Chapter 39

[Footnote 27: We learn from Harrison's _Description of England_, prefixed to Holinshed, that _eleven o'clock_ was the usual time for dinner during the reign of Elizabeth. "With vs the nobilitie, gentrie, and students, doo ordinarilie go to dinner at _eleuen before noone_, and to supper at fiue, or between fiue and six at afternoone" (vol. i. page 171, edit. 1587). The alteration in manners at this time is rather singularly evinced, from a passage immediately following the above quotation, where we find that _merchants_ and _husbandmen_ dined and supped at a _later hour than the nobility_.]

[Footnote 28: Alluding to the public dinners given by the sheriff at particular seasons of the year. So in _The Widow_, a comedy, 4to, 1652.

"And as at a _sheriff's table_, O blest custome! A poor indebted gentleman may dine, Feed well, and without fear, and depart so."]

[Footnote 29: The chapel of the Virgin Mary, in the cathedral church of Gloucester, was founded by Richard Stanley, abbot, in 1457, and finished by William Farley, a monk of the monastery, in 1472. Sir Robert Atkyns gives the following description of the vault here alluded to. "The _whispering place_ is very remarkable; it is a long alley, from one side of the choir to the other, built circular, that it might not darken the great east window of the choir. When a person whispers at one end of the alley, his voice is heard distinctly at the other end, though the passage be open in the middle, having large spaces for doors and windows on the east side. It may be imputed to the close cement of the wall, which makes it as one entire stone, and so conveys the voice, as a long piece of timber does convey the least stroak to the other end. Others assign it to the repercussion of the voice from accidental angles."--_Atkyns' Ancient and Present State of Glostershire_, Lond. 1712, folio, page 128. See also _Fuller's Worthies, in Gloucestershire_, page 351.]

[Footnote 30: _Then in apiece of gold, &c._, 1st edit._]

[Footnote 31: _Whilst he has not yet got them, enjoys them_, 1st edit.]

[Footnote 32: _Gallo-Belgicus_ was erroneously supposed, by the ingenious Mr. Reed, to be the "first newspaper, published in England;" we are, however, assured by the author of the _Life of Ruddiman_, that it has no title to so honourable a distinction. _Gallo-Belgicus_ appears to have been rather an _Annual Register_, or _History of its own Times_, than a newspaper. It was written in Latin, and entituled, "MERCURSS GALLO-BELGICI: _sive, rerum in Gallia, et Belgio potissimum: Hispania quoque, Italia, Anglia, Germania, Polonia, Vicinisque locis ab anno 1588, ad Martium anni 1594, gestarum_, NUNCIJ." The first volume was printed in 8vo, at Cologne, 1598; from which year, to about 1605, it was published annually; and from thence to the time of its conclusion, which is uncertain, it appeared in _half-yearly_ volumes. Chalmers' _Life of Ruddiman_, 1794. The great request in which newspapers were held at the publication of the present work may be gathered from Burton, who, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, complains that "if any read now-a-days, it is a play-book, or a pamphlet of newes."]

[Footnote 33: Bartholomew Keckerman was born at Dantzick, in Prussia, 1571, and educated under Fabricius. Being eminently distinguished for his abilities and application, he was, in 1597, requested, by the senate of Dantzick, to take upon him the management of their academy; an honour he then declined, but accepted, on a second application, in 1601. Here he proposed to instruct his pupils in the complete science of philosophy in the short space of three years, and, for that purpose, drew up a great number of books upon logic, rhetoric, ethics, politics, physics, metaphysics, geography, astronomy, &c. &c., till, as it is said, literally worn out with scholastic drudgery, he died at the early age of 38.]

[Footnote 34: "Of bread made of wheat we have sundrie sorts dailie brought to the table, whereof the first and most excellent is the _mainchet_, which we commonlie call white bread."--Harrison, _Description of England_ prefixed to Holinshed, chap. 6.]

[Footnote 35: _His honour was somewhat preposterous, for he bare_, &c., first edit.]

[Footnote 36: _Clown_, first edit.]

[Footnote 37: The art of hawking has been so frequently and so fully explained, that it would be superfluous, if not arrogant, to trace its progress, or delineate its history, in this place. In the earliest periods it appears to have been exclusively practised by the nobility; and, indeed, the great expense at which the amusement was supported, seems to have been a sufficient reason for deterring persons of more moderate income, and of inferior rank, from indulging in the pursuit. In the _Sports and Pastimes_ of Mr. Strutt, a variety of instances are given of the importance attached to the office of falconer, and of the immense value of, and high estimation the birds themselves were held in from the commencement of the Norman government, down to the reign of James I., in which Sir Thomas Monson gave £1000 for a cast of hawks, which consisted of only _two_.

