"The proverb says, who fights with dirty foes
Must needs be soil'd, admit they win or lose:
Then think it doth a Doctor's credit dash
To make himself antagonist to Nash."
—B. II., Epigr. 36.
[11] Tergimini means the three Harveys, for Gabriel took up the cudgels for himself and his two brothers.
[12] The death of Nash is spoken of in the address to a tract, which is the more curious, as it forms a second part to "Pierce Penniless." It has been assigned to Decker, under the title of "News from Hell;" [and it was reprinted under the title of "A Knight's Conjuring." This issue is included in the Percy Society's series.]
[13] [See the list, however, in "Ath. Cantab.," ii. 307-9, and in Hazlitt's "Handbook," in v.]
[14] In 1589 Nash wrote the address prefixed to Robert Greene's "Menaphon," which contains notices of various preceding and contemporary poets, and which has been admired by all but Mr Malone, for the general purity of its style and the justness of its criticism. As Nash was born in November 1567, he was only in his twenty-second year when it was published.
[15] Parts of "Pierce Penniless, his Supplication to the Devil," are written by Nash in a similar strain of bitter grief for past errors, especially a poem inserted near the commencement. [As to Nash's withdrawal of his apology, see Hazlitt in v.]
"Why is't damnation to despair and die
When life is my true happiness' disease?
My soul! my soul! thy safety makes me fly
The faulty means that might my pain appease.
Divines and dying men may talk of hell,
But in my heart her several torments dwell.
"Ah, worthless wit, to train me to this woe!
Deceitful arts that nourish discontent.
Ill thrive the folly that bewitch'd me so,
Vain thoughts, adieu, for now I will repent.
And yet my wants persuade me to proceed,
Since none takes pity of a scholar's need."
The last two lines of the first stanza are given to the Father in
"The Yorkshire Tragedy," attributed to Shakespeare.