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).