The Choise of Valentines Part 1

The Choise of Valentines.

by Thomas Nash.

INTRODUCTION.

Nash's "CHOISE OF VALENTINES" has apparently come down to us only in ma.n.u.script form. It is extremely doubtful (Oldys notwithstanding[a]), whether the poem was ever before accorded the dignity of print. Nor would it now be deemed worthy of such were the only considerations those of literary merit or intrinsic value: truth to tell there is little of either to recommend it. But, as it has been repeatedly said, and well insisted on, the world cannot afford to lose any "doc.u.ment"

whatsoever which bears, or _may_ bear, in the slightest degree, on the story of its own growth and development, and out of which its true life has to be written. Especially is even the meanest Elizabethan of importance and value in relation to the re-construction--still far from complete--of the life and times of the immortal bard of Avon. In the most unlikely quarters a quarry may yet be found from which the social historian may obtain a valuable sidelight on manners and customs, the philologist a new lection or gloss, or the antiquary a solution to some, as yet, unsolved problem.

"The Choise of Valentines" claims attention, and is of value princ.i.p.ally on two grounds, either of which, it is held, should amply justify the more permanent preservation now accorded this otherwise insignificant production. In the first place, it appears to have been dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, the generous patron of letters, and friend of Shakspeare; and second, it is probably the only example extant of the kind of hackwork to which Nash was frequently reduced by "the keenest pangs of poverty."[b] He confesses he was often obliged "to pen unedifying toys for gentlemen." When Harvey denounced him for "emulating Aretino's licentiousness" he admitted that poverty had occasionally forced him to prost.i.tute his pen "in hope of gain" by penning "amorous Villanellos and Quipa.s.ses for new-fangled galiards and newer Fantisticos." In fact, he seems rarely to have known what it was to be otherwise than the subject of distress and need. As an example of these "unedifying toys" the present poem may, without much doubt, be cited, and an instance in penning which his "hope of gain"

was realised.

It is a matter of history that Nash sought, and succeeded in obtaining for a time, the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, one of the most liberal men of his day, and a prominent figure in the declining years of Elizabeth. "I once tasted," Nash writes in 1593,[c] "the full spring of the Earl's liberality." Record is also made of a visit paid by him to Lord Southampton and Sir George Carey, while the former was Governor, and the latter Captain-General, of the Isle of Wight.

From internal evidence it would seem that this poem was called forth by the Earl's bounty to its author. "My muse devorst from deeper (the _Rawl. MS._ reads _deepest_) care, presents thee with a wanton elegie;" and further on, the dedication promises "better lines" which should "ere long" be penned in "honour" of his n.o.ble patron. This promise is renewed in the epilogue:--

"My mynde once purg'd of such lascivious witt, With purifide words and hallowed verse, Thy praises in large volumes shall rehea.r.s.e, That better maie thy grauer view befitt."

Does this refer to "The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jack Wilton," generally regarded as Nash's most ambitious work, and which he dedicated to Lord Southampton in 1593? If so, and there is no evidence to gainsay the conclusion, we can fix the date of the present poem as, at all events, prior to 17th September of that year, when "The Unfortunate Traveller" was entered on the Stationers'

Register.[d] This would make Nash contemporaneous, if not prior to, Shakspeare in offering a tribute to the merits of the young patron (Southampton at that time was barely twenty years old) of the Muses.

_Venus and Adonis_ was entered on the Register of the Stationers'

Company about five months earlier, on the 18th April, 1593, and barely more than two months prior to the registration of "The Terrors of the Night."

It is curious to note that while Shakspeare and Nash both promise "graver work" and "better lines," they alike select amatory themes for their first offerings. The promise in Shakspeare's case was redeemed by the dedication to Southampton of "The Rape of Lucreece," while it may be a.s.sumed, as aforesaid, that Nash followed suit with "The Unfortunate Traveller."

Nash, however, for some cause or other failed to retain the Earl's interest; "indeed," says Mr. Sidney Lee, "he did not retain the favour of any patron long." It is only fair to state, however, that the withdrawal of Lord Southampton's patronage may not have been due to any fault or shortcoming on the part of Nash, for there is likewise no evidence whatever to show that any close intimacy existed between Southampton and Shakspeare after 1594. Probably there was much else to claim Lord Southampton's attention--his marriage, and the Ess.e.x rebellion to wit. This, however, leads somewhat wide of the present work.

So much for the circ.u.mstances which appear to have called forth "The Choise of Valentines." The next consideration is, Has it ever appeared in print before? Oldys, in his MS. notes to Langbaine's _English Dramatic Poets_ (_c_. 1738) says:--"Tom Nash certainly wrote and published a pamphlet upon d.i.l.d.os. He is accused of it by his antagonist, Harvey." But he was writing nearly 150 years after the event, and it is certainly very strange that a production which it can be shown was well known should, if printed, have so entirely disappeared. At all events, no copy is at present known to exist.[e]

John Davies of Hereford alludes to it, but leaves it uncertain whether its destruction occurred in MS. or in print. In his "Papers Complaint"[f] he writes:--

But O! my soule is vext to thinke how euill It is abus'd to beare suits to the Deuill.

_Pierse-Pennilesse_ (a _Pies_ eat such a patch) Made me (agree) that business once dispatch.

And having made me vndergo the shame, Abusde me further, in the Deuills name: And made [me] _d.i.l.d.o_ (dampned d.i.l.d.o) beare, Till good men's hate did me in peeces teare.

As regards the ma.n.u.script copies there are one or two points worthy of note. At present we know of two, more or less incomplete, but each of which supplements, in some degree, the other. These MSS. are respectively in the Bodleian (Rawl. MS. Poet, 216) and the Inner Temple (Petyt MS. 538, vol. 43, p. viii., 295b.) libraries. Both texts are obviously corrupt, the Rawlinson abominably so. Probably the former was written out from memory alone, while the Petyt, if not a transcript direct from the original is, at any rate, very near to it.

The Bodleian version is written on paper in a small oblong leather-covered book, originally with clasps. The penmanship is early 17th century, probably about 1610-20. It is thus catalogued:-- ..."_E libris_ Matt. Postlethwayt, Aug. 1, 1697. Perhaps (earlier) Henry Price owned the book." The volume contains besides an English transcript of Ovid's "Arte Amandis" and some amatory poems.[g] The date of the Petyt text may be about.... It is written in a miscellaneous, folio, commonplace-book, and in the catalogue it is described as "an obscene poem, ent.i.tled 'The Choosing of Valentines,'

by Thomas Nash. The first 17 lines are printed at p. lx. of the Preface to vol i. of Mr. Grosart's edition of Nash's works, as if they formed the whole piece."[h]

Nothing is known of Postlethwayt and Price, who at one time owned the Rawlinson copy, that throws light on its source. In the Petyt, however, we get a suppositional explanation of its manifestly purer text. Petyt, subsequent to his call to the Bar, in 1670, was for many years Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London. Now we know that Lord Ess.e.x, an intimate friend and connection of the Earl of Southampton, and like Southampton a generous and discerning patron of letters, was for some time in the "free custody" of the Lord Keeper of the Tower. Further, Southampton, who had joined Ess.e.x in his rebellion, had been tried and convicted with his friend, and though the Queen spared his life, he was not released from the Tower until the ascension of James I. It is not unlikely, therefore, that a copy of Nash's ma.n.u.script made for Lord Ess.e.x pa.s.sed, on the execution of the latter, with other papers and doc.u.ments, into the official custody of the Lord Keeper, to be subsequently unearthed by his successor, Petyt, who, with a taste for the "curious," had it copied for his own edification. This supposition is further borne out as follows: The particular commonplace book in which this poem occurs has been written by various hands. In the same handwriting as, and immediately preceding "The Choise of Valentines," are two poetical effusions dedicated "To the Earl of Ess.e.x," both apparently written when he was in prison and under sentence of death. The other contents of the volume are likewise contemporaneous.

All things considered, then, the Petyt text, although transcribed about fifty years later, has weightier claims to attention than the version in the Rawlinson MSS. I have, therefore, adopted the former as a basis, giving the Rawlinson variations in the form of notes. A few of these are obviously better readings than those of the Petyt text: the reader cannot fail to distinguish these. In the main, however, the Inner Temple version will be found consistent with its particular dedication, whilst the Rawlinson variations appear due to an attempt, signally unsuccessful, to adapt the poem for general use.

For the rest I have faithfully adhered to the original in the basic text, and in the variorum readings, except in one particular. The Rawlinson _MS._ is altogether guiltless of punctuation, while the Petyt copy has been carelessly "stopped" by the scribe: I have therefore given modern punctuation.

J. S. F.

FOOTNOTES

[a] See page x. [Transcriber's note: starting "It is curious to note"]

[b] _Have with you to Saffron Walden_, iii., 44.

[c] _Terrors of the Night._

[d] It is true that Nash, in his dedication of the "Unfortunate Traveller," speaks of it as his "first offering." This, however, must be taken rather as meaning his first _serious_ effort in acknowledgment of his patron's bounty, for in "The Terrors of the Night" (registered on the 30th June, 1593), he somewhat effusively acknowledges his indebtedness to Lord Southampton:--"Through him my tender wainscot studie doore is delivered from much a.s.sault and battrie: through him I looke into, and am looked on in the world: from whence otherwise I were a wretched banished exile. Through him all my good is conueighed vnto me; and to him all my endeavours shall be contributed as to the ocean." Again, as evidence that Nash had addressed himself to Southampton prior to his dedication of "The Unfortunate Traveller," we glean from his promise ("Terrors of the Night") "to embroyder the rich store of his eternal renoune" in "some longer Tractate."

[e] At the same time it must be stated that the scandal of the controversy between Nash and Harvey became so notorious that in 1599 it was ordered by authority "that all Nashes books and Dr.

Harvey's books be taken wheresoever they may be found and that none of the said books be ever printed hereafter" (COOPER, _Athenae Cant._ ii.

306).

[f] Davies [Grosart, _Works_ (1888) 1-75, lines 64-72.]

[g] These have been incorporated in "National Ballad and Song" (Section 2, _Merry Songs and Ballads_, Series 1).

[h] This is not quite correct. The t.i.tle in the MS. runs "The Choise of Valentines," and Dr. Grosart purports to give the first eighteen lines, but in transcription he has omitted line 4.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TO THE RIGHT honorable the Lord S.[i]

Pardon, _sweete flower of Matchles poetrie, And fairest bud the red rose euer bare; Although my Muse, devorst from deeper care, Presents thee with a wanton Elegie. 4

Ne blame my verse of loose unchast.i.tie For painting forth the things that hidden are, Since all men acte what I in speache declare, Onlie induced with varietie. 8

Complants and praises euery one can write, And pa.s.sion out their pangu's in statlie rimes; But of loues pleasures none did euer write, That have succeeded in theis latter times. 12

Accept of it, Deare Lord, in gentle gree, And better lynes, ere long, shall honor thee._

FOOT- AND LINE NOTES:

[i] Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, and Baron of t.i.tchfield. The dedication is absent in the Rawlinson text: _cf._ variorum reading in line 13.

1 _Matchles_, machles.

2 _the red rose euer bare_, that euer red rose bare.

3 _devorst from deeper care_, diuert from deepest care. Nash was notoriously impecunious all through his life, and probably reference is here made to some bounty received at the hands of Lord Southampton (_see_ Introduction). What patronage meant at times is gleaned from Florio's dedication of _The Worlde of Wordes_ in 1598 to the same n.o.bleman. He says:--"In truth I acknowledge an entire debt, not only of my best knowledge, but of all; yea, of more than I know, or care, to your bounteous lordship, in whose pay and patronage I have lived some years.... But, as to me, and many more, the glorious and gracious sunshine of your honour hath infused light and life." Rowe also tells a story of Lord Southampton's munificence to Shakspeare. It is said that he gave the poet 1,000 (equal to 12,000 now-a-days) to complete a special purchase. Whether this story be true or not, it is certain that Lord Southampton was a most liberal patron of letters.

4 _Presents thee with_, Presentes you with.

5 "Ne" = Nor, A.S.; _unchast.i.tie_, inchast.i.tye.

6 _painting_, paynting; _things_, thinges; _hidden are_, hidden be.