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140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.—Draws attention to further borrowings by Weever.

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140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.
11-12-1911

Dear Mr McKerrow,

I’ve just finished reading my recently-acquired copy of the Arcadia, which, I presume, follows ed. 1598, and I find that of 13 quotations ascribed to Weever in England’s Parnassus, five of them consist of matter borrowed with little alteration from Sidney’s book. At least two more quotations signed “Weever” in E.P. come from Marlowe’s portion of Hero and Leander, and another (1949) {1} seems to be an imitation of Romeo & Juliet. Routledge’s copy of the Arcadia is very badly edited, being full of misprints and ridiculously wrong readings; and, in one case, there is such a very shocking mistake—the old ſ in “suck” being converted into an “f” that, I think, the publishers would call their editor over the coals, if they knew it (see Book IV, p. 535).

I mention these borrowings from the Arcadia because they seem to indicate that the work in which they will eventually be found was written immediately after the 1598 Arcadia appeared (Hero & Leander also appearing in the same year) and, apparently, before the Epigrams, which borrow from the Arcadia but not so closely. Here is a case in point, in support of this conclusion.

I pointed out to you that a part of the Epigram addressed to Shakespeare echoed lines quoted above Weever’s name in E.P. Now I will draw your attention [to] Ep. No 16, Second Weeke, p. 40, on Richard Upcher, which is a similar repetition of the following, ascribed to Weever, under Women:—

Women bee
Framde with the same parts of the minde as wee;
Nay, Nature triumpht in their beauties birth,
And Women made the glorie of the earth:
The life of bewtie, in his supple breasts,
And in her fairest lodging, vertue rests;
Whose towring thoughts, attended with remorse,
Do make their fairness be of greater force.
I. Weever.

It is not difficult to see the influence of Sidney in the Upcher Epigram, but it is difficult to find sufficient warrant for describing it as a borrowing from the Arcadia; but when one comes to compare it with the above quotation and then goes from the quotation to Sidney, the source of Weever’s inspiration is manifest at a glance. Note the following:—

[Women] {2} are framed of nature with the same parts of the mind for the exercise of vir-tue as we are. —it likes me much better when I find virtue in a fair lodging, &c.
Routledge (Book I), pp. 60–61.

I should think that Weever, if fully in print, and easily accessible, would be found to be a mine of wealth to those who wish to get information concerning the probable dates of pieces like Julius Caesar, &c., for he seems to have borrowed right and left, and whilst newly-issued books were hot in his memory. I must have a good cut at that Mirror of Martyrs again. I jotted down many of its borrowings in one of my books, which I misplaced. (I’ll look for it, now.) {3} Don’t trouble to reply to this, please.

Yrs. truly
C Crawford.

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Formerly inserted in McKerrow’s copy of his own edition of John Weever’s Epigrammes in the Oldest Cut and Newest Fashion, 1599 (1911) (Adv. c. 25. 81).

{1} ‘(1949)’ interlined in pencil.

{2} The square brackets are original.

{3} The words in brackets are written below the last words of the preceding sentence, to which they evidently refer. The brackets have been supplied.

140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.—Is pleased that McKerrow agrees with him about the quality of Rankins’ writing. Discusses echoes of other works in Weever’s Epigrammes, and lists the sources of poems and songs in various Elizabethan collections.

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Transcript

140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.
27-11-1911

Dear Mr McKerrow,

I am glad to hear what you say about Rankins, for I thought I had put my foot in it when I ventured to suggest to you that he was worthy of some recognition. Although his Mirrour of Monsters {1} deals with what is an unpopular subject, it struck me as being an exceedingly well-written work; and it interested me because his opinions of the stage had seemingly undergone some change when he wrote the Sonnet in Belvedere.

That L.L.L. passage in the Epigrams must be credited to Mr Bullen, for I should never have found it if I had not seen your letter in N & Q. {2} Mr Bullen has got a wonderful memory, and it seems a pity he does not make more use of it.

