There is no reason to suppose Satan's address to the sun in the Paradise Lost, more than a mere coincidence with these lines; but were it otherwise, it would be a fine instance, what usurious interest a great genius pays in borrowing. It would not be difficult to give a detailed psychological proof from these constant outbursts of anxious self-assertion, that Jonson was not a genius, a creative power. Subtract that one thing, and you may safely accumulate on his name all other excellencies of a capacious, vigorous, agile, and richly-stored intellect. Act i. sc. 1. 'Ovid'. While slaves be false, fathers hard, and bawds be whorish-- The roughness noticed by Theobald and Whalley, may be cured by a simple transposition:-- While fathers hard, slaves false, and bawds be whorish. Act iv. sc. 3. 'Crisp'. O--oblatrant--furibund--fatuate--strenuous. O--conscious. It would form an interesting essay, or rather series of essays, in a periodical work, were all the attempts to ridicule new phrases brought together, the proportion observed of words ridiculed which have been adopted, and are now common, such as 'strenuous', 'conscious', &c., and a trial made how far any grounds can be detected, so that one might determine beforehand whether a word was invented under the conditions of assimilability to our language or not. Thus much is certain, that the ridiculers were as often wrong as right; and Shakspeare himself could not prevent the naturalization of 'accommodation', 'remuneration', &c.; or Swift the gross abuse even of the word 'idea'. FALL OF SEJANUS. Act I. 'Arruntius'. The name Tiberius, I hope, will keep, howe'er he hath foregone The dignity and power. 'Silius'. Sure, while he lives. 'Arr'. And dead, it comes to Drusus. Should he fail, To the brave issue of Germanicus; And they are three: too many (ha?) for him To have a plot upon? 'Sil'. I do not know The heart of his designs; but, sure, their face Looks farther than the present. 'Arr'. By the gods, If I could guess he had but such a thought, My sword should cleave him down, &c. The anachronic mixture in this Arruntius of the Roman republican, to whom Tiberius must have appeared as much a tyrant as Sejanus, with his James-and-Charles-the-First zeal for legitimacy of descent in this passage, is amusing. Of our great names Milton was, I think, the first who could properly be called a republican. My recollections of Buchanan's works are too faint to enable me to judge whether the historian is not a fair exception. Act ii. Speech of Sejanus:-- Adultery! it is the lightest ill I will commit. A race of wicked acts Shall flow out of my anger, and o'erspread The world's wide face, which no posterity Shall e'er approve, nor yet keep silent, &c.