Pasquill (the Cavaliero)
Pasquill ("the renowned Cavaliero") is the
Tracts
Three tracts critical of Martin Marprelate were issued under the name of Pasquill in 1589 and 1590:
- A Countercuffe Given to Martin Junior (1600 words), dated Aug 6 or 8, 1589 "from Gravesend Barge" – a customary point of departure from London to the Continent or Mediterranean
- The Return of Pasquill (otherwise Pasquill and Marforius) (9600 words) with a postscript "from London Stone" dated Oct 20, 1589
- The First Part of Pasquill's Apology (8300 words), dated July 2, 1590
Attribution
The three tracts were attributed to Thomas Nashe.[1] However, Ronald McKerrow, the leading Nashe scholar of the early 20th century, in 1910 expressed strong doubts about the attribution. Although he included the tracts in his definitive Works of Thomas Nashe, he conceded not only that "external evidence of Nashe's authorship...is of the vaguest" but that "against the attribution, there is internal evidence which seems to me to be of far more weight than the external evidence for it."[2] Another possible author is Anthony Munday, who, like Nashe, was apparently active as an anti-Martinist agent. This attribution has not received widespread support.[3]
See also
References
- ^ William Thomas Lowndes (1834). The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature : containing an account of rare, curious and useful books, published in or relating to Great Britain and Ireland, from the invention of printing; with bibliographical and critical notices, collations of the rarer articles, and the prices at which they have been sold in the present century. 4. [R - Z]. William Pickering. p. 1225.
- ^ Nashe, Thomas (1910). McKerrow, Ronald B. (ed.). The Works of Thomas Nashe, Vol. 5. London: Sigwick & Jackson. p. 57.
- JSTOR 3712910.
Further reading
- Carlson, Leland H. (1981). Martin Marprelate, gentleman : Master Job Throkmorton laid open in his colors. San Marino, California: Huntington Library.