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V E T 1 C A L D E CAME RON,
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ON
EMiLKSH POETS AND POETRY,
I'AHTlCULAlll.Y 01' THE
ilictQiis of ©lt?abctfr anti %m\i% £.
BY J. PAYNE COLLIER,
OK THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.
" * .i luuy they r :t >. in those am [Ultk-s,
Tint how the tunc was Heil thoy quite t'orgate."
'.■apvmtr 1. Q. B. 11, e. 10.
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VOL. 11.
PRINTED KIR
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AM ilLKST. KOUINSO.V. AND CO. 1.' II EAl'SJ 1)L. LONDON.
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V
POETICAL DECAMERON.
THE SIXTH CONVERSATION.
CONTENTS
OF THE SIXTH CONVERSATION.
X. Breton's poem in John Hind's very rare novel of EUosto
F/ib'uUimxo, 1C0G — How far it is fit to examine the inferior
productions of good writers — Breton's " Fancy," and a poem
by him among the Royal MSS " EUontos Roundelay," by
Robert Greene, extracted and observed upon — The title of Hind's
production imitated from R. Greene's " Carde of Fancy" — Pla-
giarism from Hamlet in "Holamy's Primrose," 1606 — Quotation
from the same — The explanation of " Dolarny's Primrose" —
JJiuuhiii, one of the persons in EUosto Libidinoso, meant for the
author — Extract from Hind's prose and poetry — How far the
progress of Satire in English should be further traced — Character
of George Wither — His " Abuses stript and whipt," 1013 — His
voluminousness as an author proved by himself in his Fides An-
g!ica>iu, l(i(i() — His imprisonment and release on account of his
Satire to the King, with specimens — Anecdote of Wither in Hugh
Peters' Jests. 1660 — Wither's unpublished MS — His character as
a politician and poet — Dedication of his "Abuses stript <x; whipt"
to himself — His fearlessness in attacking the great, <.Vc — Quota-
tion from his firs'- Satire " Of the passion of Love" — His unknown
poem of " Aretephils Complaint" confounded with his "Mistress
of Philarete" — Specimen of the fourth Satire "On Envy" —
Gower's Confcssio Aniuiitis quoted — Whetstone's character of
Envy in his " English .Myrror," 1586 — The nature of that book,
with a specimen of the poetry — Tale of the Vicar of Croydon
— Physicians and the Gout — Massinger's " Emperor of the
East" cited — Whetstone's " Mirour for Magistrates of Cy ties,"
1584, with quotations from it regarding himself and Judge
Chomley — The same work published as " The Encmie of Vn-
4 CONTENTS.
thryftinesse," in 158G, with a new title — A list given by the
printer of 10 works published by Whetstone before 1 .">!{(!, and of"
three others then in hand — Another extract from Wither's fourth
Satire — The follies and vices of Kings from Sat. 1. Hook II
Quotation from Sat. II., " Inconstancy" — Observations— A.
Stafford's " Niobe," and " Niobe dissolu'd into a Nilus," Kill
— Character of him, and quotation from his book on the degeneracy
of nobility — His vision of Sir P. Sidney — Wither on Sir P. Sidney,
Drayton, lien Jonson, tVc. in Sat. !?. Hook II Wither's dif-
fidence of his own poetical powers, and the boldness of his political
tracts — .John Phillips's excessively rare poem on the death and
funeral of Sir P. Sidney, lofiy — Specimen and remarks — Sir
P. Sidney's panegyric on himself from the same — .Absurdity of
the whole construction of the poem — Richard Brathwayte, a
satirist, and an imitator of Wither — His " Times Curtaine drawne
or the Anatomic of Vanitie," &c. HI'21 — His admiration of Wither
— His coarseness of attack, with quotations from his satires — On
the poverty of poets, with an extract — Brathwayte on his own
drunken habits from his " Health from Helicon" — On translated
satires — George Chapman's translation of the fifth Satire of Juve-
nal, Hi2!) — The author's age at that day — Quotation from the
dedication — His projected translation of the whole of Juvenal and
Persius — His contempt of vulgar applause from his " Memorable
Masque," 1613 — His " funeral Oration" on burying one of
Poppaea's hairs — Specimen of his translation from Juv. Sat. o
Remarks upon it, and conclusion of the subject.
POETICAL DECAMERON.
THE SIXTH CONVERSATION.
JDockxe. The last work which occupied us yesterday
was a tract by Nicholas Breton. The pamphlet I now
present contains a poem by him not found elsewhere,
and not noticed by bibliographers.
Elliot. I shall be glad to see it, because I have
since taken the opportunity of reading some pastoral
pieces by him in the reprint of " England's Helicon,"
and they give me a favourable opinion of his poetical
talents. What title has the work in which the poem
you refer to is inserted ?
Bourxk. It is a novel, or rather one of those
early romances which are seldom met with, and are
never to be purchased but at a very high price : this
is of peculiar rarity : it is called " Eliosto Libidinoso :
Described in two Bookes," &c. " Written by Iohn
Hynd. At London, Printed by Valentine Simmes,"
&c. 1606. If I tell you what a copy sold for at the
Roxburgh sale, it will give you a notion of its value.
G SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. Of its price it may, but not of its value.
Morton. Your distinctions are very hair-breadth,
but among the collectors of old books the words are
synonymous. What did it sell for ?
Bourne. Only nine guineas, and if it were put up
to auction now I dare say it woidd produce not far
short of double that amount. T doubt whether the
poem it contains by Breton will increase your respect
for his talents.
Elliot. Then perhaps it would be as well to
omit it.
Morton. I beg that we may hear it. Whatever
you may wish, I would rather form a correct than
too favourable an opinion of an author.
Elliot. But would it enable us to form a correct
opinion? We might, perhaps, if we could see all he
wrote.
Bourne. How often have I heard you quote that
line of Boileau, Notre Steele est faille en .sols ad-
mirateurs, yet now you wish to enlist yourself in the
number.
Elliot. To reply in another line of the same
satirist, I do not wish to be Plus enclin a hlamer
que savant ft Men falre. At least, as I have before
remarked, there is no more reason for reviving the
bad productions of dead authors than for raking up
the bad actions of dead men.
Morton. Your motto is .SV mains est nequeo
lavdare ei poseerc ; but if we cannot arrive at a per-
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 7
fectly just conclusion as to a writer's merits and de-
fects, let us do the best we can to form a correct
notion.
Bocrxe. Mere impartiality requires that we should
not pass the poem over without notice. This is indeed
turning the tables upon us.
Elliot. Well, I am content ; let us hear it : the
reading will be the least evil of the two : malum
quod minimum est, id minimum est malum. A short
bad poem is better than a long bad argument.
Bourxk. After all it may not be the work of
Breton : Hind introduces it as " a fancie which that
learned author N. B. hath dignified with respect."
Now in the first place, the initials may be those of
some other writer than Nicholas Breton, and in the
next, it is not said that he was the author of it, but
that he " dignified it with respect."
Mortox. But can the letters N. B. apply to any
other author than Breton ?
Bocrxe. No, not that I know of ; but still there
remains the second doubt.
Elliot. It is not of much consequence whether
it be or be not Breton's, for the best poets have
written badly: indeed it would be difficult to find
any poet, however good, who has at all times written
well.
Bourxk. A great deal more has been already said
about the poem than it is worth, as you will find
when it is finished.
SIXTH CONVERSATION.
" Among the groues the woods & thicks
The bushes, brambles, and the briers,
The shrubbes, the stubbes, the thornes & prickes,
The ditches, plashes lakes and miers :
Where fish nor fowle, nor bird nor beast
Nor liuing thing may take delight ;
Nor reasons rage may looke for rest
Till heart be dead of hateful spight :
Within the caue of cares vnknowne,
Where hope of comfort all decayes,
Let me with sorrow sit alone,
In dolefull thoughts to end my dayes.
And when I heare the stormes arise,
That troubled Ghosts doe leaue the graue,
With hellish sounds of horrors cries,
Let me goe looke out of my caue.
And when I see what paines they bide
That doe the greatest torments proue,
Then let not me the sorrow hide,
That I haue sufferd by my loue.
Where losses, crosses, care and griefe,
With ruthfull, spitcfull, hatefull hate,
Without all hope of haps reliefe
Doe tugge and tearc the heart to naught :
But sigh and say and sing and sweare
Ft is too much for one to heare.''
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 9
And so it ends, with a sufficient accumulation of
words, and more than a sufficient paucity of ideas.
Morton. " It is too much for one to bear,"
indeed : when you came to the fourth stanza, be-
ginning " And when I hear the storms arise," I was
in hopes it was improving.
Bourne. You cannot expect a despairing but
doating lady to be much more than passionate in her
poetry.
Morton. And her sex may have induced the poet,
for the sake of consistency of character, to heap
together such a mass of reduplicated words without
much meaning.
Elliot. I thought your originality would have
been above such a reduplicated and threadbare ob-
servation, even putting gallantry out of the ques-
tion. As to the merits of the poem, I think the in-
ternal much outweighs the external evidence, con-
sisting, as it does, only of two initial letters : the
name is as likely to have been Nathan Benjamin, or
any other N. B. as Nicholas Breton.
Bourne. I am sure I have no interest in attri-
buting the trifle to the poet for whom you have
taken such a strong partiality.
Elliot. But you ought to have an interest the
other way, and that is what I feel. I am anxious
that what is wholly unworthy of him should not
needlessly be charged against him.
Bourne. In that view of it the poem from which
10 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
I will now show you a brief extract would bear your
examination. It was never printed, and is among
the royal 3VISS. having been dedicated to King
James : it is rather of a pious and didactic turn, but
parts of it are eloquent.
Elliot. Tf it do the writer credit I shall be happy
to look at it : what is it called ?
Bourne. It consists of eight parts : it is the praise
of Virtue, Wisdom, Love, Constancy, Patience, Hu-
mility and the goodness of God, with a conclusion
entitled Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Morton. One part, and one only, is mentioned
by Ritson : you say you have a specimen of this
curiosity ; let us hear it.
Bourne. A disconnected quotation will not give
you a fair notion of the whole. In describing Virtue
he says she is
" The soyle wherin all sweetnes ever groweth,
the Fountaine whence all Wisedome ever springeth,
the winde that never but all blessing bloweth,
the Aier that all comfort ever bringeth ;
the lire that ever life and love infiameth,
the Figure that all true perfection frameth."
And " Vpon the praise of Wisedome" he has the
following stanza:
" Shee feeds no fancy with an idle fashion,
yitt fashions all things in a comely frame ;
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 11
shee never knew Repentance wofull Passion,
nor ever fear'd the blot of wicked blame ;
but even and true what ever she intended
wrought all so well, that none could be amended."
Elliot. As you say, two stanzas can give us no
correct idea of a long poem : the verse runs very
smoothly, with the exception of the line in the first
quotation, where you were obliged to read Air as
two syllables.
Bourne. That is a trifling defect, and warranted
by the practice of the time. I am sorry I made no
further extracts when the MS. poem was before me.
But leaving Breton now, and his " fancy" in Eliosto
Libidinoso, if you take that novel into your hand you
will find on the next page another poem ; read that,
and tell me whom you think that worthy of.
Elliot. I do not see even initials inserted here,
so that the guess is still wider. You mean the
piece entitled " Eliostoes Roundelay"
Bourne. I do, and which, it is stated, is borrowed
from " a worthy writer." Who was that worthy
writer ?
Elliot. According to your account nearly all the
poets of Elizabeth's reign were worthy writers, so
that I shall be as wide of the mark as ever.
Morton. Perhaps there is something said in the
poem to let us into the secret.
Bourne. No, but it is by a man of the highest
12 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
eminence and notoriety of that time — no less than
Robert Greene, of whom we have heard so much,
and who was unquestionably a first-rate poet. Read
the Roundelay, and I will give you very satisfactory-
proof afterwards why I say it is his.
Elliot. It is somewhat of the longest, but if it
indeed be Greene's I dare say I shall not regret it.
" Eliostoes Roundelay.
" Sitting and sighing in my secret muse ;
As once Apollo did, surpris'd with Lone,
Noting the slipperie waies young yeares doe vse,
What fond affects the prime of youth doth moue :
With bitter teares despairing I doe crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
When wanton age, the blossome of my time,
Drew me to gaze vpon the gorgeous sight,
That Beautie pompous in her highest prime
l'resents to tangle men with sweet delight :
Then with despairing teares my thoughts doe crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie."
This is very different sort of stuff to that which you
wished to palm just now on Breton : at least, here
we have beautiful versification. It proceed-,
" When I suruaid the riches of her lookes,
Where-out flew flames of neuer quencht desire..
Wherein lay baites that Venus snares with hookes,
Or where prowd Cupid sate, all arm'd with lire ;
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 13
Then toucht with Loue my inward soule did crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
The milke-white Galaxia of her browe,
Where Loue doth daunce Lauoltaes of his skill,
Like to the Temple where true Louers vow
To follow what shall please their mistresse will :
Noting her Iuorie front, now doe I crie,
AVoe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
Her face like siluer Luna in her shine,
All tainted through with bright vermillian straines,
Like Lillies dipt in Bacchus choicest wine,
Powdred and inter-seam'd with azur'd vaines ;
Delighting in their pride now may I crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
The golden wyers that checker in the day
Inferiour to the tresses of her haire ;
Her Amber trammels did my heart dismay,
That when I lookt, I durst not ouer-dare :
Prowd of her pride, now I am forc't to crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
These fading Beauties drew me on to sin
Natures great riches fram'd my bitter ruth ;
These were the traps that Loue did snare me in ;
Oh these and none but these haue wrackt my youth !
Mis-led by them, I may despairing crie,
Woe worth the faults and follies of mine eie.
By those 1 slipt from Vertues holy tracke,
That leads into the highest chrystall spheare
14 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
By these I fell to vanitie and wracke ;
And as a man forlorne with sinne and feare,
Despaire and sorrow doth eonstraine me crie,
Woe worth the faults & follies of mine eie ! "
Morton. Though there is some tautology in it,
the Roundelay is obviously the work of no mean
hand.
Elliot. There is a great deal of passion and feel-
ing in the stanzas, and even the repetitions, such for
instance as the last few lines, are very natural to a
man under strong excitement, dwelling on what is
most deeply impressed upon his mind.
Moktox. The recurrence of the same two lines
at the end of every stanza is, 1 think, too artificial
for very strong feeling, and but for this I should
agree entirely with you. But how does it appear
that Greene was the author of it r
Bourne. Simply by being found in one of his ac-
knowledged productions, of which there must have
been several earlier editions, though that in my hand
is dated only in 1G21. It is called "Greene's never
too late," and elsewhere Greene's Niinquam sera est;
a pamphlet, in which, conscience-struck, he laments,
under a feigned name, "the faults and follies" of his
own ungoverncd youth.
Moktox. Perhaps Hind, the author of Eliosio
Libidinoso, was a friend of Greene.
lioiKXE. Possibly, though there is no proof of the
fact: there is proof that he was an admirer and an
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 15
imitator of Greene in this very pamphlet, for the
whole is an exaggeration of his worst style and most
obvious faults. Even the title-page is an imitation
of Greene, or more properly, a copy from him. The
full title to Greene's " Carde of Fancie" runs thus,
" Wherein the follie of those carpet Knights is de-
ciphered, which guiding their course by the com-
pass of Cupid, either dash their ship against most
dangerous Rockes, or else attaine the hauen with
paine and perill." Now read Hind's title.
Morton. The resemblance is exact: " Wherein
their imminent dangers are declared, who guiding
the course of their life by the compasse of Affection,
either dash their ship against most dangerous shelues,
or else attaine the Hauen with extreme preiudice."
Elliot. But I should like a specimen from Hind's
share of the performance ; I do not care much about
the resemblance of the titles.
Bourne. I can have no objection, as we shall
have time enough to-day to finish the English sa-
tirists : you shall hear both Hind's prose and poetry,
for he was a versifier also : the prose is introductory
of what is called " Dinohins Sonnet ," which Dinohin
is, in fact, no other than John Hind, the same letters
being used in both names.
Morton. In the same way as " Dolarny's Prim-
rose" is, in fact, RaynohVs Primrose, though the
writer in the British Bibliographer (I. 153), and Dr.
Drake, in his " Shakespeare and his Times," were
unable to " unriddle the conceit."
16 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Bouhne. That conceit being merely the trans-
position of the letters. Dr. Drake, in the very im-
perfect and injudicious catalogue he has furnished
of the poets contemporary with Shakespeare, has
ventured to rank llaynold above mediocrity, and
George Peele belorv it: yet the former was one of
the most puling writers that ever put pen to paper,
and the latter one of the most manly and vigorous.
Observe too the following plagiarism from Hamlet
in " Dolarny's Primrose," (1006) : a Hermit is mo-
ralising upon a skull:
" Why might not this haue beene some lawiers pate,
The which sometimes brib'd, brawl d, and tooke a
fee,
And law exacted to the highest rate ?
Why might not this be such a one as he :
Your quirks and quillets now, Sir, where be they ?
Now he is mute and not a word can say."
Elliot. The writer had Hamlet in his memory,
no doubt, and plagiarism is not too hard a word.
Bourxk. 1 only mentioned it incidentally, because
it has not been previously noticed. I am sure the
originality of such a milk-sop poet as Raynolds is
not worth vindicating or disputing. Yet in order to
enable you to decide upon the rank he ought really
to take, and to ascertain whether there is a pretence
for placing him before Peele, of whom you already
know something, J cannot resist availing myself of
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 17
this opportunity of quoting two stanzas from " Do-
larny's Primrose :" he is describing a fair May day.
" In garments green the meadowes fayre did ranck it
The vallies lowe of garments greene were glad}
In garments greene the pastures proud did pranck it,
The daly grounds in garments greene were clad :
Each hill and dale, each bush and brier were seene
Then for to fiorish in their garments greene.
" Thus as the medowes, forests and the fields
In sumptuous tires had deckt their daynty slades,
The florishing trees wanton pleasure yeelds,
Keeping the sunne from out their shadie shades :
On whose greene leaues vpon each calmie day
The gentle wind with dallying breath did play."
Elliot. It is very poor certainly, but the lines are
not altogether deficient in harmony.
Boukxl. Perhaps not, with the assistance of " gar-
ments green" five times affectedly repeated, and such
combinations as " duly grounds," " shady shades,"
and " calmy days,'' besides " grovy shades," no less
than thrice employed in the course of six stanzas.
Moirrox. Let us leave him for Dinohin, alias John
Hind. By the by, Golde, in the " Fig for Momus"
of Lodge, in the same way may be meant for the
author. *
Bourne. Xo doubt that is the true explanation,
which never occurred to me before. Dinohin is an
important personage in the second book of this
VOL. II. c
IS SIXTH CONVERSATION.
pamphlet, and the author, without doubt, meant to
shadow himself under the name — this makes it the
more curious. The extract I am about to read is from
p. 77 of Eliosto Libidinoso.
"When Titan, hasting to plunge his fierie chariot
in Ty^//vlappe, had gladded Oceanus with his returne."'
Elliot. A man who could put together such a
sentence as that, could not have an atom of taste, or
any notion of propriety — " plunging his fiery chariot
in Thetis's lap," is a most extravagant absurdity.
3Iokton. Let us defer our criticisms until the
end.
Bourxe. Yet the observation is perfectly well
founded. " When Titan hasting to plunge his fierie
chariot in Thetis lappe, had gladded Oceanus with
his returne, the tormented Louer taking a Lute in
his hand, went to the place which so late he found,
and there did in sad melodie sound foorth his sor-
rowes. — Gatesinea wondring to heare musicke at
her windowe looked out and discerned her beloued
Dinoh'ni, whose affections when shee sawe like her
owne, shee was rauished with incredible ioyes, and
had presently vttered some signe of her content, had
not maidenly modestie, and the presence of her nurce
staid her: who perswaded her, that hauing Dinohin
at the aduantage, shee should not so easily offer her
lone, lest bee might little esteeme it, hauing so
lightly got it. The perplexed Loner repairing oft to
his accustomed place with more pleasure to Gale-
SIXTH CONVERSATION*. 19
sinea than content to himselfe, resolued in the ende
to make a full triall of his good or badde fortune,
and no more to vse such dumbe demonstrations.
Comming therefore late, as he was wont, to the
window, he tarried till he perceiued by some signes,
that his mistresse was come into her chamber, ac-
companied only with her nurce : then fingring his
Lute, and framing his voice, he vttered this passionate
Dittie, making euery rest a deepe-fetched sigh.
Dinohins Sonnet.
" I rashly vow'd (fond wretch why did I so r)
When I was free that Loue should not inthrall me :
Ah foolish boast, the cause of all my woe,
And this misfortune that doth now befall me.
Loues God incens'd did sweare that I should smart,
That done, he shot and strooke me to the heart !
" Sweet was the wound, but bitter was the paine ;
Sweet is the bondage to so faire a creature,
If coie thoughts do not Beuties brightnesse staine,
Nor crueltie wrong so diuine a feature.
Loue pittie mee, and let it (mite my cost,
By Loue to finde what I by Loue haue lost !
" Heau'ns pride, Earths wonder, Natures pecrelcsse
choice
Faire harbour of my soules decaying gladnesse !
Yield him some ease, whose faint and trembling voice
Doth sue for pittie ouerwhelm'd with sadnesse.
20 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
In thee it rests, faire Saint, to saue or spill
His life, whose loue is ledde by Reasons will!"
Elliot. There is not much to be said against the
prose, excepting- where the author attempts to set
■out with a flourish about Titan and Thetis.
Bourne. And the poetry is so good, that I am not
at all sure that it is Hind's own composition : the
two last lines I cannot help fancying that I have
read somewhere else.
Mortox. I do not see why you should strip every
feather from the wings of Hind's Pegasus ; where
he has availed himself of the labours of other men,
he seems to have acknowledged the obligation.
Bocrxe. In one respect he was very original, for
to use a phrase of Shakespeare's, he was " a man of
fire-new words," though a great imitator of the then
discredited Eupheuistic style. Having seen all that
is necessary of his production, I suppose there is no
objection to our completing what we left unfinished
at our last meeting.
Elliot. I do not imagine that much remains for
us to notice in the class of writers who have pro-
duced satirical poetry.
Bourxk. If I were to go through those who wrote
after 1 600, as minutely as I have done those who
wrote before that date, we should not only have a
long, but a tedious task vet to execute.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 21
Morton. We want to be amused and informed,
not to be wearied and stupefied.
Bourne. You need be under no alarm ; I should
be quite as reluctant to enter upon that task as
yourself; but in quoting a few specimens from two
very celebrated authors, I apprehend we shall be
rendering our subject sufficiently complete, be em-
ploying our time profitably, and obtaining as much
amusement as the nature of the inquiry will allow.
Elliot. I leave it to your discretion, putting in
my protest by the way against any thing tedious.
In this respect you are quite free to be dives tibi,
pauper amicis: you may keep your knowledge of
those numerous authors you hint at to yourself : to
the select few I have no objection.
Bourne. I have no wish to revive forgotten and
neglected trash. Specimens from two writers will
conclude our inquiry respecting the origin and pro-
gress of satire in English.
Elliot And who is the first author, or rather the
first satirist, you are about to notice to-day?
Bourne. George Wither.
Elliot. A name I have often heard, though I
have never had an opportunity of seeing more than
a few extracts from some of his productions.
Bourne. The ridicule of Butler, Pope, and Swift,
has contributed to keep him in the back ground
longer than many other authors of far less merit : in
fact he has been improperly and unfairly estimated,
botli by his friends and enemies ; the latter heaping
22 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
upon him undeserved censure, and the former un-
deserved praise. He was unquestionably a very
eminent and notorious, as well as a very caustic
satirist.
Morton. Of course you refer to his " Abuses
stript and whipt." An immense number of pages
of the British Bibliographer, or Restituta, I forget
which, are occupied by a list of his productions.
Bourne. They were excessively numerous: in
1660, at the end of his Fides Anglicana, a prose
tract, he himself furnishes a catalogue of no less
than eighty-two pieces in prose and verse that had
flowed from his pen ; the list you speak of far ex-
ceeds that number. He states that his catalogue
is incomplete, as his memory could not retain all
the titles : besides, he published several other tracts
after that date, as he continued to scribble on down
nearly to the day of his death in 1 667. According to
"Wood he was then seventy-nine years old, having been
born in the memorable year of the Spanish Armada.
Morton. For his satires he was imprisoned in the
Marshalsea, and afterwards, as is stated, liberated in
consequence of publishing another satire to the king,
justifying his first production.
Bourne. So it is said, but I never could learn on
what authority the assertion rested. I believe it is a
fact, that the satire to the king was written while he
was in confinement, and that he was released soon
afterwards.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 23
Elliot. Most likely, then, it depends merely upon
inference.
Bourne. You may judge from the following lines
in that satire to the king, that the author was not
very humble or contrite for his past offences.
" But know I'me he that entred once the list
Gainst all the world to play the Saiyrist:
Twas I that made my measures rough and rude,
Dance arm'd with whips amidst the multitude,
And vnappalled with my charmed Scrowles
Teaz'd angry Monsters in their lurking holes.
I'ue plaid with Wasps and Hornets without feares,
Till they grew mad and swarmd about my eares.
I'ue done it, and me thinkes tis such braue sport,
I may be stung, but nere be sorry for't ;
For all my grief is, that I was so sparing
And had no more in't worth the name of daring."
Elliot. Those lines are very fearless and spirited,
but I do not think King James, notwithstanding Mr.
D'Israeli's vindication of him, was quite the man to
liberate the poet who justified instead of apologizing
for his crime.
Bourne. Some lines rather of a petitioning cha-
racter are inserted ; but still even there the author
maintains that he was in the right. He says,
" But why should I thy fauour here distrust
That haue a cause so knowne, and knowne so just?
Which not alone my inward comfort doubles
But all suppose me wrong'd that heare my troubles.
24 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Nay, though my fault were Keall, I beleiue
Thou art so Royall, that thou wouldst forgiue j
For well I know thy sacred Maiesty
Hath euer been admir'd for Clemencie,
And at thy gentlenesse the world hath wondred,
For making sunshine where thou mightst haue
thundred."
Morton. That savours a little of flattery, does it
not ?
Bourne. Were it written by any man but Wither,
1 should think so too, perhaps; but being from his
free pen, I take it as a testimony of some value in
behalf of the character of James I.
Morton. Wither was imprisoned more than once:
according to the sketch of his life in the British
Bibliographer, he was sent to the Tower.
Bourne. Yes, many years afterwards: he was
confined there for three years, and was forbidden
the use of pen, ink, and paper. Regarding one of
his political tracts, called " the Perpetual Parlia-
ment," 1 found the following story in the " Tales
and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters," 1660, which I have
not any where seen extracted, and which serves to
show, among many other testimonies,, that poor
Wither, from his political principles more than from
any other cause, was not very highly esteemed by
his contemporaries.
" How Mr. Peters jeered the Poet Withers.
" George Withers turning wrote a poem in which
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 25
lie predicted the continuance of a free state, called it
the Perpetual Parliament ; a little after the Parlia-
ment was dissolued, and Mr. Peters meeting; the said
Mr. Withers told him he was a pitifull Prophet and
a pitifull Poet, otherwise he had not wrote such pre-
dictions for a pitifull Parliament."
Morton. Which story, I feel little doubt, is a
mere malignant fabrication 3 for Peters would not
have dared to say, nor Wither endured to hear what
is there stated.
Bourne. 1 am of your opinion. I forgot to men-
tion, that among the eighty-two pieces Wither
enumerates as his in 1GG0, are many in MS. which
are stated to have been lost : one of them must have
been very curious, " The pursuit of Happiness, being
a character of the extravagancy of the Authors Af-
fections and Passions in his youth." He was a very
bold man in politics, and did not scruple to put into
Oliver Cromwell's own hands four addresses or re-
monstrances on his " duties and failings."
Morton. His excellence as a poet, and especially
as a pastoral poet, is now, I believe, admitted.
Bourne. By all who know any thing about him ;
but there is still a great number who, when his name
is mentioned, cover their ignorance of his merit under
the cloak with which the authors of Hudibras, the
Dunciad, and the Battle of the Books, have fur-
nished them.
Elliot. He seems to be a man about whom, and
£6 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
whose writings, a strong and peculiar interest may
be felt.
Bourne. As a poet, using the word in its latitude,
he wants fancy and imagination, though his versi-
fication is usually uncommonly easy, and his thoughts
just and natural : his chief talent was for satire and
moral instruction, and of this you Avill be able to
judge by a few short specimens from his " Abuses
stript and whipt," the first edition of which, dated in
1613, is here.
Elliot. I hope you do not intend to abridge your
extracts too much.
Bourne. You shall regulate their length yourself:
Wither's Pastorals, his " Mistress of Philarete" and
many other pieces, have been often criticised, but
the satires before us have been comparatively little
quoted, though, in my opinion, deserving (mite as
much, if not more, attention. The first thing to be
remarked is the curious dedication of the book (per-
haps in imitation of Marston), to himself, " whom
(he says) next God, my Prince and Country I am
most engaged vnto."
Morton. ]S'ot being able, I suppose, to gain a
patron for his severity.
Bourne. That is one of the reasons he assigns :
among some epigrams that precede the satires, is
one " to the Satyromastix," which shows the fear-
lessness with which he undertook and completed his
labours. It contains the following lines:
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 27
" What? you would faine haue all the great ones
freed ?
They must not for their vices be controld :
Beware ! — that were a saucinesse indeed ;
But if the great ones to offend be bold
I see no reason but they should be told."
Morton. The Frenchman made an empty boast
of his courage when he said,
Je tie puis rien nommer si ce nest pas son nam,
J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet unfripon,
but he took special care to name nobody whose
anger could do him injury in the quarter which he
most aimed to please.
Bourne. Wither says elsewhere, that he only
names the vices, not those who flourished in them,
and he makes no vain pretensions to individual de-
signation : yet the result showed the truth of what
Lod. Barry excellently says in his Ram Alley, in
Dodsley's Collection,
" All great mens sins must still be humoured,
And poor mens vices largely punished :
The privilege that great men have in evil
Is this — they go unpunish'd to the Devil."
Elliot. Exceedingly well; but I am longing to
see something more by the satirist in your hand.
Bourne. The following quotation is from the first
satire of the first book " Of the passion of Love."
<28 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
" Counsels in vaine, cause when the fit doth take
them
Reason and understanding doth forsake them ;
It makes them som-time merry, som-time sad,
Vniam'd men mild, and many a mild man mad.**
That one to gold compares his Mistris haire
When tis like fox-fur ; and doth thinke shees faire,
Though she in beauty he not far before
The Swart West Indian, or the tawny Moore.
Oh those faire star-like eyes of thine, one sayes,
When to my thinking she hath lookt nine waies :
And that sweet breath, when I thinke (out vpon't)
Twould blast a flower if she breathed on't. * * *
Then there is one who hauing found a peere,
In all things worthy to be counted deere.
Wanting both Art and heart his mind to breake,
Sets sighing: fivoe is me) and will not speake;
All company he hates is oft alone,
(irowes Melancholy, weepes, respecteth none,
And in dispaire seekes out a way to dye,
When he might liue and find a remedy. —
But how now ? Wast not you, saies one, that late
So humbly beg'd a hooac at beauties gate?
AVas it not you that to a female Saint
Indited your Aretophils complaint?***
To him I answere that indeed en'e I
Was lately subiect to this malady;
Like 't what 1 now dislike, emploi'd good times
J n the composing of such idle Rimes
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 29
As are obiected : From my heart I sent
Full many a heauy sigh and oft-times spent
Vnmanly teares : I haue I must confesse. * * *
In many a foolish humor I haue beene,
As well as others ; looke, where I haue seene
Her ftvhom I loiid) to walke, when she was gone
Thither I often haue repair'd alone ;
As if I thought the places did containe
Something to ease me (oh exceeding vaine ! )
Yet what if I haue beene thus idly bent,
Shall I be now asham'd for to repent ?
Moreouer, I was in my child-hood than
And am scarce yet reputed for a Man ;
And therefore neither cold, nor old, nor dry,
Nor cloi'd with any foule desease am I :
Tis no such cause that made me change my minde;
But my affection that before was blind,
Rash and vnruly, now begins to find,
That it hath run a large and fruitlesse race
And thereupon hath giuen Reason place. * *
Yet for all this, looke, where I lou'd of late
I haue not turn'd it in a spleene to hate :
No, for 'twas first her Vertue and her Wit,
Taught me to see how much I wanted it ;
Then as for Loue, I doe allow it still
I neuer did dislik't, nor neuer Avill,
So it be vertuous, and contein'd within
The bounds of Reason ; but when t'will begin
To run at randome and her limits breake,
I must, because I cannot chuse but speake.
SO SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. There is not only uncommon ease in the
running of the lines, but frequently great force in
the very familiarity of the expressions. We have
no right to complain that he is not very original on
such a theme.
Bourne. The number and variety of his works
prove, that he must have composed with very great
rapidity. These satires were written in 1611, when
the author was only 23 years old, and for that age
they show great acuteness and extent of observation.
Morton. In the beginning of the extract Wither
seems to allude to some work of his own, under the
title of " Aretophils Complaint." Is that extant ?
Bourne. It is not, though some have confounded
it with his poem of " the Mistress of Philarete." —
"Aretophils Complaint" (which he afterwards called
" Philaretes Complaint") is mentioned by Wither
as one of his earliest pieces in the catalogue I before
spoke of, and he there states that it was lost in
manuscript. It was most likely addressed to the lady
he alludes to in what I just read, and who rejected
him. We will proceed to the fourth Satire on Envy,
where the passion is thus happily described :
" But what is this, that men are so inclind
And subiect to it ? How may't be defin'd ?
Sure, if the same be rightly vnderstood,
It is a griefe that sjmngsfrom others good,
And vexes them if they doe but heare tell
That other mens endeauors prosper "well :
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 31
It makes them grieue when any man is friended,
Or in their hearing praised or commended.
Contrariwise againe, such is their spight,
In other mens misfortunes they delight j
Yea, notwithstanding it be not a whit
Vnto their profit, nor their benefit.
Others prosperitie doth make them leane ;
Yea it deuoureth and consumes them cleane :
But if they see them in much griefe, why that
Doth onely make them iocund, full & fat.
Of Kingdomes ruine they best loue to heare
And tragicall reports doth onely cheere
Their hellish thoughts 5 and then their bleared eie9
Can looke on nothing but blacke infamies,
lleprochfull actions, and the fowlest deeds
Of shame that mans corrupted nature breeds :
For they must wink when Vertue shineth bright
For feare her lustre mar their weakned sight."
In the last line her is misprinted their: it is an
obvious error, which I corrected.
Mortox. And makes nonsense of the conclusion
of a fine passage.
Elliot. It is a fine passage upon the whole,
though there are weak lines in it. The qualities of
Envy have seldom been better described by any of
the thousand writers that have touched it. The
finest character that Churchill ever wrote, I mean
that in the beginning of his Rosciad, is not much
better than part of what you have just read.
32 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. I remember reading in old Gower's
Confessio Amantis, where he introduces the well
known fable of vEsop, the following- lines regarding
Envy, which remind one of Wither.
" Where I my selfe may not auaile
To sene another mans trauaile,
I am right glad if he be lette,
And though I fare not the bet,
His sorrow is to myn herte a gaine."
Bourne. And in another place he describes the
envious as " sicke of another mans hele," which is
just the same as Wither's line " It is a grief that
springs from other's good."
Elliot. That of course has been its chief cha-
racteristic from the earliest times, without it it is not
Envy ; tristitia de bonis alienis. Churchill, whom I
before mentioned, carries it one degree further ;
" With that malignant envy which turns pale
And sickens even if a friend prevail/'
which is a line addition, and constitutes his su-
periority.
Bourne. Whetstone, who is not generally a fa-
vourite with me, in his •'English Myrror," 1586', has
rather a good saying on the subject of Envy : if a
man " be enuious, (says he) he dare not recyte so
much as the name of enuie ; the reason is, this pas-
sion is so fowle and infamous, as it stinketh in the
opinion of him that is infected therewith."
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 33
Morton. Is not that " English Myrror" one of
the books you promised to show us, but have not
yet performed your promise ?
Bourne. Not that I remember, but here it is if
you wish to see it.
Elliot. Does it contain any thing worth seeing?
Bourne. Many things, but principally in a histo-
rical point of view, as it refers to various events in
the reign of Elizabeth previous to its date (1586),
and more especially to the conspiracies against the
Queen. It is called, "The English Myrror. A Re-
gard, wherein all estates may behold the Conquests
of Enuy." This is the subject of the first book j the
second is called " Enuy conquered by Vertue," mean-
ing the virtue of the Queen, and the third, " A for-
tresse against Enuy."
Morton. Is any poetry interspersed in the vo-
lume r
Bourne. Yes ; but not much, and that bad, as
you can judge from the subsequent specimen, which
you may take my word for it is the best : he has
been referring to Dionysius and Damocles in Book II.
" There is no fort that seemeth safe or strong,
There is no foode, that yeeldes a sauery tast 5
The sweetest Lute and best composed song,
The chirping byrds that in the woods are plast
Sound no delight, but as a man forlorne,
The silent night doth seeme an vgly hell,
VOL. II. I)
34 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
The softest bedde a thycket full of thorne,
Vnto the heart where tyranny doth dwell :
Whose mind presents, through horror and through
dread,
A naked sword still falling on his head."
Elliot. Those lines certainly justify the opinion
you have given.
Bourne. He was but an indifferent poet, though
he wrote much, and particularly elegiac or funeral
poems, one of which, on Sir I\ Sidney, I formerly
noticed ; he refers to some of these in the dedication
to the third book of his English Myrror, where he
says that several " worthy personages, which in my
time are deceased, haue had the second life of their
vertues bruted by my Muse."
Morton. Can you refer us to any particular part
worth reading ?
Bourne. The whole is well worth reading as a
work of much study and learning, now and then
diversified with a humorous tale or anecdote ; as
the following of a Vicar of Croydon before the re-
formation, who kept a" daughter of the game" in his
vicarage, being of course forbidden to marry. " As
(says Whetstone) hee thought to take away all suspi-
tion of his misbehauiour, made a vehement Sermon
against Lecherie, and agravated the vengeaunces
of that sinne, with all the authorities which he
could recite in the Scripture; earnestlie exhorting
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 35
his Parishioners, to cleanse the towne of that damna-
ble & filthie iniquitie : whereuppon one of the
Church-wardens (that knew the Viccar had violated
his vowe) cryed out, Master Viccar if you will giue
vs example, by purging the Church-yarde, wee will
bee careful to cleanse the rest of the Parish. The
Viccar smelling the meaning of the Church-warden,
pleasantlie to huddle vp the matter, replied that the
Church-warden spake without reason 5 for, quoth
he, the Church-yarde is the appointed place to re-
ceiue the most filthie Carrion of the worlde ; and
withall wished the people not to mistake him, for he
onely spake of the sinne, but meddled not with the
sinner."
Elliot. That is fair enough.
Bourne. And the author's application of the jest is
better : I could point out other amusing extracts, but
it is scarcely worth while now to go out of our way
for them. Speaking of Physicians in the first book
lie states that " a gentleman of Vermis" (for Whet-
stone had travelled in Italy, as he mentions else-
where) " one a time supping with a Phisition in
Padua, marueiled that the Phisitions, who in shorte
space finde a remedie for the most violent newe
disease that raigneth, can not cure as well as giue
ease to the Gowt, an auncient maladie. Which
doubt, the Doctor thus pleasauntly resolued. () Sir,
(quoth hee) the Gowte is the proper disease of the
riche, and wee liuc not by the poorej it may sullice
36 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
that they finde ease; but to prescribe a cure, to
beggar our facultye, were a great follye."
Morton. And to the present day they have kept
up the artifice ; only with this difference, that now
they seem to find it their interest not even to
give the sufferer any ease under his torments from
" arthritic tyranny," as Dr. Johnson calls it in one
of his minor poems.
Elliot. Massinger, in his "Emperor of the East/'
has a passage somewhat similar, where Paulinus is
discovered with the gout, attended by a surgeon,
who for a time has lessened the acuteness of his
pain 3 Paulinus says that he would give the moiety
of his fortune to ensure a continuance of his respite,
and the surgeon answers,
" If I could cure
The gout, my Lord, without the Philosopher's stone
I should soon purchase ; it being a disease
In poor men very rare, and in the rich
The cure impossible."
Bourne. He means impossible from the habitual
luxuriousness of their habits : Whetstone's Physician
said a cure was impossible from a very different and
politic cause.
Morton. It would not have done for the surgeon
to have actually told Paulinus, suffering under the
disease, that it was against the interest of the faculty
to discover and introduce a cure.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 37
Bourne. We will now close Whetstone's "English
Myrror," and before we leave him just look at his
" Mirour for Magestrates of Cyties," 1584, which is
a rarer work, and is directed against the practices at
Dicing Houses, Taverns, Ordinaries, Stews, &c. in
the city. The latter part of this pamphlet, called
" An Addition : or Touchstone for the Time," is the
most curious, though perhaps not so much so, as
the title would lead one to expect. He inveighs
with great zeal against the corruptions of his day,
but in terms rather too general, and he had reason
to abuse them, for at the end he states that he had
been a great sufferer. " No man (he observes) was
euer assaulted with a more daungerous strategeme
of cosonage than my selfe with which my life and
liuing was hardly beset. No man hath more cause
to thanke God for a free deliuery than my selfe, nor
anie man euer sawe more suddaine vengeance in-
flicted vpon his aduersaries, than I my selfe of mine."
Morton. He gives no particulars, does he, of his
narrow escape and signal revenge ?
Bourne. None, but he refers to his " Rocke
of Regarde." I will not go through his violent
abuse of gaming houses, ordinaries, &c. but merely
(as we shall have occasion to look at the tract again)
read the following singular anecdote, told of one of
the judges of his time. " Olde Judge Chomley
euermore aunswered naughtie liuers that sued for
mercie desiring him to regard the frailtie of young
38 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
men by the boldc and unlawful actions of his owne
youth, and by the testimonie of his grace, good for-
tune, and present authoritie, to conceiue hope of
their amendment : O my friendes, (moth the Judge,
I tel you plainly that of twentie that in those dayes
were my companions, I onely escaped hanging, and
it is very like that some one of your fellowship is by
Gods goodncsse reserued to be an honest man; but
you are found offenders by theLawe, and truely ius-
tice (whose sentence I am sworne to pronounce) com -
maundeth me to commend your soules to Almightie
(md, and your bodies to the Gallowse."
Elliot. lie was determined, at all events, that
none of those before him should have a chance of
reforming, and becoming an honest man.
Bourne. Although Whetstone was rather a vo-
luminous author, there are circumstances to show
that he was not popular, and among them the fact
that as ins printer, Richard Jones, could not sell his
" Mirour for Magistrates of Cyties" under that title
(though sulliciently taking one would have imagined,
recollecting the great popularity of a work well
known, and with nearly a similar name) he re-
published it in 1586 under the new title of " The
Knemie of \ nthryftinesse, (Nc. discouering the vn-
sufferable Abuses raigning in our happie English
comon wealth :" the title-page is the only dif-
ference, ;is all the body of the work is the identical
impression of 1.">S4, a number of copies remaining
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 39
on hand, notwithstanding a sort of advertisement by
the author at the end of his " English Myrror,"
Morton. Then it contains no alterations or ad-
ditions of any kind.
Bourne. I was in error when I said that the title
only was new, because at the back of it there is
another novelty of some interest — I mean a list of
the Avorks which Whetstone had published up to
1586 : they are arranged as follows, but not chrono-
logically, as you will see in a moment.
" 1 The Enemie of Vnthryftinesse
2 The Itocke of Regarde
3 The honourable Reputation and Morall Ver-
tues of a Souldier
4 The Heptameron of Cyuill Discourses
5 The Tragicall Comedie of Promos & Cassandra
(J The lyfe and death of M. G. Gascoyne
7 The lyfe and death of the graue & honorable
Maiestrat Sir Nicholas Bacon, late L. keeper
8 The lyfe and death of the good L. Dyer
i) The lyfe and death of the noble Earle of Sussex
10 A Mirrour of true Honor shewinge the lyfe,
death and Yertues of Frauncis Earle of Bed-
forde."
To these are added, " BooJces ready to be printed."
" 11 A Panoplie of deuises
1 c 2 The English Mirour
13 The linage of Christian Iuslice.'
40 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
This list, not hitherto mentioned, J apprehend will
settle some doubtful points, as to the works of
Whetstone.
Elliot. But are they worth settling ?
Bourne. Perhaps not, or not worth much labour
in settling. In the last page but one of his " Touch-
stone for the Time " the author speaks of a forth-
coming work called " The Blessings of Peace," but
I fancy that this was included in the f< English
Myrror," as much of the third book is devoted to
that subject.
Elliot. I think you have now had scope enough
for your antiquarian mania, which has been attended,
that I can perceive, with no material advantage,
unless it be one to divert us from the course we
were pursuing. How we travelled backwards from
Wither to Whetstone I know not.
Morton. And I "very little care, as long as we
gain the object we have in view.
Bourne. Well, I have done. We will now return
to Wither's " Abuses stript & whipt." I must say,
however, that you have had your share of entertain-
ment out of the jokes I read, both of the Vicar of
Croydon, and of the Physician and the Gout.
Morton. He is only in the ordinary case ; affect-
ing a little to despise what he does not understand.
But let us go on with Wither.
Bourne. What I am now going to read is in the
same satire as our last extract : he is touching upon
the manner in winch envy affected even him :
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 41
" So I haue found
The blast of enuy flies as low's the ground,
And though it hath already brought a man
Euen vnto the meanest state it can
Yet tis not satisfied, but still diuising
Which way it also may disturbe his rising :
This I know true, or else it could not be
That any man should hate or enuy me,
Being a creature (one would thinke) that's plast
Too low for to be toucht with amies blast :
And yet 1 am ; I see men haue espi'd
Some-thing in me too that may be enui'd ;
But I haue found it now, and know the matter ;
By reason they are rich, and He not flatter ;
Yes 5 and because they see that I doe scorne
To be their slaue whose equall I am borne."
Elliot. That is closed in a fearless spirit of in-
dependence : the whole extract is eloquent.
Mortox. It is a touch of the levelling republican
which "Wither afterwards turned out to be.
Bourne. I think you mistake ; he is there speak-
ing only of his equality with the rich in being the
work of God, with the same faculties and under-
standing. There is no more republicanism there
than some of the most loyal, not to say the most
flattering, poets have at times expressed. Skelton,
who cannot be charged with too much independence
of mind, even in the reign of Henry ATI I., speaks
42 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
quite as freely in his interlude of " Magnificence,"
printed by Rastell.
" Or how can you proue that there is felycyte
And you haue not your ownc fre lyberte;
To sporte at your pleasure to ryn and to ryde ?
"Where lyberte is absent set welthe aside."
Mortox. He is alluding, I fancy, to mere personal
freedom from restraint, which is quite a different
thing*. lie might state that without any chance of
giving offence.
Bourne. What you say is true : I allow too, that
throughout Wither speaks with the utmost plain-
ness, and gives more than glimpses of the part he
was afterwards to take as a supporter of a republican
government : for instance, the following lines upon
the follies and vices of Kings are very strikingly in
point, and rendered more emphatic by Italics.
" Princes haue these — they uery basely can
Sailer themselues that haue the rule of man,
To be oreborne by Villaines ; so in steed
Of kings they stand, when they are slaues indeed.
IjV blond & wrong a heauenly Crowne thei'l danger,
'.["assure their state heere (Often to a stranger.)
They quickly yeeld vnto the Batteries
Of sly insinuating flatteries :
Most bountiful] to fooles — to full of feare,
And far to credulous of that they heare :
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 43
So giuen to pleasure, as if in that thing
Consisted all the Office of a King !"
(Book II. Sat. I.)
Morton. Yet we have seen that he thought well
of King James.
Bourne. And spoke well of him too, as he does
only a few lines afterwards: he says that he cannot
" but speak well" of him, and that no sovereign had
ever less vanity — about the last weakness, in our
sense of the word, from which we should have been
inclined to exempt him : however, the poet applies it
in a much more extended way.
Elliot. As empty ostentation, vanity, or pride in
equipages, apparel, and so on.
Bourne. Exactly. As we have seen how he treats
I'rinees, we will now read a very spirited passage
about nobles, from the second satire of the second
book, entitled Inconstancy.
« Nobility
That comes by birth hath most antiquity,
Some thinke ; and tother (if at all
They yeeld as noble) they an vpstart call :
But I say rather no — his XobIencs.se
Thats rais'd by Vertue hath most tvorthinesse,
And is most ancient, for it is the same
By which all Great men first obtaind their Fame.
So then 1 hope 'twill not offend the Court ,
That 1 count some there with the Vulgar sort,
14 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
And outset others : yet some thinke me bold.
Because there's few that these opinions hold ;
But shall I care what others thinke or say ?
There is a path besides the beaten way !"
Elliot. Admirable ! I know of nothing liner in
its way, either ancient or modern.
Morton. I was afraid when we came to the
lines —
" But I say rather no — his nobleness
That's rais'd by virtue hath most worthiness/'
that he was going to end the sentence as he had
begun it ; but what a striking and noble close is
formed by the couplet —
" And is most ancient — for it is the same
By which all great men first obtain'd their fame."
Elliot. It goes far beyond the common-place of
antiquity — Animus Jacit nobilcm, cut ex quacunque
conditione , &c.
Bourne. Jt is a very noble thought, and produces
the better effect from its being, as they say, prater
expectatum. The last two lines of the quotation do
not fall short of the rest.
Elliot. In Ascham's " Schoolmaster" I remember
a very eloquent censure of mere nobility transmitted
with the blood, ending with these words, " Nobility
without virtue and wisdom is blood indeed, but blood
truly without bones & sinews."
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 45
Bocrxe. Anthony Stafford, a writer I have often
quoted, is not behindhand when he says, in his Niobe
dessolud into a Nilus (16T1), " I can brooke better
a fellow that hath bought his new-found nobility
with nobles, than another of an high birth and of a
low stooping spirit, who can iustly brag of nothing of
his owne, but liues upon the supererrogative deeds of
his ancestors."'
Morton. I dare say one might collect as many
excellent sayings upon this stale theme, as upon any
that has been dwelt upon either in the old time or in
the new.
Elliot. That Stafford seems to have been an
eloquent fellow : I should like to be better acquainted
with him. I remember you, in a manner, proved that
Milton was well acquainted with his writings.
Bourne. He seems to have been a strange wild
enthusiast, upon religious topics especially : as a
puritan he was very much like what Robert Southwell
was as a Jesuit.
Elliot. What is the object of his book ?
Bourne. It is in two divisions, one called " Niobe,'''
and the other " Niobe dissolu'd into a Nilus;" and it
is a general but vigorous declamation against the
vices and profaneness of the age. — In his "Niobe"
(p. 1 12), he has the subsequent passage on the subject
to which we have been referring, which will give you
some notion of his style. " O ! but Gentry now
degenerates! Nobilitie is now come to be inula re-
Hi SIXTH CONVERSATION,
latio, a meere bare relation and nothing else. How
manie Flayers haue I seene vpon a stage, fit indeede
to be Noblemen! how many that he Noblemen, iii
onely to represent them. — Why, this can Fortune
do, who makes some companions of her Chariot,
who for desert should be lackies to her Ladiship.
Let me want pittie if I dissolue not into pittie when
I see such poore stuffe vnder rich stuffe ; that is a
bodie riehlie clad, whose mind is capable of nothing
but a hunting match, a racket-court, or a cock-pit,
or at most the story of Susanna in an ale-house.
Rise, Sidney, rise ! thou Englands eternall honour !
Reuiue and lead the reuolting spirits of thy countrey-
men, against the basest foe, Ignorance. But what
talke I of thee? Heauen hath not left earth thy
equall: neither do 1 thinke that ah orbe condito,
since Nature first was, any man hath beene in whom
Genus and Genius met so right. Thou Atlas to all
vertues ! Thou 1 Iereules to the Muses ! Thou patron
to the poor! Thou deservst a Quire of ancient Burdi
to sing thy praises, who with their musickes melody
might expresse thy soules harmonic. Were the
transmigration of soules certaine — I would thy soule
had Hitted into my bodie or wold thou wert aliue
again, that we might lead an indiuiduall life together !
Thou wast not more admired at home then famous
abroad ; thy penne and thy s\\ ord being the J I< rabies
of thy Heroieke deedes." And in this strain he pro-
ceeds for several pages more.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 17
Morton. The style is very peculiar, and though
pedantic and affected, there is much force about it.
Bourne. He is full of rhapsodies, but they are
eloquent ; and he was evidently both a very pious
and a very learned man. There were two editions
of his work, which is now rarely to be met with ; and
it seems that after the first was published (to which
the " Niobe Dissolu'd into a Nilus" was not added),
he was not a little ridiculed for the passage I have
just read, where he appears to put himself in com-
parison with Sir Philip Sidney. This angered him
not a little, and accordingly to the second edition he
prefixed an address " to the long-ear'd Reader,'' in
which he repels the -charge, maintaining, at the same
time, that Sir P. Sidney had actually shown himself
to him in a vision.
Elliot. This was only rendering it still more
laughable.
Bourne. Certainly, but he relates it with the most
simple seriousness, and adds, that the " miracle of
nature" addressed him in these terms : " Generous
Gentleman, whose neuer-glozing spirit this fawning
age will neuer reward, my soule bowes herselfe to
thee, and breathes her loue vpon thee, for making
her immortall to all mortalitie : a benefit for the
which Ingratitude herselfe would yeeld thanks."
Elliot. He was very likely a man of strong feel-
ings, but he must have had a weak judgment to
suppose that he would be believed in this strange
story, even at that credulous day.
4S SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. He expressly says that it will be attri-
buted to his wild and fervid imagination, but he
nevertheless insists upon the perfect truth of what
he relates.
Morton. In turning over Wither, I have stumbled
upon a passage that refers to Sir Philip Sidney.
Bourne. It is one which I had intended to show
you, as it mentions not only Sidney but Drayton,
Ben Jonson, and several other poets. Bead it.
Morton. It is in the third satire of the second
book. He has been speaking of King James's works,
and of the general value of poetry ; that though the
inspiration is only partially given to some few in
this life, " All shall have't perfect in the World to
come," and then he proceeds.
" This in defence of Poesic to say
I am compel'd, because that at this day
JVcakencssc and Ignorance hath wrong'd it sore :
But what neede any man therein speake more
Then Diuinc Sidney hath already done ?
From whom (though he deceas'd e're I begun)
I haue oft sighed, and bewail' d my Fate
That brought me foorth so many yeeres too late
To view that ivort/iy; And now, thinke not you,
Oh Daniel, Draiton, lonson, Chapman, how
I long to see you with your fellow Peeres ;
Diuinc Siluedcr, glory of these yeeres!
I hitherto haue onely heard your fames
And know you yet hut by your workes and names.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 4 9
The little time I on the earth haue spent,
Would not allow me any more content :
I long to know you hetter that's the truth ;
I am in hope you'l not disdaine my Youth."
Elliot. A very amiable, diffident young man, and
a very laudable wish.
Bourne. I do not think that in any thing I have
read by Wither, he can be fairly accused of arrogance,
though he takes upon himself to lash the vices of
his age: he knew that he loved honesty and in-
genuousness, and hated fraud and artifice, and as
he could not be mistaken in them, he speaks plainly
and fearlessly. His political tracts, in which he at-
tempts to produce certain changes and reforms in the
state, were written at a much more advanced period
of his life. But we have now seen as much of his
satires as perhaps is necessary : before, however, we
leave Sir P. Sidney, introduced by Wither, let me
show you a very great literary curiosity.
Mortox. By all means : what is it ?
Bourne. I wish it were a work of more intrinsic
merit ; but, I assure you, it is of the rarest occur-
rence. v
Elliot. It generally happens that the greatest
rarities are of least actual value, or why, as a living
critic has asked, have they become such rarities ?
Bourxe. That rule will by no means apply in all
cases.
50 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Do not argue the point, but produce
the book : my curiosity of one kind is as great as
the book's of another.
Bourne. You remember the funeral poem I brought
before you by Whetstone on the death of .Sir P.
Sidney; this, in my hand, is a production of the
same kind on the same subject.
Morton. By whom?
Bourne. John Phillip or Phillips. Ritson intro-
duces him into his catalogue as the author of C!eo-
menes and Sophonisba, 1577 5 ' Jl 't the bibliographer
had never seen nor heard of this tract, nor of another
on the death of the Countess of Lenox, which is
almost of equal rarity.
Morton. Bead the title, if you please.
Bourne. I will, at length, for you may never hear
it again. It is this : " The Life and Death of Sir
Phillip Sidney, late Lord Gouernour of Flushing :
His funerals Solemnized in Paules Churche where he
lyeth interred; with the whole order of the mourn-
full shewe as they marched thorowe the citie of
London on Thursday the 16 of February, 1587- At
London. Printed by Robert Waldegraue," &c. ! 587-
Morton. And now allow me to take your relic
into my own hands.
Bourne. The dedication, you will see, is to the
Earl of Essex, and signed by the author, but it is
not worth reading.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 51
Elliot. Tell us what part of it is worth reading,
if you please, and if you can.
Boukxe. The poem is in the fashionable style of
the Mirror for Magistrates, Sir P. Sidney's ghost
very awkwardly relating his own story. I say
awkwardly, because he is made, not like the ghosts
in the Mirror for Magistrates, to warn their hearers
by the story of their failings, vices, and consequent
misfortunes, but to recount his own deeds, and to
belaud his own virtues most liberally.
Morton. That is very absurd and injudicious. It
opens, I observe, rather singularly ;
" You noble Brutes bedeckt with rich renowne."
Elliot. Upon my word, Phillips did not care
much to conciliate his hearers, when he calls them
brutes: however they are " noble brutes," and " be-
deck'd with rich renown."
Moktox. That makes some amends. Phillips
ought to have been the author of the tract you
showed us on " the Nobleness of the Ass."
Boukxe. Of course he means by Brutes Britons^
the descendants of Brute, only two syllables did not
suit his line.
Moktox. I perceive that we shall stop, or be
stopped, very soon in our reading of this production.
" You noble Brutes bedeckt with rich renowne,
That in this world haue worldly wealth at will,
Muse not at me, though death haue cut me downe,
1: 2
52 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
For from my graue I speake vnto you still.
Whilst life I had I neuer meant you ill ;
Then thinke on me that close am coucht in clay
And know I liue though death wrought my decay.
" I neede not I record my bloud ne birth,
For why? to you my parentage is knownej
My mould was clay, my substance was but earth
And now the earth enioyes againe her owne :
My race is runne, my daies are ouerthrowne.
Yet Lordings list, your patience here I craue,
Ileare Sidneis plea discussed from the graue."
Elliot. So that the " noble brutes" after all, are
Lordings. Upon my word it is wretched stuff.
Bourne. " Qicanto io posso dar tutto vi dono." I
suppose he could write nothing better.
Elliot. Then first, why write at all ; and secondly,
if he wrote, why should we read ?
Morton. It was worth thus much time, if only
for the amusement Mr. John Phillips has afforded us.
Bourne. You must hear two more stanzas, and
I have done : it is from one of the most ridiculous
parts of the piece, where Sidney "rings out a pane-
gyric on himself," after applauding Queen Elizabeth
to the seventh heavens.
" In martiall feates I settled my delight ;
The stately steede 1 did bestride with ioj
At tilt and turney oft I tride my might,
In these exployts I neuer felt annoy.
My worthie friends in amies did oft imploy
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 53
Themselues with me to breake the shiuring speare ;
But now my want they wail with many a teare.
" My spoused Avife, my Lady and my lone
whilst life I had did know my tender hart,
But God that rules the rowling skies aboue
Did thincke it meete Ave should againe depart.
His Avill is done, death is my dew desart!
She Avants her make, I fro my deare am gon ;
She liues behind her louer true to morne,"
Morton. That is not quite sueh extravagant
eulogy as I expected.
Bourne. It is only the fag-end of it, if I may so
say : Sidney is very warm in his admiration of him-
self in some places.
Elliot. Or rather his spirit is Aery warm in its
admiration of his body: recollect thev are noAV di-
stinct and separate, and one may praise the other
without any charge of egotism.
Bourne. But perhaps the greatest absurdity of
all is the minute detail the spirit gives of the Avhole
solemnity and procession at the funeral of the body.
At length the line, " Thus from my grave I bid you
all adieu," Avinds up the poem.
Elliot. "Was it Avorth while to interrupt our course
through the satirists for such a production?
Bourne. " Since it is past, all argument is vain."
Noav then for Richard Brathwayte, a name with
which you are not unacquainted, but whose volume
:>4 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
of satires and other poems, I fancy., you have never
seen, for they are much more scarce than any of his
prose pieces. It will not be necessary, however, to
read more than one or two extracts, as he was an
imitator of George Wither, and by no means equal
to his prototype. His title is this: " Times Cur-
tain e drawne or the Anatomic of Vanitie with other
choice Poems, entituled Health from Helicon ; h\
Richard Brathwayte Oxonian," 1621.
Morton. I have seen the title before, but in what
way do you trace the imitation of Wither ?
Bourne. In the general style of the satires, and in
the manner in which the work is disposed. Wither's
" Abuses stript and whipt," had attracted much
notice, and Brathwayte, early in his production, pro-
fesses great admiration for him. In one place he says,
in allusion to the punishment Wither had met with,
" Tutch not Abuses but with modest lipp
For some I know were whipt that thought to whip,"
adding in the margin this note, " One whom I ad-
mire, being no lesse happie for his natiue inuention
than excellent for his proper and elegant dimension.' 7
The latter part of the compliment refers to Wither's
finely proportioned figure.
Elliot. Does Brathwayte take warning by the
sufferings of Wither, and " touch abuses but with
modest lip ?"
Bourne. I think not ; but Wither had been libe-
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 55
rated, as some suppose, almost on a repetition of his
offence — his satire to the king ; and this, if true,
perhaps made his follower more bold : he is even
coarser than Wither in some places. In his first
satire on Riches, he says of the wealthy, for instance,
" For who are wise but Rich-men, or who can
Find the golden meane but the golden man r
He is Earth's darling, and in time will be
Hell's darling too ; for who's so fit as her"
Morton. He takes care, I dare say, to make his
satire general?
Elliot. Yet Pope observes,
" The fewer still you name, you wound the more 5
Bond is but one, while Harpax is a score."
Bourxe. Or in the words of that satirical song in
" the Beggar's Opera,"
'■ Each cries, that was lcvell'd at me."
The subsequent extract on the subject of dress, will
show that Brathwayte was a writer of some power.
" For who (remebring the cause why cloths were
made)
Even then when Adam fled vnto the shade
For couert of his Nakcducsse, will not blame
Himself to glorie in his Parents shame?
Weepe, weepe, ( Phantasticke Minion J fur to thee
My grieued passion turnes : O may I be
Cause of conuersion to thy selfe, that art
Compos'd of man, and therefore I beare part
56" SIXTH CONVERSATION.
In thy distracted habit : ougly peece
(For so I tearme thee) Woman-monster cease ;
Cease to corrupt the excellence of minde,
By soiling it with such an odious rinde,
Or shamelesse Couer ! Waining wauering Moone,
That spends the morne in decking thee till noone!
Hast thou no other ornaments to weare
But such wherein thy lightest thoughts appeare ?
Hast thou no other honour, other Fame,
Saue roabes which make thee glory in thy shame r"
Elliot. That is strenuous enough, and the allu-
sion to Adam, with its application, happy.
Morton. He seems rougher than Wither: if he
do not jerk so keenly, he appears to lay on his
scourge more heavily.
Bourne. One more specimen from his satires shall
suffice for the present, at least. It is from the second,
where he is adverting to the usual concomitant of
poetry — poverty.
Elliot. There is no class of men who complain
so bitterly of poverty as poets, who are always, at
the same time, boasting that they are above the sordid
love of money j yet they are always making them-
selves the objects of ridicule by their murmurs.
Bourne. They complain most because, probably,
they feel most ; and their complaints arc oftenest
remembered because they perpetuate them bv put-
ting them in black and white : but hear Brathwayte
on this point.
SIXTH CONVERSATION. f>7
" Take comfort then, for thou shalt see on earth
Most of thy coate to be of greatest worth ;
Though not in state, for who ere saw but merit
Was rather borne to begge than to inherit ?
Yet in the gifts of nature we shall finde
A ragged coate oft haue a lloyall minde :
For to descend to each distinct degree
By due experience we the same shall see.
If to Parnassus where the Muses are,
There shall we finde their Dyet very bare 3
Their houses ruind and their well-springs dry,
Admir'd for nought so much as Pouertie.
Here shall we see poore yEschi/lus maintaine
His nighterne studies with his daily paine,
Pulling up Buckets but twas neuer knowne
That filling others he could fill his owne.
Here many more discerne we may of these,
As Lamachus, and poore Antisthenes,
Both which the sweetes of Poesie did sipp
Yet were rewarded with a staff and scrippj
For I nere knew nor (much I feare) shall know it,
Any die rich that liu'd to die a Poet."
Morton. It would have been more curious if he
had made some allusions to those of his own time
who were sufferers.
Bourne. It would, but he does not hint at any of
them. He writes always in a bold and often in an
energetic strain : the following six lines commence
a poem, in the second division of " Times Curtaine
drawne," called " The Great-mans Alphabet."
58 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
" Come hither Great-man, that triumphs to see
So many men of lower ranke to thee ;
That swells with honours, and erects thy state
As high as if thou wer't Earths Potentate!
Thou whose aspiring buildings raise thy name,
As if thou wer't the sonne and heyre of fame."
This, you will admit, is very spirited ; and most of
the piece is not inferior, though of a grave, moral
cast. This is all I think necessary to read from
Brathwayte.
Morton. If I do not mistake, the title-page men-
tions " other choice poems, entitled Health from
Helicon," — what are they?
Bourne. Chiefly miscellaneous subjects, and not
very good.
Morton. Nor curious r
Bourne. Unless we except the following passage
from one of the pieces, called " Ebrius Experiens,"
in which the author attempts to vindicate his easily
besetting- sin, drunkenness.
Elliot. Let us hear that, for as the iirst Spectator
says, we are always deeply interested about the per-
sonal appearance, peculiarities, and habits of authors:
Montaigne too remarks, though with a different ap-
plication, Jene vols jamah Aid car que jc ue recherche
curieusement quclque il a tie.
Bourne. The lines, then, are these,
" Some say I drinke too much to write good lines ;
Indeed, I drinke more to obscruc the Times,
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 5«»
And for the lone I bear vnto my friend,
To hold him chat than any other end.
Yea, my obseruance tells me I haue got
More by discoursing sometimes o're the pot,
Than if I had good fellowship forsooke,
And spent that home in poring on a booke."
Elliot. There seems nothing very new in his
arguments, at least in what you have read.
Bourne. Nor in any of them. It is only doing
exactly what Sir T. Wyatt censures in some lines
(juoted on a former day, viz. giving to every vice the
name of the nearest virtue, " as drunkenness good
fellowship to call."
Elliot. Brathwayte then concludes the series of
the English satirists you intend to bring before us?
Bourne, lie does; but it cannot, with any pro-
priety, be called a scries, for some omissions have
been made by design, and a few because the books
were of such extreme rarity that I could not procure
the use of them.
Morton. You have purposely refrained from
touching upon translations from the classic satirists,
yet, with a view to this subject, I borrowed a very
small tract, which my friend assured me was seldom
to be met with, though only a translation : it is by
an author I have frecpiently heard you praise — Chap-
man.
Bourne. Satires translated by Chapman? I have
never seen any.
60 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Here is the tract, and the following is
its title, " A Justification of a strange action of Nero ;
in burying with a Solemne Fvnerall one of the ca.^t
Hayres of his Mistresse Poppaeia. Also a iust re-
proofe of a Romane smell-Feast, being the fifth
Satire of Ivvenall. Translated by George Chap-
man," 1629.
Bourne. I remember it now, but I have never
seen the tract, and Kitson mentions it as two works,
when in truth it is only one, which proves that he
was in the same condition. It is a very curious piece
indeed.
Elliot. From that author we have surely a right
to expect something more than curious.
Morton. I skimmed it over hastily last night,
and I am sorry to say that I saw but little in it to
admire.
Bourne. Perhaps not : we are to recollect that at
the time it. was printed the author was not less than
7 f 2 years old, and that during the whole of his long
life he had been a laborious writer, living probably
entirely by his pen.
Morton. Vet at the very time when lie published
it, he tells us, in the dedication to Richard Hubert
Esq., that he has " some worthier work" in hand:
the whole passage is a singular one with reference to
himself and his labours, lie first complains, that
" greate workes get little regard," adding, ' f as it is
now the fashion to iustilie Strange Actions, I (vtterly
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 61
against mine owne fashion) followed the vulgar, &
assaid what might be said for iustification of a
Strange Action of Nero :" he observes next, in
terms, that he throws out this piece as a tub to the
whale, " hauing yet once more some worthier
worke then this Oration, & following Translation, to
passe the sea of the land, exposed to the land and
vulgar Leuiathan." " The rather because the
Translation containing in two or three instances, a
preparation to the iustification of my ensuing in-
tended Translations, lest some should account them,
as they haue my former conuersions, in some places
licences, bold ones, and vtterly redundant."
Bourne. His " ensuing intended Translation,"
I conjecture, must have been of the whole of the
satires of Juvenal and Fersius, of which this was a
foretaste, and which he did not live to complete.
Elliot. This tract before us then, was his last
production. When did he die, do you recollect ?
Bourne. Kitson says, in lb'34, but he refers to no
authority. Chapman always, as he has done above,
expressed a great disgust at, and contempt for, the
applause of the vulgar : particularly in the prefatory
matter to his " Memorable Masque" of the Middle
Temple and Lincolns Inn (1613), where he is speak-
ing of true poets and true poetry. " Euery vulgarly-
esteemed vpstart dares breake the dreadfull dignity
of antient and authenticall Poesie, and presume
Luciferously to proclame in place thereof, repugnant
C2 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
precepts of their owne spaune. Truth & Worth
haue no faces to enamour the Licentious, but vaine-
glory and humor : the same body, the same beaut}',
a thousand men seeing', onely the man whose bloud
is fitted, hath that which he calls his soule ena-
moured."
Elliot. Yet I dare say he had not half as much
reason for his anger as Ben Jonson, when in the
" apologetical dialogue" subjoined to his " Poet-
aster," in a rage almost sublime, he exclaims,
" Oh, this would make a learn'd <x liberal soul
To rive his stained quill up to the back,
And damn his long-wateh'd labours to the fire !"
But I did not intend to interrupt you in what you
were reading from the pamphlet you brought with you.
Morton. In the address " to the Reader," Chap-
man vindicates what he supposes some will consider
liberties taken with, and enlargements of, his original,
observing that it is " a most asinine error" to sup-
pose that translations to be good must be " in as
few words and in like order" as the original author
employed, and upon one passage in particular he re-
marks with some apparent arrogance, " but the sense
I might wish my betters could render no worse."
Boukxe. Arrogance ! surely self-confidence would
have been a much more applicable word.
Elliot. Either, I think, would there be inappli-
cable, for Chapman is not talking of his own capa-
SIXTH CONVERSATION. 63
bilitv as a poet, but merely of " the sense/' as a
faithful renderer of the work on which he was en-
gaged : he claims to himself no more merit than we
might give to a schoolboy.
Morton. On reading it again I find I did him in-
justice. The '■' Funerall Oration" is in fact a prose
satire, or burlesque, upon treating trifles as matters
of serious importance, and it contains, in my opinion,
nothing very well worth reading : the translation
from Juvenal, I fear, is not much better.
Bourne. We must have a quotation from that,
although it is merely a translation, and not precisely
within our limits, and although it may not lie a first
rate performance of the kind.
Mokton. I think the following lines some of the
best.
" First take it for a Rule, that if my Lord
Shall once be pleas'd to grace thee with his bord,
The whole reuenues that thy hopes inherit,
Rising from seruices of ancient merit,
In tins requital amply paid will prooue.
O 'tis the fruit of a transcendent loue
To giue one victuals ! That thy Table-King
Layes in thy dish, though nere so thinne a thing,
Yet that reproch still in thine eares shall ring.
If therefore after two moneths due neglect
He deignes his poore dependent to respect,
And lest the third bench fade to fill the ranck
He shall take the vp to supply the blanck:
64 SIXTH CONVERSATION.
Lots sit together Trebius (saies my Lord)
See all thy wishes sum'd vp in a word !
What canst thou aske at Ioues hand after this ?
This grace to Trebius enough ample is.,
To make him start from sleepe before the Larke
Poasting abroad vntrus'd, & in the darke,
Perplext with feare, lest all the seruile-rout
Of his saluters haue the round run out
Before he come, whiles yet the fixed Starre
Shewes his ambiguous head, & heauens cold Car
The slow Bootes wheeles about the Beare.
And yet, for all this, what may be the cheare ?
To such vile wine thy throat is made the sinck
As greasie woll would not endure to drink ;
And we must shortly looke to see our guest
Transformed into a Berecynthian Priest."
Elliot. The principal fault of that translation is,
that it seems to be, if any thing, too literal : the
writer cramps himself miserably in some of the lines
on this account.
Bourne. Yet a few of them flow with sufficient
ease, and the quotation just read opens very well.
Mortox. The whole is pointed, and more vigor-
ous in some of the expressions than might be ex-
pected from the age of the author.
Bourne. Then here we close for to-day. To-
morrow we will enter upon an examination of a
variety of pieces of a miscellaneous kind.
POETICAL DECAMERON.
THE SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
CONTENTS
OF THE SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Rarities provided for the day — Wynkyn de Worde's " Boke of
keruynge," and Mrs. Glass's Cookery — " Epulario or the Italian
Banquet," 1598, quoted in reference to Shakespeare, &c —
Thomas Churchyard, and Mr. G. Chalmers's Life of him — Ex-
cessive rarity of Churchyard's " Miserie of Flaunders, Calamitie of
Fraunce, &c Troubles of Scotland," &c. 1570, omitted by "War-
ton, Chalmers, Ritson, and all other bibliographers — Dedication
to the Queen— Extracts regarding the " Calamitie of Fraunce" —
Injustice done to Churchyard — Edward Lewicke's " History of
Titus and Gisippus," 1502, and its story told by Boccacio, Day X,
Nov. 8 — Curious specimens of Lewicke's poetry — Proof, contrary
to Walton's assertion, that Lewicke did not translate from Boccacio,
but copied Sir T. Elliot's " Governor," 1534 — Quotation from
Churchyard regarding the " Troubles of Scotlande" — On " the
blessed state of England," from the same; — Churchyard's concern
in the Flemish wars detailed in one of his tracts printed in 157!! —
Spenser's allusion to him in " Colin Clout's come home again,"
and Churchyard's appropriation of it in his " Pleasaunt Discourse
of Court and Wanes," 15!Mi, with his applause of Spenser — His
" Tragedy of Shore's Wife," and the word tragedy, so used, ex-
plained — Jen-is Markham's " Most Honorable Tragedy of Sir
Richard Grinuile Knight," 1595: only one copy of it existing, and
its enormous price — Description of it — Address " to the Fayrest"
— Extract from the body of the poem — The manner of Sir R.
Grenville's deatli disputed — Quotations from a prose tract, dated
in 15111, relating to the conflict in which he fell, and especially to
his death— Robert Markham's " Description of that euer to be
famed Knight, Sir John Burgh," 1628: its absurdity — A MS.
r C Z
GH CONTENTS.
poem by Sir R. Grenville, •* Iii praise of Seafaringe IMen," dis-
covered and quoted — Henry Constable's four un-rcpiinted Sonnets
" to Sir Philip Sidney's souk'." before the " Apologie of Poetrie"
of 15! Jo — Omission of them in Lord Thurlow's recent republica-
tion — Edward Wootton — Sir Henry Wootton's earliest produc-
tion — Bastard's Chrestokros, 15955, cited, regarding him and fish-
ing — Dr. Donne's " Progresse of the Soule," and Jlabclah —
Trajan a fisherman — Izaac Walton and an unknown poem called
" The Love of Amos and Laura," 16*19, dedicated to him — The
dedication extracted — Second edition of Marston's k - Pigmalions
Image," lo'l!) — Opening lines of "The Love of Amos and Laura,"
with observations — Further extract — " Alcilia : Philoparthens
louing Folly," of the same date, and in the same volume — On
love-poems — It. Wilmot's "Tancred and Gismunda," 15!»2, and
Spenser referred to — Philoparthen on the inconsistency of lovers —
Who was Philoparthen ? — Division of his work — Specimen from
it: further quotation — Description of his mistress, from the same,
with criticisms — Dr. Edes, Dean of Worcester, an epigrammatist
according to Bastard — Minor poets of Elizabeth's reign — Barnabe
Googe; his translation of" the Zodiac of Life," and " the Popish
Kingdom," 1570 — " A new yeares gifte," attributed to him by
Ritson, not his — His " Prouerbes of Sir James Lopez de Men-
doza, Marquis of Santillana," &C. 1579 — Its existence doubted —
Quotations from it in praise of women, and on Cutu and Mitfucs
Scax'ola- — Rowland Broughton's poem on the death of the Mar-
quis of Winchester, 1572, noticed by Heloe — Character of Queen
Elizabeth by John Phillips, in his poetical tract on the death of
the Countess of Lenox in 1577.
POETICAL DECAMERON.
THE SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. Having gone through all the English sa-
tirists, as far as you thought necessary, what is our
bill of fare to-day ?
Bourne. If you were that which you are not, an
absolute helluo librorum, your phrase from tbe table
d'hote might be perfectly in character : to follow it
up, as I am to be caterer, I have provided a variety
of dishes.
Morton. Rare and highly seasoned, I hope.
Elliot. We need not fear that, they will be savoury
enough. The fault of these musty, greasy, worm-
eaten relics generally is, that they are a little too high.
Morton. Yet you seem to have learnt to relish
them much better than when first we began our con-
versations.
Bourne. To drop the figure, here is a small pile
of books of a miscellaneous character that I have
looked out for our amusement, which contains no-
70 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
thing but literary curiosities : — I mean that their
extreme rarity is even more distinguishing than the
positive and intrinsic value of several of them.
Elliot. Then in what order are we to take them,
or are we to proceed for the present without system r
Bourne. I apprehend that you will find in our
progress something of the " order in confusion" of
the poet, for most of the tracts are connected in one
way or another.
Morton. If they were not, it would not much
signify; therefore let us enter upon the examination
of this small pile of books, as you call it, without
loss of time. Who is the first author? " Tho.
Churchyard, Gent."
Bourne. Stay : if I am to be at the head of the
table, you must allow me to carve, or, at least, to
direct the order of the feast. You must be content
to take them as the several dishes are placed before
you, and not according to your own fancy.
Morton. I presume that you will be the last to
abandon ancient usages in this respect, and that all
your operations will be governed by ^ T ynkyn de
Worde's " Boke of keruynge."
Bourne. Of course, and I shall follow his sage
recommendation under the head " sendee, " that
before you begin to carve, you should " Take your
knyfe in your hade."
Elliot. In the very spirit of the celebrated Mrs.
Glasse, " Take an old hare that is good for nothing
else," or Swift's
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. /L
" Take a knuckle of veal,
You may buy it or steal."
Bourne. With Wynkyn de Worde's directions on
carving, and the instruction of " Epulario or the
Italian Banquet," (1589) as to the preparation and
arrangement of my banquet, I shall now order the
covers to be removed.
Morton. First letting us a little more into the
secret about that book you call Epulario.
Bourne. Here it is, at your service, and you will
find it nothing more than an old cookery book, afford-
ing a little amusement on account of the strangeness
of some of the dishes : for instance the following,
" To make Pies so that the Birds may be aliue in
them and flie out when it is cut vp."
Elliot. That is certainly of the utmost value,
being, no doubt, the origin of that famous old ballad,
the delight alike of babies and bibliographers ;
" Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie ;
When the pie was open'd the birds began to sing,
Was not that a dainty dish to set before the king?"
Read it by all means.
Bourne. I will, a part of it ; not to gratify your
love of ridicule, but because it affords a happy note of
illustration to Shakespeare's expression, " a custard
coffin" in his " Taming of the Shrew." "Make (says
the translator of Epulario, for it is from the Italian) ,
11 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
the coffin of a great Pie or pasty, in the bottome
whereof make a hole as big as your fist, or bigger if
you will ; let the sides of the coffin be somewhat
higher then ordinary Pies, which done put it full of
flower and bake it, and being baked open the hole
in the bottome and take out the flower."
Morton. And put the living birds in its place,
that, I take it, is the great secret.
Bourne. You have guessed it exactly, and we
need read no more of it.
Morton. While on the " antiquities of nursery
literature" (a subject rendered important by the
Quarterly Reviewers), let me ask, if you know with
what veneration you ought to look upon some noted
lines in " Mother Goose's Melodies."
Elliot. What edition? A most interesting in-
cpiiry ! What lines do you allude to in that splendid
and delightful work — splendid from its Dutch-gold
binding, and delightful from its classical subjects.
What are they ?
Morton. Those pathetic elegiac verses,
" Three children sliding on the ice
All on a summer's day,
It so fell out, they all fell in,
The rest they ran away," &c.
They are nearly 200 years old, and arc to be found,
with some variations, at the end of a travestie of
the story of Hero and Leander which I met with the
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 73
other day. It was published between 1040 and 1G50,
but I forget the precise date.
Bourne. If it be no older than that, it is not
of much consequence, though the various readings
perhaps might still be worth noting. — As I suppose
we have now done with these interesting matters,
we may proceed to the order of the day.
Morton. Your " order in confusion" — the feast
you have provided for us ; only I hope it will not be
like the " Roman smell-feast,"' of which we read in
Chapman's translation from Juvenal. Do not tanta-
lize us with the mere odour of your cates, without
allowing us to taste them.
Bourne. You need be under no apprehensions of
that kind. As you took up Thos. Churchyard's tract
first, we may begin with him.
Elliot. And begin with him by telling us who he
was. His name is not at all familiar to my ears.
Bourne. Perhaps not, for though he was a very
voluminous author, he has been very much neglected
until of late, when Mr. G. Chalmers took him under
his patronage, and reprinted most of his pieces re-
lating to Scotland.
Morton. And prefixed his life, as far as the par-
ticulars could be ascertained, did he not ?
Bourne. Yes, collecting them with much industry
and accuracy. — Cburchyard began writing in the
reign of Edward VI., but 1559 is the earliest date of
any extant and known performance by him, and he
did not cease to publish until after the death of
74 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Elizabeth. Here is Mr. Chalmers's production, and
at the end of the biographical sketch you will find a
long- list of Churchyard's pieces, which, generally
speaking, is accurate, with however one \ery im-
portant omission.
Morton. That is singular, for I suppose there are
few men of more knowledge or research upon these
subjects than Mr. Chalmers.
Bourne. Unquestionably: the omission was of
the more consequence to him, because the work of
Churchyard he has not included, and had of course
not seen (but which is now before us) contains a
tolerably long poem on the " Troubles of Scotland,"
which Mr. Chalmers would not have failed to quote
in his book had lie been aware of its existence. It
is also omitted by Warton and Ritson, and after
them by all writers on our old poets.
Elliot. That sufficiently proves its great rarity.
What do you call it ?
Bourne. " The Miserie of Flavnders, Calamitie
of Fraunce, Misfortune of Portugall, Vnquietnes of
Jrelande, Troubles of Scotlande : And the blessed
State of Englande. Written by Tho. Churchyarde,
Gent. 1579." Imprinted at London for Andrewe
Maunsell. The size, you see, is the old .-mail quarto,
and it consists of only '20 leaves.
Morton. If all those subjects are treated it must
be very compendious, or contain a great deal in a
little compass.
Bourne. They are treated separately but summa-
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 75
rily. The dedication is " To the Queenes most ex-
cellent Maiestie, Thomas Churchyard wisheth all
heauenly blessednesse, worldly fclicitie and vnre-
niouable good Fortune." The first sentence is worth
reading, as it refers to the object of the writer's un-
wearied literary labours : " Hauing" (says he) " a
duetifull desire, moste redoubted soueraigne, to be
daily exercised in some seruisable deuice and action
(that maie please my Prince and countrey) I neither
spare paines nor season to purchase through practise
of pen, and studie of heade my desired hope," and
in the end he states this tract to be one of several
new years' gifts of the same kind he had made to
Elizabeth.
Elliot. The topics adverted to in the title-page
seem interesting : are they well handled ?
Bourne. Some of them are, making allowances
for the early date of the performance : Churchyard,
generally, has had injustice done to him, because his
readers compared his works with those of Daniel
or Drayton, when in fact he began to write nearly
half a century before them, and had formed his
style upon older and less improved models.
Mortox. lie himself claims the authorship of
some of the poems by " uncertain authors," in Tot-
tel's Miscellany of 1557.
Bourne. lie does, though they cannot now be
separated: lie was for some time in the service of
Lord Surrey. He should be estimated, therefore,
70 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
by a comparison with writers about that date, and
not with later poets, because it was his misfortune
not to die until 1604. — You must not tail to bear
this in mind while I read the following quotation
from that part of the tract before us that relates to
the " Calamitie of Fraunce."
" Thei lost in fecld two hundreth thousande men,
Yet still their mindes on murther ran so faste
Thei went about nothying but bloodshed then
To fight it out, as long as life might laste ;
Revenge did woorke & weaue an endlesse webbe
Desire of will, a wofull threede did spinne,
The floodc of hate, that neuer thinks of cbbe,
A swellyng Sea of strife brought gushing in.
The rooted wrathe had spred such braunches out.
That leaues of loue were blasted on the bowe,
Yet spitfull tvviggs began so faste to sprout
That from the harte the tree was rotten throwe.
No kindly sappc did comforte any spraie,
Both barke & stocke and bodye did decaie :
So that it seemde the soile infected was
With malice moods that smells of mischief greate.
Their golden lande, was tournde to rustic Bras,
And eche thyng wrought, as God had curst the seate :
The groud thought scorne to bryng forth frute in
time,
The Vines did rotte, the blade would beare no eorne,
Like Winter foule became the Summers Prime,
The pleasant plotts brought forth wilde brier & thorn
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 77
With Raine & storme the lande was vexed still :
The ire of God the people could not shunne,
Great grewe the greef that came by headstrong will,
And all these plagues by proude conceit begonne,
That thought to rule perhapps past reasons lore ;
Threate that who please, my muse not framde there-
fore."
Elliot. It begins better than it concludes :
" The flood of hate that never thinks of ebb,
A swellyng Sea of strife brought gushing in,"
is very good, as well as the introductory lines ; but
Churchyard afterwards runs his figure of the tree off
its legs.
Moktox. lie carries it out injudiciously into the
minutice ; neither does it seem very clear why because
" spiteful twigs began so fast to sprout" it should
follow, that " from the heart the tree was rotten
through.*'
Bourne. It certainly looks like a non sequitur,
unless we reflect that we often see shoots and twigs
more flourishing upon a tree whose heart is rotten,
than on another that is sound ; and for this reason,
that the " kindly sap" ascending up the bark has
only to nourish those shoots and twigs and not the
main trunk, which is decayed.
Elliot. At any rate you have made an ingenious
reconcilement of the matter.
Bournk. The following additional extract, from
78 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
the same division of the poem, is remarkable for its
applicability to transactions within our own memory
during the French Revolution.
" O Fraunce, who lookes vpon thy bloodie waies,
And notes but halfe the pageant thou hast plaied,
Will be therefore the wiser all their daies,
Or at the least, will howrely bee afraied
To plaie suche pranks as thou poore Fraunce hast
doon :
Thou hadst a tyme and wretched race to run
For others weale, that can good Avarnyng take ;
Thy neighbours have had laisure to regarde
The harms of thee, and so a mirrour make
Of thy greate doole and dulfull destinie hard.
Can greater plagues bee seen in any soile
Then reuell rage and hauocke euery waie ?
A ciuille warre, with wicked waiste & spoile ;
A deadlie botche that striks stoute harte by dale
And kills by night the harmles in his bedde :
O ciuill warre, thou hast a Hidras hedde ;
A Vipers kinde, a Serpentes nature throwe,
A Spider's shape, a forme of vglie Tode,
A Deulishe face, a shameksse blotted browe,
A bloodie hande at home 8: eke abrode."
Elliot. The greater portion of that extract is
singularly applicable to events almost of our own
day ; for the poetry much cannot be said 3 there is
little choice or originality in the epithets.
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 79
Morton. The description of civil war is a curious
compound : it begins with a horse's head and ends
in a fish's tail with a vengeance.
Bourne. But ri&um teneatis principally for the
reason I have already stated : many of the lines are
by no means deficient in spirit ; indeed what relates
to France is the best part of the whole pamphlet.
In some degree to show in what way, and how far
old Churchyard has had injustice done him, I will
refer you to the work of an actual contemporary,
which will illustrate the point, and is, at the same
time, a most singular curiosity : a production of
greater rarity cannot easily be mentioned, and it re-
cently sold for a sum very little short of the price
obtained for Micro-cynicon, the unique volume of
satires I showed you the other day.
Elliot. I hope it was better worth the money —
I mean intrinsically, for I allow the value of Micro-
cynicon as one link in the chain of satirists.
Bourne. I woidd not have you expect too much
from the tract in my hand, although the story to
which it refers has been excellently told by Doccacio
(Gior. X. Nov. 8.) You remember it, I dare say :
it is that of Titus and Gisippus. Warton (II. E.
P. III. 4()B.) asserts that this author translated from
Iioccacio, but this is not the fact, as I will convince
you presently.
Elliot. But who is the author of your English
version of the tale ? he showed some judgment in
selecting an interesting; fable.
80 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. His name is Edward Lewieke, and I am
afraid that what you have mentioned is the principal
merit that critical charity can allow him. The title
of his book is the following : " The most wonderful
and pleasaunt History of Titus andGisippus, whereby
is fully declared the figure of perfect frcndshyp :
drawen into English metre By Edwarde Lewieke.
Anno 15G C 2."
Morton. He seems very modest — he only pre-
tends to have " drawn it into English metre," he
sets up no claim on the score of poetry. According
to Ritson, I perceive, a considerably elder poet, of
the name of William Walter, had translated the
story into verse.
Bourne. And some specimens may be found in
Dibdin's Ames, (II. 338.) Notwithstanding the
better models that Lewieke possessed, and the ad-
vance poetry had made under the authors of Tottel's
Miscellany, his translation is not much better than
the version by Walter. Lewicke's opening stanza is
this :
" There was in the city of Home
A noble man hight Fuluius :
A Senatour of great wisdome
One of the chiefest, the truth is thus.
He had a Sonne named Titus,
An apter child could not be found
(As witty men did there discus)
For learning going on the ground."
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 81
Morton. The form of the stanza seems by no
means happily chosen, requiring - four similar rhymes,
especially when we recollect that our language was
not at that time so pliable as to be easily wrought
into strange shapes.
Elliot. However, let us hear a little more of it :
one stanza will not enable us to form a judgment
ev r en of the versification.
Morton. I have but an indistinct recollection of
the story. Titus and Gisippus were, I know, two
friends, the first a Roman and the last a Greek, who
studied under the same master at Athens, and be-
came enamoured of the same lady.
Bourne. Yes 5 and Gisippus was about to be mar-
ried when Titus fell in love with his intended bride,
and Gisippus, who seems to have preferred his friend
to his wife, resigned his claim. Titus returns to
Italy, leaving Gisippus in Athens, who soon afterwards
becomes a poor wanderer and reaches Rome : there he
sees Titus, who is living in great splendor, and ima-
gines that he will not condescend to recognize him,
or in the modern phrase, that Titus cut him. Gisip-
pus first resolves to destroy himself, but abandoning
that purpose, falls into a sort of trance in a barn.
At night a robber, who had committed a murder,
takes the knife of the sleeping Gisippus, and dipping
it in the blood, returns the instrument to the hand
of the owner, who is soon afterwards charged with
the crime. On his trial, Titus, for the first time,
VOL. II. (,
H c l SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
recollects Gisippus, and to save his friend accuses
himself as the guilty man: the real murderer, who
was in the crowd, conscience-struck, avows his
offence ; he is pardoned, and of course the two
friends end their days in the utmost happiness. This
is the outline of the story, which lias been very
similarly worked up by different authors. Goldsmith
has told it very elegantly under different names in
his Bee.
Elliot. It is by no means one of the best even of
the serious tales of Boccacio, and he introduces a
tremendously long harangue into the middle of it.
Bourxe. So does your name-sake, Sir Thomas
Elliot, from whose prose narrative Lewicke almost
copied, as I will prove after you have heard the
following stanzas from one of the most interesting
parts : what I have said of the story will make them
intelligible.
" There in a sorie simple state,
Gisippus thence away did trudge,
Cursing his chance infortunate.
Oh lord, thought he, what man wold nidge
Titus to haue bene such a snudge,
From whom I suffer all this smart ;
Gisippus thus at him did grudge
Thinking for euer to depart,"
Morton. The wretched rhyme oLsnndgc shows to
what shifts the author was driven by hi-, stanza.
What is the meaning; of that word ;
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 83
Bourne. Lewicke might have supplied Mr. Todd
with an authority for it, who truly explains it to be
a " sneaking fellow," but he furnishes no quotation :
you interposed in the middle of a sentence ; the tale
proceeds, Gisippus being determined " for ever to
depart,"
" From Rome and wander the desert
As a beast with madnes possest :
But yet he was well faine to start
(Being with werines opprest)
Into an old barne to take rest,
AVhere he falling flat on the ground
Drew out his knife, & thought it best
To geue himself a deadly wounde.
But wisdome did his wil so drounde
That from that act it did him kepe,
Until he fell into a sounde
Or (as god would as he did slepe)
Into a sad and slumbring slepe :
His knife, wherwith he would haue slain
himself, downe by his side did stepe.
In the meanetime a thefe certaine,
Which was a commen ruffian playne,
And had both robbed and slaine a man,
Thought in that barne for to remaine,
To hide him selfe that night ; but whan
He sawe a wretch, bewcpt and wan,
On slep and a knife by his side,
84 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
He toke the knife and quietly than
Towardes the dead man he did glide.
Into his wound both depe and wide
(Which at that time did freshlye blede)
He put the knife, thinkinge to hide
His owne vile acte and miseheuous dede ;
And brought it all blodie with spede
To poore Gysippus where he laye
Aslepe and put it (without drede)
Into his hand and went his way."
Elliot. That is mere narration : it is perspicuous,
and it aims at nothing more.
Bourne. For that perspicuity, and even for some
of his very words and phrases, Lewickc was in-
debted, not to Boccacio (we cannot allow him that
credit), but merely to Sir T. Elliot's " Governor,"
which was first published, I believe, in 1534, and
between that date and 15SO went through 8 or 10
editions. A few sentences will enable you to make
a sufficient comparison. " And therwith drew his
knife, purposing to haue slain him selfe. But euer
wisedome (whiche he by the study of Philosophy
had attaied) withdrew him frome that desperate
acte. And in this contencion &c. or as god wolde
haue it, he fell into a depe slepe. 1 1 is knife
(wherwith he woulde haue slaine him self) falling
down by him. In the meane time a commune
and notable rufia or thefe whiche had robbed
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 85
and slaine a man, was entred into the harne, where
(iisippus laie ; the entente to soiorne there all that
nyghte. And seeing Gisippus bewept, and his
visage replenished with sorrowe, and also the naked
knife by him, perceiued well, that he was a man
desperate, & surprised with heauinesse of herte was
werye of his life : which the saied rufyan takyng for
a good occasion to escape, toke the knife of Gisippus
and putting it in the wound of him that was slain,
put it all bloody in the hand of Gisippus, beyng faste
a slepe, and so departed."
Elliot. There is not only a strong resemblance
throughout, but a perfect identity in some passages.
Warton was certainly in an error.
Bourne. It is not worth while to read any more
from Lewicke's production ; what we have seen will
fully answer the purpose for which I brought it for-
ward. At the end is the following colophon : " Im-
printed at London by Thomas Hacket, and are to be
solde at hys shop in Lumbarde Streete." Mr. Dibdin
(Ames IV. 581.) had never seen the book, and calls
it a 4to., when, in fact, it is only an 8vo. AVe may
now return to Churchyard : the following lines are
from that part of his tract which treats of the
" Troubles of Scotlande," and are part of what Mr.
Chalmers would have inserted in his reprint had he
known of the existence of such a poem.
" Shall man that hath the reason to forbeare
Be worse then beast : () God that fault forbid !
86 SEVENTH CONVERSATION
Shall malice find a place and succour there,
Where Gods greate gifts ought lie like treasure hid r
Shall harts of men (the temple of the Lorde)
Lodge murther vile, & nourish foule discorde ?
Shall those that knowes what lawe & peace is worth
Breake Lawe & Peace, and breede dessention still ?
The tree is bad that bryngs suche braunches forth,
The hedds are vaine, that showes no deeper skill j
The ground is nought that breeds such scratting
brers,
And soile not good where murther still appers."
Elliot. That is not exactly quasi divino quodam
spiritu injlatum.
Bourne. I do not pretend that it is ; Churchyard
is there grave and didactic, and you must not expect
him at any time to write in the florid and ambitious
style of the " towering falcon," Fitzgeffrey : he was
a poet of quite another class, as well as of a dif-
ferent age.
Elliot. What does he say of the " blessed state
of England ?" That will of course be interesting.
Bourne. I am afraid that it will not exactly suit
your taste.
" Here haue we scope to skippe or walke,
to ronne & plaie at base;
Still voide of fearc, and free of minde,
in euery poincte and cace.
Here freends maie meete and talke at will..
the Prince K. Lawe obaied;
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 87
And neether strange nor home borne childe,
of Fortune stands afraied.
Here hands doe reape the seeds thei sowe,
and heads haue quiet sleeps ;
And wisedome gouerns so the worlde,
that reason order keeps.
Here mercie rules, and mildnesse raigns
and peace greate plentie bryngs ;
And solace in his sweetest voice
the Christmas carrowle syngs.
Here freends maie feast, and triumphe too,
in suertie voide of ill ;
And one the other welcome make
with mirthe and warme good will.
The ground it bryngs suche blessyng forthe,
that glad are forraigns all,
Amid their want and hard extreems
in favour here to faull :
Here wounded staets doe heale their harms
and straungers still repaire ;
W hen mischief makes them marche abroad,
and driue them in dispaire.
Here thousands haunt and linde releef,
that are in heauie cace,
And friendly folke with open armes
doeth sillie soules embrace.
Here thyngs are cheape, and easly had,
no soile the like can showe ;
No state nor Kyngdome at this daie
doeth in such plentie flowe.
88 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
The trau'lar that hath paste the worlde,
and gone through many a lande :
When lie comes home, and noets these thyngs
to heauen holds vj) hande ;
And museth how this little plotte
can yeeld suche pleasures greate :
It argues where suche graces growe,
that God hath blest the seate."
Elliot. I like that better than you seem to do ;
there is a great air of cheerfulness and contentment
about it : the quotation affords a very lively and plea-
sant picture of the condition of the kingdom under
Queen Elizabeth.
Bourne. I am inclined to think that this pro-
duction, on the whole, is one of the best that has
proceeded from Churchyard's pen. However, we
have now gone through all that it is worth our
while to read from it.
Morton. It appears from his " True Discourse
historical of the succeeding Governors in the Nether-
lands" of 1G02, that he was most importantly con-
cerned in the wars of the Low Countries : does he
say nothing material regarding them in that part of
the tract before you, referring to " the Misery of
Flanders ?"
Bourne. Nothing worth reading, I assure you :
in another work by him, printed in 1578, and called
" a Lamentable and pilifull Description of the wofull
warres in Flanders," he enters into more details than
in 1G02, and in the dedication of it to 8ir F. Wal-
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 89
singham, he mentions his design to publish the
tract on which we are now engaged. It shows that
some of the most learned men who write about
books never read them, or Mr. Chalmers from hence
would have been put upon the scent for " the
Miserie of Llavnders," &c.
Elliot. That is not a matter of great conse-
quence. Was Churchyard in much repute with his
contemporaries :
Bourxe. That point is treated in Chalmers's Life,
and you will find that while Gabriel Harvey abuses
him, Thomas Nash greatly applauds his " Tragedy
of Shores Wife." There is, however, one poet of
the highest rank, I mean Spenser, who bestows a
few compassionate lines upon him in his " Colin
Clouts come home again :" this is not mentioned by
Chalmers.
Morton. Lord Buckhurst, Drayton, Alabaster,
Daniel, and others, are there alluded to, but I do not
recollect Churchyard.
Bourxe. The following four lines refer to him :
" And there is old Palemon free from spight
Whose carefull pipe may make the hearer rew ;
Yet he himselfe may rewed be more right,
Who sung so long until quite hoarse he gretv."
Elliot. As Churchyard is not named, how do you
prove that the allusion is to him — by inference ?
Bourxe. The description is almost sufficient,
though it does not seem to have occurred to Mr.
90 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Todd when he published his edition of Spenser.
But it is put beyond a doubt by the following stanza
in Churchyard's " Pleasaunt Discourse of Court &
Wars," 1596, which I found on looking over a
variety of his productions. He is speaking of the
Court, which he says is
" The platform where all Poets thriue.
Sane one whose voice is hoarse they say ;
The stage where time away we driue,
As children in a pageant play ;
To please the lookers on sometime
With words, with bookes, in prose or rime."
Elliot. That fixes the description upon him very
satisfactorily. " Colin Clouts come home again,"
was published in 1595.
Bourne. In his " Challenge," 1598, Churchyard
had praised Spenser " in a new kind of Sonnet," the
novelty of which consists in all the lines but the
two last (twenty-two in number) rhyming to the
words ivar and shove, lie drearily laments, at the
same time, his own incompetence, and the folly of
his young overweening ambition. It is scarcely
worth the trouble of reading, but you may find it in
Cens. Lit. II. p. 809.
Elliot. You mentioned just now " the Tragedy
of Shore's Wife'' by Churchyard. Did it come upon
the stage, or has Rowe availed himself of it in his
" Jane Shore :"
Boukne. You mistake, the word tragedy there
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 91
does not mean a dramatic composition: it refers to
his Legend of Jane Shore, in the Mirror for Magi-
strates 3 many poems of a tragical nature, but not
at all in the form of plays, were at that time called
Tragedies : Dante (Inf. XX. 113), in the same way,
makes Virgil speak of his JEneid as,
Valla mia Tragedia in alcun loco, &c.
and he further explains the application of the word
in his work Delia volgare Eloquenza — Per tragccdiam
superiorem stilum induimus, per comccdiam inferiorem,
per elegiam stilum intelligimus meserorum.
Mortox. Jervis Markham's Tragedy of Sir R.
Grenville is precisely in point ; and some account of
the contents of that poem (which, indeed, you pro-
mised us), will better illustrate the matter than any
quotation you can make.
Elliot. I am rather curious to see that produc-
tion, from the lavish praise Fitzgeffrey bestows upon
it in the quotation we read from his " Drake" in our
first conversation.
Bourxe. I remember I told you at the time, that
the applause was far beyond what Markham's poem
deserved, and I have no objection now to establish
my assertion by a few quotations. As to your see-
ing the book itself, that is out of the question, as
but one copy of it is known, and that, if 1 mistake
not, is now in the possession of the lion. T. (iren-
ville, whose family is descended from the hero of
the poem.
92 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. In what way did he obtain it ?
Bourne. As you might have done, if you would
have bid high enough — at an auction. It was sold
among the books of the late Mr. Bindley, and came
previously out of the collection of Major Pearson.
Mr. Grenville gave no less a sum for it than 40/. 19s.
though only the size of a very small modern 18mo.
Elliot. How extravagantly dear!
Bourne. On the contrary, bibliomaniacs thought
it shamefully cheap, and the purchaser would have
given much more for it rather than not have secured
it. The title runs thus, " The Most Honorable
Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile [Knight. — Bramo
assai, poco spero, nulla chieggio. — Printed by J.
Roberts for Richard Smith 1595."
Morton. Then Markham's name does not appear.
Bourne. Not upon the title-page, but the de-
dication to " Lord Montioy," which immediately
follows, is signed "lends Markham .•" it is suc-
ceeded by three sonnets, the first to the Earl of
Sussex, the second to the Earl of Southampton (in-
serted in Rest. III. 414), and the third to Sir Edward
Wingfield. Next we have " the argument of the
whole Tragedie," to which are subjoined " faults
escaped in printing."
Elliot. How minute you are in your description :
as if the " faults escaped in printing" would give us
a better idea of the merit of the poem.
Bourne. 1 should not be so particular if the poem
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. <>3
had ever been described before ; but, excepting the
sonnet to Lord Southampton, no part of it has ever
been reprinted or quoted. A new leaf is headed,
" The most honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard
Grinuile Knight," and under it an address " To the
Fayrest," which, I suppose, means the poet's mistress.
Morton. Not " to the fairest" Elizabeth, the
queen ; the subject (according to Mr. Chalmers, in
his " Supplemental Apology") of the Sonnets of
Spenser and Shakespeare.
Bourne. No; it is certain that Markham means
some other female, to the full as beautiful, by the
following stanza in the address:
" To thee fo ire Nymph, my life, my loue, my gaze,
My soules first mouer, essence of my blisse,
Thought-chast Dictinna, Natures only maze,
Heauen of all whatever heauenlie is;
More white than Atlas browe or Pelops blaze,
Compleat perfection which all creatures misse :
More louelie than was bright Astioche
Or Ivnos hand-mayd sacred Diope."
This is the more clear, because in the last stanza but
one of this part of the poem, he expressly turns to
Elizabeth,
"■ And with her thou great Souereigne of the earth,
Onelie immatchlesse monarchesse of harts !"
Morton. I suppose you can afford us some quota-
tion from the body of Markham's work ?
Bourne. Yes; in the following stanzas the poet
94 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
is describing- Sir R. Grenville's eagerness to enter
into the engagement with the Spaniards.
" Looke how a wanton bridegroome in the morne
Busilie labours to make glad the day,
And at the noone, with wings of courage borne
Recourts his bride with dauncing and with play,
Vntil] the night, which holds meane blisse in scorne,
By action kills imaginations sway;
And then, cuen then, gluts and confounds his
thought
With all the sweets, conceit or Nature wrought.
" Even so our Knight, the bridegroome vnto Fame,
Toil'd in this battailes morning with unrest
At noone triumph'd, and daunst and made his game,
That vertue by no death could be deprest ;
But when the night of his loues longings came,
Euen then his intellectual soule contest
All other ioyes imuginarie were
Honour vnconquer'd, heauen and earth held deare.
" The bellowing shotte which wakened dead mens
swounds,
As Dorian musick sweetened in his eares :
Ryuers of blood, issuing from fountainc wounds,
He pytties but augments not with his teares.
The flaming tier which mercilesse abounds,
Hee not so much as masking torches feares;
The dolefull Eccho of the soules halt' dying
Quicken his courage, in their baneful! crying."
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 95
Elliot. It seems, as well as Ave can judge, much
in the same puffed-up and heightened strain as Fitz-
geffrey, only the latter exceeded his prototype.
Bourne. Markham goes on in a similar style for
a few more stanzas, and then he represents Mis-
fortune (who is personified) descending to destroy Sir
Richard Grenville : the poet exclaims ;
" O why should such immortall enuie dwell
In the inclosures of eternall mould ?
Let Gods with Gods, and men with men rebell
Vnequall warres, vnequall shame is soul'd ;
But for this damned deede came shee from Hell
And Ioue is sworne, to doe what dest'r.ie would :
Weepe then my pen, the tell-tale of our woe,
And curse the fount from whence our sorrowes
flowe."
Elliot. Most assuredly nothing you have read
warrants the extravagant eulogium by Fitzgeffrey.
" Quaintly he hath eternized his acts
In lasting registers of memory
Even co-eternall with eternity ;
So that the world envies his happy state
That he should live when it is ruinate."
Morton. Markham's last stanza ends with a very
paltry conceit. In what way docs Misfortune execute
her fearful mission ?
Bourne. Mot very poetically — by taking a musket
and mortally wounding Sir R. Grenville.
96 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. Writing*, as he did, so soon after the
event, Markham was probably confined too much by
the truth of history to be able to terminate his poem
differently.
Morton. You remember, perhaps, what Racine
says in the preface to his Bojazet, that to a poet the
distance of the country where his scene is laid, is of
much the same use as the lapse of time, car le petiple
tie met giterc de difference entre ce qui est a mille ans
de lui, el ce qui est a mille lieues. According to this
rule, Markham might fairly have availed himself of
some poetical licence in describing the death of his
hero.
Elliot. That of course must depend upon the
notoriety of the facts. Racine's remark applies
merely to dramatic poetry, and to the respect enter-
tained by audiences for the heroes of tragedies —
major e longinquo reverentia.
Bourne. It seems agreed on all hands, that Sir R.
Grenville was shot, but the time and mode of his
death are disputable. Camden, in his Annals, touches
the matter very briefly • but here is a scarce con-
temporary pamphlet relating to this very conflict : it
purports to be " A Report of the Truth of the Fight
about the lies of the Azores this last Summer Be-
twixt the Revenge, one of her Majesties Shippes,
and the Armada of the King of Spaine." It was
printed in 1591, and in it the manner of the deatlt
of Sir R. Grenville is differently related. I do not
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 97
think that the poet does justice to his subject : you
will find by the extracts I am going to read, that
ample room was afforded him. The fleet Avas under
the conduct of Lord T. Howard, Sir It. Grenville
being vice-admiral in the Revenge. Camden charges
him with fool-hardy bravery ; and certain it is, that
while Lord T. Howard was enabled to escape from
the very superior force of the enemy, consisting of
nearly sixty ships of various sizes, Sir It. Grenville,
according to the pamphlet, was obliged to sustain
the brunt of the battle, and fell foul of the San Philip,
an enormous vessel of 1500 tons, with " three tire
of ordinance on a side, and eleven pieces in euerie
tire," and shooting " eight forth-right out of her
chase, besides those of her sterne ports."
Morton. What was the size and force of the
Revenge ?
Bourne. That does not appear, but it seems that
the odds were fearful, as the English crews were
sick, and many on shore : this is a part of the rela-
tion. " After the Revenge was entangled with this
Philip, foure other boorded her; two on her larboord
and two on her starboord. The light thus beginning
at three of the clocke in the after noone, continued
verie terrible all that evening. P>ut the great San
Philip hauing receyued the lower tire of the Revenge
discharged with crossbarshot, shifted her selfe with
all diligence from her sides, vtterly misliking her
first entertainment After many interchanged
vol. n. u
98 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
vollcies of great ordinance and small shot, the Spani-
ards deliberated to enter the Revenge, and made
divers attempts, hoping to force her by the multitudes
of their armed Souldiers and Musketiers, but were
still repulsed againe and againe, and at all times
beaten backe into their own shippes, or into the
seas. . . . After the fight had thus without intermis-
sion cotinued while the day lasted, and some houres
of the night, many of our men were slaine and hurt,
and one of the great Gallions of the Armada, and the
Admirall of the IJulkes both sunke, and in many
other of the Spanish ships great slaughter was made.
Some write that sir Richard was verie dangerouslie
hurt almost in the beginning of the fight, and laie
speechlesse for a time ere he recouered. But two of
the Reuenges owne companie, brought home in a
ship of Lime from the Ilandes, examined by some
of the Lords and others, affirmed that he was neuer
so wounded as that hee forsooke the vpper decke,
til an houre before midnight ; and then being shot
into the bodie with a Musket as he was a dressing,
was againe shot into the head, and withall his (Jhirur -
gion wounded to death."
Morton. I see, by reference, that that statement
agrees with what Camden relates, but he adds some-
thing about sinking the Revenge.
Bourne. He seems to have confounded the two
accounts of the death of Sir It. Grcnville: this pam-
phlet asserts that there was a second statement of
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 99
that catastrophe, viz. that Sir Richard, in despair of
escaping or defeating the enemy, prevailed upon the
master gunner to split and sink the ship with all the
crew, they having consented ; but terms being sent
from the Spaniards, the men were induced to change
their resolution, and they and their commander were
conveyed on board the enemy. On the second or
third day Sir Richard died of his wounds ; and the
pamphlet adds, " the comfort that remaineth to his
friendes is, that he hath ended his life honourably in
respect of the reputation wonne to his nation and
country, and of the same to his posteritie, and that
being dead, he hath not outliued his owne honour."
Elliot. The prose tract ends more poetically than
Markham's poem, and the whole narrative of the
unequal contest seems distinct and striking.
Bourne. It is : there are parts of the " Tragedy
of Sir R. Grenville" that are really very poor, but as
a whole, 1 think, it is better than the same author's
" Devoreux or Virtues Tears for the loss of the most
Christian King Henry," &c. 1597, from which I had
intended to show you some specimens, had I not
found that the poem has already been analyzed and
criticised elsewhere.
Morton, Did not Markham write a poem of the
same elegiac kind on one Sir John Burgh? I think I
have seen the title in some catalogue.
Bourne. I know what you allude to: that was
by Ruber I Markham, and it was not printed until
100 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
1628. I do not know that this author was any relation
to Jervis Markham; there is an apparent relation-
ship in their styles, with this difference, that Robert
exaggerates to the utmost extravagance of absurdity
all the worst faults of Jervis. I am sure that the
subsequent lines from the opening of the " De-
scription of that euer to be famed Knight Sir .John
Burgh," will be all the specimen of his talents you
will ever wish to see.
" If teares could tell the story of my woe,
How I with sorrow pine away for thee,
My spungie eyes their bankes should ouerflow
And make a very Moore or Mire of me ;
I would out weepe a thousand Nyobyes,
For I would weepe till 1 wept out my eyes.
" My heart should drop such teares as did thy wound,
And my wound should keepe consort with my heart ;
In a red Sea my body should be drown'd,
My gall should breake and beare a bitter part,
Such crimson Rue as 1 would weepe should make
Democrates himselfe, a wormewood Lake."
Elliot. That is incomparably absurd, to be. sure.
The excess of his grief makes one's sides ache with
laughing at it. This is a special instance of the
" faulty sublime," of which Upton speaks, and
which he says is so much better than " a faultless
mediocrity."
Bourne. It would not improve your opinion oi
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 101
the taste of bibliomaniacs, if I were to tell you what
this trash sold for, not a year ago, among- the curiosi-
ties of an eminent collector.
Morton. It is worth something to have such an
unfailing source of merriment always at hand : the
owner may set the blue devils at defiance.
Bourxe. As we are not at present in want of its
assistance, and as we have other and better things to
attend to, we may close llobt. Markham's " Lament-
able Tragedy full of pleasant mirth," (as Preston
entitles his (i Cambises,") until we have more need
of it.
Elliot. To come back for a minute or two to
Churchyard.
Bourxe. We will do so directly; but before we
dismiss Sir R. Grenville from our minds, I wish to
show you a curiosity I discovered not long since
among theMSS. of the British Museum, (liibl. Sloan,
l'lut. XVIII. F.) which shows that Sir It. Grenville
is probably entitled to a place among the poets, as
well as among the heroes of his country.
Morton. Your position will at least have novelty
to recommend it.
Bourne. It will: the poem is entitled " In praise
of Seafaringe Men in hope of good fortune:" it has
no date, but it is in a hand writing of Queen Eliza-
beth's reign, and the following are the two last
stanzas :
K>'2 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
" Whoe list at whome at cart to drudge
And cark and care for worldlie trashe,
With buckled sheues let him goe trudge
In stead of Launee A whip to lashe :
A minde that base his kind will show
of earonn swecte to feede a erowe.
" If Iasonn of that mynd had bine,
the grecions when they earn to troye
Had neuer so the Trogians foylde,
Nor neuer put them to such Anoye :
Wherefore who lust to Hue at whome.
To purchas fame I will go Rome.
Finis Sur Richard
Grinfilldes Farwell."
There are about five or six other stanzas which
precede what I have read, and in an opposite column,
by a different hand, is inserted an answer to them.
In the first line of the last stanza, bine is most likely
a mistake of the transcriber's for ioi/lde, to rhyme
withjbi/lde in the next line but one.
Elliot. It does not seem to merit much critical
comment, and the author is called Grinfillde not
Grenville.
Bourne. The variation of the name is no disproof
of the authorship : we have already seen it spelt four
different ways — Grinuile by Jervis Markham, Green-
vill by Camden, Grinvil by Fit/.getfrev, and Greuu'de
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 103
by the author of the prose pamphlet; and there
were at that time no fixed rules of orthography,
especially in names. I interrupted you when you
were going to ask a question about old Churchyard.
Elliot. It regarded a work, attributed to him by
Mr. Chalmers, which I apprehend must be very in-
teresting. I mean " A praise of poetry, some notes
thereof drawn out of the Apologie the noble-minded
knight, Sir Philip Sidney wrote." The date given
is 1596".
Bourne. It would not by any means come up to
your expectations, as there is little or nothing in it
original : but you may satisfy your curiosity by re-
ferring to Censura Literaria, where the tract is re-
viewed. Your mention of Sir P. Sidney here brings
us to something I had intended to postpone, but
which cannot perhaps be more properly introduced
than here ; I allude to four sonnets by Henry Con-
stable (a poet of very considerable note, author of
" Diana," 1594), prefixed to the very rare edition of
Sidney's " Apologie of Poetrie," 4to. 1595. They
have never been reprinted.
Morton. Pew of the minor poets of that day seem
to have enjoyed a higher reputation.
Bourne. He may fairly be ranked with Watson,
whose sonnets Mr. Steevens contended were equal to
those of Shakespeare : as I told you, I cannot agree
with him, nor do I believe that any man who knows
the one and the other, and has a particle of taste, will
104 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
concur. Constable's Sonnets arc the following, and
are thus rather singularly entitled :
" Foure Sonnets Written by Henric
Constable to Sir Phillip Sidneys soule.
Giue pardon (blessed Soule) to my bold cryes
If they (importund) interrupt thy Song,
Which now with ioyfull notes thou sing'st among
The Angel-Quiristers of heau'nly skyes :
Giue pardon eake (sweete Soule) to my slow cries..
That since I saw thee now it is so long,
And yet the teares that vnto thee belong
To thee as yet they did not sacrifice :
I did not know that thou wert dead before,
I did not feelc the griefe I did susteine,
" The greater stroke astonisheth the more,
" Astonishment takes from vs sence of paine ,
I stood amaz'd when others teares begun,
And now begin to wcepe, when they haue doonc.
Sweet Soule which now with heau'nly songs doost teJ
Thy deare Redeemers glory and his prayse,
No meruaile though thy skilfull Muse assayes
The Songs of other soules there to excell ;
For thou didst learne to sing diuinely well,
Long time before thy fayre and glittering rayes
Enereas'd the light of heau'n, for euen thy layes
Most heauenly were when thou on earth didst
uwel :
SEVENTH CONVERSATION 105
When thou didst on the earth sing Poet-wise,
Angels in heau'n pray'd for thy company
And now thou sing'st with Angels in the skies
Shall not all Poets praise thy memory ?
And to thy name shall not their works giue fame,
When as their works be sweetned by thy name :
Even as when great mens heires cannot agree,
So eu'ry vertue now for part of thee doth sue,
Courage prooues by thy death thy hart to be his
due,
Eloquence claimes thy tongue, and so doth cour-
tesy ;
Inuention knowledge sues, Iudgment sues memory,
Each safth thy head is his, and what end shall
ensue
Of this strife know I not, but this I know for true,
That whosoeuer gaines the sute the losse hauewee ;
Wee (I meane all the world) the losse to all pertaineth,
Yea they which gaine doe loose and onely thy
soule gaineth,
Eor loosing of one life, two liues are gained then :
Honor thy courage mou'd, courage thy death did
giue,
Death, courage, honor makes thy soule to liue,
Thy soule to liue in heau'n, thy name in tongues of
men.
Great Alexander then did well declare
How great was his united Kinadomes might,
106 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
When eu'ry Captaine of his Army might
After his death with mighty Kings compare :
So now we see after thy death, how far
Thou dost in worth surpasse each other Knight,
When we admire him as no mortal wight,
In whom the least of all thy vertues are :
One did of Macedon the King become,
Another sat on the Egiptian throne,
I5ut onely Alexanders selfe had all :
So curteous some, and some be liberall,
Some witty, wise, valiant, and learned some
But King of all the vertues thou alone.
Ilennj Constable"
Elliot. The thought in the last of these sonnets
is happy, and happily applied.
Morton. And the lines run with much harmony
and facility.
Bourne. If they do not add to, they at least do
not detract from the fame of their author,
Morton. They are undoubtedly well worthy of
revival, not merely as curious relics. But did not
Lord Thurlow, a few years since, publish a reprint
of Sidney's " Apology of Poetry?" If so, I should
have taken it for granted that he did not omit these
sonnets.
Bourne. lie would not have omitted them had
he been aware of their existence, but his reprint is
made from an edition comparatively modern, and
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 107
even in the folio of 1598 the sonnets are unac-
countably excluded.
Elliot. I suppose there are no important omis-
sions in the body of the " Apology."
Bourne. No j but you will see that the edition of
1598 (which is called "The Defence of Poesie")
commences thus ; " When the right vertuous E. W.
and I were at the Emperours Court together." Now
the edition of 1595 gives the whole name instead of
the initials, viz. " Edwarde Wootton."
Elliot. Who was Edward Wootton ? If Fulke
Greville thought it worthy of mention in his Epitaph
that he was the friend of Sir P. Sidney, his other
friends deserve to be inquired after.
Boukxe. No doubt he was brother to Sir Henry
AVootton. Edward Wootton was Comptroller of
the Queen's Household, and, according to Camden,
" was remarkable for many high employments :" he
was sent several times Ambassador to foreign Courts,
and on one of these occasions he was accompanied
by Sidney.
Morton. How deeply it is to be lamented that
a few days before his death Sir H. Wootton should
have burnt many of the productions of his youth.
What is the date of his earliest piece now extant ?
Bourne. It is difficult to decide, but the events
referred to fix the dates of a few : the earliest I
immediately recollect is inserted in Davison's " Poeti-
cal Rapsody," 1602, but that he had written poems
108 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
before th.it is very clear. Thomas Bastard, the
author of " Chrestoleros," published in 1598, ad-
dresses two epigrams ad Henricum Woltonum, in one
of which he says,
" Wotton, the country and the country swa\ne,
How can they yield a poet any sense ?
How can they stirre him up, or heate his braine ?
How can they (cede him with intelligence r"
And he recommends him, therefore, to come to
" London, Englands fayrest eye." It is not very
unlikely that their friendship was occasioned or con-
firmed by their mutual love of fishing, for in another
Epigram, ])c piscatione, Bastard observes,
" Fishing, if I a fisher may protest,
Of pleasures is the sweet'st, of sports the best,
Of exercises the most excellent ;
Of recreations the most innocent.
But now the sport is niarde, and wott ye why !
Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply."
Moktox. All Sir Henry's friends, however, were
not fishermen : one of his most intimate companions,
Dr. Donne, has this stanza in Ids " Progresse of the
Soule,"
" Is any kind subject to rape like fish •
111 unto men, they neither doe nor wish;
Fishers they kill not nor with noise awake;
They doe not hunt, nor strive to make a prey
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 109
Of beasts, nor their yong sonnes to beare away ;
Foules they pursue not, nor do undertake
To spoile the nests industruous birds do make 5
Yet them all these unkinde kinds feed upon,
To kill them is an occupation,
And lawes make fasts, & lents for their destruction."
Elliot. If we may believe Rabelais, among the
Roman Emperors is to be found a great example in
favour of fishing : in B. II. c. 30. (Edit. 155.3) he
asserts that Trajan estoit pescheur de Grenouilles.
Moktox. I doubt the correctness of your autho-
rity : besides, at best Trajan was only a French
fisherman — a fisher of frogs.
Elliot. I assure you Rabelais makes the assertion
in the same chapter, where he represents Lancelot
da Lac as escorcheur de clievaulx mors, and all the
Knights of the Round Table as pouvres gaingncdenicrs
tirans la rame pour passer les rivieres de Coccjjte,
Phlcgeton, Styx, Acheron, § Lethe.
Boi'rxe. One is quite as true as the other: "Wal-
ton's work is quite enough to make me a fisherman.
You know that he was the first to collect and publish
the scattered remains of Sir II. Wootton, and their
friendship, I believe, originated in their mutual par-
tiality to angling. Here we may introduce very
fitly the treat I promised you some days ago, in the
examination of a poem dedicated to Walton, but not
noticed by any one of bis biographers.
1 10 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. That is rather strange, recollecting the
unremitting pains taken within the last twenty or
thirty years to collect the minutest facts regarding
Walton. It is remarkable, too, that he, only a small
tradesman, should be fixed upon by an author to
patronize his poem.
Morton. We have very often seen that an author
dedicates his work to an obscure friend merely as a
token of regard, and there was no man more likely
to produce such a feeling than " honest Izaac :"
S. P., the writer in question, like the author of the
" Metamorphosis of Tobacco" (a poem dedicated
to Drayton, which we so much admired a few days
ago), might say that his pen
" Loath'd to adorn the triumphs of those men
Which hold the reins of fortune and the times,"
and might, therefore, prefer his obscure friend, so
that I do not see much in your last observation.
What is the title of the poem r
Bourne. It is called " The Love of Amos and
Laura. Written by S. P. London : printed for
Richard Hawkins, dwelling in Chancery Lane, neere
Serieants Inne. 10' 19." Walton was born in 1593,
so that in 1619 he was in his twenty-sixth year.
Morton. The author only gives his initials on the
title. Does he insert Walton's name at full length
before the dedication r
Bourne. He is addressed, not by his name at
length, but by an abbreviation always employed by
SEVENTH CONVERSATION 111
Walton, and with his noted peculiarity of using a z
instead of an s in the word Izaae — it is " To my
approved and much respected friend; Iz. JVa.:" the
epithets " approved and much respected" are ap-
propriate to the station in life Walton filled.
Mortox. Nearly all his letters and poems are
subscribed Iz. Wa.
Bourne. But none are so early as 1G19 : it is pro-
bable, however, that he began to write before 10131,
the date of his poem on the deatli of his friend Dr.
Donne : it is a propensity generally peculiar to
youth, and subsiding with age ; in this way I ac-
count for what 8. P., in the dedication, says of his
friend's skill in verse. It is in these terms :
" To thee thou more then thrice beloued friend,
I, too vnworthy of so great a blisse,
These harsh-tun'd lines I here to thee commend ;
Thou being cause it is now as it is :
For hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might
These haue been buried in obliuions night.
" If they were pleasing I would call them thine,
And disauow my title to the verse ;
But being bad I needes must call them mine,
No ill thing can be clothed in thy verse.
Accept them then, and where I have offended,
Base thou it out and let it be amended.
S. P."
Elliot. It was somewhat late to amend after it
was printed, but the compliment is not ill paid.
1 VI SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. But granting that Iz. Wa. is Izaac
Walton, there is still an important question to be
settled — who was S. P. r
Bourne. Which must probably remain undecided,
unless it were Samuel Purchas, a well known author
about that time, yet that is not very probable. In
fact, in my view, it is not a question of any great
moment, for the production is not by any means
first rate, though not devoid of merit : the same
small volume, in which "Amos and Laura" is found,
contains two other poems, and particularly one of
considerably greater talent.
Morton. What are they r are they also unknown ?
Bourne. One of them is, I apprehend, quite a
new discovery in the history of our poetry, the other
is nearly as much known as the other is little known.
The volume has this general title, " Alcilia : Philo-
parthens louing folly.— Wherevnto is added Pigma-
lions Image : With the Loue of Amos and Laura. —
London, Printed for Richard Hawkins," &c. 1G19.
Morton. " Pigmalions Image," I suppose, is John
Marston's poem, first printed in 1598.
Bourne. It is, but this edition is not common.
" Alcilia^ Philoparthens louing Folly" is a produc-
tion hitherto unseen, and displays very considerable
poetical talent. We will come to that presently ;
first, I will read you ;i quotation or two from '■' The
Loue of Amos and Laura," which, if not the most
valuable, is, from the circumstance of its dedication,
the most curious.
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 113
Elliot. What is the story of " Amos and Laura,"
if it have any ?
Bovrxe. It has little or none : it opens in these
lines, not very promisingly :
" In the large confines of renowned France
There liud a Lord, whom Fortune did aduance,
Who had a Daughter, Laura call'd the faire;
So sweete, so proper, and so debonaire,
That strangers tooke her for to be none other
Then Venus selfe, the god of Loues owne Mother.
Not farre from thence was situate a Towne,
The Lord thereof a man of good renowne,
Whom likewise Fortune blessed with a Sonne,
Amos by name, so modest, ciuill, young,
And yet in fight so wondrous and so bold
As that therein he passed vncontroul'd :
So kinde to strangers, and so meeke to all,
Of comely grace, and stature somewhat tall ;
As the wide world not two such Imps affords
As were the off-springs of these happy Lords."
Morton. The lines are mawkish j but perhaps
the author warms and strengthens as he proceeds.
Bourne. He does improve, though not as much
as could be wished: nearly the whole poem is a
dialogue between these two lovers. Amos, when
going out to hunt, meets Laura near her father's
castle : the conversation then begins, in the middle
VOL. II. I
114 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
of which the lady runs away, is pursued and over-
taken by her admirer : the courtship is then renewed
and concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.
The following extract begins better than it ends.
" Or were thy loue but equal vnto mine,
Then wouldst thou seeke his fauor who seeks thine !
Methinkes unkindnesse cannot come from thence.
Where beauty raignes with such magnificence:
I mean from thee whom nature hath endow'd,
With more then Art would willingly allow' d :
And though by nature you are borne most faire
Yet Art would adde a beauty to your share ;
But it being spotlesse doth disdaine receit
Of all vnpolish'd painting counterfeit.
Your beauty is a snare vnto our wayes
Wherein once caught, we cannot brooke delayes ;
Which makes us oft through grief'e of minde grow sad,
Griefe follows grief, then malcontent and mad.
Thus by denyall doe you cause our woe
And then do triumph in our overthrow."
Elliot. That is quite sufficient : we should only
waste time if we were to read more of such in-
sipidity.
Bourxe. I anticipated your opinion ; indeed there
could hardly be much difference about it : nor will
I ask you to listen to two short passages more, the
one referring, in general terms, to Marlow's and
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 115
Chapman's celebrated translation of " Hero and
Leander," and the other, even more generally, to
Shakespeare's " Tarquin und Lucrece."
Morton. Then having now done with S. P. and
his Amos and Laura, we may look upon " Alcilia,"
whom I am a little anxious to behold, after the
praise you have bestowed upon her beauty.
Bourne. I warn you against inconsiderate ex-
pectation : though it is better than what we have
just seen, I do not pretend that it is first rate, even
in the department to which it belongs.
Elliot. What department is that r
Bourne. Love poems of various descriptions.
Elliot. Of which passion, you may remember,
Cicero speaks thus slightingly, Totus vero iste qui
vidgo appellator Amor (nee herculc invenio quo nomine
aliopossii appellari ) tantce levitatis est, id nihil videam,
quod putem eonjerendum.
Bourne. Instead of such a quotation, with such a
tendency, I should rather have cited R. YVilmot's
dedication to " Tancred and Gismunda," 1592, where
he asserts that love being as it were " the finest
metal, the freshest wits have in all ages shewn their
best workmanship" upon it.
Morton. On the other hand, we ought to recollect
Spenser's lines in " Mother Hubbard's Tale 3"
" Thereto he could fine loving verses frame
And play the poet oft. But Ah ! for shame :
1 2
116 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Let not sweet poets praise, whose only pride
Is virtue to advance and vice deride,
Be with the work of losels wit defamed,
Ne let such verses poetry be named."
Bourne. He there supposes them to he written
by Malfont, that " poet bad," or by one like him, de-
scribed in the 5th Book of the F. Q. Do not let it be
forgotten, however he abuses it for particular pur-
poses, that some of the very best parts of Spenser's
works are devoted to love and its praise.
Morton. Lovers and poets are allowed to be the
most inconsistent creatures in nature.
Bourne. The author of " Alcilia: Philoparthens
loving Folly," justifies your remark ; for he says, in
introducing the best part of his work to the reader,
u These Sonnets following were written by the Author
(who giueth himselfe this feigned name of PJiiln-
partken as his accidental attribute) at diuers times
and vpon diuers occasions, and therefore in the forme
and matter they differ, and sometimes are quite con-
trary one to another considering the nature and
quality of Love, which is a passion full of variety
and contrariety in it selfe."
Elliot. That is not less true than in point. Have
you any conjecture who is meant by Philoparthen,
whose " accidental attribute" this " feigned name"
expressed ?
Bourne. I have not, nor do I find any clue in the
production.
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 117
Morton. I think Barnabe Barnes, whom you men-
tioned on a former day as the friend of William Percy,
used that signature.
Bourne. Not exactly, though it is different only
by transposition : he signed himself by the name of
Parthenophil.
Elliot. As we are not likely to arrive at any
satisfaction on the point, let us open the book.
Bourne. The titles to the several divisions of his
poems are in Latin, " Author ipse Philopartheos ad
libellum suum" and " Amoris Prceludium, vel Epistola
ad Amicam," although the stanzas to which they
apply are all English.
Elliot. The author seems to have been one of
those who wrote because they repented of their
folly : a principal part of Ins production, I perceive,
is headed " Sic incipit Stultorum Tragicomedia."
Bourne. That precedes the quotation I read about
the variety and contrariety of love ; an excuse for
the wavering nature of the " Sonnets," as the author
calls them, that succeed.
Elliot. Yet sonnets they are not, for they are
sometimes only stanzas of six lines each.
Morton. The word sonnet, as we have seen, had
a very indefinite application among our elder poets,
and it often does not mean at all what the Italians
seem to have understood by it.
Bourne. If you will give me the book, I will
point out to you some of the best of these sonnets ;
IKS SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
«
for they are by no means all worth reading, sup-
posing we had time to go through them.
Elliot. With all my heart.
Bourxe. The following is a pretty allegorical de-
scription, rather ingenious, and elegantly worded.
" To seeke aduentures as Fate hath assignde,
My slender Barke new flotes vpon the Maine ;
Each troubled thought an Oare, each sigh a winde,
Whose often puffes haue rent my ISayles in twaine.
Loue steeres the Boat, which for that sight he lacks,
Is still in danger of tenne thousand wracks."
Morton. It is pretty, certainly; and the author
has given a new turn in the two last lines, which is
very happy.
Boukxe. His talent is more fully exemplified in
another portion of the volume, called " Love de~
cyphered," where, having been rejected by Alcilia,
he triumphs in his regained freedom.
" Loue and Youth are now asunder,
Reasons glory, Natures wonder;
My thoughts long bound are now inlarg'd.
My follies penance is discharg'd,
Thus time hath altered my state ;
ltepentance neuer comes too late !
Ah well I finde that Loue i-, naught.
But folly and an idle thought ;
The difference is twixt Lone and me.
That Loue is blinde and I can see."
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 119
Elliot. That is exceedingly pleasant and playful
in its way : it aims at nothing more than it accom-
plishes, and the form and facility of the versification
are well suited to the author's supposed state of
feeling.
Bourne. I do not think you will like less the
description of his mistress, in the three following
stanzas, from a different part of the volume.
" Faire is my Loue whose parts are so well framed
By Natures special order and direction,
That she her selfe is more then halfe ashamed
In hauing made a worke of such perfection :
And well may Nature blush at such a feature,
Seeing her selfe excelled by her creature
Her body is straight, slender and vpright,
Her visage comely and her lookes demure,
Mixt with a chearfull grace that yeelds delight:
Her eyes like starres, bright shining, cleare and pure,
Which I describing Loue bids stay my pen,
And says it's not a worke for mortall men.
The ancient Poets write of Graces three,
Which meeting altogether in one creature,
In all points perfect make the same to bee,
For inward vermes and for outward feature :
But smile Alcilia and the world shall see,
That in thine eyes a hundred graces bee!"
Morton. We are much obliged to you for intro-
ducing us to a poet who can write with so much ease
and delicacy.
120 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. The first stanza is a little faulty ; for if
Nature might be envious of the beauty of her work,
it is the very reason why she should not be ashamed
of its perfeetness.
Morton. Ah ! quitlez d'nn censeur la triste diligence,
to borrow a line from Racine. Do not blame where
there is really so much to commend ; besides a little
ought to be allowed for the necessity of the rhyme.
Elliot. Perhaps I was somewhat hypercritical.
If the next quotation be as good, I will find no fault
with it.
Bourne. I am afraid we can afford no more time
at present to " Alcilia." Before we finally dismiss
Bastard's Chrestoleros, so frequently mentioned, I
wish to show you an epigram in it which renders it
valuable, not merely as containing notices of poets
whose works have come down to us, but of some
regarding whom we have hitherto only heard the
names ; such, for instance, as Dr. Eeds, Dean of
Worcester. At least we learn from Bastard for what
species of composition Dr. Eedes was celebrated,
which we did not know before.
Morton. Wood, I perceive, only asserts that he
wrote various MS. poems in Latin and English.
Bourne. And Ritson and the rest re-echo him :
from the following lines in the Chrestolcros we find
that he was an author of epigrams.
"Ad Richardum Eeds.
" Eeds onely thou an Epigram dost season,
With thy sweete tast and relish of enditing,
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 121
With sharpes of sense, and delicates of reason,
With salt of witt and wonderfull delighting.
For in my iudgement him thou hast exprest
In whose sweet mouth hony did build her nest."
Elliot. I do not suppose you quote that for its
own merit, but merely as a matter of biography.
Bourne. Precisely so; and it too frequently hap-
pens, as I have once before remarked, that such is
the chief value of the productions of our old English
epigrammatists.
Elliot. It is to be lamented, then, that not a few
of those who are called poets of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth did not write epigrams : their works would
then, at least, have been endurable.
Bourne. I am not such a bigot to old versifica-
tion (not to dignify it by the name of poetry), as to
dispute the truth of your remark in some particular
instances : one of them, indeed, is an author I in-
tended to bring before you to-day, I mean Barnabe
Googe, who, though a voluminous writer, and espe-
cially translator, has produced nothing original that
I have ever seen worth preserving.
Elliot. An additional confirmation of Sir John
Denham's celebrated couplet,
" Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,
That few but such as cannot write translate !"
Morton. Googe Avas the translator of l'allin-
genius's " Zodiac of Life."
Bourne. The same; yet I cannot deny that by
122 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
practice he acquired some facility in the use of the
English language: this is more evident in his version
of Naorgorgeus's " Popish Kingdom," lo?0, which
contains an account of some curious and amusing
customs, although the title is unpromising : a piece
Ritson assigns to him, called " A new yeares gifte,
dedicated to the Popes Holinesse," 1579> is certainly
not his, but probably Bernard darter's, as any body
who reads it will see.
Mokton. In what way was Googe to be brought
before us ?
Elliot. I am afraid we are now about to be treated
with one of your absolute bibliomaniac curiosities.
Bourne. Your sufferings will not be of long
duration, if you are patient under the infliction.
The existence of this small volume by Googe has
been doubted by some, and it is clear that Ritson
had never heard of it. The title is this, " The
Prouerbes of the noble and woorthy souldier Sir
James Lopez de Mendoza, Marques of Santillana,
with the paraphrase of D. Peter Diaz of Toledo,"
&c. " Translated out of Spanishe by Barnabe Googe.
Imprinted at London by Richarde Watkins, 1579"
It is dedicated to Cecill " Baron of Burghley/' and
the translator complains that he had found some
difficulty in making out the meaning of his author.
Morton. Is it in verse or prose ?
Bourne. In both: the proverbs (though Avhy so
called cannot very easily be guessed), are in Googe's
favourite measure of fourteen syllables, divided into
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 1<23
two lines, for the purpose of coming conveniently into
an 8vo. page, and the paraphrase or commentary is
in prose.
Elliot. The prose can be dispensed with, at all
events.
Bourne. I did not intend to read it: the follow-
ing are numbered 47, 48, and 49, but only form one
Proverb, and are in praise of women.
" For setting here aside that sweete
and blessed worthie rose,
That ouer all the rest doth shine,
and far beyond them goes,
The daughter of the thundring God,
and spouse vnto the hiest ;
The light and lampc of women all
who bare our sauiour Christ.
" Manie ladies of renowne
and beautifull there bee,
That are both chast and vertuous
and famous for degree :
Amongst the blessed saintes
full many a one we finde,
That in this copasse may be brought
for liues that brightly shinde.
" What should I of Saint Katheren
that blessed martyr tell,
Among the rest of Virgins all
a flowre of precious smell?
124 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Well worthy of remembrance is
her beauty and her youth,
And eke no lesse deserueth praise
her knowledge in the trueth."
Elojot. I should be surprised if, with all your
love of old poetry, you could say any tiling in praise
of those lines.
Bourne. I do not affect it; nor indeed, as I ob-
served, in praise of any thing Googe ever wrote,
excepting so far as he was able to gain the name of
a poet by the smoothness of his versification.
Morton. The lines you have read have that re-
commendation, though with some want of judg-
ment you have brought him after the author of
" Alcilia."
Bourne. The following stanza from the same
volume, referring to Cato and Mutius Scawola, is
unquestionably the best in it.
" Oh, what a death had Cato dyed
if it had lawfull beene,
And had not by the iust decrees
of God beene made a sinne !
No lesse doe I the worthy fact
of Mucius commend,
That Lyuic in his story hath
so eloquently pende."
Elliot. I do not find that that has much more
merit than the rest.
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 125
Bourxe. The degree of difference is rather minute,
and we may pass the book over without farther
quotation or remark.
Mortox. I see that two other tracts still remain
to be uoticed : what are they ?
Bourxe. I had looked them out for examination,
but since I did so, I have discovered that they have
both been mentioned in Beloe's " Anecdotes of Li-
terature and scarce Books :" — as it is not necessary
that we should travel over ground that has been
trodden by any precursors, I have determined to omit
them, and to leave them to your separate examina-
tion : the first is by Rowland Broughton, a new
name in the history of our poetry, and is a funeral
poem on the death of the Marquis of "Winchester
(1572); and the second, a production of a similar
kind on the Countess of Lenox (1577) > by John
Phillip or Phillips, whose production on Sir P. Sidney
you cannot have forgotten.
Elliot. Certainly not : I remember so much of it
that even if this " excessive rarity," (for such I take
it for granted it is), had not been mentioned by
Beloe, I should not have wished to have heard a
single line from it.
Bourxe. Rowland Broughton is quite as bad, if
not worse ; but then his performance is such a sin-
gular curiosity. Phillip's tract contains a fulsome
and rather curious character of Elizabeth : it is better
than his poem on the death of Sir P. Sidney, though
the last was a much later production.
126 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Is that character of Elizabeth given in
Beloe? I should like to hear it: — the subject is in-
viting, though it may not be well treated.
Bourne. It has not been quoted, and certainly
deserves extracting ; and I would read it, if I could
prevail upon this objector " to shut his ears like
adder to the sound."
Elliot. If h be short, I shall not attempt to resist
your wishes on the subject.
Bourne. It is not long; and even you, I think,
will find something amusing in it. It is as follows :
" With in her brest Iustice a place hath pyght,
And in her mercy welds the supreme sway :
The poore opprest to helpe she doth delight,
Her hand is prest to shield them from decay :
To all the fruites of loue she doth display 3
Her eares attend to hear each subiects wrong,
Like Saba she her subiects rules among.
The sacred Nimph that noble Vesta hight
Within her bower accompanies the Queene.
Like Phaebus rayes her glorye glisters bright,
Adornde she sits with Lawrell lasting greene.
Pernassus mount to scale this Prince is scene ;
Of Helicon, that Hiuer running cleere,
To taste her fill our Pandra hath desyre.
The scepter she like sad Cassandra swaies ;
Corinna like augmentes her learned skill.
Then Triton see in haste thou take thy wayes
SEVENTH CONVERSATION. 127
To spred her fume with taunting trumpet shrill!
Extoll our Queene of God be loued still ;
Whose word and will, dispight of Chacus yre
She to defende hath settled true desyre.
Her countryes weale to worke her heart is bent ;
Haut Hydrais head she hath cut off indeede:
Each Minotaure by skill she doth preuent
That in her soyle of strife would sow the seede.
The woolfe she quailes, the lambe she seekes to feede,
With pleasant mylke and honey passing pure.
God graunt on earth her grace may long endure !"
Morton. The lines are not inharmonious, but the
allusions are affected and pedantic.
Bourne. Of course — that was in the spirit of the
age. Nash, in his most humorous and clever piece
of exaggeration, called " Lenten Stuff," and printed
in 1599, mentions three dramatic productions in terms
of no great praise : one of them he calls " Phillips
Venus;" and this may be the Phillips we are now
speaking of, or it may be Phillips the actor.
Elliot. I have read some very amusing quotations
from that pamphlet of Nash's.
Bourne. Very likely: you may see the whole of
it reprinted in the " Harleian Miscellany," and it
will well repay the time spent in going through it.
Nash tells us in it of the troubles he had to pass
through, in consequence of his unrecovered play of
the " Isle of Doffs."
128 SEVENTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. I have never met with a tract that con-
tained more curious matter, both relating to himself
and his contemporaries. It is there thnt he bestows
such applause on " Kit Marlow" for his " Hero and
Leander," praised, as you noticed, in the poem dedi-
cated to Walton. He likewise speaks of a play
called " The Case is altered," which was probably
not Ben Jonson's.
Bourne. Your patience in listening to the quota-
tion from Phillips shall be well rewarded to-mor-
row, by the examination of a greater and more in-
disputably valuable curiosity than I have yet shown
you; I mean the novel on which Shakespeare founded
his " Twelfth Night."
POETICAL DECAMERON.
THE EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
CONTENTS
OF THE EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
The promise performed — A novel hitherto undiscovered, from
which Shakespeare took the plot of his " Twelfth Night," to be
found in " Rich his Farewell to Militarie profession," by Barnabe
Rich, UiOo' — The date when " Twelfth Night" was written—
Rich's collection of novels originally printed between 1578, and
1581 — Proofs of this fact — Doubt whether additions were made in
the reprint of 1G06 — Sir Christopher Ilatton, the patron of Rich
— Tancred and Gismunda, 1592 — Pofimantdu, 1595, quoted re-
garding Sir C. Ilatton and his poems — Rich's account of Ins
" vpholder's" house and state at Holdenby, from the prefatory-
matter to his "Farewell" — His name and productions omitted
by Ritson, &c. but the defect partially supplied — His numerous
publications — Rich's concern intheNetherlandwars with (iascoyne,
Churchyard, Whetstone, and other poets — Whetstone's account
of the death of Sir P. Sidney, from Churchyard's " True Dis-
course Historicall," &c HiO'J — Epitaph from the same — Sir W.
Raleigh's epitaph on Sir P. Sidney — Milton's quotation from
Sir John Harington's translation of Ariosto — " Rich his Farewell
to Militarie profession" not known to any bibliographical anti-
quaries — Plan of the work — Anticipation of the Commentators on
Shakespeare fulfilled — Argument to the second novel in Rich's
work, called " Apolonius and Silla" — Its commencement and
incidents previous to the opening to Shakespeare's " Twelfth
Night," with their use — Dr. Johnson's censure of the sudden pro-
ject of Viola — Resemblance between Rich and Shakespeare —
Correspondence of the characters — Description of Julina, a widow,
and the mode of conducting the Duke's amour, by the intervention
of Silla in male attire, and under the name of her brother Silvio
132 CONTEXTS.
— Julina's love for Silvio, anil her mistake of the brother for
the disguised sister — Likeness between the brother and sister —
The consequences of Julina's love anil her perilous distress — Silla
accused — Her speech, and her mode of clearing herself from the
charge — Shakespeare's improvements on his original — The Duke's
declaration and marriage to Silla — Re-appearance of the real
Silvio — His attachment to Julina, and their final and happy union
. — Remarks on Shakespeare's deviations, iVc- — Of the other seven
histories in Rich's work— Specimen of his poetry from the iirst
novel in the same — One original of Romeo and .Juliet in Painter's
•• Palace nf Pleasure" — A poem, by one William Painter, called
" Chaucer painted" — Scarcity and curiosity of the novels Shake-
speare en. ployed, particularly early editions — Thomas Lodge's
" Rosalynde : Euphues golden Legacie," 1590, the original of
" As you like it" — Alteration of Lodge's title — John Lilly's
rustication from Oxford — Specimens of Lodge's •■ Rosalynde," to
show how far and in what way Shakespeare was indebted to it —
Description of Rosalind, and quotation from .Iair.es Shirley's
" Sisters" on hyperboles — Resemblance between Shakespeare and
Lodge — further extract from Lodge — Robert Greene's " Dorastus
and Fawnia," 1388, the foundation of •• The Winter's Tale" —
Deviations of Shakespeare from it — Greene's very rare tract, called
-A .Mirror of Modesty," 1584, quoted — Different editions of
" Dorastus and Fawnia," with their variations — Poem by Greene —
His motto, and curious quotation regarding it from his " Perimedes
the Black-Smith," 1388 — On blank verse poets, &c. from the
same — Extracts from "Dorastus and Fawnia" — Character of l?el-
lariii — The fate of Fawnia. and her first interview with Dorastus,
compared with Shakespeare — Quotations from Epistles by Romeo
and Juliet in •'■ Aurorata" and " Loves Looking-glassc," ll!44,
by Thomas Prujean — Incident in Fortescue's " Foreste," 1371,
similar to the contrivance in " All's Well that ends Well."
POETICAL DECAMERON
THE EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
JVloRTOx. Now, then, to claim the execution of your
promise : do not let it be like those of princes, which,
us Beaumont and Fletcher say in " Philaster," find
" both birth and burial in one breath."
Bourne. And very properly, according to Chapman
in his " Alphonsus," 1654 ;
" A prince above all things must seem devout ;
But nothing is so dangerous to his state
As to regard his promise or his oath."
Elliot. That sentiment, I suppose, proceeds from
the mouth of some parasite : however it cannot be
applicable to yourself until you become a prince :
therefore, without further postponement, produce
the much talked of treasure — the novel from which
Shakespeare took the plot of his " Twelfth Night."
Quanta la speranza dlvcula miuorc, tanio I'amoic
maggiorfarsi, is a sentiment from Boccacio ((i. III.
134 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
N. 2.) in which you seem fully to concur; for as
book-hunters have often been compared to lovers,
you think that delay will increase desire.
Bourne. To which delay you are yourself con-
tributing; the book containing- what you so much
wish to see, was in my hand even before you began
your speech.
Morton. And you might, by reading the title, at
least have saved yourself the trouble of a reply.
Bourne. Having endured the speech, justice re-
quired the reply ; but as she is now satisfied, I will
read the title :
" Rich his Farewell to Militarie Profession : Con-
teining Aery pleasant discourses fit for a peaceable
time. Gathered together for the onely delight of
the courteous Gentlewomen both of England and
Ireland, for whose onely pleasure they were collected
together, and vnto whom they are directed and de-
dicated. Newly augmented. By Barnabe Riche,
Gentleman. — Malni me diuitem esse quam vocari.' —
Imprinted at London by G. E. for Thomas Adams.
1606."
Elliot. There, the date is enough : what do we
want to know about G. E. or Thomas Adams ? You
are as particular about printers as if you were the
editor of the new edition of Ames.
Mokton. Was not Twelfth Night written before
1606, the date of Rich's book, where; you say the
original novel is inserted ;
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 135
Bourne. No ; but if it were, I could still satisfy
you that the novel in this volume was employed by
Shakespeare. However, it seems agreed by the
commentators, who have taken some pains upon
the subject, that Twelfth Night was not written
until after 1612. Mr. Chalmers says in 1613, and
Mr. Tyrwhit, and after him Malone, in 1614. Dr.
Drake, with every desire to strike out something
new if there be the least pretence for it, lixes it be-
tween the two, in 1613 ; so that 6, 7, or 8 years
most likely elapsed between the publication of Rich's
work, in 1606, and the writing of Twelfth Night.
Elliot. I do not understand the first part of your
observation. If Twelfth Night had been written,
Ave will say, in 1605, how can you prove that
Shakespeare availed himself of Rich's novel, unless
he saw it in MS. ? It was not printed until 1606.
Morton. I suppose that the words on the title-
page " newly augmented" have something to do
with answering that question.
Bourne. They have. 1 have never seen any other
edition of Rich's Farcivcl but this of 1606, but in-
dependently of those words " newly augmented," I
can decisively establish from the prefatory matter,
that it must have been originally written and printed
between 1578 and 158 L : if, therefore, Twelfth Night
had been our great dramatic poet's first, instead of
being his last play, he might still have been indebted
to this source.
136 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. What does the prefatory matter con-
sist of?
Bourne. The point I refer to is established by
the epistle " To the noble Souldiours both of Eng-
land and Ireland;" for the author says in it, " I re-
member that in my last work, intituled the Alarum
to England, I promised to take in hand some other
thing." Therefore the " Alarum to England" im-
mediately preceded what is before us, and that
Alarum bears date in 1578.
Morton. But there might be an interval of
many years between the two, notwithstanding : the
" Alarum to England" might be printed in 15?'8,
and be the author's last work, though the Farewel
might not appear for C Z0 or 30 years afterwards.
Bourne. That is possible, though not probable ;
and it is, besides, contradicted by positive fact. In
1581 Rich published the first volume of his "Straunge
and wonder full aduentures of Do Simonides," so that
the " Farewel" must have appeared between 15*8
and 1581, or Rich could not have mentioned his
" Alarum to England'' as his last work.
Elliot. A very clear argument, and a very safe
conclusion : the words "newly augmented," indeed,
prove that it had been printed before, though in a
shorter form. It might be curious to ascertain of
what the augmentations consisted.
Bourne. I much doubt if, in fact, there were any:
perhaps " newly augmented" at that day meant no-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 137
thing more than the common words " with ad-
ditions" upon the republication of a modern work,
where the principal, if not the only, addition is a
new title-page.
Moktox. Very likely. Is there any thing else in
the volume to confirm the opinion that " Rich his
Farewel" was first printed much earlier than 16'OG?
Bourne. There is ; and the proof is remarkable
on another account, from its reference to Sir Christo-
pher Hatton, Avho is spoken of as alive, and who
died in 1591. He appears to have been the
" Maister & vpholder" of Barnabe Rich, and was
himself a poet. In all probability he penned the
fourth act of " Tancrcd and Gismunda," in Dodsley's
Collection, and if we may rely upon the authority of
the writer of Polimanteia (who not publishing until
four years after Sir C. Hatton's death, seems to have
had no motive to Hatter), he must have been a con-
siderable poet. " Then (says he) name but Hatton,
the Muses fauorite, the Churches musick, Learn-
ings Patron, my once poore Hands ornament ; the
Courtiers grace, the Schollars countenance and the
Guardes Captaine."
Elliot. A fine specimen of the art of sinking in
prose, for the ridicule of a new Mart inns.
Bour>t. I quote it for the inference, not for the
style : " Sir Christopher Hatton, L. Chancelor of
England," is inserted in the margin, and from hence
it would seem that he had written much more than
has come down to our time.
138 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Ritson only mentions an acrostic by
him, and there is some doubt about that : " the
Church's music," in what you read from Polimanteia,
would imply that he had translated Psalms, or at
least, written some sacrpd poems. Horace Walpole,
if I recollect rightly, attributes to a kinsman of
Sir Christopher's a translation of the Psalms, not
printed till 1644, and Wood assigns them to Jeremy
Taylor. It is not impossible that they were in fact
the work of Lord Chancellor llatton. But what
says Rich regarding him in his " Farewel :" any
thing relating to his works r
Bourne. I wish he did ; but still what he tells us
is interesting : it principally refers to the magni-
ficent house llatton built at his birth-place, Hol-
denby, in Northamptonshire, and the state and hos-
pitality there observed, which gives one a good
notion of the housekeeping of the great men of that
day. He says : " And here I cannot but speake of
the bounty of that noble gentleman Sir Christopher
llatton, my very good Alaister and vpholder ; who
hauing builded a house in Northamtonshire, called
by the name of lloldenby, which house for the
brauery of the buildings, for the statelinesse of the
chambers, for the rich furniture of the lodgings, for
the conucyance of the offices, and for all other ne-
cessaries appertenent to a l'allace of pleasure, is
thought by those that have iudgement, to be incom-
parable, and to haue no fellowe in England that is
out of her Maiesties hands : and although this house
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 139
is not yet fully finished, and is but a newe erection,
yet it differeth farre from the workesthat are vsed now
a daies in many places. I meane where the houses
are built with a great nuber of chimnies, and yet the
smoke comes forth but at one tunnel. This house
is not built on that manner, for as it hath sundry
Chimnies, so they cast forth seuerall smoakes j and
such worthy port and daily hospitality kept, that
although the owner himselfe vseth not to come there
once in two yeares, yet I dare vndertake, there is
daily prouision to be found conuenient to intertaine
any noble man with his whole traine, that should hap
to call in of a sodaine. And how many gentlemen
and strangers, that comes but to see the house are
there dayly welcommed, feasted, and well lodged,
from whence he shold come, be he rich, be he poore,
that should not there be entertained, if it please him
to call in. To bee short, Holdenby giueth daily re-
liefe to such as be in want, for the space of sixe or
seauen miles compasse."
Elliot. I should not complain of your reading
that extract, or of your dwelling so long on the pre-
fatory matter of almost any other book ; but when
we have so important and so interesting an object in
view, I can hardly spare time even to inquire who
and what was the author of the tale which Shake-
speare condescended to adapt to the stage. I lowever,
as I know nothing about Barnabe Rich, I must first
beg you to take my ignorance into consideration.
140 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Did Rich write nothing- but puose ? for
his name, I see, is not even mentioned by llitson.
Bourne. It is an unaccountable omission, and
the same strange error is committed by Sir E.
Brydges, in his new edition of the Theatrum Poeta-
rum. Mr. Haslewood, however, has, in a great de-
gree, supplied the deficiency in the late reprint of
" the Paradise of Dainty Devises," but he neglects
some particulars of Rich's biography that might
have been gleaned from his pamphlets : indeed he
does not notice the titles of several ; one of them is
called " A short Suruey of Ireland," bearing date at
London, in the reign of William the Conqueror.
Elliot. Explain what you mean.
Bourne. Why, if printed dates would decide the
point, there would here be an end of the mighty
dispute about the Oxford St. Jerome, for this tract
by Rich purports to have been printed 399 years
before it, viz. in 1069.
Morton 1 . An obvious misprint for 160!), by the
transposition of the figures.
Elliot, (an we not defer such trifles, that we
may the sooner arrive at the point to which we are
directing our course ?
Bourne. You must not be quite so free in the use
of your whip, or your horses may grow restive. I
will not delay you by reading the titles of the several
tracts omitted by Mr. Haslewood, and they arc" of
less interest, because they relate chiefly to Ireland :
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 141
they, however, contain some biographical particu-
lars } for instance, in the dedication of his " Short
Suruey of Ireland" to the Earl of Saresbury, he speaks
of himself as a mere Souldier, in which capacity old
Churchyard saw him acting in the Netherlands about
157 c 2. " I am no diuine (says Rich) and it is truth ;
I am no scholler and that is true too : what am I
then ? I am a Souldier, a professed Souldier, better
practised in my pike than in my penne." In his
" New Description of Ireland," 1610, after abusing
" idle Poets, Bardes, and Rythmers" who have
written falsehoods upon the subject, he talks of his
service in the army for 40 years ; and two years after-
wards, in his " Excuse" for the above work, he
adds that it was then 4() years or thereabouts since
he first came into Ireland.
Elliot. What is your authority for saying that
Churchyard saw Rich acting as a soldier in the
Netherlands about 1572?
Bourxe. He was one of the phalanx of poets who
united their endeavours under Elizabeth to free the
Low Countries from the weight of the Spanish yoke.
At the head of them, you know, Avas Sir Philip
Sidney, and the names of Gascoyne, Churchyard,
Whetstone, Rich, and others, are to be included in
the muster-roll.
Morton. Churchyard, iii Lis " Trve Discovrse
historical! of the succeeding (iovernovrs in the
Netherlands," 1G0 C >, a tract we have before noticed,
142 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
states several facts, quoting in the margin (p. 19),
" Captaine Barnabey Rich his notes." George Gas-
eoyne, in the same passage, is called a captain.
Bourxe. That piece by Churchyard is one of his
latest, and one of his commonest ; but it contains
some important historical facts, and among them a
very interesting account, which I have not seen
quoted, of the manner of the death of Sir P. Sidney
before Zuphen, on the 22d of September 15S6*.
Churchyard gives the relation on the authority of
Whetstone, who, as you have seen, wrote a funeral
poem on the fate of this worthy.
Elliot. It is impossible for the name of Sidney
to be mentioned without feeling a deep interest to
knoW all that can be said regarding him ; therefore
let us hear the passage.
Bourne. A small part of it is sufficient. " This
noble Knight (says Churchyard, citing Whetstone,
with whom he Avas no doubt personally intimate)
like Crrsar, charged the enemie so sore, that first an
enuious Musquetier from the spightfull Spaniards
espying his oportunitie slew his horse vnder him :
who getting to horse again was with a poysoned
bullet from the enemie shot in the thigh, wanting
his Cuisses, which might have defended lam. The
wound being deepe and shiuering the bone, yet his
heart was good, and his courage little abated, one
Vdal, a gentleman, alighted and led his horse softly,
to whom he thus spake : Let goe, let goe till I Jail
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 143
to the ground, The foe shall miss the glory of my
wound. And so riding out of the field with a rare &
constant courage, his wound was searched, no salue
too deare but was sought, no skill so curious but
was tried to cure ease & recover this noble souldier
languishing in paine, all remediles."
