Part 2

, Cant. 3. 403:

And nigh an ancient obelisk Was rais’d by him, found out by _Fisk_.

=1. 2. 3 Sauory.= ‘And therefore, she fearing that her lord would seek some public or private revenge against her, by the advice of the before-mentioned Mrs. Turner, consulted and practised with Doctor Forman and Doctor Savory, two conjurers, about the poisoning of him.’--D’Ewes, _Autobiog._ 1. 88. 9.

He was employed after the sudden death of Dr. Forman. Wright (_Sorcery and Magic_, p. 228) says that the name is written Lavoire in some manuscripts. ‘Mrs. Turner also confessed, that Dr. Savories was used in succession, after Forman, and practised many sorceries upon the Earle of Essex his person.’--Spark, _Narrative History_, Somer’s _Tracts_ 2. 333.

In the _Calendar of State Papers_ the name of ‘Savery’ appears four times. Under date of Oct. 16, 1615, we find Dr. Savery examined on a charge of ‘spreading Popish Books.’ ‘Savery pretends to be a doctor, but is probably a conjurer.’ And again under the same date he is interrogated as to his relations with Mrs. Turner and Forman. Under Oct. 24 he replies to Coke. ‘Oct. ?’ we find Dr. Savery questioned as to his ‘predictions of troubles and alterations in Court.’ This is the last mention of him.

Just what connection Gresham and Savory had with the Overbury plot is a difficult matter to determine. Both are spoken of as following Forman immediately, and of neither is any successor mentioned except the actual poisoner, Franklin. It seems probable that Gresham was the first to be employed after Forman, and that his own speedy death led to the selection of Savory. How the latter managed to escape a more serious implication in the trial it is difficult to conceive.

=1. 2. 6-9 christalls, ... characters.= As in other fields, Jonson is well versed in magic lore. Lumps of crystal were one of the regular means of raising a demon. Bk. 15, Ch. 16 of Scot’s _Discovery of Witchcraft_, 1584, is entitled: ‘To make a spirit appear in a christall’, and Ch. 12 shows ‘How to enclose a spirit in a christall stone.’

Lilly (_History_, p. 78) speaks of the efficacy of ‘a constellated ring’ in sickness, and they were doubtless considered effective in more sinister dealings. Jonson has already spoken of the devil being carried in a thumb-ring (see note P. 6).

Charms were usually written on parchment. In Barrett’s _Magus_, Bk. 2, Pt. 3. 109, we read that the pentacle should be drawn ‘upon parchment made of a kid-skin, or virgin, or pure clean white paper.’

That parts of the human body belonged to the sorcerer’s paraphernalia is shown by the Statute 1 Jac. I. c. xii, which contains a clause forbidding conjurors to ‘take up any dead man woman or child out of his her or their grave ... or the skin bone or any other parte of any dead person, to be imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte Sorcerie Charme or Inchantment.’

The wing of the raven, as a bird of ill omen, may be an invention of Jonson’s own. The lighting of candles within the magic circle is mentioned below (note 1. 2. 26).

Most powerful of all was the pentacle, of which Scot’s _Discovery_ (Ap. II, p. 533, 4) furnishes an elaborate description. This figure was used by the Pythagorean school as their seal, and is equivalent to the pentagram or five-pointed star (see _CD._).

Dekker (_Wks._ 2. 200) connects it with the Periapt as a ‘potent charm,’ and Marlowe speaks of it in _Hero and Leander_, _Wks._ 3. 45:

A rich disparent pentacle she wears, Drawn full of circles and strange characters.

It will be remembered that the inscription of a pentagram on the threshold prevents the escape of Mephistopheles in Goethe’s _Faust_. The editors explain its potency as due to the fact that it is resolvable into three triangles, and is thus a triple sign of the Trinity.

Cunningham says that the pentacle ‘when delineated upon the body of a man was supposed to point out the five wounds of the Saviour.’ W. J. Thoms (_Anecdotes_, Camden Soc., 1839, p. 97) speaks of its presence in the western window of the southern aisle of Westminster Abbey, an indication that the monks were versed in occult science.

=1. 2. 21 If they be not.= Gifford refers to Chrysippus, _De Divinatione,_ Lib. 1. § 71: ‘This is the very syllogism by which that acute philosopher triumphantly proved the reality of augury.’

=1. 2. 22 Why, are there lawes against ’hem?= It was found necessary in 1541 to pass an act (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8) by which--‘it shall be felony to practise, or cause to be practised conjuration, witchcrafte, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money: or to consume any person in his body, members or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for the despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross; or to declare where goods stolen be.’ Another law was passed 1 Edward VI. c. 12 (1547). 5 Elizabeth. c. 16 (1562) gives the ‘several penalties of conjuration, or invocation of wicked spirits, and witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery.’ Under Jas. I, anno secundo (vulgo primo), c. 12, still another law was passed, whereby the second offense was declared a felony. The former act of Elizabeth was repealed. This act of James was not repealed until 9 George II. c. 5.

_Social England_, p. 270, quotes from Ms. Lansdowne, 2. Art. 26, a deposition from William Wicherley, conjurer, in which he places the number of conjurers in England in 1549 above five hundred. A good idea of the character of the more disreputable type of conjurer can be got from Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Fair Maid of the Inn_. See especially Act 5, Sc. 2.

=1. 2. 26 circles.= The magic circle is one of the things most frequently mentioned among the arts of the conjurer. Scot (_Discovery_, p. 476) has a long satirical passage on the subject, in which he enjoins the conjurer to draw a double circle with his own blood, to divide the circle into seven parts and to set at each division a ‘candle lighted in a brazen candlestick.’

=1. 2. 27 his hard names.= A long list of the ‘diverse names of the divell’ is given in _The Discovery_, p. 436, and another in the Second Appendix, p. 522.

=1. 2. 31, 2 I long for thee. An’ I were with child by him, ... I could not more.= The expression is common enough. Cf. _Eastward Hoe_: ‘Ger. As I am a lady, I think I am with child already, I long for a coach so.’ Dekker, _Shomakers Holiday_, _Wks._ 1. 17: ‘I am with child till I behold this huffecap.’ The humors of the longing wife are a constant subject of ridicule. See _Bart. Fair_, Act 1, and Butler’s _Hudibras_, ed. 1819, 3. 78 and note.

=1. 2. 39 A thousand miles.= ‘Neither are they so much limited as Tradition would have them; for they are not at all shut up in any separated place: but can remove millions of miles in the twinkling of an eye.’--Scot, _Discovery_, Ap. II, p. 493.

=1. 2. 43 The burn’t child dreads the fire.= Jonson is fond of proverbial expressions. Cf. 1. 6. 125; 1. 6. 145; 5. 8. 142, 3, etc.

=1. 3. 5 while things be reconcil’d.= In Elizabethan English both _while_ and _whiles_ often meant ‘up to the time when’, as well as ‘during the time when’ (d. a similar use of ‘dum’ in Latin and of ἕ ος in Greek).--Abbot, §137.

For its frequent use in this sense in Shakespeare see Schmidt and note on _Macbeth_ 3. 1. 51, Furness’s edition. Cf. also Nash, _Prognostication_, _Wks._ 2. 150: ‘They shall ly in their beds while noon.’

=1. 3. 8, 9 those roses Were bigge inough to hide a clouen foote.= Dyce (_Remarks_, p. 289) quotes Webster, _White Devil_, 1612:

--why, ’tis the devil; I know him by a great rose he wears on’s shoe, To hide his cloven foot.

Cunningham adds a passage from Chapman, _Wks._ 3. 145:

_Fro._ Yet you cannot change the old fashion (they say) And hide your cloven feet. _Oph._ No! I can wear roses that shall spread quite Over them.

Gifford quotes Nash, _Unfortunate Traveller_, _Wks._ 5. 146: ‘Hee hath in eyther shoo as much taffaty for his tyings, as would serue for an ancient.’ Cf. also Dekker, _Roaring Girle_, _Wks._ 3. 200: ‘Haue not many handsome legges in silke stockins villanous splay feet for all their great roses?’

