To the said Steps are joined other poems, entitled, The Delights of the Muses, wherein are several Latin poems; which tho’ of a more humane mixture, yet are sweet as they are innocent.  He hath also written Carmen Deo Nostro, being Hymns and other sacred Poems, addressed to the Countess of Denbigh.  He is said to have been master of five languages, besides his mother tongue, viz.  Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish.”

Mr. Crashaw seems to have been a very delicate and chaste writer; his language is pure, his thoughts natural, and his manner of writing tender.

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WILLIAM ROWLEY.

An author who lived in the reign of Charles I. and was some time a member of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge.  There are no particulars on record concerning this poet.  He was beloved, says Langbaine, by Shakespear, Johnson, and Fletcher, and writ with the former the British Merlin, besides what he joined in writing with poets of the third class, as Heywood, Middleton, Day, and Webster.

The author has six plays in print of his own writing, which are as follows;

1.  A New Wonder, a Woman never vext, a Comedy, acted Anno 1632.  The Widow’s finding her wedding Ring (which she dropt crossing the Thames) in the Belly of a Fish, is taken from the Story of Polycrates, in the Thalia of Herodotus.

2.  A Match at Midnight, a Comedy, acted by the Children of the Revels, 1633.  Part of the Plot is taken from a Story in the English Rogue, Part the fourth.

3.  All’s lost by Lust, a Tragedy, acted at the Phoenix in Drury-lane by the Lady Elizabeth’s Servants, 1633.  This is esteemed a tolerable Play.

4.  Shoemaker’s a Gentleman, a Comedy, acted at the Red-Bull, 1638.  This Play was afterwards revived at the Theatre in Dorset-Garden.  Plot from Crispin and Crispianus; or the History of the Gentle Craft.

5.  The Witch of Edmonton, a Tragi-Comedy, acted by the Prince’s Servants at the Cock-pit in Drury-Lane, 1658.  This Play was afterwards acted at Court with Applause.

6.  The Birth of Merlin, a Tragi-Comedy, 1662.  The Plot from Geofrey of Monmouth.  Shakespear assisted in this Play.  He joined with Middleton in his Spanish Gypsies, Webster in his Thracian Wonder.

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THOMAS NASH.

A versifier in the reign of King Charles I. was educated in the university of Cambridge, and was designed for holy orders.  He was descended from a family in Hertfordshire, and was born at Leostoff in Suffolk.  Whether he obtained any preferment in the church, or was honoured with any great man’s patronage, is no where determined.  It is reasonable to believe the contrary, because good fortune is seldom without the evidence of flattery, or envy, whereas distress and obscurity, are almost inseparable companions.