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VOLFONE, &c.] This celebrated Comedy was first brought out at the Globe Theatre in 1605, and printed in quarto, 1607, after having been acted with great applause at both Universities. Jonson republished it in 1616, without alterations or additions, and with the former appropriate motto, from Horace,

Simul et jucunda, et idonea dicere vitæ.

The actors were the same as in Sejanus, with the exception, perhaps, of Shakspeare, whose name does not appear in the list. Lowin played Volpone, which was one of his favourite characters; and Cooke, who is supposed to have performed Livia in the preceding drama, probably took the part of Lady Would-be. The Fox continued on the stage till the final dispersion of the players, and was one of the first pieces revived at the Restoration; when, as old Downes says, "it proved very satisfactory to the town." Langbaine tells us that it was "in vogue" in his time; as, indeed, it was for a century afterwards.

Its last appearance, I believe, was at the Haymarket, some time before the death of the elder Colman, who made some trifling alterations in the disposition of the scenes. That it was not successful cannot be wondered at; the age of dramatic imbecility was rapidly advancing upon us, and the stage already looked to jointed-dolls, water-spaniels, and peacocks-tails, for its main credit and support.

MOST NOBLE AND MOST EQUAL SISTERS,

THE TWO FAMOUS UNIVERSITIES,

FOR THEIR

LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE SHEWN TO HIS POEM

IN THE PRESENTATION;

BEN JONSON,

THE GRATETUL ACKNOWLEDGER,

DEDICATES BOTH IT AND HIMSELF.

NEVER, most equal Sisters, had any man a wit so presently excellent, as that it could raise itself; but there must come both matter, occasion, commenders, and favourers to it. If this be true, and that the fortune of all writers doth daily prove it, it behoves the careful to provide well towards these accidents; and, having acquired them, to preserve that part of reputation most tenderly, wherein the benefit of a friend is also defended. Hence is it, that I now render myself grateful, and am studious to justify the bounty of your act; to which, though your mere authority were satisfying, yet it being an age wherein poetry and the professors of it hear so illon all sides, there will a reason be looked for in the subject. It is certain, nor can it with any forehead be opposed, that the too much license of poetasters in this time, hath much deformed their mistress; that, every day, their manifold and manifest ignorance doth stick unnatural reproaches upon her: but for their petulancy, it were an act of the greatest injustice, either to let the learned suffer, or so divine a skill (which indeed should not be attempted with unclean hands)

1 Hear so ill,] A mere latinism (tam male audiunt) for-are so ill spoken of. It is used by Spenser,

"If old Aveugle's son so evil hear;"

and, again, by Jonson, in Catiline,

"And glad me doing well, though I hear ill."

But

to fall under the least contempt. For, if men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being the good poet, without first being a good man. 2 He that is said to be able to inform young men to all good disciplines, inflame grown men to all great virtues, keep old men in their best and supreme state, or, as they decline to childhood, recover them to their first strength; that comes forth the interpreter and arbiter of nature, a teacher of things divine no less than human, a muster in manners; and can alone, or with a few, effect the business of mankind: this, I take him, is no subject for pride and ignorance to exercise their railing rhetoric upon. it will here be hastily answered, that the writers of these days are other things; that not only their manners, but their natures, are inverted, and nothing remaining with them of the dignity of poet, but the abused name, which every scribe usurps; that now, especially in dramatic, or, as they term it, stage poetry, nothing but ribaldry, profanation, blasphemy, all license of offence to God and man is practised. I dare not deny a great part of this, and am sorry I dare not, because in some men's abortive features (and would they had never boasted the light) it is over true: but that all are embarked in this bold adventure for hell, is a most uncharitable thought, and, uttered, a more malicious slander. For my particular, I can, and from a most clear conscience, affirm, that I have ever trembled to think toward the least profaneness; have loathed the use of such foul and unwashed

2 He that is said to be able to inform young men, &c.] In this description of the offices and function of a good poet, our author, as Whalley observes, "seems to have had his eye on different passages in Horace." Here he alludes to the Epistle to Augustus:

"Recte facta refert, orientia tempora notis,

"Instruit exemplis, inopem solatur et ægrum," &c.

A little below, to the Art of Poetry, v. 396:

fuit hæc sapientia quondam

Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis, &c.

The sentence immediately preceding this, is taken almost literally from Strabo: Ἡ δε ποιητε συνέζευκται τη τε ανθρωπω· καὶ εχ διον τε αγαθόν γενέσθαι ποιητην, μη πρότερον γεννηθεντα ανδρα αγαθον. Lib. i.

bawdry, as is now made the food of the scene: and, howsoever I cannot escape from some, the imputation of sharpness, but that they will say, I have taken a pride, or lust, to be bitter, and not my youngest infant but hath come into the world with all his teeth; I would ask of these supercilious politics, what nation, society, or general order or state, I have provoked? What public person? Whether I have not in all these preserved their dignity, as mine own person, safe? My works are read, allowed, (I speak of those that are intirely mine,3) look into them, what broad reproofs have I used? where have I been particular? where personal? except to a mimic, cheater, bawd, or buffoon, creatures, for their insolencies, worthy to be taxed? yet to which of these so pointingly, as he might not either ingenuously have confest, or wisely dissembled his disease? But it is not rumour can make men guilty, much less entitle me to other men's crimes. I know, that nothing can be so innocently writ or carried, but may be made obnoxious to construction; marry, whilst I bear mine innocence about me, I fear it not. Application is now grown a trade with many; and there are that profess to have a key for the decyphering of every thing: but let wise and noble persons take heed how they be too credulous, or give leave to these invading interpreters to be over familiar with their fames, who cunningly, and often, utter their own virulent malice, under other men's simplest meanings. As

4

for those that will (by faults which charity hath raked up, or common honesty concealed) make themselves a name with the multitude, or, to draw their rude and beastly claps, care not whose living faces they intrench with their petulant styles, may they do it without a rival, for me! I choose rather to

3 My works are read, allowed—(I speak of those that are intirely mine,) This he says, because he had written in conjunction with Chettle, Decker, Chapman, and others. It appears from this judicious and learned composition, which in elegance and vigour stands yet unrivalled, that the objections subsequently urged against the stage by Prynne and Collier, were but the echoes of former complaints. It would not have been much amiss, if those who found themselves aggrieved by them had been content with referring to Jonson; for, to speak tenderly, they have, after all their exculpatory efforts, added little of moment to what is to be found in this and the preceding pages.

+ Which charity hath raked up,] i. e. smothered, hidden; alluding to the practice of covering live embers, by raking ashes

over them.

live graved in obscurity, than share with them in so preposterous a fume. Nor can I blame the wishes of those severe and wise patriots, who providing the hurts these licentious spirits may do in a state, desire rather to see fools and devils, and those antique relics of barbarism retrieved, with all other ridiculous and exploded follies, than behold the wounds of private men, of princes and nations: for, as Horace makes Trebatius speak among these,

Sibi quisque timet, quanquam est intactus, et odit. And men may justly impute such rages, if continued, to the writer, as his sports. The increase of which last in liberty, together with the present trade of the stage, in all their miscelline interludes, what learned or liberal soul doth not already abhor? where nothing but the filth of the time is uttered, and with such impropriety of phrase, such plenty of solecisms, such dearth of sense, so bold prolepses, so racked metaphors, with brothelry, able to violate the ear of a pagan, and blasphemy, to turn the blood of a christian to water. I cannot but be serious in a cause of this nature, wherein my fame, and the reputation of divers honest and learned are the question; when a name so full of authority, antiquity, and all great mark, is, through their insolence, become the lowest scorn of the age; and those men subject to the petulancy of every vernaculous orator, that were wont to be the care of kings and happiest monarchs. This it is that hath not only rapt me to present indignation, but made me studious heretofore, and by all my actions, to stand off from them; which may most appear in this my latest work, which you, most learned Arbitresses, have seen, judged, and to my crown, approved; wherein I have laboured for their instruction and amendment, to reduce not only the ancient forms, but manners of the scene, the easiness, the propriety, the innocence, and last, the doctrine, which is the principal end of poesie, to inform men in the best reason of living. And though my catastrophe may, in the strict rigour of comic law, meet with censure, as turning back to my promise; I desire the learned and charitable critic, to have so much faith in me, to think it was done of industry: for, with what ease I could have varied it nearer his scale (but that I fear to boast my own

4 Who providing the hurts] i. c. foreseeing the hurts. See p. 144.

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