INTRODUCTION.

IN preparing these volumes of Ford for the public, the same excellent guide has been followed, to whom the reader has been so largely indebted in our previous labours upon Massinger; and indeed a more admirable commentator on the old English dramatists than Mr. Gifford could not easily be found. The extreme vigour and acuteness of his intellects, his unwearied industry and research, and the peculiarity of his personal fortunes, which made him as well acquainted with the phraseology and modes of thinking in common life, as he was conversant with all the courtesies of higher stations, excellently fitted him for seizing and fixing their several texts, and illustrating the usages and customs to which they referred; while the finer faculties of his mind enabled him to appreciate the higher beauties of their style and thoughts, and to catch every shade of feeling, and discriminate every variety of character, which could be found embodied in those noble works of the older time. That high religious feeling, which formed so marked a trait in Mr. Gifford's character, and which

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seems indeed almost a necessary accompaniment of genius in its highest sense, was here peculiarly in place; enabling him, as it did, to walk through the occasional impurities and even profanities of our earlier stage, unpolluted himself, and ever watchful to keep contamination from others. This is not the place to dilate on higher claims, which Mr. Gifford possesses to the reverence of every one, who bears and prides himself in the name of Englishman. When it is recollected, however, that these editions of the old dramatists were with him merely a source of recreation from higher duties and severer studies; when it is considered how many years and with what ability he presided over a department of literature, requiring not only very extensive scholarship, but a general acquaintance with almost every art and occupation of life; when we call to mind the uncompromising zeal and earnest devotion, with which, in times of peculiar difficulty and danger, he upheld the old institutions as well as the old literature of his country, we shall be excused for saying that, though men of higher genius might be named in an age extraordinarily prolific of such persons, few will be found with higher claims on the respect and gratitude of posterity than him of whose labours we are now about to avail ourselves, in such manner, and to such extent, as the peculiar nature of our undertaking may best seem to require.

It is incidentally observed by Dr. Farmer in his Essay on Shakspeare," that play-writing in that poet's days was scarcely thought a creditable employ;" and it would seem as if the Dramatic Poets themselves entertained some such idea as Farmer

mentions; for, either from mortification or humility, they commonly abstain from dwelling, or even entering, upon their personal history. Though frequent in dedications, they are seldom explicit ; and even their prefaces fail to convey any information except of their wants, or their grievances from evils which are rarely specified.

The stock of the FORDS, however, is known to have been highly respectable: they appear to have settled at an early period in the north-west of Devonshire, and to have possessed considerable property in the contiguous parishes of Ashburton, Ilsington, &c.

From an extract of the Baptismal Register of Ilsington, it appears that John (our author) was baptized there on the 17th April, 1586; and as he became a member of the Middle Temple, November 16, 1602, he could scarcely have spent more than a term or two (if any) at either of the Universities there was, however, more than one Grammar School in the immediate vicinity of his birth-place, fully competent to convey all the classical learning which he ever possessed, and of which, to say the truth, he was sufficiently ostentatious in his earliest work, though he became more reserved when age and experience had enabled him to compare his attainments with those of his contemporaries.

It appears from Rymer's Foedera,* that the father of our poet was in the commission of the peace. Whether this honourable situation was procured for him by the interest of his wife's father, the famous Lord Chief Justice Popham, cannot be * Tome xviii. p. 575.

told; it may however be reasonably surmised, that his connection with one of the first law officers of the crown led to the course of studies subsequently pursued by both branches of the family. Popham was made Attorney-General in 1581; and in 1592 he was advanced to the rank of Chief Justice of the King's Bench, which he held for many years; so that his patronage, which must have been considerable, (as he appears to have been in some favour both with Elizabeth and her successor,) probably afforded many facilities to his young relatives in the progress of their studies, and opened advantages of various kinds.

Our poet had been preceded in his legal studies by his cousin John Ford, son of an elder brother of his father's family, to whom he appears to have looked up with much respect, and to have borne an almost fraternal affection: this gentleman was entered at Gray's Inn; but Popham seems to have taken his young relation more immediately under his own care, and placed him at the Middle Temple, of which he had been appointed Treasurer in 1581.

It is probable that Ford was not inattentive to his studies; but we hear nothing of him till 1606, (four years after his admission,) when he published "Fame's Memorial, or the *Earl of Devonshire

As one of Ben Jonson's beautiful and magnificent Masques has in some degree connected the names of this illfated pair with our dramatic history, a short account of them, for which the reader is indebted to the former editor of Ford, will not be misplaced.

Charles Blount, eighth Lord Mountjoy, was a man of great eminence, and while a commoner (for he did not succeed to the title till 1594) followed the profession of arms with