¶ THREE PROPER, and wittie, familiar Letters: lately passed betvvene betwene tvvo two V-niuersitie Universitie men: touching the Earth-quake Earthquake in Aprill last, and our English refourmed Versifying. With the Preface of a wellwiller to them both. IMPRINTED AT LON-don, LONDON, by H. Bynneman, dvvelling dwelling in Thames streate, neere vnto unto Baynardes Castell. Anno Domini. 1580. Cum gratia & et priuilegio privilegio Regiæ Maiestatis Majestatis . A.ij and LONDON, ] LON-don, 1580

¶ TO THE CVRTEOVS CURTEOUS Buyer, by a VVelwiller Wellwiller of the tvvo two Authours.

C Vrteous C urteous Buyer, (for I write not to the enui-ous envious Carper) it was my good happe, as I in-terpreate interpreate it, nowe lately at the fourthe or fifte hande, to bee made acquainted wyth the three Letters following, by meanes of a faithfull friende, who with muchc muche entreaty had procured the copying of them oute, at Immeritos handes. And I praye you, inter-prete interprete it for your good happe, so soone after to come so easilye by them, throughe my meanes, who am onely to craue crave these twoo things at your handes, to thinke friendely of my friendly meaning, and to take them of me wyth this Presumption, In exiguo quandoque cespite latet lepus: and many pretious stones, thoughe in quantitie small yet in qualitie and valewe are esteemed for great. The first, for a good familiar and sensible Letter, sure liketh me verye well, and gy-ueth gyveth some hope of good mettall in the Author, in whome I knowe myselfe to be very good partes otherwise. But shewe me, or Immerito, two Englyshe Letters in Printe, in all pointes equall to the other twoo, both for the mat-ter matter it selfe, and also for the manner of handling, and saye, wee neuer never sawe good Englishe Letter in our liues lives . And yet I am credibly certified by the foresaide faithfull and honest friende, that himselfe hathe written manye of the same stampe bothe to Courtiers and others, and some of them dis-coursing discoursing vppon uppon matter of great waight and importance, wherein he is said, to be fully as sufficient and hable, as in these schollerly pointes of Learning. The whiche Letters and Discourses I would very gladly see in Writing, but more gladly in Printe, if it might be obtayned. And at this time to speake my conscience in a worde of these two following , I esteeme them for twoo of the rarest, and finest Treaties, as wel for ingenious deuising devising , as also for sig-nificant significant vttering uttering , & and cleanly conueying conveying of his matter, that euer ever I read in this Tongue: and I hartily thanke God for bestowing vppon uppon vs us some such pro-per proper and hable men with their penne, as I hartily thanke the Author him-selfe, himselfe, for vsing using his pleasaunte, and witty Talente, with so muche discretion, 4 C urteous ] C Vrteous 1580

and with so little harme, contrarye to the veine of moste, whych haue have thys singular conceyted grace in writing. If they had bene of their owne set-ting setting forth, I graunt you they might haue have beene more curious, but beeyng so well, and so sufficiently done, as they are, in my simple iudgement judgement , and hauing having so many notable things in them, togither with so greate varietie of Learning, worth the reading, to pleasure you, and to helpe to garnish our Tongue, I feare their displeasnre displeasure the lesse. And yet, if they thinke I haue have made them a faulte, in not making them priuy privy to the Publication: I shall be alwayes readye to make them the beste amendes I amende can, any other friendly waye. Surely, I wishe them bothe hartilye wel in the Lord, and betake you and them to his mer-cifull mercifull gouernemente governemente , hoping, that he will at his pleasure conuerte converte suche good and diuine divine gifts as these, to the setting out of his own glory, and the benefite of his Churche. This XIX. of Iune June . 1580. Your, and their vnfayned unfayned friend, in the Lorde. A.iij. haue have amendes I] amendes I Bod amende HEH

Three proper wittie fami-liar familiar Letters, lately passed be-tvvene betweene tvvo two Vniuersitie Universitie men, tou-ching touching the Earthquake in April last, and our English reformed Versifying.

To my long approoued aprooved and singular good frende, Master G.H. G Ood G ood Master H. I doubt not but you haue have some great important matter in hande, which al this while restraineth youre Penne, and wonted readinesse in prouoking provoking me vnto unto that, wherein your selfe nowe faulte. If there bée a-ny any such thing in hatching, I pray you hartily, lette vs us knowe, before al the worlde sée it. But if happly you dwell altogither in Iustini- ans Justinians Courte, and giue give your selfe to be deuoured devoured of secreate Studies, as of all likelyhood you doe: yet at least imparte some your olde, or newe, Latine, or Englishe, Eloquent and Gallant Poesies to vs us , from whose eyes, you saye, you kéepe in a manner nothing hidden. Little newes is here stirred: but that olde greate matter still depending. His Honoure neuer never better. I thinke the Earthquake was also there wyth you (which I would gladly learne) as it was here with vs us : ouerthrowing overthrowing diuers divers old buildings, and péeces of Churches. Sure verye straunge to be hearde of in these Countries, and yet I heare some saye (I knowe not howe truely) that they 6 Sidneys G ood ] G Ood 1580

haue have knowne the like before in their dayes. Sed quid vobis vi- detur videtur magnis Philosophis? I like your late Englishe Hexame- ters Hexameters so excéedingly well, that I also enure my Penne some-time sometime in that kinde: whyche I fynd indéede , as I haue have heard you often defende in worde, neither so harde, nor so harshe, but that it will easily and fairely, yéelde it selfe to oure Moother tongue. For the onely, or chiefest hardnesse, whych seemeth, is in the Accente: whyche sometime gapeth, and as it were yawneth ilfauouredly ilfavouredly , comming shorte of that it should, and sometime excéeding the measure of the Number, as in Car-penter, Carpenter, the middle sillable being vsed used shorte in speache, when it shall be read long in Uerse Verse , séemeth like a lame Gosling, that draweth one legge after hir: and Heauen Heaven , béeing vsed used shorte as one sillable, when it is in Uerse Verse , stretched out with a Diastole, is like a lame Dogge that holdes vp up one legge. But it is to be wonne with Custome, and rough words must be subdued with Use. For, why a Gods name may not we, as else the Gróekes, haue have the kingdome of oure owne Lan-guage, Language, and measure our Accentes, by the sounde, reseruing reserving the Quantitie to the Uerse Verse ? Loe here I let you sée my olde vse use of toying in Rymes, turned into your artificial straight- nesse straightnesse of Uerse Verse , by this Tetrasticon. I beséech you tell me your fancie, without parcialitie. See yee the blindefoulded pretie God, that feathered Archer, Of Louers Lovers Miseries which maketh his bloodie Game? Wote ye why, his Moother with a Veale hath coouered coovered his Face? Trust me, least he my Looue Loove happely chaunce to beholde. Séeme they comparable to those two, which I translated you ex tempore in bed, the last time we lay togither in West-minster? Westminster? That which I eate, did I ioy joy , and that which I greedily gorged, As for those many goodly matters leaft I for others. I would hartily wish, you would either send me the Rules and Precepts of Arte, which you obserue observe in Quantities, or else followe mine, that M. Philip Sidney gaue gave me, being the very same which M. Drant deuised devised , but enlarged with M. 7 certè but] 1580] , 1580

Sidneys own iudgement judgement , and augmented with my Obserua-tions, Observations, that we might both accorde and agrée in one: leaste we ouerthrowe overthrowe one an other, and be ouerthrown overthrown of the rest. Truste me, you will hardly beléeue beléeve what greate good liking and estimation Maister Dyer had of youre Satyricall Verses, and I, since the viewe thereof, hauing having before of my selfe had speciall liking of Englishe Versifying, am euen even nowe aboute to giue give you some token, what, and howe well therein I am able to doe: for, to tell you trueth, I minde shortely at con-uenient convenient leysure, to sette forth a Booke in this kinde, whyche I entitle, Epithalamion Thamesis , whyche Booke I dare vndertake undertake wil be very profitable for the knowledge, and rare for the Inuention Invention , and manner of handling. For in setting forth the marriage of the Thames: I shewe his first begin-ning, beginning, and offspring, and all the Countrey, that he passeth thorough, and also describe all the Riuers Rivers throughout En-glande, Englande, whyche came to this Wedding, and their righte na-mes, names, and right passage, &c etc . A worke beléeue beléeve me, of much labour, wherein notwithstanding Master Holinshed hath muche furthered and aduantaged advantaged me, who therein hath be-stowed bestowed singular paines, in searching oute their firste heades, and sourses: and also in tracing, and dogging oute all their Course, til they fall into the Sea, O Tite, siquid, ego, Ecquid erit pretij? But of that more hereafter. Nowe, my Dreames , and dying Pellicane , being fully finished (as I partelye signi-fied signified in my laste Letters) and presentlye to bée imprinted, I wil in haude hande forthwith with my Faery Queene , whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and your frend-ly frendly Letters, and long expected Iudgement Judgement wythal, whyche let not be shorte, but in all pointes suche, as you ordinarilye vse use , and I extraordinarily desire. Multum vale. Westminster. Quarto Nonas Aprilis 1580. Sed, amabò te, Meum Corculum ti-bi tibi se ex animo commendat plurimùm: iamdiu mirata, te nihil ad li-teras literas suas responsi dedisse. Vide quæso, ne id tibi Capitale sit: Mihi Mih 8 hande ] haude 1580Mihi] Mihi BL HRH Mih Bod

certè quidem erit, neq&abque; neqque tibi hercle impunè, vt ut opinor, Iterum vale, & et quàm voles sæpè Yours alwayes to commaunde IMMERITO. Postscripte. I take best my Dreames shoulde come forth alone, being growen by meanes of the Glosse, ( rũning running continually in ma-ner maner of a Paraphrase) full as great as my Calendar. Therin be some things excellently, and many things wittily discour-sed discoursed of E. K. and the Pictures so singularly set forth, and pur-trayed, purtrayed, as if Michael Angelo were there, he could (I think) nor amende the best, nor reprehende the worst. I know you woulde lyke them passing wel. Of my Stemmata Dudleiana , and especially of the sundry Apostrophes therein, addressed you knowe to whome, muste more aduisement advisement be had, than so lightly to sende them abroade: howbeit, trust me (though I doe neuer never very well ,) ), yet in my owne fancie, I neuer never dyd better: Veruntamen te sequor solùm: nunquam verò assequar. B. 9 loude

A Pleasant and pitthy fami- liar familiar discourse, of the Earthquake in Aprill last. To my loouing looving frende, M. Immerito. S Ignor S ignor Immerito, after as many gentle Godmorrowes, as your self, and your swéete Harte listeth: May it please your Maistershippe to dispense with a poore Oratour of yours, for breaking one principall graund Rule of our old inuiolable inviolable Rules of Rhetorick, in she-wing shewing himselfe somewhat too pleasura-bly pleasurably disposed in a sad matter: (of purpose, to méete with A coople of shrewde wittie new marryed Gentlewomen, which were more Inquisitiue Inquisitive , than Capable of Natures works) I will report you a prettie conceited discourse, that I had with them no longer agoe, than yesternight, in a Gentlemans house, here in Essex . Where being in the company of cer-taine certaine curteous Gentlemen, and those two Gentlewomen, it was my chaunce to be well occupyed, I warrant you, at Cardes, (which I dare saye I scarcely handled a whole tweluemoonth twelvemoonth before) ; at that very instant, that the Earth vnder under vs us quaked, and the house shaked aboue above : , besides the moouing mooving , and ratling of the Table, and fourmes, where wée sat. Wherevpon Whereupon , the two Gentlewomen hauing having continual-ly continually béene wrangling with all the rest, and especially with my selfe, and euen even at that same very moment, making a great 10 let S ignor ] S Ignor 1580;] 1580,] : 1580

loude noyse, and much a doo adoo : Good Lorde, quoth I, is it not woonderful straunge that the delicate voyces of two so prop-per propper fine Gentlewoomen, shoulde make such a suddayne ter-rible terrible Earthquake? Imagining in good fayth, nothing in the worlde lesse, than that it shoulde be any Earthquake in déede , and imputing that shaking to the suddayne sturring, and remoouing remooving of some cumberous thing or other, in the vp-per upper Chamber ouer over our Heades: which onely in effect most of vs us noted, scarcely perceyuing perceyving the rest, béeing so closely and eagerly set at our game, and some of vs us taking on, as they did. But beholde, all on the suddayne there commeth stumbling into the Parlour, the Gentleman of the house, somewhat straungely affrighted, and in a manner all agast, and telleth vs us , as well as his Head and Tongue woulde giue give him leaue leave , what a woonderous violent motion, and shaking there was of all things in his Hall: sensibly and visibly séene , as well of his owne selfe, as of many of his Seruauntes Servauntes , and Neighbours there. I straite wayes be-ginnyng beginnyng to thinke somewhat more seriously of the matter: Then I pray you, good Syr, quoth I, send presently one of your seruauntes servauntes farther into the Towne, to enquire, if the like hath happened there, as most likely is, and then must it néedes be some Earthquake. Whereat the good fearefull Gentleman being a little recomforted, (as misdoubting, and dreading before, I knowe not what in his owne House, as many others did) and immediately dispatching his man into the Towne, wée had by and by certayne woord, that it was generall ouer over all the Towne, and within lesse than a quarter of an howre after, that the very like behappened the next Towne too, being a farre greater and goodlyer Towne. The Gentlewoomens hartes nothing acquaynted with any such Accidentes, were maruellously marvellously daunted: and they, that immediately before were so eagerly, and gréedily praying> on vs us , began nowe forsooth, very demurely, and deuoutely devoutely to pray vnto unto God, and the one especially, that was euen even nowe in the House toppe, I beséeche you hartily quoth shée , B.ij. 11 they

let vs us leaue leave off playing, and fall a praying a-praying . By my truely, I was neuer never so scared in my lyfe, Me thinkes it maruellous marvellous straunge. What good Partener? Cannot you pray to your selfe, quoth one of the Gentlemen, but all the House must heare you, and ring Allin All-in to our Ladyes Mattins? I sée woo-men woomen are euery every way vehement, and affectionate. Your selfe was liker euen even nowe, to make a fraye, than to pray: and will you nowe néedes in all hast bée on both your knées ? Let vs us , and you say it, first dispute the matter, what daunger, and terror it carryeth with it. God be praysed, it is already cea-sed, ceased, and héere be some present, that are able cunningly, and clearkly to argue the case. I beséeche you master, or my-stresse, mystresse, your zealous and deuoute devoute Passion a while. And with that turning to me, and smiling a little at the first: Nowe I pray you, Master H. , what say you Philosophers, quoth he, to this suddayne Earthquake? May there not be some sensible Naturall cause therof, in the concauities concavities of the Earth it self, as some forcible and violent Eruption of wynde, or the like? Yes no doubt, sir, may there, quoth I, as well, as an Intel-ligible Intelligible Supernaturall: and peraduenture peradventure the great aboun-daunce aboundaunce and superfluitie of waters, that fell shortly after Michaelmas last, béeyng not as yet dryed, or drawen vp up with the heate of the Sunne, which hath not yet recouered recovered his full attractiue attractive strength and power, might minister some occasion thereof , as might easily be discoursed by Naturall Philosophie, in what sorte the poores, and ventes, and crannies of the Earth being so stopped, and fylled vp up euery every where with moysture, that the windie Exhaltations Exhalations , and Uapors Vapors , pent vp up as it were in the bowels thereof, could not otherwise get out, and ascende to their Naturall Originall place. But the Termes of Arte, and verye Natures of things themselues themselves so vtterly utterly vnknowen unknowen , as they are to most héere , it were a péece of woorke to laye open the Reason to euery every ones Capacitie. I know well, it is we that you meane, quoth one of yͤ the Gen-tlewomen Gentlewomen (whom for distinction sake, and bicause I imagine 12 be a-praying] a praying 1580 All-in ] Allin 1580,] 1580 Exhalations ] Exhaltations 1580

they would be loath to be named, I will hereafter call, My-stresse Mystresse Inquisitiua, and the other, Madame Incredula :) ): now I beséeche you, learned Syr, try our wittes a little, and let vs us heare a péece of your déepe Uniuersitie Universitie Cunning. Séeing you Gentlewomen will allgates haue have it so, with a good will, quoth I: and then forsooth, very solemnly pawsing a whyle, most grauely gravely , and doctorally procéeded , as followeth. The Earth you knowe, is a mightie great huge body, and consisteth of many diuers divers , and contrarie members, & and vaines, and arteries, and concauities concavities , wherein to auoide avoide the absur-ditie absurditie of Vacuum, most must necessarily be very great store of sub- stantiall substantiall matter, and sundry Accidentall humours, & and fumes, and spirites, either, good, or bad, or mixte. Good they cannot possibly all be, whereout is ingendred so much bad, as name-ly namely so many poysonfull, and venemous Hearbes, and Beastes, besides a thousand infectiue infective , and contagious thinges else. If they be bad, bad you must néedes graunt is subiect subject to bad, and then can there not, I warrant you, want an Obiect Object , for bad to worke vpon upon . If mixt, which séemeth most probable, yet is it impossible, that there should be such an equall, and proportionable Temperature, in all, and singular respectes, but sometime the Euill Evill (in the diuels divels name ,) ), will as it were interchaungeably haue have his naturall Predominaunt Course, and issue one way, or other. Which euill evill working vehement-ly vehemently in the partes, and malitiously encountering the good, for-cibly forcibly tosseth, and cruelly disturbeth the whole: Which con-flict conflict indureth so long, and is fostred with aboundaunce of cor-rupt corrupt putrified Humors, and ylfauoured ylfavoured grosse infected mat-ter, matter, that it must néedes (as well, or rather as ill, as in mens and womens bodyes) brust out in the ende into one perillous disease or other, and sometime, for want of Naturall voyding such feuerous feverous , and flatuous Spirites, as lurke within, into such a violent chill shiuering shivering shaking Ague, as euen even nowe you sée the Earth haue have . Which Ague, or rather euery every fitte thereof, we schollers call grossely, and homely, Terræ motus , a moouing mooving , or sturring of the Earth , ; you Gentlewomen , that B.iij. 13 séeke must] most 1580;] , 1580

be learned, somewhat more finely, and daintily, Terræ metus , a feare, and agony of the Earth: we being onely mooued mooved , and not terrified , ; you being onely in a manner terrified, & and scarce- ly scarcely mooued mooved therewith. Nowe here, (and it please you) lyeth the poynt, and quidditie of the controuersie controversie , whether our Motus , or your Metus, be the better, & and more consonant to the Princi-ples Principles and Maximes of Philosophy? the one being manly, and deuoyde devoyde of dreade, the other woomannish, and most wofully quiuering quivering , and shiuering shivering for very feare. In sooth, I vse use not to dissemble with Gentlewoomen: I am flatly of Opinion, the Earth whereof man was immediately made, and not wooman, is in all proportions and similitudes liker vs us than you, and when it fortuneth to be distempered, and disseascd disseased , either in part, or in whole, I am persuadcd persuaded , and I beléeue beléeve Reason, and Philosophy will beare me out in it, it only moo- ueth mooveth with the very impulsiue impulsive force of the malady, and not trembleth, or quaketh for dastardly feare. Nowe, I beséeche you, what thinke ye, Gentlewomen, by this Reason? Reason, quoth Madame Incredula: By my truly, I can neither picke out Rime, nor Reason, out of any thing I haue have hearde yet. And yet me thinkes all should be Gospell, that commeth from you Doctors of Cambridge. But I sée well, all is not Gould, that glistereth. In déede , quoth Mistresse Inquisitiua, héere is much adooe, I trowe, and little helpe. But it pleaseth Master H. (to delight himselfe, and these Gentlemen) to tell vs us a trim goodly Tale of Ro- binhood, Robinhood, I knowe not what. Or suer seur if this be Gospell, I dowte, I am not in a good beléefe . Trust me truly, Syr your Eloquence farre passeth my Intelligence. Did I not tell you aforehand, quoth I, as muche? And yet would you néedes presume of your Capacities in such profound mysteries of Philosophie, and Priuities Privities of Nature, as these be? The very thinking whereof, ( vnlesse unlesse happily it be per fidem implicitam, in beléeuing beléeving , as the learned beléeue beléeve , And saying, It is so, by-cause bycause it is so) is nighe enough, to caste you both into a fitte, or two, of a daungerous shaking feauer feaver , vnlesse unlesse you presently 14 of ;] , 1580seur] suer 1580

séeke some remedie to preuent prevent it. And in earnest, if ye wyll giue give me leaue leave , vpon upon that small skill I haue have in Extrinsecall, and Intrinsecall Physiognomie, & and so foorth, I will wager all the money in my poore purse to a pottle of Hyppocrase, you shall both this night, within somwhat lesse than two howers and a halfe, after ye be layed, Dreame of terrible straunge Agues, and Agonyes as well in your owne prettie bodyes, as in the mightie great body of the Earth. You are very me-rily merily disposed, God be praysed, quoth Mistresse Inquisitiua , ; I am glad to sée you so pleasurable. No doubt, but you are mar-uellous marvellous priuie privie to our dreames. But I pray you now in a lit-tle little good earnest, doo you Schollers thinke, that it is the very reason in déede , which you spake of euen even now? There be ma-ny many of vs us , good Mistresse, quoth I, of that opiniõ opinion : wherin I am content to appeale to yͤ the knowledge of these learned Gentle- men Gentlemen here. And some againe, againe of our finest conceited heades defend this Positiõ Position , (a very straũge straunge Paradox in my fancie :) ): yͭ that the Earth hauing having taken in too much drinke, & and as it were o-uer over lauish lavish Cups, (as it hath sensibly done in a maner all this Winter past) now staggereth, & and réeleth , & and tottereth, this way and that way, vp up & and downe, like a drunken man, or wooman (when their Alebench Rhetorick cõmes commes vpon upon them, & and speci- ally specially the moouing mooving Patheticall figure Pottypôsis ,) ), & and therefore in this forcible sort, you lately sawe, payneth it selfe to vomit vp up againe, that so disordereth, and disquieteth the whole body within. And, forsoothe, a fewe new Contradictorie fellowes make no more of it, but a certaine vehement, and passionate néesing , or sobbing, or coffing, wherewithall they say, and as they say, say with great Physicall, and Naturall Reason, The Earth in some place, or other, euer ever lightly after any great, and suddayne alteration of weather, or diet, is excée-dingly excéedingly troubled, and payned, as namely this very Time of the yeare, after the extréeme pynching colde of Winter, and agayne in Autumne, after the extréeme parching heate of Sommer. But shall I tell you, Mistresse Inquisitiua? The soundest Philosophers in déede , and very déepest Secretaries 15 to ;] , 1580againe] againe, 1580

of Nature, holde, if it please you, an other Assertion, and maintayne this for truth: (which at the leastwise, of all o-ther other séemeth maruellous marvellous reasonable, and is questionlcsse questionlesse far-thest farthest off from Heresie :) ): That as the Earth, vppon uppon it, hath many stately, and boysterous & and fierce Creatures, as name-ly, namely, Men and Women, and diuers divers Beastes, wherof some one is in maner continually at variaunce and fewde with an o-ther, other, euermore evermore séeking seeking to be reuenged revenged vpõ upon his enimie, which eft soones breaketh forth into professed and open Hostilitie: and then consequently followe set battels, & and mortall warres: wherin the one partie bendeth all the force of his Ordinance and other Martiall furniture against the other: so likewise within it too, it hath also some, as vengibly and frowardly bent, as for Example, Woormes, and Moules, and Cunnyes, and such other valiauntly highminded Creatures, yͤ the Sonnes and daughters of Mars, & and Bellona that nurrish ciuill civill debate, and contrarie factions amongst them selues selves : which are sel-dome, seldome, or neuer never ended too, without miserable bloudshed, and deadly warre: and then go me their Gunnes lustily off; and the one dischargeth his Péece coragiously at the other: and there is suche a Generall dub a dubbe amongst them, and such horrible Thundering on euery every syde, and suche a mon-strous monstrous cruell shaking of one an others anothers Fortes and Castels, that the whole Earth agayne, or at the least, so muche of the Earth, as is ouer over , or néere them, is terribly hoysed, and No more Ands, or Ifs, for Gods sake, quoth the Madame, and this be your great Doctorly lear-ning. learning. Wée haue have euen even Enoughe alreadie for our Money: and if you shoulde goe a little farther, I feare mée , you woulde make vs us nyghe as cunning as your selfe: and that woulde bée a great disgrace to the Uniuersitie Universitie . Not a whitte, gentle Madame, quoth I, there be of vs us , that haue have greater store in our bowgets, than we can well occupie our selues selves , and therefore we are glad as you sée , when by the fa-uourable, favourable, & and gratious aspect of some blessed Planet, and spe-cially specially our Mercury , or your Venus , it is our good Fortune, 16 which anothers] an others 1580

to lighte on such good friendes, as you, and some other good Gentlewoomen be, that take pleasure, & and comfort in such good things. Wherat Mistresse Inquisitiua, laughing right out, and beginning to demaunde I know not what, (me thought, shée made, as if it shoulde haue have béen some goodly plausible Iest Jest , wherat shée is, and takes her selfe , prettily good :) ): Well, well, Master H. , quoth the Gentleman of the house, now you haue have playde your part so cunningly with the Gentlewoomen, (as I warrant you shall be remembred of Inquisitiua, when you are gone , and may happely forget her: which I hope, Mistresse Incredula will do sometyme too, by hir leaue leave :) ): I pray you in earnest, let vs us men learne some thing of you too: and especially I would gladly heare your Iudgement Judgement , and resolution, whether you counte of Earthquakes, as Natu- rall, Naturall, or Supernaturall motions. But the shorter, all the better. To whom I made answere, in effect, as followeth: Master Hs.short, but sharpe, and learned Iudgement Judgement of Earthquakes. TRuely Truely Syr, vnder under correction, and in my fancie: The Earthquakes themselues themselves I would saye are Naturall: as I veryly beléeue beléeve the Internall Causes thereof, are: I meane those two Causes, which the Logicians call, the Materiall, and the Formall: Marry, the Externall Causes, which are the Efficient and Finall, I take rather of the two, to be supernaturall. I must craue crave a little leaue leave to laye open the matter. The Materiall Cause of Earthquakes, (as was superfi- cially superficially touched in the beginning of our speache, and is suffici-ently sufficiently prooued prooved by Aristotle in yͤ the seconde Booke of his Meteors) is no doubt great aboundance of wynde, or stoare of grosse and drye vapors, and spirites, fast shut vp up , & and as a man would saye, emprysoned in the Caues Caves , and Dungeons of the Earth: 17 sensible C. ,] 1580,] 1580] , 1580 Truely] TRuely 1580

which winde, or vapors, séeking to be set at libertie, and to get them home to their Naturall lodgings, in a great fume, violently rush out, and as it were, breake prison, which for-cible forcible Eruption, and strong breath, causeth an Earthquake. As is excellently, and very liuely lively expressed of Ouid Ovid , as I re-member, remember, thus: Vis fera ventorum cæcis inclusa cauernis, Exspirare aliquò cupiens, luctata&abque; luctataque frustra Liberiore frui cœlo, cùm carcere Rima Nulla foret, toto nec peruia flatibus esset, Extentam tumefecit humum, ceu spiritus oris, Tendere vesicam solet, and so foorth. The formall Cause, is nothing but the very manner of this same Motion, and shaking of the Earth without: and the violent kinde of striuing striving , and wrastling of the windes, and Exhalations within: which is, and must néedes be done in this, or that sort, after one fashion, or other. Nowe, syr, touching the other two Causes, which I named Externall: The first immediate Efficient, out of all Question, is God himselfe, the Creatour, and Continuer, and Corrector of Na-ture, Nature, and therefore Supernaturall: whose onely voyce car-rieth carrieth such a reuerend reverend and terrible Maiestie Majestie with it, that the very Earth againe, and highest Mountaines quake & and trem-ble tremble at the sounde and noyse thereof: the text is rife in euery every mans mouth: Locutus est Dominus & et contremuit Terra: how-beit, howbeit, it is not to be gainesayd, that is holden of all the aunci-ent auncient Naturall Philosophers, and Astronomers, for the princi-pall, principall, or rather sole Efficient, that the Influence, and heate of the Sunne, and Starres, and specially of the thrée superior Planets, Saturne, Iupiter Jupiter , and Mars, is a secondarie Instru-mentall Instrumentall Efficient of such motions. The finall, not onely that the wynde shoulde recouer recover his Naturall place, than which a naturall reasonable man goeth no farther, no not our excellentest profoundest Philosophers themselues themselves : but sometime also, I graunt, to testifie and de-nounce denounce the secrete wrathe, and indignation of God, or his 18 try,

sensible punishment vppon uppon notorious malefactours, or, a threatning Caueat Caveat , and forewarning for the inhabitantes, or the like, depending vppon uppon a supernaturall Efficient Cause, and tending to a supernaturall Morall End. Which End, (for that I knowe is the very poynt, where- on whereon you stande ) albeit it be acknowledged Supernaturall and purposed, as I sayd, of a supernaturall Cause, to whom nothing at all is impossible, and that can worke supernatu-rally, supernaturally, and myraculously without ordinarie meanes, and in-feriour inferiour causes: yet neuerthelesse neverthelesse is, we sée , commonly perfor-med, performed, by the qualifying, and conforming of Nature, and Na-turall Naturall things, to the accomplishment of his Diuine Divine and in-comprehensible incomprehensible determination. For being, as the olde Phi-losophers Philosophers call him, very Nature selfe, or as it hath pleased our later schoolemen to terme him, by way of distinction, Na-tura Natura Naturans , he hath all these secondarie inferiour thinges, thinges the foure Elementes, all sensible, and vnsensible unsensible , reasonable, and vnreasonable unreasonable Creatures, the whole worlde, and what soeuer whatsoever is contayned in the Compas of the worlde, being the workmanship of his owne hands, and, as they call them, Na-tura Natura naturata , euer ever pliable and flexible Instrumentes at his Commaundement : , to put in execution such Effectes, either ordinarie or extraordinarie, as shall séeme most requisite to his eternall Prouidence Providence : and now in these latter dayes, very seldome, or in manner neuer never worketh any thing so myracu-lously, myraculously, and extraordinarily, but it may sensibly appeare, he vseth useth the seruice service and Ministerie of his Creatures, in the at-chéeuing atchéeving thereof. I denie not, but Earthquakes (as well as many other fearefull Accidentes in the same Number ,) ), are terrible signes, and, as it were certaine manacing forerun-ners, forerunners, and forewarners of the great latter day; and therefore out of controuersie controversie the more reuerendly reverendly to be considered vp-pon: uppon: and I acknowledge considering the Euentes Eventes , and se-queles, sequeles, according to the collectiõ collection and discourse of mans Rea-son, Reason, they haue have séemed to Prognosticate, and threaten to this , and that Citie, vtter utter ruyne and destruction: to such a Coun-try, Country, 19 hen- C.ij. thinges,] thinges, Bod HRH thinges Cam,] : 1580] , 1580

a generall plague and pestilence: to an other place, the death of some mightie Potentate or great Prince: to some other Realme or Kingdome, some cruell imminent warres: and sundry the like dreadfull and particular Incidentes, as is notoriously euident evident by many olde and newe, very famous and notable Histories to that effect. Which of all other the auncient Romaines, long before the Natiuitie Nativitie of Christ, did most religiously or rather superstitiously obserue observe , not without a number of solemne Ceremonies, and Holly-dayes Hollydayes for the nonce, euer ever after any Earthquake, making full account of some such great rufull casualtie or other, as otherwhyles fell out in very déede: and namely, as I re-member, remember, the yeare Ante bellum Sociale , which was one of the lamentablest, and myserablest warres, that Italy e-uer ever sawe: and Plinie, or I knowe not well who, hath such a saying: Roma nunquam tremuit, vt ut non futurus aliquis porten- deretur portenderetur insignis Euentus. But yet, notwithstanding, dare not I aforehand presume thus farre, or arrogate so much vnto unto my selfe, as to deter-mine determine precisely and peremptorily of this, or euery every the like sin-gular singular Earthquake, to be necessarily, and vndoubtedly undoubtedly a su-pernaturall, supernaturall, and immediate fatall Action of God, for this, or that singular intent, when as I am sure, there may be a sufficient Naturall, eyther necessarie or contingent Cause in the very Earth it selfe: and there is no question, but the selfe same Operation in Genere, or in specie, may at one tyme, procéeding of one Cause, and referred to one End, be preternaturall, or supernaturall: at another tyme, pro-céeding procéeding of an other, or the same Cause, and referred to an other End, but Ordinarie, and Naturall. To make shorte, I cannot sée, and would gladly learne, howe a man on Earth, should be of so great authoritie, and so familiar acquaintance with God in Heauen Heaven , ( vnlesse unlesse haply for the nonce he hath lately intertained some few choice singular ones of his priuie privie Counsell ) as to be able in such specialties, without any iusti-fyable justifyable certificate, or warrant) warrant to reueale reveale hys incompre-hensible incomprehensible 20 way, warrant] warrant) 1580

mysteries, and definitiuely definitively to giue give sentence of his Maiesties Majesties secret and inscrutable purposes. As if they had a key for all the lockes in Heauen Heaven , or as if it were as cleare and resolute a case, as the Eclipse of the Sunne, that darke-ned darkened all the Earth, or at the least all the Earth in those Coun-tries, Countries, at Christes Passion, happening altogether prodigious-ly prodigiously and Metaphysically in Plenilunio , not according to the per-petuall perpetuall course of Nature, in Nouilunio: in so much that Dio-nisius Dionisius Areopagita, or some other graunde Philosopher, vpon upon the suddayne contemplation thereof, is reported in a certaine Patheticall Ecstasie to haue have cryed out, Aut rerum Natura pa- titur, patitur, aut Mundi machina destruetur: as my minde giueth giveth me, some of the simpler, and vnskilfuller unskilfuller sort, will goe nye to doe vpon upon the present sight, and agony of this Earthquake. Mar-ry Marry the Errour , I graunt, is the more tollerable, though per-happes perhappes it be otherwhiles, (and why not euen even nowe ,) ), a very presumptuous Errour in déede, standing only vpon upon these two weake and deceitfull groundes, Credulitie and Ignoraunce: if so be inwardly (not onely in Externall shewe, after an Hy-pocriticall, Hypocriticall, and Pharisaicall manner) it certainly doo vs us good for our reformation, and amendment, and séeme to preache vnto unto vs us , Pænitentiam agite , (as in some respect euery every suche straunge and rare Accident may séeme :) ): how Ordinarie, and Naturall so euer ever the Cause shall appeare otherwise to the best learned: especially, as the Earthquake shall be knowne to endure a longer, or a shorter Tyme, or to be more or lesse generall, in more, or fewer places. Which two differences, touching the quantitie of Tyme, and Place, after I had a lit-tle little more fully prosecuted, alledging certaine particuler Ex-amples Examples thereof, howe in some places huge Castels, in some Townes, in some great and mightie Cities, in some Shires and Seigniories, and Prouinces Provinces , in some whole Countryes, and Regions haue have béen perillously mooued mooved and shaken there-with: therewith: in one place, a long time together: in an other place, not so long, or at seuerall severall and parted times: in another, very short, as, God be thanked here euen even nowe: and finally by the 21 Maries C.iij. C:iij. ,] 1580

way, shewing a thirde and most notable difference of all, (as well for the present or imminent terrour and daunger, as o-therwise) otherwise) by the sundry species, and formes which Aristotle, Plinie, and other Meteorologicians haue have set downe of Expe-rience, Experience, as they haue have heard, or read, or séen the earth to quake, to sturre, and hoyse vp up Houses, Walles, Towers, Castelles, Churches, Minsters, whole Townes, whole Cities, whole Prouinces Provinces , without farther harme: to ruinate and ouer-throwe, overthrowe, and destroy some: to yawne and gape, and open lyke a graue grave , and conscquently consequently to swallow vp up and deuour devour other: and sometime also to drinke vp up whole riuers rivers , and mightie bigge running waters withall, or to chaunge and alter their common woonted course some other way: to sinke and fall downewardes: to cast out and vomitte vp up either huge vaste heapes, as it were Mountaines of Earth, or large Ilandes in the mayne Sea, neuer never remembred, or séen before: or great ouerflowing overflowing waters, and fountaynes: or hotte scalding sul-phurous sulphurous lakes: or burning sparkles and flames of fire: to make a horrible hissing, gnashing, ratling, or some like woon-derfull woonderfull straunge noyse, (which all Effectes are credibly re-ported, reported, and constantly auouched avouched , of our most famous & and best allowed Philosophers) a fewe such particularities, and di-stinctions, distinctions, compendiously and familiarly coursed ouer over . The good Gentleman gaue gave me hartily, as appeared, very great thankes, and tolde me plainly, he neuer never either read, or heard halfe so much of Earthquakes before: confessing withall, that he yéelded resolutely to my opinion: that an Earth-quake Earthquake might as well be supposed a Naturall Motion of the Earth, as a preternaturall, or supernaturall ominous worke of God: and that he thought it hard, and almost impossible, for any man, either by Philosophie, or Diuinitie Divinitie , euermore evermore to determine flatly the very certaintie either way. Which also in conclusion was the verdit, and finall resolution of the greater and sager part of the Gentlemen present: & and namely of an auncient learned common Lawyer, that had béen Gra-duate, Graduate, and fellow of a Colledge in Cambridge, in Quéene 22 And

Maries dayes. Who tooke vpon upon him, to knit vp up the matter, & and as he said, determine the controuersie controversie , with the authoritie of all the naturall Philosophers, old or newe, Heathen or Chri-stian, Christian, Catholique or Protestant, that euer ever he read, or heard tell of. There Physickes quoth he, are in euery every mans hands: they are olde enough to speake for them selues selves , and wée are young enough to turne our Bookes. They that haue have Eyes and Tongues, let them sée, and reade. But what say you nowe, quoth I, to the staying and quieting of the Earthe, béeing once a moouing mooving ? May it not séeme a more myracu-lous myraculous woorke, and greater woonderment, that it shoulde so suddainely staye againe, being mooued mooved , than that it shoulde so suddainely mooue moove , beyng quiet and still? Mooue Moove or turne, or shake me a thing in lyke order, be it neuer never so small, and lesse than a pynnes Head, in comparison of the great migh-tie mightie circuite of the Earth, and sée if you shall not haue have much more a doo adoo to staye it presently, béeing once sturred, than to sturre it at the very first. Whereat the Gentleman smyling, and looking merrily on the Gentlewoomen, héere is a schoole poynt, quoth he, that by your leaues leaves , I beléeue beléeve will poase the better scholler of you both. But is it not more than tyme, thynke ye, wée were at Supper? And if you be a hungered, Maister H. , you shall thanke no body but your selfe, that haue have holden vs us so long with your pro-founde profounde and clerkly discourses, whereas our manner is to suppe at the least a long howre before this tyme. Beyng set, and newe occasion of spéeche ministered, our Supper put the Earthquake in manner out of our myndes, or at the leastwise, out of our Tongues: sauing saving that the Gen-tlewoomen, Gentlewoomen, nowe and then pleasauntly tyhyhing betweene them selues selves , especially Mystresse Inquisitiua, (whose minde did still runne of the drinking, and Néesing of the Earth ,) ), repeated here, and there, a broken péece of that, which had béen already sayde before Supper. With déepe iudgement judgement no doubt, and to maruellous marvellous great purpose, I warrant you after the manner of woomen Philosophers, and Diuines Divines . 23 that

And this summarily in Effect was our yesternyghtes graue grave Meteorologicall Conference, touching our Earth-quake Earthquake here in the Country: which being in so many neigh-bour neighbour Townes, and Uillages Villages about vs us , as I heare say of this morning, maketh me presuppose, the like was wyth you also at London, and elsewhere farther of off . And then forsoothe, must I desire Maister Immerito, to send me with-in within a wéeke or two, some odde fresh paulting thréehalfepen-nie thréehalfepennie Pamphlet for newes: or some Balductum Tragicall Ballet in Ryme, and without Reason, setting out the right myserable, and most wofull estate of the wicked, and dam-nable damnable worlde at these perillous dayes, after the deuisers devisers best manner: or whatsoeuer whatsoever else shall first take some of your braue brave London Eldertons in the Head. In earnest, I could wishe some learned, and well aduized advized Uniuersitie Universitie man, woulde vndertake undertake the matter, and bestow some paynes in déede vppon uppon so famous and materiall an argument. The generall Nature of Earthquakes by definition, and the speciall diuersitie diversitie of them by diuision division , beyng perfectly knowen: (a thing soone done) and a complete Induction of many credible and autenticall, both olde and newe, diuine divine and prophane, Gréeke, Lattine, and other Examples, (with discretion, and iudgement judgement , compyled and compared togi-ther) togither) being considerately and exactly made, (a thing not so easily done) much no doubt myght be alledged too to or fro, to terrifie or pacifie vs us , more or lesse. If it appeare by generall Experience, and the foresayde Historicall In-duction Induction of particulars, that Earthquakes, sine omni ex-ceptione, exceptione, are ominous, and significatiue significative Effectes, as they saye of Comets, and carrie euer ever some Tragicall and horrible matter with or after them: as eyther destructi-on destruction of Townes and Cities, or decay of some mightie Prince, or some particular, or generall plague, warre, or the lyke, ( vt ut supra) whatsoeuer whatsoever the Materiall, or For-mall Formall cause be, Natural, or supernaturall, (howbeit for myne owne part I am resolued resolved , as wel for the one, as for the other, 24 non

that these two I speake of, both Matter and Fourme, are ra-ther rather Naturall in both, than otherwise) it concerneth vs us , vpon upon the vewe of so Effectuall and substaunciall euidence evidence , to con-ceiue conceive seriously, and reuerently reverently of the other two Causes: the first, supreme Efficient, whose Omnipotent Maiestie Majestie hath nature self, and all naturall Creatures at commaundement: and the last finall, which we are to iudge judge of as aduisedly advisedly , and prouidently providently , as possibly we can, by the consideration, & and com-parison comparison of Circumstances , : the tyme when : , the place where ? , the qualities, and dispositions of the persons , amongst whom such , and such an Ominous token is giuen given . Least happily through ouer over great credulitie, and rashnesse, we mistake Non causam pro causa , and sophistically be entrapped Elencho Finiũ . Finium . Truely, I suppose, he had néede be an excellent Philosopher, a reasonable good Historian, a learned Diuine Divine , a wise discrete man, and generally, such a one as our Doctor Still, & and Doctor Byng are in Cambridge, that shoulde shew himselfe accor-dingly accordingly in this argument, and to the iudgement judgement and conten-tation contentation of the wisest, perfourme it exactly. My selfe remem-ber remember nothing to the contrarie, either in Philosophie, or in Hi-stories Histories nothing to or in Diuinitie Divinitie either, why I may not safely & and law-fully lawfully subscribe to the iudgement judgement of the noble Italian Philoso-pher, Philosopher, and most famous learned Gentleman, whilest he liued lived , Lord of Mirandola , and Erle of Concordia , Counte Ioannes Joannes Franciscus Picus , in my opinion, very considerately, and part-ly partly Philosophically, partly Theologically set downe, in the sixt Chapter of his sixt Booke, against Cogging deceitfull A-strologers, Astrologers, and Southsayers, De rerum Prænotione, pro verita- te veritate Relligionis, contra Superstitiosas vanitates. In which Chap-ter, Chapter, (if happely you haue have not read it already,) you shall finde many, but specially these thrée notable places, most effectuall and directly pertinent to the very purpose. The first more vniuersall universall . Naturæ opere fieri non potest, vt ut Ostentis, vt ut Monstris magni illi, seu dextri, seu sinistri euentus eventus portendantur, & et ab aliqua pendeant proxima causa, quæ & et futura etiam proferat. Impostura Dæmonum, vt ut id fiat, videri potest. Sed & et plæra&abque; plæraque non monstrosa, 25 ly D. :] , 1580,] : 1580,] ? 1580] , 1580] , 1580lawfully ] law-fully 1580

non prodigiosa per sese, pro monstris tamen, & et portentis, haberi pos-sunt, possunt, & et solent à quibusdam, quibus Rerum Natura non satis com-perta comperta est, causarum enim ignoratio, noua nova in re Admirationem parit. Propter quam, philosophari homines cæpisse, in exordijs exordiis primæ philo-sophiæ philosophiæ scribit Aristoteles. Wherein those two seuerall severall points, Impostura Dæmonum,and Ignoratio causarum,are no doubt mar-uellous marvellous probable, and moste worthy bothe presentlye to bée noted nowe, and more fully to be discussed hereafter: appea-ring appearing vnto unto me the verie right principall Causes of so manye erroneous opinions, and fantasticall superstitious dreames in this, and the like behalfe. The seconde more speciall, as it were hitting the white in déede, and cleauing cleaving the Pinne in sunder. Idem in Terræmotibus etiam, quod in fulguribus, fulminibus&abque; fulminibusque interpretandis, obseruauit observavit Antiquitas. Cuius Rei liber, Græco elo-quio, eloquio, nuper ad manus peruenit pervenit , in Orpheum relatus Autorem: sed perabsurdum nimis, vt ut quod frequentissimè fit, pro vario terræ anhe-litu, anhelitu, pro ventorum violentia, vaporum&abque; vaporumque conductione,(marke you that?) ex eo rerum futurarum significationem petere, quorum nec effectus esse possunt, nec causa, præter&abquam; præterquam forte mortis inferendæ illis, qui fulmen exceperit, aut qui terrarum hiatu perierit. Sed nec ab eadem proxima deduci causa possunt, à qua & et futuræ pendeant res, vt ut supra deductum est. And then shortly after, the thirde, moste agréeable to the seconde, as flatlye determining on my side, and as directlye concluding the same position as may be. Nec sanè Orpheus ille, si tamen Orpheus fuit, vllam ullam affert om-ninò; omninò; causam, cur quispiam ex terræ motibus, vrbium urbium , hominum, re-gionum regionum euenta eventa præsagire possit. Solùm vano narrat arbitrio: si ter-ræ terræ contigerit motus, nocti, si æstate, si hyeme, si aurora, si interdiu, quid portendatur: Quæ certè, & et saniore possunt arbitrio refelli, & et Expe-rientiæ Experientiæ testimonio, vt ut arbitror, non secus irrideri, ac supra Tagis por-tenta portenta irrisimus, Haruspicinæ Autoris. A moste excellent sounde Iudgement Judgement in my conceit: and ful wel beséeming so Honorable and admirable a Witte, as out of Question, Picus Mirandula had: who being yet scarce-ly scarcely 26 their

thirty yeres of age, for his singularitie in al kind of know-leege, knowleege, as wel diuine divine as prophane, was in Italy and France, as Paulus Iouius reporteth, surnamed Phœnix, as the odde, and in effecte the onely singular learned man of Europe: and to make shorte: suche a one, in moste respectes, as I woulde wishe nowe to be tempering with this newe notorious inci-dent: incident: staying my selfe in the meane while vpon upon this probable and reasonable Interim of his: and preferring it before al the friuolous frivolous coniecturall conjecturall Allegations, and surmises, that oure counterfaite, and reasonlesse Orphei oppose to the contrarye. But, Iesu Jesu , what is all this to Master Immerito? For soothe I knowe not by what mischaunce, these miserable balde odious thrée halfepenny fellowes, alas, a company of silly béetlehea- ded béetleheaded Asses, came into my minde, that wil néedes be sturring, and taking on in euerye everye suche rare and vnaccustomed unaccustomed euent event , as if they sawe farther in a Milstone, than all the worlde be-sides, besides, whereas euerie everie man, that hathe but halfe an eye in his head, séeth them to be more blinde, than anye Buzzarde, or Bayarde, Scribimus indocti, docti&abque; doctique Poemata passim, and surely, as the worlde goeth nowe in Englande, rather the firste, for aught I sée, than the laste. O interim miseras Musas, & et misera- biles: miserabiles: Where the faulte shoulde rest, viderint Oculi, at&abque; atque capita Reip. Mihi quidem isthic, ne&abque; neque seritur admodùm, ne&abque; neque metitur. Non valdè mea nouos novos Bibliotheca libros desiderat, seipsa, id est, quos ha-bet, habet, veteribus contenta est. Quid plura? Tu vale, mi Immerito, at&abque; atque ita tibi persuade, Aliquid esse eum, qui istorum longè est dissimilimus, quos Typographi nostri habent venales maximè. Commende mée to thine owne good selfe, and tell thy dying Pellicane, and thy Dreames from me, I wil nowe leaue leave dreaming any longer of them, til with these eyes I sée them forth indéede : And then againe, I imagine your Magnificenza, will holde vs us in sus-pense suspense as long for your nine Englishe Commœdies, and your Latine Stemmata Dudleiana: whiche two shal go for my mo-ney, money, when all is done: especiallye if you woulde but bestow one seuennights sevennights pollishing and trimming vppon uppon eyther. Whiche I praye thée hartily doe, for my pleasure, if not for 27 Matchi- D.ij.

their sake, nor thine owne profite. My Schollers Loue Love , or Reconcilement of contraries , is shrunke in the wetting: I hadde purposed to haue have dispatched you a Coppie thereof, long ere this: but, no remedie, hitherto it hath alwayes gone thus with me: Some newe occasion, or other, euer ever carrieth me from one matter to another, & and will neuer never suffer me to finishe eyther one or other. And truly, Experto crede, it is as true a Uerse Verse as euer ever was made, since the first Uerse Verse , that euer ever was made : . Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus: whiche my Anticosmopolita, thoughe it gréeue gréeve him, can beste testifye, re-mayning remayning still as we saye, in statu, quo, and neither an inche more forward, nor backewarde, than he was fully a twelue-month twelvemonth since in the Courte, at his laste attendaunce vpon upon my Lorde there. But the Birde that will not sing in Aprill, nor in May, maye peraduenture peradventure sing in September: and yet me thinkes, Sat citò, si sat bene, if I coulde steale but one poore fortnight, to peruse him ouer over afreshe, and coppy him out a-newe. anewe. Whiche I hope in God to compasse shortly. But I beséech you, what Newes al this while at Cambridge? That was wont to be euer ever one great Question. What? Det mihi Mater ipsa bonam veniam, eius vt ut aliqua mihi liceat Secreta, vni uni cuidam de eodem gremio obsequentissimo filio, reuelare revelare : & et sic pau-cis paucis habeto. Nam aliàs fortasse pluribus: nunc non placet, non va-cat, vacat, molestum asset. Tully , and Demosthenes nothing so much studyed, as they were wonte: Liuie Livie , and Salust possiblye ra-ther rather more than lesse: Lucian neuer never so much: Aristotle muche named, but little read: Xenophon and Plato, reckned amon-gest amongest Discoursers, and conceited Superficiall fellowes: much verball and sophisticall iangling jangling : little subtile and effectuall disputing: noble and royall Eloquence, the best and persuasi- blest persuasiblest Eloquence: no such Orators againe, as redheadded An- gelles: Angelles: An excéeding greate difference, betwéene the coun-tenaunces, countenaunces, and portes of those, that are braue brave and gallaunt, and of those, that are basely, or meanly apparelled: betwene the learned, and vnlearned unlearned , Tully, and Tom Tooly , in effect none at all. 28 and .] : 1580

Matchiauell Matchiavell a great man: Castilio of no small reputati-on: reputation: Petrach , and Boccace in euery every mans mouth: Galateo, and Guazzo neuer never so happy: ouer over many acquainted with V-nico Unico Aretino: The French and Italian when so highlye re-garded regarded of Scholiers Schollers ? The Latine and Greeke, when so light-ly? lightly? The Queene mother at the beginning, or ende of euerye everye conference: many bargaines of Mounsieur: Shymeirs a no-ble noble gallant fellowe: all inquisitiue inquisitive after Newes, newe Boo-kes , Bookes , newe Fashions, newe Lawes, newe Officers, and some after newe Elementes, and some after newe Heauens Heavens , and Helles to too . Turkishe affaires familiarly knowen: Castels builded in the Ayre: muche adoe, and little helpe: Iacke Jacke would faine be a Gentlemanne: in no age so little so muche made of, euery every one highly in his owne fauour favour , thinking no mans penny, so good siluer silver as his own: Something made of Nothing, in spite of Nature: Numbers made of Ciphars, in spite of Arte: Geometricall Proportion seldome, or neuer never vsed used , Arithmeticall ouermuch overmuch abused: Oxen and Asses ( not- withstandiug not- withstanding notwithstanding the absurditie it séemed to Plautus ) draw both togither in one, and the same Yoke: Conclusio ferè sequitur de- teriorem deteriorem partem. The Gospell taughte, not learned: Chari-tie Charitie key colde: nothing good, but by Imputation: the Cere- moniall Ceremoniall Lawe, in worde abrogated: the Iudiciall Judiciall in effecte disanulled: the Morall indéede abandoned: the Lighte , the Lighte in euery every mans Lippes, but marke me their eyes, and tell me, if they looke not liker Howlets, or Battes, than E- gles: Egles: as of olde Bookes, so of auntient Uertue Vertue , Honestie, Fidelitie, Equitie, newe Abridgementes: euery every day freshe span newe Opinions: Heresie in Diuinitie Divinitie , in Philosophie, in Humanitie, in Manners, grounded muche vpon upon heresay: Doctors contemned: the Text knowen of moste, vnderstood understood of fewe, magnified of all, practised of none: the Diuell Divell not so hated, as the Pope: many Inuectiues Invectives , small amendment: Skill they say controlled of Will: and Goodnesse mastered of Goods: but Agent, and Patient muche alike, neither Bar- rell Barrell greatly better Herring: No more adoe aboute Cappes 29 as D.iij.

and Surplesses : Maister Cartwright nighe forgotten: The man you wot of, conformable, with his square Cappe on his rounde heade: and Non resident at pleasure: and yet Non- residents Nonresidents neuer never better bayted, but not one the fewer, either I beléeue beléeve in Acte, or I beléeue beléeve , in Purpose. A nũber number of our preachers preachers sibbe to French Souldiors , at the first, more than Men, in the end, lesse than Women. Some of our pregnantest and soonest ripe Wits, of Hermogenes mettall for al the world: Olde men and Counsailours amongst Children: Children a- mongst amongst Counsailours, and olde men: Not a fewe dubble fa-ced faced Iani Jani , and chaungeable Camelions: ouer over -manye Claw-backes, Clawbackes, and Pickethanks: Réedes Reedes shaken of euerie everie Wind: Iackes Jackes of bothe sides: Aspen leaues leaves : painted Sheathes, and Sepulchres: Asses in Lions skins: Dunglecockes: slipperye Eles: Dormise: I blush to thinke of some, that wéene them-selues themselves as fledge as the reste, being, God wot, as kallowe as the rest: euery every yonker to speake of as politique, and as great a Commonwealths man as Bishoppe Gardner , or Doctor Wutton at the least: as if euerie everie man nowe adayes hauing having the framing of his own Horoscope , were borne in decimo cœli domicilio , and had al the Wit, Wisedome, and Worshippe in the world at commaundement. Sed heus in aurem: Meministin' Meministi quod ait Varro? Omnes videmur nobis esse belli, festiui festivi , saperdæ, cùm sumus Canopi: Dauid David , Vlisses Ulisses , and Solon , fayned them- selues themselves fooles and madmen: our fooles and madmen faine thẽ- selues themselves Dauids Davids , Vlisses Ulisses , and Solons: and would goe nigh to de-ceiue deceive the cunningest, and best experienced Metaposcopus Metoposcopus in a country: It is pity faire weather should euer ever do hurt, but I know what peace and quietnes hath done with some melan-choly melancholy pickstrawes in the world: as good vnspoken unspoken as vnamẽ-ded. unamended. And wil you néedes haue have my Testimoniall of youre olde Controllers new behauior behavior ? A busy and dizy heade, a brazen forehead: a ledden braine: a woodden wit: a copper face: a sto-ny stony breast: a factious and eluish elvish hearte: a founder of nouelties novelties : a confounder of his owne, and his friends good gifts: a mor-ning morning bookeworm, an afternoone maltworm: a right Iuggler Juggler , 30 preachers ] preachers 1580 Meministi ] Meministin' 1580Metoposcopus] Metaposcopus 1580

as ful of his sleights, wyles, fetches, casts of Legerdemaine, toyes to mocke Apes withal, odde shiftes, and knauish knavish practi-zes, practizes, as his skin can holde. He often telleth me, he looueth looveth me as himselfe, but out lyar out, thou lyest abhominably in thy throate. Iesu Jesu , I had nigh hand forgotten one thing, that ywis somtime I think often ynough vpon upon : Many Pupils , Iacke- mates, Jackemates, and Hayle fellowes wel met, with their Tutors , andby your leaue leave , some too, because forsooth they be Gentlemen, or great heires, or a little neater and gayer than their fello-wes, fellowes, (shall I say it for shame? beléeue beléeve me, tis too true) their very own Tutors. Ah mala Licentia, ab initio nõ non fuit sic. Stulta est omnis iuuenilis Doctrina, sine virili quadam Disciplina. Quasi verò pauperioribus duntaxat pueris, ac non multò magis generosæ, at&abque; atque nobili Iuuentuti conueniat, pristinæ illius Institutionis, atque E-ducationis Educationis seueritas, & et ingenuæ, & et prudentis, & et cruditæ, & et cum Tutoris personæ, tum pupillo, etiam ipsi perquam accomodatæ. Vsque-quaque Usquequaque sapere oportet: id erit telum acerrimum. Cætera færè, vt ut o-lim: olim: Bellum inter Capita, & et membra continuatum: δοκοσοφία δοξοσοφία publicis defensa scholis, priuatis privatis confirmata parietibus, omnibus locis ostentata, Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire, hoc sciat alter. Plurimi passim sit Pecunia, Pudor parui penditur: Nihili habentur Literæ: Mihi crede , credendum nulli: O amice , amicus nemo. Quid tu interim? Quomodo te inquies geris? Quomodo? Optimum est ali-ena aliena frui insania. Video: taceo, rideo: Dixi. Et tamem addam, quod ait Satyricus ille: Viuendum Vivendum est rectè, tum propter plurima, tum his Præcipuè causis, vt ut linguas Mancipiorum Contemnas. E meo municipio, Postridie quàm superiores de Terræmotu ser-mones sermones haberentur, id est, ni fallor, Aprilis septimo, Vesperi. With as manye gentle Goodnightes, as be letters in this tedious Letter. Nosti manum tanquam tuam. POSTSCRIPTE. This Letter may only be shewed to the two odde Gentlemen you wot of. Marry I would haue have those two to see it, as sone as you may conueniently conveniently . Non multis dormio: non multis scribo: non cupio placere multis: Alij Alii alios numeros laudant, præferunt, venerantur: Ego ferè apud nos, ferè apud vos Trinitatem. Verbum sapienti sat: nosti cætera: & et tres Charites habes ad vnguem unguem . 31 M.Imme-

A Gallant familiar Letter, containing an Ansvvere Answere to that of M. Immerito, vvith with sundry proper examples, and some Precepts of our Englishe reformed Versifying.

To my very friend M. Immerito. S Ignor S ignor Immerito, to passe ouer over youre néedelesse complaint, wyth the residue of your preamble (for of yͤ the Earthquake I presuppose you haue have ere this recey-ued receyved my goodly discourse) and withall to let my late Englishe laſe Englishe Hexametres goe as lightlye as they came: I cannot choose, but thanke and honour the good Aungell, (whether it were Gabriell or some other) that put so good a motion into the heads of those two excellent Gentlemen M. Sidney, and M. Dyer, the two very Diamondes of hir Maiesties Majesties Courte for many speciall and rare qualities: as to helpe forwarde our new famous en-terprise enterprise for the Exchanging of Barbarous and Balductum Rymes with Artificial Uerses Verses : the one being in manner of pure and fine Goulde, the other but counterfet, and base yl-fauoured ylfauoured Copper. I doubt not but their liuelie livelie example, and Practise, wil preuaile prevaile a thousand times more in short space, than the dead Aduertizement Advertizement , and persuasion of M. Ascham to the same Effecte: whose Scholemaister notwithstanding I reuerence reverence in respect of so learned a Motiue Motive . I would glad- ly gladly be acquainted with M. Drants Prosodye, and I beséeche you, commende me to good M. Sidneys iudgement judgement , and gentle 32 Presi- S ignor ] S Ignor 1580 late Englishe ] Bod HEH

M. Immeritos Obseruations Observations . I hope your nexte Letters, which I daily exspect, wil bring me in farthcr farther familiaritie & and acquaintance with al thrée. Mine owne Rules and Precepts of Arte, I beléeue beléeve wil fal out not greatly repugnant, though peraduenture peradventure somewhat different: and yet am I not so reso-lute , resolute , but I can be content to reserue reserve the Coppying out and publishing therof, vntil until I haue have a little better consulted with my pillowe, and taken some farther aduize advize of Madame Spe-rienza . Sperienza . In the meane, take this for a general Caueat Caveat , and say I haue have reuealed revealed one great mysterie vnto unto you: I am of Opi-nion, Opinion there is no one more regular and iustifiable justifiable direction, eyther for the assured, and infallible Certaintie of our En-glish English Artificiall Prosodye particularly, or generally to bring our Language into Arte, and to frame a Grammer or Rhe-torike Rhetorike thereof: than first of all vniuersally universally to agrée vpon upon one and the same Ortographie, in all pointes conformable and proportionate to our Common Natural Prosodye : whether Sir Thomas Smithes in that respect be the most perfit, as surely surely it must néedes be very good: or else some other of profoun-der profounder Learning, & and longer Experience, than Sir Thomas was, shewing by necessarie demonstration, wherin he is defectiue defective , wil vndertake undertake shortely to supplie his wantes, and make him more absolute. My selfe dare not hope to hoppe after him, til I sée something or other, too, or fro, publickely and auten-tically autentically established, as it were by a generall Counsel, or acte of Parliament: and then peraduenture peradventure , standing vppon uppon fir-mer firmer grounde, for Companie sake, I may aduenture adventure to do as other do. Interim, credit me, I dare geue geve no Preceptes, nor set downe any Certaine General Arte: and yet sée my bolde-nesse , boldenesse , I am not greatly squaimishe of my Particular Exam-ples , Examples , whereas he that can but reasonably skil of the one, wil giue give easily a shreude gesse at the other: considering that the one fetcheth his original and offspring from the other. In which respecte, to say troth, we Beginners haue have the start, and aduauntage advauntage of our Followers, who are to frame and con-forme conforme both their Examples, and Precepts, according to that 33 Nowe E. surely ] surely 1580

President which they haue have of vs us : as no doubt Homer or some other in Greeke, and Ennius , or I know not who else in Latine, did preiudice prejudice , and ouerrule overrule those, that followed them, as well for the quantities of syllables, as number of féete , and the like: their onely Examples going for current pay-ment , payment , and standing in steade of Lawes, and Rules with the posteritie. In so much that it séemed a sufficient warrant (as still it doth in our Common Grammer schooles) to make τῖ τῑ in τιμὴ, and ũ ū , in Vnus Unus long, because the one hath τίμὴ δ'ἐκ δίος ἐϛὶ τῑμὴ δ'ἐκ διός ἐστί , and the other, Vnus Unus homo nobis, and so consequent-ly consequently in the rest. But to let this by-disputation passe, which is already so throughly discoursed and canuassed canvassed of the best Philosophers, and namely Aristotle, that poynt vs us , as it were with the forefinger, to the very fountaines and head springes of Artes, and Artificiall preceptes, preceptes; in the Analiti- ques, Analitiques, and Metaphysikes: most excellently set downe in these foure Golden Termes, the famoussest Termes to speake of in all Logique and Philosophie, ἐμπειρία, ἰϛορια, ἄισθησις, ἐπαγωγὴ ἐμπειρία, ἱστορια, αἴσθησις, ἐπαγωγή : shall I nowe by the way sende you a Ianuarie Januarie gift in Aprill : and as it were shewe you a Christmas Gam- bowlde Gambowlde after Easter? Were the manner so very fine, as the matter is very good, I durst presume of an other kinde of Plaudite and Gramercie, than now I will: but being as it is, I beséeche you, set parcialitie aside, and tell me your mai-sterships maisterships fancie. A Nevv New yeeres Gift to my old friend Maister George Bilchaunger: In commendation of three most precious Accidentes, Vertue, Fame , and Wealth: and finally of the fourth, A good Tongue . VErtue sendeth a man to Renowne, Fame lendeth Aboundaunce, Fame with Aboundaunce maketh a man thrise blessed and happie. So the Rewarde of Famous Vertue makes many wealthy, And the Regard of Wealthie Vertue makes many blessed: O' blessed Vertue blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce,5 O that I had you three, with the losse of thirtie Comencementes . 34 ded preceptes,] preceptes, Bod preceptes; Cam

Nowe farewell Mistresse, whom lately I loued loved aboue above all, These be my three bonny lasses, these be my three bonny Ladyes, Not the like Trinitie againe, saue save onely the Trinitie aboue above all: Worship and Honour, first to the one, and then to the other.10 A thousaud thousand good leaues leaves be for euer ever graunted Agrippa. Agrippa For squibbing and declayming against many fruitlesse Artes , and Craftes, deuisde devisde by the Diuls Divls and Sprites, for a torment, And for a plague to the world: as both Pandora, Prometheus , And that cursed good bad Tree , can testifie at all times.15 Meere Gewegawes and Bables, in comparison of these. Toyes to mock Apes, and Woodcockes, in comparison of these. Iugling Jugling castes, and knicknackes, in comparison of these. Yet behinde there is one thing, worth a prayer at all tymes, A good Tongue, in a mans Head, A good Tongue in a woomans.20 And what so precious matter, and foode for a good Tongue, As blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce. L' Enuoy Envoy . Maruell Marvell not, what that I meane to send these Verses at Euensong Evensong : On Neweyeeres Euen Even , and Oldyeeres End, as a Memento: Trust me, I know not a ritcher Iewell Jewell , newish or oldish, Than blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Abundaunce, O blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce,5 O that you had these three, with the losse of Fortie Valetes, He that wisheth, you may liue live to see a hundreth Good Newe yeares, euery every one happier, and merrier, than other. Now to requite your Blindfolded pretie God, (wherin by the way I woulde gladly learne, why, Thē Thĕ , in the first, Yĕ in the first, and thirde, Hĕ, and My, in the last, being shorte, Mē, alone should be made longer in the very same) Imagin me to come into a goodly Kentishe Garden of your old Lords, or some other Noble man, and spying a florishing Bay Trée there, to demaunde ex tempore , as followeth: Thinke vppon uppon Petrarches Arbor vittoriosa, tiromfale triomfale , Onor d'Imperadori, e di Poete: and perhappes it will aduaunce advaunce the wynges of your Imagi- nation Imagination a degrée higher: at the least if any thing can be ad-ded added 35 Speculum E.ij. thousand] thousaud 1580 Agrippa ] Agrippa. 1580that] what 1580Thĕ] Thē 1580 triomfale ] tiromfale 1580

to the loftinesse of his conceite, whõ whom gentle Mistresse Ro-salinde , Rosalinde , once reported to haue have all the Intelligences at com-maundement , commaundement , and an other time, Christened her, her Segnior Pegaso. Encomium Lauri. WHat What WAat might I call this Tree? A Laurell? O bonny Laurell: Needes to thy bowes will I bow this knee, and vayle my bonetto: Who, but thou, the renowne of Prince, and Princely Poeta : ? Th'one for Crowne, for Garland th'other thanketh Apollo. Thrice happy Daphne: that turned was to the Bay Tree,5 Whom such seruauntes servauntes serue serve , as challenge seruice service of all men. Who chiefe Lorde, and King of Kings, but th' Emperour only? And Poet of right stampe, ouerawith overaweth th' Emperour himselfe. Who, but knowes Aretyne , ? was he not halfe Prince to the Princes . ? And many a one there liues lives , as nobly minded at all poyntes.10 Now Farewell Bay Tree, very Queene, and Goddesse of all trees, Ritchest perle to the Crowne, and fayrest Floure to the Garland. Faine wod I craue crave , might I so presume, some farther aquaintaunce, O that I might? but I may not: woe to my destinie therefore. Trust me, not one more loyall seruaunt servaunt longes to thy Personage,15 But what sayes Daphne? Non omni dormio , worse lucke: Yet Farewell, Farewell, the Reward of those, that I honour: Glory to Garden: Glory to Muses: Glory to Vertue. Partim Ioui, & et Palladi, Partim Apollini & et Musis. 20 But séeing seeing I must néedes needes bewray my store, and set open my shoppe wyndowes, nowe I pray thée thee , and coniure conjure thée by all thy amorous Regardes, and Exorcismes of Loue Love , call a Parliament of thy Sensible, & and Intelligible powers together, & and tell me, in Tom Trothes earnest, what Il fecondo, & e famoso Poeta, Messer Immerito , sayth to this bolde Satyriall Libell lately deuised devised at the instaunce of a certayne worshipfull Hartefordshyre Gentleman, of myne olde acquayntaunce: in Gratiam quorundam Illustrium Anglofrancitalorum, hic & et vbique ubique apud nos volitantium. Agedùm verò, nosti homines, tan- quam tanquam tuam ipsius cutem. 36 they her] her, 1580 What] WHat 1580?] : 1580 ? ] , 1580?] . 1580seeing] séeing 1580needes] néedes 1580thee] thée 1580

Speculum Tuscanismi. Since Galateo came in, and Tuscanisme gan vsurpe usurpe , Vanitie aboue above all: Villanie next her, Statelynes Empresse. No man, but Minion, Stowte, Lowte, Plaine , swayne, quoth a Lording: No wordes but valorous, no workes but woomanish onely. For life like Magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in shew,5 In deede most friuolous frivolous , not a looke but Tuscanish alwayes. His cringing side necke, Eyes glauncing, Fisnamie smirking, With forefinger kisse, and braue brave embrace to the footewarde . Largebelled Largebellyed Kodpeasd Dublet, vnkodpeased unkodpeased halfe hose, Straite to the dock, like a shirte, and close to the britch, like a diueling diveling . 10 A little Apish Hatte, cowched fast to the pate, like an Oyster, French Camarick Ruffes, deepe with a witnesse, starched to the purpose. Euery Every one A per se A, his termes, and braueries braveries in Print, Delicate in speach, queynte in araye: conceited in all poyntes: In Courtly guyles, a passing singular odde man,15 For Gallantes a braue brave Myrrour, a Primerose of Honour, A Diamond for nonce, a fellowe perelesse in England. Not the like Discourser for Tongue, and head to be found out: Not the like resolute Man, for great and serious affayres, Not the like Lynx, to spie out secretes, and priuities privities of States.20 Eyed, like to Argus, Earde, like to Midas, Nosd, like to Naso, Wingd, like to Mercury, fittst of a Thousand for to be employde, This, nay more than this doth practise of Italy in one yeare. None doe I name, but some doe I know, that a peece of a tweluemonth twelvemonth : Hath so perfited outly, and inly, both body, both soule,25 That none for sense, and senses, halfe matchable with them. A Vulturs smelling, Apes tasting, sight of an Eagle, A spiders touching, Hartes hearing, might of a Lyon. Compoundes of wisedome, witte, prowes, bountie, behauiour behaviour , All gallaut gallant Vertues, all qualities of body and soule:30 O thrice tenne hundreth thousand times blessed and happy, Blessed and happy Trauaile Travaile , Trauailer Travailer most blessed and happy. Penatibus Hetruscis laribusque nostris Inquilinis: Tell me in good sooth, doth if not too euidently evidently appeare, that this English Poet wanted but a good patterne before his eyes, as it might be some delicate, and choyce elegant Poesie of good M. Sidneys, or M. Dyers , ( ouer our very Castor, & and Pollux for such and many greater matters) when this trimme géere was in hatching: Much like some Gentlewooman, I coulde name in England, who by all Phisick and Physiognomie too, might as well haue have brought forth all goodly faire children, as 37 Whilst E iij. ] , 1580like] life 1580 Largebellyed ] Largebelled 1580our] ouer 1580

they haue have now some ylfauored and deformed, had they at the tyme of their Conception, had in sight, the amiable and gal-lant gallant beautifull Pictures of Adonis, Cupido, Ganymedes, or the like, which no doubt would haue have wrought such déepe im-pression impression in their fantasies, and imaginations, as their chil-dren , children , and perhappes their Childrens children too, myght haue have thanked them for, as long as they shall haue have Tongues in their heades. But myne owne leysure fayleth me: and to say troth, I am lately become a maruellous marvellous great straunger at myne olde Mistresse Poetries, being newly entertayned, and dayly employed in our Emperour Iustinians Justinians seruice service ( sauing saving that I haue have alreadie addressed a certaine pleasurable, and Morall Politique Naturall mixte deuise devise , to his most Honourable Lordshippe, in the same kynde, wherevnto whereunto my next Letter, if you please mée well, may perchaunce make you priuie privie :) ): marrie nowe, if it lyke you in the meane while, for varie-tie varietie sake, to sée howe I taske a young Brother of myne, (whom of playne Iohn John , our Italian Maister hath Cristened his Picciolo Giouannibattista ,) ), Lo here (and God will) a péece of hollydayes exercise. In the morning I gaue gave him this Theame out of Ouid Ovid , to translate, and varie after his best fashion. Dum fueris fœlix multos numerabis Amicos, Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris. Aspicis, vt ut veniant ad candida tecta columbæ? Accipiat nullas sordida Turris Aues Aves ? His translation, or rather Paraphrase before dinner, was first this: 1. Whilst your Bearnes are fatte, whilst Cofers stuffd with aboundaunce, Freendes will abound: If bearne waxe bare, then adieu sir a Goddes name See ye the Dooues Dooves ? they breede, and feede in gorgeous Houses: Scarce one Dooue Doove doth loue love to remaine in ruinous Houses, And then forsooth this: to make proofe of his facultie in Pentameters too, affecting a certaine Rithmus withall. 39 newe ):] :) 1580),] ,) 1580

2. Whilst your Ritches abound, your friends will play the Placeboes, If your wealth doe decay, friend, like a feend, will away, Dooues Dooves light, and delight in goodly fairetyled houses: If your House be but olde, Dooue Doove to remoue remove be ye bolde. And the last and largest of all, this: 3. If so be goods encrease, then dayly encreaseth a goods friend. If so be goods decrease, then straite decreaseth a goods friend. Then God night goods friend, who seldome prooueth prooveth a good friend, Giue Give me the goods, and giue give me the good friend, take ye the goods friend. Douehouse Dovehouse , and Louehouse Lovehouse , in writing differ a letter: In deede scarcely so much, so resembleth an other an other. Tyle me the Doouehouse Doovehouse trimly, and gallant, where the like storehouse? Fyle me the Doouehouse Doovehouse : leaue leave it vnhansome unhansome , where the like poorehouse? Looke to the Louehouse Lovehouse : where the resort is, there is a gaye showe: Gynne port, and mony fayle: straight sports and Companie faileth. Beléeue Beléeve me, I am not to be charged with aboue above one, or two of the Uerses Verses : and a foure or fiue five wordes in the rest. His afternoones Theame was borrowed out of him, whõ whom one in your Coate, they say, is as much beholding vnto unto , as any Pla-net , Planet , or Starre in Heauen Heaven is vnto unto the Sunne: and is quoted as your self best remember, in the Glose of your October. Giunto Alessandro ala famosa tomba Del fero Achille, sospirando disse, O fortunato, che si chiara tromba Trouasti. Within an houre, or there aboutes, he brought me these foure lustie Hexameters, altered since not past in a worde, or two. Noble Alexander, when he came to the tombe of Achilles , Sighing spake with a bigge voyce: O thrice blessed Achilles. That such a Trump, so great, so loude, so glorious hast found, As the renowned, and surprizing Archpoet Homer. Uppon the viewe whereof, Ah my Syrrha, quoth I here is a gallant exercise for you in déede: we haue have had a little prettie triall of you your Latin, and Italian Translation: Let me sée now I pray, what you can doo in your owne Tongue: And with that, reaching a certaine famous Booke, called the 38 But your] you 1580

newe Shephardes Calender: I turned to Willyes, and Tho-malins Thomalins Emblemes, in Marche: and bad him make them ey-ther eyther better, or worse in English verse. I gaue gave him an other howres respite: but before I looked for him, he suddainely rushed vpon upon me, and gaue gave me his deuise devise , thus formally set downe in a faire péece of Paper. 1.Thomalins Embleme. Of Honny, and of Gaule in Loue Love there is store, The Honny is much, but the Gaule is more. 2.Willyes Embleme. To be wize, and eke to Loue Love , Is graunted scarce to God aboue above . 3.Both combined in one. Loue Love is a thing more fell, than full of Gaule, than of Honny, And to be wize, and Loue Love , is a worke for a God, or a Goddes peere. With a small voluntarie Supplement of his owne, on the other side, in commendation of hir most gratious, and thrice excellent Maiestie Majestie : Not the like Virgin againe, in Asia, or Afric, or Europe, For Royall Vertues, for Maiestie Majestie , Bountie, Behauiour Behaviour . Raptim, vti uti vides. In both not passing a worde, or two, corrected by mée. Something more I haue have of his; partly that very day begun, and partly continued since: but yet not so perfitly finished, that I dare committe the viewe, and examination thereof, to Messer Immeritoes Censure, whom after those same two incomparable and myraculous Gemini, Omni exceptione ma-iores, majores, I recount, and chaulk vppe uppe in the Catalogue of our very principall Englishe Aristarchi. Howbeit, I am nigh halfe perswaded, that in tyme (siquidem vltima ultima primis re-spondeant ) respondeant ) for length, bredth, and depth, it will not come far behinde your Epithalamion Thamesis: the rather, hauing having so fayre a president, and patterne before his Eyes, as I war-rant warrant him, and he presumeth to haue have of that: both Master Collinshead, and Master Hollishead Hollinshead too, being togither therein. 40 with Hollinshead] Hollishead 1580

But euer ever , & and euer ever , me thinkes your great Catoes, Ecquid erit pretij, and our little Catoes, Res age quæ prosunt, make suche a buzzing, & and ringing in my head, that I haue have little ioy joy to ani-mate, animate & and encourage either you, or him to goe forward, vnlesse unlesse ye might make account of some certaine ordinarie wages, at or at the leastwise haue have your meate, and drinke for your dayes workes. As for my selfe, howsoeuer howsoever I haue have toyed, and trifled heretofore, I am nowe taught, and I trust I shall shortly learne, (no remedie, I must of méere necessi-tie necessitie giue give you ouer over in the playne fielde) to employ my tra-uayle, trauayle, and tyme wholly, or chiefely on those studies and practizes, that carrie as they saye, meate in their mouth, hauing having euermore evermore their eye vppon uppon the Title De pane lucrando, and their hand vpon upon their halfpenny. For, I pray now, what saith M. Cuddie, alias you know who, in the tenth Æglogue of the foresaid famous new Calender? Piers, I haue have piped erst so long with payne, That all myne Oten reedes been rent, and wore, And my poore Muse hath spent hir spared store, Yet little good hath got, and much lesse gayne. Such pleasaunce makes the Grashopper so poore,5 And ligge so layde, when winter doth her strayne. The Dapper Ditties, that I woont denize, To feede youthes fancie, and the flocking fry, Delighten much: what I the bett for thy? They han the pleasure, I a sclender prize.10 I beate the bushe, the birdes to them doe flye, What good thereof to Cuddy can arise? But Master Collin Cloute is not euery every body, and albeit his olde Companions, Master Cuddy, & and Master Hobbinoll be as little beholding to their Mistresse Poetrie, as euer ever you wist: yet he peraduenture peradventure , by the meanes of hir speciall fa-uour , favour , and some personall priuiledge priviledge , may happely liue live by dy-ing dying Pellicanes, and purchase great landes, and Lordshippes, 41 I F. or] at 1580

with the money, which his Calendar and Dreames haue have , and will affourde him. Extra iocum jocum , I like your Dreames pas-singly passingly well: and the rather, bicause they sauour savour of that singu-lar singular extraordinarie veine and inuention invention , whiche I euer ever fan-cied fancied moste, and in a manner admired onelye in Lucian, Pe-trarche , Petrarche , Aretine, Pasquill, and all the most delicate, and fine conceited Grecians & and Italians: (for the Romanes to speake of, are but verye Ciphars in this kinde:) whose chiefest en-deuour , endeuour , and drifte was, to haue have nothing vulgare, but in some respecte or other, and especially in liuely lively Hyperbolicall Am-plifications, Amplifications, rare, queint, and odde in euery every pointe, and as a man woulde saye, a degrée or two at the leaste, aboue above the reache, and compasse of a common Schollers capacitie. In whiche respecte notwithstanding, as well for the singulari-tie singularitie of the manner, as the Diuinitie Divinitie of the matter, I hearde once a Diuine Divine , preferre Saint Iohns Johns Reuelation Revelation before al the veriest Mætaphysicall Visions, & and iollyest jollyest conceited Dreames or Extasies, that euer ever were deuised devised by one or other, howe ad-mirable , admirable , or superexcellẽt superexcellent soeuer soever they séemed otherwise to the worlde. And truely I am so confirmed in this opinion, that when I bethinke me of the verie notablest, and moste won-derful wonderful Propheticall, or Poeticall Uision Vision , that euer ever I read, or hearde, me séemeth the proportion is so vnequall unequall , that there hardly appeareth anye semblaunce of Comparison: no more in a manner (specially for Poets) than doth betwéene the in-comprehensible incomprehensible Wisedome of God, and the sensible Wit of Man. But what néedeth this digression betwéene you and me? I dare saye you wyll holde your selfe reasonably wel sa-tisfied , satisfied , if youre Dreames be but as well estéemed of in Eng-lande , Englande , as Petrarches Visions be in Italy: whiche I assure you, is the very worst I wish you. But, sée, how I haue have the Arte Memoratiue Memorative at commaundement. In good faith I had once againe nigh forgotten your Faerie Queene: howbeit by good chaunce, I haue have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither in better nor worse case, than I founde hir. And must you of necessitie haue have my Iudgement Judgement of hir in déede? To be plaine, 50 To

I am voyde of al iudgement judgement , if your Nine Comœdies, wher-vnto whervnto in imitation of Herodotus, you giue give the names of the Nine Muses, (and in one mans fansie not vnworthily unworthily ) , come not néerer Ariostoes Comœdies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible Elocution, or the rarenesse of Poetical Inuention Invention , than that Eluish Elvish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso, which notwithstanding, you wil néedes séeme to emulate, and hope to ouergo overgo , as you flatly professed your self in one of your last Letters. Besides that you know, it hath bene the vsual usual pra-ctise practise of the most exquisite and odde wittes in all nations, and specially in Italie, rather to shewe, and aduaunce advaunce themselues themselves that way, than any other: as namely, those thrée notorious dyscoursing heads, Bibiena, Machiauel Machiavel , and Aretine did, (to let Bembo and Ariosto passe) with the great admiration, and wonderment of the whole countrey: being in déede reputed matchable in all points, both for conceyt of Witte, and elo-quent eloquent decyphering of matters, either with Aristophanes and Menander in Gréek, or with Plautus and Terence in Latin, or with any other, in any other tong. But I wil not stand greatly with you in your owne matters. If so be the Faerye Queene be fairer in your eie thã than the Nine Muses, and Hob-goblin Hobgoblin runne away with the Garland from Apollo: Marke what I saye, and yet I will not say that I thought, but there an End for this once, and fare you well, till God or some good Aungell putte you in a better minde. And yet, bicause you charge me somewhat suspitiouslye with an olde promise, to deliuer deliver you of that iealousie jealousie , I am so farre from hyding mine owne matters from you, that loe, I muste a néedes be reuealing revealing my friendes secreates, now an ho-nest honest Countrey Gentleman, sometimes a Scholler: At whose request, I bestowed this pawlting bongrely bnngrely bungrely Rime vpon upon him, to present his Maistresse withall. The parties shall bée namelesse; sauing saving , that the Gentlewomans true, or counter-faite counterfaite Christen name, must necessarily be bewrayed. 51 Nowe F.ij. ,] 1580bungrely] bnngrely 1580

¶To my good Mistresse Anne: the very lyfe of my lyfe, and onely beloued beloved Mystresse. GEntle Gentle Mistresse Anne, I am plaine by nature: I was neuer never so farre in loue love with any creature. Happy were your seruant servant , if hee coulde bee so Anned, And you not vnhappy unhappy , if you shoulde be so manned. I loue love not to gloze, where I loue love indeede,5 Nowe God, and good Saint Anne. Anne, sende me good speede. Suche goodly Vertues, suche amiable Grace, But I must not fall a praysing: I wante Time, and Place. Oh, that I had mine olde Wittes at commaundement: I knowe, what I coulde say without controlement:10 But let this suffice: thy desertes are suche: That no one in this worlde can loue love thee too muche. My selfe moste vnworthy unworthy of any suche fœlicitie, But by imputation of thy gratious Curtesie. I leaue leave to loue love the Muses, since I loued loved thee,15 Alas, what are they, when I thee see? Adieu, adieu pleasures, and profits all: My Hart, and my Soule, but at one bodyes call. Woulde God, I might saye to hir: My hart-roote is thine: And, ( ô Pleasure of Pleasures) Thy sweete hart-roote hartroote mine.20 Nowe I beseeche thee by whatsoeuer whatsoever thou louest lovest beste, Let it be, as I haue have saide, and, Soule, take thy reste. By the faith of true Loue Love , and by my truest Truely, Thou shalt neuer never putte forth thy Loue Love to greater Vsurie Usurie . And for other odde necessaries, take no care,25 Your seruaunts servaunts Dæmonium shall ridde you of that feare. I serue serve but two Saints, Saint Penny, and Saint Anne, Commende this I muste, commaunde that I canne. Nowe, shall I be plaine? I praye thee euen even most hartily, Requite Loue Love , with Loue Love : and farewell most hartily.30 Postscripte. I But but once loued loved before, and shee forsooth was a Susanne: But the Heart of a Susanne, not worth the Haire of an Anne: A Sus to Anne, if you can any Latine, or Pewter: Shee Flesh, hir Mother hir, Mother Fish, hir Father a verye Newter. I woulde once, and might after, haue have spedde a Gods name:35 But, if she coye it once, she is none of my Dame. 44 neuer never Gentle] GEntle 1580Anne, ] Anne. Bod Anne, HRHhart-roote] hart-roote BL CC Cam F HRH hartroote Bodbut] But 1580hir Mother] hir Mother BL CC Cam F hir, Mother Bod

