Part 37
_the Bear at the Bridge-foot in heaven_] If Steevens had recollected this passage, he would not have proposed to alter the following one in _The Puritan_ by reading “in _the even_” for “in heaven,”—“Ay, by yon Bear at Bridge-foot _in heaven_, shalt thou.” Malone’s _Supp. to Shakespeare_, vol. ii. p. 559.—The Bear was a well-known tavern—according to Steevens (ibid.), “at the foot of London bridge.” Gifford says, in a note on Shirley’s _Lady of Pleasure_, where this expression occurs (_Works_, vol. iv. p. 72), that “the _bridge_ meant was in Shirley’s time called the Strand-bridge.”
# 169:
_Hoyday! there’s ... revenge to thee_] Here, perhaps, the text is corrupted, as the metre is faulty.
# 170:
_quit_] i. e. requite.
# 171:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 172:
_the act_, &c.] “An Acte to restrayne all persons from Marriage untill theire former Wyves and former Husbandes be deade.”
# 173:
_neck-verse_] i. e. the verse (generally the beginning of the 51st Psalm, _Miserere mei_, &c.) read by a criminal to entitle him to benefit of clergy.
# 174:
_exercis’d_] Old ed. “examin’d.”
# 175:
_hose_] i. e. breeches.
# 176:
_banes_] i. e. bans: see note, vol. i. p. 471.
# 177:
_weakness_] An evident misprint; but I know not what word to substitute for it: qy. “wittiness”? see title of the play.
# 178:
_lets_] i. e. hinders.
# 179:
_cog_] See note, p. 71.
# 180:
_answer_] Here a line (ending with the word “Cancer”) has dropt out.
# 181:
_vild_] i. e. vile: a form common in our early writers.
# 182:
_who’s this_] Old ed. “_who’s_ t’is.”
# 183:
_Kersmas_] A corruption of _Christmas_.
# 184:
_poulters’_] i. e. poulterers’.
# 185:
_frampole_] A word variously written: see note, vol. ii, p. 477.
# 186:
_spiny_] i. e. thin, slender.
# 187:
_nunchions ... bever_] Refreshments taken between meals; see Richardson’s _Dict._ in vv.: the latter seems, properly, to mean a _whet_.
# 188:
_stomachful_] i. e. stubborn.
# 189:
_Choosing King and Queen_] See much concerning the Choosing of King and Queen on Twelfth Day, in Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ vol. i. p. 19, ed. 1813.
# 190:
_In-and-in_] A game at dice,—“very much used in an ordinary,” says Cotton: see _Compleat Gamester_, p. 164, ed. 1674.
# 191:
_the basket_] In which the broken meat and bread from the sheriffs’ table was carried to the Counters, for the use of the poorer prisoners.
# 192:
_Gleek and Primavista_] Games at cards: concerning the former, see _The Compleat Gamester_, p. 90; and for an account of the latter, which is the same as _Primero_, vide Singer’s _Researches into Hist. of Playing Cards_, p. 248, and Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.
# 193:
_Noddy_] A game at cards, which seems to have been played in more ways than one: see Nares’s _Gloss._ in v.
# 194:
_Tickle-me-quickly_ ... _My-lady’s-hole_ ... _My-sow-has-pigged_] Games at cards.
# 195:
_my nephew Gambols_] In _The Masque of Christmas_, 1616, Ben Jonson introduces Christmas and his ten children, among whom is “GAMBOL, _like a tumbler, with a hoop and bells; his torch-bearer armed with a colt-staff and a binding-cloth_.” Works (by Gifford), vol. vii. p. 274.
# 196:
_shoe the mare_] A Christmas sport:
“Of Blind-man-buffe, and of the care That young men have to _shooe the Mare_.” Herrick’s _Hesperides_, &c. p. 146, ed. 1648.
# 197:
_Wassail-bowl_] Filled with spiced wine or ale, &c., and used on New-year’s eve, &c.: see Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ vol. i. p. 1, sqq. ed. 1813. In the Masque by Jonson just mentioned, one of the children of Christmas is “WASSEL, _like a neat sempster, and songster; her page bearing a brown bowl, drest with ribands and rosemary, before her_.”
# 198:
_affects_] i. e. affections, feelings.
