Fenner was so famed for his faculty of rhyming, that James, who,
like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape
him, sent for him to court.
like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape
him, sent for him to court.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
1.
94 Vennor.
= Gifford first took Vennor to be a juggler, but
corrected his statement in the _Masque of Augurs_, _Wks. _ 7. 414.
He says: 'Fenner, whom I supposed to be a juggler, was a rude kind
of _improvisatore_. He was altogether ignorant; but possessed a
wonderful facility in pouring out doggrel verse. He says of himself,
Yet, without boasting, let me boldly say
I'll rhyme with any man that breathes this day
Upon a subject, in _extempore_, etc.
He seems to have made a wretched livelihood by frequenting city
feasts, &c. , where, at the end of the entertainment, he was called in
to mount a stool and amuse the company by stringing together a
number of vile rhymes upon any given subject. To this the quotation
alludes. Fenner is noticed by the duchess of Newcastle: "For
the numbers every schoolboy can make them on his fingers, and for
the _rime_, Fenner would put down Ben Jonson, and yet neither boy
nor Fenner so good poets. " This, too, is the person meant in the
Cambridge answer to Corbet's satire:
A ballad late was made,
But God knows who the penner;
Some say the rhyming sculler,
And others say 'twas Fenner. p. 24.
Fenner was so famed for his faculty of rhyming, that James, who,
like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape
him, sent for him to court. Upon which Fenner added to his other
titles that of his "Majesty's Riming Poet. " This gave offense to
Taylor, the Water poet, and helped to produce that miserable
squabble printed among his works, and from which I have principally
derived the substance of this note. '--G.
'In Richard Brome's _Covent Garden Weeded_ (circ. 1638), we
have: "Sure 'tis Fenner or his ghost. He was a riming souldier. "
(p. 42. )'--C.
The controversy referred to may be found in the Spenser Society's
reprint of the 1630 folio of Taylor's _Works_, 1869, pp. 304-325.
Here may be gathered a few more facts regarding the life of
Fenner (or Fennor as it should be spelled), among them that he
was apprenticed when a boy to a blind harper. In the quarrel, it
must be confessed, Fennor does not appear markedly inferior to his
derider either in powers of versification or in common decency. The
quarrel between the poets took place in October, 1614, and Fennor's
admittance to court seems to be referred to in the present passage.
=1.
corrected his statement in the _Masque of Augurs_, _Wks. _ 7. 414.
He says: 'Fenner, whom I supposed to be a juggler, was a rude kind
of _improvisatore_. He was altogether ignorant; but possessed a
wonderful facility in pouring out doggrel verse. He says of himself,
Yet, without boasting, let me boldly say
I'll rhyme with any man that breathes this day
Upon a subject, in _extempore_, etc.
He seems to have made a wretched livelihood by frequenting city
feasts, &c. , where, at the end of the entertainment, he was called in
to mount a stool and amuse the company by stringing together a
number of vile rhymes upon any given subject. To this the quotation
alludes. Fenner is noticed by the duchess of Newcastle: "For
the numbers every schoolboy can make them on his fingers, and for
the _rime_, Fenner would put down Ben Jonson, and yet neither boy
nor Fenner so good poets. " This, too, is the person meant in the
Cambridge answer to Corbet's satire:
A ballad late was made,
But God knows who the penner;
Some say the rhyming sculler,
And others say 'twas Fenner. p. 24.
Fenner was so famed for his faculty of rhyming, that James, who,
like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape
him, sent for him to court. Upon which Fenner added to his other
titles that of his "Majesty's Riming Poet. " This gave offense to
Taylor, the Water poet, and helped to produce that miserable
squabble printed among his works, and from which I have principally
derived the substance of this note. '--G.
'In Richard Brome's _Covent Garden Weeded_ (circ. 1638), we
have: "Sure 'tis Fenner or his ghost. He was a riming souldier. "
(p. 42. )'--C.
The controversy referred to may be found in the Spenser Society's
reprint of the 1630 folio of Taylor's _Works_, 1869, pp. 304-325.
Here may be gathered a few more facts regarding the life of
Fenner (or Fennor as it should be spelled), among them that he
was apprenticed when a boy to a blind harper. In the quarrel, it
must be confessed, Fennor does not appear markedly inferior to his
derider either in powers of versification or in common decency. The
quarrel between the poets took place in October, 1614, and Fennor's
admittance to court seems to be referred to in the present passage.
=1.
