The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works (64 page)

321
. Some kind of horse.

322
. Homage.

323
. i.e. the bear.

324
. A close, full-stop.

325
. Frequent.

326
. Medicinal herbs acting on the spleen.

327
. A harper sang at the banquet given by Alcinous to Ulysses.

328
. Gather, take in.

329
. ‘Man a devil to man'. (In this section on demons N. is following a tract called the
Isagoge
by Georgius Pictorius,
1563
.)

330
. In
De Deo Socratis
.

331
. Rebellious, treacherous.

332
. (?) Syrianus of Alexandria (
fl
.
435
).

333
. Comprehensive.

334
. St Augustine.

335
. Misreading for Psaphon (M.).

336
. Isaiah.

337
.
proper consistory
: Own council.

338
. Said to have gone mad when adjudged less worthy than Ulysses in the Trojan War, and to have committed suicide in desperation.

339
. Leader of a religious sect in the first century
A.D.
(see Acts
8
,
5
).

340
. Defiled, stained.

341
. Material attributes.

342
. Capable of movement.

343
.
Naiads and Nereids
: Nymphs of rivers and seas.

344
. ‘The highest form'.

345
. ‘Devil, as falling from above'.

346
. ‘With limited power'.

347
. Quickness.

348
. ‘Let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered.'

349
. ‘A vehicle of fire from above.

350
. ‘Away, now stand away, you uninitiated ones… But you [Aeneas], draw your sword from the scabbard and fare forth' (
Aeneid
, VI,
358
,
260
, translated by C. Day Lewis).

351
. M points out that N. has mistranslated from the
Isagoge
, and is probably thinking of Apollyon (Revelation
9
,
11
).

352
. Names of plants.

353
. ‘I kiss your hand' (Spanish: ‘
beso las manos
').

354
. ‘Sometime eventually'.

355
. Where books were sold.

356
. A man employed to drive dogs away.

357
.
plodder at
Noverint: Scrivener or petty lawyer (writs began with the words
‘noverint universi'
: ‘let all men know').

358
. Circumlocution.

359
. ‘Would appear to be some kind of pitch and toss, in which a Turk' head cut out of grey paper was the mark' (H.).

360
. Popular recreation and sporting grounds.

361
. De
Origine Erroris
(N. appears to have supposed the book was a treatise against Origen).

362
. ‘You promise riches to anyone who wants them' (adapted from Ovid,
An Amatoris
, I,
443
–
4
).

363
. Braggart, (character in Terence's
Eunuch
).

364
. Pietro Aretino (
1492
–
1554
), commonly regarded as champion of the writer, as well as being famous for his
Sonetti Lusuriosi
.

365
. Effigies as used in pageants (H.).

366
. Goddess of chastity; here Queen Elizabeth.

367
. Probably the Earl of Derby, alluded to by that name in Spenser's
Colin Clout
,
1595
.

368
. ‘O ornament and great glory of your age' (Ovid).

369
.
And viewing
…
guise
: Presumably, looking over the advertised goods, as merchant and traders do.

370
.
miss the cushion
: Go wide of the mark.

371
. ‘Thus much do I labour'.

372
. ‘Accept [someone] who will serve you for long years; accept [someone] who knows how to love with pure faith' (Ovid).

373
. ‘The kindly earth affords Alcinous fruits; the poor man reckons only his duties and obligations' (Ovid). (Alcinous: King of Phoeacia, proverbially well provided by the gods.)

1
. Became Court Fool
1525
; d.
1560
.

2
. ‘I cast a cloud over the sins and deceptions of the night' (Horace).

3
. Knowing my part by heart.

4
. May have been the name of the Fool of this household.

5
. i.e. in the actors' dressing-room.

6
. Idea, fancy (note also ending of The Epilogue, p.
206
).

7
. ‘To wear a hat without a band was a mark of eccentricity' (M.).

8
. Lacing (i.e. to keep them up).

9
. i.e. on the stage (as opposed to ‘within').

10
. (?) The prompter.

11
. ‘Good men'.

12
. Despising.

13
. References in Cornelius Agrippa (the source of other allusions in this speech) and Seneca.

14
. A game like chuckstone (M.).

15
. ‘All of us have been mad at some time' (Mantuanus).

16
. A kind of planetarium, mentioned by Cicero.

17
.
an egg-shell
…
spear
: A trick described in Thomas Lupton's
Thousand Notable Things
,
1579
.

18
. ‘Our poet'.

19
. ‘Everyone may please himself' (adapted from Ovid).

20
. Term for allegory-hunters.

21
.
quips in characters
: Personal allusions (M.).

22
. Interpreters.

23
. Entertainment.

24
.
the jig… God-son
: Possibly a reference to a lost work by John Wolf called
Rowlands' Godson Moralized
,
1592
; perhaps to a ballad called
Rowland's Godson
. Jig: ‘rhymed dialogue presenting a comic plot danced and sung by two or more characters' (M.).

25
.
Jill of Brentford's Testament
, by Robert Copland. Reprinted
1871
.

26
. See Introduction, pp.
36
–
7
.

27
.
God give
…
Watling Street
: M. interprets as meaning ‘worse luck' or ‘a bad thing for us'. Significance of Watling Street unknown.

28
. In humour or temper (Grosart).

29
. Nonplussed, not knowing what to do.

30
. Unknown (perhaps ‘Jew Ben', M.).

31
. ‘One night awaits all, and all must tread death's path once' (
Horace
).

32
. The Queen visited Newbury, Circencester, Woodstock and Oxford during August and September
1592
.

33
.
Arcadia
,
1590
edition.

34
. Be fined a mark for non-attendance.

35
. This and variants were common as refrains in popular songs.

36
.
black and yellow
: Representing constancy and (here) sadness.

37
‘The sum of all'.

38
. Commonly emended from ‘ladle' (but ladles were sometimes carried by fool or hobby-horse to collect money — M.).

39
. Possibly a reference to a taborer of that name.

40
. M. conjectures the morris dancers were Worcestershire men, perhaps some of Whitgift's servants brought with him from Worcester, where he was Bishop till
1583
.

41
. Clothier's.

42
. Items.

43
. Adapted from Terence.

44
. Throwing them down on the grass (M.).

45
. Credulous borrowers would be ‘paid' in such goods by owners in lieu of money (they would be represented as having a certain value though they were in fact virtually unsaleable).

46
.
horses
…
stolen
: Perhaps horses stolen by Germans, followers of Count Mompelgard, between Reading and Windsor.

47
. Eat without appetite or squeamishly.

48
. Foolishly.

49
. ‘Till crime corrupted men'.

50
. Terence,
Eunuch
, II,
2
,
12
.

51
. Churl, niggard.

52
. Horace,
Epistolae
, II,
2
,
31
.

53
. Ovid,
Remedia Amoris
,
749
.

54
. ‘All my possessions I carry with me' (Cicero).

55
. Trouble, disturbance.

56
. M.'s emendation. Q. has ‘
court without
: “Peace”'.

57
. ‘Stay between the two; you are safest in the middle' (Ovid).

58
. Mixture, formless concoction.

59
. Ninepins (kayles).

60
. Small barrel.

61
. Desire, choose.

62
. The vintner's sign.

63
.
wrong of Daphne
: She was seduced by Apollo (the sun god), and changed to a bay-tree.

64
. The ocean.

65
.
Heber
…
Orpheus
: Orpheus' severed head, still singing, floated on the River Hebrus.

66
. The Heliades, who wept unceasingly for Phaeton (killed by Zeus) and were changed into poplars.

67
. Amber (their tears oozing from the trees were hardened into amber by Helios).

68
. Kept for a while by Apollo in Thessaly.

69
.
riff-raff
…
Eleanor
: Nonsensical, crude verse with reference to Skelton's
Tunning of Elinor Rumming
.

70
. Stenography, as invented probably by Bales (
1547
?–
1610
), or plagiarized by him from Timothy Bright (
1531
?–
1615
).

71
. Like ‘The Saracen's Head' (‘murrion' = blackamoor).

72
. Meaning unknown.

73
. Haircut to make a man look terrible to his enemies.

74
. Duppa's Hill, near Croydon.

75
. ‘Contrive'.

76
. Fierce dogs, e.g. mastiffs.

77
. Hyrieus, the son of Neptune and Alcyone.

78
. Are called.

79
. Loosely used, here referring to the
ignis fatuus
(phosphorescent light from decaying matter).

80
. Onomatopoeic word for the snarling of dogs.

81
. M. points out that the whole passage is derived from Sextus Empericus'
Pyrrhoniae Hyptotyposes
, probably in a lost English translation.

82
. Pallas disguised Ulysses as a poor beggar to avoid recognition by Penelope's suitors.

83
. Remedial.

84
. Cataposia… Cataplasmata: Pills, poultices, medicines to purge phlegm.

85
. Gargles.

86
. Enemas (sometimes suppositories).

87
. Medicated plugs.

88
. Salves.

89
. Proverbial.

90
. A reference to Brandt's
Stultifera Navis
,
1494
; translated in
1509
.

91
. Perhaps the name of the fool in Whitgift's household, perhaps general like Tom-fool (M). (cf. p.
146
, n.
4
.)

92
. Probably popular term for a dog.

93
. (?) Backgammon.

94
. Hoarder.

95
. Miser.

96
. A pun on a cold in the head and a puzzle.

97
. A popular tune of a melancholy character often referred to.

98
. Proverbial (‘You had on your harvest ears, thick of hearing,' Heywood's Proverbs).

99
.
baker's loaf
…
thousands for one
: Meaning unknown.

100
. Jerked, cracked.

101
. Vetches.

102
. A pun on large ‘S'.

103
. ‘A long slim awkward fellow… a lout, a laggard, a lingerer' (NED).

104
. Domingo, popular term for drunkard.

105
. ‘His mind is on his dinner' (Terence).

106
. ‘Wine is a sort of kindling and tinder to the brain and the faculties' (Aulus Gellius).

107
. ‘Now is the time for drinking and for beating the ground with unrestrained feet' (Horace).

108
. Probably a drinking term.

109
. ‘A conversational interchange'.

110
. ‘Eloquent cups, whom have they not made a good speaker!'

111
.
the hunters' hoop
: Apparently a drink measure.

112
.
Our vintage
…
advantage
: M. believes there is something wrong with the text.

113
. A convert to Judaism.

114
. Literally ‘Abstaining from beans'; one of Pythagoras' enigmatical precepts.

115
. A half-barrel (sixteen to eighteen gallons).

116
. Petty thief, general term of contempt.

117
.
upsey-freeze
.… Super nagulum: Drinking terms (for
super nagulum
see
Pierce Penniless
, N.'s note, p.
105
).