Nowe I praye thee moste hartily, Thricegentle Mistresse Anne, Looke for no long seruice service of so plaine a manne. And yet I assure thee, thou shalt neuer never want any seruice service , If my selfe, or my S. Penny may performe thy wishe.40 And thus once againe, (full loath) I take my leaue leave of thy sweete harte, With as many louing loving Farewels, as be louing loving pangs in my heart. He that longeth to be thine owne inseparably, for euer ever and euer ever . God helpe vs us , you and I are wisely employed, (are wée not?) when our Pen and Inke, and Time, and Wit, and all runneth away in this goodly yonkerly veine: as if the world had nothing else for us us to do: or we were borne to be the on-ly only Nonproficients and Nihilagents of the world. Cuiusmodi tu nugis, at&abque; atque nænijs næniis , nisi unâ mecum (qui solemni quodam iureiurando, at&abque; atque voto obstringor, relicto isto amoris Poculo, iuris juris Poculum pri-mo primo quo&abque; quoque tempore exhaurire) iam jam tandem aliquando valedicas, (quod tamen, vnum unum tibi, credo τῶν ἀδυνάτων videbitur) nihil dicam amplius, Valeas. E meo municipio. Nono Calendas Maias Maias . But hoe I pray you, gentle sirra, a word with you more. In good sooth, and by the faith I beare to the Muses, you shal neuer never haue have my subscriptiõ subscription or consent (though you should charge me wyth the authoritie of fiue five hundreth Maister Drants,) to make your Carpēnter Carpēnter, our Carpĕnter, an inche lon-ger , longer , or bigger, than God and his Englishe people haue have made him. Is there no other Pollicie to pull downe Ryming, and set vppe uppe Versifying, but you must néedes correcte Magnificat: and againste all order of Lawe, and in despite of Custome, forcibly vsurpe usurpe , and tyrannize vppon uppon a quiet companye of wordes, that so farre beyonde the memorie of man, haue have so peaceably enjoyed their seueral several Priuiledges Priviledges and Liberties, without any disturbance, or the leaste controlement? What? Is Horaces Ars Poëtica so quite out of our Englishe Poets head, that he muste haue have his Remembrancer, to pull hym by the sléeue sléeve , and put him in mind, of, Penes vsum, & et ius jus , & et nor-ma norma loquendi? Indéed I remẽber remember , who was wont in a certaine braverie, to call our M. Master Valanger Valănger . , Noble M. Master Valanger Valānger . Else 45 Purchaser, F.iij. næniis] nænijs 1580 Carpēnter ] Carpēnter Bod Carpēnter, CamMaster] M. 1580Valănger] Valanger 1580,] . 1580Master] M. 1580Valānger] Valanger 1580

neuer never heard I any, that durst prefume so much ouer over the En-glishe , Englishe , (excepting a few suche stammerers, as haue have not the masterie of their owne Tongues) as to alter the Quantitie of any one sillable, otherwise, than oure common speache, and generall receyued receyved Custome woulde beare them oute. Woulde not I laughe, thinke you, to heare Messer Immeri-to Immerito come in baldely with his Maiēstie Majēstie , Royāltie, Honēstie, sciēnces, Facūlties, Excēllent, Tauērnour Tavērnour , Mannfūlly, Faithfūlly, and a thou-sande thousande the like: in steade of Maiĕstie Majĕstie , Royăltie, Honĕstie, and so forth? And trowe you anye coulde forbeare the byting of his Lippe, or smyling in his Sléeve, if a jolly fellowe, and greate Clarke, (as it mighte be youre selfe,) reading a fewe Ver-ses Verses vnto unto him for his own credite and commendation, should nowe and then, tell him of, bargaīneth, follōwing, harrōwing, thoroūghly, Trauaīlers Travaīlers , or the like, in steade of, bargaĭneth, follŏ-wing, follŏwing, harrŏwing, and the reste? Or will Segnior Immerito, bycause, may happe, he hathe a fat-bellyed Archedeacon on his side, take vppon uppon him to controll Maister Doctor Watson for his All Trauaĭlers Travaĭlers , in a Verse so highly extolled of Ma-ster Master Ascham? or Maister Ascham himselfe, for abusing Ho-mer, Homer, and corrupting our Tongue, in that he saith: Quite throŭghe a Doore flĕwe a shafte with a brasse head? Nay, haue have we not somtime, by your leaue leave , both the Positi-on Position of the firste, and Dipthong of the seconde, concurring in one, and the same sillable, which neuerthelesse neverthelesse is commonly & and ought necessarily to be pronounced short? I haue have nowe small time, to bethink me of many examples. But what say you to yͤ the second in Merchaŭndise? to the third in Gouenaŭntheth Covenaŭnteth ? & and to the fourth in Appurtenaŭnces? Durst you aduẽture adventure to make any of them long, either in Prose, or in Verse? I assure you I I I knowe who dareth not, and suddăinly feareth the displea-sure displeasure of all true Englishemen if he should. Say you suddaīnly if you liste: by my certaĭnly, and certaĭnty I wil not. You may perceiue perceive by the Premisses , (which very worde I would haue have you note by the waye to) , the Latine is no rule for vs us : or i-magine imagine aforchande aforehande , (bycause you are like to proue prove a great 54 of Covenaŭnteth] Gouenaŭntheth 1580] , 1580,] 1580] , 1580

Purchaser, and leaue leave suche store of money, and possessions behinde you) , your Execŭtors wil deale fraudulĕntly, or violĕntly with your succĕssour , (whiche in a maner is euery every mans case) , and it will fall oute a resolute pointe: the third in Execūtores, fraudulēter fraudulēnter , violēter violēnter , and the seconde in Succēssor, being long in the one, and shorte in the other: as in seauen seaven hundreth more: suche as, discīple, recīted, excīted: tenĕment, orătour, laudĭble: & and a number of their fellowes are long in English, short in La-tine : Latine : long in Latine, short in English. Howebeit, in my fan-cy, fancy, such words, as violently, diligently, magnificently, indifferently, séeme in a manner reasonably indifferent, and tollerable ei-ther either waye, neither woulde I greately stande with him, that translated the Verse. Cur mittis violas? vt ut me violentùs vras uras ? Why send you violets? to burne my poore hart violē̄ntly. Marry so, that being left common for verse, they are to be pronounced shorte in Prose, after the maner of the Latines, in suche wordes as these, Cathedra, Volucrĕs, mediocres, Cele-bres. Celebres. And thus farre of your Carpēnter, and his fellowes, wher-in wherein we are to be moderated, and ouerruled overruled by the vsuall usuall , and common receiued received sounde, and not to deuise devise any counterfaite fantasticall Accent of oure owne, as manye, otherwise not vnlearned unlearned , haue have corruptly and ridiculouslye done in the Gréeke. Nowe for your Heauen Heaven , Seauen Seaven , Eleauen Eleaven , or the like, I am likewise of the same opinion: as generally in all words else: we are not to goe a little tittle farther, either for the Prosody, or the Orthography, (and therefore your Imaginarie Diastole nothing worthe) then than we are licenced and authorized by the ordinarie vse use , & and custome, and proprietie, and Idiome, and, as it were, Majestie of our speach: whiche I accounte the only infallible, and soueraigne soveraigne Rule of all Rules. And therefore hauing having respecte therevnto thereunto , and reputing it Petty Treason to reuolt revolt therefro: dare hardly eyther in the Prosodie, or in the Orthography either, allowe them two sillables in steade 55 or ,] 1580] , 1580,] 1580fraudulēnter] fraudulēter 1580violēnter] violēter 1580,] 1580tittle] little 1580

of one, but woulde as well in Writing, as in Speaking, haue have them vsed used , as Monosyllaba, thus: heavn, seaevn, a leavn aleavn , a leavn a leaun ; , as Maister Ascham in his Toxophilus doth Yrne, common-ly commonly written Yron: Vp Up to the pap his string did he pull, his shafte to the harde yrne. Especially the difference so manifestly appearing by the Pronunciation, betwéene these twoo, a leavn aleavn a clocke and a leaven of Dowe, whyche leaven admitteth the Diastole, you speake of. But sée, what absurdities thys yl-fa-uoured yl-favoured yl fa-uoured yl favoured Orthographye, or rather Pseudography, hathe ingendred: and howe one errour still bréedeth and beget-teth begetteth an other. Haue Have wée not, Mooneth, for Moonthe: sithence, for since: whilest, for whilste: phantasie, for phansie: euen even , for evn: Diuel Divel , for Divl: God hys wrath, for Goddes wrath:and a thousande of the same stampe: where-in wherein the corrupte Orthography in the moste, hathe béene the sole, or principall cause of corrupte Prosodye in ouer over many? Marry, I confesse some wordes we haue have indéede, as for example, fayer, either for beautifull, or for a Marte: ayer, bothe pro aere, and pro hæredè, for we say not Heire, but plaine Aire for him to (or to, or to(or to( or else Scoggins Aier were a poore iest jest ) whi-che whiche are commonly, and maye indifferently be vsed used eyther wayes. For you shal as well, and as ordinarily heare fayer, as faire, and Aier, as Aire, and bothe alike: not onely of diuers divers and sundrye persons, but often of the very same: o-therwhiles otherwhiles vsing using the one, otherwhiles the other: and so di-ed, died, or dyde: spied, or spide: tryed, or tride: fyer, or fyre: myer, or myre: wyth an infinyte companye of the same sorte: some-time sometime Monosyllaba, sometime Polysyllaba. To conclude both pointes in one, I dare sweare priuately privately to your selfe, and will defende publiquely againste any, it is neither Heresie, nor Paradox, to sette downe, and stande vppon uppon this assertion, (notwithstanding all the Preiudices Prejudices and Presumptions to the contrarie, if they were tenne times as manye moe) that it is not, either Position, or Dipthong, 48 Sed aleavn] a leavn 1580] , 1580aleavn] a leavn 1580to (or] to (or Cam to, or Bod to(or CC HEH F HRH to( or BL

or Diastole, or anye like Grammer Schoole Deuice Device , that doeth, or can indéede, either make long or short, or encrease, or diminish the number of Sillables, but onely the common allowed, and receiued received Prosodye: taken vp up by an vniuersall universall consent of all, and continued by a generall vse use , and Custome of all. Wherein neuerthelesse neverthelesse I grant, after long aduise advise , & and diligent obseruation observation of particulars, a certain Uniform Ana-logie, Analogie, and Concordance, being in processe of time espyed out. Sometime this, sometime that, hath béen noted by good wits in their Analyses, to fall out generally alyke ? , and as a man woulde saye, regularly in all, or moste wordes: as Positi-on, Position, Dipthong, and the like: not as firste, and essentiall cau-ses causes of this, or that effecte , (here lyeth the point) , but as Se-cundarie Secundarie and Accidentall Signes, of this, or that Qualitie. It is the vulgare, and naturall Mother Prosodye, that a-lone alone worketh the feate, as the onely supreame Foundresse, and Reformer of Position, Dipthong, Orthographie, or whatsoeuer whatsoever else: whose Affirmatiues Affirmatives are nothing worth, if she once conclude the Negatiue Negative : and whose secundæ intentiones muste haue have their whole allowance and warrante from hir primæ. And therefore in shorte, this is the verie shorte, and the long: Position neither maketh shorte, nor long in oure Tongue, but so farre as we can get hir good leaue leave . Perad-uenture, Peradventure, vppon uppon the diligent suruewe survewe , and examination of Particulars, some the like Analogie and Uniformity, might be founde oute in some other respecte, that shoulde as vniuer-sally universally and Canonically holde amongst vs us , as Position doeth with the Latines and Gréekes. I saye, ( peraduenture peradventure ,) bycause, hauing having not yet made anye speciall Obseruation Observation , I dare not precisely affirme any generall certaintie: albeit I presume, so good and sensible a Tongue, as ours is, béeyng wythall so like itselfe, as it is, cannot but haue have something equipollent, and counteruaileable countervaileable to the beste Tongues, in some one such kinde of conformitie, or other. And this for-sooth forsooth is all the Artificial Rules and Precepts, you are like to borrowe of one man at this time. 49 ,] ? 1580] , 1580,] 1580

Sed amabo te, ad Corculi tui delicatissimas Literas, propediem, quā quam potero, accuratissimè: tot interim illam exquisitissimis salutibus, at&abque; atque salutationibus impertiens, quot habet in Capitulo, capillos semiaure-os, semiaureos, semiargenteos, semigemmeos. Quid quæris? Per tuam Venerem altera Rosalindula est: eam&abque; eamque non alter, sed idem ille , (tua, vt ut ante, bona cum gratia) , copiosè amat Hobbinolus. O mea Domina Im-merito, Immerito, mea bellissima Collina Clouta, multo plus plurimùm salue salve , at&abque; atque vale. You knowe my ordinarie Postscripte: you may commu-nicate communicate as much, or as little, as you list, of these Patcheries, and fragments, with the two Gentlemen: but there a straw, and you loue love me: not with any else, friend or foe, one, or o-ther: other: vnlesse unlesse haply you haue have a special desire to imparte some parte hereof, to my good friend M. Daniel Rogers: whose cur-tesies curtesies are also registred in my Marble booke. You know my meaning. Nosti manum & et stylum. G. ] , 1580,] 1580

¶ TVVO TWO OTHER, very commendable Let-ters, Letters, of the same mens vvri-ting: writing: both touching the foresaid Artificiall Versifying, and cer-tain certain other Particulars: More lately deliuered delivered vnto unto the Printer. IMPRINTED AT LON-don, LONdon, by H. Bynneman, dvvelling dwelling in Thames streate, neere vnto unto Baynardes Castell. Anno Domini. 1580. Cum gratia & et priuilegio Regiæ Maiestatis. 53 G.iii. still

¶ To the VVorshipfull Worshipfull his very sin-gular singular good friend, Maister G. H. Fellovv Fellow of Trinitie Hall in Cambridge. GOod Good Master G. I perceiue perceive by your most curteous and frendly Letters your good will to be no lesse in déed, than I alwayes estéemed . In recõ-pence recompence wherof, think I beséech you, that I wil spare spéech , nor wryting, nor aught else, whensoe-uer, whensoever, and wheresoeuer wheresoever occasion shal be offred me: yea, I will not stay, till it be offred, but will séeke it, in al that possibly I may. And that you may perceiue perceive how much your Counsel in al things preuaileth prevaileth with me, and how alto-gither altogither I am ruled and ouer over -ruled thereby: I am now deter-mined determined to alter mine owne former purpose, and to subscribe to your aduizemẽt advizement : being notwithsta~ding notwithstanding resolued resolved stil, to abide your farther resolution. My principal doubts are these. First, I was minded for a while to haue have intermitted the vttering uttering of my writings: leaste by ouer over -much cloying their noble ea-res, eares, I should gather a contempt of my self, or else séme ra-ther rather for gaine and commoditie to doe it, for some swéetnesse that I haue have already tasted. Then also me séemeth the work too base for his excellent Lordship, being made in Honour of a priuate private Personage vnknowne unknowne , which of some yl-willers might be vpbraided upbraided , not to be so worthie, as you knowe she is: or the matter not so weightie, that it should be offred to so weightie a Personage: or the like. The selfe former Title 54 Slomber Good] GOod 1580

stil liketh me well ynough, and your fine Addition no lesse. If these, and the like doubtes, maye be of importaunce in your séeming, to frustrate any parte of your aduice advice , I bée-séeche béeséeche you, without the leaste selfe loue love of your own purpose, councell me for the beste: and the rather doe it faithfullye, and carefully, for that, in all things I attribute so muche to your iudgement judgement , that I am euermore evermore content to adnihilate mine owne determinations, in respecte thereof. And indéede for your selfe to too , it sitteth fitteth with you now, to call your wits, & and senses togither, (which are alwaies at call) when occasion is so fairely offered of Estimation and Preferment. For, whiles the yron is hote, it is good striking, and minds of Nobles va-rie, varie, as their Estates. Verùm ne quid durius. I pray you bethinke you well hereof, good Maister G. and forthwith write me those two or thrée special points and ca-ueats caveats for the nonce, De quibus in superioribus illis mellitissimis, longissimis&abque; longissimisque Litteris tuis.Your desire to heare of my late bée-ing béeing with hir Maiestie Majestie , muste dye in it selfe. As for the twoo worthy Gentlemen, Master Sydney, and Master Dyer, they haue have me, I thanke them, in some vse use of familiarity: of whom, and to whome, what speache passeth for youre credite and e-stimation, estimation, I leaue leave your selfe to conceiue conceive , hauing having alwayes so well conceiued conceived of my vnfained unfained affection, and zeale towardes you. And nowe they haue have proclaimed in their ἀρειωπαγῷ ἀρείῳπάγῳ , a generall surceasing and silence of balde Rymers, and also of the verie beste , to too : in steade whereof, they haue have by autho-tie authoritie of their whole Senate, prescribed certaine Lawes and rules of Quantities of English sillables, for English Verse: hauing having had thereof already greate practise, and drawen mée mee to their faction. Newe Bookes I heare of none, but only of one, that writing a certaine Booke, called The Schoole of Abuse, and dedicating it to Maister Sidney, was for hys labor scorned: if at leaste it be in the goodnesse of that nature to scorne. Suche follie is it, not to regarde aforehande the inclination and qualitie of him, to whome wée dedicate oure Bookes. Suche mighte I happily incurre, entituling My 55 Iambicum sitteth] sitteth Bod fitteth BL,] 1580too] to 1580authoritie ] autho-tie 1580

Slomber, and the other Pamphlets, vnto unto his honor. I meant them rather to Maister Dyer. But I am, of late, more in loue love wyth my Englishe Uersifying Versifying , than with Ryming: whyche I should haue have done long since, if I would thẽ then haue have followed your councell. Sed te solum iam tum suspicabar cum. Aschamo sapere: nunc Aulam video egregios alere Poëtas Anglicos. Mai-ster Maister E. K. hartily desireth to be commended vnto unto your Wor-shippe: Worshippe: of whome, what accompte he maketh, youre selfe shall hereafter perceiue perceive , by hys paynefull and dutifull Uer-ses Verses of your selfe. Thus muche was written at Westminster yesternight: but comming this morning, béeyng the sixtéenth sixteenth of October, to Mystresse Kerkes,to haue have it deliuered delivered to the Carrier, I receyued receyved youre letter, sente me the laste wéeke : whereby I perceiue perceive you otherwhiles continue your old exercise of Uer-sifying Versifying in English: whych glorie I had now thought shoulde haue have bene onely ours héere at London, and the Court. Truste me, your Uerses Verses I like passingly well, and enuye envye your hidden paines in this kinde, or rather maligne, and grudge at your selfe, that woulde not once imparte so muche to me. But once, or twice, you make a breache in Maister Drants Rules: quod tamen condonabimus tanto Poëtæ, tuæ&abque; tuæque ipsius maximæ in his rebus autoritati. You shall sée when we méete in London, (whiche, when it shall be, certifye vs us ) howe fast I haue have followed after you, in that Course: beware, leaste in time I ouertake overtake you. Veruntamen te solùm sequar, ( vt ut sæpenu-merò sæpenumerò sum professus,) nunquam sanè assequar, dum viuam vivam . And nowe requite I you with the like, not with the verye beste, but with the verye shortest, namely with a fewe Iambickes: I dare warrant, they be precisely perfect for the féete (as you can easily iudge judge ) and varie not one inch from the Rule. I will imparte yours to Maister Sidney, and Maister Dyer, at my nexte going to the Courte. I praye you, kéepe mine close to your selfe, or your verie entire friendes, Maister Preston, Maister Still, and the reste. 56 Ad

Iambicum Trimetrum. VNhappie Unhappie Verse, the witnesse of my vnhappie unhappie state, Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying Thought, and fly forth vnto unto my Loue Love , whersoeuer whersoever she be: Whether lying reastlesse in heauy heavy bedde, or else Sitting so cheerelesse at the cheerfull boorde, or else5 Playing alone carelesse on hir heauenlie heavenlie Virginals. If in Bed, tell hir, that my eyes can take no reste: If at Boorde, tell hir, that my mouth can eate no meate: If at hir Virginals, tel hir, I can heare no mirth. Asked why? say: Waking Loue Love suffereth no sleepe:10 Say, that raging Loue Love dothe appall the weake stomacke: Say, that lamenting Loue Love marreth the Musicall. Tell hir, that hir pleasures were wonte to lull me asleepe: Tell hir, that hir beautie was wonte to feede mine eyes: Tell hir, that hir sweete Tongue was wonte to make me mirth. 15 Nowe doe I nightly waste, wanting my kindely reste: Nowe doe I dayly starue starve , wanting my liuely lively foode: Nowe doe I alwayes dye, wanting thy timely mirth. And if I waste, who will bewaile my heauy heavy chaunce? And if I starue starve , who will record my cursed end?20 And If if I dye, who will saye: this was, Immerito? I thought once agayne here to haue have made an ende, with a heartie Vale, of the best fashion: but loe, an ylfauoured ylfavoured mys-chaunce. myschaunce. My last farewell, whereof I made great accompt, and muche maruelled marvelled you shoulde make no mention thereof, I am nowe tolde, (in the Diuels Divels name) was thorough one mans negligence quite forgotten, but shoulde nowe vndoub-tedly undoubtedly haue have béene sent, whether I hadde come, or no. Seing it can now be no otherwise, I pray you take all togither, wyth all their faultes: and nowe I hope, you will vouchsafe mée an answeare of the largest size, or else I tell you true, you shall bée verye déepe in my debte: notwythstandyng, thys other swéete, but shorte letter, and fine, but fewe Uerses Verses . But I woulde rather I might yet sée youre owne good selfe, and receiue receive a Reciprocall farewell from your owne swéete mouth. 57 Oratore H Unhappie] VNhappie 1580if] If 1580

Ad Ornatissimum virum, multis iamdiu nominibus clarissimum, G. H. Immerito sui, mox in Gallias nauigaturi navigaturi , εὐτυχεῖν. SIc Sic malus egregium, sic non inimicus Amicum: Sic&abque; Sicque nouus novus nows veterem iubet ipse Poëta Poëtam, Saluere Salvere , ac cælo post secula multa secundo Iam reducem, cælo mage, quàm nunc ipse, secundo Vtier Utier . Ecce Deus, (modò sit Deus ille, renixum5 Qui vocet in scelus, & et iuratos perdat amores) Ecce Deus mihi clara dedit modò signa Marinus, Et sua veligero lenis parat Æquora Ligno, Mox sulcanda, suas etiam pater Æolus Iras Ponit, & et ingentes animos Aquilonis10 Cuncta vijs viis sic apta meis: ego solus ineptus. Nam mihi nescio quo mens saucia vulnere, dudum Fluctuat ancipiti Pelago, dum Nauita Navita proram Inualidam Invalidam validus rapit huc Amor, & et rapit illuc. Consilijs Consiliis Ratio melioribus vsa usa , decus&abque; decusque 15 Immortale leui levi diffessa diffissa Cupidinis Arcu. Angimur hoc dubio, & et portu vexamur in ipso. Magne pharetrati nunc tu contemptor Amoris, (Id tibi Dij Djj nomen precor haud impune remittant) Hos nodos exsolue exsolve , & et eris mihi magnus Apollo.20 Spiritus ad summos, scio, te generosus Honores Exstimulat, maius&abque; maiusque docet spirare Poëtam, Quàm leuis levis est Amor, & et tamen haud leuis levis est Amor omnis. Ergo nihil laudi reputas æquale perenni, Præ&abque; Præque sacrosancta splendoris imagine tanti,25 Cætera, quæ vecors, vti uti Numina, vulgus adorat, Prædia, Amicitias, vrbana urbana peculia, Nummos, Quæ&abque; Quæque placent oculis, formas, spectacula, Amores Conculcare soles, vt ut humum, & et ludibria sensus. Digna meo certè Haruejo Harveio sententia, digna30 58 Nec Sic] SIc 1580diffissa] diffessa 1580

Oratore amplo, & et generoso pectore, quam non Stoica formidet veterum Sapientia vinclis Sancire æternis: sapor haud tamen omnibus idem. Dicitur effæti proles facunda Laërtæ, Quamlibet ignoti iactata per æquora Cæli,35 In&abque; Inque procelloso longùm exsul gurgite ponto, Præ tamen amplexu lachrymosæ Coniugis, Ortus Cælestes Diuûm&abque; Diuûmque thoros spreuisse sprevisse beatos. Tantùm Amor, & et Mulier, vel Amore potentior. Illum Tu tamen illudis: tua Magnificentia tanta est:40 Præ&abque; Præque subumbrata Splendoris Imagine tanti, Præ&abque; Præque illo Meritis famosis nomine parto, Cætera, quæ Vecors, vti uti Numina, vulgus adorat, Prædia, Amicitias, armenta, peculia, nummos. Quæ&abque; Quæque placent oculis, formas, spectacula, Amores.45 Quæ&abque; Quæque placent ori, quæ&abque; quæque auribus, omnia temnis. Næ Nae tu grande sapis, Sapor at sapientia non est: Omnis & et in paruis parvis benè qui scit desipuisse, Sæpe supercilijs superciliis palmam sapientibius aufert. Ludit Aristippum modò tetrica Turba Sophorum.50 Mitia purpureo moderantem verba Tyranno Ludit Aristippus dictamina vana Sophorum, Quos leuis levis emensi male torquet Culicis vmbra umbra : Et quisquis placuisse Studet Heroibus altis, Desipuisse studet, sic gratia crescit ineptis.55 Deni&abque; Denique Laurigeris quisquis sua tempora vittis, Insignire volet, Populo&abque; Populoque placere fauenti faventi , Desipere insanus discit, turpem&abque; turpemque pudendæ Stultitiæ laudem quærit. Pæter Pater Ennius vnus unus Dictus in innumeris sapiens: laudatur at ipse 60 Carmina vesano fudisse liquentio liquentia vino. Nec tu pace tua, nostri Cato Maxime sæcli, Nomen honorati sacrum mereare Poëtæ, Quantamuis illustre canas, & et nobile Carmen, Ni stultirevelis, sic Sultorum Stultorum omnia plena.65 Tuta sed in medio superest via gurgite, nam Qui 59 Musa H. ii ii ij . Nae] Næ 1580Pater] Pæter 1580liquentia] liquentio 1580Stultorum] Sultorum 1580

Nec reliquis nimiùm vult desipuisse videri, Nec sapuisse nimis, Sapientem dixeris vnum unum . Hinc te merserit vnda unda , illinc combusserit Ignis. Nec tu delicias nimis aspernare fluentes,70 Nec sero Dominam, venientem in vota, nec Aurum Si sapis, ablatum, ( Curijs Curiis ea, Fabricis&abque; Fabriciisque Linque viris miseris miseranda Sophismata: quondam Grande sui decus ij ii , nostri sed dedecus æui ævi :) Nec sectare nimis. Res vtra&abque; utraque crimine plena.75 Hoc bene qui callet, (si quis tamen hoc bene callet) Scribe, vel invito sapientem hunc Socrate solum. Vis facit vna una pios: Iustos facit altera: & et altra Egregiè cordata, ac fortia pectora: verùm Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit vtile utile dulci 80 Dij Dii mihi, dulce diu dederant: verùm vtile utile nun&abquam; nunquam : Vtile Utile nunc etiam, ô vtinam utinam quo&abque; quoque dulce dedissent. Dij Dii mihi, (quippe Dijs Diis æquiualia æquivalia maxima paruis parvis ) Ni nimis inuideant invideant mortalibus esse beatis, Dulce simul tribuisse queant, simul vtile utile : tanta85 Sed Fortuna tua est: pariter quæ&abque; quæque vtile utile , quæ&abque; quæque Dulce dat ad placitum: sæuo sævo nos sydere nati Quæsitum imus eam per inhospita Caucasa longè, Per&abque; Perque Pyrenæos montes, Babilona&abque; Babilonaque turpem, Quòd si quæsitum nec ibi invenerimus, ingens90 Æquor inexhaustis permensi erroribus, vltrâ ultrâ Fluctibus in medijs mediis socij socii quæremus Vlyssis Ulyssis . Passibus inde Deam fessis comitabimur ægram, Nobile cui furtum quærenti defuit orbis. Nam&abque; Namque sinu pudet in patrio, tenebris&abque; tenebrisque pudendis95 Non nimis ingenio Iuuonem Iuvenem infœlice, virentes, Officijs Officiis frustra deperdere vilibus Annos, Frugibus & et vacuas speratis cernere spicas. Ibimus ergo statim : (quis eunti fausta precetur?) : Et pede Clibosas Clivosas fesso calcabimus Alpes.100 Quis dabit interea conditas rore Britanno, Quis tibi Litterulas? quis carmen amore petulcum? 60 facias Fabriciisque] Fabricis&abque; 1580] : 1580:] 1580Clivosas] Clibosas 1580

