In the following Introduction, Nash says, “For comming from Venice the last summer, and taking Bergamo in my waye homeward to England.” Now as he afterwards alludes to the appearance of Martin Mar-prelate in England, and also to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, “neither Philip by his power,” this most probably was the latter part of the summer of 1588, and if he arrived in England towards the end of 1588, there would be both time and opportunity for him to write the various works, which, published in 1589, are attributed to him. There is every probability, therefore, that Nash did visit Italy, that he was there in 1588, and that, returning to England with his mind enlarged by travel, he commenced his short, but remarkable career in literature, which, after he had undergone the painful vicissitudes to which authors by profession have so often been subjected,
“Since none takes pitie of a scholler’s neede,”
was terminated by his death in 1601.
I shall not here enumerate the various works which Nash wrote, because an opportunity will offer, in the Introduction to one of his publications, to notice the whole of them.
Whatever was the origin of the long and bitter quarrel between Nash and Gabriel Harvey, from this passage in the Preface to Menaphon, 1589, “and Gabriel Harvey, with two or three other, is almost all the store that is left us at this hour,” we may reasonably infer that it was not in existence then. The origin, progress, and effect of this quarrel, which included Lyly, Greene, Nash, and the three Harveys, and the right understanding of which is necessary to elucidate the progress of the Martin Mar-Prelate Controversy, I hope to give in the Introduction to “Plaine Percevall the Peace-Maker of England,” a tract uniformly attributed to Nash; but which he, in one of his publications, not only utterly disclaims, but charges it upon one of his most hated antagonists.
The internal evidence in favour of Nash, as the author of the Almond for a Parrot, is very strong; and cannot but appear to any one who is conversant with his “Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem,” a work containing more remarkable passages than any publication of the time that has ever fallen in my way. The description of Penry, at p. 39, beginning, “Where, what his estimation was,” &c.; but more especially the paragraph at p. 21, beginning, “Talke as long as you will of the Ioyes of heaven,” &c., may be compared with several passages in “Christ’s Tears” wherein Nash describes the horrors endured by its inhabitants during the siege of Jerusalem.
With respect to the title “An Almond for a Parrat,” the meaning appears obvious; it is evidently a cant term, and like “A Sop to Cerberus,” means a stopper for the mouth. Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, calls it “a kind of proverbial expression,” but does not attempt to trace its origin. It is used by Skelton [Works by Dyce, ii. 4], by Webster [Works, iii. 122], and by Middleton [Works, iii. 112].
The original, from which the present tract is reprinted, is a small 4to, printed in black letter, consisting altogether of 28 pages. The “Protestation” is referred to at p. 11, “Pap with a Hatchet,” at p. 12, and “Hay any worke for a Cooper,” at p. 15, by which it is certain that its publication was subsequent to them, and may perhaps be referred to the latter end of the year 1589.
J. P.
London,
Nov. 28th, 1845.