foureteenth yeare at the least, of the age of Charing crosse, within a yeare of Mid sommer, betweene twelve and twelve of the clocke. Anno pontificatus vestri Quinto, and I hope ultimo of all Englishe Popes. By your learned and worthie brother, MARTIN MARPRELATE. VI THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS [Very short extracts will suffice to give the reader a notion as to the kind of trouncing which Nash and his friends found so successful against the Martinist writers. The exact authorship is difficult to fix, since on this side also the controversy was anonymous. It is however pretty certain that Nash set the ball rolling with A Countercuffe, and wrote most of the pamphlets himself, and that the others were written by his intimate friends, Lyly among them. Gabriel Harvey, Nash's malignant and life-long enemy, wrote in 1590 that Lyly was the author of Pappe; while Anthony à Wood, Collins the historian, and I. D'Israeli attribute Almond to him. Maskell (Marprelate Controversy,' 1845), also, on grounds of style, attributes. this tract to Lyly; and certainly it is so superior both in style and in the cogency of its argument to the rest as to suggest a different authorship to that of Nash. At all events Lyly was closely associated with Nash during the controversy, and either Pappe or Almond. 'Pasquil' was a nom de plume of Nash; he therefore wrote also The Return of Pasquil, and the last libel of all, written in 1590, The First Part of Pasquil's Apologie. Lyly (1554-1606) is best known, because of his Euphues, to modern readers; Nash, however, enjoyed a literary position little inferior to him, and shares with Defoe the distinction of being the father of the modern novel. All that he accomplished was before he was 34, for he died at that age in 1601; and during the latter part of his life he was much occupied by the long controversy with Gabriel Harvey, which was a legacy of the Marprelate dispute. For Plaine Percevall, the last retort on the Puritan side, was by Gabriel's brother, Richard Harvey the astrologer; it was a feeble attempt at compromise, but attacked with some violence the former tracts of Nash and Lyly, especially Pappe. The paper war which followed, including Nash's Have with you to Saffron Walden, and Gabriel's Trimming of Thomas Nash, was continued with extraordinary ferocity, especially on the part of Harvey. One more of the anti-Martinist libels of 1589 remains to be mentioned, the Monthe's Minde. It contains a dedication to 'Pasquin,' i.e. Pasquil, and is therefore probably not by Nash, but by some intimate friend. In wit and point it is one of the best in the controversy, and contains a reference to the new 'Golden Legend' of the Puritans which Nash often promised, but never executed; Pasquil will have a good subject in these new saints, the writer says, and proceeds to an enumeration of the seven deadly sins, and the cardinal virtues; 'But for the three Theological Vertues,' he concludes, they excell, of all that ever I heard of-Faith, for I doubt me whether they bee of anie. Hope which is to see the overthrowe of all. And Charitie, for they detest and damne all but themselves.' In the opinion of the next generation it was to Nash that the discomfiture of the Martinists was chiefly due. Isaac Walton, for instance, wrote in his Life of Hooker' that Nash's merry wit had 'made some sport and such a discovery of [the Martinist's] absurdities as-which is strange-he put a greater stop to these malicious pamphlets than a much wiser man had been able.' In Nash's favour it must be remembered that he was only twenty-two at the time of the Marprelate controversy.] From PAPPE WITH AN HATCHET Alias, A figge for my God sonne. Or Cracke me this nut. Or A Countrie cuffe, that is a sound boxe of the warning. Written by one that dares call a dog, a dog, and made to prevent Martins dog daies. Imprinted by John Anoke, and John Astile, for the Baylive of Withernam, cum privilegio perennitatis, and are to bee sold at the signe of the crab tree cudgell in thwackcoate lane. MARTIN, wee are now following after thee with hue and crie, and are hard at thy heeles; 1 To give pap with a hatchet was a proverbial expression for doing a kind thing in an unkind manner. if thou turne backe to blade it, wee doubt not but three honest men shall bee able to beate sixe theeves. Weele teach thee to commit sacriledge, and to robbe the Church of xxiiii. Bishops at a blowe. Doost thinke that wee are not men Martin, and have great men to defend us which write? Yes, although with thy seditious cloase, thou would'st perswade her Maiestie, that most of the Gentlemen of account and men of honour, were by us thought Puritanes. No, it is your poore Johns, that with your painted consciences have coloured the religion of divers, spreading through the veynes of the Commonwealth like poyson, the doggednes of your devotions; which entring in like the smoothnes of oyle into the flesh, fretteth in time like quicksilver into the bones. 1 When children play with their meate, tis a signe their bellies are full, and it must be taken from them; but if they tread it under their feete, they ought to be ierkt. The Gospell hath made us wantons, wee dallie with ceremonies, dispute of circumstances, not remembring that the Papists have been making roddes for us this thirtie yeares; wee shall bee 1 Poor John is a coarse kind of fish, and is used here by metonymy for a poor fellow. |