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Notch. Come, this is not the first time you have carried coals to your own house, I mean, that should have warmed them. Groom. Sir, I may do it by my place, and I must question you farther.

Notch. Be not so musty, sir; our desire is only to know whether the king's majesty and the court expect any disguise here to-night?

Groom. Disguise! what mean you by that? do you think that his majesty sits here to expect drunkards?

Notch. No; if he did I believe you would supply that place better than you do this. Disguise was the old English word for a masque, sir, before you were an implement belonging to the Revels.

Groom. There is no such word in the office now, I assure you, sir. I have served here, man and boy, a prenticeship or twain, and I should know. But by what name soever you call it, here will be a masque, and shall be a masque, when you and the rest of your comrogues shall sit disguised in the stocks.

Notch. Sure, by your language you were never meant for a courtier, howsoever it hath been your ill fortune to be taken

1 To fetch bouge of court.] A corruption of bouche, Fr. An allowance of meat and drink for the tables of the inferior officers, and others who were occasionally called to serve and entertain the court. (See p. 217.) Skelton has a kind of little drama called Bouge of Court, from the name of the ship in which the dialogue takes place. It is a very severe satire, full of strong painting and excellent poetry. The courtiers of Harry must have winced at it.

In a collection of Epigrams and Satires, by S. Rowlands, 1600, and lately republished, this line occurs:

"His jacket faced with noth-eaten budge." Upon which the editor observes, that budge was probably some paltry imitation of velvet. Have we always to begin our studies! Budge had

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out of the nest young; you are some constable's egg, some such widgeon of authority, you are so easily offended! Our coming was to shew our loves, sir, and to make a little merry with his majesty to-night, and we have brought a masque with us, if his majesty had not been better provided.

Groom. Who, you! you, a masque ! why you stink like so many bloat-herrings newly taken out of the chimney! In the name of ignorance, whence came you? or what are you? you have been hanged in the smoke sufficiently, that is smelt out already.

Notch. Sir, we do come from among the brewhouses in St. Katherine's, that's true, there you have smoked us; the dock comfort your nostrils! and we may have lived in a mist there, and so mist our purpose; but for mine own part, I have brought my properties with me, to express what I am ; the keys of my calling hang here at my girdle, and this, the register-book of my function, shews me no less than a clerk at all points, and a brewer's clerk, and a brewer's head-clerk.

Groom. A man of accompt, sir! I cry you mercy.

Slug. Ay, sir, I knew him a fine merchant, a merchant of hops, till all hopt into the water.2

Notch. No more of that; what I have been I have been; what I am I am. I, Peter Notch, clerk, hearing the Christmas invention was drawn dry at court; and that neither the king's poet nor his architect had wherewithal len to entertain so much as a baboon of quality, nor scarce the Welsh ambassador, if he should come there: out of my allegiance to wit, drew in some other friends that have as it were presumed out of their own naturals to fill

been rightly explained in a hundred places to mean fur, and it seems somewhat of the latest to blunder about it at this period. As to what follows, that "the word was used in Elizabeth's time to signify an allowance of liquor to those who attended her progresses," it is sufficient to observe that this is to confound all language as well as all sense. If an editor cannot disentangle the loose orthography of our old poets, he had better not meddle with them at all.

2 A merchant of hops, till all hopt into the water.] This joke seems to be borrowed from old Heywood, who being asked at table by a person whose beer was better hopped than malted how he liked it, and whether it was not well hopped? answered, "It is very well hopt, but if it had hopt a little further, it had hopt into the water." See Camden's Remains.—WHAL

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up the vacuum with some pretty presen- is this? what Dutchman does build or tation, which we have addressed and con-frame castles in the air. veyed hither in a lighter at the general charge, and landed at the back door of the Buttery, through my neighbour Slug's credit there.

Slug. A poor lighterman, sir, one that hath had the honour sometimes to lay in the king's beer there and I assure you I heard it in no worse place than the very Buttery, for a certain there would be no masque, and from such as could command a jack of beer, two or three.

Enter VANGOOSE.

Van. Dat is all true, exceeding true, de inventors be barren, lost, two, dre, vour mile, I know that from my selven ; dey have noting, no ting van deir own, but vat dey take from the eard, or de zea, or de heaven, or de hell, or de rest van de veir elementen, de place a! dat be so common as de vench in the bordello. Now me would bring in some dainty new ting, dat never was, nor never sall be in de rebus natura; dat has never van de materia, nor de forma, nor de hoffen, nor de voot, but a mera devisa of de brain

Groom. Hey-da! what Hans Flutterkin

1 Dat is all true, &c.] This medley of languages appears in the folio (through the whole of Vangoose's part), in the German character: even in that form it would scarcely pass upon a native, I suspect, and Whalley's copy is therefore followed.

2 Of those gentlewomen that should have acted in that famous matter of England's Joy in 1603.] This old piece, which was once very popular, is a kind of pageant, comprehending in dumb shew the chief political events of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and concluding with her apotheosis in great state, "being crowned with the sun, moon, and stars, she is taken up into heaven." It has lately been reprinted among the Harleian Papers.

I had occasion to mention this mummery in a note on the following lines, in which Satan twits Old Iniquity with the dulness of Pug, vol. ii. p. 215 b.

"Where canst thou carry him, except to taverns To mount upon a joint-stool, with a Jew's trump,

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To put down Cokely, and that must be to citizens,

He ne'er will be admitted there when Vennor

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Notch. He is no Dutchman, sir, he is a Britain born, but hath learned to misuse his own tongue in travel, and now speaks all languages in ill English; a rare artist he is, sir, and a projector of masques. His project in ours is, that we should all come from the Three Dancing Bears in St. Katherine's (you may hap know it, sir) hard by where the priest fell in, which alehouse is kept by a distressed lady, whose name, for the honour of knighthood, will not be known; yet she is come in person here errant, to fill up the adventure, with her two women that draw drink under her; gentlewomen born all three, I

assure you.

Enter the LADY, with her two Maids.

Slug. And were three of those gentlewomen that should have acted in that famous matter of England's Joy in six hundred and three.

Lady. What talk you of England's Joy, gentlemen? you have another matter in hand, I wiss, England's Sport and Delight, if you can manage it. The poor cattle yonder are passing away the time with a

says

but possessed a wonderful facility in pouring out doggrel verse. He "Yet, without boasting, let me boldly say, of himself: I'll rhyme with any man that breathes this day, Upon a subject, in extempore," &c.

"For

He seems to have made a wretched livelihood by frequenting city feasts, &c., where, at the end of the entertainment, he was called in to mount a stool and amuse the company by stringing together a number of vile rhymes upon any given subject. To this the quotation alludes. Fenner is noticed by the Duchess of Newcastle : the numbers every schoolboy can make them on his fingers, and for the rime, Fenner would put down Ben Jonson; and yet neither the boy nor Fenner so good poets." This too is the person meant in the Cambridge answer to Corbet's satire :

"A ballad late was made,

And others

say

But God knows who the penner; Some say the rhyming sculler, 'twas Fenner."-P. 24. Fenner was so famed for his faculty of rhyming that James, who, like Bartholomew Cokes, would willingly let no raree-show escape him, sent for him to court. Upon which Fenner added to his other titles that of his "Majesty's Riming Poet." This gave offence to Taylor, the Water poet, and helped to produce that miserable squabble printed among his works, and from which I have principally derived the substance of this note.

cheat loaf and a bombard of broken beer, how will ye dispose of them?

Groom. Cattle! what cattle does she mean?

Lady. No worse than the king's game, I assure you; the bears, bears both of quality and fashion, right bears, true bears.

Notch. A device only to express the place from whence we come, my lady's house, for which we have borrowed three very bears, that, as her ladyship aforesaid says, are well bred, and can dance to present the sign, and the bearward to stand for the sign-post.

Groom. That is pretty; but are you sure you have sufficient bears for that purpose?

Slug. Very sufficient bears as any are in the ground, the Paris-garden, and can dance at first sight, and play their own tunes if need be. John Urson, the bearward, offers to play them with any citydancers christened for a ground measure.

Notch. Marry, for lofty tricks, or dancing on the ropes, he will not undertake; it is out of their element, he says. Sir, all our request is, since we are come, we may be admitted, if not for a masque, for an anticmasque; and as we shall deserve therein, we desire to be returned with credit to the Buttery from whence we came for reward, or to the porter's lodge with discredit, for our punishment.2

Groom. To be whipt with your bears! well, I could be willing to venture a good word in behalf of the game, if I were assured the aforesaid game would be cleanly, and not fright the ladies.

