The two parts of the _Iron Age_ were
published in 1632, but are said, in the preface to the Second, to have
'been long since writ.' I refer to the pages of vol. 3 of Pearson's
_Heywood_ (1874). (1) p. 329, Troilus 'lyeth imbak'd In his cold blood.'
(2) p. 341, of Achilles' armour:
_Vulcan_ that wrought it out of gadds of Steele
With his _Ciclopian_ hammers, never made
Such noise upon his Anvile forging it,
Than these my arm'd fists in _Ulisses_ wracke.
(3) p. 357, 'till _Hecub's_ reverent lockes Be gul'd in slaughter.' (4)
p. 357, '_Scamander_ plaines Ore-spread with intrailes bak'd in blood
and dust.' (5) p. 378, 'We'll rost them at the scorching flames of
_Troy_.' (6) p. 379, 'tragicke slaughter, clad in gules and sables'
(cf.'sable arms' in the speech in _Hamlet_). (7) p. 384, 'these lockes,
now knotted all, As bak't in blood.' Of these, all but (1) and (2) are
in Part II. Part I. has many passages which recall _Troilus and
Cressida_. Mr. Fleay's speculation as to its date will be found in his
_Chronicle History of the English Drama_, i. p. 285.
For the same writer's ingenious theory (which is of course incapable of
proof) regarding the relation of the player's speech in _Hamlet_ to
Marlowe and Nash's _Dido_, see Furness's Variorum _Hamlet_.
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