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"been printed together in a volume, and might perhaps when time was, be in very good requeft, namely, Endymion, The Woman in "the Moon, Midas, Mother Boniby, Galatea, Sapho and Phao, Comedies, a Warning for "fair Women."

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JOHN LILLY or LYLIE, was born in the wilds of Kent about 1553, was educated at Oxford, 1569-A. B. 1573. A. M. 1575. On fome difguft he removed to Cambridge, whence he went to Court, and attracting the notice of Q. Elizabeth, had fome expectations of the poft of master of the Revels, but was disappointed. It is not known when he died, but he was living in 1597. reputed," fays Wood,t" a rare poet, witty, comical, and facetious." The following is the correct list of his plays.

"He was

I. Alexander and Campafpe, a Tragi Com. 4to. 1584. II. Endimion, Com. 4to. 1591. III. Sappho and Phaon, Com. 4to. 1591. IV. Galatea, Com. 4to. 1592. V. Mydas, Com. 4to, 1592. VI. Mother Bombye, Com. 4to. 1594. VII. Woman in the Moon, Com. 4to. 1597. VIII. Maid her Metamorphofis, 4to, 1600 IX. Love his Metamorphofis, Dram. Paft. 4to.

*William Lilly, the grammarian, was a native of Odiam, in Hampfhire, and died 1532. † Ath. I. p. 295.

1601.-Six of these were reprinted in Oct. 1632, by Henry Blount, Efq. (who was afterwards knighted*) under the title of "Court-Comedies." Befides thefe plays, Lilly was author of

Euphues and his England; containing his voyage and adventures, mixed with fundry. pretty difcourfes of honeft love, the description of the country, the court, and the manner of that ifle," &c. Lond. 1580, and 82, in two parts, in a large 8vo.-1597, 4to. 1606, 1636, 4to.t "Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit, or the Delights of Wit in Youth, &c." Lond. 1581. 4to. corrected and amended, Lond, 1606, 1623, 1630, 4to. This was confidered as an attempt to reform and purify the English language. For Blount fays, " Our nation are in his debt for a new English, which he taught them: Euphues and his England, began first that language; all our ladies were his fcholars; and that beauty at court which could not parley Euphuifme (that is to fay) who was unable to converse in that pure and reformed English, which he had formed his work to be the ftandard

Could this be Sir Henry Blount of Tittenhanger, the traveller and author of a "Voyage to the Levant," who was knighted 1639 ? Cibber, on what authority I know not, calls him "Mr. Blount, a gentleman who has made himself known to the world by feveral pieces of his own writing, as "Horæ Subfeciva," his "Microcofmography,” &c.—Cibb, Lives. I. p. 110, † Tanner, p. 493.

of,

of, was as little regarded as fhe which now there Speaks not French." But notwithstanding this praise, the work is faid to be written in an unnatural and affected jargon, which corrupted the language of the age with miserable pedantries.*+

THOMAS NASH.

1

"Thomas Nafh, one of those that may ferve "to fill up the catalogue of English Dramatic "Writers: his mention'd Comedies are "Sum"mer's laft Will and Teftament," and "See me and See me not."

NASH was a native of Leoftoff in Suffolk : he was educated at St. John's College, where he became A.B. 1585. It appears probable by the spirit and sentiments of his " Pierce Pennylefs," that he afterwards met with fevere disappointments in the world, which from the character of his comrade Greene, it is most likely,

*See Cibb. Lives, ut fupr. and Biog. Dram. I. p. 290. † Lilly wrote alfo against Martin Marprelate, the "Preface to Mr. Thomas Watson's paffionate Century of Love." Tann. p. 493.

a ftrange mistake, has placed Nash in the reign of Charles I.

Cibber by

arofe

arofe from his own indifcretions. He is fupposed to have died about 1600. Wood fays, he was a great fcoffer, and the antagonist* of Gabriel Harvey, with whom he was engaged in a moft virulent paper war, particularly in his tract entitled, "Have with you to SaffronWalden." The proper titles of his Dramatic Performances are, I. Dido, Queen of Carthage.+ Trag. 4to. 1594. II. Summer's laft Will and Teftament, Com. 4to. 1600. III. The Ife of Dogs, Com. not published. In the latter period of his life, he published a pamphlet, called, "Chrift's Tears over Jerufalem,” in which he laments his former courfes. From an extract from his "Pierce Penny lefs," in Cibber's Lives, it would feem as if he wrote with confiderable ease, harmony, and energy: but Malone fays, that" of all the writers of the age of Queen Elizabeth, Nafhe is the moft licentious in his language; perpetually distorting words from their primitive fignification, in a manner often puerile and ridiculous, but more frequently incomprehenfible and abfurd. His profe-works, if they were collected together, would perhaps exhibit a greater farrago of unintelligible jargon, than is to be found in the productions of any author, ancient or modern."+

Faft. I. p. 128. † Affifted by Marlow. Steevens's Shakip. 1778, pref. 225.

GABRIEL.

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GABRIEL HARVEY was rather a Latin than an English poet: but there is mention of his English Hexameters,' "in his correfpondence with Spenfer, of whom he was an intimate friend. He was a native of Saffron-Walden in Effex; his father, according to Nash, having been a rope-maker there. He was first educated at Chrift College, Cambridge, and afterwards a Fellow of Trinity-Hall, where he had the character of an excellent orator and poet and in his elder years he applied to aftrology, in which he attained to much celebrity. It was in his "Advertisement for Pap-hatchet and Martin Marprelate," that he trampled on Greene's memory, which brought him under the rod of T. Nash. He is fuppofed to be the fame Gabriel Harvey, LL. D. who died in 1630, when he must have been nearly 90 years old.†

Letters at the end of Spenfer's poems, printed for Tonson, 1750, Duod. vol. VI. p. 305. "I like your English Haxameters fo well," fays Spenfer," that I alfo enure my pen fometimes in that kind," &c.-See alfo p. 310.

+ Wood's Faft. I. p. 128, 129. Tann. Bibl. p. 383.

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