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1 



IXDIAXA T XTVEESITT 



^vllicll devotes no little space to the exposure of bigamy. Rowlands' 

 very brief treatment of the subject is distinctly to his credit. 

 Brevity doesn 't always make for ^^dt ; it sometimes makes for clean- 

 liness. 



And now comes the most notorious of all the cribbings in Row- 

 lands : without a blush something less than two hundred lines are 

 taken practically verbatim from "The Blacke Bookes Messenger.'' 

 In a certain way tliis lengthy borrowing represents a peculiar form 

 01 theft, a form that is also used by Dekker. but never quite so 

 brazenly. It does not consist in taking a story and making it over, 

 with additions or omissions, a common practice with the Eliza- 

 bethans and one about which they had no qualms, but of dipping 

 down into the heart of a pamphlet and taking out a number of de- 

 scriptive i^assages one after the other. For this reason, perhaps, 

 the borrowing is, so far as I know, unrecorded. Professor Chand- 

 ler points out mereh^ the tag end of it which has to do with a trick 

 played on unsuspecting merchants by fake colliers. The excei^pts 

 follow : 



Greenes GJiost. 



But exceeding all these are the 

 fine sleights of our Italian humour- 

 ists, who being men for all com- 

 panies, will by once conuersing with 

 a man so draw him to them, that he 

 shall thinke nothing in the world 

 too deare for them, nor once be able 

 to part them, ^Titill they haue spent 

 all they haue on them. 



If he be lasciuiously addicted they 

 haue Aretines Tables at his fingers 

 ends, to feede him on with new 

 kinde of filthinesse: they will come 

 in vrith R^wse the French painter, 

 and shew what an vnlawfuU vaine 

 he had in baudrie : . . . .[Several 

 lines of "^^Igarity.j 



If they see you couetously bent, 

 they will discourse wonders of the 

 Philosophers stone, and make you 

 beleeue that they can make gold of 

 goose-grease, only you must be at 

 some two or three hundred pound 

 charge, or such a small trifle, to 

 helpe to set vp their stilles, and 



The Blacl'c Brjokes Messenger. 



There are a number of my com- 

 panions yet lining in Erajhind, who 

 beeing men for all companies, will 

 by once conuersing with a man. S3 

 draw him to them, that he shall 

 thinke nothing in the world too 

 deare for them, and neuer bee able 

 to parte from them, vntill hee hath 

 spent all he hath. 



If he bee lasciuiously addicted, 

 they haue Aretines TaNes at their 

 lingers endes. to feed him on with 

 new kind of filthiness : they wil 

 come in with Rous the french Paint- 

 er, and what vnusuall vaine in 

 bawdery hee had .... [Several 

 lines of vulgarity.] 



If they see you couetously bent, 

 they wil tel you wonders of the 

 Philosophers stone, and make you 

 beleeue they can make golde of 

 Goose-greace : onely you must bee 

 at some two or three hundred 

 pounds cost, or such a trifling mat- 

 te-r, to helpe to set A-p their Stylles. 



