Spy

In 1598, translating the Italian words for ‘spy’ (spia) and ‘spying’ (spirare) for his English dictionary, John Florio defined the words in relation to specific actions: ‘to espy, to peer, to pry, to watch or scout with diligence, to ask or enquire for’. ¹ As the closely related word ‘intelligencer’ suggests, the ‘spy’ was involved in the business of collecting valuable ‘intelligence’ or information, or of carefully observing the activities of others. ² Given the connection between ‘spy’ and espie, or to observe with the eyes, ‘spy’ was often associated with travellers or observers of foreign lands. In The preachers proclamacion discoursing the vanity of all earthly things (1591), Henry Smith compared the wise biblical king Solomon to a traveller or ‘a spie sent into a strange Country, as if he were now come home from his pilgrimage; they gather about him to enquire, what he hath heard, and seene abroad, & what he thinks of the world’. ³ A spy could be a traveller or a merchant, therefore, as well as one who occupied a more official state position such as a diplomat, whose mobility and access to spheres of power made him a valued source of information. The ‘spy’ as observer is well illustrated by later English pamphlets and periodicals such as The London Spy (1698–1700).