says: "The comparatively low price of the two Turkeys and four Turkey-chicks served at a feast of the serjeants-at-law in 1555 (Dugdale, Origines, p. 135) points to their having become by that time abundant, and indeed by 1573 Tusser bears witness to the part they had already begun to play in "Christmas husbandlie fare."

27. Swans. 'In England it [the Swan] was far more abundant formerly than at present, the young, or Cygnets, being highly esteemed for the table, and it was under special enactments for its preservation, and regarded as a “Bird Royal" that no subject could possess without licence from the crown, the granting of which licence was accompanied by the condition that every bird in a "game" (to use the old legal term) of Swans should bear a distinguishing mark of ownership (cygninota) on the bill. Originally this privilege was conferred on the larger freeholders only, but it was gradually extended, so that in the reign of Elizabeth upwards of 900 distinct Swan-marks, being those of private persons or corporations, were recognized by the royal Swanherd, whose jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom' (Encyc. Brit.). 'Paulus Jovius, who died in 1552, describing the Thames, says, "This river abounds in swans, swimming in flocks; the sight of whom, and their noise, are vastly agreeable to the fleets that meet them in their course"' (Knight, London 1. 8).

28. Keepe your Capitol. Alluding to the legend that the cackling of geese roused the guards of the Capitol, and saved Rome from the Gauls. Cf. Catiline 3. 2:

They help them by such aids as geese and harlots.

31-32. Pyke poore Iacks. The English pike is a peculiarly voracious fish, and preys upon the young of its own as well as of other species. Jacks means here young pikes. Cf. Cleveland, Works (1677), p. 97: 'The Jack may come to swallow the Pike, as the Interest often eats out the principal.'

34. poore Iohn. On Rom. and Jul. I. I. 28, Furness quotes Staunton: "The fish called hake, an inferior sort of cod, when dried and salted, was probably the staple fare of servants and the indigent during Lent; and this sorry dish is perpetually ridiculed by the old writers as poor John. Cf. Tempest 2. 2: 'a fish, hee smels like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell: a kind of not of the newest poore-John.'

44. thin as a lanterne. Cf. Plautus, Aulularia 3. 6:

Nolo ego ex te scire qui sit agnus curio.
Quin exta inspicere in sole etiam vivo licet;

ita is pellucet quasi lanterna Punica.

45. Intestina. NED. cites this passage incorrectly, giving Shunfield's speech to Almanach and Almanach's to P. Sen.

One of the old meanings of colon was the belly; and to feed colon meant to appease hunger. Although Jonson here specifies an intestine, he probably had this popular sense of the word colon in mind.

57. flye. See variant. Gifford's change of him into 'them' takes much of the vigor out of the line. If we retain him, the figure is that of a falcon giving chase, or perhaps of a falconer flying his bird at a quarry. Still, it is to be said that this reading implies that Lickfinger had a kind of admiration for the Canter, but of this we have had no intimation until now.

SCENE VI.

10. wretched: or with buffon licence. 'Here Jonson, as usual, prints buffon, which is necessary for the rhythm, and ought on every account to be preserved' (C.). See variants.

Jonson was thinking here of Carlo Buffone in Every Man Out. He is the prototype of the whole covey of jeerers. In The Character of the Persons he is described as 'a public, scurrilous, and prophane jester His religion is railing, and his discourse ribaldry.' And again (GC. 2. 26): 'He will sooner lose his soul than a jest, and profane even the most holy things, to excite laughter.'

..

16. your Mortgage, Statute, etc. Statutes, Blackstone says, are either public or private. A public Statute is an universal rule that regards the whole community. . . Special or private acts are rather exceptions than rules, being those which only operate upon particular persons. Thus, to show the distinction, the statute 13 Eliz. c. 10, to prevent spiritual persons from making leases for longer terms than twenty-one years, or three lives, is a public act; it being a rule prescribed to the whole body of spiritual persons in the nation: but an act to enable the bishop of Chester to make a lease to A.B. for sixty years is an exception to this rule; it concerns only the parties and the bishop's successors; and is a private act.' 17. Without your Broker. The broker's calling was often reprobated (cf. note on 2. 2. 29).

31-33. Cf. Introd., p. 28.

35-6. decreed, From whence you came. There is an ellipsis of the place between decreed and from.

39-40. forfeitures Of whole estates, if they be knowne, and taken. This, no doubt, is an allusion to Charles' methods of replenishing the Exchequer. They refers to estates, Taken means borrowed (see Glossary) in the sense of forcibly appropriated. 'The possession of such a weapon [i. e. the Star Chamber],' says Green

(Hist. 3. 147), 'would have been fatal to liberty under a great tyrant; under Charles it was turned simply to the profit of the Exchequer. Large numbers of cases which would ordinarily have come before the Courts of Common Law were called before the Star Chamber, simply for the purpose of levying fines for the Crown. The same motive accounts for the enormous penalties which were exacted for offences of a trivial character. The marriage of a gentleman with his niece was punished by the forfeiture of twelve thousand pounds, and fines of four and five thousand pounds were awarded for brawls between lords of the Court.' See also note on Induction, line 67.

46. My learned Counsell tells me here, my Cooke. 'Here of course a little joke is intended on the name of that great lawyer, but narrow-minded pedant, the lord chief justice Coke' (C.).

49. Picklocke, your Ghest, that Stentor. 'An appellation not improper for a noisy, bawling lawyer' (W.). Cf. 5. 2. 34: 'Mouth of brass.' Cf. also Gips. Metam. GC. 7. 401:

From a lawyer, three parts noise.

50. wooden collar. The pillory.

52. heart of cheare. This phrase is not in NED., but it seems to mean about the same as heart of grace, a phrase of uncertain origin, and not known before 1530. Probably they had a common origin. Take heart of grace= pluck up courage.

53. It is their yeere, and day of Iubilee. Among the Jews the year of Jubilee was 'a year of emancipation and restoration, which according to the institution in Lev. XXV. was to be kept every fifty years, and to be proclaimed by the blast of trumpets throughout the land; during it the fields were to be left uncultivated, Hebrew slaves were to be set free, and lands and houses in the open country or unwalled towns that had been sold were to revert to their former owners or their heirs' (NED.). Jubilee year in the Roman Catholic Church is observed every twenty-fifth year from Christmas to Christmas. The institution does not go back further than the time of Boniface VIII., whose bull is dated Apr. 22, 1300. It was originally appointed to recur every one hundred years, but Clement VI. cut down the period to fifty years, and Urban VI. to thirty-three (the supposed duration of the life of Christ). Finally it was fixed by Paul II. at twenty-five years. 1625 was a Jubilee year. Probably it was due to an oversight that Jonson did not change this line.

EPILOGUE

3. though the clout we do not alwaies hit. 'The metaphor is taken from archery: the clout is the white mark in the butts, which the archers aimed at. And so it is used by Shakspeare' (W.). 'Clout is merely the French clou, the wooden pin by which the target is fastened to the butt. As the head of this pin was commonly painted white, to hit the white, and hit the clout, were of course synonymous: both phrases expressed perfection in art, or success of any kind. In pursuing his metaphor, Jonson mentions the accidents by which the highest skill in archery was occasionally defeated; humidity which affected the elasticity of the string and high winds which diverted the course of the shaft' (G.). Cf. Glossary.

5. Tree. A bow. Cf. Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode (Child's Ballads 5. 57):

Lytell Johan toke none other mesure

But his bowe tre.

6. cracke a string of Art. A quibble: it carries on the figure of a bow begun in line 5, but also turns it into an image from music.

GLOSSARY

It has been my aim to include in this Glossary all obsolete, archaic, and dialectal words, phrases, and meanings in our play; all obsolete and archaic forms which are not merely old spellings; all technical terms which are not likely to be readily understood; and, in general, all words which, though still current in the senses defined, are obscure from their context or from their occurrence in the play in different senses. At least one instance is cited under every meaning. Where but one is cited, however, it does not necessarily mean that this is the only instance in the play. My main resource in this work has been the New English Dictionary (NED.), and where this is wanting, The Century Dictionary (CD.), the Standard Dictionary, and the Lexicons of Nares, Halliwell, Grose, etc.

Interrogation after a definition Is this the sense in the instance

cited?

When two or more definitions are given under one reference it means that the word defined is there used equivocally.

SN. Side-note, or bookholder's note.

† before a word or a meaning = obsolete.

The other abbreviations are in common use in Dictionaries, and need no explanation.

A, prep. [Worn down from of.] Phr. a clocke o'clock. Now dial. 3.2. 331.

Academy, n. An institution for the study of the higher learning. 'In England the word has been

Abuse, v. †1. refl. To make abused, and is now in discredit in false pretensions. Ind. 59.

†2. To misinterpret? 3. To re

this sense' (NED.). 4 Int. 26.

†Acate, n. [OF. achat, a purchase.] pl. Provisions; dainties, delicacies. 2. I. 16.

Acme, n. †The full bloom of life; mature manhood. Prol. for the S. 26.

Ad soluendum. [L. gerundial 'To payment' (Stanford

phr.]