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vpon me, he hath spoken vnto me with a voyce of thunder, and I haue felt he is a God that can punish enemies. Why should thy excellent wit, his gift, be so blinded that thou shouldest giue no glory to the giuer? Is it pestilent Machiuilian policie that thou hast studied? O peevish + follie! what are his rules but meere confused mockeries, able to extirpate in small time the generation of mankinde? for if sic volo, sic iubeo, holde in those that are able to commaund, and if it be lawfull fas et nefas, to doo any thing that is beneficiall, onely tyrants should possesse the earth, and they striuing to exceed in tiranny, should ech to other be a slaughterman, till, the mightyest outliuing all, one stroke were left for Death, that in one age mans life should end. The brocher of this dyabolicall atheisme is dead, and in his life had neuer the felicitie he aymed at, but, as he beganne in craft, liued in feare, and ended in dispaire. Quam inscrutabilia sunt Dei judicia! This murderer of many brethren had his conscience seared like Cayne; this betrayer of him that gaue his life for him inherited the portion of Judas; this apostata perished as ill as Julian: and wilt thou, my friend, be his disciple? Looke vnto mee, by him persuaded to that libertie, and thou shalt finde it an infernall bondage. I know the least of my demerits merit this miserable death; but wilfull striuing against knowne truth exceedeth all the terrors of my soule. Deferre not (with mee) till this last point of extremitie; for little knowest thou how in the end thou shalt be visited.

* felt] Old. ed. "left."

+ peevish] Old ed. " punish" (the compositor's eye having perhaps caught that word from the preceding sentence). brocher] Old ed." Brother.". Probably Francis Kett, A. M., of Winmondham in Norfolk, who was bred at Benet College in Cambridge, and was chosen fellow 1573. In February 1589 he was burnt at Norwich for holding detestable opinions against Christ." MS. Note by Malone.

"With thee I ioyne young Iuuenall [i. e. Lodge], that byting satyrist, that lastly* with mee together writ a comedie. Sweet boy, might I aduise thee, be aduised, and get not many enemies by bitter words: inueigh against vaine men, for thou canst doo it, no man better, no man so well; thou hast a libertie to reproue all and name none; for one being spoken to, all are offended, - none beeing blamed, no man is iniuried. Stop shallow water still running, it will rage; tread on a worme, and it will turne; then blame not schollers who are vexed with sharpe and bitter lines, if they reprooue thy too much liberty of reproofe.

"And thou [i. e. Peele] no lesse deseruing then the other two, in some things rarer, in nothing inferiour, driuen (as myselfe) to extreame shifts, a little haue I to say to thee; and, were it not an idolatrous oath, I would sweare by sweet S. George thou art vnworthy better hap, sith thou dependest on so meane a stay. Base-minded men all three of you, if by my misery yee bee not warned; for vnto none of you (like me) sought those burs to cleaue; those puppits, I meane, that speake from our mouths, those anticks garnisht in our colours. Is it not strange that I to whome they all haue bin beholding, is it not like that you to whom they all haue bin beholding, shall, were yee in that case that I am now, be both of them at once forsaken? Yes, trust them not; for there is an vpstart crow† [i. e. Shakespeare] beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygres heart wrapt in a players hyde, supposes hee is as well able to bombast out a blanke-verse as the best of you, and, beeing an absolute Johannes-fac-totum, is in his owne conceyt the onely Shake

lastly] Qy." lately"? Lodge's talent as a satirist may be seen in his Fig for Momus, 1595. The "comedie" which he composed in conjunction with Greene, is A Looking Glasse for London and England (reprinted in Greene's Dram. Works, ed. Dyce).

+ This allusion to Shakespeare will be particularly noticed in a later part of the present memoir.

scene in a countrey. Oh, that I might intreat your rare wittes to bee imployed in more profitable courses, and let these apes imitate your past excellence, and neuer more acquaynte them with your admyred inuentions! I knowe the best husband of you all will neuer prooue an vsurer, and the kindest of them all will neuer prooue a kinde nurse: yet, whilst you may, seeke you better maisters; for it is pitty men of such rare wits should bee subiect to the pleasures of such rude groomes.

