William Cole to Christopher Goodman
DATE: 1556 March 14
LOCATION OF ORIGIN: Strasbourg
DESTINATION: Geneva
SOURCE: Denbighshire Record Office, Plas Power MSS, DD/PP/839 pp. 58-59
To his singular friend dominus Christopher Goodman at Geneva.
[p. 59] That your good-will, dearest friend, is not now less than it once was you twice1
Or ‘for a second time’. confirmed by your letter.
As to your printers – how great a scarcity there is of them2The previous letter did not mention a scarcity of printers. Nor did it contain any explicit assurances of Goodman’s undiminished good will (though Cole could have chosen to regard the mere writing of the letter as an implicit assurance – which would still leave secundo unexplained). Could the previous letter have been a draft only which would have been somewhat embroidered in the final copying? That might explain why it is so abrupt and so lacking in the little courtesies. The alternative would be to suppose that it is not the letter of 15 December 1555 to which this is replying. But that is perhaps less likely, for one would then have to assume that a whole cycle is missing – that is, Cole’s reply to Goodman as well as a further letter from Goodman to Cole. (A reply from Cole to Goodman has to be presupposed because otherwise this letter would be replying to two letters from Goodman to Cole, which surely would have required a grovelling apology for not writing.) And one would also have to assume that in all that they are still banging on about how little one has to pay proof-readers. and how cheaply people are hired to correct the type-setting – I cannot deny what you say. For where you are there is so great a multitude of learned folk, even of those, perhaps, who, provided they can care for themselves honorably in the matter of food and clothing, are not greatly concerned about their wage,3In other words ‘when publishing duty’s to be done – to be done, a copy-editor’s lot is not a happy one’. and, when one refuses, there is another immediately to hand who thinks that it is more satisfactory to experience humble status than to experience hunger.
– Our news we will impart to you, since you ask,4There is no such request in the previous letter. as often as there is a suitable messenger – and the more gladly will we do so since you write that that is something that will be very greatly pleasing. Although now less news is reported, and that which is reported is, I think, not unknown to you.
As to Canterbury, the rumour is that he has either been burnt just now or is to be burnt any day.5Cranmer was in fact burnt just a week later (on 21 March 1556). His portrait was sent by our Queen to Rome, and the Pontiff ordered it to be destroyed by flame. I hear that at Dover there is no little equipment in the castle, and that Philip’s return is expected daily. Your Termagnus6I presume this is Richard Tremayne. is to return to Belgium next month. It had been his intention to journey via you [plural] all the way to Aurelia in Gaul [Orleans], but he has recently understood from his friends that he should take the direct route to what I call the area of Germany. Dominus Arnold,7This is certainly not Sir Nicholas Arnold (D.N.B., Supplement I (1901), 75-76), who (1) would be too long in the tooth to fit the description and (2) was in any case in England at the time: he was sent to the Tower five weeks later – on 19 April. whom he will have as a companion, is being called to England by his parents. Our people are leaving here every day, some to Vesalia [Wesel], others to Frankfort. And the Domini Cheke8Sir John Cheke. and Wrothe9Sir Thomas Wrothe. are soon to set out with their people to Vesalia [Wesel]; they only wait on Dr Sandes,10Edwin Sandes, D.D. who, they say, has gone there to procure accommodation11Aedes could mean either one house or more than one. for them.
If hereafter you are sending any letter, I ask to hear something about your church – how great a crowd of Englishmen there are there, whom you have as ministers – for I want to hear that especially.
Farewell. 14 March (1556) in Argentina [Strasbourg], from the house of Dominus Coke, knight.12I presume this is Sir Anthony Cooke.
Jewell, Nowell, and so on greet you. Greet all my friends, but greet by name Dominus Whittingham and Dominus Lever. Again, farewell.
Your William Cole.
1 Or ‘for a second time’.
2 The previous letter did not mention a scarcity of printers. Nor did it contain any explicit assurances of Goodman’s undiminished good will (though Cole could have chosen to regard the mere writing of the letter as an implicit assurance – which would still leave secundo unexplained). Could the previous letter have been a draft only which would have been somewhat embroidered in the final copying? That might explain why it is so abrupt and so lacking in the little courtesies. The alternative would be to suppose that it is not the letter of 15 December 1555 to which this is replying. But that is perhaps less likely, for one would then have to assume that a whole cycle is missing – that is, Cole’s reply to Goodman as well as a further letter from Goodman to Cole. (A reply from Cole to Goodman has to be presupposed because otherwise this letter would be replying to two letters from Goodman to Cole, which surely would have required a grovelling apology for not writing.) And one would also have to assume that in all that they are still banging on about how little one has to pay proof-readers.
3 In other words ‘when publishing duty’s to be done – to be done, a copy-editor’s lot is not a happy one’.
4 There is no such request in the previous letter.
5 Cranmer was in fact burnt just a week later (on 21 March 1556).
6 I presume this is Richard Tremayne.
7 This is certainly not Sir Nicholas Arnold (D.N.B., Supplement I (1901), 75-76), who (1) would be too long in the tooth to fit the description and (2) was in any case in England at the time: he was sent to the Tower five weeks later – on 19 April.
8 Sir John Cheke.
9 Sir Thomas Wrothe.
10 Edwin Sandes, D.D.
11 Aedes could mean either one house or more than one.
12 I presume this is Sir Anthony Cooke.
Amico suo singulari D. Christophoro Goodman Genevae.
[p. 59] Voluntatem tuam non minorem nunc esse Amice charissime quam olim fuit, / secundò [it’s not certain that the diagonal stroke is a diacritical] literis tuis confirmasti. – De Typographis vestris, quanta sit illorum pau-/citas, et quam vili adducuntur homines ad eorum typos corrigendos, quae dicis dif-/fiteri non possum. Tanta enim est apud vos doctorum hominum multitudo, et illorum / forsitan, qui modo sibi honeste de victu cultuque caveatur de stipendio multum / non laborant, ut uno recusante statim adsit alter qui tenuem conditionem / experiri quam famem satius esse arbitretur. – Nova nostra quoties erit oportu-/nus nuncius quia petis impartiemur tibi, et eo lubentius impartiemur quod rem / fore longe gratissimam scribis. Quanquam pauciora nunc afferuntur nova, / quam antea, et ea quae afferuntur vobis ignota esse non arbitror. De Cantua-/riensi fama est eum vel nunc esse combustum vel propediem esse comburen-/dum. Eius effigiem a Regina nostra Romam missam flammis aboleri iussit Pon-/tifex. Doverae audio non parvos esse in arce apparatus, et Philippi reditum in / dies singulos expectari. Termagnus tuus in Belgium est reversurus luna – [horizontal stroke at end of line] / proxima. erat illi in animo per vos in Galliam Aureliam usque proficisci, sed nu-/per accepit ab amicis sibi recta[?] capessendum iter in eas quas dico Germaniae / partes. D. Arnoldus, quem habebit comitem vocatur in Angliam a parentibus. / Quotidie hinc discedunt nostrates, alii Vesaliam, alii Francafurtum[?]: et bre-/vi D.D. Chekus et Wrothus cum suis Vesaliam sunt profecturi: tantum ex-/pectant Doctorem Sandes; quem ad aedes illis comparandas abiisse eò ferunt. Siquid / posthac literarum es missurus aliquid de ecclesia vestra audiam quaeso; quanta sit / isthic Anglorum multitudo; quos habeatis ministros; hoc enim ego prae caeteris au-/dire cupio. Vale. 14° Martii (a° 1556) Argentinae ex aedibus D. Coki militis au-/rati. Salutant te Juellus, Nowellus etc. Salutabis meos omnes, nominatim vero D. / Whittingamum, D. Leverum. Iterum vale. /
Tuus Gulielmus Colus.