=1. 3. 13 My Cater.= Whalley changes to ‘m’acter’ on the authority of the _Sad Shep._ (vol. 4. 236):

--Go bear ’em in to Much Th’ acater.

The form ‘cater’, however, is common enough. Indeed, if we are to judge from the examples in Nares and _NED._, it is much the more frequent, although the present passage is cited in both authorities under the longer form.

=1. 3. 21 I’le hearken.= W. and G. change to ‘I’d.’ The change is unnecessary if we consider the conditional clause as an after-thought on the part of Fitzdottrel. For a similar construction see 3. 6. 34-6.

=1. 3. 27 Vnder your fauour, friend, for, I’ll not quarrell.= ‘This was one of the qualifying expressions, by which, “according to the laws of the duello”, the lie might be given, without subjecting the speaker to the absolute necessity of receiving a challenge.’--G.

Leigh uses a similar expression. Cf. note 2. 1. 144. It occurs several times in _Ev. Man in_:

‘_Step._ Yet, by his leave, he is a rascal, under his favour, do you see. _E. Know._ Ay, by his leave, he is, and under favour: a pretty piece of civility!’ --_Wks._ 1. 68.

‘_Down._ ’Sdeath! you will not draw then? _Bob._ Hold, hold! under thy favour forbear!’ --_Wks._ 1. 117.

‘_Clem._ Now, sir, what have you to say to me? _Bob._ By your worship’s favour----.’ --_Wks._ 1. 140.

I have not been able to confirm Gifford’s assertion.

=1. 3. 30 that’s a popular error.= Gifford refers to _Othello_ 5. 2. 286:

_Oth._ I look down towards his feet,--but that’s a fable.-- If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.

Cf. also _The Virgin Martyr_, Dekker’s _Wks._ 4. 57:

--Ile tell you what now of the Divel; He’s no such horrid creature, cloven footed, Black, saucer-ey’d, his nostrils breathing fire, As these lying Christians make him.

=1. 3. 34 Of Derby-shire, S^r. about the Peake.= Jonson seems to have been well acquainted with the wonders of the Peak of Derbyshire. Two of his masques, _The Gipsies Metamorphosed_, acted first at Burleigh on the Hill, and later at Belvoir, Nottinghamshire, and _Love’s Welcome at Welbeck_, acted in 1633 at Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, the seat of William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, are full of allusions to them. The Devil’s Arse seems to be the cavern now known to travellers as the _Peak_ or _Devil’s Cavern_. It is described by Baedeker as upwards of 2,000 feet in extent. One of its features is a subterranean river known as the Styx. The origin of the cavern’s name is given in a coarse song in the _Gypsies Met._ (_Wks._ 7. 357), beginning:

Cocklorrel would needs have the Devil his guest, And bade him into the Peak to dinner.

In _Love’s Welcome_ Jonson speaks again of ‘Satan’s sumptuous Arse’, _Wks._ 8. 122.

=1. 3. 34, 5. That Hole. Belonged to your Ancestors?= Jonson frequently omits the relative pronoun. Cf. 1. 5. 21; 1. 6. 86, 87; 3. 3. 149; 5. 8. 86, 87.

=1. 3. 38 Foure pound a yeere.= ‘This we may suppose to have been the customary wages of a domestic servant.’--C. Cunningham cites also the passage in the _Alchemist_, _Wks._ 4. 12; ‘You were once ... the good, Honest, plain, livery-three-pound-thrum, that kept Your master’s worship’s house,’ in which he takes the expression ‘three-pound’ to be the equivalent of ‘badly-paid’.

=1. 4. 1 I’ll goe lift him.= Jonson is never tired of punning on the names of his characters.

=1. 4. 5 halfe a piece.= ‘It may be necessary to observe, once for all, that the _piece_ (the double sovereign) went for two and twenty shillings.’--G. Compare 3. 3. 83, where a hundred pieces is evidently somewhat above a hundred pounds. By a proclamation, Nov. 23, 1611, the piece of gold called the Unitie, formerly current at twenty shillings was raised to the value of twenty two shillings (S. M. Leake, _Eng. Money_ 2. 276). Taylor, the water-poet, tells us that Jonson gave him ‘a piece of gold of two and twenty shillings to drink his health in England’ (_Conversations_, quoted in Schelling’s _Timber_, p. 105). In the _Busie Body_ Mrs. Centlivre uses _piece_ as synonymous with _guinea_ (2d ed., pp. 7 and 14).

=1. 4. 31 Iust what it list.= Jonson makes frequent use of the subjunctive. Cf. 1. 3. 9; 1. 6. 6; 5. 6. 10; etc.

=1. 4. 43 Ô here’s the bill, S^r.= Collier says that the use of play-bills was common prior to the year 1563 (Strype, _Life of Grindall,_ ed. 1821, p. 122). They are mentioned in _Histriomastix_, 1610; _A Warning for Fair Women_, 1599, etc. See Collier, _Annals_ 3. 382 f.

=1. 4. 50 a rotten Crane.= Whalley restores the right reading, correctly explained as a pun on Ingine’s name.

=1. 4. 60 Good time!= Apparently a translation of the Fr. _A la bonne heure_, ‘very good’, ‘well done!’ etc.

=1. 4. 65 The good mans gravity.= Cf. Homer, _Il._, Γ 105:

ἄξετε δὲ Πριάμοιο Βίην.

Shak., _Tempest_ 5. 1: ‘First, noble friend, let me embrace thine age.’ _Catiline_ 3. 2.: ‘Trouble this good shame (good and modest lady) no farther.’

=1. 4. 70 into the shirt.= Cf. Dekker, _Non-dram. Wks._ 2. 244: ‘Dice your selfe into your shirt.’

=1. 4. 71 Keepe warme your wisdome?= Cf. _Cyn. Rev._, _Wks._ 2. 241: ‘_Madam, your whole self cannot but be perfectly wise; for your hands have wit enough to keep themselves warm._’ Gifford’s note on this passage is: ‘This proverbial phrase is found in most (sic) of our ancient dramas. Thus in _The Wise Woman of Hogsden_: “You are the wise woman, are you? You _have wit to keep yourself warm enough_, I warrant you”’. Cf. also _Lusty Juventus_, p. 74: ‘Cover your head; For indeed you have need to keep in your wit.’

=1. 4. 72 You lade me.= ‘This is equivalent to the modern phrase, you do not spare me. You lay what imputations you please upon me.’--G.

The phrase occurs again in 1. 6. 161, where Wittipol calls Fitzdottrel an ass, and says that he cannot ‘scape his lading’. ‘You lade me’, then, seems to mean ‘You make an ass of me’. The same use of the word occurs in Dekker, _Olde Fortunatus_, _Wks._ 1. 125: ‘I should serue this bearing asse rarely now, if I should load him’. And again in the works of Taylor, the Water Poet, p. 311: ‘My Lines shall load an Asse, or whippe an Ape.’ Cf. also _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 421: ‘Yes, faith, I have my lading, you see, or shall have anon; you may know whose beast I am by my burden.’

=1. 4. 83, 4 But, not beyond=, =A minute, or a second, looke for=. The omission of the comma after _beyond_ by all the later editors destroys the sense. Fitzdottrel does not mean that Wittipol cannot have ‘beyond a minute’, but that he cannot have a minute beyond the quarter of an hour allowed him.

=1. 4. 96 Migniard.= ‘Cotgrave has in his dictionary, “_Mignard_--migniard, prettie, quaint, neat, feat, wanton, dainty, delicate.” In the _Staple of News_ [_Wks._ 5. 221] Jonson tries to introduce the substantive _migniardise_, but happily without success.’--G.

=1. 4. 101 Prince Quintilian.= The reputation of this famous rhetorician (c 35-c 97 A. D.) is based on his great work entitled _De Instiutione Oratoria Libri_ XII. The first English edition seems to have been made in 1641, but many Continental editions had preceded it. The title Prince seems to be gratuitous on Jonson’s part. He is mentioned again in _Timber_ (ed. Schelling, 57. 29 and 81. 4).

