monarch before Tournay. He travels to Munfter in Germany, where he falls in with John of Leyden the famous fanatic, and is present at his defeat by the Imperialifts; here he meets Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surry, and accompanies him to Venice, paffing through Wittenberg, where he has an interview with Luther and Carloftadius; from thence he repairs to Rome, where he relates a series of strange adventures, by which he is thrown into the hands of a Jew named Zadock, physician to Pope Clement VIII. and having forfeited his life to him by the law, the Jew gets the person of Jack Wilton in limbo with an intent to anatomize him, and whilft he is dieting and bleeding him for that purpose, the Marchionefs of Mantua, the Pope's mistrefs, fpies him out from her balcony, and being fmitten with his appearance, contrives to get him out of Zadock's hands, by perfuading his holiness to banish all the Jews from Rome and confifcate their effects, upon a charge fhe fets up against them.

With this intelligence Zadock is accosted by a brother Jew called Zachary, "who comes "running to him in fackcloth and ashes, pre

fently after his goods were confifcated, and "tells him how he is ferved and what decree "is coming out against them all."

I have made an extract of this interview be tween Zadock and Zachary, which the reader will obferve by the date was published before Shakespear wrote his Merchant of Venice, and as the critics feem agreed that he was converfant in other works of Nafhe, it is highly probable that this hiftory of Jacke Wilton had also been in his hands: I do not mean to infer that Shakespear took his character of Shylock from this of Nashe's Zadock, for there is nothing that can warrant fuch an inference; but I fhall submit the following dialogue as an extraordinary specimen of strong empaffioned writing, which, though it will not ftand by Shakespear's scene between Shylock and Tubal in dramatic terfeness, has nevertheless a force of expreffion, that will bear a comparison with that or any other paffage in our old dramatic writers.

Zachary having made his report as above, the author thus proceeds to the introduction of his chief speaker-" Descriptions stand by! here is "to be expreffed the fury of Lucifer, when he

.、

was turned over heaven's bar for a wrangler: "There is a toad-fish, which taken out of the “water swells more than one would think his "fkin could hold, and burfts in his face that "touches him; fo fwelled Zadock, and was ready to burst out of his skin, and fhoot his

"bowels

"bowels like chain-fhot full in Zachary's face, " for bringing him fuch baleful tidings; his eyes "glared and burned blue like brimstone and aqua "vitæ fet on fire in an egg-fhell; his very nofe "lightened glow-worms; his teeth cracked and

grated together like the joints of a high build"ing rocking like a cradle, when as a tempest "takes her full-butt against her broadfide: He ❝ swore and curst, and said

"These be they that worship that crucified "God of Nazareth; here is the fruits of their "new-found gofpel; fulphur and gunpowder

carry them all quick to Gehennah! I would "fpend my foul willingly to have this triple"headed Pope, with all his fin-abfolved whores, "and oil-greafed priests, born like a black faint "on the devil's backes in proceffion to the pit "of perdition. Would I might fink presently "into the earth, fo I might blow up this Rome, "this whore of Babylon into the air with my "breath! If I must be banished, if these heathen

dogs will needs rob me of my goods, I will "poifon their springs and conduit- heads, whence "they receive their water all about the city. "I will 'tice all the young children into my * house, that I can get, and cutting their throats, "barrel them up in powdering beef tubs, and so "fend them to victual the Pope's gallies. Ere

"the

"the officers come to extend, I will bestow an "hundred pounds on a dole of bread, which I "will caufe to be kneaded with fcorpion's oil, "that may kill more than the plague. I will "hire them that make their wafers, or facra"mentary Gods, to mix them after the fame. "fort, fo in the zeal of their fuperftitious re"ligion fhall they languish and drop like car"rion. If there be ever a blafphemous con"jurer, that can call the winds from their bra

zen caves, and make the clouds travel before "their time, I will give him the other hundred "pounds to disturb the heavens a whole week "together with thunder and lightning, if it be "for nothing but to fower all the wines in "Rome, and turn them to vinegar: As long as they have either oil or wine, this plague feeds "but pinchingly upon them.'.

"Zadock, Zadock,' faid Zachary, cutting "him off, thou threateneft the air, whilft we "perish here on earth: It is the countess Juli

ana, the Marquis of Mantua's wife, and no "other, that hath complotted our confusion; "afk not how, but infift on my words, and affift " in revenge.'

"As how, as how?' faid Zadock, shrugging "and shrubbing; More happy than the patri"archs were I, if crufht to death with the

"greatest

"greatest torments Rome's tyrants have tried, "there might be quinteffenced out of me one <c quart of precious poison. I have a leg with "an iffue, fhall I cut it off, and from this fount "of corruption extract a venom worse than any "ferpent's? If thou wilt, I will go to a houfe "that is infected, where catching the plague, "and having got a running fore upon me, I "will come and deliver her a fupplication, and "breathe upon her, when I am perfected with more putrefaction."

Zadock in conclufion is taken up and executed, and the defcription of his tortures is terrible in the extreme; every circumstance attending them is minutely delineated in colours full as ftrong as the above,

I perfuade myself the reader will not be difpleafed, if I lay before him one extract more, in which he ridicules the affected drefs and manners of the travelled gentlemen of his day: If we contemplate it as a painting of two hundred years ftanding, I think it must be allowed to be curious fketch.

a very

"What is there in France to be learned "more than in England, but faifehood in friend« ship, perfect flovenry and to love no man, but "for my pleasure? I have known some that have « continued there by the space of half a dozen years,