A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) - Various
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Nash's "Isle of Dogs" was doubtless a satire upon the age, which
"touched too near" some persons in authority. In the last act of "The
Return from Parnassus" the Isle of Dogs is frequently spoken of, and
once as if it were a place of refuge. _Ingenioso_ says: "To be brief,
_Academico_, writs are out for me to apprehend me for my plays, and now
I am bound for _the Isle of Dogs_."
[10] Sir J. Harington has an epigram upon the paper war between Harvey
and Nash.
TO DOCTOR HARVEY OF CAMBRIDGE.
"The proverb says, who fights with dirty foes
Must needs be soil'd, admit they win or lose:
Then think it doth a Doctor's credit dash
To make himself antagonist to Nash."
--B. II., _Epigr_. 36.
[11] _Tergimini_ means the three Harveys, for Gabriel took up the
cudgels for himself and his two brothers.
[12] The death of Nash is spoken of in the address to a tract, which is
the more curious, as it forms a second part to "Pierce Penniless." It
has been assigned to Decker, under the title of "News from Hell;" [and
it was reprinted under the title of "A Knight's Conjuring." This issue
is included in the Percy Society's series.]
[13] [See the list, however, in "Ath. Cantab.," ii. 307-9, and in
Hazlitt's "Handbook," in v.]
[14] In 1589 Nash wrote the address prefixed to Robert Greene's
"Menaphon," which contains notices of various preceding and contemporary
poets, and which has been admired by all but Mr Malone, for the general
purity of its style and the justness of its criticism. As Nash was born
in November 1567, he was only in his twenty-second year when it was
published.
[15] Parts of "Pierce Penniless, his Supplication to the Devil," are
written by Nash in a similar strain of bitter grief for past errors,
especially a poem inserted near the commencement. [As to Nash's
withdrawal of his apology, see Hazlitt in v.]
"Why is't damnation to despair and die
When life is my true happiness' disease?
My soul! my soul! thy safety makes me fly
The faulty means that might my pain appease.
Divines and dying men may talk of hell,
But in my heart her several torments dwell.
"Ah, worthless wit, to train me to this woe!
Deceitful arts that nourish discontent.
Ill thrive the folly that bewitch'd me so,
Vain thoughts, adieu, for now I will repent.
And yet my wants persuade me to proceed,
Since none takes pity of a scholar's need."
The last two lines of the first stanza are given to the Father in
"The Yorkshire Tragedy," attributed to Shakespeare.
[16] This play (if it do not more properly come under the class of
_shews_, as Nash himself calls it) was not printed until 1600; but
internal evidence proves that it was written, and probably performed, as
early as the autumn of 1592. Various decisive marks of time are pointed
out in notes in the course of the play, the principal of which are, the
great drought, the progress of Queen Elizabeth to Oxford, and the
breaking out of the plague. The piece was presented at Croydon, at the
residence of some nobleman, who is mentioned in many places. The
theatres in London were closed at this date in consequence of the
mortality. (See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, in. 299, note). In the
prologue we are told that the representation was not on a _common
stage_.
[17] The subsequent account of Will Sommers, or Summer, King Henry the
Eighth's celebrated fool, is from the pen of Robert Armin, an author and
actor, who himself often played the clown's part in the time of
Shakespeare. It is in his "Nest of Ninnies, _simply of themselves,
without compound_," 1608, 4to--
"Will Sommers born in Shropshire, as some say,
Was brought to Greenwich on a holiday,
Presented to the King; which Fool disdain'd
To shake him by the hand, or else asham'd:
Howe'er it was, as ancient people say,
With much ado was won to it that day.
Lean he was, hollow-eyed, as all report.
And stoop he did too; yet in all the court,
Few men were more belov'd than was this Fool,
Whose merry prate kept with the King much rule.
When he was sad, the King and he would rhime;
Thus Will exiled sadness many a time.
I could describe him as I did the rest,
But in my mind I do not think it best:
My reason this--howe'er I do descry him,
So many knew him, that I may belie him;
Therefore, to please all people, one by one,
I hold it best to let that pains alone.
Only thus much: he was a poor man's friend,
And help'd the widow often in the end.
The King would ever grant what he did crave,
For well he knew Will no exacting knave;
But wish'd the King to do good deeds great store,
Which caus'd the court to love him more and more."
Some few of the personal particulars, here omitted, Nash supplies in
the course of this play. [In 1676 a pamphlet was printed, purporting
falsely to be] "A pleasant History of the Life and death of Will
Summers; how he came first to be known at court, and by what means he
got to be King Henry the Eighth's 'Jester.'" It was reprinted by Harding
in 1794, with an engraving from an old portrait, supposed to be Will
Summer; but if it be authentic, it does not at all support Armin's
description of him, that he was "lean and hollow-eyed." Many of the
jests are copied from the French and Italian; and [almost all] of them
have been assigned also to Scoggin and Tarlton. One or two of these are
introduced into S. Rowley's "When you see me you know me," a historical
comedy, first printed in 1605, in which Will Summer plays a prominent
part.
[18] Hor. Lib. i. Epist. 16, I, 62.
[19] Dick Huntley was, perhaps, the book-holder or prompter who is
subsequently mentioned, and whom Will Summer, in the licence of his
character, calls by his name. Perhaps his "cousin Ned" was another of
the actors. Harry Baker is spoken of in the scene, where Vertumnus is
despatched for Christmas and Backwinter.
[20] [The tract here referred to is Robert Copland's poem, called "Jyl
of Breyntford's Testament." See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 122.] Julian of
Brentford, or, as she is here called, Gyllian of Braynford, seems to
have been an old woman who had the reputation of possessing supernatural
power. In Henslowe's MSS., a play by Thomas Downton and Samuel Ridley,
called "Friar Fox and Gillian of Brentford," is mentioned under date of
February 1598-9, but it was acted, as appears by the same authority, as
early as 5th January 1592. She is noticed in "Westward Hoe!" 1607, where
Clare says: "O Master Linstock, 'tis no walking will serve my turn: have
me to bed, good, sweet Mistress Honeysuckle. I doubt that _old hag
Gillian of Braineford_ has bewitched me." Sig. G 4.
Julian of Brentford's will had been spoken of before by Nash in his
epistle "to the Gentlemen Students of both Universities," prefixed to
Greene's "Menaphoii," in 1589. "But so farre discrepant is the idle
vsage of our unexperienced and illiterated Punies from this
prescription, that a tale of Joane a Brainfords Will, and the vnlucky
frumenty, will be as soone entertained into their Libraries as the best
Poeme that euer Tasso eternisht."
[21] Camden, in his "Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth," thus
speaks of the ravages of the plague in 1592-3, "For this whole year the
sickness raged violently in London, Saturn passing through the extreme
parts of Cancer and the head of Leo, as it did in the year 1563; in so
much, that when the year came about, there died of the sickness and
other diseases in the city and suburbs, 17,890 persons, besides William
Roe, Mayor, and three Aldermen; so that Bartholomew Fair was not kept,
and Michaelmas term was held at St Alban's, twenty miles from London."
[22] Vertumnus enters at the same time, but his name is not mentioned in
the old 4to at the opening of the scene. He acts the part of a messenger,
and, as appears afterwards, was provided with a silver arrow.
[23] Well-flogged.
[24] Hor. lib. i. car. 28--
"Sed omnibus una manet nox,
Et calcanda semel via leti."
[25] "The Queen in her summer progress passed through Oxford, and stayed
there several days, where she was agreeably entertained with elegant
speeches, plays, and disputations, and received a splendid treat from
the Lord Buckhurst, Chancellor of the University."--_Camden's "Annals of
Elizabeth_." Her progress is again alluded to in that part of the play
where Summer makes his will--
"And finally, O words, now cleanse your course,
Unto Eliza, that most sacred dame,
Whom none but saints and angels ought to name,
All my fair days remaining I bequeath,
To wait upon her, _till she be return'd_," &c.
