John Day The Parliament of Bees c.1634

John Day uses the phrase Beggars Bush in the common literary usage twice in publications which cannot be precisely dated. Day was a jobbing playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and others. The old DNB described him as “one of the most neglected playwrights of the Elizabethan period: a distinction which is, for the most part, justified”. Ben Jonson described him as a “rogue” and he probably killed the playwright Henry Porter with a rapier. However, we may have sympathy with his own description of himself that in the end “notwithstanding . . . Industry . . . he was forct to take a napp at Beggars Bushe”.

The Parliament of Bees

St.              Yes him Dull Ignorance.
Serv.           With Jack droms Intertainment, he shall dance the Jigg calld beggers bushe.”

Peregrinatio Scholastica , or Learning’s Pilgrimage

“notwithstanding . . . Industry . . . he was forct to take a napp at Beggars Bushe”.

Usage

In both references the usage is consistent with the standard literary use. As with earlier writers Day is clearly referring to a metaphorical location.
“Jack Drum’s Entertainment” meant an unfriendly welcome. In Holinshed’s Chronicles it is described as “to hale a man in by the heade, and thrust him out by both shoulders” and there is a play of that name by John Marston dating from c.1600, including an eponymous character.
Like many other plays of the time performances of this play seem to have been followed by a jig. A jig was a short entertainment usually involving dance and song, often performed before or after plays. “Halfpenny jogs” were short, but extendable if the audience approved, while “sixpenny jigs” were structured and scripted (e.g. Kempe’s newe Jigge which later appeared in Francis Kirkman’s The Wits, or Sport for Sport). The Queen’s Men performed a jig attacking Puritan writers during the Martin Marprelate controversy.

The Parliament of Bees

The Parliament of Beeswas Day’s best known work, published in 1641 but written before 1634. It advertised itself as “an allegorical description of the actions of good and bad men in these our days”. It survives in a quarto version, and a significantly different earlier manuscript version (Lansdowne MSS No 725 BM). That describes itself as “An old manuscript containing the Parliament of Bees, found in a hollow tree in a garden in Hibla, in a strange language, and now faithfully translated into easy English verse by John Day, Cantabridg.” Many parts of that work appears to be have lifted from plays primarily by Thomas Dekker; The Noble Soldier (1634), The Noble Spanish Soldier (1631), The Welsh Embassador (c.1622) and The Wonder of a Kingdom (1636). The example of Beggars Bush appears at p.32 of the manuscript but not in the published version.

Peregrinatio Scholastica

Peregrinatio Scholastica, or Learning’s Pilgrimage is a collection of twenty-two “morall Tractes” probably written by John Day in the 1630s towards the end of his life, though not published until 1881. It survives in one manuscript (BL Sloane MS 3150). Day’s lament is one with which many writers may empathise, and may have had an autobiographical element, for elsewhere he refers to “being becalmde in a fogg of necessity” having been passed over by “Credit” and “Opinion”.

Biography

Day was born in Cawston, Norfolk, about 1574 the son of a husbandman. He was educated at Ely, and Caius College, Cambridge, but is recorded as being sent down on 4th May 1593 for stealing a book.

Little is known of his life beyond the receipt of several loans by Henslowe, and disparaging references by Ben Jonson in describing him as a “rogue” and also as a “base fellow”. It may be indicative of his abilities that of all the writers who did a significant amount of work for Henslowe’s companies Day is one of only two not included by Frances Meres in his lists of the “best” writers in 1598. Day died in Norfolk in 1638. However, if he were a student at Cambridge in the early 1590’s he would be likely to have seen the Huntingdon Beggars Bush on Saxton’s Maps, if not in person.

It seems likely that he was the “John Daye, yeoman” who killed fellow playwright Henry Porter in Southwark in 1599. Day admitted the killing but pleaded self-defence, (and “no goods”). The court records the stock phrase that “he fled to a certain wall beyond which he could in no wise go without peril of his life”. Day seems to have been promptly pardoned. It does not seem have to have interrupted his career as a dramatist – he continued to collaborate with writers such as Henry Chettle, who had written with Porter.

Day was a jobbing playwrights, working for Philip Henslowe and others. The old DNB described him as “one of the most neglected playwrights of the Elizabethan period: a distinction which is, for the most part, justified”. Between 1598 and 1603 he collaborated with Henry Chettle, and several other writers on 22 different plays, of which the most famous is The Blind-Beggar of Bednal-Green.

The Isle of Guls (1606) for the Children of the Queen’s Revels, was a lively satire on the Court of King James, which resulted in the imprisonment of some of the company and the loss of royal patronage. Day also wrote plays for other companies until 1611, and in the 1620’s collaborated with Thomas Dekker on plays performed at notoriously riotous The Red Bull.

Further Reading

I am not aware of any open access texts online

Peregrinatio Scholastica, or Learning’s Pilgrimage

Works (2 vols) edited by A.H. Bullen, 1881

Hotson, Leslie M., The Adventure of a Single Rapier, Atlantic Monthly, July 1931

Golding, S.R., The Parliament of Bees, The Review of English Studies, 1927, vol.3 Pt II pp.280-307

Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Francis Kirkman, Henry Chettle, Henry Porter, Literary, Saxton, proverb | No Comments »