No More Learning

Jusserand, J. J. , 'Ben Jonson's Views of Shakespeare's Art,' in Works of
Shakespeare, 1907, vol. x, pp. 297–321.


## p. 3 (#21) ###############################################

Early Life. Every Man in His Humour 3
The events of his life', apart from his writings, can here be
traced only in meagre outline. He was born in Westminster in 1572
or 1573, and 'poorly brought-up,' working, probably, at the trade of
his step-father, a bricklayer. In spite of poverty, however, he
was sent to Westminster school, where Camden, his life-long friend,
was master. He did not enter either university', although, later,
he received honorary degrees from both; and the details of his
life for a decade after he left school are unknown. He married,
possibly in 1592, a wife'curst but honest'; had several children,
none of whom survived him;
enlisted and served a time in
Flanders; and, in 1597, is found employed as both actor and play-
wright by Henslowe. He must have already won considerable
reputation as a dramatist, for, in 1598, Meres, in his Palladis
Tamia, mentions him as one of the six most excellent in tragedy.
On 22 September 1598, he killed a fellow actor, Gabriel Spencer,
in a duel. His goods were confiscated and he was branded with a
T; but he escaped capital punishment by pleading benefit of clergy.
While in prison, he became a Roman Catholic; but, twelve years
later, he returned to the church of England.
In the same year, 1598, and according to a letter of Sir Toby
Matthew to Dudley Carleton, just before the duel with Spencer,
Jonson's Every Man in His Humour was acted with great success
by the Chamberlain's men, Shakespeare's company. The tradi-
tion, preserved by Rowe, that the play was accepted through
Shakespeare's efforts, may be founded on truth, but, manifestly, is
erroneous in particulars. The play marks the beginning of a
revolutionary movement in dramatic methods and the institution
of a new species, the comedy of 'humours. ' It is an important
turning point in the course of the Elizabethan drama, and
furnishes an announcement of Jonson's programme for the rest of
his dramatic career. In the half-dozen years, however, which
immediately followed its production, Jonson failed to write any
comedy of comparable merit or of equal popular success. He
seems to have been a sort of free lance, writing now for one
1 The chief recent authorities for the life of Jonson are Fleay, F. G. , English
Drama, 1559—1642, 2 vols. 1891; Ward, A. W. , vol. II, pp. 298 ff. ; Herford, C. H. ,
art. in Dict. of Nat. Biogr. ; Castelain, M. , Ben Jonson, l'Homme et l'Euvre, 1907.
See, also, Small, R. A. , The Stage Quarrel between Ben Jonson and the so-called
Poetasters, 1899. A life by Gregory Smith is promised in the English Men of
Letters Series.
2 Certain indications—they cannot be called evidence-in favour of the supposition
that Jonson, about 1590, was resident for a short time at St John's college, Cambridge,
are discussed by J. Bass Mullinger in The Eagle, vol. xxv (1904).
&
1-2


## p. 4 (#22) ###############################################

4
Ben Jonson
company and now for another? ; and the carrying out of his
programme for reforming the drama was hindered both by the
necessity of suiting the immediate stage demand, and by quarrels
with his fellow dramatists, Munday, Marston, Dekker and, possibly,
Shakespeare. Every Man out of His Humour, acted 1599
by the Chamberlain's men, carries on the comedy of humours
without dramatic success; Cynthia's Revels and Poetaster, both
acted in 1600 by the children of the chapel, are interesting
as satires rather than as dramas. They were concerned with the
famous stage quarrel between Jonson and his foes. Probably,
there was some personal satire in the earlier of these plays, and its
successor attacked Marston and Dekker, calling forth Dekker's
rejoinder, Satiro-mastix. Jonson seems to have replied to
Dekker only in his Apologetical Dialogue, withdrawn after it had
been once on the stage, and appended to the first edition of
Poetaster. In this, Jonson refused to carry the quarrel further,
and promised to forsake comedy for tragedy. In 1598—9, he was
also writing for Henslowe's companies, both in collaboration and
alone, on plays not now extant, and, in 1600—1, he prepared for
Henslowe additions to The Spanish Tragedie, presumably those
of the edition of 1602. Two other plays, The Case is Altered
and A Tale of a Tub (in an early form), belong to this period.
In Sejanus, acted by Shakespeare's company in 1603, Jonson
carried his theories of dramatic art into tragedy. The 'war of the
theatres' was now over, and his reconciliations were made with his
enemies; furthermore, the accession of James I brought him
acceptable employment—for an entertainment at Althorp, and, in
collaboration with Dekker, for the royal progress in London.
Jonson seems to have been living at this time with lord d'Aubigny
and to have won the patronage of several men of prominence; but,
apparently, he had made enemies as well as friends at court. In
connection with Sejanus, he was accused by the earl of Northampton
of papacy and treason; and, in connection with Eastward Hoe,
1604/5, he was imprisoned with his collaborators, Marston and
Chapman. Letters by Jonson and Chapman, recently discovered
1 The attempt to trace him back and forth from one company to another has led
Fleay and his followers into many errors.
2 The most satisfactory account of this conflict is given by Small, R. A. , op. cit.
An interpretation opposed to Small's is held by Fleay, Penniman, J. H. , War of the
Theaters, 1897, and Schelling, F. E. They are in general agreement; especially in
giving Jonson's enmity for Daniel a large importance. Penniman and Schelling
identify Matthew in Every Man in His Humour with Daniel. (See also below as
to Bartholomew Fayre. )


