nothing and if the
cobbler hath taught thee to say _Ave Caesar_ disdain not thy tutor
because thou pratest in a King's chamber. What sentence thou utterest on
the stage flows from the censure of our wits, and what sentence or
conceit the people applaud for excellence, that comes from the secrets
of our knowledge. I grant your acting, though it be a kind of mechanical
labour, yet well done, 'tis worthy of praise, but you worthless if for
so small a toy you wax proud."

Here again Tully is Peele, and Greene is merely describing more fully
the alleged encounter between Alleyn and Peele, mentioned by Nashe the
year before in _The Anatomy of Absurdity_.

Though it has never been noticed before, in this connection, we possess
in Edward Alleyn's own papers preserved at Dulwich College a remarkable
confirmation of this emulation, which, however, Greene and Nashe distort
to the prejudice of Alleyn, who, as shall be shown, was innocent in the
affair. The whole thing arose from admirers of Alleyn's among the
theatre-frequenting gentry offering wagers to friends who championed
Peele in order to provide after-dinner entertainment for themselves, by
putting the poet and the player on their mettle in "expressing a
passion"--the one in action and the other in phrases. Alleyn refused the
contest "for fear of hurting Peele's credit," but gossip of the proposed
wager got abroad and was distorted by the scholars, who affected to be
insulted by the idea of one of their ilk contending with a player.
Failing to bring about this match, Alleyn's backers, not to be beaten,
and in order, willy-nilly, to make a wager on their champion, evidently
tried to get Alleyn to display his powers before friends who professed
to admire Bentley and Knell[22]--actors of a slightly earlier date, who
were now either retired from the stage or dead. The following letter and
poem were evidently written in 1589, as Nashe's reference to the
"encounter," which is the first notice of it, was published in this
year:

"Your answer the other nighte, so well pleased the Gentlemen, as I
was satisfied therewith, though to the hazarde of ye wager; and yet
my meaninge was not to prejudice Peele's credit; neither wolde it,
though it pleased you so to excuse it, but beinge now growen farther
into question, the partie affected to Bentley (scornynge to wynne the
wager by your deniall), hath now given you libertie to make choice of
any one playe, that either