That break their confines: then, strong Chastity,
Be thou my strongest guard, for here I’ll dwell,
In opposition against fate and hell!’
Ben Jonson’s Sad Shepherd comes nearer it in style and spirit, but still with essential differences, like the two men, and without any appearance of obligation. Ben’s is more homely and grotesque, Fletcher’s is more visionary and fantastical. I hardly know which to prefer. If Fletcher has the advantage in general power and sentiment, Jonson is superior in naiveté and truth of local colouring.
The Two Noble Kinsmen is another monument of Fletcher’s genius; and it is said also of Shakespear’s. The style of the first act has certainly more weight, more abruptness, and more involution, than the general style of Fletcher, with fewer softenings and fillings-up to sheathe the rough projecting points and piece the disjointed fragments together. For example, the compliment of Theseus to one of the Queens, that Hercules
‘Tumbled him down upon his Nemean hide,
And swore his sinews thaw’d’
at sight of her beauty, is in a bolder and more masculine vein than Fletcher usually aimed at. Again, the supplicating address of the distressed Queen to Hippolita,
——‘Lend us a knee:
But touch the ground for us no longer time