,
mentioned
as early as the 15th century.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
'Fly-blown' was a rather common term of
opprobrium. Cf. Dekker, _Satiromastix_, _Wks. _ 1. 195: 'Shal
distaste euery vnsalted line, in their fly-blowne Comedies. '
Jonson is very fond of this metaphor, and presses it beyond all
endurance in _New Inn_, Act 2. Sc. 2, _Wks. _ 5. 344, 5, etc.
=2. 7. 13 I am resolu'd on't, Sir. = See variants. Gifford
points out the quibble on the word _resolved_. See Gloss.
=2. 7. 17 O! I could shoote mine eyes at him. = Cf. _Fox_,
_Wks. _ 3. 305: 'That I could shoot mine eyes at him, like
gun-stones! '
=2. 7. 22. = See variants. The _the_ is probably absorbed by
the preceding dental. Cf. 5. 7. 9.
=2. 7. 33 fine pac'd huishers. = See note 4. 4. 201.
=2. 7. 38 turn'd my good affection. = 'Not diverted or
changed its course; but, as appears from what follows, soured
it. The word is used in a similar sense by Shakespeare:
Has friendship such a faint and _milky_ heart,
It turns in less than two nights!
_Timon_, 3. 2. '--G.
=2. 8. 9, 10 That was your bed-fellow. = Ingine, perhaps in
anticipation of Fitzdottrel's advancement, employs a term usually
applied to the nobility. Cf. _K. Henry V. _ 2. 2. 8:
Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
Whom he had cloy'd and grac'd with princely favors.
Steevens in a note on the passage points out that the familiar
appellation of _bedfellow_, which appears strange to us, was
common among the ancient nobility. ' He quotes from _A Knack
to know a Knave_, 1594; _Look about you_, 1600; _Cynthia's
Revenge_, 1613; etc. , where the expression is used in the sense
of 'intimate companion' and applied to nobles. Jonson uses the
term _chamberfellow_ in _Underwoods_, _Wks. _ 8. 353.
=2. 8. 20 An Academy. = With this passage compare _U. _ 62,
_Wks. _ 8. 412:
--There is up of late
The Academy, where the gallants meet--
What! to make legs? yes, and to smell most sweet:
All that they do at plays. O but first here
They learn and study; and then practice there.
Jonson again refers to 'the Academies' (apparently schools of
deportment or dancing schools) in 3. 5. 33.
=2. 8. 33 Oracle-Foreman. = See note 1. 2. 2.
=2. 8. 59 any thing takes this dottrel. = See note 2. 2. 49-50.
=2. 8. 64 Dicke Robinson. = Collier says: 'This player may have
been an original actor in some of Shakespeare's later dramas, and
he just outlived the complete and final suppression of the stage. '
His death and the date at which it occurred have been matters of
dispute.
His earliest appearance in any list of actors is at the end of
Jonson's _Catiline_, 1611, with the King's Majesty's Servants.
He was probably the youngest member of the company, and
doubtless sustained a female part. Gifford believes that he took
the part of Wittipol in the present play, though this is merely
a conjecture. 'The only female character he is known to have
filled is the lady of Giovanus in _The Second Maiden's Tragedy_,
but at what date is uncertain; neither do we know at what period
he began to represent male characters. ' Of the plays in which
he acted, Collier mentions Beaumont and Fletcher's _Bonduca_,
_Double Marriage_, _Wife for a Month_, and _Wild Goose Chase_
(1621); and Webster's _Duchess of Malfi_, 1622.
His name is found in the patent granted by James I. in 1619 and
in that granted by Charles I. in 1625. Between 1629 and 1647 no
notice of him occurs, and this is the last date at which we hear of
him. 'His name follows that of Lowin in the dedication to the folio
of Beaumont and Fletcher's works, published at that time. '--Collier,
_Memoirs_, p. 268.
Jonson not infrequently refers to contemporary actors. Compare
the _Epitaph on Salathiel Pavy_, _Ep. _ 120; the speech of Venus
in _The Masque of Christmas_, _Wks. _ 7. 263; and the reference
to Field and Burbage in _Bart. Fair_ 5. 3.
=2. 8. 73 send frolicks! = '_Frolics_ are couplets,
commonly of an amatory or satirical nature, written on small
slips of paper, and wrapt round a sweetmeat. A dish of them is
usually placed on the table after supper, and the guests amuse
themselves with sending them to one another, as circumstances
seem to render them appropriate: this is occasionally productive
of much mirth. I do not believe that the game is to be found in
England; though the drawing on Twelfth Night may be thought to
bear some kind of coarse resemblance to it. On the continent I
have frequently been present at it. '--G.
The _NED. _ gives only one more example, from R. H. _Arraignm. _
_Whole Creature XIV. _ ? 2. 244 (1631) 'Moveable as Shittlecockes
. . . or as Frolicks at Feasts, sent from man to man, returning
againe at last, to the first man. '
=2. 8. 74, 5 burst your buttons, or not left you seame. =
Cf. _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 359: 'he breaks his buttons,
and cracks seams at every saying he sobs out. '
=2. 8. 95, 103. = See variants.
=2. 8. 100 A Forrest moues not. = 'I suppose Trains means,
"It is in vain to tell him of venison and pheasant, the right
to the bucks in a whole forest will not move him. "'--C.
=2. 8. 100 that forty pound. = See 3. 3. 148.
=2. 8. 102 your bond Of Sixe; and Statute of eight
hundred! = I. e. , of six, and eight hundred pounds. 'Statutes
merchant, statutes staple, and recognizances in the nature of
a statute staple were acknowledgements of debt made in writing
before officers appointed for that purpose, and enrolled of
record. They bound the lands of the debtor; and execution
was awarded upon them upon default in payment without the
ordinary process of an action. These securities were originally
introduced for the encouragement of trade, by providing a sure
and speedy remedy for the recovery of debts between merchants,
and afterwards became common assurances, but have now become
obsolete. '--S. M. Leake, _Law of Contracts_, p. 95.
Two of Pecunia's attendants in _The Staple of News_ are
_Statute_ and _Band_ (i. e. Bond, see _U. _ 34).
The two words are often mentioned together. In Dekker's
_Bankrouts Banquet_ (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 3. 371)
statutes are served up to the bankrupts.
Trains is evidently trying to impress Fitzdottrel with the
importance of Merecraft's transactions.
ACT III.
=3. 1. 8 Innes of Court. = 'The four Inns of Court, Gray's
Inn, Lincoln's Inn, the Inner, and the Middle Temple, have alone
the right of admitting persons to practise as barristers, and
that rank can only be attained by keeping the requisite number
of terms as a student at one of those Inns. '--Wh-C.
Jonson dedicates _Every Man out of his Humor_ 'To the Noblest
Nurseries of Humanity and Liberty in the Kingdom, the Inns of Court. '
=3. 1. 10 a good man. = Gifford quotes _Merch. of Ven. _
1. 3. 15: 'My meaning in saying he is a good man, is, to have
you understand me, that he is sufficient. ' Marston, _Dutch
Courtesan_, _Wks. _ 2. 57. uses the word in the same sense.
=3. 1. 20 our two Pounds, the Compters. = The London
Compters or Counters were two sheriff's prisons for debtors,
etc.
, mentioned as early as the 15th century. In Jonson's day
they were the Poultry Counter and the Wood Street Counter. They
were long a standing joke with the dramatists, who seem to
speak from a personal acquaintance with them. Dekker (_Roaring
Girle_, _Wks. _ 3. 189) speaks of 'Wood Street College,' and
Middleton (_Phoenix_, _Wks. _ 1. 192) calls them 'two most famous
universities' and in another place 'the two city hazards,
Poultry and Wood Street. ' Jonson in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1.
42) speaks of them again as 'your city pounds, the counters',
and in _Every man out_ refers to the 'Master's side' (_Wks_. 2.
181) and the 'two-penny ward,' the designations for the cheaper
quarters of the prison.
=3. 1. 35 out of rerum natura. = _In rerum natura_ is a
phrase used by Lucretius 1. 25. It means, according to the
_Stanford Dictionary_, 'in the nature of things, in the physical
universe. ' In some cases it is practically equivalent to 'in
existence. ' Cf. _Sil. Wom. _, _Wks. _ 3. 382: 'Is the bull, bear,
and horse, in _rerum natura_ still? '
=3. 2. 12 a long vacation. = The long vacation in the Inns
of Court, which Jonson had in mind, lasts from Aug. 13 to Oct.
23. In _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 170, he makes a similar
thrust at the shop-keepers:
Alas I they have had a pitiful hard time on't,
A long vacation from their cozening.
