But in capp paper lett ytt printed bee As nott to dare to venture on a stall Butt to aduyse the Ben, in this strickt age Gill's scurrility was not allowed to pass with impunity. Many answers were made to it. The following by Zouch Townley is preserved among the Ashmole papers. Mr. ZOUCH TOWNLYE to Mr. BEN JOHNSON, against Mr. ALEXANDER GILL'S verses written against the play called the Magnetick Ladye. It cannot moue thy friend, firm Ben, that he,t Whom the star-chamber censured, rayles at thee, I gratulate the method of thy fate That joyned thee next in malice to the state: *Fall then to work in thy old age agen] When this friendly counsel was given, Jonson had been confined to his room many years by a complication of disorders, and was obliged to have recourse to the pen, in his short intervals of ease, for a subsistence. The advice, however, was not unworthy of the giver. That he Whom the star-chamber censured, &c.] Something of this appears among Aubrey's papers. "Sir William Davenant (poet laureat) told me that notwithstanding this doctor's great reason he was guiltie of the detestable crime of treachery. Dr. Gill, F(ilius) Dris Gill, schoolmaster of Paul's School, and Chillingworth, held weekly intelligence one with another for some yeares, wherein they used to nibble at state matters. Dr. Gill, in one of his letters, calls King James and his sonne the old foole and the young one, which letter Chillingworth communicated to W. Laud, A. B. Cant. The poore young Dr. Gille was seized, and a terrible storme pointed towards him, which by the eloquent intercession and advocation of Edward, Earl of Dorset, together with the teares of the poore old doctor, his father, and supplication on his knees to his majesty, were blowne over."-Vol. ii. p. 285. The same circumstance is also mentioned in Gill's Ass Uncased: Nor could his mischife finde a second crime, But Jonson wanted no assistance. Feeble as he was, he was yet more than competent to the chastisement of such a character as Gill; and in the following brief retort, as full of scorn as bitterness, put him to silence if not to shame. No more is heard of "young Master Gill." Shall the prosperity of a pardon still Secure thy railing rhymes, infamous Gill, At libelling? Shall no Star chamber peers, [Nor] pillory, nor whip, nor want of ears, All which thou hast incurred deservedly, Nor degradation from the ministry, To be the Denis of thy father's school, t Keep in thy bawling wit, thou bawling fool? I'll laugh at thee, poor wretched tike: go send Thinking to stir me, thou hast lost thy end, Thy blatant muse abroad, and teach it rather A tune to drown the ballads of thy father: "But now remains the vilest thing, Thy ale-house barking 'gainst the king, From the same poem it appears that Gill had given great offence at Trinity College by his indecent performance of the Chapel Service, while he was reading clerk, for which he was tost in a blanket. His conduct as a minister was not more correct: "For since that thou a preacher were To be the Denis of thy father's school.] Gill had been usher to his father as well as to the learned Farnaby, from whom he certainly did not acquire his spleen against Jonson. The "ballads of Gill the father" I never met with, nor indeed any other work of his but the Logo nomie, a conceited and barbarous attempt to "rectify the writing of the English language," which seems to have fallen into the hands of the late James Elphinstone. A Tale of a Tub. A TALE OF A TUB.] This comedy was licensed by Sir Henry Herbert for the Black Friars, May 7th, 1633, and was the last piece which Jonson brought on the stage. It was not printed till 1640, three years after his death, when it appeared in the second folio. Of its fate on the stage there is no account; but it was coldly received at Court, where it was played before the King and Queen, January 14th, 1634. Jonson probably expected little from it, for he speaks of it with sufficient humility, both in the prologue and the motto:-the latter is taken from Catullus. No state-affairs, nor any politic club, 1 Totten-Court or Totten-Hall, now absorbed in the metropolis, was, when this was written, hamlet in the parish of St. Pancras. A Tale of a Tub. ACT I. SCENE I.-Totten Court. Before Lady Tub's House. Enter Canon Hugh. Hugh. Now on my faith, old Bishop Valentine, You have brought us nipping weather Februere If they be sped of loves :] i.e., already furnished with makes or mates; for then they need not rise early to find a Valentine. The good "old bishop" is somewhat oddly selected for the patron of this amatory device, as all that seems known of him is that he suffered martyrdom in the third century. Lady Tub, however, in the concluding scene of this act, gives a full and indeed an elegant description of his virtues, as they are found perhaps in the Legend. It is probable And think I conjured up the spirit, her son, In priest's lack-Latin. O she is jealous Tub. [appears at the window.] Canon, is't you? Hugh. The vicar of Pancras, Squire Tub! wa'hoh ! Tub. I come, I stoop unto the call, Sir Hugh! Hugh. He knows my lure is from his love, fair Awdrey, The high constable's daughter of Kentish Town here master, Tobias Turfe. Enter Tub in his night-gown. Tub. What news of him? An hour before I would, sir; and my duty To the young worship of Totten-Court, Squire Tripoly; Who hath my heart, as I have his. Your mistress Is to be made away from you this morning, St. Valentine's day: there are a knot of clowns, The council of Finsbury, so they are ystyled, Met at her father's; all the wise of the hundred ; Old Rasi' Clench of Hamstead, petty constable, In-and-In Medlay, cooper of Islington, And headborough; with loud To-Pan, the tinker that his name occupied in the