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

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

Source-Control Update (Worker I, 2026-05-30)

• Rechecked local EarlyPrint metadata for Davies. A19903 controls the 1603 Microcosmos Neville dedication. A19911 controls the 1616 too worthie for a counterfeit lane. A19909 is a 1625 text described as Scourge of Folly. Selections, not the 1611 witness needed to settle the Some-body / No-body epigrams.
• A scan of Davies of Hereford TCP rows did not recover the quoted headings To his most constant... No-body or To my neere-deere... Some-body in the local 1611 layer. Treat those headings as tweet/book leads until the correct 1611 witness is located.
• The much adoo phrase is not enough by itself to prove a Much Ado allusion; it appears as a common phrase in EarlyPrint exact searches and also in A19903 in a non-title context.
• BRO sweep found no direct Davies, Tempest, Some-body, or No-body witness.

Status-Control Update, 2026-05-31

• Promoted out of draft because the Davies chronology and witness gaps are now explicit.
• Keep the Some-body / No-body headings and any Tempest claim at lead level until the correct 1611 Scourge of Folly witness is located and the exact dramatic passage is named.

Local EEBO/TCP Hardening, 2026-06-22

• Local EarlyPrint confirms a separate theatrical witness for the No-body / Some-body figure: TCP A08262, No-body, and some-body, STC 18597, dated 1606 in the local database.
• A08262 is not Davies's Scourge of Folly. It is a play "acted by the Queens Maiesties Seruants" and printed for John Trundle at "the signe of No-body" in Barbican.
• The A08262 metadata says the last leaf verso has a woodcut captioned "Some-body." The text itself repeatedly stages Nobody and Somebody; one exchange says, "Somebody receiues all, and Nobody is blamd for it."
• This hardens the wider dramatic/print currency of Nobody / Somebody before The Tempest, but it does not verify Davies's Epigrams 160-161 or the specific Tempest claim.
• Local TCP A19909 remains a caution: metadata calls it Scourge of folly. Selections, but its searchable 1625 text did not return English Terence, No-body, or Some-body in the local extraction pass. It should not be treated as the missing 1611 full witness.

1. Verified Sourced Facts

• The existing John Davies of Hereford packet covers Davies's 1603 Microcosmos dedication to Henry Neville.
• The current book draft cites Davies's The Scourge of Folly for epigrams addressed to "No-body" and "Some-body."
• A separate 1606 play, No-body, and some-body (TCP A08262; STC 18597), confirms that the Nobody / Somebody conceit was a theatrical print object before The Tempest.
• The local Twitter layer argues that the Some-body / No-body material is necessary background for Davies's Shakespeare references and for a possible Tempest allusion.
• This packet has not yet extracted the Davies text directly from EEBO/TCP, so the Shakespeare connection remains lead-level.

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• Ken's John Donne / Davies thread says Davies knew who wrote Shakespeare and points to the sequence: 1603 Microcosmos dedication to Neville, 1611 "English Terence" / Some-body / No-body material, and 1616 "too worthy for a counterfeit" language.
• Ken argues that Davies's "near, dear, well-known friend: some-body" with "much adoo" may point toward Much Ado About Nothing.
• Ken also states that Shakespeare specifically references Some-body and No-body in The Tempest.
• The Twitter thread treats this as a coded early reception problem, but direct text extraction is still needed.

3. Quoted Source Text

Local Twitter / book layer

• "To his most constant, though most vnknowne friend, No-body."
• "To my neere-deere wel-knowne friend, Some-body."
• "near, dear, well-known friend: some-body"
• "much adoo"

Local TCP A08262

• "No-body, and some-body"
• "acted by the Queens Maiesties Seruants"
• "at the signe of No-body"
• "Somebody receiues all, and Nobody is blamd for it"

4. Citations

• Davies, John, of Hereford. The Scourge of Folly. London, 1611. EEBO/TCP witness to be extracted.
• No-body, and Some-body. With the True Chronicle Historie of Elydure. London, printed by James Roberts for John Trundle, 1606 local date. TCP A08262; STC 18597; local EarlyPrint metadata: [local source path removed].
• Davies, John, of Hereford. A Scourge for Paper-Persecutors. Or Papers Complaint. London, 1625. TCP A19909; metadata also labels it Scourge of Folly. Selections. Use as a cautionary non-control for the missing 1611 sequence unless a direct matching passage is found.
• Feinstein, Ken. Local Twitter material preserved in twitter_John_Donne.md and twitter_Windsor_Forest.md.
• john_davies_of_hereford_microcosmos_and_henry_neville.md, related Davies/Neville packet.
• play_the_tempest.md, related play packet.

5. Notes on Access

• This topic should be handled carefully: Davies's wording can be directly verified, but the Tempest and Much Ado readings are interpretive until the relevant dramatic passages and EEBO context are compared.
• The next step is a direct EEBO extraction of Davies's Scourge of Folly epigrams 160-161 plus the surrounding sequence.
• Treat A08262 as independent context for the Nobody / Somebody dramatic figure, not as evidence that Davies's 1611 epigrams have been found.