'tis like a Grocers' *CAMEL*, indeed.

[Arthur Neuendorffer]

----------------------------------------------------------------
Romeo and Juliet: I, v

THE TRAGEDIE OF ROMEO and IVLIET. (Folio 1623)

Enter all the Guests and Gentlewomen to the Maskers.

1. Capu. Welcome Gentlemen,
Ladies that haue their toes
Vnplagu'd with Cornes, will walke about with you:
Ah my Mistresses, which of you all
Will now deny to dance? She that makes [D]ainty,
She Ile sweare hath Cornes: am I come neare ye now?
W[E]lcome Gentlemen, I haue seene the day
That I haue worne a [V]isor, and could tell
A whispering tale in a faire Ladies [E]are:
Such as would please: 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone,
You a[R]e welcome Gentlemen, come Musitians play:
Musicke plai[E]s: and the dance.

[DEVERE] 46
-----------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Grocers

<<The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London and ranks second in order of precedence. Established in 1345, the Grocers comprise one of London's Great Twelve City Livery Companies.

The company was founded in the 14th century by members of the Guild of Pepperers, which dates from 1180. The Company was responsible for maintaining standards for the purity of spices and for the setting of certain weights and measures. Its members included London's pharmacists, who separated forming the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1617.
----------------------------------------------------------------
AN EXCELLENT conceited Tragedie OF Romeo and Iuliet.

As it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely,
by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Seruants.

LONDON, Printed by Iohn Danter. 1597.

Romeo and Juliet: V, i

Rom: Well Iuliet, I will lye with thee to night.
Lets see for meanes. As I doo remember
Here dwells a Pothecarie whom oft I noted
As I past by, whose needie shop is stufft
With beggerly accounts of emptie boxes:
And in the same an Aligarta hangs,
Olde endes of packthred, and cakes of Roses,
Are thinly strewed to make vp a show.
Him as I noted, thus with my selfe I thought:
And if a man should need a poyson now,
(Whose present sale is death in Mantua)
Here he might buy it. This thought of mine
Did but forerunne my need: and here about he dwels.
Being Holiday the Beggers shop is shut.
What ho Apothecarie, come forth I say.

Enter Apothecarie.

Apo: Who calls, what would you sir?

Rom: Heeres twentie duckates,
Giue me a dram of some such speeding geere,
As will dispatch the wearie takers life,
As suddenly as powder being fierd
From forth a Cannons mouth.

Apo: Such drugs I haue I must of force confesse,
But yet the law is death to those that sell them.

Apo: Such drugs I haue I must of force confesse,
But yet the law is death to those that sell them.

Rom: Art thou so bare and full of pouertie,
And doost thou feare to violate the Law?
The Law is not thy frend, nor the Lawes frend,
And therefore make no conscience of the law:
Vpon thy backe hangs ragged Miserie,
And starued Famine dwelleth in thy cheekes.

Apo: My pouertie but not my will consents.

Rom: I pay thy pouertie, but not thy will.

Apo: Hold take you this, and put it in anie liquid thing
you will, and it will serue had you the liues of twenty men.
..........................................................
Good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination: King Lear: IV, vi
.
Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary King Henry VI, part II: III
.........................................................
The guild was known as the Company of Grossers from 1373 until 1376 when it was renamed the Company of Grocers of London. In 1428, two years after building its first hall in Old Jewry, the Company was granted a Royal Charter by King Henry VI of England. One of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, it ranks second in the Companies order of precedence after the Mercers' Company. It is said that the Grocers' Company used to be first in the order, until Queen Elizabeth I, as Honorary Master of the Mercers' Company, found herself in procession, after her coronation behind the Grocers' *CAMEL* which was emitting unfortunate smells; as a result, the Mercers were promoted. [The Grocers' crest of a *CAMEL*]

The earliest known Grocers' Hall was in Poultry, then known as Conningshop-lane on account of the three conies or rabbits hanging over a poulterer's stall in the lane. It was built in 1428 on land once owned by Lord Fitzwalter and let out "for dinners, funerals, county feasts and weddings."

