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 Shakspere and Jonson.Dramatic, versus wi 
 
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shaT^spere and jonson. 
 
 DRAMATIC, verms WIT-COMBATS. 
 
 A^nXILIABY FORCES I— 
 
 BEAUMONT AND FLETCHEE, MAESTON. DECKEB, 
 
 CHAPMAN, ANB WEBSTEE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 
 
 86, SOHO SQUARE. 
 
 " TwBMTH Night," 1864. 
 
 Price Four Shillir^t. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE SONNETS OF SHAKSPEEE, 
 
 Be-arranffed and divided iiito Four Parts, with an Introduction 
 and Biplanatory Notes.. Post Sro, eloth. 3« 6d JMoy, 1859 
 
 THE FOOTSTEPS OF SHAKSPEEE; 
 
 Or, i> Ramble with the Early Dramatists, containing new and 
 interesting Information respecting Shakspere, lJ;ly, Marlowe, 
 Qreetie, and others. Post 8vo, cloth. 5s M November, 1861 
 
 SHAKSPERE. SIDNEY, AND ESSEX. 
 Vide Notes and Queries, 3rd S., iii., 82, lOS, 124. 
 
 THE "AECADIA" UNVEILED. 
 Vide Notes and Queries, 3rd S., iii,, 441, 481, 501. 
 
 THE "FAERIE QUEENE" UNVEILED. 
 Vide Notes and Queries, 3rd S., ir., 21, 65, 101. 
 
 "JULIET" UNVEILED. 
 Vide Notes and Queries, 3rd S., ir., 181. 
 
LONDON: 
 i'. PlCKTON, PRIMTJiB, 
 
 89, Ghkat P0RTLA.NU Stilekt, Oxford Street. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Of the two following extracts from Lady Morgan's 
 Memoirs, the first is singularly applicable to Jonson, and 
 the second to Shakspere : — 
 
 " One almost wonders that some of the fine ladies whom 
 Lady Morgan produced in her works, etching them in aqua- 
 fortis and colouring them to the life, did not assassinate her 
 by way of return, especially as she invariably introduced a 
 sketch of herself in one corner of all her pictures, taking up all 
 the wisdom and common sense going, as well as being the 
 most agreeable character in the story." — Vol. ii., p. 33. 
 
 " The history of this curious friendship is detailed in the 
 story of the WUd Irish Gfirl, where her father figures as the 
 Prince of Innismore, Mr. Everard and his son as Lord M — 
 and Mortimer ; though the beautiful atmosphere of romance 
 which clothes the story in the novel, was entirely absent in 
 the matter of fact."— Vol. i., p. 377. 
 
 By the early commentators Jonson was, "for the 
 most part, jeered at or condemned, as a boastful and 
 malignant man, in the world of letters ; and as a tetchy, 
 quarrelsome, ungrateful, and ill-conditioned person, in 
 all that related to social life." But Gifford says, " that 
 Jonson, far from being vindictive, was one of the most 
 placable of mankind : he blustered, indeed, and talked 
 angrily; but his heart was turned to affection, and his 
 enmities appear to have been short-lived, while his 
 friendships were durable and sincere." 
 
 B 
 
^ SHAK8PERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Without entering into the inquiry how far GiflFord 
 may have vindicated Jonson from the charges of 
 Steevens and MaJone, it will be clearly demonstrated 
 in the following pages, there must have been at one 
 time a violent quarrel between the two poets ; that it 
 was sought for by Jonson, unprovoked; and although 
 Shakspere after each encounter entreats for peace, yet 
 the other will ha' none on it, feeling his forces renewed, 
 Antoeus-like, by each fall, and from the same source, 
 mother earth. 
 
 The battle commenced, or rather the first signs or 
 prognostications of a possible storm appeared in 1596, 
 with the prologue to Every Man in his Humour, in 
 which Jonson comes forward as a dramatic reformer ; 
 and though the lines may by some be regarded as 
 merely expressing the zeal and earnestness of the author, 
 they can scarcely be regarded as written in a friendly 
 spirit. 
 
 The comedy was brought out at the Globe in 1598, 
 and " this arose, as some authors assert, from generosity 
 on Shakspere's part ; " whilst Gifford asserts, that " his 
 merits must be confined to procuring for his own theatre 
 an improved copy of a popular performance.'' 
 
 Jonson then brings forth one play annually ; Every 
 Man out of his Humour in 1599, Cynthia's Revels in 
 1600, and The Poetaster in 1601. 
 
 In Cynthia's Revels, Jonson, it is supposed, intended 
 " to ridicule the quaint absurdities of the courtiers ;" 
 but as " Marston and Decker were the most conspicuous 
 amongst these dissentients," it must be presumed, that 
 under the name of courtiers was concealed an attack on 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 3 
 
 the follies of the poets; and the following passage 
 appears decisive of the author's intentioUj where he 
 himself, as Crites, passes sentence on the courtiers: — 
 
 " And after penance thus performed you pass 
 In like set order, not as Midas did, 
 To wash his gold off into Tagus' stream ; 
 But to the well of knowledge. Helicon ; 
 Where, purged of your present maladies. 
 Which are not few, nor slender, you become 
 Such as you fain would seem, and then return. 
 Offering your service to great Cynthia." — Act v., so. 8. 
 
 these lines must surely refer to poets. 
 
 The only characters applicable to Marston and Decker 
 are Hedon and Anaides ; who then are Amorphus the 
 deformed, and Asotus the prodigal ? they are not only 
 the two leading characters, but they are, in a manner, 
 separated from the other courtiers, and brought more 
 immediately into contact with Crites; they are thus 
 described in the Induction: — "These, in the court, 
 meet with Amorphus, or the deformed, a traveller that 
 hath drunk of l^ie fountain, and there tells the wonders 
 of the water. With this Amorphus there comes along 
 a citizen's heir, Asotus, or the Prodigal, who, in imita- 
 tion of the traveller, who hath the Whetstone following 
 him, entertains the Beggar, to be his attendant." 
 
 Here we have Amorphus, the deformed, a name 
 highly appropriate to Euphues or Lyly, with his page 
 Cos, the Whetstone, reminding us of Eumenides with 
 his love " Semele, the very wasp of all women ;" and 
 although painted in the ridiculous character of Master 
 of the Ceremonies, again extremely apposite, he is in 
 fact, a satirist throughout, and incidentally of the very 
 
4 SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 
 
 follies he affects. The name of Asotus, or the Prodigal, 
 is also peculiarly appropriate to Shakspere, who " con- 
 centrates every excellence in his own person, — casting 
 out, with the profusion of a superior spirit, intellectual 
 wealth of all kinds upon us ;" but probably it was envy 
 of his wealth that gave the name ; and this opinion is 
 justified by Cupid's account of the lady Argurion or 
 money, " she loves a player well and a lawyer infinitely ; 
 but your fool above all." Like Amorphus he has a 
 page, Prosaites or the Beggar, and is afterwards favoured 
 with an additional one, the Fool. 
 
 In the Induction we also read : — " O, [I had almost 
 forgot it too,] they say, the umbra or ghosts of some 
 three or four plays departed a dozen years since, have 
 been seen wallcing on your stage here ; take heed, boy, 
 if your house be haunted with such hobgoblins, 'twill 
 fright away all your spectators quickly." This caustic 
 observation can refer only to Shakspere's plays; as 
 Lovers Labour's Lost was published in 1598, Romeo and 
 Juliet in 1599, Midsummer Night's Drernn in 1600, and 
 probably All's Well that Ends Well was re- written about 
 the same time, and very likely Pericles and The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor. 
 
 The remark of Crites, that Asotus is "no bred- 
 courtling," applies most appositely to Shakspere's want 
 of an University education ; and by his addressing the 
 ladies in the words of Amorphus, he becomes " a crow 
 beautified with our feathers," and Crites calls him "a 
 jack-daw ; " he is also styled Polyphragmon, one that 
 can do every thing, or " in his own conceit the only 
 Shakescene in a country;" and his saying, "Nay, sir. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 5 
 
 I have read history," must be an allusion to the " York 
 and Lancaster long jars." We are reminded of sweet 
 bully Bottom, and of Sir John Falstaff in The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, when Mercury says : — " I wonder 
 this gentleman should aflFect to keep a fool : me-thinks 
 he makes sport enough with himself;" — and " a quick 
 nimble memory'^ recalls to us Sir Hugh's opinion of 
 William, " he is a good sprag memory ;" whilst " victus, 
 victa, victwm," is redolent of " hie, hcec, hoc ;" and " feign 
 to have seen him in Venice or Padua " explains itself. 
 
 It is said of the liquid tests of arsenic, that each, 
 singly, is of little value, but, taken all together, they 
 are proof, the substance must be arsenic ; and so it may 
 be said of the numerous traits of character in Asotus : 
 each, singly, may be applicable to any individual, but 
 all apply to Shakspere, and to him alone are they all 
 applicable; consequently, Asotus must be Shakspere, 
 whilst Amorphus, the deformed, with his page Cos and 
 his Pytbagorical breeches, is and can be no other than 
 John Lyly. We thus see, that in Cynthia's Revels 
 Jonson's real object was to make Shakspere and Lyly 
 ridiculous [as well as Marston and Decker] under pre- 
 tence of ridiculing the quaint absurdities of the courtiers. 
 
 The Poetaster was brought out at the Blackfriars by 
 the children of the Queen's Chapel in 1601. In this 
 drama Marston and Decker are satirised under the 
 names of Crispinus and Demetrius ; and in the character 
 of Ovid, Jonson rejects Shakspere as a dramatist. 
 
 The play opens with Ovid in his study, making verses, 
 " songs and sonnets," to the neglect of the law, and in 
 this first scene the allusions to Shakspere are numerous, 
 
b SHAKSPBRE AND JONSON. 
 
 clear, and pointed ; a law-student, his writings full of 
 law terms ; his descent and name ; never blotted a line, 
 " the hasty errors of our morning muse ;" a playmaker 
 and a stager ; and the observation of Tucca, " my noble 
 neophyte, my little grammaticaster," directly connects 
 Ovid with Asotus ; and " my pretty Alcibiades " is an 
 allusion to Timon of Athens. 
 
 With regard to the expression, "your songs and 
 sonnets," it should not be overlooked, that Meres says, 
 "As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in 
 Pythagoras, so the sweet soul of Ovid lives in melhfluous 
 and honey-tongued Shakspere. Witness his Venus and 
 Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred sonnets among his 
 private friends." 
 
 That there may be no mistake, that Ovid is and shall 
 be Shakspere, the whole of the last scene in the fourth 
 act is a parody on the third and fifth scenes in the third 
 act of Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 In the scene where the poets personate the gods, 
 Ovid represents Jupiter ; the whole is a parody of the 
 latter part of the first book of the Iliad, which very book 
 Shakspere had freely paraphrased in the opening of 
 Henry VI. Here we have Shakspere as Jupiter, the 
 great dramatist and theatrical manager as bully Bottom, 
 or the only Shakescene in his own conceit ; but he is 
 only the mock Jupiter of a false poetical hierarchy, a 
 set of " counterfeits," and he is dismissed in disgrace as 
 unworthy of the classical court of Caesar; and whilst 
 Shakspere, as Ovid, is summarily dismissed, Chapman, 
 as Virgil, is enthroned with the following adulatory 
 strain : — 
 
SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 7 
 
 Cas. " See, here comes Virgil ; we will rise and greet him. 
 Welcome to Caesar, Virgil, &c. 
 Where are thy famous (Eneids P do us grace 
 To let us see and surfeit on their sight." 
 
 That Virgil is Chapman may be gathered from the 
 words of Caesar : — 
 
 " Now he is come out of Campania, 
 I doubt not he hath finish'd all his (Eneids." 
 
 Chapman had probably finished his translation of the 
 Iliad at this timSj although it was not published till 
 after the accession of King James. He was also Jonson's 
 most intimate friend, who told Drummond, " he loved 
 Chapman." Nor can we doubt, Propertius is Dr. Donne, 
 whom Jonson " esteemed the first poet in the world for 
 some things.'' Chapman took the earliest opportunity 
 of repaying Jonson for his enthronement, by commenda- 
 tory verses on Sejanus, too fulsome even for Gifford. 
 Assuredly Shakspere, though a crow and a jack-daw, 
 showed his good sense in abstaining from such poetical 
 cawing. 
 
 From this analysis of the Poetaster, it must be 
 granted, the Ovid of Jonson, like the Ovid of Meres, 
 is Shakspere. 
 
 When we look to Shakspere's antecedents, to Parolles, 
 Pistol, and Lovers Labour's Lost, we feel confident, such 
 a " crach " would not tamely submit to these imper- 
 tinences and insults, especially from such an original, a 
 very godsend to a satirical joker ; can it then be doubted, 
 that in Timon of Athens, a play containing a prodigal 
 beggar'd and a snarler, Shakspere pours forth his wrath 
 on Jonson as Apemantus, the churlish philosopher, and 
 
» 8BAKS7EBE AND JONSON. 
 
 repays the Ovidean compliment by cudgelling the crab- 
 stick with pitiless contempt and ridictde as Thersites, in 
 TVoiltts and Cressida ? 
 
 In such profound archoeological researches dates are 
 of singular value, and in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 
 1601, is this passage : — 
 
 " Come, 111 be as sociable as Timon of Athens ; " 
 
 however slight this evidence of the date of Timon may 
 appear, let it not be forgotten, Mr. Armitage Brown 
 fixed the very early date of Hamlet, contrary to received 
 opinions, on stiU slighter grounds. But there is also 
 strong internal evidence to the same effect — Hamlet was 
 certainly amended and enlarged in 1600 or 1601; anr! 
 numerous phrases in Timon, even whole passages, remind 
 us of Hamlet, as the quibbling on the words honest and 
 lie ; thus Timon's welcome to Alcibiades : — 
 
 Tim. " 'Ere we depart, we'll share a bounteous time 
 
 In different pleasures." 
 Mam. " We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart." 
 
 Flav. " I must be round with him." 
 Pol. " No, I went round to work. 
 Let her be round with him." 
 
 Mav. " What shall defend the interim ? " 
 Ham. " It will be short : the interim is mine." 
 
 Tim. " With thy most operant poison." 
 P.Kitiff." My operant powers." 
 
 Tim. " There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave. 
 
 That mightily deceives you."" 
 Ham. " There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark, 
 
 But he's an arrant knave." 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 9 
 
 It should be mentioned, the words round, interim, and 
 operant, or at least those expressions, are not in the first 
 sketch of Hamlet. 
 
 As Timon was most probably an instant reply to the 
 Revels, written at fever-heat without correcting " the 
 hasty errors of our morning muse," it may be surmised 
 Hamlet was more leisurely re-written after Timon, and 
 this circumstance may account for the " thoughtful 
 philosophy " in the amended play ; consequently several 
 sharp sentences, not in the first sketch, are in reality 
 gentle hints or lashes at Jonson ; and consequently the 
 passage about an aiery of children, so fully elaborated 
 in the amended copy, deserves consideration; and it 
 may be conjectured, that Shakspere, though he had not 
 altogether retired from London, was at least occasionally 
 a resident at Stratford ; the phrase " Hercules and his 
 load," may be a rap at the bricklayer and his hod : — 
 
 Ham. " Do they hold the same estimation they did when 
 I was in the city ? Are they so followed ?" 
 " Do the boys carry it away ? 
 Roa. Ay, that they do, my lord ; Hercules and his load too. 
 Ham. It is not very strange : for my nncle is king of 
 Denmark. 
 
 'Sblood, there is something in this more than 
 natural, if philosophy could find it out," 
 
 That the Poetaster was written after the amended 
 Hamlet may be inferred from the following extracts; 
 such resemblances could not be accidental : — 
 " Are there no players here ? no poet apes,* 
 That come with basilisk's eyes, whose forked tongues 
 Are steep'd in venom, as their hearts in gall ? 
 
 * Vid., Epigram, 56, on Poet- Ape, written very likely about this period. 
 
 b2 
 
10 SHAKSPEBE AND JONSON. 
 
 Here, take my snakes among you, come and eat, 
 And while the squeez'd juice flows in your black jaws. 
 Help me to damn the author." 
 " Of base detractors and illiterate apes." 
 
 Prologue to the Poetaster. 
 
 Sam. " Like the famous ape," &c. 
 
 " There's letters seal'd : and my two school- fellows, — 
 Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,— " 
 Bos. " Take you me for a sponge my lord ? " 
 Sam. " Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his 
 rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king 
 best service in the end : He keeps them, like an ape, in the 
 comer of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be last swallowed ; when 
 he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and 
 sponge, you shall be dry again." — Samlet. 
 
 There is, however, additional and very singular evi- 
 dence, not only that Timon was written about this 
 period, but that both it and Cynthia's Revels are 
 founded on the same piece, on another Timon, which 
 has been edited by Mr. Dyce, for the " Shakspere 
 Society." 
 
 With our present knowledge there cannot be the 
 slightest doubt, Shakspere, as well as Jonson, was 
 favoured with a copy of it j and on examination we 
 shall find, Jonson has drawn far more largely upon it in 
 Cynthia's Revels than Shakspere did. 
 
 Pseudocheus, a lying traveller, and Gelasimus, a city 
 heir, in love with the daughter of Philargurus, are not 
 eo much the prototypes as the identical characters, 
 Amorphus, the traveller, and Asotus a citizen's heir, son 
 to the late deceased Philargyrus, and in love with Lady 
 Argurion ; and Blatte, the prattling nurse, is the same 
 as mother Moria, or mistress Folly. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 11 
 
 The scene between Amorphus and Asotus in Act i., 
 scene 1, may be regarded as a transcript of the following 
 passage : — 
 
 Pseud. "A. spruce neat youth : what if I affront (accost) him ? 
 
 Gelas. Good gods, how earnestly do I desire 
 
 His fellowship ! was I ere so shamefac'd ? 
 What if I send and give to him my cloak ? 
 
 Pseud. What shall I say ? I saw his face at Thebes 
 
 Or Sicily ? [aside. 
 
 Gelas. I'll send it. Poedio, 
 
 Give him this cloak ; salute him in my name ; 
 H'st, thou may'st tell him, if thou wUt, how rich 
 My father was. [aside to Poedio. 
 
 Pseud. What, as a token of his love, say'st thou ? 
 Eeturn this answer to that noble youth ; 
 I, Pseudocheus from the Bloody Tower, 
 Do wish him more than twenty thousand healths ; 
 Who 'ere he be, be he more fortunate 
 Than they that live in the Isles Fortunate, 
 Or in the flourishing Elizian fields ; 
 May he drink nectar, eat ambrosia ! 
 
 Gelas. How daintily his speech flows from him ! 
 
 Lord, what a potent friend have I obtained ! — 
 W^hat countryman I pray you, sir ? " 
 
 Act i., scene 4. 
 
 Pseudocheus and Gelasimus exchange rings just as 
 Amorphus and Asotus do beavers ; the wooing scene is 
 also similar ; and we have the word whetstone, " wine is 
 valour's whetstone." 
 
 Furthermore we have in this " academic Timon " the 
 names of Demetrius and Albius; whilst Hermogenes 
 and Callimela are the same individuals as Hermogenes 
 and Chloe in the Poetaster. 
 
 The line " and now live like camelions by th' air," 
 
13 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 probably gave rise to the quibble in the amended 
 Hamlet : — 
 
 Kinff. " How fares our cousin Hamlet ? 
 Sam. Excellent, i' faith; of the camelion's dish: I eat 
 the air, promise-crammed : you cannot feed capons so." 
 
 From this analysis of the drama we are led to presume 
 the author was "a. young gentleman of the two Univer- 
 sities," a friend of Jonson^s, and well read in Lyly, whom 
 he ridicules as Pseudoeheusj whilst the ignorant and un- 
 classical Shakspere is Gelasimus, who has a fall from 
 PegasuSj and is capped with the ears of an ass. Timon 
 may be the author himself, and Laches, the honest 
 steward, Jonson ; possibly the two lying philosophers 
 are Marston and Decker. 
 
 There is something peculiar about the history of 
 Troilus and Cressida, it was published piratically in 
 1609, and described as " a new play, never stal'd with 
 the stage ;" it was, however, written at this period, and 
 no doubt, in circulation amongst private friends, to-wit 
 the " Mermaid Club." In the prologue we read : — 
 
 "And hither am I come 
 A prologue arm'd, — but not in confidence 
 Of author's pen or actor's voice ;"' 
 
 and in the prologue to the Poetaster : — 
 
 " Unter Prologue hastily in armour." 
 " If any muse why I salute the stage 
 
 An armed Prologue ; — 
 
 Whereof the allegory and hid sense 
 
 Is, that a well erected confidence 
 
 Can fright their pride, and laugh their folly hence." 
 
 Surely the one is an allusion to the other, and it sliould 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 13 
 
 be notedj these are the only instances in which either 
 author has a prologue armed. 
 
 If Dr. Johnson objects to Neoptolemus as a name for 
 Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, Shakspere may reply 
 that Ben Jonson had previously used it in the Poet- 
 aster : — 
 
 Tuc. " Give me thy hand, Agamemnon ; we hear abroad 
 thou art the Hector of citizens : What say'st thou ? are we 
 welcome to thee, noble Neoptolemus ? " 
 
 We thus have a remarkably strong link connecting 
 these two plays, and the observation of Thersites, " Now 
 she sharpens ; — Well said, whetstone," shows Shakspere 
 had not quite forgotten Cynthia's Revels. 
 
 Let us examine these four plays in the reverse order, 
 confining ourselves in the strictest manner to the barest 
 evidence the plays afford. In Troilus and Cressida the 
 character of Thersites, be it accidental or intentional, is 
 an inimitable caricature of Crites and Horace, that is, 
 of Jonson. In 1601 appeared the Poetaster ; in it Ovid 
 is a law student, writing " songs and sonnets ;" he is 
 spoken of as a playmaker and a stager, and acknowledges 
 he has " begun a poem of that nature ; " he is in love 
 with Julia, and one whole scene is a parody on Romeo 
 and Juliet, at that very time Shakspere was in literary 
 circles called Ovid, on account of his " sugred sonnets ;" 
 can it then be denied, can it for a moment be doubted, 
 that Ovid in the Poetaster is intended for Shakspere ? 
 In this comedy the witty and accomplished Horace is 
 pestered and bored by a poetaster, and escapes from 
 him on the arrival of two other persons ; — in Troilus 
 and Cressida-, Thersites makes his appearance in a 
 
14 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 similar manner, being belaboured by the beef-witted 
 Ajax, and makes his escape on the arrival of Achilles 
 and Patroclus; and throughout the play his conduct 
 and remarks are a parody on Horace ; Thersites must 
 consequently be an intentional caricature of Jonson. 
 
 In 1600 the Comical Satire, or Cynthia's Revels, 
 was acted by the children of the Queen's Chapel; 
 Asotus the prodigal, with his two pages, the beggar and 
 the fool, has many traits of character applicable to 
 Shakspere, and to no other individual;- — Timon of 
 Athens contains a prodigal beggar'd, and a churlish 
 philosopher ; both plays are founded on the " academic 
 Timon;" the date of Timon of Athens is unknown, but 
 the name was familiar to a London audience in 1601, 
 the play contains also internal evidence, it must have 
 been written immediately before or after the amended 
 Hamlet : as Thersites has been shown to be a rejoinder 
 to Ovid, the natural inference is, that Apemantus is the 
 reply to Asotus. We may then place these plays in 
 the following order ; — 
 
 Cynthia's Revels, in the Summer, ~l 
 
 Timon of Athens, in the Autumn, j 
 
 Poetaster, in the Summer, 1 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, in the Autumn, J 
 
 Many a man has been hanged on circumstantial 
 evidence far less clear and absolute than these dates, 
 consequently Apemantus and Thersites must be the 
 rebound, the repercussive blows to Asotus and Ovid. 
 Shakspere evidently enjoys Thersites as an intellectual 
 exercise, " a wit-combat :" — 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 15 
 
 Eect. " What art thou, Greek, art thou for Hector's match ? 
 
 Art thou of blood and honour ? 
 Thers. No, no ; — I am a rascal, a scurvy railing knave,"a 
 very filthy rogue. 
 
 Sect. I do believe thee ; — Uve." [exit. 
 
 That Shakspere felt he was doing battle for Lyly as 
 well as for himself^ appears from the following passage, 
 reminding us of Midas, and concisely describing Jonson 
 as a compound of wit and malice : — 
 
 Ther. " To what form, but that he is, should wit larded 
 vsdth malice, and malice farced with wit, turn him to ? To 
 an ass were nothing, he is both ass and ox ; to an ox were 
 nothing, he is both ox and ass." 
 
 As evil deeds bear the seeds of their own punishment, 
 it may be conjectured, that the scene from Homer, 
 where Ovid acts Jupiter, gave Shakspere the idea of 
 lampooning Jonson as Thersites, just as the playing on 
 the word Judas may have reminded Lyly of Midas. 
 
 As the two comedies, Cynthia's Revels and the Poet- 
 aster, were acted by the children of the Queen's Chapel, 
 and the two preceding ones by Shakspere's company, it 
 may be reasonably presumed, some misunderstanding 
 had intervened ; but on examining Every Man out of 
 his Humour, to our astonishment, we find the same 
 characters and the same satire as in Cynthia's Revels ; 
 but though Shakspere took a part in Every Man in his 
 Humour, he did not act in the other, as Gifford inno- 
 cently observes : — " This comedy, like the former, 
 appears to have been acted by the whole strength of 
 the house, with the exception of Shakspere, who found 
 perhaps no part in it suited to his gentle conditions." 
 
16 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Let us now take a look at the characters in Every 
 Man out of Ms Humour : — Puntarvolo (Lyly) is a copy 
 of Sir Tophas and Don Armado, or rather he is Count 
 Lafeu in their clothes; at his first appearance his 
 gracing is a paraphrase of Sir Tophas in Endymion, Act 
 ii. sc. 2; and his ready insight into the character of 
 Shift reminds us of Lafea and Parolles ; " he was first 
 smoked by the old lord Lafeu." His character, the 
 description of Armado, as well as Mercury's account of 
 AmorphuSj are too similar to be accidental. He is 
 spoken of as having a "good knotty wit/' — as "that 
 stifiF-necked gentleman," — "a good tough gentleman, 
 he looks like a shield of brawn at Shrove-tide, out of 
 date, and ready to take his leave." His treatment of 
 Carlo Bufifone at the Mitre, " I shall be sudden I tell 
 you," raises a suspicion, that Justice Clement in Every 
 Man in his Humour is another satirical picture of John 
 Lyly, especially as Daniel is satirised in that as well as 
 in this comedy. 
 
 Fungoso (Shakspere), is kinsman to Justice Silence 
 and godson to Puntarvolo, a lawyer's clerk, the son of 
 a yeoman, though a gentleman himself; a rook, a 
 painted jay ; he and Asotus are birds of a feather, the 
 self-same individual; and in Cynthia's Revels Hedon 
 speaks of Asotus as : — " some idle Fungoso, that hath 
 got above the cupboard since yesterday." Act. iv. sc. 1. 
 
 Carlo Bufi'one, " thou Grand Scourge," is of course 
 Marston, the author of the Scourge of Villianie. 
 
 Fastidious Brisk is consequently Decker. 
 
 Shift is Captain Bobadil tamed down and put to his 
 shifts. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 17 
 
 Deliro and Fallace are the same individuals as Albius 
 and Chloe in the Poetaster. 
 
 Asper or Macilente is Jonson " with his wild quickset 
 beard." 
 
 The rustics cutting down Sordido after hanging 
 himselfj is paraphrased from the clowns in Hamlet, and 
 Plowden's Report had been previously alluded to amongst 
 the law-books. Certain characters then run through 
 these three comedies, and may be thus arranged : — 
 
 Evert/ Man out of Ms Humour, CyntJda'i Revels. Poetaster. 
 
 Puntai'volo. 
 
 Amorplius. 
 
 
 Pungoso. 
 
 Asotus. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Carlo Buffone. 
 
 Hedon. 
 
 Crispinus. 
 
 Fastidious Brisk. 
 
 Anaides. 
 
 Demetrius, 
 
 Deliro. 
 
 Citizen. 
 
 Albius. 
 
 Fallace. 
 
 His wife. 
 
 Ghloe. 
 
 The characters of Sordido, Pungoso, and Fallace, and 
 Pido, like Obba, strewing flowers on the ground, as well 
 as the words, macilente, and the Isles Fortunate, leave 
 no doubt Jonson had seen the Academic Timon 
 before he wrote Every Man out of his Humour. The 
 following passage is regarded as a reflection against 
 Twelfth Night and the romantic drama : " as of a duke 
 to be in love with a countess, and that countess to be 
 in love with the duke's son, and the son to love the 
 lady's waiting maid ; some such cross wooing." 
 
 To this attack Shakspere indignantly replied by 
 painting Jonson as Don John in Much Ado about 
 Nothing : Marston and Decker appear as Claudio and 
 Benedick in the opening of the play, and Beatrice's 
 remark, "Is there no young squarer now, that will 
 
18 SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 
 
 make a voyage with him to the devil?" is clearly 
 an aUusion to Pungoso's admiration for Fastidious 
 Brisk. The following extract is very significant; 
 Conrade says to Don John : — 
 
 Con. " You have of late stood out against your brother, 
 and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is 
 impossible you should take true root, but by the fair weather 
 that you make yourself; it is needful that you ft-ame the season 
 for your own harvest. 
 
 D. John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose 
 
 in his grace ; and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all, 
 
 than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any ; in this, though 
 
 I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be 
 
 ■ denied that I am a plain-dealing villain." 
 
 and Don John further observes, " that young start-up 
 (Claudio) hath all the glory of my overthrow ; if I can 
 cross him any way, I bless myself every way." These 
 words are mild compared with Macilente's hatred of 
 Carlo. Marston was a prophane jester, and that accounts 
 for Claudio's observation; — 
 
 ClaMd. " All, all ; moreover, God saw him when he was 
 hid in the garden." 
 
 The comedy ends just as pointedly as it opened, since 
 Decker (Benedick) was the one selected to write against 
 Jonson : — 
 
 £ene. " Think not on him till to-morrow ; I'll devise thee 
 brave punishments for him." 
 
 Having given vent to his wrath in Much Ado about 
 Nothing, Shakspere then, filled with those gentle dis- 
 positions, which Gifi'ord grants him, attempts the 
 soothing process in the beautiful comedy of As you like 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 19 
 
 it; in which Jonson is pointed at as Oliver, and, we 
 presume, the young Orlando is our gentle Willy. 
 
 Jonson was a posthumous son, brought up by his step- 
 father ; and the following lines apparently allude to that 
 circumstance ; on returning from the wrestling match 
 Orlando is thus addressed by Adam : — 
 
 ^dam. " O unhappy youth, 
 
 Come not within these doors ; within this roof 
 The enemy of all your graces lives : 
 Tour brother — [no, no brother; yet the son — 
 Tet not the son ; — I will not call him son, — 
 Of him I was about to call his father."] 
 
 The passage describing the repentance of Duke 
 Frederick "is prdbably" an^aDusion^tlaTfonson^sconve 
 
 " Where, meeting with an old religious man. 
 After some question with him, was converted 
 Both from his enterprize, and from the world. 
 His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother." 
 
 The circumstance of this comedy being founded on 
 one of Lodge's novels, affords us a beautiful example, 
 not of Shakspere's idleness and carelessness about his 
 plots, but of the ki ndliness_of _his dis position ; this is 
 clearly shown by the change of names, Salad'yne and 
 Rosader into Oliver and Orlando ; whether in the novel 
 the scene is placed in the woods of Arden I know not j 
 but it has been pointed out in the Footsteps of Shakspere, 
 that Greene's Orlando Furioso was a good-humoured 
 satire on Marlowe ; in which play we find the woods of 
 Arden, and the hanging of sonnets on the trees, as well 
 as the names of Orlando and Oliver. There can then 
 be no doubt, that in this beautiful comedy, Shakspere's 
 
20 SHAESFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 mind is fondly dwelling on old times and friends long 
 since passed away : — 
 
 Dead shepherd ! now I find thy saw of might ; 
 Who ever hv'd, that lov'd not at first tight?* 
 
 Act iiL. sc. 5. 
 
 After this analysis of Every Man out of his Humour, 
 the reader perhaps will not be surprised to find the same 
 characters in Every Man in his Humour. 
 
 In this comedy, Justice Clement is evidently intended 
 for Lyly ; his threatening Cob with imprisonment for 
 speaking against tobacco is enough to convict him: 
 Cob's date of having been his neighbour eighteen years 
 answers exactly to the publication of Euphues in 
 1580:— 
 
 Cob. " 0, the justice, the honestest old brave Trojan in 
 London ; I do honour the very flea of his dog. A plague 
 on him, though, he put me once in a vUlainous filthy fear ; 
 marry, it vanished away like the smoke of tobacco ; but I was 
 smoked soundly first." 
 
 the last words remind us again of Lafeu, " he was first 
 smoked by the old lord Lafeu." 
 
 That master Stephen, the country gull, is Shakspere, 
 is no less distinctly marked ; — he stands much on his 
 gentility and his reasonable good leg; "why you 
 know," says Stephen, " an a man have not skill in the 
 hawking and hunting languages now-a-daySj I'll not give 
 a rush for him ; they are more studied than the Greek 
 or the Latin." Like Shakspere, Stephen objects to 
 tobacco, " none, I thank you, sir." 
 
 Master Mathew, the town gull, is a satire on Daniel, 
 * A quotation from Marlowe's Sero and Leander, 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 21 
 
 clearly shown by the parody on the first stanza of the 
 Sonnet to Delia, and the offensive remarks accompanying 
 it, "these paper-pedlars, these ink-dablers;" and 
 Mathew's observation, " Downright brags, he will give 
 me the bastinado," is an allusion to Jonson's satirical 
 remarks. 
 
 George Downright, a plain Squire, is of course 
 Jonson. 
 
 As Hermogenes in the Academic Timon is afraid 
 of Laches, just as Master Mathew is of Downright, it 
 may be presumed, the character was written in ridicule 
 of Daniel ; and we thus arrive at the probability the 
 play was produced about Christmas, 1598, and partly 
 founded on Every Man in his Humour, since Downright 
 and the two gulls appear to be the prototypes of Laches, 
 Hermogenes, and Gelasimus, and however wretched the 
 composition of this piece may be considered, the author 
 has certainly shown considerable originality, since Cal- 
 limela, is the germ of Fallace and Chloe, and Philargurus 
 of Sordido, whilst Fungoso and Asotus are far more 
 nearly allied to Gelasimus than to Master Stephen the 
 country gull. 
 
 To this gratuitous and most malicious attack of Every 
 Man in his Humour,* Shakspere replied in Twelfth Night 
 by ridiculing Jonson as Sir Andrew Aguecheek : — 
 
 * This play bears marks of having been founded on the Merry Wives 
 of Windsor; and it follows, Bobadil is another satirical portrait of 
 Marlowe, whom Jonson must have seen and probably knew ; and his 
 appearance in the following play as Shift, agrees exactly with the account 
 of Marlowe : — 
 
 " Now strutting in a silken sute, 
 Then begging by the way." 
 
22 SHAESFERE AND JONSOK. 
 
 Sir And. " I'll stay a montt longer, I am a fellow o' the 
 strangest mind i' the world ; I delight in masques and revels 
 sometimes altogether. 
 
 Sir To. Art thou good at these kickshaws, knight ?" 
 
 Act i. sc. 3. 
 Sir To. " He is a knight, dubbed with unbacked rapier, 
 and on carpet consideration; but he is a devil in private 
 brawl ; souls and bodies hath he divorced three." 
 
 Act iii. sc. 4. 
 His love of wine is not forgotten : — 
 Mar. "They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in 
 your company." 
 But we should lamentably mistake the feelings and 
 indignation of Shakspere, at being so grossly played 
 upon, if we limited his revenge to the humourous 
 character of Sir Andrew ; he had a far sharper shaft in 
 his quiver; — and when Sir Andrew laughs at the 
 ridiculous contortions and grimaces of Malvolio, 'tis 
 Jonson laughing at the image of his own inordinate 
 vanity and presumption. 
 
 In this most veracious of histories, this model of 
 biography, there has been no cooking ; long, long ago, it 
 was written, " Biron is not the germ of Benedick ; he 
 was played upon ; but had any one attempted to play 
 upon Biron they would have caught a Tartar."* 
 
 On making a more minute inspection of Every Man 
 in his Humour, we find Shakspere is also represented as 
 young Welbred, and Jonson as his friend, Edward 
 Knowell; who is, as old Knowell [Chapman] says, 
 "almost grown the idolater of this young Welbred." 
 In Twelfth Night Shakspere returns the compliment by 
 painting Jonson as Sebastian, and Capt. Antonio would 
 * Footsteps of Shakspere, p. 91. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND J0N80N. 23 
 
 be Chapman. As Sebastian is beloved by Olivia, whilst 
 Shakspere, as the Duke, is rejected by this haughty and 
 reserved beauty, who then can Olivia be, the adored of 
 two poets ? her name tells us, she must be the classical 
 muse the olive, the emblem of Minerva and Athens j 
 whilst Viola is the romantic muse, the virgin violet, the 
 primy spring, the Floscula of Endymion. By the 
 marriage of Olivia with Sebastian, Shakspere pays a 
 beautiful tribute to Jonson as a classical scholar. 
 
 Furthermore, as Jonson appears to have had Ford in 
 view in the character of Kitely, it follows by a very 
 simple process of deductive philosophy, the two Burghers 
 in The Merry Wives of Windsor must be Daniel and 
 Drayton, the two sonnet-poets at the Court of Cynthia, 
 and consequently sweet Ann Page is the expression of 
 Shakspere's admiration for Delia ; whilst the fat knight's 
 wooing of Mesdames Page and Ford is a humourous 
 allegory of his admiration and rivalry of those two 
 poets. 
 
 I take this opportunity of noting, that in the Comedy 
 of Errors, the two brothers or twins, Antipholis of 
 Ephesus and of Syracuse, are Shakspere and Greene; 
 Adriana would be Greene's dramatic muse, and the 
 courtezan would represent his novels. It has been 
 shown in the Footsteps of Shakspere, that the double 
 strength of Corsites in Lyly's Endymion, refers to 
 Greene's two-fold qualification of writing " stories or 
 poetries;" and Shakspere, in the Comedy of Errors, 
 seeks to soothe the wounded vanity and jealousy of his 
 friend by representing his own muse as the younger 
 sister of Greene's, and urging him to cease " paltering 
 
24 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 up sometliing in prose," and to devote Ms talents to 
 the drama. 
 
 Again, in Romeo and Juliet, whilst Juliet is the 
 sonnet-muse,* Helena is the dramatic muse; this 
 allegory is repeated in the Midsummer-Night's Dream ; 
 — the more these allegorical figures are examined into, 
 the more clear, distinct, and visible they become. 
 
 Having thus given, in Twelfth Night, his quid pro quo, 
 Shakspere, in Henry V., offers Jonson the olive-branch 
 of peace, complimenting him in the character of Jamy as 
 a brave captain of great expedition and knowledge in the 
 ancient wars ; and in the prologue, giving a courteous 
 reply to the prologue of Every Man in his Humour ; 
 but Ben, it seems, preferred being " a canker in a hedge 
 to a rose in his grace ;" and again in As You Like it, 
 Shakspere makes another generous offer of reconcilia- 
 tion, which apparently had no effect on Jonson, for we 
 find him in Cynthia's Revels holding up to ridicule both 
 Shakspere and Lyly in a still more marked and offensive 
 manner ; consequently, it is not surprising, that after 
 so much and such uncalled-for provocation, Shakspere's 
 forbearance at last gave way. 
 
 It has been shown in Shakspere, Sidney, and Essex, 
 and in ' Juliet ' Unveiled, that in several of the early 
 plays the figures of certain dramatists and courtiers 
 stand forth more or less prominent, both dramatist and 
 courtier being represented under the same character; 
 and it would appear, these plays have been constructed 
 on the same plan with similar art or artifice. That 
 Shakspere, in Timon, points at the Earl of Essex we 
 
 * Vide 'Juliet' TJnyeiled. — Notes and Queries, 3rd S., iv., 181. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 25 
 
 cannot doubt, and whilst the old soldier, for whom 
 Alcibiades is so much interested, would be Sir Roger 
 Williams, Apemantus may be more covertly pointed at 
 Bacon, who was at that time exposed to popular odium 
 as a false friend to the disgraced earl. We may also 
 feel certain, notwithstanding the intense passion of the 
 poet, the play was written before the death of Essex, 
 otherwise Shakspere would scarcely have satirised him 
 as the general Alcibiades with his two mistresses. It 
 was the persistent malice of Jonson, the irony more 
 polished and the sneer more pointed, in Cynthia's Revels, 
 that excited his anger. It may also be suspected, Essex 
 is pointed at in the " academic Timon," whilst Bacon 
 may be the orator Demeas, who is saved from being cast 
 into prison by Timon's generosity. 
 
 Again, in As You Like it, Essex appears to be pointed 
 at in the banished Duke, and especially in the melan- 
 choly Jaques, a character, be it noted, that was added 
 by the j)oet, and which is as strictly applicable to Essex 
 as Alcibiades in Timon of Athens. Frederick, the usurper, 
 we presume, is Cecil. But as this comedy was founded on 
 Lodge's novel, we readily recognise Lodge himself in 
 the banished Duke, and Greene in Frederick, distinctly 
 marked by Lodge's withdrawal from the stage, and by 
 Greene's repentance on his death-bed ; and it has already 
 been shown, that in Oliver and Orlando, Shakspere had 
 in his remembrance Greene and Marlowe j hence it 
 follows, in Celia and Rosalind we have a repetition of 
 the beautiful allegory of Olivia and Viola, as the classical 
 and the romantic muse; and Shakspere has prettily 
 changed the name of Alinda in the novel, into Celia or 
 
 c 
 
26 SHAKSPEKE AND JONSON, 
 
 the celestial, whilst Rosalind was not only Lodge's own 
 muse, hut also of Spenser, the bard of romance. How- 
 ever fanciful these opinions may appear, I hold them to 
 be true, and have more delight in discovering these 
 imaginary diamonds in the gardens of Shakspere, than 
 picking up nuggets of gold in the fields of Australia. 
 
 In Much Ado about Nothing, it is acknowledged, 
 William Herhert is shadowed in Benedick, and we may 
 suspect, Don Pedro is Sir Walter Ralegh, and Claudio, 
 the Earl of Southampton, who went with Sir Robert 
 Cecil to France in February, 1598, "leaving behind 
 him a very desolate gentlewoman, who hath nearly 
 cried out her fairest eyes. They were probably married 
 before his departure; but it was said by the gossips, 
 the marriage did not take place till late in the summer." 
 Don John might be Lord Thomas Howard, Viscount 
 Bindon, with whom Sir Walter had a violent quarrel 
 just about this period. Vide Gentleman's Magazine, 
 vol. xli.. New Series. 
 
 Again, in Tioelfth Night, we feel confident Ralegh is 
 
 the Duke, as may be gathered from the following 
 
 lines : — 
 
 " Sweet violets. Love's paradise, that spread 
 Your gracious odours, which yon couched bear 
 
 V\'ithin your paly faces. 
 Upon the gentle wing of some calm breathing wind. 
 
 That plays amidst the plain, 
 If by the favour of propitious stars you gain 
 Such grace as in my lady's bosom place to find, 
 
 Be proud to touch those places 1 " 
 
 And how natural, from the lips of Sir Walter, is the 
 exclamation : — 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 27 
 
 " Too old, by heaven ; let still the woman take 
 An elder than herself; " — 
 
 Act ii., scene 4. 
 
 and thus crumbles into dust the foundation-stone of 
 Shakspere's domestic unhappiness. 
 
 It has been said, there is a statue in every block of 
 marble; and Shakspere seems to have regarded any 
 remarkable character, warrior, or statesman, as a man- 
 mountain, out of which might be struck so many living 
 figures ; Essex to him was such a mass ; and although 
 it may be doubted, whether Timon was written before 
 or after the earl's death, yet we know. Hotspur had 
 played his hour on the stage by Shrewsbury clock 
 before 1599, yet has he traits in his character singularly 
 applicable to the later career of Essex ; and whilst it 
 must have been a labour of love to paint Southampton 
 as Prince Hal and Henry V., we can scarcely doubt, 
 Sir Robert Cecil is shadowed in that arch political 
 dissembler, Henry the Fourth; "a prototype of dip- 
 lomatic cunning," says Gervinus, — " he has rather 
 wished than ordered Richard's death." It may alo be 
 suspected, the Earl of Suffolk in Henry VI. is another 
 figure struck out of Essex. 
 
 However confident the writer may be in the correct- 
 ness of these views, he does not pretend to press them 
 on the reader; but as Shakspere undeniably, in his 
 earlier as well as in these later plays, shadowed certain 
 dramatists and courtiers in the dramatis persona, it 
 may be assumed, he pursued a similar course with 
 regard to the principal characters in the intermediate 
 plays. 
 
28 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 It may be surmised, Jonson also in some degree 
 followed his example, and it is possible, he has satirised 
 Ralegh in Puntarvolo, and William Herbert in Fasti- 
 dious Erisk. 
 
 That there had been about this period a tempestuous 
 quarrel ' between Shakspere and Jonson, the following 
 extract is of itself sufficient evidence, and fully justifies 
 the explanation that has been given of these plays. In 
 the Return from Parnassus, 1602, Kempe says to Bur- 
 bage : — " Few of the University pen play well ; they 
 smell too much of that writer, Ovid, and that writer, 
 Metamorphosis, and talk too much of Proserpine an,d 
 Jupiter. Why, here's our fellow Shakspere puts them 
 ill down : ay, and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson 
 i a pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the 
 poets a pill ; but our fellow Shakspere hath given him 
 a purge that made him bewray his credit." 
 
 Furthermore, it appears, that Jonson received from 
 Henslowe, "the 22 June, 1602, in earnest of a book 
 called Richard Crook-back, and for new adycions for 
 Jeronymo, the sum of x lb." — " From the sum advanced 
 on this play," says Giiford, " the managers must have 
 thought well of it. It has perished, like most of the 
 pieces brought out at their theatre, because they endea- 
 voured to keep them in their own hands as long as 
 possible." 
 
 But 'tis a pity Richard Crookback has not, been pre- 
 served, we might then have compared him with lago, 
 for who can doubt, that lago is " malignant Ben." 
 The following extracts speak for themselves : — 
 
 Rod. " Thou told'st me, thou didst hold Tiim in thy hate. 
 
SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 29 
 
 ltt§9. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of 
 the city, 
 In personal suit to make me hia lieutenant. 
 Oft capp'd to him : — and, by the faith of man, 
 I know my price, I'm worth no worse a place." 
 
 " villainous ! I have looked upon the world for 
 four- times seven years," 
 
 " The Moor is of a free and open nature. 
 That thinks men honest, that but seem to be so ; 
 And will as tenderly be led by the nose. 
 As asses are." 
 
 Cass. " He (lago) speaks home, madam -, you may relish 
 him more in the soldier than in the scholar." 
 
 lago is here identified with Macilente : — 
 Car. " O, he's a black fellow, take heed of him. 
 Sog. Is he a scholar or a soldier? 
 
 Car. Both, both."— 
 
 Soery Man out of his JBTtmour, Act i., so. 1, 
 
 Cassio, like Claudio, is Marston; and Montano, 
 Beatrice's signior Montanto, is Decker. 
 
 As the exact dates of Othello and Troilus and Cressida 
 are not known, and as it is now acknowledged Jonson 
 was born in 1573, Othello may have been, like Timon, 
 written at fever-heat as an instant reply to the Poetaster ; 
 and was followed by Troilus and Cressida, just as Much 
 Ado About Nothing was by As You Like it, though in a 
 very different mood. This supposition is confirmed by 
 the character of the two dramas, the one being all fire 
 and passion, the other a more elaborate and satirical 
 composition. As Troilus " ne'er saw three and twenty," 
 and as he may be regarded, like Benedick, a compli- 
 
80 SHAESFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 mentaxy portrait of William Herbert, it may be con- 
 jectured, this play was composed in the autumn of 1 602 ; 
 it also becomes probable, the Earl of Southampton is 
 intended by Diomedes. 
 
 In this "Comical Satire," Troilus and Cressida, it 
 never entered into Shakspere's head nor dawned on his 
 imagination, to ridicule Homer and the Iliad, any more 
 than I or Punch, in our harmless jocularity, might be 
 guilty of treason to the shades of Hamlet or Othello. 
 His object in this inimitable parody was to prove his 
 knowledge of Greek, and take his revenge on Jonson 
 and Marston; and well has he repaid the former for his 
 classical attack in the Poetaster. 
 
 We thus see, that to each of Jonson's attacks Shaks- 
 pere returns a two-fold blow, at first in a friendly and 
 courteous spirit, but as the malevolence of the one 
 increases, so rises the indignation of the other, till at 
 last " honest, honest lago " is the expression of Shaks- 
 pere's scorn and disgust. It may, however, be judged 
 from the Apologetical Dialogue, that the castigation, 
 the " putting-down," Jonson had received, was followed 
 with beneficial results ; and as Shakspere played a part 
 in the tragedy of Sejanus in 1603, we may presume, the 
 two contending poets were reconciled by the interference 
 of mutual friends. Jonson was at the same time recon- 
 ciled to Marston and Decker. 
 
 We all know, Shakspere knew how to forgive, but 
 can the same favourable view be taken of Jonson's 
 conduct ; envy and jealousy, so long nourished, are not 
 so easily rooted out; a personal liostility from his 
 twenty-second year, apparently causeless, against three 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 31 
 
 such men as Daniel, Lyly, and Shakspere, is at least a 
 singular circumstance, and it would seem the peace 
 lasted scarcely two years. 
 
 In 1605 was brought out VApone, or the Fox; in 
 this comedy Shakspere is ridiculed as Sir Politick 
 Would-be, whilst Jonson appears as Peregrine, a gentle- 
 man traveller. I shall make only a few extracts, and 
 refer the reader to the scenes themselves : — " My dearest 
 plots" must mean the historical plays; and " Marry, 
 sir, of a raven that should build in a ship-royal of the 
 king's," is an allusion to Jonson's Masque of Blackness, 
 the Queen having a short time before "expressly in- 
 joined" the poet to prepare a Masque. Sir Folitick's 
 iremark, " Alas, sir, I have none, but notes drawn out 
 of play-books," answers for itself. The joke of Sir 
 Politick being concealed under a tortoise-shell, must be 
 a satirical stroke at Caliban, and it would appear, the 
 Tempest had been written some months previously, or 
 else corrected and augmented according to Shaksperian 
 usage : — 
 
 Per. " And call you this an ingine? 
 
