Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vacabondes, Harman's Caueat, Haben's Sermon, &c.

by active 1559-1577 John Awdelay; Parson Haben; active 1567 Thomas Harman

29 Nov., 1869.

P.S. For a curious Ballad describing beggars’ tricks in the 17th century, say about 1650, see the Roxburghe Collection, i. 42–3, and the Ballad Society’s reprint, now in the press for 1869, i. 137–41, ‘The cunning Northerne Beggar’: 1. he shams lame; 2. he pretends to be a poor soldier; 3. a sailor; 4. cripple; 5. diseased; 6. festered all over, and face daubed with blood; 7. blind; 8. has had his house burnt.

[38] To obviate the possibility of mistake in the lection of this curious document, Mr E. W. Ashbee has, at my request, and by permission of the Governors of Dulwich College (where the paper is preserved), furnished me with an exact fac-simile of it, worked off on somewhat similar paper. By means of this fac-simile my readers may readily assure themselves that in no part of the memorial is Lodge called a “player;” indeed he is not called “Thos. Lodge,” and it is only an inference, an unavoidable conclusion, that the Lodge here spoken of is Thomas Lodge, the dramatist. Mr Collier, however, professes to find that he is there called “Thos. Lodge,” and that it [the Memorial] contains this remarkable grammatical inversion;

“and haveinge some knowledge and acquaintaunce of him as a player, requested me to be his baile,”

which is evidently intended to mean, as I had some knowledge and acquaintance of Lodge as a player, he requested me to be his baile. But in this place the original paper reads thus,

“and havinge of me some knowledge and acquaintnunce requested me to be his bayle,”

meaning, of course, Lodge, having some knowledge and acquaintance of me, requested me to be his bail.

The interpolation of the five words needed to corroborate Mr Collier’s explanation of the misquoted passage from Gosson, and the omission of two other words inconsistent with that interpolation, may be thought to exhibit some little ingenuity; it was, however, a feat which could have cost him no great pains. But the labour of recasting the orthography of the memorial must have been considerable; while it is difficult to imagine a rational motive to account for such labour being incurred. To expand the abbreviations and modernize the orthography might have been expedient, as it would have been easy. But, in the name of reason, what is the gain of writing wheare and theare for “where” and “there;” cleere, yeeld, and meerly for “clere,” “yealde,” and “merely;” verie, anie, laie, waie, paie, yssue, and pryvily, for “very,” “any,” “lay,” “way,” “pay,” “issue,” and “privylie;” sondrie, begon, and doen for “sundrie,” “began,” and “don;” and thintent, thaction, and thacceptaunce for “the intent,” “the action,” and “the acceptaunce”?—p. 11 of Dr C. M. Ingleby’s ‘Was Thomas Lodge an Actor? An Exposition touching the Social Status of the Playwright in the time of Queen Elisabeth.’ Printed for the Author by R. Barrett and Sons, 13 Mark Lane, 1868. 2⁠s. 6⁠d.

