ell him the Sun he shot at is now setting,
Setting this night, that he may rise to morrow,
For ever setting. Now let him raigne alone
And with his rayes give life and light to all men.
May he protect with honour, fight with fortune,
And dye with generall love, an old and good Prince.
My last petition, good Cuntrymen, forget me:
Your memories wound deeper then your mallice,
And I forgive ye all.--A litle stay me.--
Honour and world I fling ye thus behind me,
And thus a naked poore man kneele to heaven:
Be gracious to me, heare me, strengthen me.
I come, I come, o gracious heaven! now, now,
Now, I present--

_Exec_. Is it well don mine Heeres?

1 _Lord_. Somewhat too much; you have strooke his fingers, too,
But we forgive your haste. Draw in the body;
And Captaines, we discharge your Companies.

_Vand_. Make cleere the Court.--Vaine glory, thou art gon!
And thus must all build on Ambition.

2 _Lord_. Farwell, great hart; full low thy strength now lyes:
He that would purge ambition this way dies.

_Exeunt_.

INTRODUCTION TO _CAPTAIN UNDERWIT_.

This anonymous Comedy is printed, for the first time, from Harl. MS.
7,650,--a small quarto of eighty-nine leaves. I have followed Halliwell
(Dictionary of Old Plays) in adopting the title, Captain _Underwit_.
There is no title-page to the MS.

An editor with plenty of leisure on his hands would find ample
opportunities in Captain _Underwit_ for discursive comment. Sometimes I
have been obliged to pass over odd phrases and out-of-the-way allusions
without a line of explanation; but in the index at the end of the fourth
volume I hope to settle some difficulties that at present are left
standing.

The date of the play I take to be circ. 1640 or 1642. In I. 1 there is a
mention of the "league at _Barwick_ and the late expeditions," where the
reference can only be to Charles I.'s march into Scotland in the spring
of 1639, and to the so-called Pacification of _Berwick_. Again, in III.
3, there is an allusion to the Newmarket Cup. Historians of the Turf say
that Newmarket races date from 1640; but this statement is incorrect,
for in Shirley's _Hyde Park_ (V. 1),--a play licensed in 1632 and
printed in 1637,--mention is made of a certain "Bay _Tarrall_ that won
the Cup at Newmarket." We find also an allusion to the "great ship"
(III. 3), which was built in 1637. Of Mr. Adson's "new ayres" (IV. 1) I
know very little. He brought