Shakspere and Montaigne Part 17

Jonson, it is true, tells Drummond that he had written his _Poetaster_ against Marston. (According to his declaration in the 'Apologetical Dialogue,' there is nothing personal in the whole _Poetaster!_ 'I can profess I never writt that piece more innocent or empty of offence.') However, we form our judgment in this matter from the clear, well-marked, and indubitably characteristic traits of the play, as well as from the results of modern criticism, which are fully in harmony with those traits. Everything points to the figure of Ovid being a mask for Marston. Jonson perhaps chose the name of Ovid for him because he, too, had written _Metamorphoses_. Besides the before-mentioned _Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image_, it is not improbable that Marston is the author of the ma.n.u.script preserved in the British Museum:--_The New Metamorphosis; or, A Feaste or Fancie of Poeticall Legendes.

The first parte divided into twelve books. Written by I. M., gent._, 1600. Ovid--Marston--in the _Poetaster_, is described as the younger son of a gentleman of considerable position. He is dependent on a stipend allowed to him by his father. After having absolved his studies, he is to become an advocate, but secretly he devotes his time to poetry. The father warns him that poverty will be his lot if he does not renounce poetry. Ovid senior makes the following reproach to his son (which probably has reference to Marston's first tragedy, _Antonio and Mellida_):--'I hear of a tragedy of yours coming forth for the common players there, called _Medea_. By my household G.o.ds, if I come to the acting of it, I'll add one tragic part more than is yet expected to it.... What?

shall I have my son a stager now? an enghle for players?... Publius, I will set thee on the funeral pile first!'

All this harmonises with the few facts we know of Marston's career, who is said to have been the son of a counsellor of the Middle Temple, who was at Corpus Christi College at Oxford, and who was made a _baccalaureus_ there on February 23, 1592. In comparison with Crispinus and Demetrius, Ovid is but mildly chaffed; and this, again, is in accord with the relations which soon after arose, in a very friendly manner, between Jonson and Marston. It is scarcely to be thought that, if Marston had been derided as Crispinus, he would already have composed, as early as 1603, his eulogistic poem on Jonson's _Seja.n.u.s_, and dedicated to him in 1604, in such hearty words, his own _Malcontent_.

From some pointed words in the libel composed by Crispinus against Horace, Gifford concludes that the former must be Marston, because we meet with these pointed words in some satires and dramas of Marston. We, on our part, go, in these controversial plays, by the main and most prominent characteristics; and these show that Crispinus is Shakspere, and Ovid Marston.

The latter even once says (_Scourge of Villanie_, sat. vi.) that many a one, in reading his _Pigmalion_, has compared him to Ovid.

In order to make out Crispinus to be guilty before Augustus, strong language is required. For this purpose, Jonson may have used the way and manners of Marston, and applied some of his newly coined graphic words. But this proves nothing for the ident.i.ty of characters.

The libel also contains a pointed word of Shakspere--'retrograde'--an expression little employed by the latter, and which is hurled as a reproach against Parolles, the figure which in all likelihood is to represent Jonson; Helena (act i. sc. 2) says to him, that he was born under Mars, 'when he was retrograde.'

The remark in _The Return from Parna.s.sus_ that few of the University can pen plays well, smelling too much of that writer Ovid and that writer _Metamorphosis_, has, in our opinion, also reference to John Marston whose first dramatic attempts--although he, like Jonson, may be called a 'University man'--do not admit of any comparison with those of Shakspere.

23: Demetrius repentingly admits that it was from envy he had ill-treated Horace, because 'he kept better company for the most part than I, better men loved him than loved me; and his writings thrived better than mine, and were better liked and graced.'

24: The little word 'clutcht' for a long time 'sticks strangely' in Crispinus' throat; it is only thrown up with the greatest difficulty.

In _Hamlet_ (act v. sc. i, in the second verse of the grave-digger's song) we hear, 'Hath claw'd me in his _clutch_. In the original song, which is here travestied, the words are, 'Hath claw'd me with his crouch'.

