by Thomas Nashe
263. Emendation of ‘the jems piazza’, suggested by M., referring to the Piazza Giudea.
264. Probably a printer’s mistake for Gregory XI (suggestion by E. S. de Beer and J. C. Maxwell).
265. De Beer suggests this may be a mistake for the burial place of S. Francesca Romana.
266. The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, a poetical miscellany by Thomas Proctor, 1578 (M.).
267. M.’s suggested emendation for ‘lineally’.
268. Like a syringe.
269. Sycophants.
270. The horn was held to be an antidote for poison.
271. ‘Vet erat aeternum’ (Metamorphoses, I, 107).
272. Gerardus Mercator designed a pair of globes, 1541 – 51, in common use in England in 1592.
273. In case.
274. Fiery.
275. T. Lanquet (1545). M. quotes ‘a pestilence in Rome which consumed an 100 thousand’ under the year 1522.
276. Into practice.
277. Mattress.
278. At his mercy (the period for prayer and confession before execution).
279. Tried, tempted.
280. Without delay.
281. As long as it takes to say the Lord’s Prayer.
282. Crush.
283. Hell.
284. Pander.
285. Puritanical.
286. Literally a swelling of the abdomen.
287. Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 447.
288. M. quotes Cornelius Agrippa: ‘King Agamemnon, also going to the Trojan war, left at home a musician that played the Dorian tune, who with the foot spondeus preserved his wife Clitemnestra in chastity and honesty, wherefore she could not be deflowered by Aegisthus before he had wickedly slain the musician.’
289. Release, free.
290. The slip knot.
291. Fawning, jeering.
292. Epicharmus, Greek comedian, born c. 540 B.C.
293. Fed in their humours: Encouraged in their peculiarities.
294. ‘A poisoned fig used as a secret way of destroying an obnoxious person’ (NED).
295. Ovid, Ars Amatoris, II, 123.
296. cf. ‘Patientia longa memorum’ (Ovid, Tristia, V, 12, 31).
297. Wizened, sickly-looking.
298. Tumult, disturbance.
299. ‘Loops or straps on a sword-belt from which the sword was hung’ (OED).
300. Grogram, coarse silk fabric.
301. Strutting.
302. Sop made with breadcrumbs.
303. play… aloft: Recite mumbo-jumbo as before conjurer’s tricks.
304. The forty-nine daughters of Danaus murdered their husbands md were condemned to collect water in sieves for ever.
305. Pitch and pay: Pay cash.
306. Ovid, Tristia, III, 3, 53.
307. Penthouses.
308. Arrested.
309. A legal charge, a difficulty, a scrape.
310. Blood-letting, ‘bleeding’.
311. Usually medicines to help a wound to heal.
312. Pimple.
313. Antidote against poisons.
314. A doit, small Dutch coin of little value (i.e. he wouldn’t give any time to study).
315. Overthwart, a side-blow.
316. Gargles.
317. Bumpkins, fools.
318. Harlot’s attendant (M.).
319. A forward youth, a coxcomb.
320. Role, part in a play.
321. Trumpet sound, but used colloquially to suggest lecherous feeling.
322. M. refers to a ballad entered in the Stationers Register, 16 February 1590/1: ‘A Ballad entitled all the merry pranks of him that whips men in the highways’.
323. Proverbially dishonest and brutal. The practice of whipping a chained blind bear after bull-baiting or bear-baiting was not uncommon. F.P.W. points out that Dekker associated it with colliers in Work for Armourers,1609.
324. Bankrupts.
325. As a trouble-maker.
326. A noisy, burlesque hymn.
327. (?) Mix, (NED gives ‘to discharge as urine’).
328. With little appetite.
329. Scratching.
330. Charles de Bourbon, killed in an assault on Rome, 1527.
331. Legal term, used by a sheriff unable to make an arrest.
332. Mercuric chloride.
333. From the forge, sometimes used medicinally.
334. 29 June.
335. Adapted from Virgil, Aeneid, III, 56 – 7.
336. size ace and the dice: ‘All they possess’ (a reference to a game; precise meaning unknown).
