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THE INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON 
 ON ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON 
 ON ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON 
 ON ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 1598-1642 
 
 BY 
 
 MINA KERR 
 
 Dean of Milwaukee-Do\»tjer College 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, Agents, NEW YORK 
 
 1912 
 
Copyrij^ht, 1912 
 By thk University of Pennsylvania 
 
 J. F. TAPLKV OO. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 
 This study of Ben Jonson's influence on Elizabethan 
 and Restoration comedy has been made at the suggestion 
 of Professor Felix E. Schelling, and has been done in par- 
 tial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doc- 
 tor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Much 
 suggestion and direction have been gained from "Ward's 
 History of English Dramatic Literature, Schelling 's Eliza- 
 bethan Drama, and "Woodbridge 's Studies in Jonson's Com- 
 edy. The method pursued has consisted for the most part 
 of a first-hand examination and comparison of the plays 
 written by Jonson, his contemporaries and later followers. 
 The question of how far and in what way one man's work 
 has been influenced by that of another is always open to 
 dispute, and it is impossible to fix absolute limits. The 
 ever-present danger is that of finding what one is looking 
 for rather than what actually exists. Many quotations 
 have been included, especially from minor writers, so as 
 to put before the reader as far as possible the. materials 
 upon which judgment has been based. 
 
 I desire to express my gratitude to Professor Felix E. 
 Schelling of the University of Pennsylvania for his wise 
 counsel and gracious encouragement during the preparation 
 of this monograph, and for the many valuable suggestions 
 he has given out of his broad and minute knowledge of the 
 history and content of Elizabethan drama. 
 
 M. K. 
 
 Milwaukee-Downer College, 
 December, 1911. 
 
 235319 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter page 
 
 I. The Character of Jonson's Comedy 1 
 
 II. The Influence of Jonson's Comedy on that of His Immedi- 
 
 ate Contemporaries 18 
 
 III. Nathaniel Field and Richard Brome in Relation to 
 
 Jonson 52 
 
 IV. Other " Sons of Ben " in English Comedy before the Clos- 
 
 ing of the Theaters in 1G42 76 
 
 V. Conclusion 120 
 
 Bibliography 125 
 
 Index 128 
 
 / 
 
'But all so clear, and led by Reason's flame, 
 As but to stumble in her sight were shame; 
 These I will honor, love, embrace, and serve, 
 And free it from all question to preserve. 
 So short you read my character, and theirs 
 I would call mine, to which not many stairs 
 Are asked to climb. First give me faith, who know 
 ]\Iyself a little ; I will take you so, 
 As you have writ yourself : now stand, and then, 
 Sir, you are Sealed of the Tribe of Ben." 
 An Epistle, Answering to One that 
 Asked to he sealed of the Tribe of Ben. 
 
 * Son, and my friend, I had not called you so 
 To me ; or been the same to you, if show, 
 Profit, or chance had made us: but I know, 
 "What, by that name, we each to other owe. 
 Freedom and truth ; with love from those begot : 
 Wise-crafts, on which the flatterer ventures not." 
 An Epigram to a Friend and Son. 
 
The Influence of Ben Jonson 
 on English Comedy 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF JONSON 's COMEDY 
 
 The purpose in the present study is to follow but one of 
 the lines along which the work of Ben Jonson affected Eng- 
 lish literature, to determine where, how, and to what ex- 
 tent, his influence was felt in comedy as written by con- 
 temporaries and later "Sons" between 1598, when Every 
 Man in His Humor was first acted, and the closing of the 
 theaters in 1642. It is helpful, first of all, to consider 
 what in Jonson gave him the power of attaining the posi- 
 tion of importance which he holds in English dramatic 
 history, and necessary to define clearly what were the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics of his comedy, in order to set 
 up criteria by which to judge the presence or absence of 
 his influence. 
 
 The nature of Jonson 's personality and the character 
 of his art were both such as would inevitably draw to him 
 many loyal folloM^ers. His first essay in the comedy of 
 humors marked him out at once as a writer of originality 
 and power among his contemporary craftsmen. Some of 
 these opposed what was plainly the blazing of a new path 
 in English comedy, but others applauded enthusiastically, 
 and soon showed in their own work evidences of approval 
 and acceptance of the new method. In his later years Jon- 
 son was surrounded by a group of young disciples, who 
 
2 JONSON AXp L,\GLISII CO.MEDY 
 
 were pioud to be "Se^ltjd 6f the Tribe of Ben," and who 
 looked upon the patriarch of their elan both as chief of 
 good comrades and as supreme authority in matters of 
 literature. Whether in comedy, tragedy, masque, epi- 
 gram, or occasional verse, in matter or form, he was re- 
 garded as a dictator, so that both during his own age and 
 during the following centurj' we find unmistakable and 
 effective traces of his influence. 
 
 There are several reasons why Ben Jonson had such 
 position and power in establishing a new school. First of 
 all, his art and workmanship were thoroughly solf-con- 
 scious, and he had fixed, positive theories about literature. 
 These he talked continuously and vociferously for forty 
 years and explained clearly in his inductions, prefaces, 
 prologues, epilogues, and Discoveries, so that there could 
 be no doubt as to what he believed on each and every ques- 
 tion of literary art. With his fii*st play he set forth defi- 
 nite dramatic methods, and for the most part he made his 
 practice to accord with his theories. Further, whatever 
 idea or theory he adopted received his vigorous, whole- 
 hearted support ; and hence his statements of literary creed 
 were positive assertions, free from the numerous modifica- 
 tions and exceptions that may be necessary for complete- 
 ness and the most exact truth, but which, nevertheless, 
 tend to involve in uncertainty those who would imitate. 
 Jonson 's theory and art were, therefore, sucli as could be 
 readily laid hold of imd patterned after. Again, in lit- 
 erary as in other fashions originality and novelty act as 
 powerful forces in gaining followers, and Jonson in his 
 first comedy of humors made a deliberate innovation, un- 
 dertaking what had never before been done in English 
 drama. In the prologue to Every Man in His FJumor he 
 foretold a reaction from romantic and idealistic to cla.ssic 
 and realistic drama, and declared that he would portray 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 3 
 
 ' ' deeds and language such as men do use, j 
 
 And persons such as comedy would choose, j 
 
 When she would show an image of the times, ^ j 
 
 And sport with human follies, not with crimes.' j 
 
 Certainly the personality of this remarkable man had 
 much to do with the desire of those who knew and loved 
 him to follow along the same paths in literature. He won 
 loyal friends and as strong enemies in his personal Me, 
 enthusiastic followers in his particular form of art and as 
 decided opponents. That he had a warm heart and a rare 
 capacity for friendship or that his relations to people were 
 marked by unusual intensity and sincerity, no one can 
 doubt who has read his various dedications, poems, and the 
 Discoveries. His very weaknesses were the weaknesses ot 
 strength and he was a most human mixture of qualities,— 
 forceful 'but intolerant, warm in praise but self-assertive, 
 clear in thought and speech but arrogant, just in judgment 
 but imprudent, never passive or affected but always pas- 
 sionate and sincere-a man toward whom others could not 
 remain indifferent, but whom they must either love or hate 
 
 warmly. . 
 
 At the various taverns of London, Jonson reigned among 
 his fellows and later his disciples by right of character, 
 wit and learning. Of the early days at the Mermaid, 
 Beaumont wrote in a letter to Jonson : 
 
 "what things have Ave seen, 
 Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that 
 Have been so nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 
 As if that every one from whom they came, 
 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest." 
 
 The merry feasts of wit and laughter that took place later 
 in the famous Apollo Room of the Devil Tavern at Tem- 
 
4 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 pie Bar and in other public houses of the day, Herrick 
 celebrates in his well-known verse : 
 
 "Ah Ben! 
 
 Say how or when 
 
 Shall we thy guests 
 Meet at those lyric feasts 
 
 iMade at the Sun, 
 The Dog, the Triple Tun? 
 Where we such clusters had. 
 As made us nobly wild, not mad; 
 
 And yet each verse of thine 
 Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine." 
 
 The real character of these meetings we may judge best, 
 however, from the Leges Coniivales written by Ben Jon- 
 son himself and engraved in marble over the chimney in 
 the Apollo Room. There are described the guests invited 
 to join the happy company: 
 
 "Let the learned and witty, the jovial and gay, 
 The generous and honest, compose our free state " 
 
 There we learn that, while the ordinary- theater of the day 
 was no fit place for women, the conduct of the Apollo Club 
 was such that they could be freely admitted to its meet- 
 ings: 
 
 "And the more to exalt our delight whilst we stay, 
 Let none be debarred from his choice female mate." 
 
 Among the other rules laid down were these : 
 
 "Let the contests be rather of books than of wine. 
 Let the company be neither noisy nor mute. 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 
 
 Let none of things serious, much less of divine, 
 When belly and head 's full, profanely dispute. ' ' 
 
 "Let raillery be without malice or heat." 
 
 "Let argument bear no unmusical sound, 
 Nor jars interpose, sacred friendship to grieve."^ 
 
 The Leges Convivales testify that the Apollo Club aimed to 
 hold sacred things sacred, honor women, exclude malicious 
 speech, respect learning, prize friendship, and they con- 
 vince us that the meetings were characterized by true no- 
 bility of tone. It was surely through these happy gather- 
 ings that many comrades and "Sons of Ben," learning to 
 understand and admire the character and art of Jonson, 
 were moved to accept him as master in their own literary 
 attempts. 
 
 Lowell, in his essay on Shakespeare Once More, asserts 
 that "no poet of the first class has ever left a school, be- 
 cause his imagination is incommunicable;" that "you may 
 detect the presence of a genius of the second class in any 
 generation by the influence of his mannerism, for that, be- 
 ing an artificial thing, is capable of reproduction." - It is 
 true that the highest poetic gift of imagination or what 
 Lowell calls "aeration of the understanding by the imagi- 
 nation" can not be imitated. We must not look in Jon- | 
 son's dramatic work, nor in that of his followers as influ- | 
 enced by him, for essential charm, for deep tenderness, | 
 for sublime tragedy and pathos, for the inevitability of j 
 the very greatest poetry. Many truly great qualities we ■ 
 may find. Jonson 's place is not, as Swinburne puts it, j 
 among the gods of harmony and creation in English lit- '; 
 erature, but among the giants of energy and invention, ■. 
 where he stands supreme. 
 
 The ethical aim Jonson placed foremost in his theory of |/ 
 
 1 Jonson, Works, ed. by Giflford, 3 vols., Ill, 364, 365. 
 
 2 Lowell, Works, Riverside ed., Ill, 38. 
 
^/^ 
 
 G JONSON AND ENGLISH COIMEDY 
 
 comedy. He was frankly, consciously didactic, and his 
 / whole dramatic career was a battle against vice and folly. 
 \ From beginning to end, he assumed the attitude of a cen- 
 / sor and reformer, purposing always through the laughter 
 I of comedy to improve morals and correct taste. It is pos- 
 r sible to quote many passages from the plays where the 
 I moral intent is plainly stated. Asper in Every Man out 
 
 aUSis Humor, representing Jonson himself, declares: 
 
 "with an armed and resolved hand, 
 I'll strip the ragged follies of the time 
 Naked as at their birth. 
 
 '» 3 
 
 I fear no mood stamped in a private brow. 
 When I am pleased t' unmask a public vice.'' 
 " Well I \nll scourge those apes, 
 And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror. 
 As large as is the stage whereon we act; 
 Where they shall see the time's deformity 
 Anatomized in every nerve and sinew 
 With constant courage, and contempt of fear." 
 
 The prologue to Volponc defends the poet 
 
 "Whose true scope, if you would know it, 
 In all his poems still hath been this measure. 
 To mix profit with your pleasure."'"* 
 
 \ / Again, the prologue to The Alchemist asserts that 
 
 "this pen 
 Did never aim to grieve, but better men ; 
 Howe'er the age he lives in doth endure 
 The vices that slie breeds, above their cure. 
 
 •■'Jonson, Works, T, fi5 : Induction. 
 * Ibid., T, fi7. 
 B Ibid., I, 33(5. 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 7 
 
 But when the wholesome remedies are sweet, 
 And in* their working gain and profit meet. 
 He hopes to find no spirit so much diseased, 
 But will with such fair correctives be pleased. ' ' ^ 
 
 Even in the masques Jonson does not forget "that rule ' 
 of the best artist, to suffer no object of delight to pass ; 
 without his mixture of profit and example. ' ' ^ His 
 m.ethod_of_tfiaching_5£as_b^ dra matic satir e. Like Swift, ; 
 Carlyle, and all great satirists, Jonson was an ardent 
 idealist, whose spirit was so deeply stirred by the con- 
 trast betweeji his ideals and the actualities around him\ 
 that in passionate bitterness he sought to scourge men out \ 
 of their follies and vices, and to spur them by negative J 
 teaching to knowledge and \irtue. — 
 
 Jonson was a classicist, and his comedies were written* 
 under the guidance of "tart Aristophanes, neat TerenceJ- 
 witty Plautus. " He was thoroughly familiar with Greela 
 and Latin literature, and whether the need were in plot, w 
 character, description, or philosophical maxim, there was 
 no lack of material from classical sources stored up in 
 the poet's mind ready to be poured forth. His was what \/ 
 Dr. Schelling calls an ' ' as similative c lassicism. ' ' What .^ 
 he read he made so completely his own that Ms illustra,- 
 tions and quotations from the classics form an organic 
 part of his Avritings. Symonds says of him: "He held 
 the prose writers and poets of antiquity in solution in his 
 spacious memory. He did not need to dovetail or weld 
 his borroA^-ings into one another; but rather, having fused 
 them in his own mind, poured them plastically forth into 
 the mold of thought. ' ' ^ However, as Jonson himself 
 asserts both in the prologue to Every Man out of His 
 
 fi Jonson, Works, II, 4. 
 
 ■^llid., Ill, 45. 
 
 8 Syuionds, Ben Jonson, 52. 
 
8 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Humor and in the Discoveries, he was no slavish follower 
 of the ancients, but alwaj's so broadened classical theories 
 as to make them applicable to English conditions. The 
 artistic logic and careful construction as Avell as the finish 
 and restraint of his comedies were due in large measure 
 to his understanding knowledge of the spirit and form 
 of classic comedy. 
 
 He was a scholar-poet and his learning embraced not 
 only Latin and Greek knowledge but also Renaissance 
 lore and literature, and even extended to the arts and 
 sciences of his own day. "Whether the subject were 
 alchemj^, cookery, botany, or cosmetics he wrote with 
 equal fullness and ease. Furthermore, he was the 
 only playwright of the times who sought to avoid anachro- 
 nisms and had conscientious regard for historical accuracy. 
 Symonds closes his study of Jonson ^dth this tribute: 
 "What we most marvel at in his writings, is the prodigious 
 brain-work of the man, the stuff pf constant and inex- 
 haustible cerebration they contain. Moreover, we shall 
 not be far wrong in sajdng that, of all the English poets 
 of the past, he alone, with ]\Tilton and Gray, desen'es the 
 name of a great and widely learned scholar. ' ' ® 
 / With this weight of learning, Jonson naturally does not 
 / rule in the kingdom of the heart but in the realm of the 
 intellect. The appeal in all his dramas is directly and 
 i fundamentally intellectual. He cares to win commenda- 
 V^tion only from "the judicioas. " In the prologue to 
 Cynthia's Revels, he describes the audience sought by his 
 muse: 
 
 "Pied ignorance she neither loves nor fears. 
 Nor hunts she after popular applause, 
 Or foamy praise, that drops from common jaws: 
 The garland that she wears, tlirir linnds nuist jwine, 
 
 » Symonds, Ben Jonson, 198. 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 9 
 
 "Who can both censure, understand, define, 
 What merit is."i<> 
 
 The Staple of News is referred 
 
 "To scholars that can judge and fair report 
 The sense they hear, above the vulgar sort 
 Of nut crackers, that only come for sight. ' ' ^^ 
 
 Jonson deliberately chose to make supreme the things of 
 the understanding, hence, the subordination of the love 
 motive throughout his dramas. We must not seek from 
 him tender romance or beautiful love story. Perhaps he 
 was criticised for disregard of this element, so universally 
 dear to men and women, and was making reply in his 
 verse in The Forest, Why I ^¥rite not of Love: 
 
 * ' Some Act of Love 's bound to rehearse, 
 I thought to bind him in my verse : 
 Which when he felt. Away, quoth he, 
 Can poets hope to fetter me ? 
 It is enough, they once did get 
 INIars and my mother, in their net : 
 I wear not these my wings in vain. 
 With which he fled me ; and again. 
 Into my rhymes could ne 'er be got 
 By any art: then wonder not 
 That since, my numbers are so cold, 
 When Love is fled, and I grow old." ^- 
 
 Hence, too, the lack of feeling for nature, the entire ab- 
 sence of that background of English fields and woods that 
 we find in Shakespeare or Heywood. Jonson, as he him- 
 
 10 Jonson, WorTcs, I, 14S. 
 ii/6!f?., II, 278. 
 12 Z&K?., Ill, 262. 
 
10 JONSON AND ENGLISH CO:\IEDY 
 
 self well knew, was not * * nature 's child, ' ' and we must not 
 expect in his plays the scent of the violet by a mossy stone 
 nor the soft lights and shadows of the Forest of Arden. 
 
 London was the cradle of Jonson 's genius, and London 
 is the scene of all his .jti^incipal comedies except Volpone, 
 and even that is the outcome of his studies of London life, 
 
 (He knew the court and the city and could give transcripts 
 from high life and low life. He takes us to the taverns, 
 the private houses, the fairs, the market-places, the trades- 
 men's shops, the courts of justice, the theaters, the aisles 
 of St. Paul's, and portrays to us what was said and done 
 in the public and private life of contemporary London. 
 The prologue to The Alchemist declares: 
 
 f "Our scene is London, 'cause we would make known, 
 ^ No country's mirth is better than our own."^^ 
 
 Jonson with keen vision noted every detail of the world 
 /around him that might contribute to the ' ' satiri cally 
 \^ heightened picture of contemporary life" that it was the 
 especial object of his^rtTo produce. 
 
 Chaucer, Jonson 's great predecessor in the study and por- 
 trayal of London life, was a product of the early Renais- 
 sance, and Shakespeare, who alone among contemporary 
 writers was his equal as an observer, expressed fully and 
 richly the spirit of the later Renaissance. Jonson liimsolf 
 was at every point the complete antithesis of all that the 
 Renaissance stood for. Chaucer and Shakespeare looked 
 on the life around them with frank wonder, wide sympathy, 
 and spontaneous enthusiasm of heart; while Jonson 's at- 
 titude was always that of careful scrutiny, judicial regard 
 for ethical values, and unfailing self-consciousness. AYliere 
 they sought simply to know and picture the world as they 
 found it, tlioir senses ever alert for beauty and the highest 
 
 18 Jonson, ll'orA-.^, II, 4. 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 11 
 
 truth implicit in beauty, he could never free himself wholly 
 from a bookishness that came often perilouslj' near pedan- 
 try, an overweening regard for authority, and an attitude of 
 assumed censorship. He was the chief represen tative of 
 "the se| 3^ool of conscious effort"" in Elizabethan dram a, 
 with all that that implies of faults jind YlT't.npK. A simple,^ 
 unaffected, purely artistic picture of contemporary life we 
 do not get from him. 
 
 As has often been pointed out, the e.g2hasis in Jonson's 
 comedies is o n the characters ra ther than the plots. "With 
 His first play he gave the portrayal of character a new im- 
 portance in English comedj'. He seems to have conceived^ 
 his persons, then invented plots to bring out their predomi- Xy 
 nant qualities from as many different aspects as possible./ 
 In the typical Jonsonian comedy, as jNIiss Woodbridge has 
 carefully demonstrated, the dramatis personce can always 
 be divided into two groups, a large group of victims and 
 a small group of victimizers, or those possessed b}' folly and 
 those possessed of guile.^^ Further, the c haracters do not 
 gi-ow or become, but r emain fully determined and station- 
 ary; hence we have revela tion and not developmen t. This 
 is a natural outcome of Jonson's regard for unity of time 
 and his restriction of the action of a play within twenty- 
 four hours. /,'-■ 
 
 Jonson's treatment of character is original and peculiar 
 in his use of humors, and his emphasis of both superficial 
 peculiarities and eccentricities that strike into character 
 itself. He makes use of oddities of dress or manner, but I 
 he also goes deeper to individual t^vists and imperfections. ! 
 "Among the English," Drj'den says, "by humor is meant 
 some extravagant habit, passion, or aft'ection, particular to 
 some one person, by the oddness of which he is immediately 
 distinguished from the rest of men ; which being lively and 
 
 1* Schelling, Elisahethan Drama, I, p. XXXII. 
 15 Woodbridge, Studies in Jonson's Comedy, 42. 
 
12 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 naturally represented, most frequently begets that mali- 
 cious pleasure in the audience which is tastified by laugh- 
 ter; as all things which are deviation from the common 
 customs are ever the aptest t(> produce it. . . . The 
 description of these humors, drawn from the knowledge 
 and observation of particular persons, was the peculiar 
 genius and talent of Ben Jonson."^" However, no de- 
 scription of humors can be better than that which Jonson 
 himself gives in Every Man out of His Tlumor: 
 
 "As when some one peculiar quality 
 Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw 
 All his effects, his spirits, and his powers. 
 In their confiuetions, all to run one way, 
 This may be truly said to be a humor. 
 But that a rook, by wearing a pyed feather. 
 The cable hatband, or the three-piled ruff. 
 A yard of shoe-tye, or the Switzer's knot 
 On his French garters, should affect a humor! 
 O, it is more than most ridiculous." '' 
 
 Jonson is not always true to his theory here, and in spite of 
 Avhat he says, a humor is often a superficiality and a con- 
 scious or unconscious affectation. 
 
 /^ He creates each of his persons, then, out of a main trait 
 [ or eccentricity which rules that person in all he does and 
 V^says. Such a method leads to an emphasis of the type, 
 l/and has, on the one hand, the danger of pereonal satire 
 Jin too great conerotcnoss, and on the other liand, that of 
 ^allegory in too groat abstraction.'* Into each of these ex- 
 tremes Jonson fell at times. Here is th at same ten doncy 
 to abstract ion wliu Jj^iiii;i-j::cJtpjj(MjjTd.-Juuv and iijiaiu^fi'om 
 the moi^alities straight on down through English drama. 
 
 i« Dryden, Essays, od. by Ker, I. 85, 8(5. 
 
 iTjonscin, Works, I, (57; Indurlinti. 
 
 IS Woodbridge, Studies in Jonsvn's Comedy, 33. 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSOX'S COMEDY 13 
 
 The very names of Jonso n's pers onages are a llegorical and 
 aim to _set for th a pred ominant characteristic. He dwells_ 
 on one motive presented under many conditi ons, and his 
 characters in varied relations do jii§t_vvhat we should logic- 
 ally expe ct ; th us, while they gai n in emphasis and dis- 
 t inctne ss, they los e, in reality and humanness . for people 
 are mixtu res of motives and by no means always act logic- 
 ally in accordance with what we should expect from one 
 characteristic that we happen to know. It is a detached 
 ratherth an a sympathetic view of human nature . However, 
 we do get clear conceptions of Jonson's pei*sonages, and re- 
 member distinctly such creations as Mosca, Face, or Zeal- 
 of-the-Land Busy. The types, too, are often more than 
 local and immediate; they are universal, such as we our- 
 selves meet in contemporary life. Jonson attains the same 
 kind of reality that Bunyan gives us in Pilgrim's Progress. 
 Here we have the highest development of the allegorical 
 method in the presentation of character. Our attention 
 is fixed upon a quality embodied in a person rather than 
 upon the person possessing a certain quality. For such 
 treatment of character there is a legitimate place in litera- 
 ture, for we often meet people in daily life who impress 
 us by their embodiment of self-assertion or of testiness, of 
 jealousy or of hypocrisy, long before we feel their human 
 personality. 
 
 What are some of the prominent types of character in 
 Jonson's comedies? We find recurring again and again 
 the denunciation of those who practice particular forms 
 of vice and folly. Alchemists are satirized in the masque 
 Mercury Vindicated as well as in X Jie Alcliemis tj. the wor- 
 ship of Mammon is exposed over and over in Volpone, The 
 Alchemist, The Staple of News, and The Magnetic Lady; 
 thevolupluary is painted in unsparing pictures in Volpone 
 and The Alchemist ; the hy pocrisy and canting p hraseology 
 of the Puritans are held up to ridicule in Bartholomew Fair 
 
■14 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 and The Alchemist. We find masterful portraits of the<^ 
 cTever"Brainy~Fascal in Mosca, Faee^ Subtle^ or Brainworm ; 
 
 /for Jonson had decided admiration and sympathy for the in- 
 l telleet it takes to make a thorough-going rascal. Simple- 
 tons, town and country gulls, appear in various aspects in 
 Stephen, Matthew, La-Foole, John Daw, Fit^dotterel, Kas- 
 tril, and Cokes, and these seem to have affected vividly the 
 imagination of later play^mghts. Bobadil, the supreme 
 representative of the bragging, swaggering, disbanded sol- 
 dier living by his wits, is well seconded by Tucca and Shift. 
 TKe projectors, Meercraft and Engine, are the ancestors 
 of a long line of descendants in later plays. Sir Politick 
 Would-be of Volpone and the various intelligencers in Utc 
 Staple of News represent those who make a business of dis- 
 tributing sensational news drawn largely from their own 
 imagination. In Fastidious Brisk, Fungoso and Amorphas, 
 Jonson satirizes the affected courtier and fool of fashion 
 toward whom he always felt the most unmitigated con- 
 tempt. Such are the types that recur most frequently in 
 Jonson 's comedies and most readily invite imitation on the 
 part of his disciples and followers. 
 
 ' The plots are in almost all eases Jonson 's own invention. 
 He starts with the character, prepares' situations to pre- 
 sent these as clearly and fully as possible, and then com- 
 bines the situations in plots. There is ' much episodic 
 humor-study in the earlier plays, where the consideration 
 
 I of a person's peculiarities is an end in itself. The plots 
 
 1 are series of closely woven intrigues and skillful tricks, 
 jLf planned and executed by some of the characters as in- 
 
 I triguere against the others as victims. We are sometimes 
 bewildered by the multitude of persons, incidents and situ- 
 ations placed before us without a clear and unifying line 
 of interest in Every Man out of His IJumor, Cynthia's 
 Revels, or The Vuttaslcr. The complexity, however, as 
 Miss Woodbridge has shown, is really on the surface and 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 15 
 
 the und erlying plan is very simple.^^ The critics who cen- 
 sure Jonson for lack of constructive power must form their 
 judgment from the above plays rather than from his ma- 
 ture work and tho se marvels of logical co nstr uction, Vol- 
 pone, The Silent Woman, The AlcJie7nist i_^and Bartholomew 
 
 Fair^ Here every individual trick is woven into the cen- I y^ 
 tral line of intrigue so that we get complete unity of im- j | 
 pression. It was Coleridge who declared The Alchemist 
 to have one of the three best plots in existence. 
 
 The unities of time and place are regarded in that Jon- i 
 son confines his action within the limits of twenty-four 1 
 hours and within the boundaries of one city or town. The 
 unity of action is perfectly preserved in Volpone or The ^ 
 Alchemist through all the schemes and incidents, but in 
 Cynthia's Revels or The Poetaster is kept only by means of / 
 a uniform tone in the comic element, the centralization of , 
 comic episodes in the group of chief intriguers, and the ar- \ 
 rangement of having all the persons know one another.^" 
 The action is always the inevitable and strictly logical re- ' 
 suit of the motives presented in character. The plays hav^ 
 no central climax, no distinct rising and falling action, but j 
 push on through a network of tricks to the last act, where 1 \ 
 results are disclosed. Jonson likes to make the discovery ♦ -^ 
 of the trickeiy seem unavoidable in the latter part of the \ | 
 fourth act, as in Volpone, The ^Alchemist, or Bartholom eiv' 
 Fair, then on the veiy appearance of failure build up a 
 new success before the final exposure. 
 
 There are several minor matters in which Jonson 's 
 usage was original and had considerable effect on other 
 dramatists. His prologues and epilogues were marked by a V 
 novel independence of att ijtud e towarST the pu blic and a . / 
 definite announcement of m oral and artistic purposes. 
 The inS^iictron, where two or more persons discuss the play 
 
 i» Woodbridge, Studies in Jonson's Comedy, 42. 
 ^oihid., 54. 
 
16 JONSON AND ENGLISH CO:\IEDY 
 
 to be given and expound opinions on things in general, is 
 a favorite Jonsonian device to forestall criticism and 
 set forth the author's own views. Several plays have a 
 character M'hose especial function is to comment on the 
 process of the action and serve as what Miss AVoodbridge 
 calls a "demonstrator" — such are Macilente in Every Man 
 out of His Humor and Crites in Cynthia's Revels. In the 
 presentation of character, one personage is frequently made 
 to describe another and prepare the way for his entrance 
 upon the stage. This is an indirect and expository method 
 of getting quickly before the audience prevailing char- 
 acteristics by w^hat others say rather than by what the per- 
 son does and says himself. Jonson did much to make pop- 
 ular in English comedy of the time a number of words par- 
 ticularly applicable to his plots and types of character, 
 such as "humor," "gull," "cozen," "engine," "pro- 
 ject," or "device," and also many oatlis, terms of pro- 
 testation, and slang phrases, current in the street language 
 of the day. 
 
 As to form, sometimes we find blank verse and prose al- 
 most equally divided, as in Every Man in His Humor and 
 Evei'y Man out of His Humor; sometimes blank verse alone, 
 as in The Alchemist, or pr oge alone, a s in Bartliolomcu- 's 
 Fair; and again, the^two forms combined in varying {propor- 
 tions. A writer's general characteristics in literary temper, 
 construction, style, are usually repeated in his versification, 
 and in Jonson we find no exception. Ilis b lank vers e is 
 marked by regularity and dignity, restraint and careful 
 w oflgna jisTiTpT liis ear was atune io regularity and his 
 lines are almost absolutely decasyllabic. The couplet is 
 
 frecjGcnt ly usedT Jonson's verse, as compared with 
 Fl etcher's, i s characterized by a certain rigidity, yet he 
 believed in fi-eedom of j )h riisi ngliTKl t Ifere TiFe jnany run on 
 lines! Here, his iufTueiu'e on the drama of his time was not 
 great, because the tendency in dramatic blank verse was 
 
CHARACTER OF JONSON'S COMEDY 17 
 
 toward greater freedom and fluency, an d al so beca use 
 comedy "vvas mofFand more making use of prose.-^ 
 
 V^e have before us now the distinguishing features of 
 Jonson's comedy of humors. The |oremost innovation is | 
 the const ruction of perso nages in accor dance with the 
 theory of humors so as to bring out ruling peculiarities of 
 conduct or character. Jonson, assuming a critical and_ju^ 
 dicia l attitu de, insis ted on an unde rlying ethical intent, 
 and gav e a ne w emphasis and ini] K)rtance to moral sat ire 
 against contemporary follies and vices. Further, his 
 comed3^""sfands for coi Lstructive excellenc e, constan t regard 
 for the demands of f orm, and masterly control of the in- 
 tricacies of intrigue. A background oT~classical learning 
 and a hig h apprecia tion of the rules of classic com ed^, vig- 
 orous realistic portrayal of contemporary^ life, self-con- 
 sciousness on the part of the writer, a large expository 
 element, and an original iLse of prologue, epilogue, induc- 
 tion, and commentator on the progress of the action, are also 
 characteristic of the Jonsonian comedy. In the following 
 chapters we shall consider how far Jonson's immediate con- 
 temporaries and later "Sons" were influenced by these 
 characteristics of his comedy. 
 
 21 Sclielling, Easticard Hoe and The Alchemist, Belles-Lettres 
 Series, p. XXIX. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF JONSON'S COMEDY ON THAT OF HIS IM- 
 MEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 
 
 Jonson's comrade pla\^vriglits were affected by his 
 comedy of humors in a different wny from his later dis- 
 ciples and ' ' Sons. " To the former, he was not a master but 
 a fellow-worker. They watched with interest his develop- 
 ment of a new form of English comedy, chose out and as- 
 similated to their own use what seemed to them valuable 
 or popularly pleasing. In their plays, therefore, we find 
 his ^influence to be general rather than particular. There 
 are several reasons for this. First of all. Chapman, Beau- 
 mont, and the others were men of independent genius who 
 accepted no one writer as complete master; but, learning 
 from the various dramatists of the time where each had 
 attained greatest success, worked out individual methods 
 of their own. The prevailing spirit of Elizabethan drama 
 was romantic and most of Jonson's companions were too 
 thoroughly in touch with their time to conform to any great 
 degree to the classical ideals of Jonson's art. Indeed, 
 "the whole spirit of the contemporary drama, its careless- 
 ness and ease, its amateurishness, its negligent construc- 
 tion, its borrowings and ])ilfei-ings, Avore alien to the prac- 
 tice of his art, the first demands of which were originality 
 of design, conscious literary consistency and a professional 
 touch leading at times to mannerism."* Then. also. Jon- 
 son never met with uninterrupted and enthusiastic success 
 on the popular stage, and the Elizabethan pluywrights 
 
 1 Schellinp, Eastitard Hue ami The Alchtminl, licUesLettres Se- 
 ries, p. XXVTI. 
 
 i8 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 19 
 
 were interested ini producing not "closet dramas" but 
 plays that would act and win approval from the ordinary 
 theater audience of the day. 
 
 An original and forceful writer must necessarily influ- 
 ence his contemporaries to a greater or less degree, tind a 
 careful study of all the Elizabethan dramatists would prob- 
 ably result in the discovery of at least minor effects on 
 most of those who wrote after Jonson had produced his 
 first satirical pictures of contemporary life. But to trace 
 influences is a subtle process, and the searcher is in danger 
 of finding what he is looking for, rather than what ac- 
 tually exists. We shall confine our study in this chapter 
 to the group of contemporary writers who show most 
 clearly effects of Jonson 's comedy: Chapman, Marston, 
 Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger and 
 Shirley, who, though their dramatic careers came a decade 
 later, belong here by virtue of their literary relations and 
 the character of their work. Two anonymous plays written 
 about 1600 also require consideration. 
 
 Although George Chapman was some fifteen years older 
 than Jonson, yet his first comedies, The Blind Beggar of 
 Alexandria and A Humorous Day's Mirth, were printed 
 in 1598 and 159S' and produced about the same time as 
 Every Man in H^s Humor. These men were kindred 
 spirits, and similarities in their work are assuredly in part 
 due to like qualities of temperament and like modes of 
 education rather than to direct influence. Both had read 
 deeply in classical literature andboth had caught the 
 spirit of ancient learning. A^ChapmanWas so much the 
 elder, perhaps Jonson was led byTrint-tu become a student in 
 the school of Terence and Plautus. Both adopted directly 
 and with mutual sjnnpathy the classical ideal of comedy, its 
 intrigue, satire and conscious restraint; so that we find 
 them for the most part developing side by side rather than 
 as leader and follower. Both possessed genuine scholar^ 
 
20 JOXSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 ship, both used frequent classical allusions, both made not 
 an emotional but an intellectual appeal, and both were 
 characterized by conscious effort. 
 
 Jonson told Drummond of Ilawthomden that Chapman 
 was "loved of him," and their correspondence shows that 
 they were life-long friends.- In the Underwoods we find 
 lines of warm admiration addressed to "-My worthy, and 
 Honored Friend, Master George Chapman."- On both 
 Sejanus and Volpone Chapman wrote complimentary 
 verses. In the character of Virgil in llic Poeiaattr Jonson 
 is supposed to portray Chapman. Henslowe 's Diary records 
 a payment of £1, Dec. 3, 1597, to Jonson for a plot; and 
 final payment Jan. 8, 1599, to Chapman for a tragedy on 
 ' ' bengemens plotte. ' ' ^ Nor must we forget that they were 
 co-authors in Eastward Hoe and together were imprisoned 
 for references to Scotch fashions and kuights considered 
 by a sensitive Scotchman as lacking in due respect. Close 
 personal associations and common literary tastes make us 
 expect likenesses in the comedies of Chapman and Jonson. 
 
 In The Blind Beggar of Alexandria,* Chapman has writ- 
 ten a comedy of the romantic type, making use of dis- 
 guise and caring little for the discrimination of cliaracter, 
 without any satirical or ethical intent and with the use 
 of humor only in the general early Elizabethan sense. 
 When we turn to A Humorous Day's jlirUi, we have the 
 word humor with the Jonsouian signification, several char- 
 acters conceived in Jonson 's manner, a string of episodes 
 and a series of tricks such as make up the slight plots of 
 Every Man in His Humor and Every Man out of His 
 Humor. The Comedy of Humors was performed by the 
 Admiral's Men as a new play, Muy 11, 1597. Among the 
 
 2 Originully prefixed to Chnpniun's Trunslntion uf Uiniud's ]\'orks 
 and Days, 1018. 
 
 a lleiiHlowe'H Diarii, ed. by W. \V. (irejj;. 11, ISS, 1<.><>. 
 
 * I'liiited 151)8. I'Meay givea date of lirst production, 15UG, I, 55. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 21 
 
 properties mentioned are hose for Verone's son and a cloak 
 for Labesha, these being characters in A Humorous Day's 
 Mirth; so it would seem that this play was first acted in 
 1597. Accepting 1597 as the date of the production of A 
 Humorous Day's Mirth and 1598 as that of Every Man in 
 His Humor, we certainly have in the former a forerunner 
 of the comedy of humors developed by Jonson. Perhaps 
 Jonson and Chapman talked over together the idea of 
 "humorous" characters and at the same time were seeking 
 to work it out in plays. Lemot in A Humorous Day's 
 Mirth, assumes the position of demonstrator and on his 
 first appearance announces, ' ' thus will I sit, as it were, and 
 point out all my humorous companions. ' ' Blanuel, who is a 
 "complete ape, so long as the compliments of a gentleman 
 last"; Dowsecer, the young student possessed by melan- 
 choly and misanthropy; and Florilla, the Puritan wife 
 whose vaunted Puritanism when put to the test proves to 
 be but superficial — these are personages of the humorous 
 type. 
 
 All Fools ^ has many points of likeness to Jonson 's best 
 comedy of humors. Swinburne, it vnll be remembered, con- 
 siders this one of the finest comedies in the English lan- 
 guage. Here is that same excellence of reflective wisdom 
 and practical philosophy of life that characterizes Volpone 
 or The Alchemist, and we find again and again such utter- 
 ances as these: 
 
 "But he's the man indeed that hides his gifts. 
 
 And sets them not to sale in every presence ; ' ' 
 ' ' The bold and careless servant still obtains, 
 
 The modest and respective nothing gains ; ' ' 
 ' ' Such an attendant then as smoke to fire. 
 
 Is jealousy to love ; better want both 
 
 Than have both." 
 
 5 Printed 1G05; Fleay considers The World Run on Wheels of 
 1599 the same play as All Fools, I, 57. Henslowe, II, 200, 203. 
 
22 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 The plot is intricate and ingenious and sho^Ys that Chap- 
 man had been taking lessons of Jonson's masters, Plantus 
 and Terence. The various schemes are remarkably well 
 managed, and Chapman attains here what is for hira un- 
 wonted success in threading his ■svay clearly through the 
 many tricks to produce an effective climax and a unified 
 impression. As Ward remarks,® there is some resemblance 
 in the conception of the plot to that of Every Man out of 
 His Humor in the fact that all the characters are finally 
 gulled. The theory and practice of gulling are set forth 
 very fully. This is put into the mouth of one of the char- 
 acters : 
 
 "Nay, never shun it to be call'd a gull ; 
 
 For I see all the world is but a gull ; 
 
 One man gull to another in all kinds : 
 
 A merchant to a courtier ls a gull ; 
 
 A client to a lawyer is a gull ; 
 
 A married man to a bachelor, a gull ; 
 
 A bachelor to a cvickold is a giiW ; 
 
 All to a poet, or a poet to himself. ' ' ^ 
 
 Rinaldo, the cynical scholar, is the central person who 
 sets all the other personages in motion and comments on 
 what takes place. The description of Dariotto, the fash- 
 ion-struck courtier, is in perfect accord "vvith Jonson's 
 scorn for that type of man and might have been written 
 of Fastidious Brisk: 
 
 " 'Tis such a picked fellow, not a liair 
 About his whole bulk, but it stands in print. 
 Each pin hath his due place, not any point 
 But has his perfect tie, fashion, and grace; 
 A thing whose soul is spot-ially employed 
 In knowing wliere best gloves, best stockings, waistcoats 
 
 "Ward, IT, 434. 
 
 7 Chapman, Works, cd. hy R. II. Slu-plind, 00; All Fools, II. 1. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 23 
 
 Curiously -wrought, are sold; sacks milliners' shops 
 
 For all new tires and fashions, and can tell ye 
 
 What new devices of all sorts there are, 
 
 And that there is not in the whole Rialto 
 
 But one new fashion 'd waistcoat, or one nightcap."* 
 
 Gostanzo, the over-careful father, as completely deceived 
 as the Elder Knowell in his son's knowledge of the world; 
 Cornelius, the upstart gentleman, jealous of his wife's ac- 
 quaintance as was Kitely or Cor\dno; Pock, the physician, 
 who can lengthen or shorten cures at his discretion: these 
 are personages after Jonson's o-wn heart. The play has 
 such a combination of prose and verse as we find in Jon- 
 son's earlier comedies, and makes frequent use of the vo- 
 cabulary of roguerv' and gulling, "cozen," "device," 
 "project," and the rest. 
 
 May Day and The Widoiv^s Tears are also comedies of 
 intrigue and of humors, and both show in plot the influ- 
 ence of Italian and Roman comedy. The former portrays 
 a representative of simple gulls in Innocentio who has a 
 great ambition to be introduced at an ordinary, and be- 
 lieves as he is told, that there 's no prescription for gentility 
 but good clothes and impudence. In Quintiliano, who un- 
 dertakes to coach the innocent Innocentio in the ways of 
 the world, appears again the bragging, swaggering captain. 
 The Widow's Tears gives ils the bold Tharsalio winning 
 out by his unwavering self-confidence, but shows little if 
 any regard for the idea of humors in the construction of 
 character. In the last act there is a sharp satire of farcical 
 judicial proceedings in the person of the governor, ^yho is 
 made to say, "in matters of justice, I am blind." 
 
 The Gentleman Usher and Monsieur D 'Olive are largely 
 romantic in plot and tone, but have also connection in their 
 personages with the comed}^ of humors. The former de- 
 
 8 Chapman, Works, 72; All Fools, V, 1. 
 
24 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 scribes Pogio as the never-failing bringer of ill news, and 
 portrays the humors of Bassiolo, the usher, who is dis- 
 tinguished by "overweening thought of his own worth." 
 Monsieur D 'Olive, in the person of the gentleman about 
 town, w^hose name gives title to the play, affords a most suc- 
 cessful humorous study of a combination of wag and fool. 
 The tricks played on him are cleverly managed, and he is 
 amusingly and completely gulled. The manners of con- 
 temporary high life are realistically portrayed in this play, 
 and as in all Chapman's comedies, we find frequent clas- 
 sical allusions. The satire on Puritans and on the use of 
 tobacco in one of D 'Olive's speeches, is quite in the manner 
 of Jonson.^ 
 
 The study of Chapman's comedies makes evident marked 
 likenesses to Jonson's in the use of tricks and intrigues 
 for effective gulling, in the production of characters of 
 humors, in the use of classical allusions, and in a satirical 
 portrayal of contemporary^ manners. Just how far these 
 likenesses are due to similar development and how far to 
 direct influence, it is impossible to determine. 
 
 Marston belongs with Chapman and Jonson as a scholarly 
 poet and member of the school of conscious effort."' He 
 too had studied carefully the classic dramatists of Roman 
 comedy, and sought to confonn to classic theories of art. 
 His scholarship like Jonson's not only embraced ancient 
 learning but extended also to the knowledge of his own 
 time. In independence of the public ta.ste of the day, as- 
 sumption of censorship and invention of intrigue, Jonsou 
 and Marston are also to be closely likened. Wliile IMarston 
 prefers to give his comedies a foreign setting, and has laid 
 the scene of all except The Dutch Courlesan in Italy, yet 
 they are full of realistic touches from surrounding life. 
 That Jonson, Chapman and ^larston were all throe akin 
 
 Chapman, Worlcs, 123, 124; Monsieur D'Olirr, II. 1. 
 loSchelling, EUzahclhan Drama, 1, pp. XXXII, XXXV. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 25 
 
 in temper and training and could work together in com- 
 plete harmony is proved by the successful product of their 
 joint labors in Eastward Hoe. 
 
 Marston's personal relations with Jonson were not those 
 of undisturbed good fellowship such as we found existing 
 between Chapman and Jonson. The earliest connection 
 that we know of is in the ' ' War of the Theaters ' ' ^^ between 
 1598 and 1602, where Jonson and Marston were the chief 
 combatants. Almost all of the plays involved in the con- 
 troversy were written by them and are full of personal 
 satire directed against each other. Jonson says in his 
 Conversations that "he had many quarrels with IMarston, 
 beat him and took his pistol from him." This, as Cun- 
 ningham notes,^^ must have taken place before 1604, since 
 Eastward Hoe was acted in 1605, and before that time the 
 poets were certainly on friendly terms again. INIoreover, 
 The Malcontent, printed in 1604, was dedicated to Jonson 
 in most flattering words: "Beniamino Jonsonio, poetae 
 elegantissimo, gravissimo, amico suo, candido et cordato, 
 Johannes Marston, musarum alumnus, asperam banc suam 
 Thaliam, D. D.";^^ while the epilogue pays a fine compli- 
 ment to him and refers to his forthcoming play The Fox}^ 
 Marston also wrote a commendatory epigram for the 1605 
 edition of Sejanus. All these facts show tha^t ]\Iarston 
 came to have a high and hearty admiration for Jonson 
 and his work. 
 
 Before three plays, Antonio and Mellida, The Malcon- 
 tent, and What You Will, Marston introduces preliminary 
 dialogues in inductions such as Jonson was particularly 
 fond of using.^^ That to What You Will, where three 
 
 11 Sclielling, I, 475-491; and Penniman, The War of the Theaters. 
 
 12 Jonson, Works, III, 479. 
 
 13 Marston, Works, 1, 197. 
 1* Fleay, II, 79. 
 
 15 That to The Malcontent was added in the second edition and 
 was perhaps written by John Marston. 
 
26 
 
 JONSON AND ENGLISH CO:\rEDY 
 
 poets sit upon the stage and talk together, is decidedly 
 Jonsonian. Fleay thinks that Sir Signior Snuff, ^lonsieur 
 Mew and Cavaliero Blirt signify Armin, Jonson and ]\Iid- 
 dleton.^" The comedies are full not only of classical al- 
 lusions but also of direct quotations from Seneca, Martial, 
 Cicero, Ovid, and other of the Latin writers so constantly 
 appearing in Jonson 's work. Dignified, weighty reflections 
 on life are scattered here and there, as from The Fawn: 
 
 "Thus few strike sail until they run on shelf, 
 The eye sees all things but his proper self ; " ^" 
 
 or from The Malcontent: 
 
 "Mature discretion is the life of state;"" 
 "He ever is at home that's ever wise."" 
 
 The satire of Chapman is marked by a frank cynicism, 
 but that of Marston goes further even to bitterness. In 
 What You Will one of the characters telLs us to "look for 
 the satire." In this play is described the seeming vanity 
 of the scholar's search for knowledge: 
 
 "Nay, mark, list. Delight, 
 Delight, my spaniel slept, whilst I baus'd leaves, 
 Toss'd o'er the dunces, pored on the old print 
 Of titled words, and still my spaniel slept. 
 "Whilst I Avasted lamp-oil, bated my flesh, 
 Shrunk up my veins, and still my spaniel slept. 
 And still I held converse wth Zabarell, 
 Aquinus, Scotus, and the musty saw 
 Of antic Donate; still my spaniel slept. 
 
 18 Floay, II, 76, 77. 
 
 17 Marston, Workft, II. 204; The Fairn, IV, 1. 
 
 y»lbi(l., I, 202; Thr Malcontntt, IV, 2. 
 
 10 Ibid., I, 310; The Malcontent, V, 3. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 27 
 
 Still on went I ; first an sit anima, 
 
 Then, and it were mortal. hold, hold ! at that 
 
 They're at brain-buffets, fell by the ears amain 
 
 Pell-mell together; still my spaniel slept. 
 
 Then whatever 'twere corporeal, local, fix'd, 
 
 Extraduce; but whether 't had free will 
 
 Or no, tho philosophers 
 
 Stood banding factions all so strongly propp 'd, 
 
 I stagger 'd, knew not which was firmer part: 
 
 But thought, quoted, read, observed and pried. 
 
 Stuff 'd noting-books ; and still my spaniel slept. 
 
 At length he waked and yawned and by yon sky, 
 
 For aught I know he knew as much as I. " -*' 
 
 Marston satirizes the current affectation of speech, " I 
 protest," -^ the habit of promiscuous kissing in greetings,'^ 
 the curiosity for sensational news,^^ the cant of Puritan- 
 ism,-* and many other customs and conditions of the time. 
 It was to Marston 's didactic satire that Jonson referred 
 in the Conversations when he said, "Marston \\T*ote his 
 father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his com- 
 edies." 
 
 In characters, there is some slight application of the 
 theory of humors. The Duke of Ferrara, disguised as 
 Malevole, in The Malcontent, belongs to the type of ''hu- 
 morous" cynical railer found in IMacilente. Sometimes 
 Marston makes the name indicate ruling quality as Male- 
 vole, or Malheureux in The Dutch Courtesan, or Simplicius 
 in What You Will. Coqueteur, "a prattling gull," and 
 ^Cocledemoy, "a knavishly witty city companion" in The 
 Dutch Courtesan, begin with Jonsonian conceptions but 
 
 20 Marston, VTorTcs, II, 363-364; What You Will, II, 2. 
 
 2i/&id!., II, 346-347: What You Will, II, 1. 
 
 ^2 Hid., II, 46-47; The Dutch Courtesan, III, 1. 
 
 23 Hid., II, 42-43; The Dutch Courtesan, II, 3. 
 
 2iIUd., II, 62; The Dutch Courtesan, III, 3. 
 
/ 
 
 28 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 are not developed in accord with the Jonsonian method. 
 In The Fawn, Gonzago, the weak Duke of Urbin, who is 
 filled with self-admiration and prides himself on his wit and 
 shrewdness, is completely gulled and made the instrument 
 of furthering the marriage he is seeking to prevent. The 
 Duke of Ferrara, disguised as Faunus, assumes here the 
 office of censor and exposes most effectively the follies and 
 \'ices of the other personages. Lampatho Doria, the bitter 
 satirist of What You Will, is identified by ]\Iarston ynWx 
 himself, in the wrj that Jonson so often uses one of his 
 dramatic personages as a mouthpiece for his own utter- 
 ances. Simplicius in this play is a simple gull who would 
 affect the ways of the fashionable world. Thus, minor 
 likenesses may be found between ]\Iarston and Jonson in 
 the characters created, but on the whole, ]\Iarston con- 
 ceived and developed his personages according to the ro- 
 mantic methods. 
 
 The Fawn -^ and What You Will ^^ have more traces of 
 Jonson 's influence than the other comedies, not only in 
 conception of character but also in vocabulary. The Fawn 
 shows a marked increase in the use of Jonson 's favorite 
 oaths and terms for gulling over The Maleontoit and The 
 Dutch Courtesan, while of all the comedies What You Will 
 has by far the greatest number of such words. This would 
 make us expect to find What You Will written about the 
 same time as The Fawn, perhaps a little later, after I\rar- 
 ston had worked with Jonson on Eastward Hoe and had 
 come to feel for liim and lii.s work a friendly admiration. 
 
 In scholarship, conscious effort, classicism, satire and 
 didacticism, ^larston shows resemblances to Jonson, due, 
 it would .seem, as in the case of Chapman, to like temj)or 
 and training even more than to direct inlhience. How- 
 ever, in the use of inductions and in the conception of 
 
 •J5 Printed l(\(W, acted, according to Flony, 1(504; Chronicle, II. 70. 
 -0 Printed 1607, acted, according to Fleay, 1601; Chronicle II, 76. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 29 
 
 character, there certainly was exerted some definite influ- 
 ence. 
 
 Shakespeare and Jonson felt for each other warm friend- 
 ship and hearty admiration. Although their purposes and 
 methods in writing plays were very different, yet as men 
 they were great enough and keen enough each to recognize 
 the value and power of the other's work. The earliest 
 trace of relationship is in the tradition that Shakespeare 
 read Every Man in His Humor, saw its worth and recom- 
 mended it to his company, thus aiding Jonson at a time of 
 need to win his first great success on the stage. From 1598 
 on practically to the end of his career Jonson occasionally 
 wrote for Shakespeare's company. ^^ The earliest editions 
 of Every Man in His Humor and Scjanus include the name 
 of Shakespeare in the lists of actors. There is a possibility 
 that the two greatest dramatists of the age collaborated in 
 the first version of Sejanus. Jonson in the preface to the 
 quarto states that "this book in all numbei's is not the same 
 \\T.th that which was acted on the public stage; wherein 
 a second pen had good share; in place of which I have 
 rather chosen to put weaker, and no doubt less pleasing 
 of mine own, than to defraud so happy a genius of his right 
 by my loathed usurpation." Fleay tells us that the only 
 known -vvriters at this date for the King's men, who acted 
 the play, were Wilkins, "W. S., Shakespeare, and possibly 
 Tourneur. Of these, Shakespeare is the only one that 
 could have been the second pen alluded to, and, as he acted 
 one of the principal parts, he may have inserted or altered 
 scenes in which he himself appeared.^® 
 
 Shakespeare stood sponsor for one of Jonson 's children. 
 Both frequented the Mermaid Tavern, and their wit com- 
 bats, celebrated in Fuller's well-known description, must 
 have been wonderful to hear. There is another tradition 
 
 27 Fleay, Chronicle History of the London Stage, 157-160. 
 
 28 Fleay, Shakespeare, 50. 
 
;',U JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 that in 1616, just before Shakespeare's death, Jonson and 
 Drayton visited New Place in Stratford and that the three 
 poets had a merry meeting.-^ Jonson 's own attitude to- 
 ward his fellow-poet is fully expressed in the Lines pre- 
 fixed to the folio of 1623, where with enthusiastic and 
 also discerning praise he addresses "My Shakespeare," 
 "star of poets," "Sweet Swan of Avon," "the applause, 
 delight and wonder of our stage." What he writes of 
 "my beloved Master William Shakespeare" could come 
 only out of years of intimate association and affectionate 
 admiration. Again, in the Timber, he tells us that he 
 "loved the man," and honored his memorj' "on this side 
 idolatry. ' ' 
 
 The question here is, do Shal^espeare's comedies show 
 any reflex influence of Jonson 's theory of humors? 
 Shakespeare's genius was highly adaptable. He had not, 
 like Jonson, fixed dramatic theories in accordance with 
 which he consistently contructed his plays; but, observant 
 of all artistic forms and methods of the time, he responded 
 quickly to the popular taste or interest of the moment, 
 adopted and assimilated to his own use whatever seemed 
 of value in making a good play and pleasing the public. 
 About 1600, Jonson 's comedy of humors and ]\liddleton 's 
 comedy of bare, even bitter, realism were winning great 
 applause on the Elizabethan stage. Surely it is not far- 
 fetched to discover traces of Middleton's influence in the 
 N tone of Measure for Measure and All's Well that Ends 
 Well. So also, in several groups of irregular humorists 
 and in one character of All's Well that Ends Well Shake- 
 speare does show the effect of Jonson 's conception of 
 humor. 
 
 Koeppel indicates three places in Jonson 's comedies in 
 which he considers the situations to owe sonu'thing to the 
 iniluence of SiuLlcesi)eare : in The Case is Altered, the re- 
 
 20 Ilalliwell-riiillips, Outlinea, 1898, II, 70. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 31 
 
 lation of Jaques and Rachel, the girl's flight to her lover, 
 and the miser's lament over his gold and girl, as bearing 
 direct relation to The Merchant of Venice; in The Poetaster, 
 the love-scene between Ovid and Julia, as a Romeo and 
 Juliet situation; in Epicoene, the duel episode between Sir 
 John Daw and Sir Amorous La-Foole as reminiscent of 
 that in Tivelfth Night between Sir Andrew Aguecheek and 
 Viola.^° Miss Henry in her edition of Epicoene accepts 
 Tivelfth Night as a source of Jonson's play and carefully 
 traces likenesses between the gulling of Daw and La-Foole 
 by Truewit and the duel between Sir Andrew and Viola 
 as urged on by Sir Toby.^^ However, as Dr. Schelling 
 points out, Jonson was not in the habit of borrowing ideas 
 from contemporary dramatists,^- and these parallels are 
 far-fetched and decidedly doubtful. 
 
 Six plays written by Shakespeare between 1597 and 1602, 
 Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henrg V, Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor, Tivelfth Night and All's Well that Ends Well, show 
 the effects of Jonson 's conception of humor. It was Shake- 
 speare, if we are to trust the old tradition, that read Every 
 Man in His Humor, understood the greatness of its basic 
 idea, and prepared the way for its production in 15C'8. 
 I Henry IV was acted in 1597, II Henry IV in 1598, Every 
 Man out of His Humor in 1599, and Henry V in 1599. 
 Thus the three historical plays coincide in time with the 
 two humor plays of Jonson. The comedies. Merry Wives, 
 Tivelfth Night and AlVs Well, are dated between 1598 and 
 1602, when the humor idea was at the height of its novelty 
 and popularity. 
 
 In Henry IV Falstaff and his followers are unlike any 
 previous group of Shakespeare's characters. Touched as 
 
 soKoeppel, Quellen Studien, 2, 5-6, 11-12. 
 
 31 Henry, Aurelia: Epiccene, Yale Studies in English, XXXI, 
 1906; Introduction, XXXV-XL. 
 
 32 Schelling, I, 540. 
 
 1/ 
 
32 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 they are, humanized as they are, by Shakespeare's indi- 
 vidual genius, yet humorous are they also in their concep- 
 tion and portrayal. Falstaff, himself a "trunk of hu- 
 mors," forms the center of a group which, while the in- 
 dividual members change somewhat, remains a source of 
 keen interest and enjoyment through Henry IV, Merry 
 Wives of Windsor and Henry V. Falstaff, " not only witty 
 in myself but the cause that wit is in other men," "huge 
 bombard of sack," and "vanity in years," believing "the 
 better part of valor is discretion, ' ' troubled with ' ' the dis- 
 ease of not listening" when accusations are brought against 
 him, and having "more flesh than another man and there- 
 fore more frailty," is not only the possessor of humors but 
 also the means of calling forth humors in others. Prince 
 Henry, away from the court in association with Falstaff, 
 declares: "I am now of all humors, that have showed them- 
 selves humors since the old days of goodman Adam to the 
 pupilage of this present twelve o'clock at midnight."" 
 Poins and Peto, the Prince's attendants, Gadshill, and, 
 above all, Bardolph with his big purple nose, "Knight of 
 the burning lamp," in I Henry IV take part in the es- 
 capades, sack festivities and wit combats of which Sir John 
 is the leader. Ancient Pistol takes the place of Gadshill 
 in II Henry IV , and here also are introduced Shallow, an 
 old acquaintance of Sir John's earlier years and now a 
 country justice whose humor is to prate of the wildness 
 of his youth, and Shallow's cousin, the silent Silence. 
 This cousin is replaced by another. Slender, the simple, 
 self -conceited and yet fearful wooer of Anne Page, in 
 Merry Wives of Windsor. Bardolph and Pistol reappear 
 and Falstaff has a new follower in Corporal Nym. Plis 
 humor is a Imnior and his comment on every possible oc- 
 casion is "that's the humor of it," "that's my humor," 
 or "I thank thee for that humor." Sir Hugh Evans, the 
 
 83 1 Jlniry IV, II, 4. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 33 
 
 pedantic Welsh parson, and Dr. Gains, the hot-tempered 
 French physician, are also humorists. Lieutenant Bar- 
 dolph. Ancient Pistol and Corporal Nym survive to follow 
 the King to the French Wars in Henry V. They still pos- 
 sess their individual humors, and of their old leader Fal- 
 staff, who has just died, they speak with regret and affec- 
 tion. Nym and Bardolph are hanged for thieving and 
 Pistol alone returns from France, old, weary, and lonely 
 without his former companions. Henry V has a new group 
 of humorists in Fluellen, the pedantic but loyal Welshman, 
 Macmorris, the valiant quick-tempered Irishman, and 
 Jamy, the slow solid Scotchman, over all of whom is placed 
 the practical Englishman, Captain Gower. 
 
 Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Malvolio 
 of Twelfth Night are most successful examples of the use 
 of humors in the creation of character. Sir Toby, with his 
 weakness for quaffing and drinking and his superficial 
 learning, has yet a keen wit and a shrewd insight into his 
 fellow-sinners. Sir Andrew Aguecheek has studied fen- 
 cing, dancing, and bear-baiting, and above all e\se, can 
 ' ' cut a caper ' ' ; but, impressed by Sir Toby 's show of learn- 
 ing, he wishes he had studied the tongues and arts. His 
 importance to Sir Toby lies in the fact that he has three 
 thousand ducats a year and furnishes that impecunious, 
 fun-loving old toper with opportunity to replenish his own 
 empty purse and to have some sport by the way. Sir An- 
 drew ' ' besides that he 's a fool, he 's a great quarreler ; and, 
 but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he 
 hath in quarreling, 'tis thought among the prudent he 
 would quickly have the gift of a grave. ' ' ^* Malvolio is 
 "sick of self-love" and possessed by "the spirit of humors 
 intimate." Maria, a "noble gull-catcher," sets out to 
 "gull" him and "make him a common recreation." As 
 a result of her device, he appears in yellow stockings, 
 
 34 Twelfth Night, I, 3. 
 
34 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 cross-gartered, and with a wonderful smile such that "he 
 does smile his face into more lines than are in the new map, 
 with the augmentation of the Indies."^'' 
 
 In Parolles of All's Well that Ends Well we have a char- 
 acter very different from most of Shakespeare 's personages 
 and like many of Jonson's. He is "a most notable coward, 
 an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker, 
 the owner of no one good quality."^® Shakespeare in- 
 tends his name to indicate his ruling characteristic. He 
 is nothing but words, "there can be no kernel in this light 
 nut, the soul of this man is his clothes."" Parolles real- 
 izes that his tongue prattles him into all sorts of troubles, 
 and as one of the other characters who hears him talking 
 to himself says, "the wonder is that he should know what 
 he is and be that he is." A plot is made and effectively 
 carried out by which his folly and falsehood are mercilessly 
 exposed. The comic portrayal here is not sympathetic, as 
 is usual with Shakespeare, but wholly satirical. 
 
 Shakespeare grasped the idea of humors and applied it, 
 not rigidly and lifelessly, as did many of the later drama- 
 tists, but sympathetically and humanly, vitalizing the 
 theory by the power of his own marvelous genius, lie was 
 not beguiled from his general realistic and romantic man- 
 ner by Jonson's conception of comedy, but he did try in 
 Henri} IV, Henry V, Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth 
 Night and All's Well that Ends Well the method of humor 
 in the presentation of individual diaracters. 
 
 Two anonymous plays, The Fair Maid of the Ejcchange, 
 and Every Woman in Her Humor, botli, according to 
 Fleay, acted in 1602, are best considered here before we 
 take up the study of Beaumont and Fletcher. The title- 
 
 3r. Twelfth Mfjht, HI, 3. 
 
 so All's Wdl That Knila Well. Ill, 0. 
 
 ai All's Well That Ends Well, II, 5. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 35 
 
 page of The Fair Maid of the Exchange advertises the play- 
 as presenting ''the Humors of the Cripple of Fan- 
 church ' ' ; and the father of the heroine is characterized in 
 the dramatis personce as ' ' an humorous old man ' ' ; yet in 
 reality the only personage created according to the method 
 of humor or caricature is Bowdler, "an humorous gallant," 
 "an hiimorous blossom," "a fond humorist, parenthesis of 
 jests, whose humor like a needless cypher fills a room." He 
 puts on an "antick garment of ostentation," takes especial 
 pride in his "caper and turn o' the toe," and pretends 
 that all the maids he meets are prone to love him, when in 
 truth he himself is afraid to speak to them and arouses 
 their merry ridicule. The cripple of Fanchurch under- 
 takes and effects his "purgation." 
 
 Every Woman in Her Humor is an example of the height 
 or depth of crude undiscerning imitation, and was written 
 by some author who knew little of human character and 
 less of dramatic construction. The title was plainly sug- 
 gested by Jonson's first comedy of humors. The plot is 
 slight, consisting of little more than a series of situations 
 strung together on a slender thread of accidental connec- 
 tion, and lacking the underlying unity of the seemingly 
 careless plots of Jonson's earlier plays. The scene is laid 
 in Rome, perhaps, if the play was produced in 1602, in imi- 
 tation of The Poetaster acted in 1601 ; but the stupid an- 
 achronisms bear evidence that the author possessed none of 
 Jonson's regard for accuracy. Some of the characters are 
 direct imitations of Jonsonian personages. Graccus and 
 Acutus at the beginning of the play, like Asper and Maci- 
 lente in Every Man out of His Humor, discuss "this im- 
 pious world." Acutus wears "a vizard of melancholy" 
 and rails against prevailing follies and vices. This de- 
 scription of him by Tully recalls the praises of Crites in 
 Cynthia's Bevels: 
 
36 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 "his spirit is free as air, 
 His temper temperate, if aught 's uneven, 
 His spleen weighs down towards lenity ; but how 
 Stirred by reproof! Ah, then he's bitter and like 
 His name Acute, vice to him is a foul eyesore. 
 And could he stifle it in bitterest words he would. 
 And whoso offends to him is parallel, 
 He will as soon reprove the cedar state 
 As the low shrub. "^® 
 
 Getica is even more foolishly concerned for her dog than 
 is the like humorist Puntarvolo for his in Every Man out 
 of His Humor, and Acutus longs to teach it "the trick of 
 the rope." The talkative, fuss}^ but honest Host is ever 
 ready wdth the proverbial expression "dun's the mouse" 
 or "the mouse shall be dun." The Hostess constantly 
 complains of her busy life, yet seems to be happy in it and 
 finds recreation in a lively gossip. The citizen's wife, an 
 Elizabethan "Wife of Bath, who has buried six husbands 
 and thinks there is good hope that she may have as many 
 more, loudly resents the new statute which forbids a wo- 
 man to marry again until two months after her husband's 
 death. The portraiture of these vigorous lower-class per- 
 sonages is the best part of the play. In dramatic value, 
 Every Woman in Her Humor ranks among the comedies 
 of humors of some of Jonsou's later follower rather than 
 among those of his immediate contemporaries. 
 
 With Beaumont and Fletcher we must at the very be- 
 ginning remember that they stand fundamentally as rep- 
 resentatives of the romantic school. They were influenced 
 in their work as a whole far more by i>receding dramatists 
 of that school than by the classical and conscious art of 
 Jonson. However, they were first of all ])ractical play- 
 as Bulleu's Old Plays, vol. I\', 372; Every ^Voman in 11* r Humor, 
 V, 1. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 37 
 
 Wrights who aimed to please the public taste of the time 
 and to make plays that would act ; so they chose out from 
 the methods of other writers what suited their purposes. 
 Their own method was eclectic, and they found it possible 
 in their earlier days to get valuable instruction from Jon- 
 son in matters of construction, humorous character- 
 studies and versification. Especially is this true of Beau- 
 mont M'ho began "writing plays decidedly under the influ- 
 ence of Jonson. 
 
 Beaumont had gained the friendship of Ben Jonson as 
 early as 1607, for in that year we find him addressing 
 verses that show good critical judgment "To my Dear 
 Friend, Master Ben Jonson, upon his Fox. ' ' Again, in 1609 
 he wrote commendatory verses on The Silent Woman and 
 in 1611 on Catiline. However improbable may seem Dr\^- 
 den's statement that ''Beaumont was so accurate a judge 
 of plays, that Ben Jonson, while he lived, submitted all 
 his writings to his censure, and 'tis thought, used his judg- 
 ment in correcting if not contriving all his plots, ' ' ^° yet it 
 is certainly based on a tradition of close relationship. 
 Beaumont's Letter to Ben Jonson with its famous descrip- 
 tion of the gatherings at the IMermaid and high compliment 
 to Jonson 's wit, reveals clearly the younger man's admira- 
 tion and enthusiasm for his older friend.*" He is ready 
 there to 
 
 "Protest it will my greatest comfort be 
 To acknowledge all I have to flow from thee." 
 
 The short poem in which Jonson makes answer to this letter 
 is full of cordial appreciation and affectionate regard: 
 
 "How I do love thee, Beaumont, and thy muse 
 That unto me dost such religion use ! 
 
 38 Dryden, Essays, ed. by W. P. Ker, T, 80. 
 40 Jonson, Works, 1, CXIV-CXV. 
 
38 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 How I do fear myself, that am not worth 
 The least indulgent thought thy pen drops forth ! 
 At once thou mak'st me happy and unmak'st ; 
 And gi^^ng largely to me, more thou tak'st! 
 What fate is mine, that so itself bereaves? 
 What art is thine, that so thy friend deceives? 
 When even there, where most thou praisest me. 
 For writing better, I must envj' thee."^^ 
 
 Jonson's remark to Drummond "that Francis Beaumont 
 loved too much himself and his own verses" is not at all 
 destructive of the above evidence of warm friendship and 
 mutual admiration. 
 
 Pleasant personal relations also existed between Jonson 
 and Fletcher, and expressions of good-will were exchanged. 
 Fletcher wrote verses on The Fox in 1607 and on Catiline 
 in 1611, Jonson being called in the latter, "dear friend." 
 Brome says that Jonson was proud to call Fletcher "son" 
 and 
 
 "Swore he had outdone 
 His very self." *• 
 
 When Fletcher's Faithful Shcphcrdcsft failed to receive 
 the recognition and praise it deserved, Jonson wrote some 
 lines of warm admiration, prophesying for his friend that 
 his poem 
 
 "shall rise 
 
 A glorified work to time, when fire 
 
 Or moths shall cat what all these fools admire." *^ 
 
 Later, he told Drummond "that next himself, only 
 Fletcher and Chapman could make a mask." Dyce sug- 
 
 <i JoTifion, TVorA-s, III, 235. 
 
 *- neaiHiioiit niul B'lotcliPr, IVorA's, I, 92. 
 
 ♦•I Jonson, Works, TIT, 201. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 39 
 
 gests that Beaumont and Fletcher were perhaps first 
 brought together by Jonson.** 
 
 As playwrights, Beaumont and Fletcher learned most 
 from Jonson in ideals of constructive excellence. In man- 
 agement of detail with constant reference to the entire 
 plot and regard for complete unity of impression, in care- 
 ful preparation for important characters before their en- 
 trance, in clever invention of tricks and skillful conduct of 
 intrigue, they show that they were his quick and intelligent 
 pupils. Such plays as The Woman Hater, The Scornful 
 Lady, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, The Tamer Tamed, or 
 The Humorous Lieutenant, include in their plots tricks 
 equal in wit and ingenuity to those invented b}" Jonson 
 and probably for conception and management in part due 
 to his teaching. In The Scornful Lady, it is of interest to 
 note the knowledge of Plautus and Terence shown in a 
 quotation from the former and a situation from the latter. 
 The Four Triumphs and The Knight of the Burning Pestle 
 have inductions, and the latter has also a running comment 
 in dialogue form within the play. Such description as 
 that which prepares us for the entrance of Lazarillo an(*' 
 Lucio in The Woman Hater is frequently found in Jonson. 
 The censor and satirical commentator on personage and ac- 
 tion we find also in The Woman Hater — probably WTitten 
 by Beaumont and showing more than any other play di- 
 rect Jonsonian influence. 
 
 There are characters of humors in a number of plays. 
 In The Woman Hater Lazarillo, ' ' the hungry courtier, ' ' is 
 in pursuit of a fish 's head famed as most rare and delicate ; 
 Gondarino is almost a monomaniac in his hatred of woman- 
 kind; Lucio, a simple lord, is possessed with the idea that 
 he has great powers of statesmanship ; a mercer is moved by 
 an overwhelming desire to ape scholars. The Scornful 
 Lady portrays the humor of "the scornful lady" as an at- 
 
 4* Beaiunont and Fletcher, Works, ed. by Alex. Dyce, I, 12. 
 
40 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 titude of scorn toward all men; that of her waiting-wo- 
 man, the pursuit of young lovers; and that of a widow, 
 the acquisition of a knight. Merrj'thought in The Knight 
 of the Burning Pestle is forever merry in the midst of all 
 sorts of trials and perplexities; Humphrey is an ordinary 
 simple gull ; and Ralph, who of course owed his creation to 
 Don Quixote, has, we are told, the "humor" of going on 
 adventures. Bessus,*^ the braggart coward in A King and 
 No King, may have been suggested in part by Bobadil, but 
 certainly lacks the individuality and personal eccentricity 
 that make that personage amusing and interesting through- 
 out. The character of the lawyer in The Little French 
 Lawyer is conceived in Jonson's spirit. La "Writ ha\'ing 
 been forced by a stranger to take part as a second in a duel 
 and having won a victory, becomes so possessed with the 
 love of fighting that he deserts his business and sets up as 
 a regular duelist, being cured of his whimsical humor at 
 length by means of a trick played on him. The person 
 who gives title to The Humorous Lieutenant passed 
 rapidly from the humor for fighting Avlien he was sick to 
 the humor of cowardice when he was well. Various tricks 
 are devised and carried through to purge him of his humor. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes give names to indicate 
 the reigning quality of character as "the scornful lady" 
 and Merrj'thought or Lady Heartwell, Lovegood and Hare- 
 brain in Wit Without Money. This method of course goes 
 back to the allegorical element in the miracle plays and 
 moralities, but it Avas given new impetus by Jonson. 
 There is, however, a marked difference in the treatment of 
 types by Jonson and by Beaumont and Fletcher. "While 
 he seeks to emphasize the individuality of his reiirosonta- 
 tion of the type, they dwell almost always upon the class 
 qualities. 
 
 The spirit of satire and the definite purpose of ridiculing 
 <" Kocppel compares Beasus to Fal.staff, QuellcnStudicti, 4 1, 45. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 41 
 
 folly we find only in the earlier plays, The Woman Hater, 
 The Scornful Lady and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 
 all ascribed in large part to Beaumont. In the first of 
 these we are plainly told that the desire is to see the wo- 
 man hater "purged" and a "cure" wrought upon him. 
 The description of court-life and of theater-going in this 
 same play contains keen and effective satire of contempo- 
 rary conditions.*" The Scornful Lady shows how the 
 scornful lady and also a usurer were turned from their 
 follies. The Knight of the Burning Pestle is throughout 
 a satire on the city and on the extravagances of the 
 earlier stage. The dialogue between the citizen and his 
 wife has all Jonson's vivid realism. 
 
 Koeppel remarks the transformation of Leon in Rule a 
 Wife and Have a Wife from a meek silent creature before 
 marriage to a masterful lord immediately afterAvard, able 
 to talk and act boldly, as similar to that of Epicoene in The 
 Silent WomanJ' The same writer notes further that the 
 astonishment of the husband over the sudden independence 
 and self-assertion of his newly married wife in The Tamer 
 Tamed seems a reminiscence of the perplexity and amaze- 
 ment of Morose.*^ He does not caU attention to the fact 
 that the name of the rich old man in this same play who is 
 seeking a young wife is Moroso. Fletcher's verse is es- 
 sentially different from Jonson's, but Beaumont's, as has 
 been often remarked, shows many of the same char- 
 acteristics. Beaumont adheres strictly to the metrical 
 scheme of regular decasyllabic lines, uses largely the mas- 
 culine internal caesura, has free dignified phrasing with 
 many run on lines. In his blank verse Beaumont certainly y' 
 followed Jonson as master and teacher. ' 
 
 What are the conclusions as to the influence of Jonson 
 
 4« Beaumont and Fletcher, Worls, T, 00; The Woman jflater, 1, 3, 
 47 Koeppel, Quellen-Studicn, 11(3. 
 islbid., 90. 
 
42 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 on Beaumont and Fletcher? That both were influenced 
 to a consideraable degree in dramatic construction, and to 
 a limited extent in conception of characters ; that Beaumont 
 was more deeply impressed than Fletcher, really began his 
 work under the tutelage of Jonson, caught from him the 
 spirit of dramatic satire, and learned much in the art of 
 writing blank verse. 
 
 There is no direct evidence that Massinger knew Jon- 
 son or was personally associated with him, but it is alto- 
 gether likely, from Massinger 's relation of friendship and 
 co-authorship with Fletcher and from his prominence 
 among the London playwrights of Jonson 's later life, that 
 he was sometimes present at the meetings of the Apollo 
 Club, and that he was impressed by the forceful serious- 
 ness of Jonson 's attitude to life as well as by the excellence 
 of his art. IMassinger went up to London in 1G06 or 1607, 
 and although we have no mention of his name as a drama- 
 tist until 1621, we know that during this interval of time 
 he was writing plays and learning the business of the 
 stage. That in some matters he was a pupil of Jonson, a 
 study of his plays clearly shows. Like Beaumont and 
 Fletcher, he was by no means a plagiarist or imitator, but 
 he understood his art and with ready ease and remarkable 
 facility could learn from many sources and adapt what he 
 learned to the making of plays that would act. 
 
 He seems to have been affected most by Jonson in con- 
 struction and moral satire, but also to have felt his influ- 
 ence in the portrayal of contemporary life and in the con- 
 ception of character. Of course we must certainly re- 
 member that Middleton's influence as well as Jonson 's was 
 decidedly at work in picturing contemp(H-ary life, drawing 
 character, portraying manners, and it is impossible to de- 
 termine absolutely the exact limits of the influence of each 
 on the younger dramatists. The plnys that relate Mas* 
 singer's art most detinitcly with Jonson 's are The City 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 43 
 
 Madam and A New Way to Pay Old Debts, produced ac- 
 cording to Fleay, about 1619 and 1621,*^ and ranking high 
 among English comedies of manners. In both we find 
 great ingenuity and skill in weaving and then untangling 
 the intricacies of the intrigues. Each single incident, each 
 separate trick, is made to take its place in preparing with 
 sureness for the final outcome. Each detail of description 
 or action serves its part in unfolding and developing the 
 characters. In his mastery of construction and sense of 
 artistic logic, Massinger undoubtedly received valuable in- 
 struction from Ben Jonson. 
 
 The City Madam and A New Way to Pay Old Debts 
 present realistic transcripts from contemporary life and 
 aim to exhibit and satirize the follies and vanities of the 
 day. Massinger here, like Jonson, assumed an attitude 
 of censorship toward society. In his wealth of observa- 
 tion of both London and provincial life, and in his keen and 
 telling satire of social abuses, he fell not greatly below his 
 master. He would 
 
 ' ' scourge a general vice. 
 And raise up a new satirist. ' ' ^" 
 
 Not only in general didactic tone, but also in direct moral 
 utterances, generalizations, maxims and proverbs, he proves 
 himself always a strict and conscientious moralist and 
 never makes us feel, as Beaumont and Fletcher sometimes 
 do, that all moral principles are in a state of uncertain 
 solution. 
 
 ]\Iassinger follows the example set by both Jonson and 
 I\Iiddleton of giving names descriptive of their owners, in 
 The City Madam and A New Way to Pay Old Debts. In the 
 former, we have Sir John Frugal, the economical merchant; 
 Mr. Plenty, the wealthy country gentleman; Stargaze, the 
 
 48 Fleay, Chronicle, I, 214, 225. 
 
 «o Massinger, Best Plays, 1, 475 ; The City Madam, IV, 4. 
 
44 JONSON AND ENGLISH CO:\IEDY 
 
 astrologer; Holdfast, the penurious steward; Goldwire and 
 Tradewell, the middle class tradesmen. The same method 
 is used in A New Way to Pay Old Debts with Justice 
 Greedy, w^hose one aim in life is to satisfy his passion for 
 eating; Marrall, who, we are told, "marred all"; Sir 
 Giles Overreach, whose previous career has been one of 
 unbroken success in overreaching; Furnace, the cook; 
 "VVatchall, the porter ; "Wellborn, a young man of good birth 
 (a name used by Jonson in Bartholomew Fair) ; Amble, the 
 usher (Ambler is the usher in The Devil Is ati Ass) ; and 
 Order, the steward. The characters are built up on the 
 basis of one predominant quality, and like Jonson 's comic 
 types are subject to the faults of exaggeration and carica- 
 ture. However, there is a difference of treatment in that 
 IMassinger dwells ^vith Beaumont and Fletcher upon the 
 common characteristics of the type, instead of seeking with 
 Jonson the subtle individual quality of the particular rep- 
 resentative of the type. A comparison of the two gluttons. 
 Justice Greedy and Zeal-of-the-land Busy, makes manifest 
 this difference. 
 
 Jamas Shirley, although born in the last years of the six- 
 teenth centurj" and considerably younger than the preced- 
 ing dramatists, yet belongs in the .same group on account 
 of his personal connections and the character of his work. 
 He collaborated with Chapman and Fletcher in writing 
 plays during the latter parts of their careoi-s, iiroparod the 
 prefatory matter for the Beaumont ami Floti-hor folio, 
 worked side by side with ]\Iassinger in developing the later 
 comedy of manners based on the combined methods of Jon- 
 son and ]\Iiddloton, and was addressed as "judicious and 
 learned friend" by i\Ias.singer wlio also calli'd himself "a 
 modest votary at the altar of thy muse." In Shirley's 
 plays, as in Beaumont's and Fletcher's ami Massinger's, 
 the romantic element is in the ascendaney, hut in the eclec- 
 ticism of all these playwriirlits there \v;is a place for the 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 45 
 
 comedy of manners and of humors. Shirley, like Mas- 
 singer, was a pupil of both Jonson and Middleton in com- 
 edy of manners. Here we are especially concerned with 
 evidences of Jonson 's influence. 
 
 Shirley, too, must have known and enjoyed part in the 
 gatherings at the Devil Tavern. In one of his plays a 
 servant is told to "run to the Devil" for wine.°^ As a 
 young student of playwriting, he must have been impressed 
 by the originality and force of Jonson 's work, and in his 
 own first attempt, Love Tricks, shows unmistakably who 
 was one of his teachers. In the dedication of The Grate- 
 ful Servant, he speaks with honor and admiration of "our 
 acknowledged master, learned Jonson." William Habing- 
 ton, in commendatory verses to Shirley, associates his name 
 with Jonson 's: 
 
 "and when his muse expires. 
 Whose English stains the Greek and Latin lyres, 
 Divinest Jonson, live to make us see 
 The glory of the stage reviv'd in thee." 
 
 In the writing of masques as well as comedies of man- 
 ners Shirley was influenced, and in court entertainments 
 succeeded largely to Jonson 's popularity and success, pro- 
 ducing Tli^ Triumph of Peace, one of the greatest masques 
 of the time. In this, the antimasque especially recalls Jon- 
 son, in the presentation of six projectors, such as he so ef- 
 fectively satirized in Tlie Devil Is an Ass, and of the dot- 
 terels whose foolish bent for imitation appealed to him and 
 gave name to the gulled Fitzdotterel in the same play. 
 The talk of the citizens in The Triumph of Peace resembles 
 that in The Masque of Augurs or Neptune's Triumph. 
 
 Such influence as we find in this masque, in character 
 that of reminiscence and general recollection, is exerted 
 also in the comedies. Shirley is a happy and original com- 
 
 51 Shirley, Works, ed. by Alex. Dyce, I, 383, The Wedding, II, 1. 
 
46 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 binatiou of what had gone before him and he certainly 
 learned somewhat from Jonson. In originalit}' and variety 
 of plots Shirley excelled, and here he followed the example 
 of Jonson in turning from the use of old plays and novels 
 to invent new situations. Further, his plots are closely 
 knit, unified, and in regard for constructive detail, directly 
 or indirectly he had benefited by Jonson 's work. 
 
 The pictures of London life given in such plays as Love 
 Tncks, Hyde Park, The Lady of Pleasure, The Ball, The 
 Gamester, The Example, The Witty Fair One or The 
 Wedding, are more attractively realistic than those we get 
 from Middleton's plays. They show a deeper insight into 
 the human significance of a conversation, situation and ac- 
 tion, a more thoughtful and understanding grasp of under- 
 lying meaning. Much of the difference is due to Shirley's 
 own temperament, but perhaps in some part also to Jon- 
 son's attitude. Shirley yields neither to the absolute re- 
 alism of Middleton nor the didactic satire of Jonson, but 
 learning from both, gives pictures in some ways truer than 
 those we get from either of the others. There is in Shir- 
 ley a moral sanity and ethical sense that we oftentimes find 
 lacking in ^liddleton, and while here again we must ascribe 
 much to Shirley's own well-balanced nature, yet perhaps 
 some influence was exerted also by Jonson 's strong ethical 
 bent. 
 
 Several prologues are written in a Jonsouian tone of in- 
 dependence and even arrogance toward the public. Com- 
 pare this from the prologue to The Example: 
 
 "Nay, he that in the parish never was ' 
 
 Thought fit to be o' the jury, has a place 
 Here, on the bench, for sixpence; and dares sit, 
 And boast himself commissioner of wit : 
 "Which though lie want, he can condenm with oaths, 
 As much as they that wear the purple clothes, 
 
BIMEDIATE CONTEMPORAEIES 47 
 
 Robes, I should say, on whom, i' the Roman state, 
 Some ill-look 'd stage-keepers, like lictors wait, 
 "With pipes for fasces, while another bears 
 Three-footed stools instead of ivory chairs, ' ' " 
 
 with this from the prologue to The Staple of News: 
 
 (the maker) "prays you'll not prejudge his play for ill, 
 
 Because you mark it not, and sit not still ; 
 
 But have a longing to salute, or talk 
 
 AVith such a female, and from her to walk 
 
 With your discourse, to what is done, and where. 
 
 How, and by whom, in all the town but here. 
 
 If that not like you that he send to-night, 
 'Tis you have left to judge, not he to write." " 
 
 Again, in the prologue to The Duke's Mistress, we meet 
 with just such an utterance as we have become familiar 
 with in Jonson: 
 
 "We do observe the general guests to plays '/ 
 
 Meet in opinion of two strains that please, 
 Satire and wantonness; the last of these. 
 Though old, if in new dressing it appear. 
 Will move a smile from all, — but shall not here. 
 Our author hath no guilt of scurril scenes. 
 For satire, they do know best what it means, 
 That dare apply; and if a poet's pen 
 Aiming at general errors, note the men, 
 'Tis not his fault : the safest cure is, they 
 That purge their bosoms, may see any play. ' ' ^* 
 
 Several plays have situations or devices that recall Jon- 
 
 62 Shirley, Works, III, 282. 
 
 63 Jonson, Works, II, 277. 
 6* Shirley, Works, IV, 191. 
 
48 JONSOX AND FA'GLISII CO.MEDY 
 
 son. lu Love Tricks, the mock duel, described so boast- 
 fully bj^ Bubuleus, has a marked resemblance to the ac- 
 count given b}' Fastidious Brisk of his supposed victorj' in 
 Every Man out of His Humor.-'-' The passage from Loi'c 
 Tricks is Avorth quoting, so much is it in Jonson's manner: 
 
 "Buhulcus. We threw our doublets off, to shew we had no 
 coat of mail, or privy shirt upon us, against the laws 
 of dueling: in fine, I bid him say his prayers. 
 
 Antonio. 'Twas well thought upon ; and what did you ? 
 
 Buh. I let them alone, for I knew I should kill him, and 
 have time enough to say them afterwards at my lei- 
 sure. 
 
 Hilaria. "When he had prayed, what then ? 
 
 Bub. When he had said his prayers, he thought upon it, 
 and let fall words tending to reconcilement. On my 
 conscience, he would have a.sked my forgiveness, but I 
 stood upon my honor, and would fight with him, and 
 so we stood upon our guard — but not a word of fight- 
 ing, if you love me. 
 
 Ant. Oh, by no means: but when did you fight? 
 
 Bub. I'll tell you; Antonio, when he saw no remedy, but 
 that I would needs fight with him, and so conseciuently 
 kill him, made a desperate blow at my head, which I 
 warded with my dagger, better than he looked for, and 
 in return, I cut off liis left hand; whereat amazed, and 
 fainting, I nimbly seconded it, as you know 1 am very 
 nimble, and run my rapier into his i-iglit tliigh, two 
 yards. 
 
 Hil. Then you were on both sides of him? 
 
 Ant. Your rapier? Did you not say youi* weapons were 
 long swords ? 
 
 Biib. But mine was botli a sword and rapier, there 'tis — 
 
 f'-' Sclit'lliii",', Elizahethdii DnDixi, II, '2H7. ('iiiii|(iin' witli .loiisoii. 
 HovA-.v, I, 11!) 120, /•;/•( /.(/ .l/<i/( Out of His Hum,,,: W. 4. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORARIES 49 
 
 but not a word of fighting, as you love me. AVell, not 
 to weary you with the narration of the innumerable 
 wounds I gave him, I cut off every joint from his toe 
 upwards, to his middle; by these hilts, now, you may 
 believe me; there ended Antonio, my rival. Judge, 
 judge now, whether Bubuleus be valiant or not — but 
 not a Avord of fighting, as you love me ; let it die. 
 Ant. 'Twas very valiantly done."^*' 
 
 The School of Compliment in this same play brings 
 together a group of humorous characters such as Jonson 
 assembled in the Ladies Collegiate of The Silent Woman, 
 the news-collecting agency of Tlie Staple of Xeivs, or the 
 school of cosmetics and behavior in The Devil is an Ass. 
 The situation of the old man Rufuldo married to a man 
 disguised as a woman, and, finding himself tied to a mas- 
 terful shrew, in the end thoroughly glad to be freed from 
 his burden, may perhaps be a reminiscence of The Silent 
 Woman. The likeness of the passage in The Young Ad- 
 miral where the foolish Pazzarello is introduced to the 
 supposed enchantress Avho is to make him in^ailnerable 
 in battle, to that in The Alchemist where Dapper is taken 
 into the presence of the "fairy" whose favorite he has 
 been assured he is, has been noticed by Gifford." 
 
 When we turn to characters, we find a number created 
 on the basis of humors or seemingly reminiscences of Jon- 
 son. In Love Tricks, Bubuleus, an "exact piece of stolid- 
 ity" comes to the school of compliment to "have a delicate 
 speech" for his lady-love, and "a powdering speech" for 
 his rival, whom he would kill without danger of the law, 
 and so with words. He gives boastful account of his 
 prowess in dueling and like Shift Avith his thefts in Every 
 Man out of His Humor later confesses to base cowardice 
 
 5C Shirley, Works, I, 74-75 ; Love Tricks, IV, 6. 
 '"- Ihid., Ill, 145; The Young Admiral, IV, 1. 
 
50 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 and lying ^^ith "thinking to have got himself some credit," 
 as Shift "to get" himself "a name." Orlando Furioso, 
 who comes to learn to ' ' roar ' ' and quarrel, recalls Kastrill, 
 the angry boy in The Alchemist. Shirley makes many ref- 
 erences to the roarere of the time, satirized by Jonson not 
 only in The Alchemist but also in The Silent Woman as the 
 "terrible boys" and in The Staple of News as the "can- 
 ters." Sir Valentine Wantbrain, who has been newly put 
 into commission for the peace and comes to the School of 
 Compliment to have drawn up his first charge to the jurj' ; 
 the countryman who brings his son Oaf to be made a 
 scholar and a courtier; and Ingeniolo, the justice's clerk, 
 who wishes to be taught to speak his passion of love in 
 blank verse — these are "humorous" conceptions, though 
 slightly developed. 
 
 Brains in TJie Wedding, whose pride it is that he has 
 never been overreached in any action, whose ' ' nourishment 
 runs upward into brains" and who boasts that he "was 
 never yet cozened," seems to be a reminiscence of Brain- 
 worm. Sir Solitary Plot in The Example, pointed out by 
 Dyee as an imitation of Jonson,"^^ believes "the world is 
 full of plots" and spends most of his time in solitude, 
 planning methods of precaution. The suggestion for Jack 
 Freshwater in The Ball, Gifford thinks was furnished by 
 Puntai-volo in Every Man out of His Tlumor.^^ The like- 
 ness between Freshwater 's account of marvelous experi- 
 ences on his supposed return from travel and Puntarvolo's 
 fantastic preparations for a journey is certainly not very 
 evident; but the conception of the character probably de- 
 veloped in Shirley's mind under the inlluonce of Jonson 's 
 personages. Pazzarello in The Young Admiral, who, duped 
 to believe that he has been made invulnerable, wjixes ex- 
 
 es Shirley, Works, I, Introduction, XXX. 
 60 Ibid., Ill, 3. 
 
IMMEDIATE CONTEMPORAEIES 51 
 
 ceedingly valiant; Caperwit, the poetaster in Love in a 
 Maze, and Sir Gervase Simple of the same play — 
 
 "one that has 
 But newly cast his country skin, come up 
 To see the fashions of the town, has crept 
 Into a knighthood, which he paid for heartily 
 And in his best clothes, is suspected for 
 A gentleman ; " ^^ 
 
 and Orseolo, w^lio gives name to The Humorous Courtier 
 and whose humor is to rail against women, — all are con- 
 ceived in Jonson's manner. The influence of Jonson is 
 manifested in the fundamental idea of a prevailing humor 
 or bias much more than in the method of development. 
 Shirley does not, as Jonson, take the trouble to present 
 the humor under many different aspects and in many re- 
 lations so as to produce a many-sided study. 
 
 Here, as with the other dramatists of the group studied, 
 it is impossible to state definitely the exact limits of Jon- 
 son's influence. Shirley's first play was plainly modeled 
 in plot, characters, satirical pictures of contemporary life 
 and vocabulary on Jonson's comedy. In later plays, care- 
 ful logical construction manifests a permanent effect of 
 the teaching Shirley had had. Now and then appears a 
 character conceived according to the theory of humors. 
 Several prologues are Jonsonian in tone. An occasional 
 situation, device or expression, seems reminiscent of Jon- 
 son's plays. Shirley was no imitator, no slavish follower, 
 but an original and inventive plaj^-right who could take 
 lessons from a master and then apply them with independ- 
 ence and power. 
 
 «o Shirley, Worhs, II, 277; Lov* in a Maze, I, 1. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 NATHANIEL FIELD AND RICHARD BROME IN RELATION TO 
 JONSON 
 
 "VVe turn now to the younger dramatists who were dis- 
 tinctively "Sons of Ben," who consciously and definitely 
 took the attitude of disciples toward the master of the 
 comedy of humors, fully acknowledged his authority and 
 sought to follow closely in the paths marked out by him. 
 In this group we shall study the comedies of Nathaniel 
 Field, Richard Brome, Thomas ^lay, Robert Davenport, 
 Thomas Randolph, Shakerley Marmion, AVilliam Cart- 
 wright, Jasper Mayne, Henry Glapthorne, Thomas Xabbes, 
 Sir Aston Cockayne, AVilliam Cavendish, Earl of New- 
 castle, and Sir William Davenant. First of all. we shall 
 consider Field and Brome, to whom Jonson stood in the di- 
 rect relation of teacher to pupils. These had especially 
 close personal associations with him and gained the ad- 
 vantage of being ])ersonally instructed l)y liim in the art 
 of making plays, of learning their craft under his immedi- 
 ate supervision. 
 
 Nathaniel Field was an "actor playwright" and began 
 his connection with the stage as a member of one of the 
 boy companies prominent about 1600, the Childi*en of the 
 Ciuipel, known in the reign of King James as the Queen's 
 Revels. lie was chief actor in three of Jonson 's plays 
 acted at Blackfriars by the Chapel Children: Cynthia's 
 Bevels in IGOO, Poetaster in 3601. Kpicmie in 1G09. 
 Again, in 1G14 he was chief actor in Bartholumew Fair 
 produced at the Hope by the Lady Elizabeth's Men.' It 
 is in the last play that Jonson pays liim the high compli- 
 
 1 Fleay, Ihirj. Stud.. XIII, 18S0. 
 
 i2 
 
FIELD AND BROME 53 
 
 ment of associating his name with that of Burbage, and 
 praises him as the best actor in his company: 
 
 "Cokes. Which is your Burbage now? 
 Leatherhead. "What mean you by that, sir? 
 Cokes. Your best actor, your Field ? " ^ 
 
 "We can imagine that an additional appeal was made to 
 Jonson's sympathies by the fact that Field was one of the 
 boys kidnaped by Nathaniel Giles, ]\Iaster of her IMaj- 
 esty's Chapel, in abuse of his privilege of taking young 
 boys to sing in the royal chapels, and pressed into enforced 
 service as an actor in the company of which Giles had the 
 management, the Children of the Chapel." When carried 
 off, Field was a pupil at Westminster School, and only 
 thirteen years old at the time he took the chief part in 
 Cynthia's Revels.* Evidently Jonson pitied the boy so 
 early snatched away from his books, and gave him lessons ; 
 for we learn from the Conversations that ''Nat. Field was 
 his scholar, and that he had read to him the Satires of 
 Horace and some Epigrams of Martial. ' ' ^ Field quotes 
 Latin in the address to the reader before A Woman is a 
 Weathercock, and in the dedication points out the fact 
 that he ends his epistle without a Latin sentence, as if 
 priding himself that he could do so if he wished.® During 
 the hours of studj- and of rehearsal, he had abundant op- 
 portunity to learn the playwright's craft from Jonson him- 
 self. The admiration Field felt for his teacher is directly 
 expressed in the verses he wrote in 1611 to his "worthy 
 and beloved friend. Master Ben Jonson, on his Catiline." 
 
 But two of Field's comedies survive, A Woynan is a 
 
 2 Jonson, Wo7-J:s, II, 199; Bariholomeic Fair, V, 3. 
 
 3 Schelling, Elizahethan Drama, I, 472-473. 
 
 4 Knight, Article in D. N. B. XVIII, 1S80. 
 
 5 Jonson, Works, III, 477. 
 
 6 Nero and Other Plays, Mermaid Series, 338-339. 
 
54 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Weathercock, and Amends for Ladies. TVe know that he 
 did considerable work of revision and collaboration, but 
 that need not concern us here. The above comedies do 
 credit to the instruction that Field had received, show 
 practical knowledge of the requirements of the stage and 
 intelligent grasp of the fundamental ideas of Jonsonian 
 comedy. The satirical tone adopted reveals at once the 
 source whence Field obtained his attitude in viewing life. 
 His first play, A Woynayi is a Weathcrcocli, is a satire on 
 the inconstancy of women, and is dedicated "to any wo- 
 man that hath been no weathercock. ' ' In this play the in- 
 discriminate creation of knights by James I is ridiculed: 
 
 ' ' Count Frederick. Young IMaster Abraham ! Cry ye 
 mercy, sir. 
 
 Ahraham Ninny. Your lordship's poor friend and Sir 
 Abraham Ninny. 
 
 The dub-a-dub of honor, piping hot. 
 
 Doth lie upon my worship's shoulder-blade. 
 
 Sir Innocent Ninny. Indeed, my lord, with much cost 
 and labor we have got him knighted ; and being under 
 favor, my lord, let me tell ye he'll prove a sore knight, 
 as e'er run at ring. He is the one and only Ninny 
 of our house. ' ' ^ 
 
 Again, the prevailing injustice in matters of law is bitterly 
 satirized : 
 
 "it will be thought 
 
 Your greatness and our money carries it: 
 
 For some say some men on the back of law 
 
 May ride and rule it like a patient ass, 
 
 And with a golden bridle in the mouth 
 
 Direct it unto anything they please. 
 
 Others report it is a spider's web, 
 
 ^ladc to entangle the poor helpless flies, 
 1 Nero and Other Plays, 352; A Woman is a Weathercock, I, 2. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 55 
 
 Whilst the great spiders that did make it first, 
 And rule it, sit i' th' midst secure and laugh," • 
 
 "He has the advantage of you, being a lord; 
 For should you kill him, you are sure to die. 
 And by some lawyer wdth a golden tongue. 
 That cries for right (ten angels on his side), 
 Your daring meet him called presumption : 
 But kill he you, he and his noble friends 
 Have such a golden snaffle for the jaws 
 Of man-devouring Pythagorean law, 
 They '11 reign her stubborn chops even to her tail : 
 And (though she have iron teeth to meaner men), 
 So master her, that, who displeased her most, 
 She shall lie under like a tired jade."^ 
 
 Both A Woman is a Weathercock and Amends for Ladies 
 present vivid and realistic pictures of contemporary life. 
 The scene of the former is laid in the neighborhood of 
 London and of the latter within the city. Both are full 
 of local allusions to such places as the theater at Newing- 
 ton Butts, the Fortune theater in Cripplegate, the cooks' 
 shops of Pie corner in Smithfield, the ducking-ponds at 
 Islington, ]\Ioorfields — a noted resort of outcasts. Turn- 
 mill Street — a haunt of thieves, or Bear Tavern below Lon- 
 don Bridge. Thus Field produces the effect of actuality 
 that Jonson obtains by similar means in The Alchemist or 
 Bartholomew Fair. Effective and realistic, if coarse, pre- 
 sentation of eveiy-day London life we get in such a scene as 
 that inside a tavern, in Amends for Ladies, where Lord 
 Feesimple is introduced among a group of ' ' roaring boys, ' ' 
 and by way of drinking a large number of healths is tem- 
 porarily inspired with the courage of a roarer.^" 
 
 8 yero and Other Plays, 369; A Woman is a Weathercock, II, 1. 
 
 9 A'ero and Other Plays, 472 ; Amends for Ladies, IV, 3. 
 ^0 Hid., 456-460; Amends for Ladies, III, 4. 
 
56 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 A number of the characters are conceived and executed 
 on the basis of humors, and given names to indicate the 
 ruling qualit}'. In A Woman is a Weathercock we have 
 Pendant, a sycophant "who lives "upon commending" 
 Count Frederick, and whom men call his lord's "commen- 
 dations"; Sir John AVorldly, whose one great desire is for 
 money and who assures us " "Worldly s my name, worldly 
 must be my deeds"; Pouts, the irascible and \indictive 
 captain ; and above all, the Xinnies, Sir Innocent Ninny, 
 Lady Ninny and Sir Abraham Ninny. Count Frederick 
 asks: "What countrymen were your ancestors, Sir Abra- 
 ham?" and that brainless youth replies: "Countrymen! 
 they were no countrj-men : I scorn it. Thej' were gentle- 
 men all : my father is a Ninny and my mother was a Ham- 
 mer."'^ Like Jonson's ]\Iatthew, Sir Abraham prides 
 himself on his verses of passionate love, but to unpreju- 
 diced critics he is "like a hard-bound poet whose brains 
 had a frost in 'em." Amends for Ladies gives us AVell- 
 tried, the trusty friend; Bold, of unlimited daring; Lord 
 Proudly, Sir John Loveall, Subtle, Ingen, Ladies Honor, 
 Perfect, and Bright, all sufficiently described by their 
 names; the group of roarers, such as Tearchaps and Spill- 
 blood; and the chief humorous character, Lord Feesimple, 
 whose humor is that he grows faint at sight of a naked 
 sword, and who longs, like Jonson's Kastrill. to be tauglit 
 to quarrel and become a roarer. 
 
 Again, in the ready invention and admirable execution 
 of his plots. Field proves that he possessed a practical 
 knowledge of the stage and that he made good use of Jon- 
 son's precept and example in the way of careful const mic- 
 tion. At the clase of A Woman is a WraflicrcocK- he takes 
 pains to inform us that the action of the play is included 
 within twelve hours: 
 "X^e'er was so much (what cannot heavenly powers?) 
 
 Done and undone and done in twelve short hours." 
 
 1' .\<io ami Oilier J'hiijs, ooH; A Wuniaii is a Weathercock, 1, 2. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 57 
 
 He was a skillful playwright, and while the intrigue of the 
 two comedies is intricate and complicated, it is effectively 
 conducted and untangled. The tricks in A Woma^i is a 
 Weathercock by which Sir Abraham Ninny is gulled into 
 marrying Mistress "Wagtail (the waiting- woman). Captain 
 Pouts is punished by Master Strange for slandering his 
 wife, and Bellafront is kept by Nevill from a valid mar- 
 riage with Count Frederick and so saved for his friend, are 
 clever and interesting. That a masque is used as an or- 
 ganic part of the plot of A Woman is a Weathercock is 
 probably another evidence of Jonson's influence. Though 
 both comedies were written about the same time and there 
 seems no manifest reason for the difference, it is of interest 
 to note that the Amends for Ladies has four or five times 
 as many of the words we found constantly reappearing in 
 Jonson's comedy as occur in the earlier play. 
 
 This study of Field's two extant comedies shows unmis- 
 takable traces of Jonson's influence in satirical attitude, 
 realistic pictures of London life, construction of plots, and 
 humorous characters. 
 
 Among the "Sons of Ben," Richard Brome must be 
 given precedence as having had the best opportunity to 
 gain accurate knowledge of Jonson's methods and spirit 
 in writing comedy, and as having produced the largest 
 number of plays possessing the fundamental characteristics 
 of the comedy of humors. The first reference to Brome 
 that we find is in the induction to Bartholomew Fair where 
 the stagekeeper says : ' ' I am looking lest the poet hear me, 
 or his man, Master Brome, behind the arras ";^^ so that at 
 least from 1614, when this play was written, he was serv- 
 ant to Ben Jonson. As far as we know, he so remained 
 until the master's death in 1637. When The Northern 
 Lass was published in 1632, Jonson stood as sponsor for 
 it and wTOte commendatory verses "to my old faithful 
 servant, and (by his continued virtue) my loving friend, 
 
 12 Jonson, Worls, IT, 143. 
 
58 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Mr. Richard Brome. " Not only as a servant and friend 
 does Jonson praise him, but also as a follower of the comic 
 laws he himself had taught : 
 
 "I had you for a servant once, Dick Brome, 
 And you performed a servant 's faithful parts ; 
 Now you are got into a nearer room 
 Of fellowship, professing my old arts. 
 And you do them well, with good applause, 
 "Which you have justly gained from the stage, 
 By observation of those comic laws 
 AVhich I, your master, first did teach the age. 
 You learned it well, and for it served your time, 
 A prenticeship, which few do nowadays."^' 
 
 That Brome had the advantage of daily association with 
 Jonson during years is a fact of great significance and 
 he must have learned much and gained much. It was also 
 in collaboration with Jonson 's son that he began his dra- 
 matic career with a non-extant play, A Fault in Friend- 
 ship, licensed in 1623 as "by Brome and young 
 Jonson." 
 
 Brome himself refers Mith pride to Jonson as his teaclier 
 and master. In verses prefixed to the Beaumont and 
 Fletcher folio of 1647, he writes of him 
 
 "That was the master of his art and me, 
 ]\Iost knowing Jonson."^'' 
 
 The prologue to The City Wit tells us the play 
 
 "was written, wlien 
 It bore just judgment, and the seal of Ben." '° 
 
 In the epilogue to The (Ururt Beggar, the author seems to 
 
 18 Brome, ^Vurl^:s, 111, p. IX. 
 
 J* Boaumont niid Fk'tcher, ^\\)lks, 1, 02. 
 
 10 Brome, Works, I, 276. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 59 
 
 refer to Jonson in writing of him "by Avliose care and di- 
 rections this stage is governed, who has for many years 
 . . . directed poets to -write and players to speak till 
 he trained up these youths here to what they are now. ' ' ^® 
 ]\Iany a time Brome must have gone with Jonson to the 
 Devil Tavern nnd heard given the order embodied in The 
 English Moor to "draw a quart of the best Canary into 
 the Apollo. "1^ 
 
 According to the testimony of the commendatory verses 
 prefixed to his plays, Brome seems to have been on good 
 terms with many other dramatists and poets of the time, 
 and these generally show that they considered him frankly 
 as an imitator and follower of Jonson. Thomas Dekker, 
 John Ford, James Shirley, John Tatham, Sir Aston 
 Cockayne, John Hall, and Alexander Brome, wrote in warm 
 praise of his work. A number of these connect directly 
 the names of Brome and Jonson. Prefixed to The Antip- 
 odes are some lines by C. G. beginning : 
 
 ' ' Jonson 's alive ! the world admiring stands, ' ' 
 
 and ending 
 
 "Therefore repair to him, and praise each line 
 Of his Volpone, Sejanns, Catiline. 
 But stay, and let me tell you where he is, 
 He sojourns in his Brome 's Antipodes!"^^ 
 
 John Hall writes concerning A Jovial Crew: 
 
 "You do not invade, 
 But by great Jonson were made free o' th' trade. 
 So that we must, in this your labor find 
 Some image and fair relique of his mind." ^* 
 
 10 Brome, Works, I, 272. 
 
 17 Ihid., II, 41, The English Moor, III, 2. 
 
 I'ilbid., Ill, 229. 
 
 i9/6icf.. Ill, 345. 
 
60 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 With regard to the same play, John Tatham hopes the au- 
 dience 
 
 "May be conformable to Ben's influence; 
 And finding here nature and art agree 
 May swear, thou liv'st in him and he in thee." -° 
 
 The ode by Thomas Randolph in answer to Jonson's Ode 
 to Himself after the failure of The New Inn in 1629, makes 
 uncomplimentary reference to "what Brome swept from 
 thee." 2^ On the title-page of The Weeding of Covent 
 Garden as published in 1658, the author is described as 
 "an ingenious servant and imitator of his master, that 
 famously renowned poet, Ben Jonson. " We have, then, 
 full and complete evidence that Brome was regarded by 
 his master, by his contemporaries, and by himself as a 
 follower of Ben Jonson in English comedy, and the plays 
 themselves confirm the judgment. 
 
 Fifteen independently written plays are extant. Of 
 these, three are distinctively romantic tragi-comedies : The 
 Lovesick Court, The Queen's Exchange, The Queen and 
 the Concubine; two more have large romantic elements: 
 The Novella and The English Moor; and the remaining 
 ten are pure comedies of manners and of humors based on 
 the every-day life of London. From the last group chiefly 
 do we get the material for a study of Jonson's influence 
 on Brome. In the romances Ward finds traces of tlie in- 
 fluence of Shakespeare, Fletcher and Massinger.-- Koep- 
 pel discovers parallels between A Mad Couple Well- 
 Matched, The City Wit, The Court Beggar, The Antipodes, 
 The English Moor, The Lovesick Court, The Queen's Ex- 
 change, The Queen and the Concubine, and various Sliake- 
 spearian plays.*'^ We must remember that Jonson himself 
 
 20 Brome, Works, III, 348. 
 
 21 Jonson, Works, II, 387. 
 a2\Vard, III, 129-131. 
 
 23 Koeppel, Studicn uhcr Shakespeare's JVirkunp, 42-47. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 61 
 
 yielded in part to the allureinent of the romantic method 
 in his early The Case is Altered and his late The New Inn. 
 Let us see, first of all, what is the evidence of the pro- 
 logues and epilogues regarding the extent to which Brome 
 had absorbed Jonson's theories of comedy. In the epi- 
 logue to The English Moor he expresses his wish that 
 
 ' ' You judge but by the ancient comic laws. 
 Not by their course who in this latter age 
 Have sown such pleasing errors on the stage, 
 Which he no more will choose to imitate. ' ' ^* 
 
 Again, in the prologue to The Novella: 
 
 * 'He'll bide his trial, and submits his cause 
 To you the jury, so you'll judge by laws." -" 
 
 He proceeds in this same prologue to ask judgment only 
 from the judicious and to address his audience quite in 
 Jonson's tone of independence : 
 
 "If pride or ignorance should rule, he fears 
 An unfair trial, 'cause not tried by's peers. 
 Faith, be yourselves a while, and pass your vote 
 On what you understand, and do not dote 
 On things 'hove nature or intelligence; 
 All we pretend to is but mirth and sense." 
 
 The prologue to The Sparagus Garden again repeats that 
 the author never did 
 
 ' ' strive 
 By arrogance or ambition to achieve 
 More praise unto himself, or more applause 
 Unto his scenes, than such, as know the laws 
 Of comedy do give; he only those 
 Now prays may scan his verse £ind weigh his prose. ' ' ^^ 
 
 24 Brome, WorTiS, II, 86. 
 
 25 lUd., I, 104. 
 28 7bi(7., Ill, 115. 
 
62 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Brome would, like Jonson, appeal to the intellect rather 
 than the heart, and he intends that 
 
 "No handsome love-toy shall your time beguile, 
 Forcing your pity to a sigh or smile." •'' 
 
 Nevertheless, a love-story does run through every one of 
 his comedies, and while the love-motive is not always the 
 predominant one, yet it is used much more freely and 
 fully than by Jonson. The master's preference for ''deeds 
 and language such as men do use" has affected the disciple 
 and he condemns those 
 
 "That count all slight that's under us or nigh; 
 And only those for worthy subjects deem, 
 Fetched or reached at (at least) from far or high; 
 When low and home-bred subjects have their use. 
 As well as those fetched from on high or far."-® 
 
 The prologues are marked by a decided self-consciousness 
 but it is not masterful and confident as was that of Jon- 
 son. A strange mixture of self-praise and self-deprecia- 
 tion appears in such prologues as those to Ilic yorthcrn 
 Lass, The Demoiselle or The Queen's Exchange. In the 
 last we find this : 
 
 ' ' The writer of this play who ever uses 
 To usher with his modesty the muses 
 Unto the stage, he that scarce ever durst 
 Of poets rank himself above the worst, 
 Though most that he has wit has pa.ssed the rest, 
 And ft)und good approbation of the best ; 
 He, as he never knew to bow, he says, 
 As little fears the fortune of his plays."''" 
 
 27 Uronic, M'orks, I, 184. 
 2>*Ibid., JII, 230. 
 so/tif/., HI, 45fl.' 
 
FIELD AND BROME 63 
 
 From the prologues we learn that Brome aimed to regard 
 the laws of Roman comedy, to value the criticism of the 
 judicious only, make chief appeal to the intellect and 
 present chiefly "low and homebred subjects"; and that, 
 furthermore, as a playwright he was a thoroughly self- 
 conscious workman. We should note, on the other hand, 
 the absence of the assertion of didacticism, the reminder 
 that we are to have profit mixed with our delight, con- 
 stantly found in Jonson's prologues. 
 
 While Brome was not primarily concerned with scourg- 
 ing vices and follies, yet again and again within the plays 
 he asserted the purpose of purging or curing indiriduals, 
 groups of persons, or places. However, the moral and 
 ethical attitude taken by him seems often assumed, put on 
 from the outside, and not deeply ingrained in the whole 
 philosophy of life as with Jonson. He usually accepted 
 conventional moral standards, but never attained to a 
 really vital grasp of the spirit of morality. Brome some- 
 times, as in A Mad Couple Well Matched, lost a true sense 
 of moral values; Jonson never was guilty of such offense. 
 We are definitely told that the aim is to "purge" and 
 "cure" certain personages of the comedies, as, Sir Swithin 
 Whimbly, the Crying Knight, and Camelion, the uxorious 
 citizen, in The New Academy; Pyannet, the scold, in The 
 City Wit; Joyless, the jealous old husband of a young wife, 
 and Peregrine, a monomaniac on the subject of traveling, 
 in The Antipodes; or in The Court Beggar, Citwit, whose 
 habit is to abuse everybody and never stand by anything 
 he has said. The object in The Sparagus Garden, we are 
 told, is to "run jealousy out of breath" and to "purge 
 the place of all foul purposes. ' ' Here are of interest some 
 lines written by C. G. on this play : 
 
 "It is no common play. 
 Within thy plot of ground, no weed doth spring 
 
CA JOXSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 To hurt the growth of any underling ; 
 
 Nor is thy labyrinth confus'd, but -we 
 
 In that disorder may perfection see. 
 
 Thy herbs are physical and do more good 
 
 In purging humors than some's letting blood."'" 
 
 The plays are full of satirical pictures of conditions and 
 classes of every day London life. "SYe find the realism not 
 only of definite localization but of direct portrayal of life 
 seen "from below stairs," ^^ sometimes gross and repulsive, 
 but showing keenness and variety of satirical observation. 
 Brome knew and knew well "the coarse and gross and 
 seamy side of life," and no finer sensibilities kept him 
 from picturing it often with "prosaic nithleissness. " " 
 Usually, he did have an honest purpose to further the 
 cause of morality. The Weeding of Covent Garden is a 
 direct attempt to promote a definite social reform in a cer- 
 tain neighborhood. In the second prologue, written after 
 the play had accomplished the desired practical results, the 
 audience is urged to 
 
 "take the same survey, 
 Into your fancy, as our poet took 
 Of Covent Garden, when he wrote his book 
 Some ten years since, when it was grown with weeds. 
 Nor set, as now it is, with noble seeds 
 Which make the garden glorious;" 
 
 and to remember how 
 
 "happily his pen 
 Foretold its fair improvement, and that men 
 Of worth and honor should renown tlic place."" 
 
 aoBromo, Works, III, 113. 
 81 Scholling, II, 330. 
 
 32 SyniondB, Tfie Academy, March, 1874. 
 
 33 Brome, Works, II, 178. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 65 
 
 Projects or speculations in monopolies, one of the great- 
 est abuses of the time, and most effectively ridiculed in 
 The Devil is an Ass, Brome satirizes again and again, in 
 The Demoiselle, The Weeding of Covent Garden, The 
 Sparagiis Garden, The Antipodes, and The Queen's Ex- 
 change, while The Court Beggar finds here its chief theme. 
 In the last play, most of the characters in jest or earnest 
 put forth some project. Here are two of interest: 
 
 "My project is that no plays may be admitted to the 
 stage but of their making who profess or endeavor to live 
 by the quality; that no courtiers, divines, students at law, 
 lawyers' clerks, tradesmen or prentices, be allowed to write 
 'em, nor the works of any poet whatsoever to be received 
 to the stage, though freely given unto the actors; nay, 
 though any such poet should give a sum of money with his 
 play, as with an apprentice, unless the author do also be- 
 come bound that it shall do true and faithful service for 
 a whole term ; " ^^ 
 
 "a new project 
 For building a new theater or play-house 
 Upon the Thames on barges or flat boats, 
 To help the watermen out of the loss 
 They've suffer 'd by sedans. "^^ 
 A passage on the same subject in The Antipodes is worth 
 quoting for the utter absurdity of the schemes: 
 
 "Your projects are all good. I like them well, 
 
 Especially these two: this for th' increase of wool; 
 
 And this for the destroying of mice: they're good. 
 
 And grounded on great reason. As for yours, 
 
 For putting down the infinite use of jacks, 
 
 "Whereby the education of young children 
 
 In turning spits is greatly hindered, 
 
 It may be looked into. And yours against 
 
 34 Brome, Works, I, 215; The Court Beggar, II, 1. 
 ^s Ibid., T, 194; The Court Beggar, I, 1. 
 
66 JOXSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 The multiplicity of pocket watches, 
 Whereby much neighborly familiarity 
 By asking, what d'ye guess it is a clock? 
 Is lost, when everj"- puny clerk can carr\' 
 The time o' the day in's breeches. This and these 
 Hereafter may be looked into. For present, 
 This for the increase of wool, that is to say, 
 By flaying of live horses and new covering them 
 AVith sheep-skins, I do like exceedingly. 
 And this for keeping tame owls in cities 
 To kill up rats and mice, whereby all cats 
 May be destroyed, Jis an especial means 
 To prevent witchcraft and contagion. ' ' ^^ 
 
 The "roarers" mtli whom we became familiar in the 
 comedies of Jonson and his immediate contemporaries, 
 and whom we met again in Field's plays, are satirized by 
 Brome both as "roarers" or members of the "roaring 
 brotherhood" and as "blades," in The Demoiselle, The 
 Weeding of Covent Garden, and The Northern Lass. 
 Throughout The Weeding of Covent Garden, Brome at- 
 taclts the Puritans in the character of Gabriel. The fol- 
 lowing shows clearly direct relation to Jonson 's satire in 
 The Alchemist and Bartliolomciv Fair: 
 
 "Gabriel. It is nevertheless a tavern, brother ]\Iiliil. and 
 you promised and covenanted with me at the last 
 house of noise and noisomeness, that you would not 
 lead me to any more taverns. 
 
 Mihil. Lead you, brother? Men use to be led from taverns 
 sometimes. You saw I did not lead you nor bring 
 you to any that was more a tavern than the last, nor 
 so much neither; for here is no busli, you saw. 
 
 Gal). 'Twas that betrayed and entrapped me; but let us 
 yet forsake it. 
 80 Brome, Works, III, 308; The Antijwdts, IV, 9. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 67 
 
 Mill. Pray, let us drink first, brother. By your leave, 
 here 's to you. 
 
 Gab. One glassful more is the most that I can bear. ]\Iy 
 head is very full, and laboreth with that I have had 
 already. 
 
 Mill. There, sir, I'll undertake one good fellow, that has 
 but just as much religion as will serve an honest man's 
 turn, will bear more wine than ten of these giddy- 
 brained Puritans ; their heads are so full of whimsies. 
 
 Gah. 'Tis mighty heady, mighty heady, and truly I cannot 
 but think that the over-much abuse of these outlandish 
 liquors have bred so many errors in the Romish 
 Church. 
 
 Mill. Indeed, brother, there is too much abuse made of 
 such good creatures. Wine in itself is good, you will 
 grant, though the excess be naught; and taverns are 
 not contemptible, so the company be good. 
 
 Gah. It is most true, w^e find that holy men have gone to 
 taverns, and made good use of 'em upon their peregri- 
 nations. 
 
