r which I, for one, was
very much obliged. If I did not obtain exactly what I wanted, I
obtained something that hereafter may be extremely useful; and that
I could not, perhaps, have obtained in any other way than through the
medium of your pleasant and welcome periodical.

I am now, therefore, about to put a question regarding another writer
of more celebrity and ability. Among our early pamphleteers, there was
certainly none more voluminous than Nicholas Breton, who began writing
in 1575, and did not lay down his pen until late in the reign of
James I. A list of his pieces (by no means complete, but the fullest
that has been compiled) may be seen in Lowndes's _Bibl. Manual_;
it includes several not by Breton, among them Sir Philip Sidney's
_Ourania_, 1606, which in fact is by a person of the name Backster;
and it omits the one to which my present communication refers, and
regarding which I am at some loss.

In the late Mr. Heber's _Catalogue_, part iv. p. 10., I read as
follows, under the name of Nicholas Breton:--

"Crossing of Proverbs. The Second Part, with certaine briefe
Questions and Answeres, by N.B., Gent. Extremely rare and very
curious, _but imperfect_. It appears to contain a portion of
the first part, and also of the second; but it appears to be
unknown."

Into whose hands this fragment devolved I know not; and that is one
point I am anxious to ascertain, because I have another fragment,
which consists of what is evidently the first sheet of the first part
of the tract in question, with the following title-page, which I quote
_totidem literis_:--

"Crossing of Proverbs. Crosse-Answeres. And Crosse-Humours. By
B.N., Gent. At London, Printed for John Wright, and are to be
solde at his Shop without Newgate, at the signe of the Bible,
1616."

It is in 8vo., as Heber's fragment appears to have been; but then the
initials of the author are given as N.B., whereas in my fragment they
stand B.N., a usual inversion with Nicholas Breton; the brief address
"To the Reader" is also subscribed B.N.; and then begins the body of
the work, thus headed: "Crosse and Pile, or, Crossing of Proverbs." It
opens as follows:

"_Proverb_. The more the merrier.
_Cross_. Not so; one hand is enough in a purse.
_P._ Every man loves himselfe best.
_C._ Not so, when man is undone by suretyship.
_P._ He that runnes fastest gets most ground.
_C._ Not so, for then foote-men would ha