Praise of the Red Herring

This afternoon, I came across an intriguing reference to a play written in 1599 by Thomas Nashe in the first volume of Osbert Sitwell's memoirs. A play which is called 'Praise of the Red Herring' and which ends: '... But no more winde will I spend on it but this: Saint Dennis for Fraunce, Saint Patricke for Ireland, Saint George for England, and the red Herring for Yarmouth'. To which last Sitwell sees fit to add the winter home of his childhood, Scarborough, seemingly at that time an important herring port.

Curious to know more, I ask Amazon who want £10 or so for a modern reprint. Project Gutenburg has probably heard of the right Thomas Nashe but not this particular work.  But it's alright. The University of Michigan is on the case and offer an online version. Not quite the real thing, rather a version edited by one Charles Hindley in 1871, but enough to be going on with - around a hundred pages of it, nicely annotated but not obviously in the form of a play.

Sadly, the last kippers we bought from Waitrose, said to come from Craster, the centre of today's kipper industry, were disappointing. But we will try again soon. And I do remember that it was still possible, thirty years ago, to buy good Yarmouth kippers from the back streets of Norwich.

PS: Catholics beware. Nash has some sport with the Pope and his kippers.

Reference 1: https://archive.org/details/acw5721.0001.001.umich.edu.

Reference 2: Thomas Nashe - Lenten Stuff - 1599.