 Sh' P. My own clKvice. 
 
 1 Mer. St. Mark ! what beast is this? 
 
 Per. It is a fish. 
 
 Farewell most politick tortoise ! " — 
 
 The Fox, Act v., scene 2. 
 There cannot be a doubt of Ben's translation into 
 'Ban, 'Ban, Ca-Caliban. The following extracts evi- 
 dently allude to lago and the drunken bricklayer; these 
 passages are probably the retort courteous for some 
 fresh outburst of Jonson's anger at the rejection of 
 Sejamis : — 
 
32 SHAKSPERE AND JONSOW, 
 
 IVin. " By this light, a most perfidious and drunken 
 monster ; when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. 
 
 Sie, Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or my 
 
 standard. 
 
 T?-in. Your lieutenant, if you list ; he's no standard. 
 
 S(e. 'Steal by line and level; I thank thee for that 
 
 jest. 
 
 Trin. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers." 
 
 — The Tempest, Act iv 
 
 From their fondness for finery it is evident, Stephano 
 (Shakspere) is Stephen and Fungoso in Every Man in 
 and out of his Humour, and Trinculo is Decker. 
 
 Shakspere's reply to the Fox was that wonderful 
 drama. King Lear, in which Jonson is marked out most 
 clearly and unmistakably as Edmund; and it should 
 not be overlooked, the character is an episode, and not 
 in the original history. As Oliver in As You Like it 
 can scai'cely be called his father's son, is and is not; 
 and as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing is the 
 bastard brother of Don Pedro, so Edmund is the bastard 
 brother of Edgar, begot " under the dragon's tail ; and 
 my nativity was under ursa major ; so that it follows 1 
 am rough and lecherous ": — 
 
 Xent. " Is not this your son, my lord ? 
 Glo. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge ; I have 
 so often blush'd to acknowledge him ; that now I am brazed 
 to it." 
 
 " He hath been out nine years, and away he shall 
 again." — 
 
 Lear, Act i., scene 1 . 
 
 This play is supposed to have been written in the 
 autumn of 1605, and as Every Man in his Humour was 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 88 
 
 brought out in November, 1596, consequently " he hath 
 been out nine years." 
 
 Nor is it easy to resist the impression, that the fol- 
 lowing lines have a personal application : — 
 
 Edg. " Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence. 
 Despite thy victor sword, and fire-new fortune, 
 Thy valour and thy heart, — thou art a traitor. 
 False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father." 
 
 The allusions to Jonson in this passage are peculiarly 
 apposite, " thy strength, youth, thy victor-sword," and 
 fire-new-fortune, refers to his having written the Masque 
 of Blackness by express command of the Queen ; whilst 
 "false to thy gods " is as good as a date ; for only a few 
 months previously, Jonson had made a solemn recanta- 
 tion of his popish errors ; unfortunately his heart 
 remained unchanged, a Jesuit still in a Protestant 
 guise. 
 
 As Gloster loses his eyes through the treachery of 
 
 Edmund and by the hand of Cornwall, the latter must 
 
 be Marston, and Albany, Decker; which opinion is 
 
 confirmed by the first sentence in the tragedy : — 
 
 Kent. " I thought, the king had more affected the Duke 
 of Albany than Cornwall." 
 
 The faithful Kent represents Chapman, who was born 
 in 1557, "I have years on my back forty-eight j" and 
 Gloster must be Lyly. This interpretation is again 
 confirmed by the wrangle between Kent, Steward, and 
 Cornwall; — Jonson, as the Steward, is clearly pointed 
 out: — 
 
 Kent. " My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread 
 
 this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a 
 
 Jakes with him." 
 
34 SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 
 
 " That such a slave as this should wear a sword. 
 
 Who wears no honesty." 
 "A plague upon your epileptick visage! " 
 
 " None of these rogues and cowards, 
 But Ajax is their fool." — 
 
 Act ii., scene 2. 
 
 The last extract must be a reminiscence of Thersites. 
 Marston is no less distinctly marked by the following 
 imitation of his style : — 
 
 Kent. " Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity. 
 
 Under the allowance of your grand aspect, 
 Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire 
 On flickering Phoebus' front, — 
 
 Coi-n. What mean'st by this ? 
 
 Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so 
 much." 
 
 Kent being put into the stocks, is of course a satirical 
 allusion to Chapman's imprisonment for ridiculing King 
 James in Eastward Hoe. 
 
 Let us now take a look at Marston, and see what 
 light he throws on this contest. In the Introduction 
 to his Works, edited by Mr. Halliwell, we read in an 
 extract from Gifford : " the works which our author 
 (Jonson), had chiefly in view, were the Scourge of 
 Villanie and the two parts of Antonio and Mellida. In 
 the former of these, Jonson is ridiculed under the name 
 of Torquatus, for his affected use of ' new-minted words, 
 such as real, intrinsicate, and delphicke,' which are all 
 found in his earliest comedies, so that we have here, in 
 fact, little more than the retort courteous." — " It is but 
 fail' to add that, whatever Marston might think of the 
 present castigation, he had the good sense to profit by 
 
SHAKSPEUE AND JONSON. 35 
 
 it, since his latter works exhibit but few of the terms . 
 here ridiculed." 
 
 It is evident Gilford's sagacity is again at fault 
 through his own perversity; as Marston scourged 
 Jonson "for his affected use of new-minted words," it 
 is just possible, the words and phrases, ridiculed in the 
 Poetajter, were intentionally coined by Marston in 
 ridicule of Jonson, and on looking into Antonio and 
 Mellida such appears to be the fact ; for the first part 
 is evidently a burlesque poem or comedy; — Piero is a 
 satire on Jonson; Feliche, a gentle reminiscence of 
 Macilente ; and Bobadil and Master Mathew may 
 be the prototypes of Matzagente and Castillo ; — in the 
 second or tragical part, Piero becomes a most villainous 
 copy of Claudius, whilst Marston and Shakspere appear 
 as Audrugio and his son Antonio, or the Ghost and 
 Hamlet ; Antonio in a fool's habit is the counterpart of 
 Hamlet's feigned madness ; and Maria and IMellida are 
 of course the Queen and Ophelia. This second part, or 
 Antonio's Revenge, is undoubtedly founded on the first 
 sketch oi Hamlet, ed. 1603. — Decker is represented by 
 Alberto, a poor Venetian gentleman, in love with 
 Rosaline, probably a copy of Eosaline in Love's Labour's 
 Lost. 
 
 The epilogue to the first part being armed, very likely 
 gave Jonson the hint of the armed prologue in the 
 Poetaster; and he probably also caught the idea of 
 ridiculing Romeo and Juliet from the speech at the 
 commencement of the fourth act, where Antonio dis- 
 guised, escapes from the palace pretending to be in 
 pm-suit of Antonio : — 
 
36 SHAKSPERE AND JONSOW, 
 
 Ant. " Stop, stop Antonio, stay, Antonio, 
 
 Vain breath, vain breath, Antonio's lost ; 
 He can not find himself, not seize himself, 
 Alas, this that you see is not Antonio," 
 
 First Part, Act iv. 
 
 The following extracts must be satirical strokes 
 levelled at Jonson, or some other writer : — 
 
 Bal. "Eetort and obtuse; good words, very good words." 
 " Respective ; truly a very pretty word." 
 " Pathetical and unvulgar ; words of worth." 
 
 Second Part. 
 
 Here we are reminded of Twelfth Night : — 
 
 Sir And. " Good Mistress Mary Accost," &c. 
 
 " That youth's a rare courtier ! Rain odours ! well." 
 " Odours, pregnant, and vouchsafed : — I'll get 'em all 
 three ready." 
 
 It would thus appear that Jonson very cleverly 
 turned the tables on Marston by pretending to take the 
 new -minted words in Antonio and Mellida in a serious 
 light ; but though the public may have been gulled by 
 Jonson's ingenuity, the laugh would still be at his 
 expense in literary circles ; and in the following year 
 Marston published Antonio and Mellida. Even in his 
 ridicule of Shakspere as Asotus, the prodigal with his 
 two pages, the beggar and the fool, Jonson borrows his 
 satire from Twelfth Night .- — 
 
 Sir To. " Why he has three thousand ducats a year. 
 Mar. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats ; he's 
 a very fool, and a prodigal." 
 
 From the folloviring passage we may infer the first 
 part of Antonio and Mellida was brought out about 
 Christmas, 1599, and that Marston was born in 1575 : 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 37 
 
 Bal. " Lymne them ? a good word, lymne them : whose 
 picture is this? Anno Domini, 1599. Believe me, master 
 Anno Domini was of a good settled age when you lymii'd him. 
 1599 years old? Let's see the other. MaiissuceZi. BirLadie, 
 he is somewhat younger. Belike master - Etatis Suse was 
 Anno Domini's son." — 
 
 Act v., scene 1. 
 
 The Malcontent. — On comparing the characters iu 
 this play with those in Antonio and Mellida, we have in 
 the latter. Andrugio, the banished duke of Genoa, with 
 his wife Maria; and Piero, duke of Venice j— in the 
 Malcontent, Altofront (Marston), disguised as Malevole, 
 is the banished duke of Genoa, Pietro (Jonson), is the 
 usurping duke; Celso, the friend oJf Altofront, is of 
 course Decker. 
 
 In this powerful drama, Marston has given us two 
 vigorously drawn characters; Malevole is the author 
 himself, and that " huge rascal " Mendoza, might have 
 been a life-like portrait of Shakspere the man himself, 
 had _/aw predominated over brow; and it may be sur- 
 mised, we are indebted to this play for the magnificent 
 character of Othello, the grand contrast, the mighty 
 opposite to Mendoza. 
 
 lago^s restless jealousy about the Moor's too great 
 familiarity with his wife, has reference to this play,* 
 where Pietro (Jonson), is similarly jealous of Mendoza 
 (Shakspere). This view of the intimate connexion of 
 these two dramas is confirmed by the circumstance, that 
 
 * Tihe Malcontent was probably produced about Chriatmas, 1600, 
 and transferred a few weeks after, to Burbage and Co., in consequence 
 perhaps of a money-diffBrence with Henslowe. 
 
38 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 whilst lago's wife is named Emilia, and Cassio's mis- 
 tress, Biancha, the two ladies attendant on the Duchess 
 Aurelia, are also named Emilia and Biancha ; such a 
 coincidence can scarcely be accidental. Furthermore, 
 on examining Troilus and Cressida, we may reasonably 
 suspect Marston is painted as Pandarus ; and at the end 
 of the play Pandarus gives us the plain-spoken language 
 of Marston, and does not hesitate to " nominate a spade 
 a spade." Shakspere was perhaps led to give this 
 character to ilarston from Malevole's frequent jests on 
 that subject. 
 
 This play, the Malcontent, being free from the words 
 ridiculed by Jonson in the Poetaster, is strong evidence 
 such new-minted words were used by Marston iu 
 Antonio and Mellida in a burlesque sense. 
 
 The Dutch Courtezan probably followed close on the 
 heels of the Poetaster, as Marston's retort courteous to 
 that play. Both Shakspere and Jonson are unmistakably 
 ridiculed therein ; the one as young Freevill, and the 
 other as Malheureux, his unhappie friend ; and we may 
 presume the author amuses himself as Cockledemoy, a 
 wittie Citie jester. But Shakspere is very gently, even 
 kindly handled in this comedy, and it may, not inaptly, 
 be said, the two poets join in laughing at Jonson as 
 Malheureux, a parody on Crites. Marston is in a very 
 good humour, not at all affected by the emetic pills in 
 the Poetaster. 
 
 Freevill's expression, "my dear Lindabrides," is an 
 allusion to Asotus in Cynthia's Revels, Act iii., scene 3 j 
 the sweet innocent Beatrice, engaged to be married to 
 Freevill, appears, like Mellida, intended for Ophelia; 
 
SHAK.SPERK AND JONSON. 39 
 
 this supposition is confirmed by the oft expressed wish, 
 of Francischina : — 
 
 Vra. " Freevill is dead, Malheureux sal hang. 
 
 And swete divel, dat Beatrice, would but run mad, dat ' 
 She would but run mad ; dea me would dance and sing." 
 
 — Act v., scene 1. 
 
 and Beatrice's melancholy observation, " sister, cannot 
 a woman kill herself? is it not lawful to die when we 
 should not live ?" looks like a reminiscence of " Is she 
 to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her 
 own salvation ? " 
 
 Crispinella, Beatrice's sister, thus describes Freevill, — 
 " But thy match, sister, — by my troth I think 'twill do 
 well; he's a well shapt, cleane-lipp'd gentleman, of a 
 handsome, but not affected fineness, a good faithful eye, 
 and a well-humord cheeke ; would he did not stoope in 
 the shoulders for thy sake." — Act iii., scene 1. The 
 nurse thus describes him : — " heers Mistress Beatrice is 
 to be married, with the grace of God ; a fine gentleman 
 he is shall have her, and I warrant a stronge; he has a 
 leg like a post, a nose like a lion, a brow like a bull, and 
 a beard of most fair expectation;" the last phrase 
 reminds us of Asotus' beard, " which is not yet extant ;" 
 and of the words of Petulus in Midas, " my concealed 
 beard." 
 
 All, however, ends well ; Malheureux is cured of his 
 love, and escapes the gallows for the murder of his 
 friend, by the reappearance of Freevill; whilst Cock- 
 ledemoy and Mulligrub settle their diflSculties to mutual 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Eastward Hoe is the joint production of Chapman, 
 
40 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Jonson, and Marston ; oa examination it falls readily 
 into three divisions, and there can scarcely be a doubt, 
 the first act was written by Jonson, the second and 
 third acts by Marston, and the two last by Chapman. 
 That the play is an attack on Shakspere is clearly 
 shown by the ridicule cast on Hamlet and Ophelia in 
 the third act; and it is equally certain Shakspere is 
 satirised as the idle apprentice, Francis Quicksilver. 
 
 The following lines smack of Shakspere. Enter 
 Quicksilver drunk : — 
 
 Quick. " Eastward hoe ! Holla, ye pampered ladies of Asia !" 
 " Sfoote ! lend me some mony ; hast thou not Hyren 
 here?" 
 Quick. " When this eternal substance of my soul " — 
 Touch. " Well said, change your gold ends for your play ends. 
 Quick. " Did live imprison'd in my wanton flesh " — 
 Touch. "What then, sir?" 
 
 Quick. " I was a courtier in the Spanish court, and Don 
 Andrea was my name." 
 
 Act. ii., sc. 1. 
 
 The latter lines are evidently a parody on the cele- 
 brated passage in Measure for Measure : — 
 
 " Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; 
 To lie in cold obstruction, kc." 
 
 Act. iii., sc. 1. 
 
 In the characters of Sir Petronel Flash and his friend 
 and admirer Quicksilver, we have a repetition of Fasti- 
 dous Brisk and Fungoso; consequently Sir Petronel 
 must be Decker; Jonson of course is Goulding, the good 
 apprentice, and Lyly being depicted as Touchstone adds 
 greatly to the raciness of this malicious satire. 
 
 Although much ink has flowed from able pens, yet the 
 
SBAKSFERE AND JONSON. 41 
 
 question remains unsolved, whether Love's Labour Won, 
 mentioned by Meres in 1598, was the Tempest or All's 
 Well that Ends Well. It is easily granted, the comic 
 scenes in the Tempest may have been at this time some- 
 what altered, and pointed at Jonson ; but as Eastward 
 Hoe appears to be such an unprovoked attack, Shakspere, 
 we may feel confident, would have his revenge, be it 
 wrathful or humourous ; and at the very opening of the 
 Tempest we find, Prospero has his three enemies in his 
 ■ power ; consequently if this romantic drama be a reply 
 to Eastward Hoe, Prospero must represent Shakspere ; 
 — Antonio : Jonson ; — Alonso : Chapman ; — and Sebas- 
 tian : Marston ; — no other solution of the allegory, no 
 other placing of the characters, can be admitted ; and 
 on examination Sebastian is found to be Marston, drawn 
 exactly according to Jonson's account of Carlo Buffone, 
 — " a public, scurrilous, and profane jester, that more 
 swift than Circe, with absurd similes, will transform any 
 person into deformity :" — 
 
 Seb. " He receives comfort like cold porridge." 
 
 " Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit ; 
 By and by it will strike." 
 
 " As if it had lungs and rotten ones." 
 
 Act. ii., sc. 1. 
 
 ByAlonso's deep grief Shakspere might mean. Chapman 
 regretted or ought to have been ashamed of his conduct. 
 It has been previously shown, that Stephano and 
 Trinculo are Shakspere and Decker ; both of them being 
 drunk, getting wet, and losing their bottles in the pool, 
 jmd " you'd be king of the isle, sirrah," evidently refers 
 
42 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 to the ducking Quicksilver and Sir Petronel got in the 
 Thames, in the Pool just below Wapping old stairs ; vide 
 Eastward Hoe, Act iv., sc. 1 
 
 Antonio's remark must be an act of self-recogni- 
 tion : — 
 
 ^ni. " Very like ; one of them 
 
 Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable." 
 
 Nor has Shakspere forgotten his old friend Lyly, as 
 Gonzalo, the honest old counsellor. 
 
 From the intinaate connex'.onbetweenthese two plays, 
 so clear and unmistakable, it follows, the Tempest must 
 have been originally composed after Eastward Hoe, and 
 consequently All's Well that Ends Well must be Lmf^s 
 Labour's Won. 
 
 In the Tempest, as in As you Like it, Shakspere'a 
 mind is again dwelling on olden times; this is made 
 manifest by the remark of Prospero to Ariel : — 
 
 " Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain 
 A dozen years." 
 
 Act i., sc. 2. 
 
 As the Tempest was brought out in the spring of 1605, 
 a dozen years carries us back to 1593, when the Mid- 
 summer Niijht's Dream was composed, and Jonson com- 
 menced his dramatic career. In the conception of Ariel 
 Shakspere evidently had Puck in his recollection; Ariel 
 is Prospero's assistant, and discharges similar ofiBces, 
 just as Puck attends on Oberon ; and the expression, "I 
 go, I go," used by both, clearly shows the connexion in 
 the poet's mind. This connexion or resemblance being 
 granted, it follows, Ariel must be another translation, 
 and a divine one into the realms of light, of Nash, who 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 43 
 
 died about two or three years before the appearance of 
 the Tempist. It is interesting to see, how Shakspere, 
 to soften the tone of his imbittered feelings in his 
 quarrels with Jonson, turns his thoughts to his old 
 friends and foes ; the character of Moth and Puck, — of 
 lago and Caliban, mark unmistakably the difference of his 
 feelings towards his two persecutors. Nor did Shakspere 
 bear any illwill against Marston, in whom there seems 
 to be something jolly and hearty. 
 
 But behind these dramatic figures, so visible through 
 the transparent veil of the Tempest, may be seen 
 another set of figures equally interesting. These 
 lines : — 
 
 " or that there were such men, 
 Whose hands stood in their breasts ? which now we find 
 Eacli putter-out on five for one, will bring us 
 Good warrant of," 
 
 have furnished one of the strongest arguments, that the 
 Tempest must have been wi'itten in 1596; but they are 
 merely a sign-post or door-plate, that Sir Walter 
 Ralegh is here ; we have a similar passage iu Othello's 
 speech, when he gives an account of his wooing of Des- 
 demona : — 
 
 "And of the Cannibals that each other eat, 
 The Anthropophafji, and men whose heads 
 Do grow beneath their shoulders." 
 
 We are justified in believing, this passage also is a sign 
 or mark of Sir Walter, a diagnostic symptom, literally 
 " a mark of wonder " like the mole or sanguine star on 
 the neck of Guiderius ; it is by these delicate touches or 
 hints the dates of Several plays have been determined. 
 
44 SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 
 
 As Othello's speech is so peculiarly suitable to Sir 
 Walter, so descriptive of his courtship of Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, there cannot be 
 a doubt, that in the Moor the romantic dramatist 
 has given us a portrait of the Elizabethan hero. This 
 supposition is confirmed by the fact, that Sir Walter 
 Balegh was appointed to the government of Jersey 
 about a year before Othello was appointed governor of 
 Cyprus ; and we may suspect, the " will as tenderly be 
 led by the nose as asses are " is a gentle reminiscence of 
 " I should have savoured very much of an ass " in the 
 Discovery of Chiiana. As Bacon appears to be pointed 
 at in Apemantus, so may Sir Robert Cecil in lagoj and 
 Roderigo would be Cobham, who was played upon by 
 Cecil, just as Roderigo is by lago. 
 
 In the Tempest the two knights, the heroic Ralegh 
 and the crafty Cecil, are represented by the two Dukes of 
 Milan, Prospero and Antonio ; King James is Alonso, 
 King of Naples ; and Sebastian, the sarcastic jester, may 
 well stand for Sir Edward Coke, the king's attorney; 
 and Ferdinand * is William Herbert : — 
 
 • Ferd. " Admir'd Miranda — 
 
 for several virtues 
 Have I lik'd several women j never any 
 With so full soul, but some defect in )ier 
 Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd, 
 And put it to the foil : But you, O you, 
 So perfect, and so peerless, are created " 
 Of every creature's best." 
 
 Tempest, Act iii., so. 1. 
 
 Bene. " One woman is fair j yet I am well : another is wise, yet 
 I am well : another virtuous ; yet I am well ; but till all graces be in 
 one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.'' 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii., so, 3, 
 
SHAKSFERE A.ND JONSON. 45 
 
 Pro. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, — 
 I pray thee, mark me, — that a brother should 
 Be so perfidious ! 
 
 Of temporal royalties 
 He thinks me now incapable : confederates 
 [So dry he was for sway] with the king of Naples, 
 To give him annual tribute, do him homage ; 
 Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend 
 The dukedom, yet unbow'd, [alas, poor Milan !] 
 To most ignoble stooping. 
 
 Now the condition. 
 This king of Naples, being an enemy 
 To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; 
 Which was, that he in lieu o' the premises, — 
 Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, — 
 Should presently extirpate me and mine 
 Out of the dukedom ; and confer fair Milan 
 With all the honours, on my brother :" &c. 
 
 Act i., sc. 2. 
 
 Pro. Most cruelly 
 
 Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter; 
 
 Thy brother was a furtherer in the act ; — 
 
 Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian. — Flesh and 
 
 blood. 
 You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, 
 Expell'd remorse and nature." 
 
 Act v., sc. 1. 
 
 As the Tempest is a reply to Eastward Hoe we may 
 suspect Sir Petronel Flash is a satire on Sir Walter 
 Ralegh ; his imprisonment. Lady Flash's fruitless 
 journey eastward after her husband's enchanted castle, 
 and the name of the play, all have reference to the 
 Tower. It is gratifying to know, the three malicious 
 wits met with retributive justice, and were imprisoned 
 with the pleasant prospect of having their ears and noses 
 
16 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 slit more probably on account of the following joke on 
 his Majesty, than for a satire on the Scots : — 
 
 ] . Gent. " On the coast of Dogges, sir ; y' are i 'th 
 Isle of Donjges, I tell you, I see y'ave bin washt in the Thames 
 here, and I believe ye were drowned in a tavern before, or else 
 you would never have toke boat in such a dawning as this was. 
 Farewel, farewel ; we will not know you for shaming of you. 
 / ken the man weel; he's one of my thirty pound knightn." 
 
 Act iv., sc. 1. 
 
 It seems, however, these three playwrights were also 
 making themselves merry at the expense of one of King 
 James' own thirty pound knights, or at least of his lady 
 in the character of Girtred ; Bacon was desirous of being 
 knighted, " because I have found out an Alderman's 
 daughter, a handsome maiden, to my liking." He was 
 knighted with three hundred others on the 23rd July, 
 1603, the day of the coronation, and " the handsome and 
 rich Miss Barnham speedily became Lady Bacon." 
 lAves of the Lord Chancellors.* 
 
 From the happy termination of each play, it is pro- 
 bable the public did not anticipate for Sir Walter a very 
 
 • Bacon and his handsome maiden were not married till 1606 ; and 
 from the account of Mrs. Barnham in the Personal Rutory of Bacon, 
 it may be inferred, the mother rather than the daughter was the person 
 ridiculed. It is curious to see, how closely the history of Bacon and 
 Coke resembles the story of Sliakspere and Jonson. The following remarks 
 remind us of Jonson's satire : — " They had spoken of liis vanity, of his 
 presumption, of his dandyism, of his unsound learning and unsafe law. 
 J-Coke had called him a fool. Cecil had fancied him a dupe." And 
 so they served Ralegh ; but Shakspere with all his good-nature, gentle- 
 ness, and poetical temperament, was, as .Jonson found to his cost, 
 neither a fool nor a dupe ; he had the determined will, that Bacon 
 wanted, and an insight into man, that neither Ealegh nor Bacon had; 
 and whilst lie might have stood for his own Hamlet, Bacon might havs 
 been the Hamlet of Goethe and Coleridge. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 47 
 
 prolonged imprisonment, which, however, extended from 
 1603 to March 1616. 
 
 As the Tempest is a reply to Eastward Hoe, Caliban's 
 rejoicing over his freedom shows it must have been 
 written after the release of the three prisoners; 
 and Ariel's song justifies the inference, it was brought 
 out in May or early in June ; nor can there be a doubt, 
 the Mask of Ceres was composed in direct competition, 
 as a contrast in its chaste simplicity and classical purity, 
 to Jonson's gorgeous Masque of Blackness, which had 
 been performed at Court on the previous Twelfth Night 
 with unusual magnificence. As Jonson prides himself 
 on haying written the Poetaster in fifteen weeks, we may 
 judge of his intense disgust and rage at being translated 
 into Caliban by his boast of having "fully penn'd" the 
 Foss in five weeks. 
 
