Wood affures us, that there were feveral other dramatick piece by him, which he did not live to finish; and that it was the opinion of many, he would have run mad had he continued to exercise his talents as a writer for the stage.

He was, alfo, the Author of

Some Poems printed in The Paradife of Dainty Deviles, 4to, 1575. and a Poem called, Edward's Soulknil; or, The Soule's knell: written in his laft illness.

He appears to have obtained a confiderable reputation as a dramatick writer, which will appear from the following teftimony in Puttenham's Art of Poetry: "I think that for

Tragedy the Lord Buckhurst and Maifter Edward Ferrys, "for fuch doings as I have feen of theirs, do deferve the "higheft price; the Earl of Oxford, and Mr. Edwards of her "Majesty's Chapel, for Comedy and Interlude." An Epitaph on him is faid to be printed among the Poems of George Turberville.

THE

PROLOGUE,

ON everie fyde, wheras I glaunce my roying eye,
Silence in all eares bent I playnly doe efpie:

But if your egre lookes doo longe fuch toyes to fee,
As heretofore in commycal wife were wont abroade to bee:
Your luft is loft, and all the pleasures that you fought,

Is fruftrate quite of toying playes. A foden change is wrought:
For loe, our author's mufe, that masked in delight,

Hath forft his penne against his kinde2, no more such sportes to write. Mufe he that luft, (right worshipfull) for chaunce hath made this change,

For that to fome he feemed too much in yonge defires to range:
In whiche, right glad to please, feyng that he did offende,
Of all be humblie pardon craves: bis pen that shall amende :
And yet (worshipfull audience) thus much I dare advouche,
In commedies, the greatest skyll is this, rightly to touche
All thynges to the quicke: and eke to frame eche person so,
That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know:
A royfter ought not preache, that were to ftrange to heare,
But as from vertue he doth fwerve, so ought his wordes appeare:

Z kinde,] See p. 110.

The

The olde man is fober, the yonge man rafhe, the lover triumphyng

in joyes, The matron grave, the harlot wilde, and full of wanton toyes. Whiche all in one courfe, they no wife doo

agree:

So correfpondent to their kinde their speeches ought to be.

Which peeches well pronounfte, with action lyvely framed,
If this offende the lookers on, let Horace then be blamed,
Which bath our author taught at fchole, from whom he doth
not swarve,

In all fuch kinds of exercise decorum to obferve.

Thus much for his defence (he fayth) as poetes earft have donne,
Which heretofore in commodies, the felfe fame rafe did ronne :
But now for to be briefe, the matter to expresse,
Which here wee shall present, is this: Damon and Pithias.
A rare enfample of frend/hip true, it is no legend lie,
But a thynge once donne indeede, as hyftories doo diferie.
Whiche donne of yore in longe time past, yet present shall be here,
Even as it were in doinge now, fo lively it fhall appeare:

Lo here in Siracufe th' auncient towne, which once the Romaines

Wonne,

Here Dionifuus pallace, within whofe courte this thing moft ftrange was donne.

Which matter mixt with myrth and care, a juft name to applie,
As feemes moft fit, wee have it termed, a tragicall commedie.
Wherein talkyng of courtly toyes, we doe proteft this flat,
Wee talke of Dionifius courte, avee meane no court but that.
And that we doo jo meane, who wyfely calleth to minde

The time, the place, the author 3, bere moft plainely shall it finde. Loe this I fpeake 4 for our defence, least of others we should be fhent 5:

But worthy audience, wee you pray, take thynges as they be ment;

3 author, authours, 1ft. edit. 4 jpeake] fpake, 2d. edit. 5 be fhent] To fhend, fays treat with injurious language.

Whofe

Mr. Steevens, is to reprove harshly, to
Note to Hamlet, A. 3. S. 2.

Whofe upright judgement we doo crave, with heedfull eare and eye, To here the caufe, and fee the effect of this newe tragicall commedie.

Again, in Afcham's Report and Difcourfe. Bennet's Edition, p. 38.: "A wonderfull follie in a great man himselfe, and fome piece of miferie "in a whole commonwealth, where fooles chiefly and flatterers may fpeake freely what they will, and wife men and good men thal commonly be fhent, if they fpeake what they should.

NAMES

STEPHANO, fervant to DAMON and PITHIAS.

WILL, ARISTIPPUS lackey.

JACKE, CARISOPHUS lackey.
SNAP, the porter.

DIONISIUS, the kynge.

EUBULUS, the kinge's counfelour,

GRONNO, the hangman.

GRIMME, the colyer,

DAMON