Thomas Nashe and William Cotton: Parallel Letters, Parallel Lives

Abstract

A single autograph letter penned by Thomas Nashe survives in the British Library. It was written soon after the death of a major patron, the first Baron Hunsdon, in 1596, and is addressed to a man called 'Cotton'. From an undated letter among the Berkeley Castle Muniments Nashe’s addressee can now be identified as one William Cotton, a retainer of the second Baron Hunsdon. Like Nashe’s letter, William Cotton's is an appeal for patronage, in this instance from Lady Elizabeth Berkeley. A playful postscript may allude to the jester and stunt-man William Kemp.