[Footnote 117: "Now, that it should be one, and entire. One is considerable two ways; either, as it is only separate, and by itself; or as being composed of many parts, it begins to be one, as those parts grow, or are wrought together. That it should be one the first way alone, and by itself, no man that hath tasted letters ever would say, especially having required, before, a just magnitude, and equal proportion of the parts in themselves. Neither of which can possibly be, if the action be single and separate, nor composed of parts, which laid together in themselves, with an equal and fitting proportion, tend to the same end, which thing, out of antiquity itself, hath deceived many; and more this day it doth deceive."--_Jonson's Discoveries._] [Footnote 118: Malone and Langbaine have both observed, that our author elsewhere uses the same image, applied indeed to the very same person: Subtle was got by our Albumazar, That Alchemist by this Astrologer: Here he was fashioned; and we may suppose, He liked the fashion well, who wore the clothes. ] [Footnote 119: Dorset gave an instance of the honour in which he held Ben Jonson, by an excellent epilogue, upon the reviving of "Every Man in his Humour." When the speaker of the epilogue has proceeded a good way in the usual style of rallying the piece and author, he is interrupted by _Jonson's Ghost._ Hold, and give way, for I myself will speak: Can you encourage so much insolence, And add new faults still to the great offence Your ancestors so rashly did commit, Against the mighty powers of art and wit, When they condemned those noble works of mine, Sejanus, and my best loved Catiline? Repent, or on your guilty heads shall fall The curse of many a rhyming pastoral. The three bold Beauchamps shall revive again, And with the London-Prentice conquer Spain. All the dull follies of the former age Shall find applause on this corrupted stage. But if you pay the great arrears of praise, So long since due to my much injured plays, From all past crimes I first will set you free, And then inspire some one to write like me. ] [Footnote 120: This objection, although stated against Crites the prototype of Howard, occurs in Sir Robert's own preface, who points out an additional advantage attending it. He observes, that the subjects of the ancients were usually the most known stories and fables; a circumstance which led them to compose their plays rather of speeches and chorus's, than of scenic action, and representation: Because, "Seneca making choice of Medea, Hippolytus, and Hercules Œtus, it was impossible to show Medea throwing the mangled limbs of Jason into her age-renewing kettle, or to present the scattered limbs of Hippolytus upon the stage, or show Hercules burning upon his own funeral pile."]