 Mill. And cannot men be content to take now and then a 
 cup, and discourse of good things by the way? As 
 thus, brother, here's a remembrance, if she be living 
 and have not lost her honor, to our cousin Dorcas. 
 
 Gah. that kinswoman of ours ! She was the dearest loss 
 that e'er fell from our house. 
 
 Mill. Pledge her, good brother. 
 
 Gal. I do— 
 
 Mih. I hope 'twill maudlinize him. 
 
 Gab. But have you never seen that miscreant that wronged 
 her, since he did that same ? They say you knew him. 
 
 Mih. Alas, suppose I had, what could be done? She's lost, 
 we see. What good could she receive by any course 
 against him ? 
 
 Galj. It had been good to have humbled him, though, into 
 
68 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 the knowledge of his transgression. And of himself, 
 for his soul's good either by course of law, or else in 
 case of necessity, where the law promiseth no release, 
 by your own right hand you might have smote him, 
 smote him with great force, yea, smote him unto the 
 earth, until he had prayed that the evil might be taken 
 from him. 
 Mih. This is their way of loving enemies, to beat 'em into 
 goodness. Well, brother, I may meet with him again, 
 and then I know what to do. ' ' ^^ 
 
 From his master Brome had imbibed a thorough- going 
 dislike for gentlemen of fashion, and he ridicules them with 
 as strong feeling as Jonson, if not with as telling satire. 
 In The City Wit the question is asked: ''Dost thou know 
 what a gallant of fashion is ? " and the answer given : " I '11 
 tell thee. It is a thing that but once in three months has 
 money in his purse, a creature made up of promise and 
 protestation, a thing that . . . flatters all he fears, 
 contemns all he needs not, starves all that serve him, and 
 undoes all that trust him. ' ' ^® The rules for being a 
 courtier are: "Speak nothing that you mean, perform 
 nothing that you promise, pay nothing that you owe, flatter 
 all above you, scorn all beneath you, deprave all in pri- 
 vate, jjraise all in public, keep no truth in your mouth, no 
 faith in your heart, no health in your bones, no friendship 
 in your mind, no modesty in your eyes, no religion in your 
 conscience, but especially no money in your purse. "^' 
 
 Occa.sionally the citizens get their turn: "A good man 
 i' the city is not called after his good deeds but the known 
 weight of his purse" ;^" and Pyannet in Tin City ^yit seofTs 
 at the idea of an honest citizen: "Honest man! who the 
 
 8T Brome, Works, II, 01-02; The Wceditiy of Coirnt Garden, IV, 1. 
 ssjhid., I, 2'.l'2; The Citii Wit, I, 2. 
 i^Ihid., T, 300; The City Wit, II, 3. 
 *oihid., III. 23; The Northern Lass, II, 1. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 69 
 
 devil wished thee to be an honest man? Here's my wor- 
 shipful husband, Mr. Sneakup, that from a grazier is come 
 to be a justice of peace, and what, as an honest man ? He 
 grew to be able to give nine hundred pound with my daugh- 
 ter; and what, by honesty? j\Ir. Sneakup and I are come 
 up to live i' the city, and here we have lain these three 
 years, and what, for honesty? Honesty! What should 
 the city do with honesty when 'tis enough to undo a whole 
 corporation? "Why are your wares gummed; your shops 
 dark ; your prizes writ in strange characters ; what, for hon- 
 esty? Honesty! Why is hard wax called merchants' 
 wax, and is said seldom or never to be ripped off but it 
 plucks the skin of a lordship -with it? What, for hon- 
 esty ?"*i 
 
 In the construction of his plots, as we have seen, Brome 
 purposed to follow the classic rules, and we do find com- 
 parative regularity. He was a skilled and trained workman, 
 a clever playwright who had learned his craft from Jonson 
 and knew well the requirements of the stage. He was in- 
 genious and inventive, and some of the plays, as The North- 
 ern Lass, A Jovial Crew, The Antipodes, and The City Wit, 
 have original situations that remain distinctively in mind. 
 As in Jonson 's plays, we have complicated intrigue, jj)4pk- 
 ery and roguerj^ of all kinds, usually skillfully magged. 
 Sometimes Brome fell into the error, from which t^^son 
 was by no means always free, of crowding the stage with 
 figures and entangling the action with schemes so many and 
 varied that confusion and bewilderment result. Through- 
 out, the method of Jonson is clearly discernible in the con- 
 struction of the plays. 
 
 There are situations that directly or indirectly recall 
 Jonson 's comedies. The Weeding of Covent Garden is 
 modeled on Bartholomew Fair, and the debt frankly ac- 
 knowledged. Cockbrain, like Justice Overdo, zealously 
 
 <i Brome, Works, I, 284-285; The City Wit, I, 1. 
 
 ^ 
 
70 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 disguises himself and goes among the roisterei-s and law- 
 breakers of Covent Garden, only to meet with experiences 
 similar to those of his Avorthy predecessor when he went to 
 Bartholomew Fair. As Cockbrain girds up his courage for 
 investigation and reform, he says: "And so, as my rever- 
 end ancestor, Justice Overdo, was wont to say, 'In heaven's 
 name and the King's, and for the good of the common- 
 wealth, I will go about it.'"*- Gabriel, with his cant 
 phrases and assumed piety, goes to Covent Garden as Zeal- 
 of-the-land Busy to Bartholomew Fair; and Clotpoll, the 
 foolish gull with plenty of money to spend, is closely re- 
 lated to Bartholomew Cokes in folly and resulting mishaps. 
 In The Court Beggar, the group of projectors working 
 upon Sir Andrew IMendicant and persuading him they can 
 make him a rich lord, recall the gulling of Fitzdotterel in 
 The Devil is an Ass. Swinburne thinks that the influence 
 of Volpone is evident in The Novella.*^' There may be a 
 slight reminiscence of Volpone and ]\Iosca in the manner 
 in w'hich Victoria, the Novella, and her servant Paulo set 
 up an establisliment and seek to draw men of all kinds to 
 them, but the purpose, methods and characters are entirely 
 different. The plot of The City Wit is decidedly Jon- 
 sonian in its processes of gulling and tricking a large group 
 of pei^ns by a small group. Crazy, a young citizen who 
 has l(#t his money and whose friends have turned against 
 him, tferemy his boy sen'ant, and Crack, another bi»y, make 
 covenant together, "like Subtle, Doll and Face," ** to cozen 
 the other character, and they succeed admirably. The 
 influence of The Alchemist is manifest in the situations 
 tliat follow. Further, the boy Jeremy is dressed as a 
 woman and marries, as tlie boy in Epicanc. The School 
 of Comjiliiiu'rit in The Xcw Acadcnnf takes us back again 
 
 <-' Bronio, Worh.t, II, 2; The Wrrdin;/ of (\>V(ut Oanlcn, I, 1. 
 
 *^ Furtniyhlly Review, LVII, 1802. 
 
 *« Bromc, ^Yorks, I, 318; The City ^Vit, III, 1. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 71 
 
 to The Devil is an Ass and Epiccene with their ex- 
 positions of fashion and compliment. The suggestion for 
 The Antipodes, "Ward thinks, may have been taken from 
 Jonson's masque The World in the Moon.*^ 
 
 Brome in The Sparagus tells us what he thinks of hu- 
 mors : ' ' For as in every instrument are all tunes to him that 
 has the skill to find out the stops, so in every man are all 
 humors to him that can find their faucets, and draw 'em 
 out to his purpose. " ^® In choice and execution of comic 
 types Brome shows constantly strong evidence of Jonson's 
 influence. Often we do get tricks and humors rather than 
 persons, but that is true also of Jonson, and some of 
 Brome 's humorous characters are original, interesting and 
 distinctive. The finer powers of Jonson in bringing out 
 the subtle individuality of the representative of a type 
 Brome does not possess. He lacks the true artistic sense 
 that hides bare fundamental conception, and he is often too 
 conscientiously concerned that his idea shall be fully 
 grasped. This is evident in the way he sometimes points 
 out the applicability of a name, as that of Touchwood in 
 The Sjyaragus Garden: "He has not his name for nothing, 
 old Touchwood! He is all fire if he be incensed; but so 
 soft and gentle that you may wind him about your finger 
 or carry him in your bosom if you handle him rightly ; but 
 still, be wary, for the least spark kindles him. ' ' *^ Brome 
 follows closely Jonson's custom of naming characters so 
 as to indicate ruling quality or humor. Frequently he 
 identifies his persons by means of catch phrases or say- 
 ings, "tags," and sometimes falls into mere caricature. 
 Striker in The Sparagus Garden constantly reiterates, 
 "there I am wi' ye," and Hearty in A Jovial Crew, 
 "there's a whim now"; Geron of The Love-Sick Court is 
 
 45 Ward, III, 130. 
 
 46 Brome, Works, III, 160; The Sparagus Garden, III, 4. 
 iT Ibid., Ill, 117-118; The-Sparagus Garden, I, 1. 
 
72 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 forever comparing everything to "as -whilom said" or "as 
 whilom did" someone sometime; Saleware in A Mad 
 Couple Well Matched quotes on every possible occasion, 
 "Sapientia mea mihi, stultitia tua tibi." 
 
 The personages that stand out most clearly in the com- 
 edies are with few exceptions characters created according 
 to the theory' of humors. Justice Bumpsey of The Demoi- 
 selle, one of Brome's most original creations, by his humor 
 of spending recklessly an equal amount of money in a like 
 manner, cures his son-in-law of useless extravagance. The 
 humor of his "fashion-sick" wife is to "learn and practice 
 carriage. ' ' Pyannet who has * ' the tongue-a^e, ' ' Sarpego, 
 the Avearisome pedant, and Linsy-AYolsey, the miserly citi- 
 zen, in The City Wit, are Jonsonian types. So also are Sir 
 Andrew Mendicant, of The Court Beggar, who sells his 
 countrj^ estate to purchase wit at court, and is duped into 
 believing he may obtain a lordship by means of wild pro- 
 jects; Lady Strangelove, "the humorous widow that loves 
 to be courted;" Sir Raphael "SYinterplum, "who has licked 
 up a living with his tongue, makes all great tables his own, 
 and eats for his talk;" and Citwit, whose humor is to an- 
 swer all questions asked, whether addressed to him or not, 
 abuse everybody spoken of, and, when called to account, 
 excuse himself from a quarrel by declaring he spoke only 
 "comparatively." In The Weeding of Covent Garden, 
 Cockbrain, the reforming justice, and Gabriel, the sup- 
 posed saintly Puritan, as we have seen above, bear direct 
 likeness to Justice Overdo and Zeal-of-tlu'-land T^xiay in 
 Bartholomew Fair; Clotpoll is another country gull wlio 
 has come to town with money and is anxious to learn to 
 roar and be a gentlcinnn; and Crosswill objects to every- 
 thing proposed and crosses his children in all they ask, so 
 that they must get what they want by seeming to seek the 
 very opposite. 
 
 Mrs. Crostill. Ihc Imiiidntiis widow of .1 Mud Couple 
 
FIELD AND BROME 73 
 
 Well Matched, is also moved by a spirit of contradiction, 
 and is won by the suitor that slights her most. Saleware 
 of this same play is foolishly proud of his courtly wife and 
 refuses to be made jealous, considering every plain piece 
 of evidence of her unfaithfulness but a plot to make him 
 jealous. Rafe Camelion in The New Academy is another 
 doting husband, as blind as Deliro in Every Man out of His 
 Humor and as effectively disillusioned. Sir Smthin Whim- 
 bly, ''the crying knight," always weeps at the mention of 
 his dead wife, is "inspired with the infection of poetry" 
 whenever he thinks of her, and is cured by one of the other 
 characters who sets out to "turn the tide of's tears." 
 Matchill marries his maid to spite his daughter and kin- 
 dred, thinking to get ' ' a rare piece of obedience, ' ' but finds 
 himself sadly mistaken. Justice Clark of A Jovial Crew, in 
 trying cases, does all the talking and testifying himself ; for 
 "if we both speak together, how shall we hear one an- 
 other?" He tells a witness: "I can inform myself, sir, 
 by your looks. I have taken a hundred examinations i' 
 my days, of felons and other offenders, out of their very 
 countenances, and wrote 'em down verbatim to what they 
 would have said. I am sure it has served to hang some of 
 'em and whip the rest. ' ' *® 
 
 There are several characters of humors in The Northern 
 Lass: AVidgine, a silly verse-maker who continually quotes 
 his sister, takes pride in his tutor's wit, and is a weaker 
 combination of Stephen and Matthew in Every Man in His 
 Humor; Captain Anville, a braggart and faint shadow of 
 Bobadil; Sir Solomon Nonsense, a Cornish countryman 
 and "a parrot or a popinjay"; and Howdee, who aspires 
 to the position of a gentleman usher and diligentlj^ cons 
 "the ushers' grammar." Buzzard in The English Moor, 
 as Ward points out,*'' is evidently a relation to Jonson's 
 
 *8 Brome, Works, III, 435 ; A Jovial Crew, IV, 2. 
 49 Ward, III, 1292. 
 
74 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Sir Amorous La-Foole. "The Buzzards," he tells us, "are 
 all gentlemen. "SYe came in with the Conqueror. Our 
 name (as the French has it) is Beau-Desert, which signifies 
 — Friends, what does it signify ?"'*'' Geron, the pedant of 
 The Lovesick Court, has a humor of whiloraing so persist- 
 ently that even his doting old mother exclaims impatiently, 
 "Forbear your whiloms and your old said saws," while the 
 lady whom he courts, when told that he loves her, de- 
 clares : 
 
 "That's more than I e'er knew or read by all 
 He speaks or writes of me. He clothes his words 
 In furs and hoods, so that I cannot find 
 The naked meaning of his business. ' ' ^'^ 
 
 His old mother, Garrula, bears out her name and for \er\ 
 talking cannot tell the news she comes to bring. 
 
 The comedies contain many other characters of humors, 
 but these suffice to show the types presented. A certain 
 rigidity and artificiality we do find, but some of the per- 
 sonages are original and interesting and show that Brome 
 had a broad sense of humor and a real knowledge of the 
 foibles and follies of human nature. The influence of Jon- 
 son is constantly evident in conception and in method of 
 portrayal. However, Brome produced, on the whole, few 
 direct imitations of Jonson's characters. It was the gen- 
 eral theory that he learned thoroughly and applied faith- 
 fully. 
 
 Brome appears to liave acquired a cert<ain amount of 
 learning and makes some show of classical knowledge. In 
 several plays he attempts to give the impression of such 
 a background, but in general he w;is neither supported nor 
 weighed down by Jonsonian learning. AYe find an abun- 
 dance of Latin quotations in The Citij Wit and The Queen 
 
 6" Bromo. Works, II, 43; The Knplish Moor, III, 2. 
 61 Ibid., II, 123; The Lovesick Court, III, 1. 
 
FIELD AND BROME 75 
 
 and the Conciibine, and in some of the plays, as The City 
 Wit, The Lovesick Court and The Court Beggar, allusions 
 to classical writers are frequent. It is worth noting, too, 
 that these plays are all among Brome's earliest productions. 
 He occasionally makes a display of out of the way learn- 
 ing, as in the enumeration of dances in The New Academy, 
 the militarj^ terms of The Weeding of Covent Garden, or 
 the beggar's peculiar dialect in A Jovial Crew. 
 
 The vocabulary used in the plays shows, on the whole, 
 much less likeness to Jonson's than might have been ex- 
 pected, not nearly so much as that of some of the play- 
 ^vrights studied in the preceding chapter. The largest 
 number of words we find in The City Wit, The Demoiselle, 
 The Court Beggar, The Weeding of Covent Garden and 
 The Sparagus Garden. These plays present Brome's most 
 realistic and direct pictures of contemporary life, and so 
 use the words of common street and tavern talk most fre- 
 quently. Verse and prose are used in varying proportions. 
 Brome was not a poet, and his rough, halting verse, though 
 aiming at regularity, can hardly be said to show Jonson's 
 influence. 
 
 A study of Brome's plays bears out fully the testimony 
 of Jonson and of contemporaries, as well as the claim of 
 Brome himself, that he was a ' ' Son of Ben. ' ' In conscious 
 theory and in practical application he followed after his 
 master, however afar off when judged as to intellectual 
 masteiy and literary genius. His realistic pictures of con- 
 temporary life, moral satire, plots of complicated intrigue, 
 and characters of humors, testify clearly who was his 
 teacher in the art of wiiting comedy. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 OTHER "sons of BEN" IN ENGLISH COMEDY BEFORE THE 
 CLOSING OF THE THEATERS IN 1642. 
 
 During the years between 1620 and 1642, a considerable 
 number of writers in one or more plays tried their hand 
 at the Jonsonian comedy of humors. ]\Iany of these were 
 gentlemen, and did not, like the dramatists whom we have 
 previously studied, find a profession and a livelihood in 
 connection with the stage, but wrote an occasional play as 
 a diversion from their work as preacher, teacher, soldier 
 or statesman. With some of them, we discover in com- 
 mendatory verses and direct references of one kind or an- 
 other, evidences of personal relation to Jonson ; but with 
 others, only from a study of their plays do we know that 
 they admired and sought to imitate his comedy. They 
 did not, like the earlier and greater playwrights, work side 
 by side with him as comrades and rivals, but were, some- 
 times near and sometimes far off, followers of an acknowl- 
 edged master. Some show his general inthience in hu- 
 morous personages, satiric tone and plots of gullery- ; others 
 are direct and close imitators of particular passages and 
 plots. ]\Iany of this group, tliough just what ones we do 
 not always know, must have shared in the happy feasts of 
 wit and laugliter at the Devil Tavern. To curious stu- 
 dents, a membei-sliip list of those admitted by Ben to his 
 sacred circle, would be of decided interest. 
 
 Thomas May, a Cani])ridge graduate, a lawyer of Cray's 
 Inn, and in iiis earlier years a member of court circles, was 
 allied to Jonson in his love of classical learning and his 
 production of English tragedies on historical themes, as 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 77 
 
 well as in his one comedy of manners and humors. He 
 has been better known as an historian of the Long Parlia- 
 ment than as a dramatist. Langbaine tells us that in his 
 university days "he was a very close student and what 
 stock of learning he then treasured up is apparent from 
 his works. ' ' ^ Virgil 's Georgics, some of Martial 's Epi- 
 grams and Luean's Pharsalia were translated by him, and 
 the last of these, to quote Langbaine again, "is extremely 
 commended by our famous Jonson. ' ' ^ About this work 
 Jonson wrote "To my chosen friend, the learned trans- 
 lator of Lucan, Thomas May, Esquire," a highly compli- 
 mentary poem, and signed it, "your true friend in judg- 
 ment and choice, Ben Jonson." ^ To the Jansonus Virhius 
 May contributed a poem in praise of "Great Jonson, King 
 of English poetry," his "judgment, art and wit."* Al- 
 though the classical tragedies, Cleopatra, Julia Agrippina, 
 Antigone, and Julius Ccesar, are largely affected by the 
 contemporary spirit of romance and the work of Fletcher, 
 yet they show a frank following of Jonson in choice and 
 treatment of material.^ 
 
 It is with May's one comedy of manners, The Old Couple, 
 that we are especially concerned here. This play was not 
 printed until 1658, but Fleay considers it to have been 
 written before The Heir, a tragi-comedy on the accepted 
 Fletcherian model definitely stated to have been acted in 
 1620, and so dates it 1619 or 1620." The general conduct 
 of the plot, which is originally conceived and planned, 
 tends toward the romantic method rather than the Jon- 
 sonian in such situations as that of Scudmore, supposed 
 to be slain but disguised as Lady Covet 's chaplain while 
 
 1 Langbaine, 360. 
 2/6id., 364. 
 
 3 Jonson, Works, III, 294-295. 
 
 4 lUd., Ill, 504. 
 oSchelling, II, 45, 268. 
 
 e Fleay, II, 83. " ' 
 
78 JONSOX .VND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 his betrothed lady wanders about in a wood sing:ing songs 
 of bitter lament, or of Eiigeny in close hiding in the wood 
 from pursuit for the murder he thinks he has committed. 
 However, in the schemes by which the miserly old people. 
 Sir Argent Scrape, Lady Covet and Earthworm are cured 
 of their avarice, and the simple gull Dotterel is fooled 
 into marrying Lady "Wliimsey, as well as in the regard for 
 the unities of time and place, we find traces of Jonson's 
 influence. 
 
 The moral intent of The Old Couple is unmistakable. 
 That it was ' * chiefly designed an antidote against covetous- 
 ness," Langbaine had no doubt.' Not only in the general 
 theme do we discover the ethical purpose but in expository 
 moral utterances on avarice and charity, and in plain 
 statements of intention to "purge" and "cure" the covet- 
 ous-minded personages. A number of the characters have 
 descriptive names, are conceived along simple lines as pos- 
 sessing a ruling quality, and are somewhat influenced by 
 the allegorical point of view, yet they are far from being 
 mere abstractions. Dotterel, the gull who is with good 
 reason not afraid of his brain being hurt by wine, is most 
 fully Jonsonian in conception and portrayal. We have 
 before noted Jonson's fondnes.s for references to and 
 analogies with the foolish dotterel, particularlj'^ as shown 
 in the name and character of Fitzdotterel of The Devil is 
 an Ass. The Dotterel of The Olel Couple Lady Whimsey 
 succeeds in marrying, and thus also she gets control of his 
 wealth : 
 
 " Euphues. Our Dotterel, then, is caught? 
 
 Barnct. He is, and just 
 
 As Dotterels used to be : the lady first 
 Advanc'd toward him, stretch 'd forth her wing, 
 and he 
 
 1 Langbaine, 304. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 79 
 
 Met her with all expressions; and he's caught 
 As fast in her lime-twigs as he can be, 
 Until the church confirm it. 
 
 Euph. There will be 
 
 Another brave estate for her to spend. 
 
 Bar. Others will be the better for't; and if 
 
 None but a Dotterel suffer for't, what loss 
 Of his can countervail the least good fortune 
 That may from thence blow to another man ? " * 
 
 The construction, didactic purpose and personages of 
 The Old Couple indicate a general acquaintance with the 
 methods of Jonson, and not a direct imitation of individual 
 plays nor even a close following of theories. 
 
 Robert Davenport can hardly be called a "Son of Ben," 
 yet he deserves brief notice here as having felt, though only 
 to a slight extent and at long range, the influence of Jon- 
 son's theory of humors. His two comedies, The City 
 Night-Cap and A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, illustrate 
 well the way in which the idea of humors had become a 
 common dramatic possession and crept now and again, 
 perhaps often with little conscious thought on the part of 
 the writer, into plays which otherwise exhibit no traces of 
 Jonson 's methods. Lodovick of The City Night-Cap, li- 
 censed in 1624, persists in foolishly trusting a faithless 
 wife, asserting "my humor's my humor" and forever re- 
 peating "crede quo habes et habes." In A New Trick to 
 Cheat the Devil, printed in 1639, Treatwell, Master and 
 Mistress Changeable, and Slightall, are described by their 
 names and in a vague and general way have their humors. 
 One of the persons of this play pleads for quiet and de- 
 clares 
 
 sDodsley's Old English Plays, ed. by Hazlitt, XII, 41; The Old 
 Couple, III, 1. 
 
80 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 "I'm like the man that could endure no noise 
 In th' Silent Woman, answer all in signs."* 
 
 Thomas Randolph spent a great part of his short life 
 of twenty-nine years at the Universities of Cambridge and 
 Oxford, was a gentleman, a scholar, a poet, and the chief 
 university dramatist of the time. By reason of his 
 Amyntas, one of the two or three best Elizabethan pastoral 
 dramas, his Hey for Honesty, a readaptation of Aristo- 
 phanes' Plutus, the farcical dialogue of Aristippus and 
 monologue of The Conceited Pedlar, two comedies, The 
 Jealous Lover's, and The Muses' Looking-glass, and his 
 various short poems, Randolph holds a high place among 
 the "Sons of Ben." Complimentary verses testify to his 
 friendship with James Shirley and Sir Aston Cockayne, 
 and we have abundant evidence of his admiration and affec- 
 tion for Jonson. A study of such writers as ^lay, Ran- 
 dolph and Cartwright, whose work bears a decidedly aca- 
 demic stamp and like\Wse has a clear relation to the comedy 
 of humors, makes us wish that we knew just what was Jon- 
 son's contact with the universities, and whether perhaps 
 he came in touch directly on academic ground witli the 
 waiters of college drama. 
 
 While an undergraduate, Randolph seems to have made 
 the acquaintance of Jonson, and the following anecdote, 
 interesting, whether or not authentic, has been handed 
 down : 
 
 "Randolph, who was then a student in Cambridge, hav- 
 ing stayed in Loudon so long that he might truly be said 
 to have had a parley ^nth his empty purse, was resolved 
 to see Ben Jonson with his associates, who, as he heard, at 
 a set time kept a club together at the Devil Tavern, near 
 Temple Bar. Accordingly he went thither at the specified 
 
 » Bullt'ii's Old Plays, New Series, III, Works of Davenport, 292; 
 A New Trick to Vhiat the Devil, V, 3. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 81 
 
 time; but, being unknown to them, and wanting money, 
 which, to a spirit like Tom's, was the most daunting thing 
 in the world, he peeped into the room where they were, and 
 was espied by Ben Jonson, who, seeing him in a scholastic 
 threadbare habit, cried out, 'John Bo-peep, come in!' 
 which accordingly he did. They immediately began to 
 rhyme upon the meanness of his clothes, asking him if he 
 could not make a verse, and withal to call for his pot of 
 sack. There being but four of them he immediately re- 
 plied — 
 
 " *I John Bo-peep, 
 
 To you four sheep, 
 With each one his good fleece; 
 
 If that you are willing. 
 
 To give me five shilling, 
 'Tis fifteen pence a piece. ' 
 
 'Why,' exclaimed Ben Jonson, 'I believe this is my son 
 Randolph'; which being made known to them, he was 
 kindly entertained in their company, and Ben Jonson ever 
 after called him his son." ^° 
 
 By several contemporary writers Randolph's name is 
 closely linked with that of Jonson. Among some verses 
 before Harding's Sicily and Naples or the Fatal Union, 
 1640, are these: 
 
 "Thus, friend, the bays still flourish. Jonson dead, 
 Randolph deceas'd, they fall to crown thy head." 
 
 In The Poet's Condition, 1662, by Rowland Watkyns, the 
 two poets are named together: 
 
 "What lands had Randolph, or great Ben?"^^ 
 
 10 Randolph, Works, Introduction, XI. Hazlitt's Islew London 
 .Test-Book, 1871, p. 338. 
 
 11 Ihid., I, p. XIII. 
 
82 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 The writer of the preface to the reader before Hey for Hon- 
 esty tells us that "the adopted son of Ben Jonson, being 
 the translator hereof, followed his father's steps; they both 
 of them loved sack and harmless mirth." " 
 Richard West writes of Randolph: 
 
 "Read's flow'ry pastorals, and you will swear 
 He was not Jonson 's only, but Pan's heir."" 
 
 In some dedicatory verses 6. W. calls him again ' ' true son 
 and heir" of "immortal Ben."" 
 
 Three poems Randolph himself wrote to Jonson. The 
 first is "A gratulatory to ]\Iaster Ben Jonson for his 
 adopting of him to be his son. ' ' He glories in the honor be- 
 stowed on him: 
 
 "thy adoption quits me of all fear, 
 And makes me challenge a child's portion there. 
 
 . . . Ovid, Virgil and the Latin lyre 
 
 That is so like thee, Horace, the whole quire 
 
 Of poets are, by thy adoption, all 
 
 My uncles ...... 
 
 boast I must, 
 Being son of his adoption 
 And to say truth, that which is best in me 
 May call you father; 'twas begot by thee. 
 Have I a spark of that celestial tlame 
 Within me? I confess I stole the same 
 Prometheus-like, from thee."" 
 
 Another poem is ' ' An answer to Master Ben Jonson 's Ode, 
 
 12 Randolph, Works, II, 370. 
 i8/6i(/., II, f)17. 
 ^*lhid., II, 507. 
 »76t(i., II, 637-538. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 83 
 
 to persuade him not to leave the stage" after the failure 
 of The New Inn, 1629', for 
 
 "I know thy worth, and that thy lofty strains '' 
 
 Write not to clothes, but brains. 
 But thy great spleen doth rise, 
 Cause moles will have no eyes ; 
 This only in my Ben I faulty find. 
 He 's angr}^, they '11 not see him that are blind. ' ' ^* 
 
 In "An Eclogue to Master Jonson" Tityrus is Jonson 
 and Damon, Randolph. Damon has broken his reed and 
 does not care to mend it. Tityrus urges him to continue 
 to sen'e the muses, for 
 
 "I meant to thee / 
 
 Of all the sons I have, by legacy 
 To have bequeath 'd my pipe. Thee, thee of all 
 I meant it should her second master call." ^' 
 
 Randolph's dramatic work was done between the years 
 1629 and 1633, and includes a pastoral, a dialogue, a mono- 
 logue and three comedies. The testimony of contempo- 
 raries and the full recognition of debt from Randolph him- 
 self would make us expect to find in his work many evi- 
 dences of Jonson 's influence. Randolph, however, was a 
 close student and genuine lover of the classics, and drew 
 first hand from Aristophanes, Plautus and Terence, as Jon- 
 son had done, ideas about plot, satire and character in 
 comedy. Whether Jonson had anything to do with the 
 direction Randolph's study and interest took, we do not 
 know. Edward Fraunces wrote of The Jealous Lovers: 
 
 i« Randolph, Worlcs, II, 582-583. 
 IT Ihid., II, 606. 
 
84 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 "if by chance, through injurj^ of time, 
 Plautus and Terence and that fragrant thyme 
 Of Attic wit should perish, we might see 
 All those reviv'd in this one comedy."" 
 
 In The Muses' Looking-glass the moral value of comedy 
 is verj' fully set forth : 
 
 "On the stage 
 We set an usurer to tell this age, 
 How ugly looks his soul : a prodigal 
 Is taught by us, how far from liberal 
 His folly bears him. Boldly, I dare say. 
 There has been more by us in some one play 
 Laugh 'd into wit and virtue, than hath been 
 By twenty tedious lectures drawn from sin 
 And foppish humors: hence the cause doth rise. 
 Men are not won by th' ears so well as eyes."^* 
 
 Again, the soul sees her face 
 
 In comedy, and has no other glass." -° 
 
 Comedy works "with shame — 
 
 A thing more powerful in a generous breast. 
 Who sees an eating parasite abus'd; 
 A covetous bawd laugh 'd at; an ignorant gull 
 Cheated; a glorious soldier knock 'd and baffl'd; 
 A crafty servant whipp 'd ; a niggard churl 
 Hoarding up dicing-moneys for liis son ; 
 A spruce, fantastic courtier, a mad roarer, 
 A jealous tradesman, an o'erweening lady, 
 A corrupt lawyer — rightly personated ; 
 
 18 Randolph, Works, I, 03. 
 
 ^9 Ibid., I, 1H;}, The J/hscs' LoukingfiUisa, I, 2. 
 
 20 Ibid., I, 185; The Muses' Lookinyylass, I, 3. 
 
OTHER ''SONS OF BEN" 85 
 
 But (if we have a blush) will blush, and shame 
 As well to act these follies as to own them, ' ' ^^ 
 
 Jonson himself nowhere expresses more plainly or more 
 emphatically a belief in the didactic purpose of comedy 
 to expose and scourge follies and vices. 
 
 Ward explains the purpose of The Muses' Looking-glass 
 as the vindication of the moral power of comedy,-- and 
 marks Randolph's difference here from Jonson in dispen- 
 sing entirely with action and showing in a series of dia- 
 logues between abstract personages representing various 
 vices and virtues, that practicable virtue is a mean be- 
 tween two extremes. The Jealous Lovers, The Muses' 
 Looking-glass and Hey for Honesty, all contain many al- 
 lusions to abuses and knaveries of the time. In the two 
 latter plays, unjust and indifferent justices, proud and 
 whimsical ladies, zealous saints of Amsterdam, corrupt 
 churchmen, and flattering courtiers, are severely satirized. 
 We hear again in The Muses' Looking-glass of the old 
 project to drain the fens, and there also a proposal is made 
 to found a free school in London to teach young gentlemen 
 how to drink and take tobacco, swear, roar and quarrel. 
 
 The picture of the Puritans that we get in The Muses' 
 Looking-glass is full of humor and interest, and is such 
 skillful portraiture as Jonson had created models for in 
 The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair. Bird and IMis- 
 tress Flowerdew, who serve the theater at Blackfriars with 
 feathers and other small wares, express their abhorrence 
 of playhouses ; Roscius, the demonstrator of the action that 
 we learned to look for in Jonson 's comedies, joins them, 
 prevails on them to see the play to be given, and, as it 
 proceeds, explains its significance. Of all the later drama- 
 tists who followed Jonson 's lead in satirizing the Puritans, 
 
 21 Ibid., I, 188-189; The Muses' Looking-glass, I, 4. 
 
 22 Ward III., 135. 
 
86 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 no other has been so successful as Randolph here, and one 
 or two passages are worth}- of quotation: 
 
 Mistress Flowerdew. See, brother, how the wicked throng 
 and crowd 
 To "Works of vanit3'! Not a nook or corner 
 In all this house of sin, this cave of filthiness. 
 This den of spiritual thieves, but it is stuff 'd, 
 Stuff 'd and stuff 'd full, as is a cushion, 
 With the lewd reprobate. 
 
 Bird. Sister, were there not before inns — 
 Yes, I will say inns, for my zeal bids me 
 Say filthy inns — enough to harbor such 
 As travel 'd to destruction the broad way ; 
 But they will build more and more — more shops of 
 Satan ? 
 
 Mis. Flo. Iniquitj- aboundeth, though pure zeal 
 
 Teach, preach, huff, puff, and snuff at it; yet still 
 Still it aboundeth. Had we seen a church, 
 A new-built church, erected north and south. 
 It had been something worth the wondering at. 
 
 Bird. Good works are done. 
 
 Mis. Flo. I say no works are good ; 
 
 Good works are merely popish and apocryphal. 
 
 Mis. Flo. It was a zealous prayer 
 
 I heard a brother make concerning playhouses. 
 
 Bird. For charity, Avhat is't? 
 
 Mis. Flo. That the Globe, 
 
 Wherein (quoth he) reigns a whole world of vioo, 
 
 Had been consum'd: the Phoenix burnt to ashes: 
 
 The Fortune whipp'd for a blind whore: Rlackfriars, 
 
 He wonders how it 'seap'd demolisliing 
 
 I' th' time of reformation: lastly, he wish'd 
 
 The Bull might cross the Thames to the Bear Garden. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 87 
 
 And there be soundly baited. 
 Bird. A good prayer. 
 Miss. Flo. Indeed, it something pricks my conscience 
 
 I come to sell 'em pins and looking-glasses. 
 Bird. I have their custom too for all their feathers: 
 
 'Tis fit that we, which are sincere professors, 
 
 Should gain by infidels. ' ' ^* 
 Again : 
 
 ''Mis. Flo. What do you next present? 
 Roscius. The several virtues. 
 Bird. I hope there be no cardinal virtues there! 
 Ros. There be not. 
 Bird. Then I'll stay. I hate a virtue 
 
 That will be made a cardinal : cardinal virtues, 
 
 Next to pope-virtues, are most impious. 
 
 Bishop-virtues are unwarrantable. 
 
 I hate a virtue in a morrice-dance. 
 
 I will allow of none but deacon-virtues, 
 
 Or elder virtues. 
 Ros. These are moral virtues. 
 Bird. Are they lay-virtues? 
 Ros. Yes. 
 Bi7'd. Then they are lawful : 
 
 Virtues in orders are unsanctified. 
 Ros. We do present them royal, as they are 
 
 In all their state in a full dance. 
 Bird. What dance? 
 
 No wanton jig, I hope ; no dance is lawful 
 
 But prinkum-prankum ! 
 Mis. Flo. Will virtues dance? 
 
 vile, absurd, maypole, maid-marian virtue ! " ^* 
 
 It is in the characters with their descriptive names, al- 
 
 23 Randolph, Works, I, 179-182; The Muses' Looking-glass, I, 1. 
 2* Ibid., 259-260; The Muses' Looking-glass, V, 1, 
 
88 JONSON AND ENGLISH CO:\IEDY 
 
 legorical significance, and distinguishing humors that we 
 trace most surely the direct influence of Jonson. yVsotus 
 of The Jealous Lovers in name and main characteristics 
 owes much to Asotus, the citizen's heir and prodigal of 
 Cynthia's Bevels. Ballio persuades the Asotus of The 
 Jealous Lover's to turn over his purse by convincing him 
 that it indicates a lack of gentility to carrj' his own money, 
 in much tlie same way that Amorpluis inveigles the Asotus 
 of the earlier play out of his new beaver. Ballio and 
 Amorphus both tutor their rich, foolish and self-loving 
 pupils in the art of compliment. As Asotus has the hu- 
 mor of spending, so his father has the humor of acquiring 
 for the son on whom he dotes; T\Tidarus and Techmessa, 
 that of jealousy; and Dipsas, that of scolding. Edward 
 Fraunces commends this comedy as a picture of humors: 
 
 "Pander, gull and whore: 
 The doting father, shark, and many more 
 Thy scene doth represent unto the life. 
 Beside the character of a curst wife : 
 So truly given, in so proper style. 
 As if thy active soul had dwelt a while 
 In each man's body and at length had seen 
 How in their humors they themselves demean." -" 
 
 Ward considers The Mitses' Looking-glass "an inter- 
 esting illustration of the effect exercised upon literary- minds 
 of quick ap])r('hension by the theories and examples which 
 they found in Jonson 's comedy of character,"-" and Dr. 
 Schelling finds here "especially the influence of Jonson 's 
 later revulsion to the mctliods and ideals of tlie old mo- 
 ralities."-^ The author declares frankly that he brings 
 
 28 Randolph, Works, I, 63. 
 20 Ward, III, 134. 
 2T Schellincr. II. 86. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 89 
 
 "No plot at all, but a mere 011a Podrida, 
 A medley of ill-plac'd and worse penn'd humors. 
 His desire was in single scenes to show 
 How comedy presents each single vice 
 Ridiculous." ^^ 
 
 We get abstract and yet witty, original and effective pre- 
 sentation of flattery and impertinence, overweening con- 
 fidence and foolish distrust, vain ostentation and base pen- 
 ury, and many other excesses of virtue that have become 
 vices. 
 
 In regard for classical rules of construction, in moral 
 intent, in subject and quality of satire, and in characters 
 of humors, Randolph's work has likenesses to Jonson's. 
 Just how far these are due to Randolph's ot\ti classic bent 
 and academic study, and how far to Jonson's direct influ- 
 ence, it is impossible definitely to decide. We can say, 
 however, that in the follies and views he satirized and the 
 humors he portrayed, Randolph certainly had accepted 
 the teaching of Jonson. 
 
 Shakerley Marmion, having graduated from Oxford and 
 afterwards tried his fortune as a soldier in the Low Coun- 
 tries, came to London to make his way as a man of letters 
 and gained the patronage of Jonson. Brome, Heywood, 
 and Nabbes were his friends and ^vrote verses for his Cupid 
 and Psyche in 1637. In A Fine Companicm there is a pas- 
 sage which seems- to refer to the gatherings at the Devil 
 Tavern : 
 
 " ^^milia. Whence come you? from Apollo? 
 
 Careless. From the heaven 
 
 Of my delight, where the boon Delphic god 
 Drinks sack, and keeps his Bacchanalias, 
 And has his incense, and his altars smoking, 
 
 28 Randolph, Works, I, 193-194; The Muses' Looking-glass, I, 4. 
 
90 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 And speaks in sparkling prophecies; thence do I 
 come." *' 
 
 For the Jonsonus Virhius, ]\rarmion wrote verses "to the 
 sacred memor}' of his thrice honored father," declaring 
 that from Jonson's light "myself have lately received in- 
 fluence."'" 
 
 IloUand's Leaguer, A Fine Companion and The Anti- 
 quary were written in the thirties and are all comedies of 
 manners and humors. That ^Maraiion had an ethical pur- 
 pose in mind when he began to write we know from the ad- 
 dress to the reader before his earliest play, IloUand's 
 Leaguer: "However my muse has descended to this subject, 
 let men esteem of her only as a reprover, not an interpreter 
 of wickedness," for "former writers in their accurate dis- 
 covery of vice, have mingled their precepts of wisdom. ^^ 
 Philautus in this play is sick of self-love and his friend Fi- 
 delio sets out in the first act to find "a means to cure him of 
 his foil}'." Here and there, through all these plays we find 
 that expository satire which so many of his successors 
 learned from Jonson. In Holland's Leaguer several char- 
 acters rail against the ever-recurring abuse of briber^'; 
 projectors are once again scornfully satirized in accounts 
 of their impossible schemes for making money; and the 
 true gallant who promises anything, never pays, vows love 
 to every fair lady he meets and talks idly all the day long, 
 is described at length. Again, in The Fine Companion 
 "the time's disease of compliment" is ridiculed, and also 
 the vulgar idea concerning a lady that it is necessary for 
 her to "have clients wait at her gates with presents and 
 yet have their servile offices pass unregarded," "be as 
 proud as she list and have new ways to express it," "ride 
 
 20 ^Ta^Ini(•Il, Drnmntic ^Vorks, 138; .1 Fiue Companion, II, 4. 
 no .Toil son, Works, III, 515-510. 
 81 Miirrnion, Works, 5. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 91 
 
 up and down in her litter and have a coach and four horses 
 to follow after, full of gentleman ushers and waiting 
 women. "^^ The subject of watches to which Jonson him- 
 self refers several times comes up again in The Antiquary: 
 
 "Petrutio. And now you talk of time, what time of day is 
 
 it by your watch? 
 Lionell. I have none, sir. 
 
 Pet. How, ne'er a watch? Oh monstrous! How do you 
 consume your hours ? Ne 'er a watch ? 'Tis the great- 
 est solecism in society that e'er I heard of: ne'er a 
 watch ? 
 Lio. How deeply you conceive of it ! 
 
 Pet. You have not a gentleman, that's a true gentleman, 
 
 without one; 'tis the main appendix to a plush lining: 
 
 besides, it helps much to discourse; for, while others 
 
 confer notes together, we confer our watches, and 
 
 spend good part of the day with talking of it. ' ' '^ 
 
 These examples show that while Marmion did succeed 
 
 in catching something of Jonson 's satirical tone, he simply 
 
 rang the changes on subjects already overworked. 
 
 According to a passage in The Antiquary, Marmion held 
 that "So many men, so many humors." Now and again 
 a particular person in the comedies is pointed out as pos- 
 sessing or as evidencing in some way a characteristic hu- 
 mor, and many of the characters are named in accordance 
 with their chief quality. Trimalchio in Holland's Leaguer 
 is "a humorous gallant" and "a giant in conceit," who 
 thus explains his name: 
 
 ''my father's name 
 "Was Malchio, for my three additions 
 Of valor, wit and humor, 'tis enlarged 
 To Mr. Trimalchio." «* 
 
 32 Marmion, Dramatic Works, 130; A Fine Companion, IT, 2. 
 ^3 Ibid., 204; The Antiquary, I, 1. 
 s*Ibid., 28; Holland's Leaguer, II, 1. 
 
92 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 His wit is such that 
 
 "it never fails me, 
 I have it at a certainty : I 'U set it 
 To run so many hours, and when 'tis down, 
 I can wind it up like a watch." ^' 
 
 He fights by geometrj^ : 
 
 " I '11 show you in geometry. 
 Two parallels can never meet : now we two 
 Being parallels, for so we are, that is 
 Equal in wit and valor, can never meet, 
 And if we never meet, we shall ne'er fight. "^° 
 
 Spruce in A Fine Companion is a gallant who continu- 
 ally proffers but never performs courtesies, is a suitor to 
 every woman he meets and keeps a bundle of blank love- 
 letters ready to have names inserted. Lackwit of the same 
 play harks back to Jonson's La-Foole tribe: "This is a 
 book of heraldry, forsooth, and I do find by this book that 
 the Lackwits are a very ancient name, and of large ex- 
 tent, and come of as good a pedigree as any is in the city ; 
 besides they have often matched themselves into very great 
 families, and can quarter their arms, I will not say with 
 lords, but with squires, knights, aldermen, and the like, 
 and can boast their descent to be as generous as any of the 
 La-Fooles or the John Daws whatsoever."^' Captain 
 Whibble is another swaggering, blustering, swearing rois- 
 terer, called in one place, "Kastrill." Petrutio in The 
 Antiquary is a follower of strange fashions and follies, 
 who has traveled and therefore considers himself incom- 
 parable for judgment. The Anticpiary. Voterano, as has 
 already been pointed out,'"' is the mo.st novel of the ju'r- 
 
 38 Marmion, Dramatic Worlcs, 40; Holland's Leaguer, II, S. 
 'i^ Jhid., 1)1; IloUand'a Leaguer, V, 4. 
 ST Ibid., 142; A Fi)ir (\)i)ipaiii()ti, II, 5. 
 38 Ward, III, 148, ami Sclidlin^', II, 270. 
 
OTHER ''SONS OF BEN" 93 
 
 sonages created by Marmion and a happy invention, though, 
 in the end left with the possibilities of the original concep- 
 tion undeveloped and unused. Veterano has directed all 
 his powers in one direction toward the collection of old 
 manuscripts and articles of various kinds until at length 
 he has become exceedingly credulous. After drinking 
 more wine than usual, he believes that he wears Hanni- 
 bal's spectacles, Julius Caesar's hat and Pompey's breeches, 
 and is gulled into purchasing what he supposes a De Re- 
 publica in Cicero's own handwriting and a long lost book 
 of mathematics restored by Ptolemy. 
 
 Though far from attaining his master's powers, it is 
 evident from whom i\Iarmion took lessons in conceiving 
 and portraying character. The plays show a liking for 
 Latin phrases and classical allusions that may have de- 
 veloped under Jonson's influence. The prologue to A Fine 
 Companion consists of a dialogue between a critic and the 
 author, such as Jonson frequently used, and, according to 
 "Ward, borrows part of its phraseology' from Persius.^^ 
 The plots are made up of schemes for gulling or for purg- 
 ing, intrigues and tricks, neither especially clever nor 
 original. Marmion sought to apply Jonson's general the- 
 ories in plot, character and satire, and, however rigid in 
 ^interpretation and lacking in originality the results may 
 be, he did not slavishly imitate any particular play or 
 plays. 
 
 "William Cartwright, according to Wood, was "the most 
 noted poet, orator, and philosopher of his time," and "the 
 most florid and seraphical preacher in the university. ' ' *° 
 Langbaine tells us that "the ablest judge of poetry at that 
 time, I mean Ben Jonson, said with some passion, ']\Iy son 
 Cartwright writes all like a man.' " *^ To the Jonsonus 
 
 39 Ward, III, 147. 
 
 40 Wood, Athen. Oxon., Ill, 69. 
 *i Langbaine. 53. 
 
94 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Viroius he contributed a long elegy, addressing Jonson as 
 "Father of poets." The earliest publisher of his poeins 
 exclaimed in admiration of this: "What had Ben said, 
 had he read his own eternity in that lasting elegy given 
 him by our author!"*^ Whether, however, it added much 
 to Jonson 's fame is a matter of great doubt. 
 
 Cartwright's one comedy of manners, The Ordinary, 
 probably w^ritten in 1634, is a coarse and dull picture of 
 the very lowest classes of London society and centers about 
 a city restaurant of the time. That he has obtained his 
 material at second-hand, the author himself admits in the 
 prologue : 
 
 "That web of mannere which the stage requires, 
 That mass of humors which poetic fires 
 Take in, and boil, and purge, and trj^, and then 
 With sublimated follies cheat those men 
 That first did vent them, are not yet his art ; 
 
 Think, then, if here you find nought can delight, 
 He hath not yet seen vice enough to write. ' ' *' 
 
 It is very evident that Ca^t^\Tight in this play took as his 
 model The Alchemist. Hearsay an intelligencer, Slieer a 
 discharged lieutenant, and Shape a cheater, three sharpers, 
 in imitation of Subtle, Face and Dol, form a confederacy 
 to give mutual assistance. They choose an ordinary as 
 their base of operations and here draw within their net 
 various victims, among others a gamester Caster, who comes 
 like Dapper to learn how to win imfailingly at cards and 
 dice, and Have-at-all, who like Kastrill would know how to 
 prove always valiant and victorious in a fight. In per- 
 sonages, situations and dialogues, tlio j^lny is closely remi- 
 niscent of Jonson. 
 
 «2 Langbaine, SS. 
 
 *» Dodalcy's Old I'laya, .-d. by llazlitt, XII, 209. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 95 
 
 The quarrel of Slicer, Hearsay and Shape with "Widow 
 Potluck in the first act seems to have been suggested by the 
 violent dispute of Subtle, Face and Dol at the beginning 
 of The Alchemist. The way in which the gang draws its 
 victims and slyly dupes them out of their money is in di- 
 rect imitation of the methods portrayed by Jonson. Take 
 as illustration this passage: 
 
 ' ' Caster. Do you think 
 
 I will betray myself or you, whom I 
 Esteem above myself? I have as yet 
 One hundred left, some part of which — 
 
 Shape. Faith, sir. 
 
 These lines require advice; if it should come 
 Unto the council's ear once, he might be 
 Sent into other kingdoms to win up 
 Money for the relief o' tli' state, and so 
 Be as it were an honest kind of exile. 
 
 Cast. If I do e'er discover, may I want 
 Money to pay my ordinary' : may I 
 At my last stake (when there is nothing else 
 To lose the game) throw ames-ace thrice together! 
 I'll give you forty pound in hand — 
 
 Hearsay. I may 
 
 Show you the virtue oft, though not the thing: 
 I love my country very well. Your high 
 And low men are but trifles; your pois'd dye, 
 That's ballasted with quicksilver or gold, 
 Is gross to this — 
 
 Shape. Proffer him more, I say. 
 
 Cas. Here's fifty — 
 
 Hear. For the bristle dye, it is 
 
 Not worth that hand that guides it: toys fit only 
 For clerks to win poor costermongers ' ware with. 
 
 Shape. You do not come on well. 
 
96 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Gas. Here's threescore — 
 
 Hear. Then 
 
 Your hollowed thumb join'd with your wriggled 
 
 box — 
 The slur and such like are not to be talked of; 
 They 're open to the eye. For cards, you may 
 AVithout the help of any secret word 
 Or a false hand, without the cut or shuffle, 
 Or the pack 'd trick, have what you will yourself ; 
 There's none to contradict you. 
 
 Cas. If you please 
 
 But to instruct me, here is fourscore pound. 
 
 Hear. Do you think 'tis money I esteem? I can 
 Command each term by art as much as will 
 Furnish a navy. Had you but five pound 
 Left you in all the world, I'd undertake 
 Within one fortnight you should see five thousand. 
 Not that I covet any of your dross. 
 But that the power of this art may be 
 More demonstrably evident, leave in 
 My hands all but some smaller sum to set. 
 Something to stake at first. 
 
 Shape. He'll tell you all, 
 
 If you but seem to trust him. 
 
 Cas. Here I'll lay 
 
 Down in your hands all but this little portion, 
 Which I reserve for a foundation. 
 
 Hear. Being y'are confident of me, and I 
 
 Presume your lips are sealed up to silence, 
 Take that, which I did never yet discover: 
 So help you fortune, me philosophy."** 
 
 Compare this with the following from I'he Alchemist: 
 
 ** Subtle. Marry, to be so importunate for one 
 That, when he has it, will undo you all : 
 
 4*Dodsley's OhI Phiyif, XII, 243-24C; The Onlinarii, II, 3. 
 
OTHER ''SONS OF BEN" 97 
 
 He '11 win up all the money in the town. 
 Face. How! 
 Siib. Yes, and blow up gamester after gamester 
 
 As they do crackers in a puppet-play. 
 
 Face. Do you think that I dare move him? 
 Dapper. If you please, sir; 
 
 All 's one to him, I see. 
 Face. What ! for that money ? 
 
 I cannot with my conscience ; nor should you 
 
 Make the request, methinks. 
 Dap. No, sir, I mean 
 
 To add consideration. 
 Face. Why then, sir, 
 
 I '11 try. Say that it were for all games, doctor ? 
 Sub. I say then, not a mouth shall eat for him 
 
 At any ordinary, but on the score, 
 
 That is a gaming mouth, conceive me. 
 Face. Indeed! 
 8ub. He'll draw you all the treasure of the realm 
 
 If it be set him. 
 
 Face. Go to. Go thank the doctor: he's your friend, 
 
 To take it so. 
 Dap. I thank his lordship. 
 Face. So! Another angel. 
 Dap. Must I ? 
 Face. Must you ! 'slight, 
 
 What else is thanks ? Will you be trivial ? " *^ 
 
 Caster's dream of what he will do with all the wealth 
 that is to be his is based upon Sir Epicure Mammon's 
 ecstasies of joy as he anticipates the possession of untold 
 riches. Caster exclaims : 
 
 *5 Jonson, Works II, 12-14; The Alchemist, I, 1. 
 
98 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 ' ' First, will I beggar all the gentlemen 
 That do keep terms ; then build vrith what I win. 
 Next I'll undo all gaming citizens, 
 And purchase upon that. The foreman shall 
 Want of his wonted opportunities; 
 Old Thomas shall keep home, I warrant him. 
 I will ascend to the groom-porters next, 
 Fly higher games, and make my mincing knights 
 Walk musing in their knotty freeze abroad; 
 For they shall have no home. There shall not be 
 That pleasure but I '11 balk : I '11 run o 'er nature ; 
 And when I 've ransacked her, I '11 weary art : 
 My means, I 'm sure, will reach it. 
 
 I'll send some forty thousand unto Paul's; 
 Build a cathedral next in Banbury ; 
 Give organs to each parish in the kingdom ; 
 And so root out th' unmusical elect. 
 I '11 pay all soldiers whom their captains won 't ; 
 Raise a new hospital for those maim'd people 
 That have been hurt in gaming: then build up 
 All colleges that ruin hath demolish 'd, 
 Or interruption left imperfect. ' ' " 
 
 Compare with this especially the following: 
 
 "Mammon, No, I assure you, 
 I shall employ it all in pious uses, 
 Founding of colleges and grammar schools, 
 Marrying young virgins, building hospitals. 
 And now and then a church." " 
 
 The rogues, when alone, exult over the success of their 
 schemes, glorying not only in the money they have gained 
 
 "Dodsley'fl Old Plays, XII, 247-248; The Ordinary, II, 3. 
 ♦TjotiHon, Works, II, 25; The Alchemist, II, 1. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 99 
 
 but almost as much in the fun they have had out of their 
 tricks. They talk over what they have accomplished and 
 repeat to one another with keen sense of humor the foolish 
 utterances of their unsuspecting ^dctims. All this is 
 plainly reminiscent of The Alchemist and perhaps also of 
 Volpone. All the sharpers at the end of the play escape 
 by their cleverness the punishment they deserve. We are 
 forced to admire their skill and judge them by an intel- 
 lectual standard rather than a strictly moral one. Here 
 again the influence of The Alchemist is clearly manifested. 
 Ward suggests that the basis of the military dinner de- 
 scribed in great detail, Act II, Scene 1, is to be found in the 
 cook's speech in Jonson's masque, Neptune's Triumph.*^ 
 Cartwright refers slightingly to the Puritans a number 
 of times in The Ordinary and shows that he has been im- 
 pressed by Jonson's satire against them. We find this bit 
 of doggerel in the play : 
 
 "My name's not Tribulation, ^ 
 
 Nor holy Ananias : 
 I was baptized in fashion, 
 Our vicar did hold bias. ' ' *® 
 
 The mercer's speech, liberally interspersed with "brother," 
 "verily," and "truly," is intended as satire against 
 the cant of the Puritans. In the final scene. Shape, 
 Slicer and Hearsay go off to New England : 
 
 " Slicer. There is no longer tarrying here: let's swear 
 
 Fidelity to one another, and 
 
 So resolve for New England. 
 Hearsay. 'Tis but getting 
 
 A little pigeon-hole reformed ruff — 
 Slicer. Forcing our beards into the orthodox bent — 
 
 <8 Ward, III, 1402. 
 
 *9Dodsley's Old Plays, XII, 280: The Ordinary, IV, 1. 
 
100 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Shape. Nosing a little treason 'gainst the King, 
 Bark sometliing at the bishops, and we shall 
 Be easily received. 
 
 Hear. No fitter place. 
 
 They are good silly people; souls that will 
 Be cheated without trouble. One eye is 
 Put out with zeal, th ' other wdth ignorance ; 
 And yet they think they're eagles. 
 
 Shape. We are made 
 
 Just fit for that meridian. No good work's 
 Allowed there : faith — faith is what they call for, 
 And we will bring it 'em. 
 
 Slicer. Wliat language speak they? 
 
 Hear. English, and now and then a root or two 
 
 Of Hebrew, which we'll learn of some Dutch skipper 
 That goes along with us this voyage. "°° 
 
 Cartwright has imitated Jonson more closely than any 
 of the followers previously studied. The confused coarse 
 picture we get in The Ordinanj but sen'cs to throw into 
 stronger relief the \dgor and power of The Alchemist. 
 
 Jasper Mayne was an intimate friend of Cartwright, and 
 like him was a divine, a royalist, a contributor to the Jon- 
 sonus Virhius, and the writer of one comedy in Jonson 's 
 manner. His translation of Lucian's Dialogues, 1638, is 
 dedicated to Jonson 's friend and patron, the Earl of New- 
 castle. The City Match, 1639, is as close an imitation of 
 The Silent Woman as The Ordinanj is of The Alchemist. 
 The address to the reader declares that tlie author did not 
 court fame from the stage, and published his play only 
 by way of self-protection that it might not in a false copy 
 "appear to the world with more than its own faults." His 
 aim was to present notliing 
 
 BoDmlBlov's Old I'lauK, XII. ."nCi.'tlT; The Ordiiiaru. V, 5. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN"" 101 
 
 *'But what was first a comedy i' th' street: 
 Cheapside brought into verse; no passage strange 
 To any here that hath been at th' Exchange. "^^ 
 
 And the play is full of allusions to well-known places and 
 localities in London such as the Temple, the Exchange, the 
 Strand, Fleet Street, the Mermaid, St. Paul's or Westmin- 
 ster Hall. 
 
 Warehouse, the miserly uncle, corresponds to IMorose 
 in The Silent Woman; Frank Plotwell is another clever 
 Dauphine ; Bright and Newcut are slight copies of Tniewit 
 and Clerimont; BannsT^Tight fills the office of Cutbeard 
 in obtaining a wife for the old uncle who is to be duped; 
 and the "philosophical madams" are later representatives 
 of the * ' ladies collegiate. ' ' Warehouse, utterly out of con- 
 ceit of his wild and extravagant nephew, resolves to marry 
 and disinherit the scapegrace. To prevent the marriage, 
 the same sort of device used in The Silent Woman is re- 
 sorted to, but modified in that he is married by a mock 
 priest to a girl already wedded to the nephew. The speech 
 in which Warehouse asserts his determination to marry 
 immediately is modeled after that of Morose when he has 
 decided to take a like step. There are similar threats, 
 similar plans, and similar chuckles of delight over the an- 
 ticipated confusion of the disappointed nephew. After 
 marriage, there is a like sudden transformation of the wife 
 from a quiet timid girl to a loud-voiced dictatorial shrew. 
 Situations and dialogue afford here close parallels. Ware- 
 house, like Morose, is driven to the thought of suicide. 
 Plotwell assures speedy relief to the harassed uncle in 
 return for a promise of reward, ■«*ritten, signed and sealed, 
 in imitation again of Dauphine 's procedure. The entire 
 second half of the play is patterned throughout after Jon- 
 son's great comedy. 
 
 siDodsley's Old Plays, XIII, 319; Epilogue to The City Match. 
 
102 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 JIany of the minor imitations in descriptions, jokes and 
 allusions have already been pointed out by r^Iiss Henry in 
 her edition of Epicmne^- Take, for instance, the descrip- 
 tion of the widow in The City Match: 
 
 "some old widow, which at every cough 
 Resigns some of her teeth, and every night 
 Puts off her leg as duly as French hood, 
 Scarce wears her own nose, hath no eyes but such 
 As she first bought in Bread Street, and every morning, 
 Is put together like some instrument. ' ' '' 
 
 Compare this with Tom Otter's description of his wife: 
 "All her teeth were made in the Blackfriars, both her 
 eyebrows in the Strand, and her hair in Silver Street. 
 Ever\' part of the to^\Ti o\ms a piece of her. . . . She 
 takes herself asunder still when she goes to bed, into some 
 twenty boxes; and about next day noon is put together 
 again, like a great German Clock."'* Anything but at- 
 tractive these descriptions certainly are, but they sen-e to 
 show how minutely Mayne again and again followed 
 Jonson. ]\riss Henry refers the account of monstrosities 
 in The City Match, Act III, Sc. 1 to Epiccetic, Act II, 
 Sc. 1, but the latter is simply a reference to "masques, 
 plays, Puritan preachings, mad folks, and other strange 
 sights." There seems to be a more direct parallel here 
 with The Alchemist, Act V, Sc. I, where there is a like 
 enumeration of particular strange sights. 
 
 Mayne does not forget to take his turn at satirizing the 
 Puritans. The requirements for becoming one of them arc 
 defined as the ability to turn up the eyes, "speak in the 
 nose, draw sighs of an ell long, and rail at discipline." 
 Dorcas, who in the progress of the plot is married to 
 
 82 Yale Studies in English, XXXI, 100(1; Intrcihu-tion. LVII- 
 LVIII. 
 
 "Dodsley's Old Plays, XIII. 237; The City Match, II, \. 
 »« Jonson, Works, I, 438; The Silent Woman, IV. 1. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 103 
 
 Warehouse, assumes for dis^ise the dress, speech and 
 manner of a Puritan, and then serves as a lady's maid. 
 Her mistress complains of her: 
 
 * ' I am never dress 'd 
 Without a sermon ; but am fore 'd to prove 
 The lawfulness of curling-irons, before 
 She '11 crisp me in a morning. I must show 
 Texts for the fashions of my gowns. She'll ask 
 Where jewels are commanded? or what lady 
 I ' th ' primitive times wore ropes of pearl or rubies ? " ^^ 
 
 Two satirical references are made to "the new heresy, Pla- 
 tonic love." The ridicule with which the popular eager- 
 ness to see abnormal and unusual objects is portrayed has 
 already been mentioned. Two scenes are devoted to the ex- 
 hibition by a crowd of wits of a simple gull as a man-fish. 
 
 The City Match is a clever and interesting imitation of 
 The Silent Woman, and Mayne is here largely indebted to 
 Jonson for plot, characters and satire. 
 
 In Henry Glapthorne for the first time in this study we 
 come to a man between whom and Jonson there is no evi- 
 dence of any direct personal relation. We do not know 
 that Jonson ever called him ' ' Son, ' ' or even received from 
 him complimentary verses. The testimony of his plays 
 must then be wholly depended upon to justify the assign- 
 ment to him of a place in the present group of writers. 
 Beyond the fact that like Marmion, Cartwright and ]\Iayne 
 he devotedly supported the royal cause, practically nothing 
 is known of his life. He wrote several tragedies and tragi- 
 comedies, following the manner of Fletcher and Shirley; 
 but the plays with which we are chiefly concerned here are 
 two comedies of manners, The Hollander and Wit in a Con- 
 stable, both belonging to the thirties, one acted in 1635 and 
 the other in 1639. The Ladies' Privilege, an heroic play, 
 
 35Dodsley's Old Plays, XIII, 226; The City Match, II, 2. 
 
104 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 1640, contains also several characters conceived on the 
 basis of humors. 
 
 We find here not the same direct imitation of particular 
 plays, characters and passages that appeared in the com- 
 edies of Cartwright and ]\Iayne, but such more general in- 
 fluence on plot, personage and satire as characterized the 
 work of IMarmion. The same ever recurring fads, follies 
 and abuses are satirized; the same old kinds of triclcs and 
 schemes are affected; the same familiar types of character 
 are presented. 
 
 In Tlie Hollander the group of roarers call themselves 
 the "Twibill Knights"; the rules of the order are set forth 
 at length ; and the initiation of a foolish coxcomb into the 
 brotherhood is satirically portrayed. Reference is scorn- 
 fully made in both The Hollander and The Ladies' Privi- 
 lege to the "precise precisians." The Hollander and Wit 
 in a Constable return to the overworked subject of monopo- 
 lies, and both refer slightingly to the Puritans. The 
 make-up of the woman of fashion is ndieuled in The Hol- 
 lander, and the abuse of fees and bribes deplored in the 
 same play. Both subject and manner of satire are such 
 as we have already become thoroughly acquainted with in 
 Jonson's imitators. 
 
 The Hollander and Wit in a Constable both have their 
 scenes laid in Loudon, and botli present coarse pictures of 
 the life of the city with many allusions to well-known 
 places. The plots have the usual network of trickery and 
 roguery. In The Hollander, a doctor and his wife set out 
 to gull all who come within their range, and after various 
 intrigues, projects and counter-projects, are themselves 
 gulled in the marriage of their daugliter contrary to all 
 their j)lans. Wit in a Constable atl'ords one or two new 
 situations and the plot is developed cleverly and interest- 
 ingly. Jcroniy IToldfa.st. who has been assuming sehiv 
 hustic tastes and seeking "to be esteemed by his volumes," 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 105 
 
 is persuaded by Thorowgood to turn city gallant. Thorow- 
 good himself then approaches the uncle of the girl intended 
 for Holdfast, and by his learned vocabulary and pedantic 
 cant deceives that admirer of those who "speak learnedly" 
 "metaphors and tropes scholastic." 
 
 The principal character of humors in The Hollander is 
 Sconce the Hollander, another member of the La-Foole 
 tribe. "My name," he says, "is Sconce, sir, Master 
 Jeremy Sconce. I am a gentleman of a good family, and 
 can derive my pedigree from Duke Alva's time; my an- 
 cestors kept the inquisition out of Amsterdam. " ^^ He is 
 duped to believe in a "weapon salve" which, when applied 
 to the iron or steel that has produced a wound, will heal 
 immediately an injury however great. There is a likeness 
 here to a Jonsonian character in Shirley's The Young Ad- 
 miral — Pazzarello, who was led to believe that he had been 
 made invulnerable. In the satirical drawing of Sconce, we 
 see a hatred of the Dutch, manifested in a number of plaj'^s 
 written about the same time as The Hollander. The hu- 
 mor of Alderman Covet in Wit in a Constable is a foolish 
 admiration for pedantrj-; and that of Busy, a pride in his 
 own wit. The charge which the constable gives to his men, 
 as has been frequently noted, is plainly an imitation of that 
 delivered by Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. 
 Other characters of humor are Jeremy Holdfast in his rapid 
 transfiguration from a pretended pedant to a gay gallant ; 
 and Sir Timothy Shallowit, who has come up from the 
 country to change his "ancient garment to a new one of a 
 more spruce edition" and whose unvarjdng phrase of as- 
 sent is "very right." Frangipan of The Ladies' Privi- 
 lege always brings news already known and "relates things 
 by tradition as dogs bark ' ' ; Corimba, a woman of the court, 
 goes about provided with material to cut at a moment's 
 notice for any one's face a patch in the shape of a heart; 
 
 56 Glanthorne Dramatic Works I 85; The Hollander. I, 1. 
 
106 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 and Adorni has a humor for imitating whatever humors 
 in other men appear to him laughable and ridiculous. 
 
 Such are the satire, plots and humorous characters of 
 Glapthome's comedies. We have come a long way from 
 Jonson's vigorous characters, skillfully executed plots and 
 trenchant satire, but it is not difficult to trace the line of 
 descent. 
 
 Thomas Nabbes again was a gentleman, a scholar, a mem- 
 ber of court circles, and a loyal friend of the Stuarts. 
 Like other play-writers of this group, he tried his hand at 
 several kinds of drama, classical tragedy, masque, and com- 
 edy of ever\"-da.y life. Three such comedies, written in the 
 thirties, entitle him to a place here. Complimentary verses 
 ^ve testimony of his friendship with Shakerley ^larmion 
 and Richard Brome, and while there is no direct evidence 
 of association, yet he surely must have known Jonson. 
 There is a reference to Jonson in Tottenham Court where 
 one of the characters cries out: "Give me Jonson and 
 Shakespeare; there's learning for a gentleman.'"' 
 
 In the prologue to Covcnt Gardsn Nabbes lays claim to 
 originality and declares that he offers 
 
 "no borrow 'd strain 
 From the invention of another's brain;""*' 
 
 and Langbaine supports this claim: "what our author has 
 published is his own and not Iwrrowed from othoi-s. """ 
 Nabbes does have individuality of his own, and his freedom 
 from coarseness, fn-st-hand observation of life, naturalness 
 of character and dialogue, bring a welcome relief from the 
 plays of the three or four preceding wTiters. BuUcn com- 
 ments on Nabbes' "virtuous and refined gentlemen" and 
 "modest, well-conducted girls, devoted to their lovers and 
 
 BT Bullon's Old Plays, Netc Scrim, T, 13^; Tottenham Court, TIT, 1. 
 
 18 Ibid., I, 5. 
 
 •n Fjangbninp, .170. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 107 
 
 courageous in the face of difficulties, ' ' ^° and they fully de- 
 serv'e the commendation given them. To assert that Nabbes 
 was influenced by Shirley and Jonson does not involve the 
 denial of his possession of originality. Bullen gives him 
 his "place at the feet of Shirley on the lower slopes of 
 Parnassus," for "he has much of Shirley's fluency and re- 
 finement."®^ A study of the three comedies, Covent Gar- 
 den, Tottenham Court and The Bride proves also the pres- 
 ence of Jonson 's influence. 
 
 Directly or indirectly the construction of these plays 
 points back to Jonson. There is comparative regularity, 
 and the action takes place within a few hours in London 
 and its environs. The epilogue to Covent Garden declares 
 this a play 
 
 "wherein was no disguise, 
 
 No wedding, no improbable devise ; 
 
 But all an easy matter, and contain 'd 
 
 Within the time of action. ' ' ®- 
 
 The plots include "projects" to "gull" and intrigues of 
 various kinds, some of them clever and inventive. Covent 
 Garden, Tottenham Court and The Bride all portray every- 
 day London life and contain many allusions to such well- 
 known places as ]\Iiddlesex, Tyburn, Ludgate or Bridewell, 
 and interesting descriptions of contemporary customs. 
 Here is some information from Covent Garden about the 
 methods of strolling players : 
 
 "Dohson. But tell me, Ralph, are those players the ragged 
 fellows that were at our house last Christmas, that 
 borrowed the red blanket off my bed to make their 
 mayor a gown; and had the great pot-lid for Guy of 
 Warwick's buckler? 
 
 80 Bullen, I, XIV. 
 61 Ibid., I, XX. 
 ezlbid., I, 91. 
 
108 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 Ralph. No, Dobson, they are men of credit, whose actions 
 are beheld by every one, and allow 'd for the most part 
 with commendations. They make no yearly progress 
 with the anatomy of a sumpter-horse, laden with the 
 sweepings of Long-Lane in a dead vacation and pur- 
 chased at the exchange of their own whole wardrobes. 
 They buy not their ordinary for the copy of a prologue, 
 nor insinuate themselves into the acquaintance of an 
 admiring ningle, who for his free coming in is at the 
 expense of a tavern supper, and rinses their bawling 
 throats -^^-ith Canary." *^ 
 
 Nabbes is not wholly free from didactic purpose. In the 
 dedication of Tottenham Court he censures the vulgar "who 
 please their senses oftener with show than their intellects 
 with the true moral end of plays, instruction."** Several 
 times he expressly points out that he is whipping vice and 
 folly with "satire," and scattered through all three plays 
 are well-written moral observations and maxims on right 
 means to an end, temperance, good judgment, avoidance 
 of scandal, honesty and like subjects. Sir Generous 
 Worthy in Covent Garden is "purged" of his "humor" of 
 jealousy as are other characters of their corresponding 
 follies. We find no new objects of satire, but the familiar 
 ridicule of projectors, bribe-takers, fashionable courtiers 
 and superficial gentlemen, roarers, and Puritans. 
 
 The theory of humors is applied most fully in the char- 
 acters of Covent Garden. Dungworth desires to sell his 
 acres, buy a knighthood and turn gallant; Susan, a wait- 
 ing-woman, is greatly addicted to sack which never fails 
 to produce in her a "loving humor," so that she courts 
 every man slip moots; Warrant and Spruce, "Knight <if the 
 Inkhom" and "Knight of the Spanish Needle," boastfully 
 
 11 liullen'a OH Plays, New Serios, I. 9; Corctit Ganfrn, T, 1. 
 0* Jbid., I, 95. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 109 
 
 challenge each other to a duel but prove complete cowards ; 
 Littleword, true to his name, stands speechless before the 
 lady he would win ; and Mistress Tongall, the gossip, has an 
 unlimited supply of words and offers to every man on every 
 possible occasion her daughter Jinny as a reward of any 
 courtesy or service whatsoever. Nabbes seems to have re- 
 alized the artificiality of such a method of constructing 
 character even while he made use of it, and caused IMistress 
 Tongall to say of some one who is watching her : ' ' 'Tis his 
 practice of observation. He is taking a humor for a play ; 
 perhaps my talking of my daughter Jinny. ' ' ^^ 
 
 The chief humorous character of Tottenham Court is the 
 fantastic gallant, Changelove, "the Proteus of affection" 
 with "as many shapes of love as there are objects." In 
 The Bride we find a group of roarers; an antiquary ab- 
 sorbed in his collection of rarities and antiquities; Plaster, 
 "the learned surgeon that speaks nothing but Latin, be- 
 cause either he would not be understood or not contra- 
 dicted"; and Mrs. Ferret, a rarely obedient wife to the 
 public ear and eye, but in private a shrew of shrews and 
 complete master of her husband. She changes her tone 
 with amazing rapidity when she addresses him in asides: 
 
 ^'Ooodlove. Mr. Justice Ferret, 
 
 This was a large expression of your love 
 To come over the water. 
 
 Ferret. 'Twas my wife's desire. 
 
 Good. Kind Mistress Ferret! 
 
 M. Fer. Sir, the respects I bear you, and the obedience I 
 owe my husband that commanded it, brought me over 
 willingly to offer my service to so noble a friend. 
 
 Good. Your courtesies overcome me. 
 
 M. Fer. — A rot on the best linings of your three pil'd 
 durable, your everlasting almanac of high days, 
 
 66 Bullen's Old Plays, New Series, I, 71; Covent Garden, IV, 6. 
 
110 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 feasts and sessions; was it my desire? Thou liest, 
 thou wrong side of a lawyer turn'd outwards: I had 
 better business at home. I could have seen if ^lother 
 Whirl had spun the last pound of flax I sent her, or 
 called at Knock's the weaver's for my new napkins. 
 I have no maids to cudgel their tasks out of. Indeed 
 I can hardly keep any for such a goat as thou art. 
 
 Good. Are you offended with your husband, Mrs. Ferret? 
 
 M. Per. Obedience forbid it ; my head, or if I may use the 
 honorable phrase here without offense, my cap of main- 
 tenance. 
 
 Fer. No, no, sir ; she was but excusing a few faults. 
 
 M. Fer. — IIow, sir bubber, must the world take notice 
 by you that I have faults or modesty to excuse 
 them?"°° 
 
 Bullen characterizes Mrs. Ferret as ' ' quite a Jonsonian fig- 
 ure recalling the immortal ]\Irs. Otter. "°^ 
 
 Nabbes was no slavish imitator, but in construction, real- 
 istic portrayal of contemporary life, moral satire, and char- 
 acters of humors, his comedies show clearly results of Jon- 
 son's general influence. 
 
 Sir Aston Cockayne seems to have felt the influence of 
 Jonson as diffused in the dramatic atmosphere of tlie time 
 rather than to have consciously studied and accepted his 
 theories in any such way as did "Sons" like Randolph, 
 ]Mannion, Cartwright, Mayne or the Duke of Newcastle. 
 Cockayne was a gentleman, educated in both universities, 
 much traveled abroad, and extensively connected with the 
 gcntiy and nobility of his time. Wood says of iiim that 
 "he was esteemed by many an ingeuiou.s gentleman, a good 
 poet and a great lover of learning, yet by others a perfect 
 boon fellow, by which means he wasted all ho had."*" lie 
 
 «8 Billion's Old Plays, II. I5-IG; The Bride, 1, 4. 
 
 «7 Ibid., I, XVII. 
 
 «8\Vood, Athcn. Oxon., IV, 129. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 111 
 
 knew intimately many contemporary poets and dramatists, 
 and had seen Jonson. He writes of "ray good friend old 
 Philip Massinger, " ^^ and tells us elsewhere that "Donne, 
 Suckling, Randolph, Drayton, Massinger, Jonson, Chap- 
 man, and Holland I have seen. ' ' '^^ There is a general ref- 
 erence to Jonson in the prologue to The Obstinate Lady: 
 
 "for if y' are come to-day 
 In expectation of a faultless play 
 Writ by learn 'd Jonson, or some able pen 
 Fam'd and approv'd of by the world, you then 
 We disappoint. ' "^ 
 
 Cockayne wrote some short poems, a masque, a transla- 
 tion of an Italian romance, a tragedy, a tragi-comedy, and 
 a comedy. The Ohstinate Lady, dating 1638 ''^ or 1639, as 
 has been noticed by several critics, owes its greatest debt in 
 plot and incident to Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher.'^ 
 In the characters alone are to be found traces of Jonson 's 
 influence. The "humor" of Lucora, the obstinate lady, is 
 a resolve never to marrj^; Phyginois is ever ready to utter 
 a speech of meaningless eloquence, "a wordy nothing" ; and 
 Lorece, a fantastic gallant, is the "poetical servant" of a 
 rich widow. The similarity of Lorece 's account of his 
 travels. Act II, Scene 1, to a narrative of imaginary experi- 
 ences by Freshwater, a Jonsonian character, in Shirley's 
 Ball, has been pointed out.^* In the tragi-comedy, Tra- 
 polin, there are many references to the "humor" of the 
 good-natured, fun-loving buffoon who gives title to the play 
 and is through magic made to look like the Duke of Tuscany. 
 
 69Eng. Stud., XIV, 56. 
 
 '0 Randolph's Works, I, XII. 
 
 71 Cockayne, Dramatic Works, 21. 
 
 72 Fleay dates 1G31, but Schelling, 1638 or 1639, on account of 
 reference to Brome's Antipodes of 1638. 
 
 T3 Cockayne's Dramatic Works, 18-19. 
 74 Schelling, II, 282. 
 
112 JONSOX AND EXGLISH CO:\IEDY 
 
 All these are characters of hunioi*s, sketched and outlined, 
 though not carefully nor fully developed. 
 
 It is not as a dramatist that William Cavendish, Duke 
 of Newcastle, is usually rememl^ered, but as a loyal ad- 
 herent of the Stuart kings in the Civil AVar and as a munifi- 
 cent patron of contemporary men of letters. lie was also 
 a great lover and master of the "art of manage" and vrrote 
 two celebrated treatises on horsemanship. "No person 
 since the time of Augustus," says Langbaine, "better un- 
 derstood dramatic poetry nor more generously encouraged 
 poets; so that we may truly call him our English ]\Iae- 
 cenas."" Shirley, Davenant, Dryden, Shadwell, Flecknoe 
 and Congreve, all received favors from him; but to none 
 does he seem to have performed more fully and heartily 
 the office of friend and patron than to Jonson. This poet 
 wrote verses in praise of the Duke's riding and fencing, 
 epitaphs for various members of the family, an interlude 
 for the christening of his son Charles, and two masques. 
 Love's Welcome at Wetbeck and Love's Welcome at 
 Bolsover, for entertainments given by him to the King and 
 Queen. The Duchess in her Letters reports that her hus- 
 band said he had "never heard anyone read well but Jon- 
 son."^" Two references to the Devil Tavern are made in 
 The Countrij Captain and perhaps the Duke sometimes 
 joined there the group of comrade-wits gathered about Jon- 
 son. 
 
 A number of lettere from Jonson to the Duke testify to 
 the admiration and gratitude witli wliit-h he regarded his 
 generous benefactor. Tlie foUowiiig, written about 1628, 
 when he was sutlV'ring from poverty and sickness, makes an 
 appeal for assistance : 
 
 "My noblest Lord and best Patron, 
 
 I send no borrowing epistle to provolce your lordship, for 
 
 7B Langbaine, 38(5. 
 
 li Letters, quoted by Wurd, II, 321'. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 113 
 
 I have neither fortune to repay, nor security to engage, 
 that will be taken; but I make a most humble petition to 
 your lordship's bounty to succor my present necessities 
 this good time of Easter, and it shall conclude all begging 
 requests hereafter on the behalf of your truest beadsman 
 and most thankful serv^ant, B. J." '' 
 
 Another letter was written in response to the Duke's re- 
 quest for a copy of some complimentary verses addressed 
 to Jonson by admirers: 
 "My noblest Lord and my Patron by excellence, 
 
 I have here obeyed your commands and sent you a packet 
 of my own praises, which I should not have done if I had 
 any stock of modesty in store: — but "obedience is better 
 than sacrifice," — and you command it. I am now like an 
 old bankrupt in wit, that am driven to pay debts on my 
 friends' credit; and for want of satisfying letters to sub- 
 scribe bills of exchange. 
 
 Your devoted 
 4th Feb. 1632. Ben Jonson. "^^ 
 
 Later, Jonson sent him, for reading and criticism, part 
 of a book now lost, and began the accompanying letter 
 thus: 
 
 "My Lord, 
 
 The faith of a fast friend with the duties of an humble 
 servant, and the hearty prayers of a religious beadsman, 
 are kindled upon this altar to your honor, my honorable 
 lady, your hopeful issue, and your right noble brother, 
 be ever my sacrifice." ^^ The following is part of a letter 
 that probably accompanied Love's Welcome at Welbeck: 
 
 "My noble Lord and my best Patron, 
 
 I have done the business your lordship trusted me with ; 
 77Jonson's Works, ed. by Cunningliam, I, p. CXXXIV. 
 
 T8 Hid., I, cxxxv. 
 
 T8 Ibid., 1, p. CXXXVIII. 
 
114 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 and the morning after I received by my beloved friend, 
 Master Payne, your lordship's timely gratuity — I style it 
 such, for it fell like the dew of heaven on my necessities — 
 I pray to God my work may have deserved it; I meant it 
 should in the working it, and I have hope the performance 
 will conclude it. In the meantime, I tell your lordship 
 what I seriously think — God sends you these chargeable 
 and magnificent honors of making feasts, to mix with your 
 charitable succors, dropt upon me j'our servant; who have 
 nothing to claim of merit but a cheerful undertaking what- 
 soever your lordship thinks me able to perform. ' ' ^^ 
 
 Not only did the Duke of Newcastle turn to Jonson for 
 the composition of masques to be used in entertainments to 
 the King and Queen, but, when for his own amusement he 
 tried his hand at writing plays, he sought guidance and di- 
 rection from the same source. Langbaine gives his testi- 
 mony that the Duke "had a more particular kindness for 
 that great master of dramatic poesy, the excellent Jonson ; 
 and 'twas from him that he attained to a perfect knowl- 
 edge of what was to be accounted true humor in com- 
 edy."*^ Richard Brome wrote in some verses "To my 
 Lord of Newcastle on his play called The Variety, he hav- 
 ing commanded to give him my true opinion of it," as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "I would depose each scene appear 'd to me 
 An act of wit, each act a conu'dy. 
 And all was such, to all tliat understood. 
 As knowing Jonson, swore by God 'twas good."'* 
 
 Of direct references to Jonson 's work within Newcastle's 
 plays, there is but one, a passing allusion to The Alchemist 
 in The Country Captain. 
 
 Four comedies are ascribed to the Duke of Newcastle: 
 
 80 Jonson, Works, I, CXX.XIX. 
 
 81 Lungbuiiio, tiiHi. 
 
 82 Brome, ^^ork8, II, 179. 
 
OTHER "SONS OF BEN" 115 
 
 The Country Captain, The Variety, The Humorous Lovers 
 and The Triumphant Widow. The latter two have not 
 been available for the present study, and furthermore, were 
 acted after the Restoration. The former were printed to- 
 gether in 1649, but acted at Blackfriars in 1639 or 1640.*^ 
 In the plot of The Country Captain may be traced remi- 
 niscences of Shirley rather than of Jonson, and we are con- 
 stantly reminded of situations and devices in The Witty 
 Fair One, The Wedding, Hyde Park and The Lady of 
 Pleasure. Not only in the plot but also in the class of so- 
 ciety portrayed, the dialogue, the quality of the humor, 
 and the style of certain passages, the influence of Shirley 
 is manifest. Wood has told us that this dramatist assisted 
 the Duke in the composition of certain plays.^* Indeed, 
 The Country Captain was for a time ascribed to Shirley, 
 but has been proved to belong unquestionably to Newcastle. 
 The Variety, on the other hand, bears no marks of Shirley's 
 influence. AVard thinks it the better play, but in the pres- 
 ent writer's judgment it is not nearly so interesting nor 
 so well-constructed. I\Iadame Voluble 's school of fashion, 
 with lectures on dress and manners, is another imitation of 
 "Wittipol's discourses in The Devil is an Ass. The group 
 of humorists gathered about Lady Beaufield, a "lady of 
 spirit and entertainment, the only magnetic widow 
 i' th' town," ^^ may have been suggested by the group cen- 
 tered around Lady Loadstone in The Magnetic Lady. 
 
 The Duchess says of her husband 's purpose in these plays 
 that "his chief design in them is to divulge and laugh at 
 the follies of mankind; to persecute vice and to encourage 
 virtue." ^® In The Country Captain the author shows folly 
 as folly and vice'as vice with sane and true moral sense; 
 two of the principal characters at the end of the play de- 
 es Fleay, I, 48. 
 
 84 Wood, Athen. Oxon., Ill, 739. 
 S3 Newcastle, The Variety, 1649, p. 2; I, 1. 
 8QLi/e, ed. by C. H. Firth, 1886, pp. 201-202. 
 
116 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 clare themselves "cured" of wrongful purposes, and minor 
 personages as a result of their folly and stupidity are thor- 
 oughly "gulled"; yet the fundamental intent does not 
 seem to be essentially didactic any more than in Shirley's 
 comedies. The Variety, in plot and general tone, is more 
 frankly satirical and more rigidly punishes each character 
 according to his deserts. Jeering, news-collecting, slavish 
 following of fashions, indiscriminate knighting, and super- 
 ficial assuming of a humor are warmly ridiculed. A bit of 
 sixteenth century satire on "learned women" deserves to 
 be quoted: 
 
 "Neionan. — But these ladies are very tedioiLS; we must 
 have this lecture put down. 
 
 Sir William. They are more like to purchase Gresham Col- 
 lege, and enlarge it for public professors. You may 
 live to see another university built, and only women 
 commence doctors. ' ' ^^ 
 
 But it was chiefly in the construction of his characters 
 that Newcastle followed the lead of Jonson. In The Coun- 
 try Captain another representative of the Matthew type is 
 found in JNIonsieur Device, who is "an English monsieur 
 made up by a Scotch tailor that was prentice in France," 
 and a master of compliment who drosses himself out in col- 
 ored ribbons to express the varying states of hopes and feai*s 
 in his affections, and above all, composes wonders in verse. 
 Underwit, an interesting variation of Stephen in Every Mati 
 in His Humor, has been made captain of the traiu-band, so 
 feels it "honorable" to forget his best friends, refuses to 
 answer to "nuister, " and ordei's his servant to go birding 
 each morning about the house and slioot pigeons that he 
 may get used to the noise of shot. Captain Saekbury is 
 again an imitation of Bobadil, a lover of siick, "tliat wears 
 
 87 Newcastle, The Varuly, 1049, p. 20; II, 1. 
 
OTHER ''SONS OF BEN" 117 
 
 no money in his scarlet hose, and when he is drunk is in- 
 flicted with counsel." He undertakes to teach Underwit 
 wars and fortifications, and having beaten his pupil after 
 too liberal a portion of sack, requires that foolish youth to 
 ask his pardon for the beating. Engine, who proposes to 
 make a patron rich by a monopoly of periwigs, recalls the 
 projector Meercraft and his assistant Engine in The Devil 
 is an Ass. 
 
 The idea of humors is prominent throughout The Variety. 
 The author by frequent use of the word insists that we shall 
 not fail to realize that humors are being portrayed. 
 Manly, with his fancy for wearing the habit of Leicester 
 and singing old songs, illustrates the humor that is super- 
 ficial or temporarily assumed: Simpleton's one great de- 
 sire is to be a gentleman; Sir William is in pursuit of a 
 wealthy wife; Galliard considers it the most important 
 thing in the world to be able to bow properly and dance 
 gracefully; Formall has a capacity for news-gathering 
 that would entitle him to a place in Jonson's Staple of 
 News, and like Sir Politick Would-be in Volpone is ac- 
 quainted with secrets of court and state which he imparts 
 confidentially to any willing listener ; Lady Beaufield wishes 
 above all else to know the latest fashions; the Jeers, Major 
 and Minor, have the method of jeering reduced to a system 
 and hold it a certain means of accomplishing any undertak- 
 ing. 
 
 In several familiar situations, in the use of moral satire, 
 but chiefly in the characters of humors, do we find proofs 
 that the Duke of Newcastle in writing his comedies ac- 
 cepted the teaching of Jonson. 
 
 With Sir William Davenant we end our study of "Sons 
 of Ben" in English comedy before the Restoration. He 
 forms a connecting link between the drama before the clos- 
 ing of the theaters in 1642 and after the return of Charles 
 II, and is chiefly known for his part in the development of 
 
118 JONSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 the Restoration heroic play out of the Fletcherian tragi- 
 comedy. However, Davenant's method was eclectic, and 
 while he was decidedly a follower of the romantic school, 
 yet, like Beaumont and Fletcher, Shirley and Massinger, 
 he did not disdain to learn somewhat from Jonson, and to 
 apply the theory of humors in one or two plays. He be- 
 gan his dramatic career in 1629, the year that Jonson bit- 
 terly realized in the failure of The New Inn that he had lost 
 his hold on the stage. There remains no evidence of direct 
 personal relation between the two poets. Sixteen months 
 after the death of Jonson, in 1638, Davenant was appointed 
 as his successor in the poet-laureateship, and this ollfice he 
 held under both Charles I and Charles II. Thomas Peck 
 in an epigram to Davenant joins his name with that of Jon- 
 son: 
 
 "That Ben, whose head deserved the Roscian bays. 
 Was the first gave the name of works to plays : 
 You, his corival, in this waspish age, 
 Are more than Atlas to the fainting stage. " '" 
 
 On his grave, in imitation of the famous epitaph to Ben 
 Jonson, was A\Titten, "0 rare Sir "William Davenant!" 
 
 Some slight influence of the Jonsonian satire may be de- 
 tected in Davenant's work. The Wits and News from 
 Plymouth, both dating from the first half of the thirties, 
 contain bits of expository satire against wit.s, news-gather- 
 ers, takers of bribas, Puritans, silenced ministers and aca- 
 demics. In The Wits there is brought about a "conver- 
 sion" of the Elder Palatine and Sir ^Morglay Tiiwack. two 
 country gentlemen who have foolishly leased out all their 
 lands and rents for pious uses and have come to town to live 
 by their wits. Tltc I'latonic Lovers, 1636, aims througliout 
 to ridicule the fashionable court fajicy of the time, Platonic 
 love. 
 
 It is in the characters of The Wits and News from 
 
 ""British Bibliographer, II, 312. 
 
OTHER ''SONS OF BEN" 119 
 
 Plymouth that we find surest evidence of Jonson's influence. 
 Palatine the Elder and Sir Morglay Thwack of the former 
 play have unbounded confidence in their own wit and their 
 ability to live by it; Sir Tyrant Thrift is governed wholly 
 by avarice; Snore, the constable, puts to sleep his sense 
 of justice under the persuasive influence of money and 
 wine. More Jonsonian are Sir Solomon Trifle, Sir Furious 
 Inland, and Lady Loveright of News from Plymouth. 
 Lady Loveright "s ' ' humor ' ' is for a husband without money 
 or learning. Sir Furious Inland has a most belligerent 
 "humor," is ''subject to the disease of quarreling" "and 
 ready always to beat any one with or without provocation." 
 Sir Solomon Trifle recalls Justice Clack of Brome's A Jo- 
 vial Crew: 
 
 "He's a Justice of Peace, 
 And in his country, custos rotulorum; 
 He can give a charge to the jury at Quarter-Sessions, 
 And tell aforehand what will be their answer; 
 To all his fellow justices he speaks gravely, 
 And will hear none but himself. ' ' ^^ 
 
 "The perpetu,al motion is in his tongue," and he does not 
 hesitate to interrupt all speakers with "give me leave" 
 or ' ' this you would say ' ' and to set forth at length what he 
 considers himself better able to express. By means of his 
 group of intelligencers, Scarecrow, Zeal and Prattle, he 
 sets up a staple of news, gathers and distributes "news of 
 all sorts and sizes" and can furnish complete information 
 about "the designs of Europe." 
 
 Perhaps Davenant was unconscious of being in any sense 
 a follower of Jonson, so thoroughly had the satiric tone and 
 the conception of character on the basis of humors, intro- 
 duced in Every 31 an in His Humor, become accepted 
 phases of later dramatic method. 
 
 89 Davenant, Dramatic Works, IV, 118; News from Plymouth, 
 1, 2. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 The preceding studies convince lis of the extent and im- 
 portance of Ben Jonson's influence in the historj' of Eng- 
 lish drama. Few writers of comedy between 1598 and 1642 
 remained wholly unaffected by his striking plays as pro- 
 duced on the stage, and his dramatic theories so forcefully 
 preached on every possible occasion. Mr. Fleay in the in- 
 troduction to his Chronicle of the English Drama bears the 
 following testimony to Jonson 's position and power : " I can- 
 not pass over in silence one point which has been impressed 
 on me at every step in this long labor — the central impor- 
 tance of Ben Jonson ... I have . . . studied 
 Jonson deeply, and I do not exaggerate when I say that, al- 
 though Shakespeare is the central figure in our dramatic 
 literature. Jonson certainly is the central figure in our 
 dramatic historj\ ' ' ^ 
 
 In comedj', Jonson's immediate contempfraries were in- 
 fluenced chiefly by his theorv' of humors and his ideal of 
 constructive excellence. Chapman, Marston, Shakespeare. 
 Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, Shirley, and one or two 
 anonymous writers, all made some trial of humors in crea- 
 ting character, ■with success varying from the mere sketches 
 of humorous personages in ^Mareton's comedies or in thi' 
 anonymous Every Woman in Her Humor to Shakespeare's 
 IMalvolio and the group of liumori.sts centering about Fnl- 
 staff. Shakespeare, however, was affected only suportl- 
 cially, for he divined at once that such a method might 
 serve occasionally as foil for truer art, b\it wa.s, in no wise, 
 
 > I'leav. Chronicle of the Liujlish Dtatiui, 1, 13. 
 
 120 
 
CONCLUSION 121 
 
 to be universally applied. Beaumont and Fletcher, Mas- 
 singer and Shirley, owe not a little of their power in con- 
 ducting skillfully involved plots and in gaining unity of 
 impression to Jonson's precept and example concerning 
 logical construction. Whether by parallel development or 
 direct influence, Chapman and Marston stand in close 
 relation to Jonson, not only in their characters and plots, 
 but also in scholarship, conscious effort, satire and reflective 
 wisdom. Beaumont, Massinger and Shirley owe something 
 to him in their satirical pictures of contemporary'' life. 
 Beaumont's regular versification and some of Shirley's 
 prologues also point back to him. However, all these 
 writers cared too much for the favor of the public to adopt 
 to any great extent Jonson's attitude of independence and 
 arrogance; they were too keenly alive to the essential re- 
 quirement that drama shall present character in action, 
 to make frequent use of his expository method; and they 
 well knew that the aim of a play should not be primarily 
 ethical. They were great enough as playwrights to seize 
 and put to their own uses with original power Jonson's 
 most valuable discoveries in character and construction. 
 
 "While the immediate contemporaries were professional 
 playv\^rights and rival comrades, most of the later "Sons" 
 were gentlemen, graduates of the university, members of 
 the court circle, and acknowledged disciples. While the 
 former for the most part accepted only a general influence 
 from Jonson's best characteristics, the latter sought to fol- 
 low him more closely and less wisely, often even in his 
 faults of pedantry, caricature and didacticism. Among the 
 ' ' Sons, ' ' Brome must be given the foremost place by reason 
 of his large number of comedies, and his conscientious, 
 often by no means unsuccessful effort to conform to all the 
 rules of Jonsonian art. The other "Sons," according to 
 the manner and extent of the influence felt, fall into a num- 
 ber of groups. May and Randolph were themselves faith- 
 
122 JOXSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 fill students of the classics, and so their moral purpose, 
 satire, plots of intrigue and characters of humors are prob- 
 ably in part due to their own direct study and in part to 
 their admiration for Jonson. Field, ^Nlarraion, Glapthome, 
 and Nabbes, all show the effects of a general Jonsonian in- 
 fluence on their plots, personages and subjects of satire, in 
 contrast with Cartwright and ^laj-ne, who slavishly imitate 
 particular Jonsonian plots, characters and satirical pas- 
 sages. Among these writers, Field and Nabbes stand out 
 above the others, Field because of his practical skill in 
 stagecraft and keen satirical pictures of London life, and 
 Nabbes because of his pleasing style, refreshing freedom 
 from coarseness and first-hand touch with real life. New- 
 castle turned to Jonson for much suggestion in the way of 
 situation, satire, and character, but did not, like Cart- 
 wright, go so far as to copy directly a particular play. 
 Davenport, Cockayne and Davenant, in plays otherwise 
 free from Jonson 's influence, apply the theory of humors 
 in characterization. 
 
 Every A\Titer who gained anything from Jonson was af- 
 fected first and foremost by the idea of humors. The crea- 
 tion of new humorous types we have found in the plays of 
 such men of genius as Shakespeare, Fletcher. Heaumont or 
 Shirley, and even in those of Brome ; but on the other hand, 
 in the work of le.sser men, there is an unending repetition of 
 certain definite types patterned after Ji)nsun's pei'sonages. 
 Stephen, the country gull ; Matthew, the foolish versifier ; 
 Bol)adil, tlie braggart soldier; Fastidious Brisk, tlie fash- 
 ionable gallant ; Sir Amorous La-Fooh\ proud of his an- 
 cestry of fools ; Mrs. Otter, the shrew ; Kastrill, the quarrel- 
 some boy; ]\Ieercraft and Engine, the projectors; Fitzdot- 
 terel, a prey to sharpens; Tribulation WhoU'.some. Ananias, 
 and Zeal-of-the-Land liusy, the hypiuTitiial Puritan fa- 
 natics; Sir T*()liti('k Would-l)e, doali^r in sensational news: 
 — these recur in play after phiy and writer after writer. 
 
CONCLUSION 123 
 
 sometimes with enlivening variation, but often with weari- 
 some sameness. 
 
 While Beaumont, Massinger and Shiriey were incited 
 by Jonson's ethical aim to a deeper moral earnestness and 
 an effective satirical portrayal of actual contemporary life, 
 such writers as ]\Iarmion, Glapthorne, Cartwright and 
 Mayne, failing to catch the true underlying spirit of Jon- 
 son's morality, painted dull coarse pictures of the lowest 
 stratum of London society, with the constantly repeated 
 assertion that the purpose was to scourge vice. Certain 
 subjects of satire, emphasized by Jonson, particularly the 
 cant and hypocrisy of the Puritans, the meannesses and 
 crimes of avarice, the foolish fads of Ladies Collegiate, 
 the projects of sharpers, the credulity of news-gatherers, 
 and a slavish pursuit of the fashions of the day, are used by 
 one after another of the "Sons" until it seems as if these 
 follies and abuses should have been forever whipped out of 
 English life. 
 
 Jonson taught contemporaries and disciples the value of 
 careful workmanship, regard within certain limits for the 
 dramatic unities, and that artistic logic which creates each 
 part with conscious reference to the whole. The greater 
 writers seized and applied these principles; the lesser pro- 
 ceeded to copy or adopt particular situations. The fa- 
 vorite ones were: the school of fashion introduced in The 
 Devil is an Ass, the grouping of irregular humorists first 
 found in Every Man in His Humor and Every Man out of 
 His Humor, the transformation effected by marriage and 
 also the device for making the contract void set forth in 
 The Silent Woman, the scheme for systematic news-gather- 
 ing in The Staple of Neivs. and the confederacy of rogues 
 in Vol'pone and The Alchemist. 
 
 The minor characteristics of Jonson's comedy reappear 
 now and again in other ^^^:•iters. His background of classi- 
 cal learning, and the classical allusions and quotations 
 
124 JOXSON AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 wrought into the very fiber of his plays, only such men as 
 were themselves classical scholars, Chapman, ^larston, or 
 Randolph, could in any sense approach; but his example 
 certainly increased the contemporary^ liking for passing 
 allusions to classical authors and literature. His influence 
 combined with that of Middleton to teach local color and 
 realistic portrayal of everyday life, and in this respect we 
 may be sure that Field and Brome, ^lay and Randolph, 
 learned largely from Jonson. Brome followed him in self- 
 conscious attitude and intellectual appeal; Chapman and 
 Randolph, in the use of a commentator on the action ; ]\Iar- 
 ston and Marmion, in their inductions ; Shirley and Brome, 
 in independent prologues and epilogues addressed to the 
 public. 
 
 "Whether Jonson 's theories, when applied, resulted in 
 living plays or dull imitations depended largely on the per- 
 sonal powers of the writere applying them, and many of 
 his followers were neither great thinkers nor gi^eat poets. 
 However, "the Sons' " besetting sins of pedantry, didac- 
 ticism, abstraction, allegory, caricature, artificiality, and 
 sameness, were dangers inherent in his methods. On the 
 other hand, he gave to English comedy greater variety of 
 character and more effective portraj'al of the manners and 
 humors of men, more careful and logical construction, and 
 a moral earnestness that was needed to counteract the in- 
 fluence of Middleton and Fletcher. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Aronstein, Philipp : Ben Jonson's Theorie des Ltistspiels. Anglia, 
 
 XVII (neue folge, V). 
 Beaumont and Fletcher: Works, with notes and a biographical 
 
 memoir by Alexander Dyce, 2 vols. Boston and New York, 1854. 
 Brome, Richard: Dramatic Works, 3 vols. London, 1873. 
 Cartwright, William: The Ordinary, in Dodsley's Old English Plays, 
 
 ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt, Vol. XII. London, 1875. 
 Castelain, Maurice: Ben Jonson L'Homme et VCEuvre. Paris, 1907. 
 Chapman, George; Plays, ed. with notes by R. H. Shepherd. Lon- 
 don, 1889. 
 Cockayne, Sir Aston: Dramatic Works, ed. by J. Maidment and 
 
 W. H. Logan. Edinburgh and London, 1874. 
 DaA'enant, Sir William: Dramatic Works, ed. by J. Maidment and 
 
 W. H. Logan, 5 vols. Edinburgh and London, 1872. 
 Davenport, Robert : Works, in Old English Plays, ed. by A. H. 
 
 Bullen, New Series, Vol. III. London, 1890. 
 Dryden, John: Of Dramatic Poesy, in Essays, ed. by W. P. Ker. 
 
 ' Oxford, 1900. 
 Every Woman in Her Humor: ed. by A. H. Bullen in Old English 
 
 Plays, vol. rV. London, 1885. 
 Fair Maid of the Exchange: ed. by Barron Field in Publications 
 
 of the Shakespeare Society. London, 1846. 
 Field, Nathaniel: Plays, ed. by A. W. Verity, in Nero and Other 
 
 Plays, ]\Iermaid Series. London, 1888. 
 Fleay, F. G. : Annals of the Career of Nathaniel Field. Eng. Stud., 
 
 XIII, 1889. 
 
 -i Chronicle History of the English Stage. London, 1890. 
 
 A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1891. 
 
 The Life and Work of Shakespeare. London, 1886. 
 
 Glapthorne, Henry: Wo)-ks, 2 vols. London, 1874. 
 
 Greg, W. W. : Edition of Hensloice's Diary. London, Part I, 1904; 
 
 Part II, 1908. 
 Hathaway, Charles M. : Edition of The Alchemist, with introduc- 
 tion and notes, Yale Studies in English, XVII. New York, 1903. 
 Hazlitt, William: Lectures on the English Comic Writers, ed. by 
 
 W. Carew Ha^ilitt. London, 1884. 
 Henry, Aurelia: Edition of Epiccene, with introduction and notes, 
 
 Yale Studies in English, XXXI. New York, 1906. 
 Jonson, Ben: Works, with notes and a biographical memoir by 
 
 125 
 
126 JONSOX AND ENGLISH COMEDY 
 
 William Giflord, ed. by Francis Cunningham, 3 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1875. 
 
 Timber; or Discoveries, ed. by F. E. Schelling. Bos- 
 ton, 1892. 
 
 Best Plays, ed. by Brinsley Xichnlson, with an intro- 
 duction by C. H. Herford. London and New York, 1893-94. 
 
 Koeppel, Emil: Studicn iiber Shakespeare's ^Virkung auf Zcit- 
 genossische Dramatiker, in Materialen zur Kunde des dlteren 
 Englischen Dramas, ed. by W. Bang. Louvain, 1905. 
 
 Quellen-Studien zu den Drnmen Ben Jonson'':, John 
 
 Marston's und Beaumont luid Fletcher's. Erlangen und Leipzig, 
 1895. 
 
 Lamb, Charles: Dramatic Essays, and Specimens of the English 
 Dramatic Poets, in Works, ed. by Percy Fitzgerald, Temple 
 edition. London and Philadelpliia, 1897. 
 
 Langbaine, Gerard: An Account of the English Dramatic Poet$. 
 Oxford, 1091. 
 
 Marmion, Shakerley: Dramatic Works, ed. by J. Maidment and 
 W. H. Logan. Edinburgh and London, 1875. 
 
 Marston, John: Works, ed. by A. H. Bullen, 3 vols. Boston and 
 New York, 1887. 
 
 Massinger, Philip: Plays, ed. by Francis Cunningham from the 
 text of William Gifford. London, 1870. 
 
 Best Plays, ed. with an introduction and notes, by Ar- 
 thur Symons. London, 1887. 
 
 May, Thomas: The Old Couple, in Dodsley's Old English Plays, 
 ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt, vol. XII. London, 1875. 
 
 Mayne, Jasper: The City Match, in Dodsley's Old English Plays, 
 ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt, vol. XIII. London, 1875. 
 
 Nabbes, Thomas: Works, in Old English Plays, ed. by A. H. Bullen, 
 New Series, vols. I and II. London, 1887. 
 
 Newcastle, Duke of, William Cavendish: The Country Captain and 
 The Variety. London, 1649. 
 
 Penniman, Josiah II.: The War of the Theaters. Boston, 1897. 
 
 Randolph, Thomas: IVorfrs, ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt, 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1875. 
 
 Schelling, Felix E.: Elizabethan Drama, 1558-1642, 2 vols. Boston 
 and New York, 1908. 
 
 —— Ben Jonson and the Classical School. Publications of 
 
 the Modern Language Association of America, vol. XI II, No. 
 2, 1898. 
 
 Edition of Eastward Hoc and The Alchemist, with in- 
 
 trotiuetion and notes, Belles-Lettros Series. Boston and Lon- 
 don, 190:!. 
 
 Shakespeare, William: Works, ed. by H. N. Hudson, 12 vols. Bos- 
 ton, 1881. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 127 
 
 Shirley, James: Works, with notes by William Gifford, and bi- 
 ography by Alexander Dyee, 6 vols. London, 1833. 
 
 Best Plays, ed. by Edmund Gosse. London, 1888. 
 
 Swinburne, A. C. : A Study of Ben Jonson. London. 1889. 
 
 Richard Brome. Fortnightly Review, LVII, 1892. 
 
 Symonds, J. A.: Ben Jonson, London, 1888. 
 
 Richard Brome. Academy, March, 1874. 
 
 Ward, A. W. : A History of English Dramatic Literature, 3 vols. 
 London and New York, 1899. 
 
 Wilke, W. : Anwendung der Rhyme-test \md Double-endings-iest auf 
 Ben Jonson's Dramen. Anglia, X. 
 
 Wood, Anthony: Athenae Oxonienses, ed. by Philip Bliss. London, 
 1813. 
 
 Woodbridge, Elisabeth: Studies in Jonson's Comedy, Yale Studies 
 in English, V. Boston, New York and London, 1898. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Admiral's Men, 20. 
 
 Alchemist, 6, 10, 13, 15, 21, 50, 
 
 66, 70, 85, 94, 114, 123. 
 Allegory, 12-13, 40, 88. 
 All Fools, 21. 
 All's Well That Ends Well, 30, 
 
 31, 34. 
 Amends for Ladies, 54, 55, 56. 
 Amyntas, 80. 
 Anachronisms, 8. 
 Antigone, 77. 
 
 Antipodes, 59, 60, 63. 65, 69, 71. 
 Antiquary, 90-92. 
 Antonio and Mellida, 25. 
 Apollo Club, 3-5, 42. 
 Aristippus, 80. 
 Aristophanes, 7, 80, 83. 
 Authority, Jonson's sense of, 11. 
 
 Ball, 46, 50, 111. 
 
 Bartholomeio Fair, 13, 15, 57, 66, 
 
 69, 72, 85. 
 Beaumont, Francis, 3, 18, 19, 
 
 36-42, 120, 121. 
 Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 19- 
 
 20. 
 Bobadil, 40, 116. 
 Bride, 107, 109. 
 Brome, Alexander, 59. 
 Brome, Richard, 52, 57-75, 89, 
 
 106, 121. 
 Bullen, A. H., 106, 107. 
 Bunyan, 13. 
 Burbage, Richard, 53. 
 
 Cambridge University, 80. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 7. 
 Cartwright, William, 52, 93- 
 
 100, 122. 
 Case Is Altered, 30, Gl. 
 
 Catiline, 37, 38, 53. 
 
 Cavendish, William, Earl of 
 Newcastle, 52, 100, 112-117, 
 122, 
 
 Censor, Attitude of, 6. 
 
 Chapman, George, 18, 19-24, 120, 
 121. 
 
 Characters of Jonsonian Com- 
 edy, 11-14. 
 
 Chaucer, 10. 
 
 Children of the Chapel, 52. 
 
 Cicero, 26, 93. 
 
 City Madam, 43. 
 
 City Match, 100-103. 
 
 City Night-Cap, 79. 
 
 City Wit, 58, 60, 63, 68-70, 72. 
 
 Classicism, of Jonson, 7 ; Chap- 
 man, 19; Marston, 24, 26; 
 Randolph, 83. 
 
 Cleopatra, 77. 
 
 Cockayne, Sir Aston, 52, 59, 80, 
 110-112, 122. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., 15. 
 
 College Drama, 80. 
 
 Comedy of Humors, 20. 
 
 Conceited Pedlar, 80. 
 
 Congreve, William, 112. 
 
 Construction of plays, 15, 43, 
 69, 107. 
 
 Conversations, 25, 27, 53. 
 
 Country Captain, 112, 115. 
 
 Court Beggar, 59-60, 63, 65, 70, 
 72. 
 
 Covent Garden, 106, 108. 
 
 Cunningham, Francis, 25. 
 
 Cynthia's Revels, 8, 14, 15, 16, 
 35, 53, 88. 
 
 Davenant, Sir William, 52, 117- 
 119, 122. 
 
 129 
 
130 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Davenport, Robert, 52, 79, 122. 
 Dekker, Thomas, 59. 
 Demoiselle, 62, 60, 72. 
 Devil Is An Ass, 44, 49, 65, 70, 
 
 78, 115, 123. 
 Devil Tavern, 3, 45, 59, 76, 80, 
 
 89, 112. 
 Didacticism, 63, 79, 85. 
 Discoveries, 2. 
 Donne, John, 111. 
 Drayton, INIichael, 30, 111. 
 Drummond of llawthornden, 20, 
 
 38. 
 Dryden, John, 11, 112. 
 Duke's Mistress, 47. 
 Dutch Courtesan, 24, 27. 
 Dyce, Alexander, 38. 
 
 Eastward Uoe, 20, 25, 28. 
 
 English Moor, 59-60. 
 
 Epicoene, 15, 31, 37, 100, 101, 
 
 123. 
 Ethical Aims, of Jonson, 5-6, 
 
 10; Brome, 63; May, 78; 
 
 Randolph, 85; Marmion, 90; 
 
 Nabbes, 108. 
 Every man in His Humor, 1, 2, 
 
 19, 20, 21, 29, 31, 73, 110. 
 Every Man Out of His Humor, 
 
 6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 31, 
 
 35, 48, 73, 123. 
 Every Woman in Her Humor, 
 
 34, 35-36, 120. 
 Example, 46. 
 
 Fair Maid of the Exchange, 34- 
 
 35. 
 Faithful (■Shepherdess, 38. 
 Falstafr. 32, 120. 
 Fault in Friendship, 58. 
 Faum, 20, 28. 
 
 Field, Nathaniel, 52-57, 122. 
 Fine Companion, 89. 
 Fleay, F. C, 20, 34, 77, 120. 
 Flftcher, John, 10, 19, 30-42, 00, 
 
 77, 120, 121. 
 
 Ford, John, 59. • 
 
 Forest, The, 9. 
 Fortune, The, 55. 
 Four Triumphs, 39. 
 Fraunces, Edward, 83. 
 Fuller, Thomas, 29. 
 
 I 
 Gamester, 40. 
 Gentleman Usher, 23. 
 Giles, Nathaniel, 53. 
 Glapthorne, Henry. 52, 103-106, 
 
 122. 
 Grateful Servant, 45. 
 Gray's Inn, 76. 
 Gulling, 16, 24. 
 
 ( 
 
 IIabin<;ton, William, 45. 
 
 Hall, John, 59. 
 
 Heir, 77. 
 
 Henry, Aurelia, 31, 102. 
 
 Henry IV, 31. 
 
 Henry V, 31, 33. 
 
 Henslowe's Diary, 20. 
 
 Heroic drama, 118. 
 
 Herrick, Robert, 4. 
 
 Hey for Honesty, 80, 82, 
 
 85. 
 lleywood, Tliomas, 9, S9. 
 lloUnnder, 103, 104, 105. 
 Holland's Leaguer, 90. 
 Hope, The, 52. 
 Humors, 11-12, 27, 30-34, 49 
 
 71-73, 79, 88, 91, 108, 111. 
 
 118120, 122. 
 Humorous (^ourtier, 51. 
 Humorous Day's Mirth, 19, 
 
 21. 
 Humorous Lieutenant, ,"9 40. 
 Humorous Lovers, 114. 
 Hyde I'ark, 40, 115. 
 
 Inductions, 15-16, 25. 124. 
 
 Jiulvus Lovers, 80, 85, 8S. 
 Jonsonua Yirbiua, 77, 90, 93, 
 100. 
 
 50, 
 117, 
 
 -0, 
 
INDEX 
 
 131 
 
 Jovial Crew, 59, 69, 71, 73, 75, 
 
 119. 
 Julius Caesar, 80, 85, 88. 
 
 King and No King, 40. 
 
 Knight of the Burning Pestle, 
 
 39, 40. 
 Koeppel, Emil, 30, 41, 60. 
 
 Ladies Collegiate, 49, 123. 
 Ladies' Privilege, 103. 
 Lady of Pleasure, 46, 115. 
 Langbaine, Gerard, 77, 93, 106, 
 
 112, 114. 
 Learning of Jonson, 8. 
 Leges Convivales, 4-5. 
 Lines to Shakespeare, 30. 
 Little French Lawyer, 40. 
 Love in a Maze, 51. 
 Lovesick Court, 60, 71, 74. 
 Love's Welcome at Bolsover, 112. 
 Love's Welco77ie at Welbeck, 112, 
 
 113. 
 Love Tricks, 45, 46, 48, 
 Lowell, J. R., 5. 
 Lucan, 77. 
 
 Mad Couple Well Matched, 60, 
 63. 
 
 Magnetic Lady, 13, 115. 
 
 Malcontent, 25, 27. 
 
 Malvolio, 33, 120. 
 
 Marmion, Shakerley, 52, 89-93, 
 106, 122. 
 
 Marston, John, 19, 24-29, 120. 
 
 Martial, 26, 77. 
 
 Massinger, Philip, 19, 42-44, 60, 
 111, 120, 121. 
 
 Masque of Augurs, 45. 
 
 Masques, of Jonson, 7; of Shir- 
 ley, 45. 
 
 May Day, 23. 
 
 May, Thomas, 52, 76-79, 121. 
 
 Mayne, Jasper, 52, 100-103, 122. 
 
 Measure for Measure, 30. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, 31. 
 
 Mercury Vindicated, 13. 
 
 Mermaid, The, 3, 29. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, 31, 32. 
 
 Middleton, Thomas, 30, 42, 46. 
 
 Monsieur D'Olive, 23, 24. 
 
 Moralities, 12. 
 
 Much Ado About yothing, 105. 
 
 Muses' Looking-Glass, SO, 84, 88. 
 
 Nabbes, Thomas, 52, 89, 106- 
 110, 122. 
 
 Nature, Jonson's lack of feeling 
 for, 9-10. 
 
 yeptune's Triumph, 45, 99. 
 
 New Academy, 63, 73, 75. 
 
 Newcastle, Duchess of, 112, 115. 
 
 Newcastle, Duke of. See Cav- 
 endish, William. 
 
 Newington Butts, 55. 
 
 New Inn, 60, 61, 83. 
 
 News from Plymouth, 118. 
 
 New Way to Pay Old Debts, 43. 
 
 New Trick to Cheat the Devil, 
 79. 
 
 Northern Lass, 57, 62, 66, 69, 
 73. 
 
 Novella, 60, 70. 
 
 Obstinate Lady, 111. 
 
 Old Couple, 77-79. 
 
 Ordinary, 94-100. 
 
 Ovid, 26. 
 
 Oxford University, 80, 89. 
 
 Personality of Jonson, 3. 
 Pilgrim's Progress, 13. 
 Platonic love, 103, 118. 
 Platonic Lovers, 118. 
 Plautus, 7, 19, 22, 39, 83. 
 Plots of Jonson's Comedy, 14- 
 
 15. 
 Poetaster, 14, 15, 20, 31, 35. 
 Project, 65, 104. 
 Puritans, 24, 66, 85, 99, 102, 
 
 104. 
 
 Queen's Exchange, 60, 62. 
 
132 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Queen and Concubine, 60, 75. 
 
 i 
 Randolph, Thomas, 52, 80-89, 
 
 121. 
 Realism, 64, 75, 
 Renaissance, 10. 
 Restoration, 115, 117, 118. 
 Roarers, 66, 104. 
 Romance, 9. 
 
 Romantic School, 36, 44, 77, 118. 
 Romeo and Juliet, 31. 
 Rule a ^Vife and Have a IVi/e, 
 
 39, 41. 
 
 Satire, 7, 12, 27, 40-41, 43, 54, 
 
 116. 
 Schelling, F. E., 7, 31, 88. 
 School of Compliment, 49, 70. 
 Scornful Lady, 39. 
 Sejanus, 20, 25, 29. 
 Seneca, 26. 
 
 Shadwell, Thomas, 112. 
 Shakespeare, 9, 19, 29-34, 60, 
 
 120. 
 Shirley, James, 19, 44-51, 80, 
 
 107, 112, 115, 120, 121. 
 Silent Woman. See Epiccene. 
 Hparagus Garden, 61, 63, 71. 
 Htavle of News, 9, 13, 14, 47, 
 
 117. 
 Suckling, Sir John, 111. 
 Swift, Jonathan, 7. 
 Swinburne, Algernon, 5, 21, 70. 
 Symonds, J. A., 7, 8. 
 
 Tamer Tamed, 39. 
 Tatham, John, 59. 
 Terence, 7, 19, 22, 39, 83. 
 Timber, 30. 
 Tottenham Court, 106, 108. 
 
 Tourneur, Cyril, 29. 
 Triumph of Peace, 45. 
 " Triumphant Widoic, 115. 
 Twelfth Night, 31, 33. 
 Types of character, 14, 40. 
 
 Underwoods, The, 20. 
 Unities, of drama, 11. 
 
 rariety, 114, 116. 
 
 Vergil, 77. 
 
 Versification, of Jonson, 16-17; 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 41 ; 
 
 Brome, 75. 
 Volpone, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 20, 
 
 21, 38, 70, 99, 123. 
 
 War of the Theaters, 25. 
 Ward, A. W., 22, 00, 71, 73, 88, 
 
 93, 99. 
 Watkyns, Rowland, 81. 
 Wedding, 46, 50, 115. 
 Weeding of Coven t Garden, 00, 
 
 64, 66, 69, 72, 75. 
 What You Will, 25, 26, 28. 
 Widow's Tears, 23. 
 Wife of Bath, 36. 
 W ilk ins, G., 29. 
 Wit in a Constable, 103, 105. 
 Wit Without Money, 40. 
 Wits, 118. 
 
 Witty Fair One, 46, 115. 
 Woman Hater, 39. 
 Woman Is a Weathercock, 53, 
 
 54, 55, 56. 
 Woild in the Moon, 71. 
 Wood, Anthony, 93, 110. 115. 
 ^^■oodbridg(^ Elizal)eth, 11, 14. 
 
 Young Admiral, 49, 105. 
 
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