Item 8 - Letter from Charles Crawford to R. B. McKerrow

2 single sheets

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.