The present edition includes whatever has been considered of value in the notes of preceding editions. It has been the intention in all cases to acknowledge facts and suggestions borrowed from such sources, whether quoted verbatim, abridged, or developed. Notes signed W. are from Whalley, G. from Gifford, C. from Cunningham. For other abbreviations the Bibliography should be consulted. Explanations of words and phrases are usually found only in the Glossary. References to this play are by act, scene, and line of the Text; other plays of Jonson are cited from the Gifford-Cunningham edition of 1875. The references are to play, volume and page.

TITLE-PAGE.

THE DIUELL IS AN ASSE. ‘Schlegel, seizing with great felicity upon an untranslateable German idiom, called the play Der dumme Teufel [Schlegel’s Werke, ed. BÖcking, 6. 340]—a title which must be allowed to be twice as good as that of the English original. The phrase ‘the Devil is an ass’ appears to have been proverbial. See Fletcher’s The Chances, Act 5. Sc. 2:

A still more important passage occurs in Dekker’s If this be not a good Play, a partial source of Jonson’s drama:

Jonson uses it again in The Staple of News, Wks. 5. 188:

The conjurer cozened him with a candle’s end; he was an ass.

Dekker (Non-dram. Wks. 2. 275) tells us the jest of a citizen who was told that the ‘Lawyers get the Diuell and all: What an Asse, replied the Citizen is the diuell? If I were as he I would get some of them.’

HIS MAIESTIES SERVANTS. Otherwise known as the King’s Company, and popularly spoken of as the King’s Men. For an account of this company see Winter, ed. Staple of News, p. 121; and Fleay, Biog. Chron. 1. 356-7; 2. 403-4.

Ficta voluptatis, etc. The quotation is from Horace, De Art. Poet., line 338. Jonson’s translation is:

Jonson makes use of this quotation again in his note ‘To the Reader’ prefixed to Act 3 of The Staple of News.

I. B. Fleay speaks of this printer as J. Benson (Biog. Chron. 1. 354). Benson did not ‘take up freedom’ until June 30, 1631 (Sta. Reg. 3. 686). Later he became a publisher (1635-40; Sta. Reg. 5. lxxxiv). I. B. was also the printer of Bartholomew Fair and Staple of News. J. Benson published a volume of Jonson’s, containing The Masque of the Gypsies and other poems, in 1640 (Brit. Museum Cat. and Yale Library). In the same year he printed the Art of Poetry, 12mo, and the Execration against Vulcan, 4to (cf. Pub. of Grolier Club, N. Y. 1893, pp. 130, 132). The evidence that I. B. was Benson is strong, but not absolutely conclusive.

ROBERT ALLOT. We find by Arber’s reprint of the Stationer’s Register that Robert Allot ‘took up freedom’ Nov. 7, 1625. He must have begun publishing shortly after, for under the date of Jan. 25, 1625-6 we find that Mistris Hodgettes ‘assigned over unto him all her estate,’ consisting of the copies of certain books, for the ‘some of forty-five pounds.’ The first entry of a book to Allot is made May 7, 1626. In 1630 Master Blount ‘assigned over unto him all his estate and right in the copies’ of sixteen of Shakespeare’s plays. In 1632 Allot brought out the Second Folio of Shakespeare’s works. On Sept. 7, 1631 The Staple of News was assigned to him. The last entry of a book in his name is on Sept. 12, 1635. The first mention of ‘Mistris Allott’ is under the date of Dec. 30, 1635. Under date of July 1, 1637 is the record of the assignment by Mistris Allott of certain books, formerly the estate of ‘Master Roberte Allotts deceased.’ Among these books are ‘37. Shakespeares Workes their part. 39. Staple of Newes a Play. 40. Bartholomew fayre a Play.’ I have been able to find no record of The Devil is an Ass in the Stationer’s Register.

the Beare. In the Shakespeare folio of 1632 Allot’s sign reads ‘the Black Beare.’ The first mention of the shop in the London Street Directory is in 1575, among the ‘Houses round the Churchyard.’

Pauls Church-yard. ‘Before the Fire, which destroyed the old Cathedral, St. Paul’s Churchyard was chiefly inhabited by stationers, whose shops were then, and until the year 1760, distinguished by signs.’—Wh-C.

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY.

GVILT-HEAD, A Gold-smith. The goldsmiths seem to have been a prosperous guild. (See Stow, Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 114.) At this time they performed the office of banking, constituting the intermediate stage between the usurer and the modern banker. ‘The goldsmiths began to borrow at interest in order to lend out to traders at a higher rate. In other words they became the connecting link between those who had money to lend and those who wished to borrow for trading purposes, or it might be to improve their estates. No doubt at first the goldsmiths merely acted as guardians of their clients’ hoards, but they soon began to utilize those hoards much as bankers now make use of the money deposited with them.’—Social England 3. 544.

AMBLER. Jonson uses this name again in Neptune’s Triumph, Wks. 8. 32:

It reappears in The Staple of News.

Her Gentlemanvsher. For an exposition of the character and duties of the gentleman-usher see the notes to 4. 4. 134. 201, 215.

Newgate. ‘This gate hath of long time been a gaol, or prison for felons and trespassers, as appeareth by records in the reign of King John, and of other kings.’—Stow, Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 14.

THE PROLOGUE.

1 The DIVELL is an Asse. ‘This is said by the prologue pointing to the title of the play, which as was then the custom, was painted in large letters and placed in some conspicuous part of the stage.’—G.

Cf. Poetaster, After the second sounding: ‘What’s here? THE ARRAIGNMENT!’ Also Wily Beguiled: Prol. How now, my honest rogue? What play shall we have here to-night?

Jonson often, but not invariably, announces the title of the play in the prologue or induction. Cf. Every Man out, Cynthia’s Revels, Poetaster, and all plays subsequent to Bart. Fair except Sad Shep.

3 Grandee’s. Jonson uses this affected form of address again in Timber, ed. Schelling. 22. 27

4 allowing vs no place. As Gifford points out, the prologue is a protest against the habit prevalent at the time of crowding the stage with stools for the accommodation of the spectators.

Dekker in Chapter 6 of The Guls Horne-booke gives the gallant full instructions as to the behavior proper to the play-house. The youth is advised to wait until ‘the quaking prologue hath (by rubbing) got culor into his cheekes’, and then ‘to creepe from behind the Arras,’ and plant himself ‘on the very Rushes where the Commedy is to daunce, yea, and vnder the state of Cambises himselfe.’ Sir John Davies makes a similar allusion (Epigrams, ed. Grosart, 2. 10). Jonson makes frequent reference to the subject. Cf. Induction to The Staple of News, Every Man out, Wks. 2. 31; Prologue to Cynthia’s Revels, Wks. 2. 210, etc.

5 a subtill thing. I. e., thin, airy, spiritual, and so not occupying space.

6 worne in a thumbe-ring. ‘Nothing was more common, as we learn from Lilly, than to carry about familiar spirits, shut up in rings, watches, sword-hilts, and other articles of dress.’—G.

I have been unable to verify Gifford’s statement from Lilly, but the following passage from Harsnet’s Declaration (p. 13) confirms it: ‘For compassing of this treasure, there was a consociation betweene 3 or 4 priests, deuill-coniurers, and 4 discouerers, or seers, reputed to carry about with them, their familiars in rings, and glasses, by whose suggestion they came to notice of those golden hoards.’

Gifford says that thumb-rings of Jonson’s day were set with jewels of an extraordinary size, and that they appear to have been ‘more affected by magistrates and grave citizens than necromancers.’ Cf. I Henry IV 2. 4: ‘I could have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring.’ Also Witts Recreat., Epig. 623:

Glapthorne, Wit in a Constable, 1639, 4. 1: ‘An alderman—I may say to you, he has no more wit than the rest of the bench, and that lies in his thumb-ring.’

8 In compasse of a cheese-trencher. The figure seems forced to us, but it should be remembered that trenchers were a very important article of table equipment in Jonson’s day. They were often embellished with ‘posies,’ and it is possible that Jonson was thinking of the brevity of such inscriptions. Cf. Dekker, North-Ward Hoe 3. 1 (Wks. 3. 38): ‘Ile have you make 12. poesies for a dozen of cheese trenchers.’ Also Honest Whore, Part I, Sc. 13; and Middleton, Old Law 2. 1 (Wks. 2. 149); No Wit, no Help like a Woman’s 2. 1 (Wks. 4. 322).

15 Like the young adders. It is said that young adders, when frightened, run into their mother’s mouth for protection.

16 Would wee could stand due North. I. e., be as infallible as the compass.

17 Muscouy glasse. Cf. Marston, Malcontent, Wks. 1. 234: ‘She were an excellent lady, but that her face peeleth like Muscovy glass.’ Reed (Old Plays 4. 38) quotes from Giles Fletcher’s Russe Commonwealth, 1591, p. 10: ‘In the province of Corelia, and about the river Duyna towards the North-sea, there groweth a soft rock which they call Slude. This they cut into pieces, and so tear it into thin flakes, which naturally it is apt for, and so use it for glasse lanthorns and such like. It giveth both inwards and outwards a clearer light then glasse, and for this respect is better than either glasse or horne; for that it neither breaketh like glasse, nor yet will burne like the lanthorne.’ Dekker (Non-dram. Wks. 2. 135) speaks of a ‘Muscouie Lanthorne.’ See Gloss.

22 the Diuell of Edmunton. The Merry Devil of Edmunton was acted by the King’s Men at the Globe before Oct. 22, 1607. It has been conjecturally assigned to Shakespeare and to Drayton. Hazlitt describes it as ‘perhaps the first example of sentimental comedy we have’ (see O. Pl., 4th ed., 10. 203 f.). Fleay, who believes Drayton to be the author, thinks that the ‘Merry devil’ of The Merchant of Venice 2. 3, alludes to this play (Biog. Chron. 1. 151 and 2. 213). There were six editions in the 17th century, all in quarto—1608, 1612, 1617, 1626, 1631, 1655. Middleton, The Black Book, Wks. 8. 36, alludes to it pleasantly in connection with A Woman kill’d with Kindness. Genest mentions it as being revived in 1682. Cf. also Staple of News, 1st Int.

26 If this Play doe not like, etc. Jonson refers to Dekker’s play of 1612 (see Introduction, p. xxix). On the title-page of this play we find If it be not good, The Diuel is in it. At the head of Act. 1, however, the title reads If this be not a good play, etc.

ACT I.

1. 1. 1 Hoh, hoh, etc. ‘Whalley is right in saying that this is the conventional way for the devil to make his appearance in the old morality-plays. Gifford objects on the ground that ‘it is not the roar of terror; but the boisterous expression of sarcastic merriment at the absurd petition of Pug;’ an objection, the truth of which does not necessarily invalidate Whalley’s statement. Jonson of course adapts the old conventions to his own ends. See Introduction, p. xxiii.

1. 1. 9 Entring a Sow, to make her cast her farrow? Cf. Dekker, etc., Witch of Edmonton (Wks. 4. 423): ‘Countr. I’ll be sworn, Mr. Carter, she bewitched Gammer Washbowls sow, to cast her Pigs a day before she would have farried.’

1. 1. 11 Totnam. ‘The first notice of Tottenham Court, as a place of public entertainment, contained in the books of the parish of St. Gile’s-in-the-Fields, occurs under the year 1645 (Wh-C.). Jonson, however, as early as 1614 speaks of ‘courting it to Totnam to eat cream’ (Bart. Fair, Act 1. Sc. 1, Wks. 4. 362). George Wither, in the Britain’s Remembrancer, 1628, refers to the same thing:

Tottenham Fields were until a comparatively recent date a favorite place of entertainment.

1. 1. 13 a tonning of Ale, etc. Cf. Sad Shep., Wks. 6. 276:

1. 1. 15 Spight o’ the housewiues cord, or her hot spit. ‘There be twentie severall waies to make your butter come, which for brevitie I omit; as to bind your cherne with a rope, to thrust thereinto a red hot spit, &c.’—Scot, Discovery, p. 229.

1. 1. 16, 17 Or some good Ribibe ... witch. This seems to be an allusion, as Fleay suggests, to Heywood’s Wise-Woman of Hogsdon. The witch of that play declares her dwelling to be in ‘Kentstreet’ (Heywood’s Wks. 5. 294). A ribibe meant originally a musical instrument, and was synonymous with rebec. By analogy, perhaps, it was applied to a shrill-voiced old woman. This is Gifford’s explanation. The word occurs again in Skelton’s Elynour Rummyng, l. 492, and in Chaucer, The Freres Tale, l. 1377: ‘a widwe, an old ribybe.’ Skeat offers the following explanation: ‘I suspect that this old joke, for such it clearly is, arose in a very different way [from that suggested by Gifford], viz. from a pun upon rebekke, a fiddle, and Rebekke, a married woman, from the mention of Rebecca in the marriage-service. Chaucer himself notices the latter in E. 1704.’

1. 1. 16 Kentish Towne. Kentish Town, Cantelows, or Cantelupe town is the most ancient district in the parish of Pancras. It was originally a small village, and as late as the eighteenth century a lonely and somewhat dangerous spot. In later years it became noted for its Assembly Rooms. In 1809 Hughson (London 6. 369) called it ‘the most romantic hamlet in the parish of Pancras.’ It is now a part of the metropolis. See Samuel Palmer’s St. Pancras, London, 1870.

1. 1. 17 Hogsden. Stow (Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 158) describes Hogsden as a ‘large street with houses on both sides.’ It was a prebend belonging to St. Paul’s. In Hogsden fields Jonson killed Gabriel Spenser in a duel in 1598. These fields were a great resort for the citizens on a holiday. The eating of cream there is frequently mentioned. See the quotation from Wither under note 1. 1. 11, and Alchemist, Wks. 4. 155 and 175:

Stephen in Every Man in dwelt here, and so was forced to associate with ‘the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington ponds.’ Hogsden or Hoxton, as it is now called, is to-day a populous district of the metropolis.

1. 1. 18 shee will not let you play round Robbin. The expression is obscure, and the dictionaries afford little help. Round-robin is a common enough phrase, but none of the meanings recorded is applicable in this connection. Some child’s game, played in a circle, seems to be referred to, or the expression may be a cant term for ‘play the deuce.’ Robin is a name of many associations, and its connection with Robin Hood, Robin Goodfellow, and ‘Robert’s Men’ (‘The third old rank of the Canting crew.’—Grose.) makes such an interpretation more or less probable.

M. N. G. in N. & Q. 9th Ser. 10. 394 says that ‘when a man does a thing in a circuitous, involved manner he is sometimes said “to go all round Robin Hood’s barn to do it.”’ ‘Round Robin Hood’s barn’ may possibly have been the name of a game which has been shortened to ‘round Robin.’

1. 1. 21 By a Middlesex Iury. ‘A reproof no less severe than merited. It appears from the records of those times, that many unfortunate creatures were condemned and executed on charges of the rediculous nature here enumerated. In many instances, the judge was well convinced of the innocence of the accused, and laboured to save them; but such were the gross and barbarous prejudices of the juries, that they would seldom listen to his recommendations; and he was deterred from shewing mercy, in the last place by the brutal ferociousness of the people, whose teeth were set on edge with’t, and who clamoured tumultuously for the murder of the accused.’—G.

1. 1. 32 Lancashire. This, as Gifford says, ‘was the very hot-bed of witches.’ Fifteen were brought to trial on Aug. 19, 1612, twelve of whom were convicted and burnt on the day after their trial ‘at the common place of execution near to Lancaster.’ The term ‘Lancashire Witches’ is now applied to the beautiful women for which the country is famed. The details of the Lancaster trial are contained in Potts’ Discoverie (Lond. 1613), and a satisfactory account is given by Wright in his Sorcery and Magic.

1. 1. 33 or some parts of Northumberland. The first witch-trial in Northumberland, so far as I have been able to ascertain, occurred in 1628. This was the trial of the Witch of Leeplish.

1. 1. 37 a Vice. See Introduction, pp. xxxiv f.

1. 1. 38 To practice there-with any play-fellow. See variants. The editors by dropping the hyphen have completely changed the sense of the passage. Pug wants a vice in order that he may corrupt his play-fellows there-with.

1. 1. 41 ff. Why, any Fraud;
Or Couetousnesse; or Lady Vanity;
Or old Iniquity. Fraud is a character in Robert Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London, printed 1584, and The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London, c 1588, printed 1590. Covetousness appears in Robin Conscience, c 1530, and is applied to one of the characters in The Staple of News, Wks. 5. 216. Vanity is one of the characters in Lusty Juventus (see note 1. 1. 50) and in Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, printed 1602 (O. Pl. 4th ed., 8. 328). She seems to have been a favorite with the later dramatists, and is frequently mentioned (I Henry IV. 2. 4; Lear 2. 2; Jew of Malta 2. 3, Marlowe’s Wks. 2. 45). Jonson speaks of her again in The Fox, Wks. 3. 218. For Iniquity see Introduction, p. xxxviii.

The change in punctuation (see variants), as well as that two lines below, was first suggested by Upton in a note appended to his Critical Observations on Shakespeare. Whalley silently adopted the reading in both cases.

1. 1. 43 I’ll call him hither. See variants. Coleridge, Notes, p. 280, says: ‘That is, against all probability, and with a (for Jonson) impossible violation of character. The words plainly belong to Pug, and mark at once his simpleness and his impatience.’ Cunningham says that he arrived independently at the same conclusion, and points out that it is plain from Iniquity’s opening speech that he understood the words to be Pug’s.

1. 1. 49 thy dagger. See note 1. 1. 85.

1. 1. 50 lusty Iuuentus. The morality-play of Lusty Juventus was written by R. Wever about 1550. It ‘breathes the spirit of the dogmatic reformation of the Protector Somerset,’ but ‘in spite of its abundant theology it is neither ill written, nor ill constructed’ (Ward, Eng. Drama 1. 125). It seems to have been very popular, and the expression ‘a lusty Juventus’ became proverbial. It is used as early as 1582 by Stanyhurst, Aeneis 2 (Arber). 64 and as late as Heywood’s Wise Woman of Hogsdon (c 1638), where a gallant is apostrophised as Lusty Juventus (Act 4). (See Nares and NED.) Portions of the play had been revived not many years before this within the tragedy of Thomas More (1590, acc. to Fleay 1596) under the title of The Mariage of Witt and Wisedome. ‘By dogs precyous woundes’ is one of the oaths used by Lusty Juventus in the old play, and may be the ‘Gogs-nownes’ referred to here (O. Pl., 4th ed., 2. 84). ‘Gogs nowns’ is used several times in Like will to Like (O. Pl., 4th ed., 3. 327, 331, etc.).

1. 1. 51 In a cloake to thy heele. See note 1. 1. 85.

1. 1. 51 a hat like a pent-house. ‘When they haue walkt thorow the streetes, weare their hats ore their eye-browes, like pollitick penthouses, which commonly make the shop of a Mercer, or a Linnen Draper, as dark as a roome in Bedlam.’ Dekker, West-ward Hoe, Wks. 2. 286.

Halliwell says (L. L. L., ed. Furness, p. 85): ‘An open shed or shop, forming a protection against the weather. The house in which Shakespeare was born had a penthouse along a portion of it.’ In Hollyband’s Dictionarie, 1593, it is spelled ‘pentice,’ which shows that the rime to ‘Juventus’ is probably not a distorted one.

1. 1. 52 thy doublet all belly. ‘Certaine I am there was neuer any kinde of apparell euer inuented that could more disproportion the body of man then these Dublets with great bellies, ... stuffed with foure, fiue or six pound of Bombast at the least.’—Stubbes, Anat., Part 1, p. 55.

1. 1. 54 how nimble he is! ‘A perfect idea of his activity may be formed from the incessant skipping of the modern Harlequin.’—G.

1. 1. 56 the top of Pauls-steeple. As Gifford points out, Iniquity is boasting of an impossible feat. St. Paul’s steeple had been destroyed by fire in 1561, and was not yet restored. Several attempts were made and money collected. ‘James I. countenanced a sermon at Paul’s Cross in favor of so pious an undertaking, but nothing was done till 1633 when reparations commenced with some activity, and Inigo Jones designed, at the expense of Charles I., a classic portico to a Gothic church.’—Wh-C.

Lupton, London Carbonadoed, 1632, writes: ‘The head of St. Paul’s hath twice been troubled with a burning fever, and so the city, to keep it from a third danger, lets it stand without a head.’ Gifford says that ‘the Puritans took a malignant pleasure in this mutilated state of the cathedral.’ Jonson refers to the disaster in his Execration upon Vulcan, U. 61, Wks. 8. 408. See also Dekker, Paules Steeples complaint, Non-dram. Wks. 4. 2.

1. 1. 56 Standard in Cheepe. This was a water-stand or conduit in the midst of the street of West Cheaping, where executions were formerly held. It was in a ruinous condition in 1442, when it was repaired by a patent from Henry VI. Stow (Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 100) gives a list of famous executions at this place, and says that ‘in the year 1399, Henry IV. caused the blanch charters made by Richard II. to be burnt there.’

1. 1. 58 a needle of Spaine. Gifford, referring to Randolph’s Amyntos and Ford’s Sun’s Darling, points out that ‘the best needles, as well as other sharp instruments, were, in that age, and indeed long before and after it, imported from Spain.’ The tailor’s needle was in cant language commonly termed a Spanish pike.

References to the Spanish needle are frequent. It is mentioned by Jonson in Chloridia, Wks. 8. 99; by Dekker, Wks. 4. 308; and by Greene, Wks. 11. 241. Howes (p. 1038) says: ‘The making of Spanish Needles, was first taught in England by Elias Crowse, a Germane, about the eight yeare of Queene Elizabeth, and in Queen Maries time, there was a Negro made fine Spanish Needles in Cheape-side, but would neuer teach his Art to any.’

1. 1. 59 the Suburbs. The suburbs were the outlying districts without the walls of the city. Cf. Stow, Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 156 f. They were for the most part the resort of disorderly persons. Cf. B. & Fl., Humorous Lieut. 1. 1.; Massinger, Emperor of the East 1. 2.; Shak., Jul. Caes. 2. 1; and Nares, Gloss. Wheatley (ed. Ev. Man in, p. 1) quotes Chettle’s Kind Harts Dreame, 1592: ‘The suburbs of the citie are in many places no other but dark dennes for adulterers, thieves, murderers, and every mischief worker; daily experience before the magistrates confirms this for truth.’ Cf. also Glapthorne, Wit in a Constable, Wks., ed. 1874, 1. 219:

In Every Man in, Wks. 1. 25, a ‘suburb humour’ is spoken of.

1. 1. 60 Petticoate-lane. This is the present Middlesex Street, Whitechapel. It was formerly called Hog Lane and was beautified with ‘fair hedge-rows,’ but by Stow’s time it had been made ‘a continual building throughout of garden houses and small cottages’ (Survey, ed. 1633, p. 120 b). Strype tells us that the house of the Spanish Ambassador, supposedly the famous Gondomar, was situated there (Survey 2. 28). In his day the inhabitants were French Protestant weavers, and later Jews of a disreputable sort. That its reputation was somewhat unsavory as early as Nash’s time we learn from his Prognostication (Wks. 2. 149):

‘If the Beadelles of Bridewell be carefull this Summer, it may be hoped that Peticote lane may be lesse pestered with ill aires than it was woont: and the houses there so cleere clensed, that honest women may dwell there without any dread of the whip and the carte.’ Cf. also Penniless Parliament, Old Book Collector’s Misc. 2. 16: ‘Many men shall be so venturously given, as they shall go into Petticoat Lane, and yet come out again as honestly as they went first in.’

1. 1. 60 the Smock-allies. Petticoat Lane led from the high street, Whitechapel, to Smock Alley or Gravel Lane. See Hughson 2. 387.

1. 1. 61 Shoreditch. Shoreditch was formerly notorious for the disreputable character of its women. ‘To die in Shoreditch’ seems to have been a proverbial phrase, and is so used by Dryden in The Kind Keeper, 4to, 1680. Cf. Nash, Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 94: ‘Call a Leete at Byshopsgate, & examine how euery second house in Shorditch is mayntayned; make a priuie search in Southwarke, and tell mee how many Shee-Inmates you fin de: nay, goe where you will in the Suburbes, and bring me two Virgins that haue vowd Chastity and Ile builde a Nunnery.’ Also ibid., p. 95; Gabriel Harvey, Prose Wks., ed. Grosart. 2. 169; and Dekker, Wks. 3. 352.

1. 1. 61 Whitechappell. ‘Till within memory the district north of the High Street was one of the very worst localities in London; a region of narrow and filthy streets, yards and alleys, many of them wholly occupied by thieves’ dens, the receptacles of stolen property, gin-spinning dog-holes, low brothels, and putrescent lodging-houses,—a district unwholesome to approach and unsafe for a decent person to traverse even in the day-time.’—Wh-C.

Saint Kathernes was the name of a hospital and precinct without London. The hospital was said to have been founded by Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen. In The Alchemist (Wks. 4. 161), Jonson speaks of its having been used ‘to keep the better sort of mad-folks.’ It was also employed as a reformatory for fallen women, and it is here that Winifred in Eastward Ho (ed. Schelling, p. 84) finds an appropriate landing-place.

From this hospital there was ‘a continual street, or filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements, or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors’ victuallers, along by the river of Thames, almost to Radcliff, a good mile from the Tower.’—Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 157.

The precinct was noted for its brew-houses and low drinking places. In The Staple of News Jonson speaks of ‘an ale-wife in Saint Katherine’s, At the Sign of the Dancing Bears’ (Wks. 5. 226). The same tavern is referred to in the Masque of Augurs as well as ‘the brew-houses in St. Katherine’s.’ The sights of the place are enumerated in the same masque.

The present passage seems to indicate that the precinct was largely inhabited by Dutch. In the Masque of Augurs Vangoose speaks a sort of Dutch jargon, and we know that a Flemish cemetery was located here (see Wh-C). Cf. also Sir Thomas Overbury’s Character of A drunken Dutchman resident in England, ed. Morley, p. 72: ‘Let him come over never so lean, and plant him but one month near the brew-houses of St. Catherine’s and he will be puffed up to your hand like a bloat herring.’ Dutch weavers had been imported into England as early as the reign of Edward III. (see Howes, p. 870 a), and in the year 1563 great numbers of Netherlanders with their wives and children fled into England owing to the civil dissension in Flanders (Howes, p. 868 a). They bore a reputation for hard drinking (cf. Like will to Like, O. Pl. 3. 325; Dekker, Non-dram. Wks. 3. 12; Nash, Wks. 2. 81, etc.).

The phrase ‘to take forth their patternes’ is somewhat obscure, and seems to have been forced by the necessity for a rhyme. Halliwell says that ‘take forth’ is equivalent to ‘learn,’ and the phrase seems therefore to mean ‘take their measure,’ ‘size them up,’ with a view to following their example. It is possible, of course, that actual patterns of the Dutch weavers or tailors are referred to.

1. 1. 63 Custome-house key. This was in Tower Street on the Thames side. Stow (ed. Thoms, pp. 51. 2) says that the custom-house was built in the sixth year of Richard II. Jonson mentions the place again in Every Man in, Wks. 1. 69.

1. 1. 66 the Dagger, and the Wool-sacke. These were two ordinaries or public houses of low repute, especially famous for their pies. There were two taverns called the ‘Dagger,’ one in Holborn and one in Cheapside. It is probably to the former of these that Jonson refers. It is mentioned again in the Alchemist (Wks. 4. 24 and 165) and in Dekker’s Satiromastix (Wks. 1. 200). Hotten says that the sign of a dagger was common, and arose from its being a charge in the city arms.

The Woolsack was without Aldgate. It was originally a wool-maker’s sign. Machyn mentions the tavern in 1555; and it is alluded to in Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, Wks. 1. 61. See Wh-C. and Hotten’s History of Signboards, pp. 325 and 362.

1. 1. 69 Belins-gate. Stow (ed. Thoms, p. 78) describes Belins-gate as ‘a large water-gate, port or harborough.’ He mentions the tradition that the name was derived from that of Belin, King of the Britons, but discredits it. Billingsgate is on the Thames, a little below London Bridge, and is still the great fish-market of London.

1. 1. 70 shoot the Bridge. The waterway under the old London Bridge was obstructed by the narrowness of the arches, by cornmills built in some of the openings, and by the great waterworks at its southern end. ‘Of the arches left open some were too narrow for the passage of boats of any kind. The widest was only 36 feet, and the resistance caused to so large a body of water on the rise and fall of the tide by this contraction of its channel produced a fall or rapid under the bridge, so that it was necessary to “ship oars” to shoot the bridge, as it was called,—an undertaking, to amateur watermen especially, not unattended with danger. “With the flood-tide it was impossible, and with the ebb-tide dangerous to pass through or shoot the arches of the bridge.” In the latter case prudent passengers landed above the bridge, generally at the Old Swan Stairs, and walked to some wharf, generally Billingsgate, below it.’—Wh-C.

1. 1. 70 the Cranes i’ the Vintry. These were ‘three strong cranes of timber placed on the Vintry wharf by the Thames to crane up wine there (Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 00). They were situated in Three Cranes’ lane, and near by was the famous tavern mentioned as one of the author’s favorite resorts (Bart. Fair 1. 1, Wks. 4. 356). Jonson speaks of it again in The Silent Woman, Wks. 3. 376, and in the Masque of Augurs. Pepys visited the place on January 23, 1662, and describes the best room as ‘a narrow dogg-hole’ in which he and his friends were crammed so close ‘that it made me loath my company and victuals, and a sorry dinner it was too.’ Cf. also Dekker, (Non-dram. Wks. 8. 77).

1. 1. 72 the Strand. This famous street was formerly the road between the cities of Westminster and London. That many lawyers lived in this vicinity we learn from Middleton (Father Hubburd’s Tales, Wks. 8. 77).

1. 1. 73 Westminster-hall. It was once the hall of the King’s palace at Westminster, originally built by William Rufus. The present hall was formed 1397-99. Here the early parliaments were held. ‘This great hall hath been the usual place of pleadings, and ministration of justice.’—Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 174.

1. 1. 75 so Veluet to Leather. Velvet seems to have been much worn by lawyers. Cf. Overbury, Characters, p. 72: ‘He loves his friend as a counsellor at law loves the velvet breeches he was first made barrister in.’

1. 1. 85 In his long coat, shaking his wooden dagger. See Introduction, pp. xxxviii f.

1. 1. 93 Cokeley. Whalley says that he was the master of a puppet show, and this has been accepted by all authorities (Gifford, ed.; Nares, Gloss.; Alden, ed. of Bart. Fair). He seems, however, to have been rather an improviser like Vennor, or a mountebank with a gift of riming. He is mentioned several times by Jonson: Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 422, 3: ‘He has not been sent for, and sought out for nothing, at your great city-suppers, to put down Coriat and Cokely.’ Epigr.129; To Mime, Wks. 8. 229:

1. 1. 94 Vennor. Gifford first took Vennor to be a juggler, but corrected his statement in the Masque of Augurs, Wks. 7. 414. He says: ‘Fenner, whom I supposed to be a juggler, was a rude kind of improvisatore. He was altogether ignorant; but possessed a wonderful facility in pouring out doggrel verse. He says of himself,

He seems to have made a wretched livelihood by frequenting city feasts, &c., where, at the end of the entertainment, he was called in to mount a stool and amuse the company by stringing together a number of vile rhymes upon any given subject. To this the quotation alludes. Fenner is noticed by the duchess of Newcastle: “For the numbers every schoolboy can make them on his fingers, and for the rime, Fenner would put down Ben Jonson, and yet neither boy nor Fenner so good poets.” This, too, is the person meant in the Cambridge answer to Corbet’s satire:

Fenner was so famed for his faculty of rhyming, that James, who, like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape him, sent for him to court. Upon which Fenner added to his other titles that of his “Majesty’s Riming Poet.” This gave offense to Taylor, the Water poet, and helped to produce that miserable squabble printed among his works, and from which I have principally derived the substance of this note.’—G.

‘In Richard Brome’s Covent Garden Weeded (circ. 1638), we have: “Sure ’tis Fenner or his ghost. He was a riming souldier.” (p. 42.)’—C.

The controversy referred to may be found in the Spenser Society’s reprint of the 1630 folio of Taylor’s Works, 1869, pp. 304-325. Here may be gathered a few more facts regarding the life of Fenner (or Fennor as it should be spelled), among them that he was apprenticed when a boy to a blind harper. In the quarrel, it must be confessed, Fennor does not appear markedly inferior to his derider either in powers of versification or in common decency. The quarrel between the poets took place in October, 1614, and Fennor’s admittance to court seems to be referred to in the present passage.

1. 1. 95 a Sheriffes dinner. This was an occasion of considerable extravagance. Entick (Survey 1. 499) tells us that in 1543 a sumptuary law was passed ‘to prevent luxurious eating or feasting in a time of scarcity; whereby it was ordained, that the lord-mayor should not have more than seven dishes at dinner or supper,’ and ‘an alderman and sheriff no more than six.’

1. 1. 96 Skip with a rime o’ the Table, from New-nothing. What is meant by New-nothing I do not know. From the construction it would seem to indicate the place from which the fool was accustomed to take his leap, but it is possible that the word should be connected with rime, and may perhaps be the translation of a Greek or Latin title for some book of facetiae published about this time. Such wits as Fennor and Taylor doubtless produced many pamphlets, the titles of which have not been recorded. In 1622 Taylor brought out a collection of verse called ‘Sir Gregory Non-sense His Newes from no place,’ and it may have been this very book in manuscript that suggested Jonson’s title. In the play of King Darius, 1106, one of the actors says: ‘I had rather then my new nothing, I were gon.’

1. 1. 97 his Almaine-leape into a custard. ‘In the earlier days, when the city kept a fool it was customary for him at public entertainments, to leap into a large bowl of custard set on purpose.’—W. Whalley refers also to All’s well that Ends Well 2. 5: ‘You have made a shift to run into it, boots and all, like him that leapt into the custard.’

Gifford quotes Glapthorne, Wit in a Const.:

He continues: ‘Indeed, no common supply was required; for, besides what the Corporation (great devourers of custard) consumed on the spot, it appears that it was thought no breach of city manners to send, or take some of it home with them for the use of their ladies.’ In the excellent old play quoted above, Clara twits her uncle with this practise:

Cunningham says: ‘Poets of a comparatively recent date continue to associate mayors and custards.’ He Quotes Prior (Alma, Cant. 1) and a letter from Bishop Warburton to Hurd (Apr. 1766): ‘I told him (the Lord Mayor) in what I thought he was defective—that I was greatly disappointed to see no custard at table. He said that they had been so ridiculed for their custard that none had ventured to make its appearance for some years.’ Jonson mentions the ‘quaking custards’ again in The Fox, Wks. 3. 164., and in The Staple of News, Wks. 5. 196, 7.

An Almain-leap was a dancing leap. ‘Allemands were danced here a few years back’ (Nares). Cunningham quotes from Dyce: ‘Rabelais tells us that Gargantua “wrestled, ran, jumped, not at three steps and a leap, ... nor yet at the Almane’s, for, said Gymnast, these jumps are for the wars altogether unprofitable and of no use.” Rabelais, Book 1, C. 23.’

