Posts from — March 2015

The last post examined the first sixteen lines of The Italian Taylor and His Boy. Armin sets off the last sixteen lines of the work as a message to a specific person. Prior to that message, he tells us who he is addressing.

The perfumed Politician” we quickly recognize as Shaksper. The muske-cod perfume of both Osric in Hamlet and Asinius in Satiromastix is discussed here. Shaksper as an agent of government is seen in The New Inn’s Fly, and Poeteaster’s Æsop as well as Osric. Armin tells us this Politician, “practiceth more the Pennie than the Penne.”  Is there ever a more concise description of the argument why Shaksper cannot be the author than that given by Robert Armin in 1609? He sounds like a modern-day Oxfordian! The sixteen final lines are Armin’s words to Shaksper “I answere thus.” 

“Cammelion-like” equates Shaksper with the boy, practiced in the art of transformation in the tale. He has a “greene goose wit” That’s a curious phrase, isn’t it?  He’s a politicke presaging Asse, again the connection with  Æsop from Jonson’s Poetaster. His wit’s “not worthie’s any Schoole.”

These sixteen lines are a scathing indictment of William Shaksper of Stratford by the clown who originated the role of Touchstone in As You Like It. Armin very much got on the public record about what happened and what he thought of the man who usurped his master at Hackney’s legacy.

edit – please see Richard Malim’s comment below on the latin. I didn’t trust the Google translation.