University of Virginia Library

George Wither's Quarrel with the Stationers: An Anonymous Reply to The Schollers Purgatory
by
Allan Pritchard

In his Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers (IV, 14-20) Arber reprinted substantial extracts from George Wither's attack on the stationers, The Schollers Purgatory (ca. 1624), to illustrate conditions of publishing and bookselling in the earlier seventeenth century, and subsequently other bibliographers, including A. W. Pollard and W. W. Greg,[1] have made use of the pamphlet, although their opinion of its author's reliability has varied. The existence in a manuscript copy, however, of an anonymous contemporary "Letter" in reply to The Schollers Purgatory appears to have been overlooked, and it is here printed for the first time. Its author is evidently not himself one of the stationers, but he claims close familiarity with them, and he undertakes to express their viewpoint. Although he nowhere mentions The Schollers Purgatory by title, his allusion is clearly to that work, or, more accurately, to those limited parts of it which he has seen at the time of writing: "some fewe imperfect sheetes, vizt A. D. E." (fol. 17r).

The "Letter" must be viewed in the context of the quarrel between Wither and the Company of Stationers, which had been under way for at least a year and a half when it was written. The origin of the dispute was the patent granted the poet, perhaps through the influence of the Earl of Pembroke, by James I, on February 17, 1623.[2] It not only gave

Wither the copyright for fifty-one years of his newly completed The Hymnes and Songs of the Church, but it also required the stationers to insert the work henceforth in all bound copies of the Psalms in meter. The Company, which held the profitable monopoly of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter, showed immediate concern about the second clause. On March 10, it appointed five members to meet Wither.[3] Failing evidently to reach an agreement with the poet satisfactory to themselves, the stationers seem thereafter to have employed every means within their power to oppose the patent. Sometime before November 3, they petitioned the King,[4] with a result of which the "Letter" itself gives the clearest account: the matter was referred to four clergymen "eminent, both in authoritie and for Iudgment" (fol. 18v). They had not delivered their verdict at the time the "Letter" was written; nor is there any record that they ever pronounced it.

Meanwhile, the stationers turned from King to Parliament, opportunely raising against Wither's patent the cry "monopoly" in a House of Commons engaged in legislating against monopolies. According to the poet, they maintained daily during the session (in 1624): "three or foure of their Instruments, to clamor against me at the Parliament house dore, in so rude a fashion as vvas neuer exampled in any Cause," and "compelled a fevv of the Bookebynders (whose estates much depend on their fauors) to present the high Court of Parliament with diuers vntrue suggestions in the name of fourescore; when as all except 4. or 5. of them, did (as I haue heard) reiect the said information as faulse & rediculous."[5] A copy of this petition which survives[6] leaves

little doubt that the bookbinders in fact had genuine enough grievances against the patent, but it also reveals that the booksellers had put some pressure upon them, and had even adopted the practice of sending books "in quiers" to the country for binding, in order to evade attempts at enforcement of the offensive clause. Whether or not as a result of this petition, on May 15, 1624, the House of Commons ordered Wither's patent, with others, to be "brought in."[7] The writer of the "Letter" states that Wither hid to escape a personal summons by Parliament, but, on May 22, the Sergeant's man sent to bring the poet testified to the Commons that while he had been "withstood, and abused by one, at whose House Withers lay: That Withers assisted him, and kept him from Wrong."[8] Parliament does not appear to have taken any further action, and the patent continued to stand.

If the stationers succeeded neither in persuading the King to revoke the patent nor in having Parliament condemn it as beyond the just power of the royal prerogative, their control of the book trade gave them a means of resistance which Wither, even with the support of the Privy Council, was unable to fight effectively. In practice, as he complains in The Schollers Purgatory, the booksellers not only declined to bind his Hymnes and Songs with the metrical psalter (a charge which the bookbinders' petition confirms), but they boycotted the work altogether, refusing to supply copies even to those who repeatedly requested them, and they mounted a war of propaganda against it, questioning his qualifications in divinity, attacking his rendering of the Song of Solomon as obscene, and declaring his hymns for Anglican saints' days to be popish (pp. 17-32, 39 ff.).[9]

For his part, as a whole series of incidents in his life shows, Wither was not a man to bear grievances quietly. In addition to counter-attacking in The Schollers Purgatory, which is addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Convocation but is clearly intended also for a larger audience, he exercised the right which his patent gave him to search out and confiscate bound copies of the metrical psalter offered for sale contrary to its terms,[10] and on July 12, 1624, he made complaint to the

Privy Council against the Company of Stationers. The latter was ordered to conform to the patent, but the fact that the complaint and the order were repeated on January 21, 1627, indicates that it did not do so effectively, although on February 21, 1627, it made a motion of obedience, and in March, 1633, it engaged in some negotiation with Wither.[11] The poet or his assigns continued the fight until 1635,[12] but thereafter he seems to have conceded victory to the stationers, whose strength and solidarity are impressively demonstrated during the whole course of the conflict, despite the relative failure of some of their tactics. Wither not only lost, as he complained, large sums of money which he had expended in printing copies of Hymnes and Songs on the strength of the patent, but he was unable to have any of his works printed in England in a normal fashion for a decade.[13]

Belonging to the most heated period of the conflict, The Schollers Purgatory was in part surreptitiously printed by George Wood in 1624. As the writer of the "Letter" suggests, Wither's reasons for employing the "Printer G. W." are easily discovered, for Wood's relations with the Company of Stationers were as strained as the poet's own. Apparently admitted to the Company as a freeman in 1613, Wood was not a master printer, but secretly he persisted in operating presses.[14] Wither had made him one of his assigns for the printing of Hymnes and Songs,[15] and he may be that "Printer in disguise" whom Ben Jonson describes in his satire upon Wither in Time Vindicated (1623) as keeping

Although his hidden presses had already been confiscated several times by officials of the Stationers' Company, Wood was discovered on September 9, 1624, printing The Schollers Purgatory, which was unlicensed, at an unauthorized press near Holborn Bridge.[17] Once more his press was seized; and Wither was summoned by the Court of High Commission to answer a series of charges.

The sworn statement which the poet made to this court sheds some light upon the printing of his pamphlet.[18] In it he disclaimed all responsibility for the operation of the press, but declared that he employed Wood to print The Schollers Purgatory "at a certayne price by the sheete," argued that by the regulating decree "the Printer of a booke is . . . excused though he begin to imprint the same before it be authorized soe it be afterwardes allowed . . . before the full imprinteing thereof," and expressed his belief that Wood could make adequate defence of his own activity, "considering that irregularity lately Comon amonge Printers and withall seeing the booke wch should haue been imprinted tended to the reformacon of such abuses and disorders." In the final part of his statement may be found some clues, perhaps, as to the reason why the writer of the "Letter" had seen only certain sheets of The Schollers Purgatory:

The sheets signed A, D, and E may have fallen into the hands of the stationers when they confiscated Wood's press, or they may have been among those whose whereabouts Wither did not know at the time he testified to the High Commission.[19] When and by whom the printing of The Schollers Purgatory was completed is unknown: the title page of the pamphlet bears the phrase, "IMPRINTED / For the Honest Stationers," without date or printer's name.