"In this I might insert two more that both haue writte against these buckram gentlemen: but let their owne worke serue to witnesse against theyr owne wickednesse, if they perseuer to maintaine any more such peasants. For other new commers, I leaue them to the mercie of these painted monsters, who, I doubt not, will driue the best-minded to despise them for the rest, it skills not though they make a ieast at them.

"But now returne I again to you three, knowing my miserie is to you no newes; and let me heartilie intreate you to be warned by my harmes. Delight not, as I haue done, in irreligious oaths, for from the blasphemers house a curse shall not depart. Despise drunkennes, which wasteth the wit, and maketh* men all equall vnto beasts. Flie lust, as the deathsman of the soule, and defile not the temple of the Holy Ghost. Abhorre those epicures whose loose life hath made religion loathsome to your eares; and when they soothe you with tearms of mastership, remember Robert Greene, whome they haue often so flattered, perishes now for want of comfort. Remember, gentlemen, your liues are like so many light† tapers that are with care deliuered to all of you to maintaine: these with wind-puft wrath may be extinguished, with drunkennesse put out, with || negli

maketh] Old ed. "making." + light] i. e. lit-lighted. with] Old ed. " which." § put] Old ed. " puts." with] Old ed. "which."

gence let fall; for mans time of itselfe is not so short but it is more shortened by sinne. The fire of my life* is now at the last snuffe, and the want of wherewith to sustaine it, there is no substance for life to feed on. Trust not, then, I beseech yee, left to such weake stayse; for they are as changeable in minde as in many attires. Well, my hand is tyred, and I am forst to leaue where I would beginne; for a whole booke cannot contain their wrongs, which I am forst to knit vp in some few lines of words." +

Both Marlowe and Shakespeare having taken offence at the above "Address," their complaints were noticed by Chettle, the editor of the tract, in a public statement which he prefixed to his Kind-Harts Dreame, &c, and which, if satisfactory to Shakespeare, was little calculated to soothe the displeasure of Marlowe. "About three moneths since," says Chettle, "died M. Robert Greene, leauing many papers in sundry booke-sellers hands; among other, his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter written to diuers play-makers is offensiuely by one or two of them taken; and because on the dead they cannot be auenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a liuing author; and after tossing it to ‡ and fro, no remedy, but it must light on me. How I haue all the time of my conuersing in printing hindred the bitter inueying against schollers, it hath been very well knowne, and how in that I dealt I can sufficiently prooue. neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them [i. e. Marlowe] I care not if I neuer be: the other [i. e. Shakespeare], whome at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of liuing writers, and might haue vsde my owne discretion (especially in such a case) the author beeing

life] Old ed. "light."

out from this sentence.
+ I quote from ed. 1617.

With

Some words seem to have dropt

to] Old ed. " two.",

dead, that I did not, I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe haue seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he exclent in the qualitie he professes; besides, diuers of worship haue reported his vprightnes of dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting that aprooues his art. For the first, whose learning I reuerence, and, at the perusing of Greenes booke, stroke out what then in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ, or, had it beene true, yet to publish it was intollerable, him I would wish to vse me no worse than I deserue. I had onely in the copy this share; it was il written, as sometime Greenes hand was none of the best; licensd it must be, ere it could bee printed, which could neuer be if it might not be read: to be breife, I writ it ouer, and, as neare as I could, followed the copy, onely in that letter I put something out, but in the whole booke not a worde in; for I protest it was all Greenes, not mine, nor Maister Nashes, as some vniustly haue affirmed."*

That it should have been attributed to Nash seems strange enough: but we have his own testimony, in addition to Chettle's, that such was the case. "Other newes," he

says, "I am aduertised of, that a scald triuiall lying pamphlet, cald Greens Groats-worth of Wit, is giuen out to be of my doing. God neuer haue care of my soule, but vtterly renounce me, if the least word or sillible in it proceeded from my pen, or if I were any way priuie to the writing or printing

"To the Gentlemen Readers," before Kind-Harts Dreame, &c. n. d. [1592].-Mr. Collier remarks, "We have some doubts of the authenticity of the 'Groatsworth of Wit' as a work by Greene." Life of Shakespeare, p. cxxxi. I cannot think these doubts well founded. The only important part of the tract, the Address to the play-wrights, has an earnestness which is scarcely consistent with forgery; and Chettle, though an indigent, appears to have been a respectable man. Besides, the Groatsworth of Wit, from beginning to end, closely resembles in style the other prose-works of Greene.

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