And hand | e ling | of me | which hath | been faire too R and I after a consonant introduce an additional syllable. An extra syllable is frequently added before a pause, especially at the end of a line. In Jonson this extra syllable is often a monosyllable; cf. Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, § 477 and 455. But (being away)

I. I. 40.

You' are sure to have lesse-wit-worke, gentle brother.

Since my humor is as stubborn and unmanageable as the rest, if I stay away you will have less occasion for exerting your wits to draw the guests to a sufferance of themselves till the dissolution of the dinner.

I. I. 43.

You doe mistake

My Caract of your friendship.

See the Glossary, s. v. Caract. Cf. Shaks. 2 Hen. IV 4. 5. 162: Thou best of Gold, art worst of Gold, Other, lesse fine of Charract, is more precious'; also Jonson, Every Man In 3. 3. 22: No beautie, no; you are of too good caract, To be left so, without a guard.'-Ned.

I. I. 47.

your Foxe, there,

Unkenneld with a Cholerick, ghastly aspect.

Your sword there, unsheathed with an angry, fear-inspiring aspect.

I. I. 61. 'In some words the accent is nearer the beginning than with us' (Abbott, § 492).

But, Brother, could | I over in | treat you

1. 1. 64. A sliding reprehension. A brief reprehension, as in passing.

1. I. 67. o' the by. Incidentally, without much effort on my part.

I. 1. 69–72. universall-acts. This is Aristotelian philosophy. In opposition to Plato, who held that ideas or universals exist by themselves, above and apart from individual beings, Aristotle taught that reality subsists in individuals, and that universals exist only as real predicates of individual substances. This doctrine is found in the Categories, and

especially in the Metaphysics. See Aristotle, Wks., tr. Smith and Ross; Vol. 8. Metaphysica: and article on Aristotle in Encycl. Brit.

I. I. 80. It is difficult to scan this line execpt as an Alexandrine.

I. I. 81. I unaccented in a polysyllable may be dropped (Abbott, § 467).

They have now pow | er save | with dull | Grammar(i) ans

I. I. 87. I dare assure you, hee's our Parish Pope! Cf. Chaucer (ed. Skeat 4. 8. 261–2):

But he was lyk a maister or a pope,
Of double worsted was his semi-cope.

By accenting the first syllable of betimes, the verse may be made regular (Abbott, § 492).

That wee | may goe | to din | ner be | times Parson :

I. 2. II. a strange put-off! This is a strange way of putting off or dismissing the doctor.

1. 2. 12. You use him most surreverently. Surreverence is an abbreviated form of save-reverence, which became sa'reverence, sirreverence, or sur-reverence. Nares defines it as

' a kind of apologetical apostrophe, when anything is said that might be thought filthy or indecent.' The examples cited in Nares and NED. show that the expression implies only a mock reverence or respect for the person of rank spoken of or to the connotation is generally contemptuous or disrespectful. See Massinger's A Very Woman 2.3: 'The beastliest man- . . . . . (Sir-reverence of the company)— a rank whore-master'; G. Harvey's Pierce's Super. Wks., Grosart, 2. 270: 'They neither feare Goodman Sathan,... nor Sir Reverence, nor milord Governement himselfe.'-NED.

1.2. 22. hee hath first his blacks. The parson saw to it that the kindred should all be properly supplied with clothing that was worn as a sign of mourning. The antiquity of the

custom of wearing black in mourning at funerals is discussed in Brand's Popular Antiquities 2. 281-4.

I. 2. 23. Thus holds hee weddings up, and burials, As his maine tithing. Thus he maintains weddings and burials as his chief source of income. A tithe or tenth of the parishioner's income he was considered to owe to the maintenance of the church.

1.2.27-8. In... can. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue (ed. Skeat 371-2):

Everich, for the wisdom that he can,
Was shaply for to been an alderman.

I. 2. 28. of the Ward-mote Quest, he better can,
The mysterie, then the Levitick Law.

He better understands the workings of the court which was held in each ward of the city than he does the collections of ritual laws found in the book of Leviticus. Quest, according to Nares, is a popular abbreviation of inquest. He quotes Mir. for Mag., p. 390:

And covertly within the Tower they calde

A quest, to give such verdit as they should.

That the expression Ward-mote Quest means, the court that was held in the wards of the city is shown a passage in the play of Wisdom (E.E.T. 1904, p. 59) in which Wrong, Slight, Doubleness, Falsehood, Ravine, and Deceit make up the Holborn Quest. Also in Bullen's edition of Arden of Feversham, Introduction, p. 5, he refers to the Faversham Wardmote Book. For can, see Glossary. This comes from the OE. preterite-present verb, cunnan,' to know': its use as here employed, was common in ME.; see Chaucer's Friar, Prologue 210-11: In all the ordres foure is noon that can So much of daliaunce and fair langage.

See also note on 1. 2. 27.

I. 2. 30. That peece of Clark-ship. That individual who partakes to some extent of the character of a scholar. NED. cites Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 19: 'If I had not beene a peece of a Logician before I came to him.'

I. 2. 31.

a fine

Well furnish'd, and apparaled Divine.

Ballman has noted the resemblance between Parson Palate and Chaucer's Friar; see his Chaucer's Einfluss auf das Englische Drama 2. 24-6. The prevalence of worldly pastors is accounted for by Stubbes in The Anatomy of Abuses (2. 2.73) as due to the failure of the best men to get preferment: 'But alas those that are learned indeed, they are not sought for nor promoted, but the unlearned for the most part, somtimes by friendship, somtime by mony (for they pay wel their orders, I heare say) and somtimes by gifts (I dare not say bribes) are intruded. This maketh many a good schoolar to languish, and discourageth not a fewe from goyng to their bookes.' In Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1. 373), the same conditions are described: Rich men keep these Lectures, and fawning Parasites, like so many dogs, at their tables. These are those Clerks which serve the turn, whom they commonly entertain, and present to Church Livings, whilst in the mean time we that are University men, like so many hidebound calves in a pasture, tarry out our time.' This condition had existed as far back as the time of Chaucer. the character of the Clerk in the Prologue 291-2:

For he had geten him yet no benefyce,
Ne was so worldly for to have offyce.

1. 2. 32. Ed final may be sonant (Abbott § 474).
Well furnish'd, and | appar | aled | Divine

I. 2. 33. For metre, see note on I. I. 81.

See

Who made this Épi | gramme, you? | No, á | great Clarke a great Clarke

I. 2. 33.

As any' is of his bulke. (Ben: Ionson.)

'Jonson's corpulence was in some measure the effect of disease; for he was of a dropsical habit of body. In the Chorus to the third act of this play, he is called "an overgrown and superannuated poet."'-G. Jonson had been thin enough at one time. In the Satiromastix (1602) one of the

reproaches against him is, "Horace was a goodly corpulent gentleman, and not so leane a hollow-cheekt Scrag as thou art." -C.

For other of Jonson's references to his corpulence, see My Picture left in Scotland (Wks. 8. 312), and The Poet to the Painter (Wks. 8. 425).

The humor of the passage is reenforced by the pun suggested by the term bulke, which has, in addition to its present meaning, the obsolete one, the belly.'

1. 2. 38. Rut is a young Physician. Ballman has noted the resemblance between Rut and Chaucer's Physician. See Chaucer's Einfluss 2. 25.

I. 2. 39. That, letting God alone, ascribes to nature
More then her share.

Cf. Chaucer, Prologue 438:

I. 2. 42. 441-44:

His studie was but litel on the Bible.

The slave of money. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue

And yet he was but esy of dispence;
He kepte that he wan in pestilence.
For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special.

I. 2. 42. a Buffon in manners. Buffon is an obsolete form of buffoon. It means 'a man whose profession is to make sport by low jests and antic postures; a comic actor, or clown.' Jonson had already used the Italian form of the wood (buffone) as a proper name: see Carlo Buffone, in Every Man Out.

I. 2. 45. Is any thing but civill, or a man. Cf. Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses 2. 52-5. Here we are informed that physicians would work only for money, that there were many ill taught doctors, and that any ignorant could set up as a surgeon or physician. Many of these were unprincipled in the treatment of their patients. In Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters, pub. 1614 (Morley's Character Writing of the Seventeenth Century, p. 83), the character of A Quack-Salver is similar in many respects to that of Dr. Rut, as described here and represented in the rest of the play.