with great wit and fancy, and will live accordingly; and surely as he did exceedingly exalt the English language in eloquence, propriety and masculine expressions, so he was the judge of and fittest to prescribe rules to poetry and poets, of any man who had lived with, or before him, or since, if Mr. Cowley had not made a flight beyond all men, with that modesty yet, as to ascribe much of this example and learning to Ben Jonson. His conversation was very good, and with men of most note; and he had for many years an extraordinary kindness for Mr. Hyde (Lord Clarendon), till he found he betook himself to business, which he believed ought never to be preferred before his company."

From this and from other accounts that might be quoted, it is inferred that Jonson, in his life-time, occupied a high station in the literary world. So many memorials of character, and so many eulogia on his talents have fallen to the lot of few writers of that age. His failings, however, were so conspicuous as occasionally to obscure his virtues. Addicted to intemperance, with the unequal temper which habitual intemperance creates, and disappointed in the hopes of wealth and independence which his opinion of his own talents led him to form, he degenerated even to the resources of a libeller, who extorts from fear what is denied to genius, and became arrogant, and careless of pleasing those with whom he associated. He was hailed by his contemporaries as the reformer of the Stage, and as the most learned of the critics : he did for the lovers of drama what had never been done before, and he furnished examples of regular comedy which have not been surpassed. His memory was remarkably tenacious, and his learning superior to that of most of his contemporaries. Pope gives him the credit of having brought critical learning into vogue, and for having instructed both actors and spectators in what was the proper province of the dramatic muse. He has been regarded as the first person who has done much with respect to the grammar of the English language." This and his " Discoveries," both written in his advanced years, discover an attachment to the interests of literature, and a habit of reflection, which place his character as a scholar in a very favourable point of view. Dryden

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considers Jonson as the greatest man of his age, and observes that if we look upon him when he was himself, he was the most learned and judicious writer any theatre ever had.

It is certain that his character as a dramatic writer has not descended undiminished. Of his fifty dramas, there are not above three which preserve his name on the Stage, but those indeed are excellent. It was his misfortune to be obliged to dissipate on court-masks and pageants, those talents, which concentrated might have furnished dramas equal to his " Volpone," Alchymist," and the Silent Woman." Contrasted with the boundless and commanding genius of Shakspeare, Dr. Johnson has hit his character very successfully in his celebrated prologue:

Then Jonson came, instructed from the school

To please by method and invent by rule!
His studious patience, and laborious art,
With regular approach essayed the heart;
Cold approbation gave the lingering bays,
For they who durst not censure, scarce could praise.

THE PREFACE.

THE favourable reception, which the 'labours of those applauded men have met with from the publick, who have given new and correct editions of our English poets, illustrated with notes, was a principal inducement for publishing the works of Jonson in the same manner. A good edition of this author was much wanted; and if properly performed, would be deserving well of our literature and language. It is only to be wished, that the edition now presented to the reader, may be executed with as much taste and judgment, as those which have preceded it in the same kind of criticism.

The plan which we have followed, is what a just criticism upon any author doth naturally require. Care hath been taken, to exhibit the text with the utmost correctness; and notes are added, to explain those places which seemed most to need them. These are of two kinds; such as illustrate his sentiments, and such as point out and support the peculiar marks of his appropriate character. Under the first of these, are included the obscurities of diction and expression, and what arise from allusions to the customs of the age, and the fashions then in use. The second chiefly consists of passages from antient authors, which Jonson, who had various and extensive learning, hath imitated or adopted as his own. In printing the text, we have had a much easier task, than the ingenious editors of our other dramatic poets; for a folio volume of Jonson's works was printed in his life-time, and under his own inspection; so that we have an authentic copy for our pattern, and which we found of great use in correcting the mistakes of subsequent editions. In following this copy we had little else to do, than to set right some errors of the press, and a corrupted passage or two, which seem to have been derived from the same source. That part of his works which were published after his death, was undoubtedly printed from his original manuscripts; but as they had not the benefit of the author's revisal, there are many more, as well as more material blunders in that volume, than in the volume I have just now men tioned; but these mistakes are now, as we hope, properly emended, though it is possible that some may have escaped our notice; and it