25: The following allusion in _The Poetaster_ (act iv. sc. 3) also has reference to _Twelfth Night_:--'I have read in a book that to play the fool wisely is high wisdom.' For Viola (act iii. sc. i) says:--

This fellow 's wise enough to play the fool; And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit...

As full of labour as a wise man's art.

There are several indications in _The Poetaster_ pointing to Shakspere's _Julius Caesar_ which had appeared in the same year (1601). Not only does Horace say to Trebatius that 'great Caesar's wars cannot be fought with words,' but he also corrects Shakspere, who makes Antony (act iii. sc. 2) speak of Caesar's gardens on this side of the Tiber, by putting into the mouth of Horace (act iii.

sc. i) the words:--' On the far side of all Tyber yonder.' In this scene, where the two Pyrgi are examined, there are some more allusions to _Julius Caesar_. Even the boy, whose instrument Brutus takes away when he is asleep, is not wanting. In _The Poetaster_ it is a drum, instead of a lyre (the drum in _All's Well that Ends Well_). And are the following words of the same scene no satire upon act i. sc. 3 of _Julius Caesar_, where Casca and Cicero meet amidst thunder and lightning?

2 _Pyrgi_. Where art thou, boy? where is Calipolis?

Fight earthquakes in the entrails of the earth, And eastern whirlwinds in the h.e.l.lish shades; Some foul contagion of the infected heavens Blast all the trees, and in their cursed tops The dismal night-raven and tragic owl Breed and become forerunners of my fall!

Casca dwells especially on the 'bird of night.'

26: The y, in Pygmalion, seems to us not without cause to be changed by Marston into an i.

27: The number of metaphors used by Shakspere in 'Venus and Adonis,'

which Marston travesties, is strikingly large.

28: A few instances may here be given of the coa.r.s.eness with which Dekker pays back Jonson for his personal allusions. In _The Poetaster_, Crispinus is told that his 'satin-sleeve begins to fret at the rug that is underneath it.' In _Satiromastix_, Tucca cries out against Horace (Jonson):--'Thou never yet fel'st into the hands of sattin.'

And again:--'Thou borrowedst a gowne of Roscius the stager, and sentest it home lousie.' Crispinus, in _The Poetaster_, is derided on account of his short legs. In _Satiromastix_, Horace is laughed at for his 'ambling' walk; wherefore he had so badly played mad Jeronimo's part. Jonson is reproached with all his sins: that he had killed a player; that he had not thought it necessary to keep his word to those whom he held to be _heretics_ and _infidels_, and so forth. His face, which, as above mentioned, had s...o...b..tic marks, is stated to be 'like a rotten russet apple when it is bruiz'd'; or, like the cover of a warming-pan, 'full of oylet-holes.'

He is called an 'uglie Pope Bonifacius;' also a 'bricklayer;' and he is asked why, instead of building chimneys and laying down bricks, he makes 'nothing but railes'--'filthy rotten railes'--upon which alone his Muse leans. ('Railes' has a double meaning here: rails for fencing in a house; and gibes.) He is told that his feet stamp as if he had mortar under them--an allusion to his metrics, as well as to his ambling walk.

29: Shakspere was already then the proprietor of a house--New Place, in Stratford. In this scene Horace also asks Crispinus:--'You have much of the mother in you, sir? Your father is dead?' John Shakspere, the father, died in the year when _The Poetaster_ was first performed--in September, 1601.

30: _Twelfth Night_, act iii. sc. 2. _Sir Toby_:--'Let there be gall in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen.'

31: Here Crispinus threatens Horace with the 'purge' (a word that may be used as a noun or a verb), which, in _The Return from Parna.s.sus_, is mentioned as having been administered by Shakspere to Jonson. It is highly probable that the reconciliation between Crispinus and Horace, which is described in the beginning of _Satiromastix_, had taken place between Shakspere and Ben Jonson, and that, during this period of peace, the performance of _Seja.n.u.s_ occurred, in which Shakspere actively co-operated. After that, traces of hostility only are to be discovered between the two poets.

