ake a levy of such persons as were bound to assist.

[413] [Old copy, _to_.]

[414] [Old copy, _fasting_.]

[415] [Old copy, _Yes_.]

[416] [Petition.]

[417] [Then, probably, as it certainly was later on, a favourite haunt
of footpads.]

[418] [Pancras.]

[419] [No edition except that of 1662 has yet come to light.]

[420] Nobody who reads this play can doubt that it is much older than
1662, the date borne by the earliest known edition of it. It has every
indication of antiquity, and the title not the least of these. "Grim,
the Collier of Croydon," is a person who plays a prominent character in
the humorous portion of Edwards's "Damon and Pithias," which was printed
in 1571, and acted several years earlier. The Grim of the present play
is obviously the same person as the Grim of "Damon and Pithias," and in
both he is said to be "Collier for the king's own Majesty's mouth."
Chetwood may therefore be right when he states that it was printed in
1599; but perhaps that was not the first edition, and the play was
probably acted before "Damon and Pithias" had gone quite out of memory.
In the office-book of the Master of the Revels, under date of 1576, we
find a dramatic entertainment entered, called "The Historie of the
Colyer," acted by the Earl of Leicester's men; but it was doubtless
Ulpian Fulwell's "Like will to Like, quod the Devil to the Colier,"
printed in 1568. The structure, phraseology, versification, and language
of "Grim, the Collier of Croydon," are sufficient to show that it was
written before 1600: another instance to prove how much the arrangement
of the plays made by Mr Reed was calculated to mislead. Some slight
separate proofs of the age of this piece are pointed out in the new
notes; but the general evidence is much more convincing. The
versification is interlarded with rhymes like nearly all our earlier
plays, and the blank verse is such as was written before Marlowe's
improvements had generally been adopted. When the play was reprinted in
1662, some parts of it were perhaps a little modernised. The
introduction of Malbecco and Paridell into it, from Spenser's "Faerie
Queene," may be some guide as to the period when the comedy was first
produced.--_Collier_. [The play has now, for the first time, been placed
in its true chronological rank.]

[421] See note to "Gammer Gurton's Needle" [iii. 245].

[422] The story of this play is taken in part from Machiavel's
"Belphegor."--_Pegge_.

The exc