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):
—Now your traveller, He, and his tooth-pick, at my worship’s mess.
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).