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allied to the essential principles of human wel- where, amidst great heaps of rubbish, you meet fare. Before his day, England was allowed to with noble fragments of sculpture, broken pillars indulge all the crudities of self-esteem with com- and obelisks and a magnificence in confusion." placency. Neither law or theology meddled with Thus if he explored human life with a critical those details of conduct their professors deemed eye and sometimes busied himself with its veriof minor importance. Hence the need of a set est details, the survey was inspired by reverence of lay-preachers, tasteful, witty and insinuating, and sympathy; and amid the quaint allegories, to lop the excrescences, guide the blind impulses old-fashioned modes of speech and diffuse comand meliorate the life of society. If we glance monplaces that sometimes weary a reader of toat the pages of the old essayists, we shall find day, the essays of Steele not infrequently glide that they made constant war upon all kinds of from the vivacious to the sublime, from convenaffectation, mercilessly exposed bullies, coxcombs, tionalities to philosophy, and from a question of pedants, oglers, dandies, wags, croakers, co- manners to an evidence of immortality. His quettes, and all the gay, noisy and venomous prefaces contain the most deliberate statement of insects that infest the social atmosphere. The the purposes he cherished and the motives by strong-holds of cant and ostentation were inva- which he was actuated; and some of these have ded; the baseness of slander unveiled, and the a cordial and noble tone that can scarcely fail to beauties of literature, the claims of genius aud charm a generous and discriminating mind. the dignity of truth vindicated with tact and elo- Thus, in one instance, he observes—“ When quence. From the abolition of such customs as learning irradiates common life, it is then in its the levelling of opera glasses before recognition, highest use and perfection. Knowledge of books the indiscreet mention of a set of acquaintances is like that sort of lantern which hides him who outlived, and the dangling of canes from a but carries it, and serves only to pass through secret ton-hole, to the high acts of distinguishing be- and gloomy paths of his own; but in the possestween realities and appearances, and disengaging sion of a man of business, it is as a torch in the one's-self from the opinions of others, the Specta- hand of one who is willing and able to show tor was the bland champion of improvement. those who are bewildered, the way which leads He mingles with the habitués of the coffee-house, to their prosperity and welfare." A prominent the audience and the actors at the theatre, the object he elsewhere declares to be "to expose clubs of politicians, the festive scenes of hospi- the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of tality, the grave coteries of scholars and the af- cunning, vanity and affectation, and to recom· fectionate gatherings around the domestic hearth-mend a general simplicity in our dress, our disstone, and thence retires to indite grateful praise or judicious censure adapted to each scene and occasion. Perhaps there is as much wisdom in such a humanitarian application of one's knowledge and sympathy, as can be discovered in the more ostentatious efforts of modern philanthropy. It was, at least, one of the primary developements of that benevolent enterprise that, in our day, exhibits itself in the writings of Crabbe His "practical scheme for the good of society," and Dickens, and the teachings of Spurzheim has, therefore, continued to influence both the and Combe; and in all the varied labors of men form and spirit of subsequent literature; and of letters and science to make the different class- popular reading now bears its traces in the carees of society known to one another and promote human well-being by disseminating a knowledge of natural laws.

course and our behavior." Accordingly he penetrated the nooks of experience, and constantly enforced minor philosophy, so needful yet so rare which induces the "honest and laudable fortitude that dares to be ugly;" the adoption in dress of "the medium between a fop and a sloven," the content which dwells on "such instances of our good fortune as we are apt to overlook."

ful exposition of events, as in the Annual Register, and the minute analysis of the spirit of the age by such writers as Hazlitt. Modern reviews Those who are disinclined to recognise so wide and novels, as well as many contributions to the and benign an aim in the writings of Steele, do daily press, are also imbued with the observant, not justly estimate the genuine nobility of his critical and suggestive habitudes of the original character. Perhaps to many he is most frequently essayists. In fact men of wit became ashamed, remembered as a good-hearted man about town, after so noble an example, to employ their gift with considerable wit and reckless habits. This otherwise than in the service of truth; and the view, though in a measure correct, is altogether Spectator's creed was more generally adopted inadequate. We find ample evidence of the even in literature,—that "the greatest merit is in generous and elevated designs he cherished. He having social virtues, with benevolence to manreverenced the nature to which he would fain kind." At the outset, indeed, while female culminister. "I consider," he says, "the soul of tivation was rare, to be speculative was fashionman as the ruin of a glorious pile of buildings;able; so that Goldoni ridicules, in one of his