=1. 5. 2= Cf. _New Inn_, _Wks._ 5. 323: ‘_Host._ What say you, sir? where are you, are you within? (_Strikes_ LOVEL _on the breast_.)’

=1. 5. 8, 9. Old Africk, and the new America, With all their fruite of Monsters.= Cf. Donne, _Sat._, _Wks._ 2. 190 (ed. 1896):

Stranger ... Than Afric’s monsters, Guiana’s rarities.

Brome, _Queen’s Exchange_, _Wks._ 3. 483: ‘What monsters are bred in _Affrica_?’ Glapthorne, _Hollander_, _Wks._, 1874, 1. 81: ‘If _Africke_ did produce no other monsters,’ etc. The people of London at this time had a great thirst for monsters. See Alden, _Bart. Fair_, p. 185, and Morley, _Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair_.

=1. 5. 17 for hidden treasure.= ‘And when he is appeared, bind him with the bond of the dead above written: then saie as followeth. I charge thee N. by the father, to shew me true visions in this christall stone, if there be anie treasure hidden in such a place N. & wherein it now lieth, and how manie foot from this peece of earth, east, west, north, or south.’--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 355.

Most of the conjurers pretended to be able to recover stolen treasure. The laws against conjurers (see note 1. 2. 6) contained clauses forbidding the practice.

=1. 5. 21 his men of Art.= A euphemism for conjurer. Cf. B. & Fl., _Fair Maid of the Inn_ 2. 2:

‘_Host._ Thy master, that lodges here in my Osteria, is a rare man of art; they say he’s a witch.

_Clown._ A witch? Nay, he’s one step of the ladder to preferment higher; he’s a conjurer.’

=1. 6. 10 wedlocke.= Wife; a common latinism of the period.

=1. 6. 14 it not concernes thee?= A not infrequent word-order in Jonson. Cf. 4. 2. 22.

=1. 6. 18 a Niaise.= Gifford says that the side note ‘could scarcely come from Jonson; for it explains nothing. A niaise (or rather an _eyas_, of which it is a corruption) is unquestionably a young hawk, but the niaise of the poet is the French term for, “a simple, witless, inexperienced gull”, &c. The word is very common in our old writers.’

The last statement is characteristic of Gifford. It would have been well in this case if he had given some proof of his assertion. The derivation _an eyas_ › _a nyas_ is probably incorrect. The _Centary Dictionary_ gives ‘_Niaise_, _nyas_ (and corruptly _eyas_, by misdivision of _a nias_).’ The best explanation I can give of the side note is this. The glossator takes the meaning ‘simpleton’ for granted. But Fitzdottrel has just said ‘Laught at, sweet bird?’ In explanation the side note is added. This, perhaps, does not help matters much and, indeed, I am inclined to believe with Gifford that the side notes are by another hand than Jonson’s. See Introduction, pp. xiii, xvii.

=1. 6. 29, 30. When I ha’ seene All London in’t, and London has seene mee.= Gifford compares Pope:

Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.

=1. 6. 31 Black-fryers Play-house.= This famous theatre was founded by James Burbage in 1596-7. The Burbages leased it to Henry Evans for the performances of the Children of the Chapel, and the King’s Servants acted there after the departure of the children. In 1619 the Lord Mayor and the Council of London ordered its discontinuance, but the players were able to keep it open on the plea that it was a private house. In 1642 ‘public stage plays’ were suppressed, and on Aug. 5, 1655, Blackfriars Theatre was pulled down and tenements were built in its place. See Wh-C.

Nares, referring to Shirley’s _Six New Playes_, 1653, says that ‘the Theatre of Black-Friars was, in Charles I.’s time at least considered, as being of a higher order and more respectability than any of those on the Bank-side.’

=1. 6. 33 Rise vp between the Acts.= See note 3. 5. 43.

=1. 6. 33, 4 let fall my cloake, Publish a handsome man, and a rich suite.= The gallants of this age were inordinately fond of displaying their dress, or ‘publishing their suits.’ The play-house and ‘Paul’s Walk,’ the nave of St. Paul’s Cathedral, were favorite places for accomplishing this. The fourth chapter of Dekker’s _Guls Horne-booke_ is entitled ‘How a Gallant should behaue himselfe in Powles walkes.’ He bids the gallant make his way directly into the middle aisle, ‘where, in view of all, you may publish your suit in what manner you affect most, either with the slide of your cloake from the one shoulder, and then you must (as twere in anger) suddenly snatch at the middle of the inside (if it be taffata at the least) and so by that meanes your costly lining is betrayd,’ etc. A little later on (_Non-dram. Wks._ 2. 238) Dekker speaks of ‘Powles, a Tennis-court, or a Playhouse’ as a suitable place to ‘publish your clothes.’ Cf. also _Non-dram. Wks._ 4. 51.

Sir Thomas Overbury gives the following description of ‘a Phantastique:’ ‘He withers his clothes on a stage as a salesman is forced to do his suits in Birchin Lane; and when the play is done, if you mark his rising, ’tis with a kind of walking epilogue between the two candles, to know if his suit may pass for current.’ Morley, p. 73.

Stephen Gosson (_School of Abuse_, p. 29) says that ‘overlashing in apparel is so common a fault, that the verye hyerlings of some of our plaiers, which stand at reversion of vi^s by the weeke, jet under gentlemens noses in sutes of silke.’

=1. 6. 37, 8 For, they doe come To see vs, Loue, as wee doe to see them.= Cf. _Induction_ to _The Staple of News_, _Wks._ 5. 151: ‘Yes, on the stage; we are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.’ _Silent Woman_, _Wks._ 3. 409: ‘and come abroad where the matter is frequent, to court, ... to plays, ... thither they come to shew their new tires too, to see, and to be seen.’ Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks._, p. 323:

_Sir. Maur._ Is there aught else To be demanded? _Anne._ ... a fresh habit, Of a fashion never seen before, to draw, The gallants’ eyes, that sit upon the stage, upon me.

Gosson has much to say on the subject of women frequenting the theatre. There, he says (p. 25). ‘everye man and his queane are first acquainted;’ and he earnestly recommends all women to stay away from these ‘places of suspition’ (pp. 48 f.).

=1. 6. 40 Yes, wusse.= _Wusse_ is a corruption of _wis_, OE. _gewis_, certainly. Jonson uses the forms _I wuss_ (_Wks._ 1. 102), _I wusse_ (_Wks._ 6. 146), and _Iwisse_ (_Wks._ 2. 379. the fol. reading; Gifford changing to _I wiss_), in addition to the present form. In some cases the word is evidently looked upon as a verb.

=1. 6. 58 sweet Pinnace.= Cf. 2. 2. 111 f. A woman is often compared to a ship. Nares cites B. & Fl., _Woman’s Pr._ 2. 6:

This pinck, this painted foist, this cockle-boat.

Cf. also _Stap. of News_, _Wks._ 5. 210:

She is not rigg’d, sir; setting forth some lady Will cost as much as furnishing a fleet.-- Here she is come at last, and like a galley Gilt in the prow.

Jonson plays on the names of Pinnacia in the _New Inn_, _Wks._ 5. 384:

‘_Host._ Pillage the Pinnace.... _Lord B._ Blow off her upper deck. _Lord L._ Tear all her tackle.’

Pinnace, when thus applied to a woman, was almost always used with a conscious retention of the metaphor. Dekker is especially fond of the word. _Match me in London_, _Wks._ 4. 172:

--There’s a Pinnace (Was mann’d out first by th’ City), is come to th’ Court, New rigg’d.

Also Dekker, _Wks._ 4. 162; 3. 67, 77, 78.

When the word became stereotyped into an equivalent for procuress or prostitute, the metaphor was often dropped. Thus in _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 386: ‘She hath been before me, punk, pinnace and bawd, any time these two and twenty years.’ Gifford says on this passage: ‘The usual gradation in infamy. A _pinnace_ was a light vessel built for speed, generally employed as a tender. Hence our old dramatists constantly used the word for a person employed in love messages, a go-between in the worst sense, and only differing from a bawd in not being stationary.’ A glance at the examples given above will show, however, that the term was much more elastic than this explanation would indicate.

The dictionaries give no suggestion of the origin of the metaphor. I suspect that it may be merely a borrowing from classical usage. Cf. _Menaechmi_ 2. 3. 442:

Ducit lembum dierectum nauis praedatoria.

In _Miles Gloriosus_ 4. 1. 986, we have precisely the same application as in the English dramatists: ‘Haec celox (a swift sailing vessel) illiust, quae hinc agreditur, internuntia.’

=1. 6. 62 th’ are right.= Whalley’s interpretation is, of course, correct. See variants.

=1. 6. 73 Not beyond that rush.= Rushes took the place of carpets in the days of Elizabeth. Shakespeare makes frequent reference to the custom (see Schmidt). The following passage from Dr. Bulleyne has often been quoted: ‘Rushes that grow upon dry groundes be good to strew in halles, chambers and galleries, to walk upon, defending apparel, as traynes of gownes and kertles from dust.’ Cf. also _Cyn. Rev._ 2. 5; _Every Man out_ 3. 3.

=1. 6. 83 As wise as a Court Parliament.= Jonson refers here, I suppose, to the famous Courts or Parliaments of Love, which were supposed to have existed during the Middle Ages (cf. Skeat, _Chaucer’s Works_ 7. lxxx).

Cunningham calls attention to the fact that Massinger’s _Parliament of Love_ was not produced until 1624. Jonson depicts a sort of mock Parliament of Love in the _New Inn_, Act 4.

=1. 6. 88 And at all caracts.= ‘I. e., to the nicest point, to the minutest circumstance.’--G. See Gloss. and cf. _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 70.

=1. 6. 89, 90 as scarce hath soule, In stead of salt.= Whalley refers to _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 446, 7: ‘Talk of him to have a soul! ’heart, if he have any more than a thing given him instead of salt, only to keep him from stinking. I’ll be hang’d afore my time.’ Gifford quotes the passage from B. & Fl., _Spanish Curate_:

--this soul I speake of, Or rather salt, to keep this heap of flesh From being a walking stench.

W. furnishes a Latin parallel: ‘Sus vero quid habet praeter escam? cui quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datam dicit esse Chrysippus.’--Cic. _De Natura Deor_, lib. 2.

It is to these passages that Carlyle refers in his _Past and Present_: ‘A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us, is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the frightfulest sort; to ‘save us,’ says he, ’the expense of salt.’ Bk. 2, Ch. 2.

‘In our and old Jonson’s dialect, man has lost the _soul_ out of him; and now, after the due period,--begins to find the want of it.... Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt.’ (Simpson in _N. & Q._, 9th Ser. 4. 347, 423.)

To the same Latin source Professor Cook (_Mod. Lang. Notes_, Feb., 1905) attributes the passage in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ 43-45:

What is he but a brute Whose flesh has soul to suit, Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?

and Samuel Johnson’s ‘famous sentence recorded by Boswell under June 19, 1784: “Talking of the comedy of _The Rehearsal_, he said: ‘It has not wit enough to keep it sweet.’”’

=1. 6. 97 the walks of Lincolnes Inne.= One of the famous Inns of Court (note 3.1.8). It formerly pertained to the Bishops of Chichester (Stow, _Survey_, ed. 1633, p. 488a). The gardens ‘were famous until the erection of the hall, by which they were curtailed and seriously injured’ (Wh-C.). The Tatler (May 10, 1709, no. 13) speaks of Lincoln’s Inn Walks.

=1. 6. 99 I did looke for this geere.= See variants. Cunningham says: ‘In the original it is _geere_, and so it ought still to stand. Gear was a word with a most extended signification. Nares defines it, “matter, subject, or business in general!” When Jonson uses the word _jeer_ he spells it quite differently. The _Staple of News_ was first printed at the same time as the present play, and in the beginning of

## Act IV. Sc. 1, I find: “_Fit._ Let’s _ieere_ a little. _Pen._ Ieere?

what’s that?”’

It is so spelt regularly throughout _The Staple of News_, but in _Ev. Man in_ 1. 2 (fol. 1616), we find: ‘Such petulant, geering gamsters that can spare No ... subject from their jest.’ The fact is that both words were sometimes spelt _geere_, as well as in a variety of other ways. The uniform spelling in _The Staple of News_, however, seems to indicate that this is the word _gear_, which fits the context, fully as well as, perhaps better than Gifford’s interpretation. A common meaning is ‘talk, discourse’, often in a depreciatory sense. See Gloss.

=1. 6. 125 Things, that are like, are soone familiar.= ‘Like will to like’ is a familiar proverb.

=1. 6. 127 the signe o’ the husband.= An allusion to the signs of the zodiac, some of which were supposed to have a malign and others a beneficent influence.

=1. 6. 131 You grow old, while I tell you this.= Hor. [_Carm._ I. II. 8 f.]:

Dum loquimur, fugerit invida Aetas, carpe diem.--G.

Whalley suggested:

Fugit Hora: hoc quod loquor, inde est. --Pers. _Sat._ 5.

=1. 6. 131, 2 And such As cannot vse the present, are not wise.= Cf. _Underwoods_ 36. 21:

To use the present, then, is not abuse.

=1. 6. 138 Nay, then, I taste a tricke in’t.= Cf. ‘I do taste this as a trick put on me.’ _Ev. Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 133. See Introduction, p. xlvii.

=1. 6. 142 cautelous.= For similar uses of the word cf. Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks._, p. 321, and B. & Fl., _Elder Brother_, _Wks._ 10. 275. Gifford gives an example from Knolles, _Hist. of the Turks,_ p. 904.

=1. 6. 149 MAN. Sir, what doe you meane?

153 MAN. You must play faire, S^r.= ‘I am not certain about the latter of these two speeches, but it is perfectly unquestionable that the former _must_ have been spoken by the husband Fitzdottrel.’--C.

Cunningham may be right, but the change is unnecessary if we consider Manly’s reproof as occasioned by Fitzdottrel’s interruption.

=1. 6. 158, 9 No wit of man=

=Or roses can redeeme from being an Asse.= ‘Here is an allusion to the metamorphosis of Lucian into an _ass_; who being brought into the theatre to shew tricks, recovered his human shape by eating some _roses_ which he found there. See the conclusion of the treatise, _Lucius, sive Asinus_.’--W.

See Lehman’s edition, Leipzig, 1826, 6. 215. As Gifford says, the allusion was doubtless more familiar in Jonson’s day than in our own. The story is retold in Harsnet’s _Declaration_ (p. 102), and Lucian’s work seems to have played a rather important

## part in the discussion of witchcraft.

=1. 6. 161 To scape his lading.= Cf. note 1. 4. 72.

=1. 6. 180 To other ensignes.= ‘I. e., to horns, the Insignia of a cuckold.’--G.

=1. 6. 187 For the meere names sake.= ‘I. e. the name of the play.’--W.

=1. 6. 195 the sad contract.= See variants. W. and G. are doubtless correct.

=1. 6. 214 a guilt caroch.= ‘There was some distinction apparently between _caroch_ and _coach_. I find in Lord Bacon’s will, in which he disposed of so much imaginary wealth, the following bequest: “I give also to my wife my four coach geldings, and my best caroache, and her own coach mares and caroache.”’--C.

Minsheu says that a carroch is a great coach. Cf. also Taylor’s _Wks._, 1630:

No coaches, or carroaches she doth crave.

_Rom Alley_, _O. Pl._, 2d ed., 5. 475:

No, nor your jumblings, In horslitters, in coaches or caroches.

_Greene’s Tu Quoque_, _O. Pl._, 2d ed., 7. 28:

May’st draw him to the keeping of a coach For country, and carroch for London.

Cf. also Dekker, _Non-dram. Wks._ 1. 111. Finally the matter is settled by Howes (p. 867), who gives the date of the introduction of coaches as 1564, and adds: ‘Lastly, euen at this time, 1605, began the ordinary use of Caroaches.’ In _Cyn. Rev._, _Wks._ 2. 281, Gifford changes _carroch_ to _coach_.

