Chapter XII: Appendix: C (3)

[From _A godly exhortation, by occasion of the late iudgement of
God, shewed at Parris-garden, the thirteenth day of Ianuarie:
where were assembled by estimation aboue a thousand persons,
whereof some were slaine; & of that number, at the least, as is
crediblie reported, the thirde person maimed and hurt_. Giuen
to all estates for their instruction, concerning the keeping of
the Sabboth day. By Iohn Field, Minister of the word of God....
Robert Waldegrave for Henry Carre, 1583. There is no entry in
S. R., but on 21 Jan. Richard Jones and William Bartlett were
imprisoned and fined for printing ‘a thing of the fall of the
gallories at Paris Garden’ without licence (Arber, ii. 853).
On 19 Jan. Fleetwood wrote to Lord Burghley (_M. S. C._ i.
160, from _Lansdowne MS._ 37, f. 10; also in Wright, ii. 184),
‘Vpon the same day [13 Jan.] the violaters of the Sabothe were
punished by Godes providens at Paris garden and as I was writing
of these last wordes loo here is a booke sett downe vpon the
same matter’.]

Epistle to the Lord Mayor, William Fleetwood, the Recorder, and the Aldermen. Explains the address to them. A 2^v. ‘Is it not a lamentable thing, that after so long preaching of the Gospell, there should bee so great prophanation amongst vs? that Theaters should be full and churches be emptie? that the streetes shoulde be replenished, and the places of holy exercises, left destitute? I write not this simplie but in respect, and by comparison.... If you say that this thing belongeth not vnto you, because that Parris garden is out of your iurisdiction, yet why are these men suffered to bring their Beares into the citie, that thereby they may gather your company vnto them? It were duety in you to hinder these and to take order that none of the citie should repaire vnto such places.... 18^{th} January 1583. Iohn Feild.’ The exhortation is mainly a general call to repentance and fear of judgement, without special reference to the occasion. B 3. Stress is laid on abuse of the Sabbath. B 4. ‘There is no Dicing house, Bowling alley, Cock pit, or Theater, that can be found empty. Those flagges of defiance against God, & trumpets that are blown to gather together such company, will sooner preuail to fil those places, then the preaching of the holy worde of God ... to fill Churches. Nothing can stoppe them from the same: neyther feare of danger, losse of tyme, corruption of maners, infection of diseases, expence of money, suspition of honestie and such like.... Pounds and hundreds can be well ynough afforded, in following these least pleasures, though euery dore hath a payment, & euery gallerie maketh a yearely stipend: thogh euery dog hath a coller, & euery Beare a prize, and euery cracke bring a great aduenture.’ Enforces the warning of Paris Garden. B vii^v. ‘I wil set it down as plainly as I can, and as truly as can be gathered from the examination of those same common euidences, that haue fallen out.... You shal vnderstand therfore (beloued Christians) that vpon the last Lords day being the thirteen day of the first month, that cruell and lothsome exercise of bayting Beares being kept at _Parris-garden_, in the after-noone, in the time of common praiers, and when many other exercises of Religion, both of preaching and Catechizing were had in sundry places of the City, diuers Preachers hauing not long before also cryed out against such prophanations: yet (the more pitty) there resorted thither a great company of people of al sorts and conditions, that the like nomber, in euery respect (as they say) had not beene seene there a long time before. Beeing thus vngodly assembled, to so vnholy a spectacle and specially considering the time; the yeard, standings, and Galleries being ful fraught, being now amidest their iolity, when the dogs and Bear were in the chiefest Battel, Lo the mighty hand of God vppon them. This gallery that was double, and compassed the yeard round about, was so shaken at the foundation, that it fell (as it were in a moment) flat to the ground, without post or peere, that was left standing, so high as the stake whervnto the Beare was tied. Although some wil say (and as it may be truly) that it was very old and rotten and therefore a great waight of people, being planted vpon it then was wont, that it was no maruaile that it fayled: and would make it but a light matter. Yet surely if this be considered, that no peece of post, boord, or stake was left standing: though we vrge it not as a miracle, yet it must needes be considered as an extraordinary iudgement of God, both for the punishment of those present prophaners of the Lordes day that were then, & also informe and warne vs that were abroad. In the fal of it, there were slaine fiue men and two women, that are come to knowledge, who they were and where they dwelled, to wit, _Adam Spencer_ a _Felmonger_, in _Southwarke_, _William Cockram_ a Baker, dwelling in _Shordich_, _Iohn Burton_ Cleark, of _S. Marie Wolmers_ in _Lombard streat_, _Mathew Mason_, seruant with Master _Garland_, dwelling in _Southwarke_, _Thomas Peace_, seruant with _Robert Tasker_, dwelling in _Clerken well_. The maydens names, _Alice White_, seruant to a Pursemaker without _Cripplegate_, and _Marie Harrison_, daughter to _Iohn Harrison_, being a waterbearer, dwelling in _Lombard streat_.’ C i^v. Nowe beside these that were thus killed out right, with the flat fal of the Galleries, strangely wrunge in peeces as it were by God himselfe, it could not bee but in such confusion, there must needes come great hurt to many. Howe many carried away death, as it were in theyr bosomes, that died the same night, or some little tyme after, the Lorde knoweth. And we heare since, though we know not the iust number, that many of them are dead & buried, and namely one _Web_ a Pewterer his wife that dwelt in _Limestreete_ who being there sore wounded, is now gon with diuers others. Of all the multitude there, which must needes be farre aboue a thousande, it is thought by the iudgement of most people, that not the third personne escaped vnhurt; and by some that haue made search, they esteme that there were sore hurt and maimed, aboue one hundred and fiftye persons, some hauing theyr legs and armes broken, some theyr backes, theyr bodies beeing sore brused, so that euery way into the cittie from that time tyll towardes nine of the clocke and past: and specially ouer _London bridge_, many were carried in Chayres, & led betwixt their freendes, and so brought home wyth sorrowfull and heauy heartes lyke lame cripples. They say also that at the first, when the Scaffolde cracked (as it did once or twise) there was a crye of _fire fire_, which set them in such a maze as was wonderfull, so that as destitute of their wits they stood styll, and could make no shifte for them selues, till the Scaffold was made euen with the ground.... Amongst the rest it is credibly reported that there was one Woman, that beeing in the Gallery, threw downe her childe before her, & leaped after herselfe; and yet thankes bee to God neyther of both had any maner of hurt, so was it with diuers others. But it shoulde appere that they were most hurt and in danger, which stoode vnder the Galleries on the grounde, vpon whom both the waight of Timbre and people fel. And sure it was a miraculous worke of God, that any one of those should haue escaped. But heere also God shewed his power for one man falling downe into an hole as if it had beene some sawpit, it pleased God that it was the meane of his deliuerance, so as all things that fell vpon him did not touch him, and by that hee was preserued, wheras two of th’other were slaine of either side of him.’ C. iii. Urges the magistrates to ‘take order especially on the Sabaoth dayes that no Cittizen or Cittizens seruauntes haue libertie to repaire vnto any of those abuse places, that albeit the place be without the Cittie, and by that meanes they haue not to deale with them, yet that they keepe theyr _Beares_ out, and their straggling _Wantons_ in, that they may be better occupied. And as they haue with good commendation so far preuailed, that vppon Sabaoth dayes these Heathenishe _Enterludes_ and _Playes_ are banished, so it wyll please them to followe the matter still, that they may be vtterly rid and taken away. For surely it is to be feared, beesides the distruction bothe of bodye and soule, that many are brought vnto, by frequenting the _Theater_, the _Curtin_ and such like, that one day those places will likewise be cast downe by God himselfe, & being drawen with them a huge heape of such contempners and prophane persons vtterly to be killed and spoyled in their bodyes. God hath giuen them as I haue heard manye faire warninges already.... January 17, 1583.’

xxxii. 1583. PHILLIP STUBBES.

[From _The Anatomie of Abuses: Contayning a Discoverie, or
briefe Summarie of such Notable Vices and Imperfections, as
now raigne in many Christian Countreyes of the Worlde: but
(especiallie) in a verie famous Ilande called Ailgna_ (S. R.
1 Mar. 1583; eds. 1 May 1583, 16 Aug. 1583, 1584, 1585, 1595),
as reprinted by F. J. Furnivall (1877–9, _N. S. S._); other
reprints are by W. D. Turnbull (1836, from 1585) and J. P.
Collier (1870). Stubbes, a layman and Londoner, was author of
various ballads and pamphlets during 1581–93. A second part of
_The Anatomie of Abuses_ (S. R. 7 Nov. 1583) has not been
reprinted.]

[Summary and Extracts.] The book, which is ‘made dialogue-wise’ between Spudeus and Philoponus, who does most of the denunciation, is not confined to the stage, but is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary frailty. _Epistle to Phillip Earl of Arundel. Preface to the Reader._ P. x. ‘Wheras in the processe of this my booke, I haue intreated of certen exercyses vsually practised amongest vs, as namely of Playes and Enterludes.... I would not haue thee so to take mee, as though my speaches tended to the overthrowe and vtter disliking of all kynd of exercyses in generall: that is nothing my simple meaning. But the particulare Abuses which are crept into euery one of these seuerall exercyses is the only thing which I think worthie of reprobation. For otherwise (all Abuses cut away) who seeth not that some kind of playes, tragedies and enterluds, in their own nature are not only of great ancientie, but also very honest and very commendable exercyses, being vsed and practised in most Christian common weales, as which containe matter (such they may be) both of doctrine, erudition, good example, and wholsome instruction; and may be vsed, in tyme and place conuenient, as conducible to example of life and reformation of maners. For such is our grosse and dull nature, that what thing we see opposite before our eyes, do pearce further and printe deeper in our harts and minds, than that thing which is hard onely with the eares.... But being vsed (as now commonly they be) to the prophanation of the Lord his sabaoth, to the alluring and inuegling of the People from the blessed word of God preached, to Theaters and vnclean assemblies, to ydlenes, vnthriftynes, whordome, wantonnes, drunkennes, and what not; and which is more, when they are vsed to this end, to maintaine a great sort of ydle Persons, doing nothing but playing and loytring, hauing their lyuings of the sweat of other Mens browes, much like vnto dronets deuouring the sweet honie of the poore labouring bees, than are they exercyses (at no hand) sufferable. But being vsed to the ends that I haue said, they are not to be disliked of any sober and wise Christian.’ _The Maner of Sanctifiyng the Sabaoth in Ailgna._ P. 137. ‘Some spend the Sabaoth day (for the most part) in frequenting of baudie Stage-playes and enterludes.’ P. 140. _Of Stage-playes and Enterluds, with their wickednes._ ‘All Stage-playes, Enterluds, and Commedies are either of diuyne or prophane matter: If they be of diuine matter, then are they most intollerable, or rather Sacrilegious; for that the blessed word of God is to be handled reuerently, grauely, and sagely, with veneration to the glorious Maiestie of God, which shineth therin, and not scoffingly, flowtingly, and iybingly, as it is vpon stages in Playes and Enterluds, without any reuerence, worship, or veneration to the same. The word of our Saluation, the price of Christ his bloud, & the merits of his passion, were not giuen to be derided and iested at, as they be in these filthie playes and enterluds on stages & scaffolds, or to be mixt and interlaced with bawdry, wanton shewes, & vncomely gestures, as is vsed (euery Man knoweth) in these playes and enterludes.... Doo these Mockers and Flowters of his Maiesty, these dissembling _Hipocrites_, and flattering _Gnatoes_, think to escape vnpunished? beware, therfore, you masking Players, you painted sepulchres, you doble dealing ambodexters, be warned betymes, and, lik good computistes, cast your accompts before, what wil be the reward therof in the end, least God destroy you in his wrath: abuse God no more, corrupt his people no longer with your dregges, and intermingle not his blessed word with such prophane vanities. For at no hand it is not lawfull to mixt scurrilitie with diuinitie, nor diuinitie with scurrilitie.... Vpon the other side, if their playes be of prophane matters, than tend they to the dishonor of God, and norishing of vice, both which are damnable. So that whither they be the one or the other, they are quite contrarie to the Word of grace, and sucked out of the Deuills teates to nourish vs in ydolatrie, hethenrie, and sinne. And therfore they, cariyng the note, or brand, of God his curse vppon their backs, which way soeuer they goe, are to be hissed out of all Christian kingdomes, if they wil haue Christ to dwell amongst them.’ Quotes the Fathers and ancients against _histriones_. P. 143. ‘Then, seeing that Playes were first inuented by the Deuil, practised by the heathen gentiles, and dedicat to their false ydols, Goddes and Goddesses, as the howse, stage, and apparell to _Venus_, the musicke to _Appollo_, the penning to _Minerua_ and the Muses, the action and pronuntiation to _Mercurie_ and the rest, it is more than manifest that they are no fit exercyses for a Christen Man to follow. But if there were no euill in them saue this, namely, that the arguments of tragedies is anger, wrath, immunitie, crueltie, iniurie, incest, murther, & such like, the Persons or Actors are Goddes, Goddesses, Furies, Fyends, Hagges, Kings, Queenes, or Potentates. Of Commedies the matter and ground is loue, bawdrie, cosenage, flattery, whordome, adulterie; the Persons, or agents, whores, queanes, bawdes, scullions, knaues, Curtezans, lecherous old men, amorous yong men, with such like of infinit varietie. If, I say, there were nothing els but this, it were sufficient to withdraw a good christian from the vsing of them; For so often as they goe to those howses where Players frequent, thei go to _Venus_ pallace, & sathans synagogue [_in margin_, ‘Theaters and curtaines Venus pallaces’], to worship deuils, & betray Christ Iesus.’ To say that plays are ‘as good as sermons’ is to say that ‘the Deuill is equipolent with the Lord’. P. 144. ‘There is no mischief which these plaies maintain not. For do they not norish ydlenes? and _otia dant vitia_, ydlenes is the Mother of vice. Doo they not draw the people from hering the word of God, from godly Lectures and sermons? for you shall haue them flocke thither, thick & threefould, when the church of God shalbe bare & emptie.... Do they not maintaine bawdrie, infinit folery, & renue the remembrance of hethen ydolatrie? Do they not induce whordom & vnclennes? nay, are they not rather plaine deuourers of maydenly virginitie and chastitie? For proofe wherof, but marke the flocking and running to Theaters & curtens, daylie and hourely, night and daye, tyme and tyde, to see Playes and Enterludes; where such wanton gestures, such bawdie speaches, such laughing and fleering, such kissing and bussing, such clipping and culling, Suche winckinge and glancinge of wanton eyes, and the like, is vsed, as is wonderfull to behold. Then, these goodly pageants being done, euery mate sorts to his mate, euery one bringes another homeward of their way verye freendly, and in their secret conclaues (couertly) they play the _Sodomits_, or worse. And these be the fruits of Playes or Enterluds for the most part. And wheras you say there are good Examples to be learned in them, Trulie so there are: if you will learne falshood; if you will learn cosenage; if you will learn to deceiue; if you will learn to play the Hipocrit, to cogge, lye, and falsifie; if you will learne to iest, laugh, and fleer, to grin, to nodd, and mow; if you will learn to playe the vice, to swear, teare, and blaspheme both Heauen and Earth: If you will learn to become a bawde, vncleane, and to deuerginat Maydes, to deflour honest Wyues: if you will learne to murther, slaie, kill, picke, steal, robbe, and roue: If you will learn to rebel against Princes, to commit treasons, to consume treasurs, to practise ydlenes, to sing and talke of bawdie loue and venery; if you will lerne to deride, scoffe, mock, & flowt, to flatter & smooth: If you will learn to play the whore-maister, the glutton, Drunkard, or incestuous person: if you will learn to become proude, hawtie, & arrogant; and, finally, if you will learne to contemne God and al his lawes, to care nither for heauen nor hel, and to commit al kinde of sinne and mischeef, you need to goe to no other schoole, for all these good Examples may you see painted before your eyes in enterludes and playes: wherfore that man who giueth money for the maintenance of them must needs incurre the damage of _premunire_, that is, eternall damnation, except they repent. For the Apostle biddeth vs beware, least wee communicat with other mens sinnes; & this their dooing is not only to communicat with other mens sinnes, & maintain euil to the destruction of them selues & many others, but also a maintaining of a great sorte of idle lubbers, and buzzing dronets, to suck vp and deuoure the good honie, wherupon the poor bees should liue.’ Exhorts ‘all players & Founders of plaies and enterluds’ to leave their life. P. 146. ‘Away therfore with this so infamous an art! for goe they neuer so braue, yet are they counted and taken but for beggers. And is it not true? liue they not vpon begging of euery one that comes? Are they not taken by the lawes of the Realm for roagues and vacaboundes? I speak of such as trauaile the Cuntries with playes & enterludes, making an occupation of it, and ought so to be punished, if they had their deserts.’ _Lords of Misrule in Ailgna.... The Manner of Church-ales in Ailgna.... The maner of keeping of Wakesses, and feasts in Ailgna.... The horrible Vice of pestiferous Dauncing, vsed in Ailgna.... Of Musick in Ailgna, and how it allureth to vanitie.... Beare baiting and other exercyses, vsed unlawfully in Ailgna._ P. 177. ‘These Hethnicall exercyses vpon the Sabaoth day, which the Lord hath consecrat to holy vses, for the glory of his Name, and our spirituall comfort, are not in any respect tollerable, or to be suffered. For is not the baiting of a Bear, besides that it is a filthie, stinking, and lothsome game, a daungerous & perilous exercyse? wherein a man is in daunger of his life euery minut of an houre; which thing, though it weare not so, yet what exercyse is this meet for any Christian? what christen heart can take pleasure to see one poore beast to rent, teare, and kill another, and all for his foolish pleasure?... And, to be plaine, I thinke the Deuill is the Maister of the game, bearward and all.’ _A Fearfull Example of God his Iudgement vpon the prophaners of his Sabaoth._ P. 179. Describes the accident of 13 Jan. 1583, with the page-heading, ‘A wofull cry at Syrap garden’. ‘So that either two or three hundred men, women, and children (by estimation), wherof seuen were killed dead, some were wounded, some lamed, and othersome brused and crushed almost to the death.’ _A fearfull Iudgement of God, shewed at the Theaters._ P. 180. ‘The like Iudgement (almost) did the Lord shew vnto them a litle befor, being assembled at their Theaters, to see their bawdie enterluds and other trumperies practised: For he caused the earth mightely to shak and quauer, as though all would haue fallen down; wherat the People, sore amazed, some leapt down (from the top of the turrets, pinacles, and towres, wher they stood) to the ground; wherof some had their legs broke, some their arms, some their backs, some hurt one where, some another, and many sore crusht and brused; but not any but they went away sore affraid, & wounded in conscience. And yet can neither the one nor the other fray them from these diuelish exercyses, vntill the Lorde consume them all in his wrath; _which God forbid_! The Lord of his mercie open the eyes of the maiestrats to pluck down these places of abuse, that god may be honored and their consciences disburthened.’

