ood fellows should do;
They shall not misse to have the blisse
Good ale doth bring men to.
And al goode sowles that have scoured bowles,
Or have them lustely trolde,
God save the lives of them and their wives
Whether they be yong or olde.
Backe and side, &c."

CHAPTER IV.

ROBERT GREENE.

Robert Greene--Friar Bacon's Demons--The "Looking Glasse"--Nash and
Harvey.

One of the principal humorists at this time was Robert Greene, born at
Norwich about 1560. He was educated at Cambridge, and was generally
styled "Robert Greene, Maister of Artes." Early in life he became, as he
tells us, "an author of playes and a penner of love pamphlets." From the
titles of some of them, and from his motto, "_Omne tulit punctum qui
miscuit utile dulci_," it is evident that they were intended to be
humorous. Thus, his "Euphues" professes to contain "Mirth to purge
Melancholy;" his "Quips for an Vpstart Courtier" is "A Quaint Dispute
between Velvet-breeches and Cloth-breeches," and his "Notable Discovery
of Coosnage" has "a delightfull discourse of the coosnage of Colliers;"
his "Second and last part of conny-catching" has "new additions
containing many merry tales of all lawes worth the reading, because they
are worthy to be remembered. Discoursing strange cunning coosnage, which
if you reade without laughing, Ile give you my cap for a Noble." But in
all these works there is but little humour, and what we learn in reading
them is, that a very small amount of it was then thought considerable,
and that stories, which we should think slightly entertaining, appeared
in that simple age to be very ingenious and even comic. In the "Comicall
Historie of Alphonsus, King of Arragon," we do not find anything that
could have possibly been humorous, unless the speaking of a brazen head,
and the letting Venus down from Heaven and drawing her up again, could
have been so regarded. Greene is characteristic of his time in his love
of introducing magic and enchanters, and of characters from classic and
scripture history. In the "Looking-Glasse for London and England," in
which our metropolis is compared to Nineveh, we have angels and
magicians brought in. "A hand out of a cloud threateneth a burning
sword," and "Jonas is cast out of the whale's belly upon the stage."

Greene is fond of introducing devils. In "The Honourable Historie of
Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay," Ralph says, "Why, Sirrah Ned we'll rid