Thomas Fuller, Fuller's Worthies, London, proverbs, John Taylor, A Cast Over the Water

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mee. (sigs Aiii^v-Aiv^r) In Fennor’s version of events his whereabouts on the day of the competition are irrelevant because he had already informed Taylor of his intention not to participate. Taylor’s counter-response, A Cast Over the Water, equals Skelton in its satirical fury and accretion of harsh insult. ²⁶⁷ Even the title suggests Fennor has had his fill of abuse, but that much more will be piled on top. “To cast water into the Thames” features among Fuller’s list of London proverbs and is defined as “to give to them who had plenty before”, and Taylor certainly lives up to such a promise. ²⁶⁸ The spirit of excess pervades his counter-response and he seems to have rhymed his rival into submission successfully. This poem, even more than his last, is peppered with the language of the late-Elizabethan satirists. His answer is an “inuectiue Scourge” and he intends to lash Fennor with his “Satyres whip” and set his “sharp fang’d Muse” upon him (sig. Bi^v and sig. Cv^v). He even displays his awareness of classical precedents for the maledictory power of satire and flyting when he threatens, “Like Bubonax, ile rime the vnto death” (sig. Bii^r). ²⁶⁹ By the time of this counter-response Fennor appears to have provided Taylor with irresistible ammunition by collaborating with the infamous Richard Vennar. Vennar, to whom Fennor may have been related, had gained notoriety for cozening his audience out of the money they paid to attend his performance of Englands Ioy at the Swan in 1602, an event that, with Fennor’s assistance, regained topicality in 1615. ²⁷⁰ The scandal

²⁶⁷ A Cast Over the Water, by John Taylor. Giuen Gratis to William Fennor, the Rimer, from London to the Kings Bench. Or a Replication to Fennors Answer (printed for William Butler, 1615), STC 23741.

²⁶⁸ Fuller (1662), sig. Cccii^r(2). See also Tilley W106.
²⁶⁹ See n.35.
²⁷⁰ Vennar’s autobiography is described by Herbert Berry who provides the information surrounding the association between Vennar and Fennor used here, ‘Richard Vennar, England’s Joy’, ELR, 31 (2001), 240-65.

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