, 1 Admiral's and Lord Strange's men were silenced, 'because one Mr. Tilney had utterly for some reason disliked them.' Edmund Tylney was Master of the Revels, and had the supervision of the public conduct of the players. He sent his complaint in connection with the representation of Martin on the stage to Lord Burghley, who ordered the Lord Mayor, John Hart, to suppress all theatrical performances within his jurisdiction. We have Lord Mayor Hart's respectful reply, reporting that 'the Lord Admiralls players very dutifullie obeyed,' but that the Lord Straunges players' went off in very contemptuous manner,' and at the Cross Keys 'played that after noone to the greate offence of the better sorte.' Whereupon the Lord Mayor cast tow of them into one of the Compters.' Six days later the Privy Council addressed letters to the Master of the Revels, the Archbishop, and the Lord Mayor respectively. The Archbishop is required to appoint 'some fytt person, well learned in Diuinytie,' to be associated with Tylney and a nominee of the Lord Mayor's to examine plays intended for public performance, and to 'stryke out, or reforme, such parte or matters as they shall fynd unfytt and undecent to be handled in plaies.' There were several plays prepared for this attack on Martin which failed to pass the examiners, so that we may easily surmise their character. If John Lyly was the author of Pappe with an Hatchet, he may have been lamenting over his own compositions when he wrote, 'Would [that] those Comedies might be allowed to be plaied that are pend, and then I am sure [Martin] would be decyphered, and so perhaps discouraged.'3 2 3. The Flood of Anti-Martinist Literature.-Bancroft's brigade were soon busy. (a) Judging its character from its title, Martyn said to his man, whoe is the foole nowe, a ballad entered at Stationers' Hall on Nov. 9, 1588, was the early intimation of what was forthcoming. 1 Collier's Annals of the Stage, i. 264. 2 Ibid. 271 et seq. The letters are printed in Petheram's notes to Pappe with an Hatchet. The matter has a passing interest owing to the protest lately made against the action of our own licenser of plays. 3 Op. cit. D 2 vers. (b) The next effort was also in verse. It bore the title Mar-Martine, and consisted of seven pages of doggerel of the poorest type, and occasionally offensive. Its title-page bore the lines I know not why a trueth in rime set out As shamelesse lies in prose-books cast about 2 3 In the THESES, Martin Junior exhorts his 'reverend Father' to 'feare none of these beasts, these pursuivants, these Mar-Martins, these stage-players, these prelates, these popes, these devils, and all they can do.' He notes that they are boasting that 'the rimers and stage-players' have put him 'clean out of countenance.' Judging by his rime, Martin Junior guesses Mar-Martin was brought up in a brothel, and thinks his proper employment must have been to carry the laundry-basket for Long Meg of Westminster, a notorious character in the reign of Henry VIII.; but he is now looking for preferment by 'publishing bawdry and filthiness, for the defence of these honest bishops.' Martin Senior in THE JUST CENSURE also girds at him and imitates his rimes-they are a little better workmanship than the original. He adds Mar-Martin's epitaph, including his last confession on the top of a gibbet. The bantering imitation is not altogether bad, but it was not worth doing. We are able to fix very closely the date of Mar-Martine. On the last page of HAY ANY WORKE we have the words, Anglia Martinis disce favere tuis. These words are quoted by the author of Mar-Martine," which determines that he wrote subsequent to March 22, 1589. We have next an early and certainly a very interesting reference to the appearance of the tract in the memoranda of a Jesuit spy in this country. His notes are dated June 1589. 1 Sig. D 1 vers. 3 Ibid. D 2 rect. and vers. 2 Ibid. D 2. He 5 In the margin of A 3 vers., though it has almost disappeared from the British Museum copy, which is badly cropped. reports accurately enough that the division between 'puritanes and protestants' is only about church government that is, external polity. Some meane persons,' he says, 'have been committed (to prison)' for 'presenting supplications to the Quene touching matters, which are referred to the Archbishop of Canterbury.' Then he proceeds to note that there hath bene published certen bookes under the name of martin marprelate in a scoffing stile' concerning the dignitye of Bishoppes.' They are everywhere spoken about. An injunction had been issued against such books. There is also a boke in rime called marmartine published, to be sold in every booke binders shoppe, so as it semeth to be cum privilegio thowgh it be not so sett downe. But it is not unlike but this fire will make a greater flame and reache further than yett it doth.' We may therefore conclude that the pamphlet was issued in May 1589. 