, who had the folly to "mis-term all our poets and
writers about London, _piperly make-plays_ and _make-bates_,"
as Nash informs us; "hence Greene being chief agent to the
company, for he writ more than four other, took occasion to
canvass him a little,--about some seven or eight lines, which
hath plucked on an invective of so many leaves."--ED.

[88] Nash was a great favourite with the wits of his day. One calls
him "our true English Aretine," another, "Sweet satyric Nash,"
a third describes his Muse as "armed with a gag-tooth (a
tusk), and his pen possessed with Hercules's furies." He is
well characterised in "The Return from Parnassus."

"His style was witty, tho' he had some gall;
Something he might have mended, so may all;
Yet this I say, that for _a mother's wit_,
Few men have ever seen the like of it."

Nash abounds with "Mother-wit;" but he was also educated at
the University, with every advantage of classical studies.

[89] _Bombast_ was the tailors' term in the Elizabethan era for the
stuffing of horsehair or wool used for the large breeches then
in fashion; hence the term was applied to high-sounding
phrases--"all sound and fury, signifying nothing."--ED.

[90] These were the loose heavy breeches so constantly worn by Swiss
soldiers as to become a national costume, and which has been
handed down to us by the artists of the day in a variety of
forms. They obtained the name of _galeaze_, from their
supposed resemblance to the broad-bottomed ship called a
galliass.--ED.

[91] A cade is 500 herrings; a great quantity of an article of no
value.

[92] Harvey's love of dress, and desire to indulge it cheaply, is
satirically alluded to by Nash, in confuting Harvey's
assertion that Greene's wardrobe at his death was not worth
more than three shillings--"I know a broker in a spruce
leather jerkin shall give you thirty shillings for the doublet
alone, if you can help him to it. Hark in your ear! he had a
very fair cloak, with sleeves of a goose green, it would serve
you as fine as may be. No more words; if you be wise, play the
good husband, and listen after it, you may buy it ten
shillings better cheap than it cost him. By St. Si