"
In one respect at least the two men were antitheses. Jonson was
exceedingly combative and quarrelsome, and seems to have taken a chief
part in all the bitter disputes of his time between actors and men of
letters. He killed one actor in a duel and attacked Marston and Dekker
in "The Poetaster"; they replied to him in the "Satiromastix." More than
once he criticized Shakespeare's writings; more than once jibed at
Shakespeare, unfairly trying to wound him; but Shakespeare would not
retort. It is to Jonson's credit that though he found fault with
Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and "Pericles," he yet wrote of him in the
"Poetaster" as a peacemaker, and, under the name of Virgil, honoured him
as the greatest master of poetry.
Tradition gives us one witty story about the relations between the pair
which seems to me extraordinarily characteristic. Shakespeare was
godfather to one of Ben's children, and after the christening, being in
a deep study, Jonson came to cheer him up, and asked him why he was so
melancholy.
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