either crossways or perpendicularly by curtains into two scenes. Here the division was perpendicular. There are no written stage directions in either the quarto or the folios.' Dr. Nicholson's idea seems to be that Lupus and his companions were on the stage and visible to the audience during this colloquy. This may have been the case, but it is more probable that they are concealed from view, being either on the small inner stage which was covered by a transverse curtain, or in the tiring house. Quarto has 'periwig.' 5. 3. 32. Perruke. Perukes in Rome! According to Planché, perukes are mentioned in the time of Edward VI. By the end of the 16th century they were in the height of fashion, and worn by both sexes. These artificial head-coverings were worn especially by actors: cf. Hall, Virgidemiarum 3. sat. 5; Hamlet 3. 2. 10; also Every Woman in her Humour 1. 1, Hostess loq.: [As though] no [one wore] Perywigges but Players and Pictures. 5. 3. 43. Grand-fathers. Cf. Nares: ""Out! he's a villain to prophecy of the loss of my chain. 'Twas worth above three hundred crowns. Besides 'twas my father's, my father's father's, my grandfather's huge grandfather's: I had as lief have lost my neck, as the chain that hung about it. O my chain, my chain." The Puritan, Act iii, Suppl. to Sh., ii, 576.' 5. 3. 54. Begge their land. This is an allusion to the shameful practice known as begging. When a man could be shown to have 'concealed' lands formerly possessed by the Church, but afterwards made confiscate to the crown; when some one's chance utterance could be twisted into a semblance of treason; when an heir went mad; when a murder was committed in a house,-the informers or the cunning courtiers fought one another for a share of the property in such cases forfeit to the crown, and by it to be again bestowed. Cf. Strype (Annals of Elizabeth 2. 209): 'This year (viz. 1572), a command from the queen went forth for the withdrawing the commissions for concealments, from all to whom she has granted them, which gave a great quieting to her subjects, who were excessively plagued with these commissions. When monasteries were dissolved, and the lands thereof, and afterwards colleges, chantries and fraternities were all given to the crown, some demeans here and there pertaining thereunto were still privily retained, and possessed by certain private persons or corporations or churches. This caused the queen when she understood it to grant commissions to some persons to search after these concealments, and to retrieve them to the crown; but it was a world to consider what unjust oppressions of the people and the poor this occasioned by some griping men that were concerned therein.' Cf. Epicoene 2. 1, Morose loq.: 'Good sir, have I ever cozened any friends of yours of their land? bought their possessions? taken forfeit of their mortgage? begged a reversion from them? bastarded their issue?' 5. 3. 59. Embleme. The author of Ben Jonson's Quarrel with Shakespeare (North British Review 52 p. 397) suggests that the episode of the emblem and Aesop (5. 3. 117) alludes to some sort of information lodged against Jonson by an enemy, probably when he was in prison after the killing of Spencer. Achates. 5. 3. 121. Achates. Cf. Aeneid 1. 188: Fidus 5. 3. 125. Bay-leafe. The bay was sacred to Apollo; hence, perhaps, the notion of the ancients, that a bay-leaf placed under the tongue was conducive to eloquence.' (G.) Cf. Juvenal, Sat. 7. 18-19: Nectit quicumque canoris Eloquium vocale modis laurumque momordit. 5. 3. 126. A monopoly of playing. During the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, the word monopoly stirred English blood deeply. In 1597 the Commons addressed the Queen upon the abuse of monopolies, but failed to get any satisfaction. The storm gathered until 1601, when, after a four-day debate of great bitterness, the House forced Elizabeth to repeal her grants and revoke her patents. For her message to the Commons, brought by the Speaker, 25 Nov. 1601 (when Poetaster was on the boards), see Adams and Stephens, Select Docs. of Eng. Const. Hist., 1902, p. 325. Under James I monopolies again flourished, until in 1624 most of them were abolished by Parliament (21 Jac. I. c. 3.) and the finishing stroke given in 1639. Many monopolies and most patents had the virtue of stimulating trade and manufacture; but others were granted simply to enrich royal favorites. Raleigh held a monopoly on playing-cards. In the list of monopolies were at length included most of the necessaries of life: leather, salt, iron, coal, oil, fish, etc. 5. 3. 131. Let him be whipt. The ancient Roman magistrates had the right of coercing or chastising actors (coercitio) at all times and places, and the praetor had the right to use the scourge upon them (jus virgarum in histriones). According to Tacitus, Annales 1. 77, Augustus made the actors immunes verberum; but Suetonius tells us (Augustus 45) that he left the magistrates power to chastise at the actual time and place of a performance, adding that the emperor himself caused several actors to be scourged. 5. 3. 132. Fierce. Nares cites this passage s. v. fierce, which he interprets to mean 'sudden, precipitate.' He also refers to Cymbeline 5. 5. [382], and King John 3. 4. [12]. But Schmidt regards fierce in the Cymb. passage as meaning 'wild, disordered, irregular'; and in K. John, 'passionate, wild, impetuous.' The word in Poetaster must be taken to mean 'passionately eager, over-zealous.' 5. 3. 160. Three soules. The Peripatetic philosophy gave every man three souls; a plastic, an animal, and a rational soul.' (W.) According to Ritter (Ancient Philosophy, tr. Morrison, 1839, 3. 247) Whalley might have gone further: "The nutritive faculty is alone the property of vegetables; sensation of animals generally; of the more perfect races, local movement likewise; and of man, reason. The soul, therefore, is divided into the nutritive faculty, the sensitive, the locomotive, and, lastly, the rational.' Cf. Twelfth Night 2. 3. 61. 5. 3. 161. Hieroglyphick. Cf. the Case is Altered 1. 1: Jun. Ha, you mad hieroglyphic, when shall we swagger? Val. Hieroglyphic! what meanest thou by that? Jun. Mean! od'so, is it not a good word, man? what, stand upon meaning with your friends? Puh! abscond. 5. 3. 162-4. Helicon refers to Horace, and Hippocrene to Maecenas, his patron. Hippocrene was the Muses' spring on Mt. Helicon in Boeotia. 5. 3. 181. I am the worst accuser, vnder heauen. In Jonson's own mouth, assertions like this are astounding. Our robust and plain-speaking poet has by this time sufficiently demonstrated that he can turn his tongue to all the accusation and abuse that any situation might in his large view demand. 5. 3. 194. Make . . golls. Make them hold up their hands and take the oath.' Cf. Satiromastix p. 203: 'Tucca. [to Horace] Holde, holde vp thy hand, I ha seene the day thou didst not scorne to holde vp thy golles.' Dekker's retort is scathing enough: on Sept. 22, 1598, Jonson had killed an actor named Gabriel Spencer in a duel, for which he was duly tried. 'He confesses the indictment, asks for the book, reads like a clerk, is marked with the letter T [for Tyburn], and is delivered according to the statute, &c.' See the Athenaeum, March 6, 1886. 5. 3. 197. Band. Planché writes: "The [band was a] collar which in the seventeenth century supplanted the ruff. It was first a stiff stand-up collar of cambric, lawn, or linen, starched, wired, and sometimes edged with lace. Yellow starch was used for the stiffening, as in the case of the ruffe. . . Contemporary with it was the falling band, also occasionally edged with lace more or less costly, and sometimes embroidered, or made of Italian cut work, ornamented with pearls.' Bands were worn by both sexes; those of the Puritans were plain and narrow, those of the Cavaliers wide and highly ornamented. 5. 3. 219. Reade the inditement. With this scene, cf. the trial scene in a Warning for Faire Women, act 2 (R. Simpson, School of Sh. 2). Fleay, who assigns this play to Lodge, says (Chr. 2. 54): 'A warning for Fair Women (the murder of George Sanders in 1573) was acted by the Chamberlain's men "lately," before its publication 17th Nov. 1599. . . . This play is a murder-play, like Arden of Feversham and Page of Plymouth [by Jonson and Dekker, 1599] and Beech's Tragedy. The other writers for the Chamberlain's men at this time were Shakespeare and Jonson.' 5. 3. 223-4. Lex Remmia. Just when the lex Remmia (called sometimes lex Memmia) was passed and what were its provisions, is not known. On branding for calumny, cf. Cicero, Roscius of Ameria 20, cited in our note on 5. 3. 592-4. 5. 3. 226-7. Play-dresser. Jonson keeps the term 'poetaster' exclusively for Crispinus-Marston, not admitting that DemetriusDekker is even a rimester. 5. 3. 239-40. Selfe loue, rayling. After a brief visit from Jonson, Drummond wrote (Conversations p. 40), Jan. 19, 1619: 'He is a great lover and praiser of himself; a contemner and scorner of others; given rather to losse a friend than a jest [cf. Tucca's description of Horace, Poetaster, 4. 3. 112 ff.]; jealous of every word and action of those about him, (especiallie after drink, which is one of the elements in which he liveth;) a dissembler of ill parts which raigne in him, a bragger of some good that he wanteth; thinketh nothing well bot what either he himself or some of his friends and countrymen hath said or done; he is passionately kynde and angry; careless either to gaine or keep; vindicative, but, if he be well answered, at himself.' 5. 3. 261. Iwusse. Beginning with folio 1692, all the editions have printed 'I wusse.' Nicholson goes the length of interpreting in a foot-note: 'I know.' In I. 2. 58 we have in 4to and in folios 1616 and 1640, 'Iwisse.' All editions subsequent have printed 'I wiss.' The editors have wholly misunderstood Jonson's word, which is not in either case a pronoun and a verb, but a simple adverb: OE. gewis, adj.; ME. iwisse, adv., = certainly; cf. Mod. German gewiss. 5. 3. 285. Rampe vp. The verses credited to Crispinus are made up largely of words and phrases affected by Marston, especially in his early work. He had a passion for pompous, novel words, crude and bombastic phrases, which sometimes lead him into grotesque imagery, sometimes resulted from it. A number of the most objectionable words here used are vomited up by Crispinus after Horace has administered to him the pills of hellebore, at the end of this scene. Occurrence of peculiarly Marstonian words and expressions in Marston's works previous to 1601 will now be noted. Cf. also the Glossary, and notes on the vomited words. The rawish dank of clumsy winter ramps The fluent summer's vein. (2 Ant. and Mell., Prol. 1-2.) This transitive use of ramp appears to be now obsolete. 5. 3. 286. Boldly nominate a spade, a spade. This may allude to Marston's coarseness: see particularly Pygmalion and the Scourge of Villainy. 5. 3. 287. Glibberie. 1 Ant. and Mell. 1. 1. 108-9: Rosaline. Dare lay my judgment (faith) His love is glibbery; there's no hold on't, wench. Cf. also 1 Ant. and Mell. 2. I. 6; 4. I. 70. Jack Drum's Entertainment 1. 127 ff.: Let who will climbe ambition's glibbery rounds, I'le not corriuall him. 5. 3. 290-1. That . . . hence. The allusion is to Marston as a writer of tragedies. Both parts of Antonio and Mellida had been produced in 1599. Cf. I Ant. and Mell., Ind.: Feliche. What rattling thunderclap breaks from his lips? Alberto. O! 'tis native to his part. For acting a modern braggadoch under the person of Matzagente, the Duke of Milan's son, it may seem to suit with good fashion of coherence. 5. 3. 293. Snotteries. Cf. Scourge of Villainy 1. 2. 70-71: O what dry braine melts not sharp mustard rime 5. 3. 294. That puft-vp lumpe of barmy froth. Lines 294-302 describe and threaten Ben Jonson. For barmy froth, cf. Scourge of Villainy, In Lectores 7-9: Each odd puisne of the lawyer's inn, In his edition of Marston's Poems, Grosart glosses this expression: 'light and empty-headed freshmen or young students.' In lines 77-78 Marston reverts to 'some span-new come fry Of Innes a-court.' Barmy-froth occurs twice more in the Scourge: in 'To those that seeme iudiciall perusers,' and in 2. 6. 1-2. In Jack Drum 1. 34 ff., we can see Marston's hand: Yee shall haue me an emptie caske that's furd Beyond the confines of his Mistris lips, In Jack Drum 5, Planet speaks of the 'barmy jacket of a beer brewer.' Since Chrysogonus seems to have been intended by Marston as a compliment to Jonson (see Introduction and Index), it is interest |