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SHAKSPERE
ALLUSION-BOOKS.
PART I.
X'1 iv
EDITED BY
C. M. INGLEBY, M.A., LL.D.
FOR SN SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, LONDON.
PUBLISHED FOR
-Sfjaftspere Soctetg
BY N. TRUBNER & CO., 57, 59, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E.G., 1874.
PR
3S88 U
x?o.
Series IV. fto. 1.
JOHK CHILDS AXD SON, PRINTERS.
CONTENTS.
PAGB
GENERAL INTRODUCTION i
I. On "Green's Groatsworth of Wit" ii
II. On " Kind-Harts Dream " viii
III. On " Englandes Mourning Garment " ... ... xiii
IV. AND v. On "A Mournefull Dittie" and "I. C.'s I2th
Epigram " ... ... ... ... ... ... xxi
VI. On Gabriel Harvey's Third Letter ... ... ... xxii
VII. OrhFive Sections of Meres' " Wits Treasury " ... xxiii
Viii. On Spenser's " Colin Clouts Come Home Againe" xxiv
IX. On " Willobie his Avisa" ... xxviii
X-XVII. On an " Epicedium," Drayton's "Matilda,"
" Polimanteia, " &c ... xxxi-xxxv
A few Notes and Corrections to Gabriel Harvey's Third Letter ... xxxvi
SUPPLEMENT. By R. Simpson, Esq. :
I. Greene on Nash ... ... ... xxxvii
ii. Chettle on Shakspere xli
in. Marlowe, Greene, and Shakspere ... xlv
GREENE'S GROATSWORTH OF WIT I
(Allusion to Shakspere, p. 30, 1. 31-35).
KIND-HARTS DREAME, by H[enry] Cfhettle] 35
(Allusion to Shakspere, p. 38, 1. 8-17).
ENGLANDES MOURNING GARMENT [by Henry Chettle] ... 77 (Allusion to Shakspere, p. 98, 1. 11-16).
A MOURNEFULL DITTIE, entituled Elizabeths Losse, together
with A Welcome for King James ... ... ... ... ... 117
(Allusion to Shakspere, p. 119, 1. 4-7).
I. C.'s I2TH EPIGRAM, from Epigrames served out in 52 severall
Dishes for every man to tast without surfeting ... ... ... 121
(Allusion to Shakspere, p. 122, 1. 12-13).
CONTENTS.
PACK
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, from Foure Letters, and
certain Sonnets, &c '... 123
(Allusions to Shakspere, p. 130, 1. 13, p. 148, 1. 25-30).
Five Sections of PALLADIS TAMIA : WITS TREASURY, by
Francis Meres 151
(Ten allusions to Shakspere, pp. 157, 159-162).
Stanza from Edmund Spenser's COLIN CLOUTS COME HOME
AGAINE 168
(Alluding to Shakspere under the name Action).
Hexameton prefixed to WILLOBIE HIS AVISA 170
(Mentioning Shakspere and his Lucrece).
Canti XLIV.— XLVII. of WILLOBIE HIS AVISA 171
(Alluding to Shakspere under his initials).
Wlilliam] Har[bert]'s EPICEDIUM 177
(Mentioning Lucrece).
Sixth Verse of Michael Drayton's LEGEND OF MATILDA ... 178
(Mentioning Lucrece).
Extract from W[illiam] C[larke]'s POLIMANTEIA 179
(Mentioning Shakspere and his Lucrece).
John Weever's 22ND EPIGRAM, Ad Gulielmum Shakespeare, from his EPIGRAMMES IN THE OLDEST CUT AND NEWEST FASHION r8r
(Mentioning Shakspere's two chief poems and two of his tragedies).
Extract from R[ichard] C[arew]'s EXCELLENCIE OF THE ENG- LISH TONGUE 183
(Mentioning Shakspere).
Three Stanzas from R[obert] T[ofte]'s MONTH'S MIND OF A
MELANCHOLY LOVER 184
(Describing a performance of Lovers Labours Lost).
A REMEMBRANCE OF SOME ENGLISH POETS, from POEMS
IN DIVERS HUMORS, attributed to Richard Barnfeild ... 186
(Mentioning Shakspere and his two chief poems).
Extract from Satyres X. and VII. of John Marston's SCOURGE OF
VILLANIE 187-8
(Parodying and quoting a line from Richard III. and alluding to Romeo and Juliet).
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
A SECTION of our Reprints appears under the title of Allusion- Books. By this term we intend to cover not only those books which afford some allusion, or indirect reference, to Shakspere or to a work of his, but also those which directly deal with either: i. e. which mention him by name as the author of such and such a poem or play, or as a poet worthy of praise or of blame. This distinction is important, and it is but right, once for all, to insist upon it. Let us take an extreme instance of each term. In the Inferno of Dante (Cant. III.) occur these lines :
e vidi 1'ombra di colui Che fecc per viltate il grand rifiuto,
as to which it is still a debateable question, who is specially signal- ized under the description of the man " who made, through baseness, the great refusal " : in fact, three different interpretations have found supporters. If, as has been suggested, the reference be to Celestine the Fifth, this is an extreme instance of an allusion proper. De ' Quincey, in his admirable essay on Style (Works, Black's ed., vol. x. p. 254), has a note on the Cassandra of Lyco- phron, in which he speaks of the " symbolic images, which should naturally be intelligible enough to us who know the several his- tories " of the Trojan heroes, " but which (from the particular selection of accidents or circumstances used for the designation of persons) read like riddles without the aid of a commentator." De Q.uincey strictly calls these, allusions to the persons in ques- tion ; " as if," he remarks, " I should describe Cromwell by the expression, ' unfortunate tamer of horses,' &c. &c., or a noble lord of the last century as ' the roaster of men.' " (Essay on Jean Paul Hichter : Works, vol. xiii. p. 124.) Carlyle's works, again, are like Jean Paul's in this respect : full of allusions, often of the most obscure kind, to persons and events. To this day many of the allusions in the works of our old poets are uncertain. As- suredly " he who left untold," &c., in 11 Penseroso, is Chaucer ; but whether the next allusion be to Spenser only, or to Bojardo aa » well, remains an open question.
ALLUSION-BOOKS. b
11 C i:\KIt.\L INTRODUCTION.
But, on the other hand, when a writer is named, or mentioned in terms which directly identify him, it is not strictly correct to call such a reference, an allusion, since there is no by-play, or side- glance at an incident or event which may serve as the middle term of identification. Thus when Henry Willobie's anonymous eulogist writes
And Shake-speare paints poor Lucrece rape,
one can hardly say that the Rape of Lucrece or its author are alluded to : they are directly noticed. But notwithstanding, it is a fact that a vast number of such notices involve an indirect refer- ence to the writer or the writing ; and we may surely be allowed, for the sake of convenience, to employ a titl«, to cover all our Re- prints in this Section, which faithfully describes the greater part of them, and is applicable, with some little license, to nearly all.
The first instalment of our Allusion-Books consists of the fol- lowing : —
I. Green's Groats-worth of Wit ; bought with a million of Eepentance. . We know of no copy of the first edition, nor, in fact, of any edition earlier than that of 1596. We have therefore reprinted Mr Henry Huth's copy of that edition. The British Museum Library has a copy of the edition of 1617. The Bod- leian Library, Oxford, has copies of the editions published in 1621 and 1629 : the former of which, by a very common error of the press, reads " Tygres head," instead of " Tygers (or Tygres) heart," in the passage containing the famous allusion to Shakspere and his Third Part of Henry VI.
The title of this work is not The Groats-worth of Wit, &c. ; but Green's Groats-worth of Wit, &c., and herein lies matter for speculation. It was a practice with the writers of that time to combine some name, not always that of the author, with the title : e. g. The Countess of Pembrooke's Passion, Willobie his Aviso, &c. In the case of Robert Greene's remarkable tract, as in that ofAvisa, there was a special motive for the prominence accorded to the author's name in the title. It was one of Greene's posthumous works, and was revised and curtailed by his literary executor Henry Chettle, before it saw the light. At that day Greene's name had an extraordinary prestige, owing to the quantity and popularity of his literary productions, both in prose and in verse, dramatic and lyric. Accordingly Chettle puts Greene's name first, not only to bespeak the interest, and provoke the curiosity, of the public, but also to remind the reader of Greene's recent death and Chettle's editorship.
As Robert Greene died on Sept. 2 or 3, 1592, we may safely
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. ifi
refer the manuscript to the summer or autumn of that year: and as Kind-Hart's Dreame (which contains an allusion to Green's Groats- worth of Wit} was entered on the registers of the Stationers' Co. in Dec., 1592, it follows that Greene's book was printed and published between those two dates. That portion of this singular tract which entitles it to a place among our Allusion- BooJcs is the address, (following on the main story, and immediately preceding Greene's farewell,) "To those gentlemen his quondam acquaintance, that spend their wits in making plays;" which deals with five play-makers (not counting Shakspere), but is spe- cially addressed to three of them. These three have been identified as (1) Christopher Marlowe, (3) George Peele, and (2) Thomas Nash. This address is eminently suggestive of the low estate of the players at that date, and the discredit which attached to the writers who supplied them with copy. Only ponder the scorn with which John Day, and John Davies of Hereford (the admirer, if not the actual friend, of Shakspere and Burbage), say of the player's vocation. The former (if, as the late Mr Boltoh Corney conjectured, he were the author of The Returns from Pernassus, 1606, acted in 1602) puts the following speech into the mouth of Studioso (Actus 5, scaena 1) :
Fayre fell good Orpheus, that would rather be
King of a mole hill, then a Keysars slave :
Better it is niongst fidlers to be chiefe,
Then at [a] plaiers trencher beg reliefe.
But ist not strange this [these] mimick apes should prize
Unhappy Schollers at a hireling rate.
Vile world, that lifts them up to hye degree,
And treades us downe in groveling misery.
England affordes those glorious vagabonds,
That carried earst their fardels on their backes,
Coursers to ride on through the gazing streetes,
Scoping it in their glaring Satten sutes,
And Pages to attend their maisterships :
With mouthing words that better wits have framed,
They purchase lands, and now Esquiers are made.
(the last couplet not improbably alluding to Shakspere). To this Philomusus replies,
What ere they seeme being even at the best, They are but sporting fortunes scornfull jests.
John Davies writes thus :
Good God ! that ever pride should stoop so low,
That is by nature so exceeding hie :
Base pride, didst thou thy seli'e, or others know,
Wouldst thou in harts of Apish Actors lie,
That for a Cue wil sel their Qnalitie ?
Yet they through thy perswasiou (being strong)
iv GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Doc wcenc they merit immortality,
< hicly because (forsooth) they use thoir Tongue,
To speake as they are taught, or right or wronge.
If pride asccnde the at age (6 base ascent)
Al men may sec her, for nought comes thereon
But to be scene, and where Vice should be shent,
Yea, made most odious to ev'ry one,
In blazing her by demonstration
Then pride that is more than most vicious,
Should there endure open damnation,
And so shee doth, for slice's most odious
In Men most base, that are ambitious.
(Microcosmos, &c., 1603, pp. 214-5.) Even Lodge, who had indeed never trod the stage,1 but had written several plays, and had 110 reason to be ashamed of his antecedents, speaks of the vocation of the play-maker as sharing the odium attaching to the actor : —
At last he left me, where at first he found me, Willing me let the world and ladies knowe Of Scilla's pride, and then by oath he bound me To write no more of that whence shame doth grow : Or tie my pen to pennie-knaues delight, But live with fame, and so for fame to wright.
(Scillae's Metamorphosis : last stanza before I,' Envoy.) At this day we can hardly realise the scorn which was thrown on all sides upon those who made acting a means of livelihood. Let their lives be as cleanly and their dealings as upright as they might
1 In the Preface to Mr Collier's Reprint of the " Life and Death of William Longbeard, &c, by Thomas Lodge, 1593," (standing 7th in a volume of Reprints dated 1866) we have Mr Collier's latest deliverances on this matter. He says that " at one period, like many others, he [Lodge] coupled the profession of author and actor : " and subsequently says that Lodge " suffered so much from poverty, as to be driven from the university to the stage." The story is a pure fiction. It was started in
I. Dodsley's Select Collection of Old Plays, 1825, edited by Mr J. P. Collier, and repeated in
II. Gosson's School of Abuse, 1841, edited by Mr J. P. Collier.
III. Memoirs of Edward Alleyn. 1841, pp. 40—45, by Mr J. P. Collier.
IV. The Shakespeare Society's Papers, vol. iii. 1847, p. 145, Paper by Mr J. P. Reardon.
V. Lodge's Defence of Plays, and Alarum against Usurers, 1853, edited by Mr David Laing, with the aid of Mr J. P. Collier.
VI. Lodge's Life and Death of William Longbeard, [n. d.] edited by J. P. Collier. The true facts are set forth in
1. Was Thomas Lodge an actor? An Exposition touching the Social Status of the Playwright, in the time of Elizabeth, by C. M. Ingleby, LL.D., 1868.
2. Vol. ix. of Early English Text Society's Publications. Preface (on Vaga- bonds), 1869, pp. xxiv. xxv., by Edward Viles and F. J. Furnivall.
3. The Academy for Jan. 24, 1874. Letter frojn Mr F. J. Furnivall.
Mr Collier's last words on this and other falsifications with which he is charged, is to lay the fault if any on Messrs Amyot, Bruce, and others, who copied and collated for him, all of whom died years ago. See the Athetmum for Feb. 21, 1874. To Dr G. H. Kingsley belongs the credit of having first detected this miserable falsification.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. V
they were deemed to be sans aveu, runaways and vagrants : and even Shakspere suffered so keenly from his pariah condition, that he exclaims,
My name be buried where my body is, And live no more to shame nor me nor yon ! For I am shamed by that which I bring forth, And so should you to love things nothing worth.
Things were come to a pretty pass when a reckless profligate like Eobert Greene could afford to hurl scorn at Shakspere : the dramatist, low as he was, to pelt the poor player, who had done his best at that time to be a play-wright " of threads and patches," before showing himself a dramatist of the highest genius and originality.
Apart from the identity of the second play-maker, which has been the subject of debate, there is happily no question as to the meaning of the address. It is the players whom he designates burs, puppets, antics, crows (deckt with peacock's feathers), apes, rude grooms, bucJcram gentlemen, peasants, and painted monsters. Now, hard measure as this is, insolent and insulting as such nicknames are and were, it is not too much to say that they were felt to be appropriate to the class at which they were hurled. It was the trick of the time to speak of them in those terms. Davies, as we have seen, has apish actors, men most base, &c. ; Heywood, puppets, painted images, &c. ; Eobert Burton, butterflies, baboons, apes, and antics ; and so forth.
At a time when the players were pelted on all hands, like men in the pillory, it was a safe game for Eobert Greene, a repentant playwright, to fling mucJc-beds (to use De Morgan's phrase: Bud- get of Paradoxes, p. 163) at an unrepentant player, who had in- herited the low caste of his class, and added to it the unpardon- able sin of writing plays on his own account, and worse (if possible) of altering for the better the plays of other men.
It seems to have been the trick, too, of that age, as prolific in the language of abuse as of poetry, to invent ridiculous or con- temptuous nicknames, and fasten them upon eminent men of the quality. Two in particular possess interest for us : viz., show- thing (Shakspere's nickname for Ben Jonson as a Comedian),1 and Shake-scene, Greene's nickname for Shakspere as a Tragedian. Note here that one practice, by which the Tragedian made himself ridiculous in the eyes of the educated, was over-doing the buskin-
1 Readers who are curious on this point are referred to a recently published Shakespeare-Anthology, entitled Shakespeare' t Centurie of Prai/se, pp. 208 and 231. (Birmingham : printed by Josiah Allen for the Editor, Dr C. M. Ingleby.)
VI GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
tread by which he shook tJte stage. (See Ben Jonson's Commend- atory verses on Shakspere prefixed to the folio 1623.) But it was just one of the things which struck with awe the vulgar — the " penny-knaves " — that the great man's tread vibrated the frail structure on which he marched. Hence, Greene happily nicknames the new tragedian, a Shake-scene ; and that this was meant for a parody on ShaJcc-speare, we cannot doubt, when we see that the words in italics, " with his Tygers heart wrapt in a players hide " (Eepriut, p. 30), parodies one in an early work of Shakspere's. la " The True Tragedie of JRichard Duke of YorTce, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt" &c. 1595, in the fifth scene, the Duke says to the Queen,
She \volfe of France, but worse than Wolves of France :
Whose tongue more poison'cl then the Adders tooth :
How ill beseeming is it in thy sexe,
To triumph like an Amazonian trull
Upon his woes, whom Fortune captivates ! &c.
Oh Tygers hart wrapt in a womans hide!
How couldst thou draine the life bloud of the childc,
To bid the father wipe his eies withall,
And yet be scene to beare a woman's face ?
The whole speech is retained in the third Part of Henry the Sixt, but much worse printed in the folio 1623 than in the quarto of 1595. This is not the place to settle the vexed question of the authorship of The True Tragedie. Three views, however, may be mentioned : (1) that of Mai one, that Shakspere was not the author either of the First Part of the Contention or of The True Tragedie ; but that he appropriated a large part of both plays, when he wrote his Second and Third Parts of King Henry the Sixt ; (2) that of Mr J. 0. Halliwell (Phillipps) that there were older plays, not by Shakspere, on the subjects of these : and " that when these plays were printed in 1594 and 1595, they included the first additions which Shakspere had made to the originals " (Intro- duction to the First Sketches of the Second and Third Part of King Henry the Sixth, 1843, p. xix) ; (3) that Shakspere was the sole author of these plays in their earliest form. This last view we believe to be utterly untenable. We hold that Marlowe was author, or joint author with Greene, of the older plays, republished as the First Part of the Contention, and TJie True Tragedie. If so, a special point might be felt in Greene's parody of the line in question, that possibly being one of those which were written by Marlowe or Greene and formed part of the older plays : and we should then see in the phrase " an upstart crow beautified with our feathers," not merely a player using the work of another man for represent- ation, but a playwright appropriating another man's work, and
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Vll
incorporating it with his own. But the phrase, as we shall shortly see, admits of a less offensive interpretation.
It is note-worthy that the same line is imitated in Acolas- tus his After-Witte by S[amuel] N[icholson], 1600, where we have,
0 woolvish heart, wrapt in a woman's hyde.
S. Nicholson made very free with Shakspere's Rape of Lucrece in this poem, appropriating several entire lines, and imitating others. (See Collier's Biographical and Critical Account : vol. II. p. 47 ; and also vol. I. Additions, p. xxviii*.) Dr B. Nichol- son calls our attention to a similar instance of appropriation in Nicholas Breton's sacred poem, The Countess of Pembrooke's Passion, in the early stanzas of which he has managed to intro- duce by two or three lines at a time the greater part of two of Watson's sonnets in his Tears of Fancie.
Green's Groats-ioorth of Wit oiiits first appearance was variously fathered, by some on Chettle, by others on Nash. The former in his Kind-Harts Dreame confesses to his having retrenched the more abusive parts of Greene's tract ; but throws the whole credit (or discredit) of the performance on Greene. The latter (Nash) in his Pierce Pennilesse, 1593, indignantly repudiates the attribu- tion of Greene's " scald, trivial, lying pamphlet " to himself. I have no doubt that the work was wholly written by Greene, with the reservation of certain parts retrenched or otherwise touched by Chettle; and that it was the genuine and hearty outcome of his repentance, written, moreover, with the kindliest motive. It might be thought that the fact of the book being attributed to Nash is an argument against his being "young Juvenall [the sweet boy], that byting Satyrist, that lastly with niee [Greene] together writ a Comedie ; " -strengthened, as it appears to be, by the absence of any proof that Greene and Nash had ever done such a thing : but there is positive evidence of the fact that Nash's nick-name was " young Juvenal," that he was at this time a youth of 24 (in fact in his 25th year) ; and that the epithet " sweet " was lovingly applied to him by some who did not smart under his " byting satire," and perhaps even by one who did — viz. Gabriell Harvey. This we shall shew in its proper place in our Introduction. On the other hand, Lodge (who jointly with Greene wrote A Looking- Glass for London and England, acted in March 1591-2) was not known as a Satirist till the pub- lication of his Fig for Momus in 1595, and was on a sea-voyage from August 26, 1591, till June 11, 1593: and moreover was a man of 34 when he left England. (Sae Mr Eichard Simpson's
VU1 UENEHAL INTKODLXTION*.
Letter in the Academy for April 11, 1874, which wo have re- printed at the end of the First Part of this Introduction.)
We must own that the balance of testimony is in favour of the view first suggested by Dr Farmer, that Thomas Nash was the second of the play-makers addressed by Greene in this strange book, though in making this declaration we are recanting a long-cherished belief.
The student of Shakspere will find some parallel passages in this tract. The most remarkable of these runs thus :
" For if sic volo, sic jubeo hold in those that are able to command : and it be lawfull Fas et [««£] nefas to doe any thing that is beneficiall ; ouely Tyrants should possesse the earth, and they striving to exceede in tyranny, should each to other bee a slaughter man ; till the mightiest outliving all, one stroke were left for Death, that in one age mans- life should ende" (p. 29).
It would be too much, to say that Shakspere used this (as he did so many other passages in the works of other writers) as the warps of his poetry ; but unquestionably its sense is perfectly reproduced in that fine speech of Ulysses, in Troilus and Crcssida, I. 3, including the lines,
" Then everything includes itself in power, Power into will, will into appetite ; And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded by will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself."
A few biographical details of Robert Greene may not be deemed superfluous. This remarkable man was born at Xorwich about 1560: graduated A.B. at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1578 ; and A. AT. at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1583. -In 1588 he was incorporated at Oxford. He took orders, and became Vicar of Tollesbury in Essex, June 19, 1584. His earliest publication was The Myrrour of Modcstie, 1584. He also became a student in physic: (Plane- tomachia, 1585.) He married about 1586, and died Sept. 2 or 3, 1592, in his 32nd or 33rd year. His last work, printed in his lifetime, was A Quip for an upstart Courtier, 1592, which pro- voked the bitter animosity of Gabriel Harvey. His career and untimely end recal those of Edgar Allan Poe. Both were men of great literary and poetic genius: both were married and child- less ; both fell victims to excess ; and both were indebted to the hospitality of strangers for. the last offices paid to a dying man.
II. Kind- Harts Di-eame, by H[enry] C[hettle], is an early
GENERAL INTRODUCTION". ix
specimen of the ever common device of making one book out of several disconnected fragments. It is full of interest for us in many ways: but chiefly for its preliminary address "To the Gentlemen Headers." It is here that a supposed allusion to Shakspere occurs. " About three rnoneths since died M. Robert Greene ; " this and the entry in the Stationers' Register fix the date of authorship as December 1592. But whether we possess the first edition is at least doubtful ; and Mr J. O. Halliwell (Life of Shakespeare, 1848, p. 146, note) gives the preference to the Bodleian copy (formerly the property of Robert Burton) over others ; all being without date. Chettle con- tinues thus: " leaving many papers in sundry Booke Sellers hands, among other his Groats worth of Wit, in which a letter written to divers play-makers is offensively by one or two of them taken," &c. ; this doubtless means that Marlowe was galled, by the allu- sion to his Atheism ; and perhaps another of the three had ex- pressed annoyance at the personalities of Greene. Marlowe is the " one of them " with whom Chettle cared not to be acquainted, and " the first, whose learning " Chettle professed to reverence (p. 38, 11. 8 and 17). The chief question for us is, Who was " the other, whome at that time " Chettle did not so much spare as since he wished he had. The late Mr Howard Staunton, in a remarkable letter, dated Jan. 27, communicated to the Athenaeum of Feb. 7, 1874, argues that " the other " referred to by Chettle could not be Shakspere, because Greene's letter was, as Chettle says, " written to divers play-makers," and " by one or two of them " offensively taken : and because Shakspere was not one of the persons addressed, but the chief of those against whom they were warned by Greene. Mr Staunton follows his predecessors in identifying the " famous gracer of tragedians " with Marlowe, and the last of the three, " no lesse deserving then the other two," with George Peele. The second, then, is " the other " of Chettle ; and in Mr Staunton's opinion " young Juvenall " (the " sweet boy ") is Thomas Nash; and therefore it is concluded that it is Nash to whom Chettle offers the sequent apology. This apology, however, is grounded on the personal testimony of Chettle and others to the civil de- meanour, excellence in his qualitie, uprightness of dealing (which argues his honesty"), as well as the facetious grace in writing of the person who had taken Greene's remarks offensively. Now, " young Juvenall " is not charged with any offence whatever, save the use of intemperate or libellous language. To publish a friendly warning, addressed to a public writer, counselling him not to make enemies by bitter words, might indeed be gall and wormwood
X GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
to an irritable, overbearing, and self-asserting man : but to apologise for it afterwards, as if his uprightness and honesty had been called in question, would be an absurdity not to be imputed to Chettle. The fact is, that none of the three addressed is assailed for want of any of the qualities which, according to Chettle, were conspicu- ous in " the other " who had taken Greene's remarks offensively.
But there ia a person alluded to under the nick-name of a Shake-scene, on whom Greene plainly charges the want of those qualities; but unfortunately Greene does not address his remarks to that person — but rather talks at him. In fact, Greene ad- dresses, not the " upstart crow," but the three play-makers whom he warns against him. It is not very easy to say what was the gravamen of the charge against the " upstart crow." It has hitherto been supposed that he is charged with appropriating other men's writing : and this is Mr StauntOn's view ; he holds that the passage in question imputes to the person assailed the offence of having remodelled the theatrical pieces of the persons addressed. But to this view Mr Bichard Simpson demurs (Academy, April 4, 1874), and though he betrays a little too much eagerness in behalf of Shakspere's originality, and puts his case too strongly, he is substantially right. " Greene, in calling Shak- spere an upstart crow ' beautified with our feathers,' probably did not mean to accuse Shakspere of stealing, but simply to call him an actor who had gained applause by spouting the lines of Greene, Marlowe, and Peele." But certainly the expressions " bombast out a blank verse " meant writing it ; and the very gist of the nick-name Joltannes fac-totum is that the person assailed was a Jack of all trades — one who not only put pieces on the boards, and acted in them himself, but essayed to write plays for his own house, and thus intruded on the author's privileged department. That the actual phrase " an upstart crow beautified with our feathers " might mean no more than a player is abundantly proved by the three following quotations which are advanced by Mr Simpson, viz. :
"Why art thou proud with Aesop's crow, being pranked with the glory of others' feathers ? " Greene's Never too Late, 1590.
Again, " Sundry other sweet gentlemen I do know [besides Greene and Peele] that have vaunted their pens in private devices, and tricked up a company of taffata fools with their feathers, whose beauty, if our poets had not decked [them] with the supply of their periwigs, they might have anticked it until this time up and down the country with the King of Fairies, and dined every clay at the pease-porridge ordinary with Delfragus." — Nash's preface to Greene's Menaphon, 1589.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XI
Again, " Notice, by the way," writes Mr Simpson, " that these are the two plays mentioned by the actor to Roberto in the Groatsworth. Just in this way, when the degree of LL.D. was offered to the young son of the Duke of Suffolk at Cam- bridge, in Edward Vl's reign, he said, ' who was he to appear among the doctors, and to plume himself, like Aesop's crow, in alien feathers ? ' "
And lastly, Mr Simpson quotes these lines, which in our judgment scarcely support his view :
" Greene gave the ground, to all that went before him : * Nay more, the men that so eclipst his fame Purloynde his plumes; can they deny the same? "
Greene s Funeralls, by E,. B. Gent. 1594.
But the entire passage in Green's Groatsivorth of Wit moans a great deal more than Mr Simpson appears to find in it. It is difficult (as we have said) to realise at this day the excessive odium attaching to the theatrical profession, an odium shared by the playwrights who supplied them with dramatical pieces. But if we do this, we shall be able to understand somewhat of the indignation which the regular staff of playwrights must have felt when they found a common player aspiring to the dignity of a playwright, and thus threatening to bring the dramatist's vocation into tenfold discredit, and to defraud the regulars of their pay. Surely it was not in human nature for the ruined and dying Greene to hold his peace, when he found the great shadow of this New Reputation cast on the field occupied by himself, Marlowe, Peele, and some others : keeping these con- siderations in view, Greene's language will seem quite natural and unstrained, without resorting to the hypothesis that Shakspere's conduct was, in his view, more than constructively dishonest. In fact, believing that the Shake-scene was Shakspere, we can very well see that his noiseless yet strenuous aggrandisement as a tragic and comic writer, an advent of dramatic genius for .which there appeared no adequate preparation, must have provoked both to jealousy and to admiration the men whose functions were thus superseded : and that they would see in the advantage so taken of them some evidence of dishonesty. On this view alone there was reason for Chettle's apology, when he found that Shakspere was not only a man of exquisite grace in writing, but of gentle and honest life. But further, we may suppose that Chettle saw that Greene's insolence bore a construction prejudicial to Shakspere's
• l " Went before him ; " i. e. were preferred before him, and so far eclipsed him. Surely these lines bring a direct charge of dishonesty against Greene's later com- petitors in play-writing.
Xll GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
honesty ; and if so, there was an additional reason for the apology.
The difficulty however remains, that Chettle distinctly s:i\ s that ho is apologising for one of the three to whom Greene wrote his epistle; and most assuredly the "upstart crow" is not ad- dressed at all. The only explanation which occurs to me, is that we have Greene's remarks in an imperfect form. Chettle owns to having retrenched some of the more abusive passages in Greene's manuscript ; and it is no very violent assumption that he cut out some highly offensive passage in which Greene apostrophised the Shake-scene ; and that when Chettle wrote the apology prefixed to Kind-Harts Dreame he remembered the apostrophe, but forgot the omission. This view is countenanced by some remarks in Gabriel Harvey's Third Letter, to which we shall shortly have to call attention. We must add, that Mr Staunton's letter was replied to with great ability by Mr Richard Simpson in the letter which we have reprinted.
In Chettle's tract the five " invectives against abuses reign- ing " may be thus summarised :
1. Against the liberty of ballad-printing ; by Anthony Xow- now.
2. Against quack-salving ; by Dr Burcot.
3. Robert Greene to Pierce Pennilesse (i. e. Thos. Nash).
4. A pica for public amusements ; by Richard Tarleton.
5. Against juggling ; Tby' William Cuckoe.
A word on some of these " Apparitions." Anthony Now now is the nickname of an itinerant fiddler. Dr E. F. Rimbault (Percy Soc. Tracts, vol. v. p. 03) quotes an old ballad from the Second Part of the Gentlecraft, by Thomas Delouey, 1598, of which the refrain is
0 Anthony, now, now, now;
where it is said, " Anthony in his absence sung this song so often in S. Martins, that thereby he purchast a name which hee never lost till his dying day, for ever after men cald him nothing but Anthony Now now" This Anthony has been supposed to be Anthony Munday, but without a vestige of reason.1 The like
1 On this point Dr B. Nicholson writes to us, as follows : — " Some time ago I read this part of K. H. Dreame very carefully, and with tl.e view of examining this supposition. I could not find one word in support, rather many showed me that A. Now now was a known but yet merely an itinerant strett- fiddler, with nothing to connect him with Meres' 'best plotter.' So in Munday's history I know nothing which would connect him with a street-fiddler origin, lie was an author in 1579, in Rome before 1582, a translator probably from the Italian 1584 (see Coll. Ann. of 81, III. 241) ; would he then in 1592 be spoken of merely in the terms used in K. II. Dreame ? It is hazardous reasoning from negatives, but Jonson in his depreciation of him says nothing of street-fiddling. The origin of the supposition appears to have arisen as in the Museum copy of K. II. D., where the
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Xlll
refrain occurs in a ballad at the end of Le Prince d' Amour, 1060. Of Dr Bnrcot nothing is known. Richard Tarleton was the most famous extravagant Comedian of Elizabeth's reign. The earliest mention of him is as the author of a ballad in The Floods of Bedfordshire . He died Sept. 15S8 (Kimbault, ibid. p. 63). References to him and his famous " jigge " are fre- quent in the old literature. Dr Rimbault compares Chettle's description of Tarleton with that given in Tarlton's Neives out of Purgatorie. William CucJcoe was doubtless an itinerant juggler ; but his name, or nickname, has not been found in any other work. Kind-Hart was the conventional name of an itinerant tooth- drawer, and it occurs frequently in the literature of this period. Plaine Percevall, 1589, says " if [thou wilt have thy Colts tooth drawne] gently, let me be thy tooth-drawer, I have a kind hart of mine owne, and that name hath been good at such a practise heretofore." Dr Rimbault quotes five couplets from The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine, 1600, in which is the line
" Not as Kind-heart, in drawing out a tooth."
III. Englandes Mourning Garment, by Henry Chettle, though out of chronological order, is next reprinted. Its title-page has neither name nor date ; but the allusions to the death of Elizabeth as a recent event prove that it was printed in 1603, and the address " To the Header," immediately before the colophon, signed " Hen. Chettle," claims the principal work as his, through the accident of correcting Hewres (or as he quotes it Herores) which the printer had set up for Heroes, on p. 98.
The part which immediately concerns us is the second verse- fragment, extending from p. 97 to p. 99. Of course " the Arca- dian Shepheards inchaunting phrase of speaking," at foot of p. 96, alludes to Sir Philip Sidney, and " the excellent and cunning Collm" on p. 97, is Edmund Spenser, from whom Chettle appears to quote the couplet, which serves for motto of the sequent pro- lusion ; though we have not found it in Spenser's works.
In the prolusion itself there are eleven allusions,
He that so well could sing the fatall strife Letweene the royall Roses White and Red,
is Samuel Daniel, of whose Civile Wares betweene the Howses of Lancaster and Yorke, four books were published in 1595, the fifth
similarity of the Christian name (a very common one at that time) has led some one to scribble Munday on the margin. See also W. "Webbe's notice of Munday in his Disc, on Engl. P. 1586 (p. 35 of Arhr. reprint)."
XIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
in 1500, and the sixth in 1602, the remaining two not appearing till 1609.
He that sung fortie yeares her life and birth, And is by English Albions so much farnde,
is William "Warner, whose Albion's England was published in 1586.
Coryn full of worth and wit, That finisht dead Mus<tns gracious song,
is, of course, the illustrious George Chapman, the continuator and ender of that noble work which Marlowe (who had been " dead " ten years in 1603) left unfinished j viz., the Hero and Leander of Musseus.
On the next page
our English Horace, whose stecle pen Can drawe Characters which will never die,
is doubtless the Horace Junior of Dekker, i. e. Ben Jonson. The next allusion we will consider at greater length hereafter. " Sweete singer Coridon " is Michael Drayton, identified by the reference to his Isabel and his Poly-olbion, here called by a press- error, Poly Albion. " Delicious sportive Musidore " is probably Thomas Lodge, who had renounced poetry for medicine ; whence the allusion,
Although thou hare resignd thy wreath of Bay.
But as Chettle does not elsewhere allude to Thomas Greene, Musidore may be he ; the probability however is the other way : and other poets as prominent as that Greene are also ignored, as Win. Browne, George Wither, John Reynolds, &c. " Quicke Anti-horace" is, of course, Thomas Dekker, and "yong Mcelibee" must be John Marston ; and lastly, " Heroes last Musceus " should be Henry Petowe, who published in 1598 The Second Part of the Loves of Hero and Leander, which was, like Chapman's, a continuation of Marlowe's poem.
In this prolusion Chettle complains that none of these poets had celebrated in verse the memory of Queen Elizabeth, then lately dead : and amongst them he thus speaks of another poet in these terms :
Nor doth the silver tonged Melicert,
Drop from his honied muse one sable teare
To mourne her death that graced his desert,
And to his laies opend her Royall eare,
Shepherd, remember our Elizabeth,
And sing her Rape, done by that Tarqnin, death.
The concluding couplet shows pretty plainly that by Melicert,
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XV
Chettle meant Shakspere. It is quite certain that he intended no allusion to the ancient story of Melicerta (or Melicertus) ; but the second line renders it likely that he had an eye to the possible etymology of the word, pcXi, honey, and Krjpos, bees-wax, or Kr\piov, comb ; so that Melicert would be Honeycomb, or the "honied muse," from which his verse distilled. We must here bear in mind that in a poem (1598) attributed to Barnefield, Shakspere's Muse is spoken of as his " honey-flowing Vaine ; " and that Weever in his 22ud Epigram (1595) and Meres (1598) call our Bard " Honey- tonged Shakespeare." (See postea, pp. 159, 180, 184.) "Whence one might almost conclude that it was proverbial to associate " honey " with Shakspere's early writings. Melicertus, however, is named by Chettle on p. 87 of JUnglandes Mourning Garment, and by Robert Greene in his Menaphon ; and naturally the question has been raised whether in these three allusions we have three or two, or only one real person. In entering upon this question, it is necessary to be on our guard against supposing that there was anything like an appropriation of a pastoral or other nick- name, at least beyond the lifetime of the bearer. Thus Chettle dubs himself Colin, mainly because Spenser had been called so (see E. M. Garment, p. 97) ; and many poets were called Meli- boeus: and so forth. Chettle thus associates three poets of mark (p. 87) :
" 0, saith Thenot, in some of those wrongs resolve us, and thinke it no unfitting thing, for thou that hast heard the sorgs of that warlike Poet Philesides, good Meltebee, and smooth-tongued Meli- cert, tell us what thou hast observed in their sawes, scene in thy owne experience, and heard of undoubted truths touching those accidents : for that they adde, I doubt not, to the glory of our Eliza."
The plot thickens. We have now to discriminate all three names, Philesides and Melibee, as well as Melicert, and to identify them if we can. Assuredly no change* can be got out of the as- sumption that the same poet is, as a matter of course, alluded to under the same name. Mr Bichard Simpson, in his Introduction to A Larum for London or the seige of Antwerp (Longmans, 1872) pp. 2 and 3, appears to do this. Speaking of the passage we have just quoted, he writes —
" Probably the reason why this reference to Shakspere under the name of Me- licert, has not obtained the attention it deserves is the fact that none of these topics [the relations of the English to the Spanish] are discussed in any of his recognised works. It is remarkable how silent they all are on Spanish matters, which during a great part of his life were the occasion of anxiety and even panic to the whole country. The other two poets who, in common with Shakspere, touched upon Spanish perfidy to England, were 'the warlike poet Philesides, and good Melibee.'
XVI GENERAL INTRODUCTION".
The first is not ajain mentioned by fhettle, and cannot therefore be identified from his pamphlet. Many of the Elizabethan poets were also soldiers; Gasman.', Churchyard, Raleigh, Sidney, Barnaby Rich, Barnaby George, Gervase Maikham, and others. Any of these may be Pbilesides. The pood Melibee, on the other hand, is subsequently addressed as the ' young Melibee,' the friend of Antihoracc or Decker. This goes far to identify him with Marston ; and this conclusion is much strengthened when we find Chettle'l friend Drayton, two years later, addressing Marston as ' good Melibeus ' who
Down from the goodly "Western waste,
To drink at Avon, drivest thy sunned sheep.
Marston was married to a daughter of the rector of Ban ford St Martin, in "Wiltshire, and had apparently settled witli his wife at Christchurch in Hampshire."
This is Mr B. Simpson's case; and we must candidly own that we think it is a very weak one. For ourselves, we have not the least doubt that Philesides, or Philisides, is Sir Philip Sidney ; for it was under this name that Sidney figured himself in his Arcadia ; and when Chettle wrote we may be quite sure that all readers saw in Philesides no other poet than Sidney. Again hi the Pastoral ^Eclogue upon the Death of Sidney, printed with Colin Clout's Come home again, 1595, Sidney is addressed as Phili- sides. The truth is, the name is simply a compound of Philfip] Sid[ney] with a connecting vowel and a Greek termination. -Mr C. Elliot Browne (Notes and Queries, 4th S. xii. 510) corroborates these arguments by quoting from the Earl of Stirling's Supplement of the Defect, 1G21, a note in which the Earl apologizes for several divergences from the plan of the Arcadia,
" specially in the death of Philisides making choice of a course whereby I might best manifest what affection I beare to the memorie of him whom 1 tooke to be alluded unto by that name, and whom I only by this imperfect parcell (denying more) had a mind to honour,"
clearly referring to the fall of Sidney on the field of Zutphen. Further, as Mr C. E. Browne points out, the Earl thus describes his hero : " Philisides [was] a Muroni of courage and courtesie, of learning and armes ; — so that it seemed that Mars had begotten him upon one of the Muses."
The identification of Chettle's Philesides with Sidney is the car- dinal point in the interpretation of the prose passage ; and there- fore we make no apology for reprinting the following remarks on that point from an admirable paper by Dr Brinsley Nicholson (Notes and Queries, 5th S. i. 109). We agree with him that we may positively assert Philesides, as well as Philisides, to be Sir Philip Sidney ; and that we must not allow this identification to be disputed, whatever may be its consequences.
First, Alexander, in his addition to the third book of the Arcadia, makes Pliili- sides die of a wound in the thigh from an empoisoned dart thrown by an unknown hand, and Sidney died of a chance bullet wound in the thigh, which, ending in in-
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XV11
ward mortification, seemed to confirm the belief that shot wounds were poisoned wounds. [Secondly,] Philisides' calm death and quiet address to his friends is an imitation of Sidney's, and the desire to live in their friends' memories is common to both deathbed speeches. [Thirdly,] The history of the "tilting in Iberia (where I was borne) dedicated to the memorie of the Queen Andromanes marriage," — when a novice in armes he, with Musidorus, Pyrocles, and others in their train, ran in a pastoral show against the Corinthian knights, — is a plain reference to the magnifi- cent tournament and show before the French embassy that came over to negociate the marriage with the Duke of Anjou in 1581, and in which Sidney, Fulke Greville, the Earl of Arundel, and the Lord Windsor were the challengers and knights of Desire that attacked the Fortresse of Perfect Beautie. In the chroniclers (see Nichols' Progr.), the feats of arms in this tournament are described in much the same glowing terms as those used by Alexander's Philisides. Fourthly, Sidney writing, Philisides speaks autobiographically of himself in
" The song I sang old Lanquet [»'. e. Languet] had me taught '' (Arc., B. III.),
and thus identifies himself with Sidney. Fifthly, the second book of Browne's Britannia! s Pastorals is dedicated to William, Earl of Pembroke (1616) ; and in one of the commendatory verses, probably by Win. Herbert, we have,
" Hee masters no low soul who hopes to please The Nephew of the brave Philisides."
As to the name of Melibee, Mr C. E. Browne, in the note from which, we have already quoted, suggests " that Melibee and Meli- cert were dead Statesmen, not living poets ; that, in fact, the allusions in the political portion of the work [of Chettle] are en- tirely independent of those in the poetical part, and refer, per- haps, to Walsingham and Burghley, who, with Sidney, were associated together in the popular mind, as the three great leaders of the Anti-Spanish policy." Mr Browne specifies these reasons for this view :
1. The nature of Collin's narrative, which reads more like a piece justificative or State paper than anything likely to be derived from a drama or poem. The context also clearly shows that the writer is referring to a past state of the Spanish question, and to a period when Shakspere and Marstou were little more than children.
2. The use of the word " sawes," which although certainly not excluding the idea of poetry, has primarily, I think, a graver meaning. Shakspere has " holy sawes of sacred writ " (Hen. IV., part ii., i. 3), and Marstou, in What you will, speaks of
" the musty sawe
Of antick Donate."
3. The great improbability that any work which at this time (1603) was well known to have been written by Shakspere would be allowed to perish.
4. The curious infelicity of the word " good," if applied to such a professor of strong language as Marston, and the unlikelihood that he would be coupled with Sidney.
ALLUSIO.N-BOOKS. C
XV111 GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
5. Thomas "Watson had celebrated Walsingham under the name of Melibocus in his Eclogue of 1590. (Statesmen and poli- ticians, as well as poets, were spoken of pastorally as shepherds. Lodge has introduced Burghley in his eclogues as Eglon, and there is the well-known epitaph on Robin ascribed to lialeigh.
As to the origin aud employment of the name Melicert, Mr Browne writes : —
It is scarcely likely that Chettle intended to allude to the son of Ino, who was no shepherd, but it is probable, I think, that he referred to the Melicertun of Greene's Me/iaphon, one of the principal characters in the most popular fiction of Shakipeare'i old antagonist, and whether Chettle originated or only applied the compliment, it shows, at any rate, the continuance of the good understanding which had been commenced by tbe amende made to Shakspeare ten years before in Kind Heart's Dreame. Greene's Melicertus had been a shepherd " elsewhere " before he came to Arcadia, and though himself born to " base fortunes," yet knowing that " Venus loved Adonis, and Luna Endymion, that Cupid had bolts feathered with tbe plumes of a crow as well as with the pen of an eagle," he devoted himself to a mistress of much higher rank than himself. She dies, or appears to die, very suddenly, and the wretched Melicertus, after the manner of the pastoral romances, retires into Arcadia to keep sheep, where he meets with the beautiful shepherdess, Samela, who in the end turns out to be his former mistress, still alive. Melicertus contends with Menaphon for the mastery of the shepherds. " Am I not the king's shepherd," says Menaphon, " and chief of all the bordering swains of Arcadia ? " "I grant," quoth Melicertus, "but am not I a gentleman, though tired in a shepherd's skin-coat, superior to thee in birth, though equal now in profession ? " Their rival pretensions are decided by a kind of poetical tournament, and Melicertus is declared the winner. The character was evidently a favourite with Greene, who has put into bis mouth the best poetry in tbe book. There are certainly some points of resemblance between Melicertus and the traditional idea of Shakspeare. Meli- certus is a great maker of sonnets, and after his poetical excellence, the leading quality ascribed to him is the possession of a very ready and smooth wit, which enables him to shine in the euphuistic chaffing-matches with which the work is interlarded.
Dr Brinsley Nicholson, in the note from which we have made one extract, replies to Mr Browne as to the names, Melibee, and Melicert. As Dr Nicholson's paper is exceedingly able, we make 110 apology for giving nearly all the rest of it in extenso :
Next, as to " good Melibee." Thenot asks Collin — that is, Chettle, who, as appears from another passage in the Mourning Garment, was then about fifty — what had been said by wise men of old as to certain state events of tbeir times. He asks Collin, one of the passing generation, what he had heard from men of his own and a past generation as to the causes of war between Spain and England in 1586 or 7. Now here it is to be noted that, Spenser being dead, Chettle wittingly calls himself " Collin," acknowledging that he takes the name in these words — " I cannot now forget the excellent and cunning Collin indeed (for alas I confesse my selfe too too rude)." And it is to be noted, in that it is, as I believe, one of the three examples in the book of the re-giving of a pastoral name after the first owner's death. Melibee is a second instance. The " good Melibee" of this passage I have for some time taken to be Walsingham, as suggested by MR ELLIOT BUOWXE, not only because Watson so called him in his eclogue on his death, but because Spenser in reference to this very eclogue calls him, in The Ruins of Time (1591), by the epithet which Chettle, as Collin the second, takes from him —
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XIX
" Good Melibee, that hath a poet got To sing his living praises being dead."
But this good Melibee being dead, Chettle, speaking of poets now alive, calls Marston the friend of Anti-Horace Dekker, not good Melibee nor even Melibee, but " young Melibee." The error of thinking that "songs" in pastorals necessarily meant songs or plays, and not the sayings, or as the text glosses it " saws," of the persons spoken of, according as they were poets, statesmen, or prose writers, and non-attention to this distinctive epithet young, have lead to Mr R. Simpson's curious mistakes in his Introduction to the Siege of Antwerp. As MR BROWNE justly says, Marston in 1586, or even 1588, was but a child. Again, Walsingham, being dead in 1590, Drayton, not bound by Chettle's authority, or probably writing some time before 1603, applies the name Melibee to some one who was either related to, or a great friend of, Sidney, and of a station at least equal with Sidney's or Wals- ingham's. In his eclogue lament of Sidney he says (Eel. vi.) —
" Thou that down from the goodly western waste To drink at Avon driv'st thy sunned sheep, Good Melibceus that so wisely hast Guided the flocks delivered thee to keep, Forget not Elphin."
And then in similar strains he adjures
" Alexis that dost with thy flocks remain Far off within the Caledonian ground."
Now this Melibceus cannot be "Walsingham, because the latter had no connexion by birth or property with Salisbury Plain and Wiltshire, and because we know that this eclogue is are-written form of a previous lament published in 1593. Nor can he be Marston, as ME SIMPSON would again have it, for first the words and the con- text show that statesmen or nobles are spoken of ; secondly, because Marston was then a young man about town writing plays, and, in 1605, imprisoned for writing Eastward Ho ; thirdly, because though his father-in-law, or future father-in-law, as a clergyman in Wilts, might have had sheep to keep there, Marston had none ; and, fourthly, because all that we know or rather can suppose of Marston's place of residence after he ranged himself is that it was at Coventry. But, as I have said, the poem, by its subject and wording, was probably written long before its supposed date of publication in or about 1605 (for the volume has no date), and its good Melibceus is, I should say, the husband of Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke.
Lastly, as to Melicert. I confess that though the conjunction of Sidney, Wal- singham, and Shakspeare was a strange one, I Avas inclined to think that Chettle could not have given the same name to two people in one book. But, since reading MB ELLIOT BROWNE'S note, and reconsidering the matter, I believe that the smooth-tongued Melicert of the Philisides and Melibee trio must have been a states- man or person of eminence, and the significant name Honeycomb, or he of the honeycomb, agrees well with Ascham's notice of Burghlcy in his Introduction to his Scholemaster, and with the description given for instance in Chalmers' Bio- graphy. The same consideration is, I believe, the common key of the three examples. Colin dead, Chettle adopts the name ; Walsingham dead, Drayton gives the name Melibceus to another of eminence, probably the Earl of Pembroke, who died 1601 ; and both being gone, Chettle gives it, with the distinctive adjunct young, to a new poet ; Melicert the statesman, being dead, Chettle applies it, when speaking of living poets, to Shakspeare of the honied muse.
Clearly, if it be a condition of identification, that all three shepherds shall be poets, or at least well-known versifiers (and this is primd facie the inference from Chettle's use of the word songs), Mr C. E. Browne's conjecture, that "the smooth-tongued
XX GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Mcliccrt" is Burghley, is put out of court. Apart from this condition, we do not understand Dr Nicholson to give Burghley the decided preference over every competitor ; for manifestly Lord Buckhurst would equally well fit the place, besides satisfying the condition of being a song-writer; and for choice, perhaps we should give the preference to the latter, as the associate of Sidney and Walsingham in Chettle's prose. Meanwhile the phrase " smooth-tongued Melicert " is perhaps too vague to furnish ground for more than a plausible guess.
Yet, after all, it is by no means certain that by songs Chettle had in view the lyrical or other poetical performances of the three personages in question : for in a pastoral work, the prose judgments of the real men would be described as the songs of the shepherds ; and that being so, the allusion is altogether too indefinite to be spotted. On the other hand, Philesides being called a Poet,' the songs in his case would seem to be actual poetical performances ; and if so, it would be difficult to contend that the word has not the same meaning in the reference to the other two.
The chief point of interest ^in Dr Nicholson's paper, is the doctrine, now first propounded, that literary nick-names not infrequently lapsed on the death of their owners, and were revived in certain of their survivors. If we are right in identify- ing Philesides, Melibee, and Melicert in Chettle's prose, with Sidney, Walsingham, and Buckhurst, we may very well look for those names in association with others after their former owners had passed away. Thus Walsingham and Buckhurst being dead, it is the most natural thing in the world for Chettle to bestow them on Marston and Shakspere.
To persons unaccustomed to the literary practices of those times it must seem almost incredible that in his prose Chettle should speak of the songs of " good Melibee and smooth-tongued Melicert" and in his verse prolusion (in the same work) of " the silver-tonged Melicert " and " yong Mcelibee" and not intend to designate the same two personages by the latter as by the former pair of nick-names. But we believe that there is really nothing incredible in the supposition. On the contrary, we have shown that the very attempt to restrict the allusions to two persons only, involves the question in a mesh of absurdities.
At page 61 is a passage which recals the magniloquent speech of the King in Hamlet :
Do not feare our person : There's such Divinity doth hedge a King, That Treason can hnt peepe to what it would, Acts little of his will.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXI
In Chettle'a tract Colin says of Queen Elizabeth,
" Such majestic had her presence, and such boldnesse her heart, that she despised all feare ; and was, as all Princes are, or shall be, so full of divine fulnesse [?], that guiltie mortalitie durst not beholde her but with dazeled eyes."
In 1591 Chettle became a partner with William Hoskins and John Danter in a printing business (Ames, Typ. Ant. by Herbert, ii. 1113). That he died about 1607 may be inferred from Dekker's Knight's Conjuring, Done in Earnest, Discovered in Jest, published in that year, where Chettle is introduced, as a new comer, into the limbo of poets. A list of Chettle's writings is given in Mr H. Barrett Leonard's Introduction to his edition of The Tragedy of Hoffman ; or, A Eevenge for a Father, 1631, the only extant play of those which Chettle wrote alone. This list contains, besides one translated and four original works, sixteen plays of which Chettle was sole author, and thirty-one plays which he wrote in conjunction with another or others. Only three or four of the latter are extant.
We know but very few biographical details of Henry Chettle. Dr Rimbault's researches have added but little to the slender stock of his predecessors. Henry Chettle was born about the year 1564-5. He had a child named Mary buried in the Church of St John, New Windsor. The inscription upon her tomb, which is preserved in Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire, 1719, iii. 75, is as follows : —
Here lyeth the Body
of MAIIY CHETTLE,
The Daughter of Henry Chettle ; who
dy'd the 22 of
September 1595. -ZEtatis Suae 12. In Memory of whom, Robert Gwine,
Yeoman of the Guard, hath cans' d this to be done.
IV., V. In connection with Englandes Mourning Garment we take A Mournefull Dittie and I. C.'s Epigrams, the latter referring to that and other ballads published upon the accession of James. We are unable to identify I. C. In the old catalogue of the Bod- leian Library, the volume of Epigratnes is given under E, and is attributed to John Elsurn : but in correcting this for the new Catalogue, the clerk has placed the work under C. (I) only^ and cancelled the entry under Elsum. In Lowndes' B. M. the initials are altered and expanded into J. Can., on what authority, and with what view, we are unable to say. Anyhow, John Elsum can hardly be the author, if he be rightly credited there with two
XX11 GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
books respectively dated 1700 and 1701. The uncomplimentary style in which I. C. speaks of the ballad-writers of the day, as
" The hated Fathers of vildc balladrie," and also as
' the slanderers of the time,'
is accounted for in a sonnet prefixed to Kobert Anton's Philo- sophers satyrs, 1016 :
To his ingenious friend, R. A. [Rohert Anton.]