# 199:
_D. Al._] Old ed. “_Fast_.”
# 200:
_the long porter_] “Walter Parsons born in this County was first Apprentice to a Smith, when he grew so tall in stature, that a hole was made for him in the Ground to stand therein up to the knees, so to make him adequate with his Fellow-work-men. He afterwards was Porter to King James; seeing as Gates generally are higher than the rest of the Building, so it was sightly that the Porter should be taller than other Persons. He was proportionable in all parts, and had strength equal to height, Valour to his strength, Temper to his valour, so that he disdained to do an injury to any single person. He would make nothing to take two of the tallest Yeomen of the Guard (like the Gizard and Liver) under his Arms at once, and order them as he pleased. Yet were his Parents (for ought I do understand to the contrary) but of an ordinary stature.... This Parsons died Anno Dom. 162-.” Fuller’s _Worthies_ (p. 48, _Stafford-shire_), ed. 1662.
# 201:
_The guard ... bombards_] i. e. large cans: compare _The Martyred Souldier_, 1638, by H. Shirley;
“the black Jacks Or _Bombards_ tost by _the King’s Guard_.” Sig. D 4.
# 202:
_that he was, sir_] Should, perhaps, be given to Doctor Almanac.
# 203:
_ye_] Old ed. “you.”
# 204:
_Antimasque_] “An Antimasque, or, as Jonson elsewhere calls it, ‘a foil, or false masque,’ is something directly opposed to the principal masque. If this was lofty and serious, that was light and ridiculous. It admitted of the wildest extravagancies; and it is _only by Jonson that attempts are sometimes made to connect it, in any degree, with the main story_.” Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. vii. p. 251. The praise which Gifford would confine to Jonson may certainly be extended to Middleton.
# 205:
_in cone_] Qy. _incontinent_ (i. e. immediately)?—the MS. having had, perhaps, “_incon._” A friend suggests that there might have been some abbreviation of _contra_, or _contraries_: see what follows; doctor Almanac charges them to do the reverse of what they ought to do, for “to bid ’em sin’s the way to make ’em mend.”
# 206:
_pull down bawdy-houses_, &c. ... _ruin the Cockpit_] The apprentices used (as already observed, note, vol. iii. p. 217) to pull down brothels on Shrove-Tuesday: concerning Turnbull Street, see note, vol. iv. p. 34. The rest of the present passage, where there is a pun on the word “leak,” is explained by the following extract from Dekker’s _Owles Almanacke_, 1618: “Shroue-tuesday falles on that day, on which the prentices plucked downe the cocke-pit, and on which they did alwayes vse to rifle Madame Leakes house at the vpper end of Shorditch.” Sig. C.
# 207:
_warmest_] A friend wishes to read “warnest.”
# 208:
_maundering_] i. e. muttering, grumbling: (and in cant language, begging.)
# 209:
_collogue_] “To Collogue. To wheedle or coax.” Grose’s _Class. Dict. of Vul. Tongue_, in which sense it is probably used here: it means also—to talk closely with, to plot.
# 210:
_gill_] i. e. wench.
# 211:
_Enter, for the second Antimasque_, &c.] This stage-direction (not in old ed.) is sufficient here, as the persons who compose the second Antimasque are minutely described in a subsequent stage-direction.
# 212:
_Bretnor ... word_] See notes, vol. iii. p. 537.
# 213:
_city-wedlock_] i. e. wife: see note, vol. ii. p. 481.
# 214:
_the gear cottens_] i. e. the matter goes on prosperously: see note, vol. ii. p. 150.
# 215:
_In dock out nettle_] Compare vol. iii. p. 611, and note. The expression occurs in J. Heywood’s _Dialogue_, &c.;
“But wauering as the winde, _in docke, out nettle_.” Sig. F 2, _Workes_, ed. 1598.
and in Taylor’s _Farewell to the Tower Bottles_, p. 125—_Workes_, ed. 1630.
# 216:
_parcel-rascals_] i. e. partly rascals.
# 217:
_Brainford_] A corruption of Brentford—used here with a quibble.
# 218:
_In larger grounds_, &c.] Old ed.
