lye in thy last Inne (thy loathsome graue) how heauy a loade will thy wealth bee to thy weake corrupted Conscience! Those heapes of Siluer, in telling of which thou hast worne out thy fingers ends, will be a passing bell, tolling in thine eare, and calling thee to a fearefull audit. Thou canst not dispose of thy riches, but the name of euery parcell will strike to thy heart, worse then the pangs of thy departure: thy last will, at the last day, will be an Inditement to cast thee: for thou art guilty of offending those two lawes (enacted in the upper House of heauen) which directly forbid thee to steale, or to couet thy neighbors goods.

But this is not all neither: for thou lyest on thy bed of death, and art not cared for; thou goest out of the world, and art not lamented: thou art put into the last linnen yt euer thou shalt weare (thy winding-sheete) with reproch, and art sent into thy Graue with curses: he that makes thy Funerall Sermon, dares not speake well of thee, because he is asham'd to belye the dead: and upon so hatefull a fyle doest thou hang the records of thy life, that euen when the wormes haue pickt thee to the bare bones, those that goe ouer thee, will set upon thee no Epitaph but this, Here lyes a knaue.

Be wise therefore, you graue and wealthy Cittizens; play with these Whales of the Sea, till you escape them that are deuourers of your Merchants; hunt these English Wolues to death, and rid the land of them: for these are the Rats that eate up the prouision of the people: these are the Grashoppers of Egypt, that spoyle the Corne-fields of the Husbandman and the rich mans Vineyards: they will haue poore Naboths piece of ground from him, though they eate a piece of his heart for it. These are indeede (and none but these) the Forreners that liue without the freedome of your City, better than you within it: they liue without the freedome of honesty, of conscience, and of christianitie. Ten dicing-houses cheate not yong Gentlemen of so much mony in a yeare, as these do you in a moneth. The theefe that dyes at Tyburne for a robbery, is not halfe so dangerous a weede in a Common-wealth, as the Politick Bankrupt. I would there were a Derick to hang vp him too.

The Russians haue an excellent custome: they beate them on the shinnes, that haue mony, and will not pay their debts; if that law were well cudgel'd from thence into England, Barber-Surgeons might in a few yeeres build vp a Hall for their Company, larger then Powles, only with the cure of Bankrupt broken-shinnes.

Dekker is fond of alluding in some of his works to the Play of the Spanish Tragedy by Kyd, and the character of Jeronimo, which was first acted in 1588 and was at this time highly popular. A line in this play was made the subject of great ridicule. It is that where Jeronimo hearing Belimperia's cries for help on the murder of his son Horatio, suddenly exclaims : What outeries pluck me from my naked bed? &c. Who calls Hieronimo? speak-here I am.

So Dekker in his chapter on Candle-light remarks:

O Candle-light, Candle-light! to howe manie costly Sacke-possets and rare Ban

quets hast thou beene inuited by Prentices and Kitchen-maidens! When the Bellman for anger to spie (such a Purloyner of Cittizens goods) so many, hath bounced at the doore like a madde man, at which (as if Robin Good-fellow had beene coniur'd vp amongst them) the Wenches haue falne into the handes of the Greene-sicknesse, and the yong fellowes into colde Agues, with verie feare least their Maister (like olde Ieronimo and Isabella his wife after him) starting out of his naked bed should come downe (with a Weapon in his hande) and this in his mouth: What outcryes pull vs from our naked bedde? Who calles? &c. as the Players can tell you.

Again at p. 40:

I would that euerie miserable debter that so dyes, might be buried at his Creditors doore, that when hee strides ouer him he might think he still rises vp (like the Ghost in Ieronimo) crying Revenge.

And again in the Wonderfull yeare, he says (sig. E 4):

Liue within the compas of thy wit: lift not vp thy collar; be not horne mad: thanke heauen that the murther is reueald: study thou Baltazars parte in Ieronimo, for thou hast more cause (though lesse reason) than he to be glad and sad.

At the end of each chapter or division is a description of the Coach in which each of the Sins is drawn through the city. Some of these are pictured with considerable humour, as an example of which we quote the one of Lying, which commences with an allusion to the whetstone as an emblem of the liar:

The Chariot that Lying is drawne in, is made al of whetstones: Wantonnes and euil customs are his Horses! A Foole is the Coachman that driues them: a couple of swearing Fencers sometimes leade the Horses by the reynes, and sometimes flourish before them to make roome. Worshipfully is this Lord of Limbo attended, for Knights themselues follow close at his heeles: Marry they are not Post and PoyreKnightes, but one of the Post. Amongst whose traine is shuffled in a company of scambling ignorant Petti-foggars, leane Knaues and hungrie, for they liue upon nothing but the scraps of the Law, and heere and there (like a prune in White-broth,) is stucke a spruice, but a meere prating unpractised Lawyers Clarke all in blacke. At the tayle of all, (when this goodly Pageant is passed by) follow a crowde of euerie trade some, amongst whome least we be smothered, and bee taken to bee of the same list, let us strike downe my way. Namq: odi profanum Vulgus.

Among the theatrical notices we learn in the fourth "Dayes Tryumph," that twopence was the common price of admission to the gallery at that time (sig. E 2):

"Tis giuen out that Sloth himselfe will come, and sit in the two-pennie galleries amongst the Gentlemen, and see their Knaueries and their pastimes.

The particular acts of cruelty noticed in the last day's Triumph, are "forced Marriages-severe and cruel Creditors-unconscionable Masters-and more especially the great want of places for Buriall in the extremity of sicknes such as the Plague, and the want of prouision for those that dye in the fields."

Dekker may possibly have taken the title of this tract from a sort of extemporal Play by the celebrated comedian Richard Tarleton, called the "Seven Deadly Sins," and acted about 1588, the plot of which is still preserved among Allen's papers at Dulwich College.

It was

This work of Dekker's is exceedingly scarce, and is unnoticed by Watt in his account of this author's productions in his Biblioth. Brit. not in Mr. Heber's collection nor in the Bill. Ang. Poet. A copy sold in Reed's sale, No. 1968, for 27. 38.; Gilchrist's ditto, No. 363, 27; Midgley's ditto, (Title MS.) No. 215, 37. 78. 6d.; Hibbert's ditto, No. 2637, 4l. 48.; Gordonstoun ditto, No. 772, 57.; Jolley's ditto, pt. ii. No. 1016, 5l. 2s. 6d; Bright's ditto, No. 1686, 61. 68. Copies are in the Malone and Douce collections at Oxford, and in the Grenville collection in the British Museum. The latter appears to be a different edition from this and is without any date. Collation Title A 2, Sig. A four leaves, the first blank, then Sig. A (repeated) to G 4 in fours. Thirty-one leaves.

In Dark Crimson Morocco, gilt leaves.

-

DEKKER, (THOMAS.) The Double PP. - A Papist in Armes.— Bearing ten seuerall Sheilds. Encovntred by the Protestant. At ten seuerall Weapons.-A Iesuite marching before them.

Cominùs et Eminùs.

London, Printed by T. C. and are to be sold by Iohn Hodgets, at his shop in Paules Church-yard. 1606. 4to, pp. 43.

Although Dekker has not publicly acknowledged this singular tract as his, a copy is in existence with his autograph on presenting the work to a friend. The dedication (which is in the form of a pillar) is in verse, and is addressed "To all the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry of Great Brittaine, True Subiects to King Iames." In this he says:

O let me not seeme bolder

Than my country zeale requires,
If these weake (but hallowed) fires

Offer vp this Sacrifize,
Which vpon the Altar lyes
Of my hearts Deuotion
Since so strange Commotion.
(Now) with giddy base Alarmes
Puffes the Romist vp in Armes,
That he dares his Cullors vant

And shoote them with an English hand;
So shall your Heires and Houses stand
(Like Pillers) on firme Bases.

The work commences with "A Riddle on the double PP."

Vpon the double PP. badder fruits grow
Than on al letters in the Christ-Crosse-Row:
It sets (by reason of the Badge it weares)

The Christ-Crosse-Row, together by the eares:

The reason is, this haughtie double PP.

Would clyme aboue both A.B.C. and D.

And trample on the necks of E.F.G.

H.I. (Royall K.) L.M.N.O. and Q.
Threatening the fall of R.S.T. and V.

The Resolution.

PP. Pa Pa. the Po Pe.

Christ-Crosse-Row, Christendome.

A.B.C.D.E. &c. the States of the land: As

Archbishops, Bishops, Councellors, Dukes, Earles, &c.

K. the King.

Q. the Queene.

R. Religion.

S. State.

T. Truth.

V. You all.

This is followed by "The Picture of a Iesuite," in twenty-one four-line verses full of bitterness and scorn, in which he is represented as of all shapes and hues:

Sometimes hee's neither beast, nor man,

Nor Bird, nor a Leuiathan,

But an Essentiall diuell, and varies

More cullors than the Rainbowe carries,

Hee's Brown, hee's Gray, hee's Black, hee's White,
Hee's anything.-A Iesuite.

VOL. III. PART I.

At the end of these verses are some other short "pieces wrought with the same Pencill" in prose, and a list of "The Romish Army." These are ten in number "bearing ten seuerall Sheildes," and consist of two seven-line stanzas on each page descriptive of each shield, concluding with "The Encounter." We select as an example of these

A Papist passant Gardant.
or The Spie.

The Passant Gardant Papist, thus I lym,

Hee comes to Court, then to the Presence goes,
And (by the warrant of good cloathes) doth swim
In greatest streames, and where State matter flowes,
There layes he close his eare, yet dreading blowes
Tyes vp his tongue, and getting safe from thence,
To Rhemes or Rome sailes his Intelligence.

His guilt (at each step) back doth screw his head:
He starts to see a Pursuivant: and curses
The earth that bears a church which doth not spred

The Romaine ensigne. At his brest he nurses

A brood of Vipers: and sends out the forces
Of all his Wishes, 'gainst his Prince and State,
And shifts oft, hating to Communicate.

The single P commences on sig. D 4 like the other with

• Martyrdome.

A Riddle on the single P.

The single P. makes all the letters grow

In goodly Ranks vpon the Christ-crosse-Row;
And (by the reuerend, holy Badge it weares,)

The Christ-crosse-Row from giddy Fraction cleares

The reason is, - this (honest single) P

Lowly submits to A.B.C. and D.

Yet fights in the defence of E.F.G.

H.I. (Roial K.) L.M.N.O. and Q.

And runnes through Fire* for R.S.T. and V.

The Resolution.

Single P. Protestantisme, &c. as before.

=

To this succeeds a list of "The Protestant Army." The Protestant Combatants are: 1. Dynastes, or The Nobleman. 2. Apolectos, or Councellor of Estate. 3. Antistes, or The Bishop. 4. Dycastes, or The Iudge. 5. Academicos, or The Scholler. 6. Stratiotes, or The Souldier. 7. Emperos, or The Merchant. 8. Nautes, or The Seaman. 9. Arotes, or The Plough