"Nash, had Lycambes on earth living been
The time thou wast, his death had been all one;
Had he but mov'd thy tartest Muse to spleen
Unto the fork he had as surely gone:
For why? there lived not that man, I think,
Us'd better or more bitter gall in ink."
It is impossible in the present day to attempt anything like a correct list of the productions of Nash, many of which were unquestionably printed without his name:[13] the titles of and quotations from a great number may be found in the various bibliographical miscellanies, easily accessible. When he began to write cannot be ascertained, but it was most likely soon after his return from the Continent, and the dispute between John Penry and the Bishops seems then to have engaged his pen.[14] There is one considerable pamphlet by him, called "Christ's Tears over Jerusalem," printed in 1593, which, like some of the tracts by Greene, is of a repentant and religious character; and it has been said that, though published with his name, it was not in fact his production. There is no sufficient ground for this supposition, and Nash never subsequently disowned the performance: the address "To the Reader" contains an apology to Gabriel Harvey for the attack upon him, in terms that seem to vouch for their own sincerity. "Nothing (says Nash) is there now so much in my vows as to be at peace with all men, and make 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.