Ben Jonson in contriving situations for the display of his characters.
In fact, his care and anxiety in this matter led him to do what scarcely
any of the dramatists of that age did--that is, invent his plots. It is
not a first perusal that suffices for the full perception of the
elaborate artifice of the plots of the Alchemist and the Silent
Woman;--that of the former is absolute perfection for a necessary
entanglement, and an unexpected, yet natural, evolution.

Ben Jonson exhibits a sterling English diction, and he has with great
skill contrived varieties of construction; but his style is rarely sweet
or harmonious, in consequence of his labour at point and strength being
so evident. In all his works, in verse or prose, there is an
extraordinary opulence of thought; but it is the produce of an amassing
power in the author, and not of a growth from within. Indeed a large
proportion of Ben Jonson's thoughts may be traced to classic or obscure
modern writers, by those who are learned and curious enough to follow
the steps of this robust, surly, and observing dramatist.

[Footnote: 1: From Mr. Green's note. 'Ed.']




Beaumont. Born, 1586.--Died, 1616.

Fletcher. Born, 1576.--Died, 1625.


Mr. Weber, to whose taste, industry, and appropriate erudition we owe, I
will not say the best, (for that would be saying little,) but a good,