xxxiii. 1583. GERVASE BABINGTON.

[From _A very Fruitful Exposition of the Commandements by
way of Questions and Answers_ (1583), 316. More general
references to the evils of plays and bear-baiting are on pp.
190, 385. Babington was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
and tutor in the Earl of Pembroke’s house at Wilton; he
afterwards became Bishop successively of Llandaff, Exeter, and
Worcester.]

These prophane & wanton stage playes or interludes: what an occasion they are of adulterie and vncleanenesse, by gesture, by speech, by conueyances, and deuices to attaine to so vngodly desires, the world knoweth with too much hurt by long experience. Vanities they are if we make the best of them.... But I referre you to them, that vpon good knowledge of the abominations of them, haue written largely & wel against them. If they be dangerous on the day time, more daungerous on the night certainely: if on a stage, & in open courtes, much more in chambers and priuate houses. For there are manie roumes beside that where the play is, & peraduenture the strangenes of the place & lacke of light to guide them, causeth errour in their way, more than good Christians should in their houses suffer.

xxxiv. 1583 (?). PHILIP SIDNEY.

[From _The Defence of Poesie_ (1595, William Ponsonby; S. R.
29 Nov. 1594), reprinted as _An Apologie for Poetrie_ (1595,
Henry Olney), and with 1598 and later editions of _Arcadia_.
Among many modern editions are those by E. Arber (1868), E.
Flügel (1889), A. S. Cook (1890), E. S. Schuckburgh (1891), J.
C. Collins (1907), and in Gregory Smith (1904), i. 148. The date
1583 is conjecturally assigned by Cook on the ground of the
stylistic development since the _Arcadia_ (1580–3). But any date
is possible between 1579, when Gosson’s _School of Abuse_, which
probably stimulated it, and Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_, which it
mentions, appeared, and Nov. 1585, when Sidney went to the Low
Countries. The book contains a general valuation of poetry, on
humanistic lines, together with a criticism of English poetry in
particular. Only a few pages are devoted to the drama.]

P. 44. ‘Perchance it is the Comick, whom naughtie Playmakers and Stagekeepers, have iustly made odious. To the argument of abuse, I will answer after. Onely thus much now is to be said, that the Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth, in the most ridiculous and scornefull sort that may be. So as it is impossible, that any beholder can be content to be such a one.... So that the right vse of Comedy will (I thinke) by no body be blamed, and much lesse of the high and excellent Tragedy, that openeth the greatest wounds, and sheweth forth the Vlcers, that are couered with Tissue: that maketh Kinges feare to be Tyrants, and Tyrants manifest their tirannicall humors: that with sturring the affects of admiration and commiseration, teacheth, the vncertainety of this world, and vpon how weake foundations guilden roofes are builded.... But it is not the Tragedy they doe mislike: For it were too absurd to cast out so excellent a representation of whatsoeuer is most worthy to be learned.’ P. 50. Answers criticisms of poetry as the ‘Nurse of abuse’, &c. P. 63. Criticizes ‘Our Tragedies and Comedies (not without cause cried out against)’. Even in _Gorboduc_, much more in other plays, the unities are disregarded (cf. quotations in ch. xix). ‘Besides these gross absurdities, how all theyr Playes be neither right Tragedies, nor right Comedies: mingling Kings and Clownes’ in a ‘mungrell Tragy-comedie.... Our Comedians thinke there is no delight without laughter.... Delight hath a ioy in it, either permanent, or present. Laughter, hath onely a scornful tickling.... But I haue lauished out too many wordes of this play matter. I doe it because as they are excelling parts of Poesie, so is there none so much vsed in England, and none can be more pittifully abused.’

xxxv. 1584. THOMAS LODGE.

[From _An Alarum against Usurers_ (1584; S. R. 4 Nov. 1583),
edited with _Defence of Poetry_ by D. Laing (1853, _Sh. Soc._).]

