The Choise of Valentines | Page 3

Rawlinson copy, that throws light on its source. In the Petyt, however, we get a suppositional explanation of its manifestly purer text. Petyt, subsequent to his call to the Bar, in 1670, was for many years Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London. Now we know that Lord Essex, an intimate friend and connection of the Earl of Southampton, and like Southampton a generous and discerning patron of letters, was for some time in the "free custody" of the Lord Keeper of the Tower. Further, Southampton, who had joined Essex in his rebellion, had been tried and convicted with his friend, and though the Queen spared his life, he was not released from the Tower until the ascension of James I. It is not unlikely, therefore, that a copy of Nash's manuscript made for Lord Essex passed, on the execution of the latter, with other papers and documents, into the official custody of the Lord Keeper, to be subsequently unearthed by his successor, Petyt, who, with a taste for the "curious," had it copied for his own edification. This supposition is further borne out as follows: The particular commonplace book in which this poem occurs has been written by various hands. In the same handwriting as, and immediately preceding "The Choise of Valentines," are two poetical effusions dedicated "To the Earl of Essex," both apparently written when he was in prison and under sentence of death. The other contents of the volume are likewise contemporaneous.
All things considered, then, the Petyt text, although transcribed about fifty years later, has weightier claims to attention than the version in the Rawlinson MSS. I have, therefore, adopted the former as a basis, giving the Rawlinson variations in the form of notes. A few of these are obviously better readings than those of the Petyt text: the reader cannot fail to distinguish these. In the main, however, the Inner Temple version will be found consistent with its particular dedication, whilst the Rawlinson variations appear due to an attempt, signally unsuccessful, to adapt the poem for general use.
For the rest I have faithfully adhered to the original in the basic text, and in the variorum readings, except in one particular. The Rawlinson MS. is altogether guiltless of punctuation, while the Petyt copy has been carelessly "stopped" by the scribe: I have therefore given modern punctuation.
J. S. F.
FOOTNOTES
[a] See page x. [Transcriber's note: starting "It is curious to note"]
[b] Have with you to Saffron Walden, iii., 44.
[c] Terrors of the Night.
[d] It is true that Nash, in his dedication of the?"Unfortunate Traveller," speaks of it as his "first offering." This, however, must be taken rather as meaning his first serious effort in acknowledgment of his patron's bounty, for in "The Terrors of the Night" (registered on the 30th June, 1593), he somewhat effusively acknowledges his indebtedness to Lord Southampton:--"Through him my tender wainscot studie doore is delivered from much assault and battrie: through him I looke into, and am looked on in the world: from whence otherwise I were a wretched banished exile. Through him all my good is conueighed vnto me; and to him all my endeavours shall be contributed as to the ocean." Again, as evidence that Nash had addressed himself to Southampton prior to his dedication of "The Unfortunate Traveller," we glean from his promise ("Terrors of the Night") "to embroyder the rich store of his eternal renoune" in "some longer Tractate."
[e] At the same time it must be stated that the scandal of?the controversy between Nash and Harvey became so notorious that in 1599 it was ordered by authority "that all Nashes books and Dr. Harvey's books be taken wheresoever they may be found and that none of the said books be ever printed hereafter" (COOPER, _Athen? Cant._ ii. 306).
[f] Davies [Grosart, Works (1888) 1-75, lines 64-72.]
[g] These have been incorporated in "National Ballad and?Song" (Section 2, Merry Songs and Ballads, Series 1).
[h] This is not quite correct. The title in the MS. runs "The Choise of Valentines," and Dr. Grosart purports to give the first eighteen lines, but in transcription he has omitted line 4.
[Illustration]
TO THE RIGHT?honorable the Lord S.[i]
Pardon, _sweete flower of Matchles poetrie,?And fairest bud the red rose euer bare;?Although my Muse, devorst from deeper care,?Presents thee with a wanton Elegie. 4
Ne blame my verse of loose unchastitie?For painting forth the things that hidden are,?Since all men acte what I in speache declare,?Onlie induced with varietie. 8
Complants and praises euery one can write,?And passion out their pangu's in statlie rimes;?But of loues pleasures none did euer write,?That have succeeded in theis latter times. 12
Accept of it, Deare Lord, in gentle gree,?And better lynes, ere long, shall honor thee._

FOOT- AND LINE NOTES:
[i] Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, and Baron of Titchfield. The dedication is absent in the Rawlinson