ACT I.

=1. 1. 1 Hoh, hoh=, etc. ‘Whalley is right in saying that this is the conventional way for the devil to make his appearance in the old morality-plays. Gifford objects on the ground that ‘it is not the roar of terror; but the boisterous expression of sarcastic merriment at the absurd petition of Pug;’ an objection, the truth of which does not necessarily invalidate Whalley’s statement. Jonson of course adapts the old conventions to his own ends. See Introduction, p. xxiii.

=1. 1. 9 Entring a Sow, to make her cast her farrow?= Cf. Dekker, etc., _Witch of Edmonton_ (_Wks._ 4. 423): ‘_Countr._ I’ll be sworn, _Mr. Carter_, she bewitched Gammer _Washbowls_ sow, to cast her Pigs a day before she would have farried.’

=1. 1. 11 Totnam.= ‘The first notice of Tottenham Court, as a place of public entertainment, contained in the books of the parish of St. Gile’s-in-the-Fields, occurs under the year 1645 (Wh-C.). Jonson, however, as early as 1614 speaks of ‘courting it to Totnam to eat cream’ (_Bart. Fair_, Act 1. Sc. 1, _Wks._ 4. 362). George Wither, in the _Britain’s Remembrancer_, 1628, refers to the same thing:

And Hogsdone, Islington, and Tothnam-court, For cakes and cream had then no small resort.

Tottenham Fields were until a comparatively recent date a favorite place of entertainment.

=1. 1. 13 a tonning of Ale=, etc. Cf. _Sad Shep._, _Wks._ 6. 276:

The house wives tun not work, nor the milk churn.

=1. 1. 15 Spight o’ the housewiues cord, or her hot spit.= ‘There be twentie severall waies to make your butter come, which for brevitie I omit; as to bind your cherne with a rope, to thrust thereinto a red hot spit, &c.’--Scot, _Discovery_, p. 229.

=1. 1. 16, 17 Or some good Ribibe ... witch.= This seems to be an allusion, as Fleay suggests, to Heywood’s _Wise-Woman of Hogsdon_. The witch of that play declares her dwelling to be in ‘Kentstreet’ (Heywood’s _Wks._ 5. 294). A ribibe meant originally a musical instrument, and was synonymous with rebec. By analogy, perhaps, it was applied to a shrill-voiced old woman. This is Gifford’s explanation. The word occurs again in Skelton’s _Elynour Rummyng_, l. 492, and in Chaucer, _The Freres Tale_, l. 1377: ‘a widwe, an old ribybe.’ Skeat offers the following explanation: ‘I suspect that this old joke, for such it clearly is, arose in a very different way [from that suggested by Gifford], viz. from a pun upon _rebekke_, a fiddle, and _Rebekke_, a married woman, from the mention of Rebecca in the marriage-service. Chaucer himself notices the latter in E. 1704.’

=1. 1. 16 Kentish Towne.= Kentish Town, Cantelows, or Cantelupe town is the most ancient district in the parish of Pancras. It was originally a small village, and as late as the eighteenth century a lonely and somewhat dangerous spot. In later years it became noted for its Assembly Rooms. In 1809 Hughson (_London_ 6. 369) called it ‘the most romantic hamlet in the parish of Pancras.’ It is now a part of the metropolis. See Samuel Palmer’s _St. Pancras_, London, 1870.

=1. 1. 17 Hogsden.= Stow (_Survey_, ed. Thoms, p. 158) describes Hogsden as a ‘large street with houses on both sides.’ It was a prebend belonging to St. Paul’s. In Hogsden fields Jonson killed Gabriel Spenser in a duel in 1598. These fields were a great resort for the citizens on a holiday. The eating of cream there is frequently mentioned. See the quotation from Wither under note 1. 1. 11, and _Alchemist_, _Wks._ 4. 155 and 175:

----Ay, he would have built The city new; and made a ditch about it Of silver, should have run with cream from Hogsden.

Stephen in _Every Man in_ dwelt here, and so was forced to associate with ‘the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington ponds.’ Hogsden or Hoxton, as it is now called, is to-day a populous district of the metropolis.

=1. 1. 18 shee will not let you play round Robbin.= The expression is obscure, and the dictionaries afford little help. Round-robin is a common enough phrase, but none of the meanings recorded is applicable in this connection. Some child’s game, played in a circle, seems to be referred to, or the expression may be a cant term for ‘play the deuce.’ Robin is a name of many associations, and its connection with Robin Hood, Robin Goodfellow, and ‘Robert’s Men’ (‘The third old rank of the Canting crew.’--Grose.) makes such an interpretation more or less probable.

M. N. G. in _N. & Q._ 9th Ser. 10. 394 says that ‘when a man does a thing in a circuitous, involved manner he is sometimes said “to go all round Robin Hood’s barn to do it.”’ ‘Round Robin Hood’s barn’ may possibly have been the name of a game which has been shortened to ‘round Robin.’

=1. 1. 21 By a Middlesex Iury.= ‘A reproof no less severe than merited. It appears from the records of those times, that many unfortunate creatures were condemned and executed on charges of the rediculous nature here enumerated. In many instances, the judge was well convinced of the innocence of the accused, and laboured to save them; but such were the gross and barbarous prejudices of the juries, that they would seldom listen to his recommendations; and he was deterred from shewing mercy, in the last place by the brutal ferociousness of the people, _whose teeth were set on edge with’t_, and who clamoured tumultuously for the murder of the accused.’--G.