 It has been suggested, that in the line "Freedom, 
 hey-day, hey-day," Shakspere may have had an eye to 
 the song of Prosaites: — 
 
 " Come follow me, &e. hey-day, hey-day ; 
 And help to bear a part. Hey-day, hey-day." 
 
 Oynthids Revels, Act ii., sc. 1. 
 
 It is, however, equally probable, Shakspere had also 
 in his recollection the following lines at the end of the 
 tragedy of " Sejanus ; His Fall :" — 
 
 Sen. " Aiid praise to Macro, that hath saved Eome I 
 Liberty, liberty, liberty ! Lead on, 
 And praise to Macro, that hath saved Rome!" 
 
 There cannot be a doubt, that in the character of 
 Sejanus, Jonson has satirised Shakspere; Chapman 
 would be Cremutius Cordus, and Jonson, Arruntius and 
 
48 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Macro, and Silius may represent Marston. This 
 thoroughly knavish trick was concocted between Jonson 
 and Marston; whilst Shakspere, so unsuspicious and 
 " as easily led by the nose as an ass/' innocently 
 believing in the general pacification, was induced to act 
 a part in the drama. By comparing the characters of 
 Sejanus and Livia with Mendoza and Aurelia in the 
 Malcontent we find, Jonson has no less justly than 
 courteously styled his own lines " weaker and no doubt 
 less pleasing" than his coadjutor's in the original play; 
 the speech of Sejanus at the opening of the second scene 
 second act, is probably one of the altered passages. This 
 production being so purely classical and so distinct in 
 its satire from the comedies, may account for Shakspere's 
 Fall into this Confederate trap. On discovering by the 
 jests and inuendos at the Mermaid the scurvy trick, the 
 sell, for it's worth no other name, that had been played 
 upon him, Shakspere in his wrath hangs up Jonson in 
 a few lines as the drunken Barnardine in Measure for 
 Measure, appropriately so named : — 
 
 Buke. " What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed 
 this afternoon ?" 
 
 Frov. " A Bohemian born ; but here nursed up and bred : 
 one that is a prisoner nine years old." 
 
 Act iv., sc. 2. 
 
 This play must have been, like Timon, an instant 
 reply, and was probably produced in the autumn of 1603, 
 just nine years since Jonson's imprisonment in 1591. 
 
 Jonson is also severely handled in the character of 
 Angelo. After reading Marston's plays and the poem of 
 Pygmalion's Image the reader will readily perceive, 
 
SHAKSPEKE AND JONSON. 49 
 
 Marston is accurately delineated as the satirical and 
 plain-spoken Lucioj consequently Claudio must be 
 Decker. Shakspere generally speaks through the Duke, 
 in whom appears to be shadowed that easy and familiar 
 monarch, King James ; and Escalus is probably intended 
 for Chapman. 
 
 Whether the tragedy of Sophonisba was written before 
 or after Macbeth may be dubious, but we are therein 
 reminded of that drama ; it has a ghost, a witch, and at 
 the end a fight between Syphax and Massinissa ; a sus- 
 picion then arises, Macbeth is not quite free from the 
 shadow of Jonson ; that the propulsion given to Shaks- 
 pere's poetic fury by Volpone was not exhausted in Lear, 
 but flowed over into Macbeth : — 
 
 OtA. " Like to the Pontick sea, 
 
 Whose icy current and compulsive course 
 Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 
 To the Propontick anu the Hellespont ; 
 Even so my bloody thoughts." 
 
 Othello, Act iii., sc. 3. 
 
 and thus it may be presumed, in Macbeth and Macdufi" 
 we have repeated the hid sense of Edmund and Edgar. 
 
 As Jonson peers through the thin guise of Syphax, 
 probably Scipio and Loelius represent Marston and 
 Decker ; and the noble Massinissa must be Shakspere, 
 for whom Marston seems to have the highest esteem 
 and affection ; his abuse being more a love of mischief, 
 boisterous fun than ill-will ; but, like Shakspere, he 
 generally paints Jonson as envious, malicious, and un- 
 grateful. 
 
 Sophonisba was followed apparently by W.iUt you Will, 
 
50 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 published in 1607; in this comedy the poet Lampatho 
 Doria is acknowledged to be the author himself; andvdth 
 equal certainty it may be added, Quadratus is Jonson, 
 and Laverdure, Shakspere, and Faber Simplicius may 
 be intended for Decker. 
 
 Laverdure thus describes himself : — " a straight leg, a 
 plump thigh, a full vaine, a round cheeke ; and, when it 
 pleaseth the fertility of my chinne to be delivered of a 
 beard, 'twill not wrong my kissing, for my lippes are 
 rebels and stand out." It would seem, Shakspere had 
 a genuine English countenance, a fresh complexion, with 
 his little trim Elizabethan beard, and was not a hairy 
 leopard like Greene; whilst "my lippes are rebels" 
 coincides exactly with Nash's description, "and hang the 
 lip like a capcase half open," and " a little bit of the 
 teeth shewing " in the bust at Stratford. 
 
 Having reviewed Marston's plays, we can now form 
 a more correct view of this triple or tripartite contest. 
 We may take, as a secure basis or ground to build 
 upon, Jonson's three Comical Satires, as he calls them 
 Every Man out of his Humour was brought out in 
 1599; Cynthia's Revels, in 1600; and the Poe^as^er, in 
 1601. Shakspere replies to the first in Much ado about 
 Nothing, followed by As you Like it ; about the same 
 time, Marston brings out the first and second parts of 
 Antonio and Mellida ; Shakspere then, indignant at 
 the fresh insults ofi'ered to himself and Lyly, in the cha- 
 racters of Amorphus and Asotus, pours forth his wrath 
 on Jonson as Apemantus, and repays Marston for the 
 travesty of Hamlet, by painting him as the Athenian 
 general, Alcibiades, a brave soldier but of dissolute 
 
SHAK8PERE AND JONSON, 51 
 
 morals. Marston retaliates on Shakspere in the Mal- 
 content ; and Jonson in the Poetaster takes his revenge 
 on both of them. Marston replies again in the Dutch 
 Courtezan, and Shakspere repays both Jonson and 
 Marston in Othello, as well as in Troilus and Cressida. 
 
 It may also be conjectured, Marston's attack on 
 Hamlet was the immediate cause of its being re- written 
 at this period ; Shakspere being, by a singular coinci- 
 cidence, in the same bilious and irritable mood as in 
 1588, having literally two duels on his hands. 
 
 Furthermore, as the amended Hamlet, though entered 
 at the Stationers' Company in 1602, was not published 
 till 1604, it becomes highly probable. King James' 
 slight to the memory of Queen Elizabeth, in not allow- 
 ing any person in black to approach his presence, gave 
 Shakspere the hint for the alteration in the speech of 
 Laertes : — 
 
 Laer. " My gracibus Lord, your favourable licence, 
 Now that the funeral rites are all performed, 
 I may have leave to go again to France." 
 
 m. 1603. 
 Laer. " Dread my Lord, 
 
 Tour leave and favour to return to Prance ; 
 
 Prom whence, though willingly, I came to Denmark, 
 
 To show my duty in your coronation." 
 
 M. 1604. 
 
 We thus see, Shakspere's knowledge of man was not 
 mere instinct, " but crescent, 
 
 as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withall." 
 
 Let us now take a look at Decker. In 1601, Jonson 
 
52 SHAK8PERE AND JONSON. 
 
 had raised up against himself a host of enemies, law- 
 yers, soldiers, and players, and Decker had been " put 
 forward by the rest, and as he was not only a rapid but 
 a popular writer, the choice of a champion was not 
 injudicious." Of the Satiromastix Gifford says, — " In 
 transferring the scene from the court of Augustus to 
 England, Decker has the inconceivable folly to fix on 
 William Rufus, a rude and ignorant soldier, whom he 
 terms ' learning's true Moecenas, poesy's king,' for the 
 champion of literature, when his brother Henry I. who 
 aspired to the reputation of a scholar, would have 
 entered into his plot with equal facility." But William 
 Rufus, " learning's true Maecenas, poesy's king," it 
 may be presumed, was the ignorant William Shakspere, 
 " skilled in the hawking and hunting languages ;" so 
 that Decker's selection appears to have been peculiarly 
 appropriate. The wits of Elizabeth were not asleep. 
 
 In this comedy, Shakspere is King William, and 
 Lyly is Sir Vaughan ap Rees; the remark of Tucca, 
 " be not so tart my precious Metheglin," identifies 
 Lyly with Amorphus, reminding us of the Metheglin 
 and Pythagorical breeches in Cynthia's Revels, which, 
 I hold, are satirical allusions to his transmigrations 
 through Sir Hugh Evans and Captain Fluellen ; whilst 
 in the remark, " you nasty Tortois, you and your itchy 
 poetry break out like Christmas, but once a year," we 
 have probably the germ of Caliban. 
 
 Northward Ho appears to have been an immediate 
 reply to Eastward Hoe ; — Greenshield and Featherstone, 
 two worthless profligates, are Jonson and Marston; 
 and Hornet may be intended for Chapman. The 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 53 
 
 honest citizen Mayberry is Decker, and his friend, the 
 worthy poet Bellamont, is of course Shakspere; and 
 possibly " Have I given it you, master poet ? did the 
 limebush take?" may have been the origin of the 
 jesting in the Tempest about limetrees, and " I thanb 
 thee for that jest, steal by line and level." 
 
 The three lovers of Doll, as well as Hornet and his 
 two serving-men, are no doubt intended as additional 
 ridicule of the three authors of Eastward Hoe, 
 
 Bellamont is a very excellent character, but he has a 
 spendthrift for a son, and pays his debts to release him 
 from prison; this young gentleman, Philip, is also an 
 admirer of Doll, and says to his father, — "You have 
 often told me the nine Muses are all women, and you 
 deal with them : may not I the better be allowed one 
 than you so many." It may then be surmised, Philip 
 is Decker himself, whose life appears to have been a 
 hopeless struggle with poverty ; he was frequently con- 
 fined for debt, and was on one occasion assisted by 
 Alleyn the player. It is probable, he has here grace- 
 fully and gratefully acknowledged his obligations to 
 Shakspere. 
 
 The satire in this comedy is decidedly against Jonson 
 rather than Marston, 
 
 Westward Ho may have been composed about Christ- 
 mas, 1604 ; the three citizens. Honeysuckle, Wafer, and 
 Tenterhook, are the three authors of Eastward Hoe. 
 
 In these two comedies. Northward Ho and Westward 
 Ho, three is the winning figure. In the one we have 
 the landlord and his two waiters, and Doll's three 
 lovers ; in the other, three jealous citizens ; and in the 
 
54 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Tempest, Prospero has his three enemies at his mercy ; 
 these are three very remarkable coincidences, and 
 capable, apparently, but of one interpretation. 
 
 As Chapman was a joint labourer in the production 
 of Eastward Hoe, it becomes probable, something may 
 be found in his dramas throwing additional light on this 
 contest, and in Bussy D'Ambois, published in 1606, we 
 cannot doubt, that D'Ambois is intended for Jonson, 
 and Monsieur for Marston ; this opinion is fully justified 
 by the friendly exchange of personal abuse between 
 Bussy and Monsieur in the third act ; the reader will 
 perhaps excuse the insertion of the lines, as they are 
 rather too strong for modern ears. The following pas- 
 sage identifies Jonson with Bussy : — 
 
 " By your no better outside, I would judge you 
 
 To be a poet," — 
 " That is strange, 
 Y'are a poor soldier, are you ? 
 Suss. I am a scholar, as I am a soldier." 
 Gui. " Thou art a bastard to the Cardinal of Ambois." 
 
 On finding Kent's abuse of the Steward in Lear to 
 correspond so accurately with the language used by 
 Chapman in Bussy D'Ambois, it follows, the faithful 
 Kent is a portrait of Chapman, and that Bussy D' Ambois 
 preceded Lear, which probably was not brought out till 
 Christmas, 1605, as Kent has "years on his back forty- 
 eight." Consequently, Chapman, as well as Marston, 
 must have had a quarrel with Jonson immediately after, 
 or rather before the Fox; for it may be suspected. 
 Chapman and Marston are satirised in the characters of 
 Corbaccio and Voltore, whilst Mosca [Jonson] befools 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 55 
 
 them and vivisects Volpone [Shakspere] . The origin 
 of the difference may have been Jonson's arrogance 
 after the success of the Masque of Blackness, for D'Am- 
 bois is described as capable of any villainy, " do anything 
 but killing of the king." We do not suppose there 
 was any personal quarrel on this occasion, merely a 
 dramatic explosion, and, like enough, the wit-combats 
 at the Mermaid proceeded as usual, only sharpened by 
 a little tartaric acid to the attic salt. Ben, now finding 
 the whole court of Cynthia against him, wisely deemed 
 discretion the better part of valour, and did not continue 
 the contest, contenting himself with the honours of 
 being first courtier or Fawne at the court of Phoebus. 
 
 On further examination and reflection, we become 
 more and more assured, Sophonisba preceded Macbeth ; 
 that Shakspere was pleased and flattered by being por- 
 trayed as Massiuissa, and repaid Marston by shadowing 
 him in Banquo. It was the powerful genius, burning 
 through these two tragedies, the Malcontent and Sopho- 
 nisba, that excited Shakspere's emulous admiration, void 
 of envy. 
 
 That there had been a dramatic contest between 
 Shakspere and Jonson, the writer of these pages cannot 
 doubt; that there had been at one time a personal 
 quarrel can scarcely be doubted; and it is certain, 
 Jonson must have been acquainted with Shakspere, 
 Lyly, and Daniel before 1598, or even 1596, probably 
 a frequenter at the Mitre, but the good men little knew, 
 there was a chiel amang ^em takin' notes. 
 
 After this fierce struggle, this gladiatorial contest, 
 there seems to have been peace for several years ; but 
 
56 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 on looking into the Silent Woman, 1609, and the 
 Alchemist, 1610, we find undeniable evidence another 
 quarrel had occurred, or at least another dramatic con- 
 test is raging. 
 
 In the Silent Woman Shakspere is ridiculed as Sir 
 John Daw, whose intimate friend. Sir Amorous La Foole, 
 we may suspect, is a caricature of Inigo Jones. Sir 
 John makes his appearance as aShakescene and a Crow; 
 the following lines are home-thrusts : — 
 
 Daup. "■ Admirable ! 
 
 Clar. How it chimes, and cries tink in the close, 
 divinely ! 
 
 Bwup. Ay, 'tis Seneca. 
 
 Clar. No, I think 'tis Plutarch. 
 
 Daw. The dor on Plutarch and Seneca ! I hate it : they 
 are mine own imaginations, hy that light. I wonder those 
 fellows have such credit with gentlemen. 
 
 Clar. Tbey are very grave authors. 
 
 Daw. Grave asses ! mere essayists : a few loose sen- 
 tences, and that's all." 
 
 The observation about comparing " Daniel with Spen- 
 ser, Jonson with t'other youth," has been remarked 
 upon as a flirt at Shakspere and a sneer at Daniel, but 
 it is still more remarkable as a specimen of Jonson's 
 vanity. Sir John and Sir Amorous both terminate their 
 career ignominiously, giving up their swords and sub- 
 mitting, the one to so many kicks, and the other to 
 " tweaks by the nose sans nombre." 
 
 In the Alchemist Shakspere appears as Dapper, a 
 greedy and credulous lawyer's clerk, a frequenter of the 
 Dagger and the Woolsack, two ordinaries or gambling 
 houses of the lowest and most disreputable kind. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND J0N80N. 57 
 
 Amongst other things, " [they blind Mm with a rag] to 
 show he is fortunate," and the Fairy Queen and fairies 
 pinch him, in allusion to Falstaff. 
 
 But Dapper, and Sir Politick in the Fox, are merely 
 sign-posts ; in these two master-pieces of Jonson, the 
 Fox and the Alchemist, honest lago shows he has studied 
 the art of war under his great commander, Othello; 
 Shakspere is aimed at both as Volpone and as Sir 
 Epicure Mammon, and though the one is a gull and the 
 other gulls, yet the basis of each character is the same, 
 lust and covetousness. 
 
 As Sir John Daw is spoken of as " living among the 
 wits and braveries too, ay, and being president of them," 
 and Dapper is promised : — 
 
 " those that drink 
 To no mouth else, will drink to his, as being 
 The goodly president mouth of all the board," 
 
 it may be inferred Shakspere was president of the 
 Mermaid Club. In these two comedies, the Silent 
 fVoman and the Alchemist, Jonson appears as Truewit 
 in the one, and Lovewit in the other. 
 
 Shakspere's courteous reply to the sneering insults in 
 the Silent Woman was that magnificent drama Corio- 
 lanus, in which Jonson appears as Aufidius, and also as 
 the tribune Sicinius ; Shakspere speaks chiefly through 
 Coriolanus : — 
 
 " They have a leader, 
 Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to it : 
 I sin in envying his nobility : 
 he is a lion. 
 That I am proud to hunt." — 
 
 Act i., scene 1. 
 
 d3 
 
58 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 As the two tribunes are so similar in character^ thej 
 may be regarded, and were perhaps intended, for one 
 individual, substance, and shadow; — "thou Triton of 
 the minnows," and " hadst thou foxship to banish him," 
 plainly mark Sicinius as Jonson; to which may be 
 added the words of Aufidius, "five times, Marcius, I 
 have fought with thee ;" thus we unmask the intention 
 of the poet, for Jonson had had five pitched battles with 
 Shakspere : — Every Man in and out of his Humour, 
 Cynthia's Revels, Poetaster, and the Fox. The following 
 passage reminds us of Cynthia's Revels, where Fungoso 
 is spoken of as delighting to make a fool of himself, and 
 Crites calls him a jackdaw ; of course it has reference 
 to the name of Sir John Daw : — 
 
 3 Ser. " I'the city of kites and crows ! — What an ass it 
 is ! — then thou dwellest with daws too? 
 Cor. No, I serve not thy master." 
 
 Act iv., scene 5. 
 
 In Menenius we have our old friend John Lyly j that 
 he is intended for a life-like portrait is evident from 
 these extracts : — 
 
 Men. " I tell thee, fellow. 
 
 Thy general is my lover : 1 have been 
 The book of his good acts, whence men have read 
 His fame unparallel'd.'' — Act v., scene 2. 
 
 Cor. " This last old man, 
 
 Whom with a crack'd lieart I have sent to Eome 
 Loved me above the measure of a father ; 
 Nay, godded me indeed." — Act v., scene 3. 
 
 We are here reminded of the Merchant of Venice : — 
 
 Bass. " 'J'he dearest friend to me, the kindest man, 
 The best coudition'd and unwearied spirit 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 59 
 
 In doing courtesies ; and one in whom 
 Ttie ancient Eoman honour more appears. 
 Than any that draws breath in Italy." 
 
 Act iii., scene 3. 
 The Dapper impertinence in the Alchemist, Shakspere 
 retaliates by laughing at Jonson as the rogue Autolycus 
 in the Winter's Tale ; and by painting him also as the 
 jealous Leontes, we are reminded of the translation of 
 Greene and Nash into Oberon and Puck. Shakspere 
 speaks chiefly through Polixenes and the clown. 
 
 Jonson and Inigo Jones acted together in producing 
 the Masque of Queens, February 2, 1609; and as Jones 
 appears to be satirised in the Silent Woman, it is just 
 possible, as he was architect to Prince Henry, and in 
 favour with King James, that Camillo is a representation 
 of that celebrated man, " of a nature generous and 
 noble.'^ The good Polixenes bears evident marks of 
 being a portrait of good King James, and the observa- 
 tion, so objectionable to the Reverend Mr. Hunter, may 
 be a trait of his Majesty's hasty temper : — 
 
 " I am sorry, that, by hanging thee, I can but 
 Shorten thy life one week." 
 
 Act iv., scene 3. 
 
 Although, in 1610, Jonson produced the Masque of 
 Oberon and the Barriers, written to celebrate the 
 creation of Henry Prince of Wales on the 4th of June ; 
 yet he did not take any part in the celebration of the 
 marriage of the Princess Elizabeth; and it has been 
 remarked as a most singular circumstance, his muse is 
 silent on the death of Prince Henry ; and it appears, he 
 must have fallen into disgrace at Court about this 
 period : — 
 
60 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Aut. " I have served Prince Florizel, and, in my time, 
 wore three pile ; but now I am out of service." 
 
 " I cannot tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it 
 was, but he was certainly whipped out of the court." — 
 
 Act iv., scene 2. 
 
 But in this romantic drama, as in As You Like it, 
 Shakspere's mind is again reverting to old times, and 
 in the character of Leontes he is thinking far more of 
 Greefne than of Jonson. We are justified in this suppo- 
 sition by the comedy being founded on Pandosto, a 
 novel of Greene's, by the name of Mamillius, also taken 
 from another novel, Mamillia ; there must also be some 
 definite meaning attached to the number (23) twenty- 
 three : — 
 
 Leon. " Looking on the lines 
 
 Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil 
 Twenty-three years." 
 
 " Twenty-three days 
 They have been absent : 'Tis good speed." 
 
 " Nine changes of the watery star " may denote, the 
 play was brought out nine months after the Alchemist ; 
 and it must have been a recent production in May, 
 1611, since Dr. Forman noted it down so minutely in 
 his diary. If it was first acted in March or April, 
 twenty-three years would carry us back to 1588, when 
 Shakspere had a quarrel with Greene and Nash, and at 
 which time his son Hamnet was three years old, and 
 Greene had a son about twelve months younger; Pan- 
 dosto, also, was first printed in 1588. 
 
 The following dates are equally precise and definite : — 
 Time, as Chorus, says, " Impute it not a crime, that I 
 slide o'er sixteen years;" and Camillo speaks of the 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 61 
 
 death of Hermione sixteen winters ago; but he had 
 previously said, "it is fifteen years since I saw my 
 country ;" and yet he left Sicilia before Perdita. This 
 difference in Camillo's measurement of time is most 
 probably intentional, as well as characteristic of the 
 forgetfulness of age ; for as Jonson was married in 
 1594, he may have had a daughter in 1595, as he cer- 
 tainly had a son in 1596, in which year he also produced 
 Every Man in his Humour ; if Shakspere, then, really 
 alludes to this period, it can only proceed from a most 
 kind and conciliatory spirit, since it may be regarded 
 as about the happiest portion of Jonson's life, whilst in 
 the same year Shakspere's only son died, of whom 
 Mamillius may be regarded as a tender and affectionate 
 reminiscence, twin-brother to Arthur in King John; 
 Shakspere had hazel eyes, but Mamillius has " a welkin 
 eye," and Edward III. thus speaks of the Prince, 
 his son : — 
 
 " His mother's visage, those his eyes are hers." 
 
 In Antigonus we meet again with our old friend 
 Lyly,* whilst Paulina has all the tartness of Semele, 
 and Leontes may justly look upon her as the wasp of 
 all women. It should here be added, "the characters 
 
 * Lyly's honest old face is readily recognised peering through the 
 thin disguise of the numerous characters of which he is the archetype, 
 however distinct each individual may be, Shakspere seems to have 
 made the same use, and as affectionately of him, as Vance did of the 
 portrait of Sophy : — " I kept it as a study for my female heads — 
 ' with variations,' as they say in music. Commencing as a Titania, she 
 has been in turns a Psyche, a Beatrice Cenci, a Minna, a Portrait of a 
 Nobleman's Daughter, Bums' Mary in Heaven, The Young Gleaner, 
 and Sabrinafair, in Milton's Comus. I have led that child through all 
 history, sacred and profane." — What will he do with it, Part xi.; c. 2. 
 
63 SHAK8FEBE AND JONSON. 
 
 of Antigonus, Paulina, Autolycus, and the young Shep- 
 herd, are the creations of Shakspere;" 
 
 On reading the beautiful description of the recon- 
 ciliation of the two kings, so characteristic of the 
 forgiving spirit, of the noble and generous disposition 
 of the writer, we may reasonably suppose, all of Cahban 
 in Jonson's nature must have melted away before the 
 Miranda-like beauty of Shakspere; and it would be 
 pleasing to find, that amity was soon restored ; but the 
 commentators keep up a continual cry about his malig- 
 nant attacks and sneers against Shakspere; and this 
 Hue and Cry appears to be fully borne out in Bar- 
 tholomew Fair, which was produced in 1614. But 
 before proceeding further, let us make a more minute 
 inspection of the ground already gone over, for in the 
 Winter's Tale we are reminded of the beautiful allegory 
 in Twelfth Night. 
 
 On looking into T^mon, we find Alcibiades accom- 
 panied by two ladies, who, it is just possible, were 
 intended to represent Marston's comic and tragic muse, 
 or the two parts of Antonio and Mellida. Again, in 
 Othello, who is the lady so wondrous fair, the gentle 
 Desdemona? and who are Emilia andBiancha? When 
 honest lago suspects the too great familiarity of the 
 Moor with his wife Emilia, malignant Ben confesses to 
 Shakspere's intimacy with the Grecian muse. And is 
 not the Moor's jealousy of Cassio the expression of 
 Shakspere's admiration of the Malcontent, his acknow- 
 ledgment of Marston's genius, on whom his own love, 
 the romantic muse, has bestowed her sweetest smiles, 
 her warmest kisses, like Cynthia and Endymion ? This 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 63 
 
 view of the allegorical imagery, concealed in Othello, is 
 confirmed by the intimate connexion of that tragedy 
 with the Malcontent, where Meudoza's too great fami- 
 liarity with Aurelia is Marston's acknowledgment of 
 Shakspere's classical acquirements. Who, then, is Fer- 
 neze, the young lover of Aurelia, whose death is caused 
 by Mendoza's jealousy ? And who is Roderigo, in love 
 with. Desdemona, and killed by lago? who is this 
 young lover, for the two must be one and the same 
 person, who thus excites the jealousy of Shakspere and 
 Jonson, or rather their love and admiration ? perhaps 
 we may find the solution in Troilus and Cressida. 
 
 This ' Comical Satire,' this most singular production, 
 we now know is a supplement to Othello ; consequently 
 the dramatis personcE must have reference to the char- 
 acters in the Malcontent and the Poetaster; and we 
 shall find the poet had a method in his madness. 
 According to Maginn, it is written in direct antagonism 
 to the Iliad, and Gervinus says: — "It is remarkable, 
 that Shakspere has in this play avoided confining him- 
 self closely to all his sources equally. — All the more 
 important actions follow accurately no single source; 
 the separate features of the story and of the characters, 
 are disconnected, and are borrowed indififerently, if not 
 intentionally, sometimes from one, sometimes from 
 another. — Certain passages could only be derived from 
 Homer himself."— FoZ. 2, p. 303. 
 
 These extracts fully justify us in attributing to certain 
 passages a hid sense, a special meaning. Consequently, 
 by Hector's courteous language to Ajax and calling him 
 
64 SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 
 
 cousin,* Shakspere marks his friendly feeling to Marston, 
 and recognises him as a romantic poet ; and when we 
 are told that Ajax "yesterday cop'd Hector in the 
 battle, and struck him downj the disdain and shame 
 whereof hath ever since kept Hector fasting and 
 waking," can we doubt, that Shakspere is alluding to 
 the Malcontent, a play at that time unrivalled in power 
 and intensity of passion save by his own Timon. . On 
 the other hand the abuse of Ajax would be a satire on 
 Marston's poetical style, his forced and turgid language. 
 When Troilus is spoken of as Hector's younger brother, 
 and "on him erect a second hope, as fairly built as 
 Hector," 'tis Shakspere confirming by anticipation the 
 critical opinion, that Fletcher is Shakspere's younger 
 brother: consequently when Ulysses slights Cressida, 
 'tis Shakspere's disapproval of young Fletcher's loose 
 and immoral muse. Fletcher was bom in December, 
 1579, and therefore " had ne'er seen three and twenty 
 years " in the autumn of 1602. We can now under- 
 stand that Fletcher is shadowed in Femeze and 
 Roderigo, and perhaps in Galeatzo, the young Prince of 
 
 • When Hector addresses Ajax : — 
 
 " That thou could'st say — This hand is Gh-ecian all. 
 And this is Trojan ; the sinews of this leg 
 All Greek, and this all Troy ; my mother's blood 
 Buns on the dexter cheek, and this sinister 
 Bounds-in my father's." — 
 
 Troihu and Cressida, Act iii., scene 5. 
 
 Shakspere must have had in his recollection : — 
 Ant. " O that I knew which joint, which side, which limb, 
 Were father all, and had no mother in't. 
 That I might rip it vein by vein, and carve revenge." — 
 Antonio's Mevenge, Act iii., scene 3. 
 
SHAKSPEllE AND JONSON. 65 
 
 Florence in Antonio and Mellida. All the generals 
 kissing Cressida, is probably a satire on the excessive 
 osculation at that time, a pleasing custom grossly 
 abused. The non-observance of this custom, the gentler 
 and more polished manners of the Trojans, and Paris' 
 Gallicism, " It is great day," raise a suspicion, Shaks- 
 pere intended to shadow the French in the Trojans, 
 possibly he may have had in his recollection the meeting 
 at Boulogne, between Henry VIII. and Francis. We 
 need scarcely add, that Helen is the Grecian muse.* 
 
 The three ladies in Measure for Measure appear also 
 to be of an allegorical character ; but in the Tempest we 
 cannot doubt, Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, is the 
 romantic muse, beloved by Ferdinand [Beaumont], son 
 of Alonso [Chapman]. This view is confirmed by 
 Jonson in the Fox, where Celia is the classical muse, so 
 named after her in As you Like it. The characters of 
 the honest, rough-tongued Chapman as Corbaccio, and 
 of the amorous and loose-tongued Fletcher as Corvino, 
 are very distinctly marked, and also Marstou as Voltore, 
 in the second scene of the fourth act, where Corvino 
 swears he has seen the young Bonario [Beaumont], son 
 of Corbaccio, warmly kissing and embracing his wife 
 Celia. On this pretty conceit of the two poets, having 
 
 * It was a custom on the Elizabethan stage for a great actor like 
 Burbage or AUeyn, to take two or three parts in the same play ; and it 
 was on this principle the comedy was constructed, but rather for 
 reading than acting. According to the playbill, Jonson was engaged 
 specially for Thersites, and also for Achilles and Meuclaus j^Marston, 
 specially fur Fandarus, and also Fatroclus and Ajax; — Shakspere, 
 specially for Hector, and also Paris and Ulysses ; Chapman performed 
 Agamemnon, and Lyly, Nestor ; — Troilus by Ketcher, and Diomed by 
 Beaumont. 
 
66 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 one muse in common, has been founded a story, 
 highly discreditable to the characters of Beaumont and 
 Fletcher ; such is the sad result of attaching historical 
 value to idle anecdotes. The reader will now perceive 
 the probability, nay, the certainty that in Diomed was 
 shadowed the youthful Beaumont ; at that time, in the 
 autumn of 1602, he was in his eighteenth year, it is 
 possible he may have assisted Fletcher in writing a 
 comedy, since he published a translation, or rather " a 
 huge paraphrase " from Ovid when only sixteen. 
 
 In Lear, Goneril and Regan may well represent the 
 muses of Decker and Marston ; but be that as it may, 
 the once dearly-beloved Cordelia must be the romantic 
 muse. In her sad fate, hanged by the order of Ed- 
 mund, and in the afSicting death of Lear, we have a 
 true and graphic image of the fate of Shakspere and his 
 muse, had he listened to Jonson's classical criticisms 
 and amputated his drolleries to the measure of Ben's 
 Procrustean bed. The rejection of Cordelia by the 
 Duke of Burgundy [Fletcher], and the eager acceptance 
 of her, as " a dowry in herself," by the King of France 
 [Beau-mont], distinctly mark Shakspere's estimation of 
 the two poets;— young Troilus had not paid attention 
 to Ulysses' opinion of Cressida. Could any biographical 
 value be attached to the liberality of Ferneze and 
 Roderigo, and to the dower-seeking of Burgundy we 
 should accede to the opinion, Fletcher inherited some 
 property but soon squandered it away. But in Ferdi- 
 nand and France we have direct evidence that Beau- 
 mont was an ardent worshipper of the Shaksperian 
 muse ; and, whilst his commendatory lines on the Fox 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 67 
 
 are a tribute to Jonson's vanity, Ferdinand carrying 
 logs is an image of Shakspere's watchful care, and of 
 the severe training of the youthful poet. 
 
 In Macbeth, by shadowing Marston in Banquo, Shaks- 
 pere points at Fletcher in Fleance and we shall hereafter 
 show good cause for this opinion. 
 
 We thus see, a poetical allegory is the vital principle, 
 the delicate aroma, permeating these dramas j and in 
 none is this ethereal essence more perceptible than in the 
 Winter's Tale : — 
 
 Fol. " This jealousy 
 
 Is for a precious creature : as she's rare, 
 Must it be great ; and as his person's mighty, 
 Must it be violent ; and as he does conceive 
 He is dishonour'd by a man which ever 
 , Profess'd him, why, his revenges must 
 
 In that be made more bitter." 
 
 Thus the jealousy of Leontes, like lago's suspicion of 
 the Moor, is another claim, made by Shakspere, of his 
 intimacy with the Grecian muse ; whilst in the marriage 
 of Florizel and Perdita is shadowed the union of the 
 Greek and romantic drama in the rising genius of 
 Beaumont. Perdita's classical character is beautifully 
 shown in her distribution of the flowers at the rustic 
 feast. — We must now away from Fairy-land to the bitter 
 trials of daily life. 
 
 In Bartholomew Fair Sbakspem is delineated in the 
 
 . ■ ' '" "^"~ ■■■" — » — .. .. ■ ■■ 
 
 yidiculous character of Proctor Littlewit, " the Littlewit 
 
 . "j^Jjg21^giLu5£LjJl'l!l_iIJi,i^ftll{sd "rd go methin^ besid es. ^^ 
 
 The commentators have pointed out in the Induction a 
 
 flirt at Shakspere and at Much Ado about Nothing; 
 
68 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 and also a passage, in which the Tempest and the 
 Winter's Tale are sneered at : 
 
 " If there be never a servant-monster in the fair, who can help 
 it, he says, nor a nest of antiques ? he is loth to make nature 
 afraid in his plays, like those that beget tales, tempests, and such 
 like drolleries." 
 
 The meaning of this passage is so clear and unmis- 
 takable, that nothing but wilful obstinacy could have 
 blinded Giflford, who wiU not see, that the learned Ben 
 Jouson is like Dr. Johnson, a classical bigot, and here 
 denounces two master-pieces of the romantic drama as 
 drolleries or puppet-shows ; and further on, after a long 
 tirade of this " twice-sodden folly " attempting to make 
 black white, Gifford is forced to acknowledge, that 
 Jonson has caricatured Inigo Jones as Lanthom 
 Leatherhead. Nor can it be doubted, Shakspere is 
 ridiculed not only as Proctor Littlewit, but also as Justice 
 Overdo and Squire Cokes. The malice of the Induction 
 denotes the pleasures of the Fair. We must not how- 
 ever omit Littlewit's account of his method of modern- 
 izing a Roman history: — "As for the Hellespont I 
 imagine our Thames here ; and then Leander I make a 
 dyer's son about Puddlewharf ; and Hero a wench o'the 
 Bankside." In March, 1613, Shakspere "bought a 
 house with ground attached near Blackfriars Theatre, 
 abutting upon a street leading down to Puddlewharf." 
 
 As Claudius died at the culminating point of his 
 iniquitous career just before Hamlet, so Jonson set 
 the seal to his own infamy just before Shakspere 
 died. In the Devil is an Ass Shakspere is grossly 
 ridiculed, and Daniel is no less grossly maligned; the 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 69 
 
 names of the characters are suflScieat to condemn 
 Jonson : Shakspere : Plutarchus Gilthead and Fabian 
 Fitzdottrel ; Daniel : Ever-ill ; Jonson : Eustace Manly ; 
 and Inigo Jones: Engine; Chapman would be Sir 
 Paul Eitherside, and Decker, Thomas Gilthead. 
 
 Plutarchus is clerk to Eitherside the lawyer, he is 
 addressed, " my pretty Plutarchus," just as Tucea calls 
 Ovid "my pretty Alcibiadesj" the name is evidently 
 an allusion to the Roman plays. 
 
 Fitzdottrel, a silly bird of the same feather as the 
 
 Daw, makes his appearance as a Shakescene and a Crow 
 
 in borrowed feathers : nor is Midas forgotten, he is both 
 
 ass and ox j like Fungoso he is a friend to the tailor : — 
 
 " What rate soever clothes be at ; and thinks 
 
 Himself still new, in other men's old." 
 
 " out of the belief 
 He has of his own great and catholic strengths 
 In arguing and discourse." 
 The following lines are not less significant : — 
 Meer. " I think we have found a place to fit you now, sir, 
 
 Gloucester, 
 Mts. no, I'll none. 
 Meer. Why, sir? 
 Fitz. 'Tis fatal, 
 
 Meer. That you say right in. Spencer, I think, the 
 younger. 
 Had his last honour thence. But he was but earl. 
 Mtz. I know not that, sir. But Thomas of Woodstock, 
 I'm sure was duke, and he was made away 
 At Calice, as duke Humphrey was at Bury : 
 And Richard the Third, you know what end he 
 came to. 
 Meer. By my faith you are cunning in the chronicle, sir. 
 Fitz. No, I confess I have it from the playbooks. 
 And think they are more authentic." 
 
70 SHAESFERE AND JONSOX. 
 
 Meer. " To be 
 
 Duke of those lands you shall recover : take 
 Your title thence, sir, Duke of the Drown'd Lands, 
 Or Drown'd Land." 
 
 " This harmless passage about the playbooks, the com- 
 mentators, Malone and Steevens in particular, are never 
 weary of recurring to with spiteful triumph ; ' all Shaks- 
 pere's historical plays are ridiculed ' by the malignant 
 Ben." Vide Gifford. 
 
 These keen hounds however, notwithstanding Gif- 
 ford' s horror, were on the right scent ; but not knowing 
 who Fitz was, they missed catching the fox, Volpone 
 himself. I have in the Footsteps of Shakspere explained 
 the line in Oberon's vision, " I saw but thou couldst 
 not," by the fact that Greene was, but Nash was not 
 born, when Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne ; and 
 we have here a similar artifice ; — the observation about 
 Spenser is an allusion to Marlowe's play, Edward the 
 Second; consequently Fitzdottrel says, "I know not 
 that, sir ;" but he knows the contents of his own plays, 
 and so naively adds, " I think they are more authentic." 
 This passage alone suffices to stamp Fitzdottrel as Shaks- 
 pere. " I learn'd in it myself, to make my legs and do 
 my postures" proves, that Fitzdottrell is also a con- 
 tinuation of Asotus, the pupil of Amorphus; and the 
 witchcraft in the fifth act is Jonson's retaliation for the 
 character of Edmund in Lear. 
 
 But the whole gist of this Satanic comedy turns on 
 deluding Fitz with the hope of being his Grace the Duke 
 of Drown'd Land ; a grand project that, strange to say, 
 never entered the head of Sir Politick "Wouldbe tho' 
 dwelling in Venice ; because the moral of the tale lies in 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 71 
 
 the fact, that in 1614 Shakspere " is found at this time 
 busy about a project for the enclosure of the common 
 fields of Stratford, and is consulted on that and other 
 matters as the most public-spirited man in the town." 
 
 We thus see, how truly Hector's fate was a prefigura- 
 tion of Shakspere's : — 
 
 Eect. " Now is my day's work done : I'll take good 
 breath : 
 Eest sword : thou hast tiy fill of blood and 
 death !" 
 
 We here see the poet, retired from the stage, disarm'd, 
 his sword " broken and buried certain fathoms in the 
 earth," when " even with the vail and darkening of the 
 sun to close the day up " comes Neoptolemus Jonson 
 with his furious and malignant Myrmidons, Bartlemy 
 and the Devil : — 
 
 " Strike, fellows, strike ; this is the man I seek. 
 On, Myrmidons ; and cry you all amain, 
 Ben Jonson* hath the mighty Shakspere slain." 
 
 Troilus and Oresdda, 
 The passage where Engine whispers Meercraft— "Do 
 you remember the conceit you had of the Spanish gown 
 at home," Act ii., sc. 3, has reference to Dame Pliant in 
 the Alchemist and to the boy that acted Epicoene ; and 
 farther on we read : — 
 
 Meer. " Sir, be confident, 
 
 'Tis no hard thing t' outdo the Devil in ;^ 
 A boy of thirteen year old made him an ass 
 But t'other day." 
 
 Act v., sc. 3. 
 
 * Pie. " It shall be chronicled, time to come : 
 Piero Sforza slew Andrugio's son." 
 
 Antonio and MelUda, Act iii., p. 43. 
 
72 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 As the Silent Woman was produced ia 1609 and Every 
 Man in his Humour in 1596, it follows the boy must have 
 been Jonson's own masculine muse, which, dressed as a 
 lady, Shakspere [Sir John Daw] mistakes for the Grecian 
 muse; the allegory is perfect, keenly satirical, well 
 worthy of a wit larded with malice ; nor can we doubt 
 that Dol in the Alchemist is a caricature of the romantic 
 muse, whilst Dame Pliant, married to Lovewit (Jonson), 
 is intended for the classical muse. 
 
 This passage proves, that Meercraft is Jonson; for 
 how could Meercraft know anything about the Silent 
 Woman and the Alchemist, unless he were a continuation 
 of one of the characters or the author himself. It 
 appears, that Meercraft is the same as Face in the 
 Alchemist ; since it is Face, who proposes to Subtle to 
 marry Dame Pliant to the Spaniard; consequently 
 Subtle is the same person as Engine, and must be 
 a satirical stroke at Inigo Jones : — 
 
 Face. " 'Tis his fault ; 
 
 He evei* murmurs, and objects his pains, 
 And says, the weight of all Ues upon him. — 
 Hang him, proud stag, with his broad velvet head." 
 Alchemist, Act 1., sc. 1. 
 
 As Subtle says to Face, " Here's your Hieronymo's 
 cloak and hat," it follows. Face and Meercraft are in 
 reality the author ; whilst Manly and Lovewit are ficti- 
 tious characters, which he wishes to impose on the public 
 as portraits of himself; and as the Fox and Alchemist 
 arejtwo plays of similar construction, it can scarcely be 
 doubted, Mosca is the precursor of Face. Let Shakspere 
 and Jonson be testimonied, as the Duke says in Measure 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON, 73 
 
 for Measure, by their bringings forth ; — Jonson is hap- 
 piest aud most at home in painting gulls and describing 
 the tricks of rogues ; whilst Shakspere "in deep delight 
 is chiefly drowned " in dwelling on characters, of which 
 there is scarcely a trace to be found in Jonson's works ; 
 and which said works, or bringings forth, fully bear out 
 Drummond's character of him, '•' a dissembler of ill 
 parts which rayne in him, a bragger of some good that 
 he wanteth." Thus at the end of the Alchemist, Lovewit 
 profits by the rascality of his servant, and therefore 
 forgives himj then Face comes forward requesting a 
 plaudite from the spectators : precious teaching of 
 morality ! our sympathies enlisted on behalf of a clever 
 rogue and a receiver of stolen goods, or at least obtained 
 under false pretences. 
 
 We must receive with some caution the statements of 
 Gilford, who instead of being the dispassionate bio- 
 grapher, sinks himself into the blind advocate. It is 
 both possible and probable Daniel may have spoken un- 
 favourably of Jonson ; but the character of Everill does 
 not fit in with Jonson's words, " he bore him no illwill 
 on his part." We have evidence that Shakspere in 1614 
 was busy about a project for the enclosure of the com- 
 mon fields of Stratford; and in 1616 Jonson, in opposi- 
 tion to Daniel, was made Poet Laureat; — in the Devil 
 is an Ass, written probably about Christmas, 1615, is a 
 Fiztdottrel, Duke of Drown'd Land, of the same family 
 as Fungoso, Asotus, and Sir John Daw, whilst Everill is 
 a candidate for the office of Master of the Dependances, 
 and makes to a lady similar insinuations against Manly, 
 as Daniel is said to have made against Jonson ; such 
 cincidences are rarely accidental. 
 
 E 
 
74 SHAKSPEKE AND JONSON. 
 
 It was easy for Jonson in 1623 to praise the dead 
 lion, but we can have little confidence in his sincerity in 
 placing above the classic tragedians of Greece the 
 romantic dramatist, author of those two drolleries, the 
 Tempest and the Winter's Tale ; nor can we place much 
 reliance on his almost idolatrous affection; it would 
 seem rather, both his praise and affection are a tribute 
 to public opinion. These suppositions are confirmed by 
 his statements to Drummond, and more especially in the 
 Staple of News, 1 625, where Jonson ridicules Shakspere 
 as Pennyboy junior, in fact, a reproduction of Asotus in 
 love with Lady Argurion; and in January, 1629-30, 
 when the New Inn was " completely damn'd " not being 
 heard to the conclusion, if he had loved and respected 
 the memory of his friend, would he have vented his ill- 
 will on the " malicious spectators " by a sneer not only 
 at Pericles but also at Love's Labour's Lost ; — 
 
 " No doubt some mouldy tale, 
 
 Like Pericles and stale." 
 " For who the relish of these guests wiU fit, 
 
 Needs set them but the alms-basket of wit." 
 
 In the New Inn Jonson amuses himself with ridiculing 
 Shakspere as Fly, and Inigo Jones as Sir Glorious 
 Tipto, evidently an imitation of Don Armado and Moth. 
 This play was the cause of the subsequent hostility of 
 Inigo Jones, and not the trivial circimastance of Jonson 
 having put his name first on the title-page of a masque. 
 
 On looking back to the origin of this contest we find, 
 the first effect of Jonson's action on the Shaksperian 
 drama was the cutting short of the earthly career of Sir 
 John Falstafl', which Shakspere intended to have con- 
 
SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 75 
 
 tinued in Henry V. ; but his path was crossed by a 
 spectre, monstrum horrendum, informe, which Sir Toby 
 Belch ridicules with Palstaffian humour in Twelfth 
 Night, and hence Sir John is quickly despatched in 
 Henry V., that " you be not too much cloyed with fat 
 meat." 
 
 InJUiLcb^Ado-abouLNaihmSLve again sfie^thfidark'n-^ 
 ing influence of^ Jonson, a comedy filled with the 
 ^aMenals^and vergmg on tragedy; whilst th e beautiful 
 mdjcam2XiiA&-S:iMgeBSr-J&.^ou_Idkeli , imp en etrated with^ 
 
 t^JIEiat. of- thejUfilaachok-Jaaueii— 
 " Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 
 Thou art not so unkind, 
 As man's ingratitude." 
 
 But these fleecy clouds, casting a melancholy shade 
 over bright Cynthia, soon aggregate together, and in 
 Timon the storm bursts forth. Jonson is the spark, or 
 rather the sulphurous match, that has ignited the 
 combustible elements of those three volcanic eruptions, 
 Timon, Othello, and Lear. In these dramas we see, how 
 the celestial influences of Cynthia are disturbed by the 
 terrestrial motions of malignant Ben; — the more the 
 lion roars, the more does Ursa major dance ; — the mor^ 
 our gentle Willy groans, the more does Macilente grin ; 
 and when Phoebe in As you Like it exclaims : — 
 
 " Dead shepherd ! now I find thy saw of might ; 
 WJio ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight ? " 
 
 'tis the breathing forth of a sigh for poor Marlowe back 
 again, and Jonson in his place. 
 
 But it would be a grievous error to regard this dra- | 
 matic contest as a mere personal quarrel. Altbea^gh^ 
 
76 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Joason is in each instance the aggressor, yet Shakspere 
 in his reply, however indignant, only points at Jonson 
 in certain characters; and, though he gives some home* 
 thrusts, and tells some hitter truths, he no- where deli- 
 neates the man himself, unless lago be he. These 
 dramas, from first to last, are essentially sesthetical pro- 
 ductions ; or perhaps it may with still greater truth be 
 said, they fully bear out the opinion of Ulrici, who con- 
 nects the action and characterization of Shakspere's 
 dramas with the development of a high moral or rather 
 Christian principle. 
 
 As Beaumont and Fletcher were not only frequenters 
 of the Mermaid, but also on friendly terms with Jonson, 
 it becomes highly interesting to see what light they 
 throw on this contest ; and as those persons, who may 
 take an interest in this inquiry, will of course refer to 
 the Plays, I shall confine myself chiefly to pointing out 
 the various characters. 
 
 The Knight of the Burning Pestle is generally 
 supposed to have been brought upon the stage in 
 1611 ; — it is directed against the absurdities of the 
 earlier drama, more particularly those of Heywood's 
 Four Prentices of London, — written about the close of 
 the preceding century. It is also said to have been 
 " the elder of Don Quixote above a year," meaning, it is 
 assumed, the translation in 1612. Such may be a just 
 interpretation of the dedication to the first edition, 1613, 
 on which however much reliance cannot be placed, as it 
 was not written by either poet, and the publication may 
 have been piratical, 
 
 But, whether acted or not, this comedy, at least the 
 
SHAK3PERE AND JONSON. 77 
 
 first sketch, appears to have been composed in 1604, and 
 singularly too the elder of Don Quixote above a year, the 
 first part of which Cervantes did not publish before 1605 ; 
 this opinion is supported by the following allusions, which 
 in 1611 must have been somewhat out of date : — in the 
 Induction or prologue the Citizen says, — " These seven 
 years there hath been plays at this house, I have observ'd 
 it, you have still girds at citizens;" and the Wife 
 remarks of Ralph, — " Nay, gentlemen, he hath played 
 before, my husband says, Musidorus, before the wardens 
 of our company." This play, Musidorus, was printed in 
 1598 ; and the Four Prentices of London " was written 
 about the close of the precedingcentury,"perhaps in 1597 ; 
 and old Merrythought's remark, " how have I done these 
 forty years," may refer to Shakspere's birth year. 
 
 Although the Knight of the Burning Pestle appears to 
 have been written in ridicule of the Four Prentices of 
 London and of knight-errantry, it also bears evident 
 marks of being a satirical attack on Jonson as the 
 originator of Eastward Hoe: — Old Merrythought: 
 Lyly ; — Jasper, his son, apprentice to a rich merchant : 
 Shakspere ; — Kalph, knight of the Burning Pestle : Jon- 
 son; — Humphrey, the merchant's friend : Chapman ; — 
 and Michael, the second son of old Merrythought : 
 Marston. 
 
 Jasper, apparently an idle apprentice, but really an 
 excellent young man, runs away with Luce, the mer- 
 chant's daughter, encounters and conquers Ralph : — 
 
 Jasp. Come, Knight, I'm ready for you, now your pestle 
 
 \snatches away his pestle. 
 Shall try what temper, sir, your mortars of." 
 
