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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The Conflict of Conscience, a morality play by Nathaniel Wood, was printed in London, 1581, in a black-letter quarto. This is the only known edition of the work; it appeared, however, in two issues. The first of these gives the name of “Frauncis Spera” on the title-page and in the Prologue, and at the end of the piece the Nuntius announces that Philologus, the character representing the Italian, Francesco Spiera, had committed suicide. The second issue does not mention the name of the historical prototype of the chief character in the drama, and in it the Nuntius announces that Philologus had been reconverted to Protestantism before his death.
1 The facts that are known of the life of Nathaniel Wood or Woodes, as the name appears on the title-page of his play, are limited. The record of his matriculation as a sizar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Michaelmas term, 1567, constitutes the first definite information about his life. He graduated B.A. from Cambridge in the spring of 1572 and M.A. two years later. In the meantime he was ordained priest at Norwich in 1571, and in 1572 he became rector of South Walsham St. Mary's, a small parish about nine miles from Norwich. In 1586 this living was given to another, and nothing is known of Wood's whereabouts until 1594, when he was incorporated at Oxford. After that time no more information regarding him is to be found. See John Venn and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, 1922), iv, 453.
2 William A. Jackson, “Woodes's Conflict of Conscience,” LTLS (September 7, 1933), p. 592, points out the most important variations between the two issues. W. W. Greg in a later issue of LTLS (October 26, 1933), p. 732, corrects a bibliographical inaccuracy of Mr. Jackson's.
3 The Conflict of Conscience, Sig. F i verso.—This reference and all references to the play, unless otherwise stated, are made to the facsimile reproduction of a British Museum copy of The Conflict of Conscience in the “Tudor Facsimile Texts.”
4 Two of these are on Sig. B iii verso; the remaining two are on Sig. C ii verso and Sig. D ii recto.
5 Both issues, Sig. A ii verso.
6 The unmistakeable examples of this are in Act ii, scene i (Sig. B ii verso) and in Act v, scene iii (Sig. H i verso), while the more doubtful example is at the beginning of Act iv, scene i (Sig. E i verso).
7 The difficulty of acting a play with asides arranged in this fashion was pointed out to me by Professor Charles Read Baskervill. A. W. Ward, A History of English Dramatic Literature (London, 1899), i, 139, considers the use of the seven-line stanza to be evidence that the play was hardly intended for presentation. But a considerable number of the early plays were written in the seven-line stanza.
8 See below pp. 670–672, where I have attempted to show that Wood used a specific version of the life of Spiera.
9 A. O. Meyer, England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth, translated by J. R. McKee (London, 1916), pp. 68–70.
10 Such a ballad is Thomas Knell, An Answer at large, to a most hereticall, trayterous, Papistical Byll, … (London, 1570), reprinted in Northampton, 1881, by John Taylor. Other ballads of this type are reprinted by Joseph Lilly, A Collection of Seventy-Nine Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides (London, 1867), pp. 30–32; 33–36; 224–227. H. E. Rollins, “An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557–1709) in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London,” SP, xxi (1924), 14, 23, 84, 107, passim, has entries of ballads that obviously must have been of the type under discussion here.
11 For example, Thomas Norton, A warning against the dangerous practices of Papistes, and specially the parteners of the late Rebellion (London, [ca. 1570]). Many of the earlier of the numerous works against the Catholics of the Puritan, William Fulke, fall in this period.
12 A good example is New Custom, which was printed in 1573. This is reprinted in Robert Dodsley, A Select Collection of Old English Plays edited by W. C. Hazlitt (London, 1874–76), iii, 1–52.
13 Barnaby Googe's translation of Thomas Kirchmeyer, The popish kingdome, or reigne of Antichrist (London, 1570) is an example. This work has been reprinted and edited by Robert Charles Hope (London, 1880).
14 See below, p. 667.
15 A feature of Wood's play that seems to point to the later date is the Scottish dialect chosen for the ignorant Catholic priest. This choice may have been influenced by the increasing uneasiness among English Protestants on account of Mary, Queen of Scots. See below, p. 677–678.
16 This surname is sometimes spelled Spira or Spera.
17 Brief accounts of these men may be found as follows: The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York and London, 1912), xii, 164–165; Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1817), xviii, 472–473; DNB (London, 1885–1900), li, 150–151; Fortsetzung und Ergänzungen zu Christian Gottlieb Jöchers allgemeinem Gelehrten-Lexikon von Johann Christoph Adelung (Leipzig, 1787), ii, 1389.
18 Corpus Reformatorum (Brunswick, 1870), xxxvii, lxx, gives the title as above. Emilio Comba, I Nostri Protestanti (Florence, 1897) ii, 260, note, gives the place and the date as Basel, 1550. The British Museum Catalogue, under C. S. Curio, lists a title very like this, but the place and the date supplied are [Geneva? 1550?].
19 Curione (1503–69), an Italian Protestant, was professor of rhetoric in Basel.
20 Borrhaus (1499–1564), a German Protestant, was professor of theology in Basel.
21 Corpus Reformatorum, xxxvii, lxx–lxxi.
22 British Museum Catalogue under P. P. Vergerio.
23 British Museum Catalogue under F. Spira.
24 Ibid.
25 This title is taken from Mary Augusta Scott, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian (Boston and New York, 1916), p. 253. A copy of this edition of Gribaldi's work in English is to be found in the Bodleian Library. The Catalogus Librorum Impressorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae in Academia Oxoniensi (Oxford, 1843), ii, 200, does not give the place where the work was printed nor the printer.
26 Scott, Elizabethan Translations, p. 254.
27 DNB, i, 176–177.
28 F. I. Carpenter, “Spenser's Cave of Despair,” MLN, xii (1897), 257–273. Literary treatments of the theme of despair occur in Spenser's Faerie Queen, Book i, canto ix, and in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, notably scenes v, vi, xi, xiii, xiv.
29 The following list of works that dealt with Spiera's life is by no means complete. It is drawn up chiefly as evidence of the widespread popularity of the story.
30 Comba, I Nostri Protestanti, ii, 261, note.
31 Jean George Théodore Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares et précieux (Dresden, 1865), vi, 468; British Museum Catalogue under F. Spira.
32 For example, C. L. Roth, Francesko Spiera's Lebensende (Nuremburg, 1829).
33 British Museum Catalogue under F. Spira.
34 This title is taken from a rotograph of the British Museum copy.
35 Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London; 1554–1640 A.D. (London, 1875), i, 408.
36 A Short-Title Catalogue of Books edited by A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave (London, 1926), nos. 20204 and 20205.
37 W. T. Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, edited by H. G. Bohn (London, 1871), ii, 945. It is also described in Joseph Ames, Typographical Antiquities edited by T. F. Dibdin (London, 1819), iv, 481–482. Dibdin notes that the description comes from Herbert's manuscript memoranda.
38 There is no record of this third edition in the Short-Title Catalogue.
39 The first edition, London, 1607, is the edition I have used.
40 Pp. 185–198.
41 Goulart, Admirable and Memorable Histories, p. 196.
42 The British Museum Catalogue, under F. Spira, supplies the date 1637 in brackets. I have not seen a copy of the first edition but have used the second edition which has the title: A Relation of the Fearefull Estate of Francis Spira, in the yeare, 1548 (London, 1640).
43 The dates of the various editions (British Museum Catalogue, under F. Spira) were: 1638 [1637], 1640, 1665, 1683, 1688, 1715, 1718, 1734, 1770, 1784, 1815, 1845. That of 1815 seems to have been an abridgement of Bacon's history. The title and approximate date of the Welsh translation are also given.
44 A Relation of Francis Spira, Sig. A 3 recto.
46 I have relied upon Karl Goedeke, Grundrisz sur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung (Dresden, 1886), ii, 393, for the title and the facts regarding the publication of this work.
46 Wilhelm Creizenach, Geschichte des neuren Dramas (Halle a.S., 1923), iii, 326–327, gives the best discussion of this play that I have found.
47 There seems to be question regarding the place where this work was printed. The British Museum Catalogue, under G., I.D.C., gives the place as [Paris?], while Jacques-Charles Brunet, Manuel du Libraire (Paris, 1865), vi, 899, gives it (Génève).
48 Louis César de la Baume Le Blanc, duc de La Vallière, Bibliotheque du Théatre françois (Dresden, 1768), i, 418–419, gives the best description of this tragedy.
49 Ibid., p. 418.
50 Arber, Stationers' Register, ii, 472.
51 DNB, xx, 277–278.
52 Other parallels may be found as follows:
Conflict of Conscience
Sig. G ii recto–verso
Sig. H ii recto–verso
Sig. H ii verso–H iii recto
Sig. H iii verso
A notable and marueilous Epistle
Sig. A vi recto–verso
Sig. A vii verso
Sig. A viii recto–verso
Sig. B i recto–verso
Sig. H iii verso–H iv recto
Sig. H iv recto
Sig. H iv verso
Sig. H iv verso
Sig. H iv verso—I i recto
Sig. I i recto
Sig. I i verso
Sig. I i verso
Sig. I ii recto
Sig. I ii recto-verso
Sig. I ii verso
Sig. I ii verso
Sig. I iii recto
Sig. I iii verso
Sig. I iii verso
Sig. I iv recto
Sig. B i verso
Sig. B ii recto
Sig. B ii verso
Sig. B iv recto
Sig. B iv verso
Sig. B iii verso
Sig. B vi recto–verso
Sig. B vi verso–B vii recto
Sig. B vii recto–verso
Sig. B vii verso–B viii recto
Sig. B viii verso
Sig. B viii verso–C i recto
Sig. C i recto–verso
Sig. C ii verso–C iii recto
Sig. B ii verso
Sig. B v verso
I have already briefly pointed out Wood's dependence upon A notable and marueilous Epistle in a letter in LTLS (November 23, 1933), p. 840.
53 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. A iii recto and Sig. B ii recto.