The church of St Mary the Virgin at Northill in Bedfordshire shows the Grocers' coat of arms [The Grocers' crest of a *CAMEL*] on a stained glass window by John Oliver. The company commissioned the window in 1664.>>
........................................................................
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a *CAMEL*? Hamlet: III, ii
By the mass, and 'tis like a *CAMEL*, indeed. Hamlet: III, ii

Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, *CAMEL*; do, do. Toilus and Cressida: II, i
Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very *CAMEL*. Toilus and Cressida: I, ii

'it is as hard to come as for a *CAMEL* King Richard II: V, v
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
. Third Folio (1664)
.
A Catalogue of all the Comedies, Histories,
. and Tragedies contained in this Book.
............................................
. Tragedies.
.
. Troylus and Cressida.
. The Tragedy of Coriolanus.
. Titus Andronicus.
. Romeo and Juli[E]t.
. Timon of Athens.
. The Tra[G]edy of Jul. Caes.
. The Trage[D]y of Macbeth.
. The Tragedy [O]f Hamlet.
. The Tragedy of K. [L]ear.
. The Moor of Venice.
. An[Tho]ny and Cleopatra.
. The Tragedy of Cymbeline.
............................................
. <= 21 =>
.
. T r o y l u s a n d C r e s s i d a.T h e
. T r a g e d y o f C o r i o l a n u s.T i
. t u s A n d r o n i c u s.R o m e o a n d
. J u l i [E] t.T i m o n o f A t h e n s.T h
. e T r a [G] e d y o f J u l.C a e s.T h e T
. r a g e [D] y o f M a c b e t h.T h e T r a
. g e d y [O] f H a m l e t.T h e T r a g e d
. y o f K. [L] e a r.T h e M o o r o f V e n i
. c e.A n [Tho.] n y a n d C l e o p a t r a.
. T h e T r a g e d y o f C y m b e l i n e.
.
[T.LODGE] -21 : Prob. in "Tragedies" ~ 1 in 1100
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sonnets.org/minto.htm

ELIZABETHAN SONNETEERS (1885) By William Minto

<<[Tho. LODGE (1556-1625)] led rather a varied life. His father was a *GROCER* in London, who in 1563 attained to the dignity of Lord Mayor. He entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1573, and Lincoln's Inn in 1578; but literature seems to have had more attraction for him than the bar. In 1586, and again in 1591-3, we find him engaged in privateering expeditions to the West Indies, in search of excitement and adventure. He belonged to the wild society of Greene, Marlowe, and Nash; but if he took much part in their dissipations, he had strength enough to survive it, and when the leaders of the set died off, he became sober and respectable, studied medicine, gave up poetry, and spent the leisure of his professional life in translating Josephus, and the "works, both natural and moral," of Seneca. His chief productions were--A "Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stage-plays," in reply to Stephen Gosson's "School of Abuse," 1580; "Alarm against Usurers," along with the novelette of "Forbonius and Prisceria," 1584; "Scylla's Metamorphosis," with "sundry most absolute Poems and Sonnets," 1589; "Euphues Golden Legacy," (reprinted in Mr Collier's "Shakespeare's Library," as being the basis of "As You Like It," 1590; "Phyllis honoured with Pastoral Sonnets," 1593; "The Wounds of Civil War," a tragedy on the history of Marius and Sylla, 1594; "A Fig for Momus," a body of satires, 1595; "Wit's Misery and the World's Madness," a prose satire, 1596; "A Marguerite of America," a very tragical novel, 1596.

Lodge's love-poems have an exquisite delicacy and grace: they breathe a tenderer and truer passion than we find in any of his contemporaries. His sonnets are more loose and straggling, slighter and less compactly built, than Constable's or Daniel's; but they have a wonderful charm of sweet fancy and unaffected tenderness. His themes are the usual praises of beauty and complaints of unkindness; but he contrives to impart to them a most unusual air of sincere devotion and graceful fervour. None of his rivals can equal the direct and earnest simplicity and grace of his adoration of Phyllis, and avowal of faith in her constancy:
..............................................................
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/Archive/Lodge.htm

THOMAS LODGE : SONNETS TO PHILLIS 1593 : SONNET 2

You sacred Sea-nimphes pleasantly disporting,
Amidst this watrie world, where now I saile:
If euer loue, or louers sad reporting,
Had power sweet teares from your faire eyes to hayle :
And you more gentle-hearted then the rest,
Vnder the Northren Noon-stede sweetly streaming :
Lend those moyst riches of your christall crest,
To quench the flames from my hearts ÆEtna. steaming.
And thou kinde (TRITON) in thy trompet relish,
The ruthfull accents of my discontent:
That midst this treauell desolate and hellish,
Some gentle winde that listens my lament
May prattle in the north in Phillis eares,
Where Phillis wants Damon consumes in teares.
------------------------------------------------------------------
. Coriolanus (Folio 1623) Act III, scene I
.
CORIOLANUS: Shall remaine?
. Heare you this (TRITON) of the Minnoues? Marke you
. His absolute Shall?
.
COMINIUS: 'Twas from the Cannon.
------------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lodge_(Lord_Mayor_of_London)

<<Sir Thomas Lodge (c.1509 – 28 February 1584), was Lord Mayor of London. Thomas Lodge was the son of William Littleton alias Lodge. His paternal grandfather was Sir William Littleton (d. 8 November 1508), knighted after the Battle of Stoke, eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Littleton (d.1481), justice and author of Littleton's Tenures. According to Bernard: "Sir William Littleton (1450–1507) eldest son of the judge, had issue by his second marriage one son John, his heir, and one daughter Anne, the wife of Thomas Rouse of Ragley in Warwickshire. She was mother of the Lady Abbess of Ramsey. Sir William had likewise a natural son called William Littleton alias Lodge, afterwards of Cressage in Shropshire. [Sir William] was the first of the family who bore the (TRITON) as a supporter. He sealed many deeds with the same crest as the judge, his father, and spelled his name Littleton. He lived in great splendor at Frankley till his death November the 8th 1508."

Thomas Lodge was apprenticed in March 1528 to the London *GROCER* William Pratt, of All Hallows, Honey Lane, and served for about ten years, gaining his freedom of the Worshipful Company of *GROCERS* between 1537 and 1539.

Lodge's first marriage was to Mawdleyn, sister of Stephen Vaughan. Travelling much for mercantile purposes, in February 1545 he was acting for Vaughan in England and abroad in the surveillance of suspicious persons, and the delivery of secret letters to the Privy Council.

Pratt and Vaughan were of Reformist sympathy, and Lodge was with them. The reign of Edward VI advanced his expectations. He served as Warden of the *GROCERS'* Company in 1548, in Sir William Laxton's sixth term as Master. Sir William and Lady Laxton were particularly remembered in Pratt's will, a connection no doubt favourable to Lodge's progress. Upon the death of the wealthy *GROCER* William Lane in 1552 Lodge took to his third wife Lane's widow Anne, née Loddington.

Poet Thomas Lodge (1558–1625) was son to Anne & Sir Thomas Lodge (c.1509 – 28 February 1584). The difficulties over his son Thomas Lodge the poet are expressed more at length in the will (proved 26 January 1579/80) of his third wife Lady Anne Lodge, in whose right (by her mother's bequest) she and Sir Thomas held the manor of Malmeynes in Barking and Dagenham, Essex. Her will written 15 September 1579 at first enjoins her son William as executor (who is to enter a bond for assurance) to convey these lands to Thomas her second son, under the approval of Sir William Cordell, Master of the Rolls, pending their use by Sir Thomas her husband during his own lifetime.>>>>
------------------------------------------------------------
. For, if I (T)hought my judgement were of yee(R)es,
. I should commit thee surely w(I)th thy peeres,
. And tell, how farre (T)hou dist our Lily out-shine,
. Or sp(O)rting Kid or Marlowes mighty li(N)e.
.......................................................
. <= 27 =>
.
. F o r,i f I (T) h o u g h t m y j u d g e m e n t w e r
. e o f y e e (R) e s,I s h o u l d c o m m i t t h e e s
. u r e l y w (I) t h t h y p e e r e s,A n d t e l l,h o
. w f a r r e (T) h o u d i s t o u r L i l y o u t-s h i
. n e,O r s p (O) r t i n g K i d o r M a r l o w e s m i
. g h t y l i (N) e.
.
(TRITON) 27 : Prob. in BJ poem ~ 1 in 133
---------------------------------------------------------------
. Sonnet 125

. WEr't ought (TO M)e I "bore the canopy",
. With my ex(T)ern the outward honoring,
. O(R) layd great bases {For} etern(I)ty,
. Which proues more [S]hor(T) then wast or ruining?
. Haue [I] n(O)t seene dwellers on forme a(N|D] fauor
. Lose all,and more by payi[N]g too much rent
. For compound sw[E]et;Forgoing simple sauor,
. Pitt[I]full thriuors in their gazing spent.
. Noe,let me be obsequious in thy heart,
. And take thou my oblacion,poore but free,
. Which is not mixt with seconds,knows no art,
. But mutuall render onely me for thee.
. Hence,thou subbornd Informer, a trew soule
. When most impeacht,stands least in thy controule.
.......................................................
. <= 23 =>
.
. W E r't o u g h t (T O M) e I"b o r e t h e c a
. n o p y"W i t h m y e x (T) e r n t h e o u t w
. a r d h o n o r i n g,O (R) l a y d g r e a t b
. a s e s{F o r}e t e r n (I) t y,W h i c h p r o
. u e s m o r e[S]h o r t (T) h e n w a s t o r r
. u i n i n g?H a u e[I]n (O) t s e e n e d w e l
. l e r s o n f o r m e a (N)[D]f a u o r

(TRITON) 23
.......................................................
. <= *26* =>
.
. {F o r} e t e r n i t y,W h i c h p r o u e s m o r e
. [S] h o r t t h e n w a s t o r r u i n i n g?H a u e
. [I] n o t s e e n e d w e l l e r s o n f o r m e a n
. [D] f a u o r L o s e a l l,a n d m o r e b y p a y i
. [N] g t o o m u c h r e n t F o r c o m p o u n d s w
. [E] e t;F o r g o i n g s i m p l e s a u o r,P i t t
. [I] f u l l t h r i u o r s i n t h e i r g a z i n g

{For}[SIDNEI] *26* : Prob. of {For} at start ~ 1 in 145
----------------------------------------------------------

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humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare ›
liberall Shepheards giue a *GROSSER NAME*
4 posts by 2 authors
me (Arthur Neuendorffer change)
7/30/11
-----------------------------------------
*GROS(S)ER MANNER*
*ROGER (S) MANNERS*
-----------------------------------------
. Love's Labour's Lost (FF, 1623) Act 1, Scene 1
.
DuMANE: My louing Lord, DuMANE is mortified,
. The *GROS(S)ER MANNER* of these worlds delights,
. He throwes vpon the grosse worlds baser slaues:
. To loue, to wealth, to pompe, I pine and die,
. With all these liuing in Philosophie.
-----------------------------------------
*GROS(S)ER NAME* : *ENVIOU(S) SLIVER*
*ROGE(R) MANERS* : *NIL VE(R)O VERIUS*
-----------------------------------------
. . Hamlet (Quarto 2, 1604) Act 4, Scene 7

Queen: There is a Willow growes ascaunt the Brooke
. That showes his horry leaues in the glassy streame,
. Therewith FANTASTIQUE gaRLANDs did she make
. Of Crowflowers, Nettles, Daises, and long Purples
. That liberall Shepheards giue a *GROS(S)ER NAME* ,
. But our cull-cold maydes doe dead mens fingers call them.
. There on the pendant boughes her cronet weedes
. Clambring to hang, an *ENVIOU(S) SLIVER* broke,
. When downe her weedy trophies and her selfe
. Fell in the weeping Brooke, her clothes spred wide,
. And Marmaide like awhile they bore her vp,
. Which time she chaunted snatches of old laudes,
. As one incapable of her owne distresse,
. Or like a creature natiue and indewed
. Vnto that elament, but long it could not be
. Till that her garments heauy with theyr drinke,
. Puld the poore wretch from her melodious lay
. To muddy death.
............................................
. . Hamlet (Quarto 1, 1603)

Queene O my Lord, the yong Ofelia
. Hauing made a garland of sundry sortes of floures,
. Sitting vpon a willow by a brooke,
. The enuious sprig broke, into the brooke she fell,
. And for a while her clothes spread wide abroade,
. Bore the yong Lady vp: and there she sate smiling,
. Euen Mermaide-like, twixt heauen and earth,
. Chaunting olde sundry tunes vncapable
. As it were of her distresse, but long it could not be,
. Till that her clothes, being heauy with their drinke,
. Dragg'd the sweete wretch to death.
-----------------------------------------
. Othello, The Moor of Venice Act 3, Scene 3

IAGO. I' faith, I fear it has.
. I hope you will consider what is spoke
. Comes from my love. But I do see you're moved:
. I am to pray you not to strain my speech
. To *GROSSER ISSUES* nor to larger reach
. Than to suspicion.
-----------------------------------------
. King Henry V Act 3, Scene 1

KING HENRY V:
. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
. Or close the wall up with our English dead.
. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
. As modest stillness and humility:
. But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
. Then imitate the action of the tiger;
. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
. Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
. Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
. Let pry through the portage of the head
. Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
. As fearfully as doth a galled rock
. O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
. Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
. Hold hard the breath and bend up EVERy spirit
. To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
. Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
. Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
. Have in these parts from morn till even fought
. And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
. Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
. That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
. Be copy now to men of *GROSSER BLOOD* ,
. And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
. Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
. The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
. That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
. For there is none of you so mean and base,
. That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
. Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
. Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
. Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
-----------------------------------------
. King Henry VIII Act 1, Scene 2

CARDINAL WOLSEY: And for me,
. I have no further gone in this than by
. A single voice; and that not pass'd me but
. By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
. Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
. My faculties nor person, yet will be
. The chronicles of my doing, let me say
. 'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
. That virtue must go through. We must not stint
. Our necessary actions, in the fear
. To cope malicious censurers; which EVER,
. As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
. That is new-trimm'd, but benefit no further
. Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
. By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
. Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,
. Hitting a *GROSSER QUALITY* , is cried up
. For our best act. If we shall stand still,
. In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
. We should take root here where we sit, or sit
. State-statues only.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kathman wrote:

<<In 1576, James Burbage built the Theatre with the help of
his brother-in-law John Brayne, a *GROCER*, and in 1587 Philip
Henslowe signed a contract for the building of the Rose with
John Cholmley, a *GROCER*. I think there might been a *GROCER*
somehow involved with the building of the Boar's Head, too.>>

<<Elizabethan "*GROCERS*" weren't really *GROCERS*
in the modern sense, but rather food wholesalers,
and it was quite a lucrative and important business.>>

<<I did find a John Sanders who almost certainly knew
John Heminges personally; they were both members of
the*GROCERS*' Company in London, and were from
neighboring towns in Worcestershire.>>

<<John Heminges was born in Droitwich, Gloucestershire, and at the age
of eleven he was sent off to London and apprenticed to a *GROCER*,
James Collins, for nine years. Collins died during Heminges'
apprenticeship, but Heminges finished out his apprenticeship under
Mrs. Collins, becoming a freeman of the *GROCERS* in 1587.

Less than a year later, he married Rebecca Knell,
the widow of William *Knell* , a famous actor with the Queen's Men
who had been *killed in a duel* with a fellow actor while on tour.

In 1621, Heminges paid 20 pounds to join
the livery of the *GROCERS*' Company
(i.e. the elite upper membership).>>

<<Heminges was a freeman of the *GROCERS*' Guild
from the age of 20 until the end of his life.
He was apprenticed to the *GROCER* James Collins
at the age of 11 and received his freedom nine years later, which
entitled him to many economic benefits. The *GROCERS* were one of
the most prominent of the original 12 guilds of the City of London,
and contrary to modern usage, they were food wholesalers & importers;
they held a very important economic position in Elizabethan London,
which translated into considerable social prestige as well. And
membership in a guild did not imply that the person made his living
in that profession; many members of the theatrical profession besides
Heminges were members of one guild or another. Philip Henslowe was
a Dyer, James Burbage was a Joiner, Robert Armin was a Goldsmith, and
Ben Jonson was a Bricklayer, yet all of these men made their living
in the theater rather than in the professions implied by their guild
membership. John Heminges had a very high position in the
social order of Elizabethan and Jacobean London; in addition to
his prominence as a member of the King's Men, he owned considerable
property, and he was a Seacoal Meter of London, a rather lucrative
post in early Jacobean London.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Robert L Smith wrote:

<<Some of Shakespeare's contemporaries made fun of him in their plays:

Beaumont & Fletcher's __The Knight of the Burning Pestle__, Induction:

[A Citizen (*GROCER*), his Wife, and Rafe their apprentice
. go to the theater and Rafe joins in the play]

Wife: ...Hold up thy head, Rafe.
. Show the gentlemen what thou canst do.
. Speak a huffing part.
. I warrant you, the gentlemen will accept of it.

Citizen: Do, Rafe, do.

Rafe: By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
. To pluck bright honor from the pale-fac'd moon,
. Or dive into the bottom of the sea,
. Where never fathom line touch'd any ground,
. And pluck up drowned honor from the lake of hell.

. [see 1 Henry IV, Act 3, Scene 3]

A "pestle" was used by *GROCERS* to grind up drugs.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FREEMASONRY AND THE GUILD SYSTEM
By Bro. H.L. HAYWOOD, Editor THE BUILDER
THE BUILDER NOVEMBER 1923

<<Partly as a result of their alliance with the church many gilds,
otherwise devoted to purely secular pursuits, participated in
pageants and in mystery, morality and miracle plays, the
forerunners of our modern drama. These plays were staged on wagons
drawn in a "procession" from one exhibition point to another across
the town, and always it was a day of excitement when they were
shown, and vast crowds gathered. Expenses were divided among the
gilds and parts allotted, as at Norwich, where the mercers,
drapers and haberdashers presented the creation of the world; the
*GROCERS*, Paradise; the smiths, the fight between David and Goliath;
or as at Hereford, the glovers gave Adam and Eve; the carpenters,
Noah's ship; the tailors, the three kings, etc. It is of record
that on a few instances parts were taken by gilds of Masons. I am
of the opinion that the drama of our Third Degree may very probably
have been originally an old mystery play, which may have found its
way to us through some Masons' gild that partici pated in it.>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kathman wrote:

<<Meres compiled the work for which he is known to posterity,
*Palladis Tamia*, registered on September 7, 1598. This
work was part of a series of miscellanies engineered by John
Bodenham, Nicholas Ling, and ANTHONY MUNDAY. Bodenham had probably
met Munday in the late 1570s when they both lived in St. Mildred
in the Poultry, where Munday was an apprentice printer under John
Allde and Bodenham had a *GROCER*'s warehouse. Bodenham was a
freeman of the *GROCER*'s company by patrimony (he had inherited
his father's considerable business), and Munday was similarly
a freeman of the Drapers by patrimony. Most of the printers,
publishers, and editors involved in the 1597-1600 had
connections with either the *GROCERS* or the Drapers.>>

Francis Meres was born in 1565 in Kirton in Holland,
Lincolnshire, about 100 miles due north of London.
One of his kinsmen, John Meres, was High Sherriff of Lincolnshire.
In 1587 he got his B.A. at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and in
1591 he got his M.A. In 1593 he got his M.A. at Oxford, making him
"Maister of Arts in both Universities", as he proclaimed himself on
the title page of his first book. At some point he moved to London,
in Botolph Lane, Eastcheap, and in 1597 he began publishing a series
of books with strong moral themes. The first of these, *God's
Arithmetic*, was published in 1597 and attempted to apply the
methods of mathematics to Sin and Salvation.

Meres compiled the work for which he is known to posterity,
*Palladis Tamia*, registered on September 7, 1598.
This work was part of a series of miscellanies engineered by
John Bodenham, Nicholas Ling, and Anthony Munday; these included
*Politeuphuia, Wit's Commonwealth* (1597), edited and published
by Ling; *Palladis Tamia* (1598), edited by Meres; *Wit's Theater
of the Little World* (1599), edited by Robert Allott and published
by Ling; *Belvedere, the Garden of the Muses* (1600), edited by
Munday; and *England's Helicon* (1600), edited by Ling. Apparently
much of the actual compilation of extracts for these volumes was
done by Bodenham over a period of years, and the general editor
was Ling, with lots of help from Munday. Bodenham had probably met
Munday in the late 1570s when they both lived in St. Mildred in
the Poultry, where Munday was an apprentice printer under John
Allde and Bodenham had a *GROCER*'s warehouse. Bodenham was a
freeman of the *GROCER*'s company by patrimony (he had inherited
his father's considerable business), and Munday was similarly
a freeman of the Drapers by patrimony. Most of the printers,
publishers, and editors involved in the 1597-1600 had connections
with either the *GROCERS* or the Drapers; the many complicated
relationships are laid out by Celeste Turner Wright in
"Anthony Munday and the Bodenham Miscellanies",
Philological Quarterly 40 (1961), 449-461.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kathman wrote:

<<John Heminges was born in Droitwich, Gloucestershire, and at the age
of eleven he was sent off to London and apprenticed to a *GROCER*,
James Collins, for nine years. Collins died during Heminges'
apprenticeship, but Heminges finished out his apprenticeship under
Mrs. Collins, becoming a freeman of the *GROCERS* in 1587.

Less than a year later, he married Rebecca Knell,
the widow of William Knell, a famous actor with the Queen's Men
who had been killed in a duel with a fellow actor while on tour.

At the time of their marriage, Rebecca was 16 and John was 21.
They started having kids immediately, not stopping
until they had 14 children (a couple of whom died in infancy).
That's a dozen mouths to feed in addition to their own.
Yet as far as we know, Heminges was working as an actor -- he may
have been involved with the theater at the time of his marriage,
given that his wife was the widow of an actor, but it's not until
five years later in 1593 that he shows up in the documentary
record as a member of Strange's Men. Yet despite being "only"
an actor (and later a sharer in the Globe and Blackfriars), despite
having a wife and 14 kids to support, Heminges somehow became
fairly wealthy:

John Heminges had several investments going
on in addition to his acting, including real estate and
a lucrative position as one of the Seacoal Meters of London.
Henry Condell married into money at the age of 20, receiving
a huge chunk of real estate from his father-in-law which made
him pretty much set for life. (After his death, his widow sold
this property for 1450 pounds, equivalent to around 1.5 million
dollars in current American money.)

John Heminges became a freeman of the *GROCERS*'
Company in 1587, a status which made him a
citizen of London and gave him quite a few
advantages over non-citizens. In addition to
his shares in the Globe, Blackfriars, and King's
Men, Heminges owned several houses in London,
one of which he bought from Thomas Savage
for 90 pounds in 1605 and mortgaged back to
Savage three years later. Heminges also bought
a house from Savage's son after Savage's death
in 1611. From 1608 to 1626, Heminges was a
Seacoal Meter of London, a position which was
appointed by the Lord Mayor and generated a
considerable income. (Only freemen of the
city were eligible to be Seacoal Meters.)
Thomas Savage was also a fellow Seacoal Meter
(as well as a trustee of the Globe playhouse),
and Heminges' deputy as Seacoal Meter was John
Jackson, who along with Heminges was a witness to
Shakespeare's purchase of the Blackfriars gatehouse.

In 1621, Heminges paid 20 pounds to join
the livery of the *GROCERS*' Company
(i.e. the elite upper membership).

Henry Condell married a wealthy heiress at the
age of 20 and was financially comfortable for
the rest of his life. His wife, Elizabeth Smart,
was the only child of Henry Smart, who left her many
valuable properties in the Strand and the Savoy.
The Condells had to sue the two overseers of
Elizabeth's father's will, who tried to swindle
the young woman out of a good chunk of her inheritance,
and they (the Condells) won in court. In 1602
Condell bought more properties in St. Bride's,
including the Queen's Head tavern in Fleet Street,
and like Alleyn and Phillips, he also had a country
house, in Fulham. At his death in 1627, Condell
owned lots of property, including freeholds in
Helmet Court (Fleet Street) in Middlesex and in
St. Bride's and elsewhere in London and its suburbs,
plus leases of houses in Aldermanbury, Blackfriars,
and the Bankside. After his death, his widow sold
the 12 houses in Helmet Court, Fleet Street, for
1450 pounds, a very large sum which only represented
a fraction of the Condells' wealth

One of the many properties that Condell owned in and around London
was the Queen's Head tavern in Fleet Street, near the entrances to
the Inner and Middle Temples (which he purchased in 1602). Condell
was a very rich man, having married a wealthy heiress in 1596 at the
age of 20, and had a net worth in the thousands of pounds. One of
his properties was a complex of 12 houses in the heart of London
called "The Helmet"; Heminges received considerable rental income
from this, and after his death his widow sold it for 1450 pounds,
an enormous sum. He owned, at the very least, an additional
half dozen houses in the London area as well as a country house
in Fulham. In 1619, Condell was described as being "of great living,
wealth, and power", and if you're looking for the richest actor of
Shakespeare's day, it's a contest between Condell and Edward Alleyn.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Pat Dooley (patdoo...@nospam.allowed.nls.net) wrote:

Mundy is another dramatist from Henslowe's stable.
Luckily we don't have to rely on Henslowe
to prove he was a writer.

***Anthony Mundy's Reduced Biography***

--1560 - Born
--1570 - Record of his being an orphan
--1579 - Claudius Hollybrand, a teacher of French & Italian,
describes Munday as his "scholler" in a commendatory
verse to Munday's "Mirror of Mutability"
--1580 - Signs receipt for bond paid on his maturity
--1584 - Daughter Elizabeth baptized
w-1585 - Freedom List of Draper's company "Mondaye Anthony filius
Monday Christoferi per patrimonium. By Creplegate a Poet"
--1585 - Daughter Rose baptized
--1586 - Daughter Priscilla baptized
--1587 - Son Richard baptized
--1589 - Daughter Anne baptized
w-1590s - Payments for plays in Henslowe's Diary
w-159? - Writes part of "The Book of Sir Thomas More"
w-1596 - Chettle writes epistle "To his good frend M. Anthony Mundy"
for Primaleon of Greece
--1598 - Writes a will for his friend Francis Roberts
w-1602 - Dekker writes a commendatory verse to his "dere friend"
Anthony Mundy for "Palmerin of England, Part III"
w-1611 - Guild Hall records payment to Mundy who devised the
speeches and "divertions" for the pageant "London's Love"
--1611 - He is a witness in an assault case
--1611/12 - Witness against Thomas Bell on a charge of recusancy
--1612 - He is a witness against Hugh Holland on a charge of recusancy
w-1615-26 - Drapers' Quarterage Book had listed him as living at
Cripplegate, but now crosses out "Cripplegate" and
identified him in the margin "A Poet by Moregate"
--1616 - He petitions the Fishmongers' Company for
reimbursement of extra costs from a pageant.
w-1617 - *GROCERS*' company pays Mundy and Decker for their pains
in preparing losing bids for a pageant (Middleton wins)
w-1618 - Paid £60 by City of London for his "Survey of London"
--1621 - Wife Elizabeth dies
--1633 - Dies. His monument read "To the Memory of
that ancient servant to the city with his pen,
in divers imployments, especially
The Survay of London
Master Anthony Munday,
Citizen and draper of London"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Antiquary, The - Sir Walter Scott CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.

