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THE HUTH LIBRARY.

LIFE AND WORKS OF

ROBERT GREEi^E, M.A.

VOL. XI.

THE BLACKE BOOKE'S MESSENGER.

THE DEFENCE OF CONNY-CATCHING.

PHILOMELA: THE LADY FITZWATERS NIGHTINGALE. AND

A QUIPPE FOR AN VPSTART COURTIKR.

1592.

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' England ! the time is come when thou should'st wean Thy heart from its emasculating food ; The truth should now be better understood ; Old things have been unsettled ; we have seen Fair seed-time, better harvest might have been

But for thy trespasses."

Wordsworth.

ELIZABETHAN-JAC OBEAN

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Yerse and Prose LAR G E LY

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FCR PRIVATE C'RCULATION ONLY

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THE

Life and Complete Works IN

PROSE AND VERSE

ROBERT GREENE, M.A. CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD.

/J\r TWELVE VOLUMES.

FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED AND EDITED WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC.,

BY THE REV.

ALEXANDER B. GROSART, LL.D. (Edin.), F.S.A. St, George's, Slackburn, Lancashire.

VOL. XI.—PROSE.

THE BLACKE BOOKE'S MESSENGER.

THE DEFENCE OF CONNY-CATCHING.

PHILOMELA : THE LADY FITZWATERS NIGHTINGALE. AND

A QUIPPE FOR AN VPSTART COURTIER.

1592.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY, 1881—83.

50 Copies.'l /Vv^^

;/7

Printed by Hazelly iVaison, and yzney, London and Aylesbury,

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

The Blacke Booke's Messenger ... i The Defence oe Conny-catching . . . .39

Pholomela: the Lady Fitzwaters Nightingale . 195

A QUIPPE FOR AN Vpstart Courtier ' . . .205

Notes and Illustrations, etc. .... 295

Enter Halfpenie.

Half. Nothing, but that such double coistrels as you be, are counterfeit. Sis. Are you so dapper ? weele send you for a halfpenie losife.

Half. I shall goe for silver though, when you shall be nailed up for slips. Dro. Thou art a slipstring I'll warrant. Half. I hope you shall never slip string, but hang steady. Sis. Dmmio, looke here, now is my hand on my halfepeny. Half. Thou liest, thou hast not a farthing to. lay thy hands on, I am none

of thine : but let me be wagging, my head is full of hammers, and they have so maletted my wit, that I am almost a malcontent.

John Lylly's " Mother Bombie " (Act ii., sc. i).

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NOTE.

I am indebted to the Bodleian for the 'Blacke Booke's Meffenger.' Its exemplar bears the usual stamp -print name of ' G. Steevens ' at bottom of the title-page. No other seems to be known. Its speedy publication, or rather the ' Black Booke ' proper, is announced in the

'Difputation betweene a Hee Conny-catcher and a Shee Conny-catcher.' See Vol. X., page 225, 1. g, and page 236, 1. 22. I omitted in the ' Note ' before the ' Difputation ' to record that ' Theeves falling out, True men come by their goods,' etc., etc. (1617), is a ' transmogrified' edition of it. See annotated Life in Vol. I. for its relation to the others

and later.—G.

THE BLACKE BOOKES

MESSENGER. Laying open the Life and Death oiNed Browne one of the moft notable Cutpurfes,

Crojbiters, and Conny-catchers, that

euer liued in England.

Heerein hee telleth verie plea- fantly, in his owne perlbn fuch ftrange prancks and

monftrous villanies by him and his Conforte

performed, as. the like was yet neuer

heard of in any of the former

•^bookes of Conny-

catching.

Eeaa atiti be toarnti, ILaug^ as pou It'fee, 3|ui)5e a0 pou finti.

Nafcimurpro Patria.

by R. G.

Printed at London by lohn Danter, or Thomas

Nelfon dwelling in Siluer llreete, neere to the

figne of the Red-Croffe. 1592.

To the Curteous Reader Health.

^Entlemen, I knowe you haue long ex-

pefted the comming foorth ofmy Blackt Booke, which I long haue promifed, and

which I had many daies fince finiftied, had not

fickenes hindered my intent: NeuerthelefTe, be

aflured it is the firft thing I meane to publifh after

I am recouered. This Meflenger to my Blacks Booke I commit to your curteous cenfures, being

written before I fell fick, which I thoght good in

the meane time to fend you as . a Fayring, dis-

courfing Ned Brownes villanies, which are too

many to bee defcribed in my Blacke Booke. I had thought to haue ioyned with this Treatife,

a pithy difcourfe of the Repentance of a Conny-

catcher lately executed out of Newgate, yet foras-

much as the Methode of the one is fo far differing

from the other, I altered my opinion, and the

rather for that the one died refolute and defperate,

the other penitent and paflionate. For the Conny-

6 THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.

catchersrepentance /which fliall fhortly bepubliftied,

it containes a paflion of great importance. Firft

how he was giuen ouer from all grace and Godlines,

and feemed to haue no fparke of the feare of God

in him : yet neuertheleffe, through the woonderfuU

working of Gods fpirite, euen in the dungeon at

Newgate the night before he died, he fo repented

him from the bottome of his hart, that it may

well befeeme Parents to haue it for their Children,

Matters for their feruants, and to bee perufed of

euery honeft perfon with great regard.

And for Ned Browne of whome my MefTenger makes report, hee was a man infamous for his bad courfe of life and well knowne about London :

Hee was in outward fliew a Gentlemanlike com- panion, attyred very braue, and to fhadowe his

villany the more would nominate himfelfe to be a

Marfhall man, who when he had nipt a Bung or cut a good purfe, he would fteale ouer in to the Lowe Countries, there to taft three or foure Stoapes of

Rhenifh wine, and then come ouer forfooth a

braue Souldier : But at laft hee leapt at a dayfie

for his loofe kind of life, and therefore imagine

you now fee him in his owne perfon, ftanding in a great bay windowe with a halter about his necke

ready to be hanged, defperately pronouncing this

his whole courfe of life and confefleth as foUoweth,

Tours in all curtejie, R. G.

M^.»t

A Table of the words of Art late- ly deuifed by Ned Browne and his aflbciates, to

Crojbite the old Phrafes vfed in the manner

of Conny-catching.

HE that drawes the fifh to the bait.

The Tauerne where they goe.

The foole that is caught,

Conny catching to be called.

The wine to be called.

The cards to be called,

The fetching in a Conny,

The good Afle ifhe be woone,

If he keepe a loofe,

The verfer in conny-catching

is called

And the Barnacle,

the Beater.

the Bush,

the Bird.

Bat fowling,

the Shrap.

the Lime twigs,

beating the Bufh._

flooding to the Lure,

a Haggard.

the Retriuer.

the pot hunter.

THE LIFE AND death of Ned Browne, a no-

table Cutpurfe and Conny-catcher.

. ri

10 THE LIFE AND DEATH

Know therfore (Gentlemen) that my parents were honeft, of good reporte, and no little efteeme

amongft their neighbours, and fought (if good

nurture and education would haue ferued) to haue

made me an honeft man : but as one felfe fame

ground brings foorth flowers and thiftles ; fo of a

found ftocke prooued an vntoward Syen ; and of

a vertuous father, a moft vicious fbnne. It bootes

little to rehearfe the pettie finnes of my Non-age ; as difobedience to my parentes, con /tempt of good counfaile, defpifing of mine elders, filching,

pettilafhery, and fuch trifling toyes : but with

thefe foUyes I inurde myfelfe, till waxing in yeares,

I grew into greater villanies. For when I came

to eighteene yeares olde, what finne was it that I

would not commit with greedinelTe, what attempt

fo bad, that I would not endeuour to execute ;

Cutting of purfes, ftealing of horfes, lifting, pick-

ing of lockes, and all other notable cooflenages.

Why, I held them excellent qualities, and ac- counted him vnworthy to Hue, that could not, or

durft not Hue by fuch damnable pradlifes. Yet

as finne too openly manifefted to the eye of the

Magiftrate, is eyther fore reuenged or foone cut

ofi^ : So I to preuent that, had a nette wherein to

daunce, and diuers fliadowes to colour my knaueries withall, as I would title my felfe with the name of a Fencer, & make Gentlemen beleeue that I pickt

OF NED BROWNE. 1

1

a liuing out by that myfterie, whereas God wot, I had no other fence but with ray fliort knife, and

a paire of purfe ftringes, and with them in troth

many a bowt haue I had in my time. In troth ? O what a fimple oth was this to cofirm a mans credit

withall ? Why, I fee the halter will make a man

holy, for whileft God fuffered mee to flourifh, I

fcornd to difgrace my mouth with fo fmal an oath as In faith : but I rent God in peeces, fwearing

and forfwearing by euery part of his body, th