Notch. For that, sir, the bearward hath put in security by warranting my lady and her women to dance the whole changes

1 With a cheat loaf and a bombard of broken beer.] A white loaf, a manchet. A bombard is a large vessel to hold beer, so called from the shape of it: what the epithet broken should denote, unless beer of which some part had been drunk, I cannot say. We have the same phrase at the beginning of The Masque of the Gipsies: "Fed with broken beer, and "blown wine o' the best daily."-WHAL.

Where Whalley found his explanation of cheat loaf, I know not; it is, however, wrong. Cheat is coarse bread, and is put in opposition to manchet, or fine bread, which is not usually, I believe, given to bears. One or two examples, where as many scores might be produced, will be sufficient:

The Earl of Oxford (speaking of the labouring man), says,

"The manchet fine falles not unto his share, On coarser cheat his hungry stomacke feeds."

with them in safety; and for their abusing the place you shall not need to fear, for he hath given them a kind of diet-bread to bind them to their good behaviour.

Groom. Well, let them come; if you need one, I'll help you myself.

Enter JOHN URSON with his Bears, who dance while he sings the following

BALLAD.

Though it may seem rude

For me to intrude,

With these my bears, by chance-a; "Twere sport for a king,

If they could sing

As well as they can dance-a. Then to put you out

Of fear or doubt,

We came from St. Katherine-a, These dancing three,

By the help of me,

Who am the post of the sign-a. We sell good ware,

And we need not care

Though court and country knew it; Our ale's o' the best,

And each good guest

Prays for their souls that brew it.3 For any ale-house,

We care not a louse,

Nor tavern in all the town-a;
Nor the Vintry-Cranes,
Nor St. Clement's Danes,

Nor the Devil can put us down-a.
Who has once there been,
Comes thither again,

Again:

"The manchet fine on high estates bestowe, The coarser cheat the baser sort must prove." Whitney's Emblems, 1586, p. 79.

A cheat loaf is therefore a brown loaf. Broken beer, for the stale leavings of what has been drawn for others, is so common an expression that it may be wondered how it escaped Whalley's observation.

Or to the porter's lodge for our punish ment.] The usual place of chastisement for the menials and humbler retainers of great families. See Massinger, vol. i. p. 294.

And each good guest

Prays for their souls that brew it.] Alluding to the proverb of that age, "Blessings on your heart, for you brew good ale."—WHAL.

The liquor is so mighty;

Beer strong and stale,
And so is our ale,

And it burns like aqua-vitæ.

To a stranger there,

If any appear,

Where never before he has been: We shew the iron gate,

The wheel of St. Kate,

And the place where the priest fell in.1

The wives of Wapping,
They trudge to our tapping,

And there our ale desire:

And still sit and drink,
Till they spue and stink,

And often piss out our fire.
From morning to night,
And about to daylight,

They sit, and never grudge it;
Till the fishwives join
Their single coin,

And the tinker pawns his budget.

If their brains be not well,

Or their bladders do swell,

To ease them of their burden,

My lady will come

With a bowl and a broom,

And her handmaid with a jorden. From court we invite

Lord, lady, and knight,

Squire, gentleman, yeoman, and groom; And all our stiff drinkers, Smiths, porters, and tinkers,

And the beggars shall give ye room.

Van. How like you, how like you? Groom. Excellent! the bears have done learnedly and sweetly.

Van. Tis noting, 'tis noting; vill you see someting? ick sall bring in de Turkschen, met all zin bashaws, and zin dirty towsand Yanitsaries met all zin whooren, eunuken, all met an ander, de sofie van Persia, de Tartar cham met de groat king of Mogull, and made deir men, and deir horse, and deir elephanten, be seen fight in the ayr, and be all killen, and aliven, and no such ting. And all dis met de ars van de Catropricks, by de refleshie van de glassen. Notch. Oh, he is an admirable artist. Slug. And a half, sir.

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Groom. But where will he place his glasses?

Van. Fow, dat is all ean, as it be two, dree, veir, vife towsand mile off; ick sall multiplien de vizioun, met an ander secret dat ick heb: Spreck, vat vill you haben?

Groom. Good sir, put him to't, bid him do something that is impossible; he will undertake it, I warrant you.

