said George. "I am an invited guest, and besides, you are in rags. However, I will get you a supper if you will do what I bid."
Whilst seated at the entertainment, his needy friend pushed into the room and made up to Peele.
"You scoundrel," shouted the latter, "what are you doing here?"
"I pray you, sir, hear my errand," pleaded the man.
"Not I, you slave; get you gone!" and snatching a roasted rabbit from the dish, he threw it at him.
"You use me very rudely," said the man.
"You dunghole—will you outface me!" roared Peele, and snatching up a second rabbit threw it at his head, and then a loaf. After that he drew his dagger and made as though he would stab the man, but his friends interposed. The fellow picked up the rabbits and the bread and ran away with them. So, by this shift, Peele helped his friend to a supper, and was not suspected by the company.
Peele's Merry Conceited Jests was first published in 1607. Other editions appeared in 1626, 1627, 1657, and 1671. There is also an undated edition. The latest reprint is in Bullen's Works of George Peele, London, J. C. Nimmo, 1878.
His Merry Conceited Jests shows him to have been a great rogue. That he was a clever man and well educated is undoubted. He wrote several plays, but only some have been preserved, such as The Arraignment of Paris, 1584; The Old Wives' Tale|, 1595; Edward I, 1593; David and Bathsheba, 1599; The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, not published at the time. The Battle of Alcazar has been already mentioned. He also composed pageants that were performed at the inauguration of the chief magis-
