M
B 953,538
THE BACKGROUND OF JOHN HEYWOOD'S
NEMO
"WITTY AND WITLESS"
8228
#62w0
C18
A Study In Early Tudor Drama-
Together with a Specialized
Bibliography of Heywood
Scholarship
By
Kenneth Walter Cameron
THE THISTLE PRESS
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
1941
. THE BACKGROUND OF JOHN HEYWOOD'S
"WITTY AND WITLESS"
A Study In Early Tudor Drama
Together with a Specialized
Bibliography of Heywood
Scholarship
By
Kenneth Walter Cameron
THE THISTLE PRESS
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
1941
TO MY FATHER
ALBERT ERNEST CAMERON
January 4, 1885
October 8, 1938
YOURS IS THE PRAISE, IF MANKIND
HATH NOT AS YET IN ITS MARCH
FAINTED, AND FALLEN, AND DIEDI
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Dedication.
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
+Sources and Date of Witty and Witless
Index
Specialized Heywood Bibliography.
•
•
•
•
•
3
7
33
. 43
THE SOURCES AND DATE OF WITTY AND WITLESS¹
6
Karl Young,2 in 1904, carefully analyzed Heywood's Dialogue
on Wit and Folly³ and suggested as source for many of the ideas
contained in it the Encomium Moriae of Erasmus+ and possibly
the brief and somewhat serious Dyalogue du Fol et du Sage,5
which must have been popular because it has survived in many
editions. In the first, Professor Young discovered references to
(1) the pleasures of folly, (2) mental pain, (3) the treatment
of fools, (4) disquietude of mind, and (5) the fool's superiority
because of his certainty of salvation; in the second, he found
the following ideas: "(1) the wise man must toil while the fool
need not; (2) the fool is mocked and maltreated; (3) the wise
man suffers agonies of mind; (4) the wise man is in danger of
damnation, while the fool is sure of salvation." He concluded
that "either . . . might have furnished Heywood with his main
"The best edited text is that in Rupert de la Bère, John Heywood, Enter-
tainer, London, [1937], 117-143. All citations passim are drawn from this
edition. For earlier treatments of this play, see Jules Bernard, The Prosody
of the Tudor Interlude, New Haven and London, 1939, 45 and 52; F. S.
Boas, "Early English Comedy," in C H E L, V (N.Y., 1910), pp. 104-111;
Robert Bolwell, The Life and Works of John Heywood, N.Y., 1921, 82-85;
C. F. Tucker Brooke, Tudor Drama, Boston, 1911, 93; E. K. Chambers,
Mediaeval Stage, (2 vols.), Oxford, 1903, II, 446; De la Bère, op. cit., 49-55;
Eduard Eckhardt, Das englische Drama im Zeitalter der Reformation und
der Hochrenaissance, Berlin, 1928, 43; Barbara Swain, Fools and Folly
during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, N.Y., 1932, 165; Bartlett Jere
Whiting, Proverbs in the Earlier English Drama, Cambridge (Mass.), 1938,
171-172; Karl Young, "The Influence of French Farce Upon the Plays of John
Heywood," M P, II (1904), pp. 109-116; Harald Zühlsdorff, Die Technik des
komischen Zwischenspiels der frühen Tudorzeit, Berlin, 1935, 25-28, 41-42.
See also Wesley Phy, "The Chronology of John Heywood's Plays," Englische
Studien, LXXIV (1940), 34-36.
2See Karl Young, loc. cit., 110.
"We shall call the play Witty and Witless and, occasionally, Witty.
*See Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, (1509), tr. John Wilson (1668), ed.
Mrs. P. S. Allen, Oxford, 1925.
"For the text from Bibliothèque Royale MS. 7218, see Achille Jubinal ed.,
Nouveau Recueil de Contes, Dits, Fabliaux etc., (2 vols.), Paris, 1839-1842,
II, 72-83. Another convenient text appears in Les Joyeusetez, Facéties et
Folastres Imaginations, Paris (Techener), 1829-1834, XIV, item 4.
"See Louis Petit de Julleville, Histoire du Théâtre en France: Repertoire
du Théâtre Comique en France au Moyen-Age, Paris, 1886, item C.105; see
also Jacques-Charles Brunet, Manuel de Libraire (5th ed.), Paris, 1860-1865,
II, 671. One edition is dated Lyon, 1496.
'See Young, loc. cit., 110.
Ibid., 113.
8
WITTY AND WITLESS
idea," but that no "actual verbal parallels are noticeable between
Heywood's play and either the French or the Latin work."
That Heywood knew the Encomium Moriae is more than prob-
able; that he knew the French Dyalogue is possible but not
certain. Zühlsdorff, more recently, has pointed out the similarity
of technique between Heywood's play and the short French
dialogue, Le Vieil Amoreux et le Jeune Amoureux, but he con-
tributes no new sources.10
The chief part of Witty and Witless is the strong and well-
developed conclusion, whereas the points which it shares with
the French Dyalogue are now known to be commonplaces.11 Dis-
cussions of the fool and of folly appeared in the standard
encyclopedias,12 theological works,13 and story books;14 the sub-
ject was occasionally discussed in courtesy literature, 15 but it was
dramatized in dozens of continental stage plays, not all of them
French.16 The Court Fool, moreover, was a living institution
throughout the Renaissance, and much of the evidence scholars
Ibid., 114-115.
10 Zühlsdorff, op. cit., 41-43.
"See Swain, op. cit., passim, esp. footnotes. For a survey of the wise fool
in later English literature, see Walter Gaedick, Der Weise Narr in der
Englischen Literatur von Erasmus bis Shakespeare, [Weimar, 1928].
12See Baptista Mantuanus, De Patientia aurei libri tres, [Lyon], 1498,
Lib. I, cap. xix; Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Doctrinale, Strassburg,
[ca. 1472], Bk. V, chap. CXVIII; Raffaele Maffei, Commentariorum
Urbanorum, Parrhisiis, [1511], folio CCCV recto.
13
See Nicolaus de Auximo, Supplementum Summae Pisani. Consilia Alex-
andri de Nevo contra Judaeos foenerantes, Venice, 10th March, 1481, sub
verbo; Angelus [Carletus] de Clavasio, Summa de casibus conscientiae,
Chivasso, 1486, sig. T2 recto; also Defensor's Liber Scintillarum, ed. E. W.
Rhodes, London (E.E.T.S.), 1889, 94-98; Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg,
Navicula, sive Speculum Fatuorum, [Argentorati, 1513], Section I, par.
R and S; section XXII, par. H.
¹¹E.g., see Jack of Dover, his quest or inquirie, or his Privy Search for the
Veriest Foole in England, London (Percy Soc.), 1842. See also Moncure
Daniel Conway, Solomon and Solomonic Literature, Chicago, London, 1899.
15See Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528), tr. Sir
Thomas Hoby (1561), London &c. (E.M.L.), [n.d.], 25.
16 See Swain, op. cit., chap. VI. See also "Ein Spil von Narren" in Biblio-
thek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, XXVIII (1853), 258-263; “Die
Narren” in Ibid., XXIX (1853, 1008ff.; Edgar Prestage, "The Portuguese
Drama in the 16th Century: Gil Vicente," Papers of the Manchester Literary
Club, XXIII (1897), 257. For a French sottie executed in the manner of
Erasmus' Encomium Moriae, see the "Sermon Joyeux . a tous les foulx,"
in Violet Leduc ed., Ancien Théâtre François, Paris, 1854-1857, II, 207-222.
This last work quotes extensively from the Vulgate and from Classical
writers.
•
SOURCES AND DATE
9
try to find in printed records doubtless was discussed orally
everywhere. There is now a considerable body of material avail-
able on court fools and the treatment accorded them.17
The impetus for all speculation on fools and folly was the
Bible, followed by hundreds of patristic commentaries especially
on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Though antithetical, both were
traditionally assigned to King Solomon.18 Proverbs proclaims the
value of wisdom, at the same time condemning folly in all its
forms. Ecclesiastes, on the contrary, stresses the vanity of knowl-
edge and of everything else "under the sun."19 A good summary
may be found in Nevill's recapitulation (ante 1518):20
17See Paul Lacroix, Les Deux Fous: Historie du Temps de François Iºr,
1524, Paris, 1830; A. Wesselski ed., Narren, Gaukler und Volkslieblinge,
Bd. 1-5 (Berlin, 1910-1920; in progress); J. Doran, The History of Court
Fools, London, 1858, esp. 134-136; A Pleasant History of the Life and
Death of Will Summers (1676), Rptd. London, 1794, passim. See Chambers,
Mediaeval Stage, I, 274-419, esp. chap. XVI, "Guild Fools and Court Fools";
also Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v.; Enid Welsford, The Fool: His Social and
Literary History, London, [1935]; Jean François Dreux de Radier, "Histoire
des Fous en titre d'Office" in C. Leber, Collection des dissertations relatif
à l'Histoire de France, vol. VIII: Paris, 1838. Scattered information may be
found in various types of contemporary literature like Erasmus' Colloquies;
see “The Franciscans" in The Whole Familiar Colloquies, tr. Nathan Bailey,
London, Glasgow, 1877, 190:
Con. You press this upon me indeed, but I am still of the
opinion that there is good reason for giving fools distinct
habits. Innk. What reason? Con. That nobody might hurt
them if they say or do anything that is foolish. Innk. But,
on the contrary, I will not say that their dress does rather
provoke some people to do them hurt, insomuch that oftentimes
of fools they become madmen. Nor do I see any reason why a
bull that gores a man or a dog, or a hog that kills a child should
be punished, and a fool who commits greater crimes should be
suffered to live under the protection of his folly.
18 Modern Old Testament scholarship denies Solomon's authorship of either.
For a fine analysis of the contents of these writings and for a discussion of
their provenance and influence, see W. O. E. Oesterley and Theodore H.
Robinson, An Introduction to the Books of the O.T., N.Ÿ., [1934], 202-216;
Julius A. Bewer, The Literature of the O.T., (Revised ed.), N.Y., [1938],
308-339; Fleming James, Personalities of the O.T., N.Y., 1939, 500-514,
537-553.
10 See the "Wisdom of Solomon" in Ratis Raving, and Other Moral and
Religious Pieces, ed. J. Rawson Lumby, London (E.E.T.S.), 1870, 11-25.
20 See William Nevill, The Castell of Pleasure, ed. Roberta D. Cornelius,
London (E.E.T.S.), 1930, 111 (beginning at line 876).
