e
cudgels for himself and his two brothers.

[12] The death of Nash is spoken of in the address to a tract, which is
the more curious, as it forms a second part to "Pierce Penniless." It
has been assigned to Decker, under the title of "News from Hell;" [and
it was reprinted under the title of "A Knight's Conjuring." This issue
is included in the Percy Society's series.]

[13] [See the list, however, in "Ath. Cantab.," ii. 307-9, and in
Hazlitt's "Handbook," in v.]

[14] In 1589 Nash wrote the address prefixed to Robert Greene's
"Menaphon," which contains notices of various preceding and contemporary
poets, and which has been admired by all but Mr Malone, for the general
purity of its style and the justness of its criticism. As Nash was born
in November 1567, he was only in his twenty-second year when it was
published.

[15] Parts of "Pierce Penniless, his Supplication to the Devil," are
written by Nash in a similar strain of bitter grief for past errors,
especially a poem inserted near the commencement. [As to Nash's
withdrawal of his apology, see Hazlitt in v.]

"Why is't damnation to despair and die
When life is my true happiness' disease?
My soul! my soul! thy safety makes me fly
The faulty means that might my pain appease.
Divines and dying men may talk of hell,
But in my heart her several torments dwell.

"Ah, worthless wit, to train me to this woe!
Deceitful arts that nourish discontent.
Ill thrive the folly that bewitch'd me so,
Vain thoughts, adieu, for now I will repent.
And yet my wants persuade me to proceed,
Since none takes pity of a scholar's need."

The last two lines of the first stanza are given to the Father in
"The Yorkshire Tragedy," attributed to Shakespeare.

[16] This play (if it do not more properly come under the class of
_shews_, as Nash himself calls it) was not printed until 1600; but
internal evidence proves that it was written, and probably performed, as
early as the autumn of 1592. Various decisive marks of time are pointed
out in notes in the course of the play, the principal of which are, the
great drought, the progress of Queen Elizabeth to Oxford, and the
breaking out of the plague. The piece was presented at Croydon, at the
residence of some nobleman, who is mentioned in many places. The
theatres in London were closed at this date in consequence of the
mortality. (See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, in. 299, note).