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xxviii
PREFACE.
xxviii

"Faustus" and "Lust's Dominion" were reprinted, with prefatory sketches, in 1814.—Analyses of "Edward II." and the "Jew of Malta," were inserted in Blackwood's interesting magazine; and, still later, his "mighty line" has drawn high praise from the glittering pen of Mr. Hazlitt.—Mr. Lamb is rather hard on the fame of Marlow, and indeed shows less attention to his merits, than to those of any other author included in his specimens.—Barrabbas serves merely as a peg on which to fasten, under the cloak of moral observation, an illiberal sneer at a noted wealthy Jewish family; and "Tamburlaine" is said to be "in a very different style from the tragedy of Edward II." Did not this discrepancy suggest to Mr. Lamb some doubts as to the identity of the author? The genuineness of the Scythian Shepherd has often been suspected; Phillips attributes it to Thomas Newton—and till this point is settled, surely so ardent an admirer of the very reverend ancients might have spared poor Kit's manes the mortification of "the lunes of Tamburlaine." "Lust's Dominion" is dismis-