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31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield.—Discusses McKerrow’s plan of establishing a journal devoted solely to English studies.

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Transcript

31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield
Nov. 12. 1923

My dear McKerrow,

Many thanks for your kind letter. I am rejoiced to hear that English studies are to have an organ of their own in this country, and that you are to direct it. I have written again & again—to E. K. Chambers I think among others—urging the inadequacy of the MLR to meet the demands made on it & properly to represent English studies {1}—& I have been surprized not to hear earlier of a movement for a Journal devoted to English studies alone.

I pressed on Robertson {2} some time ago (within the last twelvemonths) the desirability of breaking up the MLR so that the English section could appear as a separate Journal. He was evidently against this (believing I suppose that a MLR without English in it could not pay its way)—but said that he thought the solution was a separate Journal for English.

I have at present matter in hand and reviews due that will take all the space for several numbers to come. This means that a book often does not get reviewed in print till 2 years or more after its appearance. It also means that I have to print particularly articles so abstruse or devoid of general interest that they have no chance of getting in elsewhere—& to turn off a popular well-written article—which may be just as valuable—on to some other journal. I have just succeeded in getting an excellent article of Stoll’s on Hamlet into the Contemporary. {3}—There is such an abundance of good matter crying to be published that I hope you will not commit yourself in a hurry to including so much of the nature of Reports of Societies &c. as to limit your powers of publishing the articles & reviews you want. I hope however you will include as the German journals do a page or so of Necrology when required. It has seemed to me sad that the MLR should not be able to include a word on great scholars such as Raleigh & Ker & Vaughan & H. Bradley when they die. {4}

Of course I think the effect on the MLR will be serious. If your standard is as high as ours has been—& it is likely to be higher rather than lower—why should an English student pay for a journal in which English studies occupy only ⅓ of the space as against one in which they hold the field? This is, if the price of your Journal is the same as that of the MLR. Perhaps you will make it less in order to widen your circulation among people who are not actually scholars themselves.

Am I at liberty to send on your letter to Robertson? or are you writing to him?

I understand from your letter that your Journal will not be specially connected with the English Association. However it will no doubt attract the special interest of the E.A. That Association for the last 2 years has made a grant to the MLR to enable it to give 8 more pages to English Of course it will be important for us to know if we may depend on that grant in the future. I am pleased to see that you do not apparently intend giving another quarterly Bibliography.

I suppose you dont intend to pay your contributors—unless for some special articles.

Writing for myself, not for MLR, I look forward with the greatest interest to your Journal. The less it aims at popularity, the more it aims at representing the best English Scholarship, philological, literary-historical, & literary, in my eyes the better—I suppose you will leave articles of technical bibliography rather to the Library?

(I am glad to see that Herford in today’s Manchester Guardian accepts the conclusions of Maunde Thompson &c. as probably sound.) {5}

I dont know if it would be possible to come to any concordat in order to avoid the duplication of reviews. There are a lot of American books sent out by Milford to which justice wd be done if they were reviewed in one English journal only. On the other hand as things are, many books dont get reviewed in the MLR at all. [Footnote: ‘I have not received a copy of the Sir Thomas More book—nor of Herford’s book on Recent Shakespeare Criticism, nor of All. Nicoll’s book on Restoration Drama.’ {6}] The ideal would be for every book of value to be noticed in one journal or the other. I am afraid if this is to be achieved duplication of reviews should be avoided. It might be difficult however to come to any agreement in the matter.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

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{1} Moore Smith was editor of the English section of the Modern Language Review from 1915 to 1927. See MLR, xxxvi (1941). 246.

{2} J. G. Robertson, founder and chief editor of the MLR. See MLR, xxviii (1933), 19.

{3} ‘Recent Criticism of Hamlet’, Contemporary Review, cxxv (1924), 347–57.

{4} Sir Walter Raleigh and C. E. Vaughan died in 1922, W. P. Ker and Henry Bradley in 1923,

{5} The reference is to a review of Shakespeare’s Hand in the Play of Sir Thomas More, ed. A. W. Pollard (1923), one of the chapters of which was written by the palaeographer Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. C. H. Herford was a regular reviewer for the Manchester Guardian.

{6} The books referred to are Shakespeare’s Hand in the Play of Sir Thomas More (see the previous note), A Sketch of Recent Shakespearean Investigation, 1893–1923, and A History of Restoration Drama, 1600 to 1700, all published in 1923.

[Sheffield.]—Cites an example of the use of the word ‘dowdy’, in illustration of a note by McKerrow (on Nashe).

(Postmarked at Sheffield.)

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Transcript

From ‘Poetical Effusion’ by Mr Ayloffe Trinity College (? 18th century)—given in The Cambridge Tart . . by Socius. 1823. p 21.

Fops ‥ Who after the first bottle still the same,
Can never higher rise than Anagram,
Or at most quibble on their Dowdy’s name.

This seems to show that ‘Dowdy’ at that time still had the sense, for which you have given some examples in your note. {1}

Yrs
G.C.M.S

23 Nov 1911

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield S.D.S.O. at 1 p.m. on 24 November 1911.

{1} See Works of Nashe, iv. 453–4 (note on the Preface to Menaphon).

(Sheffield?)—Sends further notes on Nashe.

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Transcript

Dear McKerrow,

I am reading Nashe again.

Some of these ideas probably occurred to me before—& were communicated to you—I must apologize if so.

GCMS.

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This brief letter and the accompanying notes (MCKW A2/11b) were probably written not long before 20 October 1912, when Moore Smith referred to their contents in a postcard (MCKW A2/15), clearly expecting them to be easily identified. But as the statement with which the letter begins appears to indicate that Moore Smith had begun reading Nashe again after a break, it presumably precedes his letter of 28 September (MCKW A2/12), which also contains notes on that author.

Transcript

Nashe. {1}

III {2}

147. 20. too. I suppose this is ‘to’—and that you take it so.

154. 21. Nashe seems to understand istic as = hic, instead of being opposed to it. In his age hic and iste were thought to be synonymous.

162. 9. Is emendation needed? May not ‘Madam Amphitrite’ {3} simply mean ‘the sea’?

163. 5. Cp. Silius 5. 396 | latrantes undae

168. 15. I suppose ‘vernaculum’ is due to Plautus, Poenulus IV. 2. 105.

—. 32. Should it be ‘to them lurtched’? The sense is still not clear.

171. 27. ? Essæx-surprised? or last-surprised? Might not the attack on Gadiz be taken as a surprize?

173. 19. ? ‘Maiden-piece’—‘our maiden paragon’ = Elizabeth.

177. 20. ‘of an enflamed zeale to copper-smithes hal’?

178. 10. should not ‘shee’ be ‘hee’? (the country gentleman)

179. 32. laborathro. {3} The Spanish form seems to be laboradór—and a medial ‘d’ often in Spanish has the sound ‘th’. That would give ‘laborathór’.

180. 10. ‘it gives their handfuls to’—? it keeps their hands fully employed.

184. 2. Was the Lord Mayor that year a Fishmonger?

186. 21. arming forth, though it be but a catch . . . . . . . bowle, to impe-the-winges-of his convoy—‘to speed his convoy.’

186. 29. What had the bailies of the Cinque Ports to do in Yarmouth?

188. 31. 200 witches are however said to have been executed in Scotland in 1590 for causing a storm the year before.

191. 32. Is ‘clumme’ a variant of ‘glum’?

210 8. This seems to come from an etymology of ‘absurdus’—I suppose not in Isidorus Hispalensis?

217. 9. Query, a parody of a legal phrase such as in the ‘particular strict and usual’ meaning of the word.

[217.] {5} 20. Does this mean in Armado-language— ‘was no breathe-able (or acceptable) scent to the channel of her ear’

244. 358. Solstitium, come into the court without. I suppose the play was not acted in the Court-yard of the Archbishop’s Palace? I am rather surprized at yr statement that the usual supper time was 9—and that the play was presumably acted still later. In Ascham’s time at Cambridge dinner was at 10 & supper at 5 I think and Nashe says the feast at a Commence-ment was held about 3.

249. 491. I dont feel sure that these lines are corrupt—‘when he returns to the sea from which he rose, then he assumes the god’—Or do you think the word ‘dawns’ implies a description of his rising?

250. 530. I should think ‘woods’ must stand for ‘words.’ Is there some definition of Poetry to correspond to this? Or would you prefer ‘woods’ because the Phaethontidae were turned into poplars?

[250.] {5} 533–5. I dont see any corruption here. The rocks do not refuse to be the source of streams And a stony heart cannot object to a cry of woe from those whom it has oppressed.

252. 615-7. These lines seem to me corrupt.

253. 630. Is Vertumnus humorously made to say | Orĭon Vrĭon Arĭon

258. 799. ‘I print this as prose.’ In my copy it looks like verse.

[258.] {5} 804. I suppose the last line of Collier’s note contains an error. ‘Town’ in the song means ‘homestead’ I suppose.

267. 1049. Can it be ‘flye fiue meale in the Element’ = fly in five pieces

270. Is a line wanting before l. 1160? Or should 1160 and 1161 be inverted?

285. l. 1654. If ‘me’ can be the Ethic Dative, the text may stand.

272. 1215. something must be wanting. Perhaps the whole Latin quotation

Where on the contrary ‘servitutem servi
Risci jocisque ulciscuntur mali’

which is then (incorrectly) translated.

291. 1836 &c. Some emendation seems necessary. I can only suggest

My murmuring springs, musicians of sweete sleepe,
2) Channel’d in a sweete falling quaterzaine,
1) To murmuring male-contents, with their well-turn’de aires {6}
To lull their eares (or cares) {7} asleepe, listning themselves

292. 1884. ‘This lowe built house.’ I am rather doubtful if actors would have spoken of the Arch-bishop’s Palace in these terms. And if so, I dont know what the line means. May they not mean the grave to which they are carrying Summer? & the words be sung, as the procession has already passed out of sight of the company?

250. 545 etc. You dont say these lines are corrupt—but they surely are. It seems to me that a line is wanting before 547—such as

‘And this same stream that now lies waterless’

In 550 ‘ran’ should probably be ‘run.’ But even so, the whole passage is very clumsy.

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{1} The succeeding notes relate to Nashes Lenten Stuffe and Summer’s Last Will and Testament.

{2} This volume number appears only before the first entry, but the rest are indented to show that it was intended to relate to all of them.

{3} ‘Madona Amphitrite’ in McKerrow’s edition.

{4} ‘laboratho’ in McKerrow’s edition. Cf. MCKW A2/15.

{5} The entry is indented to show that the page number of the preceding entry relates to this one as well.

{6} Numbers are braced to these two lines to indicate that their order should be reversed.

{7} ‘or cares’ added below ‘eares’. Brackets supplied.

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.

Sheffield.—Is trying to find a publisher for his edition of Tubbe. Discusses a phrase used by Nashe, and asks McKerrow to check a quotation in the British Museum. Asks whether McKerrow is a candidate for the vacant lectureship at Cambridge.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

Sheffield 8 Oct 1912

Dear McKerrow,

Many thanks for your letter—I am sorry Sidgwick is not able to undertake Tubbe—both because I should be glad to see its fate settled—& because I conclude that neither he nor you see anything of much interest in Tubbe’s so called poems. However I wd much sooner have this refusal than feel afterwards that Sidgwick had been let in on my account—And you & he are better judges than I am of what is saleable.

I am afraid the Cambridge Press—or the Oxford Press—wd see no advantage in having the Introduction in print for nothing—as they are punters themselves & would not issue other people’s work. So I am asking Sidgwick to send the MS. &c to Mr Murray {1}—to whom I have written—If he declines the honour, I think I shall get Secker to print off the Introduction as a pamphlet without any poems. This I think he will do.

Another Nashe-point Dont trouble to write about it.

I. 241. {2} they set up their faces (like Turks) to be spat at for silver games in Finsburie fields!

You say—‘I know nothing of these games.’ ‘Silver games’ means, I think ‘silver prizes’ Cp. Statute XXIV Henry VIII cap. 15.

upon their bonettes such games of silver ‥ as they may win by wrastling, shoting, (&c)

Ascham, Toxophilus—

some ‥ shooters shoote for a lytle moneye—I may cast my shafte ‥ for better game

J Cook. The City Gallant (Hazlitt—Dodsley XI. 249)

Now dost thou play thy prizes: if you can do any good, the silver game be yours.

Bishop L Andrewes 5th Sermon on Fasting (ed. 1631 p. 219)

‘To win but a prize at a running ‥ they will abstaine from all things ‥ and all is but for a poor silver game’

So these independent writers stick up their books to meet general contempt, as showmen in Finsbury fields stick up Turks’ heads to be spat at for a small silver prize.

Some time when you are at the B.M., I should be much obliged if you would look at Brydges’ Archaica vol. II pt. 4 p. 57. Mayor quotes from there two lines of Gabriel Harvey’s

‘Haddon farewel, and Ascham thou art stale
And every sweetness tastes of bitter bale.’

I dont find these lines in Harvey’s sonnets appended to the Four letters {2}—and I wonder if they come from some MS. source. I have given in the book Bullen in printing a list of Harvey’s MSS. so far as they are known to me—and I wonder if these lines come from one, which I didn’t know of. If so, I wonder where the MS. is—and what its other contents are.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith.

It is strange that the two chairs of English at Cambridge should be vacant at the same time Are you a candidate for a lectureship in English which I hear is vacant at King’s College?

[Direction on envelope:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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The envelope, which was postmarked at Sheffield W.D.S.O. at 10.30 p.m. on 8 October 1912, has been marked on the front in pencil, ‘Notes for Nashe’, and on the back, ‘Acad. Registrar, | University of London | South Kensington. | Oct 19’.

{1} Followed by a superfluous full stop. The reference is to John (later Sir John) Murray (1851–1928).

{2} This passage, which is from Pierce Penilesse, occurs in fact on lines 7–9 of the previous page: ‘they set vp their faces (like Turks) of gray paper, to be spet at for siluer games in Finsburie fields.’ ‘(like Turks)’ is followed in the MS. by a full-stop.

{3} McKerrow has interlined here in pencil, ‘(Yes. Sonnet VI p. 241 of Grosart’s ed.)’. Cf. MCKW A2/14.

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.

(Sheffield.)—Adds to his previous remarks on Nashe’s use of the word ‘laboratho’.

(Postmarked at Sheffield.)

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In my Nashe notes, {1} I suggested that Laboratho, {2} III 179. 32 was for Laborathor, though I could not quote an example of ‘th’ = Spanish ‘d’. Now, in Sir Henry Wotton’s letter of Oct 20 1589 (Pearsall Smith’s Life & Letters of Sir H. W. I 229) {3} I find he writes ‘Ambus-catho.’

Yours GCMS

Perhaps Nashe thought the form was Laborado tho. {4}

Oct 20 1912

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W.

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Postmarked at Sheffield at 11 a.m. on 21 October (the year is wanting).

{1} See MCKW A2/11.

{2} Altered from ‘Labarathro’.

{3} Logan Pearsall Smith, The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, 2 vols. (1907).

{4} ‘thought the form was’ written around ‘was aiming at’ struck through. The postscript is written alongside the succeeding date.

(Sheffield.)—Quotes from Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, in illustration of a note in McKerrow’s edition of Nashe.

(Undated. Postmarked at Sheffield on 28 Oct. 1912.)

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Transcript

Nashe II 281 ll. 16–17 note {1}

Cp Fynes Moryson Itinerary 1617 Part III p 26 top: a stranger in Italy may not without licence from the Magistrate, weare a sword in their Cities, no nor so much as a dagger either in the Cities or high-waies of the Popes State.

GCMS.

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London | W

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Postmarked at Sheffield at 12.15 a.m. on 28 October (the year is wanting).

{1} The reference is to a note on The Unfortunate Traveller.

(Sheffield.)—Quotes again from Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary.

(Undated. Postmarked at Sheffield on 29 Oct. 1912.)

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Transcript

Fynes Moryson. Itiny. I 173

It is unlawfull to weare a sword without licence of the Magistrate, either at Milan, Cremona, Mantua, or almost in any Citie of Italy; onely at Venice and Paduoa, and the Cities of that State, strangers may weare Swords, and onely the wearing of Pistols or short gunnes is forbidden.

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield W.D.S.O. at 4.45 p.m. on 29 October 1912.

(Sheffield.)—Quotes from Coryate’s Crudities, in illustration of a note in McKerrow’s edition of Nashe.

(Undated. Postmarked at Sheffield on 31 Oct. 1912.)

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Transcript

Nashe II 281 ll. 27, 28 note. {1}

Coryate’s Crudities (1611) p. 258 bot—Gentlemen of Venice ‥ when they goe abroad ‥ doe weare gownes

p. 259 [Apart from the Venetian Knights who weare red apparell under their gownes] {2} ‥ The colour that they most affect and use for their other apparel, I mean doublet, hose, and jer-kin, is blacke: a colour of gravity and decency.

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield at 6.15 a.m. or p.m. on 31 October (the year and part of the time are wanting).

{1} The reference is to a note on The Unfortunate Traveller.

{2} The square brackets are original.

(Sheffield.)—Adds to his previous remarks on Nashe’s phrase ‘good mindes to Godward’.

(Undated. Postmarked at Sheffield on 5 Nov. 1912.)

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Transcript

Nashe II 225. 29. ‘pincht a number of good mindes to Godward of their prouant.’ {1}

You remember I suggested that ‘good mindes to Godward’ form one phrase. {2} There is something similar, I see, in Cowley’s Cutter of Coleman St Act I. Sc 2. ‘He was a very Rogue ‥ as to the business between man and man, but as to God-ward he was always counted an Upright man, and very devout.’

Yours
GCMS

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phœnix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield W.D.S.O. at 11 a.m. on 5 November 1912.

{1} The reference is to a phrase in The Unfortunate Traveller.

{2} See MCKW A2/14.

A group of 63 letters received by J. R. M. Butler after publication, many from friends of H. M. Butler and J. R. M. Butler as well as members of his extended family. Some of the letters include personal recollections of H. M. Butler. Correspondents include Frances Anne Conybeare, W. J. Conybeare, D. H. S. Cranage, J. A. Cruikshank, Randall Davidson, Albinia Donaldson, T. Field, Edward Graham, Alan Gray, Charles Haddock, John Charles Hill, Sir Arthur Hort, David Macdonald, H. H. Montgomery, G. C. Moore Smith, Edith Wendell Osborne, R. St. John Parry, Godfrey Phillips, Ernest M. Pollock (Lord Hanworth), John Ross, Ronnie Ross, A. E. Shipley, Henry Yates Thompson, George Trevelyan, and P. N. Waggett.

Family correspondents include Sir Cyril K. Butler, Diana Butler, Dorothy Butler, E. M. B. Butler, Sir Geoffrey Butler, George Grey Butler, John Butler, Sir Montagu S. D. Butler, Ralph L. G. Butler, Marie Gray, Antonia Greenwood, Hugh Howson, David Morley-Fletcher, A. Francis Norman-Butler, C. L. Ramsay, G. M. N. Ramsay, Susan E. Ramsay, and Audrey Tower.

90 Regent’s Park Road, N.W.1.—Welcomes the news of the proposed journal.

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Transcript

90 Regent’s Park Road, N.W.1
November 17. 1923

Dear McKerrow,

Moore Smith has just sent on to me your two letters about the projected new English journal.

I should like to thank you for the kind consideration that prompted your first letter to Moore Smith, and to assure you, on my part—I gather Moore Smith has already done so for himself—that, so far from resenting the appearance of a journal for English on lines similar to those of the Mod. Lang. Review, I rejoice in it. Things have come to such a pass in respect of English that Moore Smith has a most disheartening job in having so often to say no to first class stuff, and I, in having to restrict the number of pages I can allow him. Thus your journal will be a welcome relief to us; as it is, from the point of view of English scholarship, a crying necessity.

I gather from your letter that you propose to introduce a number of features distinct from anything we have attempted: This alone should preclude any mutually injurious rivalry. But I am sanguine enough to think that in the matters in which we are interested, “l’appétit vient en mangeant”; and I have some inward satisfaction in thinking that my efforts to create the appetite, in these eighteen years I have run the Review, should have been so successful that that appetite can no longer be appeased by one journal!

Possibly you may at first bring down our circulation; especially as your price is to be so low; but as your circulation this year is not far short of 600, and we managed to carry on in the difficult years of the War with hardly 400, I do not think that, even in the worst case, you will have our extinction on your conscience!

