The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works (62 page)

12
. ibid., p.
365
. Pamphlets were issued under the names Martin Senior and Martin Junior. The references to Oxford and Cambridge allude to the subtitle of another of the Martinist pamphlets (see M.,V,
471
).

13
.
An Almond for a Parrot
, M., III,
366
. The Latin quotation is from Martial,
Epigrams
, xii,
54
(Red hair, black face, short feet, damaged in one eye').

14
. op. cit., p.
43
.

15
.
Strange News
, M., I,
313
and
315
.

16
. J. Buxton,
Sir Philip Sidney and the English Renaissance
, London,
1954
, p.
119
.

17
.
The Works of Gabriel Harvey
, ed. Grosart, II,
238
.

18
.
Summer's Last Will and Testament
, p.
148
.

19
. op. cit., p.
179
.

20
.
Thomas Nashe: Selected Works
, ed. S. Wells, London,
1964
, p.
18
.

21
. M., II,
71
.

22
. M., III,
348
–
9
.

23
.
The Unfortunate Traveller
, pp.
340
—
47
.

24
. op. cit., p.
177
.

25
.
Richard III
, II, I.

26
. op. cit., p.
123
.

27
.
Christ's Tears over Jerusalem
, M., II,
157
.

28
.
The Unfortunate Traveller
, ed. M. Ayrton, London, p.
7
.

29
. C. L. Barber,
Shakespeare's Festive Comedy
, Princeton,
1959
, p.
61
.

30
. W. Raleigh,
The English Novel
, London,
1894
.

31
. Raleigh's view is also that of R. G. Howarth, who writes: ‘By the intensity of his vision and his power to chill the soul with horror which is not just sensation, [Nashe] rises above mere tragedy of blood almost to the tragic plane of Webster.' (
Two Elizabethan Writers of Fiction
, Cape Town,
1956
, p.
31
.)

32
.
Have with You
, M, III,
33
–
5
.

33
.
Lenten Stuff
, p.
403
.

1
. ‘To have nothing is the great mark of the uncultured' (Ovid). (M. suggests the tag may have been the printer's idea.)

2
. Famous comic actor, defended in an oration by Cicero.

3
. John Pace (
c
.
1523
–
90
), jester to Henry VIII and later to the Duke of Norfolk.

4
. Robert Greene died September
1592
(see p.
18
).

5
. Disturbance, ‘row'.

6
. M. dismisses the idea that this was Archbishop Whitgift, suggesting it was a patron, perhaps the Earl of Derby.

7
. The first edition was called
Piers Penniless his supplication to the Devil. Describing the over-spreading of vice, and suppression of virtue. Pleasantly interlaced with variable delights, and pathetically intermixed with conceited reproofs
.

8
.
Knight of the Post
: A professional false-witness.

9
. Scurvy, contemptible.

10
. Entered Stationer's Register
20
September
1592
.

11
. Perhaps by pp.
79
–
80
(M.).

12
. Literally ‘Let the buyer beware' (proverb).

13
. Greene says he had a work of this name in preparation, which was to attack scoundrels by name and unrip their villainies (M.).

14
. The Epistles mentioned on p.
49
.

15
. ‘Learn, if you are wise, not the things which we inactive people know, but about bristling battle-lines' (Ovid).

16
. Inkstand.

17
. ‘It is something to lighten a deadly ill by words' (Ovid).

18
. Curse.

19
. ‘You are killing me, my friends' (Horace).

20
. ‘An outer garment' (NED).

21
. Better looking.

22
. Skewers.

23
.
the exploits of Untruss
: A ballad attributed to Anthony Munday (
1553
–
1633
).

24
. ‘Learned and ignorant, we are writing poems everywhere'(Horace).

25
. ‘Alas, the wicked fates snatch away good men' (Ovid).

26
. ‘Thus I prove' (conclusion of a disputation). Here meaning ‘a scholar'.

27
. ‘My family and ancestors' (Ovid).

28
. As worn by countrymen, (hence, a name for a simple country squire).

29
. ‘Someone who is travelling light' (allusion to a line in Juvenal).

30
. Robbers, highwaymen,

31
. Coins.

32
. Opus and Usus: Work and habit, combining to produce hunger.

33
. Fair words.

34
. Bond giving a creditor power to take his debtor's lands if debt unpaid by certain time.

35
.
These manifest conjectures
…
ability
: ‘Having considered these means of getting money, and finding them in my power' (M.).

36
. Vice in the play
Cambyses
,
1569
.

37
. An ash-wood dish.

38
. Worn by lawyers' clerks.

39
. An unqualified lawyer.

40
. Facetious title with reference to the devil's horns and a suggestion of cuckoldry.

41
. Unanimously.

42
. ‘I know not the devil.'

43
. Loose trousers.

44
. Fur.

45
. Night-cap.

46
. ‘He is not at home.'

47
. The tomb of Duke Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in St Paul's Cathedral was a meeting-place for gallants and petty criminals. If one failed to cadge a meal and had no money, one was said to ‘dine with Duke Humphrey' (M.).

48
. ‘A broken-down old fellow' (M.).

49
.
sign… Post
: On credit.

50
. Spy, informer.

