This learned friend of Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney (though better
known from his quarrel with Tom Nashe) was in the habit of writing
copious memoranda in his books, several of which were in the library of
Mr. Lloyd, of Wygfair. Among them some miscellaneous volumes, which I
believe afterwards passed into the collection of Mr. Heber, contained
remarkable specimens of his calligraphic skill. His name was written
four or five times: "Gabriel Harveins, 1579," and with variation,
"Gabrielis Harveij" and "di Gabriello Haveio." The volumes contained the
Medea and Giocasta of Lodovico Dolce, in Italian; the Hecuba and
Iphigenia of Euripides in Latin, by Erasmus, the Comedies of Terence,
&c.; and the first Italian and English Grammar, by Henry Grantham, 1575.
On the blank pages and spaces what follows was inscribed:--
"La Giocasta d' Euripide, Dolce, et Gascoigno. Senecæ et Statii
Thebais. Item Senecæ OEdipus. Quasi Synopsis Tragoediarum
omnium.--NON GIOCO, MA GIOCASTA."
"Omne genus scripti, gravitate Tragoedia vincit."
"Hæ quatuor Tragoediæ, instar omnium Tragoediarum pro tempore:
præsertim cum reliquarum non suppetit copia. Duæ Euripidis placent
in primis, et propter auctoris prudentissimam veram, et propter
interpretis singularem delectum. Eadem in Sophoclis Antigonem
affectio, ab Episcopo Vatsono tralatam: cum propter interpretis
accuratum judicium. Qui tanti fecit optimo Tragicos, ut eosdem
soleret cum Checo et Aschamo, omnibus aliis poetis anteferre;
etiam Homero et Virgilio."
"Questa Medea di Dolce non è Medea di Seneca. Ma Thieste di Dolce
è Thieste medesimo di Seneca. Solo coro nel fin è soperchievole."
"Gascoigni Jocasta, magnifice acta solemne ritu, et vere tragico
apparatu. Ut etiam Vatsoni Antigone; cuive pompæ seriæ, et
exquisita. Usque adeo quidem utraque ut nihil in hoc tragico
genere vel illustrius vel accuratius."
"Jam floruerant prudentissimi Attici, Pericles, Thucydides,
Sophocles; jam florent Plato, Xenophon, Demosthenes, cum Euripides
pangit Tragoedias. Nec excellentissimorum Atticorum, ullus vel
prudentior Euripides, vel argutior, vel etiam elegantior. Nihil in
eo nugarum, nihil affectationis, et tamen singula ubique
cultissima."
"Erasmus talis Euripidis interpres, qualis Pindari Melancthon.
Foelix utriusque ad interpretandum dexteritas et fluens
elocutionis facilitas. Plus in Erasmo diligentiæ; in Melancthone
perspicuitas. Quam persequebatur, Camerarius, nec tamen
assequebatur."
"Erasmi ferè jadicium acre, et serium nec dubium est, quin
delectum adhibucrit in sapientissimis Tragoediis eligendis
exquisitum."
"Ut ferè foeminas; sic Comoedias et Tragoedias; qui unam omnimodo
novit, omnes novit quodam modo. Saltem ex ungue, Leonem; ex clave,
Herculem."
* * * * *
"Quattro Comedie del divino Pietro Aretino. Cioè Il Marescalco ò
Pedante.--La Cortigiana.--La Talanta.--Lo Hippocrito.
"Habeo et legi: sed nondum comprare potui Il Filosofo: quæ tamen
ipsius, Comoedia dicitur etiam exstare.
"Memorantur etiam duæ illius Tragoediæ, L'Hortensia.--Tragoedia di
Christo.
"Comedie, Dialoghi capricciosi, Le Lettere, e Capitoli dell'
Unico: Historie del suo tempo. La quinta essenza del suo unico
ingegno; e lo specchio di tutte l'arti Cortegiane.
"Due Comedie argutissime et facetissime di Macchiavelli Politico:
La Mandragola.--La Clitia."
"IL LEGGERE NUTRISCA LO INGEGNO."
"Suppositi d'Ariosto: Comoediam singulariter laudate à P. Jovio in
Elogiis; cum Plautinis facilè contendens Inventionis, atque
successus amenitate; si utriusque sæculi mores non inepte
comparentur. Syncrisis ætatum necessaria, ad Comoediarum,
Historiarum, aliorumque Scriptorum excellentia in examinandam,
atque judicandam solerti censura."
"Arciprologo quasi di tutte le Comedie, il primo dell' Aretino; et
il terzo e quarto dello' stesso."