=1. 1. 32 Lancashire.= This, as Gifford says, ‘was the very hot-bed of witches.’ Fifteen were brought to trial on Aug. 19, 1612, twelve of whom were convicted and burnt on the day after their trial ‘at the common place of execution near to Lancaster.’ The term ‘Lancashire Witches’ is now applied to the beautiful women for which the country is famed. The details of the Lancaster trial are contained in Potts’ _Discoverie_ (Lond. 1613), and a satisfactory account is given by Wright in his _Sorcery and Magic_.

=1. 1. 33 or some parts of Northumberland.= The first witch-trial in Northumberland, so far as I have been able to ascertain, occurred in 1628. This was the trial of the Witch of Leeplish.

=1. 1. 37 a Vice.= See Introduction, pp. xxxiv f.

=1. 1. 38 To practice there-with any play-fellow.= See variants. The editors by dropping the hyphen have completely changed the sense of the passage. Pug wants a vice in order that he may corrupt his play-fellows _there-with_.

=1. 1. 41 ff. Why, any Fraud;= =Or Couetousnesse; or Lady Vanity;= =Or old Iniquity.=

Fraud is a character in Robert Wilson’s _The Three Ladies of London_, printed 1584, and _The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London_, c 1588, printed 1590. Covetousness appears in _Robin Conscience_, c 1530, and is applied to one of the characters in _The Staple of News_, _Wks._ 5. 216. Vanity is one of the characters in _Lusty Juventus_ (see note 1. 1. 50) and in _Contention between Liberality and Prodigality_, printed 1602 (_O. Pl._ 4th ed., 8. 328). She seems to have been a favorite with the later dramatists, and is frequently mentioned (_I Henry IV._ 2. 4; _Lear_ 2. 2; _Jew of Malta_ 2. 3, Marlowe’s _Wks._ 2. 45). Jonson speaks of her again in _The Fox_, _Wks._ 3. 218. For Iniquity see Introduction, p. xxxviii.

The change in punctuation (see variants), as well as that two lines below, was first suggested by Upton in a note appended to his _Critical Observations on Shakespeare_. Whalley silently adopted the reading in both cases.

=1. 1. 43 I’ll call him hither.= See variants. Coleridge, _Notes_, p. 280, says: ‘That is, against all probability, and with a (for Jonson) impossible violation of character. The words plainly belong to Pug, and mark at once his simpleness and his impatience.’ Cunningham says that he arrived independently at the same conclusion, and points out that it is plain from Iniquity’s opening speech that _he_ understood the words to be Pug’s.

=1. 1. 49 thy dagger.= See note 1. 1. 85.

=1. 1. 50 lusty Iuuentus.= The morality-play of _Lusty Juventus_ was written by R. Wever about 1550. It ‘breathes the spirit of the dogmatic reformation of the Protector Somerset,’ but ‘in spite of its abundant theology it is neither ill written, nor ill constructed’ (Ward, _Eng. Drama_ 1. 125). It seems to have been very popular, and the expression ‘a lusty Juventus’ became proverbial. It is used as early as 1582 by Stanyhurst, _Aeneis_ 2 (Arber). 64 and as late as Heywood’s _Wise Woman of Hogsdon_ (c 1638), where a gallant is apostrophised as Lusty Juventus (Act 4). (See Nares and _NED_.) Portions of the play had been revived not many years before this within the tragedy of _Thomas More_ (1590, acc. to Fleay 1596) under the title of _The Mariage of Witt and Wisedome_. ‘By dogs precyous woundes’ is one of the oaths used by Lusty Juventus in the old play, and may be the ‘Gogs-nownes’ referred to here (_O. Pl._, 4th ed., 2. 84). ‘Gogs nowns’ is used several times in _Like will to Like_ (_O. Pl._, 4th ed., 3. 327, 331, etc.).

=1. 1. 51 In a cloake to thy heele.= See note 1. 1. 85.

=1. 1. 51 a hat like a pent-house.= ‘When they haue walkt thorow the streetes, weare their hats ore their eye-browes, like pollitick penthouses, which commonly make the shop of a Mercer, or a Linnen Draper, as dark as a roome in Bedlam.’ Dekker, _West-ward Hoe_, _Wks._ 2. 286.

With your hat penthouse-like o’er the slope of your eyes. --_Love’s Labour’s Lost_ 3. 1. 17.

Halliwell says (_L. L. L._, ed. Furness, p. 85): ‘An open shed or shop, forming a protection against the weather. The house in which Shakespeare was born had a penthouse along a portion of it.’ In Hollyband’s _Dictionarie_, 1593, it is spelled ‘pentice,’ which shows that the rime to ‘Juventus’ is probably not a distorted one.

=1. 1. 52 thy doublet all belly.= ‘Certaine I am there was neuer any kinde of apparell euer inuented that could more disproportion the body of man then these Dublets with great bellies, ... stuffed with foure, fiue or six pound of Bombast at the least.’--Stubbes, _Anat._,