tragedy, that that renowned conjuror had entered into a similar bond with the potentate of the infernal regions. There may be, therefore, some link of connection between Powell's performance and that upon which the preceding ballad has been framed, which in the lapse of a century has been lost. In our day, we hear nothing of such a compact; but the Devil is brought in to carry away the hero to the punishment merited by his boasted crimes. In this respect, we should rather have taken Punch for a Frenchman than an Italian, according to the opinion of old Heylin; who, speaking of our near neighbours, and of that vanity which, when he wrote, made them vaunt of their vices, exclaims, in a sort of uncharitable rapture, "foolish and most perishing wretches, by whom each several wickedness is twice committed: first in the act, and secondly in the boast!"[1]
- ↑ "France painted to the Life"—London, 1656, p. 53. with the motto Quid non Gallia parturit ingens. Dante was no great admirer of the French, whom he thinks only just better than the people of Sienna:Hor fugiammai
Gente si vand coma la Sanese?
Certo non la Francesca si d' assai.
Inferno, chap. 29.
will take this opportunity of pointing out an error in the Introduction (p. 8) where Marlow's Tragedy is spoken of as if it had first appeared in 1610. Marlow was killed in 1593, (before the date assigned by Mr. Thoms to "the Second Report of Dr. Faustus," and his play was printed in 1604. We know of no edition in 1610.