337. Choking in the throat (cf. Lear’s ‘hysterica passio’).
338. (?) Great to-do (M.).
339. Misused legal term, here meaning inadvertent.
340. Begrudged.
341. Wizened.
342. Tool for cutting holes.
343. Errand.
344. Move, flinch.
345. Crushed, squeezed.
346. Cruel, savage.
347. Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520, the English camp being at Guisnes, the French at Ard.
1. A familiar phrase for provision (for eating etc.) during Lent; appropriate here because the work was begun in Lent 1598, though finished towards the end of the year.
2. Where Nashe stayed after leaving London to avoid arrest after the condemnation of the play Isle of Dogs in the summer of 1597 (see Introduction p. 15).
3. ‘I seek fame through the waves.’
4. Humfrey King, author of An Halfpenny-worth of Wit in a Pennyworth of Paper.
5. ‘Here and everywhere’.
6. The great patron of classical times (here used humorously, apparently with reference to King’s liking for morris-dancing).
7. Identity uncertain; M. suggests a reference to the H.S. mentioned on the title-page of Sidney’s Arcadia.
8. Enclosed.
9. M. suggests that it is in the style of such swaggering bloods that the following passage is written.
10. ‘Presumably some fashion set by those who had taken part in the Cadiz expedition of 1596’ (M.).
11. Mops.
12. Sometimes thought to be an autobiographical reference by Nashe, ut more probably, as M. believes, part of the character of a ‘bravamente signer’.
13. Equipment.
14. Ensigns.
15. A flower used to deter vermin.
16. in the word: On the word.
17. Carpet knight (cf. armchair politician).
18. primrose… primero: A flowery creature only good for playing cards (primero was a popular card-game).
19. If.
20. depure, decurtate: Purify, cut (shorten).
21. Worn, cast-off.
22. Bill, account.
23. Makes its mark (on his purse).
24. on the heild: In decline.
25. against their coming: In preparation for their arrival.
26. devil a whit: Nothing.
27. The university courses of the Trivium and Quadrivium.
28. if… Lady: If it were not regarded as a little pleasure for the ladies.
29. A fifteenth-century monk.
30. Term of ridicule derived from a fifteenth-century scholar, called Dorbellus.
31. M. suggests a mocking reference to Richard Harvey’s use of the word in his Lamb of God.
32. Presume, infer.
33. Caress, fondle.
34. Pluck, gather.
35. Unsalted.
36. A translation from the Italian, by one R.D., written in a style comparable to Nashe’s own.
37. A book or ballad about the Tiverton fire of 1598.
38. A halberd used by the watch.
39. Strong ale.
40. Young gentleman, squire.
41. The subtitle of King’s An Halfpenny-worth of Wit in a Penny-worth of Paper.
42. Twelve barrels.
43. ‘Scurvy’, contemptible.
44. Fanciful comic name, also used by Drayton.
4
5. Presumably a mildly abusive term (cf. ‘noodle’).
46. Fool (as also used in HWY, M. III. 13. 2).
47. answer to the Trim Tram: A mitten reply to an attack on himself, called The Trimming of Tom Nashe.
48. the praise… Phalaris: Reference to learned treatises about trivia.
49. Bee to a Battledore: Proverbial (cf. Pierce Penniless, n. 319), the ‘Bee’ being the letter B and the phrase referring presumably to very elementary learning.
50. that’s Pierce a-God’s name: That’s an achievement truly up to my standard, as you know it from Pierce Penniless.
51. cf. Nashe’s admiration of Aretino expressed in The Unfortunate Traveller, p. 309).
52. linsey wolsey: Poor cloth of mixed wool and flax.
1. See Introduction p. 15.
2. Stickleback, i.e. the smallest, most insignificant of creatures.
3. Birthpangs, pains in the breeding.
4. See Introduction p. 15.
5. ‘It is written’.
6. ‘After various mishaps’.
7. ‘Here is the calm west wind, here the rainy south’ (Plantus).
8. Ganymede, identified with Aquarius (the water-bearer) as a constellation.
9. ‘One letter more than a doctor’.
10. Homer went first to Cyme, where he and his offers to immortalize the town were rejected, and thence to Phocaea where he was accepted and afterwhich he named his poem The Phocaeid.
11. Misers, skinflints.
12. Reputation.
13. Proclaimed as by cries of ‘Oyez’ (NED).
14. Decrepit old men (NED), probably N.’s coinage.
15. ‘An obsolete term of contempt’ (NED).
16. Stinginess (from Euçleon, a miser, chief character in Plautus’ Autularia).
17. Miserliness (‘snudge’, a miser).
18. George Buchanan (1506 – 82). Not an epigram but from an elegy (M.).
19. Penalties, fines.
20. ‘No anchor now holds our boat’ (Ovid).
21. Landscape.
22. Pre-eminent.
23. Capital city.
24. King Gurgunt, founder of Norwich.
25. Former seat of East-Anglian kings.
26. Foaming, seething.
27. Writ of ejectment from a holding (here, from terra firma, M. suggests).
28. In spite of.
29. Cursory account.
30. William Camden (1551 – 1623) in Britannia, 1594 edition.
31. Does not hesitate.
32. Undefeatably.
33. At a quick glance.
34. The carrying capacity of a ship.
35. Gluttons.
36. Large ships, bigger than a galley, used chiefly in war.
37. Crowded.
38. in the full clew: Spread wide (a clew is the corner of the sail by which it is spread out and attached to the lower yard).
39. Provide and feed.
40. Subdivisions of the counties.
41. Purposely, advisedly.
42. Leave out.
43. Descending.
44. In Holinshead’s Chronicle It is Hardicanute, Canute’s son, who died ‘with a pot in his hand’ at a feast in Lambeth (M.).
45. ‘Raised his head out of the waves’ (Virgil and Ovid).
46. Frothy liquid (NED).
47. Separated as by a boundary.
48. A bunch, cluster, or clump.
49. ‘There is mutability in all things’ (Terence).
50. Village.
51. Maintenance, repair-work.
52. Sea-going.
53. Cast their heels in their neck: Leapt.
54. Swiving, or copulating.
55. Yokels.
56. Heated, matured.
57. Digested.
58. Banked-up land round the coast.
59. A month, (a warp meaning a tale of four).
60. Avoided.
61. Built, ‘flung up’.
62. Opposite.
63. ‘Which no ageing can destroy’ (adapted from Ovid).
64. Fluctuous… simple: ‘Something is evidently wrong with the text. The simplest emendation would be to read “Madonna Amphitrite’s fluctuous demeans”, but the phrase is too clumsy to be quite satisfactory’ (M.). ‘Demeans’ would then presumably be ‘demesnes’ going with ‘fee simple’ and meaning land in legal possession.
65. At Holywell in Flintshire.
66. Note-books.
67. Sailing chart.
68. Provision sellers to the army.
69. Passing-bell.
70. Does not recognize any church as being on a footing with itself unless it be a cathedral or minster.
71. Harbour.
72. Afternoon sleep.
73. The seven martyred brothers of Ephesus who slept for two (or three) hundred years before returning to life.
74. Padded with stuffing.
75. Challenged.
76. Shreds, pieces.
77. A small fast vessel used as a transport (NED).
78. Raised.
79. ‘Dear offspring of the gods’ (Virgil).
80. Yarmouth had been given rights in the appointment of this inspecting officer.
81. ‘Coming directly’.
82. Closely.
83. (?) Chines.
84. Supporting from below.
85. Show respect to, (literally ‘take off ha to’).
86. Lofty.
87. Enclosing in a ring.
88. Corruption of St Olave’s.
89. Seize, arrest.
90. Coroners.
91. (?) Criticized.
92. Past.
93. Rebuked, snubbed.
94. Extravagantly.
95. Loss.
96. Knock-out blow.
97. Bate… of: ‘Not come up to’ (M.).
98. Earliest.
99. Birthday, horoscope.
100. Moment.
101. Laws governing tenure and inheritance of land.
102. M. quotes Lyly’s Mother Bomby, III, 4. 5: ‘I can live in Christendom as well as in Kent,’ adding that although the saying is common it is still not adequately explained.
103. In possession of the fief, the due from the land.
104. ‘Penelope unwinding the warp’ (Cicero). A reference to the story of Ulysses’ wife, hard pressed by suitors in his absence.
105. ‘As no one is wretched unless compared [sc. to someone else], so nothing appears wonderful unless it is compared with other things. Give ground before the sun, ye shining stars; give way, remaining sail-bearing towns, before the most splendid of naval bases. But I return now to the vernacular’ (M. says the Latin is ‘apparently Nashe’s own’).
106. Giving a first name.
107. Famous orator and financial administrator in Athens, c. 330 B.C.
108. Blood-relations or close friends.
109. Poundage… lurched: ‘Some contribution to the poor-rate or possibly to a special fund appropriated to the relief of those whose ships had met with disaster’ (M.’s suggestion).
110. Norwich had twenty-four aldermen and forty-eight members of the Common Council.
111. By which ways and means.
112. Beginning (of speech or exposition).
113. St Bartholomew’s Day, 24 August.
114. This was in 1578.
115. Denes, sandy coastland.
116. Wander.
117. Sea of Asaph.
118. Powder.
119. This was in 1589.
120. Cadiz, the expedition of 1596.
121. Dunkirk pirates.
122. ‘The word ordinarily meant “passage” or “passage-money”’ (M.).
123. Rent.
124. Be equal to.
125. By the proportion… image of it: ‘This seems to make no sense, Cadiz was taken by the Spaniards in April 1596, and retaken for the French by the Earl of Essex on 21 June of the same year. But it does not seem there was any surprise’ (M.).
126. Flap or fold.
127. Broad.
128. Virginia, the native term for which was Wingandecoa.
129. A gambling term (to ‘vic’ was to wager) (M.).
130. Long series.
131. The nave of St Paul’s, a popular meeting place.
132. Writing materials.
133. NED suggests time to draw in the haking, a special kind of fishing net.
134. Name for the Persian monarch.
135. Richard Hakluyt (1554 – 1616) first published The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation in 1589.
136. Those born under Mercury were supposed to possess an aptitude for commerce (M.).
137. William Harborne (d. 1617), first English ambassador to Turkey.
138. Here means successful.
139. Richly.
140. Ensign.
141. With raised shoulders.
142. Swaggering.
143. Gold coins.
144. Gromwell seed, symbolizing profit.
145. Overthwart ledging: System of protective cross-bars.
146. Gives… to: Will not admit the superiority of.
147. Cloaks.
148. Magistrates (in Sparta).
149. The London aldermen, or possibly sheriffs.
150. ‘New Troy’, i.e. London.
151. Imperator.
152. A mountain range in the neighbourhood of Troy, covered with woods and said, by the poets, to have been frequented by the gods during the Trojan war.
153. A squall.
154. Beaten, knocked (past tense of ‘ding’).
155. Cookery.
156. Aromatic wood used in cooking and medicine.
157. ‘A cooke they hadde with hem for the nones. To boille the chiknes with the marybones And poudre marchant tart and galingale’ (Canterbury Tales, Prologue, 381).
158. Eulogizes.
159. Banquets or perhaps delicacies.
160. Roll.
161. To the thing itself.
162. The Battle of Frogs and Mice.
163. Slippers (often high-heeled).
164. 1511 – 36, a Dutch poet.
165. Used by Dante in De vulgari eloquentia and b earlier writers.
166. Panacea, or supposed remedy for all ills.
167. Tree from the West Indies; its wood is used in medicine.
168. Clysters, commonly an enema.
169. Treacles, compounds used as remedies for many diseases.
170. Another general medicine, the name deriving from Mithridates VI of Pontus, supposedly proof against all poisons.
171. Antimony, metallic substance used in alchemy.
172. Later.
173. Writers of the horn (i.e. the arts of cuckoldry). (See noe on this passage: Introduction pp. 41 – 2.)
174. Do not hesitate to.