the wood-cut of the Courtier and
the Countryman (copied with the greatest precision from the London
impression of 1592) is much worn and blurred. The title-page runs as
follows, and the name of Robert Greene is rendered obvious upon it for the
sake of its attraction:--

"Een Seer vermakelick Proces tusschen Fluweele-Broeck ende
Laken-Broeck. Waer in verhaldt werdt het misbruyck van de meeste deel
der Menschen. Gheshreven int Engelsch door Robert Greene, ende nu int
Neder-landtsch overgheset. Wederom oversien."

At the back of this title is printed a short address from the translator to
the _Edele ende welghesinde Leser_, which states little more than that the
original had been received from England, and concludes with the subsequent
quatrain:--

"Ghemerckt dit Dal vol van ydelheyt
Soo lachet vrij als Democritus dede:
Doch zy gheraeckt met vvat Barmherticheyt:
Als Heraclyt, bevveen ons qualen mede."

The spelling and punctuation are the same as in the original, and the body
of the tract follows immediately:

"Staende eens smorghens op van eene onrustige nacht rust, ende vindende
mijn ghemoet noch wat onstelt, gingh ick wandelen nae de vermacklyche
velden, om mijn Gheest wat te vermacken, dan wesende noch in een
Melancholijcke humeur, seer eensaem sonder eenighe gheselschap, worde
ick seer slaperich: alsoo dat ick droomde. Dat iek een Dal sach wel
verceirt, &c."

As few of your readers will have the means of referring to the original
English, I quote Greene's opening words from an edition of 1592:--

"It was just at that time when the Cuckoulds quirister began to bewray
Aprill, Gentlemen, with his never-changed notes, that I, damped with a
melancholy humor, went into the fields to cheere up my wits with the
fresh aire: where solitarie seeking to solace my selfe, I fell in a
dreame, and in that drowsie slumber I wandered into a vale, &c."

The Dutch version fills thirty-two closely printed pages, and ends with the
succeeding literal translation of Greene's last sentence:--

"Tot dese Sententie (aldus by de Ridder ghepronuncieert) alle de
omstaende Stemde daer toe, ende klapten in haere handen, ende maeckte
een groot geluyde, waer door eck waeker worde, ende schoot uyt mynen
Droom, soo stout ick op, ende met een vrolijck ghemoet, gingh ick
schryven, al her gene, dat ghy hier ghehoort hebt."

The above is one of the few books