Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/587

 s. ii. DEC. 17, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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by his widow Mary, to whom he left his property, in the hope that she in turn would leave it to " her son William Robert Dun- karton, if by his future conduct he shall be deserving thereof" (Register of Consistory Court of London, 1815, f. 76).

GORDON GOODWIN. (To be continued.)

'MARTINE MAR-SIXTUS,' 1592, AND

ROBERT GREENE.

To make clear what afterwards follows I shall begin with a few passages from the first volume of the late Rev. Dr. Grosart's edition of the * Works of Robert Greene ' :

"R. W.'s 'red-nosed minister' in 'Martin Mar- sixtus."' Prefatory Note.

" Also the red-nosed minister in Artibus Magister of Martin Mar-Sixtus." Editor's 'Intro.,' p. Ixix.

" Another literary enemy of Greene's, the anony- mous author of a pamphlet entitled 'Marline Mar-Sextus,' looking on Greene's works from his puritanical point of view, calls them fascinating, dishonourable love tracts." Storojenko's * Bio. Sketch,' p. 56.

As I have a copy of this rare and most interesting tract before me, I shall quote the title-page in full :

"Martine Mar-Sixtvs. A second replie against the defensory and Apology of Sixtus the fift late Pope of Rome, defending the execrable fact of the lacobine Frier, vpon the person of Henry the third, late King of France, to be both commendable, admirable, and meritorious. Wherein the saide Apology is faithfully translated, directly answered, and fully satisfied. Let God be ludge betwixt thee and me. Genes. 16. [Printer's ornament.] At London Printed for Thomas Woodcock, arid are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the black Beare. 1592."

Following this title-page there is a dedication, occupying two leaves : "To the right Worship- full and vertuous Gentleman, Master Edmund Bowyar Esquier, the Author hereof wisheth peace and wealth, with abpundance of all spirituall felicitie." It is in this address that the references to R-obert Greene are to be found, and I think it will be seen from the following extract that the epithet " red- nosed rimester " (not Dr. Grosart's ridiculous directly to Greene, but comes as a general observation from the author. This dedica- tion is printed in italic type, and as I con- sider it of some importance in connexion with Greene, I shall reproduce it word for word as it is in the original :
 * ' red-nosed minister") does not even apply

man either so vainely, or factiously, or filthily dis- posed, but there are crept out of all sorts vnautho- rized authors, to fill and fit his humor, and if a mans deuotion serue him not to goe to the Church
 * VVe Hue in a printing age, wherein there is no

of God, he neede but repayre to a Stationers shop and reade a sermon of the diuels : I loath to speake it, euery red-nosed rimester is an author, euery drunken mans dreame is a booke, and he whose talent of little wit is hardly worth a farthing, yet layeth about him so outragiously, as if all Helicon, had run through his pen, in a word, scarce a cat can looke out of a gutter, but out starts a halfpeny Chronicler, and presently A propper new ballet of a strange sight is endited: Vyhat publishing of friuolous and scurrilous Prognostications ? as if Will Sommers were againe reuiued : what counterfeiting and cogging of prodigious and fabulous monsters? as if they labored to exceede the Poet in his Meta- morphosis ; what lasciuious, vnhonest, and amorous discourses, such as Augustus in a heathen common wealth could neuer tolerate ? & yet they shame not to subscribe, By a graduate in Cambridge ; In Artibus Magister ; as if men should iudge of the fruites of Art by the ragges and parings of wit, and endite the Vniuersities, as not onely accessary to- their vanitie, but nurses of bawdry ; we would the world should know, that howsoeuer those places haue power to create a Master of Artes, yet the art of loue is none of the seauen ; and be it true that Honos alit artes, yet small honor is it to be honored for such artes, nor shal he carry the price that seasoneth his profit with such a sweete ; It is the complaint of our age, that men are wanton and sick of wit, with which (as with a loathsome potion in the stomack) they are neuer well till all be out. They are the Pharisees of our time, they write al, & speak al, and do al, vt audiantur ab hominibus ;. or to tel a plaine truth plainely, it is with our hackney authors, as with Oyster-wiues, they care not how sweetely, but how loudely they cry, and coming abroad, they are receaued as vnsauory wares, men are faine to stop their noses, and crie ; Fie vpon this wit ; thus affecting to bee famous,, they become notorious, that it may be saide of them as of the Sophisters at Athens : dum volant- haberi celebriter docti innotescunt insigniter asinini, & when with shame they see their folly, they are faine to put on a mourning garment, and crie,. Farwell. If any man bee of a dainty and curious care, I shall desire him to repayre to those authors ; euery man hath not a Perle-miut, a Fish-mint, nor a Bird-mint in his braine, all are not licensed to create new stones, new Fowles, new Serpents, to coyne new creatures ; for my selfe, I know I shall be eloquent enough, I shal be an Orator good enough if I can perswade, which to be the end and purpose of my heart, he knoweth who knoweth my heart."

This dedication is subscribed, "Your Worships in all duety. R. W. "

J. P. Collier has some remarks on the- concluding portion of the foregoing passage, which are very well worth quoting ('Biblio. Account,' vol. i. p. 265) :

"The artificial style in which this and other pieces of this kind were composed, was excellently ridiculed at this date [1592] by R. W., in his

'Martin Marsixtus,' 1592 Here we see

Greene's 'Mourning Garment,' 1590, and his 'Faie well to Folly,' 1591, distinctly mentioned ; but it was not in those, so much as in others, that he resorted to his invention, and, for the sake of apt similes, imputed to pearls, fishes, birds and beasts ' properties which they did not possess."