_Teren_. The Traitor lives while I have breath to spend,
Then let me die to satisfie your will.
_Lent_. Neither, yfaith, kneele not, rise, rise, I pray;
You both confesse you have offended me?
_Both_. We doe, we have.
_Lent_. Then for this offence, be this your doome:
_Tulley_ must die, but not till fates decree
To cut your vital threed, or _Terentia_
Finde in her heart to be your Deathes-man.
_Flav_. Faith the Fates may doe as they may, but _Terentia_ will never
finde in her heart to kill him, sheele first burie him quick.
_Len_. The like is doomde to faire _Terentia_.
How say you both, are yee content?
_Teren_. My thoughts are plung'd in admiration.
_Tul_. But can your honour burie such a wrong?
_Len_. I can, I can; heere, _Tulley_, take _Terentia_,
Live many happie yeares in faithfull love.
This is no more then friendships lawes allow;
Thinke me thy self, another _Cicero_.
_Flav_. Twere better, my Lord, you did perswade her to think you another
_Cicero_, so you might claim some interest in her now and then.
_Lent_. That I would claim with you, faire Ladie;
Hark in your eare, nay, I must conclude with you.
_Flau_. Y'oule not bite, my Lord?
_Len_. No, of my faith, my Lady.
_Tere_. Thus far, my love, our hopes have good successe;
One storme more past, my griefes were much the less.
_Tul_. Friendship itself hath beene more prodigal
Then a bolde face could begge upon a friend.
_Lent_. Why, then theres a bargaine.
_Flav_. Strike hands upon the same, I am yours to commaund.
Ile love with ye, ile lie with ye, ile love with all my heart,
With all my strength, with all my power and virtue:
Seald and delivered in the presence of us--
_Lent_. _Marcus Tullius Cicero_.
Then you deliver this as your act and deede?
_Flav_. I doe, and scale it with this--
_Lent_. Why, well said, tis done; see, we begin but now,
And are as ready to goe to Church as you.
What needes further ceremony?
_Flav_. Yes, a little matrimony.
_Lent_. I, Lady. Come _Tully_ and _Terentia_;
One day shall shine on both our Nuptials;
Feare not, ile quench the fire of your Fathers heate
With my consent.
_Flav_. I prethee, appoint the time.
_Lent_. About a week hence, love.
_Flav_. Oh, tis too intolerable long.
_Lent_. Then foure daies.
_Flav_. Foure daies is foure times foure & twenty hours.
That's too long too.
_Lent_. We cannot sooner be readie.
_Flav_. Yes, and unreadie[291] too in a day and a halfe.
_Lent_. Well then two daies.
_Flav_. Til then weele feede on conceite; _Tully_, thanke me, but for
your companie I would not tarry so long; come, _Tully_, since we shall
bee married all at one time, weele goe to bed so, and he shall be
maister of the Cock-pit that bids his Gossips[292] first.
[_Exeunt_.
[ACT THE FOURTH.
_Scene_ 1.]
_Enter Accutus and Graccus_.
_Acut_. Nay quicke, _Graccus_, least our houre forestall us, ile in and
deale for your disguise; tarry thou & give mine host a share of our
intent; marry, charge him to keep it as secret as his Garbage. He undoes
our drift [else] and cloathes the foole in sackcloath during his life.
_Gra_. Ile warrant thee ile manage it with as good judgement as a
Constable his charge.
_Acut_. And I mine as a watchman his office.
_Gra_. Better, I hope; well about it.
[_Exit [Acutus]_.
_Enter_[293] _Host. Prentices pass over the stage_.
_Host_. There, there my little lackey boyes, give the word as ye passe,
look about to my guests there; score up at the Bar there; again, agen,
my fine Mercuries; if youle live in the facultie, be rulde by
instructions, you must be eyed like a Serjeant, an eare like a
Belfounder, your conscience a Schoolemaister, a knee like a Courtier,
a foote[294] like a Lackey, and a tongue like a Lawyere. Away, away, my
brave bullies! welcome, sweete Signior, I cannot bow to thy knee, I'me
as stout & as stiff as a new made knight, but if I say the word, mine
Host bids the Cobler--
_Gra_. May I crave a word of you, mine Host?
_Host_. Thou shalt whisper in mine eare, I will see and say little; what
I say duns[295] the mouse and welcom, my bullies.
_Enter Scillicet and Getica_.
_Scil_. By the torrid zone (sweet heart) I have thought well of you ever
since I loved ye, as a man wold say, like a young dancer, out of all
measure; if it please you yfaith anything I have promised you ile
performe it to a haire, ere to morrow night.
_Get_. I wounder [_sic_] I can heare no newes of my man and my puppie.
_Scil_. Doe you thinke, sweet heart, to be maried by day light or by
torch-light?
_Get_. By night is more Lady-like. Ile have a cryer to cry my puppie
sure.
_Scil_. What thinke ye if we had an offering?
_Get_. That were most base yfaith.
_Scil_. Base, slid, I cannot tel if it were as base as a sagbut, ile be
sworne tis as common as a whore, tis even as common to see a Bason at a
Church doore, as a Box at a Playhouse.
_Get_. It greeves me not so much for my man as for my puppie; my man can
shift for himself, but my poore puppie! truely I thinke I must take
Phisicke even for feare, sweetheart.
_Host_. Tut, tut, ile warrant thee ile be as close as a bawd, ile keepe
mine owne counsell, be merrie and close;[296] merrie hart lives long,
let my guests take no wrong, & welcome, my bullie. [_Exit_.
_Grac_. There's none ment, beleeve it, sir.
_Scil_. Signor, by the welkin, well met, what all three so luckely?
_Enter Servulus_.
_Ser_. Gallants, saving the Ceremonie,
Stroke your haire up and admire, forsweare sacke.
_Scil_. Foresweare Sacke! slid, not for the spending of two farmes more,
if they were come into my hands once.
_Ser_. I say be astonisht and forsweare sacke, for by the combustion
influence of sacke five men lye breathlesse ready to be folded in the
terrestiall element.
_Grac_. Five slaine with Sacke! ist possible?
_Ser_. These eyes are testators.
_Scil_. Nay, then tis so.
_Getica_. Sir, you have not heard of a puppie in your travels?
_Grac_. No indeede, Gentlewoman.
_Ser_. Five, beleeve me, Sir.
_Acu_. Five of one, oh devil!
What limme of him but a complete Villaine!
A tongue prophaner then Idolatrie,
His eye a beacon fixed in his place
Discovering illes, but hood-winked unto grace;
His heart a nest of vice kept by the Devill,
His good is none at all, his all is evill.
_Enter_[297] _Hostess_.
_Hostis_. Oh, the father! Gallants, yonders the most hard favourd newes
walkes the streetes, seaven men going to their graves, that dyed with
drinking and bisseling.[298]
_Acut_. Good, still, nay then I see the devill has some power over a
woman more then a man. Seaven! t'will be more anon.
_Get_. Now I beseech _Bacchus_ my puppie has not overseene[299] himself.
_Scil_. This is verie strange.
_Hostis_. And as true a report, I assure you.
_Enter City-Wife_[300]
_Cittie wife_. Out alas, where's my Gosip? Oh woman! have you not heard
the newes?
_Hostis_. Yes, I have heard on't.
_Cittie wife_. Oh, woman, did your child's child ever see the like? nine
men to bee buried too day, that drunk healthes last night.
_Acut_. Better and better, goodnes never mends so fast in the carrying:
nine!
_Cittie wife_. They say one is your guest, _Philautus_.
_Acut_. And all, I dare sweare, whome ile revive againe.
_Cittie wife_. Well he was a propper man, yfaith.
_Hostis_. I, and had good skill in prick-song, yet he had a fault in his
humor, as none are without (but Puritans,); he would swear like an
Elephant, and stamp and stare, (God blesse us,) like a play-house
book-keeper when the actors misse their entrance.
_Scil_. Nay, harke ye, sir, I can brooke much injurie but not that;
meddle with me but not with my trade; shee is mine owne, shee's _meus,
tuus, suus_, no man's else, I assure ye, we are sure[301] together.
_Grac_. Sure ye are together, sir, but is your wife your trade? You
meane to live upon your wife then.
_Acut_. The foole has some wit,[302] though his money bee gone.
_Grac_. Sir, I hope ye are not offended, I assure ye I would be loath to
offend the least haire of your _caput, sissiput_, or _occiput_.
_Scil_. _Occiput_? what meane you by _occiput_?
_Grac_. The former part of your head.
_Scil_. The former part of your head! why I hope I have not an occiput,
in the former part of my head. Signior _Servulus_, what meanes he by it?
_Serv_. The signification of the word only amounts to this, the former
part of your head.
_Accut_. The foole is jealious, prethee feede it.
_Scil_. S'lid, I cannot be so sussified; I pray you, Segnior, what
meanes he by _occiput_?
_Grac_. No hurt, verily, onely the word signifies, and the reason is,
saith _Varro_, being a great deriver from originals, it is called
_occiput_ for that the former part of the head looks likest the Oxe.
_Scil_. Likest the Oxe, by gad, if ere I come to talke with that
_Varro_, ile make him show a better reason for it.
_Grac_. But, howsoever, it proceeded from me all in kindenes.
_Scil_. Sir, I accept it so, for I tell ye I am of a mollifying nature.
I can strut and againe in kindnesse I can suffer a man to breake my
head, and put it up without anger.
_Accut_. I claime that priviledge, sir, I thinke I offended you once
that way.
_Scil_. I love ye then for it sir, yet I cannot remember that ever a
Tapster broke my head, yet I call to minde I have broke many Tapsters
heads.
_Accut_. Not as a Tapster, for I but borrow this habyt.
_Scil_. The fruit is knowne by the tree, by gad, I knewe by your
aporn[303] ye were a gentlemen, but speciallye by your flat[304] cap.
_Serv_. I call to memorie, let us unite with kinde imbrace.
_Cittie wife_. Now well fare your harts; by my truth, tis joy to a woman
to see men kinde; faith you courtiers are mad fellowes, you care not in
your humors to stab man or woman that standes in your way, but in the
end your kindenes appeares.
_Hostis_. You can resolve us, sir; we heare of great revels to be at
Court shortly.
_Grac_. The marriage of _Lentulus_ and the Orator: verie true.
_Hostis_. Might not a company of Wives be beholding to thee for places,
that would be there without their husbands knowledge, if neede were?
_Grac_. A moitie of friendship that, ile place ye where ye shall sit and
see all.
_Cittie wife_. Sit? nay, if there were but good standinges, we care not.
_Acu_. S'foot, _Graccus_, we tarrie too long, I feare; the houre wil
overtake us, tarrie thou and invite the Guests, and Ile goe see his
course mounted.
_Grac_. About it.
[_Exit_[305] _Acutus_.
_Hostis_. Whether goes that gentleman?
_Grac_. About a needeful trouble; this gentleman
Hath, at the charges of his charitie,
Preparde to inter a friend of his,
Though lately entertaind a friend of yours,
Acquaintance to you all, _Philautus_; and would desire
You would with him accompany his ghost
To funerall, which will be presently on his journey.
_Cittie wife_. Of his charge? dyed he not able to purchase a Winding
sheete?
_Grac_. Twere sinne to wrong the dead; you shall heare the inventorie of
his pocket.
Imprimis, brush and a Combe o o v.d.
Item, a looking Glasse o o i.d.ob.
Item, A case of Tobacco Pipes o o iiij.d.
Item, Tobacco, halfe an ounz o o vj.d.
Item, in money and golde o o iij.d.
_Summa totalis_. xix d. halfe penny.
_Hostis_. What was his suite worth?
_Grac_. His sute was colde, because not his owne, and the owner caused
it to be restored as part of recompence, having lost the principall.
_Re-enter_[306] _Acutus_.
_Acut_. What, are they readie? the Corse is on his journey hetherwards.
_Grac_. Tush, two womens tungs give as loud report as a campe royall of
double cannons.
_Enter Host, Cornutus_.
_Host_. Tut, tut, thou art welcom; _Cornutus_ is my neighbour, I love
him as my self. Tha'st a shrowe to thy wife, gave her tongue to [_sic_]
much string, but let mine Host give thee counsell, heele teach thee a
remedie.
_Cornu_. No, no, my good Host; mum, mum, no words against my wife;
shee's mine owne, one flesh, & one blood. I shall feele her hurt, her
tongue is her owne, so are her hands; mum, mum, no words against your
wife.
_Host_. Tut, tut, thou art a foole, keepe her close from the poticarie,
let her taste of no licoras, twill make her long winded; no plums, nor
no parseneps, no peares, nor no Popperins, sheele dreame in her sleep
then; let her live vpon Hasels, give her nuts for her dyet, while a
toothe's in her head, give her cheese for disgestion,[307] twil make her
short winded; if that will not serve, set fire to the pan and blow her
up with Gun-powder.
_Cittie wife_. I, I, mine Host, you are well imployed to give a man
counsell against his wife; they are apt enough to ill I warrant ye.
_Cornu_. Mum, mum, my sweet wife, I know the world wel enough; I have an
eare but I heare not, an eye but I see not, what's spoke against thee I
regard not; mum, mum, I knowe the world well enough.
_Cittie wife_. I, and twere more seemely you were at your owne house
too; your wife cannot goe abroad, but you must follow; husbands must bee
fringed to their wives Petticoates. I pray you tarrie you, ile goe home.
_Cor_. Not so, my sweet wife, I am gone, I am vanisht; mum, mum, no
anger shall stirre thee; no words, I know the world well inough.
_Hostis_. Twere better, by thrice deuce-ace, in a weeke every woman
could awe her husband so well as she.
_Gracc_. Ist possible? s'foot, well I thought it had bene but a fable al
this while that _Iole_ shold make great _Hercules_ spit on his thombes
and spin, but now I see if a man were as great as _Caesar, Julius_ or
_Augustus_, or both in one, a woman may take him downe.
_Hostis_. Gossip, faith ile use a little of your counsel, but my husband
is so fat, I feare I shall never bring him to it.
_Grac_. Now, gentles, you that can, prepare a few teares to shed, for
now enters a sad sceane of sorrowe.
_Enter Fryer and Course_.
_Fryer_. Man is flesh and flesh is fraile,
The strongest man at length must faile;
Man is flesh and flesh is grasse;
Consuming time, as in a glasse,
Now is up and now is downe
And is not purchast by a Crowne;
Now seede, and now we are sowen,
Now we wither, now are mowen;
_Frater noster_ heere doth lye,
_In paupertate_ he did die,
And now is gone his _viam longam_
That leades unto his _requiem aeternam_;
But dying needie, poore and bare,
Wanting to discharge the Fryer,
Unto his grave hee's like to passe
Having neither Dirge nor Masse:
So set forward, let him goe,
_Et benedicamus Domino_.
_Phy_. And then to _Apollo_ hollo, trees, hollo.--Tapster a few more
cloathes to my feete.
_Omnes_. Oh heavens!
_Acut_. Gentles, keep your places, feare nothing; in the name of God,
what art thou?
_Phy_. My Hearse and winding-sheete! what meanes this? why, Gentles, I
am a living man.
_Acut_. Spirit, thou ly'st; thou deludest us.
_Citty wife_. Conjure him, Fryer.
_Fryer_. _In nomine Domini_ I thee charge,
_Responde mihi_, heere at large,
_Cujum pecus_, whence thou art,
_Et quamobrem_ thou makest us start
_In spiritus_ of the gloomy night?
_Qui Venis huc_ us to affright,
_Per trinitatem_ I there charge thee,
_Quid tu vis hic_ to tell to me.
_Phy_. Why, Gentles, I am a living man, _Philautus_.[308] What instance
shall I give ye? heare me I have sight, understanding, I know mine
hostes, I see that Gentlewoman, I can feele.
_Scil_. Feele this Gentlewoman! s'lid if yee were ten Ghosts, ile not
indure it.
_Acut_. Spirit, thou deludest us.
_Phy_. Why what should I say? will ye heare my voice, heeres not but--
_Scil_. Nay, that's a lye, then tis a living spirit, ile have a bout
with him.
_Accut_. Oh sir, meddle not with shadowes. Spirit, thou lyest;
I saw thee dead, [and] so did many moe.[309]
We know ye wandring dwellers in the dark
Have power to shape you like mortallitie
To beguile the simple & deceve their soules.
Thou art a Devill.
_Phy_. Sweet Gent, beholde I am flesh and blood; heeres my flesh, feele
it.
_Cittie wife_. By my troth, methinkes hee should be alive. I could finde
in my heart to feele his flesh.
_Grac_. Trie with your Rapier, _Accutus_; if he bleede he lives.
_Phy_. If I bleede I die; sweet Gentlemen, draw no blood.
_Accu_. How shall wee knowe thou art flesh and blood then?
_Grac_. Take heede, _Accutus_, heele blast thee.
_Phy_. What instance shall I give ye? I am _Phylautus_,[310] he that
must needes confesse, he was drunk in your companies last day; sweet
Gentlemen, conceive me aright.
_Accut_. Why true, true, that we know and[311] those swilling bowels.
Death did arrest thee, many saw thee deade,
Else needles were these rites of funeralls.
And since that time, till now, no breath was knowne
Flye from you; and twentie times the houre-glasse
Hath turned his upside downe; and twenty times,
The nimble current sand hath left his upper roome.
To ly beneath, since sparke of life appeard;
In all which time my care imploide it self
To give the[e] rights of buriall: now, if you live,
Who so glad as I?
_Phy_. Sir, your love has showne it selfe aboundant, but the cold aire
is a meanes to devorce me from your companies: mine host, let me crave
passage to my chamber.
_Host_. Out of my dores, knave; thou enterest not my dores, I have no
chalke in my house, my posts shall not be garded with a little sing
song, _Si nihil attuleris, ibis, Homere, foras_.
_Accut. Ha! how now man? see'st now any errors?
Nay, this is nothing; he hath but showne
A patterne of himself, what thou shalt finde
In others; search through the Globe of earth,
If there mongst twentie two thou doost find
Honester then himself ile be buried straight.
Now thinke what shame tis to be vilde,
And how vilde to be drunk: look round! where?
Nay looke up, beholde yon Christall pallace.
There sits an ubiquitarie Judge
From whom _arcana nulla abscondita_,
That see's all and at pleasure punisheth;
Thou canst not scape scot free, how cans't thou?
Why, sencelesse man in that sinne will betray
His father, brother, nay, himselfe;[312] feares not
To commit the worst of evils, secure if
Thunder-boults should drop from heaven, dreading
Nor heaven, nor hell; indeede his best state
Is worse then least, prised at highest rate.
_Ser_. This critique is hoarsh [_sic_], unsaverie, and reproofeful;
avoyd him.
_Scil_. Hee speakes well, but I like not his dispraysing of drunkennes;
tis Phisicke to me and it makes me to sleep like a horse with my nose in
the manger. Come, sweet heart.
_Hostis_. Signior, _Philautus_, I pray ye a word. [_Exit_.
_Acut_. How now, whispering? s'foot if they should give our purpose
another crosse point, where are we then? note, note.
_Hostis_. Heere take the key, convey yourself into the Chamber, but in
any case take heede my husband see you not.
_Phy_. Feare not, Gentles, be thanks the guerden of your love till time
give better abilitie. [_Exit_.
_Acut_. Ha! nay s'foot, I must claw out another device, we must not part
so, _Graccus_; prethee keepe the sceane, til I fetch more actors to fill
it fuller.
_Gra_. But prethee, let me partake.
_Acut_. Not till I returne, pardon me. [_Exit_.
_Hostis_. By my troth Gossip, I am halfe sick of a conceit.
_Citty wife_. What, woman? passion of my heart, tell me your greefs.
_Hostis_. I shall goe to court now, and attired like an old Darie woman,
a Ruffe holland of eight groates, three inches deep of the olde cut, and
a hat as far out of fashion as a close placket.
_Cittie wife_. Why I hope your husband is able to maintain you better,
are there not nights as well as daies? does he not sleepe sometimes? has
he no pockets about him, cannot you search his breeches? anything you
find in his breeches is your owne.
_Hostis_. But may a woman doe that with safety?
_Cittie wife_. I, and more, why should she not? why what is his is
yours, what's yours your owne.
_Hostis_. The best hope I have is; you knowe my Guest Mistris _Gettica_,
she has pawnd her Jewels to me already, and this night I look for her
Hood and her tyer, or if the worst chance, I know I can intreate her to
weare my cloathes, and let me goe in her attire to Court.
_Cittie wife_. Or if all faile, you may hire a good suit at a Jewes, or
at a broakers; tis a common thing and speacially among the common sort.
_Enter Host and Constable_.
_Host_. To search through my house! I have no Varlets, no knaves, no
stewd prunes, no she fierie phagies [faces?]; my Chambers are swept, my
sinkes are all scowred, the honest shall come in, the knaves shall goe
by; yet will I, maister Constable, goe search through my house, I care
not a sheepes skin.
_Const_. We are compeld to doe it, mine host; a Gentleman is robd last
night, & we are to search every privy corner.
_Host_. Mine host is true Mettall, a man of reputation, a true
_Holefernes_, he loves juice of grapes, and welcom, maister Constable.
[_Exit_.
_Acut_. _Graccus_, how likst thou this?
_Grac_. Excellent, for now must he needes fall into Constables hands,
and if he have any grace, twil appear in his face, when he shall be
carried through the streete in a white sheet; twill be a good penance
for his fault.
_Hostis_. Now fortune favour that my husband find him not.
_Cittie wife_. Heele be horne mad & never able to indure it: why, woman,
if he had but as much man in him as a Maribone, heele take the burthen
uppon his own necke and never discover you.
_Hostis_. Alas, heere they come, lets away, Gossip.
[_Exeunt_.
_Phy_. _Fortune_,[313] _my foe, why doost, &c_.
_Acut_. Oh fye, thats bitter prethe goe comfort him.
_Grac_. Faith he should be innocent by his garment; Signior, I grieve
for this, but if I can help, looke for it.
_Phy_. I thanke ye, sir.
_Const_. We must contaminate our office, pray regard us as little as ye
can. [_Exit_.
_Accut_. Me thinkes this shold put him quite out of tune now, so let him
goe now to mine Host; theres he and hee, and hee,
Theres shee, and she, ile have a bout with all:
And critiques honneys sweetest mixt with gal.
[_Exeunt_.
[_Scene_ 2.]
_Enter Host, Cornutus_.
_Host_. Goe to, there's knaves in my house! I know of no Varlets, I
have an eye has his sence, a brain that can reach, I have bene cald
Polititian, my wife is my wife. I am her top, i'me her head: if mine
Host say the word, the Mouse[314] shall be dun.
_Corn_. Not so my sweet Host, mum, mum, no words against your wife; he
that meanes to live quiet, to sleep in cleane sheetes, a Pillowe under
his head, his dyet drest cleanely, mum, mum, no words against his wife.
_Host_. Thar't a foole, thar't a foole, bee rulde by mine host, shew thy
self a brave man, of the true seede of _Troy_, a gallant _Agamemnon_;
tha'st a shrew to thy wife, if shee crosse thy brave humors, kicke thy
heele at her huckle[315] bone.
_Enter Accutus_.
_Acut_. Gentles, most happily encountered, how good hap hath turnd two
labours into one! I was addrest to both, and at once I have met both,
sure I must intreate that you must not deny.
_Host_. Say on, my sweete bullie, mine Host will attend thee; speake
roundly to the purpose, and welcome, my bullie.
_Accut_. Marrie thus, there are[316] great revels & shews preparde to
beautifie the nuptials of _Lentulus_, and _Tully_, in which the
Cittizens have the least share; now, would but you and some others that
I shall collect,
Joyne hands with me in some queint jest,
Our shew shall deserve grace, and brave the rest.
_Host_, I have thee, brave spirit, tha'rt of the true seede of _Troy_,
lets be merrie and wise, merrie hearts live long; mine Host, my brave
Host, with his neighbor _Cornutus_ shall bee two of the Maskers, and the
Morrice shall be daunc'd.
_Cor_. Not so, mine Host. I dare not doe so, t'will distemper my wife,
my house will be unquiet; mum, mum, I know the world, well enough.
_Host_. Thou shall goe, saies mine Host, merrie hearts live long;
welcome, bullie! mine Host shall make one, so shall my _Cornutus_, for
if I say the word the mouse shall be dun.
_Enter Bos with Porters_.
_Porters_. Save ye mine Host, heeres a parcell of Corne was directed to
be delivered at your house.
_Host_. What ware, my little Atlas, what ware is it?
2 _Por_. I know not, but i'me sure tis as heavie as a horse and--
1 _Por_. I thinke, tis a barrel of oyle, for it spurg'd at my backe.
_Bos_. It was oyle, for I drew the Tap.
_Grac_. What, _Bos_, what mak'st thou heere?
_Acc_. Oh, _chara_[317] _deum soboles, magnum bovis incrementum_.
_Bos_, art there, there?
_Bos_. As sure as you are there, Signior.
_Grac_. _Bos_, will ye not forsake your Cabbin?
_Bos_. Oh sir, he that has not a tilde house must bee glad of a thatch
house. May I crave a suite of you, signior?
_Grac_. What suit, _Bos_?
_Bos_. What you please, beggars must not chuse.
_Accut_. _Bos_ is growne misticall, hee's too dark.
_Bos_. I speake _Hebrew_ indeede, like _Adam_ and _Eve_, before they fel
to spinning; not a rag.
_Grac_. What, naked, _Bos_?
_Bos_. As ye see, will ye heare my suite, signior?
_Gra_. Drunk, & his cloathes stoln, what theef would do it?
_Bos_. Any theefe, sir, but no true[318] man.
_Gra_. Wel, _Bos_, to obtaine a suit at my handes, and to doe some
pennance for your fault, you shall heere maintaine an argument in the
defence of drunkennes. Mine Host shall heere it, ile be your opponent,
_Acutus_ moderator: wilt thou doe it?
_Host_. A mad merrie grig;[319] all good spirits; wilt thou doe it,
_Bos_?
_Bos_. Ile doo't.
_Grac_. Seate yee, heres my place; now, _Bos_, propound.
_Bos_. Drunkenness is a vertue.
_Gra_. Your proofe.
_Bos_. Good drink is full of vertue,
Now full of good drink is drunke;
_Ergo_, to be drunke is to be vertuous.
_Grac_. I deny it: good drinke is full of vice,
Drinke takes away the sences,
Man that is sencelesse is vitious;
_Ergo_, good drinke is full of vice.
_Bos_. I deny it still: good drinke makes good bloud,
Good blood needes no Barber,
_Ergo_, tis good to drinke good drinke.
_Accu_. Hee holdes ye hard, _Graccus_.
_Bos_. Heeres stronger proofe: drunkennes ingenders with two of the
morrall vertues, and sixe of the lyberall sciences.
_Gra_. Let him proove that and Ile yeeld.
_Host_. A mad spirit, yfaith.
_Bos_. A drunkard is valiant and lyberall; heele outface _Mars_, brave
_Hercules_, and feares not the Devill; then for the most part hee's
liberal, for heele give all the cloathes off his back, though hee weepe
like a Widowe all the day following; nay for the sciences, hee's a good
phisitian, hee vomits himself rarelie and will giue any man else a
vomit, that lookes on him (if he have not a verie good stomacke);
perfect in Geomitrie, for he hangs in the aire by his own conceite, and
feeles no ground; and hee's all musicall, the world turns round with
him, everie face in the painted cloath, shewes like a Fairie dauncing
about him, and everie spar in the house a minstrell.
_Grac_. Good: forward.
_Bos_. Then hee's a good Lawyer, for hees never without a _fierie
facies_, & the least _Capias_ will take his _habeas Corpus_:
besides, another point of a Lawyere, heele raile and rave against his
dearest friends and make the world think they are enemies, when the next
day theile laugh, bee fat and drunk together: and a rare Astronomer, for
he has starres twinckling in his eyes in the darkest night when a wise
man discernes none in the firmament, and will take great paines in the
practise, for lay him on his backe in the open fields over night, and
you shal be sure to finde him there in the morning. Have I sed well or
shall I give you a stronger proofe? An honest man will be as good as his
word: Signior _Graccus_ is an honest man, _Ergo_, I must have a new
suite.
_Accu_. The moderator concludes so, _Graccus_ is overthrown so far as
the damage of the suite, so away with him; come, our fire will out strip
us; mine Host and you wee expect your companies; we must crave absence
awhile better to furnishe our purposes: the time of day to ye.
_Host_. Farwel, my good bullies, mine Host has sed and the mouse is dun.
[_Exeunt_.
[ACT THE FIFTH.
_Scene_ 1.]
_Enter the dumb shew of the marriage, Lentulus, Tully, and the rest.
Enter Hostis in Getticaes apparel, Getic. in hers, & Mistris Dama_.
_Hostis_. Come, Gossip, by my troth, I cannot keepe my hood in frame.
_Cittie wife_. Let me helpe ye, woman.
_Get_. Sir, we shall be troublesome to ye.
_Gra_. Oh urge not that I pray ye.
_Get_. I pray ye what shewe will be heere to night? I have seen the
_Babones_ already, the _Cittie of new Ninivie_[320] and _Julius Caesar_,
acted by the Mammets.
_Grac_. Oh, gentlewoman, those are showes for those places they are used
in; marry, heere you must expect some rare device, as _Diana_ bathing
herself, being discovered or occulated by _Acteon_, he was tranfigured
to a hart, & werried to death with his own dogs.
_Cit. W_. Thats prettie in good truth; & must _Diana_, be naked?
_Gra_. Oh of necessitie, if it be that show.
_Hostis_. And _Acteon_, too? that's prettie ifaith.
_Enter Caesar, Lent: Tully, Teren: Flavia_.
_Caes_. Now, gallant Bridegroomes, and your lovely Brides,
That have ingeminate in endlesse league
Your troth-plight hearts, in your nuptial vowes
Tyed true love knots that nothing can disolve
Till death, that meager pursevant of _Jove_
That Cancels all bonds: we are to [_sic_] clowdie,
My spirit a typtoe, nothing I could chid so much
As winged time, that gins to free a passage
To his current glasse and crops our day-light,
That mistie night will summon us to rest,
Before we feele the burthen of our eylids.
The time is tedious, wants varietie;
But that I may shew what delightful raptures
Combats my soule to see this union,
And with what boundles joy I doe imbrace it,
We heere commaund all prison gates flye ope,
Freeing all prisoners (traitors all except,)
That poore mens prayers may increase our daies,
And writers circle ye with wreathes of bayes.
_Grac_. S'foot, _Accutus_, lets lay hold of this to free our captive.
_Acu_. Content; ile prosecute it.
_Tul_. Dread soveraigne, heaven witnesse with me
With what bended spirit I have attainde
This height of happinesse; and how unwillingly,
Till heavens decree, _Terentias_ love, and your
Faire consents did meet in one to make
Me Lord thereof: nor shall it add one scruple
Of high thought to my lowly minde.
_Tully_ is _Tully_, parentage poore, the best
An Orator, but equall with the least.
_Lent_. Oh no doubt, _Accutus_, be the attempt
My perill, his royall promise is past
In that behalfe. My soveraigne, this Gentlemans
Request takes hold upon your gratious promise
For the releasement of a prisoner.
_Cos_. My promise is irrevocable, take it;
But what is hee and the qualitie of his fault?
_Acut_. A gentleman, may it please your grace; his fault
Suspition, and most likly innocent.
_Caes_. He hath freedome, and I prethee let him be brought hither.
[_Exit[321] Acut_.
Perhaps in his presence we shall win some smiles,
For I have noted oft in a simple braine,
(Only striving to excell it self)
Hath corrupted language, that hath turnd
To pleasant laughter in juditious eares;
Such may this proove, for now me thinkes
Each minute, wanting sport, doth seeme as long
And teadious, as a feaver: but who doth knowe
The true condition of this _Accutus_?
_Tully_. My Leige, of him something my knowledge
Can discover; his spirit is free as aire,
His temper temperate, if ought's uneeven
His spleene waies downe [towards] lenitie: but how
Stird by reproofe? ah,[322] then hee's bitter and like
His name _Acute_, vice to him is a foule eye-sore
And could he stifle it in bitterest words he would,
And who so offends to him is paralell;
He will as soon reproove the Caedar state
As the lowe shrub.
_Enter Acut. and Philaut_.
_Phy_. Nay, good _Accutus_, let me not enter the presence.
_Accut_. Oh sir, I assure you your presence will be most acceptable in
the presence at this time then a farre ritcher present. May it please
your majestie, this is the man.
_Caes_. Let him stand forward.
_Cit. W_. Alas, we shal see nothing; would I were neere; now hee stands
forwards.
_Caes_.[323] What qualities hath he, _Accutus_?
_Accut_. A few good ones (may it please you); he handles a comb wel, a
brush better, and will drink downe a _Dutchman_, & has good skill in
pricksong.
_Hostis_. I, ile be sworne he had, when he was my Guest.
_Acut_. Please it your Maiestie to commaund him?
_Caes_. Oh, we can no otherwise, so well be pleased.
_Phy_. I beseech your Maiestie, I cannot sing.
_Tul_. Nay, your denyall will breed but greater expectation.
_Acut_. I, I, please it your grace to heare? now he begins.
_Phy_. _My love can sing no other song, but still complaines I did her,
&c_. I beseech your Maiestie to let me goe.
_Caes_. With all our heart; _Acutus_, give him libertie.
_Accut_. Goe and for voice sake yee shall sing Ballads in the suburbes,
and if ever heereafter ye chance to purchase a suite, by what your
friends shal leave ye, or the credit of your friend, be not drunk again,
& give him hard words for his labour. [_Exit_.
_Caes_. What, ist effected, _Graccus_?
_Gra_. I have wrought the foole; _Scilicet_ comes alone, & his Lady
keepes the women company.
_Accu_. Tush, weele have a room scantly furnisht with lights that shall
further it.
_Caes_. What sound is that?
_Acut_. I, would ye so fain enter? ile further it: please it your
Maiestie to accept what is not worth acceptance? heere are a company to
Gratulate these nuptials, have prepard a show--I feare not worth the
sight--if you shall deeme to give them the beholding of it.
_Caes_. Else should we wrong their kindnes much. _Accutus_, be it your
care to give them kindest welcome; we cannot recompence their loves
without much beholdings.
_Acut_. Now for the cunning vizarding of them & tis done.
_Hostis_. Now we shall beholde the showes.
_Get_. _Acteon_ and his Dogs, I pray Jupiter.
_Enter the maske and the Song_.
_Chaunt birds in everie bush,
The blackbird and the Thrush,
The chirping Nightingale,
The Mavis and Wagtaile,
The Linnet and the Larke,
Oh how they begin, harke, harke_.
_Scil_. S'lid, there's one bird, I doe not like her voice.
_Sing againe & Exeunt_.
_Hostis_. By my troth, me thought one should be my husband, I could even
discerne his voice through the vizard.
_Cittie wife_. And truely by his head one should be mine.
_Get_. And surely by his eares one should be my sweet heart.
_Caes_. _Accutus_,[324] you have deserved much of our love, but might
we not breake the law of sport so farre as to know to whome our thankes
is due, by seeing them unmaskt and the reason of their habits?
_Acut_. Most willingly, my Soveraigne, ile cause their returne.
_Hostis_. Oh excellent! now we shal see them unmaskt. [_Exit_.
_Get_. In troth, I had good hope the formost had bene _Acteon_, when I
saw his hornes.
_Cit. wif_. Sure the middlemost was my husband, see if he have not a
wen in his forehead.
_Enter Maskers_.
_Host_. God blesse thee, noble _Caesar_, & all these brave bridegroomes,
with their fine little dydoppers, that looke before they sleep to throw
away their maiden heads: I am host of the Hobbie, _Cornut_. is my
neighbour, but wele pull of his bopeeper; thou't know me by my nose, I
am a mad merie grig, come to make thy grace laugh; sir _Scillicet_ my
guest; all true canaries, that love juce of grapes, god blesse thy
Maiestie.
_Acut_. How now, mine Host?
_Host_. Ha, ha, I spie a jest. Ha, ha, _Cornutus, Cornutus_.
_Acut_. Nay, mine host, heeres a moate in your eye to [_sic_].
_Scil_. S'lid, I hope they have not serv'd me so; by the torrid y'are an
asse, a flat Asse, but the best is I know who did it; twas either you or
some body else; by gad, I remember it as wel as if it were done now.
_Host_. T[h]ou shalt answer it to my leige, ile not be so misused, ye
have a wrong element, theres fire in my face, weele mount and ascend.
I'me misused, the mad comrades have plaide the knaves. Justice, my brave
_Caesar_.
_Accut_. Ile answer it, mine Host. Pardon, greate _Caesar_:
The intent was merriment, the reason this:
A true brow bends to see good things a misse,
Men turned to beasts, and such are you mine Host;
Ile show you else, you are a Goate, look here!
Now come you, this is your's, you know it, doe you not?
How old are you? are you not a Goate now?
Shall I teach you how to use a wife and keepe her
In the rank of goodnes? linke her to thy soule,
Devide not _individium_, be her and she thee,
Keepe her from the Serpent, let her not Gad
To everie Gossips congregation;
For there is blushing modestie laide out
And a free rayne to sensual turpitude
Given out at length and lybidinous acts,
Free chat, each giving counsell and sensure
_Capream maritum facere_, such art thou Goate.
Be not so secure. And you, my grand _Cornutus_,
Thou Ram, thou seest thy shame, a pent-house
To thy eye-browes, doost not glorie in it, doost?
Thou'lt lye in a Trucklebed, at thy wives bed feete,
And let her goe a Gossiping while thou sweepest the kitchin.
Look, she shall witnesse[325] against thee.
_Corn_. My wife there? I must be gone then.
_Acut_. Oh fye, betray not thy self so grossely.
_Cor_. I pray ye pardon me.
_Accut_. I dare not.
_Cor_. I sir, but afterward may come after claps. I know the world well
enough.
_Accut_. Mischiefe of the Devill, be man, not all beast, do not
lye,----both sheetes doe not.
_Cit. w_. I warrant this fellow has as many eies as a Lamprey, hee could
never see so farre into the world else.
_Accu_. And thou pure asse, meere asse, thy eares become thee well,
yfaith.
_Scil_. I think you merit to make a Musition of me, you furnish me with
a good eare.
_Accut_. Thou deservdst it, thou't make thy self a Cucckold, be it but
for company sake; thou hast long eares, and thinkest them hornes, thy
onceites cuckolds thee, thou art jealious if thou seest thy wives ----
with another mans palme. And foole, thy state in that sense is the best;
thou art claspt with simplicitie, (a great badge of honestie,) for the
poore foole has pawnd her cloathes to redeeme thy unthriftines; be
jealious no more unlesse thou weare thine eares still, for all shall be
well, and you shall have your puppie againe.
_Get_. Shall I? by my troth, I shall be beholding to you then.
_Acu_. Now to ye all, be firmaments to stars,
Be stars to Firmaments, and, as you are
Splendent, so be fixed, not wandering, nor
Irregular, both keeping course together.
Shine not in pride and gorgeous attire,
When clouds doe faile the pole where thou art fixt.
Obey, cherish, honor, be kinde enough,
But let them weare no changeable stuffe;
Keepe them, as shall become your state,
Comely, and to creepe ere they goe.
Let them partake your joyes and weep with you,
Curle not the snarles that dwell upon these browes.
In all things be you kinde: of all enough,
But let them weare no changeable stuffe.
_Host_. Fore God a mad spirit.
_Hostis_. Will ye beeleeve what such a bisket brain'd fellow as this
saies? he has a mouth like a double cannon, the report will be heard all
ore the towne.
_Cittie wife_. I warrant he ranne mad for love, because no good face
could indure the sight of him, and ever since he railes against women
like a whot-shot.
_Len_. Nay, nay, we must have all friendes,
Jarring discords are no marriage musick;
Throw not Hymen in a cuckstoole; dimple
Your furrowed browes; since all but mirth was ment,
Let us not then conclude in discontent,
Say, shall we all
In friendly straine measure our paces to bed-ward?
_Tul_. Will _Terentia_ follow?
_Teren_. If _Tully_ be her Leader.
_Host_. Good bloods, good spirits, let me answer for all, none speake
but mine Host; hee has his pols, and his aedypols, his times and his
tricks, his quirkes, and his quilits, and his demise and dementions. God
blesse thee, noble _Caesar_, and all these brave spirits! I am Host of
the Hobby, _Cornutus_ is my neighbour, _Graccus_, a mad spirit,
_Accutus_ is my friend, Sir _Scillicet_ is my guest; al mad comrades of
the true seede of _Troy_, that love juce of Grapes; we are all true
friends, merrie harts live long, let Pipers strike up, ile daunce my
cinquepace, cut aloft my brave capers, whirle about my toe, doe my
tricks above ground, ile kisse my sweet hostesse, make a curtesie to thy
grace; God blesse thy Maiestie and the Mouse shall be dun.
_Cor_. Come wife, will you dance?
_Wife_. Ile not daunce, I, must you come to Court to have hornes set on
your head? I could have done that at home.
_Host_. I, I, be rulde at this time; what? for one merrie day wele find
a whole moone at midsommer.
_Daunce_.
_Caes_. Gentles, wee thanke yee all, the night hath spent
His youth, and drowsie _Morpheus_ bids us battell.
We will defie him still, weele keep him out
While we have power to doe it. Sound
Your loudest noise: set forward to our chamber.
_Gra_. Advance your light.
_Caes_. Good rest to all.
_Omn_. God give your grace God-night.
[_Exeunt_.
FINIS.
APPENDIX.
VOL. II. _Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_. In _The Athenaeum_
of January 19, 1884, my friend, Mr. S.L. Lee, pointed out that the first
performance of this remarkable play took place in August, 1619. I had
thrown out the suggestion that the play was produced at Michaelmas,
1619. "I have been fortunate enough," says Mr. Lee, "to meet with
passages in the State Papers that give us positive information on this
point. In two letters from Thomas Locke to Carleton, the English
ambassador at the Hague, I have found accounts of the circumstances
under which the tragedy was first performed in London. The earlier
passage runs as follows:--'The Players heere', writes Locke in London on
August 14th, 1619, 'were bringing of Barnevelt vpon the stage, and had
bestowed a great deale of mony to prepare all things for the purpose,
but at th'instant were prohibited by my Lo: of London' (Domestic State
Papers, James I., vol. cx. No. 18). The play was thus ready on August
14th, 1619, and its performance was hindered by John King, Bishop of
London. The excitement that the Arminian controversy had excited in
England would sufficiently account for the prohibition. But the bishop
did not persist in his obstruction. On August 27th following Locke tells
a different story. His words are: 'Our players haue fownd the meanes to
goe through with the play of Barnevelt, and it hath had many spectators
and receaued applause: yet some say that (according to the proverbe) the
diuill is not so bad as he is painted, and that Barnavelt should
perswade Ledenberg to make away himself (when he came to see him after
he was prisoner) to prevent the discovrie of the plott, and to tell him
that when they were both dead (as though he meant to do the like) they
might sift it out of their ashes, was thought to be a point strayned.
When Barnevelt vnderstood of Ledenberg's death he comforted himself,
which before he refused to do, but when he perceaueth himself to be
arested, then he hath no remedie, but with all speede biddeth his wife
send to the Fr: Ambr: which she did and he spake for him, &c.' (Domestic
State Papers, James I., vol. cx. No. 37). Locke is here refering to
episodes occurring in the play from the third act onwards. In Act III.
sc. iv. Leidenberch is visited in prison by Barnavelt, who bids him 'dye
willingly, dye sodainely and bravely,' and adds, 'So will I: then let
'em sift our Actions from our ashes,'--words that Locke roughly quotes
(see p. 262 of Mr. Bullen's 'Old Plays,' vol. ii.). The first
performance of the tragedy we may thus assign to a day immediately
preceding the 27th of August, 1619. When we remember that Barnavelt was
executed on May 13th of the same year, we have in this play another
striking instance of the literal interpretation given by dramatists of
the day to Hamlet's definition of the purpose of playing."
I have tried hard to decipher the passages that are scored through
(probably by the censor's pen) in the MS., but hitherto I have not had
much success.
Vol. III.--_The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll_.
The stealing of an enchanter's cup at a fairy feast by a peasant is a
favourite subject of fairy mythology. See Ritson's _Fairy Tales_.
_The Distracted Emperor_.
William Tyndale in his _Practyse of Prelates_, 1530, relates the wild
legend of Charlemagne's dotage:--"And beyond all that, the saying is
that in his old age a whore had so bewitched him with a ring and a pearl
in it and I wot not what imagery graven therein, that he went a salt
after her as a dog after a bitch and the dotehead was beside himself and
whole out of his mind: insomuch that when the whore was dead he could
not depart from the dead corpse but caused it to be embalmed and to be
carried with him whithersoever he went, so that all the world wondered
at him; till at the last his lords accombered with carrying her from
place to place and ashamed that so old a man, so great an emperor, and
such a most Christian king, on whom and on whose deeds every man's eyes
were set, should dote on a dead whore, took counsel what should be the
cause: and it was concluded that it must needs be by enchantment. Then
they went unto the coffin, and opened it, and sought and found this ring
on her finger; which one of the lords took off, and put it on his own
finger. When the ring was off, he commanded to bury her, regarding her
no longer. Nevertheless he cast a fantasy unto this lord, and began to
dote as fast on him, so that he might never be out of sight; but where
our Charles was, there must that lord also be; and what Charles did,
that must he be privy unto: until that this lord, perceiving that it
came because of this enchanted ring, for very pain and tediousness took
and cast it into a well at Acon [Aix la Chapelle], in Dutchland. And
after that the ring was in the well, the emperor could never depart from
the town; but in the said place where the ring was cast, though it were
a foul morass, yet he built a goodly monastery in the worship of our
lady, and thither brought relics from whence he could get them, and
pardons to sanctify the place, and to make it more haunted. And there he
lieth, and is a saint, as right is: for he did for Christ's Vicar as
much as the great Turk for Mahomet; but to save his holiness, that he
might be canonised for a saint, they feign that his abiding there so
continually was for the hot-baths' sake which be there." (_Works_, ed.
Parker Society, ii. 265.)
Burton in the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part iii., Sect. 2, Memb. 3,
Subs. 5, briefly narrates the story.
In the first scene of the _Distracted Emperor_, l. 17, for the reading
of the MS. "Can propp thy mynde, fortune's shame upon thee!" we should
undoubtedly substitute "Can propp thy ruynde fortunes? shame upon thee!"
Dr. Reinhold Köhler of Weimar explains once for all the enigmatical
letters at the end of the play:--"The line denotes:
Nella fidelta finiro _la vita_.
For as the letters [Greeek: ph d ph n r] must be read by their Greek
names, so must also the B--better written [Greek: B]--be read by its
Greek name [Greek: Baeta], or by Neo-Greek pronunciation _vita_. With
this meaning the line is given in the work of Etienne Tabourot 'Les
Bizarrures du Seigneur des Accords,' which is said to have appeared
first in 1572 or 1582, in Chap. ii. on 'rébus par lettres.' I only know
the passage by a quotation in an interesting work by Johannes Ochmann
'Zur Kentniss der Rebus,' Oppeln, 1861, p. 18. I have also found our
rebus in a German novel entitled 'The Wonderful Life of the Merry
Hazard,' Cosmopoli, 1706. In this book, p. 282, it is related that a
priest wrote as a souvenir in Hazard's album:--
'Nella [Greek: phd]. [Greek: phnr] la [Greek: B].
As an assurance of his heart
That knows no joking
It said' ... ...
And further (p. 283):--'Hazard knew not what to make of these mere Greek
letters and spent several days in fruitless thoughts, until the priest
let him understand that he was only to pronounce them, then he would
hear from the sounds that it was Italian and meant: Nella fideltá finiró
la vita.' This is the solution of the various hypotheses that have been
set up about the meaning of 'la B.'"
Vol. IV.--_Everie Woman in her Humor_.
P. 312 "_Phy_. Boy!--_Sleepe wayward thoughts_." The words "sleepe
wayward thoughts" are from a song in Dowland's _First Book of Songs or
Airs of four parts_, 1597. In Oliphant's _Musa Madrigalesca_ the song is
given thus:--
"Sleep, wayward thoughts, and rest you with my love;
Let not my love be with my love displeased;
Touch not, proud hands, lest you her anger move,
But pine you with my longings long diseased.
Thus, while she sleeps, I sorrow for her sake;
So sleeps my love--and yet my love doth wake.
But, oh! the fury of my restless fear,
The hidden anguish of my chaste desires;
The glories and the beauties that appear
Between her brows, near Cupid's closed fires!
Sleep, dainty love, while I sigh for thy sake;
So sleeps my love,--and yet my love doth wake."
P.335. "_For I did but kisse her_."--Mr. Ebsworth kindly informs me that
these words are from a song (No. 19) in _The First Booke of Songs and
Ayres_ (1601?) composed by Robert Jones. The song runs:--
"My Mistris sings no other song
But stil complains I did her wrong.
Beleeue her not, it was not so,
I did but kiss her and let her go.
And now she sweares I did, but what,
Nay, nay, I must not tell you that:
And yet I will, it is so sweete,
As teehee tahha when louers meet.
But womens words they are heedlesse,
To tell you more it is needlesse:
I ranne and caught her by the arme
And then I kist her, this was no harme.
But she alas is angrie still,
Which sheweth but a womans will:
She bites the lippe and cries fie, fie,
And kissing sweetly away she doth flie.
Yet sure her lookes bewraies content
And cunningly her bra[w]les are meant:
As louers use to play and sport,
When time and leisure is too short."
On p. 373 Philautus gives another quotation from the same song.
P. 340. "_The fryer was in the_--." Mr. Ebsworth writes:--"This song is
extant among the Pepysian Ballads (the missing word is equivalent to
'Jakes'): original of 'The Friar in the Well.'"
INDEX.
Academic playwrights
Accomodate
Addition
Adorning
Adson's new ayres
Agamemnon in the play
Agrippina
Alablaster ( = alabaster)
_Alchemist_, allusion to the play of the
A life ( = as my life)
Almarado (?)
Ambergreece
Andirons ("The andirons were the ornamental irons on each side of the
hearth in old houses, which were accompanied with small rests for
the ends of the logs."--_Halliwell_.)
Anotomye (For the spelling compare Dekker's Satiromastix--
"because
Mine enemies with sharpe and searching eyes
Looke through and through me, carving my poore labours
Like an _Anatomy_."--_Dramatic Works_, ed. Pearson, i. 197.)
Anything for a quiett lyfe
Aphorisme
Aporn
Apple-squier
Arch-pillers
Argentum potabile
Artillery Garden
Artire
Ascapart
Assoyle
Bables
Babyes
Back side
Bacon, Roger
Baffeld ( = treated ignominiously)
Bainardes Castle
Bale of dice
Bandogs
Banks' horse
Bantam
Barleybreak
Basolas manos
Basses
Bastard
Bavyn
Bayting
Beare a braine
Beetle
Bermudas
Berwick, pacification of
Besognio
Best hand, buy at the
Bezoar
Bilbo mettle
Biron, Maréchal de
Bisseling
Blacke and blewe
Blacke gard
Black Jacks
Bob'd
Bombards
_Bonos nocthus_
Booke ("Williams craves his booke")
Borachos
Bossed
Bottom,
Brass, coinage of
Braule
Braunched
Braves
Bree
Broad cloth, exportation of
Brond
Browne, Sir Thomas, quoted
Browne-bastard
Build a sconce.--See Sconce
Bull (the executioner)
Bullets wrapt in fire
Bullyes
Bumbarrels
Bu'oy
Burnt
Buskes
Busse, the (Hertogenbosch taken in 1629, after a memorable siege, by
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange)
Cage (prison)
Cales
_Calisto_, MS. play composed of scenes from Heywood's _Golden Age and
Silver Age_
Canaries
Cap-case
Carack
Carbonado
Cardeq
Cardicue
Caroach
Carrackes
Carry coals
Case
Cast-of Merlins
Castrell
Catamountaine
Cater-trey
Caull
Cautelous
Censure
Champion
Chapman, George
Choake-peare
Chrisome
Cinque pace
Citie of new Ninivie
Clapdish
Closse contryvances
Coate
Cockerell
Coll
Comparisons are odorous
Consort
Convertite
Cooling carde
Coranta
Cornutus
Covent
Crak't
Crase
Cricket
Cupboard of plate ( = movable side-board)
Cut-beaten-sattyn (Cf. Marlowe's _Faustus_--"_beaten_ silk.")
Cutt-boy
Daborne, Robert
Dametas
Day, John
Dead paies
Debosht ( = debauched)
Deneere
Depart
Detest
Devide
Dewse ace
Diamonds softened by goat's blood
Dicker
Diet-bread
Diety (For the spelling cf. Rowley's _All's Lost by Lust_, 1633,
sig. C. 4:
"Can lust be cal'd love? then let man seeke hell,
For there that fiery _diety_ doth dwell."
Again in the same play, sig. D. 2, we have--
"Descend thy spheare, thou burning _Diety_."
John Stephens in his _Character of a Page_ [_Essayes and Characters_,
1615] speaks of "Cupid's _diety_.")
Dion Cassius, quoted
Diophoratick
Disgestion
Disguest
Division
Doggshead
Door ("Keep the door" = act as a pander)
Doorkeeper
Dorsers
Dowland, John
Draw drie foote
Ducke
Duns the mouse
Dydoppers (dabchicks)
Eare picker ( = barber)
_Edmond Ironside_, MS. chronicle-play
Empresas
Eringoes
Estridge
Exclaimes
Family of Love
Fang
_Fatal Maryage_, MS. play
Father-in-law
Feare no colours
Feeres
Felt locks
Feltham's _Resolves_
Fend ( = make shift with)
Fins (a very doubtful correction for _sins_)
Fisguigge
Flat cap
Flea ( = flay)
Fletcher, John, MS. copy of his _Elder Brother_; his share in the
authorship of _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_
Flewd
Fly boat (see _Addenda_ to vol. i.)
Fool (play on the words _fool_ and _fowl_)
Fooles paradysse
_For I did but kisse her_ (See _Appendix_)
_Fortune my foe_
Fox
Foxd
Free
Fry(?)
Futra
Galleyfoist
German fencer
Getes
Ghosts crying _Vindicta_
Gibb ("A male-cat, now generally applied to one that has been
castrated."--_Halliwell_.)
Giglot
Ginges
Glapthorne, quoted; the play of _The Lady Mother_ identical with
Glapthorne's _Noble Trial_
Glass, patent for making
Gleeke
Gods dynes
Goll
Gondarino
Gossips
Grandoes
Groaning cake
Guarded ( = trimmed)
Gumd taffety that will not fret (See Nares' _Glossary, s_.,
gumm'd velvet.)
Gundelet
Gyges
Haberdine
Hadiwist
Hanging Tune
Hatto, Bishop
Head ("how fell ye out all a head?")
Hell
Hell, another couple in
Hemming
Hesperides ( = the garden of the Hesperides)
Heywood, Thomas, his play of _The Captives_; lines at the end of his
_Royal King and Loyal Subject_ identical with the Address _To the
Reader_ at the end of H. Shirley's _Martyd Souldier_; the play of
_Dick of Devonshire_ tentatively assigned to him; the MS. play
_Calisto_ composed of scenes from his _Golden Age and Silver Age_
Hocas pocas
Holland's Leaguer
Horace, quoted (In the lines
"Now die your pleasures, and the dayes you pray
Your rimes and loves and jests will take away"
are imitated from Horace's _Ars Poetica_, ll. 55-6,--
"Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes;
Eripuere jocos, Venerem, convivia, ludum.")
Hott shotts
Hounslow Heath, Sword-blade manufactory at
Huckle bone
Huffing
Hunts up
Hypostacies
Imbrocados (thrusts over the arm in fencing)
Incontinent
Iron mills
It ( = its)
Jacke
Jiggs
Julius Caesar (puppet-show of)
Juvenal quoted
Keepe
Knight a the post
Knowes me no more then the begger knowes his dish know him as well as
the begger, &c.
Kramis time
Lacrymae
Ladies Downfall
_Lady Mother_, comedy by Glapthorne (identical with _The Noble Trial_,
entered in Stationers' Registers in 1660)
Lanch (unnecessarily altered to _lance_ in the text)
_Lancheinge of the May_, MS. play by W.M. Gent.
Lapwing
Larroones
Lather ( = ladder) (In _Women beware Women_ Middleton plays on the word:--
"_Fab_. When she was invited to an early wedding,
She'd dress her head o'ernight, sponge up herself,
And give her neck three _lathers_.
_Gaar_. Ne'er a halter.")
Laugh and lye downe
Launcepresado
Law, the spider's cobweb
Legerity
Letters of mart
Leveret
Limbo
Line of life
Linstock
Long haire, treatise against (An allusion to William Prynne's tract
_The Unlovelinesse of Love-Lockes_.)
_Loves Changelings Changed_, MS. play founded on Sidney's Arcadia
Low Country Leaguer
Lustique
Machlaean
Macrios
Magical weed
Makarell
Make ready
March beere
Marlins
Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_ quoted
Marriage, restrained by law at certain seasons
Martial quoted
Mary muffe
Masque (MS.) containing a long passage that is found in Chapman's
_Byron's Tragedie_
Massinger, his share in the authorship of _Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt_
Mawmets ( = puppets)
Mawmett ( = Mahomet)
Meath (A curious corruption of _Mentz_. Old printers distorted foreign
names in an extraordinary manner.)
Mechall
Mention ( = dimension)
Mew
Middleton, quotation from his _Family of Love_
Minikin ( = fiddle)
Mistris
Moe
Monthes mind
Mooncalf
More hayre than wit
Morglay
Mosch
Mother
Motion ( = suggestion, proposal)
Mouse
Much (ironical)
Mumchance
Muscadine
Muschatoes ( = moustaches)
Mushrumps ( = mushrooms)
Music played between the acts
Muskadine with an egg
_My Love can sing no other song_ (See _Appendix_)
Mynsatives
Nephewes
Nero, his poems
Newmarket
Nifle
Night rail
Ninivie, motion of
Noddy
Old
Orphant
Outcryes
Outface with a card of ten
Overseene
Owe
Pantables ( = slippers)
Paris Garden ditch
Pavine
Pedlars' French
Peele's _Hunting of Cupid_
Peeterman
Persius quoted
Pharo, by the life of (This oath occurs in _first_ edition, 1601, of
_Every Man in his Humour_: in the revised edition it was altered to
"by the _foot_ of Pharaoh.")
Picardo
Pick-hatch
Pilchers
Pimblico
Pinks
Pioner
Plancher
Planet ("Some Planet striketh him")
Plashd
Platform
Plautus' _Rudens_, plot of Heywood's play _The Captives_ drawn from:
quotations from
Pomander
Poore Jhon
_Poore Man's Comfort_ (play by Robert Daborne), MS. copy of
Portage (Undoubtedly we should read _partage_.)
Pot-gun
Pricke-song
Prick and prayse ( = praise of excellence)
Princkocke
Proclamation that the gentry should reside at their mansions in the
country
Proculus
Prologue spoken by a woman
Protest, affected use of the word (See Dyce's _Shakespeare Glossary_.)
Puckfist
Puerelis
Puisne
Puisnes of the Inne
Pumpion
Pun[to] reversos ( = back-handed strokes in fencing)
Push
Putt a girdle round about the world
Puttock
Quale
Rabbit-suckers
Rabby Roses (The reference is, probably, to the Arabian physician
Rhazes.)
Racke
Rape, punishment for
Rascal
Rats rhymed to death
Refuse me
Regalias
Rest ("our rest we set")
Rest for every slave to pull at
Reverent ( = reverend)
_Richard II_., MS. play
Ride the wild mare (a rustic sport)
Rincht ( = rinsed)
Road
Roaring boys ( = roisterers)
Rochet
Rope-ripes
Rosemary
Rotten hares
Rudelesse vaile
Russeting
Sackerson (In the footnote read H_u_nkes for H_a_nkes.)
Salt, sit beneath the
Sarreverence
Scandalum magnatum
Sconce, build a (I supposed that the expression meant "fix a candle in a
candlestick," but I am indebted to Mr. George L. Apperson for the true
explanation. He writes:--"In Dyche's _Dictionary_ (I quote from ed.
1748) is the verb _sconce_, one of the definitions being--'a cant term
for running up a score at an alehouse or tavern'--with which cf.
Goldsmith's Essays (1765), viii, 'He ran into debt with everybody that
would trust him, and none could _build a sconce_ better than he.' This
explanation seems to me to make Thomas's remark a very characteristic
one." See Grose's _Classical Dictionary of the vulgar tongue_.)
Scottish witch
Scythians
Sentronell ( = centinel)
Seven deadly sinnes, pageant of
Shakespeare imitated; his use of the word road ("This Doll Tearsheet
should be some road") illustrated; mentioned in _Captain Underwit_
Sharpe, play at. (Cf. _Swetnam the Woman Hater_, 1620, sig. G. 3:--
"But cunning Cupid forecast me to recoile:
For when he _plaid at sharpe_ I had the foyle.")
Shellain
Sherryes
Ship, the great
Shipwreck by land
Shirley, James, author of _Captain Underwit_; quoted
Shoulder pack't
Shrovetide, hens thrashed at
Shrove Tuesday, riotous conduct of apprentices on
Sib
Signeor No
_Sister awake! close not your eyes!_
Sister's thread
_Sleep, wayward thoughts_ (See _Appendix_)
Slug
Smell-feast
Snaphance
Sowse
Spanish fig
Sparabiles
Spend
Spenser, imitated
Spurne-point
Stafford's lawe
Stand on poynts
Standage
Stavesucre ( = staves-acre)
Steccadoes ( = stoccadoes, thrusts in fencing)
Stewd prunes
Stigmaticke
Stoope
Striker
Strive curtesies ( = stand upon ceremony)
Suds, in the
Suetonius, quoted
Sure
Surreverence
Tacitus, quoted
Take me with you
Take in
Tarleton
Tarriers
_Tell Tale, the_, (MS. play)
Tent
Termagant
_The Fryer was in the_--(See _Appendix_)
Three Cranes
Thumb, to bite the
Ticktacks
Tickle minikin ( = play on the fiddle)
Timeless ( = untimely)
Tobacco (price of)
Toot
Totter
Totter'd
Traind band
Transportation of ordnance
Trevants. (_Trevant_ is a corruption of _Germ. Traban_ = guard.)
Trewe ( = honest)
Tripennies
Trondling
Trouses
True man
Trundle bed
Trunk-hose
Tub-hunter ( = parasite)
Turnops
_Two Noble Ladyes_. (The plot is partly founded on Calderon's
_Magico Prodigioso_.)
Uncouth
Unicorn's horn
Unreadie
Upper stage
Ure
Varlet
Vaunt-currying
Venetian
Verjuice made by stamping crab-apples
Vie
Vild
Virgil, quoted
Virginal
Virginall Jacks
Warning-peece
Wax, limbes mad[e] out of
Webster's _White Devil_, allusion to
Welshmen proud of their gentility
Wet finger
What make you here?
_What thing is Love?_
Whifflers
Whisht
White sonne
Whytinge mopp
Widgeing
Wildfowl ("Cut up wildfowl"--a slang expression)
Wilding
Windmills at Finsbury (See Stow's _Survey_, b. iii, p. 70, ed. 1720.)
Wit without money
Woad, patents for planting of ("_Woad_ is an herbe brought from the
parts of Tolouse in France, and from Spaine, much used and very
necessary in the dying of wollen cloath."--Cowell's _Interpreter_.)
_Woman Hater, the_
Wonning
Woodcock ( = simpleton)
Zygne ("Untill the zygne be gone below the hart")
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "The tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt. Herdrukt naar de
Vitgrave van A.H. Bullen, met een Inleidung van R. Fruin. 'sGravenhage,
Martinus Nijhoff, 1884," 8vo., pp. xxxiii. 95.
[2] I fondly hoped that vol. iii. was immaculate; but on p. 21, last
line, I find that _spring_ has been misprinted _soring_. On p. 290, l. 3,
_sewe_ is a misprint for _serve_.
[3] It is curious that the next entry refers to a piece by Chettle
called "The Orphanes Tragedy," a title which at once reminds us of the
second plot of Yarington's play.
[4] The actor who took the part of _Truth_ is to be in readiness to
enter: he comes forward presently. In plays printed from play-house
copies, stage-directions are frequently given in advance.
[5] _Timeless_ in the sense of _untimely_ occurs in Marlowe, &c.
[6] Old ed. "attended."
[7] The old form of _guests_.
[8] The word _fairing_ (i.e. a present brought home from a fair) is
explained by the fact that Beech was murdered on Bartholomew eve ("Tis
Friday night besides and Bartholomew eve"). Bartholomew Fair was held
the next day.
[9] A famous tavern in Thames Street.
[10] Proposal.
[11] Nares supposed that the expression _fear no colours_ was "probably
at first a military expression, to fear no enemy. So Shakespeare derives
it [_Twelfth Night_, i. 5], and, though the passage is comic, it is
likely to be right."
[12] "Here on" = hear one.
[13] i.e. what are you doing here so late?
[14] Old ed. "gentleman."
[15] Old ed. "ends."
[16] Mr. Rendle in his interesting account of the _Bankside and the
Globe Playhouse_ (appended to Pt. II. of Mr. Furnivall's edition of
Harrison's _England_) says:--"As to the features of the locality we may
note that it was intersected in all directions with streams, not shown
in the map of the manor, except _Utburne_, the _Outbourne_ possibly; and
that bridges abounded."
[17] Use.
[18] The music between the acts.
[19] Pert youth.
[20] i.e. thread of life. (An expression borrowed from palmistry: _line
of life_ was the name for one of the lines in the hand.)
[21] Rashers.
[22] See note [105] in Vol. III.
[23] Old ed. "safely."
[24] Bushes. In I _Henry IV_., 5, i., we have the adjective _busky_.
Spenser uses the subst. _busket_ (Fr. _bosquet_).
[25] I can make nothing of this word, and suspect we should read "cry."
[26] Quy. flewed (i.e. with large chaps)? Perhaps (as Mr. Fleay
suggests) flocked = flecked.
[27] Old ed. "fathers."
[28] i.e. had I known. "A common exclamation of those who repented of
anything unadvisedly undertaken."--Nares.
[29] 4to. "tell."
[30] Equivalent to a dissyllable (unless we read "damnèd").
[31] Baynard's Castle, below St. Paul's, was built by a certain Baynard
who came in the train of William the Conqueror. It was rebuilt by
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and was finally consumed in the Great Fire
of London.
[32] Perhaps this speech should be printed as verse.
[33] Own.
[34] 4to. "this."
[35] 4to. "This."
[36] 4to. "misguiseth."
[37] _White_ was a term of endearment,--as in the common expression
_white boy_.
[38] 4to. "ease-dropping."
[39] Dwell.
[40] Deformed, ugly (lit. branded with an iron).
[41] Cf. Middleton's _Trick to Catch the Old One_, V. 2:--
"And ne'er start
To be let blood _though sign be at heart_;"
on which passage Dyce remarks that "according to the directions for
bleeding in old almanacs blood was to be taken from particular parts
under particular planets."
[42] Is admitted to "benefit of clergy." Harrison, in his _Description
of England_, tells us that those who "are saved by their bookes and
cleargie, are burned in the left hand, vpon the brawne of the thombe
with an hot iron, so that if they be apprehended againe, that marke
bewraieth them to have beene arraigned of fellonie before, whereby they
are sure at that time to have no mercie. I doo not read that this
custome of saving by the booke is vsed anie where else then in England;
neither doo I find (after much diligent inquirie) what Saxon prince
ordeined that lawe" (Book II. cap. xi.). See the article _Clergie_ in
Cowell's _Interpreter_ (1637).
[43] Brand.
[44] Therefore acted by the Queen of Bohemia's Company who at that time
occupied the Cockpit.--F.G. Fleay.
[45] Some seven or eight years ago I pointed out in _Notes and Queries_
that the idea of this droll incident was taken from a passage of Timaeus
of Tauromenium (see Athenaeus, _Deipnosoph_., ii. 5); but others--as I
afterwards learned--had anticipated my discovery.
[46] This and the following speech are marked for omission in the MS.
[47] The words "Not so, frend," are scored through.
[48] The words "_Frenshe_ monster" are scored through.
[49] "Makarel" = maquerelle (a bawd).
[50] This passage illustrates 2 _Henry IV_., iv. 2:--"This Doll
Tearsheet should be some _road_." See my note on Middleton's _Your Five
Gallants_ (Works, vol. iii. p. 220).
[51] Small boats with narrow sterns (Fr. pinque). Cf. Heywood's _I
Edward IV_.:--"Commend me to blacke _Luce_, bouncing _Bess_, and lusty
_Kate_, and the other pretty morsels of man's flesh. Farewell, _pink_
and pinnace, flibote and carvel, _Turnbull_ and _Spittal_"
(Works, i. 38).
[52] Fast-sailing vessels (Span, filibote).
[53] The words "that ... husband" are scored through in the MS.
[54] This and the two following lines are marked for omission.
[55] The next word is illegible.
[56] A long barge with oars.
[57] "Misreated" = misrated? But the reading of the MS. is not plain.
[58] "Do intend" is a correction in the MS. for "have bespoeke."
[59] Old spelling of _convent_.
[60] Cautious.
[61] This speech is scored through.
[62] The reading of the MS. is not clear.
[63] Again I am doubtful about the reading of the MS.
[64] "A shewer" = ashore.
[65] Some letters are cut away in the MS. Perhaps Mildew was represented
with _Judas-coloured_ (i.e. red) hair; but Raphael presently describes
him as "graye and hoary," and afterwards we are told that he was bald.
[66] Search, probe.
[67] The stage-direction is not marked in the MS.
[68] Track by the scent.
[69] There is no stage-direction in the old copy.
[70] This and the next three lines are marked for omission.
[71] In this soliloquy Heywood closely follows Plautus: see _Rudens_,
i. 3, "Hanccine ego partem capio ob pietatem praecipuam," &c.
[72] Three cancelled lines follow in the MS.:--
"So if you ... any mercy for him,
Oh if there be left any mercy for him
Nowe in these bryny waves made cleane for heaven."
[73] This and the eight following lines appear to be marked for omission
in the MS.
[74] This line is scored through in the MS.
[75] This line is scored through in the MS.
[76] The words "Some faggotts ... cloathes" are scored through in the MS.
[77] "Monthes mind" = strong desire.
[78] So the MS. But I am tempted to read, at Mr. Fleay's suggestion,
"steeples."
[79] Cf. _Rudens_, ii. 1:--
"Cibum captamus e mari: sin eventus non venit,
Neque quidquam captum est piscium, salsi lautique pure,
Domum redimus clanculum, dormimus incoenati."
[80] The words "hence we may ... wretched lyfe" are scored through in
the MS.
[81] In the MS. the words "whither his frend travelled" are scored
through.
[82] In the MS. follow some words that have been cancelled:--"Only,
for ought I can perceive all to no purpose, but understand of no such
people. But what are these things that have slipt us? No countrie shall
slippe me."
[83] "Salvete, fures maritimi." _Rudens_, ii. 2.
[84] Honest.
[85] "_Trach_. Ecquem
Recalvum ac silonem senem, statutum, ventriosum,
Tortis superciliis, contracta fronte, fraudulentum,
Deorum odium atque hominum, malum, mali vitii probrique plenum,
Qui duceret mulierculas duas secum, satis venustas?
_Pisc_. Cum istiusmodi virtutibus operisque natus qui sit,
Eum quidem ad carnificem est aequius quam ad Venerem
commeare."--_Rudens_, ii. 2.
[86] See the Introduction.
[87] In the MS. follow some cancelled words:--"Il fyrst in and see her
bycause I will bee suer tis shee. Oh, _Mercury_, that I had thy winges
tyde to my heeles."
[88] "Who ever lov'd," &c.--A well-known line from Marlowe's _Hero and
Leander_.
[89] There is no stage-direction in the MS.
[90] Adulterous.--So Heywood in _The English Traveller_, iii. 1,--
"Pollute the Nuptiall bed with _Michall_ [i.e. mechal] sinne." Again
in Heywood's _Rape of Lucreece_, "Men call in witness of your _mechall_
sin."
[91] This speech is scored through in the MS.
[92] "Whytinge mopp" = young whiting. The term was often applied to a
girl. See Nares' _Glossary_.
[93] In the MS. follow two lines that have been scored through:--
"And not deteine, for feare t'bee to my cost,
Though both my kisse and all my paynes be lost."
[94] _Widgeon_ (like _woodcock_) is a term for a simpleton.
[95] In the MS. follow two lines which have been so effectually scored
through that I can only read an occasional word.
[96] In the MS. follows a cancelled passage:--
"_Mild_ Had not thy greater fraught bin shipt with myne
We had never been oversett.
_Sarl_. I rather think
Had ... when fyrst the shippe began to dance
... thrown all the curst Lading over-board
Wee had still light and tight."
[97] The word _burn_ is frequently used in an indelicate sense.
[98] Keys of the virginal (a musical instrument resembling a spinnet).
[99] This speech is scored through in the MS.
[100] The words "Heeres sweet stuffe!" are scored through.
[101] This line is scored through.
[102] Kill.
[103] In the left-hand margin of the MS. is a stage-direction in
advance:--"_Fellowes ready. Palestra, Scribonia, with Godfrey, Mildew,
Sarly_."
[104] Not marked in the MS.
[105] MS. "when."
[106] In the left-hand margin of the MS. is a note:--"_Gib: Stage
Taylor_."
[107] "Too arch-pillers" = two desperate ruffians. "Pill" = ravage,
plunder.
[108] "_Il a esté au festin de Martin baston_, he hath had a triall in
_Stafford Court_, or hath received Jacke Drums intertainment."
--_Colgrave_.
[109] From this point to the entrance of Raphael the dialogue is scored
through in the MS.
[110] The reading of the MS. is doubtful.
[111] "Guarded" = trimmed, ornamented.
[112] This speech is scored through in the MS.
[113] Not marked in the MS.
[114] Not marked in the MS.
[115] "Anythinge for a quiett lyfe"--a proverbial expression: the title
of one of Middleton's plays.
[116] So I read at a venture. The MS. appears to give "Inseinge."
[117] Not marked in the MS. In the right-hand margin is written "clere,"
i.e., clear the stage for the next act.
[118] A _fisgig_ was a sort of harpoon.
[119] "Poore Jhon" = inferior hake.
[120] This and the two following speeches are marked for omission in
the MS.
[121] A nickname (from the apostle Peter) for a fisherman.
[122] A small box or portmanteau.
[123] Owns.
[124] This speech and the next are marked for omission.
[125] Fish-baskets.
[126] The rest of the speech is marked for omission.
[127] Bawd.
[128] i.e., _Exeunt Palestra, Scribonia, and Godfrey: manet Ashburne_.
[129] In the MS. follows some conversation which has been scored
through:--
"_Fisher_. Yes, syrrahe, and thy mayster.
_Clown_. Then I have nothing at this tyme to do with thee.
_Fisher_. Marry, a good motion: farewell and bee hangde.
_Clown_. Wee are not so easly parted.--Is this your man?"
[130] The following passage has been scored through in the MS.:
"[_Ashb_.] Say, whats the stryfe?
_Clown_. Marry, who fyrst shall speake.
_Fisher_. Thats I.
_Clown_. I appeale then to the curtesy due to a stranger.
_Fisher_. And I to the right belonging to a ... what ere he says."
[131] The MS. is broken away.
[132] Penny.
[133] The date has been scored through in the MS.: the number after "6"
has been turned into "3," but seems to have been originally "0." In the
margin "1530" is given as a correction.
[134] Not marked in the MS.
[135] This dialogue between Ashburne and the Clown is closely imitated
from _Rudens_, iv. 6.
[136] The words "Nowe ... scurvy tune" are scored through.
[137] Old form of _digest_.
[138] The words "will for mee" are a correction in the MS. for "at this
tyme."
[139] The MS. has:--
"Hee's now where hee's in Comons, wee ... ...
Heare on this seate (nay hold your head up, _Jhon_,
Lyke a goodd boy), freely discharged our selfes."
In the first line "Hee's now where hee's" has been altered to "Hee's
where hee is," and the two next lines have been cancelled.
[140] The reader will remember a somewhat similar incident in the _Jew
of Malta_, iv. 3, and in a well-known tale of the _Arabian Nights_.
[141] In the left-hand margin of the MS. is written "_Fry: Jo:
nod_."--i.e., Friar John totters from the blow. Beneath "nod" is the
word "arras," which has been scored through.
[142] i.e., I have't.
[143] The exclamation of old Hieronimo's ghost in Kyd's _Spanish
Tragedy_. Cf. Induction to _Warning for Fair Women_:--
"Then, too, a filthy whining ghost
Lapt in some foul sheet, or a leather pilch,
Comes screaming like a pig half stick'd,
And cries, _Vindicta_!--Revenge, Revenge!"
[144] "_Bases_, s.pl.--A kind of embroidered mantle which hung down from
the middle to about the knees, or lower, worn by knights on
horseback."--_Nares_.
[145] In the right-hand margin is written "_Fact: Gibson_"--Gibson being
the name of the actor who took the Factor's part.
[146] Not marked in the MS.
[147] _Quart d'écu_--a fourth part of a crown.
[148] A quibble on the _aurum potabile_ of the old pharmacists.
--F.G. Fleay.
[149] In the MS. is a marginal note, "_Stagekeepers as a guard_."
[150] Sarleboyes' speeches are scored through in the MS.
[151] This speech is scored through.
[152] Mopper of a vessel.
[153] A not uncommon corruption of _Mahomet_.
[154] "Sowse" = (1) halfpenny (Fr. sou), (2) blow. In the second sense
the word is not uncommonly found; in the first sense it occurs in the
ballad of _The Red Squair_--
"It greivit him sair that day I trow
With Sir John Hinrome of Schipsydehouse,
For cause we were not men enow
He counted us not worth a _souse_."
We have this word again on p. 208, "Not a _sowse_ less then a full
thousand crownes."
[155] Prison.
[156] A quibble. "Points" were the tags which held up the breeches.
[157] This line is scored through.
[158] Old form of _convert_.
[159] _Analytical Index to the Series of Records known as the
Remembrancia_ (printed for the Corporation of London in 1878),
pp. 215-16.
[160] See _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1611-18, p. 207.
[161] See Gilford's note on _The Devil is an Ass_, ii. 1;
_Remembrancia_, p. 43; _Cal. of State Papers, Domestic_, 1611-18.
[162] Quy. "true"?
[163] Esteem, weigh.
[164] The old ed. gives: "Ile trie your courage--draw." The last word
was undoubtedly intended for a stage-direction.
[165] Equivalent, as frequently, to a dissyllable.
[166] Exclamations.
[167] Vile.
[168] Not marked in the old ed.
[169] Old ed. "fate."
[170] Old ed. "brought."
[171] Old ed. "wood."--"_Anno 35 Reginae (Eliz.)_ ... A License to
_William Aber_, To Sow _Six Hundred_ Acres of Ground with _Oade_ ... A
Patent to _Valentise Harris_, To Sow _Six Hundred_ Acres of Ground with
_Woade_."--Townshend's _Historical Collections_, 1680, p. 245.
[172] See my remarks in the Introduction.
[173] So the old ed. The metrical harshness may be avoided by reading
"And by this sword and crownet have resign'd" (or "And by this coronet
and sword resign").
[174] Owns.
[175] Old ed. "Gorges."--I suppose there is an allusion, which must not
be taken too literally, to the story of Candaules and Gyges (see
Herodotus, lib. i. 8).
[176] This is the unintelligible reading of the old ed.--"This action,
_sure_, breeds" &c., would be hardly satisfactory.
[177] Lucian tells a story of a youth who fell in love with Praxiteles'
statue of Aphrodite: see _Imagines_, § 4. He tells the story more
elaborately in his _Amores_.
[178] Concert.
[179] Old ed. "denie."
[180] Before this line the old ed. gives the prefix "_Val_." Perhaps a
speech of Montano has dropped out.
[181] Old ed. "although no a kin."
[182] Old ed. "_light_ fall soft." Probably the poet originally wrote
"light," and afterwards wrote "fall" above as a correction (or "light"
may have been caught by the printer's eye from the next line).
[183] _Doorkeeper_ was a common term for a pander.
[184] Skin.
[185] Old ed. "crowne."--My correction restores the sense and gives a
tolerable rhyme to "heare." Cf. p. 262.
"And in this Chaire, prepared for a Duke,
Sit, my bright Dutchesse."
[186] Old ed. "_Exit_."
[187] Old ed. "have her honour."
[188] In the Parliament of 1601 Sir Walter Raleigh and others vigorously
denounced the exportation of ordnance. See Townshend's _Historical
Collections_, 1680, pp. 291-5.
[189] "Letters of Mart" = letters of marque.
[190] Old ed. "now."
[191] Old ed. "when." ("Then" = than.)
[192] Old ed. "good."
[193] Old ed. "this dissemblance."
[194] See note [50].
[195] Old ed. "esteem'd."
[196] "Open ... palpable ... grosse ... mountaine." The writer had
surely in his mind Prince Hal's words to Falstaff:--"These lies are
like their father that begets them: _gross_ as a _mountain, open,
palpable_."
[197] Old ed. "Of Lenos mathrens." I have no doubt that my correction
restores the true reading. Cf. above "_Panders_ and _Parasites_ sit in
the places," &c.
[198] Quy. "_On_, friends, to warre"? Perhaps something has dropped
out--"_Urge all_ our friends to warre."
[199] Old ed. "dishonour'd."
[200] Not marked in old ed.
[201] This speech is not very intelligible, but I can only mend it by
violent changes.
[202] Old ed. "payes all."
[203] Old ed. "of this spatious play."
[204] Crack.
[205] Old ed. "sould."
[206] Old ed. "are."
[207] Old ed. "warre."
[208] Old ed. "free."
[209] Old ed. "And."
[210] Old ed. "Then."
[211] See remarks in the Introduction.
[212] Old ed. "a jemme."
[213] Quy. "creep" (for the sake of the rhyme)?
[214] Gondola.
[215] Old ed. "recover'd."
[216] "_Timelesse_ lives taken away" = lives cut short by an _untimely_
stroke.
[217] Old ed. "prisoned."
[218] Old ed. "playes."
[219] In _As You Like It_, Rosalind, speaking the Epilogue, justifies
the novelty of the proceeding:--"It is not the fashion to see the lady
the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the
prologue."--Flavia is the earliest example, so far as I know, of a
lady-prologue.
[220] Old ed. "Endeauours."
[221] Old ed. "smile." The emendation was suggested to me by Mr. Fleay.
[222] The old ed. gives "they are monsters _Graccus_, they call them,"
assigning Graccus' speech to Acutus.
[223] Old ed. "Of."
[224] The old form of _bankrupt_.
[225] _Canaries_ was the name of a lively dance.
[226] A skeleton. Perhaps we should read "an atomy."
[227] Not marked in old ed.
[228] Not marked in old ed.
[229] Old ed. "Sernulas."
[230] Old ed. "Srnu."
[231] Old ed. "Here's none but only I, sing." I take the word _sing_ to
be a stage-direction, and the preceding words to be part of a song.
[232] "More hayre than wit"--a proverbial expression. Ray gives the
proverb, "Bush natural, more hair than wit."
[233] Old ed. "Least."
[234] Old ed. "_Phy_." Scilicet is offering a second ducket to his
instructor.
[235] The rest of the speech is given to "_Seru_." in the old ed.
[236] A sweet Spanish wine.
[237] Not marked in old ed.
[238] See note [63] in vol. II.
[239] Old ed. "suret."
[240] An allusion to the religious sect called _The Family of Love_.
[241] Not marked in old ed.
[242] Not marked in old ed.
[243] The old ed. gives "burbarrels." The allusion is to the
_bum-rolls_,--stuffed cushions worn by women to make their petticoats
swell out. Cf. Stephen Gosson's _Pleasant Quippes_--
"If _barreld bums_ were full of ale,
They well might serve Tom Tapsters turne."
[244] Old ed. "women."
[245] Not marked in old ed.
[246] Breeches that came below the garters.
[247] I am unable to mend this passage.
[248] Old ed. "looke."--Perhaps we should read "With him--ah, looke!
looke!--the bright," &c.
[249] Old ed. "if they twang."
[250] Not marked in old ed.
[251] This is Mr. Fleay's correction for old ed.'s "Conceale."
[252] Old ed. "In on the scale."
[253] Not marked in old ed.
[254] See note [85] in vol. II.
[255] I suspect that we should read "my humour," and that the rest of
the speech should be given to Flavia.
[256] The small bowl--the "Jack"--at which the players aimed in the game
of bowls.
[257] Old ed. "_Scil_."
[258] Old ed. "_Sernulus_."
[259] An allusion to the _Sententiae Pueriles_ of Dionysius Cato, a
famous old school-book.
[260] Not marked in old ed.
[261] Old ed. "minited."
[262] The first words of a charming song printed in Bateson's
_Madrigals_, 1604. Here is the song as I find it printed in the
excellent collection of _Rare Poems_ (1883) edited by my honoured
friend, Mr. W.J. Linton:--
"Sister, awake! close not your eyes!
The day its light discloses:
And the bright Morning doth arise
Out of her bed of roses.
See! the clear Sun, the world's bright eye,
In at our window peeping!
Lo, how he blusheth to espy
Us idle wenches sleeping.
Therefore, awake, make haste, I say,
And let us without staying,
All in our gowns of green so gay
Into the park a-maying."
[263] "A sort of game played with cards or dice. Silence seems to have
been essential at it; whence its name. Used in later times as a kind of
proverbial term for being silent."--_Nares_.
[264] Embrace.
[265] Cf. _Titus Andronicus_, v. 1, "As true a dog as ever fought at
head." In bear-bating dogs were incited by the cry _To head, to head_!
See my edition of Marlowe, iii. 241.
[266] Artery.
[267] The sword of Sir Bevis of Southampton; hence a general term for a
sword.
[268] Lint applied to wounds.
[269] The mixture of muscadine and eggs was esteemed a powerful
provocative.
[270] A corruption of _Span_. "buenos noches"--good night.
[271] Old ed. "_Philantus_."
[272] Old ed. "earely."
[273] Bellafront in Pt. II. of _The Honest Whore_, iv. 1, says--
"I, though with face mask'd, could not scape the _hem_."
[274] Old ed. "let."
[275] Old form of _pish_.
[276] _Guard_ = fringe. The coats of Fools were _guarded_.
[277] "Till death us _de_part"--so the form stood in the
marriage-service; now modernised to "do part."
[278] Quean.
[279] Not marked in old ed.
[280] Not marked in old ed.
[281] I have added the bracketed words; the sense requires them.
[282] A musical term.--"The running a simple strain into a great variety
of shorter notes to the same modulation."--_Nares_.
[283] Not marked in old ed.
[284] Old ed. "Ye faith."
[285] Old ed. "valley."
[286] Old ed. "_Flau_."
[287] Old ed. "_Tul_."
[288] "Fortune, my foe, why doest thou frown on me?" is the first line
of an old ballad.
[289] Not marked in old ed.
[290] Old ed. "Tis."
[291] "Unreadie" = undressed.
[292] To the christening.
[293] There is no stage-direction in the old ed.
[294] Old ed. "foole."
[295] "Duns the mouse"--a proverbial expression. See Dyce's _Shakespeare
Glossary_.
[296] Old ed. "a close."
[297] Not marked in old ed.
[298] i.e. _bezzling_, tippling.
[299] "Well nigh whittled, almost drunke, somewhat _overseen_."
--_Colgrave_.
[300] Not marked in old ed.
[301] Contracted.
[302] An allusion to the proverbial expression, _Wit without money_.
[303] An old form of "apron."
[304] The citizens of London continued to wear flat caps (and
encountered much ridicule in consequence) long after they were generally
disused.
[305] Not marked in old ed.
[306] Not marked in old ed.
[307] Old form of _digestion_.
[308] Old ed. "Philantus."
[309] More.
[310] Old ed. "_Phylantus."
[311] Quy. "and, swilling those bowels [bowls], Death did," &c.?
[312] Old ed. "him himselfe."
[313] See note [288].--In old ed. the words are given to _Grac_.
[314] See note [295].
[315] Hip-bone.
[316] Old ed. "are are."
[317] Virg. _Ecls_. iv. 1. 49. _Bovis_ is of course an intentional
misquotation for _Jovis_.
[318] Honest.
[319] Old ed. "prig"; but on p. 375 we have "a mad merie grig."
[320] The _City of Niniveh_ and _Julius Caesar_ were famous
puppet-shows.
[321] Not marked in old ed.
[322] Old ed. "and."
[323] Old ed. "_Cittie Wife_."
[324] This speech is printed as verse in the old ed.
[325] Old ed. "witnesses."