In The Schollers Purgatory Wither stated his expectation that upon publication the stationers would employ "some of those hyreling Authors of theirs" in order to make "some foolish libell against me; or to publish an impudent reply to my Apology" (p. 115), but one can only speculate concerning the identity of the writer of the "Letter." The subscription, "ffrom the Goose Nest in / St Nicholas Shambles," is no doubt ironic in intention, and derives from a passage of The Schollers Purgatory in which Wither declares of his enemies among the stationers: "yf any should happen to ouer-heare them at their Goosenest behind Saint Nicholas Shambles; Or vvhen a knot of them hath gotten a Cuntrey-Chapman, Citty-Customer, or nevv flovvne Academick, to some Drincking-schoole, vvithin the compasse of their verge; yt vvould deceaue a common iudgement to obserue vvhat grauitey, zeale, and learning, some of them vvill consume in rayling vpon my Hymnes" (p. 75). In a note on St. Nicholas Shambles in his Survey of London, Stow informs us: "behind the butchers shops be now diuers slaughter houses inward, and Tippling houses outward. This is called Mountgodard streete of the Tippling houses there . . . ."[20] Mountgodard Street seems a likely enough location, if one be sought, for the "Goose Nest." On the southern edge of the Shambles, it was close to the booksellers' shops of St. Paul's churchyard, and no doubt some of the stationers gave its tippling houses their patronage.

The author of the "Letter" replies to the arguments, accusations and invective of The Schollers Purgatory point by point, following the order of the A, D, and E sheets almost exactly, but he gives more attention to those matters which directly affect the stationers than to the poet's defence of Hymnes and Songs against the charges of popishness and obscenity. He has no difficulty in bringing forth reasonable objections to the controversial clause in the patent, although he does not explain how he arrives at the figure of £300 as the annual profit expected from it by Wither. But larger issues, not to be dealt with so

easily, are also involved, for in his pamphlet Wither had attacked the whole current system of publication and charged that many of the stationers showed no concern for the rights and interests of authors. It is upon this subject that The Schollers Purgatory and the "Letter" are most interesting.

Although Wither is proud of his claims to the status of gentleman, and insistent that in his writings he intends good to church and state more than private profit, he displays in The Schollers Purgatory much of the viewpoint of the professional man of letters who attempts to earn his living by his pen. Thus, he complains that his opponents do not consider what an author "might haue gained, if he had bestowed the same tyme, charge, & industry in other professions" as in letters (p. 93). He protests, indeed, that he sought the copyright of his Hymnes and Songs as the only means left him by the iniquitous practices of the stationers to "enioy the benifit of some part of myne owne labours" (while the other clause of the patent was an unsought for addition of the royal favor) (p. 5). The writer of the "Letter" had not, of course, seen all of the charges against the "meere Stationers" (whom the poet makes some attempt to distinguish from the apparently smaller number of "honest Stationers"), but even in the A sheets he had seen enough to make the substance of the attack clear. He had read Wither's general charge: "by an vniust custome . . . the Stationers haue so vsurped vpon the labours of all writers, that when they haue consumed their youth and fortunes in perfiting some laborious worke, those cruell Bee-masters burne the poore Athenian bees for their hony, or else driue them from the best part thereof by their long practiced cunninge" (p. 5); and, there can be little doubt, he had also seen the accusation that the stationers ". . . take vppon them to publish bookes contriued, altered, and mangled at their owne pleasurs, without consent of the writers: nay and to change the name some[t]yms, both of booke and Author (after they haue been ymprinted) and all for their owne priuate lucre" (pp. 10-11).[21]

Upon the second charge the author of the "Letter" remains silent, but he replies to the first, in part by questioning the profitableness to the stationers of the poet's own writings, particularly Wither's Motto (1621). He is certainly right in stating that this work brought trouble to stationers as well as to its author. While Wither was imprisoned by the Privy Council for its satirical matter, John Marriot, John Grismond,

Augustine Mathewes, and Nicholas Okes were fined, on June 4, 1621, by the Court of the Stationers' Company for printing and dispersing it without licence or entrance; and Marriot was charged at the same time with bringing out a second impression of 1,500 copies in defiance of the Court, which on May 14 had explicitly forbidden publication until further authority had been obtained.[22] As the "Letter" itself informs us, however, Wither had sold the copy for five pieces[23] to a stationer (presumably either Weaver, who possessed it on May 14, or Marriot and Grismond, who entered a version "corrected" by the licenser on June 16). It seems doubtful that the poet can be justly held responsible for the difficulties which befell Marriot and the others, for, as their own Company maintained, it was for them to look to the licensing of the work.

