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HE EPIGRAMS of Martial were tranflated in part by

Timothy Kendall, born at North Afton in Oxfordshire, fucceffively educated at Eton and at Oxford, and afterwards a student of the law at Staple's-inn. This performance, which cannot properly or ftrictly be called a tranflation of Martial, has the following title, "FLOWRES OF EPIGRAMMES out of "fundrie the most fingular authors felected, etc. By Timothie "Kendall late of the vniuerfitie of Oxford, now ftudent of "Staple Inn. London, 1577." It is dedicated to Robert earl of Leicester. The epigrams tranflated are from Martial, Pictorius, Borbonius, Politian, Bruno, Textor, Aufonius, the Greek anthology, Beza, fir Thomas More, Henry Stephens, Haddon", Parkhurst, and others. But by much the greater part is from Martial. It is charitable to hope, that our translator Timothy Kendall wasted no more of his time at Staples-inn in culling these fugitive bloffoms. Yet he has annexed to these versions his TRIFLES or juvenile epigrams, which are dated the fame year *.

• In duodecimo. They are entered at Stationers Hall, Feb. 25, 1576. REGISTR. B. fol. 138. a. To John Sheppard.

• Walter Haddon's POEMATA, containing a great number of metrical Latin epitaphs, were collected, and published with his LIFE, and verses at his death, by Giles Fletcher and others, in 1576. See T. Baker's Letters to bishop Tanner, MS. Bibl. Bodl. And by Hatcher, 1567. 4to. John Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, a great reformer, published, LUDICRA SEU EPIGRAMMATA JUVENILIA, Lond. 1572.

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Meres, in his WITS TREASURY, mentions doctor Johnson, as the tranflator of Homer's BATRACHOMUOMACHY, and Watson of Sophocles's ANTIGONE, but with fuch ambiguity, that it is difficult to determine from his words whether thefe verfions are in Latin or English'. That no reader may be misled, I observe here, that Chriftopher Johnson, a celebrated headmaster of Winchester school, afterwards a phyfician, translated Homer's FROGS AND MICE into Latin hexameters, which appeared in quarto, at London, in 1580. Thomas Watfon author of a HUNDRED SONNETS, or the paffionate century of Love, published a Latin ANTIGONE in 1581. The latter publication, however, fhews at this time an attention to the Greek tragedies.

Christopher Marlowe, or Marloe, educated in elegant letters at Cambridge, Shakespeare's cotemporary on the stage, often applauded both by queen Elifabeth and king James the first, as a judicious player, esteemed for his poetry by Jonfon and Drayton, and one of the most distinguished tragic poets of his age, tranflated Coluthus's RAPE OF HELEN into English rhyme, in the year 1587. I have never seen it; and I owe this information to the manuscript papers of a diligent collector of these fugacious anecdotes. But there is entered to Jones, in 1595, "A booke "entituled RAPTUS HELENA, Helens Rape, by the Athenian "duke Thefeusk." Coluthus's poem was probably brought into vogue, and suggested to Marlowe's notice, by being paraphrafed in Latin verse the preceding year by Thomas Watson, the writer

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of fonnets just mentioned'. Before the year Before the year 1598, appeared Marlowe's tranilation of the LOVES OF HERO AND LEANDER, the elegant prolufion of an unknown sophist of Alexandria, but commonly afcribed to the antient Mufaeus. It was left unfinished by Marlowe's death; but what was called a fecond part, which is nothing more than a continuation from the Italian, appeared by one Henry Petowe, in 1598 m. Another edition was published, with the first book of Lucan, tranflated alfo by Marlowe, and in blank verfe, in 1600". At length George Chapman, the tranflator of Homer, completed, but with a striking inequality, Marlowe's unfinished version, and printed it at London in quarto, 1606°. Tanner takes this piece to be one

' Printed at Lond. 1586. 4to.

m For Purfoot, 4to. See Petowe's Preface, which has a high panegyric on Marlowe. He fays he begun where Marlowe left off. In 1593, Sept. 28, there is an entry to John Wolfe of "A book entitled "Hero and Leander, beinge an amorous "poem devised by Chriftopher Marlowe." REGISTR. STATION. B. fol. 300. b. The tranflation, as the entire work of Marlowe, is mentioned twice in Nafhe's LENTEN STUFF, printed in 1599 It occurs again in the registers of the Stationers, in 1597,, 1598, and 1600. REGISTR. C. fol. 31. a. 34 a. I learn from Mr. Malone, that Marlowe finished only the two firft Seftiads, and about one hundred lines of the third. Chapman did the remainder. Petowe publithed the Whipping of Runawaies, for Burbie, in 1603.

There is an old ballad on Jephtha judge of Ifrael, by William Petowe. In the year 1567, there is an entry to Alexander Lacy, of "A ballett intituled the "Songe of Jefphas dowghter at his death." REGISTR. STATION. A. fol 162. a. Perhaps this is the old fong of which Hamlet in joke throws cut fome fcraps to Polonius, and which has been recovered by Mr. Steevens. HAMLET, ACT ii. Sc. 7. [Sce alfo Jeffa judge of Ifrael, in REGISTR. D. fol. 93. Dec. 14, 1624.] This is one of the pieces which Hamlet calls pious chan

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Jons, and which taking their rife from the reformation, abounded in the reign of Elifabeth. Hence, by the way, we see the propriety of reading pious chansons, and not pons chanfons, or ballads fung on bridges, with Pope. Rowe arbitrarily fubftituted Rubric, not that the titles of old ballads were ever printed in red. Rubric came at length fimply to fignify title, because, in the old manufcripts, it was the custom to write the titles or heads of chapters in red ink. In the Statutes of Winchester and New college, every ftatute is therefore called a RUBRICA.

" But this version of Lucan is entered, as above, Sept. 28, 1593, to John Wolfe, Ibid. fol. 300. b. Nor does it always apappear at the end of MusÆUS in 1600. There is an edition that year by P. Short.

There is another edition in 1616, and 1629. 4to. The edition of 1616, with Chapman's name, and dedicated to Inigo Jones, not two inches long and scarcely one broad, is the most diminutive product of English typography. But it appears a different work from the edition of 1606. The

Ballad of Hero and Leander" is entered to J. White, Jul. 2, 1614. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 252. a. Burton, an excellent Grecian, having occafion to quote MUSEUS, cites Marlowe's verfion, MELANCHOLY, pag. 372. feq. fol. edit. 1624.

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of Marlowe's plays. It probably fuggefted to Shakespeare the allufion to Hero and Leander, in the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, under the player's blunder of Limander and Helen, where the interlude of Thisbe is prefented ". It has many nervous and polished verfes. His tragedies manifeft traces of a juft dramatic conception, but they abound with tedious and uninteresting scenes, or with fuch extravagancies as proceeded from a want of judgment, and thofe barbarous ideas of the times, over which it was the peculiar gift of Shakespeare's genius alone to triumph and to predominate. His TRAGEDY OF DIDO QUEEN OF CARTHAGE was completed and published by his friend Thomas Nafhe, in 1594'.

Although Jonfon mentions Marlowe's MIGHTY MUSE, yet the highest testimony Marlowe has received, is from his cotemporary Drayton; who from his own feelings was well qualified to decide on the merits of a poet. It is in Drayton's Elegy, To dearly loved friend Henry Reynolds of Poets and Poefie.

P A&t v. Sc. ult.

9 Nashe in his Elegy prefixed to Marlowe's DIDO, mentions five of his plays. Mr. Malone is of opinion, from a fimilarity of ftyle, that the Tragedy of LOCRINE, published in 1595, attributed to Shakefpeare, was written by Marlowe. SUPPL. SHAKESP. ii. 190. He conjectures alfo Marlowe to be the author of the old KING JOHN. Ibid. i. 163. And of TITUS ANDRONICUS, and of the lines spoken by the players in the interlude in HAMLET. Ibid. i. 371.

In quarto. At London, by the widow Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke. Played by the children of the chapel. It begins,

"Come gentle Ganimed!"

It has been frequently confounded with
John Rightwife's play on the fame fubject
performed at faint Paul's school before
Cardinal Wolfey, and afterwards before

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queen Elifabeth at Cambridge, in 1564.
I have before mentioned the Latin tragedy
of Dido and Eneas, performed at Oxford,
in 1583, before the prince Alafco. [See
fupr. ii. 383.] See what Hamlet fays to the
firft Player on this favorite ftory. În 1564,
was entered a " ballet of a lover blamynge
"his fortune by Dido and Eneas for thayre
* vntruthe." REGISTR. STATION. A fol.
116. a.
In the TEMPEST, Gonzalo men-
tions the "widow Dido." Acr iii. Sc. i.
On old ballads we read the Tune of queen
Dido. Perhaps from fome ballad on the
fubject, Shakespeare took his idea of Dido
ftanding with a willow in her hand on the
fea-fhore, and beckoning Eneas back to
Carthage. MERCH. VEN. ACT. v. Sc. i.
Shakespeare has alfo ftrangely falfified Di-
do's story, in the S. P. of K. HENRY THE
SIXTH. ACT iii. Sc. i. I have before
mentioned the interlude of Dido and
Eneas at Chester.

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Next Marlowe, bathed in the Thespian springes,
Had in him those braue tranflunary' thinges,
That the first poets had his raptvres were
All air, and fire, which made his verfes clear:
For that fine madness ftill he did retaine

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Which rightly fhould poffeffe a poet's braine '.

In the RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, a fort of critical play, acted at Cambridge in 1606, Marlowe's bufkined MUSE is celebrated". His cotemporary Decker, Jonfon's antagonist, having allotted to Chaucer and graue Spenser, the highest seat in the Elifan grove of Bayes, has thus arranged Marlowe. "In another

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companie fat learned Atchlow and, (tho he had ben a player "molded out of their pennes, yet because he had been their "louer and register to the Muse) inimitable Bentley: these were "likewise carowsing out of the holy well, &c. Whilst Mar"lowe, Greene, and Peele, had gott under the shadow of a large vyne, laughing to fee Nafhe, that was but newly come to "their colledge, still haunted with the same satyricall spirit that "followed him here vpon earth "."

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Marlowe's wit and spriteliness of converfation had often the unhappy effect of tempting him to fport with facred subjects; more perhaps from the prepofterous ambition of courting the cafual applause of profligate and unprincipled companions, than

Langbaine, who cites thefe lines without feeming to know their author, by a pleasant mistake has printed this word. fublunary. DRAM. POETS, p. 342.

Lond. edit. 1753. iv. p. 1256. That Marlowe was a favorite with Jonfon, appears from the Preface to one Bofworth's poems; who fays, that Jonfon ufed to call the mighty lines of Marlowe's MusoEUS fitter for admiration than parallel. Thomas Heywood, who published Marlowe's JEW OF MALTA, in 1633, wrote the Prologue, fpoken at the Cockpit, in which Marlowe is highly commended both as a player and a poet. It was in this play that Allen, the

founder of Dulwich college, acted the JEW with fo much applause.

" Hawkins's OLD PL. iii. p. 215. Lond. 1607. 4to. But it is entered in 1605, Oct. 16, to J. Wright, where it is faid to have been acted at faint John's. REGISTR. STATION. C. fol. 130. b. See other cotemporary teftimonies of this author, in OLD PLAYS. (in 12 Vol.) Lond. 1780. 12mo. Vol. ii. 308.

w A KNIGHT'S CONJURING, Signat. L. 1607. 4to. To this company Henry Chettle is admitted, [fee fupr. p. 291.] and is faluted in bumpers of Helicon on his arrival,

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