Ray's English Proverts 8 22. Wits. NOTES. outlandish Mental powers. Jonson uses the word in the plural, 10 14, 16 5, 23 33, 24 8; in the singular, 30 23 and 54 11; and in its modern sense, 8 22. 8 23. 68 11. There are. The folio reads they are. Caract. Carat, the usual Elizabethan form of the word. Cf. Every Man in his Humor, 3. 2. 8 27. Honesta ambitio. Honorable ambition. 8 29. Worthy of love. The folio reads leave for love. 8 31. Maritus improbus. A shameless husband. 8 31. Delicate. Choice, agreeable. Cf. 44 22. 91. Afflictio pia magistra. Freely, but sufficiently translated in the text. 93. Deploratis facilis descensus Averni. To the lost, easy is the descent into hell. An adaptation of Virgil's well-known words: “facilis descensus Averno" (Æneid, 6. 126). 98. Ægidius cursu superat. Ægidius wins in the race, or excels at running., Ægidius was a Roman commander in Gaul under Majorian (457-461 A.D.). He is described by Gibbon (Decline and Fall, chap. 36) as one "who equalled or at least imitated the heroes of ancient Rome." The allusion of the text is not clear. 99. Footman. A runner attending a person of rank, to go before and assist on bad roads or in crossing streams (Halliwell). 9 10. thrift. Prodigo nummi nauci. Money is worthless to a spend 9 13. Munda et sordida. Bedizened but filthy. Cf. the proverb: The more women look in their glasses, the less they look to their houses (Ray's English Proverbs, p. 34, and Outlandish Proverbs, No. 250, London, 1640). 9 18. Latro sesquipedalis. A thief and a half. Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica, 9.7: Sesquipedalia verba, foot and a half foot words. 9 18. The thief that had a longing. The folio gives the marginal note, “with a great belly"; i.e. with a great appetite. Cf. a similar and more common use of the word "stomach" in the same sense. Bettris, sent to invite Benedick to supper, plays upon the word "stomach," appetite or courage (Much Ado, 2. 3. 265). 9 20. Like the German lord. The folio gives as marginal note, Com[es] de Schortenhien, which Gifford, on I know not what authority, corrects to Schertenhein; Cunningham reads Schortenhein. 9 22. Herborough or harborough. A place of temporary residence, an inn or lodging. 927. Calumniæ fructus. The fruit of calumny. 934. A mere impertinent. The folio has the marginal note impertinens. 10 5. Bellum scribentium. War of writers. Cf. "How do the grammarians hack and slash for the genitive case in Jupiter! How do they break their own pates to salve that of Priscian! Yea, even among wiser militants, how many wounds have been given, and credits slain, for the poor victory of an opinion or the beggarly conquest of a distinction! Scholars are men of peace; they bear no arms, but their tongues are sharper than Actius, his razor; their pens carry farther, and give louder report than thunder: I had rather stand the shock of a basilisco, than the fury of a merciless pen" (Sir Thomas Brown, Religio Medici, ed. Macmillan, p. 98). 10 11. Sed meliore in omne, etc. But I have enjoyed a mind and disposition in all respects better than my fortune. 10 13. Pingue solum lassat, etc. Rich soil wearies, but labor itself is delightful. 10 14. Differentia inter doctos et sciolos. The difference between the learned and smatterers. 10 14. Wits. Cf. 8 22, 16 5, 54 11, and 68 11. 10 21. Welt. A hem, or border; an edge made by folding cloth over a cord. Still in use in some parts of the United States. 10 23. Impostorum fucus. The pretence of impostors. Icuncularum motio. Puppet play. 10 28. 10 29. cable. 10 31. Et sordet gesticulatio. Principes et administri. And the gestures become despi Princes and their ministers. 11 4. Finis expectandus, etc. Freely: We should await the outcome of the career of each man, for man is a being most subject to change. Possibly in allusion to the well-known story of Solon's reply to Croesus, that no man can be considered happy until his death. See Herodotus, Clio, 30 et seqq. 11 7. 11 7. 11 8. Scitum Hispanicum. A Spanish maxim. A quick; i.e. a current saying. Artes inter hæredes non dividi. A man's accomplishments are not divisible amongst his heirs. 11 14. Non nova res livor. Translated in the words immediately following. Mr. Swinburne considers the next five sections a connected essay on envy and calumny, and adds, "for weight, point, and vigor, it would hardly be possible to overpraise it" (A Study of Ben Jonson, p. 136). 11 17. Quorum odium virtute relicta placet. Whom it gives satis faction to hate, abandoning virtue. I have purposely preserved the ambiguity of the words quorum odium. 11 30. Nil gratius protervo lib[ro]. Nothing is more delightful than a racy book. 12 4. Jam litteræ sordent. Nowadays literature is despised; literally, filthy. 12 4. He is upbraidingly called a poet. Cf. 22 19 and 44 10. As to this disrepute of poetry, see the Defense of Poesie (ed. Cook, p. 45) : "And now that an over-faint quietness should seem to strew the house for poets, they are almost in as good reputation as mountebanks at Venice." See also Puttenham: "For as well poets as poesy are despised, and the name become of honorable, infamous, subject to scorn and derision" (Arte of English Poesie, 1. 8). 12 10. Pastus hodier[ni] ingen[ii]. “The diet of the times," in the author's words. Note the personal element of these five extracts on calumny, breaking forth at last into the personal pronoun: "but they are rather enemies of my fame than me, these barkers." 12 12. Gallants cannot sleep else. Cf. Juvenal, Satire, 3. 281: Ergo non aliter poterit dormire; and Proverbs, 4. 16. 12 24. Sed seculi morbus. Translated in the text. 12 28. Her dotage is now broke forth. For this use of be instead of the modern English have, see Sh. Gram. § 295. 12 31. Alastoris malitia. The malice of Alastor, an avenging deity or genius. Cf. Plutarch, Life of Marius (Clough, III. p. 54, note): "Marius boasted that he had brought upon him [Metellus] an avenging genius, an Alastor; i.e. had put him, as it were, within the range of punishment divinely attaching to particular acts, however committed." See also Life of Cicero (ibid. V. p. 86), where åλáσrwp is translated "divine vengeance." Shelley's use of the word as the "spirit of solitude" is very different. 13 4. Mali choragi fuere. They were bad choragi; i.e. they discharged their duties unworthily. The choragus, or choregus, was one who discharged the duties of the choregia, one of the most expensive of the ordinary liturgies at Athens. These duties consisted chiefly in providing the chorus, their costumes, and their trainer, and keeping all during the period of rehearsal. 13 9. Meretricious. The folio reads meritorious, a palpable misprint, corrected by Gifford. 13 9. But these. As to these; a classical construction. 13 12. 13 14. That an Elephant [1]630. The folio omits the numeral 1. 13 15. Canary sack. A strong, sweet wine. "Sack if it be Seres (as it should be), you shall know it by the mark of a cork, burned on one side of the bung, and they be ever full gage, and so are other sacks, and the longer they lye, the better they be. . . . Your strong sacks are of the Islands of the Canaries and of Malligo" (Needham's English Housewife, quoted in Drake, Sh. and his Times, II. p. 131, et seqq.). Sack is almost as constantly associated with the name of Jonson as with that of Falstaff, not, however, with the same justice. See, however, Jonson's Epigram, 101, Inviting a Friend to Supper, in which he promises him A pure cup of rich Canary wine, Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine. 13 17. A Spanish boy to his interpreter. Cf. 4 4, 38 10, 69 26, 78 17. 13 18. Archy, the principal fool of state. The real name of this court jester was Archibald Armstrong. He appears to have been in high repute with Charles I. as prince and king. Jonson alludes to Archy again in his Staple of Newes, 3. 