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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.)—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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Transcript

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.