ftauza, from a copy of verses by Shirley, prefixed to Ford's Love's Sacrifice, 1633. alludes to the fame difpute, and is apparently addreffed to Ben Jonfon : Look here thou that haft malice to the ftage,, And impudence enough for the whole age; To read this tragedy, and thy owne be next." 3 See Wood's Athena Oxon. edit. 1721. Vol. I. STEEVENS. P. 583. STEEVENS. To the Memory of the deceased Author, Master W. SHAKSPEARE. Shakspeare, at length thy pious fellows give Shall loath what's new, think all is prodigy Of his, thy wit-fraught book fhall once invade : L. DIGGES. To the Memory of Mafter W. SHAKSPEARE. We wonder'd, Shakspeare, that thou went'ft so soon 4 See Wood's Athena Oxonienfes, Vol. I. p. 599 and 600. edit. 1721. His tranflation of Claudian's Rape of Proferpine was entered on the Stationers' books, O& 4. 1617. STEEVENS. To enter with applaufe: an actor's art This a re-entrance to a plaudite. J. M. Upon the effigies of my worthy Friend, the Author, Mafter WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, and his Works.. Spectator, this life's fhadow is; to fee The truer image, and a livelier he, Then weep fo, when thou find'ft two contraries, On worthy Master SHAKSPEARE, and his Poems. A mind reflecting ages paft, whose clear In that deep dufky dungeon, to difcern Perhaps John Marton, STEEVENS. 6 These verfes first appeared in the folio, 1632. name fubfcribed to them. MALONE. There is no |