or
Massinger, I do not think he had poetical enthusiasm capable of rising
up to them. His associate, Dekker, who wrote _Old Fortunatus_, had
poetry enough for anything. The very impurities which obtrude themselves
among the sweet pictures of this play, like Satan among the sons of
Heaven, have a strength of contrast, a raciness, and a glow in them,
which are beyond Massinger. They are to the religion of the rest what
Caliban is to Miranda."

Ned Ward, in his coarse but clever "London Spy," gives us a most
distasteful picture of the Compter in 1698-1700. "When we first
entered," says Ward, "this apartment, under the title of the King's
Ward, the mixture of scents that arose from _mundungus_, tobacco, foul
feet, dirty shirts, stinking breaths, and uncleanly carcases, poisoned
our nostrils far worse than a Southwark ditch, a tanner's yard, or a
tallow-chandler's melting-room. The ill-looking vermin, with long, rusty
beards, swaddled up in rags, and their heads--some covered with
thrum-caps, and others thrust into the tops of old stockings. Some
quitted their play they were before engaged in, and came hovering round
us, like so many cannibals, with such devouring countenances, as if a
man had been but a morsel with 'em, all crying out, 'Garnish, garnish,'
as a rabble in an insurrection crying, 'Liberty, liberty!' We were
forced to submit to the doctrine of non-resistance, and comply with
their demands, which extended to the sum of two shillings each."

The Poultry Compter has a special historical interest, from the fact of
its being connected with the early struggles of our philanthropists
against the slave-trade. It was here that several of the slaves released
by Granville Sharp's noble exertions were confined. This excellent man,
and true aggressive Christian, was grandson of an Archbishop of York,
and son of a learned Northumberland rector. Though brought up to the
bar, he never practised, and resigned a place in the Ordnance Office
because he could not conscientiously approve of the American War. He
lived a bachelor life in the Temple, doing good continually. Sharp
opposed the impressment of sailors and the system of duelling;
encouraged the distribution of the Bible, and advocated parliamentary
reform. But it was as an enemy to slavery, and the first practical
opposer of its injustice and its cruelties, that Granville Sharp earned
a foremost place in the great bede-roll of our English philanthropists.
Mr. Sharp's fir