No More Learning

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. Up to 1640, when banking arose, merchants were in the habit
of depositing their bullion and cash in the Tower Mint, under
guardianship of the Crown (see Wh-C. under _Royal Mint_, and _History
of Banking in all the Leading Nations_, London, 1896, 2. 1).

=3. 3. 86-8 let . . . hazard. = Merecraft seems to mean: 'You are in no
hurry. Pray therefore allow me to defer your business until I have
brought opportune aid to this gentleman's distresses at a time when
his fortunes are in a hazardous condition. ' The pregnant use of the
verb _timing_ and the unusual use of the word _terms_ for a period of
time render the meaning peculiarly difficult.

=3. 3. 106 a Businesse. = This was recognized as the technical
expression. Sir Thomas Overbury ridicules it in his _Characters_,
ed. Morley, p. 72: 'If any private quarrel happen among our great
courtiers, he (the Roaring Boy) proclaims the business--that's the
word, the business--as if the united force of the Roman Catholics
were making up for Germany. ' Jonson ridicules the use of the
word in similar fashion in the Masque of _Mercury Vindicated from
the Alchemists_.

=3. 3. 133 hauings. = Jonson uses the expression again in _Ev. Man
in_, _Wks. _ 1. 29, and _Gipsies Met. _, _Wks. _ 7. 364. It
is also used in _Muse's Looking Glasse_, _O. Pl. _ 9. 175.

=3. 3. 147 such sharks! = Shift in _Ev. Man in_ is described as a
'threadbare shark. ' Cf. also Earle, _Microcosmography_, ed. Morley,
p. 173.

=3. 3. 148 an old debt of forty. = See 2. 8. 100.

=3. 3. 149 the Bermudas. = See note 2. 1. 144. Nares thinks that
the real Bermudas are referred to here.

=3. 3. 155 You shall ha' twenty pound on't. = As Commission on
the two hundred. 'Ten in the hundred' was the customary rate at
this period (see _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 189).

=3. 3. 165 St. Georges-tide? = From a very early period the 23d of
April was dedicated to St. George. From the time of Henry V. The
festival had been observed with great splendor at Windsor and other
towns, and bonfires were built (see Shak, _1 Henry VI. _ 1. 1). The
festival continued to be celebrated until 1567, when Elizabeth
ordered its discontinuance. James I. , however, kept the 23d of April
to some extent, and the revival of the feast in all its glories was
only prevented by the Civil War. So late as 1614 it was the custom
for fashionable gentlemen to wear blue coats on St.
George's Day,
probably in imitation of the blue mantle worn by the Knights of the
Garter, an order created at the feast of St. George in 1344 (see
Chambers' _Book of Days_ 1. 540).

The passages relating to this custom are _Ram Alley_, _O. Pl. _, 2d
ed. , 5. 486:

By Dis, I will be knight,
Wear a blue coat on great St. George's day,
And with my fellows drive you all from Paul's
For this attempt.

_Runne and a great Cast_, _Epigr. _ 33:

With's coram nomine keeping greater sway
Than a court blew-coat on St. George's day.

From these passages Nares concludes 'that some festive ceremony was
carried on at St. Paul's on St. George's day annually; that the court
attended; that the _blue-coats_, or attendants, of the courtiers,
were employed and authorised to keep order, and drive out refractory
persons; and that on this occasion it was proper for a knight to
officiate as _blue coat_ to some personage of higher rank'.

In the _Conversations with Drummond_, Jonson's _Wks. _ 9. 393, we
read: 'Northampton was his mortal enimie for beating, on a St.
George's day, one of his attenders. ' Pepys speaks of there being
bonfires in honor of St. George's Day as late as Apr. 23, 1666.

=3. 3. 166 chaines? PLV. Of gold, and pearle. = The gold chain was
formerly a mark of rank and dignity, and a century before this it
had been forbidden for any one under the degree of a gentleman of two
hundred marks a year to wear one (_Statutes of the Realm_, 7 Henry
VIII. c. 6). They were worn by the Lord Mayors (Dekker, _Shomaker's
Holiday_, _Wks. _ 1. 42), rich merchants and aldermen (Glapthorne,
_Wit for a Constable_, _Wks. _, ed. 1874, 1. 201-3), and later
became the distinctive mark of the upper servant in a great family,
especially the steward (see Nares and _Ev. Man out_, _Wks. _ 2. 31).
Massinger (_City Madam_, _Wks. _, p. 334) speaks of wearing a chain
of gold 'on solemn days. ' With the present passage cf. _Underwoods_
62, _Wks. _ 8. 410:

If they stay here but till St. George's day.
All ensigns of a war are not yet dead,
Nor marks of wealth so from a nation fled,
But they may see gold chains and pearl worn then,
Lent by the London dames to the Lords' men.

=3. 3. 170 take in Pimlico. = 'Near Hoxton, a great summer resort in
the early part of the 17th century and famed for its cakes, custards,
and Derby ale. The references to the Hoxton Pimlico are numerous
in our old dramatists. '--Wh--C. It is mentioned among other places
in _Greene's Tu Quoque, The City Match_, fol. 1639, _News from
Hogsdon_, 1598, and Dekker, _Roaring Girle_, _Wks. _ 3. 219, where it
is spoken of as 'that nappy land of spice-cakes. ' In 1609 a tract
was published, called _Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap, 'tis a Mad World at
Hogsdon_.

Jonson refers to it repeatedly. Cf. _Alch. _, _Wks. _ 4. 155:

--Gallants, men and women.
And of all sorts, tag-rag, been seen to flock here,
In threaves, these ten weeks, as to a second Hogsden,
In days of Pimlico and Eye-bright.

Cf. also _Alch. _, _Wks. _ 4. 151; _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 357; and
this play 4. 4. 164. In _Underwoods_ 62 the same expression is used
as in this passage:

What a strong fort old Pimlico had been!
How it held out! how, last, 'twas taken in! --

_Take in_ in the sense of 'capture' is used again in _Every Man
in_, _Wks. _ 1. 64, and frequently in Shakespeare (see Schmidt).
The reference here, as Cunningham suggests, is to the Finsbury
sham fights. Hogsden was in the neighborhood of Finsbury, and
the battles were doubtless carried into its territory.

=3. 3. 173 Some Bristo-stone or Cornish counterfeit. = Cf.
Heywood, _Wks. _ 5. 317: 'This jewell, a plaine _Bristowe_ stone,
a counterfeit. ' See Gloss.

=3. 3. 184, 5 I know your Equiuocks:=
=You'are growne the better Fathers of 'hem o' late. = 'Satirically
reflecting on the Jesuits, the great patrons of _equivocation_. '--W.

'Or rather on the Puritans, I think; who were sufficiently obnoxious
to this charge. The Jesuits would be out of place here. '--G.

Why the Puritans are any more appropriate Gifford does not vouchsafe
to tell us. So far as I have been able to discover the Puritans
were never called 'Fathers,' their regular appellation being 'the
brethren' (cf. _Alch. _ and _Bart. Fair_). The Puritans were accused
of a distortion of Scriptural texts to suit their own purposes,
instances of which occur in the dramas mentioned above. On the whole,
however, equivocation is more characteristic of the Jesuits. They
were completely out of favor at this time. Under the generalship
of Claudio Acquaviva, 1581-1615, they first began to have a
preponderatingly evil reputation. In 1581 they were banished from
England, and in 1601 the decree of banishment was repeated, this time
for their suspected share in the Gunpowder Plot.

=3. 3. 206, 7 Come, gi' me Ten pieces more. = The transaction with
Guilthead is perhaps somewhat confusing. Fitzdottrel has offered to
give his bond for two hundred pieces, if necessary. Merecraft's 'old
debt of forty' (3. 3. 149), the fifty pieces for the ring, and the
hundred for Everill's new office (3. 3. 60 and 83) 'all but make two
hundred. ' Fitzdottrel furnishes a hundred of this in cash, with the
understanding that he receive it again of the gold-smith when he
signs the bond (3. 3. 194). He returns, however, without the gold,
though he seals the bond (3. 5. 1-3). Of the hundred pieces received
in cash, twenty go to Guilthead as commission (3. 3. 155).
This leaves forty each for Merecraft and Everill.

=3. 3. 213 how th' Asse made his diuisions. = See _Fab. _ cix,
_Fabulae Aesopicae_, Leipzig, 1810, _Leo, Asinus et Vulpes_. Harsnet
(_Declaration_, p. 110) refers to this fable, and Dekker made a
similar application in _Match me in London_, 1631, _Wks. _ 4. 145:

_King. _ Father Ile tell you a Tale, vpon a time
The Lyon Foxe and silly Asse did jarre.
Grew friends and what they got, agreed to share:
A prey was tane, the bold Asse did diuide it
Into three equall parts, the Lyon spy'd it.
And scorning two such sharers, moody grew,
And pawing the Asse, shooke him as I shake you . . .
And in rage tore him peece meale, the Asse thus dead,
The prey was by the Foxe distributed
Into three parts agen; of which the Lyon
Had two for his share, and the Foxe but one:
The Lyon (smiling) of the Foxe would know
Where he had this wit, he the dead Asse did show.
_Valasc. _ An excellent Tale.
_King. _ Thou art that Asse.

=3. 3. 214 Much good do you. = So in _Sil. Wom. _, _Wks. _ 3.
398: 'Much good do him. '

=3. 3. 217 And coozen i' your bullions. = Massinger's _Fatal
Dowry_, _Wks. _, p. 272, contains the following passage:
'The other is his dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his
clothes and fashions ere he vouchsafes them his own person:
you shall see him . . . at noon in the Bullion,' etc. In a note
on this passage (_Wks. _ 3. 390, ed. 1813) Gifford advanced the
theory that the _bullion_ was 'a piece of finery, which derived
its denomination from the large globular gilt buttons, still in
use on the continent. ' In his note on the present passage, he
adds that it was probably 'adopted by gamblers and others, as a
mark of wealth, to entrap the unwary. '

Nares was the next man to take up the word. He connected it with
'_bullion_; Copper-plates set on the Breast-leathers and Bridles
of Horses for ornament' (Phillips 1706). 'I suspect that it also
meant, in colloquial use, copper lace, tassels, and ornaments in
imitation of gold. Hence contemptuously attributed to those who
affected a finery above their station. '

Dyce (B. & Fl. , _Wks. _ 7. 291) was the first to disconnect the
word from _bullion_ meaning uncoined gold or silver. He says:
'_Bullions_, I apprehend, mean some sort of hose or breeches,
which were _bolled_ or _bulled_, i. e. swelled, puffed out
(cf. _Sad. Shep. _, Act 1. Sc. 2, _bulled_ nosegays'). '

The _NED. _ gives 'prob. a. F. _bouillon_ in senses derived from
that of "bubble. "'

Besides the passages already given, the word occurs in B. & Fl. ,
_The Chances_, _Wks. _ 7. 291:

Why should not bilbo raise him, or a pair of bullions?

_Beggar's Bush_, _Wks. _ 9. 81:

In his French doublet, with his blister'd
(1st fol.