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diff --git a/old/emihh10a.txt b/old/emihh10a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f3feed --- /dev/null +++ b/old/emihh10a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9502 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Man In His Humor, by Ben Jonson +#10 in our series by Ben Jonson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Every Man In His Humor + (The Anglicized Edition) + +Author: Ben Jonson + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5333] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR *** + + + + +This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared Down Under In Australia by: +Amy E Zelmer <amy@zelmeroz.com> +Sue Asscher <asschers@bigpond.com> +In connivance with their Californian co-conspirator +Robert Prince <rkp277@msn.com> + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +THE greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first +literary dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, +satire, and criticism who most potently of all the men of his time +affected the subsequent course of English letters: such was Ben +Jonson, and as such his strong personality assumes an interest to +us almost unparalleled, at least in his age. + +Ben Jonson came of the stock that was centuries after to give to +the world Thomas Carlyle; for Jonson's grandfather was of +Annandale, over the Solway, whence he migrated to England. +Jonson's father lost his estate under Queen Mary, "having been cast +into prison and forfeited." He entered the church, but died a +month before his illustrious son was born, leaving his widow and +child in poverty. Jonson's birthplace was Westminster, and the +time of his birth early in 1573. He was thus nearly ten years +Shakespeare's junior, and less well off, if a trifle better born. +But Jonson did not profit even by this slight advantage. His +mother married beneath her, a wright or bricklayer, and Jonson was +for a time apprenticed to the trade. As a youth he attracted the +attention of the famous antiquary, William Camden, then usher at +Westminster School, and there the poet laid the solid foundations +of his classical learning. Jonson always held Camden in +veneration, acknowledging that to him he owed, + +"All that I am in arts, all that I know:" + +and dedicating his first dramatic success, "Every Man in His +Humour," to him. It is doubtful whether Jonson ever went to either +university, though Fuller says that he was "statutably admitted +into St. John's College, Cambridge." He tells us that he took no +degree, but was later "Master of Arts in both the universities, by +their favour, not his study." When a mere youth Jonson enlisted as +a soldier trailing his pike in Flanders in the protracted wars of +William the Silent against the Spanish. Jonson was a large and +raw-boned lad; he became by his own account in time exceedingly +bulky. In chat with his friend William Drummond of Hawthornden, +Jonson told how "in his service in the Low Countries he had, in the +face of both the camps, killed an enemy, and taken 'opima spolia' +from him;" and how "since his coming to England, being appealed to +the fields, he had killed his adversary which had hurt him in the +arm and whose sword was ten inches longer than his." Jonson's +reach may have made up for the lack of his sword; certainly his +prowess lost nothing in the telling. Obviously Jonson was brave, +combative, and not averse to talking of himself and his doings. + +In 1592, Jonson returned from abroad penniless. Soon after he +married, almost as early and quite as imprudently as Shakespeare. +He told Drummond curtly that "his wife was a shrew, yet honest"; +for some years he lived apart from her in the household of Lord +Albany. Yet two touching epitaphs among Jonson's 'Epigrams', "On +my first daughter," and "On my first son," attest the warmth of the +poet's family affections. The daughter died in infancy, the son of +the plague; another son grew up to manhood little credit to his +father whom he survived. We know nothing beyond this of Jonson's +domestic life. + +How soon Jonson drifted into what we now call grandly "the theatrical +profession" we do not know. In 1593 Marlowe made his tragic exit from +life, and Greene, Shakespeare's other rival on the popular stage, had +preceded Marlowe in an equally miserable death the year before. +Shakespeare already had the running to himself. Jonson appears first +in the employment of Philip Henslowe, the exploiter of several +troupes of players, manager, and father-in-law of the famous actor, +Edward Alleyn. From entries in 'Henslowe's Diary', a species of +theatrical account book which has been handed down to us, we know +that Jonson was connected with the Admiral's men; for he borrowed 4 +pounds of Henslowe, July 28, 1597, paying back 3s. 9d. on the same +day on account of his "share" (in what is not altogether clear); +while later, on December 3, of the same year, Henslowe advanced 20s. +to him "upon a book which he showed the plot unto the company which +he promised to deliver unto the company at Christmas next." In the +next August Jonson was in collaboration with Chettle and Porter in a +play called "Hot Anger Soon Cold." All this points to an association +with Henslowe of some duration, as no mere tyro would be thus paid in +advance upon mere promise. From allusions in Dekker's play, +"Satiromastix," it appears that Jonson, like Shakespeare, began life +as an actor, and that he "ambled in a leather pitch by a play-wagon" +taking at one time the part of Hieronimo in Kyd's famous play, "The +Spanish Tragedy." By the beginning of 1598, Jonson, though still in +needy circumstances, had begun to receive recognition. Francis +Meres--well known for his "Comparative Discourse of our English Poets +with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets," printed in 1598, and for +his mention therein of a dozen plays of Shakespeare by title +--accords to Ben Jonson a place as one of "our best in tragedy," a +matter of some surprise, as no known tragedy of Jonson from so early +a date has come down to us. That Jonson was at work on tragedy, +however, is proved by the entries in Henslowe of at least three +tragedies, now lost, in which he had a hand. These are "Page of +Plymouth," "King Robert II. of Scotland," and "Richard Crookback." +But all of these came later, on his return to Henslowe, and range +from August 1599 to June 1602. + +Returning to the autumn of 1598, an event now happened to sever for +a time Jonson's relations with Henslowe. In a letter to Alleyn, +dated September 26 of that year, Henslowe writes: "I have lost one +of my company that hurteth me greatly; that is Gabriel [Spencer], +for he is slain in Hogsden fields by the hands of Benjamin Jonson, +bricklayer." The last word is perhaps Henslowe's thrust at Jonson +in his displeasure rather than a designation of his actual +continuance at his trade up to this time. It is fair to Jonson to +remark however, that his adversary appears to have been a notorious +fire-eater who had shortly before killed one Feeke in a similar +squabble. Duelling was a frequent occurrence of the time among +gentlemen and the nobility; it was an imprudent breach of the peace +on the part of a player. This duel is the one which Jonson +described years after to Drummond, and for it Jonson was duly +arraigned at Old Bailey, tried, and convicted. He was sent to +prison and such goods and chattels as he had "were forfeited." It +is a thought to give one pause that, but for the ancient law +permitting convicted felons to plead, as it was called, the benefit +of clergy, Jonson might have been hanged for this deed. The +circumstance that the poet could read and write saved him; and he +received only a brand of the letter "T," for Tyburn, on his left +thumb. While in jail Jonson became a Roman Catholic; but he +returned to the faith of the Church of England a dozen years later. + +On his release, in disgrace with Henslowe and his former +associates, Jonson offered his services as a playwright to +Henslowe's rivals, the Lord Chamberlain's company, in which +Shakespeare was a prominent shareholder. A tradition of long +standing, though not susceptible of proof in a court of law, +narrates that Jonson had submitted the manuscript of "Every Man in +His Humour" to the Chamberlain's men and had received from the +company a refusal; that Shakespeare called him back, read the play +himself, and at once accepted it. Whether this story is true or +not, certain it is that "Every Man in His Humour" was accepted by +Shakespeare's company and acted for the first time in 1598, with +Shakespeare taking a part. The evidence of this is contained in +the list of actors prefixed to the comedy in the folio of Jonson's +works, 1616. But it is a mistake to infer, because Shakespeare's +name stands first in the list of actors and the elder Kno'well +first in the 'dramatis personae', that Shakespeare took that +particular part. The order of a list of Elizabethan players was +generally that of their importance or priority as shareholders in +the company and seldom if ever corresponded to the list of +characters. + +"Every Man in His Humour" was an immediate success, and with it +Jonson's reputation as one of the leading dramatists of his time +was established once and for all. This could have been by no means +Jonson's earliest comedy, and we have just learned that he was +already reputed one of "our best in tragedy." Indeed, one of +Jonson's extant comedies, "The Case is Altered," but one never +claimed by him or published as his, must certainly have preceded +"Every Man in His Humour" on the stage. The former play may be +described as a comedy modelled on the Latin plays of Plautus. (It +combines, in fact, situations derived from the "Captivi" and the +"Aulularia" of that dramatist). But the pretty story of the +beggar-maiden, Rachel, and her suitors, Jonson found, not among the +classics, but in the ideals of romantic love which Shakespeare had +already popularised on the stage. Jonson never again produced so +fresh and lovable a feminine personage as Rachel, although in other +respects "The Case is Altered" is not a conspicuous play, and, save +for the satirising of Antony Munday in the person of Antonio +Balladino and Gabriel Harvey as well, is perhaps the least +characteristic of the comedies of Jonson. + +"Every Man in His Humour," probably first acted late in the summer +of 1598 and at the Curtain, is commonly regarded as an epoch-making +play; and this view is not unjustified. As to plot, it tells +little more than how an intercepted letter enabled a father to +follow his supposedly studious son to London, and there observe his +life with the gallants of the time. The real quality of this +comedy is in its personages and in the theory upon which they are +conceived. Ben Jonson had theories about poetry and the drama, and +he was neither chary in talking of them nor in experimenting with +them in his plays. This makes Jonson, like Dryden in his time, and +Wordsworth much later, an author to reckon with; particularly when +we remember that many of Jonson's notions came for a time +definitely to prevail and to modify the whole trend of English +poetry. First of all Jonson was a classicist, that is, he believed +in restraint and precedent in art in opposition to the prevalent +ungoverned and irresponsible Renaissance spirit. Jonson believed +that there was a professional way of doing things which might be +reached by a study of the best examples, and he found these +examples for the most part among the ancients. To confine our +attention to the drama, Jonson objected to the amateurishness and +haphazard nature of many contemporary plays, and set himself to do +something different; and the first and most striking thing that he +evolved was his conception and practice of the comedy of humours. + +As Jonson has been much misrepresented in this matter, let us quote +his own words as to "humour." A humour, according to Jonson, was a +bias of disposition, a warp, so to speak, in character by which + + "Some one peculiar quality + Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw + All his affects, his spirits, and his powers, + In their confluctions, all to run one way." + +But continuing, Jonson is careful to add: + + "But that a rook by wearing a pied feather, + The cable hat-band, or the three-piled ruff, + A yard of shoe-tie, or the Switzers knot + On his French garters, should affect a humour! + O, it is more than most ridiculous." + + +Jonson's comedy of humours, in a word, conceived of stage +personages on the basis of a ruling trait or passion (a notable +simplification of actual life be it observed in passing); and, +placing these typified traits in juxtaposition in their conflict +and contrast, struck the spark of comedy. Downright, as his name +indicates, is "a plain squire"; Bobadill's humour is that of the +braggart who is incidentally, and with delightfully comic effect, a +coward; Brainworm's humour is the finding out of things to the end +of fooling everybody: of course he is fooled in the end himself. +But it was not Jonson's theories alone that made the success of +"Every Man in His Humour." The play is admirably written and each +character is vividly conceived, and with a firm touch based on +observation of the men of the London of the day. Jonson was +neither in this, his first great comedy (nor in any other play that +he wrote), a supine classicist, urging that English drama return to +a slavish adherence to classical conditions. He says as to the +laws of the old comedy (meaning by "laws," such matters as the +unities of time and place and the use of chorus): "I see not then, +but we should enjoy the same licence, or free power to illustrate +and heighten our invention as they [the ancients] did; and not be +tied to those strict and regular forms which the niceness of a few, +who are nothing but form, would thrust upon us." "Every Man in His +Humour" is written in prose, a novel practice which Jonson had of +his predecessor in comedy, John Lyly. Even the word "humour" seems +to have been employed in the Jonsonian sense by Chapman before +Jonson's use of it. Indeed, the comedy of humours itself is only a +heightened variety of the comedy of manners which represents life, +viewed at a satirical angle, and is the oldest and most persistent +species of comedy in the language. None the less, Jonson's comedy +merited its immediate success and marked out a definite course in +which comedy long continued to run. To mention only Shakespeare's +Falstaff and his rout, Bardolph, Pistol, Dame Quickly, and the +rest, whether in "Henry IV." or in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," +all are conceived in the spirit of humours. So are the captains, +Welsh, Scotch, and Irish of "Henry V.," and Malvolio especially +later; though Shakespeare never employed the method of humours for +an important personage. It was not Jonson's fault that many of his +successors did precisely the thing that he had reprobated, that is, +degrade "the humour: into an oddity of speech, an eccentricity of +manner, of dress, or cut of beard. There was an anonymous play +called "Every Woman in Her Humour." Chapman wrote "A Humourous +Day's Mirth," Day, "Humour Out of Breath," Fletcher later, "The +Humourous Lieutenant," and Jonson, besides "Every Man Out of His +Humour," returned to the title in closing the cycle of his comedies +in "The Magnetic Lady or Humours Reconciled." + +With the performance of "Every Man Out of His Humour" in 1599, by +Shakespeare's company once more at the Globe, we turn a new page in +Jonson's career. Despite his many real virtues, if there is one +feature more than any other that distinguishes Jonson, it is his +arrogance; and to this may be added his self-righteousness, +especially under criticism or satire. "Every Man Out of His +Humour" is the first of three "comical satires" which Jonson +contributed to what Dekker called the 'poetomachia' or war of the +theatres as recent critics have named it. This play as a fabric of +plot is a very slight affair; but as a satirical picture of the +manners of the time, proceeding by means of vivid caricature, +couched in witty and brilliant dialogue and sustained by that +righteous indignation which must lie at the heart of all true +satire--as a realisation, in short, of the classical ideal of +comedy--there had been nothing like Jonson's comedy since the days +of Aristophanes. "Every Man in His Humour," like the two plays +that follow it, contains two kinds of attack, the critical or +generally satiric, levelled at abuses and corruptions in the +abstract; and the personal, in which specific application is made +of all this in the lampooning of poets and others, Jonson's +contemporaries. The method of personal attack by actual caricature +of a person on the stage is almost as old as the drama. +Aristophanes so lampooned Euripides in "The Acharnians" and +Socrates in "The Clouds," to mention no other examples; and in +English drama this kind of thing is alluded to again and again. +What Jonson really did, was to raise the dramatic lampoon to an +art, and make out of a casual burlesque and bit of mimicry a +dramatic satire of literary pretensions and permanency. With the +arrogant attitude mentioned above and his uncommon eloquence in +scorn, vituperation, and invective, it is no wonder that Jonson +soon involved himself in literary and even personal quarrels with +his fellow-authors. The circumstances of the origin of this +'poetomachia' are far from clear, and those who have written on the +topic, except of late, have not helped to make them clearer. The +origin of the "war" has been referred to satirical references, +apparently to Jonson, contained in "The Scourge of Villainy," a +satire in regular form after the manner of the ancients by John +Marston, a fellow playwright, subsequent friend and collaborator of +Jonson's. On the other hand, epigrams of Jonson have been +discovered (49, 68, and 100) variously charging "playwright" +(reasonably identified with Marston) with scurrility, cowardice, +and plagiarism; though the dates of the epigrams cannot be +ascertained with certainty. Jonson's own statement of the matter +to Drummond runs: "He had many quarrels with Marston, beat him, +and took his pistol from him, wrote his 'Poetaster' on him; the +beginning[s] of them were that Marston represented him on the +stage."* + +[footnote] *The best account of this whole subject is to be found +in the edition of 'Poetaster' and 'Satiromastrix' by J. H. Penniman +in 'Belles Lettres Series' shortly to appear. See also his earlier +work, 'The War of the Theatres', 1892, and the excellent +contributions to the subject by H. C. Hart in 'Notes and Queries', +and in his edition of Jonson, 1906. + +Here at least we are on certain ground; and the principals of the +quarrel are known. "Histriomastix," a play revised by Marston in +1598, has been regarded as the one in which Jonson was thus +"represented on the stage"; although the personage in question, +Chrisogonus, a poet, satirist, and translator, poor but proud, and +contemptuous of the common herd, seems rather a complimentary +portrait of Jonson than a caricature. As to the personages +actually ridiculed in "Every Man Out of His Humour," Carlo Buffone +was formerly thought certainly to be Marston, as he was described +as "a public scurrilous, and profane jester," and elsewhere as "the +grand scourge or second untruss [that is, satirist], of the time" +(Joseph Hall being by his own boast the first, and Marston's work +being entitled "The Scourge of Villainy"). Apparently we must now +prefer for Carlo a notorious character named Charles Chester, of +whom gossipy and inaccurate Aubrey relates that he was "a bold +impertinent fellow. . .a perpetual talker and made a noise like a +drum in a room. So one time at a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beats +him and seals up his mouth (that is his upper and nether beard) +with hard wax. From him Ben Jonson takes his Carlo Buffone +['i.e.', jester] in 'Every Man in His Humour' ['sic']." Is it +conceivable that after all Jonson was ridiculing Marston, and that +the point of the satire consisted in an intentional confusion of +"the grand scourge or second untruss" with "the scurrilous and +profane" Chester? + +We have digressed into detail in this particular case to exemplify +the difficulties of criticism in its attempts to identify the +allusions in these forgotten quarrels. We are on sounder ground of +fact in recording other manifestations of Jonson's enmity. In "The +Case is Altered" there is clear ridicule in the character Antonio +Balladino of Anthony Munday, pageant-poet of the city, translator +of romances and playwright as well. In "Every Man in His Humour" +there is certainly a caricature of Samuel Daniel, accepted poet of +the court, sonneteer, and companion of men of fashion. These men +held recognised positions to which Jonson felt his talents better +entitled him; they were hence to him his natural enemies. It seems +almost certain that he pursued both in the personages of his satire +through "Every Man Out of His Humour," and "Cynthia's Revels," +Daniel under the characters Fastidious Brisk and Hedon, Munday as +Puntarvolo and Amorphus; but in these last we venture on quagmire +once more. Jonson's literary rivalry of Daniel is traceable again +and again, in the entertainments that welcomed King James on his +way to London, in the masques at court, and in the pastoral drama. +As to Jonson's personal ambitions with respect to these two men, it +is notable that he became, not pageant-poet, but chronologer to the +City of London; and that, on the accession of the new king, he came +soon to triumph over Daniel as the accepted entertainer of royalty. + +"Cynthia's Revels," the second "comical satire," was acted in 1600, +and, as a play, is even more lengthy, elaborate, and impossible +than "Every Man Out of His Humour." Here personal satire seems to +have absorbed everything, and while much of the caricature is +admirable, especially in the detail of witty and trenchantly +satirical dialogue, the central idea of a fountain of self-love is +not very well carried out, and the persons revert at times to +abstractions, the action to allegory. It adds to our wonder that +this difficult drama should have been acted by the Children of +Queen Elizabeth's Chapel, among them Nathaniel Field with whom +Jonson read Horace and Martial, and whom he taught later how to +make plays. Another of these precocious little actors was +Salathiel Pavy, who died before he was thirteen, already famed for +taking the parts of old men. Him Jonson immortalised in one of the +sweetest of his epitaphs. An interesting sidelight is this on the +character of this redoubtable and rugged satirist, that he should +thus have befriended and tenderly remembered these little +theatrical waifs, some of whom (as we know) had been literally +kidnapped to be pressed into the service of the theatre and whipped +to the conning of their difficult parts. To the caricature of +Daniel and Munday in "Cynthia's Revels" must be added Anaides +(impudence), here assuredly Marston, and Asotus (the prodigal), +interpreted as Lodge or, more perilously, Raleigh. Crites, like +Asper-Macilente in "Every Man Out of His Humour," is Jonson's +self-complaisant portrait of himself, the just, wholly admirable, +and judicious scholar, holding his head high above the pack of the +yelping curs of envy and detraction, but careless of their puny +attacks on his perfections with only too mindful a neglect. + +The third and last of the "comical satires" is "Poetaster," acted, +once more, by the Children of the Chapel in 1601, and Jonson's only +avowed contribution to the fray. According to the author's own +account, this play was written in fifteen weeks on a report that +his enemies had entrusted to Dekker the preparation of +"Satiromastix, the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet," a dramatic +attack upon himself. In this attempt to forestall his enemies +Jonson succeeded, and "Poetaster" was an immediate and deserved +success. While hardly more closely knit in structure than its +earlier companion pieces, "Poetaster" is planned to lead up to the +ludicrous final scene in which, after a device borrowed from the +"Lexiphanes" of Lucian, the offending poetaster, Marston-Crispinus, +is made to throw up the difficult words with which he had +overburdened his stomach as well as overlarded his vocabulary. In +the end Crispinus with his fellow, Dekker-Demetrius, is bound over +to keep the peace and never thenceforward "malign, traduce, or +detract the person or writings of Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Jonson] +or any other eminent man transcending you in merit." One of the +most diverting personages in Jonson's comedy is Captain Tucca. +"His peculiarity" has been well described by Ward as "a buoyant +blackguardism which recovers itself instantaneously from the most +complete exposure, and a picturesqueness of speech like that of a +walking dictionary of slang." + +It was this character, Captain Tucca, that Dekker hit upon in his +reply, "Satiromastix," and he amplified him, turning his abusive +vocabulary back upon Jonson and adding "An immodesty to his +dialogue that did not enter into Jonson's conception." It has been +held, altogether plausibly, that when Dekker was engaged +professionally, so to speak, to write a dramatic reply to Jonson, +he was at work on a species of chronicle history, dealing with the +story of Walter Terill in the reign of William Rufus. This he +hurriedly adapted to include the satirical characters suggested by +"Poetaster," and fashioned to convey the satire of his reply. The +absurdity of placing Horace in the court of a Norman king is the +result. But Dekker's play is not without its palpable hits at the +arrogance, the literary pride, and self-righteousness of +Jonson-Horace, whose "ningle" or pal, the absurd Asinius Bubo, has +recently been shown to figure forth, in all likelihood, Jonson's +friend, the poet Drayton. Slight and hastily adapted as is +"Satiromastix," especially in a comparison with the better wrought +and more significant satire of "Poetaster," the town awarded the +palm to Dekker, not to Jonson; and Jonson gave over in consequence +his practice of "comical satire." Though Jonson was cited to +appear before the Lord Chief Justice to answer certain charges to +the effect that he had attacked lawyers and soldiers in +"Poetaster," nothing came of this complaint. It may be suspected +that much of this furious clatter and give-and-take was pure +playing to the gallery. The town was agog with the strife, and on +no less an authority than Shakespeare ("Hamlet," ii. 2), we learn +that the children's company (acting the plays of Jonson) did "so +berattle the common stages. . .that many, wearing rapiers, are +afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither." + +Several other plays have been thought to bear a greater or less +part in the war of the theatres. Among them the most important is +a college play, entitled "The Return from Parnassus," dating +1601-02. In it a much-quoted passage makes Burbage, as a +character, declare: "Why here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them +all down; aye and Ben Jonson, too. O that Ben Jonson is a +pestilent fellow; he brought up Horace, giving the poets a pill, +but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him +bewray his credit." Was Shakespeare then concerned in this war of +the stages? And what could have been the nature of this "purge"? +Among several suggestions, "Troilus and Cressida" has been thought +by some to be the play in which Shakespeare thus "put down" his +friend, Jonson. A wiser interpretation finds the "purge" in +"Satiromastix," which, though not written by Shakespeare, was +staged by his company, and therefore with his approval and under +his direction as one of the leaders of that company. + +The last years of the reign of Elizabeth thus saw Jonson recognised +as a dramatist second only to Shakespeare, and not second even to +him as a dramatic satirist. But Jonson now turned his talents to +new fields. Plays on subjects derived from classical story and +myth had held the stage from the beginning of the drama, so that +Shakespeare was making no new departure when he wrote his "Julius +Caesar" about 1600. Therefore when Jonson staged "Sejanus," three +years later and with Shakespeare'scompany once more, he was only +following in the elder dramatist's footsteps. But Jonson's idea of +a play on classical history, on the one hand, and Shakespeare's and +the elder popular dramatists, on the other, were very different. +Heywood some years before had put five straggling plays on the +stage in quick succession, all derived from stories in Ovid and +dramatised with little taste or discrimination. Shakespeare had a +finer conception of form, but even he was contented to take all his +ancient history from North's translation of Plutarch and dramatise +his subject without further inquiry. Jonson was a scholar and a +classical antiquarian. He reprobated this slipshod amateurishness, +and wrote his "Sejanus" like a scholar, reading Tacitus, Suetonius, +and other authorities, to be certain of his facts, his setting, and +his atmosphere, and somewhat pedantically noting his authorities in +the margin when he came to print. "Sejanus" is a tragedy of +genuine dramatic power in which is told with discriminating taste +the story of the haughty favourite of Tiberius with his tragical +overthrow. Our drama presents no truer nor more painstaking +representation of ancient Roman life than may be found in Jonson's +"Sejanus" and "Catiline his Conspiracy," which followed in 1611. A +passage in the address of the former play to the reader, in which +Jonson refers to a collaboration in an earlier version, has led to +the surmise that Shakespeare may have been that "worthier pen." +There is no evidence to determine the matter. + +In 1605, we find Jonson in active collaboration with Chapman and +Marston in the admirable comedy of London life entitled "Eastward +Hoe." In the previous year, Marston had dedicated his +"Malcontent," in terms of fervid admiration, to Jonson; so that the +wounds of the war of the theatres must have been long since healed. +Between Jonson and Chapman there was the kinship of similar +scholarly ideals. The two continued friends throughout life. +"Eastward Hoe" achieved the extraordinary popularity represented in +a demand for three issues in one year. But this was not due +entirely to the merits of the play. In its earliest version a +passage which an irritable courtier conceived to be derogatory to +his nation, the Scots, sent both Chapman and Jonson to jail; but +the matter was soon patched up, for by this time Jonson had +influence at court. + +With the accession of King James, Jonson began his long and +successful career as a writer of masques. He wrote more masques +than all his competitors together, and they are of an extraordinary +variety and poetic excellence. Jonson did not invent the masque; +for such premeditated devices to set and frame, so to speak, a +court ball had been known and practised in varying degrees of +elaboration long before his time. But Jonson gave dramatic value +to the masque, especially in his invention of the antimasque, a +comedy or farcical element of relief, entrusted to professional +players or dancers. He enhanced, as well, the beauty and dignity +of those portions of the masque in which noble lords and ladies +took their parts to create, by their gorgeous costumes and artistic +grouping and evolutions, a sumptuous show. On the mechanical and +scenic side Jonson had an inventive and ingenious partner in Inigo +Jones, the royal architect, who more than any one man raised the +standard of stage representation in the England of his day. Jonson +continued active in the service of the court in the writing of +masques and other entertainments far into the reign of King +Charles; but, towards the end, a quarrel with Jones embittered his +life, and the two testy old men appear to have become not only a +constant irritation to each other, but intolerable bores at court. +In "Hymenaei," "The Masque of Queens," "Love Freed from Ignorance," +"Lovers made Men," "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," and many more +will be found Jonson's aptitude, his taste, his poetry and +inventiveness in these by-forms of the drama; while in "The Masque +of Christmas," and "The Gipsies Metamorphosed" especially, is +discoverable that power ofbroad comedy which, at court as well as +in the city, was not the least element of Jonson's contemporary +popularity. + +But Jonson had by no means given up the popular stage when he +turned to the amusement of King James. In 1605 "Volpone" was +produced, "The Silent Woman" in 1609, "The Alchemist" in the +following year. These comedies, with "Bartholomew Fair," 1614, +represent Jonson at his height, and for constructive cleverness, +character successfully conceived in the manner of caricature, wit +and brilliancy of dialogue, they stand alone in English drama. +"Volpone, or the Fox," is, in a sense, a transition play from the +dramatic satires of the war of the theatres to the purer comedy +represented in the plays named above. Its subject is a struggle of +wit applied to chicanery; for among its 'dramatis personae', from +the villainous Fox himself, his rascally servant Mosca, Voltore +(the vulture), Corbaccio and Corvino (the big and the little +raven), to Sir Politic Would-be and the rest, there is scarcely a +virtuous character in the play. Question has been raised as to +whether a story so forbidding can be considered a comedy, for, +although the plot ends in the discomfiture and imprisonment of the +most vicious, it involves no moral catastrophe. But Jonson was on +sound historical ground, for "Volpone" is conceived far more +logically on the lines of the ancients' theory of comedy than was +ever the romantic drama of Shakespeare, however repulsive we may +find a philosophy of life that facilely divides the world into the +rogues and their dupes, and, identifying brains with roguery and +innocence with folly, admires the former while inconsistently +punishing them. + +"The Silent Woman" is a gigantic farce of the most ingenious +construction. The whole comedy hinges on a huge joke, played by a +heartless nephew on his misanthropic uncle, who is induced to take +to himself a wife, young, fair, and warranted silent, but who, in +the end, turns out neither silent nor a woman at all. In "The +Alchemist," again, we have the utmost cleverness in construction, +the whole fabric building climax on climax, witty, ingenious, and +so plausibly presented that we forget its departures from the +possibilities of life. In "The Alchemist" Jonson represented, none +the less to the life, certain sharpers of the metropolis, revelling +in their shrewdness and rascality and in the variety of the +stupidity and wickedness of their victims. We may object to the +fact that the only person in the play possessed of a scruple of +honesty is discomfited, and that the greatest scoundrel of all is +approved in the end and rewarded. The comedy is so admirably +written and contrived, the personages stand out with such lifelike +distinctness