Charles Harold Herford

“ None of Jonson's contemporaries lived more completely in the heart of English life. ‘His conversation,’ says Clarendon, who knew him in his old age, ‘was very good and with men of most note.’ He was acquainted with nearly all the remarkable men of his time. His most cordial friends were men who, like himself, combined genius and learning—his master, Camden (Epig. 14) , Selden, ‘the bravest man in all languages’ (Underwoods, No. 31; Conv. § 18) , Chapman, the most scholarly next to himself among the dramatists. ”

“ II. Masques, Barriers, Entertainments.—Jonson throughout distinguished three classes of festive performance, those of which the nucleus was a masqued dance, a mock tournament, and a speech respectively. The first is in his hands the most, the last the least akin to drama. His masques show development in range of motive and in the use made of contrast. ”

“ In October Henslowe seems, according to a somewhat obscure entry, to have handed over a ‘plot’ left in his hands by ‘Benjamin’ to Chapman for completion. The immediate consequence of the breach was the offer of Jonson's first extant comedy, ‘Every Man in his Humour,’ to the rival company, the ‘lord chamberlain's servants,’ by whom it was accepted—a late tradition recorded by Rowe says on the recommendation of Shakespeare—and it was successfully performed at the Globe in 1598, Shakespeare himself taking a part. Jonson thenceforth ranked among the foremost dramatists of the day. ”

“ The literary element in the court masques was now in reality subordinate to the scenic. Jones's position at court was better assured than Jonson's, and Jones used his power without scruple. Jonson thenceforth disappeared from the court, and his fierce and repeated attacks upon Jones harmed only himself. In the autumn of 1631 the city withdrew his salary as chronologer from the no longer fashionable poet, who had indeed done no work as holder of the office. ”

“ He lacked charm, and he failed altogether in drawing fresh and native forms of character; but no one equalled him in presenting the class-types of a highly organised or decadent society, with all their elaborate vesture of custom, manner, and phrase. ”

“ But it is certain that both Dekker and Marston were portrayed in the Hedon and Anaides of ‘Cynthia's Revels’ (1600) . Marston's ‘Jack Drum's Entertainment’ in the same year contained a caricature of Jonson, and he and Dekker were engaged upon a more serious joint-attack, the ‘Satiromastix,’ when Jonson forestalled them with the ‘Poetaster’ (1601) , the work of fifteen weeks. In addition to its elaborate ridicule of the two hostile playwrights, this satire contained matter highly irritating to lawyers, soldiers, and actors. ”

“ A manuscript copy in Jonson's hand was in the Heber collection. The fortune-telling motive of Entertainment (4) is here worked out with greater elaboration and realism. It abounds in homely but effective lyric writing. (20) ‘The Masque of Augures.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1622; 4to, 1621 [2] ; fol. 1631–40. (21) ‘Time Vindicated to Himselfe and to his Honors.’ Performed 19 Jan. 1623; fol. 1640. The satire upon Wither, as ‘Chronomastix,’ gives piquancy to the otherwise somewhat abstract motive. ”

“ As this was the first tragedy which Jonson published, it doubtless differed in method fundamentally from its lost predecessors. ‘The Favourite,’ a satirical tragedy, in which Bute is intended by Sejanus, was founded on it in 1770. 8. ‘Eastward Ho,’ 1604; 4to (in three editions) , 1605, by Chapman, Marston, and Jonson. Jonson's contribution was doubtless very slight. 9. ‘Volpone, or the Foxe, a Comœdie,’ 1605; 4to, 1607; fol. 1616. Jonson here returned to comedy, but to comedy both simpler in conception, stronger in action, and more ethical in aim than its predecessors. ”

“ To these he addressed an ‘Apologetic Dialogue,’ which atoned for the offence in so characteristic a way that after one hearing it was prohibited. At its close, however, he had hinted his intention, ‘since the Comic Muse hath proved so ominous to me,’ of turning to tragedy. ”

“ Jonson's voluminous writings fall under the four heads of dramas, masques, poems, and miscellaneous prose. Works in which he collaborated with others are included with his own in the following list:—
I. Dramas. The following are extant in print: 1. ‘Every Man in his Humour, a Comœdie,’ acted in 1598, 4to, 1601; fol. 1616. Stated by Jonson to have been first acted in 1598. A ‘Comodey of Umers’ had been acted at the Rose since 11 May 1597, but there is no authority for attributing it to Jonson. ”

“ Another son, also named Benjamin, for whom he obtained in 1635 the reversion of the office of master of the revels, died on 20 Nov. of that year.
Jonson began, probably not later than 1595, to work for the stage. In 1597 he appears both as a ‘player’ and as a playwright to the ‘admiral's men’ (Hewslowe, 22 July, 3 Dec.) ; in 1598 as writing a ‘tragedy’ for them (ib. 23 Oct.) ; and in the latter year Meres expressly mentions him among the chief English writers of tragedy. ”

