= _Wusse_ is a
corruption
of _wis_, OE.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
_ 1.
125: 'I should serue this bearing asse rarely now, if
I should load him'. And again in the works of Taylor, the Water Poet,
p. 311: 'My Lines shall load an Asse, or whippe an Ape. ' Cf.
also _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 421: 'Yes, faith, I have my
lading, you see, or shall have anon; you may know whose beast I am
by my burden. '
=1. 4. 83, 4 But, not beyond=,
=A minute, or a second, looke for=. The omission of the comma after
_beyond_ by all the later editors destroys the sense. Fitzdottrel
does not mean that Wittipol cannot have 'beyond a minute', but that
he cannot have a minute beyond the quarter of an hour allowed him.
=1. 4. 96 Migniard. = 'Cotgrave has in his dictionary,
"_Mignard_--migniard, prettie, quaint, neat, feat, wanton, dainty,
delicate. " In the _Staple of News_ [_Wks. _ 5. 221] Jonson tries
to introduce the substantive _migniardise_, but happily without
success. '--G.
=1. 4. 101 Prince Quintilian. = The reputation of this famous
rhetorician (c 35-c 97 A. D. ) is based on his great work entitled
_De Instiutione Oratoria Libri_ XII. The first English edition seems
to have been made in 1641, but many Continental editions had preceded
it. The title Prince seems to be gratuitous on Jonson's part. He is
mentioned again in _Timber_ (ed. Schelling, 57. 29 and 81. 4).
=1. 5. 2= Cf. _New Inn_, _Wks. _ 5. 323:
'_Host. _ What say you, sir? where are you, are you within?
(_Strikes_ LOVEL _on the breast_. )'
=1. 5. 8, 9. Old Africk, and the new America,
With all their fruite of Monsters. = Cf. Donne,
_Sat. _, _Wks. _ 2. 190 (ed. 1896):
Stranger . . .
Than Afric's monsters, Guiana's rarities.
Brome, _Queen's Exchange_, _Wks. _ 3. 483: 'What monsters are bred
in _Affrica_? ' Glapthorne, _Hollander_, _Wks. _, 1874, 1. 81: 'If
_Africke_ did produce no other monsters,' etc. The people of London
at this time had a great thirst for monsters. See Alden, _Bart.
Fair_, p. 185, and Morley, _Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair_.
=1. 5. 17 for hidden treasure. = 'And when he is appeared, bind him
with the bond of the dead above written: then saie as followeth.
I charge thee N. by the father, to shew me true visions in this
christall stone, if there be anie treasure hidden in such a place N.
& wherein it now lieth, and how manie foot from this peece of earth,
east, west, north, or south. '--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 355.
Most of the conjurers pretended to be able to recover stolen
treasure. The laws against conjurers (see note 1. 2. 6) contained
clauses forbidding the practice.
=1. 5. 21 his men of Art. = A euphemism for conjurer.
Cf. B. & Fl. , _Fair Maid of the Inn_ 2. 2:
'_Host. _ Thy master, that lodges here in my Osteria,
is a rare man of art; they say he's a witch.
_Clown. _ A witch? Nay, he's one step of the ladder to
preferment higher; he's a conjurer. '
=1. 6. 10 wedlocke. = Wife; a common latinism of the period.
=1. 6. 14 it not concernes thee? = A not infrequent word-order in
Jonson. Cf. 4. 2. 22.
=1. 6. 18 a Niaise. = Gifford says that the side note 'could scarcely
come from Jonson; for it explains nothing. A niaise (or rather
an _eyas_, of which it is a corruption) is unquestionably a young hawk,
but the niaise of the poet is the French term for, "a simple, witless,
inexperienced gull", &c. The word is very common in our old
writers. '
The last statement is characteristic of Gifford. It would have been
well in this case if he had given some proof of his assertion. The
derivation _an eyas_ > _a nyas_ is probably incorrect. The _Centary
Dictionary_ gives '_Niaise_, _nyas_ (and corruptly _eyas_, by
misdivision of _a nias_). ' The best explanation I can give of the side
note is this. The glossator takes the meaning 'simpleton' for granted.
But Fitzdottrel has just said 'Laught at, sweet bird? ' In explanation
the side note is added. This, perhaps, does not help matters much and,
indeed, I am inclined to believe with Gifford that the side notes are
by another hand than Jonson's. See Introduction, pp. xiii, xvii.
=1. 6. 29, 30. When I ha' seene
All London in't, and London has seene mee. =
Gifford compares Pope:
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
=1. 6. 31 Black-fryers Play-house. = This famous theatre was founded
by James Burbage in 1596-7. The Burbages leased it to Henry Evans
for the performances of the Children of the Chapel, and the King's
Servants acted there after the departure of the children. In 1619
the Lord Mayor and the Council of London ordered its discontinuance,
but the players were able to keep it open on the plea that it was a
private house. In 1642 'public stage plays' were suppressed, and on
Aug. 5, 1655, Blackfriars Theatre was pulled down and tenements were
built in its place. See Wh-C.
Nares, referring to Shirley's _Six New Playes_, 1653, says that
'the Theatre of Black-Friars was, in Charles I. 's time at least
considered, as being of a higher order and more respectability
than any of those on the Bank-side. '
=1. 6. 33 Rise vp between the Acts. = See note 3. 5. 43.
=1. 6. 33, 4 let fall my cloake,
Publish a handsome man, and a rich suite. = The gallants of this
age were inordinately fond of displaying their dress, or 'publishing
their suits. ' The play-house and 'Paul's Walk,' the nave of St.
Paul's Cathedral, were favorite places for accomplishing this. The
fourth chapter of Dekker's _Guls Horne-booke_ is entitled 'How a
Gallant should behaue himselfe in Powles walkes. ' He bids the gallant
make his way directly into the middle aisle, 'where, in view of all,
you may publish your suit in what manner you affect most, either with
the slide of your cloake from the one shoulder, and then you must
(as twere in anger) suddenly snatch at the middle of the inside (if
it be taffata at the least) and so by that meanes your costly lining
is betrayd,' etc. A little later on (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 238) Dekker
speaks of 'Powles, a Tennis-court, or a Playhouse' as a suitable
place to 'publish your clothes. ' Cf. also _Non-dram. Wks. _ 4. 51.
Sir Thomas Overbury gives the following description of 'a
Phantastique:' 'He withers his clothes on a stage as a salesman is
forced to do his suits in Birchin Lane; and when the play is done, if
you mark his rising, 'tis with a kind of walking epilogue between the
two candles, to know if his suit may pass for current. ' Morley, p. 73.
Stephen Gosson (_School of Abuse_, p. 29) says that 'overlashing
in apparel is so common a fault, that the verye hyerlings of
some of our plaiers, which stand at reversion of vi^s by
the weeke, jet under gentlemens noses in sutes of silke. '
=1. 6. 37, 8 For, they doe come
To see vs, Loue, as wee doe to see them. = Cf. _Induction_ to _The
Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 151: 'Yes, on the stage; we are persons
of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see
and to be seen. ' _Silent Woman_, _Wks. _ 3. 409: 'and come abroad
where the matter is frequent, to court, . . . to plays, . . .
thither they come to shew their new tires too, to see, and to
be seen. ' Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks. _, p. 323:
_Sir. Maur. _ Is there aught else
To be demanded?
_Anne. _ . . . a fresh habit,
Of a fashion never seen before, to draw,
The gallants' eyes, that sit upon the stage, upon me.
Gosson has much to say on the subject of women frequenting the
theatre. There, he says (p. 25). 'everye man and his queane are first
acquainted;' and he earnestly recommends all women to stay away from
these 'places of suspition' (pp. 48 f. ).
=1. 6. 40 Yes, wusse.
= _Wusse_ is a corruption of _wis_, OE. _gewis_,
certainly. Jonson uses the forms _I wuss_ (_Wks. _ 1. 102), _I wusse_
(_Wks. _ 6. 146), and _Iwisse_ (_Wks. _ 2. 379. the fol. reading;
Gifford changing to _I wiss_), in addition to the present form. In
some cases the word is evidently looked upon as a verb.
=1. 6. 58 sweet Pinnace. = Cf. 2. 2. 111 f. A woman is often compared
to a ship. Nares cites B. & Fl. , _Woman's Pr. _ 2. 6:
This pinck, this painted foist, this cockle-boat.
Cf. also _Stap. of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 210:
She is not rigg'd, sir; setting forth some lady
Will cost as much as furnishing a fleet. --
Here she is come at last, and like a galley
Gilt in the prow.
Jonson plays on the names of Pinnacia in the _New Inn_, _Wks. _ 5. 384:
'_Host. _ Pillage the Pinnace. . . .
_Lord B. _ Blow off her upper deck.
_Lord L. _ Tear all her tackle. '
Pinnace, when thus applied to a woman, was almost always used with a
conscious retention of the metaphor. Dekker is especially fond of the
word. _Match me in London_, _Wks. _ 4. 172:
--There's a Pinnace
(Was mann'd out first by th' City), is come to th' Court,
New rigg'd.
Also Dekker, _Wks. _ 4. 162; 3. 67, 77, 78.
When the word became stereotyped into an equivalent for procuress or
prostitute, the metaphor was often dropped. Thus in _Bart. Fair_,
_Wks. _ 4. 386: 'She hath been before me, punk, pinnace and bawd,
any time these two and twenty years. ' Gifford says on this passage:
'The usual gradation in infamy. A _pinnace_ was a light vessel built
for speed, generally employed as a tender. Hence our old dramatists
constantly used the word for a person employed in love messages, a
go-between in the worst sense, and only differing from a bawd in not
being stationary. ' A glance at the examples given above will show,
however, that the term was much more elastic than this explanation
would indicate.
The dictionaries give no suggestion of the origin of the metaphor.
I suspect that it may be merely a borrowing from classical usage.
Cf. _Menaechmi_ 2. 3. 442:
Ducit lembum dierectum nauis praedatoria.
In _Miles Gloriosus_ 4. 1. 986, we have precisely the same
application as in the English dramatists: 'Haec celox (a swift
sailing vessel) illiust, quae hinc agreditur, internuntia. '
=1. 6. 62 th' are right. = Whalley's interpretation is, of
course, correct. See variants.
=1. 6. 73 Not beyond that rush. = Rushes took the place of
carpets in the days of Elizabeth. Shakespeare makes frequent
reference to the custom (see Schmidt). The following passage from
Dr. Bulleyne has often been quoted: 'Rushes that grow upon dry
groundes be good to strew in halles, chambers and galleries, to
walk upon, defending apparel, as traynes of gownes and kertles
from dust. ' Cf. also _Cyn. Rev. _ 2. 5; _Every Man out_ 3. 3.
=1. 6. 83 As wise as a Court Parliament. = Jonson refers
here, I suppose, to the famous Courts or Parliaments of Love,
which were supposed to have existed during the Middle Ages (cf.
Skeat, _Chaucer's Works_ 7. lxxx).
Cunningham calls attention to the fact that Massinger's
_Parliament of Love_ was not produced until 1624. Jonson depicts
a sort of mock Parliament of Love in the _New Inn_, Act 4.
=1. 6. 88 And at all caracts. = 'I. e. , to the nicest point,
to the minutest circumstance. '--G. See Gloss. and cf. _Every Man
in_, _Wks. _ 1. 70.
=1. 6. 89, 90 as scarce hath soule, In stead of salt. = Whalley
refers to _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 446, 7: 'Talk of him to have a
soul! 'heart, if he have any more than a thing given him instead of
salt, only to keep him from stinking. I'll be hang'd afore my time. '
Gifford quotes the passage from B. & Fl. , _Spanish Curate_:
--this soul I speake of,
Or rather salt, to keep this heap of flesh
From being a walking stench.
W. furnishes a Latin parallel: 'Sus vero quid habet praeter escam?
cui quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datam dicit esse
Chrysippus. '--Cic. _De Natura Deor_, lib. 2.
It is to these passages that Carlyle refers in his _Past and
Present_: 'A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us,
is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the
frightfulest sort; to 'save us,' says he, 'the expense of salt. '
Bk. 2, Ch. 2.
'In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the _soul_ out of
him; and now, after the due period,--begins to find the want of
it. . . . Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt. '
(Simpson in _N. & Q. _, 9th Ser. 4. 347, 423. )
To the same Latin source Professor Cook (_Mod. Lang. Notes_,
Feb. , 1905) attributes the passage in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ 43-45:
What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
and Samuel Johnson's 'famous sentence recorded by Boswell under June
19, 1784: "Talking of the comedy of _The Rehearsal_, he said: 'It has
not wit enough to keep it sweet. '"'
=1. 6. 97 the walks of Lincolnes Inne. = One of the famous Inns
of Court (note 3. 1. 8). It formerly pertained to the Bishops of
Chichester (Stow, _Survey_, ed. 1633, p. 488a). The gardens 'were
famous until the erection of the hall, by which they were curtailed
and seriously injured' (Wh-C. ). The Tatler (May 10, 1709, no. 13)
speaks of Lincoln's Inn Walks.
=1. 6. 99 I did looke for this geere. = See variants. Cunningham says:
'In the original it is _geere_, and so it ought still to stand. Gear
was a word with a most extended signification. Nares defines it,
"matter, subject, or business in general! " When Jonson uses the word
_jeer_ he spells it quite differently. The _Staple of News_ was first
printed at the same time as the present play, and in the beginning of
Act IV. Sc. 1, I find: "_Fit. _ Let's _ieere_ a little. _Pen. _ Ieere?
what's that? "'
It is so spelt regularly throughout _The Staple of News_, but in
_Ev. Man in_ 1. 2 (fol. 1616), we find: 'Such petulant, geering
gamsters that can spare No . . . subject from their jest. ' The
fact is that both words were sometimes spelt _geere_, as well
as in a variety of other ways. The uniform spelling in _The
Staple of News_, however, seems to indicate that this is the
word _gear_, which fits the context, fully as well as, perhaps
better than Gifford's interpretation. A common meaning is 'talk,
discourse', often in a depreciatory sense. See Gloss.
=1. 6. 125 Things, that are like, are soone familiar. =
'Like will to like' is a familiar proverb.
=1. 6. 127 the signe o' the husband. = An allusion to the
signs of the zodiac, some of which were supposed to have a
malign and others a beneficent influence.
=1. 6. 131 You grow old, while I tell you this. =
Hor. [_Carm. _ I. II. 8 f. ]:
Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas, carpe diem. --G.
I should load him'. And again in the works of Taylor, the Water Poet,
p. 311: 'My Lines shall load an Asse, or whippe an Ape. ' Cf.
also _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 421: 'Yes, faith, I have my
lading, you see, or shall have anon; you may know whose beast I am
by my burden. '
=1. 4. 83, 4 But, not beyond=,
=A minute, or a second, looke for=. The omission of the comma after
_beyond_ by all the later editors destroys the sense. Fitzdottrel
does not mean that Wittipol cannot have 'beyond a minute', but that
he cannot have a minute beyond the quarter of an hour allowed him.
=1. 4. 96 Migniard. = 'Cotgrave has in his dictionary,
"_Mignard_--migniard, prettie, quaint, neat, feat, wanton, dainty,
delicate. " In the _Staple of News_ [_Wks. _ 5. 221] Jonson tries
to introduce the substantive _migniardise_, but happily without
success. '--G.
=1. 4. 101 Prince Quintilian. = The reputation of this famous
rhetorician (c 35-c 97 A. D. ) is based on his great work entitled
_De Instiutione Oratoria Libri_ XII. The first English edition seems
to have been made in 1641, but many Continental editions had preceded
it. The title Prince seems to be gratuitous on Jonson's part. He is
mentioned again in _Timber_ (ed. Schelling, 57. 29 and 81. 4).
=1. 5. 2= Cf. _New Inn_, _Wks. _ 5. 323:
'_Host. _ What say you, sir? where are you, are you within?
(_Strikes_ LOVEL _on the breast_. )'
=1. 5. 8, 9. Old Africk, and the new America,
With all their fruite of Monsters. = Cf. Donne,
_Sat. _, _Wks. _ 2. 190 (ed. 1896):
Stranger . . .
Than Afric's monsters, Guiana's rarities.
Brome, _Queen's Exchange_, _Wks. _ 3. 483: 'What monsters are bred
in _Affrica_? ' Glapthorne, _Hollander_, _Wks. _, 1874, 1. 81: 'If
_Africke_ did produce no other monsters,' etc. The people of London
at this time had a great thirst for monsters. See Alden, _Bart.
Fair_, p. 185, and Morley, _Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair_.
=1. 5. 17 for hidden treasure. = 'And when he is appeared, bind him
with the bond of the dead above written: then saie as followeth.
I charge thee N. by the father, to shew me true visions in this
christall stone, if there be anie treasure hidden in such a place N.
& wherein it now lieth, and how manie foot from this peece of earth,
east, west, north, or south. '--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 355.
Most of the conjurers pretended to be able to recover stolen
treasure. The laws against conjurers (see note 1. 2. 6) contained
clauses forbidding the practice.
=1. 5. 21 his men of Art. = A euphemism for conjurer.
Cf. B. & Fl. , _Fair Maid of the Inn_ 2. 2:
'_Host. _ Thy master, that lodges here in my Osteria,
is a rare man of art; they say he's a witch.
_Clown. _ A witch? Nay, he's one step of the ladder to
preferment higher; he's a conjurer. '
=1. 6. 10 wedlocke. = Wife; a common latinism of the period.
=1. 6. 14 it not concernes thee? = A not infrequent word-order in
Jonson. Cf. 4. 2. 22.
=1. 6. 18 a Niaise. = Gifford says that the side note 'could scarcely
come from Jonson; for it explains nothing. A niaise (or rather
an _eyas_, of which it is a corruption) is unquestionably a young hawk,
but the niaise of the poet is the French term for, "a simple, witless,
inexperienced gull", &c. The word is very common in our old
writers. '
The last statement is characteristic of Gifford. It would have been
well in this case if he had given some proof of his assertion. The
derivation _an eyas_ > _a nyas_ is probably incorrect. The _Centary
Dictionary_ gives '_Niaise_, _nyas_ (and corruptly _eyas_, by
misdivision of _a nias_). ' The best explanation I can give of the side
note is this. The glossator takes the meaning 'simpleton' for granted.
But Fitzdottrel has just said 'Laught at, sweet bird? ' In explanation
the side note is added. This, perhaps, does not help matters much and,
indeed, I am inclined to believe with Gifford that the side notes are
by another hand than Jonson's. See Introduction, pp. xiii, xvii.
=1. 6. 29, 30. When I ha' seene
All London in't, and London has seene mee. =
Gifford compares Pope:
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
=1. 6. 31 Black-fryers Play-house. = This famous theatre was founded
by James Burbage in 1596-7. The Burbages leased it to Henry Evans
for the performances of the Children of the Chapel, and the King's
Servants acted there after the departure of the children. In 1619
the Lord Mayor and the Council of London ordered its discontinuance,
but the players were able to keep it open on the plea that it was a
private house. In 1642 'public stage plays' were suppressed, and on
Aug. 5, 1655, Blackfriars Theatre was pulled down and tenements were
built in its place. See Wh-C.
Nares, referring to Shirley's _Six New Playes_, 1653, says that
'the Theatre of Black-Friars was, in Charles I. 's time at least
considered, as being of a higher order and more respectability
than any of those on the Bank-side. '
=1. 6. 33 Rise vp between the Acts. = See note 3. 5. 43.
=1. 6. 33, 4 let fall my cloake,
Publish a handsome man, and a rich suite. = The gallants of this
age were inordinately fond of displaying their dress, or 'publishing
their suits. ' The play-house and 'Paul's Walk,' the nave of St.
Paul's Cathedral, were favorite places for accomplishing this. The
fourth chapter of Dekker's _Guls Horne-booke_ is entitled 'How a
Gallant should behaue himselfe in Powles walkes. ' He bids the gallant
make his way directly into the middle aisle, 'where, in view of all,
you may publish your suit in what manner you affect most, either with
the slide of your cloake from the one shoulder, and then you must
(as twere in anger) suddenly snatch at the middle of the inside (if
it be taffata at the least) and so by that meanes your costly lining
is betrayd,' etc. A little later on (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 238) Dekker
speaks of 'Powles, a Tennis-court, or a Playhouse' as a suitable
place to 'publish your clothes. ' Cf. also _Non-dram. Wks. _ 4. 51.
Sir Thomas Overbury gives the following description of 'a
Phantastique:' 'He withers his clothes on a stage as a salesman is
forced to do his suits in Birchin Lane; and when the play is done, if
you mark his rising, 'tis with a kind of walking epilogue between the
two candles, to know if his suit may pass for current. ' Morley, p. 73.
Stephen Gosson (_School of Abuse_, p. 29) says that 'overlashing
in apparel is so common a fault, that the verye hyerlings of
some of our plaiers, which stand at reversion of vi^s by
the weeke, jet under gentlemens noses in sutes of silke. '
=1. 6. 37, 8 For, they doe come
To see vs, Loue, as wee doe to see them. = Cf. _Induction_ to _The
Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 151: 'Yes, on the stage; we are persons
of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see
and to be seen. ' _Silent Woman_, _Wks. _ 3. 409: 'and come abroad
where the matter is frequent, to court, . . . to plays, . . .
thither they come to shew their new tires too, to see, and to
be seen. ' Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks. _, p. 323:
_Sir. Maur. _ Is there aught else
To be demanded?
_Anne. _ . . . a fresh habit,
Of a fashion never seen before, to draw,
The gallants' eyes, that sit upon the stage, upon me.
Gosson has much to say on the subject of women frequenting the
theatre. There, he says (p. 25). 'everye man and his queane are first
acquainted;' and he earnestly recommends all women to stay away from
these 'places of suspition' (pp. 48 f. ).
=1. 6. 40 Yes, wusse.
= _Wusse_ is a corruption of _wis_, OE. _gewis_,
certainly. Jonson uses the forms _I wuss_ (_Wks. _ 1. 102), _I wusse_
(_Wks. _ 6. 146), and _Iwisse_ (_Wks. _ 2. 379. the fol. reading;
Gifford changing to _I wiss_), in addition to the present form. In
some cases the word is evidently looked upon as a verb.
=1. 6. 58 sweet Pinnace. = Cf. 2. 2. 111 f. A woman is often compared
to a ship. Nares cites B. & Fl. , _Woman's Pr. _ 2. 6:
This pinck, this painted foist, this cockle-boat.
Cf. also _Stap. of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 210:
She is not rigg'd, sir; setting forth some lady
Will cost as much as furnishing a fleet. --
Here she is come at last, and like a galley
Gilt in the prow.
Jonson plays on the names of Pinnacia in the _New Inn_, _Wks. _ 5. 384:
'_Host. _ Pillage the Pinnace. . . .
_Lord B. _ Blow off her upper deck.
_Lord L. _ Tear all her tackle. '
Pinnace, when thus applied to a woman, was almost always used with a
conscious retention of the metaphor. Dekker is especially fond of the
word. _Match me in London_, _Wks. _ 4. 172:
--There's a Pinnace
(Was mann'd out first by th' City), is come to th' Court,
New rigg'd.
Also Dekker, _Wks. _ 4. 162; 3. 67, 77, 78.
When the word became stereotyped into an equivalent for procuress or
prostitute, the metaphor was often dropped. Thus in _Bart. Fair_,
_Wks. _ 4. 386: 'She hath been before me, punk, pinnace and bawd,
any time these two and twenty years. ' Gifford says on this passage:
'The usual gradation in infamy. A _pinnace_ was a light vessel built
for speed, generally employed as a tender. Hence our old dramatists
constantly used the word for a person employed in love messages, a
go-between in the worst sense, and only differing from a bawd in not
being stationary. ' A glance at the examples given above will show,
however, that the term was much more elastic than this explanation
would indicate.
The dictionaries give no suggestion of the origin of the metaphor.
I suspect that it may be merely a borrowing from classical usage.
Cf. _Menaechmi_ 2. 3. 442:
Ducit lembum dierectum nauis praedatoria.
In _Miles Gloriosus_ 4. 1. 986, we have precisely the same
application as in the English dramatists: 'Haec celox (a swift
sailing vessel) illiust, quae hinc agreditur, internuntia. '
=1. 6. 62 th' are right. = Whalley's interpretation is, of
course, correct. See variants.
=1. 6. 73 Not beyond that rush. = Rushes took the place of
carpets in the days of Elizabeth. Shakespeare makes frequent
reference to the custom (see Schmidt). The following passage from
Dr. Bulleyne has often been quoted: 'Rushes that grow upon dry
groundes be good to strew in halles, chambers and galleries, to
walk upon, defending apparel, as traynes of gownes and kertles
from dust. ' Cf. also _Cyn. Rev. _ 2. 5; _Every Man out_ 3. 3.
