CONCORDANCE.--The student is referred to a very complete concordance of Shakspeare, by Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke, the labor of many years, by which every line of Shakspeare may be found, and which is thus of incalculable utility to the Shakspearean scholar.
OTHER DRAMATIC WRITERS OF THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE.
Ben Jonson, 1573-1637: this great dramatist, who deserves a larger space, was born in London; his father became a Puritan preacher, but after his death, his mother's second husband put the boy at brick-making. His spirit revolted at this, and he ran away, and served as a soldier in the Low Countries. On his return he killed Gabriel Spencer, a fellow-actor, in a duel, and was for some time imprisoned. His first play was a comedy entitled _Every Man in his Humour_, acted in 1598. This was succeeded, the next year, by _Every Man out of his Humour_. He wrote a great number of both tragedies and comedies, among which the principal are _Cynthia's Revels_, _Sejanus_, _Volpone_, _Catiline's Conspiracy_, and _The Alchemist_. In 1616, he received a pension from the crown of one hundred marks, which was increased by Charles I., in 1630, to one hundred pounds. He was the friend of Shakspeare, and had many wit-encounters with him. In these, Fuller compares Jonson to a great Spanish galleon, "built far higher in learning, solid and slow in performance," and Shakspeare to an "English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention."
Massinger, 1548-1640: born at Salisbury. Is said to have written thirty-eight plays, of which only eighteen remain. The chief of these is the _Virgin Martyr_, in which he was assisted by Dekker. The best of the others are _The City Madam_ and _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, _The Fatal Dowry_, _The Unnatural Combat_, and _The Duke of Milan_. _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_ keeps its place upon the modern stage.
John Ford, born 1586: author of _The Lover's Melancholy_, _Love's Sacrifice_, _Perkin Warbeck_, and _The Broken Heart_. He was a pathetic delineator of love, especially of unhappy love. Some of his plots are unnatural, and abhorrent to a refined taste.