for
Women_, _or an Opposition to Mr. D. G. his assertion_ . . . _by W. H. of
Ex. in Ox._ (Oxford, 1609), was dedicated to 'the honourable and right
vertuous ladie, the Ladie M. H.' This volume, published in the same year
as Shakespeare's _Sonnets_, offers a pertinent example of the generous
freedom with which initials were scattered over the preliminary pages of
books of the day.

{398} In the volume of 1593 the words run: 'To the noble and valorous
gentleman Master Robert Dudley, enriched with all vertues of the minde
and worthy of all honorable desert. Your most affectionate and devoted
Michael Drayton.'

{399a} In 1610, in dedicating _St. Augustine_, _Of the Citie of God_ to
the Earl of Pembroke, Thorpe awkwardly describes the subject-matter as 'a
desired citie sure in heaven,' and assigns to 'St. Augustine and his
commentator Vives' a 'savour of the secular.' In the same year, in
dedicating _Epictetus his Manuall_ to Florio, he bombastically pronounces
the book to be 'the hand to philosophy; the instrument of instruments; as
Nature greatest in the least; as Homer's _Ilias_ in a nutshell; in lesse
compasse more cunning.' For other examples of Thorpe's pretentious,
half-educated and ungrammatical style, see p. 403, note 2.

{399b} The suggestion is often made that the only parallel to Thorpe's
salutation of happiness is met with in George Wither's _Abuses Whipt and
Stript_ (London, 1613). There the dedicatory epistle is prefaced by the
ironical salutation 'To himselfe G. W. wisheth all happinesse.' It is
further asserted that Wither had probably Thorpe's dedication to 'Mr. W.
H.' in view when he wrote that satirical sentence. It will now be
recognised that Wither aimed very gently at no identifiable book, but at
a feature common to scores of books. Since his _Abuses_ was printed by
George Eld and sold by Francis Burton--the printer and publisher
concerned in 1606 in the publication of 'W. H.'s' Southwell
manuscript--there is a bare chance that Wither had in mind 'W. H.'s'
greeting of Mathew Saunders, but fifty recently published volumes would
have supplied him with similar hints.

{400a} Thorpe dedicated to Florio _Epictetus his Manuall_, _and Cebes
his Table_, _out of Greek originall by Io. Healey_, 1610. He dedicated
to the Earl of Pembroke _St. Augustine_, _Of the Citie of God_ . . .
_Englished by I. H._, 1610, and a second edition of Healey's _Epictetus_,
1616.

{400b} Southwell's _Foure-fould