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in terms altogether different from those employed by the writers last quoted; and accordingly we find that in the Prologue to The Honour of the Garter, which was published very shortly after Marlowe's death, he is apostrophised by Peele in the language of enthusiastic admiration; "Unhappy in thine end,

Marley, the Muses' darling for thy verse,
Fit to write passions for the souls below,
If any wretched souls in passion speak."

"

When Nash republished his Christ's Tears over Jerusalem in 1594, he prefixed to it an Epistle in which he renews his attack on Gabriel Harvey, and "vindicates," among others, "poor deceased Kit Marlowe:" this I state on the authority of Mr. Collier,† the only copy of that edition which I have seen being imperfect and wanting the passage about Marlowe. The same writer, in his final and best attack on Gabriel Harvey, Haue with you to Saffron-walden, &c, 1596, has recorded a "saying" of Marlowe concerning Richard Harvey, the younger brother of Gabriel; "Kit Marloe was wont to say, that he was an asse, good for nothing but to preach of the Iron Age." The reader, I presume, will not think so highly of this bon-mot as Nash appears to have done: but it at least contains the truth; for Richard Harvey has fairly "written himself down an ass" in his Astrological Discourse, which, to the infinite dismay of many persons as

tragic incidents in English domestic life which had recently occurred, observes; "It is a wonder that the assassination of Marlowe was never dramatized." Introd. to the Works of Massinger and Ford, p. xiii. Surely, it is no wonder that the dramatists of those days did not endeavour to give additional publicity to the sad and disgraceful fate of one who had been the most eminent among them.

* Peele's Works, ii. 222, ed. Dyce, 1829.

+ Introd. to Nash's Pierce Penniless's Suppl. &c, p. xxix, ed. Shake. Soc.

+ Sig. N 3.

66

silly as the author, announced that a very fatal conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter was to happen on the 28th of April, 1583. In a MS. poem called The Newe Metamorphosis, or a Feaste of Fancie, &c, by J. M. 1600, (unknown to me, except through the medium of a recent work,)* our poet is spoken of as kynde Kit Marloe,” — an epithet which, however impious his tenets, or however loose his morals, he may have fully merited.-And here let me observe with respect to "Kit," that it is not to be considered as a fond and familiar appellation bestowed on Marlowe in consequence of any endearing qualities which he may have possessed; for Heywood, after declaring that

"Our moderne poets to that passe are driuen,

Those names are curtal'd which they first had giuen;
And, as we wisht to haue their memories drown'd,
We scarcely can afford them halfe their sound,"

adduces fourteen instances of this abbreviation of the Christian name, among which is the following;

"Marlo, renown'd for his rare art and wit,
Could ne're attaine beyond the name of Kit,
Although his Hero and Leander did

Merit addition rather."+

Neither painting nor engraving has preserved the features of Marlowe; nor does any passage in the writings of his contemporaries enable us to form the slightest idea of his personal appearance.-I now resume the enumeration of his works.

Bishop Tanner, speaking of the tragedy of Dido, says, "Hanc perfecit et edidit Tho. Nash, Lond. 1594, 4to."; and he presently adds, "Petowius in præfatione ad secundam partem Herois et Leandri multa in Marlovii commendationem adfert; hoc etiam facit Tho. Nash in Carmine ele

*Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 190.

The Hierarchie of the blessed Angells, 1635, p. 206.

giaco tragœdiæ Didonis præfixo in obitum Christoph. Marlovii, ubi quatuor ejus tragœdiarum mentionem facit, nec non et alterius De Duce Guisio."* Warton, too, observes, "His [Marlowe's] tragedy of Dido Queen of Carthage was completed and published by his friend Thomas Nashe in 1594;" subjoining in a note, "Nashe in his Elegy prefixed to Marlowe's Dido, mentions five of his plays." As the Elegy by Nash is not in any of the few copies of Dido which are at present known, it would seem to be lost irretrievably; but that it once existed is unquestionable. Malone, who applied to Warton for farther particulars on this subject has left the following MS. note in his copy of the play. "He [Warton] informed me by letter that a copy of this play was in Osborne's Catalogue in the year 1754; that he then saw it in his shop (together with several of Mr. Oldys's books that Osborne had purchased), and that the elegy in question, 'on Marlowe's untimely death,' was inserted immediately after the title-page; that it mentioned a play of Marlowe's entitled The Duke of Guise, § and four others, but whether particularly by name he could not recollect. Unluckily he did not purchase this rare piece, and it is now God knows where." || Mr. Collier, who seems to be unacquainted with what Tanner and Warton have stated concerning Dido, regards it as a drama undoubtedly written by Marlowe and Nash in conjunction; and moreover is of opinion that their respective shares may be easily distinguished, those of Nash being more monotonous in versification and less poetical than

*Biblioth. Brit. p. 512.

