Christopher Goodman to William Cole
DATE: 1555 December 15
LOCATION OF ORIGIN: Geneva
DESTINATION: Strasbourg
SOURCE: Denbighshire Record Office, Plas Power MSS, DD/PP/839 p. 58
Christopher Goodman to William Cole the Englishman At Argentina [Strasbourg]
I regret, my Cole, that I do not have the time to reply more fully to your letter, which I realize proceeded from a deserving spirit and one well mindful of our conversations. – You write among other things of the danger from the illness that has seized upon that monstrous and cruel disaster for the whole of England, the bishop of Winchester.1
Stephen Gardiner died on 12 November 1555. But I had already been given to understand by others that he was dead, which is what I was more hopeful of. By this great benefaction of God, an example is provided for us that the merciful Lord has not utterly ceased to avenge those who are his own and that he will never abandon them, provided they do not abandon him. And so with most ardent prayers we must all insistently seek that he, in accordance with his mercy, might wish to proceed with the retribution which he has begun. I am not pleased that Chambers has deserted you, but it is more displeasing that provision is not readily made for you here in accordance with your desires.2Not in Troubles. For, as I hear, there is so great a supply of those who take care of correcting the type-setting that for ones who are well skilled in the craft, food alone is considered enough payment.
– Farewell, good Cole, and take this in good part from one who was not now at leisure to manage any more. Greet Dominus Martyr fondly, whom it irks me to greet without a letter – also Dominus Nowell, my close friend; Dominus Faulcner;3Not in Troubles. Dominus Jewel; Dominus Saul;4Not in Troubles. Dominus Julius;5Not in Troubles. Dominus Guido Heaton;6Not in Troubles. and all the others for whom I assuredly pray and long for the same things that they pray and long for for me.
Geneva 15 December 1555.
1 Stephen Gardiner died on 12 November 1555.
2 What the discussion is about – here and in the following two letters of Cole to Goodman ( = pp. 58-59 and pp. 59-60) -- is not luminously clear. One possibility is that Cole is meant to be seeing something through the press and is making heavy weather of it. If ‘Chamberus’ is – as I presume – Richard Chambers, then, in this scenario, Cole must have been relying on him to bankroll the hiring of proof-readers, but Chambers has left him in the lurch. Goodman will then be unhappy about the fact that Cole has made no alternative arrangements, despite the ease of obtaining learned proof-readers in Geneva (the hic of Goodman’s letter will correspond to the apud vos of Cole’s letter (pp. 58-59). What would not be stated is who is the implied subject of the impersonal passive prospiciatur, which I have rendered as ‘provision ... is made’. Is Goodman, in this scenario, simply critizing Cole, or is he (also) expressing vexation at the failure of others in Geneva to make good the deficiency? The former would perhaps be more likely, in view both of the abrupt tone of this letter and of the very defensive nature of Cole’s reply. But an alternative scenario is, I think, more likely. This is that Chambers has left Cole so destitute he has been reduced to looking for some sort of learned employment at a press. Goodman replies that he regrets nothing can be done for Cole in Geneva, because (1) there is a shortage of printers who could hire learned proof-readers (this part of his reply is to be inferred from the beginning of Cole’s second letter to Goodman = pp. 58-59) and (2) there is a glut of learned proof-readers queuing up for work.
3 John Fawconer.
4 Arthur Saule.
5 Terentianus.
6 Guy Heton.
Christoph: Goodman Gulielmo Cole Anglo Argentinae.
Doleo mi Cole tempus mihi non dari copiosius ad tuas literas respondendi, quas / a tam grato animo et colloquiorum nostrorum bene memori profectas intellexi. -- / -- Scribis inter caetera de periculo morbi, qui belluam illam immanem totius Angli-/ae calamitatem Wintoniensem corripuit; sed ego prius mortuum ab aliis, quod magis optabam, intellexi. Quo magno dei beneficio specimen aliquod nobis ex-/hibetur, quod suorum vindictam penitus non abiecerit misericors dominus, neque eos / se deserturum unquam, modo ipsi se non deserant. precibus itaque ardentissimis / nobis omnibus contendendum est, ut qua incoepit ultione velit pro sua mise-/ricordia pergere. Quod te Chamberus deseruit non placet, verum quod tibi hic / pro votis non facile prospiciatur magis displicet. Tanta enim est eorum, ut audio, / copia qui typis corrigendis inserviunt, ut illis qui artem pulchre callent victus / solus satis stipendii ducitur[?]. – Vale optime Cole et haec pauca boni consule ab eo / qui plura nunc per otium non poterat. Salutabis diligenter Dominum Martyrem, quem / absque literis salutare me piget; Dominum etiam Nowellum intimum meum amicum, / D. Faulcnerum, D. Juellum, D. Saulum, D. Julium, D. Guidonem Heaton et alios / omnes quibus ego eadem omnino quae mihi ipsi precor et opto. Genevae Decemb. 15. / 1555.