51
. Not too particular or scrupulous.

52
. ‘Witnesses who have not been carefully hired sell false testimony' (Ovid).

53
. Hell.

54
. Squire, page.

55
. ‘Through Jesus Christ our Lord'.

56
. Poverty-stricken.

57
. Proverb that the devil dances in an empty pocket.

58
. Coin.

59
. A writ issued for denying supremacy of the Crown.

60
. Imprisonment.

61
. Capuche, hood, cowl.

62
. Wool, fleece.

63
. Fish-hooks.

64
. Metal tag at the end of a ribbon to help threading, often ornamental.

65
.
lists of broadcloths
: Waste borders of the fine cloths used for men's garments.

66
. List would be used as stuffing for bowcases and cushions. (M. suggests should read ‘bowcasers'.)

67
. Stuffed.

68
. See p.
56
, n.
34
.

69
. Loss of estates, etc., consequent upon crime or breach of agreement.

70
. Pun on ‘mace' (also a spice).

71
. Baits, nets.

72
. Fools.

73
. ‘Coarse material woven of sedge and resembling matting' (NED).

74
. Ornamented.

75
. To grease.

76
. A small stove as found in inhospitable homes.

77
. Dark and out of sight.

78
. Sixteen to eighteen gallons.

79
. Looting

80
. Go bankrupt.

81
. Feather brush.

82
. Foot-and-mouth disease.

83
.
son of a clothier
: Sometimes seen as an attack on Anthony Munday.

84
. ‘As much to Mars as to Mercury' (i.e. as much to brute force as to craft).

85
. Quorum, a distinguished
J.P.

86
. Whimsical, eccentric.

87
. Cut of beard.

88
. Besieged by Henry IV
1591
–
2
.

89
. Gournay-en-Bray and Guingamp, besieged
1589
and
1591
.

90
. Due de Mayenne, Henri de Guise's younger brother, captured Gournay,
1589
.

91
. ‘My secrets are my own; he is wise in vain who does not know his own business.'

92
. Long hair infested with nits.

93
. Expensive eating-place.

94
. Dashing.

95
. Milksop.

96
.
after ten in the hundred
: ‘Swears and swaggers for all be is worth' (H.).

97
. Dried cod.

98
. Salt hake.

99
. ‘War is attractive to those who have never experienced it' Pindar?).

100
. Bishop of Casa Nigra, Numidia, led the first important schism of the Christian Church in 311.

101
. Theologian of the fourth century, holding that Jesus was not of one substance' with God.

102
.
bugbears and scarecrows:
Childish superstitions.

103
. Wide breeches reaching to the knees.

104
. Early Baptists, first appearing in England c.
1534
.

105
. The Family of Love, a mystical section of the Anabaptists.

106
. Followers of Martin Senior, who protested against abuses of the Church.

107
. Followers of Henry Barrow, arrested for heresy
1586
, hanged
1593
.

108
. Followers of John Greenwood, associated and hanged with Barrow.

109
. Popular verse romance, early fourteenth century.

110
.
prove men before Adam
: Show that men existed before the Biblical account (cf. p.
479
).

111
. Befouled.

112
. A lively Spanish dance.

113
. Over-refined.

114
. Embroidery with a moral text.

115
.
voice
…
puppets
: Voice used in a puppet show.

116
. Equals.

117
. Without sexual intercourse.

118
. Butcher's meat.

119
. Marrow-bones.

120
. Insects.

121
. Famous ale-wife, perhaps mythical.

122
. Manure-men, lavatory-cleaners.

123
. Dung-beetles.

124
. Manual, artisan.

125
. Rascals.

126
. There is a story of a bird trained to say this flattering phrase to Augustus, and eventually brought to the Emperor because he also said (in imitation of his trainer) ‘
opera et impensa periit
' (‘All this work and expense for nothing').

127
. The university courses of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music).

128
. Pictures of St George common in pageants and as inn-signs.

129
. See Spenser's
Mother Hubbard' Tale
.

130
. Valiant

131
. Rebato, or framework of a ruff.

132
. English title of a satirical Latin poem by Sebastian Brandt (1494).

133
. Augustus gave privileges to old soldiers, including the right to wear certain badges, but this ‘had little to do with heraldry in the modern sense' (M.).

134
. Boastful.

135
.
next your heart
: On an empty stomach.

136
. Causeway, paved part of the street.

137
. To hamstring.

138
. Decorated with tassels.

139
. Swollen.

140
. A fine silk material.

141
. Tippler.

142
. Small Dutch coins of little value.

143
. Orid lived in exile among the Thracian tribe of the Getae.

144
. One who deals in ochre, a colourman.

145
. Entered Stationer's Register
1590
. Poking sticks are instruments used in setting the plaits of a ruff.

146
.
lawn
…
hospitality
: All the wheat is used to make starch for dressing lawn ruffs.

147
. M. suggests the name is given to Lucifer because St Laurence's Day is
10
August, in the hottest part of the year.

148
. Watchman.

149
. A cosmetic.

150
. Crab-apple juice.

151
. London, the new Troy.

152
.
lay off
…
night-caps
: Go bald through venereal disease.

153
. ‘The cowl does not make the monk.'