Page:A study of Ben Jonson (IA studyofbenjonson00swinrich).pdf/118

 corresponding evidence given by comparison of his readiness to congratulate and commend other poets and poeticules for work not always worthy of his notice, and at the same time to indulge in such sweeping denunciation of all contemporary poetry as would not have misbecome the utterance of incarnate envy—in other words, as might have fallen from the lips of Byron. See, for one most flagrant and glaring example of what might seem the very lunacy of malignity, a passage in what Coleridge has justly called 'his splendid dedication of The Fox' Here he talks of raising 'the despised head of poetry again, and stripping her out of those rotten and base rags wherewith the times have adulterated her form.' It is difficult to resist a temptation to emulate Ben Jonson's own utmost vehemence of language when we remember that this sentence is dated the 11th of February, 1607. Nine years before the death of Shakespeare the greatest writer of all time, the most wonderful human creature of all ages, was in the very zenith of his powers and his glory. And this was a contemporary poet's view of the condition of contemporary poetry. He was not more unlucky as a courtier and a prophet when he proclaimed the triumphant security of the English government