More to be fam'd than other? Shall I fay,
I've met a Lover fo drawn in
your Play,
So paffionately written, fo inflam'd,
So jealously inrag'd, then gently tam'd.
That I in reading have the Perfon feen,
And your Pen bath Part Stage and Actor been?
Or fhall I fay, that I can scarce forbear

To clap, when I a* Captain do meet there; [*Beffus
So lively in his own vain Humour dreft,
So braggingly, and like himself expreft,

That modern Cowards, when they faw him play'd,
Saw, blush'd, departed guilty, and betray'd?
You wrote all Parts right; whatfoe'er the Stage
Had from you, was feen there as in the Age,
And had their equal Life: Vices which were
Manners abroad, did grow corrected there:
They who poffeft a Box, and half Crown Spent
To learn Obfceneness, return'd innocent,

L

And thank'd you for this Coz'nage, whofe chafte Scene
Taught Loves fo noble, fo reform'd, fo clean,
That they, who brought foul fires, and thither came
To bargain, went thence with a boly flame.

Be't to your Praise too, that 18 your Stock and Vein
Held both to Tragic and to Comic Strain;
Where-e'er you lifted to be high and

grave, No Buskin fhew'd more folemn; no Quill gave

18

-your Stock and Vein

Held both to Tragic and to Comic Strain.] Mr. Theobald would read Sock and Vein; but then Tragic and Comic in the next Line are mifplac'd, and the Defcriptions of Tragedy and Comedy in the eight next Lines are equally fo; befides, Vein by no means makes a proper Antithefis to Sock or Comedy, and if one Word is abfolutely explicit, Sock for Comedy, the other should be fo too, and Buskin is the Word that answers it. The old Reading, which is, I doubt not, the true one, will bear this Senfe: Your Stock of Underftanding and Knowledge, and your Vein of Wit and Humour are equally excellent in Tragedy and Comedy. VOL. I.

g

Such

Such feeling Objects to draw Tears from Eyes,
Spectators fate Parts in your Tragedies.
And where you lifted to be low and free,
Mirth turn'd the whole Houfe into Comedy;
So piercing (where you pleas'd) hitting a fault,
That Humours from your Pen iffued all Salt.
Nor were you thus in Works and Poems knit,
As to be two halfs, and to make one Wit;
But as fome things, we fee, have double caufe,
And yet the effect itself from both whole draws;
So though you were thus twisted and combin'd,
19 As in two Bodies t' have but one fair Mind";
Yet if we praise you rightly, we must fay,
Both join'd, and both did wholly make the Play.
For that you could write fingly, we may guess
By the divided pieces which the Prefs
Hath feverally fent forth; nor were 2* join'd fo,
Like fome our Modern Authors, made to go

20

21

One

19 As two Bodies to have but one fair Mind ;] Both Senfe and Meafure are here much confus'd, fhould I infert the Reading that pleases beft, it should be,

As your two Bodies had but one fair Mind.

Greater Alterations than from this to the old Text have been often made at Prefs by mere Overfights, but should not be fuppos'd where a smaller Change will restore a Senfe and Measure quite fuitable to the Author's general Stile. I read therefore,

As in two Bodies t' have but one fair Mind. 2. By the divided Pieces which the Press

Hath feverally fent forth;] I have before fhew'd that there were two Comedies wrote by Beaumont fingly, and given fome Reasons why the Nice Valour ought to be deem'd one of them. Whether Mr. Maine in this Place referr❜d to these two Comedies, knowing which they were; or whether he only meant the Mask at Gray's-Inn, which was the only Piece which we know to have been publish'd in Beaumont's Name before thefe Commendatory Poems were publish'd; or whether he spoke in general Terms, without a ftrict adherence to Facts, must be left uncertain. nor were gone fo,

21

Like fome our Modern Authors, made to go

On merely by the help of th' other,] The Word go which ends the next Line, feems to have ran in the Printer's Head, and made him put gone here

instead

One merely by the help of th' other, who
To purchafe Fame do come forth one of two;
Nor wrote you fo, that one's part was to lick
The other into Shape; nor did one stick
The other's cold Inventions with fuch Wit,
As ferv'd, like Spice, to make them quick and fit;
Nor, out of mutual Want, or Emptiness,
Did you confpire to go ftill Twins to th' Prefs;
But what, thus join'd, you wrote, might have come
forth

As good from each, and ftor'd with the fame worth
That thus united them; you did join Senfe;
In you 'twas League, in others Impotence;

22 And the Prefs, which both thus amongst us fends, Sends us one Poet in a pair of Friends.

23 Jasper Maine.

inftead of fome other Word. Mr. Theobald had prevented me in the Emendation: We read join'd so, and as I have his Concurrence, I have the lefs doubt in preferring it to Mr. Sympfon's Conjecture Nor were one f- tho' this latter is very good Senfe and nearer the trace of the Letters, but it would make one be repeated too often, for it is already in the third and fourth Lines after, and 'tis very evident to me that it fhould have been in the Second, for On merely, I read One merely.

