lowe's are the mightiest, so are Peele's the
softest, lines in the drama before Shakespere; while the spirit and humour,
which the author also had in plenty, save his work from the merely cloying
sweetness of some contemporary writers. Two of his interposed or occasional
lyrics will be given later: a blank verse passage may find room here:--

_Bethsabe._ "Come, gentle Zephyr, trick'd with those perfumes
That erst in Eden sweeten'd Adam's love,
And stroke my bosom with thy silken fan:
This shade, sun-proof,[21] is yet no proof for thee;
Thy body, smoother than this waveless spring,
And purer than the substance of the same,
Can creep through that his lances cannot pierce:
Thou, and thy sister, soft and sacred Air,
Goddess of life, and governess of health,
Keep every fountain fresh and arbour sweet;
No brazen gate her passage can repulse,
Nor bushy thicket bar thy subtle breath:
Then deck thee with thy loose delightsome robes,
And on thy wings bring delicate perfumes,
To play the wanton with us through the leaves."

[21] Cf. Milton's "elms star-proof" in the _Arcades_. Milton evidently knew
Peele well.

Robert Greene, probably, if not certainly, the next in age of the group to
Peele, was born in 1560, the son of apparently well-to-do parents at
Norwich, and was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he took his
Master's degree in 1553. He was subsequently incorporated at Oxford, and
being by no means ill-inclined to make the most of himself, sometimes took
the style of a member "Utriusque Academiae." After leaving the university
he seems to have made a long tour on the Continent, not (according to his
own account) at all to the advantage of his morals or means. He is said to
have actually taken orders, and held a living for some short time, while he
perhaps also studied if he did not practise medicine. He married a lady of
virtue and some fortune, but soon despoiled and deserted her, and for the
last six years of his life never saw her. At last in 1592, aged only two
and thirty,--but after about ten years it would seem of reckless living and
hasty literary production,--he died (of a disease caused or aggravated by a
debauch on pickled herrings and Rhenish) so miserably poor that he had to
trust