Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher Part 29

"The Alchemist."

Act i. sc. 2. Face's speech:-

"Will take his oath o' the Greek _Xenophon_, If need be, in his pocket."

Another reading is "Testament."

Probably, the meaning is-that intending to give false evidence, he carried a Greek _Xenophon_ to pa.s.s it off for a Greek Testament, and so avoid perjury-as the Irish do, by contriving to kiss their thumb-nails instead of the book.

Act ii. sc. 2. Mammon's speech:-

"I will have all my beds blown up; not stuft: Down is too hard."

Thus the air-cus.h.i.+ons, though perhaps only lately brought into use, were invented in idea in the seventeenth century!

"Catiline's Conspiracy."

A fondness for judging one work by comparison with others, perhaps altogether of a different cla.s.s, argues a vulgar taste. Yet it is chiefly on this principle that the _Catiline_ has been rated so low. Take it and _Seja.n.u.s_, as compositions of a particular kind, namely, as a mode of relating great historical events in the liveliest and most interesting manner, and I cannot help wis.h.i.+ng that we had whole volumes of such plays.

We might as rationally expect the excitement of the _Vicar of Wakefield_ from Goldsmith's _History of England_, as that of _Lear_, _Oth.e.l.lo_, &c., from the _Seja.n.u.s_ or _Catiline_.

Act i. sc. 4.-

"_Cat._ Sirrah, what ail you?

(_He spies one of his boys not answer._)

_Pag._ Nothing.

_Best._ Somewhat modest.

_Cat._ Slave, I will strike your soul out with my foot," &c.

This is either an unintelligible, or, in every sense, a most unnatural, pa.s.sage,-improbable, if not impossible, at the moment of signing and swearing such a conspiracy, to the most libidinous satyr. The very presence of the boys is an outrage to probability. I suspect that these lines down to the words "throat opens," should be removed back so as to follow the words "on this part of the house," in the speech of Catiline soon after the entry of the conspirators. A total erasure, however, would be the best, or, rather, the only possible, amendment.

Act ii. sc. 2. Semp.r.o.nia's speech:-

..."He is but a new fellow, An _inmate_ here in Rome, as Catiline calls him."

A "lodger" would have been a happier imitation of the _inquilinus_ of Sall.u.s.t.

Act iv. sc. 6. Speech of Cethegus:-

"Can these or such be any aids to us," &c.

What a strange notion Ben must have formed of a determined, remorseless, all-daring, foolhardiness, to have represented it in such a mouthing Tamburlane, and bombastic tonguebully as this Cethegus of his!

"Bartholomew Fair."

Induction. Scrivener's speech:-

"If there be never a _servant-monster_ in the Fair, who can help it he says, nor a nest of antiques?"

The best excuse that can be made for Jonson, and in a somewhat less degree for Beaumont and Fletcher, in respect of these base and silly sneers at Shakespeare is, that his plays were present to men's minds chiefly as acted. They had not a neat edition of them, as we have, so as, by comparing the one with the other, to form a just notion of the mighty mind that produced the whole. At all events, and in every point of view, Jonson stands far higher in a moral light than Beaumont and Fletcher. He was a fair contemporary, and in his way, and as far as Shakespeare is concerned, an original. But Beaumont and Fletcher were always imitators of, and often borrowers from him, and yet sneer at him with a spite far more malignant than Jonson, who, besides, has made n.o.ble compensation by his praises.

Act ii. sc. 3.-

"_Just._ I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe _of booty_, boy, a cut purse."

Does not this confirm, what the pa.s.sage itself cannot but suggest, the propriety of subst.i.tuting "booty" for "beauty" in Falstaff's speech, _Henry IV._ part i. act i. sc. 2. "Let not us, &c.?"

It is not often that old Ben condescends to imitate a modern author; but Master Dan. Knockhum Jordan, and his vapours are manifest reflexes of Nym and Pistol.

_Ib._ sc. 5.-

"_Quarl._ She'll make excellent geer for the coachmakers here in Smithfield, to anoint wheels and axletrees with."

Good! but yet it falls short of the speech of a Mr. Johnes, M.P., in the Common Council, on the invasion intended by Buonaparte:-"Houses plundered-then burnt;-sons conscribed-wives and daughters ravished," &c., &c.-"But as for you, you luxurious Aldermen! with your fat will he grease the wheels of his triumphant chariot!"

_Ib._ sc. 6.-

"_c.o.k._ Avoid in your satin doublet, Numps."

This reminds me of Shakespeare's "Aroint thee, witch!" I find in several books of that age the words _aloigne_ and _eloigne_-that is,-"keep your distance!" or "off with you!" Perhaps "aroint" was a corruption of "aloigne" by the vulgar. The common etymology from _ronger_ to gnaw seems unsatisfactory.

Act iii. sc. 4.-

"_Quarl._ How now, Numps! almost tired in your protectors.h.i.+p?

overparted, overparted?"

An odd sort of propheticality in this Numps and old Noll!

_Ib._ sc. 6. Knockhum's speech:-

"He eats with his eyes, as well as his teeth."

A good motto for the Parson in Hogarth's _Election Dinner_,-who shows how easily he might be reconciled to the Church of Rome, for he wors.h.i.+ps what he eats.

Act v. sc. 5.-