'If this city, ot the suburbs of the same, do afford any young gentleman, of the first, second, or third head, more or less, ... that is affected to entertain the most gentlemanlike use of tobacco.' See also The Alchemist (Wks. 4. 28), The New Inn (Wks. 5. 378). These uses show that the phrase was properly applied to persons who showed pride in newly acquired dignities. 2. 3. 61. her Gentleman-usher. 'Gentleman-Usher. Originally a state-officer, attendant upon queens, and other persons of high rank, as, in Henry VIII, Griffith is gentlemanusher to Queen Catherine; afterwards a private affectation of state, assumed by persons of distinction, or those who pretended to be so, and particularly ladies. He was then only a sort of upper servant, out of livery, whose office was to hand his lady to her coach, and to walk before her bare-headed, though in later times she leaned upon his arm.'-Nares, Glossary. 2. 3. 62. And cast off Pages, bare, to bid her Aunt Welcome unto her honour, at her lodgings. 'It was a piece of state, that the servants of the nobility, particularly the gentleman usher, should attend bare headed: for which bare was often used,'-Nares, Gloss. For passages illustrating the practice, see the quotations in Nares; Ford, The Lover's Melancholy (Wks. 1. 19); Chapman, The Gentleman Usher (Wks. 1. 263). Jonson often refers to this practice: see The Devil is an Ass (Wks. 5. 55); The Staple of News (Wks. 5. 232); The New Inn (Wks. 5. 374); A Tale of a Tub (Wks. 6. 217, 222). 2.4.2. and shalt command A thousand pound, to goe on any errand, For any Church preferment thou hast a mind too. For the corrupt state of many of the clergy, and the custom of securing preferment by giving bribes, see note on 1. 2. 31. 2. 4. 15. For rules governing metre, see notes on I. 1. 28; I. I. 81. And one | she wholly | imployes. | Now Dominus Practise 2. 4. 16. For rule governing metre, see note on I. 1. 81. NED. gives the 16th century form, Laship. Is yet the man | appoint | ed by | her Ladi ship 2.4.21. Er final seems to have been sometimes pronounced with a kind of " burr," which produced the effect of an additional syllable.'-Abbott, § 478. Secure you | of Riv | alship. | I thanke thee 2. 4. 35. hearken how the Chimes goe. Listen to find out how the various persons concerned will agree or harmonize. 2.5.5. See note to 1. 3. 16, and Abbott, § 454. And no | bly with | you, Madam. | Ha'you talk'd | with him? 2.5.7. For metre, see notes on 1. 1. 81 and 2. 4. 16. The bus | ines trust | ed to | me, by | your Ládi ship, 2.5. 27. But rather to require ingenious leave. The 'maturity' of Practice's acknowledgment is reflected in the choiceness of his language: see Glossary, s. v. require and ingenious. The line means, But rather to request as a favor frank permission.' 2.5. 39. For metre, see note on 1. 3. 9. No, but your Par | son sayes | he knowes, | Madam. 2.5.44. 'Syllables ending in vowels are . . . frequently elided before vowels in reading, though not in writing.'Abbott, § 462. Hów! hee is not mad. | O hide | the híd | eous secret. 2.5.45. You doe hold A Cricket by the wing. You increase the clamour which you wish to silence.'-G. Cf. The Poetaster (Wks. 2. 515): And, like so many screaming grasshoppers Also The Fox (Wks. 3. 233): Volp. Ah me, I have ta'en a grass-hopper by the wing! 2. 5. 48. I find where your shoee wrings you, Mr. Compasse. This is an allusion to the proverb: 'I know best where the shoe wringeth me (Hazlitt, Eng. Prov.); But I wot best wher wryngith me my sho' (Chaucer, Merchant's Tale 309). 2. 5. 58. He must not alter Nature for forme. He must not alter the grasping, selfish nature he has developed as a lawyer, in order to conform to the mode of behavior and manners which satisfies the ideals of society. 2. 5. 66. Something in hand is better, than no birds. Hazlitt gives 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the wood' = 'Something is better than nothing.' Bohn, Polyglot: 'A bird in the cage is worth a hundred at large.' 2. 5. 67. For metre, see note on 2. 5. 44. He shall at last | accompt, | for the ut | most farth ing, I cannot tell. See note on 2. I. 18. 2. 5.74. 2. 5. 75. I must 2.6.8. For metre, see note on 2. 4. 16. attend | my Gos | sip, her | good Ladi ship. those should pay Me for my watch, and breaking of my sleepes. Watch now means a keeping awake for the purpose of guarding: its obsolete sense is wakefulness, the state of being awake. The term as used here seems to partake of both these meanings. Cf. The New Inn (Wks. 5. 324): Lov. I was the laziest creature, 2. 6. 13. For metre, see note on 1. 3. 41. It would reward | your wak | ing. That's my indus try; | 2.6. 19. rib of mans flesh. Alluding to Gen. 2. 21. 2. 6. 23. in open sale market. This was amended by Whalley to sale in open market: this latter is a common expression; see NED.; ' Market overt (in Law): open market; the exposal of vendible goods in an open place so that any one who passes by may see them.' Cf. Every Man Out (Wks. I. 136): Down. 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. 2. 6. 34. After the usual rate of ten i' the hundred. During the reign of Elizabeth, the legal rate of interest was 10 per cent. In 1624 the rate was reduced to 8 per cent, which was, then, the legal rate when this play was written; but fourteen years before, when Sir Moth took charge of the money, the rate was 10 per cent. See Palgrave, Dict. Pol. Econ. 2. 429-36. 2.6. 37. Let'hem exclaime, and envie: what care I? The speech of Sir Moth recalls a similar speech of the avaricious Sordido in Every Man Out (Wks. 2.43): Hind. They will exclaim against you. Ay, their exclaims Move me as much, as thy breath moves a mountain. 2. 6. 45. To any reasonable | mans un | derstand ing. ... The 2. 6. 54. a roveting man, aimes at infinite wealth. idea of avarice as a master-passion on a grand scale was worked out in Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. 2.6.58. this present world being nothing, But the dispersed issue of first one. This sounds like the more recent nebular hypothesis. The Copernican system in Jonson's time was fast supplanting the older Ptolemaic system in the view of intelligent people. Jonson himself was a contemporary of Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes; and one may infer that he accepted the new views. For a cosmology which represents the planets as the dispersed issue of original matter, see the exposition of the doctrine of Descartes in Arrhenius, The Life of the Universe 1. 103–8. 2.6. 60. I not see. See note on 2. I. 13. 2. 6.66. the Prince hath need More of one wealthy, then ten fighting men. The force of this statement is evident on consideration of the difficulties which James and Charles encountered in their efforts to secure means to finance their continental wars. Charles' demand for unlimited supplies was one of the causes of the conflict between the Crown and the House of Commons. See Gardiner's History of England, Vol. 5. 2. 6. 47. Being may be pronounced as a monosyllable (Abbott, § 470). See also note on 1. 3. 41. Of the two extra syllables, the last is slurred (see Abbott, § 494). Fro' the penny to | the twelve | pence, being | the Hieroglyphick, Or the verse might be scanned thus: Fro' the penny to the twelve | pence, being | the Hieroglyphick, 2.6.77. wealth... displaceth worth. This was one of the complaints of Burton (Anat. of Mel. 1. 372): 'Many mortal men came to see fair Psyche, the glory of her age; they did admire her, commend, desire her for her divine beauty, and gaze upon her, but as on a picture; none would marry her, quod indotata; fair Psyche had no money. So they do by learning: . . . "a proper man, and 'tis a pity he has no preferment," all good wishes, but inexorable, indurate as he is, he will not prefer him, though it be in his power, because he is indotatus, he hath no money.' So, in the speech of Macilente in Every Man Out (Wks. 2. 42): Peace, fool get hence, and tell thy vexed spirit, Also Underwoods (Wks. 8. 412): I may no longer on these pictures stay, |