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.
-
The greedy hawk, with sudden sight &c.
Whitney’s Choice of Emb., Spes varia, p. 191, ed. 1586. -
Susanna fair, sometime assaulted &c.
Varied in Musica Transalpina, p 68. -
While that the sun with his beams hot &c.
Also in England’s Helicon, as pointed out by Mr Bullen. -
Compel the hawk to sit that is unmann’d, &c.
Churchyard’s Jane Shore, in Challenge, p. 132, ed. 1593. -
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. -
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.
—————
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.
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon.—Comments further on McKerrow’s editions of Weever and Greene.
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Transcript
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon
9.XI.1911.
My dear McKerrow,
I think the epigram Ad fatorum Dominum is intentional nonsense. {1} Have you noticed that it was included in Wit’s Recreations, 1640? See the Hotten reprint, p. 222, {2} where it is appropriately headed “Ad sesquipedales poetastros” (& may pair off with the Verses on p. 400 “When Neptunes blasts” &c which are headed “Pure Nonsence”).
Your note on “Guy & Guyon” struck me as doubtful. {3} Mustn’t Guyon be Spenser’s Guyon—the heroe† of the 2nd book of the Faerie Queene? ’Tis true that he was meant for Temperance and that Sir Calidore stood for Courtesy; but still (in 1599) nobody could take Guyon to be Gawain—his name must have been a household word.
I wish someone would give us a good reprint of Weever’s Funerals. {4} What a book it is!
In great haste.
Yours always
A. H. Bullen
—————
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). On p. 52 of this book, next to the epigram mentioned in this letter, McKerrow has written: ‘Included in Wits Recreations 1640, Hotten’s reprint p. 222 headed ‘Ad sesquipedales poetastros’ (A.H.B.)’.
{1} See Weever’s Epigrammes, ed. McKerrow, p. 52.
{2} The 1640 edition of Wits Recreations (STC 25870) was reprinted by John Camden Hotten in 1874 in a volume which also contained Facetiae, Musarum Deliciae, or The Muses Recreation (1656) and Wit Restor’d (1658).
{3} See Greenes Newes and Greenes Funeralls, ed. McKerrow, p. 92.
{4} Ancient Funerall Monuments within the United Monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent (1630) (STC 25223).
† Sic.
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon.—Thanks him for the volumes of reprints, and points out a borrowing by Weever from Love’s Labour’s Lost.
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Transcript
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon
5.X.1911.
My dear McKerrow,
Very many thanks for the books. Weever is a difficult writer: I wonder if his contemporaries could understand him.
The most interesting thing about his epigrams is his bagging from Love’s Labour’s Lost. See p. 57
“A withered Hermite five-score winters worne
Might shake off fiftie, seeing her beforne”
You might have mentioned that this is clean out of L.L.L., IV. iii. 238–9:—
“A wither’d hermit, five score winters worne
Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye”
If only a few copies have gone out you might insert a slip.
The Greene’s News & the Funeralls I shall read tonight.
I feel that I ought to have subscribed for these books: I hope you’ll cover your expenses.
Yours always
A. H. Bullen
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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). On p. 125 of the book is pasted a cutting of the article mentioned below.
{1} McKerrow’s editions of Weever (see above) and Greenes Newes both from Heauen and Hell, 1593, and Greenes Funeralls, 1594 (two texts in one volume), also published in 1911.
{2} McKerrow announced Bullen’s discovery in Notes and Queries on 11 November (pp. 384–5) and pointed out a few more borrowings from the same scene.
{3} The printed text has ‘fiue-score’.
Park Lodge, (Wimbledon).—Sends the first volume of the Variorum edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, and discusses The Elder Brother.
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Transcript
Park Lodge
Apr. 25. 02.
Dear McKerrow
Here is the first vol of the Beaumont & Fletcher. {1} Bullen has had my work ever since Tuesday week. {2} I saw him yesterday when he said he was just going to go through it.
Thanks for note about “blanket”. {3}
The you-ye figures are not quite so striking in the Elder Brother but are still noteworthy. I have had to divide the ye’s into “pure” & “contracted” i.e. used in contractions such as y’are, t’ye, t’ee, ’ee etc. These latter are not unfrequent in the more colloquial parts of Massinger. My results are
[The first three numbers after each name below are arranged in columns headed you, ye, and y’. The numbers in brackets are the sums of the amounts in the last two columns.]
Totals
Massinger. 129 | 3 | 12 | (15)
Fletcher. 189 | 45 | 26 | (71)
Percentage
Massinger 89·5 | 2·1 | 8·4 | (10·5)
Fletcher 72·7 | 17·3 | 10· | (27·3)
From this it would appear that the real distinction lies in the use of unelided ye. It is necessary of course to have a considerable basis of observation for the figures to be of any use. I have also got some noticeable figures regarding ’em & them.
[The first two numbers in the entries below are arranged in columns headed ’em and them.]
Totals
Massinger 5 | 25
Fletcher 25 | 9
Percentage
Massinger 29·4 | 70·6 | = 100
Fletcher 73·5 | 26·5 | = 100
I have not got the figures for any other play of Massingers.
I enclose a photo {4} I came across the other day (I dont want [it] back) which seems to show that at that time there was no such wall in the chancel as you were speaking of at Melrose.
I was in the B.M. the Monday & Tuesday after we came home {5} & hoped to meet you but didnt. I was also in for a bit yesterday.
Hoping to see you some time soon
Yours ever
Walter W. Greg
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Vertical lines have been supplied to separate the numbers in the tables.
{1} A preliminary version, perhaps a proof, of the first volume of the variorum edition of The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher published by G. Bell & Sons and A. H. Bullen in 1904. It contained The Maid’s Tragedy, Philaster, A King and No King, The Scornful Lady, and The Custom of the Country, the first two plays edited by P. A. Daniel, the rest by R. Warwick Bond. The second volume, published in 1905, contained Greg’s edition of The Elder Brother, together with The Spanish Curate and Wit Without Money edited by McKerrow, Beggars’ Bush edited by P. A. Daniel, and The Humorous Lieutenant edited by R. Warwick Bond. In his introduction to The Elder Brother Greg discussed and applied various tests that had been suggested to determine which parts of the play were written by Fletcher and which by Massinger. These included an examination of the relative frequency of the forms you and ye, suggested by McKerrow, and of the forms ’em and them, as proposed by A. H. Thorndike in The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shakspere (1901). The first table in the present letter was reprinted in the introduction, and the totals in the second table were quoted.
{2} 15 April.
{3} Cf. Greg’s note on The Elder Brother, IV. iii. 194 (Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, ii. 76).
{4} There is a faint transfer of the image on the letter.
{5} The reference to Melrose in the previous sentence suggests that Greg and McKerrow had recently been to Scotland together.
27 Dafforne Road, Upper Tooting, S.W.—Agrees to lend him his copy of Collier's Henslowe. Discusses the interlude Hester.
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Transcript
27 Dafforne Road, Upper Tooting, S.W.
27.ii.05
Dear Mr Greg.
i. Henslow. You may have my Collier Henslow† {1} for a week or so with pleasure but unfortunately our friend Mr Bullen has induced me to resume work on the Drama & I shall be using it daily. I cannot spare it before Easter {2}. Would it meet your wish as I shall be in Wimbledon the first fine afternoon if I called on you with it between 2.30 P.M. & 5 & read the dates over with you? or could you call on me? if the latter fix your own time.
ii. Hester. My knowledge of pre-theatrical enterludes is not deep & as the titles of my books {3} shew they formed no part of my original plan. I lumped Hester & A. {4} with the Shrew &c in blind acquiescence to R Simpson but whether to MS or printed statement I cannot now tell. I should not now venture to say whether the Adm[ira]ls or Chamb[erlai]ns acted in in 1594. I did not know of Collier or Grosarts Godly Queen. I have this afternoon read yours & am greatly pleased with it. I spotted l.l. 542 & 1012 & then found Mr Smith had anticipated me. In l. 985 &c I prefer to read “could not be told.” In l. 22 I take “doughty” & “weighty” to be variants for “worthy” not for “sure” & would read “Most dread sovereign King to you assure” & refer “Assurance” to a marginal query as a possible reading for ‘assure’. In note on l. 22 dele m in ommitted†. You have let me down very easy for following Collier as to the Chapel children but I am by no means sure of the Wolsey hypothesis. What possible reason could there be for an intitled company to publish an anti-Wolsey play temp. 3 Eliz. & if it was played by an allowed company where is the prayer for the Queen?
I will read the Hester again & report duly
Yours in haste
F. G. Fleay
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{1} John Payne Collier’s edition of the Diary of Philip Henslowe (Shakespeare Society, 1845). Greg’s own edition of the Diary had been published the previous year.
{2} 23 April.
{3} The reference is probably to Fleay’s Chronicle History of the London Stage, 1559-1642 (1890) and his three-volume Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642 (1891).
{4} Hester and Ahasuerus, a play mentioned in Henslow’s Diary (Collier’s ed., pp. 35-6) as having been performed at Newington by the Admiral’s Men and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men on 3 and 10 May 1594.
† Sic.
Sheffield.—Offers to be a referee for McKerrow’s application for a lectureship at King’s College for Women. Adds further notes on Nashe. Is excited by the news of the Harvey books in the Denbigh Library.
(With an envelope.)
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Transcript
Sheffield. 12 Oct 1912
Dear McKerrow,
Many thanks for yr letter—I am sorry to have given you trouble about those two lines of Harvey through my carelessness in overlooking them.
The lectureship is, I understand, at King’s College for Women: so there is risk of their appointing a woman. Please give me as a reference, though good wine does not need such a very inferior bush.
Nashe {1}
II {2}
47. 31. I wonder if the form ‘by-os’ comes from some refrain
‘lullaby, lullaby oh’
121. 14. Cp. Hamlet IV. 5 119 for ‘overpeers’.
142. 9. Is wanze due to a misreading of wanʒe = wanien (wane).
155. 7. I suppose the original line must have been
Dives erat dudum, fecerunt me tria nudum
201. 1. Southampton was admitted at S. John’s 16 Oct 1585—so Nashe probably knew something of him there—Then when Nashe was in the Isle of Wight he was not far from Titchfield—as is seen in the first English letter of Tubbe. He perhaps renewed his acquaintance.
210. 4. quarters on London Bridge. Could this mean ‘quarters’ of traitors? or was only the head stuck on London Bridge?
225. 29. ‘pincht good mindes to Godward’ means, I think, ‘robbed souls well disposed to God of’. ‘good minds to Godward’ may have been a puritanical phrase.
230. 9. Paracelsus Spirit of the Buttery. May this contain an allusion to his drunkenness? I dont see why his familiar spirit shd otherwise be called a spirit of the buttery.
Your second envelope with the cutting about Harvey books in the Denbigh Library has just arrived. It is rather exciting—though Bullen I think wont welcome much more copy than he has got. It will require some page of Addenda—at any rate—& I wish I had known of the books, a little earlier.
Many thanks for sending the cutting.
Yours ever
G. C. Moore Smith
[Direction on envelope:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammer-smith | London W
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The envelope was postmarked at Sheffield S.D.O. at 4.45 p.m. on 12 October 1912.
{1} The succeeding notes refer to passages in Christ’s Teares over Jerusalem and The Unfortunate Traveller.
{2} This volume number appears only before the first entry, but the rest are indented to show that it relates to all of them.
31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield.—Discusses a passage in Nashe’s Preface to Menaphon and the progress of his own editions of Tubbe and Harvey.
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Transcript
31 Endcliffe Rise Road | Sheffield
28 Sep 1912
Dear McKerrow,
With regard to that much-discussed passage in Nashe’s Preface to Menaphon—
p. 316. l. 9. as those who are neither &c. {1}
Can this means†,
like men who are neither born in Provence (to whom Latin or Italian might be supposed to come as a second nature) nor able to distinguish between articles (in the grammatical sense).
If so, there must be some particular allusion to a mistake in translation—probably in the title,—turning on some mistranslation of an article. I should have expected ‘as those that are’ to mean ‘considering that they are’—but if so, it is hard to get anything out of the latter part of the clause. However this is very stale to you, & one gets no further.
With regard to the phrase lower down however
‘have not learned the just measure of the Horizon without an Hexameter.’
I dont think it struck me before but I now think ‘without’ means ‘encompassing.’ [There follows a diagram of a circle divided in two by a horizontal line from which five very short vertical lines depend at regular intervals.] This clause might then be an attack on verse of 7 feet where there should be 6. I wonder if this sense of ‘without’ ever occurred to you in your wrestlings with this passage? I feel little doubt about it.
I suppose you have been back from Bonchurch for some time. I have not heard anything from Sidgwick about Tubbe, but I have no doubt he wd wish to have your opinion. His verse is very poor stuff—but it has its interest, I think, especially in his satirical pieces—and in those in which he introduces far-fetched comparisons & learning. So, I hope, that you will find that you are able to print 100 pp. of it to go with the Introduction presented you for nothing without the prospect of losing money over yr enterprise. I should be extremely sorry for you to lose over it. If you cannot undertake it—is it worth while to have the Introduction printed off by itself? Or would it be better first to submit the larger plan to the Cambridge Press?
I am at present a little disappointed in Secker—as he seems in one point not to have acted quite straightforwardly. He agreed that I should ask Mr Almack to lend us his (apparently) unique copy of Tubbe’s Meditations {2} (2nd titlepage) for the titlepage to be photographed. The book was sent to Secker for this purpose—& now he says he did not have a photograph taken—but he had a drawing made which he has mislaid. He never told me at the time that he was not having a photo. taken.
Bullen is sending in Harvey proofs almost faster than I want, as I am getting very busy. He was knocked down by a bicycle on Monday week {3}—but appears to have recovered.
Yours ever
G. C. Moore Smith
F. W. Clarke is hoping to get a lectureship at Bangor. {4} Till now, he has not got a berth.
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{1} The phrase runs in full, ‘as those that are neither prouenzall men, nor are able to distin-guish of Articles’ (Works of Nashe, iii. 316).
{2} Meditations Divine and Morall (1659) (Wing 3208). Wing lists six copies, and there is another at St John’s College, Cambridge.
{3} 16 September.
{4} Clarke had previously been Assistant Lecturer in English at Victoria University, Manchester, a post he held till this year. His application to Bangor appears to have been successful, for he was said to be of the University College, Bangor, in 1934 (Alumni Cantabrigienses).
† Sic.
108A Lexham Gardens, Kensington, W.—Commends the latest issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine (the first of a new series under the editorship of A. H. Bullen, with McKerrow as assistant).
(With envelope.)
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Transcript
108A Lexham Gardens, Kensington, W.
2 March 1906.
Dear Mr McKerrow,
I am very much obliged to you for your courtesy in sending me a copy of ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ for February. It presents a very satisfactory appearance, and will, I do not doubt, prove very serviceable.
I am
Yours very truly,
Sidney Lee.
[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow, Esq., | 30 Manchester Street, | Manchester Square, | W.
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The envelope was postmarked at Kensington Sorting Office, W., at 1.15 p.m. on 2 March 1906.
{1} This number began a new series of the magazine, under the editorship of A. H. Bullen, with McKerrow as assistant. It was effectively discontinued the following year, though ‘copyright registration copies’, consisting of the wrappers only, continued to be sent to the British Museum till 1922. See F. C. Francis, ‘A List of the Writings of Ronald Brunlees McKerrow’, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 4th series, xxi (1941), 235–6, and McKerrow’s letter in the Times Literary Supplement, 18 June 1931, p. 487.
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford.—Discusses Greg’s edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
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Transcript
The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon
19. V. 1910.
My dear Greg,
It was very good of you to send me your edition of the 1602 Merry Wives, and I am sure that I shall profit by the study of your Introduction & Notes.
As I read the Introduction I was horrified to find on p. XVI “The second is the late H. C. Hart.” So poor Hart is dead. This is news to me, and very sad news. I see the “Athenæum” every week but usually fling it into the waste-paper basket after carelessly glancing at it; so I miss notices of the death of friends. Hart used to talk about a Ben Jonson “Glossary,” on which he had been engaged intermittently; and I wonder in what shape he left it. His death is a loss.
Your account of the reporting of “John Bull’s Other Island” is very much to the point; and your suggestion that the actor who played the Host of the Garter may have helped the reporter of “Merry Wives” seems quite reasonable.
It may be uncritical, but however often I were to print Shakespeare I should always incorporate passages from the 1602 4to. in the Folio text. I can’t see the objection of tacking “I will retort the sum in equipage” on to “Why, then the world’s mine oyster, / Which I with sword will open,” if one puts a full stop and a dash after “open.” The renewed request gives more point to Falstaff’s renewed refusal “Not a penny.”
“Cride-game” is a terrible teazer. Hart’s reference to bears seems to me far too peregrinate. What the deuce have bears to do with feasting at a farm house? “Cried I aim?” at any rate gives sense and “Cride-game” is meaningless[.]
I shall go closely through your edition, and I thank you for so kindly remembering me.
Yours sincerely
A. H. Bullen
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
—————
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).