A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) | Page 3

submissive amends where I most displeased; not basely
fear-blasted, or constraintively overruled, but purely pacificatory:
suppliant for reconciliation and pardon do I sue to the principallest of
them 'gainst whom I professed utter enmity; even of Master Doctor
Harvey I heartily desire the like, whose fame and reputation (through
some precedent injurious provocations and fervent excitements of
young heads) I rashly assailed: yet now better advised, and of his
perfections more confirmedly persuaded, unfeignedly I entreat of the
whole world from my pen his worth may receive no impeachment. All
acknowledgments of abundant scholarship, courteous, well-governed
behaviour, and ripe, experienced judgment do I attribute to him."
We have already seen with what malignity Harvey trampled upon the

corpse of Greene, and he received this apology of Nash in a
corresponding spirit; for instead of accepting it, in his "New Letter of
Notable Contents," 1593, he rejects it with scorn: "Riotous vanity (he
replies) was wont to root so deeply that it could hardly be unrooted;
and where reckless impudency taketh possession, it useth not very
hastily to be dispossessed. What say you to a spring of rankest villainy
in February, and a harvest of ripest divinity in May? But what should
we hereafter talk any more of paradoxes or impossibilities, when he
that penned the most desperate and abominable pamphlet of 'Strange
News,' and disgorged his stomach of as poisonous rancour as ever was
vomited in print, within few months is won, or charmed, or enchanted,
(or what metamorphosis should I term it?) to astonish carnal minds
with spiritual meditations," &c. Such a reception of well-intended and
eloquently-written amends was enough to make Nash repent even his
repentance, as far as Gabriel Harvey was concerned.[15]
Of the popularity of Nash as a writer some notion may be formed from
a fact he himself mentions in his "Have with you to Saffron Walden,"
that between 1592, when his "Pierce Penniless, his Supplication to the
Devil" was first printed, and 1596 it "passed through the pikes of at
least six impressions." How long his reputation as a satirist survived
him may be judged from the fact that in 1640 Taylor the Water Poet
published a tract, which had for its second title "Tom Nash, his Ghost
(the old Martin queller), newly rouz'd:" and in _Mercurius
Anti-pragmaticus_, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, 1647, is the following
passage: "Perhaps you will be angry now, and when you steal forth
disguised, in your next intelligence thunder forth threatenings against
me, and be as satirical in your language as ever was your predecessor
Nash, who compiled a learned treatise in the praise of a red herring."
Only two plays in which Nash had any concern have come down to us:
his "Isle of Dogs," before noticed, was probably never printed, or at all
events it is not now known to exist. He wrote alone--
(1.) A pleasant Comedy called "Summer's Last Will and Testament."
1600. 4to.
In conjunction with Marlowe he produced--
(2.) "The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage," played by the children
of her Majesty's chapel. 1594. 4to.
Phillips, in his "Theatrum Poetarum," also assigned to Nash, "See me,

and see me not," a comedy, which may be a different play, and not, as
has been generally supposed, "Hans Beer Pot;" because, the name of
the author, Dawbridgecourt Belchier, being subscribed to the
dedication, such a mistake could not easily be made.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
WILL SUMMER. VER. SUMMER. AUTUMN. WINTER.
CHRISTMAS, | Sons to WINTER. BACKWINTEB. | SOL.
SOLSTITIUM. VERTUMNUS. ORION. BACCHUS. HARVEST.
SATIRES. NYMPHS. Three CLOWNS. Three MAIDS. HUNTERS.
REAPERS. MORRIS DANCERS. BOY to speak the Epilogue.

SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.[16]
Enter WILL SUMMER,[17] _in his fool's coat but half on, coming
out_.
Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.[18] There is no such fine
time to play the knave in as the night. I am a goose or a ghost, at least;
for what with turmoil of getting my fool's apparel, and care of being
perfect, I am sure I have not yet supp'd to-night. Will Summer's ghost I
should be, come to present you with "Summer's Last Will and
Testament." Be it so; if my cousin Ned will lend me his chain and his
fiddle. Other stately-pac'd Prologues use to attire themselves within: I
that have a toy in my head more than ordinary, and use to go without
money, without garters, without girdle, without hat-band, without
points to my hose, without a knife to my dinner, and make so much use
of this word without in everything, will here dress me without. Dick
Huntley[19] cries, Begin, begin: and all the whole house, For shame,
come away; when I had my things but now brought me out of the
laundry. God forgive me, I did not see my Lord before!