The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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21. Love freed from Ignorance and Folly, a Masque.
22. Love Restored, in a Masque, at Court, 1630.
23. Love's Welcome, the King and Queen's Entertainment at Bolsover, at
the Earl of Newcastle's, 1634.
24. Magnetick Lady, or Humours Reconciled, a Comedy, acted at the
Black Fryars, and printed 1640. This play was smartly and virulently
attacked by Dr. Gill, Master of St. Paul's school, part of which, on
account of the answer which Ben gave to it, we shall take the trouble
to transcribe.
But to advise thee Ben, in this strict age,
A brick-hill's better for thee than a stage;
Thou better know'st a Groundfil for to lay
Than lay a plot, or Groundwork of a play,
And better canst direct to cap a chimney,
Than to converse with Chlio, or Polyhimny.
Fall then to work in thy old age agen,
Take up thy trug and trowel, gentle Ben,
Let plays alone; or if thou need'st will write,
And thrust thy feeble muse into the light;
Let Lowen cease, and Taylor scorn to touch,
The loathed stage, for thou hast made it such.
These lines are without wit, and without poetry; they contain a mean
reflexion on Ben's original employment, of which he had no occasion to
be ashamed; but he was paid in kind, and Ben answers him with equal
virulence, and in truth it cannot be said with more wit or poetry, for
it is difficult to determine which author's verses are most wretched.
Shall the prosperity of a pardon still
Secure thy railing rhymes, infamous Gill,
At libelling? shall no star chamber peers,
Pillory, nor whip, nor want of ears,
All which thou hast incurred deservedly,
Nor degradation from the ministry
To be the Denis of thy father's school,
Keep in thy bawling wit, thou bawling fool.
Thinking to stir me, thou hast lost thy end,
I'll laugh at thee, poor wretched Tyke, go send
Thy boltant muse abroad, and teach it rather
A tune to drown the ballads of thy father.
For thou hast nought to cure his fame,
But tune and noise, and eccho of his shame.
A rogue by statute, censured to be whipt,
Cropt, branded, flit, neck-flockt: go, you are stript.
25. Masque, at the Lord Viscount Hadington's Marriage at Court, on
Shrove Tuesday at night, 1608.
26. Masque of Augurs, with several Antimasques, presented on Twelfth
Night, 1608.
27. Masque of Owls, at Kenelworth, presented by the Ghost of Captain
Cox, mounted on his Hobby-Horse, 1626.
28. Masque of Queens celebrated from the House of Fame, by the Queen
of Great Britain with her Ladies at Whitehall, 1609.
29. Masque, presented in the house of lord Hay by several noblemen,
1617, for the French ambassador.
30. Metamorphosed Gypsies, a Masque, thrice presented to King James,
1621.
31. Mercury vindicated from the Alchymist's, at Court.
32. Mortimer's Fall, a Tragedy, or rather a fragment, being just begun
and left imperfect by his death.
33. Neptune's Triumph for the return of Albion, in a Masque, at court.
34. News from the New World discovered in the Moon, presented 1620 at
court.
35. Oberon, the Fairy Prince, a Masque, of Prince Henry's.
36. Pan's Anniversary, or the Shepherd's Holiday, a Masque, 1625.
37. Pleasure reconciled to Virtue, a Masque, presented at court, 1619.
38. Poetaster, or his Arraignment, a comical Satire, first acted in
the year 1601.
39. Queen's Masques, the first of Blackness, presented 1605; the
second of Beauty, was presented at the same court 1608.
40. Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood, a Pastoral.
41. Sejanus's Fall, a Tragedy, acted in the year 1603. This play has
met with success, and was ushered into the world by nine copies of
verses, one of which was writ by Mr. Chapman. Mr. Gentleman has lately
published a Tragedy under the same title, in which he acknowledges the
parts he took from Johnson.
42.[6] Silent Woman, a Comedy, first acted in the year 1609. This is
reckoned one of Ben's best comedies; Mr. Dryden has done it the honour
to make some criticisms upon it.
43. Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers, printed in folio 1640.
44. Staple of News, a Comedy, acted in the year 1625.
45. Tale of a Tub, a Comedy.
46. Time vindicated to himself and to his Honour, presented 12 nights,
1623.
47.[6] Volpone, or the Fox, a Comedy, first acted in the year 1605;
this is one of his acted plays.
