Chapter 4

hus did I neither spend, or beg, or ask,

By any course, direct or indirectly:

But in each tittle I performed my task,

According to my bill most circumspectly.

I vow to God, I have done

Scotland

wrong,

(And (justly) against me it may bring an action)

I have not given it that right which doth belong,

For which I am half guilty of detraction:

Yet had I wrote all things that there I saw,

Misjudging censures would suppose I flatter,

And so my name I should in question draw,

Where asses bray, and prattling pies do chatter:

Yet (armed with truth) I publish with my pen,

That there the Almighty doth his blessings heap,

In such abundant food for beasts and men;

That I ne'er saw more plenty or more cheap.

Thus what mine eyes did see, I do believe;

And what I do believe, I know is true:

And what is true unto your hands I give,

That what I give, may be believed of you.

But as for him that says I lie or dote,

I do return, and turn the lie in's throat.

Thus gentlemen, amongst you take my ware,

You share my thanks, and I your moneys share.

Yours in all observance and gratefulness,

ever to be commanded,

John Taylor.

[1]Provant.—Provender; provision.[2]Fegary.—A vagary.[3]Trundle.—i.e., John Trundle of the sign ofNo-body(see note page 6).[4]It is reasonable to conjecture that at this date the custom of "Swearing-in at Highgate was not in vogue—or,No-bodywould have taken the oath.[5]Named Lean and Fen.—Some jest is intended here on the Host's name.—Qy., Leanfen, or, the anagram ofA. Fennel.[6]No-Bodywas the singular sign of John Trundle, a ballad-printer in Barbican in the seventeenth century [and who seems to have accompanied our author as far asWhetstoneon his "Penniless Pilgrimage"—and, certainly up to this point a very "wet" one!] In one of Ben Jonson's plays Nobody is introduced, "attyred in a payre of Breeches, which were made to come up to his neck, with his armes out at his pockets and cap drowning his face." This comedy was "printed for John Trundle and are to be sold at his shop in Barbican at the sygne of No-Body." A unique ballad, preserved in the Miller Collection at Britwell House, entitled "The Well-spoken No-body," is accompanied by a woodcut representing a ragged barefooted fool on pattens, with a torn money-bag under his arm, walking through a chaos of broken pots, pans, bellows, candlesticks, tongs, tools, windows, &c. Above him is a scroll in black-letter:—"Nobody.is.my.Name.that.Beyreth.Every.Bodyes.Blame."The ballad commences as follows:—"Many speke of Robin Hoode that never shott in his bowe,So many have layed faultes to me, which I did never knowe;But nowe, beholde, here I am,Whom all the worlde doeth diffame;Long have they also scorned me,And locked my mouthe for speking free.As many a Godly man they have so servedWhich unto them God's truth hath shewed;Of such they have burned and hanged some.That unto their ydolatrye wold not come:The Ladye Truthe they have locked in cage,Saying of her Nobodye had knowledge.For as much nowe as they name NobodyeI thinke verilye they speke of me:Whereffore to answere I nowe beginne—The locke of my mouthe is opened with ginne,Wrought by no man, but by God's grace,Unto whom be prayse in every place," &c.Larwood and Hotten'sHistory of Signboards.[7]Pulse.—All sorts of leguminous seeds.[8]See Dedication toThe Scourge of Baseness.[9]Master Doctor Holland.—The once well-known Philemon Holland, Physician, and "Translator-General of his Age," published translations of Livy, 1600; Pliny's "Natural History," 1601; Camden's "Britannica," &c. He is said to have used in translation more paper and fewer pens than any other writer before or since, and who "would not let Suetonius be Tranquillus." Born at Chelmsford, 1551; died 1636.[10]Edmund Branthwaite.—Robert Branthwaite, William BranthwaiteCant., and "Thy assured friend" R. B., have each written Commendatory Verses toall the Works of John Taylor. London 1630. And Southey in his "Lives and Works of Uneducated Poets," has the following:—"One might have hoped in these parts for a happy meeting between John Taylor and Barnabee, of immortal memory; indeed it is likely that the Water-Poet and the Anti-Water-Poet were acquainted, and that the latter may have introduced him to his connections hereabout, Branthwaite being the same name as Brathwait, and Barnabee's brother having married a daughter of this Sir John Dalston."[11]Pierce Penniless, by Thomas Nash. London, 1592.[12]This "ordnance of iron" still exists there, and is historically known as "Mons Meg" and popularly as "Long Meg."[13]Receite.—A receptacle.[14]Vaustity.—Emptiness.[15]SeeAnderson's The Cold Spring of Kinghorn Craig, Edinb. 1618.[16]Coryatizing.—Thomas Coryate, an English traveller, who called himself the "Odcombian leg-stretcher." He was the son of the rector of Odcombe, and in 1611 published an account of his travels on the Continent with the singular title of "Coryates Crudities. Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia, alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany, and the Netherlands; Newly digested in the hungary aire of Odcombe in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling members of this Kingdome, &c. London, printed by W. S., Anno Domini 1611." Taylor had an especial grudge against Coryat, for having had influence enough to procure his "Laugh and be Fat"—directed against the traveller—to be burned; and that he never failed to "feed fat the ancient grudge," may be seen in the many pieces of ridicule levelled at the author of the "Crudities," even after his death.[17]Tophet.—The Hebrew name forHell.[18]Cimmerian.—Pertaining to the Cimmerii, or their country; extremely and perpetually dark. The Cimmerii were an ancient people of the land now called the Crimea, and their country being subject to heavy fogs, was fabled to be involved in deep and continual obscurity. Ancient poets also mention a people of this name who dwelt in a valley near Lake Avernus, in Italy, which the sun was said never to visit.[19]Perth.[20]Braemar.[21]Virginal Jack.—A keyed instrument resembling a spinet.[22]Red-shanks.—A contemptuous appellation for Scottish Highland clansmen and native Irish, with reference to their naked hirsute limbs, and "As lively as aRed-Shank" is still a proverbial saying:—"And we came into Ireland, where they would have landed in the north parts. But I would not, because there the inhabitants were allRed-shanks."—Sir Walter Raleigh'sSpeech on the Scaffold.[23]Put me into that Shape.—That is, invested him in Highland attire.[24]"Probably the district around the skirts of Ben Muicdui."—Chambers'Domestic Annals of Scotland.[25]Balloch Castle.—Now called Castle-Grant.[26]Moray.[27]Morayland.[28]Sugar-Candian.—i.e., Sugar-candy.[29]A Piece of Gold of Two-and-Twenty Shillings.—"This was a considerable present; but Jonson's hand and heart were ever open to his acquaintance. All his pleasures were social; and while health and fortune smiled upon him, he was no niggard either of his time or talents to those who needed them. There is something striking in Taylor's concluding sentence, when the result of his (Jonson's) visit to Drummond is considered:—but there is oneevil that walks, which keener eyes than John's have often failed to discover.—I have only to add, in justice to this honest man (Taylor) that his gratitude outlived the subject of it. He paid the tribute of a verse to his benefactor's memory:—the verse indeed, was mean: but poor Taylor had nothing better to give."—Lt. Col. Francis Cunningham's edition of Gifford's Ben Jonson's Works, p. xli."In the summer of 1618 Scotland received a visit from the famous Ben Jonson. The burly Laureate walked all the way, among the motives for a journey then undertaken by few Englishmen, might be curiosity regarding a country from which he knew that his family was derived, his grandfather having been one of the Johnsons of Annandale. He had many friends too, particularly among the connections of the Lennox family, whom he might be glad to see at their own houses. Among those with whom he had amicable intercourse, was William Drummond, the poet, then in the prime of life, and living as a bachelor in his romantic mansion of Hawthornden, on the Esk, seven miles from Edinburgh. It is probable that Drummond and Jonson had met before in London, and indulged together in the "wit-combats" at the Mermaid and similar scenes. Indeed, there is a prevalent belief in Scotland that it was mainly to see Drummond at Hawthornden that Jonson came so far from home, and certain it is, from Drummond's report of his 'Conversations,' that he designed 'to write a Fisher or Pastoral (Piscatory?) Play—and make the stage of it on the Lomond Lake—he also contemplated writing in prose his 'Foot Pilgrimage to Scotland,' which, with a feeling very natural in one who found so much to admire where so little had been known, he spoke of entitling 'A Discovery.' Unfortunately, this work, as well as a poem in which he called Edinburgh—'The Heart of Scotland, Britain's other eye,'has not been preserved to us. We can readily see that the work contemplated must have been of a general character, from Jonson's letters to Drummond on the subject of it. How much to be regretted that we have not the Scotland of that day delineated by so vigorous a pen as that of the author ofSejanual"—Chambers'Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1.Whether Taylor's "Penniless Pilgrimage" really did interfere with, and prevent the publication of Ben Jonson's 'Foot Pilgrimage' would now be difficult to say. It is very evident from Taylor's remarks in his Dedication "To all my loving adventurers, &c.," he had been accused by the critics that he "did undergo this project, either in malice, or mockage of Master Benjamin Jonson." It is quite certain that Taylor lost no time in getting his "Pilgrimage" printed "at the charges of the author" immediately on his return to London on the fifteenth of October 1618.[30]Rouse.—A full glass, a bumper.[31]Unfellowed.—i.e., not matched.[32]To Islington to the Sign of the Maindenhead.—This then roadside Public-house, we are informed from recent enquiries, was situate at the corner of Maiden Lane, Battle Bridge, now known as King's Cross, from a statue of George IV.—a most execrable performance taken down 1842. The "Old Pub" is turned into a gin palace, and named the Victoria, while Maiden Lane—an ancient way leading from Battle Bridge to Highgate Hill—is known now as York Road.[33]Guy of Warwick.—There are several versions and editions of this work. In the book of the Stationers' Company, John Trundle—he at the sign ofNo-Body—on the 15th of January, 1619, entered "a play, called the Life and Death of Guy Earl of Warwick, written by John Day and Thomas Dekker." See Baker's Biog. Dram., page 274, vol. 2.—"Well, if he read this with patience I'll be gelt, and troll ballads for Master Trundle yonder, the rest of my mortality."—Ben Jonson'sEvery Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 2.

[1]Provant.—Provender; provision.

[2]Fegary.—A vagary.

[3]Trundle.—i.e., John Trundle of the sign ofNo-body(see note page 6).

[4]It is reasonable to conjecture that at this date the custom of "Swearing-in at Highgate was not in vogue—or,No-bodywould have taken the oath.

[5]Named Lean and Fen.—Some jest is intended here on the Host's name.—Qy., Leanfen, or, the anagram ofA. Fennel.

[6]No-Bodywas the singular sign of John Trundle, a ballad-printer in Barbican in the seventeenth century [and who seems to have accompanied our author as far asWhetstoneon his "Penniless Pilgrimage"—and, certainly up to this point a very "wet" one!] In one of Ben Jonson's plays Nobody is introduced, "attyred in a payre of Breeches, which were made to come up to his neck, with his armes out at his pockets and cap drowning his face." This comedy was "printed for John Trundle and are to be sold at his shop in Barbican at the sygne of No-Body." A unique ballad, preserved in the Miller Collection at Britwell House, entitled "The Well-spoken No-body," is accompanied by a woodcut representing a ragged barefooted fool on pattens, with a torn money-bag under his arm, walking through a chaos of broken pots, pans, bellows, candlesticks, tongs, tools, windows, &c. Above him is a scroll in black-letter:—"Nobody.is.my.Name.that.Beyreth.Every.Bodyes.Blame."The ballad commences as follows:—"Many speke of Robin Hoode that never shott in his bowe,So many have layed faultes to me, which I did never knowe;But nowe, beholde, here I am,Whom all the worlde doeth diffame;Long have they also scorned me,And locked my mouthe for speking free.As many a Godly man they have so servedWhich unto them God's truth hath shewed;Of such they have burned and hanged some.That unto their ydolatrye wold not come:The Ladye Truthe they have locked in cage,Saying of her Nobodye had knowledge.For as much nowe as they name NobodyeI thinke verilye they speke of me:Whereffore to answere I nowe beginne—The locke of my mouthe is opened with ginne,Wrought by no man, but by God's grace,Unto whom be prayse in every place," &c.Larwood and Hotten'sHistory of Signboards.

"Nobody.is.my.Name.that.Beyreth.Every.Bodyes.Blame."

The ballad commences as follows:—

"Many speke of Robin Hoode that never shott in his bowe,So many have layed faultes to me, which I did never knowe;But nowe, beholde, here I am,Whom all the worlde doeth diffame;Long have they also scorned me,And locked my mouthe for speking free.As many a Godly man they have so servedWhich unto them God's truth hath shewed;Of such they have burned and hanged some.That unto their ydolatrye wold not come:The Ladye Truthe they have locked in cage,Saying of her Nobodye had knowledge.For as much nowe as they name NobodyeI thinke verilye they speke of me:Whereffore to answere I nowe beginne—The locke of my mouthe is opened with ginne,Wrought by no man, but by God's grace,Unto whom be prayse in every place," &c.Larwood and Hotten'sHistory of Signboards.

[7]Pulse.—All sorts of leguminous seeds.

[8]See Dedication toThe Scourge of Baseness.

[9]Master Doctor Holland.—The once well-known Philemon Holland, Physician, and "Translator-General of his Age," published translations of Livy, 1600; Pliny's "Natural History," 1601; Camden's "Britannica," &c. He is said to have used in translation more paper and fewer pens than any other writer before or since, and who "would not let Suetonius be Tranquillus." Born at Chelmsford, 1551; died 1636.

[10]Edmund Branthwaite.—Robert Branthwaite, William BranthwaiteCant., and "Thy assured friend" R. B., have each written Commendatory Verses toall the Works of John Taylor. London 1630. And Southey in his "Lives and Works of Uneducated Poets," has the following:—"One might have hoped in these parts for a happy meeting between John Taylor and Barnabee, of immortal memory; indeed it is likely that the Water-Poet and the Anti-Water-Poet were acquainted, and that the latter may have introduced him to his connections hereabout, Branthwaite being the same name as Brathwait, and Barnabee's brother having married a daughter of this Sir John Dalston."

[11]Pierce Penniless, by Thomas Nash. London, 1592.

[12]This "ordnance of iron" still exists there, and is historically known as "Mons Meg" and popularly as "Long Meg."

[13]Receite.—A receptacle.

[14]Vaustity.—Emptiness.

[15]SeeAnderson's The Cold Spring of Kinghorn Craig, Edinb. 1618.

[16]Coryatizing.—Thomas Coryate, an English traveller, who called himself the "Odcombian leg-stretcher." He was the son of the rector of Odcombe, and in 1611 published an account of his travels on the Continent with the singular title of "Coryates Crudities. Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia, alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany, and the Netherlands; Newly digested in the hungary aire of Odcombe in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling members of this Kingdome, &c. London, printed by W. S., Anno Domini 1611." Taylor had an especial grudge against Coryat, for having had influence enough to procure his "Laugh and be Fat"—directed against the traveller—to be burned; and that he never failed to "feed fat the ancient grudge," may be seen in the many pieces of ridicule levelled at the author of the "Crudities," even after his death.

[17]Tophet.—The Hebrew name forHell.

[18]Cimmerian.—Pertaining to the Cimmerii, or their country; extremely and perpetually dark. The Cimmerii were an ancient people of the land now called the Crimea, and their country being subject to heavy fogs, was fabled to be involved in deep and continual obscurity. Ancient poets also mention a people of this name who dwelt in a valley near Lake Avernus, in Italy, which the sun was said never to visit.

[19]Perth.

[20]Braemar.

[21]Virginal Jack.—A keyed instrument resembling a spinet.

[22]Red-shanks.—A contemptuous appellation for Scottish Highland clansmen and native Irish, with reference to their naked hirsute limbs, and "As lively as aRed-Shank" is still a proverbial saying:—"And we came into Ireland, where they would have landed in the north parts. But I would not, because there the inhabitants were allRed-shanks."—Sir Walter Raleigh'sSpeech on the Scaffold.

[23]Put me into that Shape.—That is, invested him in Highland attire.

[24]"Probably the district around the skirts of Ben Muicdui."—Chambers'Domestic Annals of Scotland.

[25]Balloch Castle.—Now called Castle-Grant.

[26]Moray.

[27]Morayland.

[28]Sugar-Candian.—i.e., Sugar-candy.

[29]A Piece of Gold of Two-and-Twenty Shillings.—"This was a considerable present; but Jonson's hand and heart were ever open to his acquaintance. All his pleasures were social; and while health and fortune smiled upon him, he was no niggard either of his time or talents to those who needed them. There is something striking in Taylor's concluding sentence, when the result of his (Jonson's) visit to Drummond is considered:—but there is oneevil that walks, which keener eyes than John's have often failed to discover.—I have only to add, in justice to this honest man (Taylor) that his gratitude outlived the subject of it. He paid the tribute of a verse to his benefactor's memory:—the verse indeed, was mean: but poor Taylor had nothing better to give."—Lt. Col. Francis Cunningham's edition of Gifford's Ben Jonson's Works, p. xli."In the summer of 1618 Scotland received a visit from the famous Ben Jonson. The burly Laureate walked all the way, among the motives for a journey then undertaken by few Englishmen, might be curiosity regarding a country from which he knew that his family was derived, his grandfather having been one of the Johnsons of Annandale. He had many friends too, particularly among the connections of the Lennox family, whom he might be glad to see at their own houses. Among those with whom he had amicable intercourse, was William Drummond, the poet, then in the prime of life, and living as a bachelor in his romantic mansion of Hawthornden, on the Esk, seven miles from Edinburgh. It is probable that Drummond and Jonson had met before in London, and indulged together in the "wit-combats" at the Mermaid and similar scenes. Indeed, there is a prevalent belief in Scotland that it was mainly to see Drummond at Hawthornden that Jonson came so far from home, and certain it is, from Drummond's report of his 'Conversations,' that he designed 'to write a Fisher or Pastoral (Piscatory?) Play—and make the stage of it on the Lomond Lake—he also contemplated writing in prose his 'Foot Pilgrimage to Scotland,' which, with a feeling very natural in one who found so much to admire where so little had been known, he spoke of entitling 'A Discovery.' Unfortunately, this work, as well as a poem in which he called Edinburgh—'The Heart of Scotland, Britain's other eye,'has not been preserved to us. We can readily see that the work contemplated must have been of a general character, from Jonson's letters to Drummond on the subject of it. How much to be regretted that we have not the Scotland of that day delineated by so vigorous a pen as that of the author ofSejanual"—Chambers'Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1.Whether Taylor's "Penniless Pilgrimage" really did interfere with, and prevent the publication of Ben Jonson's 'Foot Pilgrimage' would now be difficult to say. It is very evident from Taylor's remarks in his Dedication "To all my loving adventurers, &c.," he had been accused by the critics that he "did undergo this project, either in malice, or mockage of Master Benjamin Jonson." It is quite certain that Taylor lost no time in getting his "Pilgrimage" printed "at the charges of the author" immediately on his return to London on the fifteenth of October 1618.

"In the summer of 1618 Scotland received a visit from the famous Ben Jonson. The burly Laureate walked all the way, among the motives for a journey then undertaken by few Englishmen, might be curiosity regarding a country from which he knew that his family was derived, his grandfather having been one of the Johnsons of Annandale. He had many friends too, particularly among the connections of the Lennox family, whom he might be glad to see at their own houses. Among those with whom he had amicable intercourse, was William Drummond, the poet, then in the prime of life, and living as a bachelor in his romantic mansion of Hawthornden, on the Esk, seven miles from Edinburgh. It is probable that Drummond and Jonson had met before in London, and indulged together in the "wit-combats" at the Mermaid and similar scenes. Indeed, there is a prevalent belief in Scotland that it was mainly to see Drummond at Hawthornden that Jonson came so far from home, and certain it is, from Drummond's report of his 'Conversations,' that he designed 'to write a Fisher or Pastoral (Piscatory?) Play—and make the stage of it on the Lomond Lake—he also contemplated writing in prose his 'Foot Pilgrimage to Scotland,' which, with a feeling very natural in one who found so much to admire where so little had been known, he spoke of entitling 'A Discovery.' Unfortunately, this work, as well as a poem in which he called Edinburgh—

'The Heart of Scotland, Britain's other eye,'

has not been preserved to us. We can readily see that the work contemplated must have been of a general character, from Jonson's letters to Drummond on the subject of it. How much to be regretted that we have not the Scotland of that day delineated by so vigorous a pen as that of the author ofSejanual"—Chambers'Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1.

Whether Taylor's "Penniless Pilgrimage" really did interfere with, and prevent the publication of Ben Jonson's 'Foot Pilgrimage' would now be difficult to say. It is very evident from Taylor's remarks in his Dedication "To all my loving adventurers, &c.," he had been accused by the critics that he "did undergo this project, either in malice, or mockage of Master Benjamin Jonson." It is quite certain that Taylor lost no time in getting his "Pilgrimage" printed "at the charges of the author" immediately on his return to London on the fifteenth of October 1618.

[30]Rouse.—A full glass, a bumper.

[31]Unfellowed.—i.e., not matched.

[32]To Islington to the Sign of the Maindenhead.—This then roadside Public-house, we are informed from recent enquiries, was situate at the corner of Maiden Lane, Battle Bridge, now known as King's Cross, from a statue of George IV.—a most execrable performance taken down 1842. The "Old Pub" is turned into a gin palace, and named the Victoria, while Maiden Lane—an ancient way leading from Battle Bridge to Highgate Hill—is known now as York Road.

[33]Guy of Warwick.—There are several versions and editions of this work. In the book of the Stationers' Company, John Trundle—he at the sign ofNo-Body—on the 15th of January, 1619, entered "a play, called the Life and Death of Guy Earl of Warwick, written by John Day and Thomas Dekker." See Baker's Biog. Dram., page 274, vol. 2.—"Well, if he read this with patience I'll be gelt, and troll ballads for Master Trundle yonder, the rest of my mortality."—Ben Jonson'sEvery Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 2.

Corrections Made by TranscriberPage 16, line 16: "hls" changed to "his."Page 36: "forgotton" changed to "forgotten."Page 46: "musquitoes" changed to "mosquitoes."Footnote 6, last line of poem: "he" changed to "be."Page 46: Orphaned right parenthesis removed.

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