guished talent, wherein he excelled all his contemporaries; and that, beside new-forming our drama after the ancient models, he gave us the first English Pindaric which has any just claim to that title. But, as a general poet, he is often harsh, frigid, and tedious: perpetually in pursuit of some uncommon thought, which he wants taste and genius to render striking or agreeable; though his strains are not without many occasional flashes of imagination, and felicities of expression. His learning pervades, and to a certain degree stiffens, almost every thing he wrote. What he borrows from the ancients, however, he generally improves. He borrows, indeed, with the air of a conqueror, and wears his adscititious garb as a trophy rather than as a loan. His translation of the Art of Poetry' is so close, as to be comprehended in the same number of lines with the original. His occasional poems, chiefly encomiastic or satirical, abound in masculine sense and poignant wit, with an unfortunate intermixture at the same time of puerile conceit and coarse raillery. "His nature," says Dr. Hurd, "was severe and rigid; and this, in giving strength and manliness, gave at times too an intemperance to his satire. His taste for ridicule was strong, but indelicate, which made him not over-curious in the choice of his topics; and lastly, his stile in picturing characters, though masterly, was without that elegance of hand, which is required to correct and allay the force of so bold a colouring. Thus, the bias of his nature leading him to Plautus rather than Terence for his

characters; though Dr. Johnson himself recollected no instance prior to Oldham and Rochester.

model, it is not to be wondered at, that his wit is too frequently caustic, his raillery coarse, and his humour excessive." He has been regarded as the first, who has done much for the Grammar of the English Language.' This and his Discoveries, both written in his advanced years, discover an attachment to the interests of literature, and a habit of reflexion, which place his character as a scholar in a very favourable point of view.

His Hymn to Diana, in Cynthia's Revels,' is remarkably elegant and melodious.

The following pieces deserve, also, to be here trans

cribed.

Song, in his Silent Woman.'

'Still to be neat, still to be drest,

As you were going to a feast;

Still to be powder'd, still perfumed-
Lady, it is to be presumed,

Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free-
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,

Than all th' adulteries of art:

They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.'

His Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke, sister to Sir Philip Sidney, has been justly celebrated for it's spirit, conciseness, and ingenuity:

• Underneath this marble hearse
Lies the subject of all verse;
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother-
Death, ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw his dart at thee.'

It is perhaps surpassed, however, by four lines from his Epitaph on Elizabeth L. H. :

In 1640, the volume of his plays and poems, which had been published in his life-time, was reprinted; with the addition of a second folio, containing the rest of his Plays, Masques, Underwoods, a Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry,' English Grammar, and Discoveries. They re-appeared in 1716, in six volumes, octavo: and another edition in seven was published in 1756, with notes and addi

tions by the Rev. Peter Whalley, of St. John's College, Oxford; who likewise inserted, for the first time, his comedy entitled, The Case is Altered.'

There is reason to believe, that he had a design to write an epic poem, in couplets (as he detested all other rhyme) under the name Heroologia,* or the Worthies of the Country. It is said, indeed, that he actually drew up a Discourse on Poetry, both against Campion and Daniel, especially the latter, in which he proved couplets to be the best sort of verses.

From these accounts (observes Chalmers) it may surely be inferred, that Jonson in his life-time occupied a high station in the literary world. So many memorials of character, and so many eulogiums on talents, have not fallen to the lot of many writers of that age. His failings, however, appear to have been so conspicuous, as to obscure his virtues. Addicted to intemperance, with the unequal temper which habitual intemperance creates, and disappointed in the hopes of wealth and independence, which his high opinion of his talents led him to form; degene rating even to the resources of a libeller, who extorts from fear what is denied to genius, he became arrogant, and careless of pleasing even those with whom he associated. Of the coarseness of his manners there can be no doubt; but it appears, at the same time, that his talents were such, as made his temper be tolerated for the sake of his conversation, As to his high opinion of himself, he did not probably differ from his contemporaries, who hailed

* Two works, at least, already exist under this title, and both somewhat scarce: Robert Hall's 'Hpwoλeyix Anglorum, or an Helpe to English History, 12mo.; and a thin folio by Holland, containing numerous heads with short Latin Memoirs appended.

him the reformer of the stage, and the most learned of critics;' and it is no great diminution of his merit, that an age of more refinement cannot find enough to justify the superior light, in which he was contemplated. It is sufficient, that he did what had not been done before; that he displayed a judgement, to which the stage had been a stranger, and furnished it with examples of regular comedy which have not been surpassed.

C. Baldwin, Printer,

New Bridge-street, London.

END OF VOI II.