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Some-body, No-body, John Davies of Hereford, and The Tempest

Mixed Ready source map packet

Topic: Some-body, No-body, John Davies of Hereford, and The Tempest

1. Verified Sourced Facts and Research Result

The primary-text gap that kept this topic at lead level is resolved. A public Internet Archive scan of the British Library/EEBO witness of John Davies of Hereford's The Scourge of Folly preserves Epigrams 159–161 on printed pp. 76–77. The book is undated on its title page, was entered in the Stationers' Register on 8 October 1610, and is catalogued by the Folger as [1611]; the Archive.org item label uses 1610. The responsible formulation is therefore The Scourge of Folly (entered 1610; published [1611]), with the catalogue convention stated when exact dating matters.

The sequence is real and deliberate at the level of page order:

  1. Epigram 156 addresses Ben Jonson.
  2. Epigram 157 addresses Inigo Jones.
  3. Epigram 158 addresses Isaac Simonds.
  4. Epigram 159 addresses Mr. Will: Shake-speare as our English Terence.
  5. Epigram 160 addresses No-body.
  6. Epigram 161 addresses Some-body and ends Yet am I Some-body, with much adoo.

That verified sequence supports study of Davies's wordplay, literary sociology, and early Shakespeare reception. It does not, without further argument, identify a concealed author. The Shakespeare, No-body, and Some-body headings are direct evidence; the front-man or authorship reading of English Terence, and the proposed Much Ado About Nothing allusion, remain interpretations.

The exact Tempest comparison is also now identified. In Act 3, scene 2, invisible Ariel plays the conspirators' catch on a tabor and pipe. Trinculo calls it the tune of our catch played by the / picture of Nobody. This is a secure verbal reference to the familiar visual joke of Nobody as a figure without a torso. It is often connected with the title-page woodcut and publisher's sign in the anonymous play No-body and Some-body (1606), but scholarship cautions that the line need not refer exclusively to that particular playbook. Davies's 1610/11 epigrams are part of the same print-and-theatrical field; no evidence presently shows that The Tempest is specifically referring to Davies's later epigrams.

2. Primary Witness: Davies, The Scourge of Folly

Bibliographical control

The scan title page is visibly undated. This explains why modern catalogues can label the same work 1610 or [1611] without implying two different editions.

Epigram 159: Shakespeare

Printed pp. 76–77:

To our English Terence Mr. Will:

Shake-speare.

Epig. 159.

SOME say (good Will) which I, in sport, do sing,

Had'st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in sport,

Thou hadst bin a companion for a King;

And, beene a King among the meaner sort.

Some others raile; but, raile as they thinke fit,

Thou hast no rayling, but, a raigning Wit:

And honesty thou sow'st, which they do reape;

So, to increase their Stocke which they do keepe.

The epigram securely documents Davies addressing Shakespeare as an actor (plaid some Kingly parts) and praising a raigning Wit. English Terence is unusually important but not self-interpreting. It can invoke Terence as the exemplary comic dramatist; alternative-authorship arguments emphasize traditions that treated Terence as a name attached to plays assisted or written by Roman aristocrats. A future reception pass should test which sense was current in Davies's immediate milieu rather than treating either sense as automatic.

Epigram 160: No-body

Printed p. 77:

To his most constant, though most Vnknowne

friend; No-body.

Epig. 160.

You shall be serv'd; but not with Numbers now;

You shall be serv'd with nought; that's good for you.

The two lines make No-body, Numbers, and nought work together. The poem is not an unnamed gap in Davies's sequence: it has a printed addressee, number, and punch line.

Epigram 161: Some-body

Printed p. 77:

To my neere-deere wel-knowne

friend; Some-body.

Epig. 161.

You looke that as my selfe I you should vse:

I will, or else my selfe I should abuse:

And yet with Rimes I but my selfe undoo,

Yet am I Some-body, with much adoo.

This verifies the local Twitter headings and the phrase much adoo. The Much Ado About Nothing reading is tempting because the poem follows Shakespeare and No-body, and because Some-body plus much adoo can evoke the play's title. But the verse also generates its joke internally through my selfe, Some-body, undoo, and adoo. The packet should present the title allusion as an argued possibility, not as a recovered dedication or attribution.

3. Quoted Source Text and the Earlier Playbook's Visual Conceit

The anonymous No-body, and Some-body. With the true Chronicle Historie of Elydure was printed in 1606 for John Trundle, at the signe of No-body, after performance by Queen Anne's Men. Its identifiers are STC 18597, ESTC S113225, and TCP A08262.

The Folger's Early Modern English Drama record verifies:

The title-page woodcut depicts Nobody as head, arms, and legs emerging from capacious breeches, with no visible torso. The paired final woodcut reverses the bodily joke by making Some-body predominantly torso. The images are relevant to The Tempest because Trinculo says picture of Nobody, not merely Nobody.

EarlyPrint metadata independently gives the same title, imprint, [72] p. extent, title-page woodcut, and final-leaf Some-body caption. Its dramatic text repeatedly distributes responsibility between the two allegorical characters; the memorable line Somebody receiues all, and Nobody is blamd for it summarizes the play's social satire. This 1606 play is a separate work from Davies's Scourge of Folly and must never be cited as the source of Epigrams 160–161.

4. Exact Tempest Passage

Folger local text, The Tempest, 3.2, local chunk lines 210–220:

CALIBAN That's not the tune.

[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe.]

STEPHANO What is this same?

TRINCULO This is the tune of our catch played by the

picture of Nobody.

STEPHANO, [to the invisible musician] If thou be'st a

man, show thyself in thy likeness. If thou be'st a

devil, take 't as thou list.

The joke operates immediately because the musician is invisible: apparently Nobody plays. The noun picture additionally points to a recognizable graphic type. Older annotated editions and much modern commentary connect it with Trundle's Nobody image and the 1606 playbook. Anthony Archdeacon's source study accepts the importance of the visual tradition while warning that the phrase does not compel an exclusive allusion to No-body and Some-body. That distinction should govern book prose.

What the comparison proves

5. Neville and Davies Chronology

This packet matters to the Neville project because it sits in a longer Davies chronology, but the stages have different evidentiary force:

DateDavies itemDirect evidenceNeville-project relevance
1603Microcosmosdedicatory sonnet to Henry Nevilledirect Davies–Neville literary address
1610/11Scourge of Folly, Epigs. 159–161Shakespeare / No-body / Some-body printed sequencedirect early Shakespeare reception; no Neville named
1616too worthie for a counterfeit laneseparate Davies text treated in the companion packetpossible authorship-language context, requiring its own control
1624/25A Scourge for Paper-Persecutorsreprints a different portion of Scourge of Follybibliographical afterlife; not the witness for Epigs. 159–161

The 1603 address proves Davies wrote publicly to Neville. It does not prove that every later Davies epigram encodes Neville. The strongest research use is cumulative and comparative: establish Davies's language, addressees, and print sequencing first, and only then test candidate-specific readings.

6. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

Primary and catalogue sources

Secondary source control

Local project context

8. Notes on Access and Use