by Thomas Nashe
100. Bowlines, ropes passed from the sail to the bow.
101. Tight and neat.
102. lusty gallant: A dance.
103. La volta, a boisterous Italian dance.
104. Strong.
105. The Sultan’s guard.
106. Emeric Molyneux of Lambeth constructed a globe in 1592.
107. Cinquepace, a lively French dance.
108. i.e. in statuary.
109. Courtesans.
110. Sketch.
111. This may refer to the Dutch painter Willem Tons (M.).
112. Ambergris, perfume from waxlike substance found in tropical seas.
113. ‘And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy’ (Acts, XXI, 9).
114. welt and gard: Adorn, trim.
115. Decorations, embellishments.
116. Immediately.
117. Richard Allington, a merchant, on his death-bed had a vision in which those who had paid him usury money demanded repayment. ‘This he did and died with a good conscience’ (M.).
118. Talked about
119. Gianbatista Fregoso, Doge of Genoa, whose book published in 1509 has a section on dreams.
120. Conrad Wolffhart (1518 – 61).
121. Possibly Valerius Maximus, but there were many others.
122. Proverbial, cf. ‘Charing-Cross was old, and old things must shrink as well as new Northern doth’ (Westward Hoi 2. 1) (M.).
123. Goblins, elves (which might take the form of an ‘urchin’ or hedgehog).
124. Evening rain. A ‘serena’ was considered harmful.
125. set… rests: Be assured, make up your mind to it.
126. Jests (variant of ‘gleek’).
127. Black sanctus, noisy discordant singing.
128. A sword dance performed in fantastic costume.
129. The second… ravishment: i.e. Philomela, changed by the gods into a nightingale, having been ravished by Tereus.
1. Ingenious.
2. Imagination, creativeness.
3. A card game.
4. Pun on ‘novum’ (new) and ‘novem’ (a dice game).
5. Throw of two aces, the lowest possible; or perhaps a dice game.
6. Pun on the sergeant or bailiff’s mace.
7. As an initiation ceremony for undergraduates.
8. Tournai and Térouanne (1513).
9. ‘We seek the heavens in our stupidity’ (Horace).
10. Reference unknown.
11. Heads.
12. ‘Let us sing of matters a little more important’ (Virgil).
13. ‘A method of cheating at dice by throwing so that the die slides without turning’ (M.).
14. ‘Something is hidden which is not obvious.’
15. Sacred to Bacchus.
16. Allusion to ‘tendit in ardua virtus’ (Ovid).
17. ‘Water of the heavens’, name of a restorative drug.
18. Specks of dust.
19. By the two to three hundredweight.
20. A coin worth about a farthing.
21. A coin which varied in value. A little later than this it was worth only one tenth of a penny.
22. Secrecy.
23. Near junction of Threadneedle St and Cornhill.
24. Brown study (M.), reverie, daze.
25. His sleep lasted forty years, or, according to Pliny, fifty-seven.
26. Skinflint.
27. A kind of shovel (M.).
28. spigots and faucets: Tops of beer and wine barrels.
29. Marrow bones, knees.
30. Tenancy of an almshouse.
31. out-brothership of brachet: ‘What “mine host” is wanting is perhaps the care of a kennel of bitch hounds in the country near one of the royal palaces’ (F.P.W.).
32. Vulgar.
33. Earnings, profits, (‘the gains from false dice are compared to those from clipping coin’, Maxwell).
34. ‘And it [dice play] was accounted so great a reproach among the noblest men, that the King of the Parthians sent golden dice to King Demetrius, for a reproach of his lightness’ (Cornelius Agrippa quoted by M.).
35. quater trey: Dice loaded so that four or three would come up (M.).
36. ‘Believe me, to give is a mark of genius’ (Ovid).
37. In tables used for learning Latin declensions the form would run Nominativo hic magister’ (or dominus), not asinus.
38. Expulsion with violence.
39. False dice, longer on the three and four than other sides.
40. Dice loaded at the corner.
41. Idling, time-wasting.
42. Thoroughly.
43. Sycophant.
44. Kick restlessly or impatiently (NED).
45. Often, probably.
46. Residence.
47. Palamedes detected Ulysses’ feigned madness.
48. Disguised himself as a woman to avoid conscription for the Trojan War.
49. Lycaon and his fifty godless sons were killed by Jove for attempting to deceive him in this way.
50. Without a stop for food.
51. Rhymed motto.
52. ‘Who goes there?’
