Note 631 — THE BLACK BOOK.

as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine] From this passage Malone conjectured that the play of Tamburlaine, generally ascribed to Marlowe, was written either wholly or in part by Nash,—Shakespeare (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 357: but Mr. J. P. Collier has most satisfactorily shewn that it was the work of the former; see Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 113, sqq.—The present tract, and the one which follows it (Father Hubburd’s Tales), both published in 1604, prove that Nash died during that year: he is here described (I fear too truly) as living in a state of squalid poverty; in the next piece he is spoken of as deceased.