sts.
Ralegh and his wife never complained; and they were not given to
suffering in silence. Copies of the first edition are extant in an
abundance which, though not absolutely contradictory to the tale,
renders it unlikely. Dr. Brushfield, who has made the history of the
publication his especial study, conjectures that a compromise with the
royal censorship was effected on the terms that a title-page, which he
thinks the first, like all subsequent editions, originally contained,
should be removed, leaving the volume apparently anonymous. The surmise
is ingenious; but it is very hard to believe that such an arrangement,
if made, would have excited no discussion. Chamberlain's language,
moreover, implies that the book was already in circulation. It would be
exceedingly strange if its previous purchasers had the docility to
eliminate the title-page from their copies, in deference to an order
certainly not very emphatically promulgated. The readiest explanation is
that Chamberlain, in his haste to give his correspondent early
information, reported to him a rumour, and perhaps a threat, upon which
James happily had not the hardihood to act.

[Sidenote: _Successive Editions._]

[Sidenote: _Two Fables._]

At all events, the book weathered the storm of royal displeasure,
however manifested. A second edition appeared in 1617. Down to the
standard Oxford collection of Ralegh's works in 1829, which includes it,
eight have been published since. The last folio edition appeared, with a
biography by the editor, Oldys, in 1736. Gibbon commends it as the best
which had to that time appeared, though it is open to charges of gross
carelessness in the printer, and of arbitrary alterations by the editor,
to the injury of the sense. The work was popular enough to attract
epitomists. Alexander Ross, in 1650, condensed it into his _Marrow of
History_, which is rather its dry bones. Philip Ralegh, Sir Walter's
grandson, in 1698 printed an abridgment. The _Tubus Historicus_, or
_Historical Perspective_, published in 1631, a brief summary of the
fortunes of the four great ancient Empires, which bears Ralegh's name on
the title-page, suggests rather the hand of a book-maker. For half a
century from the time of the original issue it was an accepted classic.
No folio of the period, it has been said, approached it in circulation.
Its success tempted Alexander Ross to put forth in 1652 a second part,
B.C. 160 to A.D. 1640. The popular favour was en