53. Loosely fitting trousers.
54. On the back of many coins.
55. Club-foot.
56. With a bad smell.
57. Coined.
58. Scoundrel.
59. Out of bravado, as a ‘dare’.
60. Tyrant of Syracuse, who fled and took up a teaching post.
61. ‘Into our presence’.
62. Flogged (M.).
63. ‘Grief prevents [my saying] more’ (Ovid)).
64. Foretaste.
65. Knavery (NED); (to scutch = to beat, lash).
66. Base.
67. pinched… provant: Stole from some godly, righteous folk.
68. Officers would draw the pay of dead soldiers.
69. Fastidious, finicking.
70. Carefully looked after, adorned.
71. Stone used for smoothing or polishing.
72. Fouled.
73. Deferred.
74. at all aventures: Whatever happened.
75. Braggarts.
76. King… England: Towards the end of September 1513.
77. at hard meat: Put out to fodder, i.e. in confinement or retirement.
78. Let out, cut.
79. ‘Hose decorated with stripes of coloured cloth at the sides – or does “side” here mean “wide”?’ (M.).
80. Buttocks.
81. Leather apron.
82. all a more: M. suggests ‘à la mode’.
83. Tassel.
84. Quartos (1594) have ‘anckle’.
85. Large leather beer jugs.
86. M. lists five epidemics between 1485 and 1551.
87. to turn… perch: ‘To do for him’ (M.).
88. Tubs used for curing venereal disease by sweating.
89. Budge is a cheap fur from lambskin; ‘slaughter budge’ perhaps fur from the slaughter-house (M).
90. Rabbit.
91. Medicines made out of one constituent.
92. c. A.D. 130 – 200, Greek physician, most famous of ancient authorities.
93. ‘Undertake a useless or absurd task’ (M.).
94. fl. c. 400 B.C., ‘the Father of Medicine’.
95. c. 1490 – 1541, great German physician, also much involved in alchemy and superstitious doctrine.
96. Familiar spirits supposed to be carried in the pommel of his sword.
97. ‘There was more in the artificer than the artefact.’
98. Marocco was the name of the wonderful performing horse trained by the Scottish showman Bankes (fl. 1588 – 1637).
99. ‘Silently break wind’ (NED).
100. Red faced, as with drink.
101. pun on the term ‘fieri facias’, a writ served on a debtor.
102. ‘In those days’.
103. Descendants of Brute, legendary founder of London (the New Troy).
104. Bag-shaped net, the mouth of w
hich can be drawn together with cords.
105. Milan.
106. The Anabaptist uprising took place here in 1534.
107. Probably the cowl, or wooden covering over the chimney of a malt-house.
108. Body-armour.
109. Leather workers, colouring and dressing the leather after tanning.
110. Cowl-staves, sticks used for carrying burdens.
111. Adzes.
112. Armour in the form of a skull-cap.
113. Quilted.
114. Duncically, in the manner of a fool.
115. Familiar spirit.
116. Purgatory (OED); also meant a loose woman.
117. Commital, deliverance over.
118. On the spot, without more ado.
119. ‘Stuck in the mud’.
120. ‘What more [can I say]?’
121. Intermittently.
122. The Gigantes, eventually defeated by Hercules.
123. Adapted from Lucan (Pharsalia, XVIII, 504 – 5).
124. A confusion on Nashe’s part, pointed out by M. (IV, 269).
125. Marlowe’s translation of Ovid’s Amores (Elegies), II, 3, 3 – 4
126. Gelded.
127. ‘Who was resourceful in devising his own punishment’ (adapted from Ovid, Tristia, II, 343).
128. Knipperdolink and Müncer, anabaptist leaders at Münster.
129. ‘Love is my reason for following’ (Ovid).
130. Ovid, Heroides, XVII, 70.
131. ‘They follow the worse path’, adapted from Ovid (Metamorphoses, VII, 20 – 21: video meliora, probaque; Deteriora sequori: ‘I see and applaud what is better; I practise the worse’).
