The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories [115]
phrase in regular use in 1583. The book is 'The French Littelton, A most Easie, Perfect, and Absolute way to learne the Frenche Tongue. Set forth by Claudius Holyband. Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautrollier, dwelling in the blacke- Friers. 1583.' (There is an edition of 1566.)
On page 10 we read:--
'Of Scholars and Schoole.
'God give you good morrow, Sir! Good morrow gossip: good morrow my she gossip: God give you a good morrow and a good year.'
Thus the familiar salutation was not introduced by Bacon; it was, on the other hand, the very first formula which a writer of an English- French phrase-book translated into French ten years before Bacon made his notes. Presently he comes to 'Good evening, good night, good rest,' and so on.
This fact annihilates Mrs. Pott's contention that Bacon introduced 'Good morrow' through the plays falsely attributed to Shakespeare. There follows, in 'Promus,' a string of proverbs, salutations, and quotations, about sleep and waking. Among these occur 'Golden Sleepe' (No. 1207) and (No. 1215) 'Uprouse. You are up.' Now Friar Laurence says to Romeo:--
But where unbruised youth with unstuffed brain Doth couch his limbs, there GOLDEN SLEEP doth reign: Therefore thy earliness doth me assure, Thou art UP-ROUSED by some distemperature.
Dr. Abbott writes: 'Mrs. Pott's belief is that the play is indebted for these expressions to the "Promus;" mine is that the "Promus" is borrowed from the play.' And why should either owe anything to the other? The phrase 'Uprouse' or 'Uprose' is familiar in Chaucer, from one of his best-known lines. 'Golden' is a natural poetic adjective of excellence, from Homer to Tennyson. Yet in Dr. Abbott's opinion 'TWO of these entries constitute a coincidence amounting almost to a demonstration' that either Shakespeare or Bacon borrowed from the other. And this because each writer, one in making notes of commonplaces on sleep, the other in a speech about sleep, uses the regular expression 'Uprouse,' and the poetical commonplace 'Golden sleep' for 'Good rest.' There was no originality in the matter.
We have chosen Dr. Abbott's selected examples of Mrs. Pott's triumphs. Here is another of her parallels. Bacon gives the formula, 'I pray God your early rising does you no hurt.' Shakespeare writes:--
Go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; faith, you'll be sick to-morrow For this night's watching.
Here Bacon notes a morning salutation, 'I hope you are none the worse for early rising,' while Shakespeare tells somebody not to sit up late. Therefore, and for similar reasons, Bacon is Shakespeare.
We are not surprised to find Mr. Bucke adopting Mrs. Pott's theory of the novelty of 'Good morrow.' He writes in the Christmas number of an illustrated sixpenny magazine, and his article, a really masterly compendium of the whole Baconian delirium, addresses its natural public. But we are amazed to find Dr. Abbott looking not too unkindly on such imbecilities, and marching at least in the direction of Coventry with such a regiment. He is 'on one point a convert' to Mrs. Pott, and that point is the business of 'Good morrow,' 'Uprouse,' and 'Golden sleepe.' It need hardly be added that the intrepid Mr. Donnelly is also a firm adherent of Mrs. Pott.
'Some idea,' he says, 'may be formed of the marvellous industry of this remarkable lady when I state that to prove that we are indebted to Bacon for having enriched the English language, through the plays, with these beautiful courtesies of speech, 'Good morrow,' 'Good day,' etc., she carefully examined SIX THOUSAND WORKS ANTERIOR TO OR CONTEMPORARY WITH BACON.'
Dr. Abbott thought it judicious to 'hedge' about these six thousand works, and await 'the all-knowing dictionary' of Dr. Murray and the Clarendon Press. We have deemed it simpler to go to the first Elizabethan phrase-book on our shelves, and that tiny volume, in its very first phrase, shatters the mare's-nest of Mrs. Pott, Mr. Donnelly, and
On page 10 we read:--
'Of Scholars and Schoole.
'God give you good morrow, Sir! Good morrow gossip: good morrow my she gossip: God give you a good morrow and a good year.'
Thus the familiar salutation was not introduced by Bacon; it was, on the other hand, the very first formula which a writer of an English- French phrase-book translated into French ten years before Bacon made his notes. Presently he comes to 'Good evening, good night, good rest,' and so on.
This fact annihilates Mrs. Pott's contention that Bacon introduced 'Good morrow' through the plays falsely attributed to Shakespeare. There follows, in 'Promus,' a string of proverbs, salutations, and quotations, about sleep and waking. Among these occur 'Golden Sleepe' (No. 1207) and (No. 1215) 'Uprouse. You are up.' Now Friar Laurence says to Romeo:--
But where unbruised youth with unstuffed brain Doth couch his limbs, there GOLDEN SLEEP doth reign: Therefore thy earliness doth me assure, Thou art UP-ROUSED by some distemperature.
Dr. Abbott writes: 'Mrs. Pott's belief is that the play is indebted for these expressions to the "Promus;" mine is that the "Promus" is borrowed from the play.' And why should either owe anything to the other? The phrase 'Uprouse' or 'Uprose' is familiar in Chaucer, from one of his best-known lines. 'Golden' is a natural poetic adjective of excellence, from Homer to Tennyson. Yet in Dr. Abbott's opinion 'TWO of these entries constitute a coincidence amounting almost to a demonstration' that either Shakespeare or Bacon borrowed from the other. And this because each writer, one in making notes of commonplaces on sleep, the other in a speech about sleep, uses the regular expression 'Uprouse,' and the poetical commonplace 'Golden sleep' for 'Good rest.' There was no originality in the matter.
We have chosen Dr. Abbott's selected examples of Mrs. Pott's triumphs. Here is another of her parallels. Bacon gives the formula, 'I pray God your early rising does you no hurt.' Shakespeare writes:--
Go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; faith, you'll be sick to-morrow For this night's watching.
Here Bacon notes a morning salutation, 'I hope you are none the worse for early rising,' while Shakespeare tells somebody not to sit up late. Therefore, and for similar reasons, Bacon is Shakespeare.
We are not surprised to find Mr. Bucke adopting Mrs. Pott's theory of the novelty of 'Good morrow.' He writes in the Christmas number of an illustrated sixpenny magazine, and his article, a really masterly compendium of the whole Baconian delirium, addresses its natural public. But we are amazed to find Dr. Abbott looking not too unkindly on such imbecilities, and marching at least in the direction of Coventry with such a regiment. He is 'on one point a convert' to Mrs. Pott, and that point is the business of 'Good morrow,' 'Uprouse,' and 'Golden sleepe.' It need hardly be added that the intrepid Mr. Donnelly is also a firm adherent of Mrs. Pott.
'Some idea,' he says, 'may be formed of the marvellous industry of this remarkable lady when I state that to prove that we are indebted to Bacon for having enriched the English language, through the plays, with these beautiful courtesies of speech, 'Good morrow,' 'Good day,' etc., she carefully examined SIX THOUSAND WORKS ANTERIOR TO OR CONTEMPORARY WITH BACON.'
Dr. Abbott thought it judicious to 'hedge' about these six thousand works, and await 'the all-knowing dictionary' of Dr. Murray and the Clarendon Press. We have deemed it simpler to go to the first Elizabethan phrase-book on our shelves, and that tiny volume, in its very first phrase, shatters the mare's-nest of Mrs. Pott, Mr. Donnelly, and