Shakespeare's Lost Years in London by Arthur Acheson (audio ebook reader .txt) 📕

vertue. And it was not easie for Cato to
speake evill, so was it not usuall for him to heare evill. It may be
Socrates would not kicke againe, if an asse did kicke at him, yet
some that cannot be so wise, and will not be so patient as Socrates,
will for such jadish tricks give the asse his due burthen of
bastonadas. Let H.S. hisse, and his complices quarrell, and all
breake their gals, _I have a great faction of good writers to bandie
with me_."

Florio here gives palpable evidence of the fact that his was not an isolated case, but that he was banded with a literary faction in hostility to Shakespeare, which included Roydon, who published _Willobie his Avisa_, in 1594, again in 1596, and again in 1599; Chapman, who, in 1593, attacked Shakespeare in the early _Histriomastix_, and again in 1599 in its revision, as well as in his poem to Harriot, appended to his _Achilles Shield_ in the same year; and Marston, who joined Chapman in opposition to Shakespeare, and helped in the revision of _Histriomastix_. In the words "Let H.S. hisse, and his complices quarrell, etc.," Florio also gives evidence that Shakespeare at this period had literary allies. In the story of the Sonnets I shall show that Dekker was Shakespeare's principal ally in what has been called the "War of the Theatres," which is supposed to have commenced at this time, and, bearing in mind Chettle's recorded collaboration with Dekker at this same period, it is evident that he also sided with Shakespeare.

A careful search of Elizabethan literature fails to bring to light _any other writer who makes a satirical use of the initials "J.F.," or any record of a writer bearing initials in any way resembling "H.S." who in any manner approximates to Florio's description of a "reader" and a "writer too" as well as a maker of plays_.

I have already shown Chapman's references to Shakespeare in the dedication of _The Shadow of Night_. His allusion to Shakespeare as "passion-driven" at that date (1594) being a reference to his relations with the "dark lady." That he suggests Shakespeare, in his capacity of "reader" to the Earl of Southampton, and that he takes flings at his social quality in the expression "Judgements butcher," which I recognise as an allusion to his father's trade, and in the words "Intonsi Catones," as a reference to his provincial breeding as well as to the flowing manner in which he wore his hair. In elucidating the meaning of the initials "H.S.," Florio still more coarsely indicates our country-bred poet, and accuses him of being a parasite, a bloodsucker, and a monster of lasciviousness. His abusive descriptions are given in Latin and Italian phrases commencing with the letters H and S. His reason for using the letter H no doubt being that _there is no W in either Italian or Latin, H being its nearest phonetic equivalent_. Let us consider the whole passage.

"There is another sort of leering curs, that rather snarle than bite,
whereof I coulde instance in one, who lighting upon a good sonnet of
a gentlemans, a friend of mine, that loved better to be a Poet, then
to be counted so, called the author a rymer, notwithstanding he had
more skill in good Poetrie, then my slie gentleman seemed to have in
good manners or humanitie. But my quarrell is to a tooth-lesse dog,
that hateth where he cannot hurt, and would faine bite when he hath
no teeth. His name is H.S. Do not take it for the Romane H.S. for he
is not of so much worth, unlesse it be as H.S. is twice as much and a
halfe as halfe an As. But value you him how you will, I am sure he
highly valueth himselfe. This fellow, this H.S. reading (for I would
you should knowe he is _a reader and a writer too_) under my last
epistle to the reader J.F. made as familiar a word of F. as if I had
bin his brother. Now Recte fit oculis magister tuis, said an ancient
writer to a much-like reading gramarian-pedante[31]: God save your
eie-sight, sir, or at least your insight. And might not a man, that
can do as much as you (that is, reade) finde as much matter out of
H.S. as you did out of J.F.? As for example H.S. why may it not stand
as well for Haeres Stultitiae, as for Homo Simplex? or for Hircus
Satiricus, as well as for any of them? And this in Latine, besides
Hedera Seguace, Harpia Subata, Humore Superbo, Hipocrito Simulatore
in Italian. And in English world without end. Huffe Snuffe, Horse
Stealer, Hob Sowter, Hugh Sot, Humphrey Swineshead, Hodge Sowgelder.
Now Master H.S. if this do gaule you, forbeare kicking hereafter, and
in the meane time you may make a plaister of your dried Marjoram. I
have seene in my daies an inscription, harder to finde out the
meaning, and yet easier for a man to picke a better meaning out of
it, if he be not a man of H.S. condition."

It will be noticed that Florio's reflections upon Shakespeare's breeding, morals, and manners, while couched in coarser terms, are of the same nature as Chapman's. Ben Jonson,--as shall later be shown,--in _Every Man out of his Humour_, casts similar slurs at Shakespeare's provincial origin. It is likely that the friend whose sonnet had been criticised and who was called a "rymer" by "H.S." was none other than George Chapman. The fifth _book_ of Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Earl of Southampton was written against Chapman's advances upon his patron's favour. In the tenth Sonnet in this _book_, which is numbered as the 38th in Thorpe's arrangement, Shakespeare refers to Chapman as a rhymer in the lines:

"Be thou the tenth Muse ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which _rhymers_ invocate."

The few records concerning Florio, from which we may derive any idea of his personal appearance and manner, suggest a very singular individuality. There was evidently something peculiar about his face; he was undoubtedly witty and worldly-wise, a braggart, a sycophant, and somewhat of a buffoon. He was imbued with an exaggerated idea of his own importance, and possessed of most unblushing assurance. In 1591 he signed his address "To the Reader," prefixed to his _Second Fruites_, "Resolute John Florio," a prefix which he persisted thereafter in using in similar addresses in other publications. In 1600 Sir William Cornwallis (who at that time had seen Florio's translation of _Montaigne's Essays_ in MS.) writes of him: "Montaigne now speaks good English. It is done by a fellow less beholding to nature for his fortune than wit, yet lesser for his face than fortune. The truth is, he looks more like a good fellow than a wise man, and yet he is wise beyond either his fortune or education."

Between the year 1598 (when Florio dedicated his _World of Wordes_ to the Earl of Southampton) and 1603, when Southampton was released from the Tower upon the accession of James I., we have no record of Florio's connection with that nobleman. It was undoubtedly due to Southampton's influence in the new Court that Florio became reader to Queen Anna and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to James I. His native vanity and arrogance blossomed into full bloom in this connection, in which he seems to have been tolerated as a sort of superior Court jester. The extravagant and grandiloquent diction of his early dedications read like commonplace prose when compared with the inflated verbosity of his later dedications to Queen Anna. In 1613 he issued a new edition of _Montaigne's Essays_ which he dedicated to the Queen. A comparison of the flattering sycophancy of this dedication with the quick transition of his tone in his curt and insolent address "To the Reader" in the same book will give some idea of the man's shallow bumptiousness.

"TO THE MOST ROYAL AND RENOWNED MAJESTIE OF THE HIGHBORN PRINCESS
ANNA OF DENMARK

By the grace of God, Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland.
Imperial and Incomparable Majestic. Seeing with me all of me is in
your royal possession, and whatever pieces of mine have hitherto
under the starres passed the public view, come now of right to be
under the predomination of a power that both contains all their
perfections and hath influences of a more sublime nature. I could not
but also take in this part (whereof time had worn out the edition)
which the world had long since had of mine and lay it at your sacred
feet as a memorial of my devoted duty, and to show that where I am I
must be all I am and cannot stand dispersed in my observance being
wholly (and therein happy)--Your Sacred Majesties most humble and
Loyal servant,

JOHN FLORIO.

TO THE READER

Enough, if not too much, hath been said of this translation, if the
faults found even by my own selfe in the first impression be now by
the printer corrected, as he was directed, the work is much amended;
if not, know, that through this mine attendance on her Majestic I
could not intend it: and blame not Neptune for thy second shipwrecke.
Let me conclude with this worthy mans daughter of alliance 'Que l'en
semble donc lecteur.'

Still Resolute

JOHN FLORIO,
Gentleman Extraordinary and Groome of the Privy Chamber."


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 29: _Shakespeare and the Rival Poet_, 1903; _Mistress Davenant, the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets_, 1913.]

[Footnote 30: While correcting proof sheets for this book I have found evidence that Florio was living in Oxford, and already married in September 1585. The Register of St. Peter's in the Baylie in Oxford records the baptism of Joane Florio, daughter of John Florio, upon the 24th of September in that year. Wood's _City of Oxford_, vol. iii. p. 258. Ed. by Andrew Clark.]

[Footnote 31: A grammar-school pedant, alluding to Shakespeare's limited education.]


APPENDIX


I

DEDICATION OF FLORIO'S _SECOND FRUITES_, 1591

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL, THE KINDE ENTERTAINER OF VERTUE, AND MIRROUR OF A GOOD MINDE MASTER NICHOLAS SAUNDER OF EWEL, ESQUIRE, HIS DEVOTED JOHN FLORIO CONGRATULATES THE RICH REWARD OF THE ONE, AND LASTING BEAUTIE OF