No More Learning

' R. Coke,
_Justice Vind. _ (1660) 15: 'to be confuted with clubs and hissing. '

=5. 6. 21 the Session. = The general or quarter sessions were held
regularly four times a year on certain days prescribed by the
statutes. The length of time for holding the sessions was fixed at
three days, if necessity required it, but the rule was not strictly
adhered to. See Beard, _The Office of the Justice of the Peace in
England_, pp. 158 f.

=5. 6. 23 In a cart, to be hang'd. = 'Theft and robbery in their
coarsest form were for many centuries capital crimes. . . . The
question when theft was first made a capital crime is obscure,
but it is certain that at every period some thefts were punished
with death, and that by Edward I. 's time, at least, the distinction
between grand and petty larceny, which lasted till 1827, was fully
established. '--Stephen, _Hist. Crim. Law_ 3. 128 f.

=5. 6. 24 The charriot of Triumph, which most of them are. = The
procession from Newgate by Holbom and Tyburn road was in truth
often a 'triumphall egression,' and a popular criminal like Jack
Sheppard or Jonathan Wild frequently had a large attendance. Cf.
Shirley, _Wedding_ 4. 3, _Wks. _, ed. Gifford, 1. 425: 'Now I'm in the
cart, riding up Holborn in a two-wheeled chariot, with a guard of
Halberdiers. _There goes a proper fellow_, says one; good people pray
for me: now I am at the three wooden stilts,' etc.

=5. 6. 48 a body intire. = Jonson uses the word in its strict
etymological sense.

=5. 6. 54 cheated on. = Dyce (_Remarks_) points out that this phrase
is used in Mrs. Centlivre's _Wonder_, Act 2. Sc. 1. Jonson uses it
again in _Mercury vindicated_: 'and cheat upon your under-officers;'
and Marston in _What You Will_, _Wks. _ 2. 387.

=5. 6. 64 Prouinciall o' the Cheaters! = _Provincial_ is a term
borrowed from the church. See Gloss. Of the _cheaters_ Dekker gives
an interesting account in the _Bel-man of London_, _Non-dram. Wks. _
3. 116 f. : 'Of all which _Lawes_, the _Highest_ in place, and the
_Highest_ in perdition is the _Cheating_ Law or the Art of winning
money by false dyce: Those that practise this studie call themselues
_Cheators_, / the dyce _Cheaters_, and the money which they purchase
[see note 3. 4. 31, 2. ] _Cheates_ [see 1. 7. 4 and Gloss. ]: borrowing the
tearme from our common Lawyers, with whome all such casuals as fall
to the Lord at the holding of his _Leetes_, as _Waifes_, _Strayes_, &
such like, are sayd to be _Escheated to the Lords vse_ and are called
_Cheates_. '

=5. 6. 64 Bawd-ledger. = Jonson speaks of a similar official in _Every
Man out_, _Wks. _ 2. 132: 'He's a leiger at Horn's ordinary (cant name
for a bawdy-house) yonder. ' See Gloss.

=5. 6. 68 to sindge your nayles off. = In the fool's song in _Twelfth
Night_ we have the exclamation to the devil: 'paire thy nayles dad'
(Furness's ed. , p. 273). The editor quotes Malone: 'The Devil was
supposed from choice to keep his nails unpared, and therefore to pare
them was an affront. So, in Camden's _Remaines_, 1615: "I will follow
mine owne minde, and mine old trade; who shall let me? the divel's
nailes are unparde. "'

Compare also _Henry V. _ 4. 4. 76: 'Bardolph and Nym had ten times
more valor than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one
may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. '

=5. 6. 76 The Diuell was wont to carry away the euill. = Eckhardt, p.
100, points out that Jonson's etymology of the word _Vice_, which
has been a matter of dispute, was the generally accepted one, that
is, from _vice_ = evil.

=5. 7. 1 Iustice Hall. = 'The name of the Sessions-house in the Old
Bailey. '--G. Strype, B. 3. p. 281 says that it was 'a fair and
stately building, very commodious for that affair. ' 'It standeth
backwards, so that it hath no front towards the street, only the
gateway leading into the yard before the House, which is spacious.
It cost above ? 6000 the building. And in this place the Lord Mayor,
Recorder, the Aldermen and Justices of the Peace for the County
of Middlesex do sit, and keep his Majesty's Sessions of Oyer and
Terminer. ' It was destroyed in the Gordon Riots of 1780. --Wh-C.

=5. 7. 9 This strange! = See variants. The change seriously injures the
metre, and the original reading should be preserved. Such absorptions
(_this_ for _this is_ or _this's_) are not uncommon. Cf. _Macbeth_ 3.
4. 17, ed. Furness, p. 165: 'yet he's good' for 'yet he is as good. '

=5. 8. 2 They had giu'n him potions. = Jonson perhaps had
in mind the trial of Anne Turner and her accomplices in the
Overbury Case of the previous year. See Introduction, p. lxxii.
For a discussion of love-philtres see Burton, _Anat. of Mel. _
(ed. Bullen), 3. 145 f.

