Ware is an ancient market-town of Herts,
situated
in a valley on the
north side of the river Lea.
north side of the river Lea.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
' 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. The 'great bed of Ware' is mentioned in
_Twelfth Night_ 3. 2. 51, and the town is characterized as 'durty
Ware' in Dekker's _North-ward Hoe_, _Wks. _ 3. 53.
=5. 8. 142, 3 I will tell truth=, etc. Jonson uses this proverb again
in _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _ 6. 150: 'tell troth and shame the devil. '
GLOSSARY
This glossary is designed to include obsolete, archaic, dialectal,
and rare words; current words used in obsolete, archaic, or
exceptional senses; and, so far as practicable, obsolete and archaic
phrases. Current words in current uses have occasionally been
included to avoid confusion, as well as technical words unfamiliar to
the ordinary reader. Favorite words have been treated, for the sake
of illustration, with especial fullness.
For most words treated in its volumes published up to March, 1905,
Murray's _New English Dictionary_ is the chief authority. For
words not reached by that work the _Century Dictionary_ has been
preferred. The _Stanford Dictionary_ has been found especially
useful for anglicized words. It has often been necessary to resort
to contemporary foreign dictionaries in the case of words of Romance
origin.
It has been thought best to refer to all or nearly all important
passages. Etymologies are given only in cases of especial interest.
A dagger [ ? ] before a word or definition indicates that the word
or the particular meaning is obsolete; parallel lines [ || ] before
a word, that it has never become naturalized in English; an
interrogation point [ ? ], that the case is doubtful.
=A=, _prep. _ [Worn down from OE. preposition _an_, _on_. ]
With _be_: engaged in. _Arch. _ or _dial. _ 5. 1. 4.
? =A'=, _prep. _ Worn down from _of_. 5. 2. 38.
=Aboue=, _adv. _ Surpassing in degree; exceedingly. 3. 6. 33.
=Abuse=, _v. _ ? To impose upon, deceive. 5. 8. 140;
4. 2. 41; 4. 7. 80.
=Academy=, _n. _? A school of deportment. 2. 8. 20; 3. 5. 33.
=Access=, _n. _ ? Approach; advance. 2. 6. 68.
=Accompt=, _n. _ [Form of _account_. ] A report. 2. 7. 28.
=Accomptant=, ? _a. _ [Form of _accountant_. ]
Liable to give an account; accountable. 5. 2. 11.
=Account=, _n. _ ? Reckoning, consideration. Phr. _make
account_: To reckon, consider. 4. 1. 10.
=Acknowledge=, _v. _ To recognize a service as (from a person).
4. 3. 19.
=Admire=, _v. ? intr. _ To feel or express surprise; to wonder.
1. 1. 77.
=Aduise=, _v. _ To warn, dissuade ? (from a course). 5. 4. 43.
=Aerie=, _a. _ [Form of _airy_. ] Lively, vivacious.
4. 4. 157. aery. 3. 5. 13.
=Affection=, _n. _ ? Mental tendency; disposition. 4. 4. 126.
=Afore=, _prep. _ In the presence of. _Arch. _ or _dial. _
4. 4. 167; 5. 5. 7.
=Aforehand=, _adv. _ _Arch. _ In advance. 1. 3. 41.
=After-game=, _n. _ '_Prop. _, a second game played in order to reverse
or improve the issues of the first; hence, "The scheme which may
be laid or the expedients which are practised after the original
game has miscarried; methods taken after the first turn of affairs"
(Johnson). ' _NED. _ 4. 7. 84.
|| =Alcorca=, _n. _ Sp. 'A conserue. ' Minsheu.
=Alcorea=, _n. _ pr. for _Alcorca_, _q. v. _ 4. 4. 144.
||=Allum Scagliola=, _n. _ It. ? Rock alum. 4. 4. 30.
? =Almaine-leape=, _n. _ A dancing-leap. 1. 1. 97.
=Almanack-Man=, _n. _ ? A fortune-teller, foreteller. 1. 7. 25.
||=Almoiauana=, _n. _ Sp. 'A kinde of cheese-cake. ' Minsheu.
4. 4. 143.
=Almond milke=, _n. _ 'CHAMBERS _Cycl. Supp. _,
_Almond-milk_ is a preparation made of sweet blanched almonds
and water, of some use in medicine, as an emollient. ' _NED. _
1. 6. 222.
||=Aluagada=, _n. pr. _ same as _Alvayalde_, _q. v. _ 4. 4. 27.
||=Aluayalde= or =Albayalde=, _n. _ Sp. 'A white colour to paint
womens faces called ceruse. ' Minsheu.
