登陆注册
14826200000010

第10章

But if Jonson had deserted the stage after the publication of his folio and up to the end of the reign of King James, he was far from inactive; for year after year his inexhaustible inventiveness continued to contribute to the masquing and entertainment at court. In "The Golden Age Restored,"Pallas turns from the Iron Age with its attendant evils into statues which sink out of sight; in "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," Atlas figures represented as an old man, his shoulders covered with snow, and Comus, "the god of cheer or the belly," is one of the characters, a circumstance which an imaginative boy of ten, named John Milton, was not to forget. "Pan's Anniversary," late in the reign of James, proclaimed that Jonson had not yet forgotten how to write exquisite lyrics, and "The Gipsies Metamorphosed" displayed the old drollery and broad humorous stroke still unimpaired and unmatchable. These, too, and the earlier years of Charles were the days of the Apollo Room of the Devil Tavern where Jonson presided, the absolute monarch of English literary Bohemia. We hear of a room blazoned about with Jonson's own judicious 'Leges Convivales' in letters of gold, of a company made up of the choicest spirits of the time, devotedly attached to their veteran dictator, his reminiscences, opinions, affections, and enmities. And we hear, too, of valorous potations; but in the words of Herrick addressed to his master, Jonson, at the Devil Tavern, as at the Dog, the Triple Tun, and at the Mermaid, "We such clusters had As made us nobly wild, not mad, And yet each verse of thine Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine."But the patronage of the court failed in the days of King Charles, though Jonson was not without royal favours; and the old poet returned to the stage, producing, between 1625 and 1633, "The Staple of News," "The New Inn," "The Magnetic Lady," and "The Tale of a Tub," the last doubtless revised from a much earlier comedy. None of these plays met with any marked success, although the scathing generalisation of Dryden that designated them "Jonson's dotages" is unfair to their genuine merits. Thus the idea of an office for the gathering, proper dressing, and promulgation of news (wild flight of the fancy in its time) was an excellent subject for satire on the existing absurdities among the newsmongers; although as much can hardly be said for "The Magnetic Lady," who, in her bounty, draws to her personages of differing humours to reconcile them in the end according to the alternative title, or "Humours Reconciled." These last plays of the old dramatist revert to caricature and the hard lines of allegory; the moralist is more than ever present, the satire degenerates into personal lampoon, especially of his sometime friend, Inigo Jones, who appears unworthily to have used his influence at court against the broken-down old poet. And now disease claimed Jonson, and he was bedridden for months. He had succeeded Middleton in 1628 as Chronologer to the City of London, but lost the post for not fulfilling its duties. King Charles befriended him, and even commissioned him to write still for the entertainment of the court; and he was not without the sustaining hand of noble patrons and devoted friends among the younger poets who were proud to be "sealed of the tribe of Ben."Jonson died, August 6, 1637, and a second folio of his works, which he had been some time gathering, was printed in 1640, bearing in its various parts dates ranging from 1630 to 1642. It included all the plays mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs, excepting "The Case is Altered;" the masques, some fifteen, that date between 1617 and 1630; another collection of lyrics and occasional poetry called "Underwoods, including some further entertainments; a translation of "Horace's Art of Poetry" (also published in a vicesimo quarto in 1640), and certain fragments and ingatherings which the poet would hardly have included himself. These last comprise the fragment (less than seventy lines) of a tragedy called "Mortimer his Fall,"and three acts of a pastoral drama of much beauty and poetic spirit, "The Sad Shepherd." There is also the exceedingly interesting 'English Grammar' "made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of all strangers out of his observation of the English language now spoken and in use," in Latin and English; and 'Timber, or discoveries' "made upon men and matter as they have flowed out of his daily reading, or had their reflux to his peculiar notion of the times." The 'Discoveries', as it is usually called, is a commonplace book such as many literary men have kept, in which their reading was chronicled, passages that took their fancy translated or transcribed, and their passing opinions noted. Many passage of Jonson's 'Discoveries' are literal translations from the authors he chanced to be reading, with the reference, noted or not, as the accident of the moment prescribed. At times he follows the line of Macchiavelli's argument as to the nature and conduct of princes; at others he clarifies his own conception of poetry and poets by recourse to Aristotle. He finds a choice paragraph on eloquence in Seneca the elder and applies it to his own recollection of Bacon's power as an orator; and another on facile and ready genius, and translates it, adapting it to his recollection of his fellow-playwright, Shakespeare. To call such passages -- which Jonson never intended for publication -- plagiarism, is to obscure the significance of words. To disparage his memory by citing them is a preposterous use of scholarship. Jonson's prose, both in his dramas, in the descriptive comments of his masques, and in the 'Discoveries', is characterised by clarity and vigorous directness, nor is it wanting in a fine sense of form or in the subtler graces of diction.

