At sight whereof he suddenly start up, James. I'll tell you Sir, one more to quit your tale: A woman that had made away her husband, At Lynn a town in Norfolk, Acted by players travelling that way, Wherein a woman that had murthered her's And acted by a good tragedian, She was so moved with the sight thereof, That she cried out,-the play was made for her,And openly confest her husband's murder. Barnes, However their's, Gods name be praised for this! You Master Mayor I see must to the court, I pray you do my duty to the Lords. Mayor. That will I Sir. James. Come, I'll go along with you. TRAGEDY enters to conclude. (Exeunt.) Tragedy. Here are the launces that have sluic'd forth sin, I have committed error in my play. It remains now to say a few words respecting the following pages. They were undertaken, by the present writer, in conjunction with an old and much valued Friend, whose state of health and more important avocations, prevented him from bearing the part in it which he at first proposed, and the work has suffered materially in consequence. Thus much to explain the use of the plural pronoun, which without this explanation, might seem to be an affectation. No small number of books have been consulted in the compilation of these pages, a far greater number indeed than by the scanty fruits may appear. The compiler claims the merit of having taken nothing upon trust; he has read carefully all the works which he could procure of the several writers upon whose merits he has ventured to pass an opinion, and that opinion has in every instance been his own, whatever may be said of its justice or correctness, The orthography has been modernized throughout to fit the work for general readers; and the lines have been arranged according to the rhyme. No other liberties have been taken with the extracts, except where, in a few instances, obvious incorrectness in the printing or punctuation demanded to be put right. To his Friend above alluded to, the Writer is under the greatest obligation for the use of books, for procuring him the loan of books, and introducing him to various sources of original information. His thanks are also due to the Very Rev. the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, for permission to examine a manuscript poem in their library; to the Rev. H. J. Todd for the loan of a scarce poem by the Rev. Thomas Curteis, and other books from his library; to Messrs. Longman and Co. Booksellers, for the loan of scarce and valuable books from their extensive collections; to Miss Duncombe of Canterbury, in an especial manner, for communications respecting Dr. Hawkesworth, the Rev. John Duncombe, Mrs. Duncombe, and Mr. William Jackson; to Mrs. Lukyn, of Canterbury, for the use of some manuscript poems, by Mr. William Jackson; and to Mrs. May of Herne, near Canterbury, for correct copies of some poems written, and published incorrectly, by her late brother Mr. James Six. To those who, knowing the compiler's professional employments, may be inclined to censure him for supposed neglect of his more serious "calling" for the "idle trade" of authorship, upon a subject which they may deem light and trifling, he might reply, if there were not a tinge of vanity it, in the words of the poet, "" neque semper arcum Tendit APOLLO :". he has, however, another quotation at hand, and with that, as it exactly suits his case, he will take his leave. "Forsitan hoc studium possit furor esse videri: (Ovid. Trist. Lib. IV. Eleg. 1.) Haply my love of vefse may fully seem: |