When Simon Eyre is appointed sheriff, his wife immediately inquires for a ‘Fardingale-maker’ and a ‘French-hood maker’ (Dekker, Wks. 1. 39). Strutt says that French hoods were out of fashion by the middle of the 17th century (Antiq. 3. 93). See the frequent references to this article of apparel in Bart. Fair. It is interesting to notice that the hoods are worn at dinner.

1. 1. 106, 7. The readings of ‘Whalley and Gifford are distinctly inferior to the original.

1. 1. 112, 3 Car-men Are got into the yellow starch. Starch was introduced in the age of Elizabeth to meet the needs of the huge Spanish ruff which had come into favor some years before (see Soc. Eng., p. 386). It was frequently colored. In Middleton and Rowley’s World Tossed at Tennis five different colored starches are personified. Stubbes says that it was ‘of all collours and hues.’ Yellow starch must have come into fashion not long before this play was acted, for in the Owle’s Allmanacke, published in 1618, it is said: ‘Since yellow bandes and saffroned chaperoones came vp, is not above two yeeres past.’ This, however, is not to be taken literally, for the execution of Mrs. Turner took place Nov. 14, 1615. Of her we read in Howell’s Letters 1. 2: ‘Mistress Turner, the first inventress of yellow Starch, was executed in a Cobweb Lawn Ruff of that colour at Tyburn; and with her I believe that yellow Starch, which so much disfigured our Nation, and rendered them so ridiculous and fantastic, will receive its Funeral.’ Sir S. D’Ewes (Autobiog. 1. 69) says that from that day it did, indeed, grow ‘generally to be detested and disused.’ The Vision of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1616 (quoted in Amos, Great Oyer, p. 50) speaks of

D’Ewes also in describing the procession of King James from Whitehall to Westminster, Jan. 30, 1620, says that the king saw one window ‘full of gentlewomen or ladies, all in yellow bandes,’ whereupon he called out ‘A pox take yee,’ and they all withdrew in shame. In The Parson’s Wedding, printed 1664, O. Pl. 11. 498, it is spoken of as out of fashion. Yellow starch is mentioned again in 5. 8. 74. 5, and a ballad of ‘goose-green starch and the devil’ is mentioned in Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 393. Similarly, Nash speaks in Pierce Pennilesse, Wks. 2. 44. of a ‘Ballet of Blue starch and poaking stick.’ See also Dodsley’s note on Albumazar, O. Pl. 7. 132.

1. 1. 113, 4 Chimney-sweepers To their tabacco. See the quotation from Riche in the last note and note 5. 8. 71.

1. 1. 114, 5 Hum, Meath, and Obarni. Hum is defined B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hum or Humming Liquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah. It is mentioned in Fletcher’s Wild Goose Chase 2. 3 and Heywood’s Drunkard. p. 48. Meath or mead is still made in England. It was a favorite drink in the Middle Ages, and consisted of a mixture of honey and water with the addition of a ferment. Harrison, Description of England, ed. Furnivall, 1. 161, thus describes it: ‘There is a kind of swish swash made also in Essex, and diuerse other places, with honicombs and water, which the [homelie] countrie wiues, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call mead, verie good in mine opinion for such as loue to be loose bodied [at large, or a little eased of the cough,] otherwise it differeth so much from the true metheglin, as chalke from cheese.’

1. 1. 127 Garters and roses. Howes, p. 1039, says that ‘at this day (1631) men of meane rancke weare Garters, and shooe Roses, of more than fiue pound price.’ Massinger, in the City Madam, Wks., p. 334, speaks of ‘roses worth a family.’ Cf. also John Taylor’s Works, 1630 (quoted in Hist. Brit. Cost.):

1. 1. 128 Embroydred stockings. ‘Then haue they nether-stocks to these gay hosen, not of cloth (though neuer so fine) for that is thought to base, but of Iarnsey worsted, silk, thred, and such like, or els at the least of the finest yarn that can be, and so curiouslye knit with open seam down the leg, with quirks and clocks about the ancles, and sometime (haply) interlaced with gold or siluer threds, as is wonderful to behold.’—Stubbes, Anat., Part 1, p. 57. The selling of stockings was a separate trade at this time, and great attention was paid to this article of clothing. Silk stockings are frequently mentioned by the dramatists. Cf. Stephen Gosson, Pleasant Quippes:

The pawnbrokers were cordially hated in Jonson’s time. Their quarter was Houndsditch. Stow says: ‘there are crept in among them [the inhabitants of Houndsditch] a base kinde of vermine, wel-deserving to bee ranked and numbred with them, whom our old Prophet and Countryman, Gyldas, called Ætatis atramentum, the black discredit of the Age, and of place where they are suffered to live.... These men, or rather monsters in the shape of men, professe to live by lending, and yet will lend nothing but upon pawnes;’ etc.

Nash speaks of them in a similar strain: ‘Fruits shall be greatly eaten with Catterpillers; as Brokers, Farmers and Flatterers, which feeding on the sweate of other mens browes, shall greatlye hinder the beautye of the spring.’—Prognostication, Wks.2. 145. ‘They shall crie out against brokers, as Jeremy did against false prophets.’ Ibid. 2. 162.

1. 1. 148 as you make your soone at nights relation. Cf. Dekker, Satiromastix, Wks. 1. 187: ‘Shee’l be a late sturrer soone at night sir,’ and ibid. 223:

1. 2. 1 ff. I, they doe, now, etc. ‘Compare this exquisite piece of sense, satire, and sound philosophy in 1616 with Sir M. Hale’s speech from the bench in a trial of a witch many years afterwards.’—Coleridge, Notes, p. 280.

1. 2. 1 Bretnor. An almanac maker (fl. 1607-1618). A list of his works, compiled from the catalogue of the British Museum, is given in the DNB. He is mentioned twice by Middleton:

‘Chough. I’ll not be married to-day, Trimtram: hast e’er an almanac about thee? this is the nineteenth of August, look what day of the month ’tis.

Fleay identifies him with Norbret, one of the astrologers in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Rollo, Duke of Normandy.

1. 2. 2 Gresham. A pretended astrologer, contemporary with Forman, and said to be one of the associates of the infamous Countess of Essex and Mrs. Turner in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Arthur Wilson mentions him in The Life of James I., p. 70:

He is mentioned twice in Spark’s Narrative History of King James, Somer’s Tracts 2. 275: ‘Dr. Forman being dead, Mrs. Turner wanted one to assist her; whereupon, at the countesses coming to London, one Gresham was nominated to be entertained in this businesse, and, in processe of time, was wholly interested in it; this man was had in suspition to have had a hand in the Gunpowder plot, he wrote so near it in his almanack; but, without all question, he was a very skilful man in the mathematicks, and, in his latter time, in witchcraft, as was suspected, and therefore the fitter to bee imployed in those practises, which, as they were devilish, so the devil had a hand in them.’

Ibid. 287: ‘Now Gresham growing into years, having spent much time in many foule practises to accomplish those things at this time, gathers all his babies together, viz. pictures in lead, in wax, in plates of gold, of naked men and women with crosses, crucifixes, and other implements, wrapping them all up together in a scarfe, crossed every letter in the sacred word Trinity, crossed these things very holily delivered into the hands of one Weston to bee hid in the earth that no man might find them, and so in Thames-street having finished his evill times he died, leaving behind him a man and a maid, one hanged for a witch, and the other for a thief very shortly after.’

In the ‘Heads of Charges against Robert, Earl of Somerset’, drawn up by Lord Bacon, we read: ‘That the countess laboured Forman and Gresham to inforce the Queen by witchcraft to favour the countess’ (Howell’s State Trials 2. 966). To this King James replied in an ‘Apostyle,’ Nothing to Somerset. This exhausts the references to Gresham that I have been able to find. See note on Savory, 1. 2. 3.

1. 2. 2. Fore-man. Simon Foreman, or Forman (1552-1611) was the most famous of the group of quacks here mentioned. He studied at Oxford, 1573-1578, and in 1579 began his career as a necromancer. He claimed the power to discover lost treasure, and was especially successful in his dealings with women. A detailed account of his life is given in the DNB. and a short but interesting sketch in Social England 4. 87. The chief sources are Wm. Lilly’s History and a diary from 1564 to 1602, with an account of Forman’s early life, published by Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps for the Camden Soc., 1843.

He is mentioned again by Jonson in Silent Woman, Wks. 3. 413: ‘Daup. I would say, thou hadst the best philtre in the world, and couldst do more than Madam Medea, or Doctor Foreman.’ In Sir Thomas Overbury’s Vision (Harl. Ms., vol. 7, quoted in D’Ewes’ Autobiog., p. 89) he is spoken of as ‘that fiend in human shape.’

1. 2. 3 Francklin. Francklin was an apothecary, and procured the poison for Mrs. Turner (see Amos, Great Oyer. p. 97). He was one of the three persons executed with Mrs. Turner. Arthur Wilson, in his Life of James I. (p. 70), describes him as ‘a swarthy, sallow, crooked-backt fellow, who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came.’ See also Somer’s Tracts 2. 287. The poem already quoted furnishes a description of Francklin:

1. 2. 3 Fiske. ‘In this year 1633, I became acquainted with Nicholas Fiske, licentiate in physick, who was borne in Suffolk, near Framingham [Framlingham] Castle, of very good parentage.... He was a person very studious, laborious, and of good apprehension.... He was exquisitely skilful in the art of directions upon nativities, and had a good genius in performing judgment thereupon.... He died about the seventy-eighth year of his age, poor.’—Lilly, Hist., p. 42 f.

Fiske appears as La Fiske in Rollo, Duke of Normandy, and is also mentioned by Butler, Hudibr., Part 2, Cant. 3. 403:

1. 2. 3 Sauory. ‘And therefore, she fearing that her lord would seek some public or private revenge against her, by the advice of the before-mentioned Mrs. Turner, consulted and practised with Doctor Forman and Doctor Savory, two conjurers, about the poisoning of him.’—D’Ewes, Autobiog. 1. 88. 9.

He was employed after the sudden death of Dr. Forman. Wright (Sorcery and Magic, p. 228) says that the name is written Lavoire in some manuscripts. ‘Mrs. Turner also confessed, that Dr. Savories was used in succession, after Forman, and practised many sorceries upon the Earle of Essex his person.’—Spark, Narrative History, Somer’s Tracts 2. 333.

In the Calendar of State Papers the name of ‘Savery’ appears four times. Under date of Oct. 16, 1615, we find Dr. Savery examined on a charge of ‘spreading Popish Books.’ ‘Savery pretends to be a doctor, but is probably a conjurer.’ And again under the same date he is interrogated as to his relations with Mrs. Turner and Forman. Under Oct. 24 he replies to Coke. ‘Oct. ?’ we find Dr. Savery questioned as to his ‘predictions of troubles and alterations in Court.’ This is the last mention of him.

Just what connection Gresham and Savory had with the Overbury plot is a difficult matter to determine. Both are spoken of as following Forman immediately, and of neither is any successor mentioned except the actual poisoner, Franklin. It seems probable that Gresham was the first to be employed after Forman, and that his own speedy death led to the selection of Savory. How the latter managed to escape a more serious implication in the trial it is difficult to conceive.

1. 2. 6-9 christalls, ... characters. As in other fields, Jonson is well versed in magic lore. Lumps of crystal were one of the regular means of raising a demon. Bk. 15, Ch. 16 of Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, is entitled: ‘To make a spirit appear in a christall’, and Ch. 12 shows ‘How to enclose a spirit in a christall stone.’