Even when Horace, in the 'Satiromastix,' has again broken the peace, the gentle Crispinus says to him:--

Were thy warpt soule put in a new molde, I'd weare thee as a jewell set in golde.

32: The _Satiromastix_ was performed in 1602, probably in the beginning of the year, as the Epilogue speaks of cold weather, and Dekker scarcely would have waited a year with his answer to _The Poetaster_. Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. Another decennium had to pa.s.s (Shakspere had long since withdrawn to his Stratford) before the taste of Whitehall had been so much lowered that Jonson could become a favourite of the courtly element.

33: In such type it is printed in the original.

34: In _Satiromastix_, Captain Tucca once bawls out against Horace, 'My name's Hamlet Revenge!' as if it had become known already then in the dramatic world that Shakspere was preparing his reply to _The Poetaster_. In the latter play (act iii. sc. I) which was probably added after _The Poetaster_ had already been acted, and Jonson had heard that Dekker was writing his _Satiromastix_), Jonson makes a player from the other side of the Tiber say:--'We have hired him to abuse Horace, and bring him in, in a play, with all his gallants, as Tibullus, Mecaenas, Cornelius Gallus, and the rest....O, it will get us a huge deal of money, Captain, and we have need on't; for this winter has made us all poorer than so many starved snakes. n.o.body comes at us, not a gentleman, nor a--'

In the same scene Tucca utters curses, before that player, against the theatres on the other side of the Tiber. The actor he addresses belongs to one of them. Tucca mentions two theatres by name--'your Globes, and your Triumphs.' He says to the actor:--'Commend me to seven shares and a half.' Shakespere and his colleagues had certain fixed shares in the 'Globe;' and the words of the actor, as regards the poor winter they had, confirm that which Shakspere gives to understand in _Hamlet_, that 'there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.'

VI.

'VOLPONE,' by Ben Jonson.

'EASTWARD HOE,' by Chapman, Ben Jonson, and Marston.

'THE MALCONTENT,' by John Marston.

Ben Jonson's 'Volpone' was first acted in 1605; and on February 11, 1607, it appeared in print. [1] It is preceded by a Dedication, in which the author dedicates 'both it and himself' to 'the most n.o.ble and most equal sisters, the two famous Universities,' in grateful acknowledgment 'for their love and acceptance shown to this Poem in the presentation.'

In this Dedication the most pa.s.sionate language is used against all contemporary poets--especially against those who now, he says, practise 'in dramatic, as they term it: stage-poetry, nothing but ribaldry, profanation,' and 'all licence of offence to G.o.d and man.' Their petulancy, he continues, 'hath not only rapt me to present indignation, but made me studious heretofore;' for by them 'the filth of the time is uttered, and with such impropriety of phrase, such plenty of solecisms, such dearth of sense, so bold prolepses, so racked metaphors, with brothelry able to violate the ear of a pagan, and blasphemy to turn the blood of a Christian to water.'

Jonson expresses his purpose of standing off from them (the stage-poets) 'by all his actions.' Solemnly he utters this vow:--'I shall raise the despised head of poetry again, and, stripping her out of those rotten and base rags wherewith the times have adulterated her form, restore her to her primitive habit, feature, and majesty, and render her worthy to be embraced and kist of all the great and master-spirits of our world.' This object of his--he adds--'may most appear in this my latest work ('Volpone'), which you, most learned Arbitresses, have seen, judged, and, to my crown, approved; wherein I have laboured for their instruction and amendment, to reduce, not only the ancient forms, but manners of the scene, the easiness, the propriety, the innocence, and last, the doctrine, which is the princ.i.p.al end of poesie, to inform men in the best reason of living.'

All contemporary dramatists are most pitilessly condemned by Ben Jonson, and the cause of his present indignation is clearly stated: '_A name so full of authority, antiquity, and all great mark, is, through their insolence, become the lowest scorn of the age_;' moreover, '_my_ (Jonson's) _fame, and the reputation of divers honest and learned, are the question_--that is to say, have been injured.

As in 'Volpone,' wherein Jonson, as he states, 'laboured for their (the contemporary poets') instruction and amendment,' we shall find most numerous allusions to Shakspere and 'Hamlet,' we feel justified in a.s.serting that Jonson's whole fury is, in his 'present indignation,'

roused against this particular author and against this special drama.

Therein, as we have shown, a name of authority, antiquity, and all great mark--Montaigne--has been tampered with, and, through this satire, divers honest and learned (John Florio and his coadjutors in the translation--all friends of Jonson) have been injured, as well as the latter's own fame. In 'Hamlet,' Shakspere brought his own ideal of friendship in the figure of Horatio on the stage, in contrast to the Horace of 'The Poetaster.' Jonson was not the man to be edified by the beautiful examples and the n.o.bler words of his gentle adversary, Shakspere, or to alter his sentiments in accordance with them. He rather welcomed every opportunity for a quarrel. That was the element in which he lived; for thus he got the materials and the spicy condiments for his dramas. Now in 'Hamlet' there were motives enough for lighting up a fire of hatred against Shakspere, and to entertain the public therewith.

Jonson, always ready for battle, willingly takes up the pen in their defence. In doing so, the favour of a n.o.bleman and of some high-born ladies could be earned, at whose wish and request Montaigne had been Englished. Besides, every occasion was relished for opposing Shakspere, who had attacked Montaigne whose religious creed was the same as that of Jonson.

The British Museum possesses a copy of 'Volpone,' on which Jonson has, with his own hand, written the words:--'_To his loving father and loving freind, Mr. John Florio, the ayde of his Muses: Ben Jonson seals this testemony of freindship and love_.' Not the gift of this little book, however, but its contents--namely, the attack which Jonson made, both for the sake of his friend and for himself, against the great antagonist (Shakspere)--must be held to be the token or '_testemony of freindship and love_.'

In the very beginning of the Dedication, Jonson says that every author ought to be heedful of his fame:--'Never, most equal sisters, had any man a wit so presently excellent as that it could raise itself, but there must come both matter, occasion, commenders, and favourers to it.

If this be true, and that the fortune of all writers doth daily prove it, it behoves the careful to provide well towards these accidents; and, having acquired them, to preserve that part of reputation most tenderly, wherein the benefit of a friend is also defended.' He then a.s.serts that this is an age in which poetry, and the professors of it, are so ill-spoken of on all sides because, in their petulancy, they have yet to learn that one cannot be a good poet without first being a good man.

In the following pa.s.sage, curiously enough, a certain person is extolled as the model of a good man, against whom the stage dramatists, who themselves, according to Jonson, are not good men ('nothing remaining with them of the dignity of the poet'), have, as he thinks, grievously sinned:--'_He that is said to be able to inform young men to all good disciplines, inflame grown men to all great virtues, keep old men in their best and supreme state, or, as they decline to childhood, recover them to their first strength;_ [2] _that comes forth the interpreter and arbiter of nature, a teacher of things divine no less than human,_ [3]

_a master in manners; and can alone, or with a few, effect the business of mankind:_ [4] _this, I take him, is no subject for pride and ance to exercise their railing rhetoric upon._'

In this description we again see Montaigne, against whom 'railing rhetoric' has been used.

Ben Jonson proudly points to himself as having never done such mischief: 'For my particular, I can, and from a most clear conscience, affirm that I have ever trembled to think toward the least profaneness.'

Though--he says--he cannot wholly escape 'from some the imputation of sharpness,' he does not feel guilty of having offered insult to anyone, 'except to a mimic, cheater, bawd, or buffoon.' But--'I would ask of these supercilious politics, _what nation, society, or general order_ of state I have provoked? ... What public person?_ Whether I have not, in all these, preserved their dignity, as mine own person, safe? ...

Where have I been particular? where personal?'

Who does not see in the following words a reproach launched against Shakspere, that he has taken his materials from other writers? Who does not feel that the warning addressed to 'wise and n.o.ble persons'

has reference to the highly placed protectors of the great rival whose favour Ben Jonson, in spite of his Latin and Greek, was not able to obtain? He says:--