Although the author of the "Letter" suggests that Motto became popular only because it was called in question, it might well be argued that Marriot must have considered the poem potentially profitable, since he was willing to take the risk of publishing its satirical passages without licence. Even more clearly Okes considered it a valuable commodity: possessing no right to the copy, he took the trouble to counterfeit one of Marriot's editions.[24] The bookseller John Grismond stated on July 10 that Marriot and Okes between them had produced 6,000 copies since their fining on June 4, and he also gave the rather amusing testimony that "Londs" (i.e. Matthew Lownes), Warden of the Company, had daily purchased copies since fining him and Marriot for publishing them.[25] If some stationers did not profit in this, the fault would hardly seem to be the poet's. Like his earlier satire, Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), which also caused his imprisonment, and also received the distinction of piracy,[26] Motto was evidently a considerable popular success. The extent of the vulgar popularity of Wither's writings in 1623 is one of the subjects of Jonson's satirical comment in Time Vindicated.

Wither's grievances and his concern to defend his patent undoubtedly make him, as A. W. Pollard held, a "bad witness" on the question of the Jacobean stationers' attitude towards authors'

rights,[27] but the fact that he was in truth the writer of several commercially valuable works gives some weight to his charges in The Schollers Purgatory; and a number of statements and silences in the "Letter" may well be taken to confirm W. W. Greg's judgment that, even when allowance is made for prejudice and exaggeration, Wither's "general statement of the case must be accepted."[28] Although the anonymous writer, like the poet himself, declares that the first consideration should be the public good, and postulates the ideal of a mutually satisfactory agreement between publisher and author, he clearly believes that the former's rights, to financial gain, at least, are superior to the latter's. On the one hand, "The profession of a Stacōner is to buy and sell, and to gaine by it if hee can"; on the other, "They are too Mercenary that write bookes for Money" (fol. 18r).

Occupying eleven pages (fols. 17r-22r), 8 by 12 inches, the "Letter" is the last of four items[29] which comprise British Museum MS. Add. 18,648. All are transcribed, presumably from manuscript sources, in the same clear seventeenth-century mixed hand. Unfortunately, the paper has entirely disintegrated in an area, which becomes progressively larger, near the top of every folio of the "Letter." In the transcript which follows, the resulting gaps in the text have been indicated by pointed brackets, within which conjectural readings or reconstructions have been supplied when the context or the relevant passage of The Schollers Purgatory provides sufficient guidance. A few insignificant deletions and interlineations occur in the manuscript: the former have not been recorded; the latter have been silently incorporated in the proper places. The spelling and punctuation of the original have been retained, but certain contractions have been expanded in italic type, the final "es" sign has been printed as "es", and the long "s" has been modernized.

Good Mr Wither: I haue seene some fewe imperfect sheetes, vizt A. D. E. of a booke that you haue lately caused to bee printed, dedicated to the Reverend Bishopps, and the Convocation house; and it seemes vnto mee to bee an Apologie for the Hymnes, and songs, you haue lately published: which when I had perused; I thought it the part of a ffreind, out of the respect I beare vnto you, to deliuer myselfe freely, what successe I thincke it is likely to haue./

My intent is spetially to deale in those things, that concerne the Stacōners, whom spightfully in your whole Booke you vniustly traduce, and most vncivilly abuse: and I feare it will soe disparage your discretion, that all your laboures will growe distastfull, and not regarded, because soe intemperate a Man as you are is theire author; and therfore they which haue made some stay therof, and supprest the Presse, are more your ffreindes (though perhapps against theire Wills) then you are aware off; that the world may not take notice of your spleene and follie.

Before I come to answere for the Stacōners, I haue somewhat to say with your very preamble, where you begine to bragg of the testimonies you haue giuen, of your assertion to the peace, and prosperitie of the Church and comon wealth. Some of the testimonies you haue giuen are in scribling forth a fewe railing verses, that haue giuen occasion to idle people, to descant vpon them at theire pleasures, and interpret them to your discreditt; ffor writing wherof you were deseruedly laied by the heeles, and howsoeuer you mince the matter, and excuse yourselfe; [Fol. 17v] your offence was such, as was not to bee indured.

Next you take vpon you, to teach the Convocation house, what should become th<em> in Charritie to doe towardes you, soe impudently and sawcily th<at no>e Man that Reades it will thincke it any Mans doing that had witt or discretion, but rather of some Schoole-Boy, that would bee whip't for his vnmanerlines.

Then speaking of your troubles, you bring in two or three threadbare proverbs as Camomil must bee trodden on Plate hamer'd, grapes crush't, and I knowe not what, soe sencelesly and impertinently, that you had need begg for patience, as very well you doe of those that shall read it; to which Proverbs the Stacōners will add another, Bray a foole in a Morter, and hee will neuer learne wisdome, and soe you are answered in your owne kind.

You come then to Iustifie yourselfe in your former writings, and in trueth therin you accuse the state of some iniustice, in shutting you up soe closely, where you could not haue the vse of your Pen, and were compelled to feed on course bread, and because afterwardes the State (in respect of your Youth, and that you wrote things at a venture, not vnderstanding what you did) were content to passe by your follies, you would make us beleeue you were vtterly blamelesse, and suffered all for nothing.

Nowe having made this Preamble, and sharpened the dulnes of your Oratory, you fall terribly vpon the Stationers; and because they will not bee your Slaues, that you may liue by the sweate of theire Browes, and haue 300li a yeare for a song, you raile outright and say they vsurpe on the labours of writers; and are like Bee-Masters, that burne the Bees for theire hony. Surely they neuer vsurped vpon you, and they hope there is noe good author, that hath cause to complaine: There be some like yourselfe, that thincke they haue neuer enough [Fol. 18r] when they deserue nothing at

all, when their workes are burthensome bo<th to >Studies, and Shopps; and note this alwaies, that <those who >deserue least, thincke best of themselues<, for >noe Author (saies one) is soe bad, but hee thinckes himselfe euery Waie excellent.

The profession of a Stacōner is to buy and sell, and to gaine by it if hee can, as all other Trades doe; They labour to deale in such comodities, as are most vendible; that will turne money readily, wherby they may liue; But theire case is worse then other Trades, for if sometimes they light vpon a vendible Booke, theire gaine is counted, talk't off, and envied. But theire Charge, theire huge piles of waist paper, and theire losses, are neuer once thought vpon or considered; and oftentimes they are enioyned to printe bookes, that lie on their handes, and are a greate hinderance vnto them.

If any Author himselfe would for the generall good, or for his owne proffitt, haue the printing of his owne labours, and procure his ffreindes to disburse the charge, they were euer ready to further them in it.

And most of the best Authors are not soe penurious that they looke soe much to theire gaine, as to the good they intend to Religion or State. They are too Mercenary that write bookes for Money, and theire couetuousnes makes theire labours fruitles, and disesteemed.

The right course is in theis things, that the generall and publique good bee first and principally to bee respected, and then both the Author and Stacōner soe accomodated that each might haue what were fitting, in regard of theire places, paines, and charge; and thus euery good Author will deale with the Stacōner, and euery honest Stationer will thus vse his Author.

And if the Bee (to whom you seeme to compare yourselfe, as properly you may; for you sting terribly, [Fol. 18v] though perhapps you bee a Drone euer after) will not part with some of the hony hee gathe<rs >what good does hee? it were better hee were burnt, o<r dri>ven <fr>om his hiue, then hee should consume it all himselfe.