When Jonson died there was a project for a handsome monument to his memory.

But the Civil War was at hand, and the project failed. A memorial, not insufficient, was carved on the stone covering his grave in one of the aisles of Westminster Abbey:

"O rare Ben Jonson."

FELIX E. SCHELLING.

THE COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

The following is a complete list of his published works: --DRAMAS. -- Every Man in his Humour, 4to, 1601; The Case is Altered, 4to, 1609; Every Man out of his Humour, 4to, 1600; Cynthia's Revels, 4to, 1601;Poetaster, 4to, 1602; Sejanus, 4to, 1605; Eastward Ho (with Chapman and Marston), 4to, 1605; Volpone, 4to, 1607; Epicoene, or the Silent Woman, 4to, 1609 (?), fol., 1616; The Alchemist, 4to, 1612; Catiline, his Conspiracy, 4to, 1611; Bartholomew Fayre, 4to, 1614 (?), fol., 1631; The Divell is an Asse, fol., 1631; The Staple of Newes, fol., 1631; The New Sun, 8vo, 1631, fol., 1692; The Magnetic Lady, or Humours Reconcild, fol., 1640; A Tale of a Tub, fol., 1640; The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood, fol., 1641; Mortimer his Fall (fragment), fol., 1640.

To Jonson have also been attributed additions to Kyd's Jeronymo, and collaboration in The Widow with Fletcher and Middleton, and in the Bloody Brother with Fletcher.

POEMS. -- Epigrams, The Forrest, Underwoods, published in fols., 1616, 1640; Selections: Execration against Vulcan, and Epigrams, 1640; G. Hor.

Flaccus his art of Poetry, Englished by Ben Jonson, 1640; Leges Convivialis, fol., 1692. Other minor poems first appeared in Gifford's edition of Works.

PROSE. -- Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter, fol., 1641; The English Grammar, made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of Strangers, fol., 1640.

Masques and Entertainments were published in the early folios.

WORKS. -- Fol., 1616, vol. 2, 1640 (1631-41); fol., 1692, 1716-19, 1729;edited by P. Whalley, 7 vols., 1756; by Gifford (with Memoir), 9 vols., 1816, 1846; re-edited by F. Cunningham, 3 vols., 1871; in 9 vols., 1875;by Barry Cornwall (with Memoir), 1838; by B. Nicholson (Mermaid Series), with Introduction by C. H. Herford, 1893, etc.; Nine Plays, 1904; ed. H. C. Hart (Standard Library), 1906, etc; Plays and Poems, with Introduction by H.

Morley (Universal Library), 1885; Plays (7) and Poems (Newnes), 1905;Poems, with Memoir by H. Bennett (Carlton Classics), 1907; Masques and Entertainments, ed. by H. Morley, 1890.

SELECTIONS. -- J. A. Symonds, with Biographical and Critical Essay, (Canterbury Poets), 1886; Grosart, Brave Translunary Things, 1895; Arber, Jonson Anthology, 1901; Underwoods, Cambridge University Press, 1905;Lyrics (Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher), the Chap Books, No. 4, 1906; Songs (from Plays, Masques, etc.), with earliest known setting, Eragny Press, 1906.

LIFE. -- See Memoirs affixed to Works; J. A. Symonds (English Worthies), 1886; Notes of Ben Jonson Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden;Shakespeare Society, 1842; ed. with Introduction and Notes by P. Sidney, 1906; Swinburne, A Study of Ben Jonson, 1889.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 未来世界之天城与地界

    未来世界之天城与地界

    多年之后,人类的活动已经严重破坏生态,自然界的报复来临,物种异变,灾难持续,世界现代文明毁于一旦,幸存的部分人类建造天城离开地界,将饱受旷古之灾的陆地被称为地界,同为人类,在天城安逸生活的人们与仍在地界痛苦挣扎已经异变的人类之间会碰撞出怎样的火花呢?带着仇恨与责任来到天城的男孩,渴望重造世界的少女......
  • 三生魂殇

    三生魂殇

    打酒醒后她第一个念头就是自己昨晚干的是什么事啊太丢人了,活了头几百年第一次告白临末被人家皱皱眉二话不说就赶走了,幸好没传开不然太丢人了嘤嘤嘤....哪知道偏就惹上了这个记仇的主儿,愣是追了她三生,连地府都不放过,咳咳咳这神君约莫是报复心太重了点吧......精彩片段"神君大人,您歇歇吧,我知道错了放过我吧?""您看上次纯粹是个意外.....您就行行好别追了行不,都到冥府了...“某女气喘吁吁趴倒在跌跌撞撞的祥云上,用平生最狗腿的眼光盯着眼前神祗般高大的人物。某神祗沉默......再沉默.....
  • 首席蜜宠:甜妻惹人爱