Notch. I do not like the Mogul, nor the great Turk, nor the Tartar, their names are somewhat too big for the room; marry, if he could shew us some country-players, strolling about in several shires, without licence from the office, that would please I know whom; or some Welsh pilgrims

Van. Pilgrim ! now yow talk of de pilgrim, it come in my head. Ick vill show yow all de whole brave pilgrim o' de world: de pilgrim dat go now, now at de instant, two, dre towsand mile to de great Mahomet, at de Mecha, or here, dere, everywhere, make de fine labyrints, and shew all de brave error in de vorld.

Slug. And shall we see it here?

Van. Yaw, here, here, here in dis room, tis very room: vel vat is dat to you, if ick do de ting? vat an devil, vera boten devil? Groom. Nay, good sir, be not angry.

Notch. "Tis a disease that follows all excellent men, they cannot govern their passions; but let him alone, try him one bout.

Groom. I would try him; but what has all this to do with our mask?

Van. O sir, all de better vor an antickmask, de more absurd it be, and vrom de purpose, it be ever all de better. If it go from de nature of de ting, it is de more art: for dere is art, and dere is nature, yow sall Hocos Pocos! paucos palabros!

see.

Here the second ANTIMASQUE.

Which was a perplexed DANCE of straying and deformed PILGRIMS taking several paths, till with the opening of the light above, and breaking forth of APOLLO, they were all frighted away, and the MAIN MASQUE begun:

APOLLO, descending, SUNG.* It is no dream; you all do wake and see; Behold who comes ! far-shooting Phoebus,† he

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That can both hurt and heal;* and with
his voicet

Rear towns, and make societies rejoice;
That taught the muses all their harmony,
And men the tuneful art of augury.
Apollo stoops, and when a god descends,
May mortals think he hath no vulgar ends.

Being near the earth, he called these persons
following, who came forth as from their
tombs.

Linus

Omnes. We fly, we do not tread;
The gods do use to ravish whom they lead.
APOLLO being descended, shewed them where
the KING sat, and sung forward.

Behold the love and care of all the gods,
Of the ocean and the happy isles;

That whilst the world about him is at odds,
Sits crowned lord here of himself, and
smiles,

and Orpheus !|| Branchus !T Id-Who seek for that doth punish them to find. Cho. To see the erring mazes of mankind. mon!** all,

My sacred sons, rise at your father's call,
From your immortal graves; where sleep,

not death,

Yet binds your powers.

Linus. Here.

Orpheus. Here.

Branchus. What sacred breath

Doth re-inspire us ?

Idmon. Who is this we feel?

Then he advanceth with them to the KING.

Apol. Prince of thy peace, see what it is. to love

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A college here, §§

Phæmonoë.tt What heat creeps through Of tuneful augurs, whose divining skill

me, as when burning steel

Is dipt in water?

Apollo. Ay, Phoemonoë,

Thy father Phoebus' fury filleth thee:
Confess my godhead, once again I call,
Let whole Apollo enter in you all,
And follow me.

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Shall wait thee still,

And be the heralds of his highest will.

The work is done,

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Ilion aspicies, firmataque turribus altis
Monia Apollineæ structa canore lyræ.

§§ Augurandi scientia nobilis erat et antiqua,
apud gentes præsertim Hetruscos: quibus erat
collegium et domicilium celeberrimum Augu-
rum, quorum summa fuit authoritas et digni-
tas per totam Italiam, potissimum Roma.
Romulus, urbe condita, collegium et Augures ibi
instituit, ipse nobilis, ut apud Liv. lib. 1, et
Tull. lib. 1, Optimus Augur. Eorum officium
fuit auspicia captare, et ex iis colligere signa
futurarum rerum, Deorumque monita conside
rare de eventibus prosperis vel adversis. Sacra
erat Romanis et res regia habita, dignitasque
penes patricios et principes viros mansit, etiam
apud imperatores obtinuit, unde ab Apolline
nostro talis Præses Pulchrè designatus.
apud omnes penè gentes: et à saliendo, seu sal-
tatione sacra ad saliare carmen instituta, Salii
dicti et Marti consecrati. Omnes etiam qui ad
cantum et tibiam ludebant Salii et Salisubsuli

Saltationes in rebus sacris adhibebantur

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