1, and in Neptune's Triumph, a masque in celebration of the return of Prince Charles from Ireland in 1624. Archy seems at times to have transcended the privileges of his class, as the records of the Council, March 11, 1637-8, show that "Archibald Armstrong, the king's fool, for certain scandalous words of a high nature, spoken by him against the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his grace, shall have his coat pulled over his head, and be discharged the king's service and banished the court" (Rushworth, Pt. II. vol. I. p. 471). Muckle John, Archy's successor, was perhaps the last regular personage of the kind (Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, II. p. 308). 13 21. Lingua sapientis potius quam loquentis optanda. The wise man's tongue should be desired rather than the gabbler's. 13 25. That there was a wall, etc. Cf. Plutarch, Moralia, de Garrulitate, 3, thus translated by Goodwin: "And yet there is no member of human bodies that nature has so strongly enclosed within a double fortification as the tongue, entrenched within a barricade of sharp teeth, to the end that, if it refuses to obey and keep silent when reason 'presses the glittering reins' within, we should fix our teeth in it till the blood comes rather than suffer inordinate and unseasonable din" (IV. p. 223). Applied to that 13 30. But you shall see; i.e. may or will see. which is of common occurrence, or so evident that it cannot but be seen (Sh. Gram. § 315, p. 224, sub fin.). Cf. 29 11 and 79 13. 13 31. Abound with words. See Sh. Gram. § 193. 13 32. As. That. See 3 5, and references there. 14 3. Bedlam-like. The folio reads Bet'lem, the intermediate form between Bethlehem and Bedlam. Mermaid Series, p. 173. Cf. Best Plays of Thomas Dekker, 14 6. Whom the disease . . he. Note the Latin construction in the omission of the demonstrative before whom. See Sh. Gram. §§ 242, 243, and cf. 5 18. 14 8. He will hire men to hear him. A common practice in Rome. Cf. Quintilian's allusion: "They [common speakers] cannot endure the awful silence of attention, but court the shouts of the mob that is either hired to applaud them, or that stands round the tribunal by accident" (de Institutione Oratoria, 4. 2. 37; and Pliny, Epistles, 6. 2). 14 12. Homer's Thersites. Iliad, 2. 211, et seqq. "Ill-favored beyond all men that came to Ilios." Immoderate talker, senseless Homer uses the former word as 14 12. ̓Αμετροεπής, ἀκριτόμυθος. babbler. Cf. Iliad, 2. 212 and 246. descriptive of Thersites, and puts the second into the mouth of Ulysses, in his rebuke of the heroic representative of blatant democracy. 14 13. Loquax magis, quam facundus. Clamorous rather than eloquent. An expression applied by Quintilian to one M. Acilius Palicanus (Inst. 4. 2. 2). 14 14. Satis loquentiæ, sapientiæ parum. Abundance of talk, but little wisdom (Sallust, Oratio C. Cotta Consulis ad Populum, Fragmenta, 6). Both quotations will also be found in A. Gellius, 1. 15. 4 and 7. 14 15. Twσons тoι Onσavpós, etc. Repeated in the following Latin, Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 719. Thus translated: "The best treasure, look you, among men, is a sparing tongue, and the most grace is that of one which moves measuredly." 14 19. At this point the folio has the following marginal references: Homeri Ulysses, Pindari [i.e. Spinthari] Epaminond[as], Demacatus [i.e. Demaratus] Plutarchi, Vid[e] Zeuxidis pict[oris] serm [onem] ad Megabizum, Plutarch. I can find no remark of Zeuxis, such as any of those contained in the text, either in Plutarch or elsewhere. It will be noticed that the references to the text are complete without this one. This portion of the text is peculiarly corrupt. ... 14 19. Ulysses a long-thinking man, Cf. ò de πOINTÈS TÒV λογιώτατον Οδυσσέα σιωπηλότατον πεποίηκε (Plutarch, de Garrulitate, 8); and see Iliad, 3. 216, et seqq.: "But whenever Odysseus full of wiles rose up, he stood and looked down with eyes fixed upon the ground, and waved not his staff either backwards or forwards; but he held it |