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INDIANA UNIVEESITY 



portion of it was written by Greene himself may well be questioned. I ml i: 

 may have been intended as a kind of supplement to his tirst and sctoinl 

 parts of Coneycatching, originally published in 1591."' 



There is no suggestion of Rowlands' indebtedness to Greene 

 here. I have not seen this rej^rint, the impression being a very 

 limited one (twenty-six copies), but certainly notliing was made of 

 S. R. 's borrowings. Had there been, the Hunterian Club edition 

 (1880) would have noted the fact. The truth is that this edition 

 also takes practicalh^ no account of Rowlands' plagiarism. Cer- 

 tainly it has served a more useful purpose. Almost as though it 

 were intentional, however, the i\Iemoir, the Biographical Index, 

 and the Notes are singularly silent on the matter. ^Ir. Edmund 

 Gosse, the writer of the ]\Iemoir, does point out that Rowlands was 

 quick in adopting new^ ideas, that he kept his ear close to the ground. 

 Then too Mr. Gosse makes a direct indictment (though not neces- 

 sarily of jilagiarism) against Rowlands wdien he says: "^Martin 

 ]\Iark-all, his contribution to 1610, is an an^ant piece of book- 

 making," and argues that the catch-penm^ nature of this tract and 

 of ''The Whole Crew Kind Go.ssips" (1609) indicates that ''our 

 poet had fallen on troublous days."' 



The writer is inclined to disagree with this for several reasons. 

 In the first place, "Martin Mark-all" is by no means the first nor 

 tlie worst example of book-making in Rowlands, as will be shown 

 conclusively. In the second place, although this tract contains 

 lengthy paraphrases and even verbatim excerpts from another 

 source, it is one of the most brilliant — this is none too strong a 

 word — things Rowlands ever did. And lastly the broad humour of 

 ''Martin i\Iark-aU" emphasizes a certain sureness of self and an 

 evident smugness in its author. I cannot believe that the days in 

 which Rowlands was having a good deal of fun at Dekker's expense 

 w^ere troublous ones. If so, Martin Mark-all was more than a silent 

 sufferer. Unfortunately all this must remain for the present a 

 part of the great open cpiestion, the question of the every day life 

 and habits of the most mystifidng of the Elizabethans. 



^ This preface is given in the Bibliographical Index of the Hunterian Club. ed. 

 I, 16. 



« This index contains Sir Walter Scott's very interesting advertisement of 

 James Ballantyne & Co.'s reprint in 1815 of Rowlands' The Letting of Humours 

 Blood in the Head Yaine etc. (1611) Mr. Sidney Lee in D. V. B. dates this reprint 

 1S14. 



Mr. R. B. McKerrow was, I think, the first man to point out this poem's de- 

 pendence upon Nashe and Lodge. See Works of Thomas Nashe, notes on Vol. I, 

 162, 34-5 ; 208, 23. 



' Memoi)- on Samuel Rowlands. I, 18. 