78 SBAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Jasper, pretending to die and being carried to the 
 merchant's house in his coffin, is evidently borrowed 
 from Antonio and Mellida, and justifies the supposition, 
 Michael may be intended for Marston ; and when the 
 •wife says of Jasper : — " He's e'en in the highway to the 
 gallows, God bless him ;" and again, " Go thy ways, 
 thou art as crooked a sprig as ever grew in London, I 
 warrant him, he'll come to some naughty end or other;" 
 we are reminded of Slit in Eastward Hoe: — "Look, 
 what a sort of people cluster about the gallows 
 there ! in good truth it is so. me ! a fine young 
 gentleman 1 What, and taken up at the gallows ! 
 Heaven grant he be not one day taken down there 1 A 
 my life it is ominous." — Activ., sc. 1. 
 
 If the characters of the Merchant, Humphrey, Jasper 
 and Luce were written by Beaumont, and old Merry- 
 thought and Ralph by Fletcher, we need not be sur- 
 prised at Beaumont being painted as Ferdinand in love 
 with Miranda, nor at Fletcher having a niche in the 
 Fox as Corvino. 
 
 The Mad Lover. Memnon, the boasting general and 
 Mad Lover: Jonson; — Polydor, brother to Memnon: 
 Shakspere; — Chilax, an old merry soldier: Lyly; — 
 Syphax : Marston; — Eumenes, Polybius, and Pelius, 
 three Captains : Beaumont, Fletcher, and Decker. 
 
 Throughout these plays the female characters appear 
 to be allegorical; the princess Calls, the beautiful, is the 
 romantic muse, with whom Jonson is desperately en- 
 amoured, and also Marston, but Shakspere in this in- 
 stance carries off the prize. Polydor's remedy for 
 Memnon's love reminds us of young Freewill and his 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 79 
 
 unhappy friend Malheareux in the Dutch Courtezan; 
 Memnon, however, like Malheureux, saves his virtue. 
 Polydor in his bier, like Jasper, is of course borrowed 
 from Antonio and Mellida ; these imitations or borrow- 
 ings from Marston force on us the opinion, that Syphax 
 is intended for Marston, and his marriage with Chloe 
 may be an allusion to the marriage of Lucio in 
 Measure for Measure. As Chilaxsays, "these twenty- 
 five years I have serv'd my country," and as Euphues 
 was published in 1580, it follows, the Mad Lover may 
 have been produced in 1605 after the appearance of the 
 Fox, being a burlesque on the quarrel between Shakspere 
 and Jonson. This play is attributed to Fletcher, but 
 I opine, the same hand that drew Jasper and Luce, must 
 have drawn Polydor and Calls. In these two plays the 
 muse of Fletcher is truly a very indelicate Cressida. 
 
 The Woman-hater is another comical satire on the 
 three authors of Eastward Hoe. The Duke of Milan is 
 Shakspere, in love with Oriana, the sister [muse] of 
 Count Valore [Beaumont]. Gondarino, the woman- 
 hater : Jonson ; Arrigo, a courtier : Lyly ; Lucio, a 
 weak formal statesman : Chapman ; Pandar is of course 
 Marston ; and the mercer. Decker ; Lazarillo, a volup- 
 tuous Smell-feast, is certainly Fletcher, who, like many 
 of his brethren, is as ready to wear motley as to put the 
 foolscap on others ; and accordingly Lazarillo tells us 
 his age : 
 
 Bnke. " How old are you ? 
 
 Laz. And eight and twenty times hath Phoebus' car 
 
 Eun out his yearly course since." 
 
 As this comedy was licensed in May, 1607, Fletcher 
 
80 SHARSFERE AND JUNSON. 
 
 being then in his twenty-eighth year, we cannot doubt 
 of the person iatended. In the opening of this comedy 
 the author must have had in his recollection the first 
 scene of the Malcontent, and from the following lines we 
 infer Fletcher must have written a comedy in 1599, 
 praising Shakspere and satirising Jonson : — 
 
 Fal. " Let me entreat your fi;race to stay a little, 
 To know a gentleman, to whom yourself 
 7« much beholding : He hath made the sport 
 For your whole court these eight years, on my 
 knowledge." Act ii., sc. 1. 
 
 It has been shown we have reason for believing 
 Fletcher is intended by Femeze in the Malcontent, and 
 it becomes probable, he was afterwards ridiculed as 
 Caqueteur, a prattling gull, in the Dutch Courtezan : — 
 
 Cri. " Sir, I'll no more 'a your service — ^you area child — 
 I'll give you my nurse." 
 
 Act iii., sc. 1. 
 
 Fletcher must have had a great admiration Jbr Mars- 
 ton, and, though no imitator, he has borrowed from him 
 the burlesque sublime ; and there are good grounds for 
 the belief, that in his tragic efforts also he followed 
 toiling in the wake of Marston. 
 
 This comedy, the Woman-hater, acted in 1606, fuUy 
 justifies and may have been the cause of Fletcher being 
 pointed at in Fleance as the future king of poesy; a pro- 
 phecy singularly fulfilled, since he was for nearly half a 
 century regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist, 
 even for a time overshadowing the name of Shakspere. 
 
 Fhilaster. The King of Sicily and Calabria, an 
 Usurper : Chapman ; Pharamond, Prince of Spain : 
 Jouson; Philaster, rightfid Heir to the crown: Shaks- 
 
SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 81 
 
 pere; Dion : Lyly; Cleremont and Thrasiline : Fletcher 
 and Boaumont. 
 
 Throughout the play Philaster has numerous traits 
 of Hamlet, " alas, he's mad ;" and scenes are ingeniously 
 devised to throw him into similar positions and passions 
 with Hamlet. Jonson speaks of his almost idolatrous 
 affection for Shakspere, but this play is one of the purest 
 pieces of idolatry poet ever offered ; and when Dion, 
 speaking of Philaster's retort to Pharamoud, says, — 
 " H'as given him a general purge already," Beaumont 
 must have had in his recollection the passage in the 
 Return from Parnassus, — " O, that Ben Jonson is a pes- 
 tilent fellow ; — but our fellow Shakspere hath given him 
 a purge that made him bewray his credit." 
 
 This is a beautiful and romantic drama, and needs no 
 allegory ; but there seems to be one in the two ladies ; 
 — Arethusa, a river of Greece, flows under the sea and 
 rises again in Sicily (England) ; that is, the Grecian 
 muse, buried during the middle or dark ages, re-appears 
 in Chapman's translation of the Iliad, wl.o is enthroned, 
 as in the Poetaster, king of the English poets, and wishes 
 to transmit his sceptre to the learned Jonson, but he is 
 clearly an usurper. Shakspere is the heir of Dan 
 Chaucer, and by Philaster's marriage with Arethusa is 
 intimated, he was well read in Greek, Homer, and the 
 Tragedians. 
 
 This play is assigned to 1608 or '9 ; and it must have 
 appeared before the Silent Woman, for Jonson with the 
 tact and instinct of malice has transferred Thrasiline 
 and Cleremont bodily into that comedy under the names 
 of Sir Dauphine Eugenie and Cleremont ; and Dauphine 
 
82 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 may he a reminiscence of the King of France in Lear. 
 But that is not all ; for Epicoene or the Silent Woman is 
 a boy, a trick of Sir Dauphine's, and the whole comedy 
 is a satire or parody on Philaster ; the eclaircissement 
 at the end being the denouement of each play. 
 
 The Custom of the Country. For the ingenious piece 
 of malice in representing them as sneering at their 
 friends, Shakspere and Inigo Jones, as Sir John Daw 
 and La Foole, our two poets repaid Jonson by painting 
 him in this comedy as Duarte, a gentleman well qualified 
 but vain-glorious : — 
 
 " an excellent scholar and he knows it ; 
 
 An exact courtier, and he knows that too; 
 
 He has fought thrice, and come off still with honour, 
 
 Which he forgets not." 
 
 Act ii. sc. 1. 
 
 No one can mistake the picture, a striking likeness, 
 and the date in the corner, Christmas, 1609, as Rutilio 
 (Fletcher) says, " I have lived this thirty years." Jon- 
 son is also satirised as the villainous-looking bravo, who 
 had committed three murders, and would rather kill a 
 man than maim him, as dead men tell no tales. Leo- 
 pold, a sea-captain, in love with Hippolyta : Marston ; — 
 Arnoldo : Shakspere ; Charino, father of Zenocia : Lyly ; 
 Alonzo : Beaumont. Having thus given the retort 
 courteous to Jonson our poets proceeded in a less satir- 
 ical mood to — 
 
 The Maid's Tragedy, As Amintor, a noble gentleman, 
 is a similar character to Prince Philaster, this play must 
 also be regarded as another tribute of respect to Shaks- 
 pere. King of Rhodes : Marston ; Jonson : Melantius, 
 who talks largely but not such a boaster as Memnon ; 
 
SBAKSFERE AND JONSON. 83 
 
 Amintor thus speaks of him, reminding us of Fuller's 
 account of the wit combats at the Mermaid : — 
 
 Amin. " What vile wrong 
 
 Has stirred my worthy friend, who is as slow 
 To fight with words, as he is quick of hand ?" 
 
 Act i., sc. 1. 
 
 Calianax, an old humourous lord, and father to 
 Aspatia : Lyly ; Cleon and Strato : Beaumont and 
 Fletcher. 
 
 We may judge from the following imitations in the 
 Winter's Tale, how highly Shakspere admired this 
 tragedy, and how deeply he was affected by the delicate 
 flattery therein, — an offering far more grateful and 
 sweet-smelling than the idle puff of commendatory 
 verses : — 
 
 L^a. " when she sees a bank 
 
 Stuck full of flowers, she with a sigh will tell 
 Her servants what a pretty place it were 
 To bury lovers in ; and make her maids 
 Pluck 'em, and strew her over like a corse." 
 
 The Maid's Tragedy, Act i., sc. 1. 
 
 Ter. " O, these I lack. 
 
 To make you garlands of; and my sweet friend, 
 To strew him o'er and o'er. 
 
 Flo. What, like a corse ? 
 
 Per. No, Uke a bank, for love to lie and play on ; 
 Not like a corse." 
 
 Winter's Tale, Act iv., sc. 3. 
 
 There is also a similar passage in Philaster, Act iv., 
 sc. 4. 
 
 Melantius thus addresses Calianax : — 
 
 Mel. I shall forget this place, thy age, my safety. 
 
84 SIIAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 And througli all, cut that poor sickly week, 
 Thou hast to live, away from thee." 
 
 The Maid's Tragedy, Act i., sc. 1. 
 Pol. •' Thou old traitor, 
 
 I am sorry, that, by hanging thee, I can but 
 Shorten thy life one week." 
 
 Wintet-'s Tale, Act iv., sc. 3 
 
 The allegorical character of the two ladies in this 
 tragedy is very distinctly marked ; for the one is named 
 after Evadne, who slighted the addresses of Apollo ; and 
 the other, not after the celebrated Aspatia of Athens, 
 but the mistress of Cyrus, priestess of the sun, famous 
 for her personal charms, elegance, and beauty of com- 
 plexion. Euphrasia in Philasier is said to be an imita- 
 tion of Viola, but Aspatia is Viola herself, — "patience 
 on a monument smiling at grief:" — "strive to make me 
 look like sorrow's monument;" and when Aspatia, dressed 
 in her brother's clothes says, " 'tis twelve years since I 
 saw my sister," 'tis an allusion to Twelfth Night, which 
 was composed in the autumn of 1598. 
 
 About the time this tragedy was produced, Jonson 
 brought out the Alchemist, in which he takes his revenge 
 for the satire in the Custom of the Country by ridiculing 
 Fletcher as Drugger, a Tobacco-man, and Beaumont as 
 Kastrill tlie angry boy. Our poets replied in 
 
 The Humourous Lieutenant. In this comedy Jonson 
 is caricattured as the Lieutenant, and satirised as King 
 Autigonus, an old man with young desires. Prince 
 Demetrius, his son, in love with Celia : Shakspere. Two 
 Gentlemen, friends and followers of Demetrius : Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher. Seleucus is probably Chapman, and 
 Lysimachus and Ptolemy may be Marston and Decker. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 85 
 
 — Leontius, a merry old soldier: Lyly. As Leontius 
 says, " I have not wept this thirty years and upwards," 
 the play may have been written in the autumn of 1610. 
 
 The Lieutenant having a regiment of children whom 
 he'll " unbeget and knock 'em on the head if disobe- 
 dient," may be an allusion to Jonson's sons. His won- 
 derful love and admiration for the king after drinking 
 the potion is not only a satire on Jonson's servile adula- 
 tion of King James, but also on his excessive vanity, 
 reminding us of Sir Andrew laughing at Malvolio's vain 
 and affected airs in Twelfth Night. 
 
 Although this play is universally given to Fletcher, 
 and, no doubt, the characters of Leontius and the 
 Humourous Lieutenant were by him, yet, I suspect, the 
 scenes more immediately connected with Celia were 
 written by Beaumont. Not only may we be sure, he 
 would repay Jonson for the angry boy in the Alchemist, 
 but this play readily divides into two parts only slightly 
 held together by one or two scenes. 
 
 In 1611 Jonson brought out Catiline; but as the 
 tragedy is so purely classical, containing no personal 
 satire except inferentially, our poets complimented Jon- 
 son thereon in commendatory verses ; Beaumont's how- 
 ever have evidently a satirical smack. They may then 
 have spent eight days in refiling and polishing The 
 Knight of the burning Pestle, which, however, bears a 
 very juvenile look by the side of the Humourous Lieute- 
 nant, between it and the noble play they next pro- 
 ceeded to, or — 
 
 King and No King ; in which, however, the second 
 scene in the second act may have been suggested by the 
 
86 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 earlier comedy, Philip being a second edition of Balph. 
 Arbaces (Jonson) is a mighty conqueror and braggart, 
 takes Tigranes (Shakspere) prisoner in single combat; 
 but treats him kindly, promising him his only sister in 
 marriage and says of him : — 
 
 " This prince, Mardonius, 
 Is full of wisdom, valour, all the graces 
 Man can receive. 
 Mar. And yet you conquer'd him." 
 
 Evidently the character is a comical satire. This 
 speech and the remark of Mardonius remind us of 
 Fharamond and ThrasUine in the opening of Philaster. 
 
 The single combat, the dubiousness of Arbaces' birth, 
 and his mother attempting to poison him, are well-known 
 allusions to Jonson. Panthea, the supposed sister of 
 Arbaces, with whom he falls desperately in love and after- 
 wards marries, is intended, as her name, all-divine, denotes, 
 for the classical muse; whilst Spaconia, beloved by 
 Tigranes, is the romantic muse. Gpbrias : Chapman ; 
 Lygones, father of Spaconia : Lyly ; Bacurius : Inigo 
 Jones ; Mardonius : Beaumont ; whilst Fletcher amuses 
 himself by acting the part of Bessus, the lying coward, 
 and then by a date fixes the caricature on Jonson, — 
 " but in a cudgelPd body, from eighteen to eight-and 
 thirty;" — this play having been licensed in 1611, thirty- 
 eight years will carry us back to 1573, in which year 
 Jonson was born; and possibly he went to the Low 
 Countries in 1591 ; and Bessus says, " I think I have 
 been cudgell'd with all nations and almost all religions." 
 Bacurius degrading Bessus by taking his sword from 
 him may be an allusion to Inigo Jones, who was pro- 
 
SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 87 
 
 bably the means of getting Jonson dismissed from the 
 service of Prince Henry ; and Lygones beating BessuSj 
 twinging his nose and kicking him, may be a retaliation 
 for the twinges by the nose and the kicks sans nombre 
 given to Sir John Daw and La Foole. 
 
 The following dates appear to have a peculiar signifi- 
 cancy ; — " She (Panthea) but nine years old I left her, 
 and ne'er saw her since," says Arbaces; and Gobrias 
 tells him, " you grew up as the king's son, till you were 
 six years old; then did the king die, and — left this 
 queen truly with child, indeed of the fair princess, Pan- 
 thea." In these dates Beaumont appears to be paying 
 a high compliment to Fletcher's muse, as well as to 
 Jonson ; we may presume, Panthea is in her sixteenth 
 year, bom in 1596 and last seen by Arbaces in 1605, 
 complimentary allusions to Every Man in His Humour, 
 and to the Fox; so far Panthea is the supposed sister 
 or Jonson's own muse. But Fletcher was six years 
 younger than Jonson, consequently Arbaces' admiration 
 of Panthea would be a pleasing allusion to Jonson's 
 commendatory verses on the Faithful Shepherdess, the 
 rightful princess and Queen of " Iberia." 
 
 Notwithstanding the acknowledged difficulty of de- 
 ciding what scenes or passages may have been written 
 by either poet, yet there seem good grounds for attri- 
 buting particular scenes to Beaumont. Thus the dis- 
 course between Arbaces and Mardonius in the first act 
 reminds us of the friendship between Beaumont and 
 Jonson ; again from Enter Arbaces, ^c. to Exeunt 
 Kings, Act ii., sc. 2, must also be by him, since the passage 
 closely resembles the end of Pliilaster ; whilst the con- 
 
88 SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 
 
 test in the mind of Arbaces on account of his love for 
 Panthea is just the mental analysis Beaumont delights 
 in ; consequently we have no hesitation in attributing 
 to him the characters of Arbaces, Tigranes, Mardonius, 
 Panthea, and Spaconia ; and to Fletcher the scenes in 
 which Bessus is a principal character, — Mardonius would 
 be common to both poets. 
 
 We cannot doubt, that Beaumont wrote Arbaces and 
 Tigranes, since in the Triumph of Honour in Four Plays 
 in One, universally ascribed to Beaumont, Martius and 
 Sophocles are similar characters ; and this Triumph 
 must have been written soon after the Winter's Tale, 
 since Sophocles (Shakspere) says, " Seven times have I 
 met thee face to face ;" — Every man in and out of his 
 Humour, Cynthia's Revels, the Poetaster, the Fox, the 
 Silent Woman, and the Alchemist ; — Sejanus was a con- 
 joint production. 
 
 The Scornful Lady may have followed King and No 
 King, and we presume from various passages, the same 
 hand that drew tlie Lady, also painted Celia in the 
 Humourous Lieutenant. Of the plays written in 1612- 
 13 we shall at present only notice — 
 
 The Knight of Malta. — After looking through this 
 play the reader would immediately pronounce Miranda, 
 the Knight of Malta and pure soldier of the cross, to be 
 Shakspere; Gomera, a deserving Spanish gentleman: 
 Jonson ; and Mountferrat, a Knight of the Order, but 
 a villain .- Marston ; Valetta, the Grand Master : Chap- 
 man; Colonna alias Angelo : Decker; Norandine, a 
 valiant and merry Dane : Lyly ; Astorius and Castriot, 
 two Knights of the Order : Beaumont and Fletcher. 
 
8HAKSFBRE AND JONSON. 89 
 
 This explanation rests on the following items; — the 
 remark of Miranda, " Boy, did he call me ? Gomera 
 call me boy ?" links Gomera and Miranda with Aufidius 
 and Coriolanus. The character of Gomera is a copy of 
 the jealous Leontes ; in fact Gomera and Oriana may be 
 regarded as an imitation of Leontes and Hermione in 
 the Winter's Tale. 
 
 This drama appears to have been produced in the 
 autumn of 1 612, since Lucinda is " a virgin of fourteen," 
 which connects her with Viola in Twelfth Night, whilst 
 Gomera and Miranda having served "full ten years," 
 that is, made war against the Turks, may be an allusion 
 to Othello. Again in the opening of the play, Mount- 
 ferrat says, " full sixteen years " fortune and victory have 
 been his servitors j this led me at first to suppose the 
 character was a satire on Jonson, but the unmistakable 
 imitation of Marston's style shows the poet's mean- 
 ing:— 
 
 "The wages ofscorn'd love is baneful hate;" 
 whilst Zauthia, Oriana's maid, is the same treacherous 
 creature as Zanthia in Sophonisba; and Oriana, like 
 Sophonisba, is also described as the wonder of women. 
 
 Consequently Marston must have produced some 
 remarkable work in 1596; and it would seem, his 
 satires were written in that year though not published 
 till 1598 ; for it turns out, the Knight of Malta is 
 founded on, or is a reply to the Insatiate Countess ; in 
 which tragi-comedy Marston and Jonson appear as 
 Signior Claridiano and Signior Rogero, with their wives 
 (muses), Abigail and Thais, "fourteen years called 
 sisters;" and it follows, the play was produced in 1610. 
 
90 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Isabellaj the tragic muse, marries Count Roberto 
 (Shakspere) ; and at a masque on the bridal-night she 
 falls in love with Count Guido (Beaumont) , and runs 
 away with him the next morning ; soon after she trans- 
 fers her affections to his friend Count Gniaca (Fletcher). 
 Roberto, shocked at the depravity of his wife, retires to 
 a monastery, and is a similar character with Miranda, 
 the Knight of Malta ; whUst Mendosa and Lady Len- 
 tilus are the prototypes of Angelo and Lucinda; Duke 
 Amago : Chapman* Read by this light the Insatiate 
 Countess is sufficiently amusing, half satirical and half 
 complimentary to Beaumont and Fletcher on the suc- 
 cess of Philaster and the Maid's Tragedy. Guido 
 satirising Isabella as the insatiate countess may be 
 allegorical of Beaumont's devotion to the tragic muse at 
 that period. The following points are also noteworthy; 
 Abigail says, her husband has written "an ungodly 
 volume of satires against women, and calls his book the 
 Snarle." — The remark of Thais, " I should have my 
 husband pliant to me," may be an allusion to Dame 
 Pliant in the Alchemist, to this particular expression : — 
 
 Sub. " Pray God, your Bister prove but pliant." — 
 
 The Alchemist, Act iv., scene 2. 
 
 Thais also calls her husband "the Knight of the 
 supposed Home." Gniaca says, "women-haters now 
 are common;" and "less the cities powers rise to 
 rescue him " may indicate, that Webster is shadowed in 
 Colonel Sago. That some definite meaning is attached 
 
 * In Marston'e Works the Insatiate Countess is unfortunately a 
 mere reprint of an old edition ; and amongst other errors the name of 
 Bogero is repeatedly misprinted for Guido, making a sad confusion. 
 
SHAKSPEKE AND JONSON, 91 
 
 to these several phrases we may surmise from the 
 remark of Rogero, " Why now I see thou lovest me," 
 which is a quotation from Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois, 
 where Monsieur, after the friendly contest of personal 
 abuse, says to Bussy, " Why now I see thou lovest me." 
 
 The Knight of Malta is generally attributed to 
 Fletcher, and he appears to have written the scenes, in 
 which Mountferrat, Zanthia, and Norandine are the 
 principal characters ; but all the scenes connected with 
 Miranda I should give to Beaumont. 
 
 The Two Noble Kinsmen. — This play is supposed to 
 have been written by Shakspere and Fletcher, but the 
 only external evidence is the title of the first edition, 
 1634, and " a tradition of the playhouse, that the first 
 act only was wrote by Shakspere." The play readily 
 divides into two parts, very slightly connected together. 
 Theseus, Hippolyta, and Emilia, are by the hand of 
 Beaumont ; — the underplot by Fletcher. 
 
 Arcite is Shakspere; and Palamon, Jonson; their 
 characters are very distinctly drawn, the noble and 
 conciliatory spirit of the one as opposed to the tetchi- 
 ness and irritable jealousy of the other. The knight 
 described on the side of Arcite must be Sir Walter 
 Ralegh, or the Moor, " his complexion nearer a brown 
 than black;" the first on the side of Palamon is Carr, 
 Earl of Somerset, who was in his twenty-fifth year in 
 1614 J the other knight set. 36, may be Sir Thomas 
 Coventry, who was born in 1578; their characters 
 correspond with the descriptions of the poet, but I can 
 find no account of Sir Thomas' personal appearance ; he 
 was " Counsel for the Crown in the trial of the Somer- 
 
>2 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 jets, — but either from his own inclination, or the 
 jealousy of the King's Serjeant and the Attorney 
 General, he did not act a coDspicuous part in any of 
 them." — Lives of the Chancellors, Vol. ii., p. 513. 
 
 In Theseus and Hippolyta are shadowed Chapman 
 and his Homeric muse, and Creon, " a most unbounded 
 tyrant," uncle to the princes, is the terrible Marston. 
 Emilia is the goddess of poetry ; Falamon wins her by 
 the death of Arcite, — that is, Shakspere having retired 
 from the service of the muses, Jonson remains first poet 
 of the age. The Jailor's Daughter, in love with Pala- 
 mon, being eighteen, fixes the date of the drama, 1614. 
 
 Beaumont wrote the first act ; the sixth scene of the 
 third act, from ' Enter Theseus,' &c. ; the second scene 
 in the fourth act; the first, second,, third, and fifth 
 scenes, and from ' Enter Pirithous ' in the sixth scene 
 of the fifth act. Thus the scenes, essentially classical 
 and forming a perfect poem, not a word in excess nor a 
 word wanting, appear to have been written by Beau- 
 mont, and thus this beautiful Anglo-Greek drama, 
 Theseus and Hippolyta, nearly the last production of his 
 genius, remains a monument to his own glory, and a 
 mausoleum for the manes of Shakspere and Jonson. 
 The description of the battle, instead of the battle itself 
 on the stage, being a direct imitation of the Greek 
 tragedy, and the language throughout so thoroughly 
 Shaksperian, confirms the allegory in the Winter's 
 Tale, where Beaumont is represented as the son of 
 Shakspere, married to the Grecian muse. By the early 
 death of Beaumont we lost an English Sophocles, whose 
 ^schylus was glorious John Marston, he ! that fronted 
 Shakspere, as Ajax " cop'd Hector." 
 
SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 93 
 
 There now comes a change over the scene ; this play, 
 the Two Noble Kinsmen, so flattering to Jonson, must 
 have been written in the spring of 1614, and with equal 
 certainty we can say, Rollo, the Bloody Brother, was 
 written in the autumn of the same year ; and we have 
 no hesitation in attributing to Fletcher the impassioned 
 scenes between Rollo and Edith, whilst Beaumont drew 
 the character of the good Aubrey [Chapman], whose 
 age, " about fifty-seven," gives the date of the tragedy ; 
 and whilst Shakspere is shadowed in the gentle Otto, 
 Marston is satirised as the Bloody Brother, and Jonson 
 as Latorch, ' Rollo's earwig.' 
 
 This tragedy appears to have been followed by The 
 False One, in which Jonson is satirised as the villain 
 Septimius j Shakspere is pointed at in Pompey, whUst 
 Marston would be Caesar, and Chapman, Achoreusj 
 Antony, and Dolabella, Caesar's Captains : Fletcher and 
 Decker ; Ptolemy : Beaumont ; and by a singular co- 
 incidence, this is the only play in which his represent- 
 ative character dies. In this play the first act appears 
 to have been written by Beaumont, all the rest by 
 Fletcher, probably in consequence of the death of 
 Beaumont. The play is named the The False One, not 
 after Cleopatra, but after Septimius : — 
 
 Sept. " Since I in my nature 
 
 Was fashioned to be false." 
 Jnt. " There's no doubt then 
 
 Thou wilt be false."— 
 
 Act v., scene 3. 
 
 Nor is it improbable, Carr, Earl of Somerset, is 
 shadowed in Photinus, for the following lines remind us 
 
94 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 of Jonson's congratulatory epistle to the Earl on his 
 marriage in 1613 : — 
 
 Sept. " You are my god on earth ! and let me have 
 
 Your favour here, fall what can fall hereafter. 
 Pho. Thou art believed ; dost thou want money ? 
 Sept. No, sir. 
 Pho. Or hast thou any suit ? These ever follow 
 
 Thy vehement protestations. 
 Sept. You much wrong me : 
 
 How can I want when your beams shine upon me. 
 Unless employment to express my zeal 
 To do your greatness service." — 
 
 The False One, Act i., scene 1 . 
 " They are not those, are present with their face. 
 And clothes and gifts, that only do thee grace 
 At these thy nuptials ; but whose heart and thought 
 Do wait upon thee ; and their love not bought." — 
 
 Jonson to Can. 
 
 The severity of the satire in these two tragedies, un- 
 mitigated as in other plays by a complimentary character, 
 justifies the supposition, there must have arisen a quarrel 
 between Beaumont and Jonson, and the cause may have 
 been Bartholomew Fair ; M'herein we find two friends. 
 Win wife and Quarlous, contending for the love of Grace 
 Welborn, who has the same difficulty, as Emilia, in 
 choosing between her two admirers, and in the pocket- 
 book Quarlous writes Argalus, and Win wife, Palemon; 
 we cannot then doubt that in this scene Jonson had in 
 his recollection the Two Noble Kinsmen; Winwife 
 (Beaumont) wins the lady, whilst Quarlous (Fletcher) 
 marries Dame Purecraft for her money, because " it is 
 money that I want.'' 
 
 To what extent the quarrel may have proceeded, 
 
SHAKSPERB AND JONSON. 95 
 
 whether beyond a mere dramatic contest, Beaumont and 
 Fletcher taking up the cudgels for Shakspere, we cannot 
 pretend to decide, but it is certain, notwithstanding the 
 intimacy and friendship between Beaumont and Jonson, 
 and the appearance of the Two Noble Kinsmen in 1614, 
 Jonson wrote no elegy on the death of his friend in 
 1616, but brings out, whether before or after the death 
 of Shakspere may be dubious, the Devil is an Ass ; in 
 which comedy Beaumont and Fletcher are represented 
 as Wittipol and Trains. Wittipol reminds us of Sir 
 Dauphine in the Silent Woman, and is so named after 
 Wittipate in Wit at several Weapons, and Pug is pro- 
 bably borrowed from Antonio in the Coxcomb : — 
 
 fTit. " How now ! what play have we here ? 
 
 Man. What fine new matters ? 
 
 Wit. The coxcomb and the coverlet." 
 
 Act v., sc. 5. 
 
 And when Manly says, " I should know this voice and 
 face too," we are reminded of Viola in the Coxcomb, 
 " I know that voice and face," and also of Maria, " Ha ! 
 I should know that jewel ; 'tis my husband." 
 
 We need not then be surprised at the wrath of Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher on seeing their humourous and kindly 
 eflFusions transformed into illnatured satire, and them- 
 selves into sneerers at their best and dearest friend, the 
 man they idolized. After the death of Beaumont, 
 Fletcher carried on the war against Jonson with un- 
 dimished vigour, lampooning him as " a malicious Beau- 
 tefeau," in the Qweera of Corinth, 1616, where the 
 characters of Theanor and Crates remind us of Photinus 
 and Septimius ; and the expression, " On, my Engine, 
 on," must be an allusion to the Devil is an Ass. 
 
96 SHAK9PE1VE AND JONSON. 
 
 In these plays and in all where his hand is traceahle 
 the muse of Beaumont is most chaste, decorous, am 
 moral, whilst Fletcher, though he often delights us a 
 Cupid, not seldom offends as a satyr. Nor can it b 
 doubted, many of the female characters are allegorical 
 this is most apparent in the selection of the names o 
 Arethusa and Evadne, and especially in the character o 
 Emilia in the T\vo Noble Kinsmen ; but notwithstanding 
 this allegorical nature there is a richness and fullness u 
 their characterization we in vain seek for in late: 
 dramatists ; the same fullness of life appears also in th< 
 comedies of Marston and others at that period ; and at 
 Philip in Northward Ho says, his father regarded th( 
 nine Muses as so many beautiful women, it must b< 
 acknowledged, in the days of Elizabeth and James thi 
 English muse was a buxom lass, healthy and vigorous 
 the child of nature, native to the soil ; — but the cold 
 classical, and Frenchified poets* of great Anna and th( 
 eighteenth century stript the goddess of her flesh anr 
 blood, and sent the delighted spirit to wander about the 
 earth like a Werther wailing ; — since then, 'tis said, she 
 had been seen in America and in England had on the 
 helmet of Arthur ; but, be that as it may, 'tis certain 
 she loves Garibaldi and dwells in the hearts of the 
 British volunteers, guarding the throne of Victoria,— 
 that is her home. 
 
 As Webster not only added some scenes to the Mai 
 
 content, but also joined Decker in writing Northwan 
 
 Ho, and Westward Ho, let us now examine — 
 
 • This is very evident in Congreve's Double Dealer, which, tbougl 
 brilliant and sparkling as champagne, is a most watery dilution, Hah 
 neman's thirtieth attenuation, of Cj/nthia's Bevelt aiid Othello. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 97 
 
 The Duchess of Malfi. After reading this tragedy we 
 cannot doubt, Bosola is intended for Jonson ; and yet 
 beyond the character so graphically drawn as if by 
 Shakspere's own hand, there is not a trace, not the 
 slightest evidence justifying such a suspicion; — nor is 
 there any more cause for supposing that the good and 
 noble Antonio, steward to the Duchess and privately 
 married to her, is Shakspere, a character applicable to 
 him only as farmer and manager, and yet one closes the 
 book with the conviction, Antonio and Bosola are 
 Shakspere and Jonson. 
 
 Webster wrote two tragedies about the same period, 
 and they appear to be connected together in the author's 
 mind ; for the heroine of the one is a bad woman, the 
 White Devil ; whilst the Duchess of Malfi is an angel of 
 purity. Now iij the preface to the first play, Vittoria 
 Corombona, or the White Devil, the following pas- 
 sage precludes the supposition the author intended 
 any personality in the play against either Shakspere or 
 Jonson ; and yet they are perhaps even more appositely 
 represented by the two brothers, Marcello and Flamineo, 
 than by Antonio and Bosola in the other play : — 
 
 "Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance; for 
 mine own part, I have ever truly cherished my good 
 opinion of other men's worthy labours ; especially of that 
 full and heightened style of Master Chapman; the 
 laboured and understanding works of Master Jonson ; 
 the no less worthy composures of the both worthily 
 excellent Master Beaumont and Master Fletcher ; and 
 lastly [without wrong last to be named], the right happy 
 and copious industry of Master Shakspere, Master 
 
98 SHAKSPEEE AND JONSON. 
 
 Decker, and Master Haywood; wishing what I wri 
 may be read by their light; protesting that, in tl 
 strength of mine own judgment, I know them so worth 
 and though I rest silent in my own work, yet to mc 
 of theirs I dare [without flattery] fix that of Martial,- 
 " Non norunt hoec monumenta mori." 
 Under such circumstances it becomes highly impr 
 bable, that any personal allusion could have bei 
 intended in the Duchess of Malfi. But on looking in 
 the White Devil to our astonishment we discover, th 
 the seven leading personages in the tragedy correspoi 
 exactly with the characters of the seven poets mention( 
 in the preface ; and that the passage just quoted is f 
 more a clue than a blind to the author's meanini 
 "wishing what I write may be read by their light. 
 Monticelso : Chapman ; the two Dukes, Francisco ar 
 Brachiano : Beaumont and Fletcher ; the two brother 
 Flamineo and Marcello : Jonson and Shakspere ; Lod( 
 vico and Camillo will then be Decker and Heywooi 
 Beaumont is admirably drawn as Francisco, the gre; 
 plotter, and the following lines may be a satire on his fn 
 quent use of thunder in Philaster : — 
 
 Fran. " Look to 't, for our anger 
 Is making thunderbolts. 
 
 Brack. Thunder ! in faith, 
 
 They are but crackers." 
 
 The quarrel between Brachiano and Isabella is ev 
 dentlyan imitation of the eclaircissement between Bvadi 
 and Amiptor. But how comes it, that Marston's name 
 omitted in the preface, for on the second page there 
 a quotation from the Parasitaster, and Zanche, tl 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 99 
 
 Moorish chambermaid, is the same as Zanthia in Sophon- 
 iaba. This singular omission leads to the supposition, 
 that Vittoria, the sister of Flamineo and Marcello 
 [Jonsonand Shakspere], must be Marston's fierce and 
 lustful muse ; whilst in Brachiano's passionate love for 
 this White Devil is painted Fletcher's admiration of 
 Marston's genius.* 
 
 But behind these dramatists there appears to be some 
 historical figures ; — in Brachiano and Vittoria are fore- 
 shadowed the loves and marriage of the Countess of 
 Essex and Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset. The 
 arraignment of Vittoria is a most open imitation of the 
 trial of Sir Walter Ealegh, and when Francisco says, 
 " the act of blood let pass ; only descend to the matter 
 of incontinence," we are reminded of the Main and the 
 Bye ; consequently Francisco, disguised as a Moor, 
 must stand for Sir Walter ; and this disguise confirms 
 the supposition, Shakspere in Othello had an eye to 
 Ealegh . 
 
 * This poetical enthronement of Marston's muse justifies the opinion 
 that in the Insatiate Couateit Webster is represented in the charactei: 
 of Colonel Sago, the best beloved of Isabella the tragic muse. This 
 must be a complimentary allusion to some previous tragedy, probably 
 to Appius and Virginia, where Marston appears to be shadowed in 
 Appius Claudius, ' a huge rascal' in the play, but allegorically a com- 
 plimentary character, since Marston is here again contending with 
 Shakspere (leilius) for Virginia, the classical muse; but Jonson is 
 represented in Marcus Claudius, a base wretch, that can neither poetically 
 nor allegorically be twisted into a respectable character. Chapman 
 would be the noble Boman, Virginius, and hence the date : — As Virginia 
 is fourteen, born after her father had been married fifteen years, and as 
 the supposed child of Marcus' bondwoman would be Mieri/ Man in hit 
 Humour, it follows, this tragedy was brought out in 1610 : and further 
 that Chapman produced his first play in 1S96, after having been married 
 to the muses fifteen years ; — his first comedy was published in 1698. 
 
100 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 The following lines clearly point at Othello and tht 
 expeditions against Cadiz and the Azores in 1596 and '7 
 Mam. " I have not seen a goodlier personage, 
 
 Nor ever talk'd with men better experienc'd 
 
 In state affairs or rudiments of war : 
 
 He hath, by report, serv'd the Venetian 
 
 In Candy these twice-seven years, and been chiel 
 
 In many a bold design." 
 
 Giovanni is evidently a portrait of Prince Henry. 
 
 We may now return to the Duchess of Malfi ; the 
 following extract clearly marks Bosola as Jonson ; he 
 continually protests his honesty, and is only a villain 
 through circumstances j he dies however repentant : — 
 
 Ant. " Here comes Bosola,* 
 
 The only court-gall ; yet I observe his railing 
 Is not for simple love of piety : 
 Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants ; 
 Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud. 
 Bloody, or envious, as any man, 
 If he had means to be so." 
 
 Act i., sc. 1. 
 
 But far differently does Webster speak of Antonio 
 [Shakspere], describing him as " a complete man," and 
 applying to him the closing lines of the play, that 
 " Integrity of life is fame's best friend." 
 
 On a more minute examination these two tragedies 
 prove, Webster was an ardent student of the Shaks- 
 perian drama ; that he loved the man and worshipped 
 his muse. In that most poetical scene in the White 
 Devil, where Cornelia and her ladies are "discovered 
 winding the corse of Marcello," the scene opens with 
 
 • Webster had probably in his mind the lines of Timon to Apemantns, 
 and of Isabella against Angelo in Measm-efor Measure, 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 101 
 
 an imitation of Ophelia's distraction and also of Lady 
 Macbeth's sleeping soliloquy, followed by a dirge, of 
 which C. Lamb says, " I never saw anything like this 
 dirge except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his 
 drowned father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, 
 watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that 
 intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into 
 the elements which it contemplates," 
 
 These and other recollections or borrowings from 
 Shakspere are not to be regarded as denoting a poverty 
 of fancy ; — far from it ; they are the delicate flatteries 
 which, instead of commendatory verses, "the right 
 happy and copious industry " of Master Webster and 
 Beaumont, &c. oflFered to the princely autocrat of the 
 stage ; and when in Cymbeline, in imitation of the dirge 
 over the body of Marcello, a song is sung at the grave 
 of Fidele, 'tis not a stolen idea, a poverty of invention, 
 but a graceful recognition of Webster's devotional 
 offering; for was not Marcello, Shakspere? Tu Mar- 
 cellus eris. 
 
 If then Webster had this holy reverence for the genius 
 of Shakspere, can it be doubted, that in the Duchess of 
 Malfi are allegorized the sufferings of the Shaksperian 
 muse from the persecutions of Jonson ; and assuredUy 
 had Shakspere cramped his genius to the critical dimen- 
 sions of Ben, it would have been as effectually throttled, 
 as was the Duchess by Bosola. From the remark of 
 Ferdinand we may infer, Beaumont was born the very 
 day Pericles was first acted ; — 
 
 Ferd. " She and I were twins ; 
 
 And should I die this instant, I had liv'd 
 
102 SHAKSPERE AND J0N80N. 
 
 Her time to a minute." 
 
 Bucheas of Malfi, Act iv., sc. 3. 
 
 Whilst the Duchess may be regarded as the tragic 
 muse, Julia is the comic muse, married to Castruccio 
 (Hey wood), beloved by Delio [Decker], and now 
 bestowing her smiles on the Cardinal (Fletcher). 
 
 There appears to be a bit of secret history in these 
 two plays, having reference to a particular period of 
 Jonson's life , — on the death of Brachiano the young 
 duke Giovanni [Prince Henry] immediately orders 
 Flamineo " to forbear the presence and all rooms that 
 owe him reverence •" and Flamineo remarks, " he hath 
 his uncle's (the Moor's) villainous look already." Jon- 
 son fell into disgrace at court (wirfe Winter's Tale) , about 
 Christmas, 1 610, at latest, and remained so till after the 
 death of Prince Henry and the marriage of the Princess 
 Elizabeth. He also had at one period a quarrel with 
 Sir Walter, and kindly told Drummond, that " Ralegh 
 esteemed more fame than conscience ; the best wits of 
 England were employed in making his History of the 
 World." 
 
 From this intimate connection between these plays it 
 may be conjectured, the Duchess of Malfi was com- 
 posed about Christmas, 1613; and it becomes highly 
 probable, the prologue to Every Man in his Humour was 
 re-written by Jonson for the sake of venting his spite 
 upon this play and the Tempest. 
 
 The story, that there had been a quarrel between 
 Chapman and Jonson about this period, appears to be con- 
 firmed by a passage in Act iii., sc. 3, where Delio says, 
 the great Count Malatesti " hath read all the late ser- 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 103 
 
 vice, as the City Chronicle relates it." Chapman was 
 joined with Inigo Jones in producing the masque at the 
 marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, to which the above 
 extract may refer. The Marquis of Pescara is Marston ; 
 Delio is Decker; and Castruccio, Hey wood; Duke 
 Ferdinand and his brother, the Cardinal, are Beaumont 
 and Fletcher. We gather from their plays, that Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, being of a cheerful and sanguine 
 temperamentj rather enjoyed the fight between Shaks- 
 pere and Jonson; and being also free from jealousy, 
 idolizing the one, and respecting the powerful intellect 
 of the other, they joined in the melee with a joyous 
 heartiness void of malice and offence ; but Webster, being 
 of a graver and more serious disposition, disapproved of 
 these follies, and regarded it as a desecration to approach 
 Shakspere otherwise than with love and reverence. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most ingenious methods of tor- 
 menting the Duchess of Malfi was letting loose a set of 
 madmen in her chamber ; another remarkable scene is 
 the madness of Duke Ferdinand ; and it has been shown 
 Webster had great reverence for Shakspere ; — now on 
 looking into Bartholomew Fair we find a lunatic, 
 Trouble-all, who has a prodigious reverence for Justice 
 Overdo ; but such a harmless joke would be poor re- 
 venge on the part of Jonson, so Webster is also satirised 
 as Zeal-of-the-land Busy, suitor to Dame Purecraft. — 
 Squire Cokes is another character in this comedy, under 
 which Shakspere is ridiculed; and Cokes is carefully 
 watched and attended upon by Humphrey Waspe,* 
 a humourous caricature of Chapman, who seems to have 
 
 * A reminiscence of Kent in Lear, who was also put into the stocks. 
 
104 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 been a warm tempered old gentleman, and through life 
 almost as warmly attached to Shakspere as Lyly was. 
 
 On turning back to the Alchemist, in which both 
 Beaumont and Fletcher are ridiculed, we find two 
 characters similar to Waspe and Zeal-of-the-land 
 Busy ; it may then be surmised, Chapman and Web- 
 ster are therein satirised as Pertinax Surly and 
 Tribulation Wholesome ; whilst Ananias, a Deacon, may 
 be intended for Decker, who sometimes wrote jointly 
 with Webster. As Webster in the preface to Vittoria 
 Corombona says, he was a long time in finishing the 
 tragedy, it may be regarded in some measure as a reply 
 to the Alchemist, and brought out about Christmas, 
 1611 ; and we thus obtain a very clear view of this con- 
 test. Jonson brings out in the summer of 1609 the 
 Silent Woman, Shakspere replies in Coriolanus in the 
 autumn : and Webster supports him, as a volunteer 
 early in 1610 with Appius and Virginia ; in which 
 tragedy Virginius would be Chapman; Numitorius: 
 Inigo Jones ; Minutius : Lyly ; Icilius : Shakspere ; 
 Appius Claudius : Marston ; and Marcus Claudius : 
 Jonson. The Alchemist and the Maid's Tragedy appear 
 in the summer, the Insatiable Countess in the autumn, 
 and whilst Webster is elaborating his masterpiece, the 
 Winter's Tale comes out in the spring of 1611. After 
 this long ramble we must now return to Shakspere. 
 
 In Julius C<esar, notwithstanding his close adhesion 
 to Plutarch, Shakspere must have had in his recollection 
 the sad fate of the Earl of Essex. This opinion is 
 justified by the circumstance, that in Macbeth, written 
 in the previous year, the earl's death is shadowed in the 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 105 
 
 Thane of Cawdor. Sach being the case, Caesar would 
 be Essex ; Brutus and Cassius : Bacon and Coke ; 
 Antony : Anthony Bacon ; and Cicero : Cecil. But be 
 that as it may, the figures of certain dramatists shine 
 clear and distinct through these ancient Romans. 
 
 In Julius Csesar we recognise the mighty Marston ; 
 Brutus and Cassius are S hakspere and Jonson, confirmed by 
 the imitation of their contention in the Maid's Tragedy ; 
 and Casca would be Decker ; and who does not see in 
 Octavius and Antony, Beaumont and Fletcher ? and we 
 have previously shown, that in the False One Marston 
 and Fletcher appear as Caesar and Antony. 
 
 But it may be asked, how could Shakspere represent 
 himself in Brutus as guilty of ingratitude to Marston ? 
 for the very plain reason, that in Sophonisba, only a few 
 months previously, Marston had painted him as the 
 noble Massinissa, and the ghost of Asdrubal was the 
 earthquake, that shook Shakspere to his centre and 
 awoke Macbeth ; hence the ghost of Banquo, and hence 
 the ghost of Caesar in the tent of Brutus, where Shaks- 
 pere deserts his Plutarch, but with the highest artistic 
 skill and psychological knowledge ; for the " horrible 
 and monstrous spectre " must have been in the o'er- 
 wrought mind of Brutus the shade of Caesar, calling 
 itself to his restless conscience his " evil genius ;" and 
 such appears to have been Shakspere's meaning, since 
 Brutus, just before the appearance of the spectre, says, 
 " murd'rous slumber ! Lay'st thou thy leaden mace 
 upon my boy, that plays thee music ?" Was not the 
 mind of the gentle Brutus brooding on another mur- 
 d'rous slumber ? and with his last breath he exclaims, 
 
 f3 
 
106 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 " Caesar, now be still ; I kill'd not thee with half so 
 good a will." Thus does our poet in this drama as in 
 others by his wonderful art and magic power weld all 
 things to his wiU. 
 
 The immediate incentive to Julius Caesar was the 
 publication of the Fox in February, 1607, with a dedi- 
 cation to the two Universities, which, considering the 
 circumstances under which the Fox was composed, must 
 be regarded as an insidious attack on the ignorant Shaks- 
 pere, who replied to the challenge by this noble drama.. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra was probably produced in the 
 following year ; and it has been shown in the " Sonnets 
 re-arranged," that the principal characters correspond 
 with the characters in the Sonnets; nor after a most 
 minute inspection can there be found in this play the 
 slightest trace of Jonson; neither Lepidus nor 
 Pompey can be tortured into a malignant Ben and still 
 less Caesar. This fact indicates, the author must have 
 had some other special object in view ; for in all the 
 other plays, in every one, since 1598, Jonson holds a 
 conspicuous position. 
 
 But in Coriolanus Jonson re-appears, and there can- 
 not be a doubt, we have here three Richmonds in the 
 field : — Coriolanus, Shakspere, and Ralegh, all three in 
 one ; the characters may be thus arranged : — 
 
 Coriolanus. Shakspere. Ealegh. 
 
 Aufidius. Jonson. 
 
 Titus Lartius. Beaumont. Essex. 
 
 C'ominius. Fletcher. L. Admiral Howard. 
 
 Menenius. I^yly- 
 
 Sicinius. Jonson. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 107 
 
 In the opening of the play the inefficiency of the two 
 generals, and the brilliant deeds of Marcius in Corioli, 
 and in the field, remind us of Ralegh at Cadiz practically 
 superseding the two commanders, rivalling in heroic 
 achievements Marcius Coriolanus, and well deserving a 
 similar addition to his name as knight of Cadiz. 
 
 The evidence that Shakspere had an eye on Ralegh 
 in the first act, rests entirely on the variations from 
 Plutarch, which apparently refer to the expeditions 
 against Cadiz and the Azores. According to Plutarch, 
 Marcius enters Corioli, not alone, but " with so small a 
 number, that summoning all his force he performed the 
 most incredible exploits, which afforded Lartius an oppor- 
 tunity to bring in the rest of the Romans unmolested ; " 
 and Marcius on joining Cominius merely requested to 
 be opposed to the Antiates, " esteemed to be the war- 
 likest men." 
 
 The words of Lartius, " I'll lean upon one crutch, 
 'ere stay behind this business," may be an allusion to 
 Essex;* and the observation of Brutus, " 0, if he had 
 borne the business," to Ralegh.f And again, " Re-enter 
 Marcius bleeding," may be an allusion to Ralegh going 
 in his skiff to Essex. And it is said, " Ralegh, to his 
 great honour, held always single in the head of all." 
 
 The account of Lartius in Corioli, " busied about 
 
 * "-It appears that he had been impatient to be gone, for fear he 
 should be detained, for the Queen had persuaded him to stay behind ; 
 but not prevailing, she now gave him liberty to depart," — Oldys,, p. 238. 
 
 t " They presently possessed his lordship's head, that Balegh had 
 taken this opportunity to play over his parts, and shew the world how 
 well he could act the conqueror, only to steal houour and reputation 
 from the geueraL" 
 
108 SHAlCStEBE AND JONSON. 
 
 decrees, ransoming and threatening," refers to Essex 
 and the generals in Cadiz ; and the following lines to 
 Ralegh's admirable conduct after the battle :* — 
 
 Mar. " Where is the enemy ? Ave you lords o' the field ? 
 If not, why cease you till you are so ? " 
 
 We have in this play several remarks, trifles light as 
 air, but of singular significance on being brought to- 
 gether and examined iu the lump ; — thus Aufidius says, 
 "Five times, Marcius, I have fought with thee;" and 
 again,t " Thou has beat me out twelve several times ;" 
 and Sicinius is addressed as, " Thou Triton of the min- 
 nows," and " hadst thou foxship ;" Menenius says, " We 
 call a nettle but a nettle," speaks of Coriolanus as his 
 son, and sajs, "thy general is my lover;" who in return 
 speaks of Menenius as loving him " above the measure 
 of a father : nay, godded me indeed ;" whilst the ser- 
 vants fear, lest this hero be cannibally given, and should 
 broil or roast their master. 
 
 From this analysis of Coriolanus, we are justified in 
 the belief, Shakspere has here given us another instance 
 
 * " He had desired the consent of the generals, that he might go and 
 secure or destroy the Indian fleet ; hut they desired to consider on it till 
 next morning. At break of day Balegh sent again, but the generals sent 
 back to desire he would come ashore into the town. — The next morning, 
 being the 23rd of June, the Duke of Medina caused all that fleet of 
 merchantmen to be set on fire, because he was convinced, from their 
 being beset so vigilantly by Ealegh, who had the charge of them, that 
 they must needs fall into his liands." — C 
 
 t Hvery Man in and out of Ms Rumour, Cynthia's Eevels, Poetaster, 
 and the Fox. — Twelfth Night, Benry V., Mvch ado about Nothing, As 
 you Like it, TUnon, Othello, Troilus and Cressida, Measure /or Measure, 
 Tempest, Lear, Macbeth, Julius Ceesar. 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 109 
 
 of his admiration and sympathy for the heroic prisoner 
 in the tower. 
 
 Furthermore, can any one have a doubt, that Shaks- 
 pere had Ralegh in his mind's eye in the character of 
 Ventidius. — Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii., scene 1. 
 The remark of Ventidius about being the revenger of 
 M. Crassus' death, may refer to Ralegh at Cadiz attack- 
 ing the St. Philip, to revenge the destruction of the 
 Revenge. Caesar and Antony are evidently the Lord 
 Admiral and Essex; and the remarkable expression, 
 "when him we serve's away," as well as the passage 
 about Sossius irresistibly force on us the conviction, that 
 Shakspere is alluding to Ralegh at Fayal. 
 
 As Ralegh was satirised in Eastward Hoe, and as 
 Coriolanus is a reply to the Silent Woman, it may be 
 reasonably conjectured, that Captain Otter is a cari- 
 cature of Sir Walter, especially when we consider how 
 distinctly he is pointed at in the White Devil. Besides 
 the Cadiz expedition and the Island voyage, are men- 
 tioned at the end of the first Act in the Silent Woman ; 
 and it may be added, Ralegh was born on the banks of 
 the Otter. 
 
 Considering the frequent and fierce disputes between 
 Shakspere and Jonson, it becomes highly improbable, 
 Jonson should have written either prologue, epilogue, or 
 the supposed interpolation in Cranmer's speech in 
 Henry VIII. On comparing the last page of Cymbeline 
 with Cranmer's speech, the reader will perceive not only 
 similarity of expression but also of feeling. Nor should 
 it be forgotten there is not one word of personal adula- 
 tion to the king; for though Elizabeth is called a 
 
110 SHAKSFEKE AND J0N80N. 
 
 Phoenix and a Sheba, James is not even called a 
 Solomon. 
 
 But who, it may be asked, is Cymbeline ? and who is 
 Imogen ? 
 
 On reading this play, soon after the Winter's Tale, 
 the feeling continually haunted me, I was once again 
 wandering in fairy -land ; that, if not the whole, at least 
 much of it is allegory ; " Hark ! hark ! the lark at 
 heaven's gate sings," sends us at once back again to the 
 happy days of our youth, to the merry meetings at the 
 Mitre, to dear old Lyly and the fairies kissing Endy- 
 mion. But I could find no clue to the mystery, no 
 " open sesame," no Aladdin's lamp ; till on coming to 
 the end. of the play, suddenly what in me was dark, 
 " the beams o' the sun " illumined : — Cymbeline is a 
 poef s free-will offering on the marriage of the Princess 
 Elizabeth with Frederick, Count Palatine, on Valen- 
 tine's day, 1613 :— 
 
 Sooth. " The fingers of the powers above do tune 
 The harmony of this peace. The vision 
 Which I made known to Lucius, ere the stroke 
 Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant 
 Is fall accomplish'd : For the Roman eagle 
 From south to west on wing soaring aloft, 
 Lessen'd herself, and in the beams o' the sun 
 So vanish'd : which foreshadow'd our princely 
 
 eagle. 
 The imperial Caesar should again unite 
 His favour with the radiant Cymbeline, 
 Which shines here in the west." 
 
 Cym. Set we forward : Let 
 
 A Koman and a British ensign wave 
 Friendly together ; so through Lud's town march : 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. Ill 
 
 And in the temple of great Jupiter 
 
 Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts." 
 
 The Roman eagle, vanishing in the beams of the sun 
 shining in the west, would mean, in a common-sense 
 view, the annihilation of the Roman army, which has 
 just occurred; but the Soothsayer does not allow of 
 such an interpretation, we must therefore seek another 
 solution ; the Count Palatine, an elector of the German 
 empire, of the imperial Csesar, is the Roman eagle ; he 
 was, like Posthumus, far below the Princess in rank, 
 and Queen Anne was very indignant at the match, and 
 afterwards vented her spleen by calling the Princess 
 "goody Palsgrave;" such conduct smacks a little of 
 Cymbeline's queen ; by this splendid alliance the Count 
 Palatine is absorbed into the royal family of England, 
 of the sun shining in the west. 
 
 Cymbeline is King James, and no doubt his Majesty 
 appropriated to himself : — " the radiant Cymbeline, 
 which shines here in the west ;" but it is not probable 
 he applied to himself Cymbeline's tendency to favouritism 
 and peace at any price, consenting to pay tribute to the 
 Romans after having defeated them. 
 
 Cloten appears to be more a portrait than a satire on 
 Rochester, the king's minion, and he is also described, 
 like Carr, as a remarkably fine built man. And we are 
 of necessity compelled to believe, we see in Imogen, if 
 not the Princess Elizabeth herself, at least the language 
 and manners of a young lady of high rank in 1612. 
 
 Imogen is not only the Princess Elizabeth, the Pearl 
 of Britain, as the Germans called her, but she is also 
 the goddess of the romantic drama, Shakspere's own 
 
112 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 muse ; aad on seeing her wondrous beauty, the classical 
 Roman, Jachimo, exclaims : — 
 
 " All of her, that is out of door, most rich ! 
 If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare, 
 She is alone the Arabian bird." 
 
 The words of Posthumus to Jachimo are remarkable, 
 and deserve notice, since there are grounds for believing 
 Shakspere intended this play to be his farewell to the 
 stage, and his deliberate answer to the address, " To the 
 Reader," prefixed to the Alchemist in 1612, or Jonson's 
 criticism on the Winter's Tale : — 
 
 Post. " Kneel not to me ; 
 
 The power that I have on you, is to spare you, 
 The malice towards you to forgive you : Live, 
 And deal with others better." 
 
 "On the 16th October, 1612, Ferdinand V, the Count 
 Palatine, arrived in England to receive his young bride. 
 In the midst of the festive preparations for this mar- 
 riage. Prince Henry was seized with a dangerous illness, 
 and, it seems, one morning his attendants thought him 
 dead, the prince, however, recovered from his faint, and 
 in the afternoon took two cordials or nostrums, one of 
 which was prepared and sent by the captive Ralegh, who 
 had devoted a great deal of his time to chemistry; on 
 one occasion, when the Queen was very ill, she took his 
 draught, and experienced immediate relief." 
 
 It may then be presumed, in the good physician 
 Cornelius we see a delicate compliment to Ralegh, who 
 is, however, more strikingly depicted as Belarius, whom 
 Shakspere certainly intended for a good character;" 
 and " / stole these babes " is a shot fired at Sir Edward 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 113 
 
 Coke, who during Halegh's trials sought to fix upon him 
 "those words of destroying the king and his cubs." 
 Shakspere here again, as in the Tempest, stands up and 
 avouches the innocence of Sir Walter : — 
 
 Bel. " I, old Morgan, 
 
 Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd : 
 Your pleasure was my mere offence, my puuishment 
 Itself, and all my treason ; that I suffer'd. 
 Was all the harm I did." — Act v., sc. 5. 
 
 Whilst Prince Charles is traceable in the gentle 
 ArviraguSj Prince Henry is still more distinctly marked 
 in the bolder Guiderius. The Count Palatine deserved 
 the praises bestowed upon the noble Posthumus : — 
 
 " Liv'd in court, 
 [Which rare it is to do,] most prais'd, most lov'd ; 
 A sample to the youngest." 
 
 The long separation of Imogen from her husband, 
 with her wandering in boy's clothes and dying of poison, 
 corresponds remarkably with the postponement of the 
 nuptials of the Princess, during which period her brother 
 died ; so the song sung at the grave of Fidele is Prince 
 Henry's fairy knell : — 
 
 " Fear no more the heat o' the sun, 
 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done. 
 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages :" 
 
 and yet it is written again and again, " neither on the 
 occasion of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, nor 
 when there was a 'voice of weeping heard and loud 
 lament,' on the death of Prince Henry, and when 
 almost every poetic voice was raised, Shakspere is not to 
 be found." 
 
114 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Although Lyly holds a prominent position both in 
 Coriolanus and the Winter's Tale, he is not to be found 
 in Cymbeline, but " hark ! the lark at heaven's gate 
 sings " sounds like a requiem o'er his tomb ; nor does 
 he appear in any play by Beaumont and Fletcher during 
 the twelve months following the Knight of Malta ; it 
 may then be surmised, Lyly died in the autumn of 
 1612. 
 
 As Cymbeline appears to have been a dramatic repre- 
 sentation of the royal family, and as in the Winter's 
 Tale Autolycus is certainly Jonson, so Florizel must be 
 Prince Henry ; and consequently Shakspere was, to the 
 great distress of Mr. Armitage Brawn, " a servile flat- 
 terer," or as Dr. Johnson has it, " he knew his trade ;" 
 still it is singular, that with such a good sprag memory, 
 he should only have learnt his business at the eleventh 
 hour ; probably his morals had been corrupted by the 
 example of that fulsome flatterer, malignant Ben, the 
 honestest fellow in all Bohemia; — but who, then, is 
 Perdita ? who stood prototype to that fair shepherdess ? 
 the very name suggests the hapless fair, the Lady 
 Arabella : — " Gentle and affectionate, she delighted in 
 the refined pursuits of literature, in the elegant arts, 
 which give a zest to retirement, and in the society of a 
 few chosen friends, with whom she could indulge dreams 
 of romantic felicity." 
 
 In that allegorical age, the allusions in these two 
 romantic dramas, without being personal, would be 
 readily felt and understood j — King James would approve 
 of Cymbeline and the good Polixenes ; Prince Henry, 
 in his eighteenth year, would sympathise with Florizel 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 115 
 
 and dream of a Perdita; Arabella would sympathise 
 with Perdita, and see in Florizel her faithful Seymour; 
 whilst the Princess might recognise herself in Imogen, 
 weep over the grave of Fidele, and see in the noble 
 Posthumus her dearly-beloved Count Palatine ; — so far, 
 I believe, Shakspere was a flatterer; so far, he knew 
 his trade. 
 
 The critics have pointed out a passage in Cymbeline, 
 " the ruddock would with charitable bill — ," which 
 Webster is supposed to have imitated; Steevens has 
 also noticed some beautiful lines similar to, " Why, he 
 but sleeps;" the supposition, however, of such imita- 
 tions having been made by Webster is untenable, as the 
 White Devil was published in 1613 ; it must, then, be 
 granted, these imitations are by Shakspere, and conse- 
 quently, the whole death-scene of Fidele is a Shaksperian 
 imitation of the vnnding of Marcello. And further, it 
 should be noted, — not only the latter lines in Cymbeline, 
 but also the similar ones in Henry VIII. are imitated, 
 in each play, directly from Philaster : — 
 
 Bel. " These two fair Cedar-branches 
 
 The noblest of the mountain, where they grew, 
 Straitest and tallest." 
 
 ■' Till never-pleased Fortune shot up shrubs. 
 Base under-brambles, to divorce these branches ; 
 And for a while they did so." 
 
 Kinff."Thiit you may grow yourselves over all lands. 
 And live to see your plenteous branches spring 
 Where-ever there is sun ! " — 
 
 Philaster, Act v. 
 
 " The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline, 
 Personates thee : and thy lopped branches," — 
 
116 SHAKSFERE AND JONSON. 
 
 " Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine. 
 His honour, and the greatness of his name 
 Shall be, and make new nations : He shall flourish 
 And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
 To all the plains about him." — 
 
 Henry VIII., Act v., scene 4, 
 
 There are also similar lines in King and no King, 
 Act ii., scene 2. 
 
 And who can PMlario be, the mutual friend of 
 Jachimo (Jonson) and of Posthumus (Shakspere), but 
 Beaumont, a compound of Phil-aster and BeU-ario? 
 And why does Posthumus, in the last scene, strike the 
 page [striking her, she falls'], but because Philaster 
 wounds both Arethusa and Bellario ? And is not the 
 
 Jack. " could this carl, 
 
 A very drudge of nature's, have subdued me. 
 In my profession," — 
 
 a reminiscence of — 
 
 Phil. " The gods take part against me, could this Boor 
 Have held me thus else ? " — 
 
 Philaster, Act iv. 
 
 The passionate speech of Posthumus at the end 
 of the second act is a reminiscence of Albano's 
 speech at the end of Marston's What you Will;* and 
 
 * The good Albano is Shakspere ; Bandolph and Andrea, Albano's 
 brothers : Beaumont and Fletcher ; Lampatho Doria : Marston ; Quad- 
 ratus : Jonson j Simplicius Faber : Decker ; the Schoolmaster may be 
 intended for Lyly j Jaoomo and Laverdure ; two humourous satires on 
 Jonson and Shakspere. Lampatho Doria is acknowledged to be the 
 author himself, and Quadratus thus describes him : — 
 
 Quad. " I protest, believe him not ; I'll beg thee, Laverdure, 
 For a conceal'd idiot, if thou credit him ; 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 117 
 
 the sanguine star on the neck of Guiderius, and the 
 mole on Imogen's breast, must have been intimately 
 connected in Shakspere's mind with the mark on Al- 
 bano's breast : — 
 
 Alb, " I, good, good ; come hither, Celia. 
 
 Burst breast, rive heart a sunder ! Celia, 
 Why startest thou back ? Seest thou this, Celia ? 
 O me ! how often, with lascivious touch, thy lip 
 Hath kiss'd this mark? How oft this much- 
 
 wrong'd breast 
 Hath borne the gentle weight of thy soft cheek ? 
 Cel. me, my dearest lord, — my sweet, sweet love ! " 
 JFhat yov, Will, Act v., p. 294. 
 
 There is a still more apposite speech by Albano in 
 the third act, p. 256. The latter part of Posthumus' 
 speech is most likely a reminiscence of Mendoza's abuse 
 of women in the second scene of the Malcontent. 
 
 In this wonderful drama, filled with the warmth, 
 splendour, and glory of the westering sun, Shakspere's 
 farewell to the stage, a long farewell to all his glory, 
 what can these numerous imitations mean, so open and 
 undisguised, unless they are our poet's thanks, his 
 acknowledgment and acceptance of the incense offered 
 him by Beaumont, Fletcher, Marston, and Webster. 
 
 He'a a hyena, and with civet scent 
 
 Of perfum'd words, draws to make a prey 
 
 For laughter of thy credit." — Act ii., scene 1. 
 
 Consequently, Lampatho is the self-same character as Carlo Buffone in 
 'Emery Man out of his Swmom; and this fact gives a consistency to the 
 opinion, that the phrase, " thou grand Scourge," was not a mere allu- 
 sion, but was used intentionally by Jonson, to fix on Marston the satire 
 of Carlo Bu£Ebne, — " a public, scurrilous, and profane jester, that more 
 swift than Circe, with absurd similes, will transform any person into 
 deformity." 
 
118 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 
 
 Throughout the play, the allegorical imagery is most 
 exact and singularly pleasing ; — Imogen, the romantic 
 muse, mistaking the body of Cloten for her lover's, and 
 with her own hands going to bury it, is a tribute of 
 respect to Marston * and not to Carr ; whilst her ready 
 
 • We have seen that Mareton and Essex are shadowed in Julius 
 Ceesar, that both were satirised in Alcibiades j but whilst in the mag- 
 nificent extravagance of Timon, Shakspere may have had Essex in his 
 view, in the fierce denunciations to Alcibiades Marston stood before 
 him, or Antonio's Bevenge, — a portrait of Hamlet by Marston, as FM- 
 laster was another by Beaumont ; Antonio and Timon, Mendoza and 
 Othello, ghost of Asdrubal and ghost of Banquo, these are the indis- 
 soluble bonds between Marston and Shatspere. It was the kindred 
 lightning-flash of Marstou's genius, even more than the satanic sneer of 
 Jonson, that roused the slumbering energies of Jove, made him shake 
 his ambrosial locks, and hurl the fiery bolt. 
 
 We must not, however, forget the amusing comedy of the Fara- 
 sifaster, or Marston's parody on the Tempest; at least the characters 
 of Tiberio and Duleimel are written, as Maginn might say, in direct 
 antagonism to Ferdinand and Miranda ; Duleimel is also, like Miranda, 
 fifteen ; and Granuffo and Gonzago remind us of Alonzo and Gronzalo. 
 Hercules, Duke of Ferrara : Shakspere; Tiberio, his son: Beaumont; 
 Q-onzago, Duke of TJrbin : Lyly ; Granuffo : Chapman ; Don Zuccone, 
 a causelessly jealous lord : Jonson ; Sir Amoroso : Decker j Herod 
 Frappatore : Marston ; Nymphadoro : Fletcher. 
 
 This comedy was probably written in 1605, immediately after the 
 Foai and named the Farasitaster after Mosca, the parasite ; but whilst 
 the one is a villain, Hercules is a noble character. The date is confirmed 
 by Dulcimel's remark, the picture of Hercules " speaks about forty," 
 and again by Zueeone's jealousy, " this four year — ever since the old 
 Duke Pietro," — evidently an allusion to the Malcontent. Gonzago is a 
 humourous satire on King James, and Herod's remark, " the duke is an 
 arrant doting ass," justifies the opinion, that in Measure for Measure 
 Lucio is a portrait of Marston, the man himself, and the Duke a com- 
 plimentary portrait of James. 
 
 That an allegory is contained in the characters of the Princess Dulei- 
 mel and her attendant lady, Philocalia is incontestable — by the marriage 
 of Tiberio vrith Duleimel Marston pays a flattering compliment to young 
 
SHAKSPERE AND JONSON. 119 
 
 acceptance of the Roman general's protection, and his 
 beautiful address over the dead body, point to the 
 
 Beaumont as the son of Shatspere married to the comic muse ; whilst 
 in Hercules' admiration of Philocalia, love of the Beautiful, Maraton 
 has given us a noble, grand, and truthful picture of the Shabsperian 
 muse in 1605 : — 
 
 Ser. "Philocalia! What! that renowned lady, whose ample 
 report hath struck wonder into remotest strangers ? andyet her worth 
 above that wonder? She, whose noble industries hath made her 
 breast rich in true glories and undying habilities ? — she that whilst 
 other ladies spend the life of earth, Time, in reading their glass, their 
 jewels, and (the shame of poesie) lustful sonnets, gives her soul medi- 
 tations — those meditations wings that cleave the air, fan bright celes- 
 tial fires, whose true reflections makes her see herself and them ! she, 
 whose pity is ever above her envy, loving nothing less than insolent 
 prosperity, and pitying nothing more than virtue destitute of fortune. 
 Nffm. There were a lady for Ferrara's duke ! &o. 
 Her. I cannot tell — my thoughts grow husy." Act iii., p. 51. 
 Marston, ever since his co-partnership with Jonson in Sejarms, had 
 been in disgrace, but Shakspere now hastened to acknowledge this 
 beautiful compliment by restoring him to favour in the very first lines 
 of Lewr : — 
 
 Kent. " I thought, the king had more afiected the duke of Albany, 
 than Cornwall. 
 
 Olo. It did always seem so to us : but now, in the division of the 
 kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most." 
 From this time forth Marston remained faithful to his chief, painting 
 him as the noble Massinissa, the good Albano, and as Count Koberto : — 
 Isabella. " Here is a man of a most mild aspect. 
 
 Temperate, effeminate, and worthy love j 
 One that with burning ardor hath pursued me. 
 A donative he hath of every god ; 
 Apollo gave him looks ; Jove his high front ; 
 The god of eloquence his flowing speech ; 
 The feminine deities strewed all their bounties 
 And beauty on his face ; that eye was Juno's ; 
 Those lips were hers that won the golden ball j 
 That virgin-blush, Diana's. Here they meet, 
 As in a sacred synod." 
 
 Insatiate Countess, Act i., sc. 1. 
 
120 SHAKSPERE AND JONSON, 
 
 romantic Fletcher, Caesar's Antony, Marston's friend 
 and pupil ; and when Imogen rejoices in the loss of 
 the crown on the discovery of her brothers, 'tis Shaks- 
 pere resigning the sceptre of poetry to Beaumont and 
 Fletcher : — " for the fate of these sons of Cymbeline no 
 source is known, it must have been Shakspere's own 
 ingenious invention." — Gervinus. For their enthrone- 
 ment, the two poets appear to have instantly returned 
 thanks in the Honest Man's Fortune; — Duke of Orleans: 
 Jonaon ; Earl of Amiens : Marston ; Montague, the 
 Honest Man : Shakspere. The scenes in verse mostly 
 by Beaumont. 
 
 Sir Walter Ralegh was so affected by the death of 
 Prince Henry, that though he had, as he said, hewn out 
 the second and third parts of his History of the World, 
 he had not heart to finish them ; that Shakspere was 
 also deeply affected by this event, we cannot doubt ; and 
 it may with truth be said, in the grave of Prince Henry 
 lies buried the romantic drama, the musical soul of 
 Shakspere. 
 
 The Prince's death together with the marriage of the 
 Princess and her departure from the country may have 
 decided Shakspere on retiring thus suddenly altogether 
 from the stage. Considering the personal nature of 
 Cymbeline, and of Antony and Cleopatra, it becomes 
 probable Henry VIII. is also of a personal nature ; that 
 Shakspere was seized with a sudden impulse of publicly 
 acknowledging his gratitude to those who had so 
 honoured him, " Eliza and our James," and in the 
 character of Katharine paying a tribute of affection 
 and esteem to the faithful partner of his life; whilst 
 
SHAKSPEKE AND JONSON. 131 
 
 in Cranmer and Gardiner we have the hid sense of 
 Edgar and Edmund. 
 
 This feeling of gratitude and loyalty appears to have 
 heen the immediate origin of Henry VIII., Cranmer's 
 speech being the key to the drama, the link that unites 
 and gives a oneness to the whole : yet therein Shaks- 
 pere acknowledges himself also the subject of Beaumont 
 and Fletcher by the imitation of their freer and looser 
 versification, adopted partly out of compliment to his 
 friends, but with his usual judgment, the scenes referring 
 to a period in the memory of persons still living. This 
 opinion is confirmed by the prologue being an imitation 
 of the prologue to the Woman-hater, from which the 
 first line is taken, and the last line from the Maid's 
 Tragedy : — 
 
 Amin " 1 am forc'd. 
 
 In answer of such noble tears as those, 
 To weep upon my weddmg day." 
 
 Act i., scene 1. 
 
 It has been poetically imagined, the Tempest was the 
 last of Shakspere's dramas, the mighty wizard addressing 
 us in the words of Prospero : — 
 
 " I'll break my staff. 
 Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, 
 And, deeper than did ever plummet sound, 
 I'll drown my book ;" 
 
 but not being troubled with poetic fancies, and having 
 honestly, conscientiously, and with truth-seeking dis- 
 passion traced Shakspere through his dramatic career, I 
 rest satisfied and content with the pleasing belief, that. 
 
123 SHAKSFEKE AND JONSON. 
 
 though nearly thirty years are interposed, there is in the 
 poet's heart a connecting link between the vision of 
 Pericles and the vision of Katharine ; between the dream 
 of the youthful poet, and the dream of the Christian 
 pilgrim. 
 
 >--cNB><y'<8jtS)'e>«S>'^>^j 
 
 1'. PiCKToN, Printer, 89, Great Portland Street, Oxford Street, W. 
 
SHAKESPEARIANA 
 
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/. J{. Smith, Bookseller, 36, Soho Square, London, /■/'. 
 
 A. FEW WORDS~iN REPLY to the Rev. A. Dyce's "Few 
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 Is 1853 
 
 C0RSOBY NOTES ON VARIOUS PASSAeES IN IHE 
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