"Many were the wit-combats,"
wrote Fuller of Shakespeare in his "Worthies" (1662), "betwixt him and
Ben Jonson, which too I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an
English man of war. Master Jonson (like the former) was built far higher
in learning, solid but slow in his performances. Shakespeare, with the
English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn
with all sides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds by the
quickness of his wit and invention."
It was natural for the onlooker to compare Ben Jonson and his
"mountainous belly" to some Spanish galleon, and Shakespeare, with his
quicker wit, to the more active English ship. It was Jonson's great
size--a quality which has always been too highly esteemed in
England--his domineering temper and desperate personal courage that
induced the gossip to even him with Shakespeare.
Beaumont described these meetings, too, in his poetical letter to his
friend Jonson:
"What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid? Heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtle flame,
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.
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