Chapter XLIX JONSON--"THE SAD SHEPHERD"
ALTHOUGH Ben Jonson's days ended sadly, although his later plays
showed failing powers, he left behind him unfinished a Masque
called The Sad Shepherd which is perhaps more beautiful and more
full of music than anything he ever wrote. For Ben's charm did
not lie in the music of his words but in the strength of his
drawing of character. As another poet has said of him, "Ben as a
rule--a rule which is proved by the exception--was one of the
singers who could not sing; though, like Dryden, he could intone
most admirably."*
*Swinburne.
The Sad Shepherd is a tale of Robin Hood. Here once more we find
an old story being used again, for we have already heard of Robin
Hood in the ballads. Robin Hood makes a great fest to all the
shepherds and shepherdesses round about. All are glad to come,
save one Aeglamon, the Sad Shepherd, whose love, Earine, has, he
believes, been drowned. But later in the play we learn that
Earine is not dead, but that a wicked witch, Mother Maudlin, has
enchanted her, and shut her up in a tree.
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