Elizabeth to
Charles I. proofs of the manners of the times. One striking symptom of
general coarseness of manners, which may co-exist with great refinement of
morals, as, alas! _vice versa_, is to be seen in the very frequent
allusions to the olfactories with their most disgusting stimulants, and
these, too, in the conversation of virtuous ladies. This would not appear
so strange to one who had been on terms of familiarity with Sicilian and
Italian women of rank: and bad as they may, too many of them, actually be,
yet I doubt not that the extreme grossness of their language has impressed
many an Englishman of the present era with far darker notions than the
same language would have produced in the mind of one of Elizabeth's or
James's courtiers. Those who have read Shakespeare only, complain of
occasional grossness in his plays; but compare him with his
contemporaries, and the inevitable conviction, is that of the exquisite
purity of his imagination.

The observation I have prefixed to the _Volpone_ is the key to the faint
interest which these noble efforts of intellectual power excite, with the
exception of the fragment of the _Sad Shepherd_; because in that piece
only is there any character with whom you can morally sympathise. On the
other hand, _Measure for Measure_ is the only play of Shakespeare's in
which there are not some one or more characters, generally many, whom you
follow with affectionate feeling. For I confess that Isabella, of all
Shakespeare's female characters, pleases me the least; and _Measure for
Measure_ is, indeed, the only one of his genuine works, which is painful
to me.

Let me not conclude this remark, however, without a thankful
acknowledgment to the _manes_ of Ben Jonson, that the more I study his
writings, I the more admire them; and the more my study of him resembles
that of an ancient classic, in the _minutiae_ of his rhythm, metre, choice
of words, forms of connection, and so forth, the more numerous have the
points of my admiration become. I may add, too, that both the study and
the admiration cannot but be disinterested, for to expect therefrom any
advantage to the present drama would be ignorance. The latter is utterly
heterogeneous from the drama of the Shakespearian age, with a diverse
object and contrary principle. The one was to present a model by imitation
of real life, taking from real life all that in it which it ought to be,
and supplying the rest;--the other is to copy wha