Elliot. Churchyard there quotes two lines from
Whetstone's funeral poem.
Morton. He does, and what you have read, I
think, is followed by an epitaph by Whetstone upon
Sidney.
Bourne. Churchyard inserts two epitaphs j but
one of them has been reprinted : that by Whetstone
is but just worth preserving.
" Here vnder lyes Phillip Sydney Knight,
True to his Prince, learned, staid and wise ;
Who lost his life in honourable fight,
Who vanquisht death, in that he did despise
To liue in pompe, by others brought to passe ;
Which oft he tearm'd a Dyamond set in Brasse."
Morton. This puts me in mind of a question I had
to ask, and which I forgot until now. You remem-
ber, perhaps, that Sir John Harington, in the notes
to the 1 6th book of his Orlando Furioso, mentions Sir
P. Sidney, and an epitaph written upon him by Sir
Walter Paleigh, in which, according to Harington,
he is called " the Scipio and the Petrarke of our
time :" where is that epitaph to be found :
144 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. That is a question I should he glad to
he ahle to answer, as I never could discover any such
epitaph : yet I cannot help being persuaded that it
once existed though now lost, and that Sir John
Harington is not mistaken.
Morton. That translation of Ariosto, much as it
has been abused, has had the honour of being em-
ployed by Milton in the first book of his treatise " Of
Reformation touching Church Discipline."
Bourne. He quotes, with verbal accuracy, the
four last lines of the 72d stanza of 15. 34, but he
disapproves entirely of the mode in which Harington
rendered the four last lines of the 79th stanza of the
same book, and accordingly wholly alters it ; so that
Milton's testimony is both for and against the
translation.
Morton. I only noticed it by the way, and not
with any view to draw on a discussion now about
Sir John Harington's merits. Do not let us wander
farther from Rich and his " Farewell to Militarie
Profession." Our preface has already been suf-
ficiently long and excursive.
Elliot. You mentioned 3Ir. Haslewood's list of
Rich's productions, and certain omissions he had
made. Is the "Farewel" now under our considera-
tion, mentioned by him ?
Bourne. It is not, and there are few who pos-
sess more knowledge on the subject of old poetry
than the gentleman you have named. This error he
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 145
commits in common with all bibliographers, nor
have I seen the " Farewell to Militarie profession"
included in any catalogue that has come under my
observation.
Morton. It is as important a discovery, recol-
lecting its contents, as could be well made : a first
edition would of course be still more valuable.
Bourne. I dare say a copy of it exists, if one
knew where to lay one's hands upon it.
Elliot. What is the general plan of the work?
the title-page only mentions " pleasant discourses:"
what is to be understood by those words ?
Bourne. The word Discourse had a very un-
defined meaning at that time : Rich uses it to ex-
press what we now call novels or tales, and of these
there are eight in this small 4to. volume, so that they
are not of very considerable length. In an address
" to the Readers in generall," Rich observes : " The
Histories (altogeather) are eight in number, whereof,
the first, the second, the fift, the seuenth, and eight
are tales that are but forged onely for delight ;
neither credible to be beleeued, nor hurtfull to be
perused. The third, the fourth, and the sixt are
Italian Histories written likewise for pleasure by
maister L. B."
Elliot. And which of these is the foundation of
Shakespeare's play ?
Bourne. The second. The commentators an-
ticipated what has now fortunately occurred, that
146 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
the original novel of Twelfth Night might, at some
future time, be discovered. The likeness in parts is
extremely strong, and indeed there will be no room
for any doubt, whether Shakespeare did or did not
employ it.
Morton. But we have not yet heard the title, of
the novel ; as it is the second it conies among those
which the author states " are but forged only for
delight."
Bourne. The history is entitled " Of Apolonius
axd Silla," and you will find that throughout
Shakespeare has changed all the names, as indeed
in such cases he frequently did. — The argument of
the story is thus given after the title.
" The argument of the second Historic.
^[ Apolonius, Duke, hauiug spent a yeares seruice
in the warres against the Turke, returning home-
ward with his eompanie by sea was driuen by force
of weather to the He of Cypres, where he was well
receiued by Pontus gouernour of the same lie, with
whom Silla, daughter to Pontus, fell so strangely in
louc that after Apolonius was departed to Constan-
tinople, Silla with one man followed and comming
to Constantinople she serued Apolonius m the habitc
of a man, and after many pretie accidents falling
out, she was knowne to Apolonius, who in requital!
of her loue married her."
Morton. Excepting the circumstance of Silla
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 147
serving the duke in man's attire, and their subsequent
marriage, the argument does not indicate any other
resemblance to Shakespeare's play : Rich lays his
scene in Constantinople, but Shakespeare in Illyria.
Elliot. Sebastian and Olivia, or any persons an-
swering to them, seem entirely omitted by Rich.
Bourne. In the argument, not in the story: you
would not wish to have the argument as long and
as particular as the narrative : it cannot include
every thing ; notwithstanding, it was merely casting
my eye over the argument that first led me to sus-
pect a resemblance, which I afterwards found most
satisfactorily confirmed. The body of the history
opens with various reflections on the influence of
" Dame Errour" in human affairs, and especially in
those of love, after which it relates that Apolonius,
" a worthy Duke," a very young man, who had
levied an army and served against the Turk, while
Constantinople was yet in the hands of the Christians,
returning home after one year's victories, was com-
pelled, by stress of weather, to seek shelter in Cyprus
(or Cypres, as Rich calls it) : he was here entertained
very courteously by Pontus, the governor, who had
a son named Silvio and a daughter named Silla : the
latter soon fell desperately in love with Duke Apolo-
nius, and " vsed so great familiarity with him, as her
honour might well permitte, and fed him with such
amorous baites as the modesty of a maide could
reasonably afforde."
l 'I
148 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. Then does Silvio, brother to Silla, cor-
respond with Shakespeare's Sebastian, brother to
Viola ?
Bourne. Throughout. — Apolonius makes no re-
turn, and indeed scarcely seems to notice the at-
tentions of the young lady, but with the first fair
wind sails home to Constantinople. Thither Silla
resolves to follow him, and is aided in her design by
Pedro, a faithful servant, in whose company, and as
whose sister, she embarks in a galley that happened
to be preparing to quit the port. On the voyage
the captain falls in love with the beautiful damsel,
makes amorous advances, and at last offers her
violence : she is obliged by his threats to appear
consenting, and having obtained a short respite, she
is about to destroy herself with a knife, to prevent
the completion of the wicked purposes of her boister-
ous lover, when a dreadful storm opportunely rises
to divert her from her purpose, and the vessel being
wrecked, all are drowned excepting Silla, Avho escapes
by clinging to a chest belonging to the captain.
Morton. To all this there is nothing parallel in
Shakespeare. We hear nothing of any previous
love, or even acquaintance, between Duke Orsino
and Viola.
Elliot. All we have been told is antecedent, I
suppose : Shakespeare begins alter tiu: storm, and
of course omits what occurred during the voyage.
Bourne. It has always struck me as a defect in
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 149
Shakespeare's highly finished play, that the motive
for the voyage of Viola is not sufficiently explained :
she tells the captain only that she had heard her
father name Duke Orsino ; but in the first instance
she seems desirous rather to be taken into the service
of Olivia than of the Duke :
" O that I serv'd that Lady,
And might not be deliver' d to the world,
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is,"
are her words.
Morton*. She did not then perhaps contemplate
her disguise. "While serving Olivia she might have
an opportunity of seeing the Duke.
Bourne. Dr. Johnson remarks upon this part of
the play : " Viola seems to have formed a very deep
design with very little premeditation : she is thrown
by shipwreck on an unknown coast : hears that the
Prince is a bachelor, and resolves to supplant the
lady whom he courts." This objection is well-
founded, as it applies to readers of the present
day, but I apprehend it is not so well-founded with
reference to Shakespeare's audiences. It is an ac-
knowledged fact, that the stories he availed him-
self of were popular, the incidents were generally
well known, and the hearers could therefore supply
certain omissions from their memories. When Viola
observes,
150 EIGHTH CONVERSATION
'•' I have heard my father name him :
lie was a bachelor then,"
she tells no more, in order not to disclose her design
to the captain of the ship, but intends to say just
enough to draw from him the huts, that he yet re-
mained single, and that he was engaged in courtship
to Olivia.
Elliot. If Shakespeare had used the same names
for his characters as Rich gives them, your argument
would have been more conclusive ; as it is, I have
some doubts upon the point : but let us proceed
with the novel.
Bourne. Silla breaks open the chest that had
been the means of her preservation during the
storm, and finding it tilled with men's apparel, she
clothes herself in one of the suits : thus attired, she
travels to Constantinople, and there presents herself
to the Duke, who, " perceiuing him to be a proper
smogue young man, gaue him entertainment." Silla
at this time took upon herself her brother's name.
We now come to Olivia, or the. lady who in Rich's
novel answers to her : she is called Julina, and is
represented as a young beautiful widow, whose
husband had died lately, and left her extremely rich.
Shakespeare thought it would have a better effect to
describe her as a virgin whose brother was recently
deceased.
Mokton. It has been objected that there is some
impropriety in Olivia having her house filled by such
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 151
persons as Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Ague-
cheek : the impropriety might have been less striking
had Shakespeare fallowed Rich's story in this respect
more exactly.
Bourne. In Shakespeare's age I do not know
that such a circumstance would have made any
very material difference. Rich thus speaks of Ju-
lina : "At this very instaunt there was remainyng
in the Cittie a noble Dame, a widdowe, whose hus-
band was but lately deceased, one of the noblest
men that were in the partes of Grecia, who left his
Lady and wife large possessions and great liuings.
This ladyes name was called Iullna, who besides the
aboundance of her wealth and the greatnesse of her
reuenues, had likewise the soueraigntie of all the
Dames of Constantinople for her beautie."
Morton. Rich does not scruple to be guilty of
tautologies.
Bourne. He proceeds in these terms : " To this
Lady hdina Apolonius became an earnest suter, and
according to the manner of woers, besides faire
wordes, sorrowfull sighes and piteous countenaunces,
there must be sending of louing letters, Chaines,
Braceletes, Brouches, Ringes, Tablets, Gemmes,
Iuels and presents, I know not what. So my Duke
who in the time that he remained in the lie of Cypres,
had no skill at all in the arte of Lone, although it
were more then half proffered vnto him, was now
become a scholler in Loues Schoole and had alreadie
152 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
learned his first lesson ; that is, to speake pittifullv,
to iooke ruthfully, to promise largely, to scrue dili-
gently and to speake carefully: Now he was learn-
ing his second lesson, that is, to reward liberally., to
giue bountifully, to present willingly and to write
louingly. Thus Apolonius was so busied in his new
study that, I warrant you, there was no man that
could chalenge him for plaiyng the truant, he fol-
lowed his profession with so good will : And who
must be the messenger to carrie the tokens and loue
letters to the Lady Ialina but Silnio his man : in
him the Duke reposed his onely cofidence to goe
between him and his Lady."
Elliot. Now the resemblance begins to open
upon us.
Boukxe. And it will grow more and more striking
every minute. After some reflections on the cruel
situation in which Silla, alias Silvio, was placed,
Rich goes on thus: " Iulina now hauing many
times taken the gaze of this vong youth Siluio, per-
ceiuing him to bee of such excellent perfect grace,
was so intangeled with the often sight of this sweete
temptation that sbe fell into as great a liking with
the man, as the maister was with her selfe : And on
a time Siluio beyng sent from his maister with a
message to the Lady Iulina, as he beganne very
earnestly to solieite in his maisters behalfe, Ialina
interrupting him in his tale saied : Siluio, it is
enough that you haue saied for your maister ; from
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 153
henceforth either speake for your self or say nothing
at all. Silla, abashed to heare these words, bega in
her mind to accuse the blindnes of loue, that Iidina,
neglecting the good of so noble a Duke, wold pre-
ferre her loue vnto such a one as nature it selfe had
denied to recopence her liking."
Elliot. Ay, now we enter into the very heart of
Shakespeare's play: he vrai pent quelquefois rCetre
pas vraisemblable, and this was an instance, for your
assertion did not at first seem borne out.
Bourne. I thought you were at first a little
incredulous : you seemed afraid of coming under
the ironical censure of our friend Rabelais, " Un
homme de bons setis croit toujour :s ce qu'on luy
diet Sf quil troiive par escript." We now come to
Silla 1 s brother, Silvio, the Sebastian of Shakespeare:
Silvio at the time of these transactions was in the
interior of Africa, and was not like Sebastian wrecked
in the same ship with Viola. Returning to Cyprus,
he vows to discover Silla, and after various travels
he arrives at Constantinople, " where as he was
walking in an euening for his owne recreation on
a pleasante grene yarde without the walles of the
Cittie, he fortuned to meet with the Lady Iidina,
who likewise had been abroad to take the aire ;
and as she sodainly east her eyes vpon Siluio,
thinking him to be her olde acquaintance, by reason
they were so like one another, as you have heard
before, said vnto him, sir, Siluio, if your hast be not
the greater, I pray you let me haue a little talke with
154 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
you, seeing I haue so luckily met you in this place."
At first the young man appears somewhat astonished
and shy, but noting the lady's beauty, he affects to
have forgotten himself, and to be what Julina sup-
poses him. Julina, as a widow, may be excused
for being something bolder than a virgin, and she
actually invites Silvio not only to her house, but to
her bed, and he consents without reluctance.
Morton. Something more must be said about the
resemblance of the brother and sister, to account for
the mistake, than ivhat you read just now: you
probably omitted to mention it.
Bourne. I forgot it in the proper place; for it is
stated that Silvio loved his sister Silla <c as dearly as
his own life, and the rather for that as she was his
naturall sister both by the Father and Mother, so the
one of them Avas so like the other in countenance
and fauour, that there was no man able to descerne
the one from the other by their faces."
Elliot. That was a very important circumstance.
If Shakespeare were wrong in making Olivia not a
widow, he was right in not carrying her love to
Cesario or to the man she fancied was lie, to such an
extreme as Rich represents it.
Bourne. Of course; but Rich, as vou will find,
has no scruple of that sort, for Julina afterwards
proves to be in the family way: — but we shall see
more of that presently. Duke Apolonius is informed
by his domestics, that the widow preferred his ser-
vant to himself, and that she had given most un-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 155
equivocal proofs of it : he consequently throws the
unfortunate Silla into a dungeon, and refuses to
listen to her entreaties. Julina, in the mean time,
finding the consequences of her intercourse with the
brother but too apparent, is in a state of great alarm,
" fearing to become banckrout of her honour," and
appealing to Apolonius, Silla is brought from her
prison into their presence : she requires Julina to
contradict the charge that she, Silla^ had made love
to her, Julina, for herself instead of her master.
Julina, on the other hand, still mistaking the sister
for the brother, calls upon Silla first to admit their
mutual love, and that failing, to avow the criminal
intercourse that had passed between them. The
speeches in this interview run to a considerable
length, Julina repeating to Silla the vows her brother
Silvio had, in fact, made of love and constancy, and
asserting that she had received him " for her loyal
husband." The duke is convinced that his page has
wronged the lady most grossly, and drawing his
rapier, insists that Silla shall make all possible
amends. This forms a very interesting scene, and
our compassion is much divided between the duke,
who saw the lady of his love thus degraded, Julina,
who complains of the ingratitude of one whom she
so dearly valued, and Silla, who is the innocent
victim of mistake and accident.
Elliot. Shakespeare has made no use of it, and
could not in the structure of his play; but he has
turned the resemblance between the brother and sister
156" EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
to a comic account, if I may so say, and has made it
the source of several most ludicrous scenes. Are
any of these touched upon or related in Rich's
story ?
Bourxe. They are not: the irresistibly comic^part
of Twelfth Night appears to be wholly Shakespeare's.
In Rich's novel there is not any ludicrous character,
or, indeed, any person Avhose name has not been
already mentioned. You may wish to hear a few
sentences from the reply of Silla to Julina's accusa-
tion before the duke. " Ah. Madame Ialina, I
desire no other testimonie, then your owne honestie
and vertue, thinking that you wil not so much blemish
the brightnesse of your honour, knowing that a wo-
man is, or should be, the linage of curtesie, con-
tinencie and shamefastnesse, from the which so soone
as she stoopeth, and leaueth the oflice of her duetie
and modesty, besides the degradation of her honour she
thrusteth her selfe into the pit of perpetuall infamy:
and as I cannot think you would so forget your selfe,
by the refusal of a noble Duke to diinme the light of
your renowne and glorie, which hetherto you haue
maintained amongest the besl^ind noblest Ladies,
by such a one as I knowe my selfe to be, too farre
vnworthie your degree and calling, so most humbly
I beseech you to confesse a troth, whereto tendeth
those vowes and promises you speake of, which
speeches bee so obscure vnto me, as L know not for
my life how I might vnderstand them."
Mortox. The sentence of the duke, commanding;
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 157
Silla -to make amends, is, of course, delivered after
what you have read : how does Silla receive it ?
Bourne. The narrative is continued in the follow-
ing terms : " Siluio hauing heard this sharpe sen-
tence fell downe on his knees before the Duke crau-
ing for mercie, desiring that he might be suffered to
speake with the Lady Iulina apart, promising to
satisfie her according to her owne contentation — Well
(quoth the Duke) I take thy worde, and therewithall
I aduise thee that thou performe thy promise, or
otherwise, I protest before God, I will make thee
such an example to the world that all traitours shall
tremble for feare how they doe seeke the dishonour-
ing of Ladies — But now Iulina had concerned so
great griefe against Siluio, that there was much adoe
to persuade her to talk with him ; but remembring
her owne case, desirous to heare what excuse he
could make, in the end she agreed, and being brought
into a place seuerally by themsclues, Siluio began
with a piteous face to say as followeth. — I know not,
Madam, of whom I might make complaint, whether
of you or of my selfe, which hath conducted and
brought vs both into so great aduersitie. I see
that you receiue great wrong, and I am condemned
against all right ; you in perill to abide the bruite
of spightfull tongues, and I in danger to loose the
thing that I most desire : and although 1 could
alledge many reasons to proue my sayings true, yet
I rei'erre my selfe to the experience and bountie of
your minde. And here with all loosing his garments
158 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
downe to his stomacke and shewed Iulina his breasts
and prety teates surmounting farre the whitnesse of
snow it solfe, saying: Loe, Madam, beholde here
the party whom you hane chalenged to be the father
of your childe ! See I am a woman, the daughter of
a noble Duke, who onely for the loue of him, whom
you so lightly haue shaken of, haue forsaken my
father, abandoned my countrie, and in manner, as
you see, am become a seruing man, satisfying m\
selfe but with the onely sight of my Apolonius : and
now, Madam, if my passion were not vehement and
my tormentes without comparison, I would wish
that my fained griefes might be laughed to scorne,
and my dissembled paines to bee rewarded with
floutes. But my loue beeing pure, my trauaile con-
tinuall, and my griefes endlesse, I trust, Madam,
you will not onely excuse mc of crime, but also
pitty my distresse, the which J protest I would stil
haue kept secret if my fortune would so haue per-
mitted."
Elliot. All this could but increase the miser-
able perplexity of poor Julina. Such an eclairciase-
ment could scarcely take place on the staa'e, and this
might be one reason why Shakespeare omitted the
incident.
Bourne. Besides, it would not perhaps have done,
even at that day, to have brought on the stage a lady
openly making such a complaint as that of Julina,
founded upon her own confession of criminality.
Morton. I have not patience just now to argue
EIGHTH CONVERSATION'. 159
any such point, though in Beaumont and Fletcher's
" Maids Tragedy/' there is even a stranger inter-
view : let it suffice, that Shakespeare has so far de-
viated from his original. What becomes of the un-
happy widow ?
Boukxe. Rich says, with much simplicity, she
" did now thinke her selfe to be in a worse case
then euer she was before, for now she knew not
whom to challenge to be the father of her child ;
wherefore when she had told the Duke the verye
certainty of the discourse which Siluio had made
vnto her, shee departed to her owne house with such
griefe and sorrowe, that she purposed neuer to come
out of her owne dores again aliue, to be a wonder
and mocking stocke to the world."
Elliot. What says the duke to Silvio, or rather
to Silla, now he learns her disguise and the object of
it ? is it any thing like
" And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand; you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress ?"
Bourne. The same in effect, but he is a little
more high-flown in his phrases, and rapturous in his
love : " Oh the branche of al vertue (he exclaims)
and the flowre of courtesie it selfe, pardon me I
beseech you of all such discourtesies as I ignorantly
committed towards you ! Desiring you that without
farther memorie of auncient griefes you will accept
160 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
of me, who is more ioyfull and better contented with
your presence then if the whole world were at
my commaundement." Their happy nuptials are
accordingly celebrated at Constantinople with the
utmost pomj) and solemnity.
Morton. But what had become of the brother, the
real Silvio, all this time? These events must have
made much noise in Constantinople, and one would
think he must have heard of them.
Bourne. Shakespeare manages this part of the
story differently. Sebastian only arrives once in
Illyria, and that, as it were, by accident, while in
order to confirm the claim of Olivia upon Sebastian,
he introduces a contract of marriage before a priest.
Now Rich, after Silvio's first visit to Constantinople,
and after he had left Julina in what family men call
(< a hopefull condition," makes him pursue his travels
in search of his lost sister into the interior of Greece,
where the report of these strange occurrences reaches
him. Returning to Constantinople, he was received
by his sister and the duke with the utmost joy. In
two or three days, Apolonius informed him of what
had passed regarding the Lady Julina; and Silvio,
well knowing how the error had arisen, "was stricken
with great remorse to make Julina amends, vnder-
standing her to be a noble lady," and " left de-
famed to the world through his default." lie ac-
cordingly " bewrayed the whole circumstances" to
Apolonius, who breaks the matter to the widow,
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. IGI
and introduces the repentant lover to her as " the
sonne and heyre of a noble Duke, worthy of her
estate and dignity." The novel is wound up in the
following manner : " Iulina seeing Siluio in place did
know very well that he was the father of her childe,
and was so rauished with ioy, that she knew not
whether she were awake or in some dreame. Siluio
imbracing her in his armes, crauing forgiuenesse of
all that was past, concluded with her the marriage
day, which was presently accomplished with great
ioy and contentation to all parties. And then Siluio
hauing attained a noble wife, and Silla his sister her
desired husband, they passed the residue of their
daies with such delight as those that haue accom-
plished the perfection of their felicities."
Elliot. And a very pleasant story it is, and judg-
ing from such parts as you have read, pleasantly
told.
Bourne. The narrative is conducted with regu-
larity and clearness, and the language generally easy
and fluent, though disfigured now and then by need-
less repetitions.
Morton. It is indisputable that Shakespeare was
indebted to it for his plot of Twelfth Night.
Bourne. Though he has not followed it very
closely : indeed, as we have seen, he was in a manner
obliged to vary it, in order to render it dramatic} he
has not made his incidents quite so consequential
upon each other as Rich, and with great art lie has
VOL. II. n
169, EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
contrived to arrive at the denouement of both plots
at the same time. This was not at all necessary in
the narrative, and, in my opinion, as far as veri-
similitude is concerned, it was more natural to at-
tribute the arrival of Silvio at Constantinople to
design, in the course of his search for his sister, than
to mere accident, which seems to be the case with
Sebastian.
Morton. Had Shakespeare adopted this expedient,
it would have too much resembled an incident in a
former play of his, I mean " The Comedy of Errors,"
where Antipholis of Syracuse travels in search of his
twin brother.
Elliot. True, and as it was, Shakespeare could
not avoid some similarity in the incidents, though he
contrived to introduce every dissimilarity in the si-
tuations. Have either of the other seven histories or
discourses in Rich's book any connexion with Shake-
speare's plays ?
Bourne. No; excepting that in the sixth novel
there is an incident of the effects of a sleeping draught
upon a young lady that reminds us of Romeo and
Juliet ; and the first scene of the same tragedy is
brought to our memories in another story, by the
employment of the familiar proverb " o' my word
we'll not carry coals," in the same way as Shakespeare
uses it.
Morton. All which confirms the belief, that
" Rich his Farewel to Military profession" was one
of the books in Shakespeare's library, and that he
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 163
was well acquainted with its contents. You said
that llich was a poet, but the " discourse" we have
just finished is wholly prose: can you give us a
specimen of his verse ?
Bourne. I can, and you will not read it with the
less interest, because it is found in the same curious
volume, where several other pieces of poetry are
interspersed. What I am about to read is from the
first novel, relating the adventures of a banished
duke, called " Sappho Duke of Mantona."
Elliot. Shakespeare is charged by the com-
mentators with the heinous offence of confounding
the sex which ought to belong to the name of
Baptista. Rich seems to have been guilty of the
same error in the name of Sappho.
Bourne. So it appears, but it may be easily for-
given. His lines are these :
" No shame, I trust, to cease from former ill,
Nor to revert the lewdnesse of the minde,
Which hath bin trainde, and so misled by will,
To breake the bounds which reason had assignde :
I now forsake the former time I spent,
And sorie am for that I once miswent.
" But blinde forecast was he that made me swarue,
Affection fond was lurer of my lust ;
My fancie fixt desire did make me serue,
Yaine hope was he that trained all my trust :
m 2
164 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Good liking then so daseled hard my sight,
And dimnde mine eies, that reason gaue no light.
" O sugred sweet that trainde me to this trap !
I saw the bait where hooke lay hidden fast 5
I well perceiud the drift of my mishap;
I knew the bit would breed my bane at last :
But what for this, for sweete I swallowed all.
Whose tast I find more bitter now than Gall.
" But loe the fruites that grewe by fond desire !
I seeke to shun that pleased best my minde;
I sterue for cold, yet faine would quench the fire,
And glad to loose that fairest 1 would finde.
In one self thing I find both bane and blisse ;
But this is straunge, I like no life but this."
The word fairest, in the last line but two, is probably
a misprint for fainr.sl.
Elliot. Rich probably is to be placed in the class
of smooth versifiers, but, according to this specimen,
he has no claim to any rank among original poets.
Bourne. You have correctly ascertained and stated
his merits in a sentence. This volume has been long
enough open, we may now close it.
Morton. In alluding to a proverb used by Rich,
you just now mentioned Romeo and Juliet ; the
original of it is in Painters " Palace of Pleasure."
Bocnxn. That was probably the immediate ori-
ginal, but there were other versions of the Italian
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 165
tale : you will find it on fo. l/9> b. of " The second
Tome of the Palace of Pleasure," printed by Thomas
Marshe. Did you ever hear of a separate printed
poem by William Painter ; I mean unconnected with
" the Palace of Pleasure?"
Morton. Certainly never.
Bourne. Yet such a poem, or rather collection of
poems, was shown me not long since.
Morton. Indeed. Was it not a most valuable
relic ? The editor of the new edition of " the Palace
of Pleasure" mentions nothing about it.
Bourne It is a relic of considerable rarity, but
you mistake if you suppose it was by William Painter,
the compiler and translator of the Palace of Pleasure,
although by a person of the same names. However,
no other copy is known of it, and as it was without
beginning or end, the date cannot precisely be ascer-
tained: the dedication to Sir Paul Pinder, ambassador
at Constantinople, signed William Painter, is, how-
ever, still preserved : Sir Paul died before the year
1G50 ; the type, as I should guess, was after 1030.
Morion. Perhaps it was by some descendant :
what is the subject? Had it any merit?
Bourne. None that I could discover; but the
running-title
Elliot. Here is a poem, the date of which you
do not know, the author of which you do not know;
which has neither beginning nor end, and which is
actually worth nothing, and vet we are to waste our
166 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
time upon it. Have we not already heard too much
about it?
Bourne. I apprehend not. You cannot wonder
that some curiosity should be felt about the title.
Elliot. Why, when the body of the work is not
worth reading, what signifies the title ? Yet I am
not surprised ; Quod crebro vidit non miratur, etiam
si curjlat, nescit.
Bourne. But I contend that the name of the
poem is curious and worth knowing : the title-
page is wanting, but the running-title is " Chaucer
painted :" why it is so called I cannot guess, as in
the cursory view I had of the book I saw nothing
that had any relation to Chaucer : the greater por-
tion was proverbs strung together in four-line
stanzas. Towards the end was a poem lamenting
the degeneracy of shepherds, and an anagram on
the mother of the author, J one Clark.
Morton. The word painted in the running-title, I
dare say, had some connexion with the author's
name. Did you extract any part of it ?
Bourne. T did not.
Elliot. Then we are more fortunate than usual.
Morton. Still uncis naribus indulgis, but not at
our expense.
Bourne. He will not have that gratification long,
for about William Painter I have nothing more to
say.
Elliot. Why, seriously, if I did not keep some
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 167
kind of check upon you, there is no knowing what
paltry matters you two might not wander into.
Let us dwell upon something worth attention, and I
will not complain. I never dreamt of objecting to
the detail you entered into of Rich's novel, because
that was not only a new but a very interesting sub-
ject, and if you had continued the same course, and
given us some account of other histories of which
Shakespeare availed himself, it would have been
adding importantly to our stock of knowledge.
Boukxk. I would have done so willingly had I
been sufficiently prepared for the purpose 5 but some
of the stories which Shakespeare employed are
really so rare, and are consequently so difficult to be
procured, that before I can enter into the question
satisfactorily, I must lay all my friends under con-
tribution for books.
Mokton. I have seen Lodge's " Rosalind," the
" worthless original" (as Mr. Steevens is pleased to
call it) of " As you Like it" in your collection.
Elliot. And Robt. Greene's " Dorastus & Faw-
nia," on which the " Winter's Tale" is founded, you
told me you had.
Morton. Besides, " the Palace of Pleasure,"
which stands conspicuous on your shelves, and these
three, with Sir Thomas North's translation of Plu-
tarch's Lives, will go a good way in, at least,
illustrating a subject that, as far as I know, lias not
yet been by any means adequately investigated.
16'8 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. You mistake when you say that you
have seen Lodge's " Rosalind" among my books:
you have seen " Euphues Golden Legacie : Found
after his death in his Cell at Silexedra. Bequeathed
to Philautus Sonnes, nursed vp with their Father in
England/' 1623, and it is very true that this work,
excepting the title and the different orthography of
some of the words, is the same as Lodge's " Rosa-
lind," of 1590, but I could wish, were it in my power,
to show you, and to read from, the original edition.
Elliot. What trifles you convert into matters of
consequence : this is not only nugis addere pondus,
but giving the nugce themselves an artificial weight.
We shall be able to judge of the similarity between
Shakespeare's play and Lodge's novel as well by an
edition of yesterday, if it be correctly reprinted, as
by one published in the life-time of the author.
Bourne. Certainly, but independent of the satis-
faction of comparing Shakespeare's play with an
original edition, such as he probably employed, there
is surely some pleasure in looking at literary curiosi-
ties, like the first edition of " Rosalynde," for so the
author spelt it, in 1590, though why that graceful
name was afterwards erased from the title, and all
the rest left, it is impossible for us to ascertain.
Elliot. Nor is it worth ascertaining if we had all
the means before us.
Morton. I do not know that, provided it had any
thing to do with Spenser's Rosalind, or with Shake-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 16"9
speare's adoption of the name in his " As you Like
it," or any other circumstance of that kind.
Bourne. Mr. Singer, in a late reprint (which, by
the by, might have been more correct) has extracted
all the poetry from Lodge's " Rosalynde," and, as
Shakespeare was much less indebted to the verse
than to the prose, and, as no specimens have been
given from the last, I will read two or three passages
which will enable you to form an opinion of Lodge's
style, and of the manner in which he treats a story,
of which there is every reason to believe that he was
the original inventor.
Elliot. This is just as it ought to be ; now we
are coming to the point : — Lodge was unquestionably
a man of considerable talent as a poet, if we looked
only at the pieces inserted in his " Fig for Mo-
mus." What you are about to extract from then, is
his " Rosalynde," republished in l(i<23 under the title
of " Euphues Golden Legacy."
Bourne. It is: he took the name of Euphues
from John Lilly, who published his well-known
" Euphues, the Anatomic of Wit," at least as early
as 15SO, and in the prefatory matter to which I find
that he was rusticated from Oxford. I just notice
this circumstance, because his biographers seem to
have overlooked it.
Morton. That is curious: what does lie say of
himself?
Bourne. It is in an address " To my good Friends,
170 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
the Gentlemen Schollers of Oxford:" he observes,
" Yet may I of all the rest most condemne Oxford
of vnkindnesse, of vice I cannot, who seemed to
weane me before shee brought me forth and to giue
me bones to gnaw, before I could get the teat to
suck. Wherein she played the nice mother, in
sending me into the country to nurse, where I tyred
at a dry breast three yeares, and was at last enforced
to weane my selfe." He accordingly went to Cam-
bridge. One of Robert Greene's tracts is called
" Euphues Censure to Philantus," so that it should
seem that Lilly's example had rendered those names
very popular.
Elliot. Do not let us wander unnecessarily. I
am anxious to hear something from Lodge's novel.
Bourne. Your anxiety shall be relieved. You
will observe, in the first place, that Shakespeare's
Orlando is here called Rosader, and his severe elder
brother Saladine : the names of Rosalind and Aliena
(the assumed name of Alinda) Shakespeare adopts.
The following is the description of the heroine :
" As euery mans eye had his seurall suruey, and
fancie was partiall in their lookes, yet all in generall
applauded the admirable riches that Nature bestowed
on the face of Rosalind; for vpon her cheekes there
seemed a battell betweene the Graces, who should
bestow most fauours to make her excellent. The
blush that gloried Luna when she. kist the Shepheard
of the hills of Latmos, was not tainted with such a
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 171
pleasant dye as the vermilion florish on the siluer
hue of Rosalinds countenance : her eyes were like
those Lampes that make the wealthie couert for the
heauens more glorious, sparkling fauour and dis-
daine, curteous and yet coy, as if in them Venus had
placed al her amorets, and Diana all her chastitie.
The trammels of her haire, folded in a caule of gold,
so farre surpast the burnisht glister of mettall, as
the Sunne doth the meanest Starre in brightnesse :
the tresses that folds in the brows of Apollo, were
not halfe so rich to the .sight, for in her haires it
seemed loue had laid himselfe in ambush, to entrap
the proudest eye that durst gaze vpon their excel-
lence : what should I need to decipher her particular
beauties, when by the censure of all, she was the
paragon of all earthly perfection."
Morton. That puts one a little in mind of James
Shirley's excellent ridicule of overstrained hyper-
bolical compliments, and unnatural resemblances, in
his play of " The Sisters" (1652), where he makes
Angelina reprove a pedantic Scholar, who had
smeared her beauty with all sorts of artificial co-
lours : she says,
— — " I am
A stranger to you, Sir, and to your language ;
These words have no relation to me.
1 pity men of your high fancy, should
Dishonour their own names bv forming such
17'2 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Prodigious shapes of beauty in our sex.
If I were really what you would commend,
Mankind would fly me. (ret a painter, Sir,
And when he has wrought a woman by your fancy,
See if you know her again. Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without haire,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of r
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow ? No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily ;
Between, a pendant alabaster nose :
Her lips cut out of corall, and no teeth
But strings of pearl : her tongue a nightingales ! —
Would not this strange chimaera fright yourself?"
Elliot. Your quotation is in point, though rather
long. You might have found a shorter one, and (mite
as apposite, I think, in the very play of Shakespeare
under consideration. The ridicule of Shirley is ex-
ceedingly well expressed, as might indeed be ex-
pected from his pen, as far as I have heard any thing
about him.
Boukxe. It is to be regretted that Mr. Gilford's
edition of his plays is so long postponed. Shirley,
as has been remarked, was the last of the old
English school of dramatists, and both his Tragedies
and Comedies will bear comparison with those of
any of Shakespeare's contemporaries. But to pro-
ceed with Lodge: the following will strongly re-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 1?3
mind you of Shakespeare. It is before Rosalind and
her friend Alinda, afterwards called Aliena, make
their escape to the forest of Arden: " At this Rosalind
began to comfort her, and after shee had wept a few
kinde teares, in the bosome of her Alinda, shee gaue
her hearty thankes, and then they sate them downe
to consult how they should trauell. Alinda grieued
at nothing but that they might haue no man in their
company, saying : it would bee their greatest pre-
iudiee, in that two women went wandring about
without either guide or attendant. Tush (quoth
Rosalind) art thou a woman and hast not a sodaine
shift to preuen-t a misfortune? I (thou secst) am of a
tall stature, and would very well become the person
and apparell of Page, thou shalt be my Mistris, and
I will play the man so properly, that (trust mee) in
what company soeuer I come, I will not be dis-
couered : I will buy mee a sute, and haue a Rapier
very handsomely at my side, and if any knaue offer
wrong, your Page will shew him the point of his
weapon. At this Alinda smiled, and vpon this they
agreed, and presently gathered vp all their jewels,
which they trussed vp in a casket, and Rosalind in
all haste prouided her of robes, and Alinda being
called Alicna, and Rosalind, Ganimede."
Elliot. The sentence " I will buy me a suit, and
have a rapier very handsomely at my side," brings
to memory Shakespeare's line, " We'll have a
swashing and a martial outside j" but a preceding
174 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
sentiment of Lodge, on the quickness of woman's
wit and her readiness on sudden emergencies, is
copied from Ariosto, c. xxvii.
Molti consigli delle donne sono
Meglio improviso, eke a pensarvi usciti;
Che queslo especiale, e propria dono
Tra tanti c tanli lor dal ciel largiti —
and then he goes on to contrast this excellence
with the slowness and heaviness of men in similar
situations.
Bourne. On the whole, Ariosto has done the
female sex more than justice, though you remember
some parts of his Orlando sufficiently libellous. The
first encounter of Rosader with the Duke (whom
Lodge calls King Gerismond) is thus described by
Lodge : " It hapned that day that Gerismond, the
lawfull king of France banished by Torismond,
who with a lustie crew of outlawes liued in that
Forrest, that day in honour of his birth, made a
feast to all his bolde yeomen, and froliekt it with
store of wine and venison, sitting all at a long table
vnder the shadow of Limon trees : to that place by
chance fortune conducted Rosader, who seeing such
a crew of braue men, hairing store of that for want of
which hee and Adam perished, hee stept boldly to the
boords end, and saluted the Company thus. — What-
soeuer thou be that art maister of these lustie squires,
I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreame dis-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 175
tresse may : knowe that I and a fellow friend of
mine, are here famished in the forrest for want of
foode : perish we must, vnlesse relieued by thy fa-
uours. Therfore if thou be a Gentleman, giue meate
to men, and such as are euery way worthie of life :
let the proudest Squire that sits at thy table rise and
encounter with me in any honorable point of ac-
tivitie whatsoeuer, and if he and thou proue me
not a man, send mee away comfortlesse : if thou
refuse this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will haue
amongst you with my sword, for rather wil I die
valiantly, then perish with so cowardly an extreame.
Gerisnwiid looking him earnestly in the face, and
seeing so proper a Gentleman in so bitter a passion,
was moued with so great pitie, that rising from the
table hee tooke him by the hande, and bade him
welcome, willing him to sitte downe in his place,
and in his roome, not onely to cate his fill, but as
Lord of the feast. Gramercy Sir (quoth llosadcr)
but I haue a feeble friend that lies hereby famished
almost for food, aged, and therefore lesse able to
abide the extremitie of hunger then my selfe, and
dishonour it were for mee to taste one crum, before
I made him partner of my fortunes : therefore will
I run and fetch him and then I will gratefully accept
of your proffer."
Morton. That is very like Shakespeare also : the
description is lively and picturesque, and the af-
fectionate considerateness of Rosader for his old and
170' EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
faithful servant quite as strongly pourtrayed as in
" As you Like it."'
Bourne. I will not quote the narrative of the
mode in which Rosader discovers and preserves his
brother Saladine from the lion, because that passage,
and almost that only, has been produced by the com-
mentators to establish the resemblance. In .Shake-
speare's play it is certainly a little revolting- to find
Celia so suddenly in love with the repentant Oliver :
this incident is better managed by Lodge, than
Shakespeare had the means of doing within the nar-
row limits of a theatrical performance. I do not
think it worth while to read more from Lodge's
" Rosalynde:" what you have now seen will answer
the purpose we had in view, and will show that
Shakespeare followed his original, in this instance
with an admiring closeness.
Morton. The extracts prove likewise that the
original was not quite so worthless as Mr. Steevens
maintained it to he.
Elliot. Steevens was a tasteless pedant, and no-
thing better could be expected from him. His .sen-
tences have been reversed over and over again ; I
mean not merely with respect to the particular tract
before us, but on other matters on which he has
chosen to be equally dogmatical.
Bourne. Do not let us renew that subject : we
know that you and the annotators are at daggers
drawing, and most frequently I should be inclined to
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 177
fight on your side ; but this is not the fittest time,
however just the quarrel. Besides the resemblances
we have noticed, it is to be observed that Shakespeare
has also adopted Lodge's under-piot in the loves of
Sylvius and Phoebe, but the comic incidents and per-
sons are his own invention and introduction.
Morton. The remark, you may remember, also
applies to his adaptation of Rich's novel to the stage.
May the same be said of the " Winter's Tale," or
does Greene, in his " Dorastus and Fawnia," bring
forward any such character as Autolicus?
Bourxe. He does not; but the greatest difference
between Shakespeare and Greene, in regard to that
story, is, that the latter makes Bellaria, who corre-
sponds to Hermione, actually die in consequence of
the shock of the unjust accusation, of the cruel treat-
ment she receives during her trial, and of the un-
expected intelligence of the death of her young son
Garinter, who is Shakespeare'^ Prince Mamillius.
The annotators have done still less to enable the
reader of " the Winter's Tale" to compare it with
" Dorastus and Fawnia."
Elliot. How long before Shakespeare is supposed
to have written his " Winter's Tale" did Robert
Greene produce his " Dorastus and Fawnia?"
Bourxe. The earliest date hitherto assigned to
the Winter's Tale is 1594, and there is a copy of
Greene's " Dorastus and Fawnia" printed as early as
1588 : perhaps there might be others even still earlier,
vol. u. x
178 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
but Greene's first extant performance is dated 1584,
and is called " A Myrrour of Modestie:" it is the
story of Susanna and the Elders, told at considerable
length, and with some eloquence. This shows that
he began his literary career with a production calcu-
lated to allay rather than excite the passions.
Morton. That would depend much on the mode
in which it was handled : it is not difficult to imagine
that the descriptions in the history of Susanna might
be so highly wrought as to afford very strong in-
centives.
Bourne. As you have doubts about it, and as it is
a tract of the very rarest occurrence, never quoted
that I am aware of, you may like to hear a short
specimen of it : we will then proceed to his " Do-
rastus and Fawnia." The title speaks pretty un-
equivocally as to the nature and object of the per-
formance: "The Myrrour of Modestie, wherein ap-
peareth as in a perfect Glasse how the Lorde de-
liuereth the innocent from all imminent perils, and
plagueth the bloudthirstie hypocrites with deserued
punishments,'' &c. " By R. G. Maister of Artes. Im-
printed at London by Roger Warde," &c. 1584.
Morton. Was that his first work ? It does not
seem very probable that it should be, recollecting
that he died of a surfeit of red herring-, and Rhenish
in 1592.
Bourne. I only said it was his first extant produc-
tion, but the prefatory matter to il does not enable
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 179
us to form an opinion one way or the other : the
following is from the body of the tract. " These
two cursed caitifes of the seede of Chanaan southing-
one another in this deuilish imagination, concluded
when they might finde hir alone to sucke the bloude
of this innocent lambe, and with most detestable
villanie to assaile the simple minde of this sillie
Susanna. Persisting therefore in this hellish pur-
pose, manie daies were not passed ere they spied fit
oportunitie (as they thought) to obtaine their desire,
for the season being very hot and the tender bodie
of Susanna being sore parched with heate, she sup-
posing that none of hir housholde, much lesse anie
stranger had bin in the garden, went in as hir vse
was with two maidens, onlie thinking there secretlie
to washe hirselfe, and seing the coast eleere and
hirself solitarily said thus vnto them : bring me
quoth she oyle and sope wherewith to washe, and
see that you shut the doores surelie. The maidens,
carefullie obaieng their mistresse commande, shut
the garden gates and went out themselues at a
backe doore to fet what their mistresse had willed
them, not seeing the elders because they were hid,
who no sooner sawe the maidens gone, and Susanna
a fit pray for their filthy purpose, but they rose vp
and run vnto hir." My design in reading this pass-
age, is only to show that Greene purposely let slip
the opportunity of giving a luxurious or exciting
description of Susanna, and that this tract is very
180 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
far from what you hinted it might be. However ill-
governed Greene might be in his life and manners,
most of his writings are calculated to warn others of
the dangers he had not been able to shun.
Elliot. As you have finished your quotation, we
may proceed with " Dorastus and Fawnia."
Morton. Have you ever seen a copy of it printed
in 1588?
Bourne. Never ; those dated before lo'OO are all
very difficult to be procured : indeed I never saw a
copy of it sold, let the date be what it would, under
several guineas, i have fortunately two, one of them
dated in 1636, and the oilier as late as I 094, and I
have seen a third printed as recently, I think, as
17*24. Observe on the title-page of this edition of
J.6'94 there is a curious wood-cut, containing a
summary of the history, like the plates to Orlando
Furioso. In the distance, as far as distance is pre-
served in so rude a representation, is the sea, with
a boat and child upon it ; on one side, but more in
front, is a shepherdess tending her flock; and in the
fore-ground the hero in armour, and heroine in a
court dress, holding each other by the hand. The
edition of 1636, which is the most valuable, has no
such ornament, and bears the following title : " The
Pleasant Historic of Dorastus and Fawnia. Wherein
is discovered, that although by the meancs of sinister
Fortune, Truth may be concealed, yet by Time, in
spight of Fortune, it is manifestly revealed. Pleasant
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 181
for age to avoyd drowsie thoughts, Profitable for
Youth to avoyd other wanton Pastimes, And bring-
ing to both a desired Content. Temporisjilia Veritas.
By Robert Greene, Master of Arts in Cambridge.
Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci." London,
&c. 1636.
Morton. The edition of 1694, I observe, omits a
part of that title, in order to make room for the
barbarous wood-cut. I also perceive at the back of
the title-page of 1694, a poem which is not in the
copy of 1636.
Bourne. It is not, and you will find that the lines
are not contemptible. I suppose the printer in 1636
did not think it worth while to insert them, though
it is unquestionably an important omission.
Morton. I will read them : they are called,
" Dorastus in Loue-passion, Writes these few lines
in praise of his louing and best-beloued Faivnia"
" Ah, were she pitifull as she is fair,
or but as mild as she is seeming so,
Then were my hopes greater than my despair,
then all the World were Heauen, nothing Woe.
Ah, were her Heart relenting as her Hand,
that seems to melt euen with the mildest touch,
Then knew I where to seat me in a Land,
under wide Heauens ; but yet not such,
So as she shows : she seems the budding Hose
vet sweeter far than is an Earthly flower :
182 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Souereign of Beauty ! like the Spray she grows
compass'd she is with Thorns and cankered flower.
Yet were she willing to be pluck'd and worn
She would be gathered though she grew on Thorn.
il Ah when she sings, all Musick else be still,
for none must be compared to her Note :
Ne'er breath'd such Glee from Philomelas Bill,
nor from the Morning-singers swelling Throat :
Ah, Avhen she riseth from her blissful! Bed
she comforts all the World as doth the Sun,
And at her sight the Nights foul Vapours tied;
when she is set the gladsome day is done.
O glorious Sun ! imagine me the West,
Shine in my arms and set thou in my Breast !"
Morton. You said the lines were not contemptible ;
the last stanza is very rich and harmonious, and the
whole is an elegant composition, with some very
graceful turns.
Elliot. You over-rate it : it is good, but not
quite so transcendent as you seem to think it. The
two last lines are somewhat in Sir Richard Black -
more's vein.
Morton. You may be right, but whether right or
wrong, I should not be inclined just now to contest
the matter. I perceive that Greene gives us two
mottos on the title-page of 1636 : which did he usually
adopt? Gascoigne, we know, had Tarn Marti tarn.
Mcrcurio, and Whetstone Ma/grc la Fortune.
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 183
Bourne. Omne tulit punctum, &c. was Greene's
ordinary motto to his early publications ; but upon
this point there is a singular letter by him prefixed to
his " Perimedes the Black -Smith," 1588, from which
you will not have forgotten that I formerly quoted
two specimens of blank verse : it is a very curious
epistle, as it relates to Greene's publications, friends
and enemies : I will read it before I make a few
quotations from " Dorastus and Fawnia." It is ad-
dressed " to the Gentlemen Readers Health," and is
in these terms : " Gentlemen I dare not step awrye
from my wonted method, first to appeale to your
fauorable courtesies, which euer I haue found (how-
soeuer plawsible) yet smothered with a milde silence :
the small pamphlets that I haue thrust forth how you
haue regarded them I know not, but that they haue
been badly rewarded with any ill tearmes I neuer
found, which makes me the more bold to trouble
you and the more bound to rest yours euerye waie,
as euer I haue done : I keepe my old course to palter
vp something in Prose vsing mine old poesie still
Omne tulit punctum, although lately two Gentlemen
Poets made two mad men of Rome beate it out of
their paper bucklers, and had it in derision, for that
I could not make my verses iet vpon the stage in
tragicall buskins, euerie worde filling the mouth like
the faburden of Bo-Bell, daring God out of heauen
with that Atheist Tamburlan, or blaspheming with
the mad preest of the sonne."
184 EIGHTH .CONVERSATION.
Morton. That is very remarkable. Tamberlaine,
I suppose, is the notorious tragedy by Marlow, and
one would suppose, from what is said, that (ireene
was at tins time upon bad terms with him.
Bourne. Had it been otherwise he would hardly
have spoken as he has done of that " Atheist Tam-
burlann." Greene, a few lines afterwards, complains
that it was said of him that he could not write
blank verse, on which 3larlow seems to have prided
himself, for in the prologue to his " Tamberlaine"
he notes the distinction in this respect between his
tragedy and the productions of " rhyming mother-
wits."
Elliot. Greene's address really seems a very in-
teresting one : let us hear the rest of it.
Bourne. He continues, — " But let me rather
openly pocket vp the Asse at Diogenes hand, then
wantonlye set out such impious instances of intol-
lerable poetrie ; such mad and scoffing poets that
haue propheticall spirits, as bred of Merlins race :
if there be anye in England that set the end of
scollarisme in an Englishe blank verse, I thinke
either it is the humor of a nouice that tickles them
with self-loue, or to much frequenting the hot house
(to vse a Germaine prouerbe) hath swot out all the
greatest part of their wits, which wasts Gradatim,
as the Italians say Poco a poco. If I speake darkely,
Gentlemen, and offende with this digression, I crane
pardon in that I but answere in print what they haue
EIGHTH CONVERSATION, 185
offered on the Stage." Then he proceeds to speak
merely of the particular work he is presenting to the
world.
Elliot. It is not very easy to ascertain from the
last sentence whether Greene had not been brought
in some way or other upon the stage, or at least his
productions ridiculed there.
Boitrne. I do not draw either of these conclusions j
I apprehend he alludes only to the bringing of blank
verse upon the stage, to the writing of which " two
Gentlemen Poets," it seems, had declared him in-
competent. To contradict this opinion is probably
the object of his blank verse poems inserted in his
" Perimedes."
Morton. What does he mean when he says that
the same '•' two Gentlemen Poets" made two " mad
men of Rome" beat his motto " out of their paper
bucklers r"
Bourne. Who the " two mad men of Rome"
were, I know not, but by beating it " out of their
paper bucklers," I understand, erasing it from their
title-pages. These are questions which it is now
very difficult to settle, and as I do not apprehend we
should be at all the nearer by dwelling longer upon
them, we will proceed to " Dorastus and Fawnia," in
which you will not fail to bear in mind that —
Egistus is the same as Shakespeare's Polixenes.
Pandosto . . . . % . . .as Leontes.
Bellaria as Hermione.
186 EIGHTH CONVERSATION
Garinter is the same as Shakespeare's Mamillius.
Dorastus as Florizel.
Fawnia as Perdita.
This, with the general resemblance between the play
and the story, will enable you to understand the re-
lation of the extracts.
Elliot. You have remarked upon one principal
discordance between " the Winter's Tale" and
"Dorastus and Fawnia;" — do they run parallel in
most other particulars r
Bournei- They do, excepting in one offensive in-
cident, and that is, that Dorastus flying with his
Fawnia, and arriving by accident at the Court of
Pandosto, the father falls in love with his own
daughter, and endeavours to seduce her : there was
no necessity for this circumstance, and the conse-
quence of it is, in addition to the destruction of his
wife, that Pandosto is rendered unfit to enjoy the
happiness of the young Prince and Princess when
the ultimate discovery of Fawnia's birth is made,
and he destroys himself. We have already seen that
Francis Sabie turned the fable into blank verse,
under the title of the " Fisherman's Tale," and
"Flora's Fortune," in 1595. In the subsequent
quotation Greene speaks of the innocent intimacy
between Bellaria and Egistus, which led to the
jealousy of Pandosto. " Bellaria (who in her time
was the flowre of courtesie) willing to show how
vnfainedly she loued her husband by her friends en-
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 187
tertainemet, vsed him likewise so familiarly that her
countenance bewraied how her heart was affected
toward him ; oftentimes comming her selfe into his
bed-chamber, to see if nothing should be amisse to
dislike him. This honest familiarity increased daily
more and more betwixt them, for Bellaria noting in
Egistus a Princely and bountifull mind, adorned with
sundry and excellent qualities, and Egistus finding in
her a vertuous and curteous disposition, there grew
such a secret vniting of their affections, that the one
could not well be without the company of the other :
insomuch, that when Pandosto was busied with such
urgent affaires that lie could not be present with his
friend Egistus, Bellaria would walk with him into
the garden, and there they two in priuate pleasant
deuices, would passe away their time to both their
contents."
Morton. Hermione tells Leontes, in Shakespeare,
" If you will seek us,
We are yours i'the garden,"' &c.
Elliot. If the reality had come up to the de-
scription Greene has given of their " honest fami-
liarity," I think I should almost have been led
myself to suspect the lady.
Bourne. He carries it a little too far — further than
Shakespeare, who well knew out of what a mere
mustard-seed the huge tree of jealous v grows : like
the poison-tree of the East, it flings its arms far and
wide, throwing down fresh roots at a distance from
188 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
the original trunk, until it covers and blasts the whole
soil. The description of the embarkation of the infant
on its hopeless voyage is very pretty and affecting.
" The Guard left her (Bellaria) in this perplexity,
and carried the childe to the king, who cpiite devoid
of pity commanded that without delay it should be
put into the Boat, hauing neither Saile nor Rudder
to guide it, and so to be carried into the midst of
the Sea, and there left to the windes and the waues,
as the Destinies please to appoint. The very Ship-
men seeiug the sweete countenance of the young-
Babe, began to accuse the King of rigour, and to
pity the childs hard Fortune : but feare constrained
them to that which their nature did abhorre, so
that they placed it in one of the ends of the Boat,
and with a few green boughes made a homely Cabbin
to shroud it, as well as they could, from wind and
weather. Hauing thus trimmed a Boat, they tyed
it to a Ship, and so haled it into the maine Sea, and
then cut in sunder the Cord; which they had no
sooner done, but there arose a mighty Tempest,
which tossed the little Boat so vehemently in the
waues, that the Ship-men thought it could not con-
tinue long without sincking : yet the storme grew so
great, that with great labour and peri 11 they got to
the shore."
Morton. The introduction of the storm not only
creates a strong interest for the fate of the infant,
but accounts in some degree for the space of sea it
passed over to reach Bohemia.
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 189
Bourne. It is observable that Shakespeare re-
verses the scene : Greene's story begins in Bohemia,
the kingdom of Pandosto ; and the loves of Dorastus
and Fawnia, the Florizel and Perdita of the play,
commence in Sicily.
Morton. I do not think Shakespeare's alteration
in this respect so judicious as usual, because the
climate of Sicily is much better adapted to the
pastoral scenes that are represented there, than
Bohemia.
Elliot. Perhaps so : Shakespeare h;is been charged
with ignorance in making Bohemia a country on the
sea-coast.
Bourne. He had it from Greene : he took the
popular story with the popular prejudices, and did
not think it worth while, for the sake of mere
geographical accuracy, to make any change. Our
time is now so far exhausted that we shall not be
able to do more than read one other quotation from
Greene's tract : it relates to the first interview of
Dorastus and Fawnia. " It hapned not long after
this, that there was a meeting of all the Farmors
daughters in Sicilia, whither Fawnia was also bidden
as the mistresse of the feast : who hauing attired her
selfe in her best garments, went amongst the rest of
her companions to a merry meeting, there spending
the day in such homely pastimes as Shepheards vse.
As the Euening grew on, and their sport ceased,
each taking their leaue of other, Fawnia desiring
one of her companions to beare her company, went
190 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
home by the flocke to see if they were well fowlded.
And as they returned, it fortuned that Dorastus (who
all that day had beene hawking, and killed store of
game) ineountred by the way these two maides,
fearing that with Acteon he had seen Diana; for
he thought such exquisite perfection could not be
found in any mortall creature. As thus he stood in
a maze, one of his Pages told him that the maid
with the garland on her head was Faixmia, that faire
Shepheardesse, whose beauty was so much talked of
in the Court. Dorastus, desirous to see if nature
had adorned her mind with any inward qualities, as
she had decked her body with outward shape, began
to question with her whose daughter she was, of
what age, and how shee had beene trained vp ?
"Who answered him with such modest reuerenee and
sharpnesse of wit, that Dorastus thought her out-
ward beauty was but a counterfeit to darken her in-
ward qualities : wondring how so courtly behauiour
could be found in so simple a Cottage, and cursing
Fortune, that had shaddowed wit and beauty with
such hard Fortune. As thus he held her a long
time with chat, beauty seeing him at discouert
thought not to loose the vantage, but strucke him
so deepely with an inuenomed shafte, as he wholly
lost his liberty, and became a slaue to Loue, which
before contemned Loue 5 glad to gaze vpon a poore
shepheardesse, who before refused the oiler of a rich
Princesse."'
Elliot. All that you have read is very prettily
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 191
told, and though the characters are more strongly
drawn and more minutely filled up by our dramatic
poet, the outline, and that a graceful one, is to be
found in Greene. I should like in the same way
to go through some of the other plays of Shake-
speare that are founded upon novels in " the Palace
of Pleasure."
Bourne. Our time will not allow us to begin
them now, but my copy of that entertaining work
you may have the use of at any time. It is the less
necessary to go through them, as " the Palace of
Pleasure"' has been recently pretty correctly reprinted.
If I lend you my edition you will be careful of it, for
original copies are of very rare occurrence.
Morton. Nearly the same may be said of North's
Plutarch, for it has been many times republished
since the first edition, I think about 1579, and the coin-
cidences are by no means so curious or so important.
Bourne. Before we conclude for the day, I wish
to bring under your notice a curiosity that has
hitherto escaped the vigilance of the dust-raking
commentators, or they would not have omitted some
notice of it. I call it a curiosity, because, although
it relates to Shakespeare, it does not possess much
intrinsic value. It is contained in a volume of poems
by Thomas Prujean, who calls himself " Student of
Caius and Gonvile CollcdgK in Cambridge."
Elliot. What does it consist of?
Bourne. Two metrical epistles in imitation of
192 EIGHTH CONVERSATION".
Ovid, one from Juliet to Romeo, and the other from
Romeo to Juliet.
Mortox. What is the date and the title of Pru-
jean's volume ? I never heard his strange name
before.
Bouhxe. Very likely not, as his " Aurorata,"
printed in lu'44, is very often not found even in cu-
rious collections, and it is the more valuable, be-
cause in the second part, called " Loves Looking-
glasse, divine and humane," are contained the
epistles to which I have referred.
Mortox. I suppose Prujean means the Romeo and
Juliet of Shakespeare, and not Arthur Brooke's
performance, or Painter's novel ?
Bourne. He does, and it serves to show how
long that play continued popular. Each epistle
occupies about four pages, and what I now read is
from that of Juliet to Romeo, for the lady opens the
correspondence. I ought to mention that the sub-
ject is introduced by the following " Argument :" —
"Romeo and Iidiet, issues of two enemies, Mouiite-
gue and Capulel, Citizens of Verona, fell in love one
with the other : he going to give her a visit meetes
Tybalt her kinsman, who urging a tight, was slaine
by him: for this Romeo was banished and resided
at Mantua, where he receiued an Epistle from
Iidiet."
Elliot. Is the lady very passionate in her epistle r
Bourne. You will see : she thus writes —
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 193
" For health and happinesse doth Iuliet pray
To come to Romeo and his Mantua.
His Mantua ! O, in that title blest !
Would my poore fame could have such happy rest !
Once it was so ; once could this poore breast boast,
(Rich only then) of being Romeos hoast.
No sooner doe sleepes charmes upon me cease,
But fancie straight disturbes me of my ease.
Her troopes she brings, in which, me thinkes, I see
Most of the horrour call its subject thee. * *
But then I gan to cry, why should these eyes
Pay to a griefe unlawfull sacrifice ?
Why should I weepe, because my enemy
Became Fates slave and Romeo from it free ?
Is he a friend that would deny to give,
But rather take away by what I live,
My life, my dearest ioy, my Romeo ?
Yet are my roses overcome by woe.
From thee they had their name, and sure thy love
Their planter, nourisher, blossomer did prove.
From thy sweet lips (when thou didst first salute
Me at the Maske) my cheekes did steale thy sute
Of crimson, and since thou didst kisse more free,
They got what made up their maturitie. * * *
How long of Romeo must I dreame, and when
I thinke I have thee catch tli& ayre againe
Once thou vow'dst by thy selfe, which I did take
To be a greater then thou e'ere couldst make
VOL. II. o
194 EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
By heaven it selfe, so that my vow did tend,
As in it thon thy love didst then commend ;
Yet keepe it as thou wilt, all Iuliets cry
Will be with Borneo to live and dye."
Elliot. Upon my word it is poor stuff, and hardly
readable but for the names of the correspondents.
Mortox. Perhaps Romeo's epistle is better than
Juliet's, though in general, in letter writing, the
ladies have the advantage over the gentlemen.
Boukxk. It would not be easy for the gentleman
to be more ardent than the lady in this instance : a
shorter quotation will suffice from his reply :
" The greet thou sent'st no more belongs to mee
Then when 1 am sweetly embrac't by thee :
Only to that place is ascrib'd all blisse
Where Romeo with his faire Iuliet is.
Mantua's nothing but a cage of woe ;
Where thou art not all countryes will prove so. * * *
Yet when I name thy cousin, griefe does view
Some blood of thine in him, & that will sue
To have a tributary brine. The muse
That sings his death may out of th' Laurel chuse
As faire a branch as any. It is thee
(When he sings him) shall blesse his poetry.
The Destinies grew proud when as they had
Got so much Iuliet within their shade.***
And let not feare wither that rosie bed
Upon thy chcekes, nor make the Lilly dead.
EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 195
Know I am Romeo still, know I am he
Who vow'd what never shall be broke to thee.
My selfe shall be my selfe ; who dares, who will
Forsake life for to runne to deadly ill ?
When I name Iuliet, and voyce shee is mine,
I make a boast I equall powres divine.
I'm banish't faire Verona, and will be
Banisht life, yet never untrue to thee."
Mortox. Prujean does not even make Romeo and
Juliet write tolerable verse : this is the least that one
would have expected. Here then we end for to-day.
Boukxk. I would only remark, in conclusion, that
in Thomas Fortescue's translation, called " The
Foreste, or Collection of Histories no lesse profitable
then pleasant/' 1571, (fo. 138, b.) is a story "of a
pretie guile practised by a vertuous and good Quene
towardes her houseband, by means whereof lames,
Kyng of Arragon, was begotten," which much re-
sembles a main incident in " All's Well that ends
Well." I do not mean that Shakespeare used it, be-
cause it is notorious that he followed the novel in
" the Palace of Pleasure."
Elliot. The original is in Italian, and is told by
Boccacio in his Decameron, Gior. III. Nov. 9.
Bourne. It is, and from thence Painter translated
his somewhat formal narrative. As he relates it, it
is by no means one of the pleasantest stories in the
collection.
19G EIGHTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. How long was it before any complete
translation of Boceacio's Decameron appeared in
English ?
Bourne. The Rev. Mr. Todd, in his Dictionary,
under the word " Cheer," quotes " Translation of
Boccacio, 1587," but I have never seen any such
work : it may perhaps not mean a translation of the
Decameron, but of some other production by the same
author. The first complete edition of Boceacio's
Decameron I have seen is called " The Modell of
Wit, Mirth, Eloquence, and Conversation," &c. : the
first volume is printed by J. .Jaggard, in 1G25, and
what is singular is, that the second part, named ex-
pressly " The Decameron, containing an hundred
pleasant Novels," bears date in 1620, unless there
be some defect in my copy. By the Register of the
Stationers' Company we find, that in 1G19 Abbot,
Archbishop of Canterbury, prohibited the publication
of " The Decameron of Mr. John Boecace Flo-
rentine."
Morton. Is that translation a good one ? I do not
think that Painter is usually very happy in his version.
Bourne. It is very unequal : some of the stories
are much better told than others. The translator,
whoever he might be, sometimes took considerable
liberties with his original: for instance, in Day IX.
Nov. 9. he makes Solomon King of Great Britain,
and sometimes introduces even more considerable
alterations.
POETICAL DECAMEKON.
THE NINTH CONVERSATION.
CONTENTS
OF THE NINTH CONVERSATION
Tracts on the subject of theatrical performances previous to the
restoration — Works where they are touched upon incidentally —
" The Fardle of facions," 1555 — Plays among the Chinese noticed
in Parke's " Historic of China," 1588 — Argument of a Chinese
play — Plays of the Bramins or Abrahmanes — Attack on the
Puritans by William Warner — " The Chirche of euyl men and
women," printed by Pynson, 1509 — Price of tracts on the stage
in 1781 — Gascoyne's " Wyll of theDeuyll" — Stephen Gosson, a
play-poet, author of three pamphlets against the stage— His
" Schoole of Abuse," 1579, dedicated to Sir P. Sidney, and its
reception by him — Extract on the degeneracy of the age — Ac-
count of Gosson, and his own praise of his plays: also a pastoral
poet — But two relics by Gosson existing — Stanza from his com-
mendatory verses to Nicholas's " Historic of the Weast India,"
1578 — His poem called Speculum htnnautim at the end of Kirton's
" Mirror of Mans life." 1580, extracted — Remarks — Gosson's
" Ephemerides of Phialo," and " Short Apologie," kc. 1579 and
158(S — His reply to the Kxcusers of stage-plays quoted — 1 1 is
" Playes confuted in Hue actions," &c. 1581, and its application
— Thomas Lodge's u- Play of Playes" — His very scarce and
curious tract called " An Alarum against Ysurers," <Vc. 1584,
containing a reply to Gosson's attack upon him in his " Playes
confuted" — Dedication by Lodge to Sir P. Sidney, and his address
to the li Gentlemen of the Innes of Court," comprising his reply
to Gosson — Extracts — Lodge's •"■ lTav of Playes," never published
— His good humour under Gosson's most gross attack — His birth
and family, and T. Salter's " .Mirror of Modesty," dedicated to
Sir Thomas Lodge, referred to — Lodge's candour towards, and
200 CONTENTS.
praise of Gosson — Complimentary stanzas on Lodge by Barnabe
Rich, extracted — Gosson a writer of blank verse — Queen Eliza-
beth's chorus to one of Seneca's tragedies — John Northbrooke's
" Treatise against Dicing, Dauncing, Vaine playes," cVc. im-
printed by II. Bynneman — Quotations on the manners of the
time, on the plays then represented, and against theatres and actors
— " The Anatomie of Abuses," 1585, by Philip Stubbes — Its
popularity and number of editions — Thomas Nash's attack on
Stubbes in his " Almond for a Parrat" — Extract from Stubbes's
work, and his denunciation of plays, players, play-writers, and
play-goers — G. Whetstone's " Addition or Touchstone for the
Time,'" 1584, quoted on the abuse of theatrical performances —
John Field's " Godly exhortation by occasion of the late iudge-
ment of God shewed at Paris-garden," 1583 — Bear-baiting and
stage-plays coupled by the puritans — Quotation on the abolition of
plays on Sunday — Uncertainty on this point in our histories of the
stage — Arthur Golding's " Discourse vpon the Earthquake" of
April (i, 1580, adduced to prove that plays were usually then re-
presented on Sunday — W. Rankin's " 3Iirour of Monsters," 1587
— Its rarity — A mask described in it, and quotation against actors
— Speech of Luxuria from the same — Dr. Rainoldes " Overthrow
of Stage-Playes," 1599: its object — Epigram by Thomas Bastard
on Dr. Rainoldes — Oaths on the stage — Dr. (iager's academic play
called Ulysses rcdux — Dr. Rainoldes on the crimes of players,
especially deer-stealing — Shakespeare and the charge against him
by Sir T. Lucy — On men dressing themselves as women on the
stage.
POETICAL DECAMEKON.
THE NINTH CONVERSATION.
Jjourne. The task you propose is not an easy one,
whether we consider the number of books we shall
have to examine, or the attention they will require.
We must not lose time if we are to complete it to-
day and to-morrow.
Elliot. We must avoid digressions then as much
as possible, keeping as strictly as we can to the tracts
that have been written for and against theatrical per-
formances.
Bourne. And touching only upon those that are
of the greatest rarity, and, of course, not bringing it
down lower than the protectorate — the triumph of
William Prynne, and the puritans. We must also
limit ourselves in another respect ; not to notice
pieces that only introduce thp subject of stage plays
and actors incidentally, unless for some special pur-
pose : our inquiry would otherwise be almost endless.
Morton. Explain what you mean a little more
<20<2 NINTH CONVERSATION.
fully. I should feel very reluctant to omit any thing'
important or curious.
Bourne. I can do so best, perhaps, by an example.
Here, for instance, is a work which might easily
draw us out of our course ; as, besides being one of
the earliest incidental censures of the stage, it con-
tains a great deal of amusing matter: the title of it
is, -- The Fardle of facions, conteining the aunciente
maners, customes, and Lawes of the peoples inhabit-
ing the two partes of the earth, called Affrike and
Asie. Printed at London by Ihon Kingstone," 1555.
It is a production of great rarity.
Elliot. One does not readily see how in a treatise
upon Africa and Asia, the author can introduce any
thing about theatrical performances in England.
Morton*. I think he might do it very easily •
when speaking of Asia, he would perhaps notice the
plays of the Chinese, who arc known to have had
them represented some hundreds of years, at least,
before they found their way into Europe.
Elliot. Very true : Voltaire's Orphan of China
is founded upon an old Chinese play, a translation
of which was published by Bishop Percy ; and very
lately a gentleman of the name of Davis (1 think
that was his name), put one of them into an English
dress, called " An Heir in his old Age."
Morton. In Parke's ■• Historic of the great and
mightie kingdome of China," 1588, which has been
before mentioned, there is a good deal regarding the
theatrical representations of the Chinese.
NINTH CONVERSATION. 203
Bourne. I have not on my memory any thing- of
that kind : it must be curious. Here is the book ;
perhaps you will point it out.
Morton. On p. 106, where it is said, " At these
bankettes and feastes, there are present alwayes
women gesters, who doo play and sing, vsing manie
prettie gestes to cause delight, and make mirth to
the guestes : besides these they haue diuerse sortes
of men with other instruments, as tomblers and
players, who do represent their Comedies very per-
fectly and naturally."
Bourne. " Wqmen jesters" I never heard of be-
fore, but it does not seem that they were actresses.
Morton. Further on, on p. 207 and p. 221, the
" arguments," as they are called, of two of the plays
represented, are inserted as from the mouth of an
interpreter : there appears to be great simplicity
about them, as you may judge from the following,
which is one of them : " In times past there was in
that countrie manie mightie and valiant men 3 but
amongest them all, there was in particular three
brethren that did exceede all the rest that euer were
in mightinesse and valiantnesse. The one of them
was a white man, the other was ruddish or hie
coloured and the thirde blacke. The ruddish being
more ingenious and of better industrie, did procure
to make his white brother Mtig, the which iudgement
was agreeable vnto the rest. Then they altogether
did take away the kingdomc from him that did at
'204 NINTH CONVERSATION.
that time raigne, who was called Laupicono, an
effeminate man and verie vicious. This they did
represent verie gallantly with garmentes verie meete
for those personages."
Elliot. This is enough to show, according to the
account of travellers in China nearly two centuries
and a half ago, that the dramatic exhibitions of the
Chinese were in a very advanced state, both as to
subject and what are now called j)rupcrties.
Morton. The story of the play is capable of con-
siderable variety, but whether female characters were
introduced into it we are not informed. The plot of
the piece spoken of on p. 221, is somewhat more
complicated. However, to go further into this sub-
ject, would be to commit the very error which it is
our business to avoid. I interrupted you in your
observations upon the " Fardle of Fashions."
Bourne. The passage I had to produce from it
does not deserve extracting so much as what you
have just concluded ; but it perhaps still merits
notice, as connected in subject, and as containing an
incidental blow at the theatrical amusements in Eng-
land as they existed about the year 1 555. The author,
or rather translator, who inserts much original matter,
is speaking of the Bramins and their employments,
and it is observable that he calls them Ahrahmanes ,
which affords a third and a plausible etymology to
the two already conjectured, for the word Bramin
or Brachman. " Thei couctte no sightes, nor shewes
NINTH CONVERSATION. 205
of misrule : no disguisinges nor entreludes ; but
when thei be disposed to haue the pleasure of the
stage thei entre into the regestre of their stories, and
what thei finde there most fit to be laughed at, that
do thei lamente and bewaile."
Elliot. That seems rather contradictory: I sup-
pose it means that these Bramins, like very wise
men, lament and bewail the follies of their ancestors :
others may say,
Felices proavorum atavos,JeUcia dicas
Scecula ;
but they were above the vulgar prejudice.
Bourne. Like Bottom, they " will condole in
some measure," and congratulate themselves how
much wiser they were than their predecessors.
Watreman (the translator) goes on : " Thei delighte
not, as many do, to heare olde wiues tales and fantasies
of Bobin hoode, but in studious consideration of the
wondrefull workemanship of the world and the per-
fect disposinge of thinges in suche ordre of course
and degree. Thei crosse no sease for merchaundise,
ne learne no colours of Bhetoricque." The whole of
the passage of which what I have read is the begin-
ning, is aimed against the manners of the age, and
particularly against " sightes, shewes of misrule, dis-
guisinges and entreludes."
Morton. Yet, not long afterwards, what he com-
plains of was partially remedied ; our dramatic poets
" entered into the register of their stories" in hi-
200 NINTH CONVERSATION.
storical plays, and thus gave the audiences " the
pleasure of the stage" which the Bramins enjoyed.
Bourne. But they did not " lament and bewail"
what " they found there most fit to be laughed at."
In that respect our forefathers were not so sagacious
as the Bramins, and if they had been, perhaps we
might have now been neither wiser nor happier than
the Indians. But not to pursue this further, I only
introduced that quotation as one among many of the
incidental attacks upon stage-plays.
Mortox. William Warner, the author of that
popular poem of " Albion's England," which went
through so many editions between 1586 and 1G12,
and contains so much good poetry and curious in-
formation, has made a heavy hit at the puritans, as the
enemies of" meet sports," and among them theatrical
representations, which he says they had " well near
exiled."
" These Hypocrites for these three Gifts to their
Lauerna pray,
Just to be thoght, Al to beguile, That none their
guiles bewray:
Their art is fayning good they want, and hiding bad
« they haue :
Their Practise is selfe-praise, of praise all others to
depraue.
On Loue, say some, waites lelosie, but Ielosie wants
loue,
When curiously it ouer-plus doth idle Quarrels moue :
NINTH CONVERSATION. 207
Best Puritaines are so ore-zeal' d, but should I terme
the rest,
Inhospitalous, Mutinous, and Hypocrites the best;
Insociable, Maleparte, foxing their priuate good,
Exiling hence wel-neere all Troth, meet Sports and
Neighbourhood ;
Learnings foes, contemptuously by them be Lawes
withstood.
Selfe-pleasers, Skorners, Harlots, Crones, against the
Haire in all:
Of their extreme, whence Atheisme breeds, bee
warning Hackets fall!
If euer England will in aught preuent her owne
Mishap,
Against these skorns (no terme too grosse) let Eng-
land shut the gap."
Elliot. You did right to call it a heavy hit, for
the lines are monstrously lumbering. The censure
they contain is, notwithstanding, severe, and, I dare
say, generally true. Well then, if we are to hear no
more of attacks on the stage by the way, in works
not professing to treat of that subject, with what
tract especially devoted to plays and amusements of
the same class will you commence your examination ?
Bourne. That question is certainly not so easily
answered. I might, perhapSjbegin with the most rare
tract, printed, as is supposed, by Pynson, in 1509,
and called " The chirche of euyl men and women,
208 NINTH CONVERSATION.
wherof Lucyfer is the head, and the members is
all players dyssolute and synners reproued." Mr.
Dibdin, in his edition of Ames, does not profess to
have seen a copy of it, and gives merely the account
he found in Herbert's Appendix, and an extract from
the Bodleian catalogue. It was valued in the library
of Bryan Fairfax, in 1756", at £2 8s., but the sum
cannot be named that a copy would now produce if
brought to the hammer.
Moktox. I was the other day looking over a
priced catalogue of the books belonging to Topham
Beauclerc, which were sold in 1781, and I found the
subsequent article connected with our present in-
quiry, and showing the astonishingly low price at
which some, I believe, of the most valuable tracts
on the stage sold at that date.
Bourxe. Read it by all means.
Morton. The following were knocked down in
one lot for only £3 6s.
" Gosson (Stcph.) Flayes confuted in five actions
proving that they are not to be suffred in a
Christian common weale, b. 1. dedicated to
Sir Fr. Walsingham. No date.
A second and third blast of Retreate from
Plaies and Theatres, showing the filthiness of
Flaies in Times past and the abomination of
them in the time present. Set forth by
Anglo-phile Eutheo — impr. by lien. Den-
ham, 1580.
NINTH CONVERSATION. Wj
A manifest detection of the most vyle and de-
testable use of dyce-play by Gilb. Walker,
b. 1. impr. by Abr. Vele : no date.
A dialogue between custome and Veritie con-
cerning daunting and minstrelsie. b. 1. impr.
by Io. Aide. I\o date.
Maister Tho. Lodge his reply to Steph. Gosson
touching Playes. b. 1. no title.
The wyll of the Deuyll with his ten detestable
commandments, by Geo. Gascoyne : impr.
by Rich. Jones, no date.
Tho. Salter his contention between three bre-
theren, that is to say the Whoremonger, the
Dronkard and the Dyce player, b. 1. impr. for
Tho. Gosson, 1580."
Bourne. A most rare assemblage of tracts, any
one of which would probably now sell for twice the
sum that was then given for the whole, and several
of them for much more. Gosson's and Lodge's
pieces are among the most rare. Of Gascoyne's
production what you have read is the only existing
register, and from that it does not appear whether
it did or did not include stage {days.
Morton. He was himself a writer of plays: it
would rather therefore be directed against some other
horrible vice than that of visiting theatres.
Bourne. Such literary tergiversation would by no
means be without a parallel, and that in the instance
of a writer just enumerated.
VOL. II. P
210 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. Which of thorn ?
Bourne. Stephen Gosson, who, according to his
own confession as I will show yon presently, wrote
several plays, and afterwards in the most violent
terms abused theatrical representations.
Elliot. What were the names of the plays he
wrote ? Have any of them reached our time ?
Bourne. Nothing but their titles; it is stated
that they were never printed : he wrote " Catilines
Conspiracies," a Tragedy, " Captain Mario," a Co-
medv, and " Praise at parting," a Morality.
Morton. And what were the titles of the pieces
he published afterwards against stage-plays?
Bourne. They were three ; but the first, and the
most notorious, is his " Schoole of Abuse containing
a pleasant Inuectiue against Poets, Pipers, Players,
Iesters, and such like Caterpillers of the Common-
wealth."
Elliot. When did that "pleasant invective." if it
be so, make its appearance ?
Bourne. The earliest edition I have seen is dated
in 15*9, but I am not sure that it was not before
printed. Prynne, who is generally tolerably accu-
rate as to dates, says in his Histriomasiix, that it
was printed " by allowance' in 1578, and this is
rendered the more probable because it is certain
that in-157') " a short Apologic of the Schoole of
Abuse" was written by the same pen : to this we
shall advert presently, and in the mean time I will
NINTH CONVERSATION 211
read you a brief passage or two from the '• Schoole
of Abuse" itself, that you may see how " pleasant"
this " Invective" is. I advise you not to promise
yourselves too much entertainment. The tract
opens by adverting, at tome length to the estimation
of poets in former ages.
Morton. Has it no dedication, or did the author
think the protection of a patron unnecessary to so
laudable an undertaking ?
Bourne. I am obliged to you for reminding me
of a circumstance I should otherwise have omitted.
He ventured to dedicate it to Sir Philip Sidney, but
Spenser, in one of his letters to his friend Gabriel
Harvey, under date of 1580, tells him how it was
received by " the president of nobleness and chi-
valry 3" " New bookes (he says) 1 heare of none,
but onely of one that writing a certaine booke called
the Schoole of Abuse, and dedicating it to Maister
Sidney was for his labour scorned 3 if at leaste it be
in the goodnesse of that nature to scorne. Suche
follie is it not to regarde aforehande the inclination
and qualitie of him to whom we dedicate our
bookes."
Elliot. That is just a? it should have been ;
" Poor Curio runs his labours to inscribe
To one who scorns the low detracting tribe,"
are lines very applicable to Gosson's predicament.
Bourne. Yet notwithstanding he was " scorned,"
v •i
212 NINTH CONVERSATION.
(whether it was that the " nature" of Sidney would
not allow him to express it with severity) Gosson
persisted in dedicating to him the " short Apologie
of the Schoole of Abuse," of which I have spoken.
The first thing we have to do is to examine briefly
the " Schoole of Abuse" itself. The subsequent
quotation refers to the old theme of degeneracy of
the age, the comparison being made between the
condition of society in Gosson's time, and in the first
state of barbarism of the people of England. " Oh
what a wonderfull chaunge is this ! Our wreastling
at amies is turned to wallowing in ladies laps, our
courage to cowardice, our running to ryot, our
bowes into bolles, and our darts into dishes. We
have robbed Greece of gluttonie, Italy of wanton-
nesse, Spaine of pride, Eraunce of deceite and
Duchland of quaffing. Compare London to Rome,
and England to Italy, you shall finde the theaters of
the one, the abuses of the other to be rife among vs:
experlo crede, I haue scene somewhat and therefore,
I think, I may say the more."
Elliot. Docs he mean by " cxperto crede" that
he has " seen somewhat" of the foreign countries he
names, or that he has had experience of the vices of
his own ?
Bournk. I apprehend the last, for we do not
know that he travelled: he was born in 1554, was
entered at Oxford in 1572, and probably soon after-
wards commenced poet and play-wright. What gave
NINTH CONVERSATION. 213
him his disgust, whether the hisses of his audience
or otherwise, there is no account, but returning to
his university (from whence he dates his dedication
to his " short Apologie" in 1579), he took orders and
died in 1G29. The most curious part of his " Schoole
of Abuse" relates to himself and one of his own
plays : it is this. He is speaking of some plays
that may be endured, after having abused all plays,
players, and poets, in general. " And as some of the
players are farre from abuse, so some of their playes
are without rebuke which are as easily remembred as
quickly reckoned. — The two prose bookes plaied at
the Belsauage where you shall finde neuer a woorde
without wite, neuer a line without pith, neuer a
letter placed in vaine. The lew and Ptolome showne
at the Bull, the one representine; the greedinesse of
worldly chusers, and bloody mindes of vsurers, the
other very liuely describing how seditious estates
with their owne deuices, false friends with their
own swoordes, and rebellious commons in their
own snares, are ouerthrowne : neither with amorous
gesture wounding the eye, nor with slouenly talke
hurting the eares of the chast hearers. The Blacke
Smiths daughter and Catilins conspiracies vsually
brought in to the theater ; the firste contayning the
trechary of Turkes, the honourable bountye of a
noble minde, and the shining of vertue in distresse ;
the last, because it was knowne to be a pig of mine
owne sowe, I will speake the Icssc of it, onely g'iuing
214 NINTH CONVERSATION.
you to vnderstand that the whole marke which I
shot at in that woorke was to showe the rewarde of
traytors in Catilin, and the necessary gouernment of
learned men in the person of Cicero, which foresees
euery danger that is likely to happen and forstalles
it continually ere it take effect."
Morton. He only mentions here " Catiline's Con-
spiracies" as " a pig of his own sow" (most elegant
phraseology to be sure), but he says nothing of his
Comedy nor of his Morality.
Bourxe. They have been assigned to Gosson on
other authorities, which it might be tedious to
enumerate. He was also a pastoral poet, according
to the account of Francis Meres, who mentions
Gosson's name in conjunction with that of Spenser.
Wood also bears testimony that he was celebrated
" for his admirable penning of pastorals ;" there are
but two poems by Gosson now known, and only one
of them is noticed by llitson.
Morton. Can you show us either of them r We
might thus perhaps form some notion of his talents
as a poet.
Bourne. I can show you both, but one of them
consists merely of commendatory stanzas prefixed
to "The pleasant Historic of the conquest of the
Weast India," by Thos. Nicholas, printed in 1578:
the first stanza of it is very curious, as it plainly has
an allusion to what you called Gosson's tergiversa-
tion, for here he laments " the follies of his youth,"
NINTH CONVERSATION. 215
when he devoted his time to the idleness of poetry.
The rest, though easily written, as if by a pen of
some practice, is little more than an enlargement of
the thought contained in the first six lines.
" The Poet which sometimes hath trod awry,
And sung in verse the force of firie loue,
When he beholds his lute with carefull eye,
Thinks on the dumps that he was wont to proue :
His groning sprite yprickt with tender ruth
Calls then to mind the follies of his youth."
Morton. These lines were printed, you say, in
1578, probably then shortly before Gosson published
his " Schoole of Abuse."
Bourxe. Most likely, and after he had again
taken up his residence at Oxford to prepare himself
for the church.
Elliot. The lines are not amiss, and the allusion
to the sight of his lute bringing his youthful follies
to his recollection is rather pretty. From whence
do you take the other specimen of Gosson's skill in
poetry ?
Bourxe. From a translation by a person of the
name of H. Kirton, called " The Mirror of Mans
life," dedicated to Anne, Countess of Pembroke, and
published in 1580. The book*te rarely to be met with.
If Gosson wrote no better when he was younger,
it is strange how he acquired the reputation he un-
doubtedly obtained. But you shall hear the poem.
216 NINTH CONVERSATION.
which is original, is not very long, and has not any-
where been extracted. It is called,
" Speculum humanum ;
Made by Ste. Gossan.
O what is man ? or whereof might lie vaunt J
From earth and aire, and ashes first he came :
His tickle state, his courage ought to daunt :
His life shall flit, when most he trusts the same.
Then keepe in minde thy moolde and fickle stamej
Thyself a naked Adam shalt thou finde :
A babe by birth both borne and brought forth blind :
A drie and withered reede, that wanteth sap,
Whose rotten roote is refte, euen at a clap :
A signe, a shew of greene and pleasant grasse
Whose glyding glorie sodeinlie doth passe.
A lame and lothsome limping legged wight
That daily doth Gods frowne and furie feele,
A crooked cripple, voide of all delight,
That haleth after him an haulting heele,
And from Hierusalem on stilts doth reele :
A wretch of wrath, a sop in sorrow sowst,
A brused barke with billowes all bedowst,
A filthie cloth, a stinking clod of clay,
A sacke of sinne that shall be swallowed aye
Of thousand hels, except the Lord do lend
His helping hand, and lowring browes vnbend.
The prime of youth, whose greene vnmellowcl yeres
With hoised head doth check the loftie .Skies,
NINTH CONVERSATION. 217
And set vp saile, and sternlesse ships ysteares,
With wind and wave at pleasure sure he flies :
On euery side then glance his rolling eies :
Yet hoary haires do cause them downe to drowp,
And stealing steps of age do make him stoup.
Our health that doth the web of wo begin,
And pricketh forth our pampred flesh to sin,
By sicknesse soakt in many maladies,
Shall turne our mirthe to mone, and howling cries.
The wreathed haire of perfect golden wire,
The christall eies, the shining Angels face
That kindles coales to set the heart on fire,
When we doe thinke to runne a royall race,
Shall sodeinlie be gauled with disgrace 3
Our goods, our beautie, and our braue araie,
That seemes to set our hearts on hoigh for aie,
Much like the tender floure in fragrant fields,
Whose sugred sap sweet smelling sauour yeelds,
Though we therein doe dailie laie our lust,
By dint of death shall vanish vnto dust.
\\ ny seeke ye then this lingring life to saue,
A hugie heape of bale and miserie ?
Why loue we longer daies on earth to craue,
Where carke, and care, anuall calamitie,
Where nought we finde but bitter ioylitie ?
The longer that we Hue, the more we fall,
The more we fall, the greater is our thrall,
218 NINTH CONVERSATION.
The shorter life doth make the lesse account,
To lesse account the reckning soone doth mount,
And then the reckning brought to quiet end,
A ioyfull state of better life doth lend.
Thou God therefore that rules the rolling Skie,
Thou Lord that lends the props whereon we stale,
And turnes the spheares, and tempers all on hie,
Come, come in hast, to take vs hence awaie!
Thy goodnesse shall we then engraue for aie,
And sing a song of endlesse thankes to thee,
That deignest so from death to set vs free :
Redeeming vs from depth of dark decaie,
"With foure and twentie Elders shall we saie,
To him be glorie, powc", and praise alone,
That with the lambe doth sit in loftie throne.
Finis."
Elliot. I have had something to do to keep my
patience till you arrived at the word Finis. I began to
be tired of such stale sermonizing when you had read
two stanzas ; but the opening of the third pleased
me, and certainly it is not so bad as what precedes it.
Morton. I confess I wondered how you restrained
your impetuosity, but I suppose the recollection that
this is the only original poem known (with the ex-
ception of the commendatory verses before noticed),
by a man of Gosson's celebrity, restrained you.
Elliot. Not at all : if an author write dull non-
NINTH CONVERSATION. 219
sense, the more rare it is the better, nor do I feel
myself at all more bound to hear it merely because
it is rare.
Bourne. It cannot be said that Gosson's lines are
not generally flowing and harmonious, and if the
morality be stale, we ought to recollect that it is
now nearly "250 years old. In that time it might
well become so.
Elliot. Now it is done, I do not mean to say
that I regret having heard it ; some of the lines run
well enough, but
" A filthie cloth, a stinking clod of clay,
A sack of sin that shall be swallow'd aye/'
are absurd enough, and those lines are not without
" companions vile to keep them countenance."
Bourne. It does not merit very minute criticism,
and having read all that is necessary from " the
Schoole of Abuse," we will now look at the " short
Apologie" for it, (as far as it really deserves the term)
which is contained in a work by Gosson of severe
puritanism, called " The Ephemerides of Phialo de-
uided into three books." The last book only con-
cerns our inquiry, which contains " the Defence of
a Courtezan ouerthrowen: and a short Apologie of
the Schoole of Abuse against Poets, Pipers, Players
and their excusers." It was first printed in 1579,
and again in 1586'; in both cases, as I have said,
with a dedication to Sir P. Sidney.
220 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. Who had become the excusers of the
players, &c. as he mentions r
Bourne. Gosson says that the players had en-
deavoured to find a vindicator in one of the uni-
versities., and he had heard that they had at last
actually employed some person in London to write
" Honest Excuses" for them. This alludes to a tract
by Thomas Lodge, of which I will speak presently.
A few sentences from this " Apologie" by Gosson
will satisfy all reasonable curiosity. He says in one
place, " A theefe is a shrewde member in a Com-
mon wealth ; he empties our bagges by force, these"
(meaning players) " ransacke our purses by per-
mission ; he spoileth vs secretly, these rifle vs openly;
hee getts the vpperhand by blowes, these by merry
iestes ; he suckes our blood, these our manners ; he
woundes our bodie, these our soule." And thus
having wound himself up to an antithetical climax, he
exclaims, with all the affected and furious zeal of a
Puritan, " O God, O men, O heauen, O earth, O
tymes, O manners, O miserable daies !"
Elliot. All this must seem to us nothing short
of absolute madness ; with our present notions we
cannot form an idea why the unhappy players should
excite such deadly animosity, and call down such
terrific anathemas.
Bourne. It is astonishing; but nothing better than
such publications as these let lis into a knowledge
of the religious spirit of the times. Pursuing his
NINTH CONVERSATION. 2«2l
contrast between a thief and a player, Gosson adds,
with much solemnity, " He suffereth for his offence ;
these stroute without punishment vnder our noses,
and lyke vnto a consuming fire are nourished stil
with our decay." This pretended " Apologie" is, in
truth, nothing but a reiteration of the first attack,
and it ends in these words ; " Wishing to my schoole
some thriftier scholers, to players an honester oc-
cupation, and their excuser a better minde, I take
my leave."
Elliot. And we have had enough of his company
not to regret his departure. You said, I think, that
Gosson wrote three pieces against the stage, and
you have noticed two : what is the third ?
Bourxe. It is called " Hayes confuted in five
actions, prouing that they are not to be suffred in a
Christian Commonweale." This is a sermonizing
production, and is divided like a play, into five acts
or actions, and dedicated to Sir F. Walsingham. It
has no date upon the title, but Prynne fixes it about
1581, and from what I am going next to offer it
should seem that he is correct. I should observe,
that in Reed's Shakespeare you will find sufficient
quotations from this last tract by Gosson.
Morton. What next then are you going to offer ?
Bourne. A book to which you must allow me to
make a preface of my own, to render its application
clear. In 1579 Gosson printed his " School of
Abuse,'' and in the same year his " Ephemerides of
Phialo," containing the " short Apology," and hinting
222 NINTH CONVERSATION.
that an answer to the tv School of Abuse" had been
written by some person in London. This answer
was in fact written by Thomas Lodge, and is the
tract which is called, in Beauclerc's Catalogue,
" Maister Tho. Lodge his reply to Steph. Gosson
touching playes." That copy was without a title,
and the tract is perhaps the very rarest of the rare
pieces relating to the stage : Mr. M alone could never
obtain a sight of it. You will presently learn the
reason why it is so : a more perfect copy, however,
does, they say, exist, and it is called " The Play of
Playes," but the date has not been hitherto ascer-
tained.
Morton. And it contains the " honest excuses,"
spoken of by Gosson in his " Ephemerides of Phialo ?"
Bourne. It does, and that mention of it seems to
fix the date, supported as it is by the most curious
and important tract I now hold in my hand. You
will not forget that Gosson's " Plays confuted in
five actions," came out probably in 1581, dedicated
to Sir F. Walsingham, and that it contained a severe
and abusive attack upon Lodge.
Elliot. You excite one's curiosity : what is the
tract in your hand ?
Bourne. I owe the use of it to the same liberal
professor to whom I was indebted for Micro-cynicon,
and I do not over-rate it when I say that it is, on
every account, one of the most valuable tracts exist-
ing. One peculiar source of its curiosity does not
appear on the title-page, which is thus worded:
NINTH CONVERSATION. 213
" An Alarum against Vsurers. Containing trycd ex-
periences against worldly abuses. Wherein gentle-
men may finde good counsells to confirme them,
and pleasant Histories to delight them : and euery
thing interlaced with varietie, as the curious may
be satisfied with the rarenesse, and the curtecus
with the pleasure. Hereunto are annexed the de-
lectable historie of Forbonius and Prisceria: with
the lamentable Complaint of Truth ouer England.
Written by Thomas Lodge, of Lincolnes Inne, Gen-
tleman. vila ! miscro longa,JicUci breuis. Im-
printed at London by T. Este, for Sampson Clarke,"
&e. 1584.
Morton. The title is sufficiently particular. I dare
say the work is very rare, but now let us into the
secret of the extraordinary emphasis you laid upon
its especial value.
BoriiXK. Its especial value, as connected with the
immediate subject of our inquiry, is confined to the
preliminary matter; but the nature and variety of
the body of this hitherto unseen pamphlet, consist-
ing of prose and poetry (the latter I think of great
merit), form most important recommendations. The
dedication is to Sir Philip Sidney, " indued with
all perfections of learning and titles of Nobilitie,"
who refused to accept the dedication of Gosson,
and whom Lodge solicits to protect him " in
these Primordia of my studies," so that perhaps this
" Alarum against Usurers" was only the second
224 NINTH CONVERSATION.
time Lodge had appeared in print, his answer to
Gosson being bis first essay.
Elliot. At all events, it was one of his very early
productions. Does The dedication comprize any
thing else remarkable ?
Bourne. No, excepting that in the conclusion he
again speaks of the hoped for " successe of this my
firstlings." What I particularly call your attention
to is an address, following the dedication, " To The
Right worshipl'ull, my curteous friends, the Gen-
tlemen of the Innes of Court, Thomas Lodge of
Lincolnes Inne Gentleman, wishelh prosperous suc-
cesse in their studies, and happie euent in their tra-
uailes." I will omit a preliminary sentence or two,
and you will soon see why this epistle is important :
he says, " Led then by these perswasions, I doubt
not but as I haue a' waves found you lauourable, so
now you will not cease to be friendly, both in pro-
tecting of this iust cause from uniust slander, and my
person from that reproch which, about two yeares
since, an iniurious cauiller objected against me.
You that know me, Gentlemen, can testifie that
neyther my life hath bene so lewd as y l my companie
was odious, nor my behauiour so light as that it
shuld passe the limits of modestie : this notwith-
standing, a licentious Hij)ponax, neither regarding
the asperitie of the lawes touching slaunderous Li-
bellers, nor the offspring from whence I came, which
is not contemptible, attempted not only in publike
NINTH CONVERSATION. 225
and reprochfull terms to condemn me in his writings,
but also so to slander me as neither iustice shuld
wink at so hainous an offece, nor I pretermit a com-
modious reply."
Elliot. You infer then that Lodge there alludes
to Gosson ? It is certainly curious.
Bourne. I do not infer it, because the very next sen-
tence states it most distinctly. " About three yeres
ago (continues Lodge) one Stephen Gosson published
a booke, intituled The Schoole of Abuse, in which
hauing escaped in many and sundry coelusions, I,
as the occasion the fitted me, shapt him such an
answere as beseemed his discourse, which by reason
of the slendernes of y c subiect (because it was in
defece of plaies and play makers) y c godly and re-
uerent, y'. had to deale in the cause, misliking it
forbad the publishing : notwithstanding he comming
by a priuate vnperfect coppye, about two yeres since,
made a reply, diuiding it into fiue sectios."
Morton. That is very clear indeed, and satis-
factorily accounts for the extreme scarcity of Lodge's
" Play of Plays j" he says it was not published, but
it must have been printed, or a copy would not have
come down to us, or got into Gosson's hands : after
it had gone through the press, I suppose it was
called in by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and the Bishop of London?
Elliot. They had jurisdiction in these matters,
VOL. II. «
220 NINTH CONVERSATION.
and ordered the burning of Marston's satires, and
that no others should be printed.
Bourne. They exercised the same power in several
other well known cases. ( fosson's reply, divided " into
hue sections/' is indisputably his " Plays confuted
in fiue actions," dedicated to Sir F. Walsinghamj
indeed Lodge goes on himself to particularise it, for
he says immediately after what I last read: " and
in his Epistle dedicatory, to y e right honorable sir
Frances YValsingham, he impugneth me with these
reproches, y l I am become a vagarat person, visited
by y e heuy hand of God, lighter then libertie, and
looser the vanitie. At such time as I first came to
y e sight heerof (iudge you, gentlemen, how hardly
I could disgest it) I bethought my seli'e to frame an
answere, but considering y 1 . the labour was but lost,
I gaue way to my misfortune, contenting my selfe to
wait y 1 ' opportunitie wherein I might, not according
to the impertinacie of the iniurye, but as equitye
might countenance mee, cast a raine ouer the vn-
tamed curtailes chaps, and wiping out the suspition
of this slander from the remebrance of those y ! knew
me, not counsell this iniurious Asinius to become
more conformable in his reportes." After adding
that such an opportunity now offers itself, he goes
on thus pleasantly and easily: "And now, Stephen
Gosson, let me but familiarly reason with thee thus.
Thinkest thou v' in handling a good cause it is re-
NINTH CONVERSATION. 227
quisite to induce a fals propositio: although thou
wilt say it is a part of ltethorike to argue A Persona,
yet is it a practise of small honestie to conclude
without occasion: if thy cause wer good, I doubt
not but in so large & ample a discourse as thou hadst
to handle, thou mightst had left the honor of a
gentleman inuiolate. But thy base degree, subiect
to seruile attempts, measureth all things according
to cauelling capacitie, thinking because nature hath
bestowed vpo thee a plausible discourse, thou maist
in thy sweet termes present the sowrest & falsest
reportes y" canst imagine."
Morton. Lodge does not seem disposed to retort
upon Gosson much of the abuse he had not scrupled
to heap upon Lodge. t
Bourne. He deals with Gosson very good hu-
mouredly, telling a story (and citing Petrarch as his
authority), of a nobleman who went into a gentle-
man's stable, and was struck by the servant, who did
not know his rank on account of " his plaine coat,"
but who afterwards most humbly apologized when
he saw the gentleman, to his great astonishment,
dining with his master : Lodge applies it thus. " So at
this instant esteeme I, M, Gosson hath dealt with mc,
who not mesuring me by my birth, but by y' subiect
I hadled, like Will Summer striking him y l stood
next him, hath vpbraided me in person whe lie had
no quarrell but to my cause, & therein pleaded his
owne indiscretio, &, loded me with intolerable in-
<2 C 2S NINTH CONVERSATION.
iurie." All this you will not deny is very remarkable,
and well worth reading, more particularly as the
tract was scarcely ever heard of before.
Mortox. Most assuredly in a biographical point
of view, and as connected with the history of the
stage, it is highly interesting. But what does Lodge
mean by talking so much about his " birth," and
the " offspring from whence he earner"
Elliot. It is clear enough ; he claims to be de-
scended of a good family.
Boukxe. Certainly, yet nothing of his family is
known ; but it is said that he came out of Lincoln-
shire. There is a small 12mo tract, called " The
Mirror of Modesty" (different from Robert Greene's,
and probably published soon afterwards in imitation
of his title), by T. Salter, which is dedicated to
Sir Thomas Lodge ; and it is not impossible that
Thomas Lodge the poet was of that family : but this
is mere vague conjecture, and I have nothing at all
to confirm it.
Mortox. Does Lodge say no more about Gosson
than what you have read ?
Bourxe. Yes; after two or tiiree classical al-
lusions, rather in the pedantic style of the times,
comparing him to Nicanor, he concludes by again
complimenting Gosson on his facility in composition.
" Whose actions, my reprouer, I will now fit to thee,
who hauing slandered me without cause, I will no
otherwise reuenge it but by tin's meanes ; that now
NINTH CONVERSATION. 229
in publike I confesse thou hast a good pen, and if
thou keepe thy Methode in discourse, and leaue thy
slandering without cause, there is no doubt but thou
shalt bee commended for thy coppye, and praised
for thy stile." Now I have a right to say, that this
is an important tract, and not the less so because its
peculiar value was not known before.
Elliot. The whole of the address places Lodge's
character in a very candid and amiable point of view.
Moktox. And making a few allowances, it is
written in a very unpretending and pleasing vein.
It makes one long to look at the body of the tract
such an epistle introduces.
Bocrxe. If you please, we will not do so now, as
it would throw us completely out of our course :
suppose we reserve it as the first subject of examina-
tion to-morrow.
Mortox. Following it up by a conclusion of our
inquiries regarding the stage — witli all my heart.
Elliot. And mine; but just this moment, on the
page opposite to that where Lodge's address con-
cludes, my eye caught the name of Barnabe Kich, in
large characters — what is that ?
Bourxe. He has two stanzas " in praise of the
author." They were friends, and Lodge in the same
way praises Rich's "'Don Simonides," 1581. The
lines before us purport to be written by " Barnabe
Rich, Gentleman Souldier," a character of which lie
was not a little proud: they are not good, but as
230 NINTH CONVERSATION.
they relate to Gosson, and, in fact, contain a pun on
his name, we may very fitly read them now.
" If that which warnes the young- beware of vice,
And schooles the olde to shunne vnlawfull gaine ;
[f pleasant stile and method may suffice,
I thinke thy trauaile merits thanks for paine :
My simple dooms is thus in tearmes as plainej
That both the subiect and thy stile is good,
Thou needs not feare the scoffes of Alomus brood.
cc If thus it be, good Lodge, continue still;
Thou needst not feare Goose sonne or Ganders
hisse,
Whose rude reportes past from a slaundrous (mill,
Will be determind but in reading this,
Of whom the wiser sort will thinke amis,
To slaunder him whose birth and life is such
As false report his fame can neuer tuch."
Elliot. Much cannot be said in favour of Rich's
pun, vet I dare say it answered the purpose.
Bourne. It might turn the laugh against Gosson
for a time, though not quite so good as Tom Xash's
pun, when in his " Lenten Stuff," 1509, he dignifies
a red herring with the name of Sccli-pcr. Five
other stanza.-,, prefixed by •'■' John Jones Gentleman,*'
are not worth reading: he was a physician, and
wrote several medical tracts, and calls Lodge, in
1584, " a youth." "We will now close the " Alarum
aa'ainst Usurers" until to morrow
NINTH CONVERSATION. 231
Morton. On turning over the leaves of the two
first books of Gosson's " Ephemerides of Phialo,"
15/9) I have found a short metrical translation from
Ovid without rhyme. He has therefore some claim
to be noticed among the earliest writers of blank
verse.
Bourne. lie has, but that is a mere scrap, which
I certainly forgot when we were upon that subject.
I, however, made a more important omission of
Queen Elizabeth, who lias translated a chorus of one
of Seneca's tragedies into blank verse, though it
hardly comes within the class of undramatic blank
verse. You will find it inserted in Park's " Royal
and Noble Authors," 1. 10'2, so that the circumstance
was of the less consequence.
Elliot. Dismissing that, what tract respecting
stage plays are we next to see r
Bourne. One which is interspersed with more
poetical scraps than are usually found in works of
the kind, though no blank verse. Chaucer and
Brandt's " Stultifera Navis in English," are cited in
it as authorities. The title is sufficiently explanatory,
" A Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, Yaine playes
or Enterluds with other idle pastimes &c. commonly
vsed on the Sabboth day are reproued," ^c. " Made
Dialogue wise by John Northbrooke," 8cc. 4to.
Morton. That, I apprehend, is one of the most
notorious of the pieces against the stage.
Bourne, Tt has not been unfrequently alluded to,
23<2 NINTH CONVERSATION.
but never criticised. It was first printed, I believe,
in 1579* and was sold by the same bookseller as
Gosson's tract, Tho. Dawson. The edition 1 have
here is of greater rarity, and is " imprinted by H.
Bynneman for George Byshop."
Elliot. The title states that it is conducted m
the form of a dialogue : that may give it spirit and
variety.
Bourne. As the interlocutors are Youth and Age,
you Avill not be induced to form a very lively notion
of their discussion. Youth is represented as a very
docile, well dispositioned young man, who has got a
few wrong notions into his head, which Age endea-
vours to expel. The author was a preacher at Bristol,
from whence he dates his work, and it is unquestion-
able that he was a man of very considerable attain-
ments. In the prefatory matter he draws the follow-
ing curious but exaggerated picture of the manners
of his time : " What is a man now a dayes, if lie
know not fashions, and how to weare his apparel
after the best fashion? to kepe company and to be-
come Mummers and Diccplayers and to play their
twentie, forty or 100 li. at Cards, Dice, <\c. Post,
Cente, Gleke, or such other games: if he cannot
thus do he is called a myser, a wretch, a lobbe, a
cloune, and one that knoweth no fellowship, nor
fashions, and lesse honcstie."
