the fame time I believe it must be allowed, that what nature gave the latter, was more than a balance "That the king's yearly butt wrote, and his wine The writer does not deny the charge, but vindicates his friend by faying that, however flow, He that writes well, writes quick. Verfes on B. Jonfon, by Jasper Mayne. So also another of his Panegyrifts: "Admit his mufe was flow, 'tis judgment's fate In The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, Jonfon is faid to be fo flow an enditer, that he were better betake himself to his old trade of bricklaying. The fame piece furnishes us with the earliest intimation of the quarrel between him and Shakspeare. "Why here's our fellow Shakspeare put them (the university poets) all down, ay, and Ben Jonson too. O, that Ben Jonfon is a peftilent fellow; he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill, but our fellow Shakfpeare hath given him a purge that made him bewray his credit. Fuller, who was a diligent inquirer, and lived near enough the time to be well informed, confirms this account, afferting in his Worthies, 1662, that many were the wit-combats, between Jonfon and our poet. It is a fingular circumftance that old Ben should for near two centuries have ftalked on the ftilts of an artificial reputation; and that even at this day, of the very few who read his works, fcarcely one in ten yet ventures to confefs how little entertainment they afford. Such was the impreffion made on the publick by the extravagant praises of thofe who knew more of books than of the drama, that Dryden in his Effay on Dramatick Poefie, written about 1667, does not venture to go further in his clogium on Shakspeare, than by saying, he was at leaft Jonfon's equal, if not his fuperior; ", and in the preface to his Mock Aftrologer, 1671, he hardly dares to affert, what, in my opinion, cannot be denied, that all Jonfon's pieces, except three or four, are but crambe bis cocta; the fame humours a little varied and written worse.", Ben however did not truft to the praises of others. One of his admirers honeftly confeffes, he "Of whom I write this, has prevented me, And boldly faid fo much in his own praise, "No other pen need any trophy raise." In vain, however, did he endeavour to bully the town into for what books had given the former; and the judgment of a great man upon this occafion was, approbation by telling his auditors, By G-'tis good, and if you like't, you may; and by pouring out againft those who preferred our poet to him, a torrent of illiberal abufe; which, as Mr. Walpole juftly obferves, fome of his contemporaries were willing to think wit, because they were afraid of it: for, notwithstanding all his arrogant boafts, notwithstanding all the clamor of his partizans both in his own life-time and for fixty years after his death, the truth is, that his pieces, when first performed, were fo far from being applauded by the people, that they were fcarcely endured; and many of them were actually damned. the fine plush and velvets of the age "Did oft for fixpence damn thee from the ftage,» fays one of his eulogifts in Jonfonius Virbius, 4to. 1638. Jonfon himself owns that Sejanus was damned. It is a poem," fays he, in his dedication to lord Aubigny, that, if I well remember, in your lordship's fight fuffered no lefs violence from our people here, than the subject of it did from the rage of the people of Rome.", His friend E. B. (probably Edmund Bolton,) fpeaking of the fame performance, fays, "But when I view'd the people's beastly rage, Bent to confound thy grave and learned toil, "That coft thee fo much fweat and fo much oil, "My indignation I could hardly affuage." 66 Again, in his dedication of Catiline to the earl of Pembroke, the author fays, Pofterity may pay your benefit the honor and thanks, when it fhall know that you dare in thefe jig-given times to countenance a legitimate poem. I must call it so, against all noife of opinion, from whofe crude and ayrie reports I appeal to that great and fingular facultie of judgment in your lordship. " See alfo the Epilogue to Every man in his humor, by lord Buckhurft, quoted below in the Account of our old English Theatres, ad finem. To his teftimony and that of Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, (there alfo mentioned,) may be added that of Leonard Digges in his Verfes on Shakfpeare, and of Sir Robert Howard, who fays in the preface to his plays, folio, 1665, (not thirty years after Ben's death,). When I confider how fevere the former age has been to fome of the best of Mr. Jonfon's neverto-be-equall'd comedies, I cannot but wonder, why any poet fhould fpeak of former times." The truth is, that however extravagant the elogiums were that a few scholars gave him in I think, very just and proper. In a converfation between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eton, and Ben Jonfon, Sir John Suckling, who was a profeffed admirer of Shakspeare, had undertaken his defence against Ben Jonfon with fome warmth; Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told them," That if Mr. Shakspeare had not read the ancients, he had likewife not ftolen any thing from them; and that if he would produce any one topick finely treated by any one of them, he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakspeare. their closets, he was not only not admired in his own time by the generality, but not even understood. His friend Beaumont affures him in a copy ofverfes, that his fenfe is so deep that he will not be underflood for three ages to come.", MALONE. 