The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth. active 1559-1577 John Awdelay

Читать онлайн книгу.

The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth - active 1559-1577 John Awdelay


Скачать книгу
whiche in their language is a priest, that should make mariages tyll death dyd depart.

      And surely no doubt on the point will remain in his mind, though, if needed, a few more confirmations could be got, as

Awdeley (p. 4). Harman (p. 44).
¶ A Palliard. ¶ A Pallyard.
A Palliard is he that goeth in a patched cloke, and hys Doxy goeth in like apparell. These Palliardes ... go with patched clokes, and haue their Morts with them.

      We may conclude, then, certainly, that Awdeley did not plagiarize Harman; and probably, that he first published his Fraternitye in 1561. The tract is a mere sketch, as compared with Harman's Caueat, though in its descriptions (p. 6-11) of 'A Curtesy Man,' HARMAN'S CAUEAT: THE EARLY EDITIONS.'A Cheatour or Fingerer,' and 'A Ring-Faller' (one of whom tried his tricks on me in Gower-street about ten days ago), it gives as full a picture as Harman does of the general run of his characters. The edition of 1575 being the only one accessible to us, our trusty Oxford copier, Mr George Parker, has read the proofs with the copy in the Bodleian.

      Let no one bring a charge of plagiarizing Awdeley, against Harman, for the latter, as has been shown, referred fairly to Awdeley's 'small breefe' or 'old briefe of vacabonds,' and wrote his own "bolde Beggars booke" (p. 91) from his own long experience with them.

      Harman's Caueat is too well-known and widely valued a book to need description or eulogy here. It is the standard work on its subject,—'these rowsey, ragged, rabblement of rakehelles' (p. 19)—and has been largely plundered by divers literary cadgers. No copy of the first edition seems to be known to bibliographers. It was published in 1566 or 1567,—probably the latter year,[4]—and must (I conclude) have contained less than the second, as in that's 'Harman to the Reader,' p. 28, below, he says 'well good reader, I meane not to be tedyous vnto the, but haue added fyue or sixe more tales, because some of them weare doune whyle my booke was fyrste in the presse.' He speaks again of his first edition at p. 44, below, 'I had the best geldinge stolen oute of my pasture, that I had amongst others, whyle this boke was first a printynge;' and also at p. 51, below, 'Apon Alhollenday in the morning last anno domini 1566, or my booke was halfe printed, I meane the first impression.' All Hallows' or All Saints' Day is November 1.

      The edition called the second[5], also bearing date in 1567, is known to us in two states, the latter of which I have called the third edition. The first state of the second edition is shown by the Bodleian copy, which is 'Augmented and inlarged by the fyrst author here of,' and has, besides smaller differences specified in the footnotes in our pages, this great difference, that the arrangement of 'The Names of HARMAN'S CAUEAT: THE TWO STATES OF THE 2ND EDITION.the Vpright Men, Roges, and Pallyards' is not alphabetical, by the first letter of the Christian names, as in the second state of the second edition (which I call the third edition), but higgledy-piggledy, or, at least, without attention to the succession of initials either of Christian or Sur-names, thus, though in three columns:

      ¶ Vpright men.

       Richard Brymmysh.

       John Myllar.

       Wel arayd Richard.

       John Walchman.

       William Chamborne.

       Bryan Medcalfe.

       Robert Gerse.

       Gryffen.

       Richard Barton.

       John Braye.

       Thomas Cutter.

       Dowzabell skylfull in fence.

      [&c.]

      ¶ Roges.

       Harry Walles with the little mouth.

       John Waren.

       Richard Brewton.

       Thomas Paske.

       George Belbarby.

       Humfrey Warde.

       Lytle Robyn.

       Lytle Dycke.

       Richard Iones.

       Lambart Rose.

       Harry Mason.

       Thomas Smithe with the skal skyn.

      [&c.]

      ¶ Pallyards.

       Nycholas Newton carieth a fayned lycence.

       Bashforde.

       Robart Lackley.

       Wylliam Thomas.

       Edward Heyward, hath his Morte following hym Whiche fayneth ye crank.

       Preston.

       Robart Canloke.

      [&c.]

      This alone settles the priority of the Bodley edition, as no printer, having an index alphabetical, would go and muddle it all again, even for a lark. Moreover, the other collations confirm this priority. The colophon of the Bodley edition is dated A.D. 1567, 'the eight of January;' and therefore A.D. 1567-8.

      Thus much about our present edition. I now hark back to the first, and the piracies of it or the later editions, mentioned in Mr J. P. Collier's Registers of the Stationers' Company, i. 155-6, 166.

      "1566-7 Rd. of William Greffeth, for his lycense for printinge of a boke intituled a Caviat for commen Corsetors, vulgarly called Vagabons, by Thomas Harman ... iiijd.

      "[No edition of Harman's 'Caveat or Warning for common Cursetors,' of the date of 1566, is known, although it is erroneously mentioned in the introductory matter to the


Скачать книгу