In any case, I wish the new venture every success. If there is any help either Moore Smith or myself can give you, it is unreservedly at your service

Believe me
Yours very truly
J. G. Robertson

31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield.—Quotes from the play Caesar’s Revenge, in illustration of a phrase in Nashe, and praises Elinor Jenkins’s poems.

(With an envelope.)

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Transcript

31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield
26 Jan. 1916

Dear McKerrow,

I have been reading through again Cæsar’s Revenge in the Malone ed.—a play very much of the Kyd or Spanish Tragedy type. At the end Discord says (after the battle of Pharsalia)

‘Hell and Elisium must be digd in ore
And both will be to litle to contayne
Numberless numbers of afflicted ghostes
That I myselfe have tumbling thither sent!’ {1}

May not Nashe be referring to this when he speaks of those that thrust Elisium into Hell? {2} If so, it would support the theory that he is aiming at Kyd—if Kyd is responsible for Cæsar’s revenge.

Perhaps however you have noted this line, though I dont think you discuss it in your note, & think it does not explain Nashe’s allusion.

I have received a paper on Cæsar’s Revenge from H. M. Ayres (Columbia University) {3} but I think there may be more to be found out in connexion with it.

Yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I thought E. Jenkins poems very good. {4} We are really producing poetry at present. The current number of the Poetry Review has so many good things that I am going to subscribe to it for our Library {5} in future & am buying the back volumes.

[Direction on envelope:] Dr McKerrow | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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The envelope, which has been marked ‘Note re Nashe’, was postmarked at Sheffield at 8.30 p.m. on 26 January 1916.

{1} The Tragedy of Caesar’s Revenge (Malone Society Reprints, 1911), lines 2441–4.

{2} The expression occurs in Nashe’s Preface to Menaphon. See Works of Nashe, iii. 316, lines 14–15.

{3} ‘Cæsar’s Revenge’, PMLA, xxx (1915), 771–87.

{4} Elinor Jenkins’ first book of Poems had been published by Sidgwick & Jackson the previous year.

{5} i.e. the library of the University of Sheffield.

The Clarendon Press, Oxford.—His reply has been delayed by an attack of influenza. The Review has his best wishes, but he cannot be relied on as a contributor at present.

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The Clarendon Press, Oxford
23 ii 1924 {1}

My dear Sir,

I hope you will excuse my long delay in replying to your very kind invitation to contribute to the new Review of English Studies. We have all had influenza, & I am afraid my correspondence has suffered.

The Review has my best wishes & I think there is room for it; but I fear you could not rely on me as a contributor. I get very little time for writing & have no taste for reviewing—I suppose one can have too much of books. Besides Moore Smith has been so good to me on the few occasions that I have had anything to print that I feel some obligations.

Still, if you would be so patient as to leave it in this way: that I shall send you as & when I can anything I think might interest you, I shall do my best when I get a little more leisure. At least you may be sure that your inability to offer payment is not a consideration at all: we ought to be glad to be printed. Will your reviews be signed? There are difficulties both ways, but on the whole I prefer the openness of a signature.

Yours very truly
Kenneth Sisam

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{1} The first two figures of the year are printed.

(London.)—Reports the result of his search for references to Thomas Nashe (in some probate records).

(Undated. Postmarked 4 Sept. 1918.)

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I could not find Thomas Nashe.—but near his probable date was the administration of the goods of John Nashe lately of the parish of St Mary Colchurch in the city of London granted to his relict Margaret Nashe on 22 March 1600/1. Unless there were some corroborating evidence, it wd of course be very rash to suppose that this is your man. She acted by a proctor, Thomas Brown notary public.

Yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I go tomorrow to 89 Banbury Rd Oxford {1} for 4 days

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | Messrs Sidgwick & Jackson | 3 Adam St | Adelphi | WC

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Postmarked at London, W.C., at 3.15 p.m. on 4 September 1918. This postcard was formerly inserted after p. 196 of McKerrow’s annotated copy of his Works of Nashe, Vol. V (Adv. c. 25. 76), at the beginning of Appendix E, ‘Extracts from Parish Registers, etc., concerning the Nashe family’.

{1} This address, known as ‘The Lawn’, was at one time the home of the neurophysiologist Francis Gotch (1853–1913) and his family (see the online catalogue of the papers of the Horsley family in the Bodleian Library), but it is not clear who lived there after Gotch’s death.

Park Lodge, Wimbledon Common, S.W. 19.—Thanks him for a copy of his book, and comments on it. Refers to his own forthcoming publications.

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31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield
23 Oct. 1927

My dear McKerrow,

It is extremely kind of you to send me your Introduction to Bibliography, as though my bookshelves did not give sufficient evidence of your generosity already. Very many thanks.

The book is crammed with instruction for all literary students such as noone else could have given as well, and I hope you will find that there is a great demand for it everywhere. I suppose you will get it reviewed in Germany.

You are very scrupulous in making acknowledgment of little observations made by other people. As to ‘Bassifie’ {1}, I think Brett-Smith told me that in the Bodleian copy this curious mistake is corrected. (is not found).

p. 137. last line. You assume that 1581 = 1580/1, not 1581/2. Is this certain?

