ACT II.
2. 1. 1 Sir, money’s a whore, etc. Coleridge, Notes, p. 280. emends: ‘Money, sir, money’s a’, &c. Cunningham, on the other hand, thinks that ‘the 9-syllable arrangement is quite in Jonson’s manner, and that it forces an emphasis upon every word especially effective at the beginning of an act.’ See variants.
Money is again designated as a whore in the Staple of News 4. 1: ‘Saucy Jack, away: Pecunia is a whore.’ In the same play Pennyboy, the usurer, is called a ‘money-bawd.’ Dekker (Non-dram. Wks. 2. 137) speaks of keeping a bawdy-house for Lady Pecunia. The figure is a common one.
2. 1. 3 Via. This exclamation is quite common among the dramatists and is explained by Nares as derived from the Italian exclamation via! ‘away, on!’ with a quibble on the literal of L. via, a way. The Century Dictionary agrees substantially with this derivation. Abundant examples of its use are given by the authorities quoted, to which may be added Merry Devil of Edmonton 1. 2. 5, and Marston, Dutch Courtezan, Wks. 2. 20:
O, yes, come, via!—away, boy—on!
2. 1. 5 With Aqua-vitae. Perhaps used with especial reference to line 1, where he has just called money a bawd Compare:
O, ay, as a bawd with aqua-vitae. —Marston, The Malcontent, Wks. 1. 294.
‘Her face is full of those red pimples with drinking Aquauite, the common drinke of all bawdes.’—Dekker, Whore of Babylon, Wks. 2. 246.
2. 1. 17. See variants. Line 15 shows that the original reading is correct.
2. 1. 19 it shall be good in law. See note [1. 2. 22].
2. 1. 20 Wood-cock. A cant term for a simpleton or dupe.
2. 1. 21 th’ Exchange. This was the first Royal Exchange, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566, opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1570-1, and destroyed in the great fire of 1666 (Wh-C.). Howes (1631) says that it was ‘plenteously stored with all kinds of rich wares and fine commodities,’ and Paul Hentzner (p. 40) speaks of it with enthusiasm.
It was a favorite lounging-place, especially in the evening. Wheatley quotes Hayman, Quodlibet, 1628, p. 6:
Though little coin thy purseless pockets line, Yet with great company thou’rt taken up; For often with Duke Humfray thou dost dine, And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup.
‘We are told in London and Country Carbonadoed, 1632, that at the exchange there were usually more coaches attendant than at church doors.’ Cf. also Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 357: ‘I challenge all Cheapside to shew such another: Moor-fields, Pimlico-path, Or the Exchange, in a summer evening.’ Also Ev. Man in, Wks. 1. 39.
2. 1. 30 do you doubt his eares? Ingine’s speech is capable of a double interpretation. Pug has already spoken of the ‘liberal ears’ of his asinine master.
2. 1. 41 a string of’s purse. Purses, of course, used to be hung at the girdle. A thief was called a cut-purse. See the amusing scene in Bart. Fair, Wks. 5. 406.
2. 1. 53, 4 at the Pan, Not, at the skirts. ‘Pan is not easily distinguished from skirt. Both words seem to refer to the outer parts, or extremities. Possibly Meercraft means—on a broader scale, on a more extended front.’—G.
‘The pan is evidently the deepest part of the swamp, which continues to hold water when the skirts dry up, like the hole in the middle of the tray under a joint when roasting, which collects all the dripping. Meercraft proposed to grapple with the main difficulty at once.’—C.
I had already arrived at the same conclusion before reading Cunningham’s note. The NED. gives: ‘Pan. A hollow or depression in the ground, esp. one in which water stands.
1594 Plat, Jewell-ho 1. 32 Of all Channels, Pondes, Pooles, Riuers, and Ditches, and of all other pannes and bottomes whatsoeuer.’
Pan, however, is also an obsolete form of pane, a cloth or skirt. The use is evidently a quibble. The word pan suggested to Jonson the word skirt, which he accordingly employed not unaptly.
2. 1. 63 his black bag of papers, there, in Buckram. The buckram bag was the usual sign of the pettifogger. Cf. Marston, Malcontent, Wks. 1. 235:
Pass. Ay, as a pettifogger by his buckram bag.
