Braggadochio, Oxford and Shake-speare
Dennis
John Leon. Modern Language Quarterly, Sep41, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p475,
11p;
...Viewed as a "character," Braggadochio conforms remarkable well to
pattern. But before we can profitably examine the method of treatment
it is necessary to look far enough ahead into the character to see
what Spenser intends Braggadochio to represent. The poet's brilliant
invention of the name Braggadochio, as well as his insistent
repetition of the label boaster, is ample indication that he wished to
emphasize an overweening braggartism. But we should be quite wrong if
we set down this character as a mere boaster. A juster title, surely,
would be "The Counterfeit Magnanimous Man." For what Spenser is here
doing is to bring together in one sketch all those qualities which, in
the antithetical "good-bad"contrast of Theophrastus and his imitators,
clearly distinguish the genuine from the imitation of goodness.
Braggadochio negatively exemplifies the classical conception of the
unity of the virtues: just as the possession of one virtue implies the
possession of all, so the possession of one vice implies the
possession of all. Analysis of his character, then, reduces to a
matter of observing which of his vices Spenser has chosen to stress.
These are, roughly in the order of their importance, (1) his lack of
manly virtu, or generositas; (2) his vain self-love; (3) his
boastfulness; (4) his cowardliness; (5) his rude unmannerliness; (6)
his desire to seem what he is not, his wily deceptiveness; and (7) his
love of undeserved praise. With these in mind we may now consider the
method by which they are brought out.
Although Spenser does not name Braggadochio until half a dozen stanzas
later, he begins his sketch with a limiting description which is
tantamount to definition. We are introduced directly to a
"losell" (Spenser comes back to this term in V, iii,20),
One that to bountie (generositas) never cast his mynd,
Ne thought of honour ever did assay
His baser brest, but in his kestrell kynd
A pleasing vaine of glory he did fynd,
To which his flowing toung and troublous spright
Gave him great ayd, and made him more inclynd. (II,iiim4)
Ignobility, vainglory, loquacity, and the 'troublous spright' of the
meddling busybody - here we have in six lines the compact foundation
upon which, detail by detail, we shall see the character arise.
(snip)
A second literary motif consistently sustained throughout the sketch
is that of the Aesopic jackdaw in borrowed plumage. It is true that
Spenser does not restrict himself specifically to the jackdaw, but the
bird-figure constantly reappears, and always in unflattering simile or
metaphor. Braggadochio is introduced with studied dispraise in the
metaphoric lines
but in his kestrell kynd
A pleasing vaine of glory he did fynd
--the kestrell being in hawking terminology the equivalent of
"baseborn" or "worthless." Two stanzas later he is shown
avaunting in great bravery
As peacocke, that his painted plumes doth pranck, (II, iii, 6)
a perfect image of vain self-admiration. In the next stanza he is
called "scarcrow"; in stanza X we hear of his "light winges"; and in
stanza XXXV, emerging from hiding to encounter Belphoebe, he is said
to crawl from his "nest." Then follows immediately (stt. xxxvi-xxxvii)
and epic simile of scornful ridicule:
As fearfull fowle, that long in secret cave
For dread of soring hauke her selfe hath hid,
Not caring how, her silly life to save,
She her gay painted plumes disorderid,
Seeing at last her selfe from daunger rid,
Peepes forth, and soone renews her native pride;
She gins her feathers fowle disfigured
Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side;
So SHAKES OFF SHAME, ne thinks how erst she did her hide.
So when her goodly visage he beheld,
He gan himselfe to vaunt...
When this capon in arms reappears in Book V the bird-figure is
continued, this time in unmistakable allusion to Aesop's fable:
Thou losell base
That hast with borrowed plume thy selfe endewed,
*And others worth with leasings doest deface*,
When they are all restor'd, THOU SHALL REST IN DISGRACE. (III, 20)
The sequel of the affair, thus so accurately predicted, has already
been set forth in the concluding stanza (V, iii, 39.) But it can now
be profitable re-read in the light of the Aesopic fable as it is
retold in Pettie's edition of Guazzo's Civile Conversation:
Therein they (plagiarizers) are to bee punished as falsifiers and
filchers, for that they appropriate to themselves the honour that is
due to others. But they commonly doe penance for this offence, like as
once the Daw did, who shewing him selfe at a generall muster of
Birdes, armed in all points with the feathers of an other foule, was
at length stripped out of them, and mockt and laught at as a
counterfaite theefe.
Yet another literary motif underlying the "character" of Braggadochio
is the Plauto-Terentian conventional Braggart soldier, the miles
gloriosus.
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losell - one that is worthless
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From Robert Greene's
Greene's Groatsworth of Wit,
bought with a million of Repentaunce
...With thee I join young Juvenal, that biting satirist, that lastly
with me together writ a comedy. Sweet boy, might I advise thee, be
advised, and get not many enemies by bitter words: inveigh against
vain men, for thou canst do it, no man better, no man so well; thou
hast a liberty to reprove all, and none more; for one being spoken to,
all are offended; none being blamed, no man is injured. Stop shallow
water still running, it will rage; tread on a worm, and it will turn:
then blame not scholars vexed with sharp lines, if they reprove thy
too much liberty of reproof.
And thou, no less deserving than the other two, in some things rarer,
in nothing inferior; driven (as myself) to extreme shifts, a little
have I to say to thee; and were it not an idolatrous oath, I would
swear by sweet St. George, thou art unworthy better hap, sith thou
dependest on so mean a stay. Base-minded men all three of you, if by
my misery ye be not warned; for unto none of you (like me) sought
those burs to cleave,-- those puppets, I mean,-- that speak from our
mouths,-- those antics garnished in our colours. Is it not strange
that I, to whom they all have been beholden,--is it not like that you,
to whom they all have been beholden,-- shall (were ye in that case
that I am now) be both at once of them forsaken? Yes, trust them not:
for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with
his tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide, supposes he is as well
able to bombast out a blank-verse as the best of you: and being an
absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shakescene
in a country. Oh, that I might entreat your rare wits to be employed
in more profitable courses, and let those apes imitate your past
excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions!
I know the best husband of you all will never prove an usurer, and the
kindest of them all will never prove a kind nurse: yet, whilst you
may, seek you better masters; for it is pity men of such rare wits
should be subject to the pleasures of such rude grooms.
In this I might insert two more, that both have writ against these
buckram gentlemen; but let their own works serve to witness against
their own wickedness, if they persevere to maintain any more such
peasants. For other new-comers, I leave them to the mercy of these
painted monsters, who (I doubt not) will drive the best minded to
despise them; for the rest, it skills not though they make a jest at
them.
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Harvey:
Nashe, the APE of Greene: Greene, the APE of Euphues; Euphues, the APE
of Envie, the three famous MAUMETS of the press, and my three
notorious feudists, draw all in a yoke, but some scholars excel their
masters, and some lusty blood will do more at a deadly pull than two
or three of his yoke fellows. It must go hard, but he will emprove
himself the incomparable darling of immortal vanity. Howbeit his
friends could have wished he had not shown himself to the world such a
ridiculous
SUFFENUS or SHAKERLY to himself, by advancing the triumphal garland
upon his own head before the least skirmish for the victory, which if
he ever obtained by any valiancy, or bravure (as he weeneth himself
the valiantest and bravest actor that ever managed pen), I am his
bondman
in fetters, and refuse not the humblest vassalage to the sole of his
boot. Much may be done, by close confederacey, in all sorts of
cozenage and legerdemain; Monsieur Pontalais in French, or Messer
Unico in
Italian, never devised such a nipping comedy as might be made in
English of some leaguers in the quaint practices of the crossbiting
art, but I have seen many bearwards and butchers in my time, and have
heard of the one what belongeth to APES, and have leaned of the other
not to be afraid of a dozen horned beasts, albeit some one of them
should seem as dreadful as the furious dun cow of Dunsmore heath, the
terrible foeman of Sir Guy. Aesop's Ox, though he be a sure
ploughman, is but a slow workman, and GREENE'S APE, though he be a
nimble juggler, is no sure executioner. Yet well worth the master-APE
and CAPTAIN-MAUMET that had a hatchet as well as Pap, a country cuff
as well as a fig, a crab-tree cudgel as well as a nut, something of a
man's face, etcetc.
