''Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury; Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth'' is a 1598

commonplace book Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into blank books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such book ...

written by the minister

Francis Meres Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare. Career Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the par ...

. It is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early plays of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. It was listed in the Stationers Register 7 September 1598. ''Palladis Tamia'' contains moral and critical reflections borrowed from various sources, and included sections on books, on philosophy, on music and painting, as well as the famous "Comparative Discourse of our English poets with the Greeke, Latin, and Italian poets" that enumerates the English poets from

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

to Meres' own day, and compares each with a classical author. While Meres is considerably indebted to George Puttenham's earlier ''The Arte of English Poesie'' (1589), the section extends the catalogue of poets and contains many first notices of Meres's contemporaries. The title refers to Greek Πᾰλλᾰ́δος (''Pallados'', "of Pallas," a name of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

), and ταμεία (''tameia'', "treasury"). There is also probably a pun on ''Tamia'', a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name for the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

. The book was reissued in 1634 as a school book, and was partially reprinted in the ''Ancient Critical Essays'' (1811-1811) of Joseph Haslewood,

Edward Arber Edward Arber (4 December 183623 November 1912) was an English scholar, writer, and editor. Background and professional work Arber was born in London. From 1854 he 1878 he worked as a clerk in the Admiralty, and began evening classes at Ki ...

's ''English Garner'', and George Gregory Smith's ''Elizabethan Critical Essays'' (1904).

Shakespeare references

In the "Comparative Discourse" section Meres lists a dozen Shakespearean plays, identified by him as six comedies and six tragedies (Comedies: ''Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Love's Labours Lost, Love Labours Won, Midsummer Night's Dream'', and ''Merchant of Venice''; Tragedies: ''Richard II, Richard III, Henry the IV, King John, Titus Andronicus'', and'' Romeo and Juliet''), establishing their composition before 1598. This passage has sometimes been taken to indicate that only those Shakespeare plays had been written by 1598. However, there is no way of knowing how complete Meres' knowledge of the published plays actually was or whether he even intended to produce a comprehensive list of all the plays; at the very least, it is generally agreed that Meres neglected ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1590–91), and all three parts of the ''Henry VI'' trilogy, which most scholars believe were written by 1591, seven years before ''Palladis Tamia''.

Marlowe references

In the "Comparative Discourse" section Meres describes the "tragicall death" of "our tragicall poet"

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...

who "was stabd to death by a bawdy seruing man, a riuall of his in his lewde loue." This passage implied that Marlowe had been killed in a fight over a lover, though the word "rival" can also mean "companion", perhaps implying that the serving man himself was the lover.Stephen Orgel, ''The Authentic Shakespeare and Other Problems of Early Modern Theatre'', Routledge, 2002, p.22. It was the second published reference to Marlowe's death, following Thomas Beard's ''Theatre of God's Judgements'' (1597), which states that Marlowe was stabbed in self-defence by a man he attacked in the street. The full details of Marlowe's death in 1593 were only finally uncovered by Leslie Hotson in 1925.

Context

''Palladis Tamia'' translates from the Greek literally as "Pallas' Housewife". "Tamia" is the Greek word for a female slave in charge of a household, but it is more likely that "tamia" as used by Meres in this case is a form of "tamias", a dispenser, steward or treasurer, and here used to suggest, by metonymy, the "Treasury" of Meres's subtitle. "Palladis" is the Latin genitive of "Pallas," another name for the goddess

, who in Greek mythology was the goddess of wisdom and statecraft. Thus, ''Palladis Tamia'' becomes the "dispenser" or "treasurer" of Pallas Athena, or "wisdom". ''Palladis Tamia'' was the second in a series of four volumes of short pithy sayings with the generic title of ''Wits Commonwealth'', the first of which was ''Politeuphuia: Wits Commonwealth'' (1597), compiled by John Bodenham or by Nicholas Ling, the publisher. The third volume was ''Wits Theater of the Little World'' (1599), dedicated to Bodenham and variously credited to him, Robert Allott, or Ling, and the fourth and last was, ''Palladis Palatium: wisedoms pallace. Or The fourth part of Wits commonwealth'' (1604), with no author named but attributed to William Wrednott in the Stationer’s Register.

Notes

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Bibliography

*Allen, Don C. “The Classical Scholarship of Francis Meres” ''PMLA'', XLVIII: 1 (March 1933), 418-425. *Bentley, Gerald Eades. “ John Cotgrave’s English Treasury of Wit and Language and the Elizabethan Drama” ''Studies in Philology'', Vol. XL, 1943. *Meres, Francis. ''Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasury.'' Printed by P. Short for Cuthbert Burbie. 1598. Facsimile Reprint of the Church copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library. Introduction by Don C. Allen.

External links