Page:The Age of Shakespeare - Swinburne (1908).djvu/292

 the warmest admirer of that loudly lamented person will scarcely maintain that this loss was of such grave importance to England as the loss of a prince who might probably have preserved the country from the alternate oppression of prelates and of Puritans, from the social tyranny of a dictator and the political disgrace of the Restoration.

The existence of a comedy by the author of 'The Revenger's Tragedy,' and of a comedy bearing the suggestive if not provocative title of 'Laugh and Lie Down,' must always have seemed to the students of Lowndes one of the most curious and amusing pieces of information to be gathered from the 'Bibliographer's Manual'; and it is with a sense of disappointment proportionate to this sense of curiosity that they will discover the non-existence of such a comedy, and the existence in its stead of a mere pamphlet in prose issued under that more than promising title: which yet, if attainable, ought surely to be reprinted, however dubious may be its claim to the honour of a great poet's authorship. In no case can it possibly be of less interest or value than the earliest extant publication of that poet—'The Transformed Metamorphosis.' Its first editor has given proof of very commendable perseverance and fairly creditable perspicacity in his devoted attempt at elucidation of this most astonishing and indescribable piece of work: but no