Note 582 — THE BLACK BOOK.

Knight of the Post]—Or, as the term is afterwards varied in the present piece, “Knight of Perjury”—means a hireling evidence, &c.: see note, vol. i. p. 308. Nash makes Pierce commit his Supplication to the care of a knight of the post, who describes himself to be “a fellow that wil sweare you any thing for twelue pence, but indeed I am a spirit in nature and essence, that take vpon me this humane shape, onely to set men together by the eares, and send soules by millions to hell.” Pierce Pennilesse, &c., sig. B. ed. 1595.

In “A priuate Epistle to the Printer,” originally prefixed to the second ed. of the tract just quoted, the author tells him that “if my leysure were such as I could wish, I might haps (halfe a yeare hence) write the returne of the Knight of the Post from hell, with the Diuels answere to the Supplication.” Sig. A 2. ed. 1595. What Nash wanted time or inclination to do, was attempted by others after his decease: a writer, who professes to have been his “intimate and near companion,” put forth The Returne of the Knight of the Post from Hell, 1606; and Dekker published a pamphlet, of the same date, called Newes from Hell, Brought by the Diuells Carrier, the running title of which is The Diuels Answere to Pierce Pennylesse.