which infested England were only a comical phase of humanity, instead
of being, as they would be now, objects of national shame and sorrow,
of pity and love, which would call out in the attempt to redeem them
the talents and energies of good men. But Jonson certainly sins more
in this respect than any of his contemporaries. He takes a low
pleasure in parading his intimate acquaintance with these poor
creatures' foul slang and barbaric laws; and is, we should say, the
natural father of that lowest form of all literature, which has since
amused the herd, though in a form greatly purified, in the form of
'Beggars' Operas,' 'Dick Turpins,' and 'Jack Sheppards.' Everything
which is objectionable in such modern publications as these was
exhibited, in far grosser forms, by one of the greatest poets who
ever lived, for the amusement of a king of England; and yet the world
still is at a loss to know why sober and God-fearing men detested
both the poet and the king.

And that Masque is all the more saddening exhibition of the
degradation of a great soul, because in it, here and there, occur
passages of the old sweetness and grandeur; disjecta membra poetae
such as these, which, even although addressed to James, are perfect:-


'3rd Gipsy.

Look how the winds upon the waves grow tame,
Take up land sounds upon their purple wings,
And, catching each from other, bear the same
To every angle of their sacred springs.
So will we take his praise, and hurl his name
About the globe, in thousand airy rings.'