“In larger bounds, in Parke, sports, delights, and grounds.” In altering this corrupted line I have preferred retaining the word “grounds” rather than “bounds,” because the latter presently occurs.
# 219:
_Yet a third season_] Old ed. “A third season yet.”
# 220:
_talenter_] i. e. hawk. Our early poets repeatedly use _talent_ for _talon_:
“His _talents_ red with blood of murthered foules.” Drayton’s _Owle_, 1604, sig. D 2.
See, too, the quibble in Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act iv. sc. 2. “If a _talent_ be a claw,” &c.
# 221:
_prick_] i. e. the point or mark in the centre of the butts.
# 222:
_royal’st guest_] May mean Queen Anne; but more probably, I think, her brother, the king of Denmark, who visited England twice, in 1606 and in 1614. “In the reign of King James I. the house before us [Somerset-house] became, _ipso facto_, a royal residence on the part of the Queen, and even changed its name; and it appears that her Majesty repaired it, at her own charge, for the reception of her brother Christian IV., king of Denmark, who visited England A.D. 1606, from which time it is said that the Queen affected to call it _Denmark-House_.” _Curialia_, _P. IV._ p. 63, by Pegge; who, after more on this subject, chooses to rely on the statement of the continuators of Stow’s _Survey of London_—that on Shrove-Tuesday, 1616, Queen Anne having feasted King James at Somerset-House, _he_ then changed its name, and appointed it to be thenceforth called Denmark-House, p. 65: see also Nichols’s _Prog. of K. James_, vol. iii. p. 253.
When this Masque was originally produced as a royal entertainment, I know not. The noble pair to whom it is dedicated were not married till 1620: see Collins’s _Peerage_ (by Brydges), vol. iv. p. 277. Towards the end of it there is an evident allusion to the wars in the Palatinate.
# 223:
_maunding_] i. e. begging: see note, vol. ii. p. 536.
# 224:
_over-brave_] i. e. over-finely dressed.
# 225:
_valure_] Or rather _velure_—i. e. velvet.
# 226:
_a throwster_] “One that throws, or winds, silk or thread” (Kersey’s _Dict._), preparing the materials for the weaver.
# 227:
_superstichious_] So old ed.—with a quibble.
# 228:
_periphrase_] Old ed. “Paraphrase.”
# 229:
_the other’s_] Old ed. “_the_ t’others.”
# 230:
_pickadill_] i. e. collar with stiffened plaits.
# 231:
_presence glorious_] Old ed. “glorious presence.”
# 232:
_conscience knowing_] Old ed. “knowing conscience.”
# 233:
_Lady divine_] Old ed. “Diuine Lady.”
# 234:
_himself_] This word should, perhaps, be thrown out.
# 235:
_Altitonant_] i. e. thundering from on high.
# 236:
_Y-meditate_] The right reading, I presume: old ed. “I meditate.”
# 237:
_upper-stage_] See note, vol. ii. p. 125.
# 238:
_states_] i. e. persons of dignity.
# 239:
_Honey-lingued_] i. e. Honey-tongued.
# 240:
_duke_] i. e. general, commander.
“And in lyke wyse _duke Josue_ the gente.” Hawes’s _Pastime of Pleasure_, sig. C c ii. ed. 1555.
# 241:
_Mattathias’ son_] i. e. Judas Maccabæus.
# 242:
_psalmograph_] i. e. psalm-writer, viz. David.
# 243:
_a Macedonian born_] i. e. Alexander the Great.
# 244:
_Troy’s best soldier_] i. e. Hector.
# 245:
_Charles of France_] i. e. Charlemagne.
# 246:
_Bulloin duke_] i. e. Godfrey of Bouillon.
# 247:
_Britain’s glory_] i. e. Arthur.
# 248:
_The Nine Worthies dance_, &c.] Qy. did the authors intend them to dance with the Muses? but in the preceding stage-direction (which I have given as it stands in old ed.) the entrance of the latter is not marked.
# 249:
_affected colours_] i. e. the colours which they affect: compare p. 7, and note.
# 250:
_jet_] i. e. strut.
# 251:
_frokin_] i. e. little fro (_frow_, Dutch for woman)— little jade.
# 252:
_batter_] Used for the pancakes on that day.
# 253:
_yellow hose_] See note, vol. iii. p. 134.
# 254:
_state_] Gifford observes, that “the _state_ sometimes means the raised platform and canopy under which the ornamented chair was placed, and sometimes the chair itself.” Note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 334. Here, perhaps, it means the machine in which Jupiter had descended: see p. 175.
# 255:
_cogging_] i. e. wheedling.
# 256:
_vild_] See note, p. 139.
# 257:
_Have_] Old ed. “Has.”
# 258:
_Chambers_] i. e. small pieces of ordnance.
# 259:
_make_] Old ed. “makes.”
# 260:
_rear_] i. e. raw.
# 261:
_agen_] The old spelling of _again_—required here for the rhyme.
# 262:
_a_ ——] So old ed.
# 263:
_i’ their inn_] i. e. in their own house: concerning this proverbial expression, see notes on Shakespeare’s _Henry IV._ (_First Part_), act iii. sc. 3.
# 264:
_egrimony_] Used here with a quibble; an old form of (the herb) _agrimony_, and also—sorrow. (Lat. _ægrimonia_.)
# 265:
_trampler_] See note, vol. ii. p. 18.
# 266:
_civilly_] i.e. soberly, plainly drest: compare vol. iv. p. 505, and note.
# 267:
_poniarded_] Poniards, or, as they were generally called, knives, were formerly, says Gifford, “worn at all times by every woman in England:” see note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. V. p. 221.
# 268:
_needle-bearded gallants_] Taylor, the water-poet, in a passage concerning the “strange and variable cut” of beards, mentions “Some sharpe Steletto fashion, dagger like.” _Superbiæ Flagellum_, p. 34—_Workes_, 1630.
# 269:
_stammel_] i.e. a kind of red, coarser and cheaper than scarlet.
# 270:
_the prince_] i.e. Charles.
# 271:
_I’ll over yonder_, &c.] He means to the Palatinate: great enthusiasm was felt in the cause of the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia. Some passages, perhaps, were inserted here subsequently to the original production of the Masque: see note, p. 167.
# 272:
_deckt with laurel_] James was accustomed to receive such incense.
“There he beholds a high and glorious Throne, Where sits a King by Laurell Garlands knowne, Like bright Apollo in the Muses quires.” Sir J. Beaumont’s _Bosworth-field_, p. 5, ed. 1629.
See also B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. viii. p. 154, and Gifford’s note.
# 273:
_properties_] i. e. ensigns proper to her character—a theatrical term: see note, vol. ii. p. 308.
# 274:
_sithence_] i. e. since.
# 275:
_painted cloth_] See note, vol. iii. p. 97.
# 276:
_cant_] i. e. niche.
# 277:
_greeces_] i. e. steps.
# 278:
_penciled_] i. e. (not—having _pensils_, small flags, but) painted; so in an earlier passage of this pageant: “They helde in their handes _pensild_ Shieldes; vpon the first was drawne a Rose,” &c.
# 279:
_shapes_] i. e. dresses—a theatrical use of the word.
# 280:
_cantle_] i. e. part.
# 281:
_eronie_] Qy. “ourany”?
# 282:
_agen_] See note, p. 192.
# 283:
_clipt_] i. e. embraced—cherished.
# 284:
_Black Monday_] “Middleton here alludes to Anthony Munday, his rival City Poet, who had composed the Pageants of 1605 and 1611, and perhaps others of which no copies are known to exist. Though he this year (and the last, when Dekker was employed) lost the office of author, he did not lose that of supplying the apparell, &c., which was his business as a draper, and to which office only Middleton seems to have considered him competent [see p. 245]. This virulent attack, however, appears to have experienced no greater attention than such violence deserved, since Munday was employed in the three following years.” NICHOLS.—The inscription on Anthony’s tomb declares that he was a “citizen and _draper_:” but I am not sure that he furnished “the apparell and porters” for _The Triumphs of Truth_ in the latter capacity; rather, perhaps, in consequence of being keeper of the _properties_ of the pageants. In the remarks prefixed to Munday’s _Downfall of the Earl of Huntington_ (Suppl. vol. to Dodsley’s _Old Plays_), I am surprised to find Mr. Collier doubting if Middleton alludes to him here; and I can only suppose that when Mr. C. wrote those remarks, his recollection of the present passage was somewhat imperfect.
