The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works (66 page)
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Authors: Thomas Nashe
91
. Small ship's-boats.
92
. Discipline, in my charge.
93
. Food, or possibly recreation, pastime.
94
. Compensation.
95
. The seat of laughter.
96
. Normally means impure, dreggy.
97
.
every
â¦
while
: In the dme it takes to say the Lord's Prayer.
98
. A rogue, swindler.
99
. âA mouth able to utter an exclamation with a sharp outburst' (NED).
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
. âAnd 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. âThis 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
â
61
).
121
. Possibly Valerius Maximus, but there were many others.
122
. Proverbial, cf. âCharing-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 âurchin' or hedgehog).
124
. Evening rain. A âserena' was considered harmful.
125
.
set
â¦
rests
: Be assured, make up your mind to it.
126
. Jests (variant of âgleek').
127
. Black sanctus, noisy discordant singing.
128
. A sword dance performed in fantastic costume.
129
.
The second
â¦
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 ânovum' (new) and ânovem' (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
. âWe seek the heavens in our stupidity' (Horace).
10
. Reference unknown.
11
. Heads.
12
. âLet us sing of matters a little more important' (Virgil).
13
. âA method of cheating at dice by throwing so that the die slides without turning' (M.).
14
. âSomething is hidden which is not obvious.'
15
. Sacred to Bacchus.
16
. Allusion to â
tendit in ardua virtus
' (Ovid).
17
. âWater 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
: âWhat “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, (âthe gains from false dice are compared to those from clipping coin', Maxwell).
34
. âAnd 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
. âBelieve 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
. âWho 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 âdare'.
60
. Tyrant of Syracuse, who fled and took up a teaching post.
61
. âInto our presence'.
62
. Flogged (M.).
63
. âGrief prevents [my saying] more' (Ovid)).
64
. Foretaste.
65
. Knavery (NED); (to scutch = to beat, lash).
66
. Base.
67
.
pinched
â¦
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
â¦
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
. âHose decorated with stripes of coloured cloth at the sides â or does “side” here mean “wide”?' (M.).
80
. Buttocks.
81
. Leather apron.
82
.
all a more
: M. suggests â
à la mode
'.
83
. Tassel.
84
. Quartos (
1594
) have âanckle'.
85
. Large leather beer jugs.
86
. M. lists five epidemics between
1485
and
1551
.
87
.
to turn
â¦
perch
: âTo do for him' (M.).
88
. Tubs used for curing venereal disease by sweating.
89
. Budge is a cheap fur from lambskin; âslaughter budge' perhaps fur from the slaughter-house (M).
90
. Rabbit.
91
. Medicines made out of one constituent.
92
.
c
.
A.D.
130
â
200
, Greek physician, most famous of ancient authorities.
93
. âUndertake a useless or absurd task' (M.).
94
.
fl. c
.
400
B.C.,
âthe Father of Medicine'.
95
.
c
.
1490
â
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
. âThere 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
â
1637
).
99
. âSilently break wind' (NED).
100
. Red faced, as with drink.
101
. pun on the term â
fieri facias
', a writ served on a debtor.
102
. âIn those days'.
103
. Descendants of Brute, legendary founder of London (the New Troy).
104
. Bag-shaped net, the mouth of which 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
. âStuck in the mud'.
120
. âWhat more [can I say]?'
121
. Intermittently.
122
. The Gigantes, eventually defeated by Hercules.
123
. Adapted from Lucan (
Pharsalia
, XVIII,
504
â
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
â
4
126
. Gelded.
127
. âWho was resourceful in devising his own punishment' (adapted from Ovid,
Tristia
, II,
343
).
128
. Knipperdolink and Müncer, anabaptist leaders at Münster.
129
. âLove is my reason for following' (Ovid).
130
. Ovid,
Heroides
, XVII,
70
.
131
. âThey follow the worse path', adapted from Ovid (
Metamorphoses
, VII,
20
â
21
:
video meliora, probaque; Deteriora sequori
: âI see and applaud what is better; I practise the worse').
132
. âWhat is sought is punishment' (Ovid).
133
. Adapted from Seneca,
Hercules Furens
,
313
.
134
. Enlightened reformers.
135
. Synonyms.
136
. Young knights errant.
137
.
1517
?â
47
(executed). Never in Italy (M.).
138
. M. quotes Surrey's âGeraldine' sonnet, starting âFrom 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
. âHence 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
â¦
folly: Encomium Moriae
,
1509
.
145
. First published in Latin,
1516
. Translated into English,
1551
.
146
. âAccording to the form of the decree'.
147
. Picke-davant, short pointed beard.