***
ལ
}
10
WITTY AND WITLESS
I loked for all these yet I sawe none alas
Whiche brought to mynde wordes of salomon of wysdome
recorder
Vauitas (sic) vanitatum & omnia mundi vanitas.
¶Where is Sampson for all his grete strength
Or where is the sage Salomon for all his prudence
Dethe hath and wyll deuoure all at lenth
For where is ulysses for all his eloquence
Where became Crassus for his ryches and opulence
Where is lucres for all her chastyte.
From Ecclesiastes, it seems, a third tradition developed in the
form of a collection of "Solomon and Marcolf" legends, which
portray the fool as wiser than the wise: Marcolf in argument is
superior to Solomon. This tradition appears prominently in
English literature21 and lies behind works like the Dyalogue du
Fol et du Sage. As significant, perhaps, in the early part of the
sixteenth century, and more dangerous to the devout, even if
more stimulating to thinkers, was a group of serious-minded
iconoclasts, who disparaged human learning and the arts, chal-
lenged the cherished beliefs of humanists like Erasmus and More,
and denied the validity of reason or reasonable religion. In par-
ticular, should be mentioned Cornelius Agrippa, Perisaulus Faus-
tinus, and, in England, Thomas Baker.22
Erasmus in his Encomium Moriae seems to have fused all
traditions.23 He does not hesitate to laugh heartily at the foibles
of men; but his irony serves a positive purpose. It vindicates
human reason and human nature.24
I think
I think nothing more
And now, by the immortal Gods!
happy than that generation of men we commonly call fools,
ideots, lack-wits and dolts; splendid Titles too, as I conceive
'em. I'le tell ye a thing, which at first perhaps may seem
foolish and absurd, yet nothing more true. And first they are
21See This is the dyalogus or cōmunyng betwxt [sic] Salomon and Mar-
colphus, Antwerp, [1492]; Dyalogus Salomonis & Marcolphi, [Paris, 1515?];
See Moncure D. Conway, op. cit., passim, and John M. Kemble, The Dialogue
of Salomon and Saturnus, London, 1848. See Swain, op. cit., chap. III. See
also St. John Drelincourt Seymour, comp., Tales of King Solomon, London,
1924.
For a fine account of these men, see John Ferguson, "Note on the De
Triumpho Stultitiae of Perisaulus Faustinus," 1 Library, II (1890), 44-54.
28See Swain, op. cit., 185.
"See Erasmus, Praise of Folly, ed. cit., 68-69.
:
SOURCES AND DATE
not afraid of death; no small evil, by Jupiter! They are not
tormented with the conscience of evil acts; not terrify'd with
the fables of Ghosts, nor frighted with Spirits and Goblins.
They are not distracted with the fear of evils to come, nor
the hopes of future good. In short they are not disturb'd
with those thousand of cares to which this life is subject.
They are neither modest, nor fearful, nor ambitious, nor
envious nor love they any man. And lastly if they should
come nearer even to the very ignorance of Brutes, they could
not sin, for so hold the Divines. And now tell me, thou wise
fool, with how many troublesome cares thy mind is continually
perplext; heap together all the discommodities of thy life,
and then thou'lt be sensible from how many evils I have
delivered my Fools.
For a complete view of the thoughts of Erasmus, one should
also examine the Colloquia, from which, I believe, Heywood
gained more ideas than from the Encomium Moriae, for example,
(1) the suggestion that fools are similar to brute beasts (515-
516),25 the discussion of pleasure and pain (659ff. et passim),
(3) the comparison of man to the horse (459-460 etc.), (4) the
emphasis on the passion of Christ (559-560), and (5) the thought
that one might well suffer "reasonable pain" for wider oppor-
tunities in Eternity (608-609):
A natural fool differs from a brute only in the form of his
body; but they are less miserable whom nature has made
brutes, than they that have made themselves so by their beastly
lusts..
26
But as to pleasure, can that be thought to be true that
proceeds not from true good, but from the false shadows of
good? Sp. By no means. He. But pleasure is that which makes
us live sweetly. Sp. It does so. He. Well, then, none lives truly
pleasantly but he that lives piously-i.e., that enjoys true good.
It is only piety that gains the favour of God, the fountain of
the chiefest good, that makes a man happy.27
11
He. Well, then, now you have granted me that nobody lives
more pleasantly than they that live piously, and nobody more
miserably and afflictedly than they that live wickedly. . A
25 References in parentheses are to lines of the text of Witty and Witless.
26 See Erasmus, The Whole Familiar Colloquies, tr. Nathan Bailey, London
& Glasgow, 1877. Excerpt from "The Epicurean", p. 403.
"Ibid., 403-404.
}
A
3
12
WITTY AND WITLESS
little puppy that is kept for pleasure is fed daintily, lies softly,
plays and wantons continually; does not she live pleasantly
then?
Would you wish for such a life then? Sp. No,
by no means, unless I should wish to be a dog. He. Then you
confess that true pleasures proceed from the mind as from a
fountain. Sp. It is plain they do. He. So great is the force of
the mind that it often takes away the sense of outward pain,
and sometimes makes what of itself is bitter to be sweet.
Sp. We see that daily in those who are in love, who take a
pleasure in watching and waiting all a cold winter's night at
their mistress's door. He. Well, then, consider with yourself,
if human love have such a power, which bulls and dogs have
as well as we, how much more prevalent will that heavenly
love be that proceeds from the spirit of Christ, the power of
which is so great that it can render death amiable, than which
there is nothing in the world more terrible.28
•
Sp. But for all that, they carry something of torment in
them. He. They do so, but it is such a one that the fear of hell
on the one side and the hope of heaven on the other easily
overcomes. But, prithee, tell me if you did firmly believe that
you should never feel any sickness or bodily pain all your
life long, if you would but once suffer your skin to be pricked
with a pin, would you not willingly and gladly suffer that
little pain? Sp. If I were but sure I should never feel the
toothache all my life, I would suffer my skin to be pricked
deeper, and both my ears to be bored through with an awl.
He. But whatsoever affliction happens in this life is more light
and short, in comparison to eternal torments, than the
momentary prick of a needle to the life of man, the longest that
ever any man lived; for there is no comparison between that
which is finite and that which is infinite.29
Mag. O subtle abbot, but thick-skulled philosopher! Pray, tell
me in what you suppose a pleasant life to consist? Ant. Why,
in sleeping and feasting, and liberty of doing what you please
in wealth and in honours. Mag. But suppose to all these things
God should add wisdom, should you live pleasantly then?
Ant. What is that you call by the name of wisdom? Mag. This
is wisdom, to know that a man is only happy by the goods of
the mind; that wealth, honour, and descent, neither make a
man happier or better. Ant. If that be wisdom, fare it well
for me.
Mag. Suppose now that I take more pleasure in
reading a good author than you do in hunting, drinking, or
gaming, will not you think I live pleasantly? Ant. I would
28Ibid., 402-403.
29
20 Ibid., 407.
SOURCES AND DATE
not live that sort of life. Mag. I do not inquire what you take
most delight in, but what is it that ought to be most delighted
in? Ant. I would not have my monks mind books much.
Mag. Well, but now answer me this one thing, sup-
pose God should grant you this power, to be able to turn your-
self and your monks into any sort of animal that you had
a mind, would you turn them into hogs, and yourself into a
horse? Ant. No, by no means. Mag. By doing so you might
prevent any of them from being wiser than yourself? Ant. It
is not much matter to me what sort of animals my monks are,
if I am but a man myself. Mag. Well, and do you look upon
him to be a man that neither has wisdom nor desires to have it?
Ant. I am wise enough for myself. Mag. And so are hogs wise
enough for themselves.
Mag. Notable sir, pray tell me, suppose you were to die to-
morrow, had you rather die a fool or a wise man? Ant. Why, a
wise man, if I could come at it without taking pains. Mag. But
there is nothing to be attained in this life without pains; and
yet, let us get what we will, and what pains soever we are at
to attain it, we must leave it behind us. Why then should we
think much to be at some pains for the most precious thing of
all, the fruit of which will bear us company unto another life?
Ant. I have often heard it said that a wise woman is twice a
fool. Mag. That indeed has been often said, but it was by
fools.30
13
Erasmus' Enchiridion31 contains a passage somewhat like Hey-
wood's passage on the birds (611ff.):
And I beseche the how smal is ye rewarde whiche those
wretched men go aboute to gete with so great ieopardyes &
diligence Veryly but to haue prayse of a wretched man theyr
captayn / & that they myght be praysed with a rude & homely
song / suche as are vsed to be made in ye tyme of warre to haue
happely theyr names wryten in a harpers bederoll / to gete a
garlande of grasse or oken leues / or at ye most to bryng home
a lytell more vaūtage or wynnyng with them. We on the other
syde clene cōtrary be kendled neyther with shame nor hope or
reward and yet he beholdeth vs whyle we fight that shal
quyte our payne yf we wynne the felde. But what rewarde
setteth forth the chefe ruler of our game for them that wynne
the maystry / not mules as Achylles dyd in Homere / not
30
So Ibid., 194-196. From "The Abbot and the Learned Woman.”
31See Erasmus, A booke Called in Latyn Enchiridion Militis Christiani and
in Englyshe the Manuell of the Christen Knyght, [London, de Worde, 1533],
sig. A.v.recto.
in
14
WITTY AND WITLESS
tripodas / that is to say meate bordes with .iij. fete / as Eneas
dyd in Uirgil: but suche as the eye neuer sawe / ne ye eare
neuer herde / neyther coude synke in to the hert of man. And
these rewardes he guyeth in ye meane seasō to his (whyles they
be yet fyghting) as solaces and thynges to coforte them in
theyr labours & trauayles. And what here after? certes blessed
imortalitie.
A marginal note³2 also finds parallels in the theme of the play:
"Folyshnes is myserye. wysdome is felycyte. Fooles also be
wretches and vnhappy. wyse men also be happy and fortunate.
Fylthynes is folyshnes vertu is wisdō." Akin to the excerpts
from Erasmus is a passage in Thomas More's Dialogue of Com-
fort in which he combats unbelief and worldliness:33
32
They that belieue not the lyfe to come after thys, and weene
themselfe here in wealthe: are loth to leaue thys: for than
they thinke they leese all. And therof cometh the manifolde
foolishe vnfaythfull woordes which are so ryfe in our manye
mouthes, This worlde we knowe, and the tother we knowe not:
and that some saye in sport, and thinke in earnest: The
deuill is not so blacke as he is paynted: and let hym bee as
blacke as he will, he is no blacker then a crowe:
with manye
suche other foolishe fantasies of the same sorte.