## p. 5 (#23) ###############################################

Maturity. Prosperity
5
.
by Bertram Dobell", probably refer to this later imprisonment'.
Jonson, though fearing the loss of his ears, apparently escaped
without punishment.
The year 1605, moreover, marked not only the escape from
these difficulties but the beginning of Jonson's happiest days. His
Masque of Blacknesse was the first of the long series with which he
delighted the court of James; and his comedy Volpone achieved a
triumph both in London theatres and upon its presentation at
the two universities. The ensuing decade was Jonson's prime.
He produced his four masterly comedies: Volpone in 1605 or 1606*,
The Silent Women (Epicoene) in 1609, The Alchemist in 1610 and
Bartholomew Fayre in 1614; and his tragedy Catiline in 1611;
he wrote nearly all the important masques for the court, and won
increasing favour with his patrons and the king; and, at the
Mermaid tavern, which beheld his wit-combats with Shakespeare
and the meetings vividly described by Beaumont, he gained recog-
nition as a leader among London poets and wits. Of his occupa-
tions outside literature, we know little, except that he was employed
in connection with the discovery of the gunpowder treason, and,
in 1613, was tutor to Ralegh's son in France.
In 1616, there appeared a folio edition of his works, carefully
edited“, including his entertainments, masques and plays (except
The Case is Altered already produced, with collections of
poems
entitled Epigrams and The Forest. This edition set an example -
for the recognition of the drama as literature. In the same year,
his play The Divell is an Asse was acted; and, in 1618, he made a
pedestrian expedition to Scotland, where he was entertained by the
literati of Edinburgh, and was a guest of the poet Drummond of
Hawthornden, who proved an unadmiring Boswell. On his return,
he spent some time at Oxford, where he met with the welcome due
to him as a scholar and a poet. In 1616, he had been granted a
pension of a hundred marks, and, later, he received the reversion
to the mastership of the revels; but he did not live to enjoy the
benefits of that lucrative office. This was an era of great prosperity
for Jonson. James considered the question of making him a
knight; his masques continued to be received with great favour at
1 The Athenæum, March-April, 1901; reprinted in F. E. Schelling's ed. Eastward Hoe.
· For a different opinion and a summary of all the evidence, see Castelain, Ben
Jonson, appendix C, p. 901.
3 Fleay and Holt, L. H. , Jr. , Mod. Lang. Notes, 1905, find evidence for dating the
play early in 1606, probably in March.
* Probably edited by Jonson 1611–12. The later masques are edited less carefully.
See Fleay, vol. 1, p. 349; Castelain, p. 46.


