CHAPTER VIII

How a Gallant is to behaue himselfe passing through the Cittie, at all houres of the night, and how to passe by any watch.

AFTER the sound of pottle-pots is out of your eares, and that the spirit of Wine and Tobacco walkes in your braine, the Tauerne door being shut vppon your backe, cast about to passe through the widest and goodliest streetes in the Cittie. And if your meanes cannot reach to the keeping of a boy, hire one of the drawers, to be as a lanthorne vnto your feete, and to light you home: and, still as you approch neere any night-walker that is vp as late as yourselfe curse and swear (like one that speaks hie dutch) in a lofty voice, because your men haue vsd you so like a rascoll in not waiting vpon you, and vow the next morning to pull their blew cases ouer their eares, though, if your chamber were well searcht, you giue onely six pence a weeke to some old woman to make your bed, and that she is all the seruing-creatures you giue wages to. If you smell a watch (and that you may easily doe, for commonly they eate onions to keep them in sleeping, which they account a medicine against cold) or, if you come within danger of their browne bils, let him that is your candlestick, and holds vp your torch from dropping (for to march after a linck is shoomaker-like), let _Ignis Fatuus_, I say, being within the reach of the Constables staffe, aske aloud, _Sir Giles_, or _Sir Abram_, will you turne this way, or downe that streete? It skils not, though there be none dubd in your Bunch; the watch will winke at you, onely for the loue they beare to armes and knighthood: mary, if the Centinell and his court of Guard stand strictly vpon his martiall Law and cry stand, c[=o]manding you to giue the word, and to shew reason why your Ghost walkes so late, doe it in some Jest (for that will shew you haue a desperate wit, and perhaps make him and his halberdiers afraid to lay fowle hands vpon you) or, if you read a mittimus in the Constables booke, counterfeit to be a Frenchman, a Dutchman, or any other nation whose country is in peace with your owne; and you may passe the pikes: for beeing not able to vnderstand you, they cannot by the customes of the Citie take your examination, and so by consequence they haue nothing to say to you.

If the night be old, and that your lodging be some place into which no Artillery of words can make a breach, retire, and rather assault the dores of your punck, or (not to speak broken English) your sweete mistris, vpon whose white bosome you may languishingly consume the rest of darknesse that is left, in rauishing (though not restoratiue) pleasures, without expenses, onely by vertue of foure or fiue oathes (when the siege breakes vp, and at your marching away with bag and baggage) that the last night you were at dice, and lost so much in gold, so much in siluer; and seeme to vex most that two such _Elizabeth_ twenty-shilling peeces, or foure such spur-ryals (sent you with a cheese and a bakt meate from your mother) rid away amongst the rest. By which tragicall yet pollitick speech, you may not only haue your nighte worke done _Gratis_, but also you may take dyet there the next day, and depart with credit, onely upon the bare word of a Gentleman to make her restitution.

All the way as you passe (especially being approcht neere some of the Gates) talk of none but Lords, and such Ladies with whom you haue plaid at _Primero_, or daunced in the Presence the very same day. It is a chaunce to lock vp the lippes of an inquisitiue Bel-man: and being arriued at your lodging doore, which I would councell you to choose in some rich Cittizens house, salute at parting no man but by the name of Sir (as though you had supt with Knights) albeit you had none in your company but your _Perinado_, or your _Inghle_.

Happily it will be blowne abroad, that you and your Shoale of Gallants swum through such an Ocean of wine, that you danced so much money out at heeles, and that in wild-foule there flew away thus much: and I assure you, to haue the bill of your reckoning lost of purpose, so that it may be publisht, will make you to be held in deere estimation: onely the danger is, if you owe money, and that your reuealing gets your Creditors by the eares; for then looke to haue a peal of ordinance thundring at your chamber doore the next morning. But if either your Tailor, Mercer, Haberdasher, Silkeman, Cutter, Linen Draper, or Sempster, stand like a guard of _Switzers_ about your lodging, watching your vprising, or, if they misse of that, your down lying in one of the Counters, you haue no meanes to auoid the galling of their small-shot, then by sending out a light-horseman to call your Apotecary to your aide, who, encountring this desperate band of your Creditors, onely with two or three glasses in his hand, as though that day you purgd, is able to driue them all to their holes like so many Foxes: for the name of taking physicke is a sufficient _Quietus est_ to any endangered Gentleman, and giues an acquittance (for the time) to them all, though the twelue Companies stand with their hoods to attend your comming forth and their Officers with them.