I notice that in one little point of usage you differ from me. I should say ‘this went on down to 1840’ (regarding Time as a river)—you say ‘up to 1840’ (as though it were a mountain). I imagine that there is plenty of authority for your use, but it always seems to me unnatural.

I dont know why my Warton Lecture of May 20 is not yet out, at least I have had no copies sent me & have not seen any note of its publication. I am getting in Dorothy Osborne proofs. {2} Parry has seen the Introduction & written very amiably about it, so I think he is not going to raise difficulties.

I have not found a reviewer for Lawrence’s Haward Lectures on The† Physical Condition of the Elizabethan Public Playhouse.

Greg prefers not to review Lawrence’s books. I suppose you wont undertake it?

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

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Moore Smith customarily omitted apostrophes from words like ‘dont’ and ‘wont’.

{1} See An Introduction to Bibliography, p. 242.

{2} i.e. proofs of his edition of The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple, published by the Clarendon Press in 1928. The letters had previously been edited by Sir Edward Parry.

† Sic.

(Undated. This list was compiled in response to a letter from G. E. Durham dated 23 Sept. 1927 (Add. MS a. 457/2/1) and a version of it was received by Durham on or before the 26th (Add. MS a. 457/2/3). The persons, etc., listed are A. W. Pollard, W. W. Greg, Miss H. C. Bartlett, Miss E. M. Albright, Prof. Max Förster, Miss Field, Frank Sidgwick, Louvain Library, Sir Israel Gollancz, G. C. Moore Smith, and J. M. Manly. A note has been made of those who were also written to, and those from whom acknowledgements were received.)

31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield.—Comments briefly the latest issue of the Review. His own article on ‘Temples and Hammonds’ has been printed in Notes and Queries.

(Dated 3 Oct. Postmarked 3 Oct. 1926.)

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31 Endcliffe Rise Rd. Sheffield
3 Oct.

R.E.S. p. 422. {1} I think Marsh and Dunnington, however spelt in the will, must stand for March and Doddington. The other forms dont appear in the Gazetteer. One wd suppose that Peerson was native of March.

A. W. Reed is very kind to Merrill whose book is really a disgrace to scholarship in its textual inaccuracy. {2}

Notes & Queries has printed my article on Temples and Hammonds. {3}

Ever yours
G.C.M.S.

[Direction:] Dr McKerrow | Messrs Sidgwick & Jackson | 44 Museum St | London | WC1

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Postmarked at Sheffield at 6.30 p.m. on 3 October 1926. Another postmark declares, ‘BRITISH GOODS ARE BEST’.

{1} The reference is to Cecil S. Emden’s article ‘Lives of Elizabethan Song Composers: Some New Facts’, Review of English Studies, ii (1926), 416–22.

{2} See Reed’s review of The Life and Poems of Nicholas Grimald by L. R. Merrill (1925), ibid., pp. 483–5.

{3} ‘Temple and Hammond Families and the Related Families of Nowell and Knollys’, Notes and Queries, cli. 237–9 (2 Oct. 1926).

(Sheffield.)—Comments on passages in the Works of Nashe. Is thinking of publishing extracts from Gabriel Harvey’s marginalia.

(With an envelope, postmarked at Sheffield.)

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13 Nov. 1908

Dear McKerrow,

I have been turning over the pages of your Vol IV—It is indeed a marvellous storehouse of out of the way information. Are you going to provide an Index? I suppose so.

At this stage comments are of no use to you—but I will give you one or two. {1}

I 183. 17. In the expression ‘S. Nicholas Clerks’ is it clear that there is any reference to the devil? Chambers Book of Days II p 661 bot. explains the phrase in relation to a legend of St Nicholas.—On the other hand our ‘Old Nick’ is often said to be a name transferred to the Devil from Macchiavelli.

(Your page of Vol IV) 141. mid. {2} ‘at the university town of which’ should be ‘at the university of which town’ I suppose.

I p. 274. 21. I dont understand what you mean by saying the real point of the saying against ropemakers has not been explained.—Do you mean their ‘walking backwards’? In a little book I have on Trades &c. (titlepage lost) the ropemaker, it is said, fixes the hemp to his wheel—‘He then runs backwards giving out hemp as he goes!’ {3}

I 285. 21. {4} Better to have said ‘a pedant’ or ‘a scholastic philosopher’ as Pedantius himself is also a pedant, indeed, as a Schoolmaster, a pedant par excellence.

II 184 11. {5} In his MS. notes on Gascoigne’s ‘Notes of instruction on rime. &c’ in the Bodleian copy Harvey dissents from Gascoigne’s approval of monosyllables ‘the more monosyllables you shall use the truer Englishman you shall seem’—‘Non placet. A great Grace and Majesty in longer Wordes, so they be current Inglish. Monosyllables ar good to make up a hobling and hudling verse.’ {6}

III. 16. 10. If you mean St John’s College, Camb.—the Visitor at present is The Bishop of Ely. & he was so from the foundation of the College [without any break I imagine] {7}

III 41. 35 arsedine. {8} Edward Carpenter {9} was telling me the other day that Sheffield grinders say (or did till lately) ‘as thin as an assidine’ tho’ none of them know what an assidine is

III 43 14. There is a well known inn between Whittlesey & Thorney called ‘The dog in a doublet’ with a sign. An uncle of mine had a seizure on the ice & died there.