The play just mentioned is evidence that Munday’s powers were far from contemptible. The ill will which the dramatists appear to have borne towards him was, perhaps, called forth by the extravagant encomium of Meres, who, in the _Palladis Tamia_, 1598, had chosen to term him “our best plotter,” fol. 283. With respect to the comedy called _The Case is altered_, in which he is ridiculed under the name of Antonio Balladino, there has been a question among critics, whether it is the work of Ben Jonson. Gifford pronounced it to be an early production of that poet; and he, I am confident, would not have changed his opinion even if he had lived to see the copy, without any author’s name on the title-page, which some years ago was added to the collection of the Duke of Devonshire.
# 285:
_Attend_] Old eds. “Attends.”
# 286:
_What greater_, &c. ... _his honour’s confirmation_] This second stanza is not reprinted by Nichols. The old ed. omits it in this place, but gives it afterwards with the musical notes of the song.
# 287:
_burn_] Old eds. “burnes.”
# 288:
_are_] Old eds. “is.”
# 289:
_Spots_, &c.] We have had this couplet before, p. 199.
# 290:
_the river_, &c.] “Sir Thomas Middleton, grocer, and mayor in 1613,” says Herbert, in his _History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London_, “was nearly the first who attempted an emblematical and scenic representation of his company, in a water spectacle, consisting (in imitation of the pageant mentioned to have been exhibited by Sir John Wells to Henry VI.[290A]) of ‘five islands, artfully garnished with all manner of Indian fruit trees, drugges, spiceries, and the like; the middle island having a faire castle especially beautified:’ the latter probably allusive to the newly-established East India Company’s forts, and whose adventures had contributed so much to enlarge the sphere of the grocers’ trade.” vol. i. p. 200.
# 290A:
See Herbert’s work, vol. i. pp. 93, 4.
# 291:
_stand_] Old eds. “stands.”
# 292:
_attend_] Old eds. “attends.”
# 293:
_cleave_] Old eds. “cleaues.”
# 294:
_slights_] i. e. artifices.
# 295:
_most_] Old eds. “must.”
# 296:
_the Five Senses_] “The Senses were personated at the King’s Entry into London in 1603, and are represented in the engraving of the Arch erected at Soper-Lane end, in Harrison’s Arches. Jordan introduced them again in the Lord Mayor’s Pageant of 1681 (see _Gent. Mag._ vol. xcv. i. 131), at the same time assuring the Grocers’ Company in his prefatory address, ’that in these Triumphs there is nothing designed, written, said, or sung, that ever was presented in any show till this present day!’” NICHOLS.
# 297:
_appear_] Old eds. “appeares.”
# 298:
_yon place_] “Saint Paul’s Cross.” _Marg. Note._
# 299:
[_mists_] This and the other words in brackets were supplied by Nichols.
# 300:
_the Standard_] See note, vol. i. p. 438.
# 301:
_where_] i. e. whereas.
# 302:
_Have_] Old eds. “Hath.”
# 303:
_apparel and porters_, &c.] See note, p. 220.
# 304:
_The Speech_] “Anthony Munday, who in his edition of Stow’s Survey, published in 1618, has given another version of the present story, and printed ‘the Speech according as it was delivered to mee,’ says it was spoken by ‘one man in behalf of all the rest;’ who, of course, was either some hired actor, or, very probably, [?] Thomas Middleton himself.” NICHOLS.
# 305:
_where_] i. e. whereas.
# 306:
_have_] Old ed. “hath.”
# 307:
_enginer_] An old and common form of—engineer.
# 308:
_chambers_] See note, p. 190.
# 309:
[_The City’s_, &c.] What I have here placed between brackets is superfluous: Nichols omits it.
# 310:
_agen_] See note, p. 192.
# 311:
_Tho. Middleton_] The occurrence of this signature here seems to indicate that the following portion of the tract was not the composition of Middleton.
# 312:
_The Prince_, &c.] “Camden’s MS. volume, in Harl. MSS. 5176, whence other extracts are given between crotchets in the following pages.” NICHOLS.
# 313:
_vierge_] i. e. rod.