Poesert [sic] and praise are Twins. The first being quicke,
The second still is so ; or if it die,
Then is the first too sound, or else too sicke,
And so may dye in grace, or Envies eye !
But this with wonder in my stomacke stickes,
That Satyrs wrapt but in base Balladrie
Are praisd beyond the moone (of lunatickcs)
As being sun-begot ; so cannot die.
Needes must I hugge the Muse, and praise the pen
Of him that makes his Satires dance a brail
Unto the musicke of the spbearcs even then
When as the planets footed it withall :
Thou sharply singst, but he the burden bcnres That would have songe more sharpe but for his earcs.
I. D.
The allusion in the llth and 12th lines to Sir John Davies' Orchestra inclines us to believe that the signature I. D. stands for his name. The truth is that not a few of the poets of the time were envious of the popularity which greeted the political ballads, due not to their literary merit, but to their scurrility, and to the impunity enjoyed by the authors, which they owed to their obscurity.
YI. We have reprinted Gabriel Harvey's Third Letter for his remarkable notices of Ilobert Greene (pp. 130-133, 139, 142), and for his supposed allusions to Shakspere (pp. 130, 148), viz. " The worst of the four," and " one whom I salute with a hundred blessings." We know otherwise that Harvey was a great admirer of Shakspere's writings ; for we learn from George Steevens (Ed. of Sh. 1766) that Harvey had written on a blank leaf of Speght's Chaucer,
" The younger sort take much delight in Shakespeare's Tenus and Adonis ; but his Lucrece, and his tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, have it in them to please the wiser sort. 1598."
The editors of the Clarendon Press Ed. of Shakespeare (Ilamht, 1872, p. ix.) write thus : — •
" Steevens . . . attributed to the note the date of the book, but Malone has shewn that, although Harvey may have purchased the volume in 159?, there is nothing to prove that he wrote the note till after 1600, in which year Fairfax's translation of Tasso, mentioned in another note, was published."
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XX111
If the book could be found we might possibly set this question at rest ; but unfortunately, after making search, we have been unable to trace it. It belonged to Bishop Percy, then Dean of Carlisle, and was probably destroyed in 1780 with his first Library in the fire at Northumberland House.1
This letter, long-winded and verbose as it is, is interesting for its connection with Green's Groats-ivortli of Wit. On p. 130 Greene is abused for his voluminous writings, being called " Greene with the running Head, and the scribbling Hand, that never linnes [i. e. ceases] putting forth new, newer, and newest books of the maker." Harvey then says, " Green, vile Greene, would thou wearest [wert] halfe so honest, as the worst of the foure, whom thou upbraidest : or halfe so learned, as the un- learnedst of the three." That is, half as honest as Shakspere, or half as learned as Nash : the four being, as we have seen, Marlow, Peele, Nash, and Shakspere. " Thanke other for thy borrowed and filched plumes of some little Italianated bravery : and what remaineth, but flat Impudence, and grosse Detraction: the proper ornaments of thy sweete utterance ? " This clearly alludes to Greene's attack on the Shake-scene. He had called Shakspere " an upstart crow beautified with our feathers." Harvey now retaliates on Greene, and tells him that his plumes are bor- rowed and filched from the Italian stories.
Harvey here, also, seems to apply to Nash the expression " good sweet orator."
The motto, " Omne tulit punctum," is that of Greene's Oleron, and not improbably appears on other of his writings.
VII. "We have next taken " Eive Sections of Palladia Tamia" out of their chronological order, with the view of preserving the series of works which contain any notice or have any bearing upon the first of our Allusion-Books.
Wits Common-Wealth is a generic title for (probably) four distinct works, which were a series of literary commonplace books, containing miscellaneous jottings on important truths, and also on notable persons, with their wise or witty sayings. The book which gave this name to the series bears the title
(1) Politeuphuia, Wits Common-Wealth, 1597. It was a compilation by John Bodenham, and such was its popularity, that it was from time to time " newly corrected and amended," and passed through eighteen editions before the Restoration of
1 The worthy Bishop's second Library now forms part of that of Ambrose Isted, Esq., of Ecton II all, Northamptonshire.
XXiV GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Charles II., and twenty-two before the abdication of his successor. A copy of this edition was in the catalogue of Asher of Berlin, for 18-14. The second edition of 1598 was issued conjointly with
(2) Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasury, being the second part of "VVits Commonwealth. By Francis Meres, 1598. Then followed the third part, which Mr "W. C. Ilazlitt believes to be " 'Wit's Theatre of the Little World," (X. Ling) 1599 : but we think this hardly likely. Lastly,
(4) Palladis Palatium : Wisedomes Pallace, or the fourth part of Wit's Commonwealth, (Gr. Elde for Francis Burton) 1604.
Of the second of these works we reprint from leaf 275 to leaf 288 of the first edition. In this short compass we have nine references to Shakspere by name, and mention is made of his two principal poems, his sonnets, and twelve of his plays, including Love[s~\ Labours Wonne, which has not been satisfactorily identified with any of the plays in our collection. For one thing, we do not think it likely to be All's well that ends icell, as Farmer conjectured, which, in our opinion, offers no sufficient resemblance or contrast to serve as a pendant to Loves Labours Lost. Meres has also one quotation from I Hen. IV. ii. 3 ; and on leaf 286, what is more important for our purpose, we find the most curious notices of 3J. Greene, G. Harvey, Nash, Peele, and Marlowe. Here we obtain the evidence of Nash being nicknamed "young juvenall" and being called " sweet " — whether boy or Tom matters not.
" As Actaeon was wooried of his owne hounds : so is Tom JvTrsA of his Isle of Dogs. Dogges were the death of Euripedes, but bee not disconsolate, gallant young Juvenall, Linus, the Sonne of A 'polio died the same death. Yet God forbid that so brave a witte should so basely perish, thine are but paper dogges, neither is thy banishment like Ofids, eternally to converse with the barbarous Getes. Therefore comfort thy selfe sweet Tom."
VIII. Spenser's ACTION has been identified with Shakspere on two grounds. (1) because
" A gentler shepherd may nowhere be found ; "
and gontle was the proverbial prefix to his Christian and sur- name : (2) because his name,
" Doth like himself e heroically sound ; "
and Shake-speare was par excellence an heroic name, and our Shak- spere was the author of heroic histories. As to the first point : •we may very well demand the evidence of the assertion that Shakspere was proverbially called " gentle Shakspere," or " gentle Will ;" and to this we shall find no answer till we come to those who wrote of him regretfully after his death. That he was re-
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXV
wembered as such tJien is no proof that he was recognized in his lifetime as the " gentle shepherd." As to the second point : we remark that, just as Chettle, calling Shakspere Melicert (Honey- comb), expounds its meaning by referring to " his honied Muse ; " eo may Spenser be expanding the classical nickname Action, by referring to its heroic sound. If this be so, what poet soever may be alluded to under that heroic name, the last two lines are per- fectly intelligible.
But for ourselves, we must own to a pretty strong conviction that Action is applied by Spenser to Shakspere. Doubtless, so far as concerns the heroic name Ae'tion (i. e. 'Aeruoy, from aeros, an eagle,1) meaning the man of eagle-flight, Spenser might just as well be celebrating "Warner, Dray ton, or Daniell, all of whom had dealings with the heroic muse. Mr W. Miuto, indeed, remembering that Drayton had first written under the heroic name of Rowland, is convinced that Ae'tion is Drayton, whose " high thoughts invention " is sufficiently shown in his Barons' Warres and other works (Academy, January 24, 1874). Mr J. O. Halliwell (Phillipps), on the other hand, wag in 1848 dis- posed to see in that expression an allusion to Albion's England, and found an heroic sound in Warner (Life of Shakespeare, p. 142). But ShaJce-speare is the typical name of martial achieve- ment as surely as his series of heroic dramas, English and Boman, are matchless in English literature.
In proof of our assertion as to Shakspere's surname, take the following : Fuller compares him to Martial (the Roman poet) for
' the warlike sound of his Surname (whence some may conjecture him of a Military extraction], Hastiv ibrans, or Shake-speare." (The Worthies of England, 1662, pp. 120.)
The name, too, is perfectly represented by either of two Greek words, 'Eyxeo-TraAo? and AoptVaA.ro?. There could not be better proof, than is aiforded by these equivalents in the classical languages, that the act of shaking the speare was a recognized type of all martial deeds. In many places the act itself is described. The fol- lowing may serve as examples of the heroic and the mock-heroic :
" He all enraged, his shivering speare did shake, And charging him afresh thus felly him bespake."
(Faerie Queen, b. iv. c. iii. st. 10.)
1 Malone's two attempts at the etymology of this name ( Variorum, 1621, ii. 274) are a caution to ambitious editors. He was ignorant of the only two essentials : lie neither knew that Ae'tion was a recognized Greek surname ; nor that it took its rise from the Greek word for Eagle. See Shakspeare's Centurie of Prayse, 1874,^. 73-4 ; and the Academy for January 10, 1874. Our note in the former was printed six months too early to profit by that of Mr Hales.
XXVI GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
" Behold, behold, thy garter blue, Thy knight his valiant clboe weares, That when he shakes his furious apcare, The foe in shivering fearefull sort, May lay him downe in death to snort." (Histriomastix, or, the Player whipt, 1610. Sig. C. 4 recto.}
Finally, we have the name designated in an undated work of the time, entitled Polydoron :
" Names were first qnestionlesse given for distinction, facultie. consanguinitie, desert, qualitie : for Smith, Taylor, Joyner, Saddler, &c., were doubtlesse of the trades; Johnson, Robinson, Williamson, of the blood; Sackville, Saville, names of honourable desert ; Armestrong, Shakespeare of high qualitie."
In our recently-published work, Shakespeare's Centurie of Prayse, p. 10, "we have referred this poem to the period April 16 — December 27, in the year 1594, believing, with Malone and Halliwell, that 1591 at the foot of the dedication was a misprint for 1594 ; i. e. the period elapsed between the death of Lord Derby and the supposed date of the dedication. As there are difficulties to clear up in this matter of date, we have submitted it to Mr J. ~W. Hales, who sends us the following remarks : —
" Colin Clout's Come Home Again was not published till 1595 ; but there is no reason for doubting that it was in the main written by the time mentioned in the Dedicatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, viz. December, 1591. Spenser crossed over to England in 1589 ; he probably returned to Ireland in 1591, but he may have done so in 1590. That he was back in Ireland sometime in 1591 may be confidently concluded from the words of ' the Printer to the gentle reader ' prefixed to ' Complaints ; containing sundrie small poemes of the world's vanitie ' ; see the Globe Edition of Spenser's Works, p. xliv. In the quiet of Kilcolman his thoughts would naturally recall his recent sojourn in the midst of the busy world. In the letter just referred to he speaks of ' my late being in England '. He wishes his friend to accept ' this simple pastoral' 'in part of paiment of the infinite debt in which I ac- knowledge my selfe bounden unto you for your singular favours & sundrie good turns shewed to me at my late being in England '. This would have little force, if not written till December 1594, as Todd and others have urged, declaring 1591 to be a mere misprint. That Colin Clout's Come Home Again could have been written in no December later than that of 1591 is further proved by this fact : that when Spenser wrote it the image of Rosalind had not yet been superseded in his fancy ; see the concluding lines of the poem. The old love still prevailed. Now it was in 1592 that a new love arose. It was in the course of that year that the Eliza- beth, whom he married in 1594, conquered him with her charms ;
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXV11
see Amoretti fy Epifhalamion. Clearly then the dedicatory letter is accurate ; Colin Clout's Come Home Again was written by the close of 1591. But it was slightly altered at the time of its publication in 1595. One of the ' shepheard's ' commemorated in it had died in the interval. Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, the ' Amyntas ' of the poem, died April 16, 1594 (' in the flower of his youth . . . not without suspicion of poyson,' says Dugdale, Baronage of England, ii. 250). The words are these, and they sufficiently indicate some alteration :
There also is (ah no, he is not now !)
But since I said he is, he quite is gone, Amyntas quite is gone, and lies full low,
Having his Amaryllis left to mone. Helpe, 0 ye Shephcards, helpe ye all in this,
Helpe Amaryllis this her loss to mourne ; Her losse is yours, your losse Amyntas is,
Amyntas, floure of Shepheards pride forlorne. He whilest he lived was the noblest swaine,
That ever piped in an oaten quill ; Both did he other, which could pipe, maintains,
And eke could pipe himselfe with passing skill.
It may plausibly be conjectured that the original copy ran thus :
There also is Amyntas, noblest swniue,
That ever piped in an oaten quill ; Both does he other, which can pipe, maintaine,
And eke can pipe himselfe with passing skill.
" ' Nash had reproached Spenser with not having admitted this nobleman, then Lord Strange, into that honourable catalogue of our English Heroes which insueth the Conclusion of thy famous Faerie Queene ' (see quotation from the Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, fyc., apud Todd's Spenser, i. xci.), and in the revi- sion of Colin Clout's Come Home Again Spenser made amends. Possibly other corrections were introduced, as in the case of Daniel ; see Todd, i. xciii ; but with regard to this point one must remember how commonly in the Elizabethan works circulated in manuscript years before they found their way into print.
" The only external objection to the date 1591 for the writing of Colin Clout's Come Home Again — and it is really trivial by the side of the arguments in favour of that date — is that Daphnaida is dated ' London this first of Januarie 1591.' — Either this is a misprint, to adopt Todd's method of solving such a difficulty, only applying it differently ; or, as the late Prof. Craik suggested, Spenser here makes January the first month of the year 1591." This argument would require modification if Mr Edward Arber's view should turn out to be correct : viz. that Spenser's Amyntas was Thomas "Watson. (English Reprints: Thomas Watson's Poems.
XXVlll GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
15 March, 1870, p. 16.) But Mr Hales's view is probably right. Prof. Craik's suggestion is supported by Spenser's division of the year in his Shepherds Calender. After all, we need not inquire whether six days was not enough time for Spenser to have travelled from Kilcolman to London : for the Daphnaida appears to be alluded to in Colin Clout's Come Home Again, so that the Decem- ber of the latter should be after the January of the former work.
IX. Willobie his Aviso, said to be a poem " in hexameter verse," because each verse contains six lines, was first published in 1594 ; and we have reprinted the commeudatory poem and four canti from that edition. Other editions were in 159G, 1605, 1609, and 1635. From the Epistles found in these several editions we learn all we know of the presumptive author of this remarkable poem. A word on some of these first. To the edition of 1594 are prefixed an " Epistle Dedicatory " as well as an " Epistle to the lleader." Both are from Hadrian Dorrell, the reputed editor of the book and friend of its author. The latter he dates " from iny chamber in Oxford, this first of October." To the edition of 1605 Dorrell adds an " apologie, shewing the true meaning of Willobie his Avisa," which professes to answer some who mis- construed the poem, especially P. C. [Peter Colse] , and ends with these remarkable words : —
" If any notwithstanding will continue the errour of their vnsatisfied minds they must for ever rest in the[ir] rightlesse erring, till the author (now of late gone to God) returne from Heaven to satisfie them farder touching his meaning. And so farewel. Oxford this 30 of June 1596."
A poem called The Victory of English Chastity printed next to the Apologie is signed " Thomas Willoby Frater Henrici Willoby nuper defuncti " [n. d].1 From these premises we should naturally conclude that there were two brothers, Henry and Thomas Willoby (Willobie, or Willoughby, the orthography being phonetic), both of whom were poets, and wrote on one and the same subject. The Apologie also records that Henry Willobie left " many other pretty things — of his devising," and a poem called Susanna, which must have been suggested by the story of Susanna and the Elders, and therefore we are asked to believe that both brothers wrote poems (Avisa, Susanna, and The Victory of English Chastity} on one subject — chastity, maidenly, or matronly ; which, to say the least, is surprising. We also learn from the same premises that Henry Willobie died at Oxford between Oct. 1, 1594, and June
1 Having been unable to see a copy of this edition, we are here trusting to the account of it in the Britixh Bibliographer, vol. iii. p. 241. The edition of 1596 is only " presumed " in that work, nor has Mr Hazlitt " met with " it.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXIX
SO, 1596, and that his brother survived him. One might almost guess already that Hadrian Dorrell is hoaxing us ; that he was the Henry Willobie of the Aviso, and Susanna, and after June, 1596, the Thomas Willobie of the Viclorie. "We shall soon find fresh suggestions of doubt.
In the editions of 1605 and 1635 are found the Apology and the Epistle to the Reader. In the former Dorrell says the author " fained an Individuum : * * to this fained Individuum, he gave this fained name Avisa ; " and in the latter he writes
" I found this very name AVISA, written in great letters, a pretty distance a sunder, and under every letter, a word beginning with the same letter, in this forme,
A . V . I. S . A .
Amans Vxor Inuiolata Semper Amanda."
But Dorrell presently goes on to say,
" Tet of the other side, when I doe more deeply consider of it and more narrowly •weigh every particular part, I am driven to thinke that there is something of truth hidden under this shadow. The reasons that move me are these. First in the same paper where I found the name of AVISA written in great letters, as I said before, I found this also written with the author's owne hand, viz. ' Yet I would not have Avisa to be thought a publike fiction, nor a truthlesse invention, for it may be, that I have at least heard of one in the west of England, in whom the substance of all this hathe been verified, and in many things the veiie words specified which hath endured these and many more, and many greater assaults, yet, as heere, she stands unspotted, and unconquered.' "
Who the lady was has never been determined, nor yet where she abode. We must not rush to the conclusion that her name was Susan, from the mention of Avi-Susan in the commendatory poem : for that has no more reference, of necessity, to the real lady's name than Lucres-Avis (phonetic for Lucrece- Avis] , the Susan being the Susanna of the Apocrypha, and the Lucres being the Lucrece of Roman History ; the former celebrated by H. W. (Henry Willobie), the latter by W. S. (William Shakspere). Avisa, like the lady " in the west of England," abode
At "Westerne side of Albion's isle Where Austine pitcht his monkish tent,
which suggests Glastonbury ; and her homestead is described in the single stanza which constitutes Canto XL VI. If one might make a guess at the lady's real name, from the hint given in that stanza, St George is at once suggested, and one is reminded of Rich. III. v. 3,
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George, Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons ! Upon them ! Victory sits upon our helms.
But there are two statements in DorrelPs Apology which are hard to reconcile. He writes :
XXX GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
" This poeticall fiction was penned by the Author at least for thirtie and five yeercs since (as it will be proved), and lay in wast papers in his study, as many other prettie things did of his devising ; and so might have continued still (as his Susanna yet doth) had not I, coutrarie to his knowledge, with paiuc collected it and pub- lisht it."
"We know from the British Bibliographer, vol. iii. pp. 242, 258, that this passage is iu the Apology (dated 1596) added to the edition of 1605. Now, 35 from 1596 leaves 1561, so that, ac- cording to DorrelFs statement, Henry Willobie had written his Aviso, by June, 1561. The poem showing no sign of immaturity, we must conclude that he was nearly of age at that date ; which will throw his birth back to about 1540. Taking that year as a basis of computation, he must have been from 53 to 56 at the time of his death. At least he was then a man of fifty, an elderly man, of whose achievements Dorrell might have written with praise, but of whom he could uot have written as of a promis- ing student and a young soldier: yet Dorrell describes him, in his epistle of Oct. 1594, as " a scholar of very good hope," and what is even more absurd, as a " young man, who, desirous of seeing the fashion of other countries, had not long sithence departed voluntarily in her Majesty's service," whereas he was in June, 1596, nuper defunctus, and had " not long sithence " departed at the bidding of the King of kings. Sir Egerton Brydges considered that this " anachronism [might] be ascribed to inadvertency." For ourselves, we see in it the pes clauda which so persistently dogs the hoaxer ; and we are led to the conclusion, already mentioned, that Willobie his Aviso, is of the same class as The Legacy of an Etonian, Edited by Robert Nolands, sole executor (Macmillau, 1846), where the executor's name is a pseudonym, and the editor was sole author of the poems, which
are there attributed to " a young friend, Mr E n." Here,
nostro judicio, we have the key to the Willobie-Dorrell mystery. Otherwise, we should be driven to the conclusion that this poem, which is redolent of late Elizabethan associations, belongs (by a miraculous anachronism) to the reign of Henry V11I., and that therefore the interlocutor whose initials are W. S. could not be William Shakspere, seeing he was not born till the third year after the poem was written.
On the other hand, the name of Willobie is found in a marginal note in William Clarke's Polimanteia, 15 '•.•,' 5, where he is referred to as one of those of Oxford who " are able to sing sweetly when it please thee." Clarke makes " England to her three daughters," the Universities, say,
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXXI
sweet Ma- " I know, Cambridge, howsoeuer now old, thou hast some young, hid
stcr campiow. ^^ |,e ffoiist, yet suffer them to be wittie ; let them be soundly
Britton. learned, yet suffer them to he gentlemanlike qualified : Oxford thou
^"n't'i hast many, and they are able to sing sweetly when it please thee.
Frounce.' And thou youngest of all three, either in Hexameter English, thou
Lodge. art cui-ious (but that thou learncdst of my daughter Cambridge) or in
uisV/r,. il any other kinde thou art so wisely menie, as myselfe (though olde)
Drayton. am often delighted with thy musick, tune thy sweet strings, & sing
piat. what please thee." [sign, as, back.]
But this does not clear up the difficulty, as Clarke may have only known Willobie's name from the book.
The commendatory poem (called an Hexameton} contains the earliest printed mention of Shakspere that has yet been discovered. Its date is at least as early as the first edition of Willobie Ins Avisa, viz. 1594 ; i. e. one year earlier than that of Clarke's Polimanfeia, in a marginal note to which the name of Shakspere also occurs. The second verse of this Hexameton, in which Shakspere is named as the author of Lucrece, was quoted by Mr J. P. Collier in his Introduction to that poem (Ed. of Shakespeare, 1858, vol. vi. p. 526). He here also refers to the Canti of the Avisa, which we have re- printed at large, in his Life of Shakespeare (Ibid. vol. i. p. 115). The dialogue between H. W. and "W. S. was first reprinted in Ellis' Specimens, vol. ii. p. 378, and subsequently at greater length by Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, in Notes and Queries, 2nd S. ix. 59- 60, under date Jan. 28, 1860.
The Hexameton is signed Contraria, Contrariis : Vigilantius : Dormitanus, under which fanciful signature some have supposed to lurk the real name of the writer : but all that it appears to mean is that, if we designate contraries by contraries, the author is Wide-awake Sleepy-head : which might possibly contain a pun on his name.
X. — XVII. Sir ~Wm Harbert's Epiccdium and the stanza from Michael Drayton's Matilda are supposed to allude to Shakspere's Rape of Lucrece, which was first printed in 1594. Some doubt as to the latter allusion is raised by the expression Acting her passions on our stately stage.
Undoubtedly that line means what it says ; for in another poem of Drayton's, Mistress Shore to Edward V., we have the same expression applied to Tragedy,
Or passionate Tragedian in his rage Acting a Love-sick passion on the stage.
But we know of but one play on the subject of Lucrece,
XXX11 GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Thomas Hey wood's Rape of Lucrece ; and that was not printed till 1008 ; and we do not know of its having been performed before that year ; and having regard to the recent publication of Shak- spere's poem, we should naturally refer Drayton's allusion to that piece. The verse we have reprinted is found in two editions of Matilda, viz. those of 159i and 1506. A copy of the former is at Sion College, and of the latter in the British Museum. In subse- quent editions that verse is not found. Can it be that Drayton was originally under the impression that Shakspere's poem was a play ; and on finding out his mistake expunged the allusion ? "Who shall say ?
"We have reprinted nearly two pages of " a letter from Eng- land to her three daughters," appended to Polimanteia, 1595, for the sake of some most curious and enigmatical marginalia or side- notes, where occurs what is for us the " captain-jewel of the carkanet " — " Lucrecia sweet Shakspeare ; " in which we see a recommendation of Shakspere's second heir, Lucrece, so called on the title-page of the first edition, 1594. This is the second mention of Shakspere ; and in both Aviso, and Polimanteia his name is associated with his Rape of Lucrece. We may note, too, the epithet " sweet," which must be taken in corroboration of the fact, to which we have already adverted, that Shakspere was, par excellence, designated mellifluous and lioney -tongued, and his muse proverbially compared to honey, sugar, and nectar. In this we recognize a conventional compliment of the day ; but also to some extent an accurate estimate of Shakspere's poetry ; for his versification was so melodious, and his subject and treatment so sensuous, that with young and susceptible readers his poems were " the best books in the wrorld." (See Machin's Dumb Kniglit.)
Most of the text of our extract relates to Samuel Daniel, whose tragedy of Cleopatra (and " well graced Anihonie "), Com- plaint of Rosamond, and LVII. Sonnets (with Ode and Pastorall) To Delia, are here praised. The divine Lady is Daniel's patron- ess, Mary, Countess of Pembroke.
Below " sweet Shakspeare " is " Eloquent Gaveston," which is certainly an allusion to Michael Drayton, who wrote Piers Gaves- ton : and between this and the allusion of Daniel's Cleopatra (or else to the prefixed Letter from Octavia to Anthony) are the enigmatical words " "Wanton Adonis. "Watson's heyre." These have been variously explained. Some have read the two expres- sions together, and identifying " Wanton Adonis " with the " first heir" of Shakspere's invention, have declared him to be " Wat- son's heyre " or literary successor. This would appear to be Mr Edward Arber's view (English Reprints : Thomas Watson's
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. XXX111
Poenu, 15 March, 1870, p. 16), but he unintentionally gives a point to the allusion which the original work does not countenance, by printing " Wanton Adonis. Watson's heyre," by itself, on the opposite margin of the extract from Polimanteia ; it is so, indeed, in the original ; but only because it is on the next page, all the notes being on the outside margin of the text. If the division of the pages be disregarded, the four words in question should be placed on the same margin as the preceding notes. Mr C. Elliot Browne argues for the same conclusion (Notes and Queries, 4th S. xi. 378, May 10, 1873) ; and regarding the heirship of Shak- spere to concern the Sonnets mainly or solely, sees in that fact (if fact it be) " some ground for inferring that he [Shakspere] had acquired a reputation for his sonnets, three years before the notice by Meres in 1598." But this is mere circular reasoning : for we must first know the fact of that reputation before we can infer the desired heirship from the note in Polimanteia : since it is highly probable that W. C. would not have given Shakspere such a name as " Watson's heyre " (q. d. in sonnet-writing) unless Shakspere had already been publicly recognized as Watson's chief rival in that art.
Others have seen in the same four words an allusion to some posthumous poetical work of Watson's, which at that time would be recognized under the name of " Wanton Adonis," and evidently the date of AVatson's death favours that hypothesis, for there would bo from two to three years for such a work to be printed and published ; so that it might be just exciting notice at the time W. C. wrote his Polimanteia. Another view has occurred to ourselves; viz. that as Watson was nicknamed "the Eng- lish Petrarch," and W. 0. himself calls Spenser " thy Petrarch," i. e. the Petrarch of Cambridge, he may have regarded Spenser (who survived Watson) as " Watson's heyre." It is true he has already named Spenser in the margin : but he names Drayton in the margin, and afterwards praises his Gaveston. On this view, however, " Wanton Adonis " presents some difficulty : for if the " sweet and chaste " poem of Venus and Adonis, in which Venus is the wanton and assailing party and Adonis the coy and uncon- querable youth, could be called by that singularly inappropriate name, W. C. would surely have mentioned it with " Lucrecia," and not have inserted " Eloquent Gaveston " between Shak- spere's two poems.
Another view is that " Watson's heyre " is Henry Constable ; and Dr Brinsley Nicholson has with some ingenuity supported this as the more probable conjecture (Notes and Queries, 4th S. xi. 491, June 14, 1873), but his argument does not carry conviction
ALLU3IOX-BOOKS. d
XXXIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
to our mind. Others think the " heyre " was Abraham Fraunce. Our impression is, that the full points in these marginalia were intended to mark a complete separation of names ; and therefore that " Wanton Adonis " (poem or author) is not to be identified with " Watson's heyre." At present there is not sufficient evidence before us to interpret satisfactorily those enigmatical terms. The marginalia are just such notes as the author might have written on the margins of his manuscript, as suggestions for perfecting the " Letter ; " and these, by reason of his absence or death, might have been printed as integral parts of his work. It is always exceed- ingly difficult to identify these loose allusions of an Elizabethan author to- a contemporary writer, especially if they are compli- mentary : for either the compliment is too weak a generality, or it contains an estimate of literary merit which is utterly discre- pant with the verdict of posterity. This fact is brought home to us with great force when we see how inappropriate, as well as inadequate, was the praise bestowed on Shakspere by his con- temporaries : and to this day we are unable to identify the rising wit, whose exceeding great promise, as that of a splendid sun- rising, is celebrated by John Davies of Hereford in his Paper's Complaint.
Of the other small pieces here reprinted, the little that was to be said, is said iu. the brief notes appended to them respectively.
We will only add that the allusions in Marston' s Scourge of Villanie are the earliest distinct allusions to any of Shak- spere's plays. Those of Greene, Chettle, and Harvey, and that of Spenser (if it be an allusion to Shakspere, which is certainly somewhat doubtful) do severally contain a side glance at his Histories : the writers of our other excerpts know him, for the most part, as an amatory poet. In Marston we meet with a distinct recognition of his popularity as a playwright. Prom this time forward till Shakspere's death (as we shall see in the Second Part of our Allusion-BooJct] his contemporaries notice his plays much more frequently than his poems, and utterly ignore his Sonnets.
The lines parodied by Marston in the first extract from The Scourge of Villanie are in Borneo and Juliet ; where Capulet cries,
A hall ! a hall ! give room and foot it girls. More light, ye knaves.
The " worthy poet " was Sir John Davies, the gifted author of Orchestra, or a Poeme on Dauncing, 1596. Kemp's jig (like Tarleton's jig, alrea iy mentioned) was one of those diversions of
GENERAL INTRODUCTION-. XXXV
combined singing and dancing, which was invented and performed by him. (See Dyce's Introduction to Kemp's Nine days Wonder, p. xx., and Collier's Memoirs of Actors, pp. 100-102.)
The Committee desire me to express their thanks to Mr Henry Huth for his great kindness in lending them his very rare originals of the first three of these ' Allusion-Books ' to reprint. I have also to record my thanks to Miss L. Toulmin Smith for her aid in the revision of my proofs.
C. M. I. Valentines, II ford, September, 1874.
XXXVI
A FEW NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER.
V»gt Line
125 34 " the olde Fox" is Dr Perne, who is mentioned on p. 5. Nash
alludes to him more than once. See his Strange Neires or Four Letters Coupled (Sig. F 4. verso), where we find in italics, " the olde Foxe Doctour Perne ".
129 1 "than ". It is "then " in the old copy.
20 " we " is an error of the old copy for " with ".
130 22, 23 " him or them " : i. e. Robert Greene or the brothers Harvey.
24 "their lives" : i. e. the lives of the brothers.
25 " he that liued not" is John Harvey.
131 20 "The second Toy of London": Toy was the name of a con-
temporary stage clown. (See Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Col- lier, 1825, vol. 9, p. 50, note.)
30 "a Player" means a gamester or gambler — not an actor or a
playwright.
133 17 " be like " (sic in the old copy) is " belike ".
24, 25 " and how many millions of greene youthes, haue in ouer- mounting, most ruefully dismounted " : a parallel to a well- known crux in Macbeth.
134 4, 5 " his inwardest companion, that tasted of the fatall herringe " :
an allusion to Robert Greene's death. (See our reprint from Meres' Wits Treasiny, p. 164, 11. 29, 30.)
34, 35 " Fauste precor gelida ". This is also given to Holofernes in Locet Labours Lost, IV. iii. 95. It is quoted, says Dyce, from the beginning of the First Eclogue of Mantuanus : i. e. Bap- tista Spagnolo.
136 11 Nocta is our error for Nocte.
137 17 Harvey has " bostesse ", an evident error for " hostesse ". 139 24 "haunted" (sic in the old copy) should be "hunted".
143 17 " mouths ". The old copy has " mouth ".
144 24 The " verse " is probably Gabriel Harvey's.
26 The " Sonnet " is probably that printed by Harvey at the end of
his Foure Letters and Certaine Sonnets.
148 4 May not "Gnomes " be an error for "Tomes", a word elsewhere
used by Harvey ?
9, 10 The mention of Thomas Watson proves that he was alive at the date of the letter ; and we know that he died before the end of the year.
149 7 " Dammeo" is the word of the old copy. It is probably an error
for "Dammes", i.e. "Dams."
xxxvn
SUPPLEMENT
I. GREENE ON NASH- II. CHETTLE ON SIIAKSPERE.
III. MARLOWE, GREENE, AND SHAKSPERE.
BY RICHARD SIMPSON, ESQ., B.A.
(Reprinted from THE ACADEMY, April 11, 1874, p. 400.)
Ma HOWARD STAUNTON, in a recent letter to the Athenceum, tries to show that a passage in the Epistle prefixed to Chettle's Kind Heart's Dream, 1592, which has been always considered to refer to Shakspere, does not so refer ; and, incidentally, that the three playwriters to whom Greene addressed his epistle, appended to his Groatsworth of Wit, are not Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, but Marlowe, Nash, and Peele. On the former point I differ from Mr Staunton, on the latter I agree with him. Perhaps it is worth while to discuss the two points, as .Chettls's and Greene's two pamphlets are to be among the first publications of the New Shakspere Society.
I. — First, with regard to the question whether the " Young Juvenal " of Greene's letter was Lodge or Nash — Dr Farmer first said it was Nash, but Malone denied it on two grounds ; that we know that Greene and Lodge wrote a comedy together, The Looking-glass for London, but we know of no comedy written by Greene and Nash ; and that Nash was pointed at as the real author of Greene's posthumous letter, which would not be natural if he was one of those to whom it was addressed. Therefore, Malone concluded " Toung Juvenal " was Lodge and not Nash. And Shaksperian scholars have generally followed Malone's lead, till Mr Howard Staunton.
But " Young Juvenal " cannot be Lodge. The chief point which Greene dwells upon is the age of the man he addresses. He is " young," and " boy." Now Lodge was three years older than Greene. In 1592 Lodge was 35 and Greene was 32, neither •of them " boys." Lodge was born probably in 1557 ; he was B.A. July 8, 1577. In 1592 he was a weather-beaten sailor. Greene was born in 1560, and became BA. at an earlier age in 1578.
Again, Lodge was absent from England at the date of Greene's letter. He sailed in Cavendish's second expedition ; the ships left Plymouth Aug. 26, 1591, reached Brazil Dec. 15, and re-
XXX viii LODGE CANNOT BE THE " YOUNG JUVENAL " OF GREENE'S LETTER.
mained at Santos till Jan. 22, 1592, when they sailed for the Straits of Magellan: on Sept. 13, 1592 the South Sea was sighted, but the ships were driven back into the straits. October 2 they fetched the South Sea again, where they were cruelly buffetted, but recovered the straits a third time. February 6, 1593, they were at Placentia. One of the ships, without victuals, sails, and almost without men, came to land, at Bearhaven iu Ireland, June 11, 1593. It is not to be supposed that the absent Lodge was one of those to whom Greene addressed his letter, as if they were all present in London at the time.
Again, it is generally thought that Lodge had forsworn writing for the theatre in 1589. The last stanza of his SciUaes Metamorphosis of that date contains the lines : —
..." And then by oath he [Glaucus] bound me To write no more of that whence shame doth grow, Or tie my pen to Pennie Knaves delight, But live with fame, and so for fame to write."
If he kept this vow, it is clear that his two plays must be dated before 1589. And The Looking-glass for London, in which Greene was parcel author with him, seems to have been written early in 1589, for Greene in the dedication of his Mourning Garment (1589) to the Earl of Cumberland has some allusions to the matter of the play, as if it was then fresh in his memory. Thus Lodge and Greene had written a comedy together early in 1589. Is this any proof that Lodge must have been the person whom Greene, three and a half years later, addressed as having " lastly with me together writ[ten] a comedy " ? Lastly means " quite lately." It would be absurd to torture the meaning of the word to prop up so weak a conclusion as this, that Lodge must have been the man, because a comedy written by Lodge and Greene nearly four years before happens to have survived, whereas in the general shipwreck of Greene's dramatic works no comedy avow- edly written by him with any one else has been preserved.
Again, Lodge could not with propriety be called a Juvenal in 1592. A Fig for Momus, his only satirical .work, was not published till 1595. And when he there states that the present instalment was only a trial, and that he had in his hands a whole centon more Satires, which should suddenly be published if those passed, he implies that those then printed were the only ones that had seen the light, or had been submitted to men's judgment. But the satirist whom Greene mentions had already "vexed scholars with his sharp and bitter lines," and they had " reproved his too much liberty of speech." " Young Juvenal " had attacked indi- viduals, and Greene advises him to do so no more. Lodge had
NASH IS THK "YOUNG JUVENAL" OF GREENE'S LETTER. XXxix
never done so. Even after 1595 Lodge was never called " Juvenal." His Satires fell flat, and the world never asked him to publish the store which he had in reserve, or to print a new edition of those he had given forth. Two years after A Fig for Momus, Hall published the first three books of his Satires, and in his prologue, oblivious of Lodge, claimed to be the first writer of this kind :
" I first adventure, follow me who list, And be the second English satirist."
In the controversy about priority between Hall and Marston, no one ever thought of pleading Lodge's indubitable first claim. Perhaps the title of Juvenal, except in irony, would have been the last to be conceded by his contemporaries to this sweet pastoral poet, indifferent satirist, and still less commendable playwriter.
Young Juvenal then is not Lodge. Is he Nash ?
Nash's age and appearance fit well. He was born in Novem- ber, 1567. He was 7 years younger than Greene, and wanted some two months of 25 years when Greene's letter was written. He was a beardless youth, with a shaggy head of hair, if we may credit his portrait1 in The Trimming of Thomas Nash, where how- ever his open mouth and " lips ugly wrested " might, on a too slight inspection, be mistaken for a hungry beard.
Nash also was a " biting satirist," who since 1589 had been sowing his pasquinades broad-cast, and had already " vexed scholars with his sharp and bitter lines." He had begun writing as Greene's coadjutor, with a preface to Menaphon, in which whole classes of the writers of the time were treated with much disdain. The attack was followed up the same year in his Anatomy of Absurdity. The Puritans, their favourers, and all who wished to give them a fair hearing, were attacked with wit, malice, buffoon- ery, and venom in The Countercuffe, 1589, The Return of the Re- nowned Cavaliero, Pasquil of England, 1859, Martin's Month's Mind, 1589, PasquiVs Apology, 1590, An Almond for a Parrott, 1590. The personal war with the Harveys was already begun in the Wonderful Strange Astrological Prognostication, 1591. Pierce Penniless, 1592, is subsequent to Greene's death, for Nash tells us that he had intended to print an epistle " to the ghost of Eobert Greene " in the first edition of it, had not the fear of infection detained him with his Lord (Whitgift) in the country (at Croydon). Here was abundant material for calling Nash
1 He is also spoken of as beardless in Harvey's text ; and in it (further back, I think) there are two satirical lines on his want and its cause. — B. Nicholson.
xl NASH IS THE " YOUNG JUVENAL " OF GREENE* S LETTER.
" Young Juvenal." Ho had already christened himself the Pasquil of England ; and " Juvenal," if I remember rightly, was the name given him by Meres in 1598.
It remains to show that Nash and Greene had probably written a comedy together shortly before September, 1592. That Greene joined Nash, Lily, and perhaps Kempe in writing the Anti- Martinist plays and pamphlets we have this evidence, among much more to the same purpose. Nash, in his Strange News, 1592, explains why Greene attacked the Harvey family in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier. He says that Richard Harvey, in his Percival the Peacemaker, took upon him to play "jack of both sides twixt Martin and us," and snarled at Lily and Nash himself; and afterwards in his Lamb 'of God reviled Nash and Lily, and " inistermed all our other poets and writers about town ' piperly make-plays and make-bates.' " Then, Greene, " being chief agent for the company," canvassed Harvey and his brothers in the work mentioned above. This shows that Greene was one of those who wrote the plays and pasquinades against Martin, and that they were a company, and wrote in common. Hence it is more than probable that Greene and Nash together wrote one or more of those multitudinous comedies, referred to by Lily in Pap toith a Hatchet, and Nash in his Martin's Month's Mind, and Pasquil's Return, some of which only were acted, and those so violent that the children of Paul's were inhibited from acting before October, 1589, and a strict censorship set up over all other companies of actors a month later. But the company's business was not over with this inhibition ; nor did the controversy with the Puritans altogether forsake the stage. In 1592 we find it still going on. Early in that year, Lord Strange's company brought out a new play, or rather an old one re-written, A Knack to know a Knave, a "moral" similar to Greene and Nash's Look- ing-glass, consisting of an historical over-plot — in which Edgar stands for Queen Elizabeth, and Dunstan for Whitgift, where Dunstan is treated much as Bacon is treated in Greene's Friar Bacon, — and a satirical underplot, in which the puritanical clerical knave comes in for the chief lashing. A careful perusal will show many scenes written by a euphuistic poet like Greene, and many others, pervaded with the gibing spirit of Nash. I should be loth to affirm that this is the comedy actually referred to by Greene in his letter to the play-writers, but it seems to me to be much more likely to be the play " lastly " written by him and " Young Juvenal " together, than the Looking -glass for London is ; because for other reasons Lodge, the joint-author of the latter play, cannot be the " Young Juvenal " of the letter.
CHETTLB, IN HIS PREFACE, DOES REFER TO SHAKSPERE. xli
There is only one other point to notice ; it is Malone's argu- ment, that because some contemporaries supposed the letter to be Nash's and not Greene's, therefore Nash could not be one of the persons to whom it was addressed. But surely these readers may have been either careless readers who had failed to notice the two short sentences in which Nash is described, or wary readers who thought that Nash, when he wrote in Greene's name, not impo- liticly addressed the letter to himself, in order to put guessers off the true scent, and to suggest to them the very same false argu- ment which took in so good a critic as Malone.
Mr Staunton says that he has " evidence " that Nash and not Lodge is the person intended. If he has any new facts bearing on the point, "I take it there is but two ways, either to utter them or to conceal them." For myself, what I have adduced convinces me that Lodge certainly was not, and Nash almost as certainly was, the person addressed by Greene as " Young Juvenal."
II. — The second point is, whether Chettle refers to Shakspere in the apology for the G-roatsworth of Wit. In the Epistle to the Gentlemen readers prefixed to Kind Heart's Dream, Chettle says,
" About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many p;ipers in sundry booksellers' hands ; among other, his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter written to divers playmakers is offensively by one or two of them taken ; and because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they wilfully forge in their conceits a living author ; and after tossing it to and fro, no remedy but it must light on me. . . . With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if 1 never be : the other whom at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had. . . . I am as sorry as if the original fault had been my fault, because myself have seen his demeanour no less civil than he excellent in the quality he professes: besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightness of "dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing that approves his art."
Mr Staunton bows to the general consent which identifies the first of these two with Marlowe, but not to the equal unanimity which identifies the other with Shakspere. For, he remarks, Chettle Expressly says that Greene's letter was written to divers playmakers and by one or two of them offensively taken. Now the letter was not written to Shakspere, but against him.
This is true, and if Chettle wrote with unerring accuracy and with classical refinement he would not have confounded the " ad " and "in." As the epigrammatist says : — •
In libris tria verba meis celebrantur ; ad, in, de : Do docct ; Ad dignos laudat ; et In lacerat.
Greene wrote ad, to Marlowe, " Young Juvenal ", and Peele, and in, against Shakspere. Chettle, if he had been writing with the forethought and care with which a lawyer makes a will, should
xlii CHETTLE, IX HIS PREFACE, DOES REFER TO SHAKSPERE.
have said that Greene's letter was to divers playmakers and against another. But in common and less fastidious speech the first phrase " to divers " would comprehend the second, and would point out all the persons aimed at in the letter. A Frenchman would say that the letter was directed to Shakspere as much as to the others : " Ce trait malin est alle a son adresse." The argument, therefore, which builds so much on Chettle's use of the word " to " is entirely unsafe. The assumption of such a prudish precision in him is a precarious hypothesis.
The application of Chettle's words to Shakspere should be rather tested by facts, than by grammatical niceties. First, we may examine it thus. Greene addresses (so to say) four persona, and says something characteristic of all four. Two of them take offence, and Chettle apologises ; the apology ought naturally to fit the offensive remarks. We may see for whom the apology is meant, by finding out to whom Greene addressed the insults which it retracts.
The four objects of Greene were : 1. Marlowe ; 2. " Young Juvenal " (either Lodge or Nash) ; 3. Peele ; 4. Shakspere. The first three he extols, but with some mixture of blame. Mar- lowe, though the famous gracer of tragedians, had said in his heart there is no God ; had an excellent wit, but gave no glory to the Giver; studied Machiavelli, and was a disciple of his political liberty.
" Young Juvenal " was a biting satirist, who made enemies by bitter words addressed to persons not to characters, and who " had vexed scholars with bitter lines," and had in turn been re- proved for his too much liberty of speech.
Peele was no less deserving than the other two, in some things rarer, in nothing inferior. He had but one fault, he wrote for the common players, and thereby was worthy of the extreme shifts to which he was driven.
All these three in common were also warned against profane oaths, drunkenness, lust, and epicurean flatterers.
Shakspere is described as an upstart crow " beautified with our feathers " (by which I believe Greene meant simply an actor who had assumed the part of an author, but which Chettle and others understood as implying a charge of dishonest appropriation of other men's compositions), " a tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide " (a ferocious ruffian) — one who supposed himself as well able to bombast out a blank verse as Marlowe himself; an absolute Johannes factotum ; in his own conceit the only Shake- scene in a country ; and one who, by favour of his fellows the players, those apes, rude grooms, buckram gentlemen, peasants,
CHETTLE, IN HIS PREFACE, DOES REFER TO SHAKSPERE. xliii
and despicable painted monsters, had already supplanted Greene in his calling of playwriter, and would soon supplant Marlowe, Peele, and " Toung Juvenal " also, unless they were beforehand with him, and forsook the trade.
Chettle' s apology is made to two of these four persons. To Marlowe he can say no more than this : that he does not desire his acquaintance ; that he reverences his learning ; that he hopes he will use him no worse than he deserves ; and that he did greatly mitigate Greene's charges against him. To the other he apologises by bearing witness to his " civil demeanour," his " ex- cellence in the quality he professes," his " honesty and uprightness of dealing," his " facetious grace in writing," and his " art." These are exactly the points which Greene had assailed in Shakspere, but had not touched in the cases of " Toung Juvenal " and Peele. If Chettle, therefore, dealt out his retractation with any view whatever to the imputations he was retracting, he must have meant Shakspere, and neither of the others.
Again, if this apology was not addressed to Shakspere, it must have been meant either for Peele, or Lodge, or Nash. No one has ever suggested that Peele took offence ; nor indeed had he reason to be offended. It could not have been Lodge, because Chettle within three months of Greene's death, September 3, 1592, had become acquainted with the man, had witnessed his civil demeanour and his excellent carriage in his profession. But at Christmas, 1592, Lodge was in the Straits of Magellan. Mr Staunton thinks that it was Nash ; but there are several reasons against this. First, Chettle says that the two who took offence, because they could not be revenged on a dead man, wilfully forged a living author ; and having tossed it to and fro, having thrown suspicion first on one, then another, at last they fixed on Chettle. In reply to this, he ends his apology by protesting that " it was all Greene's, not mine, nor Master Nash's, as some unjustly have affirmed." This clearly means that the two who took offence in tossing the imputed authorship to and fro, had first fixed on Nash, and then on Chettle. Nash, then, cannot have been one of those two.
But though he was not one of these two offended persons, Nash did take offence at Greene's posthumous pamphlet, or rather, perhaps, at the report that it was his. " Other news I am adver- tised of," he writes in an Epistle prefixed to the second edition of Pierce Penniless, " that a scald, trivial, lying pamphlet called Greene's Groatswortk of Wit is given out to be of my doing. God never have care of my soul, but utterly renounce me, if the least word or syllable in it proceeded from my pen, or if I were
ClIiCTTLE, IN HIS PREFACE, DOES REFER TO SHAKSPERE.
in any way privy to the writing or printing of it." He was evidently aore that Marlowe and the other [Shakspere] should have attributed the pamphlet to him, and in his vexation he called it " scald, trivial, lying." " Possibly," observes Mr Collier, " one of the lying portions of it, in the opinion of Nash, was that in which an attack was made upon Shakspere." Dyce is surprised at this remark, because Nash was in the same fellowship of play- wrights, and must have shared Greene's jealousy and fear of Shakspere. But, he adds, Nash's offence at the pamphlet resulted from his view " of the probable consequences of such a publication to himself: he was vexed and irritated because its disclosures concerning men with whom he was well known to have associated — the dead Greene and the still-living Marlowe — had a strong tendency to injure his own character ; and he boldly pronounced it to be a ' lying pamphlet,' in the hope of shaking its credit with the world." Dyce's observation gains much force from the fact, unknown to him, that at this time, in the autumn of 1592, Nash was the guest of Archbishop -Whitgiffc at Croydon, whither the household had retired for fear of the plague, and that as the official antagonist of Martin Marprelate, he had to keep up such a character as would not disgrace his clerical employers.
A second reason why this " other," to whom Chettle apolo- gises, cannot be Nash, is this. The person was evidently an anonymous writer, none of whose compositions had as yet been published ; so Chettle, instead of referring to his books as show- ing his skill, only brings forward the witness of sundry gentlemen who " reported his facetious grace in writing." Now Nash, as I have shown, had already published a whole series of works. Shakspere had published nothing, and his authorship of his , lays was only known within a very narrow circle.
A third reason is, that Chettle had seen this man's " excellence in the quality he professed." The man professed some calling which obliged him to make a personal exhibition of himself — such as preaching, pleading, or acting. Shakspere was an actor. I never heard that Nash was either actor, advocate, or preacher.
A fourth is this ; Chettle, at the time of the publication of Greene's letter, was not acquainted with either of the two to whom he afterwards apologised. But he seems to have been acquainted with Nash. Greene reproves Nash for vexing scholars with bitter lines. Chettle in his apology protests that he has, all the time of his conversing with printing, hindered the bitter inveighing against scholars ; and in 1596 he signs himself, in a letter to Nash, "your old compositor." It seems as if Chettle had set up some of Nash's satirical works, and had induced him.
MARLOWE, GREENE, AND SHAKSPERE. xlv
to mitigate their gall. The very title page of Kind Heart's Dream bears witness to the familiarity between Chettle and Piers Penni- less or Nash.
In the fifth place, the gentlemen who reported to Chettle on the honesty and art of the " other," are much more likely to have been the patrons of the stage where Shakspere acted, or the private friends among whom his Sonnets circulated, than the reverend circle of Archbishop "Whitgift's family at Croydon, among whom Nash's patrons were then to be sought.
I do not claim very great weight for these last four arguments taken separately ; but their converging conclusions go to reinforce the peremptory conclusion of the first argument, that the " other" (besides Marlowe) to whom Chettle apologised, was not Nash, but Shakspere.
No doubt Mr Staunton has started a difficulty which deserved investigation, but investigation dissolves the mist which he has raised ; and he has not established the faintest pretence for asking the New Shakspere Society to refrain from publishing Chettle's Kind Heart's Dream as a book containing a manifest and indubit- able allusion to Shakspere.
III. MARLOWE, GREENE, AND SHAKSPERE.
FROM the passage above it appears that Marlowe and Shak- spere, having been insulted in common by the publication, took prevailing action against it. Chettle says of them, that " because on the dead they could not be avenged, they wilfully forged in their conceits a living author ; and after tossing it to and fro, no remedy but it must light on me." In this " tossing to and fro " it appears that at one time they fixed upon Nash as the author; he therefore protests that " it was all Greene's, not mine, nor Master Nash's, as some unjustly have affirmed."
Shakspere and Marlowe thus acting together, and fixing upon Nash as their common enemy, is somewhat inconsistent with the prevailing idea which classes together Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Lodge, and Nash, as the confraternity of University wits, more or less in hostility to the interloper Shakspere. The idea is founded on this letter of Greene's, which has been accepted without making allowances for the ingrained falsehood of the man. Greene gives us to understand that he and Marlowe were great friends ; yet in addressing Marlowe he makes against him the vilest insinuations ; and those which we can now read are little in comparison with those which the manuscript, probably, contained.
Xlvi MARLOWE, GREENE, AND SHAKSPERE.
At the perusing of Greene's book, says Chettle, I " stroke out what then in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ [con- cerning Marlowe], or, had it beene true, yet to publish it was intolerable."
Greene had alluded to Marlowe in previous writings, but always in the same spirit. In the Epistle prefixed to his Peri- inedes (1588) he tells how a play of his had been scorned " for that I could not make my verses jet upon the stage in tragical buskins, every word filling the mouth like the fa-burden of Bow- bell, daring God out of heaven with that atheist Tamburlaine, or blaspheming with the mad priest of the sun." Marlowe, we know by Harvey's sonnets, was known by the name of Tamburlaine, just as Shakspere was called by the name of his most popular cha- racter, and was written of by the Countess of Southampton, and by Sir Edwin Sandys, as Sir John Falstaff.1
Again, in his Farewell to Folly, 1591, Greene tells his Univer- sity readers that his Mourning Garment had so ready a sale that the pedlar " found them too dear for his pack, and was fain to bargain for the life of Tamburlaine to wrap up his sweet powders in those unsavoury papers." And when he employed JsTash, then just returned from a three years' absence, to criticize his contemporaries in the Epistle prefixed to Menaplion in 1589, he made Nash cite, not Marlowe, to whom common consent gave the palm, but Peele, as " the chief supporter of pleasaunce now living, the Atlas of poetry, and primus verborum artifex " with a "pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold variety of invention, wherein (me judice) he goeth a step beyond all that write."
The impression, then, that Greene seems to wish to make, that he had been an intimate friend and comrade of Marlowe, appears to be untrue. On the contrary, in the heyday of Mar- lowe's success in 1588-91, Gre§ne was as jealous of him as he was of Shakspere in 1592, and for a similar reason.
On the other hand, I know of no evidence, beyond Greene's malicious insinuation, of any unfriendly rivalry between Shak- spere and Marlowe. Marlowe, I believe, is one of the two con- temporary poets to whom Shakspere directly refers in any of his plays, and then his allusion is anything but unfriendly : —
Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, ' He never loved that loved not at first sight.'
1 See Historical MSS. Commission, 3rd Report, p. 148, and Sir Edwin Sandys letters — a volume published in the middle of the 17th century ; I have mislaid the reference. Of course I assume Marlowe to be the author of Tamburlaine ; the in- direct evidence is abundant ; the chief direct evidence hitherto relied on has been proved to be a forgery.
MARLOWE, GREENE, AND SHAKSPERE.
That there was a rivalry may be surmised from this ; that in 1593 they were both occupied in writing amatory poems ; Shakspere with his Venus and Adonis, Marlowe with his Hero and Leander. If this rivalry was friendly, whatever there may be in common between Marlowe and Shakspere in the 3 parts of Henry VI. is not to be imputed, on Greene's word, to dishonest pilfering on the part of Shakspere — a charge from which Chettle's apology ought to bear him free, — but rather to the co-operation not unusual among dramatists. Dyce has pointed out some verbal parallel- isms of Marlowe's Edward II. with the 1st part of the Con- tention, and the True Tragedy. The very structure of Edward II. seems to bear witness to the counsel and aid of Shakspere, just as the construction of Ben Jonson's Scjanus, as compared with his Catiline, may bear witness to the co-operation of some "second pen" whose contributions Ben erased, preferring " to put weaker, and no doubt less pleasing, of mine own, than to defraud so happy a genius of his right by my loathed usurpation." A play brought out by the same company (that of Lord Pembroke), and about the same time with Edward II., is The taming of a Shrew. Marlowe's share in this only fails of proof through the abundance of internal evidence. There are whole passages of three and four lines each verbally transcribed from Marlowe's plays. That an author should so closely repeat himself is unusual ; but that any one should so openly plagiarize from, the works of a living or recently de- ceased writer universally known, and where detection would be certain, is next to incredible, except perhaps on the hypothesis that Shakspere might have written the comedy, with its Mar- lowesque turgidity in the more serious parts, in order to show what manner of writer he would be, if, as had been said of him, he was a mere plagiarist from Marlowe; just as he seems to have published Locrine in 1595 (it was entered in the Stationers' books, July 20, 1594) " newly set forth, overseene and corrected by W. S.," — an old play, written, according to Sir George Buck, by Charles Tylney, who was executed for treason in Sept. 1586, — with interpolations from Peele (pointed out by Dyce), and imitations from Greene, and perhaps from Marlowe. Either, it seems to me, we must accept the hypothesis that these two plays are an ironical answer to Greene's charges, showing the difference of the new school of Comedy and Tragedy from the old, which the author was accused of plagiarizing from ; or else, if we think, as most of us do think, that Shakspere must have had a hand in the old Taming of a Shrew, we must assign to him as a partner in writing it, either Marlowe himself, or one of his direct imitators and scholars.
Xlviii MARLOWE, GREEN'E, AND SIIAKSPERE.
Again, when Greene reproaches Marlowe ag being a defender of liberty, which Greene chooses to designate as being the doc- trine of Machiavelli, and Bame as atheism (see Batne on Mar- lowe's opinions, Harleian MS. (5853, fol. 320, printed by Dyce),it is doubtful whether by liberty he meant anything more than toler- ation, as understood by those whom the men in power chose to designate politiques ; who considered that the State ought to act for the good of the State, not in the interests of the Church ; and that useful citizens should not be burned or subjected to penal laws, because they happened to differ in religion from their sovereign, or the majority of their fellow- subjects. This is probably the tenet of Marlowe which Greene describes as teaching that it is " lawful, y^s et nefas, to do anything that is beneficial." That is, that the general prosperity of the country ought to be aimed at, without attending to the bloodthirsty demands of Whitgift and the clergy, who held that the first thing was, fas out nefas, to reduce the people to unity of belief, and to suppress with equal weight both Puritans and Papists. If this was the charge against Marlowe, it is no prejudice against the probability of an intimate sympathy between him and Shakspere. That Marlowe was really as much opposed to Machiavelli's reputed teaching as Greene himself may be seen from his prologue to the Jew of Malta, where he confesses that Barabas is meant for the maligned philosopher.
Two of the matters I have advanced are facts that can hardly be controverted : the co-operation of Marlowe and Shakspere in investigating the authorship of the Groats-worth of Wit, and Shak- spere's sympathetic mention of the dead poet in As You Like It. The rest is hypothesis, which I put forward for the purpose of further inquiry, not as propositions already proved.
E. SIMPSOX.
GREENS,
Groats-worth of Wit,
bought with a Million of
Repentaunce.
Describing the follie of youth, the falshoode of makeshift
flatterers, the miserie of the negligent, and mischiefes
of deceiuing Courtezans.
Written before before his death, and published at his dying request.
Faelicem fuisse infaustum.
LONDON,
Printed by Thomas Creede, for Richard Oliue,
dwelling in long long Lane, and are there
to be solde. 1596.
THE PRINTER TO
the Gentle Readers.
Haue publifhed heere, Gentlemen, for your mirth and benefit, Greenes groatefwoorth of wit. With fun- 4 dry of his pleafant difcourfes, ye haue beene before delighted: But now hath death giuen a period to his pen; onely this happened into my hands, which I haue publimed for your pleafures : Accept it fauourably becaufe it was his laft 8 birth, and not leaft worth, in my poore opinion. But I will ceafe to praife that which is aboue my conceit, and leaue it Telfe to fpeake for it felfe : and fo abide your learned cenfuring.
Yours, V7: VV.
12
TO THE GEN-
tlemen Readers
|Entlemen. The Ssvan fings melodioufly before death, that in all his life time vfeth but a iarring found. Greene, though able inough to write, yet deeplyer fearched with ficknefle then euer heretofore, fendes you his Swanne-like fong, for that he feares he fhal neuer againe carroll 8 to you woonted loue layes, neuer againe difcouer to you youths pleafures. How euer yet ficknefle, riot, incontinence, haue at once fhown their extremitie, yet, if I recouer, you mall all fee more frefh fprings then euer fprang from me, directing you how 12 to Hue, yet not diffracting you from loue. This is the laft I haue writ; and I feare me, the laft I (hall write. And how euer I haue beene cenfured for fome of my former bookes, yet Gen- tlemen I proteft, they were as I had fpeciall information. But 16 pafsing them, I commend this to your fauourable cenfures ; and like an Embrion without fhape, I feare me [t]will beethruft into the world. If I Hue to ende it, it mall be otherwife : if not, yet will I commend it to your courtefies, that you may as wel
T'o the Gentlemen Readers. 5
be acquainted with my repentant death, as you haue lamented my carelefle courfe of life. But as Nemo ante obitumfelix, fo A6ia Exitus ' prolat : Befeeching therefore to bee deemed hereof as I deferue, I leaue the worke to your likings, and leaue you 4 to your delights.
1 Orig. Exiitus.
GREENES
Groatsworth of wit.
[N an Hand bound with the Ocean, there was fometime a Citie fituated, made rich by Merchandize, and populous by long fpace; the name is not mentioned in the An- tiquary, or elfe worne out by times Antiquitie : what it 4 was, it greaily fkilles not : but therein thus it happened. An old new made Gentleman herein dwelt, of no fmall credit, exceeding wealth, and large confcience : he had gathered from many to beftowe vpon one ; for though he had two fonnes, he efteemed but one, that, being 8 as himfelfe, brought vp to be goldes bondman, was therefore held heire apparent of his ill gathered goods.
The other was a Scholler, and maried to a proper Gentlewoman, and therefore leaft regarded ; for tis an olde faidfaw : To learning and 12 law, ther's no greater foe, then they that nothing know : yet was not the father altogether vnlettered, for he had good experience in a Nouerint, and by the vniuerfall tearmes therein contained, had driuen many gentlewomen to feeke vnknowen countries : wife he was, for he 16 boare office in his parifh, and fate as formally in his fox-furd gowne, as if he had beene a very vpright dealing Burges : he was religious too, neuer without a booke at his belt, and a bolt in his mouth, ready to fhoote through his finfull neighbor 20
And Latin he had fome where learned, which, though it were but little, yet was it profitable, for he had this Philofophie written in a ring, Tu tibi cura, which precept he curioufly obferued, being in felfeloue fo religious, as he held it no point of charitie to part with 24 any thing, of which he, liuing, might make yfe.
8 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
But as all mortall things are momentarie, and no certaintie can bee
founde in this vncertaine world, fo Gorinius, (for that fhall be this
Ufurers name) after many a goutie pang that had pincht his exterior
4 parts, many a curfe of the people that mounted into heauens prefence,
was at laft with his laft fummons, by a deadly difeafearrefted ; where-
againft when hee had long contended, and was by Phifitions giuen
ouer, hee cald his two fonnes before him : and willing to peribrme
8 the olde prouerbe, Qualis vita, finis Ita, hee thus prepared himfelfe,
and admonished them.
My fonnes, (for fo your mother faide ye were) and fo I afl'ure my felfe one of you is, and of the other I \vil make no doubt.
12 You fee the time is come, which I thought would neuer haue aproached, and we muft now be feperated, I feare neuer to meete againe. This fixteene yeares daily haue I liued vexed with difeafe : and might I liue fixteene more, how euer miferably, I mould thinke
1 6 it happie. But death is relentlelTe, and will not be intreated witlefTe : and knowes not what good my gold might do him : fenfelefle, & hath no pleafure in the delightfull places I would offer him. In breefe, I thinke he hath, with this foole my eldeft fonne, beene brought
20 vp in the vniuerfitie, and therefore accounts that in riches is no vertue. But you my fonne, (laying then his hand on the yongers head) haue thou another fpirit : for without wealth, life is a death : what is gentry, if wealth be wanting, but bafe feruile beggerie ? Some comfort yet it
24 is vnto me, to fee how many gallants fprung of noble parents, haue croucht to Gorinius to haue fight of his gold : O gold, defired gold, admired golde ! and haue loft their patrimonies to Gorinius, becaufe they haue not returned by their day that adored creature ! How
28 many fchollers haue written rimes in Gorinius praife, and receiued (after long capping and reuerence) a lixpeny reward in figne of my fuperficiall liberalitie. Breefely, my yong Lucanio, how I haue bin reuerenft, thou feeft, wrhen honefter men, I confefle, haue beene fet
32 farre off: for to be rich is to be any thing, wife, honeft, worfhipfull, or what not ? I tell thee my lonne : when I came firft to this Cittie, my whole wardrop was onely a fute of white fheepe (kins, my wealth an olde Groate, my woonning, the wide wrorld. At this inftant (O
36 greefe to part with it) I haue in readie coyne threefcore thoufand
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 9
pound j in plate and Jewels, xv. thoufand ; in bonds and fpecialties, as much ; in land, nine hundred pound by the yeere : all which, Lucanio, I bequeath to thee j onely i referue for Roberto thy well red brother, an olde Groate, (being the ftocke -I firft began with,) wherewith I 4 wifh him to buy a groatfworth of wit : for he in my life hath reprooued my maner of life, and therefore at my death, {hall not bee contaminated with corrupt gaine.
Heere by the way, Gentlemen, muft I difgreffe to fhew the reafon 8 of Gorinius prefent fpeech : Roberto being come from the Academic, to vifit his father, there was a great fealt prouided : where for table talke, Roberto, knowing his father and moft of the companie to be execrable vfurers, inuayed mightily againft that abhorred vice, info- 12 much that he vrged teares from diuers of their eyes, and compun£tion in fome of their hearts. Dinner being paft, hee comes to his father, requeuing him to take no oifence at his liberall fpeech, feeing what he had vttered was truth. Angrie fonne (faide he) no, by my hon- 16 efty, (& that is fomwhat, I may fay to you) but vfe it ftill, and if thou canft perfwade any of my neighbours from lending vppon vfurie, I mould haue the more cuftomers : to which when Roberto would haue replied, he fhut himfelfe into his ftudie, and fell to telling ouer 20 his money.
This was Robertas offence : nowe returne we to ficke Gorinius, who, after he had thus vnequally diftributed his goods and pofieffions, began to afke his fons how they liked his bequeftes : either feemed 24 agreed, and Roberto vrged him with nothing more then repentance of his fin: loke to thine owne, faid he, fond boy, and come my Lucanio, let me giue thee good counfel before my death : as for you, fir, your bookes are your counfellors, and therefore to them I bequeath 28 you. Ah Lucanio, my onely comfort, becaufe I hope thou wilt, as thy father, be a gatherer, let me bleffe thee before I die. Multiply in wealth, my fonne, by anie meanes thou maift ; onely flie Alchymie, for therein are more deceites then her beggerly Artiftes haue wordesj 32 and yet are the wretches more talkatiue then women. But my meaning is, thou mouldeft not ftand on confcience in caufes of profite, but heape treafure vppon treafure, for the time of neede : yet feeme to be deuout, elfe {halt thou be held vile : frequent holy excercifes, 36
io Greenes groatsworth of wit.
graue companie, and aboue all, vfe the conuerfation of yong Gentle- men, who are fo wedded to prodigalitie, that once in a quarter neceflity knocks at their chamber doores : prefer them kindnetfe to 4 relieue their wants, but be fure of good alVurance : giue faire words till dayes of payment come, and then vfe my courle, fpare none : what though they tell of confcience, (as a number will talke) looke but into the dealings of the world, & thou flialt fee it is but idle words. 8 Seeft thou not many perifh in the ftreetes, and fall to theft for neede, whom fmall fuccor would releeue : then where is confcience, and why art thou bound to vfe it more then other men ? Seeft thou not daily forgeries, periuries, oppreflions, rackings of the poore, rayfing of
12 rents, inhauncing of duties, euen by them that Ihuld be all confcience, if they meant as they fpeake : but Lucanio, if thou reade well this booke (and with that hee reacht him Machiauels works at large), thou (halt fee what it is to be fo foole-holy, as to make fcruple of con-
16 fcience, where profit prefents it felfe.
Betides, thou haft an inftance by thy threed-bare brother heere, who, willing to do no wrong, hath loft his childs right : for who would wifh any thing to him, that knowes not how to vfe it ?
20 So much, Lucanio, for confcience : and yet I knowe not whats the reafon, but fomewhat flings mee inwardly when I fpeake of it. I, father, faid Roberto, it is the worme of confcience, that vrges you at the laft houre to remember your life, that eternall life may follow
24 your repentance. Out foole (faid this miferable father) I feele it now, it was onely a ftitch. I will forward with my exhortation to Lucanio. As I faide, my fonne, make fpoyle of yong gallants by infinuating thy felfe amongft them ; and be not mooued to think their Aunceftors
28 were famous, but confider thine were obfcure, and that thy father was the firft Gentleman of the name. Lucanio, thou art yet a Bacheler, and fo keepe thee, till thou meete with one that is thy equall, I meane in wealth : regard not beautie, it is but a baite to
32 entice thine neighbors eie : and the moft faire are commonly moft fond : vfe not too many familiars, for few prooue friends ; and as eafie it is to weigh the wind, as to diue into the thoughts of worldly glofers. I tell thee, Lucanio, I haue feene foure fcore winters betides the odde
36 feauen, yet faw I neuer him that I efteemed as my friend, but gold,
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 1 1
that defined creature, whom I haue deerely loued, and found fo firme a friend, as nothing, to me hauing it, hat hbeene wanting. No man but may thinke deerely of a true friend, and fo doe I of it, laying it vnder fure locks, and lodging my heart therwith. 4
But now (Ah my Lucanio) now rnuft I leaue it ; and to thee I leaue it with this leffon, loue none but thy felfe, if thou wilt liue efteemed. So turning him to his ftudy, where his chiefe treafure lay, he loud cried out in the wife mans words, O mors quam amara, O 8 death how bitter is thy memorie to him that hath al pleafures in this life ; and fo with two or three lamentable groanes he left his life : and to make fhort worke, was by Lucanio his fonne enterd, as the cuftome is, with fome folemnitie : But leauing him that hath left the world, 12 to him that1 cenfureth of euery worldly man, paffe we to his fons : and fee how his long laied by ftore is by Lucanio looked into. The youth was of condition limple, fhamefaft, and flexible to any counfaile, which Roberto perceiuing, and pondering how little was left to him, 16 grew into an inward contempt of his fathers vnequall legacie, and determinate refolution to worke Lucanio al poflible iniurie : here- vpon, thus conuerting the fweetnefTe of his ftudie to the fharpe thirft of reuenge, he (as Enuie is feldome idle) fought out fit companions 20 to effecl his vnbrotherly refolution. Neither in fuch a cafe is ill com- panie farre to feeke, for the Sea hath fcarce fo [many] ieoperdies, as populous Citties haue deceiuing Syrens, whole eies are Adamants, whole wor[d]es are witchcrafts, whofe doores leade downe to death. With one 24 of thefe female Serpents Roberto conforts, and they conclude, what euer they compafled, equally to fliare to their contentes. This match made, Lucanio was by his brother brought to the bum, where he had fcarce pruned his wings, but hee was fail limed, and Roberto had what 28 he expe&ed. But that we may keepe forme, you fliall heare how it fortuned.
Lucanio being on a time very penfme, his brother brake with him in thefe tearmes : I wonder, Lucanio, why you are fo difconfolate, 32 that want not any thing in the world that may worke your content. If wealth may delight a man, you are with that fufficiently furnifht : it credit may procure a man any comfort, your word, I knowe well, is
1 Orig. yt.
1 2 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
as well accepted as any mans obligation : in this Citie are faire build- ings and pleafant gardens, and caufe of Iblace ; of them I am aflured you haue your choyfe. Confider, brother, you are yong j then plod not 4 altogether in meditating on our fathers precepts : which, howlbeuer they fauoured of profit, were moft vnfauerly, to one of your yeeres applied. You muft not thinke but certaine Marchants of this Citie expe6t your company, fundry Gentlemen delire your familiaritie, and 8 by conuerling with fuch, you will be accounted a Gentleman : other- wife a pefant, if ye Hue thus obfcurely. Befides, which I had almoft forgot, and then had all the reft beene nothing, you are a man by nature furnimed with all exquifite proportion, worthy the loue of any
12 courtly Ladie, be flie neuer fo amorous : you haue wealth to main- taine her, of women not little longed for : wordes to court her you fhall not want, for my felfe will be your fecretary. Brieflie, why ftande I to diftinguiili abilitie in perticularities, when in one word it may
16 bee fayde, which no man can gainfay, Lucanio lacketh nothing to delight a wife, nor any thing but a wife to delight him ? My young maifter beeing thus clawde, and puft vp with his owne prayfe, made no longer delay, but hauing on his holyday hofe, he tricked himfelfe
20 vp, and like a fellowe that meant good footh, hee clapped his Brother on the Shoulder, and fayde : Faith, Brother Rolerto, and yee fay the worde, lets go feeke a wife while it is hote, both of vs togither, He pay well, and I dare turne you loofe to fay as well as anye of them all :
24 well He doe my beft, faid Roberto, and fince ye are fo forward, lets goe nowe aud trie our good fortune.
With this, foorth they walke, and Rolerto went direftlie towarde the houfe where Lamilia (for fo wee call the Curtezan) kept her
28 Hofpitall, which was in the Suburbes of the Cittie, pleafauntly feated, and made more dele£table by a pleafaunt Garden, wherein it was fcituate. No fooner come they within ken, but Miftrefle Lamilia like a cunning angler made readie her chaunge of baytes, that fhee
32 might effe6t Lucanios bane : and to begin, fhee difcouered from her window her beauteous inticing face, and taking a lute in her hand that me might the rather allure, me fung this Sonnet' with a delicious voice.
1 Orig. Sounet.
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 1 3
Lamilias Song. Fiejie on Hindfancie, It hinders youths ioy :
Faire virgins learne by me, 4
To count loue a toy.
When Loue learned Jirjl the ABC of delight, And knew no figures, nor conceited phrafe : Hejlinplie gaue to due defert her right, He led not loners in darke winding ivayes,
He plainly wild to loue, orjlatly anfwered no, But now who lifts to proue,JJiaUJind it nothing fo :
Fiejie then on f ancle, 12
It hinders youths ioy, Faire virgins learne ly me, To count loue a toy.
Forjince he learnd to vfe the Poets pen, J6
He learnd likewife with fmoothing words tofaine, Witching chaft eares with trothleffe toungs of men, And wronged faith with faljliood and difdaine.
He giues a promife now, anon hefweareth no, 20
Who liftethfor to proue,jhalljind his changingsfo : Fiejie then onfancie, It hinders youths1 ioy,
Faire virgins learne ly me, 24
To count Loue a toy.
While this painted fepulchre was fhadowing her corrupting guilt, Hiena-like alluring to definition, Roberto and Lucanio vnder the windowe, kept euen pace with euery flop of her inflrument, but 28 efpecially my yoong Ruffler, (that before time like a bird in a cage, had beene prentife for three Hues, or one and twentie yeeres at leafly to extreame Auarice, his deceafed father) O twas a world to fee how he fometime fimperd it, firming to fet a countenance on his turnd 32 face, that it might feeme of wainfcot proofe, to beholde her face with- out blu.fh.ing : anone hee would flroake his bowbent-leg, as though he went to fhoote loue arrows from his fhins : then wipte his chin (for
1 Orig. youth,
14 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
his beard was not yet grown) with a gold wrought handkercher, whence of purpofe he let fall a handfull of angels. This golden fhowre was no fooner rained, but Lami/^a ceaft her fong, and Roberto (alluring 4 hinifelfe the foole was caught) came to Lucanio (that ftoode now as one that had flarde Meduf'a in the face) and awaked him from his amazement with thefe words : What, in a traunce, brother ? whence fprings thefe dumps ? are yee amazed at this obiecl ? or long ye to 8 become loues fubiecl ? Is there not difference betweene this deledl- able life,' and the imprifonment you haue all your life hitherto endured ? If the fight and hearing of this harmonious beautie work in you effects of wonder, what will the poflelliou of fo diuine an
12 effence, wherein beautie and Art dwell in their perfe&eft excellencie ? Brother, laid Lucanio, lets vfe few words, and llie be no more then a woman, I truft youle helpe mee to her ! and if you doe, well, I fay no more, but I am yours till death vs depart, and what is mine, flial
1 6 be yours, world without end, Amen.
Roberto, fmiliug at his fimplenelTe, helpt him to gather vp hisdropt golde, and without any more circumftance led him to Lamilias houfe : for of fuch places it may be faid as of hell,
20 Nofles atque dies patet atri ianua ditis.
So their doores are euer open to entice youth to deftruction. They were no fooner entred, but Lamilia her felfe, like a fecond Helen, court like begins to falute Roberto, yet did her wandring eie glance
24 often at Lucanio : the effect of her entertainment confilted in thefe tearmes, that to her limple houfe Signor Roberto was welcome, and his brother the better welcome for your fake : albeit his good report, confirmed by his prefent demeaner, were of it felfe enough to giue
28 him deferued entertainement, in any place how honourable foeuer : •mutuall thanks returned, they lead this prodigal childe into a Parlor garnilhed with goodly portratures of amiable perlbnages : neere which an excellent conlbrt of muficke began at their entrance to play.
32 Lamilia, feeing Lucanio fhamefalt, tooke him by the hand, and ten- derly wringing him, vfed thefe words : Beleeue me, Gentleman, I am verie forie that our rude enter[tain]ment is fuch, as no way may worke your content : for this I haue noted fince your firft entering, that
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 1 5
your countenance hath beene heauie, and the face being the glafle of the heart, aflures me the fame is not quiet : would ye willi any thing heere that might content you, fay but the word, and allure ye of prefent deliuerauce to effect your full delight. Lucanio being fo farre 4 * in loue, as he perfwaded himfelfe without her grant hee could not liue, had a good meaning to vtter his minde, but wanting fit wordes, hee ftoode like a trewant that lackt a prompter, or a plaier, that being out of his part at his firft entrance, is faine to haue the booke to 8 fpeake what he ihould performe. Which Roberto perceiuing, replied thus in his behalfe : Madame, the Sunnes brightneiTe dailleth the beholders eies j the maieftie of Gods amazed humane men j Tullie, Prince of Orators, once fainted, though his caufe were good ; and he 12 that tamed monfters, ftoode amated at beauties ornaments : Then blame not this yoong man though hee replied not, for he is blinded with the beautie of your funne-darkening eies, made mute with the celeftiall organe of your voyce, and feare of that rich ambufh of 16 amber colored darts, whofe pointes are leuelde againft his heart. Well, Signor Roberto faide fliee, how euer you interpret their fharpe leuell, be fure they are not bent to doe him hurt ; and but that modeftie blinds vs poore Maidens from vttering the inwarde forrowe of our 20 mindes, perchaunce the caufe of greefe is ours, how euer men do colour, for as I am a virgin, I proteft, (and therewithall fliee tainted her cheekes with a vermilion blufh) I neuer fawe Gentleman in my life, in my eie, fo gratious as is Lucanio; onely that is my greefe, that 24 either I am defpifed, for that he fcornes to fpeake, or elfe (which is my greater forrow) I feare he cannot fpeake. Not fpeake, Gentle- woman, quoth Lucanio ? that were a ieaft indeede ! yes, I thanke God I am founde of winde and lim, onely my heart is not as it was woont : 28 but and you be as good as your word, that will foone be well, and fo craning ye of more acquaintance, in token of my plaine meaning receiue this diamond, which my olde father loued deerely : and with that deliuered her a Ring, wherein was a pointed1 Diamond of won- 32 derfull worth. Which fliee accepting with a lowe conge, returned him a filke Riband for a fauour, tyed with a truelouers knot, which he fattened vnder a faire lewell on his Beuer felt. 0 Orig. a pointed a]
After this Diamedis & Glauci permutatio, my yoong mafter waxed 36
16 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
cranke, and the muficke continuing, was very forward in dauncing, to {hew his cunning : and fo defiring them to play on a hornepipe, laid on the pauement luftily with his leaden heeles, coruetting like a fteede
' 4 of Signor Roccoes teaching, and wanted nothing but bels, to bee a hobby horfe in a morrice. Yet was he foothed in his folly ; and what euer he did, Lamilia counted excellent : her praife made him proude, inlbmuch, that if he had not beene intreated, hee would rather haue 8 died in his daunce, then left off to fliew his miftrefie delight. At laft reafonably perfwaded, feeing the table furniflied, he was contented to ceafe, and fettle himfelfe to his victuals, on which (hauing before labored) he fed luftily, efpecially of a Woodcocke pie, wherewith
12 Lamilia his caruer, plentifully plied him. Full difhes hauing furnimt emptie ftomackes, and Lucanio thereby got leifure to talke, falles to difcourfe of his wealth, his lands, his bonds, his abilitie, and how him- felfe, with all he had, was at Madame Lamilias dilpofing : defiring her
1 6 afore his brother, to tell him fimply what {he meant. Lamilia replied : My fweet Lucanio, how I efteeme of thee, mine eies doe witnefie, that, like handmaides, haue attended thy beautious face euer fince I firft beheld thee : yet feeing loue that lafteth gathereth by
20 degrees his liking, let this for that fuffice : if I finde thee firme, Lamilia will be faithful : if fleeting, (he inuft of neceflitie be infor- tunate that, hauing neuer feene any whome before fliee could afte6t, {hee fhoulde bee of him iniurioufly forfaken. Nay, faide Lucanio, I
24 dare fay my brother here wil giue his word : for that I accept your own, faid Lamilia, for with me your credit is better then your brothers. Roberto brake off their amorous prattle with thefe fpeeches : Sith either of you are of other fo fond at the firft fight, I
28 doubt not but time will make your loue more firme. Yet, madame Lamilia, although my brother and you be thus forward, fome croiTe chaunce may come : for MuJta cadunt inter calicemfupremaqne lobe. And for a warning to teach you both wit, He tell you an olde wiues
32 tale.
Before ye go on with your tale (quoth miftrefle Lamilia) let me giue ye a caueat by the way, which {hall be figured in a Fable.
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 17
Lamiliaes Fable.
|He Foxe on a time came to vifite the Gray, partly for kindered, cheefely for craft : and finding the hole emptie of all other companie, fauing onely one Badger, enquiring 4 the caufe of his folitarinefle, he defcribed the fodaine death of his dam and fire, with the reft of his conforts. The Foxe made a Friday face, counterfeiting forrow : but concluding that deaths ftroke was vneuitable, perfwaded him to feeke fome fit mate wherwith to 8 match. The Badger foone agreed, fo forth they went, and in their way met with a wanton ewe ftraggling from the fold : the Foxe bad the Badger play the tall ftrippling, and ftrout on his tiptoes : for (quoth he) this ewe is lady of al thefe lands, and her brother cheefe belwea- 12 ther of fundrie flocks. To be fhort, by the Foxes perfwafion there would be a perpetuall league, betweene her harmelefle kindred, and al other deuouring beafts, for that the Badger was to them all allied : feduced, fhee yeelded : and the Foxe conducted them to the Badgers 16 habitation. Where, drawing her afide vnder color of exhortation, pulde out her throate to fatiffie his greedie thirft. Here I Ihould note, a yoong whelpe that viewed their walke, infourmed the {hep- heard of what hapned. They followed, and trained the Foxe and 20 Badger to the hole : the Foxe afore had craftily conuaied himfelf away j the (hepheard found the Badger railing for the ewes murtherj his lamentation being helde for counterfet, was by the fheapheards dog wearied. The Foxe efcaped : the ewe was fpoiled ; and euer fince, 24 betweene the Badgers and the dogges hath continued a mortall enmitie : And now be aduifed Roberto (quoth {he) goe forward with your tale ; feeke not by flie infinuation to turne our mirth to forrow. Go too Lamilio, (quoth hee) you feare what T meane not, but how 28 euer ye take it, lie forward with my tale.
Rolertoes Tale.
jjN the North parts there dwelt an old Squier, that had a yong daughter his heire; who had (as I know, Madame 32 Lamilia, you haue had) many youthfull Gentlemen that long time fued to obtaine her loue. But flie, knowing her owne perfection (as women are by nature proude), woulde not to any
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 2
1 8 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
of them vouchfafe fauour : infomuch that they, perceiuing her relent- lefle, fhewed themfelues not altogether witleffe, but left her to her fortune, when they founde her frowardnefTe. At laft it fortuned 4 among other ftrangers, a Farmers fonne vifited her fathers houfe : on whom at the firft fight Ihee was enamored, he likewife on hir. Tokens of loue paft betweene them, either acquainted others parents of their choife, and they kindly gaue their confent. Short tale to 8 make, married they were, and great folemnitie was at the wedding feaft. A yong Gentleman, that had beene long a futer to her, vexing that the fonne of a farmer fhould be fo preferred, caft in his minde by what meanes (to marre their merriment) he might Iteale away the
12 Bride. Hereupon he confers with an old beldam, called mother Gunl-y, dwelling thereby ; whofe counfell hauing taken, he fell to his pra&ife, and proceeded thus. In the after noone, when dauncers were very bufie, he takes the Bride by the hand, and after a turne or
1 6 two, tels her in her eare, he had a fecret to impart vnto her, appoint- ing her in any wife, in the euening to find a time to confer with him : ihe promifed fhe would, and fo they parted. Then goes he to the bridegroome, and with proteflations of entire affecl:, protefls that the
20 great forrow hee takes at that which he muft vtter, wheron depended his efpecial credit, if it were knowne the matter by him fhould be difcouered. After the bridegroomes promife of fecrecie, the gentle- man tels him, that a friend of his receiued that morning from y
24 bride a letter, wherin fhe willed him with fome fixteene horfe to awaite her comming at a Parke fide, for that Ihe detefted him in her heart as a bale country hinde, with whom her father compelled her to marrie. The bridegroome almoft out of his wits, began to bite
28 his lippe. Nay, faith the Gentleman, if you will by me be aduifed, you fhall faue her credit, win her by kindnes, and yet preuent her wanton complot. As how, faid the Bridegroome ? Mary thus, faid the gentleman : In the euening (for till the gueftsbe gone, {he intends
32 not to gad) get you on horfebacke, and feeme to be of the companie that attends her comming : I am appointed to bring her from the houfe to the Parke, and from thence fetch a winding compafle of a mile about, but to turne vnto olde mother Gunlyes houfe,
36 where her louer, my friend, abides : when fhe alights, I wil
Greens groatsworth of wit. 19
conduct her to a chamber far from his lodging, but when the lights are out, and fhe expefts her adulterous copefmate, your felfe (as reafon is) fhall prooue her bedfellow, where priuately you may reprooue her, and in the morning earely returne home without 4 trouble. As for the gentleman, my friend, I will excufe her abfence to him, by faying, fhee mockt thee with her maide in Head of her felfe, whom when I knew at her lighting, I difdained to bring her vnto his prefence. The Bridcgroome gaue his hand it mould be fo. 8
Now by the way we muft vnderftand, this mother Gunly had a daughter, who all that day fate heauily at home wi.th a willow gar- land, for that the bridegroome (if he had dealt faithfully) Ihould haue wedded her before any other. But men (Lamilia) are vnconftant j 1 2 mony now a daies makes the match, or elfe the match is marde.
But to the matter : the bridegroome and the Gentleman thus agreed : he tooke his time, conferred with the bride, perfwaded her that her hufband (notwithftanding his faire fhew at the marriage) had 16 fworne to his olde fweete heart, their neighbour Gunlyes daughter, to be that night her bedfellow : and if me would bring her father, his father, and other friends to the houfe at midnight, they fhould finde it fo. 20
At this the yong gentlewoman inwardly vext to be by a peaiant fo abufed, promifed, if {he fawe likelyhood of his flipping away, that then fhe would doe according as he directed.
All this thus forting, the old womans daughter was trickly attired, 24 ready to furnifh this pageant, for her old mother prouided all things neceflarie.
Well, Supper paft, dauncing ended, all the guefts would home ; and the Bridegroome, pretending to bring fome friend of his home, got 28 his horfe, and to the Parke fide he rode, and flayed with the horfemen that attended the Gentleman.
Anone came Marian like miflris Bride, and mounted behind the gentleman, away they poft, fetch their compafle, & at lafl alight at 32 an olde wiues houfe, where fodenly fhe is conuaied to her chamber, & the bridegroome fent to keepe her company, where he had fcarce deuifed how to begin his exhortation, but the father of his bride knockt at the chamber doore. At which being fomewhat amazed, 36
2O Greenes groatsworth of wit.
yet thinking to turne it to a ieaft, fith his wife (as he thought) was in bed with him, hee opened the doore, faying : Father, you are heartily welcome, I wonder how you found vs out heerej this deuife 4 to remooue our felues, wns with my wiues confent, that we might reft quietly without the Maids and Batchelers disturbing vs. But where is vour wife, faid that1 gentleman ? why, heere in bed, faid he. I thought (quoth the other) my daughter had beene your wife, for fure 8 I am to day lliee was giuen you in marriage. You are merrily dif- pofed, faid the Bridegroome : what, thinke you I haue another wife ? I thinke but as you fpeake, quoth the gentleman, for my daughter is below, & you fay your wife is in the bed. Below (faid he) you are a
12 merie man, and with that, cafting on a night gowne, he went downe, where, when he faw his wife, the gentleman his father, and a number of his friends afiembled, he was fo confounded, that how to behaue himfelfe he knew not j onely hee cried out that he was deceiued. At
1 6 this the olde woman arifes, and making her felfe ignorant of al the whole matter, enquires the caufe of that fodaine tumult. When me was tolde the new bridegroome was found in bed with her daughter, flie exclaimed againft fo great an iniurie. Marian was called in
20 quorum : fhe iuftified it was by his allurement : he, being condemned by al their confents, was iudged vnworthy to haue the gentlewoman vnto his wife, & compelled (for efcaping of punifhment) to marrie Marian : and the yong Gentleman (for his care in difcouering the
24 farmers fonnes lewdnes) was recompenft with the Gentlewomans euer during loue. t1 °"8- y*-
Quoth Lamilia, and what of this ? Nay, nothing, faide Roberto, but that I haue told you the effects of fodaine loue : yet the belt is,
28 my brother is a maidenly batcheler ; and for your felfe, you haue not beene troubled with many futers. The fewer the better, faid Lucanio. But brother, I con you little thanke for this tale ; hereafter I pray you vfe other table talke. Lets then end talk, quoth Lamilia, and you
32 (fignor Lucanio) and I will goe to the Cheffe. To Chefle, faid he, what meane you by that ? It is a game, faid fhe, that the firft danger is but a checke, the worft, the giuing of a mate. Wei, faid Roberto, that game ye haue beene at alreadie then, for you checkt him firft
36 with your beauty, & gaue your felf for mate to him by your bountie.
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 2, 1
That is wel taken, brother, faid Lucanio, fo haue we paft our game at Chefle. Wil ye play at tables then, faid me ? I cannot, quoth he, for I can goe no furder with my game, if I be once taken. Will ye play then at cards : I, faid he, if it be at one and thirtie. That fooles 4 game, faid me ? Weele all to hazard, faid Roberto; and, brother, you mall make one for an houre or two : contented, quoth he. So to dice they went, and fortune fo fauoured Lucania, that while they con- tinued fquare play, he was no loofer. Anone cofonage came about, 8 and his Angels being double winged, flew cleane from before him. Lamilia being the winner, prepared a banquet ; which finifhed, Roberto aduifed his brother to depart home, and to furnim himfelfe with more crowns, leaft he were outcrakt with new commers. 12
Lucania, loath to be out countenanft, followed his aduife, defiring to attend his returne, which he before had determined vnrequefted : for as foone as his brothers backe was turned, Roberto begins to reckon with Lamilia, to bee a lharer, as well in the mony deceitfully woonne, 16 as in the Diamond fo wilfully giuen. But me, fecundum mores meretricis, iefted thus with the fcholler : Why Roberto, are you fo well read, and yet fliew your felfe fo mallow witted, to deeme women fo weake of conceit, that they fee not into mens demerites. Suppofe 20 (to make you my ftalc to catch the woodcocke your brother) that my tongue ouerrunning mine intent, I fpake of liberal rewarde : but what I promifed, there is the point ; at leaft, what I part with, I will be well aduifed. It may be you wil thus reafon : Had not Roberto 24 trained Lucanio vnto LamUias lure, Lucanio had not now beene Lamilias pray : therfore, fith by 'Roberto me pofleiTeth her prize, Roberto merites an equall part. Monftrous abfurd, if fo you reafon ; as wel you may reafon thus : LamUias dog hath kilde her a deere, 28 therefore his miftris muft make him a paftie. No, poore pennilefle Poet, thou art beguilde in me ; and yet I wonder how thou couldeft, them haft beene fo often beguilde. But it fareth with licentious men, as with the chafed bore in the ftreame, who, being greatly refrefhed 32 with fwimming, neuer feeleth any fmart vntill he perifh, recurelefly wounded with his owne weapons. Reafonlefle Roberto, that hauing but a brokers place, afked a lenders reward. Faithlefle Roberto, that haft attempted to betray thy brother, irreligioufly forfaken thy wife, 36
22 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
deferuedly beene in thy fathers eie an abie6t : thinkeft thou Lamilia fo loole, to confort with one fo lewd ? No, hypocrite, the fweete Gentleman thy brother, I will till death louej and thee, while I Hue, 4 loath. This fliare Lamilia giues thee ; other getteft thou none.
As Roberto would haue replied, Lucanio approched: to whom
Lamilia difcourft the whole deceit of his brother, & neuer refted
intimating malitious arguments, till Lucanio vtterly refufed Roberto
8 for his brother, and for euer forbad him of his houfe. And when he
wold haue yeelded reafons, and formed excufe, Lucanios impatience
(vrged by her importunate malice) forbad all reafoning with them
that was reasonleffe, and fo, giuing him lacke Drums entertainment,
12 ftiut him out of doores : whom we will follow, and leaue Lucanio to
the mercie of Lamilia. Roberto, in an extreame extafie, rent his haire,
curft his deftinie, blamed his trecherie, but moft of all exclaimed
againft Lamilia, and in her againft all enticing Curtizans, in thefe
1 6 tt-armes.
IVJiat meant the Poets to inuecTiue verfe, Tojing Medeasjhame, and Scillas pride, Calipfoes charmes, by which fo many dide ? 20 Onely for this, their vices they rehearfe,
That curious wits which in this world conuerfe, Mayjlum the dangers and enticing Jhoes, Offuchfalfe Syrens, thofe home-breeding foes, .24 That from their eies their venim do difperfe.
So foone kils not the Bqjlliske withjight, The Vipers tooth is not Jo venemous, The Adders tung not halfe fo dangerous, 28 As they that beare thejhadow of delight,
IVlio chaine blinde youths in tramels of their haire, Till waft bring woe, andforrow haft defpaire.
With this he laide his head on his hand, and leant his elbow on the 22 ground, fighing out fadly,
Heu patior telis vulnera fa6la meis ! On the other fide of the hedge fate one that heard his forrow, who
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 23
getting ouer, came towards him, and brake off his paffion. When he approched, he faluted Roberto in this fort :
Gentleman, quoth hee, (for fo you feeme) I haue by chaunce heard you difcourfe fome part of your greefe ; which appeareth to be more 4 then you will difcouer, or I can conceipt. But if you vouchfafe fuch fimple comfort as my abilitie will yeeld, aflure your felfe, that I will endeuour to doe the beft, that either may procure your profit, or bring you pleafure : the rather, for that I fuppofe you are a fcholler ; 8 and pittie it is men of learning mould Hue in lacke.
Roberto wondring to heare fuch good words, for that this iron age afFoordes few that efteeme of vertue, returned him thankfull gratula- tions, and (vrged by neceflitie) vttered his prefent greefe, befeeching 12 his aduife how he might be imployed. Why, eafily, quoth hee, and greatly to your benefit : for men of my profeffion get by fchollers their whole liuing. What is your profeffion, fayd Roberto ? Truely fir, faid he, I am a player. A Player, quoth Roberto, I tooke you 16 rather for a gentleman of great liuing ; for if by outward habit men fhuld be cenfured, I tell you, you would be taken for a fubftantiall man. So am I where I dwell (quoth the player) reputed able at my proper coft, to build a Windmill. What though the worlde once 20 went hard with mee, when I was faine to carrie my playing Fardle a footebacke ; Tempora mutantur: I know you know the meaning of it better then I, but I thus confter it, it is otherwife now ; for my very fhare in playing apparrell will not be folde for two hundred pounds. 24 Truely (faid Roberto) it is ftrange, that you fhould fo profper in that vaine praclife, for that it feemes to me your voyce is nothing gracious. Nay then, faid the player, I miilike your iudgement : why, I am as famous for Delphrigus, and the king of Fairies, as euerwas any of my 28 time. The twelue labors of Hercules haue I terribly thundred on the ftage, and plaied three fcenes of the deuill in the highway to heauen. Haue ye fo (faid Roberto ?) then I pray you pardon me. Nay more (quoth the player) I can ferue to make a prettie fpeech, for I was a -23 countrie Author, parting at a morrall, for it was I that pende the Morral of mans wit, the Dialogue of Diues, and for feauen yeeres fpace was abfolute interpreter of the puppets. But now my Alma- nacke is out of date : ,
24 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
The people make no ejlimation, Of Morrals teaching education.
Was not this prettie for a plaine rime extempore ? if ye will, ye 4 fliall haue more. Nay it is enough, faid Roberto, but how meane you to vfe mee ? Why fir, in making playes, faid the other, for which you fliall be well paied, if you will take the paines.
Roberto perceiuing no remedie, thought beft, to refpe£t of his 8 prefent neceflity, to trie his wit, & went with him willingly : who lodged him at the townes end in a houfe of retaile, where what hap- pened our Poet, you fliall heereafter heare. There, by conuerfing with bad company, he grew A malo in peius, falling from one vice to
12 another 5 and fo, hauing found a vaine to finger crownes, he grew cranker then Lucanio, who by this time began to droope, being thus dealt withall by Lamilia. She, hauing bewitched him with her enticing wiles, caufed him to confume in lefle then two yeares, that
1 6 infinite treafure gathered by his father, with fo many a poore mans curfe. His lands fold, his iewels pawnd, his money wafted, he was cafleerd by Lamilia that had coofened him of all. Then walked he like one of duke Humfreys Squires, in a threedbare cloake, his hole
20 drawne out with his heeles, his fhooes vnfeamed, left his feete fhould fweate with heate : now (as witleffe as he was) hee remembred his fathers words, his kindnes to his brother, his carelefnefle of himfelfe. In this forrow hee fate dovvne on pennilefle bench ; where when
24 Opus and Vfus told him by the chimes in his ftomacke, it was time to fall vnto meate, he was faine with the Camdion to feed vpon the aire, & make patience his beft repaft.
While he was at his feaft, Lamilia came flaunting by, garnilhed
28 with the iewels whereof fhe beguiled him ; which fight ferued to clofe his ftomacke after his cold checre. Roberto hearing of his brothers beggerie, albeit he had little remorfe of his miferable ftate, yet did he feeke him out, to vie him as a propertie, whereby Lucanio
32 was fomewhat prouided for. But being of fimple nature, hee ferued but for a blocke to whet Robertoes wit on : which the poore foole perceiuing, he forfooke all other hopes of life, and fell to be a notorious Pandar, in which detefted courfe hee continued till deatli.
36 But Roberto, nowe famozed for an Arch-plaimak ing-poet, his purle
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 25
like the fea fomtime fweld, anon like the fame fea fell to a low ebbe j yet feldom he wanted, his labors were fo well efteemed. Marry, this rule he kept, what euer he fingerd aforehand, was the certaine meanes to vnbinde a bargaine ; and being afked why he fo fleightly dealt with 4 them that did him good ? It becomes me, fath hee, to be contrarie to the worlde : for commonly when vulgar men receiue earneft, they doe performe ; when I am paid any thing afore-hand, I breake my promife. He had fhift of lodgings, where in euery place his Hoftelfe 8 writ vp the wofull remembrance of him, his laundreffe, and his boy 3 for they were euer his in houfhold, betide retainers in fundry other places. His companie were lightly the lewdefl perfons in the land, apt for pilferie, periurie, forgerie, or any villainie. Of thefe, hee knew 12 the cafts to cog at Cards, coomi at Dice ; by thefe, he learned the legerdemaines of nips, foyftes, connicatchers, crofbyters, lifts, high Lawyers, and all the rabble of that vncleane generation of vipers : and pithily could he paint out their whole courfes of craft : So cunning 16 he was in all crafts, as nothing refted in him almoft but craftineffe. How often the Gentlewoman his wife laboured vainely to recall him, is lamentable to note : but as one giuen ouer to all lewdnes, he com- municated her forrowfull lines among his loofe truls, that iefled at 20 her bootelefTe laments. If he could any way get credite on fcores, he would then brag his creditors carried Hones, comparing euerie round circle to a groning O, procured by a painfull burden. The fhamefull ende of fundry his conforts, deferuedly punifhed for their amiffe, 24 wrought no compunction in his heart : of which one, brother to a Brothell he kept, was trail vnder a tree as round [as] a Ball.
To fome of his f wearing companions thus it happened : A crue of ihem fitting in a Tauerne carowmig.it fortuned an honeft Gentleman, 28 and his friend, to enter their roome : fome of them being acquainted with him, in their domineering drunken vaine, would haue no nay, but downe he muft needes fitte with them j beeing placed, no remedie there was, but he muft needes keepe euen comparfe with their vn- 32 feemely carrowling. Which he refufing, they fell from high wordes to found ftrokes, fo that with much adoe the Gentleman faued his owne, and ihifted from their company. Being gone, one of thefe ti piers forfooth lackt a gold Ring, the other fware they fee the Gentleman 36
26 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
take it from his hande. Upon this the Gentleman was inditea before
a ludge: thefe honed men are depofed : whofe wifedome, weighing
the time of the braule, gaue light to the Jury, what power wine-
4 warning poyfon had : they, according vnto confcience, found the
Gentleman not guiltie, and God releafed by that verdit the innocent.
With his accufers thus it fared : One of them for murther was
worthily executed : the other neuer fince profpered : the third,
8 fitting not long after vpon a luftie horfe, the beafl fuddenly died vnder
him : God amend the man.
Roberto, euery day acquainted with thefe examples, was notwith- ftanding nothing bettered, but rather hardened in wickednefle. At 12 laft was that place iuftified, God warneth men by dreams and vilions in the night, and by knowne examples in the day ; but if he returne not, hee comes vpon him with Judgement that {hall bee felt. For now, when the number of deceites caufed Roberto bee hatefull almoft 1 6 to all men, his immeafurable drinking had made him the perfect Image of the dropfie, and the loathfome fcourge of Luft tyrannized in his bones : liuing in extreamd pouerty, and hauing nothing to pay but chalke, which now his Hoft accepted not for currant, this mifer- 20 able man lay comfortleflely languishing, hauing but one groat left (the iuft proportion of his fathers Legacie) which looking on, he cried : O now it is too late, too late to buy witte with thee : and therefore will I fee if I can fell to carelefle youth what I negligently forgot to buy. 24 Heere (Gentlemen) breake I off Robertas fpeech ; whofe life in moft parts agreeing with mine, found one felfe punithment as I haue doone. Heereafter fuppofe me the faid Roberto, and I will goe on with that hee promifed : Greene will fend you new1 his groa[t]fworth 28 of wit, that neuer {hewed a mites-worth in his life : and though no man now be by, to doe me good, yet ere I die, I will by my repent- ance indeuour to doe all men good. [i ? now]
Deceiuing world, that with alluring toyes, 32 Haft made my life the fulie£l of thy fcorne :
Andfcornejl now to lend thy fading ioyes, To lengthen my life, whom friends haue left forlorne. How well are they that die ere they be borne, 36 And neuer fee thyjleights, which few menJJiun,
Till vnawares they helpleffe are vndon.
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 27
Oft haue I Jung of loue, and ofhisjire ;
But now IJinde that Poet was aduixde,
Which made full feajls increafers of dejlre,
And prooues weake loue was with the poore defpizde. 4
For when the life with foods is notfuffizde,
What thoughts of loue, what motion of delight, What pleafance, can proceede from fuch a wight ?
VVitneJft my want, the murderer of my wit ; 8
My raui/Jitfenfe, ofwoontedfurie reft,
VFantsfuch conceit, asjhould in Poimsjit.
Set downe theforrow wherein I am left :
But therefore haue high heauens their gifts bereft: 12
Becaufefo long they lent them, me to vfe,
And I fo long their bountie did alufe.
O that a yeare were granted me to Hue,
And for that yeare my former wits rejlorde : 16
What rules of life, what counfell would I giue ?
Howjhould myjlnne withforrow be deplorde1 ?
But I mujl die of euery man alhorde. I^Orig. then deplore]
Time loofely fpent will not againe be woonne, 20
My time is loofely fpent, and I vndone.
O horrenda fames, how terrible are thy aflaulres ; but Vcrmis con- fcientice, more wounding are thy flings. Ah Gentlemen, that line to 24 reade my broken and confufed lines, looke not I fhould (as I was woont) delight you with vaine fantafies, but gather my follies alto- gether, and, as you would deale with fo many parricides, caft them into the fire : call them Telegones, for now they kill their father, and' 2 8 euerie lewd line in them written, is a deep piercing wound to my heart ; euery idle houre fpent by any in reading them, brings a million of forrowes to my foule. O that the teares of a miferable man (for neuer any man was yet more miferable) might wafh their 32 memorie out with my death ; and that thofe works with me together might be interd. But fith they cannot, let this my laft worke witnes againft them with me, how I deteil them. Blacke is the remem-
28 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
brance of my blacke works, blacker then night, blacker then death, blacker then hell.
Learne wit by my repentance (Gentlemen) and let thefe fewe rules 4 following be regarded in your Hues.
1 Firft, in all your actions fet God before your eies ; for the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wifedome : Let his word be a lanterne to your feete, and a light vnto your paths, then {hall you Hand as
8 firme rocks, and not be mocked.
2 Beware of looking backe, for God will not be mocked ; of him that hath receiued much, much mail be demanded.
3 If thou be fingle, and canft abftaine, turne thy eies from vanitie, T2 for there is a kinde of women bearing the faces of Angels, but the
hearts of Deuils, able to intrap the elecl, if it were poffible.
4 If thou be m[a]rried, forfake not the wife of thy youth to follow ftrange flefh ; for whoremongers and adulterers the Lord will iudge.
1 6 The doore of a Harlot leadeth downe to death, and in her lips there dwels deftru6liou ; her face is decked with odors, but Ihee bringeth a man to a morfell of bread and uakednefle : of which my felfe am inftauce.
20 5 If thou be left rich, remember thofe that want ; and fo deale, that by thy wilfulnes thy felf want not : Let not Tauerners and Vu6iuallers be thy Executors ; for they will bring thee to a dimon- orable graue.
24 6 Opprefle no man, for the crie of the wronged afcendeth to the eares of the Lord : neither delight to encreafe by Vlurie, leaft thou loofe thy habitation in the euerlafting Tabernacle.
7 Beware of building thy houfe to thy neighbours hurt ; for the 28 ftones will crie to the timber ; We were laide together in bloud : and
thofe that fo ereft houfes, calling them by their names, fhall lie in the graue like fheepe, and death ihall gnaw vpon their foules.
8 If thou be poore, be alfo patient, and flriue not to grow rich 32 by indirect meanes ; for goods fo gotten fhall vanifh away like
fmoke.
9 If thou be a father, maifter, or teacher, ioyne good examples with good counfaile j elie little auaile precepts, where life is dif-
36 ferent.
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 2,9
10 If thou be a fonne or feruant, defpife not reproofej for though correction be bitter at the firft, it bringeth pleafure in the end.
Had I regarded the firft of thefe rules, or beene obedient at the laft ; I had not now at my laft ende, beene left thus defolate. But 4 now, though to my felfe I giue Con/ilium pqfl facia ; yet to others they may ferue for timely precepts. And therefore (while life giues leaue) will fend warning to my olda conforts, which haue liued as loofely as myfelfe ; albeit weakenefle will fcarce futFer me to-write, 8 yet to my fellowe Schollers about this Cittie, will I dire£t thefe few infuing lines.
To thqfe Gentlemen, his Quondam acquaintance,
that fpend their wits in making Plaies, R. G. 12
wiflieth a letter exercife, and wifdome to preuent his extremities.
|F wofull experience may mooue you (Gentlemen) to beware, or vnheard of wretchednes intreate you to take I^ heed : I doubt not but you will looke backe with forrow on your time paft, and endeuourwith repentance to fpend that which is to come. Wonder not, (for with thee wil I firft begin) thou famous gracer of Tragedians, that Greene, who hath faid with 20 thee, like the foole in his heart, There is no God, mould now giue glorie vnto his greatnefle : for, penitrating is his power, his hand lies heauie vpon me, he hath fpoken vnto me with a voice of thunder, and I haue left, he is a God that can puniih enimies. Why fliould 24 thy excellent wit, his gift, be fo blinded, that thou fhouldft giue no glory to the giuer ? Is it peftilent Machiuilian pollicie that thou haft ftudied ? O puniih follie ! What are his rules but meere confufed mockeries, able to extirpate in fmall time, the generation of mankinde. 28 For if Sic volo,Jic iubeo, hold in thofe that are able to command : and if it be lawfull Fas & nefas to doe any thing that is beneficiall ; onely Tyrants ihould poffeffe the earth; and they, ftriuing to exceede in tyianny, ihould each to other bee a flaughter man j till the mightieft 32 outliuing all, one ftroke were left for Death, that in one age mans life ihould ende. The brother of this Diabolicall Atheifme is dead, and in his life had neuer the felicitie he aimed at : but as he began
30 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
in craft, liued in feare, and ended in defpaire. Quum infcrutabilia
funt Dei iudicia ? This murderer of many brethren, had his con-
fcience feared like Came : this betrayer of him that gaue his life for
4 him, inherited the portion of ludas : this Apoftata perifhed as ill as
Julian : and wilt thou, my friend, be his Difciple ? Looke vnto me,
by him perfwaded to that libertie, and thou {halt finde it an infernall
bondage. I knowe the leaft of my demerits merit this miferable
8 death ; but wilfull ftriuing againft knowne truth, exceedeth al the
terrors of my foule. Defer not (with me) till this laft point of ex-
tremitie j for little knoweft thou how in the end thou ihalt be vilited.
With thee I ioyne young luuenall, that byting Satyrift, that laftlie
12 with mee together writ a Comedie. Sweete boy, might I aduife thee, be aduifed, and get not many enemies by bitter words : inueigh againft vaine men, for thou canft do it, no man better, no man fo wel : thou haft a libertie to reprooue all, and name none ; for one
16 being fpoken to, al are offended; none being blamed, no man is iniured. Stop {hallow water ftiil running, it will rage ; tread on a worme, and it will turne : then blame not fchollers vexed with {harpe lines, if they reproue thy too much libertie of reproofe.
20 And thou no lefle deferuing then the other two, in fome things rarer, in nothing inferiour ; driuen (as my felfe) to extreame {hifts ; a little haue I to fay to thee : and were it not an idolatrous oth, I would fweare by fweet S. George, thou art vnworthie better hap, fith thou
24 dependeft on fo meane a ftay. Bafe minded men al three of you, if by my miferie ye be not warned : for vnto none of you (like me) fought thofe burres to cleaue : thofe Puppits (I meane) that fpeake from our mouths, thofe Anticks garniftit in our colours. Is it not
28 ftrange that I, to whom they al haue beene beholding : is it not like that you, to whome they all haue beene beholding, {hall (were ye in that cafe that I am now) be both at once of them forfaken ? Yes, truft them not : for there is an vpftart Crow, beautified with our
32 feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, fuppofes he is as well able to bumbaft out a blanke verfe as the beft of you : and being an abfolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-fcene in a countrie. O that I might intreate your rare
36 wits to be imployed in more profitable courfes : & let thefe Apes imitate your paft excellence, and neuer more acquaint them with your
Greenes groatsworth of wit. 3 1
admired inuentions. I know the beft huiband of you all will neuer proue an Vfurer, and the kindeft of them all wil neuer prooue a kinde nurfe : yet, whilft you may, feeke you better Maifters ; for it is pittie men of fuch rare wits, mould be fubiecl: to the pleafures of fuch rude 4 groomes.
In this I might infert two more, that both haue writ againft thefe buckram Gentlemen : but let their owne works ferue to witnefle againft their owne wickednefle, if they perfeuer to maintaine any 8 more fuch peafants. For other new commers, I leaue them to the mercie of thefe painted monfters, who (I doubt not) will driue the beft minded to defpife them : for the reft, if fkils not though they make a ieaft at them. 12
But now returne I againe to you three,1 knowing my miferie is to you no news : and let me heartily intreate you to bee warned by my harmes. Delight not (as I haue done) in irreligious oaths ; for, from the blafphemers houfe, a curfe fliall not depart. Defpife drunkennes, 16 which wafteth the wit, and maketh 2 men all equal vnto beafts. Flie luft, as the deathfman of the foule, and defile not the Temple of the holy ghoft. Abhorre thofe Epicures, whofe loofe life hath made religion lothfome to your eares : and when they footh you with 20 tearmes of Maifterfhip, remember Robert Greene, whome they haue often fo nattered, perifhes now for want of comfort. Remember, gentlemen, your Hues are like fo many lighted Tapers, that are with care deliuered to all of you to maintaine : thefe with wind-puft wrath 24 may be extinguifht, which drunkennes put out, which negligence let fall : for mans time of it felfe is not fo fhort, but it is more ihortened by fin. The fire of my light is now at the laft fnuffe, and the want of wherwith to fuftaine it 5 there is no fubftance left for life to feede 28 on. Truft not then (I befeech yee) to fuch weake ftaies : for they are as changeable in minde, as in many attires. Well, my hand is tired, and I am forft to leaue where I would begin : for a whole booke cannot containe their wrongs, which I am forft to knit vp in 32 fome few lines of words.
Defirous that youjhould Hue, though 3 himfelfe be dying.
Robert Greene. *fi
1 Otig. rhree. 2 Orig . making. 3 Orig. thongh.
32, Greenes groatsworth of wit.
Now to all men I bid farewell in this fort, with this conceited Fable of the olde Comedian Atfnpe.
|N Ant and a Grafhopper walking together on a greene, the one careleflely {kipping, the other carefully prying what winters prouifion was fcattered in the way : the Grafhopper fcorning (as wantons wil) this needelefle thrift (as he tearmed it), reprooued him thus :
The greedie.mifer tliirfteth ftill for game ; His thrift is theft, his weale works others woe : Thatfoole is fond, which will in caues remains, IVJien mongfi faire fiveetes he may at pleafure goe.
12 To this the Ant, perceiuing the Grafhoppers meaning, quickly replied :
The thriftie husband fpares what vnthrifts fpends ; His thrift no theft, for dangers to provide : 1 6 Truji to thy felfe,fmall hope in want yeeldfriendes;
A caue is letter then the defarts wide.
In fhort time thefe two parted, the one to his pleafure, the other to his labour. Anon Harueft grewe on, and reft from the Grafhopper
20 his woonted moyfture. Then weakely fkips he to the medows brinks : where till fell winter he abode. But ftormes continually powring, hee went for fuccour to the Ant his olde acquaintance, to whome he had fcarce difcouered his eftate, but the little worme made this
24 replie.
Pack hence (quoth he) thou idle lazie worme ; My houfe doth harbour no vnthriftie mates : Thou fcornedji to toile, and now thoufeeljl thejlorme, 28 And Jtarujl for foode while I am fed with cafes. Vfe no intreats, I will relentleffe rejl, For toy ling labour hates an idle gueji.
The Grafhopper foodleffe, helpeleffe, and ftrengthleffe, got into 32 the next brooke, and in the yeelding fand digde himfelfe a pit : by which likewife he ingraued this Epitaph.
Greenes groaisworth of wit. 33
When Springs greene prime arrayd me ivith delight,
And euery power, with youthfull vigor Jild,
Gauejlrength to works what euer fancie wild:
I neuer feard the force of winters fpight. 4
IVhen firjl I faw thefunne the day begin, And drie the mornings tearesfrom hearts and grajft ; I little thought his chearefull light would paffe, Till vgly night with darknes enterd in :
And then day lojl I mournd, f firing pajl 1 u-aild,
But neither tear es for this or that auaild.
Then too too late I praifd the Emmets paine,
That fought infpring a harbour gainjl the heate : 12
And in the haruejl gathered winters meate,
Perceiuing famine, frojls, andftormie raine.
My ivr etched end may warne Greene fpringing youth
To vfe delights, as toyes that will deceiue, 16
And f corns the world before the world them leaue :
For all worlds trujl, is ruine without ruth.
Then bleji are they, that, like the toyling Ant,
Prouide in time gainjl winters wofull want. 20
With this the grafliopper, yeelding to the weathers extremit[ie], died comfortlefTe without reinedie. Like him, my felfe : like me, ihall al that truft to friends or times inconftancie. Now faint I of my laft infirmitie, befeeching them that Ihal burie my bodie, to publifh this 24 laft farewell, written with my wretched hand.
F oelicem fuiffe infaujlum.
A letter written to his wife, found with this
looke after his death. 28
He remembrance of many wrongs offered thee, and thy vnreprooued vertues, adde greater forrow to my miferable ftate, then I can vtter, or thou conceiue. Neither is it leffened by confideration of thy abfence (though mame <?2
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 3
34 Greenes groatsworth of wit.
would let me hardly beholde thy face) but exceedingly aggrauated, for that I cannot (as I ought) to thy owne felfe reconcile my felfe, that thou mightefl witnefie my inward woe at this inftant, that haue 4 made thee a wofull wife for fo long a time. But equal heauen hath denied that comfort, giuing at my laft neede, like fuccour as I haue fought all my life : being in this extremitie as voide of helpe, as thou haft beene of hope. Reafon would, that after fo long wafte, I mould 8 not fend thee a childe to bring thee greater charge : but confider, he is the fruit of thy wombe, in whofe face regard not the fathers faults fo much as thy owne perfe6tions. He is yet Greene, and may grow ftraight, if he be carefully tended : otherwife, apt enough (I feare
*2 me) to follow his fathers folly. That I haue offended thee highly, I knowe j that thou canft forget my injuries, I hardly beleeue : yet per- fwade I my felfe, if thou faw my wretched eftate, thou couldeft not but lament it : nay certainely I knowe thou wouldeft. Al my wrongs
1 6 mufter themfelues about me, euery euill at once plagues me. For my contempt of God, I am contemned of men : for my fwearing and forfwearing, no man will beleeue me : for my gluttony, I fufter hunger : for my drunkenneffe, thirft : for my adulterie, vlcerous
20 fores. Thus God hath caft me downe, that I might be humbled : and punifhed me, for example of others mine : and although he fuffers me in this world to perifh without fucccr, yet truft I in the world to come to finde mercie, by the merits of my
24 Sauiour, to whome I commend thee,
and commit my foule.
Thy repentant husband for his dif- loyaltie, Robert Greene.
2g Ftelicem fuiffe infaujlum.
FINIS.
KIND-HARTS
D REAM E.
Containing fiue Apparitions, with their
Inuectiues against abufes raigning.
Deliuered by seuerall Ghosts vnto him to
be publisht, after Piers Penilesse Post
had refused the carriage.
Inuita Inuidice. by H. C.
Imprinted at London for William Wright.
To the Gentlemen Readers.
\T hatk beene a cujlome, Gentle men, (in my mind com- mendable) among former Authors (whofe workes are no lejffe beautified with eloquente phrafe, than gar- 4 ni/hed with excellent example] to begin an exordium to the Readers of their time : much more conuerdent I take it, fliould the writers in thefe dales (wherein that grauitie of enditing by the elder excercifed, is not obferu'd, nor that mode/I decorum 8 kept, which they continued} fubm.it their labours to the fauour- fible cenfures of their learned ouerfeers. For feeing nothing can be f aid, that hath not been before f aid, the Jingularitie of fome metis conceits, (other way es excellent well deferuing] are no more 12 to be foothed, than the peremptorie pojies of two very f/tfficient Tranflators commended. To come in print is not to feeke praife, lut to crane pardon : I am vrgd to the one ; and bold to begge the other: he that qffcndcs, being for ft, is more excufable than the J6 wilfidl faultie ; though both be guilty, there is difference in the guilt. To obferue cujlome, and auold as I may, cauill, oppojlng your fauors againjl my fear e, lie fliew reason for my present writing, and after proceed to fae for pardon. About three 20 moneths fince died M. Robert Greene, leaning many papers in fiindry Booke fellers hands, among other his Groat sworth of wit, in which a letter written to diners play-makers, is offenfiuely by
38 To the Gentlemen Readers.
one or two of them taken ; and becaufe on the dead they cannot be aucnged, they ivilf idly forge in their conceitcs a lining Author : and after tojfing it two and fro, no remedy, lut it mujl light on 4 me. How I haue all the time of my connerfing in printing kindred the litter inueying again/I fc/iollers, it hath been very well knowne; and how in that I dealt, I can Sufficiently prooue. With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and 8 with one of them I care not if I neuer be : The other, whome. at that time I did not fo much f pare, asjince I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of lining writers, and might haue vfde my owne discretion (efpecially in fuch a cafe] the Author
1 2 beeing dead, that I did not, I am as fory as if the origin all fault had beene my fault, becaufe my felfe hane feene his de- meanor no leffe ciuill, than he exelent in the qualitie he profeffes : Be/ides, diners of luorjhip haue reported his vprightnes of
1 6 dealing, which argues his honejhj, and his facetious grace in. writting, that aproones his Art. For thejirjl, ivhofe learning I renerence, and at the perufing of Greenes Booke,Jlroke out what then in conscience I thought he in forne difpleafure writ : or had
20 // beene true, yet to publiJJi it, was intolerable : him I ivould ii'i/Ji to vfe me no worfe than I defence. I had onely in the copy thisfoare : it was il written, as fometime Greenes hand ivas none of the bejl; licenfd it mujl be, ere it could bee printed, which could
24 7?£M£7- be if it might not be read. To be breife, I writ it otter; and as neare as I could, followed the copy; onely in that letter 1 put Something out, but in the whole booke not a worde in; for I prote/l it was all Greenes, not mine nor Maijler Nashes, as fome
28 vniujlly haue affirmed. Neither was he the writer of an Epiftle
To the Gentlemen Readers. 39
to the fecond part of Gerileon, though lij the workemans error T. N. werefet to the end: that I confejje to be mine, and repent it not.
Thus Gentlemen, hauing noted the priuale cavfes that made 4 me nominate my felfe in print ; being afwell to purge Majler Nashe of that he did not, as to iiijlifie what I did, and wit hall to conjirme what M. Greene did : I befeech yee accept the pub- like canfe, which is loth the dcjire of your delight, and common 8 lenefite : for though the toye lee Jhadowed vnder the Title of Kind-hearts Drcame, it difcouers the falfe hearts of diners that wake to commit mif chief e. Had not the former reafons been, it had come forth without a father : and then Jhuld I haue had no 12 canfe to fear e offending, or reafon to fue for fauour. Now am I in doubt of the one, though I hope of the other ; which if I oblaine, youJJiall bind me hereafter to leejilent, till I can prefent yee with fome thing more acceptable. 16
Henrie Chettle.
[Note. The head- and tail-pieces, and big initials, in these reprints, are not like those of the originals. The stops are partly modernised. — F.]
Kind-hartes Dreame. 41
Kind-hartes Dedication of his dreame, to all the pleasant conceited vvhersoeuer.
|Entlemen and good-fellowes, (whole kindnes bailing chrif- tened mee witb the name of Kind-heart, bindes me in 4 all kind courfe I can to deferue the continuance of your loue) let it not feeme ftrange (I befeecb ye) that he that all daies of his life hath beene famous for drawing teeth, fhould now in drooping age hazard contemptible infamie by drawing him- 8 felfe into print. For fuch is the folly of this age, fo witlefle, fo audacious, that there are fcarce fo manye pedlers brag themfelues to be printers becaufe they haue a bundel of ballads in their packe, as there be idiots that thinke themfelues Artifts, becaufe they can Englilh 12 an obligation, or write a true ftaffe to the tune of fortune. This folly raging vniuerfally, hath infired me, to write the remembrance of fundry of my deceafed frends, perfonages not alltogether obfcure, for then were my fubiect bafe, nor yet of any honourable carriage, for my 16 ftile is rude and bad : and to fuch as I it belongs not to iest with Gods. Kind-hart would haue his companions efteeme of Eltates as ftarres, on whome meane men maye looke, but not ouer-looke. I haue heard of an eloquent Orator, that trimly furniihed with warres 20 abiliments, had on his fhield this Motto, Bonafortuna : yet at the firft meeting of the enimy fled with out fight. For which being re- piooued, he replied : If I haue faued my felfe in this battell by flight,
42 Kind-hartes Dreame.
I flial liue to chafe the enimy in the next. So Gentlemen fares it with mee: If enuious mifconfterers arme themfelues againfl my fimple meaning, and wreft euery ieft to a wrong fenfe, I thinke it policy to
4 fly at the firft fight, till I gather frefh forces to reprefle their folly. Neither can they, what euer they be, deale hardly with Kind-hart, for he onely deliuers his dreame, with euery Apparition, limply as it was vttered. Its fond for them to fight againft ghofts : its fearefull for
8 me to hide an Apparition : by concealing it I might doe my felfe harme, and them no good; by reuealing it, eafe my hart, and doe no honeft men hurt : for the reft (although I would not willing[l]y moue the meaneft) they muft beare as I doe, or mend it as they may. Well, 12 leaft ye deeme all my dreame but an Epistle, I will proceed to that without any further circumftance.
The Dreame.
fitting alone not long fince, not far from Finjlurie, in a Taphoufe of Antiquity, attending the comming of fuch companions as might wafli care away with carowling : 4 Sleepe, the attendant vpon a diftempred bodies, bereft the funnes light by couering mine eies with her fable mantle, and left me in nights lhade, though the dales eie fhinde j fo powerfull was my receiued potion, fo heauie my paflion : whence (by my hoftifle care) 8 being remoued to a pleafant parlor, the windowes opening to the Eaft, I was laid foftly on a downe bed, and couered with equall furniture ; where, how long I flept quietly, I am not well affured, but in the time I intended to reft, I was thus by vilible apparitions difturbd. i?
Firft, after a harm and confufed found, it feemed there entered l at once flue perfonages, feuerally attired, and diuerfly qualified, three bearing inftruments, their fauours pleafant ; two appearing to be Artifts, their countenances reuerend. 16
The firft of the firft three was an od old fellow, low of ftature, his head was couered with a round cap, his body with a fide skirted tawney coate, his legs and feete truft vppe in leather buskins, his gray haires and furrowed face witnefled his age, his treble violl in his hande, '2O allured me of his profefiion. On which (by his continuall fawing, hauing left but one firing) after his beft manner, hee gaue me a hunts- vp : whome, after a little muting, I alluredly remembred to be no other but old Anthony Now now. 24
The next, by his fute of ruflet, his buttond cap, his taber, his ftand- ing on the toe, and other tricks, I knew to be either the body or re- femblaunce of Tarlton, who liuing, for his pleafant conceits was of all men liked, and dying, for mirth left not his like. 28
1 Orig. enrered.
44 Kind-hartes Dreame.
The third (as the firft) was an okle fellowe, his beard milkewhite,
his head couered with a round lowe crownd rent filke hat, on which
was a band knit in many knotes, wherein llucke two round ftickes
4 after the luglers manner. His ierkin was of leather cut, his cloake of
three coulers, his hole paind with yellow drawn out with blew, his
inftrument was a bagpipe : & him I knew to be William Cuckoe,
better knowne than lou'd, and yet fome thinke as well lou'd as he was
8 worthy.
The other two had in their countenances a reuerent grace: the one which was the elder, feeming more feuere, was in habite like a Doctor; in his right hand hee held a Compendium of all the famous
isPhifitions and Surgions workes beelonging to Theorike, in his lefte hand a table of all inftruments for mans health, appertaining to practile.
At the fight of this Doctor, you maye thinke, Gentlemen, Kind-
16 hart was in a pitious cafe: for I verily beleeued he had beene fome rare Artift, that, taking me for a dead man, had come to anatomize me; but taking comfort that my thrumde hat, had hanging at it the enfignes of my occupation, like a tall fellow (as to me it feemed) I
20 lookte him in the face, and beheld him to bee maifter Doctor Burcot (though a ftranger, yet in England for phificke famous.)
With him was the fifth, a man of indifferent yeares, of face amible, of body well proportioned, his attire after the habite of a fchollerlike
24 Gentleman, onely his haire was fomewhat long, whome I fuppofed to be Robert Greene, maifter of Artes : of whome (howe euer fome fuppofe themfelues iniured) I haue learned to fpeake, confidering he is dead, nlll nijl neccflarium.
28 He was of finguler pleafaunce the verye fupporter, and, to no mans difgrace bee this intended, the only Comedian of a vulgar writer in this country.
Well, thus thefe flue appeared, and by them in poft paft a knight of
32 the poft, whome in times paft I haue feen as highly promoted as the pillory : but I haue heard fince he was a diuell, that plaide the Cariar of Pierce penilefle packet to Lucifer, and was now returning to con- taminate the ayre, with his pestilent periuries, and abhominable fa lie
36 witnefle bearing.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 45
How Pierce his {application pleafed his Patron, I know not, but fure I take it this Friend had a foule check for medling in the matter : for when all thete fiue before named had made prefer of feuerall bills inue&iue againft abufes raigning, this diuelifh Meflenger repulfed 4 them wrathfully, and bad them get feme other to bee their packet bearer if they lift, for he had almoft hazarded his credit in hell, by beeing a Broker betweene Pierce PenilefTe and his Lord : and fo, with- out hearing their reply, flew from them like a whirle wind. With 8 that, (after a fmall paufe) in a round ring they compaffed my bed, and thrufting into my hand all their papers, they at once charged mee to awake, and publiih them to the world.
This charge feemed to mee moft dreadfull of all the dreame, be- 12 caufe in that the diftinguiihing of their feuerall voices was heard, farre from the frequent manner of mens fpeach. In fine, Cuckoe with his pipes, and Antony with his Crowd, keeping equall equipage firft left my fight ; Tar I ton with his Taber fetchi[n]g two or three leaden 16 friskes, ihortly followed, and the Doftor and maifter Greene imme- diatly vanilhed.
With this (not a little amazed, as one from a trance reviued) I rouzd vp my felfe : when fodainly out of my hand fell the fiue 20 papers, which confirmed my dreame to bee no fantifie. Yet (for
that I knew the times are daungerous) I thought good aduifedly to read them, before 1 prefumed to make them publick.
So by chance lighting firft on Antony nownowe I 24
found on the outfide, as follows on the other side.
(4-tl)
Kind-hartes Dreame. 47
The friendly Admonition of Antho- nie Now now, to Mopo and
Pickering, Arch-oner -seers of the Ballad singers, in London, or 4
else-where.
jjNthony now now, a Gods bleffing, to his louing and lining Bretheren Mopo and Pickering, greeting : whereas by the daily recourfe of infinit numbers to the infernall regions, 8 whofe plaintes to be heard are no lefle lamentable, then their paines to be felt intolerable, I am giuen to vnderftand, that there be a company of idle youths, loathing honeft labour and difpifing lawfull trades, betake them to a vagrant and vicious life, in euery 12 corner of Cities & market Townes of the Realme tinging and felling of ballads and pamphletes full of ribaudrie, and all fcurrilous vanity, to the prophanation of Gods name, and with-drawing people from chrif- tian exercifes, efpecially at faires, markets, and fuch publike meetings, 16 I humbly defire ye that ye ioyne with another of your bretheren, free of one Citie and profeflion, that alwaies delighting in godly fonges, is now in his age betaken to his beads, and liueth by the dolefull tolling of Deaths bell warning. Deere frendes, I befeech you ioyntly to agree 20 to the supprefling of the aforenamed idle vagabonds. And that I right incite (as I hope) your forward effectes, I will particularize the difference betweene the abufed times among you reputed, and the fimplicity of the daies wherein I liued. Withall, I wilh ye to expect 24 no greater matter then Anthony es capacity can comprehend. When I was liked, there was no thought of that idle vpftart generation of ballad-fingers, neither was there a printer ib lewd that would fet
48 Kind-hartes Dreame.
finger to a lafduious line. But I perceiue the times are changed, and men are changed in the times. For not long fince a number of children were bolftered by fome vnwoorthy Citizens and other free 4 men in Townes Corporate to exercife a bafe libertine life in finging anye thing that came to hand from fome of the Diuels inftruments, intruders into printings miiferie, by whome that excelent Art is not fmally flandered, the gouernment of the eftate not a little blemiflitd, 8 uor Religion in the leaft meafure hindred. And to Ihut vp al in the laft, is it not lamentable that after fo many callings, fo many bleilings, fo many warnings, through the couetous defire of gaine of fome two or three, fuch a flocke of Run-agates Ihoulde ouerfpred the face of
12 this land, as at this time it doth. They that intend to infeft a riuer, poifon the fountaine; the Bafiliske woundeth a man by the eie, whofe light firft failing, the body of force defcends to darknes.
Thele Bafilisks, thefe bad minded monfters, brought forth like
1 6 vipers by their mothers bane, with fuch lafciuious lewdnes haue firft infe£ted London, the eie of England, the head of other Cities, as what is fo lewd that hath not there, contrary to order, beene printed, and in euery ftreete abuliuely chanted. This error (ouer fpreding the realme)
20 hath in no fmall meafure increafed in ElTex, and the mires thereto adioyning, by the blumlefle faces of certaine Babies, fonnes to one Barnes, moft frequenting Bishops Stafford. The olde fellow their father, foothing his fonnes folly, refting his crabbed limes on a crab-
24 tree ftaffe, was wont (and I thinke yet he vfes) to feuer himfelfe from the Booth, or rather Brothell of his two fons Ballad ihambels : where, the one in a fweaking treble, the other in an ale-blowen bafe, carrowle out fuch adultrous ribaudry, as chad eares abhorre to heare, and mo-
28 deftie hath no tongue to vtter.
While they are in the ruffe of ribaudrie, (as I was about to fay) the olde ale-knight, their dad, breakes out into admiration, and fends ftragling cuftomers to admire the roaring of his fonnes : where, that I
32 may Ihowe fome abufes, and yet for fhame let flip the moft odious, they heare no better matter, but the lafciuious vnder fongs of Wat- kins ale, the Carmans whiftle, Chopingkniues, and frier foxtaile, and that with fuch odious and detefted boldnes, as if there be any one line
36 in thofe lewd fongs than other more abhominable, that with a double
Kind-hartes Dreame. 49
repetition is lowdly belowed, as for example of the frier and the nunne.
He whipt her with a foxes taile, Barnes minor,
And he whipt her with a foxes tai/e, Barnes rnaior. 4
O braue boies, faith Barnes maximus. The father leapes, the lubers roare, the people runne, the Diuell laughs, God lowers, and good men weepe. Nay, no fooner haue the godly preachers deliuered wholefome doftrine, but thefe impes of iniquitie, and fuch as imitate 8 their order, draw whole heapes to hearken to their inquinated cries, as if they were heardes of the Gergifhites fwine, ready to receiue whole legions of foule-drowning fpirites.
Stephen, Mopo, and Pickering, I mufe you make no complaint to 12 thofe worfhipfull that haue authority to reftraine fuch ftraglers; for this is to be proued, of whome foeuer they buy them, that thefe two Barnes vtter more licentious fongs, then all that part of England befide. 16
Shamefull it is (had they any fhame) that men brought vppe to an honefl handicraft, of which the realme more need then iygging vanities, mould betake them to fo impudent a courfe of life. The Rogue that liueth idly is reftrained, the fidler and plaier that is 20 maifterl[e]fle is in the fame predicament: both thefe by the law are burned in the eare : and mall men more odious fcape vnpunimed ?
It wpre to be wilht, if they will not be warnd, that aswell the fingers, as their fupporters, were burned in the tongue that they might 24 rather be euer vtterly mute, then the triurnphers of fo many mif- chiefes. Neither are thefe two alone in fault, though they Hand worthely formoft as Malorum Duces ; but befides them, others more then a good many, fome (as I haue heard fay) taken to be apprentices 28 by a worthlefle companion (if it proue true that is of him reported) being of a wormipfull trade, and yet no Stationer, who, after a little bringing them vppe to finging brokerie, takes into his fhop fome frefh men, and trufts his olde fearuantes of a two months (landing with 332 doflen groates worth of ballads. In which if they prooue thrifty, hee makes them prety chapmen, able to fpred more pamphlets by the flate forbidden, then all the Bookefellers in London ; for only in this Citie is ftraight fearch, abroad finale fufpition, efpecially of fuch petty 36
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 4
50 Kind-hartes Dreame.
pedlers. Neither is he for thei'e flies only in fault, but the Gouerners of cutpurfe hall, rinding that their company wounderfully increaft, howeuer manye of their befte workemew monthly mifcande at the three 4 foot croffe, they tooke counfaile how they might find fome new exer- cife to imploy their number.
One of the ancienteft that had beene a traueller, and at Brainetree faire feene the refort to the ftandinges of the forenamed brethren, the 8 fonnes of olde Barnes the Plummer, chofe out roaringe Dicke, Wat Wimbars, cum mullis aliis of tune-able trebles, that gathered fundry affemblies in diuers places, where, yer a leaud fonge was fully ended, fome mift their kniues, fome their purfes, foome one thinge, foome
1 2 another. And alafie, who woulde fufpe&e my innocente youthes, that all the while were pleafinge rude peoples eyes and eares, with no les dele&able noife, then their ditties were delightfome : the orie beeing too odious to bee read, the other too infectious to be heard. "Well*
1 6 how euer they fung, it is like they fhared : for it hath beene faide, they themfelues bragge, they gayned their twenty fhillinges in a day. Ah brother Mopo, many a hard meale haue you made, and as many a time hath Curtell, your foure-footed traueiler, beene pincht for want of
20 prouander, and yet at the weekes ende haue you hardly taken tenne fhillinges. But I perfuade my felfe you gaine by your honeft labour, and they by legerdemaine. To tell you your owne iniuries, by them euery where offered, neede not : to wifh you to fpeake to them, it
24 bootes not. Therefore this is my counfaile, and let it be your courfe : Make humble fuite to her Maiefties Officers, that they may bee hencefoorth prohibited : intreate the Preachers that they inuaye againfte this vice, whiche, thoughe it feeme fmall to other abufes, yet
28 as a graine of muftard feede it encreafes, and bringeth foorth more mifchiefes, then few wordes can exprefle, or much diligence make voide. Firft, if there be any fonges fuffered in fuch pubJike forte to be foong, befeech that they may either be fuch as your felues, that
32 after feauen yeares or more feruice, haue no other liuinge lefte you out of Pattent, but that poore bafe life, of it felfe too badde, yet made more beggerly, by increafe of nomber : or at leaft if any1 befides you be therto admitted, thaw it may be none other but aged and impotent
1 Orig. if any if.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 51
perfons : who, liuinge vpon charity, may the rather draw thofe that delight in good fongs, to haue mercy on their neede. For to ling publikely, is by a kinde of tolleration, permitted only to beggars, of which nomber, it is not neceffary to make them that haue feene no 4 number of yeares, nor are in the members of their bodies imperfect. Is it not abfurde to fee a long legd lubber pinned in a chayre, fedde with a dugge, drefte with a bibbe, and rockte in a cradle ? As vile it is, that boyes of able llrength, and agreeable capacity, mould bee 8 fullered to wreft from the miferable Aged, the laft refuge in their life (beggery excepted) the poore helpe of Ballad-finging. Many a cruft hath old Anthony gotte by it, Mopo, betide other comfortes : but now I heare my blinde brother that exercifde the bale, is forced to lay his 12 fiddle to pawne, and truft onely to the two and thirtieth Pfalme, and lob patience, for his poore belly-pinchinge pittaunce. Once againe I tourue mee in your names to the Maieftrates, and Preachers of London, and as to them, fo to others elfe-where in the Realme. Right honor- 16 able, reuerend, or worfhipfull, Anthony humbly defires you, to looke into the leaud caufe, that thefe wicked effecls may fall. The people delighte to heare fome new thinge : if thefe prophane ribauldries were not : fomewhat fauering of godlinefle, of policy, or at the vtmoft of 20 morrall witte, fliould be receiued. It is common, that they which haue capacitye, when they heare either Diuinitye, Lawe, or other Artes, apply their memories to receiue them ; and as they haue con- ceiued, they bringe foorth fruites : fo fares it by the contrary, when .24 they heare lafciuious furquedry, leudnefle, impiety, they yeeld no other harueft, than they receiued feede : for who canne gather grapes of thornes, or figges of thiilles ? It would bee thought the Carman that was woonte to whittle to his beaftes a comfortable note, might 28 afwell continue his olde courfe, wherby his found ferued for a muficall harmony in Gods eare, as now profanely to follow a ligging vanity, which can bee no better than odious before God, fith it is abhomin- able in the eares of good men. But all is one, they are fuffred, which 32 makes them fecure ; and there is no impietye but the bafer flatter themfelnes in, becaufe they are not more ftricktly reprehended by their betters. If euery idle word {hall be aunfweared for, how mail they efcape that fuffer whole dayes to bee confumde in abhominable bro- 36
52 Kind-hartes Dreame.
thelry. Well, at the handes of the fheapheard mall the flocke be challenged: there is a mercy that killeth lufticej euery other tolleration is finnefull and iliamefull. Heere Anthony now now ceafes : knowing
4 the fuperiours haue difcretion, vppon true information, to deale as befeemes them. I onely vrge my brother Mopo, S. P. and Pickeringe, to befeech that lafciuious fingers may bee vtterJye fuppreft, as they will fhew themfelues to bee the men they ftiould be j wherein if they
8 faile, let them liue euer in perpetuall pouertye, and fare at all tymes as harde as poor Mopos Cut did with his maifters countreyman in Shor- ditch, till, by the force of his hinder heeles, he vtterly vndid two milch maydens, that had fet vp a (hoppe of Ale-drapery. Subfcribed
12 Anthony now now a Gods lleffing.
When I had read this rabble, wherein I found little reafon, I laide it by, intendinge at more time to feeke out Mopo, and his mentioned companions. The nexte paper I chaunced on, was that of Maifter 1 6 Do6tor Burcot:
The fuperfcription thus.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 53
To the impudent discreditors of Phisickes Art,
either speedy amendement or
punishment.
|Niurious enemies to Arts, that haue fought to make Phifick, 4 among common people, efteemed common, and Chi- rurgery contemptible: to you is this my Breefe addrefledj for fince I lefte the earth, com maun ded by him that difpofes of euery creature, I vnderftande foome greene-headed fcoffers 8 at my greene receipt, haue intermedled in matters more then they conceiue, and by that folly effected much lefle then they promifed. It was helde of olde for a principle, and not long fince obferued as a cuftome, that as the nightes Battes, fore-runners of darkenefle, neuer 12 flickered in the streetes till the Sunne was declinde, and then euery where blindly flapped in mennes faces : fo the Owles of Artes, blinde- flinder-mife (as I may tearme them) confirmning the old Oracle, neuer fhewe themfelues but in corners, giuing their rules for that they *6 vnderftand not, to the lofle of life, or mans dismembringe. Euery iimple hath his vertue, euery difeafe his beginning : but the remedy rifeth from the knowledge of the cause : If any can (in natural 1 fence) giue eafe, they muft be Artiftes, that are able to fearch the caufe, 2O refift the difeafe, by prouiding remedies. How fares it then, blinde abufers of the blind, your blumles faces are fo feafoned, that you can in print or publike writinges, open the skirtes of your mame, by pro- mifing fight to the blinde, found ioyntes to the gowty, fteady members 24 to the Paraletike, ftrong limmes to the lame, quicke hearing to the deafe, fence to the franticke. To begin with I. D. one of your fight healers : was it not wel handled by him, when a gentleman of good account hauing onely a heate in one of his eies, hee, like a kinde 28 chriftian, perfwaded the patient to receiue a water preferuatiue to the found eie, that it might draw the humor from the firft, when in very truth by his cunning hee fo dealt, that not an eie was left in his head whereby hee might wel fee, failing that by the ey that was firft fore 32 he can with much adoo looke through a chriflall. Thus this cogging
54 Kind-hartes Dreame.
fight-giuer dranke a hundred marke, and vtterly impaired the paiers fight.
O obfcure knaue, worthy to bee fo well knowne, that thine eies
4 being thruft out of thy head in a publike allembly, thou mighteft1 no
more attempt to make blinde thy betters. There was a Gentleman
in the world, troubled not long fince with a paine in the foote : Phifi-
tions found it to be the gout; againft which malady promifing no
8 precife remedy, but onely to giue eaie for the time, did their dail)e
indeuour, by defenfiues preuenting paine that would haue prooued
ofFenfiue. He, impatient of delay, forfooke all hopes of art, and cle-
liuered ouer hys lite into the hands of fome of thefe trauelers that by
12 incifion are able to eafe all atches. If a fenfible man (concerning their tiranny on him vfed) Ihuld note their cuttings, drawings, corrofiuings, boxings, butcherings, they wold conclude, Nun erat inter Siculos tor- mentum maius. Yet forfooth, who but thefe are welcome to difeafed
1 6 or endaungered people. The reafon, they will vndertake to warrant what no wife man can ; & if it happen by ftrong conceipt fome haue comfort, then to the worlds wonder in old wiues monuments are they remembered. Short tale to make : after many tortures, God gaue the
20 gentleman eafe by death.
For the dead Palfie, there is a woman hath a defperate drinke, that either helpes in a yeare, or killes in an hour. Betide, fhee hath a charme that, mumbled thrice ouer the eare, together with oyle of
24 Suamone (as fhe tearmes it) will make them that can heare but a little, heare in fhort time neuer a whit. But aboue all her Medcine for the quartine Ague, is admirable, viz. A pinte of exceeding ftrong march beere, wherein is infufed one drope of Aqua miralilis, this
28 taken at a draught before the fit is intolerable good : and for a pre- fident, let this ferue.
A Gentlewoman about London whole husband is heire of a right woorfhipfull houie, was induced to take this drench, from this wife
3 2 woman: for euery drop of that ftrong water ihe muft haue twelue
pence. A fponefull at the leaft was prizde at fortie (hillings. Thus
daily for almoft a moneth fhe miniftred : the Gentlewoman hauing ftill
good hope, at laft was put by her husband quite out of comfort for
1 Orig. mighsttest.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 55
any good at this womans handes, for he by chance getting the de- ceiuers glaffe, would needes poure out a fpunefull, what euer he paid; {he cried out me could not fpare it ; all helpt not, he tooke it and tafted, and found it to be no other then fountaine water. 4
There was one Bond-man or free-man (it skiles not much whether) that by wondrous ready meanes would heale madmen : what expect- ation was of him by his great promifes, all London knowes ; howe lewdly hee delt, it can as well witnefle: of him I will fay little, becaufe 8 there is more knowne then I am able to let downe.
Befides thefe run-agates, there are fome of good experience, that giuing themfelues to inordinate excefle, when they are writ vnto by learned phifitions to minifter for the patients health according to their I2 aduifed prefcription, negligently miftake. As for example, a Dodlor direcls to his Poticary a bill to minifter to a man hauing an vlcerous fore, certaine pills for the preparing of his body; withall, a receipt for the making a corrofiue, to apply to the fore; hee (either witles, which Z6 is too bad, or wilfull, which is worfe) prepares the corrofiue in pilles, and formes the Receipt for the pilles in manner of a playfter.
The partie receiues the corrofiue inward, his mawe is fretted, death followes. If there be fuch an Apothecary that hath fo done, let him 20 repent his dealings, leaft the bloud of that man light on his head.
It is faid there was another fkilfull, no lefle ouerfeene, that hauinge a poore manne of a legge to difmember, who had long time beene his patient, & at the inftant, more extreamely painde then before, 24 which was caufe of requiringe his Chirurgians immediate helpe. This woorkeman, the poore patientes deathes-maifter, in that pointe not to bee tearmed his ovvne Artes maifter, difmembred him, the figne beeinge in the foote. Whereof beeing tolde, immediately after 28 the deede, hee onely merrited this praife, by giuing councel to the murthered man to haue patience at his fuddaine ende.
But thefe accidentes amonge Artifles happen as feldome as the proofe of a good cure amonge you that are vtterly ignoraunt in Arte : 32 for their faultes are committed by them rarely or neuer ; your tref- paffes, like a quotidian difeafe. So of the one it may bee faide, Wine is a mocker, and ftrong drincke is raginge, and thofe that bee thereby deceiued are not wise. Yet of the other may dire6tly bee conclude
56 Kind-hartes Dreame.
to their tingle commendation, that as no ferpent is without his hidcU-n ftinge, or anie thing in earth without fonie blemilh : fo no purity of their impure profeilion, can be equalled in imperfection, fo impure is 4 all, fo vile, fo daungerous.
Therefore now returne I where I began, to you the excrementes of nature, and monfters of menne, whofe murders are no leffe common then your crafles, whiche are not fo well knowne to the world, as felt 8 by them that leaue it: with two of you will I ende. The one a brag- gart of great antiquity, whofe liuely image is yet to bee feene in King Luds Pallace, and his liuing Ghoil at this time miniftringe to the poore Pensioners of that place. Sirra, nay it Ihall be, fir, in reueremc
12 of your old occupation, I mufe not a little what wonderfull Mettaline preparatiue it is ye boaft on : by which, were men fo mad to beleeue you, you are able to make anye mauue not onely boldely to walke in ill ayres, and conuerfe daye and nighte with infected companye, but
i6alfo to receiue the ftrongeft poifon (like king Mitkridates) into his body ? Tenne to one, it is fo ftrange, as no man but your felfe is able to name it. Yet giue mee leaue to gelfe at it without offence to your falfehoode. I remember I haue heard great talke, you haue bene both
20 a cafter of mettall, and a forger; and it feemes you haue gotten the receipte which the Tinne-melters wife miniftred, to breake her huf- bandes colde, •when he fate fleeping in his chaire, videlicet, two ounces of pure Tinne put in an iron ladle, melted in the fire, and poured at
2< an inftant downe the throat. If it be thus, I dare take your woord for any poyfon hurting that partie that fo receiues it, for as a fimple fel- lowe (feeing foure or fiue hangd for their offences, and hearing fome fpeake bitterly of them beeing deade) faide, Well, God make them
2<° good men, they haue a faire warning : fo I may fay, they that deale with your mettaline medicine haue a faire warrante againft poifon : Likewife may it be faide of your admirable eie water, through the vertue of whiche you haue attained the wo'orfliipfull name of Doclor
3~ put out: hauinge put out foome of their eies that deale with it. But if I haue varied from your mettaline receipt before, I conclude it but a forgerie, and fo blame you not greatly for followinge a parcell ot your olde and (to fome a) hurtfull trade.
36 Another of your bretheren, as wel ouer feene in mineralls as your
Kind-hartes Dreame. 57
felfe, lying in a good fellowes houfe not long fin.ce, being monilefie, (as ye are all but thred bare make-fhiftes,) perfwaded his hoaft to take phificke for feare of infection ; his labour he was content to giue, and nothing for their kindneffe would hee require but euen fiue marke, 4. which he muft pay for the very fimples. His fimple hoaft beleeuing him to bee honeft, gaue him the money. If hee had lefre heere, though this had beene to lewd, it had beene farre better than to go forward as he did ; for fome what hee beftowed on purging fimples, 8 which vnprepared he miniftred, and with the fame miniftred the poore mans death.
The lewd wretch cried out that hee had taken a great quantity of the purgation, more than he appointed, which was in a window in his 12 chamber; .much adoe was made, and he would iuftifie before any learned man his deed; but trufting better to his heeles, than to hazard a hanging, hee gaue them that night the flip, and is not yet taken.
To be fhort, how euer ye differ in feuerall fhiftes, yet agree you all 16 in one manner of fliiftting : cunning is the cloake to hide your cog- ging : money the marke for which ye play the makefhiftes, nay the murtherers, not of the common enimie, but your owne country-men, than which what can be more barbarous ? Common reafon mould 20 perfwade, that much reading and long praclife in euery Art makes men expert. Per Contrarium I conclude, you that haue neither read nor praftifed, muft needs be egregiouily ignorant.
Allure your felues, if you rerraine not, iuftice will ftand vppe, and 24 fo reftraine yee, as there lhall be nothing more noted than your ignorant praclifes and impudent courfes. In my life I was your aduerfary : in death I am your enimie. Befeeching the reuerend Colledge of learned Doctors and worihipfull company of experienft 28 Chirurgions to looke more ftraightly to your falle deceites, and clofe haunts, that there may be fooner heard talke of fuch a rare obfcure affurancer to worke what not wonders in Phificke, or Chirurgirie, but he be rather lookt into or euer he begin, than fuftred to begin, whereby 32 any poore patient mould fuffer lolle in triall of their blind skill : fo lhall your coufenages be as open as your A6tes be odious.
Subfcribed
Bur cot. 36
58 Kind-hartes Dreame.
This is fomewhat like (thought I) if he had faid any thing againft
coufoning toothe drawers, tliat from place to place wander with
banners full of horfe teeth, to the imparing of Kindharts occupation ;
4 but I perceiue maifter Do6tor was neuer a tooth drawer ; if he had, I
know he would haue toutcht their deceiuings. Since he hath let them
pafle, I greatly pafle not : and yet in regard of the credit of my trade,
I care not to haue a blow or two with them my felfe, before I looke
8 any further.
Sundry of them that fo wander, haue not to do with the means Kindhart vfeth, but forfooth by charmes they can at their pleafure fray away the payne ; which Kindhart counts little better than witch
12 craft, if it could doe good, and fo to fome of them haue I affirmed it : But a proper flip-firing, fometime a petty fchole-maifter, now a pelt- ing tooth charmer, hauing no reafon to defend his obfcure rules, quite put me to filence before a well learned audience, the one a cobler, the
J6 other a carman, the laft a collyer. Thefe beeing poore men, had I for pittie often eafed of their payne, yet was the remedy I vfde fome- what painefull; but not long lince they are come acquainted with the charmer I told ye of; he, in charitable consideration of their greefe,
20 promifed to eafe them onely with writing, and after burning, a word or two. Trauelling to a Gentlemans not farre from London, I by the way chaunft to be cald to conferre wilh him at the fame verye inftant, where, reproouing his opinion, hee put me downe with • fuch a
24 galliemafrey of latine ends, that I was glad to make an end : Yet got I a copy of his charme, which I will let downe that I may make it common.
A Charme.
28 F[i]rft, he muft know your name, then your age, which in a little paper he fets downe : on the top are thefe words In verbis, et in herbis, et in laftididus 1 funt virtutes ; vnderneath he writes in capitall letters A AB ILLA, H7RS GIBELLA, which he fweres is pure Chalde
32 and the names of three fpirites that enter into the bloud and caufe rewmes, & fo confequently the toolheach. This paper muft be like- wife three times bleft, and at laft with a little frankincenfe burned,
1 ' lapididus ' is in Orig., not lapidibits.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 59
which being thrice vfed, is of power to expell the fpirites, purifie the bloud, and eafe the paine, or elfe he lyes, for he hath pra6tifed it long, but fhall approue it neuer.
Another fort, get hot wiers, and with them they burne out the 4 worme that fo torments the greeued : thefe fellowes are fit to vifit curfl wiues, and might by their pra£tife doe a number of honeft men eafe, if they would mifle the tooth, and worme the tongue.
Others there are, that perlwade the pained, to hold their mouths 8 open ouer a bafen of water by the fire fide, and to caft into the fire a handfull of henbane feede, the which naturally hath in euery feede a little worme ; the feedes breaking in the fire, vfe a kind of cracking, and out of them, it is hard among fo many, if no worme fly into the I2 water : which wormes the deceiaers affirme to haue fallen from the teeth of the difeafed. This rare fecret is much vfed, and not fmally lyked. Sundry other could I fet downe, praftifed by our banner- bearers, but all is foppery; for this I find to be the only remedy for J6 the tooth paine, either to haue patience, or to pull them out.
Well, no more for mee, leaft I bee thought to fpeake too largly for my felfe. I had thought to haue had a fling at the rat-catchers, who with their banners difplayed, beare no fmall fway : what I haue to 2O faye to them they ihall not yet heare, becaufe I hope they will take warning by other mens harmes. Onely this I affirme, that as fome banner-bearers haue in their occupations much craft, the rat-catchers is nothing elfe but craft. 24
But flay Kind-hart, if thou make fo long a Chorus betweene euery a£t, thy iefts will be as ftale as thy wit is weake. Therefore leauing thole vagabonds to repent their villanyes, He bid adieu to maifter Doftor, and fee who is our next fpeaker.
Robert Greene to
Pierce Pennilesse.
fierce, if thy Carrier had beene as kinde to me as I ex- pe6ted, I could haue difpatched long fince my letters to thee : but it is here as in the world, Donum a dando deriuatur : where there is nothing to giue, there is no- thing to be got. But hauing now found meaues to fend to thee, I 8 will certifie thee a little of my difquiet after death, of which I thinke thou either haft not heard or wilt not conceiue.
Hauing with humble penitence befought pardon for my infinite
finnes, and paid the due to death ; euen in my graue was I fcarfe
12 layde, when Enuie (no fit companion for Art) fpit out her poyfon, to
difturbe my reft. Aduerfus mortuos lellum fufcipere, inhumanum eft.
There is no glory gained by breaking a deade mans fkull. Pafcitur
in viuis liuor, pojl fata (juiefcit. Yet it appeares contrary in fome,
1 6 that inueighing againft my workes, my pouertie, my life, my death,
my burial, haue omitted nothing that may feeme malitious. For my
Bookes, of what kind foeuer, I refer their commendation or difpraife
to thofe that haue read them. Onely for my laft labours affirming,
20 my intent was to reproue vice, and lay open fuch villanies, as had
beene very necefTary to be made knowne, wherof my Blacke Booke,
if euer it fee light, can fufficiently witueffe.
But for my pouertie, mee thinkes wifedome would haue brideled
24 that inue&iue; for Cuiuis poteft accidere quod cuiquam potejt. The
beginning of my difprailers is knowne ; of their end they are not lure.
For my life, it was to none of them at any time hurtful : for my death,
it was repentant : my buriall like a Chriftians.
28 Alas that men fo haftily fliould run,
To write their own difpraife as they haue done.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 61
For my reuenge, it fuffices, that euery halfe-eyd humanitian may account it, Injlar lelluarum immaniffimarum fceuire in cadauer. For the iniurie offred thee, I know I need not bring oyle to thy fire. And albeit I would diflwade thee from more inuectiues againft fuch thy 4 aduerfaries (for peace is nowe all my plea) yet I know thou wilt returne anfwere, that fince thou receiuedfl the firft wrong, thou wilt not endure the laft.
My quiet Ghoft (vnquietly difturbed) had once intended thus to 8 haue exclaimd.
Pierce, more witleffe, than pennilefle ; more idle, than thine aduer- faries ill imployde ; what foolifh innocence hath made thee (infant like) refiftlefle to beare what euer iniurie Enuie can impofe ? \~z
Once thou commendedft immediate conceit, and gaueft no great praife to excellent works of twelue yeres labour : now, in the bloom- ing of thy hopes, thou fuffereft flaunder to nippe them ere they can bud : thereby approuing thy felfe to be of all other moft flacke, beeing 16 in thine owne caufe fo remifle.
Colour can there be none found to fhadowe thy fainting ; but the longer thou deferft, the more greefe thou bringft to thy frends, and giuefl the greater head to thy enemies. 20
What canft thou tell, if (as my felfe) thou {halt bee with death preuented : and then how can it be but thou dieft difgrac'd, feeing thou haft made no reply to their twofold Edition of Inuectiues ?
It may bee thou thinkft they will deale well with thee in death, 24 and fo thy fhame in tollerating them will be fliort : forge not to thy felf one fuch conceit, but make me thy prefident, and remember this olde adage : Leonem, mortuum mordent Catuli.
Awake (fecure boy) reuenge thy wrongs, remember mine : thy 28 aduerfaries began the abufe, they continue it : if thou fuffer it, let thy life be fhort in faience and obfcuritie, and thy death haftie, hated, and miferable.
All this had I intended to write, but now I wil not giue way to 32 wrath, but returne it vnto the earth from whence I tooke it : for with happie foules it hath no harbour.
Robert Greene.
62 Kind-hartes Dreame.
Had not my name beene Kind-hart, I would haue fworne this had beene fent to my felfe; for in my life I was not more pen-
nilefle than at that inftant. But remembring the Author
4 of the Supplication, I laid it afide till I had
leyfure to feeke him : and taking
vp the next, I found
written,
To all maligners of honest mirth,
Tarleton wisheth continual] melancholy.
j]Ow Maifters, what fay you to a merrie knaue, that for this two years day hath not beene talkt of? Wil you giue 4 him leaue, if he can, to make ye laugh ? What, all a mort ? No merry countenance ? Nay, then I fee hypo- crifie hath the vpper hand, and her fpirit raignes in this profitable generation. Sith it is thus, He be a time-pleafer. Fie vppon follow- 8 ing plaies, the expence is wondrous ; vpon players fpeeches, their wordes are full of wyles ; vppon their geftures, that are altogether wanton. Is it not lamentable, that a man mould fpende his two pence on them in an after-noone, heare couetoufnes amongft them 12 daily quipt at, being one of the commoneft occupations in the coun- trey ; and in liuely gefture fee trecherie fet out, with which euery man now adaies vfeth to intrap his brother. Byr lady, this would be lookt into: if thefe be the fruites of playing, tis time the pra6tifers 16 were expeld.
Expeld (quoth you) ; that hath been pretily performd, to the no fmal profit of the Bouling-allyes in Bedlam and other places, that were wont in the after-noones to be left empty, by the recourfe of good 20 fellows vnto that vnprofitable recreation of Stage-playing.
And it were not much amifle, would they ioine with the Dicing houfes to make fute againe for their longer reftraint, though the fick- nefle ceafe. Is not this well faide (my maifters) of an olde buttond 24 cappe, that hath moft part of his life liu'd vppon that againft which hee inueighs : Yes, and worthily.
But I haue more to fay than this ; Is it not greate fliame, that the
64 Kind-hartes Dreame.
houfcs of retaylers neare the Townes end, fhould be by their con- tinuance impouerilhed : Alas good hearts, they pay great rentes ; and pittie it is but they be prouided for. While Playes are vfde, halfe the . <by is by mod youthes that haue libertie fpent vppon them, or at lea 11 the greateft company drawne to the places where they frequent. If they were fuppreft, the flocke of yoong people would bee equally parted. But now the greateft trade is brought into one ftreet. Is it g not as faire a way to Myle-end by Whiie-chappell, as by Shorditch to Hackney ? the Sunne fhineth as clearly in the one place, as in the other j the {hades are of a like pleafure : onely this is the fault, that by ouermuch heat fometime they are in both places infectious.
I2 As well in this as other things there is great abufe : for in euery boufe where the venerian virgins are refident, hofpitalitie is quite exiled, fuch fines, fuch taxes, fuch tribute, fuch cuftoms, as (poore foules) after feuen yeares feruice in that vnhallowed order, they are
xg faine to leaue their futes for offerings to the olde Lenos that are Ihrine-keepers, and themfelues (when they begin to break) are faine to feeke harbour in an Hofpitall : which chaunceth not (as fometime is thought) to one amongft twentie, but hardly one amongft a hundred
^0 haue better ending. And therefore feeing they Hue fo hardly, its pitie Players ihould hinder their takings a peny.
I marry (faies Baudeamus my quondam Hoft) well, faire olde Dicke, that worde was well plac'd : for thou knowft our rentes are fo
2 . vnreafonable, that except wee cut and fhaue, and poule, and prig, we niuft return Non eft inuentus at the quarter day.
For is not this pittifull ? I am a man now as other men be, and haue liu'd in fome fhire of England, till all the Country was wearie
28 of oiee. I come vp to London, and fall to be fome Tapfter, Hoftler, or Chamberlaine in an Inne : Well, I get mee a wife, with her a little money : when we are married, feeke a houfe we muft ; no other oc- cupation haue I but to be an Ale-draper : the Landlord wil haue fortie
. 2 pound fine, and twenty marke a yeare ; I and mine muft not lie in the o
ftreet : he knows by honeft courfes I can neuer paye the Rent. What
fhould I fay ? fomwhat muft be done, rent muft be paid, duties dif-
chargd, or we vndone. To bee fhort, what muft be fhall be : indeede
-.5 fometimes I haue my Landlordes countenance before a luftice, to caft
Kind-hartes Dreame. 65
a cloake ouer ill-rule, or els hee might feeke fuch another tenant to pay his rent fo truly.
Quaintly concluded (Peter Pandar) fomewhat yee muft bee, and a bawd ye will bee. I, by my .troth fir, why not I as well as my neigh- 4 bors, fince theres no remedy. And you fir, find fault with plaies. Out vpon them, they fpoile our trade, as you your felfe haue proued. Befide, they open our croffe-biting, our conny-catching, our traines, our traps, our gins, our fiiares, our fubtilties : for no fooner haue we ° a tricke of deceipt, but they make it common, finging ligs, and making ieafts of vs, that euerie boy can point out our houfes as they paffe by.
Whither now Tarlton? this is extempore, out of time, tune, and I2 temper. It may be well faid to me :
Stulte, quid hcec faris, &c.
Rujlicus ipfe, tuis mains es, till pejjimus ipjl.
Thy felfe once a Player, and againft Players: nay, turne out the 16 right fide of thy ruffet coate, and lette the world know thy meaning. Why thus I meane, for now I fpeake in fobernes.
Euery thing hath in it felfe his vertue and his vice : from one felfe flower the Bee and Spider fucke honny and poyfon. In plaies it fares 2O as in bookes, vice cannot be reproued, except it be difcouered : neither is it in any play difcouered, but there followes in the fame an example of the punifhment : now he that at a play will be delighted in the one, and not warned by the other, is like him that reads in a 24 booke the defcription of finne, and will not looke ouer the leafe for the reward.
Mirth in feafonable time taken, is not forbidden by the auftereft Sapients. 2^
But indeede there is a time of mirth, and a time of mourning. Which time hauing been by the Magiftrats wifely obferued, as well for the fuppreffing of Playes, as other pleafures : fo likewife a time may come, when honeft recreation mail haue his former libertie. 32
And lette Tarleton intreate theyoong people of the Cittie, either to abftaine altogether from playes, or at their cormning thither to vfe themfelues after a more quiet order.
ALLUSIOX-BOOKS. 5
66 Kind-hartes Dreame.
In a place fo ciuill as this Cittie is efteemed, it is more than bar- baroufly rude, to fee the fhamefull diforder and routes that fometime in fuch publike meetings are vied.
4 The beginners are neither gentlemen, nor citizens, nor any of both their feruants, but fome lewd mates that long for innouation j & when they fee aduantage, that either Seruingmen or Apprentifes are moft in number, they will be of either fide, though indeed they are of 8 no fide, but men befide all honeftie, willing to make boote of cloakes, hats, purfes, or what euer they can lay holde on in a hurley burley. Thefe are the common caufers of difcord in publike places. If other- wife it happen (as it feldome doth) that any quarrell be betweene man
12 and man, it is far from manhood to make fo publike a place their field to fight in : no men will doe it, but cowardes that would faine be parted, or haue hope to haue manie partakers.
Nowe to you that maligne our moderate merriments, and thinke
*6 there is no felicitie but in excefliue poflefiion of wealth : with you I would ende in a fong, yea an Extempore fong on this Theame, Ne quid nimis neceffarium : but I am now hoarfe, and troubled with my Taber and Pipe : befide, what pleafure brings muficke to the miferable.
20 Therefore letting fonges pafie, I tell them in fadnes, how euer Playes are not altogether to be commended : yet fome of them do more hurt in a day, than all the Players (by exercizing theyr profeffion) in an age. Faults there are in the profeflbrs as other men, this the greateft,
24 that diuers of them beeing publike in euerie ones eye, and talkt of in euery vulgar mans mouth, fee not how they are feene into, efpecially for their contempt, which makes them among moft men moft con- temptible.
28 Of them I will fay no more : of the profefiion, fo much hath Pierce Pennilefle (as I heare fay) fpoken, that for mee there is not any thing to fpeake. So wifhing the chearefull, pleafaunce endlefle , and the wilfull fullen, forrow till they furfet ; with a turne on the toe I
32 take my leaue.
Richard Tarlcton.
When I had done with this, one thing I miflikte, that Tarleton ftoode no longer on that point of Landlords : For lamentable it is (in
Kind-hartes Dreame. 67
Kind-harts opinion) to note their vnrealbnable exaction. I my felfe knewe a Landlord, that beginning to inlarge a little Tenement, was according to flatute prohibited : hee made humble fuite that the worke might go forward ; for, good man, he meant not to make 4 thereby any benefite, but euen in charitie he would turne it into an Ahnef-houfe. This godly motion was liked, and he allowed to goe forward with his building. The worke ended, in all the Country there could not poore bee found worthy, or at leaft able, to enter into 8 the fame.
To be fhort, it was turned into a Tauerne, and with rent and fine in few monthes turnd the Tenant out of doores. Yet it hath beene faide, the poore man did what hee might, Cum vino & venere, to 12 continue his ftate : but the Landlord had made fuch a Dent in his ftocke, that with all the wit in his head it would not bee ftopt. I befhrew the Card-makers, that clapt not a gowne about the Knaue of Hartes, & put him on a hat for a bonnet ouer his night-cappe, then J6 had not after Age taken care for the Image of this excellent Almef- houfe builder, but in euerie Ale-houfe mould haue beene referued his monument, till Macke, Maw, Ruffe, Noddy, and Trumpe, had beene no more vfde, than his charitie is felt. 2O
Pitie it is fuch Wolues are not makte out of flieeps cloathing. Elder times detefted fuch extremitie : the Gofpels liberty (howfoeuer fome Libertines abufe it) giues no fuch licenfe : by their auarice Re- ligion is ilandered, lewdnes is bolftered, the fuburbs of the Citie are 24 in many places no other but darke dennes for adulterers, theeues, murderers, and euery mifchiefe worker : daily experience before the Magiftrates confirmes this for truth.
I would the hart of the Cittie were whole, for both within and 28 without, extreame crueltie caufeth much beggerie. Victa iacet pietas, and with pietie pittie. Selfe loue hath exiled charitie : and as among beaftes the Lyon hunteth the Wolfe, the Wolfe deuoureth the Goate, and the Goate feedeth on mountaine hearbs : fo among men, the 32 great opprefle the meaner, they againe the meanefl : for whom hard fare, colde lodging, thinne cloathes, and fore labour is onely allotted.
To fee how foone the world is changd : In my time I remember two men, the one a Diuine, the other a Cittizen : it was their vfe, at 3^
68 Kind-hartes Dreame.
the time they fliould quarterly receiue their duties (for the firft was well beneficed, the later a great Landlord) when they came to anie poore creature, whome ficknefle had hindered, or mifchaunce im- 4 paired, or many children kept lowe : they would not onely forgiue what they fliould receiue, but giue bountifully for the releefe of their prefent neceffitie.
The olde Prouerbe is verefied, Seldome comes the letter : and they 8 are pofleft : the poore of that comfort difpofleft.
Some Landlords hauing turnd an old Brue-houfe, Bake-houfe, or Dye-houfe, into an Alley of tenements, will either themfelues, or fome at their appointment, keepetipling in the fore-houfe (as they call
12 it) and their poore tenantes mutt bee inioinde to fetch bread, drinke, wood, cole, and fuch other neceflaries, in no other place : and there till the weekes ende they may haue any thing of truft, prouided they lay to pawne their holiday apparell : nay, my Land-lady will not
1 6 onely doe them that good turne, but if they want money, fhe will on munday lend them likewife vppon a pawne eleuen pence, and in meere pittie afkes at the weekes end not a penny more than twelue pence.
20 O charitable loue, happy tenants of ib kinde a Landlady : I war- rant ye this Ufurie is within the Statute, it is not aboue fiue hundred for the loane of a hundred by the yeare.
Neyther will they doe this good to their tenantes alone, but they
24 will deale with their hulbandes, that for a little roome with a fmoakie chimney (or perchaunce none, becaufe fmoake is noyfome) they fliall pay at the leaft but fortie {hillings yeerly.
Fie vpon fines, thats the vndooing of poore people: weele take
28 none (fay thefe good creatures) marry for the key wee muft haue confideration, that is, fome Angell in hand : for verely the laft tenant made vs change the locke : neither thinke we deale hardly, for it ftands in a good place, quite out of company, where handicraft men
32 may haue leyfure to get their lining, if they knew on what to fet themfelues a worke.
Now for all this kindnefie, the Land-lord fcarce afketh of the tenant thankes (though hee deferue it well), for (as I faide) his Wife
36 is all the dealer : fo plaies the Parfon (the perfon I fliould fay, I
Kind-hartes Dreame. 69
would bee loath to be miflaken) that I tolde yee before builded the Almef-houfe. The care of rentes is committed to his Wife, he is no man of this world, but as one metamorphizd from a Saint to a Deuill. 4
How now Kindhart? fhall we neuer haue done with thefe Land- lordes ? It feemes well thou haft as little land as witte : for while thou liueft they wil not mend, and therefore its as good to
make an ende, as wafte winde. Well, all this 8
was of good will to helpe Tarleton out with his tale. Now let me fee what note Cuckoe lings, for tis his
lucke to be laft. 12
^William Cuckoe to all close
luglers wisheth the disconery of their crafts, and punishment for their knaneries.
Oome for a craftie knaue, cries William Cuckoe. Knaue, nay, it will neare hande beare an a6tion : Bones a mee, my trickes are ftale, and all my old companions turnd into Ciuill futes. I perceiue the worlde is all honeftie, 8 if it be no other than it lookes. Let me fee, if I can fee : beleeue mee theres nothing but iugling in euery corner; for euery man hath learnd the myfterie of cafting myfts; & though they vie not our olde tearms of hey-pafle, re-pafle, and come aloft : yet they can by-pafle 12 compaffe, and bring vnder one another as cunningly and commonly, as euer poore Cuckoe coulde command his lacke in a Boxe.
Yet my maiflers, though you robde me of my trade, to giue recom- pence, after death I haue borrowed a tongue a little to touch their 1 6 tricks.
And now fir, to you that was wont like a Subfifter in a gown of
rugge rent on the left moulder, to fit finging the Counter-tenor by
the Cage in Southwarke : me thinks ye mould not looke fo coyly on
20 olde Cuckoe. What man, it is not your figne of the Ape and the
Urinall can carry away our olde acquaintance ?
I truft yee remember your ingling at Newington with a Chriftall
ftone, your knaueries in the wood by Wanftecd, the wondrous treafure
24 you would difcouer in the He of Wight, al your villanies about that
peece of feruice, as perfe6t[l]y known to fome of my friends yet
lining as their Pater nofter, who curfe the time you euer came in
their Creed.
28 But I perceiue you fare as the Fox, the more band, the better hap.
Kind-hartes Dreame. 71
I wonder what became of your familiar, I meane no Deuill, man; but a man Deuil : and yet I need not wonder, for fince my defcend- ing to vnder earth, I heard fay he was hangd for his knauerie, as you in good time may be, Amen. Amend I mould fay, but I thinke yee 4 meane it not : the matter is not great, for (thanks be to God) how euer you mend in manners, the world is wel amended with your man and you.
I pray ye was that hee which was your inftrument in Notingam- 8 JJdre, to make your name fo famous for finding things loft ? It may be, you forgot that one fetch among many: and leaft it mould bee out of your heade, He helpe to beate it into your braines.
YOur Mafhip vpon a horfe whofe hire is not paid for, with -your 12 Page at your ftirrop, like a Cqjtilian Caualier, lighted pennilefle at a pretie Inne, where that day fate certain luftices in Coramiffion. Your high hart, carelefle of your prefent neede, would needes for your felfe mare out one of the faireft chambers. Your Page muft 16 be purueyer for your diet, who in the kitchin found nothing for your liking. Beefe was grofle, veale flamy, mutton fulfome, rabbets, hens, & capons, common. Wild foule for Will foole, or he will faft. 20
Well, at your will ye mall be furnimt. But now a lugling tricke to pay the fhot.
My Impe your man, while miftrifle, men, and maids were bufied about prouifion for the luftices that fate, flips into a priuate parlour, 24 wherein flood good ftore of plate, and conueying a mafly fault vnder his Capouch, little lefle woorth than twentie marke, got fecretely to the back-fide, and caft it into a filthie pond : which done, he acquaints your knauefhip with the deed.
By then your diet was dreft, the fault was mift, the good Wife cryde out, the maydes were ready to runne madde.
Your man, (making the matter ftrange) inquird the cause : which when they tolde. O (quoth hee) that my maifter would deale in the 32 matter, I am fure he can do as much as any in the world.
Well, to you they come pitifully complaining ; when very wrath- fully (your choler rifing) you demaund reafon why they mould thinke
72 Kind-hartes Dreame.
yee bee able to deale in fuch cafes. Your kind nature (bent alwayes to lenitie) yeelded at the laft to their importuning : onely wifht them to ftay till the nexte day, for that you would not deale while the 4 lattices were in the houfe.
They mufl do as your difcretion appoints: next day, calling the
good-man and wife to your bed-fide, ye tell them the falte was flolne
by one of their familiars, whom he had forced by Art to bring it
8 backe againe to the houfe, and in fuch a pond to caft it, becaufe he
would not haue the partie knowne, for feare of trouble.
As you dire6l the"m, they fearch and find : then comes your name in rare admiration ; the Hoft giues you foure Angels for a reward, the
12 Hoftelle two French crowns: the maydes are double diligent to doe you feruice, that they may learne their fortunes j the whole towne talks of the cunning man, that indeed had onely connycatcht his Hoft.
*6 If that flip-firing bee flill in your feruice, I aduife you make much of him, for by that tricke he prou'd himfelfe a toward youth, necef- fary for fuch a maifter. This iugling pafles Cuckoes play. Well, I aduife you play leaft in fight in London, for I haue fette fome to
20 watch for your comming, that will iuftifie all this and more of your fhifting life.
Retnrne to your olde craft and play the Pinner : although it be a poore life, it is an honefl life : your fallacies will one day faile ye.
24 There is another lugler, that beeing well fluid in the lewes Trumpe, takes vpon him to bee a dealer in Muficke : efpeciall good at mend- ing Inftruments : he iugled away more inftrumentes of late, than his bodie (being taken) will euer be able to make good.
o
Tut, thats but a plaine tricke : How fay ye by fome luglers that can ferue writs without any original, and make poore men dwelling farre off, compound with them for they knowe not what ? I tell you there bee fuch, that by that trick can make a vacation time quicker 32 to them than a Terme : who troubling threefcore or fourefcore men without caufe, get of fome a crowne, of others a noble, of diuers a pound, befide the ordinarie coftes of the writ, to put off their appear- ance, when no fuch thing was toward.
Fie vpon thefe luglers, they make the lawes of the Realme be ill
Kind-hartes Dreame. 73
fpoken of, and are caufe that plaine people thinke all Lawyers like them : as appeares by a poore old man by chance comming into one of the worfhipful Innes of the Court, where fundry Ancients and Students both honorable and wormipfull fate at fupper : the poore 4 man admiring their comely order and reuerent demeanor, demaunded of a ftander by, what they were. Gentlemen (faid hee) of the Innes of Court. Lord blefie hem (quoth plaine Coridon) beene they of Queens Court ? No, faid the other, but of the Innes of Court. 8 What doon they, quoth the Countrey man ; wotten yee ? The other anfwered, that they were all Lawyers, and Students of the Lawe. Now, well a neere cries plaine Simplicitie : wee han but one Lawyer with vs, and hee fpoyles all the Parilh : but heere been now to marre 12 the whole ftiire. His fimplenes was by the hearers well taken, and the Lawiers name inquird, who prou'd no other but one of thefe pettifogging luglers, that, hauing fcraped vp a few common places, and by long Solliciterfhip got in to be an odd Atturney, was not long 16 fince difgraded of his place by pitching ouer the Barre, yet promoted to looke out of a wodden window, cut after the Doue hole fafhion, with a paper on his futtle pate, containing the iugling before Ihewed. So fortune it to his fellowes, and let their mifery come cito pede. 20 Law is in it felfe good, the true Profeflbrs to be highly efteemd. But as in Diuinity it fometime fares that Schifmatikes, Heretikes, and fuch like, make Scripture a cloake for their detefted errors, and by their pra&ifes feeke to make the reuerend Diuines contemptible j fo 24 a fort of Connycatchers (as I may call them) that haue gathered vp the gleanings of the Law, onely expert to begin controuerfies, and vtterly ignorant of their end, perfwade the fimple that if they will follow their rules, thus and thus, it ihall chance to their fpeedy quiet- 2.8 ing, and that Attorneys, Counfellers and Serieants, are too. coftly to bee dealt with limply, but by their mediation, who are able to fpeak when Counfell failes, and giue more eafe in an houre, than the befl Benchers in a yeare; when, God wot, they doo no more good than a 32 Drone in a Hiue. Thefe luglers are too cunning for Cuckoe, and in the end will proue too crafty for themselues. Other luglers there bee, that hauing fauour from Authority to feeke fome thing to them- felues beneficiall, and to the Common-wealth not preiudiciall. vnder 3^
74
Kind-hartes Dreame.
colour of orderly dealing, haue hookt into their hands the whole lining to a number poore men belonging. Thefe, when they were com- plaind on, immediately tooke an honeft courfe, and promifl large 4 reliefe yeerely to them they wrong : But euery promife is either broke;/, or kept, & fo it fares with them : I proteft if their lugling were fet downe, it would make a prety volume : but I wil let them pafie, becaufe there is hope they will remember themfelues. To fet 8 downe the lugling in Trades, the crafty tricks of buyers and fellers, the fwearing of the one, the lying of the other, were but to tell the worlde that which they well knowe, and therefore I will likewife ouerilip that. There is an occupation of no long {landing about
12 London called Broking or brogging, whether ye will j in which there is pretty lugling, efpecially to blind Law, an* bolder Ufury : if any man be forft to bring them a pawne, they will take no intereft, not paft twelue pence a pound for the month ; marry, they muft haue a
1 6 groat for a monthly bill: which is a bill of fale from month to month ; so that no aduantage can be taken for the Ufurie. I heare fay its well multiplied mice I died j but I befhrewe them, for in my life many a time haue I borrowed a {hilling on my Pipes, and paid a
20 groat for the bill, when I haue fetcht out my pawne in a day.
This lugling exceeds Cuckoes gettings, and fundry times turnd poore William to his ihifts. Indeede I deny not, but in their kind fome of them deale well, and wil prelerue a mans goods lafe, if he
24 keep any reaibnable time : thefe are not fo blameable, as they that make immediate fale. If euer I haue oportunity to write into the world agaiue, I will learne who abufe it moft, and who vfe it beft, and fet ye downe their dwelling places.
28 Now I will draw to an end, concluding with a Mafter lugler, that he may be well knowne if he be got into any obfcure corner of the Countrey. This Shifter forfooth carried no leffe countenance than a Gentlemans abilitie, with his two men in blue coates, that ferued for
32 {hares, not wages. Hee being properly feated in a Shire of this Realme, and by the report of his men bruted for a cunning man, grew into credit by this praclife.
His houfe beeing in a Village through which was no thorough
3" Fare, his men, and fometime his Mafterfhippe in their company, at
Kind-hartes Dreame. 73
midnight woulde goe into their neighbours feuerall grounds, being farre diftant from their dwelling houfes, and oftentimes driue from thence Horfes, Mares, Oxen, Kine, Calues, or Sheepe, what euer came next to hande, a mile perchaunce or more out of the place 4 wherein they were left.
Home would they return, and leaue the cattel ftraying : In the morning, fometime the milke-maids mifle their Kine, another day the Plough-hinds their Oxen, their Horfes another time, fomewhat of 8 fome woorth once a weeke lightly. Whither can thefe poore people go but to the wife mans worlhip ? Perchaunce in a morning two or three come to complaine and feeke remedie, who, welcommed by one of his men, are feuerally demaunded of their loffes. If one come for 1 2 fheepe, another for other cattell, they are all at firft tolde, that his Maifterfhip is a fleepe, and, till hee himfelfe call, they dare not trouble him.
But very kindly he takes them into the hall, and when his worfhip 16 ftirs, promifes them they (hall fpeake with him at liberty. Now fir behind a curtaine in the hall ftands a Ihelfe garniflit with bookes, to which my mate goes vnder to take one downe. And as he takes it down, pulleth certaine firings which are fattened to feuerall fmall 20 bels in his Maifters chamber ; and as the bels strike, hee knowes what cattell his neighbors come to feeke, one bell being for Oxen, another for kine, another for fwine, &c. A while after he flamps, and makes a noyfe aboue j the feruingman intreats the Suters to go vp, and 24 hee hearing them comming, himfelfe kindly opens them the dore, and ere euer they fpeake, falutes them, protecting for their lofle great forrowe, as if hee knew their griefes by reuelation, comforts them with hope of recouery, and fuch like wordes. They cry out, lefu 2^ blefle your Mafterihip, what a gift haue you to tel our mindes, and neuer heares vs fpeake. I, neighbors, faith he, ye may thanke God : I truft I am come among ye to doe ye all good. Then knowing which way they were driuen, hee bids them goe either Eaft-ward, or South- 32 warde to feeke neere fuch an Oake or rowe of Elmes, or water, or fuch like marke neere the place where the Cattell were left ; and hee afTures them that by his (kill the theeues had no power to carry them farther than that place. They runne and feek their cattle, which 3^
76 Kind-hartes Dreame.
when they finde, O admirable wife man, the price of a Cow we will not fticke with him for ; happy is the fhire where fuch a one dwels. Thus doe the pore coufoned people proclaime, and fo our fhifter is
4 fought too far and neere. I thinke this be iugling in the higheft degree : if it be not, Cuckoe is out of his compafie. Well, the world is full of holes, and more fhiftes were neuer pra&ifde. But this is Cuckoes counfell, that yee leaue in time, left being conuided like my
8 Hoaft of the Anchor, ye pine your felues in prifon to faue your eares from the Pillory : an end too good for Iugling fhifters, and cofening periurers.
William Cuckoe.
1 2 Ha firra, I am glad we are at an end : Kindhart was neuer in his life fo weary of reading. Befhrew them for me, they haue wakened me from a good lleepe, and weried me almoft out of my wits. Here hath beene a coile indeede, with lewd fong fingers, drench giuers,
1 6 detra&ers, players, oppreflbrs, rentraifers, bawdes, brothel-houfcs, fliifters, and luglers. But fith they haue all done, turne ouer the leafe and heare how merrily Kindhart will conclude.
Englandes Mourning Garment :
Worne here by plaine Shepheardes;
in memorie of their sacred Mistresse,
ELIZABETH, Queene of Vertue while shee
liued, and Theame of Sorrow,
being dead.
To which is added the true manner of her Emperiall Funerall.
After which foloweth the Shepheards Spring-Song,
for entertainement of King I A M E s our
most potent Soueraigne.
Dedicated to all that loued the deceased Queene, and honor the lining King.
No?i Verbis sed Virtute.
^Printed at London by V.S. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shop vnder saint Peters Church in Cornhil.
To all true Louers of the right grati-
ous Queene Elizabeth, in her life; being
vndoubtedly those faithful Subiects that now ho- nor and affect our most potent Lord, King 4 lames, after her death.
Y Epiftle to you, is like the little Tovvne that the Cynicke would haue perfwaded the Citizens was ready to runne out at the great gates, being 8 fcarce fo long as the Title. In a word, the negligence of many better able, hath made mee bolde to write a fmall Epitomie, touching the aboundant Vertues of Elizabeth our late facred Miftris. Intreating of her Princely birth, chafte 12 life, royall gouernement, and happie death; being a Lady borne, lining, raigning, dying, all for Englandes good. The manner is handled betweene Shepheardes, the forme of fpeach like the perfons, rude: AfTeftion exceedeth Eloquence, and I 16 haue not fhewne much Arte ; but expreft the dutie of a louing heart : Shead fome teares in reading our Shepheards forrow ; and in that true pafsion, let your loue to our royall Lord be
8o The Epistle.
fliewne : who hateth hypocrites, as iuft men Hell. Farewell all of you that giue the dead Queene a fad Farewell, and the lining King a glad Welcome; the reft are 1 ime-pleafers, and 4 I write not to them.
Fcelicem fu (fTe infaujlu m .
Englands Mourning Garment.
Wrought by plaine Shepheardej, for the
death of that most excellent Empresse Elizabeth, 4 Queene of Vertue, while she liued ; and Theame of Sorrow, being dead.
THENOT. COLLIN.
Thenot. 8
J10///W, thou look'ft as lagging as the day When the Sun fetting toward his wefterne bed, Shews, that like him, all glory muft decay, And frolicke life with murkie clowds o're-fpred, 12
Shall leaue all earthly beautie mongft the dead; Such is the habite of thy new aray : Why art thou not preparde to welcome Maie,
In whofe cleere Moone thy yonglings mall be fed, 16
With nights fweetes dewes, and open flowers- of day ?
Collin.
I anfwere thee with woe and welaway,
I am in fable clad, fith fhe cannot be had 20
That me and mine did glad ;
there's all I'le fay.
Thenot.
Well fpoken Swaine, let me thy forrowe ken, 24
Rich foule, though wrong'd by idle Antike men, And driuen by falfhood to a clowdy den,
Tell me thy griefe.
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 6
8 2 ILnglands Mourning Garment.
Col I in.
O it is paft reliefe j and which is worlt of worft, Bayards and beafts accurft, with grofeft flattery nurft : 4 Haue lung her facred name, and prais'd her to their lhame, Who was our laft and firft.
T/ienot.
Deere Col/in, doe not checke the humbleft fong, 8 The will is euer maifter of the worke, Thofe that can fing, haue done all Shepheards wrong, Like lozels in their cotages to lurke : The aire's the aire, though it be thicke and murke : 1 2 If they to whom true Paftoralls belong, In needefull layes, vie neither pipe nor tong,
Shall none the vertuous raife ?
Col I in. J6 Yes, thofe that merit Bayes,
Though teares reftraine their layes, Some weeping houres or dayes
will finde a time
20 To honor Honor ftil : not with a rural quil, But with the foule of ikil,
to blefle their rime. Aye me ! why mould I dote
24 on rimes, on longs, or note,
Confufion can beft quote,
facred Elizaes lofle, Whofe praife doth grace al verfe, 28 that fhal the fame reherfe,
No gold neede decke her herfe j
to her al gold is drofle.
With that, Collin in difcontent, brake his pipe, and in that paflion,
32 as if his heart had beene like his Pipe, parted each piece from the
other, hee fel without fenfe on the earth, not then infenfible of his
forrowj for it yielded, wept and groaned at once with his fal, his
weepings and his fighs. Poore 77*. fliowted for help j at whofe cal
Englands Mourning Garment. 83
came Ibme Nymphs ful of forrow for their Soueraigne ; and no whit amazed to lee him lie as dead, their hearts were fo dead, with think- ing of that which had aftouied his. But yet, as gathering of companies draw more & more to wonder, fo prooued it among the fhepheards, 4 that left none but their curres to attend their flockes, themfelues nock- ing about Thenot & Collin, who now recouered from his trance, and al asking the reafon of this griefe, with teares abounding in his eyes, that likewife drew more abundantly from theirs, he diftradedly 8 a&fwered,
Ilium nee enim reprehendere fas eft, Quifleat hanc, cuius fregerunt Jlamina parcce, Solus honor fequitur mortales ille mifellos. I2
A.nd therewithall making a figne for the Shepheardes and Nymphes to fit downe, hee tolde them, they had loft that facred Nymph, that careful Shepheardeffe ELIZA 5 but if it pleafed them to lend attention, he would repeate fomething of her, worth memorie, that mould line l^ in defpite of death : whereupon a ftil filence feizd them al, fauing onely now and then, by figlfing they expreft their hearts forrow : and Collin thus beganne.
Seeing Honor onely foloweth mortals, and the works of the 2O vertuous die not with their deaths, and yet thofe workes neuerthelefle with the honors and rites due to the departed, might be much blemillied, if there were no gratitude in their fucceflbrs : let vs poore Rurals (though no other wayes able to erect Statues for our late 24 dread Soueraigne, worthy al memory,) among our felues repeate part of her excellent Graces, and our benerite obtained by her Gouern- ment : for, to reckon all, were Opus infinitum, a labour without end.
She was the vndoubted iffue of two royall princes, Henry of Lan 2" cafter and Elizabeth of Yorke. In whofe vnion the quiet of vs poore Swaines began : for till that bleffed mariage, England was a fhambles of flaughtred men : fo violent was the blood of ambition, fo potent the factions, and fo implacable their heads ; whofe eyes were neuer 32 cleard till they were walht in blood, euen in the deare blood of their Obiefts hearts. This King, Grandfather to our late Queene, was the
84 England* Mourning Garment.
firft Brittifli King, that many a hundred yeares before wore the Em- periall Diademe of England, France and Ireland: in him began the name of Tewther, defcended from the ancient Brittiih Kings, to florifh j 4 the ilfue male of royal Plantagenel ending in his beginning : his wife, Grandmother to our late Elizabeth, being the laft Plantagenet, whole Temples were here circled with a fphere of golde. Which King and Queene liued and loved, and now lie intoombed in that 8 moll famous Chappell, built at his Kingly charge in the Abbey of IVeftminfter : King Henry, dying in a good age, left England rich, beautifull, and full of peace ; and ib blelft with his iflue, after royally matcht to Scotland & France, befides his vndoubted heire King Henry
12 of famous memory the eight ; that no Kingdome in the earth more florilhed.
His fonne, the Father of our Elizabeth, was to his Enemies dread- full, to his friends gracious, vnderwhofeEnfigne the Emperour himfelfe
1 6 feru'd : fo potent a Prince He was: befides, fo liberal and bounteous, that he feemed like the Suune in his Meridian, to fhowre downe gold round about the Horizon : But hee dide too, and left vs three Princely hopes ; all which haue feueraliy fucceeded other, royally
20 maintaining the right of England, and refilled all forraine wrong.
For King Edward our late Soueraignes Brother, though he died youg in yeares, left inftance hee was no Infant in vertuesj his learn- ing, towardnes and zeale, was thought fitter for the focietie of Angels
24 than men, with whome no doubt his fpirit Hues eternally.
Such aflurance haue we of the happineile of that royall gracious and worthy Ladie Mary his eldeft filler : who in her death expreflt the care of her Kingdomes, fo much lamenting one Townes lofTe,
2^ that fb.ee told her attendant Ladies, if they would rippe her heart when me was dead, they mould finde Callice written in it. O Thenot, with all you other Nymphs and Swaines, learne by this worthie Queene, the care of Soueraignes, how heart-ficke they are for their
32 fubiecls lofle ; and thinke what felicitie we poore wormes liue in, that haue fuch royall Patrons, who carke for our peace, that we may quietly eate the bread of our owne labor, tend our flockes in fafety, asking of vs nothing but feare and duety, which humanity allowes,
36 and heauen commands.
Englands Mourning Garment. 85
With this, Thenot interrupted Collin, telling him, there were a number of true Ihepheards mifliked that Princes life, and ioyed greatly at her death : withall, beginning to ihew fome reafons, but Collin quickely interrupted him in theie words : 4
Peace, Thenot, peace, Princes are J "acred things ; It Jits not Swaines to thinks ami/ft of Kings.
For, faith he, the faults of Rulers (if any be faultie) are to be reprehended by them that can amend them ; and feeing none is 8 fuperiour to a King but God, to him alone referre their actions. And where thou termeft them true ihepheards that fo envied that Ladies gouernement, thou art deceiued, they are ftill as they then were, prowd phanatike fpirited counterfaites, expert in nothing but 12 ignorance, fuch as hate all rule : for who refifteth correction more than fooles, though they deferue it moll ? Beleeue me, Thenol, and all you well affected Swaines, there is no greater marke for a true fliepheard to be knowne by, than Humilitie, which, God he knowes, thofe mad men 16 moft want ; too much experience haue we of their threed-bare pride, who bite the dead, as lining curres may lions : not contented with their fcaudals of that Royall Lady, our late Soueraignes Sifters, but they haue troubled the cleare fprings of our Miftrelle Elizabeths 20 blefled gouernement : nay, my felfe haue feene & heard with glowing eares, fome of them, euen in the fields of C alt/ don, when his Excellence that isnowouremperiallShepheard,wasonelyLordof theirfoldes,fpeake of his Maieftie more audacioufly and malapertly, than any of vs would 24 doe of the meaneft officer. For as I faide euen now, if Rulers chance to flip, it is moft vnfufferable, that euery impudent rayler mould with the breath of his rnouth ftirre the chaffie multitude, whole eares itch for nouelties, whofe mindes are as their numbers, diuerfe : not able to 28 iudge themfelues, much lefle their foueraignes. But they ought, if they be true Paftors, to folow the great Pan, the Father of al good fhepheards, Chrift, who teacheth euery of his Swaines to tell his brother priuately of his fault, and againe, and againe, — by that glorious 32 number, three, including numbers numberlefle, — before it be told the Church. If then they muft, being true Ihepheards, deale fo with
86 Efig/auds Mourning Garment.
their brethren, how much more ought their folowers do to their Soueraigns, being Kings and Queenes ? And not in the place where facred and morall manners mould be taught, contrarily to teach the 4 rude to be more vnmannerly, inftru&ing euery Punie to compare with the moft reuerend Prelate, and by that example to haue euery Cobler account himfelfe a King.
Oh, faide T/tenot, Collin, there are fome would il thinke of you, 8 Ihould they heare you thus talke, for they reproue all out of zeale, and mull fpare none.
Peace to thy thoughts, Thenot, anfwered Col/in, I know thou kuoweft there is a zeale that is not with knowledge acquainted ; but
12 let them and their madde zeale palfe; let vs forget their railings againft Princes : And beginne with her beginning, after her Royall Sifters ending, who departing from this earthly kingdome the feauen- teeuth of Nouember in theyeare of our Lord 1558. immediately there-
16 upon, Elizabeth, the handmaide to the Lord of Heauen, and Empreire of all Maides, Mothers, youth and men then liuing in this Englilh Earth, was proclaimed Queene with generall applaule j being much pittied, for that bufie flander and refpedlefle enuy had not long before
20 brought her into the disfauour of her royall Sifter Mary, whom we laft remembred : In the continuance of whole difpleafure, ftil ftil made greater by fome great Enemies, how me fcap't, needs no repeating, being fo wel knowne. Preferued fliee was from the violence of death ;
24 her blood was precious in the fight of G O D, as is the blood of al his Saints j it was too deare to be powred out like water on the greedy earth ; ihe liued, and wee haue liued vnder her, fortie and odde yeres, fo wonderfully bleft, that all Nations haue wondred at their owne
28 afflictions and our prolperitiej and Ihe dyed as me liued with vs, ftill careful of our peace ; finiming euen then the greateft wonder of all, our deferts confidered, by appointing the Kingdome to fo iuft and law- full a Ruler to fucceede her : whom all true Englilh knew for their
32 vndoubted Lord, immediately after her death. But left we end ere we begin, I wil returne to her : who being feated in the Throne of Maieftie, adorned with al the vertues diuine and moral, appeared to vs like a goodly Pallace where the Graces kept their feuerall man-
36 fions.
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Firft, faith aboundantly ihone in her, then yong, and loft not her brightneire in her age, for flie beleeued in her Redeemer, her truft was in the King of Kings, who preferued her, as the Apple of his eye, from all treacherous attempts, as many being made againft her life, as 4 againft any Princefie that euer liued : yet me was ftil confident in her Sauiour, whofe name me glorified in all her actions, confeffing her victories, prefernings, dignities, to be all his, as appeared by many luculent examples, this one feruing for the reft, that after the diflipa- 8 tion of the Spanifh Armatho accounted inuincible, flie came in perfon to Paules crofle, and there, among the meaneft of her people, con- felled, Non nolis Domine, non noils ; fed nomini tuo Gloria. And as flie was euer conftant in cherifliing that faith wherein fliee was from 12 her infancie nourifht, fo was fliee faithful of her word, with her people, and with forraine nations. And albeit I know fome (too humoroufly afte£ted to the Roman gouernement) make a queftion in this place, whether her highnefle firft brake not the truce with the King of 16 Spaine : to that I could anfwere, (were it pertinent to mee in this place, or for a poore fhepheard to talke of ftate,) with vnreproouable truths, that her highnes fuffred many wrongs before ihe left off the league. 20
O, faith Thenot, in fome of thofe wrongs refolue vs, and thinke it no vnfitting thing, for thou that haft heard the fongs of that warlike Poet Philesides, good Melcelee, and fmooth tongued Melicert, tell vs what thou haft obferued in their fawes, feene in thy owne experience, 24 and heard of vndoubted truths touching thofe accidents : for that they adde; I doubt not, to the glory of our Eliza.
To this entreatie Collin condifcended, and thus fpake. It is not vnknowen the Spaniard, a mighty nation, abounding with treafure, 2^ being warres finewes, torne from the bowels of Mines, fetcht from the fands of Indian Riuers, by the miferable captiued natiues, haue pur- pofed to be Lordes of Europe. France they haue attempted and failed in, Nauarre they haue greatly diftreft, Lumlardy the garden of the 32 world, they are poflefled of: Naples and Sicilie, Sardinia, Corsica, are forced to obey their lawes : and that they reckoned England fliould be theirs, with fuch fmall eafe, euen in a maner with threatning, their Songs, taught little infants from Andolozia to Galizia, are witnefle. 3"
88 Englands Mourning Garment.
The dice were caft : her Maiefties Subie&s craftily put into the In- qui/ition vpon euery finall colour : if they fcaped, which feldome forted out fo wel, aliue, could of their goods haue no reftkution. Their King 4 gaue penfions to our Queenes Rebellious fugitiue fubie&es, and not onely to fuch, that in regard of their Religion fled the land, but vnto fuch as had attempted to refift her in a6tiue rebellion : and yet not flaying there, out of his treafury propofed rewards for fundry to attempt 8 the murder of her facred perfon : of which perfidious gilt me neuer was tainted : let any Spaniard, or Spanim affected Englim, prone where me euer hired, abetted, or procured any fuch againft their kings Maieffie, and I wil yeeld to be efteemed as falfe as falfhood it felfe :
12 nay, they cannot deny, but that euen with the Rebels of her Realme
of Ireland, ftird vp to barbarous and inhumane outrages by the
Spanim policie, fhee hath no way dealt but by faire and laudable warre.
But before I enter into her Maiefties lenitie in that Irim warre,
1 6 againft fundry knowne Rebels, and punifliing fome of her fubie&s, that vpon a zeale to her, or perchance, to get themfelues a glorie, aduentured their owne liues by trecherie to cut off the Hues of fome great Leaders of the Rebels, I wil a little digrefle, left I fhould be
20 thought, after her death, to maintaine the fire of hate, which I euer in heart defired might honourably be quencht, betweene thefe potent Kingdomes of England and Spaine.
I wifh all that reade this, to bury old wrongs, & to pray that it
24 would pleafe G o D of his ineftimable mercie, to roote out ail malice from Chriftian Nations : and, as our Royall Soueraigne now raiguing, hath conferued league and peace with al Princes, fo, for the weale of Chriftendome, it may more and more increafe, that the open enemies
28 of Chrift may the better be repelled from thofe wealthy Kingdomes in the Eaft, where they haue many hundred yeares moft barbaroully tyrannized : for no man doubts, but the blood fhed within thefe thirtie yeares, as well of Englilh, as Scottilh, Spanim, Dutch, and Portugall,
3 2 in the quarrell of Religion, might, if G o D had fo beene pleafed, bin able to haue driuen the heathen Monarch from his neereft holde in Hungaria, to the fal of Danulia in the Euxine fea, efpecially with the afliftaunce of the French that haue cruelly falne, either vpon others
3" fwords.
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But I trufi God hath fuffered this offence, to adde more glory to our mighty King, that hee mould be the moll famous of al his pre- deceflbrs, as indeed he is the moft mightie, and hath beene raifed to this Realme as a Sauiour, to deliuer England, and make it more 4 abundant in bleffings, when many lookt it mould haue had al her glory fwallowed vp of fpoile.
The highneffe of his emperial place, greatneife of his blood, mighti- neffe of his alliance, but moft, his conftancy in the true profeflion of 8 Religion, euen amid my forrowes, Thenot, fil rne with ioyes : when I conlider how a number that gaped for our deftruclion, haue their mouths Ihut clofe, yet emptie where they thought to eate the fweetes of our paineful fweate : but God be praifed, as I faide before, her 12 Highneffe that ruled vs many yeeres in peace, left vs, in her death, more fecure, by committing vs to our lawful Prince, matcht to a royal fruitful Lady, that hath borne him fuch hopeful iffue, that the dayes we lately feared, I truft are as farre off, as this inftant is, from the 16 end of al earthly times : who flial not onely, with their royall father, maintaine thefe his kingdomes in happy peace, but fubiecl: more vnder him, and fpreade the banners of Chriil in the face of misbe- leeuers. 20
In this hope I here breake off, and returne to our late Soueraignes care of keeping Faith, euen toward her Rebel fubiecls, which I wil manifeft in fome two or three examples of the Irifh.
When the Oneale, in the time of that memorable Gentleman Sir 24 Henry Sidney his Deputie-mip of Ireland, was mightily ftrengthned in his Country, and fo potent, that the Deputie had many dangerous and vnadvantageable skirmifhes againft him ; A feruant of her Maiefties, one Smith, thinking to doe a worthy peece of feruice, by 28 poyfoning the Oneale, prepared a little bottle, parted in the middeft; one fide containing good wine, the other with tempered poyfon of the fame colour, and that he carries to the Oneale, vnder colour of grati- fication for that his armie lay farre from the Sea, or Marchantable 32 Tovvnes, and hee thought Wine was vnto him very daintie : which the Oneale accepted kindely, for that the faide Smith was borne in the Oneales Countrey : and fuch the Irifh doe efpecially, and before
go Englands Mourning Garment.
others, truft to bring meflages, euen from their greateft ennemies, vnder whome they ferae.
But the deceit being quickly fpide, Smyth was by the Oneill fent
4 bound to the Deputie, to whole plot hee would faine haue imputed
the fame pra6life : but contrdrily, the Deputie publikely puniihed the
faid Smyth, and her Maieftie refuted him for her feruant ; faying, Ihe
would keepe none neare her that would deale trecheroully, no, though
8 it were againft traitors.
The like example was fliowne on an other that would haue
attempted the poifoning of Rory Og, a bloody and dangerous Rebell.
To which may be added, that her Highneffe, among other trefpalK-s,
!2 obie6ted by her Atturney againft a conui6led Deputie, was, that he went about by poyfon to haue tooke away the life of Feff Mac Hue, a Rebell more immane & barbarous than any of the other two : the Lord chiefe luftice of the Common Pleas (yet lining) opening at the
*6 fame time, how iuft a fpirit her Maieftie was poflefled with, that fh.ee hated treafon, euen to traitors ; much more, then, to annointed Kings, whofe honors and reputations me fo maintained, that fhee not long fince punifhed by fine and imprifonment, a wealthy railer, for
20 vnreuerent words fpoken againft the perfon of king Philip, her open and profefled enemie : So faithfull, fo iuft, fo gracious was me.
And to make it more plaine, that Spaine intended England the firft wrong, fo long time before it was muttered ; but after that memorable
24 battell of Lepanto, wherein Don lohn of Austria obtained the trium- phant Chriftian viclorie againft the Turkes ; to rewarde him, England was the kingdome fet downe, being then in her Maiefties poflenion : but hee had it, when they could giue him it that promifed the fame,
28 which was at latter Lammas. And I truft his Neece fhall haue as good fuccefle, with her pretended title. For if God ftrengtheued her Maieftie fo, that againft her, being a woman, they could not preuaile, we truft his Almightinefle will be as carefull of our King, being
32 alreadie Lord of three fuch people as haue feldome bene equalled in battell, exccept they haue vnnaturally contended among themfelues : the fight of which day, deare fhepheards, let vs pray neuer againe to fee. Befides, to exprefle her farther intent : to preferue faith and
36 league, notwithftanding infinite of open wrongs, and certaine
Englands Mourning Garment. 91
knowledge that a Nauie for inuafion of this Realme had bene preparing more than fifteene yeare ; yet did fhe beare, vntill againfl all lawe of Nations, the Ambaffador liedger of Spaine, honoured with many fauours, did notwithstanding plot and confeder with natiue 4 traitors of this land ; and the matter being apparantly proued, hee was by her milde fufferance admitted to depart the Realme, without any violence : to his perpetuall reproach, and her neuer dying glorie. Well, I will here conclude touching this vertue of faith both towarde 8 God and man : fhe was as firme in the one as mortalitie coulde bee j and in the other, approued glorious among all the Princes of her time.
For Hope, the fecond diuine vertue, fhe rather therin abounded, I2 than was any way wanting -} for her Hope was no way wandring : fhe beleeued, and it came to paiTe j her enemies arife, but before their arifing, fhee was certaine to fee them fall ; iliee hauing, by example of things paft, nothing doubted of things to come. And fhe was not J6 deceiued till the houre of her death. For euer her expectation was fulfilled ; fhe kept peace within, chafed the fpoyler without ; and euen as it is fung of Epaminondas, that valiant Theban Captaine, in his laft vi&orious battell, wherein yet death of him got victorie, he thus 2O gloried : Herein am I comforted, that I dye a conquerour. For euen when death laid his laft fiege to her yet vnvanquifhed life, Tyrone, the long difturber of her State, befought mercie at her feete. O Nymphs and Shepheards, doubt not fhe was full of diuine Hope, whofe heart 24 obtained euer the thing it faithfully defired : and that her defires were all of faith, I could adde infinite examples to thefe alreadie alledged, but that it is needelefle to caft water in the Sea, or to make queftion of that all men knowe, and will confeffe, except fome whofe heartes 2& are flraungers from Truth, and the profelfed Receptacles of falfe- hood.
Her Charitie, the thirde and principall diuine Grace to the eye of mortalls : (for that Faith and Hope bend principally their feruice to 32 Heauen, and Charities effectes are manifefted on earth) hath bene extended ouer all her Realmes, and ftretched to the comfort of her oppreffed neighbours. The multitudes of poore daily relieued from her purfe, the numbers of ficke perfons yearely vifited, and by her 3^
92 Englands Mourning Garment.
owne hand their corrupt fores toucht, the wafliing of poore womens feete, and releeuing their wants, was a figne that fhe was humble, as well as charitable : for Humilitie is Charities fitter ; they are two twins 4 borne at one time ; & as they are borne together in any foule whateuer, fo doe they Hue and die together : the humble fpirit being euer charitable, and the charitable euer humble : for it is as impofiible to haue a proud man charitable, as to reconcile fier and water; or to 8 make accord betweene any contraries. As fhe was in thefe particu- lars, exceeding all Ladies of her time, giuen to this helpfull vertue, fo had fhe general impofitions through all her kingdome, for her well able fubiecls to follow her example : and fo much did her example
12 preuaile, that befides the ordinary and weekely almes diftributed through the Real me, there haue beene more particular Almef- houfes builded for the reliefe of the aged, than in any fixe Princes Raignes before. .And as all parts of England haue in this im-
16 itation bene very forward : fo hath the Citie of London exceeded allj wherein diuers priuate men haue builded fundry houfes for the poore, and allowed them petitions : but the Corporations haue bene moft bountiful!, as moft able : and among all, the Right worfhip-
20 full the Merchant Taylors haue exceeded the reft ; all hauing done well, that haue done any thing, but they beft of any other, as I will one day, in a fong of liberal Shepheards, thankfully exprefTe : though for my felfe I know him not in the leaft gift to whom I am in that fort
24 bounden ; but I ken not, Thenot, how I may, for there is none lining but may lacke. As the Citie, fo many knights, Gentlemen, honour- able and deuout perfons, haue followed her example : aboue the reft, an honorable, carefull, reuerend and learned watchman, as full of
2^ mildnefle and pietie, as he is of yeares and greefes for his good and royall Miftres loffe ; within few miles of this Citie, hath builded a worthy Receptacle to the like charitable end.
As for the poore and decrepit with age, her Royall Maieftie had
32 this charitable care ; fo for foldiers, and futers, fhe was very proui- dent. The laft, being oppreft in any part of her Realmes by men of much wealth and little confcience, fhe allowd them counfell and proceedings in Forma pauperls, & maintenance weekely in the
3" Termes, for fome part of their fuccour. For fouldiers, and men
Englands Mourning Garment. 93
of feruice, her decrees of prouifion are extant : befides, it is moft cleare, no Prince in the world, to laud- or Sea-men, was more bountifull or willing, than her Highiieffe: out of her Coffers it went j but there is an olde Prouerbe, Thenot, carriage is deare : and I haue 4 heard, but I will Hand to nothing ; bafe Minifters, and vuder officers, curtail the liberalities of great and potent mailers. Some haue in her time beene taken with the manner, and, befides bodily punifhment andi fines, difplaced : as I well remember, and cannot omit amid my 8 greefe to tell, though fomewhat from this fubiect it diflent, being of a fellow too meane : how her highneife, in one of her progreffes, walk- ing in the garden of a houfe where fhe was receiued, being fomewhat neere the high waie, heard on a fodaine, a market woman cry : and 12 from an Arbour beheld one of her owne feruants, a Taker vp of prouifion, vfe the woman vnciuilly : whereupon the caufe being examined, and the poore woman found by the fame fellowe to be wrongd, as well afore as then, her highnefle caufd him prefently to be J6 difchargd of her feruice and punifhed : yet the fault being but flight, the Taker was countenanced to make lute to be reftord : and fome halfe yeare after, fell downe before her Maieflie, defiring mercie and reftoring : her highneffe, pittying his diflreffe, commaunded him to 20 be prouided for in fome place where he could not wrong her poore fubie6ts, but in any cafe not to make him a Taker. Many fuch falfe ones the hath punifhed with death. I could in this, as all the reft, recken multitudes of examples, but I will knit all vp with her Excel- 24 lence in this Act of Charitie extended to her neighbours : whom the hath by her bountie deliuered from the tyrannic of oppreffion, & aided the right of others againft rebellious fubiects : others, aflifted to recouer their kingdoms, not fparing millions to fuftaine the quarrell of 2^ the righteous. The reward of which mercy & charitie fhe now finds, receiuing infinite glories for her abounding Charitie, being done for his caufe that leaueth no deed of mercie vnrecompenced.
As fhe was richly ftored with diuine graces, fo, in morall vertues, 32 no Princefle euer liuing in the earth can be remembred to exceede her. Her wifedome was, without queftion, in her life by any vnequalled.- fhe was fententious, yet gratious in fpeech ; So expert in Languages that me aufwered moft Embafladors in their natiue tongues : her 3&
94 England* Mourning Garment.
capacitie was therewith fo apprehenfiue, and inuention fo quicke, that
if any of them had gone beyop.de their bounds, with maieftie vn-
daunted fhe would haue limited them within the verge of their
4 dueties, as ilia did royally, wifely, and learnedly, the laft ftruting
Poland meflenger, that thought with ftalking lookes and f welling
words to daunt her vndaunted Excellence. But as he came proud, he
returned not without repentance : hauing no other wrong here, but
8 the finne of his own faufinefie.
Many fuch examples I could fet downe, but I will fatisfie you with one more. When the Spaniards hauing their Armatho ready, tem- porifde with her highnes Commiflioners in the low Countries, thinking
1 2 to finde her highnefle vnprouided ; at laft, when they accounted all fure, they fent her their Kings choyce, either of peace or warre, wittily included in foure Latine verfes : portending, that if fhe would ceafe to defend the low Countries, reftore the goods taken by reprifall from
1 6 the Spaniards, build vp the Religious houfes diuerted in her Fathers time, and let the Romane Religion be receiued through her Land ; why then fhe might haue peace : if not, it was too late to expect any. Which proud commaunding Embafiie, with royall magnanimitie,
20 gratious wifedome, and fluent wit, fhe anfwered inftantly in one knowne prouerbiall line, which fhe fodenly made into a Verfe.
Ad Grcecas hcecjiant mandata Kalendas. O Thenot, did not afTurance of our kingly Poets loue to the Mufes,
24 fomewhat comfort me, I fhould vtterly difpaire euer to heare Paftori- call fong againe, fild with any conceit ; feeing her Excellence, whofe braine being the Hellicon of all our beft and quaint inuentions, is dried vp by the ineui table heate of death.
