BEN JONSON: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES General Editor: B.C.Southam The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death. BEN JONSON THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by D H.CRAIG London and New York First Published in 1990 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1990 D H.Craig All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-19451-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19454-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-13417-X (Print Edition) General Editor’s Preface The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures. The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative quality—perhaps even registering incomprehension! For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to appear. In each volume the documents are headed by an introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged. B.C.S. Contents PREFACE xiii NOTE xv ABBREVIATIONS xvi INTRODUCTION 1 1 JOHN WEEVER, Marston and Jonson, 1599 29 2 BEN JONSON, Every Man out of his Humour, 1599 31 3 BEN JONSON, prologue to Cynthia’s Revels, 1600 37 4 JOHN WEEVER, Jonson as humorist, 1601 39 5 NICHOLAS BRETON on the satirical fashion, 1601 41 6 BEN JONSON, Poetaster, 1601 43 7 THOMAS DEKKER, Horace untrussed, 1601–2 51 8 CHARLES FITZGEFFREY on Jonson, 1601 67 9 Cambridge views on the War of the Theatres, 1601–2 69 10 HENRY CHETTLE, Jonson’s steel pen, 1603 71 11 SAMUEL DANIEL attacks the learned masque, 1604 73 12 THOMAS DEKKER on Jonson’s pedantry, 1604 75 13 JOHN MARSTON, tribute to Jonson, 1604 77 14 SIR EDWARD HERBERT on Jonson’s Horace, 1604 79 15 Jonson as laureate, 1605 81 16 On Sejanus, 1605 83 17 JOHN MARSTON glances at Sejanus, 1606 89 18 BEN JONSON on his masques, 1606 91 19 On Volpone, 1605–7 93 vii 20 BEN JONSON, more principles for the masque, 1609 99 21 Jonson’s comedy malicious and factious, 1610 101 22 BEN JONSON, prologue to The Alchemist, 1610 103 23 On Catiline, 1611 105 24 JOHN SELDEN on Jonson’s scholarship, 1614 109 25 BEN JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, 1614 111 26 On Jonson’s epigrams, 1615 113 27 WILLIAM FENNOR on the reception of Sejanus, 1616 115 28 ROBERT ANTON, Jonson among the melancholic creators, 1616 117 29 From The Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1616 119 30 WILLIAM DRUMMOND, Jonson’s character, 1619 123 31 INIGO JONES, attack on Jonson, 1619 or later 125 32 EDMUND BOLTON on Jonson’s language, 1621 127 33 GEORGE CHAPMAN, expostulation with Jonson, 1623 or later 129 34 BEN JONSON on The Staple of News, 1626 135 35 NICHOLAS OLDISWORTH on Jonson, 1629 137 36 Controversy over The New Inn, 1629–31 139 37 FALKLAND on Jonson as the dispenser of fame, 1631 or earlier 151 38 LEONARD DIGGES, Shakespeare’s plays more popular than Jonson’s, 155 (?) 1632 39 THOMAS RANDOLPH on the power of Jonson’s verses, 1632 or later 159 40 BEN JONSON, The Magnetic Lady, 1632 161 41 ALEXANDER GILL, attack on The Magnetic Lady, 1633 165 42 JAMES HOWELL, letters to Jonson, 1632–5 167 43 SIR JOHN SUCKLING, caricature of Jonson, 1637 or earlier 169 44 BEN JONSON, prologue to The Sad Shepherd, 1637 or earlier 171 45 SIR JOHN SUCKLING, Jonson’s arrogance, 1637 173 46 JAMES SHIRLEY on Jonson and The Alchemist, between 1637 and 1640 175 47 NEWCASTLE, tribute to Jonson, 1637 or later 177 48 GEORGE