84 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES for the stage, according to the Duchess of Newcastle, who says in her " Letters " (Charles Lamb's delight) : * " I never heard any man read well but my husband, and I have heard him say that he never heard any man read well but Ben Jonson, and yet he hath heard many in his time ; " as well he might, his house for half-a-century being open to every man of genius or learning. It was then the custom of managers to hire authors to write new pieces or re-write old, advancing them money on the credit of their talents, or in proportion to the progress of the work; and they encouraged young authors to write in conjunction with those already in possession of the stage. Jonson's earliest efforts were made in this manner, but it is not known in what dramas he took part. The first we are sure of, and this is by him alone, is " Every Man in his Humour," which was popular in 1596, having been acted eleven times between November of that year and May of the year following. It is remarkably mature for a writer but little over twenty. Before this was pro- duced he had married, and must have been in con- siderable straits. Drummond reports : '* He maried a
- "But what moved thee, wayward and spiteful K., to be so
importunate to carry off with thee, in spite of tears and adjurations to thee to forbear, the Letters of that princely woman, the thrice noble Margaret Newcastle ?— knowing at the time, and knowing that I knew also, thou most assuredly wouldst never turn over one leaf of the illustrious folio ;— what but the mere spirit of contra- diction, and childish love of getting the better of thy friend ? Then, worst cut of all ! to transport it with thee to the Gallican Land — " Unworthy land to harbour such a sweetness, A virtue in which all ennobling thoughts dwell, Pure thoughts, kind thoughts, high thoughts, her sex's wonder." —Eli A, on The Two Races of Men .