+ Hist. of Engl. Poet. iii. 435, ed. 4to.

Now in the Bodleian Library.

§ i. e. The Massacre at Paris.

Yet it would almost seem that Malone had as little faith in honest Tom Warton's veracity as Ritson himself had; for presently, after citing Tanner, he writes; "I suspect Mr. Warton had no other authority than this for saying that this play was left imperfect by Marlowe, and completed and published by Nash."

*

those of Marlowe. For my own part, since I find Tanner's statement so circumstantially confirmed by Warton, I consider myself bound to believe, till some positive evidence be produced to the contrary, that Dido was completed for the stage by Nash after the decease of Marlowe. As to any marked difference of versification which would enable us to determine exactly what parts of the play are by Marlowe and what by Nash,t—I must confess that it is not quite so perceptible to me as to Mr. Collier; nor do I think that we are warranted in assigning to the latter poet all the less brilliant passages, since we know that Marlowe, though often soaring to a height which Nash could not have reached, yet frequently sinks to the level of a very ordinary writer. In short, I cannot but suspect that Nash's contributions to Dido were comparatively small. The date of its original representation has not been ascertained: it was acted by the Children of the Chapel; and (as already noticed) was first printed in 1594.

*See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 225.-At p. 138 Mr. Collier remarks that "Marlowe and Nash were not acquainted with each other in 1587," but at p. 221 that Dido was 66 apparently written previous to 1590."

+ Mr. Collier particularly gives to Nash the description of the fall of Troy, · -a description which I should rather say is Marlowe's, its splendid extravagance being above the powers of Nash.

It is doubtful, as Mr. Collier observes, whether the following entry in Henslowe's Diary refers to some alteration and revival of Marlowe's Dido, or to some new piece on the same subject (for Henslowe afterwards mentions a play called Æneas' Revenge);

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Layd owte for coper lace for the littell boye, for

a valle [veil?] for the boye, ageanste the playe of >XXIX." of xxix." Dido and Eneus, the 3 of Jenewary 1597

p. 117, ed. Shake. Soc. Among the stage-properties of the Lord Admiral's men we find "j tome of Dido," and among their stagedresses "Dides robe." Id. pp. 273, 276. For Marlowe's Dido a tomb" was not wanted. In an inventory of Alleyn's thea

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Previous to the appearance of this tragedy, several dramas on the story of Dido had been attempted in England.* John Rightwise, master of St. Paul's School, London, “made the Tragedy of Dido out of Virgil, and acted the same with the scholars of his school, before Cardinal Wolsey, with great applause :"+ it would seem to have been a Latin composition. In 1564 "a tragedie named Dido, in hexametre verse, without anie chorus," written by Edward Haliwell, was played before Queen Elizabeth in King's-College chapel, Cambridge: and in 1583 a Latin Dido was represented for the amusement of Prince Alasco in Christ-Church hall, Oxford. The author of the last-mentioned piece has hitherto been unknown: but I can now state that it was composed by Dr. William Gager, whose Latin plays were greatly admired even beyond the precincts of the university; and large

trical wardrobe is "Pryams hose in Dido" (Collier's Mem. of Alleyn, p. 21): qy. were the said hose [i. e. breeches] used for the statue of Priam in Marlowe's tragedy (see vol. ii. 379)? It is at least certain that Priam could not possibly be a character in any play on the story of Dido.

Warton, Hist. of Engl. Poet. iii. 435, ed. 4to. notices "the interlude of Dido and Eneas at Chester," which, he says, "I have before mentioned:" but I cannot find the earlier mention of it.

+ Wood's Ath. Oxon. i. 35, ed. Bliss. See too Tanner's Biblioth. p. 632, where, however, the notice of this play is taken from Wood.-Warton, Hist. of Engl. Poet. ii. 434, ed. 4to. states that it was written by Rightwise and in Latin; but he afterwards, iii. 84, wrongly assigns it to Edward Haliwell, and says "it may be doubted whether this drama was in English.”— A mistake of Harwood concerning Rightwise's Dido has perplexed Mr. Hallam, Introd. to the Lit. of Europe, i. 433, ed. 1843.

Nichols's Prog. of Elizabeth, i. 186, ed. 1823.-It "was written by Edward Haliwell, fellow of King's College, as appears from Hatcher's account of the provosts, fellows, &c. of that society. Bodl. MSS. Rawlinson, B. 274." Note by Bliss in Wood's Ath. Oxon., i. 35.-See also Tanner's Biblioth. p. 372. -Warton, Hist. of Engl. Poet. ii. 383, ed. 4to. supposes it to have been an English play.

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