I could now fetch you about noone (the houre which I prescribed you before to rise at) out of your chamber, and carry you with mee into _Paules Church-yard_; where planting your selfe in a Stationers shop, many instructions are to bee giuen you, what bookes to call for, how to censure of new bookes, how to mew at the old, how to looke in your tables and inquire for such and such _Greeke_, _French_, _Italian_, or _Spanish_ Authors, whose names you haue there, but whom your mother for pitty would not giue you so much wit as to vnderstand. From thence you should blow your selfe into the Tobacco-Ordinary, where you are likewise to spend your iudgment (like a _Quack-saluer_) vpon that mysticall wonder, to bee able to discourse whether your _Cane_ or your Pudding be sweetest, and which pipe has the best boare, and which burnes black, which breakes in the burning, &c. Or, if you itch to step into the Barbers, a whole _Dictionary_ cannot afford more words to set downe notes what _Dialogues_ you are to maintaine whilest you are Doctor of the Chaire there. After your shauing, I could breath you in a _Fence-schoole_, and out of that cudgell you into a _Dauncing schoole_, in both which I could weary you, by shewing you more tricks then are in fiue galleries, or fifteen prizes. And, to close vp the stomach of this feast, I could make Cockneies, whose fathers haue left them well, acknowledge themselues infinitely beholden to me, for teaching them by familiar demonstration how to spend their patrimony and to get themselues names, when their fathers are dead and rotten. But lest too many dishes should cast into a surfet, I will now take away; yet so that, if I perceiue you relish this well, the rest shall be (in time) prepared for you. _Fare-well._

NOTES

P. 2.

_The Rubie._--This is the famous and characteristic note of Euphuism--the accumulation of similes from natural history, or what was taken for natural history. It can hardly be necessary to take note of each of these; still less of the abundant classical allusions which any one acquainted with the classics will understand at once, and which could only be explained to others by loading these notes with lumps of Lemprière. Nor will any one find much difficulty in the language if he remembers that 'then' and 'than,' 'there' and 'their,' 'wayed' and 'weighed,' were written, or at least printed, in those days according to the liberal standard of the taste and fancy of the speller. In case of any difficulty, reading the word aloud will generally solve it. In a few instances, however, it may be well to gloss a little more specially.

_M._--I am not sure what this abbreviates. 'Master,' for which it is the commonest sign, would do.

_Oftscome_ = 'off-scum,' 'off-scouring.'

P. 3.

_Find faulte_ is rather a loss: it is better than 'fault-finder.'

_Closset._--This refers to the famous copy of Homer called [Greek: ê ek tou narthêkos], which Alexander carried about with him in a sumptuous _narthex_--a portable medicine-case.

_Bourde_ = 'jest.'

P. 5.

_Parson_ and 'person,' interchangeably.

_Cirpo_, rather _scirpo_.

P. 6.

_Denocated._--A mistake for either 'denotated' or 'devocated,' both possible and easily intelligible words.

_Werish_ = 'wersh,' 'weak,' 'sickly.'

P. 7.

_Predictam_ of course should be _praeditam_.

_Presisnes_, for 'preciseness,' is a good example of the quaint tricks played by phonetics.

P. 8.

_Gale_ = gall = (in next line) _fel_.

_Player._--Before his 'conversion' Gosson had himself had much to do with the theatre.

P. 11.

_Plotinus._--Either Lodge or his printer has made nonsense of this. For 'Plotinus' read 'Plautus.'

P. 12.

_Saphier._--Evident misprint for 'Sapphic.'

P. 16.

The quotation has been set right in some obvious matters, though not materially altered. In the second line of the English version 'with' should no doubt be 'which,' 'wh.' being the abbreviation for both.

P. 17.

Tyrtæus may perhaps be hid to some under his disguise of _Tirtheus_, which on p. 20 becomes _Tirthetus_.

P. 18.

_Quinque_ for _quique_ is very funny.

P. 19.

_Stare_ = 'star,' 'mole.'

P. 20.

_Acuate_ = 'sharpened,' 'spurred on.'

