CONTENTS

OF THE FOURTH CONVERSATION.

Thomas Nash, a prose satirist-His character-How far the
subject of Nash and his friends has been exhausted-His "Pierce
Penniless' Supplication to the Devil," and the very rare and un-
known second part, or answer to it, called "The Returne of the
Knight of the Poste from Hell," 1606, written by a friend of
Nash-Extract from the preliminary address, and remarks—
Doubt whether Nash did not bring the trade of rope-making into
disrepute, and reference to Marston's "Parasitaster," 1606—
Plan of and poetry from "the Returne of the Knight of the
Poste"-Description of "the Knight," and the object of his
mission-The Answer sent by the Devil to Pierce's Supplication
-Allusion to Nash's poverty-Crosses Quotation against Up-
start Courtiers and others" The prodigall young Maister," and
"the pride of artificers" censured-English Satirists in verse-
the merits of Bishop Hall-Will. Rankin's Seven Satires, 1596,
and "Mirrour of Monsters," 1587: his Sonnet before John
Bodenham's Belvedere-" Skialetheia," among Mr. Malone's
books noticed-John Marston's "Metamorphosis of Pigmalions
Image and certaine Satyres," 1598, introduced-Why he called
himself "W. Kynsader"-His attack upon Hall-The moral
object of "Pigmalion's Image" proved-The cause of enmity
between Marston and Hall-Epigram by Hall quoted, and
Marston's reply to it-Critical remarks upon them-Marston's
own authority for concealing his name-His severity against Hall
in his "Certaine Satyres"-Marston's rough, irregular, and free
style justified by himself Quotations from " Pigmalion's Image:"
reprinted in 1619 as a serious love-poem-"The Scourge of
Venus," 1614, quoted and criticised-A Courtier described in

Marston's first satire-Ridicule of men who bought MS. poems and passed them off as their own" Castilios Courtier," by Sir T. Hobby-Coincidence between Marston and Milton-Coincidence between Milton and Anthony Stafford, in his "Niobe," 1611, established by extracts-Resemblance between passages in Milton and in Gusman de Alfarache, 1623-Part of Marston's fifth Satire Marston's "Scourge of Villanie," 1598 Dedication of the work to himself, and presentation of it to Detraction—Character of Marston's Plays-Proemium to the first book of his Satires-Other quotations and criticisms-Dryden's talent for Satire-Marston's ridicule of Shakespeare's Richard III.—His allusion to his own Satires in his play of " What you will"—His reference to Romeo and Juliet in B. III. Sat. 10.-His talent for drawing characters-A jest by Shakespeare, on the authority of Dr. Donne Marston's consignment of his Satires to "everlasting oblivion"-Biographical conjecture concerning Marston-John Webster the player and play-wright's entrance into the church -His "Academiarum Examen" and "Saints Guide," 1654John Hall's "Histriomastix, a Whip for Webster," 1654, adduced as evidence to show that Webster the player was Webster the preacher-Internal evidence to the same point derived from a comparison of some passages in the "Academiarum Examen" and "Saints Guide," and in Webster's "White Devil" and "Duchess of Malfy"-William Webster's "Curan and Argentile," 1617, criticised, with remarks upon "The Thracian Wonder," &c.Doubt whether Marston did not follow or set the example to John Webster-A sermon by John Marston, dated Feb. 6, 1642 -Postponement of "Micro-cynicon, Sixe Snarling Satyres,"

1599.

THE

POETICAL DECAMERON.

THE FOURTH CONVERSATION.

MORTON. I did not hear you, when we last met, mention the name of Thomas Nash among our early satirists surely he ought to be included.

:

BOURNE. Unquestionably, if the examination I propose to make extended to writers of satires in prose as well as in verse; but to embrace them would be to open a field far too wide for our investigation.

ELLIOT. If the account Mr. D'Israeli gives of him be not over-charged (and, indeed, I do not see how it can be, for the extracts supplied from his attacks upon Gabriel Harvey speak for themselves) he was a most biting satirist in prose, and he mixt up his severity with so much of the salt of wit and humour, that the rankling wound he inflicted must have been very long healing.

BOURNE. True, and the personal and literary character of such men as Nash, Greene, Marlow and

Peele, may form an entertaining subject for our future investigation.

MORTON. The only objection to it that I am aware of is, that the ground has been already very much cleared; and we may find some difficulty in selecting what is new, without combining it with what is old.

BOURNE. I am by no means of your opinion. I am convinced that the subject has not been in any view of it exhausted; for, after all, if you will examine accurately, you will find that most of the writers regarding those poets, have travelled over the same course, repeating, without scruple, both the facts and the observations of their predecessors.

ELLIOT. For myself, speaking as one of the ignorant on these matters, I may say, that I cannot imagine any topic connected with our early literature much more inviting.

BOURNE. As a proof of the correctness of what I have just advanced upon the point, whether the subject has been exhausted, I will only refer you, in passing, to the most rare and interesting tract I now hold in my hand, which, though immediately connected with Thomas Nash, and with one of the most popular, singular and eloquent of his productions, has hitherto escaped the researches of all bibliographers.

MORTON. Do you mean that they have none of them met with it?

BOURNE. I do not go quite to that extent, because

I have traced it in the catalogue of the books of one of our most eminent literary antiquaries; whether he ever opened it or not I do not know, but he certainly does not seem to have been at all aware of the nature or value of its contents. You have, of course, heard a great deal of Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Deuill."

ELLIOT. I have heard of it, but I have no distinct knowledge of the nature of the work.

BOURNE. It may be shortly described as a severe descriptive censure of the chief reigning vices by which the character of the people of England was at that time disfigured. As I remarked before, it is one of the most notorious of this admirable writer's productions, and has been much criticised and extracted from within the last twenty years.

MORTON. In the "Muses Library" there is a poetical quotation from it, containing, among others, the two lines which, you may remember, you showed us in the " Yorkshire Tragedy," attributed to Shakespeare.

BOURNE. You are right. Well, not to lose more time than is necessary, the pamphlet I have here purports to be a second part or an answer to that supplication; and although an anonymous work, yet the writer states that he was an "intimate and near Companion" of Nash, and this circumstance renders it still more curious, and deserving notice.

ELLIOT. Did the title he chose at all correspond with that prefixed by Nash?