The great increase of wealth, and the consequent equalization of property in this country, about the reign of Elizabeth, induced many of inferior birth to practise the amusements of their superiors, which they did without regard to expense, or indeed propriety. Sir Thomas Elyot, in his _Governour_ (1580), complains that the falcons of his day consumed so much poultry, that, in a few years, he feared there would be a great scarcity of it. "I speake not this," says he, "in disprayse of the faukons, but of them which keepeth them lyke cockneyes." A reproof, there can be no doubt, applicable to the character in the text.]

[Footnote 38: A term in hawking, signifying the short straps of leather which are fastened to the hawk's legs, by which she is held on the fist, or joined to the leash. They were sometimes made of silk, as appears from _The Boke of hawkynge, huntynge, and fysshynge, with all the propertyes and medecynes that are necessarye to be kepte_: "Hawkes haue aboute theyr legges _gesses_ made of lether most comonly, some of sylke, which shuld be no lenger but that the knottes of them shulde appere in the myddes of the lefte hande," &c. _Juliana Barnes_, edit. 410, "_Imprynted at London in Pouls chyrchyarde by me Hery Tab_." Sig. C. ii.]

[Footnote 39: _This authority of his is that club which keeps them under as his dogs hereafter_, first edit.]

[Footnote 40: _Now become a man's total_, first edit.]

[Footnote 41: Of the game called one and thirty, I am unable to find any mention in Mr. Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, nor is it alluded to in any of the old plays or tracts I have yet met with. A very satisfactory account of _tables_ may be read in the interesting and valuable publication just noticed.]

[Footnote 42: The room where the performers dress, previous to coming on the stage.]

[Footnote 43: This passage affords a proof of what has been doubted, namely, that the theatres were not permitted to be open during Lent, in the reign of James I. The restriction was waived in the next reign, as we find from the puritanical Prynne:--"There are none so much addicted to stage-playes, but when they goe unto places where they cannot have them, or when, as they are suppressed by publike authority, (as in times of pestilence, and in _Lent, till now of late_) can well subsist without them," &c. _Histrio Mastix_, 4to, Lond. 1633, page 384,]

[Footnote 44: It may not be known to those who are not accustomed to meet with old books in their original bindings, or of seeing public libraries of antiquity, that the volumes were formerly placed on the shelves with the _leaves_, not the _back_, in front; and that the two sides of the binding were joined together with _neat silk_ or other strings, and, in some instances, where the books were of greater value and curiosity than common, even fastened with gold or silver chains.]

[Footnote 45: A hanger-on to noblemen, who are distinguished at the university by gold tassels to their caps; or in the language of the present day, a _tuft-hunter_.]

[Footnote 46: _If he could order his intentions_, first edit.]

[Footnote 47: Minshew calls a tobacconist _fumi-vendulus_, a _smoak-seller_.]

[Footnote 48: _Cento_, a composition formed by joining scraps from other authors.--_Johnson_. Camden, in his _Remains_, uses it in the same sense. "It is quilted, as it were, out of shreds of divers poets, such as scholars call a _cento_."]

[Footnote 49: _Firing_, first edit.]

[Footnote 50: In the hope of discovering some account of the _strange monster_ alluded to, I have looked through one of the largest and most curious collections of tracts, relating to the marvellous, perhaps in existence. That bequeathed to the Bodleian, by Robert Burton, the author of the _Anatomy of Melancholy_. Hitherto my researches have been unattended with success, as I have found only two tracts of this description relating to Germany, both of which are in prose, and neither giving any account of a monster.

1. _A most true Relation of a very dreadfull Earthquake, with the lamentable Effectes thereof, which began upon the 8 of December 1612, and yet continueth most fearefull in Munster in Germanie. Reade and Tremble. Translated out of Dutch, by Charles Demetrius, Publike Notarie in London, and printed at Rotterdame, in Holland, at the Signe of the White Gray-hound_. (Date cut off. Twenty-six pages, 4to, with a woodcut.)