[Extract from Epistle to Inns of Court.] ‘About three yeres ago, one Stephen Gosson published a booke, intituled _The Schoole of Abuse_, in which having escaped in many and sundry conclusions, I, as the occasion then fitted me, shapt him such an answere as beseemed his discourse; which by reason of the slendernes of the subject, (because it was in defence of plaies and play makers) the godly and reverent that had to deale in the cause, misliking it, forbad the publishing: notwithstanding he, comming by a private unperfect coppye, about two yeres since made a reply, dividing it into five sections, and in his Epistle dedicatory, to the right honorable, Sir Frances Walsingham, he impugneth me with these reproches, that I am become a vagarant person, visited by the hevy hand of God, lighter than libertie, and looser than vanitie.’ He proceeds to call Gosson an ‘untamed curtail’ and an ‘injurious Asinius’.

xxxvi. 1584. GEORGE WHETSTONE.

[From _A Touchstone for the Time_, printed as an ‘Addition’
to _A Mirour for Magestrates of Cyties_ (1584).]

The tract is mainly on gaming. P. 24. ‘The godly Divines, in public sermons, and others in printed books, have (of late) very sharply inveighed against Stage-plays (unproperly called, Tragedies, Comedies, and Morals), as the springs of many vices, and the stumbling-blocks of godliness and virtue. Truly the use of them upon the Sabbath day, and the abuse of them at all times, with scurrility and unchaste conveyance, ministred matter sufficient for them to blame, and the Magistrate to reforme.’

xxxvii. 1586. WILLIAM WEBBE.

[From _A Discourse of English Poetrie_ (1586), ed. Arber, 27;
also in Gregory Smith, i. 226. The promised expression of
opinion (p. 42) is on humanist lines.]

The profitte or discommoditie which aryseth by the vse of these Comedies and Tragedies, which is most, hath beene long in controversie, and is sore urged among us at these dayes: what I think of the same, perhaps I shall breefely declare anon.

xxxviii. 1587. WILLIAM RANKINS.

[From _A Mirrour of Monsters: Wherein is plainely described the
manifold vices & spotted enormities, that are caused by the
infectious sight of Playes, with the description of the subtile
slights of Sathan, making them his instruments_. Compiled by
Wil. Rankins. Magna spes est inferni. Seene and allowed. _I. C.
for T. H._ 1587. The reference to Holywell suggests that the
author was the dramatist (cf. ch. xxiii).]

Describes the wedding of Fastus and Luxuria at the ‘Chapell _Adulterinum_’, near to Κοȋλοφρἑαρ ‘by interpretation from the Greeks Hollow well [i.e. Holywell] where my selfe lulled in the lap of Securitie, not long since was brought a sleepe by carelesse cogitations’. The Chapel Adulterinum is ‘the Theater and Curtine’ (4^v). A banquet and mask with torchbearers furnish an allegory of the vices of players, and various allusions, to the fall of the Bear-garden (3), to the 2_d._ payment for entrance (3^v), to advertisements by drums and trumpets (5) and bills (5^v), to doorkeepers and boxholders (6^v), are commented on in marginal notes.

xxxix. 1588. JOHN CASE.

[From _Sphaera Civitatis_ (1588), a commentary on Aristotle’s
_Politics_ (_ad_ v. 8; vii. 17). A similar passage from the
commentary on the _Ethics_ (iv. 8) in _Speculum Moralium
Quaestionum_ (1586), 183, is quoted by Boas, 228. It is
interesting to find from _The Christmas Prince_, 12 (cf. ch.
xxiv), that Case once served as lord of misrule at St. John’s,
Oxford.]

(a) _Lib. v, c. 8._

Alia nunc dubitatio sequitur, Vtrum ludi chorique permittendi sunt in ciuitate? Memini me olim in Ethicis de his rebus obiter disputasse, verum quoniam opportune se offert quaestio, abs re non erit eandem paucissimis demonstrare: censeo ergo quibusdam adhibitis circumstantiis haec tolerari ac permitti debere; non quod per se et vi sua res vtiles, sed quod in moderato illorum vsu splendor comitatis (quae virtus minima non est) manifeste apparet. Sunt igitur ludi non inanes et histrionicae fabulae, veneris illecebrae, sed facetae comoediae magnificaeque tragaediae, in quibus expressa imago vitae morumque cernitur.... Adhuc in his mores hominum depictos discere, praeclara inuenta doctorum obseruare, temporum antiquorum caniciem cernere, vocem, vultum, gestumque splendide componere, varios affectus et passiones mouere, famam acquirere et comparare possumus [_in margin_: scenae trigemina corona]. Cum ergo ex iis tot commoda existant, non solum toleranda sed etiam iuste approbanda videntur. Insuper antiquissimis olim temporibus in omni praeclare instituta republica floruerunt ista: ergo sunt licita.... Postremo his addi potest ratio quae est in textu, nempe quod hoc modo potentiores viri quos timet ciuitas (coacti ad ista edenda populo) elumbentur sedatioresque fiant.

(b) _Lib. vii, c. 17._

Tertium est vt parentes suos liberos diligenter custodiant, et arceant ab audiendis, videndis, spectandis, malis sermonibus, obscoenis idolis Veneris, vanis spectaculis leuissimorum histrionum, qui plusquam ridiculas ne dicam impias fabellas huc illuc vagabundi agunt. Hic opportunè monendi sunt illi, qui suos infantulos iurare et conuitiari docent, qui simulachra Veneris intuenda, artemque amandi perdiscendam suis filiolis proponunt, qui denique ad theatra plena Veneris, plena vanitatis illos non solum ire permittunt sed etiam alliciunt. Non hic omnes ludos omnesque histriones praesertim hystoricos, tragicos, et si placet comicos (modò sint verè faceti) condemno: quippè Aristoteles hoc loco Theodorum quendam peritum tragoediarum actorem laudat, Cicero suum laudauit Roscium, nos Angli Tarletonum, in cuius voce et vultu omnes iocosi affectus, in cuius cerebroso capite lepidae facetiae habitant.

xl. 1588–90. MARTIN MARPRELATE CONTROVERSY.

