Jonson satirized the belief in the predictions of almanacs in Every Man Out (Wks. 2. 39-41) and The Alchemist (Wks. 4. 41). For an idea of the extent which the publishing of almanacs reached at one time, see the article, Almanacs for the Ensuing Year, in The Book of Days 2.715.

4. 2. 31.

And choose your Mistris

By the good dayes, and leave her by the bad? Brand (2. 44-51) discusses Days Lucky or Unlucky, from which the following extract is taken : Bourne (chap. XVIII), speaking of that superstitious custom among the heathens of observing one day as good, and another as bad, observes: "that among these were lucky and unlucky days; some were Dies atri, and some Dies albi. The Atri were pointed out in their calendar with a black character, the Albi with a white; the former to denote a day of bad success, the latter a day of good. Thus have the monks, in the dark and unlearned ages of Popery, copy'd after the heathens, and dream'd themselves into the like superstitions, esteeming one day more successful than another." . . . Thomas Lodge, in his Incarnate Devils, 1596, p. 12, glances as follows at the superstitious observer of lucky and unlucky times: "He will not eat his dinner before he hath lookt in his almanacke." Mason, in the Anatomie of Sorcerie, 1612, p. 85, enumerates among the superstitious of that age, "Regarders of times, as they are which will have one time more lucky than another to be borne at one hower more unfortunate than at another: to take a journey or any other enterprize in hand, to be more dangerous or prosperous at one time than another: as likewise, if such a festivall day fall upon such a day of the weeke, or such like, we shall have such a yeare following: and many other such like vaine speculations, set downe by our astrologians, having neither footing on God's word, nor yet natural reason to support them; but being grounded onely upon the superstitious imagination of man's braine."'

4. 2. 34.

Allestree. 'A Richard Allestry, of Derby was the author of several almanacs, ranging from 1624 to 1643.'-DNB.

4. 2. 38. Another manner of peice. For this use of piece as an individual, see Bartholomew Fair (Wks. 4. 368): ́ Gentlemen, you do not know him; he is another manner of piece than you think for: but nineteen years old, and yet he is taller than either of you by the head, God bless him!'

4.2. 39. sub sigillo. Under the seal (of professional secrecy).

4. 2. 46. a Bencher, and now double Reader. See the Glossary, s. v. Bencher. "In those days," says Sir W. Dugdale, (i. e. when readings in the Inns of Court were kept up with some degree of solemnity,) "in those days men came to be single readers at fifteen or sixteen years standing in the House and read double about seven years afterwards. Orig. Jur., p. 209. Again: "By the antient orders of the House, (Middle Temple,) now disused, he is in turn to read again, and then is called a double reader."'—G.

4.2. 56. A knitting Cup. The drinking of wine at marriages was considered necessary. Compleat Vintner (1720), quoted by Brand :

What priest can join two lovers' hands,
But wine must seal the marriage-bands?
As if celestial wine was thought
Essential to the sacred knot,

And that each bridegroom and his bride
Believ'd they were not firmly ty'd
Till Bacchus, with his bleeding tun,
Had finished what the priest begun.

The New Inn (Wks. 5. 404):

Lord B. Get our bed ready, chamberlain,
And host, a bride-cup.

See the account of this custom in Brand, Pop. Antiq. 2. 136-9. 4.3.3. a crack'd commoditie. Damaged goods; fig. A marriageable girl who has proved of blemished moral character.

4. 3. 4. broke bulke. Punning on the meaning of bulke: I. 'a cargo of a ship; the whole lot' (of a commodity); and 2. ' the belly.' Cf. Heywood, The Iron Age 2. 3. 1 (Wks. 1874, 3. 392): 'My sword through Priams bulke shall flie.'-NED.

4. 3. 10. To make a Musse. A muss means a scramble. According to Halliwell, there was a scrambling game amongst children so called. Brand discusses this (Pop. Ant. 2. 429): 'In Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, act 1, sc. II, the ancient puerile sport called muss is thus mentioned:

Ant. "When I cry'd, ho!

Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth,
And cry, your will?

Jonson used the term in Bartholomew Fair (Wks. 4. 446):

Cokes. Ods so! a muss, a muss, a muss, a muss!

(Falls a scrambling for the pears.

4.3. 13. For the metre, see note on 3. 4. 64.

The injury is done you, | and by | him only;
Infamous, quasi, in communem famam :

4. 3. 24.

And Matrimony, quasi, matter of Money. 'This is not one of the worst of those idle conundrums, which were once so much in vogue. Even the grave Camden did not disdain to unbend with them; first taking care, however, to sanction his practice by the laudable example of one Dionysius, like himself, perhaps, a schoolmaster, who “merrily" called mice-holes mysteria, μυστηρια, ότι τους μας τηρει.-G. For another example of this sort of thing, see The New Inn (Wks. 5.336):

Tip. Thou hast good learning in thee: macte, Fly.
Fly. And I say macte to my colonel.

Host. Well macted of them both.

Lord B. They are match'd, i faith.
Tip. But, Fly, why macte?

Fly. Quasi magis aucte.'

Don,

4. 3. 33. Don Bias ? See the Glossary, s. v. Don. the Spanish "Master" or "Mister," was often used in a depreciatory manner, influenced by the inimical feeling between the nations, which has been influential in making the stereotyped dark stage villain. Dekker, in The Deuills Answer to Pierce Pennylesse, Wks. I. 90, 93, refers to Don Lucifer, Don Pluto, Don Beelzebub. In his Lanthorne and Candle-Light, 3. 205, Don Lucifer and others occur. Spanish

words, in the last half of the sixteenth century, had crept into English, especially in the vocabulary of war. Wheatley, Every Man In, says that in R. Barret's Theorike and Practike of Modern Warres (1598) a third of the words are Spanish.'Henry, note on The Silent Woman 5. 1. 95.

The use of a term with two meanings, one complimentary, the other derogatory, is in keeping with the ambiguity of many of Compass' remarks to Practise, Bias, and Silkworm; under the form of deference and compliment he expresses a veiled contempt. See 3. 5. 52, and note. 4. 3. 39.

'Slid. See the Glossary.

4.3.49. the Court Complement? The elaborate formality of court life, combined with coldness, selfishness, vice, and frivolity, made the courtier the subject of some of Jonson's strongest satire. See Every Man Out, Cynthia's Revels, and The Poetaster.

4.4.7. A Viper, that hast eat a passage through me. In Brand's Pop. Antiq. (3. 379) there is a reference to the vulgar belief that young vipers destroy the old females when they come to the birth, and strike the male dead at the instant of their conception.' Cf. also Pericles 1. 1. 64:

I am no viper, yet I feed

On mothers's flesh which did me breed.

4.4. 16. Thou bird of night. Polish, in her anger, compares Nurse Keep to an owl or a raven. Both of these were considered birds of ill-omen; see Brand's Pop. Antiq. 3. 206—12.

4. 4. 25. the She-man-Divell in puff'd sleeves. Women as well as men wore huge sleeves. For a true idea of the extravagance of dress at that time, one should see illustrations: on page 1 of Stephen Gosson's Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen there is one showing puffed sleeves and hooped skirts; there are also excellent illustrations in Stubbes, pp. 21, 23, and 24. He considers the variety of sleeves worn entirely too great (pp. 74ff.). On p. 73 of Stubbes there is a paragraph which throws light on the expression, she-man-devil: The Women also there haue dublets & Ierkins, as men haue heer, buttoned up the brest, and made with wings,

welts, and pinions on the shoulder points, as mans apparel is for all the world; & though this be a kinde of attire appropriate onely to man, yet they blush not to wear it; and if they could as wel chaunge their sex, & put on the kinde of man, as they can weare apparel assigned onely to man, I think they would as verely become men indeed, as now they degenerat from godly, sober women, in wearing this wanton lewd kinde of attire, proper onely to man... Wherefore these Women may not improperly be called Hermaphroditi, that is, Monsters of both kindes, half women, half men.' For further information on the costume of the period, see Stubbes, Anat. Abus. chap. 4; Gosson, Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen; Planché, Cyclopædia of Costume; and Fairholt, Costume in England.

4. 4. 39. The Practice of Piety. This was a work by Lewis Bayly, Bishop of Bangor. It attained extraordinary popularity in Puritan circles. Its aim was to direct a Chriatian how he may please God. The date of its first publication is not known; but in 1613 it had reached its third, and in 1792 its seventy-first edition. It was translated into French, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish, Welsh, Hungarian, and Polish. In 1665 John Eliot translated it into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. In popularity it rivaled The Whole Duty of Man. 'It was part of the scanty portion that Bunyan's wife brought to her husband's home, and to its perusal he ascribes the first dawn of his fervid spiritual experiences.'-DNB., and Bibl. Amer., Vol. I.

4. 4. 40. a practice of impiety. An impious plot or scheme. See the Glossary, s. v. Practise.

4. 4. 48. Conjur'd a spirit up I sha' not lay againe ? The New Inn (Wks. 5. 371-2):

Beware you do not conjure up a spirit
You cannot lay.

Cf.

4. 4. 51. pray of. In Early English of is used for from, out of, off, as in "He lighted of his steed, arose of the dead." "The leaves fall of the tree" (Abbott, § 165).

N