2: _Miraculous Newes from the Cittie of Holt, in the Lordship of Munster, in Germany, the twentieth of September last past, 1616, where there were plainly beheld three dead bodyes rise out of their Graves admonishing the people of Judgements to come. Faithfully translated (&c. &c.) London, Printed for John Barnes, dwelling in Hosie Lane neere Smithfield, 1616_. (4to, twenty pages, woodcut.)]

[Footnote 51: It was customary to work or paint proverbs, moral sentences, or scraps of verse, on old tapestry hangings, which were called _painted cloths_. Several allusions to this practice may be found in the works of our early English dramatists. See Reed's _Shakspeare_, viii. 103.]

[Footnote 52: _Beller_, first edit.]

[Footnote 53: _Hale_, first edit.]

[Footnote 54: Calais sands were chosen by English duellists to decide their quarrels on, as being out of the jurisdiction of the law. This custom is noticed in an Epigram written about the period in which this book first appeared.

"When boasting Bembus challeng'd is to fight, He seemes at first a very Diuell in sight: Till more aduizde, will not defile [his] hands, Vnlesse you meete him vpon _Callice sands."

The Mastive or Young Whelpe of the olde Dog. Epigrams and Satyrs._ 4to, Lond. (Printed, as Warton supposes, about 1600.)

A passage in _The Beau's Duel: or a Soldier for the Ladies_, a comedy, by Mrs. Centlivre, 4to, 1707, proves that it existed so late as at that day. "Your only way is to send him word you'll meet him on _Calais sands;_ duelling is unsafe in England for men of estates," &c. See also other instances in Dodsley's _Old Plays,_ edit. 1780, vii. 218; xii. 412.]

[Footnote 55: Strict devotees were, I believe, noted for the smallness and precision of their ruffs, which were termed _in print_ from the exactness of the folds. So in Mynshul's _Essays,_ 4to, 1618. "I vndertooke a warre when I aduentured to speake in _print,_ (not in _print as Puritan's ruffes_ are set.)" The term of _Geneva print_ probably arose from the minuteness of the type used at Geneva. In the _Merry Devil of Edmonton_, a comedy, 4to, 1608, is an expression which goes some way to prove the correctness of this supposition:--"I see by thy eyes thou hast bin reading _little Geneva print;"_--and, that _small ruffs_ were worn by the puritanical set, an instance appears in Mayne's _City Match,_ a comedy, 4to, 1658.

"O miracle! Out of your _little ruffe,_ Dorcas, and in the fashion! Dost thou hope to be saved?"

From these three extracts it is, I think, clear that a _ruff of Geneva print_ means a _small, closely-folded ruff,_ which was the distinction of a nonconformist.]

[Footnote 56: A virginal, says Mr. Malone, was strung like a spinnet, and shaped like a pianoforte: the mode of playing on this instrument was therefore similar to that of the organ.]

[Footnote 57: _Weapons are spells no less potent than different, as being the sage sentences of some of her own sectaries._ First edit.]

[Footnote 58: Robert Bellarmine, an Italian jesuit, was born at Monte Pulciano, a town in Tuscany, in the year 1542, and in 1560 entered himself among the jesuits. In 1599 he was honoured with a cardinal's hat, and in 1602 was presented with the arch-bishopric of Capua: this, however, he resigned in 1605, when Pope Paul V. desired to have him near himself. He was employed in the affairs of the court of Rome till 1621, when, leaving the Vatican, he retired to a house belonging to his order, and died September 17, in the same year.

Bellarmine was one of the best controversial writers of his time; few authors have done greater honour to their profession or opinions, and certain it is that none have ever more ably defended the cause of the Romish Church, or contended in favour of the pope with greater advantage. As a proof of Bellarmine's abilities, there was scarcely a divine of any eminence among the Protestants who did not attack him: Bayle aptly says, "they made his name resound every where, ut littus Styla, Styla, omne sonaret."]

[Footnote 59: Faustus Socinus is so well known as the founder of the sect which goes under his name, that a few words will be sufficient. He was born in 1539, at Sienna, and imbibed his opinions from the instruction of his uncle, who always had a high opinion of, and confidence in, the abilities of his nephew, to whom he bequeathed all his papers. After living several years in the world, principally at the court of Francis de Medicis, Socinus, in 1577, went into Germany, and began to propagate the principles of his uncle, to which, it is said, he made great additions and alterations of his own. In the support of his opinions, he suffered considerable hardships, and received the greatest insults and persecutions; to avoid which, he retired to a place near Cracow, in Poland, where he died in 1504, at the age of sixty-five.]

[Footnote 60: Conrade Vorstius, a learned divine, who was peculiarly detested by the Calvinists, and who had even the honour to be attacked by King James the First, of England, was born in 1569. Being compelled, through the interposition of James's ambassador, to quit Leyden, where he had attained the divinity-chair, and several other preferments, he retired to Toningen, where he died in 1622, with the strongest tokens of piety and resignation.]

[Footnote 61: _His style is very constant, for it keeps still the former aforesaid; and yet it seems he is much troubled in it, for he is always humbly complaining--your poor orator_. First edit.]

[Footnote 62: "To _moote_, a term vsed in the innes of the court; it is the handling of a case, as in the Vniuersitie their disputations," &c. So _Minshew_, who supposes it to be derived from the French, _mot, verbum, quasi verba facere, aut sermonem de aliqua re habere_. _Mootmen_ are those who, having studied seven or eight years, are qualified to practise, and appear to answer to our term of barristers.]

[Footnote 63: The prologue to our ancient dramas was ushered in by trumpets. "Present not yourselfe on the stage (especially at a new play) untill the quaking prologue hath (by rubbing) got cullor into his cheekes, and is ready to giue the trumpets their cue that hee's vpon point to enter."--Decker's _Gul's Hornbook_, 1609, p. 30. "Doe you not know that I am the Prologue? Do you not see this long blacke veluet cloke vpon my backe? _Haue you not sounded thrice?_"--Heywood's _Foure Prentises of London_, 4to, 1615.]

[Footnote 64: St. Paul's Cathedral was, during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, a sort of exchange and public parade, where business was transacted between merchants, and where the fashionables of the day exhibited themselves. The reader will find several allusions to this custom in the _variorum_ edition of Shakspeare, _K. Henry IV._, part 2. Osborne, in his _Traditional Memoires on the Reigns of Elisabeth and James_, 12mo, 1658, says, "It was the fashion of those times (James I.) and did so continue till these, (the interregnum,) for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions, not merely mechanicks, to meet in _St. Paul's _church by eleven, and walk in the middle isle till twelve, and after dinner from three to six; during which time some discoursed of business, others of news." Weever complains of the practice, and says, "it could be wished that walking in the middle isle of _Paul's_ might be forborne in the time of diuine service." _Ancient Funeral Monuments_, 1631, page 373.]

[Footnote 65: In the _Dramatis Personal_ to Ben Jonson's _Every Man in his Humour_, Bobadil is styled a _Paul's man_; and Falstaff tells us that he bought Bardolph in _Pauls_. _King Henry IV_., part 2.]

[Footnote 66: ----"You'd not doe Like your penurious father, who was wont _To walk his dinner out in Paules._"

--Mayne's _City Match_, 1658.]

[Footnote 67: The time of supper was about five o'clock.]

[Footnote 68: Paul's cross stood in the churchyard of that cathedral, on the north side, towards the east end. It was used for the preaching of sermons to the populace; and Holinshed mentions two instances of public penance being performed here; in 1534 by some of the adherents of Elizabeth Barton, well known as _the holy maid of Kent_, and in 1536 by Sir Thomas Newman, a priest, who "_bare a faggot at Paules crosse for singing masse with good ale_."]

[Footnote 69: _Dole_ originally signified the portion of alms that was given away at the door of a nobleman. Steevens, note to _Shakspeare_. Sir John Hawkins affirms that the benefaction distributed at Lambeth Palace gate, is to this day called the _dole_.]

[Footnote 70: That is, the contents of his basket, if discovered to be of light weight, are distributed to the needy prisoners.]

[Footnote 71: _Study_, first edit.]

[Footnote 72: The first edition reads _post_, and, I think, preferably.]

[Footnote 73: _Keep for attend_.]

[Footnote 74: _Squeazy_, niggardly.]

[Footnote 75: _And the clubs out of charity knock him down,_ first edit.]

[Footnote 76: That is, _runs you up a long score_.]

[Footnote 77: This, as well as many other passages in this work, has been appropriated by John Dunton, the celebrated bookseller, as his own. See his character of Mr. Samuel Hool, in _Dunton's Life and Errors_, 8vo, 1705, p. 337.]

[Footnote 78: "A prison is a grave to bury men alive, and a place wherein a man for halfe a yeares experience may learne more law than he can at Westminster for an hundred pound."--Mynshul's _Essays and Characters of a Prison_, 4to, 1618.]

[Footnote 79: _In querpo_ is a corruption from the Spanish word _cuerpo_. "_En cuerpo, a man without a cloak_."--Pineda's Dictionary, 1740. The present signification evidently is, that a gentleman without his serving-man, or attendant, is but half dressed:--he possesses only in part the appearance of a man of fashion. "_To walk in cuerpo, is to go without a cloak."--Glossographia Anglicana Nova_, 8vo, 1719.]

[Footnote 80: _Proper_ was frequently used by old writers for comely, or handsome. Shakspeare has several instances of it:

"I do mistake my person all this while: Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot, Myself to be a marvellous _proper_ man."

--_K. Richard III_. Act I. Sc. 2, &c.]

[Footnote 81: "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."--_Master Stephen. Every Man in his Humour_.]

[Footnote 82: "Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum: Ter frustra conprensa manus effugit imago, Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno." --_Virgil_, Æn. vi. _v_. 700.]

[Footnote 83: Probably the name of some difficult tune.]

[Footnote 84: Jump here signifies to coincide. The old play of Soliman and Perseda uses it in the same sense:

"Wert thou my friend, thy mind would _jump_ with mine."

So in _Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to the Divele_:--"Not two of them _jump_ in one tale," p. 29.]

[Footnote 85: _Imputation_ here must be used for _consequence_; of which I am, however, unable to produce any other instance.]

[Footnote 86: _Sturtridge fair_ was the great mart for business, and resort for pleasure, in Bishop Earle's day. It is alluded to in Randolph's _Conceited Pedlar_, 410, 1630:--

"I am a pedlar, and I sell my ware This braue Saint Bartholmew or _Sturtridge faire_."

Edward Ward, the author of _The London Spy_, gives a whimsical account of a journey to Sturbridge, in the second volume of his works.]

[Footnote 87: This silly term of endearment appears to be derived from _chick_ or _my chicken_, Shakspeare uses it in _Macbeth_, Act iii. Scene 2:--

"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest _chuck_."]

[Footnote 88: The great cross in West Cheap was originally erected in 1290, by Edward I., in commemoration of the death of Queen Ellinor, whose body rested at that place, on its journey from Herdeby, in Lincolnshire, to Westminster, for interment. It was rebuilt in 1441, and again in 1484. In 1584 the images and ornaments were destroyed by the populace; and in 1599 the top of the cross was taken down, the timber being rotted within the lead, and fears being entertained as to its safety. By order of Queen Elizabeth, and her privy council, it was repaired in 1600, when, says Stow, "a cross of timber was framed, set up, covered with lead, _and gilded_," &c. Stow's _Survey of London_, by Strype, book iii. p. 35. Edit, folio. Lond. 1720.]

[Footnote 89: This must allude to the play written by Heywood with the following title: _The Foure Prentises of London. With the Conquest of Jerusalem. As it hath bene diuerse times acted at the Red Bull, by the Queenes Maiesties Servants_. 410, Lond. 1615. In this drama, the four prentises are Godfrey, Grey, Charles, and Eustace, sons to the _old Earle of Bullen_, who, having lost his territories, by assisting William the Conqueror in his descent upon England, is compelled to live like a private citizen in London, and binds his sons to a mercer, a goldsmith, a haberdasher, and a grocer. The _four prentises_, however, prefer the life of a soldier to that of a tradesman, and, quitting the service of their masters, follow Robert of Normandy to the holy land, where they perform the most astonishing feats of valour, and finally accomplish the _conquest of Jerusalem_. The whole play abounds in bombast and impossibilities, and, as a composition, is unworthy of notice or remembrance.]

[Footnote 90: _The History of the Nine Worthies of the World; three whereof were Gentiles; I. Hector, son of Priamus, king of Troy. 2. Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, and conqueror of the world. 3. Julius Caesar, first emperor of Rome. There Jews. 4. Joshua, captain general and leader of Israel into Canaan. 5. David, king of Israel. 6. Judas Maccabeus, a 'valiant Jewish commander against the tyranny of Antiochus. Three Christians. 7. Arthur, king of Britain, who courageously defended his country against the Saxons. 8. Charles the Great, king of France and emperor of Germany. 9. Godfrey of Bullen, king of Jerusalem. Being an account of their glorious lives, worthy actions, renowned victories, and deaths._ 12mo. No date.]

[Footnote 91: Those of the same habits with himself; his associates.]