    首席蜜宠:甜妻惹人爱

    “怎么?收了钱还想跑?我可从来不做亏本生意!”男人邪笑拦下她,开始伸出“魔掌”。一次偶然,她被名声叱咤云国的男人当成“小姐”睡了。云若心为了大局着想,用自己的身体与他交易,却一不小心成了叶夫人!…………“等等,别扯坏了,这可是限量版的!”云若心楚楚可怜看他。“不就是限量版内衣吗?你想要多少我就给你多少!”叶先生邪魅一笑,用力一扯。
  • 杀手穿越本为魔

    杀手穿越本为魔

    简介上一世她叫梦妍,她是现代异能世家五类异能全修,毒医双绝,被称为天才的人物!亦是杀手组织里的金牌杀手,她要当上家族的掌权人,她要有实力!因为她要保护自己的弟弟,和自己在乎的姐妹,爱人,不能让他像爸爸妈妈一样离自己而去,!可是当她登上掌门之位的那一刻,暗算她的,是她最好的姐妹,是说要带给她阳光的男人,看着自己的弟弟死在血泊中,她平静的说,别让我活着,不然我会把一切还给你们的!!时光大门开启,这一世,一样的灵魂,不一样的身体,面对的却是同样的阴谋!既然你们找死,那就都来吧。异世之中,她遇到他,“吃了它,我就让你跟着我!”!毫不犹豫吃下她给的毒药!“你敢让他碰你!”他的狂怒要毁灭整个世界!“他碰我我可以杀了他,要是你我该拿你怎么办!”乱世中是她溺在他的银色世界,还是他在她的紫色海洋中挣不脱,逃不开!原来整个世界都是他们的配角,所有事情都落幕,是他们生生世世的相随!
  • 三校草与校花们的相遇

    三校草与校花们的相遇

    她,高冷;他,冷酷;他和她小时候有个约定,十年后重遇会发生什么。她,妩媚;他,玩世不恭;他(她)们突然奇遇。她,可爱;他,温柔;他和她还有汐从小是青梅竹马,十年后相遇会怎样。当复仇校花们遇到校草们又会怎样呢?
  • 穿越重生:懒妃绝世倾城

    穿越重生:懒妃绝世倾城

    明明在KTV唱歌唱的好好的,怎么一觉醒来就发现床和周边的一切都不再现代化了?难道是自己喝太多了产生错觉了?猛的掐了下自己才发现原来这一切都是真的,自己居然穿越了???太不可思议了!等到回个神来才发现自己居然在这个年代才16岁居然都已经嫁为人妇了,想想大好的青春就这么没了,夫君居然是太子爷,可惜从成亲到现在都没见过自己的男人一面就被府上的侧妃夫人活活折磨致死.............
  • 现世修真:爆笑萌宠夫

    现世修真:爆笑萌宠夫

    出了点小问题打算删除,么么哒^0^出了点小问题打算删除,么么哒^0^
  • 这次,我等你

    这次,我等你

    平时都放荡不羁的白琪,遇到自己想要守护一辈子的人,从深爱到离别再到憎恨……短短几年里却经历了很多人的一生,从大喜到大悲再到大喜……在他的人生中,悲伤从未间断过。这也让他从一个屌丝蜕变成为很多人心中的男神,他们之间的爱,其实并不是很凄美但是却让他一辈子都不能忘怀,这就是爱吗?还没感觉到却已经来了,在他慢慢开始学着爱她的同时,爱就这样又不见了,反而换回来了无休无止的恨,这是多么的措手不及呢。请你不要走远好吗?这次,换我等你……
  • 战神繁星魄

    战神繁星魄

    眼前,一片深邃的紫蓝,仿佛沉入深海,使我痛苦的好似窒息,双眼疲惫的无法睁开,怎么也是徒劳,仿佛陷入了万年的沉睡。可是面前那模糊的微弱的一丝光亮,使我不得不艰难的再次睁开双眼,果然……看到心上人的面貌,一股暖流在胸中冲荡。你放心,我,不会再堕落了……
  • 蓝蝴神蝶

    蓝蝴神蝶

    山泽中心有一湖泊名曰“蓝湖”,蓝湖圣水,经年累月,受天地精华,生出一个个头出众,通体晶蓝的神蝶,此蝶死而化人,人死而化蝶,如此循环往复,只为追随在太阳神子身边静静守候,她不懂何为爱情,也不懂何为索取,她只知道付出,无偿的付出,最后,在亲情面前,在世界大义面前,她毅然献出了自己的生命。