48. Case is altered, a Comedy, acted and printed 1609.
49. Widow, a Comedy, acted at the private house in Black Fryars.
50. New Inn, or the Light Heart, a Comedy, acted 1629. This play did
not succeed to his expectation, and Ben being filled with indignation
at the people's want of taste, wrote an Ode addressed to himself on
that occasion, advising him to quit the stage, which was answered by
Mr. Feltham.
Thus have we given a detail of Ben Johnson's works. He is allowed to
have been a scholar, and to have understood and practised the dramatic
rules; but Dryden proves him to have likewise been an unbounded
plagiary. Humour was his talent; and he had a happy turn for an
epitaph; we cannot better conclude his character as a poet, than in
the nervous lines of the Prologue quoted in the Life of Shakespear.
After having shewn Shakespear's boundless genius, he continues,
Then Johnson came instructed from the school
To please by method, and invent by rule.
His studious patience, and laborious art
With regular approach assay'd the heart;
Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,
For they who durst not censure, scarce could
praise.
[Footnote 1: Drummond of Hawthornden's works, fol. 224. Edinburgh
Edition, 1711.]
[Footnote 2: Birch's Lives of Illustrious Men.]
[Footnote 3: See Shakespear]
[Footnote 4: See Drummond's works.]
[Footnote 5: Wood.]
[Footnote 6: The Alchymist, the Fox, and the Silent Woman, have been
oftner acted than all the rest of Ben Johnson's plays put together;
they have ever been generally deemed good stock-plays, and been
performed to many crowded audiences, in several separate seasons, with
universal applause. Why the Silent Woman met not with success, when
revived last year at Drury Lane Theatre, let the new critics, or the
actors of the New Mode, determine.]
* * * * *
THOMAS CAREW, Esq;
Was descended of a very ancient and reputable family of the Carews in
Devonshire, and was brother to Matthew Carews, a great royalist, in
the time of the rebellion; he had his education in Corpus Christi
College, but he appears not to have been matriculated as a member, or
that he took a scholastic degree[1]; afterwards improving his parts by
travelling, and conversation with ingenious men in the Metropolis, he
acquired some reputation for his wit and poetry. About this time being
taken notice of at court for his ingenuity, he was made Gentleman of
the Privy Chamber, and Sewer in ordinary to King Charles I. who always
esteemed him to the last, one of the most celebrated wits about his
court[2]. He was much esteemed and respected by the poets of his time,
especially by Ben Johnson. Sir John Suckling, who had a great kindness
for him, could not let him pass in his session of poets without this
character,
Tom Carew was next, but he had a fault,
That would not well stand with a Laureat;
His muse was hide-bound, and the issue of's brain
Was seldom brought forth, but with trouble and pain.
The works of our author are,
Poems; first printed in Octavo, and afterwards being revised and
enlarged, there were several editions of them made, the third in 1654,
and the fourth in 1670. The songs in these poems were set to music, or
as Wood expresses it, wedded to the charming notes of Mr. Henry
Lawes, at that time the greatest musical composer in England, who was
Gentleman of the King's Chapel, and one of the private musicians to
his Majesty.
Coelum Britannicum; A Mask at Whitehall in the Banquetting House, on
Shrove Tuesday night February 18, 1633, London 1651. This Masque is
commonly attributed to Sir William Davenant. It was performed by the
King, the duke of Lenox, earls of Devonshire, Holland, Newport &c.
with several other Lords and Noblemen's Sons; he was assisted in the
contrivance by Mr. Inigo Jones, the famous architect. The Masque being
written by the King's express command, our author placed this distich
in the front, when printed;
Non habet ingenium: Caesar sed jussit: habebo
Cur me posse negem, posse quod ille putat.
The following may serve as a specimen of the celebrated sonnets of
this elegant writer.
BOLDNESS in LOVE.
Mark how the bashful morn in vain
Courts the amorous marigold
With sighing blasts, and weeping rain;
Yet she refuses to unfold.
But when the planet of the day
Approacheth with his powerful ray,
Then she spreads, then she receives
His warmer beams into her virgin leaves.
So shalt thou thrive in love, fond boy;
If thy tears and sighs discover
Thy grief, thou never shalt enjoy
The just reward of a bold lover:
But when with moving accents thou
Shalt constant faith and service vow,
Thy Celia shall receive those charms
With open ears, and with unfolded arms.
Sir William Davenant has given an honourable testimony in favour of
our author, with which I shall conclude his life, after observing that
this elegant author died, much regretted by some of the best wits of
his time, in the year 1639.
Sir William Davenant thus addresses him,
Not that thy verses are so smooth and high
As glory, love, and wine, from wit can raise;
But now the Devil take such destiny!
What should commend them turns to their dispraise.
Thy wit's chief virtue, is become its vice;
For every beauty thou hast rais'd so high,
That now coarse faces carry such a price,
As must undo a lover that would buy.
[Footnote 1: Wood's Athen. Oxon. p. 630. vol. i.]
[Footnote 2: Wood's ubi supra.]
* * * * *
Sir HENRY WOTTON.
This great man was born in the year 1568, at Bocton Hall in the
county of Kent, descended of a very ancient family, who distinguished
themselves in the wars between the Scotch and English before the union
of crowns. The father of Sir Henry Wotton, (according to the account
of the learned bishop Walton,) was twice married, and after the
death of his second wife, says the bishop, 'his inclination, though
naturally averse to all contentions, yet necessitated he was to have
several suits of law, which took up much of his time; he was by divers
of his friends perswaded to remarriage, to whom he often answered,
that if he did put on a resolution to marry, he seriously resolved to
avoid three sorts of persons, namely,
Those that had children,
law suits, were of his kindred:
And yet following his own law suit, he met in Westminster Hall with
one Mrs. Morton, the widow of a gentleman of Kent, who was engaged in
several suits in law, and observing her comportment, the time of her
hearing one of her causes before the judges, he could not but at the
same time compassionate her condition, and so affect her person, that
though there were in her a concurrence of all those accidents, against
which he had so seriously resolved, yet his affection grew so strong,
that he then resolved to sollicit her for a wife, and did, and
obtained her.'
By this lady he had our author, who received the rudiments of his
education from his mother, who was it seems a woman of taste, and
capable of inspiring him with a love of polite accomplishments. When
he became fit for an academical education, he was placed in New
College in Oxford, in the beginning of the year 1584, where living in
the condition of a Gentleman Commoner, he contracted an intimacy with
Sir Richard Baker, afterwards an eminent historian. Sir Henry did
not long continue there, but removed to Queen's College, where, says
Walton, he made a great progress in logic and philosophy, and wrote a
Tragedy for the use of that college, called Tarroredo. Walton tells
us, 'that this tragedy was so interwoven with sentences, and for the
exact personating those passions and humours he proposed to represent,
he so performed, that the gravest of the society declared, that he
had in a flight employment, given an early and solid testimony of his
future abilities.'
On the 8th of June, says Wood, 1588, he as a member of Queen's
College, supplicated the venerable congregation of regents, that he
might be admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, which desire was
granted conditionally, that he should determine the Lent following,
but whether he was admitted, or did determine, or took any degree,
does not appear in any of the university registers; though Mr. Walton
says, that about the twentieth year of his age, he proceeded Master of
Arts, and at that time read in Latin three lectures de Ocello. During
the time he was at the university, and gaining much upon mankind by
the reputation of his abilities, his father, for whom he had the
highest veneration, died, and left him a hundred marks a year, to
be paid out of one of his manors of great value. Walton proceeds to
relate a very astonishing circumstance concerning the father of our
author, which as it is of the visionary sort, the reader may credit,
or not, as he pleases; it is however too curious to be here omitted,
especially as the learned prelate Walton already mentioned has told it
with great earnestness, as if he was persuaded of its reality.
In the year 1553, Nicholas Wotton, dean of Canterbury, uncle to our
author's father, being ambassador in France in the reign of queen
Mary, dreamed, that his nephew Thomas Wotton, was disposed to be a
party in a very hazardous project, which if not suddenly prevented,
would issue in the loss of his life, and the ruin of his family; the
dean, who was persuaded of the importance of his own dream, was very
uneasy; but lest he should be thought superstitious, he resolved to
conceal the circumstance, and not to acquaint his nephew, or any body
else with it; but dreaming the same a second time, he determined to
put something in execution in consequence of it; he accordingly wrote
to the Queen to send for his nephew Thomas Wotton out of Kent, and
that the Lords of the Council might examine him about some imaginary
conspiracy, so as to give colour for his being committed to Jail,
declaring that he would acquaint her Majesty with the true reason of
his request, when he should next be so happy to pay his duty to her.
The Queen complied with the dean's desire, who at that time it seems
had great influence with that bigotted Princess. About this time a
marriage was concluded between the Queen of England, and Philip, King
of Spain, which not a little disobliged some of the nobility, who were
jealous left their country by such a match should be subjected to
the dominion of Spain, and their independent rights invaded by that
imperious monarch. These suspicions produced an insurrection, which
was headed by the duke of Suffolk and Sir Thomas Wyat, who both lost
their lives in the attempt to prevent the match by seizing the Queen;
for the design was soon discovered, easily defeated, and those two
persons, with many more, suffered on a scaffold.
Between Sir Thomas Wyat and the Wotton's family, there had been a
long intimacy, and Sir Thomas had really won Mr. Wotton over to his
interest, and had he not been prevented by imprisonment, he afterwards
declared that he would have joined his friend in the insurrection,
and in all probability would have fallen a sacrifice to the Queen's
resentment, and the votaries of the Spanish match.
After Sir Henry quitted the university of Oxford, he travelled into
France, Germany and Italy, where he resided above nine years, and
returned to his own country perfectly accomplished in all the polite
improvements, which men of sense acquire by travelling, and well
acquainted with the temper and genius of the people with whom he had
conversed, and the different policy of their governments. He was soon
taken notice of after his return, and became secretary to the famous
Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, that unfortunate favourite, whose
story is never exhibited on the stage, says Mr. Addison, without
affecting the heart in the most sensible manner. With his lordship he
continued in the character of secretary 'till the earl was apprehended
for his mutinous behaviour towards the Queen, and put upon his trial.
Wotton, who did not think it safe to continue in England after the
fall of his master, retired to Florence, became acquainted with the
Great Duke of Tuscany, and rose so high in his favour, that he was
entrusted by him to carry letters to James VI. King of Scots, under
the name of Octavio Baldi, in order to inform that king of a design
against his life. Walton informs us, that though Queen Elizabeth was
never willing to declare her successor, yet the King of Scots was
generally believed to be the person, on whom the crown of England
would devolve. The Queen declining very fast, both through age and
visible infirmities, "those that were of the Romish persuasion,
in point of religion, knowing that the death of the Queen, and
establishing her succession, was the crisis for destroying or
supporting the Protestant religion in this nation, did therefore
improve all opportunities for preventing a Protestant Prince to
succeed her; and as the pope's excommunication of Queen Elizabeth had
both by the judgment and practice of the jesuited Papists, exposed
her to be warrantably destroyed, so about that time, there were many
endeavours first to excommunicate, and then to shorten the life of
King James VI."
Immediately after Wotton's return from Rome to Florence, which was
about a year before the death of Queen Elizabeth; Ferdinand, the Great
Duke, had intercepted certain letters, which discovered a design
against the life of the King of Scots. The Duke abhorring the scheme
of assassination, and resolving to prevent it, advised with his
secretary Vietta, by what means a caution should be given to the
Scotch Prince. Vietta recommended Wotton as a person of the highest
abilities of any Englishman then at his court: Mr. Wotton was sent for
by his friend Vietta to the Duke, who after many professions of trust
and friendship, acquainted him with the secret, and sent him to
Scotland with letters to the King, and such antidotes against poison,
as till then, the Scots had been strangers to. Mr. Wotton having
departed from the Duke, assumed the name and language of an Italian,
which he spoke so fluently, and with so little mixture of a foreign
dialect, that he could scarcely be distinguished from a native of
Italy; and thinking it best to avoid the line of English intelligence
and danger, posted into Norway, and through that country towards
Scotland, where he found the King at Stirling.
When he arrived there, he used means by one of the gentlemen of his
Majesty's bed-chamber, to procure a speedy and private audience of his
Majesty, declaring that the business which he was to negotiate was of
such consequence, as had excited the Great Duke of Tuscany to enjoin
him suddenly to leave his native country of Italy, to impart it to the
king.
The King being informed of this, after a little wonder, mixed with
jealousy, to hear of an Italian ambassador or messenger, appointed a
private audience that evening. When Mr. Wotton came to the presence
chamber, he was desired to lay aside his long rapier, and being
entered, found the King there; with three or four Scotch lords
standing distant in several corners of the chamber; at the sight of
whom he made a stand, and which the King observing, bid him be bold,
and deliver his message, and he would undertake for the secresy of all
who were present. Upon this he delivered his message and letters to
his Majesty in Italian; which when the King had graciously received,
after a little pause, Mr. Wotton stept up to the table, and whispered
to the King in his own language that he was an Englishman, requesting
a more private conference with his Majesty, and that he might be
concealed during his stay in that nation, which was promised, and
really performed by the King, all the time he remained at the Scotch
court; he then returned to the Duke with a satisfactory account of his
employment.
When King James succeeded to the Throne of England, he found among
others of Queen Elizabeth's officers, Sir Edward Wotton, afterwards
lord Wotton, Comptroller of the Houshold, whom he asked one day,
'whether he knew one Henry Wotton, who had spent much time in foreign
travel?' Sir Edward replied, that he knew him well, and that he was
his brother. The King then asked, where he was, and upon Sir Edward's
answering that he believed he would soon be at Paris, send for him
says his Majesty, and when he comes to England, bid him repair
privately to me. Sir Edward, after a little wonder, asked his Majesty,
whether he knew him? to which the King answered, you must rest
unsatisfied of that 'till you bring the gentleman to me. Not many
months after this discourse, Sir Edward brought his brother to attend
the king, who took him in his arms, and bid him welcome under the mine
of Octavio Baldi, saying, that he was the most honest, and therefore
the best, dissembler he ever met with; and seeing I know, added the
King, you want neither learning, travel, nor experience, and that I
have had so real a testimony of your faithfulness and abilities to
manage an embassage, I have sent for you to declare my purposes,
which is to make use of you in that kind hereafter[1]. But before he
dismissed Octavio Baldi from his present attendance, he restored him
to his old name of Henry Wotton, by Which he then knighted him.
Not long after this, King James having resolved according to his motto
of beati pacifici, to have a friendship with his neighbouring kingdoms
of France and Spain, and also to enter into an alliance with the State
of Venice, and for that purpose to send ambassadors to those several
States, offered to Sir Henry his choice of which ever of these
employments best suited his inclination; who from the consideration
of his own personal estate being small, and the courts of France and
Spain extreamly sumptuous, so as to expose him to expences above his
fortune, made choice of Venice, a place of more retirement, and where
he could execute his embassy, and at the same time indulge himself in
the study of natural philosophy, in that seat of the sciences,
where he was sure to meet with men accomplished in all the polite
improvements, as well as the more solid attainments of philosophy.
Having informed the king that he chose to be sent to Venice, his
Majesty settled a very considerable allowance upon him during his stay
there; he then took his leave, and was accompanied through France to
Venice, says Walton, by gentlemen of the best families and breeding,
that this nation afforded.
When Sir Henry Wotton arrived at Venice, there subsisted between the
Venetians and the Pope a very warm contention, which was prosecuted by
both parties with equal fury. The laity made many complaints against
the two frequent practice of land being left to the church without
a licence from the state, which increased the power of the clergy,
already too great, and rendered their insolence insupportable. In
consequence of this, the state made several injunctions against
lay-persons disposing their lands in that manner. Another cause of
their quarrel was, that the Venetians had sent to Rome, several
articles of complaint against two priests, the abbot of Nervesa, and a
canon of Vicenza, for committing such abominable crimes, as Mr. Walton
says, it would be a shame to mention: Their complaints met with no
redress, and the detestable practices of these monsters in holy orders
still continuing, they seized their persons and committed them to
prison.
The justice or injustice of such power exercised by the Venetians,
produced debates between the Republic and Pope Clement VIII. Clement
soon dying, Pope Paul the first, a man of unbounded insolence, and
elated with his spiritual superiority, let loose all his rage against
the state. He judged all resistance to be a diminution of his power,
and threatened excommunication to the whole State, if a revocation was
not instantly made, which the Venetians rejecting, he proceeded in
menaces, and at last did excommunicate the Duke, the whole Senate, and
all their dominions; then he shut up the churches, charging the
clergy to forbear sacred offices to any of the Venetians, till their
obedience should make them capable of absolution. The contention was
thus fomented, till a report prevailed that the Venetians were turned
Protestants, which was believed by many, as the English embassador was
so often in conference with the Senate, and that they had made all
their proceedings known to the King of England, who would support
them, should the Pope presume to exercise any more oppressions. This
circumstance made it appear plain enough to his Holiness, that
he weakened his power by exceeding it; and being alarmed lest a
revolution should happen, offered the Venetians absolution upon very
easy terms, which the Republic still slighting, did at last obtain it,
by that which was scarce so much as a shew of desiring it. For eight
years after Sir Henry Wotton's going into Italy, he stood very high in
the King's esteem, but at last, lost his favour for some time, by an
accident too singular to be here omitted.