I picked up the other day a copy of Sidney’s Arcadia, in Routledge’s Early Novelists series, and, apparently, it follows the edition of 1598. Amongst other things in it that I had vainly searched for in my old Arcadia, which follows ed. 1590, though haltingly, I found the following, which affects Weever’s Dedication to the Epigrams, The Fifth Weeke, p. 90:—

“But I think you will make me see that the vigour of your wit can show itself in any subject: or else you feed sometimes your solitariness with the conceit of the poets, whose liberal pens can as easily travel over mountains as molehills, &c.”
Book I, p. 44

“Then would he tell them stories of such gallants as he had known; and so with pleasant company beguiled the time’s haste, and shortened the way’s length, &c.”
Ibid, p. 45.

As you pointed out to me that a simile, under Love, in Belvedere, came from Whitney’s A Choice of Emblemes, I went through that pretty book, and found much in it affecting Belvedere. And I found other things, especially the originals of several of William Byrd’s Songs. Perhaps the following refs. may be useful to you:—

Bullen’s English Garner, Some Shorter Elizabethan Poems {2}

p. 33 The nightingale so pleasant, &c.
Also in Musica Transalpina, p. 71—further on in Bullen.

34. The greedy hawk, with sudden sight &c.
    Whitney’s Choice of Emb., Spes varia, p. 191, ed. 1586.

35. Susanna fair, sometime assaulted &c.
    Varied in Musica Transalpina, p 68.

36. While that the sun with his beams hot &c.
    Also in England’s Helicon, as pointed out by Mr Bullen.

37. Compel the hawk to sit that is unmann’d, &c.
    Churchyard’s Jane Shore, in Challenge, p. 132, ed. 1593.

38. The eagle’s force Subdues each Bird &c.
    Ibid, of course, as Mr Bullen says.

    ”. Of flattering speech with sugared words &c.
    Whitney, Choice of Emb., Latet anguis in herba, p. 24, ed. 1586

    ”. In Winter cold when tree, &c. (2 stanzas)
    [Whitney, Choice of Emb.] {4}, Dum aetatis ver agitur; &c. p. 159, ed. 1586.

39. Who looks may leap and save his shins &c.
    [Whitney, Choice of Emb.], Verbum emissum non est revocabile, p. 180, ed. 1586.

    ”. In Crystal Towers, and turrets richly set, &c
    [Whitney, Choice of Emb.], Animus non res, p. 198.

I have been much struck by the accuracy with which Byrd quotes his authors, and think this fact is worth noting. It worries me to see good (or even bad) work unclaimed, and therefore I send you these refs. so that each man may have his own. Please do not trouble to acknowledge this.

Yours truly,
Cha Crawford.

PS. I thought of going over Romeo & Juliet, and other pieces mentioned by Weever, and will do so now that I find you are interested in the matter. I would have pointed out the Arcadia passages a week ago, but that I feared you were sated with the subject.

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Formerly inserted in McKerrow’s copy of his own edition of John Weever’s Epigrammes in the Oldest Cut and Newest Fashion, 1599 (1911) (Adv. c. 25. 81).

{1} A Mirrour of Monsters: wherein is plainely described the manifold vices, & spotted enormities, that are caused by the infectious sight of place (1587) (STC 20699). See ODNB.

{2} Notes and Queries, 11th series, iv. 384–5 (11 Nov. 1911). Cf. Add. MS. a. 460/2/5.

{3} The references of the succeeding quotations are arranged in a column. In this transcript a full stop has been supplied after each page-number.

{4} In this reference and the next two these words are represented by ditto-marks.

11 Belmont Avenue, Belmont Road, West Green, N.—Discusses the progress of his work on Englands Parnassus, and refers to phrases in Weever’s Epigrammes which echo other works.

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11 Belmont Av. | Belmont Road | West Green, N.

