Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/143

  from a serious illness, he went to winter at Florence. At the beginning of December a short attack of bronchitis proved fatal. He died on 10 Dec. 1861, and was buried in the protestant cemetery outside the Porta Pinti, Forence, where is a monument to his memory with medallion portrait. His bust, executed (1856) at Florence by J. Hart, is in the National Portrait Gallery, presented (February 1872) by a committee for the purpose. He was twice married, and left by his first marriage (to Miss Reade) two daughters; by his second marriage (to a daughter of John Christie of Hackney) an only son, Herman (d. 23 July 1897, aged 77).

 SMITH, WALTER (fl. 1525), wrote in verse an account of a roguish adventuress named Edyth, daughter of one John Hankin, and widow of one Thomas Ellys. Smith's work was entitled ‘The Widow Edyth; Twelue merry Gestys of one called Edyth, the lyeng Wydow.’ It was ‘emprinted at London at the sygne of the meremayde at Pollis gate next chepeside by J. Rastell 23 March MvCxxv.’ The printer notes that at the date of publication the heroine was still alive. The work is divided into twelve chapters, each called a ‘mery jeste.’ The coarse tricks which the widow is described as playing on tradesmen, tavern-keepers, and servants of great men, including the bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, are sometimes diverting, but their narrator displays few literary gifts. The work is of the greatest rarity. A copy was noticed in ‘Bibliotheca Smithiana,’ 1686, and in the catalogue of the Harleian collection, but it is doubtful if any now survive. Of a reprint issued by Richard Jones in 1573, two copies are known—one in the Bodleian Library, and the other in the Huth Library. A modern reprint is in W. C. Hazlitt's ‘Old English Jest Books,’ 1864, vol. iii.

 SMITH, WENTWORTH (fl. 1601–1623), dramatist, wrote many plays for the Admiral's company of actors at the Rose Theatre, in partnership with other authors employed by [q. v.], the theatrical manager. From the latter's ‘Diary’ it appears that he was associated between 1601 and 1603 in the composition of the following thirteen pieces, none of which seem to have been published, and none are now extant. Their titles are:
 * 1) ‘The Conquest of the West Indies’ (with Day and Haughton), 1601.
 * 2) ‘The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey’ (with Chettle, Drayton, and Munday), 1601.
 * 3) ‘Six Clothiers’ (with Hathway and Haughton), 1601.
 * 4) ‘Too Good to be True, or the Northern Man’ (with Chettle and Hathway), 1601.
 * 5) ‘Love parts Friendship’ (with Chettle), 1602.
 * 6) ‘As merry as may be’ (with Day and Hathway), 1602, written for the court and for the earl of Worcester's men at the Rose.
 * 7) ‘Albert Galles’ (with Heywood), 1602; possibly the title should be ‘Archigallus.
 * 8) ‘Marshal Osric’ (completed by Heywood, and doubtfully assumed by Fleay to be identical in its revised form with Heywood's ‘Royal King and Loyal Subject,’ London, 1637, 4to), 1602.
 * 9) ‘The ii (iii) Brothers,’ 1602.
 * 10) ‘Lady Jane’ (with Chettle, Dekker, Heywood, and Webster), 1602.
 * 11) ‘The Black Dog of Newgate’ (with Day, Hathway, and ‘the other poet,’ probably Haughton), 1602–3.
 * 12) ‘The Unfortunate General, a French History’ (with Day, Hathway, and ‘the other poet’), 1603. 13. ‘An Italian Tragedy,’ 1603.

To Wentworth may be ascribed the extant play, by ‘W. Smith,’ called ‘The Hector of Germanie, or the Palsgrave, Prime Elector. A New Play, an Honourable Hystorie. As it hath beene publikely Acted at the Red Bull and at the Curtaine, by a Companie of Young men of this Citie. Made by W. Smith, with new Additions. London, printed by Thomas Creede for Josias Harrison, and are to be solde in Pater-Noster Row, at the Signe of the Golden Anker,’ 1615, 4to. Written in 1613, it was dedicated to ‘the Right Worshipfull the great Favorer of the Muses, Syr John Swinnerton, Knight, sometimes Lord Mayor of this honourable Cittie of London.’ Baker is mistaken in asserting that this was the last play acted at the Curtain. From the dedication we learn that the author also wrote ‘The Freeman's Honour,’ another piece not known to be extant, which he says was ‘acted by the Servants of the King's Majesty to dignify the worthy company of Merchant Taylors’ (, Biogr. Chron.;, Progresses of James I, ii. 732). An endeavour has been made to place both these plays to the credit of another dramatist named William Smith,