No More Learning

'Statutes
merchant, statutes staple, and recognizances in the nature of
a statute staple were acknowledgements of debt made in writing
before officers appointed for that purpose, and enrolled of
record. They bound the lands of the debtor; and execution
was awarded upon them upon default in payment without the
ordinary process of an action. These securities were originally
introduced for the encouragement of trade, by providing a sure
and speedy remedy for the recovery of debts between merchants,
and afterwards became common assurances, but have now become
obsolete. '--S. M. Leake, _Law of Contracts_, p. 95.

Two of Pecunia's attendants in _The Staple of News_ are
_Statute_ and _Band_ (i. e. Bond, see _U. _ 34).
The two words are often mentioned together. In Dekker's
_Bankrouts Banquet_ (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 3. 371)
statutes are served up to the bankrupts.

Trains is evidently trying to impress Fitzdottrel with the
importance of Merecraft's transactions.


ACT III.

=3. 1. 8 Innes of Court. = 'The four Inns of Court, Gray's
Inn, Lincoln's Inn, the Inner, and the Middle Temple, have alone
the right of admitting persons to practise as barristers, and
that rank can only be attained by keeping the requisite number
of terms as a student at one of those Inns. '--Wh-C.

Jonson dedicates _Every Man out of his Humor_ 'To the Noblest
Nurseries of Humanity and Liberty in the Kingdom, the Inns of Court. '

=3. 1. 10 a good man. = Gifford quotes _Merch. of Ven. _
1. 3. 15: 'My meaning in saying he is a good man, is, to have
you understand me, that he is sufficient. ' Marston, _Dutch
Courtesan_, _Wks. _ 2. 57. uses the word in the same sense.

=3. 1. 20 our two Pounds, the Compters. = The London
Compters or Counters were two sheriff's prisons for debtors,
etc. , mentioned as early as the 15th century. In Jonson's day
they were the Poultry Counter and the Wood Street Counter. They
were long a standing joke with the dramatists, who seem to
speak from a personal acquaintance with them. Dekker (_Roaring
Girle_, _Wks. _ 3. 189) speaks of 'Wood Street College,' and
Middleton (_Phoenix_, _Wks. _ 1. 192) calls them 'two most famous
universities' and in another place 'the two city hazards,
Poultry and Wood Street. ' Jonson in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1.
42) speaks of them again as 'your city pounds, the counters',
and in _Every man out_ refers to the 'Master's side' (_Wks_. 2.
181) and the 'two-penny ward,' the designations for the cheaper
quarters of the prison.

=3. 1. 35 out of rerum natura. = _In rerum natura_ is a
phrase used by Lucretius 1. 25. It means, according to the
_Stanford Dictionary_, 'in the nature of things, in the physical
universe. ' In some cases it is practically equivalent to 'in
existence. ' Cf. _Sil. Wom. _, _Wks. _ 3. 382: 'Is the bull, bear,
and horse, in _rerum natura_ still? '

=3. 2. 12 a long vacation. = The long vacation in the Inns
of Court, which Jonson had in mind, lasts from Aug. 13 to Oct.
23. In _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 170, he makes a similar
thrust at the shop-keepers:

Alas I they have had a pitiful hard time on't,
A long vacation from their cozening.

=3. 2. 22 I bought Plutarch's liues. = T. North's famous
translation first appeared in 1579. New editions followed in
1595, 1603, 1610-12, and 1631.

=3. 2. 33 Buy him a Captaines place. = The City Train Bands
were a constant subject of ridicule for the dramatists. They are
especially well caricatured by Fletcher in _The Knight of the
Burning Pestle_, Act 5. In addition to the City Train Bands,
the Fraternity of Artillery, now called The Honorable Artillery
Company, formed a separate organization. The place of practice
was the Artillery Garden in Bunhill Fields (see note 3. 2. 41).
In spite of ridicule the Train Bands proved a source of strength
during the Civil War (see Clarendon, _Hist. of the Rebellion_,
ed. 1826, 4. 236 and Wh-C. , _Artillery Ground_).

Jonson was fond of poking fun at the Train Bands. Cf. _U. _ 62,
_Wks. _ 8. 409; _Ev. Man in_, _Wks. _ 1. 88; and _Alchemist_,
_Wks. _ 4. 13. Face, it will be remembered, had been 'translated
suburb-captain' through Subtle's influence.

The immediate occasion of Jonson's satire was doubtless the
revival of military enthusiasm in 1614, of which Entick
(_Survey_ 2. 115) gives the following account:

'The military genius of the _Londoners_ met with an opportunity,
about this time, to convince the world that they still retained the
spirit of their forefathers, should they be called out in the cause
of their king and country. His majesty having commanded a general
muster of the militia throughout the kingdom, the city of _London_
not only mustered 6000 citizens completely armed, who performed their
several evolutions with surprizing dexterity; but a martial spirit
appeared amongst the rising generation. The children endeavoured
to imitate their parents; chose officers, formed themselves into
companies, marched often into the fields with colours flying and beat
of drums, and there, by frequent practice, grew up expert in the
military exercises. '

=3. 2. 35 Cheapside. = Originally Cheap, or West Cheap, a street
between the Poultry and St. Paul's, a portion of the line from
Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange, and from Holborn to the
Bank of England.

'At the west end of this Poultrie and also of Buckles bury, beginneth
the large street of West Cheaping, a market-place so called, which
street stretcheth west till ye come to the little conduit by Paule's
Gate. '--Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 99.

The glory of Cheapside was Goldsmith's Row (see note 3. 5. 2).
It was also famous in early times for its 'Ridings,' and during
Jonson's period for its 'Cross,' its 'Conduit,' and its 'Standard'
(see note 1. 1. 56 and Wh--C. ).

=3. 2. 35 Scarfes. = 'Much worn by knights and military
officers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. '--Planche.

=3. 2. 35 Cornehill. = Cornhill, between the Poultry and Leadenhall
Street, an important portion of the greatest thoroughfare in the
world, was, says Stow, 'so called of a corn market time out of mind
there holden. ' In later years it was provided with a pillory and
stocks, a prison, called the Tun, for street offenders, a conduit of
'sweet water', and a standard. See Wh-C.

=3. 2. 38 the posture booke. = A book descriptive of military
evolutions, etc. H. Peacham's _Compleat Gentleman_, 1627 (p. 300,
quoted by Wheatley, _Ev. Mall in_), gives a long list of 'Postures of
the Musquet' and G. Markham's _Souldier's Accidence_ gives another.
Cf. _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _ 6. 218:

--All the postures
Of the train'd bands of the country.

=3. 2. 41 Finsbury. = In 1498, 'certain grounds, consisting of
gardens, orchards, &c. on the north side of _Chiswell-street_, and
called _Bunhill_ or _Bunhill-fields_, within the manor of _Finsbury_,
were by the mayor and commonalty of _London_, converted into a large
field, containing 11 acres, and 11 perches, now known by the name
of the _Artillery-ground_, for their train-bands, archers, and other
military citizens, to exercise in. '--Entick, _Survey_ 1. 441.

In 1610 the place had become neglected, whereupon commissioners were
appointed to reduce it 'into such order and state for the archers as
they were in the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII. ' (_Ibid. _
2. 109). See also Stow, _Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 159.

Dekker (_Shomaker's Holiday_, _Wks. _ 1. 29) speaks of being
'turnd to a Turk, and set in Finsburie for boyes to shoot at',
and Nash (_Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks. _ 2. 128) and Jonson (_Bart.
Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 507) make precisely similar references. Master
Stephen in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1. 10) objects to keeping
company with the 'archers of Finsbury. ' Cf. also the elaborate
satire in _U. _ 62, (_Wks. _ 8. 409).

=3. 2. 45 to traine the youth=
=Of London, in the military truth. = Cf. _Underwoods_ 62:

Thou seed-plot of the war! that hast not spar'd
Powder or paper to bring up the youth
Of London, in the military truth.

Gifford believes these lines to be taken from a contemporary
posture-book, but there is no evidence of quotation in the case
of _Underwoods_.

=3. 3. 22, 3 This comes of wearing=
=Scarlet, gold lace, and cut-works! = etc. Webster has a passage very
similar to this in the _Devil's Law Case_, _Wks. _ 2. 37 f. :

'_Ari. _ This comes of your numerous wardrobe.
_Rom. _ Ay, and wearing cut-work, a pound a purl.
_Ari.
_ Your dainty embroidered stockings, with overblown roses,
to hide your gouty ankles.
_Rom. _ And wearing more taffata for a garter, than would serve
the galley dung-boat for streamers. . . .
_Rom. _ And resorting to your whore in hired velvet with a
spangled copper fringe at her netherlands.
_Ari. _ Whereas if you had stayed at Padua, and fed upon cow-trotters,
and fresh beef to supper. ' etc. , etc.

For 'cut-works' see note 1. 1. 128.

=3. 3. 24 With your blowne roses. = Compare 1. 1. 127,
and B. & Fl. , _Cupid's Revenge_:

No man to warm your shirt, and blow your roses.

and Jonson, _Ep. _ 97, _Wks. _ 8. 201:

His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown.

=3. 3. 25 Godwit. = The godwit was formerly in great repute as a table
delicacy. Thomas Muffett in _Health's Improvement_, p. 99, says:
'A fat godwit is so fine and light meat, that noblemen (yea, and
merchants too, by your leave) stick not to buy them at four nobles a
dozen. '

Cf. also Sir T. Browne, _Norf. Birds_, _Wks. _, 1835, 4. 319: God-wyts
. . . accounted the daintiest dish in England; and, I think, for the
bigness of the biggest price. ' Jonson mentions the godwit in this
connection twice in the _Sil. Wom. _ (_Wks. _ 3. 350 and 388), and
in Horace, _Praises of a Country Life_ (_Wks. _ 9. 121) translates
'attagen Ionicus' by 'Ionian godwit. '

=3. 3. 26 The Globes, and Mermaides! = Theatres and taverns. Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps has proved that the Globe Theatre on the
Bankside, Southwark, the summer theatre of Shakespeare and his
fellows, was built in 1599. It was erected from materials brought
by Richard Burbage and Peter Street from the theatre in Shoreditch.
On June 29, 1613, it was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt without
delay in a superior style, and this time with a roof of tile, King
James contributing to the cost. Chamberlaine, writing to Alice
Carleton (June 30, 1614), calls the Globe Playhouse 'the fairest in
England. ' It was pulled down Apr. 15, 1644.

Only the Lord Chamberlain's Company (the King's Men) seems to
have acted here. It was the scene of several of Shakespeare's
plays and two of Jonson's, _Every Man out_ and _Every Man in_
(Halliwell-Phillips, _Illustrations_, p. 43). The term 'summer
theatre' is applicable only to the rebuilt theatre (_ibid. _, p.
44). In _Ev. Man out_ (quarto, _Wks. _ 2. 196) Johnson refers to
'this fair-fitted _Globe_', and in the _Execration upon Vulcan_
(_Wks. _ 8. 404) to the burning of the 'Globe, the glory of the
Bank. ' In _Poetaster_ (_Wks. _ 2. 430) he uses the word again
as a generic term: 'your Globes, and your Triumphs. '

There seem to have been two Mermaid Taverns, one of which stood
in Bread Street with passage entrances from Cheapside and Friday
Street, and the other in Cornhill. They are often referred to
by the dramatists. Cf. the famous lines written by _Francis
Beaumont to Ben Jonson_, B. & Fl. , _Wks. _, ed. 1883, 2. 708;
_City Match_, _O. Pl. _ 9. 334, etc. Jonson often mentions
the Mermaid. Cf. _Inviting a Friend_, _Wks. _ 8. 205:

Is a pure cup of rich Canary Wine,
Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine.

_On the famous Voyage_, _Wks. _ 8. 234:

At Bread-Street's Mermaid having dined, and merry,
Proposed to go to Holborn in a wherry.

_Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 356-7: 'your Three Cranes, Mitre,
and Mermaid-men! '

=3. 3. 28 In veluet! = Velvet was introduced into England in the
fifteenth century, and soon became popular as an article of luxury
(see Hill's _Hist. of Eng. Dress_ 1. 145 f. ).

=3. 3. 30 I' the Low-countries. = 'Then went he to the Low Countries;
but returning soone he betook himself to his wonted studies. In his
service in the Low Countries, he had, in the face of both the campes,
killed ane enemie and taken _opima spolia_ from him. '--_Conversations
with William Drummond_, _Wks. _ 9. 388.

In the Epigram _To True Soldiers_ Jonson says:

--I love
Your great profession, which I once did prove.
_Wks. _ 8. 211.

=3. 3. 32 a wench of a stoter! = See variants. The word is
not perfectly legible in the folios, which I have consulted, but
is undoubtedly as printed. Cunningham believes 'stoter' to be a
cheap coin current in the camps. This supplies a satisfactory
sense, corresponding to the '_Sutlers_ wife, . . . of two blanks'
in the following line.

=3. 3. 33 of two blanks! = 'Jonson had Horace in his
thoughts, and has, not without some ingenuity, parodied several
loose passages of one of his satires. '--G. Gifford is apparently
referring to the close of Bk. 2. Sat. 3.

=3. 3. 51 vn-to-be-melted. = Cf. _Every Man in_, _Wks. _ 1.
36: 'and in un-in-one-breath-utterable skill, sir. ' _New Inn_,
_Wks. _ 5. 404: you shewed a neglect Un-to-be-pardon'd. '

=3. 3. 62 Master of the Dependances! = See Introduction.
pp. lvi, lvii.

=3. 3. 69 the roaring manner. = Gifford defines it as the 'language
of bullies affecting a quarrel' (_Wks. _ 4. 483). The 'Roaring Boy'
continued under various designations to infest the streets of London
from the reign of Elizabeth until the beginning of the eighteenth
century. Spark (Somer's _Tracts_ 2. 266) says that they were persons
prodigall and of great expence, who having runne themselves
into debt, were constrained to run into factions to defend themselves
from danger of the law. ' He adds that divers of the nobility
afforded them maintenance, in return for which 'they entered into
many desperate enterprises. '

Arthur Wilson (_Life of King James I. _, p. 28), writing of the
disorderly state of the city in 1604, says: 'Divers _Sects_ of
_vitious Persons_ going under the Title of _Roaring Boyes_,
_Bravadoes_, _Roysters_, &c. commit many insolences; the Streets
swarm night and day with bloody quarrels, private _Duels_
fomented,' etc.

Kastril, the 'angry boy' in the _Alchemist_, and Val Cutting and
Knockem in _Bartholomew Fair_ are roarers, and we hear of them
under the title of 'terrible boys' in the _Silent Woman_
(_Wks. _ 3. 349). Cf. also Sir Thomas Overbury's _Character of a
Roaring Boy_ (ed. Morley, p. 72): 'He sleeps with a tobacco-pipe
in his mouth; and his first prayer in the morning is he may
remember whom he fell out with over night. '

=3. 3. 71 the vapours. = This ridiculous practise is
satirized in _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 3 (see also stage
directions).

=3. 3. 77 a distast. = The quarrel with Wittipol.

=3. 3. 79 the hand-gout. = Jonson explains the expression in
_Magnetic Lady_, _Wks. _ 6. 61.

You cannot but with trouble put your hand
Into your pocket to discharge a reckoning,
And this we sons of physic do call _chiragra_,
A kind of cramp, or hand-gout.

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.