=3. 2. 22 I bought Plutarch's liues. = T. North's famous
translation first appeared in 1579. New editions followed in
1595, 1603, 1610-12, and 1631.
=3. 2. 33 Buy him a Captaines place. = The City Train Bands
were a constant subject of ridicule for the dramatists. They are
especially well caricatured by Fletcher in _The Knight of the
Burning Pestle_, Act 5. In addition to the City Train Bands,
the Fraternity of Artillery, now called The Honorable Artillery
Company, formed a separate organization. The place of practice
was the Artillery Garden in Bunhill Fields (see note 3. 2. 41).
In spite of ridicule the Train Bands proved a source of strength
during the Civil War (see Clarendon, _Hist. of the Rebellion_,
ed. 1826, 4. 236 and Wh-C. , _Artillery Ground_).
Jonson was fond of poking fun at the Train Bands. Cf. _U. _ 62,
_Wks. _ 8. 409; _Ev. Man in_, _Wks. _ 1. 88; and _Alchemist_,
_Wks. _ 4. 13. Face, it will be remembered, had been 'translated
suburb-captain' through Subtle's influence.
The immediate occasion of Jonson's satire was doubtless the
revival of military enthusiasm in 1614, of which Entick
(_Survey_ 2. 115) gives the following account:
'The military genius of the _Londoners_ met with an opportunity,
about this time, to convince the world that they still retained the
spirit of their forefathers, should they be called out in the cause
of their king and country. His majesty having commanded a general
muster of the militia throughout the kingdom, the city of _London_
not only mustered 6000 citizens completely armed, who performed their
several evolutions with surprizing dexterity; but a martial spirit
appeared amongst the rising generation. The children endeavoured
to imitate their parents; chose officers, formed themselves into
companies, marched often into the fields with colours flying and beat
of drums, and there, by frequent practice, grew up expert in the
military exercises. '
=3. 2. 35 Cheapside. = Originally Cheap, or West Cheap, a street
between the Poultry and St. Paul's, a portion of the line from
Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange, and from Holborn to the
Bank of England.
'At the west end of this Poultrie and also of Buckles bury, beginneth
the large street of West Cheaping, a market-place so called, which
street stretcheth west till ye come to the little conduit by Paule's
Gate. '--Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 99.
The glory of Cheapside was Goldsmith's Row (see note 3. 5. 2).
It was also famous in early times for its 'Ridings,' and during
Jonson's period for its 'Cross,' its 'Conduit,' and its 'Standard'
(see note 1. 1. 56 and Wh--C. ).
=3. 2. 35 Scarfes. = 'Much worn by knights and military
officers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. '--Planche.
=3. 2. 35 Cornehill. = Cornhill, between the Poultry and Leadenhall
Street, an important portion of the greatest thoroughfare in the
world, was, says Stow, 'so called of a corn market time out of mind
there holden. ' In later years it was provided with a pillory and
stocks, a prison, called the Tun, for street offenders, a conduit of
'sweet water', and a standard. See Wh-C.
=3. 2. 38 the posture booke. = A book descriptive of military
evolutions, etc. H. Peacham's _Compleat Gentleman_, 1627 (p. 300,
quoted by Wheatley, _Ev. Mall in_), gives a long list of 'Postures of
the Musquet' and G. Markham's _Souldier's Accidence_ gives another.
Cf. _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _ 6. 218:
--All the postures
Of the train'd bands of the country.
=3. 2. 41 Finsbury. = In 1498, 'certain grounds, consisting of
gardens, orchards, &c. on the north side of _Chiswell-street_, and
called _Bunhill_ or _Bunhill-fields_, within the manor of _Finsbury_,
were by the mayor and commonalty of _London_, converted into a large
field, containing 11 acres, and 11 perches, now known by the name
of the _Artillery-ground_, for their train-bands, archers, and other
military citizens, to exercise in. '--Entick, _Survey_ 1. 441.
In 1610 the place had become neglected, whereupon commissioners were
appointed to reduce it 'into such order and state for the archers as
they were in the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII. ' (_Ibid. _
2. 109). See also Stow, _Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 159.
Dekker (_Shomaker's Holiday_, _Wks. _ 1. 29) speaks of being
'turnd to a Turk, and set in Finsburie for boyes to shoot at',
and Nash (_Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks. _ 2. 128) and Jonson (_Bart.
Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 507) make precisely similar references. Master
Stephen in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1. 10) objects to keeping
company with the 'archers of Finsbury. ' Cf. also the elaborate
satire in _U. _ 62, (_Wks. _ 8. 409).
=3. 2. 45 to traine the youth=
=Of London, in the military truth. = Cf. _Underwoods_ 62:
Thou seed-plot of the war! that hast not spar'd
Powder or paper to bring up the youth
Of London, in the military truth.
Gifford believes these lines to be taken from a contemporary
posture-book, but there is no evidence of quotation in the case
of _Underwoods_.
=3. 3. 22, 3 This comes of wearing=
=Scarlet, gold lace, and cut-works! = etc. Webster has a passage very
similar to this in the _Devil's Law Case_, _Wks. _ 2. 37 f. :
'_Ari. _ This comes of your numerous wardrobe.
_Rom. _ Ay, and wearing cut-work, a pound a purl.
_Ari. _ Your dainty embroidered stockings, with overblown roses,
to hide your gouty ankles.
_Rom. _ And wearing more taffata for a garter, than would serve
the galley dung-boat for streamers. . . .
_Rom. _ And resorting to your whore in hired velvet with a
spangled copper fringe at her netherlands.
_Ari. _ Whereas if you had stayed at Padua, and fed upon cow-trotters,
and fresh beef to supper. ' etc. , etc.
For 'cut-works' see note 1. 1. 128.
=3. 3. 24 With your blowne roses. = Compare 1. 1. 127,
and B. & Fl. , _Cupid's Revenge_:
No man to warm your shirt, and blow your roses.
and Jonson, _Ep. _ 97, _Wks. _ 8. 201:
His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown.
=3. 3. 25 Godwit. = The godwit was formerly in great repute as a table
delicacy. Thomas Muffett in _Health's Improvement_, p. 99, says:
'A fat godwit is so fine and light meat, that noblemen (yea, and
merchants too, by your leave) stick not to buy them at four nobles a
dozen. '
Cf. also Sir T. Browne, _Norf. Birds_, _Wks. _, 1835, 4. 319: God-wyts
. . .
opprobrium. Cf. Dekker, _Satiromastix_, _Wks. _ 1. 195: 'Shal
distaste euery vnsalted line, in their fly-blowne Comedies. '
Jonson is very fond of this metaphor, and presses it beyond all
endurance in _New Inn_, Act 2. Sc. 2, _Wks. _ 5. 344, 5, etc.
=2. 7. 13 I am resolu'd on't, Sir. = See variants. Gifford
points out the quibble on the word _resolved_. See Gloss.
=2. 7. 17 O! I could shoote mine eyes at him. = Cf. _Fox_,
_Wks. _ 3. 305: 'That I could shoot mine eyes at him, like
gun-stones! '
=2. 7. 22. = See variants. The _the_ is probably absorbed by
the preceding dental. Cf. 5. 7. 9.
=2. 7. 33 fine pac'd huishers. = See note 4. 4. 201.
=2. 7. 38 turn'd my good affection. = 'Not diverted or
changed its course; but, as appears from what follows, soured
it. The word is used in a similar sense by Shakespeare:
Has friendship such a faint and _milky_ heart,
It turns in less than two nights!
_Timon_, 3. 2. '--G.
=2. 8. 9, 10 That was your bed-fellow. = Ingine, perhaps in
anticipation of Fitzdottrel's advancement, employs a term usually
applied to the nobility. Cf. _K. Henry V. _ 2. 2. 8:
Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,
Whom he had cloy'd and grac'd with princely favors.
Steevens in a note on the passage points out that the familiar
appellation of _bedfellow_, which appears strange to us, was
common among the ancient nobility. ' He quotes from _A Knack
to know a Knave_, 1594; _Look about you_, 1600; _Cynthia's
Revenge_, 1613; etc. , where the expression is used in the sense
of 'intimate companion' and applied to nobles. Jonson uses the
term _chamberfellow_ in _Underwoods_, _Wks. _ 8. 353.
=2. 8. 20 An Academy. = With this passage compare _U. _ 62,
_Wks. _ 8. 412:
--There is up of late
The Academy, where the gallants meet--
What! to make legs? yes, and to smell most sweet:
All that they do at plays. O but first here
They learn and study; and then practice there.
Jonson again refers to 'the Academies' (apparently schools of
deportment or dancing schools) in 3. 5. 33.