132. ‘What is sought is punishment’ (Ovid).
133. Adapted from Seneca, Hercules Furens, 313.
134. Enlightened reformers.
135. Synonyms.
136. Young knights errant.
137. 1517?–47 (executed). Never in Italy (M.).
138. M. quotes Surrey’s ‘Geraldine’ sonnet, starting ‘From Tuscane came my lady’s worthy race: Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.’
139. Catherine of Aragon or Catherine Parr, though Elizabeth Fitzgerald was in the household of neither but in that of Catherine Howard (M.).
140. Executioner.
141. Discussion.
142. ‘Hence those tears’ (Terence).
143. Erasmus and More met in England (1497 and 1508), and at Calais (1520) but are not known to have met in Rotterdam (M.).
144. a book… folly: Encomium Moriae, 1509.
145. First published in Latin, 1516. Translated into English, 1551.
146. ‘According to the form of the decree’.
147. Picke-davant, short pointed beard.
148. quemadmodums and quapropters: ‘ln-so-far-ases’ and ‘wherefores’.
149. Imitators of Cicero sought to achieve this particular rhythm at the end of their periods.
150. Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.
151. Term of abuse.
152. ‘As long as the wild boar loves the mountain ridges’ (i.e. for ever) (Virgil).
153. ‘I have spoken.’
154. Members of the Corporation.
155. Taverns, places of resort.
156. Used as a name for Gabriel Harvey in Have with You to Saffron Walden, III, 31, 10.
157. M. suggests variant of ‘broking’, a vague term of abuse.
158. Gadding about.
159. Frisking, flaunting equivocations.
160. Contemptuous term for academics.
161. Moechi (Greek): adulterers (with a punning reference later to men of Mecca, where Mahomet’s body in its iron coffin was said to have been drawn up to the temple roof by great loadstones).
162. ‘What an artist perishes in me’ (Suetonius).
163. A play by Gulielmus Gnapheus, or Fullonius, a Dutch scholar written in Latin, translated into English for schools, 1540. (‘Acolastus’ means ‘The unpunished’.)
164. Snapping.
165. scolded level coil: argued, ‘shouted the odds’ (‘level coil’ from French lever le cul, a party game). Luther and Carolostadius are said to have met in a disputation at Lipsia, 1519.
166. ‘Things which are above us do not concern us’ (proverb).
167. Expressed himself so ingeniously.
168. He is reckoned the world champion.
169. Marius Nizolius (?1498 – 1576), author of Thesaurus Ciceronianus, 1535.
170. Imaginative, quick-witted.
171. Terrace.
172. 1486–1535 b. Cologne, his lectures on the Cabala gaining him reputation as a magician.
173. An Italian juggler and conjurer who visited England between 1576 and 1583.
174. half a month’s mind: An inclination, or fancy, to.
175. Famous oration of the youthful Cicero.
176. About fifty gallons.
177. This was printed in England’s Parnassus, 1600, signed T. Nash (reading ‘paint’ for ‘paints’ v.3. ‘falls’ for ‘flows’ v.3).
178. ‘Circuitous ways leading nowhither’ (M.).
179. In spite of.
180. Perhaps a reference to a character called Bruquell, a dwarf servant in Palmendos, a play popular in England from 1589 (M.).
181. Plausible.
182. Swooned.
183. Murdered.
184. Counterfeit coin.
185. Noose for hanging, (also meant truant).
186. In spite of everything.
187. Rigmarole.
188. intrinsical legerdemain: Secretive trickery.
189. (?) A name for Puritans (M.).
190. The opening verse of Psalm 51, often repeated before an execution.
191. Informer, spy.
192. ‘Old so-and-so’ (M.).
193. Was called.
194. Bergomask, native of Bergamo (M.).
195. Cuckold him.
196. Pawn of wax and parchment: Written security.
197. Confederates.
198. Cheap prostitute.
199. To one side.
200. ‘Thalia [one of the Muses] gave me a mind easily moved’ (Ovid).
201. The lowest throw in a dice game.
202. Encircling.
203. beat the bush… caught the bird: M. quotes Heywood’s Proverbs: ‘And while I at length debate and beat the bush, there shall step in other men and catch the bird.’
