ART. I. The works of Ben Jonson, folio, 1816. [From the ART. II. An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Come- dian, &c. with a view of the Stage in his own time -written by himself, 2d edit. 1740. [From the ART. III. On Taxation. 1. Moggridge's Remarks on the re- port of a Select Committee, on Poor Laws. 2. Barton's Observations on the condition of the labouring classes. 3. Observations on the Ma- nufacturing System. [From the Edinburgh Re- ART. IV. On the Civil List of England.-Guide to the Elec- tors of Great Britain upon the accession of a new king, and the immediate prospect of a new par- liament. [From the Edinburgh Review.] ART. V. Restrictions on Foreign Commerce.-Observations thereon, by a Member of the late Parliament. ART. VI. An Appeal from the judgments of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part First, &c. By Robert Walsh, Jun. [From the ART. VII. Lord Byron and the Reviewers. 1. Hours of Idle- 389 2. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a satire; Page 393 3. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; a Romaunt; by Lord Byron. [Edinburgh Review-Feb. 1812.] 410 4. The same work. [Quarterly Review-March, 1812.] ART. VIII. 1. The works of Mr. John Dennis,-plays, poems, &c. 1720.-2. Original Letters, familiar and critical, by Mr. Dennis, 1721. [From the Retrospective Review-May, 1820.] ORIGINAL. ART. I. (continued from No. I.) Memoirs of my own times; by General James Wilkinson, [Review.] ART. II. An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain re- ART. III. Letter from a Foreigner in New-York. [Original ART. IV. Seat of Mr. Jefferson at Monticello, (with a Sketch.) [Description.] ART. V. Monument at West Point to the Memory of Lieut. ART. VI. Verses on the burial of a British Officer. [From 420 424 441 471 516 529 530 532 List of American, and important European, late Publications, 533 [From the Retrospective Review.-London, May, 1820.] ART. I. The Works of BEN JONSON, folio, 1616. In this article two only of his plays are considered, which we have selected for their similarity of construction, and as forming a class of themselves among the dramas of Jonson. They are the most careful and high-wrought of his works. Trusting that the elucidation of so great a master may prove a subject well worthy the attention of our readers, we shall not confine ourselves to the present attempt, but probably, in future numbers of our work, pursue the course of his genius through all its varieties, and endeavour to accompany him in his loftier and more poetical flights. To restore the taste for ancient simplicity of style-for wit, whose zest is moral, and for humour, whose foundation is truth, can be no unbecoming trial. To show, that the noblest exertions of imagination, and the most interesting pictures of passion, may be found amid the severest morals and the chastest methods of writing, will, at least, be an effort towards reclaiming the luxuriant romance of the age, and engaging the judgment in the assistance of the fancy. We cannot, perhaps, expect that the novel-reading lady should prefer Ben Jonson to her piquante food, but we will, at least, do her and her sentimental male gossips the service to show them, that the solid fare which honest Ben has prepared for their palates is of a description which will not disgust by its homeliness, nor pall by its faise relish. Mr. Gifford's admirable edition, at all events, is within their reach, and may, by its modern type, if not by its excellent explanations, afford some excuse to a fashionable friend for its lying on a reading desk. We shall prefix to our present offering at the VOL. I. 36 altar of immortal greatness, the names of two of its noblest supports, 86 Every Man in his Humour,”—“ Every Man out of his Humour." To please by method and invent by rule: And they, who durst not censure, scarce could praise. So says Samuel Johnson of his more illustrious namesake, in a prologue, which has been celebrated beyond any attempt of its kind for the mathematical justice of its criticism: so says the oracle of his day, of one of our greatest dramatists. These six lines are a curious specimen of how far a position, delivered with an air of certainty under the sanction of an authoritative name, will pass for years as a current truth, and become a test for the examination of the very powers which it misconstrues and belies. In a sense, however, evidently unmeant by the author, the last line, to which we in particular allude, is probably a historical fact. It has been the misfortune of Jonson's fame, that in order to be praised he must be understood; and that to be understood he must be studied. The "coldness of men's approbation" arose from their incapacity of understanding the justice of cause and effect, the nice link of character and action which Jonson, above any other even of his age of intellectual giants, comprehended and depicted. Jonson was no meretricious dramatist; with him, the pedigree of a jest is carefully inspected before it is installed in his house of fame; and his adoption of the ideas of others, or the use he makes of his own, is the badge and coat armour of their merit. His endeavour, from the beginning, was not so much to gain applause, as to show that, if he failed, he deserved it. His plays possess not only their own intrinsic interest, but he has endeavoured to throw around them a new one-the justice of his own plea of encouragement from his auditors. In Every Man out of his Humour, in particular, our constant feeling is of a trial and proof of dramatic skill; and we feel no less pleasure in the author's success in his undertaking, than in the perfect and artful catastrophe of his subject. It is from this cause that, though much talked of, he is little read. He speaks to us with the gravity and command of an instructor, and the age is too weak and petulant to bear with his severities. He is of all authors the most perfect writer, because he is an exemplification throughout of his own precepts. His works are a grammar of classical sentiment and dramatic propriety. But let it not be supposed, that we mean to degrade him to the mere rank of a critic: to show that he is fit to become the instructor of others, we shall prove not only that his rules are true, and his precepts golden, but that he affords proofs of |