2° Her iuftice was fuch, as neuer any could truly complaine of her; neither did fhee pardon faults vnpardonable, as murder, rape, Sodomy, that fin almoft not to bee namde : neither was there in her time (with her knowledge) extremitie of iuftice fhowne to other male-
32 factors : if any fuch did fall, it was either by falfhood or malice of the euidence, or fome other fecret wherewith poore Shepheards are vnacquamted : onely this we are taught : that God fometime pun- ifheth the finnes of parents on their children, to many generations.
3" But for her felfe, fhe was alwayes fo enclined toe quitie, that if fhe
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left luflice in any part, it was in fhewing pittie : as in one generall punifhnient for murder it appeared : whereas before-time there was extraordinary torture, as hanging wilfull murderers aliue in chaines; fhee, hauing companion, like a true Shepheardeffe, of their foules, 4 though they were of her erring and vtterly infe&ed flocke, faid their death fatisfied for death : and life for life, was all could be demaunded : and affirming more, that much torture diftra6ted a dying man : in particular, fhe faued manyj among fome vnworthy of her mercie, that 8 proud fellow, who vniuftly named himfelfe Doclor Parry, and an other, as I remember, called Patrick an Irilh man : the firft hauing offended in Burglar;/, againft a Lawier able and willing to take away his life, thereto vrged by many mifdemeanours : and for that Parry 12 doubted his attempt to kill, & a6t of fellony was without compaiTe of pardon, confidering the place where it was done, and againft whom, thought a leafe of life fafeft, which of her benigne mercie he obtained for 21. yeares ; but ere three of them were paft, he did vnnaturally 16 attempt her death that had giue« him life ; for which traiterous in- gratitude he worthily was cut off: the Irifli man likewife being pardoned for a manflaughter, proued as vnthankfull, and ended as he liued, fhamefully. Bolides, {he was fo inclinable to mercie, that her 20 iuft and feuere Judges tolde her, how fome defperate malefactors, building on friends, and hopes of pardon, carde not for offending, but euen fcoffed at authoritie ; wherof when fhe heard, fhee tooke fpeciall care, confidering it was as great iniuftice to pittie fome, as fpare 24 others, taking order to figne no pardon, except the Judges hand were at it firft, which truly knew the caufe why the partie was condemned : by which meanes, murderers and prefumptuous offenders were cut off from all hope. 28
One notable example of her iuftice among many I will here remember : Certaine condemned for Piracie, hauing made fome endc with them they wronged, lay for their Hues at her mercie j and the Judge of her Admiraltie hauing fignified fauourably of the qualitie of 32 their offence, fhe was moued to pittie them, and had commanded their pardon to be drawne. In the meane time two of them, trained vp in the fafhion of our common Cutters, that I may tell thee, Thenot, fwarme rather like diuels than men about the countrey, that fweare as 36
g6 England^ Mourning Garment.
if they had licenfe to blafpheme, and ftabbe men as if they had authorise ; nay, fometime themfelues for very trifles : two fuch, I fay, were in the company of thefe condemned Pyrates, hourely hoping for 4 their Hues : and brauing either other of their manhood, laying, one durft more than the other : the eldeft, being Maifter of their late fhip wherein they had failed to that place of forrow, flyces his owne flefh with a knife, afking the other if he durft doo as much : the yonker 8 was very readie, and two or three times followed the olde foole, in that defperate wounding of himfelfe. This brutifh a6te being committed in the prifon belonging to her Maiefties owne houfe, came quickly to her royall eare, and fome fewe dayes after, their pardon to be figned j
12 who gracioufly gaue life to all the reft ; but commaunded them by exprefle name to execution, faying, they were vnworthy mercie, that of themfelues had none : adding, it was very likely, that fuch as in a prifon, and in their ftate, would be fo cruell to {head their owne
1 6 bloud, would haue fmall compaffion of others whom they ouercame at Sea ; and fo leauing them to the lawe, they were worthily exe- cuted.
Of her mercie nothing can be faide more, but that it equalled, or
20 rather as I faid before, exceeded her iuftice. Among infinite numbers whom me pardoned, that one eipecially being a cleare witnefle, who {hot the Gunne off againft Greenwich, euen into her Maiefties Barge, hurt the next man to her, at broade daylight ; almoft impoffible to be
24 excufed by negligence or ignorance j for that any man, hauing his peece charged, would rather vpon retyring home, haue difcharged it among the Reedes, than toward the bredth of the Riuer, whofe filuer breft continually bore vp a number of vefiels, wherein men pafled on
28 fundrie affaires. How euer wilfull or vmvilfull the a6te was, done it was 5 and by a lurie he was found guiltie, and adiudged to die : toward execution hee was ledde with fuch clamour and iniuries of the multi- tude, as fildome any the like hath bene feene or heard ; fo hainous
32 and odious his offence appeared vnto them, that, being vpon the ladder readie to be caft off, the common people had no pittie of him : when euen iuft in that moment of difpaire and death, her Maieftie fent a gracious pardon, which deliuered him, to all mens wonder. I want
36 but the Arcadian Shepheards inchaunting phrafe of fpeaking, that was
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many times witnefle to her iuft mercies, and mercifull iuftice : yet rude as I am, I haue prefumed to handle this excellent Theame, in regaid tha Fuuerall haftens on, of that fometime moft Serene Lady, and yet I fee none, or at leaft paft one or two, that haue fung any 4 thing fince her departure worth the hearing ; and of them, they that are beft able, fcarce remember her Maieftie. I cannot now forget the excellent and cunning Collin indeed ; (for alas, I confefle my felfe too too rude,) complaining that a liberal Meccenas long fince dying, was S immediately forgotten, euen by thofe that liuing moft laboured to aduance his fame ; and thefe as I thinke clofe part of his fongs :
Being dead, no Poet feekes him to reuiue,
Though many Poets flattred him aliue. 12
Somewhat like him, or at leaft to that purpofe, of a perfon more excellent, though in ruder verfe, I fpeake.
Death now hath ceaz'd her in his ycie armes,
That fometime was the Sun of our delight : 16
And pittilefle of any after-harmes,
Hath veyld her glory in the cloude of night.
Nor doth one Poet feeke her name to raife,
That liuing, hourely ftriu'd to fing her praife. 20
He that fo well could fing the fatall ftrife Betweene the royall Rofes White and Red, That praif'd fo oft Eliza in her life, His Mufe feemes now to dye, as fhee is dead : 24
Thou fweeteft long-man of all Englim fwaines,
Awake for fhame, honour enfues thy paines. But thou alone deferu'dft not to be blamde : He that fung fortie yeares, her life and birth, And is by Englim Albions fo much famde, For fweete mixt layes of maieftie with mirth,
Doth of her lofle take now but little keepe ;
Or elfe I geffe he cannot fing, but weepe. 32
Neither doth Coryn full of worth and wit, That finifht dead Musceus gracious fong,
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 7
98 Englands Mourning Garment.
With grace as great, and words, and verfe as fit ;
Chide meager death for dooing vertue wrong :
He doth not feeke with fongs to deck her herfe, 4 Nor make her name Hue in his liuely verfe.
Nor does our Englifh Horace, whofe fteele pen
Can drawe Characters which will neuer die,
Tell her bright glories vnto liftning men j 8 Of her he feemes to haue no memorie.
His Mufe an other path defires to tread,
True Satyres fcourge the liuing, leaue the dead.
Nor doth the filuer tonged Melicert, 1 2 Drop from his honied mufe one fable teare
To mourne her death that graced his defert,
And to his laies opend her Royall eare. Shepheard, remember our Elizabeth, 16 And fing her Rape, done by that Tarquin, Death.
No lefle doe thou (fweete finger Coridon] ;
The Theame exceedeth Edwards Isalell,
Forget her not in Poly -Albion ;
20 Make fome amends, I know thou loudft her well.
Thinke twas a fault to haue thy Verfes feene Praifing the King, ere they had mourn d the Queen.
And thou delicious fportiue Musidore, 24 Although thou haue refignd thy wreath of Bay,
With Cypreffe bind thy temples, and deplore
Elizas winter in a mournfull Lay :
I know thou canft, and none can better fing Herfe fongs for her, and Paeans to our King.
Quicke Antihorace, though I place thee heere,
Together with yong Mcelibee thy frend :
And Heroes l laft Musceus, all three deere, C1 Orif- Hewres.
See p. 112, 'To All fuch whofe vertues highly I commend : the Reader.']
Proue not ingrate to her that many a time Hath ftoopt her Maieftie, to grace your rime. And thou that fcarce hafl fligd thy infant mufe (I vfe thine owue word), and commend thee bell,
Englands Mourning Garment. 99
In thy proclayming lames : the reft mifvfe The name of Poetry, with lines vnbleft ;
Holding the Mufes to be mafculine.
I quote no fuch abfurditie in thine. 4
Thee doe I thanke for will ; thy worke let paile : But wifli fome of the former had firft writ, That, from their Poems, like reflecting glafle Steeld with the puritie of Art and wit,
Eliza might haue liude in euery eye,
Alwaies beheld till Time and Poems dye. But ceafe you Goblins, and you vnder Elues, That with rude rimes and meeters reafonlefTe, 12
Fit to be fung for fuch as your bafe felues, Prefume to name the Mufes Patroneffe :
Keepe your low Spheres ; fhe hath an Angell fpirit :
The learnedft Swaine can hardly fing her merit. 16
Onely her brother King, the Mufes truft (Blood of her Grandfires blood, plac'd in her Throne) Can raife her glory from the bed of duft : To praife her worth belongs to Kings alone. 20
In him fiiall we behold her Maieftie,
In him her vertue liues and cannot die.
At this, Thenot and the reft defirde him to proceede in his difcourfe of her vertues ; remembring where he left, at luftice ; and though the matter 24 pleafd them fo well that they could indure the hearing many daies, yet feeing the Stmne began to dye the Weft Sea with vermilion tincture, the pallace of the morning being hidden in fable clouds, & that the care of their flockes muft be refpected, requefted him to be 28 as breefe, as the time limited him.
To which Collin anfwered : Thenot, I perceiue thou art as all or the moft part of the world is, carefull onely of thine own : and how euer frends fall, yet profit muft be refpected. Well, thou doft well; 32 and in this I dubbly praife thee : to carke for fheepe and lambs that cannot tend themfelues, & not to mourne as without hope our great Shepheardefle, who, after long life and glory on earth, hath obtained
ioo England* Mourning Garment.
a longer and more glorious life in heauen. But to proceede. As llie was conttant in faith, ftedfaft in hope, cheerefull in giuing, prudent iti fpeaking, iuft in punilliing, but moll mercifull in pardoning, fo, for 4 the third morrall vertue, Temperance, there was in no age before, a woman fo exalted to earthly honour euer read off; that fo long, fo gratioully, in outward & domeftick affaires gouerned her kingdom, familie, & perfon, with like moderation.
8 Firft, for her kingdome : what can be deuifed more neere the meane, than me hath in all things followed ? For in religion as in other things, there hath beene an extreame erring from the truth, which like all vertues, (being indeede the head of all) keepeth place
12 in the midft; fo hath Ihs eftablilhed the true Catholicke and Apoftol- icall Religion in this Land, neither mingled with multitudes of Idle fuperftitions ; nor yet wanting true honour and reuerence for the Minifterie, in laudable and long receiued ceremonies.
1 6 But here I mall be carpped at, in that I call the Religion profeft in her time, true C.itholike and Apoftolicall : confidering, the Sea of Rome, and fuch Englilh onely as be her fworne Sonnes, thinke that feate all — one to hold the Apoftolicall faith : excluding her Maieftie,
20 and all other Chriftian Princes with their fubie&s, that haue not falne before that Chaire, as people woorthie to be cutte off from Chriftes congregation : giuing them names of Proteftants, Lutherans, and I know not what. And on another fide, a felecled company, that would
24 needs be counted Saints & holy ones, when there is nothing but corruption in their harts ; they forfooth condemned her facred gouerue- raent for Autichriftian, when, to the amazement of fuperftitious Romanes, & felfe-praymig Se£tuaries, God approued hir faith by his
28 loue towards her. And left I mould be taskd of ignorance, and termed a Nullifidian, in defending neither of thefe fides, and ouely of the faith that the Colliar profeft, which was euer one with the moft, I fay, I was borne and brought vp in the Religion profeft by that moft
32 Chriftian Princeffe Elizabeth, who beleeued not that the fpirite of God was bound or tyde to any one place, no more to Rome than Antioch; that the Candlefticke of any Church might be remooude, for neglecting their firft loue, and teaching traditions of men, in fteede of
36 facred veritie : and no man can denie but the Church of Rome hath fo
Englands Mourning Garment. lot
taught, and ftandeth not in her firft eftate, but if it were in the Primi- tiue Church perfectly and fully eftablifhed : then hath it receiued many traditions fince, which our Elizabeth, nor any of her faithfull fubie&s, would obay, being no way by Gods word thereunto war- 4 ranted : befides, there is apparent proofes that the Church of Rome hath many hundred yeares perfecuted with great crueltie : which is no * badge of the true Apoftolicall Church. D °riS- no bo]
For the other fort : it is well knowne, they are for the moft part, 8 ignorant and mechanick people, leade by fome fevve hot fpirited fellowes, that would faine haue all alike. Thefe, tying themfelues to a more ftrait courfe outwardly than other men, and though they be vtterly object to the Romaniftes, yet haue they more hee Saints and 12 me Saints among them than are in the Romifh Kalender ; where none, or at leaft but very fewe, are called Saints, but holy Virgins, Martyrs, and Confeffors ; but all the bretheren and fifters of the other fide, are, at the firft receiuing into their Communion, Sainted, if it be 16 but Kit Cobler, and Kate his wife ; and both hee and llie prefume they haue as fufficient fpirites to teach and expound the Scriptures, as either Peter, or lohn, or Pauls, for fo bluntly they terme the blefled Apoftles : but their vanitie and pride our Elizabeth hated, and there- 20 fore bridled their waies, and was not mooued with their hypocriticall faftes ; becaufe they fafted to ftrife and debate, as it is written by the Prophet Esay. 58. and to fmite with the rift of wickednes.
Her highnes therefore taught all her people the vndoubted truth : 24 that faith in Chrift alone, the way, the doore, and the life : not turn- ing either to the right hand, or to the left : and in this, being the beft meane, her Temperance cheefly appeered : this rule fhe taught her kingdome, her familie, her felfe -. at leaft, cauied them to be taught by 2° excellent Paftors, to whom humbly me gaue publike eare
As in this, fo for apparell, manners and diet, fhe made Lawes, and gaue example in hir owne perfon : to curb the vanitie of pride in garments, by exprefle Statutes appointed all men and women to be 32 apparelled in their degree and calling. To reprefle the excefie of drinking and hated finne of drunkenneffe, (he hath commaunded no drinke in her Land to be brued aboue an eafie price : and to auoid gurmandize, fhe hath yearely commanded the Lent and Fafting-daies 3^
IO2, Englands Mourning Garment.
to be kept, as in times before, not for fuperftition fake, but common policie, to haue Gods creatures receiued indifferently ; and alfo to increafe Marriners for the ftrength of the He, whofe numbers, while 4 tifli is contemnd, by neglect of fifhing mightily decay : tifhers being indeed, pretty traind Marriners, by reafou that they haue experience in moil of the Hauens, Creekes, Shoales, Flats, and other prolits and daungers ueere the places they vfde. But what fhould I fay ; if they 8 that will onely make the Scripture their cloke, and yet refpecl not this part, Obey the Magiftrate for confcience : their finne fall vpon them- felues. I truft the Prince is excufable, that would his fubie&s would doe well ; and fo I am certaine was her Excellence.
12 True, faid Thenot, but for all her Lawes, thefe courfes were little fet by : I haue feene vpftarts jet it gayer than Lords, numbers drinke till they haue feemde dead, & multitudes eate fleih euen vpon good Fryday. What remedie, faid Collon : they that will breake the Kings
1 6 Law, make little account of Gods : fuch fubie&s are like falfe Executors, that performe not the legacies of the dead : her highnes was not the worfe for that good Lawes were violated : they that dealt fo with her, dealt worfe with God : offending him double by breaking
20 his Lawes and hers. But in her owne houfehold and perfon ihe obferued all thefe rules : and though many abroad by corruption were winkt at ; yet fometime there were fome taken and paid home. But her excelling Selfe, though her Table were the abundantlieft
24 furniftit of any Princes in the world with all varietie : yet fed fhe ofteneft of one dilli, and that not of the daintieft. For quaffing, as it was vnfitting her Sex, fo ihe extreamely abhord it, hating fuperfluitie as hell : and fo farre was fhe from all nicenes, that I haue heard it
28 credibly reported, and know it by many inflances to be true, that fhe neuer could abide to gaze in a mirror or looking glafTe : no, not to behold one, while her head was tyred and adornd, but (imply trufted to her attendant Ladies for the comelinefle of her attyre : and that
32 this is true, Thenot, I am the rather perfwaded, for that when I was yong, altnofl thirtie yeeres agoe, courting it now and than, I haue feene the Ladies make great fhift to hide away their looking glaffes if her Maieftie had paft by their lodgings.
36 O humble Lady, how meeke a fpirit hadfl thou ! how farre from
Englands Mourning Garment. 103
»
affe&ingbeautie, or vaine pride : when thou defirft not to fee that face which all thy fubiedts longed dayly to behold, and fundry Princes came from farre to wonder at.
As in all thefe things fhe kept truely the Meane, fo likewife in her 4 gifts : as I firft noted touching her Charitie, which was ftill fo tem- pered, notwithftand'mg her great charge in aiding her dtftreffed neigh- bours, that fhe was euer truely liberall, and no way prodigall : as I truft his Royall Maieftie fhall by the treafure finde. 8
As fhe was adornd with all thefe vertues ; fo was fhe indued with Fortitude and princely courage, fo plentifully, that her difpleafure fhooke euen her ftouteft aduerfaries : and thofe vnnaturall traytors, that, came armd fundry times with bloodie refolution to lay violent handes 12 on her facred Maieftie, her verie lookes would daunt, and their inftru- ments prepared for her death, dropt from their trembling hands with terror of their confciences, and amazement to behold her counten- ance; nay, when fhe knew they came of purpofe to kill her, fhe hath 16 fingled diuers of them alone, and let fome paffe from her with milde caueats a farre off: whofe lenitie, rather increafing than diminifhing their malice, they haue followed deftruction, which too timely ouer tooke them. 20
I could in this place name many particular men, as Parry, and others : but I will content yee with one priuate example ouerpaffing the generall : fortitude fhe fhowd in her youth, in her captiuitie, in her glory, at all times : for defence of her faith, and all oppreffed true 24 profeffors thereof: ending with this example of her high courage and affured confidence in God. When Appletree, whom I remembred before, had hurt her waterman, being next to her in the Barge ; the French Ambaffador being amazd, and all crying Treafon, Treafon : 28 yet fhe with an vndaunted fpirit, came to the open place of the Barge, and bad them neuer feare, for if the fhot were made at her, they durft notfhoote againe : fuch maieftie had her prefence, and fuch bold- neffe her heart, that fhe defpifed all feare; and was, as all Princes are, 32 or fhould be, fo full of diuine fulneffe, that guiltie mortalitie durft not beholde her but with dazeled eyes.
But I wonder, faith Thenot, fhee in fo many yeares built no goodly ^Edifice wherein her memorie might liue. 36
IO4 Englanck Mourning Garment.
So did (he, anfwered Collin, the goodlieft building in the earth, fuch as, like fleeting lies, commanded the feas, whofe outward wallcs are dreadfull Engins of brafle, fending fearefull thunder among 4 enemies. And the inhabitants of thofe wooden lies, are worthy Sea- men, fuch as dread no daunger, but for her would haue run euen into deftrucYions mouth. I tell thee, Thenot, I haue feene in a fight fome like nimble fpirites hanging in the aire by little cordes, fome lading 8 ordinance with deathful powder j fome charging Muskets, and dif- charging mine on their enemies ; fome at the forefhip, others bufie at helme, skipping here and there like Roes in lightnefle, and Lyons in courage j that it would haue powred fpirit into a ficke man to fee
12 their refolutions. For fuch tenants made me many buildings, exceed- ing any Emperors Nauy in the earth, whofe feruice I doubt not will be acceptable to her moft worthy SuccefTor, our dread Soueraigne Lord and King.
1 6 Other Pallaces fhee had great ftore of, which fliee maintained and yearely repaired ; at leaft, would haue done, if thofe that hadde care of her furueying, would haue bene as carefull for hers as for their owne.
20 What mould I fay of her ? the cloudie mantle of the night coucrs the beautie of the heauen : and this euening lookes like thofe foure dayes that preceded the morning of her death. The beaftes the night that fhee ended her fate in earth, kept an vnwonted bellowing, fo
24 that I aflure thee, Thenot, being aflured of her ficknes, I was troubled (being awakened with their cries) with imagination of her death, that I pittied not my bleating flocke, who with their innocent notes kept time with my true teares, till the houre of her death was paft, when
28 immediately a heauie fleepe fhut vp the windowes of mine eyes : at which time, (as I haue fince heard,) deathes eternall fleepe vtterly benummed all her fences, whofe foule (I doubt not) hath alreadie entred endlefle reft, whether God will draw her glorified body in his
32 great day. Sweete Virgin, fhee was borne on the Eue of that bleffed Virgins Natiuitie, holy Mary, Chrifts mother : fhee dyed on the Eue of the Anunciation of the fame moft holy Virgin ; a blefled note of her endlefle bleflednefle, and her focietie in heauen with thofe wife
36 Virgins, that kept Oyle euer in their Lampes, to awaite the Bride-
Englands Mourning Garment. 105
groome. Shee came vnto the Crowne after her royall fifters death, like a frefti Spring euen in the beginning of Winter, and brought vs comfort, as the cleare Sunne doth to ftorme-dreffed Marriners ; fhee left the Crowne likewife in the winter of her Age, and the beginning 4 of our Spring : as if the Ruler of heauen had ordained her coronation in our fharpeft Winter to bring vs happineffe, & vncrowned her in our happieft Spring, to leaue vs in more felicitie by her Succeeder. O happie beginning, and more happy ende : which notwithstanding, as 8 naturall Ibnnes and fubiecls, let her n:>t goe vnwept for to her graue. This euening let vs be like the Euening, that, drops dewy teares on the earth : and while our hyndes lliut vp the meepe in their foldes, fing a Funeral! fong for the loiTe of diuine Elizabeth; inuocating 12 abfent Schollers to bewaile her, whome in fundrie Schooles fhee cherifht, and perfonally in either of their Vniuerfities vifited : let vs bid fouldiers lament her, toward whom, belides many apparant fignes of her exceeding loue, this is one moft worth memorie ; fliee 16 came amongft them mounted at Tilburie, beeing gathered into a royall Armie againft the Spanim Inuafion ; promifing to fhare with them in all fortunes, if the enemie durft but mewe his face aland. Let Ci- tizens likewife fhead teares for her lolTe, efpecially thofe of London, 20 to whom me was euer a kinde Soueraigne, and bountifull neigh- bour.
I neede not bid the Courtiers weepe, for they can neuer forget the countenance of their gracious MiftrefTe, till they haue ingrauen in their 24 hearts the fauour of their moft royall Maifter. For vs * poore Shep- heards, though we are not able to fute our felues in blackes fine inough to adorne fo Royall an Enterment, yet, Thenot, quicken thy inuention ; Dryope and Chloris mail beare partej and let vs conclude 28 our forrowe for Eliza in a Funerall Hymne, that mail haue power to drawe from the fwelling Cloudes waters to affift our woe. The Springes, taught by the teares that breake from our eyes, alreadie ouerflowe their boundes : The Birdes fitte mute to heare our muficke, 32 and our harmeleffe flocke harken to our mones.
To this they all, as gladly as their griefe would fuffer them, contented- Collin for his broken pipe tooke Cuddyes, who could neither fing nor play, he was fo full of paflion and fighes. [* Orig. as 36
106 Englands Mournins: Gannent.
^_it</(i*o j. WM. \J M-/ rv*r*c
Funerall Song lictweene Collin and Thcnot; Dryope and Chloris, vpon the death of tliefa- cred Virgin Elizabeth.
4 Collin.
\7 ' Efacred Mufes dwelling, IWiere Art is euerfwelling ; Your learned Fount forfake,
8 Helpe Funerall Songs to make :
Hang them alout her Herfe That euer loued Verfe. Clio writ downe her Storie, 12 That was the Mufes Glorie.
Driope.
And ye oft-footed Howers. Make readie Cypreffe Bowers : 1 6 Inftead of Rofes fweete
(For pleafant Spring-time meete) Strew all the pathes with Yeugh, Night-shade and fritter Reugh. 20 Bid Flora hide her Treafure :
Say tis no time of pleafure.
Thenot.
And you aiuineft Graces, 24 Veyle all your J acred faces
With your bright JJiining haire, Shew euery Jigne of care : The Hart that was your Phane, 28 The cruell Fates hauejlaine :
From earth no power can raife her, Onely our Hymnes may praife her.
Chloris.
32 Mufes and Howres and Graces,
Let all the hallowed places
Which the cleere Moone did view, Looke with a fable hiew :
Englands Mourning Garment. 107
Let not the Sunne befeene, But weeping for the Queens That Grace and Mnfe did cheri/h. O, that fuch worth JJiould perl/Ji ! 4
Collin.
So turne our verfe, and on this lofty Pine, Each one ingrauefor herfome Funerall line : Thus I beginne. 8
Collins Epitaph.
Eliza, Maiden Mirror of this Age,
Earths true Ajlrcca while Jhe liu'de and raignde,
Is throwne by Death from her triumphant Stage, 12
But ly that fall hath endleffe glorie gainde :
Andfooli/Ji death would faine if he could weepe, For killing Her he had no power to keepe.
Thenots Epitaph. 16
Eliza rich and Royall,faire and iujl: Giues heauen her Soule, and leaues her FleJIi to dujl.
Dryopes Epitaph.
There is no beautie but it vades, 20
No glory but is veyld withjhades : So is Eliza, Queene of Maids,
Jtoopt to tier Fate.
Yet Death in this hath little thriude, 24
For thus her vertues haue atchiude, She fliall, by verfe, Hue still reuiude
infpight of Hate.
Chloris Epitaph. 28
Eliza that ajionijlied her foes, Stoopt her rebellious fubieBs at herfeete: all word or Wiofe minde was * Still the same in ioy and woes, Semper Ea- Whofefrowne was fearefull, and herfauoursfweete : 32
*"*• Swaid all this land, but mojl herfelfejliefwaide,
Liude a chajle Queene, and dide a Royall Maide.
108 Englands Mourning Garment.
Thcfe Epitaphs ended, the Nymphs and Shepheards led by Collin and Thenot, who afore plaide heauy tunes on their oaten pipes, gotte to their feuerall cottages, and fpent their time till midnight, mourning 4 for Eliza : But Sleepe, the equaller of Kings and captiues, baniflied their forrowes. What humor they are in after reft, you mall in the morning neare : for commonly, as the day is, fo are our affections dif- pofed.
IfThe order and proceeding at the Fu-
nerall of the Right High and Might ie
Princesse Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland : from the Pallace of Westminster called White-hall To the Cathedrall Church of Westminster : the 28. of April. 1603.
FIrft, the Knight Marshals man, to make way.
Next, the z^o. poore women by fou re and foure. 4
Then, feruants of Gentlemen, Ef- quiers, and Knights.
Two Porters. 0
o
Next, foure Trumpetors.
After them Rofe, Purjiuant at Amies. 12
Two Sergeants at Armes.
The Slander d of the Dragon,
16 Two Querries leading a horfe.
Then the meflcngers of the Cham- ber, foure and foure.
Children of the Almondry. 2Q
Children of the Woodyard, Children of the Skullery. Children and turners of the paftry. The Skalding houfe. The Larder.
After them
Groomes. Wheate porters. 28
Coopers.
Wine-porters.
Conduits in the Bakehoufe.
Bel-ringer.
Maker of Spice-bags.
Cart takers, chofen by the bord.
Long Cartes.
Cart takers.
Of the Almery.
Of the Stable.
Of the Woodyard.
Skullery
Paftrie.
Skalding houfe.
Poultrie.
Caterie.
Boyling houfe.
Larder.
Kitchin.
Laundrie.
Ewry.
Confectionary.
Wafery.
Chaundry.
Pircherhoufe.
Buttrie.
Seller.
Pantrie.
I 10
The Funeral I.
Bakehoufe. Countinghoufe.
Then Noblemens and Embafladors feruants.
Groomes of the Chamber. Foure Trumpeters.
Blewmantle.
A Sergeant at Armes.
The St under d of 'the Greyhound.
Two Quirries leading a horfe.
Yeomen of the Seruitors in the
hall, foure and foure.
Garneter. Bakehoufe. Counting houfe. 4 Spicery. Chamber, Robes, Wardrop.
Erles and Countefles feruants.
Foure Trumpeters. 12
Portcullis.
A Sergeant at Armes. 16
The Standerd of the Lion.
Two Quirries leading a horfe
|
Cart takers. |
20 trapped with vel- |
|
Porters. |
uet. |
|
Almondrie. |
Sergeant of the veftry. |
|
Herbengers. |
Children of the Chappeil in furpleffes |
|
Woodyard. |
4 Gent, of the Chappel, in Copes. |
|
Skullery. |
|
|
Paftrie. |
Clarkes. |
|
Poultrie and skalding houfe. Purueyors of the Poultrie. Purueyors of the Acatrie. |
o Deputie Clarke of the Market. Clarkes extraordinarie. Coferer. |
|
Stable. |
Diet. |
|
Boyling houfe. |
M. Cooke for the houfhold. |
|
Larder. |
32 Paftrie. |
|
Kitchin. |
Larder. |
|
Ewrie. |
Skullerie. |
|
Confe&ionarie. |
Woodyard. |
|
Waferie. |
3 Poultrie. |
|
Purueyor of the wax. |
Bakehoufe. |
|
Tallow Chandler. |
Acatrie. |
|
Chaundrie. |
Stable. |
|
Pitcher houfe. |
40 |
|
Brewers |
Sergeants. |
|
Buttrie. |
Gent. Herbinger. |
|
Purueyors. |
Wood-yard. |
|
Seller. |
44 Skullery. |
|
Pantrie.. |
Paftrie. |
The FuneralL
in
Caterie.
Larder.
Ewry.
Seller.
Pantrie.
Bakehoufe.
Mafter Cooke of the Kitchin.
Clarkes of the Querrie. Second and third clarke of the
Chaundrie. Second & third clarke of the Kitchin.
Superuifors of the Drefler.
Surueyer of the drefler, for the
chamber.
Mufitions.
Apoticaries and Chirurgions. Sewers of the hall. Marfhall of the hall. Sewers of the chamber Groome Porter.
Gentlmen vfhers and waiters. Clarke, Marfhall, and Auenor. Chiefe clarke of the wardrop. Chiefe clarke of the Kitchin. Two clarkes controllers. Clarke of the Greenecloth. Maifter of the houfhold. Cofferer.
Rouge Dragon. A Sergeant at Armes. The Banner of Chefter.
Clarks of the Counfel, foure & foure. Clarkes of the priuie Scale. Clarkes of the Signet. Clarkes of the Parliament. Doftors of Phificke. The Queenes Chaplaines. Secretaries for the Latine and French tongue.
Rouge Crqffe. Two Sergeants of Armes.
The Banner of Cornewall.
Aldermen of London. Solliciter, Atturney, and Sergeant. Maifter of Reuels, & M. of the Tents. Knights Bachelors. Lord chiefe Baron, and Lord chiefe luftice of the Common pleas.
Maifter of the lewell houfe. I 2
Knights Embafladors, & Gentlemen
Agents.
Sewers for the Queene. Sewers for the Body. *" Efquires of the Body.
Lancajler and IVindfor. The Banner of Wales. The Banner of Ireland.
Maifter of the Requefts.
Agents for Venice, and the Eftates,
Lord Maior of London. 4 Sir lohn Popham. Sir lohn Fortefcue.
Sir Rober Cicell principall Secretary.
Controller & Treafurer of houfhold.
Barons.
Bifhoppes.
Erles eldeft fonnes.
Vifcounts.
Dukes fecond fonnes. 32 Erles.
Marquefes.
Bifhop Almoner. Preacher.
Lord Keeper. 36 The French Embaflador.
Archbifhop of Canterburie.
Foure Sergeants of Armes. The great embrotherdBaner of 'England
Somerfet and Richmond. Yorke, Helme and Creaft. Chefter, Target,
28
I 12
The Funerall.
Norrey King at Armes, Sword. Clarenceaux King at Armes, Coate.
After them the Gentlemen vfhers with white Rods.
The liuely pifture of her Highnefle whole body, crowned in her Par- liament Robes, lying on the corps balmed and leaded, couered with veluet, borne in a chariot, drawne by foure horfes trapt in blacke vel- uet.
About it fixe Banner Rolls on each fide : Gentlemen pentioners with their Axes downeward.
With them the Footemen.
A Canapy borne ouer the chariot by
foure Noblemen. The Erie of Worcefter maifterof the
horfe, leading the Palfrie of Honour.
Two Efquiers and a groome, to attend and leade him away.
Gentlemen vfher, Garter K. of Armes. 4 Lady MarchionefTe of Northamton, aflifted by the Lord Treafurer and Lord Admiral).
Chiefe mourner, her traine fuppor- 8 ted by maifter Vicechamberlaine : Two Erles afliftants to her. Fourteene Countefles affiftants. Gentlewomen of the Priuy chamber. 12 Countefles.
Vifcountefles Erles daughters. BaroneflVs
1 6 Maids of Honour, of the Priuy chamber.
Captaine of the Guard, with all the Guard following, flue and fiue in 20 a ranke, their holberds downeward.
To the Reader.
ILoue as little as any man to come in print : but feeing affecYion hath made me commit this fault, I pray you pardon it ; and amend in reading the Printers errors ; where, being ill acquainted with Poetrie, he hath paflcd Herores ' for Heroes ; what euer elfe feemes haffti, imagine I can write Eng- lifh, and make not the fault mine.
Farewell. Hen : Chetle.
1 This must be for ' Hewres last M listens,' sig. D 3 of the original, p. 98 of this reprint.
The Shepheards Spring Song, in gratula-
tion of the royall, happy, and flourishing Entrance,
to the Maiestie of England, by the most potent
and prudent Soueraigne, lames king of Eng- 4
land, France and Ireland.
Collin.^r^fjenot and Chloris, red lipt Driope,
JL Shepheards, Nymphs, Swaines, al that delight in field, Liuing by harmelefle thrift your fat heards yeelde, 8
Why flacke yee now your loued company ?
Vp fluggards, learne, the larke doth, mounted, fing
His cheerefull Carrolls, to falute our King.
The Mauis, blacke-bird, and the little Wren, I2
The Nightingale vpon the hawthorne brire, And all the wingd Mufitions in a Quire, Do with their notes rebuke dull lazie men.
Vp flieperds, vp ; your floth breeds al your fliames 16
You fleep like beafts, while birds falute K. lames. The gray eyde morning with a bluftring cheeke, Like Englands royall Rofe mixt red and white,
Summons all eies to pleafure and delight. 20
Behold the euenings deaws doe vpward reeke,
Drawn by the Sun, which now doth gild the skie,
With his light-gluing and world-cheering eie.
O thats well done ; I fee your caufe of ftay 24
Was to adorne your temples with frefh flowers, And gather beautie to bedecke your bowers, That they may feeme the Cabinets of Maie :
Honor this time, fweeteft of all fweete Springs, 28
That fo much good, fo many pleafures brings. For now alone the liuery of the earth Giues not life, comfort, to your bleating Lambes,
Nor fills the ftrowting vdders of their dams, 32
It yeeldes another caufe of gleefome mirth,
This ground weares all her beft embrodery,
To entertaine her Soueraignes maieftie.
ALLUSION-BOOKS.
ii4 The Shepheards
And well fhe may, for neuer Englifli ground Bore fuch a Soueraigne as this royall Lord : Looke vpon all Antiquities Record] 4 In no Inrollment fuch a King is found.
Beginne with Brute, (if that of Brute be true,) As I'le not doubt, but giue old Bards their due. He was a Prince vnfetled, fought a Shore 8 To reft his long-tofll Troyan fcattred Race : And (as tis fed) found here a refting place : Grant this : but yeeld, he did falfe gods adore.
The Nations were not calld to Chrift that time, 1 2 Blacke Pagan clouds darkned this goodly Clime. So, when diflention brought the Romans in, No Ccefar till the godly Conftantine, (Defcended truely from the Brittifh line) 1 6 Purgde this lies aire from Idoll-hated finnej Yet he in care of Rome left Deputies. Our lames maintaines (himfelfe,) his dignities. The Saxon, &: the Dane, fcourgd with iharp fteele, 20 (So did the Norman Duke) this beauteous Land, Inuading Lords raigne with an yron hand : A gentler ruling in this Change we feele, Our Lion comes as meekely as a Doue, 24 Not conq'ring vs by hurt, but harty loue. Euen as a calme to tempeft tofled men, As bread to the faint foule with famine vext j As a coole Spring to thofe with heate perplext, 28 As the Sunnes light into a fearefull denne,
So comes our King : euen in a time of neede, To faue, to mine, to comforte and to feede. O Shepheards, fing his welcome with fweete notes, 32 Nymphs, ftrew his way with Rofes Red and White, Prouide all paftimes that may fenfe delight, Offer the fleeces of your flockes white cotes : He that now fpares, doth in that fauing, fpillj Where Worth is little, Vertue likes good will.
Spring-Song. 115
Now from the Orchades to the Cornifh lies,
From thence to Cambria, and the Hyberian more,
The found of Ciuill warre is heard no more ;
Each Countenance is garniftied with fmiles, 4
All in one hymne with fweet contentment fing,
The praife and power of lames their onely King. Our onely King, one He, one Soueraignej
O long-defired, and perfected good ! 8
By him the heate of wrath, and boyling blood, Is mildely quencht j and Enuie counted vaine :
One King, one people, blefled vnitie,
That ties fuch mightie Nations to agree. 12
Shepheardes, He not be tedious in my Song ; For that I fee you bent to a6tiue fport ; Though I perfwade me all time is too fliort To welcome him, whome we haue wilht for long. 16
Well done, dance on j looke how our little lambs,
Skippe as you fpring, about their fleecie dams. Thus were yee wont to trip about the Greene,
And dance in ringlets, like to Fairie Elues, 20
Striuing in cunning to exceede your felues, In honour of your late falne fummer Queene :
But now exceede ; this Maie excelles all Springs,
Which King & Queene, and Prince & Princeile brings. 24
Showt ioyfully, ye Nymphs, and rurall Swaines, Your maifter Pan will now prote6t your foldes, Your Cottages will be as fafe as Holdes, Feare neither Wolues nor fubtill Foxes traines, 28
A Royall King will of your weale take keepe,
Hee'le be your Shepheard, you fhalbe his meepe. He comes in pompej fo mould a King appearej
Gods Deputie mould fet the world at gaze j 32
Yet his milde lookes driue vs from all amaze ; Clap hands for ioy, our Soueraigne draweth neere j
Sing Id, 16, fhepheards, dance and fing,
Expreffe all ioy, in welcoming our King. 36
n6
The Skepheards Spring-Song.
The aire, the feafon, and the Earth accord In Pleafure, Order, both for fight and fenfe : All things looke frefh to greet his Excellence, 4 And Collin humbly thus falutes his Lord :
Drad and beloude, liue Englands happy King, While feafons laft, freih as the liuely fpring.
FINIS.
A MOURNEFULL DITTIE
entituled
Elizabeths Losse
together with
A Welcome for King James (A.D. 1603)
[Reprinted from the unique original in the Heber Collection of Ballads and Broadsides in the possession of S. Christie-Miller, Esq., of Britwell House, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, to whose kindness the Society is indebted for a transcript of the Ballad, and the collation of the proof with the original.]
n8
A mournefull Dittie, entituled Elizabeths losse, together with a welcome for King lames.
To a pleasant new tune.
4 Farewell, farewell, farewell,
braue Englands ioy : Gone is thy friend
that kept thee from annoy. 8 Lament, lament, lament
you English Peeres, Lament your losse
possest so many yeeres.
1 2 Gone is thy Queene, the
paragon of time, On whom grim death
hath spred his fatall line. 1 6 Lament, lament, &c.
Gone is that gem which
God and man did loue, She hath vs left
20 to dwell in heauen aboue. Lament, lament, &c.
You gallant Ladies
of her Princely traine, 24 Lament your losse
your loue, your hope, and gaine. Lament, lament, &c.
Weepe wring your hands, 28 all clad in mourning weeds,
Shew foorth your loue,
in tongue in hart and deeds. Lament, lament, &c.
Full foure and fortie yeeres foure moneths seauen dayes,
She did maintaine this realme in peace alwayes.
Lament, lament, &c.
In spite of Spaines proud Pope,
and all the rout, Who Lyon like ran
ranging round about. Lament, lament, &c.
With traiterous plots to stay
her Royall grace, Her realme, her lawes
and Gospell to deface, Lament, lament, &c.
Yet time and tide God still
was her defence, Till for himselfe from vs
hee tooke her hence Lament, lament, &c.
We neede net to rehearse what care what griefe,
A Mournefull Dittie.
119
She still endured,
and all for our reliefe. Lament, lament, &c.
We neede not to rehearse
what benefits, You all inioyd, what pleasures
and what gifts.
Lament, lament, &c.
You Virgins all bewayle your Virgin Queene,
That Phoenix rare,
on earth but sildome scene. Lament, lament, &c.
With Angels wings she pearst
the starrie skie, When death, grim death,
hath shut her mortall eye. Lament, lament, &c.
Mourne Trumpets shrill,
mourne Cornets mute & round. Lament, lament, &c.
You Poets all braue Shakspeare, 4
Johnson, Greene, Bestow your time to write
for Englands Queene.
Lament, lament, &c 8
Returne your songs and Sonnets
and your sayes : To set foorth sweete
Elizabeths praise. 12
Lament, lament, &c.
In fine all you
that loyall harts possesse, With Roses sweete,
bedeck hir Princely hearse. Lament, lament, &c.
16
You Nimphs that sing and bathe, Bedeck that hearse
in Fountaines cleere : Come lend your helpe to sing in mournefull cheere. Lament, lament, &c.
All you that doe professe
Sweet musicks Art, Lay all aside, your Vyoll
Lute and Harpe,
Lament, lament, &c.
sprong from that famous King, 2O King Henrie the eight,
whose fame on earth doth ring. Lament, lament, £c.
Now is the time that we
must all forget, Thy sacred name
oh sweet Elizabeth. Lament, lament, &c.
24
Mourne Organs, Flutes, Praying for King lames,
Mourne Sagbuts with sad soud: as earst we prayed for thee,
I2O
A Mounicfull Ditlie.
In all submissiue lone and loyaltie.
Lament, lament, &c.
4 Beseeching God to blesse
his Maiestie with earthly peace and heauens felicitie. Lament, lament, &c.
And make his raigne
more prosperous here on earth
Then was the raigne of late E/ii-dl'cth. Lament, lament, &c.
Wherefore all you
that subiects true beare names Still pray with me, and say God saue King lames. Lament, lament, lament,
you English Pceres, Lament your losse enioyd So many yeeres.
FINIS.
Imprinted at London for T. P.
12,1
I. C.'s 1 2th Epigram, from
"EPIGRAMES
Serued out in <J2. feuerall Dijhes for euery man to
taft without fur feting.
Modicum non nocet.
By 7. C. Gent.
LONDON
Printed by G. Elde, for W. C. and are
to be folde at his Shop neere vnto Ludgate."
[Bodleian Press-mark, Malone 373.]
[Sign. B.] Epigrames.
12
WHo er'e will go vnto the prelfe may fee The hated Fathers of vilde balladrie : 4 One fings in his bale note the Riuer Thames
Shal found the famous memory of noble king lames ; Another fayes that he will, to his death, Sing the renowned worthinefle of Tweet Elizaleth ; 8 So runnes their verfe in fuch difordered ftraine, And-with them dare great maiefty prophane, Some dare do this ; fome other humbly craucs For helpe of fpirits in their fleeping graues, 12 As he that calde to Shakefpeare, lohnfon, Greene, To write of their dead noble Queene ;
But he that made the Ballads of oh hone,1 •
Did wondrous well to whet the buyer on : 1 6 Thefe fellowes are the flaunderers of the time, Make ryming hatefull through their baftard rime. But were I made a iudge in poetry, They all mould burne for their vilde herefie.
1 Mr W. Chappell believes that the Erse and Gaelic exclamation O hone! was first introduced in English Ballads after the execution of the Earl of Essex. One of the charges against him was that of disloyalty in his administration of Ireland. A contem- porary ballad says,
Would God he ne'er had Ireland known
Nor fet one foot on Flanders ground. (Rox. Bal. I. p. 573, 11. i. 2.) This ballad opens with an appeal to the Irish to join in bewailing his untimely death : All you that cry O hone ! O hone ! Come now and fing O hone / with me.
O hone, Och hone, or Ochone, i. e. alas ! is still sung to music by the Irish and the Scotch. One of Wilson's most effective songs was the dirge on the Glencoe massacre, called Ochone Ochri Oh ! Another ballad with the burden O Hone was printed by Mr W. Chappell in his Popular Music, vol. i. p. 370. Its date is 1670 — 1680. Franklin, my loyal friend, O hone, O hone ! In whom my joys do end, O hone, O hone 1 Franklin, my heart's delight, Since last he took his flight, Bids now the world good-night,
O hone, O hone !
The title of the original ballad is, says Mr Chappell, " A mournful Caral : Or an Elegy lamenting the tragical ends of two unfortunate faithful Lovers, Franklin and Cordelia : he being slain, she slew herself with her dagger. To a new tune called Franklin is fled away." Black-letter. Printed for M. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, }. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger. Six stanzas in the first, and 8 in the second part. Copies of this ballad are in the Pepys Collection, ii. 76 ; the Rox- burghe, ii. 348 ; the Bagford, 643, m. 10, p. 69 ; and the Douce, fol. 222. As E. Elde printed Palladis Palalium in 1604, Ben Jonson's Sejanus in 1605, and many other books up to 1622, the date of I. C.'s Epigram maybe any time within that period : but on internal evidence we should place it very early.
123
Gabriel Harvey's Third Letter,
from
and certaine Sonnets :
Efpedally touching Robert Greene, and other parties,
by him alufed : But incidently of diverfe excellent perfons,
and feme matters of note, To all courteous mindes, that will voutchfqfe the reading.
LONDON
Imprinted by lohn Wolfe 1592."
124 GABRIEL HARVE\''s THIRD LETTER, 1592.
(pages. 1.5—50.)
The Third Letter. To euery Reader, fauourablie, or indifferently affected.
ILbeit for thefe tuelue, or thirteene yeares, no man hath beene more loth, or more fcrupulous, then myfelfe, to vnderlie the cenfure of euery curious conceite, or rigorous Judgement, that pretendeth a deepe infight in the perfections of wits and ftiles, info- much that euen Actions of Silence and Patience haue bene com- 8 menced againft me : and although I ftil dwel in the fame opinion, that nothing would be committed to a publike view, that is not exactly laboured both for matter and maner : and that importeth not fome notable vfe, to one, or other effec[t]uall purpofe : Yet partlie the 12 vehemente importunity of fome affectionate friends, and partly mine owne tender regard of my fathers, and my brothers good reputation, haue fo forcibly ouer-ruled me, that I haue finally condefcended to their paffionate motion : and in an extraordinarie cafe, haue refpect- 16 iuely yeelded my confent to an extraordinary courfe. Which I would vnpartially commend to the reafonable allowance of euery indiferent perufer that carrieth Courtefie in his Tongue, or honefty in his Hart. For mine own iniury, the more I confider, the lefle I eflimate the 20 fame: as one born to fuffer, & made to contemne iniuries. He that in his youth flattered not himfelfe with the exceeding commendations of fome greateft fchollers in the worlde : cannot at thefe yeares, either be difcouraged with mifreporte, or daunted with misfortune. A pre- 24 meditate, & refolute minde lightly fhaketh off the heauieft crofles of malice, and eafely pafleth ouer a thoufande grieuances with a fmjle. Some haue learned of Reafon, fome of Philofophy, fome of Hiflory, fome of Diuinitie, fome of Experience, fome of all, to endure patiently, 28 whatfoeuer befalleth, & euen to make the cruelleft paine pleafant, as fome make the fweteft pleafure painefull. I had rather name Titius,
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592. 125
or Sempronius, then my felfe : But the vrgent entreaty of friends, and your eager expectation haue fuddainely obtained that, which no perfonall empeachment, or real enforcement could in many yeres extort. Howbeit I mall hardly content them, to fatisfy you : that 4 am neither to offend any, but in cafe of notoriety : nor to defend my felfe, but in cafe of neceflity, or honefty. If anie haue charged mee, or do charge mee with infufficiency, I confefTe : perfection is no com- mon gifte : if with ignorance, I graunt : many feeme, fewe are, 8 learned : if with limplicity, I yeeld : wondrous wittes are rare birdes : if with ill-lucke, I deny not : good lucke is not euerie mans lotte : yet who euer hearde me complaine of ill-lucke, or once fay, Fortune my Foe ? But in the plainneile of my nature, and fimplicitie 12 of my Arte, I can eafely defie the proudeft, that dareth cal my credite in queftion : or accufe me of any difhonelt, or fcandelous parte, either in deede, or in word. Many thinges are made offenfiue in the hand- ling, that are tollerable inough in their owne nature: or fie on an 16 odious circumftaunce, where the fubftance it felfe might be more gratious. Letters may bee priuately written, that would not bee pub- likely diuulged : I was then yong in years, frefh in courage, greene in experience, and as the manner is, fomewhat ouerweeninge in con- 20 ceit : and for varietie of ftudy, and fome deeper intelligence in the affayres of the worlde, otherwhiles reading inuecYiues, and Satyres, artificially amplifyed in the moft exaggerate and hyperbolicall kinde, I coulde hardlye refraine from difcoueringe fome little part of my read- 24 ing : I had curioufly laboured fome exa6t, and exquifite poyntes of ftudie and pra6tife, and greatly mifliked the prepofterous and vntoward courfes of diuers good wits, ill directed ; there wanted not fome lharpe vndeferued difcourtefies to exafperate my mind : mall I touch the 28 vlcer ? it is no fuch myfterye, but it may be reuealed : I was fuppofed not vnmeet for the Oratormip of the vniuerfity, which in that fpringe of mine age, for my Exercife, and credite, I earneilly afte&ed : but mine owne modeft petition, my friendes diligent labour, our high 32 Chauncelors moft-honourable and extraordinarye commendation, were all peltingly defeated, by a flye praftife of the olde Fox : whole a£ts, and monumentes lhal neuer dye : fome like accidents of diflike, for breuity I ouerflip : young bloud is hot : youth hafty : ingenuity open : 36
126 GABRIEL HAKVEY's THIRD LETTER, 1592.
abufe impatiente : choler ftomachous : temptations bufie : the In- uectiue vaine, a fturring, and tickeling vaine : the Satyricall humour, a purfinge, and fwellinge humor : Conceit penneth, lei lure perufeth, 4 and Curtefy commendeth many needlefle difcourfes : Idlenefle, the greateft Author and variableft Reader in the world : fome familiar friendes pricked me forward : and I, neither fearing daunger, nor fufpe&ing ill meafure, (poore credulitie fone beguiled) was not 8 vnwilling to content them, to delight a few other and to auenge, or fatisfie my felfe, after the manner of fhrewes, that cannot otherwife eafe their curil hearts, but by their owne tongues, & their neigh- bours eares. Signer Immerito (for that name will be remembred)
12 was then, and is ftill, my affectionate friend, one that could very wel abide Gafcoignes Steele glafle, and that ftoode equallie indifferent to either part of the ftate Demo[n]ftratiue : many communications and writings may fecretlie pafle betweene fuch, euen for an exercife of
1 6 fpeech and ftile, that are not otherwife conuenient to be difclofed : it was the finifter hap of thofe infortunate Letters, to fall into the left handes of malicious enemies, or vndifcreete friends : who aduentured to imprint in earneft, that was fcribled in ieft, (for the moody fit was
20 foone ouer :) and requited their priuate pleafure with my publike dif- pleafure : oh my ineftimable, and infinite difpleafure. When there was no remedie, but melancholy patience : and the fharpeft parte of thofe vnlucky Letters had bene ouer read at the Councell Table : I
24 was aduifed by certaine honourable, and diuers worfhipfull perfons, to interpreate my intention in more expreffe termes : and thereupon difcourfed euerie particularitie, by way of Articles or Pofitions, in a large Apology of my duetiful, and entier affection to that flourifhing
28 Vniuerfitie, my deere Mother : which Apology, with not fo few as forty fuch Academicall Exercifes, and fundry other politique Dif- courfes, I haue hitherto fuppreffed, as vnworthie the view of the bufie world, or the entertainement of precious Time : but perad-
32 uenture thefe extraordinarie prouocations may worke extraordinarilie in me ; and though not in paflion, yet in conceit, fturre me vp, to publilh many Trai&es, and Difcourfes, that in certaine confiderations I meant euer to conceale, and to Dedicate vnto. none, but vnto
36 obfcure Darkeneffe, or Famous Vulcane. It were pittie, but won-
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1,592. 127
derous wits (giue enemies their due) llioulde become more woonder- ous by companion, conference maketh excellent things appeare more admirablie : & I am fo far from being a Saturnift by nature, or a Stoick by difcipline, that I can eafily frame a certaine pleafurable 4 delight vnto my felfe, by miniftring fome matter vnto them, that now are faine to make fome thing of nothing : and wittily to plaie with their own lhadowes. It goeth fomewhat hard in my harm Legend, when the father of Muficke muft be mocked, not Tubulcain, as he 8 miftearmeth him, but Tuball, whom Genefis voutfafeth honourable mention : and the Hexameter verfe flouted : whereof neither Homer in Greeke, nor Virgill in Latine, (how valorous Autors ?) nor Alex- ander in conqueft, nor Auguftus in maiefty (how puiflaunt Princes?) 12 were alhamed : but accompted it the onely gallant trompet of braue, and Heroicall A6ts ; and I wis, the Englifh is nothing too-good to imitat the Greeke, or Latine, or other eloquent Languages, that honour the Hexameter, as the foueraigne of verfes, and the high 16 Controwler of Rimes. If I neuer deferue anye better remembraunce, let mee rather be Epitaphed, The Inuentour of the Engliih Hexa- meter : whome learned M. Stanihurft imitated in his Virgill, and excellent Sir Phillip Sidney difdained not to follow in his Arcadia, & 20 elfewhere, then be chronicled, The greene maifter of the Blacke Arte : or the founder of vgly oathes : or the father of misbegotten Infortunatus : or the Scriuener of Crofbiters : or as one of his owne feclaries termed him, the Patriarch of Ihifters. Happy man I, if thefe 24 two be my hainoufefl crimes, and deadlier! linnes, To bee the Inuentour of the Engliih Hexameter, and to bee orderlie clapt in the Fleete for the forefaide Letters : where he that fawe me, fawe mee at Conllan- tinople. Indeede Sir lames Croft (whome I neuer touched with 28 the leaft tittle of detractions) was cunningly incenfed, and reincenfed againft mee : but at laft pacified by the voluntarie mediation of my honourable fauourers, M. Secretary Wilfon, and Sir Walter Mildmay r vnrequefted by any line of my hand, or any woord of my mouth. 32 Neither did I otherwife follicite, or intreate Sir lames, till I had allured notice of his better fatisfadion : when I writte vnto him, as became mee, in refpecliue, and duetifull forte : not for feare of any daunger, but for loue of honourable fauour. Which Letters, albeit 36
128 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1^92.
not fo ceremoniouflie pleafing, as effe&ually contenting, the wife knight not onely receiued courteoufly, but accepted fauourablie, and commended honourablye : and for my felfe, earneftly affirmed, I was 4 firft wronged by other, and then miftaken by him : but now found another man, then I was fuppofed. As for my olde Controwler, Do&or Perne (for he indeed was the man, that otherwhiles flattered me exceedingly, otherwhiles ouerthwarted me crofly, alvvaies plaied 8 fart, and loofe with me) he was old enough, to aunfweare for him- felfe, and mould not bee defended by him. Onely he wifhed me to proceede louingly with the Vniuerfity, howfoeuer I dealt with that Do6tor. And that was all the Fleeting, that euer I felt : fauing that
12 an other company of fpeciall good fellowes, (whereof he was none of the meaneft, that brauely threatned to coniure-vpp one, which fhould mafTacre Martins witt, or fhould bee lambackd himfelf with ten yeares prouifion) would needs forlboth verye courtly perfwade the
1 6 Earle of Oxforde, that fome thing in thofe Letters, and namely the Mirrour of Tufcanifmo, was palpably intended againft him : whofe noble Lordefhip I proteft, I neuer meante to difhonour with the leaft prejudicial word of my Tongue, or pen : but euer kept a mindefull
20 reckoning of many bounden duties toward The-fame : fince in the prime of his galla«tefl youth, hee beflowed Angels vpon mee in Chriiles Colledge in Cambridge, and otherwife voutfafed me many gratious fauours at the affeftionate commendation of my Cofen, M.