=1. 6. 216 Hide-parke.= Jonson speaks of coaching in Hyde Park in the _Prologue to the Staple of News_, _Wks._ 5. 157, and in _The World in the Moon_, _Wks._ 7. 343. Pepys has many references to it in his _Diary_. ‘May 7, 1662. And so, after the play was done, she and The Turner and Mrs. Lucin and I to the Parke; and there found them out, and spoke to them; and observed many fine ladies, and staid till all were gone almost.’

‘April 22, 1664. In their coach to Hide Parke, where great plenty of gallants, and pleasant it was, only for the dust.’

Ashton in his _Hyde Park_ (p. 59) quotes from a ballad in the British Museum (c 1670-5) entitled, _News from Hide Park_, In which the following lines occur:

Of all parts of _England_, Hide-park hath the name, For Coaches and Horses, and Persons of fame.

=1. 6. 216, 7 Black-Fryers, Visit the Painters.= A church, precinct, and sanctuary with four gates, lying between Ludgate Hill and the Thames and extending westward from Castle Baynard (St. Andrew’s Hill) to the Fleet river. It was so called from the settlement there of the Black or Dominican Friars in 1276. Sir A. Vandyck lived here 1632-1641. ‘Before Vandyck, however, Blackfriars was the recognized abode of painters. Cornelius Jansen (d. 1665) lived in the Blackfriars for several years. Isaac Oliver, the miniature painter, was a still earlier resident.’ Painters on glass, or glass stainers, and collectors were also settled here.--Wh-C.

=1. 6. 219 a middling Gossip.= ‘A go-between, an _internuntia_, as the Latin writers would have called her.’--W.

=1. 6. 224 the cloake is mine.= The reading in the folio belonging to Dr. J. M. Berdan of Yale is: ‘the cloake is mine owne.’ This accounts for the variant readings.

=1. 6. 230 motion.= Spoken derogatively, a ‘performance.’ Lit., a puppet-show. The motion was a descendent of the morality, and exceedingly popular in England at this time. See Dr. Winter, _Staple of News_, p. 161; Strutt, _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 166 f.; Knight, _London_ 1. 42. Jonson makes frequent mention of the motion. _Bartholomew Fair_ 5. 5 is largely devoted to the description of one, and _Tale Tub_ 5. 5 presents a series of them.

=1. 7. 4 more cheats?= See note on _Cheaters_, 5. 6. 64, and Gloss.

=1. 7. 16 The state hath tane such note of ’hem.= See note 1. 2. 22.

=1. 7. 25 Your Almanack-Men.= An excellent account of the Almanac-makers of the 17th century is given by H. R. Plomer in _N. & Q._,6th Ser. 12. 243, from which the following is abridged:

‘Almanac-making had become an extensive and profitable trade in this country at the beginning of the 17th century, and with the exception of some fifteen or twenty years at the time of the Rebellion continued to flourish until its close. There were three distinct classes of almanacs published during the seventeenth century--the common almanacs, which preceded and followed the period of the Rebellion, and the political and satirical almanacs that were the direct outcome of that event.

‘The common almanacs came out year after year in unbroken uniformity. They were generally of octavo size and consisted of two parts, an almanac and a prognostication. Good and evil days were recorded, and they contained rules as to bathing, purging, etc., descriptions of the four seasons and rules to know the weather, and during the latter half of the century an astrological prediction and “scheme” of the ensuing year.

‘In the preceding century the makers of almanacs were “Physitians and Preests”, but they now adopted many other titles, such as “Student in Astrology”, “Philomath”, “Well Willer to the Mathematics.” The majority of them were doubtless astrologers, but not a few were quack doctors, who only published their almanacs as advertisements.’ (Almanac, a character in _The Staple of News_, is described as a ‘doctor in physic.’)

Among the more famous almanac-makers the names of William Lilly, John Partridge and Bretnor may be mentioned. For the last see note 2. 1. 1, and B. & Fl., _Rollo, Duke of Normandy_, where Fiske and Bretnor appear again. Cf. also _Alchemist_, _Wks._ 4. 41; _Every Man out_, _Wks._ 2. 39-40; _Mag. La._, _Wks._ 6. 74, 5. In Sir Thomas Overbury’s _Character_ of _The Almanac-Maker_ (Morley, p. 56) we read: ‘The verses of his book have a worse pace than ever had Rochester hackney; for his prose, ’tis dappled with ink-horn terms, and may serve for an almanac; but for his judging at the uncertainty of weather, any old shepherd shall make a dunce of him.’

## ACT II.

=2. 1. 1 Sir, money’s a whore=, etc. Coleridge, _Notes_, p. 280. emends: ‘Money, sir, money’s a’, &c. Cunningham, on the other hand, thinks that ‘the 9-syllable arrangement is quite in Jonson’s manner, and that it forces an emphasis upon every word especially effective at the beginning of an act.’ See variants.

Money is again designated as a whore in the _Staple of News_ 4. 1: ‘Saucy Jack, away: Pecunia is a whore.’ In the same play Pennyboy, the usurer, is called a ‘money-bawd.’ Dekker (_Non-dram. Wks._ 2. 137) speaks of keeping a bawdy-house for Lady Pecunia. The figure is a common one.

=2. 1 .3 Via.= This exclamation is quite common among the dramatists and is explained by Nares as derived from the Italian exclamation _via!_ ‘away, on!’ with a quibble on the literal of L. _via_, a way. The _Century Dictionary_ agrees substantially with this derivation. Abundant examples of its use are given by the authorities quoted, to which may be added _Merry Devil of Edmonton_ 1. 2. 5, and Marston, _Dutch Courtezan_, _Wks._ 2. 20:

O, yes, come, _via_!--away, boy--on!

=2. 1. 5 With Aqua-vitae.= Perhaps used with especial reference to line 1, where he has just called money a bawd Compare:

O, ay, as a bawd with aqua-vitae. --Marston, _The Malcontent_, _Wks_. 1. 294.

‘Her face is full of those red pimples with drinking Aquauite, the common drinke of all bawdes.’--Dekker, _Whore of Babylon_, _Wks._ 2. 246.

=2. 1. 17. See variants.= Line 15 shows that the original reading is correct.

=2. 1. 19 it shall be good in law.= See note 1. 2. 22.

=2. 1. 20 Wood-cock.= A cant term for a simpleton or dupe.

=2. 1. 21 th’ Exchange.= This was the first Royal Exchange, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566, opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1570-1, and destroyed in the great fire of 1666 (Wh-C.). Howes (1631) says that it was ‘plenteously stored with all kinds of rich wares and fine commodities,’ and Paul Hentzner (p. 40) speaks of it with enthusiasm.

It was a favorite lounging-place, especially in the evening. Wheatley quotes Hayman, _Quodlibet_, 1628, p. 6:

Though little coin thy purseless pockets line, Yet with great company thou’rt taken up; For often with Duke Humfray thou dost dine, And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup.

‘We are told in _London_ and _Country Carbonadoed_, 1632, that at the exchange there were usually more coaches attendant than at church doors.’ Cf. also _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 357: ‘I challenge all Cheapside to shew such another: Moor-fields, Pimlico-path, Or the Exchange, in a summer evening.’ Also _Ev. Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 39.

=2. 1. 30 do you doubt his eares?= Ingine’s speech is capable of a double interpretation. Pug has already spoken of the ‘liberal ears’ of his asinine master.

=2. 1. 41 a string of’s purse.= Purses, of course, used to be hung at the girdle. A thief was called a cut-purse. See the amusing scene in _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 5. 406.

=2. 1. 53, 4 at the Pan, Not, at the skirts.= ‘_Pan_ is not easily distinguished from _skirt_. Both words seem to refer to the outer parts, or extremities. Possibly Meercraft means--on a broader scale, on a more extended front.’--G.

‘The pan is evidently the deepest part of the swamp, which continues to hold water when the _skirts_ dry up, like the hole in the middle of the tray under a joint when roasting, which collects all the dripping. Meercraft proposed to grapple with the main difficulty at once.’--C.

I had already arrived at the same conclusion before reading Cunningham’s note. The _NED._ gives: ‘Pan. A hollow or depression in the ground, esp. one in which water stands.

1594 Plat, _Jewell-ho_ 1. 32 Of all Channels, Pondes, Pooles, Riuers, and Ditches, and of all other pannes and bottomes whatsoeuer.’

_Pan_, however, is also an obsolete form of _pane_, a cloth or skirt. The use is evidently a quibble. The word _pan_ suggested to Jonson the word _skirt_, which he accordingly employed not unaptly.

=2. 1. 63 his black bag of papers, there, in Buckram.= The buckram bag was the usual sign of the pettifogger. Cf. Marston, _Malcontent_, _Wks._ 1. 235:

_Pass._ Ay, as a pettifogger by his buckram bag.

Dekker, _If this be not a good Play_, _Wks._ 3. 274: ‘We must all turn pettifoggers and in stead of gilt rapiers, hang buckram bags at our girdles.’ Nash refers to the same thing in _Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks._ 2. 17.

=2. 1. 64 th’ Earledome of Pancridge.= Pancridge is a corruption of Pancras. The Earl of Pancridge was ‘one of the “Worthies” who annually rode to Mile End, or the Artillery Ground, in the ridiculous procession called _Arthurs Shew_’ (G.). Cf. _To Inigo Marquis Would-be_, _Wks._ 8. 115:

Content thee to be Pancridge earl the while.

_Tale Tub_, _Wks._ 6. 175:

--next our St. George, Who rescued the king’s daughter, I will ride; Above Prince Arthur. _Clench._ Or our own Shoreditch duke. _Med._. Or Pancridge earl. _Pan._ Or Bevis or Sir Guy.

For _Arthur’s Show_ see Entick’s _Survey_ 1. 497; Wh-C. 1. 65; and Nares 1. 36. Cf. note 4. 7. 65·

=2. 1. 71, 2 Your Borachio Of Spaine.= ‘“_Borachio_ (says Min-shieu) is a bottle commonly of a pigges skin, with the hair inward, dressed inwardly with rozen, to keep wine or liquor sweet:”--Wines preserved in these bottles contract a peculiar flavour, and are then said _to taste of the borachio_.’--G.

Florio says: ‘a boracho, or a bottle made of a goates skin such as they vse in Spaine.’ The word occurs somewhat frequently (see _NED._) and apparently always with this meaning, or in the figurative sense of ‘drunkard’. It is evident, however, from Engine’s question, ‘Of the King’s glouer?’ either that it is used here in a slightly different sense, or more probably that Merecraft is relying on Fitzdottrel’s ignorance of the subject. Spanish leather for wearing apparel was at this time held in high esteem. See note 4. 4. 71, 2.

=2. 1. 83 a Harrington.= ‘In 1613, a patent was granted to John Stanhope, lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chambers, for the coinage of royal farthing tokens, of which he seems to have availed himself with sufficient liberality. Some clamour was excited on the occasion: but it speedily subsided; for the Star Chamber kept a watchful eye on the first symptoms of discontent at these pernicious indulgences. From this nobleman they took the name of Harrington in common conversation.’--G.

‘Now (1613) my lord Harrington obtained a patent from the King for the making of Brasse Farthings, a thing that brought with it some contempt through lawfull.’--Sparke, _Hist. Narration_, Somer’s _Tracts_ 2. 294.

A reference to this coin is made in _Drunken Barnaby’s Journal_ in the _Oxoniana_ (quoted by Gifford) and in Sir Henry Wotton’s Letters (p. 558, quoted by Whalley). Cf. also _Mag. La._, _Wks._ 6. 89: ‘I will note bate you a single Harrington,’ and _ibid._, _Wks._ 6. 43.

=2. 1. 102 muscatell.= The grape was usually called _muscat_. So in Pepys’ _Diary_, 1662: ‘He hath also sent each of us some anchovies, olives and muscatt.’ The wine was variously written _muscatel_, _muscadel_, and _muscadine_. Muscadine and eggs are often mentioned together (cf. Text, 2. 2. 95-96; _New Inn_ 3. 1; Middleton, _Wks._ 2. 290; 3. 94; and 8. 36), and were used as an aphrodisiac (Bullen). Nares quotes Minsheu: ‘Vinum muscatum, quod moschi odorem referat; for the sweetnesse and smell it resembles muske.’

=2. 1. 116, 7 the receiu’d heresie, That England beares no Dukes.= ‘I know not when this _heresy_ crept in. There was apparently some unwillingness to create dukes, as a title of honour, in the Norman race; probably because the Conqueror and his immediate successors were dukes of Normandy, and did not choose that a subject should enjoy similar dignities with themselves. The first of the English who bore the title was Edward the black prince, (son of Edward III.) who was created duke of Cornwall, by charter, as Collins says, in 1337. The dignity being subsequently conferred on several of the blood-royal, and of the nobility, who came to untimely ends, an idea seems to have been entertained by the vulgar, that the title itself was ominous. At the accession of James I. to the crown of this country, there was, I believe, no English peer of ducal dignity.’--G.

The last duke had been created in the reign of Henry VIII., who made his illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond, and Charles Brandon, who married his sister Mary, Duke of Suffolk. After the attainder and execution of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in 1572, there was no duke in England except the king’s sons, until the creation of the Duke of Richmond in 1623. (See _New Int. Cyc._ 6. 349.)

=2. 1. 144 Bermudas.= ‘This was a cant term for some places in the town with the same kind of privilege as the mint of old, or the purlieus of the Fleet.’--W.

‘These _streights_ consisted of a nest of obscure courts, alleys, and avenues, running between the bottom of St. Martin’s Lane, Half-moon, and Chandos-street. In Justice Overdo’s time, they were the receptacles of fraudulent debtors, thieves and prostitutes.’--G. (Note on _Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 407.)

‘On Wednesday at the Bermudas Court, Sir Edwin Sandys fell foul of the Earl of Warwick. The Lord Cavendish seconded Sandys and the Earl told the Lord, “By his favour he believed he lied.” Hereupon, it is said, they rode out yesterday, and, as it is thought, gone beyond sea to fight.--_Leigh to Rev. Joseph Mede_, July 18, 1623.’ (Quoted Wh-C. 1. 169.) So in _Underwoods_, _Wks._ 8. 348:

turn pirates here at land, Have their Bermudas and their Streights i’ the Strand.

_Bart. Fair_, _Wks._ 4. 407: “The Streights, or the Bermudas, where the quarrelling lesson is read.”

It is evident from the present passage and the above quotations that ruffians like Everill kept regular quarters in the ‘Bermudas’, where they might be consulted with reference to the settlement of affairs of honor.

=2. 1. 151 puts off man, and kinde.= ‘I. e., human nature.’--G. Cf. _Catiline_, _Wks._ 4. 212:

--so much, that kind May seek itself there, and not find.

=2. 1. 162 French-masques.= ‘Masks do not appear as ordinary articles of female costume in England previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth.... French masks are alluded to by Ben Jonson in _The Devil is an Ass_. They were probably the half masks called in France ‘loups,’ whence the English term ‘loo masks.’

Loo masks and whole as wind do blow, And Miss abroad’s disposed to go. _Mundus Muliebris_, 1690. --Planché _Cycl. of Costume_ 1. 365.

‘Black masks were frequently worn by ladies in public in the time of Shakespeare, particularly, and perhaps universally at the theatres.’--Nares.

=2. 1. 163 Cut-works.= A very early sort of lace deriving its name from the mode of its manufacture, the fine cloth on which the pattern was worked being cut away, leaving the design perfect. It is supposed to have been identical with what was known as Greek work, and made by the nuns of Italy in the twelfth century. It was introduced into England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and continued in fashion during those of James I. and Charles I. Later it fell under the ban of the Puritans, and after that period is rarely heard of. (Abridged from Planché, _Cycl._)

=2. 1. 168 ff. nor turne the key=, etc. Gifford points out that the source of this passage is Plautus, _Aulularia_ [ll. 90-100]:

Caue quemquam alienum in aedis intromiseris. Quod quispiam ignem quaerat, extingui uolo, Ne causae quid sit quod te quispiam quaeritet. Nam si ignis uiuet, tu extinguere extempulo, Tum aquam aufugisse dicito, si quis petet. Cultrum, securim, pistillum, mortarium, Quae utenda uasa semper uicini rogant, Fures uenisse atque abstulisse dicito. Profecto in aedis meas me absente neminem Volo intromitti, atque etiam hoc praedico tibi, Si Bona Fortuna ueniat, ne intromiseris.

Jonson had already made use of a part of this passage:

Put out the fire, kill the chimney’s heart, That it may breathe no more than a dead man. _Case is Altered_ 2. 1, _Wks._ 6. 328.

Wilson imitated the same passage in his _Projectors_, Act 2, Sc. 1: ‘Shut the door after me, bolt it and bar it, and see you let no one in in my absence. Put out the fire, if there be any, for fear somebody, seeing the smoke, may come to borrow some! If any one come for water, say the pipe’s cut off; or to borrow a pot, knife, pestle and mortar, or the like, say they were stole last night! But harke ye! I charge ye not to open the door to give them an answer, but whisper’t through the keyhole! For, I tell you again, I wilt have nobody come into my house while I’m abroad! No; no living soul! Nay, though Good Fortune herself knock at a door, don’t let her in!’

=2. 2. 1 I haue no singular seruice=, etc. I. e., This is the sort of thing I must become accustomed to, if I am to remain on earth.

=2. 2. 49, 50 Though they take Master Fitz-dottrell, I am no such foule.= Gifford points out that the punning allusion of _foul_ to _fowl_ is a play upon the word dottrel. ‘The dotterel (Fuller tells us) is avis γελοτοποιος a mirth-making bird, so ridiculously mimical, that he is easily caught, or rather catcheth himself by his over-active imitation. As the fowler stretcheth forth his arms and legs, stalking towards the bird, so the bird extendeth his legs and wings, approaching the fowler till he is surprised in the net.’--G.

This is what is alluded to in 4. 6. 42. The use of the metaphor is common. Gifford quotes Beaumont & Fletcher. _Bonduca_ and _Sea Voyage_. Many examples are given in Nares and the _NED._, to which may be added _Damon and Pithias_, _O. Pl._ 4. 68; Nash, _Wks._ 3. 171; and Butler’s _Character of a Fantastic_ (ed. Morley, p. 401): ‘He alters his gait with the times, and has not a motion of his body that (like a dottrel) he does not borrow from somebody else.’ Nares quotes _Old Couple_ (_O. Pl._, 4th ed., 12. 41):

_E._ Our Dotterel then is caught? _B._ He is and just As Dotterels use to be: the lady first Advanc’d toward him, stretch’d forth her wing, and he Met her with all expressions.

It is uncertain whether the sense of ‘bird’ or ‘simpleton’ is the original. _Dottrel_ seems to be connected with _dote_ and _dotard_. The bird is a species of plover, and Cunningham says that ‘Selby ridicules the notion of its being more stupid than other birds.’ In _Bart. Fair_ (_Wks._ 4. 445) we hear of the ‘sport call’d Dorring the Dotterel.’

=2. 2. 51 Nor faire one.= The dramatists were fond of punning on _foul_ and _fair_. Cf. _Bart. Fair_ passim.

=2. 2. 77 a Nupson.= Jonson uses the word again in _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 111: ‘O that I were so happy as to light on a nupson now.’ In _Lingua_, 1607, (_O. Pl._, 4th ed., 9. 367, 458) both the forms _nup_ and _nupson_ are used. The etymology is uncertain. The _Century Dictionary_ thinks _nup_ may be a variety of _nope_. Gifford thinks it may be a corruption of Greek νηπ.

=2. 2. 78 with my Master’s peace.= ‘I. e. respectfully, reverently: a bad translation of _cum pace domini_.’--G.

=2. 2. 81 a spic’d conscience.= Used again in _Sejanus_, _Wks._ 3. 120, and _New Inn_, _Wks._ 5. 337.

=2. 2. 90 The very forked top too.= Another reference to the horned head of the cuckold. Cf. 1. 6. 179, 80.

=2. 2. 93 engendering by the eyes.= Cf. Song in _Merch. of V._ 3. 2. 67: ‘It is engender’d in the eyes.’

=2. 2. 98 make benefit.= Cf. _Every Man in_, _Wks._ 1. 127.

=2. 2. 104 a Cokes.= Cf. Ford, _Lover’s Melancholy_, _Wks._ 2. 80: ‘A kind of cokes, which is, as the learned term [it], an ass, a puppy, a widgeon, a dolt, a noddy, a----.’ Cokes is the name of a foolish coxcomb in _Bart. Fair_.

=2. 2. 112 you neat handsome vessells.= Cf. note 1. 6. 57.

=2. 2. 116 your squires of honour.= This seems to be equivalent to the similar expression ‘squire of dames.’

=2. 2. 119-125 For the variety at my times, ... I know, to do my turnes, sweet Mistresse.= I. e., when for variety you turn to me, I will be able to serve your needs. Pug, of course, from the delicate nature of the subject, chooses to make use of somewhat ambiguous phrases.

=2. 2. 121.= Thos. Keightley, _N. & Q._ 4. 2. 603, proposes to read:

Of that proportion, or in the rule.

=2. 2. 123 Picardill.= Cotgrave gives: ‘Piccadilles: Piccadilles; the severall divisions or peeces fastened together about the brimme of the collar of a doublet, &c.’ Gifford says: ‘With respect to the _Piccadil_, or, as Jonson writes it, Picardil, (as if he supposed the fashion of wearing it be derived from Picardy,) the term is simply a diminutive of picca (Span. and Ital.) a spear-head, and was given to this article of foppery, from a fancied resemblance of its stiffened plaits to the bristled points of those weapons. Blount thinks, and apparently with justice, that Piccadilly took its name from the sale of the “small stiff collars, so called”, which was first set on foot in a house near the western extremity of the present street, by one Higgins, a tailor.’

As Gifford points out, ‘Pug is affecting modesty, since he had not only assumed a handsome body, but a fashionable dress, “made new” for a particular occasion.’ See 5. 1. 35, 36.

Jonson mentions the _Picardill_ again in the _Challenge at Tilt_, _Wks._ 7. 217, and in the _Epistle to a Friend_, _Wks._ 8. 356. For other examples see Nares, _Gloss_.

=2. 2. 127 f. your fine Monkey=; etc. These are all common terms of endearment. The monkey is frequently mentioned as a lady’s pet by the dramatists. See _Cynthia’s Revels_, passim, and Mrs. Centlivre’s _Busie Body_.

=2. 3. 36, 7 and your coach-man bald! Because he shall be bare.= See note to 4. 4. 202.

=2. 3. 45 This man defies the Diuell.= See 2. 1. 18.

=2. 3. 46 He dos’t by Ingine.= I. e., wit, ingenuity, with a possible reference to the name of Merecraft’s agent.

=2. 3. 49 Crowland.= Crowland, or Croyland is an ancient town and parish of Lincolnshire, situated in a low flat district, about eight miles north-east from Peterborough. The origin of Crowland was in a hermitage founded in the 7th century by St. Guthlac. An abbey was founded in 714 by King Ethelbald, which was twice burnt and restored.

=2. 4. 6 Spenser, I thinke, the younger.= Thomas (1373-1400) was the only member of the Despenser family who was an Earl of Gloucester. The person referred to here, however, is Hugh le Despenser, the younger baron, son of Hugh le Despenser, the elder. He married Eleanor, daughter of Gilbert of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and sister and coheiress of the next Earl Gilbert. After the death of the latter, the inheritance was divided between the husbands of his three sisters, and Despenser was accordingly sometimes called Earl of Gloucester.

Despenser was at first on the side of the barons, but later joined the King’s party. In 1321 a league was formed against him, and he was banished, but was recalled in the following year. In the Barons’ rising of 1326 he was taken prisoner, brought to Hereford, tried and put to death.

