No More Learning

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. _baster'd_) bullions.

Brome, _Sparagus Garden_, _Wks. _ 3. 152:

--shaking your
Old Bullion Tronkes over my Trucklebed.

_Gesta Gray_ in Nichols' _Prog. Q. Eliz. _ 3. 341 A, 1594:
'A bullion-hose is best to go a woeing in; for tis full of
promising promontories. '

=3. 3. 231 too-too-vnsupportable! = This reduplicated
form is common in Shakespeare. See _Merch. of Ven. _ 2. 6.
42; _Hamlet_ 1. 2. 129; and Schmidt, _Dict. _ Jonson uses it
in _Sejanus_, _Wks. _ 3. 54, and elsewhere. It is merely a
strengthened form of _too_. (See Halliwell in _Sh. Soc. Papers_,
1884, 1. 39, and _Hamlet_, ed. Furness, 11th ed. , 1. 41. ) Jonson
regularly uses the hyphen.

=3. 4. 13 Cioppinos. = Jonson spells the word as if it were
Italian, though he says in the same sentence that the custom of
wearing chopines is Spanish. The _NED. _, referring to Skeat,
_Trans. Phil. Soc. _, 1885-7, p. 79, derives it from Sp. _chapa_,
a plate of metal, etc. 'The Eng. writers c 1600 persistently
treated the word as Italian, even spelling it _cioppino_, pl.
_cioppini_, and expressly associated it with Venice, so that,
although not recorded in Italian Dicts. it was app. temporarily
fashionable there. ' The statement of the _NED. _ that 'there is
little or no evidence of their use in England (except on the
stage)' seems to be contradicted by the quotation from Stephen
Gosson's _Pleasant Quippes_ (note 1. 1. 128). References to the
chopine are common in the literature of the period (see Nares
and _NED. _). I have found no instances of the Italianated form
earlier than Jonson, and it may be original with him. He uses
the plural _cioppini_ in _Cynthia's Revels_, _Wks. _ 2. 241.
See note 4. 4. 69.

=3. 4. 32 your purchase. = Cf. _Alch. _, _Wks. _ 4. 150, and
_Fox_, _Wks. _ 3. 168: 'the cunning purchase of my wealth. '
Cunningham (_Wks. _ 3. 498) says: 'Purchase, as readers of
Shakespeare know, was a cant term among thieves for the plunder
they acquired, also the act of acquiring it. It is frequently
used by Jonson. '

=3. 4. 35 Pro'uedor. = Gifford's change to provedore
is without authority. The word is _provedor_, Port. , or
_proveedor_, Sp. , and is found in Hakluyt, _Voyages_, 3. 701;
G. Sandys, _Trav. _, p. 6 (1632); and elsewhere, with various
orthography, but apparently never with the accent.

=3. 4. 43 Gentleman huisher. = For the gentleman-usher see
note 4. 4. 134. The forms _usher_ and _huisher_ seem to be used
without distinction. The editors' treatment of the form is
inconsistent. See variants, and compare 2. 7. 33.

=3. 4. 45-8 wee poore Gentlemen . . . piece. = Cf. Webster,
_Devil's Law Case_, _Wks. _ 2. 38: 'You have certain rich city
chuffs, that when they have no acres of their own, they will go
and plough up fools, and turn them into excellent meadow. ' Also
_The Fox_ 2. 1:

--if Italy
Have any glebe more fruitful than these fellows,
I am deceived.

As source of the latter Dr. L. H. Holt (_Mod. Lang. Notes_,
June, 1905) gives Plautus, _Epidicus_ 2. 3. 306-7:

nullum esse opinor ego agrum in agro Attico
aeque feracem quam hic est noster Periphanes.

=3. 5. 2 the row. = Stow (_Survey_, ed. 1633, p. 391) says that
Goldsmith's Row, 'betwixt _Breadstreete_ end and the Crosse in
_Cheap_,' is 'the most beautifull Frame of faire houses and shops,
that be within the Wals of _London_, or elsewhere in England. ' It
contained 'ten faire dwelling houses, and fourteene shops' beautified
with elaborate ornamentation. Howes (ed. 1631, p. 1045) says that
at his time (1630) Goldsmith's Row 'was much abated of her wonted
store of Goldsmiths, which was the beauty of that famous streete. '
A similar complaint is made in the _Calendar of State Papers_,
1619-23, p. 457, where Goldsmith's Row is characterized as the 'glory
and beauty of Cheapside. ' Paul Hentzner (p. 45) speaks of it as
surpassing all the other London streets. He mentions the presence
there of a 'gilt tower, with a fountain that plays. '

=3. 5. 29, 30 answering=
=With the French-time, in flexure of your body. = This may mean
bowing in the deliberate and measured fashion of the French, or
perhaps it refers to French musical measure. See Gloss.

=3. 5. 33 the very Academies. = See note 2. 8. 20.

=3. 5. 35 play-time. = Collier says that the usual hour of dining in
the city was twelve o'clock, though the passage in _Case is Altered_,
_Wks. _ 6. 331, seems to indicate an earlier hour:

Eat when your stomach serves, saith the physician,
Not at eleven and six.

The performance of plays began at three o'clock.
Cf. _Histriomastix_, 1610:

Come to the Town-house, and see a play:
At three a'clock it shall begin.

See Collier, _Annals_ 3. 377. Sir Humphrey Mildmay, in his Ms.
Diary (quoted _Annals_ 2. 70), speaks several times of going to
the play-house after dinner.

=3. 5. 39 his Damme. = _NED. _ gives a use of the phrase 'the
devil and his dam' as early as Piers Plowman, 1393. The 'devil's
dam' was later applied opprobriously to a woman. It is used thus
in Shakespeare, _Com. Err. _ 4. 3. 51. The expression is common
throughout the literature of the period.

=3. 5. 43 But to be seene to rise, and goe away. = Cf.
Dekker, _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 253: 'Now sir,
if the writer be a fellow that hath either epigrammd you, or
hath had a flirt at your mistris, . . . you shall disgrace him
worse then by tossing him in a blancket . . . if, in the middle of
his play, . . . you rise with a screwd and discontented face from
your stoole to be gone: no matter whether the Scenes be good or
no; the better they are the worse do you distast them. '

=3. 5. 45, 6 But say, that he be one=,
Wi' not be aw'd! but laugh at you=. In the Prologue to Massinger's
_Guardian_ we find:

--nor dares he profess that when
The critics laugh, he'll laugh at them agen.
(Strange self-love in a writer! )

Gifford says of this passage: 'This Prologue contains many sarcastick
allusions to Old Ben, who produced, about this time, his _Tale of a
Tub_, and his _Magnetic Lady_, pieces which failed of success, and
which, with his usual arrogance, (_strange self-love in a writer! _)
he attributed to a want of taste in the audience. '--Massinger's
(_Wks. _, ed. 1805, 4. 121. )

The _Guardian_ appeared in 1633, two years after the printing of
_The Devil is an Ass_. It seems certain that the reference is to the
present passage.

=3. 5. 47 pay for his dinner himselfe. = The custom of inviting the
poet to dinner or supper seems to have been a common one. Dekker
refers to it in the _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 249. Cf.
also the Epilogue to the present play.

=3. 5. 47 Perhaps, He would doe that twice, rather then thanke you. =
'This ill-timed compliment to himself, Jonson might have spared, with
some advantage to his judgment, at least, if not his modesty. '--G.

=3. 5. 53. = See variants. Gifford's change destroys the
meaning and is palpably ridiculous.

=3. 5. 77 your double cloakes. = 'I. e. , a cloake adapted
for disguises, which might be worn on either side. It was of
different colours, and fashions. This turned cloke with a false
beard (of which the cut and colour varied) and a black or yellow
peruke, furnished a ready and effectual mode of concealment,
which is now lost to the stage. '--G.

=3. 6. 2 canst thou get ne'r a bird? = Throughout this page
Merecraft and Pug ring the changes on Pitfall's name.

=3. 6. 15, 16 TRA. You must send, Sir. =
=The Gentleman the ring. = Traines, of course,
is merely carrying out Merecraft's plot to 'achieve the ring' (3. 5.
67). Later (4. 4. 60) Merecraft is obliged to give it up to Wittipol.

=3. 6. 34-6 What'll you do, Sir? = . . .
=Run from my flesh, if I could. = For a similar construction
cf. 1. 3. 21 and note.

=3. 6. 38, 9 Woe to the seuerall cudgells,=
=Must suffer on this backe! = Adapted from Plautus,
_Captivi_ 3. 4. 650:

Vae illis uirgis miseris, quae hodie in tergo morientur meo.

(Gifford mentions the fact that this is adapted from the classics. I
am indebted for the precise reference to Dr. Lucius H. Holt. )

=3. 6. 40 the vse of it is so present. = For other Latinisms cf.
_resume_, 1. 6. 149; _salts_, 2. 6. 75; _confute_, 5. 6. 18, etc.

=3. 6. 61 I'll= . . . See variants. The original reading is undoubtedly
wrong.


ACT IV

=4. 1. 1 referring to Commissioners. = In the lists of
patents we frequently read of commissions specially appointed
for examination of the patent under consideration. The King's
seal was of course necessary to render the grant valid.

=4. 1. 5 S^r. Iohn Monie-man. = See Introduction, p. lxxiii.

=4. 1. 37 I will haue all piec'd. = Cf. _Mag. La. _,
_Wks. _ 6. 50:

_Item. _ I heard they were out.
_Nee. _ But they are pieced, and put together again.

=4. 1. 38 ill solder'd! = Cf. _The Forest_, 12,
_Epistle to Elizabeth_, etc. ; 'Solders cracked friendship. '

=4. 2. 11 Haue with 'hem. = 'An idea borrowed from the gaming
table, being the opposite of "have at them. "'--C.

=4. 2. 11 the great Carroch. = See note 1. 6. 214.

=4. 2. 12 with my Ambler, bare. = See note 4. 4. 202.

=4. 2. 22 I not loue this. = See note 1. 6. 14.

=4. 2. 26 Tooth-picks. = This was an object of satire to the
dramatists of the period. Nares says that they 'appear to have been
first brought into use in Italy; whence the travellers who had
visited that country, particularly wished to exhibit that symbol
of gentility. ' It is referred to as the mark of a traveller by
Shakespeare, _King John_, 1. 1 (cited by Gifford):

--Now your traveller,
He, and his tooth-pick, at my worship's mess.

Overbury (_Character_ of _An Affected Traveller_, ed. Morley, p. 35)
speaks of the _pick-tooth_ as 'a main part of his behavior. '

It was also a sign of foppery. Overbury (p. 31) describes the
courtier as wearing 'a pick-tooth in his hat,' and Massinger, _Grand
Duke of Florence_, Act 3 (quoted by Nares), mentions 'my case of
tooth-picks, and my silver fork' among the articles 'requisite to the
making up of a signior. ' John Earle makes a similar reference in his
_Character_ of _An Idle Gallant_ (ed. Morley, p. 179), and Furnivall
(Stubbes' _Anatomy_, p. 77) quotes from _Laugh and lie downe_: or
_The worldes Folly_, London, 1605, 4to: 'The next was a nimble-witted
and glib-tongu'd fellow, who, having in his youth spent his wits in
the Arte of love, was now become the jest of wit. . . . The picktooth in
the mouth, the flower in the eare, the brush upon the beard; .