(begging your pardon, Miss Wardour) and fruits of the bottomless
pit,---had leaped out of our libraries, for the accommodation
of *GROCERS*, candlemakers, soapsellers, and other worldly occupiers,
we might have been therewith contented. But to put our
ancient chronicles, our noble histories, our learned commentaries,
and national MUNIMENTS, to such offices of contempt and subjection,
has greatly degraded our nation, and showed ourselves dishonoured
in the eyes of posterity to the utmost stretch of time--
-O negligence most unfriendly to our land!''
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Will" <wr...@mindspring.com> wrote:

<<I have recently been researching the life of a man who lived in the
mid to late 17th century and whose Will re-founded the school where I
used to teach. More is known about him than about Shakespeare, but for
a former (and controversial) MP and one of the richest men in London
the documentary evidence is very slight. We don't even know the dates
of his birth and his marriage; his signet ring carries an armorial
bearing distinctively quartered but untraceable by the College of
Heralds; his parentage is unknown. No tomb or monument survives,
though we do know how much his funeral cost (an appalling £600 - more
than £50,000 in modern money). He left money to his former school,
which still has records of what they spent it on, but in the
admissions register he may be any of three boys with the same name,
all "gen.fil" - sons of gentlemen. Some details have only recently
come to light with the re-ordering and indexing of his regimental
archives, and it is only because his Will was contested that other
details were recorded: his executors supplied a full account of how
they had allotted the large sum left for disposal at their charitable
discretion. As far as I could discover, none of his own papers
concerning his long and active membership of the *GROCERS*' Company
have survived, though there is a record in the *GROCERS*' archives of
the offices he held and the fines he incurred.>>
----------------------------------------------------------
. Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
. http://hector.ucdavis.edu/Handy/Notes/WagMeis.htm
. Program note by D. Kern Holoman

<<Die Meistersinger was first envisaged by Wagner as a worldly
companion to the more mythical Tannhäuser, both of which involve
gaining the hand of a loved one by the singing of a song. The setting
is Nuremberg in the middle of the sixteenth century. A guild of
mastersingers—a baker, goldsmith, cobbler, *GROCER*, and the like—
annually awards a prize to the song that best accords with their rules
of good poetry and composition. Hans Sachs tutors the young Walther
von Stolzing in the rudiments of song. (Both Sachs and Walther were
drawn from history.) The villain is the town clerk, Beckmesser, who
acquires Walther's poem in a ruse. All three of them admire the lovely
Eva, promised by her father to the winner of the morrow's contest. (In
one memorable scene Sachs, the cobbler, marks the errors in
Beckmesser's song by hammering on a pair of shoes. The shoes are
finished well before Beckmesser is done singing.) At the end, of
course, Walther's song wins the prize, as Hans Sachs, the wizened
master, looks on benevolently. Die Meistersinger is Wagner's sunniest
work, with dance music, traditional aria forms, and many choruses and
chorales.>>
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.webincunabula.com/html/english/books/shaklost.htm

<<In 1586-87, there were only two regular theatres,--the Theatre and
the Curtain,--though there were usually several companies playing also
at innyards within and about the City. The Theatre at Shoreditch,
owned by James Burbage, was built by him in 1576, and was the first
building designed in modern England specially for theatrical
purposes. Though he had many troubles in later years with his brother-
in-law and partner, John Brayne, and with his grasping landlord, Giles
Allen, he retained his ownership of the Theatre until his death in
1597, and he, or his sons, maintained its management until the
expiration of their lease in the same year.

Much ambiguity regarding James Burbage's theatrical affiliations in
the years between 1583 and 1594 has beeen egendered by the utterly
gratuitous assumption that he joined the Queen's players upon the
organisation of that company by Edmund Tilney, the Master of the
Revels, in 1583, leaving the Earl of Leicester's players along with
Robert Wilson, John Laneham, and Richard Tarleton at that time. We
have conclusive evidence, however, against this assumption. James
Burbage worked under the patronage of Lord Hunsdon and was undoubtedly
the owner of the Theatre in 1584, although Halliwell-Phillipps, and
others who have followed him in his error have assumed, on account of
his having mortgaged the lease of the Theatre in the year 1579, to one
John Hyde, a *GROCER* of London, that the actual occupancy and use of
the Theatre had also then been transferred. It is not unlikely that it
was Giles Allen's knowledge of this transaction that excited his
cupidity and led him to demand £24 instead of £14 a year when Burbage
sought an agreed upon extension of the lease of 1585. As Hyde
transferred the lease to Cuthbert Burbage in 1589, it appears that he
held a ten years' mortgage, which was a common term in such
transactions. In 1584 Burbage was clearly still manager of the
Theatre, and in the eyes of the companies playing there from time to
time, who were not likely to be cognizant of his private business
transactions, such as borrowing of money upon a mortgage, was also
still the owner of the Theatre.
----------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer