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dont elle est écrite. Le style, qui garde quand il faut sa vigueur d'autrefois, s'est assoupli, semble-t-il, comme sous l'influence aimable de Fletcher, en même temps que l'humeur du poète gagnait en douceur, en gaieté. On en pourra juger par les quelques portraits qui remplissent le premier acte; nous citerons également un morceau plus considérable, quoique les grands discours soient assez peu nombreux dans cette pièce et que l'auteur, avec un souci du mouvement dramatique qu'il n'a pas toujours montré, ait eu soin de les couper par de courtes répliques des interlocuteurs. C'est l'éloge de la richesse que fait Sir Moth, le vieil avare, devant Compass et quelques autres. Jonson a su renouveler ce lieu commun par d'heureux traits: celui des églises est une vraie trouvaille ; il faudrait changer le mot suivant les siècles, mais il est d'application éternelle. On peut citer encore un autre morceau d'une facture non moins admirable et non moins jolie; d'une portée moins générale, mais plein de détails amusants. C'est Compass qui veut réconforter Sir Diaphanous, lequel hésite fort a se battre avec le terrible Ironside ; et il lui tient un beau discours, plein de raisons spécieuses et inattendues. Sans doute, on ne saurait prétendre qu'il y ait dans cette scène toute la verve cocasse, toute la fantaisie verbale qu'y auraient mises Regnard ou Banville; mais il y a des traits qu'ils auraient voulu trouver, j'en suis sûr, d'autres qu'ils n'auraient peut-être pas inventés. Et si de pareils morceaux font exception dans l'œuvre de Jonson, cela même était une raison pour les signaler. En somme, c'est encore à nos comédies du temps de Louis XIII que cette nouvelle pièce fait surtout songer. L'action, un peu plus animée que dans la précédente, n'y est pas encore très mouvementée, si l'on fait abstraction des divers épisodes du cinquième acte; et c'est précisément un des caractères de notre comédie avant Molière, comme chez lui du reste et après lui, que

l'intrigue y soit réduite en général au strict nécessaire. Cette intrigue, il est vrai, a un caractère assez vulgaire, comme il arrive souvent dans la comédie anglaise, alors et toujours; et l'on n'y verra pas ces galantes querelles d'amoureux qui font comme partie intégrante de la comédie à la française. Mais on y trouve d'amusantes peintures de mœurs, plus ou moins bien reliées à l' action, et des morceaux de bravoure empreints d'une certaine verve spirituelle: ce sont là les mérites accoutumés de notre école de 1630. Jonson a plus de force et moins d'élégance; mais sa comédie semble taillée sur le même patron que les nôtres. Comme la plupart de celles-ci, ce n'est pas un chef-d'œuvre; elle est même ennuyeuse d'ensemble, mais beaucoup de détails en sont amusants; on la lit avec un peu de peine, on la relit avec plaisir. En la comparant avec la précédente, nous serions plus embarrassés que M. Swinburne pour déclarer notre préférence: inégales toutes deux, elles sont très différentes l'une de l'autre. Contentons-nous d'admirer une fois de plus chez le vieux Ben la variété du talent.

Thorndike 1: The Magnetick Lady: or Humors Reconcil'd attempted a continuation and conclusion of the series of comedies of humours begun thirty-five years before. A marriageable young niece of the magnetic lady is constituted the 'centre attractive, to draw thither a diversity of guests, all persons of different humours, to make up his (the author's) perimeter.' This plan is carried out in a half-hearted way, though with the usual elaborate attention to details, and explanatory intermezzos. But, while the acts conform to the laws of protasis, epitasis and catastasis, there is no life or wit.

1 'Ben Jonson,' in The Cambrigde History of English Literature 6. 28-9.

G. CRITICAL ESTIMATE

In attempting a critical estimate of The Magnetic Lady, the first step might profitably be a classification. The drama in general one may divide rather abstractly into that which emphasizes plot, action, or events: that which stresses the delineation of character; and that which subordinates these elements to dialogue. The drama which is concerned primarily with characterization may represent its characters through events, or through dialogue, or through both. But as all significant dramatic literature has to do largely with problems of characterization, we may consider exclusively these two classesthat which represents character mainly through action, and that which represents it chiefly through speech.

Of these two classes, The Magnetic Lady belongs decidedly to the second. Anything in the nature of theatrical sensation is suppressed, or is related by narrative. Thus in Act 3, the quarrels and disorders of the dinner are merely related; the fainting of Placentia and of Sir Moth Interest take place off the stage; and in Act 5, scene 10, the incident of the usurer's falling into the well is also narrated. The whole of Act 1 is taken up with exposition; the only suggestion of a forward movement of events being the report that Placentia is ill.

The Magnitic Lady, then, may be classified as a comedy of which the subject-matter is contemporary life; the purpose, moral; and the method followed, the representation of character through speech. But while the species of comedy which portrays character through dialogue is recognized as a legitimate one, a too great tendency toward monologue and description of character is outside the scope of drama. In this respect, The Magnetic Lady is somewhat at fault. Three of the cleverest passages of the play-Interest's long argument for

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the virtue of wealth (Act 2, scene 6), Compass' speeches dissuading Silkworm from a duel (Act 3, scene 3), and the discussion of valor (Act 3, scene 5)-are in the form of monologues or of long speeches by one personage, interspersed with the comments of others. So, too, the characterization, especially in Act I, is in the form of description. Compass' speeches in this act are largely a series of character-sketches. He portrays the parson, the doctor, the soldier, the courtier, the lawyer, the usurer, and the politician. After the first act, when the action is under way, and there is interplay of character upon character and upon the central situation, the speeches are more properly dramatic. As a whole, however, the play is on the border between declamatory description of character and dramatic characterization.

The characters as portrayed I have already considered. As a group they are the Jonsonian types, each person set forth with great distinctness of detail and clearness of outline. Excepting a few of Jonson's earlier creations -Bobadill, Volpone, Mosca, Subtle, Tucca, and Sir Epicure Mammon-I cannot see but that these are about as successful as the majority of the personages of his earlier plays. Polish is complex enough to be considered an individual; and the midwife, Chair, is a type depicted with unusual vividness.

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But the play cannot be properly appreciated without a full comprehension of its wit and humor. And this element is the one which has so far received the least amount of critical notice. Fashions in social pleasantry and badinage are, of all expressions of intellectual life, probably, the most transitory. Types of character are universal, and actions are readily comprehensible, so that Shakespeare's tragedies still retain much of their former appeal; but the euphuism of Lyly, the wit of Touchstone, and the smart social conversation of Con

greve's Way of the World and Love for Love, are now mainly of historical interest. Punning, another form of wit which was very popular in the time of Jonson, is now considered beneath the interest of cultivated people. This element of intellectual byplay in The Magnetic Lady, though often coarse and trivial enough when judged by the standard of present taste, must have furnished an element of theatrical appeal to a Jacobean audience, and probably accounts in part for the not altogether unfavorable reception of the play. But not only have fashions in witty conversation gone out of vogue, but the language has also changed. A survey of the obsolete and archaic meanings in the glossary will explain why a large part of the witty observations are not apparent at the first reading. And Jonson's immense vocabulary, his habit of punning, and his general verbal ingenuity, make him more obscure to us than are his other contemporaries. For illustrations of wit, punning, and intentional ambiguity, reference should be made to the explanatory notes.

Yet the present rather low estimate of the play, although probably in part the result of the remoteness of the life represented, and the obscurity caused by the changes of language, is partly also due to inherent defects. The changes in manners and customs, in the whole outer civilization, which make against the present interest of the play, operate, of course, as effectively against the other plays of Jonson. But the lack of concentration upon one central satiric motive, such as is found in Volpone and The Alchemist, makes impossible any such summation of dramatic impression as is found in those plays. Then the vitality and intensity of style, mood, and handling that are found in the earlier masterpieces are not to be expected in the work of a bedridden poet. Perhaps, too, the fact that The Magnetic Lady

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