They
have shown once and for all that Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday,
Warner, Wilkinson, and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our
author for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content myself
with noticing two or three writers, tainted with euphuism, who have been
generally overlooked, and who seem to me important enough, either in
themselves, or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to
receive attention.

[61] Jusserand, ch. IV.

[62] Bond, vol. I. pp. 164-175.

The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed his well-known
_Spanish Tragedy_ between 1584 and 1589, that is at the height of the
euphuistic fashion. This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to
the Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists are
innumerable. One passage must have been particularly famous, for we find
it parodied most elaborately by Field, as late as 1606, in his _A Woman
is a Weathercock_[63]. The passage in question, which was obviously
inspired by Lyly, runs as follows:

"Yet might she love me for my valiance:
I, but that's slandered by captivity.
Yet might she love me to content her sire:
I, but her reason masters her desire.
Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:
I, but her hopes aim at some other end.
Yet might she love me to uprear her state:
I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.
Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:
I, but I feare she cannot love at all."

[63] Act I. Sc. II.

Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense is so amusing
that I cannot forbear quoting it. This time the despairing lover is Sir
Abraham Ninny, who quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry
of "Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of parody, which must
have been keenly enjoyed by the audience. Field improves on the original
by putting the alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's
jesting friends. It runs, therefore:

"--Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.
--Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.
--Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.
--Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.
--Yet might she love me for my proper body.
--Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.
--Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.
--Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.
--Yet might she love me in despite of all.
(the lady