Mr. T. Jones in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. i., p. 39.), describing a copy of
_The Choise of Change_ in the Chetham Library, unhesitatingly ascribes its
authorship to the well-known satirist, Samuel Rowlands, whom he says,
"appears to have been a Welshman from his love of Triads." Mr. JONES'S
dictum, that the letters "S.R.," on the title-page "are the well-known
initials of Samuel Rowlands," may well, I think, be questioned. Great
caution should be used in these matters. Bibliographers and
catalogue-makers are constantly making confusion by assigning works, which
bear the initials only, to wrong authors.
_The Choise of Change_ may with much more probability be given to a very
different author. I have a copy of the edition of 1598 now before me, in
which the name is filled up, in a cotemporary hand, S[imon], R[obson]. And
I find in Lowndes' _Bibliographer's Manual_, that the work in question is
entered under the latter name. The compiler adds,--"This piece is by some
attributed to Dr. Simon Robson, Dean of Bristol in 1598; by others, most
probably erroneously, to Samuel Rowland." An examination of the biography
of Dr. Robson, who died in 1617, might tend to elucidate some particulars
concerning his claim to the authorship of this and several other works of
similar character.
Samuel Rowland's earliest publication is supposed to have been _The
Betraying of Christ_, &c., printed in 1598. If it can be proved that he has
any claim to _The Choise of Change_ (first printed in 1585), we make him an
author _thirteen_ years earlier. In the title-page of the latter, the
writer, whoever he was, is styled "Gent and Student in the Universitie of
Cambridge." This is a fact of some importance towards the elucidation of
authorship and has, I believe, escaped the notice of those writers who have
touched upon Samuel Rowland's scanty biography. But I can hardly conceive
that either of the publications above alluded to came from the same pen as
_Humours Ordinarie_, _Martin Mark-all_, _The Four Knaves_, and many others
of the same class, which are known to have been the productions of Samuel
Rowlands.
Respecting Samuel Rowlands it may be regarded as extraordinary that no
account has been discovered; and though his pamphlets almost rival in
number those of Greene, Taylor, and Prynne, their prefaces--those fruitful
sources of information--throw no light upon the life or circumstances of
their author. The late Mr. Octavius Gilchrist considered that "Rowlands was
an ecclesiastic [?] by profession;" and, inferring his zeal in the pulpit
from his labours through the press, adds, "it should seem that he was an
active servant of the church." (See Fry's _Bibliographical Memoranda_, p.
257.) Sir Walter Scott (Preface to his reprint of _The Letting of Humours
Blood in the Head Vaine_) gives us a very different idea of the nature of
his calling. His words are:
"Excepting that he lived and wrote, none of those industrious
antiquaries have pointed out any particulars respecting Rowland[s]. It
has been remarked that his muse is seldom found in the best company;
and to have become so well acquainted with the bullies, drunkards,
gamesters, and cheats, whom he describes, he must have frequented the
haunts of dissipation in which such characters are to be found. But the
humorous descriptions of low-life exhibited in his satires are more
precious to antiquaries than more grave works, and those who make the
manners of Shakspeare's {420} age the subject their study may better
spare a better author than Samuel Rowlands."
The opinions of both these writers are entitled to some respect, but
they certainly looked upon two very different sides of the question.
Gilchrist's conjecture that he was an ecclesiastic is quite untenable,
and I am fully inclined to agree with Sir Walter Scott, that Rowlands'
company was not of the most _select_ order, and that he must often have
frequented those "haunts of dissipation" which he so well describes in
those works which are the _known_ production of his muse.