Dear Mr McKerrow,

I traced out all Middleton’s Humphrey D. of Gloster quotations in Collier’s reprint on the 13th Jan. last, and ought to have told you of my results. {1} One quotation (No. 1805), signed Th. Middleton, comes from the Humphrey book, st 33. {2}

The British Museum had no copy of The History of Heaven, and I put down in their book a request for one to be got, if possible. {3}

That bowl and bias Epigram reminds one of Troilus & Cressida, {4} and the coal-black tent of p. 92 smacks of Marlowe. {5} The more I read these Epigrams the more important they seem to be; but they have come upon me suddenly, and I’ve not had time to grasp them. I’ve just finished an index to them and will tell you if I find anything new. But I suppose I shall be too late! If I had had the Parnassus plays, {6} I would have located what I wanted in them, if it had been there, and not have troubled you to go through them. I do not know why, but all along I kept associating those plays with the Epigrams; and with Hall. {7} But all my notes are in Professor Littledale’s copies of those books, {8} and are out of my hands now. I’m going to get a† copies of the books {9} shortly.

I am quite concerned that you should trouble to write so much to me, for I know you cannot spare the time; so please do not answer this or any other epistles I may send you. I shall know that I am not overlooked, without your troubling to let me know it.

Yours very truly
C Crawford.

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This letter, which was formerly inserted in McKerrow’s copy of his own edition of John Weever’s Epigrammes in the Oldest Cut and Newest Fashion, 1599 (1911) (Adv. c. 25. 81), was evidently written not long before the publication of that book—certainly after 13 January, the date mentioned in the first sentence, but presumably before, or not long after, 13 March, when McKerrow advised Frank Sidgwick that he had returned the proofs of Weever to the printers passed for press (Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Sidgwick and Jackson 12, fol. 117).

{1} In other words, he collated Collier’s edition of Englands Parnassus in Seven English Poetical Miscellanies (1867)—probably McKerrow’s own copy (see Notes & Queries, 26 June 1909, p. 503)—with one or both of the copies of Christopher Middleton’s poem The Legend of Humphrey Duke of Glocester (1600) (STC 17868) in the British Museum. In the original edition of Englands Parnassus (STC 378–80), twenty-two quotations were attributed to Christopher Middleton and two to Thomas Middleton, the names being cited in various abbreviated forms. Collier identified sixteen of the former group as being from Humphrey Duke of Glocester and six as being from The History of Heaven (1596) (STC 17867), another poem by the same author. In his own edition of Englands Parnassus (1913) Crawford pointed out that quotation No. 289, which had been assigned by Collier to The History of Heaven, was in fact from Humphrey Duke of Glocester, as were the two quotations signed Th. Middleton (Nos. 1569 and 1821). He was unable to get a sight of a copy of The History of Heaven to check Collier’s references to that work. At the time the present letter was written, it would appear that he had only identified the source of one of the ‘Thomas Middleton’ quotations.

{2} No. 1821 in Crawford’s edition. The number 1805 evidently relates to an earlier numbering, but it does not appear to derive from a simple counting of the separate passages in either the original edition or Collier’s.

{3} A copy was later acquired (C.122.c.17). See the Museum’s General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1955 (compact edition).

{4} The reference is to one of Weever’s Epigrammes (see McKerrow’s ed., p. 22), line 6 of which, ‘Blow wind, hold Byas, succour there, Gods ( )’ (the brackets are in the original), evidently reminded Crawford of Troilus and Cressida, IV. v. 11–12 (Globe ed.):

Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek
Outswell the colic of puff’d Aquilon

{5} The page reference is to McKerrow’s edition of Weever’s Epigrammes. Cf. Tamburlaine, Part I, V. i. (ed. Dyce):

now when fury and incensèd hate
Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents

{6} W. D. Macray’s edition of the college plays The Pilgrimage to Parnassus and the two parts of The Return from Parnassus (1886). Cf. Epigrammes (ed. McKerrow), pp. 116 (note on 43.2) and 124–5 (note on 111.5).

