ic. The triumvirate of adventurers, Subtle, Dol and Face (for Dol has
virile qualities), are not respectable, but one does not hate them; and the
gulls are perfection. If any character could be spared it is the "Angry
Boy," a young person whose humours, as Jonson himself admits of another
character elsewhere, are "more tedious than diverting." _The Alchemist_ was
followed by _Catiline_, and _Catiline_ by _Bartholomew Fair_, a play in
which singularly vivid and minute pictures of manners, very amusing
sketches of character, and some capital satire on the Puritans, do not
entirely redeem a profusion of the coarsest possible language and incident.
_The Devil is an Ass_ comes next in time, and though no single character is
the equal of Zeal-of-the-land Busy in _Bartholomew Fair_, the play is even
more amusing. The four last plays, _The Staple of News_, _The Magnetic
Lady_, _The New Inn_, and _The Tale of a Tub_, which Jonson produced after
long absence from the stage, were not successful, and were both unkindly
and unjustly called by Dryden "Ben's dotages." As for the charming _Sad
Shepherd_, it was never acted, and is now unfinished, though it is believed
that the poet completed it. It stands midway as a pastoral _Feerie_ between
his regular plays and the great collection of ingenious and graceful
masques and entertainments, which are at the top of all such things in
England (unless _Comus_ be called a masque), and which are worth comparing
with the ballets and spectacle pieces of Moliere. Perhaps a complete survey
of Jonson's work indicates, as his greatest defect, the want of passion. He
could be vigorous, he could be dignified, he could be broadly humorous,
and, as has been said, he could combine with these the apparently
incompatible, or, at least, not closely-connected faculty of grace. Of
passion, of rapture, there is no trace in him, except in the single
instance--in fire mingled with earth--of Sir Epicure Mammon. But the two
following passages--one from _Sejanus_, one from _The Sad Shepherd_--will
show his dignity and his pathos. No extract in brief could show his
humour:--

_Arr._ "I would begin to study 'em,[34] if I thought
They would secure me. May I pray to Jove
In secret and be safe? ay, or aloud,
With open wishes, so I do not mention
Tiberius or Sejanus? Yes I must,
If I speak out. 'Tis hard that. May I think
And not be racked? What danger