details about him we must wait for the publication of a later Household Book of Henry VIII.'s or an earlier one of Edward VI.'s than I have been able to find, and meantime judge Hewe Rodes from his book. He seems to me a regular sobersides, with little or no fun or humour1 in him, not a man to make fast friends, though eminently respectable, and with an eye to the main chance, if we may judge from his directions to The Wayting Servant as to what company he should keep : Petit's edition. For your promocyon resort to such & so to you they wyll repayre; Suche pastymes somtyme doth many men auaunce In way of maryage, and your good name it wylenhaunce. Ed. of 1577. For your preferment resorte to such as may you vauntage: Among Gentlemen, for their rewards, to honest dames for maryage. See your eye be indifferent among women that be fayre; And if they be honest, to them boldly then doe repayre; Honest quallityes and gentle many men doth aduaunce To good maryages, trust me, and their names doth inhaunce. There you have the man, I fancy. Propriety and Deportment, Honesty and Gentleness, pay; therefore pursue them. much else in the book that may be urged against this view of the author, as the reader will find if he reads the book, though still on me the former impression remains. It is confirmed, too, by the (ed. 1827), p. 227. I take this to be, not prick-song, but the pricks for shooting, which Ascham testifies in his Toxophilus that Henry VIII. practised : "Again, there is another thing, which above all other doth move me, not only to love shooting, to praise shooting, to exhort all other to shooting, but also to use shooting myself; and that is our King [Henry the Eighth] his most royal purpose and will, which in all his statutes [3 Henry VIII., cap. 3; 6 Hen. VIII., сар. 3; 25 Hen. VIII., cap. 17; 33 Hen. VIII., cap. 9] generally doth command men, and with his own mouth most gently doth exhort men, and by his great gifts and rewards greatly doth encourage men, and with his most princely example very often doth provoke all other men to the same." ed. Giles, 1865, p. 25. (Cp. 20th March, 1531. Paid to George Coton, for vii shott lost by the Kings grace unto him at Totthill, at 6s. 8d. the shotte, xlvj s. viij d., and the other entries from Nicolas, in Hansard's Archery, p. 40.) See Note at end of Preface. 1 May not he be allowed some for lines 441-4, p. 36, A wonderfull thing this is to doe, and easy to be done : To leaue pleasure, and keepe sylence, and to follow reason. "fulsome panegyric" on Queen Mary, on which Warton remarks in his notice of Rodes's other poem. Warton (iii. 265, ed. 1840) says of Rodes, "In the following reign of Mary, the same poet printed a poem consisting of thirty-six octave stanzas, entitled, "The SONG of the CHYLD-BYSSHOP, as it was songe before the queenes maiestie in her priuie chamber at her manour of saynt James in the ffeeldes on saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare nowe present, by the chylde bysshope of Poules churche with his company. LONDINI, in ædibus Johannis Cawood, typographi reginæ, 1555. Cum privilegio, &c. By admitting this spectacle into her presence, it appears that her majesty's bigotry condescended to give countenance to the most ridiculous and unmeaning ceremony of the Roman ritual. As to the song itself, it is a fulsome panegyric on the queen's devotion, in which she is compared to Judith, Esther, the queen of Sheba, and the virgin Mary." One good quality Rodes certainly had, modesty as to his poetical powers. He says, I am full blynde in Poets Arte, thereof I can no skill: my breefes from longes to know, thus boldly now to wryte: To Mayster, seruaunt, yong and olde, Requyring friendly youth and age, For to refourme and hate abuse, and mend where neede there is. 1 In quarto, bl. lett. (Warton), A.D. 1555. See in Dibdin's Ames, vol. iv. p. 394. Ritson observes on this statement of Warton's as to Rodes's poem, that it "seems to require some further authority," Bibliogr. Poet., p. 315, and in a note says, "Herbert, in p. 1794, asserts a copy of this book to be in possession of 'Francis Douce, esquire;' who never had, nor saw, nor (except from what Warton says) ever hear'd of such a thing.” Modern inquirers after this poem are in Douce's The Book of Nurture consists of four Parts, whereof the second is divided into two. First comes an exhortation to Parents and Masters to bring up their Children vertuously, and keep their Servants and household in good order. Second: are, 1. The Maner of Seruing a Knight, Squyre, or Gentleman at Meals; 2. How to order your Maysters Chamber at night to bedwarde (when he goes to bed). Third comes the expansion of Stans Puer ad Mensam, turned into "The Booke of Nurture and Schole of good Maners for Man and for Chylde." Fourth comes the most elaborate part of the book, directions "For the Wayting Seruaunt," pp. 82-108, comprising maxims and advice not only for him, but for the world of men in general. Into this, the edition of 1577 (which is printed here) has introduced "The Rule of Honest Liuing," two pages and a half of prose maxims not differing much from those that have preceded them in verse. I do