Let me preface these quick responses by stressing that I haven't seen any
of these works! however, I have an STC in front of me, and Eureka open in
my browser....
>The Newberry Library has a 1573 reprint of Crowley's 33 Epigrams (London:
>John Awdeley) bound into an octavo volume with several other works,
>including:
>1-"A newe book called the shippe of safegarde, written by G.B. Anno 1569"
>(London: William Serres) to which is appended "The death of S.
>Polycarpus" and "A Priest of Apollo Strangely Converted"
The shippe of safegarde has long been attributed to Barnaby Googe (G. B. =
B. G.), who also served in Ireland and is well represented in the CSPI. See
STC 12049. It was plagiarized by Anthony Nixon in 1602 in The Christian
Navy, STC 18583.
Apparently there is a new edition of Googe's shippe coming out this year,
from Simon McKeown and William Sheidley, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and
Studies. Their edition, which appears in Eureka, lists Polycarpus (Bishop
and martyr of Smyrna) and Eusebius of Caesarea as subjects.
>2-"Virgidemiarum-The Three Last Books of Byting Satires" (London: Robert
>Dexter, 1599)
Virgidemiarum is the work of Joseph Hall; see STC 12719. Apparently your
'certaine worthye manuscript poems' are often considered as 'part three' of
the otherwise two-parted Virgidemiarum (books 1-3, books 4-6; sound
familiar?). same printer (Dexter); one could hypothesize that, after they
hadn't sold for a few years (1597-9), he decided to start throwing them in
with the new edition of the second part of Virgidemiarum as a way to get
rid of them. are they any good?
>3-"Certaine worthye manuscript poems of great antiquitie reserved long in
>the studie of a Northfolke gentleman and now first published by J.S."
>(London, for Robert Dexter, 1597). These poems are:
> A-The statly tragedy of Guistard and Sismond
> B-The Northren Mothers Blessing
> C-The Way to Thrifte
>This last set is dedicated to Spenser. Guistard and Sismond, if it ever
>was truly a ms. poem, was converted into Spenserian stanzas.
See STC 21499, where it is suggested that 'J.S.' is John Stow.
Guistard and Sismond is from Boccaccio's Decameron, in case you hadn't
gathered that already.
The 'Northfolke' bit sounds interesting, given that Spenser may have had
Norfolk ties. Dexter seems to be best known for publishing Latin
school-texts.
andrew
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