Beggars Bush: A Perambulation through the Disciplines of History, Geography, Archaeology, Literature, Philology, Natural History, Botany, Biography & Beggary

The Droll The Lame Common-Wealth 1673

This is a droll in The Wits, by Francis Kirkman (1673) which is based on  the text of Act 2, Scene 1 of Beggar’s Bush, by Fletcher & Massinger.

This text is taken from The Wits, or Sport Upon Sport”, ed. J. J. Elson (1932). The spelling is uncorrected.

The notes on canting are based on the glossary in A. V. Judges, The Elizabethan Underworld. [1]
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Posted: March 28th, 2011 | Filed under: The Play | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Anon The Oath at Beggars Bush c.1615

The Oath at Beggars Bush or to Make a Man a Fool is an unpublished manuscript poem collected in Wales. The poem contains advice to a countryman travelling to London. The phrase does not appear in the text. The usage in the title is mocking – the advice in the verse would lead the reader to look foolish and lose all credit. It is in keeping with other works which treated country people visiting London as foolish; “coneys”, “gulls” or “clowns”.
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Posted: March 28th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , | No Comments »


John Day The Parliament of Bees c.1634

John Day uses the phrase Beggars Bush in the common literary usage twice in publications which cannot be precisely dated. Day was a jobbing playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and others. The old DNB described him as “one of the most neglected playwrights of the Elizabethan period: a distinction which is, for the most part, justified”. Ben Jonson described him as a “rogue” and he probably killed the playwright Henry Porter with a rapier. However, we may have sympathy with his own description of himself that in the end “notwithstanding . . . Industry . . . he was forct to take a napp at Beggars Bushe”.
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Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »


Henry Porter The Two Angry Women of Abington 1598

Henry Porter’s use of the literary phrase Beggars Bush is consistent with other early literary examples. It occurs in a play, now, like the author, largely forgotten. Like most other early writers he makes use of the vernacular, especially proverbs. There is some evidence linking Porter and his play to an area where there are early examples of the place name. His life and death link him to other writers who used the phrase, one of whom probably killed him.
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Posted: March 27th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Anon Newes from Jack Begger under the Bushe 1594

“Newes from Jack Begger under the Bushe, with the advise of Gregory Gaddesman his fellow begger touchinge the deare prizes of corne and hardnes of this present yere” is the title of a pamphlet entered in The Stationers’ Register for 28 December 28, 1594, licensed to R. Jones.
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Posted: March 26th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Sticky: Francis Kirkman The Lame Commonwealth in The Wits 1662 & 1673

The Wits, or Sport for Sport a collection of drolls (short plays) included one based on Act II Scene 1 of The Beggars Bush called The Lame Common-Wealth. This was adapted for informal and small scale performance anywhere. It may have been important in the distribution of Beggars Bush as a place name. At the very least it is an intriguing byway and example of the remarkable entrepreneurial career of the publisher Francis Kirkman. The frontispiece is widely reproduced, and inaccurately described, but demonstrates the popularity of the character Clause from the play & droll.
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Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers, The Play | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


John Fletcher & Philip Massinger The Beggars Bush 1622

“The Beggars Bush” is a play written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger in 1622, but commonly included in the “Beaumont and Fletcher” canon. Through performance, print, characters and development of the original text it was likely to have made a substantial contribution to the survival and distribution of the literary phrase. As to the eponymous Beggars Bush itself the play is vague. It is a meeting place for the beggar characters, some of whom, it is revealed, are not beggars at all. It does not attempt to portray a real location – the play is not set in England but in and around Bruges.

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Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers, The Play | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, Turkey Beggars Bush 1915

This is a very late and tragic example of the place name. The naming can be fixed to a very short period, responsibility for naming can be limited to a small group, and their situation at the time is known  It falls within the same general circumstances  as the other ‘frontier’ sites, but even more intense and dangerous. However, it may not arise from the literary usage but have it’s origins in another location.

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Posted: March 19th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: , , , | No Comments »


Brian Twyne A Student’s Correspondence 1609

“Dr. Kinge deane of Christchurch, turned away one morninge fiue bakers and so many brewers of townesmen belongings to yt colledge, and hath priuiledged others and tuke them in their place, which if euery colledge should doe as I thinke we must, we should quickly bringe them to beggars bush.”

Text

The correspondence between Brian Twyne while the latter was at Corpus Christi, Oxford from 1601 to 1612 and his father, Dr Thomas Twyne, a prosperous physician living in Lewes, Sussex, echoes the dialogue between students and parents through the ages. Much of it concerns Brian Twyne’s lack of funds and advancement, and his father’s unwillingness or inability to assist him. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: March 16th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Martin Marprelate The Epistle 1588

“And as the matter is made knowne vnto my Lorde the preacher is sure to go by the worst and the recusant to carrie all the honestie: Yea the preacher shalbe a busie enuious fellow one that doth not obserue the booke and conforme himself according vnto order and perhaps go home by beggars bush for any benefice he hath to liue vpon. For it may be the Bb. will be so good vnto him as to depriue him for not subscribing.  As for the recusant, he is known to be a man that must have liberty of his conscience. Is this good dealing brethren.”

Text & Usage

The Epistle was a pamphlet of 54 pages published in October 1588 in response to A Defense of the Government established in the Church of England for Ecclesiastical Matters (1587) by Dr John Bridges. It was the first of a series of anonymous tracts supporting the presbyterian cause against Archbishop Whitgift’s attempts to impose uniformity of worship and promote the power of bishops over clergy. The Epistle stated it was “Printed overseas, in Europe, within two furlongs of a Bounsing Priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, Gentlemen”.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »