SHAKSPER 2008: "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@SHAKSPER.NET)
Date: 04/29/08 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0245  Tuesday, 29 April 2008

[1] 	From:	Larry Weiss <larry@lweiss.net>
	Date:	Monday, 28 Apr 2008 16:12:27 -0400
	Subj:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

[2] 	From:	John Briggs <john.briggs4@ntlworld.com>
	Date:	Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 01:00:14 +0100
	Subj:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

[3] 	From:	Carol Barton <cbartonphd1@verizon.net>
	Date:	Monday, 28 Apr 2008 21:56:00 -0400
	Subj:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

[4] 	From:	Sid Lubow <Dotsid55@aol.com>
	Date:	Monday, 28 Apr 2008 22:52:25 EDT
	Subj:	Compendious or Brief Relation

[5] 	From:	Kate Welch <k.j.welch@bham.ac.uk>
	Date:	Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 11:03:58 +0100
	Subj:	RE: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

[6] 	From:	Tom Reedy <tomreedy@verizon.net>
	Date:	Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 11:12:52 -0500 (CDT)
	Subj:	Re: "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Larry Weiss <larry@lweiss.net>
Date:		Monday, 28 Apr 2008 16:12:27 -0400
Subject: 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."
Comment:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

I have found this at Folger. All I recalled of the title from the NYPL 
catalog entry was "Compendious or Brief." Since Schoenbaum calls it 
"Compendious or Brief Relation," I searched Folger's HAMNET catalog for 
that title. Actually, the title is "Compendious or Brief Examination 
..." and I found it on HAMNET under that name.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		John Briggs <john.briggs4@ntlworld.com>
Date:		Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 01:00:14 +0100
Subject: 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."
Comment:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

Larry Weiss wrote:

 >Many years ago I was researching the Shakespeare Apocrypha at the New
 >York Public Library and came across a catalog entry for a prose
 >pamphlet attributed to WS bearing a very long title beginning with
 >"Compendious or Brief ...." I made a mental note to return to this
 >item and, in the meantime, turned my attention to other matters. But,
 >of course, I never got around to that mysterious pamphlet until
 >recently when I returned to the NYPL to look for it and found that it
 >is no longer in the catalog. I thought that perhaps my mind was
 >tricking me into recalling something that wasn't there.
 >
 >More recently, I found a reference in Sam Schoenbaum's "Shakespeare's
 >Lives" to a pamphlet entitled "Compendious or Brief Relation" which
 >was falsely (or, in any case, erroneously) attributed to Shakespeare.
 >At least I was comforted to know that I had not gone mad or become
 >demented. But it is still not in the NYPL system-wide catalog. Was the
 >item lost, stolen, thrown away? It doesn't matter which, as it is not
 >there. This led me to look it up in the Folger's online catalog,
 >HAMNET; but it isn't there either. If the Folger doesn't have it, who
 >does? Schoenbaum must have seen at least a reference to it somewhere.

It is almost certainly:

A Compendious or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints of 
diuers of our country men in these our dayes ... By William Stafford ...
Imprint: London, Imprinted by T. Marshe, 1581.
Description1 v.

LOCATION Humanities- Microforms  CALL #  *ZKC 1220-23133

Note: Caption title: A briefe conceipte touching the common weale of 
this realme of England.
Running title: A briefe conceipte of English pollicye.
Two other issues of 1581 are printed under the authorship of W. S.
Attributed to William Stafford and others, but more probably written by 
John Hales. Cf. Dict. nat. biog.
Short-title catalogue no. 23133 (carton 1220)

Additional Name: Hales, John, d. 1571.
Stafford, William, 1554-1612.
Additional Title: A briefe conceipte of English policye.

