London populace. Its satire on puritanism, however, roused hostility, and it appears to have been little performed during Charles I's reign. At the Restoration it was revived with enthusiasm. Pepys, who saw it 7 Sept. 1661, says it had not been acted for forty years. An ‘Apologie’ for this play was prefixed by Jonson to his translation of Horace's ‘Ars Poetica,’ but perished with his library. 14. ‘The Divell is an Asse, a Comedie,’ 1616; fol. 1631. Jonson here handled in his own way an obsolescent motive to which Marlowe and Green had given vogue, and which was still worked by Dekker. The latter's ‘If this be not a good play, the Divell is in it,’ Jonson clearly had in view. It was revived with success after the Restoration. 15. ‘The Staple of Newes, a Comœdie,’ 1625, licensed April 1626; fol. 1631. A characteristic combination of symbolic figures from Aristophanes's ‘Plutus’ and topics of the day. The news-office of N. Butter had already been glanced at in the masque ‘News from the New World.’ 16. ‘The New Inn, or the Light Heart,’ 1629; 8vo, 1631; fol. 1692. Jonson's failing powers are betrayed rather by the extravagance of the plot than by the execution. Lovell's speeches strike the highest note of his later poetry. Some passages (ii. 2) recur with slight changes in Fletcher's ‘Love's Pilgrimage.’ They were probably added to the latter by the reviser, Shirley. 17. ‘The Magnetick Lady, or Humors Reconcild,’ licensed October 1632; fol. 1640. 18. ‘A Tale of a Tub, a Comedy,’ licensed May 1633; fol. 1640. Collier assigns it to Elizabeth's reign, on the ground of allusions; Fleay to 1603–4, on the ground of metre. 19. ‘The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood’ [fragment], fol. 1641. The singular freshness of this piece, which wholly refutes the motto prefixed to 18, ‘Inficeto est inficetior rure,’ suggests that it was composed earlier; and Mr. Symonds would identify it with the lost pastoral ‘The May Lord,’ which he ascribed to Drummond in 1618. Yet the effect is partly due to the lyrical style, which, as the abundant rhymes show, was here deliberately adopted. The prologue, in any case, is referred to the years 1635–7 by its first line: ‘He that hath feasted you these forty years.’ It was ‘continued’ by F. G. Waldron, 1783. 20. ‘Mortimer his Fall, a Tragedie’ [fragment], fol. 1640. The ‘Argument’ and part of i. 1 were alone finished. It was ‘completed’ by W. Mountfort, 1731, with satirical intentions it was supposed towards Walpole and Queen Caroline. A new dedication was subsequently written by Wilkes in derision of Bute.
There remain two plays with which Jonson is traditionally connected: 1. ‘The Widdow, a Comedie’ (circ. 1616), attributed on the title-page to Jonson, Fletcher, and Middleton, 4to, 1652. It probably belongs to Middleton alone. 2. ‘The Bloody Brother,’ 4to, 1639, by ‘B. J. F.,’ 4to, 1640, by ‘John Fletcher.’ One scene, iv. 2, is Jonsonian in character.
Four other plays known to have been written by Jonson are no longer extant. They are: 1. ‘A Hot Anger soon Cool'd.’ Recorded by Henslowe as the joint work of Porter, Chettle, and Jonson, 18 Aug. 1598. 2. ‘Page of Plymouth,’ written in conjunction with Dekker (Henslowe, August 1599). 3. ‘Robert II King of Scots' Tragedy,’ written in conjunction with Dekker, Chettle, ‘and other jentellmen’ (ib. September 1599). 4. ‘Richard Crookback Tragedy’ (ib. 24 June 1602).
II. Masques, Barriers, Entertainments.—Jonson throughout distinguished three classes of festive performance, those of which the nucleus was a masqued dance, a mock tournament, and a speech respectively. The first is in his hands the most, the last the least akin to drama. His masques show development in range of motive and in the use made of contrast. In the masques 1606–18 he relied chiefly on the ‘antimasque,’ which while designed to ‘precede and have the place of a foil or false masque’ (Pref. to M. of Queens), nevertheless arose out of and accorded with the subject of the masque. From about 1618 he began to employ the more drastic contrast of a preliminary scene of low comedy, identical in character with his work for the stage, while the antimasque shrank to a rudiment. Thus his later masque and later comedy converge. The following list gives entertainments on the one hand, the masques and barriers on the other, in chronological order. The later entertainments hitherto classified with the masques are here restored to their place. 1. Entertainments. (1) ‘A Particular Entertainment of the Queene and Prince … at Althrope (sic),’ &c. (Commonly referred to as ‘The Satyr.’) Acted 25 June 1603; 4to, 1603; fol. 1616. A graceful out-of-door performance. (2) ‘Part of the King's Entertainment in passing to his Coronation,’ 15 March 1604, 4to, 1604; fol. 1616. Jonson's ‘part’ consisted of the first and last of five separate shows, the rest being by Dekker, who published his own work separately. Merely a series of speeches. (3) ‘A Panegyre on the Happy Entrance of James … to his first High Session of Parliament’ … 19 March 1604. (4) ‘A Private Entertainment of the King and Queene … at Sir William Cornwallis his house at High-gate,’ 1 May 1604;
