Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Sixteenth-century pamphleteer, playwright, and poet Thomas Nashe captured his own biting wit and quick-temper in his scathing pamphlets that fired relentless attacks at his arch-enemy Gabriel Harvey (Nicholl 2).Hidden amongst jibes and insults aimed at his nemesis are details of Nashe's close relationship with printer-publisher John Danter, the Danter family and their print shop.These anecdotal and emotional responses will be set alongside archival evidence of Nashe and Danter's working relationship, and it is from viewing their relationship through this combined lens that it becomes necessary to offer Nashe as a probable writer of many of Danter's printed ballads.In lieu of extant proof, I will bring together circumstantial evidence which, when viewed as a whole, suggests that 'balladeer' ought to be added to Nashe's list of authorship roles.An overview of Danter's printing output and context will come first, showing that Danter relied upon the ease of printing and selling broadside ballads to provide a quick profit.Yet, as ballads made up a significant portion of his products, Danter would have needed to employ a balladeer or ballad-writer to write for him when needed; ideally someone who was easily accessible.Next I will discuss the close, both in the emotional and proximal sense, relationship between Nashe and Danter.The two men had worked together from 1592 until 1596 -the bulk of Danter's short-lived career.Nashe, a self-declared prolific writer, was a consistent source of manuscripts and Danter, it appears, was more than happy to print his work.In fact, during his most active years of 1592 to 96, Danter was responsible for producing over 50% of Nashe's printed work.Finally, I will show how, when considered together, this information leans heavily toward Nashe being one of Danter's balladeers.Danter relied upon printing ballads to maintain his business whilst Nashe was an avid writer who lived on and off at Danter's print house.This combination of circumstances mean that it is not much of a stretch of the imagination to consider that Nashe could
Source: The Explicator
Author: Michelle Michel
Institution: University of Birmingham
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4401927930