Page 3. HE noblest nurseries of humanity.] Jonson's word is Nourceries. P. 5. The very Jacob's staff of compliment.] This instrument is also specially mentioned by Marlowe "Both we Neridamas will intrench our men, And with the Jacob's staff measure the height That we may know if our artillery Will carry full point blank unto their walls." Tamburlaine the Great, Pt. ii. P. 6. Carlo Buffone.] Aubrey says that the character of Carlo Buffone was intended for one "Charles Chester, a bold impertinent fellow, who made a noise like a drum in a room." Papers, 514. P. 6. A neat, spruce, affecting courtier,] i. e. affected. P. 6. The boot of a coach.] This is a very early use of the word. "As they were taking the king to Windsor he ('Oceana' Harrington) begged admittance to the Boot of the Coach, that he might bid his Master farewell, which being granted, and he preparing to kneel, the King took him by the hand, and pulled him in." Life of Harrington, p. xvii. ed. 1734. R. Brome also uses the word, but he learned his vocabulary from Jonson, a circumstance which adds much to the interest of his works. P. 7. A wretched hob-nailed chuff.] A term of reproach, the derivation of which is not known. Shakspeare uses it in First Henry IV. A. ii. S. 2. "Are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs, I wish store were here." P. 7. Follows the fashion afar off.] Dryden alludes to this in the Dedication to The Assignation, and so does Pope : "Unlucky as Fungoso in the Play These sparks with awkward vanity display Essay on Criticism, line 328. P. 7. Skeldring and odling.] Skeldring was rather direct swindling. In the Gull's Hornbook Dekker, speaking of the Threepenny Ordinary, says, "He shall now and then light upon some Gull or other, whom he may skelder." But see note to the opening scene of the Poetaster. P. 7. His bank Paul's.] The folio has Poules, which may be said to have been the universal way of spelling and pronouncing it at that time. P. 8. Takes up single testons upon oaths,] see vol. i. p. 102. Testons were sixpences. Bishop Latimer says, "Thy silver is turned into what? Into testyons," and the force of the brave old bishop's words is understood, when we find from Camden that the metal had become so debased that, when Elizabeth in 1560 took the reform of the coinage in hand, the teston was worth no more than two-pence farthing. "She purchased the same with good money to her own loss, provided it were brought to the Mint within such a time." The expression 'take up' is explained, post, P. 34, Note 1. P. 8. Case of coxcombs,] i. e. pair of coxcombs. Jonson applies the word to vizards, to petrionels, to matrons, and even to. chamber utensils. See post, p. 496. P. 8. Orange is the most humorous of the two.] The folio has 66 more humorous." There were two of P. 13. More wretches than the counters.] these prisons in the City: the Poultry Counter and the Woodstreet Counter, and another in Southwark. The perpetual references to them testify only too eloquently how intimately our old dramatists were acquainted with their interiors, either as inmates or friends of inmates. P. 14. Asp (turning to the stage).] The folio, instead of this, has, "Here hee makes adresse to the People." It is a pity that this should be lost, but at the same time I must take this early opportunity of bearing testimony to the admirable manner in which Gifford has edited the "stage directions" throughout these volumes. P. 17. A rook.] A rook was a cheat, a sharper. The word is still used as a verb, but I think it has vanished as a noun. P. 17. The cable hatband.] A twisted cord of gold, silver, or silk, worn round the hat. Marston in ridiculing a sea-fight, avails himself of the name: "O for an armour canon proofe: O more cable, more fetherbeds; more fetherbeds, more cable, till hee had as much as my cable hatband to fence him. Antonio and Mellida, A. ii. See also post, p. 145. P. 17. O, it is more than most ridiculous.] See note, post, p. 161. Jonson was never tired of laughing at this Arcadian phrase. "More than most fair occurs repeatedly, and we have a glove that is 'more than most sweet," and a character "more than most accurst." 66 P. 17. Worthy their serious and intentive 'eyes.] Intentive was something more than attentive. Jonson uses both intend and intention in the same way; and Shakspeare has "Whereof by parcels she had something heard But not intentively." Othello, A. i. S. 3. P. 19. Jejunus rarò stomachus vulgaria temnit.] It ought to be noted that in the folio this Latin line is embodied in the text, and I think was most likely spoken on the stage. P. 19. Taking men's lines, with a tobacco face, In snuff] See note to the Silent Woman (A. iv. S. 2), vol. iii. p. 438. The way in which the phrase is introduced here supports Southey's view against Gifford's. See also post, p. 393. It is worth while noting that Jonson almost invariably writes tabacco instead of tobacco. P. 21. This will procure him much envy,] i. e. ill-will, hatred. See note to Catiline (A. iv. S. 5), vol. iv. p. 300. P. 24. The two-penny room.] See the Induction to Bartholomew Fair, vol. iv. p. 347, "according to which," says Collier, "the lowest sum taken at the door of The Hope, when that comedy was first played, was sixpence, but at the Fortune and Red Bull, which were large public theatres, there were two-penny rooms or Galleries." P. 25. A well timber'd fellow.] This must have been introduced to suit the personal appearance of the actor who took the part of Prologue. P. 26. His belly is well ballaced,] i.e. ballasted. The word is used by Marlowe, in The Queen of Carthage, in those exquisite lines in which Dido describes the equipment of Æneas' fleet. P. 27. Turns to a corsive, and doth eat it farther.] Corsive was a contraction of corrosive, and is of constant occurrence. Other forms of it are corsey and corzie. The folio has farder for farther, and so Jonson generally spelt it. P. 27. Pill'd Cynick,] i. e. a cynic stripped of all human feeling. Polled had often the same meaning as pilled, and Polar is used by Tyndale (ed. 1831, i. 31) for a plunderer, just as Piller is by others. The last word is preserved in Cater-piller, i. e., a Piller of cates, a plunderer of food "Round was his face, and camuse was his nose, As pilled as an ape was his skull." Chaucer. P. 29. Compliments of a gentleman.] This word should be spelt complement as in the folio. At p. 56, post, it is given correctly; but at p. 58 wrongly again. In the Discoveries, No. 142, vol. ix. p. 209, Jonson speaks of "complement" as one of "the perfumed terms of the age," which a good writer must not "cast a ring for." P. 30. Is this not purely good.] "Purely" was used in Jonson's time like "vastly" in the last century, and the still more stupid "awfully" in our own. Lord Chesterfield happily ridicules the use of "vastly" in the Essay which brought down Samuel Johnson's famous "blast of doom." P. 30. Primero and passage.] Both these games are mentioned in the curious tract reprinted by the Percy Society, called "A manifest detection of the most vyle and detestable use of Dice Play," 1224. P. 31. Sit on the stage and flout.] See note to the Induction of Cynthia's Revels, post, p. 210. Dekker's chapter on “How a gallant should behave himself in a play-house," is the very best exponent of Jonson's text. He is strongly recommended not to present himself upon the stage, especially at a new play, "until the quaking Prologue is ready to give the quaking trumpets their cue that he is upon the point to enter. Then it is time to creep from behind the arras, with your tripos or three-footed stool in one hand, and a teston (sixpence) mounted between a forefinger and a thumb in the other." Besides showing off "the most essential parts of a gallant, good clothes and a proportionable leg," you have "by sitting on the stage a signed patent to engross the whole commodity of censure," i. e. business of criticism. P. 32. Friend and kinsman.] The folio has rightly, "friend or kinsman." |