Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/69

 made a baseless suggestion that Greene, who, as editor, signs the dedication to Viscount Fitz-Walter, was the author of the book, which was licensed for the press 4 Feb. 1591-2 (cf. Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 202, 5th ser. i. 21-3).

Lodge's work excited some interest among men of letters if not among the reading public. Spenser is believed to have commended him in his 'Colin Clout's Come Home Again,' written in 1591, as 'pleasing Alcon,' who was advised by the poet to 'raise his tunes from lays to matters of more skill' (ll. 395-6). Alcon is the name of a character in the 'Looking Glasse for London,' by Lodge and Greene. Greene, in his latest work, 'A Groatsworth of Wit' (1592), referred to 'young Juvenal, that biting satirist, that lastly with me together writ a comedie,' and urged him to 'inveigh against vain men.' The exhortation, it has been frequently assumed, was addressed to Lodge. Lodge's satire is hardly pungent enough to justify the theory, and Nashe has a better claim to the appellation of 'biting Juvenal.' But in an address to 'the Gentlemen readers' in 'Euphues Shadow' Greene announced the early publication of 'what laboures Lodge's sea studies afford.' Accordingly, in 1593, after his return, was issued his chief volume of verse—forty sonnets and short pieces, with a longer narrative poem on the model of the tales in the 'Mirror for Magistrates.' The title runs: 'Phillis: honoured with Pastorall Sonnets, Elegies, and amorous delights. Whereunto is annexed the tragicall complaynt of Elstred. Iam Phæbus disiungit equos, iam Cinthia iungit.' It is dedicated to the Countess of Shrewsbury, 'the true Octavia of our time.' 'Phillis' was probably Lodge's endeavour to follow Spenser's advice to 'raise his tunes,' and he seems to acknowledge Spenser's kindly interest by eulogising him in the 'Induction,' under the name of 'learned Colin,' compared with whom he represents the other poets of his day as mists in the presence of a sun. The succeeding stanza commends Daniel, to whose 'Delia' the arrangement of the volume bears resemblance. One of the poems (Sonnet 25) was introduced into 'England's Helicon,' 1600, and is there, like two extracts from 'Rosalynde,' wrongly subscribed S[ir] E[dward] D[yer].

A second historical romance, of higher literary value than the first, followed, with the title 'The Life and Death of William Longbeard, the most famous and witty English Traitor, borne in the Citty of London. Accompanied with manye other most pleasant and prettie Histories,' 1593. It is interspersed with verses addressed by the hero to his 'faire lemman Maudeline.' The appendix collects tales of 'famous pirats' and stories of Francesco Sforza and 'Tyrsus the Tyrant.' The book is chiefly interesting because it probably supplied Lodge's friend Drayton with materials for his lost play, 'William Longbeard' (cf., Diary, pp. 95, 142). In the same year (1593) sixteen lyrics by Lodge— of which fourteen were not previously printed —were included in the poetical collection called 'The Phoenix Nest.' On 7 June 1594 a work, called 'A Spiders Webbe,' was licensed for the press to Nicolas Ling (, Transcript, ii. 652). No copy is now known, but one was sold as a work by Lodge at the sale of one John Hutton's library in 1764. A more fortunate effort appeared a year later, after what Lodge calls 'a long silence.' It is entitled 'A Fig for Momus, containing pleasant varietie, included in Satyres. Eclogues, and Epistles, by T. L., of Lincolnes Inne, Gent. Che pecora si fa, il lupo selo mangia,' 1595 (licensed for the press 26 March). The poet, after a dedication to the Earl of Derby, explains to his readers that he delights in variety, that his satires, of which he has more in reserve, are 'by-pleasures,' intended to reprehend vice and no particular person, and that his epistles in verse are the first undertaken by an Englishman. The eclogues are the best features of the book. One is addressed to Samuel Daniel (p. 28). In another, a pastoral dialogue, inscribed 'To Rowland,' Golde (i.e.,Lodge himself) and a shepherd named Wagrin are the speakers, and the former deplores the cool reception accorded to his verse. An epistle to Drayton illustrates the closeness of their literary sympathies (cf. Gent. Mag. 1850, pt. ii. p. 132).

Lodge seems to have kept the threat, spoken under the pseudonym of Golde, to 'cease to ravel out his wits in rhyme.' Extracts from his poetry appeared in 'England's Parnassus,' 1600, where he is called 'D[octor] Lodge,' and at least thirteen complete poems—two not previously published—in 'England's Helicon,' 1600 (cf., Miscellaneous Piece, Hunterian Club, pp. 6-20), but after 1595 he issued no more volumes of verse.

In 1596 Lodge produced three or perhaps four prose works, and they seem to be the fruits of his final efforts to make a livelihood out of literature. In the autumn he removed from London to Low Leyton, Essex, near some property owned by his family. The first work of this year was a moral conference between the hermit Anthony and three men of the world, entitled 'The Divel Conjured': it is dedicated, under date 15 April, to Sir John Fortescue, chancellor of the exchequer, to whom the writer complains that he is the