Pythias, termed by Lord Burghley, in the uncertain phraseology of that time, 'a tragedy;' or it might be one of the other dramatic performances, of which, according to Twine, Edwards was the author. Damon and Pythias is the only extant specimen of his talents in this department of poetry, but his Palamon and Arcyte was acted before Elizabeth at Christchurch, Oxford, on the 2d and 3d of September, 1566, only about two months before the death of its author, which happened on the 31st of October. Twine informs us in his epitaph, that Edwards was of Corpus Christi and subsequently of Christchurch, Oxford, and he did not leave the University until after August, 1544. Turberville, in the introduction to a poem by him on the death of Edwards, calls him 'gentleman of Lincoln's Inn,' where he probably entered himself when he first came to London, and before he was appointed by Elizabeth Master of the Children of her Chapel. Warton, after stating that Edwards 'united 'all those arts and accomplishments which minister to popular pleasantry*,' which may be very true, adds, what is unquestionably a mistake, that the children of the chapel were first formed by him into a company of players: they had regularly acted plays long before.

Damon and Pythias † does not adopt the improvement introduced by Sackville and Norton in 1561-2:

* History of English Poetry, iv. 110, edit. 8vo.

+ It is reprinted in the different editions of Dodsley's Old Plays.

it is written in rhyme, and perhaps the author thought it better suited to the tragi-comical manner in which he has treated his story. The serious portions are unvaried and heavy, and the lighter scenes grotesque without being humorous. All kinds of dramatic propriety are disregarded, and among other absurdities the author has carried Grim, the Collier of Croydon, to the court of Dionysius, where he has sundry coarse colloquies with a couple of lackies, named Jack and Will. A brief specimen of one of these, on the prevailing fashion of wearing large bombasted hose, will be a sufficient, though not perhaps a satisfactory specimen.

'Grimme. Are ye servants then?

Wyll. Yea, Sir: are we not pretie men?

Grimme. Pretie men (quoth you?) nay you are stronge

men,

'Els you could not beare these britches.

'Wyll. Are these such great hose?

'In faith, goodman Colier, ye see with your nose.

By myne honestie, I have but one lining in one hose, but seven els of a roug.

'Grimme. This is but a little, yet it makes thee seeme a great bugge.

'Jacke. How say you, goodman Colier, can you finde any faulte here?

Grimme. Nay, you should finde faught. Mary, here's trimme geare!

'Alas, little knave, dost not sweat? thou goest with great

payne:

'These are no hose but water bougets, I tell thee playne; 'Good for none but suche as have no buttockes.

'Did you ever see two such little Robin-ruddockes,

• So laden with breeches? Chill say no more leste I offende. Who invented these monsters first, did it to a gostly ende: 'To have a male readie to put in other folkes stuffe ; We see this evident by dayly prooffe.' &c.

The subsequent quotation is from the tragic part of the play, when Pithias is about to be beheaded by Gronno, the executioner. Gronno says

Now, Pithias, kneele downe, aske me blessyng like a pretie boy,

And with a trise thy head from thy shoulders I wyll convay.

[Here entreth Damon running, and stayes the sword. 'Damon. Stay, stay, stay! for the kinges advantage stay! 'O mightie kynge, myne appointed time is not yet fully past;

'Within the compasse of myne houre, loe here I come at

last.

'A life I owe, and a life I will you pay.

Oh, my Pithias! my noble pledge, my constant friend! 'Ah, wo is me! for Damon's sake how neare were thou

to thy ende!

'Geve place to me, this rowme is myne, on this stage must I play.

'Damon is the man, none ought but he to Dionisius his blood to pay.

'Gronno. Are you come, Sir? you might have taried, if you had bene wyse;

'For your hastie comming you are lyke to know the prise. 'Pithias. O thou cruell minnister, why didst not thou

thine office?

'Did not I bidde thee make hast in any wyse?

Hast thou spared to kill me once, that I may die twyse? 'Not to die for my frend is present death to me; and alas, Shall I see my sweet Damon slaine before my face? 'What double death is this!'

These examples will tend to establish, that although Edwards continued to employ rhyme, he endeavoured to get rid of some part of its monotony, by varying the length of his lines, and by not preserving the cæsura. It was nearly new, at the date when this piece was written, to bring stories from profane history upon the stage: Damon and Pythias was one of the earliest attempts of the kind; and at any other period, and without the Queen's extraordinary commendations, it may at least be doubted whether Edwards would have acquired an equal degree of notoriety.

Two plays were represented at Gray's Inn in 1566 : the one was The Supposes, translated by George Gascoigne from Gli Suppositi of Ariosto; and the other Jocasta, adapted by Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmarsh, and Christopher Yelverton *, from the Phænissæ of Euripides. The first of these is remarkable, as it is the only existing specimen of a play in English prose acted, either in public or private, up to that date +. Gascoigne rendered it principally from the prose original, printed at Venice in 1525, but not without adopting some of the changes made by Ariosto, when he subsequently turned his comedy into verse. On the whole, the translation may be called faithful, for Gascoigne has added very little of

* Yelverton's name ought hardly to be included, as he only contributed the epilogue.

+ Hawkins included it in his Origin of the English Drama, vol. iii., but he does not seem to have been aware of this peculiarity.

his own, contenting himself chiefly with a few unimportant omissions: the termination, however, differs slightly from both the original copies. The prologue or argument' is all that really belongs to the translator, and it merely consists of a repetition of the word 'suppose' in the same and somewhat different senses, which does him little credit as a punster, and none as a poet. More attention has been drawn to this production, on account of the fancied connection between a part of the plot of The Supposes and of The Taming of the Shrew, which Dr. Farmer pointed out in his Essay on the learning of Shakespeare *.

Jocasta, as has been stated, was acted in the same year as The Supposes, and at the same place: it is

* Gascoigne wrote another piece in a dramatic form, the body of which is in prose, although it has four choruses and an epilogue in rhyme, besides two didactic poems in the third act. It is called The Glasse off Government, a tragicall comedie, and the author states that he so terms it because therein are handled as well the reward for vertues as also the punishment for vices.' It is, in fact, a most tedious puritanical treatise upon education, illustrated by the different talents and propensities of four young men placed under the same master: the two cleverest are seduced to vice, while the two dullest persevere in a course of virtue, and one of them becomes secretary to the Landgrave, and the other 'a famous preacher.' Nothing can be more uninteresting than the whole performance, although the author has laboured to enliven it by the introduction of a Parasite, a Bawd, a Prostitute, a Roister, and a knavish servant. The schoolmaster preaches a regular sermon, quoting chapter and verse, and reads a long lecture on the duties of honour, obedience, and love. It was not printed until 1575, and the author died two years afterwards. It was most likely one of his latest works.