See Also: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
I'm going to try something new on this blog. I'm going to work through a hypothesis. By "hypothesis" I mean: investigating to see whether it is true. I am NOT asserting it is true. The background:
1. In 1598, "Richard Grenewey" published a translation of Tacitus' Annals. The book was printed by Arnold Hatfield, for Bonham and John Norton. Here is the ESTC entry and the full text.
2. Essentially nothing is known about Richard Grenewey. He only published one book. There are absolutely no details known about his life.
3. However, the book was dedicated to the Earl of Essex. It was also published together with Henry Savile's translation of Tacitus' Histories. That book was first published in 1591 and was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth; there was a dedication to the reader by "A.B." According to Ben Jonson, A.B. was the Earl of Essex. Here is the ESTC entry and the full text.
4. Sir Henry Neville of Billingbear was best friends his entire adult life with Henry Savile. Savile was his tutor at Oxford and they traveled together in Europe. In addition, Savile became Provost of Eton so he lived quite close to Henry Neville at Billingbear. When Neville died in 1615, Savile was executor of his will. There is extensive evidence of this close friendship; for instance, they were co-executors for the will of John Chamber and there is extant correspondence between them.
5. Henry Neville and Henry Savile were close friends with Henry Cuffe. Cuffe was a secretary and close advisor to the Earl of Essex. He tried to get Henry Neville involved with the Essex Rebellion and wrote of both Henry Neville and Henry Savile in his will at his execution.
6. In the same year, 1598, the exact same printer and publisher produced a very short anonymous book: The riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus. Here is the ESTC entry and the full text.
Hypothesis:
"Richard Grenewey" was a pseudonym adopted by Henry Neville. He actually wrote both the translation as well as the short book of riddles. His close connection with Henry Savile and his interest in Tacitus align with this hypothesis. In addition, Grenewey's translation has a close connection with both the works of Shakespeare (specifically Julius Caesar, written at about the same time) and Ben Jonson's Sejanus.
Over the next few weeks, I will explore this hypothesis in-depth, using different techniques to try to test the hypothesis.
See Also: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
