[7] It may be doubted whether Greene and Nash did not contribute to bring the occupation of a _ropemaker_ into discredit. Marston, in his "_Parasitaster_," printed in 1606, for some reason or other, speaks of it in terms of great contempt. "Then must you sit there thrust and contemned, bareheaded to a grogram scribe, ready to start up at the door creaking, prest to get in, with your leave sir, to some surly groom, _the third son of a ropemaker_." [8] There is a MS. poem in the Brit. Mus. (Bibl. Sloan. 1489) entitled "The Trimming of Tom Nash," written in metre-ballad verse, but it does not relate to our author, though written probably not very long after 1600, and though the title is evidently borrowed from the tract by Gabriel Harvey. Near the opening it contains some notices of romances and works of the time, which may be worth quoting-- "And he as many authors read As ere Don Quixote had. And some of them could say by heart To make the hearers glad. "The valiant deeds of Knight o'th' Sun And Rosicleer so tall; And Palmerin of England too And Amadis of Gaul. "Bevis of Hampton he had read And Guy of Warwick stout; Huon of Bordeaux, though so long, Yet he had read him out. "The Hundred Tales and Scoggin's Jests And Arthur of the Round Table, The twelve Wise men of Gotham too And Ballads innumerable." [9] It is unnecessary to quote the passage, as the whole tract is reprinted both in the old and new editions of the "Harleian Miscellany." In his "Almond for a Parrot," Nash adverts to the ticklishness of the times, and to the necessity of being extremely guarded in what he might write. "If thou (Kemp) will not accept of it in regard of the envy of some citizens that cannot away with arguments, I'll prefer it (the book) to the soul of Dick Tarlton, who I know will entertain it with thanks, imitating herein that merry man Rabelais, who dedicated most of his works to the soul of the old Queen of Navarre, many years after her death, for that she was a maintainer of mirth in her life. Marry, God send us more of her making, and then some of us should not live so discontented as we do, for nowadays a man cannot have a bout with a ballader, or write _Midas habet aures asininas_, in great Roman letters, but he shall be in danger of a further displeasure." Nash's "Isle of Dogs" was doubtless a satire upon the age, which "touched too near" some persons in authority. In the last act of "The Return from Parnassus" the Isle of Dogs is frequently spoken of, and once as if it were a place of refuge. _Ingenioso_ says: "To be brief, _Academico_, writs are out for me to apprehend me for my plays, and now I am bound for _the Isle of Dogs_." [10] Sir J. Harington has an epigram upon the paper war between Harvey and Nash. TO DOCTOR HARVEY OF CAMBRIDGE.