## p. 6 (#24) ###############################################

6
Ben Jonson
successes.
court; and he was able to withdraw entirely from the public stage.
At the Apollo room in the Devil tavern he had established a
new court of wits, whither young poets thronged to hail him as
oracle. Outside literary circles as within, his friends included the
greatest and worthiest of the time—Camden, Selden, Clarendon,
Falkland, d'Aubigny, the Pembrokes and the Cecils? Clarendon
tells us that ‘his conversation was very good and with men of most
note. '
The later years of Jonson's life brought many misfortunes. All
his books and several manuscripts of unpublished works were
burnt in 1623? , the year in which the Shakespeare folio appeared,
introduced by Jonson's fine tribute. Within a few years, he
was suffering from paralysis and dropsy, and had become much
bed-ridden. After an interval of nine years he now again essayed
the public stage; but his comedies, The Staple of Newes, acted in
1625, The New Inne, in 1629, The Magnetick Lady, in 1632, and the
revised Tale of a Tub, in 1633, were either failures or only partial
With the accession of Charles I, Jonson seems, for a
time, to have lost favour at court; and, later, a quarrel with the
architect Inigo Jones led to loss of employment as a writer of
masques. Jonson’s appeals to the king, however, brought a gift of
one hundred pounds in 1629, and, later, the increase of his pension
from a hundred marks to a hundred pounds, together with the
grant of an annual butt of canary. He succeeded Middleton in the
office of city chronologer in 1628, and, when he was deprived of this
because of neglecting his duties, the king obtained his restoration
in 1635. In 1631, after an interval of six years, he wrote two
court masques ; and, in 1633 and 1634, he prepared two entertain-
ments for the king at the earl of Newcastle's. On 6 August 1637,
Jonson died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey; the trouble-
some times that ensued prevented the erection of a monument in
his memory; but the inscription of a chance admirer upon his
grave has proved unforgettable: 'O rare Ben Jonson ! '
Among his unpublished manuscripts were a collection of mis-
cellaneous poems entitled Underwoods, Timber: or, Discoveries :
made upon men and matter, a translation of Ars Poetica, a frag-
i See lists of persons mentioned in his work, Fleay, Biog. Chron. vol. 1, pp. 335-340.
2 See his Execration upon Vulcan for a list of lost works: a translation of Ars
Poetica, with a commentary from Aristotle, an English grammar, a poetical narrative
of his journey to Scotland, a poem in three books on the rape of Proserpine, a history
of Henry V, philological collections of twenty-four years and humbler gleanings in
divinity. '


## p. 7 (#25) ###############################################

His Eminence in Letters
7
ment of a tragedy The Fall of Mortimer! , the English Grammar
a
and an unfinished pastoral The Sad Shepherd? These were
included in the second folio edition of his works, published in 1640.
A collection of memorial verses, edited by Bryan Duppa, bishop of
Winchester, appeared in 1637/8, under the title Jonsonus Virbius,
and contained eulogies from the most famous men of the time.
Even a brief summary of Jonson's life indicates its im-
portance in the history of literature. The forty years of his
literary career were marked by varied and influential activity in
both prose and verse, in other forms as well as the drama, and as
a critic no less than as a creator. Four or five of his plays won
immediate recognition as masterpieces of realistic comedy; his
tragedies, also, were regarded as models; and his masques were
not the least important source of his contemporary reputation.
As a scholar, he was highly regarded; as a writer of occasional
verse, he was the laureate of James and Charles and the
leader of the younger poets of the early seventeenth century;
as a critic, seeking the reform of abuses and the definition and
maintenance of standards of literary art, he exercised an influence
comparable to that of Dryden or Samuel Johnson on later genera-
tions. During the major part of his career, he was a sort of literary
dictator, encouraging or restraining the literary endeavours of his
fellow craftsmen, by means of his conversation as much as of his
published writings. Though Jonson was often opposed to pre-
vailing fashions, no other writer so comprehensively represents
the course of English literature from the end of the sixteenth
century to the outbreak of the civil war.
Of the significance of his criticism, we can now form an idea
only through a study of the fragmentary comments in his
Discoveries, Conversations with Drummond, prologues and pre-
faces, taken in connection with his actual poetic and dramatic
practices. A reconstruction of that criticism, therefore, can be
only hypothetical and partial, and must be concerned, mainly,
with his own work in the drama. But it should be observed that,
in the main, his career was a consistent application of certain
fundamental views of literary art. These comprised a high estima-
tion of the dignity and value of literature, a complete acceptance
1 The Fall of Mortimer was completed by William Mountfort and published in 1731.
Later, in 1763, it was revived, acted and published with a satirical dedication by Wilkes
to Bute. Schelling, Eliz. Drama, vol. I, p. 306, apparently connects Jonson's fragment
with the non-extant play mentioned by Henslowe.
• Published as completed by Waldron, F. G. , 1783. See Greg's reprint in Bang's
Materialien, vol. xi, 1905.