STUTVILE, Jonson as tutor, 1637 or later 179 49 Tributes from Jonsonus Virbius, 1638 181 viii 50 GEORGE DANIEL, elegy on Jonson, 1638 207 51 JOHN BENSON, dedication of Jonson’s Poems, 1640 209 52 On Jonson’s translation of Horace’s Ars Poetica, 1640 211 53 JAMES SHIRLEY on Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson, 1642 215 54 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT on Jonson’s love-scenes, 1647 217 55 ROBERT HERRICK, tributes to Jonson, 1648 219 56 EDMUND GAYTON, Jonson the scholar’s playwright, 1654 221 57 On reviving Jonson at the Restoration, 1660 223 58 SAMUEL PEPYS on performances of Epicoene and Bartholomew Fair, 225 1661 59 The Play of the Puritan, 1661 227 60 MARGARET CAVENDISH on Jonson’s plays, 1662 229 61 THOMAS FULLER, portrait of Jonson, 1662 231 62 RICHARD FLECKNOE, Jonson’s part in the history of the English 233 stage, 1664 63 SAMUEL PEPYS on performances of Epicoene and Bartholomew Fair, 235 1664–5 64 SAINT-EVREMOND, Jonson central to a French view of English 237 comedy, 1666–7 65 SAMUEL BUTLER on Jonson and Shakespeare, 1667–9 241 66 SAMUEL PEPYS reads Every Man in his Humour, sees Epicoene, 1667 243 67 JOHN DRYDEN’S Essay, 1667 245 68 JOHN DRYDEN makes Shakespeare monarch over Fletcher and Jonson, 255 1667 69 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson’s borrowings, 1668 257 70 THOMAS SHADWELL on Jonson’s humour comedy, 1668 259 71 JOHN DRYDEN cites Jonson in the controversy over rhymed drama, 261 1668 72 SAMUEL PEPYS on Bartholomew Fair, Epicoene, Catiline, and The 263 Alchemist, 1668–9 73 CLARENDON on Jonson’s talents and achievements, 1668–70 267 74 CHARLES SACKVILLE, epilogue to an Every Man in his Humour revival, 269 1670 ix 75 RICHARD FLECKNOE answers Dryden on Jonson, 1670–1 271 76 JOHN DRYDEN explains his view of Jonson, 1671 273 77 THOMAS SHADWELL defends his estimate of Jonson, 1670–1 277 78 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson, 1671 281 79 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson’s imaginary creations, 1671 285 80 EDWARD RAVENSCROFT, Jonson the model for didactic comedy, 287 1671 81 On Jonson and Shakespeare, 1672 289 82 JOHN DRYDEN on the faults of predecessors like Jonson, 1672 291 83 APHRA BEHN on Shakespeare and Jonson, 1673 297 84 EDWARD HOWARD, Jonson unparalleled among ancient or modern 299 authors, 1673 85 EDWARD PHILLIPS on Jonson’s achievements, 1675 301 86 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson distinguished from Shadwell, 1676 303 87 JOHN OLDHAM on Jonson, 1678 305 88 JOHN DRYDEN, low farce in Volpone, 1683 315 89 EDWARD HOWARD on Jonson’s allegory and on a statue of Jonson, 317 1689 90 GERALD LANGBAINE, notes on Jonson, 1691 319 91 THOMAS RYMER on Catiline, 1692 325 92 NAHUM TATE, farce in Jonson, 1693 329 93 JOHN DRYDEN, Jonson and Fletcher matched at last, 1694 331 94 BEAT LOUIS de MURALT on Jonson and Molière, 1694 333 95 WILLIAM WOTTON on Jonson’s Grammar, 1694, 1697 335 96 JOHN DENNIS and WILLIAM CONGREVE on Jonson’s comedy, 337 1695 97 JEREMY COLLIER on Jonson as a model playwright, 1698 343 98 WILLIAM CONGREVE and JEREMY COLLIER on profanity in 347 Bartholomew Fair, 1698 99 WILLIAM BURNABY, Jonson a model for the comedy of characters 349 and action, 1701 100 JOHN DENNIS on Jonson’s comedy, 1702 351 101 Jonson discussed in a critical dialogue on the theatre, 1702 353