Page 106, l. 6. I touch no fat sowes grease. Probably 'I say nothing libellous as to the way in which this or that rich man has acquired his wealth'. I cannot find the proverb accurately explained, or given in quite this form, in any collection.
l. 10. will redd or pale. The reading of 1669 and the two MSS. is doubtless correct, 'looke' being an editorial insertion as the use of 'red' as a verb was growing rare. If 'looke' had belonged to the original text 'counsellor' would probably have had the second syllable elided. Compare:
Roses out-red their [i.e. women's] lips and cheeks,
Lillies their whiteness stain.
Brome, The Resolve.
l. 21. the number of the Plaguy Bill: i.e. the weekly bill of deaths by the plague. By a Privy Council order of April 9, 1604, the theatres were permitted to be open 'except ther shall happen weeklie to die of the Plague above the number of thirtie'. The number was later raised to forty. The theatres were repeatedly closed for this reason between July 10, 1606, and 1610. In 1609 especially the fear of infection made it difficult for the companies, driven from London, to gain permission to act anywhere. There were no performances at Court during the winter 1609-10. Murray, English Dramatic Companies.
l. 22. the Custome Farmers. The Privy Council registers abound in references to the farmers of the customs and their conflicts with the merchants. As they had to pay dearly for their farm, they were tempted to press the law against the merchants in exacting dues.
l. 23. Of the Virginian plot. Two expeditions were sent to Virginia in 1609, in May under Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, and at the end of the year under Lord de la Warr, 'who by free election of the Treasurer and counsell of Virginia, and with the full consent of the generality of that company was constituted and authorized, during his natural life to be Lord Governor and Captaine Generall of all the English Collonies planted, or to be planted in Virginia, according to the tenor of his Majesties letters patents granted that yeare 1609.' Stow. Speculation in Virginia stock was encouraged: 'Besides many noblemen, knights, gentlemen, merchants, and wealthy tradesmen, most of the incorporated trades of London were induced to take shares in the stock.' Hildreth, History of the United States, i. 108, quoted by Norton.
The meaning of 'plot' here is 'device, design, scheme' (O.E.D.), as 'There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells cast allready about reformation of that realme': Spenser, State of Ireland. Donne uses the word also in the more original sense of 'a piece of ground, a spot'. See p. [132], l. 34.