comedies, the lady-readers of the Spectator; but | fairly into discussion. and submitted to the ordeal there can be little doubt that the galaxy of ad- of truth; so that we may ascribe, in a measure, mirable English female writers, that adorn this the increased consideration the sex enjoy, to this century was, in part, at least, drawn into the lit-wise application of literature to life. We regard erary firmament by the recognition and the im-Steele as a kind of bold and graceful steward at pulses afforded by Steele and his fraternity. the feast of letters, who, uniting intellectual gifts Mental independence was one of the happiest with social instincts, won the thinker from reand most needful lessons they taught;-demon-tirement and the worldling to books, broke the strating that "we purchase things with our blood ice of pedantry, melted the reserve of scholarand money quite foreign to our intrinsic and real ship, and gently led the careless votary of pleashappiness;" that true "Honor is the conscience ure into the temple of reflection. He was a pioof doing just and laudable actions, independent neer in that great achievement of modern civiliof the success of these actions ;" and that we zation-the diffusion of knowledge. He strove should aim to "banish out of conversation all to make the acquisitions of the few available to entertainment which does not proceed from sim- the many; and first succesfully established, among plicity of mind, good-nature, friendship and the Anglo-Saxons, and indirectly elsewhere, the truth." Another striking service rendered by magnetic telegraph of social literature-now the this literary reform, was that of calling public familiar blessing of the world,-the cheapest of attention to neglected authors. It is conceded luxuries, the most unfailing of resources and one that Addison's papers on Milton, first caused Par- of the main-springs of human interest. Not so adise Lost to be universally read and apprecia- much by genius and erudition, but through a ted; thus literature, manners, character and life hearty frankness, a captivating address, and libfound enlightened and affectionate interpretation, eral sympathies he became the favorite companand were "touched to finer issues;" so that, by ion at every London breakfast-table; and lived the consent of the judicious, it was recorded of in the world "rather as a spectator of mankind Steele that he “took upon himself to be the cen- than as one of the species ;" and to such advansor of the age, and for years exercised that deli- tage, that the list of subscribers to each of his cate office with suitable dignity and general ap- periodicals, comprised the most illustrious names probation." in the kingdom. How natural for Lamb to exSociety perpetually needs criticism; and, not- claim, with the zest of a cotemporary, “O to withstanding the offence which the strictures of read Steele new!" La Bruyère had analyzed travellers in the United States, have given our character and Castiglione drawn up a code of sensitive people, they have induced actual re- manners, but with a more genial and comprehenforms. Domestic economy is auspiciously modi- sive aim, the Spectator and Tatler surveyed the fied by the intelligent suggestions of writers on whole field of human life and reasoned of its inprinciples of taste and the laws of health. The ward elements and external phases, so that their advantage of ventilation and ablution, the wis- projector deserved the encomium of one of his dom of inexpensive entertainments, and refine- biographers, who says that "all the pulpit disment in public amusements, are daily more ap- courses of a year scarce produced half the good preciated through the intelligent advocacy of that flowed from the Spectator of a day." In a literature, the architecture and furniture of dwel- purely literary point of view, Steele merits the lings cannot fail to become more fit and pleasing distinction of having illustrated the availability by means of the eloquent treatise of Ruskin; of our vernacular. He took the language from while the lionizing and blue-stocking mania is stilts and placed it on its feet. The most feliciobviously on the decline since it has become the tous of his essays are colloquial without any loss subject of masterly satire. Let us not forget of dignity, and expressive without the use of any that no small degree of that salutary impulse sonorous or peculiar words. He knew how to which gave this practical direction to literature, write like a gentleman as well as a scholar; reis referable to the candid and kindly example of produced original simplicity of diction, and from Steele. Women, especially, owe him no small a ponderous mace that only the erudite thought obligation, for advocating the mental capabilities, of handling, moulded and tempered it into a delrecognising the social mission, and exposing the icate but keen rapier, light to carry and graceful baneful follies of their sex. He indicated how to wield. Writing became more conversational they may derive positive benefit from men of let- and talking more finished from the easy rhetoric ters, by sharing with them the domain of taste of the old essayists, and, although Steele modand cultivating the amenities of life. Many ques- estly yields the palm to Addison-declaring himtions of vital import to their usefulness and satis- self "undone by his auxiliary;" we are inclined faction, previously kept in abeyance through false to think, with Swift, that "the ingenious gentledelicacy or proud indifference, were thus brought man who did thrice a week, divert and instruct

the public with his papers, tried the force and compass of our language with eminent success." He had the nature and the independence to print talk, the sense to make it useful, and the fancy to give it a charm; and it has, therefore, been justly said of him and his co-laborers,—that for more than half a century they "supplied the English nation with principles of speculation."

Con amore is the secret of eloquent advocacy. Steele loved truth and beauty in form, manners and action, with an enthusiasm that few divines realized; hence their exposition was to him a peculiar delight. He lacked the firmness to embody these high principles in his life; but the consciousness of this, gave new fervor to the sentiments their contemplation inspired. He had the nobility to appreciate what he felt was beyond his reach; and seemed to atone for personal disloyalty to virtue, by sincere public homage at her shrine. The inconsistency might have been fatal, had he ministered openly at the altar whose secret priest he aspired to be; but addressing his readers under the humorous name of Isaac Bickerstaff to which the wit of Swift had given the prestige of notoriety, there was no inevitable association of the censor with the man. An universality of aim took away the special intent of his hits at folly; and self-love was not wounded by the judicious advice of a kindly man of the world anonymously tendered. Besides and above all, there was the undertone of gen

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JOHN FORD.

P. H. H.

uine affection, to render musical even the hoarse THE EARLY ENGLISH DRAMATISTS. voice of reproof; the satire had too much of pleasantry to embitter its object; and the magnetic touch of that spirit of humanity which lives in the famous line of Terence and the cherished

It is a circumstance previously remarked, that song of Burns, took the sting of enduring pain the middle of Elizabeth's reign, to the breaking within the short space of half a century, from

from the needful blow of correction.

SONG.

I.

When I met thee Belovéd!

In hope, and in gladness

I thought not so soon

I should leave thee in sadness-
The dream that my fancy

Caressingly cherished-
Its radiance has vanished-
Its glory has perished.

II.

The wounds of the heart,
Are forever unclosing-
The spirit that suffereth

Knows not reposing.

If the soul from oblivion

One bright beam should borrow,
Too soon waketh memory

The wild harp of sorrow.

out of the Great Rebellion, there flourished almost all that England can boast of as masters in the art of serious dramatic literature. Perhaps we should make a few exceptions in favor of the authors of the Samson Agonistes, the Fair Penitent, the Mourning Bride, and a few other spirits of like kidney, but reflection will yet show strong reasons for including imitators and contemporaries in the general rule we have noticed above. After these reverend seniors,' how little have we!-In the literary fragments of this "golden age of merrye England," we

See how the floor of heaven

Is thickly strewn with patines of bright gold!
There 's not the smallest orb,

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young eyed cherubim :
Such harmony is in immortal souls!

But in the superior effulgence of the fame of
Shakspeare, that sun which shall never set, are
comparatively lost to view many bards, whose

beauties would otherwise have been familiar to venture to substitute it for the original title,)

our tongues. The Persian apologue of the clay that received its sweetness from a neighboring roseplant, must be reversed in this connection by the admirers of Ben Jonson-Beaumont and Fletcher-Massinger-Webster-Kit Marlowe, and numerous others. And among other contemporary kindred spirits, John Ford held in his day a very high position, which even now he must be allowed to have merited.

which was not published, however, till 1633. In the dedication to the Earl of Peterborough, our author styles it "the first fruit of his leisure in the action."

From the very nature of this play, its damnation ensues. Like Massinger in his Ancient Admiral, Ford seems to have thought that the portraiture of the passion of Love, (in which he so eminently excelled,) in any phase whatever, no John Ford, or as he sometimes spelt his name, matter how sinful or revolting, was redeemable Forde, was born of reputable parentage, in De- by exquisite delicacy of touch and soft depth of vonshire, England, during the spring of 1586. coloring. The horrible traits in the character of It is the lamentable dearth of all positive evi- the hero and heroine of the piece, render it unfit dence, even on such a point as this, that has for perusal by the young, and sickening to the caused one of the most distinguished British old. The student of early British poetry will poets to say, "it is painful to find the name of call to mind, in this connection, the beautiful old Ford a barren spot in our poetical biography, ballad of the Bonny Hynd, in which a similar marked by nothing but a few dates and conjec- catastrophe is produced with a degree of poetitures, chiefly drawn from his own dedications." cal spirit worthy of a more noble theme. As However, there is still extant, at Islington, the record of his baptism, dated April 17th, 1586.

It is, we believe, unknown and unnoticed by any of Ford's previous biographers, that he was born at the family seat of the manor of Bagter, near Ashburton, in the county of Devon; a town which nearly two centuries after, gave a title to another illustrious son, John Dunning, the first Baron Ashburton. It may boast also of giving birth to two other persons eminent in the literary world, Dr. Ireland, Dean of Westminster, and Mr. Gifford, the former editor of the Quarterly Review. The manor is at present one of the seats of Lord Ashburton, but will revert in about ten years to the Creswell family of that ilk.

our author was a lawyer, he should not have been unmindful of the axiom of the civilians :— "Facinora ostendi dum puniantur, flagitia autem abscondi debent."

Not to do him injustice, however, we transcribe what we may suppose to be his real sentiments, taken from the mouth of Friar Bonaventura, a second Friar Lawrence, in the very opening of the play

"Dispute no more in this, for know, young man,
These are no school points; nice philosophy
May tolerate unlikely arguments,

But heaven admits no jests! Wits, that presumed
On wit too much, by striving how to prove
There was no God, with foolish grounds of art,-
Discovered first the nearest way to hell;
And filled the world with devilish Atheism.
Such questions, youth, are fond far better 'tis
To bless the sun, than reason why it shines;
Yet He thou talk'st of is above the sun.
No more; I may not hear it."

Hear the lover, describing the charms of his mistress in an impassioned strain, worthy of Ariosto himself:

Like Congreve and many others of the brotherhood, Ford, after receiving a liberal education, was entered in the Middle Temple, 16th November, 1602, as a student of law. It would seem that in after life he was a practitioner of no mean eminence in this science. In 1606, not yet arrived at the age of manhood, he published an affectionate tribute to the memory of the Earl of Devonshire, in the shape of some verses entitled "Fame's Memorial," &c. Twenty-three years after this, we again find him before the public. In 1629, he published his "Lover's Melancholy," which, he assures us in his dedication to the Society of Gray's Inn, was his first printed dramatic effort. It is probable that he had in the interim composed several plays for representation, although none of them had as yet been submitted to the press. Happily for our curiosity, A single specimen more must suffice for this his dedications afford us some irrefragable testi- tragedy. In strong contrast with the foregoing, mony in regard to the history of the compositions we select an extract in which the Friar describes to which they are attached. The first play that the consequences of sin:

appears on the stage, the product of Ford's pen, seems to have been "The Brother and Sister": (although it is not known by that name, we will

VOL. XV-83

"View well her face, and in that little round
You may observe a world of variety;
For coral, lips; for sweet perfumes, her breath;
For jewels, eyes; for threads of purest gold,
Hair; for delicious choice of flowers, cheeks;
Wonder in every portion of that form.
Hear her but speak, and you will swear the spheres
Make music to the citizens in heaven.

-There is a place

(List daughter) in a black and hollow vault
Where day is never seen; there shines no sun,

But flaming horror of condemning fires;
A lightless sulphur, choked with smoky fogs
Of an infected darkness; in this place
Dwell many thousand thousand sundry sorts
Of never-dying deaths; there damned souls
Roar without pity; there are gluttons fed
With toads and adders; there is burning oil
Pour'd down the drunkard's throat; the usurer
Is forced to sup whole draughts of molten gold;
There is the murderer for ever stabb'd,
Yet can he never die; there lies the wanton
On racks of burning steel, whilst in his soul
He feels the torment of his raging lust.