Dekker, If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 274: ‘We must all turn pettifoggers and in stead of gilt rapiers, hang buckram bags at our girdles.’ Nash refers to the same thing in Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 17.
2. 1. 64 th’ Earledome of Pancridge. Pancridge is a corruption of Pancras. The Earl of Pancridge was ‘one of the “Worthies” who annually rode to Mile End, or the Artillery Ground, in the ridiculous procession called Arthurs Shew’ (G.). Cf. To Inigo Marquis Would-be, Wks. 8. 115:
Content thee to be Pancridge earl the while.
Tale Tub, Wks. 6. 175:
—next our St. George, Who rescued the king’s daughter, I will ride; Above Prince Arthur. Clench. Or our own Shoreditch duke. Med.. Or Pancridge earl. Pan. Or Bevis or Sir Guy.
For Arthur’s Show see Entick’s Survey 1. 497; Wh-C. 1. 65; and Nares 1. 36. Cf. note 4. 7. 65·
2. 1. 71, 2 Your Borachio Of Spaine. ‘“Borachio (says Min-shieu) is a bottle commonly of a pigges skin, with the hair inward, dressed inwardly with rozen, to keep wine or liquor sweet:”—Wines preserved in these bottles contract a peculiar flavour, and are then said to taste of the borachio.’—G.
Florio says: ‘a boracho, or a bottle made of a goates skin such as they vse in Spaine.’ The word occurs somewhat frequently (see NED.) and apparently always with this meaning, or in the figurative sense of ‘drunkard’. It is evident, however, from Engine’s question, ‘Of the King’s glouer?’ either that it is used here in a slightly different sense, or more probably that Merecraft is relying on Fitzdottrel’s ignorance of the subject. Spanish leather for wearing apparel was at this time held in high esteem. See note [4. 4. 71, 2].
2. 1. 83 a Harrington. ‘In 1613, a patent was granted to John Stanhope, lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chambers, for the coinage of royal farthing tokens, of which he seems to have availed himself with sufficient liberality. Some clamour was excited on the occasion: but it speedily subsided; for the Star Chamber kept a watchful eye on the first symptoms of discontent at these pernicious indulgences. From this nobleman they took the name of Harrington in common conversation.’—G.
‘Now (1613) my lord Harrington obtained a patent from the King for the making of Brasse Farthings, a thing that brought with it some contempt through lawfull.’—Sparke, Hist. Narration, Somer’s Tracts 2. 294.
A reference to this coin is made in Drunken Barnaby’s Journal in the Oxoniana (quoted by Gifford) and in Sir Henry Wotton’s Letters (p. 558, quoted by Whalley). Cf. also Mag. La., Wks. 6. 89: ‘I will note bate you a single Harrington,’ and ibid., Wks. 6. 43.
2. 1. 102 muscatell. The grape was usually called muscat. So in Pepys’ Diary, 1662: ‘He hath also sent each of us some anchovies, olives and muscatt.’ The wine was variously written muscatel, muscadel, and muscadine. Muscadine and eggs are often mentioned together (cf. Text, 2. 2. 95-96; New Inn 3. 1; Middleton, Wks. 2. 290; 3. 94; and 8. 36), and were used as an aphrodisiac (Bullen). Nares quotes Minsheu: ‘Vinum muscatum, quod moschi odorem referat; for the sweetnesse and smell it resembles muske.’
2. 1. 116, 7 the receiu’d heresie, That England beares no Dukes. ‘I know not when this heresy crept in. There was apparently some unwillingness to create dukes, as a title of honour, in the Norman race; probably because the Conqueror and his immediate successors were dukes of Normandy, and did not choose that a subject should enjoy similar dignities with themselves. The first of the English who bore the title was Edward the black prince, (son of Edward III.) who was created duke of Cornwall, by charter, as Collins says, in 1337. The dignity being subsequently conferred on several of the blood-royal, and of the nobility, who came to untimely ends, an idea seems to have been entertained by the vulgar, that the title itself was ominous. At the accession of James I. to the crown of this country, there was, I believe, no English peer of ducal dignity.’—G.
The last duke had been created in the reign of Henry VIII., who made his illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond, and Charles Brandon, who married his sister Mary, Duke of Suffolk. After the attainder and execution of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in 1572, there was no duke in England except the king’s sons, until the creation of the Duke of Richmond in 1623. (See New Int. Cyc. 6. 349.)
2. 1. 144 Bermudas. ‘This was a cant term for some places in the town with the same kind of privilege as the mint of old, or the purlieus of the Fleet.’—W.
‘These streights consisted of a nest of obscure courts, alleys, and avenues, running between the bottom of St. Martin’s Lane, Half-moon, and Chandos-street. In Justice Overdo’s time, they were the receptacles of fraudulent debtors, thieves and prostitutes.’—G. (Note on Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 407.)
‘On Wednesday at the Bermudas Court, Sir Edwin Sandys fell foul of the Earl of Warwick. The Lord Cavendish seconded Sandys and the Earl told the Lord, “By his favour he believed he lied.” Hereupon, it is said, they rode out yesterday, and, as it is thought, gone beyond sea to fight.—Leigh to Rev. Joseph Mede, July 18, 1623.’ (Quoted Wh-C. 1. 169.) So in Underwoods, Wks. 8. 348:
turn pirates here at land, Have their Bermudas and their Streights i’ the Strand.
Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 407: “The Streights, or the Bermudas, where the quarrelling lesson is read.”
It is evident from the present passage and the above quotations that ruffians like Everill kept regular quarters in the ‘Bermudas’, where they might be consulted with reference to the settlement of affairs of honor.
2. 1. 151 puts off man, and kinde. ‘I. e., human nature.’—G. Cf. Catiline, Wks. 4. 212:
—so much, that kind May seek itself there, and not find.
2. 1. 162 French-masques. ‘Masks do not appear as ordinary articles of female costume in England previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth.... French masks are alluded to by Ben Jonson in The Devil is an Ass. They were probably the half masks called in France ‘loups,’ whence the English term ‘loo masks.’
Loo masks and whole as wind do blow, And Miss abroad’s disposed to go. Mundus Muliebris, 1690. —Planché Cycl. of Costume 1. 365.
‘Black masks were frequently worn by ladies in public in the time of Shakespeare, particularly, and perhaps universally at the theatres.’—Nares.
2. 1. 163 Cut-works. A very early sort of lace deriving its name from the mode of its manufacture, the fine cloth on which the pattern was worked being cut away, leaving the design perfect. It is supposed to have been identical with what was known as Greek work, and made by the nuns of Italy in the twelfth century. It was introduced into England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and continued in fashion during those of James I. and Charles I. Later it fell under the ban of the Puritans, and after that period is rarely heard of. (Abridged from Planché, Cycl.)
2. 1. 168 ff. nor turne the key, etc. Gifford points out that the source of this passage is Plautus, Aulularia [ll. 90-100]:
Caue quemquam alienum in aedis intromiseris. Quod quispiam ignem quaerat, extingui uolo, Ne causae quid sit quod te quispiam quaeritet. Nam si ignis uiuet, tu extinguere extempulo, Tum aquam aufugisse dicito, si quis petet. Cultrum, securim, pistillum, mortarium, Quae utenda uasa semper uicini rogant, Fures uenisse atque abstulisse dicito. Profecto in aedis meas me absente neminem Volo intromitti, atque etiam hoc praedico tibi, Si Bona Fortuna ueniat, ne intromiseris.
Jonson had already made use of a part of this passage:
Put out the fire, kill the chimney’s heart, That it may breathe no more than a dead man. Case is Altered 2. 1, Wks. 6. 328.
Wilson imitated the same passage in his Projectors, Act 2, Sc. 1: ‘Shut the door after me, bolt it and bar it, and see you let no one in in my absence. Put out the fire, if there be any, for fear somebody, seeing the smoke, may come to borrow some! If any one come for water, say the pipe’s cut off; or to borrow a pot, knife, pestle and mortar, or the like, say they were stole last night! But harke ye! I charge ye not to open the door to give them an answer, but whisper’t through the keyhole! For, I tell you again, I wilt have nobody come into my house while I’m abroad! No; no living soul! Nay, though Good Fortune herself knock at a door, don’t let her in!’
2. 2. 1 I haue no singular seruice, etc. I. e., This is the sort of thing I must become accustomed to, if I am to remain on earth.
2. 2. 49, 50 Though they take Master Fitz-dottrell, I am no such foule. Gifford points out that the punning allusion of foul to fowl is a play upon the word dottrel. ‘The dotterel (Fuller tells us) is avis γελοτοποιος a mirth-making bird, so ridiculously mimical, that he is easily caught, or rather catcheth himself by his over-active imitation. As the fowler stretcheth forth his arms and legs, stalking towards the bird, so the bird extendeth his legs and wings, approaching the fowler till he is surprised in the net.’—G.
This is what is alluded to in 4. 6. 42. The use of the metaphor is common. Gifford quotes Beaumont & Fletcher. Bonduca and Sea Voyage. Many examples are given in Nares and the NED., to which may be added Damon and Pithias, O. Pl. 4. 68; Nash, Wks. 3. 171; and Butler’s Character of a Fantastic (ed. Morley, p. 401): ‘He alters his gait with the times, and has not a motion of his body that (like a dottrel) he does not borrow from somebody else.’ Nares quotes Old Couple (O. Pl., 4th ed., 12. 41):
E. Our Dotterel then is caught? B. He is and just As Dotterels use to be: the lady first Advanc’d toward him, stretch’d forth her wing, and he Met her with all expressions.
It is uncertain whether the sense of ‘bird’ or ‘simpleton’ is the original. Dottrel seems to be connected with dote and dotard. The bird is a species of plover, and Cunningham says that ‘Selby ridicules the notion of its being more stupid than other birds.’ In Bart. Fair (Wks. 4. 445) we hear of the ‘sport call’d Dorring the Dotterel.’
2. 2. 51 Nor faire one. The dramatists were fond of punning on foul and fair. Cf. Bart. Fair passim.
2. 2. 77 a Nupson. Jonson uses the word again in Every Man in, Wks. 1. 111: ‘O that I were so happy as to light on a nupson now.’ In Lingua, 1607, (O. Pl., 4th ed., 9. 367, 458) both the forms nup and nupson are used. The etymology is uncertain. The Century Dictionary thinks nup may be a variety of nope. Gifford thinks it may be a corruption of Greek νηπ.
2. 2. 78 with my Master’s peace. ‘I. e. respectfully, reverently: a bad translation of cum pace domini.’—G.
2. 2. 81 a spic’d conscience. Used again in Sejanus, Wks. 3. 120, and New Inn, Wks. 5. 337.
2. 2. 90 The very forked top too. Another reference to the horned head of the cuckold. Cf. 1. 6. 179, 80.
2. 2. 93 engendering by the eyes. Cf. Song in Merch. of V. 3. 2. 67: ‘It is engender’d in the eyes.’
2. 2. 98 make benefit. Cf. Every Man in, Wks. 1. 127.
2. 2. 104 a Cokes. Cf. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, Wks. 2. 80: ‘A kind of cokes, which is, as the learned term [it], an ass, a puppy, a widgeon, a dolt, a noddy, a——.’ Cokes is the name of a foolish coxcomb in Bart. Fair.
2. 2. 112 you neat handsome vessells. Cf. note 1. 6. 57.
2. 2. 116 your squires of honour. This seems to be equivalent to the similar expression ‘squire of dames.’
2. 2. 119-125 For the variety at my times, ... I know, to do my turnes, sweet Mistresse. I. e., when for variety you turn to me, I will be able to serve your needs. Pug, of course, from the delicate nature of the subject, chooses to make use of somewhat ambiguous phrases.
2. 2. 121. Thos. Keightley, N. & Q. 4. 2. 603, proposes to read:
Of that proportion, or in the rule.
2. 2. 123 Picardill. Cotgrave gives: ‘Piccadilles: Piccadilles; the severall divisions or peeces fastened together about the brimme of the collar of a doublet, &c.’ Gifford says: ‘With respect to the Piccadil, or, as Jonson writes it, Picardil, (as if he supposed the fashion of wearing it be derived from Picardy,) the term is simply a diminutive of picca (Span. and Ital.) a spear-head, and was given to this article of foppery, from a fancied resemblance of its stiffened plaits to the bristled points of those weapons. Blount thinks, and apparently with justice, that Piccadilly took its name from the sale of the “small stiff collars, so called”, which was first set on foot in a house near the western extremity of the present street, by one Higgins, a tailor.’
As Gifford points out, ‘Pug is affecting modesty, since he had not only assumed a handsome body, but a fashionable dress, “made new” for a particular occasion.’ See 5. 1. 35, 36.
Jonson mentions the Picardill again in the Challenge at Tilt, Wks. 7. 217, and in the Epistle to a Friend, Wks. 8. 356. For other examples see Nares, Gloss.
2. 2. 127 f. your fine Monkey; etc. These are all common terms of endearment. The monkey is frequently mentioned as a lady’s pet by the dramatists. See Cynthia’s Revels, passim, and Mrs. Centlivre’s Busie Body.
2. 3. 36, 7 and your coach-man bald! Because he shall be bare. See note to [4. 4. 202].
2. 3. 45 This man defies the Diuell. See 2. 1. 18.
2. 3. 46 He dos’t by Ingine. I. e., wit, ingenuity, with a possible reference to the name of Merecraft’s agent.
2. 3. 49 Crowland. Crowland, or Croyland is an ancient town and parish of Lincolnshire, situated in a low flat district, about eight miles north-east from Peterborough. The origin of Crowland was in a hermitage founded in the 7th century by St. Guthlac. An abbey was founded in 714 by King Ethelbald, which was twice burnt and restored.
2. 4. 6 Spenser, I thinke, the younger. Thomas (1373-1400) was the only member of the Despenser family who was an Earl of Gloucester. The person referred to here, however, is Hugh le Despenser, the younger baron, son of Hugh le Despenser, the elder. He married Eleanor, daughter of Gilbert of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and sister and coheiress of the next Earl Gilbert. After the death of the latter, the inheritance was divided between the husbands of his three sisters, and Despenser was accordingly sometimes called Earl of Gloucester.
Despenser was at first on the side of the barons, but later joined the King’s party. In 1321 a league was formed against him, and he was banished, but was recalled in the following year. In the Barons’ rising of 1326 he was taken prisoner, brought to Hereford, tried and put to death.
2. 4. 8 Thomas of Woodstocke. Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham (1355-97), the youngest son of Edward III., was made Duke of Gloucester by his nephew, Richard II., in 1385, and later acquired an extraordinary influence, dominating the affairs of England for several years. By his high-handed actions he incurred Richard’s enmity. He was arrested July 10, 1397, and conveyed to Calais, where he was murdered in the following September by the king’s order.
2. 4. 10 Duke Humphrey. Humphrey, called the Good Duke Humphrey (1391-1447), youngest son of Henry IV., was created Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Pembroke in 1414. During the minority of Henry VI. he acted as Protector of the kingdom. His career was similar to that of Thomas of Woodstock. In 1447 he was arrested at Bury by order of Henry VI., who had become king in 1429. Here he died in February, probably by a natural death, although there were suspicions of foul play.
2. 4. 11 Richard the Third. Richard III. (1452-1485), Duke of Gloucester and King of England, was defeated and slain in the battle of Bosworth Field, 1485.
2. 4. 12-4 MER. By ... authentique. This passage has been the occasion of considerable discussion. The subject was first approached by Malone. In a note to an essay on The Order of Shakespeare’s Plays in his edition of Shakespeare’s works (ed. 1790, 3. 322) he says: ‘In The Devil’s an Ass, acted in 1616, all his historical plays are obliquely censured.’
Again in a dissertation on Henry VI.: ‘The malignant Ben, does indeed, in his Devil’s an Ass, 1616, sneer at our author’s historical pieces, which for twenty years preceding had been in high reputation, and probably were then the only historical dramas that had possession of the theatre; but from the list above given, it is clear that Shakespeare was not the first who dramatized our old chronicles; and that the principal events of English History were familiar to the ears of his audience, before he commenced a writer for the stage.’ Malone here refers to quotations taken from Gosson and Lodge. Both these essays were reprinted in Steevens’ edition, and Malone’s statements were repeated in the edition by Dr. Chalmers.
In 1808 appeared Gilchrist’s essay, An Examination of the Charges ... of Ben Jonson’s enmity, etc. towards Shakespeare. This refutation, strengthened by Gifford’s Proofs of Ben Jonson’s Malignity, has generally been deemed conclusive. Gifford’s note on the present passage is written with much asperity. He was not content, however, with an accurate restatement of Malone’s arguments. He changes the italics in order to produce an erroneous impression, printing thus: ‘which were probably then the only historical dramas on the stage: He adds: ‘And this is advanced in the very face of his own arguments, to prove that there were scores, perhaps hundreds, of others on it at the time.’ This is direct falsification. There is no contradiction in Malone’s arguments. What he attempted to prove was that Shakespeare had had predecessors in this field, but that in 1616 his plays held undisputed possession of the stage. Gifford adds a passage from Heywood’s Apology for Actors, 1612, which is more to the point: ‘Plays have taught the unlearned the knowledge of many famous histories, instructed such as cannot read in the discovery of our English Chronicles: and what man have you now of that weake capacity that being possest of their true use, cannot discourse of any notable thing recorded even from William the Conqueror, until this day?’
This passage seems to point to the existence of other historical plays contemporary with those of Shakespeare. Besides, Jonson’s words seem sufficiently harmless. Nevertheless, although I am not inclined to accept Malone’s charge of ‘malignity’, I cannot agree with Gifford that the reference is merely a general one. I have no doubt that the ‘Chronicle,’ of which Merecraft speaks, is Hall’s, and the passage the following: ‘It semeth to many men, that the name and title of Gloucester, hath been vnfortunate and vnluckie to diuerse, whiche for their honor, haue been erected by creacion of princes, to that stile and dignitie, as Hugh Spencer, Thomas of Woodstocke, sonne to kyng Edward the third, and this duke Humfrey, which thre persones, by miserable death finished their daies, and after them kyng Richard the iii. also, duke of Gloucester, in ciuill warre was slaine and confounded: so yt this name of Gloucester, is take for an vnhappie and vnfortunate stile, as the prouerbe speaketh of Seianes horse, whose rider was euer unhorsed, and whose possessor was euer brought to miserie.’ Hall’s Chronicle, ed. 1809, pp. 209-10. The passage in ‘the Play-bookes’ which Jonson satirizes is at the close of 3 Henry VI. 2. 6:
Edw. Richard, I will create thee Duke of Gloucester, And George, of Clarence: Warwick, as ourself, Shall do and undo as him pleaseth best. Rich. Let me be Duke of Clarence, George of Gloucester; For Gloucester’s dukedom is too ominous.
The last line, of course, corresponds to the ’Tis fatal of Fitzdottrel. Furthermore it may be observed that Thomas of Woodstock’s death at Calais is referred to in Shakespeare’s K. Rich. II.; Duke Humphrey appears in 2 Henry IV.; Henry V.; and 1 and 2 Henry VI.; and Richard III. in 2 and 3 Henry VI. and K. Rich. III. 3 Henry VI. is probably, however, not of Shakespearean authorship.
2. 4. 15 a noble house. See Introduction, [p. lxxiv].
2. 4. 23 Groen-land. The interest in Greenland must have been at its height in 1616. Between 1576 and 1622 English explorers discovered various portions of its coast; the voyages of Frobisher, Davis, Hudson and Baffin all taking place during that period. Hakluyt’s Principall Navigations appeared in 1589, Davis’s Worldes Hydrographical Description in 1594, and descriptions of Hudson’s voyages in 1612-3. The usual spelling of the name seems to have been Groenland, as here. I find the word spelled also Groineland, Groenlandia, Gronland, and Greneland (see Publications of the Hakluyt Society). Jonson’s reference has in it a touch of sarcasm.
2. 4. 27 f. Yes, when you, etc. The source of this passage is Hor., Sat. 2. 2. 129 f.:
Nam propriae telluris erum natura neque illum Nec me nec quemquam statuit; nos expulit ille, Ilium aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris Postremo expellet certe vivacior haeres. Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus, erit nulli proprius, sed cadet in usum Nunc mihi, nunc alii.
Gifford quotes a part of the passage and adds: ‘What follows is admirably turned by Pope:
Shades that to Bacon might retreat afford, Become the portion of a booby lord; And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham’s delight, Slides to a scrivener, or city knight.’
A much closer imitation is found in Webster, Devil’s Law Case, Wks. 2. 37:
Those lands that were the clients art now become The lawyer’s: and those tenements that were The country gentleman’s, are now grown To be his tailor’s.
2. 4. 32 not do’it first. Cf. 1. 6. 14 and note.
2. 5. 10 And garters which are lost, if shee can shew ’hem. Gifford thinks the line should read: ‘can not shew’. Cunningham gives a satisfactory explanation: ‘As I understand this it means that if a gallant once saw the garters he would never rest until he obtained possession of them, and they would thus be lost to the family. Garters thus begged from the ladies were used by the gallants as hangers for their swords and poniards. See Every Man out of his Humour, Wks. 2. 81: “O, I have been graced by them beyond all aim of affection: this is her garter my dagger hangs in;” and again p. 194. We read also in Cynthia’s Revels, Wks. 2. 266, of a gallant whose devotion to a lady in such that he
Salutes her pumps, Adores her hems, her skirts, her knots, her curls, Will spend his patrimony for a garter, Or the least feather in her bounteous fan.’
Gifford’s theory that ladies had some mode of displaying their garters is contradicted by the following:
Mary. These roses will shew rare: would ’twere in fashion That the garters might be seen too! —Massinger, City Madam, Wks., p. 317.
Cf. also Cynthia’s Revels, Wks. 2. 296.
2. 5. 14 her owne deare reflection, in her glasse. ‘They must haue their looking glasses caryed with them wheresoeuer they go, ... no doubt they are the deuils spectacles to allure vs to pride, and consequently to distruction for euer.’—Stubbes, Anat., 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:
—A king Upon whose property and most dear life A damn’d defeat was made.
2. 6. 32 a body intire. Cf. 5. 6. 48.
2. 6. 35 You make me paint. Gifford quotes from the Two Noble Kinsmen:
How modestly she blows and paints the sun With her chaste blushes.
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.
Noblest Charis, you that are Both my fortune and my star, And do govern more my blood, Than the various moon the flood, Hear, what late discourse of you, 5 Love and I have had; and true. ’Mongst my Muses finding me, Where he chanced your name to see Set, and to this softer strain; Sure, said he, if I have brain, 10 This, here sung, can be no other, By description, but my Mother! So hath Homer praised her hair; So Anacreon drawn the air Of her face, and made to rise 15 Just about her sparkling eyes, Both her brows bent like my bow. By her looks I do her know, Which you call my shafts. And see! Such my Mother’s blushes be, 20 As the bath your verse discloses In her cheeks, of milk and roses; Such as oft I wanton in: And, above her even chin, Have you placed the bank of kisses, 25 Where, you say, men gather blisses, Ripen’d with a breath more sweet, Than when flowers and west-winds meet. Nay, her white and polish’d neck, With the lace that doth it deck, 30 Is my mother’s: hearts of slain Lovers, made into a chain! And between each rising breast, Lies the valley call’d my nest, Where I sit and proyne my wings 35 After flight; and put new stings To my shafts: her very name With my mother’s is the same. I confess all, I replied, And the glass hangs by her side, 40 And the girdle ’bout her waist, All is Venus, save unchaste. But alas, thou seest the least Of her good, who is the best Of her sex: but couldst thou, Love, 45 Call to mind the forms that strove For the apple, and those three Make in one, the same were she. For this beauty yet doth hide Something more than thou hast spied. 50 Outward grace weak love beguiles: She is Venus when she smiles: But she’s Juno when she walks, And Minerva when she talks.
UNDERWOODS XXXVI.
AN ELEGY.
By those bright eyes, at whose immortal fires Love lights his torches to inflame desires; By that fair stand, your forehead, whence he bends His double bow, and round his arrows sends; By that tan grove, your hair, whose globy rings 5 He flying curls, and crispeth with his wings; By those pure baths your either cheek discloses, Where he doth steep himself in milk and roses; And lastly, by your lips, the bank of kisses, Where men at once may plant and gather blisses: 10 Ten me, my lov’d friend, do you love or no? So well as I may tell in verse, ’tis so? You blush, but do not:—friends are either none, Though they may number bodies, or but one. I’ll therefore ask no more, but bid you love, 15 And so that either may example prove Unto the other; and live patterns, how Others, in time, may love as we do now. Slip no occasion; as time stands not still, I know no beauty, nor no youth that will. 20 To use the present, then, is not abuse, You have a husband is the just excuse Of all that can be done him; such a one As would make shift to make himself alone That which we can; who both in you, his wife, 25 His issue, and all circumstance of life, As in his place, because he would not vary, Is constant to be extraordinary.
THE GIPSIES METAMORPHOSED
The Lady Purbeck’s Fortune, by the
Gip. Help me, wonder, here’s a book, 2 Where I would for ever look: Never yet did gipsy trace Smoother lines in hands or face: Venus here doth Saturn move 5 That you should be Queen of Love; And the other stars consent; Only Cupid’s not content; For though you the theft disguise, You have robb’d him of his eyes. 10 And to shew his envy further: Here he chargeth you with murther: Says, although that at your sight, He must all his torches light; Though your either cheek discloses 15 Mingled baths of milk and roses; Though your lips be banks of blisses, Where he plants, and gathers kisses; And yourself the reason why, Wisest men for love may die; 20 You will turn all hearts to tinder, And shall make the world one cinder.
From
A CHALLENGE AT TILT,
At a Marriage.
Cup. What can I turn other than a Fury itself to see thy 2 impudence? If I be a shadow, what is substance? was it not I that yesternight waited on the bride into the nuptial chamber, and, against the bridegroom came, made her the throne of love? had I not lighted my torches in her eyes, planted my mother’s roses in 5 her cheeks; were not her eye-brows bent to the fashion of my bow, and her looks ready to be loosed thence, like my shafts? had I not ripened kisses on her lips, fit for a Mercury to gather, and made her language sweeter than his upon her tongue? was not the girdle about her, he was to untie, my mother’s, wherein all the joys and 10 delights of love were woven?
1 Cup. And did not I bring on the blushing bridegroom to taste those joys? and made him think all stay a torment? did I not shoot myself into him like a flame, and made his desires and his graces equal? were not his looks of power to have kept the night 15 alive in contention with day, and made the morning never wished for? Was there a curl in his hair, that I did not sport in, or a ring of it crisped, that might not have become Juno’s fingers? his very undressing, was it not Love’s arming? did not all his kisses charge? and every touch attempt? but his words, were they not 20 feathered from my wings, and flew in singing at her ears, like arrows tipt with gold?
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:
Eyebrows bent, like Cupid’s bow.
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:
Young I’d have him too, and fair, Yet a man; with crisped hair, Cast in thousand snares and rings, For love’s fingers, and his wings.
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:
Even nose, and cheek withal, Smooth as is the billiard-ball.
10. Gipsies 19-20; Ch. 1. 23-4:
Till she be the reason, why, All the world for love may die.
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:
Hast thou seen the down in the air When wanton blasts have tossed it? Or the ship on the sea, When ruder winds have crossed it? Hast thou marked the crocodile’s weeping, Or the fox’s sleeping? Or hast viewed the peacock in his pride, Or the dove by his bride When he courts for his lechery? O, so fickle, O, so vain, O, so false, so false is she!
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:
Loto candidior puella cygno, Argento, nive, lilio, ligustro.
In this place Jonson seems to have more particularly in mind Epig. 5. 37:
Puella senibus dulcior mibi cygnis ... Cui nec lapillos praeferas Erythraeos, ... Nivesque primas liliumque non tactum.
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:
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It turns in less than two nights! Timon, 3. 2.’—G.
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:
Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he had cloy’d and grac’d with princely favors.
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:
—There is up of late The Academy, where the gallants meet— What! to make legs? yes, and to smell most sweet: All that they do at plays. O but first here They learn and study; and then practice there.
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.