You proceed and say the Corporācon is inriched by your laboures; to which I answere that the Corporācon hath not got a groate, but spent many, in serching for, and suppressing some of your workes, and otherwise by your occasion. If any particular Man hath gott by you, they are the more behoulding to you for it; This I knowe some of your workes weere sold to any purpose, and for the best, you haue bene gratified in a sufficient proportion, as the poore Men that dealt with you well knowe; and the world knowes that you are not soe much aforehand, that you can weare Clothes soe handsomly, and spend your time for nothing, except you haue some other vaine, that but fewe Men are acquainted withall.

Concerning your Motto, of my knowledge you had fiue peeces of the Stacōner before it came forth, wch was more, then euer would haue bene gotten, if it had come forth orderly; But it had noe license, and was afterwardes forbidden, which put some life into it; you were in some trouble and soe was the Stationer, and lost his Bookes, But you were on the surer side, for you had your Money before hand.

Well, then you come to say, amongst other idle things (for if I should stand vpon euery Bravado you make, I should neuer haue done) That his Matie favours your worthy Worke, and those that are esteemed amongst the most devoute, and learned of the Clergie: His Matie hath referred the whole Matter to foure of the most eminent, both in authoritie and for Iudgment, if they shall thincke it fitting that your Booke shall passe, and bee ioyned with the Psalme Booke, the Stacōners must conforme [Fol. 19r] themselues to th<eire> Censure, and dare not resist what they shall order< > Stationers haue laboured to obtaine a hearing, and< >en< > often to ioyne with them for the obtaynin<g ther>of, but (brag and prate as much as you will) you haue euer declined that course, and soe you did the Parliament house, when you absented and obscured yourselfe, for many daies together, and were sent for by a Messenger, and yet you vaunted before in diuers places, that if it were not Parliament proofe, you would cast all the Bookes, and Patent into the ffire.

It is a poore Waye to leaue the course, that is directed by his Mates referrence, wherby you might bring this matter to some head, and fall to abusing better Men, and honester then yourselfe, and because you cannot haue your owne desires, thincke to get it by scoulding and calling them Pedlers, indeed if they had nothing to deale in but such trashe as yours, you might truly stile them as you doe.

The language you vse would haue shewed best in a Riming Satyr, wherin you haue a facultie aboue other Men, for your Oratory indeed is somewhat dull, if you had versed them forth, it would haue made some sport, though there bee noe reason for it, yet wee should haue some Rhime for our Money.

The whole Scripture is most sacred euery where, and noe part of it ought to bee handled but with greate Reuerence, and iudgement; You are a young fellowe, and some thincke it is greate pittie, that such an one, should bee suffered to thrust in his sickle, further then for his owne vse, and direction. But for you to take vpon you to teach, and reprooue others, whose Bookes you are not worthy to carry after them, is intollerable in a state, where there are soe many Reuerend and learned Men, that haue desired to doe the same thing that you doe; but out of respect they had to authoritie would not proceed, except they had bene imployed by publique Comaund. But whoe is soe bold as blind blink-eyed Bayard, [Fol. 19v] that dares in foule termes abuse hi<s >betters, and will take any thing in hand, that hee < > to doe withall, and when hee hath done the wh<ole> com<on> wealth, and all good Men must suffer to stopp his M< >and maintaine his Vanitiees. Yet you, will you not saie disparage the whole profession, The Printers, Bookbinders, and Claspe makers are beholding to you; for some of them (saie you) are honest Men, and they are greived at the oppression of the rest.

What are they I pray you, that are soe greived? is not your Printer G. W. one of them? like enough for hee is one of your consort, and birdes of a

feather will flocke together, a fit Copesmate to deale in a broken buisnes, whoe for his refractorines wilbe euer branded; hee came in by intrusion noe man knowes howe; hee hath bene in most Prisons most part of his time, and is neuer out of one Micheife or other; if there were nothing els to hinder yor buisnes, the very ioyning with him would make it odious, and this is one of your honest Men.

