Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Thomas Nashe

1567–1601?

Introduction

Autograph Manuscripts and Inscriptions

Thomas Nashe was a prolific author, whose writings were largely confined to print. There are only four known examples of his handwriting. One is his autograph undergraduate verses on Ecclesiasticus (*NaT 7). Another is his annotations, including quotations from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, in a printed exemplum of Leland's Principium (MrC 20). A third is a signature formally inscribed also when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge (*NaT 20), and a fourth is the single known letter by him, to William Cotton (*NaT 19).

Verse

Only three poems generally attributed to Nashe appear to have enjoyed any notable circulation in manuscript. One is his erotic verses The choise of valentines, sometimes cited as Nashe his Dildo, the surviving texts of which (NaT 1-6) must be only a tiny portion of the copies that once existed. The second is his lyrical verses If flouds of teares could clense my follies past which were appended to the 1591 edition of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (NaT 8-17). A third is the song Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass (NaT 7.1-7.9), which is better known for its use as Silence's song Do me right in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, V.iii.72-4.

For a previously unknown poem on Nashe by Ben Jonson, discovered among the muniments of Berkeley Castle, see JnB 0.5. For yet another notable document in the same muniment — a letter by Sir George Carey, 17 November 1593, showing his support for Nashe while he was in trouble for the publication of his Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem (1593) — see Katherine Duncan-Jones, Christs Teares, Nashe's Forsaken Extremities, Review of English Studies, NS 49 (May 1998), 167-80.

Nashe v. Harvey

For the celebrated quarrel between Nashe and Gabriel Harvey, see McKerrow, V, 65-110.

Abbreviations

  • McKerrow — The Works of Thomas Nashe, ed. Ronald B. McKerrow, 5 vols (Oxford, 1904-10; reprinted, revised by F.P. Wilson, 1958).

Verse

The choise of valentines ('It was the merie moneth of Februarie')

Lines 1-17 first published in The Complete Works of Thomas Nashe, ed. A.B. Grosart (London, 1883-4), I, lx-lxi. The complete text published in London, 1899, ed. John S. Farmer (privately printed), and in McKerrow, III, 397-416.

NaT 1 Early 17th century

Copy, headed The choice of valentines, with a dedicatory sonnet To the right Honorable the lord S., beginning Pardon sweete flower of matchless Poetrie, subscribed Thomas Nash.

Edited from this MS in Grosart (lines 1-17), in Farmer (complete), and in McKerrow (complete).

In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and miscellaneous papers, in various largely professional hands, 480 leaves, in red morocco gilt.
Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 43 ff. 295v-8v) | Catalogue
NaT 2

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, headed Nash his Dildo, with the dedicatory sonnet (Pardon sweet flower of Matchless poesye) and The Epilogue (Thus hath my pen presum'd to please my frind).

This MS collated in Farmer and in McKerrow.

In: An oblong octavo volume of amatory poems, in at least three hands, 119 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt (rebacked, traces of clasps).
Early 17th century

Inscribed names: Matt Postlethwayt His Book August ye 1st 1697, Henerie Price, and Eyaly Johnes.

NaT 3

Copy, headed Gnash his valentine and here beginning In the merrie Moneth of ffebruary.

This MS not recorded by editors.

In: A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, in a single neat largely italic hand, 155 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
c.1630

The table of contents (f. 155v) subscribed Margrett Bellasys, possibly the daughter of Thomas Belasyse (1577-1652), first Viscount Fauconberg of Henknowle. The front endpaper later inscribed The pieces which I have extracted for The Specimens are, Page 91, 211, 265: i.e. possibly by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), editor of Specimens of the British Poets first published in 1809. Afterwards owned by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector. Evans (Sotheby's), 29 February 1836 (Heber sale, Part VIII), lot 13.

NaT 4

Copy, headed The matter beginnes heare: Nashes Dilldo, with the dedicatory To ye right Hobl. ye Lorde Strainge (Pardon sweete flowre of matchlesse poetrie).

This MS discussed and collated in Robert C. Evans and Kurt R. Niland, The Folger Text of Thomas Nashe's Choise of Valentines, PBSA, 87 (1993), 363-74.

In: A quarto miscellany of both bawdy and religious verse and some prose, in several hands, 94 leaves (including a number of blanks), in modern quarter-calf marbled boards.
Mid-late 17th century

Inscribed Charles Shuttleworth His Booke Anno 1691. Peter Murray Hill, London, sale catalogue No. 82 (1962), item 33.

NaT 5

Copy of an abbreviated and untitled 162-line version, beginning ffaire was the morne & brightsome was the day, with the dedicatory sonnet.

This MS discussed in James L. Sanderson, An Unnoted Text of Nashe's The Choise of Valentines, ELN, 1 (1964), 252-3.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, 180 pages, in three secretary hands, in contemporary limp vellum.

Probably compiled by a member of an Inn of Court.

c.1630

Bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, book collector. Formerly Rosenbach 186.

NaT 6

Copy of an abbreviated 161-line version, partly written in cryptography, headed Lector abj si to scelerjs contagio vexat | At tibi si mens sit sanctificata venj., with the dedicatory sonnet.

This MS collated in McKerrow.

In: A duodecimo verse miscellany, including (ff. 12r-43r) 63 sonnets by Henry Constable, 117 leaves, in brown morocco.
c.1620

Later owned by a Mr Brackman, of Kent. Given by Alderman Bristow, bookseller of Canterbury, to a Mr Todd on 19 November 1800. Afterwards owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor.

Cited by editors as the Todd MS.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 44 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.39) ff. 2-4) | Catalogue
Latin Verses on Ecclesiasticus 41.1 ('Quos mala nulla premunt, quos nulla pericula cingunt')

First published in McKerrow (1905), III, 298-9.

*NaT 7
Autograph

Autograph fair copy, headed Eccle. cap. 41. ver. 1o, signed Thomas Nashe, on one folio page (foliated in pencil 167), the ninth in a series of eleven neatly written Latin poems on the same biblical text made by scholars of St John's College, Cambridge (on ff. 122-32: items 74-84). 1585.

Edited from this MS in McKerrow. Facsimiles in McKerrow; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XX(d); and in DLB, vol. 167, Sixteenth-Century British Non-Dramatic Writers. Third Series, ed. David A. Richardson (Detroit, 1996), p. 149.

In: A folio guardbook of miscellaneous Elizabethan papers, stamped foliation 1-280.
National Archives, Kew (SP 15/29 f. 130r (item 82)) | Catalogue
'Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass'

First published, as The Song, in Nashe's Pleasant Comedie Summers last will and Testament (London, 1600). McKerrow, III, 264. EV 14798.

NaT 7.1

Copy, in a musical setting by Orlando de Lassus, untitled, in the Altus volume.

In: A set of four oblong quarto part books of vocal music, in Latin and English, numbered 2-5, comprising Quintus, Altus, Tenor and Bassus parts (lacking the original Cantus), iii + 30 leaves, 86 leaves, 54 leaves, and 84 leaves respectively, in 19th-century half-calf gilt.

Compiled by Thomas Hammond (d.1662), of Cressners, in the parish of Hawkedon, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (the Quintus volume inscribed by him with the date August 1656 and the Altus volume inscribed Thomas Hamond his Booke. 1641).16.

c.1641-62

The Monser myngo song here discussed in John P. Cutts, The Original Music of a Song in 2 Henry IV, SQ, 7 (1956), 385-92, and in Frederick W. Sternfeld, Lasso's Music for Shakespeare's Samingo, SQ, 9 (1958), 105-16.

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. f. 16-19 (iii) fols 50v-51r) | Catalogue
NaT 7.12

Copy of the song.

In: A quarto composite memorandum book of English, Welsh and latin verse and prose, in several hands, 100 leaves, in a contemporary limp vellum wrapper within modern half red morocco.

Compiled over a period, at least in part, by various members of the Lloyd family of Llwydiarth.

Early 17th century-1672

Inscriptions including (f. 3r) Mounta: Lloyd 1671 and (f. 49r) David Wms. his Book beeing Mrs Anne Lloyds Guift, and with other references to David Lloyd, Elizabeth Lluyd, Robert Lluyd, Jane Lloyd, and Hugh Lloyd. Probably Quaritch's sale Catalogue of English Literature (August-November 1884), item 22351. Formerly Sotheby MS B. 2.

National Library of Wales (Wynne (Bodewryd) MS 6 f. 62r)
NaT 7.15

Copy of the song.

