No common way; I use no trade, no venture; Mos. No, sir, nor devour Soft prodigals. You shall have some will swallow Tear forth the fathers of poor families Out of their beds, and coffin them alive In some kind clasping prison, where their bones May be forth-coming, when the flesh is rotten: But your sweet nature doth abhor these courses; You lothe the widow's or the orphan's tears Should wash your pavements, or their piteous cries Ring in your roofs, and beat the air for vengeance. Volp. Right, Mosca; I do lothe it. Mos. And besides, sir, 4 You are not like the thresher that doth stand 3 I blow no subtle glass,] Venice, where the scene is laid, and the neighbouring island of Murano, being famous for their manufactures in glass. WHAL. 4 You are not like the thresher, &c.] This too is imitated from Horace, but so obviously, as Upton truly says, as to be visible to every schoolboy. He takes this opportunity, however, of mentioning another imitation, which he thinks not quite so plain : "Great mother Fortune, queen of human state, "Those" he adds, "who know any thing of Jonson's perpetual allusions to ancient authors, will plainly perceive that he wrote, "Rectress of Antium!-from Horace lib. i. Od. 35." There is nothing in the "treatise on the Bathos" quite so good as this. With a huge flail, watching a heap of corn, Volp. Hold thee, Mosca, [Gives him money. But cocker up my genius, and live free To give my substance to; but whom I make me: age, This draws new clients daily to my house, VOL. III. N And look on that; still bearing them in hand,3 Letting the cherry knock against their lips, And draw it by their mouths, and back again.How now! Re-enter MOSCA with NANO, ANDROGYNO, and CASTRONE. Nan. Now, room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know, They do bring you neither play nor university show;" And therefore do intreat you, that whatsoever they rehearse, May not fare a whit the worse, for the false pace of the verse.' 5 Still bearing them in hand,] i. e. flattering their hopes, keeping them in expectation: "You may remember says archbishop King to Swift, "how we were borne in hand in my lord Pembroke's time, that the Queen had passed the grant, &c." The phrase occurs perpetually in our old poets. Thus in Ram Alley, Act. II. "Yet I will bear some dozen more in hand, And make them all my gulls." In the preceding lines Jonson had Petronius in view :- Incidimus in turbam hæredipetarum sciscitantium quod genus hominum, aut unde veniremus. Ex prescripto ergo consilii communis, exaggerati prudenter unde, aut qui essemus, haud dubie credentibus indicavimus. Qui statim opes suas summo cum certamine in Eumolpum congesserunt: et omnes ejus gratiam sollicitant." Now, room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know, They do bring you neither play nor university show;] This scene is a kind of antimasque or jig, such as is found in many of our old plays. "It is chiefly taken," as Upton observes, "from one of Lucian's dialogues, and is meant as a ridicule on the metempsychosis." Both Lucian and Jonson, however, had better objects in view, than the exposure of such absurdities. "By university show, is meant, such masques and plays, as our universities used to exhibit to our kings and queens, and which were acted by the scholars in their halls." 7 May not fare a whit the worse, for the false pace of the verse.] Upton, a man of very considerable learning, which (unaccom If you wonder at this, you will wonder more ere we pass, For know, here is inclosed the soul of Pytha goras, 8 panied, as it was, with an adequate portion of judgment) frequently betrayed him into absurdities; published, in 1749, "Remarks" on this, and the two following plays; of which, Mr. Whalley occasionally availed himself It seems to have been Upton's chief object to point out Jonson's allusions to the classics; in this he is generally successful; indeed, he seldom ventures beyond such as are sufficiently trite and obvious. When he attempts to correct the text, he fails; whilst his explanations, which are given in a tone of formal gravity highly ludicrous, when contrasted with the subject, usually aim beyond the poet, and perplex where they do not mislead. Jonson apologizes for the false pace of his doggrel. But of this Upton will not hear: "We must not understand," he says, "that he errs against the laws of metre; but that the pace of his verse may sometimes offend the too delicate ear." Those who recollect, that, when Shakspeare produced a few words of prose, such as "Where hast thou been, sister?" Upton pronounced that he meant to afford a beautiful example of the "trochaicdimeter-brachy-catalectic, commonly called the ithyphallic measure," (Observ. p. 381,) will not be surprised to hear, that the hobbling lines above are all good metre: they are, it seems, of "the anapestic kind, consisting of anapests, spondees, dactyls, and sometimes the pes proceleusmaticus," and are to be scanned in this manner, And therefore do intreat you that whatsoever they rehearse, 1 2 3 4 May not fare a whit the worse | for the false pace of the verse. "the "To this measure," exclaims Upton with great glee, reader may reduce them all." There is no doubt of it; and so he may all the lines in the daily papers, if he pleases. Surely unlettered sense is far more valuable than learning thus ridiculously abused. 8 For know here is inclosed the soul of Pythagoras,] deiXTINws, in Androgyno the hermaphrodite, of whose various transforma tions the dwarf gives an account. That juggler divine, as hereafter shall follow; Which soul, fast and loose, sir, came first from Apollo, 2 And was breath'd into Ethalides, Mercurius his son, Where it had the gift to remember all that ever was done. From thence it fled forth, and made quick transmigration To goldy-lock'd Euphorbus,' who was killed in good fashion, At the siege of old Troy, by the cuckold of Sparta. And thence did it enter the sophist of Greece. From Pythagore, she went into a beautiful piece," Hight Aspasia, the meretrix; and the next toss of her Was again of a whore, she became a philosopher, Crates the cynick, as it self doth relate it : Since kings, knights, and beggars, knaves, lords, and fools gat it, 9 That juggler divine, that hereafter shall follow ;] That juggler divine, as Upton observes, is from Lucian, yonra naι Terpaтepyov, as indeed is much of the rest. ▪ Which soul-came first from Apollo,] Ns μer e§ AñoλλWVOS TO προτον ἡ ψυχη μοι καταπλαμενη εις την γην ενεδε ες άνθρωπε σωμα, &C. Luc. Gall. 2 And was breath'd into Æthalides, Mercurius his son, Ερμειας, Σφωιτεροιο τοκηος, ὃς ὁι μνηστιν πορε πανίων 3 To goldy-lock'd Euphorbus, &c.] I aα TITTED EUPOPCOS εγενόμην, εμαχομην εν Ιλιῳ και αποθανων ὑπο Μενελαῳ κ.τ. α. Luc. ibid. 4 From Pythagore, she went into a beautiful piece,] Aπoducαμeros δε τον Πυθαγόραν, τινα μελημφιασω μετ' αυτον Ασπασίαν την εκ Μίλητε ἱταιραν, κ. τ. α. |