=2. 4. 8 Thomas of Woodstocke.= Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham (1355-97), the youngest son of Edward III., was made Duke of Gloucester by his nephew, Richard II., in 1385, and later acquired an extraordinary influence, dominating the affairs of England for several years. By his high-handed actions he incurred Richard’s enmity. He was arrested July 10, 1397, and conveyed to Calais, where he was murdered in the following September by the king’s order.

=2. 4. 10 Duke Humphrey.= Humphrey, called the Good Duke Humphrey (1391-1447), youngest son of Henry IV., was created Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Pembroke in 1414. During the minority of Henry VI. he acted as Protector of the kingdom. His career was similar to that of Thomas of Woodstock. In 1447 he was arrested at Bury by order of Henry VI., who had become king in 1429. Here he died in February, probably by a natural death, although there were suspicions of foul play.

=2. 4. 11 Richard the Third.= Richard III. (1452-1485), Duke of Gloucester and King of England, was defeated and slain in the battle of Bosworth Field, 1485.

=2. 4. 12-4 MER. By ... authentique.= This passage has been the occasion of considerable discussion. The subject was first approached by Malone. In a note to an essay on _The Order of Shakespeare’s Plays_ in his edition of Shakespeare’s works (ed. 1790, 3. 322) he says: ‘In _The Devil’s an Ass_, acted in 1616, all his historical plays are obliquely censured.’

Again in a dissertation on _Henry VI._: ‘The malignant Ben, does indeed, in his _Devil’s an Ass_, 1616, sneer at our author’s historical pieces, which for twenty years preceding had been in high reputation, and probably were _then_ the only historical dramas that had possession of the theatre; but from the list above given, it is clear that Shakespeare was not the _first_ who dramatized our old chronicles; and that the principal events of English History were familiar to the ears of his audience, before he commenced a writer for the stage.’ Malone here refers to quotations taken from Gosson and Lodge. Both these essays were reprinted in Steevens’ edition, and Malone’s statements were repeated in the edition by Dr. Chalmers.

In 1808 appeared Gilchrist’s essay, _An Examination of the Charges ... of Ben Jonson’s enmity,_ etc. _towards Shakespeare_. This refutation, strengthened by Gifford’s _Proofs of Ben Jonson’s Malignity_, has generally been deemed conclusive. Gifford’s note on the present passage is written with much asperity. He was not content, however, with an accurate restatement of Malone’s arguments. He changes the italics in order to produce an erroneous impression, printing thus: ‘which were probably then the _only historical dramas on the stage_: He adds: ‘And this is advanced in the very face of his own arguments, to prove that there were scores, perhaps hundreds, of others on it at the time.’ This is direct falsification. There is no contradiction in Malone’s arguments. What he attempted to prove was that Shakespeare had had predecessors in this field, but that in 1616 his plays held undisputed possession of the stage. Gifford adds a passage from Heywood’s _Apology for Actors_, 1612, which is more to the point: ‘Plays have taught the unlearned the knowledge of many famous _histories_, instructed such as cannot read in the discovery of our _English Chronicles_: and what man have you now of that weake capacity that being possest of their true use, cannot discourse of any notable thing recorded even from _William the Conqueror_, until this day?’

This passage seems to point to the existence of other historical plays _contemporary_ with those of Shakespeare. Besides, Jonson’s words seem sufficiently harmless. Nevertheless, although I am not inclined to accept Malone’s charge of ‘malignity’, I cannot agree with Gifford that the reference is merely a general one. I have no doubt that the ‘Chronicle,’ of which Merecraft speaks, is Hall’s, and the passage the following: ‘It semeth to many men, that the name and title of Gloucester, hath been vnfortunate and vnluckie to diuerse, whiche for their honor, haue been erected by creacion of princes, to that stile and dignitie, as Hugh Spencer, Thomas of Woodstocke, sonne to kyng Edward the third, and this duke Humfrey, which thre persones, by miserable death finished their daies, and after them kyng Richard the iii. also, duke of Gloucester, in ciuill warre was slaine and confounded: so y^t this name of Gloucester, is take for an vnhappie and vnfortunate stile, as the prouerbe speaketh of Seianes horse, whose rider was euer unhorsed, and whose possessor was euer brought to miserie.’ Hall’s _Chronicle_, ed. 1809, pp. 209-10. The passage in ‘the Play-bookes’ which Jonson satirizes is at the close of _3 Henry VI._ 2. 6:

_Edw._ Richard, I will create thee Duke of Gloucester, And George, of Clarence: Warwick, as ourself, Shall do and undo as him pleaseth best. _Rich._ Let me be Duke of Clarence, George of Gloucester; For Gloucester’s dukedom is too ominous.

The last line, of course, corresponds to the _’Tis fatal_ of Fitzdottrel. Furthermore it may be observed that Thomas of Woodstock’s death at Calais is referred to in Shakespeare’s _K. Rich. II._; Duke Humphrey appears in _2 Henry IV._; _Henry V._; and _1_ and _2 Henry VI._; and Richard III. in _2_ and _3 Henry VI._ and _K. Rich. III._ _3 Henry VI._ is probably, however, not of Shakespearean authorship.

=2. 4. 15 a noble house.= See Introduction, p. lxxiv.

=2. 4. 23 Groen-land.= The interest in Greenland must have been at its height in 1616. Between 1576 and 1622 English explorers discovered various portions of its coast; the voyages of Frobisher, Davis, Hudson and Baffin all taking place during that period. Hakluyt’s _Principall Navigations_ appeared in 1589, Davis’s _Worldes Hydrographical Description_ in 1594, and descriptions of Hudson’s voyages in 1612-3. The usual spelling of the name seems to have been _Groenland_, as here. I find the word spelled also _Groineland_, _Groenlandia_, _Gronland_, and _Greneland_ (see Publications of the Hakluyt Society). Jonson’s reference has in it a touch of sarcasm.

=2. 4. 27 f. Yes, when you=, etc. The source of this passage is Hor., _Sat._ 2. 2. 129 f.:

Nam propriae telluris erum natura neque illum Nec me nec quemquam statuit; nos expulit ille, Ilium aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris Postremo expellet certe vivacior haeres. Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus, erit nulli proprius, sed cadet in usum Nunc mihi, nunc alii.

Gifford quotes a part of the passage and adds: ‘What follows is admirably turned by Pope:

Shades that to Bacon might retreat afford, Become the portion of a booby lord; And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham’s delight, Slides to a scrivener, or city knight.’

A much closer imitation is found in Webster, _Devil’s Law Case_, _Wks._ 2. 37:

Those lands that were the clients art now become The lawyer’s: and those tenements that were The country gentleman’s, are now grown To be his tailor’s.

=2. 4. 32 not do’it first.= Cf. 1. 6. 14 and note.

=2. 5. 10 And garters which are lost, if shee can shew ’hem.= Gifford thinks the line should read: ‘can not shew’. Cunningham gives a satisfactory explanation: ‘As I understand this it means that if a gallant once saw the garters he would never rest until he obtained possession of them, and they would thus be _lost_ to the family. Garters thus begged from the ladies were used by the gallants as _hangers_ for their swords and poniards. See _Every Man out of his Humour_, _Wks._ 2. 81: “O, I have been graced by them beyond all aim of affection: this is her garter my dagger hangs in;” and again p. 194. We read also in _Cynthia’s Revels_, _Wks._ 2. 266, of a gallant whose devotion to a lady in such that he

Salutes her pumps, Adores her hems, her skirts, her knots, her curls, _Will spend his patrimony for a garter_, Or the least feather in her bounteous fan.’

Gifford’s theory that ladies had some mode of displaying their garters is contradicted by the following:

_Mary._ These roses will shew rare: would ’twere in fashion That the garters might be seen too! --Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks._, p. 317.

Cf. also _Cynthia’s Revels_, _Wks._ 2. 296.

=2. 5. 14 her owne deare reflection, in her glasse.= ‘They must haue their looking glasses caryed with them wheresoeuer they go, ... no doubt they are the deuils spectacles to allure vs to pride, and consequently to distruction for euer.’--Stubbes, _Anat._,