## p. 8 (#26) ###############################################

8
Ben Jonson
a
of classical authors as the great models and, also, a clear re-
cognition of the high opportunity and great achievement of English
poetry and drama. Further, Jonson believed in a painstaking,
laborious and self-conscious art, dictated, in some measure, by
standards and rules as well as by individual genius or caprice.
He worked with the precepts and definitions of Poetics and
Ars Poetica for guides, and he desired judgment and approval
only from those acquainted with these standards. Hence, at times,
he was rigid in adhering to rules, given overmuch to imitation
of the classics and slow to accept modern achievement when it
seemed foreign to ancient law and precedent. He demanded a
workmanship that laboured over details, and he was suspicious of
eccentricity, incongruity, or fantasy, whether in figure and rhythm,
or in structure and treatment. In an age of romanticism, he was,
in some degree, a classicist and a realist—the former, in his rever-
ence for the masterpieces of Greece and Rome, in his view of art as
imitating nature by means of fixed forms and regularised methods
and in his insistence on restraints and proprieties; the latter, in his
fidelity to details, and in his preference, whether in theme or ex-
pression, for the actual rather than the splendid, the 'usual rather
than the adventurous and the general rather than the fantastic.
Jonson's non-dramatic writings include two unfinished works
in prose, both in the nature of compilations. His English
Grammarl has little interest for anyone today; Timber, or
Discoveries, however, contains miscellaneous observations of
striking pith and eloquence and the matter for an essay on style or
literary art. Swinburne, in a successful effort to recall Discoveries
to general appreciation, devoted the major part of his Ben Jonson
(1889) to praise of this production, declaring, with characteristic
extravagance, that it outweighs in value all the dramatic works,
and is, in comparison with Bacon's Essays, superior ‘in truth of
insight, in breadth of view, in vigour of reflection and in concision
of eloquence. When the attention of scholars was directed to the
book, the extent of its indebtedness to Latin writers became
gradually apparent. Jonson’s sub-title, 'made upon men and
matter: as they have flow'd out of his daily Readings; or had
their refluxe to his peculiar Notion of the Times,' had always
been accepted as describing a sort of commonplace book, in
which citations from his reading and original observations were
mingled; but investigation has reduced the original element to
a minimum. Schelling was the first to trace a large number
1 Ed. Waite, Alice W. , New York, 1909.
(


## p. 9 (#27) ###############################################

>
Epigrams. The Forest
9
of borrowings; Spingamn and others added to the list; which,
recently, Maurice Castelain has so extended that it seems to
include nearly everything in the book! A few observations
on contemporaries remain wholly Jonson’s, and the impress
of his individuality is apparent even in direct translation. The
book also shows the opinions that he selected and shared, and
the wide range of his reading, especially in later classical writers,
such as Seneca, Pliny and Quintilian, and in renascence scholars,
Erasmus, the Scaligers, Lipsius and Heinsius.
In his non-dramatic poetry, Jonson rarely attains high excel-
lence. A large portion belongs to the class headed ‘miscellaneous’
in collected editions, and is of interest rather for the information
which it supplies as to his friends and patrons, and for its satirical
pictures of contemporary life, than for any charm of verse. Few
of the odes, epistles and epigrams show aught but careful writing,
but there are also few that can be praised unreservedly or read with
delight. The Epigrams (1616) are characteristically coarse; and
some of the satirical sort recall the persons of his comedies; as
those on alchemists, Lieutenant Shift, Court Worm, Sir Voluptuous
Beast, or Lady Would Be. Others are laudatory in praise of
Camden, Donne or Sylvester, or the poet's noble patrons, or the
king. Perhaps the best of these is that on Lucy countess of
Bedford But the only epigram that has been widely re-
membered is the beautiful epitaph on the child actor, Salathiel
Pavy. The fifteen poems that compose The Forest, taken as a
whole, are of a higher order than the Epigrams; but, except the
immortal ‘Drink to me only with thine eyes's, none, today, has
much interest beyond what is historical. In spite of occasional fine
lines, their style is fatally marred by that stiffness with which
Swinburne justly charges Jonson's verse. To Penshurst, written
in heroic couplets, is one of the best—sober, dignified, adequate.
The lyric note is absolutely wanting in most. A vocabulary that
seems purposely prosaic and realistic, an absence of figures, correct-
ness and sanity of expression—these are the qualities of Dryden's
verse; but Jonson's has neither Dryden's animation nor his melody,
This description, in general, also applies to Underwoods", a
much larger collection, not published until after Jonson’s death.
1 Cf. ante, vol. iv, pp. 348—9, and see ibid. p. 524, for a list of writings in which
the sources of Discoveries have been investigated. To these should be added Briggs,
W. D. , Mod. Lang. Notes, Feb. 1908.
2 Fleay attempts to date the individual epigrams, vol. I, pp. 316—322.
* Richard Cumberland, in The Observer, No. 74, was the first to point out that
this lyric is a free translation from Philostratus.
• The famous epitaph on the countess of Pembroke, now usually included in


## p.
10 (#28) ##############################################

IO
Ben Jonson
Two groups begin the collection—the first of devotional pieces, and
the second of love poems forming A Celebration of Charis. The
miscellaneous poems that follow include the charming A Nymphs
Passion, the graceful Dreame, a long series of eulogistic verses
the best and most famous of which is the poem to Shakespeare, a
sonnet to lady Mary Wroth and several epistles, of which that
entitled An Epistle to a Friend, to perswade him to the Warres
(Master Colby) (xxxii), in terse, vigorous couplets, may be
instanced as representative of Jonson's satirical verse at its best.
A series of four elegies (lvii—Ix) in regard to a lover's quarrel is
quite different from the rest of the poems, and quite in the manner
of Donne. The second of these (lviii), indeed, appeared in the 1633
edition of Donne's poems, and, doubtless, should be assigned to him.
But if this be given to him, why not the other three? ? It is true
that reminiscences of Donne are found elsewhere in Underwoods,
and that Jonson may have been writing in direct imitation; but
the four poems deal with the same subject and, apparently,
express the feelings of the same lover. The remaining poems in
Underwoods include An Execration upon Vulcan, one of the best
of the occasional poems; the elaborate and regular Pindaric ode on
the death of Sir H. Morison, which contains the beautiful strophe
beginning
It is not growing like a tree
In bulke, doth make men better bee . . . ,
and the curious Eupheme; or, the faire fame. . . of. . . Lady
Venetia Digby, which begins with the dedication of her cradle'
and rises to its height in the picture of the mind':
Thou entertaining in thy brest
But such a Mind, mak'st God thy Guest.
The impression made by Jonson’s non-dramatic poetry, as a
whole, falls far short of that produced by the half-dozen short
lyrics which, alone, have survived in men's memories. These
have a unique and happy grace, a sure touch of immortality. And
the two songs, To Celia (“Drink to me only with thine eyes') and
'Goddess excellently bright*,' have the allurement of Elizabethan
Underwoods, was first printed as Jonson's in the edition of Peter Whalley (1756).
Weighty, though by no means decisive, evidence that it was written by William Browne
is given by Bullen, A. H. , in his article on Browne in Dict. of Nat. Biogr. (Cf. ante,
vol. iv, p. 124, where it is assigned to Browne. )
| The numbering follows Cunningham's edition.
· Castelain, pp. 801—4, would give these to Donne. See, also, Swinburne, p. 106;
Fleay, Biog. Chron. vol. 1, pp. 326, 328 ; and E. K. Chambers's edition of Donne,
vol. 1, p. 241 and vol. 11, p. 307. Cl. , on this subject, ante, vol. 1v, p. 209.
8 The refrain of Hesperus's song in Cynthia's Revels, act v, sc. 3.


## p. 11 (#29) ##############################################

Non-Dramatic Poems. The Sad Shepherd 11
poetry at its best. On the other hand, the great majority of his
poems are lacking in melody, charm, or distinction. They are the
work of a forerunner of classicism, of one who departs from Spenser,
and looks forward to Dryden. The frequent choice of occasional
subjects, the restriction to definite forms, the prevalence of satire
-all tend toward pseudo-classicism. Moreover, as Schelling has
shown, the character of the versification, the use of the rimed
couplet, the prosaic vocabulary, the avoidance of enjambement, the
fixed caesura, point the same way.
That Jonson's verse was very
influential in advancing the change in poetic taste, can, however,
hardly be maintained. Doubtless, his preaching and precepts had
something to do with promoting a tendency toward classicism; but
the tribe of Ben-Carew, Cartwright, Suckling, Herrick and others
did not profit largely from their master's practice. Herrick,
who most imitated him, greatly excelled him; and his general
influence was not comparable to Spenser's or to Donne's 1.
His plays fall into well defined classes: masques, comedies and
tragedies, with the addition of the unfinished pastoral, The Sad
Shepherd. As the pastoral and the masque are treated elsewhere
in this work, Jonson's contributions to these two dramatic types
must be very briefly noticed here. The Sad Shepherds, probably,
represents an attempt of his last years to revise and complete for
the stage (then addicted to pastorals) a play written, in part, many
years before. Whenever his little excursion to Arcadia was first
planned, it has since succeeded in carrying many readers thither.
It is another of those delightful surprises in Jonson's work, not
unlike the trouvaille of the Queen and huntress' hidden in
the impenetrable jungle of Cynthia's Revels. Among later
comedies, The Sad Shepherd is like a breeze in a drowsy lecture-
Its Arcadia is called Sherwood and is inhabited by Robin
Hood and his merry men, but it has visitors from the fantastic
Arcadia of the pastorals, and others from fairyland; and it most
resembles the rural England of Jonson's observation. The plan of
bringing together Robin Goodfellow and Robin Hood, Maudlin
the witch of Paplewick and Aeglamour the sad, was ingenious.
And Jonson managed to write about little fishes without making
6
1 More will be said concerning Jonson's lyric verse in the chapter on Caroline
lyrics in vol. vII.
2 See post, chap. XIII.
* Probably it is not identical with the lost May Lord, but was written, in part,
before Jonson's visit to Drummond. See Fleay, vol. I, pp. 379—381; Greg, The Sad
Shepherd, in Bang's Materialien, 1905, vol. x1, p. xviii; Schelling, Eliz. Drama, vol. 11,
166-8. For discussion of the play, see, also, Greg, W. W. , Pastoral Poetry and
Pastoral Drama, 1906.
pp.


## p. 12 (#30) ##############################################

I 2
Ben Jonson
them talk like whales. He evidently had collected a formidable
array of data in regard to fairies, folklore, rustic terms and habits;
but, as he wrote, sweet fancy, for once, shared with realism in
guiding his pen. No other of his plays can be read from be-
ginning to end with such genuine refreshment.
Less refreshing are the masques', with which Jonson delighted
both the pleasure-loving court and the pedantic king. The
libretti of these splendid entertainments are rather flavourless,
without the music, dancing and spectacle. To the elaboration of
these compositions, however, Jonson devoted his ingenuity and
learning, his dramatic and lyrical gifts, in prodigal effort. Moral
allegory, classical myth, English folklore, with realistic and satirical
pictures of contemporary life, were all summoned to provide
novelty, grandeur, or amusement as might be desired. For the
masque, as for other forms, Jonson conceived definite rules and
restrictions; but he was bound, of course, to respond to the desires
of his royal patrons. Remembering the limitations and conditions,
we must allow that his work in these masques displays in full all
the remarkable talents which he exhibited elsewhere. The anti-
masques gave opportunity for comic scenes, in which persons
similar to those of his comedies find a place. The spectacular
elements called for the play of fantastical invention, such as Jonson
denied to his regular dramas. And the songs gave a free chance
for lyrical verse. It must be said, however, that neither in
dramatic nor lyric effects is there supreme excellence. No lyric
in all the forty masques is unforgettable, and few rise above a
mediocre level of adequacy. But Jonson virtually invented and
perfected the court masque in its Jacobean form. Its history is
mainly the record of his contributions.
We turn now to by far the most important division of Jonson's
writings, the comedies and tragedies which he wrote for the
popular theatres. At the beginning of Jonson's dramatic career,
however, we are confronted by a lack of data. What were the plays
that, by 1598, had gained him praise as one of the best writers of
tragedy? None survives; but there are some hints that his early
work did not differentiate itself from that of his fellow dramatists.
From 1597 to 1602, he wrote at least one play a year for Henslowe,
none of which could have been a comedy of humours. These
include an unnamed play of which he made the plot; Hot Anger
Soon Cold, which he wrote with Porter and Chettle; Page of
Plymouth, a domestic tragedy on the story of a murder of 1581, in
i See under Soesgil, Brotanek and Evans in the bibliography.


## p. 13 (#31) ##############################################

Early Plays
13
collaboration with Dekker; a tragedy, Robert II King of Scots,
with Dekker and Chettle; and another tragedy, Richard Crookback.
At the time when he was writing this last play, he was also engaged
on additions to The Spanish Tragedie. In spite of definite external
evidence, these have sometimes been denied to Jonson because of
their theme and style? The style is not, indeed, like that of his
later plays; but we may fairly assume that it is not unlike that
which he was employing on domestic and historical tragediesa.
Splendidly imaginative in phrasing and conception, rehabilitating
the old Hieronimo, giving his madness and irony new truth and
new impressiveness, the 'additions' far surpass in imaginative
power most of the contemporary attempts at tragedy which they
rivalled. But they imply an unhesitating acceptance of the whole
scheme of the old revenge play at which Jonson was wont to scoff.
Further evidence that his early work was romantic rather than real-
istic may be found in the romantic elements of The Case is Altered,
and in the Italian scene and names with which Every Man in His
Humour was first decked. Of plays still earlier than those named,
we may surmise that, whether realistic or romantic, tragic or comic,
they conformed to the fashions of the time. Jonson was serving his
dramatic apprenticeship and writing the kind of plays demanded;
but he early showed that imaginative power which gave him high
rank among his fellows, at least in tragedy.
The presentation of Every Man in His Humour apparently
marked a change of plan on his part and his devotion to a new
propaganda. By 1598, the drama was long out of its swaddling
clothes. Since the union of poetry and the theatre on the
advent of Marlowe, ten years earlier, the importance of theatres in
the life of London Kad been rapidly increasing, and the drama
had been gaining recognition as a form of literature. Marlowe,
Kyd, Peele, Greene, Lyly and others, as well as Shakespeare, had
played important parts in creating a drama at once national,
popular and poetical. On the whole, this dramatic development,
while breaking away from classical models and rules, had established
no theory or criticism of its own. It had resulted from the indi-
vidual innovations of poets and playwrights, who strove to meet
the demand of the popular stage through the dramatisation of
story. The main divisions of tragedy and comedy were recognised,
1 Castelain, Appendix B, pp. 886–901. Cf. , as to these additions, ante, vol. v,
chap. vii ad fin.
· See Symonds, J. A. , Ben Jonson, English Worthies Series, and Shakespeare's
Predecessors, on the romantic tone' in Jonson’s early work.


