A

SELECT COLLECTION

OF

OLD PLAY S.

IN TWELVE VOLUMES.

VOL. V.

A NEW EDITION:

WITH

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS,

BY THE LATE

ISAAC REED, OCTAVIUS GILCHRIST,

AND THE EDITOR.

LONDON:

SEPTIMUS PROWETT, 23, OLD BOND STREET.

M.DCCC.XXV.

GEORGE WILKINS, like many other minor poets of his time, hath had no memorials concerning him transmitted to us. He wrote no Play alone, except that which is here reprinted; but he joined with John Day and William Rowley, in The Travels of the Three English Brothers, Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Sir Robert Shirley, an Historical Play, printed in 4to, 1607. He was also the Author of Three Miseries of Barbary, Plague, Famine, Civill Warre. 4to. B. L. No date.*

Catalogue of the Library of John Hutton. House, 1764, p. 121.

Sold at Essex

* The whole title of the tract, which Mr. Reed does not appear to have seen, as he quotes it only from a sale catalogue, is as follows:

"Three Miseries of Barbary-Plague, Famine, Civill Warre: with a relation of the death of Mahamet the late Emperour; and a brief report of the now present wars between the three brothers. Printed by W. J. for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold in Paternoster Rowe, at the signe of the Sunne."

It is without date, and the name of the author, Geo. Wilkins, is subscribed to a dedication, "To the right worshipfull the whole Company of Barbary Merchants." The tract is written in an ambitious stile, and the descriptions are often striking; but there is nothing but the similarity of name to connect it with The Miseries of Inforced Marriage. C.