=5. 8. 33 with a Wanion. = This word is found only in the
phrases 'with a wanion,' 'in a wanion,' and 'wanions on you. ' It
is a kind of petty imprecation, and occurs rather frequently in
the dramatists, but its precise signification and etymology are
still in doubt. Boswell, _Malone_, 21. 61, proposed a derivation
from _winnowing_,'a beating;' Nares from _wanung_, Saxon,
'detriment;' Dyce (Ford's _Wks. _ 2. 291) from wan (vaande,
Dutch, 'a rod or wand'), 'of which _wannie_ and _wannion_ are
familiar diminutives. ' The _CD. _ makes it a later form of ME.
_waniand_, 'a waning,' spec. of the moon, regarded as implying
ill luck.

=5. 8. 34 If his hornes be forth, the Diuells companion! =
The jest is too obvious not to be a common one. Thus in
_Eastward Ho_ Slitgut, who is impersonating the cuckold at
Horn-fair, says: 'Slight! I think the devil be abroad. in
likeness of a storm, to rob me of my horns! ',--Marston's _Wks. _
3. 72. Cf. also _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 186: 'And why
would you so fain see the devil? would I say. Because he has horns,
wife, and may be a cuckold as well as a devil. '

=5. 8. 35 How he foames! = For the stock indications of
witchcraft see Introduction, p. xlix.

=5. 8. 40 The Cockscomb, and the Couerlet. = Wittipol is
evidently selecting an appropriate name for Fitzdottrel's
buffoonery after the manner of the puppet-shows. It is quite
possible that some actual _motion_ of the day was styled
'the Coxcomb and the Coverlet. '

=5. 8. 50 shee puts in a pinne. = Pricking with pins and needles was
one of the devil's regular ways of tormenting bewitched persons. They
were often supposed to vomit these articles. So when Voltore feigns
possession, Volpone cries out: 'See! He vomits crooked pins' (_The
Fox_, _Wks. _ 3. 312).

=5. 8. 61 the Kings Constable. = 'From the earliest times to our
own days, there were two bodies of police in England, namely, the
parish and high constables, and the watchmen in cities and boroughs.
Nothing could exceed their inefficiency in the 17th century. Of the
constables, Dalton (in the reign of James I. ) observes that they "are
often absent from their houses, being for the most part husbandmen. "
The charge of Dogberry shows probably with no great caricature
what sort of watchmen Shakespeare was familiar with. As late as
1796, Colquhoun observes that the watchmen "were aged and often
superannuated men. " '--Sir J. Stephen, _Hist. Crim. Law_ 1. 194 f.

=5. 8. 71 The taking of Tabacco, with which the Diuell=

=Is so delighted. = This was an old joke of the time. In Middleton's
_Black Book_, _Wks. _ 8. 42 f. the devil makes his will, a part of
which reads as follows: 'But turning my legacy to you-ward, Barnaby
Burning-glass, arch-tobacco-taker of England, in ordinaries, upon
stages both common and private, and lastly, in the lodging of your
drab and mistress; I am not a little proud, I can tell you, Barnaby,
that you dance after my pipe so long, and for all counter-blasts and
tobacco-Nashes (which some call railers), you are not blown away,
nor your fiery thirst quenched with the small penny-ale of their
contradictions, but still suck that dug of damnation with a long
nipple, still burning that rare Phoenix of Phlegethon, tobacco, that
from her ashes, burned and knocked out, may arise another pipeful. '

Middleton here refers to Nash's _Pierce Pennilesse_ and King James
I. 's _Counterblast to Tobacco_. The former in his supplication to the
devil says: 'It is suspected you have been a great _tobacco_-taker
in your youth.
' King James describes it as 'a custom loathsome to
the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the
lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the
horrid stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. '

The dramatists seem never to grow tired of this joking allusion to
the devil and his pipe of tobacco. Cf. Dekker, _If this be not a good
Play_, _Wks. _ 3. 293: 'I think the Diuell is sucking Tabaccho, heeres
such a Mist. ' _Ibid. _ 327: 'Are there gentleman diuels too? this
is one of those, who studies the black Art, thats to say, drinkes
Tobacco. ' Massinger, _Guardian_, _Wks. _, p. 344:

--You shall fry first
For a rotten piece of touchwood, and give fire
To the great fiend's nostrils, when he smokes tobacco!

Dekker (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 89) speaks of 'that great _Tobacconist_
the Prince of Smoake & darknes, _Don Pluto_. '

The art of _taking_ or _drinking_ tobacco was much cultivated
and had its regular professors. The _whiff_, the _ring_, etc. ,
are often spoken of. For the general subject see Dekker, _Guls
Horne-booke_; Barnaby Riche, _Honestie of this Age_, 1613; Harrison,
_Chronology_, 1573; _Every Man in_, etc. An excellent description of
a tobacconist's shop is given in _Alchemist_, _Wks. _ 4. 37. For a
historical account of its introduction see Wheatley. _Ev. Man in_,
p. xlvii.

Jonson's form _tabacco_ is the same as the Italian and Portuguese.
See Alden, _Bart. Fair_, p. 169.

