_THOMAS NASH; THE PICARESQUE AND REALISTIC NOVEL_ 287 I. Merry books as a preservative of health--Sidney's contempt for the comic. Studies in real life--The picaresque tale; its Spanish origin--Its success in Europe---Lazarillo and Guzman 287 II. Thomas Nash--His birth, education and life--His writings, his temperament--His equal fondness for mirth and for lyrical poetry--His literary theories on art and style--His vocabulary, his style. His picaresque novel, "Jack Wilton"--Scenes and characters--Observation of nature--Dramatic and melodramatic parts--Historical personages--Nash's troubles on account of "Jack Wilton." His other works--Scenes of light comedy in them--Portraits of the upstart, of the sectary, &c. 295 III. Nash's successors--H. Chettle--Chettle's combined imitation of Nash, Greene and Sidney. Dekker--His dramatic and poetical faculty--His prose works--His literary connection with Nash--His pictures of real life--His humour and gaiety--Grobianism--A gallant at the play-house in the time of Shakespeare--Defoe and Swift as distant heirs 327 CHAPTER VII. _AFTER SHAKESPEARE_ 347 I. Heroical romances--Their origin mainly French--The new heroism _a panache_ on the stage, in epics, in the novel, in real life--The heroic ideal--The Hotel de Rambouillet 347 II. Heroes and heroism _a panache_ migrate to England--Their welcome in spite of the Puritans--Translations of French romances--Use of French engravings--Imitation and appreciation of French manners--Orinda, the Duchess of Newcastle, Dorothy Osborne, Mrs. Pepys 362 III. Original English novels in the heroical style--Roger Boyle, J. Crowne--Heroism on the stage 383 IV. Reaction in France--Sorel, Scarron, Furetiere, &c.--Reaction in England--"Adventures of Covent Garden," "Zelinda," &c. 397 V. Conclusion--The end of the period--Ingelo, Harrington, Mrs. Behn; how she anticipates Rousseau. Connection between the master-novelists of the eighteenth century and the prentice-novelists of the sixteenth 411 INDEX 419 [Illustration: ARIES.] [Illustration: TAURUS.] EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1.--Queen Elizabeth in State costume, with the royal insignia, after the engraving by William Rogers (born in London, about 1545) _Frontispiece_