[From Edmund Gayton Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot]
This commentary on Cervantes's novel contains a number of references to Jonson's work; the most elaborate is the aside on Jonson's response to the failure of one of his plays. As H&S, 9.241, suggest, the play in question may well have been Catiline, despite Gayton's reference to a comedy. The lines of Horace quoted as a motto on the title-page of the quarto of the play (translation: 'Such writing as this gives no pleasure to the rabble; even with the upper class enjoyment has flitted from the ear to the restless eyes and the hollow delights of spectacle': Epistles, 2. 1. 186-8) indicate that the play, like the one Gayton discusses, was condemned by the elite as well as the vulgar.
Gayton (1608-66) was a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, a 'son of Ben', a physician, and in the latter part of his life a professional writer.
The two extracts begin with quotations from Thomas Shelton's 1612 translation of Don Quixote, part 4, chapter 21 (pp. 555, 559), followed by Gayton's commentary (in modern editions of the novel, the chapter is numbered part 1, chapter 48).
*****************************************It was an old one, and before this criticall observation said,
Populo ut placerent, quas fecisset fabulas.
Nay in their Amphitheatricall gladiatures, the lives of captives lay at the mercy of the vulgar.
& verso pollice vulgi, Quemlibet occidunt populariter.
And although the only Laureat of our stage (having composed a Play of excellent worth, but not of equall applause) fell downe upon his knees, and gave thanks, that he had transcended the capacity of the vulgar; yet his protestation against their ignorance, was not sufficient to vindicate the misapplication of the argument; for the judicious part of that Auditory condemn'd it equally with those that did not understand it, and although the Comædy wanted not its
Had it been exhibited to a scholastick confluence; yet men come not to study at a Play-house, but love such expressions and passages, which with ease insinuate themselves into their capacities. Lingua , that learned Comædy of the contention betwixt the five senses for superiority, is not to be prostituted to the common stage, but is only proper for an Academy; to them bring Jack Drumm's entertainment, Greens to quoque , the Devill of Edmonton, and the like; or if it be on Holydayes, when Saylers, Water-men, Shoomakers, Butchers and Apprentices are at leisure, then it is good policy to amaze those violent spirits, with some tearing Tragædy full of fights and skirmishes: As the Guelphs and Guiblins, Greeks and Trojans, or the three London Apprentises which commonly ends in six acts, the spectators frequently mounting the stage, and making a more bloody Catastrophe amongst themselves, then the Players did....
An Inigo Jones for scenes, and a Ben Johnson for Playes, would have wrought great cures upon the stage, and it was so well reform'd in England, and growne to that height of Language, and gravity of stile, dependency of parts, possibility of plot, compasse of time, and fulnesse of wit, that it was not any where to be equall'd; nor are the contrivers asham'd to permit their playes (as they were acted) to the publick censure, where they stand firme, and are read with as much satisfaction, as when presented on the stage, they were with applause and honour. Indeed their names now may very well be chang'd & call'd the works not Playes of Johnson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Cartwright , and the rest, which are survivers of the stage; that having faln, not into Court-Reformers, but more severe correctors, who knowing not how to amend or repaire, have pluckt all downe, and left themselves the only spectacle of their times.
(271-3)
To see that his plays pleased the people (Terence, The Lady of Andros, Prol., line 3)
And win applause by slaying whomsoever the mob with a turn of the thumb bids them slay ( Juvenal, Satires 3.36-7 )
To benefit, and amuse (adapting Horace, Ars Poetica, line 333)
Of these three plays, the first has not been identified, the second may be Heywood's The Iron Age (c. ? 1613) , and the third the same writer's The Four Prentices of London (? 1592) : see Bentley, JCS , 5.1345-6, 1456. .