Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/351

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

g* s. xn. OCT. si, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


343


  • Poetaster ' which are not found in Marston

(p. 117, note, 'War of the Theatres'). Of these retrograde is commonly used by Harvey. Ventosity occurs at i. 26 (Grosart's ' Harvey '). Furibundall (furibund in 'Poetaster') is a Harvey word (ii. 17). Probably some of the others (as inflate, spurious, fatuate) occur. In ' Every Man out of his Humour J several Harveyisms are placed in Puntarvolo's, and especially in Fastidious Brisk's lips. Such are authentical, superficies, capriciously, pre- dominant, ingenuity, fantastical, expostulate, angelical, quintessence, divulge, essential. Pun- tarvolo's proposed journey to Constantinople may refer to some circumstance in Harvey's life. There is a passage which I do not understand (i. 182) where he says, " to be orderlie clapt in the Fleete for the foresaid letters : where he that sawe mee, sawe mee at Constantinople." The Constantinople allu- sion is met with also in 'The Case is Altered.' In ' To the Reader ' prefixed to Nashe's 'Terrors of the Night,' 1594 (Grosart, iii, 217), there is a passage that has a distinct bearing on the Constantinople allusions. We have there the prototype of Puntarvplo. I have only just unearthed this. But it proves at once that Puntarvolo's expedition has refer- ence to a circumstance which took place and was laughed at by the wits of the time, and goes a long way to lay it upon Harvey, and identify him with Puntarvolo. The words in Nashe are : " such poore fellowes as 1, that cannot put out money to be paid againe when we come from Constantinople, either must," &c. There are several allusions that point unmistakably to Harvey in the context, with whom Nashe was at this time in the closest handy - grips. Puntarvolo's words are ('Every Man Out,' II. i.), "I do

intend to put forth some five thousand

pound, to be paid me five for one upon the return of myself and wife, and my dog, from the Turk's Court in Constantinople." The very name of Puntarvolo has a significance, as Jonson's names almost invariably have The word means a bodkin. Harvey was a lean, scraggy, little shrimp of a man. Nashe calls him "a case of toothpicks," "a lute- pin," "a jet ear-drop," and a " Jack-a-lent." In Jonson's 'Cynthia's Revels' (1600) w< find in Amorphus too strong a remembrance of Harvey to be an accident. Amorphus has been identified with Munday, Shakespeare (!) Lyly, and Barnaby Rich all on the verj slightest ground. I refer the reader agair to Penniman, who believes he is Munday.

Amorphus drinks of the fountain of self love. He is devoted to travel, and Philauti* says, " He looks like a Venetian trumpeter


, Cynthia's Revels,' III. ii. 168a). When

larvey read the Latin welcome to Queen

lizabeth at Saffron Wai den he was dressed

"Italianated bravery" (i.^ 187), and the

ueen said to Lord Leicester (i. xxxix), " Tell

3e, prithee, is this the man that thou hast

"ixed to send into the parts of France and

taly?" "It is so fixed," replied my lord.

She answered, " It is well done : already he

Dossesses the face and look of an Italian."

larvey, in consequence, ever afterwards

.ffected Italian garb and a Venetian coat,

or which he was much ridiculed. For

larvey's suit of " black Venetian velvet and

>antofles of pride," see Nashe's * Have with

Tou,' or, better still, , D 'Israeli's 'Quarrels of

Authors,' where this personality is amply

noticed in the chapter 'Literary Ridicule,'

vith extracts from Nashe.

Mercury's description of Amorphus (' Cyn- hia's Revels,' II. i.) contains much that is applicable to Harvey. He is a traveller, the rery mint of compliment. Harvey used such anguage : " Mint of uncouth similes " (ii. 212), " Complements of rare amplifications " i. 218). "He is no great shifter ; once a year ris apparel is ready to revolt." See D'Israeli p. 124, note, ed. 1859), who quotes Nashe : ' If you [Harvey] want a greasy pair of silk stockings to show yourself in the court, they are there to be had too." Mercury says,

His beard is an Aristarchus." Nashe alludes

o Harvey's beard: "You shall have all his

aeard white," &c. (D'Israeli, ut supra, p. 122). Mercury says, " He will usurp all the talk ; ten constables are not so tedious." Nashe says of Harvey, " He never bids a man good morrow, but he makes a speech as long as a proclamation, nor drinkes to anie, but he reads a lecture of three howers long, de Arte bibendi" (ibid., p. 123). Mercury says, "He doth use much to arbitrate quarrels, and fights himself exceeding well, out at a window." This is Harvey all over. He says of himself he is a "moderatour of witt' (Grosart's ' Harvey,' ii. 47) ; and " for want of a Moderatour, myself e (for faulte of a better) will supply that room" (ibid., iii. 32). Hedon speaks Italian to Amorphus ('Cynthia's Revels,' V. ii.) a reference, as Penniman says (p. 84), to their both (Marston and [Munday?]) having travelled in Italy. This, of course, fits Harvey. Nashe calls him

" an vsher of a dancing-schoole a basia de

umbra de umbra de los pedes" (D'laraeli, p. 122). There are many Italian expressions put into the mouth of Amorphus, as would be necessary to recall Harvey. Mr. Fleay says, "Amorphus, the deformed traveller, who enriched his country with the true laws