[The texts of the Marprelate pamphlets have been edited by W.
Pierce, _The Marprelate Tracts_ (1911); some were reprinted
earlier by E. Arber and in J. Petheram, _Puritan Discipline
Tracts_ (1842–60). The best accounts of this ribald controversy
on Church government are E. Arber, _An Introductory Sketch
to the Martin Marprelate Controversy_ (1879); W. Pierce,
_Historical Introduction to the Marprelate Tracts_ (1908); J.
D. Wilson, _The Marprelate Controversy_ (1909, C. H. iii. 374),
and _Martin Marprelate and Shakespeare’s Fluellen_ (1912); R.
B. McKerrow, _Works of Nashe_, v (1910), 34, 184; G. Bonnard,
_La Controverse de Martin Marprelate_ (1916). It seems probable
that Martin was a composite personality; Sir Roger Williams,
John Penry, and Job Throckmorton may all have had a share in
the pamphlets. The replies were inspired by Richard Bancroft,
then Canon of Westminster and a member of the High Commission.
It seems clear that both Lyly and Nashe took part in them, and
_Pappe with an Hatchet_ may reasonably be ascribed to Lyly.
Nashe has often been regarded as Pasquil, but Mr. McKerrow
does not think that any of the pamphlets can be supposed with
any certainty to be his; he probably contributed to the lost
plays. Of these Bonnard, 92, would distinguish five--(_a_)
Martin anatomized, (_b_) the May Game of Martinism, (_c_) Martin
carried to hell, as a vice, (_d_) Martin as cock, ape, and wolf,
(_e_) Martin ravishing Divinity; but (_b_) seems to be referred
to as a forthcoming pamphlet rather than as a play, and of the
others (_d_) and (_e_) almost certainly, and possibly all four,
were episodes in the same piece. F. Bacon in his _Advertisement
Touching the Controversies_ (_Works_, viii. 74), written in the
summer of 1589, criticizes the episcopal policy of answering
like by like, and ‘this immodest and deformed manner of writing
lately entertained, whereby matters of religion are handled in
the style of the stage’.]

(_a_)

[From _The Epistle to the Terrible Priests of the Confocation
House_ (Oct.-Nov. 1588), 11, 19, reprinted by E. Arber (1880);
also by J. Petheram (1842) in _Puritan Discipline Tracts_
(Martinist).]

Sohow, brother Bridges [John Bridges, Dean of Salisbury] ... you haue bin a worthy writer as they say of a long time, your first book was a proper Enterlude, called Gammar Gurtons needle. But I think that this trifle, which sheweth the author to haue had some witte and inuention in him, was none of your doing: Because your bookes seeme to proceede from the braynes of a woodcocke as hauing neyther wit nor learning.... What if I should report abroad, that cleargie men come vnto their promotions by Simonie? haue not you giuen me iuste cause? I thinke Simonie be the bishops lacky. Tarleton tooke him not long since in Don Iohn [Aylmer] of Londons cellor.

(_b_)

[From _A Whip for an Ape: Or Martin displaied_ (Apr. 1589), 53,
133, in Bond, _Lyly_, iii. 417 (Anti-Martinist).]

Now _Tarleton’s_ dead, the Consort lackes a vice:
For knaue and foole thou maist beare pricke and price.

* * * * *

And ye graue men that answer _Martins_ mowes,
He mockes the more, and you in vaine loose times:
Leaue Apes to dogges to baite, their skins to crowes,
And let old _Lanam_ lash him with his rimes.

(_c_)

[From _Anti-Martinus, sive Monitio cuiusdam Londinensis, ad
Adolescentes utriusque Academiae_, signed A. L. (1589; S. R.
3 July 1589), 59 (Anti-Martinist).]

Libros autem _Martini_ qui legit, nihil aliud reperiet, quam perpetuatum conuitium; sic autem vibratum, vt facile videas ad huiusmodi scurrilitates conquirendas, totam eius vitam theatris illis Londinensibus, & leuissimis scenis, vel scurrarum & nepotum circulis insidiatam.

(_d_)

[From _Theses Martinianae, or Martin Junior_ (_c._ 22 July
1589), sig. D ij (Martinist).]

‘There bee that affirme the rimers and stage-players to haue cleane putte you out of countenaunce ... the stage-players, poore rogues, are not so much to be blamed, if being stage-players, that is plaine rogues (saue onely for their liueries) they in the action of dealing against Maister Martin, have gotten them many thousande eie witnesses, of their wittelesse and pittifull conceites.’ The writer condoles with those who ‘for one poor penny’ play ‘ignominious fools for an hour or two together’. Martin may ‘contemn such kennel-rakers and scullions as have sold themselves’ to be laughed at as ‘a company of disguised asses’.

(_e_)

[From _Martins Months Minde_ (Aug. 1589), in Grosart, _Nashe_,
i. 164, 166, 175, 177, 180, 189 (Anti-Martinist).]

_To the Reader._ ‘_Roscius_ pleades in the Senate house; Asses play vpon harpes; the Stage is brought into the Church; and vices make plaies of Churche matters.... These Iigges and Rimes, haue nipt the father [Martin] in the head & kild him cleane, seeing that hee is ouertaken in his owne _foolerie_. And this hath made the yong youthes his sonnes, to chafe and fret aboue measure, especiallie with the Plaiers, (their betters in all respects, both in wit, and honestie) whom sauing their _liueries_ (for indeede they are hir Maiesties men, and these not so much as hir good subiects) they call _Rogues_, for playing their enterludes, and Asses for trauelling _all daie for a pennie_ [_in margin_, Martin the vice condemneth the Plaiers, Eigulus, sigulum].... _A true report of the death and buriall of Martin Marprelate._ ... _Martin_ ... being ... sundrie waies verie curstlie handled; as ... wormd and launced, that he tooke verie grieuouslie, to be made a _May-game_ vpon the _Stage_ [_in margin_, The Theater] ... as he saw that ... euerie stage Plaier made a iest of him ... fell into a feauer.... _Martin_, ... calling his sonnes ... said ... I perceiue that euerie stage plaier, if he play the foole but two houres together, hath somewhat for his labour: and I ... nothing.... [The common people are] now wearie of our state mirth, that for a penie, may haue farre better by oddes at the Theater and Curtaine, and any blind playing house euerie day.... In lept I ... with ... twittle tattles; that indeede I had learned in Alehouses, and at the Theater of Lanam and his fellowes.* ... These gambols (my sonnes) are implements for the Stage, and beseeme Iesters, and Plaiers, but are not fit for _Church plotters_.... Afterwards ensued his bequestes, in manner and forme following ... Item, all my foolerie I bequeath to my good friend Lanam; and his consort, of whom I first had it.’

(_f_)

[From _A Countercuffe giuen to Martin Iunior: ... by Pasquill
of England_ (Aug. 1589), in McKerrow, _Nashe_, i. 59
(Anti-Martinist).]

The Anotamie latelie taken of him, the blood and the humors that were taken from him, by launcing and worming him at _London_ vpon the common Stage ... are euident tokens, that beeing thorow soust in so many showres, hee had no other refuge but to runne into a hole, and die as he liued, belching.

(_g_)

[From _The Protestatyon of Martin Marprelat_ (1589, before 20
Oct.), 25 (Martinist).]

Then among al the rimers and stage plaiers, which my Ll. of the cleargy had suborned against me I remember Mar-Martin, Iohn a Cant. his hobbie-horse, was to his reproche, newly put out of the Morris, take it how he will; with a flat discharge for euer shaking his shins about a May-pole againe while he liued.

(_h_)

[From _The Returne of the renowned Caualiero Pasquill of
England_ (_c._ 20 Oct. 1589) in McKerrow, _Nashe_, i. 82, 92,
100 (Anti-Martinist).]

Howe whorishlie Scriptures are alleaged by them, I will discouer (by Gods helpe) in another new worke which I haue in hand, and intituled it, _The May-game of Martinisme_. Verie defflie set out, with Pompes, Pagents, Motions, Maskes, Scutchions, Emblems, Impreases, strange trickes, and deuises, betweene the Ape and the Owle, the like was neuer yet seene in Paris-garden. _Penry_ the welchman is the foregallant of the Morrice, with the treble belles, shot through the wit with a Woodcocks bill: I woulde not for the fayrest horne-beast in all his Countrey, that the Church of England were a cup of Metheglin, and came in his way when he is ouer-heated; euery Bishopricke woulde prooue but a draught, when the Mazer is at his nose. _Martin_ himselfe is the Mayd-marian, trimlie drest vppe in a cast Gowne, and a Kercher of Dame _Lawsons_, his face handsomlie muffled with a Diaper-napkin to couer his beard, and a great Nosegay in his hande, of the principalest flowers I could gather out of all hys works. _Wiggenton_ daunces round about him in a Cotten-coate, to court him with a Leatherne pudding, and a woodden Ladle. _Paget_ marshalleth the way, with a couple of great clubbes, one in his foote, another in his head, & he cryes to the people with a loude voice, _Beware of the Man whom God hath markt_. I can not yet find any so fitte to come lagging behind, with a budget on his necke, to gather the deuotion of the lookers on, as the stocke-keeper of the Bridewel-house of Canterburie; he must carrie the purse, to defray their charges, and then hee may be sure to serue himselfe.... Methought _Vetus Comœdia_ beganne to pricke him at London in the right vaine, when shee brought foorth _Diuinitie_ wyth a scratcht face, holding of her hart as if she were sicke, because _Martin_ would haue forced her, but myssing of his purpose, he left the print of his nayles vppon her cheekes, and poysoned her with a vomit which he ministred vnto her, to make her cast vppe her dignities and promotions.... Who commeth yonder _Marforius_, can you tell me? MARFORIUS. By her gate and her Garland I knowe her well, it is _Vetus Comœdia_. She hath been so long in the Country, that she is somewhat altred: this is she that called in a counsell of Phisitians about _Martin_, and found by the sharpnes of his humour, when they had opened the vaine that feedes his head, that hee would spit out his lunges within one yeere.... PASQUIL. I haue a tale to tell her in her eare, of the slye practise that was vsed in restraining of her.

(_i_)

[From _Pappe with an Hatchet_ (1589, end of Oct.) in Bond,
_Lyly_, iii. 408 (Anti-Martinist).]

_Sed heus tu, dic sodes_, will they not bee discouraged for the common players? Would these Comedies might be allowed to be plaid that are pend, and then I am sure he would be decyphered, and so perhaps discouraged.

He shall not bee brought in as whilom he was, and yet verie well, with a cocks combe, an apes face, a wolfs bellie, cats clawes, &c. but in a cap’de cloake, and all the best apparell he ware the highest day in the yeare....

... Would it not bee a fine Tragedie, when _Mardocheus_ shall play a Bishoppe in a Play, and _Martin Hamman_, and that he that seekes to pull downe those that are set in authoritie aboue him, should be hoysted vpon a tree aboue all other. [_In margin_] If it be shewed at Paules, it will cost you foure pence: at the Theater two pence: at Sainct Thomas a Watrings nothing.

(_k_)

[From G. Harvey, _An Advertisement for Papp-Hatchett_ (1589,
Nov. 5), printed with _Pierces Supererogation_ (1593) and in
Grosart, _Harvey_, ii. 131, 213 (Philo-Martinist).]