Calendar the place of some heathen divinity, whose rites were thus celebrated; for the origin of the practice is lost in remote antiquity. This pretty superstition exists in almost every part of the Continent as well as in England; and long may it continue to do so! The affectation of superior wisdom has shamed the people out of too many of those innocent follies, and left their places to be supplied by grossness and vice. Or metal-man of Belsise, the thirdborough;1 And D'ogenes Scriben, the great writer of Chalcot. Tub. And why all these? Hugh. Sir, to conclude in council A husband or a make for Mistress Awdrey; A tough young fellow, and a tilemaker. Hugh. Cover her, they say; And keep her warm, sir: Mistress Awdrey Turfe Last night did draw him for her Valentine; Which chance, it hath so taken her father and mother, (Because themselves drew so on Valentine's eve Was thirty year,) as they will have her married To-day by any means; they have sent a messenger To Kilborn, post, for Clay; which when I knew, I posted with the like to worshipful Tripoly, The Squire of Totten: and my advice to cross it. Tub. What is't, Sir Hugh? Hugh. Where is your governor, Hilts? Basket must do it. Tub. Basket shall be called.Hilts! can you see to rise? [Aloud. Hilts. [appears at the window.] Cham not blind, sir, With too much light. Tub. Open your t'other eye, And view if it be day. Hilts. Che can spy that At's little a hole as another, through a milstone. [Exit above. 'The thirdborough ;] I know not how this officer was distinguished from the constable unless by name. In the old divisions of municipal power he was the third in rank in the decennary or tithing. In the Dramatis Persona Jonson enumerates every civil officer, from the justice to the high constable's man. The thirdborough is mentioned by the hostess in Taming the Shrew, to intimidate the refractory Sly: "I know my remedy: I must go fetch the thirdborough." 2 Though he talk bilk] I have mislaid my examples of the use of this word, as explained by Squire Tub. It seems to have become a cant term about this time, for the use of it is ridiculed by others as well as Jonson. It is thus explained in Cole's English Dict. "Bilk, nothing; also to deceive." In "Davenant Vindicated," a burlesque poem, the meaning is thus expressed: Tub. He will have the last word, though he talk bilk for't.2 Hugh. Bilk! what's that? Tub. Why, nothing; a word signifying Nothing; and borrowed here to express nothing. Hugh. A fine device! Tub. Yes, till we hear a finer. Lend it your ear; I will not trust the air with it, Or scarce my shirt; my cassock shall not know it; If I thought it did I'd burn it. You have thought to get a new one, Hugh: is't worth it? Let's hear it first. "Some say by Avenant no place is meant, And that our Lombard is without descent, And as by bilk men mean there's nothing there, So come from Avenant, means from nowhere." [One of Gifford's mislaid references was most where Blount says, probably to the Glossographia, ed. 1681, p. 85, Bilk is said to be an Arabic word and signifies nothing; cribbage players understand it best."-See Halliwell's Archaic and Provincial Words, sub voce. On reference to Lane's Arabic Dictionary I find this derivation fully confirmed. baluk-a desert tract of sand which gives growth to nothing. white plains in sand, which give growth to nothing.-F. C.] Like middle March afore: he will be as mellow, And tipsy too, as October; and as grave And bound up like a frost (with the new year) In January; as rigid as he is rustic. Master Tobias Turfe, and his dame were I think you are right. But what was that Did you ever know 'un, goodman Clench? Hugh. You know his nature, and de- He was a deadly zin, and dwelt at Highgate, scribe it well; I'll leave him to your fashioning. Tub. Stay, Sir Hugh; Take a good angel with you for your guide; [Gives him a piece of money. And let this guard you homeward, as the blessing To our device [Exit. Hugh. I thank you, squire's worship, Most humbly-for the next; for this I am sure of. O for a quire of these voices now, To chime in a man's pocket, and cry chink! One doth not chirp, it makes no harmony. Grave Justice Bramble next must contribute; His charity must offer at this wedding: The squire he hopes to circumvent the And now, if Justice Bramble do come off,1 'Tis two to one but Tub may lose his bottom. [Exit. SCENE II.-Kentish Town. A Room in Turfe's House. Enter Clench, Medlay, D'oge Scriben, Bull Puppy, and Pan. Clench. Why, 'tis thirty year, e'en as this day now, Zin Valentine's day, of all days kursined, look you; And the zame day o' the month as this Zin Valentine, Or I am vowly deceived Med. That our high constable, 1 If Justice Bramble do come off,] i.e., pay well. See Massinger, vol. i. p. 210. Of all days kursined,] i.e., christened.WHAL. Thus Fletcher, The Coxcomb: "Are they kursined? No, they call them infidels." Whalley follows the old copy, which reads: As I have heard; but 'twas avore my time: He was a cooper too, as you are, Medlay, An In-and-In: a woundy, brag young vellow, As the port went o' hun then, and in those days. Scri. Did he not write his name Sim Vor I have met no Sin in Finsbury books; And yet I have writ them six or seven times over. Pan. O you mun look for the nine deadly Sins, In the church-books, D'oge; not [in] the high constable's; Nor in the county's: zure, that same Zin He was a stately zin, an' he were a zin, Clench. At the Cock-and-Hen in High- You have freshed my memory well in't, neighbour Pan: He had a place in last King Harry's time, Of sorting all the young couples; joining them, And putting them together; which is yet I am old Rivet still, and bear a brain, Pan. You are a shrewd antiquity, And a great guide to all the parishes! |