The Choise of Valentines

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Title: The Choise of Valentines
Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo
Author: Thomas Nash
Editor: John Farmer
Release Date: February 16, 2006 [EBook #17779]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OF VALENTINES ***
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[Transcriber's Note: Line notes have been moved to the end of each
poem from their places on the individual pages to aid in the flow of the
poems]
The
Choise of Valentines

OR THE MERIE BALLAD OF
NASH HIS DILDO

[BY THOMAS NASH]
[_From MSS. Copies in the Inner Temple (Petyt MS. 538, Vol. 43, f.
viii., 295 b, circa 1680) and Bodleian (Rawl. MS. Poet 216, leaves
96-106, circa 1610-20) Libraries_]
Edited by
JOHN S. FARMER
LONDON
[PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY]
MDCCCXCIX
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
Nash's "CHOISE OF VALENTINES" has apparently come down to us
only in manuscript form. It is extremely doubtful (Oldys
notwithstanding[a]), whether the poem was ever before accorded the
dignity of print. Nor would it now be deemed worthy of such were the
only considerations those of literary merit or intrinsic value: truth to tell
there is little of either to recommend it. But, as it has been repeatedly
said, and well insisted on, the world cannot afford to lose any
"document" whatsoever which bears, or may bear, in the slightest
degree, on the story of its own growth and development, and out of
which its true life has to be written. Especially is even the meanest
Elizabethan of importance and value in relation to the
re-construction--still far from complete--of the life and times of the
immortal bard of Avon. In the most unlikely quarters a quarry may yet
be found from which the social historian may obtain a valuable
sidelight on manners and customs, the philologist a new lection or gloss,
or the antiquary a solution to some, as yet, unsolved problem.
"The Choise of Valentines" claims attention, and is of value principally
on two grounds, either of which, it is held, should amply justify the
more permanent preservation now accorded this otherwise insignificant
production. In the first place, it appears to have been dedicated to the

Earl of Southampton, the generous patron of letters, and friend of
Shakspeare; and second, it is probably the only example extant of the
kind of hackwork to which Nash was frequently reduced by "the
keenest pangs of poverty."[b] He confesses he was often obliged "to
pen unedifying toys for gentlemen." When Harvey denounced him for
"emulating Aretino's licentiousness" he admitted that poverty had
occasionally forced him to prostitute his pen "in hope of gain" by
penning "amorous Villanellos and Quipasses for new-fangled galiards
and newer Fantisticos." In fact, he seems rarely to have known what it
was to be otherwise than the subject of distress and need. As an
example of these "unedifying toys" the present poem may, without
much doubt, be cited, and an instance in penning which his "hope of
gain" was realised.
It is a matter of history that Nash sought, and succeeded in obtaining
for a time, the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, one of the most
liberal men of his day, and a prominent figure in the declining years of
Elizabeth. "I once tasted," Nash writes in 1593,[c] "the full spring of
the Earl's liberality."