Such, I think, are the salient features of Ibsen's method, the principles of his technical process. In this there is plainly the force of a great genius, and perhaps the opening of a new path for the drama of the coming century. But for us, in studying the curious workmanship, there is one question that demands its answer: What is the precise divergence of Ibsen's method from Shakespeare's? In what ways and to what degree, after the lapse of three centuries, has this new poet varied from that model of dramatic construction which Shakespeare established. To this question, I have tried, as I expounded the play of Hedda Gabler, to give the right answer. There is, first, the reversion to unity of place, and to unity of time, and to concentration of character; that is, there is the reversion of modern art to the principle of Greek construction—a reversion that may be compared with the reversion of Flaxman and Thorwaldsen to the principles of Greek sculpture. In the second place, there is the triumph of modern realism in the vulgarity and triviality of the dramatic situation in the absence of beauty, in the absence of nobleness, in the absence of romantic glamour. In the third place, there is that sacrifice of simple to complex emotion, the effort to create a new form of dramatic interest by involving the motives of the dramatic character in a psychological puzzle. In the fourth place, there is the violent disturbance of the traditional symmetry of dramatic construction, the expansion of the protasis from one-sixth to one-half of the poem, and the proportionate reduction of the other four parts.

These are the changes that Ibsen has made in dealing with Shakespeare's model of dramatic action. They are changes that come, as I have said, from the lyrical nature of Ibsen's peculiar genius. But in spite of that genius, it may, I think, be safely said that a form of dramatic art which thus breaks the lovely symmetry of dramatic construction, and thus surrenders the power of simple and direct dramatic emotion, can never, I think, establish itself in permanent possession of the stage. THOMAS R. PRICE.

INIGO JONES.

INIGO, or Ignatius, Jones, the father of stage art and the first designer of stage machinery and "practicable" scenery, was born of Welsh parents, who had settled in the city of London in the parish of Bartholomew the Less, in West Smithfield, in the year 1573, and the record of his birth in the church of St. Bartholomew appears as of July 19 in that year. His father was employed, as was almost every dweller in the neighborhood, in the manufacture of cloth.

The fair of St. Bartholomew was long the great cloth fair of England, and the early character of the place is still indicated in the name of an adjoining street, called "Cloth Fair." The Register which records the baptism of Inigo records also the burial of his grandmother, and contains the baptisms and burials of a younger brother, named Philip, and of two sisters, all of whom died in infancy.

The father was in indifferent circumstances when Jones was a lad of sixteen; and a Book of Orders and Decrees of the Court of Requests, preserved in the Chapter House at Westminster, contains the decree of the Court, made 18th October, 1589, in the matter at variance "between Enego Jones, of the cittie of London, Clothworker, and Richard Baker, of the same cittie, Baker." Jones, the father, had become bound to Baker in the sum of £80, " for the sure payment of £60 at a day certen limited by the condition." He had managed to pay off a portion of the debt; and Baker, as was alleged, had agreed to accept the residue, at the rate of ten shillings every month. A dispute followed, the nature of which is not explained; and Baker thereupon commenced an action for the recovery of his money. Jones, on this, appealed "to the Queen's Majesty's Honourable Court of Requests," to stay the proceedings at law. The decree of the Court, on the appeal, was to confirm the arrangement previously agreed upon, and Inigo Jones was ordered to pay ten shillings a month, from the next 31st of December till the debt should be liquidated.

Of Jones' early life little is known, with anything like certainty. The most probable account, says Walpole, is that he was bound apprentice to a joiner. His father, it is quite clear, had very little to leave him. His will was made 14th February, 1596-97, only a few months before his death, and is very short. He describes himself as "Clothworker of the parish of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf;" appoints his son Inigo his executor; directs his body to be buried by the side of his wife, in the chancel of the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf; and leaves whatever he possesses, after the payment of his debts, bills, and obligations, to his son Inigo and his three daughters, Joan, Judith, and Mary, to be divided equally among them. The father was buried.

in the church of St. Bennet, and his will was proved by Inigo, as executor, on the 5th of April, 1597. The future architect was then in his twenty-fourth year.

Whatever Jones's education or profession may have been, he was early distinguished by his inclination for "drawing or designing," and was, we are told by his first biographer, "particularly taken notice of for his skill in the practice of landscape painting." This reputation, it is added, supplied him with a patron; and one of the great lords at court (either Lord Arundel or Lord Pembroke), attracted by his works, sent him "to Italy, to study landscape painting." Such is the received account, which is at least somewhat doubtful. Jones's own words, in his book upon Stonehenge, fails to bear it out. "Being naturally inclined," he observes, "in my younger years, to study the arts of design, I passed into foreign parts, to converse with the great masters thereof in Italy, where I applied myself to search out the ruins of those ancient buildings which, in despite of time itself and violence of barbarians, are yet remaining. Having satisfied myself in these, and returning to my native country, I applied my mind more particularly to architecture." When he ceased to be a painter, there is certainly no evidence; but that he had acquired a skill in the art appears by a small landscape from his hand, bought by the Earl of Burlington, and still preserved at Chiswick. "The colouring," says Walpole, “very indifferent, but the trees freely and masterly imagined."

