After the volumes which they have called forth, D'Avenant's vanity, who was willing to be thought the son Strates frears had in view the perfection of portic art which his plays have raised him? Perhaps, three only; the ancient bard, who told the tale of Troy, the Florentine, who saw the vision of the infernal world, and he, whose "great argument" was the loss of Eden. In various publications are to be found essays on the old English theatre, the writers of which seem desirous of impressing their readers with an idea that his dramatic contemporaries were but little inferior to the mighty poet himself. For my own part, I must be allowed to say, that a careful perusal of every existing drama of the reigns of Elizabeth and James, has thoroughly convinced me of the immeasurable superiority of Shakespeare to all the play-wrights of his time. I am not, I trust, insensible to the invention and power displayed by Fletcher, Jonson, Ford, Webster, Massinger, Dekker, Tourneur, Heywood, Chapman, Middleton, and the rest of that illustrious brotherhood; but I feel that over the worst of Shakespeare's dramas, his genius has diffused a peculiar charm, of which their best productions are entirely destitute; and to insinuate that any of his contemporaries ever produced a play worthy of being ranked with his happiest efforts,-with Othello for instance, Macbeth, Lear, or Hamlet,—seems to me an absurdity almost unpardonable in any critic.89 89 Weber in the Introduction to his edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, expressly tells us, that Philaster " pos Though Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and the Sonnets of Shakespeare have been cast into the shade by his dramas, and are familiar to few readers, they nevertheless deserve to be numbered among the finest compositions of the golden age of our literature. Both Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece, abound in elaborate descriptions, as vivid as language has ever conveyed, in striking thoughts, expressed with uncommon terseness, and in similes of perfect originality; while both, in accordance with the taste of the period at which they were written, are occasionally soiled by quaintness and conceit. It is to be regretted, that, for the sake of affording a contrast to the coldness of Adonis, Shakespeare should have so over-painted the passion of the Goddess, as to render several portions of the former production equally offensive to decency and good taste. The "first heir of his invention," (as he terms Venus and Adonis) appears to me, however, more full of the ethereal spirit of poesy than The Rape of Lucrece; though it wants the pathos, the energy, and the moral grandeur, of that painful tale. In order to show what progress had been made by Englishmen in the cultivation of the Sonnet, before it engaged the pen of Shakespeare, I shall now proceed to extract some pieces from different sesses excellencies little inferior" to those of Macbeth and Lear, p. xiv. writers, who had attempted it anterior to the year 1609.72 Among the Songes and Sonnettes, 1557, of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is this pleasing Description of Spring, wherein each thing renews, save only the Lover: "The soote 73 season, that bud and bloom forth brings, It is well known that Steevens pronounced Thomas Watson to be "a more elegant Sonnetteer than Shakespeare:" the following effusion (which is a fair specimen of Watson's talents) from the EKATOMIIA÷IA, or Passionate Centurie of Love, printed without date, but entered on the Stationers' Books, 1581, will show how preposterous was the decision of the commentator; who, after all, perhaps, did not declare his 72 It has been already mentioned that though Shakespeare's Sonnets were not published till 1609, some of them were written as early as 1598: see p. xlviii. 73 Sweet. 74 Mate. f 75 Mingles. real opinion on the subject, as sincerity was not among his virtues : "When May is in his prime, and youthful Spring 76 Doth clothe the tree with leaves, and ground with flowers, And time of year reviveth every thing, And lovely nature smiles, and nothing lours; A Vision upon this conceipt of the Faery Queen, attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, is appended to the three first books of Spenser's great poem, which were printed in 1590: Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay, 76 Watson's Sonnets all consist of eighteen, instead of fourteen, lines. |