FOOTNOTES:
[CN] In 1614 appeared The Husband, a Poeme, expressed in a compleat man. See Censura Literaria, v. 365. John Davies, of Hereford, wrote A Select Second Hvsband for Sir Thomas Overbvries Wife, now a matchlesse widow. 8vo. Lond. 1616. And in 1673 was published, The Illustrious Wife, viz. That excellent Poem, Sir Thomas Overbvrie's Wife, illustrated by Giles Oldisworth, Nephew to the same Sir T. O.
[CO] It was most probably the fifth, as Mr. Capel, who has printed the Wife, in his very curious volume, entitled Prolusions, 8vo. Lond. 1760, notices two copies in 1614, one in 8vo. which I suppose to be the third, and one in 4to. stated in the title to be the fourth edition: the sixth was in the following year, 1615; the seventh, eighth, and ninth were in 1616, the eleventh in 1622, twelfth in 1627, thirteenth 1628, fourteenth, 1630, fifteenth, 1632, sixteenth, 1638, and Mr. Brand possessed a copy, the specific edition of which I am unable to state, printed in 1655. Catalogue, No. 4927.
iv. "Satyrical Essayes, Characters, and others, or accurate and quick Descriptions, fitted to the life of their Subiects. των ηθων δη φυλαττεσθαι μαλλον δει ἡ τους ἑχεισ. Theophras.
Aspice et hæc, si forte aliquid decoctius audis,
[Jude] vaporata Lector mihi [ferucat] aure. IUUEN.
Plagosus minime Plagiarius.
John Stephens. London, Printed by Nicholas Okes, and are to be sold by Roger Barnes, at his Shop in St. Dunstane's Church-yard. 1615."
[8vo. pp. 321. title, preface, &c. 14 more.]
In a subsequent impression of this volume, 8vo. in the same year, and with a fresh title page, dated 1631[CP], we find the author to be "John Stephens the younger, of Lincoln's Inn:" no other particulars of him appear to exist at present, excepting that he was the author of a play entitled, Cinthia's Revenge; or, Mænander's Extasie. Lond. for Barnes, 1613, 4to. "which," says Langbaine, "is one of the longest plays I ever read, and withal the most tedious." Ben Jonson addressed some lines[CQ] to the author, whom he calls "his much and worthily esteemed friend," as did F. C. G. Rogers, and Thomas Danet.