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.]