s
Poetaster, under the character of _Crispinus_." Langbaine
tells us the subject of the "Satiromastix" of Decker, which I
am to notice, was "the witty Ben Jonson;" and with this agree
all the notices I have hitherto met with respecting "the
Horace Junior" of Decker's _Satiromastix_. Mr. Gilchrist has
published two curious pamphlets on Jonson; and in the last, p.
56, he has shown that Decker was "the poet-ape of Jonson," and
that he avenged himself under the character of _Crispinus_ in
his "Satiromastix;" to which may be added, that the _Fannius_,
in the same satirical comedy, is probably his friend Marston.

Jonson allowed himself great liberty in _personal satire_, by
which, doubtless, he rung an alarum to a waspish host; he
lampooned _Inigo Jones_, the great machinist and architect.
The lampoons are printed in Jonson's works [but not in their
entirety. The great architect had sufficient court influence
to procure them to be cancelled; and the character of
_In-and-in Medley_, in "The Tale of a Tub," has come down to
us with no other satirical personal traits than a few
fantastical expressions]; and I have in MS. an answer by Inigo
Jones, in verse, so pitiful that I have not printed it. That
he condescended to bring obscure individuals on the stage,
appears by his character of _Carlo Buffoon_, in _Every Man out
of his Humour_. He calls this "a second untruss," and was
censured for having drawn it from personal revenge. The Aubrey
Papers, recently published have given us the character of this
_Carlo Buffoon_, "one Charles Chester, a bold impertinent
fellow; and they could never be at quiet for him; a perpetual
talker, and made a noise like a drum in a room. So one time at
a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beats him, and seals up his mouth;
_i.e._, his upper and nether beard, with hard wax."--p. 514.
Such a character was no unfitting object for dramatic satire.
Mr. Gilchrist's pamphlets defended Jonson from the frequent
accusations raised against him for the freedom of his muse, in
such portraits after the life. Yet even our poet himself does
not deny their truth, while he excuses himself. In the
dedication of "The Fox," to the two Universities,