But nowe (if euer) the furie is rais'd, when you terme them excrementes, vermine, Wormes, and fleas, and all this proceedes not from Mallice or Envie, and your conscience doth witnes theis termes to bee charritable, and necessarie, for soe you say a little before. Does any Body beleeue you? if this bee conscionable dealing, you haue a very large conscience, and revengfull, to abuse a profession that neuer did you wrong, but more Credit then you deserue. But this is like a blind gal'd-bark't Iade, that laies aboute him at hee knowes not what, when he feeles any smart. I could speake particularly of the titles you afford them, and turne them home vpon you with a vengeance, But all that heare and Read them say, truly they proceed from some distemper of the braine; and I am too blame to spend time with a Man, whom the opinion of himselfe hath made starke Mad; yet you say something when you confesse [Fol. 20r] that your first P<oem>s discouer your Childishnes, & indiscretion and wee see th< > discouers your Pride, insolencie, and madnes, < > forward (with this) that the Bookseller<s shall c>ontinue, and bee well accompted off, necessarie<an>d vsefull, when such a fellowe as yourselfe shall die in an hospitall.

You haue then a fling at the old Psalme booke, to wch I say noe more but this: The expressions of the holy Ghost in those Nombers, which you call Rude and Barbarous, haue bene soe well accepted off, that euen vse hath made them holy, and doe comfort and encourage Gods people soe, that your newe affected devises, shall neuer bee able to disparage them, much lesse to thrust them out of doores, and put in your owne at your desire.

But still you pretend greate good to the Church, and take vpon you to instruct and direct, not only the simple & ordinary sort, but divines and teachers, and the whole Church, howe they will take it at your handes I knowe not, but if you had the 300li a yeare that you ayme at, whatsoeuer the Church should get by your labours, I am sure you should bee well paied for your paines; and to that end you would haue them pack't into our Liturgie, that Men might be compelled to buy them with the old Psalme booke, that soe, whether they proue vsefull or noe, you shall bee sure to haue them taken of your handes.

Besides your former sufferings in Prison, you talke of sufferings in this very buisnes.

You haue lost nothing but that you neuer had; you haue bene something too forward to print soe many, before you knewe howe to vent them. If this bee your suffering, you may thancke yourselfe or your Printer G: W.

that being a beggar and a foole, wilbee forward enough to doe any Mischeife.

Nowe by the waie let mee say one thing vnto you, which Methinckes is vnanswerable (that is) That if your Booke bee soe excellently well Composed, as you make accompt it is, [Fol. 20v] howe can the Stacōners disparage i<t (>being as you say, but ignorant Men) for those wh<oe be lear>ned and Iudicious, would by it the rather be< >Men doe condemne it. Nay farther (to vse your owne< >) That those yor hymnes being warrantable in themselues, Noe mans authority shalbee able to dishonor them. Nay if my Lord of Canterbury (whose grace you mention not with that respect becomes you, and accuse you knowe not whom for abusing his name) in disparagement of your aforesaid Booke, and therin (as in other passages) you are exceeding sawcy. If his eminency (as you say) cannot excuse them, if they bee not Iustifiable in theire owne Nature, howe can the Stacōners make you or them acceptable or odious.

I must say this for the Stacōners; though I bee noe Bookseller, yet I am very conversant, and often amongst them, and I neuer heard any Man in all my life, speake any word against your booke or Patent, more then this, that they hoped and desired, to bee left at libertie to bind them wth the Psalmes, only for those that would haue them together, and not to bee Compelled to put them into all theire Bookes for euery Customer; and they yeilded theise reasons, that it would bee more importable, and not bee euery Mans money, for he that hath viijd hath not xijd, and soe it would hinder the sale of Bibles, and other Bookes, that the Psalmes are vsually put vnto.

Therefore it is likely that the exceptions you make against your owne Booke, which you lay vpon the Stacōners and scould with them for, are altogether of your owne making, out of a guiltines in yourselfe, or are taken up in Tipling houses, and brought vnto you by Companions of your owne, and not from Men of worth or Creditt.

God forbid that any but Atheistes or Drunckardes, should terme the scriptures in any place obscene; but if you render them not vnto us, in that grauitie, as they [Fol. 21r] are deliuered in s<crip>ture, you may giue occasion of greate offence.

My inten<t is not to medd>le, in a matter of soe high a Nature. I < on>ly m<e>ddle with soe much of your Booke as concern<es> the Stacōners; And whether the Apologie you make <w>ill Redeeme you from blame, or the answeres you make to your owne obiections, wilbee admitted to further your Designes; I leaue them to bee censured by such as can Iudge, and haue power to reforme if they bee amisse.

And soe I passe ouer all your obiections, and meete with you againe, where you meete with the Stacōners. But say you, Scriueners, and Costermongers, Porters, and Tripewiues, Chaundlers, and ffidlers; and I knowe not whoe, haue scoffed at you, in Taphouses and Tavernes: Then (say I) I could wishe you to come noe more among them, for they will scoffe at

better Men then you; and hee that toucheth pitch shalbee defiled. But all this say you must bee long of the Stacōners. If some Idle headed ffellowe hath blurted out some wordes of your Bookes, is it faire dealing to cast your aspertions vpon them in generall? you should haue set downe whoe they are, and then you might haue receiued a reasonable answere.

To bring your ambitious designes the better forward, you would faine interest the King himselfe, and the whole Church, and therfore you accuse you knowe not whom; but they must needes bee Stacōners for opposing authoritie, and seeking to ouerthrowe the discipline of the Church; and when you haue writt it, you thincke you haue done brauely.

But howe doe they oppose authoritie? haue they not peticōned his Matie in this cause, and hath not his Matie graceously referred it to most Reverend Men? and hath not his Matie expressed himselfe, that hee intended noe restraint, or burthen on the subiect, nor breach of order to the preiudice of others? and haue not the Stationers (as I said before) much desired the matter might bee [Fol. 21v] determined; and submitted themsel<ues t>o his Mates order.

But such trickes as theis < >e you good, but Returne back vpon you to < >

Then to helpe the matter yo<u >t forth; and brag that you might haue bene hired, and had g<oo>d entertainment to imploy yourselfe, in se<t>ting forth here<tica>ll fancies, and that you haue bene woed by Sectaries.

I must needes saie you would haue done them very good seruice, for by this booke you showe, that you haue an excellent facultie to abuse your betters, and to forge vntrueths, but when you come to proue any thing, you would haue left that to themselues.

I passe ouer much good matter, because I begine to bee wearie, But at the Goose-Nest I will meete you againe, you knowe the place I perceiue well; and sure you were there sucking a Goose egge, in some Corner of the house, when the Stacōners mett, or howe could you knowe howe they vse theire Customers, or what they talke of when they are together; It was noe good manners to eausdropp your ffreindes. But in good earnest doe you thincke it possible for any Stacōner to talke soe sencelesly as you would make them? It will rather bee thought by them that read this straine, that you being a fine Poet, to make some sport withall, would heere trie howe you could act the fooles part, in a Play of your owne making, and thats all breifly I will say of the Goose Nest.

The reasons you alledge for your Hymne of St George I like reasonable well; But you might haue added that for the names sake it was fitting you should doe something, the Inne, or Alehouse where you lye, being the Signe of St George on horsbacke might moue to you a little therto, and if you haue a Lady or Mistris there, or els where, you are euery way a Compleate Champion; for though you neuer Rescued Lady, [Fol. 22r] Yet by the he< >aken out of the Staconers Goose Nest, < > a

Booke (it may come forth) will make < >osterities.

Thus< > written in the Stacōners behalfe, that you < >wh<at >it is to abuse a Societie, and if in <s>ome place I bee ouersharpe, you may thancke yourselfe that gaue the occasion, by putting your handes into a Waspes Nest, for if you had taken a quiet course, you should haue bene sure of a ffreindly end. ffarewell./

ffrom the Goose Nest in
St Nicholas Shambles./

Notes