The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BEN JONSON'S WORKS. 1 Vol.
Moxon, London, 1838.
Next to Shakspeare, Ben Jonson—" rare Ben !"—is the
brightest star in our dramatic firmament. If he have not
the prodigal fancy of Beaumont and Fletcher, or the gloomy
Power and intense feeling of Webster, neither has he the
frequent extravagances to which these faculties in excess
give rise ; his intellect is well regulated and evenly balanced,
it cool and uniform judgment presiding over all its powers.
In point of learning, he leaves all his contemporaries at an
immeasurable distance ; and in his ability to deal with the
humours, rather than the passions, of our complex nature,
he is surpassed only by Shakspeare. Another peculiarity
to be observed in him, is the healthy and masculine tone of
his mind. There is nothing sickly in his sensibility ;or far-
fetched or finical in his fancy. He does the bidding of
nature well and wisely. In a word, he is the most tho-
roughly English writer of his age, in his sound and lusty
thoughts, his downright eloquence, his ready, home-spun
humour, which, like old October ale, " bath a body in it,"
his natural play of fancy, so remarkable in his Masques—
end, above all, in his utter contempt for any thing like
Clap trap or affectation. The works of this eminent dra-
matist are now, for the first time, presented to us, in one
cheap, handsome octavo volume, which contains, in addi-
tion, a " Memoir of the Life and Writings of Ben Jonson,"
from the pen of Barry Cornwall. This Memoir has one
besetting defect. It is penned in a spirit—if not of pcsi-
tive dislike, at least of indifference to honest Ben ; and the
constant effort to conceal this spirit under the mask of im-
partiality, only renders it the more perceptible. How dif-
ferent would have been his manner had Mr. Cornwall un-
dertaken to write a Memoir of Beaumont and Fletcher !
How ardent would have been his praises of their matchless

tenderness—which so often degenerates into-maudlin sentt
Mentality ; of their teeming fancy—which is so often made up
of mere conceits ; and of their exuberant variety of charac-
ters—so few of which have their prototype in human na-
ture ! This tempting theme he would have discussed in
Isis most con amore spirit, for his own " Dramatic Scenes"
show in every page how intimate is his acquaintance with,
and how hearty his admiration of—not merely the high
Poetic genius of Beaumont and Fletcher, but even the turn
and structure of their sentences, which he has imitated with
signal success. But Ben Jonson seems to be no favourite
With Mr. Cornwall. His " strong meats" are, we apprehend,
too strong for one of his delicate tastes. Thus he can find
nothing better to say of " Volpone" and the " Alchemist"
than that " they are full of sharp, weighty, vigorous writing,"
and that the one " comprises poetry of a higher order" than
the other. Now the two plays thus coldly and tamely spoken
of, are, each in its way, a prodigy of intellect, abounding in
learning of the most curious and recondite quality, gathered,
and apparently without effort, from a thousand different
sources ; and displaying strong worldly sagacity, and bring-
ing out the latent traits of character, with a skill and power
of research that even Shakspeare has scarcely surpassed.
The concluding passage of Mr. Cornwall's Memoir is by
far tie best. It is eloquent and even kindly in its
tone anc.l increases our regret that the whole was not
penned in the same hearty, animated spirit. The vo-
lume, which is printed with remarkable elegance and dis-
tinctness, is embellished with an excellent portrait of " rare
Ben."

EVE EFFINGHAM. 3 Vols.
Bentley, London, 1838.
The present tale is a continuation of Mr. Cooper's last
novel " Homeward Bound," which, it may be remem-
bered, broke off abruptly with the arrival of honest Cap-
tain Truck and his passengers in the American waters.
Eve Effingham takes up the story at that period, and
841aws us Eve and her family, together with Sir George
Templemore,
domesticated together in Mr. Effingham's
awn-house in New York. This enables the author to
us some very admirable sketches of fashionable society
:11, that city, which are evidently drawn from life, and will
those who have been in the habit of supposing that aristo-
etatic exclusiveness was a luxury monopolized by the
mother country. From these pages we gather that New
York has her 6, West-end" as well as London ; that she
tifias moreover her castes and sects, and anti-republican no-
aaas; and plays off all the airs of fashion with quite as
In
ch relish for such fooleries, as could be exhibited by any
(I" who had regularly graduated at Alrnack's. This is a
treat comfort to us, for we were beginning to imbibe a
notion that many of our own dandies had already carried
absurdity to its greatest height ; but we now find that they
arew) fairly distanced by the fashionable apes of New York,
Mr. Cooper's descriptions be correct—must be the
v!eriest asses that ever stood upon two legs, and called
mselves men. The first volume consists almost wholly
of these, Piquant, social sketches ; but in the second and
thiri
tne author transports his characters to Mr. Effing-
ham 4 country-house, situated in a new settlement on the
'sego. Here Sir George Templemore hastens to fall in
uve with Eve's cousin, a Miss Van Courtlandt, whom he
arries on the spot ; while Mr. Powis—the hero of
Homeward Bound"—performs the same kind and consi-
derate office for Eve, having just previously ascertained
that he is the long-lost, unacknowledged son of her father's
nearest relative, Mr. John Effingham, who had always been
reputed to be an old bachelor. It will be seen by this
asty sketch, that there is little of novelty or complicated
incident in the tale. It is indeed remarkably simple in its
construction, and must depend for effect chiefly on the
80.44 and truth of its incessant dialogue, and its accurate
delineation of character. In this last respect it is by no
tneana Mr. Cooper's best work. It wants variety. A risto-
Indus Brag, a bustling provincial man of all work, half
lawyer, half estate-agent, is the cleverest portrait in the
a
; if we except Mrs. Bloomfield, who is a quiet,
finished American lady, sketched off with singular ease and
taec• The cursory descriptions of the manners of some
c humbler classes in the new Otsego settlement, deserve
raise for their, apparently, strict and literal truth. Mr.
,e"Per is no flatterer of his countrymen. Thus he repre-
sents a Party of villagers scared away from a gentleman's
I.e."' (In which they were playing foot-ball, by the agent's
ti:oark that it was " vulgar and aristocratic" to pursue
kkeir sports in such a place! This horror of vulgarity
lang the inhabitants of a semi•barbarous, American vii-
is a very edifying trait of character.

------
A BOOK OF THE PASSIONS.
By J2I3IES.
Longman, London, 1838.
" Anotifer and another still succeeds !" We have
Pere another Annual, illustrated with sixteen engravings,
Zea designs funished by some of the ablest artists of the
44 Some of th,lse engravings are very forcibly executed,
chi' not
of them ai-e blow mediocrity. One of the best
chi' not the best—is a half-length picture entitled " Maria
Arquas," which is the portrait of a beautiful young
3 4/an, whose beauty, howe%•er, is rather of an English, than
vaYanish character. The tales, in illustration of these
vr„`s, are all from the pen of Mr. james, the novelist, and
trald have been much better if they had not been such set
j4eeleriPtions of the passions. They contain many stirring
'dents ; but, generally speaking, they are too diffuse.
a first, which the author calls " Remorse," is the most
tit tideresting of the series, and turns upon the murder of an
leller by a younger brother, for which the survivor, who
e'"arse
t iv! the story in the first person, is ever after given over to
,