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is probable too, that an inattentive reader may suspect some other places to be faulty, which are really sound and uncorrupt; for there are two mistakes, and both proceeding from the same cause, which an editor of Jonson's works may be led to commit. The cause I mean, is his references and allusions. In one case, he is tempted to an alteration of the text, in order to preserve an allusion, which he imagines the poet had, or, which with some criticks is the same, which he imagines the poet ought to have had then in his mind. In the other case, he gets rid of the obscurity by an alteration of the text, when he should only have explained the passage, and pointed out the allusion that was couched in it. There is another peculiarity deserving notice, which hath caused some ingenious criticks to question the received reading of the text, and to substitute their conjectures in its place; and this is, the latinized phraseology, and hard construction, with the brevity and conciseness of Jonson's style. But the difficulties from hence arising, should be cleared by a comment and explanation, without ejecting the lawful possessors from their proper rights. For it frequently happens, that almost every author, by the comparison and collation of similar passages, will in many instances explain himself; and when a tolerable sense can be assigned, we should not hastily proceed to a fanciful and arbitrary change. Absolute nonsense indeed must be cured by whatever method we can; and if an easy conjectural alteration will lead us into light from darkness, there is the highest reason to receive it as true. The mere improvement of a writer's sense, can never authorize the alteration of his words; for should this be once admitted as a canon of true criticism, what defence is left us against the wildest guesses, and the most extravagant conjectures of absurd imagination? Criticks of this adventurous and daring temper, must proceed upon the following maxims; that the author did certainly use the most significant and proper word, and that his commentator is the sole infallible judge of what is so. I have therefore ventured to insert my own conjectures in the text, in these cases only; when the best explanation given, would be but blundering round about a meaning, and when no assistance could be had from any of the printed copies; and lastly, when the emendation approaching nearly to the traces of the former reading, would evidently shew that the mistake was occasioned by the negligence of the editor or printer.

With respect to Jonson's character as a writer, he is universally allowed to have been the most learned and judicious poet of his age. His learning indeed is to be seen in almost every thing he wrote; and sometimes perhaps it may appear, where we could wish it might not be seen, although he seldom transgresseth in this point; for a just decorum and preservation of character, with propriety of circumstance and of language, are his striking excellencies, and emninently distinguish his correctness and art. What he borroweth from the

antients, he generally improves by the use and application, and by this means he improved himself, in contending to think, and to express his thoughts like them; and accordingly those plays are the best, in which we find most imitations or translations from classic authors; but he commonly borrows with the air of a conqueror, and adorns himself in their dress, as with the spoils and trophies of victory.

To make a proper estimation of his merits, as a dramatic writer, we are to consider what was the state of the Drama, and the usual practice of the stage-writers in those early times; and what alterations and improvements it received from the plays of Jonson. Shakspeare, and Beaumont and Fletcher, are the only contemporary writers that can be put in competition with him; and as they have excellencies of genius superior to those of Jonson, they have weaknesses and defects which are proportionably greater. If they transcend him in the creative powers, and the astonishing flights of imagination, their judgment is much inferior to his and if he doth not at any time rise so high, neither perhaps doth he sink so low as they have done. We mean not to insinuate any thing to the discredit of Jonson's genius; yet his fancy had, perhaps, exerted itself with greater energy and strength, had he been less a poet, or less acquainted with the antient models. Struck with the correctness and truth of composition in the old classicks, and inflamed by passionate admiration to emulate their beauties, he was insensibly led to imagine, that equal honours were due to successful imitation, as to original and unborrowed thinking. Jonson was naturally turned to industry and reading: and as to treasure up knowledge must be the exercise and work of memory, by the assiduous employment of that faculty, he would necessarily be less disposed to exert the native inborn spirit of genius and invention: and as his memory was thus fraught with the stores of antient poetry, the sentiments impressed upon his mind, would easily intermix and assimilate with his own; and when transfused into the language of his country, would appear to have all the graces and the air of novelty. It is owing to these reasons, that Jonson became constrained in his imagination, and less original in his sentiments and thoughts; but from hence he obtained that severity of collected judgment, and that praise of art, which have given his authority the greatest weight in the decisions and the laws of criticism.

Enlightened with these assistances, Jonson was enabled to see through, and effectually to surmount the prejudices of vulgar practice and by a departure from the beaten track of unreasonable custom, he struck at once into the less frequented road of probability and nature. Let us proceed then to examine what was the reigning mode in the composition of our antient drama. In designing the plots of their several comedies, our old poets ge