Heywood's play springs immediately from the atmosphere of
Erasmus and More, and is opposed to the opinions expressed in
the many works of which the French Dyalogue is representative.
The humanists attempted to vindicate man's reason and attacked
unbelief, fatalism and morbid fears. I, therefore, see in the
conclusion of Witty and Witless an unusually fine specimen of
English humanistic thought at its best.
The most obvious source of the theme which dominates
Jerome's argument has apparently never been explored, although
Heywood names it very explicitly (566ff.):
JOHN
How prove ye that
JEROME By scryptur have in regard
Cryst in the gospell of John doth thys declar
Ibid., sig C.v. recto.
83
See Sir Thomas More, Utopia, with the Dialogue of Comfort, London
(E.M.L.), [1910], 320.
!
;
SOURCES AND DATE
In the howse of my father sayth crist ther are
Dyvers and many mantyons that ys to say
As thexposytyon of saynt Awstyne dothe way
There are in hevyn dyvers degrees of glory
To be receyved of men accordyngly
Eche man as he vsythe gods gyfts of grace
So schall he have in hevyn hys degre or place
But mark thys chefe grownd the sum of scrypture saythe
We must walk w[ith] these gyfts in the path of fayth
In whyche walk who wurkthe most in gods cōmandment
He shall have most & seynt powle showth lyk entent
As one starr dyfferthe from another in shynyng
So the resurectyon of the ded whych lyk thynge
Aperthe in other placys of scrypture
¿
The reference is to St. Augustine's Expositio in Evangelium
Secundum Johannem, of which at least one edition was in circu-
lation.34 In "Tractatus LXVII" one finds (1) the text taken from
John 14:2 (cf. Witty, 568), (2) the admonition against fear
(619, 645), (3) the emphasis on faith (635-636), (4) the quota-
tion from 1 Corinthians 15:41-42 regarding the stars (579ff.),
(5) a treatment of the theme that whereas all enjoy eternal life
in one house, yet there are different degrees of bliss, (6) refer-
ences to unbaptized and baptized infants (340ff.) and to "stulti
homines" and to "stultitia". Heywood clearly gained many ideas
from Augustine's commentary for his vigorous and warm con-
clusion to Witty and Witless. The chief portions of the exposition
are reproduced in the following:35
TRACTATUS LXVII
De eo quod Dominus dicit, Non turbetur cor vestrum;
usque ad id, Iterum venio, et accipiam vos ad meipsum.
Cap. XIV, v 1-3.
15
1. Erigenda est nobis, fratres, ad Deum major intentio, ut
verba sancti Evangelii, quae modo in nostris auribus sonuerunt,
etiam mente capere utcumque possimus. Ait enim Dominus
Jesus: Non turbetur cor vestrum. Credite in Deum, et in me
credite. Ne mortem tanquam homines timerent, et ideo tur-
barentur, consolatur eos, etiam se Deum esse contestans.
84
E.g., St. Augustine, Expositio in Evangelium secundum Johannem,
[Basel, Johann Amerbach, ca. 1490]. See also in Migne, Patrologia Latina,
Vol. XXXV.
35See Migne, op. cit., XXXV, cols. 1811-1813.
16
}
WITTY AND WITLESS
Credite, inquit, in Deum, et in me credite. Consequens est enim
ut si in Deum creditis, et in me credere debeatis: quod non
esset consequens, si Christus non esset Deus. Credite in Deum,
et in eum credite cui natura est, non rapina, esse aequalem
Deo: semetipsum enim exinanivit; non tamen forman Dei
amittens, sed forman servi accipiens (Philipp. II, 6, 7).
Mortem metuitis huic formae servi; non turbetur cor vestrum,
suscitabit illam forma Dei.
2. Sed quid est quod sequitur, In domo Patris mei mansiones
multae sunt, nisi quia et sibi metuebant? Unde audire debuer-
unt, Non turbetur cor vestrum. Quis enim eorum non metueret,
cum Petro dictum esset fidentiori atque promptiori, Non
cantabit gallus donec ter me neges (Joan. XII, 38)? Tanquam
ergo essent ab illo perituri, merito turbabantur: sed cum audi-
unt, In domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt: si quo minus,
dixissem vobis quita vado parare vobis locum; a perturbatione
recreantur, certi ac fidentes etiam post pericula tentationum
se apud Deum cum Christo esse mansuros. Quia etsi alius est
alio fortior, alius alio sapientior, alius alio justior, alius alio
sanctior; in domo Patris mansiones multae sunt; nullus eorum
alienabitur ab illa domo, ubi mansionem pro suo quisque
accepturus est merito. Denarius quidem ille aequalis est
omnibus, quem paterfamilias eis qui operati sunt in vinea jubet
dari omnibus, non in eo discernens qui minus et qui amplius
laborarunt (Matth. XX, 9): quo utique denario vita signifi-
catur aeterna, ubi amplius alio nemo vivit, quoniam vivendi
non est diversa in aeternitate mensura. Sed multae mansiones,
diversas meritorum in una vita aeterna significant dignitates.
Alia est enim gloria solis, alia gloria lunae, alia gloria
stellarum: stella enim ab stella differt in gloria; sic et resur-
rectio mortuorum. Tanquam stellae sancti diversas mansiones
diversae claritatis, tanquam in coelo, sortiuntur in regno; sed
propter unum denarium nullus separatur a regno: atque ita
Deus erit omnia in omnibus (1 Cor. XV, 41, 42, 28), ut quoniam
Deus Charitas est (1 Joan. IV, 8), per charitatem fiat ut quod
habent singuli, commune sit omnibus. Sic enim quisque etiam
ipse habet, cum amat in altero quod ipse non habet. Non erit
itaque aliqua invidia imparis claritatis, quoniam regnabit in
omnibus unitas charitatis.
3. Proinde respuendi sunt a corde christiano, qui putant ideo
dictum multas esse mansiones, quia extra regnum coelorum erit
aliquid, ubi maneant beati innocentes qui sine Baptismo ex hac
vita emigrarunt, quia sine illo in regnum coelorum intrare non
poterunt. Haec fides non est fides, quoniam non est vera et
catholica fides. Itane tandem stulti homines, et carnalibus
cogitationibus excaecati, cum reprobandi essetis, si mansionem
non dico Petri et Pauli vel cujuslibet Apostolorum, sed cujus-
♦
:
}
¡
¦
:
SOURCES AND DATE
cumque parvuli baptizati a regno coelorum separaretis; non vos
putatis esse reprobandos, qui domum Dei Patris inde separatis?
Non enim ait Dominus, In universo mundo, aut, in universa
creatura, aut, in vita vel beatitudine sempiterna mansiones
multae sunt; sed, In domo, inquit, Patris mei mansiones multae
sunt. Nonne ista est domus ubi aedificationem habemus ex Deo,
domum non manufactam, aeternam in coelis (II Cor. V, 1)?
Nonne ista est domus de qua cantamus Domino, Beati qui
habitant in domo tua; in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te
(Psal. LXXXIII, 5)? Ergone vos non domum cujusque baptizati
fratris, sed domum ipsius Dei Patris, cui omnes fratres dicimus,
Pater noster, qui es in coelis (Matth. VI 9), a regno separare
coelorum, aut eam sic dividere audebitis, ut aliquae mansiones
ejus sint in regno coelorum, aliquae autem extra regnum
coelorum? Absit, absit ut qui volunt habitare in regno coelorum,
in hac stultitia velint habitare vobiscum: absit, inquam, ut
cum omnis domus regnantium filiorum non sit alibi nisi in
regno, ipsius regiae domus pars aliqua non sit in regno.
17
This tract was probably well known among the humanists
because many contemporary treatises made use of it,36 and
Erasmus condensed it for his Paraphrases in Novum Testa-
mentum.37
At this point a word should be said about the proverb which
contributes so much to the structure of the last part of Witty and
Witless and which provided Heywood with an analogy of con-
siderable vigor (601-602):
An old proverb makyth w[ith] thys whyche I tak good
Better one byrd in hand then ten in the wood.
Its source is apparently Theocritus,38 and there are several
examples of its use in English and Latin between 1400 and 1530.39
Heywood, moreover, repeated it in his A Dialogue Conteynyng
36
3º See Simon de Cassia, De Religione Christiana, Basileae, 1517, fol. 331
recto-331 verso.
37 See Desiderii Erasmi, Opera Omnia, Lvgdvni Batavorm, 1706, Tomus 7,
col. 608.
38 See G. L. Apperson ed., English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases; A
Historical Dictionary, London, N.Y., [1929], 48.
"Apperson, op cit., 48; William George Smith comp., The Oxford Diction-
ary of English Proverbs, Oxford, 1935, 2.
ན
18
!
WITTY AND WITLESS
Proverbes (1562).40 One important reference¹¹ has not yet been
listed, and it may have been in his mind when he wrote the play.
Capgrave's Life of St. Katharine of Alexandria42 is the story of a
noble pagan woman who became a Christian with the determin-
ation to refuse matrimony and other worldly pleasures. Her
great beauty attracted many lovers, one of whom urged her to
marry him and to enjoy what this life could offer:43
"Ye myght a be avysed, lady, weel I-now
longe er þis tyme, if ye had lest;
In longe a-bydynge is ful litel prow-
Al þat euere I meene I wolde bat ye west.
It is more sekyr a byrd in your fest
Than to haue three in þe sky a-bove,
And more profytable to youre be-hove."
Heywood's use of the proverb for religious teaching is identical
with Capgrave's, and I believe that Heywood supplies in Love
(467ff.) the evidence that he knew Capgrave's work:
And last of all, Saint Katherine's wheel
Was never so round as was her heel.
Assault her heart and who could win it. . .
We have seen that the strong humanistic Christianity of
Erasmus is reflected in Witty and Witless and that the Colloquia
were as important to Heywood as was the Encomium Moriae.
Erasmus emphasized especially the person of Christ, the impor-
tance of the simple gospel narratives, and sweet reasonableness
43
48 Ibid., 94-95.
40
4º See A dialogue conteynyng the number of the effectuall prouerbes in the
English tounge etc., Londini, 1562, Pt. I, ch. XI (ed. John S. Farmer, Lon-
don, 1906, p. 36).
4¹For still other examples of the birdcatching motif, see AEsop's Fables, tr.
George F. Townsend, London, N.Y., [n.d.], 108: "The Hawk and the
Nightingale." See also "Of the doctour that went with the fouler to catche
byrdes" in Merry Tales, Wittie Questions and Quicke Answeres (1567), ed.
