Christmas his Masque.] Not dated in the second folio; but probably printed after the author's death. It is a humorous trifle, calculated for the season, and merely intended to excite an hour's merriment, as introductory, perhaps, to some entertainment of a higher kind. Granger, in his Biographical Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 296, 8vo. after bestowing just praise on Milton's admirable Masque, very gravely adds, "but the generality of these compositions are trifling and perplexed allegories. Ben Jonson, (poor Ben is always the foil,) in his Masque of Christmas, has introduced 'Minced Pye' and 'Babie Cake,' who act their parts in the drama. But the most wretched of these performances could please by the help of musick, machinery, and dancing." The masque before us had not the advantage of much machinery, I suspect. But could Granger find nothing in Jonson to oppose to Comus, but this magnificent "drama," as he is pleased to call it! an innocent Christmas gambol, written with no higher end in view than producing a hearty laugh from the good natured James, and the holyday spectators of the show. But such is the mode in which Jonson is constantly treated; and yet the critics who institute these parallels, (not exactly "after the manner of Plutarch," it must be granted,) are astonished at being told that they always want candour, and not seldom common sense. Granger's ridiculous parade of "perplexed allegories," &c. is worse than useless here. They might indeed perplex him; but he should have recollected that Minced Pye and Babie Cake were sufficiently familiar to these who witnessed their appearance; and that ignorance is the worst of all possible pleas for the contemptuous sneer of criticism.
