Merione’s speech. Had the scene of this tragi-comedy been laid in
Hindostan instead of Corinth, and the gods here addressed been the Vishnu
and Co. of the Indian Pantheon, this rant would not have been much amiss.
In respect of style and versification, this play and the following of
_Bonduca_ may be taken as the best, and yet as characteristic, specimens
of Beaumont and Fletcher’s dramas. I particularly instance the first scene
of the _Bonduca_. Take Shakespeare’s _Richard II._, and having selected
some one scene of about the same number of lines, and consisting mostly of
long speeches, compare it with the first scene in _Bonduca_,—not for the
idle purpose of finding out which is the better, but in order to see and
understand the difference. The latter, that of B. and F., you will find a
well-arranged bed of flowers, each having its separate root, and its
position determined aforehand by the will of the gardener,—each fresh
plant a fresh volition. In the former you see an Indian fig-tree, as
described by Milton;—all is growth, evolution;—each line, each word
almost, begets the following, and the will of the writer is an
interfusion, a continuous agency, and not a series of separate acts.
Shakespeare is the height, breadth, and depth of Genius: Beaumont and
Fletcher the excellent mechanism, in juxta-position and succession, of
talent.
“The Noble Gentleman.”
Why have the dramatists of the times of Elizabeth, James I., and the first
Charles become almost obsolete, with the exception of Shakespeare? Why do
they no longer belong to the English, being once so popular? And why is
Shakespeare an exception?—One thing, among fifty, necessary to the full
solution is, that they all employed poetry and poetic diction on unpoetic
subjects, both characters and situations, especially in their comedy. Now
Shakespeare is all, all ideal,—of no time, and therefore for all times.
Read, for instance, Marine’s panegyric in the first scene of this play:—
... “Know
The eminent court, to them that can be wise,
And fasten on her blessings, is a sun,” &c.
What can be more unnatural and inappropriate (not only is, but must be
felt as such) than such poetry in the mouth of a silly dupe? In short, the
scenes are mock dialogues, in which the poet _solus_ plays the
ventriloquist, but cannot keep down his own way of expressing himself.
Heavy complaints have been made respecting the transposing of the old
plays by Cibber; but it never occurred to these critics to ask, how it
came that no one ever attempted to transpose a comedy of Shakespeare’s.
“The Coronation.”