Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/109

 BEN JONSON 93 Thought I would try if shame could win upon 'em ; And therefore chose Augustus Caesar's times, When wit and art were at their height in Rome, To shew that Virgil, Horace, and the rest Of those great master-spirits, did not want Detractors then, or practicers against them." As for the soldiers, he cleared himself with them by the " Address to True Soldiers," already quoted from ; but that much more ferocious class, the lawyers, gave him more trouble, and it needed the influence of a powerful friend among them (Mr. Richard Martin, Recorder of the City of London, to whom he grate- fully dedicated the piece when published) to save him from prosecution. The general public was favour- able to it. Decker retorted with " Satiromastix ; or, The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet," produced in the following year. He was a rapid and vigorous writer, with a vein of passionate poetry richer than any in Jonson's richer mine ; but this play is by no means a favourable specimen of his powers. As Gifford says : " Jonson played with his subject ; but Decker writes in downright passion, and foams through every page." In the " Apologetical Dialogue," we read : — ' ' Author. What they have done 'gainst me I am not moved with : if it gave them meat, Or got them clothes, 'tis well, that was their end. Only amongst them, I am sorry for Some better natures, by the rest so drawn To run in that vile line. Pol. And is this all ! Will you not answer, then, the libels ? Aut. No. Pol. Nor the Untrussers ? Aut. Neither.