Musa sub Oebalij Oebalii desueta cacumine montis, Flebit inexhausto tam longa silentia planctu, Lugebit&abque; Lugebitque sacrum lachrymis Helicona tacentem.105 Harueius&abque; Harveiusque bonus , (charus licet omnibus idem, Id&abque; Idque suo merito, prope suauior suavior omnibus vnus unus ,) ), Angelus & et Gabriel, ( quamuis quamvis comitatus amicis Innumeris, gèniûm&abque; gèniûmque choro stipatus amæno amœno ) Immerito tamen vnum unum absentem sæpe requiret,110 Optabit&abque; Optabitque Vtinam Utinam meus hîc Edmundus adesset, Qui noua nova scripsisset, nec Amores conticuisset, Ipse suos, & et sæpe animo, verbis&abque; verbisque benignis Fausta precaretur: Deus illum aliquando reducat. &c. etc. Plura vellem per Charites, sed non licet per Musas. Vale, Vale plurimùm, Mi amabilissime Harucie Harveie , meo curdi, meorum omnium longè charissime. I was minded also to haue have sent you some English verses: or Rymes, for a farewell: but by my Troth, I haue have no spare time in the world , to thinke on such Toyes, that you knowe will demaund a fréer head, than mine is presently. I beséeche you by all your Curtesies, and Graces, let me be answered, ere I goe: which will be, (I hope, I feare, I thinke) the next wéeke , if I can be dispatched of my Lorde. I goe thither, as sent by him, and maintained most what of him: and there am to employ my time, my body, my minde, to his Honours seruice service . Thus with many superhartie Commendations, and Recommendations to your selfe, and all my friendes with you, I ende my last Farewell, not thinking any more to write vnto unto you, before I goe: and withall committing to your faithfull Credence the eternall Memorie of our euer-lasting everlasting friendship, the inuiolable inviolable Memorie of our vnspotted unspotted friendshippe, the sacred Memorie of our vowed friendship: which I beséech you Continue with vsuall usuall writings, as you may, and of all things let me heare some Newes from you. As gentle M. Master Sidney, I thanke his good Worship, hath required of me, and so promised vromised to doe againe. Qui monet, vt ut 61 seve- H.iij. ] , 1580),] ,) 1580amœno] amæno 1580] , 1580Master] M. 1580promised] promised Bod vromised BL

facias, quod iam facis, you knowe the rest. You may alwayes send them most safely to me by Mistresse Kerke, and by none other. So once againe, and yet once more, Farewell most hartily, mine owne good Master H. and loue love me, as I loue love you, and thinke vpon upon poore Immerito, as he thinketh vppon uppon you. Leycester House. This. 5. of October. 2579 1579 . Per mare, per terras, Viuus Vivus , mortuus&abque; mortuusque , Tuus Immerito. To my verie Friende, M. Immerito. LIberalissimo Liberalissimo , in good soothe my poore Store-house Storehouse will presently affourd me nothing, either to recom-pence, recompence, or counteruaile countervaile your gentle Masterships , long, large, lauish lavish , Luxurious, Laxatiue Laxative Letters withall, (now a Gods name, when did I euer ever in my life, hunt the Letter before? but, belike, theres no remedie, I must néedes be euen even with you once in my dayes ,) ), but only for soothe, a fewe Millions of Recommendations, and a running Coppie of the Uerses Verses en-closed. enclosed. Which Uerses Verses , ( extra iocum) are so well done in Lat-tin Latin by two Doctors, and so well Translated into English by one odde Gentleman, and generally so well allowed of all, that chaunced to haue have the perusing of them: that trust mée mee , G.H. , was at the first hardly intreated, to shame himselfe, and truely, now blusheth, to sée the first Letters of his name, stande so néere their Names, as of necessitie they must. You know yͭ that Greeke prouerb, πορφύςα περὶ πορφύραν διακριτέα πορφύρα περὶ πορφύραν διακριτέα , and many colours, (as in a manner euery thing everything else) that 62 sie 1579] 2579 1580 Liberalissimo ] LIberalissimo 1580] , 1580),] ,) 1580,] 1580

seuerally severally by themselues themselves , séeme reasonably good, and freshe y-nough, ynough, beyng compared, and ouermatched overmatched wyth their bet-ters, betters, are maruellously marvellously disgraced, and as it were, dashed quite oute of Countenaunce. I am at this instant, very busilye, and hotly employed in certaine greate and serious affayres: whereof, notwithstanding (for all youre vowed, and long ex-perimented experimented secrecie) you are not like to heare a worde more at the moste, till I my selfe sée a World more at the leaste. And therefore, for this once I beséech you (notwithstanding your greate expectation of I knowe not what Uolumes Volumes for an aunsweare) content your good selfe, with these Presentes, (pardon me, I came lately out of a Scriueners Scriveners shop) and in lieu of many gentle Farewels, & and goodly Godbewyes, at your departure: gyue gyve me once againe leaue leave , to playe the Coun-saylour Counsaylour a while, if it be but to iustifie justifie your liberall Master-shippes , Mastershippes Nostri Cato maxime sæcli: and I coniure conjure you by the Contents of the Uerses Verses , and Rymes enclosed, and by al the good, and bad Spirites, that attende vpon upon the Authors them-selues, themselves, immediatly vpon upon the contemplation thereof, to aban-don abandon all other fooleries, and honour Uertue Vertue , the onely immor-tall immortall and suruiuing surviving Accident amongst so manye mortall, and euer ever -perishing Substaunces. As I strongly presume, so good a Texte, so clearkly handeled, by thrée so famous Do-ctours, Doctours, as olde Maister Wythipole, and the other two bée , may easily, and will fully perswade you, howsoeuer howsoever you tush at the fourths vnsutable unsutable Paraphrase. But a worde or two, to your large, lauishe lavishe , laxatiue laxative Letters, and then for thys time, Adieu. Of my credite, youre doubtes are not so re-doubted, redoubted, as youre selfe euer ever suspiciously imagine: as I pur-pose purpose shortely to aduize advize you more at large. Your hotte y-ron, yron, is so hotte, that it striketh mée to the hearte, I dare not come neare to strike it: The Tyde tarryeth no manne, but manye a good manne is fayne to tarry the Tyde. And I knowe some, whyche coulde be content to bée theyr own Caruers Carvers , that are gladde to thanke other for theyr courte-sie: courtesie: 63 The Mastershippes ] Master-shippes , 1580] , 1580

But Beggars, they saye, muste be no choosers. Your new-founded ἄρειονπάγον I honoure more, than you will or can suppose: and make greater accompte of the twoo worthy Gentlemenne, than of two hundreth Dionisij Areopagitæ, or the verye notablest Senatours, that euer ever A-thens Athens dydde affourde of that number. Your Englishe Trimetra I lyke better, than perhappes you will easily beléeue beléeve : and am to requite them wyth bet-ter, better, or worse, at more conuenient convenient leysure. Marry, you must pardon me, I finde not your warrant so sufficiently good, and substauntiall in Lawe, that it can persuade me, they are all, so precisely perfect for the Féete, as your selfe ouer-par-tially over-partially wéene, and ouer over -confidently auouche avouche : especiallye the thirde, whyche hathe a foote more than a Lowce (a wonde-rous wonderous deformitie in a righte and pure Senarie) and the sixte, whiche is also in the same Predicament, vnlesse unlesse happly one of the féete be sawed off wyth a payre of Syncopes: and then shoulde the Orthographie haue have testified so muche: and in steade of Hēauēnlĭ Vīrgĭnals , you should haue have written, Heaūnlĭ Virgnāls : & and Virgnāls againe in the ninth, & and should haue have made a Curtoll of Immĕrĭtō in the laste: being all notwithstandyng vsuall usuall , and tollerable ynoughe, in a mixte, and licentious Iambicke: and of two euilles evilles , better (no doubte) the fyrste, than the laste: a thyrde superfluous sillable, thã than a dull , Spon-dee. Spondee . Then me thinketh, you haue have in my fancie somwhat too many Spondees beside: and whereas Trochee sometyme presumeth in the firste place, as namely in the second Uerse Verse , Make thy, whyche thy, by youre Maistershippes owne autho-ritie authoritie muste néedes be shorte, I shall be faine to supplye the office of the Arte Memoratiue Memorative , and putte you in minde of a pretty Fable in Abstemio the Italian, implying thus much, or rather thus little in effect. A certaine lame man beyng invited to a solempne Nup-tiall Nuptiall Feaste, made no more adoe, but sate me hym round-lye roundlye downe foremoste at the hyghest ende of the Table. 64

Pauca The Master of the feast, suddainly spying his presumption, and hansomely remoouing remooving him from thence, placed me this haulting Gentleman belowe at the nether end of the bourd: alledging for his defence the common verse: Sedes nulla da-tur datur præterquam sexta Trochæo: and pleasantly alluding to this foote, which standing vppon uppon two syllables, the one long, the other short, (much like, of a like, his guestes féete) is alwayes thrust downe to the last place, in a true Hexameter, and quite thrust out of doores in a pure, and iust just Senarie. Nowe Syr, what thinke you, I began to thinke with my selfe, when I began to reade your warrant first: so boldly, and venterous-ly venterously set downe in so formall, and autentique wordes, as these, Precisely perfit, and not an inch from the Rule? Ah Syrrha, and Iesu Jesu Lord, thought I, haue have we at the last gotten one, of whom his olde friendes and Companions may iustly justly glory, In eo solùm peccat, quòd nihil peccat: and that is yet more ex-acte, exacte, and precise in his English Comicall Iambickes, than euer ever M. Watson himselfe was in his Lattin Tragicall Iam-bickes, Iambickes, of whom M. Ascham reporteth, that he would neuer never to this day suffer his famous Absolon to come abrode, onely because Anapæstus in Locis paribus, is twice, or thrice vsed used in steade of Iambus? A small fault, ywisse, and such a one in M. Aschams owne opinion, as perchaunce woulde neuer never haue have béene espyed, no neither in Italy, nor in Fraunce. But when I came to the curious scanning, and fingering of euery every foote, & and syllable: Lo here, quoth I, M. Watsons Anapæstus for all the worlde. A good horse, that trippeth not once in a iourney journey : and M. Immerito doth, but as M. Watson, & and in a manner all other Iambici haue have done before him: marry he might haue have spared his preface, or at yͤ the least, that same restrictiue restrictive , & and streightlaced terme, Precisely, and all had béen well enough: and I assure you, of my selfe, I beléeue beléeve , no péece of a fault marked at all. But this is the Effect of warrantes, and perhappes the Er-rour Errour may rather procéede of his Master , M. Drantes Rule, than of himselfe. Howsoeuer Howsoever it is, the matter is not great, and I alwayes was, and will euer ever continue of this Opinion, 65 eum I. ] , 1580

Pauca multis condonanda vitia Virtutibus, especially these being no Vitia neither, in a common and licencious Iambicke. Ve-rùm Verum ista obiter, non quidem contradicendi animo, aut etiam corri-gendi corrigendi mihi crede: sed nostro illo Academico, pristino&abque; pristinoque more ratio-cinand. ratiocinandi. And to saye trueth, partely too, to requite your gentle courtesie in beginning to me, and noting I knowe not what breache in your gorbellyed Maisters Rules: which Rules go for good, I perceiue perceive , and kéepe a Rule, where there be no better in presence. My selfe neither sawe them, nor heard of them before: and therefore will neither praise them, nor dis-praise dispraise them nowe: but vppon uppon the suruiewe surviewe of them, and far-ther farther conference, (both which I desire) you shall soone heare one mans opinion too to or fro. Youre selfe remember, I was wonte to haue have some preiudice prejudice of the man: and I still re-maine remaine a fauourer favourer of his deserued deserved , and iust just commendation. Marry in these poyntes, you knowe, Partialitie in no case, may haue have a foote: and you remember mine olde Stoicall ex-clamation: exclamation: Fie on childish affection, in the discoursing, and deciding of schoole matters. This I say, because you charge me with an vnknowne unknowne authoritie: which for aught I know yet, may as wel be either vnsufficient unsufficient , or faultie, as other-wise: otherwise: and I dare more than halfe promise, (I dare not saye, warrant) you shall alwayes , in these kinde of controuersies controversies , finde me nighe hande answerable in mine owne defence. Re-liqua Reliqua omnia, quæ de hac supersunt Anglicorum versuum ratione, in aliud tempus reseruabimus, ociosum magis.Youre Latine Fare-well Farewell is a goodly braue brave yonkerly péece of work, and Goddilge yée, I am alwayes maruellously marvellously beholding vnto unto you, for your bountifull Titles: I hope by that time I haue have béen re-sident resident a yeare or twoo in Italy, I shall be better qualifyed in this kind, and more able to requite your lauishe, and mag-nificent magnificent liberalitie that way. But to let Titles and Tittles passe, and come to the very pointe in déede, whiche so neare toucheth my lusty Trauayler Travayler to the quicke, and is one of the prædominant humors yͭ that raigne in our cõmon common Youths: Heus mi tu, bone proce, magne muliercularum amator, egregie Pamphile, 66 Methodus to] too 1580,] 1580

eum aliquando tandem, qui te manet, qui mulierosos omnes, qui v-niuersam universam Fæministarum sectam, Respice finem.And I shal then be content to appeale to your owne learned experience, whe-ther whether it be, or be not, too too true: quod dici solet à me sæpe: à te ipso nonnun&abquam; nonnunquam : ab expertis omnibus quotidie: Amare amarum: Nec deus, vt ut perhibent, Amor est, sed amaror, & et error: & et quicquid in eandem solet sententiam Empiricῶs aggregari. Ac scite mihi quidẽ quidem Agrippa Ouidianam Ovidianam illam, de Arte Amandi, ἐπιγραφήν videtur correxisse, meritó&abque; meritóque , de Arte Meretricandi, inscripsisse. Nec verò inepte alius, Amatores Alchumistis comparauit comparavit , au-reos, aureos, argenteos&abque; argenteosque montes, at&abque; atque fontes lepidè somniantibus, sed interim miserè immanibus Carbonum fumis propemodum occæcatis, at&abque; atque e-tiam etiam suffocatis: præter&abquam; præterquam celebratum illum Adami Paradisum, alium esse quendam prædicauit prædicavit , stultorum quo&abque; quoque Amatorum&abque; Amatorumque mirabilem Paradisum: illum verè, hunc phantasticè, fanatice&abque; fanaticeque beatorum. Sed hæc alias, fortassis vberiùs uberiùs .Credite me, I will neuer never linne bai-tyng baityng at you, til I haue have rid you quite of this yonkerly, & et wo-manly womanly humor. And as for your spéedy and hasty trauell travell : me thinks me-thinks I dare stil wager al the Books & and writings in my stu-dy, study, which you know, I estéeme of greater value, than al the golde & and siluer silver in my purse, or chest, that you wil not, (and yet I muste take héede, how I make my bargaine with so sub-tile subtile and intricate a Sophister) that you shall not, I saye, bée gone ouer over Sea, for al your saying, neither the next, nor the nexte wéeke. And then peraduenture peradventure I may personally per-forme performe your request, and bestowe the swéetest Farewell, vp-on upon your swéetmouthed Mashippe Mastershippe , that so vnswéete unswéete a Tong, and so sowre a paire of Lippes can affoorde. And, thinke you I will leaue leave my Il Pellegrino so? No I trowe. My Lords Honor, the expectation of his friendes, his owne cre-dite credite and preferment, tell me, he muste multe haue have a moste speciall care, and good regarde of employing his trauaile to the best. And therfore I am studying all this fortnight, to reade him suche a Lecture in Homers Odysses, and Virgils Æneads, that I dare vndertake undertake he shall not néede any further instru-ction, instruction, in Maister Turlers Trauayler Travayler , or Maister Zuingers 67 Cer- I.ij. me-thinks ] me thinks 1580Mastershippe] Mashippe 1580muste] muste Bod multe BL

Methodus Apodemica: but in his whole trauaile travaile abroade, and euer ever after at home, shall shewe himselfe a verie liuelye livelye and absolute picture of Vlysses Ulysses and Æneas. Wherof I haue have the stronger hope he muste néedes proue prove a most capable and apt subiecte subjecte (I speake to a Logician) hauing having the selfe same Goddesses and Graces attendant vpon upon his body and mind, that euermore evermore guided them, & and their actions: especially yͤ the ones Minerua Minerva , and the others Venus: that is (as one Doctor ex-poundeth expoundeth it) the pollitique head, and wise gouernement governement of the one: and the amiable behauiour behaviour , and gratious courtesie of the other: the two verye principall, and moste singular Companions, of a right Trauailer Travailer : and as perhaps one of oure subtile Logicians woulde saye, the two inseparable, and indivisible accidents of the foresaide Subiects Subjects . De quibus ipsis, cæteris&abque; cæterisque omnibus artificis Apodemici instrumentis: inprimis&abque; inprimisque de Homerica illa, diuina&abque; divinaque herba μῶλυ δὲ μινκαλὲουςιθεόι μῶλυ δέ μιν καλέουσι θεόι ) qua Vlissem Ulissem suum Mercurius, aduersus adversus Cyrcea & et pocula, & et carmina, & et venena, morbos&abque; morbosque omnes præmuniuit præmunivit : & et coram, vti uti spero, breui brevi : & et longè, vti uti soleo, copiosius: & et fortasse etiam, aliquantò, quàm soleo, cum subtiliùs, tum verò Polliticè, Pragmatice&abque; Pragmaticeque magis. Interim tri-bus tribus eriś eris syllabis contentus, ac valebis. Trinitie Hall, stil in my Gallerie. 23. Octob. 1579. In haste. Yours, as you knowe. G. H. 68 Olde eriś Bod eris HEH

Certaine Latin Verses, of the frailtie and mutabilitie of all things, sauing saving onely Ver- tue: Vertue: made by M. Master Doctor Norton, for the right Worshipfull, M. Thomas Sackford, Master of Requestes vnto unto hir Maiestie Majestie . ἀκροϛιχὰ ἀκρόστιχα . Th. TEmpora Tempora furtiuo furtivo morsu laniantur amæna amœna , SSensim florescunt, occubitura breui brevi . AAnni vere salit, Senio mox conficiendus, CCura, labor ditant, non eadem&abque; eademque premunt? FFallax, vel vigili studio Sapientia parta: OOh, & et magnatum gloria sæpe iacet, RRes inter varias fluimus, ruimus&abque; ruimusque gradatim: D.Dulcia Virtutis præmia sola manent. The same paraphrastically varied by M. Doctor Gouldingam, at the request of olde M. Wythipoll of Ipswiche. T. TEmpora Tempora furtiuo furtivo labuntur dulcia cursu, S Subsidunt&abque; Subsiduntque breuî brevî , quæ viguere diu. AAutumno capitur, quicquid nouus novus educat annus: CCurta Iuuentutis Iuventutis gaudia, Fata secant. FFallax Ambitio est, at&abque; atque anxia cura tenendi, OObscurum decus, & et nomen inane Sophi. RRes Fors humanas incerto turbine voluit, D.Dulcia Virtutis præmia sola manent. 69 Master] M. 1580 Tempora] TEmpora 1580amœna] amæna 1580 Tempora] TEmpora 1580

Olde Maister Wythipols owne Translation. OVr Our merry dayes, by theeuish theevish bit are pluckt, and torne away, And euery every lustie growing thing, in short time doth decay. The pleasaunt Spring times ioy joy , how soone it groweth olde? And wealth that gotten is with care, doth noy as much, be bolde. No wisedome had with Trauaile Travaile great, is for to trust in deede,5 For great Mens state we see decay, and fall downe like a weede. Thus by degrees we fleete; and sinke in worldly things full fast, But Vertues sweete and due rewardes stande sure in euery every blast. The same Paraphrastically varied by Master G. H. at M. Master Peter Wythipolles request, for his Father. THese These pleasant dayes, and Monthes, and yeares, by stelth do passe apace, And do not things, that florish most, soone fade, and lose their grace? Iesu Jesu , how soone the Spring of yeare, and Spring of youthfull rage, Is come, and gone, and ouercome overcome , and ouergone overgone with age? In paine is gaine, but doth not paine as much detract from health,5 As it doth adde vnto unto our store, when most we roll in wealth? Wisedome hir selfe must haue have hir doome, and grauest gravest must to graue grave , And mightiest power sib to a flower: what then remaines to craue crave ? Nowe vp up , now downe, we flowe, and rowe in seas of worldly cares, Vertue alone eternall is, and shee the Laurell weares.10 L' Enuoy Envoy . Soone said, soone writ, soone learnd: soone trimly done in prose, or verse: Beleeud of some, practizd of fewe, from Cradle to their Herse. Virtuti, non tibi Feci. M. Peter Wythipoll. Et Virtuti, & et mihi: Virtuti, ad laudem: Mihi, ad vsum usum . FINIS. Our] OVr 1580Master] M. 1580 These] THese 1580

II proem proper] correct. A secondary sense of the word can be ‘elegant’ familiar] Deriving primarily from its use as a rubric in Cicero’s collection of letters “ad familiares”, the term here signifies personal rather than official letters. Cicero’s Epistolae ad Familiares is the earliest surviving collection of such letters to friends, and the most influential. They date from 62 to 43 B.C. and cover subjects from politics and the law to the more personal details of friendship. Petrarch revived the genre with a collection composed between 1325 and 1366, and, in the sixteenth century, Erasmus and Roger Ascham sustained the tradition by publishing collections of familiar letters. In his De conscribendis epistolis (On the Writing of Letters) of 1522, Erasmus lists the kinds of letters which included the familiar along with the persuasive, encomiastic, and judicial as recognizable epistolary forms. touching] touching on, respecting. Aprill last] The earthquake occurred on 6 April 1580. Versifying] poetry organized primarily by metrical quantity. Spenser uses the term to contrast with rhyming, just as Ascham does in the Scholemaster (1570), ‘The noble Lord Th. Earle of Surrey, first of all English men, in translating the fourth booke of Virgill: and Gonsalvo Periz that excellent learned man, and Secretarie to kyng Philip of Spaine, in translating the Ulisses of Homer out of Greke into Spanish, have both, by good judgement, avoyded the fault of Ryming, yet neither of them hath fullie hite perfite and trew versifiyng’ (S1-S1v). Bynneman] Bynneman had published van der Noot’s Theatre just a few years after he was made free of the stationers. One of London’s most productive stationers, Bynneman had moved his main shop to the Thames Street site in 1579. Baynardes Castle] On the north side Thames, the castle, property of the Earl of Pembroke, was located between Blackfriars to the west and Burley House to the east. Wellwiller] Wellwisher Carper] Critic happe] fortune nowe lately] quite recently a faithfull friende] The friend has not been identified. copying . . . handes] The Wellwiller here claims to have received the letters, which had passed from hand to hand four or five times, in a copy written out by Immerito himself at the behest of the faithfull friende. Spenser first adopts the pseudonym, Immerito, as the signature for his envoy to SC, ‘Goe little booke’. am onely to crave] seeks [by way of recompense] only friendely] in a friendly way In exiguo quandoque cespite latet lepus] ‘Sometimes a hare hides in the short grass’; i.e., sometimes it takes a bit of effort to uncover things of worth. Not a common proverb, though adduced in Book I of Marsilio Ficino’s Epistles. liketh] pleaseth mettall] aptitude, mettle partes] abilities, capacities But shewe me . . . liues.] Implying that it will be difficult to come up with comparable letters, the Wellwiller alleges that if the reader can find only two such letters, then the reader may justly say that Immerito and the Wellwiller have effectively no experience of English epistolary achievement. the other two] i.e., the two letters by Harvey in the first of the two collections of letters. certified] assured, made certain himselfe] i.e., Harvey. stampe] character, type matter . . . importance] Political matters, presumably, as opposed to the prosodic and geological concerns of Harvey’s letters here. hable] capable [hablar?] in Writing] i.e., in manuscript. these two following] again, Harvey’s two letters in the first of the two collections. rarest] most distinguished. devising] conception uttering] expression in this Tongue] The Wellwiller maintains a focus on a central theme of the letters, the defense of the vernacular. While the letters assert that literary achievement in English can rival that in other European vernaculars and, indeed, in Latin, the Wellwiller argues that these letters instance the literary excellence of which English is capable. so little harme] Although Harvey would later develop a reputation for splenetic expression, his letters are here singled out for what is characterized as an unusually mild and non-polemic manner. whych . . . writing] The clause is restrictive. conceyted] clever, witty If they . . . curious] i.e., if the correspondence had been composed especially for print publication the letters would have been more elaborately or beautifully wrought. garnish] embellish, enhance their displeasure] i.e., the displeasure of the two authors made . . . faulte] done them a disservice. privy to] aware of betake] commend long aprooved] tried and true, found trustworthy over a long period that . . . faulte] i.e. letter-writing in hatching] under secret preparation happly] by chance dwell . . . Courte] utterly devote yourself to legal studies. The Corpus Juris Civilis, Justinian’s compilation and codification of the various Roman laws and legal writings, was published in 529 and revised in 534. Harvey had been elected a fellow of Trinity Hall, one of the most important places for the study of Civil Law in Britain, on 18 December 1578, a year and a half before this letter was written. devoured of] devoured by in a manner] very nearly Little newes] The sentences on news interrupt the discussion of Harvey’s literary activities. This sort of self-distraction is hardly at odds with normal epistolary habits, but the sentence on the Earthquake of 6 April, – as well as those on that olde great matter and His Honoure – may well be a later interpolation meant to reconcile Harvey’s desire to make this a pamphlet on geology with Spenser’s desire to make it a pamphlet on prosody. For the possibility of interpolation, see the headnote. olde great matter] Probably the controversy over Queen Elizabeth’s entertainment of a possible marriage to the French king’s brother, Francis, Duke d’Alençon, later Duke of Anjou. If so, His Honoure, to whom Spenser turns, would almost certainly be Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who was deeply opposed to the union. That Leicester was “never better” in April 1580 may derive from the fact of Anjou’s absence – he had left England in November 1579 – but the remark may entail some cautious archness: certainly Leicester could not have felt that his relations with his sovereign had never been better, for although she remained attached to him, her anger at his opposition to the proposed match was undisguised. depending] pending, hanging. also there] The epicenter of the earthquake was somewhere in the English Channel, between Dover and Calais, but was felt across northern France and the Low Contries and at least as far north as York. overthrowing . . . Churches] According to Churchyard’s Warning for the Wise, an account written two days after the earthquake, chimneys fell across London and Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s were both damaged; debris that fell from the ceiling of Christ’s Church in Newgate market injured an apprentice shoemaker named Thomas Gray together with “his fellow servaunt” Mabel Everite were injured by (B1v-B2). in their dayes.] This probably refers to the Midlands earthquake of 1575; the more violent, more widespread event of 1508 surely lay beyond living memory. Sed quid vobis videtur magnis Philosophis?] What do you think, Great Philosopher? late] recent Englishe Hexameters] Along with several other of their contemporaries, Spenser and Harvey were attempting to adapt for English verse the rules of the dactylic hexameter, the hexameter being perhaps the most prestigious of classical meters on account of its use as the medium of epic poetry. Harvey and Spenser are not the first English poets to attempt to naturalize the Latin hexameter. A generation earlier, Surrey had begun experimenting with how to adapt classical forms to vernacular poetry. enure] employ, habituate in worde] orally whyche] i.e., the hexameter as a prosodic form. For the onely . . . legge.] A crucial passage on the difficulty of adapting classical prosody to English verse. Greek and Latin prosody is a system that organizes syllable quantity, “length”, into patterns, the prosodic length of a word’s syllables – the measure of the Number – being determined by a set of rules based on the spelling, stress, and grammatical inflection of the word as well as its position in a sequence of words. Whereas speech-stress and syllable length are only loosely related from the standpoint of classical prosody, several early English quantitative poets, Spenser included, seemed to regard stressed syllables in English as the proper candidates for treatment as metrically long. (This confusion of stress and quantity is still with us, leading us to speak of stressed syllables as “long”.) According to the rules of Latin prosody, a syllable preceding the juncture of ‘n’ and ‘t’ should be long, but Spenser’s ear tells him that it is unstressed and, because of the notional equivalence of stress and length, he speaks of the unstressed syllable as used shorte in speache. This clash is roughly what Spenser refers to when he speaks of the Accente as comming shorte of that it should. It should be noted that Spenser would have experienced the difficulty with Carpenter as a deeper one, for in this particular case of the equivalence of stress and length was more than notional, since a rule of Latin prosody dictated that the penultimate syllable in words of more than two syllables is always stressed if long and unstressed if short, so the deeper problem here is a clash of two rules, one that assigns length according to spelling and one that regards stress as a function of length and position. Spenser adduces Heaven as a problem similar to Carpenter. The entire word is used – i.e., pronounced – shorte as one sillable (hence its frequent spelling as ‘heaven’ or ‘heau’n’). But a rule of Latin prosody marks syllables containing diphthongs as long, and because Spenser apparently regards the ‘ea’ (or the ‘eau’) of Heauen as a diphtong-equivalent, he finds himself again facing a clash between customary pronunciation and metrical rule. (Diastole can have many meanings in classical prosody, but Spenser adduces it here as the term for the irregular use of a short syllable as if it were metrical long.) In the case of both Carpenter and Heaven, a reader attempting to adapt her pronuncation to the claims of prosodic rule must give a word customarily pronounced one way – unstressed in the case of the second syllable of Carpenter; a single, short syllable in the case of Heaven – an unnatural stress or lengthening. Spenser registers the fact that the unnatural adjustment in each case is slightly different by adopting different similes to describe them – like a lame Gosling and like a lame Dogge. ilfavoredly] unattactively But it . . . Use.] It seemed to Harvey, as it has to many subsequent interpreters of this letter, that Spenser was here arguing that the adjustment of accente to number was to be achieved by cultivating the habit (custome) of pronouncing rough English words in such a way as to subdue normal accent and to bring out prosodic quantity, hence Harvey’s outraged response: you shal never have my subscription or consent (though you should charge me wyth the authoritie of five hundreth Maister Drants,) to make your Carpēnter, our Carpĕnter, an inche longer, or bigger, than God and his Englishe people have made him. (It is not clear whether Harvey supposed Spenser to be proposing that his countrymen and women pronounce English verses in classical metres according to unnatural rules, that they undertake a wholesale reform of English speech, or that they simply accept a prosodic rule that clashed with “native” quantity.) But Harvey may be partly misunderstanding Spenser. In his next sentence, Spenser proposes, in tones of national pride that match Harvey’s, that his countrymen and women measure our Accentes, by the sounde, reserving the Quantitie to the Verse] that is, Spenser seems to be proposing a custom of reading English verse – measuring accents -- according to the patterns of standard English pronunciation of prose, with the patterning implicit in quantitative English prosody to be regarded as no more than implicit, and not to be pronounced. This would not be strange: in Ludus Literarius (1612), the schoolmaster Richard Brinsley explains that Latin verse was properly to be recited according to normal prose accent, with no effort to “bring out” prosodic quantity. Brinsley also attests to the utility of a form of recitation that he refers to as “scanning,” in which quantitative values are exaggerated, but he regards this chiefly as an aid to memorizing verse and as a means of demonstrating alertness to the underlying metrical structure. When Spenser says that Carpenter is read long in Verse or that Heaven is stretched out with a Diastole he may especially be referring both to the underlying metrical design and to the exceptional practice of scanning aloud, which was meant to render the metre artificially prominent. Thus, although Harvey misunderstands him, when Spenser says that the accommodation of Accente and Number, pronunciation and prosody, is to be wonne with Custome, and rough words . . . subdued with Use he means that customary pronunciation is to win out over number. In the previous sentences, used short means ‘pronounced as short (or unaccented)’; here “use” seems to mean ‘customary pronunciation’. artificial] artful Rymes . . . Verse] Spenser’s Rymes ally him with the dominant contemporary tradition of English poetry, the lines of which were organized by regularities of length and by patterns of alternating stress and the stanzas of which were organized by rhyme; Verse refers to the new quantitative poetry, the lines of which are organized by patterns of line length and syllable duration. straightnesse] constraint Tetrasticon] quatrain. In this case, the quatrain is in elegiacs, alternating pairs of (quantitative) hexameters and pentameters. The classical pentameter is a bipartite line comprising two feet of either dactyls or spondees, a long syllable followed by a caesura, and then two dactylic feet, followed in turn by a long syllable – in effect, two half-lines containing two-and-a-half feet, and, in this particular sense, a pentameter. Here is a proposed scansion _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x See yee the blindefoulded pretie God, that feathered Archer, _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ Of Louers Miseries which maketh his bloodie Game? _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ || ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Wote ye why, his Moother with a Veale hath coouered his Face? _ _ _ ̮ ̮ | _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ Trust me, least he my Looue happely chaunce to beholde. For Harvey’s effort in the same metre, and for his metrical criticism of these lines, see [cross-ref] below. pretie] cunning, crafty Wote] know Veale] i.e., veil, blind-fold least] i.e., lest happely] by chance, by happenstance those two] i.e., those two hexameters ex tempore] extemporaneously. Spenser may also intend some word play, since quantitative prosody is especially concerned with verbal duration. in bed . . . togither] The tone here is hardly salacious, though the riddling character of the distich following and its concern with indulgence and over-indulgence have an insinuating effect. It was not uncommon for people to share beds, especially for those in straitened circumstances, but the evocation of verse composition in what could be an erotically charged situation might be taken as suggesting that these two witty university men have revived not only the prosody, but also the rakish homoeroticism especially associated with Greco-Roman culture. For EK’s censorious approval of the implied pæderastice attachment of Hobbinol (associated with Harvey at September, gl. [176]) and Colin (associated with Spenser in the same gloss), see the gloss to January [59]. That which . . . for others] The apparent quantitative scansion of these hexameter lines is _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x That which I eate, did I ioy, and that which I greedily gorged; _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x As for those many goodly matters leaft I for others. At Maye, gl. [69], E.K. quotes, without attribution, a slightly different, but no less opaque version of the distich; both versions awkwardly translate what Cicero describes as his own translation of the epitaph at the tomb of Sardanapalus, the sense of which is that the speaker has enjoyed his self-indulgence – before death, in the case of Sardanapalus. I would . . . rest.] The sentence suggests that one of Spenser’s chief goals in bringing these letters into wider circulation is to standardize English quantitative practice. By adducing the authority of Sidney and Drant, he seems to be stacking the deck against Harvey’s rules and precepts, but the sentence implies that Spenser had adopted a pragmatic approach to quantitative prosody: instead of pursuing an ideal quantitative system, he seems to be seeking consensus on a set of practicable metrical conventions among the interested parties. While it is impossible to reconstruct the precise principles that Sidney imparted to Spenser, Sidney did write out a list of rules for ‘English measurde verses’ that are preserved in a MS of the Old Arcadia at St John’s, Cambridge that was written in 1581; see Ringler, 391. Thomas Drant, the imputed source for Sidney’s rules, was a clergyman and poet educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He had published translations of Greek and Latin poetry in the 1560s and at the end of that decade had become a chaplain to Bishop Grindal. This letter offers the only evidence that Drant had developed a set of rules for quantitative versifying in English. The evocation of a slightly competitive environment in which disagreeing proponents of quantitative practice might be overthrown by its opponents is intriguing, especially since no evidence survives of opposition, formal or informal, to such versifying. Like EK’s commentary in SC, such remarks might be understood as meant to stimulate interest by conferring on in literary practice the glamour of mystery and controversy. estimation] esteem Maister Dyer] After Drant’s death in 1578, Sir Edward Dyer became the eldest member of a group of poets including Spenser, Sidney, Harvey, and Fulke Greville who seemed to have been especially interested in the quantitative project. Dyer had been a member of Leicester’s retinue since at least 1567. of my selfe] unprompted minde] intend in this kinde] Not, that is, in the genre of satire, but in English quantitative metres. Epithalamion Thamesis] Thames’s epithalamium or wedding poem. undertake] affirm rare] extraordinary Invention] Topic. Invention could also refer to the process of settling on a topic and developing approaches to that topic; the craft of such discovery and elaboration was one of the five basic skills imparted by classical and Renaissance education in rhetoric. profitable . . . knowledge] instructive For . . . passage, etc.] No Epithalamion Thamesis survives, although the description here corresponds precisely to the content of FQ IV.x, the account of the Marriage of Thames and Medway. offspring] Although the term can also mean ancestry, the meaning here, source or well-head need not be regarded as metaphorical. Holinshed] An Historical Description of the Island of Britain, which constitutes the opening section of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577), was the work of William Harrison. dogging oute] pursuing O . . . pretii?] ‘O Titus, if I [do this], what will be my reward’. The lines abridge the passage from Ennius’ Annales quoted at the beginning of Cicero’s De Senectute. Dreames . . . Pellicane] The latter title must be presumed lost, as my Dreames may be: no works attributed to Spenser or Immerito were presentlye imprinted. Over a decade later, in the epistle preliminary to Complaints (1591), the printer attests to his intention to publish The dying Pellican along with some other Pamphlets looselie scattered abroad, i.e. circulating in manuscript, as soon as he can acquire copies. We do not know precisely when Spenser began revising the poems first printed in Theatre, but Dreames may be the first name he gave to the revisions, which eventually appeared, in Complaints, as the Visions of Bellay and Visions of Petrarch. But the work or works here referred to as Dreames may in fact be something different altogether; it or they may be known to us by other titles: Vanitie, Rome, Bellay, Petrarch, or even Time or Proth. signified] suggested in hande . . . with] immediately be concerned with. Faery Queene] This is Spenser’s first recorded reference to the FQ. Harvey’s reply below suggests that Spenser had sent Harvey a substantial portion of the poem, perhaps even a complete poem, although we need not assume that the poem or portion that Spenser had sent much resembled the FQ as it would be printed a decade later. It may also be observed that the exchange may be puffery for a poem that Spenser was yet to compose. expedition] speed wythal] in addition suche . . . use] In the course of his later feud with Harvey, Thomas Nashe drew satiric attention to Harvey’s prolixity as a letter-writer; see Have With You to Saffron Walden (1596), F1-F1v. Multum vale.] A hearty farewell. Quarto Nonas Aprilis] 2 April. Since this date precedes the earthquake by 4 days, Child proposed that Harvey must have meant not ‘Quarto Nonas’, but ‘Quarto Idus’, 10 April. Sed . . . saepe] 'But, as I love you, my sweetheart commends herself to you with all her heart, and wonders why you’ve sent no reply to her letters. Be careful, I beg you, lest this be mortal to you. To me it surely will be; nor do I think you will go unscathed. Once more – and as often as you like – farewell.' The sweetheart (Corculum) mentioned here has not been identified. take best] possibly an error for ‘take it best’. alone] presumably, without The Dying Pellicane accompanying. growen . . . worst] While the reference to this work (and to The Dying Pellicane) may be facetious – for Spenser may never have seriously contemplated writing either of these works – it is worth observing that the publication described here, with illustrations and commentary by E.K., is plainly modeled on the SC. (And, if Dreames were indeed a revision of the translations for the Theatre, we might say that both the SC and Dreames are modeled on the Theatre, with its woodcuts and commentary.) We may suppose that Spenser imagined that he was building a properly intellectual literary profile for himself by producing such volumes and a properly intellectual literary culture for England. E.K.] referring to the otherwise unidentified author of the commentary for the SC. The reference to E.K. here neither bolsters nor weakens the case for regarding E.K. as a real person. If he is a fabrication, Spenser here sustains the fiction; if he is simply an unidentifiable person, this passage protects the secrecy of that identity. See the discussion of E.K. at . . . Michael Angelo] Although the printed commentary on Michelangelo's achievement by such eminent Italian commentators as Dolce, Aretino, and Vasari was unavailable in English by the early 1580s, Castiglione's praise was available by 1561 in Hoby's translation of the Courtier. Michelangelo's work was widely known in engraved renderings; by the 1540s engraved portraits of Michelangelo were in circulation, often conjoined with engravings of The Last Judgment from the Sistine Chapel. nor amende] neither improve upon Stemmata Dudleiana] The Lineage of the Dudleys. Like the Dying Pellicane, this work never appeared, but despite Spenser's professed opinion that it was the best thing he'd written to date ('I never dyd better') it is less difficult to propose theories for the advisement that may have inhibited him from publishing the Stemmata. In the ensuing Latin sentence, Spenser alleges that he is following (sequor) Harvey; Orwen suggested (N&Q, 1946) that Spenser's Stemmata imitates the second book of Harvey's Gratulationes (1578) a collection of poems in praise of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, several of which urge Leicester's worthiness as a spouse for the queen. It was a gaffe, for unbeknownst to Harvey, Leicester had married Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex. So Spenser's advisement may be traced to his having followed Harvey in promoting a match that was no longer possible, especially if the apostrophes were addressed to the queen. And even if Spenser had not followed Harvey quite so closely in the Stemmata as to propose a royal match, the publication of a volume of sustained praise for Leicester might have seemed ill-advised, since for years the queen remained nettled at Leicester over the clandestine marriage and Spenser seems already to have hoped for the queen's patronage as well as Leicester's. Finally, Orwen reminds us that the Dudleys had not long been numbered among the gentry and the heralds did not agree as to the foundations of Leicester's aristocratic claims: Spenser may have decided to hold back the Stemmata until the genealogical dispute was settled. Veruntamen te sequor solùm: nunquam verò assequar] 'Nonetheless I'm only following you, although I'll never catch you.' Note that Spenser here picks up and reworks a line he had already used in his letter to Harvey of 16 October 1579. sweete Harte] see Corculum above, l. 000. dispense with] make allowances for. The phrase can have technical legal force involving the relaxation of a law or exemption from a penalty; here, by slight figurative extension, Harvey seeks relaxation of the rule of rhetorical decorum that dictates serious treatment of serious matters. pleasurably] lightheartedly sad] grave, serious shrewde] clever. The word is sometimes used as a slightly disparaging intensifier, as it seems to be here: shrewde wittie meaning 'especially clever' prettie conceited] both words can mean clever Gentlemans . . . Essex] fourmes] benches wrangling] arguing woonderful] marvelously it shoulde . . . deede] it really were an earthquake remooving] moving onely in effect] is really all that set at] committed to taking on] i.e. making much adoo. presently] immediately recomforted] reassured misdoubting] worrying be happened] had happened goodlyer] more imposing praying] i.e., preying forsooth] indeed in the House toppe] exasperated, quarrelsome. Cf. Gervase Babington’s advice in A Briefe Conference Betwixt Mans Frailtie and Faith (1584), that we should cultivate ‘a patient and meeke nature in our selues able to beare and tolerate something, without mounting into the house top immediatly, and flashing out all on fire by and by vppon the sight or hearing of it’ (H5) By my truely] Truly (an oath) All-in] the last tolling of church bells prior to the commencement of service our Ladyes Mattins] the early morning prayer service. The version of the service designated , since the Middle Ages, as our Ladyes is simpler than that of the traditional divine office because it was invariant across most of the liturgical calendar; was therefore included in the Primer, which was the anchor of lay piety. affectionate] willful And you say it] with your permission dispute] debate cunningly] knowledgeably, cleverly clearkly] in a scholarly fashion mystresse] used as a verb here, by comic analogy with master. Philosophers] the term can denote 'natural philosophers', i.e. scientific thinkers. to this] concerning this sensible Naturall cause] The first adjective is somewhat recklessly chosen, since sensible usually denotes the obvious or perceptible, and is frequently contrasted with intelligible, whereas Harvey’s interlocutor imagines a cause beyond the reach of the senses; the force of the phrase here is ‘a hypothetical cause so plausible as to seem obviously correct’. Harvey’s response that the cause may be intelligible is simply corrective, although his use of Supernaturall, also corrective, seems at first to be a comic provocation. He takes up the question of Supernatural causation below. Eruption of wynde] This is the standard theory within a meteorological tradition dominated by Aristotle; the most influential version of the theory available in English may be found in William Fuller’s A Goodly Gallery (1563) in both the chapters “Of earthquakes” (C3v) and “How so great wyndes come to be vnder the earth” (C6). By here insinuating that earthquakes are a kind of terrestrial farting, Harvey’s interlocutor may intend smugly to outrage the gentlewomen, but the analogy is also traceable to Aristotle, who elaborates the analogy in Meteorologica II.8.366b. the great aboundaunce . . . Originall place] Harvey here summarizes the theory propounded in Meteorologica, II.8.366b (and cf. Fuller, 1563, C6). The idea that water has a Naturall place above the earth permeates Aristotles De Caelo, deriving from the more fundamental principle that earth seeks to occupy the cosmic center and, hence, a place beneath the other elements (see, in particular, De Caelo, IV.4.311b). Harvey's description of the Naturall Originall place of water may be more informal, a reference to the fact that the windie Exhalations and Vapors seek ascent to the place from which the rainwater from which they are generated originally came, yet he seems to return to this notion below, when he speaks of winde, or vapors, seeking . . . to geth them home to their Naturall lodgings [cross-ref.] peradventure] perhaps Michaelmas] 29 September windie Exhalations] Although Aristotle and Seneca gave currency to the idea that most meteorological and geological phenomena are traceable to the exhalations produced when water or earth are heated, the concept of exhalations is almost certainly pre-socratic, deriving both from Heraclitus and Anaximander. Aristotle's treatment of earthquakes in the Meteorologica follows directly from a longer treatment of wind (II.4-6.359b-365a, and see also I.13.349a) Termes of Arte] technical vocabulary (here, of meteorology). to] adapted to allgates] no matter what with a good will] [I'll do so] willingly doctorally] in a learned fashion members] components, body-parts absurditie] logical impossibility most] i.e., must store] quantity substantiall matter . . . spirites] Harvey's vocabulary has strong philosophical associations, although he appears to be using his terms loosely. In many popularizing discussions of natural philosophy, as here, the terms, humours, fumes, and spirites are used interchangeably to represent exhalations of matter; when used in series, as here, they are never carefully distinguished. (Technically speaking, humours is a term usually, but not exculsively, associated with the medical tradition, fumes with the alchemical and meteorological traditions, and spirites with a range of scientific and philosophical traditions, but carrying distinct meanings in each.) Similarly, the strict distinction in Aristotelean metaphysics between substance and accident seems not to operate here; rather, Harvey seems to be using the contrastive terms substantiall and accidentall to distinguish the primary material state of the elements contained within the earth and the various, largely gaseous derivatives of those elements. either good . . . or other.] Harvey rejects the idea that the accidental vapors are good, on the grounds that they generate bad effects; he rejects the idea that the vapors are uniformly bad, on the grounds that if they were so, they would simply be inert. He therefore concludes that they must manifest themselves in mixed compounds and that the mixtures are sometimes imbalanced, with bad vapors working against good ones and, overpowering them, bursting forth. whereout] out of which poysonfull] On the poisonous vapors of earthquakes, see Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones, 27.1-28.3 infective] infectious Temperature] compound (in this case, of good and evil). As in humoural medicine, in which health depends on the temperate balance of different humours, so geological stability would depend on the proportionable balance of those humours, and fumes, and spirites that are contained in the earth's channels and cavities. divels] devil's interchaungeably] alternatively. Although in many places and times the earth's mixture of the earth's vapors is balanced, sometimes it is not. vehemently] violently malitiously] fiercely fostred] nourished putrified Humors] The process of humoral putrefaction is given its fullest description in Galenic medicine -- for Galen, humoural putrefaction, which predisposes the body to disease, takes place when a stagnant humour is heated without the possibility of evaporation. Aristotle devotes the opening of the fourth book of the Meteorologica to an account of putrefaction, which he treats as the fundamental process of destruction. ylfavoured] ugly grosse] thick, indelicate brust] burst voyding] evacuation flatuous] windy, flatulent chill] chilly grossely, and homely] plainly and in simple terms Terrae metus] Harvey is not adopting language from the Vulgate – indeed, the phrase probably owes more to Virgil, Aen. 1.280, where Juno roils air, sea, and land with fear – but the idea of the earth cowering in terror owes a good deal to recurrent images in Psalms; see, for example, Ps. 18.7 and 68.8 terrified . . . scarcely mooved] The gnomic formulation seems to suggest that the gentlewomen are too shallow truly to be moved, that their terror is superficial, especially when compared to the graver intellectual motion of scholars. quidditie] essence. not wooman] because Eve was fashioned from Adam’s rib liker] more like I am flatly . . . for feare.] Harvey’s larger argument against supernatural causation here begins to emerge more sharply: this is not the earth of the psalter, trembling before the Lord; it is Aristotle’s earth, suffering from natural distemper. Harvey’s argument is pitched against that of the likes of Arthur Golding, whose Discourse Upon the Late Earthquake urged that ‘this miracle proceeded not of the course of any naturall causes, but of Gods only determinate purpose, who maketh even the verye foundations and pillers of the earthe to shake, the mountaines to melte lyke wax, and the seas to dry vp and to becom as a drie field, when he listeth to shewe the greatenesse of his glorious power’ (B2v). Harvey’s naturalist argument echoes echoes that of Seneca: Illud quoque proderit praesumere animo nihil horum deos facere nec ira numinum aut caelum converti aut terram; suas ista causas habent nec ex imperio saeviunt sed quibusdam vitiis, ut corpora nastra turbantur, et tunc, cum facere videntur, iniuriam accipiunt (It will help also to keep in mind that gods cause none of these things and that neither heaven nor earth is overturned by the wrath of divinities. These phenomena have causes of their own; they do not range on command but are disturbed by certain defects, just as our bodies are; Naturales Quaestiones, VI.3.1). only . . . force] it moves only by virtue of the specific power dastardly] craven glistereth] glitters little helpe] to no useful end. ‘Much ado and little help’ was proverbial; cf. [ref.] below trim] neatly composed Tale of Robinhood] (prov.) a fantastic tale, ‘moonshine’ I knowe not what] I don’t know what, i.e. ‘some such nonsense’ suer] sure I dowte . . . beleefe] I fear I hold heterodox beliefs. would . . .presume of] must you trust in, i.e. what compels you to trust in per fidem implicitam] by implicit faith nigh] nearly presently] immediately. pottle] pot, tankard Hyppocrase] a spiced wine drink be layed] have gone to bed as well in . . . as in] both in . . . and in pleasurable] mirthful marvellous . . . to] remarkably intimate with in . . . earnest] to be a bit serious even] just wherin . . . here.] Harvey refers the question of the breadth of consensus to the other men in attendance. finest conceited] most intellectually subtle in my fancie] to my way of thinking too much drinke] According to Aristotle, Democritus also held that earthquakes resulted from super-saturation of the earth (Meteorologica, II.7.365b). For the idea of earthquakes as a kind of terrestrial drunkenness, see Is. 24.18-20. sensibly] undeniably, as is easily apprehended. sort] manner payneth] (painfully) exerts, takes pains that] that ‘drinke’ that neesing] sneezing wherewithall] by which Physicall, and Naturall] medical and scientific lightly] readily diet] pattern or habit of feeding. Harvey sustains the idea of the Earth as a body and of its absorption of precipitation as a kind of ingestion. Alebench Rhetorick . . . Pottypôsis] Alebench Rhetorick would be Harvey’s joking name for the “art” of drunken speech; Pottypôsis is a fabricated name for a figure of Alebench speech, built from both pot, an English word for ’tankard’ and potare, ‘to drink’ in Latin ,and poesis, Greek for 'poetic composition’. as namely] as namely at deepest] most penetrating Secretaries of Nature] Usually denotes those charged with managing secret information without disclosing the secrets; in this case, those who disclose secrets. Harvey may be translating Suidas’ description of Aristotle as γραμματεὺς τῆς ϕύσεως. marvellous reasonable] The oxymoron sustains Harvey’s facetious tone. stately] domineering eft soones] repeatedly professed] explicit set] resolute, pitched furniture] equipment vengibly] vengefully frowardly bent] perversely, in ill temper Cunnyes] rabbits highminded] proud, arrogant Bellona] the Roman goddess of war. debate] struggle faction] factious quarrels go me] go. In this construction, me is an ethical dative Peece] firearm dub a dubbe] (a phrase used to imitate the sound of drums) monstrous] monstrously hoysed] raised up even Enough] quite enough bowgets] pouches occupie] make use of aspect] the influential ‘gaze’ of a star or planet, particularized by its position, as it looks upon earth (astrol.) our . . . Venus] associating the god of eloquence with the male graduates of Cambridge and the goddess of Love with the ladies in the room. Perhaps cued by this, the Gentleman of the House [ref forward a few lines] will request a differently gendered account of the cause of earthquakes: let us men learne some thing of you too. made] prepared herself plausible] pleasant, worthy of applause takes her selfe] regards herself as happely] perhaps counte of] regard Naturall, or Supernaturall] Harvey’s interlocutor invites him to resume the central concern that animates Book VI of Seneca’s Natural Questions] Illud quoque proderit praesumere animo, nihil horum deos facere, nec ira numinum aut caelum concuti aut terram: suas ista causas habent (It will help to keep in mind that gods cause none of these things and that neither heaven nor earth is overturned by the wrath of divinities. These phenomena have causes of their own; 3.1) under correction] unless I’m mistaken fancie] estimation Causes] These are the four causes that Aristotle enumerates in Metaphysics 1013a. For Aristotle, the material cause is that from which a thing is made: wood is the material cause of a table. Its formal cause is that which makes it what it is and not something else: in Aristotle’s formulation, the formal cause of the octave is a ratio of 2:1. The efficient cause is that which brings a thing into being, as parents do children, while the final cause is that towards which a thing is moves as, or as if to, its fruition, so that a mature plant is the final cause of a seed. Harvey seems to use the term, Materiall Cause, slightly differently; see the next note. Materiall Cause . . . wynde] Actually, Aristotle designates wind as the efficient cause of earthquakes and earth and water as their material causes (Meteor 368a). This is a momentary lapse: as Harvey refines his treatment of earthquakes here, his etiological account draws closer to Aristotle’s; cf. Meteor366b. grosse and drye vapors, and spirites] The formulation may represent Harvey’s attempt to render Aristotle’s difficult theory of the two exhalations, moist and dry: see Meteor 341b and 365b. It may be worth noting that in the Nat Quaest, Seneca persistently uses the term spiritus when he speaks of air as the efficient cause of earthquakes. See also the semantic analysis in the Aetna, a pseudo-Virgilian poem on seismic activity, probably indebted to Seneca: spiritus inflatis nomen, languentibus aer (its name is ‘spirit’ in a state of tension, and ‘air’ when it is at ease [my translation]; 212). seeking . . . lodgings] cf. [cross ref. to Originall place] prison] The figure of subterranean air as imprisoned is ubiquitous in ancient writing on earthquakes; see Seneca, Nat Quaest, VI.18.4-5, Diogenes Laertius, Lives, III.vii.154 and IV.x.105, and the passage from Ovid, Met cited below. Vis . . . solet] The wild forces of the winds, shut up in dark regions underground, seeking an outlet for their flowing and striving vainly to obtain a freer space since there was no chink in all their prison through which their breath could go, puffed out and stretched the ground, just as when one inflates a bladder with his breath; Met XV.299-304. onely voyce] voice alone, unassisted voice. reverend] deserving reverence. text] Scriptural text Locutus . . . Terra] 'The Lord spake and the earth trembled'. But the text is improvised: Harvey splices together two phrases that appear in various places in the Vulgate, but never together. howbeit] although for . . . motions] Harvey's syntax here is extremely artful: one might at first suppose that he is proposing that we take seriously -- because 'it is not to be gainesayd' and because it is the opinion of ancient scientists -- the assertion that stellar and solar heat and influence are the 'principall and sole Efficient' cause of earthquakes, and not 'God himselfe'. But as the sentence proceeds, we are obliged to reconsider the force of 'for' in the phrase, 'for the principall, or rather sole Efficient', understanding it to mean 'on account of' (OED 21b): the force of the sentence is thus 'although God is the principal efficient cause, it is not to be gainsaid that solar, stellar, and planetary influence and heat are secondary, instrumental, efficient causes." Harvey tempts us to suspect him guilty of doubting that God is the efficient cause of earthquakes, and then dispels the suspicion. superior Planets] In the Ptolemaic system, the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, were distinguished from the three superior planets by two main features: unlike the superior planets, the centers of their epicycles were collinear with the earth and sun, and their paths never took them in opposition to the position of the sun. which] i.e., which analysis of final causaility natural reasonable] both 'simply reasonable' and 'satisfied with reasons involving natural processes'. The problem of the final causes of meteorological phenomena was hotly contested in the sixteenth century. In his Peripateticarum Quæstionum (1571) Andrea Cesalpino went so far as to imply that meteora did not have final causes, by excluding them from his causal account (H8v-I3). denounce] proclaim sensible] poignant whereon you stande] about which you are especially concerned purposed] has as the goal nevertheless is] i.e. nevertheless, God's work is qualifying, and conforming] modification and adaptation very Nature selfe] Nature iself. The Stoic idea that God and Nature were one and the same had been given renewed currency in the work of Francesco Patrizi and Giordano Bruno. schoolemen] university scholars, in this case those specializing in theology. Natura Naturans] lit., 'Nature naturing'; Nature in its creative or active aspect. sensible, and unsensible] sensate and insensate Natura naturata] lit., ‘Nature natured’; Nature as the product of Divine creation. in . . . dayes] Harvey here invokes the Protestant idea that miracles had ceased at some determinate historical moment. The moment of Cessation was variously assigned. Some thinkers associated the cessation with the moment at which the canonical books of the New Testament were completed; others held that miracles ceased with the death of John, the last of the Apostles; still others dated the cessation from the fourth-century establishment of Christendom sensibly] to the senses Creatures] created things in the same Number] of the same kind manacing] menacing great latter day] Apocalypse out of controversie] indisputably Eventes, and sequeles] a pleonasm for 'consequences' collection] inference discourse of . . . Reason] faculty of reasoning such] such-and-such (OED 16a) Roma . . . Eventus] 'Rome never trembled, that it didn't portend some notable future event.' Harvey seems to be quoting the Nat Hist from memory; his version does not match Pliny's 'numquam urbs roma tremuit, ut non futuri eventus alicuius id praenuntium esset' ('The city of Rome never experienced a shock, which was not the forerunner of some great calamity'; 2.86). In the passage in question, from his chapter on earthquakes, Pliny refers to fifty-seven earthquakes in one year at the outset of the Second Punic War; at 2.85, Pliny refers to an earthquake of 90 B.C., the year before the 'bellum Sociale' or Social War that disrupted centuries-old peninsular alliances. in Genere, or in specie] taken as a class or as individual instances Cause . . . End] Harvey is here referring to the two 'external' causes, the efficient and final causes. preternaturall, or supernaturall] The two terms were occasionally used interchangeably, and the distinctions implied when they were used contrastively were various. Supernatural causation is almost always understood to be divine, whereas preternatural causation could refer to the agency of angels (or demons), or simply to causation thought neither to be natural, on the one hand, nor immediately divine, on the other. See Lorraine Daston, "Marvelous Facts" (1999), 78-85. for the nonce] for this purpose his priuie Counsell] With what seems fairly light derision, Harvey likens God to an English king who confides his 'secret and inscrutable purposes' to the intimate and august advisors appointed as members of his Privy Council. resolute] certain Eclipse . . . Novilunio] Because solar eclipses can take place only during a new moon (Lat., novilunium), whereas Passover begins with a full moon (Lat., plenilunium), the three hours of darkness that covered the land on the occasion of the crucifixion (Matt 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44) were best explained as miraculous, although many chronographers, seeking to settle the date of the crucifixion, sought various means to resolve the apparent natural impossibility. Metaphysically] supernaturally Aut . . . destruetur] 'Either the nature of things is suffering or the structure of the world is being destroyed'. The exclamation attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite (now better known as Pseudo-Dionysius) is variously reported, though it appears nowhere in the writings of the Pseudo-Dionysius; perhaps its most familiar form was that given in the Roman Breviary: aut Deus naturae patitur, aut mundi machina dissolvitur ('Either the God of nature is suffering, or the frame of the universe is being dissolved'). In his 'Letter to Polycarp' (Epist. 7), Pseudo-Dionysius reports on his struggle to convince one Apollophanes of the existence of supernatural signs, reminding him that they together witnessed the crucifixion eclipse, which eclipse Apollophanes knows was a natural impossibility, given the lunar cycle (AA6v, Opera, 1555; PG, 1081A-B). Patheticall] impassioned my . . . me] it seems to me unskilfuller] less learned goe . . . doe] nearly do agony] painful writhing Marry] Indeed the Errour . . . tollerable] I grant that the error is the more tolerable otherwhiles] in other circumstances if so be . . . reformation] 'if it happen that it' -- i.e., the error of unwarranted confidence that natural calamaties are divine admonitions would be more tolerable -- 'secure our inward reformation (and not the merely hypocritical and pharisaical show of reformation)' especially . . . places.] In this slightly obscure passage, Harvey casts doubt on the idea that earthquakes that vary so widely in duration and spatial extent could all have the same general cautionary import. Poenitentiam agite] 'Do penance!' Harvey here quotes Matt 4:17, but the phrase may have special significance here as having been the focus of attention in the first of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses: Dominus et magister noster Iesus Christus dicendo `Penitentiam agite &c.’ omnem vitam fidelium penitentiam esse voluit ('By saying "Do penance, etc." our Lord and Master Jesus Christ willed that the entire life of the faithful should be repentance' [ed. trans.]; WA 1.233) prosecuted] investigated Seigniories] domains of Experience] from observation. hoyse] raise withall] besides allowed] approved coursed over] passed over ominous] conveying omens flatly] decisively verdit] verdict namely] especially auncient . . . Lawyer] an 'ancient' was one of the senior members of the governing body of the Inns of Court. turn] search through schoole] academic (and, by implication, fussily so) poase] puzzle ministered] provided in manner] somewhat tyhyhing] laughing, tee-hee-ing runne of] occupy itself with marvelous] marvelously paulting] paltry Balductum] trashy Ballet] ballad Eldertons] The ballad writer William Elderton was a frequent object of Harvey’s scorn; in his Foure Letters and Certaine Sonnets (1592), Harvey calls him a ‘drunken rimester’ (A4) and links him with Robert Greene, referring to the two of them as 'the very ringleaders of the riming, and scribbling crew" (A4v). material] important division] i.e., into categories or into noteworthy particular instances Induction] the systematic consideration of a number of particular instances. sine omni exceptione] without any exception significative] significant ut supra] (Lat.) as discussed above as wel . . .the other] i.e., concerning both material and formal causes Effectuall and substaunciall] conclusive and weighty self] itself dispositions] Several senses are relevant: temperaments (OED 6), attitudes (OED 7a), and situations (OED 1b). Non causam pro causam] (Lat.) not-cause for cause. The error of incorrectly inferring a cause is the sixth of the seven "extra-linguistic fallacies" analyzed in Aristotle's De Sophisticis Elenchis (On Sophistical Refutations) Elencho Finium] (Lat.) by a refutation of ends. Harvey's meaning here is obscure: he seems to be speaking of the fallacy of assigning ends or purposes without sufficient warrant, but he may be proposing something more radical, either that there is no intelligible purpose for earthquakes or that the final cause of earthquakes is beyond the limits of our knowledge. If the latter, Harvey's treatise would take its place in that body of Early Modern scientific literature that resists reference to final causation in accounts of natural phenomena. Still . . . Byng] John Still (c.1544–1608), fellow of Christ’s Church Cambridge (1562), proceeded MA in 1565, the year before Harvey matriculated there. Awarded a Bachelor's of Divinity degree in 1570 and made Doctor of Divinity in 1575, Still was highly reputed as a controversialist. By 1577, Still was Master of Trinity and Harvey, having some hope of Still’s patronage, had therefore recommended his appointment to a bishopric in a letter written to Leicester in April of 1579. Thomas Byng was a bit senior to Still, having begun his Cambridge career in 1552; he became a fellow of Peterhouse in 1558 and earned the LLD in 1570. In 1565 he was made university orator and in 1574 became Regius Professor of Civil Law. contentation] satisfaction safely] without risk of error (OED 2b). Lord . . . Picus] Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, the distinguished philosophical skeptic, was the nephew and biographer of the famous Neoplatonist Giovanni Pico. The work to which Harvey now turns is much indebted to the uncle's posthumously published attack on astrology, the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Arguments Against Divinatory Astrology), which Gianfrancesco edited for publication in 1496. There is, indeed, some reason to believe that Harvey confused uncle and nephew; see below. cogging] cheating De . . . vanitates] On Foreknowledge, on Behalf of True Religion, and Against Vain Superstitions. Naturae. . . Aristoteles] 'It can't be that a natural phenomenon portends future events, whether by signs or portents nor can these events depend on some proximate cause that could also reveal future things. It seems possible that this happens by the deceit of demons. But a great many things not marvellous or strange in themselves can still be regarded as omens and portents by those who have not adequately grasped the nature of things -- and usually are so regarded. For ignorance of the causes of an unusual event excites wonder on account of which, as Aristotle observes in the opening of his Metaphysics, people began to engage in philosophy.' Impostura . . . causarum] deceptions of demons and the ignorance of causes. Pico's reflection on the latter paraphrases Cicero's observation that ignorance of the causes of extraordinary events produces wonder (Causarum enim ignoratio in re nova mirationem facit; 'On Divination' 2.49). presentlye] immediately the white] the center of a target; the bull's eye. the pin] the peg or nail at the very center of a target. Idem . . . deductum est] 'Antiquity understood earthquakes just as it did lightning and thunder. An eloquent book on the subject of earthquakes in Greek recently fell into my hands, its author supposedly Orpheus. And while it often happens that people look to the diverse exhalations of the ground, to the violence of winds, to the turbulence of vapors -- mark you that? -- for signs indicating future events, it is absolutely absurd to do so, for those turbulences can be neither effects nor causes of future events -- except perhaps by bringing death to those struck by lightning or undone by the gaping of the earth. But they cannot be derived from the same proximate cause on which future events also depend, as was discussed above.' moste agreeable to] in full accord with Nec . . . Autoris] 'Certainly the renowned Orpheus -- if there really was an Orpheus -- does not propose any cause at all why anyone would be able to predict from earthquakes the futures of cities, people, or regions. He merely says, on the basis of an insubstantial judgment, what is portended if an earthquake happens at night or in the summer or winter or during the day. These predictions can certainly be refuted by a more rational judgment and indeed, on the testimony of experience, I judge them worthy to be laughed at just as we have laughed at the Portents of Tages, the founder of Divination.' Pico here continues to draw on Cicero whose mocking account of the legend of Tages ('On Divination' 2.50-51) immediately follows his discussion of the effects of ignorance of causes. Picus . . . Phoenix] Harvey has plainly confused Gianfrancesco Pico with his more eminent uncle, Giovanni Pico, who died in 1494 at age 31 and was widely known as the Phoenix of his age; see the brief life composed by the biographer, Paolo Giovio for his Elogia veris clarorum virorum imaginibus apposita, Venice, 1546, G1v. odde] unique onely singular] most tempering with] addressing himself to, dealing with. Harvey's use of "tempering" is idiosyncratic, but he seems to have chosen the term to bring in the connotation of dealing temperately with the philosophical challenge of the earthquake, an ideal consistent with his professed resolution, in the next clause, to maintain himself "in the meane". The philosophical disposition of temperate intellectual patience in the face of rational uncertainty approximates the Ἀταραξία (ataraxia) that was the psychological goal of skepticism. this probable . . . his] The 'Interim' of suspended judgement in the face of uncertainty to which Harvey refers, is as much a philosophical state as a period. Orphei] Orpheuses; (false) soothsayers. balde] paltry beetleheaded] dull-witted, thick-headed ('beetle' OED n.1.C1c. A ‘beetle’ was a heavy implement for driving wedges or setting paving stones (OED 1a); cf. Foxe’s rendering of Luther’s description of his Roman adversaries as "beetell headed asses” (Acts and Monuments, 1570, +++5) sturring] causing trouble ('stir' OED 14d). taking on] raging, agitating oneself ('take on' OED 10) sawe . . . Milstone] 'To see far in a millstone' is a proverb meaning 'to have great insight'; the proverb was customarily used ironically, to impugn someone's discernment. Bayarde] Generally, a bay-colored horse, but 'bayard' is frequently used to denote, or name, an old horse, often blind. Scribimus . . . passim] 'Unskilled or skilled, we all write poetry anyway'; Horace, Ep. 2.1.117. Harvey here returns to the subject of poetry and specifically addresses the details taken up in the last lines of the letter[cross reference] to which he is responding, where Spenser first reports having completed work on Dreames and The Dying Pellicane, proposes bringing out the Dreames, with illustrations and commentary, as an independent volume, and remarks on his uncertainty about whether the Stemmata Dudleiana is ready for publication.. the first . . .the laste] i.e., the unskilled . . . the skilled. O interim . . . miserabiles] 'Meanwhile, O wretched and miserable Muses . . .'. In this pairing of miseras and miserabiles, Harvey may be recalling the line from Ovid's Ibis] sisque miser semper nec sis miserabilis ulli ('may you always be pitiful, but pitied of none'; 117). viderint . . . maxime] 'let the eyes and head of the state see. To my mind, this thing of yours is neither fully sown nor fully harvested. At any rate, my library certainly doesn't need any new books; it's quite content with the old ones. What else? Farewell, my Immerito, and assure yourself that it's something quite different from the things our booksellers hold to be most marketable.' Harvey's phrasing is a bit mysterious, perhaps intentionally so: it is unclear whether the incomplete enterprise (isthic) to which Harvey refers here, so out-of-step with what he regards as the debased output of the contemporary press, are the books to which he refers in the next lines -- The Dying Pellicane, Dreames, the Commoedies, and the Stemmata Dudleiana -- or the quantitative poems under discussion in these letters, or, perhaps, the entire joint output of these two university men: the quantitative poems, the letters (and the scientific treatise interpolated there), The Dying Pellicane, etc. One might suppose that Harvey is commenting on the state of the Stemmata alone, since Spenser himself had expressed reservations about whether it was ready for publication, but Harvey's protestations in the next sentence, that the Stemmata and the English comedies need, at most, only a week's polishing, seem to suggest that he is thinking of something else as neither fully sown nor reaped. thy dying . . . Dreames] see above, [cross-ref to concl of Sp's letter above] shal go] will pass as acceptable ('go' OED 15). Harvey's phrasing draws on the expression, 'he shall go [or 'he goes'] for my money', meaning 'he has my enthusiastic support' (OED 24b). trimming] making ready, adorning. The use of 'trim' to mean 'abridge' is a later development. Schollers . . . contraries] Harvey’s draft of this poem appears in BL Sloane MS 93, fols 58-67 ([add ref. to Scott’s Camden Soc’ty ed.]) . Harvey used this MS for drafts of a number of letters and poems composed between 1573 and 1580. shrunk in the wetting] depreciated shrunk in the wetting] depreciated, often with the implication that the depreciated thing was shoddily made. The expression was frequently used of depreciated intellectual products, and, occasionally, the phrase affords the suggestion that the shrinkage is effected by a 'wetting' from too much drink. Experto crede] 'Believe the experienced' Pluribus . . . sensus] 'The understanding of particular things is diminished by attention to many' a twelvemonth since] a year ago Anticosmopolita . . . Lorde there] Anticosmopolita is the title of Harvey’s unfinished epic poem, see September, gl 176. The poem had been entered in the Stationers’ Register in June of 1579, but Harvey here reports that the poem remains in its earlier unifinished state (‘in statu, quo’) and insinuates that his poetic labor has been especially frustrated by the failure of his suits for the patronage of the Earl of Leicester. In the same letter of April 1579 in which Harvey recommended Still for a bishopric, Harvey had written to ask Leicester’s support in an appeal to Elizabeth for a prebend at Litchfield (Stern, 1979, 49-50); the fiction of the poem’s attendance on ‘my Lorde’ at court may be evidence that Harvey had gotten so far as to follow Leicester to court in order to advance the appeal, albeit to no avail. Sat cito . . .bene] 'Soon enough, if good enough' Det mihi . . . esset] May my Mother [i.e., Cambridge] grant that one of her most obedient sons be allowed to reveal some of her secrets and that the revelation be kept, thus, to just a few words. More, perhaps, later, but to do so now would be unpleasant, I don't have time, it would be a nuisance. Tully] i.e. Marcus Tullius Cicero. Because Cicero and Demosthenes were the most renowned orators of ancient Rome and ancient Greece, the pair often stand for ‘Rhetoric’, as here. Livie, and Salust] Livy and Sallust may stand in, generally, for ‘Roman History’, although their pairing might also be taken as comprehending a triumphalist account of the rise of Rome in Livy and an account of Roman decline in Sallust’s Catiline Conspiracy and Jugurthine War. never so much] as much as possible Lucian] The second-century Greek author of satirical prose essays, dialogues, and short stories had a reputation for irreverence. Xenophon] This Greek historian and political philosopher was a contemporary of Plato. His Hiero, a dialogue between the poet Simonides and the tyrant Hieron, provided Early Modern thinkers with an idealized classical model for the proper relation between the prince and his more philosophical advisors; his fictional account of the education of Cyrus, the Cyropedia, was held in especially high regard in the Early Modern period. Comparing the author of the Cyropedia to the author of the Republic in the FQ Letter, Spenser alleges that ‘Xenophon [is] preferred before Plato’ both because of Xenophon’s greater practical orientation and because he seeks to teach by example rather than by rule. reckned amongest] classified as Discoursers] The term was sometimes used with pejorative connotations, suggesting obscurantism and misrepresentation; see, for example, ‘these discoursers that vse the word of God with as little conscience as they doe Machiauel’ (Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, 1579, A6v). conceited] witty verball] merely concerned with words (rather than with real things) and jangling] prating, squabbling effectuall] consequential noble . . . Angelles] I.e., the high style, the style associated with noblemen and rulerws, is regarded as the best and the most persuasive form of eloquence, -- and, Harvey seems thereby to imply, other stylistic practices are held in inappropriately low esteem -- [but] Orators capable of such eloquence are as rare as red-headed angels.’ An exceeding . . . none at all] Harvey contrasts the influence of apparel on bearing with the influence of learning thereon: these days, he says, people carry themselves proudly if they’re conspicuously well-dressed, but the well-educated don’t carry themselves any better than the unlearned. portes] forms of bearing or carriage brave and gallaunt] Although both terms can refer (approvingly) to character, when they are used as here to describe apparel, they can be either approving – ‘eye-catching and handsome’ – or dismissive – ‘flashy, showy’. Tom Towly] simpleton Tom Towly] Cf. Stanyhurst, ‘What Tom Towly is so simple, that wyl not attempt, too bee a rithmoure?’ (Virgil his Aeneis, 1582, A4). Matchiavell . . . Castilio . . . Petrach . . . Boccace . . . Galateo . . . Guazzo . . . Unico Aretino] Harvey here surveys the Italian authors who had the most obvious and, perhaps, unsettling effect on Harvey and Spenser’s generation of young intellectuals. Niccolò Machiavelli’s Prince (c. 1513, first printed in 1532) and Discourses on Livy (c. 1517, first printed in 1531) made him notorious for the bold amorality of his political thought. Baldassare’s Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1528) spawned a substantial output of books that described the proprieties of modern comportment and meditated on the relation of those proprieties to the exercise of social and political influence. (Among the most popular conduct-books indebted to Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier were Giovanni della Casa’s Galateo [1558], and Stefano Guazzo’s Civil Conversazione [1574], a book very different in temper from Castiglione’s.) The fourteenth-century poet Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch – and ‘Petrach’ seems also to have been an acceptable English spelling of the name – was most famous for the Italian amatory poems in his collection the Rime Sparse, although his Latin epic, the Africa, was fairly well-known and his published correspondence, the Familiares, distantly influenced Spenser’s and Harvey’s Letters. Petrarch’s friend Giovanni Boccaccio is now best known for his collection of novelle, the Decameron, and although Boccaccio’s notoriety at Cambridge may well have rested primarily on that work, but several of Boccaccio’s other writings had considerable influence: Chaucer was indebted to both his Filocolo and Filostrato, and several encyclopedic works – a synthetic treatise on Greco-Roman mythology, the Genealogia Deorum; a compendium of tragic narratives, the De Casibus Virorum Illustrium; and a collection of lives of famous women, De Mulieribus Claris – were still widely consulted. Last in Harvey’s list here is the satirist Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), whom Harvey, like E.K., the commentator of the SC, confused with the Aretine poet Bernardo Accolti (1458-1535), known to such contemporaries as Castiglione as Unico Aretino (see Jan gl XXX). Pietro Aretino wrote in a variety of genres, but his scurrilous reputation rested on the Ragionamenti, a collection of whores’ dialogues he wrote in the mid 1530s, and on a series of obscene sonnets written to accompany a set of pornographic prints by Marcantonio Raimondi, the poems and prints published together in 1524 as I Modi (‘The Postures’). in every mans mouth] spoken of by everyone. The French and Italian] Although Harvey has named no French authors in the foregoing list of modern writers especially esteemed at Cambridge, the phrasing here makes it clear that Harvey is not simply thinking of a few influential modern figures, but is reflecting also on the sudden prestige of continental scholarship and literature, much of it written in the vernacular, literature that advances intellectual developments sharply distinguishable from the traditions of the Greek and Latin academic curriculum. The Queene mother] Catherine de Medici (1519-89), who had wielded very great influence over her two eldest sons during their reigns as Francis II (1559-60) and Charles IX (1560-74). She was more of a partner to her third son, Henry III, assisting and advising him in a range of diplomatic maneuvers. When Sir Philip Sidney presumed to write to Elizabeth in 1579 to discourage her from entertaining a match with Catherine’s youngest son, the Duc d’Alençon, he referred to him as ‘the son of a Jezebel of our Age (Works 3:52). conference] conversation bargaines of] speculations concerning Mounsieur] perhaps the most common of the English sobriquets for Alençon during the period in which Elizabeth entertained him as a suitor. When he was finally sent away in February 1582, Elizabeth wrote a poem ‘On Monsieur’s Departure’. Shymeirs] Jean de Simier, an advisor to Alençon who was instrumental in advancing the prospective match between Alençon and the queen. He is satirized in the character of the Ape in Mother Hubberd. Newes] Whereas the term can denote what has come to be its primary modern sense, ‘information concerning recent public events’, that is not its primary sense here, for the collection and distribution of such information was not yet sufficiently developed to be recognizable as such. As is clear from the list that explicates the general term, Harvey refers to something vaguer and more encompassing: to information concerning affairs of moment; to gossip; to fashions in literature speech, and apparel; to discoveries and imaginings -- that is, to anything that might have the power to excite or unsettle. Officers] holders of offices newe Elementes . . . Helles to] Harvey here returns to the letter’s presiding concern with natural philosophy. The clause seems to refer to disruptions of Ptolemaic astronomy, with its limiting sphere of fixed stars, and its composition limited to sublunary bodies composed of four elements and celestial bodies composed primarily of a fifth, the ether. Harvey’s reference to ‘newe Heavens’, a phrase that echoes Is 65:17, seems to refer to the idea of multiple celestial worlds, first proposed in the fifth century, B.C.E. by Leucippus and by Democritus, and later taken up by Epicurus, whose ideas were transmitted to the Renaissance by means of both Diogenes Laertius biography and Lucretius’ De Rerum Naturae. (For Lucretius’ chief evocation of multiple heavens and multiple earths, see DRN, 2.1094-1105.) . The great sixteenth-century exponent of the idea of multiple worlds is Giordano Bruno, but Bruno did not arrive in England until 1583 and didn’t publish his treatise On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (De l'Infinito Universo et Mondi) until 1584. Although, as part of a consideration of the possibility of heliocentrism, Nicholas of Cusa had proposed that all stars might be considered like suns, Copernicus would not take this step: despite the revolutionary assertion of heliocentrism, he retained a single rigid firmament in his cosmological system. But Copernicus’ first important English exponent, Thomas Digges, imagined an infinite space, with the stars scattered throughout it, thus providing, before Bruno, a conceptual framework in which Cusanus’ idea of plural solar-systems could flourish. Turkishe affaires] Since the Ottoman invasion of Cyprus and the Battle of Lepanto, there had been no major military engagements with Turkish forces either in Eastern Europe or in the Mediterranean. While the previous decade had been fairly quiet in this respect, Harvey here attributes to the young men of Cambridge a gossipy preoccupation with an exotic, and perhaps glamorous Ottoman ‘threat’ to Christendom. Jacke] an undistinguished person favour] estimation so good silver] of such value Numbers . . . Ciphars] This means much the same thing as ‘Something made of Nothing’, but Harvey is insisting on the symbolic or ‘artful’ character of numbers and ciphers (‘0’, ‘.’ and other symbols of nullity that could also serve as multipliers). Geometricall . . . abused] The first half of Book V of the Nicomachean Ethics, the book in which Aristotle takes up the virtue of Justice, is devoted to the application of proportion to social relations. Aristotle carefully distinguishes arithmetic from geometric proportion, associating the former with rectification and simple market exchange and the latter with distributive justice and complex forms of economic valuation. The effect was to associate arithmetic proportion with crude political and moral thinking and geometrical proportion with more highly developed political and moral thought. Oxen . . . Yoke] At 2 Cor 6:14, Paul compares this mismatch with attempts to bring believers and non-believers into cooperative relations. In the Aulularia, Plautus’ poor Euclio uses the same metaphoric yoking together to evoke the folly of allying himself with the wealthy Megadorus (by means of the marriage of Megadorus to Euclio’s daughter Phædra; Aulularia, 28-35) Conclusio ferè sequitur deteriorem partem] ‘The conclusion usually follows the weaker premise’: that is, if one of the premises of a syllogism is negative or particular, then the conclusion must be negative or particular . This rule was Theophrastus’ famous contribution to Aristotelean logic. Harvey cites the logical rule metaphorically: the firmly limiting ‘deteriorem partem’ (weaker part) of the syllogism is like the asses that, when yoked to oxen, limit the ability of the oxen to draw. key colde] proverbial nothing . . . Imputation] Harvey seems to be observing the weakening of the idea of intrinsic, unconditional goodness, but his phrasing takes some colour from the theological use of ‘imputation’ to denote moral transfer between Christ and mankind: righteousness comes to mankind by ‘imputation’ from Christ and Christ takes on human sinfulness by a similar ‘imputation.’ Ceremoniall . . . abandoned] The ‘Ceremonial Lawe’ is that collection of ordinances thought to have been abrogated by Christ’s sacrifice. Harvey’s ‘in worde’, seems to imply ‘only’, and so to suggest that, whereas his fellow university men flouted judicial and moral law, they had an unregenerate fondness for Romanist ceremony and works. the Lighte . . . Egles] a difficult passage. Those who make verbal boast of spiritual illumination here seem to do so in the idiom of St. John the Evangelist (whose symbol was the eagle), who speaks of John the Baptist as sent ‘to beare witness of the light. That was the true light’ (John 1:7-8) even in the face of a mental ‘darkness [that] comprehended it not’ (1:5). Howlets] owls span] spun Humanitie] the study of ancient Greek and Latin literature, history, and other non-philosophical or non-scientific texts Doctors] advanced scholars; holders of the most advanced degrees; also, the early Church fathers knowen of moste] most well-known magnified] praised controlled of] overmastered by Will] desire; willfulness mastered of] mastered by Patient] a person acted upon; specifically, the recipient of pastoral care Agent . . . Herring] Agent and patient can have their general sense as ‘actor’ and ‘object of action’, but the specific sense of the phrase seems to be that ‘Ministers are not much better than the recipients of their pastoral care or correction.’ The proverb ‘never a barrel the better herring’ means ‘there’s no difference between them’, ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’; Harvey has adjusted the phrasing to suggest, perhaps, that the ministering agent may retain some slight superiority to his patient. Cappes and Surplesses] One of the central goals of the English reformers was the reduction of superfluous Church ceremony and they had especially objected to the over-elaboration of ‘massing vestments’. There was general agreement that the so-called liturgical vestments, those ecclesiastical garments specifically associated with the Roman Catholic service of the mass were to be rejected, but the question of exactly which non-liturgical vestments to proscribe was vigorously argued, with Puritans objecting strenuously to the non-liturgical cap and surplice. In 1565, the year before Harvey matriculated at Christ’s College, William Fulke had led a protest against the wearing of the surplice and square ‘cater-cap’ at St. John’s College; during the year following, Archbishop Parker’s efforts to enforce vestiarian conformity precipitated a major confrontation with non-conforming clergy and may be regarded as a crucial moment in the propagation of Puritan separatism. If Harvey here attests to a diminution in the reforming clamor on this subject, at least in the environs of Cambridge, it was only a temporary lull. Cartwright] Thomas Cartwright, who had been ousted from his position as the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge by Whitgift in 1570 (in which he was succeeded by John Still) and was balked in his candidacy for a chair in Hebrew for his support of the Puritan Admonitions to Parliament of 1572, which strongly opposed vestments and the episcopal efforts to impose conformity in vestiarian matters. Cartwright spent most of the 1570s as a minister to the English Protestant community in Antwerp. the man . . . at pleasure] Because Harvey is being cautious, ’the man you wot of’ is difficult to identify: probably a member of the Cambridge faculty; conforming to the terms of the 1559 Act of Uniformity and the Thirty-Nine Articles; acquiescent to Elizabethan efforts to maintain episcopal authority; and quite content to wear surplice and square cap -- but there were many such influential clergymen at Cambridge, and quite a few of them were non-resident holders of church benefices. Harvey may be referring to Andrew Perne, who also comes under oblique attack a few sentences later in this letter. Five times vice-chancellor of Cambridge, Perne held a range of very lucrative livings in addition to the deanery of Ely. Perne was a person of such flexible religious allegiances that his name became ‘a byword for a religious turncoat’ (Collinson, Elizabethans, 179). He was later much satirized in the Marprelate Tracts and Harvey would frequently speak of him as a fox; indeed, in 1592, when Harvey came to explain another obscure satiric moment in this letter [cross ref], he would designate Perne, ‘the olde Fox’ as the object of attack. Perne is almost certainly shadowed in the character of Palinode in Maye. conformable] conforming Non resident] regularly absent from the place where one has official clerical duties better bayted] more fiercely harassed Acte . . . purpose] actuality . . . intention sibbe . . . Women] full of bluster, like boastful men, but cowardly; ‘all talk and no action’. pregnantest] most imaginative, fullest of Hermogenes mettall] at bottom, vacuous. Hermogenes is one of Socrates’ two interlocutors in Plato’s Cratylus and he cuts an unimpressive intellectual figure there. That he espouses the merely conventional nature of verbal reference may have suggested to Harvey the linguistic equivalent of religious conformity; see the reference to ‘Jani’ and ‘Camelions’ immediately below. Olde men . . . olde men] ‘reputed wise only when compared to children and reputed only childish when compared to the wise’. Jani . . . Dormise] The central theme in this small exercise of Harvey’s considerable talent for slanging invective is lapsed integrity: many members of the clergy had found ways to adapt to the vicissitudes in English religious institutions across the reigns of Edward, Mary, and now Elizabeth and Harvey here insinuates that those now conforming did so not out of conviction, but out of a conspicuous lack thereof. Nashe will quote liberally from this passage in Strange Newes, in which Nashe takes Harvey to task for both misaimed attack and a lumbering satiric manner. Jani] pl. of Janus, the two-faced god of the New Year. Clawbackes, and Pickethanks] sycophants and flatterers Jackes . . . sides] trimmers Aspen leaves] persons of craven flexibility (because the aspen leaf ‘shivers’ even in a light breeze) painted . . . Sepulchres] hypocrites. Both the painted sheath and painted (or whited) sepulcher (for the later, see Matt. 23:27) were proverbial figures for those of gorgeous exterior and corrupt or unimpressive interiors. Asses . . . skins] Erasmus discusses this proverb, which derives from Aesop, in the Adages, I.iii.66 Dunglecockes] cowards Dunglecockes] Unlike the belligerent game-cock, a dunglecock (or dunghill-cock) is a common barnyard fowl, with no fight in it. Dormise] those who show no vigilance, drawsy people. fledge] fledged, mature callow] unfledged, inexperienced yonker] youth (from Germ. Junker) speak of] pronounce on, judge politique] produent, politically cunning Commonwealths man] public figure Bishoppe . . . Wutton] Stephen Gardiner (c.1495-1555) and Nicholas Wotton (1497-1567) figure here as men of the previous generation who survived complex political and religious vicissitudes, all the while occupying positions of considerable influence and making themselves vulnerable to the charge of temporizing. Wotton, a doctor of both canon and civil law, long held the deanships of Canterbury and York, but seems to have evaded episcopal appointments, spending much of his time during the reigns of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth on a range of diplomatic missions. Like Wotton, Gardiner had doctorates in canon and civil law, but his career was more vexed. Shortly after graduation he became Wolsey’s secretary and, six year’s later, Henry VIII’s; he became Bishop of Winchester in 1532. He soon came into conflict with Henry over matters of Episcopal authority and, thenceforth, he became a powerful conservative force with in the English Church, a defender of ceremony, advocated clerical celibacy, and dealt harshly, under Edward, with the most eager reformers. His conservatism earned him two imprisonments in 1548, and he was deprived of his see in 1551, though he was restored to his position in 1553, under Mary, whose religious agenda he served with energy until his death. having . . . commaundement] ‘choosing his own horoscope at will (rather than having it determined by his location and time of birth), were born in the tenth astrological house (decimo cœli domicilio) and so endowed with all possible gifts of political discernment’. The astrological influences of planets in the tenth house determine the orientation of individuals to government, career, and public affairs. As William Lilly describes the tenth house, “Commonly it personateth Kings, Princes, Dukes, Earles, Judges, prime Officers . . . ; all sorts of Magistracy and Officers in Authority (Christian Astrology, 1647, G4). Sed . . . Canopi] ‘But hark in your ear. Do you remember what Varro says? To ourselves we seem lovely and jolly, when we’re really a bunch of Egyptian sardines.’ Different versions of the fragment from Varro’s Menippean Satires appeared in a range of Renaissance compendia; although the meaning of saperdae was disputed, the general sense of the sentence as Harvey reports it is clear. David . . . madmen] For the feigned madness of David, see 1 Samuel 21:13. That Ulysses feigned madness to avoid the Trojen expedition is reported in a number of sources, see especially, Cicero, De officiis 3.26. Plutarch refers to Solon’s pretended madness briefly in his Solon 8.1-2; Diogenes Laertius is more expansive in his Solon, 2-3. fayned themselves . . . faine themselves] pretended that they were . . . imagine themselves goe nigh to] nearly Metoposcopus] one who practices the art of determining character by the interpretation of facial lines pity . . . hurt] proverbial pickstrawes] persons who waste time on trivial things Testiomoniall] report Controllers] steward’s. Controllers] Harvey quickly suffered for the incautiousness of this unspecific swipe. In Have With You to Saffron Walden (1596), Thomas Nashe reports that Sir James Croft, Controller of the Household, complained of this in the Privy Council as a personal insult, that Harvey was constrained to withdraw to the haven of Leicester’s house, and that Croft nonetheless had Harvey thrown into prison at the Fleet. In Foure Letters and Certaine Sonnets (1592), Harvey reports having insisted that the ‘Controller’ to whom he referred here was Andrew Perne, who had blocked Harvey’s appointment as University Orator. (Nashe accepts this as a reference to Perne in Strange Newes [1592].) For Perne, see above [cross-reference] brazen] brass brazen forehead] denoting stubbornness; see Is 48.4 copper face] probably denoting impudence (cf. ‘brazen’), but this may also be a disparaging physical description, since acne rosacea was sometimes referred to as copper-nose (cf. Theatre [cross-ref] and n). stony] pitiless elvish] crabbed, peevish novelties] unwarranted innovations maltworm] drunkard Juggler] magician fetches, casts] stratagems, tricks toyes . . . withal] fantastic deceptive contrivances that could only deceive the credulous. The phrase was proverbial; cf. Reginald Scot’s of the phrase to dismiss divination by sieve and shears (The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, T3v) thou lyest . . . throate] you lie egregiously. Jesu] Jesus nigh hand] nearly ywis] truly Jack-mates] overly familiar friends; ‘Mr. Pal’ Many . . . Tutors] Resuming his survey of the state of things at Cambridge, Harvey notes both that students are on terms too familiar with their tutors and that the wealthier students are going unsupervised (‘their very own Tutors’). Ah mala . . . Vesperi] ‘Ah, wicked license; it was not this way in the beginning. Youthful learning without manly discipline is foolish. As if sternness were fitting only for the poorer boys and not so much more fitting for fine and noble youths in that pristine instruction and education that is liberal, wise, learned, and eminently suited as much to the person of the tutor as to the student. Wisdom in all things, that will be the keenest weapon. Other things are much as before: continuous war between the head and limbs of the university. Doxosophia sustained in our public halls, ratified within private walls, and flaunted everywhere. (You know that you know nothing if you know not this.) Everywhere Wealth is the only thing of worth, Modesty dismissed as measly, Letters discounted as nothing. Believe me, no one believes anyone, and friendship, my friend, means nothing. Where does that leave you, meanwhile? You ask how you should act? How, indeed? It is best to profit from others’ folly. I watch, I keep silent, I smile: I have spoken. And I’ll add what the famous satirist says: There are many reasons why one should live properly now, and above all so that one may scorn the tongues of slaves. ‘From my town, the day after the above conversation on the Earthquake, that is (if I’m not mistaken) on the evening of April seventh’ The ‘famous satirist’ (Satyricus ille), is Juvenal: the lines are adapted from his ninth Satire, 118-20. δοξοσοφία] ‘Doxosophia’, the presumption of wisdom. δοξοσοφία] In Plato’s Sophist, the Stranger identifies δοξοσοφία as one of the many manifestations of ignorance and makes the removal of this presumption one of the nobler aspects of sophistical education (231b). Nosti manum tanquam tuam] ‘You recognize the hand as if it were your own’ odd] special the two odde Gentlemen] probably Sidney and Dyer; see above [cross-ref] Non multis . . . unguem] ‘I am not asleep for many; I do not [write] for many; I do not desire to please everyone. Some praise, prefer, and admire some poems; others, other ones: of ours and of yours, I most prefer the ‘Trinity’. A word to the wise is sufficient; you know the rest – and you possess the three Graces to perfection.’ The first clause, adapted from Cicero, Familiares 7.24, means ‘I do not let all transgressions pass unremarked’; the second clause is attributed to Epicurus in Seneca, Epist. Morales 7.11. By nos . . . Trinitatem (‘our Trinity’), Harvey is referring to his own poem, ‘A New Yeeres Gift’, printed below, on the ‘three most precious Accidentes, Vertue, Fame, and Wealth; by vos . . . Trinitatem (‘your Trinity) he refers to Spenser’s ‘Iambicum Trimetrum’, poem organized around a set of triplicities. proper] appropriate complaint] See [cross-reference] in the first letter. presuppose] assume let my . . . came] Harvey’s affectation of lack of interest in the hexameters he has sent to Spenser works, in backhanded fashion, to solicit a more detailed reaction than the rather generalized approval Spenser offered at [cross-ref] rare] valuable forwarde] advance late] recent famous] capable of prompting fame Exchanging] replacement Balductum] trashy Artificial] artful ylfavoured] ugly Advertizement] precept Ascham . . . Scholemaister] Ascham makes the case for quantitative versifying in English in Book 2 of The Scholemaster (R4-S2). in respect . . . Motive] I would . . . Observations] Harvey here responds to Spenser’s reference to his own ‘Rules and Precepts of Arte’, which he has described as based on those ‘that M. Philip Sidney gave me, being the same which M. Drant devised, but enlarged with M. Sidneys own judgement, and augmented with my Observations.’ Harvey is asking for copies of Drant’s, Sidney’s, and Spenser’s rules, although his playful use of the language of polite social intercourse -- as if he were asking Spenser to introduce him to Drant’s Prosody, Sidney’s Judgement, and Immerito’s Observations -- slightly obscures his sense. gladly] eagerly peradventure] perhaps but I can] that I cannot reserve] forego consulted . . . pillow] ‘slept on it’ Sperienza] Experience (Ital.) meane] meantime mysterie] trade secret regular] orderly, pertaining to rules direction] plan into Arte] Since the fourteenth century many humanists had set themselves the goal of vernacular linguistic reform, meant to confer on language use a recognizably artifical elegance and richness. For a critical review of related programs of vernacular reform, see Peter Burke, Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2004) 17-21 and 89-95; also, Aldo Scaglione, The Emergence of National Languages (Ravenna, 1984). Ortographie] orthography, system of spelling proportionate] fitting our Common Naturall Prosodye] ‘Naturall’ is used here in contrast with ‘Artificiall’ earlier in the sentence. Harvey seems to be referring to the relatively informal accentual-syllabic system of most then-contemporary English ‘rhyming’. Sir Thomas Smithes] Born, like Harvey, in Saffron Walden, Smith was educated at Cambridge and held the first Regius Professorship of Civil Law. Under the influence of Sir John Cheke, Regius Professor of Greek, whose efforts at orthographic reform preceded his, Smith began a treatise on the subject in the 1540s, but that work was published only posthumously, as the De recta et emendata lingua anglicae scriptione (1568); see D. G. Scragg, A History of English Spelling (1974). perfit] perfect some other] Other systems of orthographic reform had been proposed or were being formulated by Cheke, Richard Mulcaster, John Hart, and William Bullokar. necessarie] unarguable absolute] authoritative hoppe] limp for Companie sake] for company’s sake Interim] in the meantime credit] believe Arte] a system of rules squaimishe of] stingy with respect to he that can . . . from the other] ‘Someone who can give good practical examples of versifying can easily sketch the general rules – the precepts and the ‘arte’ -- that govern such versifying, since the general art derives (‘fetcheth his original’) from the practice.’ (The next sentence makes it clear that Harvey regards precept as a derivation from practice, thus resolving the difficulty presented in this sentence – that the referent of ‘one’ in ‘skil of the one is ‘Examples’, whereas the referent of ‘one’ in ‘considering that the one’ is ‘Preceptes’ and ‘General Arte’.) fetcheth . . . offspring] derives his origins and lineage to say troth] to tell the truth the start] a head start are to frame] are obliged to frame President] precedent of us] from us Ennius] Although only fragments of his poetry survives, Quintus Ennius (c. 239 -169 BCE) was long regarded as the first important Roman poet. The phrase quoted below is taken from his epic poem in dactylic hexameters, the Annales, which traced Roman history from the fall of Troy to the present quantities] lengths onely] sole, unrivaled going] serving τῑ . . . nobis] Elizabethan grammarians recognized a number of rules by which orthography and position determined the quantity of a syllable, but these rules were not exhaustive: the length of many syllables could not be determined by rule. Harvey follows Lily (and others) in alleging that, in such cases, the practice of early poets confers quantity on otherwise indeterminate syllables: Quarum verò syllabarum quantitas sub praedictas rationes non cadit, à poetarum, exemplo atque autoritate petenda est, certissima omnium regula (‘As for syllables whose quantity doesn’t fall under the rules already mentioned, quantity is derived from the practice, example, and authority of poets, which are the most certain of rules’; Grammar, 1567, H1). According to Harvey, the first syllables of τιμὴ, timè (‘honor’) and unus (‘one’) to be short, Homer and Ennius made them long by the very act of beginning lines of their epics with those words. (Classical epic poems were usually composed in lines of dactylic hexameter, the first syllable of which must be long.) The half line from Homer may be rendered ‘Honour is from Zeus’ (Il. 2.197); the complete line from Ennius’ Annales is unus homo nobis cunctando, restituit rem, ‘one man, delaying, restored the state to us’. this by-disputation] the tangentially-related debate on the relation of precept and example Analitiques, and Metaphysikes] Aristotle’s fundamental work on scientific method is concentrated in the Prior Analytics, the Posterior Analytics, and the Metaphysics ἐμπειρία, ἱστορια, αἴσθησις, ἐπαγωγή] That empeiria (‘experience), istoria (‘inquiry, researches’), aisthesis (‘perception’), epagogé (‘intuitive induction’) are, in effect, the main anchors of knowledge, both informal and scientific, explains why Harvey refers to these as ‘Golden termes’. According to Aristotle, empeiria is built up in memory out of multiple perceptions; empeiria produces universals in the soul by means of epagoge (Post. An. B19). Although istoria is a term that appears most frequently in Aristotle’s biological works, it is used in the Prior Analytics to refer to the sort of systematic empirical investigation that supplies the first principles (mainly definitions) peculiar to each of the sciences (Pr. An. A30). Januarie gift . . . Christmas Gambowlde ] Alluding to the robust traditions of gift-giving on New Year’s Day and festive play on Christmas. Gambowlde] gambol, festive game. Plaudite and Gramercie] applause and thanks. but . . . is] but it being as it is (i.e., not very fine) fancie] critical opinion fancie] Although the word can mean ‘whimsical preference’, it can also be used to denote critical assessment. Harvey’s ‘A New Yeeres Gift’, to which he refers as nos Trinitatem (‘our Trinity’) at [cross-ref] above, may be scanned thus: _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x VErtue sendeth a man to Renowne, Fame lendeth Aboundaunce, _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Fame with Aboundaunce maketh a man thrise blessed and happie. _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x So the Rewarde of Famous Vertue makes many wealthy, _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x And the Regard of Wealthie Vertue makes many blessed: _ _ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ || _ ̮ ̮ | _ x O' blessed Vertue blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce, _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ || ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x O that I had you three, with the losse of thirtie Comencementes. _ _ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Nowe farewell Mistresse, whom lately I loved above all, _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x hese be my three bonny lasses, these be my three bonny Ladyes, _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ ^ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ ^ | _ x Not the like Trinitie againe, save onely the Trinitie above all: _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Worship and Honour, first to the one, and then to the other. _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x A thousand good leaves be for ever graunted Agrippa. _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x For squibbing and declayming against many fruitlesse _ _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ x Artes, and Craftes, devisde by the Diuls and Sprites, for a torment, _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x And for a plague to the world: as both Pandora, Prometheus, _ _ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ ^ | _ x And that cursed good bad Tree, can testifie at all times. _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Meere Gewegawes and Bables, in comparison of these. _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ x Toyes to mock Apes, and Woodcockes, in comparison of these. _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ x Jugling castes, and knicknackes, in comparison of these. _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ x Yet behinde there is one thing, worth a prayer at all tymes, _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x A good Tongue, in a mans Head, A good Tongue in a woomans. _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ x And what so precious matter, and foode for a good Tongue, _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x As blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce. Regard of] reputation for. leaves] permissions Agrippa . . . Craftes] Alluding to the satirically extravagant declamation against learning, De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium (‘On the uncertainty and vanity of the sciences and arts’; composed 1526, published 1530) by Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535). squibbing] making sarcastic, incendiary utterances Diuls] devils Pandora . . . Tree] The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:9), the ‘good bad Tree’, is yoked with Prometheus and Pandora because all three bring woe to mankind by transmitting that which is divine in origin. In both Theogony (507-616) and Works and Days (42-105) Hesiod tells the story of Prometheus’s theft of fire from Zeus. Although he glances at the Pandora story in the Theogony, he does not name her there; he offers a fuller account of Pandora in Works and Days (60-105), where tells of how the gods avenge the theft by creating the dangerously alluring Pandora, their revenge is completed when she opens a jar filled with the divine “gifts” of disease, toil, and other ills. For Pandora in Spenser, see Rome 260, Am. 24.8, and, unusually, Teares 578, where Elizabeth is compared to Pandora without implied pejorative force. Gewegawes and Bable] geegaws and baubles Toyes . . . Woodcockes] see above [cross-ref] Woodcockes] dupes, fools juggling castes] tricks involving sleight-of-hand knicknackes] trifling deceits behinde] in reserve L’Envoy] The envoy L’envoy] [cross-ref to SC] _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Marvell not, that I meane to send these Verses at Evensong : _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x On Neweyeeres Euen, and Oldyeeres End, as a Memento: _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Trust me, I know not a ritcher Jewell , newish or oldish, _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Than blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Abundaunce, _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x O blessed Vertue, blessed Fame, blessed Aboundaunce, _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x O that you had these three, with the losse of Fortie Valetes, Evensong] sunset Evensong] Vespers, the evening prayer service, is celebrated just before sunset. Valetes] farewells Valetes] Harvey seems to be referring specifically to the Valete, the formal farewell that concludes academic commencement exercises. requite] answer to requite] Harvey offers the following poem as a response to Spenser’s See yee the blindefoulded pretie God? in the first letter above. Garden . . . Lords] Harvey presumably refers specifically here to one of John Young’s gardens in the bishop’s palace at Bromley in Kent, a county generally celebrated for its horticulture. Master of Pembroke College and vice-chancellor of Cambridge, Young was consecrated bishop of Rochester in March 1578 and Spenser served as his secretary around this time. For more on Spenser’s ties to Bishop Young, see the note to September 171. demaunde ex tempore] inquire on that occasion demaunde . . . followeth] The inquiry following being ‘What might I call this Tree?’ Petrarches . . . Poete] alluding to Petrarch’s Rime sparse 423. The lines may be rendered ‘Victorious tree, triumphal, honor of emperors, and of poets.’ perhaps . . . higher] Because of the ambiguity of ‘conceite’ Harvey’s exhortation does double duty, encouraging Spenser both to imaginative reading and to imaginative writing: he exhorts Spenser to let Petrarch’s poem inspire him to higher imaginative conception (conceit) – higher than Harvey’s or, perhaps, higher than Petrarch’s own – but he also seeks to shape Spenser’s understanding (conceit) of Harvey’s own poem by suggesting that it was written under the influence of Petrarch’s poem and should therefore be esteemed the more highly for its emulous complexity. Rosalinde] unidentified; see Januarye 60 and n. Intelligences] In the tradition of Aristotelean metaphysics, the term denotes those spiritual entities, subordinate to the Prime Mover, that guide the motion of particular celestial spheres; sometimes the Intelligences were understood as a species of angel. Harvey may be using the term more casually here, as denoting intellectual faculties of an especially spiritual or heavenly orientation. Pegaso] Pegasus (It.) Pegaso] the winged horse that serves as a traditional figure for the poetic imagination. Encomium Lauri] ‘In Praise of the Laurel’ This poem, in quantitative hexameters, may be scanned as follows: _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x What might I call this Tree? A Laurell? O bonny Laurell: _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ _ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Needes to thy bowes will I bow this knee, and vayle my bonetto: > _ _ | _ || ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ _ x Who, but thou, the renowne of Prince, and Princely Poeta : ? _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Th'one for Crowne, for Garland th'other thanketh Apollo. _ _ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Thrice happy Daphne: that turned was to the Bay Tree, _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Whom such servauntes serve, as challenge service of all men. _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | __ ̮ ̮ |_ x Who chiefe Lorde, and King of Kings, but th' Emperour only? _ ̮ ̮ |_ _ | _ | ̮ ̮ | _ _ | __ ̮ ̮ | _ x >And Poet of right stampe, overaweth th' Emperour himselfe. _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ |_ || _ Who, but knowes Aretyne? was he not halfe Prince to the Princes? _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ || _ |_ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ _ x And many a one there lives , as nobly minded at all poyntes. _ _ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Now Farewell Bay Tree, very Queene, and Goddesse of all trees, _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Ritchest perle to the Crowne, and fayrest Floure to the Garland. _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ |_ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Faine wod I crave , might I so presume, some farther aquaintaunce, _ ̮ ̮ | _ || ̮ ̮ | _ _ || _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ x O that I might? but I may not: woe to my destinie therefore. _ ̮ ̮ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ || _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ _ ̮ ̮ Trust me, not one more loyall servaunt longes to thy Personage, _ _ | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ _ _ But what sayes Daphne? Non omni dormio, worse lucke: _ _ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ | _ ̮ ̮ _ x Yet Farewell, Farewell, the Reward of those, that I honour: _ ̮ ̮ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ _ x Glory to Garden] Glory to Muses: Glory to Vertue. vayle] remove out of respect bonetto] i.e. bonnet, a man’s brimless cap. bonetto] Harvey here uses an Italian form for ‘bonnet’, a form not current in England, although it is difficult to decide whether he choses it for the slightly comic effect or because it fits the metrical schema. (‘Bonnet’ could also yield the catalectic final dactyl, although Harvey may regard the first syllable as short, for he systematically treats the first syllable of ‘bonny’ as short.) Poeta] poet (Lat.) Daphne] Ovid relates the tale of the enamoured Apollo’s pursuit of Daphne and her transformation into a laurel at Met 1.452-567. Aretyne] For Harvey’s confounding of Unico Aretino (Bernardo Accolti) and Pietro Aretino, the former a more prolific poet and the latter a more notorious literary figure, see above [cross-ref]. The disapproving tone of Harvey’s earlier reference leaves little doubt that Harvey was aware of Pietro Aretino’s reputation for literary mischief: his claim that many living poets are ‘as nobly minded’ as Aretino must be taken as deftly satiric. Indeed, to describe Aretino as ‘halfe Prince to the Princes’ is to suggest the political power of poetic satire. I crave . . . acquaintance] ‘I seek . . . acquaintance’; sometimes used idiomatically as a formula for introducing oneself longes to] belongs to, is affiliated with Personage] self Non omni dormio] ‘I am not asleep for all’ Non omni dormio] As he did in concluding his previous letter [cross-reference], Harvey again adapts a phrase from Cicero’s Familiares. In effect, Harvey’s Daphne denies her petitioner the leniency she allows some others. Partim . . . Musis] ‘Some for Jove and Pallas, / Some for Apollo and the Muses’ bewray] reveal store] inventory, stock conjure thee by] can mean either ‘entreat you by appeal to’ or ‘magically constrain you by the occult agency of’ Intelligible] intelligent in Tom Troth’s earnest] honestly, in a forthright manner Tom Troth] conventional personification of honesty Il fecondo . . . Immerito] ‘The fertile and famous Poet, Messer Immerito’ ‘Messer’ is an Italian honorific, slightly less formal than ‘Signore’ Satyriall] satirical instaunce] instigation a certayne . . . Gentleman,] The identity of this gentleman remains obscure. That Harvey wrote at another’s instigation may be a fiction, a weak attempt to distribute blame for the poem’s insults, the little community of blame itself intriguingly mysterious. in Gratiam . . . cutem] ‘to please certain Anglifrancitalians flitting here and everywhere among us. Come now: you know these fellows as you know yourselves, inside and out.’ Speculum Tuscanismi] ‘The Mirror of Tuscanism’. Although Harvey and John Lyly had been friends, Lyly (among others) apparently brought the poem to the attention of his patron, the Earl of Oxford, suggesting that the poem was meant as a personal satire on the Earl, which it surely was, although Harvey denied it (Foure Letters, 1592, C4). For troubles that the various provocations of the Letters brought on Harvey, see the Introduction, p. [cross-ref]. _ ̮ ̮ _ ̮ ̮ _ _ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ _ x Since Galateo came in, and Tuscanisme gan usurpe, _ ̮ ̮ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ _ _ _ ̮ ̮ | Vanitie above all: Villanie next her, Statelynes Empresse. No man, but Minion, Stowte, Lowte, Plaine, swayne, quoth a Lording: No wordes but valorous, no workes but woomanish onely. For life Magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in shew, In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish alwayes. His cringing side necke, Eyes glauncing, Fisnamie smirking, With forefinger kisse, and brave embrace to the footewarde. _ ̮ ̮ | _ _ _ ̮ ̮ _ ̮ ̮ | _ x Largebelled Kodpeasd Dublet, unkodpeased halfe hose, Straite to the dock, like a shirte, and close to the britch, like a diveling. A little Apish Hatte, cowched fast to the pate, like an Oyster, French Camarick Ruffes, deepe with a witnesse, starched to the purpose. Every one A per se A, his termes, and braveries in Print, Delicate in speach, queynte in araye: conceited in all poyntes: In Courtly guyles, a passing singular odde man, For Gallantes a brave Myrrour, a Primerose of Honour, A Diamond for nonce, a fellowe perelesse in England. Not the like Discourser for Tongue, and head to be found out: Not the like resolute Man, for great and serious affayres, >Not the like Lynx, to spie out secretes, and privities of States. Eyed, like to Argus, Earde, like to Midas, Nosd, like to Naso, Wingd, like to Mercury, fittst of a Thousand for to be employde, This, nay more than this doth practise of Italy in one yeare. None doe I name, but some doe I know, that a peece of a twelvemonth: Hath so perfited outly, and inly, both body, both soule, That none for sense, and senses, halfe matchable with them. A Vulturs smelling, Apes tasting, sight of an Eagle, A spiders touching, Hartes hearing, might of a Lyon. Compoundes of wisedome, witte, prowes, bountie, behaviour, All gallant Vertues, all qualities of body and soule: O thrice tenne hundreth thousand times blessed and happy, >Blessed and happy Travaile, Travailer most blessed and happy. Penatibus Hetruscis laribusque nostris Inquilinis: Galateo] Giovanni della Casa’s treatise on etiquette of that name, first printed in Italian in 1558 and first printed in an English translation in 1576. Vanitie . . . Empresse] Since an empress ostensibly has absolute power, Statelinesse would seem fated to come squarely into conflict with Vanitie. No man . . . swayne] A difficult line. The punctuation suggests that it means ‘No real man can be found anywhere, only a minion; no stout person, only a lout; no straightforward person, only a swain’. But because the punctuation of the copy text is unreliable, and because both ‘stout’ and ‘plain’ are ambiguous, it may be that the line should be construed ‘No real man can be found anywhere, only a minion, an arrogant lout, and a mere swain’. Minion is often used to indicate the effeminate male lover of a man in a position of authority. Minion] favourite, hanger-on, lover stout] valiant, arrogant swain] servant, male rustic lording] petty lord beck] gesture, nod Fisnamie] physiognomy, face cringing] fawning brave] grandiose brave . . . footewarde] With its self-embrace, this vivid description of a particularly deep bow entails suggests both sycophantry and self-love. Largebellyed . . . hose] The continental fashion for the so-called peascod doublet, which swells like a peapod at its bottom-most point just at the belly, was quite new in England. Harvey is playing with the descriptive epithet, hinting that the peascod distention is a debased version of the related form of the codpiece. The ‘half-hose’ are breeches, as distinct from whole-hose, an integrated combination of either trunk-hose and stockings or trunk-hose, close-fitting canions, and stockings. The more traditional silhouette of trunk-hose is relatively full at the upper thighs, whereas breeches drop the apparent center of gravity farther down the leg. Breeches obviate the need for a codpiece. Straite . . diveling] Harvey turns his satiric attention to the rear of the new-fangled doublet. Whereas the Elizabethan undergarment (‘shirt’) was usually cut full, the comparison of the rear of the doublet to a shirt suggests some failure of decent concealment as the doublet descends to the buttocks, probably from being cut too tight. The doublet described here is certainly cut close at the breech, perhaps lacking any panels or skirts to mask the attachments of doublet and breeches, and thus suggesting the comic self-exposure of a diving duck. dock] rump diveling] a diving bird, usually a duck. cowched fast] fitted close Camarick] cambric, a fine white linen with a witnesse] especially, ‘with a vengeance’ Ruffes . . . witnesse] especially deeply folded ruffs. The plural ‘Ruffes’ suggests that this refers to a ‘suit of ruffs’, matching ruffs for neck and hands. starched] Although the fashion for starched ruffs had come in from the Low Countries in the 1560s, starching of large ruffs was an abiding object of mockery. See Phillip Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, Pt. 1 (1583) A per se A] singularly excellent A per se A] A formula for spelling the single-lettered word aloud: ‘A per se, A’, i.e. ‘A itself, A’, the phrase came to designate pre-eminence. Thus Henryson’s description of Cresseide as ‘floure and A per se of Troie and Grece’ termes] words and phrases, terminology braveries] boasts in Print] precisely queynte] elegant, cunning conceited] clever in all poyntes] in all details, but with a pun on ‘points’, ribbons or cords for lacing together the parts of a garment, often quite decorative. guiles] tricks, wiles passing] surpassingly odde] remarkable, unique odde] The older sense of the term – unique, singular – was only beginning to find competition from a newer one – peculiar, eccentric. Myrrour] model, example primerose] primrose, primula primerose] the spelling emphasizes a common figurative use of the term to mean ‘the best’. for nonce] indeed Iambicum trimetrum] Spenser is adapting the rules of classical iambic trimeter, the most widely used meter in spoken passages of classical drama. Greek trimeter comprises three dipodies, or pairs of feet, each pair usually consisting of either two iambs or an iamb and a spondee, although a variety of substitutions were allowable, depending on the position of a given foot in the line. Though Spenser’s title refers to the Greek form, his lines seem to be based on the model of the Latin senarius, which derives from Greek iambic trimeter. The senarius is organized in six feet rather than in three dipodies and while the sixth foot is always an iamb, the preceding five feet often feature even greater freedom of substitution than was allowed in Greek trimeter.