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Essay On Shakespeare
Essay On Shakespeare
Introductory Note
Ben Jonson, after Shakespeare the most eminent writer for the Elizabethan
stage, was born in 1573, and died in 1635. He was the founder of the so-
called "Comedy of Humours," and throughout the reign of James I was the
dominating personality in English letters. A large number of the younger
writers were proud to confess themselves his "sons." Besides dramas of a
variety of kinds, Jonson wrote much lyrical poetry, some of it of the most
exquisite quality. His chief prose work appears in his posthumously published
"Explorata, Timber or Discoveries, made upon men and matter", a kind of
commonplace book, in which he seems to have entered quotations and
translations from his reading, as well as original observations of a
miscellaneous character on men and books. The volume has little or no
structure or arrangement, but is impressed everywhere with the stamp of his
vigorous personality. The following passage on Shakespeare is notable as a
personal estimate of this giant by the man who, perhaps, approached him in the
field of intellect more closely than any other contemporary.
De Shakespeare Nostrat[I]^1
[Footnote 1: "Of our countryman, Shakespeare."]
I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honor to
Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a
line. My answer hath been, "Would he had blotted a thousand," which they
thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this but for their
ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he
most faulted; and to justify mine own candor, for I loved the man, and do
honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was, indeed, honest,
and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and
gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometime it was
necessary he should be stopped. "Sufflaminandus erat,"^2 as Augustus said of
Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so too.
Many times he fell into those things, could not escape laughter, as when he
said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him: "Caesar, thou dost me
wrong." He replied: "Caesar did never wrong but with just cause;"^3 and such
like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There
was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.
[Footnote 2: "He should have been clogged."]
[Footnote 3: The speech is not found in this form in our version of
Shakespeare`s "Julius Caesar."]
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