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The Blacke Bookes Messenger & Cuthbert Conny-Catcher (1592) - Robert Greene
The Blacke Bookes Messenger & Cuthbert Conny-Catcher (1592) - Robert Greene
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The Blacke Bookes Messenger. (1592).
and
'Cuthbert Conny-Catcher' The Defence of Conny-Catching. (1592)
By Robert Greene
London: John Lane Bodley Head, 1924. Facsimile reprint. The original of this text is in the Bodleian Library (Malone 575), issued as Vol X in the Bodley Head Quartos series. pp 32 + 65, errata page plus 2 pages of ads,
This is a facsimile reprint, and contains a reproduction of the two decorated original title pages. The second title page is especially amusing, showing a rabbit standing with a shield. ('Conny' is a rabbit, and also a slang term for the victim of a con man. 'Conny-catching' is the art of the con man.)
CONDITION
A good clean copy. The cloth binding is good. All contents present and pages in good clean condition throughout. No writing or names to the book. Overall a good copy.
Robert Greene: Born in Norwich, in Norfolk, England, the second child to Robert Greene, a saddler, and his wife, Mary, Greene was baptized in 1558. Little is known of his early life. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1575 on a scholarship, and received his degree in 1578. After a tour of the continent and time spent writing Mamillia, A mirrour or looking-glasse for the ladies of Englande (1580), Greene returned to the university. He received an M.A. in 1583 from Clare Hall, Cambridge. Greene married around 1585, but he abandoned his wife and newborn child in 1586 and went to London. There he became one of the earliest professional writers that is, earning his living by writing for the public rather than by being sponsored by a benefactor.
He received another degree from Oxford in 1588. Infamous for his carousing, Greene died, according to one account, in a drunken brawl in 1592. Although Greene was one of the most widely-read and prolific of the Elizabethan authors and was called "the Homer of women" by his friend Thomas Nashe,
Greene is chiefly remembered today in relation to Shakespeare: his blank-verse romantic comedies are credited with paving the way for Shakespeare by helping to rid the popular play of didacticism. In the Middle Ages 'one's books' was understood to mean 'one's reckoning or cognizance'. To be 'out of someone's books' meant you were no longer part of their life and of no interest to them. This meaning is first recorded in The Parlyament of Deuylles, 1509 - "He is out of our bokes, and we out of his". The use of books to indicate favour or disfavour in enshrined in several phrases - good books, bad books, black books. The first of these was black books and this appears to have originated by allusion to an actual book. In 1592, Robert Greene published his intention to create a Blacke Booke, which was to list the misdemeanors of various classes of criminal. As a preamble to that he wrote his Black Book's Messenger, which included :"Ned Brownes villanies which are too many to be described in my Blacke Booke."The Defence of Conny-catching (cheating or pilfering). The pamphlet claims to be a plea for the disreputable thief, and contends that worse cozenage was to be found among the respectable classes. Yet this argument merely served as a pretext for exposing the dishonesty of usurers, millers, butchers, lawyers and tailors, and, still more, as an excuse for presenting the public with some admirable tales.
and
'Cuthbert Conny-Catcher' The Defence of Conny-Catching. (1592)
By Robert Greene
London: John Lane Bodley Head, 1924. Facsimile reprint. The original of this text is in the Bodleian Library (Malone 575), issued as Vol X in the Bodley Head Quartos series. pp 32 + 65, errata page plus 2 pages of ads,
This is a facsimile reprint, and contains a reproduction of the two decorated original title pages. The second title page is especially amusing, showing a rabbit standing with a shield. ('Conny' is a rabbit, and also a slang term for the victim of a con man. 'Conny-catching' is the art of the con man.)
CONDITION
A good clean copy. The cloth binding is good. All contents present and pages in good clean condition throughout. No writing or names to the book. Overall a good copy.
Robert Greene: Born in Norwich, in Norfolk, England, the second child to Robert Greene, a saddler, and his wife, Mary, Greene was baptized in 1558. Little is known of his early life. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1575 on a scholarship, and received his degree in 1578. After a tour of the continent and time spent writing Mamillia, A mirrour or looking-glasse for the ladies of Englande (1580), Greene returned to the university. He received an M.A. in 1583 from Clare Hall, Cambridge. Greene married around 1585, but he abandoned his wife and newborn child in 1586 and went to London. There he became one of the earliest professional writers that is, earning his living by writing for the public rather than by being sponsored by a benefactor.
He received another degree from Oxford in 1588. Infamous for his carousing, Greene died, according to one account, in a drunken brawl in 1592. Although Greene was one of the most widely-read and prolific of the Elizabethan authors and was called "the Homer of women" by his friend Thomas Nashe,
Greene is chiefly remembered today in relation to Shakespeare: his blank-verse romantic comedies are credited with paving the way for Shakespeare by helping to rid the popular play of didacticism. In the Middle Ages 'one's books' was understood to mean 'one's reckoning or cognizance'. To be 'out of someone's books' meant you were no longer part of their life and of no interest to them. This meaning is first recorded in The Parlyament of Deuylles, 1509 - "He is out of our bokes, and we out of his". The use of books to indicate favour or disfavour in enshrined in several phrases - good books, bad books, black books. The first of these was black books and this appears to have originated by allusion to an actual book. In 1592, Robert Greene published his intention to create a Blacke Booke, which was to list the misdemeanors of various classes of criminal. As a preamble to that he wrote his Black Book's Messenger, which included :"Ned Brownes villanies which are too many to be described in my Blacke Booke."The Defence of Conny-catching (cheating or pilfering). The pamphlet claims to be a plea for the disreputable thief, and contends that worse cozenage was to be found among the respectable classes. Yet this argument merely served as a pretext for exposing the dishonesty of usurers, millers, butchers, lawyers and tailors, and, still more, as an excuse for presenting the public with some admirable tales.