1 (c) A solemn Latin admonition, addressed to the young men of the universities, entitled Anti-Martinus, may be passed over briefly. It is written on the correct episcopal lines and is illustrated by historical examples from ancient times. Couched in Latin, its lavish use of superlatives is the more obvious. It describes the turpitude of Martin and his fellows, and the excellence of the religious order established by such a virtuous Queen, through the means of such holy prelates. You see, therefore, learned youths, this Martin will not only have turned aside so many religious men from piety; but has exceeded by vast degrees-immensis spaciis-the wickedness of the atheists themselves. For truly he esteemed it not to be enough that he should pride himself in his new, though according to our leaders, by no means eminent, discipline, unless also he should attack the lives of our sacred Prelates, and shamefully exhibit the character of these very persons as fit to be scoffed at by the abandoned wretches of his sect.' 2 1 S. P. Dom. Add. Eliz. xxxi. This wretchedly written MS. has only been deciphered by the considerable aid of the summary in the Calendar. 2 Anti-Martinus, 14. It is a 4to of 40 pp., dated 1589, and signed at the end A. L. It was entered at Stationers' Hall on July 3rd (Arber). (d) During the second half of the year 1589 the professional literary men, the chief of them being Tom Nash, a man worthy of a better occupation, and John Lyly, the euphuist, sent forth pamphlet after pamphlet in swift succession, all more or less patterned after the style of Martin; but differing from the tracts they assailed in two outstanding features. They betray no interest or acquaintance with the religious issue, which to Martin was vital; they also sully their pages with a grossness altogether foreign to the Martinist spirit. It is amazing that the Archbishop permitted himself to be persuaded by Bancroft that such literary garbage could help the interests of an institution professing to be religious. Nash, by the common consent of his contemporaries, was the writer who adopted the pseudonym Pasquill, or Pasquine. The title of the first pamphlet runs: A Countercuffe given to Martin Junior: by the venturous, hardie, and renowned Pasquill of England, Caualiero. Not of olde Martins making, which newlie knighted the Saints in Heaven, with rise vp Sir Peter and Sir Paule; But lately dubd for his service at home in the defence of his Countrey, and for the clean breaking of his Staffe vppon Martins face. He also imitates Martin's mock printer's references. 'Printed Betweene the skye and the grounde, Within a myle of an Oake, and not many fieldes of[f], from the vnpriuiledged Presse of Ass-ignes of Martin Junior.' It is a slight affair of a single sheet, quarto, and may be regarded as a preliminary flourish. Pasquill promises to print a volume of The Lives of the Saints, and advertises its contents with a few examples. One may here suffice. A reverend elder, he says, of Martin's church -whichever that may be had in keeping the stocke of the poore' belonging to the Bridewell House of Canterbury, to be used to set men awork.' But he was obliged to keep it himself, because there were no poor folk of the household of the faith in that city. This is poor wit compared with Martin's allusion to his 'learned brother | D[octor] Yong | 1 For Martin's use of Sir for Saint see THE EPISTLE, 14, 15, marg. ; and especially HAY ANY WORKE, 1 ff. Bish. of Rochester (who) hauing the presentation of a benefice in his hand | presented himselfe thereunto | euen of meere goodwil. I, John of Rochester present John Young quoth the Bishop.'1 (e) The next issue of the episcopal press was a poetical effusion which exists in two editions, identical, except in their titles. It was first sent forth as A Whip for an Ape or Martin displased, and then made more explicit by the new title, Rythmes against Martin Marre-Prelate. It consists of a single sheet in quarto, and contains twenty-six stanzas, printed in B.L. The following is a sample. It is the ninth stanza. Good Noddie now leaue scribling in such matters, Now Tarletons dead the Consort lacks a vice, For knave and fool thou maist beare pricke and price. Richard Tarleton, the famous comedian, died the previous September. He was regarded as one of the most humorous men that ever appeared upon the stage. Martin is often accused of jesting like Tarleton. (f) Nash soon returned to the fray with The Returne of the Renowned Caualiero Pasquill of England from the other side of the Seas and his meeting with Marforius at London vpon the Royall Exchange. It is a quarto of thirty pages of print, and is dated the 20th October 1589. He has received good news from Marforius concerning the success of the Countercuffe, and learns how anxious all are to know who he is. Having been himself once a Barbour in Rome,' goodwill to his old occupation caused him to enter 'Sprignols shop' on reaching London; and there he heard two or three gentlemen, while they were being trimmed, speaking of a Martinist, a Broker' who had run away with goods belonging to other men. But they sin more deeply. For example, and it is Tom Nash let us remember who is speaking, he professes deep veneration for the Book of 1 THE EPISTLE, 11. |