d;
And let some comfort shine on us, your friends,
Through the bright splendour of your virtuous life.

KING. I thank you all; and, Leicester, I protest,
I will be better than I yet have been.

BRUCE. Of Windsor Castle here the keys I yield.

KING. Thanks, Bruce: forgive me, and I pray thee see
Thy mother and thy brother buried
[BRUCE _offers to kiss_ MATILDA.
In Windsor Castle church. Do, kiss her cheek:
Weep thou on that, on this side I will weep.

QUEEN. Chaste virgin, thus I crown thee with these flowers.

KING. Let us go on to Dunmow with this maid:
Among the hallow'd nuns let her be laid.
Unto her tomb a monthly pilgrimage
Doth King John vow, in penance for this wrong.

Go forward, maids; on with Matilda's hearse,
And on her tomb see you engrave this verse.

"Within this marble monument doth lie
Matilda, martyr'd for her chastity."

[_Exeunt_.

EPILOGUS.

Thus is Matilda's story shown in act,
And rough-hewn out by an uncunning hand:
Being of the most material points compact,
That with the certain'st state of truth do stand.

FINIS.

CONTENTION BETWEEN LIBERALITY AND PRODIGALITY.

_EDITION_

_A Pleasant Comedie, shewing the contention betweene Liberalitie and
Prodigalitie. As it was playd before her Maiestie. London Printed by
Simon Stafford for George Vincent, and are to be sold at the signs of
the Hand in hand in Wood-street over against S. Michaels Church_.
1602. 4to.

The copy of this play in the Garrick collection appears to be the only
one known, and from that source it is now for the first time reprinted.
Mr Collier (Hist Engl. Dram. Poetr., ii, 318) points out that there is
internal evidence, from the allusion to the 43d year of Queen Elizabeth,
that the production was performed before her Majesty in 1600; and it
seems likely that it was a revival of a more ancient piece. The writer
just quoted remarks that a play, called "Prodigality," was exhibited at
Court in 1568 (ibid. note). Philips, author of the "Theatrum Poetarum,"
in assigning it to Greene, followed either some tradition of the time or
his own whim; but he is not a trustworthy authority; and his article on
Greene is assuredly as puerile and absurd a performance as could be
imagined.

In the prologue, the writer refers to _childish years_, presumably his
own, and perhaps the "Contention" was a youthful effort. Moreover, from
the (not ve