Bishop Barlow, Answer to a Catholike Englishman, p. 231, Lond. 1607, says: ‘Now heere the Censurer makes an Almaine leape, skipping 3 whole pages together’ (quoted in N. & Q. 1st Ser. 10. 157).

1. 1. 97 their hoods. The French hood was still worn by citizens’ wives. Thus in the London Prodigal, ed. 1709:

When Simon Eyre is appointed sheriff, his wife immediately inquires for a ‘Fardingale-maker’ and a ‘French-hood maker’ (Dekker, Wks. 1. 39). Strutt says that French hoods were out of fashion by the middle of the 17th century (Antiq. 3. 93). See the frequent references to this article of apparel in Bart. Fair. It is interesting to notice that the hoods are worn at dinner.

1. 1. 106, 7. The readings of ‘Whalley and Gifford are distinctly inferior to the original.

1. 1. 112, 3 Car-men Are got into the yellow starch. Starch was introduced in the age of Elizabeth to meet the needs of the huge Spanish ruff which had come into favor some years before (see Soc. Eng., p. 386). It was frequently colored. In Middleton and Rowley’s World Tossed at Tennis five different colored starches are personified. Stubbes says that it was ‘of all collours and hues.’ Yellow starch must have come into fashion not long before this play was acted, for in the Owle’s Allmanacke, published in 1618, it is said: ‘Since yellow bandes and saffroned chaperoones came vp, is not above two yeeres past.’ This, however, is not to be taken literally, for the execution of Mrs. Turner took place Nov. 14, 1615. Of her we read in Howell’s Letters 1. 2: ‘Mistress Turner, the first inventress of yellow Starch, was executed in a Cobweb Lawn Ruff of that colour at Tyburn; and with her I believe that yellow Starch, which so much disfigured our Nation, and rendered them so ridiculous and fantastic, will receive its Funeral.’ Sir S. D’Ewes (Autobiog. 1. 69) says that from that day it did, indeed, grow ‘generally to be detested and disused.’ The Vision of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1616 (quoted in Amos, Great Oyer, p. 50) speaks of

as already out of fashion. Its popularity must have returned, however, since Barnaby Riche in the Irish Hubbub,1622, p. 40, laments that ‘yellow starcht bands’ were more popular than ever, and he prophesies that the fashion ‘shortly will be as conversant amongst taylors, tapsters, and tinkers, as now they have brought tobacco.’

D’Ewes also in describing the procession of King James from Whitehall to Westminster, Jan. 30, 1620, says that the king saw one window ‘full of gentlewomen or ladies, all in yellow bandes,’ whereupon he called out ‘A pox take yee,’ and they all withdrew in shame. In The Parson’s Wedding, printed 1664, O. Pl. 11. 498, it is spoken of as out of fashion. Yellow starch is mentioned again in 5. 8. 74. 5, and a ballad of ‘goose-green starch and the devil’ is mentioned in Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 393. Similarly, Nash speaks in Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 44. of a ‘Ballet of Blue starch and poaking stick.’ See also Dodsley’s note on Albumazar, O. Pl. 7. 132.

1. 1. 113, 4 Chimney-sweepers To their tabacco. See the quotation from Riche in the last note and note 5. 8. 71.

1. 1. 114, 5 Hum, Meath, and Obarni. Hum is defined B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hum or Humming Liquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah. It is mentioned in Fletcher’s Wild Goose Chase 2. 3 and Heywood’s Drunkard. p. 48. Meath or mead is still made in England. It was a favorite drink in the Middle Ages, and consisted of a mixture of honey and water with the addition of a ferment. Harrison, Description of England, ed. Furnivall, 1. 161, thus describes it: ‘There is a kind of swish swash made also in Essex, and diuerse other places, with honicombs and water, which the [homelie] countrie wiues, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call mead, verie good in mine opinion for such as loue to be loose bodied [at large, or a little eased of the cough,] otherwise it differeth so much from the true metheglin, as chalke from cheese.’

Obarni was long a crux for the editors and dictionaries. Gifford (Wks. 7. 226) supplied a part of the quotation from Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap, 1609, completed by James Platt, Jun. (N. & Q. 9th Ser. 3. 306). in which ‘Mead Obarne and Mead Cherunk’ are mentioned as drinks

Mr. Platt first instanced the existing Russian word obarni or obvarnyi (see Gloss.), meaning ‘boiling, scalding,’ and C. C. B. (N. & Q. 9. 3. 413) supplied a quotation from the account of the voyage of Sir Jerome Bowes in 1583 (Harris’s Travels 1. 535), in which ‘Sodden Mead’ appears among the items of diet supplied by the Emperor to the English Ambassador. The identification was completed with a quotation given by the Stanford Dict.: ‘1598 Hakluyt Voy. 1. 461 One veather of sodden mead called Obarni.’

1. 1. 119 your rope of sand. This occupation is mentioned again in 5. 2. 6.

1. 1. 126 Tissue gownes. Howes, p. 869. tells us that John Tuce, ‘dweling neere Shorditch Church’, first attained perfection in the manufacture of cloth of tissue.

1. 1. 127 Garters and roses. Howes, p. 1039, says that ‘at this day (1631) men of meane rancke weare Garters, and shooe Roses, of more than fiue pound price.’ Massinger, in the City Madam, Wks., p. 334, speaks of ‘roses worth a family.’ Cf. also John Taylor’s Works, 1630 (quoted in Hist. Brit. Cost.):

1. 1. 128 Embroydred stockings. ‘Then haue they nether-stocks to these gay hosen, not of cloth (though neuer so fine) for that is thought to base, but of Iarnsey worsted, silk, thred, and such like, or els at the least of the finest yarn that can be, and so curiouslye knit with open seam down the leg, with quirks and clocks about the ancles, and sometime (haply) interlaced with gold or siluer threds, as is wonderful to behold.’—Stubbes, Anat., Part 1, p. 57. The selling of stockings was a separate trade at this time, and great attention was paid to this article of clothing. Silk stockings are frequently mentioned by the dramatists. Cf. Stephen Gosson, Pleasant Quippes:

1. 1. 128 cut-worke smocks, and shirts. Cf. B. & Fl., Four Plays in One:

1. 1. 135 But you must take a body ready made. King James in his DÆmonologie (Wks., ed. 1616, p. 120) explains that the devil, though but of air, can ‘make himself palpable, either by assuming any dead bodie, and vsing the ministerie thereof, or else by deluding as well their sence of feeling as seeing.’

1. 1. 143 our tribe of Brokers. Cf. Ev. Man in, Wks. 1. 82:

The pawnbrokers were cordially hated in Jonson’s time. Their quarter was Houndsditch. Stow says: ‘there are crept in among them [the inhabitants of Houndsditch] a base kinde of vermine, wel-deserving to bee ranked and numbred with them, whom our old Prophet and Countryman, Gyldas, called Ætatis atramentum, the black discredit of the Age, and of place where they are suffered to live.... These men, or rather monsters in the shape of men, professe to live by lending, and yet will lend nothing but upon pawnes;’ etc.

Nash speaks of them in a similar strain: ‘Fruits shall be greatly eaten with Catterpillers; as Brokers, Farmers and Flatterers, which feeding on the sweate of other mens browes, shall greatlye hinder the beautye of the spring.’—Prognostication, Wks.2. 145. ‘They shall crie out against brokers, as Jeremy did against false prophets.’ Ibid. 2. 162.

1. 1. 148 as you make your soone at nights relation. Cf. Dekker, Satiromastix, Wks. 1. 187: ‘Shee’l be a late sturrer soone at night sir,’ and ibid. 223:

1. 2. 1 ff. I, they doe, now, etc. ‘Compare this exquisite piece of sense, satire, and sound philosophy in 1616 with Sir M. Hale’s speech from the bench in a trial of a witch many years afterwards.’—Coleridge, Notes, p. 280.

1. 2. 1 Bretnor. An almanac maker (fl. 1607-1618). A list of his works, compiled from the catalogue of the British Museum, is given in the DNB. He is mentioned twice by Middleton:

‘Chough. I’ll not be married to-day, Trimtram: hast e’er an almanac about thee? this is the nineteenth of August, look what day of the month ’tis.

Fleay identifies him with Norbret, one of the astrologers in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Rollo, Duke of Normandy.

1. 2. 2 Gresham. A pretended astrologer, contemporary with Forman, and said to be one of the associates of the infamous Countess of Essex and Mrs. Turner in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Arthur Wilson mentions him in The Life of James I., p. 70:

‘Mrs. Turner, the Mistris of the Work, had lost both her supporters. Forman, her first prop, drop’t away suddenly by death; and Gresham another rotten Engin (that succeded him) did not hold long: She must now bear up all her self.’

He is mentioned twice in Spark’s Narrative History of King James, Somer’s Tracts 2. 275: ‘Dr. Forman being dead, Mrs. Turner wanted one to assist her; whereupon, at the countesses coming to London, one Gresham was nominated to be entertained in this businesse, and, in processe of time, was wholly interested in it; this man was had in suspition to have had a hand in the Gunpowder plot, he wrote so near it in his almanack; but, without all question, he was a very skilful man in the mathematicks, and, in his latter time, in witchcraft, as was suspected, and therefore the fitter to bee imployed in those practises, which, as they were devilish, so the devil had a hand in them.’

Ibid. 287: ‘Now Gresham growing into years, having spent much time in many foule practises to accomplish those things at this time, gathers all his babies together, viz. pictures in lead, in wax, in plates of gold, of naked men and women with crosses, crucifixes, and other implements, wrapping them all up together in a scarfe, crossed every letter in the sacred word Trinity, crossed these things very holily delivered into the hands of one Weston to bee hid in the earth that no man might find them, and so in Thames-street having finished his evill times he died, leaving behind him a man and a maid, one hanged for a witch, and the other for a thief very shortly after.’

In the ‘Heads of Charges against Robert, Earl of Somerset’, drawn up by Lord Bacon, we read: ‘That the countess laboured Forman and Gresham to inforce the Queen by witchcraft to favour the countess’ (Howell’s State Trials 2. 966). To this King James replied in an ‘Apostyle,’ Nothing to Somerset. This exhausts the references to Gresham that I have been able to find. See note on Savory, 1. 2. 3.

1. 2. 2. Fore-man. Simon Foreman, or Forman (1552-1611) was the most famous of the group of quacks here mentioned. He studied at Oxford, 1573-1578, and in 1579 began his career as a necromancer. He claimed the power to discover lost treasure, and was especially successful in his dealings with women. A detailed account of his life is given in the DNB. and a short but interesting sketch in Social England 4. 87. The chief sources are Wm. Lilly’s History and a diary from 1564 to 1602, with an account of Forman’s early life, published by Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps for the Camden Soc., 1843.

He is mentioned again by Jonson in Silent Woman, Wks. 3. 413: ‘Daup. I would say, thou hadst the best philtre in the world, and couldst do more than Madam Medea, or Doctor Foreman.’ In Sir Thomas Overbury’s Vision (Harl. Ms., vol. 7, quoted in D’Ewes’ Autobiog., p. 89) he is spoken of as ‘that fiend in human shape.’

1. 2. 3 Francklin. Francklin was an apothecary, and procured the poison for Mrs. Turner (see Amos, Great Oyer. p. 97). He was one of the three persons executed with Mrs. Turner. Arthur Wilson, in his Life of James I. (p. 70), describes him as ‘a swarthy, sallow, crooked-backt fellow, who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came.’ See also Somer’s Tracts 2. 287. The poem already quoted furnishes a description of Francklin:

1. 2. 3 Fiske. ‘In this year 1633, I became acquainted with Nicholas Fiske, licentiate in physick, who was borne in Suffolk, near Framingham [Framlingham] Castle, of very good parentage.... He was a person very studious, laborious, and of good apprehension.... He was exquisitely skilful in the art of directions upon nativities, and had a good genius in performing judgment thereupon.... He died about the seventy-eighth year of his age, poor.’—Lilly, Hist., p. 42 f.

Fiske appears as La Fiske in Rollo, Duke of Normandy, and is also mentioned by Butler, Hudibr., Part 2, Cant. 3. 403:

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:

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 ? ?? 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:

Cunningham adds a passage from Chapman, Wks. 3. 145:

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):

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:

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:

Cf. also The Virgin Martyr, Dekker’s Wks. 4. 57:

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:

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., G 105:

??ete d? ??????? ????.

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:

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

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:

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:

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:

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:

Cf. also Stap. of News, Wks. 5. 210:

Jonson plays on the names of Pinnacia in the New Inn, Wks. 5. 384:

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:

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:

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:

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.

Whalley suggested:

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

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:

Greene’s Tu Quoque, O. Pl., 2d ed., 7. 28:

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:

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:

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

‘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:

‘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:

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:

Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 175:

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:

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:

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.’

‘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]:

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

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 ?e??t?p???? 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):

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 ??p.

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:

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:

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.:

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

A much closer imitation is found in Webster, Devil’s Law Case, Wks. 2. 37:

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

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

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., Part 1, P. 79.

2. 6. 21 and done the worst defeate vpon my selfe. Defeat is often used by Shakespeare in this sense. See Schmidt, and compare Hamlet 2. 2. 598:

2. 6. 32 a body intire. Cf. 5. 6. 48.

2. 6. 35 You make me paint. Gifford quotes from the Two Noble Kinsmen:

2. 6. 37 SN. ‘Whoever has noticed the narrow streets or rather lanes of our ancestors, and observed how story projected beyond story, till the windows of the upper rooms almost touched on different sides, will easily conceive the feasibility of everything which takes place between Wittipol and his mistress, though they make their appearance in different houses.’—G.

I cannot believe that Jonson wished to represent the two houses as on opposite sides of the street. He speaks of them as ‘contiguous’, which would naturally mean side by side. Further than this, one can hardly imagine even in the ‘narrow lanes of our ancestors’ so close a meeting that the liberties mentioned in 2. 6. 76 SN. could be taken.

2. 6. 53 A strange woman. In Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 395, Justice Overdo says: ‘Rescue this youth here out of the hands of the lewd man and the strange woman.’ Gifford explains in a note: ‘The scripture phrase for an immodest woman, a prostitute. Indeed this acceptation of the word is familiar to many languages. It is found in the Greek; and we have in Terence—pro uxore habere hanc peregrinam: upon which Donatus remarks, hoc nomine etiam meretrices nominabantur.’

2. 6. 57-113 WIT. No, my tune-full Mistresse? etc. This very important passage is the basis of Fleay’s theory of identification discussed in section D. IV. of the Introduction. The chief passages necessary for comparison are quoted below.

A CELEBRATION OF CHARIS:
In Ten Lyric Pieces.

V.
His Discourse with Cupid.

UNDERWOODS XXXVI.
AN ELEGY.

THE GIPSIES METAMORPHOSED
The Lady Purbeck’s Fortune, by the

From

A CHALLENGE AT TILT,
At a Marriage.

In the above passages the chief correspondences to be noted are as follows:

1. Ch. 5. 17; U. 36. 3-4; Challenge 6. Cf. also Ch. 9. 17:

2. Ch. 5. 25-6; U. 36. 9-10; DA. 2. 6. 86-7; Gipsies 17-8; Challenge 8.

3. Ch. 5. 21-2; U. 36. 7-8; DA. 2. 6. 82-3; Gipsies 15-6; Challenge 5-6.

4. Ch. 5. 41; Challenge 9-10.

5. U. 36. 5-6; DA. 2. 6. 77-82; Challenge 17-8. Cf. also Ch. 9. 9-12:

6. U. 36. 21; DA. 1. 6. 132.

7· U. 36. 1-2; Gipsies 13-4; Challenge 5.

8. U. 36. 22-3; DA. 2. 6. 64-5

9. DA. 2. 6. 84-5; Ch. 9. 19-20:

10. Gipsies 19-20; Ch. 1. 23-4:

2. 6. 72 These sister-swelling brests. ‘This is an elegant and poetical rendering of the sororiantes mammae of the Latins, which Festus thus explains: Sororiare puellarum mammae dicuntur, cum primum tumescunt.’—G.

2. 6. 76 SN. ‘Liberties very similar to these were, in the poet’s time, permitted by ladies, who would have started at being told that they had foregone all pretensions to delicacy.’—G.

The same sort of familiarity is hinted at in Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (Part 1, p. 78). Furnivall quotes Histriomastix (Simpson’s School of Shak. 2. 50) and Vindication of Top Knots, Bagford Collection, 1. 124, in illustration of the subject. Gosson’s Pleasant Quippes (1595) speaks of ‘these naked paps, the Devils ginnes.’ Cf. also Cyn. Rev., Wks. 2. 266, and Case is A., Wks. 6. 330. It seems to have been a favorite subject of attack at the hands of both Puritans and dramatists.

2. 6. 76 Downe to this valley. Jonson uses a similar figure in Cyn. Rev., Wks. 2. 240 and in Charis (see note 2. 6. 57).

2. 6. 78 these crisped groues. So Milton, Comus, 984: ‘Along the crisped shades and bowers.’ Herrick, Hesper., Cerem. Candlemas-Eve: ‘The crisped yew.’

2. 6. 85 well torn’d. Jonson’s usual spelling. See Timber, ed. Schelling, 64. 33; 76. 22. etc.

2. 6. 85 Billyard ball. Billiards appears to have been an out-of-door game until the sixteenth century. It was probably introduced into England from France. See J. A. Picton, N. & Q.. 5. 5. 283. Jonson uses this figure again in Celeb. Charis 9. 19-20.

2. 6. 92 when I said, a glasse could speake, etc. Cf. 1. 6. 80 f.

2. 6. 100 And from her arched browes, etc. Swinburne says of this line: ‘The wheeziest of barrel-organs, the most broken-winded of bagpipes, grinds or snorts out sweeter music than that.’—Study of Ben Jonson, p. 104.

2. 6. 104 Have you seene. Sir John Suckling (ed. 1874, p. 79) imitates this stanza:

2. 6. 104 a bright Lilly grow. The figures of the lily, the snow, and the swan’s down have already been used in The Fox, Wks. 3. 195. The source of that passage is evidently Martial, Epig. 1. 115:

In this place Jonson seems to have more particularly in mind Epig. 5. 37:

2. 7. 2, 3 that Wit of man will doe’t. There is evidently an ellipsis of some sort before that (cf. Abbott, §284). Perhaps ‘provided’ is to be understood.

2. 7. 4 She shall no more be buz’d at. The metaphor is carried out in the words that follow, sweet meates 5, hum 6, flye-blowne 7. ‘Fly-blown’ was a rather common term of opprobrium. Cf. Dekker, Satiromastix, Wks. 1. 195: ‘Shal distaste euery vnsalted line, in their fly-blowne Comedies.’ Jonson is very fond of this metaphor, and presses it beyond all endurance in New Inn, Act 2. Sc. 2, Wks. 5. 344, 5, etc.

2. 7. 13 I am resolu’d on’t, Sir. See variants. Gifford points out the quibble on the word resolved. See Gloss.

2. 7. 17 O! I could shoote mine eyes at him. Cf. Fox, Wks. 3. 305: ‘That I could shoot mine eyes at him, like gun-stones!’

2. 7. 22. See variants. The the is probably absorbed by the preceding dental. Cf. 5. 7. 9.

2. 7. 33 fine pac’d huishers. See note 4. 4. 201.

2. 7. 38 turn’d my good affection. ‘Not diverted or changed its course; but, as appears from what follows, soured it. The word is used in a similar sense by Shakespeare:

2. 8. 9, 10 That was your bed-fellow. Ingine, perhaps in anticipation of Fitzdottrel’s advancement, employs a term usually applied to the nobility. Cf. K. Henry V. 2. 2. 8:

Steevens in a note on the passage points out that the familiar appellation of bedfellow, which appears strange to us, was common among the ancient nobility.’ He quotes from A Knack to know a Knave, 1594; Look about you, 1600; Cynthia’s Revenge, 1613; etc., where the expression is used in the sense of ‘intimate companion’ and applied to nobles. Jonson uses the term chamberfellow in Underwoods, Wks. 8. 353.

2. 8. 20 An Academy. With this passage compare U. 62, Wks. 8. 412:

Jonson again refers to ‘the Academies’ (apparently schools of deportment or dancing schools) in 3. 5. 33.

2. 8. 33 Oracle-Foreman. See note 1. 2. 2.

2. 8. 59 any thing takes this dottrel. See note 2. 2. 49-50.

2. 8. 64 Dicke Robinson. Collier says: ‘This player may have been an original actor in some of Shakespeare’s later dramas, and he just outlived the complete and final suppression of the stage.’ His death and the date at which it occurred have been matters of dispute.

His earliest appearance in any list of actors is at the end of Jonson’s Catiline, 1611, with the King’s Majesty’s Servants. He was probably the youngest member of the company, and doubtless sustained a female part. Gifford believes that he took the part of Wittipol in the present play, though this is merely a conjecture. ‘The only female character he is known to have filled is the lady of Giovanus in The Second Maiden’s Tragedy, but at what date is uncertain; neither do we know at what period he began to represent male characters.’ Of the plays in which he acted, Collier mentions Beaumont and Fletcher’s Bonduca, Double Marriage, Wife for a Month, and Wild Goose Chase (1621); and Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, 1622.

His name is found in the patent granted by James I. in 1619 and in that granted by Charles I. in 1625. Between 1629 and 1647 no notice of him occurs, and this is the last date at which we hear of him. ‘His name follows that of Lowin in the dedication to the folio of Beaumont and Fletcher’s works, published at that time.’—Collier, Memoirs, p. 268.

Jonson not infrequently refers to contemporary actors. Compare the Epitaph on Salathiel Pavy, Ep. 120; the speech of Venus in The Masque of Christmas, Wks. 7. 263; and the reference to Field and Burbage in Bart. Fair 5. 3.

2. 8. 73 send frolicks! ‘Frolics are couplets, commonly of an amatory or satirical nature, written on small slips of paper, and wrapt round a sweetmeat. A dish of them is usually placed on the table after supper, and the guests amuse themselves with sending them to one another, as circumstances seem to render them appropriate: this is occasionally productive of much mirth. I do not believe that the game is to be found in England; though the drawing on Twelfth Night may be thought to bear some kind of coarse resemblance to it. On the continent I have frequently been present at it.’—G.

The NED. gives only one more example, from R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature XIV. § 2. 244 (1631) ‘Moveable as Shittlecockes ... or as Frolicks at Feasts, sent from man to man, returning againe at last, to the first man.’

2. 8. 74, 5 burst your buttons, or not left you seame. Cf. Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 359: ‘he breaks his buttons, and cracks seams at every saying he sobs out.’

2. 8. 95, 103. See variants.

2. 8. 100 A Forrest moues not. ‘I suppose Trains means, “It is in vain to tell him of venison and pheasant, the right to the bucks in a whole forest will not move him.”’—C.

2. 8. 100 that forty pound. See 3. 3. 148.

2. 8. 102 your bond Of Sixe; and Statute of eight hundred! I. e., of six, and eight hundred pounds. ‘Statutes merchant, statutes staple, and recognizances in the nature of a statute staple were acknowledgements of debt made in writing before officers appointed for that purpose, and enrolled of record. They bound the lands of the debtor; and execution was awarded upon them upon default in payment without the ordinary process of an action. These securities were originally introduced for the encouragement of trade, by providing a sure and speedy remedy for the recovery of debts between merchants, and afterwards became common assurances, but have now become obsolete.’—S. M. Leake, Law of Contracts, p. 95.

Two of Pecunia’s attendants in The Staple of News are Statute and Band (i. e. Bond, see U. 34). The two words are often mentioned together. In Dekker’s Bankrouts Banquet (Non-dram. Wks. 3. 371) statutes are served up to the bankrupts.

Trains is evidently trying to impress Fitzdottrel with the importance of Merecraft’s transactions.

ACT III.

3. 1. 8 Innes of Court. ‘The four Inns of Court, Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, the Inner, and the Middle Temple, have alone the right of admitting persons to practise as barristers, and that rank can only be attained by keeping the requisite number of terms as a student at one of those Inns.’—Wh-C.

Jonson dedicates Every Man out of his Humor ‘To the Noblest Nurseries of Humanity and Liberty in the Kingdom, the Inns of Court.’

3. 1. 10 a good man. Gifford quotes Merch. of Ven. 1. 3. 15: ‘My meaning in saying he is a good man, is, to have you understand me, that he is sufficient.’ Marston, Dutch Courtesan, Wks. 2. 57. uses the word in the same sense.

3. 1. 20 our two Pounds, the Compters. The London Compters or Counters were two sheriff’s prisons for debtors, etc., mentioned as early as the 15th century. In Jonson’s day they were the Poultry Counter and the Wood Street Counter. They were long a standing joke with the dramatists, who seem to speak from a personal acquaintance with them. Dekker (Roaring Girle, Wks. 3. 189) speaks of ‘Wood Street College,’ and Middleton (Phoenix, Wks. 1. 192) calls them ‘two most famous universities’ and in another place ‘the two city hazards, Poultry and Wood Street.’ Jonson in Every Man in (Wks. 1. 42) speaks of them again as ‘your city pounds, the counters’, and in Every man out refers to the ‘Master’s side’ (Wks. 2. 181) and the ‘two-penny ward,’ the designations for the cheaper quarters of the prison.

3. 1. 35 out of rerum natura. In rerum natura is a phrase used by Lucretius 1. 25. It means, according to the Stanford Dictionary, ‘in the nature of things, in the physical universe.’ In some cases it is practically equivalent to ‘in existence.’ Cf. Sil. Wom., Wks. 3. 382: ‘Is the bull, bear, and horse, in rerum natura still?’

3. 2. 12 a long vacation. The long vacation in the Inns of Court, which Jonson had in mind, lasts from Aug. 13 to Oct. 23. In Staple of News, Wks. 5. 170, he makes a similar thrust at the shop-keepers:

3. 2. 22 I bought Plutarch’s liues. T. North’s famous translation first appeared in 1579. New editions followed in 1595, 1603, 1610-12, and 1631.

3. 2. 33 Buy him a Captaines place. The City Train Bands were a constant subject of ridicule for the dramatists. They are especially well caricatured by Fletcher in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act 5. In addition to the City Train Bands, the Fraternity of Artillery, now called The Honorable Artillery Company, formed a separate organization. The place of practice was the Artillery Garden in Bunhill Fields (see note 3. 2. 41). In spite of ridicule the Train Bands proved a source of strength during the Civil War (see Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, 4. 236 and Wh-C., Artillery Ground).

Jonson was fond of poking fun at the Train Bands. Cf. U. 62, Wks. 8. 409; Ev. Man in, Wks. 1. 88; and Alchemist, Wks. 4. 13. Face, it will be remembered, had been ‘translated suburb-captain’ through Subtle’s influence.

The immediate occasion of Jonson’s satire was doubtless the revival of military enthusiasm in 1614, of which Entick (Survey 2. 115) gives the following account:

‘The military genius of the Londoners met with an opportunity, about this time, to convince the world that they still retained the spirit of their forefathers, should they be called out in the cause of their king and country. His majesty having commanded a general muster of the militia throughout the kingdom, the city of London not only mustered 6000 citizens completely armed, who performed their several evolutions with surprizing dexterity; but a martial spirit appeared amongst the rising generation. The children endeavoured to imitate their parents; chose officers, formed themselves into companies, marched often into the fields with colours flying and beat of drums, and there, by frequent practice, grew up expert in the military exercises.’

3. 2. 35 Cheapside. Originally Cheap, or West Cheap, a street between the Poultry and St. Paul’s, a portion of the line from Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange, and from Holborn to the Bank of England.

‘At the west end of this Poultrie and also of Buckles bury, beginneth the large street of West Cheaping, a market-place so called, which street stretcheth west till ye come to the little conduit by Paule’s Gate.’—Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 99.

The glory of Cheapside was Goldsmith’s Row (see note 3. 5. 2). It was also famous in early times for its ‘Ridings,’ and during Jonson’s period for its ‘Cross,’ its ‘Conduit,’ and its ‘Standard’ (see note 1. 1. 56 and Wh—C.).

3. 2. 35 Scarfes. ‘Much worn by knights and military officers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.’—PlanchÉ.

3. 2. 35 Cornehill. Cornhill, between the Poultry and Leadenhall Street, an important portion of the greatest thoroughfare in the world, was, says Stow, ‘so called of a corn market time out of mind there holden.’ In later years it was provided with a pillory and stocks, a prison, called the Tun, for street offenders, a conduit of ‘sweet water’, and a standard. See Wh-C.

3. 2. 38 the posture booke. A book descriptive of military evolutions, etc. H. Peacham’s Compleat Gentleman, 1627 (p. 300, quoted by Wheatley, Ev. Mall in), gives a long list of ‘Postures of the Musquet’ and G. Markham’s Souldier’s Accidence gives another. Cf. Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 218:

3. 2. 41 Finsbury. In 1498, ‘certain grounds, consisting of gardens, orchards, &c. on the north side of Chiswell-street, and called Bunhill or Bunhill-fields, within the manor of Finsbury, were by the mayor and commonalty of London, converted into a large field, containing 11 acres, and 11 perches, now known by the name of the Artillery-ground, for their train-bands, archers, and other military citizens, to exercise in.’—Entick, Survey 1. 441.

In 1610 the place had become neglected, whereupon commissioners were appointed to reduce it ‘into such order and state for the archers as they were in the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII.’ (Ibid. 2. 109). See also Stow, Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 159.

Dekker (Shomaker’s Holiday, Wks. 1. 29) speaks of being ‘turnd to a Turk, and set in Finsburie for boyes to shoot at’, and Nash (Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 128) and Jonson (Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 507) make precisely similar references. Master Stephen in Every Man in (Wks. 1. 10) objects to keeping company with the ‘archers of Finsbury.’ Cf. also the elaborate satire in U. 62, (Wks. 8. 409).

3. 2. 45 to traine the youth
Of London, in the military truth. Cf. Underwoods 62:

Gifford believes these lines to be taken from a contemporary posture-book, but there is no evidence of quotation in the case of Underwoods.

3. 3. 22, 3 This comes of wearing
Scarlet, gold lace, and cut-works! etc. Webster has a passage very similar to this in the Devil’s Law Case, Wks. 2. 37 f.:

For ‘cut-works’ see note 1. 1. 128.

3. 3. 24 With your blowne roses. Compare 1. 1. 127, and B. & Fl., Cupid’s Revenge:

and Jonson, Ep. 97, Wks. 8. 201:

3. 3. 25 Godwit. The godwit was formerly in great repute as a table delicacy. Thomas Muffett in Health’s Improvement, p. 99, says: ‘A fat godwit is so fine and light meat, that noblemen (yea, and merchants too, by your leave) stick not to buy them at four nobles a dozen.’

Cf. also Sir T. Browne, Norf. Birds, Wks., 1835, 4. 319: God-wyts ... accounted the daintiest dish in England; and, I think, for the bigness of the biggest price.’ Jonson mentions the godwit in this connection twice in the Sil. Wom. (Wks. 3. 350 and 388), and in Horace, Praises of a Country Life (Wks. 9. 121) translates ‘attagen Ionicus’ by ‘Ionian godwit.’

3. 3. 26 The Globes, and Mermaides! Theatres and taverns. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has proved that the Globe Theatre on the Bankside, Southwark, the summer theatre of Shakespeare and his fellows, was built in 1599. It was erected from materials brought by Richard Burbage and Peter Street from the theatre in Shoreditch. On June 29, 1613, it was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt without delay in a superior style, and this time with a roof of tile, King James contributing to the cost. Chamberlaine, writing to Alice Carleton (June 30, 1614), calls the Globe Playhouse ‘the fairest in England.’ It was pulled down Apr. 15, 1644.

Only the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (the King’s Men) seems to have acted here. It was the scene of several of Shakespeare’s plays and two of Jonson’s, Every Man out and Every Man in (Halliwell-Phillips, Illustrations, p. 43). The term ‘summer theatre’ is applicable only to the rebuilt theatre (ibid., p. 44). In Ev. Man out (quarto, Wks. 2. 196) Johnson refers to ‘this fair-fitted Globe’, and in the Execration upon Vulcan (Wks. 8. 404) to the burning of the ‘Globe, the glory of the Bank.’ In Poetaster (Wks. 2. 430) he uses the word again as a generic term: ‘your Globes, and your Triumphs.’

There seem to have been two Mermaid Taverns, one of which stood in Bread Street with passage entrances from Cheapside and Friday Street, and the other in Cornhill. They are often referred to by the dramatists. Cf. the famous lines written by Francis Beaumont to Ben Jonson, B. & Fl., Wks., ed. 1883, 2. 708; City Match, O. Pl. 9. 334, etc. Jonson often mentions the Mermaid. Cf. Inviting a Friend, Wks. 8. 205:

On the famous Voyage, Wks. 8. 234:

Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 356-7: ‘your Three Cranes, Mitre, and Mermaid-men!’

3. 3. 28 In veluet! Velvet was introduced into England in the fifteenth century, and soon became popular as an article of luxury (see Hill’s Hist. of Eng. Dress 1. 145 f.).

3. 3. 30 I’ the Low-countries. ‘Then went he to the Low Countries; but returning soone he betook himself to his wonted studies. In his service in the Low Countries, he had, in the face of both the campes, killed ane enemie and taken opima spolia from him.’—Conversations with William Drummond, Wks. 9. 388.

In the Epigram To True Soldiers Jonson says:

3. 3. 32 a wench of a stoter! See variants. The word is not perfectly legible in the folios, which I have consulted, but is undoubtedly as printed. Cunningham believes ‘stoter’ to be a cheap coin current in the camps. This supplies a satisfactory sense, corresponding to the ‘Sutlers wife, ... of two blanks’ in the following line.

3. 3. 33 of two blanks! ‘Jonson had Horace in his thoughts, and has, not without some ingenuity, parodied several loose passages of one of his satires.’—G. Gifford is apparently referring to the close of Bk. 2. Sat. 3.

3. 3. 51 vn-to-be-melted. Cf. Every Man in, Wks. 1. 36: ‘and in un-in-one-breath-utterable skill, sir.’ New Inn, Wks. 5. 404: you shewed a neglect Un-to-be-pardon’d.’

3. 3. 62 Master of the Dependances! See Introduction. pp. lvi, lvii.

3. 3. 69 the roaring manner. Gifford defines it as the ‘language of bullies affecting a quarrel’ (Wks. 4. 483). The ‘Roaring Boy’ continued under various designations to infest the streets of London from the reign of Elizabeth until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Spark (Somer’s Tracts 2. 266) says that they were persons prodigall and of great expence, who having runne themselves into debt, were constrained to run into factions to defend themselves from danger of the law.’ He adds that divers of the nobility afforded them maintenance, in return for which ‘they entered into many desperate enterprises.’

Arthur Wilson (Life of King James I., p. 28), writing of the disorderly state of the city in 1604, says: ‘Divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the Title of Roaring Boyes, Bravadoes, Roysters, &c. commit many insolences; the Streets swarm night and day with bloody quarrels, private Duels fomented,’ etc.

Kastril, the ‘angry boy’ in the Alchemist, and Val Cutting and Knockem in Bartholomew Fair are roarers, and we hear of them under the title of ‘terrible boys’ in the Silent Woman (Wks. 3. 349). Cf. also Sir Thomas Overbury’s Character of a Roaring Boy (ed. Morley, p. 72): ‘He sleeps with a tobacco-pipe in his mouth; and his first prayer in the morning is he may remember whom he fell out with over night.’

3. 3. 71 the vapours. This ridiculous practise is satirized in Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 3 (see also stage directions).

3. 3. 77 a distast. The quarrel with Wittipol.

3. 3. 79 the hand-gout. Jonson explains the expression in Magnetic Lady, Wks. 6. 61.

Cf. also Overbury’s Characters, ed. Morley, p. 63: ‘his liberality can never be said to be gouty-handed.’

3. 3. 81 Mint. Until its removal to the Royal Mint on Tower Hill in 1810, the work of coinage was carried on in the Tower of London. Up to 1640, when banking arose, merchants were in the habit of depositing their bullion and cash in the Tower Mint, under guardianship of the Crown (see Wh-C. under Royal Mint, and History of Banking in all the Leading Nations, London, 1896, 2. 1).

3. 3. 86-8 let ... hazard. Merecraft seems to mean: ‘You are in no hurry. Pray therefore allow me to defer your business until I have brought opportune aid to this gentleman’s distresses at a time when his fortunes are in a hazardous condition.’ The pregnant use of the verb timing and the unusual use of the word terms for a period of time render the meaning peculiarly difficult.

3. 3. 106 a Businesse. This was recognized as the technical expression. Sir Thomas Overbury ridicules it in his Characters, ed. Morley, p. 72: ‘If any private quarrel happen among our great courtiers, he (the Roaring Boy) proclaims the business—that’s the word, the business—as if the united force of the Roman Catholics were making up for Germany.’ Jonson ridicules the use of the word in similar fashion in the Masque of Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists.

3. 3. 133 hauings. Jonson uses the expression again in Ev. Man in, Wks. 1. 29, and Gipsies Met., Wks. 7. 364. It is also used in Muse’s Looking Glasse, O. Pl. 9. 175.

3. 3. 147 such sharks! Shift in Ev. Man in is described as a ‘threadbare shark.’ Cf. also Earle, Microcosmography, ed. Morley, p. 173.

3. 3. 148 an old debt of forty. See 2. 8. 100.

3. 3. 149 the Bermudas. See note 2. 1. 144. Nares thinks that the real Bermudas are referred to here.

3. 3. 155 You shall ha’ twenty pound on’t. As Commission on the two hundred. ‘Ten in the hundred’ was the customary rate at this period (see Staple of News, Wks. 5. 189).

3. 3. 165 St. Georges-tide? From a very early period the 23d of April was dedicated to St. George. From the time of Henry V. The festival had been observed with great splendor at Windsor and other towns, and bonfires were built (see Shak, 1 Henry VI. 1. 1). The festival continued to be celebrated until 1567, when Elizabeth ordered its discontinuance. James I., however, kept the 23d of April to some extent, and the revival of the feast in all its glories was only prevented by the Civil War. So late as 1614 it was the custom for fashionable gentlemen to wear blue coats on St. George’s Day, probably in imitation of the blue mantle worn by the Knights of the Garter, an order created at the feast of St. George in 1344 (see Chambers’ Book of Days 1. 540).

The passages relating to this custom are Ram Alley, O. Pl., 2d ed., 5. 486:

Runne and a great Cast, Epigr. 33:

From these passages Nares concludes ‘that some festive ceremony was carried on at St. Paul’s on St. George’s day annually; that the court attended; that the blue-coats, or attendants, of the courtiers, were employed and authorised to keep order, and drive out refractory persons; and that on this occasion it was proper for a knight to officiate as blue coat to some personage of higher rank’.

In the Conversations with Drummond, Jonson’s Wks. 9. 393, we read: ‘Northampton was his mortal enimie for beating, on a St. George’s day, one of his attenders.’ Pepys speaks of there being bonfires in honor of St. George’s Day as late as Apr. 23, 1666.

3. 3. 166 chaines? PLV. Of gold, and pearle. The gold chain was formerly a mark of rank and dignity, and a century before this it had been forbidden for any one under the degree of a gentleman of two hundred marks a year to wear one (Statutes of the Realm, 7 Henry VIII. c. 6). They were worn by the Lord Mayors (Dekker, Shomaker’s Holiday, Wks. 1. 42), rich merchants and aldermen (Glapthorne, Wit for a Constable, Wks., ed. 1874, 1. 201-3), and later became the distinctive mark of the upper servant in a great family, especially the steward (see Nares and Ev. Man out, Wks. 2. 31). Massinger (City Madam, Wks., p. 334) speaks of wearing a chain of gold ‘on solemn days.’ With the present passage cf. Underwoods 62, Wks. 8. 410:

3. 3. 170 take in Pimlico. ‘Near Hoxton, a great summer resort in the early part of the 17th century and famed for its cakes, custards, and Derby ale. The references to the Hoxton Pimlico are numerous in our old dramatists.’—Wh—C. It is mentioned among other places in Greene’s Tu Quoque, The City Match, fol. 1639, News from Hogsdon, 1598, and Dekker, Roaring Girle, Wks. 3. 219, where it is spoken of as ‘that nappy land of spice-cakes.’ In 1609 a tract was published, called Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap, ’tis a Mad World at Hogsdon.

Jonson refers to it repeatedly. Cf. Alch., Wks. 4. 155:

Cf. also Alch., Wks. 4. 151; Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 357; and this play 4. 4. 164. In Underwoods 62 the same expression is used as in this passage:

Take in in the sense of ‘capture’ is used again in Every Man in, Wks. 1. 64, and frequently in Shakespeare (see Schmidt). The reference here, as Cunningham suggests, is to the Finsbury sham fights. Hogsden was in the neighborhood of Finsbury, and the battles were doubtless carried into its territory.

3. 3. 173 Some Bristo-stone or Cornish counterfeit. Cf. Heywood, Wks. 5. 317: ‘This jewell, a plaine Bristowe stone, a counterfeit.’ See Gloss.

3. 3. 184, 5 I know your Equiuocks:
You’are growne the better Fathers of ’hem o’ late.

‘Satirically reflecting on the Jesuits, the great patrons of equivocation.’—W.

‘Or rather on the Puritans, I think; who were sufficiently obnoxious to this charge. The Jesuits would be out of place here.’—G.

Why the Puritans are any more appropriate Gifford does not vouchsafe to tell us. So far as I have been able to discover the Puritans were never called ‘Fathers,’ their regular appellation being ‘the brethren’ (cf. Alch. and Bart. Fair). The Puritans were accused of a distortion of Scriptural texts to suit their own purposes, instances of which occur in the dramas mentioned above. On the whole, however, equivocation is more characteristic of the Jesuits. They were completely out of favor at this time. Under the generalship of Claudio Acquaviva, 1581-1615, they first began to have a preponderatingly evil reputation. In 1581 they were banished from England, and in 1601 the decree of banishment was repeated, this time for their suspected share in the Gunpowder Plot.

3. 3. 206, 7 Come, gi’ me Ten pieces more. The transaction with Guilthead is perhaps somewhat confusing. Fitzdottrel has offered to give his bond for two hundred pieces, if necessary. Merecraft’s ‘old debt of forty’ (3. 3. 149), the fifty pieces for the ring, and the hundred for Everill’s new office (3. 3. 60 and 83) ‘all but make two hundred.’ Fitzdottrel furnishes a hundred of this in cash, with the understanding that he receive it again of the gold-smith when he signs the bond (3. 3. 194). He returns, however, without the gold, though he seals the bond (3. 5. 1-3). Of the hundred pieces received in cash, twenty go to Guilthead as commission (3. 3. 155). This leaves forty each for Merecraft and Everill.

3. 3. 213 how th’ Asse made his diuisions. See Fab. cix, Fabulae Aesopicae, Leipzig, 1810, Leo, Asinus et Vulpes. Harsnet (Declaration, p. 110) refers to this fable, and Dekker made a similar application in Match me in London, 1631, Wks. 4. 145:

3. 3. 214 Much good do you. So in Sil. Wom., Wks. 3. 398: ‘Much good do him.’

3. 3. 217 And coozen i’ your bullions. Massinger’s Fatal Dowry, Wks., p. 272, contains the following passage: ‘The other is his dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his clothes and fashions ere he vouchsafes them his own person: you shall see him ... at noon in the Bullion,’ etc. In a note on this passage (Wks. 3. 390, ed. 1813) Gifford advanced the theory that the bullion was ‘a piece of finery, which derived its denomination from the large globular gilt buttons, still in use on the continent.’ In his note on the present passage, he adds that it was probably ‘adopted by gamblers and others, as a mark of wealth, to entrap the unwary.’

Nares was the next man to take up the word. He connected it with ‘bullion; Copper-plates set on the Breast-leathers and Bridles of Horses for ornament’ (Phillips 1706). ‘I suspect that it also meant, in colloquial use, copper lace, tassels, and ornaments in imitation of gold. Hence contemptuously attributed to those who affected a finery above their station.’

Dyce (B. & Fl., Wks. 7. 291) was the first to disconnect the word from bullion meaning uncoined gold or silver. He says: ‘Bullions, I apprehend, mean some sort of hose or breeches, which were bolled or bulled, i. e. swelled, puffed out (cf. Sad. Shep., Act 1. Sc. 2, bulled nosegays’).’

The NED. gives ‘prob. a. F. bouillon in senses derived from that of “bubble.”’

Besides the passages already given, the word occurs in B. & Fl., The Chances, Wks. 7. 291:

Beggar’s Bush, Wks. 9. 81:

Brome, Sparagus Garden, Wks. 3. 152:

Gesta Gray in Nichols’ Prog. Q. Eliz. 3. 341 A, 1594: ‘A bullion-hose is best to go a woeing in; for tis full of promising promontories.’

3. 3. 231 too-too-vnsupportable! This reduplicated form is common in Shakespeare. See Merch. of Ven. 2. 6. 42; Hamlet 1. 2. 129; and Schmidt, Dict. Jonson uses it in Sejanus, Wks. 3. 54, and elsewhere. It is merely a strengthened form of too. (See Halliwell in Sh. Soc. Papers, 1884, 1. 39, and Hamlet, ed. Furness, 11th ed., 1. 41.) Jonson regularly uses the hyphen.

3. 4. 13 Cioppinos. Jonson spells the word as if it were Italian, though he says in the same sentence that the custom of wearing chopines is Spanish. The NED., referring to Skeat, Trans. Phil. Soc., 1885-7, p. 79, derives it from Sp. chapa, a plate of metal, etc. ‘The Eng. writers c 1600 persistently treated the word as Italian, even spelling it cioppino, pl. cioppini, and expressly associated it with Venice, so that, although not recorded in Italian Dicts. it was app. temporarily fashionable there.’ The statement of the NED. that ‘there is little or no evidence of their use in England (except on the stage)’ seems to be contradicted by the quotation from Stephen Gosson’s Pleasant Quippes (note 1. 1. 128). References to the chopine are common in the literature of the period (see Nares and NED.). I have found no instances of the Italianated form earlier than Jonson, and it may be original with him. He uses the plural cioppini in Cynthia’s Revels, Wks. 2. 241. See note 4. 4. 69.

3. 4. 32 your purchase. Cf. Alch., Wks. 4. 150, and Fox, Wks. 3. 168: ‘the cunning purchase of my wealth.’ Cunningham (Wks. 3. 498) says: ‘Purchase, as readers of Shakespeare know, was a cant term among thieves for the plunder they acquired, also the act of acquiring it. It is frequently used by Jonson.’

3. 4. 35 Pro’uedor. Gifford’s change to provedorÉ is without authority. The word is provedor, Port., or proveedor, Sp., and is found in Hakluyt, Voyages, 3. 701; G. Sandys, Trav., p. 6 (1632); and elsewhere, with various orthography, but apparently never with the accent.

3. 4. 43 Gentleman huisher. For the gentleman-usher see note 4. 4. 134. The forms usher and huisher seem to be used without distinction. The editors’ treatment of the form is inconsistent. See variants, and compare 2. 7. 33.

3. 4. 45-8 wee poore Gentlemen ... piece. Cf. Webster, Devil’s Law Case, Wks. 2. 38: ‘You have certain rich city chuffs, that when they have no acres of their own, they will go and plough up fools, and turn them into excellent meadow.’ Also The Fox 2. 1:

As source of the latter Dr. L. H. Holt (Mod. Lang. Notes, June, 1905) gives Plautus, Epidicus 2. 3. 306-7:

3. 5. 2 the row. Stow (Survey, ed. 1633, p. 391) says that Goldsmith’s Row, ‘betwixt Breadstreete end and the Crosse in Cheap,’ is ‘the most beautifull Frame of faire houses and shops, that be within the Wals of London, or elsewhere in England.’ It contained ‘ten faire dwelling houses, and fourteene shops’ beautified with elaborate ornamentation. Howes (ed. 1631, p. 1045) says that at his time (1630) Goldsmith’s Row ‘was much abated of her wonted store of Goldsmiths, which was the beauty of that famous streete.’ A similar complaint is made in the Calendar of State Papers, 1619-23, p. 457, where Goldsmith’s Row is characterized as the ‘glory and beauty of Cheapside.’ Paul Hentzner (p. 45) speaks of it as surpassing all the other London streets. He mentions the presence there of a ‘gilt tower, with a fountain that plays.’

3. 5. 29, 30 answering
With the French-time, in flexure of your body.

This may mean bowing in the deliberate and measured fashion of the French, or perhaps it refers to French musical measure. See Gloss.

3. 5. 33 the very Academies. See note 2. 8. 20.

3. 5. 35 play-time. Collier says that the usual hour of dining in the city was twelve o’clock, though the passage in Case is Altered, Wks. 6. 331, seems to indicate an earlier hour:

The performance of plays began at three o’clock. Cf. Histriomastix, 1610:

See Collier, Annals 3. 377. Sir Humphrey Mildmay, in his Ms. Diary (quoted Annals 2. 70), speaks several times of going to the play-house after dinner.

3. 5. 39 his Damme. NED. gives a use of the phrase ‘the devil and his dam’ as early as Piers Plowman, 1393. The ‘devil’s dam’ was later applied opprobriously to a woman. It is used thus in Shakespeare, Com. Err. 4. 3. 51. The expression is common throughout the literature of the period.

3. 5. 43 But to be seene to rise, and goe away. Cf. Dekker, Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 253: ‘Now sir, if the writer be a fellow that hath either epigrammd you, or hath had a flirt at your mistris, ... you shall disgrace him worse then by tossing him in a blancket ... if, in the middle of his play, ... you rise with a screwd and discontented face from your stoole to be gone: no matter whether the Scenes be good or no; the better they are the worse do you distast them.’

3. 5. 45, 6 But say, that he be one,
Wi’ not be aw’d! but laugh at you. In the Prologue to Massinger’s Guardian we find:

Gifford says of this passage: ‘This Prologue contains many sarcastick allusions to Old Ben, who produced, about this time, his Tale of a Tub, and his Magnetic Lady, pieces which failed of success, and which, with his usual arrogance, (strange self-love in a writer!) he attributed to a want of taste in the audience.’—Massinger’s (Wks., ed. 1805, 4. 121.)

The Guardian appeared in 1633, two years after the printing of The Devil is an Ass. It seems certain that the reference is to the present passage.

3. 5. 47 pay for his dinner himselfe. The custom of inviting the poet to dinner or supper seems to have been a common one. Dekker refers to it in the Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 249. Cf. also the Epilogue to the present play.

3. 5. 47 Perhaps, He would doe that twice, rather then thanke you. ‘This ill-timed compliment to himself, Jonson might have spared, with some advantage to his judgment, at least, if not his modesty.’—G.

3. 5. 53. See variants. Gifford’s change destroys the meaning and is palpably ridiculous.

3. 5. 77 your double cloakes. ‘I. e., a cloake adapted for disguises, which might be worn on either side. It was of different colours, and fashions. This turned cloke with a false beard (of which the cut and colour varied) and a black or yellow peruke, furnished a ready and effectual mode of concealment, which is now lost to the stage. ’—G.

3. 6. 2 canst thou get ne’r a bird? Throughout this page Merecraft and Pug ring the changes on Pitfall’s name.

3. 6. 15, 16 TRA. You must send, Sir.
The Gentleman the ring. Traines, of course, is merely carrying out Merecraft’s plot to ‘achieve the ring’ (3. 5. 67). Later (4. 4. 60) Merecraft is obliged to give it up to Wittipol.

3. 6. 34-6 What’ll you do, Sir? ...
Run from my flesh, if I could. For a similar construction cf. 1. 3. 21 and note.

3. 6. 38, 9 Woe to the seuerall cudgells,
Must suffer on this backe! Adapted from Plautus, Captivi 3. 4. 650:

(Gifford mentions the fact that this is adapted from the classics. I am indebted for the precise reference to Dr. Lucius H. Holt.)

3. 6. 40 the vse of it is so present. For other Latinisms cf. resume, 1. 6. 149; salts, 2. 6. 75; confute, 5. 6. 18, etc.

3. 6. 61 I’ll ... See variants. The original reading is undoubtedly wrong.

ACT IV

4. 1. 1 referring to Commissioners. In the lists of patents we frequently read of commissions specially appointed for examination of the patent under consideration. The King’s seal was of course necessary to render the grant valid.

4. 1. 5 S^r. Iohn Monie-man. See Introduction, p. lxxiii.

4. 1. 37 I will haue all piec’d. Cf. Mag. La., Wks. 6. 50:

4. 1. 38 ill solder’d! Cf. The Forest, 12, Epistle to Elizabeth, etc.; ‘Solders cracked friendship.’

4. 2. 11 Haue with ’hem. ‘An idea borrowed from the gaming table, being the opposite of “have at them.”’—C.

4. 2. 11 the great Carroch. See note 1. 6. 214.

4. 2. 12 with my Ambler, bare. See note 4. 4. 202.

4. 2. 22 I not loue this. See note 1. 6. 14.

4. 2. 26 Tooth-picks. This was an object of satire to the dramatists of the period. Nares says that they ‘appear to have been first brought into use in Italy; whence the travellers who had visited that country, particularly wished to exhibit that symbol of gentility.’ It is referred to as the mark of a traveller by Shakespeare, King John, 1. 1 (cited by Gifford):

Overbury (Character of An Affected Traveller, ed. Morley, p. 35) speaks of the pick-tooth as ‘a main part of his behavior.’

It was also a sign of foppery. Overbury (p. 31) describes the courtier as wearing ‘a pick-tooth in his hat,’ and Massinger, Grand Duke of Florence, Act 3 (quoted by Nares), mentions ‘my case of tooth-picks, and my silver fork’ among the articles ‘requisite to the making up of a signior.’ John Earle makes a similar reference in his Character of An Idle Gallant (ed. Morley, p. 179), and Furnivall (Stubbes’ Anatomy, p. 77) quotes from Laugh and lie downe: or The worldes Folly, London, 1605, 4to: ‘The next was a nimble-witted and glib-tongu’d fellow, who, having in his youth spent his wits in the Arte of love, was now become the jest of wit.... The picktooth in the mouth, the flower in the eare, the brush upon the beard; ... and what not that was unneedefull,’ etc.

It is a frequent subject of satire in Jonson. Cf. Ev. Man out, Wks. 2. 124; Cyn. Rev., Wks. 2. 218, 248; Fox, Wks. 3. 266. See also Dekker, Wks. 3. 280.

4. 2. 63 What vile Fucus is this. The abuse of face-painting is a favorite subject of satire with the moralists and dramatists of the period. Stubbes (Anatomy of Abuses, Part 1, pp. 64-8) devotes a long section to the subject. Dr. Furnivall in the notes to this passage, pp. 271-3, should also be consulted. Brome satirizes it in the City Wit, Wks. 2. 300. Lady Politick Would-be in the Fox is of course addicted to the habit, and a good deal is said on the subject in Epicoene. Dekker (West-ward Hoe, Wks. 2. 285) has a passage quite similar in spirit to Jonson’s satire.

4. 2. 71 the very Infanta of the Giants! Cf. Massinger and Field, Fatal Dowry 4. 1: ‘O that I were the infanta queen of Europe!’ Pecunia in the Staple of News is called the ‘Infanta of the mines.’ Spanish terms were fashionable at this time. Cf. the use of Grandees, 1. 3. It is possible that the reference here is to the Infanta Maria. See Introduction, p. xviii.

4. 3. 5, 6 It is the manner of Spaine, to imbrace onely, Neuer to kisse. Cf. Minsheu’s Pleasant and Delightfull Dialogues, pp. 51-2: ‘W. I hold that the greatest cause of dissolutenesse in some women in England is this custome of kissing publikely.... G. In Spaine doe not men vse to kisse women? I. Yes the husbands kisse their wiues, but as if it were behinde seuen walls, where the very light cannot see them.’

4. 3. 33 f. Decayes the fore-teeth, that should guard the tongue; etc. Cf. Timber, ed. Schelling, 13. 24: ‘It was excellently said of that philosopher, that there was a wall or parapet of teeth set in our mouth, to restrain the petulancy of our words; that the rashness of talking should not only be retarded by the guard and watch of our heart, but be fenced in and defended by certain strengths placed in the mouth itself, and within the lips.’

Professor Schelling quotes Plutarch, Moralia, de Garrulitate 3, translated by Goodwin: ‘And yet there is no member of human bodies that nature has so strongly enclosed within a double fortification as the tongue, entrenched within a barricade of sharp teeth, to the end that, if it refuses to obey and keep silent when reason “presses the glittering reins” within, we should fix our teeth in it till the blood comes rather than suffer inordinate and unseasonable din’ (4. 223).

4. 3. 39 Mad-dames. See variants. The editors have taken out of the jest whatever salt it possessed, and have supplied meaningless substitutes. Gifford followed the same course in his edition of Ford (see Ford’s Wks. 2. 81), where, however, he changes to Mad-dam. Such gratuitous corruptions are inexplicable. Cf. Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 172:

4. 3. 45 Their seruants. A common term for a lover. Cf. Sil. Wom., Wks. 3. 364.

4. 3. 51. See variants. There are several mistakes in the assignment of speeches throughout this act. Not all of Gifford’s changes, however, are to be accepted without question. Evidently, if the question where? is to be assigned to Wittipol, the first speech must be an aside, as it is inconceivable that Merecraft should introduce Fitzdottrel first under his own name, and then as the ‘Duke of Drown’d-land.’

My conception of the situation is this: Pug is playing the part of gentleman usher. He enters and announces to Merecraft that Fitzdottrel and his wife are coming. Merecraft whispers: ‘Master Fitzdottrel and his wife! where?’ and then, as they enter, turns to Wittipol and introduces them; ‘Madame,’ etc.

4. 4. 30 Your Allum Scagliola, etc. Many of the words in this paragraph are obscure, and a few seem irrecoverable. Doubtless Jonson picked them up from various medical treatises and advertisements of his day. I find no trace of Abezzo, which may of course be a misprint for Arezzo. The meanings assigned to Pol-dipedra and Porcelletto Merino are unsatisfactory. Florio gives ‘Zucca: a gourd; a casting bottle,’ but I have been unable to discover Mugia. The loss of these words is, to be sure, of no moment. Two things illustrative of Jonson’s method are sufficiently clear. (1) The articles mentioned are not, as they seem at first, merely names coined for the occasion. (2) They are a polyglot jumble, intended to make proficiency in the science of cosmetics as ridiculous as possible. It is worth while to notice, however, that this list of drugs is carefully differentiated from the list at 4. 4. 142 f., which contains the names of sweetmeats and perfumes.

4. 4. 32, 3 Soda di leuante, Or your Ferne ashes. Soda-ash is still the common trade name of sodium carbonate. In former times soda was chiefly obtained from natural deposits and from the incineration of various plants growing by the sea-shore. These sources have become of little importance since the invention of artificial soda by Leblanc toward the end of the eighteenth century (see Soda in CD.). Florio’s definition of soda is: ‘a kind of Ferne-ashes whereof they make glasses.’ Cf. also W. Warde, Tr. Alessio’s Secr., Pt. 1 fol. 78[^m] 1º: ‘Take an vnce of Soda (which is asshes made of grasse, whereof glassemakers do vse to make their Cristall).’ In Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale (11. 254 f.) the manufacture of glass out of ‘fern-asshen’ is mentioned as a wonder comparable to that of Canacee’s ring.

4. 4. 33 Beniamin di gotta. The Dict. d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 1843, 2. 509, gives: ‘Benjoin. Sa teinture, Étendue d’eau, sert À la toilette sous le nom de Lait virginal.’ See 4. 4. 52.

4. 4. 38 With a piece of scarlet. Lady Politick Would-be’s remedies in the Fox are to be ‘applied with a right scarlet cloth.’ Scarlet was supposed to be of great efficacy in disease. See Whalley’s note on the Fox, Wks. 3. 234.

4. 4. 38, 9 makes a Lady of sixty Looke at sixteen. Cunningham thinks this is a reference to the In decimo sexto of line 50.

4. 4. 39, 40 the water Of the white Hen, of the Lady Estifanias! The Lady Estifania seems to have been a dealer in perfumes and cosmetics. In Staple of News, Wks. 5. 166, we read: ‘Right Spanish perfume, the lady Estifania’s.’ Estefania is the name of a Spanish lady in B. & Fl.’s Rule a Wife.

4. 4. 47 galley-pot. Mistresse Gallipot is the name of a tobacconist in Dekker’s and Middleton’s Roaring Girle.

4. 4. 50 In decimo sexto. This is a bookbinder’s or printer’s term, ‘applied to books, etc., a leaf of which is one-sixteenth of a full sheet or signature.’ It is equivalent to ‘16mo.’ and hence metaphorically used to indicate ‘a small compass, miniature’ (see Stanford, p. 312). In Cyn. Rev., Wks. 2. 218, Jonson says: ‘my braggart in decimo sexto!’ Its use is well exemplified in John Taylor’s Works, sig. L₁ v^0/1: ‘when a mans stomache is in Folio, and knows not where to haue a dinner in Decimo sexto.’ The phrase is fairly common in the dramatic literature. See Massinger, Unnat. Combat 3. 2; Middleton, Father Hubburd’s Tales, Wks. 8 64, etc. In the present passage, however, the meaning evidently required is ‘perfect: ’spotless,’ and no doubt refers to the comparative perfection of a sexto decimo, or perhaps to the perfection naturally to be expected of any work in miniature.

4. 4. 52 Virgins milke for the face. Cf. John French, Art Distill.. Bk. 5. p. 135 (1651): ‘This salt being set in a cold cellar on a marble stone, and dissolved into an oil, is as good as any Lac virginis to clear, and smooth the face.’ Lac Virginis is spoken of twice in the Alchemist, Act 2, but probably in neither case is the cosmetic referred to. See Hathaway’s edition, p. 293. Nash speaks of the cosmetic in Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 44: ‘She should haue noynted your face ouer night with Lac virginis.’

4. 4. 55 Cataputia. Catapuce is one of the laxatives that Dame Pertelote recommended to Chauntecleer in Chaucer’s Nonne Preestes Tale, l. 145.

4. 4. 63 Doe not you dwindle. The use of dwindle in this sense is very rare. NED. thinks it is ‘probably a misuse owing to two senses of shrink.’ It gives only a single example, Alch., Wks. 4. 163: ‘Did you not hear the coil about the door? Sub. Yes, and I dwindled with it.’ Besides the two instances in Jonson I have noticed only one other, in Ford, Fancies chaste and noble, Wks. 2. 291: ‘Spa. Hum, how’s that? is he there, with a wanion! then do I begin to dwindle.’

4. 4. 69 Cioppino’s. The source of this passage, with the anecdote which follows, seems to be taken from Coryat’s Crudities (ed. 1776, 2. 36, 7): ‘There is one thing vsed of the Venetian women, and some others dwelling in the cities and towns subject to the Signiory of Venice, that is not to be obserued (I thinke) amongst any other women in Christendome: which is so common in Venice, that no woman whatsoeuer goeth without it, either in her house or abroad; a thing made of wood, and couered with leather of sundry colors, some with white, some redde, some yellow. It is called a Chapiney, which they weare vnder their shoes. Many of them are curiously painted; some also I haue seene fairely gilt: so vncomely a thing (in my opinion) that it is pitty this foolish custom is not cleane banished and exterminated out of the citie. There are many of these Chapineys of a great heigth, euen half a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very short, seeme much taller then the tallest women we haue in England. Also I haue heard that this is obserued amongst them, that by how much the nobler a woman is, by so much the higher are her Chapineys. All their Gentlewomen, and most of their wiues and widowes that are of any wealth, are assisted and supported eyther by men or women when they walke abroad, to the end they may not fall. They are borne vp most commonly by the left arme, otherwise they might quickly take a fall. For I saw a woman fall a very dangerous fall as she was going down the staires of one of the little stony bridges with her high Chapineys alone by her selfe: but I did nothing pitty her, because shee wore such friuolous and (as I may truely term them) ridiculous instruments, which were the occasion of her fall. For both I myselfe, and many other strangers (as I haue obserued in Venice) haue often laughed at them for their vaine Chapineys.’

4. 4. 71, 2 Spanish pumps Of perfum’d leather. Pumps are first mentioned in the sixteenth century (PlanchÉ). A reference to them occurs in Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1593-4, 4. 2. They were worn especially by footmen.

Spanish leather was highly esteemed at this time. Stubbes (Anat. of Abuses, Part 1, p. 77) says: ‘They haue korked shooes, pinsnets, pantoffles, and slippers, ... some of spanish leather, and some of English lether.’ Marston (Dutch Courtezan, Wks. 2. 7) speaks of a ‘Spanish leather jerkin,’ and Middleton (Father Hubburd’s Tales, Wks. 8. 70) of ‘a curious pair of boots of King Philip’s leather,’ and a little farther on (Wks. 8. 108) of Spanish leather shoes. Fastidious Brisk’s boots are made of the same material (Ev. Man out, Wks. 2. 147). Cf. also Dekker, Wks. 2. 305.

Perfumes were much in fashion, and Stubbes’ Anatomy has a great deal to say on the subject. We hear of perfumed jerkins in Marston’s Malcontent (Wks. 1. 314) and in Cynthia’s Revels (Wks. 2. 325). Spanish perfume for gloves is spoken of in the latter play (p. 328) and in the Alchemist (Wks. 4. 131) ‘your Spanish titillation in a glove’ is declared to be the best perfume.

4. 4. 77, 8 The Guardo-duennas, such a little old man,
As this. Minsheu gives the definition: ‘Escudero, m. An Esquire, a Seruingman that waits on a Ladie or Gentlewoman, in Spaine neuer but old men and gray beards.’

4. 4. 81 flat spred, as an Vmbrella. The umbrella of the seventeenth century seems to have been used exclusively to protect the face from the sun. Blount, Glossographia, 1670, gives: ‘Umbrello (Ital. Ombrella), a fashion of round and broad Fans, wherewith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of the sun or fire; and hence any little shadow, Fan, or other thing wherewith women guard their faces from the sun.’

It was apparently not in use in England when Coryat published his Crudities, which contains the following description (1. 135): ‘Also many of them doe carry other fine things of a far greater price, that will cost at the least a duckat, which they commonly call in the Italian tongue vmbrellaes, that is, things that minister shadow unto them for shelter against the scorching heate of the sunne. These are made of leather something answerable to the forme of a little cannopy, & hooped in the inside with diuers little wooden hoopes that extend the vmbrella in a pretty large compasse.’

‘As a defense from rain or snow it was not used in western Europe till early in the eighteenth century.’—CD.

4. 4. 82 Her hoope. A form of the farthingale (fr. Sp. Verdugal) was worn in France, Spain, and Italy, and in England as early as 1545. It gradually increased in size, and Elizabeth’s farthingale was enormous. The aptness of the comparison can be appreciated by reading Coryat’s description of the umbrella above.

4. 4. 87 An Escudero. See note 4. 4. 77, 8.

4. 4. 97 If no body should loue mee, but my poore husband. Cf. Poetaster, Wks. 2. 444: ‘Methinks a body’s husband does not so well at court; a body’s friend, or so—but, husband! ’tis like your clog to your marmoset,’ etc.

4. 4. 134 your Gentleman-vsher. ‘Gentleman-Usher. Originally a state-officer, attendant upon queens, and other persons of high rank, as, in Henry VIII, Griffith is gentleman-usher to Queen Catherine; afterwards a private affectation of state, assumed by persons of distinction, or those who pretended to be so, and particularly ladies. He was then only a sort of upper servant, out of livery, whose office was to hand his lady to her coach, and to walk before her bare-headed, though in later times she leaned upon his arm.’—Nares.

Cf. Dekker, West-ward Hoe, Wks. 2. 324: ‘Weare furnisht for attendants as Ladies are, We have our fooles, and our Vshers.’

The sources for a study of the gentleman-usher are the present play, The Tale of a Tub, and Chapman’s Gentleman Usher. In the Staple of News the Lady Pecunia is provided with a gentleman-usher. The principal duties of this office seem to have consisted in being sent on errands, handing the lady to her coach, and preceding her on any occasion where ceremony was demanded. In Chapman’s play Lasso says that the disposition of his house for the reception of guests was placed in the hands of this servant (cf. Chapman, Wks. 1. 263 f.). Innumerable allusions occur in which the requirement of going bare-headed is mentioned (see note on 4. 4. 202). Another necessary quality was a fine pace, which is alluded to in the present character’s name (see also note 4. 4. 201). An excellent description of the gentleman-usher will be found in Nares’ Glossary, quoting from Lenton’s Leasures, a book published in 1631, and now very rare.

4. 4. 142 the Dutchesse of Braganza. Braganza is the ruling house of Portugal. Dom John, Duke of Braganza, became king of Portugal in 1640.

4. 4. 143 Almoiauna. The Stanford Dictionary gives: ‘Almojabana, Sp. fr. Arab. Al-mojabbana: cheese-and-flour cake. Xeres was famed for this dainty, which is named from Arabic jobn = “cheese.”’

4. 4. 147 Marquesse Muja. Apparently a Spanish marquise, occupying a position in society similar to that of Madame RÉcamier.

4. 4. 156 A Lady of spirit. With this line and lines 165 f. cf. U. 32, Wks. 8. 356:

4. 4. 164 Pimlico. See note 3. 3. 170.

4. 4. 164 daunce the Saraband. The origin of the saraband is in doubt, being variously attributed to Spain and to the Moors. It is found in Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and its immoral character is constantly referred to. Grove (Dict. of Music 3. 226) quotes from chapter 12, ‘Del baile y cantar llamado Zarabanda,’ of the Tratado contra los Juegos Publicos (‘Treatise against Public Amusements’) of Mariana (1536-1623): ‘Entre las otras invenciones ha salido estos aÑos un baile y cantar tan lacivo en las palabras, tan feo en las meneos, que basta para pegar fuego aun Á las personas muy honestas’ (‘amongst other inventions there has appeared during late years a dance and song, so lascivious in its words, so ugly in its movements, that it is enough to inflame even very modest people’). ‘This reputation was not confined to Spain, for Marini in his poem “L’Adone” (1623) says:

Padre Mariana, who believed in its Spanish origin, says that its invention was one of the disgraces of the nation, and other authors attribute its invention directly to the devil. The dance was attacked by Cervantes and Guevara, and defended by Lope de Vega, but it seems to have been so bad that at the end of the reign of Philip II. it was for a time suppressed. It was soon, however, revived in a purer form and was introduced at the French court in 1588’ (Grove 3. 226-7).

In England the saraband was soon transformed into an ordinary country-dance. Two examples are to be found in the first edition of Playford’s Dancing Master, and Sir John Hawkins (Hist. of the Science and Practice of Music, 1776) speaks of it several times. ‘Within the memory of persons now living,’ he says, a Saraband danced by a Moor was constantly a part of the entertainment at a puppet-show’ (4. 388). In another place (2. 135), in speaking of the use of castanets at a puppet-show, he says: ‘That particular dance called the Saraband is supposed to require as a thing of necessity, the music, if it may be called so, of this artless instrument.’

In the Staple of News, Wks. 5. 256, Jonson speaks of ‘a light air! the bawdy Saraband!’

4. 4. 165 Heare, and talke bawdy; laugh as loud, as a larum. Jonson satirizes these vices again in U. 67 (see note 4. 4. 156) and Epigrams 48 and 115. Dekker (Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 238) advises the young gallant to ‘discourse as lowd as you can, no matter to what purpose, ... and laugh in fashion, ... you shall be much obserued.’

4. 4. 172 Shee must not lose a looke on stuffes, or cloth. It being the fashion to ‘swim in choice of silks and tissues,’ plain woolen cloth was despised.

4. 4. 187 Blesse vs from him! Preserve us. A precaution against any evil that might result from pronouncing the devil’s name. Cf. Knight of the Burning Pestle 2. 1: Sure the devil (God bless us!) is in this springald!’ and Wilson, The Cheats, Prologue:

4. 4. 191, 2 What things they are? That nature should be at leasure
Euer to make ’hem! Cf. Ev. Man in, Wks. 1. 119: ‘O manners that this age should bring forth such creatures! that nature should be at leisure to make them!’

4. 4. 197 Hee makes a wicked leg. Gifford thinks that wicked here means ‘awkward or clownish.’ It seems rather to mean ‘roguish,’ a common colloquial use.

4. 4. 201 A setled discreet pase. Cf. 3. 5. 22; 2. 7. 33; and Dekker, Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 238: ‘Walke vp and downe by the rest as scornfully and as carelesly as a Gentleman-Usher.’

4. 4. 202 a barren head, Sir. Cf. 2. 3. 36, 7 and 4. 2. 12. Here again we have a punning allusion to the uncovered head of the gentleman-usher. ‘It was a piece of state, that the servants of the nobility, particularly the gentleman-usher, should attend bare-headed.’ Nares, Gloss. For numerous passages illustrating the practice both in regard to the gentleman-usher and to the coachman, see the quotations in Nares, and Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, Wks. 1. 19; Chapman, Gentleman-Usher, Wks. 1. 263; and the following passage, ibid. 1. 273:

A passage from Lenton (see note 4. 4. 134) may also be quoted: ‘He is forced to stand bare, which would urge him to impatience, but for the hope of being covered, or rather the delight hee takes in shewing his new-crisp’t hayre, which his barber hath caused to stand like a print hedge, in equal proportion.’

The dramatists ridiculed it by insisting that the coachman should be not only bare-headed, but bald. Cf. 2. 3. 36 and Massinger, City Madam, Wks. p. 331: ‘Thou shalt have thy proper and bald-headed coachman.’ Jonson often refers to this custom. Cf. Staple of News, Wks. 5. 232:

New Inn, Wks. 5. 374:

Cf. also Mag. La., Wks. 6. 36, and Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 217 and 222.

4. 4. 204 his Valley is beneath the waste. ‘Waist’ and ‘waste’ were both spelled waste or wast. Here, of course, is a pun on the two meanings.

4. 4. 206 Dulnesse vpon you! Could not you hit this? Cf. Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 358: ‘Now dullness upon me, that I had not that before him.’

4. 4. 209 the French sticke. Walking-sticks of various sorts are mentioned during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. ‘In Chas. II.’s time the French walking-stick, with a ribbon and tassels to hold it when passed over the wrist, was fashionable, and continued so to the reign of George II.’ (PlanchÉ).

4. 4. 215, 6 report the working, Of any Ladies physicke. In Lenton’s Leasures (see note 4.4.134) we find: ‘His greatest vexation is going upon sleevelesse arrands, to know whether some lady slept well last night, or how her physick work’d i’ th’ morning, things that savour not well with him; the reason that ofttimes he goes but to the next taverne, and then very discreetly brings her home a tale of a tubbe.’

Cf. also B. & Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn 2. 2: ‘Host. And have you been in England?... But they say ladies there take physic for fashion.’

Dekker, Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 255, speaks of ‘a country gentleman that brings his wife vp to learne the fashion, see the Tombs at Westminster, the Lyons in the Tower, or to take physicke.’ In the 1812 reprint the editor observes that in Jonson’s time ‘fanciful or artful wives would often persuade their husbands to take them up to town for the advantage of physick, when the principal object was dissipation.’

4. 4. 219 Corne-cutter. This vulgar suggestion renders hopeless Pug’s pretensions to gentility. Corncutters carried on a regular trade (see Bart. Fair 2. 1.), and were held in the greatest contempt, as we learn from Nash (Four Letters Confuted, Wks. 2. 211).

4. 4. 232 The Moone. I. e., see that the moon and zodiacal sign are propitious.

4. 4. 235 Get their natiuities cast! Astrology was a favorite subject of satire. Cf. Massinger, City Madam 2. 2; B. & Fl., Rollo Duke of Normandy 4. 2, etc.

4. 5. 31, 2 his valour has At the tall board bin question’d. Tall board is, I think, the same as table-board, a gaming-table. In Dyce’s edition of Webster’s Devil’s Law Case (Wks. 2. 38) we read: ‘shaking your elbow at the table-board.’ Dyce says in a note that the old folio reads Taule-board. Tables is derived from Lat. Tabularum lusus Fr. Tables. The derivation, table tavl taul tall, presents no etymological difficulties. A note from Professor Joseph Wright of Oxford confirms me in my theory.

The passage seems to mean that Merecraft was accused of cheating, and, his valor not rising to the occasion, his reputation for honesty was left somewhat in doubt.

4. 6. 38-41 intitle Your vertue, to the power, vpon a life
... Euen to forfeit. Wittipol is ‘wooing in language of the pleas and bench.’ Cf. 4. 7. 62.

4. 6. 42 We haue another leg-strain’d, for this Dottrel. See variants, and note 2. 2. 49, 50.

4. 6. 49 A Phrentick. See note 5. 8. 91-2.

4. 7. 37-40. See variants. Gifford silently follows Whalley’s changes, which are utterly unwarrantable. Cunningham points out the wrong division in 37, 8. The scansion is thus indicated by Wilke (Metrische Untersuchungen, p. 3):

The missing syllable in the third verse is compensated for by the pause after the comma. This is quite in accordance with Jonson’s custom (see Wilke, p. 1 f.).

4. 7. 45 Publication. See 3. 3. 137.

4. 7. 54 I sou’t him. See variants. Gifford says that he can make nothing of sou’t but sought and sous’d, and that he prefers the latter. Dyce (Remarks) confidently asserts that the word is the same as shue, ‘to frighten away poultry,’ and Cunningham accepts this without question. There seems, however, to be no confirmation for the theory that the preterit was ever spelt sou’t. Wright’s Dialect Dictionary gives: ‘Sough. 19. to strike; to beat severely,’ but the pronunciation here seems usually to be souff. Professor Wright assures me that sous’d is the correct reading, and that the others are ‘mere stupid guesses.’

4. 7. 62 in possibility. A legal phrase used of contingent interests. See note 4. 6. 38, 9.

4. 7. 65 Duke O’ Shore-ditch. ‘A mock title of honour, conferred on the most successful of the London archers, of which this account is given:

When Henry VIII became king, he gave a prize at Windsor to those who should excel at this exercise, (archery) when Barlo, one of his guards, an inhabitant of Shoreditch, acquired such honor as an archer, that the king created him duke of Shoreditch, on the spot. This title, together with that of marquis of Islington, earl of Pancridge, etc., was taken from these villages, in the neighborhood of Finsbury fields, and continued so late as 1683. Ellis’s History of Shoreditch, p. 170.

The latest account is this: In 1682 there was a most magnificent entertainment given by the Finsbury archers, when they bestowed the title of duke of Shoreditch, etc., upon the most deserving. The king was present. Ibid. 173.’—Nares, Gloss.

Entick (Survey 2. 65) gives an interesting account of a match which took place in 1583. The Duke of Shoreditch was accompanied on this occasion by the ‘marquises of Barlow, Clerkenwell, Islington, Hoxton, and Shaklewell, the earl of Pancras, etc. These, to the number of 3000, assembled at the place appointed, sumptuously apparelled, and 942 of them had gold chains about their necks. They marched from merchant-taylors-hall, preceded by whifflers and bellmen, that made up the number 4000, besides pages and footmen; performing several exercises and evolutions in Moorfields, and at last shot at the target for glory in Smithfield.’

4. 7. 69 Ha’. See variants. The original seems to me the more characteristic reading.

4. 7. 84 after-game. Jonson uses the expression again in the New Inn, Wks. 5. 402:

ACT V.

5. 1. 28 Tyborne. This celebrated gallows stood, it is believed, on the site of Connaught Place. It derived the name from a brook in the neighborhood (see Minsheu, Stow, etc.).

5. 1. 29 My L. Majors Banqueting-house. This was in Stratford Place, Oxford Street. It was ‘erected for the Mayor and Corporation to dine in after their periodical visits to the Bayswater and Paddington Conduits, and the Conduit-head adjacent to the Banqueting-House, which supplied the city with water. It was taken down in 1737, and the cisterns arched over at the same time.’—Wh-C.

Stow (ed. 1633, pp. 475-6) speaks of ‘many faire Summer houses’ in the London suburbs, built ‘not so much for use and profit, as for shew and pleasure.’

The spelling Major seems to be a Latin form. Mr. Charles Jackson (N. & Q. 4. 7. 176) mentions it as frequently used by the mayors of Doncaster in former days. Cf. also Glapthorne (Wks. 1. 231) and Ev. Man in (Folio 1616, 5. 5. 41).

5. 1. 41 my tooth-picks. See note 4. 2. 26.

5. 1. 47 Saint Giles’es. ‘Now, without the postern of Cripplesgate, first is the parish church of Saint Giles, a very fair and large church, lately repaired, after that the same was burnt in the year 1545.’—Stow, Survey, ed. Thoms, p. 112.

5. 1. 48 A kind of Irish penance! ‘There is the same allusion to the rug gowns of the wild Irish, in the Night Walker of Fletcher:

Cf. also Holinshed, Chron. (quoted CD.):‘As they distill the best aqua-vitÆ, so they spin the choicest rug in Ireland.’ Fynes Moryson (Itinerary, fol. 1617, p. 160) says that the Irish merchants were forbidden to export their wool, in order that the peasants might ‘be nourished by working it into cloth, namely, Rugs ... & mantles generally worn by men and women, and exported in great quantity.’

Jonson mentions rug as an article of apparel several times. In Alch., Wks. 4. 14, it is spoken of as the dress of a poor man and ibid. 4. 83 as that of an astrologer. In Ev. Man out (Wks. 2. 110) a similar reference is made, and here Gifford explains that rug was ‘the usual dress of mathematicians, astrologers, &c., when engaged in their sublime speculations.’ Marston also speaks of rug gowns as the symbol of a strict life (What You Will, Wks. 2. 395):

5. 2. 1 ff. put me To yoaking foxes, etc. Several at least of the following employments are derived from proverbial expressions familiar at the time. Jonson speaks of ‘milking he-goats’ in Timber, ed. Schelling, p. 34, which the editor explains as ‘a proverbial expression for a fruitless task.’ The occupation of lines 5-6 is adapted from a popular proverb given by Cotgrave: ‘J’aymeroy autant tirer vn pet d’un Asne mort, que. I would as soone vndertake to get a fart of a dead man, as &c.’ Under Asne he explains the same proverb as meaning ‘to worke impossibilities.’ This explains the passage in Staple of News 3. 1., Wks. 5. 226. The proverb is quoted again in Eastward Ho, Marston, Wks. 3. 90, and in Wm. Lilly’s Observations,’ Hist., pp. 269-70. ‘Making ropes of sand’ was Iniquity’s occupation in 1. 1. 119. This familiar proverb first appears in Aristides 2. 309: ?? ???? s??????? p???e??. In the New Inn, Wks. 5. 394, Lovel says: ‘I will go catch the wind first in a sieve.’ Whalley says that the occupation of ‘keeping fleas within a circle’ is taken from Socrates’ employment in the Clouds of Aristophanes (ll. 144-5). Gifford, however, ridicules the notion. Jonson refers to the passage in the Clouds in Timber (ed. Schelling, 82. 33), where he thinks it would have made the Greeks merry to see Socrates ‘measure how many foot a flea could skip geometrically.’ But here again we seem to have a proverbial expression. It occurs in the morality-play of Nature, 642. II (quoted by Cushman, p. 116):

5. 2. 32. Scan:

Thos. Keightley, N. & Q. 4. 2. 603, suggests:

5. 2. 35 Your best songs Thom. O’ Bet’lem. ‘A song entitled “Mad Tom” is to be found in Percy’s Reliques; Ballad Soc. Roxb. Ball., 2. p. 259; and Chappell’s Old Pop. Mus. The exact date of the poem is not known.’—H. R. D. Anders, Shakespeare’s Books, p. 24-5.

Bethlehem Royal Hospital was originally founded ‘to have been a priory of canons,’ but was converted to a hospital for lunatics in 1547. In Jonson’s time it was one of the regular sights of London, and is so referred to in Dekker’s Northward Hoe, Wks. 3. 56 f.; Sil. Wom., Wks. 3. 421; Alch., Wks. 4. 132.5. 3. 6 little Darrels tricks. John Darrel (fl. 1562-1602) was born, it is believed, at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, about 1562. He graduated at Cambridge, studied law, and then became a preacher at Mansfield. He began to figure as an exorcist in 1586, when he pretended to cast out an evil spirit from Catherine Wright of Ridgway Lane, Derbyshire. In 1596 he exorcised Thomas Darling, a boy of fourteen, of Burton-on-Trent, for bewitching whom Alice Goodrich was tried and convicted at Derby. A history of the case was written by Jesse Bee of Burton (Harsnet, Discovery, p. 2). The boy Darling went to Merton College, and in 1603 was sentenced by the Star-chamber to be whipped, and to lose his ears for libelling the vice-chancellor of Oxford. In March, 1596-7, Darrel was sent for to Clayworth Hall, Shakerly, in Leigh parish, Lancashire, where he exorcised seven persons of the household of Mr. Nicholas Starkie, who accused one Edmund Hartley of bewitching them, and succeeded in getting the latter condemned and executed in 1597. In November, 1597, Darrel was invited to Nottingham to dispossess William Somers, an apprentice, and shortly after his arrival was appointed preacher of St. Mary’s in that town, and his fame drew crowded congregations to listen to his tales of devils and possession. Darrel’s operations having been reported to the Archbishop of York, a commission of inquiry was issued (March 1597-8), and he was prohibited from preaching. Subsequently the case was investigated by Bancroft, bishop of London, and S. Harsnet, his chaplain, when Somers, Catherine Wright, and Mary Cooper confessed that they had been instructed in their simulations by Darrel. He was brought before the commissioners and examined at Lambeth on 26 May 1599, was pronounced an impostor, degraded from the ministry and committed to the Gatehouse. He remained in prison for at least a year, but it is not known what became of him. (Abridged from DNB.)

Jonson refers to Darrel again in U. 67, Wks. 8. 422:

5. 3. 27 That could, pitty her selfe. See variants.

5. 3. 28 in PotentiÂ. Jonson uses the phrase again in the Alchemist, Wks. 4. 64: ‘The egg’s ... a chicken in potentia.’ It is a late Latin phrase. See Gloss.

5. 4. 17 my proiect o’ the forkes. Forks were just being introduced into England at this time, and were a common subject of satire. The first mention of a fork recorded in the NED. is: ‘1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 40, I beqwethe to Davn John Kertelynge my silvir forke for grene gyngour.’

Cf. Dekker, Guls Horne-booke, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 211: ‘Oh golden world, the suspicious Venecian carued not his meate with a siluer pitch-forke.’ B. & Fl., Queen of Corinth 4. 1 (quoted by Gifford):

Fox, Wks. 3. 261:

Coryat has much to say on the subject (Crudities 1. 106): ‘I obserued a custome in all those Italian Cities and Townes through the which I passed, that is not vsed in any other country that I saw in my trauels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth vse it, but only Italy. The Italian and also most strangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alwaies in their meales vse a little forke when they cut their meate. For while with their knife which they hold in one hand they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten their forke which they hold in their other hand vpon the same dish, so that whatsoeuer he be that sitting in the company of any others at meale, should vnadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers from which all at the table doe cut, he will giue occasion of offence vnto the company, as hauing transgressed the lawes of good manners.... This forme of feeding I vnderstand is generally vsed in all places of Italy, their forkes being for the most part made of yron or steele, and some of siluer, but those are vsed only by Gentlemen.’ Coryat carried this custom home with him to England, for which a friend dubbed him furcifer. This passage is doubtless the source of Jonson’s lines. Compare the last sentence of the quotation with lines 30, 31 of this scene.

5. 4. 23, 4 on my priuate, By cause. See variants. There is no necessity for change. Cf. 1616 Sir R. Dudley in Fortesc. Papers 17: ‘Nor am I so vaine ... bycause I am not worth so much.’ The same form occurs in Sad Shepherd (Fol. 1631-40, p. 143):

Gabriel Harvey uses both the forms by cause and bycause. Prose Wks. 1. 101; 102; et frequenter.

5. 4. 34 at mine owne ap-perill. The word is of rare occurrence. Gifford quotes Timon of Athens 1. 2: ‘Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon;’ and refers to Mag. La., Wks. 6. 109: ‘Faith, I will bail him at mine own apperil.’ It occurs again in Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 148: ‘As you will answer it at your apperil.’

5. 5. 10, 11 I will leaue you To your God fathers in Law. ‘This seems to have been a standing joke for a jury. It is used by Shakespeare and by writers prior to him. Thus Bulleyn, speaking of a knavish ostler, says, “I did see him ones aske blessyng to xii godfathers at ones.” Dialogue, 1564.’—G.

The passage from Shakespeare is Merch. of Ven. 4. 1. 398:

Cf. also Muse’s Looking Glass, O. Pl. 9. 214: ‘Boets! I had rather zee him remitted to the jail, and have his twelve godvathers, good men and true contemn him to the gallows.’

5. 5. 50, 51 A Boy O’ thirteene yeere old made him an Asse
But t’toher day. Whalley believed this to be an allusion to the ‘boy of Bilson,’ but, as Gifford points out, this case did not occur until 1620, four years after the production of the present play. Gifford believes Thomas Harrison, the ‘boy of Norwich,’ to be alluded to. A short account of his case is given in Hutchinson’s Impostures Detected, pp. 262 f. The affair took place in 1603 or 1604, and it was thought necessary to ‘require the Parents of the said Child, that they suffer not any to repair to their House to visit him, save such as are in Authority and other Persons of special Regard, and known Discretion.’ Hutchinson says that Harrison was twelve years old. It is quite possible, though not probable, that Jonson is referring again to the Boy of Burton, who was only two years older. See note 5. 3. 6.

5. 5. 58, 59 You had some straine ‘Boue E-la? Cf. 1593 Nash, Christ’s Tears, Wks. 4. 188: ‘You must straine your wits an Ela aboue theyrs.’ Cf. also Nash, Wks. 5. 98 and 253; Lyly, Euphues, Aij; and Gloss.

5. 6. 1 your garnish. ‘This word garnish has been made familiar to all time by the writings of John Howard. “A cruel custom,” says he, “obtains in most of our gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a newcomer garnish, footing, or (as it is called in some London gaols) chummage. Pay or strip are the fatal words. I say fatal, for they are so to some, who, having no money, are obliged to give up part of their scanty apparel; and if they have no bedding or straw to sleep on, contract diseases which I have known to prove mortal.”’—C.

Cf. Dekker, If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 324:

and Greene, Upstart Courtier, Dija: ‘Let a poore man be arrested ... he shal be almost at an angels charge, what with garnish, crossing and wiping out of the book ... extortions ... not allowed by any statute.’

The money here seems to have been intended for the jailer, rather than for Pug’s fellow-prisoners. The custom was abolished by 4 George IV. c. 43, § 12.

5. 6. 10 I thinke Time be drunke, and sleepes. Cf. 1. 4. 31. For the metaphor cf. New Inn, Wks. 5. 393:

and Staple of News, Wks. 5. 162:

5. 6. 18 confute. ‘A pure Latinism. Confutare is properly to pour cold water in a pot, to prevent it from boiling over; and hence metaphorically, the signification of confuting, reproving, or controuling.’—W.

For the present use cf. T. Adams in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., 1614, Ps. lxxx. 20: ‘Goliath ... shall be confuted with a pebble.’ R. Coke, Justice Vind. (1660) 15: ‘to be confuted with clubs and hissing.’

5. 6. 21 the Session. The general or quarter sessions were held regularly four times a year on certain days prescribed by the statutes. The length of time for holding the sessions was fixed at three days, if necessity required it, but the rule was not strictly adhered to. See Beard, The Office of the Justice of the Peace in England, pp. 158 f.

5. 6. 23 In a cart, to be hang’d. ‘Theft and robbery in their coarsest form were for many centuries capital crimes.... The question when theft was first made a capital crime is obscure, but it is certain that at every period some thefts were punished with death, and that by Edward I.’s time, at least, the distinction between grand and petty larceny, which lasted till 1827, was fully established.’—Stephen, Hist. Crim. Law 3. 128 f.

5. 6. 24 The charriot of Triumph, which most of them are. The procession from Newgate by Holbom and Tyburn road was in truth often a ‘triumphall egression,’ and a popular criminal like Jack Sheppard or Jonathan Wild frequently had a large attendance. Cf. Shirley, Wedding 4. 3, Wks., ed. Gifford, 1. 425: ‘Now I’m in the cart, riding up Holborn in a two-wheeled chariot, with a guard of Halberdiers. There goes a proper fellow, says one; good people pray for me: now I am at the three wooden stilts,’ etc.

5. 6. 48 a body intire. Jonson uses the word in its strict etymological sense.

5. 6. 54 cheated on. Dyce (Remarks) points out that this phrase is used in Mrs. Centlivre’s Wonder, Act 2. Sc. 1. Jonson uses it again in Mercury vindicated: ‘and cheat upon your under-officers;’ and Marston in What You Will, Wks. 2. 387.

5. 6. 64 Prouinciall o’ the Cheaters! Provincial is a term borrowed from the church. See Gloss. Of the cheaters Dekker gives an interesting account in the Bel-man of London, Non-dram. Wks. 3. 116 f.: ‘Of all which Lawes, the Highest in place, and the Highest in perdition is the Cheating Law or the Art of winning money by false dyce: Those that practise this studie call themselues Cheators, / the dyce Cheaters, and the money which they purchase [see note 3. 4. 31, 2.] Cheates [see 1.7.4 and Gloss.]: borrowing the tearme from our common Lawyers, with whome all such casuals as fall to the Lord at the holding of his Leetes, as Waifes, Strayes, & such like, are sayd to be Escheated to the Lords vse and are called Cheates.’

5. 6. 64 Bawd-ledger. Jonson speaks of a similar official in Every Man out, Wks. 2. 132: ‘He’s a leiger at Horn’s ordinary (cant name for a bawdy-house) yonder.’ See Gloss.

5. 6. 68 to sindge your nayles off. In the fool’s song in Twelfth Night we have the exclamation to the devil: ‘paire thy nayles dad’ (Furness’s ed., p. 273). The editor quotes Malone: ‘The Devil was supposed from choice to keep his nails unpared, and therefore to pare them was an affront. So, in Camden’s Remaines, 1615: “I will follow mine owne minde, and mine old trade; who shall let me? the divel’s nailes are unparde.”’

Compare also Henry V. 4. 4. 76: ‘Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valor than this roaring devil i’ the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger.’

5. 6. 76 The Diuell was wont to carry away the euill. Eckhardt, p. 100, points out that Jonson’s etymology of the word Vice, which has been a matter of dispute, was the generally accepted one, that is, from vice = evil.

5. 7. 1 Iustice Hall. ‘The name of the Sessions-house in the Old Bailey.’—G. Strype, B. 3. p. 281 says that it was ‘a fair and stately building, very commodious for that affair.’ ‘It standeth backwards, so that it hath no front towards the street, only the gateway leading into the yard before the House, which is spacious. It cost above £6000 the building. And in this place the Lord Mayor, Recorder, the Aldermen and Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex do sit, and keep his Majesty’s Sessions of Oyer and Terminer.’ It was destroyed in the Gordon Riots of 1780.—Wh-C.

5. 7. 9 This strange! See variants. The change seriously injures the metre, and the original reading should be preserved. Such absorptions (this for this is or this’s) are not uncommon. Cf. Macbeth 3. 4. 17, ed. Furness, p. 165: ‘yet he’s good’ for ‘yet he is as good.’

5. 8. 2 They had giu’n him potions. Jonson perhaps had in mind the trial of Anne Turner and her accomplices in the Overbury Case of the previous year. See Introduction, p. lxxii. For a discussion of love-philtres see Burton, Anat. of Mel. (ed. Bullen), 3. 145 f.

5. 8. 33 with a Wanion. This word is found only in the phrases ‘with a wanion,’ ‘in a wanion,’ and ‘wanions on you.’ It is a kind of petty imprecation, and occurs rather frequently in the dramatists, but its precise signification and etymology are still in doubt. Boswell, Malone, 21. 61, proposed a derivation from winnowing,‘a beating;’ Nares from wanung, Saxon, ‘detriment;’ Dyce (Ford’s Wks. 2. 291) from wan (vaande, Dutch, ‘a rod or wand’), ‘of which wannie and wannion are familiar diminutives.’ The CD. makes it a later form of ME. waniand, ‘a waning,’ spec. of the moon, regarded as implying ill luck.

5. 8. 34 If his hornes be forth, the Diuells companion! The jest is too obvious not to be a common one. Thus in Eastward Ho Slitgut, who is impersonating the cuckold at Horn-fair, says: ‘Slight! I think the devil be abroad. in likeness of a storm, to rob me of my horns!’,—Marston’s Wks. 3. 72. Cf. also Staple of News, Wks. 5. 186: ‘And why would you so fain see the devil? would I say. Because he has horns, wife, and may be a cuckold as well as a devil.’

5. 8. 35 How he foames! For the stock indications of witchcraft see Introduction, p. xlix.

5. 8. 40 The Cockscomb, and the Couerlet. Wittipol is evidently selecting an appropriate name for Fitzdottrel’s buffoonery after the manner of the puppet-shows. It is quite possible that some actual motion of the day was styled ‘the Coxcomb and the Coverlet.’

5. 8. 50 shee puts in a pinne. Pricking with pins and needles was one of the devil’s regular ways of tormenting bewitched persons. They were often supposed to vomit these articles. So when Voltore feigns possession, Volpone cries out: ‘See! He vomits crooked pins’ (The Fox, Wks. 3. 312).

5. 8. 61 the Kings Constable. ‘From the earliest times to our own days, there were two bodies of police in England, namely, the parish and high constables, and the watchmen in cities and boroughs. Nothing could exceed their inefficiency in the 17th century. Of the constables, Dalton (in the reign of James I.) observes that they “are often absent from their houses, being for the most part husbandmen.” The charge of Dogberry shows probably with no great caricature what sort of watchmen Shakespeare was familiar with. As late as 1796, Colquhoun observes that the watchmen “were aged and often superannuated men.” ’—Sir J. Stephen, Hist. Crim. Law 1. 194 f.

5. 8. 71 The taking of Tabacco, with which the Diuell
Is so delighted. This was an old joke of the time. In Middleton’s Black Book, Wks. 8. 42 f. the devil makes his will, a part of which reads as follows: ‘But turning my legacy to you-ward, Barnaby Burning-glass, arch-tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries, upon stages both common and private, and lastly, in the lodging of your drab and mistress; I am not a little proud, I can tell you, Barnaby, that you dance after my pipe so long, and for all counter-blasts and tobacco-Nashes (which some call railers), you are not blown away, nor your fiery thirst quenched with the small penny-ale of their contradictions, but still suck that dug of damnation with a long nipple, still burning that rare Phoenix of Phlegethon, tobacco, that from her ashes, burned and knocked out, may arise another pipeful.’

Middleton here refers to Nash’s Pierce Pennilesse and King James I.’s Counterblast to Tobacco. The former in his supplication to the devil says: ‘It is suspected you have been a great tobacco-taker in your youth.’ King James describes it as ‘a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrid stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.’

The dramatists seem never to grow tired of this joking allusion to the devil and his pipe of tobacco. Cf. Dekker, If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 293: ‘I think the Diuell is sucking Tabaccho, heeres such a Mist.’ Ibid. 327: ‘Are there gentleman diuels too? this is one of those, who studies the black Art, thats to say, drinkes Tobacco.’ Massinger, Guardian, Wks., p. 344:

Dekker (Non-dram. Wks. 2. 89) speaks of ‘that great Tobacconist the Prince of Smoake & darknes, Don Pluto.’

The art of taking or drinking tobacco was much cultivated and had its regular professors. The whiff, the ring, etc., are often spoken of. For the general subject see Dekker, Guls Horne-booke; Barnaby Riche, Honestie of this Age, 1613; Harrison, Chronology, 1573; Every Man in, etc. An excellent description of a tobacconist’s shop is given in Alchemist, Wks. 4. 37. For a historical account of its introduction see Wheatley. Ev. Man in, p. xlvii.

Jonson’s form tabacco is the same as the Italian and Portuguese. See Alden, Bart. Fair, p. 169.

5. 8. 74, 5 yellow, etc.
That’s Starch! the Diuell’s Idoll of that colour. For the general subject of yellow starch see note 1. 1. 112, 3. Compare also Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses, p. 52: ‘The deuil, as he in the fulness of his malice, first inuented these great ruffes, so hath hee now found out also two great stayes to beare vp and maintaine this his kingdome of great ruffes.... The one arch or piller whereby his kingdome of great ruffes is vnderpropped, is a certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call starch, wherein the devil hath willed them to wash and diue his ruffes wel.’

‘Starch hound’ and ‘Tobacco spawling (spitting)’ are the names of two devils in Dekker’s If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 270. Jonson speaks of ‘that idol starch’ again in the Alchemist, Wks. 4. 92.

5. 8. 78 He is the Master of Players. An evident allusion to the Puritan attacks on the stage. This was the period of the renewed literary contest. George Wither had lately published his Abuses stript and whipt, 1613. For the whole subject see Thompson, E. N. S., The Controversy between the Puritans and the Stage, New York, 1903.

5. 8. 81 Figgum. ‘In some of our old dictionaries, fid is explained to caulk with oakum: figgum, or fig’em, may therefore be a vulgar derivative from this term, and signify the lighted flax or tow with which jugglers stuff their mouths when they prepare to amuse the rustics by breathing out smoke and flames:

5. 8. 86, 7 to such a foole, He makes himselfe. For the omission of the relative adverb cf. 1. 3. 34, 35.

5. 8. 89 To come to dinner, in mee the sinner. The conception of this couplet and the lines which Fitzdottrel speaks below was later elaborated in Cocklorrel’s song in the Gipsies Metamorphosed. Pluto in Dekker’s If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 268, says that every devil should have ‘a brace of whores to his breakfast.’ Such ideas seem to be descended from the mediÆval allegories of men like Raoul de Houdanc, Ruteboeuf, etc.

5. 8. 91, 2 Are you phrenticke, Sir, Or what graue dotage moues you. ‘Dotage, fatuity, or folly, is a common name to all the following species, as some will have it.... Phrenitis, which the Greeks derive from the word f???, is a disease of the mind, with a continual madness or dotage, which hath an acute fever annexed, or else an inflammation of the brain, or the membranes or kells of it, with an acute fever, which causeth madness and dotage.’—Burton, Anat. of Mel., ed. Shilleto, 1. 159-60.

5. 8. 112 f. ?? ?? ?a??da???, etc. See variants. ‘This Greek is from the Plutus of Aristophanes, Act 4, Sc. 3.’—W.

Accordingly to Blaydes’s edition, 1886, 11. 850-2. He reads ???? ?a??da???, etc. (Ah! me miserable, and thrice miserable, and four times, and five times, and twelve times, and ten thousand times.)

5. 8. 116 QuebrÉmos, etc. Let’s break his eye in jest.

5. 8. 118 Di grÁtia, etc. If you please, sir, if you have money, give me some of it.

5. 8. 119 f. Ouy, Ouy Monsieur, etc. Yes, yes, sir, a poor devil! a poor little devil!

5. 8. 121 by his seuerall languages. Cf. Marston, Malcontent, Wks. 1. 212: ‘Mal. Phew! the devil: let him possess thee; he’ll teach thee to speak all languages most readily and strangely.’

5. 8. 132 Such an infernall stincke, etc. Dr. Henry More says that the devil’s ‘leaving an ill smell behind him seems to imply the reality of the business’, and that it is due to ‘those adscititious particles he held together in his visible vehicle being loosened at his vanishing’ (see Lowell, Lit. Essays 2. 347).

5. 8. 133 St. Pulchars Steeple. St. Sepulchre in the Bailey (occasionally written St. ’Pulcher’s) is a church at the western end of Newgate Street and in the ward of Farringdon Without. A church existed here in the twelfth century. The church which Jonson knew was built in the middle of the fifteenth century. The body of the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

It was the custom formerly for the clerk or bellman of St. Sepulchre’s to go under Newgate on the night preceding the execution of a criminal, and, ringing his bell, to repeat certain verses, calling the prisoner to repentance. Another curious custom observed at this church was that of presenting a nosegay to every criminal on his way to Tyburn (see Wh-C.). The executed criminals were buried in the churchyard (d. Middleton, Black Book, Wks. 8. 25).

Cunningham says that ‘the word steeple was not used in the restricted sense to which we now confine it. The tower of St. Sepulchre’s in Jonson’s time, must have been very much like what we now see it as most carefully and tastefully restored.’

5. 8. 134 as farre as Ware. This is a distance of about 22 miles. Ware is an ancient market-town of Herts, situated in a valley on the north side of the river Lea. The ‘great bed of Ware’ is mentioned in Twelfth Night 3. 2. 51, and the town is characterized as ‘durty Ware’ in Dekker’s North-ward Hoe, Wks. 3. 53.

5. 8. 142, 3 I will tell truth, etc. Jonson uses this proverb again in Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 150: ‘tell troth and shame the devil.’

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