“ Its plot is a combination of motives from Plautus's ‘Aulularia’ and ‘Captivi,’ treated with concessions to the current romantic drama which have been connected by Mr. Symonds with his work in 6. Jonson clearly disapproved the result in 1616, and it has never been popular since his own day. The careless quarto edition was doubtless pirated. 3. ‘Every Man out of his Humour, a Comicall Satyre,’ 1599; 4to (two editions) , 1600; fol. 1616. Not so much a counterpart to No. 1 as a more elaborate version of the same motive, with a more satirical purpose. ”

“ Its satire on puritanism, however, roused hostility, and it appears to have been little performed during Charles I's reign. At the Restoration it was revived with enthusiasm. Pepys, who saw it 7 Sept. 1661, says it had not been acted for forty years. An ‘Apologie’ for this play was prefixed by Jonson to his translation of Horace's ‘Ars Poetica,’ but perished with his library. 14. ‘The Divell is an Asse, a Comedie,’ 1616; fol. 1631. Jonson here handled in his own way an obsolescent motive to which Marlowe and Green had given vogue, and which was still worked by Dekker. ”

“ Fuller's Worthies, Langbaine's Dramatick Authors; Gifford's Memoir of Ben Jonson, revised by Cunningham, 1875; Mr. J. A. Symonds's Life of Ben Jonson in English Worthies Ser.; Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden, ed. Laing; Jonson's Works, passim; Nichols's Progresses of James I; Dryden's Essay of Dramatick Poetry ”

“ Henslowe's Diary; Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 93; the Duchess of Newcastle's Life of her husband; Englische Studien, i. 181 f.; Wheatley's Introduction to Every Man in his Humour; Anglia, x. 361; Herford's Studies in the Lit. Relations of England and Germany, pp. 318 f.; Mr. Swinburne's Study of Ben Jonson, 1889, is full of ripe and suggestive criticism. Principal Ward's chapter on Jonson, in his Hist. of Engl. Drama, is perhaps the most valuable part of the work. ”

“ The later entertainments hitherto classified with the masques are here restored to their place. 1. Entertainments. (1) ‘A Particular Entertainment of the Queene and Prince ... at Althrope (sic) ,’ &c. (Commonly referred to as ‘The Satyr.’) Acted 25 June 1603; 4to, 1603; fol. 1616. A graceful out-of-door performance. (2) ‘Part of the King's Entertainment in passing to his Coronation,’ 15 March 1604, 4to, 1604; fol. 1616. Jonson's ‘part’ consisted of the first and last of five separate shows, the rest being by Dekker, who published his own work separately. ”

“ Celebrates the failure of the Spanish marriage and the return of Prince Charles. The antimasque of personified dishes accords with the more prosaic conception of Jonson's later masques. (23) ‘Pan's Anniversarie, or the Shepherd's Holy-day.’ Performed New Year, 1625; fol. 1631–40. (24) ‘The Masque of Owls, at Kenilworth.’ Presented by the Ghost of Captain Cox, mounted on his Hobby-horse, 1626; fol. 1631–40. The title shows the looseness with which the term masque was now used. It is merely a string of speeches. (25) ‘The Fortunate Isles and their Union.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1626; 4to, n.d. ”

“ The first, of Blacknesse.’ Performed at Whitehall Twelfth Night, 1605, 4to, with (4) , 1609; fol. 1616. A manuscript copy, signed by Jonson, and dedicated to the queen, is in the British Museum. Jonson's first masque, like his first entertainment, was thus destined for the queen. Collier also connects it with the marriage of Sir P. Herbert to Lady Susan Vere. In character it differs little from the entertainments, the element of conflict being yet hardly perceptible. (2) ‘Hymenæi, or the Solemnities of Masque and Barriers at a Marriage.’ Performed Twelfth Night, 1606; 4to, 1606; fol. ”

“ It probably belongs to Middleton alone. 2. ‘The Bloody Brother,’ 4to, 1639, by ‘B. J. F.,’ 4to, 1640, by ‘John Fletcher.’ One scene, iv. 2, is Jonsonian in character.
Four other plays known to have been written by Jonson are no longer extant. They are: 1. ‘A Hot Anger soon Cool'd.’ Recorded by Henslowe as the joint work of Porter, Chettle, and Jonson, 18 Aug. 1598. 2. ‘Page of Plymouth,’ written in conjunction with Dekker (Henslowe, August 1599) . 3. ‘Robert II King of Scots' Tragedy,’ written in conjunction with Dekker, Chettle, ‘and other jentellmen’ (ib. September 1599) . 4. ”