An excellent Ballad of a Noble Marquiss and Patient Grissel. (Collection of Old Ballads, 1723, vol. i. p. 252.)
The following entries in the Stationers’ Registers would appear to refer to the Ancient, True, and Admirable History printed in this volume. It is stated to be translated from the French, but this statement is of no value, and it is evidently of pure English manufacture. The edition of 1619 is the earliest known to exist:—
1565–6. Rd. of Thomas Colwell, for his lycense for prynting of an history of meke and pacyent Gresell
iiij d.
1568–9. Rd. of Thomas Colwell, for his lycense for pryntinge of the hystory of pacyent gresell, &c.
viij d.
The History of the Noble Marquis of Salus, or Patient Grissel. Printed and sold in London. [1780?] 12mo. Pp. 24. Another edition. Aldermary Churchyard, n. d.
A reduced chap-book edition of the History printed in this volume. It seems to have been published in this form as early as 1703.
When Mr. J. Payne Collier edited for the Percy Society “The History of Patient Grisel, two early Tracts in Black-Letter, with an Introduction and Notes,” 1842, he printed after the Ancient, True, and Admirable History “The Pleasant and Sweet History of Patient Grissell, shewing how she from a poore man’s daughter came to be a great lady of France, being a Patterne to all vertuous women. Translated out of Italian. London. Printed by E. P. for John Wright, dwelling in Giltspur Street at the Signe of the Bible.”
This is divided into eleven chapters, of which 1, 2, 10, and 11, are in prose; chapters 3 to 9 contain the ballad referred to previously, and it is most probable that the whole tract was the production of Deloney. The date is cut off, but the pamphlet was probably printed about 1630, and it is doubtless a late edition of a popular chap-book. The copy in the British Museum is apparently the same as that used by Mr. Collier. It is handsomely bound in morocco, and in the inside is written in pencil, “Cost me eight pounds unbound.” There are two titles: the first is “The History of the Noble Marques,” with a woodcut of Griselda at the spinning-wheel. On the back of this is the woodcut of Elizabeth, reproduced on the title of the Percy Society reprint.
The play of Ralph Radcliffe is now lost, so that the comedy published in 1603 and reprinted in 1841 is the only one known to exist. We have here a curious instance of the danger of asserting of any particular book that it is unique. When Mr. Collier reprinted the play for the Shakespeare Society he said that there was no copy in the British Museum, and that the only copies he knew of were one in the Bodleian and another in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, who also had an imperfect copy which he presented to Collier. There is now a copy in the British Museum, and in it is this note in ink: “The only copy extant.—J. B. 1788.” Under this is a pencil note: “I have seen another copy, but it was imperfect—G. N.” On the title-page is written “William Shakespeare,” apparently one of the Ireland forgeries.
The following entry occurs in Henslowe’s Diary:—
“Received in earnest of Patient Grissell by us Tho. Dekker, Hen. Chettle and Willm. Hawton the sume of 3 li. of good and lawfull money by a note sent from Mr. Robt. Shaa’s the 19th of December, 1599. By me,
Henry Chettle.
W. Haughton.
Thomas Dekker.”