{7} Virgidemiarum, by Joseph Hall (1597–8).

{8} Littledale’s copy of Virgidemiarum was probably the 1824 edition by Thomas Warton and S. W. Singer, entitled Satires, and this was almost certainly the edition Crawford intended to get for himself (see the next sentence of the letter). See Epigrammes (ed. McKerrow), pp. 114 (note on 11.13), 123 (note on 97.13), and 124–5 (note on 111.5), and A. Davenport, ‘John Weever’s Epigrammes and the Hall-Marston Quarrel’, Review of English Studies, xi (1935). 66–8.

{9} ‘copies of the books’ has been altered from ‘copy of the book’. The preceding ‘a’ should, of course, have been deleted.

† Sic.

43 Elliott’s Row, St George’s Road, S.E.1.—The revelations about Thomas Lodge in the Review of English Studies are interesting. Points out the source of a phrase in Greenes Newes.

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43 Elliott’s Row, St George’s Road | S.E.1.
30 Dec. 1933.

Dear Dr McKerrow

The Review is to hand, and I thank you for having it sent to me. The revelations concerning Thomas Lodge {1} are most interesting to me, and make me view that author’s work from a quite different angle. Of late I’ve had to linger much over his various performances, and those of Robert Greene as well; which reminds me now of a trifle concerning the latter which you might care to take a note of.

The somewhat strange phrase in B.R’s Newes both from Heaven and Hell (p. 4, line 22),

“those lynes, wherein I found such a messe of altogether,”

comes from The Blacke Bookes Messenger, 1592 (Bodley Head Reprint, p. 29), near the close of the tract:

“Never was gentle Angler so drest, for his face, his head, and his necke, were all besmeared with the soft sirreverance [from the chamber-pot], {2} so as he stunke worse than a Jakes Farmer. The Gentleman hearing one cry out, and seeing his messe of altogether so strangely taken away, began to take hart to him,” &c.

I wish you a prosperous new year, and God’s blessing in all you do.

Yours gratefully,
Charles Crawford.

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Formerly inserted in McKerrow’s copy of his edition of Greenes Newes both from Heauen and Hell, 1593 and Greenes Funeralls, 1594 (two texts in one volume) (1911) (Adv. c. 25. 82).

{1} See Alice Walker, ‘The Life of Thomas Lodge’, Review of English Studies, vol. ix, pp. 410-32.

{2} The square brackets are original.

{3} ‘sirreuerence’ in Grosart’s ed. and OED.

140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.—Thanks him for the volumes of reprints, and refers to the probable source of a story in Greenes Newes.

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140 Carlingford Road, West Green, N.
5–X–1911.

Dear Mr McKerrow,

Messrs Sidgwick and Jackson sent me last night copies of your Greenes Newes and Weever’s Epigrams, and I thank you for them. I’ve been hunting about to find a repetition, with additions, of that story re Margery and her mother, told in Greenes Newes, p. 35, ll. 8–19, but have lost the trail for the moment, although it is not long since I read it. But it will come to me some time, and may prove to be of some use. I have an idea now it is to be found in “Apophthegms deliv-ered at severall times and upon severall occasions by K. James, King Charles, the Marquess of Worcester, Francis Lord Bacon, and Sir Thomas More,” a work published in 1658. I had to examine the work a little while ago for Mr Bullen, and found it to be a fraudulent and wretched piece of hack-work, with very little in it that was new. If you are going to publish any more of those old pamphlets, I hope you will let me have proofs, not because I wish to be mentioned in your reprints, but because I like to keep my hand in and my memory from getting rusty. I’d much rather you did not mention my name in your notes, for they are not worth such recognition; and it is a real pleasure for me to find that sometimes what I notice is of some little use.

Yours very truly
Charles Crawford

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Formerly inserted in McKerrow’s copy of his own edition of Greenes Newes both from Heauen and Hell, 1593 and Greenes Funeralls, 1594 (two texts in one volume) (1911) (Adv. c. 25. 82).