Event Comment: Gift for ye Sufferers by ye fire in
Cornhill (
Cross). [A column and a half "Letter to
the Author" appeared in
the General Advertiser this day, laying historical background for
Ford's
Lover's Melancholy].
The history of
the stage before
the Restoration is like a Foreign Land, in which no
Englishman had ever travelled; we know
there were such things as Playhouses, and one
Shakespear a
great writer, but
the historical traces of
them are so imperfect, that
the manner in which
they existed is less known to us, than that of
Eschylus or
the theatres of
Greece. For this reason, 'tis hoped that
the following Gleaning of
Theatrical History will readily obtain a place in your paper. 'Tis taken from a Pamphlet written in
the reign of
Charles I, with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's
Melancholly Lover"; and as it contains some historical anecdotes and altercations concerning
Ben Johnson,
Ford,
Shakespear, and
the Lover's Melancholy it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to
the Public. [
The substance of
the remainder retails
Jonson's critical cantankerousness and his wounded pride at
the failure of
the New Inn, quoting some epigrams made at Jonson's expense on his allegation that Ford was a plagiary. This second "puff" for
the play, presumably also written by
Macklin, formed
the basis for a
Steevens-
Malone controversy late in
the century, centering on
the existence or nonexistence of
the pamphlet referred to by Macklin as "Old Ben's Light Heart made Heavy, &c." A summary account of
the evidence appears in
the Dramatic Works of John Ford, by
Henry Weber (
Edinburgh, 1811) I, Intro. XVI, XXXI.] Receipts: #210 (
Cross); #208 1s. (
Powel)