P. 22.

It is noteworthy that Lodge is much more eloquent and much more urgent in defence of music than of poetry, and indeed the _melomania_ of the Elizabethans is well known.

P. 25.

_Buggs_ = 'bugbears.'

_Pavions_ = 'pavone' or 'pavine,' the well-known stately 'peacock-dance' of the time.

_Dump._--Not merely as now used, 'a fit of melancholy,' but 'a melancholy tune,' and even a dance.

P. 33.

_Your (Gosson) for exempting._--'Your' may be mere carelessness for 'you,' or Lodge may have at one time meant to write, 'your exempting yourself.'

P. 38.

Last line of quotation of course _contemnas_ and _nam_.

P. 41.

Probably the printer gave _Silius Italicus_ his _v_.

P. 44.

_Pappe with an hatchet_ has been much discussed. The sense, which is not unlike 'giving him his gruel,' is clear enough, and any number of explanations of the form occur.

_Patch._ Cf. Shylock's 'The _patch_ is kindly.'

P. 45.

_Huffe, Ruffe, and Snuffe._--Characters in Preston's _Cambyses_. It cannot be necessary to annotate each of the plays on words of which "grating" for "greeting" is the first, and which occur throughout.

P. 46.

_Ale dagger_, may refer to the custom of drinking with swords on the table.

P. 47.

_Scaddle_ is unannotated by Mr. Maskell, and does not appear in other dictionaries, even in that of Professor Skeat. But that excellent scholar, with his usual kindness, has given me a note on it. It is the A.S. _scadol_ from 'scathe,' and means 'mischievous,' with a secondary sense of 'thievish,' and a tertiary one of 'timid' or 'skulking.' It is here probably used in a combination of all these.

_Dydoppers_ = 'didappers,' 'dabchicks.'

P. 51.

_Bastard_ senior and junior are polite references to _Martin_ senior and _Martin_ junior, two of the pseudonyms set to the Marprelate pamphlets.

P. 52.

_Elderton._--A theatrical manager.

P. 53.

_Three a vies._--A 'vie' is a single stake or game at cards, or anything else. 'Three a vies' therefore equals our 'best of three.' 'Passage,' a game with dice. 'Stabbing' was a form of cogging. 'Cater-tray,' four and three. 'Cater-caps,' trencher-caps.

P. 54.

_Dicker of leather._--A bundle of ten skins.

_Woodsere._--Probably, as Mr. Maskell suggests, the sap that sputters from green faggots.

P. 56.

_Lambacke_ = 'thrash.'

P. 58.

_Bull._--Perhaps the hangman.

P. 64.

_Aptots_ = 'Indeclinables.'

P. 65.

_Næme_, also 'eme' or 'eame' = 'uncle.'

P. 66.

_Kixes_ or kexes.--Dry stalks of hemlock.

P. 68.

_Pistle._--The common shortened form for 'epistle' much used by the Martinists.

P. 71.

_Liripoope._--The _liripipium_, or long academic hood.

_Chiuerell_ = 'doe-leather.'

P. 72.

_Comedies._--Anti-Martinist plays are known to have existed, but are quite lost.

P. 76.

_Muzroule_ or musroule.--A nose-band.

_Port mouth._--I presume a kind of twitch.

_Mubble fubbles_ = 'dumps,' 'blues.'

P. 77.

_Hauncing_ = 'tipping.'

P. 79.

_Celarent_ and _ferio_.--This play on the _memoria technica_ of logical mood and figure is ingenious.

_Ora whine meg._--Sometimes given as 'Over a whinny meg.' Name of a tune.

P. 80.

_Bullen._--A vigorous pamphleteer of the preceding age.

P. 84.

Title. _Wit and Will_ is the first of the 'five discourses.' Below, in the second motto, 'Vir_e_s' should of course be 'vir_u_s,' being no doubt a mere misprint.

P. 86.

_Gods forbod._--Dr. Grosart 'forbobod,' which appears a _vox nihili_. 'Past all gods forbod' seems to be pretty much = our 'past all praying for.'

P. 88.

_Then_ (as constantly and not to be noticed hereafter) = 'than.'

P. 90.

_Byrd._ Apparently not in the sense in which 'byrd' or 'burd' is used by the ballad poets, for that is always of a girl, and Will is 'he.'

P. 100.

_Buts length._--The ordinary distance between targets.

_Flights shotte._--As far as the bow will carry.

P. 102.

_Wood_ = 'mad.'

P. 109.

Will's Latin here and elsewhere is a good deal better than his modern languages.

P. 111.

_Corsi[v]e_ = 'corrosive,' something that frets and worries.

P. 116.

_Vir esset_, for _virescit_ apparently.

P. 134.

_Labra_, copies _labe_; either a mere misprint or a blunder for _labea_ = _labia_, regardless of the verse. Latin is often very carelessly printed in these tracts.

P. 135.

_Gray_ = 'badger,' from its colour.

P. 136.

_Wearied._--'Weary' and 'worry' have no real connection, but the former is close in spelling and sound to 'wirian,' the O.E. form of the latter.

P. 141.

_Tables_ = 'backgammon.'

P. 148.

_Nips_, etc., cant names for different classes of sharpers and thieves.

P. 149.

_Ball._--Said to be a play on the proper name of Greene's mistress and her brother.

P. 150.

_Place_ = '_locus_,' text or citation.

P. 155.

The allotment and discussion of the parts in this tirade as belonging to Marlowe and others of the earlier contemporaries of Shakespeare have employed much ink, and need no more.

P. 156.

_Young Iuuenall_ is apparently Lodge: 'thou no lesse deseruing' Peele.

P. 166.

_Barnabe Barnes_, the author of _Parthenophil and Parthenophe_, was no despicable minor poet; the others were less known to fame, and a future page (175) tells most that is known about them.

P. 175.

_Clarentius_ = 'Clarencieux.'?

P. 187.

_Exitat_ = 'excitate,' incite.

P. 188.

_Ale cunners._--'Conners or kenners,' the official inspectors of Beer.

P. 192.

A _reache_ is an advantage. By 'fiue and a reache,' either card and dice sharping or pocket-picking must be meant.

P. 193.

_Pullin_ = 'poultry.'

P. 194.

_Hoffes_ = '_hof_,' house.

P. 195.

Here Nash takes his customary side in the Marprelate business.

P. 196.

_Ram Alley_, the great locality for cook-shops.

P. 198.

The _Old Swanne_, still known on the river as a pier and starting-place.

P. 199.

_Heart at grasse_ = 'heart of grace.'

_Lambeake._ The simple verb 'lam,' surviving in 'lam into him,' had divers compounds--'lambaste,' 'lambeak,' (_v. ante_) and the like.

P. 202.

A return to the Martinists _dunstable_--as in 'Downright Dunstable.'

P. 205.

_Duke Humfrye_ habitually entertained his guests in St. Paul's.

P. 208.

_Cataphalusie_ is, I suppose, a coined word with no special meaning.

P. 212.

Full information about _Grobianisme_ may be found in Chapter VII. of Mr. Herford's excellent _Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 16th Century_. Cambridge: 1886.

P. 215.

_Kelly_ succeeded Dee as an alchemist.

P. 216.

For the _Ship of Fooles_, as Alexander Barclay Englished Sebastian Brant's _Narrenschiff_, see Mr. Herford _op. cit._

_Like Biasse_ = 'crookedly'?

P. 217.

_Tarleton_, etc.,--actors.

P. 221.

_Bootes._--For the proper and original meaning of 'boot' see the opening chapter of _Old Mortality_.

P. 223.

_Voyder._--The tray for sweeping off crumbs, fragments, etc., from the table.

P. 230.

_Vaunt-currers_ = 'avant-couriers.'

P. 231.

_Platoes cocke._--It was rather Diogenes's--his unfeeling jest on the 'unfeathered, two-legged animal' definition of Man.

P. 232.

_Babiownes_ = 'baboon.'

_Mandilions._--A kind of monkey.

P. 234.

_Strawling_ = 'straddling.'

P. 242.

The _Duke_, of course Humfrye.

P. 244.

_Cipers_ = 'cyprus,' crape.

P. 246.

_Horse._--Banks's Morocco, frequent in Elizabethan mouths.

P. 273.

_Perinado_, guessed to = "parasite" "dinner-hunter." _Inghle_ = "crony."

END

End of Project Gutenberg's Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets, by Various