us to form an opinion one way or the other: the following is from the body of the tract. "These

two cursed caitifes of the seede of Chanaan southing one another in this deuilish imagination, concluded when they might finde hir alone to sucke the bloude of this innocent lambe, and with most detestable villanie to assaile the simple minde of this sillie Susanna. Persisting therefore in this hellish purpose, manie daies were not passed ere they spied fit oportunitie (as they thought) to obtaine their desire, for the season being very hot and the tender bodie of Susanna being sore parched with heate, she supposing that none of hir housholde, much lesse anie stranger had bin in the garden, went in as hir vse was with two maidens, onlie thinking there secretlie to washe hirselfe, and seing the coast cleere and hirself solitarily said thus vnto them: bring me quoth she oyle and sope wherewith to washe, and see that you shut the doores surelie. The maidens, carefullie obaieng their mistresse commande, shut the garden gates and went out themselues at à backe doore to fet what their mistresse had willed them, not seeing the elders because they were hid, who no sooner sawe the maidens gone, and Susanna a fit pray for their filthy purpose, but they rose vp and run vnto hir." My design in reading this passage, is only to show that Greene purposely let slip the opportunity of giving a luxurious or exciting description of Susanna, and that this tract is very

far from what you hinted it might be. However illgoverned Greene might be in his life and manners, most of his writings are calculated to warn others of the dangers he had not been able to shun.

ELLIOT. As you have finished your quotation, we may proceed with "Dorastus and Fawnia."

MORTON. Have you ever seen a copy of it printed in 1588?

BOURNE. Never; those dated before 1600 are all very difficult to be procured: indeed I never saw a copy of it sold, let the date be what it would, under several guineas. I have fortunately two, one of them dated in 1636, and the other as late as 1694, and I have seen a third printed as recently, I think, as 1724. Observe on the title-page of this edition of 1694 there is a curious wood-cut, containing a summary of the history, like the plates to Orlando Furioso. In the distance, as far as distance is preserved in so rude a representation, is the sea, with a boat and child upon it; on one side, but more in front, is a shepherdess tending her flock; and in the fore-ground the hero in armour, and heroine in a court dress, holding each other by the hand. The edition of 1636, which is the most valuable, has no such ornament, and bears the following title: "The Pleasant Historie of Dorastus and Fawnia. Wherein is discovered, that although by the meanes of sinister Fortune, Truth may be concealed, yet by Time, in spight of Fortune, it is manifestly revealed. Pleasant

for age to avoyd drowsie thoughts, Profitable for Youth to avoyd other wanton Pastimes, And bringing to both a desired Content. Temporis filia Veritas. By Robert Greene, Master of Arts in Cambridge. Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci." London, &c. 1636.

MORTON. The edition of 1694, I observe, omits a part of that title, in order to make room for the barbarous wood-cut. I also perceive at the back of the title-page of 1694, a poem which is not in the copy of 1636.

BOURNE. It is not, and you will find that the lines are not contemptible. I suppose the printer in 1636 did not think it worth while to insert them, though it is unquestionably an important omission.

MORTON. I will read them: they are called,

"Dorastus in Loue-passion, Writes these few lines in praise of his louing and best-beloued Fawnia." "Ah, were she pitifull as she is fair,

or but as mild as she is seeming so,

Then were my hopes greater than my despair, then all the World were Heauen, nothing Woe.

Ah, were her Heart relenting as her Hand,

that seems to melt euen with the mildest touch, Then knew I where to seat me in a Land,

under wide Heauens; but yet not such,

So as she shows: she seems the budding Rose yet sweeter far than is an Earthly flower:

Souereign of Beauty! like the Spray she grows
compass'd she is with Thorns and cankered flower.
Yet were she willing to be pluck'd and worn
She would be gathered though she grew on Thorn.

"Ah when she sings, all Musick else be still,
for none must be compared to her Note:
Ne'er breath'd such Glee from Philomelas Bill,
nor from the Morning-singers swelling Throat:
Ah, when she riseth from her blissfull Bed

she comforts all the World as doth the Sun, And at her sight the Nights foul Vapours fled; when she is set the gladsome day is done. O glorious Sun! imagine me the West, Shine in my arms and set thou in my Breast!"

MORTON. You said the lines were not contemptible; the last stanza is very rich and harmonious, and the whole is an elegant composition, with some very graceful turns.

ELLIOT. You over-rate it: it is good, but not quite so transcendent as you seem to think it. The two last lines are somewhat in Sir Richard Blackmore's vein.

MORTON. You may be right, but whether right or wrong, I should not be inclined just now to contest the matter. I perceive that Greene gives us two mottos on the title-page of 1636: which did he usually adopt? Gascoigne, we know, had Tam Marti tam Mercurio, and Whetstone Malgré la Fortune.

BOURNE. Omne tulit punctum, &c. was Greene's ordinary motto to his early publications; but upon this point there is a singular letter by him prefixed to his "Perimedes the Black-Smith," 1588, from which you will not have forgotten that I formerly quoted two specimens of blank verse: it is a very curious epistle, as it relates to Greene's publications, friends and enemies: I will read it before I make a few quotations from "Dorastus and Fawnia." It is addressed" to the Gentlemen Readers Health," and is in these terms: "Gentlemen I dare not step awrye from my wonted method, first to appeale to your fauorable courtesies, which euer I haue found (howsoeuer plawsible) yet smothered with a milde silence: the small pamphlets that I haue thrust forth how you haue regarded them I know not, but that they haue been badly rewarded with any ill tearmes I neuer found, which makes me the more bold to trouble you and the more bound to rest yours euerye waie, as euer I haue done: I keepe my old course to palter vp something in Prose vsing mine old poesie still Omne tulit punctum, although lately two Gentlemen Poets made two mad men of Rome beate it out of their paper bucklers, and had it in derision, for that I could not make my verses iet vpon the stage in tragicall buskins, euerie worde filling the mouth like the faburden of Bo-Bell, daring God out of heauen with that Atheist Tamburlan, or blaspheming with the mad preest of the sonne."