in poetry. Unless we make allowance for his antiquity, the expression will appear hyperbolical; but, with that allowance, we may justly cherish the memory of Peele as the oldest genuine dramatic poet of our language." This is inaccurate. Sackville is surely a dramatic poet; so, too, is Marlowe. Neither is there justice in the assertion, that "David and Bathseba is the earliest fountain of pathos and harmony in our dramatic poetry." There is harmony, at least, in Marlowe; and we know not that in pathos Peele is superior to Greene. His great excellence is sweetness of versification and delicacy of language: his imagery, too, is more natural than that of any preceding tragic poet.

Besides the five dramas we have mentioned, Peele wrote two entertainments for the amusement of the citizens. They are merely pageants, and though they have fancy to recommend them, they will not be read with the slightest interest.

13. John Lyly*, (1553-1601) obtained more fame than his merits deserved, from the affectation which he introduced into the language of the period. His Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit, and its continuation, Euphues and his England, had a prodigious vogue: to be unacquainted with the absurd mode of speech was as disgraceful in that day as ignorance of French would be in our own. Of the author's personal history we know little. He was born in the Weald of Kent, about 1553; for in 1569 he became a student of Magdalen, being, says Anthony à Wood, "sixteen or thereabouts." Four years afterwards he took his bachelor's degree; and somewhat earlier than the usual date, he proceeded master. What caused him to leave Oxford for the sister university, is unknown; we are vaguely informed that it was some disgust;" but more probably it was some irregularity

66

From Wood's Athenæ Oxoniensis, by Bliss; from Blount's Censura Celebriorum Auctorum; from Baker's Biographia Dramatica; from Dodsley's Old Plays; from Payne Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry;

The first six were republished by Blount, in 1632, under the title "Sixe

Diogenes. No.

Alexander. Why so?

Diogenes. Because they be no gods.

Alexander. They be gods of the earth.

Diogenes. Yea, gods of the earth.

Alexander. Plato is not of thy mind.

Diogenes. I am glad of it.

Alexander. Why?

See the Sketch of Greene.

and rancorously-malignant writer continued to bear him. Like Greene, he repented of his follies, and professed his desire to live in peace with all men; and, like Greene, he obtained, from that bitter enemy, insults instead of credit. In one of the most affecting of his compositions, one in which he is evidently anxious to inculcate repentance and piety, and which he entitles Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, - he expresses his sincere contrition for the offence which he may have given to any man.

"Nothing is there now so much in my vows as to be at peace with all men, and make submissive amends where I most displeased; not basely fear-blasted, or constraintively over-ruled, but purely pacificatory: suppliant for reconciliation and pardon, do I sue to the principallest of them 'gainst whom I professed utter enmity; even of Master Doctor Harvey I heartily desire the like, whose fame and reputation (through some precedent injurious provocations and fervent excitements of young heads) I rashly assailed: yet, now better advised, and of his perfections more confirmedly persuaded, unfeignedly I entreat of the whole world, from my pen, his worth may receive no impeachment. All acknowledgments of abundant scholarship, courteous, well-governed behaviour, and ripe experienced judgment, do I attribute unto him."

In what manner was this handsome acknowledgment received? In a way characteristic enough of Harvey. "Riotous vanity was wont to root so deeply, that it could hardly be unrooted; and, where reckless impudency taketh possession, it useth not very hastily to be dispossessed. What say you to a spring of rankest villany in February, and a harvest of ripest divinity in May? But why should we hereafter talk any more of paradoxes and impossibilities, when he that penned the most desperate and abominable pamphlet of Strange News, and disgorged his stomack of as poisonous rancour as ever was vomited in print, within four months is won, or charmed, or enchanted (or what metamorphosis should I term it?) to astonish carnal minds with spiritual meditations!"

So, this is the respectable doctor Gabriel Harvey, the friend of Spencer, the well-esteemed by the world, the moral, the sober, the decent! Greene, and Marlowe,