# 314:
_sewer_] Whose office was to set on and remove the dishes, taste them, &c.: see Steevens’s note on Shakespeare’s _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 7, and Richardson’s _Dict._ in v.
# 315:
_Inns of Court_] “At the Middle Temple the charges incurred on this occasion were defrayed by a contribution of thirty shillings from each Bencher; every Student of seven years’ standing fifteen shillings; and all other Gentlemen in Commons ten shillings apiece. Dugdale’s _Origines Juridiciales_, p. 150.” NICHOLS.
# 316:
_Brocke_] Properly _Brooke_, according to Nichols.
# 317:
_Peere_] Properly _Beare_, according to Nichols.
# 318:
_Master Littleton_] “The great Sir Edward Littleton.” NICHOLS.
# 319:
_on Psalm_, &c.] “The Discourse is in the Bishop’s ‘xcvi. Sermons,’ the eighth on the occasion.” NICHOLS,—who inserted the above bracketed passage.
# 320:
_running at the ring_] See note, vol. i. p. 390.
# 321:
_say_] Is commonly explained—“a thin sort of silk,”—“a species of silk, or rather satin.”—Malone (note on Shakespeare’s _Henry Sixth, Part Second_, act iv. sc. 7,) remarks, “it appears from Minsheu’s _Dict._, 1617, that _say_ was a kind of serge.” Cotgrave has “_Seyette_, serge, or sey.”
# 322:
_their oath_] “Of ‘this ancient exhortation or well-wishing, which,’ says Camden, ‘is commonly called, but improperly, an oathe,’ see some curious particulars in vol. ii. p. 337 [of _Prog. of King James_]. It was read, continues Camden, first to the Lord Maltravers, by the Earl of Arundel his father, in the character of Earl Marshal, and then to the other Knights either by the Earl or by the Lord Chamberlain, who then went with the Dean to read the same to the Lord Percy, who had been forced to withdraw himself from indisposition.” NICHOLS.
# 323:
_arson_] i. e. saddle-bow.
# 324:
_pectoral_] i. e. breast-piece.
# 325:
_paty_] Properly, patée.
# 326:
_angel_] See note, p. 20.
# 327:
_noble_] A gold coin worth 6_s._ 8_d._
# 328:
_Bertie_] Old ed. “Bartue.”
# 329:
_these being created_, &c.] This concluding sentence is omitted by Nichols, who, instead of it, gives the following from Camden’s MS. volume in Harl. MSS. 5176:
“On the 7th of November about five of the clock in the afternoon, they mett in the Counsell-chamber, where they and the Lords appoynted to carry their ornaments and the assistants putt on their roabes, the Earles and Viscounts their surcotes of crimson velvett with close sleeves, having short flappes hanging upon their shoulders, then their hoods and afterward their mantles and roabes, fastned upon the shoulder and pucking out the capuchio to hang over behinde, with their cappes of estate and coronetts, or rather circuletts for the Viscounts. They passed from thence over the Tarras [Terrace] into the Privie Gallery, the Heralds, Kings of Armes, Garter carying the Patent, the Lord Compton in his Parliament roabes, carying the Mantle, the Lord Wentworth the Capp of estate and Circulet, the Lord Chancellour Lord Ellesmere in his surcote and hood with his sword by his syde in a usuall hatt, assisted by the Earle of Montgomery and Viscount Villers, with their cappes of estat on. At the Gallory-dore, the Lord Chamberlaine mett them, and placing himself after the Kings of Armes, presented them to the King, who satt there with the Queen and the Prince. Garter presented the Patent to the Lord Chamberlaine, he to the King; the King delivered the same to Sir Ralph Winwood the Secretary, who [read the same]; at the words _fecimus et creavimus_ the Roabes were delivered to the King, who delivered the same to the Assistants, who invested him therwith, and the like with the Capp of estate and the Circulett theruppon, and then the Earles Assistants putt on their cappes of estate. When the Patent was fully read, and he thus created Viscount Brackley, the trumpetts and drummes standing without sounded.
“Then was brought in the Lord Knolles, the Lord Carew carying the Mantle, the Lord Davers the Capp of Estate, assisted by the Earle of Suffolk Lord Treasurer and Viscount Lisle, and in like manner created Viscount Wallingford.