Chapter VI

_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