in their several kinds, and the whole is animated with +such verve and resourcefulness that "The Alchemist" is a new marvel +every time it is read. Lastly of this group comes the tremendous +comedy, "Bartholomew Fair," less clear cut, less definite, and less +structurally worthy of praise than its three predecessors, but full +of the keenest and cleverest of satire and inventive to a degree +beyond any English comedy save some other of Jonson's own. It is +in "Bartholomew Fair" that we are presented to the immortal +caricature of the Puritan, Zeal-in-the-Land Busy, and the +Littlewits that group about him, and it is in this extraordinary +comedy that the humour of Jonson, always open to this danger, +loosens into the Rabelaisian mode that so delighted King James in +"The Gipsies Metamorphosed." Another comedy of less merit is "The +Devil is an Ass," acted in 1616. It was the failure of this play +that caused Jonson to give over writing for the public stage for a +period of nearly ten years. + +"Volpone" was laid as to scene in Venice. Whether because of the +success of "Eastward Hoe" or for other reasons, the other three +comedies declare in the words of the prologue to "The Alchemist": + +"Our scene is London, 'cause we would make known +No country's mirth is better than our own." + + +Indeed Jonson went further when he came to revise his plays for +collected publication in his folio of 1616, he transferred the +scene of "Every Man in His Humou r" from Florence to London also, +converting Signior Lorenzo di Pazzi to Old Kno'well, Prospero to +Master Welborn, and Hesperida to Dame Kitely "dwelling i' the Old +Jewry." + +In his comedies of London life, despite his trend towards +caricature, Jonson has shown himself a genuine realist, drawing +from the life about him with an experience and insight rare in any +generation. A happy comparison has been suggested between Ben +Jonson and Charles Dickens. Both were men of the people, lowly +born and hardly bred. Each knew the London of his time as few men +knew it; and each represented it intimately and in elaborate +detail. Both men were at heart moralists, seeking the truth by the +exaggerated methods of humour and caricature; perverse, even +wrong-headed at times, but possessed of a true pathos and largeness +of heart, and when all has been said--though the Elizabethan ran to +satire, the Victorian to sentimentality--leaving the world better +for the art that they practised in it. + +In 1616, the year of the death of Shakespeare, Jonson collected his +plays, his poetry, and his masques for publication in a collective +edition. This was an unusual thing at the time and had been +attempted by no dramatist before Jonson. This volume published, in +a carefully revised text, all the plays thus far mentioned, +excepting "The Case is Altered," which Jonson did not acknowledge, +"Bartholomew Fair," and "The Devil is an Ass," which was written +too late. It included likewise a book of some hundred and thirty +odd 'Epigrams', in which form of brief and pungent writing Jonson +was an acknowledged master; "The Forest," a smaller collection of +lyric and occasional verse and some ten 'Masques' and +'Entertainments'. In this same year Jonson was made poet laureate +with a pension of one hundred marks a year. This, with his fees +and returns from several noblemen, and the small earnings of his +plays must have formed the bulk of his income. The poet appears to +have done certain literary hack-work for others, as, for example, +parts of the Punic Wars contributed to Raleigh's 'History of the +World'. We know from a story, little to the credit of either, that +Jonson accompanied Raleigh's son abroad in the capacity of a tutor. +In 1618 Jonson was granted the reversion of the office of Master of +the Revels, a post for which he was peculiarly fitted; but he did +not live to enjoy its perquisites. Jonson was honoured with +degrees by both universities, though when and under what +circumstances is not known. It has been said that he narrowly +escaped the honour of knighthood, which the satirists of the day +averred King James was wont to lavish with an indiscriminate hand. +Worse men were made knights in his day than worthy Ben Jonson. + +From 1616 to the close of the reign of King James, Jonson produced +nothing for the stage. But he "prosecuted" what he calls "his +wonted studies" with such assiduity that he became in reality, as +by report, one of the most learned men of his time. Jonson's +theory of authorship involved a wide acquaintance with books and +"an ability," as he put it, "to convert the substance or riches of +another poet to his own use." Accordingly Jonson read not only the +Greek and Latin classics down to the lesser writers, but he +acquainted himself especially with the Latin writings of his +learned contemporaries, their prose as well as their poetry, their +antiquities and curious lore as well as their more solid learning. +Though a poor man, Jonson was an indefatigable collector of books. +He told Drummond that "the Earl of Pembroke sent him 20 pounds every +first day of the new year to buy new books." Unhappily, in 1623, +his library was destroyed by fire, an accident serio-comically +described in his witty poem, "An Execration upon Vulcan." Yet even +now a book turns up from time to time in which is inscribed, in +fair large Italian lettering, the name, Ben Jonson. With respect +to Jonson's use of his material, Dryden said memorably of him: +"[He] was not only a professed imitator of Horace, but a learned +plagiary of all the others; you track him everywhere in their snow. +. . . But he has done his robberies so openly that one sees he +fears not to be taxed by any law. He invades authors like a +monarch, and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in +him." And yet it is but fair to say that Jonson prided himself, +and justly, on his originality. In "Catiline," he not only uses +Sallust's account of the conspiracy, but he models some of the +speeches of Cicero on the Roman orator's actual words. In +"Poetaster," he lifts a whole satire out of Horace and dramatises +it effectively for his purposes. The sophist Libanius suggests the +situation of "The Silent Woman"; a Latin comedy of Giordano Bruno, +"Il Candelaio," the relation of the dupes and the sharpers in "The +Alchemist," the "Mostellaria" of Plautus, its admirable opening +scene. But Jonson commonly bettered his sources, and putting the +stamp of his sovereignty on whatever bullion he borrowed made it +thenceforward to all time current and his own. + +The lyric and especially the occasional poetry of Jonson has a +peculiar merit. His theory demanded design and the perfection of +literary finish. He was furthest from the rhapsodist and the +careless singer of an idle day; and he believed that Apollo could +only be worthily served in singing robes and laurel crowned. And +yet many of Jonson's lyrics will live as long as the language. Who +does not know "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair." "Drink to me +only with thine eyes," or "Still to be neat, still to be dressed"? +Beautiful in form, deft and graceful in expression, with not a word +too much or one that bears not its part in the total effect, there +is yet about the lyrics of Jonson a certain stiffness and +formality, a suspicion that they were not quite spontaneous and +unbidden, but that they were carved, so to speak, with +disproportionate labour by a potent man of letters whose habitual +thought is on greater things. It is for these reasons that Jonson +is even better in the epigram and in occasional verse where +rhetorical finish and pointed wit less interfere with the +spontaneity and emotion which we usually associate with lyrical +poetry. There are no such epitaphs as Ben Jonson's, witness the +charming ones on his own children, on Salathiel Pavy, the +child-actor, and many more; and this even though the rigid law of +mine and thine must now restore to William Browne of Tavistock the +famous lines beginning: "Underneath this sable hearse." Jonson is +unsurpassed, too, in the difficult poetry of compliment, seldom +falling into fulsome praise and disproportionate similtude, yet +showing again and again a generous appreciation of worth in others, +a discriminating taste and a generous personal regard. There was +no man in England of his rank so well known and universally beloved +as Ben Jonson. The list of his friends, of those to whom he had +written verses, and those who had written verses to him, includes +the name of every man of prominence in the England of King James. +And the tone of many of these productions discloses an affectionate +familiarity that speaks for the amiable personality and sound worth +of the laureate. In 1619, growing unwieldy through inactivity, +Jonson hit upon the heroic remedy of a journey afoot to Scotland. +On his way thither and back he was hospitably received at the +houses of many friends and by those to whom his friends had +recommended him. When he arrived in Edinburgh, the burgesses met +to grant him the freedom of the city, and Drummond, foremost of +Scottish poets, was proud to entertain him for weeks as his guest +at Hawthornden. Some of the noblest of Jonson's poems were +inspired by friendship. Such is the fine "Ode to the memory of Sir +Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Moryson," and that admirable piece of +critical insight and filial affection, prefixed to the first +Shakespeare folio, "To the memory of my beloved master, William +Shakespeare, and what he hath left us." to mention only these. Nor +can the earlier "Epode," beginning "Not to know vice at all," be +matchedin stately gravity and gnomic wisdom in its own wise and +stately age. + +But if Jonson had deserted the stage after the publication of his +folio and up to the end of the reign of King James, he was far from +inactive; for year after year his inexhaustible inventiveness +continued to contribute to the masquing and entertainment at court. +In "The Golden Age Restored," Pallas turns from the Iron Age with +its attendant evils into statues which sink out of sight; in +"Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," Atlas figures represented as an +old man, his shoulders covered with snow, and Comus, "the god of +cheer or the belly," is one of the characters, a circumstance which +an imaginative boy of ten, named John Milton, was not to forget. +"Pan's Anniversary," late in the reign of James, proclaimed that +Jonson had not yet forgotten how to write exquisite lyrics, and +"The Gipsies Metamorphosed" displayed the old drollery and broad +humorous stroke still unimpaired and unmatchable. These, too, and +the earlier years of Charles were the days of the Apollo Room of +the Devil Tavern where Jonson presided, the absolute monarch of +English literary Bohemia. We hear of a room blazoned about with +Jonson's own judicious 'Leges Convivales' in letters of gold, of a +company made up of the choicest spirits of the time, devotedly +attached to their veteran dictator, his reminiscences, opinions, +affections, and enmities. And we hear, too, of valorous potations; +but in the words of Herrick addressed to his master, Jonson, at the +Devil Tavern, as at the Dog, the Triple Tun, and at the Mermaid, + + "We such clusters had + As made us nobly wild, not mad, + And yet each verse of thine + Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine." + + +But the patronage of the court failed in the days of King Charles, +though Jonson was not without royal favours; and the old poet +returned to the stage, producing, between 1625 and 1633, "The +Staple of News," "The New Inn," "The Magnetic Lady," and "The Tale +of a Tub," the last doubtless revised from a much earlier comedy. +None of these plays met with any marked success, although the +scathing generalisation of Dryden that designated them "Jonson's +dotages" is unfair to their genuine merits. Thus the idea of an +office for the gathering, proper dressing, and promulgation of news +(wild flight of the fancy in its time) was an excellent subject for +satire on the existing absurdities among the newsmongers; although +as much can hardly be said for "The Magnetic Lady," who, in her +bounty, draws to her personages of differing humours to reconcile +them in the end according to the alternative title, or "Humours +Reconciled." These last plays of the old dramatist revert to +caricature and the hard lines of allegory; the moralist is more +than ever present, the satire degenerates into personal lampoon, +especially of his sometime friend, Inigo Jones, who appears +unworthily to have used his influence at court against the +broken-down old poet. And now disease claimed Jonson, and he was +bedridden for months. He had succeeded Middleton in 1628 as +Chronologer to the City of London, but lost the post for not +fulfilling its duties. King Charles befriended him, and even +commissioned him to write still for the entertainment of the court; +and he was not without the sustaining hand of noble patrons and +devoted friends among the younger poets who were proud to be +"sealed of the tribe of Ben." + +Jonson died, August 6, 1637, and a second folio of his works, which +he had been some time gathering, was printed in 1640, bearing in +its various parts dates ranging from 1630 to 1642. It included all +the plays mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs, excepting "The +Case is Altered;" the masques, some fifteen, that date between 1617 +and 1630; another collection of lyrics and occasional poetry called +"Underwoods, including some further entertainments"; a translation +of "Horace's Art of Poetry" (also published in a vicesimo quarto in +1640), and certain fragments and ingatherings which the poet would +hardly have included himself. These last comprise the fragment +(less than seventy lines) of a tragedy called "Mortimer his Fall," +and three acts of a pastoral drama of much beauty and poetic +spirit, "The Sad Shepherd." There is also the exceedingly +interesting 'English Grammar' "made by Ben Jonson for the benefit +of all strangers out of his observation of the English language now +spoken and in use," in Latin and English; and 'Timber, or +discoveries' "made upon men and matter as they have flowed out of +his daily reading, or had their reflux to his peculiar notion of +the times." The 'Discoveries', as it is usually called, is a +commonplace book such as many literary men have kept, in which +their reading was chronicled, passages that took their fancy +translated or transcribed, and their passing opinions noted. Many +passage of Jonson's 'Discoveries' are literal translations from the +authors he chanced to be reading, with the reference, noted or not, +as the accident of the moment prescribed. At times he follows the +line of Macchiavelli's argument as to the nature and conduct of +princes; at others he clarifies his own conception of poetry and +poets by recourse to Aristotle. He finds a choice paragraph on +eloquence in Seneca the elder and applies it to his own +recollection of Bacon's power as an orator; and another on facile +and ready genius, and translates it, adapting it to his +recollection of his fellow-playwright, Shakespeare. To call such +passages--which Jonson never intended for publication--plagiarism, +is to obscure the significance of words. To disparage his memory +by citing them is a preposterous use of scholarship. Jonson's +prose, both in his dramas, in the descriptive comments of his +masques, and in the 'Discoveries', is characterised by clarity and +vigorous directness, nor is it wanting in a fine sense of form or +in the subtler graces of diction. + +When Jonson died there was a project for a handsome monument to his +memory. But the Civil War was at hand, and the project failed. A +memorial, not insufficient, was carved on the stone covering his +grave in one of the aisles of Westminster Abbey: + +"O rare Ben Jonson." + + +FELIX E. SCHELLING. + +THE COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. + +The following is a complete list of his published works:-- + +DRAMAS. -- + Every Man in his Humour, 4to, 1601; + The Case is Altered, 4to, 1609; + Every Man out of his Humour, 4to, 1600; + Cynthia's Revels, 4to, 1601; + Poetaster, 4to, 1602; + Sejanus, 4to, 1605; + Eastward Ho (with Chapman and Marston), 4to, 1605; + Volpone, 4to, 1607; + Epicoene, or the Silent Woman, 4to, 1609 (?), fol., 1616; + The Alchemist, 4to, 1612; + Catiline, his Conspiracy, 4to, 1611; + Bartholomew Fayre, 4to, 1614 (?), fol., 1631; + The Divell is an Asse, fol., 1631; + The Staple of Newes, fol., 1631; + The New Sun, 8vo, 1631, fol., 1692; + The Magnetic Lady, or Humours Reconcild, fol., 1640; + A Tale of a Tub, fol., 1640; + The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood, fol., 1641; + Mortimer his Fall (fragment), fol., 1640. + + +To Jonson have also been attributed additions to Kyd's Jeronymo, +and collaboration in The Widow with Fletcher and Middleton, and in +the Bloody Brother with Fletcher. + +POEMS. -- + Epigrams, The Forrest, Underwoods, published in fols., 1616, + 1640; + Selections: Execration against Vulcan, and Epigrams, 1640; + G. Hor. Flaccus his art of Poetry, Englished by Ben Jonson, + 1640; + Leges Convivialis, fol., 1692. + Other minor poems first appeared in Gifford's edition of Works. + +PROSE. -- + Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter, fol., 1641; + The English Grammar, made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of + Strangers, fol., 1640. + +Masques and Entertainments were published in the early folios. + +WORKS. -- + Fol., 1616, vol. 2, 1640 (1631-41); + fol., 1692, 1716-19, 1729; + edited by P. Whalley, 7 vols., 1756; + by Gifford (with Memoir), 9 vols., 1816, 1846; + re-edited by F. Cunningham, 3 vols., 1871; + in 9 vols., 1875; + by Barry Cornwall (with Memoir), 1838; + by B. Nicholson (Mermaid Series), + with Introduction by C. H. Herford, 1893, etc.; + Nine Plays, 1904; ed. H. C. Hart (Standard Library), 1906, etc; + Plays and Poems, with Introduction by H. Morley (Universal + Library), 1885; + Plays (7) and Poems (Newnes), 1905; + Poems, with Memoir by H. Bennett (Carlton Classics), 1907; + Masques and Entertainments, ed. by H. Morley, 1890. +SELECTIONS. -- + J. A. Symonds, with Biographical and Critical Essay, + (Canterbury Poets), 1886; + Grosart, Brave Translunary Things, 1895; + Arber, Jonson Anthology, 1901; + Underwoods, Cambridge University Press, 1905; + Lyrics (Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher), the Chap Books, + No. 4, 1906; + Songs (from Plays, Masques, etc.), with earliest known setting, + Eragny Press, 1906. + + +LIFE. -- + See Memoirs affixed to Works; + J. A. Symonds (English Worthies), 1886; + Notes of Ben Jonson Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden; + Shakespeare Society, 1842; + ed. with Introduction and Notes by P. Sidney, 1906; + Swinburne, A Study of Ben Jonson, 1889. + + + + EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR + TO THE MOST LEARNED, AND MY HONOURED FRIEND + + MASTER CAMDEN + CLARENCIEUX + + + +SIR,--There are, no doubt, a supercilious race in the world, who +will esteem all office, done you in this kind, an injury; so solemn +a vice it is with them to use the authority of their ignorance, to +the crying down of Poetry, or the professors: but my gratitude must +not leave to correct their error; since I am none of those that can +suffer the benefits conferred upon my youth to perish with my age. +It is a frail memory that remember s but present things: and, had +the favour of the times so conspired with my disposition, as it +could have brought forth other, or better, you had had the same +proportion, and number of the fruits, the first. Now I pray you to +accept this; such wherein neither the confession of my manners +shall make you blush; nor of my studies, repent you to have been +the instructer: and for the profession of my thankfulness, I am +sure it will, with good men, find either praise or excuse. Your +true lover, + + BEN JONSON. + + + + DRAMATIS PERSONAE + KNOWELL, an old Gentleman: OLIVER COB, a Water-bearer. + EDWARD KNOWELL, his Son. JUSTICE CLEMENT, an old merry + BRAINWORM, the Father's Man Magistrate. + GEORGE DOWNRIGHT, a plain Squire. ROGER FORMAL, his Clerk. + WELLBRED, his Half-Brother. Wellbred's Servant + KITELY, a merchant. DAME KITELY, KITELY'S Wife. + CAPTAIN BOBADILL, a Paul's Man. MRS. BRIDGET his Sister. + MASTER STEPHEN, a Country Gull. TIB Cob's Wife + MASTER MATHEW, the Town Gull. + THOMAS CASH, KITELY'S Cashier. Servants, etc. + + + SCENE,---LONDON + PROLOGUE. + + Though need make many poets, and some such + As art and nature have not better'd much; + Yet ours for want hath not so loved the stage, + As he dare serve the ill customs of the age, + Or purchase your delight at such a rate, + As, for it, he himself must justly hate: + To make a child now swaddled, to proceed + Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed, + Past threescore years; or, with three rusty swords, + And help of some few foot and half-foot words, + Fight over York and Lancaster's king jars, + And in the tyring-house bring wounds to scars. + He rather prays you will be pleas'd to see + One such to-day, as other plays should be; + Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the seas, + Nor creaking throne comes down the boys to please; + Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard + The gentlewomen; nor roll'd bullet heard + To say, it thunders; nor tempestuous drum + Rumbles, to tell you when the storm doth come; + But deeds, and language, such as men do use, + And persons, such as comedy would choose, + When she would shew an image of the times, + And sport with human follies, not with crimes. + Except we make them such, by loving still + Our popular errors, when we know they're ill. + I mean such errors as you'll all confess, + By laughing at them, they deserve no less: + Which when you heartily do, there's hope left then, + You, that have so grac'd monsters, may like men. + + + + + + ACT I + + SCENE I.---A Street. + Enter KNOWELL, at the door of his house. + +Know. + A goodly day toward, and a fresh morning.-Brainworm! + Enter Brainworm. + Call up your young master: bid him rise, sir. + Tell him, I have some business to employ him. + +Brai. I will, sir, presently. + +Know. + But hear you, sirrah, + If he be at his book, disturb him not. + +Brai. Very good, sir. + +Know. + How happy yet should I esteem myself, + Could I, by any practice, wean the boy + From one vain course of study he affects. + He is a scholar, if a man may trust + The liberal voice of fame in her report, + Of good account in both our Universities, + Either of which hath favoured him with graces: + But their indulgence must not spring in me + A fond opinion that he cannot err. + Myself was once a student, and indeed, + Fed with the self-same humour he is now, + Dreaming on nought but idle poetry, + That fruitless and unprofitable art, + Good unto none, but least to the professors; + Which then I thought the mistress of all knowledge: + But since, time and the truth have waked my judgment. + And reason taught me better to distinguish T + he vain from the useful learnings. + Enter Master STEPHEN. +Cousin Stephen, What news with you, that you are here so early? + +Step. Nothing, but e'en come to see how you do, unclo. + +Know. That's kindly done; you are welcome, coz. + +Step. + Ay, I know that, sir; I would not have come else. + How does my cousin Edward, uncle? + +Know. + O, well, coz; go in and see; I doubt he be scarce stirring yet. + +Step. Uncle, afore I go in, can you tell me, an he have e'er a book +of the science of hawking and hunting; I would fain borrow it. + +Know. Why, I hope you will not a hawking now, will you? + +Step. No, wusse; but I'll practise against next year, uncle. I have +bought me a hawk, and a hood, and bells. and all; I lack nothing +but a book to keep it by. + +Know. Oh, most ridiculous! + +Step. Nay, look you now, you are angry, uncle:--Why, you know an a +man have not skill in the hawking and hunting languages now-a-days, +I'll not give a rush for him: they are more studied than the Greek, +or the Latin. He is for no gallant's company without them; and by +gadslid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for every humdrum: +hang them, scroyles! there's nothing in them i' the world. What do +you talk on it? Because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company +with none but the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a +ducking to Islington ponds! A fine jest, i' faith! 'Slid, a +gentleman mun shew himself like a gentleman. Uncle, I pray you be +not angry; I know what I have to do, I trow. I am no novice. + + +Know. + You are a prodigal, absurd coxcomb, go to! + Nay, never look at me, 'tis I that speak; + Take't as you will, sir, I'll not flatter you. + Have you not yet found means enow to waste + That which your friends have left you, but you must + Go cast away your money on a buzzard, + And know not how to keep it, when you have done? + O, it is comely! this will make you a gentleman! + Well, cousin, well, I see you are e'en past hope + Of all reclaim:---ay, so; now you are told on't, + You look another way. + +Step. What would you ha' me do? + +Know. + What would I have you do? I'll tell you, kinsman; + Learn to be wise, and practise how to thrive; + That would I have you do: and not to spend + Your coin on every bauble that you fancy, + Or every foolish brain that humours you. + I would not have you to invade each place, + Nor thrust yourself on all societies, + Till men's affections, or your own desert, + Should worthily invite you to your rank. + He that is so respectless in his courses, + Oft sells his reputation at cheap market. + Nor would I, you should melt away yourself + In flashing bravery, lest, while you affect + To make a blaze of gentry to the world, + A little puff of scorn extinguish it; + And you be left like an unsavoury snuff, + Whose property is only to offend. + I'd have you sober, and contain yourself, + Not that your sail be bigger than your boat; + But moderate your expenses now, at first, + As you may keep the same proportion still: + Nor stand so much on your gentility, + Which is an airy and mere borrow'd thing, + From dead men's dust and bones; and none of yours, + Except you make, or hold it. + Enter a Servant. + Who comes here? + +Serv. Save you, gentlemen! + +Step. Nay, we do not stand much on our gentility, friend; yet you +are welcome: and I assure you mine uncle here is a man of a +thousand a year, Middlesex land. He has but one son in all the +world, I am his next heir, at the common law, master Stephen, as +simple as I stand here, if my cousin die, as there's hope he will: +I have a pretty living O' mine own too, beside, hard by here. + +Serv. In good time, sir. + +Step. In good time, sir! why, and in very good time, sir! You do +not flout, friend, do you? + +Servo Not I, sir. + +Step. Not you, sir! you were best not, sir; an you should; here be +them can perceive it, and that quickly too; go to: and they can +give it again soundly too, an need be. + +Servo Why, sir, let this satisfy you; good faith, I had no such +intent. + +Step. Sir, an I thought you had, I would talk with you, and that +presently. + +Serv. Good master Stephen, so you may, sir, at your pleasure. + +Step. And so I would, sir, good my saucy companion! an you were out +O' mine uncle's ground, I can tell you; though I do not stand upon +my gentility neither, in't. + +Know. Cousin, cousin, will this ne'er be left? + +Step. Whoreson, basefellow! a mechanical serving-man! By this +cudgel, an 'twere not for shame, I would-- + +Know. + What would you do, you peremptory gull? + If you cannot be quiet, get you hence. + You see the honest man demeans himself + Modestly tow'rds you, giving no reply + To your unseason'd, quarrelling, rude fashion; + And still you huff it, with a kind of carriage + As void of wit, as of humanity. + Go, get you in; 'fore heaven, I am ashamed + Thou hast a kinsman's interest in me. [Exit Master Stephen. + +Serv. I pray, sir, is this master Knowell's house? + +Know. Yes, marry is it, sir. + +Serv. I should inquire for a gentleman here, one master Edward +Knowell; do you know any such, sir, I pray you? + +Know. I should forget myself else, sir. + +Serv. Are you the gentleman? cry you mercy, sir: I was required by +a gentleman in the city, as I rode out at this end O' the town, to +deliver you this letter, sir. + +Know. To me, sir! What do you mean? pray you remember your +court'sy. [Reads.] To his most selected friend, master Edward +Knowell. What might the gentleman's name be, sir, that sent it? +Nay, pray you be covered. + +Serv. One master Wellbred, sir. + +Know. Master Wellbred! a young gentleman, is he not? + +Serv. The same, sir; master Kitely married his sister; the rich +merchant in the Old Jewry. + +Know. You say very true.---Brainworm! [Enter Brainworm. + +Brai. Sir. + +Know. Make this honest friend drink here: pray you, go in. + [Exeunt Brainworm and Servant. + This letter is directed to my son; + Yet I am Edward Knowell too, and may, + With the safe conscience of good manners, use + The fellow's error to my satisfaction. + Well, I will break it ope (old men are curious), + Be it but for the style's sake and the phrase; + To see if both do answer my son's praises, + Who is almost grown the idolater + Of this young Wellbred. What have we here? + What's this? [Reads] + +Why, Ned, I beseech thee, hast thou forsworn all thy friends in the +Old Jewry? or dost thou think us all Jews that inhabit there? yet, +if thou dost, come over, and but see our frippery; change an old +shirt for a whole smock with us: do not conceive that antipathy +between us and Hogsden, as was between Jews and hogs-flesh. Leave +thy vigilant father alone, to number over his green apricots, +evening and morning, on the north-west wall: an I had been his son, +I had saved him the labour long since, if taking in all the young +wenches that pass by at the back-door, and codling every kernel of +the fruit for them, would have served, But, pr'ythee, come over to +me quickly this morning; I have such a present for thee!--our +Turkey company never sent the like to the Grand Signior. +One is a rhymer, sir, of your own batch, your own leaven; +but doth think himself poet-major of the town, willing to be shewn, +and worthy to be seen. The other--I will not venture his +description with you, till you come, because I would have you make +hither with an appetite. If the worst of 'em be not worth your +journey draw your bill of charges, as unconscionable as any +Guildhall verdict will give it you, and you shall be allowed your +viaticum. From the Windmill. + + From the Bordello it might come as well, + The Spittle, or Pict-hatch. Is this the man + My son hath sung so, for the happiest wit, + The choicest brain, the times have sent us forth! + I know not what he may be in the arts, + Nor what in schools; but, surely, for his manners, + I judge him a profane and dissolute wretch; + Worse by possession of such great good gifts, + Being the master of so loose a spirit. + Why, what unhallowed ruffian would have writ + In such a scurrilous manner to a friend! + Why should he think I tell my apricots, + Or play the Hesperian dragon with my fruit, + To watch it? Well, my son, I had thought you + Had had more judgment to have made election + Of your companions, than t' have ta'en on trust + Such petulant, jeering gamesters, that can spare + No argument or subject from their jest. + But I perceive affection makes a fool + Of any man too much the father.---Brainworm! + Enter BRAINWORM. +Brai. Sir. + +Know. Is the fellow gone that brought this letter? + +Brai. Yea, sir, a pretty while since. + +Know. And where is your young master? + +Brai. In his chamber, sir. + +Know. He spake not with the fellow, did he? + +Brai. No, sir, he saw him not. + +Know. Take you this letter, and deliver it my son; + but with no notice that I have opened it, on your life. + +Brai. O Lord, sir! that were a jest indeed. [Exit. + +Know. + I am resolved I will not stop his journey, + Nor practise any violent means to stay + The unbridled course of youth in him; for that + Restrain'd, grows more impatient; and in kind + Like to the eager, but the generous greyhound, + Who ne'er so little from his game withheld, + Turns head, and leaps up at his holder's throat. + There is a way of winning more by love, + And urging of tho modesty, than fear: + Force works on servile natures, not the free. + He that's compell'd to goodness. may be good, + But 'tis but for that fit; where others, drawn + By softness and example, get a habit. + Then, if they stray, but warn them, and the same + They should for virtue have done, they'll do for shame. [Exit. + + + + SCENE II.-A Room in KNOWELL.'S House. + Enter E. KNOWELL, with a letter in his hand, followed by + BRAINWORM. + +E. Know. Did he open it, say'st thou? + +Brai. Yes, O' my word, sir, and read the contents. + +E. Know. That scarce contents me. What countenance, prithee, made +he in the reading of it? was he angry, or pleased? + +Brai. Nay, sir, I saw him not read it, nor open it, I assure your +worship. + +E. Know. No! how know'st thou then that he did either? + +Brai. Marry, sir, because he charged me, on my life, to tell nobody +that he open'd it; which, unless he had done, he would never fear +to have it revealed. + +E. Know. That's true: well, I thank thee, Brainworm. + Enter STEPHEN. + +Step. O, Brainworm, didst thou not see a fellow here in +what-sha-call-him doublet? he brought mine uncle a letter e'en now. + +Brai. Yes, master Stephen; what of him? + +Step. O, I have such a mind to beat him--where is he, canst thou +tell? + +Brai. Faith, he is not of that mind: he is gone, master Stephen. + +Step. Gone! which way? when went he? how long since? + +Brai. He is rid hence; he took horse at the street-door. + +Step. And I staid in the fields! Whoreson scanderbag rogue! O that +I had but a horse to fetch him back again! + +Brai. Why, you may have my master's gelding, to save your longing, +sir. + +Step. But I have no boots, that's the spite on't. + +Brai. Why, a fine wisp of hay, roll'd hard, master Stephen. + +Step. No, faith, it's no boot to follow him now: let him e'en go +and hang. Prithee, help to truss me a little: he does so vex me-- + +Brai. You'll be worse vexed when you are trussed, master Stephen. +Best keep unbraced, and walk yourself till you be cold; your choler +may founder you else. + +Step. By my faith, and so I will, now thou tell'st me on't: how +dost thou like my leg, Brainworm? + +Brai. A very good leg, master Stephen; but the woollen stocking +does not commend it so well. + +Step. Foh! the stockings be good enough, now summer is coming on, +for the dust: I'll have a pair of silk against winter, that I go to +dwell in the town. I think my leg would shew in a silk hose-- + +Brai. Believe me, master Stephen, rarely well. + +Step. In sadness, I think it would: I have a reasonable good leg. + +Brai. You have an excellent good leg, master Stephen; but I can not +stay to praise it longer now, and I am very sorry for it. + [Exit. +Step. Another time will serve, Brainworm. Gramercy for this. + +E. Know. Ha, ha, ha. + +Step. 