"Look here thou that hast malice to the stage, * To read this tragedy, and thy own + be next” though he well knew that the lines were directly pointed at Prynne, and that Shirley regarded the talents and learning of Jonson with a degree of respect bordering on idolatry. This vile fabrication, in which all the creative powers of malignity are set to work to destroy the character of an unoffending man, who had been more than a century in his grave, in the hope of effecting the sale of a few tickets, Mr. Malone styles "an innocent forgery," "a sportive and ingenious fabrication," "a mere jeu d'esprit, for a harmless purpose," &c. He however sets about its confutation, and with the assistance of Whalley,§ whom he condescends not once to mention, easily effects his object. In fact, a simple reference to dates, of which Macklin happened to be wholly ignorant, was amply sufficient to destroy the whole fabric.¶ A rejoinder was made by Steevens, in which there is not one syllable to the purpose, though Mr. Weber, with proper gravity, observes, that it renders the affair very doubtful. In fact, Voluminously.] Prynne was known to the writers of his time by the name of Voluminous Prynne, under which title he is mentioned by Wood and others. + Thy own tragedy. i. e. according to Steevens and his followers, the "Comedy of the New Inn!" This gentleman thus indulgent to the unprincipled calumniator of Jonson, is the same Mr. Malone, be it observed, who taxes Jonson every instant with the blackest ingratitude, with the most rooted and rancorous malice towards Shakspeare because he uses the word "tempestuous," or "chorus," or " target,” or some other of equal rarity, which bears a fancied resemblance to the name of a play, or to a stage direction in the works of the latter. In Whalley's corrected copy, which Malone as well as Steevens had scon, as I find by their letters, most of Macklin's ridiculous blunders in his dates, of which Malone afterwards made such good use, are distinctly pointed out. It is quite amusing to follow the enemies of Jonson through this most contemptible forgery. The prose part of it they in some measure give up; but there is a little poem with which they are all enraptured, and which is pronounced to be as much beyond the powers of Macklin, as the composition of a Greek Chorus, &c. This" uncommonly elegant," this "exquisite," this "first and best of all fictions," is a miserable piece of doggrel, a wretched cento, which would not at this time be admitted into the corner of a newspaper Will the reader have a specimen of this" combined effort of taste and learning," to which the talents of the author of the Man of the World were **g unequal ?”? Let him take, then, the first stanza. "Says Ben to Tom the Lover's stole "Tis much too good for Ford!" Euge Poeta! The splendour of the composition so effectually dazzled the critics, that the compliment paid to Shakspeare by "the envious Ben" luckily escaped their notice. It would have made Mr. Malone miserable, Steevens, as is noticed above, knew the story to be a falsehood from the beginning; and Mr. Malone, of whom I enquired the reason of his coadjutor's disgraceful pertinacity, wrote to me in reply that Steevens merely held out " because the discovery of the forgery had been made by another," That Steevens believed a word of it, he never thought for a moment. After the complete detection of this clumsy fabrication, by Mr. Malone, it might reasonably be hoped that the public would have heard no more of it: but who can sound the depths of folly Mr. Weber, the editor of Ford, has thought proper to repeat it, and with an hardihood of assertion which his profound ignorance cannot excuse, to affirm, in addition, that the enmity of Jonson to Ford, (on which Macklin's forgery is built,) is "corroborated by indisputable documents!" One of them (the only one, indeed, with which he condescends to favour his readers) is the quotation produced from Shirley by Steevens, (for the mischievous purpose of misleading some heedless gull,) which Mr. Weber pronounces, on his own knowledge, "to be evidently pointed at our author's insulting ode." To attempt to convince a person, who has not understanding enough for reason to operate upon, is, as learned authors utter, to wash a tile; to others it may be just sufficient to say, that the "ode" was published near two years after the verses to which it is here affirmed to have given birth -This is going beyond Mr. Steevens, and may serve to shew how dangerous it is for stupidity to meddle with cunning, or to venture on gratuitous falsehoods to recover the credit of an exploded slander. { ! TO THE READER. IF thou be such, I make thee my patron, and dedicate the piece to thee: if not so much, would I had been at the charge of thy better literature. Howsoever, if