norance of all
theatrical art and conduct, however material a defect, yet, as it
affects the spectator rather than the reader, we can more easily excuse,
than that want of taste which often prevails in his productions, and
which gives way only by intervals to the irradiations of genius. A great
and fertile genius he certainly possessed, and one enriched equally
with a tragic and comic vein; but he ought to be cited as a proof,
how dangerous it is to rely on these advantages alone for attaining an
excellence in the finer arts.[*] And there may even remain a suspicion,
that we overrate, if possible, the greatness of his genius; in the same
manner as bodies often appear more gigantic, on account of their being
disproportioned and misshapen. He died in 1616, aged fifty-three years.

* Invenire etiam barbari solent, disponere et ornare non
nisi eruditus.--PLIN

Jonson possessed all the learning which was wanting to Shakspeare, and
wanted all the genius of which the other was possessed. Both of
them were equally deficient in taste and elegance, in harmony and
correctness. A servile copyist of the ancients, Jonson translated into
bad English the beautiful passages of the Greek and Roman authors,
without accommodating them to the manners of his age and country. His
merit has been totally eclipsed by that of Shakspeare, whose rude genius
prevailed over the rude art of his contemporary. The English theatre has
ever since taken a strong tincture of Shakspeare's spirit and character;
and thence it has proceeded, that the nation has undergone, from all
its neighbors, the reproach of barbarism, from which its valuable
productions in some other parts of learning would otherwise have
exempted it. Jonson had a pension of a hundred marks from the king,
which Charles afterwards augmented to a hundred pounds He died in 1637,
aged sixty-three.

Fairfax has translated Tasso with an elegance and ease, and at the same
time with an exactness, which, for that age, are surprising. Each line
in the original is faithfully rendered by a correspondent line in the
translation. Harrington's translation of Ariosto is not likewise without
its merit. It is to be regretted, that these poets should have imitated
the Italians in their stanza, which has a prolixity and uniformity in
it that displeases in long performances. They had, otherwise, as well
as Spenser, who went before them, contributed much to the polishing and
refining of the English