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. The 'great bed of Ware' is mentioned in
_Twelfth Night_ 3. 2. 51, and the town is characterized as 'durty
Ware' in Dekker's _North-ward Hoe_, _Wks. _ 3. 53.
=5. 8. 142, 3 I will tell truth=, etc. Jonson uses this proverb again
in _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _ 6. 150: 'tell troth and shame the devil. '
GLOSSARY
This glossary is designed to include obsolete, archaic, dialectal,
and rare words; current words used in obsolete, archaic, or
exceptional senses; and, so far as practicable, obsolete and archaic
phrases. Current words in current uses have occasionally been
included to avoid confusion, as well as technical words unfamiliar to
the ordinary reader. Favorite words have been treated, for the sake
of illustration, with especial fullness.
For most words treated in its volumes published up to March, 1905,
Murray's _New English Dictionary_ is the chief authority. For
words not reached by that work the _Century Dictionary_ has been
preferred. The _Stanford Dictionary_ has been found especially
useful for anglicized words. It has often been necessary to resort
to contemporary foreign dictionaries in the case of words of Romance
origin.
It has been thought best to refer to all or nearly all important
passages. Etymologies are given only in cases of especial interest.
A dagger [ ? ] before a word or definition indicates that the word
or the particular meaning is obsolete; parallel lines [ || ] before
a word, that it has never become naturalized in English; an
interrogation point [ ? ], that the case is doubtful.
=A=, _prep. _ [Worn down from OE. preposition _an_, _on_. ]
With _be_: engaged in. _Arch. _ or _dial. _ 5. 1. 4.
? =A'=, _prep. _ Worn down from _of_. 5. 2. 38.
=Aboue=, _adv. _ Surpassing in degree; exceedingly. 3. 6. 33.
=Abuse=, _v. _ ? To impose upon, deceive. 5. 8. 140;
4. 2. 41; 4. 7. 80.
=Academy=, _n. _? A school of deportment. 2. 8. 20; 3. 5. 33.
=Access=, _n. _ ? Approach; advance. 2. 6. 68.
=Accompt=, _n. _ [Form of _account_. ] A report. 2. 7. 28.
=Accomptant=, ? _a. _ [Form of _accountant_. ]
Liable to give an account; accountable. 5. 2. 11.
=Account=, _n. _ ? Reckoning, consideration. Phr. _make
account_: To reckon, consider. 4. 1. 10.
=Acknowledge=, _v. _ To recognize a service as (from a person).
4. 3. 19.
=Admire=, _v. ? intr. _ To feel or express surprise; to wonder.
1. 1. 77.
=Aduise=, _v. _ To warn, dissuade ? (from a course). 5. 4. 43.
=Aerie=, _a. _ [Form of _airy_. ] Lively, vivacious.
4. 4. 157. aery. 3. 5. 13.
=Affection=, _n. _ ? Mental tendency; disposition. 4. 4. 126.
=Afore=, _prep. _ In the presence of. _Arch. _ or _dial. _
4. 4. 167; 5. 5. 7.
=Aforehand=, _adv. _ _Arch. _ In advance. 1. 3. 41.
=After-game=, _n. _ '_Prop. _, a second game played in order to reverse
or improve the issues of the first; hence, "The scheme which may
be laid or the expedients which are practised after the original
game has miscarried; methods taken after the first turn of affairs"
(Johnson). ' _NED. _ 4. 7. 84.
|| =Alcorca=, _n. _ Sp. 'A conserue. ' Minsheu.
=Alcorea=, _n. _ pr. for _Alcorca_, _q. v. _ 4. 4. 144.
||=Allum Scagliola=, _n. _ It. ? Rock alum. 4. 4. 30.
? =Almaine-leape=, _n. _ A dancing-leap. 1. 1. 97.
=Almanack-Man=, _n. _ ? A fortune-teller, foreteller. 1. 7. 25.
||=Almoiauana=, _n. _ Sp. 'A kinde of cheese-cake. ' Minsheu.
4. 4. 143.
=Almond milke=, _n. _ 'CHAMBERS _Cycl. Supp. _,
_Almond-milk_ is a preparation made of sweet blanched almonds
and water, of some use in medicine, as an emollient. ' _NED. _
1. 6. 222.
||=Aluagada=, _n. pr. _ same as _Alvayalde_, _q. v. _ 4. 4. 27.
||=Aluayalde= or =Albayalde=, _n. _ Sp. 'A white colour to paint
womens faces called ceruse. ' Minsheu.
