re' restricted to the expression of beautiful, wise or
emotional thought, as was commonly the case elsewhere. The country
freshness of his lyrics has been already praised. Altogether, despite
the slight amount of his work in drama, Nash is not a dramatist to be
dismissed with a mere expression of indifference or contempt. Several
things in it make _Summer's Last Will and Testament_ a production worth
remembering. The following extract illustrates the qualities of Nash's
blank verse.

_Orion._ Yet in a jest (since thou rail'st so 'gainst dogs)
I'll speak a word or two in their defence.
That creature's best that comes most near to men;
That dogs of all come nearest, thus I prove.
First, they excell us in all outward sense,
Which no one of experience will deny;
They hear, they smell, they see better than we.
To come to speech, they have it questionless,
Although we understand them not so well:
They bark as good old Saxon as may be,
And that in more variety than we,
For they have one voice when they are in chase,
Another when they wrangle for their meat,
Another when we beat them out of doors....
That dogs physicians are, thus I infer;
They are ne'er sick but they know their disease
And find out means to ease them of their grief.
Special good surgeons to cure dangerous wounds:
For, stricken with a stake into the flesh
This policy they use to get it out;
They trail one of their feet upon the ground,
And gnaw the flesh about where the wound is,
Till it be clean drawn out; and then, because
Ulcers and sores kept foul are hardly cur'd,
They lick and purify it with their tongue,
And well observe Hippocrates' old rule,
The only medicine for the foot is rest,--
For if they have the least hurt in their feet
They bear them up and look they be not stirr'd.
When humours rise, they eat a sovereign herb,
Whereby what cloys their stomachs they cast up;
And as some writers of experience tell,
They were the first invented vomiting.
Sham'st thou not, Autumn, unadvisedly
To slander such rare creatures as they be?

[Footnote 53: In _Damon and Pythias_, see p. 117 above.]

[Footnote 54: ready.]

[Footnote 55: resent.]

[Footnote 56: See Flora's second speech, Act 1, Sc. 1.]

[Footnote 57: _James the Fourth._]

[Footnote 58: enjoy.]

[Footnote 59: dwells.]

[Footnote 60: is called.]