9 Mr. Hales, who had fat ftill for fome time, told them,) In Mr. Rowe's firft edition this paffage runs thus : Mr. Hales, who had fat still for fome time, hearing Ben frequently reproach him with the want of learning and ignorance of the antients, told him at last, That if Mr. Shakspeare,,, &c. By the alteration, the fubfequent part of the fentence if he would produce,,, &c. is rendered ungrammatical. MALONE. he would undertake to fhew fomething upon the fame fubject at least as well written by Shakspeare.) I had long endeavoured in vain to find out on what authority this relation was founded; and have very lately difcovered that Mr. Rowe probably derived his information from Dryden: for in Gildon's Letters and Effays, published in 1694, fifteen years before this Life appeared, the fame ftory is told; and Dryden, to whom an Effay in vindication of Shakspeare is addreffed, is appealed to by the writer as his authority. As Gildon tells the ftory with fome flight variations from the account given by Mr. Rowe, and the book in which it is found is now extremely searce, I shall fubjoin the paffage in his own words : But to give the world fome fatisfaction that Shakspeare has had as great veneration paid his excellence by men of unqueftioned parts, as this I now exprefs for him, I fhall give fome account of what I have heard from your mouth, fir, about the noble triumph he gained over all the ancients, by the judge. ment of the ableft criticks of that time. 1 The latter part of his life was spent, as all men The matter of fact, if my memory fail me not, was this. Mr. Hales of Eton affirmed, that he would fhew all the poets of antiquity out-done by Shakspeare, in all the topicks and common-places made ufe of in poetry. The enemies of Shakspeare would by no means yield him fo much excellence; fo that it came to a refolution of a trial of skill upon that fubject. The place agreed on for the difpute was Mr. Hales's chamber at Eton. A great many books were fent down by the enemies of this poet; and on the appointed day my lord Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the perfons of quality that had wit and learning, and interefted themfelves in the quarrel, met there; and upon a thorough difquifition of the point, the judges chofen by agreement out of this learned and ingenious affembly, unanimoufly gave the preference to Shakspeare, and the Greek and Roman poets were adjudged to vail at leaft their glory in that, to the English Hero. " This elogium on our author is likewife recorded at an earlier period by Tate, probably from the fame authority, in the preface to the Loyal General, quarto, 1680: Our learned Hales was wont to affert, that, fince the time of Orpheus, and the oldeft poets, no common-place has been touched upon, where our author has not performed as well.", Dryden himfelfalfo certainly alludes to this ftory, which he appears to have related both to Gildon and Rowe, in the following paffage of his Effay of Dramatick Poely, 1667; and he as well as Gildon goes fomewhat further than Rowe in his panegyrick. After giving that fine character of our poet which Dr. Johnfon has quoted in his preface, he adds, The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton fay, that there was no fubject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it MUCH BETTER done by Shakspeare; and however others are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonfon, never equalled them to him in their efteem: And in the laft king's court (that of Charles I.) when Ben's reputation was at higheft, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers fet our Shakspeare far above him.", Let ever-memorable Hales, if all his other merits be forgotten, be ever mentioned with honor, for his good tafte and admiration of our poet. He was, " fays Lord Clarendon, one of the leaft men in the kingdom; and one of the greatest scholars in Europe. See a long character of him in Clarendon's Life, Vol. I. P. 52. MALONE. of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in cafe, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,' and, in that, to his wifh; and is faid to have spent fome years before his death at his, native Stratford. His pleafureable wit and good › He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,) Gildon, without authority, I believe, fays, that our author left behind him an eftate of 300l. per ann. This was equal to at leaft 1000l. per ann. at this day; the relative value of money, the mode of living in that age, the luxury and taxes of the prefent time, and various other circumftances, being confidered. But I doubt whether all his property amounted to much more than 2001. per ann. which yet was a confiderable fortune in thofe times. He appears from his grand-daughter's will to have poffeffed in Bishopton, and Stratford Welcombe, four yard land and a half. A yard land is a denomination well known in Warwickshire, and contains from 30 to 60 acres. The average therefore being 45, four yard land and a half may be estimated at about two hundred acres. As fixteen years purchase was the common rate at which land was fold at that time, that is, one half lefs than at this day, we may fuppofe that these lands were let at feven fhillings per acre, and produced 70l. per annum. If we rate the New-Place with the appurtenances, and our poet's other houfes in Stratford, at Gol. a year, and his houfe &c. in the Blackfriars, (for which he pay'd 1401.) at 20l. a year, we have a rent-roll of 150l. per annum. Of his perfonal property it is not now poffible to form any accurate eftimate: but if we rate it at five hundred pounds, money then bearing an interest of ten per cent, Shakspeare's total income was 200l. per ann.* In The Merry Wives of Windfor, which was written foon after the year 1600, Three hundred pounds a year is defcribed as an estate of fuch magnitude as to cover all the defects of its poffeffor: "O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults 4 "Look handfome in three hundred pounds a year." MALONE. to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.) In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was con To Shakspeare's income from his real and perfonal property must be added L. 200 per Ann. which he probably derived from the theatre, while he continued on the itage. See Vol. III. p. 179; VOL. 1. C |