384
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. NOV. n, 1911.
NICHOLAS GRIMALD: JOHN
GRYMBOLDE.
<See 7 S. xii. 286 ; 9 S. iv. 325 ; 11 S. iv. 275.)
'THE Elizabethan poet and translator, and editor of Tottel's * Miscellany,' has his name
- spelt Grymbold in the Christ College books,
1537 ; Grimbold and Grymbold by Bishop Ridley (' Letters,' Parker Society) ; and Orimbold in the Eccles Episcopal Register, 1551 (MS. Bodleian).
But it has not been noticed, I believe, in this connexion, that a John Grymbolde, chaplain, took his B.A. degree at Oxford in April, 1514 (' Oxford Registers,' printed).
All these names are evidently the same, /and, being very uncommon in England, naturally suggest relationship. Both men .also took the B.A. degree at Oxford, one in 1514, the other in 1542, and both were chaplains.
N. G.'s birth is given as 1519 or 1520; it is therefore quite possible that J. G. was the father of N. G., for J. G., being already a chaplain in 1514, must have been at least 21, more probably 25 ; for N. G., though a man of acknowledged ability and learning, did not become chaplain till he was 33.
J. G., therefore, at N. G.'s birth in 1520, would be either 25 or 30. N. G. says that his father was alive in 1552, which, if he was 25 in 1514, would make him 63 in 1552, a very consistent age.
N. G. was born in Huntingdonshire, appa- rently at Brownshold. I failed to find any such place ; but there is an old town in that county, called Leighton-Brameswold, which might possibly be the place.
I have been obligingly informed that, in the MS. Bursar's Book of Christ College, Cambridge, is an entry, not hitherto noticed, of Grymbold, as a sick scholar who had received allowance in lieu of the commons which he was unable to eat, 1537-8. This is undoubtedly N. G., who was B.A. in 1539- 1540 at Cambridge
In Mr. Arber's valuable reprint of Tottel's 'Miscellany,' 1870, at p. xv he mentions N. G.'s ' New Year's Verses to Catherine Day ' ; but I am unable to find any such.
At p. 97 is a respectful, affectionate poem to a London lady, called " Carie," to whom he seems to have been engaged. This was printed 1557 ; and N. G. finally left Oxford, either for St. Albans or London, in 1555 ; and as he speaks of hunting through London for her, and he was then working with 'Tottel, it was probably the latter, at least
ultimately. He may therefore naturally,
at this time, or in 1556, have married this
lady ; and in his poem on a wedding, p. 100,
he pointedly speaks of the advantage he
will gain by marriage.
In this case, the " son " he mentions would be a reality, not a figure ; and such a son would explain why his ' Oratio ad Pontifices ' was published in 1583, or some 21 years after his death (such a son being then 26) ; and also why his ' Paraphrase on Virgil ' was published in 1591, nearly 30 years after his death. There would seem to be needed some special reason why a Latin sermon should be first published 20 years after the death of the writer, who was of no great social standing, and had fallen from the only social position he once had.
N. G. was chaplain to a Protestant bishop 1552 (Ridley), and in 1556 " Orator," which Mr. Arber says means chaplain, to a romish bishop (Thirlby) : an almost unique experience, one would think, specially as in 1554 he had been adjudged to be hung, drawn, and quartered for treason ! Bishop Ridley had supported Lady Jane Grey, 1553, and doubtless his chaplain, N. G., followed his lead, and hence his treason.
Of the poems in the ' Miscellany,' it would seem probable that most of those by " uncertain authors " were by N. G. He was the editor, and, as Mr. Arber points out, in the second edition 30 poems of N. G. disappear, as does even his name ; for his 10 which do appear are only signed " N. G."
In fact, in 1557 N. G. was under a cloud, and nothing more is credited to his prolific pen up to 1562, when he died.
Among his acknowledged poems is one ' To Z. K. S.,' which seems suitable for Lady Katherine Seymour, widow of Henry VIII., who married the Protector's brother, and died in 1548, when N. G. was 29. Bishop Bale mentions a poem on Lord Edward Seymour, brother-in-law to Katherine, by N. G. (' Scriptores Brytanni,' Basle, 1557).
On p. 112 is an epitaph on Sir James Wilford. He was Provost Marshal of the English army at Pinkie, 1547 (Grant, ' British Battles,' i. 135). The verses on Wilford by one of the " uncertain authors," p. 153, are probably his also. D. J.
JOHN WEEVEB AND SHAKESPEARE. A
few weeks ago Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson
published for me a reprint of John Weever's
'Epigrams,' 1599. Since the book appeared
Mr. A. H. Bullen has called my attention to
a point of considerable interest in Weever's
work, which, I am sorry to say, escaped me
