In the first two volumes;[2] but in the eyes of generous and competent
readers these blemishes (trivial for the most part) will not detract
from the solid value of the Collection. It remains that I should thank
Mr. BERNARD QUARITCH, the most famous bibliopole of our age (or any
age), for the kind interest that he has shewn in the progress of my
undertaking. Of his own accord Mr. QUARITCH offered to subscribe for one
third of the impression,--an offer which I gratefully accepted. I have
to thank Mr. FLEAY for looking over the proof-sheets of a great part of
the present volume and for aiding me with suggestions and corrections.
To Dr. KOeHLER, librarian to the Grand Duke of Weimar, I am indebted for
the true solution (see _Appendix_) of the rebus at the end of _The
Distracted Emperor_. Mr. EBSWORTH, with his usual kindness, helped me to
identify some of the songs mentioned in _Everie Woman in Her Humor_ (see
_Appendix_). 17, SUMATRA ROAD, WEST HAMPSTEAD, N.W. _8th October, 1885_.
INTRODUCTION TO _TWO TRAGEDIES IN ONE_. Of Robert Yarington, the author
of _Two Tragedies in One_ absolutely nothing is known. There is no
mention of him in Henslowe's Diary, and none of his contemporaries (so
far as I can discover) make the slightest allusion to him. The _Two
Tragedies_ is of the highest rarity and has never been reprinted before.
There are two distinct plots in the present play. The one relates to the
murder of Robert Beech, a chandler of Thames Street, and his boy, by a
tavern-keeper named Thomas Merry; and the other is founded on a story
which bears some resemblance to the well-known ballad of _The Babes in
the Wood_. I have not been able to discover the source from which the
playwright drew his account of the Thames Street murder. Holinshed and
Stow are silent; and I have consulted without avail Antony Munday's
"View of Sundry Examples," 1580, and "Sundry strange and inhumaine
Murthers lately committed," 1591 (an excessively rare, if not unique,
tract preserved at Lambeth). Yet the murder must have created some stir
and was not lightly forgotten. From Henslowe's Diary[3] (ed. Collier,
pp. 92-3) we learn that in 1599 Haughton and Day wrote a tragedy on the
subject,--"the Tragedy of Thomas Merrye." The second plot was derived, I
suppose, from some Italian story; and it is not improbable that the
ballad of the