he was three and thirty Years old at Spencer’s
Death; and his Reputation in Poetry must have been
great enough before that Time to have deserv’d
what is here said of him. His Acquaintance with
Ben Johnson began with a remarkable piece of
Humanity and good Nature; Mr. Johnson, who was
at that Time altogether unknown to the World, had offer’d
one of his Plays to the Players, in order to have
it Acted; and the Persons into whose Hands it was
put, after having turn’d it carelessly and superciliously
over, were just upon returning it to him with an ill-natur’d
Answer, that it would be of no service to their Company,
when Shakespear luckily cast his Eye upon it,
and found something so well in it as to engage him
first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend
Mr. Johnson and his Writings to the Publick.
After this they were profess’d Friends; tho’
I don’t know whether the other ever made him
an equal return of Gentleness and Sincerity. Ben
was naturally Proud and Insolent, and in the Days
of his Reputation did so far take upon him the Supremacy
in Wit, that he could not but look with an evil Eye
upon any one that seem’d to stand in Competition
with him. And if at times he has affected to
commend him, it has always been with some Reserve,
insinuating his Uncorrectness, a careless manner of
Writing, and want of Judgment; the Praise of seldom
altering or blotting out what he writ, which was given
him by the Players who were the first Publishers of
his Works after his Death, was what Johnson
could not bear; he thought it impossible, perhaps,
for another Man to strike out the greatest Thoughts
in the finest Expression, and to reach those Excellencies
of Poetry with the Ease of a first Imagination, which
himself with infinite Labour and Study could but hardly
attain to. Johnson was certainly a very good
Scholar, and in that had the advantage of Shakespear;
tho’ at the same time I believe it must be allow’d,
that what Nature gave the latter, was more than a Ballance
for what Books had given the former; and the Judgment
of a great Man upon this occasion was, I think, very
just and proper. In a Conversation between Sir
John Suckling, Sir William D’Avenant,
Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of Eaton,
and Ben Johnson; Sir John Suckling, who
was a profess’d Admirer of Shakespear,
had undertaken his Defence against Ben Johnson
with some warmth; Mr. Hales, who had sat still
for some time, hearing Ben frequently reproaching
him with the want of Learning, and Ignorance of the
Antients, told him at last, That if Mr. Shakespear_
had not read the Antients, he had likewise not stollen
any thing from ’em;_ (a Fault the other made
no Confidence of) and that if he would produce
any one Topick finely treated by any of them, he would
undertake to shew something upon the same Subject at
least as well written by Shakespear. Johnson