thou canst but spell, and join my sense, there is more hope of thee, than of a hundred fastidious impertinents, who were there present the first day, yet never made piece of their prospect the right way. What did they come for, then? thou wilt ask me. I will as punctually answer: To see, and to be seen: to make a general muster of themselves in their clothes of credit; and possess the stage against the play : to dislike all, but mark nothing. And by their confidence of rising between the acts, in oblique lines, make affidavit to the whole house, of their not understanding one scene. Armed with this prejudice, as the stage-furniture, or arrasclothes, they were there, as spectators, away: for the faces in the hangings, and they, beheld alike. So I wish they may do ever; and do trust myself and my book, rather to thy rustic candour, than all the pomp of their pride, and solemn ignorance to boot. Fare thee well, and full to. Read. BEN JONSON, But first, THE ARGUMENT The lord Frampul, a noble gentleman, well educated, and bred a scholar in Oxford, was married young, to a virtuous gentlewoman, Sylly's daughter of the South, whose worth, though he truly enjoyed, he never could rightly value; but, as many green husbands, (given over to their extravagant delights, and some peccant humours of their own,) occasioned in his over loving wife so deep a melancholy, by his leaving her in the time of her lying-in of her second daughter, she having brought him only two daughters, Frances and Latitia: and (out of her hurt fancy) interpreting that to be a cause of her husband's coldness in affection, her not being blest with a son, took a resolution with herself, after her month's time, and thanksgiving rightly in the church, to quit her home, with a vow never to return, till by reducing her lord, she could bring a wished happiness to the family. He in the mean time returning, and hearing of this departure of his lady, began, though over-late, to resent the injury he had done her: and out of his cock-brain'd resolution, entered into as solemn a quest of her. Since when, neither of them had been heard of. But the eldest daughter, Frances, by the title of lady Frampul, enjoyed the estate, her sister being lost young, and is the sole relict of the family. Here begins our Comedy. ACT I. This lady, being a brave, bountiful lady, and enjoying this free and plentiful estate, hath an ambitious disposition to be esteemed the mistress of many servants, but loves none. And hearing of a famous New-inn, that is kept by a merry host, call'd Goodstock, in Barnet, invites some lords and gentlemen to wait on her thither, as well to see the fashions of the place, as to make themselves merry, with the accidents on the by. It happens there is a melan okoly gentleman, one master Lovel, hath been lodged there some days before in the inn, who (unwilling to be seen) is surprised by the lady, and invited by Prudence, the lady s chambermaid, who is elected governess of the sports in the inn for that day, and install'd their sovereign. Lovel is persuaded by the host, and yields to the lady's invitation, which concludes the first act. Having revealed his quality before to the host. ACT II. In this, Prudence and her lady express their anger conceiv'd at the tailor, who had promised to make Prudence a new suit, and bring it home, as on the eve, against this day. But he failing of his word, the lady had commanded a standard of her own best apparel to be brought down; and Prudence is so fitted. The lady being put in mind, that she is there alone without other company of women, borrows, by the advice of Prue, the host's son of the house, whom they dress, with the host's consent, like a lady, and send out the coachman with the empty coach, as for a kinswoman of her ladyship's, mistress Lætitia Sylly, to bear her company: : who attended with his nurse, an old charewoman in the inn, drest odly by the host's counsel, is believed to be a lady of quality, and so receiv'd, entertain'd, and love made to her by the young lord Beaufort, &c. In the mean time the Fly of the inn is discover'd to colonel Glorious, with the militia of the house, below the stairs, in the drawer, tapster, chamberlain, and hostler, inferior officers; with the coachman Trundle, Ferret, &c. And the preparation is made to the lady's design upon Lovel, his upon her, and the sovereign's upon both. ACT III. Here begins the Epitasis, or business of the play. Lovel, by the dexterity and wit of the sovereign of the sports, Prudence, having two hours assign'd him of free colloquy, and love-making to his mistress, one after dinner, the other after supper, the court being set, is demanded by the lady Frampul, what love is: as doubting if there were any such power, or no. To whom he, first by definition, and |