204. Simple, plain.
205. Cuckolded.
206. ‘Understand’ (as used in old grammar books).
207. (?1486–1555) accompanied Howard (Surrey) in a naval expedition against the French in 1522.
208. Was ledger (resident) ambassador.
209. (1492 – 1554) dedicated Volume II of his letters to Henry VIII in 1542. There appears no evidence for the appointment Nashe specifies, and Henry’s gift was of 300 scudi sent through the ambassador. Later N. confuses Pietro with the poet Bernardo Accolti, called l’unico Aretino.
210. Pedantic expression.
211. Perhaps a reference to the Epigrams, XI, 6, 12 – 13. (Translation: ‘I can’t achieve anything when too sober, but when in my cups fifteen poets will come to my aid.’)
212. Despised.
213. An imperfect edition of 1598 contains attacks upon Moses, Christ and Mahomet.
214. An Italian verse translated ‘Here lies Aretino, a bitter poison to the human race, whose tongue pierced both the living and dead. He said nothing ill of God, excusing himself by saying he did not know Him.’
215. ‘The Scourge of Princes’, ‘The Truthful’, ‘The Divine’, ‘The Unique Aretino’ (properly the title of Bernardo Accolti)
216. La Umanità di Christo, 1535.
217. ‘The seven penitential psalms’: I sette Salmi de la Penitentia di David, 1534.
218. La Vita di San Tomaso, Signor d’Aquino, 1543.
219. La Vita di Maria Vergine, 1539.
220. Theodore de Bèze, who repented later of the Latin poems written in his dissipated youth.
221. Splendour.
222. Literally very high-pitched, above e-la, the highest note of the scale; therefore ‘immoderately’.
223. ‘Shame and love do not tend in the same direction’ (Ovid).
224. Piece of wood fastened to the leg.
225. First mover: this sonnet was printed in England’s Parnassus, 1600, signed Th.N.
226. ‘Gods of the earth’.
227. Sayings from Ovid’s Amores, Heroides and Metamorphoses translated: ‘A girl is a sweet evil’, ‘I pursue what flies from me’, ‘Love is the reason for my following’, ‘O unhappy me’, ‘Why have I seen? Why have I perished?’, ‘I do not love patiently’, ‘Only let her be patient to be loved’.
228. ‘From tears, more tears’.
229. Leap in a curvet.
230. Swollen, inflated.
231. Fitted, suited.
232. ‘Winged by a sting’.
233. ‘Every lover is a soldier’ (Ovid).
234. ‘Ultimately it is sufficient’.
235. ‘Wonderful because monstrous’.
236. ‘Liberality carries the seeds of its own destruction’ (St Jerome).
237. ‘You can’t take anything at face value’ (Juvenal).
238. ‘Care is a thing of the future’ (Ovid).
239. ‘My white hairs are my fetters.’
240. A light shield or buckler.
241. Fauxbourdon (here ‘theme’ or ‘motto’).
242. ‘We hope, they shine.’
243. Jaundice.
244. Device, motto.
245. Word, ‘mot’.
246. Ovid, Metamorphoses, XV, 40.
247. ‘I am sustained by hope.’
248. ‘Monuments of grief will remain.’
249. ‘I flourish not without wound’ (from Plautus).
250. ‘Wisdom, the conqueror of fortune’.
251. Literally ‘No one else unfolds’.
252. ‘Abundance has made me needy’ (Ovid).
253. Adapted from Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 470.
254. Ill-tempered, shrewish.
255. ‘What use are kingdoms without the ability to enjoy them?’ (Ovid).
256. Cowlstaff.
257. ‘Leavings’ (M.).
258. Either Alexander del Medici, ruler of Florence from 1530 to 1537, or Cosimo (1537 – 74) (M.).
259. ‘Kiss the hands’ (Spanish: ‘beso las manos’).
260. Plural of cimex, a bed-bug.
261. Augustine.
262. Meaning unknown. The Sistine Chapel has five sibyls with scrolls, painted by Michelangelo; Dover Wilson suggests Nashe may be drawing on a traveller’s story referring to these.