The Choise of Valentines; Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo — A Closer Reading

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In Category - Historical Psychological Social Fiction

Authors: Nash, Thomas, 1567-1601, Farmer, John Stephen, 1854-1916 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2006 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bawdy poetry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 10,760

Reading time 47 min

Text sections 3

For The Choise of Valentines; Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo — A Closer Reading, the stored edition analysis reports 10,760 words, 47 min estimated reading time, and 3 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 15.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Bawdy poetry,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #17779

Thomas Nash's bawdy Elizabethan poem, preserved in manuscript, blends erotic comedy with a confessional dedication to the Earl of Southampton. The editor's introduction frames it as a document of social history and Nash's hackwork, while the verse itself shifts between pastoral prelude and explicit brothel narrative.

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Title & short description10 pts
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Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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[Transcriber's Note: Line notes have been moved to the end of each poem from their places on the individual pages to aid in the flow of the poems]

The Choise of Valentines

OR THE MERIE BALLAD OF NASH HIS DILDO

[_From MSS. Copies in the Inner Temple (Petyt MS. 538, Vol. 43, f. viii., 295 b, circa 1680) and Bodleian (Rawl. MS. Poet 216, leaves 96-106, circa 1610-20) Libraries_]

Edited by JOHN S. FARMER

LONDON [_PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY_] MDCCCXCIX

Nash's "CHOISE OF VALENTINES" has apparently come down to us only in manuscript form. It is extremely doubtful (Oldys notwithstanding[a]), whether the poem was ever before accorded the dignity of print. Nor would it now be deemed worthy of such were the only considerations those of literary merit or intrinsic value: truth to tell there is little of either to recommend it. But, as it has been repeatedly said, and well insisted on, the world cannot afford to lose any "document" whatsoever which bears, or _may_ bear, in the slightest degree, on the story of its own growth and development, and out of which its true life has to be written. Especially is even the meanest Elizabethan of importance and value in relation to the re-construction--still far from complete--of the life and times of the immortal bard of Avon. In the most unlikely quarters a quarry may yet be found from which the social historian may obtain a valuable sidelight on manners and customs, the philologist a new lection or gloss, or the antiquary a solution to some, as yet, unsolved problem.

"The Choise of Valentines" claims attention, and is of value principally on two grounds, either of which, it is held, should amply justify the more permanent preservation now accorded this otherwise insignificant production. In the first place, it appears to have been dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, the generous patron of letters, and friend of Shakspeare; and second, it is probably the only example extant of the kind of hackwork to which Nash was frequently reduced by "the keenest pangs of poverty."[b] He confesses he was often obliged "to pen unedifying toys for gentlemen." When Harvey denounced him for "emulating Aretino's licentiousness" he admitted that poverty had occasionally forced him to prostitute his pen "in hope of gain" by penning "amorous Villanellos and Quipasses for new-fangled galiards and newer Fantisticos." In fact, he seems rarely to have known what it was to be otherwise than the subject of distress and need. As an example of these "unedifying toys" the present poem may, without much doubt, be cited, and an instance in penning which his "hope of gain" was realised.

It is a matter of history that Nash sought, and succeeded in obtaining for a time, the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, one of the most liberal men of his day, and a prominent figure in the declining years of Elizabeth. "I once tasted," Nash writes in 1593,[c] "the full spring of the Earl's liberality." Record is also made of a visit paid by him to Lord Southampton and Sir George Carey, while the former was Governor, and the latter Captain-General, of the Isle of Wight.

From internal evidence it would seem that this poem was called forth by the Earl's bounty to its author. "My muse devorst from deeper (the _Rawl. MS._ reads _deepest_) care, presents thee with a wanton elegie;" and further on, the dedication promises "better lines" which should "ere long" be penned in "honour" of his noble patron. This promise is renewed in the epilogue:--

"My mynde once purg'd of such lascivious witt, With purifide words and hallowed verse, Thy praises in large volumes shall rehearse, That better maie thy grauer view befitt."

