Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Munday, Anthony
MUNDAY, ANTHONY (1553–1633), poet and playwright, son of Christopher Munday, a London draper who died previous to 1576, was born in London in 1553. He claimed to be of a Staffordshire family. There were at least two contemporaries of the same names—one who was member for Penryn borough, and another, son of Henry Munday of Bidesden, who was father of John Mundy, mayor of Newbury in 1664 (Genealogist, 1882, vi. 65)—but to neither of these is there any evidence that the poet was related. He was, however, probably connected with William Mundy [q. v.] and John Mundy [q. v.], who were attached to the royal household. In October 1576 Munday was bound apprentice to John Allde the stationer for eight years. He was then twenty years old, and there is reason to think he had previously seen a good deal of the world, and, among other things, had been an actor. According to an unknown writer (perhaps Thomas Pound) in his ‘True Reporte of the Death and Martyrdome of M. Campion, 1581,’ Munday deceived his master Allde; but this charge was rebutted by Munday in his ‘Breefe Aunswer’ of 1582, where he inserted a certificate from John Allde to the effect that he ‘dyd his duetie in all respects … without fraude, covin, or deceyte’ during the term of his service. Nevertheless in little more than a year after the signature of his articles, probably in the spring of 1578, Munday left his master and betook himself to Rome. Although his motives are described by himself (in ‘The English Romayne Lyfe,’ the most entertaining of his works) as desire to see strange countries, and to learn their languages, it is more probable that, with the concurrence of Allde and one or two publisher allies, such as John Charlewood and White, he left England with the intention of making literary capital out of what he could learn to the detriment of the English catholics abroad. His enemies asserted that his object was to spy into the conduct of the English seminary at Rome, and then to betray it.
Travelling with one Thomas Nowell, Munday set sail for Boulogne, and reached Amiens on foot in a destitute condition, in consequence of having fallen into the hands of a band of marauding soldiers. At Amiens he and his companion met with an old English priest named Woodward, one of the pope's factors, who relieved their necessities, and recommended them to Dr. Allen at Rheims. They preferred to make straight for Paris, where the English ambassador gave them money to return to England. But they were persuaded by recruiting agents of the English seminaries to proceed to Rome, which they ultimately reached by way of Lyons, Milan, Bologna, Florence, and Sienna. At Rome Munday was entitled to eight days' entertainment at the English College, and he was received with more than ordinary civility by the rector, Dr. Morris, who had been a friend of his father. Munday subsequently described in 'The English Romayne Lyfe' the arrangements at the English College, the dissensions between the English and Welsh residents, the carnival at Rome, the martyrdom of Richard Atkins, and other matters calculated to excite the animosity of protestant readers. The early summer of 1578 can be with tolerable certainty assigned as the time of Munday's stay in Rome, since Captain Stukeley, whom he asseverates he saw there, perished at the battle of Alcazar on 4 Aug. 1578.
Shortly after his return home Munday ‘presumed for a third time upon the clemency’ of his readers with his first extant work, ‘The Mirrour of Mutabilitie,’ an imitation of the ‘Mirrour for Magistrates,’ licensed 10 Oct. 1579. The dedication to the Earl of Oxford contains some brief references to his travels. The ‘Mirrour’ is a work tending to edification, in which the seven deadly sins and many others are reproved by well-known personages who had suffered by committing them. A noticeable peculiarity is the employment along with rhyme of much blank-verse, printed in stanzas. The fact that the work came from Allde's press shows that a good understanding existed between the former apprentice and his master.
Munday seems about the same time to have returned to the stage as an extemporary player, and, according to the author of the ‘True Reporte,’ he was hissed off. Stung by this rebuff, he is stated to have written a ballad or a pamphlet against stage plays, but within the year, or at least not later than 1580, there is a strong presumption that he was again on the stage. In his ‘View of Sundry Examples,’ printed in that year, he subscribes an address to his readers ‘servant to the right honourable the Earl of Oxenford,’ the patron of a well-known theatrical company.
The popular mind was greatly occupied in 1581 by the fate of Campion and his associates, who had been captured through the treachery of George Ellyot, a co-religionist, in July. Munday thereupon turned from the stage to the more congenial work of exposing in five tracts the ‘horrible and unnatural treasons’ of the catholics; he narrated the circumstances of Campion's capture, and did all he could to discredit the jesuits. The second tract, purporting to be an authentic narrative of the capture of Campion, was resented by Ellyot, who retorted in ‘A very true Reporte of the Apprehension … of Campion … Conteining also a Controulment of a most untrue former Booke set out by A. M.,’ &c., 1581. Munday returned to the attack by bearing witness against the catholics, Bristow and Luke Kirbie, who were executed on 30 May 1582, and also against Campion, who challenged his credibility on the ground that while abroad he had feigned himself a catholic. He subsequently reported the execution of Campion in language borrowed by Holinshed and condemned by Hallam for ‘a savageness and bigotry’ unsurpassable by ‘a scribe of the Inquisition.’ The first part of this report, entitled ‘A Discoverie of Edmund Campion and his Confederates,’ gave a sort of official justification of the execution, and was read aloud on the scaffold when Campion suffered death. In 1582 Munday was employed by Richard Topcliffe, the leading officer engaged in the capture of priests, to guard and take bonds of recusants. Topcliffe described him to Puckering as a man ‘who wants no sort of wit,’ but an agent of Walsingham found it necessary on one occasion to reprove the misplaced zeal which led him to lay hands upon 40l., the property of a widow, whose strong-box he had searched for Agnus Deis and hallowed grains (Harl. MS. 6998, f. 31; State Papers, Dom. 1590; undated papers, 138 A, cited in Simpson, Edmund Campion, pp. 312, 383). Nevertheless, his services were sufficiently satisfactory to secure his appointment as ‘one of the messengers of her majestie's chamber’ about 1584.
Political employment occupied, however, very little of Munday's life. A man of exceptional versatility, it was to literature that he chiefly devoted his career, and he tried his hand at every variety of literature that was in vogue in his day. From acting to play-writing was a natural transition. Between 1584 and 1602 he appears to have been concerned in eighteen plays, several of which were highly successful, although only four are extant. The lost pieces are: ‘Fidele and Fortunio,’ licensed to be printed on 12 Nov. 1584, but probably never acted; ‘The Weakest goes to the Wall,’ written in the same year for the Earl of Oxford's company, and erroneously ascribed to Webster; ‘Mother Redcap,’ a comedy, written with Michael Drayton, founded on a tract with a similar title published in 1594, and produced by Henslowe, who paid the writers 3l. apiece, in December 1597, the play becoming one of his stock pieces; ‘Richard Cœur de Lion's Funeral,’ written with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, produced several times in June 1598; ‘Valentine and Orson,’ with Hathway (1598); ‘Chance Medley,’ with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson (1598); ‘Owen Tudor,’ with Drayton, Hathway, and Wilson (late in 1599), in earnest of which Henslowe paid the writers 4l.; 'The Fair Constance of Rome,’ with Dekker, Drayton, and Hathway (produced in January 1600); ‘The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey’ (with Chettle, Drayton, and Smith), October 1601; ‘Jephtha’ (with Dekker), May 1602; ‘Cæsar's Fall’ (with Drayton, Middleton, Webster, and possibly Dekker), May 1602; ‘The Two Harpes’ (with Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, and Webster), May 1602; ‘The Widow's Charm’ (stated to be by ‘Anthony the poet,’ meaning in all probability the city poet or pageant writer, viz. Munday), July 1602; and ‘The Set at Tennis,’ December 1602 (see Henslow, Diary,p. 228).
Of extant plays in which Munday was concerned ‘John a Kent and John a Cumber’ is dated December 1595, but was probably written earlier. Based upon an old ballad, it deals in humorous fashion with the grotesque and supernatural adventures of two west-country wizards. According to Mr. Fleay, it is identical with ‘The Wiseman of West Chester,’ produced by the Admiral's men at the Rose on 2 Dec. 1594 (see Notes and Queries, 1st ser. iv. 55, 83; art. Kent, John). The best of Munday's extant plays, ‘The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, afterwards called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde,’ was originally produced in February 1598-9, and reproduced, with ten shillings' worth of alterations, by Chettle for performance at court on 18 Nov. 1599. It was shortly followed by a second part, entitled ‘The Death of Robert Earle of Huntingdon,’ in which Munday and Chettle regularly collaborated. The British Museum possesses a black-letter quarto of the second part, dated 1601. Both parts are in the Bodleian, and are reprinted in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ ed. Hazlitt, viii. 95-327.
Late in 1598 it seems that Munday took part in a foreign tour undertaken by Pembroke's men, who had been ousted from the Curtain theatre. According to Marston's ‘Histrio-mastix’ (1598-9),the exiled players were accompanied by Munday, there described as ‘a pageanter,’ who had been a ballad-writer, ‘ought to be employed in matters of state, was great in plotting new plays that are old ones, and uses no luxury or blandishment, but plenty of old England's mother words.’ In the same play Ben Jonson is introduced as Chrysoganus, ‘a translating scholar,’ who is refused employment by the strollers in favour of ‘Posthaste Monday.’ There seems no doubt that Jonson and Munday were bitter rivals, and that the former bore a very strong grudge against Munday. This feeling found expression in Jonson's earliest play, ‘The Case is Altered,’ 1599, in which Munday was ridiculed as Antonio Balladino, and sarcastic reference was made to his being ‘in print for the best plotter,’ a title which Meres had applied to him in the ‘Palladis Tamia,’ 1598. Before the end of 1599 Munday was back in England, and in that year he wrote, in conjunction with Drayton, Hathway, and Wilson, the ‘True and Honourable History of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham,’ in two parts, the first of which alone is extant. It was published in 1600, with the name of William Shakespeare upon the title-page; but this was promptly withdrawn. Henslowe paid 10l. for the play, which was so successful on the first performance that an additional two shillings and sixpence was given to each of the playwrights. Falstaff and Poins are mentioned by name, and the play seems to have been written with some view to rebutting the slur cast upon the lollard hero in Shakespeare's ‘Henry IV.’ It was produced in the autumn of 1599.
Munday was no less energetic as a ballad-writer. Jonson sneered at him as ‘Balladino.’ An ironical admonition to the ballad-singers of London, prefixed to Chettle's ‘Kind-Harte's Dream,’ 1592, obviously implies that Munday had complained of unprofessional ballad-mongers. Thomas Nash, in a letter to Sir Robert Cotton, written about 1597, imputes to him a popular ‘ballad of Untruss,’ and Kemp seems to indicate him in the ‘Request to the Impudent Generation of Ballad Makers’ as ‘Elderton's immediate heyre’ [see Elderton, William]. ‘Mundaie's Dreame,’ a ballad, was licensed to John Allde 2 Aug. 1578 (see Collier, Broadside Ballads, 1868, p. viii). A ballad (assigned to Munday) of the ‘Encouragement of an English Soldier to his Mates’ was licensed to J. Charlwood 8 March 1580, and another, ‘Against Plays,’ 10 Nov. 1580; but neither of these is now known. In his ‘Banquet of Dainty Conceits’ Munday similarly tried his hand at song-writing, fitting words to well-known music by various composers (including the Mundys, his connections); but what was probably his best essay as a lyrist, the ‘Sweete Sobbes and Amorous Complaintes of Sheppardes and Nymphs in a Fancye,’ is not extant. It must have been this work which elicited from Webbe, in his ‘Discourse of English Poetrie,’ 1586, the description of Munday as ‘an earnest traveller in this art,’ whose poetry was to be rarely esteemed, ‘especially upon nymphs and shepherds.’ If Munday's lyrics really merited Webbe's praise—he credits them with an ‘exquisite value’—it is hardly ridiculous, as has been maintained, to assign to him ‘Beauty sat Bathing in a Springe,’ one of two admirable lyrics subscribed by ‘Shepherd Tonie’ in ‘England's Helicon.’ The only other conjecture as to the identity of Shepherd Tonie is that he was Anthony Copley, which has far less to recommend it (see, however, England's Helicon, ed. Mr. A.H.Bullen, p. xvii).