Lilly (History, p. 78) speaks of the efficacy of ‘a constellated ring’ in sickness, and they were doubtless considered effective in more sinister dealings. Jonson has already spoken of the devil being carried in a thumb-ring (see note P. 6).

Charms were usually written on parchment. In Barrett’s Magus, Bk. 2, Pt. 3. 109, we read that the pentacle should be drawn ‘upon parchment made of a kid-skin, or virgin, or pure clean white paper.’

That parts of the human body belonged to the sorcerer’s paraphernalia is shown by the Statute 1 Jac. I. c. xii, which contains a clause forbidding conjurors to ‘take up any dead man woman or child out of his her or their grave ... or the skin bone or any other parte of any dead person, to be imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte Sorcerie Charme or Inchantment.’

The wing of the raven, as a bird of ill omen, may be an invention of Jonson’s own. The lighting of candles within the magic circle is mentioned below (note 1. 2. 26).

Most powerful of all was the pentacle, of which Scot’s Discovery (Ap. II, p. 533, 4) furnishes an elaborate description. This figure was used by the Pythagorean school as their seal, and is equivalent to the pentagram or five-pointed star (see CD.).

Dekker (Wks. 2. 200) connects it with the Periapt as a ‘potent charm,’ and Marlowe speaks of it in Hero and Leander, Wks. 3. 45:

It will be remembered that the inscription of a pentagram on the threshold prevents the escape of Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust. The editors explain its potency as due to the fact that it is resolvable into three triangles, and is thus a triple sign of the Trinity.

Cunningham says that the pentacle ‘when delineated upon the body of a man was supposed to point out the five wounds of the Saviour.’ W. J. Thoms (Anecdotes, Camden Soc., 1839, p. 97) speaks of its presence in the western window of the southern aisle of Westminster Abbey, an indication that the monks were versed in occult science.

1. 2. 21 If they be not. Gifford refers to Chrysippus, De Divinatione, Lib. 1. § 71: ‘This is the very syllogism by which that acute philosopher triumphantly proved the reality of augury.’

1. 2. 22 Why, are there lawes against ’hem? It was found necessary in 1541 to pass an act (33 Hen. VIII. c. 8) by which—‘it shall be felony to practise, or cause to be practised conjuration, witchcrafte, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money: or to consume any person in his body, members or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for the despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross; or to declare where goods stolen be.’ Another law was passed 1 Edward VI. c. 12 (1547). 5 Elizabeth. c. 16 (1562) gives the ‘several penalties of conjuration, or invocation of wicked spirits, and witchcraft, enchantment, charm or sorcery.’ Under Jas. I, anno secundo (vulgo primo), c. 12, still another law was passed, whereby the second offense was declared a felony. The former act of Elizabeth was repealed. This act of James was not repealed until 9 George II. c. 5.

1. 2. 43 The burn’t child dreads the fire. Jonson is fond of proverbial expressions. Cf. 1. 6. 125; 1. 6. 145; 5. 8. 142, 3, etc.

1. 3. 5 while things be reconcil’d. In Elizabethan English both while and whiles often meant ‘up to the time when’, as well as ‘during the time when’ (d. a similar use of ‘dum’ in Latin and of ἕ ος in Greek).—Abbot, §137.

For its frequent use in this sense in Shakespeare see Schmidt and note on Macbeth 3. 1. 51, Furness’s edition. Cf. also Nash, Prognostication, Wks. 2. 150: ‘They shall ly in their beds while noon.’

1. 3. 8, 9 those roses Were bigge inough to hide a clouen foote. Dyce (Remarks, p. 289) quotes Webster, White Devil, 1612:

Cunningham adds a passage from Chapman, Wks. 3. 145:

Gifford quotes Nash, Unfortunate Traveller, Wks. 5. 146: ‘Hee hath in eyther shoo as much taffaty for his tyings, as would serue for an ancient.’ Cf. also Dekker, Roaring Girle, Wks. 3. 200: ‘Haue not many handsome legges in silke stockins villanous splay feet for all their great roses?’

