John Cotgrave

Beyond [static] presents Fragments [paper rustling], unattached fragments from The English Treasury of Wit and Language by John Cotgrave.

[paper rustling] Good title.

Hello, and welcome to episode four of this miniseries of episodes looking at unattached fragments from The English Treasury of Wit and Language by John Cotgrave.

The English Treasury was printed in 1655 and collected out of the most and best of our English dramatic poems, methodically digested into common places for general life.

John Cotgrave arranges these random chunks of drama into themes, like a quotation dictionary, except he hasn't given us an index.

A host of scholars have beetled through the text, matching quotes with plays, but there are, to my uncertain knowledge, 18 unattached.

Do go to episode one of this little miniseries for more about this particular book.