'Slid, I hope he laughs not at me; an he do-- + +E. Know. Here was a letter indeed, to be intercepted by a man's +father, and do him good with him! He cannot but think most +virtuously, both of me, and the sender, sure, that make the careful +costermonger of him in our familiar epistles. Well, if he read this +with patience I'll be gelt, and troll ballads for master John +Trundle yonder, the rest of my mortality. It is true, and likely, +my father may have as much patience as another man, for he takes +much physic; and oft taking physic makes a man very patient. But +would your packet, master Wellbred, had arrived at him in such a +minute of his patience! then we had known the end of it, which now +is doubtful, and threatens--[Sees Master Stephen.] What, my wise +cousin! nay, then I'll furnish our feast with one gull more toward +the mess. He writes to me of a brace, and here's one, that's three: +oh, for a fourth, Fortune, if ever thou' It use thine eyes, I +entreat thee-- + +Step. Oh, now I see who he laughed at: he laughed at somebody in +that letter. By this good light, an he had laughed at me-- + +E. Know. How now, cousin Stephen, melancholy? + +Step. Yes, a little: I thought you had laughed at me, cousin. + +E. Know. Why, what an I had, coz? what would you have done? + +Step. By this light, I would have told mine uncle. + +E. Know. Nay, if you would have told your uncle, I did laugh at +you, coz. + +Step. Did you, indeed? + +E. Know. Yes, indeed. + +Step. Why then + +E. Know. What then? + +Step. I am satisfied; it is sufficient. + +E. Know. Why, be so, gentle coz: and, I pray you, let me entreat a +courtesy of you. I am sent for this morning by a friend in the Old +Jewry, to come to him; it is but crossing over the fields to +Moorgate: Will you bear me company? I protest it is not to draw you +into bond or any plot against the state, coz. + +Step. Sir, that's all one an it were; you shall command me twice so +far as Moorgate, to do you good in such a matter. Do you think I +would leave you? I protest-- + +E. Know. No, no, you shall not protest, coz. + +Step. By my fackings, but I will, by your leave:--I'll protest more +to my friend, than I'll speak of at this time. + +E. Know. You speak very well, coz. + +Step. Nay, not so neither, you shall pardon me: but I speak to +serve my turn. + +E. Know. Your turn, coz! do you know what you say? A gentleman +of your sorts, parts, carriage, and estimation, to talk of your +turn in this company, and to me alone, like a tankard-bearer +at a conduit! fie! A wight that, hitherto, his every step +hath left the stamp of a great foot behind him, as every word +the savour of a strong spirit, and he! this man! so graced, gilded, +or, to use a more fit metaphor, so tenfold by nature, as not ten +housewives' pewter, again a good time, shews more bright to the +world than he! and he! (as I said last, so I say again, and still +shall say it) this man! to conceal such real ornaments as these, +and shadow their glory, as a milliner's wife does her wrought +stomacher, with a smoaky lawn, or a black cyprus! O, coz! it cannot +be answered; go not about it: Drake's old ship at Deptford may +sooner circle the world again. Come, wrong not the quality of your +desert, with looking downward, coz; but hold up your head, so: and +let the idea of what you are be portrayed in your face, that men +may read in your physnomy, here within this place is to be seen the +true, rare, and accomplished monster, or miracle of nature, which +is all one. What think you of this, coz? + +Step. Why, I do think of it: and I will be more proud, and +melancholy, and gentlemanlike, than I have been, I'll insure you. + +E. Know. Why, that's resolute, master Stephen!--Now, if I can but +hold him up to his height, as it is happily begun, it will do well +for a suburb humour: we may hap have a match with the city, and +play him for forty pound.--Come, coz. + +Step. I'll follow you. + +E. Know. Follow me! you must go before. + +Step. Nay, an I must, I will. Pray you shew me, good cousin. + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE III.-The Lane before Cob's House. + Enter Master MATHEW: + + +Mat. I think this be the house: what ho! + Enter COB. +Cob. Who's there? O, master Mathew! give your worship good morrow. + +Mat. What, Cob! how dost thou, good Cob? dost thou inhabit here, +Cob? + +Cob. Ay, sir, I and my lineage have kept a poor house here, in Our +days. + +Mat. Thy lineage, monsieur Cob! what lineage, what lineage? + +Cob. Why, sir, an ancient lineage, and a princely. Mine ance'try +came from a king's belly, no worse man; and yet no man either, by +your worship's leave, I did lie in that, but herring, the king of +fish (from his belly I proceed), one of the monarchs of the world, +I assure you. The first red herring that was broiled in Adam and +Eve's kitchen, do I fetch my pedigree from, by the harrot's book. +His cob was my great, great, mighty great grandfather. + +Mat. Why mighty, why mighty, I pray thee? + +Cob. O, it was a mighty while ago, sir, and a mighty great cob. + +Mat. How know'st thou that? + +Cob. How know I! why, I smell his ghost ever and anon. + +Mat. Smell a ghost! O unsavoury jest! and the ghost of a herring +cob? + +Cob. Ay, sir: With favour of your worship's nose, master Mathew, +why not the ghost of a herring cob, as well as the ghost of Rasher +Bacon? + +Mat. Roger Bacon, thou would'st say. + +Cob. I say Rasher Bacon. They were both broiled on the coals; and a +man may smell broiled meat, I hope! you are a scholar, upsolve me +that now. + +Mat. O raw ignorance!--Cob, canst thou shew me of a gentleman, one +captain Bobadill, where his lodging is? + +Cob. O, my guest, sir, you mean. + +Mat. Thy guest! alas, ha, ha, ha! + +Cob. Why do you laugh, sir? do you not mean captain Bobadill? + +Mat. Cob, pray thee advise thyself well; do not wrong the +gentleman, and thyself too. I dare be sworn, he scorns thy house; +he! he lodge in such a base obscure place as thy house! Tut, I know +his disposition so well, he would not lie in thy bed if thou'dst +give it him. + +Cob. I will not give it him though, sir. Mass, I thought somewhat +was in it, we could not get him to bed all night: Well, sir, though +he lie not on my bed, he lies on my bench: an't please you to go +up, sir, you shall find him with two cushions under his head, and +his cloak wrapped about him, as though he had neither won nor lost, +and yet, I warrant, he ne'er cast better in his life, than he has +done to-night. + +Mat. Why, was he drunk? + +Cob. Drunk, sir! you hear not me say so: perhaps he swallowed a +tavern-token, or some such device, sir, I have nothing to do +withal. I deal with water and not with wine--Give me my tankard +there, ho!--God be wi' you, sir. It's six o'clock: I should have +carried two turns by this. What ho! my stopple! come. + Enter Tib with a water-tankard. +Mat. Lie in a water-bearer's house! a gentleman of his havings! +Well, I'll tell him my mind. + +Cob. What, Tib; shew this gentleman up to the captain.[Exit Tib +with Master Mathew.] Oh, an my house were the Brazen-head now! +faith it would e'en speak Moe fools yet. You should have some now +would take this master Mathew to be a gentleman, at the least. His +father's an honest man, a worshipful fishmonger, and so forth; and +now does he creep and wriggle into acquaintance with all the brave +gallants about the town, such as my guest is (O, my guest is a fine +man!), and they flout him invincibly. He useth every day to a +merchant's house where I serve water, one master Kitely's, in the +Old Jewry; and here's the jest, he is in love with +my master's sister, Mrs. Bridget, and calls her mistress; and there +he will sit you a whole afternoon sometimes, reading of these same +abominable, vile (a pox on 'em! I cannot abide them), rascally +verses, poetrie, poetrie, and speaking of interludes; 'twill make a +man burst to hear him. And the wenches, they do so jeer, and ti-he +at him--Well, should they do so much to me, I'd forswear them all, +by the foot of Pharaoh! There's an oath! How many water-bearers +shall you hear swear such an oath? O, I have a guest--he teaches +me-he does swear the legiblest of any man christened: By St. +George! the foot of Pharaoh! the body of me! as I am a gentleman +and a soldier! such dainty oaths! and withal he does take this same +filthy roguish tobacco, the finest and cleanliest! it would do a +man good to see the fumes come forth at's tonnels.--Well, he owes +me forty shillings, my wife lent him out of her purse, by sixpence +at a time, besides his lodging: I would I had it! I shall have it, +he says, the next action. Helterskelter, hang sorrow, care'll kill +a cat, up-tails all, and a louse for the hangman. + [Exit. + + + SCENE IV.-A Room in COB'S House. + BOBADILL discoved lying on a bench. + +Bob. Hostess, hostess! + Enter TIB. +Tib. What say you, sir? + +Bob. A cup of thy small beer, sweet hostess. + +Tib. Sir, there's a gentleman below would speak with you. + +Bob. A gentleman! 'odso, I am not within. + +Tib. My husband told him you were, sir. + +Bob. What a plague-what meant he? + +Mat. [below.] Captain Bobadill! + +Bob. Who's there!-Take away the bason, good hostess;--Come up, sir. + +Tib. He would desire you to come up, cleanly house, here! + Enter MATHEW. +Mat. Save you, sir; save you, captain! + +Bob. Gentle master Mathew! Is it you, sir? down. + +Mat. Thank you, good captain; you may see I am somewhat audacious. + +Bob. Not so, sir. I was requested to supper last night by a sort of +gallants, where you were wished for, and drunk to, I assure you. + +Mat. Vouchsafe me, by whom, good captain? + +Bob. Marry, by young Wellbred, and others.--Why, hostess, stool +here for this gentleman. + +Mat. No haste, sir, 'tis very well. + +Bob. Body O' me! it was so late ere we parted last night, I can +scarce open my eyes yet; I was but new risen, as you came; how +passes the day abroad, sir? you can tell. + +Mat. Faith, some half hour to seven; Now, trust me, you have an +exceeding fine lodging here, very neat, and private. + +Bob. Ay, sir: sit down, I pray you. Master Mathew, in any case +possess no gentlemen of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging. + +Mat. Who? I, sir; no. + +Bob. Not that I need to care who know it, for the cabin is +convenient; but in regard I would not be too popular, and generally +visited, as some are. + +Mat. True, captain, I conceive you. + +Bob. For, do you see, sir, by the heart of valour in me, except it +be to some peculiar and choice spirits, to whom I am +extraordinarily engaged, as yourself, or so, I could not extend +thus far. + +Mat. O Lord, sir! I resolve so. + +Bob. I confess I love a cleanly and quiet privacy, above all the +tumult and roar of fortune. What new book have you there? What! Go +by, Hieronymo? + +Mat. Ay: did you ever see it acted? Is't not well penned? + [While Master Mathew reads, Bobadill makes himself ready. + +Bob. Well penned! I would fain see all the poets of these times pen +such another play as that was: they'll prate and swagger, and keep +a stir of art and devices, when, as I am a gentleman, read 'em, +they are the most shallow, pitiful, barren fellows, that live upon +the: face of the earth again. + +Mat. Indeed here are a number of fine speeches in this book. O +eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears! there's a conceit! +fountains fraught with tears! O life, no life, but lively form of +death! another. O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs! a +third. Confused and fill'd with murder and misdeeds! a fourth. O, +the muses! Is't not excellent? Is't not simply the best that ever +you heard, captain? Ha! how do you like it? + +Bob. 'Tis good. + +Mat. + To thee, the purest object to my sense, + The most refined essence heaven covers, + Send I these lines, wherein I do commence + The happy state of turtle-billing lovers. + If they prove rough, unpolish'd, harsh, and rude, + Haste made the waste: thus mildly I conclude. + +Bob. Nay, proceed, proceed. Where's this? + +Mat. This, sir! a toy of mine own, in my non-age; the infancy of my +muses. But when will you come and see my study? good faith, I can +shew you some very good things I have done of late.--That boot +becomes your leg passing well, captain, methinks. + +Bob. So, so; it's the fashion gentlemen now use. + +Mat. Troth, captain, and now you speak of the fashion, master +Wellbred's elder brother and I are fallen out exceedingly: This +other day, I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, +which, I assure you, both for fashion and workmanship, was most +peremptory beautiful and gentlemanlike: yet he condemned, and cried +it down for the most pied and ridiculous that ever he saw. + +Bob. Squire Downright, the half brother, was't not? + +Mat. Ay, sir, he. + +Bob. Hang him, rook! he! why he-has no more judgment than a malt +horse: By St. George, I wonder you'd lose a thought upon such an +animal; the most peremptory absurd clown of Christendom, this day, +he is holden. I protest to you, as I am a gentleman and a soldier, +I ne'er changed with his like. By his discourse, he should eat +nothing but hay; he was born for the manger, pannier, or +pack-saddle. He has not so much as a good phrase in his belly, but +all old iron and rusty proverbs: a good commodity for some smith to +make hob-nails of. + +Mat. Ay, and he thinks to carry it away with his manhood still, +where he comes: he brags he will give me the bastinado, as I hear. + +Bob. How! he the bastinado! how came he by that word, trow? + +Mat. Nay, indeed, he said cudgel me; I termed it so, for my more +grace. + +Bob. That may be: for I was sure it was none of his word; but when, +when said he so? + +Mat. Faith, yesterday, they say; a young gallant, a friend of mine, +told me so. + +Bob. By the foot of Pharaoh, an 'twere my case now, I should send +him a chartel presently. The bastinado! a most proper and +sufficient dependence, warranted by the great Caranza. Come hither, +you shall chartel him; I'll shew you a trick or two you shall kill +him with at pleasure; the first stoccata, if you will, by this air. + +Mat. Indeed, you have absolute knowledge in the mystery, I have +heard, sir. + +Bob. Of whom, of whom, have you heard it, I beseech you? + +Mat. Troth, I have heard it spoken of divers, that you have very +rare, and un-in-one-breath-utterable skill, sir. + +Bob. By heaven, no, not I; no skill in the earth; some small +rudiments in the science, as to know my time, distance, or so. I +have professed it more for noblemen and gentlemen's use, than mine +own practice, I assure you.--Hostess, accommodate us with another +bed-staff here quickly. Lend us another bed-staff--the woman does +not understand the words of action.--Look you, sir: exalt not your +point above this state, at any hand, and let your poniard maintain +your defence, thus:--give it the gentleman, and leave us. [Exit Tib.] +So, sir. Come on: O, twine your body more about, that you may +fall to a more sweet, comely, gentlemanlike guard; so! indifferent: +hollow your body more, sir, thus: now, stand fast O' your left leg, +note your distance, keep your due pro. portion of time--oh, you +disorder your point most i rregularly. + +Mat. How is the bearing of it now, sir? + +Bob. O, out of measure ill: a well-experienced hand would pass upon +you at pleasure. + +Mat. How mean you, sir, pass upon me? + +Bob. Why, thus, sir,--make a thrust at me--[Master Mathew pushes at +Bobadill] come in upon the answer, control your point, and make a +full career at the body: The best-practised gallants of the time +name it the passado; a most desperate thrust, believe it. + +Mat. Well, come, sir. + +Bob. Why, you do not manage your weapon with any facility or grace +to invite me. I have no spirit to play with you; your dearth of +judgment renders you tedious. + +Mat. But one venue, sir. + +Bob. Venue! fie; the most gross denomination as ever I heard: O, +the stoccata, while you live, sir; note that.--Come, put on your +cloke, and we'll go to some private place where you are acquainted; +some tavern, or so--and have a bit. I'll send for one of these +fencers, and he shall breathe you, by my direction; and then I will +teach you your trick: you shall kill him with it at the first, if +you please. Why, I will learn you, by the true judgment of the eye, +hand, and foot, to control any enemy's point in the world. Should +your adversary confront you with a pistol, 'twere nothing, by this +hand! you should, by the same rule, control his bullet, in a line, +except it were hail shot, and spread. What money have you about +you, master Mathew? + +Mat. Faith, I have not past a two shilling or so. + +Bob. 'Tis somewhat with the least; but come; we will have a bunch +of radish and salt to taste our wine, and a pipe of tobacco to +close the orifice of the stomach: and then we'll call upon young +Wellbred: perhaps we shall meet the Corydon his brother there, and +put him to the question. + + + + ACT II + SCENE I.-The Old Jewry. A Hall in KITELY'S House. + Enter KITELY, CASH, and DOWNRIGHT. + +Kit. + Thomas, come hither. + There lies a note within upon my desk; + Here take my key: it is no matter neither.--- + Where is the boy? + +Cash. Within, sir, in the warehouse. + +Kit. + Let him tell over straight that Spanish gold, + And weigh it, with the pieces of eight. Do you + See the delivery of those silver stuffs + To Master Lucar: tell him, if he will, + He shall have the grograns, at the rate I told him, + And I. will meet him on the Exchange anon. + +Cash. Good, sir. [Exit. + +Kit. Do you see that fellow, brother Downright? + +Dow. Ay, what of him? + +Kit. He is a jewel, brother. + I took him of a child up at my door, + And christen'd him, gave him mine own name, Thomas: + Since bred him at the Hospital; where proving + A toward imp, I call'd him home, and taught him + So much, as I have made him my cashier, + And giv'n him, who had none, a surname, Cash: + And find him in his place so full of faith, + That I durst trust my life into his hands. + +Dow. + So would not I in any bastard's, brother, + As it is like he is, although I knew + Myself his father. But you said you had somewhat + To tell me, gentle brother: what is't, what is't? + +Kit. + Faith, I am very loath to utter it, + As fearing it may hurt your patience: + But that I know your judgment is of strength, + Against the nearness of affection--- + +Dow. + What need this circumstance? pray you, be direct. + +Kit. + I will not say how much I do ascribe + Unto your friendship, nor in what regard + I hold your love; but let my past behaviour, + And usage of your sister, [both] confirm + How well I have been affected to your--- + +Dow. + You are too tedious; come to the matter, the matter. + +Kit. + Then, without further ceremony, thus. + My brother Wellbred, sir, I know not how, + Of late is much declined in what he was, + And greatly alter'd in his disposition. + When he came first to lodge here in my house, + Ne'er trust me if I were not proud of him: + Methought he bare himself in such a fashion, + So full of man, and sweetness in his carriage, + And what was chief, it shew'd not borrow'd in him, + But all he did became him as his own, + And seem'd as perfect, proper, and possest, + As breath with life, or colour with the blood. + But now, his course is so irregular, + So loose, affected, and deprived of grace, + And he himself withal so far fallen off + From that first place, as scarce no note remains, + To tell men's judgments where he lately stood. + He's grown a stranger to all due respect, + Forgetful of his friends; and not content + To stale himself in all societies, + He makes my house here common as a mart, + A theatre, a public receptacle + For giddy humour, and deceased riot; + And here, as in a tavern or a stews, + He and his wild associates spend their hours, + In repetition of lascivious jests, + Swear, leap, drink, dance, and revel night by night, + Control my servants; and, indeed, what not? + +Dow. 'Sdeins, I know not what I should say to him, in the whole +world! He values me at a crack'd three-farthings, for aught I see. +It will never out of the flesh that's bred in the bone. I have +told him enough, one would think, if that would serve; but counsel +to him is as good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse. Well! +he knows what to trust to, for George: let him spend, and spend, +and domineer, till his heart ake; an he think to be relieved by +me, when he is got into one O' your city pounds, the counters, he +has the wrong sow by the ear, i'faith; and claps his dish at the +wrong man's door: I'll lay my hand on my halfpenny, ere I part +with it to fetch him out, I'll assure him.' + +Kit. Nay, good brother, let it not trouble you thus. + +Dow. 'Sdeath! he mads me; I could eat my very spur leathers for +anger! But, why are you so tame? why do you not speak to him, and +tell him how he disquiets your house? + +Kit. + O, there are divers reasons to dissuade me. + But, would yourself vouchsafe to travail in it + (Though but with plain and easy circumstance), + It would both come much better to his sense, + And savour less of stomach, or of passion. + You are his elder brother, and that title + Both gives and warrants your authority, + Which, by your presence seconded, must breed + A kind of duty in him, and regard: + Whereas, if I should intimate the least, + It would but add contempt to his neglect, + Heap worse on ill, make up a pile of hatred, + That in the rearing would come tottering down, + And in the ruin bury all our love. + Nay, more than this, brother; if I should speak, + He would be ready, from his heat of humour, + And overflowing of the vapour in him, + To blow the ears of his familiars + With the false breath of telling what disgraces, + And low disparagement's, I had put upon him. + Whilst they, sir, to relieve him in the fable, + Make their loose comments upon every word, + Gesture, or look, I use; mock me all over, + From my flat cap unto my shining shoes; + And, out of their impetuous rioting phant'sies, + Beget some slander that shall dwell with me. + And what would that be, think you? marry, this: + They would give out, because my wife is fair, + Myself but lately married; and my sister '. + Here sojourning a virgin in my house, + That I were jealous I---nay, as sure as death, + That they would say: and, how that I had quarrell'd, + My brother purposely, thereby to find + An apt pretext to banish them my house. + +Dow. Mass, perhaps so; they're like enough to do it. + +Kit. + Brother, they would, believe it; so should I, + Like one of these penurious quack-salvers, + But set the bills up to mine own disgrace, + And try experiments upon myself; + Lend scorn and envy opportunity + To stab my reputation and good name-- + Enter Master MATHEW struggling with BOBADILL. + +Mat. I will speak to him. + +Bob. Speak to him! away! By the foot of Pharaoh, you shall not! you +shall not do him that grace.--The time of day to you, gentleman O' +the house. Is master Wellbred stirring? + +Dow. How then? what should he do? + +Bob. Gentleman of the house, it is to you: is he within, sir? + +Kit. He came not to his lodging to-night, sir, I assure you. + +Dow. Why, do you hear? you! + +Bob. + The gentleman citizen hath satisfied me; + I'll talk to no scavenger. [Exeunt Bob. and Mat. + + Dow. How! scavenger! stay, sir, stay! + +Kit. Nay, brother Downright. + +Dow. 'Heart! stand you away, an you love me. + +Kit. You shall not follow him now, I pray you, brother, good faith +you shall not; I will overrule you. + +Dow. Ha! scavenger! well, go to, I say little: but, by this good +day (God forgive me I should swear), if I put it up so, say I am +the rankest cow that ever pist. 'Sdeins, an I swallow this, I'll +ne'er draw my sword in the sight of Fleet-street again while I +live; I'll sit in a barn with madge-howlet, and catch mice first. +Scavenger! heart!--and I'll go near to fill that huge tumbrel-slop +of yours with somewhat, an I have good luck: your Garagantua breech +cannot carry it away so. + +Kit. Oh, do not fret yourself thus: never think on't. + +Dow. These are my brother's consorts, these! these are his +camerades, his walking mates! he's a gallant, it. cavaliero too, +right hangman cut! Let me not live, an I could not find in my heart +to swinge the whole gang of 'em, one after another, and begin with +him first. I am grieved it should be said he is my brother, and +take these courses: Well, as he brews, so shall he drink, for +George, again. Yet he shall hear on't, and that tightly too, an I +live, i'faith. + +Kit. + But, brother, let your reprehension, then, + Run in an easy current, not o'er high + Carried with rashness, or devouring choler; + But rather use the soft persuading way, + Whose powers will work more gently, and compose + The imperfect thoughts you labour to reclaim; + More winning, than enforcing the consent. + +Dow. Ay, ay, let me alone for that, I warrant you. + +Kit. + How now! [Bell rings.] Oh, the bell rings to breakfast. + Brother, I pray you go in, and bear my wife company till I come; + I'll but give order for some despatch of business to my servants. + [Exit Downright. Enter COB, with his tankard. + +Kit. + What, Cob! our maids will have you by the back, i'faith, for + coming so late this morning. + +Cob. + Perhaps so, sir; take heed somebody have not them by the belly, + for walking so late in the evening. [Exit. + +Kit. + Well; yet my troubled spirit's somewhat eased, + Though not reposed in that security + As I could wish: but I must be content, + Howe'er I set a face on't to the world. + Would I had lost this finger at a venture, + So Wellbred had ne'er lodged within my house. + Why't cannot be, where there is such resort + Of wanton gallants, and young revellers, + That any woman should be honest long. + Is't like, that factious beauty will preserve + The public weal of chastity unshaken, + When such strong motives muster, and make head + Against her single peace? No, no: beware. + When mutual appetite doth meet to treat, + And spirits of one kind and quality + Come once to parley in the pride of blood, + It is no slow conspiracy that follows. + Well, to be plain, if I but thought the time + Had answer'd their affections, all the world + Should not persuade me but I were a cuckold. + Marry, I hope they have not got that start; + For opportunity hath balk'd them yet, + And shall do still, while I have eyes and ears + To attend the impositions of my heart. + My presence shall be as an iron bar, + 'Twixt the conspiring motions of desire: + Yea, every look or glance mine eye ejects + Shall check occasion, as one doth his slave, + When he forgets the limits of prescription. + Enter Dame KITELY and BRIDGET. + +Dame K. Sister Bridget, pray you fetch down the rose-water, + above in the closet.--- + [Exit Bridget. + Sweet-heart, will you come in to breakfast? + +Kit. An she have overheard me now!--- + +Dame K. I pray thee, good muss, we stay for you. + +Kit. By heaven, I would not for a thousand angels. + +Dame K. What ail you, sweet-heart? are you not well? speak, good +muss. + +Kit. Troth my head akes extremely on a sudden. + +Dame K. [putting her hand to his forehead.] O, the Lord! + +Kit. How now! What? + +Dame K. Alas, how it burns! Muss, keep you warm; good truth it is +this new disease. there's a number are troubled withal. For love's +sake, sweetheart, come in, out of the air. + +Kit. + How simple, and how subtle are her answers! + A new disease, and many troubled with it? + Why true; she heard me, all the world to nothing. + +Dame K. I pray thee, good sweet-heart, come in; the air will do you +harm, in troth. + +Kit. The air! she has me in the wind.--Sweet-heart, I'll come to +you presently; 'twill away, I hope. + +Dame K. Pray Heaven it do. [Exit. + +Kit. + A new disease! I. know not, new or old, + But it may well be call'd poor mortals' plague; + For, like a pestilence, it doth infect + The houses of the brain. First it begins + Solely to work upon the phantasy, + Filling her seat with such pestiferous air, + As soon corrupts the judgment; and from thence, + Sends like contagion to the memory: + Still each to other giving the infection. + Which as a subtle vapour spreads itself + Confusedly through every sensive part, + Till not a thought or motion in the mind + Be free from the black poison of suspect. + Ah! but what misery is it to know this? + Or, knowing it, to want the mind's erection + In such extremes? Well, I will once more strive, + In spite of this black cloud, myself to be, + And shake the fever off that thus shakes me. [Exit. + + + + SCENE II.---Moorfields. + Enter BRAINWORM disguised like a maimed Soldier. + +Brai. 'Slid, I cannot choose but laugh to see myself translated +thus, from a poor creature to a creator; for now must I create an +intolerable sort of lies, or my present profession loses the grace: +and yet the lie, to a man of my coat, is as ominous a fruit as the +fico. O, sir, it holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly +in vilest estimation, that inwardly is most dear to us: so much for +my borrowed shape. Well, the troth is, my old master intends to +follow my young master, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London, this +morning; now, I knowing of this hunting-match, or rather conspiracy, +and to insinuate with my young master (for so must we that are blue +waiters, and men of hope and service do, or perhaps we may wear +motley at the year's end, and who wears motley, you know), have got +me afore in this disguise, determining here to lie in ambuscado, +and intercept him in the mid-way. If I can but get his cloke, his +purse, and his hat, nay, any thing to cut him off, that is, to stay +his journey, Veni, vidi, vici, I may say with captain Caesar, I am +made for ever, i'faith. Well, now I must practise to get the true +garb of one of these lance-knights, my arm here, and my--Odso! my +young master, and his cousin, master Stephen, as I am true +counterfeit man of war, and no soldier! + + Enter E. KNOWELL and STEPHEN. + +E. Know. So, sir! and how then, coz? + +Step. 'Sfoot! I have lost my purse, I think. + +E. Know. How! lost your purse? where? when had you it? + +Step. I cannot tell; stay. + +Brai. 'Slid, I am afraid they will know me: would I could get by +them! + +E. Know. What, have you it? + +Step. No; I think I was bewitched, I-- [Cries. + +E. Know. Nay, do not weep the loss: hang it, let it go. + +Step. Oh, it's here: No, an it had been lost, I had not cared, but +for a jet ring mistress Mary sent me. + +E. Know. A jet ring! O the poesie, the poesie? + +Step. Fine, i'faith. + + Though Fancy sleep, + My love is deep. + +Meaning, that though I did not fancy her, yet she loved me dearly. + +E. Know. Most excellent! + +Step. And then I sent her another, and my poesie was, + + The deeper the sweeter, + I'll be judg'd by St. Peter. + +E. Know. How, by St. Peter? I do not conceive that. + +Step. Marry, St. Peter, to make up the metre. + +E. Know. Well, there the saint was your good patron, he help'd you +at your need; thank him, thank him. + +Brai. I cannot take leave on 'em so; I will venture, come what +will. [Comes forward.] Gentlemen, please you change a few crowns +for a very excellent blade here? I am a poor gentleman, a soldier, +one that, in the better state of my fortunes, scorned so mean a +refuge; but now it is the humour of necessity to have it so. You +seem to be gentlemen well affected to martial men, else I should +rather die with silence, than live with shame: however, vouchsafe +to remember it is my want speaks, not myself; this condition agrees +not with my spirit-- + +E. Know. Where hast thou served? + +Brai. May it please you, sir, in all the late wars of Bohemia, +Hungary, Dalmatia, Poland, where not, sir? I have been a poor +servitor by sea and land any time this fourteen years, and followed +the fortunes of the best commanders in Christendom. I was twice, +shot at the taking of Aleppo, once at the relief of Vienna; I have +been at Marseilles, Naples, and the Adriatic gulf, a +gentleman-slave in the gallies, thrice; where I was most +dangerously shot in the head, through both the thighs; and yet, +being thus maimed, I am void of maintenance, nothing left me but my +scars, the noted marks of my resolution. + +Step. How will you sell this rapier, friend? + +Brai. Generous sir, I refer it to your own judgment; you are a +gentleman, give me what you please. + +Step. True, I am a gentleman, I know that, friend; but what though! +I pray you say, what would you ask? + +Brai. I assure you, the blade may become the side or thigh of the +best prince in Europe. + +E. Know. Ay, with a velvet scabbard, I think. + +Step. Nay, an't be mine, it shall have a velvet scapbard, coz, +that's flat; I'd not wear it, as it is, an you would give me an +angel, + +Brai. At your worship's pleasure, sir; nay, 'tis a most pure +Toledo. + +Step. I had rather it were a Spaniard. But tell me, what shall I +give you for it? An it had a silver hilt + +E. Know. Come, come, you shall not buy it: hold, there's a +shilling, fellow; take thy rapier. + +Step. Why, but I will buy it now, because you say so; and there's +another shilling, fellow; I scorn to be out-bidden. What, shall I +walk with a cudgel, like Higginbottom, and may have a rapier for +money. + +E. Know. You may buy one in the city. + +Step. Tut! I'll buy this i' the field, so I will: I have a mind +to't, because 'tis a field rapier. Tell me your lowest price. + +E. Know. You shall not buy it, I. say. + +Step. By this money, but I will, though I give more than 'tis +worth. + +E. Know. Come away, you are a fool. + +Step. Friend, I am a fool, that's granted; but I'll have it, for +that word's sake. Follow me for your money. + +Brai. At your service, sir. + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE III.---Another Part of Moorfields. + Enter KNOWELL. + +Know. + I cannot lose the thought yet of this letter, + Sent to my son; nor leave t' admire the change + Of manners, and the breeding of our youth + Within the kingdom, since myself was one--- + When I was young, he lived not in the stews + Durst have conceived a scorn, and utter'd it, + On a gray head; age was authority + Against a buffoon, and a man had then + A certain reverence paid unto his years, + That had none due unto his life: so much + The sanctity of some prevail'd for others. + But now we all are fallen; youth, from their fear, + And age, from that which bred it, good example. + Nay, would ourselves were not the first, even parents, + That did destroy the hopes in our own children; + Or they not learn'd our vices in their cradles, + And suck'd in our ill customs with their milk; + Ere all their teeth be born, or they can speak, + We make their palates cunning; the first words + We form their tongues with, are licentious jests: + Can it call whore? cry bastard? O, then, kiss it! + A witty child! can't swear? the father's darling! + Give it two plums. Nay, rather than't shall learn + No bawdy song, the mother herself will teach it!--- + But this is in the infancy, the days + Of the long coat; when it puts on the breeches, + It will put off all this: Ay, it is like, + When it is gone into the bone already! + No, no; this dye goes deeper than the coat, + Or shirt, or skin; it stains into the liver, + And heart, in some; and, rather than it should not, + Note what we fathers do! look how we live! + What mistresses we keep! at what expense, + In our sons' eyes! where they may handle our gifts, + Hear our lascivious courtships, see our dalliance, + Taste of the same provoking meats with us, + To ruin of our states! Nay, when our own + Portion is fled, to prey on the remainder, + We call them into fellowship of vice; + Bait 'em with the young chamber-maid, to seal, + And teach 'em all bad ways to buy affliction. + This is one path: but there are millions more, + In which we spoil our own, with leading them. + Well, I thank heaven, I never yet was he + That travell'd with my son, before sixteen, + To shew him the Venetian courtezans; + Nor read the grammar of cheating I had made, + To my sharp boy, at twelve; repeating still + The rule, Get money; still, get money, boy; + No matter by what means; money will do + More, boy, than my lord's letter. Neither have I + Drest snails or mushrooms curiously before him, + Perfumed my sauces, and taught him how to make them; + Preceding still, with my gray gluttony, + At all the ord'naries, and only fear'd + His palate should degenerate, not his manners. + These are the trade of fathers now; however, + My son, I hope, hath met within my threshold + None of these household precedents, which are strong, + And swift, to rape youth to their precipice. + But let the house at home be ne'er so clean + Swept, or kept sweet from filth, nay dust and cobwebs, + If he will live abroad with his companions, + In dung and leystals, it is worth a fear; + Nor is the danger of conversing less + Than all that I have mention'd of example. + Enter BRAIN WORM, disguised as before. + +Brai. My master! nay, faith, have at you; I am flesh'd now, I have +sped so well. [Aside.] Worshipful sir, I beseech you, respect the +estate of a poor soldier; lam ashamed of this base course of +life,--God's my comfort--but extremity provokes me to't: what +remedy? + +Know. I have not for you, now. + +Brai. By the faith I bear unto truth, gentleman, it is no ordinary +custom in me, but only to preserve manhood. I protest to you, a man +I have been: a man I may be, by your sweet bounty. + +Know. Pray thee, good friend, be satisfied. + +Brai. Good sir, by that hand, you may do the part of a kind +gentleman, in lending a poor soldier the price of two cans of beer, +a matter of small value: the king of heaven shall pay you, and I +shall rest thankful: Sweet worship-- + +Know. Nay, an you be so importunate + +Brai. Oh, tender sir! need will have its course: I was not made to +this vile use. Well, the edge of the enemy could not have abated me +so much: it's hard when a man hath served in his prince's cause, +and be thus. [Weeps.] Honourable worship, let me derive a small +piece of silver from you, it shall not be given in the course of +time. By this good ground, I was fain to pawn my rapier last night +for a poor supper; I had suck'd the hilts long before, am a pagan +else: Sweet honour-- + +Know. + Believe me, I am taken with some wonder, + To think a fellow of thy outward presence, + Should, in the frame and fashion of his mind, + Be so degenerate, and sordid-base. + Art thou a man? and sham'st thou not to beg, + To practise such a servile kind of life? + Why, were thy education ne'er so mean, + Having thy limbs, a thousand fairer courses + Offer themselves to thy election. + Either the wars might still supply thy wants, + Or service of some virtuous gentleman, + Or honest labour; nay, what can I name, + But would become thee better than to beg: + But men of thy condition feed on sloth, + As cloth the beetle on the dung she breeds in; + Nor caring how the metal of your minds + Is eaten with the rust of idleness. + Now, afore me, whate'er he be, that should + Relieve a person of thy quality, + While thou insist'st in this loose desperate course, + I would esteem the sin not thine, but his. + +Brai. Faith, sir, I would gladly find some other course, if so--- + +Know. + Ay, + You'd gladly find it, but you will not seek it. + +Brai. Alas, sir, where should a man seek? in the wars; there's no +ascent by desert in these days; but--and for service, would it +were as soon purchased, as wished for! the air's my comfort.--- +[Sighs.]---l know what I would say. + +Know. What's thy name? + +Brai. Please you, Fitz-Sword, sir. + +Know. Fitz-Sword! + Say that a man should entertain thee now, + Wouldst thou be honest, humble, just, and true? + +Brai. Sir, by the place and honour of a soldier--- + +Know. Nay, nay, I like not these affected oaths; speak plainly, +man, what think'st thou of my words? + +Brai. Nothing, sir, but wish my fortunes were as happy as my +service should be honest. + +Know. + Well, follow me; I'll prove thee, if thy deeds + Will carry a proportion to thy words. [Exit. + +Brai. Yes, sir, straight; I'll but garter my hose. Oh that my belly +were hoop'd now, for I am ready to burst with laughing! never was +bottle or bagpipe fuller. 'Slid, was there ever seen a fox in years +to betray himself thus! now shall I be possest of all his counsels; +and, by that conduit, my young master. Well, he is resolved to +prove my honesty; faith, and I'm resolved to prove his patience: +Oh, I shall abuse him intolerably. This small piece of service will +bring him clean out of love with the soldier for ever. He will +never come within the sign of it, the sight of a cassock, or a +musket-rest again. He will hate the musters at Mile-end for it, to +his dying day. It's no matter, let the world think me a bad +counterfeit, if I cannot give him the slip at an instant: why, this +is better than to have staid his journey: well, I'll follow him. +Oh, how I long to be employed! + [Exit. + + + + + ACT III + SCENE I.-The Old Jewry. A Room in the Windmill Tavern. + Enter Master MATHEW, WELLBRED, and BOBADILL. + + + +Mat. Yes, faith, sir, we were at your lodging to seek you too. + +Wel; Oh, I came not there to-night. + +Bob. Your brother delivered us as much. + +Wel. Who, my brother Downright? + +Bob. He. Mr. Wellbred, I know not in what kind you hold me; but let +me say to you this: as sure as honour, I esteem it So much out of +the sunshine of reputation, to throw the least beam of regard upon +such a-- + +Wel. Sir, I must hear no ill words of my brother. + +Bob. I protest to you, as I have a thing to be saved about me, I +never saw any gentlemanlike part-- + +Wel. Good captain, faces about to some other discourse. + +Bob. With your leave, sir, an there were no more men living upon +th' face of the earth, I should not fancy him, by St. George! + +Mat. Troth, nor I; he is of a rustical cut, I know not how: he doth +not carry himself like a gentleman of fashion. + +Wel. Oh, master Mathew, that's a grace peculiar but to a few, quos +aequus amavit Jupiter. + +Mat. I understand you, sir. + +Wel. No question, you do,--or do you not, sir. + Enter E. KNOWELL and Master STEPHEN. +Ned Knowell! by my soul, welcome: how dost thou, sweet spirit, my +genius? 'Slid, I shall love Apollo and the mad Thespian girls the +better, while I live, for this, my dear Fury; now, I see there's +some love in thee. Sirrah, these be the two I writ to thee of: nay, +what a drowsy humour is this now! why dost thou not speak? + +E. Know. Oh, you are a fine gallant; you sent me a rare letter. + +Wel. Why, was't not rare? + +E. Know. Yes, I'll be sworn, I was ne'er guilty of reading the +like; match it in all Pliny, or Symmachus's epistles, and I'll have +my judgment burn'd in the ear for a rogue: make much of thy vein, +for it is inimitable. But I marle what camel it was, that had the +carriage of it; for, doubtless, he was no ordinary beast that +brought it. + +Wel. Why? + +E. Know. Why, say'st thou! why, dost thou think that any reasonable +creature, especially in the morning, the sober time of the day too, +could have mistaken my father for me? + +Wel. 'Slid, you jest, I hope. + +E. Know. Indeed, the best use we can turn it to, is to make a jest +on't; now: but I'll assure you, my father had the full view of your +flourishing style some hour before I saw it. + +Wel. What a dull slave was this! but, sirrah, what said he to it, +i'faith? + +E. Know. Nay, I know not what he said; but I have a shrewd guess +what he thought. + +Wel. What, what? + +E. Know. Marry, that thou art some strange, dissolute young fellow, +and I--a grain or two better, for keeping thee company. + +Wel. Tut! that thought is like the moon in her last quarter, 'twill +change shortly: but, sirrah, I pray thee be acquainted with my two +hang-by's here; thou wilt take exceeding pleasure in them if thou +hear'st 'em once go; my wind-instruments; I'll wind them up--But +what strange piece of silence is this, the sign of the Dumb Man? + +E. Know. Oh, sir, a kinsman of mine, one that may make your music +the fuller, an he please; he has his humour, sir. + +Wel. Oh, what is't, what is't? + +E. Know. Nay, I'll neither do your judgment nor his folly that +wrong, as to prepare your apprehension: I'll leave him to the mercy +of your search; if you can take him, so! + +Wel. Well, captain Bobadill, master Mathew, pray you know this +gentleman here; he is a friend of mine, and one that will deserve +your affection. I know not your name, sir, [to Stephen.] but I +shall be glad of any occasion to render me more familiar to you. + +Step. My name is master Stephen, sir; I am this gentleman's own +cousin, sir; his father is mine uncle, sir: I am somewhat +melancholy, but you shall command me, sir, in whatsoever is +incident to a gentleman. + +Bob. Sir, I must tell you this, I am no general man; but for master +Wellbred's sake, (you may embrace it at what height of favour you +please,) I do communicate with you, and conceive you to be a +gentleman of some parts; I love few words. + +E. Know. And I fewer, sir; I have scarce enough to thank you. + +Mat. But are you, indeed, sir, so given to it? + +Step. Ay, truly, sir, I am mightily given to melancholy. + +Mat. Oh, it's your only fine humour, sir: your true melancholy +breeds your perfect fine wit, sir. I am melancholy myself, diver +times, sir, and then do I no more but take pen and paper, +presently, and overflow you half a score, or a dozen of sonnets at +a sitting. + +E. Know. Sure he utters them then by the gross. [Aside. + +Step. Truly, sir, and I love such things out of measure. + +E. Know. I'faith, better than in measure, I'll undertake. + +Mat. Why, I pray you, sir, make use of my study, it's at your +service. + +Step. I thank you, sir, I shall be bold I warrant you; have you a +stool there to be melancholy upon? + +Mat. That I have, sir, and some papers there of mine own doing, at +idle hours, that you'll say there's some sparks of wit in 'em, when +you see them, + +Wel. Would the sparks would kindle once, and become a fire amongst +them! I might see self-love burnt for her heresy. [Aside. + +Step. Cousin, is it well? am I melancholy enough? + +E. Know, Oh ay, excellent. + +Wel. Captain Bobadill, why muse you so? + +E. Know. He is melancholy too. + +Bob. Faith, sir, I was thinking of a most honourable piece of +service, was performed to-morrow, being St. Mark's day, shall be +some ten years now. + +E. Know. In what place, captain? + +Bob. Why, at the beleaguering of Strigonium, where, in less than +two hours, seven hundred resolute gentlemen, as any were in Europe, +lost their lives upon the breach. I'll tell you, gentlemen, it was +the first, but the best leaguer that ever I beheld with these eyes, +except the taking in of--what do you call it?--last year, by the +Genoways; but that, of all other, was the most fatal and dangerous +exploit that ever I was ranged in, since I first bore arms before +the face of the enemy, as I am a gentleman and a soldier! + +Step. So! I had as lief as an angel I could swear as well as that +gentleman. + +E. Know. Then, you were a servitor at both, it seems; at +Strigonium, and what do you call't? + +Bob. O lord, sir! By St. George, I was the first man that entered +the breach; and had I not effected it with resolution, I had been +slain if I had had a million of lives. + +E. Know. 'Twas pity you had not ten; a cat's and your own, i'faith. +But, was it possible? + +Mat. Pray you mark this discourse, sir. + +Step. So I do. + +Bob. I assure' you, upon my reputation, 'tis true, and you shall +confess. + +E. Know. You must bring me to the rack, first. [Aside. + +Bob. Observe me judicially, sweet sir; they had planted me three +demi-culverins just in the mouth of the breach; now, sir, as we +were to give on, their master-gunner (a man of no mean skill and +mark, you must think,) confronts me with his linstock, ready to +give fire; I, spying his intendment, discharged my petronel in his +bosom, and with these single arms, my poor rapier, ran violently +upon the Moors that guarded the ordnance, and put them pell-mell, +to the sword. + +Wel. To the sword! To the rapier, captain. + +E. Know. Oh, it was a good figure observed, sir: but did you all +this, captain, without hurting your blade? + +Bob. Without any impeach O' the earth: you shall perceive, sir. +[Shews his rapier.] It is the most fortunate weapon that ever rid +on poor gentleman's thigh. Shall I tell you, sir? You talk of +Morglay, Excalibur, Durindana, or so; tut! I lend no credit to that +is fabled of 'em: I know the virtue of mine own, and therefore I +dare the boldlier maintain it. + +Step. I marle whether it be a Toledo or no. + +Bob. A most perfect Toledo, I assure you, sir. Step. I have a +countryman of his here. + +Mat. Pray you, let's see, sir; yes, faith, it is. + +Bob. This a Toledo! Pish! + +Step. Why do you pish, captain? + +Bob. A Fleming, by heaven! I'll buy them for a guilder a-piece. an +I would have a thousand of them. + +E. Know. How say you, cousin? I told you thus much. Wel. Where +bought you it, master Stephen? + +Step. Of a scurvy rogue soldier: a hundred of lice go with him! He +swore it was a Toledo. + +Bob. A poor provant rapier, no better. + +Mat. Mass, I think it be indeed, now I look on't better. + +E. Know. Nay, the longer you look on't, the worse. Put it up, put +it up. + +Step. Well, I will put it up; but by--I have forgot the captain's +oath, I thought to have sword! by it,--an e'er I meet him-- + +Wel. O, it is past help now, sir; you must have patience. + +Step. Whoreson, coney-hatching rascal! I could eat the very hilts +for anger. + +E. Know. A sign of good digestion; you have an ostrich stomach, +Cousin. + +Step. A stomach! would I had him here, you should see an I had a +stomach. + +Wel. It's better as it is.--Come, gentlemen, shall we go? + Enter BRAINWORM, disguised as before. +E. Know. A miracle, cousin; look here, look here! + +Step. Oh--'Od's lid. By your leave, do you know me, sir? + +Brai. Ay, sir, I know you by sight. + +Step. You sold me a rapier, did you not? + +Brai. Yes, marry did I, sir. + +Step. You said it was a Toledo, ha? + +Brai. True, I did so. + +Step. But it is none. + +Brai. No, sir, I confess it; it is none. + +Step. Do you confess it? Gentlemen, bear witness, he has confest +it:--'Od's will, an you had not confest it.=== + +E. Know. Oh, cousin, forbear, forbear! Step. Nay, I have done, +cousin. + +Wel. Why, you have done like a gentleman; he has confest it, what +would you more? + +Step. Yet, by his leave, he is a rascal, under his favour, do you +see. + +E. Know. Ay, by his leave, he is, and under favour: a pretty piece +of civility! Sirrah, how dost thou like him? + +Wel. Oh, it's a most precious fool, make much on him: I can compare +him to nothing more happily than a drum; for every one may play +upon him. + +E. Know. No, no, a child's whistle were far the fitter. + +Brai. Shall I intreat a word with you? + +E. Know. With me, sir? you have not another Toledo to sell, have +you? + +Brai. You are conceited, sir: Your name is Master Knowell, as I +take it? + +E. Know. You are in the right; you mean not to proceed in the +catechism, do you? + +Brai. No, sir; I am none of that coat. + +E. Know. Of as bare a coat, though: well, say, sir. + +Brai. [taking E. Know. aside.] Faith, sir, I am but servant to the +drum extraordinary, and indeed, this smoky varnish being washed +off, and three or four patches removed, I appear your worship's in +reversion, after the decease of your good father, Brainworm. + +E. Know. Brainworm'! 'Slight, what breath of a conjurer hath blown +thee hither in this shape? + +Brai. The breath of your letter, sir, this morning; the same that +blew you to the Windmill, and your father after you. + +E. Know. My father! + +Brai. Nay, never start, 'tis true; he has followed you over the +fields by the foot, as you would do a hare in the snow. + +E. Know. Sirrah Wellbred, what shall we do, sirrah? my father is +come over after me. + +Wel. Thy father! Where is he? + +Brai. At justice Clement's house, in Coleman-street, where he but +stays my return; and then-- + +Wel. Who's this? Brainworm! + +Brai. The same, sir. + +Wel. Why how, in the name of wit, com'st thou transmuted thus? + +Brai. Faith, a device, a device; nay, for the love of reason, +gentlemen, and avoiding the danger, stand not here; withdraw, and +I'll tell you all. + +Wel. But art thou sure he will stay thy return? + +Brai. Do I live, sir? what a question is that! + +Wel. We'll prorogue his expectation, then, a little: Brainworm, +thou shalt go with us.--Come on, gentlemen.==-Nay, I pray thee, +sweet Ned, droop not; 'heart, an our wits be so wretchedly dull, +that one old plodding brain can outstrip us all, would we were e'en +prest to make porters of, and serve out the remnant of our days in +Thames-street, or at Custom-house key, in a civil war against the +carmen! + +Brai. Amen, amen, amen, say I. [Exeunt. + + + + SCENE II---The Old Jewry. KITELY'S Warehouse. + Enter KITELY and CASH. + +Kit. What says he, Thomas? did you speak with him? + +Cash. He will expect you, sir, within this half hour. + +Kit. Has he the money ready, can you tell? + +Cash. Yes, sir, the money was brought in last night. + +Kit. + O, that is well; fetch me my cloak, my cloak!--- [Exit Cash. + Stay, let me see, an hour to go and come; + Ay, that will be the least; and then 'twill be + An hour before I can dispatch with him, + Or very near; well, I will say two hours. + Two hours! ha! things never dreamt of yet, + May be contrived, ay, and effected too, + In two hours' absence; well, I will not go. + Two hours! No, fleering Opportunity, + I will not give your subtilty that scope. + Who will not judge him worthy to be robb'd, + That sets his doors wide open to a thief, + And shews the felon where his treasure lies? + Again, what earthly spirit but will attempt + To taste the fruit of beauty's golden tree, + When leaden sleep seals up the dragon's eyes? + I will not go. Business, go by for once. + No, beauty, no; you are of too good caract, + To be left so, without a guard, or open, + Your lustre, too, 'll inflame at any distance, + Draw courtship to you, as a jet doth straws; + Put motion in a stone, strike fire from ice, + Nay, make a porter leap you with his burden. + You must be then kept up, close, and well watch'd, + For, give you opportunity, no quick-sand + Devours or swallows swifter! He that lends + His wife, if she be fair, or time or place, + Compels her to be false. I will not go! + The dangers are too many;---and then the dressing + Is a most main attractive! Our great heads + Within this city never were in safety + Since our wives wore these little caps: I'll change 'em; + I'll change 'em straight in mine: mine shall no more + Wear three-piled acorns, to make my horns ake. + Nor will I go; I am resolved for that. + Re-enter CASH with a cloak. + Carry in my cloak again. Yet stay. Yet do, too: + I will defer going, on all occasions. + +Cash. + Sir, Snare, your scrivener, will be there with the bonds. + +Kit. + That's true: fool on me! I had clean forgot it; + I must go. What's a clock? + +Cash. Exchange-time, sir. + +Kit. + 'Heart, then will Wellbred presently be here too, + With one or other of his loose consorts. + I am a knave, if I know what to say, + What course to take, or which way to resolve. + My brain, methinks, is like an hour-glass, + Wherein my imaginations run like sands, + Filling up time; but then are turn'd and turn'd: + So that I know not what to stay upon, + And less, to put in act.---It shall be so. + Nay, I dare build upon his secrecy, + He knows not to deceive me.---Thomas! + +Cash. Sir. + +Kit. + Yet now I have bethought me too, I will not.--- + Thomas, is Cob within? + +Cash. I think he be, sir. + +Kit. + But he'll prate too, there is no speech of him. + No, there were no man on the earth to Thomas, + If I durst trust him; there is all the doubt. + But should he have a clink in him, I were gone. + Lost in my fame for ever, talk for th' Exchange! + The manner he hath stood with, till this present, + Doth promise no such change: what should I fear then? + Well, come what will, I'll tempt my fortune once. + Thomas---you may deceive me, but, I hope--- + Your love to me is more--- + +Cash. Sir, if a servant's + Duty, with faith, may be call'd love, you are + More than in hope, you are possess'd of it. + +Kit. + I thank you heartily, Thomas: give me your hand: + With all my heart, good Thomas. I have, Thomas, + A secret to impart unto you---but, + When once you have it, I must seal your lips up; + So far I tell you, Thomas. + +Cash. Sir, for that--- + +Kit. + Nay, hear me out. Think I esteem you, Thomas, + When I will let you in thus to my private. + It is a thing sits nearer to my crest, + Than thou art 'ware of, Thomas; if thou should'st + Reveal it, but--- + +Cash. How, I reveal it? + +Kit. Nay, + I do not think thou would'st; but if thou should'st, + 'Twere a great weakness. + +Cash. A great treachery: + Give it no other name. + +Kit. Thou wilt not do't, then? + +Cash. + Sir, if I do, mankind disclaim me ever! + +Kit. + He will not swear, he has some reservation, + Some conceal'd purpose, and close meaning sure; + Else, being urg'd so much, how should he choose + But lend an oath to all this protestation? + He's no precisian, that I'm certain of, + Nor rigid Roman Catholic: he'll play + At fayles, and tick-tack; I have heard him swear. + What should I think of it? urge him again, + And by some other way! I will do so. + Well, Thomas, thou hast sworn not to disclose:--- + Yes, you did swear? + +Cash. + Not yet, sir, but I will, + Please you--- + +Kit. + No, Thomas, I dare take thy word, + But, if thou wilt swear, do as thou think'st; good; + I am resolv'd without It; at thy pleasure. + +Cash. + By my soul's safety then, sir, I protest, + My tongue shall ne'er take knowledge of a word + Deliver'd me in nature of your trust. + +Kit. + It is too much; these ceremonies need not: + I know thy faith to be as firm as rock. + Thomas, come hither, near; we cannot be + Too private in this business. So it is,--- + Now he has sworn, I dare the safelier venture. [Aside. + I have of late, by divers observations--- + But whether his oath can bind him, yea, or no, + Being not taken lawfully? ha! say you? + I will ask council ere I do proceed:---- [Aside. + Thomas, it will be now too long to stay, + I'll spy some fitter time soon, or to-morrow. + +Cash. Sir, at your pleasure. + +Kit. I will think:-and, Thomas, + I pray you search the books 'gainst my return, + For the receipts 'twixt me and Traps. + +Cash. I will, sir. + +Kit. + And hear you, if your mistress's brother, Wellbred, + Chance to bring hither any gentleman, + Ere I come back, let one straight bring me word. + +Cash. Very well, sir. + +Kit. + To the Exchange, do you hear? + Or here in Coleman-street, to justice Clement's. + Forget it not, nor be not out of the way. + +Cash. I will not, sir. + +Kit. I pray you have a care on't. + Or, whether he come or no, if any other, + Stranger, or else; fail not to send me word. + +Cash. I shall not, sir. + +Kit. Be it your special business + Now to remember it. + +Cash. Sir, I warrant you. + +Kit. + But, Thomas, this is not the secret, Thomas, + I told you of. + +Cash. No, sir; I do suppose it. + +Kit. Believe me, it is not. + +Cash. Sir, I do believe you. + +Kit. + By heaven it is not, that's enough: but, Thomas, + I would not you should utter it, do you see, + To any creature living; yet I care not. + Well, I must hence. Thomas, conceive thus much; + It was a trial of you, when I meant + So deep a secret to you, I mean not this, + But that I have to tell you; this is nothing, this. + But, Thomas, keep this from my wife, I charge you, + Lock'd up in silence, midnight, buried here.--- + No greater hell than to be slave to fear. [Exit. + +Cash. + Lock'd up in silence, midnight, buried here! + Whence should this flood of passion, trow. take head? ha! + Best dream no longer of this running humour, + For fear I sink; the violence of the stream + Already hath transported me so far, + That I can feel no ground at all: but soft--- + Oh, 'tis our water-bearer: somewhat has crost him now. + Enter COB, hastily. + + +Cob. Fasting-days! what tell you me of fasting days? 'Slid, would +they were all on a light fire for me! they say the whole world +shall be consumed with fire one day, but would I had these +Ember-weeks and villanous Fridays burnt in the mean time, and +then-- + +Cash. Why, how now, Cob? what moves thee to this choler, ha? + +Cob. Collar, master Thomas! I scorn your collar, I, sir; I am none +O' your cart-horse, though I carry and draw water. An you offer to +ride me with your collar or halter either, I may hap shew you a +jade's trick, sir. + +Cash. O, you'll slip your head out of the collar? why, goodman Cob, +you mistake me. + +Cob. Nay, I have my rheum, and I can be angry as well as another, +sir. + +Cash. Thy rheum, Cob! thy humour, thy humour--thou misstak'st. + +Cob. Humour! mack, I think it be so indeed; what is that humour? +some rare thing, I warrant. + +Cash. Marry I'll tell thee, Cob: it is a gentlemanlike monster, +bred in the special gallantry of our time, by affectation; and fed +by folly. + +Cob. How! must it be fed? + +Cash. Oh ay, humour is nothing if it be not fed: didst thou never +hear that? it's a common phrase, feed my humour. + +Cob. I'll none on it: humour, avaunt! I know you not, be gone! let +who will make hungry meals for your monstership, it shall not be I. +Feed you, quoth he! 'slid, I have much ado to feed myself; +especially on these lean rascally days too; an't had been any other +day but a fasting-day--a plague on them all for me! By this light, +one might have done the commonwealth good service, and have drown'd +them all in the flood, two or three hundred thousand years ago. O, +I do stomach them hugely. I have a maw now, and 'twere for sir +Bevis his horse, against them. + +Cash. I pray thee, good Cob, what makes thee so out of love with +fasting days? + +Cob. Marry, that which will make any man out of love with 'em, I +think; their bad conditions, an you will needs know. First they are +of a Flemish breed, I am sure on't, for they raven up more butter +than all the days of the week beside; next, they stink of fish and +leek-porridge miserably; thirdly, they'll keep a man devoutly +hungry all day, and at night send him supperless to bed. + +Cash. Indeed, these are faults, Cob. + +Cob. Nay, an this were all, 'twere something; but they are the only +known enemies to my generation. A fasting-day no sooner comes, but +my lineage goes to wrack; poor cobs! they smoak for it, they are +made martyrs O' the gridiron, they melt in passion: and your maids +to know this, and yet would have me turn Hannibal, and eat my own +flesh and blood. My princely coz, [pulls out a red herring] fear +nothing; I have not the heart to devour you, an I might be made as +rich as king Cophetua. O that I had room for my tears, I could weep +salt-water enough now to preserve the lives of ten thousand +thousand of my kin! But I may curse none but these filthy +almanacks; for an't were not for them, these days of persecution +would never be known. I'll be hang'd an some fish-monger's son do +not make of 'em, and puts in more fasting-days than he should do, +because he would utter his father's dried stock--fish and stinking +conger. + +Cash. 'Slight peace! thou'lt be beaten like a stock-fish else: +here's master Mathew. + Enter WELLIBRED, E. KNOWELL, BRAINWORM, + MATHEW, BOBADILL, and STEPHEN. +Now must I look out for a messenger to my master. + [Exit with Cob. +Wel, Beshrew me, but it was an absolute good jest, and exceedingly +well carried! + +E. Know. Ay, and our ignorance maintain'd it as well, did it not? + +Wel. Yes, faith; but was it possible thou shouldst not know him? I +forgive master Stephen, for he is stupidity itself. + +E. Know. 'Fore God, not I, an I might have been join'd patten with +one of the seven wise masters for knowing him. He had so writhen +himself into the habit of one of your poor infantry, your decayed; +ruinous, worm-eaten gentlemen of the round; such as have vowed to +sit on the skirts of the city, let your provost and his half-dozen +of halberdiers do what they can; and have translated begging out of +the old hackney-pace to a fine easy amble, and made it run as +smooth off the tongue as a shove-groat shilling. Into the likeness +of one of these reformados had he moulded himself so perfectly, +observing every trick of their action, as, varying the accent, +swearing with an emphasis, indeed, all with so special and +exquisite a grace, that, hadst thou seen him, thou wouldst have +sworn he might have been sergeant-major, if not lieutenant-colonel +to the regiment. + +Wel. Why, Brainworm, who would have thought thou hadst been such an +artificer? + +E. Know. An artificer! an architect. Except a man had studied +begging all his life time, and been a weaver of language from his +infancy for the cloathing of it, I never saw his rival. + +Wel. Where got'st thou this coat, I marle? + +Brai. Of a Hounsditch man, sir, one of the devil's near kinsmen, a +broker. + +Wel. That cannot be, if the proverb hold; for 'A crafty knave needs +no broker.' + +Brai. True, sir; but I did need a broker, ergo-- + +Wel. Well put off:--no crafty knave, you'll say. + +E. Know. Tut, he has more of these shifts. + +Brai. And yet. where I have one the broker has ten, sir. + Reenter CASH +Cash. Francis! Martin! ne'er a one to be found now? what a spite's +this! + +Wel. How now, Thomas? Is my brother Kitely within? + +Cash. No, sir, my master went forth e'en now; but master Downright +is within.--Cob! what, Cob! Is he gone too? + +Wel. Whither went your master, Thomas, canst thou tell? + +Cash. I know not: to justice Clement's, I think, sir--Cob! + [Exit +E. Know. Justice Clement! what's he? Wel. + +Why, dost thou not know him? He is a city-magistrate, a justice +here, an excellent good lawyer, and a great scholar; but the only +mad, merry old fellow in Europe. I shewed him you the other day. + +E. Know. Oh, is that he? I remember him now. Good faith, and he is +a very strange presence methinks; it shews as if he stood out of +the rank from other men: I have heard many of his jests in the +University. They say he will commit a man for taking the wall of +his horse. + +Wel. Ay, or wearing his cloak on one shoulder, or serving of God; +any thing, indeed, if it come in the way of his humour. + + Re-enter CASH. + +Cash. Gasper! Martin! Cob! 'Heart, where should they be. trow? + +Bob. Master Kitely's man, pray thee vouchsafe us the lighting of +this match. + [Exit. +Cash. Fire on your match! no time but now to vouchsafe?--Francis! +Cob! + +Bob. Body O' me! here's the remainder of seven pound since +yesterday was seven-night. 'Tis your right Trinidado: did you never +take any. master Stephen? + +Step. No, truly, sir; but I'll learn to take it now, since you +commend it so. + +Bob. Sir, believe me, upon my relation for what I tell you, the +world shall not reprove. I have been in the Indies, where this herb +grows, where neither myself, nor a dozen gentlemen more of my +knowledge, have received the taste of any other nutriment in the +world, for the space of one and twenty weeks, but the fume of this +simple only: therefore, it cannot be, but 'tis most divine. +Further, take it in the nature, in the true kind; so, it makes an +antidote, that, had you taken the most deadly poisonous plant in +all Italy, it should expel it, and clarify you, with as much ease +as I speak. And for your green wound,--your Balsamum and your St. +John's wort, are all mere gulleries and trash to it, especially +your Trinidado: your Nicotian is good too. I could say what I know +of the virtue of it, for the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, +crudities, obstructions, with a thousand of this kind; but I +profess myself no quack-salver. Only thus much; by Hercules, I do +hold it, and will affirm it before any prince in Europe, to be the +most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to +the use of man. + +E. Know. This speech would have done decently in a tobacco-trader's +mouth. + + Re-enter CASH with COB. + +Cash. At justice Clement's he is, in the middle of Coleman-street. + +Cob. Oh, oh! + +Bob. Where's the match I gave thee, master Kitely's man? + +Cash. Would his match and he, and pipe and all, were at Sancto +Domingo! I had forgot it. + [Exit. +Cob. 'Od's me, I marle what pleasure or felicity they have in +taking this roguish tobacco. It's good for nothing but to choke a +man, and fill him full of smoke and embers: there were four died +out of one house last week with taking of it, and two more the bell +went for yesternight; one of them, they say, will never scape it; +he voided a bushel of soot yesterday, upward and downward. By the +stocks, an there were no wiser men than I, I'd have it present +whipping, man or woman, that should but deal with a tobacco pipe: +why, it will stifle them all in the end, as many as use it; it's +little better than ratsbane or rosaker. + [Bobadill beats him. +All. Oh, good captain, hold, hold! + +Bob. You base cullion, you! + + Re-enter CASH. + +Cash. Sir, here's your match. Come, thou must needs be talking too, +thou'rt well enough served. + +Cob. Nay, he will not meddle with his match, I warrant you: well, +it shall be a dear beating, an I live. + +Bob. Do you prate, do you murmur? + +E. Know. Nay, good captain, will you regard the humour of a fool? +Away, knave. + +Wel. Thomas, get him away. [Exit Cash with Cob. + +Bob. A whoreson filthy slave, a dung-worm, an excrement! Body O' +Caesar, but that I scorn to let forth so mean a spirit, I'd have +stabb'd him to the earth. + +Wel. Marry, the law forbid, sir! + +Bob. By Pharaoh's foot, I would have done it. + +Step. Oh, he swears most admirably! By Pharaoh's foot! Body O' +Caesar!--I shall never do it, sure. Upon mine honour, and by St. +George!--No, I have not the right grace. + +Mat. Master Stephen, will you any? By this air, the most divine +tobacco that ever I drunk. + [Practises at the post. +As I am a gentleman! By-- [Exeunt Bob. and Mat. + +Step. None, I thank you, sir. O, this gentleman does it rarely, +too: but nothing like the other. By this air! + +Brai. [pointing to Master Stephen.] Master, glance, glance! master +Wellbred! + +Step. As I have somewhat to be saved, I protest-- + +Wel. You are a fool; it needs no affidavit. + +E. Know. Cousin, will you any tobacco? + +Step. I, sir! Upon my reputation-- + +E. Know. How now, cousin! + +Step. I protest, as I am a gentleman, but no soldier, indeed-- + +Wel. No, master Stephen! As I remember, your name is entered in the +artillery-garden. + +Step. Ay, sir, that's true. Cousin, may I swear, as I am a soldier, +by that? + +E. Know. O yes, that you may; it is all you have for your money. + +Step. Then, as I am a gentleman, and a soldier, it is "divine +tobacco!" + +Wel. But soft, where's master Mathew! Gone? + +Brai. No, sir; they went in here. + +Wel. O let's follow them: master Mathew is gone to salute his +mistress in verse; we shall have the happiness to hear some of his +poetry now; he never comes unfinished.--Brainworm! + +Step. Brainworm! Where? Is this Brainworm? + +E. Know. Ay, cousin; no words of it, upon your gentility. + +Step. Not I, body of me! By this air! St. George! and the foot of +Pharaoh! + +Wel. Rare! Your cousin's discourse is simply drawn out with oaths. + +E. Know. 'Tis larded with them; a kind of French dressing, if you +love it. + [Exeunt. + + + + SCENE III-Coleman-Street. A Room in Justice CLEMENT'S House. + Enter KITELY and COB. + + +Kit. Ha! how many are there, say'st thou? + +Cob. Marry, sir. your brother, master Wellbred-- + +Kit. Tut, beside him: what strangers are there, man? + +Cob. Strangers? let me see, one, two; mass; I know not well,-- +there are so many. + +Kit. How! so many? + +Cob. Ay, there's some five or six of them at the most. + +Kit. + A swarm, a swarm! + Spite of the devil. . .how they sting my head + With forked stings, thus wide and large! + But, Cob, How long hast thou been coming hither, Cob? + +Cob. A little while, sir. + +Kit. Didst thou come running? + +Cob. No, sir. + +Kit. + Nay, then I am familiar with thy haste. + Bane to my fortunes! what meant I to marry? + I, that before was rank'd in such content, + My mind at rest too, in so soft a peace, + Being free master of mine own free thoughts, + And now become a slave? What! never sigh; + Be of good cheer, man; for thou art a cuckold: + 'Tis done, 'tis done! Nay, when such flowing-store, + Plenty itself, falls into my wife's lap, + The cornucopiae will be mine, I know.--But, Cob, + What entertainment had they? I am sure + My sister and my wife would bid them welcome: ha? + +Cob. Like enough, sir; yet I heard not a word of it. + +Kit. + No; + Their lips were seal'd with kisses, and the voice, + Drown'd in a flood of joy at their arrival, + Had lost her motion, state and faculty.-- + Cob, + Which of them was it that first kiss'd my wife, + My sister, I should say?--My wife, alas! + I fear not her: ha! who was it say'st thou? + +Cob. By my troth, sir, will you have the truth of it? + +Kit. Oh, ay, good Cob, I pray thee heartily. + + +Cob. Then I am a vagabond, and fitter for Bridewell than your +worship's company, if I saw any body to be kiss'd, unless they +would have kiss'd the post in the middle of the warehouse; for +there I left them all at their tobacco, with a pox! + +Kit. How! were they not gone in then ere thou cam'st? + +Cob. O no, sir. + +Kit. Spite of the devil! what do I stay here then? Cob, follow me. + [Exit. +Cob. Nay, soft and fair; I have eggs on the spit; I cannot go yet, +sir. Now am I, for some five and fifty reasons, hammering, +hammering revenge: oh for three or four gallons of vinegar, to +sharpen my wits! Revenge, vinegar revenge, vinegar and mustard +revenge! Nay, an he had not lien in my house, 'twould never have +grieved me; but being my guest, one that, I'll be sworn, my wife +has lent him her smock off her back, while his own shirt has been +at washing; pawned her neck-kerchers for clean bands for him; sold +almost all my platters, to buy him tobacco; and he to turn monster +of ingratitude, and strike his lawful host! Well, I hope to raise +up an host of fury for't: here comes justice Clement. + + Enter Justice CLEMENT, KNOWELL, and FORMAL. + +Clem. What's master Kitely gone, Roger? + +Form. Ay, sir. + +Clem. 'Heart O' me! what made him leave us so abruptly?--How now, +sirrah! what make you here? what would you have, ha? + +Cob. An't please your worship, I am a poor neighbour of your +worship's-- + +Clem. A poor neighbour of mine! Why, speak, poor neighbour. + +Cob. I dwell, sir, at the sign of the Water-tankard, hard by the +Green Lattice: I have paid scot and lot there any time this +eighteen years. + +Clem. To the Green Lattice? + +Cob. No, sir, to the parish: Marry, I have seldom scaped scot-free +at the Lattice. + +Clem. O, well; what business has my poor neighbour with me? + +Cob. An't like your worship, I am come to crave the peace of your +worship. + +Clem. Of me, knave! Peace of me, knave! Did I ever hurt thee, or +threaten thee, or wrong thee, ha? + +Cob. No, sir; but your worship's warrant for one that has wrong'd +me, sir: his arms are at too much liberty, I would fain have them +bound to a treaty of peace, an my credit could compass it with your +worship. + +Clem. Thou goest far enough about for't, I am sure. + +Kno. Why, dost thou go in danger of thy life for him, friend? + +Cob. No, sir; but I go in danger of my death every hour, by his +means; an I die within a twelve-month and a day, I may swear by the +law of the land that he killed me. + +Clem. How, how, knave, swear he killed thee, and by the law? What +pretence, what colour hast thou for that? + +Cob. Marry, an't please your worship, both black and blue; colour +enough, I warrant you. I have it here to shew your worship. + +Clem. What is he that gave you this, sirrah? + +Cob. A gentleman and a soldier, he says, he is, of the city here. + +Clem. A soldier of the city! What call you him? + +Cob. Captain Bobadill. + +Clem. Bobadill! and why did he bob and beat you, sirrah? How began +the quarrel betwixt you, ha? speak truly, knave, I advise you. + +Cob. Marry, indeed. an't please your worship, only because I spake +against their vagrant tobacco, as I came by them when they were +taking on't; for nothing else. + +Clem. Ha! you speak against tobacco? Formal, his name. + +Form. What's your name, sirrah? + +Cob. Oliver, sir, Oliver Cob, sir. + +Clem. Tell Oliver Cob he shall go to the jail, Formal. + +Form. Oliver Cob, my master, justice Clement, says you shall go to +the jail. + +Cob. O, I beseech your worship, for God's sake, dear master +justice! + +Clem. 'Sprecious! an such drunkards and tankards as you are, come +to dispute of tobacco once, I have done: away with him! + +Cob, O, good master justice! Sweet old gentleman! [To Knowell. + +Know. "Sweet Oliver," would I could do thee any good!--justice +Clement, let me intreat you, sir. + +Clem. What! a thread-bare rascal, a beggar, a slave that never +drunk out of better than piss-pot metal in his life! and he to +deprave and abuse the virtue of an herb so generally received in +the courts of princes, the chambers of nobles, the bowers of sweet +ladies, the cabins of soldiers!--Roger, away with him! 'Od's +precious--I say, go to. + +Cob. Dear master justice, let me be beaten again, I have deserved +it: but not the prison, I beseech you. + +Know. Alas, poor Oliver! + +Clem. Roger, make him a warrant:--he shall not go, but I fear the +knave. + +Form. Do not stink, sweet Oliver, you shall not go; my master will +give you a warrant. + +Cob. O, the Lord maintain his worship, his worthy worship! + +Clem. Away, dispatch him. [Exeunt Formal and Cob;] How now, master +Knowell, in dumps, in dumps! Come, this becomes not. + +Know. Sir, would I could not feel my cares. + +Clem. Your cares are nothing: they are like my cap, soon put on, +and as soon put off. What! your son is old enough to govern +himself: let him run his course, it's the only way to make him a +staid man. If he were an unthrift, a ruffian, a drunkard, or a +licentious liver, then you had reason; you had reason to take care: +but, being none of these, mirth's my witness, an I had twice so +many cares as you have, I'd drown them all in a cup of sack. Come, +come, let's try it: I muse your parcel of a soldier returns not all +this while. + [Exeunt. + + + + ACT IV + SCENE I---A Room in KITELY'S House. + Enter DOWNRIGTIT and Dame KITELY. + + +Dow. Well, sister, I tell you true; and you'll find it so in the +end. + +Dame K. Alas, brother, what would you have me to do? I cannot help +it; you see my brother brings them in here; they are his friends. + +Dow. His friends! his fiends. 'Slud! they do nothing but haunt him +up and down like a sort of unlucky spirits, and tempt him to all +manner of villainy that can be thought of. Well, by this light, a +little thing would make me play the devil with some of them: an +'twere not more for your husband's sake than anything else, I'd +make the house too hot for the best on 'em; they should say, and +swear, hell were broken loose, ere they went hence. But, by God's +will, 'tis nobody's fault but yours; for an you had done as you +might have done, they should have been parboiled, and baked too, +every mother's son, ere they should have come in, e'er a one of +them. + +Dame K. God's my life! did you ever hear the like? what a strange +man is this! Could I keep out all them, think you? I should put +myself against half a dozen men, should I? Good faith, you'd mad +the patien'st body in the world; to hear you talk so, without any +sense or reason. + + Enter Mistress BRIDGET, Master MATHEW, and BOBADILL; + followed, at a distance, by WELLBRED, E. KNOWELL, + STBPHEN, and BBAINWORM. + +Brid. + Servant, in troth you are too prodigal + Of your wit's treasure, thus fu pour it forth + Upon so mean a subject as my worth. + + +Mat. You say well, mistress, and I mean as well. + +Dow. Hoy-day, here is stuff! + +Wel. O, now stand close; pray Heaven, she can get him to read! he +should do it of his own natural impudency. + +Brid. Servant, what is this same, I pray you? + +Mat. Marry, an elegy, an elegy, an odd toy-- + +Dow. To mock an ape withal! O, I could sew up his mouth, now. + +Dame K. Sister, I pray you let's hear it. + +Dow. Are you rhyme-given too? + +Mat. Mistress, I'll read it if you please. + +Brid. Pray you do, servant. + +Dow. O, here's no foppery! Death! I can endure the stocks better. + [Exit. + +E. Know. What ails thy brother? can he not hold his water at +reading of a ballad? + +Wel. O, no; a rhyme fu him is worse than cheese, or a bag-pipe; but +mark; you lose the protestation. + +Mat. Faith, I did it in a humour; I know not how it is; but please +you come near, sir. This gentleman has judgment, he knows how to +censure of a--pray you, sir, you can judge? + +Step. Not I, sir; upon my reputation, and by the foot of Pharaoh! + +Wel. O, chide your cousin for swearing. + +E. Know. Not I, so long as he does not forswear himself. + +Bob. Master Mathew, you abuse the expectation of your dear +mistress, and her fair sister: fie! while you live avoid this +prolixity. + +Mat. I shall, sir, well; incipere dulce. + +E. Know. How, insipere duke! a sweet thing to be a fool, indeed! + +Wel. What, do you take incipere in: that sense? + +E. Know. You do not, you! This was your villainy, to gull him with +a motte. + +Wel. O, the benchers' phrase: pauca verba, pauca verba! + +Mat. + Rare creature, let me speak without offence, + Would God my rude words had the influence + To rule thy thoughts, as thy fair looks do mine, + Then shouldst thou be his prisoner, who is thine. + +E. Know. This is Hero and Leander. + +Wel. O, ay: peace, we shall have more of this. + +Mat. + Be not unkind and fair: misshapen stuff + Is of behaviour boisterous and rough. + +Wel. How like you that, sir? [Master Stephen shakes his head. + +E. Know. 'Slight, he shakes his head like a bottle, to feel an there +be any brain in it. + +Mat. But observe the catastrophe, now: + And I in duty will exceed all other, + As you in beauty do excel Love's mother. + +E. Know. Well, I'll have him free of the wit-brokers, for he +utters nothing but stolen remnants. + +Wel. O, forgive it him. + +E. Know. A filching rogue, hang him!---and from the dead! it's +worse than sacrilege. + WELLBRED, E. KNOWELL, and Master STEPHEN, come forward. + +Wel. Sister, what have you here, verses? pray you let's see: who +made these verses? they are excellent. good. + +Mat. O, Master Wellbred, 'tis your disposition to say so, sir. They +were good in the morning: I made them ex tempore this morning. + +Wel. How! ex tempore? + +Mat. Ay, would I might be hanged else; ask Captain Bobadill: he saw +me write them, at the--pox on it!--the Star, yonder. + +Brai. Can he find in his heart to curse the stars so? + +E. Know. Faith, his are even with him; they have curst him enough +already. + +Step. Cousin, how do you like this gentleman's verses? + +E. Know. O, admirable! the best that ever I heard, coz. + +Step. Body O' Caesar, they are admirable! the best that I ever +heard, as I am a soldier! + + Re-enter DOWNRIGHT. + +Dow. I am vext, I can hold ne'er a bone of me still: 'Heart, I +think they mean to build and breed here. + +Wet. Sister, you have a simple servant here, that crowns your +beauty with such encomiums and devices; you may see what it is to +be the mistress of a wit, that can make your perfections so +transparent, that every blear eye may look through them, and see +him drowned over head and ears in the deep well of desire: Sister +Kitely. I marvel you get you not a servant that can rhyme, and do +tricks too. + +Dow. O monster! impudence itself! tricks! + +Dame K. Tricks, brother! what tricks? + +Brid. Nay, speak, I pray you what tricks? + +Dame K. Ay, never spare any body here; but say, what tricks. + +Brid. Passion of my heart, do tricks! + +Wel. 'Slight, here's a trick vied and revied! Why, you monkeys, +you, what a cater-wauling do you keep! has he not given you rhymes +and verses and tricks? + +Dow. O, the fiend! + +Wel. Nay, you lamp of virginity, that take it in snuff so, come, +and cherish this tame poetical fury in your servant; you'll be +begg'd else shortly for a concealment: go to, reward his muse. You +cannot give him less than a shilling in conscience, for the book he +had it out of cost him a teston at least. How now, gallants! Master +Mathew! Captain! what, all sons of silence, no spirit? + +Dow. Come, you might practise your ruffian tricks somewhere else, +and not here, I wuss; this is no tavern or drinking-school, to vent +your exploits in. + +Wel. How now; whose cow has calved? + +Dow. Marry, that has mine, sir. + +Nay, boy, never look askance at me for the matter; I'll tell you of +it, I, sir; you and your companions mend yourselves when I have +done. + +Wel. My companions! + +Dow. Yes, sir, your companions, so I say; I am not afraid of you, +nor them neither; your hang-byes here. You must have your poets and +your potlings, your soldados and foolados to follow you up and down +the city; and here they must come to domineer and swagger. Sirrah, +you ballad-singer, and slops your fellow there, get you out, get +you home; or by this steel, I'll cut off your ears, and that +presently. + +Wel. 'Slight, stay, let's see what he dare do; cut off his ears! +cut a whetstone. You are an ass, do you see; touch any man here, +and by this hand I'll run my rapier to the hilts in you. + +Dow. Yea, that would I fain see, boy. + [They all draw. +Dame K. O Jesu! murder! Thomas! Gasper! + +Brid. Help, help! Thomas! + + Enter CASH and some of the house to part them. + +E. Know. Gentlemen, forbear, I pray' you. + +Bob. Well, sirrah, you Holofernes; by my hand, I will pink your +flesh full of holes with my rapier for this; I will, by this good +heaven! nay, let him come, let him come, gentlemen; by the body of +St. George, I'll not kill him. + [Offer to fight again, and are parted. +Gash. Hold, hold, good gentlemen. Dow. You whoreson, bragging +coystril! + + Enter KITELY. + +Kit. + Why, how now! what's the matter, what's the stir here? + Whence springs the quarrel? Thomas! where is he? + Put up your weapons, and put off this rage: + My wife and sister, they are the cause of this. + What, Thomas! where is the knave? + + +Gash. Here, sir. + +Wel. Come, let's go: this is one of my brother's ancient humours, +this. + +Step. I am glad nobody was hurt by his ancient humour. + + [Exeunt Wellbred, Stephen, E. Knowell, Bobadill, and Brainworm. + + +Kit. Why, how now, brother, who enforced this brawl? + +Dow. A sort of lewd rake-hells, that care neither for God nor the +devil And they must come here to read ballads, and roguery, and +trash! I'll mar the knot of 'em ere I sleep, perhaps; especially +Bob there, he that's all manner of shapes: and songs and sonnets, +his fellow. + +Brid. + Brother, indeed you are too violent, + Too sudden in your humour: and you know + My brother Wellbred's temper will not bear + Any reproof, chiefly in such a presence, + Where every slight. disgrace he should receive + Might wound him in opinion and respect. + + +Dow. Respect! what talk you of respect among such, as have no spark +of manhood, nor good manners? 'Sdeins, I am ashamed to hear you'! +respect! + [Exit. +Brid. + Yes, there was one a civil gentleman, + And very worthily demeaned himself. + +Kit. O, that was some love of yours, sister. + +Brid. + A love of mine! I would it were no worse, brother; + You'd pay my portion sooner than you think for. + +Dame K. Indeed he seem'd to be a gentleman of a very exceeding +fair disposition, and of excellent good parts. + [Exeunt Dame Kitely and Bridget. + +Kit. + Her love, by heaven! my wife's minion. + Fair disposition! excellent good parts! + Death! these phrases are intolerable. + Good parts! how should she know his parts? + His parts! Well, well, well, well, well, well; + It is too plain, too clear: Thomas, come hither. + What, are they gone? + +Cash. Ay, sir, they went in. + + My mistress and your sister- + +Kit. Are any of the gallants within? + +Cash. No, sir, they are all gone. + +Kit. Art thou sure of it---? + +Cash. I can assure you, sir. + +Kit. What gentleman was that they praised so, Thomas? + +Cash. One, they call him Master Knowell, a handsome young +gentleman, sir. + +Kit. + Ay, I thought so; my mind gave me as much: + I'll die, but they have hid him in the house, + Somewhere, I'll go and search; go with me, Thomas: + Be true to me, and thou shalt find me a master. + [Exeunt. + + + + SCENE II.---The Lane before COB'S House. + Enter COB + +Cob. [knocks at the door.] What, Tib! Tib, I say! + +Tib. [within.] How now, what cuckold is that knocks so hard? + + Enter Tib. + +O, husband! is it you? What's the news? + +Cob. Nay, you have stunn'd me, i'faith; you have, given me a +knock O' the forehead will stick by me. Cuckold! 'Slid, cuckold! + +Tib. Away, you fool! did I know it was you that knocked? +Come, come, you may call me as bad when you list. + +Cob. May I? Tib, you are a whore. + +Tib. You lie in your throat, husband. + +Cob. How, the lie! and in my throat tool do you long to be +stabb'd, ha? + +Tib. Why, you are no soldier, I hope. + +Cob. O, must you be stabbed by a soldier? Mass, that's true! when +was Bobadill here, your captain? that rogue. that foist, that +fencing Burgullion? I'll tickle him, i'faith. + +Tib. Why, what's the matter, trow? + +Cob. O, he has basted me rarely, sumptuously! but I have it here in +black and white, [pulls out the warrant.] for his black and blue +shall pay him. O, the justice, the honestest old brave Trojan in +London; I do honour the very flea of his dog. A plague on him, +though, he put me once in a villanous filthy fear; marry, it +vanished away like the smoke of tobacco; but I was smoked soundly +first. I thank the devil, and his good angel, my guest. Well, wife, +or Tib, which you will, get you in, and lock the door; I charge you +let nobody in to you, wife; nobody in to you; those are my words: +not Captain Bob himself, nor the fiend in his likeness. You are a +woman, you have flesh and blood enough in you to be tempted; +therefore keep the door shut upon all comers. + +Tib. I warrant you, there shall nobody enter here without my +consent. + +Cob. Nor with your consent, sweet Tib; and so I leave you. + +Tib. It's more than you know, whether you leave me so. + +Cob. How? + +Tib. Why, sweet. + +Cob. + Tut, sweet or sour, thou art a flower. + Keep close thy door, I ask no more. + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE III.-A Room in the Windmill Tavern. + Enter E. KNOWELL, WELLBRED, STEPHEN, and BRAINWORM, + disguised as before. + +E. Know. Well, Brainworm, perform this business happily, and thou +makest a purchase of my love for ever. + +Wel. I'faith, now let thy spirits use their best faculties: but, at +any hand, remember the message to my brother; for there's no other +means to start him. + +Brai. I warrant you, sir; fear nothing; I have a nimble soul has +waked all forces of my phant'sie by this time, and put them in true +motion. What you have possest me withal, I'll discharge it amply, +sir; make it no question. + [Exit. +Wel. Forth, and prosper, Brainworm. Faith, Ned, how dost thou +approve of my abilities in this device? + +E. Know. Troth, well, howsoever; but it will come excellent if it +take. + +Wel. Take, man! why it cannot choose but take, if the circumstances +miscarry not: but, tell me ingenuously, dost thou affect my sister +Bridget as thou pretend'st? + +E. Know. Friend, am I worth belief? + +Wel. Come, do not protest. In faith, she is a maid of good +ornament, and much modesty; and, except I conceived very worthily +of her, thou should'st not have her. + +E. Know. Nay, that I am afraid, will be a question yet, whether I +shall have her, or no. + +Wel. 'Slid, thou shalt have her; by this light thou shalt. + +E. Know. Nay, do not swear. + +Wel. By this hand thou shalt have her; I'll go fetch her presently. +'Point but where to meet, and as I am an honest man I'll bring her. + +E. Know. Hold, hold, be temperate. + +Wel. Why, by--what shall I swear by? thou shalt have her, as I am-- + +E. Know. Praythee, be at peace, I am satisfied; and do believe thou +wilt omit no offered occasion to make my desires complete. + +Wel. Thou shalt see, and know, I will not. + [Exeunt. + + + + SCENE IV.-The Old Jewry. + Enter FORMAL and KNOWELL. + +Form. Was your man a soldier, sir? + +Know. Ay, a knave + I took him begging O' the way, this morning, + As I came over Moorfields. + Enter BRAINWORM. disguised as before. + O, here he is!---you've made fair speed, believe me, + Where, in the name of sloth, could you be thus? + +Brai. Marry, peace be my comfort, where I thought I should have +had little comfort of your worship's service. + +Know. How so? + +Brai. O, sir, your coming to the city, your entertainment of me, +and your sending me to watch---indeed all the circumstances either +of your charge, or my employment, are as open to your son, as to +yourself. + +Know. + How should that be, unless that villain, Brainworm, + Have told him of the letter, and discover'd + All that I strictly charg'd him to conceal? + 'Tis so. + +Brai. I am partly O' the faith, 'tis so, indeed. + +Know. But, how should he know thee to be my man? + +Brai. Nay, sir, I cannot tell; unless it be by the black art. Is +not your son a scholar, sir? + +Know. + Yes, but I hope his soul is not allied + Unto such hellish practice: if it were, + I had just cause to weep my part in him, + And curse the time of his creation. + But, where didst thou find them, Fitz-Sword? + +Brai. You should rather ask where they found me, sir; for I'll +be sworn, I was going along in the street, thinking nothing, when, +of a sudden, a voice calls, Mr. Knowell's man! another cries, +Soldier! and thus half a dozen of them, till they had call'd me +within a house, where I no sooner came, but they seem'd men, and +out flew all their rapiers at my bosom, with some three or four +score oaths to accompany them; and all to tell me, I was but a +dead man, if I did not confess where you were, and how I was +employed, and about what; which when they could not get out of +me, (as, I protest, they must have dissected, and made an anatomy +of me first, and so I told them,) they lock'd me up into a room +in the top of a high house, whence by great miracle (having a +light heart) I slid down by a bottom of packthread into the +street, and so 'scaped. But, sir, thus much I can assure you, +for I heard it while I was lock'd up, there were a great many +rich merchants and brave citizens' wives with them at a feast; +and your son, master Edward, withdrew with one of them, and has +'pointed to meet her anon at one Cob's house a water-bearer +that dwells by the Wall. Now, there your worship shall be sure +to take him, for there he preys, and fail he will not. + +Know. + Nor will I fail to break his match, I doubt not. + Go thoualong with justice Clement's man, + And stay there for me. At one Cob's house, say'st thou? + + +Brai. Ay, sir, there you shall have him. [Exit Knowell.] Yes-- +invisible! Much wench, or much son! 'Slight, when he has staid +there three or four hours, travailing with the expectation of +wonders, and at length be deliver'd of air! O the sport that I +should then take to look on him, if I durst! But now, I mean to +appear no more afore him in this shape: I have another trick to act +yet. O that I were so happy as to light on a nupson now of this +justice's novice!--Sir, I make you stay somewhat long. + +Form. Not a whit, sir. Pray you what do you mean, sir? + +Brai. I was putting up some papers. + +Form. You have been lately in the wars, sir, it seems. + +Brai. Marry have I, sir, to my loss, and expense of all, almost. + +Form. Troth, sir, I would be glad to bestow a bottle of wine on +you, if it please you to accept it-- + +Brai, O, sir + +Form. But to hear the manner of your services, and your devices in +the wars; they say they be very strange, and not like those a man +reads in the Roman histories, or sees at Mile-end. + +Brai. No, I assure you, sir; why at any time when it please you, I +shall be ready to discourse to you all I know;--and more too +somewhat. [Aside. + +Form. No better time than now, sir; we'll go to the Windmill: there +we shall have a cup of neat grist, we call it. I pray you, sir, let +me request you to the Windmill. + +Brai. I'll follow you, sir;--and make grist of you, if I have good +luck. [Aside.] + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE V.-Moorfields. + Enter MATHEW, E. KNOWELL, BOBADILL, and STEPHEN. + +Mat. Sir, did your eyes ever taste the like clown of him where we +were to-day, Mr. Wellbred's half-brother? I think the whole earth +cannot shew his parallel, by this daylight. + +E. Know. We were now speaking of him: captain Bobadill tells me he +is fallen foul of you too. + +Mat. O, ay, sir, he threatened me with the bastinado. + +Bob. Ay, but I think, I taught you prevention this morning, for +that: You shall kill him beyond question; if you be so generously +minded. + +Mat. Indeed, it is a most excellent trick. + [Fences. +Bob: O, you do not give spirit enough to your motion, you are too +tardy, too heavy! O, it must be done like lightning, hay! + [Practises at a post with his cudgel. +Mat. Rare, captain! + +Bob. Tut! 'tis nothing, an't be not done in a--punto. E. Know. +Captain, did you ever prove yourself upon any of our masters of +defence here? + +Mat. O good sir! yes, I hope he has. + +Bob. I will tell you, sir. Upon my first coming to the city, after +my long travel for knowledge, in that mystery only, there came +three or four of them to me, at a gentleman's house, where it was +my chance to be resident at that time, to intreat my presence at +their schools: and withal so much importuned me, that I protest to +you, as I am a gentleman, I was ashamed of their rude demeanour out +of all measure: Well, I told them that to come to a public school, +they should pardon me, it was opposite, in diameter, to my humour; +but if so be they would give their attendance at my lodging, I +protested to do them what right or favour I could, as I was a +gentleman, and so forth. + +E. Know. So, sir! then you tried their skill? + +Bob. Alas, soon tried: you shall hear, sir. Within two or three +days after, they came; and, by honesty, fair sir, believe me, I +graced them exceedingly, shewed them some two or three tricks of +prevention have purchased them since a credit to admiration: they +cannot deny this; and yet now they hate me, and why? because I am +excellent; and for no other vile reason on the earth. + +E. Know. This is strange and barbarous, as ever I heard. + +Bob. Nay, for a more instance of their preposterous natures; but +note; sir. They have assaulted me some three, four, five, six of +them together, as I have walked alone in divers skirts it'll town, +as Turnbull, Whitechapel, Shoreditch, which were then my quarters; +and since, upon the Exchange, at my lodging, and at my ordinary: +where I have driven them afore me the whole length of a street, in +the open view of all our gallants, pitying to hurt them, believe +me. Yet all this lenity will not overcome their spleen; they will +be doing with the pismire, raising a hill a man may spurn abroad +with his foot at pleasure. By myself, I could have slain them all, +but I delight not in murder. I am loth to bear any other than this +bastinado for them: yet I hold it good polity not to go disarmed, +for though I be skilful, I may be oppressed with multitudes. + +E. Know. Ay, believe me, may you, sir: and in my conceit, our whole +nation should sustain the loss by it, if it were so. + +Bob. Alas, no? what's a peculiar man to a nation? not seen. + +E. Know. O, but your skill, sir. + +Bob. Indeed, that might be some loss; but who respects it? I will +tell you, sir, by the way of private, and under seal; I am a +gentleman, and live here obscure, and to myself; but were I known +to her majesty and the lords,--observe me,--I would undertake, upon +this poor head and life, for the public benefit of the state, not +only to spare the entire lives of her subjects in general; but to +save the one half, nay, three parts of her yearly charge in holding +war, and against what enemy soever. And how would I do it, think +you? + +E. Know. Nay, I know not, nor can I conceive. + +Bob. Why thus, sir. I would select nineteen more, to myself. +throughout the land; gentlemen they should be of good spirit, +strong and able constitution; I would choose them by an instinct, a +character that I have: and I would teach these nineteen the special +rules, as your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, +your passada, your montanto; till they could all play very near, or +altogether as well as myself. This done, say the enemy were forty +thousand strong, we twenty would come into the field the tenth of +March, or thereabouts; and we would challenge twenty of the enemy; +they could not in their honour refuse us: Well, we would kill them; +challenge twenty more, kill them; twenty more, kill them; twenty +more, kill them too; and thus would we kill every man his twenty a +day, that's twenty score; twenty score that's two hundred; two +hundred a day, five days a thousand: forty thousand; forty times +five, five times forty, two hundred days kills them all up by +computation. And this will I venture my poor gentlemanlike carcase +to perform, provided there be no treason practised upon us, by fair +and discreet manhood; that is, civilly by the sword. + +E. Know. Why, are you so sure of your hand, captain, at all times? + +Bob. Tut! never miss thrust, upon my reputation with you. + +E. Know. I would not stand in Downright's state then, an you meet +him, for the wealth of anyone street in London. + +Bob. Why, sir, you mistake me: if he were here now, by this welkin, +I would not draw my weapon on him. Let this gentleman do his mind: +but I will bastinado him, by the bright sun, wherever I meet him. + +Mat. Faith, and I'll have a fling at him, at my distance. + +E. Know. 'Od's, so, look where he is! yonder he goes. + [Downright crosses the stage. +Dow. What peevish luck have I, I cannot meet with these bragging +rascals? + +Bob. It is not he, is it? + +E. Know. Yes, faith, it is he. + +Mat. I'll be hang'd then if that were he. + +E. Know. Sir, keep your hanging good for some greater matter, for I +assure you that were he. + +Step. Upon my reputation, it was he. + +Bob. Had I thought it had been he, he must not have gone so: but I +can hardly be induced to believe it was he yet. + +E. Know. That I think, sir. + Re-enter DOWNRIGHT. +But see, he is come again. + +Dow. O, Pharaoh's foot, have I found you? Come, draw to your tools; +draw, gipsy, or I'll thrash you. + +Bob. Gentleman of valour, I do believe in thee; hear me-- + +Dow. Draw your weapon then. + +Bob. Tall man, I never thought on it till now--Body of me, I had +a warrant of the peace served on me, even now as I came along, by +a water-bearer; this gentleman saw it, Master Mathew. + +Dow. 'Sdeath! you will not draw then? + [Disarms and beats him. Mathew runs away. +Bob. Hold, hold! under thy favour forbear! + +Dow. Prate again, as you like this, you whoreson foist you! You'll +control the point, you! Your consort is gone; had he staid he had +shared with you, sir. + [Exit. + + +Bob. Well, gentlemen, bear witness, I was bound to the peace, by +this good day. + +E. Know. No, faith, it's an ill day, captain, never reckon it +other: but, say you were bound to the peace, the law allows you to +defend yourself: that will prove but a poor excuse. + +Bob. I cannot tell, sir; I desire good construction in fair sort. I +never sustain'd the like disgrace, by heaven! sure I was struck +with a planet thence, for I had no power to touch my weapon. + +E. Know. Ay, like enough; I have heard of many that have been +beaten under a planet: go, get you to a surgeon. 'Slid! an these be +your tricks, your passadoes, and your montantos, I'll none of them. +[Exit Bobadill.] O, manners! that this age should bring forth such +creatures! that nature should be at leisure to make them! Come, +coz. + +Step. Mass, I'll have this cloak. + +E. Know. 'Od's will, 'tis Downright's. + +Step. Nay, it's mine now, another might have ta'en it up as well: +I'll wear it, so I will. + +E. Know. How an he see it? he'll challenge it, assure yourself. + +Step. Ay, but he shall not have it: I'll say I bought it. + +E. Know. Take heed you buy it not too dear, coz. + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE IV.-A Room in KITELY'S House. + Enter KITELY, WELLBRED, Dame KITELY, and BRIDGET, + +Kit. + Now, trust me, brother, you were much to blame, + T' incense his anger, and disturb the peace + Of my poor house, where there are sentinels + That every minute watch to give alarms + Of civil war, without adjection + Of your assistance or occasion. + + +Wel. No harm done, brother, I warrant you: since there is no harm +done, anger costs a man nothing; and a tall man is never his own +man till he be angry. To keep his valour in obscurity, is to keep +himself as it were in a cloak bag. What's a musician, unless he +play? What's a tall man unless he fight? For, indeed, all this my +wise brother stands upon absolutely; and that made me fall in with +him so resolutely. + +Dame K. Ay, but what harm might have come of it, brother? + +Wel. Might, sister? so might the good warm clothes your husband +wears be poisoned, for any thing he knows: or the wholesome wine he +drank, even now at the table. + +Kit. + Now, God forbid! O me! now I remember + My wife drank to me last, and changed the cup, + And bade me wear this cursed suit to-day. + See, if Heaven suffer murder undiscover'd! + I feel me ill; give me some mithridate, + Some mithridate and oil, good sister, fetch me: + O, I am Sick at heart, I burn. I burn. + If you will save my life, go fetch it me. + +Wel. O strange humour! my very breath has poison'd him. + +Brid. + Good brother. be content, what do you mean? + The strength of these extreme conceits will kill you. + +Dame K. + Beshrew your heart, blood, brother Wellbred, now, + For putting such a toy into his head! + + +Wel. Is a fit simile a toy? will he be poison'd with a simile? +Brother Kitely, what a strange and idle imagination is this! For +shame, be wiser. O' my soul there's no such matter. + +Kit. Am I not sick? how am I then not poison'd? Am I not poison'd? +how am I then so sick? + +Dame K. If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick. + +Wel. His jealousy is the poison he has taken. + Enter BRAINWORM, disguised in FORMAL'S clothes. + +Brai. Master Kitely, my master, justice Clement salutes you; and +desires to speak with you with all possible speed. + +Kit. No time but now, when I think I am sick, very sick! well, I +will wait upon his worship. Thomas! Cob! I must seek them out, and +set them sentinels till I return. Thomas! Cob! Thomas! + [Exit. Wel. +This is perfectly rare, Brainworm; [takes him aside.] but how +got'st thou this apparel of the justice's man? + +Brai. Marry, sir, my proper fine pen-man would needs bestow the +grist on me, at the Windmill, to hear some martial discourse; where +I so marshall'd him, that I made him drunk with admiration; and, +because too much heat was the cause of his distemper, I stript him +stark naked as he lay along asleep, and borrowed his suit to +deliver this counterfeit message in, leaving a rusty armour, and an +old brown bill to watch him till my return; which shall be, when I +have pawn'd his apparel, and spent the better part O' the money, +perhaps. + +Wel. Well, thou art a successful merry knave, Brainworm: his +absence will be a. good subject for more mirth. I pray thee return +to thy young master, and will him to meet me and my sister Bridget +at the Tower instantly; for here, tell him the house is so stored +with jealousy, there is no room for love to stand up'right in. We +must get our fortunes committed to some larger prison, say; and +than the Tower, I know no better air, nor where the liberty of the +house may do us more present service. Away. + Exit Brai. + + Re-enter KITELY, talking aside to CASH. +Kit. + Come hither, Thomas. Now my secret's ripe, + And thou shalt have it: lay to both thine ears. + Hark what I say to thee. I must go forth, Thomas; + Be careful of thy promise, keep good watch, + Note every gallant, and observe him well, + That enters in my absence to thy mistress: + If she would shew him rooms, the jest is stale, + Follow them, Thomas, or else hang on him, + And let him not go after; mark their looks; + Note if she offer but to see his band, + Or any other amorous toy about him; + But praise his leg, or foot: or if she say + The day is hot, and bid him feel her hand, + How hot it is; O, that's a monstrous thing! + Note me all this, good Thomas, mark their sighs, + And if they do but whisper, break 'em off: + I'll bear thee out in it. Wilt thou do this? + Wilt thou be true, my Thomas? + +Cash. As truth's self, sir. + +Kit. Why, I believe thee: Where is Cob, now? Cob! + [Exit. +Dame K. He's ever calling for Cob: I wonder how he employs Cob so. + +Wel. Indeed, sister, to ask how he employs Cob, is a necessary +question for you that are his wife, and a thing not very easy for +you to be satisfied in; but this I'll assure you, Cob's wife is an +excellent bawd, sister, and oftentimes your husband haunts her +house; marry, to what end? I cannot altogether accuse him; imagine +you what you think convenient: but I have known fair hides have +foul hearts ere now, sister. + +Dame K. Never said you truer than that, brother, so much I can tell +you for your learning. Thomas, fetch your cloak and go with me. +[Exit Gash.] I'll after him presently: I would to fortune I could +take him there, i'faith, I'd return him his own, I warrant him! + [Exit. +Wel. So, let 'em go; this may make sport anon. Now, my fair +sister-in-law, that you knew but how happy a thing it were to be +fair and beautiful. + +Brid. That touches not me, brother. + +Wel. That's true; that's even the fault of it; for indeed, beauty +stands a woman in no stead, unless it procure her touching.--But, +sister, whether it touch you or no. it touches your beauties; and I +am sure they will abide the touch; an they do not, a plague of all +ceruse, say I! and it touches me too in part, though not in +the--Well, there's a dear and respected friend of mine, sister, +stands very strongly and worthily affected toward you, and hath +vowed to inflame whole bonfires of zeal at his heart, in honour of +your perfections. I have already engaged my promise to bring you +where you shall hear him confirm much more. Ned Knowell is the man, +sister: there's no exception against the party. You are ripe for a +husband; and a minute's loss to such all occasion, is a great +trespass in a wise beauty. What say you, sister? On 'my soul he +loves you; will you give him the meeting? + +Brid. Faith, I had very little confidence in mine own constancy, +brother, if I durst not meet a man; but this motion of yours +savours of an old knight adventurer's servant a little too much, +methinks. + +Wel. What' s that, sister? + +Brid. Marry, of the squire. + +Wel. No matter if it did, I would be such an one for my friend. But +see, who is return'd to hinder us! + +Reenter KITELY. + +Kit. + What villainy is this? call'd out on a false message! + This was some plot; I was not sent for.---Bridget, + Where is your sister? + +Brid. I think she be gone forth, sir. + +Kit. How! is my wife gone forth? whither, for God's sake? + +Brid. She's gone abroad with Thomas. + +Kit. + Abroad with Thomas! Oh, that villain dors me: + Beast that I was, to trust him! whither, I pray you, + Went she? + +Brid. I know not, sir. + +Wel. I'll tell you, brother, Whither I suspect she's gone; + +Kit. Whither, good brother? + +Wel. To Cob's house, I believe: but, keep my counsel. + +Kit. + I will, I will: to Cob's house! doth she haunt Cob's? + She's gone a purpose now to cuckold me, + With that lewd rascal, who, to win her favour, + Hath told her all. + [Exit. +Wel. Come, he is once more gone, +Sister, let's lose no time; the affair is worth it. [Exeunt. + + + + SCENE VII.---A Street. + Enter MATHEW and BOBADILL. + +Mat. I wonder, captain, what they will say of my going away, ha? + +Bob. Why, what should they say; but as of a discreet gentleman; +quick, wary, respectful of nature's fair lineaments? and that's +all. + +Mat. Why so! but what can they say of your beating? + +Bob. A rude part, a touch with soft wood, a kind of gross battery +used, laid on strongly, borne most patiently; and that's all. + +Mat. Ay, but would any man have offered it in Venice, as you say? +Bob. Tut! I assure you, no: you shall have there your nobilis, your +gentilezza, come in bravely upon your reverse, stand you close, +stand you firm, stand you fair, save your retricato with his left +leg, come to the assalto with the right, thrust with brave steel, +defy your base wood! But wherefore do I awake this remembrance? I +was fascinated, by Jupiter; fascinated, but I will be unwitch'd +and revenged by law. + +Mat. Do you hear? is it not best to get a warrant, and have him +arrested and brought before justice Clement? + +Bob. It were not amiss; would we had it! + Enter BRAINWORM disguised as FORMAL. + +Mat. Why, here comes his man; let's speak to him. + +Bob. Agreed, do you speak, + +Mat. Save you, sir. + +Brai. With all my heart, sir. + +Mat. Sir, there is one Downright hath abused this gentleman and +myself, and we determine to make our amends by law: now, if you +would do us the favour to procure a warrant to bring him afore your +master, you shall be well considered, I assure you, sir. + +Brai. Sir, you know my service is my living; such favours as these +gotten of my master is his only preferment, and therefore you must +consider me as I may make benefit of my place. + +Mat. How is that, Sir? + +Brai. Faith, sir, the thing is extraordinary, and the gentleman may +be of great account; yet, be he what he will, if you will lay me +down a brace of angels in my hand you shall have it, otherwise not. + +Mat. How shall we do, captain? he asks a brace of angels, you have +no money? + +Bob. Not a cross, by fortune. + +Mat. Nor I, as I am a gentleman, but twopence left of my two +shillings in the morning for wine and radish: let's find him some +pawn. + +Bob. Pawn! we have none to the value of his demand. + +Mat. O, yes; I'll pawn this jewel in my ear, and you may pawn your +silk stockings, and pull up your boots, they will ne'er be mist: it +must be done now. + +Bob. Well, an there be no remedy, I'll step aside and pull them +off. + [Withdraws. +Mat. Do you hear, sir? we have no store of money at this time, but +you shall have good pawns; look you, sir, this jewel, and that +gentleman's silk stockings; because we would have it dispatch'd ere +we went to our chambers. + +Brai. I am content, sir; I will get you the What's his name, say +you? Downright? + +Mat. Ay, ay, George Downright. + +Brai. What manner of man is he? + +Mat. A tall big man, sir; he goes in a cloak most commonly of +silk-russet, laid about with russet lace. + +Brai. 'Tis very good, sir. + +Mat. Here, Sir, here's my jewel. + +Bob. [returning.] And here are my stockings. + +Brai. Well, gentlemen, I'll procure you this warrant presently; but +who will you have to serve it? + +Mat. That's true, captain: that must be considered. + +Bob. Body O' me, I know not; 'tis service of danger. + +Brai. Why, you were best get one O' the varlets of the city, a +serjeant: I'll appoint you one, if you please. + +Mat. Will you, sir? why, we can wish no better. + +Bob. We'll leave it to you, sir. + [Exeunt Bob. and Mat. +Brai. This is rare! Now will I go and pawn this cloak of the +justice's man's at the broker's, for a varlet's suit, and be the +varlet myself; and get either more pawns, or more money of +Downright, for the arrest. + [Exit. + + + + SCENE VIII.-The Lane before COB'S House. + Enter KNOWELL. + +Know. + Oh, here it is; I am glad I have found it now; + Ho! who is within here? + +Tib. [within.] I am within, sir; what's your pleasure? + +Know. To know who is within beside yourself. + +Tib. Why, sir, you are no constable, I hope? + +Know. + O, fear you the constable? then I doubt not, + You have some guests within deserve that fear; + I'll fetch him straight. + + Enter TIB. + +Tib. O' God's name, sir! + +Know. Go to: come tell me, is not young Knowell here? + +Tib. Young Knowell! I know none such, sir, o' mine honesty. + +Know. + Your honesty, dame! it flies too lightly from you. + There is no way but fetch the constable. + +Tib. The constable! the man is mad, I think. + [Exit, and claps to the door. + + Enter Dame KITELY and CASH. + +Cash. Ho! who keeps house here? + +Know. + O, this is the female copesmate of my son: + Now shall I meet him straight. + +Dame K. Knock, Thomas, hard. + +Cash. Ho, goodwife! + Re-enter TIB. +Tib. Why, what's the matter with you? + +Dame K. + Why, woman, grieves it you to ope your door? + Belike you get something to keep it shut. + +Tib. What mean these questions, pray ye? + +Dame K. So strange you make it! is not my husband here? + +Know. Her husband! + +Dame K. My tried husband, master Kitely? + +Tib. I hope he needs not to be tried here. + +Dame K. No, dame, he does it not for need, but pleasure. + +Tib. Neither for need nor pleasure is he here. + +Know. This is but a device to balk me withal: + Enter KITELY, muffled in his cloak. +Soft, who is this? 'tis not my son disguised? + +Dame K. [spies her husband, and runs to him.] + O, sir, have I fore-stall'd your honest market, + Found your close walks? You stand amazed now, do you? + I'faith, I am glad I have smok'd you yet at last. + What is your jewel, trow? In, come, let's see her; + Fetch forth your housewife, dame; if she be fairer, + In any honest judgment, than myself, + I'll be content with it: but she is change, + She feeds you fat, she soothes your appetite, + And you are well! Your wife, an honest woman, + Is meat twice sod to you, sir! O, you treachour! + +Know. She cannot counterfeit thus palpably. + +Kit. + Out on thy more than strumpet impudence! + Steal'st thou thus to thy haunts? and have I taken + Thy bawd and thee, and thy companion, + This hoary-headed letcher, this old goat, + Close at your villainy, and would'st thou 'scuse it + With this stale harlot's jest, accusing me? + O, old incontinent, [to Knowell.] dost thou not shame, + When all thy powers in chastity are spent, + To have a mind so hot? and to entice, + And feed the enticements of a lustful woman? + +Dame K. Out, I defy thee, I, dissembling wretch! + +Kit. + Defy me, strumpet! Ask thy pander here, + Can he deny it; or that wicked elder? + +Know. Why, hear you, sir. + +Kit. + Tut, tut, tut; never speak: + Thy guilty conscience will discover thee. + +Know. What lunacy is this, that haunts this man? +Kit. + Well, good wife bawd, Cob's wife, and you, + That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy; + And you, young apple-squire, and old cuckold-maker; + I'll have you every one before a justice: + Nay, you shall answer it, I charge you go. + +Know. + Marry, with all my heart, sir, I go willingly; + Though I do taste this as a trick put on me, + To punish my impertinent search, and justly, + And half forgive my son for the device. + +Kit. Come, will you go? + +Dame K. Go! to thy shame believe it. + + Enter Cob. + +Cob. Why, what's the matter here, 'what's here to do? + +Kit. + O; Cob, art thou come? I have been abused, + And in thy house; was never man so wrong'd! + +Cob. 'Slid, in my house, my master Kitely! who wrongs you in +my house? ' + +Kit. + Marry, young lust in old, and old in young here: + Thy wife's their bawd, here have I taken them. + +Cob. How, bawd! is my house come to that? Am I preferr'd thither? +Did I not charge you to keep your doors shut, Isbel? and---you +let them lie open for all comers! [Beats his wife. + +Know. Friend, know some cause, before thou beat'st thy wife. +This is madness in thee. + +Cob. Why, is there no cause? + +Kit. + Yes, I'll shew cause before the justice, Cob: + Come, let her go with me. + +Cob. Nay, she shall go. + +Tib. Nay, I will go. I'll see an you may be allowed to make a +bundle of hemp of your right and lawful wife thus, at every +cuckoldy knave's pleasure. Why do you not go? + +Kit. A bitter quean! Come, we will have you tamed. + [Exeunt. + + + SCENE IX.---A Street. + Enter BRAINWORM, disguised as a City Serjeant. + +Brai. Well. of all my disguises yet, now am I most like myself, +being in this serjeant's gown. A man of my present profession never +counterfeits, till he lays hold upon a debtor, and says, he rests +him; for then he brings him to all manner of unrest. A kind of +little kings we are, bearing the diminutive of a mace, made like a +young artichoke, that always carries pepper and salt in itself. +Well, I know not what danger I undergo by this exploit; pray Heaven +I come well off! + Enter MATHEW and BOBADILL. + +Mat. See, I think, yonder is the varlet, by his gown. + +Bob. Let's go in quest of him. + +Mat. 'Save you, friend! 'are not you here by appointment of justice +Clement's man? + +Brai. Yes, an't please you, sir; he. told me, two gentlemen had +will'd him to procure a warrant from his master, which I have about +me, to be served on one Downright. + +Mat. It is honestly done of you both; and see where the party comes +you must arrest; serve it upon him quickly. afore he be aware. + +Bob. Bear back, master Mathew. + + Enter STEPHEN in DOWNRIGHT'S cloak. + +Brai. Master Downright, I arrest you in the queen's name, and must +carry you afore a justice by virtue of this warrant: + +Step. Me, friend! I am no Downright, I; I am master Stephen; You do +not well to arrest me, I tell you, truly; I am in nobody's bonds +nor books, I would you should know it. A plague on you heartily, +for making me thus afraid afore my time! + +Brai. Why, now you are deceived, gentlemen. + +Bob. He wears such a cloak, and that deceived us: but see, here a' +comes indeed; this is he; officer. + + Enter DOWNRIGHT. + +Dow. Why how now, signior gull! are you turn'd filcher of late! +Come, deliver my cloak. + +Step. Your cloak, sir! I bought it even now, in open market. + +Brai. Master Downright, I have a warrant I must serve upon you, +procured by these two gentlemen. + +Dow. These gentlemen! these rascals! + [Offers to beat them. +Brai. Keep the peace, I charge you in her majesty's name. + +Dow. I obey thee. What must I do, officer? + +Brai. Go before master justice Clement; to answer that they can +object against you, sir: I will use you kindly, sir. + +Mat. Come, let's before, and make the justice, captain. + +Bob. The varlet's a tall man, afore heaven! + [Exeunt Bob. and Mat. + +Dow. Gull, you'll give me my cloak. + +Step. Sir, I bought it, and I'll keep it. + +Dow. You will? + +Step. Ay, that I will. + +Dow. Officer, there's thy fee, arrest him. + +Brai. Master Stephen I must arrest you. + +Step. Arrest me! I scorn it. There, take your cloak, I'll none +on't. + +Dow. Nay, that shall not serve your turn now, sir. Officer, I'll go +with thee to the justice's; bring him along. + +Step. Why, is not here your cloak? what would you have? + +Dow. I'll have you answer it, sir. + +Brai. Sir, I'll take your word, and this gentleman's too, for his +appearance. + +Dow. I'll have no words taken: bring him along. + +Brai. Sir, I may choose to do that, I may take bail. + +Dow. 'Tis true, you may take bail, and choose at another time: but +you shall not now, varlet: bring him along, or I'll swinge you. + +Brai. Sir, I pity the gentleman's case: here's your money again. + +Dow. 'Sdeins, tell not me of my money; bring him away, I say. + +Brai. I warrant you he will go with you of himself, sir. + +Dow. Yet more ado? + +Brai. I have made a fair mash on't; + Aside. + + +Step. Must I go? + +Brai. I know no remedy, master Stephen. + +Dow. Come along afore me here; I do not love your hanging look +behind. + +Step. Why, sir, I hope you cannot hang me for it: can he, fellow? + +Brai. I think not, sir; it is but a whipping matter, sure. + [Exeunt. + + + + + ACT V + SCENE I.-Coleman Street. + A Hall in Justice CLEMENT'S House. + + Enter CLEMENT, KNOWELL, KITELY, Dame K., TIB., CASH, + COB, and Servants. + +Step. Why then let him do his worst, I am resolute. + +Clem. Nay, but stay, stay, give me leave: my chair, sirrah. You, +master Knowell, say you went thither to meet your son? + +Know. Ay, sir. + +Clem. But who directed you thither? Know. That did mine own man, +sir. + +Clem. Where is he? + +Know. Nay, I know not now; I left him with your clerk, and +appointed him to stay here for me. + +Clem. My clerk! about what time was this? + +Know. Marry, between one and two, as I take it. + +Clem. And what time came my man with the false message to you, +master Kitely? + +Kit. After two, sir. + +Clem. Very good: but, mistress Kitely, how chance that you were at +Cob's, ha? + +Dame K. An't please you, sir, I'll tell you: my brother Wellbred +told me, that Cob's house was a suspected place-- + +Clem. So it appears, methinks: but on. + +Dame K. And that my husband used thither daily. + +Clem. No matter, so he used himself well, mistress. + +Dame K. True, sir: but you know what grows by such haunts +oftentimes. + +Clem. I see rank fruits of a jealous brain, mistress Kitely: but +did you find your husband there, in that case as you suspected? + +Kit. I found her there, sir. + +Clem. Did you, so! that alters the case. Who gave you knowledge of +your wife's being there? + +Kit. Marry, that did my brother Wellbred. + +Clem. How, Wellbred first tell her; then tell you after! Where is +Wellbred? + +Kit. Gone with my sister, sir, I know not whither. + +Clem. Why this is a mere trick, a device; you are gull'd in this +most grossly all. Alas, poor wench! wert thou beaten for this? + +Tib. Yell, most pitifully, an't please you. + +Cob. And worthily, I hope, if it shall prove so. + +Clem. Ay, that's like, and a piece of a sentence.-- + Enter a Servant. + +How now, sir! what's the matter? + +Serv. Sir, there's a gentleman in the court without, desires to +speak with your worship. + +Clem. A gentleman! what is he? + +Serv. A soldier, sir, he says. + +Clem. A soldier! take down my armour, my sword quickly. A soldier +speak with me! Why, when, knaves? Come on, come on; [arms himself] +hold my cap there, so; give me my gorget, my sword: stand by, I +will end your matters anon.--Let the soldier enter. + [Exit Servant. + Enter BOBADILL, followed by MATHEW. + +Now, sir, what have you to say to me? Bob. By your worship's +favour-- + +Clem. Nay, keep out, sir; I know not your pretence. You send me +word, sir, you are a soldier: why, sir, you shall be answer'd here: +here be them that have been amongst soldiers. Sir, your pleasure. + +Bob. Faith, sir, so it is, this gentleman and myself have been most +uncivilly wrong'd and beaten by one Downright, a coarse fellow, +about the town here; and for mine own part, I protest, being a man +in no sort given to this filthy humour of quarrelling, he hath +assaulted me in the way of my peace, despoiled me of mine honour, +disarmed me of my weapons, and rudely laid me along in the open +streets, when I not so much as once offered to resist him. + +Clem. O, God's precious! is this the soldier? Here, take my armour +off quickly, 'twill make him swoon, I fear; he is not fit to look +on't, that will put up a blow. + +Mat. An't please your worship, he was bound to the peace. + +Clem. Why, an he were, sir, his hands were not bound, were they? + Re-enter Servant. + +Serv. There's one of the varlets of the city, sir, has brought two +gentlemen here; one, upon your worship's warrant. + +Clem. My warrant! + +Serv. Yes, sir; the officer says, procured by these two. + +Clem. Bid him come in. [Exit Servant.] Set by this picture. + Enter DOWNRIGHT, STEPHEN, and BRAINWORM, disguised as before. + +What, Master Downright! are you brought in at Mr. Freshwater's suit +here? + +Dow. I'faith, sir, and here's another brought at my suit. + +Clem. What are you, sir? + +Step. A gentleman, sir. O, uncle! + +Clem. Uncle! who, Master Knowell? + +Know. Ay, sir; this is a wise kinsman of mine. + +Step. God's my witness, uncle, I am wrong'd here monstrously, he +charges me with stealing of his cloak, and would I might never +stir, if I did not find it in the street by chance. + +Dow. O, did you find it now? You said you bought it erestwhile. + +Step. And you said, I stole it: nay, now my uncle is here, I'll do +well enough with you. + +Clem. Well, let this breathe awhile. You that have cause to +complain there, stand forth: Had you my warrant for this +gentleman's apprehension? + +Bob. Ay, an't please your worship. + +Clem. Nay, do not speak in passion so: where had you it? + +Bob. Of your clerk, sir. + +Clem. That's well! an my clerk can make warrants, and my hand not +at them! Where is the warrant-officer, have you it? + +Brai. No, sir; your worship's man, Master Formal, bid me do it for +these gentlemen, and he would be my discharge. + +Clem. Why, Master Downright, are you such a novice, to be ser'ved +and never see the warrant? + +Dow. Sir, he did not serve it on me. + +Clem. No! how then? + +Dow. Marry, sir, he came to me, and said he must serve it, and he +would use me kindly, and so-- + +Clem. O, God's pity, was it so, sir? He must serve it! Give me my +long sword there, and help me off. So, come on, sir varlet, I must +cut off your legs, sirrah; [Brainworm kneels.] nay, stand up, I'll +use you kindly, I must cut off your legs, I say. + [Flourishes over him with his long sword. + +Brai. O, good sir, I beseech you; nay, good master justice! + +Clem. I must do it, there is no remedy; I must cut off your legs, +sirrrah, I must cut off your ears, you rascal, I must do it: I must +cut off your nose, I must cut off your head. + +Brai. O, good your worship! + +Clem. Well, rise; how dost thou do now? dost thou feel thyself +well? hast thou no harm? + +Brai. No, I thank your good worship, sir. + +Clem. Why so! I said I must cut off thy legs, and I must cut off +thy arms, and I must cut off thy head; but I did not do it: so you +said you must serve this gentleman with my warrant, but you did not +serve him. You knave, you slave, you rogue, do you say you must, +sirrah! away with him to the jail; I'll teach you a trick for your +must, sir. + +Brai. Good sir, I beseech you, be good to me. + +Clem. Tell him he shall to the jail; away with him, I say. + +Brai. Nay, sir, if you will commit me, it shall be for committing +more than this: I will not lose by my travail any grain of my fame, +certain. + [Throws off his serjeant's gown. + +Clem. How is this? + +Know. My man Brainworm! + +Step. O, yes, uncle; Brainworm has been with my cousin Edward and I +all this day. + +Clem. I told you all there was some device. + +Brai. Nay, excellent justice, since I have laid myself thus open to +you, now stand strong for me; both with your sword and your +balance. + +Clem. Body O' me, a merry knave! give me a bowl of sack: if he +belong to you, Master Knowell, I bespeak your patience. + +Brai. That is it I have most need of; Sir, if you'll pardon me, +only, I'll glory in all the rest of my exploits. + +Know. Sir, you know I love not to have my favours come hard from +me. You have your pardon, though I suspect you shrewdly for being +of counsel with my son against me. + +Brai. Yes, faith, I have, sir, though you retain'd me doubly this +morning for yourself: first as Brainworm; after, as Fitz-Sword. I +was your reform'd soldier, sir. 'Twas I sent you to Cob's upon the +errand without end. + +Know. Is it possible? or that thou should'st disguise thy language +so as I should not know thee? + +Brai. O, sir, this has been the day of my metamorphosis. It is not +that shape alone that I have run through to-day. I brought this +gentleman, master Kitely, a message too, in the form of master +Justice's man here, to draw him out O' the way, as well as your +worship, while master Wellbred might make a conveyance of mistress +Bridget to my young master. + +Kit. How! My sister stolen away? Know. My son is not married, I +hope. + +Brai. Faith, Sir, they are both as sure as love, a priest, and +three thousand pound, which is her portion, can make them; and by +this time are ready to bespeak their wedding-supper at the +Windmill, except some friend here prevent them, and invite them +home. + +Clem. Marry, that will I; I thank thee for putting me in mind on't. +Sirrah, go you and fetch them hither upon my warrant. [Exit +Servant.] Neither's friends have cause to be sorry, if I know the +young couple aright. Here, I drink to thee for thy good news. But I +pray thee, what hast thou done with my man, Formal? + +Brai. Faith, sir, after some ceremony past, as making him drunk, +first with story, and then with wine, (but all in kindness,) and +stripping him to his shirt, I left him in that cool vein; departed, +sold your worship's warrant to these two, pawn'd his livery for +that varlet's gown, to serve it in; and thus have brought myself by +my activity to your worship's consideration. + +Clem. And I will consider thee in another cup of sack. Here's to +thee, which having drunk off this my sentence: Pledge me. Thou hast +done, or assisted to nothing, in my judgment, but deserves to be +pardon'd for the wit of the offence. If thy master, or any man +here, be angry with thee, I shall suspect his ingine, while I know +him, for't. How now, what noise is that? + + Enter Servant. + +Serv. Sir, it is Roger is come home. + +Clem. Bring him in, bring him in. + Enter FORMAL in a suit of armour. + +What! drunk? in arms against me? your reason, your reason for this? + +Form. I beseech your worship to pardon me; I happened into ill +company by chance, that cast me into a sleep, and stript me of all +my clothes. + +Clem. Well, tell him I am Justice Clement, and do pardon him: but +what is this to your armour? what may that signify? + +Form. An't please you, sir, it hung up in the room where I was +stript; and I borrow'd it of one of the drawers to come home in, +because I was loth to do penance through the street in my shirt. + +Clem. Well, stand by a while. + Enter E. KNOWELL, WELLBRED, and BRIDGET. + +Who be these? O, the young company; welcome, welcome! Give you joy. +Nay, mistress Bridget, blush not; you are not so fresh a bride, but +the news of it is come hither afore you. Master bridegroom, I have +made your peace, give me your hand: so will I for all the rest ere +you forsake my roof. + +E. Know. We are the more bound to your humanity, sir. + +Clem. Only these two have so little of man in them, they are no +part of my care. + +Wel. Yes, sir, let me pray you for this gentleman, he belongs to my +sister the bride. + +Clem. In what place, sir? + +Wel. Of her delight, sir, below the stairs, and in public: her +poet, sir. + +Clem. A poet! I will challenge him myself presently at extempore. + + Mount up thy Phlegon, Muse, and testify, + How Saturn, sitting in an ebon cloud, + Disrobed his podex, white as ivory, + And through the welkin thunder'd all aloud. + + +Wel. He is not for extempore, sir: he is all for the pocket muse; +please you command a sight of it. + +Clem. Yes, yes, search him for a taste of his vein. [They search +Mathew's pockets. + +Wel. You must not deny the queen's justice, sir, under a writ of +rebellion. + +Clem. What! all this verse? body O' me, he carries a whole realm, a +commonwealth of paper in his hose: let us see some of his subjects. + + [Reads. + Unto the boundless ocean of thy face, + Runs this poor river, charg'd with streams of eyes. + +How! this is stolen. + +E. Know. A parody! a parody! with a kind of miraculous gift, to +make it absurder than it was. + +Clem. Is all the rest of this batch? bring me a torch; lay it +together, and give fire. Cleanse the air. [Sets the papers on +fire.] Here was enough to have infected the whole city, if it had +not been taken in time. See, see, how our poet's glory shines! +brighter and brighter! still it increases! O, now it is at the +highest; and now it declines as fast. You may see, sic transit +gloria mundi! + +Know. There's an emblem for you, son, and your studies. + +Clem. Nay, no speech or act of mine be drawn against such as +profess it worthily. They are not born every year, as an alderman. +There goes more to the making of a good poet, than a sheriff. +Master Kitely, you look upon me!--though I live in the city here, +amongst you, I will do more reverence to him, when I meet him, than +I will to the mayor out of his year. But these paper-pedlars! these +ink-dabblers! they cannot expect reprehension or reproach; they +have it with the fact, + +E. Know. Sir, you have saved me the labour of a defence. + +Clem. It shall be discourse for supper between your father and me, +if he dare undertake me. But to dispatch away these, you sign O' +the soldier, and picture of the poet, (but both so false, I will +not have you hanged out at my door till midnight,) while we are at +supper, you two shall penitently fast it out in my court without; +and, if you will, you may pray there that we may be so merry within +as to forgive or forget you when we come out. Here's a third, +because we tender your safety, shall watch you, he is provided for +the purpose. Look to your charge, sir. + +Step. And what shall I do? + +Clem. O! I had lost a sheep an he had not bleated: why, sir, you +shall give master Downright his cloak; and I will intreat him to +take it. A trencher and a napkin you shall have in the buttery, and +keep Cob and his wife company here; whom I will intreat first to be +reconciled; and you to endeavour with your wit to keep them so. + +Step. I'll do my best. + +Cob. Why, now I see thou art honest, Tib, I receive thee as my dear +and mortal wife again. + +Tib. And I you, as my loving and obedient husband. + +Clem. Good compliment! It will be their bridal night too. They are +married anew. Come, I conjure the rest to put off all discontent. +You, master Downright, your anger; you, master Knowell, your cares; +Master Kitely and his wife, their jealousy. + + For, I must tell you both, while that is fed, + Horns in the mind are worse than on the head. + + +Kit. Sir. thus they go from me; kiss me, sweetheart. + + See what a drove of horns fly in the air, + Wing'd with my cleansed and my credulous breath! + Watch' em suspicious eyes, watch where they fall. + See, see! on heads that think they have none at all! + O, what a plenteous world of this will come! + When air rains horns, all may be sure of some! + +I have learn'd so much verse out of a jealous man's part in a play. + +Clem. 'Tis well, 'tis well! This night we'll dedicate to +friendship. love, and laughter. Master bridegroom, take your bride +and lead; every one a fellow. Here is my mistress, Brainworm! to +whom all my addresses of courtship shall have their reference: +whose adventures this day, when our grandchildren shall hear to be +made a fable, I doubt not but it shall find both spectators and +applause. + [Exeunt. + + + + + + +--------------------- + + + +GLOSSARY + +ABATE, cast down, subdue. + +ABHORRING, repugnant (to), at variance. + +ABJECT, base, degraded thing, outcast. + +ABRASE, smooth, blank. + +ABSOLUTE(LY), faultless(ly). + +ABSTRACTED, abstract, abstruse. + +ABUSE, deceive, insult, dishonour, make ill use of. + +ACATER, caterer. + +ACATES, cates. + +ACCEPTIVE, willing, ready to accept, receive. + +ACCOMMODATE, fit, befitting. (The word was a fashionable +one and used on all occasions. See "Henry IV.," pt. 2, +iii. 4). + +ACCOST, draw near, approach. + +ACKNOWN, confessedly acquainted with. + +ACME, full maturity. + +ADALANTADO, lord deputy or governor of a Spanish province. + +ADJECTION, addition. + +ADMIRATION, astonishment. + +ADMIRE, wonder, wonder at. + +ADROP, philosopher's stone, or substance from which obtained. + +ADSCRIVE, subscribe. + +ADULTERATE, spurious, counterfeit. + +ADVANCE, lift. + +ADVERTISE, inform, give intelligence. + +ADVERTISED, "be--," be it known to you. + +ADVERTISEMENT, intelligence. + +ADVISE, consider, bethink oneself, deliberate. + +ADVISED, informed, aware; "are you--?" have you found that out? + +AFFECT, love, like; aim at; move. + +AFFECTED, disposed; beloved. + +AFFECTIONATE, obstinate; prejudiced. + +AFFECTS, affections. + +AFFRONT, "give the--," face. + +AFFY, have confidence in; betroth. + +AFTER, after the manner of. + +AGAIN, AGAINST, in anticipation of. + +AGGRAVATE, increase, magnify, enlarge upon. + +AGNOMINATION. See Paranomasie. + +AIERY, nest, brood. + +AIM, guess. + +ALL HID, children's cry at hide-and-seek. + +ALL-TO, completely, entirely ("all-to-be-laden"). + +ALLOWANCE, approbation, recognition. + +ALMA-CANTARAS (astronomy), parallels of altitude. + +ALMAIN, name of a dance. + +ALMUTEN, planet of chief influence in the horoscope. + +ALONE, unequalled, without peer. + +ALUDELS, subliming pots. + +AMAZED, confused, perplexed. + +AMBER, AMBRE, ambergris. + +AMBREE, MARY, a woman noted for her valour at the +siege of Ghent, 1458. + +AMES-ACE, lowest throw at dice. + +AMPHIBOLIES, ambiguities. + +AMUSED, bewildered, amazed. + +AN, if. + +ANATOMY, skeleton, or dissected body. + +ANDIRONS, fire-dogs. + +ANGEL, gold coin worth 10 shillings, stamped with the +figure of the archangel Michael. + +ANNESH CLEARE, spring known as Agnes le Clare. + +ANSWER, return hit in fencing. + +ANTIC, ANTIQUE, clown, buffoon. + +ANTIC, like a buffoon. + +ANTIPERISTASIS, an opposition which enhances the quality +it opposes. + +APOZEM, decoction. + +APPERIL, peril. + +APPLE-JOHN, APPLE-SQUIRE, pimp, pander. + +APPLY, attach. + +APPREHEND, take into custody. + +APPREHENSIVE, quick of perception; able to perceive and appreciate. + +APPROVE, prove, confirm. + +APT, suit, adapt; train, prepare; dispose, incline. + +APT(LY), suitable(y), opportune(ly). + +APTITUDE, suitableness. + +ARBOR, "make the--," cut up the game (Gifford). + +ARCHES, Court of Arches. + +ARCHIE, Archibald Armstrong, jester to James I. and Charles I. + +ARGAILE, argol, crust or sediment in wine casks. + +ARGENT-VIVE, quicksilver. + +ARGUMENT, plot of a drama; theme, subject; matter in question; +token, proof. + +ARRIDE, please. + +ARSEDINE, mixture of copper and zinc, used as an imitation of +gold-leaf. + +ARTHUR, PRINCE, reference to an archery show by a society who +assumed arms, etc., of Arthur's knights. + +ARTICLE, item. + +ARTIFICIALLY, artfully. + +ASCENSION, evaporation, distillation. + +ASPIRE, try to reach, obtain, long for. + +ASSALTO (Italian), assault. + +ASSAY, draw a knife along the belly of the deer, a +ceremony of the hunting-field. + +ASSOIL, solve. + +ASSURE, secure possession or reversion of. + +ATHANOR, a digesting furnace, calculated to keep up a +constant heat. + +ATONE, reconcile. + +ATTACH, attack, seize. + +AUDACIOUS, having spirit and confidence. + +AUTHENTIC(AL), of authority, authorised, trustworthy, genuine. + +AVISEMENT, reflection, consideration. + +AVOID, begone! get rid of. + +AWAY WITH, endure. + +AZOCH, Mercurius Philosophorum. + +BABION, baboon. + +BABY, doll. + +BACK-SIDE, back premises. + +BAFFLE, treat with contempt. + +BAGATINE, Italian coin, worth about the third of a farthing. + +BAIARD, horse of magic powers known to old romance. + +BALDRICK, belt worn across the breast to support bugle, etc. + +BALE (of dice), pair. + +BALK, overlook, pass by, avoid. + +BALLACE, ballast. + +BALLOO, game at ball. + +BALNEUM (BAIN MARIE), a vessel for holding hot water +in which other vessels are stood for heating. + +BANBURY, "brother of--," Puritan. + +BANDOG, dog tied or chained up. + +BANE, woe, ruin. + +BANQUET, a light repast; dessert. + +BARB, to clip gold. + +BARBEL, fresh-water fish. + +BARE, meer; bareheaded; it was "a particular mark of state +and grandeur for the coachman to be uncovered" (Gifford). + +BARLEY-BREAK, game somewhat similar to base. + +BASE, game of prisoner's base. + +BASES, richly embroidered skirt reaching to the knees, or +lower. + +BASILISK, fabulous reptile, believed to slay with its eye. + +BASKET, used for the broken provision collected for prisoners. + +BASON, basons, etc., were beaten by the attendant mob when +bad characters were "carted." + +BATE, be reduced; abate, reduce. + +BATOON, baton, stick. + +BATTEN, feed, grow fat. + +BAWSON, badger. + +BEADSMAN, prayer-man, one engaged to pray for another. + +BEAGLE, small hound; fig. spy. + +BEAR IN HAND, keep in suspense, deceive with false hopes. + +BEARWARD, bear leader. + +BEDPHERE. See Phere. + +BEDSTAFF, (?) wooden pin in the side of the bedstead for +supporting the bedclothes (Johnson); one of the sticks or +"laths"; a stick used in making a bed. + +BEETLE, heavy mallet. + +BEG, "I'd--him," the custody of minors and idiots was +begged for; likewise property fallen forfeit to the Crown +("your house had been begged"). + +BELL-MAN, night watchman. + +BENJAMIN, an aromatic gum. + +BERLINA, pillory. + +BESCUMBER, defile. + +BESLAVE, beslabber. + +BESOGNO, beggar. + +BESPAWLE, bespatter. + +BETHLEHEM GABOR, Transylvanian hero, proclaimed King of Hungary. + +BEVER, drinking. + +BEVIS, SIR, knight of romance whose horse was equally celebrated. + +BEWRAY, reveal, make known. + +BEZANT, heraldic term: small gold circle. + +BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a +supposed antidote to poison. + +BID-STAND, highwayman. + +BIGGIN, cap, similar to that worn by the Beguines; nightcap. + +BILIVE (belive), with haste. + +BILK, nothing, empty talk. + +BILL, kind of pike. + +BILLET, wood cut for fuel, stick. + +BIRDING, thieving. + +BLACK SANCTUS, burlesque hymn, any unholy riot. + +BLANK, originally a small French coin. + +BLANK, white. + +BLANKET, toss in a blanket. + +BLAZE, outburst of violence. + +BLAZE, (her.) blazon; publish abroad. + +BLAZON, armorial bearings; fig. all that pertains to +good birth and breeding. + +BLIN, "withouten--," without ceasing. + +BLOW, puff up. + +BLUE, colour of servants' livery, hence "--order," +"--waiters." + +BLUSHET, blushing one. + +BOB, jest, taunt. + +BOB, beat, thump. + +BODGE, measure. + +BODKIN, dagger, or other short, pointed weapon; long +pin with which the women fastened up their hair. + +BOLT, roll (of material). + +BOLT, dislodge, rout out; sift (boulting-tub). + +BOLT'S-HEAD, long, straight-necked vessel for distillation. + +BOMBARD SLOPS, padded, puffed-out breeches. + +BONA ROBA, "good, wholesome, plum-cheeked wench" (Johnson) +--not always used in compliment. + +BONNY-CLABBER, sour butter-milk. + +BOOKHOLDER, prompter. + +BOOT, "to--," into the bargain; "no--," of no avail. + +BORACHIO, bottle made of skin. + +BORDELLO, brothel. + +BORNE IT, conducted, carried it through. + +BOTTLE (of hay), bundle, truss. + +BOTTOM, skein or ball of thread; vessel. + +BOURD, jest. + +BOVOLI, snails or cockles dressed in the Italian manner +(Gifford). + +BOW-POT, flower vase or pot. + +BOYS, "terrible--," "angry--," roystering young bucks. +(See Nares). + +BRABBLES (BRABBLESH), brawls. + +BRACH, bitch. + +BRADAMANTE, a heroine in "Orlando Furioso." + +BRADLEY, ARTHUR OF, a lively character commemorated in +ballads. + +BRAKE, frame for confining a horse's feet while being +shod, or strong curb or bridle; trap. + +BRANCHED, with "detached sleeve ornaments, projecting +from the shoulders of the gown" (Gifford). + +BRANDISH, flourish of weapon. + +BRASH, brace. + +BRAVE, bravado, braggart speech. + +BRAVE (adv.), gaily, finely (apparelled). + +BRAVERIES, gallants. + +BRAVERY, extravagant gaiety of apparel. + +BRAVO, bravado, swaggerer. + +BRAZEN-HEAD, speaking head made by Roger Bacon. + +BREATHE, pause for relaxation; exercise. + +BREATH UPON, speak dispraisingly of. + +BREND, burn. + +BRIDE-ALE, wedding feast. + +BRIEF, abstract; (mus.) breve. + +BRISK, smartly dressed. + +BRIZE, breese, gadfly. + +BROAD-SEAL, state seal. + +BROCK, badger (term of contempt). + +BROKE, transact business as a broker. + +BROOK, endure, put up with. + +BROUGHTON, HUGH, an English divine and Hebrew scholar. + +BRUIT, rumour. + +BUCK, wash. + +BUCKLE, bend. + +BUFF, leather made of buffalo skin, used for military +and serjeants' coats, etc. + +BUFO, black tincture. + +BUGLE, long-shaped bead. + +BULLED, (?) bolled, swelled. + +BULLIONS, trunk hose. + +BULLY, term of familiar endearment. + +BUNGY, Friar Bungay, who had a familiar in the shape of a dog. + +BURDEN, refrain, chorus. + +BURGONET, closely-fitting helmet with visor. + +BURGULLION, braggadocio. + +BURN, mark wooden measures ("--ing of cans"). + +BURROUGH, pledge, security. + +BUSKIN, half-boot, foot gear reaching high up the leg. + +BUTT-SHAFT, barbless arrow for shooting at butts. + +BUTTER, NATHANIEL ("Staple of News"), a compiler of general +news. (See Cunningham). + +BUTTERY-HATCH, half-door shutting off the buttery, where +provisions and liquors were stored. + +BUY, "he bought me," formerly the guardianship of wards +could be bought. + +BUZ, exclamation to enjoin silence. + +BUZZARD, simpleton. + +BY AND BY, at once. + +BY(E), "on the __," incidentally, as of minor or secondary +importance; at the side. + +BY-CHOP, by-blow, bastard. + +CADUCEUS, Mercury's wand. + +CALIVER, light kind of musket. + +CALLET, woman of ill repute. + +CALLOT, coif worn on the wigs of our judges or +serjeants-at-law (Gifford). + +CALVERED, crimped, or sliced and pickled. (See Nares). + +CAMOUCCIO, wretch, knave. + +CAMUSED, flat. + +CAN, knows. + +CANDLE-RENT, rent from house property. + +CANDLE-WASTER, one who studies late. + +CANTER, sturdy beggar. + +CAP OF MAINTENCE, an insignia of dignity, a cap of state +borne before kings at their coronation; also an heraldic term. + +CAPABLE, able to comprehend, fit to receive instruction, +impression. + +CAPANEUS, one of the "Seven against Thebes." + +CARACT, carat, unit of weight for precious stones, etc.; +value, worth. + +CARANZA, Spanish author of a book on duelling. + +CARCANET, jewelled ornament for the neck. + +CARE, take care; object. + +CAROSH, coach, carriage. + +CARPET, table-cover. + +CARRIAGE, bearing, behaviour. + +CARWHITCHET, quip, pun. + +CASAMATE, casemate, fortress. + +CASE, a pair. + +CASE, "in--," in condition. + +CASSOCK, soldier's loose overcoat. + +CAST, flight of hawks, couple. + +CAST, throw dice; vomit; forecast, calculate. + +CAST, cashiered. + +CASTING-GLASS, bottle for sprinkling perfume. + +CASTRIL, kestrel, falcon. + +CAT, structure used in sieges. + +CATAMITE, old form of "ganymede." + +CATASTROPHE, conclusion. + +CATCHPOLE, sheriff's officer. + +CATES, dainties, provisions. + +CATSO, rogue, cheat. + +CAUTELOUS, crafty, artful. + +CENSURE, criticism; sentence. + +CENSURE, criticise; pass sentence, doom. + +CERUSE, cosmetic containing white lead. + +CESS, assess. + +CHANGE, "hunt--," follow a fresh scent. + +CHAPMAN, retail dealer. + +CHARACTER, handwriting. + +CHARGE, expense. + +CHARM, subdue with magic, lay a spell on, silence. + +CHARMING, exercising magic power. + +CHARTEL, challenge. + +CHEAP, bargain, market. + +CHEAR, CHEER, comfort, encouragement; food, entertainment. + +CHECK AT, aim reproof at. + +CHEQUIN, gold Italian coin. + +CHEVRIL, from kidskin, which is elastic and pliable. + +CHIAUS, Turkish envoy; used for a cheat, swindler. + +CHILDERMASS DAY, Innocents' Day. + +CHOKE-BAIL, action which does not allow of bail. + +CHRYSOPOEIA, alchemy. + +CHRYSOSPERM, ways of producing gold. + +CIBATION, adding fresh substances to supply the waste +of evaporation. + +CIMICI, bugs. + +CINOPER, cinnabar. + +CIOPPINI, chopine, lady's high shoe. + +CIRCLING BOY, "a species of roarer; one who in some way +drew a man into a snare, to cheat or rob him" (Nares). + +CIRCUMSTANCE, circumlocution, beating about the bush; +ceremony, everything pertaining to a certain condition; +detail, particular. + +CITRONISE, turn citron colour. + +CITTERN, kind of guitar. + +CITY-WIRES, woman of fashion, who made use of wires +for hair and dress. + +CIVIL, legal. + +CLAP, clack, chatter. + +CLAPPER-DUDGEON, downright beggar. + +CLAPS HIS DISH, a clap, or clack, dish (dish with a +movable lid) was carried by beggars and lepers to show +that the vessel was empty, and to give sound of their +approach. + +CLARIDIANA, heroine of an old romance. + +CLARISSIMO, Venetian noble. + +CLEM, starve. + +CLICKET, latch. + +CLIM O' THE CLOUGHS, etc., wordy heroes of romance. + +CLIMATE, country. + +CLOSE, secret, private; secretive. + +CLOSENESS, secrecy. + +CLOTH, arras, hangings. + +CLOUT, mark shot at, bull's eye. + +CLOWN, countryman, clodhopper. + +COACH-LEAVES, folding blinds. + +COALS, "bear no--," submit to no affront. + +COAT-ARMOUR, coat of arms. + +COAT-CARD, court-card. + +COB-HERRING, HERRING-COB, a young herring. + +COB-SWAN, male swan. + +COCK-A-HOOP, denoting unstinted jollity; thought to +be derived from turning on the tap that all might +drink to the full of the flowing liquor. + +COCKATRICE, reptile supposed to be produced from a +cock's egg and to kill by its eye--used as a term +of reproach for a woman. + +COCK-BRAINED, giddy, wild. + +COCKER, pamper. + +COCKSCOMB, fool's cap. + +COCKSTONE, stone said to be found in a cock's +gizzard, and to possess particular virtues. + +CODLING, softening by boiling. + +COFFIN, raised crust of a pie. + +COG, cheat, wheedle. + +COIL, turmoil, confusion, ado. + +COKELY, master of a puppet-show (Whalley). + +COKES, fool, gull. + +COLD-CONCEITED, having cold opinion of, coldly +affected towards. + +COLE-HARBOUR, a retreat for people of all sorts. + +COLLECTION, composure; deduction. + +COLLOP, small slice, piece of flesh. + +COLLY, blacken. + +COLOUR, pretext. + +COLOURS, "fear no--," no enemy (quibble). + +COLSTAFF, cowlstaff, pole for carrying a cowl=tub. + +COME ABOUT, charge, turn round. + +COMFORTABLE BREAD, spiced gingerbread. + +COMING, forward, ready to respond, complaisant. + +COMMENT, commentary; "sometime it is taken for a lie +or fayned tale" (Bullokar, 1616). + +COMMODITY, "current for--," allusion to practice of +money-lenders, who forced the borrower to take part of +the loan in the shape of worthless goods on which the +latter had to make money if he could. + +COMMUNICATE, share. + +COMPASS, "in--," within the range, sphere. + +COMPLEMENT, completion, completement; anything +required for the perfecting or carrying out of +a person or affair; accomplishment. + +COMPLEXION, natural disposition, constitution. + +COMPLIMENT, See Complement. + +COMPLIMENTARIES, masters of accomplishments. + +COMPOSITION, constitution; agreement, contract. + +COMPOSURE, composition. + +COMPTER, COUNTER, debtors' prison. + +CONCEALMENT, a certain amount of church property +had been retained at the dissolution of the monasteries; +Elizabeth sent commissioners to search it out, and the +courtiers begged for it. + +CONCEIT, idea, fancy, witty invention, conception, opinion. + +CONCEIT, apprehend. + +CONCEITED, fancifully, ingeniously devised or conceived; +possessed of intelligence, witty, ingenious (hence well +conceited, etc.); disposed to joke; of opinion, possessed +of an idea. + +CONCEIVE, understand. + +CONCENT, harmony, agreement. + +CONCLUDE, infer, prove. + +CONCOCT, assimilate, digest. + +CONDEN'T, probably conducted. + +CONDUCT, escort, conductor. + +CONEY-CATCH, cheat. + +CONFECT, sweetmeat. + +CONFER, compare. + +CONGIES, bows. + +CONNIVE, give a look, wink, of secret intelligence. + +CONSORT, company, concert. + +CONSTANCY, fidelity, ardour, persistence. + +CONSTANT, confirmed, persistent, faithful. + +CONSTANTLY, firmly, persistently. + +CONTEND, strive. + +CONTINENT, holding together. + +CONTROL (the point), bear or beat down. + +CONVENT, assembly, meeting. + +CONVERT, turn (oneself). + +CONVEY, transmit from one to another. + +CONVINCE, evince, prove; overcome, overpower; convict. + +COP, head, top; tuft on head of birds; "a cop" may +have reference to one or other meaning; Gifford and +others interpret as "conical, terminating in a point." + +COPE-MAN, chapman. + +COPESMATE, companion. + +COPY (Lat. copia), abundance, copiousness. + +CORN ("powder--"), grain. + +COROLLARY, finishing part or touch. + +CORSIVE, corrosive. + +CORTINE, curtain, (arch.) wall between two towers, etc. + +CORYAT, famous for his travels, published as "Coryat's +Crudities." + +COSSET, pet lamb, pet. + +COSTARD, head. + +COSTARD-MONGER, apple-seller, coster-monger. + +COSTS, ribs. + +COTE, hut. + +COTHURNAL, from "cothurnus," a particular boot worn by +actors in Greek tragedy. + +COTQUEAN, hussy. + +COUNSEL, secret. + +COUNTENANCE, means necessary for support; credit, standing. + +COUNTER. See Compter. + +COUNTER, pieces of metal or ivory for calculating at play. + +COUNTER, "hunt--," follow scent in reverse direction. + +COUNTERFEIT, false coin. + +COUNTERPANE, one part or counterpart of a deed or indenture. + +COUNTERPOINT, opposite, contrary point. + +COURT-DISH, a kind of drinking-cup (Halliwell); N.E.D. +quotes from Bp. Goodman's "Court of James I.": "The +king...caused his carver to cut him out a court-dish, +that is, something of every dish, which he sent him as +part of his reversion," but this does not sound like +short allowance or small receptacle. + +COURT-DOR, fool. + +COURTEAU, curtal, small horse with docked tail. + +COURTSHIP, courtliness. + +COVETISE, avarice. + +COWSHARD, cow dung. + +COXCOMB, fool's cap, fool. + +COY, shrink; disdain. + +COYSTREL, low varlet. + +COZEN, cheat. + +CRACK, lively young rogue, wag. + +CRACK, crack up, boast; come to grief. + +CRAMBE, game of crambo, in which the players find +rhymes for a given word. + +CRANCH, craunch. + +CRANION, spider-like; also fairy appellation for a +fly (Gifford, who refers to lines in Drayton's +"Nimphidia"). + +CRIMP, game at cards. + +CRINCLE, draw back, turn aside. + +CRISPED, with curled or waved hair. + +CROP, gather, reap. + +CROPSHIRE, a kind of herring. (See N.E.D.) + +CROSS, any piece of money, many coins being stamped +with a cross. + +CROSS AND PILE, heads and tails. + +CROSSLET, crucible. + +CROWD, fiddle. + +CRUDITIES, undigested matter. + +CRUMP, curl up. + +CRUSADO, Portuguese gold coin, marked with a cross. + +CRY ("he that cried Italian"), "speak in a musical +cadence," intone, or declaim (?); cry up. + +CUCKING-STOOL, used for the ducking of scolds, etc. + +CUCURBITE, a gourd-shaped vessel used for distillation. + +CUERPO, "in--," in undress. + +CULLICE, broth. + +CULLION, base fellow, coward. + +CULLISEN, badge worn on their arm by servants. + +CULVERIN, kind of cannon. + +CUNNING, skill. + +CUNNING, skilful. + +CUNNING-MAN, fortune-teller. + +CURE, care for. + +CURIOUS(LY), scrupulous, particular; elaborate, +elegant(ly), dainty(ly) (hence "in curious"). + +CURST, shrewish, mischievous. + +CURTAL, dog with docked tail, of inferior sort. + +CUSTARD, "quaking--," "--politic," reference to +a large custard which formed part of a city feast +and afforded huge entertainment, for the fool jumped +into it, and other like tricks were played. (See +"All's Well, etc." ii. 5, 40.) + +CUTWORK, embroidery, open-work. + +CYPRES (CYPRUS) (quibble), cypress (or cyprus) being +a transparent material, and when black used for mourning. + +DAGGER ("--frumety"), name of tavern. + +DARGISON, apparently some person known in ballad or tale. + +DAUPHIN MY BOY, refrain of old comic song. + +DAW, daunt. + +DEAD LIFT, desperate emergency. + +DEAR, applied to that which in any way touches us nearly. + +DECLINE, turn off from; turn away, aside. + +DEFALK, deduct, abate. + +DEFEND, forbid. + +DEGENEROUS, degenerate. + +DEGREES, steps. + +DELATE, accuse. + +DEMI-CULVERIN, cannon carrying a ball of about ten pounds. + +DENIER, the smallest possible coin, being the twelfth +part of a sou. + +DEPART, part with. + +DEPENDANCE, ground of quarrel in duello language. + +DESERT, reward. + +DESIGNMENT, design. + +DESPERATE, rash, reckless. + +DETECT, allow to be detected, betray, inform against. + +DETERMINE, terminate. + +DETRACT, draw back, refuse. + +DEVICE, masque, show; a thing moved by wires, +etc., puppet. + +DEVISE, exact in every particular. + +DEVISED, invented. + +DIAPASM, powdered aromatic herbs, made into balls +of perfumed paste. (See Pomander.) + +DIBBLE, (?) moustache (N.E.D.); (?) dagger (Cunningham). + +DIFFUSED, disordered, scattered, irregular. + +DIGHT, dressed. + +DILDO, refrain of popular songs; vague term of low meaning. + +DIMBLE, dingle, ravine. + +DIMENSUM, stated allowance. + +DISBASE, debase. + +DISCERN, distinguish, show a difference between. + +DISCHARGE, settle for. + +DISCIPLINE, reformation; ecclesiastical system. + +DISCLAIM, renounce all part in. + +DISCOURSE, process of reasoning, reasoning faculty. + +DISCOURTSHIP, discourtesy. + +DISCOVER, betray, reveal; display. + +DISFAVOUR, disfigure. + +DISPARAGEMENT, legal term applied to the unfitness +in any way of a marriage arranged for in the case +of wards. + +DISPENSE WITH, grant dispensation for. + +DISPLAY, extend. + +DIS'PLE, discipline, teach by the whip. + +DISPOSED, inclined to merriment. + +DISPOSURE, disposal. + +DISPRISE, depreciate. + +DISPUNCT, not punctilious. + +DISQUISITION, search. + +DISSOLVED, enervated by grief. + +DISTANCE, (?) proper measure. + +DISTASTE, offence, cause of offence. + +DISTASTE, render distasteful. + +DISTEMPERED, upset, out of humour. + +DIVISION (mus.), variation, modulation. + +DOG-BOLT, term of contempt. + +DOLE, given in dole, charity. + +DOLE OF FACES, distribution of grimaces. + +DOOM, verdict, sentence. + +DOP, dip, low bow. + +DOR, beetle, buzzing insect, drone, idler. + +DOR, (?) buzz; "give the--," make a fool of. + +DOSSER, pannier, basket. + +DOTES, endowments, qualities. + +DOTTEREL, plover; gull, fool. + +DOUBLE, behave deceitfully. + +DOXY, wench, mistress. + +DRACHM, Greek silver coin. + +DRESS, groom, curry. + +DRESSING, coiffure. + +DRIFT, intention. + +DRYFOOT, track by mere scent of foot. + +DUCKING, punishment for minor offences. + +DUILL, grieve. + +DUMPS, melancholy, originally a mournful melody. + +DURINDANA, Orlando's sword. + +DWINDLE, shrink away, be overawed. + +EAN, yean, bring forth young. + +EASINESS, readiness. + +EBOLITION, ebullition. + +EDGE, sword. + +EECH, eke. + +EGREGIOUS, eminently excellent. + +EKE, also, moreover. + +E-LA, highest note in the scale. + +EGGS ON THE SPIT, important business on hand. + +ELF-LOCK, tangled hair, supposed to be the work of elves. + +EMMET, ant. + +ENGAGE, involve. + +ENGHLE. See Ingle. + +ENGHLE, cajole; fondle. + +ENGIN(E), device, contrivance; agent; ingenuity, wit. + +ENGINER, engineer, deviser, plotter. + +ENGINOUS, crafty, full of devices; witty, ingenious. + +ENGROSS, monopolise. + +ENS, an existing thing, a substance. + +ENSIGNS, tokens, wounds. + +ENSURE, assure. + +ENTERTAIN, take into service. + +ENTREAT, plead. + +ENTREATY, entertainment. + +ENTRY, place where a deer has lately passed. + +ENVOY, denouement, conclusion. + +ENVY, spite, calumny, dislike, odium. + +EPHEMERIDES, calendars. + +EQUAL, just, impartial. + +ERECTION, elevation in esteem. + +ERINGO, candied root of the sea-holly, formerly +used as a sweetmeat and aphrodisiac. + +ERRANT, arrant. + +ESSENTIATE, become assimilated. + +ESTIMATION, esteem. + +ESTRICH, ostrich. + +ETHNIC, heathen. + +EURIPUS, flux and reflux. + +EVEN, just equable. + +EVENT, fate, issue. + +EVENT(ED), issue(d). + +EVERT, overturn. + +EXACUATE, sharpen. + +EXAMPLESS, without example or parallel. + +EXCALIBUR, King Arthur's sword. + +EXEMPLIFY, make an example of. + +EXEMPT, separate, exclude. + +EXEQUIES, obsequies. + +EXHALE, drag out. + +EXHIBITION, allowance for keep, pocket-money. + +EXORBITANT, exceeding limits of propriety or law, +inordinate. + +EXORNATION, ornament. + +EXPECT, wait. + +EXPIATE, terminate. + +EXPLICATE, explain, unfold. + +EXTEMPORAL, extempore, unpremeditated. + +EXTRACTION, essence. + +EXTRAORDINARY, employed for a special or temporary purpose. + +EXTRUDE, expel. + +EYE, "in--," in view. + +EYEBRIGHT, (?) a malt liquor in which the herb of +this name was infused, or a person who sold the same +(Gifford). + +EYE-TINGE, least shade or gleam. + +FACE, appearance. + +FACES ABOUT, military word of command. + +FACINOROUS, extremely wicked. + +FACKINGS, faith. + +FACT, deed, act, crime. + +FACTIOUS, seditious, belonging to a party, given to party feeling. + +FAECES, dregs. + +FAGIOLI, French beans. + +FAIN, forced, necessitated. + +FAITHFUL, believing. + +FALL, ruff or band turned back on the shoulders; or, veil. + +FALSIFY, feign (fencing term). + +FAME, report. + +FAMILIAR, attendant spirit. + +FANTASTICAL, capricious, whimsical. + +FARCE, stuff. + +FAR-FET. See Fet. + +FARTHINGAL, hooped petticoat. + +FAUCET, tapster. + +FAULT, lack; loss, break in line of scent; "for--," in default of. + +FAUTOR, partisan. + +FAYLES, old table game similar to backgammon. + +FEAR(ED), affright(ed). + +FEAT, activity, operation; deed, action. + +FEAT, elegant, trim. + +FEE, "in--" by feudal obligation. + +FEIZE, beat, belabour. + +FELLOW, term of contempt. + +FENNEL, emblem of flattery. + +FERE, companion, fellow. + +FERN-SEED, supposed to have power of rendering invisible. + +FET, fetched. + +FETCH, trick. + +FEUTERER (Fr. vautrier), dog-keeper. + +FEWMETS, dung. + +FICO, fig. + +FIGGUM, (?) jugglery. + +FIGMENT, fiction, invention. + +FIRK, frisk, move suddenly, or in jerks; "--up," +stir up, rouse; "firks mad," suddenly behaves like +a madman. + +FIT, pay one out, punish. + +FITNESS, readiness. + +FITTON (FITTEN), lie, invention. + +FIVE-AND-FIFTY, "highest number to stand on at +primero" (Gifford). + +FLAG, to fly low and waveringly. + +FLAGON CHAIN, for hanging a smelling-bottle (Fr. +flacon) round the neck (?). (See N.E.D.). + +FLAP-DRAGON, game similar to snap-dragon. + +FLASKET, some kind of basket. + +FLAW, sudden gust or squall of wind. + +FLAWN, custard. + +FLEA, catch fleas. + +FLEER, sneer, laugh derisively. + +FLESH, feed a hawk or dog with flesh to incite +it to the chase; initiate in blood-shed; satiate. + +FLICKER-MOUSE, bat. + +FLIGHT, light arrow. + +FLITTER-MOUSE, bat. + +FLOUT, mock, speak and act contemptuously. + +FLOWERS, pulverised substance. + +FLY, familiar spirit. + +FOIL, weapon used in fencing; that which +sets anything off to advantage. + +FOIST, cut-purse, sharper. + +FOND(LY), foolish(ly). + +FOOT-CLOTH, housings of ornamental cloth which +hung down on either side a horse to the ground. + +FOOTING, foothold; footstep; dancing. + +FOPPERY, foolery. + +FOR, "--failing," for fear of failing. + +FORBEAR, bear with; abstain from. + +FORCE, "hunt at--," run the game down with dogs. + +FOREHEAD, modesty; face, assurance, effrontery. + +FORESLOW, delay. + +FORESPEAK, bewitch; foretell. + +FORETOP, front lock of hair which fashion +required to be worn upright. + +FORGED, fabricated. + +FORM, state formally. + +FORMAL, shapely; normal; conventional. + +FORTHCOMING, produced when required. + +FOUNDER, disable with over-riding. + +FOURM, form, lair. + +FOX, sword. + +FRAIL, rush basket in which figs or raisins +were packed. + +FRAMPULL, peevish, sour-tempered. + +FRAPLER, blusterer, wrangler. + +FRAYING, "a stag is said to fray his head when he +rubs it against a tree to...cause the outward coat +of the new horns to fall off" (Gifford). + +FREIGHT (of the gazetti), burden (of the newspapers). + +FREQUENT, full. + +FRICACE, rubbing. + +FRICATRICE, woman of low character. + +FRIPPERY, old clothes shop. + +FROCK, smock-frock. + +FROLICS, (?) humorous verses circulated at a feast +(N.E.D.); couplets wrapped round sweetmeats (Cunningham). + +FRONTLESS, shameless. + +FROTED, rubbed. + +FRUMETY, hulled wheat boiled in milk and spiced. + +FRUMP, flout, sneer. + +FUCUS, dye. + +FUGEAND, (?) figent: fidgety, restless (N.E.D.). + +FULLAM, false dice. + +FULMART, polecat. + +FULSOME, foul, offensive. + +FURIBUND, raging, furious. + +GALLEY-FOIST, city-barge, used on Lord Mayor's Day, +when he was sworn into his office at Westminster +(Whalley). + +GALLIARD, lively dance in triple time. + +GAPE, be eager after. + +GARAGANTUA, Rabelais' giant. + +GARB, sheaf (Fr. gerbe); manner, fashion, behaviour. + +GARD, guard, trimming, gold or silver lace, or other +ornament. + +GARDED, faced or trimmed. + +GARNISH, fee. + +GAVEL-KIND, name of a land-tenure existing chiefly in +Kent; from 16th century often used to denote custom +of dividing a deceased man's property equally among +his sons (N.E.D.). + +GAZETTE, small Venetian coin worth about three-farthings. + +GEANCE, jaunt, errand. + +GEAR (GEER), stuff, matter, affair. + +GELID, frozen. + +GEMONIES, steps from which the bodies of criminals +were thrown into the river. + +GENERAL, free, affable. + +GENIUS, attendant spirit. + +GENTRY, gentlemen; manners characteristic of gentry, +good breeding. + +GIB-CAT, tom-cat. + +GIGANTOMACHIZE, start a giants' war. + +GIGLOT, wanton. + +GIMBLET, gimlet. + +GING, gang. + +GLASS ("taking in of shadows, etc."), crystal or beryl. + +GLEEK, card game played by three; party of three, trio; +side glance. + +GLICK (GLEEK), jest, gibe. + +GLIDDER, glaze. + +GLORIOUSLY, of vain glory. + +GODWIT, bird of the snipe family. + +GOLD-END-MAN, a buyer of broken gold and silver. + +GOLL, hand. + +GONFALIONIER, standard-bearer, chief magistrate, etc. + +GOOD, sound in credit. + +GOOD-YEAR, good luck. + +GOOSE-TURD, colour of. (See Turd). + +GORCROW, carrion crow. + +GORGET, neck armour. + +GOSSIP, godfather. + +GOWKED, from "gowk," to stand staring and gaping like +a fool. + +GRANNAM, grandam. + +GRASS, (?) grease, fat. + +GRATEFUL, agreeable, welcome. + +GRATIFY, give thanks to. + +GRATITUDE, gratuity. + +GRATULATE, welcome, congratulate. + +GRAVITY, dignity. + +GRAY, badger. + +GRICE, cub. + +GRIEF, grievance. + +GRIPE, vulture, griffin. + +GRIPE'S EGG, vessel in shape of. + +GROAT, fourpence. + +GROGRAN, coarse stuff made of silk and mohair, or of +coarse silk. + +GROOM-PORTER, officer in the royal household. + +GROPE, handle, probe. + +GROUND, pit (hence "grounded judgments"). + +GUARD, caution, heed. + +GUARDANT, heraldic term: turning the head only. + +GUILDER, Dutch coin worth about 4d. + +GULES, gullet, throat; heraldic term for red. + +GULL, simpleton, dupe. + +GUST, taste. + +HAB NAB, by, on, chance. + +HABERGEON, coat of mail. + +HAGGARD, wild female hawk; hence coy, wild. + +HALBERD, combination of lance and battle-axe. + +HALL, "a--!" a cry to clear the room for the dancers. + +HANDSEL, first money taken. + +HANGER, loop or strap on a sword-belt from which the +sword was suspended. + +HAP, fortune, luck. + +HAPPILY, haply. + +HAPPINESS, appropriateness, fitness. + +HAPPY, rich. + +HARBOUR, track, trace (an animal) to its shelter. + +HARD-FAVOURED, harsh-featured. + +HARPOCRATES, Horus the child, son of Osiris, figured +with a finger pointing to his mouth, indicative of +silence. + +HARRINGTON, a patent was granted to Lord H. for the +coinage of tokens (q.v.). + +HARROT, herald. + +HARRY NICHOLAS, founder of a community called the +"Family of Love." + +HAY, net for catching rabbits, etc. + +HAY! (Ital. hai!), you have it (a fencing term). + +HAY IN HIS HORN, ill-tempered person. + +HAZARD, game at dice; that which is staked. + +HEAD, "first--," young deer with antlers first +sprouting; fig. a newly-ennobled man. + +HEADBOROUGH, constable. + +HEARKEN AFTER, inquire; "hearken out," find, search out. + +HEARTEN, encourage. + +HEAVEN AND HELL ("Alchemist"), names of taverns. + +HECTIC, fever. + +HEDGE IN, include. + +HELM, upper part of a retort. + +HER'NSEW, hernshaw, heron. + +HIERONIMO (JERONIMO), hero of Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy." + +HOBBY, nag. + +HOBBY-HORSE, imitation horse of some light material, +fastened round the waist of the morrice-dancer, who +imitated the movements of a skittish horse. + +HODDY-DODDY, fool. + +HOIDEN, hoyden, formerly applied to both sexes (ancient +term for leveret? Gifford). + +HOLLAND, name of two famous chemists. + +HONE AND HONERO, wailing expressions of lament or discontent. + +HOOD-WINK'D, blindfolded. + +HORARY, hourly. + +HORN-MAD, stark mad (quibble). + +HORN-THUMB, cut-purses were in the habit of wearing a horn +shield on the thumb. + +HORSE-BREAD-EATING, horses were often fed on coarse bread. + +HORSE-COURSER, horse-dealer. + +HOSPITAL, Christ's Hospital. + +HOWLEGLAS, Eulenspiegel, the hero of a popular German +tale which relates his buffooneries and knavish tricks. + +HUFF, hectoring, arrogance. + +HUFF IT, swagger. + +HUISHER (Fr. huissier), usher. + +HUM, beer and spirits mixed together. + +HUMANITIAN, humanist, scholar. + +HUMOROUS, capricious, moody, out of humour; moist. + +HUMOUR, a word used in and out of season in the time +of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, and ridiculed by both. + +HUMOURS, manners. + +HUMPHREY, DUKE, those who were dinnerless spent the +dinner-hour in a part of St. Paul's where stood a +monument said to be that of the duke's; hence "dine +with Duke Humphrey," to go hungry. + +HURTLESS, harmless. + +IDLE, useless, unprofitable. + +ILL-AFFECTED, ill-disposed. + +ILL-HABITED, unhealthy. + +ILLUSTRATE, illuminate. + +IMBIBITION, saturation, steeping. + +IMBROCATA, fencing term: a thrust in tierce. + +IMPAIR, impairment. + +IMPART, give money. + +IMPARTER, any one ready to be cheated and to part +with his money. + +IMPEACH, damage. + +IMPERTINENCIES, irrelevancies. + +IMPERTINENT(LY), irrelevant(ly), without reason or purpose. + +IMPOSITION, duty imposed by. + +IMPOTENTLY, beyond power of control. + +IMPRESS, money in advance. + +IMPULSION, incitement. + +IN AND IN, a game played by two or three persons +with four dice. + +INCENSE, incite, stir up. + +INCERATION, act of covering with wax; or reducing +a substance to softness of wax. + +INCH, "to their--es," according to their stature, +capabilities. + +INCH-PIN, sweet-bread. + +INCONVENIENCE, inconsistency, absurdity. + +INCONY, delicate, rare (used as a term of affection). + +INCUBEE, incubus. + +INCUBUS, evil spirit that oppresses us in sleep, nightmare. + +INCURIOUS, unfastidious, uncritical. + +INDENT, enter into engagement. + +INDIFFERENT, tolerable, passable. + +INDIGESTED, shapeless, chaotic. + +INDUCE, introduce. + +INDUE, supply. + +INEXORABLE, relentless. + +INFANTED, born, produced. + +INFLAME, augment charge. + +INGENIOUS, used indiscriminantly for ingenuous; +intelligent, talented. + +INGENUITY, ingenuousness. + +INGENUOUS, generous. + +INGINE. See Engin. + +INGINER, engineer. (See Enginer). + +INGLE, OR ENGHLE, bosom friend, intimate, minion. + +INHABITABLE, uninhabitable. + +INJURY, insult, affront. + +IN-MATE, resident, indwelling. + +INNATE, natural. + +INNOCENT, simpleton. + +INQUEST, jury, or other official body of inquiry. + +INQUISITION, inquiry. + +INSTANT, immediate. + +INSTRUMENT, legal document. + +INSURE, assure. + +INTEGRATE, complete, perfect. + +INTELLIGENCE, secret information, news. + +INTEND, note carefully, attend, give ear to, be +occupied with. + +INTENDMENT, intention. + +INTENT, intention, wish. + +INTENTION, concentration of attention or gaze. + +INTENTIVE, attentive. + +INTERESSED, implicated. + +INTRUDE, bring in forcibly or without leave. + +INVINCIBLY, invisibly. + +INWARD, intimate. + +IRPE (uncertain), "a fantastic grimace, or contortion +of the body: (Gifford)." + +JACK, Jack o' the clock, automaton figure that strikes +the hour; Jack-a-lent, puppet thrown at in Lent. + +JACK, key of a virginal. + +JACOB'S STAFF, an instrument for taking altitudes and +distances. + +JADE, befool. + +JEALOUSY, JEALOUS, suspicion, suspicious. + +JERKING, lashing. + +JEW'S TRUMP, Jew's harp. + +JIG, merry ballad or tune; a fanciful dialogue or +light comic act introduced at the end or during an +interlude of a play. + +JOINED (JOINT)-STOOL, folding stool. + +JOLL, jowl. + +JOLTHEAD, blockhead. + +JUMP, agree, tally. + +JUST YEAR, no one was capable of the consulship until +he was forty-three. + +KELL, cocoon. + +KELLY, an alchemist. + +KEMB, comb. + +KEMIA, vessel for distillation. + +KIBE, chap, sore. + +KILDERKIN, small barrel. + +KILL, kiln. + +KIND, nature; species; "do one's--," act according +to one's nature. + +KIRTLE, woman's gown of jacket and petticoat. + +KISS OR DRINK AFORE ME, "this is a familiar expression, +employed when what the speaker is just about to say is +anticipated by another" (Gifford). + +KIT, fiddle. + +KNACK, snap, click. + +KNIPPER-DOLING, a well-known Anabaptist. + +KNITTING CUP, marriage cup. + +KNOCKING, striking, weighty. + +KNOT, company, band; a sandpiper or robin snipe (Tringa +canutus); flower-bed laid out in fanciful design. + +KURSINED, KYRSIN, christened. + +LABOURED, wrought with labour and care. + +LADE, load(ed). + +LADING, load. + +LAID, plotted. + +LANCE-KNIGHT (Lanzknecht), a German mercenary foot-soldier. + +LAP, fold. + +LAR, household god. + +LARD, garnish. + +LARGE, abundant. + +LARUM, alarum, call to arms. + +LATTICE, tavern windows were furnished with lattices of +various colours. + +LAUNDER, to wash gold in aqua regia, so as imperceptibly +to extract some of it. + +LAVE, ladle, bale. + +LAW, "give--," give a start (term of chase). + +LAXATIVE, loose. + +LAY ABOARD, run alongside generally with intent to board. + +LEAGUER, siege, or camp of besieging army. + +LEASING, lying. + +LEAVE, leave off, desist. + +LEER, leering or "empty, hence, perhaps, leer horse, +a horse without a rider; leer is an adjective meaning +uncontrolled, hence 'leer drunkards'" (Halliwell); +according to Nares, a leer (empty) horse meant also a +led horse; leeward, left. + +LEESE, lose. + +LEGS, "make--," do obeisance. + +LEIGER, resident representative. + +LEIGERITY, legerdemain. + +LEMMA, subject proposed, or title of the epigram. + +LENTER, slower. + +LET, hinder. + +LET, hindrance. + +LEVEL COIL, a rough game...in which one hunted +another from his seat. Hence used for any noisy +riot (Halliwell). + +LEWD, ignorant. + +LEYSTALLS, receptacles of filth. + +LIBERAL, ample. + +LIEGER, ledger, register. + +LIFT(ING), steal(ing); theft. + +LIGHT, alight. + +LIGHTLY, commonly, usually, often. + +LIKE, please. + +LIKELY, agreeable, pleasing. + +LIME-HOUND, leash-, blood-hound. + +LIMMER, vile, worthless. + +LIN, leave off. + +Line, "by--," by rule. + +LINSTOCK, staff to stick in the ground, with forked +head to hold a lighted match for firing cannon. + +LIQUID, clear. + +LIST, listen, hark; like, please. + +LIVERY, legal term, delivery of the possession, etc. + +LOGGET, small log, stick. + +LOOSE, solution; upshot, issue; release of an arrow. + +LOSE, give over, desist from; waste. + +LOUTING, bowing, cringing. + +LUCULENT, bright of beauty. + +LUDGATHIANS, dealers on Ludgate Hill. + +LURCH, rob, cheat. + +LUTE, to close a vessel with some kind of cement. + +MACK, unmeaning expletive. + +MADGE-HOWLET or OWL, barn-owl. + +MAIM, hurt, injury. + +MAIN, chief concern (used as a quibble on heraldic +term for "hand"). + +MAINPRISE, becoming surety for a prisoner so as to +procure his release. + +MAINTENANCE, giving aid, or abetting. + +MAKE, mate. + +MAKE, MADE, acquaint with business, prepare(d), instruct(ed). + +MALLANDERS, disease of horses. + +MALT HORSE, dray horse. + +MAMMET, puppet. + +MAMMOTHREPT, spoiled child. + +MANAGE, control (term used for breaking-in horses); +handling, administration. + +MANGO, slave-dealer. + +MANGONISE, polish up for sale. + +MANIPLES, bundles, handfuls. + +MANKIND, masculine, like a virago. + +MANKIND, humanity. + +MAPLE FACE, spotted face (N.E.D.). + +MARCHPANE, a confection of almonds, sugar, etc. + +MARK, "fly to the--," "generally said of a goshawk +when, having 'put in' a covey of partridges, she takes +stand, marking the spot where they disappeared from +view until the falconer arrives to put them out to her" +(Harting, Bibl. Accip. Gloss. 226). + +MARLE, marvel. + +MARROW-BONE MAN, one often on his knees for prayer. + +MARRY! exclamation derived from the Virgin's name. + +MARRY GIP, "probably originated from By Mary Gipcy" = +St. Mary of Egypt, (N.E.D.). + +MARTAGAN, Turk's cap lily. + +MARYHINCHCO, stringhalt. + +MASORETH, Masora, correct form of the scriptural text +according to Hebrew tradition. + +MASS, abb. for master. + +MAUND, beg. + +MAUTHER, girl, maid. + +MEAN, moderation. + +MEASURE, dance, more especially a stately one. + +MEAT, "carry--in one's mouth," be a source of money +or entertainment. + +MEATH, metheglin. + +MECHANICAL, belonging to mechanics, mean, vulgar. + +MEDITERRANEO, middle aisle of St. Paul's, a general +resort for business and amusement. + +MEET WITH, even with. + +MELICOTTON, a late kind of peach. + +MENSTRUE, solvent. + +MERCAT, market. + +MERD, excrement. + +MERE, undiluted; absolute, unmitigated. + +MESS, party of four. + +METHEGLIN, fermented liquor, of which one ingredient +was honey. + +METOPOSCOPY, study of physiognomy. + +MIDDLING GOSSIP, go-between. + +MIGNIARD, dainty, delicate. + +MILE-END, training-ground of the city. + +MINE-MEN, sappers. + +MINION, form of cannon. + +MINSITIVE, (?) mincing, affected (N.E.D.). + +MISCELLANY MADAM, "a female trader in miscellaneous +articles; a dealer in trinkets or ornaments of various +kinds, such as kept shops in the New Exchange" (Nares). + +MISCELLINE, mixed grain; medley. + +MISCONCEIT, misconception. + +MISPRISE, MISPRISION, mistake, misunderstanding. + +MISTAKE AWAY, carry away as if by mistake. + +MITHRIDATE, an antidote against poison. + +MOCCINIGO, small Venetian coin, worth about ninepence. + +MODERN, in the mode; ordinary, commonplace. + +MOMENT, force or influence of value. + +MONTANTO, upward stroke. + +MONTH'S MIND, violent desire. + +MOORISH, like a moor or waste. + +MORGLAY, sword of Bevis of Southampton. + +MORRICE-DANCE, dance on May Day, etc., in which +certain personages were represented. + +MORTALITY, death. + +MORT-MAL, old sore, gangrene. + +MOSCADINO, confection flavoured with musk. + +MOTHER, Hysterica passio. + +MOTION, proposal, request; puppet, puppet-show; +"one of the small figures on the face of a large +clock which was moved by the vibration of the +pendulum" (Whalley). + +MOTION, suggest, propose. + +MOTLEY, parti-coloured dress of a fool; hence +used to signify pertaining to, or like, a fool. + +MOTTE, motto. + +MOURNIVAL, set of four aces or court cards in a hand; +a quartette. + +MOW, setord hay or sheaves of grain. + +MUCH! expressive of irony and incredulity. + +MUCKINDER, handkerchief. + +MULE, "born to ride on--," judges or serjeants-at-law +formerly rode on mules when going in state to Westminster +(Whally). + +MULLETS, small pincers. + +MUM-CHANCE, game of chance, played in silence. + +MUN, must. + +MUREY, dark crimson red. + +MUSCOVY-GLASS, mica. + +MUSE, wonder. + +MUSICAL, in harmony. + +MUSS, mouse; scramble. + +MYROBOLANE, foreign conserve, "a dried plum, brought +from the Indies." + +MYSTERY, art, trade, profession. + +NAIL, "to the--" (ad unguem), to perfection, to the +very utmost. + +NATIVE, natural. + +NEAT, cattle. + +NEAT, smartly apparelled; unmixed; dainty. + +NEATLY, neatly finished. + +NEATNESS, elegance. + +NEIS, nose, scent. + +NEUF (NEAF, NEIF), fist. + +NEUFT, newt. + +NIAISE, foolish, inexperienced person. + +NICE, fastidious, trivial, finical, scrupulous. + +NICENESS, fastidiousness. + +NICK, exact amount; right moment; "set in the--," +meaning uncertain. + +NICE, suit, fit; hit, seize the right moment, etc., +exactly hit on, hit off. + +NOBLE, gold coin worth 6s. 8d. + +NOCENT, harmful. + +NIL, not will. + +NOISE, company of musicians. + +NOMENTACK, an Indian chief from Virginia. + +NONES, nonce. + +NOTABLE, egregious. + +NOTE, sign, token. + +NOUGHT, "be--," go to the devil, be hanged, etc. + +NOWT-HEAD, blockhead. + +NUMBER, rhythm. + +NUPSON, oaf, simpleton. + +OADE, woad. + +OBARNI, preparation of mead. + +OBJECT, oppose; expose; interpose. + +OBLATRANT, barking, railing. + +OBNOXIOUS, liable, exposed; offensive. + +OBSERVANCE, homage, devoted service. + +OBSERVANT, attentive, obsequious. + +OBSERVE, show deference, respect. + +OBSERVER, one who shows deference, or waits upon another. + +OBSTANCY, legal phrase, "juridical opposition." + +OBSTREPEROUS, clamorous, vociferous. + +OBSTUPEFACT, stupefied. + +ODLING, (?) "must have some relation to tricking and +cheating" (Nares). + +OMINOUS, deadly, fatal. + +ONCE, at once; for good and all; used also for additional +emphasis. + +ONLY, pre-eminent, special. + +OPEN, make public; expound. + +OPPILATION, obstruction. + +OPPONE, oppose. + +OPPOSITE, antagonist. + +OPPRESS, suppress. + +ORIGINOUS, native. + +ORT, remnant, scrap. + +OUT, "to be--," to have forgotten one's part; +not at one with each other. + +OUTCRY, sale by auction. + +OUTRECUIDANCE, arrogance, presumption. + +OUTSPEAK, speak more than. + +OVERPARTED, given too difficult a part to play. + +OWLSPIEGEL. See Howleglass. + +OYEZ! (O YES!), hear ye! call of the public crier +when about to make a proclamation. + +PACKING PENNY, "give a--," dismiss, send packing. + +PAD, highway. + +PAD-HORSE, road-horse. + +PAINED (PANED) SLOPS, full breeches made of strips +of different colour and material. + +PAINFUL, diligent, painstaking. + +PAINT, blush. + +PALINODE, ode of recantation. + +PALL, weaken, dim, make stale. + +PALM, triumph. + +PAN, skirt of dress or coat. + +PANNEL, pad, or rough kind of saddle. + +PANNIER-ALLY, inhabited by tripe-sellers. + +PANNIER-MAN, hawker; a man employed about the inns of +court to bring in provisions, set the table, etc. + +PANTOFLE, indoor shoe, slipper. + +PARAMENTOS, fine trappings. + +PARANOMASIE, a play upon words. + +PARANTORY, (?) peremptory. + +PARCEL, particle, fragment (used contemptuously); article. + +PARCEL, part, partly. + +PARCEL-POET, poetaster. + +PARERGA, subordinate matters. + +PARGET, to paint or plaster the face. + +PARLE, parley. + +PARLOUS, clever, shrewd. + +PART, apportion. + +PARTAKE, participate in. + +PARTED, endowed, talented. + +PARTICULAR, individual person. + +PARTIZAN, kind of halberd. + +PARTRICH, partridge. + +PARTS, qualities, endowments. + +PASH, dash, smash. + +PASS, care, trouble oneself. + +PASSADO, fencing term: a thrust. + +PASSAGE, game at dice. + +PASSINGLY, exceedingly. + +PASSION, effect caused by external agency. + +PASSION, "in--," in so melancholy a tone, so pathetically. + +PATOUN, (?) Fr. Paton, pellet of dough; perhaps the +"moulding of the tobacco...for the pipe" (Gifford); (?) +variant of Petun, South American name of tobacco. + +PATRICO, the recorder, priest, orator of strolling +beggars or gipsies. + +PATTEN, shoe with wooden sole; "go--," keep step with, +accompany. + +PAUCA VERBA, few words. + +PAVIN, a stately dance. + +PEACE, "with my master's--," by leave, favour. + +PECULIAR, individual, single. + +PEDANT, teacher of the languages. + +PEEL, baker's shovel. + +PEEP, speak in a small or shrill voice. + +PEEVISH(LY), foolish(ly), capricious(ly); childish(ly). + +PELICAN, a retort fitted with tube or tubes, for +continuous distillation. + +PENCIL, small tuft of hair. + +PERDUE, soldier accustomed to hazardous service. + +PEREMPTORY, resolute, bold; imperious; thorough, utter, +absolute(ly). + +PERIMETER, circumference of a figure. + +PERIOD, limit, end. + +PERK, perk up. + +PERPETUANA, "this seems to be that glossy kind of stuff +now called everlasting, and anciently worn by serjeants +and other city officers" (Gifford). + +PERSPECTIVE, a view, scene or scenery; an optical device +which gave a distortion to the picture unless seen from a +particular point; a relief, modelled to produce an +optical illusion. + +PERSPICIL, optic glass. + +PERSTRINGE, criticise, censure. + +PERSUADE, inculcate, commend. + +PERSWAY, mitigate. + +PERTINACY, pertinacity. + +PESTLING, pounding, pulverising, like a pestle. + +PETASUS, broad-brimmed hat or winged cap worn by Mercury. + +PETITIONARY, supplicatory. + +PETRONEL, a kind of carbine or light gun carried by horsemen. + +PETULANT, pert, insolent. + +PHERE. See Fere. + +PHLEGMA, watery distilled liquor (old chem. "water"). + +PHRENETIC, madman. + +PICARDIL, stiff upright collar fastened on to the coat +(Whalley). + +PICT-HATCH, disreputable quarter of London. + +PIECE, person, used for woman or girl; a gold coin +worth in Jonson's time 20s. or 22s. + +PIECES OF EIGHT, Spanish coin: piastre equal to eight +reals. + +PIED, variegated. + +PIE-POUDRES (Fr. pied-poudreux, dusty-foot), court held +at fairs to administer justice to itinerant vendors and +buyers. + +PILCHER, term of contempt; one who wore a buff or leather +jerkin, as did the serjeants of the counter; a pilferer. + +PILED, pilled, peeled, bald. + +PILL'D, polled, fleeced. + +PIMLICO, "sometimes spoken of as a person--perhaps +master of a house famous for a particular ale" (Gifford). + +PINE, afflict, distress. + +PINK, stab with a weapon; pierce or cut in scallops for +ornament. + +PINNACE, a go-between in infamous sense. + +PISMIRE, ant. + +PISTOLET, gold coin, worth about 6s. + +PITCH, height of a bird of prey's flight. + +PLAGUE, punishment, torment. + +PLAIN, lament. + +PLAIN SONG, simple melody. + +PLAISE, plaice. + +PLANET, "struck with a--," planets were supposed to +have powers of blasting or exercising secret influences. + +PLAUSIBLE, pleasing. + +PLAUSIBLY, approvingly. + +PLOT, plan. + +PLY, apply oneself to. + +POESIE, posy, motto inside a ring. + +POINT IN HIS DEVICE, exact in every particular. + +POINTS, tagged laces or cords for fastening the breeches +to the doublet. + +POINT-TRUSSER, one who trussed (tied) his master's +points (q.v.). + +POISE, weigh, balance. + +POKING-STICK, stick used for setting the plaits of ruffs. + +POLITIC, politician. + +POLITIC, judicious, prudent, political. + +POLITICIAN, plotter, intriguer. + +POLL, strip, plunder, gain by extortion. + +POMANDER, ball of perfume, worn or hung about the +person to prevent infection, or for foppery. + +POMMADO, vaulting on a horse without the aid of stirrups. + +PONTIC, sour. + +POPULAR, vulgar, of the populace. + +POPULOUS, numerous. + +PORT, gate; print of a deer's foot. + +PORT, transport. + +PORTAGUE, Portuguese gold coin, worth over 3 or 4 +pounds. + +PORTCULLIS, "--of coin," some old coins have a +portcullis stamped on their reverse (Whalley). + +PORTENT, marvel, prodigy; sinister omen. + +PORTENTOUS, prophesying evil, threatening. + +PORTER, references appear "to allude to Parsons, the king's +porter, who was...near seven feet high" (Whalley). + +POSSESS, inform, acquaint. + +POST AND PAIR, a game at cards. + +POSY, motto. (See Poesie). + +POTCH, poach. + +POULT-FOOT, club-foot. + +POUNCE, claw, talon. + +PRACTICE, intrigue, concerted plot. + +PRACTISE, plot, conspire. + +PRAGMATIC, an expert, agent. + +PRAGMATIC, officious, conceited, meddling. + +PRECEDENT, record of proceedings. + +PRECEPT, warrant, summons. + +PRECISIAN(ISM), Puritan(ism), preciseness. + +PREFER, recommend. + +PRESENCE, presence chamber. + +PRESENT(LY), immediate(ly), without delay; at the +present time; actually. + +PRESS, force into service. + +PREST, ready. + +PRETEND, assert, allege. + +PREVENT, anticipate. + +PRICE, worth, excellence. + +PRICK, point, dot used in the writing of Hebrew and +other languages. + +PRICK, prick out, mark off, select; trace, track; +"--away," make off with speed. + +PRIMERO, game of cards. + +PRINCOX, pert boy. + +PRINT, "in--," to the letter, exactly. + +PRISTINATE, former. + +PRIVATE, private interests. + +PRIVATE, privy, intimate. + +PROCLIVE, prone to. + +PRODIGIOUS, monstrous, unnatural. + +PRODIGY, monster. + +PRODUCED, prolonged. + +PROFESS, pretend. + +PROJECTION, the throwing of the "powder of projection" +into the crucible to turn the melted metal into gold or +silver. + +PROLATE, pronounce drawlingly. + +PROPER, of good appearance, handsome; own, particular. + +PROPERTIES, stage necessaries. + +PROPERTY, duty; tool. + +PRORUMPED, burst out. + +PROTEST, vow, proclaim (an affected word of that time); +formally declare non-payment, etc., of bill of exchange; +fig. failure of personal credit, etc. + +PROVANT, soldier's allowance--hence, of common make. + +PROVIDE, foresee. + +PROVIDENCE, foresight, prudence. + +PUBLICATION, making a thing public of common property (N.E.D.). + +PUCKFIST, puff-ball; insipid, insignificant, boasting fellow. + +PUFF-WING, shoulder puff. + +PUISNE, judge of inferior rank, a junior. + +PULCHRITUDE, beauty. + +PUMP, shoe. + +PUNGENT, piercing. + +PUNTO, point, hit. + +PURCEPT, precept, warrant. + +PURE, fine, capital, excellent. + +PURELY, perfectly, utterly. + +PURL, pleat or fold of a ruff. + +PURSE-NET, net of which the mouth is drawn together +with a string. + +PURSUIVANT, state messenger who summoned the persecuted +seminaries; warrant officer. + +PURSY, PURSINESS, shortwinded(ness). + +PUT, make a push, exert yourself (N.E.D.). + +PUT OFF, excuse, shift. + +PUT ON, incite, encourage; proceed with, take in hand, try. + +QUACKSALVER, quack. + +QUAINT, elegant, elaborated, ingenious, clever. + +QUAR, quarry. + +QUARRIED, seized, or fed upon, as prey. + +QUEAN, hussy, jade. + +QUEASY, hazardous, delicate. + +QUELL, kill, destroy. + +QUEST, request; inquiry. + +QUESTION, decision by force of arms. + +QUESTMAN, one appointed to make official inquiry. + +QUIB, QUIBLIN, quibble, quip. + +QUICK, the living. + +QUIDDIT, quiddity, legal subtlety. + +QUIRK, clever turn or trick. + +QUIT, requite, repay; acquit, absolve; rid; forsake, +leave. + +QUITTER-BONE, disease of horses. + +QUODLING, codling. + +QUOIT, throw like a quoit, chuck. + +QUOTE, take note, observe, write down. + +RACK, neck of mutton or pork (Halliwell). + +RAKE UP, cover over. + +RAMP, rear, as a lion, etc. + +RAPT, carry away. + +RAPT, enraptured. + +RASCAL, young or inferior deer. + +RASH, strike with a glancing oblique blow, as a +boar with its tusk. + +RATSEY, GOMALIEL, a famous highwayman. + +RAVEN, devour. + +REACH, understand. + +REAL, regal. + +REBATU, ruff, turned-down collar. + +RECTOR, RECTRESS, director, governor. + +REDARGUE, confute. + +REDUCE, bring back. + +REED, rede, counsel, advice. + +REEL, run riot. + +REFEL, refute. + +REFORMADOES, disgraced or disbanded soldiers. + +REGIMENT, government. + +REGRESSION, return. + +REGULAR ("Tale of a Tub"), regular noun (quibble) (N.E.D.). + +RELIGION, "make--of," make a point of, scruple of. + +RELISH, savour. + +REMNANT, scrap of quotation. + +REMORA, species of fish. + +RENDER, depict, exhibit, show. + +REPAIR, reinstate. + +REPETITION, recital, narration. + +REREMOUSE, bat. + +RESIANT, resident. + +RESIDENCE, sediment. + +RESOLUTION, judgment, decision. + +RESOLVE, inform; assure; prepare, make up one's mind; +dissolve; come to a decision, be convinced; relax, set +at ease. + +RESPECTIVE, worthy of respect; regardful, discriminative. + +RESPECTIVELY, with reverence. + +RESPECTLESS, regardless. + +RESPIRE, exhale; inhale. + +RESPONSIBLE, correspondent. + +REST, musket-rest. + +REST, "set up one's--," venture one's all, one's +last stake (from game of primero). + +REST, arrest. + +RESTIVE, RESTY, dull, inactive. + +RETCHLESS(NESS), reckless(ness). + +RETIRE, cause to retire. + +RETRICATO, fencing term. + +RETRIEVE, rediscovery of game once sprung. + +RETURNS, ventures sent abroad, for the safe return of +which so much money is received. + +REVERBERATE, dissolve or blend by reflected heat. + +REVERSE, REVERSO, back-handed thrust, etc., in fencing. + +REVISE, reconsider a sentence. + +RHEUM, spleen, caprice. + +RIBIBE, abusive term for an old woman. + +RID, destroy, do away with. + +RIFLING, raffling, dicing. + +RING, "cracked within the--," coins so cracked were +unfit for currency. + +RISSE, risen, rose. + +RIVELLED, wrinkled. + +ROARER, swaggerer. + +ROCHET, fish of the gurnet kind. + +ROCK, distaff. + +RODOMONTADO, braggadocio. + +ROGUE, vagrant, vagabond. + +RONDEL, "a round mark in the score of a public-house" +(Nares); roundel. + +ROOK, sharper; fool, dupe. + +ROSAKER, similar to ratsbane. + +ROSA-SOLIS, a spiced spirituous liquor. + +ROSES, rosettes. + +ROUND, "gentlemen of the--," officers of inferior rank. + +ROUND TRUNKS, trunk hose, short loose breeches reaching +almost or quite to the knees. + +ROUSE, carouse, bumper. + +ROVER, arrow used for shooting at a random mark at +uncertain distance. + +ROWLY-POWLY, roly-poly. + +RUDE, RUDENESS, unpolished, rough(ness), coarse(ness). + +RUFFLE, flaunt, swagger. + +RUG, coarse frieze. + +RUG-GOWNS, gown made of rug. + +RUSH, reference to rushes with which the floors were +then strewn. + +RUSHER, one who strewed the floor with rushes. + +RUSSET, homespun cloth of neutral or reddish-brown colour. + +SACK, loose, flowing gown. + +SADLY, seriously, with gravity. + +SAD(NESS), sober, serious(ness). + +SAFFI, bailiffs. + +ST. THOMAS A WATERINGS, place in Surrey where criminals +were executed. + +SAKER, small piece of ordnance. + +SALT, leap. + +SALT, lascivious. + +SAMPSUCHINE, sweet marjoram. + +SARABAND, a slow dance. + +SATURNALS, began December 17. + +SAUCINESS, presumption, insolence. + +SAUCY, bold, impudent, wanton. + +SAUNA (Lat.), a gesture of contempt. + +SAVOUR, perceive; gratify, please; to partake of the nature. + +SAY, sample. + +SAY, assay, try. + +SCALD, word of contempt, implying dirt and disease. + +SCALLION, shalot, small onion. + +SCANDERBAG, "name which the Turks (in allusion to +Alexander the Great) gave to the brave Castriot, chief +of Albania, with whom they had continual wars. His +romantic life had just been translated" (Gifford). + +SCAPE, escape. + +SCARAB, beetle. + +SCARTOCCIO, fold of paper, cover, cartouch, cartridge. + +SCONCE, head. + +SCOPE, aim. + +SCOT AND LOT, tax, contribution (formerly a parish +assessment). + +SCOTOMY, dizziness in the head. + +SCOUR, purge. + +SCOURSE, deal, swap. + +SCRATCHES, disease of horses. + +SCROYLE, mean, rascally fellow. + +SCRUPLE, doubt. + +SEAL, put hand to the giving up of property or rights. + +SEALED, stamped as genuine. + +SEAM-RENT, ragged. + +SEAMING LACES, insertion or edging. + +SEAR UP, close by searing, burning. + +SEARCED, sifted. + +SECRETARY, able to keep a secret. + +SECULAR, worldly, ordinary, commonplace. + +SECURE, confident. + +SEELIE, happy, blest. + +SEISIN, legal term: possession. + +SELLARY, lewd person. + +SEMBLABLY, similarly. + +SEMINARY, a Romish priest educated in a foreign seminary. + +SENSELESS, insensible, without sense or feeling. + +SENSIBLY, perceptibly. + +SENSIVE, sensitive. + +SENSUAL, pertaining to the physical or material. + +SERENE, harmful dew of evening. + +SERICON, red tincture. + +SERVANT, lover. + +SERVICES, doughty deeds of arms. + +SESTERCE, Roman copper coin. + +SET, stake, wager. + +SET UP, drill. + +SETS, deep plaits of the ruff. + +SEWER, officer who served up the feast, and brought +water for the hands of the guests. + +SHAPE, a suit by way of disguise. + +SHIFT, fraud, dodge. + +SHIFTER, cheat. + +SHITTLE, shuttle; "shittle-cock," shuttlecock. + +SHOT, tavern reckoning. + +SHOT-CLOG, one only tolerated because he paid the shot +(reckoning) for the rest. + +SHOT-FREE, scot-free, not having to pay. + +SHOVE-GROAT, low kind of gambling amusement, perhaps +somewhat of the nature of pitch and toss. + +SHOT-SHARKS, drawers. + +SHREWD, mischievous, malicious, curst. + +SHREWDLY, keenly, in a high degree. + +SHRIVE, sheriff; posts were set up before his door for +proclamations, or to indicate his residence. + +SHROVING, Shrovetide, season of merriment. + +SIGILLA, seal, mark. + +SILENCED BRETHERN, MINISTERS, those of the Church or +Nonconformists who had been silenced, deprived, etc. + +SILLY, simple, harmless. + +SIMPLE, silly, witless; plain, true. + +SIMPLES, herbs. + +SINGLE, term of chase, signifying when the hunted stag +is separated from the herd, or forced to break covert. + +SINGLE, weak, silly. + +SINGLE-MONEY, small change. + +SINGULAR, unique, supreme. + +SI-QUIS, bill, advertisement. + +SKELDRING, getting money under false pretences; swindling. + +SKILL, "it--s not," matters not. + +SKINK(ER), pour, draw(er), tapster. + +SKIRT, tail. + +SLEEK, smooth. + +SLICE, fire shovel or pan (dial.). + +SLICK, sleek, smooth. + +'SLID, 'SLIGHT, 'SPRECIOUS, irreverent oaths. + +SLIGHT, sleight, cunning, cleverness; trick. + +SLIP, counterfeit coin, bastard. + +SLIPPERY, polished and shining. + +SLOPS, large loose breeches. + +SLOT, print of a stag's foot. + +SLUR, put a slur on; cheat (by sliding a die in some way). + +SMELT, gull, simpleton. + +SNORLE, "perhaps snarl, as Puppy is addressed" (Cunningham). + +SNOTTERIE, filth. + +SNUFF, anger, resentment; "take in--," take offence at. + +SNUFFERS, small open silver dishes for holding snuff, +or receptacle for placing snuffers in (Halliwell). + +SOCK, shoe worn by comic actors. + +SOD, seethe. + +SOGGY, soaked, sodden. + +SOIL, "take--," said of a hunted stag when he takes +to the water for safety. + +SOL, sou. + +SOLDADOES, soldiers. + +SOLICIT, rouse, excite to action. + +SOOTH, flattery, cajolery. + +SOOTHE, flatter, humour. + +SOPHISTICATE, adulterate. + +SORT, company, party; rank, degree. + +SORT, suit, fit; select. + +SOUSE, ear. + +SOUSED ("Devil is an Ass"), fol. read "sou't," which +Dyce interprets as "a variety of the spelling of "shu'd": +to "shu" is to scare a bird away." (See his "Webster," +page 350). + +SOWTER, cobbler. + +SPAGYRICA, chemistry according to the teachings of Paracelsus. + +SPAR, bar. + +SPEAK, make known, proclaim. + +SPECULATION, power of sight. + +SPED, to have fared well, prospered. + +SPEECE, species. + +SPIGHT, anger, rancour. + +SPINNER, spider. + +SPINSTRY, lewd person. + +SPITTLE, hospital, lazar-house. + +SPLEEN, considered the seat of the emotions. + +SPLEEN, caprice, humour, mood. + +SPRUNT, spruce. + +SPURGE, foam. + +SPUR-RYAL, gold coin worth 15s. + +SQUIRE, square, measure; "by the--," exactly. + +STAGGERING, wavering, hesitating. + +STAIN, disparagement, disgrace. + +STALE, decoy, or cover, stalking-horse. + +STALE, make cheap, common. + +STALK, approach stealthily or under cover. + +STALL, forestall. + +STANDARD, suit. + +STAPLE, market, emporium. + +STARK, downright. + +STARTING-HOLES, loopholes of escape. + +STATE, dignity; canopied chair of state; estate. + +STATUMINATE, support vines by poles or stakes; used +by Pliny (Gifford). + +STAY, gag. + +STAY, await; detain. + +STICKLER, second or umpire. + +STIGMATISE, mark, brand. + +STILL, continual(ly), constant(ly). + +STINKARD, stinking fellow. + +STINT, stop. + +STIPTIC, astringent. + +STOCCATA, thrust in fencing. + +STOCK-FISH, salted and dried fish. + +STOMACH, pride, valour. + +STOMACH, resent. + +STOOP, swoop down as a hawk. + +STOP, fill, stuff. + +STOPPLE, stopper. + +STOTE, stoat, weasel. + +STOUP, stoop, swoop=bow. + +STRAIGHT, straightway. + +STRAMAZOUN (Ital. stramazzone), a down blow, as opposed +to the thrust. + +STRANGE, like a stranger, unfamiliar. + +STRANGENESS, distance of behaviour. + +STREIGHTS, OR BERMUDAS, labyrinth of alleys and courts +in the Strand. + +STRIGONIUM, Grau in Hungary, taken from the Turks in +1597. + +STRIKE, balance (accounts). + +STRINGHALT, disease of horses. + +STROKER, smoother, flatterer. + +STROOK, p.p. of "strike." + +STRUMMEL-PATCHED, strummel is glossed in dialect dicts. +as "a long, loose and dishevelled head of hair." + +STUDIES, studious efforts. + +STYLE, title; pointed instrument used for writing on wax +tablets. + +SUBTLE, fine, delicate, thin; smooth, soft. + +SUBTLETY (SUBTILITY), subtle device. + +SUBURB, connected with loose living. + +SUCCUBAE, demons in form of women. + +SUCK, extract money from. + +SUFFERANCE, suffering. + +SUMMED, term of falconry: with full-grown plumage. + +SUPER-NEGULUM, topers turned the cup bottom up when +it was empty. + +SUPERSTITIOUS, over-scrupulous. + +SUPPLE, to make pliant. + +SURBATE, make sore with walking. + +SURCEASE, cease. + +SUR-REVERENCE, save your reverence. + +SURVISE, peruse. + +SUSCITABILITY, excitability. + +SUSPECT, suspicion. + +SUSPEND, suspect. + +SUSPENDED, held over for the present. + +SUTLER, victualler. + +SWAD, clown, boor. + +SWATH BANDS, swaddling clothes. + +SWINGE, beat. + +TABERD, emblazoned mantle or tunic worn by knights +and heralds. + +TABLE(S), "pair of--," tablets, note-book. + +TABOR, small drum. + +TABRET, tabor. + +TAFFETA, silk; "tuft-taffeta," a more costly silken fabric. + +TAINT, "--a staff," break a lance at tilting in an +unscientific or dishonourable manner. + +TAKE IN, capture, subdue. + +TAKE ME WITH YOU, let me understand you. + +TAKE UP, obtain on credit, borrow. + +TALENT, sum or weight of Greek currency. + +TALL, stout, brave. + +TANKARD-BEARERS, men employed to fetch water from the +conduits. + +TARLETON, celebrated comedian and jester. + +TARTAROUS, like a Tartar. + +TAVERN-TOKEN, "to swallow a--," get drunk. + +TELL, count. + +TELL-TROTH, truth-teller. + +TEMPER, modify, soften. + +TENDER, show regard, care for, cherish; manifest. + +TENT, "take--," take heed. + +TERSE, swept and polished. + +TERTIA, "that portion of an army levied out of one +particular district or division of a country" (Gifford). + +TESTON, tester, coin worth 6d. + +THIRDBOROUGH, constable. + +THREAD, quality. + +THREAVES, droves. + +THREE-FARTHINGS, piece of silver current under Elizabeth. + +THREE-PILED, of finest quality, exaggerated. + +THRIFTILY, carefully. + +THRUMS, ends of the weaver's warp; coarse yarn made from. + +THUMB-RING, familiar spirits were supposed capable of +being carried about in various ornaments or parts of dress. + +TIBICINE, player on the tibia, or pipe. + +TICK-TACK, game similar to backgammon. + +TIGHTLY, promptly. + +TIM, (?) expressive of a climax of nonentity. + +TIMELESS, untimely, unseasonable. + +TINCTURE, an essential or spiritual principle supposed +by alchemists to be transfusible into material things; +an imparted characteristic or tendency. + +TINK, tinkle. + +TIPPET, "turn--," change behaviour or way of life. + +TIPSTAFF, staff tipped with metal. + +TIRE, head-dress. + +TIRE, feed ravenously, like a bird of prey. + +TITILLATION, that which tickles the senses, as a perfume. + +TOD, fox. + +TOILED, worn out, harassed. + +TOKEN, piece of base metal used in place of very small +coin, when this was scarce. + +TONNELS, nostrils. + +TOP, "parish--," large top kept in villages for +amusement and exercise in frosty weather when people +were out of work. + +TOTER, tooter, player on a wind instrument. + +TOUSE, pull, rend. + +TOWARD, docile, apt; on the way to; as regards; present, +at hand. + +TOY, whim; trick; term of contempt. + +TRACT, attraction. + +TRAIN, allure, entice. + +TRANSITORY, transmittable. + +TRANSLATE, transform. + +TRAY-TRIP, game at dice (success depended on throwing +a three) (Nares). + +TREACHOUR (TRECHER), traitor. + +TREEN, wooden. + +TRENCHER, serving-man who carved or served food. + +TRENDLE-TAIL, trundle-tail, curly-tailed. + +TRICK (TRICKING), term of heraldry: to draw outline of +coat of arms, etc., without blazoning. + +TRIG, a spruce, dandified man. + +TRILL, trickle. + +TRILLIBUB, tripe, any worthless, trifling thing. + +TRIPOLY, "come from--," able to perform feats of agility, +a "jest nominal," depending on the first part of the word +(Gifford). + +TRITE, worn, shabby. + +TRIVIA, three-faced goddess (Hecate). + +TROJAN, familiar term for an equal or inferior; thief. + +TROLL, sing loudly. + +TROMP, trump, deceive. + +TROPE, figure of speech. + +TROW, think, believe, wonder. + +TROWLE, troll. + +TROWSES, breeches, drawers. + +TRUCHMAN, interpreter. + +TRUNDLE, JOHN, well-known printer. + +TRUNDLE, roll, go rolling along. + +TRUNDLING CHEATS, term among gipsies and beggars for +carts or coaches (Gifford). + +TRUNK, speaking-tube. + +TRUSS, tie the tagged laces that fastened the breeches +to the doublet. + +TUBICINE, trumpeter. + +TUCKET (Ital. toccato), introductory flourish on the +trumpet. + +TUITION, guardianship. + +TUMBLER, a particular kind of dog so called from the +mode of his hunting. + +TUMBREL-SLOP, loose, baggy breeches. + +TURD, excrement. + +TUSK, gnash the teeth (Century Dict.). + +TWIRE, peep, twinkle. + +TWOPENNY ROOM, gallery. + +TYRING-HOUSE, attiring-room. + +ULENSPIEGEL. See Howleglass. + +UMBRATILE, like or pertaining to a shadow. + +UMBRE, brown dye. + +UNBATED, unabated. + +UNBORED, (?) excessively bored. + +UNCARNATE, not fleshly, or of flesh. + +UNCOUTH, strange, unusual. + +UNDERTAKER, "one who undertook by his influence in the +House of Commons to carry things agreeably to his +Majesty's wishes" (Whalley); one who becomes surety for. + +UNEQUAL, unjust. + +UNEXCEPTED, no objection taken at. + +UNFEARED, unaffrighted. + +UNHAPPILY, unfortunately. + +UNICORN'S HORN, supposed antidote to poison. + +UNKIND(LY), unnatural(ly). + +UNMANNED, untamed (term in falconry). + +UNQUIT, undischarged. + +UNREADY, undressed. + +UNRUDE, rude to an extreme. + +UNSEASONED, unseasonable, unripe. + +UNSEELED, a hawk's eyes were "seeled" by sewing the +eyelids together with fine thread. + +UNTIMELY, unseasonably. + +UNVALUABLE, invaluable. + +UPBRAID, make a matter of reproach. + +UPSEE, heavy kind of Dutch beer (Halliwell); "--Dutch," +in the Dutch fashion. + +UPTAILS ALL, refrain of a popular song. + +URGE, allege as accomplice, instigator. + +URSHIN, URCHIN, hedgehog. + +USE, interest on money; part of sermon dealing with the +practical application of doctrine. + +USE, be in the habit of, accustomed to; put out to interest. + +USQUEBAUGH, whisky. + +USURE, usury. + +UTTER, put in circulation, make to pass current; put forth for sale. + +VAIL, bow, do homage. + +VAILS, tips, gratuities. + +VALL. See Vail. + +VALLIES (Fr. valise), portmanteau, bag. + +VAPOUR(S) (n. and v.), used affectedly, like "humour," +in many senses, often very vaguely and freely ridiculed +by Jonson; humour, disposition, whims, brag(ging), +hector(ing), etc. + +VARLET, bailiff, or serjeant-at-mace. + +VAUT, vault. + +VEER (naut.), pay out. + +VEGETAL, vegetable; person full of life and vigour. + +VELLUTE, velvet. + +VELVET CUSTARD. Cf. "Taming of the Shrew," iv. 3, 82, +"custard coffin," coffin being the raised crust over a pie. + +VENT, vend, sell; give outlet to; scent, snuff up. + +VENUE, bout (fencing term). + +VERDUGO (Span.), hangman, executioner. + +VERGE, "in the--," within a certain distance of the court. + +VEX, agitate, torment. + +VICE, the buffoon of old moralities; some kind of +machinery for moving a puppet (Gifford). + +VIE AND REVIE, to hazard a certain sum, and to cover +it with a larger one. + +VINCENT AGAINST YORK, two heralds-at-arms. + +VINDICATE, avenge. + +VIRGE, wand, rod. + +VIRGINAL, old form of piano. + +VIRTUE, valour. + +VIVELY, in lifelike manner, livelily. + +VIZARD, mask. + +VOGUE, rumour, gossip. + +VOICE, vote. + +VOID, leave, quit. + +VOLARY, cage, aviary. + +VOLLEY, "at--," "o' the volee," at random (from a +term of tennis). + +VORLOFFE, furlough. + +WADLOE, keeper of the Devil Tavern, where Jonson and his +friends met in the 'Apollo' room (Whalley). + +WAIGHTS, waits, night musicians, "band of musical +watchmen" (Webster), or old form of "hautboys." + +WANNION, "vengeance," "plague" (Nares). + +WARD, a famous pirate. + +WARD, guard in fencing. + +WATCHET, pale, sky blue. + +WEAL, welfare. + +WEED, garment. + +WEFT, waif. + +WEIGHTS, "to the gold--," to every minute particular. + +WELKIN, sky. + +WELL-SPOKEN, of fair speech. + +WELL-TORNED, turned and polished, as on a wheel. + +WELT, hem, border of fur. + +WHER, whether. + +WHETSTONE, GEORGE, an author who lived 1544(?) to 1587(?). + +WHIFF, a smoke, or drink; "taking the--," inhaling the +tobacco smoke or some such accomplishment. + +WHIGH-HIES, neighings, whinnyings. + +WHIMSY, whim, "humour." + +WHINILING, (?) whining, weakly. + +WHIT, (?) a mere jot. + +WHITEMEAT, food made of milk or eggs. + +WICKED, bad, clumsy. + +WICKER, pliant, agile. + +WILDING, esp. fruit of wild apple or crab tree (Webster). + +WINE, "I have the--for you," Prov.: I have the +perquisites (of the office) which you are to share +(Cunningham). + +WINNY, "same as old word "wonne," to stay, etc." (Whalley). + +WISE-WOMAN, fortune-teller. + +WISH, recommend. + +WISS (WUSSE), "I--," certainly, of a truth. + +WITHOUT, beyond. + +WITTY, cunning, ingenious, clever. + +WOOD, collection, lot. + +WOODCOCK, term of contempt. + +WOOLSACK ("--pies"), name of tavern. + +WORT, unfermented beer. + +WOUNDY, great, extreme. + +WREAK, revenge. + +WROUGHT, wrought upon. + +WUSSE, interjection. (See Wiss). + +YEANLING, lamb, kid. + +ZANY, an inferior clown, who attended upon the chief +fool and mimicked his tricks. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Man In His Humor, by Ben Jonson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR *** + +This file should be named emihh10a.txt or emihh10a.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, emihh11a.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, emihh10b.txt + +This Project Gutenberg Etext Prepared Down Under In Australia by: +Amy E Zelmer <amy@zelmeroz.com> +Sue Asscher <asschers@bigpond.com> +In connivance with their Californian co-conspirator +Robert Prince <rkp277@msn.com> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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