Mas

pulpit, law, fashion,-all conspired to enslave the realm. singer's plays breathe the opposite spirit; Shakspeare's the spirit of wisdom which is for all ages. By-the-by, the Spanish dramatists-Calderon, in particular,—had some influence in this respect, of romantic loyalty to the greatest monsters, as well as in the busy intrigues of B. and F.'s plays.

THE WILDGOOSE CHASE.

Act ii. sc. 1. Belleur's speech :—

-That wench, methinks,

If I were but well set on, for she is a fable,

If I were but hounded right, and one to teach me.

SYMPSON reads affable,' which Colman rejects, and says, 'the next line seems to enforce' the reading in the text.

6 seem

Pity, that the editor did not explain wherein the sense, ingly enforced by the next line,' consists. May the true word be 'a sable,' that is, a black fox, hunted for its precious fur? Or 'at-able,' -as we now say,' she is come-at-able?'

A WIFE FOR A MONTH.

Act iv. sc. 1. Alphonso's speech :

Betwixt the cold bear and the raging lion

Lies

my safe way.

Seward's note and alteration to

"Twixt the cold bears, far from the raging lion

THIS Mr. Seward is a blockhead of the provoking species. In his itch for correction, he forgot the words-lies my safe way!' The Bear is the extreme pole, and thither he would travel over the space contained between it and 'the raging lion.'

Act iv. sc. 2.

THE PILGRIM.

ALINDA's interview with her father is lively, and happily hit off; but this scene with Roderigo is truly excellent. Altogether, indeed, this play holds the first place in B. and F.'s romantic entertainments, Lustspiele, which collectively are their happiest performances, and are only inferior to the romance of Shakspeare in the As You Like It, Twelfth Night, &c.

Ib.

Alin. To-day you shall wed Sorrow,
And Repentance will come to-morrow.

Read Penitence,' or else—

Act ii. sc. 1.

Repentance, she will come to-morrow.

THE QUEEN OF CORINTH.

MERIONE'S speech. Had the scene of this tragi-comedy been laid in Hindostan instead of Corinth, and the gods here addressed been the Veeshnoo and Co. of the Indian Pantheon, this rant would not have been much amiss.

In respect of style and versification, this play and the following of Bonduca may be taken as the best, and yet as characteristic, specimens of Beaumont and Fletcher's dramas. I particularly instance the first scene of the Bonduca. Take Shakspeare's Richard II., and having selected some one scene of about the same number of lines, and consisting mostly of long speeches, compare it with the first scene in Bonduca,-not for the idle purpose of finding out which is the better, but in order to see and understand the difference. The latter, that of B. and F., you will find a well-arranged bed of flowers, each having its separate root, and its position determined aforehand by the will of the gardener,-each fresh plant a fresh volition. In the former you see an Indian fig-tree, as described by Milton ;-all is growth, evolution, yéveois ;-each line, each word almost, begets the following, and the will of the writer is an interfusion, a continuous agency, and not a series of separate acts. Shakspeare is the height, breadth, and depth of Genius: Beaumont and Fletcher the excellent mechanism, in juxtaposition and succession, of talent.

THE NOBLE GENTLEMAN.

WHY have the dramatists of the times of Elizabeth, James I., and the first Charles become almost obsolete, with the exception of Shakspeare? Why do they no longer belong to the English, being once so popular? And why is Shakspeare an exception? -One thing, among fifty, necessary to the full solution is, that they all employed poetry and poetic diction on unpoetic subjects, both characters and situations, especially in their comedy. Now Shakspeare is all, all ideal,—of no time, and therefore for all times. Read, for instance, Marine's panegyric in the first scene of this play :—

Know

The eminent court, to them that can be wise,
And fasten on her blessings, is a sun, &c.

What can be more unnatural and inappropriate (not only is, but must be felt as such)—than such poetry in the mouth of a silly dupe? In short, the scenes are mock dialogues, in which the poet solus plays the ventriloquist, but can not keep down his own way of expressing himself. Heavy complaints have been made respecting the transposing of the old plays by Cibber; but it never occurred to these critics to ask, how it came that no one ever attempted to transpose a comedy of Shakspeare's.

THE CORONATION.

Act i. Speech of Seleucus :

Altho' he be my enemy, should any

Of the gay flies that buzz about the court,
Sit to catch trouts i' the summer, tell me so,
I durst, &c.

Colman's note.

6

PSHAW! 'Sit' is either a misprint for set or the old and still provincial word for set,' as the participle passive of 'seat' or 'set.' I have heard an old Somersetshire gardener say :— 'Look, Sir! I set these plants here; those yonder I sit yesterday."

Act ii. Speech of Arcadius :

Nay, some will swear they love their mistress,
Would hazard lives and fortunes, &c.

Read thus:

Nay, some will swear they love their mistress so,
They would hazard lives and fortunes to preserve
One of her hairs brighter than Berenice's,
Or young Apollo's; and yet, after this, &c.

They would hazard'--furnishes an anapæst for an iambus. 'And yet,' which must be read, añyet, is an instance of the enclitic force in an accented monosyllable. And yēt,' is a complete iambus; but anyet is, like spirit, a dibrach u u, trocheized, however, by the arsis or first accent damping, though not extinguishing, the second.

WIT AT SEVERAL WEAPONS.

Act i. Oldcraft's speech :

I'm arm'd at all points, &c.

It would be very easy to restore all this passage to metre, by supplying a sentence of four syllables, which the reasoning almost demands, and by correcting the grammar.

Ib.

Read

Arm'd at all points 'gainst treachery, I hold

Read thus:

My humor firm. If, living, I can see thee
Thrive by thy wits, I shall have the more courage,
Dying, to trust thee with my lands. If not,

The best wit, I can hear of, carries them.

For since so many in my time and knowledge,
Rich children of the city, have concluded
For lack of wit in beggary, I'd rather
Make a wise stranger my executor,

Than a fool son my heir, and have my lands call'd
After my wit than name: and that's my nature!

Oldcraft's speech :

To prevent which I have sought out a match for her.

Which to prevent I've sought a match out for her

Ib. Sir Gregory's speech:

-Do you think

I'll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am married once ?

To marry a woman, and never to see her?

The superfluous to' gives it the Sir Andrew Ague-cheek char

acter.

In this (as, indeed, in all other respects; but most in this) it is that Shakspeare is so incomparably superior to Fletcher and his friend,—in judgment! What can be conceived more unnatural and motiveless than this brutal resolve? How is it possible to feel the least interest in Albertus afterwards? or in Cesario after his conduct?

I

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

ON comparing the prison scene of Palamon and Arcite, Act ii. sc. 2, with the dialogue between the same speakers, Act i. sc. 2, can scarcely retain a doubt as to the first act's having been written by Shakspeare. Assuredly it was not written by B. and F. I hold Jonson more probable than either of these two.

The main presumption, however, for Shakspeare's share in this play rests on a point, to which the sturdy critics of this edition (and indeed all before them) were blind,—that is, the construction of the blank verse, which proves beyond all doubt an intentional imitation, if not the proper hand, of Shakspeare. Now, whatever