Does this refer to "The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jack Wilton," generally regarded as Nash's most ambitious work, and which he dedicated to Lord Southampton in 1593? If so, and there is no evidence to gainsay the conclusion, we can fix the date of the present poem as, at all events, prior to 17th September of that year, when "The Unfortunate Traveller" was entered on the Stationers' Register.[d] This would make Nash contemporaneous, if not prior to, Shakspeare in offering a tribute to the merits of the young patron (Southampton at that time was barely twenty years old) of the Muses. _Venus and Adonis_ was entered on the Register of the Stationers' Company about five months earlier, on the 18th April, 1593, and barely more than two months prior to the registration of "The Terrors of the Night."

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Thomas Nash's The Choise of Valentines survives only in manuscript copies, and the present edition—privately printed in 1899—reproduces two of them, from the Inner Temple and Bodleian libraries. The editor, John Stephen Farmer, frankly admits the poem has little literary merit, yet argues for its value as a social document, particularly for its dedication to the Earl of Southampton, patron of Shakespeare, and as an example of the hackwork Nash confessed to writing when pressed by poverty.

The poem itself opens with a conventional pastoral scene: the speaker rises early on Valentine's Day, dresses finely, and goes to a country fair. But this idyllic beginning quickly gives way to a brothel encounter, narrated in explicit detail. The contrast between the innocent frame and the bawdy core is sharp, and the language shifts accordingly—from the decorous to the deliberately crude.

A Pastoral Frame for a Brothel Tale

The poem's first lines establish a springtime setting: the speaker rises early, puts on his best clothes, and heads to the fair at Manningtree. The language is that of Elizabethan pastoral—'summer sheene,' 'creame and cakes,' 'country franklins' and their wives. This is the world of festive courtship, of Valentine's Day as a day for lovers. But the speaker's quest is not for a sweetheart; it is for a prostitute. The transition is abrupt: after describing the fair, he tells how a rival suitor scared off his intended, forcing her 'for Sanctuarie' into a house of 'venery.' The pastoral frame thus becomes a pretext, a conventional opening that makes the ensuing obscenity more jarring. Nash uses the contrast to signal that this is a poem about the gap between idealized love and commercial sex.

The Negotiation: Language of Commerce and Religion

Once inside the brothel, the speaker's encounter with the prostitute is mediated through a series of transactions. She demands a 'God's-pennie'—an earnest payment—before admitting him. The brothel itself is called an 'oratorie,' a term that parodies religious language: the bawd is an 'abbess,' the prostitute a 'nun.' This sacrilegious vocabulary runs throughout the negotiation scene. The speaker, for his part, adopts the role of a penitent, asking to 'unlade so bad a fraught' from his mind. But the transaction is purely financial: he pays, she unlocks the door, and he enters 'sweet Venus' chamber. The poem's language here is precise about the economics of desire—every stage of the encounter is marked by an exchange of money for access.

The Epilogue and the Problem of Audience

The poem concludes with a verse epilogue addressed to the Earl of Southampton, in which Nash apologizes for the 'lasciuious witt' of the preceding lines. He promises that, once his mind is purged, he will write 'with purifide words and hallowed verse' in the Earl's praise. This framing device is crucial: it acknowledges that the poem is a piece of hackwork, written for gain, and that its author is aware of its impropriety. The editor's introduction reinforces this, citing Nash's own admission that poverty forced him 'to pen unedifying toys for gentlemen.' The epilogue thus turns the poem into a kind of confession—a document not just of obscenity, but of the economic pressures that produced it. The reader is left to judge whether the apology is sincere or merely a rhetorical gesture.

Readers approaching this text should attend to the interplay between its manuscript history and its printed form. The editor's notes record variant readings from the two surviving copies, revealing how the poem was transmitted and altered. The line notes, moved to the end of the poem, offer a glimpse into the scribal culture that preserved such works. Consider how the poem's obscenity is both a literary performance and a historical artifact—a product of the same Elizabethan milieu that produced Shakespeare's sonnets and the plays of the public stage.

I’ve often thought Nash’s rough ode, with its awkward confession tucked behind the bawdry, shares a strange quiet with The Nibelungenlied Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original — Context and Discussion — both carry a formal meter straining against wilder, older feelings. One hides grief in armour, the other in jest. Both, if you listen closely, tremble.