Of Pasquill he says:
To be brefe with your worshipfultie, Pasquill hath posted
very diligently over all the Realme,…[2]
And by no means only over all the Realm:
For he came latelie oversea into Kent, fro thence he cut over
into Essex at Gravesende, and hearing some tidings of Hartfordshire, because
hee cannot ride far without a bayte, he made much haste as hee could to S.
Albanes, where he staid one whole Sabaoth at the Christopher, and having there
pestered a newe paire of Writing-tables with profitable Notes for that quarter,
he sette forwarde the Munday following to North-hamptonshire,…[3]
Pasquill is not only a constant traveler but a constant
writer. By the end of the pamphlet, the style of Nashe seems to take the
persona of Pasquill.
In the next Pasquill pamphlet,[4]
the Nashe style is rarely to be seen. Pasquill describes his origin as as the
famous statue,[5] in
Rome, on which the people posted their satires upon government officials and high
ranking citizens. His interlocutor, Marforius,[6]
was the statue upon which were written replies.
Pasquill describes his resumé. For a statue his hearing was exceptional.
I was once a Barbour in Rome, (as some report) and every
chayre in my shop was a tongue full of newes…. The high and secrete matters of
Lordes, Ladies, Kinges, Emperours, Princes, Popes, and Monarchs of the world,
did ring every day as shrill as a Bason about my doores.[7]
He was a collector of secrets in Rome as all barbers are.
Nothing was not known to him. But coming under the Pope’s displeasure and hearing
“of the Sects and opinions sprong uppe in Englande,” he departed for the latter
shores.
In England, he serves the Queen. The Marprelatist Puritans,
he explains, are every bit as much a danger to her as the Roman Catholics. If
not found and crushed, “every Pruritane transported with the heate &
ignorance of his zeale, will be as readie as a Papist, to lift up his hand
against her”[8].
He is her majesty’s servant.
But this is not all Pasquill is about. As Marforius informs
us in a rare passage in the pamphlet that has the mark of Nashe, he is
constantly traveling over the Channel for various reasons only vaguely implied.
Ever since you tooke shipping at Gravesende, I have had the
disease of a Marchants wife, so love sicke in your absence, that myne eye was
never pulde from the Wethercocke, and longing like a Woman for your returne,[9]
His destinations are many and secret. He moves among gentlemen.
I was once in Antwerpe, when great sute was made to the Masters
of the English house,[10]
(by a Gentleman then emploied in the Queenes affaires)[11]
He has “learned to maske it,”[12]
to cover his movements, to wear disguises. He is a master of his trade,
whatever precisely it may be. No one
knows where he is unless he wants them to.
I thinke I shall proove a state man, my packets come in so
fast alreadie, that I beginne to swell in Bookes as bigge as Surius.[13]
[14]
He would seem to be on the government service fast track.
Marforius speaks of “your volume of The lives of the Saints.” Again, this might
be Nashe. The reference is that Pasquill is collecting the names of the
Marprelate Puritans for the government’s purposes.
The final bit of description of the Cavaliero is contained
in his “Pasquils Protestation Uppon London Stone”:
I Cavaliero Pasquill, the writer of this simple hand, a young
man, of the age of some few hundred yeeres, lately knighted in Englande, with a
beetle and a bucking tub, to beat a little reason about Martins head, doe make
this my Protestation unto the world, that if any man, woman, or childe, have
any thing to say against Martin the great, or any of his abettors, of what state
or calling soever they be, noble or ignoble, from the very Court-gates to the
Coblers stall, if it please them these dark Winter-nights, to sticke uppe their
papers upon London-stone, I will there give my attendance to receive them, from
the day of the date hereof, to the full terme and revolution of seven yeeres
next ensuing.[15]
Next: the man who was the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill of
England.
[1] Grossart,
Alexander B. The Complete Works of Thomas Nashe (1883-4). “A
Countercuffe given to Martin lunior: by the venturous, hardie, and renowned
Pasquill of England, Caualiero” (1589). I.75-85.
[2]
Ibid. I.79.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Grossart,
Nashe. “The Returne of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill of England, from
the other side the Seas, and his meeting with Marforius at London upon the
Royall Exchange” (1589). I. 89-139.
[5] Pasquino
( Latin Pasquillus).
[6] Marforius
(Latin Marphurius, Marforius)
[7] Grossart,
Nashe. I.92.
[8] Ibid.
I.103.
[9] Ibid.
I.91.
[10]
Something in the nature of an Embassy.
[11]
ibid., I.105.
[12] Ibid.
I.91.
[13] Laurentius
Surius (1522–78). Catholic historian and papal favorite.
[14] Ibid.
I.92.
[15] Ibid. I.136.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Portia’s Quality of Mercy. June 2, 2020. “Likely a line from Sonnenschein’s 1905 follow-up essay “Shakspere and Stoicism” is to the point: ‘I hope, by the way, that no "Baconian" will find in this article grist for his mill.’”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- Henry Neville’s Twelfth Night in Context. January 13, 2020. “Winwood informed his correspondent that the Grand Duke de Medici and his Duchess had arrived in Marseilles together with a large entourage including three Florentine princes, Virginio, Giovanni and Antonio.”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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