the date of his
"Lenten Stuff," for G. Harvey, in his "Four Letters," &c., 1592, says:
"I have enquired what speciall cause the pennyless gentleman hath to
brag of his birth, which giveth the woeful poverty good leave, even with
his Stentor's voice, and in his rattling terms, to revive the pitiful
history of Lazarillo de Thormes."

[3] Not of Hertfordshire, a mistake originally made by Shiel in his
"Lives of the Poets," thence copied into Berkenhout's "Biographia
Literaria," and subsequently into the last edition of the "Biographia
Dramatica." [It is copied also by the editor of a reprint of Nash and
Marlowe's "Dido," 1825.]

[4] Sig. Q 4.

[5] "For coming from Venice the last summer, and taking Bergamo in my
way homeward to England, it was my hap, sojourning there some four or
five days, to light in fellowship with that famous _Francattip_
Harlequin, who, perceiving me to be an Englishman by my habit and
speech, asked me many particulars of the order and manner of our plays,
which he termed by the name of representations. Amongst other talk he
enquired of me if I knew any such _Parabolano_ here in London as Signior
_Chiarlatano_ Kempino. 'Very well,' quoth I, 'and have been often in his
company.' He hearing me say so began to embrace me anew, and offered me
all the courtesy he could for his sake, saying although he knew him not,
yet for the report he had heard of his pleasance, he could not but be in
love with his perfections being absent."

Many of Nash's works furnish evidence that he was well acquainted with
Italian poets and writers. Some allusions and translations are pointed
out in the notes to the present reprint of "Summer's Last Will and
Testament."

[6] It is called "A counter-cuff to Martin junior," &c.

[7] It may be doubted whether Greene and Nash did not contribute to
bring the occupation of a _ropemaker_ into discredit. Marston, in his
"_Parasitaster_," printed in 1606, for some reason or other, speaks of
it in terms of great contempt.

"Then must you sit there thrust and contemned, bareheaded to a grogram
scribe, ready to start up at the door creaking, prest to get in, with
your leave sir, to some surly groom, _the third son of a ropemaker_."

[8] There is a MS. poem in the Brit. Mus. (Bibl. Sloan. 1489) entitled
"The Trimming of Tom Nash," written in metre-ballad verse, but it does
not relate to our author, though written probably not very long after
1600, and though the title is evidently bo