"Ut Comoedias, sic Tragoedias; qui tres aut quatuor intimè novit,
novit ferè omnes. Tanti valet hic aureus libellus. Meo tandem
judicio, Poetarum sapientissimus, Euripides: vel ipse Sophocle
magis Attice nervosus et profundus, ut Seneca Latine."
* * * * *
"Ecce reliquiæ et fragmenta Menandri, Epicharmi, Alexidis,
reliquiorumque Græcorum Comicorum. Cum toto Aristophane. Et
fortasse senties nova veteribus non esse potiora. Nec usquam
prudentiores Gnomas invenies, ne apud Theognidem quidem aut
Isocratem.
"Placent etiam Comoediæ quæ non sunt Comoediæ; et Tragoediæ quæ
non sunt Tragoediæ: Ut utriusque generis multæ egregiæ apud
Homerum, et Virgilium in Heroicis; Frontinum et Polyænum in
Strategematis; Stephanum in Apologia Herodoti: Rabelesium in
Heroicis Gargantuæ: Sidneium in novissima Arcadiæ: Domenichum in
Facetiis. Quomodo antiquorum unus Græcorum dixit:--Delicatissimos
esse Pisces quæ non sunt Pisces, et carnes lautissimas quæ non
sunt carnes. Da mihi Fabulas non Fabulas, Apologos non Apologos.
Et sensi optima Apophthegmata quæ non sunt Apophthegmata: Optima
Adagia quæ non Adagia.
"Inutiliter Tragoedias legit qui nescit philosophicas sententias a
Tyrannicis distinguere. Alia scholarum doctrina, alia regnorum
disciplina. Politico opus est judicio ad distinguendum
prudentissimas sententias à reliquis. Nec semper Tyrannus
barbarus: nec semper poeta, aut philosophus sapiens: solertis
judiciis fuerit, non quis dicat, set quia dicatur respicere, et
undique optima seligere."
"Euripidis Jocastæ apud Gascoignum summa ferè Tragoediarum
omnium."
* * * * *
"No finer or pithier Examples than in y'e excellent Comedies and
Tragedies following, full of sweet and wise discourse. A notable
Dictionarie for the Grammer."
* * * * *
"Ut de hac Terentii tralatione sentirem honorificentius; fecit
Aldus exquisita editio."
I thought these notes worth transcribing, not only as showing the
attention paid by the learned students of this time to _the drama_, as
well ancient as modern, but more especially for the mention made of the
_Jocasta_ of George Gascoigne, and the _Antigone_ of Sophocles,
translated, as he says, by Watson, Bishop of Worcester, and not by
Thomas Watson, as Warton supposed. It may be doubted whether this
translation was into English; but Harvey seems to imply that it was
acted, as well as the Jocasta. Bishop Watson was celebrated for his
dramatic skill, in his Latin tragedy of _Absalon_, by Roger Ascham, who
says,--
"When M. Watson, in St. John's College at Cambridge, wrote his
excellent Tragedie of Absalon, M. Cheke, he, and I, had many
pleasant talkes togither, in comparing the preceptes of Aristotle
and Horace with the examples of Euripides, Sophocles, and
Seneca.... M. Watson had another maner of care of perfection, with
a feare and reverence of the judgement of the best learned: who to
this day would neuer suffer yet his Absalon to go abroad, and that
onelie bicause (_in locis paribus_) _Anapæstus_ is twise or thrise
used instead of _Iambus_."
In a volume in the Bodleian Library marked Z. 3., Art. "Selden," is "The
Life of Howleglas," printed by Copland: at the bottom of the last page
is the following MS. note:
"This Howleglasse, with Scoggin, Skelton, and (L----zario----?)
given me at London of M. Spenser, xx Decembris, 1578, on condition
y't I shoold bestowe y'e readinge on them, on or before y'e first
day of January immediately ensuinge: otherwise to forfeit unto him
my Lucian in fower volumes. Whereupon I was y'e rather induced to
trifle away so many howers as were idely overpassed in running
through y'e aforesaid foolish bookes; wherein methought y't not
all fower together seemed comparable for fine and crafty feates
with Jon Miller, whose witty shiftes and practises are reported
among Skelton's Tales."
Mr. Malone, from whose memoranda I copy this, says, "I suspect it is
Gabriel Harvey's handwriting."
I have a copy of the Organon of Aristotle in Greek, which bears marks of
Gabriel Harvey's diligent scholarship. It is copiously annotated and
analysed by him when a student at Cambridge, and he has registered the
periods at which he completed the study of each part.