In: A quarto formal verse miscellany, in a single neat secretary and italic hand throughout, paginated 1-162 (but lacking some leaves), in modern limp vellum.

Compiled by John Cruso (fl.1595-1655), poet and military writer, who matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1632.

c.1630s

Names inscribed lengthways down margins (pp. 71, 91, 95) including Cuthbert Sewell Esq, Jos. Nicholson, Wm Richardson, and Somers. Donated in 1922 by Gordon Wordsworth who claims that the volume was once owned by the poet William Wordsworth.

St John's College, Cambridge (MS U. 26 (James 548) p. 20)
NaT 7.2

Copy, in a musical setting by Orlando de Lassus, untitled, in the Tenor volume.

In: A set of four oblong quarto part books of vocal music, in Latin and English, numbered 2-5, comprising Quintus, Altus, Tenor and Bassus parts (lacking the original Cantus), iii + 30 leaves, 86 leaves, 54 leaves, and 84 leaves respectively, in 19th-century half-calf gilt.

Compiled by Thomas Hammond (d.1662), of Cressners, in the parish of Hawkedon, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (the Quintus volume inscribed by him with the date August 1656 and the Altus volume inscribed Thomas Hamond his Booke. 1641).16.

c.1641-62

The Monser myngo song here discussed in John P. Cutts, The Original Music of a Song in 2 Henry IV, SQ, 7 (1956), 385-92, and in Frederick W. Sternfeld, Lasso's Music for Shakespeare's Samingo, SQ, 9 (1958), 105-16.

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. f. 16-19 (iv) fols 21v-22r) | Catalogue
NaT 7.3

Copy, in a musical setting by Orlando de Lassus, untitled, in the Bassus volume.

In: A set of four oblong quarto part books of vocal music, in Latin and English, numbered 2-5, comprising Quintus, Altus, Tenor and Bassus parts (lacking the original Cantus), iii + 30 leaves, 86 leaves, 54 leaves, and 84 leaves respectively, in 19th-century half-calf gilt.

Compiled by Thomas Hammond (d.1662), of Cressners, in the parish of Hawkedon, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (the Quintus volume inscribed by him with the date August 1656 and the Altus volume inscribed Thomas Hamond his Booke. 1641).16.

c.1641-62

The Monser myngo song here discussed in John P. Cutts, The Original Music of a Song in 2 Henry IV, SQ, 7 (1956), 385-92, and in Frederick W. Sternfeld, Lasso's Music for Shakespeare's Samingo, SQ, 9 (1958), 105-16.

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. f. 16-19 (v) fols 50v-51r) | Catalogue
NaT 7.4

Copy of the refrain of Silence's song, beginning Do me right, in a musical setting.

Discussed in John P. Cutts, The Original Music of a Song in 2 Henry IV, SQ, 7 (1956), 385-92, and in Frederick W. Sternfeld, Lasso's Music for Shakespeare's Samingo, SQ, 9 (1958), 105-16.

In: Music part books.
Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. Sch. F. 17-19 F. 19, fol. 50v) | Catalogue
NaT 7.5

Copy of the song, in a musical setting.

In: An oblong quarto songbook, the lyrics largely in a single italic hand, with (ff. 4v-5r) a table of contents, 84 leaves, in 19th-century red morocco gilt.

Inscribed (f. 3v), evidently by the compiler, Giles Earle his booke 1615 (with other notes dated 1610) and (f. 1v) Egidius Earle hunc librum possidet qui compactus fuit mense Septembris. 1626., f. 81r subscribed Anno Dni: 1623 / Mense Augusti: Finis.

c.1615-26

Acquired from Joseph Lilly, bookseller, 17 May 1862.

A complete facsimile of this volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 1 (New York & London, 1986).

NaT 7.6

Copy of the song, in a musical setting.

In: A folio volume of largely vocal music, mainly in a single secretary hand, 120 pages, in mottled calf.
Early 17th century

Complete facsimile in Jorgens, VI (1987).

Christ Church, Oxford (MS Mus. 439 ff. 37v-8r)
NaT 7.7

Copies of the refrain, Do me right, in a musical setting.

Edited in John P. Cutts, Bishop Smith's Part-Song Books in Carlisle Cathedral Library (American Institute of Musicology, 1972), pp. 45-6.

In: Two music part books compiled by Thomas Smith (1614-1701) of The Queen's College, Oxford, later Bishop of Carlisle.
c.1637

Formerly Carlisle Cathedral, Dean & Chapter of Carlisle MSS, Box B1.

These MSS discussed in John P. Cutts, Bishop Smith's Part-Song Books in Carlisle Cathedral Library (American Institute of Musicology, 1972).

Cumbria Archives, Carlisle (D&C Music 1 Altus, pp. 22-3; Bassus, pp. 20-1)
NaT 7.8

Copy of the song, in a musical setting.

In: An oblong quarto songbook, the lyrics in two or more secretary and italic hands, iv + 43 leaves, in modern quarter-calf.

Inscribed (f. 31r) MAY 1639 and Williane Stirling. A long note (f. iir) in the hand of John Leyden (1775-1811), linguist and poet, dated 5 March 1800, recording his purchase of the MS in 1788 from the library of the Rev. Mr Cranstow, minister of Ancrum; his lending it to Alexander Campbell in 1795 and retrieving it in December 1799; and his now consigning it to Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector.

c.1639

A complete facsimile of this volume is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987).

Verses from Astrophel and Stella ('If flouds of teares could clense my follies past')

First published in Poems and Sonets of sundrie other Noble men and Gentlemen appended to Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella (London, 1591). McKerrow, III, 396 (in poems of doubtful authorship). Doughtie, Lyrics from English Airs, pp. 104-5.

NaT 8

Copy, in a secretary hand, of an untitled version comprising lines 7-12 (here beginning I se my hopes must wether in the budde), lines 1-6, and an additional six-line stanza beginning Prayse blyndnes (eyes) for seeinge is deceyte.

Edited from this MS in G.L. [i.e. John Payne Collier], Poem attributed to Thomas Nash, The Shakespeare Society's Papers, I (London, 1844), 76-9. Collated in Doughtie, pp. 480-2. Recorded in McKerrow.

In: A quarto composite volume of printed works by Breton, with twenty leaves of MS verse and prose, in four different hands, bound-in at the end, in contemporary calf.
Early 1600s
NaT 9

Copy.

This MS collated in Doughtie, pp. 480-2. Recorded in McKerrow.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.
c.1596-1601

This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.

NaT 10

Copy, in a four-part musical setting by John Dowland.

This setting first published in John Dowland, The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (London, 1600). This MS collated in Doughtie, pp. 480-2.

In: A MS songbook.

Once owned by one Thomas Myriell.

Early 17th century
Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels, Belgium (MS II. 4. 109 (Fétis 3095) pp. 24-5)
NaT 11

Copy of the incipit only, with a musical setting.

This MS recorded (but not seen) in Doughtie (p. 481).

In: An octavo musical part book, for the counter-tenor, of the St Andrews Psalter (the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1566 etc. by Thomas Wode, afterwards Vicar of St Andrews), copied c.1575-8, with a series of secular songs added later (ff. 81v-93v) in a secretary hand, 93 leaves, in old blind-stamped calf.

For three other part books of this Psalter, see Edinburgh University Library MS La. III. 483.

Early 17th century (secular songs)

Purchased from Mrs H.S. Andrews, 14 November 1890.

NaT 12

Copy of two versions, in a musical setting by John Dowland.

This MS collated in Doughtie, pp. 480-2.

In: A quarto songbook, in a secretary and italic hand, 193 leaves (including ten blanks).

Compiled by Robert Taitt, schoolmaster and precenter in the Church of Lauder, Berwickshire.

c.1676-90

Later in the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), psychologist, linguist and book collector. Formerly T 135Z. B724 1677-89 Bound.

Discussed in Walter H. Rubsamen, Scottish and English Music in the Renaissance in a Newly-Discovered Manuscript, Festschrift Heinrich Besseler (Leipzig, 1961), 259-84.

Clark Library, Los Angeles (MS. 1959. 003 Cantus 70: ff. 74, 86-7)
NaT 13

Copies of the first line only, in a musical setting, untitled.

This MS recorded (but not seen) in Doughtie (p. 481).

In: Three small quarto musical part books of the St Andrews Psalter (the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1566 etc. by Thomas Wode, afterwards Vicar of St Andrews), copied c.1575-8, in formal angular roman hands, with rubrication and colour decoration, and with a series of secular songs added later in secretary and italic hands at the end, comprising (i) Treble part: iv + 214 pages (including blanks; (ii) Tenor part: iv + 200 pages; and (iii) Bassus part: 214 pages, all in 19th-century black morocco (iii incorporating an original vellum board).
c.1575-early 17th century

For a fourth (Counter-tenor) part book of this Psalter, see British Library, Add. MS 33933.

Edinburgh University Library, Laing Collection (MS La. III. 483 (ii) p. 184; (iii) p. 200)
NaT 14

Copy of the incipt only, in a musical setting.

This MS recorded (but not seen) in Doughtie (p. 481).

In: An oblong octavo book of chiefly vocal music, the lyrics mostly in a single italic hand, 252 pages (including blanks), in 19th-century calf gilt.

Inscribed, possibly by the compiler, (p. 1) Magister Johannes Skine (in a semi-court hand) and (p. 189) Mr Joannes Skeine His book: i.e. John Skene of Hallyards. Bequeathed in 1818 by Miss Elizabeth Skene of Curriehill and Hallyards.

c.1620s-30s
NaT 15

Copy of a four-stanza version in a musical setting.

This MS collated in Doughtie, pp. 480-2.

In: A folio songbook, i + 6 leaves, now mounted with other MSS (1015-1019) in a double-folio guardbook.
Early 17th century

Formerly at St Michael's College, Tenbury Wells.

A complete facsimile of this volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 6 (New York & London, 1987).

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Tenbury 1019 f. 1r) | Catalogue
NaT 16

Copy of a three-stanza version, in a musical setting by John Dowland.

In: MS transcript of the first printed edition (Aberdeen, 1662) of John Forbes, Cantus, Songs and Fancies.
c.1662

In the Atholl Collection of Music, assembled by Lady Dorothea Stewart-Murray (1866-1937), daughter of John Stewart-Murray (1840-1917), seventh Duke of Atholl. Formerly in the Sandeman Library, Perth.

A K Bell Library, Perth (N16 No. xiii)
NaT 17

Copy.

In: A duodecimo verse miscellany, including (ff. 12r-43r) 63 sonnets by Henry Constable, 117 leaves, in brown morocco.
c.1620

Later owned by a Mr Brackman, of Kent. Given by Alderman Bristow, bookseller of Canterbury, to a Mr Todd on 19 November 1800. Afterwards owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor.

Cited by editors as the Todd MS.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 44 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.39) f. 107v) | Catalogue

Prose

Pierce Pennilesse

First published in London, 1592. McKerrow, I, 149-245.

NaT 18

Extracts.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.
c.1596-1601

This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.

Annotation in Printed Books

See MrC 20.

Letters

Letter(s)
*NaT 19 1596
Autograph

Autograph letter signed (the signature now obliterated), to William Cotton, MP [c.September 1596].

Edited in McKerrow, V, 192-6, with a facsimile example as frontispiece. Facsimiles also in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XX(a-c), and in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 33.

In: A folio composite volume of letters, chiefly to Robert Cotton, in various hands.
The British Library: Cotton MSS (Cotton MS Julius C. III f. 280r) | Catalogue

Documents

Document(s)
*NaT 20 1584
Autograph

Nashe's signature, 1584.

Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XX(e).

In: Admission Book.
St John's College, Cambridge ([no shelfmark] [unspecified page number])

Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Nashe

Extracts
NaT 21

A series of brief extracts from Nashe's prose works, from Christs Teares over Ierusalem (1593), Have With You to Saffron-Walden (1596), Nashes Lenten Stuffe (1599), Pierce Penilesse (1592), and Summers Last Will and Testament (1600).

In: The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt.

Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21.

c.1604-9

Owned in 1615-16 by one Bassett and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.

All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, Shakespeare and Edward Pudsey's Booke, 1600, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1; in Juliet Gowan, One Man in His Time: The Notebook of Edward Pudsey, Bodleian Library Record, 22 (2009), 94–101; in Fred Schurink, Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467; and in Tom Lockwood, At Mr Marston’s Request: Edward Pudsey and the Inns of Court, N&Q, 63 (September 2016), 450-3.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, a through d (MS Eng. poet. d. 3 f. 21r-v)

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