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To VARUS ABUSING SUFFENUS
Varus, yon wight Suffenus known to thee
Fairly for wit, free talk, urbanity,
The same who scribbles verse in amplest store—
Methinks he fathers thousands ten or more
Indited not as wont on palimpsest,
But paper-royal, brand-new boards, and best
Fresh bosses, crimson ribbands, sheets with lead
Ruled, and with pumice-powder all well polished.
These as thou readest, seem that fine, urbane
Suffenus, goat-herd mere, or ditcher-swain
Once more, such horrid change is there, so VILE.
What must we wot thereof? a Droll erst while,
Or (if aught) cleverer, he with converse meets,
He now in dullness, dullest villain beats
Forthright on handling verse, nor is the wight [15]
Ever so happy as when verse he write:
*So self admires he with so full delight*.
In sooth, we all thus err, nor man there be
But in some matter a Suffenus see
Thou canst: his lache allotted none shall lack [20]
Yet spy we nothing of our back-borne pack.
Sir Richard Burton , Catullus 22
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Mercury, in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels (1600),
chastises those
RIDICULOUS HEADS,
Who with their APISH customes and forc's garbes,
Would bring the name of courtier in contempt. (5.1.34-36)
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Chapman, Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Clermont:
They are the breathing sepulchres of noblesse:
No trulier noble men, then lions pictures
Hung up for signs are lions. (2.1. l.154-156)
(snip)
A man may well
compare them to those foolish great-spleened camels
That, to their high HEADS, begged of Jove horns higher;
Whose most uncomely and RIDICULOUS pride
When he had satisfied, they could not use,
But where they went upright before, they stooped,
And bore their heads much lower for their horns;
As these high men do, low in all true grace,
Their height being privilege to all things base.
And as the foolish poet that still writ
All his most self-loved verse in paper royal
Or parchment ruled with lead, smoothed with the pumice,
Bound richly up, and strung with crimson strings;
Never so blest as when he writ and read
The APE-LOVED issue of his brain, and never
But joying in himself, ADMIRING EVER,
Yet in his works behold him, and he showed
Like to a ditcher: so these painted men
All set on outside, look upon within
And not a peasants entrails you shall find
More foul and measled, nor more starved of mind.
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Author: Davies, John, 1565?-1618.
Title: Humours heau'n on earth with the ciuile warres of death and
fortune. As also the triumph of death: or, the picture of the plague,
according to the life; as it was in anno Domini. 1603. By Iohn Dauies
of Hereford.
76
Some followed her by acting all mens parts,
These on a Stage she rais'd (in scorne) to fall:
And made them Mirrors, by their acting Arts,
Wherin men saw their faults, thogh ne'r so small:
Yet some she guerdond not, to their desarts;
But, othersome, were but ill-Action all:
Who while they acted ill, ill staid behinde,
(By custome of their maners) in their minde.
78
If maners make mens fortunes good, or bad,
According to those maners, bad, or good,
Then men, ill-manner'd, still are ill bestad;
Because, by Fortune, they are still withstood:
Ah, were it so, I muse how those men had
Among them some that swamme in Foizons flood;
*Whose maners were but APISH at the best*;
But Fortune made their fortunes but a Iest.
79
There were knights-arrant, that in Fortunes spite,
(Because they could not king it as they would)
Did play the Kings, at least prowd kings in sight,
And oft were prowder then a Caesar should:
Yet Nature made them men by Fortunes might,
And Fortune made them Natures Zanees bold:
So those, in nature, Fortune flowted so,
That though she made them Kings, she kept them low.
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Davies, Scourge of Folly
Of the staid furious Poet FUCUS.
Epig. 114
Fucus, the furious Poet writes but Plaies;
So, playing, writes: that's, idly writeth all:
Yet, idle Plaies, and Players are his Staies;
Which stay him that he can no lower fall:
For, he is fall’n into the deep’st decay,
Where Playes and Players keepe him at a stay.
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Oxford/Suffenus
http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/Ashbourne_small.gif
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Cited by Lievsay:
Lenton, Francis, fl. 1630-1640.
Title: Characterismi: or, Lentons leasures Expressed in essayes and
characters, neuer before written on. By F.L. Gent.
Date: 1631
22. A Thraso or Braggadotia,
IS a boysterous fellow in a Buffe-Coat, swelling like Aeolus, in windy
words, whose tongue is still applauding himselfe, and detracting from
others; and by grim lookes and sterne language idolizeth his owne
ignominious actions. One that makes all his frayes with his vnctious
Tongue, and then is forc'd sometimes (vn willingly) to maintaine and
defend them by his timerous hands, or to auoid them by her treacherous
feet. His valor is daring and affrighting words, which hee foameth out
with such a forced fury, that you would thinke him in earnest, and so
hee would be, saue that his heart giues his tongue the lye, which it
as obediently puts vp, as hee will your blowes; for hold but his
fained Choller vp to its feeble height, and begin but where hee ends,
and hee'll quake like an Aspen leafe, or grow so flegmaticke and
coole, that he will take your kickes for courtesies, and your
corrections, for good mis-constructions, yet by this rough way hee
often carries the conquest amongst Cowards, whose smallest
satisfaction, vpon any cause of duell, he suddenly entertains with
inward ioy, lest persisting in his peremptorinesse, he should force
them but to offer defence, of which he is is very fearefull. And if
contrary to his intent, hee chanceth by his austerity, to incurre a
quarrell (of which he is very cautelous) it's enough to put him into a
quartaine ague, and his temerity is suddenly turn'd to timidity· That
little valour which hee hath, I must needs confesse is true, because
it's link'd with discretion; for, I'le warrant you, hee'll strike none
but those he knowes will not resist: hee is a Schoole-boy well learnt
in this, that hee knows who he can master. In briefe, he is one that
would be valiant, but for beating; and being beaten, esteemes himselfe
the better man, in that hee aduentur'd it. And may be compar'd to a
Tempest, that blusters a while, and is suddenly silent; or to a
blazing Candle, that flutters till it extinguisheth, and then stands
there stinking.
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Pierce's Superogation, Harvey, 1593
I knew a glorious and braving knight,
That would be deem'd a truculental wight:
Of him I scrawl'd a doughty comedy.
Sir Bombarduccio was his cruel name:
But Gnasharduccio his sole brute of Fame.
SONNET
Nashe, or the confuting gentleman.
The muses' scorn, the courtier's laughing-stock,
The country's coxcomb, printers' proper new,
The city's leprosy, the pander's stew,
Virtue's disdain, honesty's adverse rock,
ENVY'S VILE CHAMPION, slander's stumbling-block,
Grand orator of cony-catcher's crew,
Base broaching tapster of reports untrue,
Our modern viper, and our country's mock,
True valour's cankerworm, sweet learning's rust.
Where shall I find meet colours, and fit words,
For such a *counterfeit and worthless matter*?
Him, whom thou railest on at thine own lust,
Sith Bodin and sweet Sidney did not flatter,
His invective thee too much grace affords.
Parthenophil.
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"To My Book" by Ben Jonson
It will be looked for, book, when some but see
Thy title, Epigrams, and named of me,
Thou should'st be bold, licentious, full of gall,
Wormwood, and sulphur, sharp, and toothed withal;
Become a petulant thing, hurl ink, and wit,
As madmen stones: not caring whom they hit.
Deceive their malice, who could wish it so.
And by thy wiser temper, let men know
Thou are not covetous of least self-fame.
Made from the hazard of another's shame:
Much less with lewd, profane, and beastly phrase,
To catch the world's loose laughter, or vain gaze.
*He that departs with his own HONESTY
For VULGAR PRAISE, doth it too dearly buy.*
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Arundel and Howard similarly proclaim Oxford's untruthfulness at
table , his "ordenarye use to lie for the whetstone in the worst
degree' - the whetstone being a traditional prize in a lying contest.
"Let these examples plede', writes Arundel:
- that the cobblers wyves of Millaine, are more richlie dressed
everie
workeinge daye then the Qwene on Christmas daye
- that but for the comminge of Beningefeld (Thomas Bedingfield)
and
the Duke of Alvaes (Ferdinand de Toledo's ) perswation rather to
omitted the service then forsake his cuntrie he had surpriseid Bommle
witness my Lord Howard of Effinhham, Lord Henry Francis Southwell
Walter Ralegh and my self.
- that yf my Lord (Charles? Henry?) Howard had not in the Quenes
name
called him a waye by letter, he had bin *governer of Millayne*
(MILAN), Henry Howard Walter Ralegh Francis Southwell Harrye Burroughe
Robinson.
- that he was in the waye to genoa with 3000 horsees a 10000
foteman
to take it for the Kinge of Spayne by Don Iones (John's) direction
when the Cardinall Moron toke upp the matter
- that he was proffered ten thousand powndes a yere by the Pope
and
more by Kinge Phillipp at NAPALES.
- That the cownetess of Mirondola came fiftie miles to lie with
him
for loves
- That the Qwene of Navare sent a messenger to desire him to
speke
with him in her chamber
- That St Markes churche is paveid at Venice with diamowntes and
rubies
- That a merchant in Geane (Genoa) hathe a Mantell of a chimney
of
more price then all the treasure of the Towre
- That he *red the reathorick lecter publikelie* in sermies (?
sermons)
preached at Strosbreke (Strasbourg)
Here is a potpourri: denigrations of the Queen and her wealth; boasts
of military prowess thwarted by the Queen; travellers' tales; sexual
BRAGGADOCIO; and boasts of intellectual prowess.
Many of Oxford's fabrications are recited at length, as for
example by Arundel (LIB-4.3/I.I):
And first will I detecte him of the most impudent, and sencelesse
lies, that ever past the mowthe of any man, whiche as heretofore they
have made muche sporte to the hereers, so are they nowe turnyd to the
preiudice of divers (persons). Of a Million at the least that hathe
past his tonge, I will onelie speke of three in affirmacion of whiche
lies being voyde of sence, and withowte coullor of truthe, to have
them beleveid he hathe periurde him selfe a hundred times, and damnyd
him selfe to the pitt of hell. A vice not inferior to manye that him
ateneid (attend) and leveinge all his circumstances this is the first
lie. At his beinge in Flawnders (i.e. in 1574) the Duke of Alva, as he
will constantlie affirme, grewe so much to affecte him for those rare
partes he sawe in him, as he made him his lifetenant generall over all
the armye then in the lowe cuntrye. And imployd him ferther in a
notable pece of service, where according to his place he commanwnedid
and directed, the ambassador of spaine that is nowe here, Mountdragon,
Sansoe Davela and the rest of the captaines, but these, whom I have
namid, as he will saye, of all others were most glad to be commaundid
by him, and so valiantlie he behaveid him selfe as he gained great
love of all the soldiers, and no lesse admiracioun of his vallure of
all sortes: and in the iornye he passed manye straytes and divers
bridgees kepte by the enemye whiche he bett (beat) them from with the
losse of many a mans life, but still he forseid (forced) them to
retire, till at the last he approcheid the place that he went to
besege (Leiden?), and using no delaye the Canon was plantid, and the
batterie continuyd the space of ten dayes by whiche time he had made
such a breche, as by a generall consent of all his captaynes he gave
an assaulte, and to encourage his soldiers this valiant prince ledd
them therto and throughe the forse of his murtheringe arme, many were
sore wondid, but more killed(.) notwithstandinge beinge not well
followed bye the royters (ritters, knights) he was repulseid but
determaninge to geve a freshe and generall assalte the next day Mr.
Beningefeld , as the devell wold have it, came in upon his post horse,
and called him from this service by her Maiesties letters beinge the
gretist disgrace, that ever eny suche generall receaveid and nowe the
question is, whether this noble generall were more troblid with his
callinge home, or Beningefeld more moveid with pittye and compassion
to behold this slaugheter, or his horse more aferd when he past the
bridges at sight of the ded bodies, wherat his started and flunge in
such sort as Beninfeld cold hardlie kepe his backe. Whether this hathe
paste him I leve it to the report of my Lord Charles howard, my Lord
Winser, my Lord Compton, my Lord Harrye Howard, and my Lord Thomas
Howard. Rawlie, Gorge, Gifford, Waldose, Noell, and Sowthewell with
divers other Ientillmen that hathe accompanid him, and yf in his
soberist modes (moods) , he wold owne this, it maye easily be gathered
what will pas him in his cuppes.
Oxford similarly claimed to have settle Italian disputes at Genoa and
elsewhere (LIB-1/2), and to have made 'certaye excellent oracions' at
Venice, Padua, and Bologna, so that he was reputed for his eloquence
another CICERO and for his conducke (conduct, accomplishments) a
CEASER' (LIB - 1/3)
Alan Nelson, Monstrous Adversary_, p.206-7
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Dennis