24 Thomas Smith, the fonne of Sir Thomas, fhortly after Colonel of the Ardes in Ireland. But the noble Earle, not difpofed to trouble his louiall mind with fuch Saturnine paltery, ftil continued, like his magnificent felfe : and that Fleeting alfo proued, like the other : a filly
28 bullbeare, a forry puffe of winde, a thing of nothing. But a ftrong imagination pierceth deepely : and the Paper Fleete will not bee fo aunfwered. lefu, what would fuch notable fellowes write, or rather would they not write, if they could probably fay, or fantaflically
32 furmize by me, as I can euidently proue by them ? But I feeke not the condemnation of the deade, or the difgrace of the liuing : but the good amendement of the one, by the naughty example of the other. And for mine own farther iuftification in the premifles, or otherwife :
36 I had rather my larger writings and other aftions fhould plead for
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592. 129
mee, than this, or any ilighte Letter : wherein I am not to infourme pregnant conceits, that may imagine more by a little : or to addrefle any peece of mine own hiftory, though wifer men in cafe of vn- worthy reproch, haue not made nice to vndertake their owne 4 defence, and euen to labour their owne commendation. The plau- lible Examples of Tully, Cato, Marius, Scipio, diuers fuch vertuous Romanes, and fundry excellent Greekes, are famoufly knowen : but not greatly fit for euery mannes imitation. Were other of my difpo- 8 fition, fmall time Ihould be loft in auenging, or debating verball iniuries, efpecially to my felfe : who can verie well fuffer poore fpite, to fhoote at mee, and to hitte himfelfe : and fometime fmile at the filly flie, that will needs martyr it felfe in my candle. But me thinkes, 12 the wildeft head, and defperateft mind mould confider : they that fpeake il muft not looke to heare well : the worlde is not giuen to pocket vp infamies : who cannot returne-home a Quippe, or requite one libell with an other ? nothing more common in bookes, or more 16 readye in mouthes, than the Inue&iue vaine, and the whole Arte of railing : fome fchollers haue choyce of nimble pennes, & fmooth tongues at commandement : & there was a time, when paraduenture I coulde fpeake with them, that talked we me. Though the cafe be 20 altered : and I now, none of the haftieft to ftriue for thofe bucklers : yet a general, a fpecial, a glowing, a piercing indignitie may rekindle fome little fparkes of courage, and affedion wil be affedion, though not in proper reuenge, yet the common duetie, I am not to difpute 24 the nature of Force, or the force of nature, who knoweth not, how violentlie force prouoketh force : or how mightilie nature worketh in compatible natures ? But how far publike obiediows, or famous imputations require publike aunfwers : or how infufficient the formal- 28 left ludiciall remedie in any one Court, may feeme, in cafe of a printed diffamation, that with the winges of Mallice in fome, of Enuie in more, and of Leuity in moft, flieth through the Realme, and ouer the Sea : bee it indifferentlie decided by euerie difcreete 32 judgement, or reafonable conlideration. Efpecially when the guiltie part is deceafed : and the iniury not the leffe, but the more notorious. The beft is, the perfons abufed, are not altogether vnknowen, they haue not fo euell a neighbour, that euer reade, or hearde thofe oppro- 36
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 9
130 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
brious villanies (it is too-mild a name, for my brother Richardes moft abhominable Legend, who frameth himfelfe to liue as chaftely, as the leawde writer affected to liue beaftly) but hath prefentlie broken out 4 into fome fuch earneft, or more pafiionate fpeeches : 6 peflilent knauery, who euer heard fuch arrant forgeries, and rauke lies ? A mad world, where fuch fhameful fluffe is bought, and fould : and where fuch roifterly Varlets may be fuffered to play vpon whome 8 they luft, and how they lull : Is this Greene with the running Head, and the fcribling Hand, that neuer linnes putting-forth new, newer, & neweft bookes of the maker ? If his other bookes bee as bolefome geere, as this, no maruaile, though the gay-man conceiue trim lie of
12 himfelfe, and ftatelye fcorne all befide. Green, vile Greene, would thou weareft halfe fo honeft, as the worft of the foure, whom thou vpbraideft : or halfe fo learned, as the vnlearnedil of the three. Thanke other for thy borrowed & filched plumes of fome little
16 Italianated brauery : & what remaineth, but flat Impudencie, and grofle Detraction : the proper ornaments of thy fweete vtterance ? I alleadge not mine owne inuentions, (who cannot forget the two Athenian Temples of Impudencie, and Calumnie, when I remember
20 him:) I could nominate the Gentlemen, and fubftantiall Yeoman, Gentlemens fellowes, that vttered much more by his life, and can hardlie forbeare him fince his death : and who of acquaintance with him, or them, whome hee depraueth, could either partiallie excufe the one,
24 or reafonablie accufe the other? Their liues effectually fpeake for themfelues : and he that liued not, to fee nine and twentie yeares, died not, till the Vniuerfitie of Cambridge had beftowed vpora him a grace to bee a Do6tor of his facultie, and till hee was reputed in
28 Northfolke, where he pra6tifed phificke, a proper toward man, and as skilfull a Phifition for his age, as euer came there : how well beloued of the chiefeft Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen in that Shire, them- felues teftifie. That is gone to Heauen, cannot bee recouered on
32 Earth : it is our comfort, that he liued in good credite, and died in good minde. I muft euer remember fome of his notable fayings (for in deede fo they were) : and can neuer forget that fweete voice of the dying Cignet ; 6 frater, Chrijlus ejl optimus Medicus, & meus
36 folus Medicus. Vale Galene, valete humance Artes : niliil diuinum in
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592. 131
terris, prceter animurn afpirantem ad ccelos. That bell and his onelie Phifition knoweth, what ipiritual phificke I commended vnto him, when I beheld in his meager and ghaftly countenance, that I cannot rehearfe without fome fit of companion. Wee mufl in order follow 4 him, that fhoulde in nature haue gone before him, and I know not by what deftinie, hee followed him firft, that foled him laft. How he departed, his ghoftly mother Ifarn, can trulieft, and will fauourab- lieft report : how he liued, London remembreth. Oh, what a 8 liuelie picture of Vanity ? but oh what a deadlie Image of miferie ? And oh what a terrible Caueat for fuch & fuch ? I am not to exten- uate or preiudice his wit, which could not any way be great, though fom way not the leaft of our vulgar writers & mani-waies very 12 vngracious : but who euer eftemed him either wife, or learned, or honeft, or anyway credible? how many Gentlemen, and other fay of him ? Let the paltry fellow go : Lord, what a lewde Companion was hee? What an egregious makelhift, Where fhould Conny- 16 catchers haue gotten fuch a Secretarie : How ihal cofenage do for a new Regifter : or Phantafticallitye for a new Autor ? They wronge him much with their Epitaphes, and other folemne deuifes, that entitle him not at the leaft, The fecond Toy of London ; the Stale of 20 Poules, the Ape of Euphues, the Vice of the Stage, the mocker of the fimple world : the flowter of his friendes, the Foe of himfelfe : and fo foorth. What durft not hee vtter with his tongue: or diuulge with his Penne : or countenance with his face ? Or whome cared 24 hee for, but a carelefle crewe of his own aflbciates ? Perufe his famous bookes : and in fteede of, Omne tullt punElum, qui mifcuit vtile dulci (that forfooth was his profefled Poefie) Loe a wilde head, ful of mad braine and a thoufand crochets : a Scholler, a Difcourfer, 28 a Courtier, a ruffian, a Gamefter, a Louer, a Souldier, a Trauailer, Merchaunt, a Broker, an Artificer, a Botcher, a Petti-fogger, a Plaver, a Coofener, a Rayler, a beggar, an Omnigatherum, a Gay-nothing : a Stoarehoufe of bald and baggage ftuffe, vnwoorth the aunfwering, or 32 reading: a Triuiall, and trtobular Autor for knaues, & fooles : an Image of Idlenes : an Epitome of fantafticalitie : a Mirrour of Vanitie : Fanitas Fanitatum, & omnia vanilas. Alafle, that anie ihoulde fay, as I have heard diuers affirme : His witte was nothing, 36
ija GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1^92.
but a minte of knauerie : himfelfe a deuifer of iugling feates : a forger of couetous pra&ifes : an Inuentour of monft ruous oathes ; a derider of all religions : a contemner of God, and man : a defperate Lucian- 4 ill : an abhominable Aretinift : an Arch-Athieft : and he arch-de- ferued to be well hanged feauen yeares agoe. Twenty, and twentie fuch familiar fpeeches I ouer pafle : and bury the whole Legendary of his Life, & Death, in the Sepulchre of eternall Silence. I will not 8 coudemne, or cenfure his workes, which I neuer did fo much as fuperficially ouer-runne, but as fome fewe of them occurfiuly pre- fented themfelues in Stationers {hops, and fome other houfes of my acquaintaunce. But I pray God, they haue not done more harme by
12 corruption of manners, then good by quickening of witte : and I would, fome Buyers had either more Reafon to difcerne, or lefle Appetite to defire fuch Nouels. The world is full iuough of fooleries : though the humor be not feafted with fuch luxurious, and
1 6 riotous Pamphlets. Howe vnlike Tallies fweete Offices : or Ifocrates pithy inftru6tio«s : or Plutarcfies holefome Morrals : or the dilicate Dialogues of Xenophon, and Plato : or the fage Tragedies of Sophocles, and Euripides : or the line Comedies of the dainetieft Atticke wittes,
20 or other excellent monumentes of antiquity, neuer fufficientlie perufed ? Yet the one as ftale, as oldeft fafhions : and what more frefhly current for a while, then the other ? Euen Guicciardines filuer Hiftorie, and Ar'u)Jlos golden Cantoes, grow out of requeft : & the Countefle of
24 Pe/wbrookes Arcadia is not greene inough for queaiie ftomackes, but they muft haue Greenes Arcadia : and I beleeue, mod eagerlie longed for Greenes Faerie Queene. O flraunge fancies : 6 monftrous new- fanglednefle. The wittier fort tafteth, & flieth : as the Dog from
28 Nilus : other wantons find Experience the miilris of fooles : and need no other pennance but their owne repentaunce. The verie Time confuteth Vanitie : and the verie place requireth fobrietie. No publike' fecurity without priuate moderation : and the more bondes of
32 gouernment, the more indefeafible alTiarance. Due Circumfpe6lion may do much good, and an aboundant Cautele can do little hurt. Youth is youth : & age corruptible : better an hundred Guides were banilhed, then the ftate of Auguftus endangered, or a foueraigne Empire
36 infe&ed. Efpecially in a tumultuous age, and in a world of warre :
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, i^P2- 133
\vherin not Bacchus, but Mars : not Venus, but Mercury; not Ryot, but Valour ; not Phanfy, but Pollicy, muft ftrike the ftroke. Gallant Gentlemen, be-thinke your felues of the olde Romane Difcipline, and the newe Spanifti induftry : and I am not to trouble you with any 4 other accufation of them, that condemne themfelues, and neede no other fhame, or punifhment, but their own woorkes. Onely I requeft fome bufy pennes to Hay their wifedomes : and either to publifh a iuftifyable trueth, or to conceale their bad difpofition. "Woe to that 8 ftudy, that mifpendeth pretious Time, and confumeth it felf, in need^ lelfe, and bootleffe quarrels. Companions, they fay, are odious : but Inue&iues more odious : & what fo abhominable, as forged & fuborned calumnies? One, or two miferable examples may ftand for 12 an hundred : I will not aggrauate or difcourfe particulars : A pitiful cafe, that fuch lufty beginninges fhould haue fuch forry ends : and who can tell, what dowty yoonker may next gnafh with his teeth? Terrible Creatures, and the curft Cowe, haue fometime ihort homes. 16 The wildefl Colte is foone tamed : and be like neither Death, nor Shame, nor Mifery are atfraid of them, that vaunt themfelues, Like vnto Death, and Will Sommer, in fparing none. God helpe, and Charity pittie them, that haue neither liability to help, nor witt to pitie 20 themfelues : but will needs try a conclufion betweene their heads, and the next wall. I haue heard of Gyants in conceit, and Pigmeis in performance : yong Phaetons, younge Icary, young Choroebi, and I mall fay young Babingtons, and how many millions of greene 24 youthes, haue in ouermounting, moft ruefully difmounted, and left behinde them fulUamentable Hiftories? For the very mention of fome direfull Tragedies, were horrible, and what fo wretched, as head- long enterprifes : or fo hideous, as the defperate attempt of Impoffi- 28 bilities ? Philoftratus in his Icones, pleafurably reporteth, according to to the tradition of Greeke Poets, how on a time, A refolute bande of dowty Pigmies, triumphantly marched to inuade Hercules afleepe. Woe to fuch braue aduentures. JEfops Toade, A proud afpiring 32 Creature, fhamefullie ouermatched her fwelling, and burften felfe. Great, and fmall things may in fome proportion be compared together j and beholde as miferable a fpe&acle, in their kinde. Flouriftiing M. Greene is moft-wofully faded, and whileft I am bemoaning his ouer- 36
134 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
pittious decay ; & difcourfing the vfuall fuccefie of fuch ranke wittes, Loe, all on the fuddaine, his fworne brother, M. Pierce Penni-lcjfc, (ftill more paltery, but what remedy ? we are already ouer fhoes and 4 muft now goe through) Loe his inwardeft companion, that tailed of the fatall herringe, cruelly pinched with want, vexed with difcredite, tormented with other mens felicitie, and ouerwhelmed with his owne mifcryj in a raving, and franticke moode, moft defperately exhibiteth 8 his fupplication to the Diuell. A ftrange title, an od wit, and a mad hoorefon, I warrant him : doubtles it wil proue fome dainty deuife, queintly contriued by way of humble Supplication To the high and mighty Prince of Darkenefle : not Dunfically botched-vp, but right-
12 formally co/meied, according to the ftile, and tenour of Tarletons pre- fident, his famous play of the feauen Deadly finnes : which moft- dea[d]ly, but moft liuely playe, I might haue feene in London: and was verie gently inuited thereunto at Oxford, by Tarleton himfelfe, of
1 6 whome I merrily demaunding, which of the feauen, was his owne deadlie linne, he bluntly aunfwered after this manner ; By God, the finne of other Gentlemen, Lechery. Oh but that, M. Tarleton, is not your part vpon the ftage, you are too-blame, that diflemble with the
20 world & haue one part for your frends pleafure, an other for your owne. I am fomewhat of Do£tor Femes religion, quoth he : and abruptlie tooke his leaue. Surely it muft needes bee current in matter, and autentical in forme, that had firft fuch a learned prefideut :
24 and is now pleafantlie interlaced with diuers new-founde phrafes of the Tauerne : and patheticallie iutermixt with fundry dolefull pageantes of his own ruinous & beggerlie experience. For the poore Tennement of his Purfe, (quoth himfelfe, gramercy good Tarleton)
28 hath bene the Diuels Dauncing fchoole, anie time this halfe yeare, and I pray God, (quoth another) the poore Tennement of his Heart, Lath not alfo beene the Diuels Fencing Schoole, twife as long. Par- ticulars, and Circumftances are tedious, efpecially in forrowfull, and
32 forlorne caufes, the fumme of fummes is. He toft his imagination a thoufand waies, and I beleeue, fearched euery corner of his Grammer- fchoole witte, (for his margine is as deepelie learned, as Faujle precor gelida) to fee if he coulde finde anie meanes to relieue his eftate, but
36 all his thoughtes, and marginal notes, conforted to his conclusion.
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, i592- *35
That the worlde was vncharitable, and he ordained to be miferable. It were cruelty, to ad affliclion to afflidio/z : what flintly Heart would not figh or rather melt, to heare the bewailefull moane of that fob- bing, and groaning Mufe, the daughter of moft-pregnant but moft- wretched Niole ?
Why ift damnation, to defpaire, and die, JVhen Life is my true happines difeafe ?
And a little after : 8
Diuines, and dying men may talke of Hell : But in my Heart, her feuerall tormentes dwell.
And fo foorth moft-hideouflie.
For the Text is much more dolefull, then the Gloffe : and who 12 woulde not be moued with more pittifull compunction, to heare the lamentable Farewell.
England adieu, the foile that brought me foorth :
Adieu vnkinde, where Skill is nothing worth : 16
Then to read that profound Quotation,
Heu mihi, quam paucos hcec mea difla mouent ? Which was thought Patheticall out of crie.
Forgiue him God, although he curfe his Birth, 20
Since Miferie hath dawnted all his Mirth.
• Now good fweete Mufe, I befeech thee by thy delicate witte, and by all the queinteft Inuentions of thy deuifeful braine, carl not thy drearie felfe headlong into the horrible Gulph of Defperation : but 24 being a Creature of fo lingular, and wonderfull hope, as thy infpired courage diuinelie fuggefteth, and ftill reare-vp mountaines of higheft Hope : and either gallantlie aduance thy vertuous felf, maugre Fortune: (what impoflible to afpiring induflry?) or mightilie enchant 28 fome magnificent Meccenas, (for thou canft doe it) to honour himfelfe in honouring thee; and to blifle the eies of the gazing worlde, with beholding thofe Miracles, which forne round liberality, and thy fuper-
136 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
thaiikfull minde, would hugelie enable thee to worke. Let it neuer be faid, that the Minion of the Mufes, fhould forfake himfelf, or abandon them, whole very fhadowes he adoreth. A braue Hart, in
4 extreameft diftreffe, neuer languifheth : no fuch affrighting Death, or gnafhing Hell, as the deuouring Abyfle of difpaire. Yet better a man without money, then money without a man : Pennileffe is not his purfe but his minde : not his reuenue, but his refolution : A maw is a
8 man though he haue but a hofe vpon his head : for euerie curie, there is a blelfing; for euerie malady, a remedie ; for euerie winter, a fom- mer : for euerie night a day, a dog hath a day.
No6la plait tola : redeunt fpe£lacula mane.
12 Right magnanimitie neuer droupeth, fweet Mufike requickeneth the heauieft fpirites of dumpilh Melancholy : fine Poetry abhorreth die loathfome, and vgly fhape of forlorne penfiuenes : what gentle minde detefteth not curfed, and damnable defperation ? All abiedt doleful-
16 nes, is woefully bafe, and bafelie woefull. The die, the ball, the fponge, the fiue, the wheele of Fortune, Fortune hirfelfe, a trifle, a ieft, a toy in Philofophy, & diuine refolution. Be a Mulitian, & Poet vnto thy felf, that art both, and a Ringleader of both, vnto
20 other j be a Man, be a Gentleman, be a Philofopher, be a Diuine, be thy relblute felfe 5 not the Slaue of Fortune, that for euery fleabiting crieth out-alas, & for a few hungry meales, like a Greeke Paralite, mifufeth the Tragedy of Hecuba : but the friend of Vertue, that is
24 richeft in pouerty, freeft in bondage, braueft in ieopardie, cheerefulleft in calamitie, be rather wife, and vnfortunate, with the filuer Swanne, then fortunate & vnwife, with the golden Affe : remember thine owne marginal Embleme, For tuna fauetfatuis. Oh, folace thy miraculous
28 felfe, and cheere the Mufes in cheering thy daintie foule, fweetelie drunken with their delitious Helicon, and the reftoratiue Ne6tar of the Gods. What can I fay more ? That cordial liquor, and that heauenly reftoratiue, bee thy foueraigne comfort : and fcorne the
32 bafenes of euerie crafed, or fainting thought, that may argue a de- generate minde. And fo much briefly touching thy deere felfe : whome I hope neuer to finde fo pathetically diftrelfed, or fo Tragically difguifed againe.
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592. 137
Now a word, or two concerning him, who in charitie kifleth thy hand, and in pitie wifheth thee better lucke. May it pleafe gentle Pierce, in the diuine fury of his rauifhed fpirite, to be graciouflie good vnto his poore friendes, who would be fomewhat loath, to be filly 4 flieepe for the wolfe, or other fheepe-biter : I dare vndertake, the abufed Autor of the Aftrologicall difcourfe, (euerie page thereof, vnder correction of infpired and fupernaturall conceits, difcouereth more Arte, and Judgement, then the whole Supplication of the Parturient 8 Mountaine) notwithftanding the notorious Diabolicall difcourfe of ihe faide Pierce, a man better acquainted with the Diuels of Hell, then with the Starres of Heauen : (hall vnfainedly pray for him : and onely pray him to report the knowen truth, of his approoued learning, & *2 liuing, without fauor. Otherwife, it were not greatlie amilfe, a little to confider, that he, which in the rufte of his fremefl ioility, was faine to cry, M. Churchyard, a mercy in printe, may be orderlie driuen to crie more peccauies, then one. I would thinke the Counter, M. 16 Churchyard, his hoftifle Penia, and fuch other fenfible Leilbns, might fufficientlie haue taught him, that Pennileffe is not Lawlefie: and that a Poets or Painters Licence, is a poore fecurity, to priuiledge debt, or diffamacion. I woulde wifh the burned child not to forget 20 the hot Element : and would aduife ouer-weening youthes, to remem- ber themfelues, and the good auncient oracle of fage Apollo. There is a certaine thing, called Modeftie, if they could light vpon it : and by my younge Mafters leaue, fome pritty fmacke of difcretion would 24 relim well. The Athenians were noted for lauifh amplifieng, the Cretenfians for craftie lying, the ThefTalians for fubtle cogging : the Carthaginians for deceitfull perfidie : HannilaU, Fabius, Agatkocles, Iphicrates, Vliffes, and a thoufand fuch, for counterfeit pollicie, but 28 all their forgeries were feafoned with the fait of probabilitie, & onelie vfed at occafions of aduantage : and although the Grecians generalise were ouer-lightheaded, and vaine-fpoken, yet their leuitie fauored of elegant wittinelfe, and the flying birde carried meate in the mouth. 32 Euen Lucians true Tales are fpiced with conceite: and neither his, nor Apuleius Alfe, is altogether an Affe. It is a piece of cunning in the moft fabulous Legends, to interlace fome credible narrations, & verie probable occurrences, to countenance and authorize the excefliue 36
138 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
licentioumefle of the reft. Vnreafonable fictions palpably bewray their odious grofneffe : and hee that will be a famous deuifer in folio, muft be content with the reward of a notable Lier, not to be 4 credited, when he auoweth a trueth. The pleafant man talketh of a Batchelors hoode, turned ouer his eares, for abufing of Ariftotle : an imagineth goodlie matters of cafting the Heauens water: of anatom- izing the fkies intrailes : of the vniuerfal adulterie of Planets, of the 8 bawd of thofe celeftial bodies : how Saturne, & Jupiter proued honefter men, then al the world took the;« for : o braue Tarlton thou wert hee, when all is done, had not Aretine bene Aretine, when he was, vndoubtedlie thou hadft beene Aretine, gramercy capricious,
12 and tranfcendent witte, the onelie high Pole Artique, and deepe Minerall of an incowparable ftile. Yet Tarltons lefts not futficient : but Rofcius muft haue his Stale, to make him more admirable : al were nothing, vnlefle Eldertons ale-crammed nofe, had beene con-
16 fumed to nothing, in beare-baiting him, with whole bundels of ballats : that forfooth is not fo good a gentleman, (for euery heire of a Nam is a good gentleman at the leaft as the heard of Thomas Nam, the maifter butler of Pembrooke Hal whofe graue countenance, like
20 Cato able to make him runne out of his wittes for feare, if he looke fternely vpon him, and I wot not what, and what trumperie elfe, as childiih, & garifh ftuffe, as euer came in print, yet what packe of vanity is not in print, I will not cry, Abfurde, Abfurde : as hee madly
24 exclaimeth, Monftrous, Monftrous : But who in that Vniuerfity can deny, but M. Haruey read the publike Philofophie Lecture with fpecial good liking, and many will fay with fingular comme/zdation, when this mightie laming Gentleman (now well read in the late exploites
28 of Vntrufle, and for Tarletons amplifications A per fe A) was not fo much as idoneus auditor ciuilis frientice. What hee is improued fince, excepting his good olde Flores Poetarum, and Tarletons furmounting Rhetorique, with a little Euphuifme, and Greenefle inough, which
32 were all prettily ftale, before he put hand to penne. I report me to the fauourableft opinion of thofe that know his Prefaces, Rimes, and the very Timpanye of his Tarltonizing wit, his Supplication to the Diuell, oh that is the Diuell & al. I am fo farre from doting vppon
36 mine owne, or my Brothers Writinges, in any matter of moment,
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592. 139
that I vfe to cenfure them with a more curious and rigorous Judge- ment, then I examine any thing elfe, wherein my eare is fo loath to flatter me, & my conceit fo affraid to cofen me, that my mind euer remaineth vnfalisfied, & nothing hitherto could fulfill my defire, 4 infatiably couetous to do better. But as thofe perfun&orie Dif- courfes are (which were more haftilie, then fpeedilie published without my priuity) let the belt of them goe for waft paper, & ferue the bafeft (hops, if the worft of them importe not more publike, or 8 priuate vfe, then his gayeft flower, that may thanke Greene, & Tar/Ion for his Garland. Were my brother, not my brother, but fome familiar acquaintance, I might in Trueth, & fhould in Reafon, make other comparifons, with applaufe inough : (for what indifferencie 12 feeth not the differences, or what fo filly, as he could make Pierce, with voice, or pen? notwithftanding thofe Miracles of the white rauen in the cloudes) : But the Vniuerfitie, the Cittie, the whole Realme, all good Learning, & ciuil Gouernement, be their ludge, & 16 my mouth efpecially in this Martinifli and Counter-martinifh age: wherein the Spirit of Contradiction reigneth, and euerie one fuper- aboundeth in his owne humor, euen to the annihilating of any other, without rime, or reafon. Some would bee Mutes, if they might bee 20 fuffered to be, as were meeteft for them, and onelie to dwell in the excellente monuments of diuine wittes whole fweet company they cannot enioy inough, but what is to be done, when vowels are courfed, & Mutes haunted, and that heauenlie conference hellifhlie 24 difturbed, God, or good Order, circumcife the Tongues, and Pennes, that flaunder without caufe, and raile without effect, euen in the fuperlatiue degree of rauing. Aretine, and the Diuels Oratour might very-well bee fpared in Chriftian, or Piliticke Common 28 wealthes : which cannot want contagion inough, though they bee not poyfened with the venemous potions of Inckhorne witches. Fine plefant witt was euer commendable : and iudiciall accufation lawfull : but fie on grofle fcurility, and impudent calumny: that wil rather 32 goe to Hell in ieft, then to heauen in earneft, and feeke not to reforme any vice, to backebite, and depraue euery perfon, that feedeth not their humorous fancy. A vile mind : and what a peftelenter villany? but fome odd wittes forfooth, will needes bee accompted 36
140 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
terrible Bull Beggars, and the onely Killcowes of their age ; for how fliould they otherwife keepe the fimple world in awe : or fcare multitudes of plaine folke, like idiot crowes, and innocent dooues. 4 All the InuecYme, and Satyricall Spirites, are their Familiars : fcoffing, and girding is their daily bread : other profeife other faculties : they profelle the Arte of railing : Noble, Reuerend, or whatfoeuer, al pefants, and clownes : gowty Diuels, and buckram Giants : Midafies, 8 and golden Aifes : Cormorants, and Drones j Dunces, and hypocriticall hoat fpurres j Earth wormes, and Pinchefart Penny-fathers : that feede not their hungry purfes, and eager ftomackes : they haue termes, quoth a maruellous doer, fteeped in Aqua Fortis, and Gunnepouder,
12 that ihal rattle through the ikies, and make Earthquakes in fuch pefauntes eares, as mail dare to fende them awaie with a flea in their eare : (howe might a man purchafe the fight of thofe puifiant and hideous termes ?) they can lam poore flaues, and fpurgall Afles
1 6 mightily ; they can tell parlous Tales of Beares and Foxes, as ihrewdly as mother Hubbard, for her life: they will dominiere in Tauernes, and Stationers {hops, to die for 't : they will be as egregioufly famous, as euer was Heraftratus, or Paufanias, or Kelt, or Scoggin : Agrippa,
20 and Ralelays but Ciphers to them : they haue it onely in them. Would Chrift, they had more difcretion in them, and lefle rancour againft other, that neuer wifhed them the leaft euill, but ftill befeech GOD to encreafe the beft, and to pardon the worft in them. The
24 Quippe knoweth his rewarde, and the Supplication to the Diuell, expreflly dedicated to the Prince of Darkenefie, I comitte to the cen- fure of Wifedome, and luftice, with fauour : onelye requefting that mightie Bombarder of termes, to fpare quiet men that meane him no
28 harme, and to keepe the huge maine mot of his ratling Babies for Buckrame Giants. Alafle, what mould I touch their parents, or twit them by their other friendes : Let it be one of their iolities to offer, & one of our fimplicities to fuffer that iniury : which neither
32 impaireth the reputation of the Father : nor abafeth the credite of the Sonnes : nor argueth any thing, but the impudente defpightfulnefle of the Libeller. Fewe Sonnes haue felinger caufe to loue, or reuerence, or defend their Fathers, then my felfe : but his dealing is fuch, where
36 he tradeth : and his lining fuch where he conuerfeth, that he may
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592- 141
eaiely lliame himfelfe, which goeth-about to fhame him, or vs in him. I will not trouble you with the rehearfall of his inheritance, which I could haue wimed more then it was, yet was it more, by the fauour of that terrible Thunderfmith of termes, the« the inheritances 4 of both their Fathers together. Put cafe, I haue inquired, what fpeciall caufe the Pennilefle Gentleman hath, to bragge of his birth : which giueth the woefull poueretto good leaue, euen with his Stentors voice, & in his ratling terms, to reuiue the pittifull hiuorie of 8 Don Lazarello de Thoemes : to contend with colde, to conuerfe with fcarcitie : to be laid-open to pouertie : to accufe Fortune : to raile on his patrons, to bite his penne, to rend his papers, to rage in all points, like a mad man, to torment himfelfe in that agony a long time; to 12 be miferable, to be vacuus viator : to haue opus and vfus knocking at his doore twenty times a weeke, when he is not within : to feek his dinner in poules with Duke humfrey : to licke dimes, to be a beggar. 16
To ban the Aire, wherein he breathes A ivretch :
to be the Diuels diftrefled Orator, to proclaime his owne defolate and abie& eftat, in thefe & fuch other moft-bafe, and ihamefull complaints, fcarcely befeeming the rafcalleft filer in an Vniuerfity, or 20 the beggarlieft mendicant frier in a country.
Forgiue him God, although he curfe his birth.
I, but who fo exceffiuely thankefull to his other friends ? One kind freend, more worth then two vnfreerrdlie kinfemen. Affeftion will 24 relieue, where nature faileth : he muft needes abound in deuoted and bountifull freendes, that Iheweth himfelfe fo meritorioufly freendlie, and fo vnfpeakeably gratefull.
Ofriendes, nofriend.es that then vngentlie frowne, 28
When changing fortune cajls vs headlong downe.
I had nigh-hand ouer-fkipped the learned allegation in the margine, folemnely auouched with a very-patheticall Pol, Pol me, occidiftis Amid. All which, and moft of the Premifies, I had altogether 32 omitted, but that the two vnmeete Companions, a Lordes heart, and
142 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
a beggars purle muft fomewhat remember themfelucs, or be a little, as it were, pulled by the ragged ileeue. "Young fchollers can tel how Vlylfes handeled Irus, and olde Truants haue not altogether forgot- 4 ten, howe fawfie the Harpies were, till they were interteined accord- ingly. But what though the decayed Gentleman, fo commendeth his owne woormipfull birth, and trufty freendes ? Many noble Houfes haue feene their own mines : and fometime the brothers of 8 the Prodigall Sonne, will not flick to curfe, wher they fhould reuerently blelFe. The Table-fellow of Duke Humfrey, & Tantalus, might learne of him to curie lupiter, and to ban not onely the four Elementes, but alfo the feauen Planets, and euen the twelue honles
1 2 of Heanen. And what though the other forry Magnifico, as very a Bifonian, as he for hys life, would fweare in a brauery, his Father was of foure & twenty religions : and himfelfe a Diuine from his mothers womb : an Image of both Churches, & both Synagogues
1 6 too : a naturall Perne artificially emproued : the thrife-and-thrife- learned fonne, of his foure & twenty times-learned father? So Greene would flourilh. Euery man is to anfwere for hys owne defaultes : my trefpalle is not my fathers, nor my fathers mine : A
20 Gibeline may haue a Guelph to his fonne, as Barthol faith : & hath neuer a Saint had a Reprobate to his father ? are all worthy minds, the iiTties of noble houfes : or all bafe mindes, the ofsprings of rafcall ftockes ? Were it not a felicity, to be the woorft of a thoufande,
24 that being defcended ofmeaneft parentage, haue prooued, as Hiftories teftify, & the world daily confirmeth ? Or might not Greene, and his Complices, haue beene much better, then they were, or are, although their Parentes had beene much worfe, then they were, or are?
28 What faith the afflicled Suppliant himfelfe?
Ah woorth/effe wit, to traine me to this woe : III thriue the Folly, that lewitcKd me fo.
Haue we not a nomber of excellente induftrious men and valorous 32 knights, not greatly beholding vnto Fortune for their progeny ?
Malo pater tibi Jit Therjites, who knoweth not that onely Arte of Heraldry ?
Quam te Therfitoejimilem producat Achilles.
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, i593- 143
The Argument of Nobility, is a gallant, and plaufible argument : but what Common-place fo braue, and honourable, as the Common- place of vertue ? Can any thinge bee obfcure, where defert is famous : or any thing famous, where defert is obfcure ? Gramercy fweete 4 margine, for that notable Poefy : Meritis expendite caujam : in earneft, a lingular Rule of infallible iudgemente : and I imagine, himfelfe deferueth fomethinge, that fpecially alleadgeth Deferte. It is longe, tince I declaimed vpon any Theame : but who would not 8 pleade Vertues caufe, in whatibever fubie&e ? or what honeft Elo- quence is not furnimed with Catilinaries, & Phillippiques againfl Vice? Not the Father, & the Sonne, but Vertue, and Vice, the efficientes of Honour, and Dishonour. He onely bafe, he onely 12 fimple, he onely contemptible, that hath Vice to his father, & Ignor- aunce to his mother : the onely Parentes of rafcality. And may I not truly affirme, that not only Oforius, or Patritius gallantly proue, but all wife Autors ferioufly approue, and euen Vertue, & Skill them- 16 felues, with their owne foueraine mouths honorably profeiTe ? No right fonne, & heire apparant of theirs either vnnoble in himfelfe, or obfcure in the world : or defpifed in the higheft, or vnregarded of the loweft : or difhonorable in his Life, or inglorious after his Death. I 20 fpeake not for any perfon, but for the matter : and cannot eyther condignely praife the valorous feede of the one : or fufficiently bliife the fruitfull wombe of the other. And what fo vngentle in Nature, or fo vnnoble in Fortune, as their Contraries : how barbaroufly 24 oppofed againfl: that diuine race and heauenly generation : that cannot fturre, vnaccompanied with Enuy, and a worlde of moates ? Yet neither the vnhappiefl creature vtterly deuoide of all graces : (I praife fomethinge in Elderton, and Greene :) nor the excellenteft perfonage 28 thoroughly accomplished with all perfections (ah, that Sir Humfrey Gilbert, and Sir Phillip Sidney, hadd bene as caute'lous, as aduen- turous :) nor they, that obie6l, nor we, that anfweare, nor any, but a few fingular men, the Miracles of the world ; either for wit wondrous, 32 or for Art exquifite, or for action admirable, or for integrity notable. I-wis, we little neede, to be charged \vith our fathers offences : it is inaugh for one, yea for the beft one, to carry the burden of his owne tranfgreflions, and errours. Errours are infinite : and follies how 36
144 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
vniuerfally rife, euen of the wifeft forte ? Oh that vertues were as like the ftarres of heauen, or the birds of the Aire, as vices are like the fandes of the Sea, and the Beaftes of the Earth j hce that feeith
4 leafte, feeith much amifle : the fine Difcouerer, and curious Intelli- gencer, goe iuuifible, & ftratagematically difcry many hidden priuities of publique and priuate misgouernment : there is an eie, that pierceth into the fecreteft finnes, and moft infcrutable thoughtes of profoundeft
8 Hypocrify : in whofe pure fight nothing is iuftifiable, but by pardon. Diuinity flyeth highe : and wadeth deepe : But euen in Humanity, & in the view of the world, who liueth inculpable ? or who is not obnoxious to fome criminall, or ciuill actions ? or,
12 Where Jhud I find, that I feeke, A perfon cleere as a Chrijlal. ?
Where man God to man ? where one not DluL to an other, Where that Zeal diuine, whofe heauenly Sun/kin acheerith The dreryejl drouping ; andfellift rancour alayeth f
jg Where thqffame mealting loWels of tender agreement,
That mildly conquer mojl-rowgh, and hideous outrage ? Where Mofes meeknes ? wher Dauids fweetnes Olimp'ujue ? Where that fame gentle kindnes, that bounty renowned,
20 That gratlous fauour, that whilom l-ewtifi'd Honour : That Looue aduanced, that abandoned odious Hatred : That Sirenized Furies : that rocks Adamantine Mollifid : arreared Pillars of Glory triumphant ?
24 And fo foorth : for the verfe is not vnknowen : & runneth in one of thofe vnfatyricall Satyres, which M. Spencer long fince embraced with an ouerloouing Sonnet : A token of his Affe£lion, not a Teftimony of hys ludgement. What mould I labour a needlefle point ? or what
28 ihould I weary you with tedioufnefle, that may much-better beftow your vacant houres ? Enough, to any is inough : to fome, ouer-much. God knoweth, and who knoweth not, how fenfually corrupt fome good fellowes were, and are, that fo fharpely, and bitterly noted, and
32 do note, fo many imaginatiue corruptions in other. Would God, they had bene as quietly difpofed, as their parentes : or as aduifedly ilayed, as fome of their frendes, that wilhed them a milder courfe : & fome of our pens might haue bene employed to better vfe, then this
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592- 145
idle bufinefle, or rather bufy idlenefle. Whereof I defire no other fruite, but fome little contentation of friendes, and fome reafonable mittigation of ill-willers : vnto whofe good I am diligently to addrefle, & euen affectionately to dedicate any my endeuour. If in 4 fome learmes I haue vfed a little plaine dealing, albeit not without refpe&e, (but euery one feeith not into an others confiderations : & diuers Circumftances alter the cafe) I craue pardon for the leaf! ouer- fight : and will be as ready to commend any little good, euen in an 8 aduerfary: as I was vnwillinge, but enforced to touch foome palpable badd : which I would wifh amended, where it may be redrefled : and quite forgotten, where it ought to be buried. My meaning was not, to difpleafure, or difcredite any: but onely to fatisfie the pleafure, 12 and mainetaine the credite of thofe vnto whom I owe many dueties, afwell in fpeciall confideration as in naturall affeclion. Had I not bene more depely ftinged in them, then in my felfe : who haue made Comedies of fuch Tragedies, and with pleafure giuen fuch 16 hoat-fpurres leaue, to run themfelues out of breath : what folio of folly might not for me haue paffed vn touched ? or who for me, might not haue flourimed, or lafhed in Poules Church yarde, Cum gratia & Priuilegio ? It were good, that they, which haue 20 a dexterity in writing trimly vppon euery matter, white, or blacke : mould alfo haue a felicity in fpeaking well vppon euery perfon, that deferueth not ill : efpecially fuch as can fay fomething and thinke more. The terribleft tearmes may be repayed-home with 24 aduauntage : I haue kuowen the raylingeft Sophifter in an Vni- uerfity, fett non plus : and haue feene the mad-brayneft Roifter- doifter in a countrey, dafhte out of countenaunce. There is Logicke inough, to aunfweare Carters Logicke : and playe inough, to tame 28 Horfe-play. Wronged men are feldome tounge-tied : the patienteft Creature wanteth not bloud in his hart, or incke in his penne ; and although his bloud be not wild-fire, yet it is bloud ; that will not be cooled with a Carde, or daunted with bugs-wordes : and although 32 his incke, be not pitch, or poifon, yet it is incke ; that will neither blufhe for fhame, nor waxe pale for feare ; but will holde his owne, when perhaps gayer coullours fhal loofe their coullor ; and Aqua fortis valiantly eate his owne harte. Good fweete Matters, quiet 36
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 10
146 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
your felues : or thincke not much, to beare a little for company, that are fo forward to load other without mercy. No man leather then my felfe, to contend with defperate Malecontentes : or to ouerthwart 4 obftinate Humoriftes : or to encounter Incke-horne Aduentures : nor to quarrell with any forte of wrangling Companions : (fkoldinge is the language of ihrewes : and raylinge the ftile of Rakehells :) or fo much as to call bufy heads, by their vfuall and proper names : (the 8 thinges are paltry : and the very names fauour of rafcallity :) but there is a time, when fuch douty warriours muft be appeafed j & fuch wife men aufweared according to their wifedome. Howbeit, in fauour of a priuate, and publike quietnefle, I will thanke the honeft
12 fellowes the more, they lefle occafion they geue me, to interrupt better exercifes : to trouble the world with triflinge difcourfes vppon pelting matters : to difeafe themfelues : to pleafure none, but the printer, & idle creatures, the onely bufy readers of fuch Nouellets.
1 6 1 would gladly be eipecially beholdinge vnto them for this courtefy : and dare vndertake it mall redounde more to their credite, to approue their delire of reconciliation, by filence : then to continue the opinion of their rooted delpight, by fturring more coales. I hope this winde
20 hath not thaken any fuche corne, but fellow- fchollers, (as Do6tor Caius would fay) and now forfooth fellow-writers, may bee made friendes, with a cup of white wine, and fome little familliar confer- ence, in calme and ciuill termes. I offer them my hande : and
24 requeft their : which I will accept thanckfully, & kiife louinglye : and euer commende the good Nature, that would, and the better Gouernemente, that coulde, mafter Affection with Reafon, and fweeten gall with Humanity. For it is not my energetical! perfuafion,
28 but their owne patheticall motion, that muft doe it : as the enchant- ing Mufe of Orpheus redeemed the ghaftly ghoft of his owne Euridice out of Hell. Such an Experimente of profounde, and diuine Arte, as I woulde compaflionately recommend to euery amiable miude,
32 difguifed with hellilhe paflion : the fouleft deformity of any fayre wit. Otherwife, if it ftande more with their credite, to be reputed willfull, then wife : or if a peruerfe, and froward refolution, be the better pollicy : they are free-men : and haue incke at will, and paper
36 at commaundement : and a number of greedy Eares, that egerly
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, i592> I47
longe, and as it were, daunce attendaunce, to heare thofe dreadfull inuincible termes, fteeped in Aqua fortis, & Gunpowder. The intoxicate fprite of the grifly Euridice (I fpeake to a Poet : and cannot more mildly terme that infernall Fury) may eftfoones 4 returne to her accurfed lodginge, and in fteede of heauenly Orpheus, embrace the hellifh Oratour of the Blacke Prince : whome I will not any way make worfe, but wold wim infinitely better, then he hath made himfelfe. For I thancke God, I am neither fo profanely 8 vncharitable, as to fend him to the Sancebell, to truffe-vp his life with a trice : nor fo abie6tly timorous, as for extreme fearefulnes to wim, with a profefled deuotion : So be it : Pray Penne, Incke, and Paper on their knees, that they may not bee troubled with him any more. Good 12 Lorde, what fantafticall panges are thefe ? who euer endighted in fuch a ftile, but one diuine Aretine in Italy, & two heauenly Tarletons in England : the fole platformers of odd Elocution, and onely fingular- ities of the plaine worlde? Two of them, that fo wantonly played 16 with the higheft and deepeft fubiecles of fpirituall contemplation : Heauen, and Hell, Paradife, and Purgatory : know their locall repofe : and ferioufly admonifh the third, to be aduifed, how he lauifh in fuch dalliance. No variety, or infinity fo infinite, as Inuention : which 20 hath a huge worlde, and a maine Ocean of fcope, to difport, and raunge it felfe, though it arreare not vayne Hyperboles of the reuerende myfleries of God. Good fweete Oratour, be a deuine Poet indeede : and vfe heauenly Eloquence indeede : and employ thy 24 golden talent with amounting vfance indeede : and with heroicall Cantoes honour right Vertue, & braue valour indeede : as noble Sir Philip Sidney, and gentle Maifter Spencer haue done, with immortal! Fame : and I will beftow more complements of rare amplifications 28 vpon thee, then euer any beftowed vppon them : or this Tounge euer affborded : or any Aretinifh mountaine of huge exaggerations can bring- foorth : Right artificiality, (whereat I once aimed to the vtter- moft power of my flender capacity,) is not mad-brained, or ridiculous, 32 or abfurd, or blafphemous, or monftrous : but deepe-conceited, but pleafurable, but delicate, but exquifite, but gratious, but admirable : not according to the fantafticall mould of Aretine, or Rabelays, but according to the fine modell of Orpheus, Homer, Pindarus, & the ex- 36
148 GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, 1592.
cellenteft wittes of Greece, and of the Lande, that flowed with milke, and hony. For what Feftiuall Hymnes, fo diuinely dainty, as the fweete Pfalmes of King Dauid, royally tranflated by Buchanan ? or 4 what fage Gnomes, fo profoundly pithy, as the wife Prouerbes of King Salomon 5 notably alfo tranflated : but how few Buchanans? Such liuely fpringes of ftreaming Eloquence : & fuch right-Olympicall hilles of amountinge witte : I cordially recommend to the deere 8 Louers of the Mules : and namely to the profefled Sonnes of the- fame j Edmond Spencer, Richard Stanihurfi, Abraham France, Thomas Watfon, Samuell Daniel/, Thomas Najli, and the reft : whome I affectionately thancke for their ftudious endeuours, commendably
12 employed in enriching, & polifliing, their natiue Tongue, neuer fo furniihed, or embellilhed, as of-late. For I dare not name the Hon- orabler Sonnes, & Nobler Daughters of the fweeteft, & diuineft Mufes, that euer fang in Englim or other language : for feare of
1.6 fufpition of that, which I abhorre : and their owne moft deleftable, and delicious Exercifes, (the fine handy-worke of excellent Nature, and excellenter Arte combined) fpeake incomparably more, then I am able briefly to infinuate. Gentle mindes, and flourifhing wittes,
20 were infinitely to blame, if they mould not alfo for curious imitation, propofe vnto themfelues fuch faire Types of refined, and engraced Eloquence. The right Noouice of pregnante, and afpiring conceit, wil not ouer-fkippe any precious gemme of Inuention, or any beauti-
24 full floure of Elocution, that may richly adorne, or gallantly bedecke the trimme garland of his budding ftile. I fpeake generally to euery fpringing wit : but more fpecially to a few : and at this inftante fingularly to one : whom I falute with a hundred bleflings : and
28 entreate with as many prayers, to loue them, that loue all good wittes : and hate none, but the Diuell, and his incarnate Impes, notorioufly profefled. I proteft, it was not thy perfon, that I any-way difliked : but thy raih, and defperate proceeding againft thy well-willers :
32 which in fome had bene vnfufferable : in an youth, was more excufable : in a reformed youth is pardonable : and rather matter of concordance, then of aggrieuance. I perfuade my felfe, rather to hope the beft, then to feare the worft : & euer wifh vnto other, as I
36 would wim other, to wifli vnto mee. It is my earneft defire, to
GABRIEL HARVEY'S THIRD LETTER, i^P2- T49
begin, and ende fuch friuolous altercations at once : and were it not more for other, then for my felfe, affuredly I would be the firft, that mould cancell this impertinent Pamflet : and throw the other twoo Letters, with the Sonnets annexed, into the fire. Let them haue 4 their fwinge, that affe6t to be terribly fingular : I defire not to be a blacke Swanne : or to leaue behinde me any Period in the ftile of the Diuels Oratour : or any verfe in the vaine of his Dammes Poet : but rather couet to be nothing in printe, then any thinge in the ftampe of 8 needelefle, or fruitlelle Contention. As I -am ouer-ruled at this pre- fente, and as it ftandeth now : I am not to be mine owne ludge, or Aduocate : but am contente to bee fentenced by euery courteous, or indifferente perufer, that regardeth honefty in perfons, or trueth in 12 teftimonies, or reafon in caufes. Or feeing fome matters of Fame are called in queftion : I am not onely willing, but defirous to vnderlye the verdicle, euen of Fame her-felfe ; and to fubmit our whole credites, to the voice of the people, as to the voice of Equity, and the 16 Oracle of God : to whole gratious fauours he recommendeth your Courtefy, that neither flattereth the belt : nor ilaundereth the woorft : nor willfully wrongeth any : but profeffeth duety to his fuperiours : humanity to his equals : fauour to his inferiours : reafon to all : And 20 by the fame Rule, oweth you amends for the premifles : not fpedily difpatched, but haftily bungled-vp as you fee. London : this 8. and 9. of September.
Thefrend of his frendes, & foe of none. 24
Five Sections o<"
" P alladis T ami a.
Being the Second part
of Wits Common
wealth.
BY
Francis Meres Maifter
of Artes of both Vni-
uerfities.
Viuitur ingenio, ccetera mortis erunt.
AT LONDON
Printed by P. Short, for Cuthbert Burbie, and
are to be folde at his fhop at the Royall
Exchange. 1598."
Poetrie.
[leaf 275] As in a Vine clutters of grapes are often hidde vnder the broade and fpacious leaues : fo in deepe conceited, and well couched 4 poems, figures and fables, many things, verie profitable to be knowne, doe pafle by a yong fcholler. Plut.
As according to Pluloxenus, that flefh is moft fweete which is no
flefli ; and thofe the deledableft fifhes, which are no fifhes : fo that
8 Poetrie dooth moft delight which is mixt with Philofophie ; and that
Philofophie, which is mixt with Poetrie. Plutarchus in Cornmentario,
quomodo adolefcens Poetas audire delet.
As a Bee gathereth the fweeteft and mildeft honie from the bit- 12 tereft flowers, & fharpeft thornes : fo fome profite may bee extracted out of obfcene and wanton Poems, and fables, idem.
Albeit many be drunke with wine, yet the Vines are not to bee
cut downe, as Lycurgus did, but Welles and Fountaines are to bee
*6 digged neare vnto them : fo although manie abufe poetrie, yet it is
not to bee banilhed, but difcretion is to bee vfed, that it may bee
made holefome. Idem.
As Mandrake growing neare Vines, doth make the wine more 20 mild : fo philofophie bordering vppon poetrie dooth make the knowledge of it more moderate, idem.
As poyfon mixt with meate is verie deadlie : fo lafciuioufnefle and petulancie in poetrie mixt with profitable and pleafing matters is 24 very peftilent. idem.
[leaf 276] As we are -delighted in deformed creatures artificiallye painted: fo in poetrie, which is a liuely adumbration of things, euil matters ingenioufly contriued do delight.
28 As Phifitians vfe for medicine the feete and wings of the flies Cantharides, which flies are deadly poyfon : fo we may gather out of the fame poem, that may quell the hurtfull venome of it ; for poets
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," l<^8. 153
do alwaies mingle fomewhat in their Poems, wherby they intimate that they condemne, what they declare, idem.
As our breath doth make a Ihiller found being fent through the narrow channell of a Trumpet, then if it be dirfufed abroad into the 4 open aire : fo the well knitte and fuccin6t combination of a Poem, dooth make our meaning better knowen and difcerned, then if it were deliuered at random in profe. Seneca.
As he that drinkes of the Well Ciitorius, doth abhorre wine : fo 8 they that haue once tailed of poetry, cannot away with the ftudie of philofophie ; after the fame maner holdes the contrarie.