## p. 14 (#32) ##############################################

14
Ben Jonson
a
and a third, the chronicle history, created; and there were various
species corresponding to the initiative of individuals, as a Marlowe
type of tragedy or a Lyly type of comedy; but there were no
accepted laws for any species, and hardly any restrictions or
principles guiding the presentation of narratives on the stage.
To those acquainted with classical drama, these tragedies,
comedies and histories offered much that was absurd and lawless.
Frequent change of place, long duration of time represented,
absence of a unified plan or coherent structure, mingling of farce
and tragedy, of clowns and kings, lack of definite aesthetic or
ethical aims, seemed errors that could find little palliation. The
matter was as objectionable as the form, for it was similarly
unrestricted. As Sidney asserted, dramatists did not always
distinguish a dramatic fable from a narrative, and they brought
any matter whatsoever into their plays. They did not mirror
nature or imitate life, they merely told impossible stories.
The impulses that had found freest expression in the popular
drama were, indeed, romantic. Marlowe, Greene, Shakespeare
and the rest had been inspired to give the thrills and glory,
the wonder and sentiment of life. They had dealt with remote
places, idealised persons, marvellous adventures, conquests and
vicissitudes; they had not attempted an orderly analysis of history
or a rationalised imitation of the life of their own day. The drama
was romantic, in the sense that it ran counter to the theory and
practice of the Greeks and Latins, and, also, in the sense that it
departed from a veracious representation of actuality. Inevitably,
criticism cried for classical form and a realistic presentation of life.
While the main tendency was toward romanticism, neither
classicism nor realism had, by any means, been lacking in the
earlier drama, particularly in comedy. In tragedy, classicism had
been driven from the stage to the closet; but, in comedy, Plautus
and Terence were still largely followed as models. The Plautian
model, early anglicised in Ralph Roister Doister, had notable
copies in Lyly's Mother Bombie and Shakespeare's Comedy of
Errors. Moreover, not only its stock characters, its clever
servants, parasites, misers, braggart soldiers and so on, but, also,
its general scheme of a series of tricks brought about through
disguises, had come to be widely adopted in the English drama. This
scheme lent itself readily to realism and formed the basis for most
comedies of intrigue or manners, and of some romantic plays.
Another species of comedy, the satirical, may be traced back to
moralities, and found an important early representative in the
1
1


## p. 15 (#33) ##############################################

His Programme of Reform
15
plays of Wilson? Again, sheer farce, often Plautian in scheme,
naturally took realistic themes, and plays of English domestic
manners were not uncommon. In addition to these incompletely
defined species, there was a good deal of realistic comedy
mingled with the various types of romantic drama. Tragedy,
however gruesome, usually admitted some realistic farce; romantic
comedy had its servants, drunkards, constables and clowns; and
chronicle history delighted in the elbowing of its monarchs by
humorous persons from low life. Falstaff and his crew were already
on the stage, and they certainly betokened the keenest scrutiny of
London manners. In fact, the Elizabethan drama had always
devoted itself to the representation of contemporary manners as
well as to romantic story. It had delighted not only in the
heroisms, villainies and aspirations of romantic vision, but, also, in
the absurdity, frivolity and grossness of daily actuality.
What Jonson intended was to recall comedy from its romantic •
entanglements and to restore it to its ancient province. In 1598, he
was a playwright seeking success on the public stage, and trained
in its conventions and practices. Neither at that time nor at any
other did he plan plays that should break from the popular
theatres and become academic or closet affairs. His purpose was
to alter his own practices, and to reform the stage; and he repre-
sented the critical tendencies already existing: first, a reaction
from the absurdities of current forms; secondly, a recourse to .
classical standards as a cure for lawlessness; and, lastly, the
establishment of a realistic and satirical comedy on a rational
plan. The first two positions were those of Sidney's Apologie,
which must have potently influenced Jonson; the third was being
promoted by contemporary dramatists, especially by the comedies
of his friend Chapman. Chapman's earliest romantic comedy
The Blinde begger of Alexandria, 1598, acted about 1596, was
immediately followed by An Humerous dayes Myrth, realistic in
matter and, apparently, preceding Every Man in His Humour,
and then by his Al Fooles (acted about 1599), a play both
Terentian and Jonsonian. Similarly, Middleton's early romantic
comedies, The Old Law and Blurt Master-Constable, were soon
followed by a series of realistic comedies of manners; and the
romance of Marston's Antonio and Mellida (acted 1598 or 1599) was
followed by the satire of his Malcontent (acted 1601). Moreover,
a series of formal satires by Marston, Donne and Hall had vogue
in the years 1597—9. But, to whatever extent Jonson was
1 As to Robert Wilson, see vol. v, chap. XIII.


