Penny Dreadfuls, 1602 · page 157 of 400
Penny Dreadful Cover — page 157: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose poetry from what appears to be an early modern text (not Victorian—the typography and language suggest 16th or 17th century). The page contains narrative verse about a nun giving birth at midnight and being rebuked by her superior, followed by a monologue from an outlaw character (apparently Robin Hood) lamenting his losses and renouncing friendship. The second half shifts to the speaker disclaiming expertise in various scholarly disciplines—grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—while asserting he will not attempt comprehensive knowledge of all things lest he fail to know himself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
We might haue fterued for their fore ,& they haue dyc’ft our bones, £ a) BIONS NGLAND. Thei Coffers pci. ad veat tite commonwantsdenide, Wihofe tongues, driftes jharts,intice,meane, meltjas Syrens, Foxes: na Yea ené the beft thae betterd thé heard but aloofe our mones.(itones, And redily the Churles could prie and prate of our amis, 4 Forgetfull of their owne,when their reproofes had proofe a¢iunis's)\: * Tewas at midnight when a Nonne,in trauell ofa chiide, a) Was checked of her fellow Nonnes-for being fo defilde: — isa The Lady Prioreffe heard a ftitre, and ftarting outofbed, > ¥: Did taunt the Nouafle bitterly Wh 0 lifting vp her hed, 2 Sayd,Madame,mend your hood(for why {o haftely flhe rofe, ‘ That on her hed, miftooke for hood, the donde a Channons bakes \ ae * I didamis,not miffing friends that witht eto amend: 3 IT did amend, but miffed friends when mine amis had end: ih My friends therefore (hall finde me true sbut I will truft no frend. By - NotoneI knewe that witht me ill, nor any workt me well, - Then happie we(quoth Robin Hood): In merry Sherwood thatdwell, To lofe,lacke,liue,time,frends,in yacke,an hell,an hell,an heil : he Thus fayd the Out-lawe: Butno more of him I lift ro tell. _ Granmarian-like,in order wordes fignificant to {peake, Logitian-like,to reafon pro and contraam | weake : : r Rhetorical 1 am not with a fluanttongue to fter ; y Avithmaricke in numbring hath f{ubftracted me from her: : Geometrie het Plattes,Bownes,and proportions paffe my ftrayne: Not A4u/fick with her Concords or her Difcords breakes my braine : Nor yeat Astronomie,whofe Globes doth Heauen and earthcontaine: Let faire Muemo/ine her broode their thrife-three-felues explaine. Expeé& not here Anatomies of Lands,Seas,Hell,and Skyes, Ge y Such length, bredth,depth,and height I balke:nor would be fo wife, a : PN Eis Leatt, knowing all things els,I fhould notknowe my felfe precife, The Skyes containe the fierie Lights,Clowdes moyfture,& the Aire, Windes,Birds & Vapors wen 82 Beafts the vpper Earth doth me - Her Bowels Wormes and Mettals soeas to Fithes proper are : x Nee OG. a Re : Ri com Ebook PA a - nf . a q : R =