As the Anabaptifts abhorre the liberall artes and humane fciences : fo puritanes and precifians deteft poetrie and poems. 1 2
As Eloquence hath fou«d many preachers and orators worthy fauourers of her in the Engliih touwg : fo her lifter poetry hath fou«d the like welcome and entertainment giuen her by our Englifh poets, which makes our language fo gorgeous & dele£table amowg vs. J6
As Rubarbe and Sugarcandie are pleafant & profitable : fo ill poetry ther is fweetnes and goodnes. M. lohn Haring. in his Apologie for poetry before his tr (inflated Ariofto.
Many cockney and wanton women are often licke, but in faith 2° they cannot tell where : fo the name of poetrie is odious to fome, but neither his caufe, nor effects, neither the fumme that contains him, nor the particularities defcending from him, giue any fail handle to their carping difpraife. Sir Philip Sidney in his Apologie 24 for poetry.
Poets.
As fome do vfe an Amethift in compotations agaynft drunkennes: fo certain precepts are to be vfed in hearing and reading of poets, 28 leaft they infect the mind. Plut. & Plin. lib. 37. cap. 9.
As in thofe places where many holfome hearbes doe growe, there alfo growes many poyfonfull weedes : fo in Poets there are many excellent things, and many peftilent matters. Plut. 32
[leaf 277] As Simonides fayde, that the Thejffalians were more
154 FIVE SECTIONS OF MERES'S " WITS TREASVRY," 1^98.
blockilh, then that they could be deceiued of him : fo the riper and pregnanter the wit is, the fooner it is corrupted of Poets, idem.
As Cato when he was a fcholler woulde not beleeue his maifter, 4 except hee rendered a reafon of that he taught him : fo wee are not to beleeue Poets in all that they write or fay, except they yeelde a reafon. Idem.
As in the fame pafture the Bee feafeth on the flower, the Goate
8 grazeth on the fhrub, the fwine on the root, and the Oxen, Kine &
Horfes on the grafie : fo in Poets one feeketh for hiftorie, an other
for ornament of fpeech, another for proofe, and an other for precepts
of good life. idem.
12 As they that come verie fuddainlie out of a very darke place, are
greatly troubled, except by little and little they be accuftomed to the
light : fo in reading of Poets, the opinions of Phylofophers are to bee
fowne in the mindes of young fchollers, leaft many diuerfities of
1 6 doftrines doe afterwardes diftracl: their mindes. idem.
As in the portraiture of murder or inceft, we praife the Art of him that drewe it, but we deteft the thing it felfe : fo in lafciuious Poets let vs imitate their elocution, but execrate their wantonnes. 20 idem.
Some thinges that are not excellent of themfelues, are good for fome, bicaufe they are meet for them : fo fome things are com- mended in Poets, which are fit and correfpondent for the perfons, 24 they fpeake of, although in themfelues they bee filthy and not to be fpoken : As lame Demonides wilhed, that the fhoes that were ftolne from him, might fit his feet that had ftoln them. idem.
As that fhip is endaungered, where all leane to one fide, but is in
28 fafetie, one leaning one way, and another another way : fo the
diflenfion of Poets among themfelues, doth make them, that they
lefle infed their readers. And for this purpofe our Satyrifts, Hall,
the Author of Pigmalions Image, and certaine Satyres, Rankins, and
32 fuch others, are very profitable.
As a Bee doth gather the iuice of honie from flowres, whereas others are onely delighted with the colour and fmel : fo a Philofopher findeth that among Poets which is profitable for good life, when as 36 others are tickled only with pleafure. Plut.
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," I^S- 1$$
As wee are delighted in the pi6ture of a Viper or a fpider artificially enclofed within a precious iewell : fo Poets do delight vs in yc learned & cunning depainting of vices.
[leaf 278] As fome are delighted in coureterfet wines confe6ted of 4 fruites, not that they refreih the hart, but that they make drunke : fo fome are delighted in Poets only for their obfcenity, neuer refpecling their eloquence good grace, or learning.
As Emperors, kings and princes haue in their handes authority to 8 dignifie or difgrace their nobles, attendants, fubiects and vaflals : fo Poets haue the whole power in their handes to make men either immortally famous for their valiant exploiter and vertuous exercifes, or perpetually infamous for their vicious Hues. 12
As God giueth life vnto man : fo a Poet giueth ornament vnto it.
As the Greeke and Latine Poets haue wonne immortal! credit to their natiuefpeech, beeing encouraged and graced by liberall patrones 16 and bountifull Benefactors : fo our famous and learned Lawreat mafters of England would entitle our Englifh to far greater admired excellency, if either the Emperor Augujlus, or 06iauia his filler, or noble Meccenas were aliue to rewarde and countenaunce them; or if 20 our witty Comedians and ftately Tragedians (the glorious and goodlie reprefenters of all fine witte, glorified phrafe and queint action) bee ftill fupported and vphelde, by which meanes for lacke of Patrones (6 ingratefull and damned age) our Poets are foly or chiefly main- 24 tained, countenanced and patronized.
In the infancy of Greece, they that handled in the audience of the people, graue & neceflary matters, were called wife men or ejo- quent men, which they -men t by Fates : fo the reft, which fang of 28 loue matters, or other lighter deuifes alluring vnto pleafure and delight, were called Poette or makers.
As the holy Prophets and fan&ified Apoftles could neuer haue foretold nor fpoken of fuch fupernaturall matters, vnlefle they had 32 bin infpired of God : fo Cicero in his Tufculane queftions is of y* minde, that a Poet cannot expreffe verfes aboundantly, fufficiently, and fully, neither his eloquence can flow pleafantly, or his wordes found well and plenteoufly, without celeftiall inftin6lion ; which 36
1$6 FIVE SECTIONS OF MEHEs's " WITS TKEASVRY," 1598.
Poets themfelues do very often and gladly witnes of themlelues, as namely Quid in 6. FaJL
Eft Deus in nobis agitante calefcimus illo, £s*c.
4 And our famous Englifh Poet Spenfer, who in his Sheepeheards Calender lamenting the decay of Poetry at thefe dayes, faith moft fweetly to the fame.
Then make thee wings of thine afpiring wit 8 And whence thou camejlfly lacks to heauen apace, &c.
[leaf 279] As a long gowne maketh not an Aduocate, although a gowne be a fit ornament for him : fo riming nor verfing maketh. a Poet, albeit the Senate of Poets hath chofen verfe as their fitteft i2raymentj but it is y4 faining notable images of vertues, vices, or what elfe, with that delightfull teaching, which muft bee the right defcribing note to knowe a Poet by. Sir Philip Sidney in his Apology for Poetry.
1 6 A -comparatiue difcourfe of
our Englifh Poets, with the Greeks, Latine, and Ita- lian Poets.
20 As Greece had three Poets of great antiquity, Orpheus, Linus and Mufccus : and Italy, other three auncient Poets, Liuius Andronicus, Ennius & Plautus : fo hath England three auncient Poets, Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate.
24 As Homer is reputed the Prince of Greek Poets ; and Petrarch ot Italian Poets : fo Chaucer is accounted the God of Englifh Poets.
As Homer was the firft that adorned the Greek tongue with true quantity : fo Piers Plowman was the firft that obferued the true
28 quantitie of our verfe without the curiofitie of Rime.
Quid writ a Chronicle from the beginning of the world to his own time, that is, to the raign of Augujlus the Emperour : fo hath Harding the Chronicler (after his maner of old harfh riming) from
32 Adam to his time, that is, to the raigne of King Edward the fourth.
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," J^S. 1^7
As Sotades Maronites ye lambicke Poet gaue himfelfe wholy to write impure and lafciuious things : fo Skelton (I know not for what great worthines, furnamed the Poet Laureat) applied his wit to fcur- rilities and ridiculous matters, fuch amowg the Greeks were called 4 Pantomimi, with vs Buffons.
As Confaluo Periz that excellent learned man, and Secretary to King Philip of Spayne, in translating the U/yffes of Homer out of Greeke into Spanifh, hath by good iudgement auoided the faulte of 8 Ryming, although not fully hit perfect and true verifying : fo hath Henrie Howards that true and noble Earle of Surrey in tranllating the fourth book of Virgils ^Sneas, whom Michael Drayton in his Englands heroycall Epiftles hath eternized for an Epiftle to his faire 12 Geraldine.
As thefe Neoterickes louianus Pontanus, Politianus, Manillas Tarchaniota, the two Strozce the father and the fon, Palingenius, [lea 280] Mantuanus, Philelphus, Quintianus Stoa and Germanus Brixius 16 haue obtained renown and good place among the auncient Latine Poets : fo alfo thefe Englifh men being Latine Poets, Gualter Had- don, Nicholas Car, Gabriel Haruey, Chriftopher Ocland, Thomas Newton with his Leyland, Thomas Watfon, Thomas Campion, Erun- 20 fwerd & I'Tilley, haue attained good report and honorable aduance- ment in the Latin Empyre.
As the Greeke tongue is made famous and eloquent by Homer, Hejiod, Euripedes, Aefchilus, Sophocles, Pindar us, Phocylides, and 24 Ariftophanes ; and the Latine tongue by Virgill, Quid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, Lucretius, Anfonius and Claudianus : fo the Englifh tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeouflie inuefted in rare orna- ments and refplendent abiliments by Sir Philip Sidney, Spencer, 28 Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakefpeare, Marlow and Chapman.
As Xenophon, who did imitate fo excellently, as to giue vs effigiem iujii imperij, the portraiture of a iuft Empyre vnder ye name of Cyrus (as Cicero faieth of him) made therein an abfolute heroicall 32 Poem ; and as Heliodorus writ in profe his fugred inuewtiora of that piciure of Loue in Theagines and Cariclea, and yet both excellent admired Poets : fo Sir Philip Sidney writ his immortal Poem, The Countejfe of Pembrookes Arcadia, in Profe, and yet our rareft Poet. 36
158 FIVE SECTIONS OF MEHEs's " WITS TREASVRY," I^pS.
As Sextus Propertius faide ; Nefc'to quid magis nafcitur Iliade : fo I fay of Spencers Fairy Queene, I knowe not what more excellent or exquifite Poem may be written.
4 As Achilles had the aduantage of Heflor, becaufe it was his fortune to bee extolled and renowned by the heauenly verfe of Homer : fo Spenfirs Elifa the Fairy Queen hath the aduantage of all the Queenes in the worlde, to bee eternized by fo diuine a Poet. 8 As Theocritus is famoufed for his Idyllia in Greeke, and Virgill for his Eclogs in Latine : fo Spencer their imitatour in his Shepheardes Calender, is renowned for the like argument, and honoured for fine Poeticall inuention, and moft exquifit wit.
12 As Parthehius Nicceus excellently fung the praifes of his Arete: fo Daniel hath diuinely fonetted the matchlefle beauty of his Delia.
As euery one mourneth, when hee heareth of the lamentable plangors of Thracian Orpheus for his deareft Euridice : fo euery one
1 6 paffionateth, when he readeth the afflicted death of Daniels diftreffed Rofamond.
[leaf 281] As Lucan hath mournefully depainted the ciuil wars of Pompey & Ccefar : fo hath Daniel the ciuill wars of Yorke and
20 Lancafter j and Dray ton the ciuill wars of Edward the fecond, and the Barons.
As Virgil doth imitate Catullus in ye like matter of Ariadne for his ftory of Queene Dido : fo Michael Drayton doth imitate Quid in
24 his Englands Heroical Epifiles.
As Sophocles was called a Bee for the fweetnes of his tongue : fo in Charles Fit%-Iefferies Drake, Drayton is termed Golden-mouth' d, for the purity and pretioufnefle of his flile and phrafe.
28 As Accius, M. Attilius and Mililhus were called Tragcediographi, becaufe they writ Tragedies : fo may wee truly terme Michael Dray- ton Tragcediographus, for his paflionate penning the downfals of valiant Robert of Normandy, chaft Matilda, and great Gauejion.
32 As loan. Honterus in Latine verfe writ 3 Bookes of cofmography wl Geographicall tables : fo Michael Drayton is now in penning in Englifh verfe a Poem called Polu-ollion Geographical and Hydro- graphicall of all the forefts, woods, mountaines, fountaines, riuers,
36 lakes, flouds, bathes and fprings that be in England.
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," 159^- J59
As Aitlus Perjlus Flaccus is reported among al writers to be of an honeft life and vpright conuerfation : fo Michael Dray ton (quern toties honoris & amoris caufa nomino] among fchollers, fouldiours, Poets, and all forts of people, is helde for a man of vertuous difpofition, 4 honeft conuerfation, and wel gouerned cariage, which is almoft miraculous among good wits in thefe declining and corrupt times, when there is nothing but rogery in villanous man,1 & whew cheating and craftines is counted the cleaneft wit, and foundeft wifedome. 8
As Decius Aufonius Gallus in libris Fqftorum, penned the occur- rences of ye world from the firft creation of it to his time, that is, to the raigne of the Emperor Gratian : fo Warner in his abfolute Allions Englande hath moft admirably penned the hiftorie of his own country 1 2 from Noah to his time, that is, to the raigne of Queene Elizabeth ; I haue heard him termd of the beft wits of both our Vniuerfities, our Englifh Homer.
As Euripedes is the moft fententious among the Greek Poets : fo 16 is learner amowg our Englifh Poets.
As the foule of Euphorias was thought to liue in Pythagoras : fo the fweete wittie foule of Quid liues in mellifluous & hony-tongued Shakefpeare, witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his fugred 20 [leaf 282] Sonnets among his priuate friends, &c.
As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the beft for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines : fo Shakefpeare among ye Englifh. is the moft excellent in both kinds for the ftage; for Comedy, witnes his 24 Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Loue labors lojl, his Loue labours wonne, his Midfummers night dreame, & his Merchant of Venice : for Tragedy his Richard the i. Richard the 3. Henry the 4. King John, Titus Andronicus and his Romeo and luliet. 28
As Epius Stolo faid, that the Mules would fpeake with Plautus tongue, if they would fpeak Latin : fo I fay that the Mufes would fpeak with Shakefpeares fine filed phrafe, if they would fpeake Eng- lifh. 32
As Mufceus, who wrote the loue of Hero and Leander, had two excellent fchollers, Thamarus & Hercules : fo hath he in England two
1 An expression quoted from the First Part of " Henry the 4," which is named in the corresponding line of the next page. -
l6o FIVE SECTIONS OF MERES's " WITS TREASVRY," 1598.
excellent Poets, imitators of him in the fame argument and fubieft, Chnjlopher Marloiv, and George Chapman. As Quid faith of his worke ;
4 Iam<rae opus exegi, quod nee louis ira, nee ignis,
Nee poteritferrum, nee edax abolere vetujlas.
And as Horace faith of his ; Exegi monitmentum cere perennius ;
RegaliqvLQjitu pvramidum altius ; Quod non imber edax ; Non Aquilo
8 impotens pojjit diruere ; aut innumeralUis annorum feries & fuga
temporum : fo fay I feuerally of fir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels,
Dray tons, Shakefpeares, and Warners workes ;
Non louis ira : imlres : Mars : firrum : Jlamma,feneclus, 1 2 Hoc opus vnda : Lues : turbo : venena ruent.
Et quanquam ad plucherrimum hoc opus euertendum tres illi Dij confpirabunt, Cronus, Vulcanus, & pater ipfe gentis ;
Non tamen annorum feries, nonflamma, nee en/is, 1 6 jEternum potuit hoc abolere Decus.
As Italy had Dante, Boccace, Petrarch, Tqffb, Celiano and Ariojlo : fo England had Mathew Roydon, Thomas Atchelow, Thomas Watfon, Thomas Kid, Robert Greene & George Peele.
20 As there are eight famous and chiefe languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latine, Syriack, Arabicke, Italian, Spani/h and French : fo there are eight notable feuerall kindes of Poets, Heroick, Lyricke, Tragicke, Comicke, Satiricke, lambicke, Elegiacke & Pajtoral.
24 As Homer and Virgil among the Greeks and Latines are the chiefe Heroick Poets : fo Spencer and Warner be our chiefe heroicall Makers.
As Pindarus, Anacreon and Callimachus among the Greekes ;
28 [leaf 283] and Horace and Catullus among the Latines are the beft Lyrick Poets : fo in this faculty the beft amowg our Poets are Spencer who excelleth in all kinds) Daniel, Drayton, Shakefpeare, Bretton. As thefe Tragicke Poets flouriflied in Greece, Aefchylus, Euripedes,
32 Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achteus Erithr'ueus, Aftydamas Athe- neinfis, Apollodorus Tarfenjis, Nicomachus Phrygius, Thefpis Atticus, and Timon Apolloniates ; and thefe among the Latines, Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca : fo thefe are our beft for
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," IjpS. l6l
Tragedie, the Lord Buckhurjl, Dodor Leg of Cambridge, Do&or Edes of Oxforde, maifter Edward Ferris,1 the Authour of the Mirrour for Magiftrates, Marlow, Peele, Watfon, Kid, Shakefpeare, Dray ton, Chap- man, Decker, and Beniamin lohnfon. 4
As M. Anneus Lucanus writ two excellent Tragedies, one called Medea, the other de Incendio Troice cum Priami calamitate : fo Doftor Leg hath penned two famous tragedies, ye one of Richard the 3. the other of the deftruction of lerufalem. 8
The beft Poets for Comedy among the Greeks are thefe, Menander, Ariftophanes, Eupolis Athenienjls, Alexis Terius, Nicoftratus, Amipjias Athenienjis, Anaxandrides Rhodius, Ariftonymus, Archippus Athenien/is and Callias Athenienjls; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, 12 Nceuius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Flrgilius Romanics : fo the beft for Comedy amongft vs bee, Edward Earle of Oxforde, Do6tor Gager of Oxforde, Maifter Rowley once a rare Scholler of learned Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge, Maifter Edwardes one of her 16 Maiefties Chappell, eloquent and wittie lohn Lilly, Lodge, Gafcoyne, Greene, Shakesfpeare, Thomas Na/h, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye our beft plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilfon, Hathway, and Henry Chettle. 20
As Horace, Ludlius, luuenall, Perjius & Lucullus are the beft for Satyre among the Latines : fo with vs in the fame faculty thefe are chiefe, Piers Plowman, Lodge, Hall of Imanuel Colledge in Cam- bridge; the Authour of Pigmalions Image, and certaine Satyrs; 24 the Author of Skialetheia.
Among the Greekes I wil name but two for lamlicks, Archil- ochus Parius, and Hipponax Ephejius : fo amongft vs I name but two lambical Poets, Gabriel Haruey, and Richard Stanyhurjl, bicaufe 28 I haue feene no mo in this kind.
As thefe are famous among the Greeks for Elegie, Melan- thus, Mymnerus Colophonius, Olympius Myfius, Parthenius Nicceus, [leaf 284] Philetas Cous, Theogenes Megar en/is and Pigres Halicarnaf- 32
1 It is usually believed that this is an error for George Ferrers. But Meres, here as elsewhere, follows Puttenham, who writes :
" That for Tragedie, the Lord of Buckhurst, and Maister Edward Ferry s for such doings as I haue sene of theirs do deserue the hyest price :" [? praise]. The Arte of English Poesie, 1589. (Arber's Reprint, p. 77.) ALLUSION-BOOKS. 11
l62 FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," 1598.
fccus ; and thefe among the Latines, Meccenas, Quid, Tilullus, Pro-
pertius, T. Valgius, Cajfius Seuerus & Clodius Salinus : fo thefe are
the moft paflionate among vs to bewaile and bemoane the perplexities
4 of Loue, Henrie Howard Earle of Surrey, fir Thomas IVyat tlie elder,
fir Francis Brian, fir Philip Sidney, fir Walter Rawley, fir Edward
Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakefpeare, JVIietflone, Gafcoyne,
Samuell Page fometines fellowe of Corpus Chrijli Colledge in Oxford,
8 Churchyard, Bretton.
As Theocritus in Greeke, Virgil and Manluan in Latine, Sanazar
in Italian, and the Authour of Amyntoe Gaudia and Waljinghams
Melibceus are the beft for paftorall : fo among vs the befl in this kind
12 are fir Philip Sidney, mafter Challener, Spencer, Stephen Gojffbn,
Alraham Fraunce and Sarnefield.
Thefe and many other Epigrammatijls ye Latin tongue hath, Q. Catulus, Porcius Licinius, Quintus Cornificius, Martial, Cn. Getulicus, !6 and wittie fir Thomas Moore : fo in Englifh we haue thefe, Heyivood, Drante, Kendal, Bajlard, Dauies.
As noble Meccenas that fprung from the Hetrufcan Kinges not
onely graced Poets by his bounty, but alfo by beeing a Poet himfelfe ;
20 and as lames the 6. nowe king of Scotland is not only a fauorer of
Poets, but a Poet, as my friend mafter Richard Barnejielde hath in
this Difticke pafling well recorded :
The King of Scots now liuing is a Poet, 24 As his Lepanto, and his furies Jhow it :
fo Elizabeth, our dread foueraign and gracious Queene is not only a liberal patrone vnto Poets, but an excellent Poet herfelfe, whofe learned, delicate and noble Mufe furmounteth, be it in Ode, Elegy, 28 Epigram, or in any other kind of Poem Heroicke, or Lyricke.1
Octauia fifter vnto Auguftus the Emperour was exceeding bounti- ful! vnto Virgil, who gaue him for making 26. verfes, 1137 pounds, to wit, tenne Sejiertiaes for euerie verfe, which amount to aboue 43
1 So Puttenhara, at the last reference :
" But last in recitall and first in degree is the Queene our soueraigne Lady, whose learned, delicate, noble Muse, easily surmounteth all the rest that haue written before her time or since, for sence, sweetnesse and subtillitie, be it Ode, Elegie, Epigram, or any other kinde of poeme Heroick or Lyricke," &c.
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," IjpS. 163
pounds for euery verfe : fo learned Mary, the honorable Counteffe of Pembrooh, the noble fitter of immortall fir Philip Sidney, is very liberall vnto Poets ; befides fhee is a moft delicate Poet, of whome I may fay, as Antipater Sidonius writeth of Sappho : I
Dulcia Mnemofyne demirans carmina Sapphus, Quoejiuit decima Pieris vndeforet.
[leaf 285] Among others in times paft, Poets had thefe fauourers, Augujlus, Meccenas, Sophocles, Germanicus, an Emperour, a noble 8 man, a Senatour, and a Captaine : fo of later times Poets haue thefe patrones, Robert king of Sicil, the great king Frances of France, king lames of Scotland, & Queene Elizabeth of England.
As in former times two great Cardinals, Bembus & Elena, did 12 countenance Poets : fo of late yeares two great preachers haue giuen them their right hands in felowfhip, Beza and Melan&hon.
As the learned philofophers Fracqflorius and Scaliger haue highly prized them : fo haue the eloquent Orators Pontanus and Muretus very 16 glorioufly eftimated them.
As Georgius Buckananus lepthe, amo«gfl all moderne Tragedies is able to abide the touch of Arijlotles precepts, and Euripedes examples : fo is Bifliop Watfons Alfalon. 20
As Terence for his tranflations out of Apollodorus & Menander, and Aquilius for his translation out of Menander, and C. Germanicus Augujlus for his out of Aratus, and Anfonius for his tranflated Epigrams out of Greeke, and Do&or lohnfon for his Frogge-Jlght out of Homer, 24 and IVatfon for his Antigone out of Sophocles, haue got good com- mendations : fo thefe verfifiers for their learned tranflations are of good note among vs, Phaer for Flrgils Aeneads, Golding for Quids Metamorphnfts, Harington for his Orlando Furiofo, the tranflators of 28 Senecaes Tragedies, Barnale Googe for Palingenius, Turleruile fc;r Quids Epiftles and Mantuan, and Chapman for his inchoate Homer.
As the Latines haue thefe Emllematifts, Andreas Alciatus, Reuf- nerus, and Samlucus : fo we haue thefe, Geffrey Whitney, Andrew 32 Willet, and Thomas Combe*
As Nonnus Panapolyta writ the Gofpell of faint lohn in Greeke Hexameters : fo leruis Markkam hath written Salomons Canticles in Englifh verfe. 36
164 FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," 1^98.
As C. Plimua writ the life of Pomponius SecunJus : fo yong Charles Fitz-Ieflrey, that high touring Falcon, hath moft glorioufly penned the honourable life and death of worthy fir Francis Drake. 4 As He/tod writ learnedly of husbandry in Greeke : fo hath Tuffer very wittily and experimentally written of it in Englifli.
As Antipater Sidonius was famous for extemporall verfe in Greeke,
and Quid for his Quicyuid conalar dicere verfus erat : fo was our
8 Tarleton, of whome Do&our Cafe that learned phyfitian thus fpeaketh
peaf 286] in the feuenth Booke, & feuenteenth chapter of his Politikes ;
Arijioteles fuum Theodoretum laudauit quendam peritum Traguediarum
aclorem ; Cicero fuum Rnfcium : nos Angli Tarletonum, in cuius voce
1 2 £5* vultu omnes iocoji qffectus, in cuius cerebrofo capite lepidce facetiae
• habitant. And fo is now our wittie IVilfon, who, for learning and
extemporall witte in this facultie, is without compare or compeere,
as to his great and eternall commendations he manifested in his
1 6 chalenge at the Swanne on the Banke fide.
As Achilles tortured the deade bodie of Hector, and as Antonius, and his wife Fuluia tormented the liuelefle corps of Cicero : fo Gabriell Haruey hath {hewed the fame inhumanitie to Greene that 20 lies full low in his graue.
As E'jpolis of Athens vfed great libertie in taxing the vices of men : fo dooth Thomas Nq/h, witnefle the broode of the Haruey s.
As Aclaeon was wooried of his owne hounds : fa is Tom Najk of 24 his JJle of Dogs. Dogges were the death of Euripedes, but bee not difconfolate gallant young luuenall, Linus, the fonne of Apollo died the fame death. Yet God forbid that fo braue a witte fhould fo bafely perilh, thine are but paper dogges, neither is thy banifhment 28 like Quids, eternally to conuerfe writh the barbarous Getes. There- fore comfort thy felfe fweete Tom. with Ciceros glorious return to Rome, & with the counfel Aeneas giues to his feabeaten foldiors, lib. i Aeneid.
32 Pluck vp thine heart, & driue from thence loth fear e and care away : To thinke an this may pleafure be perhaps another day. Durato, £5* temet rebus feruato fecundis.
As Anacreon died by the pot : fo George Peele by the pox. 36 As Archejilaus Prytanceus periihed by wine at a drunken feaft, as
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," J^pS. l6$
Hermippus teftifieth in Diogenes : fo Robert Greene died of a furfet taken at Pickeld Herrings, & Rheniih wine, as witnefleth Thomas Nqfli, who was at the fatall banquet.
As lodelle, a French Tragical poet beeing an Epicure, and an 4 Atheift, made a pitifull end : fo our tragicall poet Marlow for his Epicurifme and Atheifme had a tragicall death ; you may read of this Marlow more at large in the Theatre of Gods iudgments, in the 25. chapter entreating of Epicures and Atheifts. 8
As the poet Lycophron was {hot to death by a certain riual of [leaf 287] his : fo Chriftopher Marlow was ftabd to death by a bawdy Seruingman, a riuall of his in his lewde loue.
Painters. 12
Apelles painted a Mare and a Dogge fo liuelie, that Horfes and Dogges pafling by woulde neigh, and barke at them j hee grewe fo famous for his excellent Art, that great Alexander came often to his fhoppe to vifite him, and commaunded that none other Ihould paint 16 him; at his death hee left Venus vnfinilhed, neither was anie euer founde, that durft perfect, what hee had begunne. rLeuxls was fo excellent in painting, that it was eafier for anie man to view his pictures, then to imitate them, who to make an excellent Table, had 20 fiue Agrigentine Virgins naked by him; hee painted Grapes fo liuelie, that Birdes did flie to eate them. Parrhajius painted a Sheete fo artificiallie, that Zeuxis tooke it for a Sheete in deede, and com- maunded it to bee taken away to fee the picture, that hee thought it 24 had vayled; as learned and fkilmll Greece had thele excellently renowned for their limning : fo Englande hath thefe ; Hiliard, Ifaac Oliuer, and lohn de Creetes, very famous for their painting.
As Greece moreouer had thefe Painters ; Timantes, Phidias, 28 Polignotus, Paneus, Bularchus, Eumarus Cimon Cleonceus, Pythis, Apollodorus Athenienjis, Arijlides Thebanus Nicophanes, Perfeus, Antiphilus, and Nicearchus : fo in Englande wee haue alfo thefe ; William and Francis Segar brethren, Thomas and lohn Bettes, Lockey, 32 Lyne, Peake, Peter Cole, Arnolds, Marcus, laques de Bray, Cornelius, Peter Golchis, Hieron'nno and Peter Jrande Velde.
l66 FIVE SECTIONS OF MERES's " WITS TREASVRY," 1598.
As Lyfippus, Praxiteles, and Pyrgoteles, were excellent engrauers : fo wee haue thefe engrauers, Rogers, Chriftopher Switfer, and Cure.
Muficke
4 The Loadftone draweth iron vnto it, but the ftone of Aethiopia called Theamedes driueth it away : fo there is a kinde of Muficke that dooth afiwage and appeafe the affe&ions, and a kinde that doth kindle and prouoke the paflions.
8 As there is no law that hath foueraintie ouer loue : fo there is no heart that hath rule ouer Muficke, but Muficke fubdues it.
As one day takes from vs the credite of another : fo one ftrain of [leaf 288] Muficke extincts the pleafure of another.
12 As the heart ruleth ouer all the members: fo Muficke ouer- commeth the heart.
As beautie is no beautie without vertue : fo Muficke is no Mu- ficke without Art.
1 6 As all thinges loue their likes : fo the mofle curious eare the delicateft Muficke.
As too much fpeaking hurts ; too much galling fmarts : fo too much Mufick gluts and diftempereth.
20 As Plato and Arijlotle are counted princes in philofophie and Logicke ; Hippocrates and Galen in phifick j Ptolomie in Aftrologie, Euclide in Geometrie, and Cicero in eloquence : fo Boetius is efteemed a Prince and captaine in Muficke.
24 As Priejls were famous among the Egyptians ; Magi among the Caldeans ; and Gymnofophijtes among the Indians : fo Mufitians flourifhed among the Grecians, and therefore Epaminondas was ac- counted more vnlearned then Themiftocles, becaufe he had no fkill in
28 Muficke.
As Mercuric by his eloquence reclaymed men from their barbar- oufuefle and crueltie : fo Orpheus by his Mufick fubdued fierce beafts, and wild birds.
32 As Demojlhenes, Ifocrates, and Cicero excelled in Oratorie : fo Orbheus, Amphion, and Linus, furpaffed in Muficke.
FIVE SECTIONS OF MEREs's " WITS TREASVRY," 1598. 167
As Greece had thefe excellent Munitions j Arion, Dorceus, Ti- motheus, Mileftus, Chryfogonus, Terpander, Leslius, Simon Magnejius, Philamon, Linus, Stratonicus, Arijlonus, Chiron, Achilles, Clinias, Eumonius, Demodochus, and Ruffinus : fo Englande hath thefe j 4 Maijler Cooper, Maifter Fairfax, Maifter Tallis, Majler Tauerner., Maijler Blithman, Maifter Bird, DoSlor Tie, Do6lor Dallis, Do6i<~r Bull, M. Thomas Mud, fometimes fellow of Pembrook hal in Cam- bridge, M. Edward lohnfon, Maifter Blankes, Maifter Randall, 8 Maifter Philips, Maifter Lowland, and M, Morley.
l68 SPENSER 3 ALLUSION TO 6HAK.SPERE.
From " Colin Clouts come home againe. By Edm. Spencer.
At London Printed by H. L. for Mathew Lownes. I59$- [4to, pp. 80]
Printed by T. Creed for Wm. Ponfonbie."
And there, though laft not leaft is AETION, A gentler fhepheard may no where be found : Whofe Mufe, full of high thoughts inuention Doth like himfelfe Heroically found.1
' The dedication of this poem to Sir Walter Raleigh is dated "the ^^ of December, 1591." But portions of the poem were subsequently added, three verses being certainly written after April 16, 1594.
WILLOBIE
HIS
AVIS A;
OR
The true Picture of a mo-
dest Maid, and of a chast and
constant wife.
In Hexamiter verse. The like argu- ment wherof, was neuer hereto- fore published.
Read the preface to the Reader before you enter further
A vertuous woman is the crowne of her husband, but
she that maketh him ashamed, is as corruption in
his bones. Prouerb. 12. 4.
imprinted at London by John Windet.
1594-
I7O EXTRACTS FROM ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA, 1.594.
1 In praise of WILLOBIE his AUISA, HEX-
AMETON TO THE AUTHOR.
IN Lauine Lande though Liuie host, [l sign. A 4]
There hath leene scene a Constant dame : Though Rome lament that she haue lost The Gareland of her rarest fame, Yet now we see, that here is found, As great a Faith in English ground [6]
Though Collatine haue deerely bought ; To high renowne, a lasting life, And found, that most in vaint haue sought, To haue a Faire, and Constant wife,
Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape,
And Shake-speare, paints poore Lucrece rape. [12]
Though Susan shine in faithfull praise, As twinckling Starres in Christall skie, Penelop'sfame though Greekes do raise, Of faithfull wiues to make vp three,
To thinke the Truth, and say no lesse,
Our Auisa shall make a messe. [18]
This numler knits so sure a knot,
Time doubles, that she shall adde no more,
Vnconstant Nature, hath legot,
Of Fleting Feemes, suchjickle A tore,
Two thousand yeares, haue scarcely scene, Such as the worst of these haue leene. [24]
Then Aui-Susan ioyne in one, Let Lucres- Auis le thy name, This English Eagle sores alone, Andfarre surmounts all others fame,
Where high cr low, where great or small,
This Brytan Bird out-Jlies them all. [30]
EXTRACTS) FROM * WILLOBIE HIS AVISA/ 1594- T7*
Were these three happie, that haue found Braue Poets to depaint their praise ? Of Rurall Pipe, with sweetest sound, That haue leene heard these many dales, Sweete wylloly his AVIS blest
That makes her mount aloue the rest. [36]
Contraria Contrary's : Vigilantius • Dormitanus.
Cant. XLIIII. Henrico Willolego. Italo-Hispalensis.
H. W. being sodenly infected with the contagion of a fantasticall fit, at the first sight of A, pyneth a while in secret griefe, at length not able any longer to indure the burning heate of so feruent a humour, bewrayeth the secresy of his disease vnto his familiar friend W. S. who not long before had tryed the curtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recouered of the like infection ; yet finding his frend let bloud in the same vaine, he took pleasure for a tyme to see him bleed, & in steed of stopping the issue, he inlargeth the wound, with the sharpe rasor of a willing conceit, perswading him that he thought it a matter very easy to be compassed, & no doubt with payne, diligence & some cost in time to be obtayned. Thus this miserable comforter comforting his frend with an impossibilitie, eyther for that he now would secretly laugh at his frends folly, that had giuen occasion not long before vnto others to laugh at his owne, or because he would see whether an other could play his part better then himselfe, & in vewing a far off the course of this louing Comedy he determined to see whether it would sort to a happier end for this new actor, then it did for the old player. But at length this Comedy was like to haue growen to a Tragedy, by the weake & feeble estate that .H. W. was brought vnto, by a desperate vewe of an impossi- bility of obtaining his purpose, til Time & Necessity, being his best Phisitions brought him a plaster, if not to heale, yet in part to ease his maladye. In all which discourse is liuely represented the vnrewly
172 EXTRACTS FROM ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA,
rage of vnbrydeled fancy, hauing the raines to roue at liberty, with the dyuers & sundry changes of affections & temptations, which Will, set loose from Reason, can deuise. &c.
H W
WHat sodaine chance or change is this, That doth bereaue my quyet rest ? What surly cloud eclipst my blisse, What sprite doth rage within my brest ? Such fainty qualmes I neuer found, Till first I saw this westerne ground. [6]
Can change of ayre complexions change, And strike the sences out of frame? Tnough this be true, yet this is strange, Sith I so lately hither came :
And yet in body cannot find
So great a change as in my mynd. [12]
My lustlesse limmes do pyne away, Because my hart is dead within All liuely heat I feele decay, And deadly cold his roome doth win,
My humors all are out of frame,
I frize amid'st the burning flame. [18]
I haue the feauer Ethicke right, 1 burne within, consume without, And hauing melted all my might Then followes death, without all doubt;
O fearefull foole, that know my greefe,
Yet sew and seeke for no releefe. [24]
EXTRACTS FROM ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA,' IJ94. 1/3
I know the tyme, I know the place, Both when and where my eye did vew That nouell shape, that frendly face, That so doth make my hart to rew,
0 happy tyme if she inclyne,
If not, O wourth theese lucklesse eyne. [30]
I loue the seat where she did sit,
I kisse the grasse, where she did tread,
Me-thinkes I see that face as yet,
And eye, that all these turmoyles breed,
1 enuie that this seat, this ground,
Such frendly grace and fauour found. [36]
I dream' t of late, God grant that dreame
Protend my good, that she did meete
Me in this greene by yonder streame,
And smyling did me frendly greete :
Where wandring dreames be iust or wrong,
I mind to try ere it be long. [42]
But yonder comes my faythfull frend, That like assaultes hath often tryde, On his aduise I will depend, Where I shall winne, or be denyde,
And looke what counsell he shall giue,
That will I do, where dye or Hue. [48]
Cant. XLV.
W. S.
WEll met, frend Harry, what's the cause You looke so pale with Lented cheeks ? Your wanny face & sharpened nose Shew plaine, your mind some thing mislikes,
174 EXTRACTS FROM 'WILLOBIE HIS AVISA,' 1.594-
If you will tell me what it is,
He helpe to mend what is amisse. [6]
What is she, nun, that workes thy woe, And thus thy tickling fancy moue? Thy drousie eyes, & sighes do shoe, This new disease proceedes of loue,
Tell what she is that witch't thee so,
I sweare it shall no farder go. [12]
A heauy burden wearieth one. Which being parted then in twaine, Seemes very light, or rather none, And boren well with little paine :
The smothered flame, too closely pent,
Burnes more extreame for want of vent. [18]
So sorrowes shrynde in secret brest, Attainte the hart with hotter rage, Then griefes that are to frendes exprest, Whose comfort may some part asswage :
If I a frend, whose faith is tryde,
Let this request not be denyde. [24]
Excessiue griefes good counsells want, And cloud the sence from sharpe conceits, No reason rules, where sorrowes plant, And folly feedes, where fury fretes,
Tell what she is, and you shall see,
What hope and help shall come from mee. [30]
Cant. XLVI.
H. W.
Seeft yonder howfe, where hanges the badge Of Englands Saint, when captaines cry
EXTRACTS FROM ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA,' 1^94- ^75
Victorious land, to conquering rage, Loe, there my hopelefle helpe doth ly : And there that frendly foe doth dwell, That makes my hart thus rage and fwell. [6]
Cant. XLVII.
|
w. |
s. |
Well, fay no more : I know thy griefe, And face from whence thefe flames aryfe, It is not hard to fynd reliefe, If thou wilt follow good aduyfe :
She is no Saynt, She is no Nonne,
I thinke in tyme me may be wonne, [6]
An veterato- At firft repulfe you muft not faint, Nor flye the field though fhe deny You twife or thrife, yet manly bent, Againe you muft, and ftill reply :
When tyme permits you not to talke,
Then let your pen and fingers walke. [12]
Munera (ere- Apply her ftill with dyuers thinges, cant horn* (F°r giftes the wyfeft will deceaue) nesque Dtos- Sometymes with gold, fometymes with ringes, No tyme nor fit occafion leaue,
Though coy at firft me feeme and wielde,
Thefe toyes in tyme will make her yielde. [ 18]
Looke what fhe likes ; that you muft loue, And what me hates, you muft deteft, Where good or bad, you muft approue, The wordes and workes that pleafe her beft :
If me be godly, you muft fweare,
That to offend you ftand in feare. [24]
1"]6 EXTRACTS FROM ' WILLOBIE HIS AVISA/ 1594.
Wicked wiles You muft commend her louing face,
to deceaue
wiiles wo- For women ioy in beauties praife,
You muft admire her fober grace, Her wifdome and her vertuoas wayes,
Say, 'twas her wit & modeft ihoe,
That made you like and loue her fo. [30]
You muft be fecret, conftant, free,
Your filent fighes and trickling teares,
Let her in fecret often fee,
Then wring her hand, as one that feares To fpeake, then wilh me were your wife, And laft defire her faue your life. [36]
When me doth laugh, you muft be glad, And watch occafions, tyme and place, "When {he doth frowne, you muft be fad, Let fighes & fobbes requeft her grace :
Sweare that your loue is truly ment,
So me in tyme muft needes relent. [42]
w HAR[BERT]'S SUPPOSED ALLUSION TO SHAKSPERE. 177
EPICEDIUM.
A funerall Song, upon the vertuous life and godly death of the right worshipfull the Lady Helen Branch.
Virtus sola manet, caetera cunctu ruunt. London, printed by Thomas Creede, 1594.
(From Sir Egerton Brydges' Restituta (1815), vol. iii. pp. 297 — 499. "The ' Epicedium ' ... is signed W. HAR. which may pos- sibly be an adumbration for Sir William Harbert, a poet of fair repute." ib. p. 298.)
(First verse.)
You that to shew your wits, haue taken toyle
In regist'ring the deeds of noble men ;
And sought for matter in a forraine soyle,
As worthie subjects of your silver pen,
Whom you have rais'd from darke oblivion's den. [5]
You that have writ of chaste Lucretia,1
Whose death was witnesse of her spotlesse life :
Or pen'd the praise of sad Cornelia,
Whose blamelesse name hath made her fame so rife,
As noble Pompey's most renoumed wife :
Hither unto your home direct your eies,
Whereas, unthought on, much more matter lies. [10]
1 Mr Malone, in his list of the most authentic editions of Shakspeare's poems, registers the publication of his Tarquin and Lucrece, in 1594. An allusion complimentary may therefore have been made to it in this passage. (Brydges.)
ALLUSION-BOOKS. 12
178 DRAVTON'S POSSIBLE ALLUSION TO SHAKSPERE.
From
'The Legend of Matilda the chaft, daughter to the Lord Robert Fitzwater, poyfoned by King John."1
By Michaell Drayton. 1594.
Lucrece, of whom proude Rome hath boafted long Lately reuiu'd to liue another age, And here ariv'd to tell of Tarquins wrong, Her chaft deniall, and the Tyrants rage, A6ting her paffions on our llately ftage. She is remembred, all forgetting me, Yet I, as fay re and chaft as ere was She.
1 Printed in a small volume of Drayton's " Legends," of which the first is " The Tragicall Legend of Robert, Duke of Normandy."
POLIMANTEIA,
OR,
The meanes lawfull and vnlawfuU, to
IVDGE OF THE FALL OF A
COMMONWEALTH, AGAINST
the friuolous and foolish conie- ctures of this age.
Whereunto is added,
A Letter from England to her three daughters,
Cambridge, Oxford, Innes of Court, and to all the
rest of her inhabitants : perswading them to a
constant vnitie of what religion soever they
are, for the defence of our dread soveraigne,
and natiue cuntry : most requisite for
this time wherein wee
now live.
Invide, quod nequeas imitari carpere noli : Nil nisi cum sumptu mentem oculosque iuvat.
Printed by John Legate, Printer to the Vniversitie
of Cambridge. 1 59 *) •
And are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls Church-yard in London.
i8o
WILLIAM CLARK S " SWEET SHAKSPEARE,
" England to her three Daughters " says, —
- R 2 to
*.s-]
Schollers must learne patience,
« Let your children (daughters) content thewzselues j leaue to repine at baser fortunes : let them be perswaded of this, that Fame shall be their seruant, Honour shall bee their subiect, Glory shalbe their crown, Eternitie their inheritance : (then indeard wit decking admired daugh- ters) write and let the worlde know that heavens har- monie is no musicke, in respect of your sweete, & well arte-tuned strings : that Italian Ariosto did but shadowe the meanest part of thy muse, that Tassos Godfrey is not worthie to make compare with your truelie eternizing M. Alabla- Eliza s stile : let France-admired Bellaw, and courtlike Spenser and amarous Rousard confesse that there be of your children, that in these latter times haue farre surpassed them. Let diuine Bartasse eternally praise worthie for his weeks worke, say the best thinges were made first : Let other countries (sweet Cambridge) enute, (yet admire) my lrirgil, thy petrarch, diuine Spenser. And vnlesse I erre, (a thing easie in such simplicitie) deluded by dearlie be- loued Delia, and fortunatelie fortunate Cleopatra; Oxford thou maist extoll thy courte-deare-verse happy Daniell, whose sweete refined muse, in contracted shape, were sufficient amongst men, to gain pardon of the sinne to Rosemond, pittie to distressed Cleopatra, and euerliuing praise to her louing Delia : Register your childrens pete- gree in Fames forehead, so may you fill volumes with
Lylia clou- ded, whose teares are making.
All praise
•worthy.
Lucrecia
Sweet
Shak-
speare.
Eloquent
Gaueston.
Wanton Adonis.^ Watson s
Sowellgra- Chausers praise, with Lydgate, the Scottish knight, & "ie dese£ such like, whose vnrefined tongues farre shorte of the
ueth immor- tall praise
from the hand times WCare." of that di- uine Lady who like Co- rinna conten- ding with Pindarus •was oft vi- ctorious.
excellencie of this age, wrote simplie & purelie as the
John Weever's Epigram to Shakspere (A.D. 1595) from the second edition of
EPIGRAMMES
in the old eft cut, and neweft falhion.
A
twife feuen houres (info many weekes) Jludie
No longer (like the fafhion) not vn- like to continue.
Thejirjl Jeuen.
lohn Weeuer.
Sit voliilffe, Sat valuijje.
At London
Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bujhell, and are to be
fold at his fhop at the great north doore
of Paules T599 "
[Press-mark :— Malone 904.]
182
JOHN WEEVEK S EPIGRAM TO SHAKESPEARE.
THE FOURTH WEEKE.
Epig. 22. Ad Gulidinum Shakefpeare.
Honie-tong'd Shakefpeare, when I law thine in*ue,
I fwore Apollo got them and none other,
Their roue-tainted features cloth'd in tifiue,
Some heauen born goddefle faid to be their mother : [4]
Roie-checkt Adonis with his amber trefles,
Faire fire-hot Venus charming him to loue her,
Chafte Lucretia virgine-like her drefles,
Prowd luft-ftung Tarquine feeking flill to proue her : [8]
Romea Richard ; more, whole names I know not,
Their fugred tongues, and power attractiue beuty
Say they are Saints, althogh that Sts they fhew not,
For thoufands vowes to them fubiectiue dutie : [12]
They burn in loue thy childre Shakespear het the,
Go, wo thy Mufe more Nymphifh brood beget them.
[Sign. E 6.]
F. DOUCE'S MS. NOTE.
Weever says he was scarcely 20 years old when he wrote these epigrams : but, according to the date of the print of him by Cecill, he was 23 when they were printed in 1599. [&c. &c.]
[The first edition appeared in 1595 ? which would make him about 20.] (2 lines on leaf1 Sign. A 5,*
As daigne to view my tender-blufhing youth That twenty twelue months yet did neuer know.)
RICHARD CAREW's MENTION OF SHAKSPEKE. 183
From " The Excellencie of the English tongue by R. C. [i. e. Richard Carew] of Anthony Esquire to W. C." written about 1595-6, and inserted by W. Camden after his chapter on " Lan- guages," in " Remaines concerning Britaine," p. 43. London, ly lohn Legatt, 1614. [40. C. 57. Art. Seld : Press-mark.] (Not in the first edition, 1605.)
" The long words that we borrow being intermingled with the short of our owne store, make vp a perfect harmonic, by culling from out which mixture (with Judgement) you may frame your speech according to the matter you must worke on, maiesticall, pleasant, delicate, or manly more or lesse, in what sort you please. Adde hereunto, that whatsoeuer grace any other language carrieth in verse or Prose, in Tropes or Metaphors, in Ecchoes and Agnominations, they may all bee 5iuely and exactly represented in ours : will you haue Platoes veine ? reade Sir Thomas Smith, the lonicke ? Sir Thomas Moore. Ciceroes ? Ascham, Varro ? Chaucer, Demosthenes ? Sir lohn Cheeke (who in his treatise to the Rebels, hath comprised all the figures of Rhetorick. Will you reade Virgill? take the Earle of Surrey. Catullus? Shakespheare and Barlowes fragment, Quid? Daniell, Lucan ? Spencer, Martial ? Sir lohn Dauies and others : will you haue all in all for Prose and verse ? take the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney."
184 ROBERT TOFTE ON "LOVES LABORS LOST," IN 1.598.
From
Alia. I The Months / Minde of a Me-/Iancholy Lover,,/ diuided into three / parts : / By R. T. Gentleman. / Herevnto is added a / most excellent pathetical and passionate Let-/ter, sent by Duke D'Epernoun, vnto the late / French King, Henry the 3. of that name,/ when he was commanded from the / Court, and from his Royall / Companie. Translated / into English by the / foresaid Au-/thor./ Spes, Amor, & Fortuna valete.j At London./ Printed by Felix Kyngston, for Matthew I Lownes. iJJpS./ 8°, A — I in eights, and a leaf of K.
LOVES LABOR LOST, I once did see a Play,
Ycleped so, so called to my paine,
Which I to heare to my small loy did stay,
Giuing attendance on my froward Dame, My misgiuing minde presaging to me ill, Yet was I drawne to see it gainst my Will. [6]
This Play no Play, but Plague was vnto me,
For there I lost the Loue I liked most :
And what to others seemde a lest to be,
I, that (in earnest) found vnto my cost. To euery one (saue me) 'twas Comicall, Whilst Tragick like to me it did befall. [12]
Each Actor plaid in cunning wise his part, But chiefly Those entrapt in Cupids snare : Yet All was fained, twas not from the hart, They seemde to grieue, but yet they felt no care : T'was I that Griefe (indeed) did beare in brest, The others did but make a show in lest. [18]
ROBERT TOFTE ON "LOVES LABORS LOST," IN I^pS. iSj
Yet neither faining theirs, nor my meere Truth,
Could make her once so much as for to smile :
Whilst she (despite of pitie milde and ruth)
Did sit as skorning of my Woes the while. Thus did she sit to see LOVE lose his LOVE, Like hardned Rock that force nor power can moue. [24]
Sign. G (5).
[The Society has to thank Mr W. Carew Hazlitt for this copy, and the collation of it ; and Mr Henry Huth for allowing his most rare volume to be used for the purpose.]
i86 (?) RICHARD BARNFEILD'S MENTION OF SHAKSPERE.
A REMEMBRANCE OF SOME ENGLISH POETS.
From "Poems in Diuers humors." London, 1598. Sign. E. 2 back. [Being the fourth tract in a volume of which the first bears Richard Barnfeild's name : signatures running on throughout.]
Liue Spenser euer, in thy Fairy Queene :
Whose like (for deepe Conceit) was neuer scene.
Crownd mayst thou bee, vnto thy more renowne,
(As King of Poets) with a Lawrell Crowne. [4]
And Daniell, praised for thy sweet-chast Verse :
Whose Fame is grav'd on Rosamonds blacke Herse.
Still mayst thou liue : and still be honored,
For that rare Worke, The IVhite Rose and the Red. [8]
And Drayton, whose wel-written Tragedies,
And sweete Epistles, soare thy fame to skies.
Thy learned Name, is aequall with the rest j
Whose stately Numbers are so well addrest. [12]
And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing Vaine, (Pleasing the World) thy Praises doth obtaine. Whose Venus, and whose Lucrece (sweete, and chaste) Thy Name in fames immortall Booke haue plac't. [16]
Liue euer you, at least in Fame liue euer : Well may the Bodye dye, but Fame dies neuer.
JOHN MARSTON'S ALLUSIONS TO SHAKSPERE. 187
JOHN MARSTON'S SCOVRGE OF VILLANIE :
[Press-mark : — Malone 414.] i6mo, Land., by I[ames] R[oberts], 1598. (Anon.)
SATYRE. X. [Sign. H 3, back.]
Humours.
A hall, a hall,
Roome for the Spheres, the Orbes celestiall Will daunce Kemps ligge. They'le reuel with neate iumps A worthy Poet hath put on their Pumps ?
0 wits quick trauers, but sance ceo's slow, Good faith tis hard for nimble Curio.
Yee gracious Orbs, keepe the old measuring, [7]
All's spoyld if once yee fall to capering.
Luscus what's playd to day ? faith now I know [9]
1 set thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow
Naught but pure luliat and Romio. [ri]
Say, who acts best ? Drusus, or Roscio ?
Now I haue him, that nere of ought did speake
But when of playes or Plaiers he did treate.
H'ath made a common-place booke out of plaies, [15]
And speakes in print, at least what ere he sayes
Is warranted by Curtaine plaudeties, [ 1 7]
If ere you heard him courting Lesbias eyes ;
Say (Cuiteous Sir) speakes he not mouingly
From out some new pathetique Tragedie ?
He writes, he railes, he iests, he courts, what not,
And all from out his huge long scraped stock
Of well penn'd playes. [seep. 188.]
i88 JOHN MAHSTON'S ALLUSIONS TO SHAKSPERE.
VARIATIONS IN THE 1^99 EDITION OF MARSTON.
[Bodleian Press-mark : — 8° L 550. B.S.]
1. 7. Yee gracious Orbs, &c., and the next line, 8, are in Italic type. 7. Orbesybr Orbs. IT. Romeo for Romio.
9. fayth/or faith. 15. playes/or plaies.
ii. luliet for luliat. I*], plaudities for plaudeties.
John Marston's " Scovrge of Villaniej London, ly I. R. 1598." SATYRE. VIT.
A Cynicke Satyre. {Press-mark .-— Malone 414.]
A Man, a man, a kingdomefor a man. Why how now currish mad Athenian ? Thou Cynick dogge, see'st not streets do swarme With troupes of men ? No, no, for Circes charme Hath turn'd them all to 1 swine ;
Is this a Man ? Nay, an incarnate deuill, That struts in vice, and glorieth in euill.
A man, a man : peace Cynick, yon is one, A compleat soule, of all perfection.
A man, a man, Loe yonder I espie The shade of Nestor in sad grauitie j
A man, a man : peace Cynick, yon's a man. Behold yon sprightly dread Mauortian. With him I stop thy currish barking chops.
' Big S in the ind cd., 1599. The two editions agree in nearly every other respect.
JUNUH54
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