13. The anthology section begins with the publication of explanatory letters by the editor, G.T., and the friend who he consulted. H.W.’s letter leads the way.
IN August last passed my familiar friend Master G. T. bestowed vppon me ye reading of a written Booke, wherin he had collected diuers discourses & verses, inuented vppon sundrie occasions, by sundrie gentlemen (in mine opinion) right commendable for their capacitie1
The poems are a collection from talented gentlemen poets of their acquaintance. It is unspoken that, being socially connected members of the gentle classes, such a favor might be returned upon the correspondents to considerable benefit in the future.2
Appeals for approval from the public, such as commercial publication, were frowned upon by the English nobility. A courtier was expected to be a supremely gifted amateur, their social milieu their readers. The Court was intended to be a place shared by a select few in all regards including poetry.
The advent of the printing press was changing that, though. More of the general public and upper-class women were learning how to read. Such manuscript anthologies as H.W. speaks of were occasionally finding their way into print. Some of the contents were anonymous. Others featured initials or monikers. All tended to be among the more popular works of poetry.
Among the reasons for anonymity was that the poems contained private information. Poems of young courtiers necessarily included private details of the Royal Court. Human nature being what it is, anthologies of courtier poems, then, were particular best sellers.
The anthology section of An Hundreth Sundrie Flowers, composed largely of love poems, did indeed cause an uproar. In particular, by virtue of a poetry and prose narrative “A discourse of the adventures passed by Master F.I.” in which a young man has an affair with the Elinor, Mistress of a castle. The love poems — many of them in the forms we now call the “Shakespearean sonnet” and “Venus and Adonis stanza” — would surely have been recognized by the real-life model for this mistress. Also the details of the affair.
Gascoigne had been a mercenary in the Netherlands, at the time the volume appeared, trying to replenish the funds he'd thrown away in a first attempt to appear impressive at the Court. The fact, he hoped, would allow him to personally side-step the fury of the queen and her advisors. But how to save the reputation of the young courtiers from having unadvisedly allowed a manuscript to be made of their poems which was later published?
Upon returning to England, Gascoigne, the main author of probably the most talked about book throughout the educated classes — particularly the ladies — executed a bold gambit. He would publish a corrected edition in order to disguise the offensive material. Very little would be removed. First, he re-titled the most offensive “adventures”:
I understande that sundrie well disposed mindes have taken offence at certaine wanton wordes and sentences passed in the fable of Ferdinando Jeronimi, and the Ladie Elinora de Falasco, the which in the first edition was termed The adventures of master F. J.3
The new title would be:
The pleasant Fable of Ferdinando Jeron[i]mi and Leonora de Valasco translated out of the Italian riding tales of Bartello.4
In this way, the young courtier who had written under the moniker Si Fortunatus Infoelix (F.I.), in the rest of the anthology, was instantly removed as the romantic protagonist of the tale. The Elinor, who he liberally compared to the goddess Cynthia, and referred to as his queen, became the Spanish Leonora a name that did not in the least begin with the letters “E-l”. No one cared then, or cares now (except for historians of literature), that no evidence of such a tale by Bartello exists.
After defending the titillating material of the anthology as something intended as a morality tale for young courtiers Gascoigne declares that it was actually he who wrote all of the poems. There had been no manuscript anthology.
I thought good to advertise thee, that the most part of them were written for other men. And out of all doubt, if ever I wrote lyne for my selfe in causes of love, I have written tenne for other men in layes of lust.... For when I did compile any thing at the request of other men, if I had subscribed the same with mine owne usuall mot or devise, it might have bewrayed the same to have beene of my doing. And I was ever curious in that behalfe, as one that was lothe to bewray the follies of other men. And yet (as you see) I am not verie daungerous to lay my selfe wide open in view of the worlde. I have also sundrie tymes chaunged mine owne worde or devise.
The poems had numerous monikers because he needed to pretend that he was many different poets in his role as ghost-writer and in order to people his subsequent morality tale.
Through all of this we learn a great deal. Literary hangers-on more at the periphery of the Court befriended the young courtiers, in the process partaking in the popular practice of passing around poems. The affair of the Flowers, then, expands, by just one among many examples, our understanding of such references as Shakespeare's “sugared sonnets among his private friends.”5
As early as 1566, Richard Edwards, Master of the Children of the Royal Chapel, had collected a now famous manuscript anthology from the most talented of his charges. Now, some 7 years later, in 1573, GT had collected another featuring at least two of the same promising young poets. GT's was published in the 1573 collection.
GT's attempt to ingratiate himself with the young men of the Court caused such a furor that it had to be apologized for, edited... and reissued. For even a Queen could only be enormously flattered so long as outsiders would think the tale was not about her — not about her chivalric love affair — but someone else like her.
26. A second edition in just over a year implies that the first had been a smashing success (by the measure of the day). A second edition announcing a cloud of scandal around the work was likely to make it even more attractive. With some high drama, lots of fast talk and a few tweaks all could be put right, the Queen flattered to be portrayed in less personally identifiable terms as a goddess on earth, and Gascoigne’s attempt to attract noble patronage would prove to have worked far better than he might have imagined. He clearly was not among the faint of heart.6
Edwards' manuscript anthology was published, in 1576, as A Paradise of Dainty Devices. There were no apparent signs of Court scandal. It, too, contains many details of the social milieu surrounding the Court and the practice of passing around poetry but they are much quieter.
George Gascoigne was pressed into service by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, to write a considerable portion of the entertainments for the famous visit of Elizabeth to the earl's seat at Kenilworth castle, in July of 1575, and soon after received a position at Court. He died just over a year later, at the age of 52, from what was apparently an extremely painful cancer. History remembers him for being a major influence on the works of Shakespeare.
1 Gascoigne, George. A Hundreth sundrie Flowres (1573), 201.
2 Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. Shakespeare in 1573: Aprenticeship and Scandal (2021). 13. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096GSQV14
3 Cunliffe, John W. The Compete Works of George Gascoigne (1907). I.7.
4 Ibid.
5 Meres, Francis. Paladis Tamia (1598).
6 Purdy, 26.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
The Inventory of John Hosear's Humble Life, 1463. August 18, 2024. “These are the goods of John Hosear assigned values by the undersigned men,”
Batman upon Barthelme: On Dragons. April 30, 2024. “The Elephant séeing the Dragon upon a tree, busieth him to break the tree to smite the dragon...”
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
- The Decline of William Cecil, Baron of Burghley. July 22, 2023. “He found it necessary to do his work remotely more often as the years went on.”
Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
- Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Hyperlinked Biography Page for many other articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment