own plots, and lightly censuring the foibles of middle-class London society. His tragedies are not attractive. But Samuel Sheppard in the sixth sestiad (‘the Assizes of Apollo’) of his ‘Times Display'd,’ 1646, associates Nabbes's name with the names of D'Avenant, Shirley, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and selects his tragedy of ‘Hannibal and Scipio’ for special commendation. Nabbes displays a satisfactory command of the niceties of dramatic blank verse, in which all his plays, excluding the two earliest comedies, were mainly written. Although he was far more refined in sentiment than most of his contemporaries, he is capable at times of considerable coarseness.
As a writer of masques Nabbes deserves more consideration. His touch was usually light and his machinery ingenious. The least satisfactory was the one first published, viz. ‘Microcosmus. A Morall Maske, presented with generall liking, at the Private House in Salisbury Court, and heere set down according to the intention of the Authour, Thomas Nabbes,’ 1637. A reference to the approaching publication of the work was made in ‘Don Zara del Fogo,’ a mock romance, which was written before 1637, though not published till 1656. Richard Brome contributed prefatory verses. His ‘Spring's Glory’ (1638) bears some resemblance to Middleton's ‘Inner Temple Masque,’ published in 1618. The ‘Presentation intended for the Prince his Highnesse on his Birthday’ (1638) is bright and attractive, although it does not appear to have been actually performed. It was printed with ‘The Spring's Glory,’ together with some occasional verses. The volume, which was dedicated to William, son of Peter Balle, was entitled ‘The Spring's Glory, a Maske. Together with sundry Poems, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums. By Thomas Nabbes,’ 1639. Of the poems, the verses on a ‘Mistresse of whose Affection hee was doubtfull’ have a certain charm; they are included in Mr. Linton's ‘Collection of Rare Poems.’ Nabbes contributed commendatory verses to Shackerley Marmion's ‘Legend of Cupid and Psyche,’ 1637; Robert Chamberlain's ‘Nocturnal Lucubrations,’ 1638; Thomas Jordan's ‘Poeticall Varieties,’ 1640; John Tatham's ‘Fancies Theater,’ 1640; Humphrey Mills's ‘A Night's Search.’ 1640; Thomas Beedome's ‘Poems Divine and Humane,’ 1641; and the ‘Phœnix of these Late Times; or, the Life of Mr. Henry Welby, Esq.’ (1637). Welby was an eccentric, who was credited with living without food or drink for the last forty-four years of his life. To the fifth edition of Richard Knolles's ‘Generall Historie of the Turkes’ (1638) Nabbes appended ‘A Continuation of the Turkish Historie, from the Yeare of our Lord 1628 to the end of the Yeare 1637. Collected out of the Dispatches of Sr. Peter Wyche, Knight, Embassador at Constantinople, and others.’ The dedication is addressed to Sir Thomas Roe, whom Nabbes describes as a stranger to him [see Knolles, Richard].
According to Nabbes's ‘Encomium on the Leaden Steeple at Worcester, repayred in 1628,’ he desired to be buried in Worcester Cathedral; but Coxeter was of opinion that his grave was ‘in the Temple Church, under the organ on the inner side.’ The Temple burial register contains no record of Nabbes, but the register often fails to mention the names of those who, although buried there, had, in the opinion of the authorities, no obvious claim to a posthumous reputation.
All Nabbes's works, excluding only the continuation of Knolles, were brought together by Mr. A. H. Bullen in 1887. This collected edition forms vols. i. and ii. of the new series of Mr. Bullen's privately printed ‘Old English Plays.’
[Mr. Bullen's preface to the collected edition of Nabbes's works; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24487, f. 334; Brydges's Censura, i. 439; Langbaine's English Dramatick Poets; Cibber's Lives of the Poets, ii. 24; Fleay's Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama.]
NADEN, CONSTANCE CAROLINE WOODHILL (1858–1889), poetess, born on 24 Jan. 1858 at 15 Francis Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, was the only child of Thomas Naden, afterwards president of the Birmingham Architectural Association, by his wife Caroline Anne, daughter of J. C. Woodhill of Pakenham House, Edgbaston. Her mother died within a fortnight of the child's birth, and Constance was brought up by her grandparents. Mr. Woodhill was a retired jeweller of high character, an elder of a baptist church, and a man of some literary taste. From the age of eight till the age of sixteen or seventeen Miss Naden attended a day-school in Edgbaston kept by two unitarian ladies, the Misses Martin. She learnt flower-painting, and told fairy stories to her schoolfellows. After leaving school she remained with her grandparents. The rejection of some of her pictures by the Birmingham Society of Artists, after the acceptance of a first attempt, turned her thoughts to other studies. She learnt French, German, Latin, and some Greek, and was much attracted by the writings of James Hinton [q. v.], and by R. A. Vaughan's ‘Hours with the Mystics.’ She wrote at odd moments her ‘Songs and Son-
