Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/352

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344


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9- s. xn. OCT. 31, 1903.


of the duello (' Cynthia's Revels,'. I. i.), must have been the translator of Saviolo s Prac- tise 'CStat. Reg.,' 1594)." See Penmman, p 90 note. Fleay thinks Barnaby Rich is the man, without the slightest evidence. It was printed by John Wolfe, London, 1595. John Wolfe was Harvey's especial Pinter. Harvey calls him " his loving friend (Dedi- cation of 'Pierce's Supererogation, 1593), and with him Harvey stayed in London. Nashe, indeed, frequently identifies Wolfe with Harvey ; and Wolfe's emblem of a cedar or juniper tree with an Italian motto (see

  • Shakespeare Allusion-Books,' Part I, 1874

pp 35 123) seems to have been also that ot Harvey, which may have some bearing on the name "Juniper" (an old term for cedars) in 'The Case is Altered.' Compare here " Harvey under a yew-tree at Trinity Hall, composing verses on the weathercock: or Allhallows in Cambridge " (Disraeli, ut sup., p 127).

'The words " deformed traveller " were suitable ; Nashe, as mentioned above, likens Harvey to a case of toothpicks and a lute-pin. It would be interesting to see if the transla- tion of Saviolo is akin to Harvey's style.

If Juniper represents Harvey, as^ I main- tain he does, there is a passage in ' The Case is Altered ' (II. iv.) which goes a long way to support the contention that Harvey was the translator of Saviolo. Juniper says : have the phrases, man, and the anagrams and the epitaphs fitting the mystery of the noble science. Onion. I '11 be hanged an he were not misbegotten of some fencer/' Mj suggestion makes these words full of pointec meaning, otherwise they are spoken ai random. Harvey says (ii. 237, 238) : " Vain

Nash because thou termest me an ok

fencer (indeed, I was once Tom Burlegh'i

scholar) whenever I meete thee next

will batter thy carrion to dirt," &c. Thi identifies' Harvey doubly with the fencing attribute, and leads one to suspect^ he ma; supply ideas for the duello of Fastidipu Brisk in * Every Man Out,' and of its plagiar ism, that of Emulo in ' Patient Grissel.'

Hedon says Amorphus " cannot speak ou of a dictionary method " (' Cynthia's Revels IV. i.). Harvey authorizes his language b; a reference to "'the new Calepine " (Grosart' ' Harvey,' ii. 66). This is a constant charg of Nashe's against Harvey, as already pointe< out. See Grosart's ' Nashe,' ii. 262 ; iv. 0, &c Amorphus is made absurd in the game playe in 'Cynthia's Revels' (IV. i.) by his choice c the fustian word " pythagorical." I have no found this in Harvey, but he gets very near i in " Pythagorean or Platonicall diet " (ii. 214


"Amorphus boasts of his travels, and of he distinguished people he has met " (Penni- uan, p. 92), in 'Cynthia's Revels,' I. i. [arvey says :

" If I be an asse, what asses were those courteous riendes, those excellent learned men, those wor- hipfull and honourable personages, whose letters

f singular commendation may be shown?

rrosart's ' Harvey,' ii. 82.

A little later he refers to "Milord the dearie of Leicester," and speaking of these etters, he says, "Some of good experience iave doubted whether they ever voutsafed he like to others" (ibid., i. xi, xii). He )oasts of the patronage of Leicester, the riendship of Sidney, and especially of ' Sidney's sister " the Countess of Pembroke, constantly. "Some would say, what is the peevish grudge of one braggart rakehell to ,he honourable liking of so many excellent bnd some singular men 1 " (p. 84.)

Amorphus says : " Lucian is absurd, he knew nothing, I will believe mine own travels before all the Lucians in Europe" 'Cynthia's Revels,' I. i. 153a). Harvey has frequent abuse of Lucian. He coins the word ' Lucianically " (i. 166 ; ii. 215) and "a despe- rate Lucianist " (i. 190), and in several places condemns that author.

After the first act of ' Cynthia's Revels ' I do not find much of Harvey in Jonson's Amorphus. Similarly, in 'The Case is Altered,' Antonio Balladino (Antony Munday) is dropped after the first act. Amorphus has been identified with Munday, mainly from his later features in the play, by Penniman and others. I am not disposed to agree with this ; but if it be so, Jonson employed the character as a stalking-horse under cover of which to attack more than one public absurdity. H. C. HART.

(To be continued.}


WANT OF UNIFORMITY IN EARLY MEASURES OF CAPACITY. A letter to the Duke of Rich- mond (1640-72) from his steward J. Wrenham, dated 11 May, 1670, furnishes some curious information on the inconveniences incurred by the varying standards of dry measure prevailing in different parts of England at the end of the seventeenth century. It is as follows :

May it please your Grace, I have delivered into your Grace's Vessell at Lyn seaven Lasts of Beanes every Last conteyning Ten quarters and a half quarter \v ch will hold out soe at London, I pre- sume with some Little advantage. I bought alsoe, my Lord, twenty Lasts of Oats at Wisbeech and one last more at Lyn ; but those from Wisbeech sett in 18 Coome w ch are halfe quarters, soe, my Lord, they made out at the Vessell but nineteene Lasts