Elliot. If that he a lair specimen, he deals as
much as his predecessor Gosson in general invectives.
NINTH CONVERSATION. 233
Bourxe. Not quite ; he enters more into par-
ticulars as he proceeds, after the conversation be-
tween Youth and Age has begun. The first part of
the pamphlet is principally directed against idleness,
and the arguments of Age are supported by many
recondite authorities : at length Youth observes,
" Seing that we haue somewhat largely talked and
reasoned togither of ydle playes and vaine pastimes,
let me craue your further patience to knowe vour
iudgement and opinion as touching Playes and Flavers
which are commonly vsed and much frequented in
most places in these dayes, especiallye here in this
noble and honourable citie of London." To which
Age answers, " You demaunde of me a harde ques-
tion : if I should vtterly deny all kinde of suche
playes, then shoulde I be thought too Stoicall and
precise : If I allowe and admit them in generall then
I shall giue way to a thousande misehiefes and in-
conueniences which daily happen by occasion of
beholding and haunting such spectacles. Therfore
let me vnderstande of what sort and kynde of Playes
you speake of:"
Morton. All these particulars are curious and
entertaining, and show that at the time Northbrooke
wrote, theatres were much more frequented than is
generally supposed.
Bourne. This author, in terms, mention- one play-
house distinguished by the name of " the theatre,"
and another called " the Curtainc." Youth requires
Age to give his opinion regarding the " playes and
•234 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Enterludes" there performed, and Age replies with
great warmth, " I am persuaded that Sathan hath not
a more speedie way and fitter Schoole to work and
teache his desire, to bring men and women into his
snare," kc. following it up by an enumeration of the
many horrible vices he imagines grow out of fre-
quenting theatres. As to the actors, he insists that
" they are not tollerable nor sufferable in any comon
weale." This topic is kept up through many tedious
pages of reiterated abuse.
Elliot. Neither knowledge nor amusement is to
be obtained from such senseless ravings.
Bourne. Unless we can laugh at the author: Age
engrosses a great part of the conversation, and after
a vast number of coarse names and epithets applied
to unfortunate players, he winds up a detail of mea-
sures taken against them by the subsequent sentence,
" Also there is a notable Statute made against Yaga-
bondes, lloges, &c. wherein is expressed what they
are, that shall bee taken and accounted for lloges.
Amongst all the whole rablement, Common -players
in Enterludes are to be taken for lloges and punish-
ment is appoynted for them to bee burnte through
the care with an bote yron of an ynche oompasse
and for the second fault to be hanged as a Felon.''
Morton. Alluding to the celebrated statute passed
in the year 157 ~.
Elliot. Of course. The old zealot seems quite
to gloat over the account he is giving of the punish-
ment of a wretched actor. '• to be burnt through the
NINTH CONVERSATION. 235
ear with a hot iron of an inch compass." lie attacks
them all, with a perfect conviction that the whole
race ought to be exterminated, Parli chi vuole il con-
trario, Iddio el la Verita per me Varme prenderanno.
Morton. In this respect he even goes beyond
Gosson, who allows that some kinds of plays may
be beneficial, or, at least, not injurious.
Bourne. He would not have granted that, in all
probability, had not Catiline's Conspiracies, and some
other plays, been " pigs of his own sow." I do not
think we need go further with Northbrooke : the
last part of his tract is directed against the "horrible
abuse of dauncing," but this is not to our purpose.
We will now inspect one of the most popular, varied,
and entertaining of all the books of tins class, Philip
Stubbes's "Anatomy of Abuses 5" but from which
so much has been extracted at various times, and in
various books, that it will not long occupy us. The
title promises a great deal of singular matter, and
the body of the work fulfils that promise. It is this:
" The Anatomie of Abuses : Containing a Discouerie
or briefe Summarie of such Notable Vices and Cor-
ruptions, as now raigne in many Christian Countrcyes
of the Worlde: but (especially) in the Country of
ailgna: Together with most fearefull Examples of
Gods ludgementcs executed vpon the wicked for
the same, aswell in Ailgna of late as in other places
elsewhere. Very godly to be read," &c.
Elliot. And among these " notable vices," the
vice of stage-plays is, I suppose, included.
236 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. The attack upon theatres and actors
forms a very considerable and important part of
the work. This edition you see bears date in 1585,
being ''■ printed at London by Richard Jones 3"
but it is said, on the title, to be the third, and is
the most complete, as it was " reuised, recognized
and augmented"' by the author, Philip Stubs or
Stubbes. I apprehend that this work made it earliest
appearance in 1583, and it was so popular, so pa-
tronized by the increasing and intolerant sect of the
puritans, that, I believe, it went through two editions
in the same year, and was printed many times (I
cannot now exactly state how many) before 1595.
Elliot. Who was Stubbes r Was he a man of
any note before he wrote this book ?
Bourne. No trace of him is to be found: all our
biographers are nearly silent regarding him. An-
thony Wood, who claims him for his university,
states, that he was of genteel parentage, and on the
title-page to his '•' Motive to Good Works," 1593,
Stubbes styles himself " Gentleman." His " Ana-
tomy of Abuses" produced a strong sensation when
it was first printed, and Thomas Nash, who wrote
against the puritans or martinists, did not fail to aim
one of his satirical shafts at the work in hand. In his
" Almond for a Parrot or Cuthbert Curry-knaues
Almes," &c. printed, most likely, soon afterwards,
he has this passage regarding Stubbes, though he
did not think it prudent to insert his name at length :
" I can tell you Phil. Stu. is a tall man also for that
NINTH CONVERSATION. 237
purpose. What, his Anatomie of Abuses for all that
will serue very fitly for an antispast before one of
Egertons Sermons. I would see the best of your
Trauerscs write such a treatise as he hath done against
short-heeld pantofies. But one thing, it is a great
pity for him, that being such a good fellow as he is
he should speake against dice as he doth." He
here means to ridicule the trifles against which most
of the puritanical writers and preachers directed their
-vehemence.
Mortox. Nash is the man, who, according to Mr.
Disraeli, by his wit and satire wrote down Martin-
marprelate and his associates, when all their serious
assailants produced no effect.
Bourne. That he silenced them for a time, is, I
believe, certain, and so far he wrote them down.
The piece from which I just quoted is dedicated to
Kempe, a celebrated actor and humorist of that
time, who is called " Jestmonger and Yiee-gcrent
general to the ghost of Dicke Tarlton," also a most
notorious performer, whose name has previously
occurred, and will again be mentioned.
Elliot. 1 see that Stubbes's work is conducted
in the form of a dialogue between two abstract
personages, Messrs. Spudeus and Philoponus. He
touches upon many kind of abuses in Ailgna, or
Anglia, but mainly, in the commencement, upon
pride of apparel, the excess of which, both in men
and women, seems to put him into a violent and un~
restrainable passion.
238 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. He is so furious in his assault, and so
coarse in his epithets regarding plays and players,
that it would not be easy to quote him in all com-
panies. Referring to the stage, he maintains that
actors are the authors of sensual vices of all kinds,
"For proofe whereof (he adds) but marke the flock-
ing and running to Theaters and Curtens daylie and
hourelie, night and daie, tyme and tide, to see Plaies
and Enterludes, where suche Avanton gestures, suche
bawdie speeches, such laughing and flearyng, suche
kissyng and bussyng, suche clippyng and culling,
such wincking and glauncing of wanton eyes, and
the like is vsed, as is wonderfull to beholde. Then
these goodly Pageantes beyng ended, euery mate
sortes to his mate, euery one bringes an other
homewarde of their waie very freendly, 8cc. * * And
whereas you saie, there are good Examples to be
learned in them, truely so there are : if you will
learne falshood ; if you will learne cosenage ; if you
will learne to deeeiue ; if you will learne to plaie
the hipocrite, to cogge, to lye, and falsitie ; if you
will learne to iest laugh and ficcre, to grinne to
nodde and mowe; iS' you will learne to plaie the
vice, to sweare, teare and blaspheme both lleauen
and Earth."
Elliot. A most eloquent and forcible reduplica-
tion: it must have cost the author not a little trouble
to collect so many terms of abuse, and to apply them
as lie has done.
NINTH CONVERSATION. 239
Morton. One would really suppose, if one took
these representations for granted, that our ancestors,
who frequented theatres, were much more immoral
than ourselves,
Bourne. Another short extract will, I dare say,
satisfy you : it is Stubbes's conclusion, in which
he formally denounces plays, acting, and actors.
" Awaie therefore with this so infamous an arte, for
goe they neuer so braue yet are they couted and
taken but for beggers. And is it not true ? Liue
they not vppon begging of euery one that comes r
Are they not taken by the Lawes of the Realme for
roagues and vacabounds ? (I speake of such as
trauaile the Countries with Plaies and Enterludes,
making an occupation of it) and ought so to bet-
punished, if they had their deserts. But hopyng that
they will be warned now at the last, I will say no
more of them ; beseeching them to cansider what a
fearefull thing it is to fall into the handes of God,
and to prouokc his wrath and heauie displeasure
against themselues and others. Which the Lorde
of his mercie tourne from vs."
Elliot. Milton, in the preface to his " Doctrine,
&c. of Divorces," asserts that " the greatest burden
in the world is superstition, not only of ceremonies
in the Church but of imaginary and scare crow sins
at home." The latter kind seems mightily to have
troubled the writers against the stage.
Bourne. Having bestowed as much time as \vc
can afford on Stubbes's " Anatomic of Abuses, ' we
240 NINTH CONVERSATION.
will proceed to another production, not so long nor
so celebrated : I shall be very brief with it, because
I have mentioned it before. I mean a small tract
appended by Whetstone to his " Mirror for Ma-
gistrates of Cities," 1584, and called " An Addition
or Touchstone for the Time : exposyng the dainger-
ous Mischiefes that the Dicyng Howses (comonly
called) Ordinarie Tables, and other (like) Sanctuaries
of Iniquitie, do dayly breede within the Bowelles of
the famous Citie of London."
Morton. You read from it, I remember, a curious
anecdote of Judge Chumley.
Bourne. I did, and some matter personally re-
lating to Whetstone. I shall now only quote a very
short notice by him of theatrical performances : it is
included in that part of his work which is called
" A Remembrance of the disordered State of the
Commonwealth, at the Queenes Maiesties commyng
to the Crowne," and the passage is as follows :
" The godly Diuines in publique Sermons, and
others in printed Bookes haue (of late) uery sharply
inuayed against Stage -playes (vnproperly called
Tragedies, Comedies and Moralles) as the Sprynges
of many vices and the stumblyng-blockes of Godly-
nesse and Vertue : Truely the vse of them vpon the
Saboth day, and the abuse of them at all times with
scurilytic and vnchaste coueiance, ministred matter
sufficient for them to blame, and the Maiestrate to
reforme."
Elliot, lie seems very measured in his reproba-
NINTH CONVERSATION. 241
tion of stage-plays : he only censures the " abuse of
them."
Morton. He might well be cautious and scru-
pulous on this point, when we recollect that he had
himself written two plays, or one play in two parts,
called "Promos and Cassandra," printed in 1578.
You do not mean that what you have just read is all
that Whetstone says upon the subject of Theatres ?
Bourne. Very nearly: he goes on, however, to
remark : " But there are within the Bowels of this
famous Citie farre more daungerous Playes and
little reprehended 5 that wicked Playes of the Dice,
first inuenled by the Deuyll (as Cornelius Agrippa
writeth) and frequented by vnhappy men : the de-
testable Roote vpon which a thousand villanies
growe." It is against the last that his enmity is
directed, and to them all his details relate ; he only
touches upon theatrical performances by the way.
Elliot. When he speaks of the " printed books"
in which stage-plays were inveighed against, he re-
fers of course to Gosson, Northbrooke, and .Stubbes :
to whom does he allude when he says that stage-
plays had been abused in " public sermons ?"
Bourne. You have reminded me of a tract I had
forgotten to notice in its proper place, and yet it is
precisely in point here.
Morton. Do you mean a Sermon on the subject?
Bourne. A production of that class, and a work,
I can assure you, that is not often met with. I will
VOL. n. R
'242 NINTH CONVERSATION.
read the title, and then, if further explanation be
necessary, I will give it : it is called " A Godly
exhortation by occasion of the late iudgement of
God shewed at Paris-garden, the thirteenth day of
lanvarie : where were assembled by estimation aboue
a thousand persons, whereof some were slaine and
of that number at the least, as is credibly reported,
the thirde person maimed and hurt. Giuen to all
estates for their instruction concerning the keeping
of the Sabboth day." It is by "John Field, Minister
of the Word of God," and was printed in 1583.
There are many accounts of the catastrophe to which
the tract relates. Paris Garden, you know, was a
place where bears were baited, and the greatest num-
ber of spectators was obtained on Sundays.
Mortox. The fact is mentioned at some length in
Pennant's London.
Bourxk. And elsewhere, so that we need not go
over the shocking picture this pious preacher draws
of the calamity.
Elliot-. I do not see the pertinency of this " Godly
exhortation" to our present inquiry, unless some-
thing be said about theatrical representations.
Bourne. Supposing nothing more were said, you
would not have much right to complain, considering
that bear-baiting and stage-plays were generally
coupled by the puritans ; but if you had waited, I
should have finished by this time the following para-
graph in the tract, which is curious, as alluding to the
NINTH CONVERSATION. 243
abolition of theatrical performances on Sunday, pre-
vious to 1583. Field is exhorting the Lord Mayor, &c.
of London to use their influence to abolish bear-bait-
ing, " And as" (he observes) " they haue with good
commendation so far preuailed, that vpon Saboath
dayes these Heathenishe Enterludes and playes are
banished, so it wyll please them to followe the matter
still, that they may be vtterly rid and taken away.
For surely it is to be feared, besides the destruction
bothe of bodye and soule, that many are brought
vnto by frequenting the Theater, the Curt in and
such like, that one day those places will likewise be
cast downe by God himselfe." That, I fancy, you
will consider to the point.
Elliot. Certainly ; but I thought, from what you
read from Whetstone just now under date of 15S4,
that stage-plays on Sundays were then acted.
Bourne. If you refer to his words again, you
will perceive that they are ambiguous, and that he
is only expressing an opinion in favour of what had
already been decided by the higher powers. Eesides,
it is clear that they were abolished when Field wrote
in 1583, and that they were not abolished when the
tract I have now in my hand was printed, viz. 1580.
Morton. So that you fix the period between
1580 and 1583. This is important, because our
stage historians have not hitherto settled the date
with any precision : one of the most learned says,
with extreme laxity, " During a great part of
244 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Queen Elizabeth's reign the play-houses were only
licenced to be opened on that day (i. e. Sunday) ;
but before the end of her reign, or soon ajier, this
abuse was probably removed."
Bourne. I am not sure that it would not be pos-
sible to come even nearer the precise date than we
have at present arrived. I am not aware, however,
of any intermediate work, between 1580 and 1583,
where the fact is noticed. 1 may add, that Mr.
Chalmers (Sup. Apol. 185.) states, incorrectly cer-
tainly, that the exhibition of plays on Sunday was
not forbidden until 1587-
Elliot. Erom Eield's " Exhortation" you find
that in 1583 stage-plays were "banished" on the
Sabbath : where then do you learn that they were not
banished in 1580 ?
Bourne. Erom this little piece, by Arthur Golding,
the translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and who,
you may recollect, was enumerated by Abraham
Fleming among the writers upon the same earth-
quake that employed his pen. This is the tract he
published on that occasion.
Morton. The title I see is this : " A discourse
vpon the Earthquake that happened through this
realme of Englande and other places of Christendom,
the sixt of Aprill, 1580," &e. " Written by Arthur
(iolding, Gentleman." It seems wholly religious.
Bourne. It is : the date, 1580, and the printer's
name, Henry Binneman, are to be found at the end;
NINTH CONVERSATION. 245
but if you will give me the book, I can save trouble
by pointing out the particular paragraph that relates
to this subject : the rest is a mere dull discourse,
principally to show that earthquakes are to be looked
upon as the judgments of God, and not as proceeding
from natural causes.
Morton. There is no occasion, as I have it here.
Elliot. Read it, then, but no more than is to our
purpose : we can very well omit all the rest.
Morton. It is not long. " The Saboth dayes and
holy dayes ordayned for the hearing of Gods word
to the reformation of our lyues, for the administra-
tion and receiuing of the Sacramentes to our comfort,
for the seeking of all things behouefull for bodye or
soule at Gods hande by prayer, for the mynding of
his benefites, and to yeelde praise and thankes vnto
him for the same, and finally for the speciall oc-
cupying of our selves in all spirituall exercises"
Elliot. I am sure you must be reading more
than is necessary : Golding is a long time coming
to the point.
Morton. These are only ambages to give the
more effect to what follows : he adds, that the
Sabbath, instead of being employed as he has de-
scribed, " is spent full heathenishly, in taucrning,
tipling, gaming, playing and beholding of Beare-
baytings and stage-playes to the vtter dyshonor of
God, impeachment of all godlynesse and vnneces-
sarie consuming of mennes substances which ought
to be better employed."
246' NINTH CONVERSATION.
Boukxe. That is all we need read ; but I will just
add, upon this point, that Stephen Gosson, in 15/9,
in his " School of Abuse,'' bears wrathful testimony
to the performance of plays on Sunday.
Elliot. The point (an important one, I allow)
being - thus settled by the testimony of Golding, what
do you next offer us ?
Boukxe. We will now examine the work of a
man, whom I mentioned some days ago as a
satirist, as author of a sonnet before Bodenham's
Belvedere, 1600, but principally as the writer of the
tract which now comes under our review, called
" A Mirour of Monsters : Wherein is plainely de-
scribed the manifold vices and spotted enormities
that are caused by the infectious sight of Hayes,
with the description of the subtile slights of Sathan
making them his instruments." London, 1587- It
is by Wil. Rankin or Rankins, and is one of the
pamphlets against the stage that is most rarely met
with. One singularity in it is a description (though
not a very intelligible one), of a sort of mask or
pageant on the marriage of Fast us and Luxuria, two
of the prime favourites of Sathan, and favourers
of Actors. The personages who perform are six,
viz. Idleness, flattery, Ingratitude, I gly Dissension,
Blasphemy, and Impudence. As this description is
inserted late, I will first read a sentence or two
against stage-players in Terralbon, to which country
the author states he had travelled : " When first these
monsters came into Tvrrnlbmi such was their proud
NINTH CONVERSATION. l 247
presumption, that they feared not to prophane the
Sabbaoth, to defile the Lord's daie, to scoffe at his
word, and to stage his wrath. But when the King
of kings sawe his scepter broken, his crowne trode
vnder feete of the vngodlie, his roabes rent, naye
the glorie of his Sonne darkened with the head of
this monstrous Beast, he stretched out his mightie
arme, and with the rod of his lustice brused the
bones of them that prophaned his Sabbaoth, defiled
his sacred daye and scoffed at his holie word. Then
Justice pulled oif hir vaile and with a cleare fore-
sight (beholding the same) so ordained it that these
monsters dare no longer roare on the Sabaoth of the
Lorde."
Elliot. Here also is evidence of the abolition of
stage-playes on Sundays, in the year 158?.
Bourxe. There can be no doubt of that fact: the
last paragraph, as appears by a marginal note,
alludes to the melancholy accident that happened at
Paris Garden in 1583, of which we have spoken
already.
Morton. Where is the account of the mask ?
Bourxe. There is no regular detail of it beyond
the names of the maskers, nor are any of the
speeches inserted : the description is only general.
Two addresses by Fastus and Luxuria on the arrival
of the maskers at their palace, KoiXotppzap, from the
dominion of Belzebub, are given ; but one of them,
the welcome spoken by the lady, you will find quite
248 NINTH CONVERSATION.
sufficient, or more than sufficient : she says, " My
Lorde and espoused husband Fastns (you inhabitants
of y R infernal world) hath alreadie showne you by
the zeale of his louing hart, the simpathy of whose
minde consisteth in my selfe, that whatsoeuer he
shall seeme to allowe of duety and loue I beare him,
besides the favor I owe vnto you, confirmeth the
same in me, so farre then wherein the power or
duetifull seruice of a sillye woman consisteth or may
offer requitall, let it be expected 5 for duety wylls
so much, and your curtesie commandes no lesse :
you are therefore hartily welcome to our Castle of
Koi\o<p ■pEzp."
Elliot. There is certainly nothing at all re-
markable in that.
Bourne. Perhaps not, but in several respects this
tract differs from the usual strain of laborious and
dull invective, in which pieces with the same object
were usually written, overburdened with quotations
from the Scriptures and the Fathers. Of this the
work of Dr. Rainoldes, to which we shall come pre-
sently, is a tedious example.
Elliot. Have you any thing- more to offer us from
Itankin — any tiling a little better than the last extract,
I mean?
Bourne. There is a passage regarding the general
condition of England, and in praise of Queen Eliza-
beth and her government, that I might read if
you had patience ; but the author of this " Mirror
NINTH CONVERSATION. 249
of Monsters" only speaks very generally on these
topics.
Morton. You mentioned just now the coupling
of plays and bear-baiting by the puritanical writers,
but I recollect that they even go further: Stubbes
especially denounces May-games as one of the same
" pomps of the Devil."
Bourne. And so the puritans continued to do
even down to the Restoration. This small tract by
Thomas Hall, " B. 1). and Pastor of King's Norton,"
who abused John Webster the player as the writer
of Academiarum Examen, is a violent and singular
attack upon May-games in the year IGGO.
Elliot. Von call it violent and singular : the
violence, I suppose, arises out of the author's zeal,
but in what does the singularity consist ?
Bourne. In the manner in which the subject is
handled : the title is not a little remarkable — it is
called " Frnebria F/ortc, the downefall of May-
Games. Wherein is set forth the rudeness, prophane-
ness, stealing, drinking, fighting, dancing," &c.
" contempt of God and godly Magistrats, Ministers
and People, which oppose the Rascality and rout
in this their open prophaneness and Heathenish
Customs," and a great deal more of the same kind
of abuse, some of it much too coarse to be extracted.
Morton. That remark applies, more or less, to
nearly all the publications I have seen against the
theatre : the authors are never at all scrupulous in
<250 NINTH CONVERSATION.
using the most offensive terms they could discover
or invent.
Bourne. Hall merits the same censure, but we
will pass over that part of his pamphlet, observing,
by the way, that he bitterly complains " that even
in Cheapside it self the rude rabble had set vp this
Ensign of prophaneness and had put the Lord Mayor
to the trouble of seeing it pulled down."
Elliot. Cheapside was then little better than an
open market-place. I suppose tbe reverend author
considers a May-game as a sort of idolatrous worship
of a pole.
Boukne. You have guessed rightly; but the most
ludicrous part of his attack, is a mock trial of the
heathen patroness of the^e sports, under the title of
" the Inditement of Flora," in which this "Floralian
harlot" is regularly arraigned, and a jury impannelled
for her trial.
Morton. A monstrous absurdity.
Bourne. Yet detailed with the utmost gravity
and solemnity, as if it were the formal proceeding
of a constituted court. You shall see : it begins
thus — The clerk says,
" Flora — hold vp thy hand :
" Thou art indited by the name of Flora of the
City of* Rome, in the County of Babylon, for that
thou contrary to the pence of our Soveraign Lord,
his Crown and Dignity, hast brought in a pack of
practical Fanatieks viz, Ignorants, Atheists, Papists,
NINTH CONVERSATION. 251
Drunkards, Swearers, Swash-bucklers, Maid-mar-
rions, Morrice-Dancers, Maskers, Mummers, May-
pole-stealers, Health-drinkers, together with a ras-
calian rout of Fidlers, Fools, Fighters, Gamesters,
Whore-masters, Lewd-men, Light-women, Con-
temners of Magistracy, Affronters of Ministery, re-
bellious to Masters, disobedient to Parents, mis-
spenders of time, abusers of the creature."
Elliot. What says the poor prisoner at the bar
to this accusation — does she plead guilty or not
guilty ?
Bourne. The following colloquy occurs between
Flora and the judge.
Judge. What sayest thou, guilty or not guilty ?
Prisoner. Not guilty, My Lord.
Judg. By whom wilt thou be tried ?
Pris. By the Popes-Holiness, my Lord.
Judg. He is thy Patron and Protector, and so
unfit to be a Judge in this case.
Pris. Then I appeal to the Prelates, and Lord
Bishops, my Lord.
Judg. This is but a tiffany put off, &c.
Pris. Then I appeal to the rout and rabble of the
world.
Judg. These are thy followers and thy favourites,
and so unfit to be Judges in their own case.
Pris. My Lord if there be no remedy, I am con-
tent to bee tried by a Jury.
252 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Judg. Thou hast well said, thou shalt haue a full,
fair and a free hearing."
Morton. The English bishops and the Romish
pope are here considered much upon a par: Hall
was a furious mar-prelate, I have no doubt. Does
the unhappy prisoner obtain a full, fair, and free
hearing ?
Bourne. You may judge from this fact, that the
judge acts as the crown advocate, and the jury are
both jurymen and witnesses : but we have not arrived
at the end of the ridiculousness of this mock trial.
Holy-Scriptures is the first called to come into court.
" Holy-Scriptures. My Lord, I cannot get in.
Judg. Who keeps you out,
Holy- Scriptures. My Lord here is a company of
ignorant, rude, prophane, superstitions, Atheistical
persons that will not suffer me to come in.
Judg. Oyer, knock down those prophane persons
and make room for Holy-Scriptures to come in."
Elliot. He is as summary as Jack Cade with the
soldier, who omitted to call him Lord Mortimer ;
" Knock him down there !"
Bourne. After the evidence of this juryman is
received, a little flattery of the newly restored Charles
II. is inserted, for the prisoner declares, " My Lord,
I and my retinew are uery much deceived in this
Charls the Second; we all conceited that he was
for us: my Drunkards cryed, a Health to the King:
NINTH CONVERSATION. 253
the Swearers swore a Health to the King so long
till they swore themselves out of health. The Papist,
the Atheist, the Roarer and the Ranter, they all
concluded that now their day was come, but alass
how are we deceived !"
Morton. Or rather how were the puritans de-
ceived in their hopes of Charles.
Bourne. To proceed with the trial: the ordinance
of parliament of 1644 for keeping holy the Lord's
day, the Solemn League and Covenant, an order
from the Council of State, and Ovid, (with a passage
from his Fasti, lib. 5.) with some others, compose the
rest of the jury, who find the prisoner guilty ; and
then follows " the aweful sentence of the law," as it
is called, which is, perpetual banishment. Such is
the result of the " full, fair, and free hearing" poor
Flora obtains. This is really all that is worth read-
ing in the tract.
Elliot. Then we need not detain ourselves further
with it.
Bourne. If so, we have advanced as far as Dr.
Rainoldes's " Overthrow of Stage -Plays," 1599.
Morton. That is one of the most notorious works
upon the subject, and I suppose one of the least
scarce, as there was a second edition of it in 16'<29,
which is not unfrequently met with at book sales.
Bourne. It is, and while it is one of the longest,
most learned, and most laboured, it contains even
less information than others regarding the state of
254 NINTH CONVERSATION.
the stage ; in fact, although the question is handled
generally in some places, the principal object of the
author was to abolish the then prevailing custom of
representing what were called University Plays, per-
formed by students, and written in Latin.
Elliot. I should have imagined that the severest
puritan, and the most prejudiced opponent of thea-
trical performances, would not have carried his an-
tipathy quite so far. I thought that they were on
all hands allowed.
Bourne. They are by some, but not by all, and
among the last, Dr. Rainoldes, or Reynolds, of
Queen's College, who, by the testimony of all wri-
ters (and by his own, as far as his productions are
witnesses in his favour), was a man of vast eru-
dition. Bastard, in his Chrestoleros, 1598, a book I
have often quoted, and with the best parts of which
you are by this time acquainted, has the following
Epigram, addressed to him in L. IV.
" Ad Johannem Reynolds.
" Do I call iudgement to my foolish rimes
And rarest art and reading them to viewe,
Reynolds, Religions Oracle most true:
Mirrour of arte and Austen of our times !
For loue of these I call thee, which I pray,
That thou in reading these wouldst put away."
Elliot. The compliment is rather clumsily paid.
Your mention of Bastard's book brings to my re-
NINTH CONVERSATION. <255
collection an epigram I saw in it, connected, in some
degree, with our immediate subject, I mean on the
profaneness of the stage. It is L. VI. Epigr. 7, and
entitled " In prophanationem nominis Dei."
" Gods name is bare of honour in our hearing,
And euen worne out with our blasphemous swearing,
Betweene the infant and the aged both,
The first and last they vtter is an oath.
O hellishe manners of our prophane age,
Iehouahs feare is scoft vpon the stage!
The IMiinicke iester, names it euery day;
Vnlesse God be blasphem'de it is no play."
Bournk. The practice of swearing on the stage
was not long afterwards reformed under the highest
authority, and in the editions of plays subsequently
printed, it is not uncommon to observe variations
occasioned by it : thus Heaven is generally substi-
tuted for God, and other similar changes made.
Elliot. I here also find an epigram to Richard
Tarlton the comedian and jester, whose name we
saw introduced by Nash into his " Almond for a
Parrot," in which he is praised for having " made
folly excellent," and spoken of as being " extoll'd
for that which all despise."
Bourxk. Although Bastard entertained, to a cer-
tain extent, the same opinions as Dr. Rainoldes, he
nevertheless seems, at least, to tolerate actors, and
to praise such as were sober and meritorious. When
256 NINTH CONVERSATION.
upon the learning of the author of the. " Overthrow
of Stage-plays," I was about to quote from the
highest authority in his favour, I mean Bishop Hall,
who has the following sentence in one of the epistles
of his Decades, addressed to M. Bedell: « He (Dr.
Ilainoldes) alone was a well furnished library, full
of all faculties, of all studies, of all learning ; the
memory, the reading of that man went near to a
miracle." I will make merely a short extract or two
from his Overthrow of Stage Plays, observing first,
that his work consists of two portions, and forms
part of a contest between him and Doctor Gager on
the subject of theatrical representations. Dr. Gager
had written an academic tragedy, under the title of
Ulysses Redux, Tragcedia nova, in cede Christi Oxonice
pub/ice recitata, which gave offence to a great body
of the puritans.
Morton. And Dr. Gager, of course, vindicated
himself?
Bourne. Yes, but only to the extent of academic
plays: however, the attack of Dr. Rainoldes is ge-
neral, and it is supported by an amazing number and
variety of learned quotations : the publisher boasts
that it had had the effect of first silencing, and then
converting his antagonist.
Morton. I have seen it asserted somewhere, that
Dr. Gager' s reply to Dr. Rainoldes is in the library
of C. C. college, Cambridge. If this be so, it would
mainly disprove that assertion.
NINTH CONVERSATION. <257
Bourne. Of course. I read the following para-
graph from Dr. Rainoldes, not because it counte-
nances the story against Shakespeare, that he had
been guilty of deer-stealing, but because it is singular
that that offence should be named as ordinarily com-
mitted by vagrants, such as itinerant players.
Elliot. Some persons disbelieve it altogether,
and it is not impossible, that on account of its being
frecpiently committed, the charge has been invented
against our great dramatist.
Bourxe. I do not think that likely, supported, as
the story is, by the ballad upon Sir Thomas Lucy.
Besides, the deer, if stolen at all, was stolen before
Shakespeare left Stratford. " Time of recreation
(says Dr. Rainoldes) is necessary, I graunt, and
think as necessary for sohollers that are schollers
indeed, I meane good students, as it is for any.
Yet in my opinion it were not fit for them to
play at Stoole-ball among wenches, nor at Mum-
chance or Maw with idle loose companions ; nor at
trunkes in Guile-halls, nor to dance about May-
poles, nor to rufle in alehouses, nor to carowse in
tauerncs, nor to steale deere, nor to rob orchards.
Though who can deny but they may doe these things,
yea worse."
Mortox. Shakespeare's annotators would certainly
have adduced this quotation, if they had recollected
it, as an incidental confirmation of the imputation
upon Shakespeare.
vor.. ii
258 NINTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. I will only read one more extract from
another part of this volume., because, as I have said,
the book is not by any means so rare as many others,
and it is strangely barren of all information regard-
ing the state of the stage about that date.
JMobtox. Perhaps not very strangely barren, when
we recollect that a man like Dr. Rainoldes, as Hall
has described him, could not be much acquainted
with the nature or condition of the acted drama in
the metropolis or elsewhere.
Bourne. No doubt that is to be taken into view,
and wherever he enters into particulars, they refer
to the plays represented at the universities : for in-
stance, in one place he speaks of the expense of
getting up a play, " trimming vp a stage and bor-
rowing robes out of the revils, - ' as thirty pounds,
but it has no allusion to the public theatres.
Morton. There seems to be Aery little general
argument in the book ; it is almost entirely contro-
versial, and the author disputes Dr. Gager's positions
seriatim, citing in the margin a long list of authorities,
christian and heathen.
Bourne. The minuteness of Dr. Rainoldes' know-
ledge is sometimes astonishing; he is ostentatiously
learned upon the merest trifles, and to him, with-
out derogating from his great erudition, I think we
may, in some degree, apply the censure of John
Webster, in his "Duchess of Malfi," (1G23): "a
fantastical Scholar, like such who study to know how
NINTH CONVERSATION. 269
many knots were in Hercules club ; of what colour
Achilles' beard was, or whether Hector were not
troubled with the tooth-ache : he hath studied him-
self blear-eyed to know the true symmetry of Caesars
nose by a shoeing horn."
Elliot. A clever and often just piece of ridicule :
but where is the other extract from the " Overthrow
of Stage Plays" you recommended to our perusal?
Bourse. It is here; on the subject of the propriety
of men wearing the apparel of women, and women
of men.
Elliot. Juvenal asks, you know,
(litem pr&stare potest mulier galeala pudorem
Qucvjiigit a sexu?
Bourne. Dr. Rainoldes treats the point with more
lightness than " was his wont." "Now (says he)
if this were lawfully done because he did it, then
Willi inn, Bishop of Ely, who to saue his honour and
wealth, became a greene-sleeues, going in womans
raiment lesse way then twenty miles, from Dover
castle to the Sea side, did therein like a man; al-
though the women of Dover, when they had found it
out by plucking downe his muffler and seeing his
new shauen beard, called him a monster for it: then
with vs a Scholler who thinketh of some man as
Eudide did of Socrates, and cannot well frequent his
house in the day time for suspition of lewdnesse with
his Xanthippe, or of Popery, may come like ;i maiden
«260 NINTH CONVERSATION.
thither by night: then our Vniuersitie Statute of
night walkers would be taken away, or qualified at
least, and if our Proctors meete one like a woman
at midnight, they must not be suspicious ; some
studious youth it may be. come from Wickham to
Beaconsfield , and daring not to trauaile by day for
theeues through Shotouer, is going to some learned
man. In like sort touching Ewplirosyna , a maid of
Alexandria (of Antioche you name her by slippe of
penne or memorie) the storie is that shee. desiring
much to liue in an Abbv like a Monke, forsooke not
only her father, who had brought her vp to he a stafl'e
in his olde age, a comfort in his weakenesse to him,
but alsoaworthie, noble, vertuous gentleman to whom
she was betroathed : clad in mans apparell she came
vnto the Abbot, and being asked of him who slice
•was, from what place and for what cause she came,
she answered that her name indeed was Smaragdiis y
and shee was of the Empcrours Court and came to
that Abbey to lead a holy life, if shee might be ad-
mitted, and so finding fauour to be admitted as a
man, she liued there eight and thirty yeares in mans
apparell." I apprehend you would not -wish to hear
much more from a book, of which what I have just
read is, I believe, the most entertaining passage.
Moktox. Certainly not : you may close the "Over-
throw of Stage Plays" as soon as you please.
Bourne. We have not time to go further at pre-
sent. When next we meet and renew this subject,
NINTH CONVERSATION. 261
we will enter upon Thos. Heywood's very amusing
pamphlet,, called "An Apology for Actors," 1612,
and upon the reply to it by I. G. published three
years afterwards.
Elliot. The further examination of Lodge's tract
against usurers, we shall be sure to remember.
POETICAL DECAMEROX.
THE TENTH CONVERSATION.
CONTENTS
OF THE TENTH CONVERSATION.
The historians of the English stage — Lodge's " Alarum against
Usurers," 1584, again introduced — T. Nash on Usurers from his
" Christs Teares ouer Jerusalem," 1593— His amends to Dr. G.
Harvey — How the lives and characters of Nash, Greene, 6lc. have
been blackened by puritanical writers proved from the " French
Academic," in two pans, 159-1 — Epistles prefixed by T. B. the
translator, and especially that before part II — Doubt if T. B.
were not Thomas Beard, author of the " Theatre of Gods Lodge-
ments" — Beard on (.'. Marlow, an Atheist — Probable quotation in
the " Trench Academic," from some work by Marlow against
Christianity — Attack by T. B. upon Robert Greene, for his misled
and irreligious life — T. Nash's " Lenten Stuffe," 1599, quoted —
Allusion by T. U. to Lodge's defence of plays, &c Lodge's
" Delectable Historic of Forbonius and Prisceria" — Romeo and
Juliet— Outline of Lodge's story — Specimen of pastoral poetry by
him — " England's Parnassus," HJOO — Address of Corulus to Co-
rinna, &c — Conclusion of the history — " Truth's Complaint ouer
England," by T. Lodge, with quotations — Sir J. Harington, 1591
and 1597, on plays — T. Hey wood's " Apology for Actors," 1(!12,
and its character — Quotation from his Train Britannka, 1(109 —
Specimens of his " Apology" — T. Gainsford's "Glory of Eng-
land," 1619, cited regarding the amusements of London — Hey-
wood on the actors of his time and earlier — Richard Tarlton, the
jester, i^c. and mention of him in P. Bucke's " Tliree Lordes and
three Ladies of London," 1590 — " Tarlton's Iests," Kill, quoted
regarding liis fiat nose — " The Schoolemaster or Teacher of Table
Philosophic," 15JG, with an old joke modernized, respecting a
physician's pupil — The third division of Heywood's " Apology"
2(»6 CONTENTS.
ami extract — Why the Puritans were such enemies of the stage
— J. Shirley's " Polititian," 1(>35, and preface to IS. Jonson's
" Volpone" cited — " A Refutation of the Apology for Actors,"
1615, by J. G Its style, and extracts from it — J. G 's logical
attempt, and a parallel from " Pap with a Hatchet" — " A
sixe-fold Politician, with a sixe-fokl Precept of Policy," KiOf).
by J. I\J Doubt whether J. AI. were Milton's father or an
inferior author of the name of Melton — Character of Milton's
father, and of his book — His chapter on poets, and attack
upon theatres quoted — Bishop Hall on drunken rhymers — •- Es-
sayes and Characters, ironical and instructive," Hi 15, by John
Stephens — His praise of the English drama — A common player
described by him — Excursions of London actors into the country
— " Histrio-mastix, or the player whipt," 1C10, a play, described
— Allusion in it to John Marston's Satires — IMS. pageant by Mar-
ston, in the Royal Library, not known — Account of it — Sir W.
Vaughan's " Golden Grove," HifSfi, and " Golden Fleece," lf>2(>
— Cause of the enmity of the Puritans to the stage — " Histrio-
mastix : the Players Scourge," 1G33, by W. Prynne — Its contents
. — First appearance of women on the stage decided by Thomas
Jordan's " Rosary of Rarities" — Difference between the obscenity
of plays before and after the Restoration — Charge against Prynne
of retracting his anti-theatrical opinions in " a Defence of Stage-
plays," and his reply in a posting-bill, dated January 1(1, 1(148 —
" The Actor's Remonstrance, or Complaint for the silencing of
their profession," 1043, a rare tract among the King's pamphlets
— Quotations from it on the reform of Actors, and on their dis-
tresses and those of their Poets in consequence of the restriction.
POETICAL DECAMEKON.
THE TENTH CONVERSATION.
JNxortox. We made faster progress in the contro-
versy regarding the stage yesterday than I expected.
Bourne. Yet, I believe, we omitted to notice
nothing very important, and, as a system and a
series, the inquiry is entirely new. It is very true
that the laborious historians of the stage have sifted
many productions for minute particles of informa-
tion, yet those particles give no correct notion of
the works themselves from which they are obtained.
Elliot. If our progress was so rapid yesterday, it
will give us the more time to-day to dwell upon
Lodge's " Alarum against Usurers," from the pre-
fatory address of which you extracted so much
yesterday, and the body of which you said contained
some of the best specimens of the author's poetry.
Morton. Even you feel an interest about that:
y<m begin to find that old poetry, and inquiries con-
26H TENTH CONVERSATION*.
nected with it, have something interesting about
them .
Elliot. My conviction lias not been so tardy, nor
have I been at ail backward in admitting it. It' I
had not found that tuere v. as something worth
knowing in the pursuit, do \ou imagine that 1 should
have spent so large a portion of the lust nine days
in receiving information ?
Bourne. Of this I am confident, that as fur as 1
am concerned, your satisfaction in receiving cannot
have been greater than mine in giving. Every man
is happy when he is mounted upon his hobby, and
mine carries double with the greatest willingness.
But now for Thomas Lodge and his " Alarum against
Usurers," 1584 ; the title of which you heard at length
yesterday. The first forty pages, exclusive of the
prefatory matter, with which you are already ac-
quainted, give some particulars of the history of a
young man of property, who had been made the
dupe of money-lenders j and recollecting the claim
Lodge makes to being by birth a gentleman, and his
connexion with players before he wrote this tract, it
is not impossible that he derived his knowledge of
the artifices of usurers, aided by courtezans, from
his own experience.
Morton. Perhaps so, and that circumstance may
make the anecdotes curious.
Bourne. Nevertheless, I do not apprehend that
they are personal, for Lodge would not relate of
TENTH CONVERSATION. 269
himself that after having been gulled and plucked
by these blood-suckers he became their instrument
in inveigling others, even if it had been true. As
this part of the pamphlet refers to matters of mere
detail, and as the topic is treated at great length, it
will not be necessary to quote from it. I would
rather show you a short summary of the practices
of usurers, from the pen of Nash in his " Christs
Teares ouer Jerusalem," 1593, an eloquent and re-
pentant production, in which a very severe censure
is thrown upon the vicious manners of the age.
Morton. Is it not in that tract that he makes
honourable amends to Dr. Gabriel Harvey, for the
many scurrilous attacks Nash had made upon him ?
Bourxe. It is, though it has been said that this
confession of regret on the part of Nash was purely
feigned ; but I am not aware that this uncharita-
ble assertion rests upon any sufficient foundation.
Usurers at that time appear to have been much the
same as our pawnbrokers, only, if any thing, more
fraudulent, because not equally restrained by law.
Nash is speaking of gallants and roysters, who fre-
quented expensive ordinaries or gaming-houses (in
the manner described by Massinger, in Act II. of his
" City Madam") who at last were reduced to the
necessity of raising money on their chains, bracelets,
and jewels : " But at the second time of their com-
ming (he observes) it is doubtfull to say whether
they shall haue money or no: the worlde growes
270 TENTH CONVERSATION.
hard and wee all are mortall ; let them make him
(the Usurer) any assurance before a Iudge and they
shall haue some hundred poundes (per consequence )
in Silks and Yeluets. The third time if they come,
they shall haue baser commodities • the fourth time
Lutestrings and gray Paper, and then, I pray pardon
mee, I am not for you ; pay me that you owe mee
and you shall haue any thing."
Morton. And this practice has continued down
to our own time. — In Nichols's Progresses, it ap-
pears that New-years' gifts to Queen Elizabeth
sometimes consisted of " boxes of Lute strings :"
I always thought that it meant a sort of silk
so called, but Nash particularly distinguishes them
from " silks and velvets.''
Bourne. Mr. Douce, in his " Illustrations" (II.
2.35.) has a learned note on usury, but he neither
refers to the passage which I have read from Nash,
nor to the tract by Lodge before us : probably he
had never seen the last, though the other is not by
any means so uncommon.
Elliot. You said that Nash's " Christs Tears
ouer Jerusalem" was an arraignment of the vicious
manners of the age : does he take any notice of
stage-plays in the course of his pamphlet ?
Bourne. He does not: he alludes to a theatre
only once, and then he uses it figuratively thus :
" England the Players stage of gorgeous attyre,
the Ape of all Nations superfluities, the continual!
TENTH CONVERSATION. 271
Masquer in outlandish habilaments ! great plenty-
scanting calamity are thou to await for wanton dis-
guising thy selfe against kind, and digressing from
the plainnesse of thine Auncestors."
Morton. Nash was a play-wright himself, and
could not very consistently abuse what he had so
essentially contributed to support.
Elliot. I fancy that Nash was guilty of quite as
much inconsistency in abusing the vices of the times
in which he lived, when he and his friends had been
the partakers and promoters of all kinds of iniquity.
Bourne. That they were very gay, and in some
respects unprincipled fellows, is probably true, but
I apprehend that there has been a great deal of
exaggeration on this subject, and that puritanical
writers have much contributed to blacken cha-
racters, which, without their aid, were not the
whitest in the world. Let me show you, in con-
nexion with tli is subject, a book of no great rarity,
but which contains some vcrv curious particulars
regarding Nash and his associates, never quoted or
referred to, because nobody thought of looking for
such matter in such a situation.
Morton. Curiosities are not unfrequently found
by looking in unlikely places. The volume is thick
enough : what is it called ?
Bourne. " The French Academic, wherin is dis-
coursed the institution of Mancrs and whatsoeuer
els concerneth the good and happie life of all estates
272 TENTH CONVERSATION.
and callings/' &e. : " newly translated into English
by T. B. The third Edition. Londini Impends
Geor. Bishop, 15*)4." The name of the original
author was Peter de la Primaiidaye, a Frenchman.
Elliot. One would not be inclined to accuse any
man of carelessness in passing a work from the
French with that title, without supposing that it
contained any thing about Nash or Greene.
Bocrxe. And you would be mistaken if you
thought that what I refer to is to be found in the
body of the work. It is divided into two parts
or volumes, to each of which the translator T. 13.
(whose initials I have not been able to apply) pre-
fixes an Epistle : that entitled " To the Christian
Reader, Grace and Peace," before the second part,
contains the curious matter to which I allude. J
should inform you, however, before 1 show it to
you, that the writer has been cautious enough not
to mention any names, but the inferences are to-
lerably clear and satisfactory. It also touches upon
the subject of stage-plays, and notices the very rare
defence of them by Lodge, of which we have before
spoken.
Mortox. Such matters are highly interesting:
let us look at them immediately, and postpone, for a
few moments only, Lodge's tract upon usury.
Elliot. With all my heart : I warn you not to
disappoint us: that you lead us out of our road for
something worth seeing.
TENTH CONVERSATION. 273
Bourne. I do not think you will complain, or, at
least, have reason to do so. T. B., the author of
this epistle, I should tell you, with the usual zeal
of his sect, has been inveighing against what one of
his fellows terms " the horrible corruptions" of the
age ; nor can we for a moment blame the vigour
with which he attacks atheism, which he contends
was fast growing in this country.
Morton*. Thos. Beard, you know, in his ■• Theatre
of God's Judgments," first printed, I believe, in 1598,
mentions Christopher Marlow as a professed atheist.
Bourne. What von allude to is here, and with a
view to what T. B. says of atheists, it is material to
quote Beard's words, for it is quite dear to me, that
Marlow is alluded to in the remarks of T. Ik
Elliot. For aught we know, T. B the translator
of " the French Academy," was no other than Thomas
Beard, author of -- the Theatre of God's Judgments.''
Bourne. That plausible and obvious conjecture
never occurred to me before. Beard uses these
remarkable expressions concerning Marlow: '- Not
•nferior to any of the former in Alheisme, and im-
pietie, and equall to all in maner of punishment,
was one of our own nation, of fresh and late me-
morie, called Martin" (so spelt, but the name
-- Marluw" is inserted in the margin), " by profession
a scholler, brought vp from his youth in the vniuer-
sitie of Cambridge, but by practise a Play-maker,
and a Poet of scurrilitie, who by giuing too large a
VOL. II. •['
L 274 TENTH CONVERSATION.
swinge to his owne wit, and suffering his lust to
haue the full reines, tell (not without just desert) to
that outrage and extremitie, that he denied God
and his sonne Christ, and not onely in word blas-
phemed the Trimtie, but also (as is credibly reported)
'wrote bookcs against it, affirming our Sauiour to be
but a deeeiuer, and Moses to be but a eoniurer and
seducer of the people, and the holy Bible to be but
vaine and idle stories., and all religion but a deuiec
of pollicie."
Elliot. The very Tom Paine of the reign of Eli-
zabeth 5 nothing short of it. Are any of the books
Marlow is <f credibly reported" to have so written,
now extant :
Bourne. None that I have ever heard of 5 but, if
I am not much mistaken, I can furnish a quotation
from one of them on the authority of T. B. : he has
just been speaking of Ligneroles, a French courtier
and atheist, adding that there was a parallel to him
in England, and continuing thus : " This bad fellowe
whose works are no lesse accounted of among his
followers, than were J polios Oracles among the
Heathen, nay then the sacred Scriptures are among
sound Christians, blusheth not to belch out these
horrible blasphemies against pure religion, and *o
against God the Author thereof, namely, That the
religio of the heathen made litem stoute and, courageous,
whereas Christian religion makcth the professors
thereof base-minded, timcrous and Ji/te to became a
TENTH CONVERSATION. 275
pray to euery one: that since men Jell from the re-
ligion of the Heathen, they became so corrupt, that
they would heleeue neither God nor Deuill : thai
JMoses so possessed the land of Iudea as the Gothes
did by strong hand vsurpe part of the Rotnane Empire.
These and such like positions are spued out by this
hel-hound," &c.
Mortox. That certainly corresponds very much
with what Beard says of Marlow; besides, if he be
not alluded to, upon whom can we fix the quotation
he gives from some work or other, and obviously
not the offspring of mere invention ? There is only
one objection to it, though it must be allowed to be
one of some importance, if it be true that Marlow
was killed before 159.5 (as is asserted), and it is this,
that T. Y). writing in 1594 speaks of him in the pre-
sent tense as still living.
Bourxe. Formidable as that remark may seem, it
is easily answered, for you will observe that this
edition of the French Academy of 1594, purports to be
the third: it was first printed some time earlier,
though I am not now prepared with the precise
date. What makes it the more likely that Marlow
is alluded to, is the fact that T. B. almost immediately
afterwards proceeds to notice ltobt. Greene ; at least
that is the conclusion 1 draw from what is said, and,
I believe, you will think it a fair one: he is referring
to Mich persons in England " as treade in the steppes
of Lamech," and " walke in the waves of Ismacl."
T <2
276 TENTH CONVERSATION.
Pie observes, " That there are such amongst vs,
euen in these times wherein we Hue, let the testi-
monie which one of that crew gave lately of him-
selfe, when the heauy hand of God by sicknesse
summoned him to giue an accompt of his dissolute
life. He being one day admonished of his friendes
to leaue his badde course of life, which otherwise
woulde bring him to vtter destruction, sco'Tingly
returned them this answerer Tush (quoth he) v:]ia!
is hee better that dieth in his bedde then he that endelli
his life at Tiburne? And being further vrged to
doubt the losse of his soule in Hell iire for crier
although bee feared not death in this worlde, bee
replied; Hell? II "hat talk you of Hell to wee': 1
knoive if I once come there I shall haitc the company
of better then my self e: I shall also meete ivith some
knaues in that place, and so long as J shall not sit
there (done, my care is the lesse. Bid you arc madde.
folkes (quoth hec) for if I feared the Indges of lite
Bench no more then I dread I he iudgemeids of God,
I ivoulde before I slept dine into one karles bagges or
other, and. make merrie xvith the shelles I found in
them so long as they would last. The voyce of a
meere Atheist, and so afterwardes hee pronounced
of himselfe when he was checked in conscience In
the mightie hand of (ion. And yet this fellow in
his life time and in the middest of his greatest ruffe,
had the Presse at commaundement to publish his
lasciuious Pamphlets, whereby lice infected the
TENTH CONVERSATION. 277
hearts of many yoong Gentlemen and others with his
poysonfull platforms ofloue, and diuellish discourses
of fancies fittes : so that their mindes were no lesse
possessed with the toyes of his irreligious braine,
then their chambers and studies were pestered with
his lewde and wanton bookes. And if the rest of his
crew may be permitted so easily as hee did without
controlment to instill their venimous inuentions into
the minds of our English youth by meaucs of print-
ing, what other thing can wee looke for, but that
the whole land should speedily be ouerflowen with
the deadly waters of all impieties, when as the flood-
gates of Atheism are thus set wide open." Now all
that you will allow is exceedingly curious, supposing
we cannot, with the utmost precision, ascertain that
it was applicable to Itobt. Greene, though I confess
myself, from all that is said, I have no doubt that
he is meant. The greater part of it is unquestionably
a gross libel, and i bring it forward to show the man-
ner in which the puritans, for their own purposes,
slandered those obnoxious to them.
Elliot. All that you have read is very interest-
ing ; but I have not seen any thing that relates to
Lodge, and his defence of theatrical performances.
Bourxk. It follows almost immediately, com-
mencing with a general allusion to satirists, and the
authors of apologues, who under the ligures of
be:ists, ixc. struck at the great.
Morton. In his " Lenten Stuffe," 1599, Nash has
a very apposite passage, which seems to have re-
C 27S TENTH CONVERSATION.
ference almost to this very accusation. " Talk 1 of
a bear (says he) Oh : it is such a man emblazons
him in his arms; or of a wolf, a fox; or a camelion,
any lording whom they do not affect, it is meaned
by."
Elliot. Very true ; but let us hear T. I>. regard-
ing' Lodge, from whose tract on usury we have
already made a very long digression.
Boikxk. The epistle is now almost terminated.
T. B. continues in these words : " Are they not already
growen to this boldnes, that they dare to gird at the
greatest personages of all estates, and callings, vnder
the fables of sauage beasts, not sparing the very dead
that lie in their graues : that the holy Apostles, the
blessed virgin Mary, the glorious kingdome of heauen
it selfe must be brought in as it were vpon a stage
to play their seuerall parts, according as the humor
of euery irreligious head shal dispose of thenar And
wheras godly learned men, and some that haue
spoken of their owne experience, haue in their bookes
that are allowed by authority, termed Stage-playes
and Theaters, The schoole of abuse, the schuole of
bavoderi/, the nest of the deuil and sinks of ail shine,
the chairc of pestilence, the potnpe of the deuil, the
soueraigne place of Satan, yet this commendation of
them hath lately passed the Presse, that they are
rare exercises of vertue. It Avere too long to set
downe the Catalogue of those lewde and lasciuious
bookes, which haue mustered theselues of late yeeres
in Pauls Churchyard, as chosen souldiers ready to
TENTH CONVERSATION. 279
fight vnder the deuils banner : of which it may be
truely said, that they preuaile no lesse (if not more)
to the vpholding of Atheisme in this light of the
Gospel, then the Legend of lies, Huon of Burdeaux,
King Arthur, with the rest of that rabble, were of
force to mainteine Popery in the dayes of ignorance."
He concludes, therefore, with a request to those in
authority, that all such books may be collected in
the centre of St. Paul's Churchyard and publicly
burnt, " as a sweete smelling sacrifice vnto the
Lord."
Morton. The " commendation of them" (stage-
plays) that " hath lately passed the press," you sup-
pose to be Lodge's " Play of Plays."
Bourne. I do not know any other tract of that
date to which it can very well apply; the reference
in what I just read to (iosson, Lodge's antagonist,
is even more distinct. We may now return to the
"Alarum against Usurers," and I much fear that the
best part of it would fall under the burning sentence
of T. P). : the main subject of it is love, and the
puritan would, no doubt, have included it among
those " lewd and lascivious books" tending to the
support of atheism, although religion is neither di-
rectly nor indirectly touched upon in it.
Elliot. How do you mean that the main subject
of it is love ? what connexion have love and usury,
unless that love and its consequences often bring
men to want, and so compel them to resort to all
kinds of expedients for raising the wind.
'280 TENTH CONVERSATION.
JBouhxe. Not exactly so : I have already told you,
that the first forty pages are employed upon usury ;-
the next thirty-two pages are occupied by a novel,
mentioned on the title-page, called " the delectable
Historic of Forbonius and Prisceria," consisting of
prose, interspersed with a good deal of poetry: the
last seven pages are idled with " Trvths complaint
ouer England," a poem in twenty-nine seven-line
stanzas. The first of these two is a novel or history,
in much the same style as Greene's or Rich's pro-
ductions of a similar kind.
Elliot. As Shakespeare made use of" Rosalind"
by the same author, do you find any traces of his
having seen Lodge's " Forbonius and Prisceria r"
Bourne. I do not ; yet, when first I began to
read it, I fancied that it was another of the several
early versions of Romeo and Juliet, under different
names : Forbonius and Prisceria are the offspring of
families that were at enmity with each other. The
scene, however, lies principally at Memphis, and the
other incidents, not indeed very complicated, have
no relation whatever to the misfortunes of the lovers
of Verona.
Morton. Tins novel you call the best part of the
small volume : in what does its goodness principally
consist ?
Bourne. Not so much in the interest of the story
as in the general grace with which it is told, and the
beauty of some of the poetry inserted in its progress.
Forbonius, "highly accounted of for his vnrcprouablc
TENTH CONVERSATION. 281
prow esse, and among the best sort allowed of for his
vnspekable vertues," falls in love with Prisceria, the
beautiful daughter of Solduvius, viceroy of a pro-
vince adjoining' Memphis : the father discovers their
mutual attachment, and removes Prisceria to his
country residence. The lover follows her, and con-
tinues his wooing as a shepherd : in this character he
sings to her a long eclogue, filling more than six
pages, but which contains some of the best specimens
of Lodge's talent for amorous poetry that I have
seen. It opens with the subsequent flowing lines :
•• Amidst these Mountaines on a time did dwell
A louely shepheard, who did beare the bell
For swecte reports and many louing laves:
Whom, while he fed his ilocke in desart waves,
A netheards daughter deckt witli louely white
Behelde and loude; the lasse Corinna bight.
Him sought she oft with many a sweete regard,
'With sundrie tokens she her sutes preferd;
Her care to keepe his feeding flocke from stray,
Whilst carelesse he amidst the lawnes did play.
Her sweete regards she spent vpon his lace,
Her Countrie cates she sent to gaine his grace,
Her garlands gaie to deeke his temples faire,
Her doubled sighs bestowd on gliding aire 5"
but notwithstanding these advances on the part of
the young lady, Coralus, for so he is called, treated
her with disdain, and whenever she drew near he
drove his flock in a different direction.
282 TENTH CONVERSATION.
Elliot. You remember the stanza in my favourite
Italian, beginning - ,
Ingiustissimo Amor, perche -si raro
Corrispondenti fai nostri desiri?
Bourne. I do, but it is not so applicable here as
you imagine 3 for Cupid marking the love of the
shepherdess and the austerity of the swain, makes
their desires correspond, and wounds the latter, com-
pelling him to love, even more strongly than he had
loathed before : he now seeks the object of his af-
fections, and on his road pours out a most splendid
picture of her charms : from this part I will make
no quotation, principally because it is to be found at
length in " Englands Parnassus," lo'OO, under the
crowded head of " Discretions of Beautie and per-
sonage" (p. 400), where it takes up nearly three
pages. The poet then proceeds ;
" Her Corn/ us with warie search at last
At sodaine found, and as a man agast
At that he saw, drew back with feare, and than
ltemembring of his woes his sute began.
O sweete Corinna, blessed be the soyle
That yeelds thee rest amids thy dayly toyle,
And happie ground whereon thou satest so !
Blest be thy llocke which in these, lawnes doo go,
And happie I but hauing leaue to looke. —
Which said, with feare he pawsd and blond forscoke
His palie face, till she that wrought the lire
Restorde the red, and kindled sweete desire ;
TENTH CONVERSATION. L ZH3
And with a bashfull looke beholding him,
Which many months her pleasant foe had bin,
She cast her amies about his drooping necke."
Morton. The lines are as smootli and musical
as any I remember to have read, even of a much
later date: the shepherdess might have !< a bashful
look," but her action -was not very bashful when she
threw her arms about the neck of Corulus.
Elliot. Her bashful look was before she had
recovered the surprise of a declaration, so unex-
pectedly made by one whom she had hitherto been
unable to influence.
Bourxe. Every body knows how much food for
poetry has been afforded by the disappointments and
discordances of lovers, and Lodge seems to have set
himself the task of showing what might be said
when both hearts were consenting. After Corinna
has expressed her astonishment, Corulus continues
his speech.
" () Nimph of beauties traine,
The onely cause and easer of my paine !
Tis not the want of any worldly ioy,
Nor fruitlesse breed of Lambes procures my noy;
Xe sigh I thus for any such mishap,
Eor these vaine goods I lull in fortunes lap :
But other greefes, and greater cause of care
As now, Corhuia, my tormenters are.
Thy beautie Goddesse is the onely good ;
Thy beautie makes mine eyes to streame a ilood ;
2S4 TENTH CONVERSATION.
Thy beautie breakes my woonted pleasant sleepe,
Thy beautie causeth Corulus to weepe.
For other ioyes they now but shadowes be ;
No ioye but sweete Corinnas loue for me.
Whereon I now beseech thee by that white
"Which staines the lilly and affects my sight ;
By those faire locks whereas the graces rest,
By those sweete eyes whereas all pleasures nest,
])oo yeelde me loue, or leaue me for to die!"
Elliot. Unless the shepherdess had changed her
mind in consequence of the refusal of the youth, in the
iirst instance to make any return to her advances, or
unless that "lob of spirits," Master Puck, had
" Streaked her eyes
And made her full of hateful fantasies,"
there seems no reason for his fears.
Mortox. What happened in the case before us,
as related by Lodge, is somewhat out of the usual
course, if we may believe our own experience, and
Lod. Barry's authority.
" When a poor woman has laid open all
Her thoughts to you, then you grow proud and cov;
But when wise maids dissemble and keep close,
Then you, poor snakes, come creeping on your bellies
And with all oiled looks prostrate yourselues
Before our beauty's sun, where once but warm,
Like hateful snakes you strike us with your stings
And then forsake us." (Ham .Wry, loll, A. V.)
Bourne. Corulus was bound not to take it for
TENTH CONVERSATION. 2S5
granted that the lady would fall into his arms with-
out solicitation, or any expression of contrition; and
I do not know that he says much more than might be
expected from so passionate an innamorato. Corinna,
however, gives no opposition, and " with a kissc
she sealed vp the deed," and the lovers are united
and happy. This " delectable Aeglogue," as Lodge
calls it, being finished, old Solduvius discovers the
disguise of Forbonius, and being all-powerful, throws
him into prison and vigorously rates his daughter.
Both continue resolute, and at last the father is
obliged to give his consent to their union. This is
the bare outline of the story, and as you saw the
day before yesterday sufficient specimens of Lodge's
prose, we need not enter more into detail regarding
it; especially as we have yet to examine several
curious tracts on the protracted contest for and
against theatrical representations.
Ei.i.iot. Then are we to hear nothing from the
poem at the end, " Truth's complaint over England :"
Bourxi:. I had forgot that, but a short specimen
must suffice. The author invokes Melpomene, Ids
" mournful Muse," to aid him in relating the com-
plaint which Truth had made to him, that he might
put it into verse : a correct notion of its style and
tendency may be gathered from the three following
stanzas, which are interesting as they refer to the
state of the kingdom at the date they were written,
viz. 15S4. Truth addresses the author in these
terms, as an old acquaintance :
'IHG TENTH CONVERSATION.
" Whilome (deerc friend) it was my chaunce to dwell
Within an Hand compast by the "wane,
A safe defence a forren foe to quell :
Once Albion cald, next Britaine Brutus gaue,
Now England hight, a plot of beautie braue ;
Which onelie soyle should seeme the seate to bee
Of Paradise, if it from sinne were free.
" Within this place, within this sacred plot,
I first did frame my first contented bowre ;
There found I peace and plentie for to float,
There iustice rulde and shinde in euerie stowre ;
There was I loude and sought to euerie howre;
Their Prince, content with plainnesse, loued Truth,
And pride by abstinence was kept from youth.
" Then flew not fashions euerie day from Frauncc,
Then sought not Nobles nouells from a farre,
Then land was kept, not hazarded by chaunce,
Then quiet mindc preserud the soile from iarre;
Cloth kept out cold, the poore releeued werre.
This was the state, this was the luckie stowre,
While Truth in England kept her stately bowre."
Morton. The first stanza reminds one of Gaunt's
line apostrophe to England in Richard 11.
" This other Eden, demy Paradise ;
This fortress built by nature for herself," ivc.
Elliot. It does, but they will not bear comparison.
The general turn of the poem seems to be objurgatory
and satirical.
TENTH CONVERSATION. <2S7
Bourxe. It is, and it shows the tendency of the
author's mind, at least, eleven years before he pub-
lished his " Fig for Momus."
Elliot. Notwithstanding - we have much before
us, [ should like to hear another stanza or two.
Bourxe. As you please: I am not sure whether
the following' are not the best lines in the whole
production.
" For as the great commaunder of the tides,
God Neptune, can allay the swelling sens,
And make the billowes mount on cither sides,
When wandering keeles his cholar woidd displease :
So Princes may stirre vp and soon appease
The commons heart to doe, and to destroy
That which i^ good, or this which threates anov.
'• For common state can neuer sway amisse
When Princes Hues doo leuell all a right,
Be it for Prince that England happie is ;
Yet haplesse England, if the fortune light,
That with the Prince the subiects seeke not right :
Vnhappie state, vnluckie times thev bee,
When Princes liues and subiects disagree.''
Elliot. Those stanzas are not ill worded, and
the simile in the first is apt, but the thought is onh
the old common place of policy, ingcnla prhwij/iiii
fata temporum.
Bourxe. Nor is there anv thhiir throuchoul tlii-
l ZSH TENTH CONVERSATION.
division of the tract very new. When Lodge di-
rected his satire against private vices and absurdi-
ties, he was certainly happier. I laving gone through
this very rare volume, we may now lay it aside, and
resume our inquiries regarding the stag;;. The last
pamphlet we looked at yesterday on this subject was
Dr. Rainolde's " Overthrow," 1599.
Morton. In " a Treatise on plays," by Sir John
Jfarington, said to be written about ir>97> il!, d
published in Nugce Antiqiue (I. 190.) is a brief
defence of Tragedies and Comedies, and a passing
blow given to the " sour censurers" of them.
Bourne. lie had previously justified them in his
" Apology of Poetry," 1591, but we have less time
now than yesterday to go into these incidental no-
tices : I will therefore, without preface, lay before
you Thomas Ileywood's ingenious and amusing per-
formance, the mil title of which is, "An Apology for
Actors. Containing three briefe Treatises. 1. Their
Antiquity. 1. Their ancient Dignity. 3. The true
vse of their quality. Written by Thomas Ileywood.
Ki prod esse solent el delcctare" London, io'i'3, and
it is dedicated to the Karl of Worcester : he tells
his patron, " I haue striu'd my Lord to make good
a subiect which many through ignorance haue sought
violently (and beyond merit) to oppugne."
Einnor. I hope lie severely lashes his abusive
opponents. The iron Hail of Talus would not have
been misapplied in belabouring them.
TENTH CONVERSATION. 289
Boubxk. On the contrary, he is temperate and
argumentative, considering the provocation.
Morton. One can scarcely excuse any degree of
tameness : it would better become the meekness of
spirit, to which the Puritans were pretenders, than
an author and actor, whose works and profession had
been so repeatedly and so grossly attacked.
Elliot. Mandeville, somewhere in his " Fable of
the Bees," asserts, and truly, that " of all religious
vertues nothing is more scarce or more difficult to
acquire than Christian humility," and of this the
Puritans had not a particle.
Bourne. Heywood is not always equally forbear-
ing, even in the tract before us, and in his " Troia
Britannica" 1G09, Canto III. he handles a puritan
very roughly :
" lie can endure no Organs, but is vext
To hear the Quiristers shrill Anthems sing ;
He blames degrees in the Academy next,
And 'gainst the liberall arts can Scripture bring ;
And when his tongue hath run beside the text,
You may perceiue him his loud clamours ring
'Gainst honest pastimes, and with piteous phraze
Raile against hunting, hawking, cocks, and playes."
There is more of the same kind, but this is the only
part that relates to our subject.
Elliot. Still I could wish that he had hit harder
and out deeper, venger la raison des attentats des sots.
vol. ii. v
290 TENTH CONVERSATION.
Bourne. The following is the mode in which
Heywood opens his argument in favour of thea-
trical representations, which, though not perhaps
coming up to your wishes, is tolerably severe. I
think he pursued a more prudent course in not being
too violent against so powerful and increasing a
body ; besides his argument appeared with the
better grace, in contrast to the gross epithets em-
ployed by Gosson, Stubbes, and others. "■ Moued
by the sundry exclamations of many seditions sectists
in this age, who in the fatnesse and ranknesse of a
peaceable Common wealth, grow up like unsavoury
tuffts of grasse, which, though outwardly greene and
fresh to the eye, yet are they both vnplcasant and
vnprofitable, being too sower for food, and too rank
for fodder : these men, like the antient Germans,
affecting no fashion but their owne, would draw
other nations to be slouens like them selves; and
vndertaking to purine and reforme the sacred bodies
of the Church and Common-weale, (in the true vse of
both which they are altogether ignorant,) would but,
like artlesse phisitians, for experiment sake, rather
minister pils to poison the whole body, then cordials
to preserue any or the least, part. Amongst many
other things tolerated in this peaceable and flourish-
ing state, it hath pleased the high and mighty
Princes of this Land to limit the vse of certaine
publicke Theaters, which since many of these ouer-
curious heads liaue lauishlv and violently slandered, I
TENTH CONVERSATION. 291
hold it not amisse to lay open some few antiquities to
approue the true vse of them." And after an apology
on the ground of his own insufficiency, he enters upon
his subject.
Morton. Have you omitted nothing before you
came to the opening of the tract ? You turned over
several leaves.
Bourne. Nothing material, I believe ; only some
commendatory poems by Arthur Hopton, John
Webster, John Taylor, and other actors, not of
much value. Some lines are added by Heywood,
that have been quoted as a plagiarism from Shake-
speare's Seven Ages : the topic tutus mundus agit
histrionem (the motto of the Globe Theatre), is
almost the only resemblance.
Morton. Then let us proceed. Does Heywood
divide his subject as the title states ?
Bourne. Precisely, treating first of the antiquity
of actors, which he does with considerable learning,
and he dwells particularly on the influence produced
on the mind, by seeing the mighty actions of ancient
heroes brought upon the stage, lie next replies to
various arguments and authorities advanced by his
antagonists, asking this question : " And why are
not play-houses maintained as well in other cities of
England as London ? My answer is ; it is not meete
euery meane Esquire should carry the port belonging
to one of the nobility, or for a Noble man to usurpe
the estate of a Prince : Rome was a Metropolis,
•292 TENTH CONVERSATION.
a place whither all the nations knowne vnder the
Sunne resorted : so is London .... I neuer yet could
read any History of any Commonweale which did
not thriue and prosper wliilst these publike solemni-
ties were held in adoration."
Morton. I made a few extracts the other day
from a voluminous and entertaining work, by a
person of the name of Thomas Gainsford, one of
which is not inapplicable, as it relates to the occupa-
tions and amusements of London before the year
1619.
Elliot. Your extract will be very welcome ; but
first, ought we not to hear the title of the work from
whence it is copied ?
Morton. I was forgetting that : it is called " The
Glory of England, or a true Description of the many
excellent prerogatiues and remarkable blessings
whereby she triumpheth ouer all the nations of the
World." To make my extract more intelligible, I
should mention that the author has been instituting
a comparison between London and Paris. " With
vs, our riding of horses, musique, learning of Arts
and Sciences, dancing, fencing, seeing of comedies or
enterludes, banquets, masques, mummeries, turna-
ments, shewes, lotteries, feasts, ordinarie meetings
and all the particulars of mans inuention to satiate
delight, are easie expenees, and a little iudgement
with experience will manage a very meane estate
to wade through the current of pleasure, although it
TENTH CONVERSATION. 203
runne to voluptuousnesse." His conclusion is, that
both living and pleasures are much cheaper in
London than in Paris.
Elliot. The tables are a little turned now, I fear :
in economy of living, as well as variety and cheap-
ness of amusements, Paris is admitted to have the
advantage at present.
Bourne. I do not see that we are at all called
upon either to discuss or decide that point : we will,
therefore, continue our examination of Hey wood,
and enter upon his second division on the ancient
dignity of Actors, and here amid a great variety
of learned matter to support his point, the author
inserts the following interesting notice of some of
the principal English actors. " To omit all the
Doctors, Zawnyes, Pantaloones, Harlakeens, in
which the French, but especially the Italians, haue
been excellent, and, according to the occasion of-
fered, to do some right to our English Actors, as
Knell, Bentlci/, Mils, Wilson, Crosse, Lanam, and
others: these, since I neuer saw them, as being
before my time, I cannot (as an eye-witness of their
desert) giue them that applause which, no doubt,
they worthily merit ; yet, by the report of many
judicial auditors, their performance of many parts
have been so absolute, that it were a kinde of sin to
drowne their worths in Lethe, & not commit their
(almost forgotten) names to eternitv. Here I must
needs remember Tar/ton, in his time cracious with
•294 TENTH CONVERSATION.
the Queene, his Soueraigne, and in the peoples ge-
neral applause ; whom succeeded Wiliam Kemp, as
well in the f'auour of her Maiesty, as in the opinion
and good thoughts of the general audience. Gabriel,
Singer, Pope, Phillips, Sly, all the right I can do
them, is but this, that though they be dead, their
deserts yet Hue in the remembrance of many. Among
so many dead let me not forget one yet aliue in his
time, the most worthy famous Maister Edward
Allen"
Morton, Edward Allen or Alleyn was the founder
of Dulwich College.
Bourne. The same : that fact is added in a sub-
sequent edition of the " Apology for Actors," pub-
lished after Allen's death.
Elliot. That is a curious quotation as connected
with the history of the stage.
Bourne. It is. I do not delay to speak of the
persons separately, because not a few of them were
actors in Shakespeare's plays, and many particulars
have been collected by Malone, by Chalmers in his
" Supplemental Apology," and by other writers.
Elliot. You have mentioned some of them be-
fore, such as Richard Tarlton and Kemp.
Bourne. I have, but I cannot resist here men-
tioning that in an old play, called <f The pleasant
and Stately Morall of the three Lordes and three
Ladies of London," 151)0, written by one Paul Bucke
(whose name is subscribed at the end " Finis I'aulc
TENTH CONVERSATION. "295
Bucke"), is a curious tribute to the memory of
Tarlton, who had died only a short time before :
Simplicity, a clown, a sort of inferior Autolicus,
enters with a basket singing ballads ; afterwards
a countryman takes what is called " a picture" of
Tarlton out of the basket and asks who it is : Sim-
plicity pronounces an eulogium upon him, ending
thus :
" But it was the merriest fellow that had such iestes
in store,
That if thou hadst scene him thou wouldst hauc
laughed thy hart sore."
In the course of the scene Wit and Wealth, two
personages represented, avow their acquaintance
with Tarlton.
Mortox. I have read of a book called " Tarltons
Jests :" no doubt it contains many curious stories —
I suppose it is something like " Peek's Jests."
Bourne. The difference is chiefly this, that Tarl-
ton' s Jests consist more of merry sayings, and Peele's
of merry doings. Here is a copy of " Tarlton's
Iests : Drawn into three Parts. — His Court witty
Iests — His sound Citty Iests — His Country pretty
Iests : full of Delight, Wit and honest Mirth," 1G1 1 ;
and it is not improbable that this wood-cut on the
title-page, in his fool's dress and playing on his pipe
and drum, is a copy from the very " picture'' carried
by Simplicity in his basket. The tract contains a
"296 TENTH CONVERSATION.
great many particulars regarding the stage, but it
has been ransacked by Oldys, j\J alone, and the rest
of the annotating tribe.
Elliot. Surely you can find one specimen; the
annotators would extract the minute particulars
without the least relish for the jests.
Bourne. That is true in some degree : the fol-
lowing is not only one of the best of the jokes, but
relates to a personal peculiarity of Tarlton :
" Tarltons answer in defence of his flat nose.
" I remember I was once at a play in the Country
where, as Tarltons vse was, the play being done,
euery one so pleased to throw vp his Theame, one
among the rest was read to this effect, word by
word :
" Tarlton I am one of thy friends and none of thy
foes ;
Then I prethee tell how camst by thy flat nose ?
Had I been present at that time on those banks,
I would haue laid my short sword ouer his long
shankes."
" Tarlton, mad at this question, as it was his
property sooner to take such a matter ill then well,
very suddenly returned him this answere,
" Friend or foe, if thou wilt needs know, marke me
well,
With parting dogs & bears, then by the ears, this
chance fell i
TENTH CONVERSATION. 297
But what of that ? though my nose be flat, my credit
to saue,
Yet very well I can by the smell, scent an honest
man from a knaue."
Morton. I have seen that retort attributed to some
one else who happened to have a peculiarity about
his " nasal promontory."
Bourne. Very likely ; it is astonishing to see
how long some jokes survive, being transmitted
from generation to generation, with slight changes.
Here is a book dated as early as 15/6, which con-
tains a jest current at the present moment in many
shapes. It is called " The Schoolemaster, or Teacher
of Table Philosophic," principally translated from
the Latin, and among the instructions for the con-
duct of gentlemen when invited out to dinner is a
whole book of " mery honest Iestes, delectable de-
uises, and pleasant purposes, to be vsed for delight
and recreation at the boord among company."
Elliot. It promises a great deal of amusement.
Bourne. I cannot say that it performs as much as
it promises : as a specimen you shall hear the story
I referred to just now. "A certaine Phisicion hauing
instructed his sonne to discerne by the vrine what
meate the patient had eaten ; marke diligently also,
quoth he, if thou canst see any parings of apples, or
such like, about the bed, and then mayest thou iudge
that he hath eaten some such thing. Afterward it
298 TENTH" CONVERSATION.
chaunced that when this Scholler went to see his
pacient, and looking about the chamber, sawe the
saddle of an asse, and not seeyng the asse there like-
wise, iudged that the sicke man hadde eaten the
asse ; whiche they that stoode by, telling his master,
sayd that he was an asse which iudged of the sick-
mans disease by an asses saddle."
Elliot. The modern version has some improve-
ments, both in circumstances and in the point with
which the jest is told.
Bourne. Perhaps so ; but the substance is the
same. However, we have not time to dwell longer
on the subject, as there yet remains the third divi-
sion of Ileywood's tract, to which we have not ad-
verted, the true use of the quality of actors. Upon
that we may be short, because it comprises little
more than a few stories to show that actors afford
useful examples to the good, and warnings to the
vicious, by the lively representations of the reward
of virtue, and the punishment of crime on the stage.
Morton. They may be omitted : particular in-
stances only weaken the general argument.
Bourne. They are inserted as a counterpoise to the
particular instances in Stubbes, Field, and others, of
God's judgments upon the frequenters of theatres, &c.
The subsequent is, however, interesting in another
point of view, as you will see in a moment. " Now
to speak of some abuse lately crept into the quality,
as an inueighing against the State, the Court, the
TENTH CONVERSATION. 299
Law, the City, and their gouernments, with the par-
ticularizing of priuate mens humors yet aliue, Noble-
men and others. I know it distastes many ; neither
do I any way approue it, nor dare I by any means
excuse it. The liberty which some arrogate to them-
selves, committing their bitternesse and liberall in-
uectives against all estates to the mouths of Chil-
dren, supposing their iuniority to be a priuilege for
any rayling, be it neuer so violent : I could aduise
all such, to curbe and limit this presumed liberty
within the bands of discretion and gouernment. But
wise and judiciall Censurers, before whom such com-
plaints shall at any time hereafter come, will not (I
hope) impute these abuses to any transgression in us,
who haue euer been carefull and prouident to shun
the like. I surcease to prosecute this any further,
lest my good meaning be (by some) misconstrued :
and fearing likewise lest, with tediousness, I tire
the patience of the fauourable Reader, here (though
abruptly) I conclude my third and last Treatise."
Elliot. This abuse of their quality in attacking
private individuals and personal peculiarities, pro-
bably did them more injury, and more hastened the
closing of the theatres, than all the vices they brought
into the state, or were supposed to have brought
into it from all time.
Bourne. This was unquestionably the fact, as far
as regarded the Puritans. The printer of the second
edition of Dr. Kainoldes's "Overthrow,'' in I (>'i ( J, who
300 TENTH CONVERSATION.
signs an address to the reader, " Thine in the Lord,"
expressly complains that actors had " not been afraid
of late dayes to bring vpon the stage the very sober
countenances, modest and matron-like gestures and
speeches of men and women to be laughed at, as a
scorne and reproach to the world, as if the hipocrisie
of Iudas (if it were brought upon the stage), could
any whitt disgrace the apostles of our Sauiour."
Morton. This had been done with great effect in
" The Puritan, or Widow of Watling Street."
Bourne. And in several other plays, both before
and after it ; rarely with more effect than in Cowley's
" Guardian" (afterwards called " Cutter of Cole-
man Street") first acted in 1641, where the charac-
ter of Tabitha is broadly and ridiculously coloured.
To this abuse, as far as it was such, James Shirley,
in the preface to his tragedy of " The Politician,"
1655, seems to allude, when he says, " the severity
of the times took away those dramatique recreations
(whose language so much glorified the English
scene), and perhaps looking at some abuses of the
common theatres, \\ hich were not so happily purged
from scurrility and vnder-wit (the only entertain-
ment of vulgar capacities), they have outed the more
noble and ingenious actions of the eminent stages."
Mortox. Poor Shirley was a severe sufferer in
consequence of the abolition of the theatres, by the
barbarous superstition and intolerant zeal of the.
puritans.
TENTH CONVERSATION. 301
Elliot. That " scurrility and under-wit," as Shir-
ley terms it, did prevail to a most unlicensed extent,
is admitted on all hands. Ben Jonson, in the preface
to his Volpone, bitterly inveighs against those who
had brought the profession and name of a poet into
contempt by ribaldry, profanation, and blasphemy,
adding, like Nash, some severe sentences against a
busy meddling class of people ; who made it a sort of
trade to give personal and particular application to
the general satire of writers for the stage.
Bourne. Your reference is in point, but I do not
wish to go more into the general question before we
have looked at the Answer to Heywood's Apology,
which was printed in 1615, three years afterwards,
and purports to be written by one J. G. It is long
and laboured, and the writer certainly took time
enough to compose his reply, though he professes to
treat Heywood with great contempt, as unworthy the
notice of " a Senior, or learned Clarke," but who
might be easily refuted " by some single witted or
illiterat Pupill."
Elliot. What is the title he gives it ?
Bourne. "A Refutation of the Apology for Actors,
divided into three breefe Treatises, kc. ; 1. Their
Heathenish and Diabolicall institution; l 2. Their an-
cient and moderne indignitie ; 3. The wonderful]
abuse of their impious qualitie." So that, from the
very title, vou can easily judge of the mode in which
the subject is discussed by this re-compounder of the
302 TENTH CONVERSATION.
abusive epithets, and retailer of the anathemas of the
puritans.
Morton. If he only goes over the old grounds in
the old style, we need not bestow much time upon
him.
Bourne. From beginning to end I do not think
he introduces a single new argument, or one new
fact ; indeed, all his illustrations are professedly
taken from Stubbes.
Elliot. And how he, and others like him, got
their perfect insight into all these horrid vices of
players and theatres, must remain a secret, unless
Ave conclude that their fathers were of Parmeno's
opinion in Terence's Eunuch.
Morton. That is, that frequenting their haunts,
and joining in all their enormities, was the best mode
of giving his son a disgust for them.
Bourne. J. (i. in his prefatory matter, and, indeed,
throughout, treats Heywood with infinite hauteur,
never condescending to name him, but always term-
ing him Mr. Actor, and telling him, that he means
" to give his Apologie such a Blurrc, that it shall
not be able, after never so much washing, to show
a cleane face againe." His first book, if we may so
call it, opens with an assertion (for mere assertion.^
are as useful to .1. G. as to his predecessors), that
God having created certain things for man's delight,
Sathan stepped in and perverted them to unlawful
pleasures, one of which was " vngodly and obscoene
TENTH CONVERSATION. 303
stage-playes, the most impious and most pernitious
of all other vnlawfull and artificial pleasures. "
Elliot. Exactly the old strain : I can see no
reason why we should trouble ourselves with re-
digesting these crudities.
Bourne. I will not require your patience for
more than a few sentences from the second division,
where a reply is attempted to the denial by Heywood
of the evil manners and vicious habits of all actors.
" And, therefore, (J. G. says) in vaine afterwards
doth M. Actor intreat for excuse, not to misdeeme
all for the misdeeds of some, seeing it is the generall
carriage of them all. It is a rule in Diuinity to
know a man's conditions and what hee is, by the
company hee doth vsually keepe. Now, if the best
of them were not licentious, why do they liue and
loue, accompany and play together with them
which are r Were it not madnesse for a man to be
his companion which is his daily reproch r But
Players all of them are licentious, for the proverb is
Birds of a Jeather Jlye together. And therefore if
they were not they would not associate them which
are, whom the Syteresis of their own consciences,
and the conscience of all men willeth to auoyd."
Elliot. " There is an air of plausibility (says
Burke in his Vindication of Natural Society) which
accompanies vulgar reasonings and notions taken
from the beaten circle of ordinary experience, that is
304 TENTH CONVERSATION,
admirably suited to the narrow capacities of some,
and to the laziness of others."
Bourne. In the third part is an attempt at logic
in a direct syllogism — nothing less than a syllogism,
stated thus. " Whatsoeuer is the Image of truth
is like vnto truth, for Images are said to be like
what they represent —
" But a Comedie is not like truth :
Ergo — It is not the Image of truth."
Morton*. There the whole question is assumed : he
takes it for granted that a Comedy is not like truth.
Bourne. I beg your pardon : he says, that he
establishes his assumption that a comedy is not like
truth, because " it is wholly composed of Fables and
Vanities — and Fables and Vanities are lyes and de-
ceipts, and lyes and deceipts are cleane contrary to
truth."
Elliot. A most sagacious and infallible rea-
soner ! Comedies are like truth precisely for the
cause he urges against them, for if they were not
fables, but realities, they would not be like truth,
but truth itself; nullum simile est idem. You may
very safely close the book.
Morton. J. G.'s syllogism reminds me of a ludi-
crous one I saw in that tract you showed us called
" Pap with a Hatchet" against Martin Marprelate
and his friends.
TENTH CONVERSATION. 305
" Tiburn stands in the cold,
But Martins are warm fur ;
Therefore Tiburn must be furred with Martins."
Bourne. One is as incontrovertible as the other;
only the last is intended for a joke, and the first for
a serious argument. As you are tired of J. G.'s an-
swer already, I may here just refer you, for I will do
very little more, to two or three books, where indeed
stage-plays are spoken of incidentally, but which
ought not to be wholly passed over in silence. — I know
that this is in some degree breaking through our
rule, but Heywood and his antagonist have occupied
less time than I expected, and what I am going to
offer will most likely not require more than a few
minutes.
Morton. At your discretion.
Bourne. The first book I shall mention is called
" A Sixe-fold Politician ; together with a Sixe-fold
Precept of Policy," 1609, which, perhaps, I should
have omitted, but that it is attributed by Warton to
Milton's father j but this is denied by Dr. Farmer
and others. The initials I. M. are subscribed to the
prefatory matter.
Elliot. There is surely some other ground on
which to rest so important a conclusion.
Bourne. There is, though it has never appeared
to me very satisfactory, and I apprehend you will
think the same. The commendatory poems are by
lo. Dauis, Gent., by I. S. Gent., and by T. P. : now
VOL. II. n
30G TENTH CONVERSATION.
the second of these opens with a pun upon the name
of the author —
" Thy tun (deare friend) of wit & liony nows brok
meaning Mel-tun or Milton; and if something of the
kind were not intended by I. S. Gent., it is not easy
to see why he begins with a line so uncouth.
Morton. I think I remember to have seen a
tract about that date, by a man of the name of Mel-
ton, which comes nearer the pun of I. S.
Bourne. There was a very inferior writer of that
name, and he was also called John ; but he was
quite incompetent to the work before us, which pos-
sesses force, originality, and some learning If it be
true that Milton's father was really the author of this
4to volume (the only 4to copy I have seen, though it
is met with in 8vo.), it gives an additional interest to
what he says in his third chapter " Of Poets."
Elliot. It seems probable that Milton's father
was no contemptible scholar, as his son addresses
him in one of his Latin poems. Does he speak in
favour of or against poets ?
Bourxe. Strongly against the lower order of poets
" who fashion their wits to the pleasing of a vaine
multitude and rabble of loose liners," though he
introduces a salvo, in parenthesis, in favour of
true " poetry and judicial poets."' He is sufficiently
strenuous in his attack upon theatrical representa-
TENTH CONVERSATION. 307
tions, which is the only part of the book I will now
read. " And as the enterludes may be tearmed the
Schoole-houses of vanitie and wantonnes, so these
are the Schoolemaisters thereof : and me thinks they
who have tasted of the sweete fountaine water run-
ning from their Academick mothers breasts, by
this, if nothing else, shold be deterred from their
scribbling profession, that they see their writings
and conceits sold at a comon doore to euery base
copanion for a penny. But most of their conceits
are too deere at that rate, and therefore may well bee
had in the same request that Tobacco is now, which
was wont to be taken of great gentlemen and gal-
lants, now made a frequent and familiar Companion
of euerye Tapster and Horse-Keeper. And their
conceits are likest Tobacco of any thing; for as that
is quickly kindled, makes a stinking smoake, and
quickly goes out, but leaves an inhering stinkc in the
nostrils and stomackcs of the takers, not to be
drawne out, but by putting in a worse sauour, as of
Onions and Garlick, (according to the prouerbe —
the smel of Garlicke takes away the stink of dung
hils,) so the writing of ordinarye Play-bookes,
Pamphlets, and such like, may be tearmed the
mushrum coceptions of idle braines ; most of them
are begotte ouer night in Tobacco and muld-sacke,
and vttered and deliuered to the world's presse
by the helpe and midwifery of a caudle the ti("\(
morning."
x 'I
308 TENTH CONVERSATION.
Morton. That is very good, but Bishop Hall
puts it better in one of his satires, and illustrates it
by a very apposite simile —
" With some pot -fury, ravisht from their wit
They sit and muse on some no-vulgar writ :
As frozen dunghills on a winters morn
That void of vapours seemed all beforn,
Soon as the sun sends out his piercing beams
Exhale out filthy smoke and stinking steams."
Elliot. Yet there is older authority for the con-
trary opinion,
" Nulla placere diu, neque vivere carmina possunt,
Qua; scribuntur aqua potoribfts."
Bourne. Here is a work in some respects of a
similar character to the last we looked at, and which
contains a vast variety of entertaining matter : there
were at least two editions of it, and this is the
second, which is the fullest and completest, The
title is this, " Essayes and Characters, ironical and
instructive, &c. : with a new Satyr in defence of
Common Law and Lawyers," &c. By John Ste-
phens the younger, of Lincolnes Inne, Gent. Lon-
don 1615. It contains a good deal of matter about
poetry and plays, and among others the following
sentence in favour of the productions for the stage :
" And never was in any nation (it may be boldly
spoken) that elegance and nature obserued in Play-
composures, which is inherent generally in our En-
TENTH CONVERSATION. 309
glish Writers at this day. So that \vc may inuert
the words of Plautus,
nunc nova; quce prodeunt Jabula
inulto sunt meliores qua nummi nostri:
And in Nature most equall to these writings Poetick
history approaches neerest : consisting in the same
degree of fancy and an inuention better furnished." I
did not take Stephens from the shelf, however, for
this opinion, which I did not recollect till I had opened
the book, but for two characters, as they are called,
or descriptions of persons representing a class.
Morton. This was a favourite style of writing at
that time — Bishop Hall's " Characterismes" were, I
believe, the first specimens.
Boubxe. With this difference, that Bishop Hall's
are characters of vices and virtues, and these of
individuals, but the one, unquestionably, grew out of
the other. You will see what I mean very clearly
presently. I will pass what Stephens says of " a
base, mercenary poet," and read a very curious and
shrewd description given by him of " A common
Player," observing first, that he draws a clear dis-
tinction between such a personage and the more
respectable members of that stigmatised profession.
Jle says : " A common Player is a slow Payor, seldom
a purchaser, neuer a Puritan. The statute hath done
wisely to acknowledge him a Rogue errant, for his
chiefe essence is a daily Counterfeit. He hath beene
310 TENTH CONVERSATION.
familiar so long with out-sides that he professes
himselfe (being vnknowne) to be an apparant Gentle-
man. But his thinne Felt, & his silke stockings., or
his foule Linnen and faire Doublet do (in him) bodily
reueale the Broker : So being not sutable he proues
a Motley: his mind, obseruing the same fashion of
his body, doth consist of parcell and remnants, but
his minde hath commonly the newer fashion and
the newer stuffe; he Avould not else hearken so pas-
sionately after new Tunes, new-Tricks, new Deuises.
.... Hee doth conieeturc somewhat strongly, but
dares not commend a playes goodnes till he hath
either spoken or heard the Epilogue; neither dares
he entitle good things good, vnlesse he be heartened
on by the multitude : till then he saith faintly what
he thinks, with a willing purpose to recant or per-
sist. . . . The cautions of his iudging humor (if he
dares vndertake it) be a certaine number of saweie
rude iests against the common lawyer ; handsome
conceits against fine Courtiers ; delicate quirkes
against the rich Cuckold, a Citizen; shadowed
glaunce for good innocent Ladies & Gentlewomen,
with a nipping skoife for some honest Justice who
hath imprisoned him, or some thriftie Trades-man
who hath allowed him no credit; always remem-
bered his object is A nexv play or A flay newlu
retimed. . . .To be a player is to have a milhridate
against the pestilence ; for players cannot tarry
where the plague raignes & therefore they be seldome
TENTH CONVERSATION. 311
infected. ... In the prosperous fortune of a play
frequented, he proues immoderate, and falles into a
Drunkards paradise, till it be last no longer — Other-
Avise when aduersities come they come together, for
Lent & Shrove tuesday be not far asunder ; then he
is deiected daily and weekly. . . . Reproofe is ill be-
stowed vpon him ; it cannot alter his conditions : he
hath been so accustomed to the scorne and laughter
of his audience that he cannot be ashamed of him-
self e.''
Elliot. It is a severe and a most illiberal attack:
it shows the degraded condition of the theatre at the
time, and that players had no redress against such
assailants.
Morton. Stephens writes as if he were under the
feeling of personal enmity : had he any cause of that
kind?
Bourne. I dare say not, but it is his keen sen-
tentious way : a little further on he adds, " Ilee is
politick also to perceiue that the common-wealth
doubts of his licence, and therefore in spite of Parlia-
ments or Statutes he incorporates himselfe by the
title of a brotherhood. Painting and fine cloths may
not for the same reason be called abusiue, that players
.may not be called rogues: For they be chiefe orna-
ments of his Maiesties ReueUs. I need not multiplie
his character, for boyes and euery one wil no sooner
see men of this Faculty walke along but they will
(vnasked) informe you what he is by the vulgar title.
Elliot. That puts one in mind of the anecdote of
312 TENTH CONVERSATION,
Foote, after whom a chimney-sweeper, in derision,
cried " Player-man, player-man!" " You see (said
Foote to a friend), how we are esteemed."
Hoc kxe. Very good : Stephens, however, makes
a distinction in his censure. " Yet (he adds) in the
generall number of them many may deserue a wise
mans commendation, and therefore did I prefix an
Epithite of common, to distinguish the base and artless
appendants of our citty companies, which oftentimes
start away into rustic-all wanderers and then (like
Proteus) start backe again into the citty number."
Morton. One of which " city number" we may
recollect Heywood was, for he addresses the city
actors as his " good friends and fellows,"
Bourne. Mr. G. Chalmers, in his " Supplemental
Apology," speaking of the year 16 c 25, states it as a
curious fact, that at this epoch actors belonging to
established companies of London often strolled into
the country j but from Stephens it appears that,
at least, particular members of the u brotherhood"
made excursions of the kind much earlier. The
whole character gives one a good deal of insight
into the management of theatrical concerns, and the
habits of players at that time, though not very im-
partially written. The same may be said of a dra-
matic production, obviously never acted, but printed
by Th. Thorp, in 1(510, under the title of " Histrio-
mastix or the Player whipt;" but most of the par-
ticulars have been gleaned by Malone and his co-
ndjutors.
TENTH CONVERSATION 313
Morton. From this play, I suppose, Prynne took,
the title of his massive quarto.
Bourne. Most likely. It is observable that the
drama is divided into six acts, and the principal
characters consist of Betch, Gutt, and others, com-
mon players, with the poet belonging to their com-
pany called Post-hast, who is represented as an ex-
temporal versifier : these persons betray all kinds of
vulgarity and resort to the lowest artifices to obtain
a living ; their actions are moralized upon by Chris-
oganus, a worthy but neglected scholar, in A. III.
in lines beginning thus :
" Write on, crie on, yawle to the common sort
Of thickskind auditours ! such rotten stuffs
More tit to fill the paunch of Esquiline,
Then feed the hearings of iudiciall cares.
Ye shades tryumpe while foggy Ignorance
Clouds bright Apollos beauty ! Time will cleare
The misty dullness of Spectators Keys ;
Then wofull hisses to your fopperies!"
Morton. And that time did arrive not very long
afterwards. What is the result ? How does the
author finish his piece ?
Bourne. The object is to expose the national
miseries and private vices arising out of theatrical
performances ; and a portion of " Histrio-mastix"
partakes of the nature of an old morality, Peace and
Plenty, with Virtue, &c. being, in the opening, exiled
314 TENTH CONVERSATION.
from the land by Pride, Envy, War, 8cc. At the end,
the players are shipped off for some distant country,
and then the first and welcome occupants of the soil
return. A long and fulsome compliment to Eliza-
beth as Astrcea at the end, shows that the piece
was written before her death.
Elliot. Does it not contain some allusions to the
poets of the timer Has Post-hast, the poet, no par-
ticular reference r
Bourne. I fancy not; at least I can trace none of
the descriptions given of him to any writer of that
day. In the early part of the production is the sub-
secpient passage, which, I take it, refers to an ex-
pression of Marston :
" How you translating seholler? You can make
A stabbing Satir or an Epigram,
And thinke you carry iust Ramnusias whippe!"
Morton. You mean in the Proemium to the first
book of Marston's satires ; two lines which I re-
collect you read ;
" I beare the scourge of just Rhamvusia
Lashing the lewdness of Britannia."
Bourne. I do. I may not improperly introduce
here a biographical fact, which I omitted when John
Marston and his satires were particularly under our
consideration.
Elliot. Is it any additional confirmation of the
hypothesis, that late in life he went into the church,
or became a preacher ?
TENTH CONVERSATION. 315
Bourne. No : it is the existence of a production
by him, among the royal MS. (18 A. XXXI.) not
noticed by any bibliographers, under the following
title, " The Argument of the Spectacle presented to
the sacred Maiestys of Great Brittan and Denmark
as they Passed through London." At the end it is
subscribed in the hand-writing of the author.
Moktox. That is a curiosity of great interest,
especially as it has hitherto remained unknown. I
suppose it is a kind of pageant written for the city.
Bourn'k. You are right: the following descriptive
introduction is preceded by a short Latin address to
the Recorder of London — " The Sceane or Pageant
of triumph presented it selfe in this figure. In the
middst of a vaste Sea, compassed with rocks, ap-
peared the Hand of Great Brittaine, Supported on
the one side by Xeptune, w th the force of Shippes,
on the other vulcan with power of lorne, and the
comoditys of Tinn, Lead, and other Mineralls —
Ouer the Hand Concord, Supported by Piety and
Pollcey, satt inthroand: the boddy of it thus shappt,
the life of it thus spake ; whilst the Tritons in the
sea sounded musique, the Mermaids singing then in
a Cloud Concord discending and landing on the
cragg of a rock spake thus."
Elliot. These city pageants, from the accounts
we read of them in our historians, were tedious
mythological exhibitions ; worse than the feasts made
up from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the time of the
316 TENTH CONVERSATION.
author of the World, where a gingerbread Poly-
phemus destroyed a frozen Acis with a sugar-plum
rock.
Morton. That was a display of the same pedantic
taste without the same excuses of recently acquired
knowledge and splendid exhibition. What does
Concord say ? — flattery of course.
Bourne. Yes, but I am sorry to say that all the
speeches arc in Latin, and with some propriety when
we recollect that the show was constructed mainly
to gratify a foreign King, who did not understand a
word of English. It has one merit not always be-
longing to these pageants, viz. that it is short, and
it concludes exactly in the following manner :
" Sic o Sic siat lecto exultate triumpho
Terrajerax, marc jliictisonum, resonabilis Ecclio,
Viuant ceternum, vinant via numinajr aires
Vivant Vivant.
The vmblest servant
of yo 1 ' sacred majesty
John Marston."
Morton. Being in Latin, it is not of the same
value to us as if it had been in English; stiil it is
a little surprising that all who of late years have been
employed in investigating the lives and works of our
old poets, should have omitted to mention it.
Bourne. The fact is worth knowing, though its
importance may not be very great. The King of
TENTH CONVERSATION. 317
Denmark visited this country in 1606, and Sir John
Harington gives some ludicrous details regarding
his entertainment and conduct at the Court. AVe
will now return to our subject. I shall not bring
before you Sir YV. Vaughan, author of the " Golden
Grove," 1608, and of the " Golden Fleece," 1626,
because he only refers to stage-plays en passant, and
is one of the most moderate of their opponents, ob-
serving that the fault lies as much in the hearers as
in the thing heard, and lamenting that the spectators
at a comedy were . not endued with discretion to
discern gold from alchymy.
Elliot. In his Critique de V Ecole des Femmes Mo-
liere very well observes of nice-nosed fault-finders,
II f aid done que pour les ordures vous ayez des lumieres
que les autres n'ont pas : this was precisely the case
with the Puritans, who, because they had peculiar
organs that received only what was vicious, and re-
jected what was good, denounced plays altogether.
Morton. The publisher of the old edition of Mas-
singer's " City Madam," shrewdly says of plays, " in
a word they are mirrors or glasses, which none but
deformed faces, and fouler consciences fear to look
into." This was probably another reason why these
curvcv animcc objected to them.
Bourne. Old liurton, Democritus junior, how-
ever rugged in his life, was not so austere in his
notions as to object to them : on the contrary, in his
" Anatomy of Melancholy," first printed, I believe,
318 TENTH CONVERSATION'.
in 1621, he says, that " opportunely and soberly vsed,
they may be iustly approued," however " heauily
censured by some seuere Catoes."
Elliot. Alluding probably to Martial's Epigram
(L.II.E. 1.)
Cur in Theatrum, Cato severe, venisti?
An ideo tantum id exire.s.
Bouknk. We are now at length arrived at what
has been deemed an epoch in the history of the stage;
the publication of that work, which may be con-
sidered as the more immediate cause of the closing
of the theatres. I allude to this thick, closely printed,
and most tedious 4to. Prynne's Histrio-mastix. " The
Players Scovrge or Actors Tragedie," 163S.
Elliot. So that when writing against the stage
and all its appurtenances, he is guilty of the absurdity
of calling his own production a Tragedy .
Morton. And what is more, he divides it into acts
and scenes instead of into chapters and sections.
Bourne. You will find it a task completely in
vain to attempt to enter into the precise contents
of such a voluminous production, embracing the
resolutions, as the author says, of 55 Synods ; the
opinions of 71 Fathers and Christian Writers before
A. D. 1200; 40 Heathen Philosophers, &c. besides
English statutes, and the decisions of Magistrates,
Universities, Writers, Preachers, &c. &c.
Elliot. And all for the purpose.! see, of showing,
TENTH CONVERSATION. 319
" that popular Stage-plays are sinful, heathenish,
levvde, vngodly spectacles, and most pernicious cor-
ruptions." I wonder how many times Prynne went
to the theatre, or how many plays he read to qualify
him to judge of their wickedness or excellence.
Morton. That is a question which he might find
some difficulty in deciding himself — perhaps very
few, perhaps none at all 5 for with a singular facility
of conviction he takes all that had been said by earlier
writers against the stage for granted, proceeding as
if upon the mere notoriety of the abuse. It is said
that the work was seven years in hand ; three in
writing, and four in printing: the author encountered
many preliminary difficulties, besides the subsequent
punishment of pillory, loss of ears, imprisonment,
&c. which to this stanch Puritan in such a cause,
were " trifles light as air."
Bocrxe. Besides his main point, he touches upon
a great number of others incidentally ; such as the
horrible crime of men disguising themselves as wo-
men to play parts upon the stage. The period when
women first appeared upon the public boards is one
of some curiosity. Thomas Jordan, once a player
at the Red Bull Theatre, published about the date of
the Restoration, or a little afterwards, a small book
called " A Rosary of Rarities planted in a garden of
Poetry," which contains a prologue to introduce the
first woman that ever came to act on the stage, in
the tragedy of the Moor of Venice. The epilogue
is also to be found there, as well as an epilogue
320 TENTH CONVERSATION
spoken by a woman in the character of the Tamer,
a play altered from Fletcher's " Womans Prize."
Mortox. Among Waller's poems is " a Prologue
for the Lady Actors/' spoken before Charles II.
Bourne. I was going to add, that it is worth
while to observe how rapidly this most important
theatrical revolution was effected, because the epi-
logue spoken by the Tamer was delivered, as .Jordan
expressly says, on June 9,4, 1660, being within less
than a month after Charles II. entered London.
Elliot. And this woman in the part of the
Tamer was not the first who had appeared on the
stage, because the first had previously come out
in the Moor of Venice, I conclude in the part of
Desdemona.
Morton. The precise date of that representation
is not given. — As a mere conjecture one may say,
perhaps, that much of the coarseness and obscenity
of our old plays may be attributed to the fact, that as
there were no women on the stage, the authors and
actors had only the audience to restrain them in their
sallies.
Bourne. I doubt whether there is any thing in
that observation, since we all know that after the
Restoration and after women became players, the
coarseness of the plays of the old English school
was exchanged for the most extravagant grossness
and indelicacy.
Elliot. It has often struck me, as far as mv
knowledge enables me to judge, that there is a clear
TENTH CONVERSATION. 321
distinction between the offensive parts of the one and
the other : in the old school, the indelicacy was any
thing but seductive • it was intended merely as a
joke, and with the joke its effect terminated ; in the
French school of Charles II. on the contrary, the
object of the indecency was to provoke and incite,
and vice was rendered amiable by an odious in-
genuity. It had indeed sometimes a thin semi-
transparent covering, but it was like the silken robe
of Alcina, the intervention of which between Rue-
giero and the object of his desires, inflamed his pas-
sions and animated his efforts.
Come Ruggiero abbracio lei, gli cesse
II mania, e resto il vel sottile e rado.
Che non copria dinanzi, ne di dietro
Piu die le rose, o i gigli tin chiaro veiro.
(C. VII.)
Bourne. I am inclined to concur in your observa-
tion. But I must now hasten to a conclusion, as I
have two pieces yet to show you, well meriting
notice ; the first is this very large sheet like a post-
ing-bill, or rather, a posting-bill itself, and signed
by the author of the ponderous volume before you,
William Prynne.
Morton*. He seems to have been anxious that it
should be seen : what is it ?
Bourne. It is a denial, on his part, that he had
VOL. II. V
322 TENTH CONVERSATION.
recanted any of the opinions there stated : it is but
short, and we shall best understand it by reading it.