III 46. 6. The DNB. says that Harvey practised in the Court of Arches I think. I had thought there was some authority—but I dont remember it.

III 116 33. Our Johnian antiquary Thos. Baker has transcribed a lot of notes of Harvey made in a copy of his own Ciceronianus & other books—Among them a letter from Tho. Hatcher remonstrating with him for not having mentioned Haddon in his Ciceronianus—also Harvey’s reply. both in Latin Hatcher’s letter is 23 Nov 1577 and refers to Harvey’s having recently visited him at Careby near Stamford.

III 126 31. {10} Cp. Pedantius l. 194. At occuritur Aristotelem non vidisse verum in spirituali-bus.

I have been looking through my extracts from Harvey’s marginalia—& I believe they would make a very interesting book for a limited audience. {11} One might start with a sketch of Harvey’s life & character, & attainments, as illustrated by the marginalia—& then print a selection of marginalia from each annotated book of his that I have been able to see. It occurred to me today that it would be very nice if Sidgwick & his partner {12} would do it. But I should not wish to involve Sidgwick in any loss over it.

Thank you for your letter about the English Association. {13} Boas is Secretary. It is like the Mod. Language Association, but for English only.

I hope when you have finished with Nashe, you will start an edition of Dekker’s plays.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I shall look forward eagerly to your Vol V.

[Added on the back of the envelope:] Ellis has just sent me the Harvey book to copy the notes. Not of much importance.

[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow Esq. | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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The envelope was postmarked at Sheffield at 11 a.m. on 14 November 1908, and at Paddington, W, at 5.15 p.m. the same day. Besides the note by Moore Smith mentioned above, the envelope is marked ‘Work | From Prof G. C. Moore-Smith’, and elsewhere ‘See to this’.

{1} The succeeding notes relate to Nashe’s works Pierce Penilesse, Strange Newes, Christ’s Teares over Jerusalem, and Have With You to Saffron-Walden. Several of the suggestions were incorporated in the Errata and Addenda appended to the fifth volume of McKerrow’s edition; see below.

{2} Cf. Works of Nashe, v. 375 (note on i. 227, 3–239, 2).

{3} Closing inverted comma supplied.

{4} Cf. Works of Nashe, v. 376.

{5} Cf. Works of Nashe (1958), v. Supp., p. 32.

{6} Single inverted comma supplied in place of double inverted commas.

{7} The square brackets are original.

{8} See OED, s.v. ‘orsedue’.

{9} Edward Carpenter lived at Millthorpe, between Sheffield and Chesterfield. See ODNB.

{10} Cf. Works of Nashe, v. 379.

{11} Moore Smith’s selection of Gabriel Harvey’s Marginalia was published in 1913.

{12} R. C. Jackson. The firm of Sidgwick & Jackson had only just been established, on the 2nd of the month.

{13} The English Association was founded in 1906 by a small group of English teachers and scholars including F. S. Boas, A. C. Bradley, and Israel Gollancz.

(Sheffield.)—Refers to Pepys’s use of the expression ‘my lord’, in illustration of its use by Nashe.

(Dated 4 Oct. Postmarked at Sheffield on 4 Oct. 1909.)

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4 Oct.

I think you somewhere in Nashe raise the question about the use of the expression ‘my lord.’ {1} It is said by Moorhouse in his book on Pepys {2} that Pepys in the diary uniformly calls Sir Edward Montagu ‘my lord’, even before he [be]came Earl of Sandwich.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I got a good holiday in the Highlands, Oban, Skye &c.

[Added on the back:] But apparently he was one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury in 1658.

[Direction:] R. B. McKerrow Esq | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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Postmarked at Sheffield S.D.O. at 9.45 p.m. on 4 October 1909. Marked in pencil ‘Nashe’.

{1} The expression is referred to several times in Vol. IV: see pp. 87 (note on i. 153, 22), 194 (note on i. 329, 22), 416, and 419. It is not clear which instance Moore Smith had in mind.

{2} E. H. Moorhouse, Samuel Pepys, Administrator, Observer, Gossip (1909).

Letters dated 15 Dec. 1907 and 23 Jan. 1913. Accompanied by a page fragment from a book sale catalogue from Bowes & Bowes, Trinity Street, Cambridge.

31 Endcliffe Road, Sheffield.—Is indignant at the Athenaeum’s treatment of McKerrow’s Works of Nashe. A copy of Agrippa’s De Vanitate is for sale.

(Dated 18 Sept. With an envelope, postmarked 18 Sept. 1910.)

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31 Endcliffe Rise Rd. Sheffield
18 Sep

Dear McKerrow,

I must express my indignation at the way in which the Athenæum has treated Nashe. {1} It is beyond anything.

I suppose you dont want a copy of Agrippa de Vanitate &c? {2} There is one to be had here for
10/–.

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow Esq | 4 Phoenix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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The envelope was postmarked at Sheffield at 8.15 p.m. on 18 September 1910.

{1} The reference is to a review of the fifth volume of the Works of Nashe in the Athenaeum of 17 September (p. 336), in which McKerrow was criticised, among other things, for his want of ‘literary craftsmanship’.

{2} Cornelius Agrippa’s De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum atque artium declamatio invectiva, first published in 1530 and frequently reprinted. There does not appear to have been a collected edition of Agrippa’s works, so perhaps the ‘&c’ indicates that the book was bound up with others.

(Sheffield.)—Thanks him for his help with an article on Harvey. Adds further notes on Nashe and brief comments on other subjects.

(With an envelope, postmarked at Sheffield.)

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7 Feb

Dear McKerrow,

It was very good of you to look at G. Harvey {1} again. I hope you did not go on purpose,—I am so sorry I did not tell you of all my wants at once.

Your corrections are in good time, as I have not received a proof of my N & Q paper. I am sorry to hear of your cold. & hope you are now all right.

Do vote for Cox. {2}

I have got ‘Grace Book Δ’ (a reviewer’s copy) just edited by Venn. It contains all degrees 1542–1589 & other University records. It will be a valuable book of reference—& save one from writing to the Registrary.

I have been reading part of Nashe again in connexion with my paper on Harvey—& send you a few notes on your notes. {3} (I am afraid, rather useless now)

Vol IV

p 154 l 8 for Erogonist, Ergonist

p 156 l 11 fr. bot. Was the Barnard so called from the proverb ‘Bernardus non vidit omnia’?

p 159 n. on 262. 5. Does not ‘book-beare’ mean ‘lectern’?

p 160 n. on 265. 28 Did Barnes write ‘Meg a Court’?

n. on 267 2,3. I suppose Nashe is parodying—‘Here beginneth the first Epistle to the Philippians &c’—but the expression is a clumsy joke if so

p 176 n. on 294. 23. I suppose you take Pistlepregmos as = dealer in Pistles, or Epistles.

p 181 n on 302 13. The louse had 6 feet I suppose like Harvey’s hexameters

p 182 n. on 305 24. Sailors, I am told still divide foreigners into ‘Dutchmen’ (Germans, Scandinavians &c) & ‘Dago’s’ (French, Spaniards &c)

p 183 n. on 305. 22. {4} I suppose Harvey is translating Summa Summarum.

p 189 n. on 313 23. ‘Matthew’ should be ‘Nathanael’—according to the Admissions to Fellowships in S. John’s Coll.

p 191. n. on 322. 31. Is this a certain explanation? Is there other ground for thinking that Nashe’s Lord was a Dudley?

316. n. on 29. 21. Is this to {5} Tho. Freigius? I dont know if he wrote a Paedagogus.

339 n. on 74. 18. Doctor Hum. Does not this refer to the Cambridge use of ‘hum’ as a sign of disapproval? [? scraping the feet—or making a noise with the voice] {6} Cp. Mead’s letter to Stuteville 27 June 1623 (Heywood & Wright’s Camb. University Transactions 315) ‘Mr Lucy ‥ was this week created Doctor ‥ with such distast of the regents that they hummed when he came in.’ {8}

n. on 76. 35. Is not Sir Edw. Dyer more likely? He was a Knight before Greville—but I dont know the dates

359 n. on 114. 16. Tennyson uses it in The Grandmother I think.

365. n. on 126. 31,2 See Pedantius l 194. {9}

Ever yours
G. C. Moore Smith

I am glad to hear your patient has got to Canada.

[Added on the back of the envelope:] Secker is going to print Tubbe. {10}

[Direction on envelope:] R. B. McKerrow Esq | 4 Phœnix Lodge Mansions | Brook Green | Hammersmith | London W

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The envelope, which has been marked ‘Notes on Nashe’, was postmarked at Sheffield S.D.S.O. at 1 p.m. on 7 February 1911, and at Paddington, W, at 7.15 p.m. the same day.

{1} Gabriel Harvey’s letter-book, in the British Library (MS. Sloane 93). Moore Smith’s paper ‘Gabriel Harvey’s Letter-Book’, which appeared in Notes and Queries on 3 April (11th series, iii. 261–3), included a number of corrections to the edition of the letter-book prepared for the Camden Society by E. J. L. Scott in 1884, prefaced by the following acknowledgement: ‘For some of the corrections below I am indebted to Mr. R. B. McKerrow, who was kind enough to look at the MS. for me after I had left London.’ The corrections supplied by McKerrow are dis-tinguished in the article by asterisks.

{2} Harold Cox, the Liberal candidate for the constituency of Cambridge University in the by-election held in this year.

{3} The succeeding notes relate to Nashe’s Strange Newes and Have With You to Saffron-Walden.

{4} ‘22’ is a mistake for ‘32’.

{5} Reading uncertain.

{6} The opening square bracket is original; the closing one has been substituted for a round one.

{7} Single inverted comma supplied in place of double inverted commas.

{9} Moore Smith had made this observation before in his letter of 13 November 1908 (MCKW A2/6).

{10} Moore Smith’s selection of the works of Henry Tubbe (d. 1655), a minor poet. In the event this work did not appear till 1915, when it was published by the Clarendon Press. Cf. MCKW A2/12–13.

31 Endcliffe Rise Road, Sheffield.—Discusses Greg’s account of John Phillip.