MUNDAY, Anthony (1553-1633), was one of the most versatile miscellaneous writers of the Shakespearean age. In the introduction to his comedy John a Green and John a Cumber, reprinted for the Shakespeare Society, Collier enumerates 47 works of which Munday was whole or part author, the subjects being very various—pastoral poems, journalistic tracts and pamphlets, translations of romances, plays, pageants. The most interesting remnant of this miscellaneous work is a pamphlet reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, the English Romayne Life, a lively account of adventures among Roman Catholic refugees in France and Italy. Munday’s experiences were the result of a youthful escapade. Born in 1553, and the son of a London citizen of the Drapers’ Company, he had early shown a restless disposition: he took to the stage for some time, tried steady business for a year or two as apprentice to a stationer, tired of it, put all his wealth in his purse, and set out with a companion for the Continent, moved by “a desire to see strange countries as also affection to learn the languages.” According to his own account, he was robbed on the way to Amiens, drifted into the company of Popish refugees, and was by them forwarded to Rome, where he obtained admission as a pope’s scholar to the English seminary. Returning to England about 1581, and using the knowledge thus gained of designs against the English Government, he was a prominent witness in the trials of Campion and other English Jesuits; and, probably as a reward, was appointed one of the “Messengers of Her Majesty’s Chamber.” Thereafter he wrote steadily for the booksellers and the theatres, compiling religious publications, putting words to popular airs, translating French romances, and so forth. Webbe in 1586 ...praised him for his pastorals—only the title is now extant, Sweet Sobs and Amorous Complaints of Shepherds and Nymphs ;—and in 1598 Meres mentioned him honourably among dramatic writers as “our best plotter.” Critical Ben Jonson was less complimentary, and in The Case is altered ridiculed Munday severely as “Antonio Balladino, pageant poet.” Judging from the plays on the subject of Robin Hood reprinted in Collier’s Supplement to Dodsley’s Old Plays, the joint work of Munday and Chettle, his Jiterary faculty was of a very commonplace description, and deserved Jonson’s taunts about “stale stuff” and want of character. Still Munday seems to have been in great request as .ι collaborator in the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, and afterwards he wrote many of the city “pageants.” He obtained repute also as an antiquary, and published an enlarged edition of Stow’s Survey of London in 1618. This last work was the only literary achievement inscribed on his monument in St Stephen’s church. He died 10th August 1633.
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