=5. 8. 74, 5 yellow=, etc.
=That's Starch! the Diuell's Idoll of that colour. = For the
general subject of yellow starch see note 1. 1. 112, 3. Compare
also Stubbes, _Anat. of Abuses_, p. 52: 'The deuil, as he in
the fulness of his malice, first inuented these great ruffes,
so hath hee now found out also two great stayes to beare vp and
maintaine this his kingdome of great ruffes. . . . The one arch or
piller whereby his kingdome of great ruffes is vnderpropped, is
a certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call _starch_,
wherein the devil hath willed them to wash and diue his ruffes
wel. '

'Starch hound' and 'Tobacco spawling (spitting)' are the names
of two devils in Dekker's _If this be not a good Play_,
_Wks. _ 3. 270. Jonson speaks of 'that idol starch' again
in the _Alchemist_, _Wks. _ 4. 92.

=5. 8. 78 He is the Master of Players. = An evident allusion
to the Puritan attacks on the stage. This was the period of the
renewed literary contest. George Wither had lately published
his _Abuses stript and whipt_, 1613. For the whole subject see
Thompson, E. N. S. , _The Controversy between the Puritans and
the Stage_, New York, 1903.

=5. 8. 81 Figgum. = 'In some of our old dictionaries,
_fid_ is explained to caulk with oakum: figgum, or fig'em, may
therefore be a vulgar derivative from this term, and signify the
lighted flax or tow with which jugglers stuff their mouths when
they prepare to amuse the rustics by breathing out smoke and
flames:

--a nut-shell
With tow, and touch-wood in it, to spite fire (5. 3. 4. 5). '
--G.

=5. 8. 86, 7 to such a foole, He makes himselfe. = For the omission of
the relative adverb cf. 1. 3. 34, 35.

=5. 8. 89 To come to dinner, in mee the sinner. = The conception of
this couplet and the lines which Fitzdottrel speaks below was later
elaborated in Cocklorrel's song in the _Gipsies Metamorphosed_. Pluto
in Dekker's _If this be not a good Play_, _Wks. _ 3. 268, says that
every devil should have 'a brace of whores to his breakfast. ' Such
ideas seem to be descended from the mediaeval allegories of men like
Raoul de Houdanc, Ruteboeuf, etc.

=5. 8. 91, 2 Are you phrenticke, Sir, Or what graue dotage moues
you. = 'Dotage, fatuity, or folly, is a common name to all the
following species, as some will have it. . . . _Phrenitis_, which the
Greeks derive from the word ? ? ? ? , is a disease of the mind, with a
continual madness or dotage, which hath an acute fever annexed, or
else an inflammation of the brain, or the membranes or kells of it,
with an acute fever, which causeth madness and dotage. '--Burton,
_Anat. of Mel. _, ed. Shilleto, 1. 159-60.

=5. 8. 112 f. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? =, etc. See variants. 'This
Greek is from the Plutus of Aristophanes, Act 4, Sc. 3. '--W.

Accordingly to Blaydes's edition, 1886, 11. 850-2. He reads
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , etc. (Ah! me miserable, and thrice miserable,
and four times, and five times, and twelve times, and ten
thousand times. )

=5. 8. 116 Quebremos=, etc. Let's break his eye in jest.

=5. 8. 118 Di gratia=, etc. If you please, sir, if you have
money, give me some of it.

=5. 8. 119 f. Ouy, Ouy Monsieur=, etc. Yes, yes, sir, a
poor devil! a poor little devil!

=5. 8. 121 by his seuerall languages. = Cf. Marston, _Malcontent_,
_Wks. _ 1. 212: '_Mal. _ Phew! the devil: let him possess thee; he'll
teach thee to speak all languages most readily and strangely. '

=5. 8. 132 Such an infernall stincke=, etc. Dr. Henry More says that
the devil's 'leaving an ill smell behind him seems to imply the
reality of the business', and that it is due to 'those adscititious
particles he held together in his visible vehicle being loosened at
his vanishing' (see Lowell, _Lit. Essays_ 2. 347).

=5. 8. 133 St. Pulchars Steeple. = St. Sepulchre in the Bailey
(occasionally written St. 'Pulcher's) is a church at the western end
of Newgate Street and in the ward of Farringdon Without. A church
existed here in the twelfth century. The church which Jonson knew was
built in the middle of the fifteenth century. The body of the church
was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

It was the custom formerly for the clerk or bellman of St.
Sepulchre's to go under Newgate on the night preceding the execution
of a criminal, and, ringing his bell, to repeat certain verses,
calling the prisoner to repentance. Another curious custom observed
at this church was that of presenting a nosegay to every criminal on
his way to Tyburn (see Wh-C. ). The executed criminals were buried in
the churchyard (d. Middleton, _Black Book_, _Wks. _ 8. 25).

Cunningham says that 'the word _steeple_ was not used in the
restricted sense to which we now confine it. The _tower_ of St.
Sepulchre's in Jonson's time, must have been very much like what
we now see it as most carefully and tastefully restored. '

=5. 8. 134 as farre as Ware. = This is a distance of about 22 miles.
Ware is an ancient market-town of Herts, situated in a valley on the
north side of the river Lea.