... “This goodly tree,
An usher that still grew before his lady,
Wither’d at root: this, for he could not woo,
A grumbling lawyer:” &c.
Here must have been omitted a line rhyming to “tree;” and the words of the
next line have been transposed:—
... “This goodly tree,
_Which leafless, and obscur’d with moss you see_,
An usher this, that ’fore his lady grew,
Wither’d at root: this, for he could not woo,” &c.
“The Loyal Subject.”
It is well worthy of notice, and yet has not been, I believe, noticed
hitherto, what a marked difference there exists in the dramatic writers of
the Elizabetho-Jacobæan age—(Mercy on me! what a phrase for “the writers
during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.!”)—in respect of their
political opinions. Shakespeare, in this, as in all other things, himself
and alone, gives the permanent politics of human nature, and the only
predilection which appears, shows itself in his contempt of mobs and the
populacy. Massinger is a decided Whig;—Beaumont and Fletcher high-flying,
passive-obedience, Tories. The Spanish dramatists furnished them with
this, as with many other ingredients. By the by, an accurate and familiar
acquaintance with all the productions of the Spanish stage previously to
1620, is an indispensable qualification for an editor of B. and F.;—and
with this qualification a most interesting and instructive edition might
be given. This edition of Colman’s (Stockdale, 1811) is below criticism.
In metre, B. and F. are inferior to Shakespeare, on the one hand, as
expressing the poetic part of the drama, and to Massinger, on the other,
in the art of reconciling metre with the natural rhythm of
conversation,—in which, indeed, Massinger is unrivalled. Read him aright,
and measure by time, not syllables, and no lines can be more
legitimate,—none in which the substitution of equipollent feet, and the
modifications by emphasis, are managed with such exquisite judgment. B.
and F. are fond of the twelve syllable (not Alexandrine) line, as:—
“Too many fears ’tis thought too: and to nourish those.”
This has often a good effect, and is one of the varieties most common in
Shakespeare.
“Rule A Wife And Have A Wife.”