The Father of George PeeleAuthor(s): T. LarsenSource: Modern Philology, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Aug., 1928), pp. 69-71Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/433575 .

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THE FATHER OF GEORGE PEELE

R. A. W. LOCKHART, in his Christ's Hospital: List of Exhi- bitioners sent to the Universities since 1566 (1885), page 9, says: "With reference to George Peele's father, James Peele, it

may be stated that no entry can be found in any of the Hospital's Books of his election or appointment as Clerk of Christ's Hospital. It would, therefore, probably appear in the records of the Court of Aldermen kept at the Guildhall..... " Acting on this suggestion I have searched these records, and I have found in the Repertories of the Court of Aldermen, Volume XV, folio 139a, under date of "No- vember 5 iiij. Eliz.," i.e., 1562, an entry recording the appointment of James Peele as clerk of Christ's Hospital. Five days later, November 10 (fol. 142a) occurs an entry giving an abstract of the recognizance entered into by him on assuming office.

There is also a document among the papers at Hatfield House which does not appear to have been noticed by workers in this field. It is an inventory of certain effects in a house in London, made June 11, 1578, by James Peele, "Clerk of Christ's Hospital in London." An abstract of this document is given in the Report of the Historical Manu- scripts Commission, Part XIII (Addenda I) (1915), page 154.

I am able to state further that James Peele died intestate and that his effects were administered by his widow. In the records of the Com- missary Court of London, now at Somerset House (s.a. 1585, fol. 86b), there is an entry, dated December 30, recording the issuing of an interim commission to "Christiane Peele widow of James Peele late of the parish of Christ Church nigh Newgate" to administer the goods of the deceased on condition that full inventory of the same be made, sworn to, and furnished to the Court. In the same volume (fol. 90b) occurs an entry, dated February 26, i.e., 1586, recording the issuing to Peele's widow of the full commission to administer his effects.

These entries dispose of the hope that the elder Peele may have left a will and that this would have thrown some light on the relations existing between father and son, in particular upon the relations [MODERN PHILOLOGY, August, 1928] 69

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70 T. LARSEN

existing between them at the time of the expulsion of George from his father's house in 1579.

It is not generally known that James Peele was himself a poet. In his book on accounting, The Maner and Fourme how to keep a perfecte Reconyng .... London, 1553, there are several poems by him. The following, considering the date of writing, seems to me very creditable. The first three stanzas were reprinted by Brydges and Haslewood in The British Bibliographer, II, (1812), 609.

As lacke of Science causeth pouertie, And dooeth abate mans estimation, So learnyng dooeth brynge to prosperitie, Suche as of goodes haue small possession.

Then muste we counte hym ware, discreete, and wyse, Whyle tyme dooeth serue, can tyme so well reteyne. That in good tyme hym tymely can aduyse, Tyme well to spende, and tourne it to his gayne.

For tyme well spente to gayne and not to waste, The gayne will byde, though tyme dooth passe and runne, But all to late, yf tyme shall ones bee paste, For tyme ones loste, can not agayne bee wonne.

In tyme beganne kynge Dionysius, Some thynge to learne, and it in tyme to take, His kyngdome loste in tyme he ganne saye thus, I wyll take tyme, least tyme shall me forsake.

The youthe also I will instructe and teache, Some thynge to learne, and in tyme beware, So maye they rule, thoughe in great heate and breache, Fortune shall frowne, and theym woulde make full bare.

Thus dydde I rule, my kyngedome gone and loste, Whyche beeynge kynge, no kyngely power coulde haue, Thus may eche man fynde wealth in towne and coast, When wealthe is gone, that they moste fayne woulde saue.

O woorthy prince, though fortune sought thy ende, Yet thou in tyme as bookes dooth it recorde, Dydst make Fortune to the bothe boowe and bende, As bonde to thee, and seruile to her lorde.

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THE FATHER OF GEORGE PEELE 71

Sithe knowledge then, is of such price and grace, And tyme ones loste, wyll not agayne renewe, Learne well this booke, while you haue time and space, That you the lacke dooe not lamente and rewe.

I. P.

These lines curiously enough suggest in various features the dramatist's own style. They display the same fluidity of movement, the same easy command of phrasing, and the same tendency to wordiness.

The fact that the elder Peele was capable of writing such verses as these would tend to support the suggestion first made by Hazlitt, Livery Companies (1892), page 310, that he was the "Mr. Pele" mentioned in the Records of the Ironmongers' Company as having assisted in the devising of a pageant for Lord Mayor Sir Christopher Draper on his induction in 1566. If so, then, no doubt he was also the "James Pele" employed by the same Company to devise the pageant for 1569. These identifications seem now to be generally accepted; see Withington, English Pageantry, II (1920), 20, and Chambers, Elizabethan Stage, I (1923), 136. The dramatist, therefore, in his writing of Lord Mayor's pageants later, was only following in his father's footsteps.

T. LARSEN UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

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