of the gallant Sir Walter, and turned his thoughts to the stage, which was the common refuge of the wits of the age. He does not appear to have been a successful Thespian, as he was a few years later reproached by Decker for "having left the occupation of a mortar trader to turn actor, and with having put up a supplication to be a poor journeyman player, in which he would have continued, but that he could not set a good face upon it, and so was cashiered." By a very natural and fortunate gradation, from an actor he became a writer of plays. In his first efforts, it is said, he was unsuccessful; but this, as it is common to most men, is no impeachment of his future merit. Tradition affirms that he was introduced to the stage by Shakespeare, a circumstance so honourable to both that I wish it to be true. Certain it is to me, that Ben never proved ungrateful for the kindness. It is with industrious malice affirmed, by some of the editors of Shakespeare, that Jonson regarded the "sweet swan of Avon” with a jealous eye, and that he has attacked him in several of his plays. Malone calls Jonson Shakespeare's old antagonist. " By those who look close to the ground," said the author of the Rambler, "dirt will be found." Mr. Malone is a laborious enquirer, and his industry has added much to our stock of knowledge on subjects connected with the stage, but his research is much misapplied when directed to the grubbing up of such passages as may, by forced constructions, be called girds at Shake

speare.

That Jonson should view with some anxiety his companion outstripping him in the race of fame, is exceedingly natural, and that he might level a harmless jest at the monster Caliban, is very possible. But wit may be free from malevolence, whatever Mr. Malone may suppose, and poetical rivalry should not be confounded with personal resentment. Fletcher has never been charged with possession of " the green-eyed monster," and yet "the Knight of the Burning Pestle" alone contains more direct attacks upon the " gentle Shakespeare," than can be found, or made, in Jonson, by the most crooked representation.

In his new profession, if he acquired a subsistence, he gained no more. The register of Philip Hurslowe, lately discovered in the rubbish of Dulwich college, proves that he was always paid in advance for his writings.

"Lent Bengemyn Jonson the 5 of Janewary, 1597, in redy mony, the some of Vs."

"Lent unto Wm. Borne, the 23 September, 1601, to lend unto Bengemin Jonsone, in earnest of a boocke, called the Scottes Tragedie, the some of XXs."

Such are the nature of these entries, which, while they prove the poverty of Jonson, are extended to all his fellows, and evince the needy and dependent state of the writers for the stage. Shakespeare is, however, one great exception: it seems that as he was omni major eulogio, he was also to be omni exceptione major.

While Ben was a retainer to the stage, he had the misfortune to be engaged in a duel with "one of the regiment,” a fellowplayer, and in this encounter his antagonist was slain, and himself wounded in the arm: for this offence he was committed to prison, but it is uncertain how long he was detained, or how he obtained his release.

In 1598 he first appeared openly as a writer for the stage, by the publication of " Every Man in his Humour," to which, it is evident, from the motto which he adopted, he was driven by penury:

Haud tamen invideas vati, quem pulpita pascunt.

He had not long appeared as a poet before he entered into controversy with Decker, and the dispute between them was conducted with more wit than manners. Decker attacked Jonson on account of his breeding, and Ben reviled his opponent for his ignorance. Scarcely had he vented his rage upon "Crispinus," when he was called (in 1605) to answer for a libel upon the Scots, contained in the comedy of Eastward Hoe, in the writing of which he had associated with Marston and Chapman; the poets' ears were in danger of the pillory, and their noses of being severed by the hangman: a pardon was, however, obtained, and Jonson, upon his release from "durance vile," gave an entertainment to his friends, among whom were Camden and Selden. In the midst of the entertainment his mother, 66. more of an antique Roman than a Briton," drank to him, and shewed him a paper of poison, which she intended to have given him in his liquor, having first taken a portion herself, if the sentence for his punishment had passed.

In 1613 he was in France; and during his continuance there he was admitted to an interview with Cardinal Perron: their discourse, it is said, turned upon literary subjects; the cardinal shewed him his translation of Virgil; and Jonson, with his characteristic bluntness, told him it was a bad one. He had now published Volpone, Epicene, and the Alchemist, with many other

plays, and "in consideration of the good and acceptable service heretofore done, and hereafter to be done, by the said Ben Jonson," James granted him a pension or annuity of a hundred marks; which Charles (in 1630) with his usual liberality to literary merit, augmented to one hundred pounds: adding, what would be very acceptable to Ben, a tierce of Canary wine yearly, out of his cellars at Whitehall. We find him at Oxford, in 1619, on a visit to Bishop Corbet, who was then senior fellow of Christ-Church, where Ben took the degree of master of arts: it is probable that the father of Corbet died during Jonson's continuance at Oxford, as the bishop and his friend joined in celebrating the virtues of the deceased. He received from James (in 1621) a reversionary grant of the office of the master of the revels, but he never derived any advantage from this gift, as Sir John Astley, who then held the office jointly with Sir George Buck, outlived the poet. We hear nothing important of him from this time till the year 1630. He appears to have subsisted chiefly by the writing of plays for the theatres, and the composition of his beautiful masques on the marriages of distinguished persons, on the king's progresses, and other important occasions. These compositions, which Mr. Malone says, "the wretched taste of that age highly estimated," it were doing injustice to the memory of Jonson to pass over slightly; they are written in the highest style of poetry, and convey an exalted notion of the splendour of the age by which they were encouraged. When speaking of these minor pieces, Mr. Malone, in his zeal for the great bard over whom he has drivelled for so many years, is indignant that they should ever have been patronised and extolled; but a much more exquisite judge, at whose hands Jonson is likely to receive that justice which poring dullness has denied him, Mr. Gifford, speaks of them as magnificent entertainments, which, though modern refinement may affect to despise them, modern splendour never reached even in thought." (Massinger, vol. i. 54.) Jonson, though now (1630) in his fifty-seventh year, meditated an excursion, which greater strength and less perseverance would have trembled at. The fame of Drummond had excited an interest in his mind, and in consequence of literary invitations, Ben travelled on foot to

The groves of cavern'd Hawthornden,

66

to visit him. In the folio edition (1711) of Drummond's works, are preserved the heads of conversations which passed between them, and Drummond has left a character of Jonson that does no B-VOL, II,*

credit to the heart of its author. Never was there a more ungrateful return made to a celebrated wit, who, in the decline of life, had travelled four hundred miles on foot to shew his respect for a fellow bard: the hospitality was ty was of the sort described in the proverb, that of " inviting a man to the roast to beat him with the spit:" but Drummond was a testy esty man and an artificial poet, and his finical and affected manners have formed a strong

σε

contrast to the blunt uncourtly honesty of" Old Ben."

The tale of Ben's existence is told. In the decline of his life he was seized with the palsy, from which. it is probable, he never recovered: he was CC gathered to the grave of his fathers," on the sixth of August, 1637, in the 63rd year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, under a common pavement stone, bearing the following brief inscription, which has been uttered by many of our readers with a pathetic emotion:

O RARE BEN JONSON!

After his death a collection of elegies and poems on his death was published by Dr. Duppa, which loudly pronounce the estimation in which he was held; it is worthy of observation too, that, among the rest, there is one by Owen Feltham, by whom he was, during his life, so vehemently attacked.

Præsaga pectora mærent

Sed tamen et gaudent; tanta est discordia mentis.

It will, perhaps, be expected that we should now enter into a detailed examination of his writings; a task of pleasure but of dif ficulty, still" the labour we delight in physics pain," and we should gladly enter upon the enquiry, did not our respect for the judgment of the man into whose hands the poet has fallen, induce us to forbear our strictures, as we would not, by anticipation, diminish the gratification, which will be derived from his edition when it appears, and as that period is not very far distant, our observations are the less necessary.

One word on the subject," and there an end!" A vein of strong original humour, rich as his fund of learning, and coarse as his complexion, was Ben's peculiar and shining talent; when exercising this, he is excelled by no man: but Jonson has not always done justice to himself, and one is provoked to see him "travel out of the record" of his genius, magnas conari nugas, quitting the high road of comedy, in which he was eminently qualified to excel, to compose such laboured pieces of translated dullness, as Catiline and Sejanus.

TxU

THE MALMSBURY FAMILY.

BY THE REV. MARK NOBLE, F. A. S. OF L. AND E.

MR. EDITOR,

OUR

UR form of government is composed of three orders; the sovereign, the peers, and the people. It is natural to expect that the origin of the nobility should be, at least, respectable; the sword originally gained hereditary distinctions. It was natural it should. Literature, confined to the clergy, engrossed the law. Trade was despised. Happily we live in other times. Of all the late ennobled families none has engrossed more of my attention, and none so much of my regard as that of Harris. Do not mistake me. I am no flatterer, I am unknown to Lord Malmsbury. Let me give a few sketches of this nobleman's family. You will, I think, allow them to be curious. They are little known.

The name of Harris, in the west of England, has long been highly esteemed. In the reign of James I. Thomas Harris, Esq. resided at Orcheston St. George, in Wiltshire.

James Harris, Esq. his son, settled in the close at Salisbury. The reason of his choosing that city for his abode was his having married Gertrude, daughter of Dr. Tounson, Bishop of Salisbury. As I do not mean to confine myself to speak only of the paternal ancestors of Lord Malmsbury, I shall here notice this prelate, a maternal one. Robert Tounson, a native of St. Botolph's parish, in Cambridge, was educated in Queen's College, in the university of that name: he became a fellow of Queen's College, and received a master of arts' degree: afterward, being incorporated in the university of Oxford, he there had the degree of doctor of divinity. Chaplain to James I. he obtained the deanery of Westminster in 1617, and on July 9, 1620, he was consecrated bishop of Salisbury, at Lambeth, by the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Geo. Abbot, assisted by the bishops of Lincoln, Rochester, and Chester. Unhappily this prelate survived but until May 15, 1621, having had the mitre only one year. Incumbered with a family of fifteen children, his promotion was a misfortune. Camden, in his annals, speaks thus of his death: Mai 15, 1621, Robertus Tonson, Episc. Sarum obiit Westmonasterii inops, ibique sepultus; liberos reliquit 15, & uxorem viduam. James I. a very Hearned prince, and extremely well read in divinity, would not