## p. 16 (#34) ##############################################

16
Ben Jonson
anticipated by Chapman, and to whatever extent his attitude was
due to the same immediate influences that acted on his fellows,
there is no doubt that he was leader in a movement which gave
to realistic and satirical comedy a new importance, or that, of the
early representative plays of this class, Every Man in His Humour
was the masterpiece. Its famous prologuel sets forth a definite
programme. It protests especially against chronicle history plays,
discards tragedy and romance, implies an observance of the pro-
prieties and promises
deeds, and language, such as men do use:
And persons, such as comedy would choose,
When she would show an image of the times,
And sport with human follies, not with crimes.
The play, happily, is free from the laboriousness that often
results from devotion to a theory. The plot, of Jonson's own in-
vention, deals with tricks played upon the elder Knowell and the
jealous Kitely, involving the exposure of various humours and
ending happily with the marriage of young Knowell and Kitely's
sister. The term 'humour,' then applied to any oddity of manner,
is used to designate the prevailing traits of a number of distinctly
defined characters, illustrative of London manners? The braggart
soldier, the clever servant, the avaricious and jealous husband, the
gay young men and even the gulls, are all, obviously, suggested by
the common types in Plautus; to whom, also, are due the plot of
tricks and the device of disguises. Nevertheless, both plot and
persons are developed with abundant originality and represent
Jonson at his best. Bobadill, indeed, is almost the very greatest
of Jonson's creations, and is distinct from the other representa-
tives of miles gloriosus which preceded and followed him in the
Elizabethan drama. Whenever he appears, there is more than
mere satire or farce—an amazing and sustained vis comica that
reaches its culmination in the great scenes in which he meets
with discomfiture. The play is written mainly in terse and
pointed prose, only the two old men and the ladies using blank
One superb purple patch, the defence of poetry, Jonson
ruthlessly cut out in the revised edition.
In comparison with Every Man in His Humour, Jonson's
comedies for the next few years do not exhibit any advance. A
1 Not printed until the folio of 1616, but probably connected with an early presenta-
tion of the play. At all events, it represents opinions similar to those set forth in
Every Man out of His Humour.
Cf. , as to the origin and application of the term, ante, vol. iv, chap. xvi.
3 Act iv, sc. 5.
verse.


## p. 17 (#35) ##############################################

Every Man out of His Humour
17
a
large portion of his work, including the additions to The Spanish
Tragedie and other plays for Henslowe, shows a return to old ways.
The comedy entitled The Case is Altered hardly belongs to the
class of humoristic comedies. Never admitted by Jonson among
his collected works, it may be a revision of an earlier play; at least,
it was not approved by his later standards. Though Plautian in
plot and introducing personal satire on Munday, it is romantic
in tone, with its scene in Milan and its element of averted
tragedy.
The comedy of humours was carried on in Every Man out of
His Humour. A vainglorious knight, a public jester, an
affected courtier, a doting husband and others exhibit their
humours and are finally forced out of their affectations through
the agency of Macilente, who, also, is cured of his besetting envy.
In the induction, Asper, representing Jonson himself, presents the
play in a long conversation with two friends, who remain on the
stage to serve as an expository chorus. Jonson announces a
highly satirical and moral purpose, akin to that of Vetus Comoedia:
I will scourge those apes
And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror,
As large as is the stage whereon we act;
Where they shall see the time's deformity
Anatomised in every nerve and sinew,
With constant courage, and contempt of fear.
Jonson's induction and comments show how conscious was his art,
and how carefully considered his aims.