any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent phantasie, brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped: sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Harterius." One circumstance in the history of Jonson's life is too illustrative of his friendly ardour to be omitted here. When in his fifty-seventh year, he undertook a journey on foot into Scotland, for the express purpose of visiting the poet of Hawthornden. Ben appears to have dwelt with fond remembrance on the occurrences of this excursion, and had formed them into a narrative, which unfortunately perished by fire; I say unfortunately; for, had it been preserved, we could then have contrasted the rough and manly generosity of Ben towards Drummond with the posthumous libel with which that testy sonneteer has disgraced himself and traduced the memory of his friend. In their conversations Drummond drew from the blunt and unreserved mind of Ben his censure of the poets his contemporaries; which he gave with candour, and which are for the most part just; not suspecting that Drummond ("the acute and amiable Drummond," as Mr. Chalmers calls him, who was any thing but acute, and here any thing but amiable*), was treasuring these overflowings of the poet's mind for the unworthy purpose of slandering the memory of Ben when he was numbered with the dead:-to his own eternal shame, and the reproach of hospitality. These conversations are found in a worthless edition of Drummond's works, printed at Edinburgh, in folio, in 1711; and if the relation is genuine, it will leave an indelible stamp of disgrace on the reputation of the recorder. Those who remember the remarks of Dr. Johnson on the publication of the posthumous works of the demagogue Lord Bolingbroke, by Mallett, will not fail to apply them on the present occasion. I have now little to add. If the memory of men, honourable in their generation, deserve our respect and reverence; if the writings of poets, who have bequeathed their works as legacies to posterity, have any claim upon our re * A contemporary, who knew Drummond a little better than Mr. Chalmers, calls him "Testy Drummond ;" in a defense of poesie, appended to "The most pleasante Historie of Albino and Bellama," 8vo. 1639. Mr. Chalmers seems frequently to speak of Jonson, Drummond, and others, to persuade us that he "knows something of them;" as he published his "Apology" to convince the late George Steevens that he "knew something about Shakspeare." gard; if truth, whoever and whatever the subject, be worth attaining; the present pages may be endured. For these purposes they are written; and it is hoped, with diffidence, that by them truth will be elicited. No example can be instanced in literary history of a poet of Jonson's extraordinary merit so unworthily and ungratefully treated. An invidious position is asserted, without the slightest proof from historical testimony, and his writings are tortured and perverted to support the fallacious theory. Years have passed in this disgraceful warfare, and no lover of literature has hitherto stepped in, to refute the charges, and check the progress of malicious dulness. If I have undertaken the cause of the poet, it has not been without a perfect conviction of my inability to do full justice to the task; nor should I have engaged in it, but from the most decided confidence in the justice of the cause. My motive has been, to rescue a venerable bard, who has many substantial claims upon our gratitude, from charges founded on error and fostered by misrepresentation. If Jonson is unfortunate in his advocate, I shall have my reward if this imperfect essay shall excite some abler pen to undertake the office. That there are ample means of defence, I am fully persuaded from the examples adduced, the result of a few days' casual and interrupted study. It is not necessary for Jonson to perish, that Shakspeare may flourish; his fame is fixed on a foundation "as broad and general as the casing air;" and the commentator, or critic, injures the fame of the "gentle Shakspeare," who would raise him a phoenix from the ashes of another. FINIS. Printed by J. Moyes, 34, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. |