Verona Letters and *Two Gentlemen of Verona*

Topic: Verona Letters and Two Gentlemen of Verona

⚠ DO NOT USE AS EVIDENCE. The attribution of these letters to Neville is unverified. They appear in a 1660 Tobie Mathews collection under no stated authorship. This packet is preserved as a research record only.

1. The Source: Tobie Mathews Letter Collection (1660)

The two letters in this packet both appear in:

Mathews, Sir Tobie. A Collection of Letters, Made by Sr Tobie Mathews Kt. With a Character of the most Excellent Lady, Lucy, Countesse of Carleile: By the same Author. To which are Added many Letters of his own, to several Persons of Honor, who were Contemporary with him. London: Printed for Henry Herringman, 1660.

The collection contains letters by Mathews himself and letters by "several Persons of Honor" contemporary with him. Ken Feinstein's lead is that Neville authored the two letters described below, which appear in the collection as anonymous or uncredited. This attribution has not yet been verified.

2. Letter A: Windsor Business

Title in collection: "One friend, who desires to use another in the dispatch of a great business."

Transcribed text (from tweet image):

"SIR, There is a sudden occasion false out, which might infallible aske my being at [Windsor?]... whilst yet an important business on the other side, confines me, with a kind of necessity to London, unless I would have... [your] passing for some daies at Court, is so far from being important... and there, upon your own account, your time will not be both there; and your affection to my Person, and Fortune, and you deliberate knowledge of your own business being known to me so well, as it is, I took it absolutely possible, that it were not verie inconvenient for you, if I might supply for my not being there, by your self... Therefore, I must precedentiate confer with you, and take your advice... I deliver this, earnestly, may be to morrow in the morning; and therefore I have kept my messenger at Windsor all night; and so late... This is no [end]"

Summary: The writer is detained in London by pressing business but has urgent affairs at Windsor; he asks a friend to attend Windsor in his place. The messenger has been kept waiting at Windsor overnight.

3. Letter B: A Suite for Land-Spaniels

Title in collection: "A Suite to a Friend for a couple of choice Spaniells." (pp. 231–232)

Transcribed text (from tweet images):

"SIR, I Am cast upon a verie untoward office; for I am necessarilie, to beg a favour of you, before I have had means to serve you. But I am pressed, by a certain person of worth; and indeed there is yet another, whom I should be extremalie over-joyed, if I could oblige; for it is a Ladie, to whom I owe verie much, who puts her selfe also, into the business. The matter is 5; they dye for want of a couple, or two, of excellent Land-Spaniels; who might be able, by their good example, to instruct other ignorant ones, of their own; and it hath been told them, both that you are rich, in that commoditie, and that you are also pleased to esteem me your Servant. Whereupon, I am earnestlie urged, to obtain this favour for them, if I can. And Sir, the truth is this 5 I desire so verie cordiallie to serve them, that if that, which is sought by them, were mine own, a very great Bribe could not buy me, from presenting it to them. And by that, you may judge, of the longing, which I have to obtain this favour, at your hands. Though yet, if that pleasure, which such Creatures as those, can give you, sit near your heart; and that, I shal wrench you out of your way, if I rob you in this kind, of what you love; I will rather chuse to renounce mine own wishes, with a very good will, than seeke to enrich one noble friend, by impoverishing another. Howsoever, I humblie pray you to vouchsafe me a present answer; for, speed in such cases as these, I esteem to be the very dressing and sawce of the meat; which, how excellent soever it may be, in it self, goes not yet down, with verie much gust, if it be dry, &c."

Summary: A letter begging two excellent Land-Spaniels on behalf of a lady and a person of worth. The writer frames the request with characteristic elaborate Elizabethan courtesy, noting that speed of reply is essential.

4. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

6 June 2019

• "I think Henry Neville wrote both of these letters."
• "The first one is about having business in Windsor."
• "The second is about hunting spaniels."
• "Two Gentlemen of Verona specifically mentions 'water-spaniel'."
• "This letter is about the need for land-spaniels for hunting..."
• "How do I prove this? That's the question."

5. The Two Gentlemen of Verona Connection

The Feinstein lead connects Letter B (Land-Spaniels) to the spaniel references in Two Gentlemen of Verona. The play contains spaniel language in the context of loyalty and doggish devotion — most explicitly in Valentine's servant Launce and his dog Crab (3.1, 4.4). Ken's note flags a "water-spaniel" reference specifically.

TODO: Extract the exact spaniel passage(s) from the Folger text of Two Gentlemen of Verona and compare with the letter's register and vocabulary.

Status of attribution: The letters are attributed to Neville by Ken Feinstein as a lead, not as verified fact. The Tobie Mathews collection would need to be searched for any internal indication of authorship. Mathews was a Catholic exile and diplomat; the social register of both letters (a lady, a person of worth, requests for favors through a friend) is consistent with Neville's world but is not distinctive to him.

6. Citations

• Mathews, Sir Tobie. A Collection of Letters. London: Henry Herringman, 1660. ESTC R17580. The two letters appear on pp. [~230]–232. Local images: see §7 below.
• Feinstein, Ken. Tweet, 6 June 2019, https://twitter.com/user/status/1136503326642585601. Local preservation: twitter_Verona.md.

7. Local Images

8. Notes on Access

• The letter texts above are transcribed from tweet images; some words are uncertain (marked with [?]).
• A direct Play: Two Gentlemen of Verona packet does not yet exist in the topics corpus.
• The Tobie Mathews collection (1660) is in EEBO/ESTC and should be locatable in the local EarlyPrint database for full text verification.
• The attribution of both letters to Neville is a research lead, not a confirmed fact.