W. Carew Hazlitt in Shakespeare Jest-Books, London, 1864, 114. The first
edition appeared ca. 1535. See H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the
Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. III (ed. J. A. Her-
bert, London, 1910), p. 674, for description of a manuscript collection of
"Religious Tales".
2See John Capgrave, The Life of St. Katharine of Alexandria, ed. Carl
Horstmann, London (E.E.T.S.), 1893.
1
¦
1
SOURCES AND DATE
in religious living. He minimized the cult of the Virgin and
condemned many types of pilgrimages and superstitious prac-
tices.44 That More shared the same general attitude may be
seen in his famous narrative of an encounter at Coventry with
a Monk who oversimplified the problem of salvation.45 Erasmus,
moreover, gives a helpful picture of More's mind and attitude in
a letter to Ulrich von Hutten, dated July 23, 1517:46
There is nothing that occurs in human life, from which he
does not seek to extract some pleasure, although the matter
may be serious in itself. If he has to do with the learned and
intelligent, he is delighted with their cleverness, if with
unlearned or stupid people, he finds amusement in their folly.
He is not offended even by professed clowns, as he adapts
himself with marvellous dexterity to the tastes of all.
He also expended considerable labour in perusing the volumes
of the orthodox Fathers; and when scarcely more than a youth,
he lectured publicly on the De Civitate Dei of Augustine before
a numerous audience, old men and priests not being ashamed
to take a lesson in divinity from a young layman, and not at
all sorry to have done so. Meantime he applied his whole mind
to religion, having some thought of taking orders, for which he
prepared himself by watchings and fastings and prayers and
such like exercises; wherein he showed much more wisdom than
the generality of people, who rashly engage in so arduous a
profession without testing themselves beforehand.
19
He talks with his friends about a future life in such a way
as to make you feel that he believes what he says, and does not
speak without the best hope. Such is More, even at Court; and
there are still people who think that Christians are only to be
found in monasteries!
A note strongly emphasized in Witty and Witless appears in
More's letter to a Monk obsessed with religious doubts and
fears:47
"See Erasmus, Whole Familiar Colloquies, ed cit., for the following:
"Rash Vows", "The Soldier's Confession", "The Youth's Piety", "The Ship-
wreck", "Concerning Faith", "The Religious Pilgrimage", "Fish-Eating", etc.
45See Frederic Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers, London, N.Y. (E.M.L.),
[1929], 259ff.
48
40 See The Epistles of Erasmus, tr. Francis M. Nichols, (3 vols.), London,
N.Y., 1901-1918, III, 392, 393, 399.
"Seebohm, op. cit., 297-298.
20
WITTY AND WITLESS
From reflections such as these you may learn the lesson
which the occasion suggests. That you should not grow too
proud of your own sect-nothing could be more fatal. Nor
trust in private observances. That you should place your hopes
rather in the Christian faith than in your own; and not trust
in those things which you can do for yourself, but in those
which you cannot do without God's help. You can fast by your-
self, you can keep vigils by yourself, you can say prayers by
yourself—and you can do these things by the devil! But, verily,
Christian faith, which Christ Jesus truly said to be in spirit;
Christian hope, which, despairing of its own merits, confides
only in the mercy of God; Christian charity, which is not
puffed up, is not made angry, does not seek its own glory—
none, indeed, can attain these except by the grace and gracious
help of God alone.
I am inclined, therefore, to differ with Miss Hogrefe when she
separates Heywood's positive religious emphasis from English
humanism in general.48 Witty and Witless seems to be an inten-
tional echo of More's The Four Last Things (1522),49 a few
quotations from which may illustrate the similarity of theme
and emphasis:
Now see the blindness of us worldly folk, how precisely we
presume to shoot our foolish bolt, in those matters most in
which we least can skill. For I little doubt but that among four
thousand taken out at adventure, we shall not find four score
but they shall boldly affirm it for a thing too painful, busily to
remember these four last things. And yet durst I lay a wager
that of those four thousand ye shall not find fourteen that hath
deeply thought on them four times in all their days.50
And trust it well that, in likewise, if men would well
accustom themselves in the taste of spiritual pleasure and of
that sweet feeling that virtuous people have of the good hope
of heaven, they should shortly set at naught, and at length
abhor, the foul delight and filthy liking that riseth of sensual
and fleshly pleasure, which is never so pleasantly spiced with
delight and liking but that it bringeth therewith such a grudge
and grief of conscience that it maketh the stomach wamble. . . .
48 See Pearl Hogrefe, "The Influence of Early English Humanists on Pre-
Elizabethan Drama," [Univ. of Chicago:] Abstracts of Theses, Humanistic
Ser., V (1930), 473-478.
49 See "A Treatise upon these Words of Holy Scripture: Memorare novis-
sima, & in aeternum non peccabis" in More, English Works, I, 459ff.
5ºIbid., I, 461.
SOURCES AND DATE
Think not that everything is pleasant that men for madness
laugh at. For thou shalt in Bedlam see one laugh at the knock-
ing of his own head against a post, and yet there is little
pleasure therein. But ye think peradventure this example as
mad as the mad man, and as little to the purpose. I am content
ye so think. But what will ye say if ye see men that are taken
and reputed wise laugh much more madly than he? Shall ye
not see such laugh at their own craft, when they have, as they
think, wilfully done their neighbor wrong? Now whoso seeth
not that his laughter is more mad than the laughter of the mad
man, I hold him madder than they both. For the mad man
laughed when he had done himself but little hurt, by a knock
of his head to the post. This other sage fool laugheth at the
casting of his own soul into the fire of hell, for which he hath
cause to weep all his life. And it cannot be but the grudge and
fear thereof followeth his laughter, and secret sorrow marreth
all such outward mirth. For the heart of a wicked wretch is
like a stormy sea that cannot rest, except a man be fallen down
into the dungeon of wretchedness, and the door shut over his
head. For when a sinner is once fallen down into the depth,
he waxeth a desperate wretch and setteth all at naught, and
he is in the worst kind of all, and farthest from all recovery.
For like as in the body his sickness is most incurable that is
sick and feeleth it not, but weeneth himself whole (for he that
is in that case is commonly mad), so he that by a mischievous
custom of sin perceiveth no fault in his evil deed nor hath no
remorse thereof, hath lost the natural light of reason and the
spiritual light of faith, which two lights of knowledge and
understanding quenched, what remaineth in him more than
the bodily senses and sensual wits common to man and brute
beasts?51
I would not so long tarry in this point nor make so many
words of the pleasure that men may find by the receipt of this
medicine, were it not that I well perceive the world so set upon
the seeking of pleasure, that they set by pleasure much more
than by profit. And therefore, to the intent that ye may perceive
that it is not a fantasy found of mine own head, that the
abandoning and refusing of carnal pleasure and the ensuing
of labour, travail, penance and bodily pain, shall bring there-
with to a Christian man, not only in the world that is coming
but also in this present life, very sweetness, comfort, pleasure,
and gladness, I shall prove it to be true by their testimony and
witness whose authority, speaking of their own experience,
there will, I ween, none honest man mistrust.52
51Ibid., I, 461-462.
52 Ibid., I, 463.
21
22
WITTY AND WITLESS
[Satan] found the means not without the grievous increase of
his own damnation, to deprive us of paradise and bereave us
our immortality, making us into subjection not only of temporal
death but also of his eternal tormentry, were we not by the
great bounty of God and Christ's painful passion, restored to
the possibility of everlasting life, he never ceased since to run
about like a ramping lion, looking whom he might devour,—it
can be no doubt but he most busily travaileth in that behalf
at the time that he perceiveth us about to depart hence,53
Wonder it is that the world is so mad that we had liefer take
sin with pain, than virtue with pleasure. For, as I said in the
beginning and often shall I say, virtue bringeth his pleasure,
and vice is not without pain. And yet speak I not of the world
to come, but of the life present. If virtue were all painful, and
vice all pleasant, yet since death shall shortly finish both the
pain of the one and the pleasure of the other, great madness
were it if we would not rather take a short pain for the winning
of everlasting pleasure, than a short pleasure for the winning
of everlasting pain. But now, if it be true, as it is indeed, that
our sin is painful and our virtue pleasant, how much is it then
a more madness to take sinful pain in this world, that shall win
us eternal pain in hell, rather than pleasant virtue in this
world, that shall win us eternal pleasure in heaven?54
Heywood, in like manner, excludes the Virgin Mary from his
discussion of soteriology,55 stresses the eternal world rather than
the temporal, discusses pleasure and pain sub specie aeternitatis,
and emphasizes virtue in conduct. The Spider and Flie may give
evidence of his having known this particular work:56
!
5зIbid., I, 470.
54 Ibid., I, 495.
This pure precept, as all oft in words say it,
If all did do it, in effectual deed,
So that our deeds did it as our words weigh it,
Oh, what commodity thereby should proceed!
Our full felicity should thereupon breed,
As contrarily breedeth in contrary show,
Infelicity, as we feelingly know.
55For the conventional emphasis on the Virgin, see John Lydgate, The
Pilgrimage of the Life of Man (1426), London (E.E.T.S.), 1899-1901, 437-
56 Cap. 57, stanzas 10-11. See also cap. 60, st. 28.
·
T
SOURCES AND DATE
Who would begin a fray and his foe therein kill
If he looked to th'end, that should hang him therefore?
I ween all the world should be kept from all ill
Kept we this lesson well in practised lore,
To th'end of beginning to look evermore
Before we begin, for when we have begun
The leaving off lightly is not lightly won.
23
Heywood quotes a comfortable saying (Witty, 621-622)
found in Ezechiel 33:11, but repeated frequently in contemporary
devotional literature.57 Because of its context, however, I believe
that Heywood made use of a small book attributed to John
Gerson, the Alphabetum Divini Amoris, published separately58
as well as in Gerson's complete works. More was very fond of
Gerson and quoted him frequently, as, for example, in his "A
Treatice Vpon the Passion" (1534):59
Here I wil gyue the reader warnynge, that I wyll rehearse
the wordes of theuangelistes in this proces of the passion, in
latyne, word by word after my copy, as I finde it in the worke
of that worshipful father maister John Gerson, whych worke
he entitled Monatessaron that is to wit, one of all foure.
The Alphabetum was doubtless a convenient guide to penance as
well as a devotional handbook that might easily be studied by all
levels of society. The "Via purgativa" seems pertinent to the
play and I quote it from a volume of the collected Works,60
expanding the printer's abbreviations:
57 See Speculum Christiani, ed. Gustaf Holmstedt, London (E.E.T.S.),
1933, 112 and 114; also in The abbaye of the holy ghost (ca. 1496), rptd.
Cambridge [England], 1907.
58 See Joannes Gerson Alphabetum divini amoris, Memmingen, 1489, sig.
a 4.
59
5º See The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knight, London, 1557, p. 1291.
*See Joannes Gerson, Prima [-quarta] pars Joannis Gersonis [operum],
Parrhysijs, 1521.
}
24
Peccator
debet
dolere De
Peccator non
desperet, sed
assumendo
confidentiam
purget se per
WITTY AND WITLESS
Amicitia dei amissa
Bonitate dei contempta
Consensu et culpabili vita
Dilapsu temporis et virium corporis et anime
Excessu preceptorum dei ecclesie et superiorum.
Fragilitate resistendi: penitendi et proficiendi.
Graui negligentia laborandi: orandi:
meditandi: legendi etc.
Habitu et consuetudine ex frequenti
intentione peccandi.
Ingratitudine qua iterum et iterum sibi
dimissa renouauit
Karitatis extinctione per quecunque peccata
Laxatione timoris dei qui contra tam magnum
dominum, tam magna et horribilia
pectam committere presumpsit.
Misericordie implorationem.
Noue vite assumptiouem (sic).
Orationum suffragia.
Passionis christi interpositionem.
Quassationem in austeritatem penitentie
Reiectionem honoris, voluptatum et
delectationum.
Sanctorum intercessionem.
Temporis vtilem expensionem.
Uoluntatis proprie abrenunciationem
Christi benignitatem qui nonvult mortem
peccatoris: sed magis vt conuertatur
et viuat.
The last half of the Alphabetum is devoted to encouraging the
sinner, and is climaxed by the familiar words which Heywood
quotes. Gerson, like Heywood, emphasized the importance of
working faithfully toward spiritual ends.61 Quotations from his
works appear in most of the consolatory literature of the second
and third decades of the century, as, for example, in William
Bonde's A Deuoute Epystle or Treatyse for them that ben
tymorouse and fearefull in Conscience (ca. 1534),62 which, by
81Ibid., fol. 501 recto
62 See A deuoute Epystle or Treatyse for them that ben tymorouse and
fearefull in Conscience whyche Treatyse yf yt be well red ouer & folowyd
wyll brynge the Reders out of all Scrupulosyte of Conscience and seruyle
feare & brynge them to_the_holy feare and Loue of almyghty God,
[London ca. 1534], chap. XIX: "Remedies ageynst desperacio".
Į
!
SOURCES AND DATE
}
the way, illustrates that Gerson probably supplied Heywood with
an important point (340ff., 560ff):
The infantes that byn new borne & cristenyd that neuer dyd
good dede, in the merites of the passion of criste byn sauyd.
I saye not but gret multitude & nōbre of merites byn good but
grace whiche makyth man partener of ye passion of cryste ys
sufficient. Master Duns sayeth that he merityth moche that in
tēptacion lesyth not ye grace that god hathe gyuen hym. And
Gerson sayeth that he hathe grete merites that hathe the
passion of crist & a good wyll to do well. He that hathe these
.ii. hath grete merites, & good suerty, and neuer nedyth to be
ouercom of ye enemy.
Heywood also emphasizes (641-642) that "for mercy man ys
not mor gredy / To ax then god to grawnt mercy ys redy." This
line may be an echo of the traditional collect for the Eleventh
! Sunday after Pentecost:63
25
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui abundantia pietatis tuae
et merita supplicum excedis et vota: effunde super nos
misericordiam tuam; ut dimittas quae conscientia metuit, et
adjicias quod oratio non praesumit. Per Dominum.
The theme of that day is quite in accord with Heywood's lesson:64
"The Church on this day makes us celebrate the omnipotence of
God and His infinite mercy in dealing with sinners. ... Having
put our hope in God, we have received succour (Gradual). The
Lord has healed our wounds (Offertory) and has given us
strength and courage (Introit)." The Book of Common Prayer
(1549) assigns the same collect to XII Trinity: 65
Almightie and euerlastyng God, which art alwayes more
ready to heare then we to praye, and art wont to geue more
than eyther we desyre or deserue; Powre downe upon us the
aboundance of thy mercy; forgeuing us those thynges wherof
our conscience is afrayde, and geuying unto us that that our
prayer dare not presume to aske, through Jesus Christ our
Lorde.
03
63 See Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., ed., Daily Missal with Vespers for
Sundays & Feasts, St. Paul, [1934], 1094.
**Ibid., 1093.
165 See The First and Second Prayerbooks of King Edward the Sixth, Lon-
don, N.Y. (E.M.L.), [1927], 155.
1
26
}
WITTY AND WITLESS
When Jerome asks John (456-457) whether he prefers to be
a "resonable man" or an "vnresonabyll beast," the miller or the
mill-horse, he may have had in mind Psalm 32:9. Witness the
use made of this verse by More in the Dialogue of Comfort:66
*.
Cosin in those dayes that Esope speketh of, though those
hartes and other brute bestes mo, had (if he say sooth) the
power to speke and talke, and in their talking power to talke
reason too: yet to folow reson and rule themself therby,
therto had they neuer geuen them ye power. And in good
fayth cosin, as for suche thynges as pertein toward ye conduct-
ing of resonable men to saluacion: I thinke without helpe
of grace, mens resoning shall dooe little more. But then are we
sure as I said afore, yt as for grace if we desyre it god is at
such resoning alway present, and very ready to geue it: and
but if that men will afterward willingly cast it away, he is
euer still as readye to kepe it, and fro time to time glad to
encrese it. And therfore biddeth vs our lord by the mouth
of the Prophete, that we should not be like such brutish and
vnreasonable beastes, as wer those hartes, and as are horses
and mules. Nolite fieri sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est
intellectus.
Evidence that Heywood's reasoning (561-565) was also probably
drawn from standard moral theology appears in a contemporary
encyclopedic work, The History of Kyng Boccus & Sydracke: 67
Whether shal ī heuyn haue more blys
Chyldren that neuer dyd amys
Or they that for god of theyr wyl
Toke the good and left the yl
[ANS.:] Chyldren yong that dyd no synne
Great ioy shal in heuyn wynne
ye / theyr ioy shalbe moch more
Tha they here haue dōe therfore
But he that is of age perfyte
And knoweth thys worldes delyte
And myght take al to his behoue
And leuyth al for goddys loue
66 See Thomas More, Utopia &c., ed.cit., 338.
68
*
67 See The history of kyng Boccus & Sydracke how he confoundyd his
lerned men etc., tr. by Hugo of Caumpeden out of Fr. into Englysshe, Lon-
don, [1530?], Question 248.
I
SOURCES AND DATE
Takyng penaunce on his body
There he myght lyue esely
An hundreth fold shalbe his blys
More than eny chyldes I wys
For as a chyld no yl can do
So can it no good therto
Mede is not ordayned alto tho
That wickyd dedes are kept fro
But that do of theyr wyl good dede
To them so is ordayned mede.
27
Heywood's lines on the Imagination (277-295, 494-508) may
provide clues for the source-hunter. In them he says that (1) the
fool cannot have pain by imagination because he has not the
necessary intelligence; (2) like the beast he is unable to live,
by means of thought, in the past, present and future; (3) he
has no mental pain or anxiety; (4) witty people have an imagi-
native life which registers conflicts and experiences pain; (5) the
Imagination may "oftymes go false" but it never stands idle; it
resembles a clock that never runs down; (6) when a reasonable
man's imagination is joined with reasonable consideration (i.e.,
with the higher levels of the mind), man can interpret even bad
situations in accordance with purpose in his life and gain
pleasure thereby; and (7) beasts have all the equipment they
need for their animal lives; but man has additional faculties in
his imagination which insure his having more pleasures than
other vertebrates and better control of his environment.
Many of these concepts are probably commonplaces, but one
must at least point to two of the most promising of available
sources: Aristotle's De Anima and Pico della Mirandola's On the
Imagination, a work that made considerable use of Aristotle.
In view of More's enthusiasm for Mirandola's life and writings,68
it is highly probable that he owned pertinent books and that Hey-
68 See Seebohm, op. cit., 10-12, 92-97.
}
28
į
WITTY AND WITLESS
wood had access to them. The following paragraphs from Aris-
totle deserve first to be considered:
It is clear from the following considerations that imagination
is not sensation. Sensation is either potential or actual, such
as either vision or seeing, but imagination occurs when neither
of these is present, as when objects are seen in dreams.
Secondly, sensation is always present but imagination is not.
If sensation and imagination were identical in activity, then
imagination would be possible for all wild animals; and this
appears not to be the case.
69
Imagination in the form of sense exists
. in other
animals, but deliberative imagination only in those which can
reason; for it is the function of reason to decide whether one
shall do this or that, and one must measure by a single stand-
ard; for one pursues the greater good. So one can make one
mental picture out of a number of images; and the reason why
animals are not considered capable of having opinion is that
they have not the type of imagination which arises from infer-
ence; but the possession of the power of reasoning implies the
other.70
Again, all sensations are true, but most imaginations are
false.
Nor is imagination one of the faculties which
always speaks the truth, such as knowledge or mind; for
imagination may be false.71
Recollecting differs from memory not merely in the matter of
time, but also because many other living creatures share in
memory, but none of the known so-called animals can recollect
except man. This is because recollecting implies a process of
reasoning; for when a man is recollecting he reasons that he
has seen or heard or experienced something of the sort
before.
72
Excerpts typical of Mirandola's essay follow:
But granted that imagination is necessary; nevertheless it is
irrational and devoid of correct judgment, unless aided by the
guidance of a superior power. Hearkening to this, imagination
beatifies man; disobedient to it, imagination dooms him. For
69 See Aristotle On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, etc., in Greek, with Eng. tr.
by W. S. Hett, Cambridge (Mass.) and London (Loeb Classics), 1935, 159.
(De Anima, III,iii.).
7ºIbid., 193 (De Anima, III.xi.).
"Ibid., 159 (De Anima, III.iii.).
72Ibid., 305 ("On Memory and Recollection,” II).
SOURCES AND DATE
if phantasy shall deliberately resist the pleasures which allure
the senses, and drag them to things infernal, and shall strive
to draw them to things celestial, it will lead thither the
rebellious sense, unwilling and reluctant though this be. But if,
yielding to the senses, phantasy shall decline to apply itself to
the business of virtue, so great is its power that it afflicts the
body and beclouds the mind, and finally brings it about that
man divests himself of humanity, and takes on bestiality.
Therefore we can without difficulty affirm that not only all the
good, universally, but also all the bad, can be derived from
the imagination.73
He who strives to dominate phantasy persists in that dignity
in which he was created and placed, and by which he is contin-
ually urged to direct the eye of the mind towards God, Father
of all blessings, and in no way to debase himself from the
divine adoption into which he has been admitted. But he who
obeys the dictates of the perverted sense and deceitful imagina-
tion, at once loses his dignity, and degenerates to the brute.
He hath been compared, as saith the Prophet, to senseless
beasts, and made like to them. And, in my opinion, even lower
and viler than senseless beasts should that man be considered
who, having spurned the order of divine majesty, through his
own baseness himself becomes the brute; the man who, set in
this place, in the very order of the Universe, and created to
ascend to things sublime, to God, prefers to descend to the
depths, and forgetful of his own dignity, to enter into the realm
allotted to the beasts. As for the beasts, it is not from any
fault in them that they are brutes, but because of their proper
form; while it is from his phantasy, which he has set up to
be his princess and mistress, that man becomes a brute in life
and character; and by reason of his own evil nature, he is so
much the lower than the beasts as he destroys and perverts
the order of divine majesty, degenerating into that bestial
nature which was created to find in human nature its proxi-
mate end.74
29
When Jerome (519-526) places fools in the category of beasts
because impediments prevent them from using many of their
higher human faculties, he seems to cite directly from a work
which apparently lies behind his whole psychological approach,
the Margarita Philosophica of Gregorius Reisch:75 "In stultis
:
7Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, On the Imagination, tr. Harry Cap-
lan, New Haven, 1930, 43.
“Ibid., 45.
"See Gregorius Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, Argentine, 1512, Liber
XI, cap. XVI.
!
WITTY AND WITLESS
igitur et fatuis anima rationális est cuius tamen ob corporis indis-
positionem opera minus emicant.”
30
Most scholarly opinion has favored an early date for Witty and
Witless and placed it before 1521.76 If the play reflects More's
The Four Last Things (composed 1521-1522), as I believe it does,
this fact will strengthen traditional scholarship. One should
note also that, whereas Witty and Witless emphasizes "faith"
(635), it very definitely demands of man a "wyll to wurk well"
(638) and to practice "ordyrd penytens" (639); God will give
most to the "most faythfull wurker" (647). The doctrine of
Original Sin (341), the Sacrament of Baptism (342ff.) and an
allusion to the Sacrament of Penance (639, 649) are rather
cleverly introduced. The play is unusually endowed with theo-
logical language, and we may have in it an interlude written for
a court still admiring Henry VIII's Assertio Septem Sacramen-
torum Aduersus M. Lutherum, published in 1521. Certainly, the
emphasis on "wurk" and catching birds of immortality is a
strongly Catholic opinion and exceedingly meaningful at a time
when continental reformers were extolling Justification by Faith
alone. In The Play of the Wether Heywood capitalized on cur-
rent events and shaped his material in accordance with gossip
and happenings about the Court. The taste of the Court for
theological debates may, indeed, have been unusually keen be-
tween 1521 and 1522 during Heywood's early period of composi-
tion, and while the monarch took pleasure in his new title,
"Defensor Fidei". Witty and Witless definitely compliments the
King on his learning, and it might have been intended as an
answer to Luther's widely-circulated reply, in 1522, to Henry's
little treatise. The German reformer had called the King "a fool,
an ass, an empty head.
9977
An absolutely certain terminus a quo, however, is the date of
Will Summers' arrival at the court to enter Henry's service, for
76 See Eckhardt, op. cit., 43. He is certainly in error when he asserts that
the play was printed in 1533. The text as we know it is found only in B.M.
Harl. MS. 367.
"See Mandell Creighton, A History of the Papacy (vol. V, London, 1894,
216).
}
11
SOURCES AND DATE
Will is mentioned so frequently78 that one suspects that he is
either a new attraction or that Heywood is pleasing some of
those who sought to provoke the fool to utterance. More facts
about Henry's Jester would assist us materially in a chronology
for the plays. Robert Hill79 states that Summers entered the
King's service shortly after the summer of 1525, but I have
been unable to discover his authority in available printed
sources. The required facts will probably be found in the Books
of Payments and in other manuscript records not easily accessible
to American students in time of war. If 1525 should prove to be
correct, or nearly correct, scholarship will be obliged to discard
some of its present notions on the development of Heywood's
dramatic art.80
A rod in the School
And a whip for a fool,
Is always in season."82
According to surviving records, Wolsey did not like Will
Summers,81 possibly because of the license with which the fool
often spoke. Wolsey is supposed once to have said, "Come Wil-
liam, what say you to this Rhime?
To which Will replied:
31
ނ
"A Halter and a Rope,
For him that would be Pope
Against all right and reason."
Will also, it seems, liked to play tricks on the Cardinal and on the
Cardinal's fool, and to outwit the former in occasional financial
matters. Might, then, Witty and Witless have, among other pur-
poses, the intention of delighting the Cardinal, who seems not
78 See lines 43-44, 445, 530-531, 541-542, 668-670.
79 See Robert H. Hill, "A Wit who Outplayed Wolsey," Blackwood's Maga-
zine, CCXXXIV (1933), 326. See D. N. B.
80For the usual grouping of the plays and the resulting system of dating,
see Harold N. Hillebrand, "On the Authorship of the Interludes Attributed
to John Heywood," M P, XIII (1915-1916) 267ff. See also the arrangement
used by Bernard, op. cit., passim.
81See R. H. Hill, loc. cit., 325-342.
82 See A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers (1676),
ed. cit., 15.
WITTY AND WITLESS
only to have regulated affairs in the King's household, but also
to have selected the type of plays to be performed at Court?83
It must be remembered, moreover, that Heywood concluded his
first period of court service just as Wolsey began to insist on
having French farces for entertainments in 1528-1529.84 Hey-
wood's dependence on Wolsey might explain his rather harsh
treatment of the gentle Will Summers, which earlier editors
failed to understand.85
32
One should note, in closing, that Witty and Witless has the
following points in common with Love: (1) both plays make
extensive use of the Aristotelian categories of pleasure and
pain;86 (2) both use the "clock" metaphor (Love, 255ff., Witty,
276ff.); (3) both employ the same tricks of style and use much
the same vocabulary (Love, 1104ff. and Witty, 540ff.); (4) in the
development of the argument, both offer a choice between dif-
ferent objects-horse vs. tree (Love, 1428) and man vs. beast
(Witty, 456)—and use similar logic.
83 See Sidney Thomas, "Wolsey and French Farces," L T L S, Dec. 7, 1935,
p. 838. The writer is indebted to Mr. Thomas for permission to read his
unpublished paper treating at greater length the same subject, "English
Politics and French Farce at the Court of Henry VIII.”
84 See Sidney Thomas, loc. cit., 383.
85 For a survey of opinion, see John S. Farmer, "Note-Book and Word-List,"
in his edition of The Dramatic Writings of John Heywood, London, 1905,
218-280. See under "Somer" and "Sot."
86 See The Nicomachean Ethics, ed cit., Bk. X.
A SPECIALIZED BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF SCHOLARSHIP
ON
JOHN HEYWOOD
A SPECIALIZED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCHOLARSHIP
ON JOHN HEYWOOD*
ADAMS, John Quincy, Jr.
"A Source for Heywood's Play of the Wether," M L N, XXII (1907), 262.
ARDAGH, J.
"The 4 PP: A Debt to Skelton," N & Q, CLXXIV (Mar. 19, 1938), 205.
ARONSTEIN, P.
Die Geburt der realistischen Komödie in England, [Berlin, 1906].
BAKER, David Erskine et al.
Biographia Dramatica, London, 1812; (rewritten by J. O. Halliwell,
London, 1860).
BALLAD-MONGER, A.
"Ballad of "The Green Willow' by John Heywood," Shakespeare Society's
Papers, I (London, 1844), 44-46.
BANG, W.
"Acta Anglo-Lovaniensia: John Heywood und sein Kreis," Englische
Studien, XXXVIII (1907), 234-245.
BASKERVILL, Charles Read
"John Rastell's Dramatic Activities," M P, XIII (1916), 557-560.
BAYLEY, A. R.
"Frankenstein: Rastell and Heywood: The First Prince of Wales,"
9 N & Q, XII (1903), 361-362.
FRERDAN, John Milton
Early Tudor Poetry, New York, 1920.
E..
BERNARD, Jules Eugène
The Prosody of the Tudor Interlude, New Haven and London, 1939.
BOAS, Frederick S.
"Early English Comedy" in CHE L, V (New York, 1910), pp. 100-135.
"Introduction," Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies [Early Tudor
Period] ed. F. S. Boas, London (World's Classics), [1934].
OLWELL, Robert W.
By
The Life and Works of John Heywood, New York, 1921.
BORISH, Murray Eugene

"Source and Intention of The Four Elements," S P, XXXV (1938), 149-
163.
ge
A few items dealing with the More Circle have been included because of
neral pertinence. Editions of Heywood's various works are omitted. (See
re ference to them at the end.) The following conventional abbreviations
ave been employed throughout:
h
HEL: Cambridge Hist. of
Eng. Lit.
DNB: Dictionary of Nat'l
Biography.
LTLS: London Times Lit. Sup-
plement
M LN: Modern Language Notes
MLR:
MP:
N & Q:
P M LA:
RES:
SAB:
SP:
Modern Language Review
Modern Philology
Notes and Queries
Publs. Mod. Lang. Assn.
Review of Eng. Studies
Shakespeare Åssn. Bull.
Studies in Philology
***
36
JOHN HEYWOOD
BRANDL, Alois L.
Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England vor Shakespeare, Strassburg,
1898.
BROOKE, C. F. Tucker
"Gentleness and Nobility: the Authorship and Source," M L R, VI
(1911), 458-461.
The Tudor Drama, Cambridge, (Mass.), [1911].
CAMERON, Kenneth Walter
Authorship and Sources of "Gentleness and Nobility," Raleigh, N. C.,
1941.
The Background of John Heywood's "Witty and Witless," Raleigh, N. C.,
1941.
"John Heywood and Richard Stonley," S A B, XIV (1939), 55-56.
John Heywood's "Play of the Wether," Raleigh, N. C., 1941.
CHALMERS, Alexander
"John Heywood," General Biographical Dictionary, XVII (1814), 444
447.
CHAMBERS, Sir E. K.
Mediaeval Stage, (2 vols.), Oxford, 1903, II, 443-446.
[CHETWOOD, William R.]
The British Theatre (containing lives of English Dramatic Poets)
Dublin, 1750.
COLBY, Elbridge
English Catholic Poets: Chaucer to Dryden, Milwaukee [1936], 45-60.
"John Heywood," American Catholic Quarterly Review, XLI (1916)
380-389.
COLLIER, J. Payne
"Defence of a Bald Head-The Stationers' Registers," N & Q, I (1849),,
84-85.
History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage, (3 vols.)."
London, 1831.
CPL.
"John Heywood, the Epigrammatist," 3 N & Q, IV (1863), 247.
DAVIES, W. R.
(See HOPKINS, infra).
DE LA BERE, Rupert
John Heywood, Entertainer, London, [1937].
(In this volume De la Bère edits four plays.)
DOYLE-DAVIDSON, W. A. G. ed.
"Earlier English Works of Sir Thomas More," English Studies, XVI
(1935), 49-70.
DUFF, Edward Gordon
A Century of the English Book Trade, London, 1905.
DUNN, Esther Cloudman
"John Rastell and Gentleness and Nobility," M L R, XII (1916), 266-278.
1
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ECKHARDT, Eduard
Das englische Drama im Zeitalter der Reformation und der Hochrenais-
sance, Berlin, 1928.
FAIRHOLT, F. W.
"An account of [Heywood] and his Dramatic Works," in his edition of
A Dialogue on Wit and Folly, London (Percy Society Vol. 20), 1846.
FARMER, John S.
"Note-book and Word-list," in his edition of Heywood's The Proverbs,
Epigrams, and Miscellanies, London, 1906.
"Note-book, Word-list and Index" in his edition of Heywood's A Dialogue
of the Effectual Proverbs... Concerning Marriage, London, 1906.
"Note-book and Word-list" in his edition of The Dramatic Writings of
John Heywood, London, 1905.
FOERSTER (Förster), M.
"Das elisabethanische Sprichwort nach Th. Draxes Treasurie of Ancient
Adagies (1616),” Anglia, XLII (1918), 361-424.
37
FURNIVALL, Frederick James
"John Heywood and Geoffrey Chaucer," 4 N & Q, IX (1872), 177-178.
GAEDICK, Walter
Der weise Narr in der englischen Literatur von Erasmus bis Shake-
speare, [Weimar, 1928].
GRAVES, Thornton S.
"The Heywood Circle and the Reformation," M P, X (1913), 553-572.
"On the Reputation of John Heywood," M P, XXI (1923), 209-213.
"Recent Literature of the English Renaissance," S P, XX (1923), 247-
248. (A review of Bolwell's Life and Works of John Heywood.)
GREG, Walter Wilson
ļ
"An Unknown Edition of Heywood's Play of Love," Herrigs Archiv,
CVI (1901), 141-143.
"Notes on Some Early Plays,” 4 Library, XI (1931), 44-56.
HABER, Jakob
John Heywood's "The Spider and the Flie": Ein Kulturbild, Berlin,
1900.
HILLEBRAND, Harold N.
"On the Authorship of the Interludes Attributed to John Heywood,"
M P, XIII (1915-1916), 267-280.
The Child Actors, Urbana, (Illinois), 1926.
(Univ. of Illinois Studies in Lang. and Lit., XI (1926), Nos. 1-2.)
HOGREFE, Pearl
99
"The Influence of Early English Humanists on Pre-Elizabethan Drama,'
[Univ. of Chicago:] Abstracts of Theses, (Humanistic Series), V
(1930), 473-478.
HOLTHAUSEN, F.
"Zu John Heywoods Wetterspiel," Herrigs Archiv, CXVI (1906), 103-
104.
HOPKINS, N. H. (and W. R. Davies)
"John Heywood's Wife," N & Q, CLVIII (1930), 223, 265-6, 412.
38
JOHN HEYWOOD
HUGHES, W. R.
"They All Wrote Plays," Blackwood's Magazine, CCXLII (1937), 70-84.
KITTREDGE, George Lyman
"John Heywood and Chaucer," American Jour. of Philology, IX, no. 36
(1888), 473-474.
LANGBAINE, Gerard
An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, Oxford, 1691.
The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets, London,
1699.
MCCAIN, John Walker, Jr.
Certain Aspects of John Heywood's Vocabulary in Relation to his Cul-
tural Interests (An unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University
of North Carolina) Chapel Hill, 1938.
"Heywood's The Foure PP: a Debt to Skelton," N & Q, CLXXIV
(1938), 205.
"John Farmer and John Heywood," L T L S, Aug. 13, 1938, p. 531.
"Oratory, Rhetoric and Logic in the Writings of John Heywood," Quar.
Jour. of Speech, XXVI (1940), 44-47. (Summarized in South At-
lantic Bulletin, IV, no. 3 (1938), 1.)
"Swift and Heywood," N & Q, CLXVIII (1935), 236-238.
MOHL, Ruth
The Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, N. Y., 1933.
MOORE, John B.
The Comic and the Realistic in English Drama, Chicago, [1925], 80-103.
MOTTLEY, John
"A List of all the Dramatic Authors... to the Year 1747," an appendix
to Thomas Whincop, Scanderbeg ... A Tragedy, London, 1747, p. 116.
PEMBERTON, Henry Jr.
"John Heywood: Date of His Death,” 10 N & Q, VIII (1907), 367.
"Who Was Hamlet's Friend, the King's Jester Yorick?" New Shake-
speareana, V (1906), 82-86.
PHILO-HEYWOOD (Pseud.)
"Skeltonical Song by John Heywood, the Dramatist," Shakespeare So-
ciety's Papers, I (London, 1844), 71-73.
1
PHY, Wesley
"The Chronology of John Heywood's Plays," Englische Studien, LXXIV
(1940), 27-41.
PITS (Pitseus), John
Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Anglicus, (Tomus Primus: Paris
1619).
PLOMER, Henry Robert
“John Rastell and His Contemporaries," Bibliographica, II (1896), 437-
451.
POLLARD, Alfred William
English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes, (7th ed.), Oxford
1923.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
39
Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, N.Y. (English Garner), 1903, pp.
307-321: "Pleadings in Rastell v. Walton, a Theatrical Lawsuit, temp.
Henry VIII."
"John Heywood-Critical Essay," in C. M. Gayley, Representative
English Comedies, (3 vols.), N.Y. and London, 1903-1914, I, 1-17.
RATHBORNE, Isabel E.
"Another Interpretation of Muiopotmos," P M L A, XLIX (1934), 1050-
1068. (Discusses The Spider and the Flie.)
REED, Arthur William
The Beginnings of the English Secular and Romantic Drama, London,
1922. (Shakespeare Assn. Papers, No. VII.)
"The Canon of John Heywood's Plays," 3 Library, IX (1918), 27-56,
116-131.
The Canon of John Heywood's Plays, London, 1918.
"Chivalry and the Idea of a Gentleman," in Chivalry, ed. Edgar Pres-
tage, London and N.Y., 1928, 207ff.
"The Editor of Sir Thomas More's English Works: Wm. Rastell," 4
Library, IV 25-49, 160.
"Early Dutch Secular Drama," R E S, I (1925), 159-165.
Early Tudor Drama (Medwall, the Rastells, Heywood and the More
Circle), London, [1926].
"Introduction" to A Frutefull, Pleasaunt and Wittie Worke [by More]
called Utopia (tr. Raphe Robynson), ed. A. W. Reed, Waltham St.
Lawrence, 1929.
"John Heywood and His Friends," 3 Library, VIII (1917), 240-270,
289-314.
"John Rastell, Printer, Lawyer, Venturer, Dramatist and Contro-
versialist," Bibliog. Soc. Transac., XV (1920), 59-82.
"John Rastell's Plays," 3 Library, X (1919), 1-17.
"Heywood's Play of Love-a Correction," 4 Library, IV (1923), [160].
"Review of [Bolwell's] The Life and Works of John Heywood," M L R,
XVIII (1923), 106-109.
ROEHMER (Röhmer), Richard
Priestergestalten im Englischen Drama bis zu Shakespeare, Berlin, 1904.
ROUTH, E. M. G.
Sir Thomas More and His Friends, Oxford, London, 1934.
SHARMAN, Julian
"Notes" and "Introduction" to his edition of The Proverbs of John Hey-
wood, London, 1874.
"Notes on Fly-leaves: The British Museum Copy of Heywood's Dia-
logues," 4 Ñ & Q, X (1872), 513-514. [cf. F. J. Furnivall, 4 N & Q,
XI (1873), 24.]
SMITH, G. C. Moore
"John Heywood the Dramatist a Freeman of London," 11 N & Q.
X (1914), 128.
SPEK, Cornelius van der
The Church and the Churchman in English Dramatic Literature Before
1642, Amsterdam, 1930, ch. 3.
40
JOHN HEYWOOD
SWAIN, Barbara
Fools and Folly During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, N.Y.,
1932.
SWOBODA, W.
John Heywood als Dramatiker. (Ein Beitrag zur Entwickelungsge-
schichte des englischen Dramas), Wien, 1888.
THOMAS, Sidney
“Wolsey and French Farces," L T L S, Dec. 7, 1935, p. 838.
UNNA, Joseph
Die Sprache John Heywoods in seinem Gedichte "The Spider and the
Flie," [Hamburg, 1903].
WALLACE, Charles W.
The Evolution of the English Drama up to Shakespeare, Berlin, 1912.
WARD, Adolphus W.
A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne,
(2nd ed., 3 vols.) London, N.Y., 1899.
"John Heywood," D N B, XXVI (1891), 331-334.
WARREN, Kate M.
"John Heywood," Catholic Encyclopedia, VII (1913), 319-320.
WHITING, Bartlett Jere
Proverbs in the Earlier English Drama, Cambridge (Mass.), 1938.
WITHINGTON, Robert
"Paronomasia in John Heywood's Plays," Smith College Studies in
Modern Languages, XXI (1939), Nos. 1-4, pp. 221-239 (Essays Con-
tributed in Honor of Pres. William Allan Neilson.)
YOUNG, Karl
"The Influence of French Farce upon the Plays of John Heywood,"
M P, II (1904), 97-124.
ZANDVOORT, R. W.
"The Messenger in the Early English Drama," English Studies, III
(1921), 100-107.
