4 Lazarillo, Bessus, the Humorous Lieutenant, and Lapet, are only inferior to a few of the most distinguished humours of Jonson. In some instances, our poets applied this peculiar description of composition, which is certainly most proper for comedy, to comparatively serious purposes; as in the characters of Arbaces," Memnon, Shamont, the Passionate Lord,' and Gondarino; but, while they gave undoubted proofs of the versatility of their talents, they certainly exceeded the bounds of nature in an additional degree. The influence of any particular passion, sufficiently strong to constitute what our ancestors called a humour, has a very comic effect; but it will always fail to excite any high degree of interest for a serious character. The comic characters which are more peculiar to Fletcher's style, and which chiefly occur in those plays which he produced after the death of Beaumont, combine, with an equal portion of drollery and comic effect as those of Ben Jonson's school, more nature and reality, the humour being principally produced by the innate qualities of their minds, influenced by their re 4 The Woman-Hater. 7 King and no King. I • Ibid. 5 King and no King. Mad Lover. • The Woman-Hater. Nice Valour. 9 Nice Valour. 4 lative situations of life. The peevish temper of Calianax, the pedantry of Sir Roger the chaplain, the admirable characters of the fortune-hunter Michael Perez, and the avaricious, purse-proud, and gluttonous Cacafogo," are specimens of real humour, not transgressing the bounds of nature, and equally applicable to every age and country. The characters of Bartolus, Lopez, and Diego, in The Spanish Curate, of the merry Ancient in The Loyal Subject, of Sebastian in Monsieur Thomas, and Alexander in The Coxcomb, may likewise be adduced as instances of the versatility of Fletcher's comic talents, which were far more extensive than those of Beaumont, Jonson, Massinger, and all his contemporaries, and only exceeded by that of Shakspeare. The superiority of the clowns of the latter will readily be granted. Fletcher, however, though at a great distance, approaches nearer to him in these characters than any of the poets of the time; as the clowns in Nice Valour, The Fair Maid of the Inn, A Wife for a Month, and the Prophetess, evince. These observations on the comic characters of our poets, will also apply to their style of hu 3 Maid's Tragedy. * Scornful Lady. 5 Rule a Wife and have a Wife. mour, which is equally diversified, and variously excellent. Both our poets excelled in the dry and severe humour so characteristic of Ben Jonson; but Fletcher is generally acknowledged to have possessed the peculiar talent of quick repartee and smart dialogue in a degree beyond any poet of the time. In the early plays of our associate poets, as in The Woman-Hater and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, they were much attached to the mock-heroic style; and the latter performance is not excelled by any subsequent production of the kind. Beaumont and Fletcher are reprehensible in an equal, perhaps a superior, degree with the other dramatic writers of the age, for the frequency of gross and indelicate allusions occurring in their works. A critic, who does not take into consideration the great change of manners which has taken place since their time, will at once condemn them; but, as we know the Fletcher's muse was considered as remarkably chaste by his contemporaries, we must conclude, what indeed we learn from studying all the authors of the time, that our ancestors, in the days of King James, would hear, without the least offence, phrases and allusions which now would be stamped with every mark of public disappro bation. Harris, an eminent preacher and presbyterian divine, speaks of Fletcher's "Muse, chaste as those flames whence they took their fire; No spurious composures amongst thine, Got in adultery 'twixt love and wine." Palmer, a collegian of Oxford, thus addresses the spirit of Fletcher: "Thou, like thy writings, innocent and clean, Securely hear thee sport without a fan." Finally, Lovelace, a poet of considerable fancy, holds up The Custom of the Country, the grossest play in the collection, and which, as Dryden asserts, contains more bawdry than all the dramas of his age, as a pattern for exposing vice modestly, and without offending the ears of the chastest audience." The Restoration, while it partly banished these gross phrases and direct allusions, introduced a more covert, and therefore more dangerous, kind of indelicacy. A corrupt imagination in the higher ranks will perhaps shrink with disgust from the perusal of the older plays, on finding some directly licentious See also the prologue to the Woman-Hater, vol. X. p. 7. passages; while it dwells with complacency on the genteel and seductive licentiousness of Dryden, Etherege, Otway, and Vanbrugh, where the preponderance of mischief indubitably rests. The serious love-scenes of our poets are almost entirely free from any indelicacy; indeed, the purity of affection, and the mutual interchange of passionate protestation, have never been so beautifully and delicately executed as in the plays of our poets, and particularly in those of Fletcher. To consider every different species of dramatic style in which our authors have excelled, would lead us into a field of criticism far beyond the bounds of this prefatory memoir. The narratives which occur in their plays are told with great elegance and animation, and none more só than the descriptions of sea-fights, a species of warfare which had, within a few years, become the peculiar boast of the nation. They are also most eloquent in the harangues which oc cur in their heroic plays; and the altercations between their characters are replete with vivacity and pointed reply. In descriptive passages, they are peculiarly happy; and the morality * See, for instance, The Double Marriage, The Knight of Malta, and The Fair Maid of the Inn. |