Sog. Stay, I do not like that humour of challenge, it may be accepted; but I'll tell you what's my humour now, I will do this: I will take occasion of sending one of my suits to the tailor's, to have the pocket repaired, or so; and there such a letter as you talk of, broke open and all, shall be left: O, the tailor will presently give out what I am, upon the reading of it, worth twenty of your gallants. Car. But then you must put on an extreme face of discontentment at your man's negligence. Sog. O, so I will, and beat him too: I'll have a man for the purpose. Mac. You may; you have land and crowns: O partial fate! Car. Mass, well remember'd, you must keep your men gallant at the first, fine pied liveries laid with good gold lace; there's no loss in it, they may rip it off and pawn it, when they lack victuals. Sog. By 'r lady, that is chargeable, signior, 'twill bring a man in debt. Car. Debt! why that's the more for your credit, sir: it's an excellent policy to owe much in these days, if you note it.9 Sog. As how, good signior? I would fain be a politician. 8 * I will take occasion of sending one of my suits to the tailor's, &c.] Interdum insue vesti, aut relinque in crumena, ut quibus sarciendi negotium dederis illic reperiant. Illi non silebunt, et tu, simul ac resciveris, compones vultum ad iracundiam ac mæstitiam, quasi doleat Eras. Id. casus. It's an excellent policy to owe much in these days, if you note it.] This and much of what follows is from Panurge's panegyric on debtors. Jonson was a diligent reader of Rabelais, and has numberless allusions to him. In this place, however, Erasmus had been before him: Nulla est commodior ad regnum via quam deberi quamplurimis: primum creditor observat te non aliter quam obligatus maguo beneficio vereturque ne quam præbeat ansam amittendæ pecuniæ: Servos nemo magis habet obnoxios, quam debitor suos creditores; quibus si quid aliquando reddas, gratius est quam si dono des. Idem. Cor. O! look where you are indebted any great sum, your creditor observes you with no less regard, than if he were bound to you for some huge benefit, and will quake to give you the least cause of offence, lest he lose his money. I assure you, in these times, no man has his servant more obsequious and pliant, than gentlemen their creditors: to whom, if at any time you pay but a moiety, or a fourth part, it comes more acceptably than if you gave them a new-year's gift. Sog. I perceive you, sir: I will take up,' and bring myself in credit, sure. Car. Marry this, always beware you commerce not with bankrupts, or poor needy Ludgathians: 2 they are impudent creatures, turbulent spirits, they care not what violent tragedies they stir, nor how they play fast and loose with a poor gentleman's fortunes, to get their own. Marry, these rich fellows, that have the world, or the better part of it, sleeping in their counting-houses, they are ten times more placable, they; either fear, hope, or modesty restrains 1 I will take up.] That is, goods on credit. The phrase is common in the writers of those times. So Falstaff: "If a gentleman would be thorough with 'em, in honest taking up, they stand upon security." Again, in Donne, There's now as great an itch of bravery, WHAL. 2 Always beware you commerce not with bankrupts, or poor needy Ludgathians, &c.] I know not how this reflection on the poverty of the tradesmen of Ludgate crept in here; they were surely among the wealthiest of our author's time. The thought itself, though obvious enough, is from Erasmus: Caveto, ne cum tenuibus habeas commercium; nam hi ob parvulam summulam ingentes excitant tragedias. Placabiliores sunt, quibus lautior est fortuna; cohibet illos pudor, lactat spes, deterret metus. Idem. Our old writers sometimes use Ludgate for the prison there. Jonson could scarcely mean people imprisoned for debt by Ludgathians; for Sogliardo needed no caution on that head. them from offering any outrages: but this is nothing to your followers, you shall not run a penny more in arrearage for them, an you list, yourself. Sog. No! how should I keep 'em then? Car. Keep 'em! 'sblood, let them keep themselves, they are no sheep, are they? what! you shall come in houses, where plate, apparel, jewels, and divers other pretty commodities lie negligently scattered, and I would have those Mercuries follow me, I trow, should remember they had not their fingers for nothing.3 Sog. That's not so good, methinks. Car. Why, after you have kept them a fortnight, or so, and shew'd them enough to the world, you may turn them away, and keep no more but a boy, it's enough. Sog. Nay, my humour is not for boys, I'll keep men, an I keep any; and I'll give coats, that's my humour but I lack a cullisen. αχειρους 3 I would have those Mercuries follow me, I trow, should remember they had not their fingers for nothing.] Non ales famulos axεipovs et ob id axpeɩovs, mittantur huc et illuc, invenient aliquid: scis varias esse talium rerum occasiones.-Ergo famulos ale non segnes, aut etiam sanguine propinquos, qui alioqui forent alendi.—Reperient aliquid in diversosiis, aut in ædibus, incustoditum. Tenes? Meminerint non frustra datos homini digitos, &c. Eras. Id. ▲ But I lack a cullisen.] No dictionary that I can find will help us to the meaning of this word; nor does the context lead us to discover it. WHAL. I had occasion to observe, in a note on Massinger, that dictionaries were but ill calculated to supply the kind of information here wanted, which must be sought in the colloquial language of contemporary poets. Happily, however, Jonson explains himself. In a subsequent scene, Carlo says, "I come from Sogliardo but now, he is at the herald's office yonder; he requested me to go afore and take up a man or two for him in Paul's, against his cognizance was ready." Cognizance, or as Sogliardo ignorantly and corruptly terms it, cullisen, is the badge or mark of distinction which retainers, servants, &c. usually wore on the shoulder or sleeve of their coats, that it might be known to whom and what Car. Why, now you ride to the city, you may buy one; I'll bring you where you shall have your choice for money. Sog. Can you, sir? Car. O, ay: you shall have one take measure of you, and make you a coat of arms to fit you, of what fashion you will. Sog. By word of mouth, I thank you, signior: I'll be once a little prodigal in a humour, i'faith, and have a most prodigious coat. Mac. Torment and death! break head and brain at once, To be deliver'd of your fighting issue. Who can indure to see blind fortune dote thus ? This clod, a whoreson puck-fist!5 O G-! Sog. Nay, I will examine him before I go, sure. Car. The lord of the soil has all wefts and strays here, has he not? Sog. Yes, sir. Car. Faith then I pity the poor fellow, he's fallen into a fool's hands. [Aside. Sog. Sirrah, who gave you a commission to lie in my lordship? they belonged. It should be recollected that the livery of servants at this time was, with few exceptions, of blue, so that some note of discrimination was absolutely necessary. Cullisen appears again in the Case is Altered, and in a way that clearly determines its sense: But what badge shall we give, what cullisen ?" A. iv. 66 5 This clod, a whoreson puck-fist!] A fungous excrescence of the mushroom kind, often used by our author to denote an insipid, insignificant fellow. WHAL. Mac. Your lordship! Sog. How! my lordship? do you know me, sir? Mac. I do know you, sir. Car. He answers him like an echo. [Aside. Sog. Why, who am I, sir? Mac. One of those that fortune favours. Car. The periphrasis of a fool. I'll observe this better. [A side. Sog. That fortune favours! how mean you that, friend? Mac. I mean simply: that you are one that lives not by your wits. Sog. By my wits! no, sir, scorn to live by my wits, I. I have better means, I tell thee, than to take such base courses, as to live by my wits. What, dost thou think I live by my wits? Mac. Methinks, jester, you should not relish this well. Car. Ha! does he know me? Mac. Though yours be the worst use a man can put his wit to, of thousands, to prostitute it at every tavern and ordinary; yet, methinks, you should have turn'd your broadside at this, and have been ready with an apology, able to sink this hulk of ignorance into the bottom and depth of his contempt. Car. Oh, 'tis Macilente! Signior, you are well encountered; how is it?-O, we must not regard what he says, man, a trout, a shallow fool, he has no more brain than a butterfly, a mere stuft suit; he looks like a musty bottle new wicker'd,'" his head's the cork, light, light! [Aside to Macilente.] -I am glad to see you so well return'd, signior. The periphrasis of a fool.] According to the Latin adage, Fortuna favet fatuis. So in Wily Beguiled, "Sir, you may see that fortune is your friend, WHAL. |