same reason, occurs afterwards, when Lucretius says to Tuditanus of the resolute opposition of young Marius and his followers at Præneste, 'Their valour, Tuditanus, and resist, So far did Lodge carry this notion, that he rarely terminates a verse with a word of the same quantity as that which closes the last of the preceding lines. Some long speeches are in rhyme, and stanzas and couplets are numerous throughout, which tend to establish that it was an early performance after the first introduction of blank-verse upon the common stage. One point connected with the rhymes of this play merits observation: Lodge often uses triplets, a circumstance of rare occurrence in other dramatic poets preceding Shakespeare. The following, from one of the speeches of Antony, may be taken as a sufficient specimen of the smoothness of the versification of Lodge: it is addressed to Sylla, to dissuade him from executing the bold and sturdy Granius :— Aye, but the milder passions show the man; 'The pleasant flowers bedeck the painted spring, Even so in men of greatest reach and power, A mild and piteous thought augments renown. ⚫ Old Antony did never see, my lord, A swelling shower did continue long, 'A climbing tower that did not taste the wind, Unto the spreading sails of thy desires; So faithful counsels work a prince's peace.' This passage, in the word 'repent' for repentance, affords another instance of the constraint Lodge put upon himself in order to preserve the weight at the conclusion of his lines. The whole scene which relates to the capture of Cornelia and Fulvia, their contempt of death, and their liberation from the fear of it by the magnanimity of Marius, is finely written, making allowance for the system to which Lodge subscribed. The dramatic performance which Lodge produced in conjunction with Robert Greene, and which was first printed in 1594*, must, of course, have been written prior to September, 1592, when Greene died. The whole scope of it seems to be to counteract the prevalent puritanical notion, that dramatic amusements were antiscriptural and immoral. It applies the story of Nineveh to the City of London, the prophet Oseas being introduced as a speaker; and after every scene, in which some fresh crime or vice is pourtrayed, he warns the inhabitants of the metropolis, lest they also in the same manner incur the wrath of heaven. His speeches, with one exception, are in rhyme, and of these the subsequent will be as long a specimen as is necessary. Iniquity seeks out companions still, 'And mortal men are armed to do ill. * A unique copy of this edition is among the many dramatic rarities of the Duke of Devonshire. London, look on, this matter nips thee near; Spend less at board and spare not at the door, 'But aid the infant and relieve the poor; Else seeking mercy, being merciless, 'Thou be adjudg'd to endless heaviness.' Adultery, incest, murder, bribery, usury, drunkenness, &c., with their evil consequences, are exhibited in turn; and in order to accomplish this object the most incongruous matter is introduced, giving the manners of London as those of Nineveh, and mixing up Rasni and his queen and concubines with the knaves, lawyers, usurers, and beggars of the metropolis. It however contains a severe satire and moral lecture, and the authors seem to have had no scruple in speaking out; but the censure is always general, and never could have had any particular application. Jonas cast out of the whale' upon the stage, laments over the state of Israel, and after Oseas has taken his departure, he too warns the inhabitants of Nineveh to repent. Rasni and his adherents accordingly put on sackcloth and ashes, and the face of things is entirely changed; for, instead of shouts and revellings, nothing but lamentations and prayers are heard on every side, and Nineveh, by the mouth of Jonas, is forgiven: he thus moralises in the conclusion 'Wend on in peace and prosecute this course, 'You islanders, on whom the milder air 'Doth sweetly breathe the balm of kind increase, 'Whose lands are fattened with the dew of heaven, 'And made more fruitful than Actean plains. 'You, whom delicious pleasures dandle soft; 'Whose eyes are blinded with security, 'Unmask yourselves, cast error clean aside.' He then likens the crimes of London to those of Nineveh, and ends with the following extravagant compliment to Queen Elizabeth— And think the prayers and virtues of thy Queen Thy shepherd fail, whom mighty God preserve, This is scarcely more absurd than all the rest of the performance, which is wearisomely dull, although the authors have endeavoured to lighten the weight by the introduction of scenes of drunken buffoonery between a clown and his crew of ruffians,' and between the same clown and a person disguised as the devil, in order to frighten him, but who is detected and well beaten. There was no such marked difference between the styles of Greene and Lodge as to enable us to decide which part of the play was written by the one and which by the other. ON THOMAS NASH AND HIS WORKS. NASH, who as a wit and a satirist was superior to all his contemporaries, as a dramatic poet must be placed below most of them. He has left behind him only one performance, in writing which he alone was engaged-Summer's Lust Will and Testament-which is not to be regarded so much in the light of a play as of a show it was exhibited before Elizabeth at Nonsuch, in the autumn of the year 1592, although not printed until eight years afterwards. He was concerned, with Marlow, in penning The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage, printed in 1594, and apparently written previous to 1590, also acted in the presence of the Queen, by the children of her Chapel. The portions of the latter which belong to each author are, I think, to be traced without much difficulty, for a reason which I shall state hereafter. Nash likewise wrote a satirical play (at least such we must suppose it to have been), which has been already noticed, called The Isle of Dogs, in consequence of which he was imprisoned *. *It was never printed. In The Trimming of Thomas Nash, 1597, by Gabriel Harvey, there is a rude wood-cut of a man in fetters, meant for Nash, and in allusion to the imprisonment arising out of his Isle of |