[26] The following passage in Gabriel Harvey's "New Letter of Notable
Contents, 1593," speaking of Nash, confirms the conjecture that
_Falantado_ or _Falanta_ was the burden of a song or ballad at the
time:--"Let him be the _Falanta_ down-diddle of rhyme, the hayhohaliday
of prose, the welladay of new writers, and the cutthroat of his
adversaries."
[27] The hobby-horse was a basket-horse used in morris-dances and May
games. See note 37 to Greene's "Tu Quoque."
[28] [Hall, the taborer, mentioned in "Old Meg of Herefordshire," 1609.
See the reprint in "Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana," 1816.]
[29] A vulgar colloquialism for laying a girl on the grass.
[30] He ran in debt to this amount to usurers, who advanced him money by
giving him _lute-strings and grey paper_; which he was obliged to sell
at an enormous loss. There is a very apposite passage in Nash's
"Christ's Tears over Jerusalem," 1593, where he is referring to the
resort of spendthrifts and prodigals to usurers for supplies: In the
first instance, they obtain what they desire, "but at the second time of
their coming, it is doubtful to say whether they shall have money or no:
the world grows hard, and we are all mortal: let them make him any
assurance before a judge, and they shall have some hundred pounds (_per
consequence_) in silks and velvets. The third time if they come, they
have baser commodities: the fourth time _lute-strings and grey paper_;
and then, I pray pardon me, I am not for you: pay me that you owe me,
and you shall have anything."
So also in Greene's and Lodge's "Looking Glass for London and England,"
1594, a gentleman thus addresses a usurer, in hopes of inducing him to
relent: "I pray you, sir, consider that my loss was great by the
commodity I took up: you know, sir, I borrowed of you forty pounds,
whereof I had ten pounds in money, and thirty pounds in _lute-strings_,
which when I came to sell again, I could get but five pounds for them."
[31] Some case of horse-stealing, which had lately taken place, and
which had attracted public attention.
[32] See Collier's "Bibliogr. Catal.," ii. 512. Extr. from Stat. Reg.,
i. 184, and a woodcut in his "Book of Roxburghe Ballads," 1847, p. 103.
[33] The title of an old ballad. Compare Collier's "Extr. from
Stationers' Registers," i. 7, 19, and Rimbault's "Book of Songs and
Ballads," p. 83.
[34] The words of Aulus Gellius are these: "Neque mihi," inquit.
"aedificatio, neque vasum, neque vestimentum ullum est manupreciosum,
neque preciosus servus, neque ancilla est: si quid est," inquit, "quod
utar, utor: si non est, egeo: suum cuique per me uti atque frui licet."
Tum deinde addit: "Vitio vertunt, quia multa egeo; at ego illis quia
nequeunt egere."--Noct. Attic., lib. xiii. c. 23.
[35] Ovid "Rem. Am." l. 749.
[36] Nash seems, from various parts of his works, to have been well read
in what are called, though not very properly in English, the burlesque
poets of Italy. This praise of poverty in the reply of Ver to the
accusation of Summer is one proof of his acquaintance with them. See
"Capitolo sopra l'epiteto della poverta, a Messer Carlo Capponi," by
Matteo Francesi in the Rime Piacevoli del Berni, Copetta, Francesi, &c.,
vol. ii. p. 48. Edit. Vicenza, 1609--
"In somma ella non ha si del bestiale,
Com' altri stima, perche la natura
Del poco si contenta, e si prevale," &c.
[37] [Jesus.]
[38] Sir J. Hawkins, in his "Hist. Music," iv. 479, contends that the
_recorder_ was the same instrument as that we now term a _flageolet_.
Some have maintained that it is the _flute_. [See Dyce's "Glossary" to
his second edit. of _Shakespeare_, in v.]
[39] Chaucer [if at least he had anything to do with the poem,]
translates _day's-eye_, or _daisy_, into _margarete_ in French,
in the following stanza from his "Flower and the Leaf"--
"Whereto they enclined everichon
With great reverence and that full humbly,
And at the lust there began anon
A lady for to sing right womanly
A bargaret in praising the _day's-eye_,
For as, methought, among her notes swete,
She said, _Si douce est la margarete_."
[40] Nash seems often to have quoted from memory, and here he has either
coupled parts of two lines, so as to make one, or he has invented a
beginning to the ending of Ovid's "Metam.," ii. 137. [The author seems
merely to have introduced scraps of Latin, without much regard to their
juxtaposition.]
[41] [A common subject at shows.]
[42] [A _jeu-de-mots_ on the scale in music and the Latin word _sol_.]
[43] [Some play on words is here probably meant. _Eyesore_ quasi
_eye-soar_.]
[44] It may be doubtful whether this is the right word. Old copy,
_sonne_.
[45] [Old copy, _baddest_.]
[46] [Old copy, _Heber_.]
[47] The quarto reads--
"And as for poetry, _woods_ eloquence."
It is no doubt a misprint for _words' eloquence_, or the eloquence of
words.
[48] [Old copy, _source_. The emendation was suggested by Collier.]
[49] [Former edits.--"Envy envieth not outcries unrest."
And so the 4to.]
[50] [Old copy, _slight_.]
[51] On this subject Camden tells us: "There was both this summer (1592)
and the last so great a drought all England over, that the fields were
burnt, and the fountains dried up, and a great many beasts perish'd
everywhere for want of water. The Thames likewise, the noblest river of
all Britain, and which has as full and large a tide as any in Europe
(for it flows twice a day above sixty miles from the mouth of it, and
receives an increase from the mixture of many other streams and rivers
with it), was, however, sunk to that degree (to the wonder of all men)
on the 5th September, that a man might ride over it near London Bridge,
so shallow was the channel."
[52] There seems to be no account of this flood, unless it was that
which occurred in the autumn of 1579. See Stow's "Annals," edit. 1615,
fol. 686, and Collier's "Extr. from Stat. Reg.," ii. 105. There was also
a great partial flood in 1571; but it is not mentioned as having
affected the Thames.
[53] i.e., Persons who had drunk the Thames water fell ill.
[54] Guesses.
[55] _Had I wist_ is _had I thought_; and the words are often met with
as the reproof of imprudence. So afterwards again in this play--
"Young heads count to build on _had I wist_."
[56] Skelton wrote a humorous doggrel piece called the "Tunning of
Elinor Rummin," which is here alluded to.
[57] This anecdote is from Aulus Gellius, "Noct. Attic.,"
lib. xvii. c. 9--
"Asiam tune tenebat imperio rex Darius: is Histiaeus, cum in Persia
apud Darium esset, Aristagorae cuipiam res quasdam occultas nuntiare
furtivo scripto volebat: comminiscitur opertum hoc literarum admirandum.
Servo suo diu oculos aegros habenti capillum ex capite omni, tanquam
medendi gratia, deradit, caputque ejus leve in literarum formas
compungit: his literis, quae voluerat, perscripsit: hominem postea,
quoad capillus adolesceret, domo continuit: ubi id factum est, ire ad
Aristagoram jubet; et cum ad eum, inquit, veneris, mandasse me dicito,
ut caput tuum, sicut nuper egomet feci, deradat. Servus ut imperatum
erat, ad Aristagoram venit, mandatumque domini affert: atque ille id
non esse frustra ratus, quod erat mandatum, fecit: ita literae
perlatae sunt."
Herodotus "Terps," c. 35, tells the story somewhat differently. The
following is Mr Beloe's translation of it:--
"Whilst he was in this perplexity, a messenger arrived from Histiaeus at
Susa, who brought with him an express command to revolt, the particulars
of which were impressed in legible characters upon his skull. Histiaeus
was desirous to communicate his intentions to Aristagoras; but as the
ways were strictly guarded, he could devise no other method. He
therefore took one of the most faithful of his slaves, and inscribed
what we have mentioned upon his skull, being first shaved; he detained
the man till his hair was again grown, when he sent him to Miletus,
desiring him to be as expeditious as possible: Aristagoras being
requested to examine his skull, he discovered the characters which
commanded him to commence a revolt. To this measure Histiaeus was
induced by the vexation he experienced from his captivity at Susa."
It is pretty evident that Nash took Aulus Gellius as his authority, from
the insertion of the circumstance of the defective sight of the servant,
which certainly is important, as giving Histiaeus an excuse for shaving
his head.
[58] Peter Bales, who is here immortalised, has also received honourable
mention in Holinshed's Chronicle. He was supposed by Evelyn to be the
inventor of shorthand, but that art was discovered some years earlier by
Dr Timothy Bright, who is better known as the author of "A Treatise of
Melancholy," which was first published in 1586. Bales was born in 1547,
and many of the incidents of his life have come down to us; for while
the lives of poets and philosophers are left in obscurity, the important
achievements of a writing-master are detailed by contemporaries with
laborious accuracy. Mr D'Israeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature,"
has not scrupled to devote many pages to Bales's contests for
superiority with a rival penman of the name of Johnson. Bales was the
improver of Dr Bright's system, and, according to his own account in his
"Writing Schoolmaster," he was able to keep pace with a moderate
speaker. He seems to have been engaged in public life, by acting as
secretary where caligraphy was required; and he was at length accused of
being concerned in the plot of Lord Essex; but he was afterwards
vindicated, and punished his accuser. The greatest performance, that in
which his exalted fame may most securely rest, was the writing of the
Lord's Prayer, Creed, Decalogue, with two Latin prayers, in the compass
of a penny. Brachygraphy had arrived at considerable perfection soon
after 1600, and in Webster's "Devil's Law Case," there is a trial scene,
in which the following is part of the dialogue--
SANITONELLA. Do you hear, officers?
You must take special care that you let in
No _brachygraphy_ men to take notes.
1st OFFICER. No. sir.
SANITONELLA. By no means:
We cannot have a cause of any fame,
But you must have some scurvy pamphlets and lewd ballads
Engendered of it presently.
In Heywood's "Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas," 1637, he complains that
some persons by stenography had drawn the plot of his play, and put it
into print; but he adds (which certainly does not tell much in favour of
the perfection of the art as then practised) that it was "scarce one
word true."
[59] In the margin opposite "Sol should have been beholding to the
barber, and not to the beard-master," the words "_Imberbis Apollo_,
a beardless poet," are inserted in the margin.
[60] From what is said here, and in other parts of the play, we may
conclude that it was performed either by the children of St Paul's, of
the Queen's Chapel, or of the Revels. Afterwards Will Summer, addressing
the performers, says to them: "Learn of him, you _diminutive urchins_,
how to behave yourselves in your vocations," &c. The epilogue is spoken
by a little boy, who sits on Will Summer's knee, and who, after it is
delivered, is carried out.
[61] [See Keightley's "Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy," p. 411,
edit. 1854.]
[62] [In allusion to the proverb.]
[63] _Arre_ is meant to indicate the snarling of a dog.
[64] So Machiavelli, in his complete poem, "Dell' Asino d'Oro," makes
the Hog, who is maintaining the superiority of the brute creation to
man, say of beasts in general--
"Questa san meglior usar color che sanno
Senz' altra disciplina per se stesso
Seguir lor bene et evitar lor danno."--Cap. viii.
[65] [Old copy, _I, and his deep insight_.]
[66] An allusion to Sebastian Brandt's "Ship of Fools," translated by
Alexander Barclay.
[67] So in "the second three-man's song," prefixed to Dekker's
"Shoemaker's Holiday," 1600, though in one case the bowl was _black_, in
the other _brown_--
"_Trowl the bowl_, the jolly _nut-brown_ bowl;
And here, kind mate, to thee!
Let's sing a dirge for Saint Hugh's soul,
And drown it merrily_."
It seems probable that this was a harvest-home song, usually sung by
reapers in the country: the chorus or burden, "Hooky, hooky," &c. is
still heard in some parts of the kingdom, with this variation--
"Hooky, hooky, we have shorn,
And bound what we did reap,
And we have brought the harvest home,
To make bread good and cheap."
Which is an improvement, inasmuch as harvests are not brought home
_to town_.
[68] Shakespeare has sufficiently shown this in the character of
Francis, the drawer, in "Henry IV. Part I."
[69] [A play on the double meaning of the word].
[70] In the original copy this negative is by some accident thrust into
the next line, so as to destroy at once the metre and the meaning. It is
still too much in the first line.
[71] This expression must allude to the dress of Harvest, which has many
ears of wheat about it in various parts. Will Summer, after Harvest goes
out, calls him, on this account, "a bundle of straw," and speaks of his
"thatched suit."
[72] A line from a well-known ballad of the time.
[73] [Old copy, _attract_.]
[74] In allusion to the ears of corn, straw, &c., with which he was
dressed.
[75] Old copy, _God's_.
[76] The exclamations of a carter to his horse. In "John Bon and Mast.
Person" (Hazlitt's "Popular Poetry," iv. 16), it is _haight, ree_.
[77] Old copy, _had_.
[78] i.e., Cheated.
[79] A play upon the similarity of sound between _vetches_ and
_fetches_. In the old copy, to render it the more obvious, they are
spelt alike.
[80] Mr Todd found this word in Baret's "Alveary," 1580, as well as in
Cotgrave; but he quotes no authority for the signification he attaches
to it--viz., a _lubber_. Nash could have furnished him with a quotation:
it means an idle lazy fellow.
[81] Alluding to the attraction of straw by jet. See this point
discussed in Sir Thos. Brown's "Vulgar Errors," b. ii. c. 4.
[82] [Old copy, _I had_.]
[83] [Old copy, _there_.]
[84] This song is quoted, and a long dissertation inserted upon it, in
the notes to "Henry IV. Part II." act v. sc. ii., where Silence gives
the two last lines in drinking with Falstaff. _To do a man right_ was a
technical expression in the art of drinking. It was the challenge to
pledge. None of the commentators on Shakespeare are able to explain at
all satisfactorily what connection there is between _Domingo_ and a
drinking song. Perhaps we should read Domingo as two words, i.e., _Do_
[mine] _Mingo_.
[85] [Old copy, _patinis_.]
[86] Horace, lib. i. car. 37--
"Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
Pulsanda tellus."
[87] [Old copy, _epi_.]
[88] [A line out of a ballad.]
[89] Micher, in this place, signifies what we now call a flincher: in
general, it means a truant--one who lurks and hides himself out of the
way. See Mr Gifford's short note on Massinger's "Guardian," act iii.
sc. v., and Mr Steevens' long note on Shakespeare's "Henry IV. Part I."
act ii. sc. 4.
[90] [Friesland beer. See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain,"
vol. ii. p. 259.]
[91] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 271.] Properly _super ungulum_,
referring to knocking the jack on the thumb-nail, to show that the
drinker had drained it. Ben Jonson uses it in his "Case is Altered:"
"I confess Cupid's carouse; he plays _super nagulum_ with my liquor of
life."--Act iv. sc. 3.--_Collier_.
[92] This was the common cry of the English soldiers in attacking an
enemy: we meet with it in Marlowe's "Edward II." where Warwick exclaims--
"Alarum to the fight!
_St George for England_, and the Baron's right!"
So also in Rowley's "When you see me, you know me," 1605: "King Arthur
and his Knights of the Round Table that were buried in armour are alive
again, crying _St George for England_! and mean shortly to conquer Rome."
[93] From the insertion of _Toy_ in this song instead of _Mingo_, as it
stands on the entrance of Bacchus and his companions, we are led to
infer that the name of the actor who played the part of Will Summer was
_Toy_: if not, there is no meaning in the change. Again, at the end of
the piece, the epilogue says in express terms: "The great fool Toy hath
marred the play," to which Will Summers replies, "Is't true, Jackanapes?
Do you serve me so?" &c. Excepting by supposing that there was an actor
of this name, it is not very easy to explain the following expressions
by Gabriel Harvey, as applied to Greene, in his "Four Letters and
Certain Sonnets, 1592," the year when Nash's "Summer's Last Will and
Testament" was performed: "They wrong him much with their epitaphs and
solemn devices, that entitle him not at the least _the second Toy_ of
London, the stale of Paul's," &c.