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:
Is a pure cup of rich Canary Wine, Which is the Mermaid’s now, but shall be mine.
On the famous Voyage, Wks. 8. 234:
At Bread-Street’s Mermaid having dined, and merry, Proposed to go to Holborn in a wherry.
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:
—I love Your great profession, which I once did prove. Wks. 8. 211.
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.