No More Learning

1616 Sir R. Dudley in _Fortesc. Papers_ 17:
'Nor am I so vaine . . . bycause I am not worth so much. ' The same form
occurs in _Sad Shepherd_ (Fol. 1631-40, p. 143):

But, beare yee Douce, bycause, yee may meet mee.

Gabriel Harvey uses both the forms _by cause_ and _bycause_.
_Prose Wks_. 1. 101; 102; et frequenter.

=5. 4. 34 at mine owne ap-perill. = The word is of rare occurrence.
Gifford quotes _Timon of Athens_ 1. 2: 'Let me stay at thine
apperil, Timon;' and refers to _Mag. La. _, _Wks. _ 6. 109: 'Faith, I
will bail him at mine own apperil. ' It occurs again in _Tale Tub_,
_Wks. _ 6. 148: 'As you will answer it at your apperil. '

=5. 5. 10, 11 I will leaue you To your God fathers in Law. = 'This
seems to have been a standing joke for a jury. It is used by
Shakespeare and by writers prior to him. Thus Bulleyn, speaking of
a knavish ostler, says, "I did see him ones aske blessyng to xii
godfathers at ones. " _Dialogue_, 1564. '--G.

The passage from Shakespeare is _Merch. of Ven. _ 4. 1. 398:

In christening, shalt thou have two godfathers:
Had I been judge, thou should'st have had ten more,
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.

Cf. also _Muse's Looking Glass_, _O. Pl. _ 9. 214: 'Boets!
I had rather zee him remitted to the jail, and have his twelve
godvathers, good men and true contemn him to the gallows. '

=5. 5. 50, 51 A Boy O' thirteene yeere old made him an Asse=
=But t'toher day. = Whalley believed this to be an allusion to the
'boy of Bilson,' but, as Gifford points out, this case did not occur
until 1620, four years after the production of the present play.
Gifford believes Thomas Harrison, the 'boy of Norwich,' to be alluded
to. A short account of his case is given in Hutchinson's _Impostures
Detected_, pp. 262 f. The affair took place in 1603 or 1604, and it
was thought necessary to 'require the Parents of the said Child, that
they suffer not any to repair to their House to visit him, save such
as are in Authority and other Persons of special Regard, and known
Discretion. ' Hutchinson says that Harrison was twelve years old. It
is quite possible, though not probable, that Jonson is referring
again to the Boy of Burton, who was only two years older.
See note 5. 3. 6.

=5. 5. 58, 59 You had some straine 'Boue E-la? = Cf. 1593 Nash,
_Christ's Tears_, _Wks. _ 4. 188: 'You must straine your wits an Ela
aboue theyrs. ' Cf. also Nash, _Wks. _ 5. 98 and 253; Lyly, _Euphues_,
Aij; and Gloss.

=5. 6. 1 your garnish. = 'This word _garnish_ has been made familiar
to all time by the writings of John Howard. "A cruel custom," says
he, "obtains in most of our gaols, which is that of the prisoners
demanding of a newcomer _garnish_, footing, or (as it is called in
some London gaols) chummage. _Pay_ or _strip_ are the fatal words. I
say fatal, for they are so to some, who, having no money, are obliged
to give up part of their scanty apparel; and if they have no bedding
or straw to sleep on, contract diseases which I have known to prove
mortal. "'--C.

Cf. Dekker, _If this be not a good Play_, _Wks. _ 3. 324:

Tis a strong charme gainst all the noisome smels
Of Counters, Iaylors, garnishes, and such hels.

and Greene, _Upstart Courtier_, Dija: 'Let a poore man be arrested
. . . he shal be almost at an angels charge, what with garnish,
crossing and wiping out of the book . . . extortions . . . not allowed by
any statute. '

The money here seems to have been intended for the jailer, rather
than for Pug's fellow-prisoners. The custom was abolished by 4 George
IV. c. 43, ? 12.

=5. 6. 10 I thinke Time be drunke, and sleepes. = Cf. 1. 4. 31. For
the metaphor cf. _New Inn_, _Wks. _ 5. 393:

If I but knew what drink the time now loved.

and _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 162:

--Now sleep, and rest;
Would thou couldst make the time to do so too.

=5. 6. 18 confute. = 'A pure Latinism. _Confutare_ is properly to
pour cold water in a pot, to prevent it from boiling over; and hence
metaphorically, the signification of _confuting_, reproving, or
controuling. '--W.

For the present use cf. T. Adams in Spurgeon, _Treas. Dav. _, 1614,
Ps. lxxx. 20: 'Goliath . . . shall be confuted with a pebble. ' 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.