Item 9 - Letter from Charles Crawford to R. B. McKerrow

2 single sheets

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

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Transcript

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

Dear Mr McKerrow,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yrs. truly
C Crawford.

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

{1} ‘(1949)’ interlined in pencil.

{2} The square brackets are original.

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