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• NOTES.
  • p. [vii.] [ix,] p. [19], 20. Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, and her parish. The manor of Erith was granted to Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, by Henry VIII. in the 36th year of his reign, A.D. 1544–5. The Countess died in 1567, and was buried in the parish church of Erith. “The manor of Eryth becoming part of the royal revenue, continued in the crown till K. Henry VIII. in his 36th year, granted it in fee to Elizabeth, relict of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, by the description of the manor, of Eryth, alias Lysnes, with all its members and appurts., and also all that wood, called Somersden, lying in Eryth, containing 30 acres; and a wood, called Ludwood, there, containing 50 acres; and a wood, called Fridayes-hole, by estimation, 20 acres, to hold of the King in capite by knight’s service.[39] She was the second wife of George, Earl of {xxvii} Shrewsbury, Knight of the Garter,[40] who died July 26, anno 33 K. Henry VIII.,[41] by whom she had issue one son, John, who died young; and Anne, married to Peter Compton, son and heir of Sir Wm. Compton, Knt., who died in the 35th year of K. Henry VIII., under age, as will be mentioned hereafter. Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, in Easter Term, in the 4th year of Q. Elizabeth, levied a fine of this manor, with the passage over the Thames; and dying in the tenth year of that reign, anno 1567,[42] lies buried under a sumptuous tomb, in this church. Before her death this manor, &c., seem to have been settled on her only daughter Anne, then wife of Wm. Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and widow of Peter Compton, as before related, who was in possession of it, with the passage over the Thames, anno 9 Q. Elizabeth.”—Hasted’s History of Kent, vol. i. p. 196.
  • p. [ix.] In Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent (edit. 1826), p. 66, he mentions “Thomas Harman” as being one of the “Kentish writers.”
  • Lambarde, in the same volume, p. 60, also mentions “Abacuk Harman” as being the name of one “of suche of the nobilitie and gentrie, as the Heralds recorded in their visitation in 1574.”
  • There is nothing about Harman in Mr Sandys’s book on Gavelkind, &c., Consuetudines Cantiæ. To future inquirers perhaps the following book may be of use:
  • “Bibliotheca Cantiana: A Bibliographical Account of what has been published on the History, Topography, Antiquities, Customs, and Family History of the County of Kent.” By John Russell Smith.
  • p. [1], [12]. The xxv. Orders of Knaues.—Mr Collier gives an entry in the Stationers’ Registers in 1585–6: “Edward White. Rd. of him, for printinge xxij^tl ballades at iiij^d a peece—vij^s iiij^d, and xiiij. more at ij^d a peece ij^s iiij^d . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix^s viij^d” And No. 23 is “The xxv^tle orders of knaves.”—Stat. Reg. ii. 207.
  • p. [22]. The last Duke of Buckingham was beheaded.—Edward Stafford, third Duke of Buckingham, one of Henry VIII’s and Wolsey’s victims, was beheaded on Tower Hill, May 17, 1521, for ‘imagining’ the king’s death. (‘The murnynge of Edward Duke of Buckyngham’ was one of certain ‘ballettes’ licensed to Mr John Wallye and Mrs Toye in 1557–8, says Mr J. P. Collier, Stat. Reg. i. 4.) His father (Henry Stafford) before him suffered the same fate in 1483, having been betrayed by his servant Bannister after his unsuccessful rising in Brecon.—Percy Folio Ballads, ii. 253. {xxviii}
  • p. [23]. Egiptians. The Statute 22 Hen. VIII. c. 10 is An Acte concernyng Egypsyans. After enumerating the frauds committed by the “outlandysshe people callynge themselfes Egyptians,” the first section provides that they shall be punished by Imprisonment and loss of goods, and be deprived of the benefit of 8 Hen. VI. c. 29. “de medietate linguæ.” The second section is a proclamation for the departure from the realm of all such Egyptians. The third provides that stolen goods shall be restored to their owners: and the fourth, that one moiety of the goods seized from the Egyptians shall be given to the seizer.
  • p. [48], l. 5. The Lord Sturtons man; and when he was executed. Charles Stourton, 7th Baron, 1548–1557:—“Which Charles, with the help of four of his own servants in his own house, committed a shameful murther upon one Hargill, and his son, with whom he had been long at variance, and buried their Carcasses 50 foot deep in the earth, thinking thereby to prevent the discovery; but it coming afterwards to light, he had sentence of death passed upon him, which he suffer’d at Salisbury, the 6th of March, Anno 1557, 4 Phil. & Mary, by an Halter of Silk, in respect of his quality.”—The Peerage of England, vol. ii. p. 24 (Lond., 1710).
  • p. [77]. Saint Quinten’s. Saint Quinten was invoked against coughs, says Brand, ed. Ellis, 1841, i. 196.
  • p. [77]. The Three Cranes in the Vintry. “Then the Three Cranes’ lane, so called, not only of a sign of three cranes at a tavern door, but rather of three strong cranes of timber placed on the Vintry wharf by the Thames side, to crane up wines there, as is afore showed. This lane was of old time, to wit, the 9th of Richard II., called The Painted Tavern lane, of the tavern being painted.”—Stow’s Survey of London, ed. by Thoms, p. 90.
  • “The Three Cranes was formerly a favourite London sign. With the usual jocularity of our forefathers, an opportunity for punning could not be passed; so, instead of the three cranes, which in the vintry used to lift the barrels of wine, three birds were represented. The Three Cranes in Thames Street, or in the vicinity, was a famous tavern as early as the reign of James I. It was one of the taverns frequented by the wits in Ben Jonson’s time. In one of his plays he says:—
  • ‘A pox o’ these pretenders! to wit, your Three Cranes, Mitre and Mermaid men! not a corn of true salt, not a grain of right mustard among them all!’—Bartholomew Fair, act i. sc. 1.
  • “On the 23rd of January, 166  12  Pepys suffered a strong mortification of the flesh in having to dine at this tavern with some poor relations. The sufferings of the snobbish secretary must have been intense:—
  • ‘By invitation to my uncle Fenner’s, and where I found his new wife, a pitiful, old, ugly, ill-bred woman in a hatt, a mid-wife. Here were many of his, and as many of her, relations, sorry, mean people; and after choosing our gloves, we all went over to the Three Cranes Taverne: {xxvix} and though the best room of the house, in such a narrow dogghole we were crammed, and I believe we were near 40, that it made me loath my company and victuals, and a very poor dinner it was too.’
  • “Opposite this tavern people generally left their boats to shoot the bridge, walking round to Billingsgate, where they would reenter them.”—Hotten’s History of Signboards, p. 204.
  • p. [77]. Saynt Iulyans in Thystellworth parish. ‘Thistleworth, see Isleworth,’ says Walker’s Gazetteer, ed. 1801. That there might well have been a St Julyan’s Inn there we learn from the following extract:
  • “St. Julian, the patron of travellers, wandering minstrels, boatmen,[43] &c., was a very common inn sign, because he was supposed to provide good lodgings for such persons. Hence two St Julian’s crosses, in saltier, are in chief of the innholders’ arms, and the old motto was:—‘When I was harbourless, ye lodged me.’ This benevolent attention to travellers procured him the epithet of ‘the good herbergeor,’ and in France ‘bon herbet.’ His legend in a MS., Bodleian, 1596, fol. 4, alludes to this:—
  • ‘Therfore yet to this day, thei that over lond wende, They biddeth Seint Julian, anon, that gode herborw he hem sende; And Seint Julianes Pater Noster ofte seggeth also For his faders soule, and his moderes, that he hem bring therto.’
  • And in ‘Le dit de s Heureux,’ an old French fabliau:—
  • ‘Tu as dit la patenotre Saint Julian à cest matin, Soit en Roumans, soit en Latin; Or tu seras bien ostilé.’
  • In mediæval French, L’hotel Saint Julien was synonymous with good cheer.
  • ‘—Sommes tuit vostre. Par Saint Pierre le bon Apostre, L’ostel aurez Saint Julien,’
  • says Mabile to her feigned uncle in the fabliau of ‘Boivin de Provins;’ and a similar idea appears in ‘Cocke Lorell’s bote,’ where the crew, after the entertainment with the ‘relygyous women’ from the Stews’ Bank, at Colman’s Hatch,
  • ‘Blessyd theyr shyppe when they had done, And dranke about a Saint Julyan’s tonne.’
  • Hotten’s History of Signboards,” p. 283.
  • “Isleworth in Queen Elizabeth’s time was commonly in conversation, {xxx} and sometimes in records, called Thistleworth.”—Lysons’ Environs of London, vol. iii. p. 79.
  • p. [77]. Rothered: ? Rotherhithe.
  • p. [77]. The Kynges Barne, betwene Detforde and Rothered, can hardly be the great hall of Eltham palace. Lysons (Environs of London, iv. p. 399) in 1796, says the hall was then used as a barn; and in vol. vi. of the Archæologia, p. 367, it is called “King John’s Barn.”
  • p. [77]. Ketbroke. Kidbrooke is marked in large letters on the east of Blackheath on the mordern Ordnance-map; and on the road from Blackheath to Eltham are the villages or hamlets of Upper Kidbrooke and Lower Kidbrooke.
  • “Kedbrooke lies adjoining to Charlton, on the south side of the London Road, a small distance from Blackheath. It was antiently written Cicebroc, and was once a parish of itself, though now (1778 A.D.) it is esteemed as an appendage to that of Charlton.”—Hasted’s History of Kent, vol. i. p. 40.
  • p. [100]. Sturbridge Fair. Stourbridge, or Sturbich, the name of a common field, extending between Chesterton and Cambridge, near the little brook Sture, for about half a mile square, is noted for its fair, which is kept annually on September 19th, and continues a fortnight. It is surpassed by few fairs in Great Britain, or even in Europe, for traffic, though of late it is much lessened. The booths are placed in rows like streets, by the name of which they are called, as Cheapside, &c., and are filled with all sorts of trades. The Duddery, an area of 80 or 100 yards square, resembles Blackwell Hall. Large commissions are negotiated here for all parts of England in cheese, woolen goods, wool, leather, hops, upholsterers’ and ironmongers’ ware, &c. &c. Sometimes 50 hackney coaches from London, ply morning and night, to and from Cambridge, as well as all the towns round, and the very barns and stables are turned into inns for the accommodation of the poorer people. After the wholesale business is over, the country gentry generally flock in, laying out their money in stage-plays, taverns, music-houses, toys, puppet-shows, &c., and the whole concludes with a day for the sale of horses. This fair is under the jurisdiction of the University of Cambridge.—Walker’s Gazetteer, ed. 1801. See Index to Brand’s Antiquities.