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any register but that of Hell.' Pancirollus wrote De Antiquis Deperditis, or of the Lost Inventions of Antiquity."

We take leave of this play, for the "Lover's Melancholy," with feelings much akin to those inspired by stepping from a cold damp charnel house, into an airy, agreeable garden. This tragicomedy we have alluded to before; it is undoubtedly a most superior production-containing several passages that would singly suffice to immortalize any play. The plot is also of a very graceful character-in it our author delineates with a masterly hand the progress and cure of two kinds of insanity, without suffering the interest of the piece to pall for a moment. The reader will agree with Mr. Lamb in regard to the following extract, that "it is as fine as any thing in Beaumont and Fletcher, and almost equals the strife it celebrates. It depicts a contest between a Musician and a Nightingale: the tale on which it is

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Menaphon. Passing from Italy to Greece the tales
Which poets of an elder time have feigned

To glorify their Tempe, bred in me
Desire of visiting that Paradise.

To Thessaly I came, and living private,
Without acquaintance of more sweet companions
Than the old inmate of my love, my thoughts,
I day by day frequented silent groves,
And solitary walks. One morning early
This accident encountered me: I heard
The sweetest and most ravishing contention
That art or nature ever were at strife in.
A sound of music, touch'd mine ears, or rather
Indeed, entranced my soul: as I stole nearer,
Invited by the melody, I saw

Although a most hideous and enormous sin is held up to the popular odium in this tragedy, still even the goodness of the author's motives can scarce excuse his subject. Yet he has the slight defence, that he may have taken the hint from the ancient Greek drama, of which this vice was a not uncommon subject. And in this feeling we are borne out by many of the most able critics. The author of the Pleasures of founded is familiar to all classical readers. Hope held still stronger language in this connection, and the late Charles Lamb, in a note to an extract from this play says, "Sir Thomas Brown, in the last chapter of his enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, rebukes such authors as have chosen to relate prodigious and nameless sins. The chapter is entitled "Of some relations whose truth we fear." His reasoning is solemn and fine. Lastly, as there are many relations whereto we cannot assent, and make some doubt thereof, so there are divers others whose verities we fear, and heartily wish there were no truth therein. Many other accounts like these we meet sometimes in History, scandalous unto Christianity, and even unto Humanity; whose not only verities, but relations honest minds do deprecate. Nor of sins heteroclital, and such as want either name or precedent, there is oftimes a sin even in their histories. We desire no records of such enormities; sins should be accounted new, that so they may be esteemed monstrous. They omit of monstrosity, as they fall from their rarity; for men count it venial to err with their forefathers, and foolishly conceive they divide a sin in its society. The pens of men may sufficiently expatiate without these singularities of villainy; for, as they increase the hatred of vice in some, so do they enlarge the theory of wickedness in all. And this is one thing that may make latter ages worse than were the former : for the vicious example of ages past, poison the curiosity of these present, affording a hint of sin unto seducable spirits, and soliciting those unto the imitation of them, whose heads were never so perversely principled as to invent them. In things of this nature silence commendeth History; 'tis the veniable part of things lost, wherein there must never rise a Pancirollus, nor remain"

This youth, this fair-fac'd youth, upon his lute
With strains of strange variety and harmony
Proclaiming. (as it seem'd,) so bold a challenge
To the clear quiristers of the woods, the birds,
That as they flocked about him all stood silent,
Wond'ring at what they heard. I wondered too.
A Nightingale,

Nature's best skill'd musician, undertakes

The challenge; and, for every several strain
The well shaped youth could touch, she sung her down;
He could not run division with more art
Upon his quaking instrument, than she

The nightingale did with her various notes
Reply to.

Some time thus spent,the young man grew at last
Into a pretty anger; that a bird,

Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes,
Should vie with him for mastery, whose study
Had busied many hours to perfect practice:
To end the controversy, in a rapture,
Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly.
So many voluntaries, and so quick,
That there was curiosity and cunning,
Concord in discord, lines of diff'ring method
Meeting in one full centre of delight.

The bird, (ordain'd to he

Music's first martyr,) strove to imitate

These several sounds; which when her warbling throat

Fail'd in, down dropt she on his lute

And brake her heart. It was the quaintest sadness

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