"THE VINDICATION
" of William Prynne, Esquire, from some scandalous
Papers and imputations newly printed and published
to traduce and defame him in his reputation.
" Whereas a scandalous Paper have been newly
printed and published in my name bv some of the
imprisoned Stage-Players, or agents of the army, in-
tituled, Mr. William Prynne, his Defence of Stage-
Playcs, or a retraction of a former booke of his,
called His Triomastix, of purpose to traduce and
defame me, I do hereby publicly declare to all the
world the same to be a nice re Forgery and imposture,
and that my judgement and opinion concerning Stagc-
Playes, and the Common Actors of them, and their in-
tolerable mischeivousnesse in every Christian State,
is still the same as I have more amply manifested it
to be in my Histriomastix," K.c. (Vc.
William Prynne.''
" From the King's Head in the Strand,
Jan. 10, 1648. "'
Mohtox. Have you ever seen that " mere forgery
and imposture," Prynne' s Defence of Stage-plays?
Bourxe. Never : it would be well worth reading,
as it would no doubt contain much entertaining mat-
ter. The important fact communicated in this pub-
TENTH CONVERSATION. 323
lie notice lists not, that I am aware of, been noticed
by any of the biographers of Frynne. I have a right,
therefore, to presume, that the document is a rarity
of some curiositv.
Elliot. Certainly ; but the series would be com-
plete, if, by any accident, you could meet with a copy
of this spurious Defence.
Bourxe. It would ; but I have met with a tract
of no inconsiderable value on the question we are
now examining, and which has never been in the
hands of any of our theatrical historians.
Mortox. They have been so numerous and so
industrious a body, that one would think it difficult
to glean after them witli any success.
Bolrne. We will not discuss their merits, as we
have not much time to spare, and what I now pre-
sent to you is longer than Frynne's Froclamation.
Its date ought to have entitled it to a place before
what we last read, but it would have been inconve-
nient to have introduced it there : it was published
" Januar. 24, lo"43" very soon after all the theatres
were closed by the influence of the puritans. The
title is this — " The Actors Remonstrance, or Com-
plaint for the silencing of their profession and banish-
ment from their severall Flay-houses. In wlffi h is
fully set downe their grievances for the restraint :
especially since Stage-Flaves onlv, of all publicke
recreations, are prohibited ; the exercise at the Ilea res
Colledge, and the motions of Puppets, being still in
v "2
3'24 TENTH CONVERSATION.
force and vigour. As it was presented in the name.-?
and behalfes of all our London Comedians to the
great God Phoebus Apollo, and the nine Heliconian
Sisters on the top of Parnassus, by one of the Mas-
ters of Requests to the Muses, for this present month.
And published by their command in print by the
Typograph Royall of the Castalian Province, 16-13.
London, printed for Edw. Nickson."
Morton. It seems a sort of serious joke — a good-
natured endeavour to overcome the animosity of the
enemies of theatrical amusements.
Bourne. That is its character, though it com-
plains of several grave evils and acute sufferings. The
name of the author or authors is a matter out of the
question. After setting forth various calamities, the
petitioners thus address Apollo. " First, it is not
unknowne to all the audience that have frequented
the private houses of Black-Friers, the Cock Pit, and
Salisbury-Court, without austerity, we have purged
our stages from all obscene and scurrilous jests, such
as might either be guilty of corrupting the manners,
or defaming the persons of any men of note in the
City or Kingdome ; * * that wee have left off our
own parts, and so have commanded our servants to
forget that ancient custome, which formerly rendered
men of our quality infamous, namely, the inveigling
in young Gentlemen, Merchants, Factors, and Pren-
tizes, to spend their patrimonies and Masters estates
upon us and our Harlots in Tavernes ; we have
TENTH CONVERSATION. 325
cleane and quite given over the borrowing money
at first sight of punie gallants, or praysing their
swords, belts, and beavers, so to invite them to
bestow them upon us."
Elliot. It admits, in fact, some of the principal
charges against those connected with theatrical per-
formances.
Bourxe. They were not to be denied. It after-
wards complains of the " perpetuall, at least very
long temporary silence'' imposed upon Actors " to
the impoverishment and utter undoing of themselves,
wives, children, and dependants," while the " beast-
bnesse of the Beare-Garden," and senseless puppet-
plays were continued, instancing a most attractive
one of Bell and the Dragon, exhibited the preceding
Christmas at Holborn Bridge. It will only be ne-
cessary to read one passage more from it, which
speaks of the unhappy situation of play-poets, in con-
sequence of the closing of the theatres ; and this
quotation will conclude our inquiries into this sub-
ject. " For some of our ablest ordinarie Poets, in-
stead of their annual stipends and beneficial second-
dayes, being for meere necessitie compelled to get a
living by writing contemptible penny pamphlets, in
which they have not so much as poetical licence to
use any attribute of their profession, but that of Qui
lihet audendi, and faining miraculous stories and re-
lations of unheard-of battels. Nay, it is to be feared,
that shortly some of them (if they have not been
326" TENTH CONVERSATION.
forced to do it already), will be incited to enter
themselves into Mar I'm barker's Societie, and write
ballads. And what a shame this is, great Phtebus,
and you sacred Sisters, for your uwnc priests thus
to be degraded of their ancient dignities. Be your-
selves righteous Judges, when those who formerly
have sung with such elegance the acts of Kings and
Potentates, charming, like Orpheus, the dull and
brutish multitude, scarce a degree above stones and
forrests, into admiration, though not into under-
standing with their divine raj .arcs, shall be by that
tyrant Necessitie reduced to such abject exigents,
wandring like grand-children of old Erra Paters,
those learned Almanack-makers, without any Mae-
cenas to cherish their loftie conceptions, prostituted
by the mis-fortune of our silence, to inexplicable
miseries, having no heavenly Castalian Sack to ac-
tuate and inform their spirits almost confounded with
stupiditie and coldness, by their frequent drinking,
(and glad too they can get it) of fulsome Ale, and
heretical Beere, as their usnail beverage."
Morton. Martin Barker, mentioned in the quota-
tion you just read, was a most notorious ballad scrib-
bler — the Will Klderton of the reign of Charles I.
and the Protectorate. — Having finished this inquire,
upon what do we enter to-morrow?
Bourne. This examination of the tracts, for and
against theatrical representations, will very fitly in-
troduce the subject, of which we were speaking a
TENTH CONVERSATION. 3 L 2~
few days ago ; an investigation of the state of the
stage before the date when Shakespeare began to
write for it.
Elliot. A very interesting topic, upon which I
confess myself almost wholly ignorant.
Thus terminated the first ten days' conversations
between the three friends : the discussions were con-
tinued to the end of the fortnight, to which the visit
of Morton and Elliot was originally intended to be
limited, but when the period lived for departure ar-
rived, the weather continued so beautiful, the river
and the country near it so delightful, and the oc-
cupation in the library so agreeable, that the guests
were easily prevailed upon to prolong their stay, and
to continue their inquiries.
INDEX.
Vol. Pago
Muses stript and whipt, by George Wither ii. 22
Specimens., ii. 27, 28, 30, 41, 42, 43
Actors Remonstrance, the, 1643 ii. 323
Actresses, when first allowed, proved from Jordan's
" Rosary of Rarities" ii. 3 1 J)
JEneid of Virgil, translated by Vicars, quoted i. 112
AJJ'anicv, 1601 , by C. FitzgeffVey, the authors mentioned
in i. 12
Alarum against Usurers, by T. Lodge ii. 223
described ii. 267
Alcilia, Philoparthen's Loving Folly, 1619 ii. 112
quotations from ii. 1 18, 119
Allot, Robert, his claim to the compilation of "Englands
Parnassus," 1 600 i. 17
Amos and Laura, the Loves of, 1619, dedicated to Iz.
Walton ii. 110
Quotations from ii. 111,113,114
Ant and the Nightingale of Father Hubberd's Tales
quoted in reference to Spenser i. 100
Apology for Actors, by T. Heywood, referred to i. 125
quoted ii. 288, 290, 2,91, 293, 299
Refutation of the, by J. G. 1615 .. ii. 301
Apology of Poetry, by Sir P. Sidney, Constable's Son-
nets before ii. 1 04
■ ■ Edw. Wootton mentioned in ii. 107
by Sir J. Harington alluded to ... . ii. 288
Apolonius and Silla, a novel, by B. Rich, on which
Shakespeare founded his Twelfth Night, examined. . ii. 146
330 INDEX.
Vol. Pago
Arcadia, Sir P. Sidney's, mentioned i. (>'.'■, C7
Sonnet omitted in i- (>6
Arraignment of Paris, by G. Peele, song from i. 12.S
As you I, ike it, compared with T. Lodge's "Rosalynde" ii. 170
Ascham, Roger, cited on the taste for Italian L'oetn . . i. 81
against rhyme in English i. 92
Ashe, James, quotation in blank verse from his Eliza-
belha Triumpiians, 1 588 i. i 2(>
Ass, The Nobleness of the, 1595, examined i. 1CM
• the admirable properties of the animal i. 1 09
■ its most melodious voice i. 170
Authors, self-delusion of, as to their fame i. 4G
Banlces'' horse, curious tract relating to, called " Ma-
roccus Extaticus," 1 5!)5 i. 1 63
• quotations from it i. 164, 1C5
• fate of Bankes and his horse i. ]ft6
Barkstead, Will, his " Myrrha the .Mother of Adonis". . i. 237
Barnes, Barnabe, his " Parthenophil and Parthenophe,"
dedicated to Will. Percy, referred to i. 13
his " Four Books of OHices," 1006,
noticed, and a question regarding two editions of it i. 14
. ■ Madrigal, by W. Perry. . i. 15
Barry, Lod. his " Ram Alley" quoted ii. 27, 284
Bastard, Thos. Epigrams from his Chrestoleros, I5S8 . . i. 19!)
on Sir II. Woottou ii. 108
on Fishing ii. ib.
on Dr. Eeds, Dean of Wor-
cester ii. 120
— on Dr. Reynolds ii, 254
■ — — — on Swearing on the Stage. ... ii. 255
Beard, Tho. his Theatre of God's Judgments i. 128
cited regarding Marlow ii. 273
— doubt if he were not the translator of " the
French Academy" ii. ib.
Belvedere, the Garden of the Muses, by Bodcnham .... i. 228
Jitank verse, Peele's " Farewell to Norris and Drake,"
a specimen of i. 57
INDEX. 331
Vol. Page
Blank verse, inquiry into the origin of undramatic i- 88
early specimens of i. 94 to 144, ii. 231
Blenerluisset, Tho. a writer of blank verse in " the
Mirror for Magistrates" i. 102
■ his recommendation to hunt clown the Irish
Kernes i. 105
Blessed Birth-day, by Fitzgeffrey, specimen of i. 71
Boccacio, his novel of Titus and Gisippus ii. 79
■ early English translations of his Decameron., ii. 196
Bodenham, John, mention of his " Belvedere," 1600 .. i. 228
Bramins, etymology of ii. 204
■ their plays ii. 205
Brat/iwiii/le, It. his " Strappado for the Devil," 1615,
quoted i. 70
— — his " Time's Curtain drawn," &c. 1621 , and
imitations ii. 54
• quotations from it ii. 5 4, 55, 57
1 1 is " Health from Helicon," with a specimen ii. 59
Breton, N. said to have written blank verse i. 1 1 8
. i; Cornu-cophe, Pasquil's Night-cap," assigned
to him i- 329
. his " Pasquil's Pass and Passeth not" quoted . . i. ib.
. " 'Tis merry when Gossips meet," 1602, perhaps
his i. 330
. his ' ; Mad World my Masters," account of and
extia.-ts from i. Mi 1 , SMJ, 333, 335
poem by him in Hind's " Eliosto Libidinoso" .. ii. 8
MS. poem by him in praise of Virtue, Wisdom,
;■<■ ii. 10
Bright burning Beacon, &c. 1580, by Abr. Fleming .. i. 116
Broughton, Rowland, his poem on the Marq. of Win-
chester ii. 125
Bnjsket, Pod. his claim to the poem of the " Mourning
Muse of Thestylis" considered i. 98
his " Discourse of civil Life" 1 606 i- 99
Bucke, Paul, his " Three Lords and three Ladies of
London," 1 590 ii. 294
Burgh, Sir John, It. Markham's poem on the death of., ii. 100
Burtons " Anatomy of Melancholy" quoted ii. 3 1 7
.'33"2 INDEX.
Vol. Page
Campion, Tho. " Obs. in the Art of English Poesy" cited i. 1 IB
Castilws Courtier, translated by Sir T. Hobby i. 242
Chalmers, Mr. G. Life of Thomas Churchyard, and
omission in it ii. 73
Ills mistake regarding Sunday plays ii. 244
point in his Supplemental Apology corrected. . ii. 3 1 2
Chamberlain, Robert, Epitaph on C. Fitzgeffrey from
his ' Nocturnal Lucubrations," I6'38 '• 72
Chapman, George, his attack in his Zzinvvxlo; upon
hypercritical readers i. 6'
his dislike of commendatory verses i. H
his " Epicede on the Death of Prince Henry,"
16' 12, observed upon i- 24
■ — his praise of the long verse, monosyllables and
English, in the address before his translation of
Homer i. 35
his inconsistency; his " Seven Books of Ho-
mer," 1598, and in his " Achilles Shield"
, his success in compound epithets
supposed envy of his contemporaries ....
" Hymn to Hymen," 1 6' I 3, quoted . . ....
. on the word " swagger"
his "Justification of Nero," and translation
of Juvenal, Sat. 5. examined ii. 60
specimen of ii. G.'?
38
39
ib.
13a
291
Chaucer, Geoffry, his " Man of Law's Tale" quoted
" Merchant's Tale" i. ib.
Chinese, plays of the, from Parke's History of China,
] 588 ii- 202
the argument of one ii. 203
Chrestoleros, by T. Bastard, quoted i. 199, ii. 108,120,254,25.")
Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, by Tho. Nash '.
Church of evil Men, &c. 1 50!), printed by Pynson ....
Churchill, Charles, his " Rosciad" quoted
Churchyard, Thomas, his praise of the English tongue.,
■ account of him by G. Chalmers
his " Misery of Elanders, Calamity of
France," &c. 1579
quotations from it
. 11.
2(j 9
. ii.
207
. ii.
32
i.
37
73
74
i. 70
, 78
INDEX. 333
Vol. Page
Churchyard, Tlio. lines by regarding Scotland ii. 85
■ on " the Blessed State of England" ii. 86'
his " True Discourse historical," relating
to the Netherlands ii. 88
quoted regarding the death of Sir P. Sidney ii. 142
recognition of Spenser's allusion ii. 89
his praise of poetry, 1596* ii. 103
City Madam, by Massinger, referred to ii. 269
Commendatory poems censured by G. Chapman i. g
Compound epithets of Fitzgeffrey, on the i. 33
of Chapman i. 39
Constable, Henry, his four Sonnets to the Soul of Sir P.
Sidney before " the Apology of Poetry," 1595 ... ii. 104
Cookery Book, old, called " Epulario" ii. 71
Cornu-copicB, Pascpiil's night-cap, assigned to N. Breton i. 329
Country-life praised in " The Return of the Knight of
the Post," 1606 i. 219
Courtship, the art of, from N. Breton's " Mad World
my Masters" i, 333
Cowley, Abr. his ]\ r uvfi-agium Joculare, perhaps founded
on a passage in 11. Junius's " Drunkard's Cha-
racter" i. §7
his '' Guardian." afterwards called " Cutter of
Colman-street," referred to ii. 300
Curan and Argentile, 1617, by William Webster i. 264
Daniel, Sam. applauded by Fitzgeffrey in his " Drake" i. 32
, Drayton, Jonson, Chapman, Sylvester, &c ii. 48
Dante, on the word Tragedy ii. 91
Decker and Middleton's " Roaring Girl" quoted i. 20
Deer-stealing a crime committed by players, &c ii. 257
Dibdin, the Rev. T. F. his edition of Ames, mistake in it ii. 85
his account of Walter's " Titus
and Gisippus" ii. 80
Dolarney's Primrose, 1606, plagiarism from Hamlet in . ii. 16
— quotation from it ii. 17
Donne, Dr. the oldest English poetical Satirist i. 1 53
Proof that his three first satires were written
before 1593 >. 155
:m index.
Vol. Page
Donne, Dr. Doubts as to the printing of his poems .... i. 150'
Variations between the MS. ami printed eopy of
his satires, 1633 i. I 59
Allusions in the satires to temporary matters ... i. ib.
his '• Progress of the Soul" quoted on Fishing., ii. 108
Dorastus and Fawnia, by It Greene, compared with
Shakespeare's Winter's Tale u. 177
([noted ii. 181, 186, 188, 189
Donee's Illustrations of Shakespeare, note in on Usury ii. 270
Douland, John, quotation from his" Musical Banquet,"
1010 i. 16!
specimen of verse from his " Introduction
containing the Art of Singing," 10(). f ) i. 163
Drake, Sir Francis, Fitzgeff'rey's poem on the death of i. 6
Drake, Dr. his " Shakespeare.' and his Times" mentioned ii. IS
■ referred to ii. 135
Drant, Tho. his " Medieinable Moral," 1 556 i. 197
Drayton, Mich, applause of, by FitzgefTrey in his
« Drake" i. 32
epistle to, by Tho. Lodge i. 185
a poem called " The Metamorphosis of To-
bacco," 160', dedicated to i. 188
Drinking excused, by It. Bratlwayte, in his Health
from Helicon ii. 58
Drunkard's Character, by It. Junius, plagiarism in,
from Feltham's " Resolves" i. 25
Earthquake of 6th April, 1580, list of writers upon the i. 1 17
, Fleming's tract upon the i. 116
Ends, Dr. It. Dean of Worcester, an epigrammatist .... ii. 120
Elegiac Poems on the great, why freqently iullateil .... i. 24
Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606, by John Hind, account of ... ii. 5
Elizabetha Triumphant, by J. Aske, quotation from ... i. 126
Elizabeth, Queen, her " Entertainment by the Earl of
Hertford," in 1591, blank verse in i. 13:1, 134
, a writer of blank vi rse ii. 23 1
Elliot, Sir T. quotation from his " Governor" relating
to Titus and Gisippus ii. 84
Emperor of the East, Massinger's, quoted ii. 36
INDEX. 335
Vol. Page
England's Parnassus, by whom compiled i. 17
lines in, by Sir J. Harington, attributed to J.
Weever i. 18
Fitzgeffrey's " Drake" often quoted in i. ib.
long quotation in, from Lodge's tale of For-
bonius and Prisceria ii. 282
English language, Chapman's praise of the i. 35
Churchyard's praise of the i. 37
English Mirror, 1586, by G. Whetstone, quoted ii. 32
Envy, character of ii. 32
Ephemerides of Phialo, by Stephen Gosson ii. 219
Epulario, or the Italian Banquet, quoted ii. 71
Essays and Characters 1615, by John Stephens ii. 308
Essex, Lord, specimen of a song by, in Douland's
" Musical Banquet," 16 10 i. 161
Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, by J. Lilly ii. 169
Fairy Queen, speech of, to Queen Elizabeth, in blank
verse i. 134
by Edm. Spenser, quoted i. 170
■ Warton's opinion regarding the rhyme
of i. 92
Fardle of Fashions, 1 555, by W. Watreman ii. 202
— on the plays of the Bramins and interludes ii. 204, 205
Farewell to Sir J. \ orris and Sir F. Drake, by G.
Peele i. 54, 56, 58
Farewell to Military Profession, by B. Rich, 1606 .... ii. J34
— first printed between 1578 and 1581 ii. 136
quotations from it ii. 138, 146, 151, 152, 153, 156,
157, 158, 161, 163
omitted in all lists of Rich's productions .... ii. 145
Feltham, Owen, plagiarism, by R. Junius, from his
" Resolves" i. 25
Female Actors, when first allowed ii. 3 I; \)
the " Rosary of Rarities," by Jordan,
quoted, regarding ii. ib.
Fenner, Dudley, his " Song of Songs," 15*7 i. 308
Field, John, his " Godly Exhortation" regarding the
accident at Paris Garden, in 1 583 ii. 242
on the abolition of plays on Sunday ii. 243
336 INDEX.
Vol. Page
Fig for Momus, by Tho. Lodge, examined i. 171
Fisherman s Tale, the, &c. by F. Sabie i. 136
Fitz<'effrey, Charles, his poem on the death of Sir
Francis Drake, 1 596' i. 6
. article in the British Bibliographer re-
garding i. 7
quotation from the preface cf it i. II
authors mentioned in his Affania:, 1601 . . i. 12
■ his claim to the compilation of " England's
Parnassus," 1600 i. 17
satirical stanza, before Storer's " Life of
Wolsey." 1 599 i. 19
his motive for writing his " Drake" i. 20
_* prefatory Sonnet to it quoted i. 21
his youth and boldness in the undertaking. . i. 21
. specimens from his " Drake" i. 23, 30, 31
his address to English Navigators i. '2H
— _ his applause of Spenser, Daniel, and Drayton i. 32
■ his praise of writers for the stage i. 41
his " Blessed Birth-day," quoted i. 71
sermons by him on Sir A. Rous, &c i. ib.
Epitaph by It. Chamberlain on the death
of Fitzgefl'rey, in 1 636 i- 72
Fleming, Abr. a writer of blank verse in his Bucolics and
Georgics of Virgil, 1 589 i. 105
specimens of his translation i. 106', 108, 109
his relation of " A strange and terrible
"Wonder, cScc. in the parish church of Bongay," &c.
1 577, with extracts i. 114
. his " Bright burning Beacon" on the earth-
quake of I 580, and poetical specimen i. 1 16'
mention in it of 8 other writers on the same
subject i- 117
, . his work " of English Dogs," 1576, with a
" Prosopopoical speech of the Book" i. 194,195
Foote, Samuel, the player, anecdote of ii. 31!
Fortescue, Tho. his "Forest, or Collection of Histories, "
1571, quoted '• '7 1
incident similar to one in " All's well that
ends well "■ ' ! '''
INDEX. 33
Vol. Pago
Four Books of Offices, I606, by 13. Barnes i. 14
Freeman, Tho. his Epigrams quoted regarding Dr.
Donne i. 158
French Academy, the ii. 27 1
Puritanical libels in ii. ib.
quotation from, probably regarding-
G Marlow ii. 274
■ R. Greene ii. 276
T. Lodge ii. 278
— ■ S. Gosson ii, ib.
Funebria Flora: , the downfall of May -games, by Tho.
Hall ii. 249
Funeral Poems, the reason for their disuse assigned, by
R. Brathwayte, in his " Strappado for the Devil". . i. 70
Goger, Dr. his University play of Ulysses Redux, &c. . . ii. 256
Gainsford, Tho. quotation from his " Glory of Eng-
land," liii9 ii. 292
Gascoyne, George, the fourth writer of blank verse in
English, in his " Steel Glass, a Satire" i. 94
concerned in the Netherland wars ii. 142
his " Will of the Devil." cS;c. mentioned... . ii. 209
Goddard, William, his " Mastiff-whelp" mentioned .... i. 304
his " Satirical Dialogue between Alexander
and Diogenes" examined i. 305
— William, his " Satirical Dialogue between
Alexander and Diogenes," its date ascertained .... i. 307
extracts from i. 307, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 315
bis " Owl's arraignment," a satire i. 316"
quotations from i. 318, 319, 320, 326, 327
Golde, a name assumed by Lodge in his " Fig for Monius" i. 1 8 i
ii. 17
Golden age of English poetry i. 10
Golden Grove and Golden Fleece, by Sir W. Vaughan,
mentioned ii- 317
Golding, Arthur, concluded Sir P. Sidney's Translation
of de Mornay on the trueness of Christianity. i- 69
bis Discourse on the Earthquake, 1580 ii- 2-14
■ regarding Sunday plays ii- 245
VOL. U. /
'.i'.iH INDEX.
Vol. I'age
Googe, Barnabe, his character and works ii. 121
tils " Proverbs of Sir J. L. tie Mendoza," 157!) ii. 122
quotations from ii. 1 23, 1 24
Gosson, Stephen, his " Plays confuted, in five Actions" ii. 208,
22 1 , 226
his three dramatic pieces ii. '210
his " School of Abuse," 1579, quoted ii. 210, 212, 213
specimens of his poetry ii. 215,216
his " Ephemerides of Phialo" quoted .... ii. 219, 220
a writer of blank verse ii. 231
— probable allusion to in " the French Academy"., ii. 278
Governor, the, by Sir T. Elliot, quoted ii. YA
Goiver, John, his '' Confessio Amantis" quoted i. 293
on Envy ii. 32
Greene, Robert, a writer of blank verse in his " Peri-
medes, the Black-smith," 1588 i. 118
Bradamant's Song, from it i. 119
Melissa's Song, from the same i. 121
his " Orpharion" in praise of women, quoted ... i. 296
translation from Anacreon in ... . i. 299
his " Never too Late" referred to i. 298, ii. 14
Roundelay by him inserted by Hind in his
" Eliosto Libidinoso," 1 606 ii- 12
his " Dorastus and Fawnia" examined ii. 177
his " Mirror of Modesty," 1584, quoted ii. 171)
the attack made upon his motto, and his defence
of himself and blank verse ii. 183
probable allusion to in the " French Academy" ii. 278
Greepe, Tho. his " True and perfect News" regarding
the exploits of Sir F. Drake, 1587, and its ab-
surdity i- 43
I'Xtracts from it i. 44, 45, 47
Grenvitle, Sir R. Tragedy of, by Jervis Mark ham ii. 92
quotations from .. . ii. 93, 94, 95
prose tract regarding his death ii. 96
poem by ii. 101
Grimoalrl, Nicholas, the second writer of blank verse in
En-lish i. 94
ruvaixfjov, or General History of Women, by T. [Ieywood i. 322
INDEX. 335)
Vol. Page
Gusman of Alfarachc, Life of, similarity between a
passage in and in Paradise Lost i. 246
Hall, Bishop, his claim to be the first English satirist., i. 154
Gray's praise of his satires i. 197
his congratulatory poem on the accession of James
I i. 198
value of his satires i. 226
his Epigram on Marston i. 232
on drunken poets ii. 308
Hall, Tlio. his " Histrio-mastix, a whip for Webster,"., i. 260
his " Funebria Flora;, the downfall of May-
games," and quotations from it. . . . ii. 249, 250, 251, 252
Hamlet plagiarised in " Dolarney's Primrose," 1606... ii. 16
Harington, Sir John, his translation of Orlando
Furioso, 1591 i 18
Sonnet by Sir P. Sidney supplied in it ... . i. 66
his " Metamorphosis of Ajax," 1596, and
quotations i. 199,201,202,203,204,205
his Epigrams and their merits i. 277
his " Treatise of Play" and " Apology of
Poetry" mentioned ii. 288
Hatton, Sir C. the patron of B. Rich ii. 137
his poetry and productions ii. ib.
his House at Holdenby described by Rich ii. 138
Health J'rom Helicon, by R. Rrathwayte ii. 58
Henri), Prince, G. Chapman's Epicede upon i. 24
Hero and I.eander, travestie of ii. 72
Hertford, Earl of, his entertainment to Queen Elizabeth, i. 132
Heywood, John, the Epigrammatist, quotation from Sir
John Harington regarding him i. 198
— — and Sir John Davies, with Bastard's epigram
upon them i. 199
his Spider and Fly, 1 556, noticed i. 200
Heywood, Tho. his " English Traveller" the origin of
Cowley's Naitfragium Joculare '• ^7
his notice of the change from rhyme to blank
verse in theatrical representations >• 8f>
— on the adoption of classic measures in English i. 124
.'{40
INDEX.
Pleasant Dialogue!
Hei/wood, his blank verse in li
and Dramas," 1 637
his " Troja Britannica" quoted. . i. 172, 321
his rwatxHcv, lb'24, referred to
sony by, in imitation ot Wither
his " Apology for Actors" examined.
Higgins, John, quoted from "Mirror for Magistrates". . i
a writer of blank verse in tin: " Mirror for
Magistrates," and specimen i
Hind, John, Ins " Eliosto Libidinoso" examined ii
" Fancy" by N. I!. in it, quoted ii
"Roundelay," by Robert Greene, in the same., ii
his title copied from Greene's " Card of Fancy" ii
Dinohin's, or John Hind's Sonnet ii. 1
Specimen, in prose, from the same ii
Histriomastix, I 6 10, a dramatic piece called ..
extract from
reference to Marston in
by W. Prynnc, 103 3, described
nl. Page
i. 125
ii. 28!)
i. 222
i. 325
ii. 288
i. 30
12
Jlobbcs, Tho. translation of the Iliad and Odyssey, 16S4
Hobby, Sir T. his translation of " Castilio's Courtier". . .
Hume, Mrs. her translation of Petrarch's Triumphs
Hut Ion, Henry, his " Follv's Anatomv"
1.9
ii. 1 8
ii. 312
ii. 313
ii. 314
ii. 318
i. 112
i. 2 '12
i. 77
i. 27(1
James I. and the King of Denmark, Marston's pageant
in honour of, ii. 3 1 . r >
James TV. of Scotland, R. Greene's play of, l.'!)8, .... i. 135
Iceland iloffs. described by A. Fleming in his tract " Of
English Dogs," 1576 i. 1 95
Iliad anil Odyssey, translated by Ilobbes, noticed i. 112
Johnson, Dr. his opinion of detached extracts
Jonson, lien., his Underwoods quoted
his Epigram to Lady Bedford, with a copy
of Dr. Donne's Satires i. 1 ,">">
quotation from the Apologetic al Dialogue
annexed to his ■' Poetaster" it. 62
preface to his " Volpone" mentioned ii. 301
Jordan, Thomas, his " Rosary of Rarities planted in a
garden of Poetry" ii. 310
INDEX. 341
Vol. Page
Jordan, Tho. mention of female actors ii. ib.
Junius, R. his " Drunkard's Character," lo'Srt, and pla-
giarism in it from Feltham's " Resolves" i. 25
the Rev. H. J. Todd's praise of the book i. ' '26
passage in, on which Cowley may have founded
his Xaufragium Joculare i. 27
Juvenal, translation of his 5th sat. by George Chapman . . ii. 6'0
Kendall, Timothy, his " Flowers of Epigrams" noticed., i. 279
Keruynge, \\ ynkyn de \\ orde's book of ii. 70
Kirton, II. poem by Gosson at the end of his " Mirror
of Man's life" ii. 216"
Knight oj'tke Post, the Return of, loOo', an answer to
Nash's " Supplication of Pierce Penniless" i. '216
— quotations from the prose and
poetry in it i. 210', Uli), 220, 222, 22. i, 224
Luvib, Charles, his Specimens of English Dramatic Poets i. 1(1
Lewicke, Edward, his history of Titus and Gisippus, 15u'2 ii. 80
quotation from his " Titus and Gi-
seppus" "• MO
further specimens ii. 82, 8.J
Lilly, John, his rustication from Oxford ii. IG9
Lodge, Dr. Tho., the .second English satirist i. loo
his " Fig for Momus," 1595, i. 171
his celebrity and productions i. 172, 17i, 174
address before his " Fig for Momus".. i. 175
■ specimens of his satires. .. . i. 177, 179, 1 60
■ — of his eclogues. i. 181
of his epistles i. 18 5, I 90'
describes himself under the name of
Golde ii 17
his " Rosalynde; Euphues golden
Legacy," 1590 ii. I6'8
his " Play of Plays" ii. 2C9, 222
his " Alarum against Usurers," 158 4,
containing a reply to Stephen Gosson ii. 22, i
— ■ quotations from it regard-
ing S. Gosson ii. 224, 225, 22c, 227
34'2 INDEX.
Vol. Page
Lodge, Dr. Tho. conjecture regarding his family ii. '228
allusion to his Defence of Plays in
" the French Academy" ii. 278
■ poetry from his tale of Forbomus and
Prisceria ii. 281, 282, 283
"Truth's Complaint
over England" ii. 286, 287
1,011" verse of 14 syllables praised by G. Chapman i. 35
Love, how far a fit subject for poetry ii. 115
Lucan, B. I. of his Pharsalia translated by C. Marlow .. i. 130
Mad World my Masters, by N. Breton, examined i. 831
Magnificence, an interlude by John Skelton, quoted .... ii. 42
Mar/cham, Jervis, his tragedy of Sir R. Grenville praised
by Fitzgeffrey i. 59
. his fraud upon Tofte regarding Ariosto's satires ;
and upon Barnabe Rich ... ib.
his tragedy of Sir R. Grenville, 1 i>95, account
of ii. 92
- quotations from ii. 93, 94, 9."
Markham, Robt. his poem on the death of Sir J. Burgh ii. 100
Marlow, Christ, mode of his death differently told i. 128
his translation of " Lucan's first book,"
&c. 1600 i- ib.
specimens of it i. 1 29, ] 30, 1 3 1
his " Tamberlame"' mentioned by R.
Greene ii. 18.3
T. Beard's expressions regarding him. ... ii. 273
probable allusion to, in the " French
Academy" ii. 274
Mar-marline, and plagiarism in it from Spenser.... i. !83, 18}
Maroccus Extaticus, Bankes's Horse, tract regarding . . i 163
Marston, John, incident in his Antonio and Mellida
founded on a jest of G. Peele i. ,">2
on the trade; of a rope-maker i. 218
his " Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Imago and
certain Satires," 1598, examined
object of his " Pigmalion's I magi:" .
his quarrel with Joseph Hall, and the cause of
230
28!
231
INDEX. 343
Vol. Page
Marston, his answer to Hall's epigram i. 232
why he wrote under the name of \V. Kinsayder i. 233
his attack upon Hall i. 234
quotation from " Pigmalion's Image" .... i. 235, 236'
second edition of his Pigmalion's Image in 1G19 ii 1 12
extracts from his satires i. ^40, 242, 243, 248
his " Scourge of Villany," 1598, second edit.
] 599 i. 249
dedication of it to himself i. 250
extracts from it i. 25 1 , 252, 256, 257
his attacks on Shakespeare's Rich. Ill i. 254
— reference to his own satires in " What you will" i. 255
doubt if he did not go into the Church late in life i. 26'0
sermon by, 1 642 i. 269
■ reference to, in Histriomastix. 1610 ii. 314
.MS. pageant by, in honour of James I. and the
King of Denmark ii. 3 1 ;>
Massing) r, P. his Emperor of the East quoted ii. 36
City Madam referred to ii. 269
letter of the publisher of. . ii. 3 1 7
May, Tho. quotation from his translation of Lucan's
Pharsalia i. 1 30
Meres, Francis, his " Palladis Tamia," 1598, referred to i. 282
Micro-cynicon, Six Snarling Satires, 1 599, mentioned .. i. 269
. its scarcity and price i. 281
its title at length i. 282
quotations from, i. 283, 288, 290, 295, 300, 301
its author i. 2S3
Middleton, Tho. his applause of Greek compounds in his
" Mad World my Masters" i. 34
and Decker's *■'■ Roaring Girl'' quoted i. 20
Milton, John, his mistake in asserting that his Par. Lost
was the first specimen in English of undramatic
blank verse i- 88
his obligations to Marston, Anth. Stafford, and
Gusman of Alfarache i. -'43, 244, 246
quotes Sir J. Harrington's Orl. Fur »• 144
senr. his Six-fold Politician ([noted "• 30/
Mirror for Magistrates, blank verse in i. 101, 103
Mirror of Monsters, 1587, by Rankin >• 228
344 INDEX.
Vol. l'age
Mirror for Magistrates of Cities, by Whetstone, quoted
ii. 37, 240, '241
published in 1 386, as
" the Enemy of Unthriftiness"
Mirror of Modesty, 1 584, by II. Greene, quoted
Misery of Flanders Calamity of France, cSce. 1379 a
tract by T. Churchyard
Monosyllables, in English, praised by G. Chapman
Moor of Venice, first woman actor in the
Morley, Henry Parker, Eord, his translation of the
" Triumphs of Petrarch," printed by J. Cawood. ... i. 77
its extreme rarity i. 79
specimen in Dr. Nott's lives of Wyatt and Surrey ib.
A. Wood's error regarding Lord Morley's death i. 80
extract from the dedication of his translation .... i. 81
extracts from his version . i. 81, 83, 84
original poem by Lord Morley at the end of his
translation of Petrarch i. 86
his place among English poets ascertained i. 87
11.
33
i.
179
ii.
74
ii.
3 1 9
M^ornay, do, his work on the trueness of Christianity
translated by Sir P. Sidney and Arthur Golding . ... i. 69
Mulcaster, It. blank verse translation of his X(euia Con-
solans, with specimens i. HI, 142, 143, 144
Musical Banquet by Doularul i- 161
Mychelborne, Tho. commendatory verses by, before Fitz-
geffrey's " Drake'' i. 8
Myrrha, the mother of Adonis, by W. Barkstead i. 237
Nabbes, Tho. his " Seipio ami Hannibal," 1637, quoted i. 30
Xash, Tho. two lines in his " Pierce Peimyless" also
found in the " Yorkshire Tragedy" i. 53
his " Pierce Peimyless' Supplication to the Devil", i. '213
ike second part, or answer to it. called " The Return
o the Knight of the Post from Hell." 1606 i. 216
. quotation from the anonymous address i. 216
doubt whether he did not bring the trade of rope-
making into disrepute i. 218
specimen of the poetry in " the Return of the
Knight of the Post," \c i. 219
the K'.iidit of the Post described i. 220
INDEX. 345
Vol. Pafje
Nash, extracts from the Devil's " Answer" . . . i. 222, '223, 224
his praise of Churchyard's " Shore's Wife" ii. 89
his " Lenten Stuff," 1 59.'), spoken of ii. ] 27, 230
his " Christ's Tears over Jerusalem," 1593, quoted ii. 2fi9
his apology in it to Gabriel Harvey ii. ib.
Nero, justification of a strange action by, by G. Chapman ii. 60
Netherlands, Tho. Churchyard's Discourse regarding ... ii. 88
Nicholas's History of the West Indies, lines by Gosson
before ii. 215
Nichols's Progresses of Q. Elizabeth cited ii. 270
Niubc, 161 1, by A. Stafford, Milton's obligation to i. 244
and " Niobe dissolved into a Nilus," quoted ii. 45
Nixon, Anthony, his plagiarism from Lodge i. 302
his " Strange Foot-post" examined ... i. 303
Nocturnal Lucubrations, by It. Chamberlain, cited .... i. 72
Nocnia Consolans translated into blank verse by It.
Mulcaster i. 1 -J 1
Northbrooke, John, his " Treatise against Vain Plays,"
I 579, &c ii. 231
quotation from his Treatise. . ii. '23., T.'>:\, 234
Nott, Dr. lives of Lord Surrey and Sir T. Wyat i. 79
(Entme's Complaint, from Peek's " Arraignment of
Paris," 1584 i. 123
Oldcastle, Sir John, history of, by Munday, Drayton, &c.
containing the embryo of a scene in Shakespeare's
Henry V i. 52
Old Plays, indecency of, contrasted with those after the
Restoration ii. 320
Orphurion, by Robert Greene, quoted i. 290', 2.99
Overthrow of Sta^c-plays, by Dr. Rainoldes ii. 253
Owl's Arraignment, by William Goddard i. 3 I 8
Painter, William, author of a poem called " Chaucer
painted,'' printed about 1630 ii. 165
his Palace of Pleasure mentioned ii. 1 6*7, 191,
195
Pap with a Hatchet, syllogism in, ii. 305
Paris Garden, accident at, and Field's Exhortation .... ii. 242
A4C> INDEX.
Vol. Page
Parke, E. his History of China, 1588, cited ii. '20.5
Parrot, Henry, his " Mastiff' or young Whelp'' i. 27 b
his plagiarisms i. ib.
Pasquil's pass and passeth not, by N. Breton, quoted ... i. 22'J
Peele, George, a poet and sharper, according to his
" Merry conceited Jests" i. 48
the same man as George Pieboard in
" the Puritan," proved from the jests and the play ib.
— . his '• Farewell to Sir John Norris and
Sir Francis Drake," \5'rQ, and quotations. . . . i. 54, 5b', 58
— his " Tale of Troy" quoted i. 58
GJnone's Complaint by, in blank verse,
from his " Arraignment of Paris," 1,384 i. 123
Percy, Will, mention of his ' Sonnets to the fairest
Caelia," 1 594 i. 12
specimens of, in Censura Literaria i. 1 .5
. dedication to him of B. Barnes's " Par-
thenophil and Parthenophe" i. 14
madrigal by, prefixed to B. Barnes's " Four
Books of Offices," 160G, quoted i. I . >
Percy, Bishop, his work on the writers of blank verse ... i. i) 1
Pcrimedes the Blacksmith, 1588, by 11. Greene ii. 118
, quotation regarding the motto, &e. ii. i'8'.i
Peters, Hugh, his jest concerning George Wither ii. 24
Petrarch's Triumphs, translated by Lord Morley i- 77
by Mrs. Hume i. ib.
Phillip, John, his " Life and Death of Sir P. Sidney,"
1587 ii. 50
. quotations from ... ii. 51 , 52
his poem on the Countess of Lenox ii. 125
— quotation from, regarding
Queen Elizabeth ii. 1 2I>
probably mentioned by Nash ii. ib.
Plan of Plays, a tract in defence of the stage, by T.
Lodge ii. iiO!), 222
cause of its excessive scarcity ii. 225
Player, common, character of ii. oO'J
Plays confuted in five actions, by S. Gosson ii. 208, 22 1
_ _ answered bv Tlio. Lodge ii. 225, 22b'
INDEX. 347
Vol. Page
Poets, sufferings of, after the close of the theatres ii. 325
I'olimanteia quoted regarding Sir C. Hatton's poems. ... ii. 137
Primaudaye, Peter de la, his " French Academy'' translated ii. 27 1
Prujean, Tlio. his " Aurorata and Loves Looking-glass,"
1644 ii. 102
epistles from Juliet to Romeo, and Romeo
to Juliet ii. 1 93, 1 94
Prynne, William, his " Histriomastix'' described ii. 318
his " Vindication" from the charge of recanting . . ii. 322
• his supposed '' Defence of Stage Plays" ii. ib.
Puritans, libels of, upon Marlow, Greene, Lodge, &c. .. ii. 271
Puritan, or Widow of Watling- street, part of a scene
from i- 51
mentioned ii. 300
Puttenkam, his " Art of English Poesy," 15119, cited . . i. Go
Rainoldes, Dr. " Overthrow of Stage-plays" examined. . ii. 253,
'257, 259, 300
■ epigram upon, by T. Bastard ii. 254
Bishop Hall's praise of, in his Epistles. . . ii. 256
Raleigh, Sir Walter, his History of the World quoted . . i. 166
his epitaph on Sir P. Sidney re-
ferred to by Sir John Ilarington in his Orl. Fur. . . . ii. 143
Ram Alley by Lod. Barry quoted ii. 27, 284
Rankin, Will, author of " Seven Satires," printed in
1 596 i. 227
his" Mirror of Monsters," 1587, against
stage-plays, mentioned i. 228
— sonnet by him prefixed to Bodenham's
" Belvedere,'' lo'oO, referred to i. 229
his " Mirror of Monsters" examined, ii. 246, 248
Raynold, John, his " Primrose," 1606, quotations
from ii. 16, 17
Emulation of the Apology for Actors, 1615, by J. G. . . ii. 301
quoted ii. 303, 304
Rhyme, abuse of, by Ascbam, Hall, Marston, and
Fleming i. 92, 93
Rich, Barnabe, his " Farewel to Military Profession,"
1606, containing a novel on which Shakespeare
founded his " Twelfth Nicrlit" ii- 1 34
348 INDEX.
Vol. Page
Rich, liarnabe, particulars of his biography, and titles of
some of his works omitted ii. 1 40
• his concern in the Netherland wars ii. 141
■ • specimen of his poetry ii. 1 63
■ his lines before Lodge's " Alarum against
Usurers" ii. 232
Richard II. by Shakespeare referred to ii. 286'
Roaring Girl, the, by Decker and Middleton, quoted ... i. 20
Romeo and Juliet, epistles of, by Tho. Prujean. ... ii. 193, 194
Rosalynde, Euphues' golden Legacy, by T. Lodge .... ii. 168
■ comparison between it and Shake-
speare's " As you Like it" ii. I/O
. quotations from it ii. 171, 173, 174
Rosciad, the. by C. Churchill, quoted ii. 32
Rous, Richard and Francis, commendatory verses by,
before Fitzgeffrey's " Drake" i. 8
Rowlands, Saml. the " Letting of Humours blood," &x.
1600 i. 328
Sabie, Francis, notice of his productions , i. 136
blank verse poems by him, called " The
Fisherman's Tale" and " Flora's Fortune," 1595 i. 138,
139, 140
Salter, Tho. his Contention between the Whoremonger, &c. ii. 209
his " Mirror of Modesty" ii. 223
Satirical dialogue between Alexander and Diogenes, by
William Goddard i. 307
Schoolmaster, by It. Ascham, quoted i. 81, 92, ii, 44
— - or Teacher of Table Philosophy, quoted. ... ii. 297
School of Abuse, by Stephen Gosson, 1579 ii. 210
quotations from it ii. 212, 213
allusion to it in the French Academy ... ii. 278
Scourge of Venus, or the wanton Lady, 1614, and speci-
mens from i. 23,6, 238, L-3.)
Self-delusion of authors regarding their fame . i. 4 ; >
Shakespeare, coincidence between a line of his and an
expression by Fitzgellrey i. 41
embryo of a scene in his Ilmrv V. found
in " the History of Sir John Oldcastlc" i. 52
— . — his admirable judgment i. 57
INDEX. 34<)
Vol. Page
Shakespeare, jest by, on the authority of Dr. Donne i. 258
his " Twelfth Night" founded on a novel
by B. Rich ii. 134
• and deer-stealing ii. 257
Shepherd's Calendar, Spenser's, why called by Puttenham
" the last" i. 63
Shirley, James, quotation from his " Sisters" ii. 171
■ his plays by Gifford ii. 1 72
■ preface to his " Politician" quoted ii. 300
Shore's Wife, tragedy of, by T. Churchyard ii. ,90
Sidney, Sir P. reported by Whetstone to be the author
of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar i. 64, 67
■ doubt whether the 1 st edit, of his " Arcadia"
was not before 1 590 i. 65
sonnet omitted in his " Arcadia" i. 66
■ apostrophe to, in Stafford's " Niobe," 1611 ii. 46"
— " Life and Death of," 1587, by John
Phillip ii. 50
II. Constable's four sonnets before his
" Arcadia" ii. 104
- his friend Edward Wootton ii. I()7
Sixfold Politician, 1609, by John Milton, senr ii. 305
authority on which it is assigned to
him ii. 3()f,"
— extract from ii. 307
Skialethcia, a collection of satires mentioned by Meres... i. 229
5.y.iocj-jx~oi, by George Chapman, quotation from it re-
garding hypercritical readers i. 6
Skelton, John, his interlude of" Magnificence," quoted., ii. 42
Smythe, Sir John, on the word " beleaguer" i. 291
Song of Songs, the, by Dudley Fenner, 15ei7, noticed. . . i. 308
Southey, Robt. his ballads of the " Old Woman of
Berkeley" and " Rudiger," founded on stories by
T. Ileywood i. 323
Spenser, Edmund, his sonnet before the " Life of Scan-
derbeg," 1 596, mentioned i- 16
applauded by Fitzgeffrey in his " Drake" i. 32
poems on the wife of Sir A. Gorges
and Sir P. Sidney '■ .61
350 INDEX.
Vol. Page
Spenser, Edmund, his " Shepherd's Calendar" attributed
to Sir P. Sidney i. 64, 67
■ specimen of blank verse by him in bis
Eel. for August, and its peculiarities i. 96
" Mother Hubbard's Tale" alluded to
in " the Ant and the Nightingale, or Father Hub-
berd's Tales," 1604 i. 100
his " View of the State of Ireland" re-
ferred to i. 10.)
eclogue by Tlio. Lodge addressed to him i. 180
his allusion to Tho. Churchyard ii. 89
his mention of Gosson's " School of
Abuse" ii. 211
Stafford, Anth. resemblance between a passage in his
" Niobe," 1611, and in Tar. Lost i. 244
quotations from his " Niobe" and
" Niobe dissolved into a Nilus" ii. 45
Stage, Fitzgeffrey's praise of writers for the i. 41
list of tracts against ii. 280
Stephens, John, bis " Essavs and Characters," 1615. . . . ii. 308
■ character of a Common
Player from ii. 309
Storey's " Life of Cardinal Wolsey," stanza prefixed to,
by J. Sprint i. 19
Strange and terrible wonder related by A. Fleming i. 114
Strappado for the Devil, by II. Brathwayte, quoted i. 70
Stubbes, Philip, his '* Anatomy of Abuses" ii. 235
popularity of ... ii. '236
Nash regarding
it quoted. ii. ib.
quoted.... ii. 238,239
Stubbes, Philip, bis " Motive to good Works" referred to ii. 236
Sunday, plays represented upon, censured ii. 240, 246
abolition of them between 1580 and 1583 ii. 243,
244
Suriri/, Lord, his translation from Virgil in blank verse . i. 92
Swearing on the stage, T. Bastard's epigram upon ii. 255
Talc of two Swans, 1590. by W. Vallans i. 127
INDEX. 351
Vol. l'a.s,'!-
Tamer, the, a play altered from Fletcher's Woman's
Prize, female actor in ii. 320
Taming of the Shrew, note to, on custard-coffin ii. 71
Tarlton, Richard, mention of i. 207
T. Bastard's praise of ii. 25.5
tribute to, in P. Bucke's " Three
Lords and Three Ladies of London," 1590 ii. 295
his Jests, 1611, examined ii. ib.
■ ■ quoted ii. 29S
Theatre of God's Judgments, by Tho. Beard i. 128
Thracian Wonder, a play, falsely attributed to John
Webster and Will. Rowley i. 268
perhaps by Will. Webster i. ib.
Time's Curtain drawn, 1621, by R. Brathwayte ii. 54
Titus and Gisippus, History of, 1562, by Edw. Lewicke ii. 80
abstract of the story of ii. 81
quotation from SirT. Elliot's narra-
tive ii. 84
■ story of, in Boccacio's Decameron ii. 79
Tobacco, Metamorphosis of, 1(>02, and extracts i. 189, 190, 191
praise of, by Spenser in F. Q, i. 188
Todd, the Rev. H. J. his praise of the " Drunkard's
Character" i. 26
remarks on his edit, of Johnson's
Dictionary i. 29 1
Troja Brilannica, 1609, by T. Heywood, quoted i. 321
Turbcrville, said to have translated some of Ovid's
Epistles into blank verse i. 117
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, founded on a novel by
Barnabe Rich ii. 134
when written ii. 135
Dr. Johnson's objection to its opening.. . ii. 119
Vallans, W. his " Tale of two Swans," 1590, in blank
verse i. 127
Vandernoodt, John, the third writer of blank verse in
English i. 94
specimen from his " Theatre, &c.
of voluptuous Worldlings," 1 569 ib.
:>>:> c l
IN'DFX.
Vaughan, Sir W. his " Golden Grove" and " Golden
Fleece"
Vicar of Croydon, story of, from Whetstone's " English
Mirror"
Vicars, John, his translation of Virgil's iEneid, 1632 ..
lines by W. Sq. in its praise
Ulysses Redux, a university play by Dr. Gager ii.
University Plays, expenses of getting them up ii.
Upstarts censured in " The Return cf the Knight of
the Post," 1 606 i.
Usurers, Lodge's Alarum against ii. 223,
practices of, displayed by T. Nash ii.
Walker, Gilb. his tract against dice-play ii.
Walter, William, his version of Titus and Gisippus ii.
Walton, Izaac, dedication of "Amos and Laura," 1619,
to ii.
Warner, Will, his " Albion's England" mentioned i.
his " Albion's England" quoted i.
his attack on the Puritans ii,
Warlon, Thomas, his History of English poetry i. 17, 154,
his mistake regarding E. Lewieke's
Titus and Gisippus ii.
his error in attributing '' the Mourn-
ing Muse of Thestylis" to Spenser , i.
Watreman, W, his' - Fardle of Fashions," 1555. quoted ii.
Webbe. Will, his '■ Discourse of English Poesie," 1586". . i,
Webster, John, turned preacher late in life i
the fact proved from a comparison of his
" Academiarum Examen," and " .Saints Guide," of
1654, with some of his plays i.
Webster, William, his " Curan and Argentile," 1 <> I 7 . . . i.
extracts from it i. 266. 267
" The Thracian Wonder," perhaps by
him
Whetstone, George, observations on his elegiac poems . .
: his poem on the death of Sir P. Sidni
Page
317
;54
112
113
256
25 S
223
267
269
209
80
1 10
2 Go
285
206
304
1 13
204.
205
64
260
>C>\
iCA
index. 353
Vol. Pogo
Whetstone, Gforge, his poem on the death of Sir P. Sidney,
quotation from it i. 62
, Spenser's " Shepherd's Calendar"
attributed by him to Sir'P. Sidney i. 64, 67,
his " English Mirror," 1586, quoted ii. 32,
33, 34, 3.5
his " Mirror for Magistrates of
Cities," 1584, quoted ii. 37, 240, 241
his " Enemy of Unthriftiness,"
1586, with a list of his productions .' ii. 38
WitUer's Tale, the. compared with R. Greene's " Dn-
rastus and Fawnia" ii. 177
Wither, George, his voluminousness as an author ii. 22
his Satire to the King quoted ii. 23
Hugh Peters' jest concerning ii. 24
his " Abuses stript and whipt" quoted .. ii. 22
his praise of the poets of his time ii. 48
Woman's Prize, by Fletcher, female actor in ii. 320
Wood, Anthony, his account of Fitzgeffrey i. 18
Wootton, Edward, mentioned by Sidney in his " Apology
of Poetry," .",1)5 ii. 107
Wootton, Sir Henry, Bastard's epigram to ii. 108
Worde, Wynkyn de, his " Book of Keruynge" ii. 7<>
Yorkshire Tragedy, probably bv 'Die. Nash i. j:i
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