Of this part of Jones's life our only direct information is derived from a passage in the Vindication of Stonehenge, written by Webb, his pupil, kinsman and executor. "He was," says Webb, "architect general unto four mighty kings, two heroick queens, and that illustrious and never to be forgotten Prince Henry. Christianus the fourth, King of Denmark, first engrossed him to himself, sending for him out of Italy, where, especially at Venice, he had many years resided. Upon the first coming of that king into England, he attended him, being desirous that his own native soil, rather than a foreign, should enjoy the fruits of his laborious studies. Queen Anne here honoured him with her service first; and not long after, Prince Henry, under whom with such fidelity and judgment he discharged his trust, as that King James made him his surveyor, in reversion. Prince Henry dying, he travelled into Italy, and returned into England when his place fell.” * In the assertion conveyed by this passage, that Inigo accompanied King Christianus to England, there is undoubtedly, however, a mistake; for the king did not arrive till the 17th of July, 1606, and Jones was employed at the English court before that time. But that his stay in Denmark, as Webb tells, was long, there is no reason to doubt; though the nature of his employment is unknown. He is said

* Webb's Vindication, p. 123.

to have assisted in building part of the palace of Fredericksborg; and the principal court, it has been observed, bears a marked resemblance. to the court of Heriot's Hospital, in Edinburgh, which is attributed to Jones, and not improperly, as I am inclined to believe. *

We first hear of Inigo Jones in England in his thirty-second year. The Queen of James I. had ordered a Masque to be performed at the Court at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1604-5. The poet was Ben Jonson; and this was his, as well as Jones's, first employment in this way. The title of the Masque was "The Masque of Blackness," and "the bodily part," as Jonson tells us, "was of Master Inigo Jones's design and act." It was the first entertainment given by the Queen, and the subject of the Masque was a suggestion of her own. Majesty's will," says Jonson, "to have them blackmoors."

"It was her

Jonson's description of Jones's portion of the work contains the earliest notice we possess of the use of scenery in stage-entertain

ments:

"First for the scene was drawn a landtshap [landscape], consisting of small woods, and here and there a void place filled with huntings; which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot forth, as if it flowed to the land, raised with waves which seemed to move, and in some places the billows to break, as imitating that orderly disorder which is common in nature. In front of this sea were placed six tritons, in moving and sprightly actions, their upper parts human, save that their hairs were blue, as partaking of the sea-colour: their desinent parts fish, mounted above their heads, and all varied in disposition. From their backs were borne out certain light pieces of taffata, as if carried by the wind, and their music made out of wreathed shells. Behind these, a pair of sea-maids, for song, were as conspicuously seated; between which, two great sea-horses, as big as the life, put forth themselves; the one mounted aloft, and writhing his head from the other, which seemed to sink forward; so intended for variation, and that the figure behind might come off better: upon their backs Oceanus and Niger were advanced. . . : The Masquers were placed in a great concave shell, like mother of pearl, curiously made to move on those waters and rise with the billow; the top thereof was stuck with a cheveron of lights, which, indented to the proportion of the shell, struck a glorious beam upon them, as they were seated one above another so that they were all seen but in an extravagant disorder. On sides of the shell did swim six huge sea monsters, varied in their shapes and dispositions, bearing on their backs the twelve torchbearers, who were planted there in several graces. . . . These thus presented, the scene behind seemed a vast sea, and united with this that flowed forth, from the termination or horizon of which (being the level of the state which was placed in the upper part of the Hall) was drawn by the lines of prospective, the work shooting downwards from the eye; which decorum made it more conspicuous, and caught the eye afar off with a wandering beauty: to which was added an obscure and cloudy night piece, that made the whole set off. So much for the bodily part, which was of Master Inigo Jones's design and act."

* Andersen Feldborg's Denmark Delineated, p. 88.

The cost of the Masque was about £10,000 of our present money. Jones's early practice in painting was no doubt of use to him in drawing "the landscape of small woods, and here and there a void place filled with huntings."

In the autumn of the same year, Jones was employed on the scenery and devices necessary for the due performance of three plays. presented before the King on the 28 August, 1605, in the present Hall of Christ Church, Oxford. Of his success on this occasion a contemporary has left the following account: "They hired one Mr. Jones, a great traveller, who undertook to further them much, and furnish them with rare devices, but performed little to what was expected. He had for his pains, as I have constantly heard, £50." "The stage," so runs the description, "was built close to the upper end of the Hall, as it seemed at the first sight: but indeed it was but a false wall, faire painted, and adorned with stately pillars, which pillars would turn about; by reason whereof, with the help of other painted cloths, their stage did vary three times in the acting of one tragedy.'

"The Masque of Hymen," on the succeeding Twelfth Night, (1605-6) was also the work of Jonson and Jones. The occasion, though an ill-fated one, was one of great rejoicing and splendor-the marriage of the youthful Earl of Essex (afterwards the Parliamentary general) to Frances Howard, daughter of Thomas Earl of Suffolk, the Lord Treasurer. To Jones's art, on this occasion, the poet bears ample testimony. "The design and art," he says, "together with the devices and their habits, belong properly to the merit and reputation of Master Inigo Jones, whom I take modest occasion, in this fit place, to remember, lest his own worth might accuse me of an ignorant neglect, from my silence." A certain Mr. Pory, one of the news-collectors of the day, and in that character present at the Masque, has given an account of it, in a letter to Sir Robert Cotton. "Both Jones, Ben, and the actors, men and women," he says, "did their parts with great commendation." The music was composed by "Master Alphonso Ferrabosco," and the dances made and taught by "Master Thomas Giles." The dresses were unusually superb; and, it would seem, from one of the short descriptions of Jonson, that Jones attempted what was then new upon the stage:

"Here the upper part of the scene, which was all of clouds, and made artificially to swell, and ride like the rack, began to open; and the air clearing, in the top thereof was discovered Juno sitting in a throne supported by two beautiful peacocks; above her the region of fire, with a continual motion, was seen to whirl circularly, and Jupiter standing in the top (figuring the Heaven), brandishing his thunder."

The poet was present, and assisted in turning a globe, wherein the masquers sat. The globe was so contrived that it "stood, or rather hung, for no axle was seen to support it."