not mean to pick out the plums from the text, or even point to where they are, because I feel sure that no Member is so lost to all sense of propriety as not to read this volume through from beginning to end. If there should be one in that unhappy condition, let him beg his dearest friend to give him a dose of Wilyam Bulleyn's boxyng & neckweede, according to the prescription following the notes to Russell, and, being smoked, he will be cured. Hewe Rodes's Boke of Nurture was printed at least five times in early days. First by Thomas Petit, in small 8vo, bl. lett., before 1554, for he printed no book after that date: secondly by Thomas Colwell, bl. 1., who printed from 1561 to 1575; thirdly (as I suppose) with somewhat more modern spelling, by Abraham Veale, bl. 1., who printed from 1551 to 1586; fourthly by Thomas East, in oblong case; neither Mr J. Gough Nichols, who has long been hunting for Boy-Bishop material, Dr Rimbault, Mr W. C. Hazlitt, nor any other likely men whom I have asked, have ever heard of it. Warton must of course have seen a copy. Who will tell me where one is ? 1 Mr Payne Collier thinks that another edition is included in the following entry on the Register of the Stationers' Company : "To John Kynge, to prynte these bokes folowynge; that ys to saye, a Jeste of syr gawene; the boke of Carvynge and sewynge; syr lamwell; the boke of Cokerye; the boke of nurture for mens servauntes." Extracts, p. 15 (Shakspere Soc., 1848). 4to, in 1568; fifthly by H. Jackson, in small 8vo, in 1577. (See Warton, v. iii. p. 265, ed. 1840; Ritson's Bibl. Poet., p. 314-15; and Brydges's Censura Literaria.) Of the first edition only one copy is known to the Librarians, collectors, and friends of whom I have male inquiry. It is in the Bodleian, is without a title, and two leaves of the text are gone. From its heading "The boke of Nurture for Of men, seruauntes and chyldren, with Stans puer ad mensam, newly corrected, very vtyle and necessary vnto all youth," we might conclude that this supposed first edition was only a late one; but it is possible that the newly corrected applies only to the Stans puer ad mensam, an old poem which Rodes has newly corrected. Of the second and third editions the Rev. Mr Corser, of Stand Rectory, near Manchester, has unique copies, which he has kindly lent me, just as these sheets are going to press, and of which, if the variations are important, I shall give collations at the end of these Prefaces. the fourth edition I have not been able to hear of a copy. Of the fifth there are at least two copies known, one in the British Museum, and the other among Malone's books in the Bodleian. I had at first resolved to print the texts of the first and fifth editions (the only ones then known to me) opposite one another, so as to bring out their differences fully, leaving blanks for the missing leaves of the first edition, to be filled up whenever these leaves should turn up and I could reprint them; but on the strong remonstrance of Mr H. B. Wheatley against reprinting an imperfect printed book, I gave up the plan, and have printed only the 1577 text from the British Museum copy, adding the principal variations of the first edition at the end. Of this first edition I hope to hear of a complete copy soon, and to reprint it directly afterwards. Had I known of Mr Corser's uniques a year ago, I should have reprinted one instead of Jackson's edition. Some of the alterations from the earlier text are worth notice as signs of the times. Thus the leaving out by Colwell, Veale, and Jackson, of these lines "To helpe a preest to say masse / it is greatly to be commended Thou takest on hande an aungels office / the preest to attend" of the first edition's injunctions for conduct in church, marks the Reformation. Why the early true statement in Petit's edition, "Pore men faythfull, and gentylmen deceytful in lyuynge The gredy myndes of rulers / hath caused blode shedynge" should have been altered to the later goody "Poore men faythfull and obedyent in theyr lyuynge "Pore men must be faythfull, and obedient in lyuing, Auoyding all rebellyon and rygorous bloodshedding" (Jackson), I cannot suggest, unless the later editors, and specially he of 1577, were more of Tories than Rodes. The minor alterations in this 1577 edition are so many that they must have been made, I fancy, by another hand after Rodes's death. Of the lines changed we may note Petit's "With moch flesshe & lytel bread / fyl not thy mouth lyke a barge," "With much meate fyll not thy mouth like a barge" (Colwell), "With much meat fil not thy mouth like a barge " (Veale), altered and weakened to "Cram not thy mouth to full, ne yet Also thy stomack ouercharge."-1. 271-2. "Lyght in speche and slowe in dedes / yuys it is great shame " let down to "Slow in good deeds is great shame" (Colwell), "Slow is good deeds is great shame" (Veale), "But to be slow in godly deedes increaseth a mans shame" (Jackson). But in 1. 539-40 the sentiment of the later text "But in redressing things amis, thou highly God shalt please" is a decided improvement on the selfish ease of the earlier "The lesse thou medlest / the better shalt thou please" (Petit); |