'UEHLSDORFF (Zühlsdorff), Harald
Die Technik des komischen Zwischenspiels der frühen Tudorzeit, Berlin,
1935.
;
A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
RECENT EDITIONS*
41
BOAS, Frederick S. ed., Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies, London (World's
Classics), [1934]. (With line numbering)
THE PLAYE CALLED THE FOURE PP.
CAMERON, Kenneth Walter, ed., Gentleness and Nobility (1522-1523) by
John Heywood (originally edited with a Philosopher's Epilogue by John
Rastell). The whole now re-edited from the Black-Letter Original [with
line numbering], Raleigh, N. C., 1941.
GENTLENESS AND NOBILITY
DE LA BERE, Rupert: John Heywood, Entertainer, London, [1937].
A PLAY OF WYTTY AND WYTTLES
THE PARDONER AND THE FRERE
THE FOURE P.P.
JOHAN JOHAN
*Supplementing the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, I, 518;
Tucker Brooke, The Tudor Drama, 101-102, and Sir E. K. Chambers,
Mediæval Stage, II, 443-446. See also Short-Title Catalogue, 296.
P
A
Abbaye of the holy ghost
23
"Abbot and the Learned Woman”
13
Achilles
AEneas
AEsop 18, 26
Agrippa, Cornelius
Alexander de Nevo
Allen, Mrs. P. S.
Alphabetum Divine Amoris
7
24
13
14
10
8
Angelus [Carletus] de Clavasio
8
B
Animals 27, 28 (See "Beasts")
Apostles 16
Apperson, G. L.
Aristotle 27, 28, 32
17
Assertio Septem Sacramentorum
30
Awl 12
Bailey, Nathan 9, 11
Baker, Thomas 10
Baptism 15, 16, 25, 30
Baptista Mantuanus
8
32
INDEX
Beast vs. Man
Beasts, "unreasonable"
27, 29
Bedlam 21
Belief 15
Bernard, Jules Eugène
Bewer, Julius A.
7, 31
9
Bible 9, 14, 15, (See under
separate books)
Brutes 11
Bulls 12
Bonde, William
Books 13
Brooke, Tucker
Brunet, Jacques-Charles
Brute Beasts
"Animals")
Birds 13, 14, 17, 18, 30
Boas, Frederick S.
7
Boccus (Kyng) and Sydracke 26
Bolwell, Robert
23,
C
Cameron, Albert Ernest
Capgrave, John
Caplan, Harry
18
29
13, 26,
7
24
7
7
(See "Beasts" and
3
8
Castell of Pleasure
Castiglione, Baldassare
Catholic Encyclopedia 9
Catholic Faith 16
Chambers, Sir E. K. 7,9
Children (See "Infants")
Christ, Jesus 11, 12, 14, 15, 16,
18, 20, 22, 25
Christians 19
Classical writers
Clock 32
Clock of the imagination
Colloquia 9, 11, 18, 19
Colloquies (See "Colloquia")
Conscience, scrupulous 24
Conway, Moncure D. 8, 10
Corinthians 15, 16, 17
Cornelius, Roberta D.
Court 30, 32
Court Fool
8, 9
Coventry 19
Creighton, Mandell
Crossus 10
Crow
9
14
De Civitate Dei
De la Bère
D
8
19
9
E
Ecclesiastes 9, 10
Eckhardt, Eduard
Edward VI. 25
30
7
De Patientia
8
De Triumpho Stultitiæ
Defensor Fidei 30
Defensor's Liber Scintillarum
Desperation, remedies against
Devil 14, 22
Dialogue (See "Dyalogue")
Dialogue Conteynyng Proverbes
17
14, 26
Dialogue of Comfort
Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus
10
Dog 12
Doran, J.
9
Dreux de Radier, Jean François
25
9
Duns Scotus
Dyalogue du Fol et du Sage 7,
8, 10, 14
Dyalogus Salomonis & Marcolphi
10
27
10
7,30
8
24
•
44
Enchiridion Militis Christiani
Encomium Moriæ
18
"Epicurean, The” 11
Erasmus, Desiderius 7-11, 13,
17-19 (See also under separate
works)
Eternal Life 11, 14
Expositio in Evangelium Secundum
Johannem
15
Ezechiel 23
9
François I. 9
Future Life
Life")
F
10
Faith 15, 30
Fantasy 29
Farces 32
Farmer, John S.
Fatalism 14
Fathers of the Church
Faustinus, Perisaulus
Fear
14-15
Ferguson, John
Fools: Clothing for, 9; distinctions
among, 15; like beasts, 11;
imagination of, 27; immunity
to fear, 11; mistreated, 7; need
not work, 7; pleasures of, 7;
punishment, 9; sage or wise,
21; superiority of, 7; treat-
ment of, 7; unhappiness of, 14.
Four Last Things, The
20, 30
Franciscans
Gaedick, Walter
Geiler, Johannes
Gerson, John
God 15-16
Good, The
Grace of God
Guild Fools
11
G
9
WITTY AND WITLESS
13
7, 8, 10, 11,
26
(See "Eternal
30
18
8
8
23, 24, 25
28
18, 32
31
H
Happiness 11, 12
"Hawk and the Nightingale”
Hazlitt, W. Carew
Heaven 15, 20, 26, 27
Hell 12
18
Henry VIII.
Herbert, J. A.
Hett, W. S.
Heywood, John
Hill, Robert
19
10
31, 32
18
Hillebrand, Harold 31
History of Kyng Boccus &
Sydracke 26
Hoby, Sir Thomas 8
Hogrefe, Pearl 20
Hogs 13
Holmstedt, Gustaf
Homer 13
Horse vs. Man
Horse vs. Tree
Horses 26
Horstmann, Carl
Hugo of Caumpeden
Humanists 10, 14
I
J
11
32
Idiots 10
Imagination 27-29
Infant baptism (See "Baptism")
Infants 15, 16, 25-27
8
9
Jack of Dover
James, Fleming
Jerome
14, 26, 29
Jesus (See "Christ")
Jews 8
John 26
Joyeusetez, Les
Jubinal, Achille
Julleville, Petit de
L
9
M
7
18
7
K
Kemble, John M. 10
Kyng Boccus & Sydracke
23
9
Lacroix, Paul
Leber, C.
Leduc, Violet 8
Lefebvre, Dom Gaspar
Love, Play of
18, 32
Lucrece 10
Lumby, J. Rawson
Luther, Martin
Lydgate, John
30
22
Maffei, Raffaele
Man vs. Horse
Man vs. Beast
Mansions in Heaven
Mantuanus, Baptista
8
11
32
7
26
9
25
26
15-16
8
Manuell of the Christen Knight
13
Marcolf
10
Margarita Philosophica
Memorare Novissima
18
Memory 28
Merry Tales, Wittie Questions and
Quicke Answeres
Migne, Patrologia Latina
Mirandola, Pico della
Missale Romanum
Monatessaron 23
Monk of Coventry
Monks 13
More, Sir Thomas
25
19
10, 14, 19,
20, 23, 26, 27, 30 (See also
under separate works)
Mules 26
N
0
Oesterley, W. O. E.
Old Testament 9
Original Sin
30
20
Nevill, William
9
New Testament, Paraphrases of
the 17
Nichols, Francis M.
Nicolaus de Auximo
Nightingale and Hawk
29
19
8
9
P
Pain 7, 11, 22, 27
Paraphrases in Novum
Testamentum
17
15
27, 29
18
Patristics 19
Penance
21, 27, 30
Pentecost, Eleventh Sunday after
25
10
Perisaulus Faustinus
Petit de Julleville, Louis
Philippians, Epistle to the
Phy, Wesley 7
Pico della Mirandola 27, 29
Pilgrimage of the Life of Man
Pilgrimages
Play of Love
19
32
Play of the Wether
Pleasure
20
Pleasure and Pain
Portuguese drama
Praise of Folly (See "Encomium
Moriæ")
30
11, 32
8
7
INDEX
16
22
Prayerbook of Edward VI. 25
Prestage, Edgar
8
Proverb about Birds
Proverbs, Book of
Psalms
17, 26
Puppy 12
R
9
9
17
Ratis Raving
Reason (human) 10, 14
Recollection
28
Reisch, Gregor 29
Resurrection of the Dead
Rewards 13
Rhodes, E. W. 8
Robinson, Theodore H. 9
Salomon and Marcolphus
Salomon and Saturnus
Salvation 7
Samson 10
Satan 22
S
Sacraments
30.
16
18
St. Augustine
15, 19
St. John, First Epistle of
St. John, Gospel of 14, 15, 16
St. Katharine of Alexandria
St. Mary 19, 22
St. Matthew, Gospel of
St. Paul 15-16
St. Peter 16
Scripture (See "Bible")
Scrupulosity of conscience
Seebohm, Frederic
Sensation 28
8
Summers, Will
Swain, Barbara
10
16, 17
19, 27
Smith, William George 17
Soldiers 13
Solomon, King
mon")
15
Sermon Joyeux à tous les foulx
Seymour, St. John Drelincourt
Simon de Cassia
17
Sin 22
23
8
8
8
9, 30-32
10
9, 10 (See "Salo-
10
9
Solomon and Marcolf
Solomon, Wisdom of
Somer, Will 30, 31, 32
Speculum Christiani
Speculum Doctrinale
Speculum Fatuorum
Spider and the Flie, The
Spil von Narren, Ein
Stars 15-16
Stultitia 15, 17
Suffering 12
Summa de Casibus Conscientiæ
7, 8, 10
45
24
22
8
10
46
-T
32
Theocritus 17
Thomas, Sidney
Toothache 12
Townsend, George F.
Treatice Upon the Passion, The
18
23
Tree vs. Horse 32
U
Ulrich von Hutten
Ulysses 10
V
Virgil 14
Virgin Mary
Virtue 22
Vulgate
8
WITTY AND WITLESS
19
10
23
Vanitas
"Via Purgativa”
Vicente, Gil 8
Vieil Amoreux et le Jeune
Amoureux, Le
8
Vincent de Beauvais
19, 22
8
W
18
Ward, H. L. D.
Welsford, Enid 9
Wesselski, A. 9
Wether, Play of the
Whiting, Bartlett Jere
Wilson, John 7
Wisdom 12-13
"Wisdom of Solomon"
Wise man's sufferings, 7; uncer-
tainty of salvation, 7.
Witty and witless: purpose, 31-32;
sources, 7ff.; date, 30-32.
Wolsey, Cardinal 31
Work 30
9
Y
Young, Karl 7
Z
Zühlsdorff, Harald
30
7-8
7


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