54 Ibid., Sig. B i recto; the whole page is dotted with names of Biblical characters.
55 Ibid., Sig. B ii recto, where Romans 5 : 3–4 is quoted, and Sig. F iii verso, where Matthew 10:28 is the verse that is quoted.
56 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. A iv recto, B i recto, and B ii verso.
57 Sig. A iv verso.
58 Miles Coverdale, “A Spiritual and Most Precious Pearl” in the Writings and Translations of Myles Coverdale, edited for the Parker Society by George Pearson (Cambridge, 1844), pp. 84–194.
59 Roger Hutchinson, “The Image of God,” Chapter XI, in The Works of Roger Hutchinson, edited for the Parker Society by John Bruce (Cambridge, 1842), pp. 57–60; John Marbeck, A Booke of Notes and Commonplaces (London, 1581), pp. 18–20.
60 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. B i verso-B ii recto.
61 Coverdale, Writings, pp. 95, 116, 123, 127, 129.
62 Some passages which are notably like those in The Conflict of Conscience are as follows: Marbeck, A Booke of Notes and Commonplaces, p. 19; Pietro Martire Vermigli, The Common Places (London, 1583), ii, 366 b; John Veron, A stronge battery against the Idolatrous inuocation of the dead Saintes (London, 1562), fol. 5 recto; Henry Bullinger, The tragedies of tyrants (London, 1575), fols. 115 verso and 117 verso.
63 See John Bale, A declaration of Edmonde Bonners articles (London, 1561), Sig. * ii recto, fols. 12 recto, 24 recto, 55 recto, 62 verso, passim; “A Comedy concerning Three Laws of Nature, Moses and Christ” and “A Tragedy of John, King of England” in The Dramatic Writings of John Bale, edited by J. S. Farmer (London, 1907), pp. 1–82 and 171–294; “Lusty Juventus” and “New Custom” in Hazlitt's Dodsley, ii, 41–102 and iii, 1–52; and the recently discovered Fable of Philargyrie, printed by Robert Crowley and probably written by him, which has been published in facsimile with a short introduction by W. A. Marsden (London, 1931).
64 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. D iii verso–D iv recto.
65 Bernardine Ochino, A tragoedie, or Dialogue of the vniuste vrsurped primacie of the Bishop of Rome (London, 1549), Sig. X i verso.
66 A declaration, fol. 20; Three Laws, p. 41.
67 Boaistuau's work was translated by John Alday, and the first edition was published about 1566, according to the Short-Title Catalogue, no. 3168. The edition I used was published in London, 1581. The passage referred to is to be found on p. 115.
68 Kirchmeyer, The popish kingdome, fol. 18 verso; Luke Shepherd, “Doctour Doubble Ale” in Remains of Early Popular Poetry of England edited by W. C. Hazlitt (London, 1866), iii, 307, 311, passim.
69 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. D iv recto.
70 Ibid., verso.
71 See Thomas Becon, Prayers and Other Pieces, edited for the Parker Society 'by John Ayre (Cambridge, 1844), pp. 234, 519, 535; John Jewel, Works, edited for the Parker Society by John Ayre (Cambridge, 1845–50), i, 265; iv, 816; James Pilkington, Works, edited for the Parker Society by James Scholefield (Cambridge, 1842), p. 18.
72 Cf. Jacobus de Varagine, The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints as Englished by William Caxton, edited by F. S. Ellis (London, [1900]), ii, 199–201; iii, 133; v, 3.
73 In Bale's Three Laws, pp. 19–20, there is a similar list of saints and the benefits they bestow upon men; but Bale is very obviously letting his character ridicule such ideas, while Wood intends Caconos to be seriously stating his beliefs.
74 Kirchmeyer, The popish kingdome, fol. 44 recto–verso.
76 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. B iii recto.
76 See Batman vppon Bartholome, his Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum (London, 1582), fol. 131 recto–verso (Book viii, Chapter 27), fol. 352 verso (Book xviii, Chapter 21).
77 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. A ii verso, C ii verso, C iv recto, D ii recto, verso, F iii verso, F iv recto, verso.
78 Ibid., Sig. B iii verso, B iv recto, C iii recto, C iv recto.
79 This is especially notable in the Prologue.
80 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. A ii verso.
81 A notable and marueilous Epistle, Sig. A vii recto.
82 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. I iii verso–I iv recto.
83 A notable and marueilous Epistle, Sig. A iii recto.
84 Eduard Eckhardt, Die Dialekt- und Ausländertypen des älteren Englischen Dramas (Louvain, 1910), i, 94–97, has made a study of the dialect of Caconos. His conclusions are that Wood probably intended Caconos to speak Scottish, but that Wood must have known the dialect very imperfectly, for while Scottish and Northern forms predominate, there are also many Midland forms in Caconos' dialect, as well as many that are invented.
85 Ibid., p. 94; Louis B. Wright, “Social Aspects of some Belated Moralities,” Anglia, liv (1930), 114, note 1.
86 John Strype, The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker (Oxford, 1821), ii, 85–97.
87 Conflict of Conscience, Sig. I iv recto.
