The Mermaid Series was a major collection of reprints of texts from English Elizabethan , Jacobean and Restoration drama . It was launched in 1887 by the British publisher Henry Vizetelly and under the general editorship of Havelock Ellis . Around 1894 the series was taken over by the London firm of T. Fisher Unwin . Many well-known literary figures edited or introduced the texts. Some of the plays published had not been reprinted in recent editions, and most had dropped out of the stage repertoire.
25-851: The name alludes to the Mermaid Tavern in London. There has been a later New Mermaids Series. Notes by John Strachey , two volumes (volume I) The Maid's Tragedy - Philaster - The Wild Goose Chase - Thierry and Theodoret - The Knight of the Burning Pestle (volume II) A King and No King - Bonduca - The Spanish Curate - The Faithful Shepherdess - Valentinian Edited by William Lyon Phelps All Fools - Bussy D'Ambois - The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois - The Conspiracy of Charles, Duke of Byron - The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron Edited by Alexander Charles Ewald The Old Bachelor - The Double-Dealer - Love for Love - The Way of
50-579: A Whore - The Broken Heart - Love's Sacrifice - Perkin Warbeck Edited by Thomas H. Dickinson Alphonsus, King of Arragon - A Looking Glass for London and England - Orlando Furioso - Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay - James the Fourth - George-A-Green, the Pinner of Wakefield Edited by A. Wilson Verity , introduction by John Addington Symonds A Woman Killed with Kindness - The Fair Maid of
75-493: A jest. Two hundred years later, in early February 1819, John Keats composed a poem on the legend initiated by Beaumont, Lines on the Mermaid Tavern —26 lines of verse that open and close with the following couplets: Souls of poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? Keats' precedent was followed by Theodore Watts-Dunton in his poem Wassail Chorus at
100-847: A play that was acted in the autumn of 1599; the clown character Clove speaks "fustian" in mimicry of Marston's style. This is one instance of Jonson's involvement in the War of the Theatres . Scholars have found references to Sir Walter Raleigh and Gabriel Harvey . The characters Fastidious Brisk and Carlo Buffone in Every Man Out —like Hedon and Anaides in Cynthia's Revels and Crispinus and Demeter in The Poetaster —are representations of Marston and Thomas Dekker . The character Sogliardo, who Jonson includes in his general mockery of socially ambitious fools,
125-515: A will dated, 1603. In 1600, a notable disorder caused by some drunken members of a group known as the Damned Crew attacking the watch after they were challenged, began after they were ejected from the Mermaid Tavern. It resulted in a Star Chamber trial. The building was destroyed in 1666 during the Great Fire of London . William Gifford , Jonson's 19th-century editor, wrote that the society
150-1068: Is a Weathercock ( Nathan Field )- Amends for Ladies (Nathan Field) Notes by Roden Noel Don Carlos, Prince of Spain - The Orphan - The Soldier's Fortune - Venice Preserved Edited by George Saintsbury The Sullen Lovers - A True Widow - The Squire of Alsatia - Bury Fair Introduction by Edmund Gosse The Witty Fair One - The Traitor - Hyde Park - The Lady of Pleasure - The Cardinal - The Triumph of Peace Edited by G. A. Aitken The Funeral - The Lying Lover - The Tender Husband - The Conscious Lovers - The School of Action - The Gentleman Edited by A. E. H. Swain The Relapse - The Provok'd Wife - The Confederacy - A Journey to London Notes by John Addington Symonds The White Devil (Webster) - The Duchess of Malfi (Webster) - The Atheist's Tragedy (Tourneur) - The Revenger's Tragedy (Tourneur, but now usually attributed to Thomas Middleton ) Edited by W. C. Ward Mermaid Tavern The Mermaid Tavern
175-463: Is a country bumpkin, new to the city, who boasts of the coat of arms he has recently purchased, which, when he describes its colours, resembles a fool’s motley. Another character suggests Sogliardo should use the motto, "Not Without Mustard". This has been construed by some critics as a reference to William Shakespeare’s recently acquired coat of arms with its gold colour, and its motto, Non Sans Droit , which translates as "Not Without Right". When
200-514: Is a satirical comedy play written by English playwright Ben Jonson , acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men . The play is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour . It was much less successful on stage than its predecessor, though it was published in quarto three times in 1600 alone; it was also performed at Court on 8 January 1605. The play was entered into
225-579: Is elemental and primitive. He is not of our time, but of all times. One imagines him wrestling with the giant Skrymir and drinking deep draughts from the horn of Thor, or exchanging jests with Falstaff at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap, or joining in the intellectual revels at the Mermaid Tavern, or meeting Johnson foot to foot and dealing blow for a mighty blow. With Rabelais he rioted, and Don Quixote and Sancho were his "vera brithers." One seems to see him coming down from
250-716: The Register of the Stationers' Company on 8 April 1600 by the bookseller William Holme, who published the first quarto of the play soon after. Holmes issued a second quarto later that year, with the printing done by Peter Short. Yet a third quarto appeared in 1600, published by Nicholas Ling , the stationer who would issue the " bad quarto " of Hamlet three years later. W. W. Greg characterized Ling's Q3 as "A careless and ignorant reprint" of Q1. Every Man Out contains an allusion to John Marston 's Histriomastix in Act III, scene i,
275-864: The Great Part the First - Tamburlaine the Great Part the Second - Doctor Faustus - The Jew of Malta - Edward the Second Also includes a biography of Christopher Marlowe and appendices. Notes by Arthur Symons , two volumes (Volume I) The Duke of Milan - A New Way to Pay Old Debts - The Great Duke of Florence - The Maid of Honour - The City Madam (Volume II) The Roman Actor - The Fatal Dowry - The Guardian - The Virgin Martyr - Believe as You List Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne , with Havelock Ellis , two volumes (Volume I) A Trick to Catch
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#1732856201549300-460: The Mermaid Tavern , a Christmas drinking-song imagined having been sung in the tavern, in which each new verse is "composed" by one of the poet-guests, including Raleigh, Drayton, "Shakespeare's friend", Heywood and Jonson. In his 1908 Prophets, Priests and Kings (p. 323), A. G. Gardiner turned to these "intellectual revels" at the Mermaid Tavern to express the independent genius of his friend G. K. Chesterton : Time and place are accidents: he
325-459: The Mitre tavern in London, that seemed to be located nearby. The opening scene of Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson (1614) has one of the characters, John Littlewit, refer negatively to those "Canary-drinking" wits who keep company at the ‘Three Cranes, Mitre, and Mermaid’. Apparently they were seen as too elitist. The wine in question seems to be the same as sack . Jonson and Beaumont both mentioned
350-561: The Old One - The Changeling - A Chaste Maid in Cheapside - Women Beware Women - The Spanish Gypsy (Volume II) The Roaring Girl - The Witch - A Fair Quarrel - The Mayor of Queensborough - The Widow Edited by H. P. Horne , A. W. Verity , Arthur Symons and Havelock Ellis Nero (anonymous) - The Two Angry Women of Abington ( Henry Porter ) - The Parliament of Bees ( John Day ) - Humour Out of Breath (John Day) - A Woman
375-588: The West - The English Traveller - The Wise Woman of Hogsdon - The Rape of Lucrece Notes by Brinsley Nicholson and C. H. Herford , three volumes (Volume I) Every Man in His Humour - Every Man out of His Humour - The Poetaster (Volume II) Bartholomew Fair - Cynthia's Revels; or, The Fountain of Self-Love - Sejanus His Fall (Volume III) Volpone; or, The Fox - Epicœne; or, The Silent Woman - The Alchemist Notes by Havelock Ellis , series introduction by John Addington Symonds Tamburlaine
400-708: The World - The Mourning Bride Notes by Ernest Rhys The Shoemaker's Holiday - The Honest Whore - Old Fortunatus - The Witch of Edmonton Edited by George Saintsbury , two volumes (Volume I) Almanzor and Almahide, or The Conquest of Grenada, parts 1 & 2 - Marriage A La Mode - Aureng-Zebe (Volume II) All for Love - The Spanish Friar - Albion and Albanius - Don Sebastian Edited by William Archer The Constant Couple - The Twin Rivals - The Recruiting Officer - The Beaux' Stratagem Edited by Havelock Ellis The Lover's Melancholy - 'Tis Pity She's
425-662: The ballad poet Alfred Noyes published Tales of the Mermaid Tavern , a long poem in a series of chapters, each dedicated to Elizabethan writers associated with the tavern. These include Jonson, Shakespeare and Marlowe. Beryl Markham , in her 1942 memoir, West with the Night , remarked that "every man has his Mermaid's Tavern, every hamlet its shrine to conviviality". 51°30′46″N 0°05′43″W / 51.512826°N 0.09532°W / 51.512826; -0.09532 Every Man out of His Humour Every Man out of His Humour (also spelled Humor in some early editions)
450-473: The group included William Shakespeare , although most scholars think that was improbable. According to Jonson, the Tavern was situated on Bread Street ("At Bread Street's Mermaid, having dined and merry..."). It probably had entrances on both Bread Street and Friday Street. The location corresponds to the modern junction between Bread Street and Cannon Street . The tavern's landlord is named as William Johnson in
475-597: The play was reprinted in Jonson's folio collection of 1616, a cast list of the original 1599 production was included. From this, it is known that the leading players were Richard Burbage , John Heminges , Henry Condell , Augustine Phillips , Thomas Pope , and William Sly . Shakespeare was not part of the production, though he had played in Every Man in His Humour the year before. Every Man Out of His Humour includes several references to Shakespeare and his contemporaneous works:
500-464: The tavern in their verse. Jonson's Inviting a Friend to Supper refers to "A pure cup of rich Canary wine, / Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine". Beaumont, in his verse letter to Jonson, describes "things we have seen done / At the Mermaid", including, ...words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whence they came, Had meant to put his whole wit in
525-554: The tavern's literary clientele, as well as with the tavern's landlord, William Johnson. When Shakespeare bought the Blackfriars gatehouse on March 10, 1613, Johnson was listed as a trustee for the mortgage. And Hugh Holland, mentioned in Coryat's letters, composed one of the commendatory poems prefacing the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays (1623). "The Sireniacal gentlemen" also met at
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#1732856201549550-528: The twilight of fable, through the centuries, calling wherever there is a good company, and welcome wherever he calls, for he brings no cult of the time or pedantry of the schools with him. Canadian poets William Wilfred Campbell , Archibald Lampman , and Duncan Campbell Scott together wrote a literary column called " At the Mermaid Inn " for the Toronto Globe from February 1892 until July 1893. In 1913
575-696: Was a tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era , located east of St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street. It was the site of the so-called "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen", a drinking club that met on the first Friday of every month that included some of the Elizabethan era's leading literary figures, among them Ben Jonson , John Donne , John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont , Thomas Coryat , John Selden , Robert Bruce Cotton , Richard Carew , Richard Martin , and William Strachey . A popular tradition has grown up that
600-603: Was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 based on a note by John Aubrey , but Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 19 July of that year until 1616 and it is hardly likely that someone of Raleigh's status and temperament would preside over tavern meetings. Gifford also was the first to name the Mermaid as the site of Jonson and Shakespeare's battle-of-wits debates in which they discussed politics, religion, and literature. According to tradition, Shakespeare, though not as learned as Jonson, often won these debates because Jonson
625-566: Was more ponderous, going off on tangents that did not pertain to the topic at hand. How much of the legend is true is a matter of speculation. There is an extended reference to the Tavern and its witty conversation in Master Francis Beaumont's Letter to Ben Jonson. Coryat's letters also refer to the Tavern and mention Jonson, Donne, Cotton, Inigo Jones , and Hugh Holland – though Coryat was intimate with this group apparently from 1611 on. Shakespeare certainly had connections with some of
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