In christening, shalt thou have two godfathers: Had I been judge, thou should’st have had ten more, To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.
Cf. also Muse’s Looking Glass, O. Pl. 9. 214: ‘Boets! I had rather zee him remitted to the jail, and have his twelve godvathers, good men and true contemn him to the gallows.’
5. 5. 50, 51 A Boy O’ thirteene yeere old made him an Asse
But t’toher day. Whalley believed this to be an allusion to the ‘boy of Bilson,’ but, as Gifford points out, this case did not occur until 1620, four years after the production of the present play. Gifford believes Thomas Harrison, the ‘boy of Norwich,’ to be alluded to. A short account of his case is given in Hutchinson’s Impostures Detected, pp. 262 f. The affair took place in 1603 or 1604, and it was thought necessary to ‘require the Parents of the said Child, that they suffer not any to repair to their House to visit him, save such as are in Authority and other Persons of special Regard, and known Discretion.’ Hutchinson says that Harrison was twelve years old. It is quite possible, though not probable, that Jonson is referring again to the Boy of Burton, who was only two years older. See note [5. 3. 6].
5. 5. 58, 59 You had some straine ‘Boue E-la? Cf. 1593 Nash, Christ’s Tears, Wks. 4. 188: ‘You must straine your wits an Ela aboue theyrs.’ Cf. also Nash, Wks. 5. 98 and 253; Lyly, Euphues, Aij; and Gloss.
5. 6. 1 your garnish. ‘This word garnish has been made familiar to all time by the writings of John Howard. “A cruel custom,” says he, “obtains in most of our gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a newcomer garnish, footing, or (as it is called in some London gaols) chummage. Pay or strip are the fatal words. I say fatal, for they are so to some, who, having no money, are obliged to give up part of their scanty apparel; and if they have no bedding or straw to sleep on, contract diseases which I have known to prove mortal.”’—C.
Cf. Dekker, If this be not a good Play, Wks. 3. 324:
Tis a strong charme gainst all the noisome smels Of Counters, Iaylors, garnishes, and such hels.
and Greene, Upstart Courtier, Dija: ‘Let a poore man be arrested ... he shal be almost at an angels charge, what with garnish, crossing and wiping out of the book ... extortions ... not allowed by any statute.’
The money here seems to have been intended for the jailer, rather than for Pug’s fellow-prisoners. The custom was abolished by 4 George IV. c. 43, § 12.
5. 6. 10 I thinke Time be drunke, and sleepes. Cf. 1. 4. 31. For the metaphor cf. New Inn, Wks. 5. 393: