These, with the
addition of _Great Brittaines Sunnes-set, bewailed with a Shower of
Teares_, at Oxford, printed by Joseph Barnes, 1613, the fragment of
which is in the possession of Mr. Collier, appear, as far as I can yet
ascertain, to be the only known publications of William Basse, with his
name attached to them in full. Other works, however, have been
attributed to him from the similarity of the initials,--but most of them
probably without much foundation; viz. 1. _Scacchia Ludus: Chesse-play_:
a poetical translation of Vida's poem at the end of _Ludus Sacchiae,
Chesse-Play_, by W.B. 4to. Lond. 1597; by Ritson. 2. _A Helpe to
Discourse; or a Miscelany of Merriment_, by W.B. and E.P. 2nd edit. 8vo.
Lond. 1620; by Mr. Malone. And 3. _That which seemes Best is Worst,
exprest in a Paraphrastical Transcript of Iuuenals tenth Satyre.
Together with the Tragicall Narration of Virginius Death interserted_,
by W.B. small 8vo. Lond.; imprinted by Felix Kyngston, 1617, by Mr.
Octavius Gilchrist, who however rather leans to the opinion of William
Barkstead being the author, from the circumstance of his having, as
early as 1607, paraphrased, much in a similar way, the interesting tale
of Myrrha, the mother of Adonis, from the 10th Book of the
Metamorphoses. (See _Restitutu_, vol. i. p. 41.)
Cole, in his MS. Collectanea for _Athenae Cantabrigiensis_, says:
"Mr.
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