=2. 8. 33 Oracle-Foreman. = See note 1. 2. 2.
=2. 8. 59 any thing takes this dottrel. = See note 2. 2. 49-50.
=2. 8. 64 Dicke Robinson. = Collier says: 'This player may have
been an original actor in some of Shakespeare's later dramas, and
he just outlived the complete and final suppression of the stage. '
His death and the date at which it occurred have been matters of
dispute.
His earliest appearance in any list of actors is at the end of
Jonson's _Catiline_, 1611, with the King's Majesty's Servants.
He was probably the youngest member of the company, and
doubtless sustained a female part. Gifford believes that he took
the part of Wittipol in the present play, though this is merely
a conjecture. 'The only female character he is known to have
filled is the lady of Giovanus in _The Second Maiden's Tragedy_,
but at what date is uncertain; neither do we know at what period
he began to represent male characters. ' Of the plays in which
he acted, Collier mentions Beaumont and Fletcher's _Bonduca_,
_Double Marriage_, _Wife for a Month_, and _Wild Goose Chase_
(1621); and Webster's _Duchess of Malfi_, 1622.
His name is found in the patent granted by James I. in 1619 and
in that granted by Charles I. in 1625. Between 1629 and 1647 no
notice of him occurs, and this is the last date at which we hear of
him. 'His name follows that of Lowin in the dedication to the folio
of Beaumont and Fletcher's works, published at that time. '--Collier,
_Memoirs_, p. 268.
Jonson not infrequently refers to contemporary actors. Compare
the _Epitaph on Salathiel Pavy_, _Ep. _ 120; the speech of Venus
in _The Masque of Christmas_, _Wks. _ 7. 263; and the reference
to Field and Burbage in _Bart. Fair_ 5. 3.
=2. 8. 73 send frolicks! = '_Frolics_ are couplets,
commonly of an amatory or satirical nature, written on small
slips of paper, and wrapt round a sweetmeat. A dish of them is
usually placed on the table after supper, and the guests amuse
themselves with sending them to one another, as circumstances
seem to render them appropriate: this is occasionally productive
of much mirth. I do not believe that the game is to be found in
England; though the drawing on Twelfth Night may be thought to
bear some kind of coarse resemblance to it. On the continent I
have frequently been present at it. '--G.
The _NED. _ gives only one more example, from R. H. _Arraignm. _
_Whole Creature XIV. _ ? 2. 244 (1631) 'Moveable as Shittlecockes
. . . or as Frolicks at Feasts, sent from man to man, returning
againe at last, to the first man. '
=2. 8. 74, 5 burst your buttons, or not left you seame. =
Cf. _Bart. Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 359: 'he breaks his buttons,
and cracks seams at every saying he sobs out. '
=2. 8. 95, 103. = See variants.
=2. 8. 100 A Forrest moues not. = 'I suppose Trains means,
"It is in vain to tell him of venison and pheasant, the right
to the bucks in a whole forest will not move him. "'--C.
=2. 8. 100 that forty pound. = See 3. 3. 148.
=2. 8. 102 your bond Of Sixe; and Statute of eight
hundred! = I. e. , of six, and eight hundred pounds. 'Statutes
merchant, statutes staple, and recognizances in the nature of
a statute staple were acknowledgements of debt made in writing
before officers appointed for that purpose, and enrolled of
record. They bound the lands of the debtor; and execution
was awarded upon them upon default in payment without the
ordinary process of an action. These securities were originally
introduced for the encouragement of trade, by providing a sure
and speedy remedy for the recovery of debts between merchants,
and afterwards became common assurances, but have now become
obsolete. '--S. M. Leake, _Law of Contracts_, p. 95.
Two of Pecunia's attendants in _The Staple of News_ are
_Statute_ and _Band_ (i. e. Bond, see _U. _ 34).
The two words are often mentioned together. In Dekker's
_Bankrouts Banquet_ (_Non-dram. Wks. _ 3. 371)
statutes are served up to the bankrupts.
Trains is evidently trying to impress Fitzdottrel with the
importance of Merecraft's transactions.
ACT III.
=3. 1. 8 Innes of Court. = 'The four Inns of Court, Gray's
Inn, Lincoln's Inn, the Inner, and the Middle Temple, have alone
the right of admitting persons to practise as barristers, and
that rank can only be attained by keeping the requisite number
of terms as a student at one of those Inns. '--Wh-C.
Jonson dedicates _Every Man out of his Humor_ 'To the Noblest
Nurseries of Humanity and Liberty in the Kingdom, the Inns of Court. '
=3. 1. 10 a good man. = Gifford quotes _Merch. of Ven. _
1. 3. 15: 'My meaning in saying he is a good man, is, to have
you understand me, that he is sufficient. ' Marston, _Dutch
Courtesan_, _Wks. _ 2. 57. uses the word in the same sense.
=3. 1. 20 our two Pounds, the Compters. = The London
Compters or Counters were two sheriff's prisons for debtors,
etc.
, mentioned as early as the 15th century. In Jonson's day
they were the Poultry Counter and the Wood Street Counter. They
were long a standing joke with the dramatists, who seem to
speak from a personal acquaintance with them. Dekker (_Roaring
Girle_, _Wks. _ 3. 189) speaks of 'Wood Street College,' and
Middleton (_Phoenix_, _Wks. _ 1. 192) calls them 'two most famous
universities' and in another place 'the two city hazards,
Poultry and Wood Street. ' Jonson in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1.
42) speaks of them again as 'your city pounds, the counters',
and in _Every man out_ refers to the 'Master's side' (_Wks_. 2.
181) and the 'two-penny ward,' the designations for the cheaper
quarters of the prison.
=3. 1. 35 out of rerum natura. = _In rerum natura_ is a
phrase used by Lucretius 1. 25. It means, according to the
_Stanford Dictionary_, 'in the nature of things, in the physical
universe. ' In some cases it is practically equivalent to 'in
existence. ' Cf. _Sil. Wom. _, _Wks. _ 3. 382: 'Is the bull, bear,
and horse, in _rerum natura_ still? '
=3. 2. 12 a long vacation. = The long vacation in the Inns
of Court, which Jonson had in mind, lasts from Aug. 13 to Oct.
23. In _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 170, he makes a similar
thrust at the shop-keepers:
Alas I they have had a pitiful hard time on't,
A long vacation from their cozening.
=3. 2. 22 I bought Plutarch's liues. = T. North's famous
translation first appeared in 1579. New editions followed in
1595, 1603, 1610-12, and 1631.
=3. 2. 33 Buy him a Captaines place. = The City Train Bands
were a constant subject of ridicule for the dramatists. They are
especially well caricatured by Fletcher in _The Knight of the
Burning Pestle_, Act 5. In addition to the City Train Bands,
the Fraternity of Artillery, now called The Honorable Artillery
Company, formed a separate organization. The place of practice
was the Artillery Garden in Bunhill Fields (see note 3. 2. 41).
In spite of ridicule the Train Bands proved a source of strength
during the Civil War (see Clarendon, _Hist. of the Rebellion_,
ed. 1826, 4. 236 and Wh-C. , _Artillery Ground_).
Jonson was fond of poking fun at the Train Bands. Cf. _U. _ 62,
_Wks. _ 8. 409; _Ev. Man in_, _Wks. _ 1. 88; and _Alchemist_,
_Wks. _ 4. 13. Face, it will be remembered, had been 'translated
suburb-captain' through Subtle's influence.
The immediate occasion of Jonson's satire was doubtless the
revival of military enthusiasm in 1614, of which Entick
(_Survey_ 2. 115) gives the following account:
'The military genius of the _Londoners_ met with an opportunity,
about this time, to convince the world that they still retained the
spirit of their forefathers, should they be called out in the cause
of their king and country. His majesty having commanded a general
muster of the militia throughout the kingdom, the city of _London_
not only mustered 6000 citizens completely armed, who performed their
several evolutions with surprizing dexterity; but a martial spirit
appeared amongst the rising generation. The children endeavoured
to imitate their parents; chose officers, formed themselves into
companies, marched often into the fields with colours flying and beat
of drums, and there, by frequent practice, grew up expert in the
military exercises. '
=3. 2. 35 Cheapside. = Originally Cheap, or West Cheap, a street
between the Poultry and St. Paul's, a portion of the line from
Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange, and from Holborn to the
Bank of England.
'At the west end of this Poultrie and also of Buckles bury, beginneth
the large street of West Cheaping, a market-place so called, which
street stretcheth west till ye come to the little conduit by Paule's
Gate. '--Stow, ed. Thoms, p. 99.
The glory of Cheapside was Goldsmith's Row (see note 3. 5. 2).
It was also famous in early times for its 'Ridings,' and during
Jonson's period for its 'Cross,' its 'Conduit,' and its 'Standard'
(see note 1. 1. 56 and Wh--C. ).
=3. 2. 35 Scarfes. = 'Much worn by knights and military
officers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. '--Planche.
=3. 2. 35 Cornehill. = Cornhill, between the Poultry and Leadenhall
Street, an important portion of the greatest thoroughfare in the
world, was, says Stow, 'so called of a corn market time out of mind
there holden. ' In later years it was provided with a pillory and
stocks, a prison, called the Tun, for street offenders, a conduit of
'sweet water', and a standard. See Wh-C.
=3. 2. 38 the posture booke. = A book descriptive of military
evolutions, etc. H. Peacham's _Compleat Gentleman_, 1627 (p. 300,
quoted by Wheatley, _Ev. Mall in_), gives a long list of 'Postures of
the Musquet' and G. Markham's _Souldier's Accidence_ gives another.
Cf. _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _ 6. 218:
--All the postures
Of the train'd bands of the country.
=3. 2. 41 Finsbury. = In 1498, 'certain grounds, consisting of
gardens, orchards, &c. on the north side of _Chiswell-street_, and
called _Bunhill_ or _Bunhill-fields_, within the manor of _Finsbury_,
were by the mayor and commonalty of _London_, converted into a large
field, containing 11 acres, and 11 perches, now known by the name
of the _Artillery-ground_, for their train-bands, archers, and other
military citizens, to exercise in. '--Entick, _Survey_ 1. 441.
In 1610 the place had become neglected, whereupon commissioners were
appointed to reduce it 'into such order and state for the archers as
they were in the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII. ' (_Ibid. _
2. 109). See also Stow, _Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 159.
Dekker (_Shomaker's Holiday_, _Wks. _ 1. 29) speaks of being
'turnd to a Turk, and set in Finsburie for boyes to shoot at',
and Nash (_Pierce Pennilesse_, _Wks. _ 2. 128) and Jonson (_Bart.
Fair_, _Wks. _ 4. 507) make precisely similar references. Master
Stephen in _Every Man in_ (_Wks. _ 1. 10) objects to keeping
company with the 'archers of Finsbury. ' Cf. also the elaborate
satire in _U. _ 62, (_Wks. _ 8. 409).
=3. 2. 45 to traine the youth=
=Of London, in the military truth. = Cf. _Underwoods_ 62:
Thou seed-plot of the war! that hast not spar'd
Powder or paper to bring up the youth
Of London, in the military truth.
Gifford believes these lines to be taken from a contemporary
posture-book, but there is no evidence of quotation in the case
of _Underwoods_.
=3. 3. 22, 3 This comes of wearing=
=Scarlet, gold lace, and cut-works! = etc. Webster has a passage very
similar to this in the _Devil's Law Case_, _Wks. _ 2. 37 f. :
'_Ari. _ This comes of your numerous wardrobe.
_Rom. _ Ay, and wearing cut-work, a pound a purl.
_Ari. _ Your dainty embroidered stockings, with overblown roses,
to hide your gouty ankles.
_Rom. _ And wearing more taffata for a garter, than would serve
the galley dung-boat for streamers. . . .
_Rom. _ And resorting to your whore in hired velvet with a
spangled copper fringe at her netherlands.
_Ari. _ Whereas if you had stayed at Padua, and fed upon cow-trotters,
and fresh beef to supper. ' etc. , etc.
For 'cut-works' see note 1. 1. 128.
=3. 3. 24 With your blowne roses. = Compare 1. 1. 127,
and B. & Fl. , _Cupid's Revenge_:
No man to warm your shirt, and blow your roses.
and Jonson, _Ep. _ 97, _Wks. _ 8. 201:
His rosy ties and garters so o'erblown.
=3. 3. 25 Godwit. = The godwit was formerly in great repute as a table
delicacy. Thomas Muffett in _Health's Improvement_, p. 99, says:
'A fat godwit is so fine and light meat, that noblemen (yea, and
merchants too, by your leave) stick not to buy them at four nobles a
dozen. '
Cf. also Sir T. Browne, _Norf. Birds_, _Wks. _, 1835, 4. 319: God-wyts
. . .
