Jonson's ability as a translator, to the disparagement of his genius and originality.

Minor debts to Greek and Latin authors alluded to in the notes are: 'white hen,' 1. 3. 100; 'Old master Grosse,' 1. 5. 7; 'Giges ring,' 1. 6. 21; 'sought my selfe, without my selfe,' 2. 1. 60; Sparta,' 2. 6. 44; Flies are busie!' 2. 6. 73: Iuno's milke' and 'blood of Venus,' 3. 1. 100.

C. Probable Sources for the Court of Love

The fact that the proceedings of the court in Act 2, Scene 6; Act 3, Scene 2; and Act 4, Scene 4 are held before Prue as a sovereign, and the nature of Lovel's bill of complaint, 2. 6. 139-145, make it probable that Jonson was familiar with some account of that mediæval institution, the Court of Love. In the way of allegory there had been an immense amount written on this subject, largely in French, before his time; but treating the Court of Love as a legal institution, there are two names which stand out especially prominent for the record they left of that phase of mediæval chivalry: Andreas and Martial d'Auvergne. The former, probably about the end of the twelfth century, wrote a book entitled Tractatus amoris et de amoris remedio Andreae cappellani papae Innocentii quarti. Martial d'Auvergne, ca. 1440-1508, gave to the world an ampler account of the institution in a work generally known as his Arrêts d'Amours. In the British Museum catalogue the title-page reads: 'Martialis Arverni. . . Aresta Amorum, sive Processus inter amantes, cum decisionibus Parlamenti: adjectis B Curtii Symphoriani commentariis.' The Library possesses editions dated 1538, 1544, 1566, 1587, and

1611. There is also a book called Cupid, made up of extracts from d'Auvergne and d'Aurigny bearing on the same subject, and published in a number of editions previous to 1629. One edition is dated 1627.

Among the plays of Jonson's contemporaries we find the Court of Love employed in Marston's Parasitaster, or the Fawn, 1606, in Middleton's Triumphs of Love, 1619, and in Massinger's Parliament of Love, 1624. In these plays, however, the courts are held before men, and in all other respects the conception is so different from that of The New Inn that there can be no suspicion of their having influenced Jonson. Much closer does our play lie to the institution portrayed by d'Auvergne; and while the evidence at hand. does not warrant an assertion, yet, considering the evident popularity of that work, we are entirely within the bounds of reason in suggesting that is was from d'Auvergne that Jonson got his idea for the Court of Love which is represented in this play. Most recent researches1 point out the folly of interpreting the old works as seriously asserting that the Court of Love was an established institution. This does not affect our point of view, however, and in order to show the nature of the suggestion Jonson was likely to receive, I quote from an account of the Court of Love2 based on a study of Andreas and d'Auvergne :

Courts of Love arose in various places, the object of which was to legislate on all questions of the affections, to arrange disputes between lovers, to pass sentence on any lover who was in the wrong, and generally to establish a system of jurisprudence, which should be useful in determining any vexed questions which might arise between lovers themselves, and so to render unnecessary any appeal to the

1 W. A. Neilson, The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, Harvard Studies in Philology and Literature, Vol. 6.

2 J. F. Rowbotham, The Troubadours and Courts of Love, p. 235.

courts, except as a last resource. Of these courts, the most celebrated were those of Queen Eleanor of England, of the ladies of Gascony, of the Viscountess of Narbonne, of the Countess of Champagne, and of the Countess of Flanders. Of these it will be seen that the first three, which were likewise the most celebrated, were in the English dominions, and exercising as they did a wide jurisdiction over the neighbouring district, to these would be submitted the disputes of the English troubadours and their ladyloves. There were also several courts in Provence, those of Pierrefeu, Signe, Romanin, and Avignon being the most celebrated. History has preserved to us the names of the ladies who judged at these courts.

To constitute the court large numbers of ladies assembled.

เ

We are led to assume that one of the ladies was appointed the president. Firstly, from the fact that many of the courts took their name from some leading lady, who, on that account alone, would seem to have been in superior authority to the others, as for instance the Court of Queen Eleanor of England, the Court of the Countess of Champagne, etc. Secondly, from such expressions as these in the judgments: The Countess' (who had convened the court) 'declared the following sentence.' But like the method in vogue with an English jury, the complete assent of all the ladies present was necessary to the legalisation of a verdict, for, says André, in relation to the verdict of the Court of Love in Gascony, 'Dominarum ergo curia in Vasconia congregata, de totius curiae assensu, perpetua fuit constitutione firmatum ut,' etc. 'When the court of the ladies of Gascony had assembled, it was resolved, with the assent of the whole court,' etc. 1

Compare Prue's remark, 4. 4. 225: The whole Court runnes into your sentence, Sir!'

The following example of a Court proceeding, which Rowbotham quotes as the 40th trial in d'Auvergne's book, will serve to show the nature of the material at one's command in that work:

A process between a young lady and a lover of hers. The complaint of the lady plaintiff was that once she remembered the defendant as gay and joyous as could be, neat in his attire, pleasant, gracious, and agreeable. That now is all changed. The defendant has become pensive, dreaming, and melancholy. He seems to be tired of life. If she speaks to him, he ponders a long time before giving a reply.

1 Ibid. p. 238.

If any one gives him a bouquet, he tears all the flowers to pieces. And directly he hears the jongleurs begin to play, tears fill his eyes and he can only gasp for breath. He is cold when it is hot, and hot when it is cold.

On the part of the defendant it was urged, that in the service of love, pain and sorrow were necessities; that there was never a joy which was not purchased at the expense of a hundred griefs. The loyal lover, it was maintained, was always the most sorrowful. The defendant had fully resolved to abandon all love, and to recover and regain the time which he had lost and spent upon it. After much more to the same effect, the defendant begged the permission of the e court to be allowed to depart from the service of love for evermore.

The plaintiff, however, replied that the defendant ought not to have any such permission; that any other objects in life save love, such as money or the goods of this world, were of inferior consequence; for, indeed, if he lived and enjoyed good health, that was sufficient. She maintained further, that the foundation of all his sorrows was pure fantasy and should not be attended to.

The defendant declared that he would as soon die as live. He declared further, that would to God he could become joyful! But no one could make him so. For when he remembered the joys and the follies of the past, there was no joy for him, but he could with difficulty restrain himself from weeping.

The arguments on both sides having been heard, the court decided that the defendant should be sent to the country, and should remain a prisoner in beautiful gardens for the space of a month, in order that he might see the beautiful flowers and verdure, and enjoy their beauty. The court likewise ordained that the plaintiff should accompany him, and should remain with him during the whole of the said month, and indeed until he was quite cured. 1

Such was the institutional Court of Love as Jonson probably read of it in the Arrêts d'Amours of Martial d'Auvergne. In filling in the details of the procedure of the Court, he seems to have been familiar with certain legal formulæ employed in that curious chivalric institution, the trial by combat. Neilson calls attention to Stow's account of a trial of this nature, which was held at Tothill in 1571. 'Stow describes the oath taken as follows: "And then was the prover to be sworn as followeth :-This hear, you justices, that I have this day neither eat, drunk, nor 2 George Neilson, Trial by Combat, p. 159.

1 Ibid. p. 329.

n

yet have upon me either bone, stone, ne glass, or any enchantment, sorcery or witchcraft, where through the power of the Word of God might be inleased or diminished, and the devil's power increased, and that my appeal is true, so help me God and his saints, and by this Book."'

1

An account of this oath, fuller and more nearly like that employed in the second scene of Act 2, is to be found in the Black Book of the Admiralty, in the chapter entitled 'The Ordenaunce and Fourme of Fightyng within Listes':

And than the conestable shall make calle by the marchall the appellaunt agayne, and shall make hym ley his hande as he did afore upon the masscboke, and shall say, A. de K., thou swerest, that thou ne havest ne shalt have more poyntes ne poyntes on the, ne on thy body within thise listes, but they that ben assigned by the court, that is to say, long swerde, shorte swerde, and dagger, nor noon oothir knyff litill nor mykell, nor noon othir instrument, ne engyne of poynte or oothir wise, ne stone of vertue, ne herbe of vertue, ne charme, ne experiment, ne carocte, ne othir inchauntment by the, ne for thee, by the which thou trusteth the the bettir to ovircome the foreseide C. de B. thyne adversarie, that shall come ayenst the within theise listes this day in his defence; ne that thou trustith in noon othir thyng, but oonly in God and thi body, and on thy rightfull quarell, so helpe the God and theise halowes. And the othe made he shalbe led agayne to his place.

In the same wise shall be doon to the defendaunt.

The Host's direction to the clerk of the Court to take down the appearance of the appellant and defendant and how accoutred and armed they come finds a prototype in the Black Book:

...

The conestable clerke shall write and set in registre the coomyng and the houre of the entryng of the appellaunt, and hou that he entris the liste on foote, . . . and also the harneis of the appellaunt, hou that he is armed, and with hou many wepens he entrith the listes, and what vitailles and oothir leeful necessaries he bryngeth in with hym. In the same maner shalbe doon to the defendaunt.2