The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works (63 page)

154
. Being replaced by rapiers in the
1570
s.

155
. Noted for second-hand dealers.

156
. Pun on ‘latten', like brass.

157
. ‘We praise the days of yore, but make the most of our own' (Ovid).

158
. Edmund Plowden (
1518
–
85
), a famous lawyer and writer on law.

159
. Ornaments, playthings.

160
. Antiquity.

161
. Nicolas, common name for the Devil, and allusion to Nicolai Macchiavelli.

162
. Individuality lies in the mind' (Cicero).

163
. Familiar conjuring terms.

164
. Tit for tat.

165
. ‘Hippomenes [a charioteer] goes past; the amphitheatre echoes with applause' (Ovid).

166
. Sing ‘I shall be pleased', i.e. be sycophants.

167
. Outdone in fine attire.

168
. Seneca (
Hippolytus
, I,
981
).

169
. Sixtus V, Pope
1585
–
90
. This is an unauthenticated account of his death.

170
. Satire, lampoon.

171
. Smithfield, ‘where trials of skill were played by ordinary ruffianly people with sword and buckler' (Blount,
1674
).

172
. Probably.

173
. Peevish.

174
. Famous comic actor d.
1588
.

175
. From Sextus Empiricus (quotation in M. IV,
115
).

176
. Stinking mouth (the devil, breathing brimstone).

177
. Used commonly as name for party in a law suit.

178
. First words in writ summoning juryman to assizes; here the judgement of a court of law.

179
. Commonplace phrase at beginning of letters, which had somehow become a joke.

180
. ‘Don't go to the Council before you are called.'

181
. Bag, valise.

182
. ‘Neither greater nor smaller than the body that was placed there.'

183
. ‘Wickedness took possession of mortals.'

184
. Preaching only once a quarter.

185
. ‘Let arrogance be absent', (i.e. let me not be thought arrogant).

186
. Morose people, as born under the melancholy influence of Saturn.

187
. Theodore de Bèze (
1519
–
1605
), noted Calvinist.

188
. Augustin Marlorat (
1506
–
63
), also prominent among the Genevan reformers.

189
.
Complaint of Rosamund
(Samuel Daniel, 1592).

190
. Stupid.

191
. Waste paper and books were commonly used to cover mustard pots.

192
. Henry Smith (
1550
?–
91
) of St Clement Danes, London.

193
. ‘Many respect what other people say; few respect what their conscience tells them.'

194
. Du Bartas (
1544
–
90
), author of
La Seconde Semaine;
translated into
Du Bartas His Divine Weeks
(
1633
).

195
. Chroniclers.

196
. Stuttering.

197
. Unemployed, advertising for work on the doors of St Paul's.

198
. Officers concerned with offences committed within twelve miles of the King's palace.

199
. A.W. suggests that this virtually meaningless Latin is recollected but misquoted from Cicero (
In Catilinam
I,
1
,
2
) and that we might possibly glean ‘he lacks the character and has not the time', referring to the career of a university man with no Maecenas, or great patron, behind him.

200
. ‘Whatever comes to my tongue' (Martial).

201
. Nitric acid.

202
. A reference to Nashe's Preface to
Menaphon
(see p.
476
).

203
. Professor of Greek, Cambridge,
1540
–
51
.

204
. Thomas Watson,
1513
–
84
, Bishop of Lincoln.

205
. Walter Haddon,
1516
–
72
, Professor of Civil Law, Cambridge.

206
. Nicholas Carr,
1524
–
68
, Cambridge, Professor of Greek.

207
. Roger Ascham,
1515
–
68
, author of
The Scholemaster
, tutor to Elizabeth.

208
. A reference to the Harveys (Gabriel, John and Richard) who attacked Nashe in
Lamb of God
,
1590
.

209
.
Thou… ears
: M. suggests it means he had been deprived of his degree.

210
. Half-farthings.

211
. John Harvey's Almanacks for
1583
and
1589
.

212
. The predictions of
1583
proved false.

213
. Instrument used in taking the altitude of the sun.

214
. A popular, hard-drinking ballad-writer.

215
. ‘He lives, indeed he lives' (‘imo' = ‘immo'). (M. suggests it is a reminiscence of Cicero,
In Catilinam
, I,
1
,
2
.)

216
. i.e. as rector of Chislehurst.

217
. Martin Marprelate, pseudonym of author of pamphlets attacking Church of England (see Intro. pp.
22
–
6
).

218
. ‘Jupiter affords his divine inspiration to the minds of poets, and permits himself to be celebrated by any mouth' (Ovid).

219
. ‘Somebody', (i.e. ‘any mouth' of the Ovid quotation).

220
. ‘Whom for the sake of honour I named'.

221
. Thomas Nash of Eltistey, Cambridgeshire. Richard Harvey had written in the Preface to
Lamb of God
,
1590
: ‘Thomas Nash, one whom I never heard of before (for I cannot imagine him to be Thomas Nash our butler of Pembroke Hall, albeit peradventure not much better learned).'

222
. A burnt crust.

223
. A term of ridicule derived from the scholar Dorbellus, Nicholas de Orbelli (d.
1455
).

224
. Broth.

225
. ‘Only for printing', copyright.

226
. ‘For no law is fairer than that those who devise a method of killing people should die by their own methods' (Ovid).

227
. The author of
Pap with a Hatchet
, probably John Lyly.

228
. Gibe.

229
. ‘Why have I written? Why have I died?'

230
. ‘Immorality suits an immoral person; forbidden sensuality is pleasing' (play on
parva parvum decent
: ‘little things please little minds').

231
. Sanctus bell rung after the main peals.

232
. ‘I return to you, my listeners.'

233
. The hospital of St Giles in the Field was on the way to Tyburn, the place of execution.

234
. Fancy name for Harvey (M. sees no special sense; J. Crow suggests ‘a ludicrous perversion of Jupiter Hammon').

235
. Probably satirical reference to Anthony Munday (F.P.W.).

236
. ‘Have mercy upon me.'

237
. ‘Believe an expert.'

238
. Food for fattening swine.

239
. Loss.

240
. Tubs for salting or pickling meat.

241
. Salads, (also a headpiece).

242
. Irregular soldiers in Netherlands with black armour and blackened faces.

243
. Wholesale.

244
.
patterns
…
by
: Patterned pastry surrounding a custard.

245
. Disturbance, trouble.

246
. Shoemaking.

247
. ‘A full stomach does nothing willingly, and the gut has killed more than the sword' (proverb).

248
. Who feasted on Christian fast-days.

249
. Poultry.

250
. Call.

251
. Thomas Watson (
1513
–
84
), Bishop of Lincoln.

252
. Foreign.

253
. ‘Of course, master, I am the worst fisherman' (‘fisherman' suggesting ‘fishmonger', or brothel-keeper).

254
. ‘But you are the best butcher,' (or executioner) (part of the joke is the bad Latin,
malissimus
and
bonissimus
being unlearned solecisms).

255
. Laity.

256
. M. thinks Nashe may be confusing him with Henri, Due de Joyeuse, whose entry into the Capuchin Order in
1587
attracted much attention at the time. (Other
1592
texts say that he remained in the Order ‘four year', not ‘twelvemonth' as in this text.)

257
. Actually founded
1525
, introduced into France
1572
and spread rapidly.

258
. Fat, corpulent.

259
. Dormitory.

260
. St Pancras.

261
. Third Epistle of John (v.9) refers to Diotrephes ‘who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them'.

262
. With snap-locks.

263
. A drinking term.

264
. Drinking heavily, like the Frisians.

265
.
gloves, mumps, frolics
: Games and pastimes associated with drinking.

266
. Young coxcomb.

267
.
stand upon terms
: argue, dispute.

268
. The devil, a name used in ballads (M. queries whether it could be the name of some contemporary clown or fire-eater).

269
. A rowdy drunkard.

270
. Unidentified.

271
. A poem by Vincentius Obsopaeus (d.
1539
).

272
. The tutor of Dionysus, commonly depicted as drunk and riding on an ass.

273
. A kind of monkey.

274
. Calculating.

275
. Drink left at the bottom of a cup.

276
. A punishment for vagabonds.

277
. A tavern near London Bridge.

278
. ‘Where something is being done'.

279
.
seen in the sweetening
: Given to flattery.

280
. Afternoon sleep.

281
. ‘Everything unfamiliar is thought wonderful' (Tacitus).

282
. Beggar, rogue.

283
. A mere courtier, no soldier.

284
. A story told in Ovid,
Metamorphoses
, x.

285
. ‘If they haven't an enemy abroad, they'll find one at home' (Livy).

286
. Matters.

287
. Sir John Talbot, second Earl of Shrewsbury.

288
. Rascal, base fellow.

289
. Dauphin.

290
. Talons.

291
. Tricks, frauds.

292
. In passing.

293
. i.e. the players.

294
. Justus Lipsius (
1547
–
1606
), Belgian scholar. M. suspects Nashe is using his name at random.

295
. ‘In the Sophoclean buskin', i.e. the stately, dignified form of tragedy (Ovid).

296
. Both actors flourished about
70
B.C.

297
. Edward Alleyn (
1566
–
1626
), most famous tragic actor of his time.

298
. Mixture.

299
. Richard Tarlton (d.
1588
), chief comedian of the Queen's players.

300
. Thomas Knell (
fl
.
1586
), another comic actor.

301
. Mentioned by Thomas Heywood as a well-known actor.

302
. Here, an official inquiry into the affairs of a ward or district.

303
. A reference to Leah in
Genesis
(
30
,
14
–
16
) ‘hiring' Jacob to lie with her with Reuben's mandrakes (fertility symbol).

304
. Goddess of chastity.

305
. ‘The habit of sinning takes away the sense of sin' (St Augustine).

306
.
Lais
….
Clytemnestra
: M. points out a confusion on N.'s part, what is said of Clytemnestra's bathing being properly applied to Lais.

307
. Hospital (with allusion to venereal disease).

308
. In Clerkenwell, frequented by prostitutes.

309
. Give (variant of ‘can').

310
. Die.

311
. ‘Turn and turn about'.

312
. Conceptions, notions.

313
. Foolish.

314
.
shrivest
…
near
: Question closely.

315
. ‘Obvious truth'.

316
. Parasitical.

317
. ‘As if in truth'.

318
. Canopy and supporting framework.

319
.
bee
…
battledore
: ‘To tell a B from a battledore' (proverbial reference to illiteracy).

320
. M. thinks the bear may represent the Earl of Leicester (d.
1588
); the fox being Cartwright or Martin (i.e. the puritans); the chameleon, Martin Marprelate or Penry; the bees the Anglican clergy. See Introduction, pp.
22
–
6
.