E13 [Arms of the Lord Chancellor Egerton blazond: and underneath them,] Magna quidem laus est generoso sanguine nasci, Maxima nosse deum, fontem metamque bonorum, 9 JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 1. WILLIAM THYNNE: HIS LIFE, WORK, FOOD, WILL, ETC. ... EXTRACTS FROM THESE: 1. THE DEBATE BETWEEN PRIDE AND LOWLINESS, p. cxxviii; 2. A PLEASAUNT DIALOGUE BETWEENE THE CAP AND THE HEAD, 1564, p. cxxix; 3. NEWES FROM NOTICE. THIS new edition of Francis Thynne's Animadversions was intended for issue last year, soon after the Hindwords were written; but it was set aside to make room for other friends' work, and other engagements of my own. The delay has been lucky, as it has obtaind for the book some very valuable notes from Mr Bradshaw, and has enabl'd me to add some further details about Francis Thynne, as well as contest Mr J. P. Collier's attributions to him of four little books, which, in my opinion, he no more wrote than I did. The reader must put-up with the inconvenience of finding the facts about William Thynne, the Chaucer-Editor, and his son Francis, the Chaucer-Commentator and Holinshed-Continuer, each in two different places. Dr George Kingsley's very pleasant Preface had earnd its right to a revisd reprint, and so the fresh details about the Thynnes and their work had to go in the Hindwords. No doubt more entries about William Thynne will appear in Professor Brewer's Calendar of State Papers, &c. in Henry VIII's Reign as it goes on. If they do, I hope to print these entries in a short Supplement as soon as the Calendar for 1546 is out. With not enough time for Chaucer and Shakspere searches at the Record Office, &c., I cannot pretend to undertake Thynne ones. The long quotations for and from the Thynnes in the Hindwords are deliberately given, instead of the facts containd in the extracts being packt into short paragraphs. I enjoy the old details, and like the flavour of William Thynne's meals and Francis's long-winded dedications and affected depreciations of his own work. Moreover, the latter are needed for the reader to judge between Mr Collier and me on the question of Francis Thynne's style. To men without taste or time for such things, skipping is easy Inasmuch as this tract is a necessary part of a Chaucer Library, this new edition of it is issu'd jointly by the Early English Text and Chaucer Societies, the Chaucer Society copies having a slightly different title. I thank Lord Ellesmere for lending me Francis Thynne's Animadversions MS., and letting me see his other MSS.; Lord Bath and Canon Jackson for the statements from the Longleat Papers relating to Francis Thynne'; Mr W. Christie-Miller of Britwell for his sketch of the contents of the first sheet of The Courte of Venus; my friend Mr Bradshaw for his happy hits, of Sir Bryan Tuke's writing Wm Thynne's Preface, of the rise of Francis Thynne's story about his father's cancelld PilgrimsTale edition of Chaucer, &c.; Mr Stephen Tucker, Rouge Croix, for his Heralds' Office information; Mr G. Parker of the Bodleian, and Miss Toulmin Smith, for their searches and careful copies; and the Bishop of Peterborough, Dr Mark Pattison, and all other helpers, for their aid. 3, St George's Square, Primrose Hill, London, N.W. 1 August 3, and October 28, 1875. The reader will see that the thanks to Lord Bath are for very small mercies. I hope some successor of his, will let some successor of mine, print Francis Thynne's Letters, &c., in full, so as to make our knowledge of the man and his circumstances as complete as it can be made. |