BEN JONSON ON SHAKESPEARE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] SIR,—Jonson's well-known eulogy of Shakespeare includes the fol- lowing : "He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature." This, as I pointed out in my Handbook to Shakespeare, closely resembles that poet's estimate of Othello : "The Moor is of a free and open nature." But there is something to add ; for yet others of Shake 1 speare's notable characters are described in similar terms. Hamlet, for instance, is "generous and free from all contriving." Olivia in Twelfth Night, sketches the ideal man as "generous, guiltless, and of free disposition " ; and Viola knows the Duke to be "virtuous . . . noble. . . free, learn'd and valiant." And yet again, Troilus is thus spoken of : "His heart and hand both open and both free." In making his remark, therefore, Jenson may have had in mind some of Shakespeare's own estimates of nobility of character, and if so, he renders a deeper homage to the great poet.—! am, Sir, &c.,
Mormon Luau.
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