22 And the Prefs which both thus amongst us fends,] I believe few of the ancient English Poets knew any Rule of English Verfe but its Number of Syllables, and therefore when their Ear fail'd them, even the beft of them often make the Accents fall upon wrong Syllables. Tho' 'tis poffible, that the Miftakes of the Prefs often spoil'd their Measure by tranfpofing Monofyllables. A fmall Transposition would cure this Line:

And thus the Prefs which both amongst us fends,

See the Rule for English Verfe at Note 5. Wit without Money. 23 Jafper Maine.] This Gentleman was Author of the City Match, a Comedy, and the Amorous War, a Tragi-Comedy. He was an eminent Preacher in the Civil War, but warmly adhering to the King was depriv'd of all his Preferments in Cromwell's Time, and taken for Charity into the Earl of Devonshire's Family, where his Learning, Piety, and Wit, render'd him a proper Advocate for Religion against the famous Mr. Hobbs, then a Tutor in that Family. After the Reftoration he was made Canon of Christ-Church, and Arch-Deacon of Chichester.

Upon the Report of the printing of the Dramatical Poems of Mafter JOHN FLETCHER, collected before, and now fet forth in one Volume.

IX.

Hough when all Fletcher writ, and the entire
Man was indulged to that facred fire,

His Thoughts, and his Thoughts Dress, appear'd Both
fuck,

That 'twas his happy fault to do too much :
Who therefore wifely did fubmit each Birth
To knowing Beaumont e'er it did come forth,
Working again until he faid, 'twas fit,
And made him the Sobriety of his Wit ;
Though thus he call'd his Judge into his Fame,
And for that aid allow'd him half the Name;
'Tis known, that fometimes he did ftand alone,
That both the Spunge and Pencil were his own;
That himself judg'd himself, could fingly do ;
And was at laft Beaumont and Fletcher too:
24 Elfe we had loft bis Shepherdefs, a piece
Even and Smooth, fpun from a finer fleece;
Where foftness reigns, where Paffions Paffions greet,
Gentle and high, as floods of Balfam meet.

Where dress'd in white Expreffions fit bright Loves,
Drawn, like their fairest Queen, by milky Doves;

24 Elfe we had loft bis Shepherdefs.] Mr. Cartwright was a very bright but a very young Man, and feems to tafte our Authors Plays extremely well, but to have known nothing of their Dates and History. He fuppofes the Shepherdess wrote after Beaumont's Death, fo that his Teftimony ought to have no fort of Weight in excluding Beaumont from all fhare in the Compofition of the Plays. He had taken up the Suppofition of Beaumont's being only a Corrector, perhaps merely because Fonfon had celebrated his Judgment; not confidering that he celebrated his Fancy too.

A

A piece, which Jonfon in a Rapture bid
Come up a glorify'd Work; and fo it did.

;

Elfe had his Mufe fet with his Friend; the Stage Had mifs'd thofe Poems, which yet take the Age; The World bad loft thofe rich Exemplars, where Art, Language, Wit, ft ruling in one Sphere; Where the fresh matters foar above old Themes, As Prophets' Raptures do above our Dreams; Where in a worthy scorn he dares refuse All other Gods, and makes the Thing his Mufe'; Where he calls Paffions up, and lays them fo, As Spirits, aw'd by him to come and go ; Where the free Author did what-e'er he would, And nothing will'd but what a Poet Should. No vaft uncivil bulk fwells any Scene, The Strength's ingenious, and the Vigour Clean None can prevent the Fancy, and see through At the firft Opening; all stand wondring how The thing will be, until it is; which thence With fresh Delight ftill cheats, ftill takes the Senfe ; The whole Defign, the Shadows, the Lights fuch, That none can fay he fhews, or bides too much: Bufinefs grows up, ripened by just encrease, And by as juft Degrees again doth cease; The Heats and Minutes of Affairs are watch'd, And the nice Points of Time are met, and snatch'd: Nought later than it should, nought comes before; Chymifts, and Calculators, do err more: Sex, Age, Degree, Affections, Country, Place, The inward Subftance, and the outward Face, All kept precifely, all exactly fit;

What he would write, he was, before he writ. 'Twixt Jonfon's grave, and Shakefpear's lighter Sound, His Mufe fo fteer'd, that fomething ftill was found,

g 3

Nor