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:
No little pug nor devil,—bless us all!
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:
Vin. I thanke you sir. Nay pray be couerd; O I crie you mercie, You must be bare. Bas. Euer to you my Lord. Vin. Nay, not to me sir, But to the faire right of your worshipfull place.