\s:-y-'-- :-vv <•:'•; ^:. ':•> REESE LIBRARY . OF Till. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. t '{(cession No. / C? 3 ^/-^- Classss No. $ :m. %***:» « »< » «|* f | *: THE HUTH LIBRARY. THE NON-DRAMATIC WORKS OF THOxMAS DEKKER. VOL. III. DEKKER HIS DREAME. THE BELMAN OF LONDON. LANTHORNE AND CANDLE-LIGHT. A STRANGE HORSE-RACE. 1608— 1620. -*&» ^ .£*.+£ Night. Would he had another purse to cut, Zekiel. Edg. Purse ! a man might cut out his kidneys, I think, and he never feel 'em, he is so earnest at the sport. Night. His soul is half-way out on's body at the game. that — iv. i. Edg. Away, Nightingale ; way. Bartholomew Fair, ekker life Dreamt. In which x beeing rapt with a Poetical! «* Volumes Heauen Snthujiafme^ thegreat of and Hell to Him were opened, in which he read many Wonderful Things. EftDeus inl^obU, agitantes cdefctmm itto* LONDON, Printedhp Nicholas Okis. i £ 2 o. > ..-'„» OR, ELIZABETH AN- JACOBEAN Yerse and Prose LA R G E LY TroTWs l7b& ZiirOsTy of T^£xmJ, c mPlos&0?ij. etc. BY THE E CIRCULATION 01 Cfje rputb Librarp. THE NON-DRAMATIC WORKS 01 THOMAS DEKKER. IN FIVE VOL UMES. FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED AND EDITED, WITH MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC. BY THE REV. AJ EXANDER B. GROSART,D.D. > LL.D.(Edin.)iF-S.A.(Scot.), St. George's, Blackburn, Lancashire. VOL. III. DEKKER HIS DREAME. 1620. THE BELMAN OF LONDON. 1608. LANTHORNE AND CANDLE-LIGHT. 1609. A STRANGE HORSE-RACE. 1613. PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY 1885. 50 Copies.] 7£?*-2- Printed by Hazell, Watson, &* Viney, Ld., London and Ayh CONTENTS. Dekkek his Dreame I The Belman of London 61 the bel-man's lanthorne and candle-llght ; or, Second Nights-Walke 171 A Strange Horse-Race 305 Reader, here is fuch a Book Will make you leap before you look. And fhift. without being thought a Rook. The Author's airy, light, and thin, Whom no man faw e'r break a fhin, Or ever yet leap out ofs fkin. When e'r he ftrain'd at Horfe or Bell, Tom Charles himfelf who came to fmell His faults, (till fwore 'twas clean and well. William Cartwrigiu. ^ifwmmwww'PiwtiMfetSli* h(<&/®' &* fil SI £1 £1 i IX. DEKKER HIS DREAME. 620. D. III. NOTE. ' For Dekker his Dreame' I am again indebted to the British Museum. The last page of this exemplar is executed in marvellous fac-simile by Harris. In 1S60 Mr. James O. Halliwell (now Dr. Halliwell-Phillip) I reprinted this tractate in some 25 copies or thereby. His Copyist did his errors of omission and commission his work most perfunctorily ; little book so much The fol- making the beautiful just —waste-paper. lowing are some of the more flagrant blunders Page 8, line 2S, 'feelings' for 'feelings.' — the of the are 13, ,, 15, onward whole margin-notes omitted—without notice. ' ' for ' ?? 28, sphaete Sphaere.' ' ' 10, greping for 'griping.' ' ' 28, Trumph'd for Triumph 'd.' " ; 17, Honor and Greatneffe wore Immortall cloath; —dropped out. ' 3, 'bufferings for 'buffetings.' ' ' ' 7, broken starues for broken statues.' 26, 'the' for 'he.' ' ' 26, thereby dropped. 11, 'tembling' for 'trembling.' ' 18, 'daly' for dayly.' ' ' 19, nor' for or.' 21, 'were' for 'where.' 15, 'for' for 'fet.' 19, 'hillish' for 'hellish.' ' ' ' ' 10, though for through. 19, 'ruffian' for 'Ruffian.' 25, 'he 'for 'be.' ' ' ' 9, At for A.' 28, 'digestion' for 'disgestion.' ' ' ' ' 1 2, sale for sayle. ' ' ' ' 7, than for then. 24, 'tylts' for 'Iylts.' 4, 'perwid'for 'periurd.' ' ' ' 17,' head for bread. 24, 'Tob'for 'lob.' 3, 'nimicum' for 'nimium.' " " I in a Rich 8, neuer flept lordly Roome —dropped out. ' ' ' ' I before neuer j) 56, ; > 9) superfluously. 'Like' for 'Little.' ;, 57, „ 3, 'a' before 'Methuslem's ' .. 58, ,, 12, superfluously. these in a slender and All pamphlet, over-and-above scarcely numerable departures from orthography, capitals, italics, etc., etc. NOTE. 3 ' ' Title-page—The woodcut of Dekker in bed asleep in no way is faithful to the original. The features especially are grotesquely false. The dreaming poet's nose is in the original narrow and in thick and the sensitive, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps' gross ; checks thin and worn, in the reproduction fat and bloated, and so through- out. Our admirable fac-simile (in 4 ) will therefore be doubly- ' acceptable. The late Rev. Thomas Corser, in his Collectanea ' Anglo-Poetica (s. «.), has re-used Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps' wood- block, and by the kindness of the Chetham Society I am enabled to give an impression from this as used by both (page 5), to prove how utterly unfaithful it is to the original. See Memorial-Intro- duction on the probable likeness of the Author herein. The original tractate consists of 22 leaves (B. Museum 39, c. 6). A. B. G. Dekker his Dreame. Poetical 1 In which, beeing rapt with a Enthujiqfme, the great Volumes of Heauen and Hell to Him were opened, in which he read many Wonderfull Things. Eft Deus in nobis, agitante calefcimus lllo. LONDON Printed by Nicholas Okes. 1620. To THE TRVELY-ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN, and worthy Deferuer of all Mens Loues, Mafter Llndymion Porter. Sir : 7 'i you afke why, from the heapes of Men, I picke out you onely to bee that Murus ahaeneus, which muft defend mee, let me tell you (what you know already) that Books are like the Hungarians in Paules, who haue a Priuiledge to holde out their Turkifh Hiftor\ for any one to reade. They beg nothing, the Texted talkes all be Pajl-bord ; and if nothing giuen, nothing is fpoken, but God knowes what they thinke. If you are angry, that I thruft into your hands a Sublet! this take of Nature ; O good Sir, me thus into that it was me far your pardon ; impoj/ible for to beget a Better : For the Bed on which feuen years I lay Dreaming, was filled with t homes inflead of - fethers, my pillow a rugged flint, my Chamber fellowes (forrowes that day and night kept me company ) the very, or worfe than the very Infernal/ Furies. Befides, I herein / imitate the moft Courtly THE EPISTLE DEDICA TORIE. Lords be in the Grand Reue'llings ; for if Majque, in the Antimafque are Players : So in thefe of wine, though the Diuell bee in the one, God is in the other ; nay in Both. What I fend you, may perhaps feeme bitter, yet it is wholefome ; your beji is leaue rotten Phyficke not a Iulep ; Jweete Jawces bodies. 'There is a Hell named in our Creede, and a Heauen, and the Hell comes before : If we looke not into the firft, we fliall neuer Hue in the laft. Our is the land tojfing vp and down (here) the Sea, but of Angels is our Shoare. Sayle Jo long as we can beare vp, through Honors, Riches, Pleajures, and all the fenfuall Billowes of the World ; yet there is one Harbour to put in at, andfafely to arriue (There) is all the Hardnejfe, all the Happinejfe. Bookes are Pilots in Juch voyages : would mine were but one point of the CompaJJe, for any man to fteere well by. I doe not thinke, but euen thofe Courtiers, who are moft taken with the glittering of Pallaces, doe from thofe glorious Enter-viewes, mafques, tilt-triumphs, £s? Juch like, (with which their eyes are Jo often banqueted), reade fometimes excellet leclures to their foules, by a comparative laying thofe tranjitory Ones, and thoje immortall beauties of heauen together. The very Roofes of kings Courts, do almoft draw vs a : the zp to J fuch contemplation For when Paue- ments offuch Places are at the beft but Marble, yet (he vpper feelings are like Firmaments of Starres: THE EPISTLE DEDICA TORIE. g There you fee the golden Embofments and curious Enchafings : The true brauery is aboue. jln excellent Dinner was that in France, when the King and Queen fate at Table, and with them, Thomas Aquinas and Bonauentura (the two great Schoolemen): whiljl the others were feeding, one of thefe caft an earneji and fixed eye vpon the beauty of the Queene : at which the King wondring, afked, why hee did fo ? (quoth he), if the great JVorke-maifter, out of a peece of clay, can mould and a creature as is fafhion fo admirable your Queen ; I am rapt into an aftonijhable amazemet to thinke, how glorious thofe Bodyes are, who are Courtiers attending vpon his Maiejlicall Throne. If I hold the Pen longer in my hand, I fliall fall afleepe againe: But howfoeuer I wake, or haue mine eyes clofed, / reft, Euer ready to do you feruice, Tho. Dekker. D. III. TO THE READER. ^pv^aVT of a long Sleepe, which for almoft feuen yeares together, seized al my fences, drowning them in a deepe Lethe of forgetfulnefTe, and burying mee to the World, in the loweft graue of : in that with Obliuion / Meeting drouzy voyage nothing but frightfull Apparitions, by reafon (as now I guefTe) of the place in which I lay, being a Caue ftrongly fhut vp by moft Diuellifh and I laft fall into a dreadfull Enchantments ; did at Dreame, which prefented to my waking Soule infinite Pleafures, commix'd with In-vtterable Horrors. More did I behold thus Sleeping, then euer I could before, when my eies were wide open. I climbed to the tops of all the trees in Paradife, and eate fweeter Apples then Adam euer tafted. I went into the Star-Chamber of Heauen, where Kings and Princes were fet to the Barre, and when the Court arofe, I fed vpon manna, at a table with Angels. Ierufalem was the Pallace I liued in, and Mount Sion the hil, from whofe top, I was dazled 12 TO THE READER.