The Choise of Valentines | Page 2

Record is also made of a visit paid by him to Lord
Southampton and Sir George Carey, while the former was Governor,
and the latter Captain-General, of the Isle of Wight.
From internal evidence it would seem that this poem was called forth
by the Earl's bounty to its author. "My muse devorst from deeper (the
Rawl. MS._ reads _deepest) care, presents thee with a wanton elegie;"
and further on, the dedication promises "better lines" which should "ere
long" be penned in "honour" of his noble patron. This promise is
renewed in the epilogue:--
"My mynde once purg'd of such lascivious witt,
With purifide words
and hallowed verse,
Thy praises in large volumes shall rehearse,

That better maie thy grauer view befitt."
Does this refer to "The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jack
Wilton," generally regarded as Nash's most ambitious work, and which
he dedicated to Lord Southampton in 1593? If so, and there is no
evidence to gainsay the conclusion, we can fix the date of the present

poem as, at all events, prior to 17th September of that year, when "The
Unfortunate Traveller" was entered on the Stationers'
Register.[d]
This would make Nash contemporaneous, if not prior to, Shakspeare in
offering a tribute to the merits of the young patron (Southampton at that
time was barely twenty years old) of the Muses. Venus and Adonis was
entered on the Register of the Stationers' Company about five months
earlier, on the 18th April, 1593, and barely more than two months prior
to the registration of "The Terrors of the Night."
It is curious to note that while Shakspeare and Nash both promise
"graver work" and "better lines," they alike select amatory themes for
their first offerings. The promise in Shakspeare's case was redeemed by
the dedication to Southampton of "The Rape of Lucreece," while it may
be assumed, as aforesaid, that Nash followed suit with "The
Unfortunate Traveller."
Nash, however, for some cause or other failed to retain the Earl's
interest; "indeed," says Mr. Sidney Lee, "he did not retain the favour of
any patron long." It is only fair to state, however, that the withdrawal of
Lord Southampton's patronage may not have been due to any fault or
shortcoming on the part of Nash, for there is likewise no evidence
whatever to show that any close intimacy existed between
Southampton and Shakspeare after 1594. Probably there was much else
to claim Lord Southampton's attention--his marriage, and the Essex
rebellion to wit. This, however, leads somewhat wide of the present
work.
So much for the circumstances which appear to have called forth "The
Choise of Valentines." The next consideration is, Has it ever appeared
in print before? Oldys, in his MS. notes to Langbaine's _English
Dramatic Poets_ (_c_. 1738) says:--"Tom Nash certainly wrote and
published a pamphlet upon Dildos. He is accused of it by his antagonist,
Harvey." But he was writing nearly 150 years after the event, and it is
certainly very strange that a production which it can be shown was well
known should, if printed, have so entirely disappeared. At all events, no
copy is at present known to exist.[e] John Davies of Hereford alludes to
it, but leaves it uncertain whether its destruction occurred in MS. or in

print. In his "Papers Complaint"[f] he writes:--
But O! my soule is vext to thinke how euill
It is abus'd to beare suits
to the Deuill.
Pierse-Pennilesse (a Pies eat such a patch)
Made me
(agree) that business once dispatch.
And having made me vndergo the
shame,
Abusde me further, in the Deuills name:
And made [me]
Dildo (dampned Dildo) beare,
Till good men's hate did me in peeces
teare.
As regards the manuscript copies there are one or two points worthy of
note. At present we know of two, more or less incomplete, but each of
which supplements, in some degree, the other. These MSS. are
respectively in the Bodleian (Rawl. MS. Poet, 216) and the Inner
Temple (Petyt MS. 538, vol. 43, p. viii., 295b.) libraries. Both texts are
obviously corrupt, the Rawlinson abominably so. Probably the former
was written out from memory alone, while the Petyt, if not a transcript
direct from the original is, at any rate, very near to it.
The Bodleian version is written on paper in a small oblong

leather-covered book, originally with clasps. The penmanship is early
17th century, probably about 1610-20. It is thus catalogued:-- ..."_E
libris_ Matt. Postlethwayt, Aug. 1, 1697. Perhaps (earlier) Henry Price
owned the book." The volume contains besides an English transcript of
Ovid's "Arte Amandis" and some amatory poems.[g] The date of the
Petyt text may be about.... It is written in a
miscellaneous, folio,
commonplace-book, and in the catalogue it is described as "an obscene
poem, entitled 'The Choosing of Valentines,' by Thomas Nash. The first
17 lines are printed at p. lx. of the Preface