364 Tucker Brooke, 



'Twere excellent, and (praise be to my memory), 

 It has reach'd half a dozen lines for the purpose : 

 Well she shall have them — 



Whereupon he recites, quite accurately, ten hnes from Marlowe's 



discussion of virginity (I. 255-264). 



In the fifth act of Bartholomew Fair, Jonson parodies ]\Iarlowe 



in the puppet-play of Lanthorn Leatherhead : 'The ancient modern 



history of Hero and Leander, otherwise called the Touchstone of 



true Love.' The dialogue between Cokes and Leatherhead implies 



no low opinion of the original work : 



Cokes. But do you play it according to the printed book? I have read that. 



Leatherhead. By no means, sir. 



Cokes. No ! how then ? 



Leatherhead. A better vi^ay, sir; that is too learned and poetical for our 

 audience : what do they know what Hellespont is, guilty of true love's 

 blood? or what Abydos is? or tlie other, Sestos hight? 



Cokes. Thou art in the right ; I do not know myself. 



A Striking statement of Jonson's personal judgment of Mar- 

 lowe's Hero and Leander, and testimony to the poem's continued 

 repute in the Commonwealth period, are found in R. C.'s preface 

 to the posthumous Chast and Lost Lovers of William Bosworth 

 (1651):- 



The strength of his fancy, and the shadowing of it in words he [i.e., 

 Bosworth] taketh from Mr. Marloiv in his Hero and Leander, whose mighty 

 lines Mr. Benjamin lohnson (a man sensible enough of his own abilities) 

 was often heard to say, that they were Examples fitter for admiration than 

 for parallel, you shall find our Author everywhere in this imitation. This 

 the one [i.e., Bosworth]. 



Sojiie say fair Cupid unto her inclin'd, 



Mourn'd as he zvcnt, and thinking on her pin'd. 

 And in another place. 



And as she went, casting her eyes aside. 



Many admiring at her beauty dy'd. 

 This the other [i.e., Marlowe], 



And mighty Princes of her love deny'd, 



Pin'd as they zvcnt, & thinking on her dy'd. [Cf. HL, I. J2()i.] 

 You shall finde also how studious he is to follow him in those many quick 

 and short sentences at the close of his fancy, with which he everywhere 

 doth adorn his writings. 



Bosworth's indebtedness to Hero and Leander is in fact very great. 

 Richard Brome's Mad Couple Well Matched, first printed in 



" Reprinted in Saintsbury's Caroline Poets, vol. ii. 