Munday's lack of originality and ‘plain’ style, satirised by Jonson (The Case is Altered, Gifford, vi. 325), characterised all his dramatic work, and he wisely diversified it by excursions into a humbler branch of art— the production of the annual city pageants. The pageant for 1591, ‘Descensus Astrææ,’ was written by Peele. Those from 1592 to 1604 are missing, but it has been conjectured with probability that most, if not all, are by Munday (Fairholt, History of Lord Mayor's Pageants, Percy Soc., p. 32). He certainly furnished those for 1605, 1609, 1611, 1614, 1615, 1616, 1618, and 1623, and he seems to have long been the authorised keeper of the properties of the show— dragons, giants, and the like—as his rival, Middleton, who introduced into the pageant of 1613 a virulent attack upon Munday, was compelled to apply to him to furnish ‘apparel and porters' (The Triumphs of Truth, ad fin.) In some of these pageants Munday signs himself citizen and draper. He may have inherited the freedom of the Drapers' Company from his father. During the latter part of his life he is said to have followed the trade himself, and to have resided in Cripplegate (see also his epitaph).
But the labours which mainly commended Munday to his own generation were doubtless his voluminous translations of popular romances, the first of which, 'Palladino of England,' appeared in 1588. The two first books of ‘Amadis de Gaule’ were Englished by him between 1589 and 1595, and other chivalric romances of less value were transferred by him from the Spanish text. These translations lack style and fidelity, but they satisfied the half-educated public to whom they appealed (Drake, Shakespeare and his Time, i. 547).
Among Munday's literary friends was Stow, who refers to him in the ‘Annales’ as his authority for several facts in connection with Campion and other matters, and Munday appears to have been in a sense Stow's literary executor. Thirteen years after Stow's death, in 1605, Munday accordingly produced the ‘Survay of London . . . continued, corrected, and much enlarged with many rare and worthie Notes, both of venerable Antiquity and later Memorie; such as were never published before the present year 1618,’ London, 4to; dedicated to the Right Hon. George Bolles, lord mayor, and to all the knights and aldermen. This edition contains some four hundred pages of original matter; but in value it is greatly surpassed by the edition of 1633, ‘completely finished by the study and labour of A. M. H[umphry] D[yson]’ and others, and published four months after Munday's death (for a valuable digest of the additions made by Munday and his coadjutors, see the note by Bolton Corney in Collier's edition of John a Kent and John a Cumber, p. lxxi).
Munday died in 1633, and was buried on 10 Aug. in that year in the church of St. Stephen, Coleman Street. His monument, with a long inscription, was destroyed in 1666, but the inscription was printed in full in the 1633 edition of Stow's ‘Survay’ (p. 869). The names of Munday's children, together with the dates of their christenings, are given in the register of St. Giles, Cripplegate: Elizabeth, 28 June 1584; Roase, 17 Oct. 1585 (buried 19 Jan. 1586); Priscilla, 9 Jan. 1587; Richard, 27 Jan. 1588, perhaps Richard Munday the painter-stainer, whose heraldic labours are recorded in the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. (1529-77); Anne, 5 Sept. 1589.
Manday was in his versatility an epitome of his age. Ready to turn his hand to any occupation, he was as a man of letters little more than a compiler, destitute of originality or style; yet, apart from such names as Shakespeare and Marlowe, there are few Elizabethan writers who occupied a greater share of public attention, or contributed more largely to popular information and amusement.
Apart from his plays which have already been enumerated, Munday's writings may be classified under three headings: (I) Translations of Romances; (II) City Pageants; (III) Miscellaneous Writings. To most of his works Munday affixes his name in full, though in some cases he uses the pseudonym Lazarus Piot, or L. P. A great number bear his motto, ‘Honos alit artes;’ a few another motto, ‘Patere aut abstine.’
I. Romances:
[edit]1. ‘The famous, pleasant, and variable Historie of Palladino of England. Discoursing of honourable Adventures of Knightly Deedes, of Armes and Chivalrie; interlaced likewise with the Love of sundrie noble Personages, &c. Translated out of French by A. M. London: printed by Edward Allde for John Perin,’ 1588, 4to (see Bridgewater Cat. 4to, 1837, p. 203; now in Mr. Christy Miller's library at Britwell). 2. ‘Palmerin d'Oliva.’ Translated by A. M. John Charlwood, 1588, 4to (ib. p. 204; 1637, Brit. Mus.). 3. ‘The famous History of Palmendos, Son to the most renowned Palmerin d'Oliva, Emperour of Constantinople, and the Heroic Queen of Tharsus,’ Charlwood, 1589, 4to; 1653, 4to Brit. Mus. 4. ‘Gerileon of England. The second part of his most excellent, delectable morall and sweet contrived Historie . . . Written in French by Estrienne de Maisonneufue, Bordelois, and translated into English by A. M.,’ 1592, fol. (Britwell). 5. ‘Amadis de Gaule, the first Book translated by Anthony Munday,’ 1595, 4to. A copy of this work was entered at Stationers' Hall as early as January 1588-9, but no perfect copy of this date is known. The copies at the British Museum and at Britwell both want title-pages. Parts of this famous romance had been translated before, but Munday was the first to present the first book of it to English readers. 6. ‘The Second Booke of Amadis de Gaule, containing the Description, Wonders, and Conquest of the Forme-Island. The Triumphs and Troubles of Amadis, his manifold Victories obtained, and sundry Services done for King Lisuart, &c. . . . Englished by L[azarus] P[iot], London, for C. Burbie,’ 1595, 4to (see Notes and Queries, I, iv. 85). The first and second books were also reissued with the addition of the third and fourth in 1619, fol. 7. ‘The second part of the honourable Historie of Palmerin d'Oliva . . . translated by A. M.,’ 1597, 4to (Britwell). 8. ‘Palmerin of England,’ translated from the French, 1602. This translation, which is described by Southey as the ‘Grub Street Patriarch's worst piece of work,’ was entered 13 Feb. 1581, but no perfect copy earlier than 1602 is known. It contains verses by Dekker, Webster, and others, and seems to have been the work of Munday in part only. There are five editions in the Museum dated 1602, 1609, 1616, 1639, and 1664 respectively. A copy at Britwell assigned to 1596 is very imperfect. 9. ‘The famous and renowned Historie of Primaleon of Greece, Sonne to the great and mighty Prince Palmerin d'Oliva, Emperor of Constantinople . . . Translated out of French and Italian into English by A. M.,’ London, 1619, 8vo (Brit. Mus.) This is the first edition extant, but the work was commenced in 1589, and a complete version published in 1595.
II. Pageants:
[edit]1. ‘The Triumphs of reunited Britania, performed at the Cost and Charges of the Right Worshipful Company of the Merchant Taylors, in honor of Sir Leonard Holliday,’ 29 Oct. 1605, London, 4to.; reprinted in Nichols's ‘Progresses of James I,’ i. 564-76. 2. ‘Camp-bell, or the Ironmongers Faire Field,’ at the installation of Sir Thomas Campbell, 29 Oct. 1609, 4to. 3. ‘Chryso-Thriambos; the Triumphs of Golde; at the Inauguration of Sir James Pemberton in the Dignity of Lord Maior of London,’ 29 Oct. 1611. 4. ‘Himatia-Poleos: Triumphs of Old Drapery, or the Rich Cloathing of England at the Installation of Thomas Hayes,’ 1614. 5. ‘Metropolis Coronata; the Triumphs of Ancient Drapery, or Rich Cloathing of England, in a second Yeere's Performance; in honour of the Advancement of Sir John Jolles . . . 30 Oct. 1615; reprinted in Nichols's ‘Progresses,’ iii. 107-18. 6. ‘Chrysanaleia, the Golden Fishing; or the Honour of Fishmongers applauding the Advancement of Mr. John Leman to the Dignitie of Lord Maior . . . on 29 Oct. 1616,’ London, 1616, 4to. Copies are in the Bodleian and Longleat Libraries. This was reproduced in a sumptuous folio, with coloured plates by Henry Shaw, by John Gough Nichols in 1844 (ib. iii. 195-207; cf. Nichols, Lord Mayor's Pageants, 1831, p. 102). 7. ‘Sidero-Thriambos, or Steele and Iron Triumphing. Applauding the Advancement of Sir Sebastian Harvey . . . 29 Oct. 1618’ (Hazlitt). 8. ‘The Triumphs of the Golden Fleece . . . for the Enstaulment of Mr. Martin Lumley in the Maioraltie of London, 29 Oct. 1623.’ The British Museum possesses all these with the exception of No. 3, which is in the Duke of Devonshire's collection.
III. Miscellaneous:
[edit]1. ‘The Defence of Povertie against the Desire of Worldly Riches, dialogue-wise; collected by Anthonie Mundaye.’ Licensed to John Charlwood, 18 Nov. 1577. No copy known. 2. ‘The History of Galien of France.’ Printed before 1579, and dedicated to the Earl of Oxford. No copy known. 3. ‘The Mirrour of Mutabilite, or Principal Part of the Mirrour for Magistrates. Describing the fall of diuers famous Princes and other memorable Personages. Selected out of the Sacred Scripture by Antony Munday, and dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earle of Oxenford. Imprinted at London by John Allde, and are to be solde by Richard Ballard, at Saint Magnus Corner,’ 1579, 4to, b.l. Prefixed are verses by, among others, William Hall ‘in commendation of his kinsman, Antony Munday.’ One of the few copies known was bequeathed to the British Museum by Tyrwhitt in 1788. Another is at Britwell. 4. ‘The Paine of Pleasure. Profitable to be perused of the Wise, and necessary to be followed by the Wanton. For Henrie Car,’ 1580, 4to, b.l.; in verse, and dedicated to Lady Douglas Sheffield (Pepysian Library). This work bears Munday's motto, but his authorshlp has been questioned. 5. ‘Zelavto. The Fountaine of Fame. Erected in an Orcharde of Amorous Adventures. Containing a Delicate Disputation, gallantly discoursed betweene two noble Gentlemen of Italye. Given for a friendly Entertainment to Euphues, at his late arrival in England By A. M., Seruant to the Right Honuorable the Earle of Oxenforde,’ 1580, 4to; partly in verse (Bodleian). 6. ‘A View of Sundry Examples. Reporting many straunge Murthers, sundry Persons Perjured, Signes and Tokens of God's Anger towards us. What straunge and monstrous Children have of late beene borne: And all memorable Murthers since the Murther of Maister Saunders by George Browne [the subject of ‘A Warning to Fair Women,’ 1599], to this present and bloody Murther of Abell Bourne, Hosyer, who dwelled in Newgate Market, 1580. Also a short Discourse of the Late Earthquake, the sixt of Aprill for William Wright,’ London, 4to, b.l. (Lambeth); dedicated to William Waters and George Baker, gentlemen attendant upon the Earl of Oxford (reprinted together with Collier's ‘John a Kent and John a Cumber’). 7. ‘An Aduertisement and Defence for Trueth against her Backbiter, and specially against the whispring Fauourers and Colourers of Campians, and the rest of his Confederats Treasons, 1581;’ no place or date, 4to (Lambeth, Britwell, and Huth Libraries; the work is believed to have been suppressed by Archbishop Grindal). 8. ‘A Breefe Discourse of the taking of Edm. Campion and divers other Papists in Barkeshire,’ 1581, 8vo (Lambeth). 9. ‘A Covrtly Controuersie betweene Loue and Learning. Pleasauntlie passed in Disputation betweene a Ladie and a Gentleman of Scienna. Wherein is no Offence offered to the Vertuous nor any ill Motion to delight the Vicious,’ 1581, sm. 8vo, b.l.; in prose (Brit. Mus.) 10. ‘A Breefe and True Reporte of the Execution of Certaine Traytours at Tiborne, the xxviii and xxx. Dayes of May, 1582. Gathered by A. M., who was there Present,’ 1582, 4to (British Museum, reprinted by Collier). 11. ‘A Discoverie of Edmund Campion and his Confederates, their most Horrible and Traiterous Practises against her Majesties most royall Person and the Realme. Wherein may be seene how thorowe the whole Course of their Araignement; they were notably convicted in every Cause. Whereto is added the Execution of Edmund Campion, Raphe Sherwin, and Alexander Brian, executed at Tiborne the 1 of December. Published by A. M., sometime the Popes Scholler, allowed in the Seminarie at Roome amongst them, &c.,’ January 1582, 8vo (St. John's College, Cambridge). 12. ‘A Breefe Aunswer made unto two seditious Pamphlets, the one printed in French, and the other in English. Contayning a Defence of Edmund Campion and his Complices, &c.,’ 1582, b.l. 4to (Brit. Mus., Lambeth, and Britwell). 13. ‘The English Romayne Lyfe; Discovering the Lives of the Englishmen at Roome, the Orders of the English Seminarie, the Dissention betweene the Englishmen and the Welshmen, the banishing of the Englishmen of out Roome, the Popes sending for them againe: a Reporte of many of the paltrie Reliques in Roome, their Vautes under the Grounde, their holy Pilgrimages, &c. Printed by John Charlewood for Nicholas Ling, at the Signe of the Maremaide,’ 1582, 4to, b.l.; another edition, 1590, 4to (reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ vol. vii.) 14. ‘The sweete Sobbes and amorous Complaints of Sheppardes and Nymphes, in a Fancye composed by An. Munday,’ 1583. No copy known. 15. ‘A Watch-woord to Englande to beware of Traytours and tretcherous Practices which haue beene the ouerthrowe of many famous Kingdoms and common weales,’ 1584, b.l. 4to. Dedicated to the queen, and containing also an introductory epistle to Thomas Pullison, lord-mayor elect (British Museum, Huth Library, and elsewhere). 16. ‘Fidele and Fortunio, the Deceipts in Loue discoursed in a Comedie of two Italyan Gentlemen,’ translated into English, 1584. It is dedicated to John Heardson, and is in rhyme. An imperfect copy is in the British Museum; no title-page appears to be extant. One of the characters, Captain Crackstone, was alluded to in Nash's ‘Have with you to Saffron Walden’ (1596), but the play appears never to have been acted. 17. ‘Ant. Monday, his godly Exercise for Christian Families, containing an order of Praiers for Morning and Evening, with a little Cathechism betweene the Man and his Wife,’ 1586, 8vo. No copy known. 18. ‘A Banqvet of Daintie Conceyts. Furnyshed with verie delicate and choyse Inuentions to delight their Mindes, who take Pleasure in Musique, and there-withall to sing sweete Ditties, either to the Lute, Bandora, Virginalles, or anie other Instrument. . . . Written by A. M., Seruant to the Queenes most Excellent Maiestie,’ 1588, b.l. 4to. In verse, with several large woodcuts (Huth Library). It is reprinted in the ‘Harleian Miscellany’ (vol. ix.) A sequel or ‘second service of this Banquet’ is announced at the end of the volume, but is not known to have appeared. 19. ‘The Masque of the League and the Spanyard discovered. Wherein (1) The League is painted forth in all her Collours. (2) Is showen that it is not Lawful for a Subiect to arme Himself against his King for what Pretence so euer it be. (3) That but few Noblemen take part with the Enemy: An Aduertisement to them cōcerning their Dutie. To my Lord the Cardinal of Burbon, from the French,’ 1592, 4to. This political pamphlet reappeared in 1605, under the title ‘Falsehood in Friendship, or Unions Vizard: or Wolves in Lambskins’ (Huth Library). 20. ‘The Defence of Contraries. Paxadoxes against common Opinion . . . to exercise yong Wittes in difficult Matters,’ 1593, 4to. 21. ‘The Orator, handling a hundred several Discourses, by Lazarus Piot,’ 1596. This is substantially an expansion of the preceding, and, like it, is based, with additions, upon ‘Certen Tragicall Cases conteyninge LV Histories written in French by Alexander Vandenbush, alias Sylven, translated into English by E. A., and licensed to E. Aggas and J. Wolf 20 Aug. 1590.’ This book contains the declamation of the Jew who would have his pound of flesh. 22. ‘The Strangest Adventure that ever happened, either in the Ages passed or present. Containing a Discourse concerning the Successe of the King of Portugall, Dom Sebastian, from the time of his Voyage into Affricke, when he was lost in the Battell against the Infidels in the Years 1578, unto the sixt of January, this present 1601;’ 1601, 4to. A translation from the Spanish of José Teixeira. A similar work had been licensed to J. Wolf in 1598 (British Museum, Bodleian, and Huth Libraries). 23. ‘A true and admirable Historie of a Mayden of Confolens in the Prouince of Potiers, that for the space of three Yeares and more hath lived and yet doth without receiuing either Meat or Drinke,’ London, 1604, 8vo, translated from the French of Nicolas Caeffeteau, bishop of Marseilles, with verses by Thomas Dekker (Britwell). 24. ‘A Briefe Chronicle of the Successe of the Times from the Creation of the Worlde to this Instant,’ 1611, 8vo.
Munday also translated, from the French, Thelius's ‘Archaioplutus, or the Riches of Elder Ages. Prouing by manie good and learned Authors, that the Auncient Emperors and Kings, were more rich and magnificent than such as reign in these daies,’ London, 1592, 4to, and, from the Low Dutch, Gabelhoner's ‘Boock of Physicke,’ Dort, fol. 1599. He contributed verses to ‘Newes from the North,’ by F. Thynne, 1579; to Hakluyt's ‘Voyages,’ 1589; to the ‘Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions,’ 1578, and to Bodenham's ‘Belvidere,’ 1600.
the best basis for a biography of Munday is still afforded by J. Payne Collier's introduction to his edition of John a Kent and John a Cumber,
printed for the Shakspeare Society in 1851; but this must be supplemented throughout by Joseph Hunter's Collectanea on Munday in his Chorus Vatum (Add. MS. 24488, f. 423), by Mr. Fleay's Chronicle of the English Drama 1559-1642 (ii. 110), Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections, the Stationers' Registers in Mr. Arber's Transcripts, and, above all, by Munday's own works in the British Museum, especially The English Romayne Lyfe. Other authorities are: Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, p. 282; Warton's English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 427, 429; Webbe's Discourse on English Poetry, 1586; Meres's Palladis Tamia, 1598; Kempe's Nine Daies Wonder (Camden Soc.), p. 21; Baker's Biographia Dramatica, i. 504; Nichols's Progresses of James I; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, pt. ix. vol. v. pp. 31-9; Fleay's History of the Stage and Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama; Cohn's Shakespeare in Germany, 1865, lxvii; Dunlop's Hist. of Prose Fiction, ed. Wilson, i. 379, 384, 393; Chettle's Kind-Harte's Dream (Percy Soc. 1841), p. 13; Cunningham's Extracts from Accounts of the Revels at Court (Shakspeare Soc.) passim; Anthony Copley's Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614, p. 134; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn) ii. 1309; Dibdin's Library Companion, p. 709; Gifford's Jonson, 1816, vi. 325; Huth's Ancient Ballads and Broadsides, 1867, p. 370; Huth Library Catalogue; Henslowe's Diary (Shakspeare Soc.), pp. 106, 118, 158, 163, 171, 235; Collier's Memoirs of Actors (Shakspeare Soc.), p. 111; Drake's Shakespeare and his Time, i. 547, 693; Ward's English Dramatic Literature, i. 234-5, ii. 237; Simpson's Life of Campion, pp. 311-12; J. Gough Nichols's Lord Mayor's Pageants, p. 102; Fairholt's History of Lord Mayor's Pageants (Percy Soc.), p. 38; Brayley's Londiniana, 1829, iv. 92-6; Ames's Typographical Antiquities, ed. Herbert, pp. 897, 1006, 1103, 1198, 1223, 1337, 1345; Brydges's Censura Literaria and Restituta, passim; Maitland's Early English Books in Lambeth Library, p. 78; notes kindly supplied by R. E. Graves, esq.; Notes and Queries, i, iv. 55, 83, 120; ii, iii. 261, xii. 203, 450; iii, i. 202, iii. 65, 136, 178.]