In England’s Improvement by Sea and Land to outdo the Dutch without fighting Andrew Yarranton wrote “We are almost as Beggars-bush, and we cannot tell how to help our selves”. The work was one of the first promoting inland navigation on rivers & canals, amongst other modern economic ideas (including the establishment of a national land registry). It was influential because it gave the economic arguments for such projects rather than the technical aspects of their construction.
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Posted: March 30th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Andrew Yarranton, Dublin, Literary | No Comments »
The Oath at Beggars Bush or to Make a Man a Fool is an unpublished manuscript poem collected in Wales. The poem contains advice to a countryman travelling to London. The phrase does not appear in the text. The usage in the title is mocking – the advice in the verse would lead the reader to look foolish and lose all credit. It is in keeping with other works which treated country people visiting London as foolish; “coneys”, “gulls” or “clowns”.
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Posted: March 28th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Literary, proverb | No Comments »
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”.
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Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Francis Kirkman, Henry Chettle, Henry Porter, Literary, Saxton, proverb | No Comments »
Henry Porter’s use of the literary phrase Beggars Bush is consistent with other early literary examples. It occurs in a play, now, like the author, largely forgotten. Like most other early writers he makes use of the vernacular, especially proverbs. There is some evidence linking Porter and his play to an area where there are early examples of the place name. His life and death link him to other writers who used the phrase, one of whom probably killed him.
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Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Brian Twyne, Henry Chettle, Henry Porter, John Day, Literary, Marprelate Tracts, Oxford, Philip Henslowe, proverb | No Comments »
A Wonderfull … Astrologicall Prognostication (1591) is a pamphlet by “Adam Fouleweather Student in Asse-tronomy” which has been attributed to Thomas Nashe (“unconvincingly” according to DNB). It was one of a trio of mock prognostications, the others by ‘Francis Fairweather’ and ‘Simon Smellknave’ do not survive. It ridicules the popular prognostications that were published with almanacs. It claimed it was “Discovering such wonders to happen this yeere, as neuer chaunced since Noes floud. Wherein if there be found one lye, the author will lose his credit for ever.”
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Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, County Offaly, Godmanchester, Henry Chettle, Martin Marprelate, Poor Robin, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe | No Comments »
“Newes from Jack Begger under the Bushe, with the advise of Gregory Gaddesman his fellow begger touchinge the deare prizes of corne and hardnes of this present yere” is the title of a pamphlet entered in The Stationers’ Register for 28 December 28, 1594, licensed to R. Jones.
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Posted: March 26th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Adam Foulweather, Gregory Gaddesman, Jack Begger under the Bushe, John Taylor, Literary, Poor Jack, Thomas Nashe, bush | No Comments »
The Wits, or Sport for Sport a collection of drolls (short plays) included one based on Act II Scene 1 of The Beggars Bush called “The Lame Common-Wealth”. This was adapted for informal and small scale performance anywhere. It may have been important in the distribution of Beggars Bush as a place name. At the very least it is an intriguing byway and example of the remarkable entrepreneurial career of the publisher Francis Kirkman. The frontispiece is widely reproduced, and inaccurately described, but demonstrates the popularity of the character Clause from the play & droll.
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Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers, The Play | Tags: Ben Jonson, Clause, Francis Kirkman, John Fletcher, Literary, Performance Chronology, Philip Massinger, Publishing Chronology, The Lame Commonwealth, The Play, The Wits | No Comments »
Saxton’s county maps were the first national cartographic survey of England. They, and later maps based on them, were very important for the preservation and distribution of the place name & literary phrase Beggars Bush. They may have contributed to the mistaken connection of beggars with the site at Godmanchester near Huntingdon.
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Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Christopher Marlowe, Christopher Saxton, Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, bush, early sites, maps, proverb | No Comments »
“The Beggars Bush” is a play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1622, but commonly included in the “Beaumont and Fletcher” canon. Through performance, print, characters and development of the original text it was likely to have made a substantial contribution to the survival and distribution of the literary phrase. As to the eponymous Beggars Bush itself the play is vague. It is a meeting place for the beggar characters, some of whom, it is revealed, are not beggars at all. It does not attempt to portray a real location – the play is not set in England but in and around Bruges.
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Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers, The Play | Tags: Ben Jonson, Clause, Dutch, Francis Beaumont, Francis Kirkman, Henry Chettle, Izaak Walton, John Day, John Fl, John Taylor, Literary, Londons Ordinary, Performance Chronology, Philip Henslowe, Philip Massinger, Publishing Chronology, The Lame Commonwealth, The Play, beggars, geuzen | No Comments »
Thomas Heywood is significant because he does not use Beggars Bush when he might have done, but he does associate beggars with bushes. This song appears to be the source or have a common source with, a later ballad Londons Ordinary which does refer to Beggars Bush.
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Posted: March 19th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Cambridge, Coldharbour, Francis Beaumont, Francis Kirkman, John Taylor, London, Londons Ordinary, Saxton, Southwark, St Giles, derogatory, pubs | No Comments »
