No More Learning

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.

Whalley suggested:

Fugit Hora: hoc quod loquor, inde est.
--Pers. _Sat. _ 5.

=1. 6. 131, 2 And such
As cannot vse the present, are not wise. =
Cf. _Underwoods_ 36. 21:

To use the present, then, is not abuse.

=1. 6. 138 Nay, then, I taste a tricke in't. = Cf. 'I do
taste this as a trick put on me. ' _Ev. Man in_, _Wks. _ 1. 133.
See Introduction, p. xlvii.

=1. 6. 142 cautelous. = For similar uses of the word cf.
Massinger, _City Madam_, _Wks. _, p. 321, and B. & Fl. , _Elder
Brother_, _Wks. _ 10. 275. Gifford gives an example from Knolles,
_Hist. of the Turks,_ p. 904.

=1. 6. 149 MAN. Sir, what doe you meane?

153 MAN. You must play faire, S^r. = 'I am not certain about
the latter of these two speeches, but it is perfectly unquestionable
that the former _must_ have been spoken by the husband
Fitzdottrel. '--C.

Cunningham may be right, but the change is unnecessary if
we consider Manly's reproof as occasioned by Fitzdottrel's
interruption.

=1. 6. 158, 9 No wit of man=

=Or roses can redeeme from being an Asse. = 'Here is an allusion to
the metamorphosis of Lucian into an _ass_; who being brought into
the theatre to shew tricks, recovered his human shape by eating some
_roses_ which he found there. See the conclusion of the treatise,
_Lucius, sive Asinus_. '--W.

See Lehman's edition, Leipzig, 1826, 6. 215.
As Gifford says,
the allusion was doubtless more familiar in Jonson's day than
in our own. The story is retold in Harsnet's _Declaration_
(p. 102), and Lucian's work seems to have played a rather important
part in the discussion of witchcraft.

=1. 6. 161 To scape his lading. = Cf. note 1. 4. 72.

=1. 6. 180 To other ensignes. = 'I. e. , to horns, the
Insignia of a cuckold. '--G.

=1. 6. 187 For the meere names sake. = 'I. e. the name of
the play. '--W.

=1. 6. 195 the sad contract. = See variants. W. and G. are
doubtless correct.

=1. 6. 214 a guilt caroch. = 'There was some distinction
apparently between _caroch_ and _coach_. I find in
Lord Bacon's will, in which he disposed of so much imaginary
wealth, the following bequest: "I give also to my wife my four
coach geldings, and my best caroache, and her own coach mares and
caroache. "'--C.

Minsheu says that a carroch is a great coach. Cf. also Taylor's
_Wks. _, 1630:

No coaches, or carroaches she doth crave.

_Rom Alley_, _O. Pl. _, 2d ed. , 5. 475:

No, nor your jumblings,
In horslitters, in coaches or caroches.

_Greene's Tu Quoque_, _O. Pl. _, 2d ed. , 7. 28:

May'st draw him to the keeping of a coach
For country, and carroch for London.

Cf. also Dekker, _Non-dram. Wks. _ 1. 111. Finally the matter is
settled by Howes (p. 867), who gives the date of the introduction
of coaches as 1564, and adds: 'Lastly, euen at this time, 1605,
began the ordinary use of Caroaches. ' In _Cyn. Rev. _, _Wks. _ 2. 281,
Gifford changes _carroch_ to _coach_.

=1. 6. 216 Hide-parke. = Jonson speaks of coaching in Hyde Park in the
_Prologue to the Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 157, and in _The World
in the Moon_, _Wks. _ 7. 343. Pepys has many references to it in his
_Diary_. 'May 7, 1662. And so, after the play was done, she and The
Turner and Mrs. Lucin and I to the Parke; and there found them out,
and spoke to them; and observed many fine ladies, and staid till all
were gone almost. '

'April 22, 1664. In their coach to Hide Parke, where great plenty of
gallants, and pleasant it was, only for the dust. '

Ashton in his _Hyde Park_ (p. 59) quotes from a ballad in the British
Museum (c 1670-5) entitled, _News from Hide Park_, In which the
following lines occur:

Of all parts of _England_, Hide-park hath the name,
For Coaches and Horses, and Persons of fame.

=1. 6. 216, 7 Black-Fryers, Visit the Painters. = A church,
precinct, and sanctuary with four gates, lying between Ludgate
Hill and the Thames and extending westward from Castle Baynard
(St. Andrew's Hill) to the Fleet river. It was so called from
the settlement there of the Black or Dominican Friars in 1276.
Sir A. Vandyck lived here 1632-1641. 'Before Vandyck, however,
Blackfriars was the recognized abode of painters. Cornelius
Jansen (d. 1665) lived in the Blackfriars for several years.
Isaac Oliver, the miniature painter, was a still earlier
resident. ' Painters on glass, or glass stainers, and collectors
were also settled here. --Wh-C.

=1. 6. 219 a middling Gossip. = 'A go-between, an
_internuntia_, as the Latin writers would have called her. '--W.

=1. 6. 224 the cloake is mine. = The reading in the folio
belonging to Dr. J. M. Berdan of Yale is: 'the cloake is mine
owne. ' This accounts for the variant readings.

=1. 6. 230 motion. = Spoken derogatively, a 'performance. '
Lit. , a puppet-show. The motion was a descendent of the
morality, and exceedingly popular in England at this time.
See Dr. Winter, _Staple of News_, p. 161; Strutt, _Sports and
Pastimes_, p. 166 f. ; Knight, _London_ 1. 42. Jonson makes
frequent mention of the motion. _Bartholomew Fair_ 5. 5 is
largely devoted to the description of one, and _Tale Tub_ 5. 5
presents a series of them.

=1. 7. 4 more cheats? = See note on _Cheaters_, 5. 6. 64,
and Gloss.

=1. 7. 16 The state hath tane such note of 'hem. =
See note 1. 2. 22.

=1. 7. 25 Your Almanack-Men. = An excellent account of the
Almanac-makers of the 17th century is given by H. R. Plomer in
_N. & Q. _,6th Ser. 12. 243, from which the following is abridged:

'Almanac-making had become an extensive and profitable trade
in this country at the beginning of the 17th century, and with
the exception of some fifteen or twenty years at the time of
the Rebellion continued to flourish until its close. There
were three distinct classes of almanacs published during the
seventeenth century--the common almanacs, which preceded and
followed the period of the Rebellion, and the political and
satirical almanacs that were the direct outcome of that event.

'The common almanacs came out year after year in unbroken
uniformity. They were generally of octavo size and consisted
of two parts, an almanac and a prognostication. Good and evil
days were recorded, and they contained rules as to bathing,
purging, etc. , descriptions of the four seasons and rules to
know the weather, and during the latter half of the century an
astrological prediction and "scheme" of the ensuing year.

'In the preceding century the makers of almanacs were "Physitians and
Preests", but they now adopted many other titles, such as "Student in
Astrology", "Philomath", "Well Willer to the Mathematics. " The majority
of them were doubtless astrologers, but not a few were quack doctors,
who only published their almanacs as advertisements. ' (Almanac, a
character in _The Staple of News_, is described as a 'doctor in
physic. ')

Among the more famous almanac-makers the names of William Lilly, John
Partridge and Bretnor may be mentioned. For the last see note 2. 1.
1, and B. & Fl. , _Rollo, Duke of Normandy_, where Fiske and Bretnor
appear again. Cf. also _Alchemist_, _Wks. _ 4. 41; _Every Man out_,
_Wks. _ 2. 39-40; _Mag. La. _, _Wks. _ 6. 74, 5. In Sir Thomas Overbury's
_Character_ of _The Almanac-Maker_ (Morley, p. 56) we read: 'The verses
of his book have a worse pace than ever had Rochester hackney; for his
prose, 'tis dappled with ink-horn terms, and may serve for an almanac;
but for his judging at the uncertainty of weather, any old shepherd
shall make a dunce of him. '


ACT II.

=2. 1. 1 Sir, money's a whore=, etc. Coleridge, _Notes_,
p. 280. emends: 'Money, sir, money's a', &c. Cunningham, on the
other hand, thinks that 'the 9-syllable arrangement is quite in
Jonson's manner, and that it forces an emphasis upon every word
especially effective at the beginning of an act. ' See variants.

Money is again designated as a whore in the _Staple of News_
4. 1: 'Saucy Jack, away: Pecunia is a whore. ' In the same
play Pennyboy, the usurer, is called a 'money-bawd. ' Dekker
(_Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 137) speaks of keeping a bawdy-house for
Lady Pecunia. The figure is a common one.

=2. 1 . 3 Via. = This exclamation is quite common among the dramatists
and is explained by Nares as derived from the Italian exclamation
_via! _ 'away, on! ' with a quibble on the literal of L. _via_, a way.
The _Century Dictionary_ agrees substantially with this derivation.
Abundant examples of its use are given by the authorities quoted, to
which may be added _Merry Devil of Edmonton_ 1. 2. 5, and Marston,
_Dutch Courtezan_, _Wks. _ 2. 20:

O, yes, come, _via_!