All. Double, double, toil and trouble, 2d Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake All. Double, double, toil and trouble, 3d Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witch's mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravening salt-sea shark, For the ingredients of our cauldron. All. Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble! 1st Witch. Cool it with a baboon's bloodThen the charm is firm and good. JONSON'S CHARM. The owl is abroad, the bat and the toad, The ant and the mole sit both in a hole, The moon it is red and the stars are fled, 2nd Charm. Deep, oh deep, we lay thee to sleep, We leave thee drink by, if thou chance to be dry, We breathe in thy bed, at the foot and the head; And when thou dost wake, dame earth shall quake, &c. 3d Charm. A cloud of pitch, a spur and a switch, 4th Charm. About, about and about! Till the mists arise and the lights fly out: And the pace be found And our charms advance. I should observe that these quotations from Jonson are selected partially, and not given in continuation, as they are to be found in the Masque, which is much too long to be given entire; they are accompanied with a commentary by the author, full of demonological learning, which was a very courtly study in the time of James the First, who was an author in that branch of superstitious pedantry. I am aware there is little to gratify the reader's curiosity in these extracts, and still less to distract his judgment in deciding between them: they are so far curious however as they shew how strongly the characters of the poets are distinguished even in these fantastic specimens; Jonson dwells upon authorities without fancy, Shakspeare employs fancy, and creates authorities. NUMBER LXXV. Usus vetusto genere, sed rebus novis. PROLOG. PHED. FAB. lib. v. BEN JONSON in his prologue to the comedy of The For says that he wrote it in the short space of five weeks, his words are To these there needs no lie but this his creature, And tho' he dares give them five lives to mend it, This he delivers in his usual vaunting style, spurning at the critics and detractors of his day, who thought to convict him of dulness by testifying in fact to his diligence. The magic movements of Shakspeare's muse had been so noted and applauded for their surprising rapidity, that the public had contracted a very ridiculous respect for hasty productions in general, and thought there could be no better test of a poet's genius, than the dispatch and facility with which he wrote; Jonson therefore affects to mark his contempt of the public judgment for applauding hasty writers, in the couplet preceding those above quoted And when his plays come out, think they can flout 'em But at the same time that he shews his contempt very justly, he certainly betrays a degree of weakness in boasting of his poetical dispatch, and seems to forget that he had noted Shakspeare with something less than friendly censure, for the very quality he is vaunting himself upon. Several comic poets since his age have seemed to pride themselves on the little time they expended on their productions; some have had the artifice to hook it in as an excuse for their errors, but it is no less evident what share vanity has in all such apologies: Wycherly is an instance amongst these, and Congreve tells of his expedition in writing the Old Bachelor, yet the same man afterward, in his letter to Mr. Dryden, pompously pronounces, that to write one perfect comedy should be the labour of one entire life, produced from a concentration of talents which hardly ever met in any human person. After all it will be confessed, that the production of such a drama as The Fox, in the space of five weeks, is a very wonderful performance; for it must on all hands be considered as the master-piece of a very capital artist, a work, that bears the stamp of elaborate design, a strong and frequently a sublime vein of poetry, much sterling wit, comic humour, happy character, moral satire, and unrivalled erudition; a work Quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens Annorum series, et fuga temporum. In this drama the learned reader will find himself for ever treading upon classic ground: the foot of the poet is so fitted and familiarized to the Grecian sock, that he wears it not with the awkwardness of an imitator, but with all the easy confidence and authoritative air of a privileged Athenian; exclusive of Aristophanes, in whose volume he is perfect, it is plain that even the gleanings and broken fragments of the Greek stage had not escaped him; in the very first speech of Volpone's, which opens the comedy, and in which he rapturously addresses himself to his treasure, he is to be traced most decidedly in the fragments of Menander, Sophocles, and Euripides, in Theognis and in Hesiod, not to mention Horace. To follow him through every onewould be tedious, and therefore I will give a sample of one passage only; Volpone is speaking to his gold Thou being the best of things and far transcending All style of joy in children, parents, friends→ They should have given her twenty thousand Cupids, Let the curious reader compare this with the following fragment of Euripides's Bellerophon, and he will find it almost a translation. Ω χρυσέ, δεξίωμα κάλλιστον βροτοῖς, Οὐ θαυμ ̓ ἔρωτας μυρίους αὐτὴν τρέφειν. Cicero made a selection of passages from the Greek dramatic authors, which he turned into Latin verse for the purpose of applying them, as occasion should offer, either in his writings or pleadings, and our learned countryman seems on his part to have made the whole circle of Greek and Roman poets his own, and naturalized them to our stage. If any learned man would employ his leisure in following his allusions through this comedy only, I should think it would be no unentertaining task. The For is indubitably the best production of its author, and in some points of substantial merit, yields to nothing which the English stage can oppose to it: there is a bold and happy spirit in the fable, it is of moral tendency, female chastity and honour are beautifully displayed, and punishment is inflicted on the delinquents of the drama with strict and exemplary justice: the characters of the Heredipetæ, depicted under the titles of birds of prey, Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino, are warmly colour |