=1. 6. 83 As wise as a Court Parliament. = Jonson refers
here, I suppose, to the famous Courts or Parliaments of Love,
which were supposed to have existed during the Middle Ages (cf.
Skeat, _Chaucer's Works_ 7. lxxx).
Cunningham calls attention to the fact that Massinger's
_Parliament of Love_ was not produced until 1624. Jonson depicts
a sort of mock Parliament of Love in the _New Inn_, Act 4.
=1. 6. 88 And at all caracts. = 'I. e. , to the nicest point,
to the minutest circumstance. '--G. See Gloss. and cf. _Every Man
in_, _Wks. _ 1. 70.
=1. 6. 89, 90 as scarce hath soule, In stead of salt. = Whalley
refers to _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 446, 7: 'Talk of him to have a
soul! 'heart, if he have any more than a thing given him instead of
salt, only to keep him from stinking. I'll be hang'd afore my time. '
Gifford quotes the passage from B. & Fl. , _Spanish Curate_:
--this soul I speake of,
Or rather salt, to keep this heap of flesh
From being a walking stench.
W. furnishes a Latin parallel: 'Sus vero quid habet praeter escam?
cui quidem, ne putresceret, animam ipsam pro sale datam dicit esse
Chrysippus. '--Cic. _De Natura Deor_, lib. 2.
It is to these passages that Carlyle refers in his _Past and
Present_: 'A certain degree of soul, as Ben Jonson reminds us,
is indispensable to keep the very body from destruction of the
frightfulest sort; to 'save us,' says he, 'the expense of salt. '
Bk. 2, Ch. 2.
'In our and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the _soul_ out of
him; and now, after the due period,--begins to find the want of
it. . . . Man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antiseptic salt. '
(Simpson in _N. & Q. _, 9th Ser. 4. 347, 423. )
To the same Latin source Professor Cook (_Mod. Lang. Notes_,
Feb. , 1905) attributes the passage in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ 43-45:
What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
and Samuel Johnson's 'famous sentence recorded by Boswell under June
19, 1784: "Talking of the comedy of _The Rehearsal_, he said: 'It has
not wit enough to keep it sweet. '"'
=1. 6. 97 the walks of Lincolnes Inne. = One of the famous Inns
of Court (note 3. 1. 8). It formerly pertained to the Bishops of
Chichester (Stow, _Survey_, ed. 1633, p. 488a). The gardens 'were
famous until the erection of the hall, by which they were curtailed
and seriously injured' (Wh-C. ). The Tatler (May 10, 1709, no. 13)
speaks of Lincoln's Inn Walks.
=1. 6. 99 I did looke for this geere. = See variants. Cunningham says:
'In the original it is _geere_, and so it ought still to stand. Gear
was a word with a most extended signification. Nares defines it,
"matter, subject, or business in general! " When Jonson uses the word
_jeer_ he spells it quite differently. The _Staple of News_ was first
printed at the same time as the present play, and in the beginning of
Act IV. Sc. 1, I find: "_Fit. _ Let's _ieere_ a little. _Pen. _ Ieere?
what's that? "'
It is so spelt regularly throughout _The Staple of News_, but in
_Ev. Man in_ 1. 2 (fol. 1616), we find: 'Such petulant, geering
gamsters that can spare No . . . subject from their jest. ' The
fact is that both words were sometimes spelt _geere_, as well
as in a variety of other ways. The uniform spelling in _The
Staple of News_, however, seems to indicate that this is the
word _gear_, which fits the context, fully as well as, perhaps
better than Gifford's interpretation. A common meaning is 'talk,
discourse', often in a depreciatory sense. See Gloss.
=1. 6. 125 Things, that are like, are soone familiar. =
'Like will to like' is a familiar proverb.
=1. 6. 127 the signe o' the husband. = An allusion to the
signs of the zodiac, some of which were supposed to have a
malign and others a beneficent influence.
=1. 6. 131 You grow old, while I tell you this. =
Hor. [_Carm. _ I. II. 8 f. ]:
Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas, carpe diem. --G.
