[P. 20, l. 26], the great ballet-maker T. D., alias Tho. Deloney, Chronicler of the memorable liues of the 6. yeomen of the west, Jack of Newbery, the Gentle-craft.]—Thomas Deloney succeeded Elderton as the most popular ballad-writer of the time: for an account of his poetical pieces, see Ritson’s Bibl. Poet. and Collier’s Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 100. The pleasing ballad of Fair Rosamond, reprinted in Percy’s Rel. of An. Engl. Poet. ii. 143. ed. 1794, is probably the composition of Deloney, as it is found in more than one of his publications. In 1596, had he not eluded the search of the Mayor of London, he would have been punished for writing “a certain Ballad, containing a Complaint of great Want and Scarcity of Corn within the Realm ... bringing in the Queen speaking with her People Dialogue-wise, in very fond and undecent sort,” &c., Stow’s Survey, B. v. 333. ed. 1720, where he is described as “an idle Fellow, and one noted with the like Spirit in printing a Book for the Silk Weavers, wherein was found some such like foolish and disorderly matter.” Nash terms him “the Balletting Silke-weauer,” Haue with you to Saffron-walden, 1596, Sig. N. 3. Deloney was no less celebrated among the vulgar for his prose-romances than for his ballads. Thomas of Reading, or the sixe worthie Yeomen of the West, is noticed in the present passage as a well-known work, and was dramatized in 1601 (Malone’s Shakespeare, by Boswell, iii. 325-6; Collier’s Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 99), but no impression has been discovered earlier than the fourth, 1612, 4to: this tale is reprinted in Thoms’s Early Prose Rom. i. Of The pleasant Historie of John Winchcomb, in his younguer yeares called Jack of Newbery, the famous and worthy Clothier of England; declaring his life and loue, together with his charitable deeds and great Hospitalitie, &c., the earliest edition extant is the eighth, 1619, 4to: its entry in the Stationers’ Books stands thus:
| “7 Maii [1596]. | |||
| “Tho. Millington | Entered for his copie a book called Jack of Newbery So that he haue yt lawfully aucthorised | vid.” |
(Liber C. fol. 19)
The Gentle Craft, A most merry and pleasant History, not altogether vnprofitable, nor any way hurtfull: very fit to passe away the tediousnes of the long winters euenings, in Two Parts, 1598, 4to., is probably the first edition, for the following entry in the Stationers’ Books seems to relate to it:
| “19o Octobris [1597] | |||
| “Raphe Blore | Entred for his copie vnder thande of Mr. Dix and Mr. Man a booke called The gentle crafte intreatinge of Shoomakers.... | vid.” |
(Liber C. fol. 25.)
Verses of various kinds are inserted in these novels.
[P. 21, l. 7], one whose imployment for the Pageant was vtterly spent, he being knowne to be Eldertons immediate heyre.]—An allusion to Anthony Munday. During a long life he figured in various capacities,—as a player, an apprentice to Allde the printer, a retainer of the Earl of Oxford, a Messenger of her Majesty’s Chamber, Poet to the City, dramatist, writer in verse and prose, and draper. He also excited considerable attention, and drew much trouble on himself, by his efforts in detecting the treasonable practices of the Jesuits. According to the inscription on his monument in the church of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, he died in his 80th year, August 10th 1633. (Stow’s Survey, B. iii. 61. ed. 1720.) For a fuller account of Munday and his writings, see Chalmers’s Biog. Dict., Collier’s Supplementary volume to Dodsley’s Old Plays, Warton’s Hist. of Engl. Poet., iii., 290, seq. ed. 4to., Ritson’s Bibl. Poet., and Lowndes’s Bibl. Man. His Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, and Death of Robert, &c. (in the latter of which, if not in the former, he was assisted by Chettle) are reprinted by Mr. Collier in the volume just mentioned; his English Romayne Life; Discovering the Lives of the Englishmen at Rome, the orders of the English Seminarie, &c. and his Banquet of daintie Conceits, &c. may be found in The Harl. Miscell. VII. 136, IX. 219, ed. Park; his Triumphes of Reunited Britania, Metropolis Coronata, and Crysanaleia, the Golden Fishing, are included in Nichols’s Prog. of K. James, i. 564, iii. 107, 195; and extracts from his translations of various romances are given in Sir E. Brydges’s Brit. Bibl. i. 225, 135, ii. 561.
Gifford thinks it probable that most of the annual pageants from 1591 to the death of Elizabeth were produced by Munday (Note on B. Jonson’s Works, vi. 328). Though Kemp declares here that his “imployment for the pageant was utterly spent,” yet Anthony furnished the city shows for 1605, 1611, and (in spite of an attack made on him by Middleton in 1613—see my ed. of Middleton’s Works, v. 219, note), for 1614, 1615, and 1616.
Except a “Song of Robin Hood and his Huntesmen” in Metropolis Coronata, I am not aware that any of Munday’s ballads are extant—unless indeed the “ditties” in The Banquet of daintie Conceits may be regarded as such; but there is no doubt that they were numerous, and hence, in the present passage, he is termed the “immediate heyre” of William Elderton. This personage,—who is said to have been, at different periods of his life, an actor, the master of a company of players, and an attorney in the Sheriff’s Court, London,—obtained great notoriety by his ballads. See a list of his pieces in Ritson’s Bibl. Poet.: vide also Warton’s Hist. of Engl. Poet. iv. 40, ed. 4to. His song “The God of love,” &c. (of which a puritanical moralization still exists) is quoted in Shakespeare’s Much ado about Nothing, act v. sc. 2. His Verses on the Images over the Guild-hall Gate may be read in Stow’s Survey, B. iii. 41, ed. 1720; his ballad of The King of Scots and Andrew Browne, in Percy’s Rel. of An. Engl. Poet. ii. 207, ed. 1794; his New Yorkshyre Song, in Evans’s Old Ballads, i. 20, ed. 1810; and his Newes from Northumberland, The Dekaye of the Duke, The daungerous Shooting of the Gunne at the Court and A moorning Diti upon Henry Earl of Arundel, in The Harl. Miscell. X. 267, seq. ed. Park. Elderton appears to have ceased pouring forth his doggrel about the time that Deloney began to write. In 1592 he was dead: see Nash’s Strange Newes, Of the intercepting certaine Letters, &c., 1592, Sig. D. 4. He was nearly as famous for drinking as for rhyming: of two epitaphs on him, preserved by Camden, I subjoin the first: