iii. 108), where, referring to the play, he cites thus:--

"Well done, Balthazar, hang up the tilt"--instead of "hang up the title." He thus lost a material passage, to show that of old a board was hung up on the stage with the title and scene of the piece--

"Hang up the _title_; Our scene is Rhodes."

So also in "Wily Beguil'd" 1606--

"PROLOGUE. How now, my honest rogue, what play shall we have here to-night?

PLAYER. Sir, you may look upon the title.

PROLOGUE. What, 'Spectrum' once again?"

The title of "Spectrum" is afterwards removed by the sleight of hand of a juggler, and "Wily Beguil'd" substituted for it.--_Collier._

[303] _My_, 1623, '33.

[304] _On them_, 1618, '23, '33.

[305] _Our_, ditto.

[306] _Denie_, 1618.

[307] _Christian_, omitted, 1633.

[308] _Betinde_, 1618.

[309] _Then let_, 1618, '23, '33.

[310] _For_, omitted, 1618, '23, '33.

[311] _Be_, 1618, '23, '33.

[312] _Turn'd_, 1618.

[313] _The trait'rous_, 1623, '33.

[314] _To sort_ is _to choose_ or _select_. As in the "Third Part of Henry VI.," v. 6--"For I will _sort_ a pitchy day for thee;" and in Ford's "Lover's Melancholy,"--"We shall _sort_ time to take more notice of him."

[315] _Resemble_, 1618, '23.

[316] _Waile_, 1633.

[317] _Which_, 1618, '23, '33.

[318] _Preserv'd_, ditto.

[319] _Bleeding_, 1623, '33.

[320] _So_, 1623, '33.

[321] _Gentlies_, ditto.

[322] _Staidst_, 1623, '33.

[323] In the sense of the Latin _securus_, "securus admodum de bello animi securi homo." A negligent security arising from a contempt of the object offered.--Dr Warburton's note on "Troilus and Cressida," iv. 5. See also Dr Farmer's note on the above passage.

[324] [Old copies, _reveng'd_.]

[325] _Revenged_, 1618, '23, '33.

[326] Intimate. So, in the "Malcontent," iv. 3: "Come, we must be _inward_; thou and I all one;" and again, in Tourneur's "Revenger's Tragedy," ii.--

"My lord, most sure on't; for 'twas spoke by one, That is most _inward_ with the duke's son's lust."

[327] _Thou_, omitted, 1623, '33.

[328] _Nunc mers,_[330] _cadæ manus,_ 1618.

[329] [_i.e._, In reply to the question as to his confederates.]

[330] _Mens_, 1623, '33.

[331] _Of_, 1618, '23, '33.

[332] _Of_, 1623, '33.

[333] _Nought_, 1618, '23, '33.

[334] Goblins, or terrors of the night. So, in "Arden of Feversham," 1592--

"Nay, then let us go sleepe, when _bugs_ and feares Shall kill our courages with their fancies worke."

Again, in Churchyard's "Challenge," p. 180--

"And in their place some fearful _bugges_, As blacke as any pitche, With bellies big and swagging dugges, More loathsome then a witch."

And in the same author's "Worthiness of Wales," p. 16, edit. 1776--

"A kind of sound, that makes a hurling noyse, To feare young babes with brute of _bugges_ and toyes."

[335] _Doth_, 1623, '33.

CORNELIA.

1. _Cornelia. At London, Printed by Iames Roberts, for N.L. and John Busbie, 1594, 4to._

2. _Pompey the Great, his faire Cornelias Tragedie: Effected by her Father and Husbands downe-cast, death, and fortune. Written in French by that excellent Poet Ro. Garnier, and translated into English by Thomas Kid. At London, Printed for Nicholas Ling, 1595, 4to._

This translation from Garnier's "Cornelia" would not perhaps have been inserted in the present remodelled edition of Dodsley, if it had not happened that it completes Kyd's dramatic productions, and that it formed part of the former edition, which there has been a desire to preserve in its full integrity, except under such circumstances as have been already explained.

[PREFACE TO THE FORMER EDITION.]

THOMAS KYD, the translator of the following play, is better known as the author of the second part of "Jeronimo," a performance which was ridiculed by almost every contemporary poet, than by any other of his works. The time and place of his birth and death, the circumstances of his life and his profession, otherwise than as a writer, are all equally unknown. From the dedication of "Cornelia" to the Countess of Sussex it may be inferred that, like the generality of the devotees of poetry in his time, he was poor; and from the promise of another tragedy, called "Portia," as _his next summer's better travel_ which never appeared, it may be conjectured that he was prevented by death. Notwithstanding the ridicule thrown upon him on account of "The Spanish Tragedy," he appears to have been well esteemed by some of his contemporaries. Francis[336] Meres enumerates him among the best tragic writers of his times; and Ben[337] Jonson ranks him with Lyly and Marlowe, calling him Sporting Kyd. Another writer[338] says, "'Cornelia's Tragedy,' however not respected, was excellently well done by Thomas Kyd." Mr Hawkins[339] was of opinion that Kyd was the author of "Solyman and Perseda," a play which certainly in its manner bears a striking resemblance to "The Spanish Tragedy." Malone (ed. by Bosw.,