[Furnivall edited it for the New Shakespere Society in 1876]

John Briggs

[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Carol Barton <cbartonphd1@verizon.net>
Date:		Monday, 28 Apr 2008 21:56:00 -0400
Subject: 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."
Comment:	Re: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

Larry, what you seem to have been looking at was

[Stafford, William.] A compendious or briefe examination of certayne 
ordinary complaints, of divers of our country men in these our days.. By 
W. S. Guilleman, 1581. Ed. by Furnivall, F. J., with an Introduction by 
Matthew, F. D. New Shaksp. Soc. Publ. 1876

Best to all,
Carol Barton

[4]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Sid Lubow <Dotsid55@aol.com>
Date:		Monday, 28 Apr 2008 22:52:25 EDT
Subject:	Compendious or Brief Relation

Larry Weiss, perhaps this will help you in your search and where I found it.

Compendious Examination of Certain Complaints (1565)

  IDENTITY STATEMENT
  Reference code(s): GB 0103 MS OGDEN 20
  Held at: University College London
  Title: Compendious Examination of Certain Complaints (1565)
  Date(s): 1565
  Level of description: Collection (fonds)
  Extent: 1 volume containing 173 folios
  Name of creator(s): Unknown
  CONTEXT
  Administrative/Biographical history:
William Stafford: born at Rochford, Essex, 1554; educated at Winchester, 
where he was admitted scholar, 1564; New College Oxford, where he 
matriculated, 1571; elected Fellow, 1573; deprived of his Fellowship for 
absenting himself beyond his leave, 1575; apparently became a courtier; 
suddenly left London for Dieppe, 1585; returned, 1586; accused of 
involvement in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and imprisoned in 
the Tower of London until 1588; after his marriage in 1593 resided 
quietly in Norfolk for the remainder of his life; presented various 
books to Winchester College; died, 1612.

http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=3608&inst_id=13

Respectfully,
Sid Lubow

[5]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Kate Welch <k.j.welch@bham.ac.uk>
Date:		Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 11:03:58 +0100
Subject: 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."
Comment:	RE: SHK 19.0243 "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

Larry Weiss asked about the 'prose pamphlet attributed to WS bearing a 
very long title beginning with "Compendious or Brief ...." '

According to Jaggard's Bibliography (1911) this pamphlet was written by 
William Stafford but the author's initials on the title-page led to the 
misattribution. Also the dedication to Queen Elizabeth I mentions her 
clemency in pardoning an offence of the author which editors took to be 
Shakespeare's deer-poaching.

Jaggard lists copies of the original 1581 text at Boston Public Library 
and the Earl of Warwick's private library at Warwick Castle and a 1751 
reprint at the British Library, Boston Public Library and the 
Shakespeare Memorial Library (now the Shakespeare Centre Library, 
Stratford-upon-Avon). He also notes that it was reprinted in the 
Harleian Miscellany volume 9 in 1812 and by the New Shakespeare Society 
in 1876, edited by F. J. Furnivall.

Kate Welch
Shakespeare Institute Library
Stratford-upon-Avon.

[6]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Tom Reedy <tomreedy@verizon.net>
Date:		Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 11:12:52 -0500 (CDT)
Subject:	Re: "Compendious or Brief Relation ..."

 >Many years ago I was researching the Shakespeare Apocrypha at the New
 >York Public Library and came across a catalog entry for a prose
 >pamphlet attributed to WS bearing a very long title beginning
 >with "Compendious or Brief ...." <snip>
 >
 >If anyone can offer some help as to where I can find this
 >pamphlet, or a facsimile, reprint or even a description
 >of it, I would be grateful.

The pamphlet you're looking for is "A Compendious or briefe examination 
of certayne ordinary complaints of divers of our countrymen in these our 
dayes: which although they are in some part unjust and frivolous, yet 
are they all by way of dialogues thoroughly debated and discussed. By 
W.S. Gentleman," first printed in 1681 and republished in 1751 
attributed to Shakespeare. It was reprinted again as _A Discourse of the 
Commonweal of This Realm of England_, ed. Mary Dewar. Charlottesville: 
University Press of Virginia for the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1969. 
See also her "The Authorship of the 'Discourse of the Commonweal'" in 
The Economic History Review, 1966; 19(2):388-400.

Tom Reedy

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