Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 4.djvu/8

 "Cheats of Scapin:" and his judgment must have totally failed him when he made the remark, which, yet, has been frequently re-echoed.

The Alchemist continued to be represented with success till the theatres were shut up; it was one of the first plays revived at the Restoration, and, with the Fox and Silent Woman, as Downes informs us, constituted the delight of the town. Jonson gives the names of the principal actors, Burbadge, Lowin, Condel, Cooke, Armin, Hemings, Ostler, Underwood, Tooly, and Eglestone. Lowin, we are told by the sensible author of Historia Histrionica, who seems to speak from personal knowledge, "played Mammon, with mighty applause," Taylor, who probably succeeded to the parts of Burbadge, "was celebrated in Face." How the other parts were distributed cannot be known; but if the list of names, in the old copies, answers to that of persons, Robert Armin, famous for his clowns, played Drugger. Cooke, who was the principal stage heroine at this time, probably took the part of Dol Common.

The Alchemist.] By this expression is meant, one who pretends to the knowledge of what is called the philosopher's stone, which had the faculty of transmuting baser metals into gold. The professors of the art of chemistry, (as well as the critics) are not entirely agreed about the meaning and etymology of the word: Menage derives it from an Arabic term, signifying the occult science: and Julius Firmicus, who lived in the time of Constantine, is said to be the first writer who uses the word Alchymia. If the curious reader would be more fully informed of the origin and progress of chemistry, I refer him to the history of it, prefixed to Boerhaave's Chemistry, published by Dr. Shaw. But with regard to our poet, in the choice of his subject he was happy; for the age was then extremely addicted to the study of chemistry, and favourable to the professors of it. The following comedy was therefore no unseasonable satire upon the reigning foible; since among the few real artists there was undoubtedly a far greater number of impostors. There was also at this time a particular controversy on foot, with the famous Dr. Anthony, about his Aurum Potabile, which was warmly agitated by the members of the faculty; and we shall find that our poet alludes to this dispute in some passages of the play. author:Peter Whalley (1722-1791).

This is, at best, very defective. Whalley seems to confound Alchemy with Chemistry, of which it is but a branch. If the reader wishes for a detail of the various impostors of the science, he may consult Kircher; if he merely wishes for a popular account of its rise and progress, he may turn to the bishop of Landaff's Chemical Essays.