Lamia is a monster devouring children in Greek mythology. Lamilia is an ill-Lamia devoured creations by Robert Greene, who compared Lamilia with Lamia’s daughter Scylla.
In Greene’s
Groats-Worth of Wit, Roberto persuades his younger brother Lucanio to have
a wife. Lucanio agrees, so Roberto takes him to visit Lamilia, a courtesan he
knew before.
With this forth they walk, and Roberto
went directly toward
the house where Lamilia
(for so we call the Courtesan) kept her hospital, which was in the suburbs of the City.
*went directly
toward the house: This line can
spell Wilton House Wiltshire, suggesting the name of the house. The word “directly”
contains -ire- and -tly to complete Wiltshire.
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*Lamilia: In Greek mythology, Lamia is a monster stealing or devouring children; children has the usage of literary creations, as in Shakespeare’s sonnet 77, “Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain.” Lamilia can be a perfect anagram of il-Lamia, hinted by Scylla the daughter of Lamia shown in later lines; il is an obsolete form of ill, appeared often in the 1623 folio.
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*Courtesan: Courtesan can spell Countess. This title mocks at Mary Sidney as the Countess
of Pembroke.
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*kept her hospital: This line can spell Shakespeare, code name of Wilton House poets; hospital has the usage of a house of entertainment, alluding to the reception of poets by Wilton House.
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*the suburbs: This term can spell the
Herberts, owners of Wilton House.
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Roberto a Hypocrite
Lucanio
is enchanted immediately by Lamilia, who tells a caveat fable of Badger, which is the
background of how Robert Greene joined the Wilton House. After that, Roberto
tells a tale of how Mother Gunby and her daughter Marian cheated a peasant. The tale seals the identity
of Henry Herbert and Mary Sidney. Greene accused them had cheated him via this
tale.
After
Roberto’s tale, Lamilia proposes to play chess or cards or dice. Lamilia wins
in playing dice. Lucanio goes back to take more money. Roberto takes the chance
asking Lamilia to cozen his brother and share the profit. Lamilia rejects him.
No,
hypocrite, the sweet Gentleman thy brother, I will till death love, and thee while I live, loathe. This share Lamilia
gives thee, other getest thou none.
Lucanio
comes back. Lamilia reveals Roberto’s proposal of deceiving. “Lucanio utterly
refused Roberto for his brother, and forever forbad him his house.” However,
Lamilia’s “till death love” lasts but just two years. Lucanio is then “cashiered”
out totally by Lamilia.
She
having bewitched him with her enticing wiles, caused him to consume in less
than two years that infinite
treasure gathered by his father with so many a poor man’s curse. His lands
sold, his jewels pawned, his money wasted, he was cashiered by Lamilia,
that had cozened him of all.
The Marprelate
controversy ended in 1589. Robert Greene died in 1592. The “two years” matches
the origin of Shakespeare sealed in Lamilia’s fable
.
Scylla, Medea, Calypso
Roberto
is deserted by both the courtesan Lamilia and his brother Lucanio. Roberto
starts to curse his fate and compares Lamilia with Medea, Scylla, and Calypso.
What meant
the Poets in invective verse,
To sing
Medea’s shame, and Scylla’s pride,
Calypso’s charms, by which so many died?
The curse
of Lamilia with Medea’s shame, Scylla’s pride, and Calypso’s charms, can be read
as Greene’s complaint against his patroness Mary Sidney. Greene accused the
Countess betrayed him like Medea (who betrayed her father), devoured his works like
Scylla (who devoured mariners passing her strait), and detained his advancing like
Calypso (who detained Odysseus in her island for seven years).
Pride and
charms can spell Mary Sidney Arcadia. Literary works of Wilton House were supposed to be Countess of Pembroke’s pride and charms,
but Greene called that her shame, because these works were not truly written by
her from Greene’s view.
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“I am a Player.”
A stranger
overhears Roberto’s grief and wants to help him. He told Roberto that his profession
as a player can get scholars their whole living well paid.
“What is your profession?” said Roberto.
“Truly, sir,” said he, “I am a player.”
“A player,” quoth Roberto, “I took you
rather for a Gentleman of great living, for if by outward habit men should be censured,
I tell you you would be taken for a substantial man”
“So am I where I dwell” (quoth the player)
“reputed able at my proper cost to build a Windmill.” What though the world once went hard
with me, when I was fain to carry my playing Fardel-a-footback;
Tempora mutantur, I know you know the meaning of it better than I, but I
thus conster it; it’s otherwise now; for my very share in playing apparel will not
be sold for two hundred pounds.”
“Truly” (said Roberto) “’tis strange,
that you should so prosper in that vain practise, for that it seems to me your
voice is nothing gracious.”
“Nay then,” said the Player, “I mislike your
judgement: why, I am as famous for Delphrigus, and the King of Fairies, as ever was
any of my time. The twelve labours of Hercules have I terribly thundered on the Stage, and played
three Scenes of the Devil in the Highway to heaven.”
“Have ye so?” (said Roberto) “then I pray you
pardon me.”
“Nay more,” (quoth the Player) “I can serve
to make a pretty speech, for I was a country Author,
passing at a Moral, for ’twas I that penned the Moral of man’s wit, the Dialogue of Dives, and for seven
years space was absolute Interpreter to the puppets. But now my Almanack
is out of date:
The
people make no estimation,
Of
Moral’s teaching education.
“Was not this pretty for a plain rime
extempore? if ye will ye shall have more.”
“Nay it’s enough,” said Roberto, “but
how mean you to use me?”
“Why sir, in making
Plays,” said the other, “for which you shall be well paid,
if you will take the pains.”
Roberto perceiving no remedy, thought
best to respect of his present necessity, to try his wit, and went with him willingly:
who lodged him at the Town’s end in a house of retail where what happened our Poet, you
shall after hear. There, by conversing with bad company, he grew A malo in peius, falling
from one vice to an other.
Notes
*I
am a player: Player has the
usage of a venturer, gamer, one who manipulates others, or an actor on the stage.
The player here may be one of the above, or all.
*a
substantial man: Substantial has
the usage of essential, ample, or prosperous. The player looks like a gentleman
of great living and a substantial man, which fits not the profession of a
player on the stage.
*proper
cost to build a Windmill: The player
owns a windmill is a suspicious statement. Later the player claims that he is
also “a country author,” which relates him to writing (author) and drama
(player). Wind has the usage of speeches hard to catch, or to turn, to
twist; mill of a place that draws labor. Wind-mill is a place of pressing
for production. Wilton sounds like will-turn as turning a will. Wilton House is
a windmill reputed to press poets to write with proper cost; proper has
the usage of individual or private; “proper cost to build a Windmill” can spell
Wilton’s Mary Sidney.
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*Fardel-a-footback: Fardel has the usage of a bundle, load, or burden (of sin or sorrow); footback of on foot, contrary to horseback. Fardel-a-footback is to carry a heavy load on foot, alluding to straining or exhausting. The line “my playing Fardel-a-footback” can spell Earl of Pembroke, alluding to the play company Earl of Pembroke’s Men patronized by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and husband of Mary Sidney. *Tempora mutantur: Times are changing.
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The term
“Fardel-a-footback” and “Delphrigus, and the King of Fairies” appear earlier in
the preface to Greene’s Menaphon (1589) by Thomas Nashe (1567–1601):
They
might have antickt it until this time up and down the country with the King of Fairies, and dined every day at the pease porridge ordinary with Delphrigus.
But Tolossa hath forgot that it was sometime sackt, and beggers that ever they
carried their fardles on footback.
*Delphrigus,
and the King of Fairies: The name
Delphrigus is close to Delphinus, a dolphin saved the musician and poet Arion. Delphrigus
can be a perfect anagram of delph-rig-us, alluding one who would save poets but
bury their fame. Delph is a variant of delf (a hole or grave); rig has
the usage of to furnish or adjust. The player is famous for saving and
converting poets.
Adding
“and the King of Fairies” after Delphrigus can help to decode Delphrigus.
Delphinus can spell Philip Sidney in one word; but Delphrigus lacks
letter n, which can be mended in “and” or
“King.”
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The term “King of Fairies” can spell Shakespeare via fairy’s obsolete form pharie, or taking -ph- from Delphrigus; it’s similar to shepheard or pharies that can spell Shakespeare with letter k. Philip Sidney is the origin of Shakespeare and the king of poets (shepherds).
*Hercules: In Roman mythology Hercules killed his own children
in a fit of madness, and the twelve labors were his purification. This may
apply to Mary Sidney’s children infected with syphilis from their mother.
*terribly
thundered on the Stage: The terribly
shocking stories of Mary Sidney Herbert are sealed in Shakespeare’s plays and performed
on the stage.
*three Scenes of the
Devil in the Highway to heaven: Scenes
sounds like sins. Devil can spell lived. Three sins of
the lived may allude to Mary Sidney’s three survived children infected with
syphilis. She had four children: William (1580-1630), Katherine (1581-84),
Anne (1583-1606), and Philip (1584-1650). Katherine died early
in 1584. Her three children lived with sins in 1592 when Greene wrote this
pamphlet. *Highway to heaven: Syphilis makes a quicker way to die than normal people.
*a
country Author, passing at a Moral:
an author without the restraint of moral as a noble.
*I
that penned the Moral of man’s wit:
Pen has the usage of to write and to confine. The player confines
himself in writing the moral defined by man’s wit, but not by woman’s. This can
be seen from Shakespeare’s plays having various intelligent women like Helena,
Rosalind, or Portia, and simple men like Bertram, Orlando, or Bassanio.
*penned ... the Dialogue of Dives: Dialogue of Dives refers to Dives and Pauper, a book printed in 1493. Dives has the usage of rich or wealthy in Latin; pauper of a poor man. It’s a dialogue of a wealthy layman and poor friar.
This can be a mock at the player who is confined (“penned”) to write for the rich, not the spiritual poor. Author of Dives and Pauper (wealth and salvation) is unknown, suggesting that the player conseals and dives in the literary world. It may also relate to the dialogue between Hobbinol and Diggon Davie in The Shepheardes Calender (Davie Dicar’s Dream by Thomas Churchyard).
"Herein Diggon Davie is devised to be a shepherd, that in hope of more gain, drove his sheep into a far country. The abuses whereof, and loose living of Popish prelates, by occasion of Hobbinol’s demand, he discourseth at large."—September, The Shepheardes Calender
*seven
years space: Robert Greene died on
September 3, 1592; his pamphlet was published posthumously the same year. Seven
years refers to one life as Lucanio’s “three lives or one and twenty years.”
*absolute
Interpreter to the puppets: A mother
has the absolute control over her children under certain age. The puppets
may allude to Mary Sidney’s three alive
children.
*no
estimation: The public cannot
estimate Mary Sidney’s art of Arcadia. *Moral’s
teaching education: This line can
spell Mary Sidney Arcadia or Arcadia’s Mary
Sidney. Pembroke’s Arcadia is
the literary paradise of Philip and Mary Sidney.
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*making
Plays: “Why sir, in making Plays”
can spell Shakespeare, which is how the Player would like to use Roberto, and Mary Sidney to
use Robert Greene. “Plays” is printed as “Playes” in the manuscript.
*well
paid, if you will take the pains: Later
Greene described Roberto as “famoused for an Arch-playmaking-poet,” which can spell Mary Philip Sidney Shakespeare, suggesting Robert Greene wrote for Mary Sidney under the name
Shakespeare following the style of Philip Sidney.
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*you will take the pains: This line can spell Wilton
House, source of pains for Greene, a
warning that he will be well paid but restricted by Wilton House, and his
creations will not carry his own name. Pains can be a sound play of
pens. A poet’s feather pens being plucked out to beautify the “upstart Crow”
will cause pains.
*Town’s
end in a house of retail: This line can spell Wilton House, suggesting the name of the house where the Herberts were doing the retail business of
playscripts.
*by
conversing with bad company: This line can spell Mary Sidney Herbert,
who organized a “bad company” from Greene’s view. *A malo in
peius: From bad to worse. Robert Greene
had met “bad company” and turned from bad to worse at the end.