Had I bene Martin ... it should haue beene one of my May-games, or August triumphes, to haue driuen Officials, Commissaries, Archdeacons, Deanes, Chauncellors, Suffraganes, Bishops and Archbishops, (so Martin would have florished at the least) to entertaine such an odd, light-headded fellow for their defence; a professed iester, a Hickscorner, a scoff-maister, a playmunger, an Interluder; once the foile of Oxford, now the stale of London, and ever the Apesclogge of the presse, _Cum Priuilegio perennitatis_.... I am threatened with a Bable, and Martin menaced with a Comedie: ... All you, that tender the preseruation of your good names, were best to please Pap-hatchet, and fee Euphues betimes, for feare lesse he be mooued, or some One of his Apes hired, to make a Playe of you; and then is your credit quite vndone for euer, and euer: Such is the publique reputation of their Playes. He must needes be _discouraged_, whom they _decipher_. Better, anger an hundred other, then two such; that haue the Stage at commaundement, and can furnish-out Vices, and Diuels at their pleasure.

(_l_)

[From _An Almond for a Parrat, Or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes_
(1590, early), in McKerrow, _Nashe_, iii. 354 (Anti-Martinist).]

Therefore we must not measure of _Martin_ as he is allied to _Elderton_ or tongd like _Will Tony_, as he was attired like an Ape on the Stage, or sits writing of Pamphlets in some spare outhouse, but as he is _Mar-Prelat_ of England.

(_m_)

[From _The First parte of Pasquils Apologie ... Printed where
I was, and where I will bee readie by the helpe of God and my
Muse, to send you the May-game of Martinisme for an intermedium,
betweene the first and seconde parte of the Apologie_ (2 July
1590), in McKerrow, _Nashe_, i. 135 (Anti-Martinist). It may
be doubted whether _The May-game of Martinism_ ever had an
existence outside the allusions to it in these pamphlets.]

And when I haue sent you the _May-game of Martinisme_, at the next setting my foote into the styrroppe after it, the signet shall be giuen, and the fielde fought.

xli. 1589. RICHARD (?) PUTTENHAM.

[From _The Arte of English Poesie_ (1589; S. R. 9 Nov. 1588),
edited by E. Arber (1869); also in J. Haslewood, _Ancient
Critical Essays_, vol. i (1811), and in part in Gregory Smith,
ii. 1. On the author, cf. ch. xxiii.]

Most of the treatise (bks. ii, iii) deals with the technicalities of poetic structure and style, which the author sometimes illustrates from interludes and verses of his own. Bk. i praises poetry in general, on familiar but non-controversial humanist lines, and discusses with some classical erudition the origin of various types of poetry, as tragedy, comedy, and pantomime (c. 11), comedy (c. 14), tragedy (c. 15), staging (c. 17), pastoral (c. 18). In a brief account of English poets (c. 31) occurs: ‘But the principall man in this profession at the same time [Edward’s] was Maister Edward [_sic_] Ferrys a man of no lesse mirth and felicitie that way, but of much more skil, and magnificence in his meeter, and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage, in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie or Enterlude, wherein he gaue the king so much good recreation, as he had thereby many good rewardes.... Of the later sort I thinke thus. That for Tragedie, the Lord of Buckhurst and Maister Edward Ferrys for such doings as I haue sene of theirs do deserue the hyest price: Th’ Earle of Oxford and Maister Edwardes of her Maiesties Chappell for Comedy and Enterlude.’

xlii. 1589. THOMAS NASHE.

[From an epistle _To the Gentlemen Students of Both
Universities_, prefixed to Robert Greene’s _Menaphon_ (1589;
S. R. 23 Aug. 1589), reprinted from ed. 1610, which has some
corrections possibly by Nashe, in McKerrow, iii. 311, with
valuable notes (iv. 444) upon the allusions and supposed
allusions. The suggestion of Collier that _Menaphon_ was
originally printed in 1587 appears to be baseless. Outside the
three passages quoted, Nashe praises Watson’s translation of
_Antigone_. McKerrow’s collection of material for the critical
discussion of the epistle is so full that I need only compare
briefly my conclusions with his. In (i) Nashe seems to me to
be criticizing (_a_) ‘tragedians’, which for me are clearly
‘tragic actors’, while McKerrow inclines to make them ‘writers
of tragedy’, and (_b_) their dramatists, who include blank-verse
‘Art-masters’, which I agree with McKerrow is more likely, in
view of the fact that Greene above all flourished his University
degree, to mean ‘masters of their art’ than ‘masters of Arts’,
and translating tradesmen or serving-men with no education
beyond a grammar-school. The slight suggestions that Nashe
may have had Marlowe especially in mind are perhaps hardly
sufficient to outweigh his statement in _Have with you to
Saffron Walden_ (1596) that he ‘neuer abusd Marloe’; and Marlowe
was a University man, and no tradesman or serving-man. On the
other hand, there is no specific praise of Marlowe with other
University poets in the epistle. The whole of (i) is a precise
parallel to the following lines by Thomas Brabine, also prefixed
to _Menaphon_:

‘Come foorth you witts that vaunt the pompe of speach,
And striue to thunder from a Stage-mans throate:
View _Menaphon_ a note beyond your reach;
Whose sight will make your drumming descant doate:
Players auaunt, you know not to delight;
Welcome sweete Shepheard; worth a Schollers sight.’

In (ii) I am rather more inclined than McKerrow to think that
the ‘_Nouerint_’ and the ‘Kidde in _Æsop_’ may glance at Kyd,
who was not one of the University group, and was a grammarian,
a translator, and very likely already a serving-man. But the
attempts to trace him elsewhere in the passage come to very
little; nor is one playwright only necessarily in question, so
that, although the ‘handfuls of Tragicall speeches’ may point
to a play of _Hamlet_ as already extant in 1589, the inference
that Kyd was its author becomes extremely thin. In (iii) Nashe
attacks the players as parasitic on the poets, in terms closely
resembling those used later by Greene in his _Groatsworth of
Wit_ (No. xlviii). Probably Roscius is here Alleyn, and Caesar
stands for the poets in general. I do not agree with Fleay, _L.
of S._ 10, 99, that the epistle reflects a rivalry between the
poets of the Queen’s men and those of Pembroke’s, who indeed did
not yet exist, or any other company. The issue is between the
University poets on the one hand and the players and illiterate
poets on the other.]