1. 3. 13 My Cater. Whalley changes to ‘m’acter’ on the authority of the Sad Shep. (vol. 4. 236):

The form ‘cater’, however, is common enough. Indeed, if we are to judge from the examples in Nares and NED., it is much the more frequent, although the present passage is cited in both authorities under the longer form.

1. 3. 21 I’le hearken. W. and G. change to ‘I’d.’ The change is unnecessary if we consider the conditional clause as an after-thought on the part of Fitzdottrel. For a similar construction see 3. 6. 34-6.

1. 3. 27 Vnder your fauour, friend, for, I’ll not quarrell. ‘This was one of the qualifying expressions, by which, “according to the laws of the duello”, the lie might be given, without subjecting the speaker to the absolute necessity of receiving a challenge.’—G.

Leigh uses a similar expression. Cf. note 2. 1. 144. It occurs several times in Ev. Man in:

I have not been able to confirm Gifford’s assertion.

1. 3. 30 that’s a popular error. Gifford refers to Othello 5. 2. 286:

Cf. also The Virgin Martyr, Dekker’s Wks. 4. 57:

1. 3. 34 Of Derby-shire, S^r. about the Peake. Jonson seems to have been well acquainted with the wonders of the Peak of Derbyshire. Two of his masques, The Gipsies Metamorphosed, acted first at Burleigh on the Hill, and later at Belvoir, Nottinghamshire, and Love’s Welcome at Welbeck, acted in 1633 at Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, the seat of William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, are full of allusions to them. The Devil’s Arse seems to be the cavern now known to travellers as the Peak or Devil’s Cavern. It is described by Baedeker as upwards of 2,000 feet in extent. One of its features is a subterranean river known as the Styx. The origin of the cavern’s name is given in a coarse song in the Gypsies Met. (Wks. 7. 357), beginning:

In Love’s Welcome Jonson speaks again of ‘Satan’s sumptuous Arse’, Wks. 8. 122.

1. 3. 34, 5.   That Hole.
 Belonged to your Ancestors?Jonson frequently omits the relative pronoun. Cf. 1. 5. 21; 1. 6. 86, 87; 3. 3. 149; 5. 8. 86, 87.

1. 3. 38 Foure pound a yeere. ‘This we may suppose to have been the customary wages of a domestic servant.’—C. Cunningham cites also the passage in the Alchemist, Wks. 4. 12; ‘You were once ... the good, Honest, plain, livery-three-pound-thrum, that kept Your master’s worship’s house,’ in which he takes the expression ‘three-pound’ to be the equivalent of ‘badly-paid’.

1. 4. 1 I’ll goe lift him. Jonson is never tired of punning on the names of his characters.

1. 4. 5 halfe a piece. ‘It may be necessary to observe, once for all, that the piece (the double sovereign) went for two and twenty shillings.’—G. Compare 3. 3. 83, where a hundred pieces is evidently somewhat above a hundred pounds. By a proclamation, Nov. 23, 1611, the piece of gold called the Unitie, formerly current at twenty shillings was raised to the value of twenty two shillings (S. M. Leake, Eng. Money 2. 276). Taylor, the water-poet, tells us that Jonson gave him ‘a piece of gold of two and twenty shillings to drink his health in England’ (Conversations, quoted in Schelling’s Timber, p. 105). In the Busie Body Mrs. Centlivre uses piece as synonymous with guinea (2d ed., pp. 7 and 14).

1. 4. 31 Iust what it list. Jonson makes frequent use of the subjunctive. Cf. 1. 3. 9; 1. 6. 6; 5. 6. 10; etc.

1. 4. 43 Ô here’s the bill, S^r. Collier says that the use of play-bills was common prior to the year 1563 (Strype, Life of Grindall, ed. 1821, p. 122). They are mentioned in Histriomastix, 1610; A Warning for Fair Women, 1599, etc. See Collier, Annals 3. 382 f.

1. 4. 50 a rotten Crane. Whalley restores the right reading, correctly explained as a pun on Ingine’s name.

1. 4. 60 Good time! Apparently a translation of the Fr. A la bonne heure, ‘very good’, ‘well done!’ etc.

1. 4. 65 The good mans gravity. Cf. Homer, Il., Γ 105:

ἄξετε δὲ Πριάμοιο Βίην.

Shak., Tempest 5. 1: ‘First, noble friend, let me embrace thine age.’ Catiline 3. 2.: ‘Trouble this good shame (good and modest lady) no farther.’

1. 4. 70 into the shirt. Cf. Dekker, Non-dram. Wks. 2. 244: ‘Dice your selfe into your shirt.’

1. 4. 71 Keepe warme your wisdome? Cf. Cyn. Rev., Wks. 2. 241: ‘Madam, your whole self cannot but be perfectly wise; for your hands have wit enough to keep themselves warm.’ Gifford’s note on this passage is: ‘This proverbial phrase is found in most (sic) of our ancient dramas. Thus in The Wise Woman of Hogsden: “You are the wise woman, are you? You have wit to keep yourself warm enough, I warrant you”’. Cf. also Lusty Juventus, p. 74: ‘Cover your head; For indeed you have need to keep in your wit.’

1. 4. 72 You lade me. ‘This is equivalent to the modern phrase, you do not spare me. You lay what imputations you please upon me.’—G.

The phrase occurs again in 1. 6. 161, where Wittipol calls Fitzdottrel an ass, and says that he cannot ‘scape his lading’. ‘You lade me’, then, seems to mean ‘You make an ass of me’. The same use of the word occurs in Dekker, Olde Fortunatus, Wks. 1. 125: ‘I should serue this bearing asse rarely now, if I should load him’. And again in the works of Taylor, the Water Poet, p. 311: ‘My Lines shall load an Asse, or whippe an Ape.’ Cf. also Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 421: ‘Yes, faith, I have my lading, you see, or shall have anon; you may know whose beast I am by my burden.’

1. 4. 83, 4   But, not beyond,
 A minute, or a second, looke for. The omission of the comma after beyond by all the later editors destroys the sense. Fitzdottrel does not mean that Wittipol cannot have ‘beyond a minute’, but that he cannot have a minute beyond the quarter of an hour allowed him.

1. 4. 96 Migniard. ‘Cotgrave has in his dictionary, “Mignard—migniard, prettie, quaint, neat, feat, wanton, dainty, delicate.” In the Staple of News [Wks. 5. 221] Jonson tries to introduce the substantive migniardise, but happily without success.’—G.

1. 4. 101 Prince Quintilian. The reputation of this famous rhetorician (c 35-c 97 A. D.) is based on his great work entitled De Instiutione Oratoria Libri XII. The first English edition seems to have been made in 1641, but many Continental editions had preceded it. The title Prince seems to be gratuitous on Jonson’s part. He is mentioned again in Timber (ed. Schelling, 57. 29 and 81. 4).

1. 5. 2 Cf. New Inn, Wks. 5. 323:

1. 5. 8, 9. Old Africk, and the new America,
      With all their fruite of Monsters. Cf. Donne, Sat., Wks. 2. 190 (ed. 1896):

Brome, Queen’s Exchange, Wks. 3. 483: ‘What monsters are bred in Affrica?’ Glapthorne, Hollander, Wks., 1874, 1. 81: ‘If Africke did produce no other monsters,’ etc. The people of London at this time had a great thirst for monsters. See Alden, Bart. Fair, p. 185, and Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair.

1. 5. 17 for hidden treasure. ‘And when he is appeared, bind him with the bond of the dead above written: then saie as followeth. I charge thee N. by the father, to shew me true visions in this christall stone, if there be anie treasure hidden in such a place N. & wherein it now lieth, and how manie foot from this peece of earth, east, west, north, or south.’—Scot, Discovery, p. 355.

Most of the conjurers pretended to be able to recover stolen treasure. The laws against conjurers (see note 1. 2. 6) contained clauses forbidding the practice.

1. 5. 21 his men of Art. A euphemism for conjurer. Cf. B. & Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn 2. 2:

1. 6. 10 wedlocke. Wife; a common latinism of the period.

1. 6. 14 it not concernes thee? A not infrequent word-order in Jonson. Cf. 4. 2. 22.

1. 6. 18 a Niaise. Gifford says that the side note ‘could scarcely come from Jonson; for it explains nothing. A niaise (or rather an eyas, of which it is a corruption) is unquestionably a young hawk, but the niaise of the poet is the French term for, “a simple, witless, inexperienced gull”, &c. The word is very common in our old writers.’

The last statement is characteristic of Gifford. It would have been well in this case if he had given some proof of his assertion. The derivation an eyas > a nyas is probably incorrect. The Centary Dictionary gives ‘Niaise, nyas (and corruptly eyas, by misdivision of a nias).’ The best explanation I can give of the side note is this. The glossator takes the meaning ‘simpleton’ for granted. But Fitzdottrel has just said ‘Laught at, sweet bird?’ In explanation the side note is added. This, perhaps, does not help matters much and, indeed, I am inclined to believe with Gifford that the side notes are by another hand than Jonson’s. See Introduction, pp. xiii, xvii.

1. 6. 29, 30.        When I ha’ seene
    All London in’t, and London has seene mee.Gifford compares Pope:

1. 6. 31 Black-fryers Play-house. This famous theatre was founded by James Burbage in 1596-7. The Burbages leased it to Henry Evans for the performances of the Children of the Chapel, and the King’s Servants acted there after the departure of the children. In 1619 the Lord Mayor and the Council of London ordered its discontinuance, but the players were able to keep it open on the plea that it was a private house. In 1642 ‘public stage plays’ were suppressed, and on Aug. 5, 1655, Blackfriars Theatre was pulled down and tenements were built in its place. See Wh-C.

Nares, referring to Shirley’s Six New Playes, 1653, says that ‘the Theatre of Black-Friars was, in Charles I.’s time at least considered, as being of a higher order and more respectability than any of those on the Bank-side.’

1. 6. 33 Rise vp between the Acts. See note 3. 5. 43.

1. 6. 33, 4           let fall my cloake,
    Publish a handsome man, and a rich suite. The gallants of this age were inordinately fond of displaying their dress, or ‘publishing their suits.’ The play-house and ‘Paul’s Walk,’ the nave of St. Paul’s Cathedral, were favorite places for accomplishing this. The fourth chapter of Dekker’s Guls Horne-booke is entitled ‘How a Gallant should behaue himselfe in Powles walkes.’ He bids the gallant make his way directly into the middle aisle, ‘where, in view of all, you may publish your suit in what manner you affect most, either with the slide of your cloake from the one shoulder, and then you must (as twere in anger) suddenly snatch at the middle of the inside (if it be taffata at the least) and so by that meanes your costly lining is betrayd,’ etc. A little later on (Non-dram. Wks. 2. 238) Dekker speaks of ‘Powles, a Tennis-court, or a Playhouse’ as a suitable place to ‘publish your clothes.’ Cf. also Non-dram. Wks. 4. 51.

Sir Thomas Overbury gives the following description of ‘a Phantastique:’ ‘He withers his clothes on a stage as a salesman is forced to do his suits in Birchin Lane; and when the play is done, if you mark his rising, ’tis with a kind of walking epilogue between the two candles, to know if his suit may pass for current.’ Morley, p. 73.

Stephen Gosson (School of Abuse, p. 29) says that ‘overlashing in apparel is so common a fault, that the verye hyerlings of some of our plaiers, which stand at reversion of vi^s by the weeke, jet under gentlemens noses in sutes of silke.’

1. 6. 37, 8       For, they doe come
    To see vs, Loue, as wee doe to see them. Cf. Induction to The Staple of News, Wks. 5. 151: ‘Yes, on the stage; we are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.’ Silent Woman, Wks. 3. 409: ‘and come abroad where the matter is frequent, to court, ... to plays, ... thither they come to shew their new tires too, to see, and to be seen.’ Massinger, City Madam, Wks., p. 323:

Gosson has much to say on the subject of women frequenting the theatre. There, he says (p. 25). ‘everye man and his queane are first acquainted;’ and he earnestly recommends all women to stay away from these ‘places of suspition’ (pp. 48 f.).

1. 6. 40 Yes, wusse. Wusse is a corruption of wis, OE. gewis, certainly. Jonson uses the forms I wuss (Wks. 1. 102), I wusse (Wks. 6. 146), and Iwisse (Wks. 2. 379. the fol. reading; Gifford changing to I wiss), in addition to the present form. In some cases the word is evidently looked upon as a verb.

1. 6. 58 sweet Pinnace. Cf. 2. 2. 111 f. A woman is often compared to a ship. Nares cites B. & Fl., Woman’s Pr. 2. 6:

Cf. also Stap. of News, Wks. 5. 210:

Jonson plays on the names of Pinnacia in the New Inn, Wks. 5. 384:

Pinnace, when thus applied to a woman, was almost always used with a conscious retention of the metaphor. Dekker is especially fond of the word. Match me in London, Wks. 4. 172:

Also Dekker, Wks. 4. 162; 3. 67, 77, 78.

When the word became stereotyped into an equivalent for procuress or prostitute, the metaphor was often dropped. Thus in Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 386: ‘She hath been before me, punk, pinnace and bawd, any time these two and twenty years.’ Gifford says on this passage: ‘The usual gradation in infamy. A pinnace was a light vessel built for speed, generally employed as a tender. Hence our old dramatists constantly used the word for a person employed in love messages, a go-between in the worst sense, and only differing from a bawd in not being stationary.’ A glance at the examples given above will show, however, that the term was much more elastic than this explanation would indicate.

The dictionaries give no suggestion of the origin of the metaphor. I suspect that it may be merely a borrowing from classical usage. Cf. Menaechmi 2. 3. 442:

Ducit lembum dierectum nauis praedatoria.

In Miles Gloriosus 4. 1. 986, we have precisely the same application as in the English dramatists: ‘Haec celox (a swift sailing vessel) illiust, quae hinc agreditur, internuntia.’

1. 6. 62 th’ are right. Whalley’s interpretation is, of course, correct. See variants.

1. 6. 73 Not beyond that rush. Rushes took the place of carpets in the days of Elizabeth. Shakespeare makes frequent reference to the custom (see Schmidt). The following passage from Dr. Bulleyne has often been quoted: ‘Rushes that grow upon dry groundes be good to strew in halles, chambers and galleries, to walk upon, defending apparel, as traynes of gownes and kertles from dust.’ Cf. also Cyn. Rev. 2. 5; Every Man out 3. 3.

1. 6. 83 As wise as a Court Parliament. Jonson refers here, I suppose, to the famous Courts or Parliaments of Love, which were supposed to have existed during the Middle Ages (cf. Skeat, Chaucer’s Works 7. lxxx).

Cunningham calls attention to the fact that Massinger’s Parliament of Love was not produced until 1624. Jonson depicts a sort of mock Parliament of Love in the New Inn, Act 4.

1. 6. 88 And at all caracts. ‘I. e., to the nicest point, to the minutest circumstance.’—G. See Gloss. and cf. Every Man in, Wks. 1. 70.

1. 6. 89, 90 as scarce hath soule, In stead of salt. Whalley refers to Bart. Fair, Wks. 4. 446, 7: ‘Talk of him to have a soul! ’heart, if he have any more than a thing given him instead of salt, only to keep him from stinking. I’ll be hang’d afore my time.’ Gifford quotes the passage from B. & Fl., Spanish Curate: