St Fame dispos'd to cunnycatch the world,
[The meaning here appears to be OED 1.a's 'rumour'. At the end of Nashe's
"Strange News", however, he implied the beginning of a duel with Gabriel Harvey,
ending with the words "Saint Fame for me, and thus I run upon him" and PS is
described as "A Preparative to certain larger discourses, entitled Nashe's St.
Fame". To 'coney-catch' was to dupe or trick.]
       Uprear'd a wonderment of Eighty Eight:
[In PP Nashe had attacked Richard Harvey's 1583 "Astrological Discourse"
which predicted a series of disasters for 1588 which never happened. He also
claimed that it had really been written by John Harvey, Gabriel and Richard's
brother. "Upreared" in the sense of brought up the subject?]
       The Earth addreading to be overwhurld,
[OED 'adread', to dread or fear greatly; 'overwhirl', to whirl or hurl over.]
What now availes, quoth She, my ballance weight?
[OED 'balance', confused with 'ballast': "No otherwyse than the balans doth
staye the shippes in tyme of tempest".]
The Circle smyl'd to see the Center feare:
[The earth was still generally believed to be the centre of the universe. The 'circle'
seems to mean the celestial sphere - i.e. the stars, or heaven, where the future
was already known.]
The wonder was, no wonder fell that yeare.
[Without acknowledging either his or his brother's role in predicting these horrors,
John Harvey in fact published in 1588 a learned discourse "concerning prophecies,
how far they are to be valued or credited... devised especially in abatement of the
terrible threatenings and menaces peremptorily denounced against the kingdoms and
states of the world this present famous year 1588, supposed the Great-wonderful
and Fatel Yeare of our Age".]

Wonders enhaunse their powre in numbers odd:
       The fatall yeare of yeares is Ninety Three:
[i.e. 1593. Numerogically, the fact that each digit of 93, the product of the two
digits, the sum of the two digits, the sum of the product's digits, the sum of the
sum's digits, and the number itself, were all divisible by three would have been
thought highly significant.]
       Parma hath kist: De-Maine entreates the rodd:
[The Duke of Parma, Governor-General of the Low Countries, died, and the
Duke de Mayenne failed in his efforts to succeed him.]
       Warre wondreth, Peace in Spaine and Fraunce to see.
[The new King of France, Henri IV - formerly Henri de Navarre - agreed a
(shortlived) peace with Spain.]
       Brave Eckenberg, the dowty Bassa shames:
       The Christian Neptune, Turkish Vulcane tames.
[Prince Eckenberg (Eggenberg) of Austria defeated the Turks, by land and sea.]

Navarre wooes Roome: Charlmaine gives Guise the Phy:
[Henri IV was 'converting' to Catholicism. 'Phy', probably 'Fie' - a sound of
disgust or 'indignant reproach'. Emperor Charlemagne fell out with his kinsfolk
- the de Guises.]
       Weepe Powles, thy Tamberlaine voutsafes to dye.
['Powles' - Stationers and others, the habitués of St. Paul's cathedral and
churchyard. The name 'Tamberlaine' has caused much confusion over the years,
with most scholars assuming that it must mean Christopher Marlowe, who died
that year, and wrote the famous plays about Tamburlaine. Charles Nicholl,
however, pointed out that the Peter Shakerley mentioned a couple of lines later
also died in 1593, being buried on 18th September, two days after the poem was
written. Shakerley was a famous braggart with whom both Nashe and Harvey
had compared each other.]

The hugest miracle remaines behinde,
[Shakerley's death was a 'miracle' because, as we shall see, he had implied he
was invincible, but he's now 'voutsafed' or deigned to die after all]
       The second Shakerley Rash-Swash to binde.
[To kill off the second braggart, Thomas Nashe. In PS, he is (rhymingly) referred
to in "But if Sir Rash continue still Sir Swash". OED 'bind' - to ‘wind’ a corpse,
but maybe it's just to control by silencing him.]

Pleased it hath, a Gentlewoman rare,
[In PS Harvey tells us of his anonymous "patroness, or rather championess, in
this quarrel" - possibly a fictitious answer to the "St Fame" that Nashe called on
for support? She has - allegedly - written some poems attacking Nashe in PS
(including the one from which the "Sir Rash" quotation came). In PS she is also
described as the morning star, or Venus.]
       With Phenix quill in diamant hand of Art,
       To muzzle the redoubtable Bull-bare,
[In PS, writing of Nashe, the gentlewoman says: "O muses, may a woman poore,
and blinde,/ A lyon-draggon, or a Bull-beare binde?]
       And play the galiard Championesses part.
[OED 'galliard', adj. - either valiant, hardy, ‘stout’, sturdy; or lively, brisk, gay,
full of high spirits.]
Though miracles surcease, yet Wonder see
[OED 'surcease' - come to an end]
       The mightiest miracle of Ninety Three.

Slumbring I lay in melancholy bed,
       Before the dawning of the sanguin light:
[Blood-red light, but also a possible suggestion of the sanguine (courageous,
hopeful) "humour" in contrast to the melancholy (gloomy, mournful) one.]
       When Echo shrill, or some Familiar Spright
[If this concerns Shakerley's death, then it seems most likely that Harvey heard
about it from his printer John Wolfe, with whome he had been staying in London
until a couple of months earlier.]
Buzzed an Epitaph into my hed.
['Buzz' at that time was to tell in a low murmur or whisper, to communicate
privately and busily. The first example of a buzz being a rumour appeared only
very early in the 17th century.]

Magnifique Mindes, bred of Gargantuas race,
[Rabelais's famous giant, hence the French 'Magnifique'.]
In grisly weedes His Obsequies waiment.
[In clothing which is horrible or terrible to behold, bewail his obsequies.]
Whose Corps on Powles, whose mind triumph'd on Kent,
['Corps' at this time was a (living) body, a person. Our idea of a 'corpse' came
later. Why Shakerley's mind should have 'triumphed on Kent' is a mystery.]
Scorning to bate Sir Rodomont an ace.
[Capitano Rodomante was one version of the stock "braggart soldier" character
of the Commedia dell'Arte. 'To bate an ace' - to make the least abatement, to
diminish in the slightest. Here, presumably, not yielding an inch to him in arrogance.]

I mus'd awhile: and having mus'd awhile,
Jesu, (quoth I) is that Gargantua minde
[i.e. Shakerley's.]
Conquer'd, and left no Scanderbeg behinde?
['Scanderbeg' was the byname of George Castriota, a Christian prince of Albania,
who fought heroically against the Turks, but (somewhat strangely) used as a term
for an arrogant rascal. A lost play about him has been attributed to Marlowe
because of this passage (and therefore possibly erroneously).]
Vow'd he not to Powles A Second bile?
[Didn't he promise that there would be another like him (possibly a son?). Our
modern meaning for 'bile' was not yet in use, it was then a dialect word for a boil
or some other sort of swelling.]

What bile, or kibe? (quoth that same early Spright ?)
[A 'kibe' is a chilblain. The sense seems to be 'What are you talking about?]
Have you forgot the Scanderbegging wight?
[Have you forgotten Nashe? The 'begging' bit is probably a reference to the
"Supplication" in the full title of Nashe's PP, to which this was a response. In
his Four Letters, Harvey had referred to "beggarly Pierce Pennilesse". It also
reappears in 'Bull-beggar' below.]

Is it a Dreame? or is the Highest minde,
That ever haunted Powles, or hunted winde,
[Ran out of breath.]
Bereaft of that same sky-surmounting breath,
That breath, that taught the Timpany to swell?
[Not a set of drums, as we would imagine. Here is the OED's definition.
"A swelling, as of pride, arrogance, self-conceit, etc., figured as a disease; a
condition of being inflated or puffed up; an excess of something figured as a
swelling; something big or pretentious, but empty or vain; inflated style, turgidity,
bombast".]

He, and the Plague contended for the game:
The hawty man extolled his hideous thoughtes,
And gloriously insultes upon poore soules,
That plague themselves: for faint harts plague themselves.
[The last bit in italics sounds like it's quoting Shakerley. He seems to have been
suggesting that it was their own fault if people caught the plague, as it only got
you if you were afraid of it!]

The tyrant Sicknesse of base-minded slaves
Oh how it dominers in Coward Lane?
[Again, Shakerley's opinion?]
So Surquidry rang-out his larum bell,
['Surquidry' - Arrogance, haughty pride, presumption. 'Larum bell' - A bell rung
as a signal of danger or on a sudden emergency.]
When he had girn'd at many a dolefull knell.
[The context certainly suggests that this girning is (OED 2) "to show the teeth in
laughing; to grin."]

The graund Dissease disdain'd his toade Conceit,
[The OED has a 1603 quote "toade-swolne with pride and ambition, that he is
ready to burst in sunder."]
And smiling at his tamberlaine contempt,
[Again, arrogant, like a despot.]
Sternely struck-home the peremptory stroke.
He that nor feared God, nor dreaded Div'll,
Nor ought admired, but his wondrous selfe:
Like Junos gawdy Bird, that prowdly stares
On glittring fan of his triumphant taile:
[Referring to Aesop's fable of Juno and the Peacock.]
Or like the ugly Bugg, that scorn'd to dy,
['Bug' did not have its modern meaning(s), but referred to any (imaginary) object
of terror or monster of any size. This probably means, therefore, something like
the Lernian Hydra. If one of its many heads was cut off, two more appeared in
its place. But it could also refer to the Gorgon of the title.]
And mountes of Glory rear'd in towring witt:
Alas: but Babell Pride must kisse the pitt.
[As well as the biblical Tower of Babel, this and the line before it seem to refer
back to the Titans mentioned above, who piled up mountains to attack the Gods,
and were punished by being pinned underground.]

Powles steeple, and a hugyer thing is downe:
[The steeple of St. Paul's cathedral had been destroyed by lightning. This is even
bigger!]
Beware the next Bull-beggar of the towne.
[So watch out, Thomas Nashe (see again the reference to begging as related to
PP). You're next!]

FINIS

© Peter Farey, 2009