Written by Thomas Nash, Gentleman, London, by Richard Jhones, 1592.’ Of this ‘long-tailed’ verbiage Nash disapproved, and he contrived that Abel Jeffes, another stationer, should issue at once a second edition with the first seven words alone upon the title-page, along with the motto ‘Barbaria grandis habere nihil.’ In a ‘private epistle,’ Nash here explained that fear of the plague kept him from London while the book was going through the press, and that he had no intention of attacking any save those who attacked him. The work was well received; it was six times reprinted within the year, and was ‘maimedly translated’ into French. In 1595 H. C. (perhaps Henry Chettle) published a feeble imitation, entitled ‘Piers Plainnes seaven yeres Prentiship.’ About 1606, after Nash's death, an anonymous writer issued an ineffective sequel, ‘The Returne of the Knight of the Post from Hell with the Devils Answeare to the Supplication of Piers Penniless.’ Nash had himself contemplated the continuation of his ‘Piers’ under some such title. Dekker, as the champion of Nash's reputation, adversely criticised this effort in his ‘Newes from Hell brought by the Divells Carrier’ (1606).
In one bitter passage of ‘Pierce Pennilesse,’ Nash pursued his attack on the Harveys. Immediately afterwards Gabriel Harvey descended into the arena, avowedly to avenge Greene's attacks in his ‘Quip’ on himself and his brothers. Greene was now dead, but Gabriel had no scruple in defaming his memory in his ‘Foure Letters and certain Sonnets,’ which was licensed for publication in December 1592. Nash sprang to the rescue, as he asserted, of his friend's reputation. In his epistle to ‘Menaphon’ he had written respectfully of Gabriel Harvey as a writer of admirable Latin verse, and Gabriel Harvey had hitherto spoken courteously of Nash. He numbered him in his ‘Foure Letters’ among ‘the dear lovers and professed sons of the Muses,’ and had excused his onslaughts on Richard Harvey on the ground of his youth. But Nash now scorned compliments, and wholly devoted his next publication to a vigorous denunciation of Gabriel. He was seeking free play for his gladiatorial instincts, and his claim to intervene solely as Greene's champion cannot be accepted quite literally. In the second edition of his ‘Pierce,’ issued within a month of Greene's death, he had himself denounced Greene's ‘Groatsworth of Wit,’ his friend's dying utterance, as ‘a scald trivial lying pamphlet.’ His new tract was entitled ‘Strange Newes of the Intercepting certaine Letters and a Conuoy of Verses as they were going priuilie to victuall the Low Countries,’ i.e. to be applied to very undignified purposes, London, by John Danter, 1593. The work was licensed for the press on 12 Jan. 1592–3, under a title beginning ‘The Apologie of Pierce Pennilesse,’ and the second edition of 1593 was so designated. The dedication was addressed to ‘William Apis-Lapis,’ i.e. Bee-stone, whom Nash describes as ‘the most copious Carminist of our time, and famous persecutor of Priscian’ (Christopher Beestone, possibly son of William, was a well-known actor). Harvey replied to Nash's strictures in his venomous ‘Pierce's Supererogation.’ But a novel experience for Nash followed. He grew troubled by religious doubts; his temper took a pacific turn, and he was anxious to come to terms with Harvey. On 8 Sept. 1593 he obtained a license for publishing a series of repentant reflections on the sins of himself and his London neighbours, called ‘Christes Teares over Jerusalem.’ The dedication is addressed to Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Carey. There he affected to bid ‘a hundred unfortunate farewels to fantasticall satirisme, in whose veines heretofore I misspent my spirit and prodigally conspired against good houres. Nothing is there now so much in my vowes as to be at peace with all men, and make submissive amends where I have most displeased.’ Declaring himself tired of the controversy with Harvey, he acknowledged in generous terms that he had rashly assailed Harvey's ‘fame and reputation.’ But Harvey was deaf to the appeal; ‘the tears of the crocodile,’ he declared, did not move him. He at once renewed the battle in his ‘New Letter of Notable Contents.’ In a second edition of his ‘Christes Teares’ Nash accordingly withdrew his offers of peace, and lashed Harvey anew with unbounded fury. Thereupon for a season the combatants refrained from hostilities, and in 1595 Clarke in his ‘Polemanteia’ made a pathetic appeal to Cambridge University to make her two children friends.
In the intervals of the strife Nash had written ‘The Terrors of the Night, or a Discourse of Apparitions,’ London, by John Danter, 1594, 4to; he gives an enlightened explanation of the character of dreams, and declares his incredulity respecting many popular superstitions. It was dedicated to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Carey. The dedication is rendered notable by its frank praise of Daniel's ‘Delia.’ The work was licensed on 30 June 1593. A new literary experiment, and one of lasting influence and interest, followed. In 1594 appeared Nash's ‘Unfortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton,’ which he dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. It was entered on the ‘Stationers' Register,’ 7 Sept. 1593.
